The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-10-26 00:00:00

THE NORTHERN DAILY TIMES.

and proper persons" to serve in the capacityof Town
Councillors. It is to be presumed, that the rate-
payers, as a body, have sufficient knowledge of the
important trust placed in their hands, to-make
them exercise Ordinary caution in the faithful dis-
charge of it. Will a merchant receive into his
counting-house, and place in a responsible situ-
ation, a person of whose character and fitness for
the occupation he knows nothing, and cares less ?
Will he deliver to him his cash-box, and allow its
contents to be appropriated, all the while evincing
perfect unconcern? Then why should the Bur-
gesses of this great town elect as their represen-
tatives gentlemen of whose honour, patriotism,
uprightness, and efficiency, they possess no posi-
tive proof ? Why permit inefficiency and impo-
tency to worm itself into office by means of parti-
zanship ?

Why suffer paltry individual favouritisms
to weigh one feather in the scale against the
weightier matters of utility -and nationality? Is
public honor a thing of straw, to be flung upon a
dunghillo rot? Is national purity a lie ? Is
Principle a delusion? If not, then why do we
find citizens foregoing those duties which they
are imperatively bound to fulfil, and which they.
cannot shirk off their shoulders without bringing
contumely upon themselves, and inflicting calami-
ties upon others ? Let the Burgesses of Liverpool
but feel that.there is a solemn trust reposed in
them, and that supineness which now threatens to
paralyse every noble sentiment, will at once
cease ; and there will be little chance of Council-
men disgracing their office and their town by acts
which, however passable they may be in dock-
labourers and navvies, are highly condemnable in
those who put forward the slightest pretensions
to the character of " gentlemen." We have no
wish to recall to the public mind instances of
perfidy in those who have contrived to get them-
selves into honourable civic positions. Very
likely some occurrences have not yet been entirely
forgotten. We only hope that they will serve as a
caution for the future, and that, once for all, the
Burgesses of this town will elect and return those
on whom they can implicitly rely. By this means,
much might be done towards lightening the local
taxation, which now presses like an incubus upon
the public pocket, and which is mainly attribu-
table to very bad management and reckless ex
travagance. •

The RECORDER of LONDON, in his charge to the
Grand Jury, on Monday, gives a most opportune
exposition of the law, on the subject of trades' cone
bination. At the present critical moment, when
we find the employers and the working classes
squabbling about a variety of subjects, in addition,
to the question of wages, it is well to have the law so
clearly laid down, and by so high an authority. Since
" Strikes" have become matters of such frequent
occurrence as they have lately, a great many de-
vices have been resorted to in order to make those
movements as effective as possible.

In nearly everylcase where " Strikes" have taken
place, we find a number of the hands have shown a
disposition to remain, and have actually continued
in their employment. And in every instance of
this kind, it appears that numerous stratagems have
been tried to induce them-to " turn out." And all
these acts come under the head of conspiracy on
which subject the RECORDER spoke as follows :
The case to which he should next direct the attention
of the jury was of great importance. It was a charge
against certain workmen of conspiring together to prevent
another workman from being employed in the same estab-
lishment with them. At the present moment, when so
many strikes existed and the struggle between capital and
labour was attracting so much attention, cases of this nature
became of the greatest possible public importance. He saw
that a calculation had been made that in one limited manu-
facturing district wages to the amount of £20,000 a-week
had been lost, thereby occasioning most serious injury both
to masters and workmen, to the tradesmen of the district,
to the revenues and also, no doubt, tending seriously to
damage and disturb the commerce of the country. He
could not refrain, therefore, from expressing his regret that
some means could not be devised to reconcile these unfortu-
nate difference. Formerly every combination among work-
men for the purpose of raising wages, was illegal and ren-
dered the parties liable to an indictment fos misdemeanour ;
but, as it was felt that this was a hardship and was in some
cases productive of injustice. In 1826 an act of Parlia-
ment was passed which changed that state of the law and
legalized combinations—either of masters to lower the rate
of wages, or of workmen for the purpose of getting them
raised. While, however, this act of Parliament gave both
to the employers and the employed the privilege of holding
meetings and taking proceedings to regulate the rate of
wages, it at the same tune expressly prohibited workmen
from doing anything tending to prevent employers from
taking into their service any persons they pleased, or
preventing any persons from accepting such employ-
ment.
Having thus clearly defined the law relating to
conspiracy, he next proceeds to point out the lega
lity and the illegality of combinations and of
" strikes," in which he alludes to the " strikes"
among the workmen of the several collieries and
manufactories, who have complained that the wages
which they received were not equal to the value of
their services, and had therefore assembled together
peaceably for the purpose of consulting and de-
termining upon the rates of wages they should re-
quire, and in having entered into an agreement for
the purpose of fixing the rates of wages, the RE-.
CORDER states that " they have done no more than
the law allows." And he further adds that, "a com-
bination for that purpose and to that extent (if,
indeed, it is to be called by that name) is no more
than is recognized as legal by the Statute 6th of
George IV., by which statute, also, exactly the
same rate of combination, to the same extent and
no further, is given to the masters when met toge-
ther, if they are of opinion that the rate of wages
is too high."
But while the law here sanctions combinations,
or rather meetings, to regulate the remuneration
of labour, it wisely provides the fullest protection
for both the employers and employed who choose
to act on their own discretion upon the same point.
The denial of this right is met by the strongest
legal objections, while we are bound morally and
politically to denounce it as despotic and tyrannical
in the highest degree; and the RECORDER is per—
fectly right when he says that such a " flagrant
violation of the law must be put down, and in all
cases where guilt is established, by a proper mea-
sure of punishment."
In the meantime we cannot forget that we are
now alluding to a subject immediately connected
with two classes of men—the English, employer
and the English workman, both of whom have long
occupied the highest and most meritorious posi-
tions in the great circle of civilisation, and we
cannot help feeling the deepest humiliation when
we find the former indulging in expressions of un-
justifiable temper, and when we see the latter
placing themselves in the position of criminals, by
resorting to acts which are beneath the dignity
which British industry has won for itself. In all
matters of trade men should be guided by the most
inflexible integrity, and should never give unjustly,
nor take improperly; and as foi the employment of
brute force and dastardly intimidation, it is so un
English that we need scarcely do more than pro-
test against it, on the part of every working man.

That labour is the real capital of nations is cer-
tain, and that the working-classes should be as
jealous of their rights, and as watchful of their
interests as any other portion of the community,
are nothing more than sequences in social econo-
my; but when the elements of political and cir-
cumstantial conditions are not carefully weighed,
the most erroneous ideas may be formed, and the
most impracticable means adopted. And it is only