The Sun.
London, England, 1825-10-01 00:00:00

labour must cease also to be supported. A nation
divided into two castes, like the Irish, one of op-
pressors, and the other of oppressed slaves, is na-
turally afflicted by servile insurrections ; but the
state of society in England is too complicated, all
classes are too much dove-tailed into each other
to allow us to entertain the least apprehension
of any rising of one part against another. We are
certain that another year will not have passed
over our heads before the good policy of the re-
peal of the Combination Laws be universally ad-
mitted. The workmen will find out that wages
cannot be arbitrarily raised, and the masters that
they are better without compulsory laws than
with them.

[TLI E TIMES.]
The strongest assurances are hourly repeated
to us, that the manoeuvres of those agitators who
have unfortunately obtained the direction of the
working classes continue to engage the attention
of his Majesty's Government. That, as a gene-
ral proposition, the selfish projects and extrava-
gant pretensions which have developed them-
selves in the course of the late attacks on the
property of masters, and on the free agency of
journeymen, must in the end have results very
fatal to those with whom they originated, is cer-
tain enough, we are ready to acknowledge ;
but there is a public and intermediate evil
which ought at the same time to be looked at.
It is not right that the journeymen in one trade
should intermeddle to bear down the masters in
another trade, with which they have no sensible
relation. It is not safe for the workmen of
different towns at opposite extremities of the
kingdom, to unite their forces against the masters
of each manufacturing town, that the whole may
assist in carrying a local measure. It is of peril-
ous tendency that an actual, although secret,
system .of delegation should be established
throughout the empire, avowing one class of ob-
jects—viz., the raising wages, reducing hours of
work, putting down machinery, and so forth ;
but when a crisis shall arise, or it shall seem con-
venient to produce a crisis, that such a system
should be convertible, with all the forms,
means, and appliances of an organized union
of hand and head to any political object by
which criminal ambition may be roused, or
which the passions and circumstances of a
troubled time may favour. The first fruit, as
we have already said, of such a confederacy,
when once effected, is a monopoly of labour
against the capitalist ; and it is a monopoly of
which the bond must ever be personal intitnida-
tion, exercised by the chiefs upon their subjects.
The second fruit of it is political power, to be ar-
rayed against the authorities of the State ; the
inevitable tendency of which is always to a de-
monstration of physical force and numbers. It is,
therefore, essential to the peace of the kingdom,
that some means should be found for quelling the
dangers in their infancy. With regard to the
shipwright, Government are, we understand,
adopting a spirited and efficacious measure.—
Orders have been issued that the Royal Dock-
yards shall be freely opened for the repair of ves-
sels of all descriptions, until..the workmen
shall release themselves from the tyranny of this
mischievous " Union." The step thus taken
is, it appears, without precedent in point of
extent. Hitherto such an indulgence has been
confined to vessels having some connexion with
the public service—as transports, packets, &c.:
but the exigency is felt to be one which claims
an exemption from former regulations. Minis.
ters have doubtless nothing to say as to the ques-
tion of wages, whether the amount now paid, or
that required, be most reasonable: it is to the
means of the journeymen's demands that resist-
ance must be made, or an immeasurable despo-
tism tamely acquiesced in by the nation. Other
trades are pursuing the same inaspicious course
as the shipwrights on the River. At Notting-
ham, the bobbin-net people vote it to be highly
expedient that they should work but eight
hours in the day—from eigl.t iu the morning
until four. In Dublin, the organization is per-
fect, and it is moved by an intractable spirit.
At Glasgow, the masters tread on a mine of
gunpowder : there is no guessing when the manu-
facturing population of that place may again
explode into outrage. Such is the condi-
tion in which we stand, and it is one which we
fear will not cure itself, if at all, without much
previous evil. But having hinted at the bad con-
sequences to peace and property which may be
apprehended from the unprincipled men who are
set in magisterial office over their fellows, let us
turn to the other side of the question, and ask the
poor journeyman what it is that he expects from
a perseverance in his obstinacy ? He surely
must know that there is a point beyond which
wages cannot reach, without compelling the mas-
ter to give up business altogether—that is to say,
without condemning the workman to a subsistence
on his parish. So with unreasonable privileges in
the way of short hours for work, &c.,—that is,
another name for money which comes from out of
the master's, or rather from his customer's pocket,
and which, if it entail upon him a more severe
expence than the merchants of other countries are
exposed to, will drive him to the use of foreign
manufactures in his own defence. Do not
the body of journeymen likewise perceive
how very ruinous must be the charge of all
these committees and delegates, living in
clover on the earnings of the industrious,
who have not talents or turbulence to raise
themselves into notice ? We pray the honest,
though misguided, members of these associations,
therefore, to see what they are doing. They
cannot force wages or privileges either beyond
such a level as the manufacture or trade will
bear, because they cannot force customers to pay
extravagant prices for commodities which in
other markets are to be had for less money.—
They cannot, again, by a tardy repentance of
their rashness, ensure a demand for the labour
which they have withheld ; for, lst, it is possible
that other workmen may be procured to supply
their places; and 2d, because, if the trade at
home has been suspended, it may be thrown into
other channels, and once lost, may prove alto.
gether irrecoverable. It results, then, that a re-
medy, perhaps a harsh one, must be applied by
the Legislature to evils of unquestionable magni-

