The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-10 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

Es.—The 9th 01 May, 1864, wil,l ever be re-
markable for the exact but fortuitous conddrrence of
two events having the most important bearings the

one on the others While the representatives of the
belligerents and of the allied Powers were sitting in
Conference with a view to the cessation of bloodshed
on some terms or other, an Austrian and a Danish
squadron were engaged in action several hundred
miles off, near the opposite shores of the German
Ocean. Almost at the very hour that Denmark,
declining an armistice which would give a greater
sanction to the past than she chase to allow, was
agreeing to a simple suspension of hostilities, an
Austrian frigate 1, as on the point of destruction, and
its consorts were taking refuge in the British waters
of Heligoland. Such a concurrence was possible at
any time, for we have heard before of simultaneous
victories by sea and by land; but that both events
should not only happen together, but be simultane-
ously known in Downing-street, would have been
impossible and incredible a very few years ago. The
telegraphic wire brought the news of the one event
across the German Ocean as fast as messengers
could bring the other to the office next door.
When the Conference had agreed to a suspension of
arms, they heard within an hour that they had been
too late to stop a battle in which Denmark had re-
trieved, at the cost of one of her assailants, the re•
verses she had suffered at the hands of the other. It
is scarcely possible for the most impartial or the
most indifferent bystander not to rejoice at this
opportune change is the hitherto sad tenour of her
fortunes. It has come not only as a substantial
proof of her prowess, but also as if to reward the
moderation with which he has agreed to endure for
a time the hostile occupation of her soil. There never
was a time or an occasion in which the British people
were not disposed to give their sympathy to the weak.
On that, if on no other ground, they would delight
to see Denmark making up on her own element for
indefensible earthworks and overwhelming foes. But
it was something more than this British instinct that
prompted the enthusiastic cheers of the House of
Commons when they heard the result of the action
off Heligoland. Whatever may be the rights of this
inscrutable question, they regard Austria and Prussia
as aggressors, who without a legal footing in Den-
mark use their overwhelming numbers for evidently
selfish purposes. The allied German Powers had
agreed to recommend an armistice, involving, among
other things, that Denmark should suspend her
blockade of the Baltic ports and should surrender
to her invaders the island of Alsen, while they were
also to withdraw their armies from Jutland. It was
supposed that Denmark would readily give up a
small island lying at the mercy of the foe, in order
to save the Danish inhabitants of her mainland from
their present humiliation and misusage. The Danes,
however, preferred a mere suspension of arms, as
being the simple continuance of a state of things in
which it could not be pretended that they for a
moment acquiesce. Being purely negative, it corn-
mite them to nothing, and is not even a step to any
consummation. That Prussian and Austrian armies
occupy all Jutland is a deplorable fact, which the
Danes have only recognised in the language of in-
dignant remonstrance. The abandonment of Alsen
a day earlier than was expected by the exigencies
of war would have looked like the abandonment of
a just claim. That the Danes would agree to any
species of armistice, and especially that they would
suspend their blockade, was what the Conference
rather hoped than expected. They knew that they
had to confer, not with men before them, but with
the telegraph wire, and the men at the other end
of that wire, and they knew that in the case of Den-
mark the men at the other end of the wire were un-
der the influence of a turbulent and irrational de-
mocracy. Copenhagen, safe in an island, and with
Sweden to flatter its vanity and foster its hopes,
gives laws to the mainland, not so secure oe so irre-
sponsible for its deeds. Would the Danish re-
presentatives even:make the smallest approxima-
tion towards a settlement ? It was feared not.
However, reason has at last prevailed, and we have
now the happiness of seeing a,Conference for Peace
which is not carried on paripassu with a sanguinary
war. We trust the Danes will not be too much
elated With their naval victory to take that part in
the further proceedings of the Conference which
facts may require. That victory we have no wish
to disparage. It seems to have been fought against
odds, and the Austrians could hardly be worse
armed than the Danes themselves. It is probable
that both sides had the old style of armament, but
eves were it otherwise, on the open sea the advan-
tages of the new ordnance might be counteracted
by better mancetivring and by close quarters. No
such victory, however, would enable the Danes to
make their blockade of the German ports effective.
As the camel is the "ship of the desert," so the rail-
way is the ship of the Continent in these days, ann
