The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-09-27 00:00:00

this result

But the great cause has been the set

ting free those pent-up energies which are inherent
in such a nation as ours. A free course has been given
to that spirit of commerce which must ever have
mainly to do with the advancement of a people ;
and already the effect of it is, that new life has

been given to the producing capabilities of the
country, and new opportunities presented to all
who have brains, and hands to turn them to good
account. The revivifying influence has pervaded
all the classes who were capable of being made
contributors to the production of the nation's

sure manifestations
f the auspicious progression which, under the
peration of the new policy, is going on all around

•ealth : and these strikes arc

Strikes are, however, evils which we cannot but
leprecate. Symptoms they often are of health and
strength in the body where they prevail ; and they
may be made conducive to its growth and advance-
ment. But they are better avoided. The end they
Aim at may be just and fair, but the means adopted
are seldom, if ever, judicious ; and if we were in a
position to make a calculation, pro and contra, be•
tween master and the men who have been parties
to the vicious strikes that have, from time to time,
occurred in this country, we have no doubt that the
account would be found to tell immensely against
the men, as a matter of loss and gain.

Not that we would have our working classes pre-
vented from making the best they can of their
skill and labour, which constitute their capital,
and which they are as much entitled to make as
their masters are of theirs. The system of free
interchange, which is one of the commercial
policy now conducing so singly to the prosperity
of the country, must not be confined to but one
party interested in its operations, but must extend
to all. There must be no more exclusiveness—no
more seething of mere class interests, whether one
side:or the other. Men, and even bodies of men,
have been too apt to imagine they may have peculiar
interests, at variance with those whom they serve,
if not also with those of the great mass of man-
kind; and it may seem consistent with human

nature to reason for our own class, but it is op-
posed to sound policy—it stands in the way of a
proper distribution of industry—and it prevents
a profitable appropriation of its fruits, It is con-
sequently opposed to the very interests intended to
be served. No—there must be no such selfish-
ness in our system now. There was a time, when
the distribution of labour and subsistence was not
left to the
_direction of any reasonable or natural
causes, but was controlled by a more arbitrary and
selfish agency. Any idea of securing the greatest
plenty and happiness for the greatest number of
persons, according to the ordinaryforms of justice,
and a common regard to the public welfare, was
never thought of. It was all for those who had the
power to get, and to keep. They were able, in other
times, to put labour in fetters, and sink it solely for
their own mere selfish gains. These were the
palmy days of monopoly. But they have passed
away, never again to return. Upon no other plan
can this kingdom be governed here, than that
of political justice and commercial prosperity.
Social order cannot, for all time to come, be
maintained without it, Mighty arts of human
power have been discovered, and are now in opera-
tion, stimulating commerce, invigorating industry,
creating, at once, more wealth for the master,
and more means of subsistence and enjoyment for
the workman ; and influences are now actively
and powerfully at work which no government could
with impunity attempt to arrest, though a wise one
could not shrink from the effort to direct and
controul without wishing to confine them.

It is then, we humbly conceive, an inevitable
consequence of such operations, that the workman
should be found demanding higher wages for his
time and labour. Oppressive laws have been re-
pealed, which practically prohibited industry from
gaining customers for its produce. A prosperous

state of commerce has ensued. Formerly the
sphere of commercial influence was curtailed—the
progress of mechanism and capital was checked—
and the number of customers for our produce was
confined—

) that it too often happened that our
production arose, our consumption was diminished,
and abundance ceased to be a blessing. But now,
under a better state of things, the elements of social
happiness, are allowed space for healthy action—
industry has a better chance of success—there is
a readier market for its products, and the means
of the industrious must, of necessity, be multiplied.

An extension of commerce ought to increase the

enjoyments and the happiness of all, whether they
depend on the wages of labour, the profits of capi-
tal, or the rents of the soil. And it will•have this
effect. The profits of capital are remunerative—
the rent of land is already rising, and labour is
sharing, and will yet share, in the general pros-

But then it is not nec

sary to have recourse
The interchange of

to strikes to realise this

interests between employers and the employed,
is much too intimate, and much too mutually de-

pendent, to be adjusted by means so rash, so violent
and so conflicting, as strikes generally are
labourer is worthy of his hire, and masters know
and feel that he is, and must eventually act upon
that knowledge and conviction. The contract is a

simple one. The one has no subsistence, but he
has his skill and his labour to dispose of ; the other,
having a surplus of the former, is willing to ex-
change it for a product which the workman is able
The amount and quality of that shb-
istence must of course depend upon circumstances,
in which there is a mutual concern. The em-
ployers must profit by the exchange, and the
employed must subsist by it. This should be a fixed
principle in all such transactions. But in propor-
tion as the one increases his profit, so ought the
other to be improved in his subsistence. This,
too, should be a fixed principle, though it may

to supply