The Press.
London, England, 1854-03-18 00:00:00

THE PRESTON "STRIKE."

IT is easy to dwell on the evils of the " strike"
at Preston. The mere money loss is very
great. As this is the thirtieth week of the
strike, the amount lost in wages alone by the
15,000 unemployed hands cannot be far short
of 200,0001., and the stoppage of the mills
during the same period must have seriously
impaired the capital of the masters. Before the
strike Preston produced nearly five million yards
of cotton fabric weekly; the production is now
next to nothing, and the workpeople maintain
a wretched existence on the 4s. a week allowed
to them from the funds subscribed for their
relief. The distress of those who have families
to provide for resembles that of the inhabi
tants of a beleaguered city suffering from
famine. " There is such suffering in the town
" of Preston," said a speaker at one of their
meetings some weeks since, " as few have any
" idea about who are not familiar with the
" homes of misery. I myself know a family
" who have visited a slaughter-house regularly,
" and fetched blood and used it, without
" having anything like groats or bread to mix
" with it. There is also a man who has been
" without food until he has been seen picking
" the bits out of the wash that has been put
" for pigs."
The decent people of Preston, besides suf
fering from stagnation of trade, are threatened
now with a more formidable calamity. The
masters are recruiting for hands in every
haunt of beggary and distress. Irish paupers
are stripped of their rags and reclothed that
they may have at least the appearance of
operatives, and an "Immigrant Factory Opera-
tives' Home " has been established to receive
labourers from agricultural districts. The
success, and even the prudence, of such a pro-
ceeding appear very questionable ; but, what-
ever may be the result as regards a supply of
hands for the factories, the effect on the town
can scarcely fail to be disastrous. It is easier
to collect than to provide for masses of popu-
lation. The strike cannot last for ever.
Sooner or later the 3,0001. a week subscribed
for the unemployed must fail ; and then, whe-
ther the victory be claimed by masters or
workmen, there will still be the same probabi-
lity of the town being completely swamped by
pauperism.
The dispute is the most obstinate that has
yet occurred between capital and labour, but
we are not disposed to ascribe it to folly or
fanaticism. War is a great evil, but we are now
entering into war with hearty resolution.
And why? Because it is felt to be the only
alternative when disputes between nations
become irreconcilable. And in our social
system strikes are the last resort when there
is a radical difference between masters and
men on the rate of wages to be paid. We are
afraid that it is of as little use to preach
political economy in the one case as in the
other.

SATURDAY,

Some eminent economists have supposed
that the wages paid to unskilled labour must
commonly be regulated by what is necessary
to support a man, his wife, and two or three
children. However that may be, it is certain
that there is a point of depression beyond
which wages cannot be reduced. There is a
state of distress or semi-starvation in which
men will either become desperate and refuse to
work, careless of all consequences, or in which
Nature will interpose the sternest of her laws
to prevent the deterioration of humanity.
Whether the wages of the Preston opera-
tives—with the high prices of all necessaries
of life which prevailed when the strike began,
and which still prevail—had not been reduced
to a point of starvation almost or altogether
intolerable, is, we think, a fair subject for in-
quiry. The man assert that they were, sad
the statements of the masters scarcely con-
travene the assertion. Mr. EDWARD Houma
pledges himself that the wages he offers will
" enable any good weaver to earn off a pair of
" looms lls. per week;" Messrs. BIRLEY assert
that their hands for some weeks previous to
the strike averaged 10s. 10fd. These wages
are evidently thought extremely good, as they
are placarded to induce the operatives to re-
turn to their work.
It is hence to be inferred that lower wages
are paid in some cases, and accordingly we
find the men stating that the " card-room
hands " earned but 6s. 6d. per week, and
" strippers and grinders " but Bs. and 98. As
these wages are for six full days a week, the
rate must of course be greatly reduced when
the mills run short time. The demand for 10
per cent. increase on such rates does not ap-
pear extortionate. That amount was struck
from their wages in 1847, with an understand-
ing, as the men conceive, that it would be
restored to them when trade became better.
They say now that they hear on all aides of a
vast increase in commerce and manufactures,
and that they " see evidence of accumulated
" wealth in every form and shape testifying to
" the prosperity which exists." If this pros-
perity be a fact, it is not wonderful that they
should desire to share in it to the extent of
one shilling per week extra.
There have been parliamentary inquiries
into subjects of less importance than this
Preston strike. It would be desirable to know
what the earnings of the hands really have
been, what their condition is, and—if it were
not deemed too great an interference with the
pet political science of our day—how it comes
that a flourishing manufacture cannot afford
bread to the labour employed in it. On one
point there can be no dispute. The men,
since the commencement of this unhappy
struggle, have displayed sustained enthusiasm,
with intelligence and self-denial. At all their
gatherings the first words and the last have
been—Keep the peace and obey the laws : be
sober and orderly. Nor is it possible to over-
look that strong feeling of sympathy with
their cause which, whether we suppose it to be
mistaken or not, must animate the vast body
of workpeople who subscribe the funds for
their relief. The question has become of so
much social importance as to be not unworthy
the attention of the Government and Legisla-
ture. It is supposed that there are causes in
action tending to a general rise in prices ; but
any such rise must needs be a great calamity
to the toiling classes if their request for ad-
vanced wages be met so harshly as it has been
by the Preston manufacturers.