tude, if the best and most grateful remedy be
still refused—the voluntary return of the men
themselves to domestic life, instead of the ale-
house, and to industry, moderation, and concord,
with those who are willing, in spite of past dif-
ferences, to employ them.

[BRITISH PRESS.]
We feel it a duty which we owe to Govern-
ment and to the country to revert again and again
to the inevitable ruin that awaits the manufac-
turing interests from the combination system.
We consider the present as a period the most
afflictive, if not the most portentous that has dis-
turbed the nation's internal quiet since the period
of the Revolution. The party make no secret of
their design—they avow their resolution to try
the strength of the working classes in an open
contest with the capitalists ; it is against this
class that passions the most desperate, acting by
instruments the most formidable, are directing
all their energy ; and no resource, whether of en-
ticement or coercion, is left untried to insure the
execution. of their purpose. The influence of
terror is made to aid the force of example, and
their joint impulse will soon be irresistible.
In all States, and under all Governments, the in-
terests of liberty, property, and security, are held
to be the equal interests of all; but we have here
an organized system of power, possessing means
unbounded, and pursuing, with the full use of all
those means, a distinct object, utterly hostile to
all those interests, and with which they cannot
co-exist. On Monday last, at a meeting of the
Shipwrights' Provident Union,' five Shipbuilders
were regularly proscribed. No workmen are at
present suffered to take employment with either
of the following houses :—Fletcher,tion, and Fear-
nell ; Messrs. Pitchers; King and Edgar; Cur-
ling, Young, and Co.; and Dowson. With re-
spect to these five proprietors, the whole body of
workmen are put positively under interdict. They
are not permitted to work for them upon any appli-
cation, or on any terms. Four of the best of
Messrs. Fletcher and Co.'s men e...pressed them-
selves extremely willing to continue in their em-
ploy, being quite satisfied with their wages ;
seven others likewise declared themselves ready
to join with the above ; but two of the Commit-
teemen interposed, and bid them at their peril to
remain in the service of these proprietors ; and
so alarmed were these men by this warning
threat, and so much did they dread th;.. conse-
quence of disregarding it, that they immediately
retracted their offer, and retired from their
employ. This proceeding will no doubt be-
come a subject of legal prosecution. If the
workmen, under the supposed strength and secu-
rity of their Union, are thus to brandish the
weapons of revolutionary law, they will soon
bring- the property of the country to that
common standard of equality to which it is
the great aim of their confederated Unions to re.
duce it. That aim is no longer ambiguous. The
shipbuilders, as we have before remarked, are
placed all of them, with regard to unexecuted
orders on hand, in situations of greater or less
difficulty. One house, in particular, which
yielded to the workmen, were constrained to
submit, by an imperious necessity which it was
not in their choice to over-rule. The very high
character of the individuals to whom we allude
was a sufficient pledge to all who knew them, that
such was the fact.—The Times spent its foul abuse
against them in vain, and its base misrepresenta-
tion went for nothing. We are well acquainted
with the terms of the agreement entered into with
the workmen by Messrs. Wigram and Green, and
signed by them in the price-book; they were to the
following effect :—That in the event of any al-
teration in the prices appearing necessary in the
course of conducting the business, the subject
should be referred to the three following gentle-
men : Mr. Carter, Mr. Barharn, and Mr. Sheffield,
who are all of them overseers employed by
owners to superintend the repairs of ships, and
who were fully competent to the adjustment of
any differences that might arise. In the event of
the absence of either of these persons, his place
was to be supplied by some other, to be selected
from the same employment. It was further ex-
pressly stipulated between Messrs. Wigram and
Green and their workmen, that should any
alteration of prices take place with other estab-
lishments, theirs should conform to it ; that
the proceedings of others' yards should form
a precedent by which theirs should be re-
gulated ; but that their procedure, whatever
it might be, should not be considered as at all
controuling any other proprietors. No agree.
cent, governed as it was by circumstances, could
accord better than the above with the suggestions'
of expediency, or with the rules of justice. The
shipbuilders of the port of London are at this
moment refusing contracts, even the most advan-
tageous ; they decline, from a sense of justice, to
undertake orders which, under the present
system of revolt and confederacy among their
workmen, they cannot possibly pledge them-
selves to execute. If there is no law which can
rescue the master-manufacturers of this country
from the death-blow that is levelled against
them, then must a law be made to meet the
exigency of the times. The appeal to Govern-
ment is beyond measure urgent. The crisis is
unparalleled in the annals of our history ; it is
not of a kind to be tampered with, for if the
passions of the great bulk of the people once
become emancipated from all moral rontroul, the
holder of property has no security left ; the con-
federates will then make short work of it—
" Come let us kill him, that the inheritance may
be ours."

