The Sun.
London, England, 1852-03-02 00:00:00

tics. t was a well-known fact that in the United
!States combinations were, compraratively speaking,
few. Again, in the opposite extreme of the scale
is France. No man who has been in France
would state that the condition of the French mecha-
nic and working man, on an average, vsas as good 25
in England, and in France they did almost everything
by combination. It was the country of combination.
Again, would anyone say that the average standard
of intelligence is as high in Ireland as in Scotland
end America ? Ireland had been the country of
trades unions. The only place where he ever heard
that a strike carried the day was Dublin. And what
was the result '? They drove the trade away and
ruined the town. In the United States the working
classes were in a much better position. The question
was distinctly between combination and individua
self-reliance. What had raised all this difficulty ? A
council of seven 'in London wished to dictate to alt
the employers and trades of the kingdom what the
terms and conditions thereof shall be. Mr. Newton
had tried to get over the passage in their report about
the determinetion to rule the destinies of the trade ;
and he did not wonder at it, because that passage con-
tained the whole pith of the matter. To use a vulgar
expression, be " let the cat out of the bag." Seven
men, representing a certain society, announced their
determination to rule the destinies of their trade and
order how it was to be carried out ; and they
issued a general order to every establishment, with-
out exception, including this Brighton Railway,
,without inquiring how far it was applicable, that
piecework shall cease and overtime be paid for
double. It had been admitted that it
was not
reasonable in this establishment. There might be
establishments where overtime was carried to the
fullest extent; there might be establishments where
piecework dad been enforced injuriously
against the
men. Very well. On these establishments bring
public opinion to bear; go to Manchester, and de_
nounce these establishments if you like. But Why
issue general orders to people who had nothing to do
with the dispute ? Why were the 20,000 men and
their families requiring support? Because the council
issued an order which they declined to withdraw or
modify. No shop was closed till they were called on
to withdraw it and refused. In that report about
ruling the destinies of the trade there was a statement
of accounts, and among the charges was one for
money paid to " pickets' of men for watching certain
establishments where the orders of that committee
had not been obeyed. They knew what picketing
men were—men hired to go to establishments and
coerce or intimidate those who were willing to take
work on terms that other men bad declined. Was
that the sort of thing that Englishmen approved of or
would submit to ? lie believed that the Amalga-
mated Society, in taking this matter up, had been
working not half so much against the interests
of the employers as against the interest of the
men themselves ; and mark him, the result would be
—he did not expect they would believe him, because
the truth would not be palatable—the end of this
business would be that this strike would be defeated,.
as all similar strikes had been hitherto.—(Cries of
" Oh, ne," and laughter.) If it became a question
of combination against combination, capital is
stronger than labour, and, right or wrong, labour
would go to the wall. They had brought it on
themselves by playing the game of combination, and
the longer the strike lasted the worse it would be for
the men, because a great number of men would be
brought into the trade, and the consequence would be
a fall of wages. They would be told to the last that
they were going on nourishingly, that they were
carrying all before them, that their masters must
submit; and some fine morning they would find the
bubble burst, their funds wasted, their leaders com-
pelled to emigrate, and the game over.—(Cries of
" No.") Such had been the history of every great
strike in this country, and it would be the history of
every one that was attempted. In trying to elevate
their condition, they would have to do what every
man who bad raised himself to the upper classes
had done, by individual self-reliance, by exercising
economy, by denying themselves luxuries,
and even comforts, till they had accumulated
the means. And to a class receiving wages
as high as theirs, if it were possible for other classes
to live on half the amount, and when prices were so
much reduced, it was possible, by exercising economy,
to save such a sum as would make them compara-
tively
independent.—(Hisses, and a cry of " Never.")
And when they bad got this, not in the funds of
some society not under their control, but in a bank,
or in some investment where they could draw it out
to-morrow, they would be independent of masters.
—(l iisses.)

