The Sun.
London, England, 1853-08-24 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 24, 1853.

BANK OF DEPOSIT,
7, St. Martin's•place, Trafalgar-square, London.
Parties desirous of Investing Money are requested to examine the
Plan of this Institution, by which a high Rate of Interest may be
obtained with perfect security.
Interest payable in January and July.
• PETER MORRISON, Managing Director.
Prospectuses free on application.

Tvir R. ALBERT SMITH'S MONT BLANC,
TO-NIGHT (TUESDAY), at 8 o'clock. Stalls, 35., which
cart be secured at the Box-office every day from I I to 4 ; Area, 2s. ;
Gallery, is. A Morning Performance every Tuesday acd Saturday,
at 3 o'clock.—Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly.

SHOOTING, LOUNGING, or TRAVELLING.
—G iRMENTS adapted for the above purposes may be viewed
in great variety, each being suitable for what is required, and very
moderato in cost.—R. J. and D. NICOLL, Merchant clothiers,
Paletot Patentees, 114, 116, 118, 120, Regent street, and 22, Cornhill.

SOYER'S AROMATIC MUSTARD.-
ky This pure and delicious preparation may now be had in small
jars for the use of Famt ies. of most Grocers Plid Druggists in the
Kingdom ; also, Mons. Soyer's esteemed Sauces and Relish.
Wholesale of his sole Agents, CROSSE and BLACKWELL, 41,
Soho Square.

OH ! HOW CHEAP GROUSE ARE AT
LEADENHALL MARKE C.—Grouse, in consequence of the
immense supplies, are to be had at 12s , 18s„ and 245. per dozen.
Westphalia and York Hams, a fresh supply, very choice, at Bd. per
lb., of GEORGE BROOKE and CO., Leadenhall Market.

ROYAL POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTION.
PATRON—H.R.H. PRINCE ALBERT.
LEcTugEs.—By J. H. Pepper, Esq.: On PHOTOGRAPHY, with
Illustrations, Mornings and Evenings.
By Dr. Bachboffuer : On ELECTRO-GILDING and
SILVERING.
The LANCASHIRE SEWING MACHINE exhibited in -Use
and explained Daily.
On TUESDAYS and FRIDAYS, at Four o'clock, and Every Even-
ing (except Saturday) at Nine, the FIRST PART of an HISTORI-
CAL LECTURE on " THE THAMES," from its Source to its
Estuary, by GEORGE BUCKLAND, Esq., assisted by Miss Blanche
Younge, with appropriate Songs and Dissolving Scenery.
Open Mornings and Evenings. Admission, is.; Schools, and
Children under Ten years of age Half-Price.

DVBLIN INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION.-
CONTINUATION of MARCUS'S CHEAP EXCURSIONS
from LONDON to DUBLIN and BACK.

Enclosed carriages .•• ..
First class ...... • • ........ ...... • • • 50s.
On MONDAY, 29th, from the Euston-square Station, at a
quarter past Six, a.m.
Tickets, bills, and farther information can be obtained of Henry
R. Marcus, 234, Crosby-hall Chambers, 25, Blshopgate-street, City,
London.

LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERN RAIL-
WAY.—CONTINUATION of MARCUS'S CHEAP EX-
CURSIONS FROM LONDON and BACK, TO LIVERPOOL or
MANCHESTER, 18s.; PRESTON, 20s. ; HUDDERSFIELD, 183.;
CHESTER, 18s.; BANGOR, 225. 6d. ; CONWAY, 213.; SHREWS-
BURY. .ss. ; STAFFORD, 12s. (ENCLOSED CARRIAGES). Children
under 12 years of age Half-price. From the Euston-square Station,
on MONDAY. August 29th, at 12 o'Clock noon. Tickets,
bills, and further information can be obtained of Henry R. Marcus,
231, Crosby Hall Chambers; 25, Bishopsgate-street, City, London.

