The Sun. — London, England, 1834-04-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. In recurring to the subject of Combinations and Trades' Unions, we find at every step matter of fresh astonishment how it was possible for Mr. Joseph Hume, wrong headed as lie is, to see anti represent the question between masters and men, under the very erroneous aspect in which he exhibited it a few nights ago to the House of Commons. Instead of hardships being im. posed by the masters upon the workmen,--in stead of the average condition of the latter being one of low wages and oppressive work, all the best information that can be obtained, and all the most authentic evidence, go to establish it as a fact no longer to be controverted, that in ninety nine cases out of an hundred the aggression is offered by the journeyman, and is marked and characterised by a degree of insolence, injustice, and selfish inhumanity, of which no other class of proceedings observable throughout society afford an equivalent example. A pamphlet has been sent to us, under the title of " Character, Object, and Effects of Trades' Unions," every page of which teems with intelli gence equally curious and startling in relation to the designs of these confederated workmen, the dexterity of their machinations, and the vast extent of their power. The spirit and principle by which they are directed appear more formi dable and more criminal from the details which are here unfolded of their history. There is scarcely one of the evil practices which we im puted to them on Saturday—whether the object was to extort, to intimidate, or to revenge— which has not been minutely developed by the well-informed author of the above-mentioned pamphlet, with this wholesome deduction— would wr.: might say useful warning—drawn from "it—viz., that a strike for wages, attended by its ordinary adjuncts of outrageous violence, a:.id deafness to reason, has never yet in any in- Mance succeeded, but has invariably, from the influx of fresh journeymen to supply the place of those that struck, ended in the compulsory submission of the latter, and in either their sup plication for employment on worse terms than those which they had first rejected, or 'the absolute refusal of the masters to hire them on any terms, and their consequent and irremediable ruin. But, as we have said already, if the journeymen will not take all past experience as a warning against the future infliction of such atrocious tyranny upon their less turbulent brethren,—if they will so far trample on the just free agency both of the masters and of their fellow-workmen, as to in terfere by force to prevent any exercise of the rights of property on one side and of industry on the other, and to discourage parties whom the law declares to be independent from doing what they judge•best for their reciprocal inte rests by the honest application of their respective means, we must say that it may not be safe for the general welfare of the community to leave such delinquents to the natural though tardy consequences of their own misdeeds. We have received a long letter on this subject from Mr. Foster, well known for his active and, we be lieve, very upright and humane exertions on behalf of the working classes in many of their disputes with the masters. Mr. Foster's corn munication merits attention from the earnest and kindly spirit which breathes through it ; but viewed as an argument on behalf of the trades' unions, we really cannot see that it in validates any one of our observations as to the criminality of their proceedings, and the dangerous character -of their whole system. It is not because some particular select ves tries have behaved, as is probable, with gross harshness and injustice, that the _liberty and property of rich and poor are to be alike in vaded by brutal violence, to which thousands of men, in parishes no otherwise connected than by a community of guilt, are eager and reckless parties. Yet we can find nothing more in Mr. Foster's letter, than a narrative of the malpractices of the Knaresborough vestry in a single year, and an admission that, since the law of 1824, the journeymen have not always been immaculate I Of course, this multitudi nous tyranny must in the long run bring de struction on its authors, for even in its utmost latitude of success, it can only force masters to shut up their manufactories, and thus leave the victorious journeymen, instead of working on moderate terms, to do with less from the poor rates. The following passages from the pamphlet we have named, will be read with interest by those who can understand the nature and ten- dency of the measures therein referred to. The ' reader will not fail to remark on the modesty of one condition imposed .on the masters, viz., that " the men should not be . fined for bad work, or for not conforming to the regulations of the mill." Our first extract relates equally to Scotch and English combinations—the well educated, moral, religious, exemplary Scotch The second describes exclusively those in the north of England, which have succeeded in spreading their spirit and principles to other parts of the county. To the sitting of a "builders' parliament ' we invite especial notice: " In Scotland the strikes of the spinners have been fully as frequent and determined as in England, and attended with a greater degree of violence. Mr. Campbell, the sheriff substitute in Renfrewshire, states in his evidence before the Combination Committee of 1825, that from 1820 to 1823 the union perpetrated numerous assaults, and even frequently attacked the lives of those individuals who refused to join them ; that there were at least four instances of deliberate at tempts at assassination, and two to burn cotton-mills. This combination was then put down by the resolute conduct of the masters, who united in publishing a no tice that they would stop all their mills till the union was diss3lved, and this, at least for a time, had the desired effect. Not an unusual mode of attack in Scotland on those who oppose the wishes of the union is by firing in at the windows during night, and also by throwing vitriol, through which atrocious crime several have lost their eyesight, and been otherwise irreme diably injured. One man confessed that he had been employed to assassinate four of the masters who had incurred the displeasure