The Sun.
London, England, 1853-11-22 00:00:00

TEE S

of the concentration of the forces of GOETZ. I
CHAKOFF, and in defiance of the advancing
reinforcements of OSTEN-SACHEN. Under any
circumstance, the fear of the excitement must
spread not only northward from Roumelia, to
13ulgaria, and thence to Wallachia and onXll‘.
davia, as before intimated, and as alreaM. ap-
parent, but westwards (supposing even it passes
by the Servians, Montenegrins, and Albanians,)
to Bosnia, Croatia, and Herzegovina. Beyond the
Austrian frontiers, moreover, how ripe for a
gigantic outbreak are the patriotic bands in
the fastnesses of Banat, Sclavonia, and Tran-
sylvania! Still further, stretching onwards
to the foot of the Carpathian Mountains,
are there not all the combustible material
for insurrection stored up by the hearths
and in the hearts of the Hungarians ? Again,
across the Russian boundaries, may we not readily
detect upon the instant the prolific germs of a
wide-spread revolution ? All along the Caucasus,
for example, and among the hills and valleys of
Circassia ! Nay, for the most part throughout
the numerous provinces annexed from time to
time by a series of daring robberies to the enor-
mous dominions of the Russian AUTOCRAT !

Let it not be forgotten how recent
are those lawless annexations of territory to
Russia—by which the empire of PETER the GREAT
has been extended gradually round one half of
the Black Sea, until it has become little else than
a, Russian lake, just as France once dreamt of
making a French lake out of the Mediterranean.
It was only in 1783 that Russia seized upon the
Crimea, in 1812 Bessarabia, in 1802 Mingrelia,
in 1814 Georgia, in 1803 Ganja, in 1805 Kara-
bagh, in 1806 Shirvan, and so on from spot to
spot by a series of monstrous spoliations. Suffi-
cient time has not elapsed to allow these different
and fragmentary conquests to become firmly com-
pacted together. Wherefore, the countries bor-
dering on the Black Sea and nominally the pos-
sessions of the AUTOCRAT are ready to hurl away
the yoke under which they have latterly
groaned at the first available opportunity.
They are eager for the signal for revolt ; and
that signal— is it not already audible ? Will
not recruits arrive among the forces of the SULTAN
from other quarters than from Trebizond. and
Anatoli ? Nothing further, indeed, is re-
quired to effect the extraordinary changes
here hinted at, but the energetic assistance
of the Porte by its two great Western allies
—an assistance that France is eager to grant,
but f:om the glory of yielding which assistance
England has hitherto been debarred by the evil
influence of a timorous and vacillating Adminis-
tration.

We recently stated that if the question at issue
between the masters and the operatives in the
manufacturing districts were merely one of wages,
the parties might be suffered "to fight it out
among themselves." We should have added a
proviso—that the increase of wages did not lead
to a diminution of production in an inverse ratio,
and that the enhanced earnings were judiciously
applied in advancing the comforts of families
rather than in promoting drunkenness and profli-
gacy. If the parties were freed from the demoral-
ising influences of the agitators—if they could not
be seduced into public-houses or beer-shops to listen
to inflammatory harangues—if they were inspired
with the conviction that they were imperatively
bound to strain every nerve, to make use of the
most energetic exertions to enable their committee-
men and delegates " to rule the destinies of trade,"
the present demands might possibly be submitted
to. The additional cost of production would un-
questionably cause the great body of manufac-
turers to enter on the " free and unrestricted
competition" to which they are subjected under
great disadvantages. Like the additional weight
imposed on the swift and lasting race-
horse, it would neutralise the superiority
which had been severely tested on many
former occasions, and transfer the prizes to
others of inferior pretensions. There might,
however, be some chance of still retaining a por-
tion of our foreign trade. The energy, the skill,
but above all, the additional monetary power or ca-
pital of British manufacturers might enable them
at least to maintain a forward position in the im-
portant and interesting contest. But the other
matters would completely paralyse their efforts.
Experience teaches us that additional wages to the
working classes are in too many instances synony-
mous with additional idleness and additional drun-
kenness to the bread winners, and diminished
comforts to their families. We have seen the re-
sult of the temporary victory achieved by the col-
liers, when they compelled the mine-owners to pay
the same wages for four hours' work that had
previously been given for eight hours, when, prac-
tically, the value of that species of labour was
doubled in the coal-producing districts, the
families of the colliers did not reap any
practical benefit from the change. Larger
sums were not drawn from the proprietors. No,
the change to them was only discernible in the
diminished produce of their mines—in the smaller
quantity to meet the general demand. The men
who had previously worked eight hours in the
day—no very severe strain upon their muscular
power—afterwards worked only four hours, while
their families were not even as well off as they
had previously been, for, although equal amounts
were drawn from the pay clerks, the bill for
liquor was greatly increased, and constituted
additional demands on the earnings. The four
hours of additional leisure were not harmlessly
or inexpensively passed. The public-house, or
the skittle-ground, absorbed a considerable portion
of the extra time, while the demand for excise-
able liquids was materially increased. The thirsty
revellers did not listen to the exhortations of tee-
totallers, or baulk their inclinations for a " few
extra glasses." They did not practise conviviality
" sitting round a pump." That was certainly
not he ta
p" from whence their inspiration
was drt awn, or which produced the pugnacity
the that led
Poch,' cartoon in
Has
contemporary p our facetious
It is almost unnecessary tto say
e that
ght theeny Bwi lel
r. 'e'
not moderate in their potations, but drank deeply
of the " Pierian spring", honoured by their patron-
age, and that, as a natural coonfselaqbuoeunrcine,g they
society, i n
among
were not unfrequently incapable
effi-
ciently
during the brief periods set aside for that
purpose. Every housekeeper glancing at the coal
merchants' bills, and at the scantily-supplied
grate, can testify as to the resuiltosvetome
general, of the successful
the " black diamonds." Coals, however, can-
not be altogether done without, nor. can
the supply be drawn from other nations,
Not so, however, with manufactured goods, more
especially calicoes, the staple productmionsyory
of the
" Duchy of Lancaster." are an
There
already following closely in " our wake," to hom
a trifling change would transfer the palm
vic-
tory. The high price of provisions at the present
moment might induce the operatives towork full
time (if mills were kept open), but when the re-
duction, which we hope will not long be delayed,
comes, a Saint Tuesday would speedily be added
to the " Saint Monday," and " demi-Saint
Saturday," and the addition of ten per cent. to
wages might, and probably would, lead to 20 per
cent, diminution in production, and an actual
falling off of more than ten per cent. in the
earnings.

