The Sun.
London, England, 1854-04-03 00:00:00

WAGES.

On Saturday evening this establishment commenced
its campaign for the season, before a very crowded and
fashionable audience. Being now without a rival in the
metroplis, and having at its head a gentleman whose
enterprise and liberality of management is well known,
it will be hard indeed, if with the growing taste of the
public for high class operatic entertainments, the season
of 1854 does not turn out to be not only one of the most
brilliant, but one of the most successful on record. Mr.
Gye is to be felicitated in having been enabled to open
with one of the masterpieces, if not the masterpiece, of
Italian lyric art—William Tell--instead of one of those
minor operas, pretty and pleasing in themselves but of no
musical importance, with which it had been too long the
practice to open operatic seasons, leaving th e majoresDei for
after Easter. The very splendid manner in which this opera
is scenically illustrated at the Royal Italian Opera is
well known. So Also are the personations of the cha-
racters of Arnoldo, Tell, and Gessler, by Signor Tam-
berlik, Ronconi, and Tagliafico ; but there was Same
novelties in the performance which demand special
notice. The first of these was the debut of Madlle.
Maria, in the character of Matilda, formerly sustained
with great excellence by Madame Castellan, now no
longer a member of the Covent Garden company. The
second was the substitution of Madlle. Nantie'e Didiee
for Madlle. Berina, in the small but important part o
Jemmy, which wasa decided improvement. The entrance
of Madlle. Maria excited a murnier of satisfaction.
In form of middle height, slender and grace-
ful, her features are frank and intelligent—
while her fair complexion and almost flaxen ringlets
indicates her foreign origin. The voice of the
debutante is a clear, pure soprano, capable of much ex-
pression, of excellent manner, and showine; careful train-
ing ; while its facile powers in fiariture, and its occa-
sional indications of a vigorous breadth and power, all
gave token of an acquisition to the establishment.
Mdlle. Marai manifested not the slightest stage timidity
or awkwardness of motion. She had little in the cha-
racter to display her dramatic powers, but the little she
had to do she did with an intelligence and grace
which gave favourable symptoms of her future prowess.
Despite some shortcomings she was very successful, as
she in certain respects well deserved to be. Madlle.
Didiee made quite a feature on the part of Jernruy.
Well-sung, well-acted, and well-looked, her delineation
was in every respect most satisfactory, and served
materially to heighten the effect of AvAny of Tell',
best scenes, in which, on former occasions, the ad.
mirable Ronconi was forced to bear an undue share of
the labour, and feel the want of being " acted up to."
The greatest piece) of acting in the opera was, as usual,
Ronooni's, where, in the third act, Tell embraces, his
son, previously to executing the tyrant's senteace. The
delivery of the passages commencing "lea, Calma del
tuo cor," and "Resta immobile, e 'NI la terra inchina,"
bore the true stamp of galley,. The rendering of the
whole "conspiracy scene,' which concludes the sec,,,nd
act, was alike creditable to principals and '.norus.
The third act introduces to the habitues a r.ew premier
dan•seuse, Mdlle. Battalini. She is a 'eery rapid per-
former, but last night she did nothing new or extraordi-
nary. The corps de ballet pleases us exceedingly; their
execution of the several cla,nces, not forgetting the Pets
de Soldat, was beatutifull us the extreme, and richly de-
served the applause with which their efforts were ra-
Wllrded. The min ell scene was gorgeous and superb,
and reflected the highest credit on Mr. A. Harris,
who, in this peculiar and important department
stands without either rival or equal, After the opera,
the " National Anthem" was sung, the solo verses being
assigned to Madlle. Marai and Madlle. Didi6e. The
worde “Reatter her enemies," and " Frustrate their
knavish tricks" called forth thunders of applause.