of the union, and for the at tempt he was to receive one hundred pounds, with an addition in case of success. One of the largest cotton manufacturers in Scotland was so annoyed by these combinations in 1830, that he transported part of his capital across the Atlantic, and established a factory at New York. At present the spinners' union in Glasgow is in full vigour, and the employers are held in complete control ". No one is allowed to spin with out first paying a fine of it., and when last year some female spinners had been engaged in Messrs. Dennis toun's mills, at one-thirteenth less wages than were given to the men, a deduction which, if we consider the inferiority of their skill, was probably fully justi- " * The following are the latest accounts of outrages arising from strikes :—` Two most diabolical scenes of outrage were perpetrated at Wasgow on Monday last (December 16, 1833). A woman named Mary Macshaffrey, cotton-stretcher, while about enuring the close leading to her residence in Charles street, Calton, was met by some men, one of whom wickedly threw into her face, and on her person and clothes, a quantity of vitriol, whereby her face was severely injured, one of her eyes was destroyed, and she has since been confined under medical treatment. On the same day, about six o'clock in the morning, while Mr. Robert Millar, foreman of the Lance_ field Spinning Company, was on his way from his own house to the Company's factory, he was suddenly attacked and cruelly and severely struck with a heavy and sharp weapon, which cut through the crown of his hat, wounded him on the head, and felled him to the ground. It is supposed that murder was the intent of these ruffians.'—Scotsman, Dec. 21, 1833.", feed, the union besieged the factory with a mob of i 7,000 persons. The proprietors, on applying for aid, received the assistance of two policemen ; they were consequently obli ge d t o co me to terms with their as sailants, when a compromise was entered into, and they were allowed to employ 12 women, but on the condition that they should be paid at the same rate as the men, and that one of the rioters, who had been taken prisoner, should be permitted to escape. " The committee of the Spinners' 'Limon in Man chester seem invested with almost absolute power, and in the true spirit of despotic tyranny, frequently exer cise their authority in ordering strikes without the smallest regard for their fellow-workmen, who suffer by them. One instance has been given in the case of the Hyde spinners of their having compelled the men to leave work against their inclination, and the follow ing is a somewhat similar account given by Mr. Chappel, a respectable Manchester manufacturer, of a strike that took place in his mill, and by which he was brought to the verge of ruin. It was given in evi dence before the Factory Commission : " I will relate the circumstances of the last turn out, which took place on the 16th of October, 1830, and continued till the 17th of January, 1831. The whole of our spinners, whose average wages were 2/. 13s. 5d., turned out, at the instigation, as they told us at the time, of the delegates of the union. They said they had no fault to find with their wages, or their masters, but the union obliged them to turn out. The same week three delegates from the spin ners' union waited upon us at our mill, and dictated certain advances in wages, and other regulations, to which, if we would not adhere, they said neither our own spinners nor any others should work for us again. Of course we declined, believing our wages to be ample, and our regulations such as were necessary for the proper conducting of the establishment. The con sequences were, they set watches on every avenue to the mill night and day, to prevent any fresh hands coming into the mill, an object which they effectually attained, by intimidating some, and promises of sup port to others which I got into the mill in a caravan, if they would leave their work. Under these circum stances, I could not work the mill, and advertised it for sale without receiving any applications, and I also in vain tried to let it. At the end of twenty-three weeks, the hands requested to be taken into the mills again on the terms that they had left it, declaring, as they had done at first, that the union alone had forced them to turn out. The. names of the delegates that waited on me were Jonathan Hodgins, Thos. Foster, and Peter Madox, secretary to the union. " What advance of wages did they require ?—lt was considerable, but I don't remember the exact sum ; and the regulations required were, that the men should not be fined for bad work, or for not conforming to the re gulations of the mill. " Have you ever had turn-outs before ?—Yes, e two ; in a former turn-out of the spinners we were waited on by a man named Doherty and Jonathan Hodgins, two leaders of the Union, who, after examining our wage book and the machinery on which the men worked, stated that the wages were fair and the machinery good ; and they ordered them to their work again." " One of the most extensive unions in the kingdom is that formed by the workmen in the building trades ; it has been peculiarly active during the past year, more especially in the north-western manufacturing districts, and may be said to have exhausted all the resources of combination in an endeavour to gain its end. In the spring of 1833 this body commenced operations in Manchester, Liverpool, and the neighbouring towns, by serving a requisition on the masters, which de manded an abandonment of the practice of erect ing buildings on 'the system of contracts. Of late years a custom has been introduced of mas ters in some single department of the building trade entering into contracts with those who em ployed them, by which the contractor bound himself to furnish whatever was required for the construction of the whole edifice. Thus, in the majority of cases, the masters were not immediately engaged by the cus tomers, but by a middleman or agent, who contracted', for the erection of the entire building, and hence arose the ignorant outcry among the workmen, of which our history offers such repeated instances, that the due profits of their labour were abstracted by those who were the channels between the producer and the con sumer. The masters had been led into this practice by the expressed