The Sun.
London, England, 1853-11-21 00:00:00

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

The lectures of Professor Pryme on the principles and
history of the above-named science, will commence on
Tuesday the 21st of February next, and be continued
every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
INTENDED VISIT OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE
ALBERT.

A meeting of the heads of houses was holden on Satur-
day morning, at Trinity Hall Lodge, whereat arrange-
ments were made for the fitting reception of his Royal
Highness the Prince Chancellor. The Prince, in com-
pany with the Duc de Brabant, is expected to arrive at
Trinity College Lodge, about eleven o'clock en Tuesday
morning, and to remain there until Wednesday afternoon.
The royal party will, during the mornings of Tuesday
and Wednesday, visit the different colleges, the public
library, and other objects of interest in the University.
At five o'clock, on Tuesday, the Prince Chancellor will
hold a reception of the members of the Senate, at Trinity
College Lodge, and afterwards the royal party will dine
with the Vice-Chancellor, Mr. T. C. Geldart, at Trinity
Hall Lodge. A meeting of the town council has been
convened for Tuesday morning, to take into considera-
tion the propriety of presenting addresses of congratula-
tion to his Royal Highness the Prince Albert and his
Serene Highness the Due de Brabant. A rumour is
current that the Prince Chancellor will (in person) con-
fer a degree upon the duke, but nothing is yet known
here for certain with regard to it.

BANQUET TO THE NEW MAYOR OF
GRA VESEND.

On Thursday last, as a compliment to Mr. Dobson,
the newly•elected Mayor of Gravesend, 150 of the prin-
cipal tradesmen of the town invited that gentleman to a
banquet at the New Falcon Hotel. It was gratifying to
observe that parties of all sects in the town mingled on
this occasion, to do honour to their chief. Mr. Dobson
presided, and Dr. Ridge acted as vice-chairman. After
the usual loyal toasts had been disposed of, and the
National Anthem sung by several professionals from
London,

Dr, RIDGE proposed the health of the Mayor. He
said that the assemblage of the respectable tradesmen of
Gravesend, without distinction of party or sect, now
before him, augured well for the future harmony and
prosperity of the town. They had been too long divided
amongst themselves, but happily, as the evening proved,
they were all united in the conviction that the time had
arived when they ought all to pull together. They had
now at the head of their magistracy for the ensuing year
a gentleman of their own choice, and sure he (Dr. Ridge)
was that such choice would be amply justified—(hear)—
by that gentleman's conduct as chief magistrate of their
ancient borough. (Cheers.) For himself he must say,
that he had the utmost coralence that their highly
i
re-
spected and popular Mayor would consult the interests of
all the inhabitants without reference to party or sect ;
that all his efforts in his official capacity would be
directed to promote the prosperity of the borough,
and the harmony and good feeling that should exist
between all parties. (Cheers.) The meeting he had the
honour to address was the most remarkable ever held in
his time in the town. It consisted of men of all parties
in politics, and of different opinions in religion, but united
in the common bond of mutual kindly feeling, as he was
sure it would be united to do full honour to the toast,
which it was a gratifying duty to propose, He would
give them the health of the Mayor, and long n
life to hit
(Great cheering.) The toast was drunk with " nine
times nine, and one cheer more.

The MAYOR (when the cheering, oft repeated, had
subsided), expressed the deep gratification at the enthusi-
astic feeling with which the large and respectable as-
semblage of fellow-townsmen met that night had reci-
procated the cordial and kindly terms in which the Vice-
chairman referred to him, and to his desire to promote
the prosperity of the borough. The assemblage before
him, and the social feeling which animated it, were
highly creditable to the town. They did honour to him
by inviting him to preside over them, but more honour
to themselves, because of the good motive that induced
them to assemble—namely, to sink all differences in the
great object of cordial co-operation in promoting the
general interests of the town. (Cheers.) They should ever
find him ready to aid them in such objects—always ready
and willing to hold out the hand of fella wehip to every fel-
low-townsman sincerely desirous to promote the prosperity
of the borough. (Cheers.) He knew in such pursuit
o tno party, no sect, no distinction of rank, and n_
differ-
ence of opinion; and he thanked them from hisheart for
the kindness with which they responded to the toast
of the Vice•chairman. (Cheers.)
"The Magistrates of Gravesend," "The Tradesmen
of Gravesend," and other appropriate toasts having
drunk and responded to, the party at a late, but not been
unseasonable hour, broke up.

