The Express.
London, England, 1846-11-16 00:00:00

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MAIM
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lite malls far Cormana, SU% Operlo, Liabon, Madeint, Cadiz, and
Gibraltar, wM be mode up ea the atareing of the 17th November (to-
morrow).
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=et la ra&ii tt A t Ike-, will be made up on the
The meit. tie Nee South Wake. Van Dietnetta Land. and New
Zealaml we be mar up on the meting of the 30th November.
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LONDON, MONDAY, NOV. 16.
Tn ERE can be no doubt, that the question of regu-
lating or shortening the hours of labour in factories
has in its origin and first enactments been a righteous
one. To save the young from a system, which eats
and cankers them i n the bud, and forbid the female
from being tempted into modes and times of earning,
which corrupt her nature and contaminate her mind,
is a duty too imperative to be abandoned.
When, however, we swell our care and philan-
thropy from the guardians' and the schoolmaster's
task, to that of the übiquitous policeman, who is to
tend old as well as young, and interfere with our free-
dom, even in the highways of life, then we think 't
behoves us to take care lest this country, having Lein
the first to secure solid political freedom, should not
also be the first to fall into a state of social enslave-

ment.
The iron system of doling out existence by weight,
and exploding freedom of locomotion or will, as a
needless luxury, has already been applied to the indi-
gent. It is now creeping up to the class above the indi-
gent, viz. to the industrious artisan. It is put forward,
to be sure, as a law which is to coerce the employer,
and wring from him higher wages than the circum-
stances and profits of his trade have hitherto led him
to give. This alone is a dangerous rule, which, if
applied to one trade, must soon be applied to all, and
which, however at first intended to act merely as
fetters to the employer, will in time, we fear, prove
something worse than fetters, to the employed.
The manufacturers have however, in one respect,
drawn this interference upon themselves. The every
year augmenting tendency to supersedein their works,
not merely the old by the young, but the man by
the child, was a thing so pernicious and deleterious
as imperatively to call for legislative interference. The
difficulty is now to draw a line, where this should
cease. What has been done hitherto, has not directly
interfered with the freedom of male adults in work,
nor has it been of a gravity to cheek or prevent the
indomitable energies of our manufacturers from seeking
how to supply the inconvenience, and cover the loss. Bat
it is a false and cruel reasoning, that, because manufac-
turers have overcome so many obstacles, they can
overcome any additional ones, no matter what the
magnitude of those thrown in their way.
The agitation in furtherance of the Ten Hours
Bill has, we see, fully recommenced. No sooner is
the stage of Huddersfield empty, than that of Halifax
is filled, and though the dramatis persona are few,
and the arguments not very varied, still the artisan
audience are loud in their applause of a measure of
which they perceive and hail the immediate relief,
without being aware of any untoward results.
We arc glad to ace that the champions of the
measure give up the pretension, once so boldly put
forward, of ten hours being made quite as productive
as twelve hours by increased energies an zeal,
and better economy of time, on the part of the work-
men. When Sir J ‘st Es GRAD tNI brought forward,
last year, the experiment tried in Messrs. HORROCKS
millon the comparative productiveness of short andlong
hours, the example was decried as faulty, as solitary,
.and unworthy of conclusive inference being drawn
from it. Mr. FIELDEN, however, indulged at Halifax
in the following statement
I have to meet other manufacturers in worked rket, and If I were to
teem working ten hours, whilst others twelve, I should soon
get into the Gazette. Even if I could get ten bouts' men for ten hoar,'
wages, the others would have an advantage I
This is very plain and sincere, and clears away
a world of rubbish from about the question. No one
now pretends that the hours of working in factories
can be limited without loss to some one. 'fhe loss is
admitted. And the question remains, upon which
class shall the loss fall? Mr. AKROYD says it shall
fall upon the operatives, to whom he will give but
one-sixth of the usual wages. Mr. FIELDEN and Mr.
°ANTLER reply that the amount of wages cannot be
affected by the diminution of the manufacturer's
profits. That the competition for work has already
brought down wages as low as they could go; that short
hours necessitating more hands will diminish this
competition, and accordingly that the loss must fall
upon the manufacturer. This reasoning, to be worth
anything, must also imply that the manufacturer is
able to bear the loss, and that the diminution of his
profit is not such as will make hint forego the employ-
ment of time and capital in the old way.
;To support this assertion or supposition, it is im-
possible not to admit that Mr. TIELDEN'B experience
is of great weight. But we must also say, that
the logic which both he and Mr. O.IsTLER employ
is of a nature to detract much from the weight and
value of their experience. Their scouting of foreign
competition and foreign trade, and that, too, in the
great centre of the woollen manufacture, which
has been driven from so many markets by foreign
competition, displays a sturdy contempt for facts, as
well as for the commonest sense. And the extrava-
gant stretching of free-trade principles, to depict and
glory in those halcyon times when the manufactures'
of England shall be no more, when the foreigner shall
supply us with shirts and coats, whilst our artisans,
spread over the land, are to return cargoes to the con-
tinent of cabbages and potatoes all this , bright
promise held out by the orators at Halifax, of con-
verting England and Englishmen of the next age
into Ireland and the Iri-h of this, only show how
free-trade itself can be pushed to insanity and but-

foonery.
We may not be altogether partizans of a Ten Hours'
Bill, but it can command far more cogent and rational
arguments than these. In manafactories, which
yearly fall into the syncope of " short time," we do
think that a legislative measure might compel them '
to spread their suspension of work over a larger space.
The short time evinces improvidence and over-produc-
tion, and shows also a desire to take undue advantage
of the labouring population, feeding them when pro-
visions are short, and turning them adrift when
provisions are dear. This, we think, might be pro-
vided against in many better ways than by a general
Ten Hours' Bill applied to all factories of the four
great staples indiscriminately, visiting with the
same coercion the rising, the stationary: and the
declining. We feel convinced that a different law
must be applied to each—unless, indeed, the object of
the legislature be to kill, not cure.

THERE is no mystery in the affair of the TRENCIT-
WYATT statue. It is an abomination to art. Com-