The Sun.
London, England, 1854-04-18 00:00:00

.AMtii-IC-A.

LIVERPOOL, TUESDAY, 130 A.M.—By the steamer
Africa we have adviceatrom New York to the sth
inst. She has brought $200,000 in specie. On
the 9th of April the passed the ship Florida, steer-
ing westward, in lat. 52, long. 41. On the 16th
spoke the brig George Marsden, 56 days from
Malta, short of provisions, and supplied them ;
same day passed the brig Ocean and ship General
Washington, steering westward, in long. 11 28 ;
and at 5 25 p.m. passed the steamer Arabia, from
Liverpool for Boston.
The steamer Baltic arrived at New York on the
4th.

The steamer City of Glasgow had not arrived at
Philadelphia. She was in her 36th day out from
Liverpool.
In the House of Representatives at Washington
Mr. Campbell, of Ohio, introduced a resolution
requesting the President to open negotiations with
England, with the view of ascertaining upon what
terms the latter Government would consent to the
annexation of Canada to the United States ! The
resolution was rejected by a jnajority of 119 to 28.
From Havanna'', we have advices to.the 29th ult.
,Inch inconvenience was felt in many parts of the
sland froM drought. "Upwards of 20 sugar planta-
ons, including some of the largest in the island,
Itid been destroyed by fire, the dry cane having
Ignited from sparks issuingfrom a railway'locomo-
tive,.

The Spanish war steamer Pizarro had been lost
c'n'a reef of rocks o' the east end of Ciiba.
The tendeney,of the INTmlriuk stock-market was
still-downward. The money-market was active at
7 per cent. for call loans, and 9 to 10 per cent, for
first-class paper.
Exchange on London, 108 to 1081 ; Paris, sf,
16 to sf. 13e.
Cotton in limited demand, without change in
prices. Wheat and flour in good demand, at
slightly improved prices. _
Pork dull, and lower. Beef in good demand, at
advancing prices.
Scotch pig iron in good demand, at $4l to $42
50c., six months,
'Freights to London without change.