SUBMARINE AND EUROPEAN
TELEGRAPH COMPANIES.

OPENING to BIRMINGHAM, and GREAT REDUCTION of

TARIFF.

Messages of 20 Words are now sent between Birmingham and
London for One Shillinc.
Each additional 10 words or fraction of 10 words, Sixpence.
No Porterage charged for the first mile from any of the Compa-
nies' stations.
Each mile after the first mile, Sixpence.
Cortices :—London, 30, Cornhill ; Birmingham, 104, New-street;
Dover, 7, Clarence-place; Deal, 100, Beach-street.
(By order.) G. L. PARROTT, Secretary.

SUBMARINE AND EUROPEAN
TELEGRAPH COMPANIES.
REDUCTION of CHARGE TO and FROM the CONTINENT.
No Porterage is now charged by this company upon Messages
transmitted to the Continent—France excepted.
Messages from the Continent, including France, will be delivered
Free within a circuit of One Mile.
Beyond that distance Sixpence per mile only will be charged.
Offices :-104, New•street, Birmingham; and 30, Cornhill, London.
(By order.) G. L. PARROT r, Secretary.

ALLSOPP'S PALE ALE. The WARM
WEATHER.—The recognised beverage in India for persons
of both sexes is ALLSOPP'6 PALE ALE, where its healthful and
Invigorating effects have been long recognised, and supplied in the
finest condition. Bottles, Bs. per dozen quarts ; pints, 55.; half-pints,
3s.—lmperial me +sure only (by which the public gala one-third);
and kilderkins, 18 gallons (for draught), 30s.
HARRINGTON PARKER, 5%, Pall-Mall.

QPORTING SEASON, 1853. -F. JOYCE'S
k... 7 ANTI-CORROSIVE and TREBLY-WATER-PROOFED PERCUSSION
CAPS, for General Shooting, and very Wet Weather, may be had as
usual of most Gunmakers in Town and Country. Sportsmen de-
sirous of obtaining Caps that can be fully depended ea, and free
from those corrosive qualities so injurious to the Gun, are requeste
to observe the name and address of " F. Joyce, Original Inventor
and Sole Manufacturer," on each sealed package, without which
they are pot genuine. This precaution is rendered necessary, by
some unprincipled individuals having imitated the labels and wrap-
pers. Joyce's Improved Wire Cartrktzes and Chemically-prepared
Waddings of a superior description.—Goods manufactured to suit all
climates.—Wholevale Warehouse, 57, Upper Thames-street, London.

CREWS'S CHLORIDE OF ZINC,
the best and Cheapest Disinfecting Fluid for the purification
of Ship's Holds, Cesspools, Drains, Water-closets, &c. ; the Disin-
fection of Sick Rooms, Clothing, Linen, and for the Prevention of
Contagion.
Chloride of Zinc, as the best Disinfecting and purifying agent, is
now established beyond all doubt. It is perfectly harmless in its
application and innoxious in itself. The high price at which it has
hitherto been so.d has prevented its general use; to obviate this
obstacle to its universal application as a disinfecting and purifying
agent, the present manufacturer, who was many years with Sir W.
Burnett's Company, has arranged to supply the public with concen-
trated Chloride of Zinc in its greatest purity and at the lowest price.
It is sold by all Chemists and Shipping Agents in the United King-
dom, in Imperial Quart Bottles at 2s. 6d. each, and in larger vessels
at 6s. per Gallon.
Each Bottle will be accompanied with instructions for its dilution
and use. Concentrated Chloride of Zinc in use may be diluted with
200 times its quantity of water.
Orders executed by the Sole Agents, Messrs. Drew, Heyward, and
Barron, Bush-lane, Cannon-street.
Manufactured at H. G. GRAY'S, Commercial Wharf, Mile End,
London.

