The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-21 00:00:00

..... _
trade. Such men consequently have had frequent

opportunity of enlightening the minds of their coun-
trymen, and of setting several disputed points before
them in a true light. The Chambers of Commerce,

not only from obtaining the aggregate opinions of
traders, but from numbering men of wealth and
position among their leaders, have thus been able to

bring forward several grievances common to vari-
ous classes of merchants and manufacturers, and
to obtain redress for them. Officials cannot

slight the representations of an influential member
of Parliament, as they would be too apt to do to
complaints of private gentlemen. In pursuance of
this theory, the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce
has just shown its appreciation of this principle by
electing Mr. SCHOLEFIELD, M.P., to the office of
president. There was a large attendance of mem-
bers and others on Thursday, and both the new

president and his Parliamentary colleague addressed
the assembly at some length. Mr. SCHOLEFIELD'S
speech was marked by moderation and good sense.
He congratulated the meeting on the favourable
signs of the times, among which he reckoned the
recent visits of two official gentlemen in connexion

with the new provisions referring to the Foreign•
office and the Board of Trade. It was, he remarked,

quite a new thing for the Government to send any
of its officers to inquire into their grievances and
their opinions, and to endeavour to forward their
views. Ile attributed this beneficial change partly
to the efforts of the same energetic individuals in
their behalf, and partly to the good fortune of hav-
ing two gentlemen like Mr. GissoN and Mr. LAYARD
respectively at the Board of Trade and at the
Foreign-office, since both were anxious to meet all
the requirements of commerce. Mr. SCHOLEFIELD
then touched upon the question of Government
manufacturing establishments, and said he was not
one of those who were opposed to Government esta-
blishments altogether, but he thought that such
establishments should not be larger than was just
sufficient to be a check on manufacturers' prices,
and that anything like competition between public
and private establishments was most unfair. The
hon. member and others who spoke on the subject
forgot, however, one important argument in
favour of such institutions, which is that in case of
sudden alarm or emergency the Government should
not be driven to rely entirely on the resources of ma-
nufacturers, nor to trust solely to their punctual ful-
filment of their contracts. Experience has proved
this to be an insecure and uncertain mode of pro-
ceeding, and it is partly as a guarantee against
its evils. Mr. BRIGHT, who followed, spoke upon
similar subjects, but touched upon one or two points
to which Mr. SCHOLEFIELD had not adverted. On
one very important topic Mr. BRIGHT spoke with a
frankness and a candour which did him honour. A
paragraph in the Report had reference to the recom-
mendation of the Children's Employment Commis-
sion that the Factory Acts should be applied to
metal manufactories. This was quite sufficient to
arouse the claim of Birmingham. The council de-
clared in the report that they were prepared to use
every means to oppose undue interference with the
trade of the locality. We are sorry to see this indi-
cation of the same spirit which so long and so
strenuously resisted the benevolent action of the
Factory Bill. It is a disgrace to our noble manu-
facturers to identify their interests with the oppres-
sion of the helpless. They need no such false sup-
port. Their legitimate profits are large enough to
enable their owners to pay a fair day's wage for a
fair day's work, and that day's work is not fair
which is extended beyond reasonable hours. It is
false economy as well as want of humanity to exact
from the unformed frames of children long hours of
exhausting lahour. Uit be true, as has been proved
by evidence, that children learning half-time at
school learn as much as those full time,
from their fresher energies and greater powers of
application, much more must the same argument be
true of the hours of physical labour. The work
cannot be well done which is extracted from the
jaded energies of over-tired children and young
persons under 18, and it is only to such persons that
the report of the commission refers. Mr. BRIGHT
had the manliness to confess that he had been one
of the most strenuous opponents of the Factory Act,
but he had since found his opposition to have been
mistaken. " Among all the working classes of
Lancashire," he said, " the Act is very highly prized,
the manufacturers have not found from it the evils
which they anticipated, and I am sure there are few
there who would wish to have the Act altered or
repeated." Still he was doubtful how the same
principle would bear extension to Birmingham manu-
facturers, and recommended careful investigation
before it was agreed to. It is a great pity that gen-
tlemen who are so ready to lecture the upper classes
on their neglect of the political rights of the people,
do not remember they do not always show much
regard to the rights of a very large class of the
people. If our legislature is neglecting the interests
of the present generation, they are mortgaging the
strength and energies of the future by the deterio-
ration of the physical vigour of the young genera-
, tion. The fact is, we fear that human nature is very
much the same in all ranks, and if there was the
slightest risk of injury to the material interests of
our trade and commerce by the extension of the
franchise, we should hear a good deal less about
Parliamentary Reform from the manufacturing
districts.

Deputy GRABOW, upon taking the chair as Presi-
dent of the Prussian Chamber of Deputies, made a
very spirited discourse, that seemed to give great satis-
faction to his auditors. It is some sort of a gratifica-
tion to find that even at this juncture there are men
in Prussia who have the courage to speak out and
express their opinions, even though they may not
be exactly in accordance with the notions of the
ruling powers. At any rate, no one can accuse
President GRA.BOW of having shirked his duty, and
of not speaking cut fully, firmly, and to the point.
Certainly subjects were not wanting to fire his
recollection and excite his earnestness, for much
has transpired since the period of the "last dismissal
to which he referred in such meaning terms." As
he truly put it, « prosecutions of the liberal press,
reprimands of liberal officials, unconfirmation of
liberal
communal elections, defamation's, sus-
picions, and calumnies of liberal citizens have
taken place to an even greater extent than in
former years." Such reminiscences may well cause
the faithful citizens of Prussia to feel dismayed, and
create indignation in the minds of the true represen-
tatives of Prussian interests. The constant inter-
ruption of an approving charactet that he met with
proved that the President spoke in a manner that
went to the hearts of his hearers, and carried con-
viction to their minds of the truth of his sayings
and need of his observations. In truth, a sad future
is put before those who pay any particular attention
to the public position and political aspects of
Prussia nowadays, and nothing of a cheering char-
acter intervenes to lighten the gloom or irradiate
romise
the Prospect as the eye rests on broken pledges, for-
feited P, and
ot
o forsakenenumerate dutitz.
saldirelisllandmight
well might the
the President go s
zeal in thus showing
Chamber applaud his courage and
utterance to up abuses and giving
grievances that are undermining
the social prospects of the country, and doing great
injury to the State. Fidelity
to convictions has