wish of their customers, to whom it was obviously of the greatest convenience, since it enabled them'to obtain the estimate for any work from a single person versed in such calculations, who would be responsible for its completion at the computed price, and it removed the liability to deception and inaccu racy in reckoning the expense which must have ensued from an application to five or six persons in different trades, unconnected with each other. The masters, however, had no particular desire to continue this sys tem, and most of them complied with the request of their workmen to lay it aside. By this conduct, they showed their disposition to meet the wishes of the men, and the accommodating spirit by which they were ac tuated will appear the more strongly if we consider the imperious mode in which this unreasonable . request was made to them ; as a specimen of which we give a letter that was sent to Mr. Holmes, a respectable Li verpool builder : " Liverpool, April 11, 1833. . , . " Sir,—ln consequence of an information received:by our society, that your jo in Canning.street is a contract job, we felt ourselves in duty bound to furnish your men at that job with a notice to that effect, and in consequence of such con tract to leave that building directly. You will please to under_ stand that previous to their return we require to see your con tract in our club-room, to be examined by our committee ap pointed for that purpose. When we receive this information we will be happy to be, Sir, " ' Your most obedient humble servant, " ' The Operative Societies of Bricklayers' " ' CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.' " These concessions, however, so far from reconcil ing matters between the respective parties, only caused fresh demands to be made on the part of the workmen. The committee of the Union issued a series of regula tions, requiring the masters to abide by certain rules respecting the equalization of wages, the number of apprentices they were to take, the use of machinery, and a variety of other matters, all more or less restric tive, and consequently injurious to the free transaction of business. The masters, who presumed to disobey these laws, which one of the letters assures them are like those of the Medes and Persians, unalterable,' were either obliged to submit to the fine arbitrarily im posed upon them by the Union, or an edict was issued by that body to the workmen of any 'refractory mas ter ;' the consequence of which was that he found him self at once deserted by his journeymen, and of course unable to complete the contracts and other work then in progress.'t A few instances of the mode in which this interference was exercised will best show the cha racter of the union. Mr. Leatham, a master mason at Liverpool, having discharged a workman from his employ, the committee of the Union suspected that he had done so with a view of punishing the man for his supposed activity in managing the affairs of the combination. They accordingly sent him a letter ordering him to appear before the committee the same evening, and to give up the name of the person who had communicated to him the infor mation respecting the part his discharged workman had taken in the Union, and declaring that the whole of his men should instantly cease working if he refused obedience to this order. Mr. Leatham returned for answer, that the reason imputed to him for turning away the man was wholly untrue ; but this was deemed unsa tisfactory by the committee, and next day he was left without a single workman. Messrs. Patteson, master masons at Manchester, discharged a couple of men because they had refused to work at a building at which bricklayers not belonging to the Union were employed. They received in consequence a long remonstrance from the society, from which the following is an ex tract :—' It is considered that your conduct towards Robinson and Whitaker (the men in question) is quite inconsistent, and to be brief, unless you take them again into your employ, on Saturday, the Bth inst., at one o'clock, all your hands will withdraw themselves on that night from your service, and so remain until you do reinstate the abovementioned Robinson and Whita ker. And further, that each and every one in such strike shall be paid by you the sum of 4s. per day for every day you refuse to comply. Messrs. Patteson of course refused to comply with this order, and the ensu ing day every unionist in their employ left them. " Many other absurd and tyrannical restrictions on their employers were attempted by the builders' union. The painters published a declaration, which stated that they have ' come to one unanimous determination not to work for any gentleman, at any job whatever, who finds his own materials, or does not employ a regular master in the trade to find the same.' The lofty and imperious tone assumed in their communications with the masters brings to mind the grandiloquent edicts of Chinese dignitaries, while it shows the opinion they entertained of the extent of their power. We con sider,' says one of these despatches, ' that as you have not treated our rules with that deference you ought to " t Extracted from an account printed by the Manchester masters." have done, we consider you highly culpable, and de serveto be highly chastised.' The commands to cease Ivorking, issued by the committees of the Union, were in every case implicitly obeyed ; neither the conscious ness of the folly of the step, which many must have felt, nor confidence in the good-will or judgment of an employer, prevented any one from joining in the strike, and in many cases the mutual respect that had been engendered by 30 or 40 years' service under a single master was found too weak to prevent a wdrk mm assisting in these tyrannical proceedings against his employer. " Under these circumstances, the masters, finding that concession was of no avail, and only served to encourage fresh and more unreasonable demands, while serious impediments were placed in the way of their business, determined to employ no workmen except such as should sign a declaration that they did not be long to a trades' union. The men, as might have been expected, refused to comply with this demand ; in consequence of which a general turn-out ensued, and for more than six months the vast building operations, commonly carried on amidst