LOSS OF FOUR AMERICAN EMIGRANT SiIIPS.
HORRIBLE SUFFERINGS,

By the arrival of the American ship Pride of the
Ocean in the river on Saturday, from New York, in-
telligence has been received of the loss of the emigrant
ship Sea Nymph, bound to New York from Liverpool,
with passengers, &c. ; and but for the timely aid of the
former vessel all on board would have perished. With
craw and emigrants (the latter all Irish) the number
amounted to upwards of 50. She left Liverpool on the
2lst of February, and had scarcely been out more than
a week before she experienced most terrible weather ;
the gale increased to a hurricane, and her topmast, yards,
and sails wore carried away over the ship's side. Sne then
became utterly unmanageable ; the fearful straining
she had undergone caused her to leak, and as she lay
in the trough of the tempestuous sea, which kept
breaking over and sweeping her deck, her founder-
ing was momentarily expected. She continued in this
critical position for 24 hours, the crew doing their
best in keeping the leak down by pumping and clear-
ing away the wreck. At length the Pride of the Ocean,
bound fcr London, appeared in sight, and on observ-
ing the signal of distress instantly bore down to the
Sea Nymph. Two of the boats were lowered, and after
much difficulty the emigrants—men, women, and chil-
dren—were dragged into them as the boat rose with
the seas alongside. After several trips all were got on
board the Pride of the Ocean, which had brought them
to London. The Sea Nymph was fast settling down
when last seen.

Another loss is reported by the Isaac Webb, which
reached Liverpool on Friday, from New York, with
50 passengers of the ship Russell Sturgeon, bound for
Boston, from the Mersey, She was met with on the
16th of March in a sinking state, having encountered
the same heavy gale as the Sea Nymph. The Isaac
Webb succeeded in taking off the emigrants, and the
Rainbow the captain and crew.

Another loss has been announced in tin) wreck of the
Julie, from Newcastle to New I'. ork, which lost her
topmasts and yards in a gale on the 12th of March.
Two of her hands perished. The remainder were taken
off by the ship Roger.
The barque Orline, St. John, for Barbadoes, was dis-
masted in a gale on Feb. 21 and filled. The second

mate and a seaman were drowned in the cabin. The
captain's wife and a sailor died from exposure on toe
wreck. The survivors were without food, and to sus-
tain life devoured the flesh of the dead sailor. They were
taken off by the Saxonvilli3 in a very deplorable state,
and landed at Boston. Two other Liverpool and New
York ships are missing.

NORTE DURHAM ELECTION.—The election to fill the
vacancy in the representation of the northern division
of this country, caused by the elevation of Viscount
Seaham to the peerage, took place on Saturday at Dur-
ham. The only candidate was Lord Adolphus Vane
(who was unseated for this city last year for bribery by
his agents), son of the late Marquis of Londonderry,
and brother to Lord Seaham, now Earl Vane. The
whole of the proceedings, however, were very dull, and
excited scarcely any interest. Lord Adolphus Vane,
having been preposed by the Hon. Thomas Liddell, and
seconded by Mr. Tanner, was declared duly elected.

REPRESENTATION OF LICHFIELD.—The announcement
that the Hon. F. Calthorpe would be a candidate for
the representation of Lichfield, in the room of Lord
Anson, now Earl of Lichfield, was, if not merely specu-
lative, at least premature. Lord Waterpark, the uncle
of the late member, is the family nominee, and there is
reason to believe that he will be returned without oppo-
sition. His lordship is a strong adherent of the present
Government, ,land this, in addition to the Lichfield
influence, although it is said the electors dislike strangers
and nominees, renders his success all but inevitable.
Should any change take place Major Richard Dyott,
who formerly contested and nearly won the southern
division of Staffordshire, will be brought forward by the
" independent party" as a candidate for the city.
REPRESENTATION OF WEST GLOUCESTERSHIRE.
GLOUCESTER, April I. An address to the electors of
West Gloucestershire was issued to day by Mr. Nigel
Kingscote, one of the members, who has been ordered
on foreign service on the staff of Lord Raglan. The
honourable gentleman after stating the fact, writes, " I
am not insensible of the many evils inseparable from a
state of war, but it is satisfactory to know that in the
present instance war has been resorted to only when
peace was found to be no longer consistent with national
honour. I hope and believe the struggle will be brief,
and I anticipate with pleasure the moment when I may
be enabled to return to the discharge of my duty as
your representative, and to the protection of those liber-
ties and the promotion of those important ;interests
which you have committed to my charge." Mr. Kings-
cote has paired with the Hon. J. P. Maxwell.
REPRESENTATION OF WESTMORELAND.—The election
for a member to represent Westmoreland, in the room
of the late Mr. Alderman Tnompson, took place at
Appleby, on Friday. The Earl of Bective, the son-in-
law of the late member, was the only candidate. Ho
was proposed by Ai r. George E. 'Wilson, and seconded
by Mr. James Gandy. No other person being nomi-
nated, the high sheriff declared the Earl of Bective duly
elected. His lordship afterwards addressed the meeting,
and the usual return having been formally signed by a
few electors, the company dispersed.
REPRESENTATION OF WESTMINSTER.— On Saturday a
deputation from the association of the city of West-
minster waited upon General Sir de Lacy Evans for the
purpose of presenting an address to the gallant general
upon his acceptance of a command in the expeditionary
army, conveying to him their approval of his conduct.
Sir De Lacy Evans, in reply, expressed his thanks to
the deputation, and assured them that if he should be
detained longer abroad than he expected, and if it should
be desired by his constituents, he would resign his seat.
He also expressed his conviction that England and
France ought to send out at least 100,000 troops, in
order to bring the war to a speedy end.—Observer.

