The Express.
London, England, 1853-06-27 00:00:00

STOCKPORT.

It is to be regretted that the committee who con-
duct the ! seine's of the operatives here, do not
continue to show the moderation they had cre-
dit for at the outset. They have replied to the tempe-
rate and conciliatory address of the employers, which was
keened in the Daily Ncers, last week, by a bitter and
heartless sneer at the ruin caused the employers by their
strike In 1829. The result of that turn-out was that the
Smiths, Steele, Lanes, and otter employers, who saw ter
taro ruin in giving wages beyond their then rates of profit,
met the same fate in the struggle of the maters—tkey
joined to avoid it—which was prolonged for many menthe
through: the obeticacy of both parties. The committee
say'—" You make reference to the turn out of 1829, and
ask us if we have forgotten it We ask you if you have
forgotten it Where are the Smiths, the Steele, the
Lanes, the Browns, and Powells, the Howard", and many
others, who were as great at that time as you now are ?
Where is their wealth ? Where are their dasecndants ?
Look to yourselves—we +4l look to ourselves. Since it la
to be a struggle, prepare yourselves as men, as Christiana
VU cannot; for we are determined to have • proper re-
maturation for our labour. We are poor, you are rich
but remember the words of Christ What advantaged%
it to a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own
soul.' We leave the respoosihiliiy of the turn-out to
those honourable gentlemen who will not pay the labourer
for his hire."

The turn-nap are nosily spreading themselves only the
neighbouring districts—some of them to seek inhour, but
most of them to beg. So far. the support from the opera-
tare ol the neighbouring teens is said to have fallen below
expectation. Blackburn has been amongst the most
liberal, out the supply from thence has been cut off by a
stnke somewhat prematurely hastened on amongst the
operatives themselves. The amnion of the operatives of
the two plates, amounting to 30.000 or 35,000 people, will
prows an immense drain on the pockets of the rest of the
district. Taking other branches of the families of these
operatives—wime and children, not working—at least as
many more pumas are dependent upon them for support.
'There will thew he 60,000 or 70.000 people cut off irem their
mister supplies at ones by this fearful contest. Bow they
are to be supported is a question, probably, which most of
themselves have never attempted to answer—in male mesa,
perhaps, have not dared to put to themselves. The sub.
weapon• they will receive from the operatives employed in
other towns, limited at the beginning, and gradually grow-
ing less, will be very insufficient. So far as any rayless of
their own are concerned, they will go hut little way. Look-
ing to the history of past struggles for as answer, It will be
foaod that the families involved in them were mostly an-
provided with funds. Many of them had already a score
running at the grocers and provision &Alen, which would
absovb the last week's wages up to the strike. Thee* shop-
keepers, however, generally sympathised with them, and,
believing in their confident predictions that the employers
mast soon give way, were ready to trust them, and often the
mere went on and ea, until both parties were involved
in a common ruin. The unfortunate people always believe
it to be in the power of employers to give the advance
sought. and trust too confidently that sooner than continue
to sacrifice profits supposed to he large and keep their mills
standing. they are always about to give in. The aid result
is, that they come out of a prolonged turn-oat very often
loaded with debts which they can hardly hope ever to wipe
oat; with goods in the pawn-shop; with Leap Wean owing to
their friendly, sick, or burial societies, ensiles in the forfeit
of all their previous paymeata ; and with weakened and
enfeebled bodies. But to tell them this jest sow would be
to provoke only the worst passions. They, of mane, think
only at present of esteems.
At Stockport, es at Blickbuns, attempts have been made
to give a potitiest aspect to the turn-outs, and an attack has
been made on Mr. Kershaw, M.P. (of the firm of Kershaw,
Lease, sad Co.), which has provoked a "lily frees a writer,
signing himself "An Impartial Witness, asking " Who's
to blame ?" Me says :

" But if advantage is to be taken of this dispute, to die.
parage Mr. Kershaw in his political capacity, one may
reasonably be allowed to enquire how matters stand cc the
other 'side. I believe it is a fact, Lot capable of successful
disproof, that, owing to improved machinery, and the
superior resources of the fins, the hands employed by
Kershaw, Leese, and CO., can earn, in the mate time, and
at the same sort of work, from ten to fifteen per cent more
than the hands employed by an other firm in the borough;
and that if it had not been for roe slow and unenterprising
COWS. of some of the old tory firms, who hive always kept
in the rear of the commercial energy and spirit of the
WIWI, the available earnings and resources of the workng
clams g lly of Stockport, would have beon much
greater Bien they are at present. Of the twenty-sine firms
who signed the last address of the Masters' Association,
eighteen of them are tory. The firm of Kenhaw. Lem,
and Co., though liberal, is but one out of the twenty-nine.
The tory firms, therefore, have the majority in the wee-
elation. Let them set the example by giving the ten per
root., and Kershaw, Leese, and Co., must necemarily.fol-
low. Again, ten bts in the borough have already given
the &deemed pries, Lucas, and Co.,
Oahrael, Williamson, and Co., Hulme, Nicholls, Scatter-
rood, and Newton, White, Cooper, Heaword, and Sir
Ralph Pendlebury. Of these, eight are liberals. They
will be easily recognised and selected. So on political
grounds it may be assumed, that if Ike treks are magna-
nimous enough to make the sacrifice, and give the advanced
price, they have the option of ending the turn-out. On the
other hand, let the fact be remembered, that so far, • large
majority of the liberal masters have already given the ad- I
Tamed price.
At one thing I cannot but express astonishment,
and that is, that the firm of Kershaw, Leese, and Co. should
have allied themselves with the Stockport Association at all.
The yolkiag of their superior energy, intelligence, and
resources, to the drag chain of some firm connected there-
with, seem very like offering • monopoly to laciness, and
the sanctioning • combination with thriftless incapacity to
keep down the rate of wages. It involves a positive in-
justice to themselves, and is a practical hrosnion of the
court which the masters otherwise recommend, that the
workpeople should confer directly and individually with
their own employers oa the subject of wages."

ROYAL COLLEGE OF SCBOBONS.—The following
Peat:emu were admitted member of the college at the
miatiag of the Court of Examiners, on the 2lth inst.:
Messrs. Henry George Starkey, Faehwen-Treaynon, Moot-
gomseyshin ; William Hitchus Pistidlebury, Bolton, Lan-
cuhire; Harry Barrington TutUitt,Ventnor, Isle of Wight;
Hobert Bath &nark Halibuts, Cambridgeshire ; William
Angelo Kamp, Kensington; William Griggs, Little
Emus, Doniaew, Ewe: ; Joseph Barker, Durham ;
Henry Putt, Montreal, Canada ; Blade Lanes Baker,
Hayford Warren, Osfordshire.