the immense and increas mg population of Manchester, Liverpool, and places in the vicinity, were almost entirely suspended. Some idea may be formed of the magnitude of the effects re sulting from this proceeding when it is stated that the consumption of bricks in Liverpool was instantly re duced from 1,000,000 weekly to 20,000; and a master builder, who was called as a witness in a prosecution that took place in that town a few months back, stated, in the course of his examination, that he had paid 11,0001. less in timber duties, and 8001. less in duties on bricks, that year than the year before, owing to the stoppage in the erection of buildings. The returns to the revenue from the excise in the quarte r suc c eedin g the strike, show a decrease, on comparison with the same quarter in the preceding year, of 183,7401. ; and many ominous reasons were given at the time to ac count for this deficiency. The conduct of the Builders' Union readily and satisfactorily explains the cause of the diminution ; for if we consider that the excise on bricks of the poorest description is ss. 10d. a thousand, and that the duty in Liverpool would on the reduced consumption of this class of building materials have fallen off 3,430/. weekly, that this was the result on a single article in a single town, it will be seen that this turn-out fully explains the reduction that took place in the quarter in question ; indeed, it seems probable, that had it not been for this circumstance, the revenue returns in the excise would have shown a considerable excess.— Times. Whatever may be the result of the struggle for communicating the full benefits of Univer sity education to the dissenting youth of Eng land, it would be unwise in the friends of libe ral concession to take for granted that the cham pions of monopoly will yield the ground other wise than inch by inch ; or that extreme obsti nacy, and we are bound to add, great contro versial ability, will not be called forth in defence of " the Church" and her exclusive dominion. Oxford, as might be expected, appears in front of the battle. We have just got sight of a voluminous pamphlet, and so far as we can yet judge, an acute and able one, by the Rev. W. Sewell, Fellow and Tutor of Exeter, written against the claims of the Dissenters, on the question of admission in any sense or form, even as undergraduates, within the College walls. It would be impossible' here to discuss one-tenth of the topics which have been handled by this reverend gentleman, or indeed to notice them ; but it is essential to say of their common cha racter, and of every statement and argument employed through the book, that their invariable &sign, if not always their logical tendency, is to vindicate the exclusive and repulsive spirit of the University of Oxford in all its parts,—to prove that, in plain English, religious instruc tion, according to the creed, the forms, and dis cipline of the Chiirch of England, was from the beginning, • and ought to be for ever, the single, unchanged, unmodified object and pur pose of the whole system of that vast establish ment, and that any admission of the youth of other sects, Protestant or Catholic, would be incompatible with it. It is true that the great and leading use to which the opportunities - Of instruction afforded by Oxford were turned, was in distant ages the education of the clergy. When priests had assumed to themselves not merely a dominion over the other world, but a practical and official supremacy over the transactions of every secular Government throughout Europe—when priests were almost the only persons qualified to act as statesmen, the desire to perpetuate such a monopoly of temporal power might be some excuse on worldly grounds for those churchmen who founded colleges or governed them, confining the advantages they were capable of yielding to the clergy. But since the lay community has, for two centuries, shared largely in the acquisition of those intellectual and moral qualities which fit men for the management of great national affairs,—since priests have been shoved back from their political prominence, and remanded to their ostensible station as ministers of religion merely,—does the rev. author of this pamphlet persuade himself that the Universities of England are to be longer guided by the same narrow maxims of selfishness or prejudice as when the priesthood was everything, and the nation nothing ? Is the whole kingdom to be forced into the church, or banished beyond the precincts of science and of classical learning ? This monkery will not nowbe tolerated. Nobody dreams, as Mr. Sewell is pleased to imagine, of " separating" education from religion, or of placing the slightest barrier to the advancement of religious knowledge, or to the cultivation of a spirit of Christian piety. For both ends the dissenters would still possess their existing faci lities and appliances. But let us ask the rev. gentleman how will the sons of Dissenters be injured in their religious character by the near contemplation of an establishment fraught throughout with the spirit, and subjugated to the laws, of that church of whose supremacy he is the earnest advocate ? He, at least, can not consistently avail himself of such an ob jection. Does he not suppose that the parents of those youths may be safely trusted in that respect ? And yet they petition anxiously for the dangerous privilege of exposing their children to the contamination of the Established Church. Nor, if the rev. author may be trusted, would the fear of proselytism to the doctrines of our church be altogether chimerical, as affecting the undergraduate dissenters. The most bigot ted and zealous entrapper of souls among the Catholics never avowed, in terms more resolute or boastful, the design to make converts of all who should fall in with him, than does the Pro testant tutor of Exeter, in one of the following passages of his pamphlet : " As a part then and portion, and by far the largest portion, of goodness, and as the means of producing goodness, we cannot consent to part with our religion. For this reason twice a-day we assemble for public prayer, not as a mere form or a rule of discipline, but because those who framed our statutes, and many, if not all, who conform to them, believe that the duties of the day are nothing but as consecrated by God; be cause though