The Express.
London, England, 1853-12-31 00:00:00

TilE STRIKES IN THE NORTH.

MEETING AT MANCHESTER.
On Thursday evening a meeting in uiil of some of
the sill.ecting m.oders and pttcers was held. at the l'eople's
institute, Herod street, Manchester. At pr.. nt, st
seems, tt.:: hands of only two or three liens. are out of
work ; and they state that they have quitted their 1111111Itts
rather than submit to the taking off of an advance in
prises which they obtained in July lithe. Two firm-, it is
added, who had given notice of the reduetion, have this
week in:Minted that the hands are euninsue et work, fur
the present at least, at the recent prices. The meeting
was thinly attended.
The elnalliMAN. 10 commencing the bueinest, read the
bill convening the meeting, which WWI headed "More
Luck-out. ;" also a prepared fur general circula-
tion, in which it was mated that the average earnings of
sell-Wing murders iu Manchester, in full wink, did not ex-
ceed lb.. per week ; that must of the men were married, and
had large families; 'hat trade was nut depreieed, but the
contrary—and that it the Int u ..•uhnsit to the present ell-
crw.el.snent it will lead to a general reduction of the opera-
tes*, of this and the iiurrounii.ug districts." Ile entree:de
remarked that the neon of reestun had been charged with
calling in " foreign aid " in their struggle, while thous who
made the charge seem' d to tiro% that the comma had their
resolutions and so on drama up by lawyers, who were nut
ease:), mailed*, threes; huwever, there would be no
" foreign lid that algid, fur those who would speak were
either 'close:imp minders or connected with Manchester
mills, Cad 110..114 lie known n newt of thews present, although
it was necessary to pteveut their being sacrificed that names
'Mould nut be announced.
The brit res elution was: " That we, the self-acting
minders and timers of Mauchestcr, view with feelings of
esteems regret the apparent determination of some few of
the principal masters of this city in persisting to claim the
unjust and unreasonable deductions from the wages of the
aforesaid operatives which they have recently made; and
we pledge ourselves to see all legitimate means at our die
pseud to enable the self-acting minders and pieeers now on
suske successfully to compete against any such unjust en.

iteesehmeats."
The mover ef it said that the reductions attempted to be
made varied from 12 to 26 per cent., the smallest offered
being, be belseted, 81 per cent. When that advance was
given in July, provisions were much more reasonable in
price than slow ; there was nothing in the state of trade
to warrant, or even to stfird au excuse for, the reduc-
tions ; and he was sure that if masters would only consider
the comfort of their workmen at this inclement seams,
every feeling of justice and kindness would urge them to
give a still further advance, instead of their seeking to make
a reduction. (Hear, hear.) The want/macs were now
nearly empty ; clothe, and particularly douneuties, were math
wasted sod could not be supplied; and he had it upon
good authority ilia the broken who dealt between the
foreign merchaots and the hoots trade had been offering
almost unlimited adeaoces without being able to get their
eominimions executed, as fax as retarded 30in. and 40in.
cloths, or long shirtiugs. The self-acting minders had done
everything in their power to avoid a cematiun of work, by
trying to induce the masters not to persist, but the masters
were persisting because they believed th.it the class of their
hands was not well organised. Where organisation esisted
there had been no attompt to reduce. Is Stockport recently,
one of the principal manufacturers had so many orders to
esecute within a short time, that be celled his spinnen to-
gether, and offered them an ad of Id. per thousand
banks, If they would work my twelve or thirteen hones •
day, in order to get the orders completed. The men con-
suited their union, and then replied that the, thought 101
hours a day was quite sufficient for them to work ; and the
neat day the muter actually put op a notice that only eight
hours a day would be worked in the mill. But the secret
of this was, that there had been a meeting of the masters
in the corning, and that three muter* from Pres-
ton had attended as a deputation from that town.
But the men met too, and resolved that if eight
hours • day .were commenced, they would , under
any circumstances, work more ; and the result was that
bteAkport was at present working full time. (Applause.)
One of the Manchester =mien wheat bands were going out
said he did not want to make an alteration in the wages of
the sAf-acting minders; but what he did want is do was to
take away dm only pistol, that he new allowed to two pain
of mules, and lath of those piecers averaged lOa. per week.
Some time since they had nu ',levers in that mill, and the
marten said the work had been worse since he had given
the one piecer for two mules; that was very passible; hut
when there were no pigeon the um had something
like cotton to work upon—now, Ood only knew what
they had. (lieu, hear.) The effect of the bad material
was so great, that the men bed been earning less
since the advance in July (when they first had that
material supplied) than they were before ; and if the
men submitted to • reduction of 18 or 20 per cent. on their
prices, they would only get wages that were about 40 per
cent less than those they got before July. He Lad restudy
worked a whole week, not letting more than two hours, and
those nut from any fault or neglect of his own; but his
total earnings amounted to only 14.. Id. (Hear, hers.)
Before the advance he had averaged 17s. sr Ho.; and even
with 2t. a thousaod less than now (when the material was
better) he had frequently got 211. • week. The speaker
contended that the Manchester woolen, from the conduct
of toe men and the nature of the work, ought to have been
the last, instead of the first, to make a reduction ; but still
he was sanguine is the belief that the marten would very
speedily be compelled to yield, and that without any aid
coming from men Oct of Manchester, or the Gbittra44ls
being able to cheep them that 25 per cent. of the amount
collected went to the secretaries and delegates.
The motion was seconded, supported, and unanimously
agreed to.
The second resolution solicited aid from the trades and
pubic g • Ily of Manchester; and after several ad-
dreams had been delivered, the proceedings terminated.