The Express.
London, England, 1857-11-18 00:00:00

SOSINOT.
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MON IVATIOL AT LONDON auDez.
tri Day--iiirtim. 16.1•14.—..-- Manna. lb. IL
loarrow-ileiglog. MI6 Ms-- Yaw" U. Yo.

LONDON, PVIIDNESDAY, NO Pri AU= 18.

Ws elesres, with deep Maw of regret, the eon-
am spread of 'peptone that unmistak-
ably mark the went of employment is several man&
fecturing dietrist& Is partisabr portions of Star-
bobbin aid Leameldre, drat time, or the total
emestion of work, was erect einegisiasd of early in
the swath of October. The erli was, however, borne
with the goad temper sad equaimity men find it
emiest to display whoa persuaded that the cause of
their privation is exceptirmal, and likely to pass
speedily away. The silkilizeweee sad head-
ier= weavers of Oregietta sad YaeisstisY
_ _ _ .

trasted that the deed, whisk be rears time
bad been named}, sisel, was certain to is
rive at the approach of winter. ; and the
habitually well-paid sad fully-employed men of the
Potteries did not harbour a doubt that, although
their tramethuitie customers had forgotten to lend
se large orders this autumn as they had long been
seerratemed to do, they were sure to make up for it
before Urriatinea, by greater demands few both
ordinary and ornamental were than anal. Bat
week after week has rolled by, and 8r hen bring-
ing any signs of improvement, each seceesking aae

hue 6;4 only to dint the hopes of the saninine,
sad to verify the forebodings of the sad, The state
of inemetary affairs in America soddenly became
karma in our seats af maanfeeturing industry;
sad the cowrie of trade being to a great ex-
teat that of executing orders, rather thin
of speculative production by the employers,
there remained no alternative for many of
them at Martinmas but to tell their people
they need not return to work until further
mike. Amongst the would-be busy hands this
compulsory idleness is grimly nicknamed "being at
" play." With what emotions hundreds—we fear

we ought rather to say thousands—of heads of fami-
rNi regard the prospect of an indefinite period of
such hungry pastime may more readily be imagined
than described. That the dreary interval which ie
to elapse before resuscitated confidence and enter-
prise shall recal the potter and the spinner to his
welcome toil is et present difficult, if not impossible.
to define, the most careory observer of what le per
lug around as will readily believe. On the one hand
the manufacturer le asterally unwilling to drive

his valued workmen to impair by venturing
to name soy given Esher of weeks ; while, upon
the other, he shrinks frem the consequences of
naming a day after which impliedly he will give
them an assurance of renewed occupation. We have
hoard of one instance of a house which has gives
notice that no more work will be required for three
weeks to come, and of another and more extensive
Sten which has had the candour to close its maculae.
tory (as far as the fabrication of new articles of
pottery are concerned) until after Christmas. But,
generally speaking, with the exception of a few
great establiehmests, the worlpeopic are either out

of employment already, or tilled with the apprehen-
sion of being Imo ere long.
Within the last ten days indleations have like-
wise manifested themselves of the prevalence of
similar evils in the great cotton and woollen pro-
vinces of our industrial empire. Unless we am mush
misinformed, emus' places in Yorkshire have
*heady begun to feel the beaumbiag inasence oldie
crisis in the United States. Manchester itself is likely
ere long to map some of the fruits of American impro-
vidence, although it has been so often said that the
last thing our transatlantic customers would cease to
connate* wee the free-spun produce of their own
slave-tilled geld*. The late fall in the price of the
raw material, and the apparent certainty of am
abundant supply during the next six months,
happily trade to modify gloomy calculation with
regard to the cheaper wades of general cossamptioe;
and we are now in a position to feel the fell value
of that great and wise policy that, holding to the
recurrence of contingencies like the premat, enured
to the employer of capital and to the employed by
capital I. daily wages the einapent loaf that deep
could buy. Yet, in spite of these eimaideradow it is
usqmstionably tree that at Maasicester end many
of her Misted towns mills sae working short time,
and great numbers of the hash sas " eat."
Hitherto tbe kern trade fen apparently escaped
the visitation whisk has Wed Woe branches of
commerce with porplexitynni ghee'. lint we hare
recently hosed of Mans him est ; and an meat
h it is oar 0001 duty to advert to as having
occurred on Meade: bat knee us to gasstion whe-
ther the Vaissais mien paresece any spell to
charm away disaster. We need hardly say that we
allude to the stoppage of the Wolverhampton sad
Staffordshire Joint-Stook leak. Neither the known
amoant of its derailed's, or the manner in which
its proprietary shares are said to be held, would lead
us to auger ill of the eventual aspect of its affairs.
What we deem at present of most importance is the
statement made, on what we believe to be good au-
thority, that many of the smaller ineunasters kept
their Seating balances in the bank; and that eons's.-
qoently there may be not a few whom its failure will
deprive, at last for a time, of the current means of
paying wages. Should this surmise unfortunately be
realised, another channel mast for a anion be added
to those above-named through which the life-blood
of healthful industry will cease sustainingly to
Sow.

Extending our survey to the sister kingdoms we
are constrained to notice farther the partial commies
of remunerative labour at Glasgow and Belfast, ad
in the mallows districts surrounding them. The
extent isf their direct dealings with America suit-
n ently accounts for thin, even though them had