SUMMER.—Ladies will find the application of
ROWLANDS' KALY DOR
gratefully refreshing in preserving the delicacy and beauty of the
complexion from the baneful influence of the sun and dust, dispelling
the cloud of languor arid relaxation, allaying all heat and irritability,
and immediately affording the pleasing sensation attending restored
elasticity and healthful state of the skin. Composed of choice exotics
of balsamic nature, uti erly free from all mineral admixture, and pleas-
ing and delightful in its effects, Rowlands' Kalydor tends to neutralise
the effects of the atmosphere upon the Skin, and to promote the healthy
action of the minute secretory vessels, by which its general well.
being, and the beauty of its appearalice, are so essentially promoted.
Freckles, Tan, Spots, Pimples, Flushes, and Discoloration fly before
its app,ication, and give place to delicate clearness with the glow of
beauty and of bloom. In c .ses of Sunburn, or Stings of Insects, its
virtues have long been acknowledged.—Price 4s. 6d. and Bs. 6d. per
bottle.
CAUTION.—The words " Rowlands' Kalydor" are on the wrapper
of each bottle.
Sold by A. Rowland and Sons, 20, Hatton-garden, London, and
by all Chemists and Perfumers.

BRITISH COLLEGE of HEALTH NEW-
ROAD, LONDON.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH of JAMES 15/ORISON, the Hygeist,
with the reasons that led him to the discovery of the Hygetan System
of Medicine and the Vegetable Universal Medicine ( Morbon's Pills),
after thirty-five years of inexpressible suffering under the medical
faculty :—" James Morison, the youngest son of Alexander Mori-
son, Esq., was born at Bognie, in the county of Aberdeen, in the
year 1770. The family has been long known as one of great a filu-
ence and respectability, and the subject of this brief sketch was the
second brother of John Morison, late member for Banffshire. In
early life he studied at the University of Aberdeen, and after-
wards at Hanau, in Germany, being intended for the mercan-
tile profession. After finishing his studies, he resided at Riga,
as a merchant, and subsequently in the West Indies, where
he acquired considerable West India property. Having suffered
much from ill health, he was obliged to leave that country and pro-
ceed to Europe, seeking from change of clime a restoration to
health. h e cannot do better than describe the foll'wing interesting
particulars given by himself in the Morisoniana :—" A thirty-five
years' inexpressible suffering, both of body and mind, is an event
too. which falls but to the lot of few, if of any at all. Had it pleased
God to have called me out of this world eight years ago, I should
have died as another man, and been forgotten, and the world could
have reaped no benefit from my case and misfortunes nor from the
favourable effects produced by the same means on my children. This
is a guarantee to the world not often to be met with, and a convincing
proof of the motto prefixed to this advice, that ` Health and old age
are within the reach of us all.' " For the remainder of the biography
see the abridged Morisoniana, price 6d., to be had of all the agents
for the sale of Morison's Pills. Family motto—lino Ictu—at one
blow. Family estate—Strawberry-vale, Finchley, Middlesex.