FAILURE OF MESSRS. LEROY DE CHABROL AND
COMPANY.—Owing to delay in the French mail yes.
terday, the Loudon agents of Messrs. Leroy de Chabrol
and Co. did not receive any notice of their suspension,
and, holding a balance in their favour, continued to
honour their draughts. Subsequent advices,
lintiv
ever, confirm the event ; and although, in referring
to it, the various letters from Paris express less anxiety
than was expected, there is no doubt it will cause
much embarrassment. The capital of the establish-
ment is estimated at about 480,0001., but a large por-
tion of it seems to have been looked up in shares
and other speculative investments, and the rumour of
their.being in difficulties caused a run upon them by
their depositors, which they were at length unable to
meet, as much as 60,0001. having been taken in one day.
The particulars of their exact position are not yet
known ; but, whatever may be the fate of the share-
boltlers, it is not supposed the general creditors will ulti-
mately be heavy losers.
ILLNESS OF THE RIGHT HON. W. BERESFORD, M.P.
. —The Essex papers announce the serious illness of
Major Beresford, M.P. for the northern division of that
heonat.aiy duties,
gentle
gentleman has been unable to
cattend.untyt o Thihse right
tin

(F 1 ens the 'Weekly Dispatch.)
The sentence pronounced on our first parents has been
called the first curse. It is the greatest of blessings. Idle-
ness is the mother of the vices. Could men eat bread
without any expenditure of Lrain-sweat, no work would
ever be done ; while distempered fancies and diseased
appetites would take the place of natural wants, healthy
desires, and instinctive, longings, to gratify which
the best energies and highest faculties are called into
activity. It was our frequent reflection, during the
agitation of the free-trade question, that the doubt of
the result of the repeal of the corn laws was not whether
prosperity would reward that great act of social
justice, but whether the intelligence and moral at-
tainment of the people would be found capable of
sustaining with moderation and wisdom the tide of good
fortune that was sure to follow. The issue has verified
our forebodings. Employers in all trades have
raised their wages ; and all complain that they
daily get less work done for money paid. Wages and
profits are of use solely as they stimulate reproduction in
the employed, and invention, enterprise, and skill in
the employer. Wages which bribe a man to produce
less are a positive evil—a social nuisance ;if they, in
addition, form a fund solely to consume more, without
replacing the consumption, the end must be national•
bankruptcy and social chaos. We say this essentially in
the interest of the working classes. It is they who are
the first to suffer from the pinch of national adversity—
the last to be relieved from the calamities incident to
commercial pressure. If they receive so much remune-
ration as to be thereby tempted to work less—to in-
crease their profusion and consumption—to squander
and dissipate, without replacing the waste—nothing but
ruin and misery can be the issue. Suppose they had
the realisation of their secret dream and desirel-the
profits of capital as well as the wages of labour—what
would they do with the proceeds ! Can they lay their
hands on their hearts and honestly say that they would
be frugal, saving, and provident? Why are they not
so now, when they have greater need ? Is it because
the smallness of the existing surplus offers no encourage-
ment to the attempt ? lie only who is faithful in a few
things can be lord over many—the fewer the talents
the less reason for hiding them in a napkin, or burying
them in the earth. It matters nothing to society at
large whether the profits of production are enjoyed by
the capitalist or by the operative. What realky does
concern the public is, that profits, by whomenever *re-
alised, should be economised, not Squandered without
replacement—should be accumulated as a future labour
fund, toibrace the sinews of fresh enterprise, and to
afford the means of opening up new sources of produc.
than, What would really become of these profits, or of
an amount of wages greater than the intrinsic value of
the work done for it, need not be difficult of con-
