The Sun.
London, England, 1854-09-27 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 27, 1854.

THE WAR.

NAVAL AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.
Her Majesty's screw steam-ship Algiers, 91, was towed
on Monday morning, at 7.30, from Hamoaze into Plymouth
Sound, where she received a spare fan, brought by the
Janus steamer, the previous day from Woolwich. Yes-
terday two months' advance wages were paid to the whole
of the crow, that portion which came home in the Mean-
der receiving at the same time 12 months' arrears. The
Algiers is appointed to sail for the Black Sea to-day. Sho
takes out about 400 Marines for the fleet, together with a
large quantity of provisions and stores, shot, shell, and
ammunition, for the forces in the East.
The Colossus, 80, screw, Captain R S. Robinson, exor-
cised her crow at Spithead yesterday in hoisting sails, &c.
The Dauntless, 33, screw, Captain Ryder, was docked
yesterday at Portsmouth, to have her copper broomed
down, &c.
We learn by electric telegraph from Plymouth, that the
steam-sloop Hornet, 14, steamed from Plymouth Sound up
Hamoaze in the course of the day. She will be placed in
Keyham docks to-day to receive some slight repairs previ-
ous to sailing for the East Indies and China.
The Stromboli, 6, paddle-sloop, Commander Robert
Hall, having repaired a few defects, returned to Spithead
yesterday, and reshipped her ammunition, ready for fur-
ther orders. It is believed that she proceeds to the Black
Sea.

The steam-sloop Sphinx, from Woolwich, for the Black
Sea, was coaling in Plymouth Sound at noon yesterday.
The Janus steamer having sprung her bowsprit and jib-
boom, has been sent to the Devonport dockyard to be re-
paired.

APPOINTMENTS.
Chaplain the Rev. Henry Jones, M.A. (1837), has been
appointed to the Formidable, 84.
Assistant-Surgeon John C. Austen, M.D. (1846), from the
Victory, flagship at Portsmouth, has been appointed to the
Snake, screw steam despatch gun-boat, at Blackwall. The
crew of the Snake are on board the Salsette receiving-ship
at Woolwich. Assistant-Surgeon John T. Gabriel (1852),
recently serving in the Polyphemus, on the West Coast of
Africa station, has been appointed to the Victory, vice
Austen.

Acting Assistant-Surgeon Alexander Collins (1854) has
been appointed to the Nankin, 50, at Chatham.
Lieutenant Henry C. Majendie (1849), serving in the
Grecian, 12, on the East India station, has received his
promotion as Commander.

Surgeon Youell, twelve sergeants; 210 drummers, rank and
file, will march from the Linen Hall Barracks on Wednes-
day, to embark in the Vanguard, at five p.m., also for
Glasgow, where they :will be joined by the service com-
panies on their arrival from Canada, previous to their em-
barkation for the Baltic next spring.
• The 90th (Perthshire Light Infantry) Regiment has re-
ceived orders to recruit with all possible activity, so as to
complete its establishment of 1,200 rank and tile. The
General Commanding-in-Chief, deeming it of great impor-
anco that no delay shall take place in so doing, has ordered
additional recruiting parties to be detached from head-
quarters; and, as the whole recruiting staff is open for the
90th, little difficulty will be experienced in meeting Lord
Hardinge's wishes. The men of this corps are on the qui
rive, expecting to form part of a Baltic contingent in the
spring, though the order for India has not been officially
countermanded.

A Dublin paper (the Express) says, it is stated in well
informed military circles th.t the under-mentioned line
regiments will form part of the British expeditionary force
for the Baltic in March next :-18th, 51st, 54th, 56th,
66th, 72d, 80th, 82d, 90th, and 94th. The whole of these
regiments will be in England before the close of the year ;
and it is anticipated that there will be no difficulty in
raising them to their augmented establishments long before
they proceed to the Baltic, the whole of the recruiting staff
being exclusively employed at the present moment in
raising men for those regiments.