MEDICAL AD VICE ON THE SECRET INFIRMITIES OF
YOUTH AND MATURITY.
DR. SAMUEL LA'MERT, 37, BEDFORD-SQUARE, LONDON
Doctor of Medicine, and Matriculated Member of the University e
Edinburgh, Honorary Member of the London Hospital Medical
Society, Licentiate of Apothecaries' Hall, London, &c., &c.
MAY be consulted, personally, or by letter, on
the various disorders of the nervous and generative system,
resulting from juvenile Irregularities and excesses, which have pro-
duced more misery in youth, degradation in manhood, and prema-
ture decay at all stages of life, than perhaps any other class of dis-
eases known to modern pathologists. Long and practical experience
in the treatment of these diseases has proved that there are in exist-
ence secret causes of self-acquired miseries and disappointed hopes in
and their
existence, traceable to certain pernicious habits, to which Nervous
Debilityages ;in,
po tvariousencyforms
Localo of
ana Insanity,
ConstitutionalU nhap yWeakness, and Unfruitful
endless modifications owe their almost entire origin.
r ciisp
lae
sb soofl upt e r
se yonecessary
g.tehma te
na it l
wmh
enh schaonu ln do
tl nb
eo v
ot
lbaat te
dtherewithout
p
incurring grievous penalties, and when wisdom and regret succeed
the heyday of inconsiderate self-indulgence, how these penalties
may be mitigated, bow the sting of their bitterness may be removed,
and how the evil and its consequent es may be avoided, and above all,
that there is scarcely any degree of physical infirmity or functional
derangement to which the timely aid of science cannot apply a cure
DOCTOR LA'MERT has for a long series of years been engaged
in an extensive practice in the treatment of these delicate com-
plaints, and is the only legally qualified Physician who, regardless
of the taunts and envy of the hypocritical and mock-modest, has had
the confidence, through the medium of the public press, to direct
attention to these enormous evils, from which no grade of society is
tree. In selecting thiii department of practice, he has been amply
rtereeawraeatmrodfeenudntbctoyufautthhne,,e
eedgreat success that has attended his efforts in the
acandesignwohraint which
are too
toogewnheroal, lwyicthontreedir
pirated
oirattleide
publications, assumed foreign names and titles, and pretended virtues
haveAt
hboeemneinfdoiriceedonstoupiltaactieonfaidthaiilyn tfrhoemir pErieetyeennsiotinlls. Two,
of their patent nostrums, have inflicted serious injury on those who
and from
Six till Eight. All letters must contain the fee of I/.' and advice and
medicines can be forwarded to any initials or address.
It is desirahle that patients wishing
SELF-PRESERVATION.
eL FPI t
PhilosophyE S E R Vo fAT I O N .
A Medical Treatise on
to consult Dr. LA'AIETIT
should first obtain a copy of his work on
Marriage and Nervous and
Generative Debility, illustrated by fifty-coloured engravings, and des-
cribing in detail the various disorders resulting from secret habits and
excesses. The eases of this treatise will assist in the correct
description of their , and may be had, price 2s 6d, in English,
French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, or German, of Messrs. Piper
Brothers and Co., 23, Paternoster-row; Hannay, 63, Oxford-street;
Mann, 39, Cornhill ; Storm, Titchborne-street,
Haymarket; or free
by post for forty-two stamps, to any.addrer from the Author's reai-
' dance, 37, BBDIOSD-6QUAllra LONDON.

