The Express.
London, England, 1865-10-06 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, PRIDAY EVENING OCTOBER 6, 1865.

suffer in this dreadful manner without any sort of
power over the masters. It is not uncommon for a
man of 25 to he workiug at the dry wheel without any
fan, and when asked why he did not get one, to say
that at his time of life it was not worth while. There
is a melancholy hardness about this pitiable enough ;
but there is worse than this engendered in she
hearts of men who are slaves to such a demon as
this. Dr. Hall assured us that men had been heard
to say they did not want to have any protection,
wages were too low as it was, and hands too many,
let 'sin die, it makes room for others. It would he
difficult to find a social problem more painful to
study than this, or more hard to remedy, when the
victims themselves refuse to be comforted. Dr.
Hall demands the application of the Factory Act to
the grinders, not only because fair protection is
not given to the men, but to preveut the employ-
ment of mere boys in the work.
The Sheffield men are singularly jealous of any
interference. They have not quite made up their
lulu& that the intentions of the Social Congress are
friendly. They speak of us ea "social humbugs," aud I
hear that some of the masters, who might know better,
are rather disposed to encourage this ignorant feel-
ing. The latter, one can see, have something to
lose, but the men have everything to gain, poor
fellows, if they could but see it. One fraction of
the rich men's gains would do inestimable good to
these workmen, whether it was yielded up in pro-
tecting their health or increasing their already too
low wages. The masters have, I regret to confess,
a too strong argument against raising wages
when they point to the "Saints' days," and say the
workmen can't want more wages when they can
afford to be idle a whole day or more. This, how-
ever, is not altogether sound, for we have to re-
member that rest is sweet to their tired bodies,
they must unstring the bow sometimes, like our-
selves ; besides, it is well know" that the men are
iu the habit of over-exerting themselves at
piece-work to make up for time lost in
keeping " Saint Monday." In tho department of
Economy and Trade the question was discussed by
working men, one of them a grinder, John Wilson,
whether a system of authoritative arbitration would
prevent strikes and lock-outs. He thought not,
and that there was no need of any interference with
matters as they are. Mr. Fawcett, who spoke in
reply to the discussion between this workman and
another, advocated the view that all the workmen
should have au interest in the master's business.
To this, however, Mr. David Chadwick replied that I
in the transfer of about lb millions of property in
manufacturing trades his experience enabled him
to say that at any time workmen might invest
their earnings in a master's business. How this
may be I do not exactly see, but Mr. Chadwick
had the candour to say that he had never known
one man take advantage of the opportunity. We
are to have a great meeting of the workiug classes
to-night, to which no others are to be admitted,
with Lord Brougham in the chair, and it is
expected there will be • great variety of what
Englishmen like so much—freedom of opinion.