Thek CHAIRMAN—I must intreat you to hear Mr.
Laing. It is an important thing to have an interview
with an employer.
Mr. LAING continued—Don't be led away with the
idea of obtaining impossibilities. You cannot insure
great comfort to everybody for the labour of a few
hours a day. Who art: the working men who have
bettered their condition? Are they men who have
taken a leading part in agitating in strikes, or are
they men who have trusted to. themselves, acted for
thernse:yes ?—(hisses.) I give you this advice, be-
cause I am a sincere friend to you, and don't like you
to be here listening to what I consider bad advice.—
(Laughter.) 1 don't expect you to believe me now.
—(" I should think not.") But I have discharged
inv duty by telling you what I know to be truth ;
arid by and bye, when you see how things turn out,
as I know they must turn out, you may think of
what I have said.
Mr. NEWTON said there were few trades unions in
America, because the necessity of them did not exist ;
and France was in a bad state because their trades
unions, not being legalised, were secret societies ;
Ireland owed her wretchedness,not so much to trades
unions as to the aristocratic combinations in Orange
lodges. As for seven men dictating to the employer;
that Was not true. They only carried into effect the
of 12,000. Mr. Laing was wrong in saying
tiria
charge for pickets was in the recent report.
Noodrteiretshhe adbeen paid during the last three or four
years. Mr. Laing said that strikes were always un-
successful, and that this would be unsuccessful also.
He hoped so ; for this was a strike of the employers
against the men.—(Laughter.)
The CHAIRMAN said that no great measure hall
ever been effected without combination. now wag
Catholic emancipation carried ? By combination.
O'Connell WAS the Newton of the Catholic " Amalga-
mation Society." How was free trade carried ? By
a combination of the very employers who now de-
rtefution by the
Deemed combination in their men.—(year, hear.)
He believed that combination was a most important
man
omfostoicoinalwaansdtphoehlitvicaaslseedtaianntociPali°sen
Unanimous vote of the meeting.
Thanks to Mr. Conine-hem clo,-‘ed th
eThse

e busineEs.

DiscLosunEs R E SPE CT. IN
G AIV I .1" -
I' AN T PA UP172.1? ASIL UM .
The nuinerees ceirinfaints which have reached the
officers of the Strand I.Teieni relative to the condition of
and treatment of the panter children in the establish-
ment at Felaion!on ha led to the institution of an in-
quiry on the eree. In the fir
wardens awl a surg2 st insteece, three church-
investigation, and, upon receipt of their report,
oe were constituted a committee of
the guar-
dians appointed Mr. J. F. Clarke, surgeon, of Gerrard-
Mr. Clark, in his report,
greet, to visit the establishment and report thercan.
the instructiou train our beard, conveyed to me by Mr.
Kibler (clerk to the guardians), I visited the infant
rays:—" In accordance with
poor establishment at Edmonton, on the llth instant.
three exceptions,
which I found the following patients, all of whom, My attention was first directed to the infirmary,
with
" Ilw:tre
ns.ore head,
are enumeratodesixteen cases
of
ulceratedmel feet, and
scrofulous abscess, ringworm,
the medical gene
skin eruptions,
afterwhich
enumerated these caste
Liman observes:—" I havethat any
are very young chsilleds
or either of
specifically, in ordder
to
and
easily
identified. In ad-
them may be reknit
emoalfadies with which these children
them, with the exception of
one
colour), entered the infirmary
the Owens
full(children
f vermin. There vermin are still
tairiteioantretcotethel,eevvaerriyous
with their heads . 0 .
present." . After evidencing the suffering of children in
ward andspecif')ing cases of ringworm,
and most of them with vermin
e very b
' Mr. Clarke says, "It now becomes
.!, in their heads,' . .
•that the sill-
hew we are to explain the fact, question .
all of
from disease in the establishment are almost
Mrs. Maardtmu
inquiryinto
!'seers
, . .
them very young children. From careful
ae the circumstances,
Martin's
seereted feet,
I have come
a disease
con-
clusions:—first. It would be expected
ous character, and
like the measles, of a highly
infections
spread with Ira-
' chiefly affecting young children, should
teem, and that
pidity in a ward especially devoted
ed because in all older children children should not be affect
to thethfOa
the disease.
ed from bability they had previously following
Secondly. I think it clear
ulcerations upon the
theca neglected. 1. Because
the
were many of them of a
feet, arising from chilblain2,:vn
t one or two instances
most severe character,
might have resulted in morti-
fication,even serious, and thastutffbeev children must have
mig",,,eu ordinary care had not
2. Because the attention
been bestowed upon "
thad not been at all directed to
showing that even
have learnt from himself; and
of
somathe 0 medical
tehdei
them when the little patients were
he first discovered
house to the infirmary in consequence
removed from . 3. Became the ulceration of the anus
1 et. the measles. Bask and Eccita Eagle—the first
in the cases t have exisk,l some little tinse—hed not
of wbcll must
e until my visit on the 11th. It there
discovered .
~
been ,Rd been properly washed, it would be cid:flew:,
children JO seealcaosffieetcras I
not to have observed the disease in question. 4. Because
the children had even ordinary attention, their heads
if
could not possibly have been in the disgusting state in
whteh I saw three. Thirdly. In addition to neglect, I
believe the children have net been properly nourished_
t. Because the ' dietary' is not constructed with etch a
regard to the requirements of young children as is con-
sistent with the known laws of animal economy._ 2•
Because most of the children wore suffering from oehthal.
min, eruptions, and other signs of a scrofulous habit--a
habit which would be engendered or increased by (la-
the general appearance of the children, in regale. te
fective nutrition. The entire aspect of the place, andi
tidiness and cleanliness, is by no means satisfactory, and
show that the surveillance exercise/hi
lidaViellAY Wict.7 over them is to