a careless discharge of such an act deadens and hardens the heart, a right and faithful attempt to fulfil it is one of the best means of perfection. If men on entering their chapel will compel their attention to I rest on the objects before their eyes, and the words put into their mouths, their thoughts by degrees will slide into that frame and temper of mind from which prayer will naturally flow. And if this exertion is kept up throughout the whole course of our church liturgy, twice every day they will practise all th e goo d t h oug ht s I and feelings which constitute a Christian life. We do not withhold this opportunity of great good from those who are willing to embrace it, because those who persist in inattention necessarily turn it to evil. On the same principle, our statutes command that the or dinances and articles of our faith should form an essen tial part in our weekly instruction. In the college to which I belong, probably in many others, nearly a third of our regular lectures is devoted exclu sively to religion ; and no man leaves us without having, passed through a certain course of reading, Axed ac cording to his own powers, in the history, the evi dences, the ethics, and especially the peculiar doctrines of the Bible, as asserted in our articles of faith. If you attended at the public examination of the Univer sity, you would find these points not only insisted on in a separate branch, but constantly connected, in propor tion to the talents and acquirements of students, with all their other studies,—the history of the Bible with the history of heathenism ; the criticisms of scholars with the language of the Testament ; the ethics of Plato and Aristotle with the moral doctrines of the Gospel ; and the theories of ancient philosophy with the tenets and distinctions of our church. All this is done upon the belief, that in proportion as we give a young man knowledge, we must give him at the same time something to correct and to guide it. It is done because we hold religion to be the best of wis dom, and Christianity the best of religions. " But, on the same principles, there necessarily fol lows what has so often been lamented, and what I trust will never be removed---that we have little liberality in religion. We do not think our articles of faith mere subjects for the understanding. We are ex tremely reluctant to accede or to change a single point. We do not think it a matter of indifference, whether students issue from our hands Presbyterians or Metho dists, Calvinists or Baptists, Unitarians or Churchmen. If liberality means that we would not injure, would not persecute, would not willingly even think harshly of those who differ from us,--if it means that, sensible of our weakness and fallibility, we would not stigma tize or judge them ; if it means a willingness and plea sure in seeing them sharing with ourselves the social advantages of the state ; and if it means that we leave to God, the judge of our hearts, to decide upon their good and their evil, and rejoice in the hope of meet ing hereafter with thousands who differ from us here ; if this be liberality, we are, I trust, liberals. Without such liberality, our religion would indeed be poor. " But liberality has another sense, of which I hope we are not guilty. Articles of faith are not with us matters of indifference. They are articles of morality. Even as positive commands we regard them with awe and veneration. But as stating and fixing the relations from which our virtues are to flow, we consider their definiteness and minuteness with an exact and scrupu lous superstition. A slight, an almost imperceptible change in the position of an object will totally alter its effect upon the organ of sight ; and a slight and im perceptible change in the position of any of those objects which God has revealed and arranged to act on our religious affections, may entirely disturb and disarrange them. The Deity, the Trinity, and the Church, all these are set before us in certain peculiar distinctions. In almost every case we can discern the value and importance even of the minutest feature. But without this we know their purpose ; and by the best light our reason can afford, would set and fix them in that form and order in which God himself seems"o place them." " So long, then, as we regard religion and Chris tianity as parts of our morality, and instruments of our correction (and when they cease to be so regarded I know not what value they retain), so long the slighest article of faith connected with any such view must be to us necessary and essential. We can admit of no compromise, no latitude, no comprehension, no indul gence in acts, whatever be our indulgence in thought. And therefore when young men are brought here and placed in our hands for education, we wish to make them not merely learned, but good—not merely good, but religious—not merely religious, but Christians— and not merely Christians, but churchmen. " Is it necessary for me now to explain why, con sistently with her principles and duty, the University of Oxford cannot and ought not to consent to the ad mission of Dissenters to its body? " Even if you would send us your sons, and permit us, as we surely should . endeavour, to attempt their conversion, we should be reluctant to bring within our walls such elements of religious dispute. " But if their conversion is prohibited, we will not consent to take the charge. We will not affect to edu cate, where the great end of education is excluded. We will not pretend to control, when the great en gine of control is taken from our hands. We deny the possibility of educating men as Christians, upon any wide comprehensive plan, which shall unite all sects by excluding all distinctions. Natural religion —that is, religion without faith, or repentence, or an atonement, or a sanctifying spirit, or a visible church, —this may be taught ; but with what effect the heathen itov‘stEilit, world ,,oaiiiiirlirininygitelalihisbpao c iloa a ifsi n d answer. , We are not heathens, not undertake to become the priests of nature." Here we find it distinctly acknowledged, that the one primary object of a " national" univer sity is to make churchmen of its members ; that conversion is as much a duty as it is held to be by the Popish inquisitors ; and that, in fact, the rule at Oxford is, " no proselyte, no dissent ing