The Express.
London, England, 1867-04-25 00:00:00

HAYMARKET.

THIA EyEmma, PILIFFA,TION. 11; Kendal & Mos Rorke.—
An YOU LIKE IT. lilelell Howe, Comptnn, Farm, Chippen-
dale, Korea, &e. Mrs. !Mott-5i.1,1,1$ 111, FIRST
rAGN 6. Messrs. Compton and Fanen; List Y. tVright.

LYCLUM.

TUN V.VENINII, BAMIriWiCIWi. Mr. Price and ti.•,e
Kate Blehop.—THlS DUKE'S MOM. Mr. Pechter, Mew,.
Emery, Widdicomb, etc. ; MiIMCI Bbeiorthy, Grattan, and i'Ar.
lotta Leeleroe.—A Grand Ballet. M. Eapinosa s Mdlle. ,phie.

ara~xo.

TRis Evans, RIFEETiII:ARWAND WIVES. Mr. Bel-
ford PYGMALION: OR, THE BTATC E PAUL Messrs Morse,
James. &s, . Mesdames A. Bwanboronils, Raynham. Harland,
Johustone, HoltotNewtoo.—And THE FRENCH EXHIBITION.

APW!IN.

THIS Evexiso, KY TURN tali. Kr. Delmore: Ulmer
foot. sod Lennol.—And FLYING SCUD. Mears. Neville, Del-
more, Hl►ke, YnOgre, ; Mesdames F. Jamie; C. SauteJere,
Beale Foote, Mdse, Lennox, Upload. &c,

BILITANNUL

Tuts EVENINO, THE LIVE AIGNAL. blesses. Reynolds,
Driimmond, Howe, Miss lane Cnveney —CHERRY AND
r 81.A.R. Melon. 11108 rood, Leslie, Elton, e/e : It.
Edwin dud Mrs. 8. Line.—Aud TUE DREAM UF AILEEN.

HIGH WATU AT LONDON BRIDGE.
TIM DAT —Morality AL 44m Afternoon. BD. 4.
TO-MOnnow—Nornlng. Bi 2on Afternoon. Mt. 49m.

LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 25.

AFTER all the wise counsels that have been
offered to the working-classes by those who buy
their labour, strikes are of more frequent oc-
currence and more formidable in their organiza-
tion than ever. Local and temporary failures do
very little to abate the tendency of men to com-
bine to impose terms upon employers. The strike
of the North Eastern engine-drivers appears to
have ended in a conspicuous failure. Tho Com-
pany, having secured a sufficient number of hands
for the service of the line, are able to decline
negotiations with the malcontents, and even
to dictate a more stringent form of contract to
their men. The strike appears to have been
ill-advised and ill-conducted. The result,
however, if we may judge by what
has happened before, will only be to
teach the men to secure, by the amalgamation
of local unions, a broader basis for operations at
some future time. The men who have lost their
places on the North Eastern line will be rapidly
absorbed elsewhere, and probably the class to
which they belong will be the gainer by their
personal inconvenience. The strike on the Brigh-
ton line procured advantages for the men, and
while occasional successes are thus gained, failure
leads to nothing more than a return to the atones
qw, ante Whoa.