AUSTRALIAN FORTUNE-HUNTING•

thete Times.)
It is the ever-repeatedwonder
where the wretches come from that suddenly ap-
pear in times of revolution and tumult.. They must
spring out of the earth ; they must be born in the
gutters ; hidden cellars must of historians,
overflow with them ;
they must drop from unkno.wngarr garrets, or emerge
from the sewers like ratsinundation.
time of
and
But there is another problem
that is, where all the fools c not less curious,.rethe
e from. A
forced like mustard and orcress,imported in )ship-
loads like early cherries There 'article what-
ever of which the supply is e is. no,
and
Inso entirely
. alwayso_
in excess of the demand.
£ s. d„ how would the Hebrews
the sacreo.
butnfamte
this
fact The dispersed children exist orl hni
of Israel would og
ere this have been driven back to their own
beg-
garly Jerusalem, were it not that every season
brings a fresh supply of young gentlemen wanting
accommodation,,,
or
young housekeepers fre-
quenting auction-rooms. Cert • aln3- Y the experience
one for the modern
of this metropolis might prepare
Argo,sailing to Australia. We
don't'
the ship of fools
call a man a fool who, having
a good broad
back, loins well packed with •
new, brawny arms
the hide of a rhinoceros, andsi more than all, the
heart of a lion, cannot keep thin noble machine in
proper condition on 10s. a week,
up .sixty
one week,
and intermitted the next ; and therefore hies off
can
to the diggins. If in England he d
onothing
better than ply the pick or the
. spade, or perhaps
on carrying 501 b. of. .brim
xtyrounds of
f‘adder, from 6 in the mOrniag to d •
in the evening,
and all for 2s. a-day, which will barely keep him-
self, not to speak of wife and child, he is no fool
for going where sinew and bone a man stand
in
more stead. No, he is the man for Australia. He is
the true lord of the golden soil. England, with its
parish allowances, its workhouses, its
stone-yards,
water gruel, and Mr. Chadwick, •
ls no place for
him. In Australia he is a moving mine of wealth,
a living nugget of gold, a rich vein of
auriferous
quartz, a real crushing machine. Let him go, and
he will
find his place. Only let him beware of strong
drink, whether for thirst or for pride. Let him
eschew evil company, and keep the middle of the
road as he walks through the streets of Melbourne
after nightfall. Above all, let him not be too fond
of showing his belt round his body, and his nugget
of sixty ounces in his breeches pocket. With these
and a few other cautions the Briton, be he Saxon
or Celt, may pick up enough in a few years to pur-
chase a farm or open a shop in his own country.
So also may the carpenter, the blacksmith, the
bricklayer, and any other whose labour is manual,
and whose craft is of the useful and elementary
sort. The stout domestic servant will get on well
there. None of these are fools for going to Aus-
tralia. Who are the fools, then ? Superfluous
clerks, redundant fine gentlemen, crack-brained
scholars, neer-do-well fellows of all sorts, hypo-
chondriac milliners, poets with no readers, flunkies
with no characters, and individuals of no profession,
class, or description whatever. They are fools in
England, and they will be still worse fools in
Australia.
Let us take our modern Argonaut—some clerk or
shopman, sick of 501. a-year, threepenny busses,
half-price at the Adelphi, frock-coats in the best
style at 265. 9d., and general insignificance. Let
him beg, borrow, or steal enough to pay for
a " select berth" to Melbourne. We will not
dwell on the horrors of the middle passage,
on drunken doctors, lying-in women, rations
of beef consigned to the sharks, water putrid, pas-
sengers fighting, no lights below, hatchways bat-
tened down, luggage all at the bottom of the hold,
and saturated with sea water as early as the Bay of
Biscay, insolent captains, determined roundrobbins,
Bass's ale at 2s. 6d. a bottle, and latterly not to be
got even at that price. We must pass all that, for
it is not our present topic, and we must suppose
our young Cockney, in a most venomous state of
mind, but, strange to say, in better health than he
was ever in before, in the harbour of Port Phillip,
as near as his ship will take him to Melbourne.
Then comes the tug of war, not between Greek and
Greek, but between two very unequal belligerents.
The poor fellow longs to laud, if it is only that he
may snap his fingers at captain, steward, and cook,
and rush to the magistrates with some fifty distinct
grievances. So he hails with ecstacy two or three
boats approaching the vessel. Having often gone
from London-bridge to Westminster very expedi-
tiously and pleasantly for 2d., he has rather a
humble view of river navigation, especially in the
craft before him. To his utter disgust, he finds
that the charge for taking him and his luggage to