is fully competent to do all that ship has ever
done. We trust, then, the Danes will bear their
new honours meekly, and remember not only that
they are but men, but that they are also not
many, not rich, and somewhat behindhand in
military affairs. if they keep that in mind, it may
lead to a peaceful and even to an equitable settle-
ment of this long and disastrous controversy. The
result of the suspension of arms is most pro-
pitious for our own affairs. It has reinstated a
Government which every rumour threatened to
shake from its seat. So long as England was com-
pelled to stand by and witness a slaughter which
she utterly abominated, but had neither the autho-
rity to stop nor the wit to avert, no Ministry could
hold itself safe from the indignation which, justly
or unjustly, must find some object or other. Had
the Conference broken up without an armistice,
though by no fault of the Government, the Con-
servatives would have had a majority to back them
in censuring the impotent friends of Denmark and
the successful champions of public justice. "Nothing
succeeds like success." All the labour and anxiety
which have been expended in conciliating Danes
and Germans, in smoothing difficulties and calming
susceptibilities, however unreasonable, would have
won for those who endured it no consideration in
the House of Commons or in the country if it had
failed to vanquish the obstinacy of one side or the
rapacity of the other. It is the stice which all
public men are taught by experience to expect.
Happily, on this occasion reason, and perhaps a
better feeling on both sides, possibly, too, a fear of
ulterior consequences, have come to the aid of the
the fighting is over for the present
peacemakers ;
the Austrians and Prussians will retire to their
quarters, and the Conservatives, who but yesterday
were ready to storm the Treasury Bench, may
make up their minds to an uneventful Session,
and return as soon as they please to the pleasures
of country life.
Poa.—The present condition of the cotton opera-
tives in England ii described and discussed very
minutely in the last report of Mr. Redgrave, the
inspector in whose district the chief seats of
ftetaheecroytton manufacture are situated. It appears
that from the beginning of the crisis to the end of
last year very nearly three millions sterling were
expended by the Guardians, the Central Relief Com-
mittee, and the Mansion House Committee, in
maintaining those who suffered from the distress.
To this must be added that of which an estimate
cannot easil be made—the sums given by private
charity unconnected with the public bodies, and the
stores of clothing that have been distributed. This
large amount of relief has been distributed at the
ayn the
earnest severadlevcootmedmn committees and
which
n
smallest per-centage of cost, but at the expenditure
of
time an
bwouirthb
theirone officers, d la
can appreciate fully except those who have wit-
ne,,„ea their operations, and have a personal know-
ledge of the difficulties of their task. We are glad
to learn that the reduction in the number of per-
sons in the receipt of relief, with which 1863 began
continued throughout the greater part of the year;
and in spite of a relapse during the autumn the re-
turns for the last week of December contrasted very
favourably with those of the first week of the pre-
ceding January. Not only have the numbers of the
operatives in full-time and in halftime employ-
ment increased, but their position in regard to the
amount of their earnings has improved. Notwith-
standing this change for the better the average rate
of their wages is still very much below what it was
before the war in Northi
dirty conditioli their earnings,
besidesveralcanses
co-operated in reducing Am n
the
the Suratand the shorter staple of
cotton, which the mill-owners
have had
to use so largely. It is now the
practice to use cotton " waste" largely with
Surat, and this increases the difficulties of the
spinners and minders. The threads, from their
shortness of fibre, are more liable to break in the
drawing out of the mule and in the twisting of the
yarn, and the mule cannot be kept so continuously
in motion. Then, from the greater attention re-
quired in watching the threads in weaving, many
weavers can mind only one loom, and very few can
mind more than two. In theme and in other ways
the efficiency of their labour, and with it the
amount of their earnings, is diminished. But some
improvements have been made or are making in the
machinery employed ; the new materials are better
understood, and the operatives are learning to
handle them more easily, and are becoming better
able to overcome the difficulties they have to con-
tend ageinst. In estimating the real worth of their
wages it is to be remembered that this depends
chiefly on the price of the main articles of food and
on the nature and quantity of the food they re-
quire. Factory labour, it is ackowledged, requires
a more generous diet than employments of a less
skilled description, carried on in the open air or
under cover in a moderate temperature. The
comparatively high wages of the cotton opera-
tive in good times serve to pay for the food
which is necessary to supply the great waste of
the system that lie has to sustain ; and it is