pupil." Then let us ask, was ever anything in the world more audacious, more selfish, rapa cious, morose, and tyrannical, than for men who shut the doors of Oxford against all but their particular creed, raising a clamour against the humble prayer of the Dissenters to have a char tered University for their own children ? Times. There was a time when to every charge of culpable negligence, or something worse, made against ministers, relative to the unresisted in crease of the power of Russia, the Treasury journals used to oppose the close and intimate union between England and France as a coun terbalancing stroke of policy—the stay and anchor of European liberty and independence. Over and over again did we caution our Whig ministers not to trust too far the professions of Louis Philip and his Doctrinaire Cabinet. We told them that, in relying upon the sin cerity of the French government, they leaned upon a broken spear that might pierce their rfou n e oor d c,kuot . , 1 itn(eli i T erii hroi far-sightedeeF, h, re L oefi d o i crshdi praises,si possible allies. st u aoc r nls / emd e m i treacheryge i I re-echo s i ,ohf set euincredulity journals the hoo ue: T r wis dom 1 t e uaih a asli esszt as a sort of idol on whom the hopes of as to foreign policy, ought to rest ; the protector of European civilisation and in dependence—the tutelary genius in whom the sages of Downing-street placed their trust for the ready and zealous assertion at all times of liberal and enlightened principles against the aggressive ambition of the barbarian of the North ! In the meantime what was Louis Philip doing towards realising such sagacious anticipations of our statesmen and their obsequi ous journals ? He was busily engaged in crushing liberty at home, and in courting the smiles of that foreign despotism, which, from its throne in the frozen deserts of Scythia, seeks to dictate laws to Europe. In both objects he has partly succeeded. Incessant prosecutions and arbitrary acts of power have almost broken down the liberty of the press in France, to which he owes the sceptre of the Barricades. He is endeavouring at this moment to suppress public meetings as effectually as Russia could desire, and to put the mind of all France into the safe-keeping of his political police. Though his title to a throne is revolutionary, he has so exercised the power which he obtained by false pretences from " the men of three days' as to be treated almost on the footing of a quasi-1 legitimate by those despotic sovereigns who were at first very much inclined to meet every advance to be received into their company with sullen disdain. Even the Imperial Calmuc, who never recognized him, or admitted the tri colour into his dominions until the revolution of the ill-fated Poles made it expedient to do so—even this modern Herod, the destroyer of little children, around whose throne rises the reek of the patriot blood ; even he has lately deigned to inquire after the health of Louis Philip, and to say that, his life concerned not France alone, but Europe ! Great was the joy at the Tuileries when the " Citizen King," the pledged Chief Magistrate of a monarchy with republican institutions, found himself thus complimented by the great enemy of Euro plooopfe aaegni Russia utt h c ism i se v i e i ae l i y z uae a snp t in dOO O nfmoTuu a cu n rhr d lmel freedom. ayib,noi uas tnredrsonut op oot l unh t re uptoraorckto designs i o a . m sa e d r o c r ia r l ep re o l s a e t d ion o s a ian bed de ofL e r v o a s n es t : unOdiusrtuArbmedbabsy diplomatic cares, while Count Orloff was ob taining for his master an assignment of the Turkish empire. The publication of the con tents of the " Secret Treaty" showed to what purpose extravagant salaries were paid to our diplomatic representatives at Constantinople. It was the old story of the chief of the Em bassy doing nothing, and the others assisting him. At least, if any thing were done to counteract the projects of Russia by the Eng lish Minister to the Porte it still remains a se cret. Our Foreign Secretary sent out a fleet to the Archipelago just time enough to—sail back again, while the Russsan flag floated and still floats in indisputed sovereignty over the Dardanelles. Long time, as we said, were our Ministers in opening their eyes to the designs of Russia, and a longer time have they been in arriving at a suspicion of the double game of policy which has all alone , been played by the treacherous Court of France. At length they have thought it necessary to bestir themselves to countermine the plots of Russia at the Tuileries, and for this purpose has Lord Durham been sent on an extraordinary mission to Paris. If the result of his mission be as futile as that which he made with so much pomp to St. Petersburgh, he had better have stayed at home ; the advantages will not repay the ex pense. That a struggle is now going on in Paris between the Russian and English interests, is certain. Yet why should our government find it necessary to send an additional repre sentative there to oppose the Russian Ambas sador, if the professions of close and faithful al liance which Louis Philip made to our Whig Ministers were now believed to be sincere ? No, the fact is, our ministers have come to the knowledge of that which they should have dis covered long ago, if they had any sagacity, and it is that Louis Pnilip has been playing a double game. Therefore Lord Durham is sent to try if he can detach the fox of Orleans from his un natural union with the Russian vulture. The Constitutionnel says," M. Pozzo causes the smallest movements of Lord Durham to be nar rowly watched; and when this diplomatist went on Saturday, accompanid by his ambassador, Lord Granville, to M. de Broglie, M. Pozzo had preceded them several hours." Thus it was at Constantinople ; Count Orloff was al ways up and doing some hours before our am bassador thought of making his toilette. It was his practice to be beforehand with the Sultan, or Reis Effendi, whenever he knew that the English ambassador was to have an audi ence. The Russian diplomatist understands and acts upon the vulgar adage, which says that " the early bird gets the worm." The hours of Lords Durham and Granville as well as those of Lord Ponsonby, appear to be too aristocratic for men of business. The Russian diplomatists take the start of them both at