We learn, too, on the best authority, how the
leisure time would be spent. Mr. GEORGE
COWELL, the acknowledged leader of the malcon-
tents who, with an affectation of modesty, a clap-
trap intended to catch the plaudits of the gaping
audience, and to let them see what a very fine
fellow he thought himself, " wondered what such a
poor awkward fellow was to do before a London
audience !"
tells us, without disguise or conceal-
ment, that " British artisans will sing in public-
houses and Jon-shops that Britons never shall be

L

slaves !" Now, this may be a very pleasing oc-
cupation to the melodists, but we venture to
doubt if it will be a very profitable one to their
families, or if the practical refutation of the senti-
ment, by their being the unreasoning and obe-
dient serfs of the COWELLS, and SWINGLEHURSTS,
and Hums and MAUDSLAYS, et hoc genus, will
not deprive British manufacturers of the only
remaining advantage they possess, the facility
for obtaining monetary accommodation, and
the cheap use of capital. When these are
gone, farewell to the manufacturing supremacy
of England—farewell to the temporary prosperity
that has induced the hands to turn out for more
than they ever had before. Their passions are
now engaged. Let them, however, examine
the question calmly, and they will speedily per-
ceive that a partial success would be followed by
permanent ruin, and that their worst enemies are
those who have induced them to plunge into the
internecine contest in which they are engaged.

