The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-23 00:00:00

Spirit of

Journals.

THE MANCHESTER STRIKE.
(From the Times of this day.)
What a vast amount of mischief is there hatching
in Manchester just for want of a little timely con-
sideration ! Perhaps it would be truer to say that
there is the consideration, but a want of the moral
courage to act upon it. No doubt the case of the
spinners is a very hard one—hard, that is to say,
so far as concerns the self-denial and the positive
difficulty it entails. They findthemselves pinched
at both ends. While provisions are rising, and
while, consequently, they who have always lived
up to their incomes.,_sm_ all or great, find they must
reduce something if they would pay their way,
these unfortunate spinners find not only this hard-
ship, but also one at the other end—viz., that their
wages are seriously curtailed. Their pound a-week,
if so much, won't now go nearly so far as it did ;
but now they won't get their pound a-week. As
to the embarrassment and discomfort this must
cause there can be no difference of opinion. Every-
body finds it hard to retrench. You can do with-
out a thing so long as you have never had it, or
made no point of it, but when it is once customary,
and part of your nature, it's like losing a limb, or
what is dearer even than a limb. How hard it is
to shut up a country-house, or to put down a car-
riage, or to send old domestic servants crying out
of the house, or to take an eldest son from Eton,
or even to give up wine. A Manchester spinner,
perhaps, will think all these sacrifices easy enough
—quite nominal. Indeed he would think it more
of a sacrifice to have to keep all these things. But
use is second nature, and if people are so weak as
to render themselves the creatures of circumstances
life becomes a burden without their indulgences,
They think themselves abominably ill-used by some-
body or other—society perhaps, not Heaven of course
—if they are obliged to do without their usual com-
forts. During the late war there was an army
tailor who made his 10,000/. a year and spent it:
When the war was over he failed, and his widow,
after some vicissitudes, was fain to live with her
son at a remote country curacy. There she mo-
lested the neighbourhood with the narratives of her
former splendour and how ill-used she had been.
One strong-minded lady told her she ought to be
thankful she had enjoyed so much prosperity—
not discontented because she had lost it. The army
tailoress, however, would not be so comforted ;
but every night, when all the village was wrapt in
slumber, she had a blazing fire in her bedroom,
lighted two candles on the toilet-table and two
more on the mantel-piece, put on her old dresses,
one after another, kept a poor maid yawning and
stretching, and about two o'clock slowly retired to
the huge feather bed she had reserved from the
wreck of her fortunes. Of course, a spinner who
only wants, may be, a pound a-week, if so much,
will think the woman was mad. But a sudden
drop from 10,0001. a-year to 1001. a-year is a much
greater trial, and touches many more weak points,
than a drop from 30s. a-week to 205., or 255. to
18s. ; and the question is not one of absolute in-
come, but of comparative.
What these spinners and piecers at Manchester
have to consider this, not the difficulty and dis-
agreeableness of having to do with less income,
but whether they can really get more. From the
statements of their employers, which don't seem
to be contradicted, this is impossible. The em-
ployers have already, they say, gone a good deal
too far. For many years they have been giving
higher wages than their brother employers in the
smaller towns of Lancashire, and the result has
been the bankruptcy of many houses in the trade,
and the closing of mills, while mills burnt down
have not been rebuilt, and millowners have seized
every opportunity for giving up this particular
branch of manufacture. It is just that coarsest
and commonest kind which admits of the largest
competition, and which is apt to leave expensive
localities for cheaper ones, either at home or abroad.
There have been various ups and downs in the
rates of wages, but the Manchester employers have
always kept above the country ones, and even the
proposed reduction will not bring them down to
the country level. " But," say the spinners,
" living is so much dearer in Manchester than in
the other towns—rents higher, everything higher;
and a man must have better wages in Manchester
to live as well as a man at Stockport, Ashton, or
Bury." But here comes the fallacy, which is en-
snaring the spinners to their ruin. The " low
counts of yarn" that they make can only be sold
at a certain tariff of prices all over this part of the
world. A merchant or warehouseman won't pay
more for it simply because it comes from Manches-
ter, if he can get it as good anywhere else. There
are, indeed, certain employments the value of
which is connected with the spot, and if the spot
is an expensive one the employment must be better
. paid. If you want your dinner cooked, or your
shoes cleaned, or your bed made, you want it iu
your own house, and if you choose to live in an ex-
pensive place you must pay what the servants ask
you. The same is truer still of such things as
meat, and fish, and vegetables that must be fetched
from a distance to where it is your pleasure to
reside. If you want to eat a cabbage cheap, you
had better go to where it is grown; but if you
prefer having it brought to you, you must pay
hsr the carriage and for the expense of the trades-
man keeping a stock. Fresh eggs are twopence a
dozen in one place and twopence a-piece in
another, because, among other reasons, they don't
keep fresh for a twelvemonth, and cannot bear a
voyage of 500 miles without some degree of risk ;
but cotton goods, and coarse yarn in particu-
lar, may be kept and carried about as much as
you please, and if you cannot get them cheap from
one place you can from another, and have them
brought to you at much the same carriage. All
this is not only true, but has actually taken place
in the matter before us. The merchants and the
middlemen, the Manchester warehousemen of Lon-
don, the moment they found the manufacturers of
Stockport, Ashton, and Bury selling yarn cheaper
than the Manchester people, went to those towns,
and, as the Manchester people were still unable to
come down to the lowest figures of the market, this
particular branch of manufacture has been rapidly
declining in Manchester, and now bids fair to be
totally extinguished.
We believe there is absolutely no other help for
these poor people than that they should consent to
do the same work at the saute wages as the spin-
ners of the other towns, or, at least, at such an
approach to those lower wages as their employers
may think necessary. As for the objection that
living
is dearer in Maechester, and therefore that
paid,
labour should be better that is ridiculous, as
we have attempted to show. There is a great deal
of labour in this country that has cost a fortune,
and is hardly paid at all. The rearing and educa-
tion of a young gentleman, from first to last, at a
good school, and at college, and in some degree of
professional preparation, generally costs not less
than 2,0001., and, as often as not, the
a
man who has
is it
had this capital sunk upon him
mcufrraote
with 1001. a year or a barrister with nothing
his profession. Many a gentleman has spent
20,0001. or 50,000/. on his house, but, instead
of finding that considered in the sale of his estate,
ho cannot get sixpence an acre more on account
of it, and the first thing the new purchaser does
is to pull the house down to the ground.
So these poor spinners must put the cost of their
labour—that is, their personal expenses—out of the
question, and consider only what their employers
can afford to give them. These employers must
know the condition and the prospects of the mar-
ket much better than the operative, for it is their
business. Should the strike continue, and should
the market still fall, while provisions are rising, it
is frightful to reflect what distress the poor work-
men are preparing for themselves and their chil-
dren. Better think betimes of the old saying
that
"Half a loaf is better than no bread." We give
the same advice to all. Never was there a time
which called louder upon people to draw in a few
reefs in their expenditure. At all times the pru-
dent will let their habits of expense lie loose upon
them, so that they may throw off superfluities as
easily as a winter coat on the return of summer,
and now more than ever, with a prospect of in-
creased taxation and high prices.