Constantinople and Paris ; they have half the day's work done before our representatives are wide awake. Who can wonder at the result ? The Constitutionnel goes on to say, " To what tend all these move ments ? What does Russia demand of our Ca binet ? What means this respect and attach ment for a Crown so disdained and looked down upon only some months ago ? At what point does Russia aim ? We repeat, M. Pozzo fears the effects of the revelations to be made by Lord Durham. Up to this time lie had ar ranged his plots, and had endeavoured, by his intrigues, to dissolve the strong and intimate al liance of France with England ; but all this he may now fail in, and how is he to extricate him self from this embarrassment ? How is he to reply to official documents ? How is he to answer copies of despatches which the infidelity of some Russian agents has placed in the hands of England ?" According to what is above stated, the English Ministers have only been led to suspect what was going on in secret negotiation between the Courts of St.Petersburgh and the Tui leries, from the circumstance of some Russian agents betraying their trust. But, supposing that to be true, will the Russians be unprovided with artifices to meet the exigency ? Will Louis Philip and his Doctrinaires be less deceitful to the representatives of England than they were on the subject of "free-trade ? " Pozzo and the Citizen King understand each other better than Lord Durham imagines. The Constitu tionnel states that Lord Durham is everywhere" well received ; and having so said, immediately follows it up with the somewhat contradictory statement that "he does not meet from the Doctrinaire Ministry the same loyal and frank assent to his liberal ideas, and in, favour of the alliance of the two nations." Now as the Doc trinaires are the chosen Ministers of Louis Philip, the Ministers who are used to extin guish the principles of the revolution, it would not be reasonable to suppose that their senti ments on the subject of a close alliance between England and France differ from those of t heir master. They are only a little more frank than Louis Philip himself in evincing their pre ference for a Russian to an English connection, and in regarding with more favour despotic than liberal principles. The fact is, the English Government cannot unite itself in close alliance with the wa present and t dboeunwithout i te disunitingbe enlightened Ie r policy, osceyl,f Government if there fromth e arliberal, bi of France anye r al sc po policy which th e Whi gs h ave not yet re nounced.—Morning slFaorcanite: Herald. THE MIGRATORY HABITS OF EELS.- So strong is their migratory disposition, that it is well known few things will prevent their progress, as even at the locks at Teddington and Hampton, the young eels have been seen to ascend the large posts of the flood-gates, in order to make their way when the gates have been shut longer than usual. Those which die stick to the posts ; others, which get a little higher, meet with the same fate, until at last a sufficient layer of them is formed to enable the rest to overcome the difficulty of the passage. A curious instance of the means which young eels will have recourse to, in order to perform their migrations, is annually proved in the neighbourhood of Bristol. Near that city there is a large pond, immediately adjoining which is a stream. On the bank between these two waters a large tree grows, the branches of which hang, into the pond. By means of these branches the young eels ascend into the tree, and from thence let them selves drop into the stream below, thus migrating to far distant waters, where they increase in size, and become useful and beneficial to man. A friend of mine, who was a casual witness of this circumstance, informed me that the tree appeared to be quite alive with these little animals. The rapid and unsteady motion of the boughs did not appear to impede their progress."-:-Jesse's Gleanings in Natural History. naked, POLICE INTELLIGENC E. --No— vious night, found them • John The MAR YLEBONE. Yesterday, theold es t t hr o e f e wh p o o m or ry l ,e it s tl n e ot c m hi o ld re re t n i , ian s , o o , almos t • ' years of age, were brought before Mr. RAwLisa°:".: by a constable of the D division, who on the pre' , br i ng about crying and wan the streets. to take them to the workhouse, with a requesi fr l a' him that they should be taken care of there f or the xer present. He also gave directions that every e- tion should be used to find out the parents. A , R formerly Lßoß 0 U a G I I p . S o T ii c R e E_ s E c T r . g e a 1 it of the .., M N ag ok is me t s rate humanely ordered the constable G division, and John Tl 7 ood, were brought be fore e pockets in the .Mr. DYER for final examination on a charge ef in attempted to pick pockets. Policeman Cave, C 43, observed the two ' .oner' Pr" ed je in company together among a crowd, assembl Le Store-street, Tottenham-court-road, to w itness t'L tricks of some mountebanks, w ho were exhibiting IP • A te the street. He watched their movements, an-. , saw th both of them make repeated attempts to pie r ': nte,' ance who was incautious enough to venture ante , the crowd. He took them into custody and lodged there' of sta e themnothing themselves was found of a suspicious nature. an d t o hat , morning. Both prisoners were prison as r ogues a Pent to vagabonds. fa t vo t u n r at ofse , Five sturdy anover-square, charged with having station -house, u o t f , respectableon searehhlagP P e a d r : young wenches, having the aPP e , ance and manners of the lowest class of prostitur,u'. were brought H from the parish workhouse of ii i , George, filled, and they CO The defendants are a fair ea luP b, ey present aanmoisrtressicsatinbdlealaorugstomeaencipie large me rcaladsisealoefhapnaguepeinrsth:ritphresvnbtich r"" ' i , chargesof w• workhouse ouse against admissions the girl girls greater part of the metropolitanworkhouses ar e ir nt j o scene-and violent language, threatened the and began breaking every thing which car e in their and :I way, using the expression, " Now for it!