The Sun.
London, England, 1853-11-08 00:00:00

struck, even on Thursday, they would be found
to have largely profited by their operations during
the last few months. If we compare the prices
of Stocks and Shares five months since with the
present quotations, we shall find a large surplus
still remaining in the hands of the Ursine frater-
nity, and no mercy should be shown until they
have surrendered the last farthing.

It now depends on those who have already suf-
fered severely, whether they will let off their in-
defatigable opponents—whether, in fact, they will
themselves construct easy paths for their escape.
If they yield to the temptation of a trifling " back-
wardation"----if they loan their stocks or shares on
any terms—they play the game of their assailants,
and sacrifice their own interests in the most
palpable manner. Let them steadfastly deter-
mine to be true and faithful to each other—
to look to the general welfare rather than
to trifling personal advantages, and they will
find that the quotations will improve, at least,
, two or three per cent., in place of a quarter or
three-eightlis,. Everything, in fact, shows that
th ey can safely do so. The Eastern difficulty may
be considered as " virtually arranged." So says
the Times of this day, and we have no reason to
doubt the accuracy of its intelligence in that re-
spect. Even a pitched battle between the troops
under OMERPAOHA and Prince GORTSCHAKOFF could
scarcely retard, much less prevent, theadjustment of
the dispute. As we have long since pointed out
a slight advantage gained by the Russian:; would
materially promote the settlement, by enabling
NICHOLAS to retire with comparative honour (such
honour as may be awarded to an unscrupulous
invader) from the position he so recklessly as-
sumed. Nor do we see that a Turkish victory
would lead to any opposite result. It might
delay, but would not defeat, the final settlement
agreed upon. A few thousand lites more or less are
nothing to a man exercising despotic power over sixty
or seventy millions of serfs, and who thinks nothing
of the sacrifice of myriads of human beings to the
gratification of his vanity or cupidity—to the
satisfaction of a piece of punctiliousness (similar
to that of the duellist of the last century, a class
now happily unknown), or the promotion of his
own interests, either by way of direct aggrandise-
ment or by crippling the power of his adversary.
Peace is all but certain. Let fundholders and
shareholders consider these things, and refuse to
abandon the advantages they have obtained, or
to let their persecutors off on easy terms, and
they will teach a lesson that cannot easily be for-
gotten, but must be productive of the most salu-
tary results for months to come. •

The unfortunate difficulty between the masters
and operatixes in the manufacturing districts is
daily becoming more complicated, and the pros-
pects of an amicable solution more and more remote.
The angry passions of the parties concerned are
greatly inflamed and exasperated. Each man feels
himself to be deeply injured, and to have well-
founded causes of complaint against his opponents.
The employers see the balances at their bankers
daily decreasing—their liabilities are still coming
round, with unerring exactitude, while the esta-
blishments in which their capital has been in-
vested, and which should provide the means for
liquidating all such demands, are lying idle and
unproductive—the machinery, which had been
erected at an enormous expense, rusting for want
of use. On the other hand, the workmen, who
with their families are enduring the most stringent
privations, ascribe their sufferings to the stern
determination and inflexible resolution of the
masters, in place of attributing them to the true
causes—their own reckless folly, and perverse
infatuation in suffering themselves to be deceived
by the turgid declamations and pompous platitudes
of the mischievous agitators who have led them
so far astray from the path of rectitude and fair
dealing. It is by no means difficult to declaim on

what the would-be leaders are pleased to term
"the rights of labour." It is easy to expatiate
on the villany of " the Cotton Lords, who (for-
sooth) are not in the habit of going to the ale
bench, and not content with drinking their beer,
but who must have their wines, and their servants
to wait on them, and whose wives were luxuriating

in silks and satins, while the operatives muse be
content to wear their miserable cotton dresses."
The Socialist doctrines of full and perfect equa-
lity, and a division of capital among all persons
ready to put in their claims, are easily inculeated
on those who would benefit by the change, and
by the formation of a common fund into which
the entire wealth of the country should be cast for
general distribution. Quod volumus facile credimus,
the half-starved turn-out who was barely supporting
existence on the precarious contributions extorted
from various sources, revelled in the fancy of ample
dinners and hot suppers of the best joints, flanked
with fish, game, or poultry, and washed down
with the rich juice of the grape, or, what might
be even more acceptable, with copious libations
of brandy and water, or, to use their own lan-
guage, of " warm with " or " cold without,"
while the wives, whose humble finery had long
since been consigned to the safe keeping of the
pawnbrokers of the district, who had not even
the " miserable cotton dresses to wear," indulged
in making dreams of flowing robes of silk or
satin, made in the newest style of fashion, and
fitting to the highest degree of perfection. Who
would not follow out the paths leading to such
brilliant results ? who would not render himself
or herself worthy a place in the Cowellian
paradise by submitting for a brief period to
the necessary privations, and obeying, with ser-
vile and unreasoning fidelity, the despotic or-
ders of the commander who promised so glorious
a termination to the contest between " labour
and capital"--not merely the emancipation, but the
unequivocal triumph of the former—" the des-
tinies of trade" being placed under the control of
committees, and to be settled at nightly confer-
ences, during by no means d
various public-houses? yet ?his
debates, in the
isthe boasted
intelligence of the operatives who listen with in-
dulgence, and even give some degree of credence
to such unmitigated trash, in place of examining
it by the light of reason and common sense—de-
tecting the palpable illusion, and expelling from
their councils the parties who formed such humble
estimates of their judgment.

Each party then has entered on the internecine
conflict with the most inflexible resolution—to
achieve a victory, and to make the opposite side
bear the expenses of the war. The operatives
look not merely to the present ten per cent. de-
manded unconditionally from all, as well from
those who had made previous advances, as others
who had rejected any addition to the rate of
wages ; but also to obtaining new concessions from
time to time in the shape of increased wages and
reduced hours of work, while the masters not
merely refuse any further concession, but reclaim
those they have already given, declaring that

" whenever the time shall arrive for the re-open-
ing cf the mills, the rate of wages shall be the same
as was paid on or beforelthe Ist of March last—
subject, however, to such alterations as may be
recommended by the committee in particular
cases !"

h
CloVmethus fin,nd that ,
isat
workte mischievousidesisp.irit of
We
cannot blame the masters, for it was necessary
in self-defence. Had they not resorted to the
dangerous weapons first taken up by the opera-
tives they would have been ruined in de-
tail. If unions and confederacies were legal
and justifiable on one side, they were in-
dispensable on the other. But far better
would it be if these Associations were dis-
solved, and that the old law were re-enacted
prohibiting all such confederacies, and requir-
ing each person to settle his own affairs with-
out the interference of officious interraeddlers.
Under the existing law the workman is nominally"
protected in the free disposal of his labour against
any combination of his fellow-workmen ; but Such
is not practically the case, and we fear that the