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

STRIKES.-LABOUR QUESTION.

(From the Weekly Dispatch.) 'ol' tv; S PAP Eft
Ovid describes ages of gold, of brass, and of iron. 'ha ;!,---,;,,e
general notion of the state of the Millennium, aSa.op,e-':tqs 1:1-::i;., a
,`,,,,,„
persons of sanguine piety, appears to be that ai-lesso 4:4\;,e),
".,
tion to the Paradisaic time ; and the progressive4l4o4„V
of our day seem to regard the tendency of even, -1. .-4--aivw. ili3O,-.1
like manner casting back to the period of an a 4111.4 :-U.--F1.4 '''7,-;:41, 144
dispensation—using the term not in a mere me*lrVer7474 fi:34.
but in a moral and mental sense. It seems td,,bl WP-A9/
pretty evident that there is a general expeotation a a
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 hintedthat 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 reproduce just—nothing. Then another detachment
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, alarming
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 absorbants, 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 cubel 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 hie
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." In
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, a Sunday junketting, a Monday expedition in
subscription waggons, often a Tuesday of headache and
idleness into the bargain, where is the evidence of under
payment ? 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 lec-
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 labour,"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 in 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•
-ion 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
4snce 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 2C)
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 savecl,
but eaten, or rather drunken—the Saint Monday and.
the half-Tuesday, and arehalf-Saturday,ives
are not
beaten;
ss
proved, but dissipated and lost—
into drunken drabs, children
are neglected into
habits give
rags and pickery—simple andsevere
of ease,bere fo us the horror
to artificial wants
apinadcefatloseindlounlggeinngcse. and love
love
- Se waste of time, labour,
and misery that will follow.
must come to an end ire
and money oonfeycocnagnunmopttiloonn,gubnescscuosnitapanneide.d
bTyhaecofer:.ersfuplonidn...
on of commodities. Front
an exree scarcity and
diminishedins enlargement
ecapital
ofal
and production,exhausi
February to June
these easoe strikes
amount
la-
upon very n htihgeh
_but which it will take years of
spoke merely in
dmeenni t:l italists or employers, we would ad -
redeem. If we
labouring
s vcael classes s
the interests of the cap
to
go on in theirinsane career. Al-
balnedtosocoffneritensugpla
vise the working la.
have Dicade the money market easier, and raised
rConsols.ead y
they They have just struck at the time when masters
forced up prices all,
tle they
found they were beginningtot o over-trade.especiallyß ytproducingvleist,-
av be seen in the cost of coals ; and if they could get;
Zweek in place of 305., the only result would be that
the
as
slol7loaf would be at 55., and the whole stock for I%
months' consumption would be eaten up in six, leaving
es 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 ass
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 bottoms
of the principle which suggested sumptuary laws. Luxury
and ease are not granted by the
one man
by double work by an can arrangementsonly b ofe
snuast
tnari en to
ce
another. Superfluity to a workman
now will certainly be redressed by indigence hereafter.
If nobody works, soon nobody shall eat. If 10 per
cent. 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."

DESTRUMI37II FIRE iv BRIGUTON.—ShortIy before
daybreak yesterday (Sunday) morning a fire broke out;
in the Circus, in Edward-street, and in 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 seriea
of dissolving views has been exhibited. The pictures
and apparatus connected with this exhibition are totally
destroyed, the proprietor estimating his loss at 300/. The
origin of the fire has not been ascertained,
but, as the
visitors were allowed to smoke within the building it I
conjectured that the disaster may have been caused b.;
the ashes of a pipe or cigar havingbeen carelessly throw
smog the sawdust with which the floor TjeSS etrewn.