jecture, because we tee before our eyes the applica-
tion made of turplus wages by their recipients.
So long as the operatives can afford to keep a Saint
Monday, all the talk about the "down-trodden sons
of labour" and "the grasping capitalist" is mere fudge
and cant. But is that the only saint's-day of labour 1
A clerk in our employment was, about 18 months ago,
appointed
accountant and cashier of a large colliery and
iron mine in Staffordshire. For a great many years it
had entailed a .very heavy loss on the proprietor. Wages
averaged 3s. 6d. per day. Notwithstanding the great
deficit suffered by their employer, the miners and col-
liers, by striking or threatening to strike, screwed up
the wages by 31 at a time until they have managed to
extract an average rate of ss. per day—thus leaving the
proprietor to suffer all the loss, and bearing off his recent
profits by raising their wages to the extent of his gains.
What is the effect ? Not one man ever appears on
Monday ; a very few on Tuesday ; not a great many on
Wednesday. Many are entirely idle three days out of
every six ; they spend all their surplus earnings on their
lowest appetites ; they raise thereby, to their own class,
the price of coals, iron, and corn ; and they waste on
their craving maw what the capitalist would have saved
for reproduction. It is high time these men should be
assured that the country cannot afford to keep them in
this state. If the middle classes or the employers were
to allow themselves similar leisure, or such indulgences,
they would be ruined in a month. It is very clear that
wages which can afford the means of idleness and dis-
sipation for a third or a half of the ordinary hours
and days of labour are not only adequate, but greatly
above an equitable reward for the value of the ser-
vice. The fact is, the more men in such an inferior
state of moral and mental attainment get for their labour
the less they will produce, the greater will be the fund
for bribing them to dissipation and debauchery, and the
more rapidly will the capital or labour fund of the coun-
try be reduced without any4rrocess of reproduction. But
we have no need to wander from Preston in search of
materials for discussing the question, every day becom-
ing more important, at issue between employers and em-
ployed. Mr. Cowell himself unconsciously groped and
stumbled his way into truth, when he told the Spital-
fields' weavers that, if they succeeded, their satins and
silk velvets would find their best customers in the factory
operatives. Mr. Lowe, the Lancashire correspondent of
the Leader, the great advocate of the Lock-outs, tells us
I that—

Frotn one cause or another it may bo safely estimated
that, even in the best of times, one half of the operative
population aro in debt, and how far they are excusable in
being so may be imagined from the following case, which
is by no means exceptional. A single family in Preston,
consisting of a father, two daughters, and four lads, takes
home weekly at the mill at which they work 85s. 6d. The
sum is made up thus— s. d.
Father, a spinner
Two daughters, in the card room, lls. 3d. each
Eldest daughter, a piecer ll 0
Three lads, in the card room, ss. 6d. each

16 6

85 0
Yet this family is iu debt to the extent of more than 501.
Let us not be accused of partiality cr exaggeration. Mr.
Lowe no doubt states that the case "is by no means ex-
ceptional," and then in his next letter says that it is ex-
ceptional. An income of 221/. a year for a family of thrum-
sters certainly affords no very promising material for the
poetry of those who call weavers " white slaves," and ma-
nufacturers "blood suckers." The writer declares he takes
the statement of earnings of this family from the mouth of
the manufacturer who now employs them. But Mr. J. B.
Horsfall, of Royton, takes him to task for exaggeration,
and gives his own version thus—
The case, when fairly stated, should stand as follows :
s. d.
Father a spinner
Eldest lad, a piecer ll 0
Two daughters, in the card-room, Os. each lB 0
Three lads, at 3s. Gd., 4s. Gd., and ss. 6d l3 6

62 6
To the above may be added the mother and three children
who have no earnings; making in all ten persons who have
to subsist on 625. a week, a trifle over 6s. each, which goes
in the following way :

8. d.

