The Sun.
London, England, 1854-08-22 00:00:00

through Austria to Russia (to all intents and pur-
poses) identically the same language. It is here
declared by England to Count BuoL, through the
medium of the Earl of WESTMORELAND—as it had
already been announced to the same statesman by
France, through the medium of the Baron DE
BOURWLZNEY—that peace can only be restored
upon ?our imperatively requisite conditions.

I. That the. Russian Protectorate in the Prin-
cipalities of Servia, Moldavia, and Wallachia- be
abolished—the privileges accorded to those pro-
vinces by the Sublime Porte being placed under
the collective guarantee of the principal Powers
in the European part of Christendom.
11. That the mouths of the Danube be opened
henceforth freely to the whole world's navigation.
111. That the navigation of the Black Sea be
also relieved from any further restriction—the
• treaty of the 13th of July, 1841, being entirely
revised, and all diplomatic barriers being removed
from the channels of the Bosphorus and the Dar-
danelles.
IV. That the AUTOCRAT abandon all claim
whatsoever to any right of interference between
the Christian subjects of the Porte and the autho-
rity of the Ottoman Government.
As we intimated when speaking of the condi-
tions of peace as laid down by the French Cabinet
in the despatch of M. DxouYN DE L'HUYS, so we
repeat in reference to the recapitulation of those
same conditions by the English Cabinet in the
despatch of Lord CLARENDON—they are excellent
as far as they go ! But they ought to go very
much further ! They ought not to be thus re-
stricted and narrowed in their application. They
ought to include some reference not only to the
emancipation of the Danubian Principalities, to
the establishment of free navigation up the cur-
rent of that great river, to a similar provision
as regards the waters of the Euxine, and to the
extrication of the Christian subjects of the Porte
from the encumbering aid of a Russian Pro-
tectorate ! Something in reason ought to have
been said in allusion to the future of the Crimea,
of Finland, of the Caucasus ! Surely, also, it might
in reason have been expected that a whispered
word of indemnity should have become audible
through the medium of these simultaneous expla-
nations of the Allied French and English Govern-
ments.

Briefly, the conditions of peace, as defined in
the name of France and England (with a mut-
tered show of acquiescence on the part of Austria,
and with a sullen withdrawal of any acquiescence
at all, even in semblance, on the part of Prussia,
as indicated by the obdurate silence of her Cabinet
and SOVEREIGN), are "good" as far as they go :
but they are altogether insufficient, we still insist,
as securities for the restoration of permanent tran-
quillity to Christendom.

While our workmen eat the bread of Free
Trade, they are bound to let others eat it too.
This, however, is a hard lesson for them, as well
as for their betters, to learn. We are all Free
Traders, till unrestricted competition makes free
with our trade. Let that be touched, and it is
wonderful how soon thousands of manufacturers
and tradesmen, who shouted themselves hoarse
against agricultural monopoly, are unwilling to
surrender their own. We heard a brewers'
friend rejoicing the other day that the New Beer
Act left the certificate of character for selling
intoxicating liquors in the hands of the Magis-
trate. "We can put down," said he, " half the
beer shops in the kingdom through that." For
the same reason we hardly ever find maltsters,
paper-makers, or other manufacturers subject to
the excise, very earnest in obtaining a repeal of
the duties on their manufactures ; they well
know that the securities required by Government,
and, in producing a high)r-taxed article, the capi-
tal necessary, give to a comparatively few
the command of the whole trade ; they submit to
incalculable annoyance in the details of their
business, and to the underhand competition of the
fraudulent evader of duties, rather than risk free
competition with the general public. When we
see facts like these in middle life, and remember
how lard it was to lay the ghost of Protection in
the last election and the present Parliament, we
must never be surprised that uneducated work-
men are still but poorly instructed in the essen-
tials of Free Trade. They had, indeed, by its
means marvellously cheap bread till last harvest,
and they have had unlooked-for means of purchas-
ing deai'er bread till the present harvest, and that
too in spite of " the Rooshans ;" but they have
yet to learn that Free Trade means that every
workman should have unrestricted license to sell
his labour, and every master full liberty to buy
it.

These remarks were suggested to us by the
statement of the masons employed in building the
new Parish Church at Doncaster, as to the causes
of their strike. We prefer to take their own
statement, as illustrating our view ; partly be-
cause we know of no reason 'to doubt its truth,
and partly because, if it be unsound in principle,
there is less reason to undertake the difficult task
of arbitration bet Ween interested disputants.
Their demands, to obtain. which they think it
advisable to strike, are three—" Ist, that men
not belonging to the trade shall not do masons'
work ; 2d, that they shall be allowed full time
for their meals, and not have their names called
in their own time ; and 3d, that they be allowed
two hours a week—i.e., that they commence work
at seven on Monday morning, and leave at four
on Saturday afternoon." We pass over general
considerations, such as the failure of the great
strike at Preston, the increasing supply of work-
men, the approach of the season when masons
cannot work, and the certain loss to workmen by
a strike, a loss which they can bear so much
less easily than their masters ; and would
invite their attention chiefly to the erro-
neous nature of their first and chief
ground. It is plain that this is the sore
point, since they state distinctly that they found
it necessary to calla meeting to prevent "rubble
wallers" encroaching upon their trade, and mas-
ters infringing upon their time.
We would ask them what they mean by en-
croaching on a trade ? Encroaching on a man's
legal property or privileges we can understand,
but we must believe that trade is legally and
(with the exception of trades liable to Government
regulations) in fact too, as free as the sea or the
Queme's highways. Since the most gigantic pro-
tection struck to the League, all those of less di-
mensions and strength have been successively
falling before our Legislators, till it now requires
some minute knowledge of trade and commerce to
find. a representative of the once numerous race.
Our labourers then, who more than any class,
have benefited both directly and indirectly by the
repeal of protective duties, ought to be the last to,
reverse what Legislation has so beneficently done for
them. They have reaped the full benefit of giving ,
every man's skill and industry unrestricted play
and of freeing them from
all artificial restraints,
a
nnew fetters, d
ftehtetyought scrupulously to avoid inventing
If the " rubble wallers" have skill
sufficient to do a kindred branch of work, and if
they can handle successfully the implements re-
quisite for masons' work, why should their abili-
ties be denied exercise ? The question is not
has it
how a man came by his ability, but whether he
. If lie has, he has as good a right to dis-
pose of what he has in the open market as any
other man. When some landlords, who were for
compelling workmen to buy their English-crown
bread exclusively, met at Tamworth, to feast in
honour of the principle of forbidding the foreign
grower to sell food to the English labourer the
2
labourers of Tamworth made a riot out
question
whether and gave them stonesandbrrott, yetenw we
windows for a
dinner. We do not justify riots,
whether the Doncaster masons would not say,. and
"serve them right too; why may not Jcii.;rAnrazi ozi
the other side the watersell ust cebrret y ouki add,
asiaid, anetwe buyit,
if we went itr—aasi wo mo