The Tailors' strike which has begun this week in
London finds the masters at a disadvantage.
They are threatened with the loss not only of
the profits of the season, but of their
customers. The class whose wishes they have to
consult would be ready to give them any amount
of moral support in a contest with their discon-
tented workmen, but, having done so, would be
very likely to go off to the first shop which they
found in full operation, and procure there the gar-
ments indispensable to their social felicity. It
is probably& conviction of this kind that has already
led several first-class firms to concede the demands
of the men. At present work is suspended in more
than eighty West-end shops, and two thousand men
whose services are much needed are idle. For
the general reader who is not curious about
the comparative merits of the " =alga-
" mated log " and the " universal time
" log," it may be sufficient to state that the
men require that certain of their charges for
" extras " shall be formally recognized, which they
allegeto be the more necessary since einployersmake
deductions whenever a garment requires less work
than ordinary. The public muntot be expected to
enter into the details of these disputes, and its judg-
ment, or rather its impressions, will be chiefly
influenced by what it sees of the way in which
each side pursues its interest. At the great meeting
held at the Alhambra on Monday, where it is said
7,000 journeymen tailors were present, the speeches
were moderate in tone. It had been preceded by
conferences between the employers and men,
which had terminated without result. The men's
committee had since served upon the masters
a new scale of charges, upon which they
had agreed, and expected them to be ad-
hered to. A resolution was carried at the meet-
ing to the effect that the men did not wish to
enforce their own views, believing that the matter
might be best settled by a council of the trade,
for which purpose they desired a meeting with the
committee of the Masters' Association ; but this
resolution was seriously modified by another autho-
rising a general strike against those employers who
had been served with the kg, or scale of prices
before mentioned. It is evident that masters who
concede this scale will have left themselves butlittle
liberty for the future.

There is nothing in the present aspect of the
controversy to preclude a fair settlement on terms
that should be satisfactory to both employers and
men. The tailors are concerned to have it under-
stood that they are not striking for increased wages.
They say that what they want is " that a univer-
" sal and uniform time-log should be drawn up
" applicable to the whole kingdom, by which the
" time allowed for making a garment and each
" portion of it should be fixed, the wages for that
" time to be paid as each locality might deter-
" mine." There is no doubt that the men are
entitled to have their work defined as far as that
is possible, and they are wise in leaving the value
of labour to be determined by the local market.
By seeming to stipulate for advantages to be en-
joyed by their brethren all over the kingdom they
may deter men in the country from coming up to
London to profit by the sudden demand for
labour that has been caused by the strike.
The influx of foreign workmen has also been
to some extent provided against, if we are
to take literally the statement of the chairman of
the Alhambra meeting, that an alliance offensive
and defensive has been concluded between the
working tailors of London, Paris, and Brussels. This

glowing sense of community and interdApendence
between the working aliases of different countries
is a remarkable fact of social history, and may
have more important consequences than we can
at present foresee. English sympathy and English
aid have been extended to recent continental
strikes, and at this moment the master tailors of
Paris are extremely embarrassed by a strike
which societies in this country are understood to
have sustained with funds. Mr. ALLEN, the
Secretary of the Society of Amalgamated En-
gineers, adverted to this subject in his evidence
before the Royal Commission on Trades Unions,
and stated that the rapid development of trade
societies abroad was removing all fear of foreign
competition.
Annoying and embarrassing as these strikes for
wages are, they are not always the worst mani-
festations of that spirit of association which of
late years has seemed to reveal to the working
classes the secret of their strength. They are not
to be compared in their effect with those demora-
lising restrictions upon industry which, u the
public have lately learned, are systematically im-
posed by the rules of some trade societies. An
employer must do the best he can in the face of
competition to secure a fair profit which shall
yield interest on his capital at the usual
rate, and also repay him for his trouble and risk ;
but he would far rather choose that his workmen
should make an honest demand for increased
wages, which he could ill afford to give them,
than that they should frame secret rules to
minimise the amount of work to be done in his
shop and fur his money. There was a time,
and that not long since, when the British
workman took pride in his superior skill and
ability, and was proportionately esteemed for them
by his fellows ; but we have lately heard of
rules and customs—happily confined to one or two
trades—which are unintelligible except on the
assumption that every exertion of industry
above a certain average is an injury to
the employed class. Individual excellence is in
danger of becoming an offence and the note of
an anti-social disposition. This pernicious way
of looking at life and labour is calculated to
sap the manhood of any set of men who adopt it,
and we trust that one result of the inquiry now
pending will be to bring a sound disinterested
public opinion to bear upon it until it gives place
to a healthier and more English sentiment.