COAL HOLD TATIIIIN, STRAND.—On Saturday, a num-
ber of gentlemen met at this celebrated theatrical
hostelry, to take a parting glass of wine with J ohn
M'Grath, Esq., previous to his embarking on his voyage
presided over
back to Hobart Town. The meeting was
by E. T. Smith, Esq., the Lessee of them Theatre Royal,
Drury Lane, supported by a e nuber of thea
cals and members of the press, who had formed a friend-
ship with Mr. M'Grath during his recent short residence
in England. The Chairman, in an eloquent speech,
alluded to the occasion of the assemblage, and, in speak-
ing of Mr. M'Grath, and the regret felt by his friends
in losing so valuable an acquisition to the intellectual
coteries of the Coal Hole, said that no man within his
(the chairman's) recollection had so speedily won and
secured the good will of a large circale,
how
ofstervaenrg,ersnalnans
had Mr. M'Grath. That gentlernn
amongst them well recommended by the Press
of Australia. One of the chronicles of that great
country reported a dinner given. t o Mr. M'Crrath by
more than a hundred friends, on
hsfewdelpeas
ratiunrtehefocro
course
country—he was happy to find than
of that evening had been present to shake him by the
band, and wish him, with the blessing of God, a cheer-
ful voyage back, and a
i prosperous result to the extensive
commercial speculation which had induced the visit of
himself and his worthyw partner, Mr. Gayler, to this
their mother country.
Mr. M‘Grath's health was drunk
most rapturously,mi expressed 4,1C1 all the kind and flattering enco-
rme srp. 0..
.11 d, responded t o by the esteemed chairman were
in a brief, feeling, and sensible speech by
IYI tirath. The evening was enlivened by several
excellent songs from Mr. William Cockburn, and some
matchless specimens of eloquence from several of the
leading members of the newspaper press, .