SECURITIES FOR GOOD GOVERNMENT

IN AMERICA.
IT has become quite a fashion amongst certain
liberal politicians to refer to the example of
America on all occasions, and to cite an Ameri-
can precedent as if it were conclusive. Yet
we question whether many of our countrymen
are really:capable of estimating the value of this
transatlantic model which, in arms and arts, in
peace and war, is perpetually held up for our
imitation chiefly by those ethereal intelligences,
Messrs. COBDEN and BRIGHT. A volume lately
published by Mr. MURRAY, in which a com-
parison is instituted between the Constitution

MARCH 18, 1854.

of the United States and our own, will ma-
terially assist us in forming a just opinion
of the relative advantages of the two forms
of government- The author is Mr. TIMMER-
HERE, a sensible Whig, and from his work
we shall take a few salient points, premising
only that every statement he makes is verified
by American authorities, and generally by
those eminent men, Chancellor KIRI and
Mr. Justice STORY.

The first question which the framers of the
American Constitution had to determine was,
" Whether societies of men are really capable
" or not of establishing good government by
reflection and choice ?" and the characteris
tic conclusion to which they came was, that,
for Americans, it was possible, but not for any
other people. The problem having been thus
satisfactorily solved, a Constitution was framed
and adopted by a very small majority, in some
important States by " little more than a pre-
ponderating vote ;" and to this day it is a
matter of discussion amongst the statesmen
and public writers of America whether " the
" Constitution is to be considered as a treaty
" between independent States or a federal
"or a social compact, or both." It is this
Constitution which is frequently referred to as
being " founded on the consent of the people."
But in truth this was not the case either with
the Constitutions of the separate States, or with
that of the United States. They were based
only on the consent of a majority of iLlimited
class, the qualified voters ; and Mr. Justice
STORY asserts that there is not " a single State
in the Union whose Constitution has not
" been adopted against the opinions and wishes
" of a large minority ;
" and it is notorious that some of them have
" been adopted by a small majority ;" even
" the American Revolution itself was brought
" about against the wishes and resistance of a
" formidable minority of the people." America
does not recognise any doctrine of abstract
right to the franchise ; to extend or diminish
its limits is held to be within " the discretion
" and competence" of its actual possessors.
If no check, therefore, were interposed, the
will of a majority would be absolute.
To obviate this evil, the articles of the Con-
stitution were declared to be fundamental and
immutable—" the supreme law of the land,"
of which the interpreter shall be, not " the
" individual States, but those high judicial
" functionaries whom, in its third article, it
" expressly designates for that purpose." Thus,
an act passed by Congress by no means neces-
sarily becomes a law of the United States.
" If that act should, in the opinion' of the
" judges of the Supreme Court, be contrary to
" the written words of the Constitution, it is,
" ipso facto, void and of no effect."
What would Messrs. COBDEN and BRIGHT
say if a Reform Bill could not become law
without the consent of the Court of Queen's
Bench? Would such a system be the fulness
and perfection of self-government?
Nevertheless the power of the judges is not ab-
solute. With a concurrence of the States, nearly
amounting to unanimity, the written words of
the Constitution may be altered. By these
breaks and checks the framers of the Constitu-
tion designed to guard against a danger to
which Republics are peculiarly exposed—the
tyranny of a majority. "If a majority be
" united by a common interest, the rights of
" a minority will be insecure." We may con-
gratulate ourselves that we need no such safe-
guards—that by our Constitution, civil and
ecclesiastical, by the varied distribution of the
franchise, by our hereditary House of Lords,
all classes have a voice or vote in the enact-
ment of laws. Here a majority can scarcely
" overbear the wills and affect the interests
" of a minority by sudden and hasty acts of
" legislation," but time is afforded for mature
reflection, so that majorities many acquire
moderation, and minorities prepare for anl,
" adjust themselves to the coming change.
The United States have been obliged to de-
vise extraordinary securities for good govern-
ment. We will follow the thread which Mr.
TREMENRERE has furnished, and show, in a
future article, by what tendencies these are
endangered.

THE PRESS.