[MORNING POST.]
We received last night French Papers to the
29th ult. They contain some intelligence which
is entitled to considerable attention. Orders had
been sent from St. Petershurgh by the Minister
at War to the head-quarters of the Southern
Army in the provinces bordering on the Turkish
frontiers, enjoining all the Generals and superior
and inferior Officers who had obtained leave of
absence, to return irrimediately to their respec-
tive corps, so that the Army might be complete
by the 20th of September. Notice was also for-
warded that the Emperor Alexander would review
the troops at the beginning of October. These
orders, it is added, were instantly obeyed ; and

the various divisions of the army having been put
into motion, took up concentrated positions.
Similar directions had been issued to the forces in
Bessarabia, where the Emperor was also expect-
ed, and many rumours naturally arose from a cir-
cumstance which was the less anticipated, as dur-
ing the last two years no movements at all had
taken place among the troops in that quarter.
So undisturbed, indeed, had been their repose,
that it was a matter of doubt whether any thing
like an army had been kept embodied in Vol-
hynia and Bessarabia; and this doubt was
strengthened by the fact of the Turks having re-
called their forces from the banks of the Pruth
and the Danube to pour their whole weight
upon Greece. The usual reason for assem-
bling troops is of course put forward by the
Russian Government—the wish of " execut-
ing evolutions on an extensive scale," and
it may certainly be the true one. But whe-
ther true or not, the effect will be high-
ly important at this critical period of the
contest between the Greeks and the Turks. For
by renewing all the doubts and apprehensions of
the Porte, it will operate as a most powerful di-
version in favour of Greece. Notwithstanding
all the assurances which the Court of. St. Peters-
burgh may give, the march of a few Russian re-
giments, though within their own frontiers, will
be felt by the Divan as little short of an aggres-
sion. Troops will be collected to observe those
movements, and to repel dreaded invasion, and
where are those troops to be found, except in the
armies of Redschid or Ibrahim Pachas ? It
is impossible that the Emperor Alexander
should be ignorant of these consequences.—
It may therefore be inferred that some change
has lately taken place in his policy towards Greece.
lie may now regret that by so long abandoning a
gallant People, whose spirit he had been instru-
mental in rousing, to the sword of Musselmen
and the treachery of Christians, he has lost their
confidence and the offer of their Protectorate. He
may wish though at the eleventh hour, to do them
some service which may redeem their favour and
restore his influence over their minds and des-
tinies. But this no longer depends upon himself.
It depends upon the resolution which England
will take. Should she grant the protection
claimed in a manner so honourable to her cha-
racter and her power, Russian influence is for
ever banished from renovated Greece. Should,
on the contrary, the offer of a grateful and an
admiring people be rejected, it will be made to
some other States; and Russia by her present
movements secures it to herself. The question
which his Majesty's Ministers are now called
upon to decide, is therefore not one of humanity
alone, but one of deep national importance and
European interest.