--vle ' ~r the ir . serve the _ parish out !" In partieth - d, 0 5. , , i ,' violence was directed towards the matron , an ~ ii , ,i • they could not get at her in person, they dressea ~r,„ 4 f • a figure, and having no other sort of missiles which,haa f 1 they laid hold of those particular vessels .0, improper language though frequently heard of, are seldom permitted; .be seen, and smashed them at the effigy of the b; difficult of their vengeance was with the utrnol'.. y the riot . and the r ioters ta ken was quelled, into custody.use d ' Mr. DYER asked them if it was true they , were, that tbdaistcittleiyuet;tesseadtslytoechl:4r, 'I I , unblushing impudence, admitted the fac t and sal a when theY they could not always be on th • . eir gua rd got angry.th e Mr. DYER inquired which of them broke a , ?—All the girls, earthenware ?—The girls, in the most undaunted manner, replied they were all alike ; they all broke' a apiece, that there might be n o Vier amongst them. . • . s to Mr. DYER said it was evident their o bject vta • _ . ,, t • m ight get all sent to the same prison, that they • t WO continue their joke, but he would disappoin 40 Borne ' for he should send some to one place a nd soi another, for 21 days each.some ° with the rno:at; Four of these girls were sent to prison t and ago by Mr. CHAMBERS, for disorderly conduct, overseers when they got out of prison one of the e v , e _ the instantly admitted them, as will doubtless De„4. 1 case again after the present defendants are liberate a li WORSHIP-STRE ET. „me Yesterday, a respectably dressed man, ions Richard Collson, a weaver in Bethnal -green, . ov , I , r brought before Mr. BENETT' for re-exarainatl ni charged with stealing two 5/. notes, the property. - a young sailor, named Wm. Dunn. ang The prosecutor, who is a genteel looking tY°O, man, said he was residing at 70, Tooley-street e v en' rough. On Thursday night last he spent aboutteo ing with a friend of his at Hoxton, and n , e ly ,l i , o'clock they both left to return home. Unfortu friend,at 111 on getting into Worship-street, be and his ,c quarrelled and parted. In f a _eur moments .a e l l t ,), wards a person came up to him, and tapped hl 0 _: ,. . the shoulder, but what he said witness could ; recollect, being intoxicated g the time. w ith O" t" ' ri ving in Bishopsgate-street, he went _ .e a le stranger into a beer-shop, and after taking son! h a left him, and proceeded alone homewards, unTsce. t got opposite Bishopsgate church, vvhere het6ll 91 vered that two .5/. bank-notes, Nos. 9 ' Wag er ' 9,911, which he had pulled out before the s 0. . t , in the beer-shop, and afterwards Placed in bise ;Sc. coat pocket in a stiff piece of paper , we r r ilo willf % Witness, however, went home, and the i. the morning gave information of the robbery, 'c' ae ' Ir an police. oh o Mr. BENETT — IS the prisoner th e OC' tested you in Worship-street ? Prosecute' oveg I 1 very much like him, but I should not like t° to him, as I was at the time intoxicated. ~ for h i 1 to the pr Two Si. notes were handed e seu ' Hanley, the officer. ib s t ; I Prosecutor—Those are the very n otes ' il . know them by the numbers. he Da ,t: Hanley said that after considerable trouble traced the notes into the prisoners' possessio.o. c. be i Mr. BENETT here asked the prisoner 11°`iseri became possessed of the notes ? Frisonert coolly}—Why, I picked them up in the strec :at c f, Mr. BENETT—Have you a witness to that feet. Prisoner—l have not. He was fully committed. ill 1 THAME S POLICE. Fdira . Yesterday, two lightermen , name 11 known I'°' t° Gardner and John Morgan, who are ' t he w e Mr• 13 the Thames police, were brought be „ out ot „ barge DERIP, charged with stealing a d smug glo / London Docks, and also with stealing an about 25 gallons of foreign brandY• Remanded iil4llorr os : --- .nell'' ril .., f ~- 5, LIVERPOOL COTTON-MARKET, 1 LI 00 bag —The sales to-day are estimated at 1, 5 Prices remain without any material alteration. BIRTHS. Viei nds -- On the Ist inst., the wife of Mr. Thoinas W ith , ' worth-road, of a daughter. rool is. r, On the Ist inst., the lady of the Rev. James Can ,t, , , • le ev. Great Berkhamstead, of a son. „, fl esa° '0 On the 30th alt., at Clifton, the lady of CaPt — . ere: C.B Royal ~ 10 0 0 . , , , Navy, of a daughter. the 31st ult., the lady of Alfred Grillln, r""' ( at-law, of a daughter. $ t.ll€ \ MARRIED. "t On the 31st ult., ' the 4(iti' 11*(1' at Alton rowers, ur , Earl of Shrewsbury, Major Bisshopp, late of i'el'fs,) meet, to Elizabeth, relict of the late Robert vi c oo' 11 : 0 1 , grandson of John, seventh Lord Dormer, and fir s t acco,l,, if the present Lord. The ceremony was first Pert', pr. i l , pi ing to the rites of the Catholic Church, by the Uc t ,„ .. er ws'' in the domestic chapel of the noble Earl, mid , a , t ocb• , le y the Rev. J. P. Jones, vicar of Alton, in the pari' h A \Vri° tbe , °I • On the 2d inst., at Woburn, by the Rev. L°r" i , t h., to Russell, the Lord Charles James Fox Busse i Vl3ed t°l ;,° ( the Duke of Bedford, and M.P. for the county 0 v . e .„ E' • the Isabella Clarissa, daughter of the late William D 3 1 , 1 t er t ° Pen.y.lan, county of Carmarthen, 1 gratiddaug am .. m rf late Lord Robert Seymour. h e P s ' . 1;11° II On the 2d inst., at St. Mark's, Kennington, t tigh ter , Geary, of Canterbury,to Lydia II ll'er eldest Daughter , of o i , so " n 6 Allan, of Cold Harbour-lane, Camberwell• woe , .ir e ro ot" On the 9.d inst., at St. Pancras Church, J• he tti, ''' , IP'', J. H. Lawson, Esq., of Bri g hton, to Eliza"coellt'clor daughter of the late William Simpkins, Esq., °I re ~I• I t ' A nlil On the 2d inst., at St. Mary's, Bryanston.scl°3-,o' P i jes° s. o r James S. Todd, of Fenchurch-strect, London, 0 0 . only daughter of K. It. Hed g es, Esq., of Sunbu.rYtoo,l,l e:. On the 9.d ult., Mr. James Clarke, of Sewingof Le w e Anne, daughter of the late John Chapman, FA' , 0, ;',l DIED. estit Y ea '!ll , On the 24th ult., in Shrewsbuilp in her - Ar tdlL , „,. s te' wife of Captain J. M. Martin, orthe B ombaY_ '' A diu" . 0 5, third daughter of the late Oylett Woodhouse, b'q'' vA I ID General, Bombay. 1r Si. BV ll° de On the 31st ult , aged 62, Amy, wife of A • 11 of Botolph.lane. • 'We' On the 2d inst., Mr. James Burrows , brass- r 00 , o f t ' ditch, aged 54. 4 , c t,,,ii , On the 31st ult , at Holloway, Mrs. Walton, Bank 0 g1" 5 . late W. Walton, Esq., chief accountant of the ei..o, a eti On the Ist inst., in Burton-crescent, Mrs. 1 , v v ___.-- r - lr iOf VO' DO London : Printed and Publiied by 1110 1 - ' strana• at the Sun Office, N. IL- , i i ? 1