unjust to compare his present condition—
with ten or twelve shillings a week for him-
self and his tamily—with the agricultural labourer
in the south. At the same time, it is undeniable
that there was much " riotous living" among therm
when work was plentiful and wages were high, and_
the medical officers in the factory districts assign,
the discontinuance of those unfortunate habits in
consequence of the distress as one of the causes of
the decrease in sickness which they have observed.
among them. The greatly diminished price of bread
and flour, and some other chief articles of food, dur-
ing the past year, has been of inestimable benefit to
them, whether employed or unemployed, and the
frequent change from the vitiated atmosphere of the
mills to out-door life has not been without a very
beneficial effect on their health. On the whole, the
general health of the operatives exhibits a marked
improvement. Infant mortality, especially, has
diminished. The mothers are more at home, and
less at the mill. There is less neglect of their off-
spring ; they nurse them better, and have less in-
ducement to administer narcotics to keep them quiet.
The state of the schools attended by factory workers
in his district is a subject to which Mr. Redgrave
devotes several pages of his report. He obtained.
specific information from fifty of the largest of them
each attended on an average by three hundred chil-
dren. He states that the general results of his
inquiry as to the number of attendants and the
financial condition of the establishments are greatly
in advance of what could have been expected. The
number of children regularly attending these
schools received a great increase in 1882, but a
diminution of almost equal amount took place in the
following year. The reduction in 1863 was caused
chiefly by the withdrawal of relief in the shape of
payment of school fees, for the children of parents
who obtained employment. " This," the inspector
remarks, " however correct in principle, has had
the effect of throwing upon the streets many ohil•
dren whose parents have been really unable to pay
the school fee, small as it is, and it is really a sub-
ject of so much importance that it is to be hoped
the Manchester Committee will reconsider their
decision, and not allow the children to be thrown
about, as they will be, upon idleness, and the bad
habits engendered by want of occupation and proper
control." The school attendance of the hall-timers
has improved, and this is to be attributed in a great
measure to the effect of the educational provisions
of the Factory Acts in past years. Many of the
parents owe all the book-learning they have to the
half-time system. They know this; they under.
stand the value of what they learnt, and they talce
care that their children should enjoy the same ad-
vantage. The sewing and industrial schools for
adults that have been established during the cotto n
famine are evidently conferring great benefits upon
the workpeople who attend them. The orderly
discipline maintained in them, and the encourage•
ment there given to the cultivation of neatness
and good behaviour have a very civilising
effect. The young women learn in them sotne lea-
sons that they stand greatly in need of. In many
of the schools, for instance, not one-third of them
knew anything of sewing when they entered, they
had no notion how to mend or patch their clothes,
and when they first took a needle in their hand they
pushed it through their work by pressing it upon
the table, and this not because they were stupid but
solely because they had never been taught, and had
never seen anything of the kind before. In the
adult schools for males it has been found impos.
Bible to have any employment so congenial to them
as sewing and knitting to the females, but Mr. Bed-
grave notices with approbation the attention of the
men and the anxiety of so many to improve them-
selves, especially in arithmetic. "It sometimes
caused a shade of melancholy," he tells us, " to see
an old grey-haired man leaning over Es desk, and
poring over a sum in reduction or practice, but even
this was relieved by being told by a frank-spoken
spinner in his own hearty manner, while showing
his sketches of geography and what he was reading
' They could not give us work, and so God put iit
nto their hearts to give us the next best to it. "

COUNTRY MARKETS.


COLCHESTER-MAT 7.

We had a limited show of wheat on offer at this market
to-day, and late rates were in many instances is higher,
with a firm business. Spring corn inactive, for want of
supplies.
Wheat, white ..42s 468 Beans,Mazagan..2BB 321
red 38s 42s middle & 5ma11.328 36s
Barley
0at5......•• • 20s 25s grey 34s 362