THE RYDE-PARK RIOTS.

(prom
The Corenai
the Times of this day. )
disturbances whichrs appointed to inquire into thelst of July last hayeoccautrred in H 3 de-park on the
n
gth handed in their
report, and
ears we are bound to say that in the
main it app to be a
.1 St
and reasonable com-
ment upon the evidence. The events of the
. last few itindays have revived
so that almost as immediate an interest
etro
tghtevensutbojetchte,
. is felt in
this report as though it had boon
question_o
ia
world two months ago. The great
for decision is whether or not the m
Police can safely be intrusted with the maintenance
of the public peace—whether they will display that
reasonable degree of moderation and forbearance
which we have a right to expect at their hands in
the midst even of tumult and disorder; and it is,
of course, a very strong security that the police
,ill not abuse their discretionary powers when it
ifro
er(l)Ktiown that the Home-office will not shield them
the
securityw eQnsequences of their acts. Now, this
e have obtained in the present Report.
Com •
mtssoners,
i inspectors, superintendents, ser-
geants, and
constables will all be upon their guard
when they see that their conduct, or misconduct,
may at any momentpublic be made the subject of the
c investigation. And who I
will deny that investigationu was necessary in the 1
present case after reading the
Report of the Com-
e In issioners ? They tell us that not only was want of
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