THE PRESTON STRIKE

(Prom the Preston Chronicle.)
Whenever Mr. Mackay issues another edition of his
"History of Popular. Delusions " we cannot doubt but
he will give a chapter on Strikes. The Preston strike,
turn-out, lock-out, or whatever name its advocates and
authors choose to call it, it is one of the grandest mix-
tures of fraud and folly which the present generation
• has witnessed. The bubbles of the Mississippi 'scheme,
the belief in witchcraft and ghosts, the performances of
spirit rapping, are scarcely stronger instances of igno-
rant credulity than we have seen in • this town for the
last few months, in young men and women spending
their time in idleness, eating the ill-spared and extorted
fruits of other people's industry, and swallowing
every idle tale and barefaced falsehood which a lot of
men, fattening on the spoils of this charlatanry,
weekly retail to them. Here we have bad nearly
twenty thousand people, not merely, passing their
time in idleness, but risking their own future com-
fort and happiness, and the very means of their exist-
ence, and for what ? Having secured a large increase
in their earnings, a few of them raised a squabble about
something less than three farthings a head weekly in an
extensive mill, and to fight for this shadow they under-
took a contest in which they were all but certain to
miss not only what they were aiming at, but to lose
what they had so recently acquired, and, in addition,
they have now lost at least 300,0001. As to the merits
of this very dispute, there is scarcely a delegate who has
not privately admitted that the step taken was absolute
folly ; and that the demand preferred was, under all
the circumstances, unfair, unreasonable, and unjustifi-
able. Yet those who caused the dispute have been the
weekly recipients of a share of the sums raised for the
support of injured operatives.
The leaders of the strike knew that the game is up ;
they know that the agitation is, nearly at as end, that
the time of their profiting by the unholy warfare in
which they are engaged is limited. In private they ad-
mit that their cause is hopeless, but to their listening
dupes on Ribbleton Moor, or in the Cock-pit, it serves
their purpose to proclaim it on the eve of victory ;—they
may tell them that "short time" at Stockport is merely
a false alarm of the Chronicle, and reduced wages at
Blackburn another MSC of the manufacturers, but such
attempts to explain away disagreeable facts can only con-
vict them of further tampering with the truth. They
know that in several at Stockport the -notice to
reduce wages has expired, and that any further work
will be at the reduced rates.
According to the admission of these men themselves,
what sort of trustees bocce they been of the large sums
of money with which they have been entrusted Let the
poor girls of Blackburn and Darvren—the mothers of
Stockport and 'Ashton, from whom weekly pence have
been wrung in aid of this movement, know that this very
week the public have been told by two of the leaders of
the movement, that upwards of a thousand persons have
all along been receiving money weekly from the weavers
committee, who had no right or claim to it whatever. It
had long been known that a large number of favourites
were in receipt of pensions from the delegates, out of
the operatives' fund—women who never were within the
walls of a factory in their 111,4, and who never intend to
enter one for the purpose of working there ; but it was
never suspected that the malappropriation of funds had
been of so gross a character, or to so large an extent, as
s now admitted by the misappropriaars themselves.
One-eighth of the persons relieved by the weavers' com-
mittee are admitted to have received it wrongfully—
half-a-crown out of every pound contributed to the Pres-
ton weavers' committee, by the factory bands of Lanca-
shire, has been paid to persons who had no right to it
We are well aware that any remarks of ours, or in-
deed of any persons questioning the wisdom of the course
pursued by the leaders of the strike, are at once set
down as penned in the interest of the millowners. This
is one of the falsehoods which these men knowingly
utter to those who are so simple as to submit to their
guidance. The
.question at issue is not merely between
the millowners- and the operatives ; it is rather be-
tween the operatives and the delegates, who,'like the
Old Man of the Sea upon Sinbad, have fixed themselves
BO firmly as to be an incubus upon their every movement.
Could the working classes see their interests in their true
light, all their efforts would be unceasingly directed to
remove this incubus ; until this be done, farewell to
the independence of working men, farewell to the pros-
perity of the working classes. As respects any identity,
either of feeling or interest, between ourselves and
the Preston millowners upon this question, the dele-
gates know that their inainnationa and assertions
have been alike utterly groundless. We have ques-
tioned the wisdom of much that the masters have done ;
we have censured steps they have taken ; we have never
sought for or desired their confidence ; our efforts
have bees directed to the furtherance of the real
interests' of the working classes, which can only be
advanced by their emancipation from the thraldom under
which they now labour. It Is the independent position
'-sve have taken, and the unfettered expression of our
opinion that has rendered our advice so unpalatable, and-
this journal so obnoxious to these men—whicii has caused
these bellowers for freedom and liberty to consider, as
an essential portion of their mission, the prevention, by
all the means in their power, and no matter at what cost
or sacrifice, of working men reading the Chronicle.
Such efforts, whatever else may be their effect, shall, we
promise them, fail entirely in inducing us to express
opinions we do not entertain or to withhold censures
we consider called for. We should ill discharge the duties
of a journalist were we to pottier to a junta, powerful
as at present it unfortunately. may be, that has been so
long cursing this town with ibi obnoxious presence.
While noticing the strike and its incidents we would
not overook the offer of a. compromise made by one
section of the turn-outs. Whatever may be the merits
lathe proposal made in the.-circular issued on behalf of
operative spinners, which appears in another
column, we cannot but cceaamend the is •'t in which it
piri
is made. Although in many respects the various com-
mittees of operatives have been n identified, yet the spin-
ners were unconnected with the 'unreasonable demands
which caused the lock-out, and they have shown great
wisdom and judgment in now abandoning
an and urinating and arbitrary rate of advance.
It regretted that men who now see the futility oflethe to
be
mond which they have so long upheld, will
not avail
themselves of the present adverse state of affairs to close
the struggle they are engaged in,,
for tney must know
that against the powerful combination which they are
fighting they are powerless, the more Particularly in the
present state of trade. If work were resumed, and
masters and men again free agents, wages must as cer-
tainly rise with the brightening prospects Of trade as
light follows darkness, or spring succeeds to winter.

ROTA& NAVAL BENEVOLENT SOCIETT.—The quarterly
meeting a this institution was held yesterday at the
• Thatched Souse Tavern ; AdmirarLord Radetock in the
chair. Mr. Skead, the secretary, read the report. The
receipts of the institution from the beginning of the pre-
',neat year had amounted to 1,2311. 10s. 10d., including
a balance at the commencement of the quarter of 1551.
. 188. 10d. Of this sum 5481. 18s. Bd. was derived from
interest on stock, and 4901. 16s. 6d. from annual sub-
scription. The expenditure had fallen considerably short
of this sum, leaving a balance of 5631. 3s. 7d. ; 4401.
Lad been distributed in grants, and 1271. ls. 6d. invested
in the Three-and-a-Quarter per Cents. The total amount
of stock now belonging to the institution was 36,3341.
• 92. 9d. This statement of accounts having been agreed
to, Captain Marshall wished to know why the stock
Was continually augmented, while no proportionate in-
__
~i_._°;ie.was made in the grants? The chairman said that
by their
subscriptions.
they were bound to invest all legacies
life lf the life subscriptions were
distributed,
what had the ,society
Captain Marshall to fall back upon ?
association said that under the present system the
only joined it offereda
s great advantages to those who had 1
•
scribed 40 or 45 short time as to those who had sub-
That was a matter which
ought be inquired Years.
The subject then dropped, it
being understood that aoa.Lotion should be founded upon
it on a future occasion,
the court adjourned.
NEW ACT TO Corp3n Tux
ATTENDANCE OF WITNESSES.
----On Saturday a bill in the :Ammons was printed, by
'which it is proposed to cora
teases residing out of the•jgriailection of
attendance of wit-
eourts, if they are within the United the_superior
singdom. It is
alleged that at present inconvenience arises.
order of a court or judge is necessary NothinAg sipsesaciial
'
in the act about the compensation or expenses to be
given to the parties.