would then become of his theory ? Supposing, for
instance, that instead 0f10,000,000/ • or 12,000,0001.,
the war expenses of the present year were to be
50,000,0001., is Mr. Macgregor prepared gravely
to maintain that that enormous sum ought to be
paid out of the yearly revenue of the country ?
Will be seriously affirm that such an amount
of expenditure could be raised in a year out of
the taxes of the country ? A moment's reflec-
tion will, we are sure, convince Mr. Macgregor
that, however beautiful his views may bo
in theory, they aro wholly incapable of being
embodied in practice. If the hon. gentleman's
position be a sound one, we ought not at this mo-
ment to have a single sixpence of national debt :
neither ought any other country. But, unhappily
for us, our forefathers were not of Mr.. Macgregor's
way of thinking as to the best means of raising the
money necessary for a war expenditure.
If Mr. Pitt, and certain statesmen who preceded
and followed him, had acted on the principle of the
member for Glasgow, and made their contempo-
raries yearly pay the expenses incurred bythe war
with America and the war with France, we should
at this moment have been the happiest, because
the least taxed, nation in Europe. Our posterity
ought to regard us with pr3found respect and with
the deepest gratitude, should Mr. Macgregor's
views, as to the impropriety of taxing future gene-
rations, be carried out • for, in addition to our loss
of blOod—to the sacrifice of friends near and dear
to us—and to the serious commercial injury which
we are suffering and must suffer—we should alsq
bear all the pecuniary burthen. Thrice Jiappy
posterity, to reap all the advantages of that peace
which we are making such strenuous efforts to in-
sure, and to reap them, too, without being put to
even the cost of a sixpence. Who would not, under
these circumstances, wish to belong to posterity ?
—Morning Advertiser.

A WORD TO THE FARMERS.