Melbourne, or even to land them on the beach
almost within a stone's throw, will absorb the whole
of his capital, carefully stichedi over night in the
lining of his trousers. But his luggage What a
world of misery is contained in that word ! The
wretched man was persuaded into b • uying an iron
house, Oxford-street " cradles" for sifting the
" dirt," and every thing of the most ponderous
description. Having repined all the voyage at
the enormous freight he has had to pay for this
rubbish, he now discovers that he did not know
half the extent to which he has been duped. In
the present state of his finances he must leave
his iron house on board, at the mercy of his enemy
the captain. Waiting his deliverance, he sits
down and surveys the scene before him. The
beach, which fancy had long strewn with ruddy
coral, prime sponges, seaweed of all colours, and
shells that would make a broker's fortune, is covered
with bones, and with all sorts of inconceivable re-
fuse, which he begins to smell, even through the
bilge water of his own vessel. After some days'
impatience a steamer approaches, and,a ruinous
charge, he and his more portable
goodsat
are con-
veyed up the fabulous Yarra. The nearer he ap-
proaches the garden of the Hesperides the fouler
the breath of the dragon that guards it. The
river contracts, the paddles stir up the mud, the
banks draw nigh, and our friend, who has been
dying for ten years to escape the air of Coleman-
street, sees, hears, smells, and almost tastes and
feels, swine devouring the long entrails of slaugh-
tered cattle, nay, of slaughtered swine, horrid
mountains of garbage, shoals of festering bones,
piles of raw bides, and abominations too foul to be
named, all under a dry, hot, parching sun, that
would raise an effluvium out of the very sands of
the desert.
But this is only a foretaste of what is to follow
when our already repentant goldhunter has been
dragged in a cart ankle deep in filth from the bed
of the Yarra, and deposited, with his long-spoilt
baggage, in the dust of the unpaved roadway.
Unless it happens to be raining torrents, he sallies
forth to learn more of his fate. Wherever he turns
lie finds, that if this is a land of gold, he should be
shod with gold that treads it. He ventures on a
frugal meal at a cookehop, such as in the Strand he
would pay a shilling for, with a penny to the waiter.
His bill is 12s. He resolves to look next time be-
fore he leaps, and accordingly asks a multitude of
questions, with occasionally a civil answer, espe-
cially from companions in misery. From these he
learns that to take his goods to the diggings would
cost him 100/. for carriage. But he has heard of
horses running wild on vast plains, and has ima-
gined himself galloping onwards perpetually with
fresh steeds ever at command. Possibly in some
such way he may reach the terminus of his hopes.
Alas ! any sort of horse costs 200!., a night's stand-
idg and food 355. ; one shoeing, 40s. ; a pound of
hay at the diggings more than twice as much as a
pound of the best brown sugar in London ; oats
3/. ss. a bushel, and other things in proportion.
He sees that if he cannot walk to the diggings, and
carry all his worldly wealth on his back, he must
stay at Melbourne for the present. But there
matters are equally unpromising. He sees a shop,
such as in London would be found in a third-rate
street, and is told that its building cost 20,0001.,
and that every brick used in the city is computed
to cost sd. As to food, he finds himself in the
midst of a famine, that is, to one of his scanty
means. Pastoral Australia is not a land of milk
and honey. The former of these articles is precious
as liquid silver. A gentleman, we are told, finds
his milk bill equal to his whole annual expenditure
a few years ago. The fortunate diggers will not
only give any price for what they want, but will
use twice as much as what they want in mere bra-
vado. What is our poor Cockney to do in a state
of society in which "navvies" are the million-
naires ? There is only one consolation. So long
as he wears his shabby-genteel London coat, looks
hungry and sober, and might be mistaken for a
Cambridge wrangler or a country curate, he is safe
from molestation. He has no zone of gold, no
rich pocket of nuggets, and is not worth murder.
As for occupation, he must gradually settle into
something that he never expected. Were he a
mason, or a carpenter, he could get his Si. a week,
with board and lodging. Could he carry 2 cwt.
on his shoulders, he might follow with advantage
the advice that Samuel Johnson received from the
first publisher he applied to. Were he a common
labourer he could get his 10s. or 14s. a day ; but
he pretends to be a gentleman, wears gloves, a
long-tailed coat, and a pretence of clean linen—
though washing at 120. a dozen eoon drives him