Rent of house, which belongs to master (worth 35.) 4 0
Coals, candles, soap, soda, &c 3 3
Clothes, shoes, hats, caps, stockings, bedding, and
everything in the wearing line for 10 persons l2 6
Taxes, medical fees, schooling, books, &c.
Assistant washerwomen to the family (one day) 2 0
Sundries, which every housewife knows 1 6
Loss of work, through sickness, holidays, break-
downs, &c.

30 9
Thus you see, nearly one•half of the entire income is ex-
pended before a bite of food can be bought.

Now, what we desire to ask, not, indeed, of Cowell and
his corps, nor of those cotton spinners who appear to
think that nothing is good enough for them, but of
the neutral public, is, does this case, as stated
by the operative champion himself, afford any pretext
or apology for a strike,, or a demand for an advance
of 10 per cent ? Is there any such great witchcraft
in spinning and weaving, or rather, in looking on while
the machinery of the capitalist spins and weaves, as that
a family of operatives should be regarded as ground
down and oppressed by an annual income of 162/. 10s. I
Pray, how many well-taught clerks or shopmen get so
much ? What are the average incomes of our dissenting
parsons, or working clergy ? Take a solicitor or bar-
rister, from the time of his admission, through his whole
career, do the class on an average, from first to last,
make more ? Is there anything so unendurable in 3/.
2s. 6d. per week, as that a set of psalm-singing pietists
should raise hymns to the apotheosis of 10 per cent.,
and glorify God by the assurance that his angels look
down in smiling satisfaction upon a call for 3s. 10.,
from hard-hearted millocrats, to sainted carders and
martyred piecers ? These men have just six times the
income of the average wages of our agricultural popula-
lation—three times the average of our shopmen and
clerks twice that of our curates and Dissenting
preachers—more than twice that of our schoolmasters.
Nay, nobody pays school fees or pew rents more grui rig•o•
ingly than these 10 per cent. Gracchi—and so mucl t
they grumble at the living of the poor shopmen, aa‘
they are the great projectors of co-operative s
•t°les, to
of the
save in the prices of their purchases thesalaries
htoould
what
poor "counter-jumpers." A fallacy h
workmen and the public is that operatives
n
deceivessg both
paid according to age and sex, not act
is,
the payw aotf
qrnnnev
ey uistleigh a,3
t
they produce. What they really wiT
skilled able-bodied men for work that an
well done by women and children,
,with
Wall d
tuition, by common labourer s. e oes Mr. R. thus
appeal to the Leader :
e
I am the father of a family.,
sfqii in number with those
in the case stated by Mr.- -11,r a • I carry on a business
in one of the main streets
of a city, and am engaged almost
incessantly behind mycouter, from 7 o'clock in the morn-
ing till 9 at night, with the help of my wife and eldest
daughter. My yearly profits do not subject me to the in-
come tax ; and the rent being left out of the account, I
may put my weekly gains for all household expenditure,
education of my children, &c. &c., at 3Ss. • while Mr.
'Jordan, with a deduction of his rent, will etand at 58s.
6a. Now, considering the difference which necessarily
arises from our different positions as to appearance, what
can his privations be to mine ? My eldest lion is bound
apprentice with a premium, and only one of my children
earns any thing. My case is only a sample of millions in
this country among the trading classes, who have their
lives worried with the labours, the uncertainties, the vexa-
tions and cheatings incident to business ; and yet these
grumbling factory operatives, who have no trouble in mak-
ing out bills, or giving receipt stamps, but only once a
week to hold up their hands for their wages, think them-
selves the harshly-treated and ill-used victims of capi-
talists !
Messrs. Scott, Richmond, and Co., in their trade cir-
cular, state that 1,000 new hands have been imported
into Preston, who acquire the art with great quickness
—that many of the old hands have fallen away from the
strike, and that most of the mills are running. In these
circumstances, with victory in their hands, why have
the masters had the folly t) convert disccmfited plotters
into martyrs, by committing the leaders of the strike for
conspiracy ? The step is false, unwise, unjust--what-
ever the law may he. For the law itself, we think it
very doubtful—as the judges of the land themselves do.
Confident in the certain failure of the absurd principle

_ -
advocated by Cowell, we desire to see both parties fish
the case out without the aid of the law, or the petti-
fogging of attorneyship--assured that the principles of
political economy will vindicate themselves. If they
can not, we would give them up.