We would greatly prefer that this essay should not be
read at all rather than that it should only be read half
through. It is not unlikely that in the outset we may
propound doctrines hard to be understood, which may
induce the prejudiced to throw the subject aside
without granting us a hearing. In the dilemma of
the old man and his ass, it may be our fate to please
nobody, in undertaking the thankless task of doing our
duty to truth, mankind, and our own convictions. We can
say, therefore, as a somewhat unpopular truth-speaker
has said long ago, " Strike, but hear us !" and repeat
our entreaty either not to begin the perusal of these ob-
servations or to read them to a close. We are again
about to adopt the rash step of interposing an appeal
to common sense betwixt master and man ; an inter-
ference which may bring upon us the fate of those who
may make or meddle in lovers' quarrels, or the more
common warfare betwixt man and wife. We are in-
formed that throughout the country there is a very
general agreement among the farmers that the circum-
stances of the time favour the attempt to reduce the
price of labour ; and that many have already acted upon
that very bold and utterly unwarranted assumption.
There is, therefore, no time to be lost in dispelling that
mischievous delusion ; and it is peculiarly incumbent
upon us to take our share in the task, seeing that hitherto
we have been constrained, at the peril of grievous mis-
construction, and in the interest of sound economical prin-
ciples, to array ourselves on the side of capital, in the great
campaign opened on the field of our domestic history be-
teween money and man. In the outset we would undertake
the defence of the thesis that the laws which regulate the
accumulation and distribution of capital are the masters
of us all---of capitalists themselves, as much as of those
who sell their labour to acquire it ; masters, indeed, of
our inclinations, of our very generosity. It is not in
any man's option long to pay for labour or for anything
else more than it is worth. Bit by bit, the folly will
eat in upon his principal, and make it disappear. Others
who produce or buy more cheaply will be able to afford
to sell more reasonably, and elbow liberality out of
every market. In mercy to the masses themselves,
this will be so. If they are the recipients of wages,
they are also the great consumers of those commodities
for the production of which wages are paid. Cheapness
to them is therefore the most important of all things. It
is not as if this country were independent of foreign con-
ditions. We import and export more than anybody
else. We must sell at the price our rivals wk and our
foreign customers can pay ; else we cannot sell, and
cannot live—or live only in a state of barter, which is a
state of barbarism and poverty. In the interest, there-
fore, most especially of the great body of the workers,
we say that they are best treated when they are so paid
as that the greatest results are produced at the least ex-
pense. The whole secret of our material greatness, which
some say is even the source of our moral greatness, is
simply this—that any given number ofourpopulation will
produce a greater surplus of commodities after all ex-
penses are paid than an, equal number of any other
people, and at a less cost. " Aye—l thought so," says
old Chawbacon, or young Ashstick, "he's coming round
to our woy of thinking at last—with the present cheap
loaf, we must have the wages down." Fair and softly,
friend. Did you never hear the phrase "cheap and
nasty ?" Can't you understand that often the cheapest
things are, in fact, the dearest—that as a general rule
the best article is the cheapest, whatever may be its
price ? In no commodity does this proposition hold so
true as in that of labour. A cheap man is invariably a
costly one. He leaves a smaller surplus of production,
after all costs are paid, than a more expensive workman.
A striking example presents itself in the very foreground
of observation. A great French strategist has given the
relative expense of a soldier in the different countries of
Europe. The British man always is the dearest—the
French the next—the Prussian next —then the Austrian
—lowest of all the Russian. Now, does not this esti-
mate, in the most delicate graduation, follow the com-
parative efficiency of the lethal instrument ? When to
the Muscovite surgeon-general the English physician
expressed his surprise at the excessive morality of his
troops, he was told that they died for want of quinine.
When he was asked why quinine was not got, he said it
was dear, and that a soldier cost nothing ! What has
happened ? No man under the rank of a lieute-
nant has a pair of stockings in the army of the
Czar. The clothing, the food, the camp equipage, the
medical appliances, are all scanty, mean, and bad.
When on campaign, the army steals everything and
pays for nothing ; so that the peasantry fly with
everything eatable, drinkable, and wearable as far from
them as they can get. 11l provided, they have no sta-
mina to resist disease, and on the slightest sickness they
die off by tens of thousands. In the same region, at the
same time, the mortality of the French was very much
less, and that of our well-appointed and stalwart beef-
eaters least of all. The better-fed Turks have prevailed
over the Russians in every encounter. So it is in peace
life. The dearest labourers in the world are the Yankees,
and they are also the cheapest for the work done. The
worst are the Hindoos, who live on a penny per day.
Six Russian serfs, it is said, can scarcely‘do the work of
one English peasant ; and farmers themselves assure us
that in Ireland the spadesman who works for 6d. per
day is dearer in the end than the Scotch hind at is. Bd.
You must put strength into a man beforeyou can get work
out of him. Especially, you must feed the brain, if you
would get skill, character, and 9110 rale out of it. Every-
body knows this in its application to the horse—farmers
ignore it in reference to the man. What stolidity can ex-
ceed such folly ! In Lincolnshire the wages of farm
labourers are 2s. per day. Their employers are the
most prosperous of their class—they themselves are the
best workers. In Berks and Dorset the peasant is re-
duced to ls. 6d., or even less. The result is that more
are needed to do the work, and it is worse done. Can
economy be more penny wise—can meanness be more
pound foolish t What is the result 1 The halt, maimed,
blind, idiotic, prematurely aged, swell the poor-rates.
The people can't live on the poor pittance they receive,
, and crime increases, to the effect of a rapid rise in the
amount of county rates. The women lose the charm
of sex, lose their modesty and virtue, and the cottage
fireside is turned into a hell. When the Anti-Corn-
Law League questioned the Bucks ploughmen how they
lived on 9a. per week, they said they got clothes from the
gentry, but that their boys had to poach and steal. That
is the end of your cheapness. There is scarcely an Eng-
lish farmer in the. West and South whose ploughmen do
not crib the horses' provender and whose waggoners do
not sell his produce to beer-shops on their road, which
are indeed receiving houses perfectly well known to the
county constabulary. Formerly the remedy for inade-
quate wages was the parish pay table. Now the farmers
are the guardians of the Unions, and are practically the
relieving officers. They play into each other's hands in
the management of refractory ploughmen, and the latter
are driven to betake themselves to another dodge. Na-
ture asserts her authority ; low cunning, sharpened by
necessity, becomes the mother of invention 5 what is re-
fused to " hook," is taken by " crook." Farmers should
not blink ibis plain question—" How can a man, his wife
and five children, live on eight or nine shillings a week?"
Let them take a slate, or pen, ink, and paper, and cast up
the account for themselves. We put it to them—will
they contract to maintain a human being in this country
on twopence per day ? Is it possible to keep soul and
body together in this climate on Si. a year ! Three
pounds ! Why, their kitchen wench gets as much for
mere tea money. It won't pay for the tuning of their
daughter's piano—scarcely find her in gloves. We never
yet found a farmer who could for the life of him tell how
his ploughmen lived on what he pays them, and yet he
expects that they should find out a way of doing it. So
indeed they do, as the county rates andgaol and workhouse
can testify, unless, indeed, occasionally an exodus in-
stinct seizes on them ; or what is a more common case,
incendiary fires blaze forth from one end of the king-
dom to the other, much to the holy horror of the very
shave-beggars who drove the poor to this last miserable
alternative of destroying the very food from the want of
which they are maddened into arson. Let the employers
take timely warning. Should the rage for emigrating
seize the English, as it has fastened on thelrish peasantry,
from exactly the same cause,. too, 20s. per week may
not in the 'end induce them to -remain ; indeed, the
scarcity in the supply of labour, which has already
doubled wages in the sister island, may very soon pro-