out of that ; so he is glad to get a situation at
driving a cart, or watching a store in the absence
of the owner, or touting for a ginshop, or anything
rather than starve.

As for the digging, they are out of the question
to all such spoilt mortals as are here described.
Few people know how common is the case of the
unjust steward, who said to himself, " I cannot
dig, to beg I am ashamed ;" for very few, with
the degree of refinement supposed in the parable,
can dig without excessive fatigue and injury to the
constitution. Gardeners, it is commonly said in
the country, are not long-lived. The Spad.e, the
pick, and the hoe try the muscles of the chest,
compel stooping, induce great heats, and render
the frame all the more liable to chills. Miners are
not a long-lived race, and as for " navvies," who
knows how they live—when, or where, or how
they die ? They appear when wanted, and disap-
pear when the railway is opened, like swallows at
the approach of winter. These are the nearest
approximations to the work of the digger
He toils all day under a burning sun, often
up to his middle in a mountain stream, or at
the bottom of a pit, constantly throwing the earth
over his head, or baling out the water. The pit
becomes a shaft, sometimes 60 or even 100 feet
deep, then comes the work of driving low galleries
right through the precious vein, constructing
timber sides and props, dragging trays of auriferous
earth, pulling it to the top by the windlass, and
carrying it in baskets over the head or on the
shoulders to the river three miles off. Sometimes
these tremendous efforts are rewarded with prizes,
,sometimes with blanks, more generally with ague
and fever, and not unfrequently with the bullet
and the knife. What a reality to wake to after
dreams of gold ! Better be roused, not entirely
refreshed, but still capable of work, to. hear the
chimes of St. Giles's Cripplegate' call to breakfast
and the counter. No. This will never do for the
born and bred Londoner. It is a new world, and
requires new men. It requires stouter frames and
somewhat ruder hands than mere civilisation will
prodli ce.
amongHappilyus, an
the
and
ystrssolia sons ofis toilhe
country
enstrytill
abundant
for them.

STRIKES AND THEIR EFFECTS.