.• : - t

-77771-17-7,
.STRIKE4.—LABOc(R:=.O uEsviom
th: c
Ovid describes ages of gold tit' tOtsi; °Anal b:Virotrsticis,
general notion of the state tkf:AlieseillesintoSsi,ehiseidi
persdns of sanguine piety, appeireio testisAllsfiar•Mn't
tion to the Paradisaic time ; andatise
of our day seem to regard the tendeisety ofleentiOtss in
like manner casting back to the period of an aureous
dispensation—using the term not in a mere metallic,
but in a moral and mental sense. It seems to us
pretty evident that there is a general expectation
among mankind that they will be able to live by
their wits, and not at all by their hands ; and•that,
not in the sweat of their face, but in that of their
brains, shall they henceforth eat bread. The old-
fashioned superstition, which hinted that we were to work
for our bread, is altogether exploded. Talk is to supply
the place of labour. If we can describe how a thing is
to be done, the world will dispense with the ceremony of
our doing it. The ancient aphorism about "deeds not
words," is a mere antiquated imbecility. We are all to
live comfortably by scheming, exchanging, trucking, or
projecting—to repose upon the productive energy of the
past, and all resolutely to resolve, that each, for himself
individually, will not trouble himself with the pursuit of
that venerable humdrum social heresy called " an honest
calling." The Church is one huge corporation of unproduc-
tive consumers. Indeed, a rector calls himself an incum-
bent. The cure of souls is by the clergy themselves termed
a "living," and a tenth of the produce of the land is yearly
immolated to the Moloch of their maw, for which they re-
turn or reproducej ust—nothing. Than another detaohment
of " gentlemen of England who live at home at ease,"
are the managers of our hospitals, schools, and charit-
able trusts, from the Earl of Guildford, up or down, to
the chapter of Rochester. There is also the entire body
of the territorial aristocracy, and that enormous, alarmingi
class of the community who " live upon their Money,
or have " retired upon their property ; ' who do nothing,
produce nothing, replace none of the waste they make,
but dissipate and annihilate in consumption far more than
a numerical rateable share of the produce of the country.
We shall say nothing of the Army and Navy, but pass on
at once to the new class of syphons and absorbents, mere
whirlpools and maelstroms of the means of the country
—the surveyors, engineers, contractors, directors, and
officials ofrailway companies, not forgetting parliamentary
agents and counsel, who, according to the belief of
Robert Stephenson, no mean authority, have sucked in
fifty millions of the money of the people to raise them to
the condition of doing nothing for themselves, but of
"having everything found." One of the few true and
clever things which Robert Owen demonstrated was the
exposition of the pyramid of British society, as derived
from the census, in which he showed, by a series of
wooden cubes, fitted to each other, and proportioned with
perfect exactness to the classes composing the elements
of the population, a foundation of producers at the base,
and then piled cube after cube above this, to show the
extent of the superincumbent mass of idlers and non-
producers whom these former had to support. A. great
body of exchangers, distributors, and hitherto useful
members of society, have followed the example of their
betters. They, too, must "live upon their money." They
are tired of the slow progress of saving and gaining
which go on in the warehouse, or behind the counter.
They must take their capital out of their business to
make a fortune all at once in railway stock, or purchase
in freehold land societies. Others must find nuggets
in Australia, or better still, fleece the nugget seekers
when they come, and cheat the nugget finders when
they go ; but at all events, put the success of a scheme
of life on the cast of a die, and by one lucky hit, if pos-
sible, " retire upon their means,', or descend to social
zero until the wheel of fortune turns round again to
give them another chance with the "bones.". These
early closing associations, and half-holiday conventions,
and reduction of hours at factories, and restrictions of
mill hours, and so forth, have all the same object in
view, the living as much as possible without work-
ing ; and now, at last, we can scarcely feel surprised
that the working classes proper should " better the
instruction," and that their own wits, and those of
the fellows who trade upon their ignorance or their pre-
judices, should be set to work to solve that universal
problem, the greatest amount of pay for the smallest
quantity of work. The Ten Hours' Bill—the movement
to exclude women and children altogether from factory
and out-door work—the additional breakfast and dinner
minutes—the two hours on Saturday, and now this
strike for an addition of 10 per cent. to wages, already
higher than they were, and that too at a time when
money is scarce, trade drooping, food dear, war immi-
nent, and raw material advancing in price—all these
have but one tendency, and one end, to get as much,
and to do as little for it as the worker can. This sum-
mer we have been in what is called the "mortar-tub."
The contractor, at last, fairly confessed that. he could not
complete his engagement. He could not get his
men to work except how and when they pleased, and
to speak a word to them was to insure their imme-
diate departure. We were saluted by the solitary brick-
layer's labourer with solicitation for beer—the only brick-
layer was absent without leave two days per week—the
carpenter came and left at his pleasure, as the fumes of
liquor permitted him—the plumber was hunted by his
wife from his work to the public-house—and now the
bell-hanger has been drunk for ten days, and has not
completed in that time work that could have been man-
aged in two. One painter was paid off for the same
cause, to make room for a worse. These are literal facts
in the experience of a single individual in a small under-
taking , and when masters are appealed to, their univer-
sal answer is, " If we say a word to them they will all
leave together, and no work will be done at all." Is
