The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-07 00:00:00

waited and at length arrived that me-
morable Vienna Note which dashed the hopes of
those: who had vainly counted upon the possibility
of witnessing the promised pacification. Dis-
mayed by the atrocity and meanness of that pro-
posal of the Four Powers—a proposal which
would have yielded more to the CZAR than the
CZAR had ever demanded through his emissaries— i
the Divan, nevertheless, consented to accept the
suggestion of its allies, but upon one condi-
tion—that of the Vienna Note being amended
by certain specified modifications. Those modifi-
cations were necessarily regarded as most reason-
able by the British and French Governments.
They were, nevertheless, rejected by the Russian
AUTOCRAT as wholly inadmissible, without com-
promising the dignity (1) of his Government. As
if, forsooth, its dignity had not already been suffi-
ciently compromised! Howbeit, Russia stood re-
solutely by the Vienna Note in its original shape,
while Turkey stood no less resolutely by her pre-
liminary modifications—and so it came to pass
that there was another hitch in the movement of
the diplomatic machinery, another dead lock in
the progress of the pacific negotiations.
Whereupon, fearing for the consequences of this
new delay and unexpected difficulty, the allies of
Turkey once more besought the SULTAN to tarry
yet a brief while longer, addressing his Majesty,
of course, through their Ambassadors at Constan-
tinople. ABD-UL-MEDJID'S reply was brief and
characteristic. He summoned together the Grand
National Council, consisting of the chief digni-
taries of his empire, a body only convened upon
some such extraordinary occasions, at mo-
ments of extreme emergency. The Council was
true to the honour of the Turkish Crown, and to
the instincts of the Turkish population. It urged
the SULTAN to a formal and immediate declaration
of war. That recommendation was consonant
with his own chivalric sentiments. The result is
known—that result, the hurling down of the
gauge of battle by Turkey at the foot of a lawless
assailant, and in the presence of observant Chris-
tendom.

Meanwhile the apologist of the ABERDEEN po-
licy, of the Vienna diplomacy, and of the designs
of the AUTOCRAT are babbling about a further
attempt at a bloodless reconciliation. They are
actually talking about the propitious intelligence
received from Oltnfitz and Warsaw, scenes
of intrigue, where the Russian Emperor is
adroitly luring Austria and Prussia from
the conference. They are proclaiming, iu short,
with matchless effrontery, that the real in-
tentions of the CZAR are eminently pacific in
their character. Certainly, it must be recognised
as wonderfully pacific—the course pursued by the
great northern despot hitherto—the mission of
MENSCHIKOFF—the march of GORTZCHAKOFF—
the seizure of Moldo-Wallachia—and the haughty
rejection of the Turkish modifications ! Can
England any longer be deceived in this manner
by the Earl of ABERDEEN and his creatures ?
Deceived ! the word is too weak : we must resort
to a coarser vocabulary for an epithet sufficiently
expressive Can England any longer be thus
flagrantly and impudently bamboozled by the
Coalition Government?

If working men may combine together, so as
by united action to coerce their employer's, it is
quite certain that the masters may in turn resort
to the same weapon, and use it with terrific force
against the malcontents. It is by no means im-
possible that the masters may " strike" in due
course, and teach a bitter lesson to those who,
not contented with almost unexampled prosperity
and the enjoyment of unwonted comforts, are
aiming at impossibilities, by endeavouring to
produce a state of things that should necessarily
terminate, and that at no very distant period, in
the ruin of all parties concerned, of the workmen
more certainly than of the employers. It is pain-
ful to think of the probable results of the contest
on which the artizans and operatives throughout
the entire country are so recklessly entering.
Deplorable, indeed, will be the consequences to
the wives and children of those who are now
clamouring for an advance of 10 per cent.
without forethought or consideration, and with-
out for a moment taking into account the
state of the Money Market, the enhanced rate
of interest, and the glut of the Australian
and other markets. If the misery fell exclusively
on the ringleaders, or even on the participators
in the movement, it would not be so very lament-
able ; but it is the innocent parties who will be
the chief sufferers ; it is the women and children
who must undergo privations from which they
have long been exempted, but which they must
now be prepared to encounter, through the worse
than folly of those who ought to be their protectors
and guardians. Even of the men themselves many
will be unwillingly drawn into the vortex. They
will stick by their companions through a feeling of
chivalrous honour (for high honour is to be found
among the humble and lowly, as well as amongst
the wealthy and great), but at the same time re-
gret the fatuity that has induced them to listen
to such unwise councils, and to sacrifice their
best interests in seeking after a phantom. The
dog who lost the substance in grasping at the
shadow was not more justly punished for his
grasping cupidity, than the man who, while in
the enjoyment of constant employment, at fair
wages, surrenders both in the fruitless endeavour li
to obtain more than his master can afford to pay.
" The labourer is (unquestionably) worthy of
his hire." There is Scriptural authority for the
maxim which no one would venture to deny, even
if not enforced by so high a sanction. But the
employer is in his own way a " labourer," and is
no less entitled to the legitimate rewards of his
industry and enterprise. If his profits were not
proportioned to his responsibilities, to the care,
anxiety, and risk inseparable from business, no
person would be willing to embark therein. The
mills would remain idle—the factories closed, if
as high interest could be obtained for the use of
capital embarked in other pursuits, involving less
trouble and danger of ultimate loss. It may be
regarded as a mere platitude to assert that the in-
terests of masters and labourers are one and in-
divisible—that anything which operates inju-
riously to the one class must also prejudicially
affect the other. Commonplace though it be, it is
not the less true. The greater the induce-
ments to parties to embark in trade,
the larger will be the amount of capi-
tal invested, and, as a necessary consequence,
the more urgent will be the demand for labour,
and the higher the wages paid. When the mas-
ters are investing their surplus profits in stocks
and shares, the workman will be accumulating in
the savings bank some small provision for a rainy
day ; but when, on the other hand, the master is
resorting to the money lender, and bestowing
" the lion's share" of his profits on those supply-
ing the means of keeping his hands occupied, the
men may be well assured that ere long they them-
selves will be compelled to visit the pawnbroker's,
and to dispense with some of their ordinary
comforts.

Now, nothing is so injurious to trade, nothing
so discouraging to masters, as the discontented
spirit that induces men to listen to mischievous
and designing scoundrels, who, for their own vile
purposes, endeavour to bring the men into colli-
sion with their employers, and abandon their
occupations en mass& " Strikes" are in-
variably attended with the worst results ;
and we believe that we are justified in the
assertion, that nothing can be more injurious to
the interests of the men. than an unsuccessful
strike, save and except one in which the em-
ployers have been obliged to succumb on every
point, to yield to every demand, whether reason-
able or unreasonable. In the former case both
parties will sustain severe losses. The master
will have his machinery lying idle—his capital