(From the Times.)
The Kidderminster weavers have returned to
their work. They have consented to yield their
demand for an increased scale of wages, to work
twelve hours a-day, and to receive payment when
the work is finished. Thus, then, this " strike"
may be considered at an end, if the intelligence
forwarded to us should prove to be correct. The
wretched victims of the delusion have, however,
already paid a heavy penalty for their error—so
many days out of work--so large a deduction from
their earnings —so . heavy a run upon the little
sums accumulated in the savings-banks—so fre-
quent the visits to the pawnbrokers' shops—so
deep the distress of wives and families—so great
the loss of confidence and goodwill between
employers and employed. For the moment we
will only consider the effects of these " strikes"
upon the fortunes of the labouring classes, because
the injury they inflict upon employers, although
grievous enough, is of far less importance. The
money-loss is sustainable in most instances without
any very heavy deduction from the opulence and
comforts of the wealthy capitalist, but the result
to the labourer is in most instances permanent
embarrassment. We do not say that this would be
a reason for abstaining from a just demand, but it
does constitute a very important reason for hesita-
tion before engaging in a contest which must be
fought at such frightful disadvantages. There are,
no doubt, exceptional trades ; but we believe that
in by far the greater majority of cases a " strike"
among mechanics and artificers will lead to one of
two results. Either machinery, which will work
and not " strike," will be introduced in substitu-
tion for men, who will " strike" but not work, or
strangers will be introduced from distant parts of
the country to perform those parts of the under-
taking which absolutely require the intervention of
human hands. We remember well a case in the old
days of the bleaching trade, when all the hands in
an extensive establishment struck for increased
wages. In the course of a week a sufficient number
of workmen was introduced from France, and they
carried on the works with success, while the mal-
contents were turned out upon the world to beg-
gary and starvation. That which was possible,
years ago is far more simple now, with our in-
creased facilities of communication, and we heartily
bid our English artificers to be upon their
guard, lest, by their own act, they cause
foreigners to be brought in over their own
heads. Nor can they hope for public sympathy
in their distress. Public opinion sympathises
quickly enough, and warmly enough, with the real
grievances of the labouring classes, but there is
about it nothing of a maudlin or irrational charac-
ter. The public will take the liberty of inquiring
on which side lies the fault. If it should be proved
that the masters are in reality paying a fair rate of
wages, and that the men are but acting in blind
obedience to the dictation of a few turbulent ad-
venturers, there is little doubt that public opinion
will do justice between the parties to the dispute.
It would be superfluous for us to point out to any
rational men that little is to be gained now-a-days
by violence and breaches of the peace. Happily
we are freed from all further apprehensions of
Luddites' and framebreakers. The organisation of
the police and military forces of the country, when
backed by public opinion, is so complete, that an
overwhelming force could at any given moment be
brought to bear upon any point for the suppression
of riot and disorder. Such a course has never yet
been productive of anything but misery and dis-
grace to all who entered upon it ; but, at least at
the present period of our history, the ruin of their
imitators—if any should be found—would be more
speedy, if not more complete. The present series
of " strikes" has, however, been tarnished by but
one actual outrage, and the result of that may be
read in our assize intelligence yesterday.
It is curious enough to see how readily workmen,
who might be supposed from their daily occupation
mlnateoruialr wimitphrewsshioicnh
otfheymtlrdeaydeawliena,
to understand the money or market value of the
a.mspaesrter, contained
themselves to be led away by misstatement.
a copy of a memorial addressed to the iron
publishedpermit
masters of the Merthyr district. In this do-
cument
greattr
act oi fr oIN n:ae
rankt
enumber
e.,oe,fffhiecltst
that Mr. Robert Crawshay, the son of the
ton had
above informeda
thes ta t
emn
workmen " that his father was being offered a con-
turns out that Mr. Crawshay, • jun., had not only
made no such statement, but, in fact, said " that
he had heard the price of rails was 9/. a-ton, but he
did not believe it." The whole question of the
strikes in South Wales turns upon this one point,
viz., the price of rails. As evidence of his good
faith, Mr. Crawshay has written to Mr. Thomas
Stephens, the chairman of the meeting, and offered
to supply him, or any customer he may bring, with
' 10,000 tons of rails, to be delivered between now
and the 31st of March next, at the rate of 8/. 10s.
per ton, Mr. Stephens to be allowed the usual com-
mission. If Mr. Crawshay be right in his figures
—and it would be difficult to give a better proof of
his sincerity—the movement among the workmen
in South Wales is founded upon error. We sus-
pect that in very many instances the credulity of
the workpeople has been taken advantage of in a
similar manner by a few adventurers. If the simple
truth were brought home to their minds that their
employers are, in point of fact, paying as high a
rate of wages as the state of the market will per-
mit, they would be somewhat slow to court all the
evils inseparable from such " strikes." It is credit-
able to the times in which we live, that in all the
declarations from the employers e the employed
which have fallen under our notice we have invari-
ably found the masters pointing to the prices of
their commodities in the market as the only crite-
rion of wages. They endeavour, as in the case of
the Manchester dyers, to obtain the services of men
who are not affiliated to any of the trades unions ;
—they claim, as in the case of Mr. Crawshay and
the South Wales ironmasters, to be themselves the
judges of the equitable proportion between wages
and profits ; but we find
no trace of any desire to
screw the men down to the lowest point for which
human labour can be obtained in the competition
for employment always proceeding in an old and
over-peopled country.
Befere concluding these remarks, we would add
a few words of admonition to the employers as well
as to the employed. Much depends upon the man-
ner in which they conduct these painful disputes.
Patience should be on the side of intelligence. Ii
the masters are in the right, it is quite as easy—as
Mr. Crawshay has done—to show the workpeople
they are in error, as to turn upon them with threats
of instant dismisers, sal if they do not adopt the views
of their employ be they right or wrong. It is
but right that the labouring classes should partici-
pate in the general prosperity ; it is equally so that
they should be made aware of their true position,
and not be abandoned to the propagandism of the