[MORNING HERALD.]
We are sorry to find the intention, which ap-
peared to have been suspended, of curtailing
part of Hyde-park, seems likely to be persisted
in, and that some of the Government Papers
have been instructed to justify the proceeding.—
We have frequently asked, and we beg leave to
repeat the question, " Who has the power to do
this ?" Let it not be said that it is a Royal Park,
and that it is the act of the King ; for we are per-
suaded (to say nothing of the right in that case)
that his Majesty is too well inclined to promote
the health and comfort of all his subjects, to per-
mit any thing to be done w;dch could in the
slightest degree curtail or impede the one or the
other. We regret, too, that the Duke of Wel-
lington should appear to be the partaker of a boon,
from whatever quarter it may come, at the ex-
pence of the community. His Grace cannot know
how keenly the act is felt by the public,or he would
spurn an accommodation, were it even far less
paltry in itself, when put in competition with
maintaining the good opinion of those who have
hitherto so well appreciated his high deserts. If we
are not misinformed, Hyde-park is held by the
Crown under a lease from the family whose name
it bears; and if that be the case, the first duty
of lessees must be to maintain the entirety of the
property so granted. What could be said to an
owner, who at the end of his lease finds his pro-
perty nibbled away, and disposed of in the manner
here proposed ? But if we are misinformed in this
respect, and the park is Crown land, we know
of no authority existing in the Commissioners of
Laud Revenue (in whom, we suppose, it could
be in that case vested), to dispose of one foot of
it without the authority of Parliament. But if
there is a right any where, that right can of course
be easily shown ; and our objection on that
head effectually put to silence. But then the
impolicy of the step will remain unanswered :
and we should like to find the man who will for
a moment be able successfully to contend, that
with the crowded and increasing state of
our population, and the increase of houses in
every direction, it can be advisable, or even ex-
cusable, to make the smallest encroachment upon
the very few open spaces now remaining for the
health and recreation of the inhabitants of the
metropolis. Nor do we at all envy those persons,
be they who they may, who will submit to have
their mansion improved by the addition of a
trumpery cockney garden to each, at the ex-
pence, even of the prejudices (if they please to
call them so), of the less favoured, and less opu-
lent parts of the community.

[VI E PUBLIC LEDGER.]
Letters were received yesterday from Rio de
Janeiro to the 6th of August. Up to that pe-
riod no arrangement with Portugal had taken
place ; and, what is worse, there was but a faint
prospect of one, if these letters merit any credit.
It is said that the Emperor had steadily refused
to enter even upon the subject of the negocia.
tions, unless, as a preliminary, the principle of
the absolute independence of Brazil was laid
down. As soon as 'this basis were admitted,
he is stated to have expressed his readiness to
enter upon the subject of a pecuniary compen-
sation, or to listen to any other proposal which
might be made him in behalf of Portugal. We do
not pledge ourselves, of course, for the truth of
this statement ; and, indeed, our own opinion
is so decidedly in collision with it, that we
should have contented ourselves with simply
expressing strong doubts of its accuracy, if