this a picture of general application ? Can any candid
working man deny that it is an " ower true tale?" How
many of them work six, or even five days a week ?
If their wages can afford a Saint Monday and a Saint
Tuesday, :Sunday junketting, a Monday expedition in
subscription waggons, often a Tuesday of headache and
idleness into the bargain, where is the evidence of under
pay •
payment 2 Their employers cannot afford such indul-
gences to themselves. If they were absent as often, and
as long from their business as their men are, they would
soon have no business at all. This is not a teetotal leo-
' ture. We are not going to sing psalms, or preach ser-
mons. But neither are we going to listen to cant and trash
about " down-trodden sons of la bour,"when the state of the
case is really what we have described it. And we must go
further, and add, that these strikes and riots have proved
what we have often asserted, that there is a wide-spread
conspiracy among the idle, turbulent, and drunken, to
domineer over the peaceable, frugal, and industrious,
and to compel thousands of industrious families, by in-
timidation and violence, to starve iu vagrancy, and to
beg the streets, in order to carry out the great aim of
the worthless of all classes, to get as much and do as
little for it as possible. Unfortunately, with all the
warnings received from emigrants, America and Aus-
tralia make the discontented operatives here thoroughly
reckless. They have always in their mind the impres-
sion that, however bad their conduct, and desperate
their circumstances, they can always "clear out" for the
diggings, or lowa, or Wisconsin. It is many years
since we recorded our opinion, that the real doubt in re-
ference to the advantages of free trade was not whether it
would realise all that it promised, but whether it would find
the people strong enough in intelligence and virtue to sus-
tain the rush of prosperity which was is store for them.
That is really our chief difficulty now. We are yearly
becoming less productive Every class is trying to shirk
work ; and the time has come, now more than ever,
when all must be plainly told that, if we do not produce
we cannot consume—that none can reap if none sow—
and that, to pay 10 per cent, more money for doing 20
per cent. less work (and that must be the end of it), is
absolute ruin to all, but especially to the operative
classes themselves. The 10 per cent. is not saved,
tbluiet e
ba taei
fn.
T, oe re
dr
aayt er da
bdr u
hake ifn. s—a
ftuhe Saint
rd
ay,
r
eMondaynet andim
proved, but dissipated and lost—wives are beaten
into drunken drabs, children are neglected into
before
eo artificial wants
and severe habits give
rags and pickery—simple
us the horror
The waste 4f time, labour,
paloadcefittloseindlouil,ggeiongcee.andwrloeveseoef ease,befo
sustained.TThe fearful In-
•
and:„l and money
mi misery
cannotth a that wi 110%1 oz.
production, must come to an end in
crease of consumption, unaccompanied by a correspond.
ing enlargement of
exhaustion of commodities. From
we anticipate an extreme scarcity and
February diminished
to capital
efo oe and
and these strikes. will have brought
upon the labouring classes an amount of privation la-
mentablevery high :were.
l e
rs, spokewe would merelyadin
to contemplate,ne but which it will take years of
the interests of mor• employers,
go on in their insane career. Al-
denial and sufftirbiengeatpoitryfsetee
made the money market easier, and raised
Al-
ready they have
t the t.
They have just struck a e time when masters
Consols.
vise the working classes to
found they were beginning to over-trade. By producing lit-
tle theyf orced up prices to all, but especially to themselves,
as may be seen in the cost of coals ; and if they could get
a week in place of 305., the only result would he that
:I°le. loaf would be at 55., and the whole stock for 12
months consumption would be eaten up in six, leaving
us to suck our paws or stew our old boots until next
harvest, while fuel would be so dear that colliers would
work only one day a week as a great favour, and at last
we would not command as much fire as would boil an
egg. These are not hypothetical results, as witness
prices in Australia, which are the result not of scarcity
of supply, but of abundance of money. Depend upon it
those men were not mere wiseacres who declaimed against
luxury and indulgence. There was some truth at the bottom
which
esdu
ao
bf tdheeapsreianlceipnloetwg suggested ey
tsht ee sumptuarydarr
nernarrangements
n.
aLtuuxreuryto
mankind. Idleness in one man can only be sustained
by double work by another. Superfluity to.a workman
now will certainly be redressed by indigence hereafter.
if nobody works, soon nobody shall eat. If 10 per
cents of the capital of the country is spent without any-
thing more in the shape of production to show for it, the
waste must be made up by less pay and more work, or
the future privation will be all the greater. There is no
one class of the community free from the censure which
these propositions imply. We have been all gambling
with fortune to find a royal road to competency without
legitimately earning it. It is high time we resolved to
" keep the shop, that the shop may keep us."

DESTRUCTIVE FIRE AT BRIGHTON.—Shortly before
daybreak yesterday (Sunday) morning a fire broke out
in the Cirens, in Edward-street, and so rapid was the
progress of the flames that, notwithstanding the prompt
attendance of the police force, who directed the hose
from the water company's mains upon the building, in
less than half an hour the roof fell in, and the edifice was
totally destroyed, together with a refreshment booth ad-
joining. The circus has recently been used for a variety
of entertainments, and during the past fortnight a series
of dissolving views has been exhibited. The pictures
and apparatus connected with this exhibition are totally
destroyed, the proprietor estimating his loss at 8001: The
origin of the fire has not been ascertained, but, as the
visitors were allowed to smoke within the building it is e
conjectured that the disaster may have been caused by
the ashes of a pipe or cigar ha.vingbeen careless ly hrlawn
among the sawdust with which the flooi.' strewn.