The Express.
London, England, 1866-08-22 00:00:00

DEN'S VALUATION of GOLD.

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vas& ..04 4 111 17 carats.. S 0 $ carats .. 1$ Se
pre cos.O 16 carats.. 11! 71 ? carats .. 1 4 9
11 carats.. 4 1 6 16 carats.. 113 1 I carats .. 1 1
11 carats (ritish 14 carats.. 961 6 carob .. 17 I
stands/6)S 17 101 11( carats.. I I 0 4 airs* .. 014
mats.. 11 14 4 ISaarats.. 1 1 11 leash._ 014 M
II mats .. 10 91 11 carats.. 119 11 2 carats .. T 1
' 19 Wally
fir. 1 16 41 1 carat .. 0 11 .6
P 100116041411.710410.44•1006,. CO/91,4ard LOadOal,

BllatitliON, J. W., by Special Appointment to
HAUL the Prime of Walea

BENSON'S CLOCKS,
mManufactured by Steam
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BENSON'S ILLUSTRATED PAMPHLET, 2d.

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68 and 80, Ludgate-MIL

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gin.—And QUIET lODGINGe.

BIPITANNIL

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, ACIOUST 22.

Tim employment of foreign workmen on Eng-
lish railway works, and the comments passed on
the recent disturbances at Edenbridge, open a
question of great importance to the public. The
incident itself seems to have been exaggerated,

but the principle involved requires to be clearly
stated in the face of the false reasoning and Ma.

tent denunciations it has called forth. As is not

uncommonly the case, the careful personal inves-
tigations we have instituted, the result of which
wv gave to our readers yesterday, show the con-
ventional estimate both of foreign and English
workmen to be erroneous. The former have been

-
commonly credited with greater industry, gentle-
- - - -

aces, and contentment, while the 'tatter's
claim to admiration rested on their alleged supe-
rior strength, manliness, and skill. The truth
appears to be that, with high wages and English
beer, the virtuous Belgian speedily conforms to
the habits of his fellow-workers, and that he is
found both to labour and to shirk labour with as
much facility as they. The cost of importation,
the inconvenience of interpreting, and the unplea-
sant risk of hostile demonstrations, are not coun-
terbalanced by any superiority in the behaviour or
morale of the men brought over ; and it is certain
that when Englishmen can be found able said will-
ing to give honest work for a liberal wage, the de-
mand for foreign labourers will be always checked.
Few but those whose capital and energies are
engaged in great public undertakings know how
much depends upon the hewers of wood and
drawers of water ; or how miserably the supply
of these has fallen short of the requirements of the
day. We shall not be suspected of being any-
__ _ . . . _

thing but well-wishers of the labouring class when
we say that the abnormal demand which has arisen
for their services has exposed them to the ordinary
temptations of prosperity. Just as the wealthy
shopkeeper or the vulgarian suddenly grown rich
not wifrequently loses self-control and is guilty of
extravagances which provoke a smile, so the hod-
man, the brickmaker, or the navvy, who finds him-
self indispensable, is prone to assume airs, and make
exactions not to be justified by reason or common
sense. Nor is this the only evil. The present rate
of pay is such that four or five days' work a week
provide sufficient money for his wants ; and the rule
is that one or two days' idleness is consequently in-
dulged in. There are at this moment at work
labourers, within a few miles of London, who earn
more per diem than a captain in the line ; and this
by little more than the exercise of sheer brute
strength. But, worse than all, a sufficiency of
steady and continuous labour is not to be obtained
even at such a price as this. Turn which way we
will the story is the same. Enterprises of vast
public utility are delayed, capital is idle, and
energy unproductive, because of the difficulty in
securing workmen, not who will stick to their last,
but who will give even partial and intermittent
help in return for liberal pay.

Such are the circumstances under which an at-
tempt has been made to set up a factious cry against

the introduction of a foreign element into works
'hitherto left to Englishmen alone, and which
have recently stood still for want of hands.
Public writers have not been ashamed to indite
fustian concerning foreign invasions, and to invent
fictions as to the terms upon which Belgian
excavators are engaged. It is unnecessary to
touch here upon the recent battle of the tunnel
It seems to have been the work of a few paltry
fellows of the claw who batten on the weaknesses
of English workmen, and to be viewed by those
on the spot as little more than a drunken
brawl. Punishment will very properly be visited
on the ringleaders ; peace is restored at the works ;
and so the matter ends. But the arguments by
which the outrage has been palliated are more mis-
chievous than the offence which has called them
forth. That any men, or body of men, have a
vested interest in any description of labour is a
fallacy to be put down, if necessary, with a
strong hand ; and bad the so-called riot been of
the magnitude supposed, there is not a doubt but
this would have been done. Free labour is an
integral portion of free trade, and for navvies or
their advocates to complain of its adoption it as
much as if London omnibus drivers were to pass
resolutions against the Metropolitan Railway,
or ticket porters to ask that the London District
Post should be withdrawn. Public utility must
always override individual interests, and em-
ployers have as much right to purchase labour in
the best market as any other article of their trade.
It would be exaggerating recent occurrences be-
yond their importance to insist further upon this
obvious truth, and the teachers who have spoken
with sneaking sympathy of the trumpery Entente of
a few days back are fully aware that any repeti-
tion of it would be mercilessly snuffed out.
Laudable efforts are being made to transfer from
the poverty-stricken districts of England workmen
new burdening the rates. It remains to be seen
how far these efforts will be successful, and
whether the present law of settlement has had
aught to do with the glut of labour in one county
and the severe dearth of it in others. The point
in which all are interested is, that common-
sense rules of life shall be applied without let or
hindrance to commercial undertakings, and that
when there is more employment than hands, stag-
nation shall be relieved in the readiest and most
cohvenient way.

A manhood suffrage association has been formed
is Leeds.