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

Ci 7
ram It was a weirim-nown 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 Fiance
ausauld state that the condition of the French meas.
•
nie and working man, on an average, was is good as
in England, and in France they did almost everything
by combination. It was the country of combination.
-A,gain,„would anyone say,that the average standard
of intelligume is as high in Ireland as in SCotland
and' AineriCa ? Ireland had :been the i country
,of
`trades Unions.' the' only place whe're be ever heard. '
thates Strike carriedlthe day was Dublin:, -And w, hat
was the fesult? -They drove the' trade away and
ruined the town. In the United. States the working
classes were in a much better positior. The question '
was distinctly between . combination and iectieidua I
self-reliance. What had raised all.thia difficulty? A
council of 'ieven in LOndon wished to dictate to all
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 determination 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, he " 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 bow it was to be carried out ' • and they
issued a general order to every establishment, with-
out
exception, including this Brighton Railway,
without icquiring how far it was applicable, that
piecework shall cease and overtime he 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 he establishments where
piecework dad been enforced injuriously against the
men. -Very well. On these- establishments- bring
public opinion to bear; go to Manchester, and dee
nounce.these establishments if you 'like: Brit Why
issue general orders to people who had nothing to . do ,
with the dispute Iv Why were the 20,000 men and •
their faniiliee'requiriag support? Because the 'council, e -,,
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 woks statement .
of accounts, and among the :charges warone 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-e-men. hired to go to establishments and- -
coerce or intimidate. those who were willing to take
work on terms that other men had declined. Was

, .
that the sort of thing that Englishmen approved of or
would submit to ? He 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. _
themielves 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 had 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 had got this, not in the funds of
some society not under their control, but. in a bank,
or in same investment where they could draw it out
to-morrow, they would be independent of masters.
—(hisses.)
The 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'clay. Who are the working men who have
bettered their condition? Are they men who have
taken a 'leading-part iii agitating in strikes, or are
they men who have trusted to themselves, acted for
themselves ?—(llisses.) I give you this advice, be-
cause I am a sincere friend to you, and don't like you
to be here listening to-vvhat I consider bad advice.—
(Laughter.) 1 don't expect you to believe me now.
—C, I should think not.") But I have discharged
my duty by tellingyou what I know to be truth ;
and by and bye, when you see how things turn out,
as I know they must turn out, you may think us'
what I have said.
Mr. Neverors said there were few trades unions in
Atteric3, 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 employers,
that was not true. They only carried into effect the
orders of 12,000. Mr. Laing was wrong in saying
that the charge for pickets was in the recent report.
None had been paid during the last three or four
years. Mr. Laing said that strikes were always un-
successful, and that this would be unsuccessful also.
lie hoped so ; for this was a strike of the employers
against the men.—(Laughter.)
The CHAIRMAN said that no great measure bad
ever been added without combination. ~1.101, was
Catholic emancipation carried? By combination.
O'Connell was the Newton of the Catholic " Amalga..
illation Society." flow was tree trade carried ?
a cornbinetion of the very employers who now-
d
e
-
[Jounced combination in their men.—(hear, hear.)
He believed that combination was a most important
means of social and political emlncipatioa.
The motion was then passed into a resolution by the
unanimous vote of the meting.
T.hanks to Jr. Coninglism closed the business.

-
DISCLOSURES RESPECTING AN IN. FANT PAUPER ASYLUM.
The numerous cemplainte which have reached the
offiexis of the Strand Union relative to the condition of
and treatment of the pauper children in the establish-
ment at Edmonton has led to the inatitutio-n'of an in-
qeiry on the spot. In the first instance, three church-
wardens and a surgeon were constituted a committee of
investigation, end, upon,receipt of their report, the gust-
diens appointed Mr. J. F. Clarke, Surgeon, of Gerrard-
street, to visit the establishment and report theret.n.
Mr. Clark, in his report, Eays:—" In accordance with
the instruction from your board, conveyed to me by Mr.
Kittle'. (clerk to the guardians), I visited the infant
poor estebliabment at Edmonton, on the 11th instant.
My attention was first directed to the infirmary, it'll,
which I found the following patients,
three exceptions, are very youn
children. Acre
head,
all of whom,
llevcire
are enumerate sixteen cases of measles,
feet, and
scrofulous abscess, ringwerm, ulceratedho medical gee..
skin eruptions, after which
tletnan observes:—" I have
tenuamntyerated these eases
or tither of
specifically, in order chat
easily
identified. In them may bo referred to
ad-
dition to the various maladies with which these children
with the exception of
are affected, every one of thorn,
the Owens (children of colour), entered the infirmary
with their heads full
evidencing of vermin. These vermin are still
present." After the suffering of children in
Mrs. Martin's rd
and specifying cases of ringworm.
"very bad ule
„,:ttotcd feet, and most of them with vermin
in their leads, hit.i. Clarke says, "It now becomes a
the that the Bur'
. how we are to explain' fact, „
of
ilettreest:cercem disease in the establishment are almost all
t 0
young children. From careful
110;7
them very
all the circumstances, I have come to the o I W 1
con-
clusions:—First. It would be exected a disease
liee the measles, of a highly _infections
chiefly affecting young children, Should spread
and tut
d t hearhetaardnewteirth ainad-
pidity in a ward especially devoted to teem,
because in all pro-
older children should not be affected,
from the disease.
, bability, they had previously suffered
nhave
the
Secondly. I think it clear that the childrenulcerations
must
p n n
been neglected. 1. Because theetemanyof them of a
feet, arising from chilblains, were
one or two instances
most severe character, werehava resulted in morti•
fieation,
even serious,
n that
and mightven ordinary care had not
showig , even
, B
been bestowed open
tiled sot 2. beenecause
at allthe directedattention tu
of the Medical officer I have learnt from himself; and
when the little patients were
some of these cases, :rem
he first discoveredunso
to
the infirmary iu cousequenco
removed from the:.
Because the ulceration of the anus
of the measles.
, Martha Blevrk and Emma Eagle—the first
il the caeca ~.. baVa existed some, little time—bed not
of whio must
until my visit on the 11th. It those
ere
been disco', been properly washed, it would be difficult
children
here observed the disease in question. 4. Because
if the
not to o
ehild
ren
_had „even ordinary attehetion, their heads
could not 'possibly have been in the disgusting state in
which I
i saw them. Thirdly. In addian to neglect, I
hive the children bare not been properly nourished--
the ' diettry' is not constructed,with such a
d to the requirenacnte of young children as is cur!): "gar.
sibtent faith the kud'an laws of animal economy.
a_.
Because ramt of the children were suffering fromholth_la
mia, eruptlone,-and Other signs of a scrofulous . y
habit which would be engendered or increased
h b
place, and
de-
fective nutrition. The entire aspect of t
the geneial appearance of the children,
sstieeifannrtnefya,rdantrie
tidiness sad cleardineee, is by no means
show that the surveillance exercised over thes
_n is tw
5u1140024 strict."