Our Tory contemporaries are endeavouring to
turn the tables on the Liberal party. The strength
of the latter ever since England began to recover
the liberties it lost at the Norman Conquest has
always been in the towns, and very conspicuously
so since the Reform Act of 1832. Very soon
after the passing of that Act it was loudly affirmed
that, what with the division of counties, and the
tenant-at-will voters, the country party had, after
all, got the better in the scramble ; and Lord
JOHN RUSSELL, with characteristic coolness, coupled
with his celebrated finality dogma, the avowal
that he intended in his Bill to give the corn-field
the predominance over the coal-field. He thought
it right and statesman-like to interest the power
of votes to the counties, to neutralise, as he con-
ceived, the activity and intelligence which
nature and habit had conferred on the towns.
We have little doubt that his Lordship's
real opinion was, perhaps is, that town
members should be a kind of political
barristers, pleading their cause before the
landed aristocracy of the kingdom. As he told
Mr. Brum"; he is always very happy to hear the
very valuable opinions of such representatives as
the Hon. Member for Manchester on subjects of
commerce ; but when they venture on imperial
questions, why, that is the province of landlord
statesmen ; merchants and manufacturers should
keep to their counting-houses and their mills. It
has just, however, been discovered that Lord
JOHN was quite mistaken ; he has overdone the
towns with members and defrauded the country !
It is shown that electors are fewer in proportion
to the population, and members fewer in propor-
tion to electors, in the country than in the towns.
The process of calculation is very easy. The
number of inhabitants in the represented towns
and cities is. deducted from the total population,
and a]l the rest set down as belonging to the
country in distinction from the towns. The ab-
surdity of the calculation is apparent as soon as
we open a census list. Our readers can turn to
page 47 in Mr. EDWARD CHESHIRE'S convenient
shilling pamphlet on the census, and ho sees at
once among the B's, Birkenhead 24,285, and
Burnley 20,828 inhabitants, both unrepresented ;
and, glancing over the whole, he finds a host of
unrepresented towns from the size of Arundel
upwards to that of Staley Bridge. If he will
undertake the task of computing the population
of all these, he will find that they aro not far
short of a million, and must contain, at a mode-
rate computation, more than fifty thousand voters.
These subtracted from the county electors and added
to the town electors, would make the present number
of town and county electors pretty nearly equal.
But there are other things to be taken into
account. The CHANDOS clause voters in 1843
amounted to nearly 110,000 ; these ought to be
all deducted also. They are in no sense inde-
pendent electors. They do not represent their
own opinions. As Mr. BERKELEY said of them,
in his place in the House of Commons, they are
mere " Buck rabbits," passively transferred from
candidate to candidate at the will of their land-
lords, and as tame as the long-eared gentry under
the process. They are landlords' counters, not
voters, and the number of their landlords is the
true number of the voters. Making this deduction
also, the Borough electors would outnumber those
of the country by about a hundred thousand.
Then, again, the sixty-seven boroughs which
Lord JoUN tried in 1852 to save by making little
counties of them, these are, in fact, nearly all of
them landlord boroughs ; they were preserved as
instruments in the hands of some great neigh-
bouring proprietor; because the authors of the
Reform Bill either would not overlook a Whig
supporter, or had to conciliate some formidable
Tory opponent. It is a favourable sign of the
times that even the great ABERDEEN Journal
acknowledges, we will do it the justice to say
urges, that these boroughs ought to be dealt with
without respect of party, and on some clear and
rigidly applied principle.
Surely, moreover, our Conservative friends do
not forget that we have a House of Lords. A
house of landlords and aristocracy combined. The
country party in reality engrosses the whole of
one branch of the Legislature, and at present is
in a majority of everything but knowledge and
intelligence in another. We suppose the property
qualification is to be given up, and do not, there-
fore, include that in the country party's gain ; but
with the House of Lords as it is, it would surely
be the excess of unfairness to demand that the
number of members returned by towns should be
reduced, or to refuse to make those who are now
but nominally borough members really so.
For ourselves, however, we object to all the
tinkering by which some who call themselves
statesmen, and the majority of party men, en-
deavour to secure a representation of classes, as
they term it—of their party they should say.
If the majority of the people be Tories, why
let us have Tories in office, and let the same
rule decide for a Whig or a Radical Govern-
ment if needs be. Let us take the nation as
it is, and not seek to shape it into a RUSSELL,
a DERBY, or a JOSEPH HUME mould. Make
the representation impartial, and free discus-
sion will do all the rest. The dissatisfaction, ever
liable to arise with the former, is due to the
artificial attempts of Reformers to secure that
electoral numbers shall be on the side of their
favourite maxims of Government. It is a folly
only different in degree from the continental
failures of constitutions made for the people, in-
stead of constitutions which took the people as
they found them. Now, what do the people
really desire ? They wish, first of all, to be gene-
rally represented. They do not like, at least six-
sevenths of them do not, to be wholly passed over
at every election. They wish next to give their
vote without fear or favour ; to vote indepen-
dently of another's frown or smile. These are
the two substantial wants of the country. The
right to vote, and an independent vote. Grant
these (and the last is first in importance), and we
care nothing about the division into town and
country. The political distinction between
the people of the towns and the country was
buried in the grave of Protection. What has
either class now to ask of the other ? What
has either to fight about in Parliament ? Taxa-
tion is fast approaching to equality, at least to
with their estates into a
tt the
e hanldasttoerf
canth wishe it.
Mercan-
tile Classes, as
ter:di
Nothing can save the relics
of Feudalism from
gradual absorption by the wealth of the indus-
trious classes, and coming generations
less, see the landed and commercial aristocracies
of the country separated by nothing but their
diverse pursuits and habits. The farm and the
estate are rapidly becoming manufactories, and
the manufactories are swelling to princely mag-
nitude, style, and importance.
In our view, then, an equal and common suf-
frage, and one widely extended too, affords the
most reasonable prospects for perpetuity. Large
constituencies and the ballot--the only plausible
antidote to corruption, and, above all, to intimi-
dation. Grant us these, and divide the new con-
stituencies with any approach to fairness, and
we care but little whether counties or towns get
a few members more or less in the Reform Bill of
1854.