The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-03-14 00:00:00

DORSET COUNTY EXPRESS

DORCHESTER, TUESDAY, MARCH 14, 1865.

NOTES OF HE WEEK.

The "lock-out" in the "black country,"
which has for some time been pending, has now
taken place, and 70,000 men engaged in the
iron works in South Staffordshire and East
Worcester, have been thrown out of employ-
ment, and 200,600 persons have been deprived
of the means of subsistent's, threatening conse-
quences almost as disastrous as the sudden
cessation of cotton supplies. The pressure
will be felt equally by the masters and by the
men ; by the masters as sealing up their own
sources of profit, and laying themselves open to
legal proceedings and fines for breach of
contract; by the men exhausting, not only
the Union funds, but also their own means of
supporting themselves and familes ; unless,
indeed, indirect support be given them from
other quarters. It is not for na to say who is
right or wrong in the affair—masters or men;
but we may venture to say that, so far
as regards combination, if it is illegal for
operators to combine for the purpose of
obtaining a fair day's pay for a fair day's
work, it is equally condemnable in the iron
masters to combine together to resist claims of
this kind. There must, indeed, be something
wrong where masters and men are for ever
whorrying each other; where many men are
unanimous in the pursuit of one object, and
where they strive to enforce it at the risk of
breaking up their homes and starving their
families. We assume that the puddlers and
others, masters of their craft in iron foundries,
are not so wholly deficient of common sense or
to the duties they owe to themselves and
families, as to persevere to extremes in the
pursuit of an idea ; and We are equally well
assured that the iron masters would not play
with their propert/ to their own destruction,
were they not convinced that the present price
of iron is such as not to admit of compliance
with the demand. Thee continued strikes and
conaeqnent lock-outs, are serious grievances,
affecting not only those who occasion them, but
vast numbers of others indirectly connected
with or dependent upon the trade or business,
ending too often in the ruin of the weaker
party. The necessity for a board of arbitrators,
wholly independent of both parties, is once more
practically demonstrated.
A letter has been published in some of the
Irish papers from a military captain in Canada,
relative to the Fenian organisation, which, if
any difficulties arise between us and the Federal
Government, will, no doubt, spring into vitality.
It is stated that large quantities of arms have
been sent to Ireland, as well as money, and it
is believed that an intended maseacre of Pro-
testants forms part of the scheme. Colonel
John O'hlahony is the head of this organisation
in America, and a fellow was lately captured in
Ireland with a revolver in A parcel with the
Colonel's name upon it. There can be no doubt
that the Government ought to be on the alert
against these Fenians, for they evidently mean
mischief.

The navy estimates were laid before the
House of Commons on Monday evening, in a
long and, as usual, lucid and complacent speech
by Lord Clarence Paget. The total amount
asked for the department was £10,392,224, being
a reduction of £316,427. The reduction in the
number of men was 2,200. The number of
sea-going 'kips would be decreased by six; the
number of armour-plated vessels, however,
would be increased by four, which must be taken
as really being an aooession of force. The
oharize for the dockyards was estimated at
£2,930,654, showing a reduction of £450,179.
The noble lord said that the number of armour-
plated ships which would be completed and
ready for sea by the end of the year would be
thirty. Four swift ships, built entirely of woo
after the pattern of the Alabama, and intended
--qlv for the protection of commerce, would be
- proceeded with. It waa intended
to -

pie,
the '

sea-going