The Sun.
London, England, 1846-05-28 00:00:00

• workmen front the south_at the pier, and threaten them-
with murder, if they dare to accept of em-
ployment, or cast vitriol in the eyes, or cast lots for
perpetrating the assassination of those who only desire
peaceably to earn their daily bread ? There is a reign
of terror in Ireland—and exterminating warfare of, the
poor against the poor—an atrocious system of dictation
to the orderly and well-disposed, by the turbulent, the
idle, and those who allow liberty only to themselves.
Let us have none of that in honest, free, right-minded,
intelligent England. We have defended men from the
oppression of their masters. We are also determined to
protect men from practising tyranny against each other.
We have said that voluntary strikes are perfectly justi-
fiable ; but we must also add, that in our whole expe-
rience, we never knew them to be wise. What turn-out
ever ended substantially in gain to the operative ? From
first to last, the war of labour against capital has termi-
nated uniformly and inevitably in favour of the latter. A
great amount of money has been spent, wages lost, and
profit prevented from being realised, to the loss of all,
and the final humiliation of the labourer, by the reduc-
tion
of wages, conseqcent on the destruction of employ-
merit. Cork, Dublin, Limerick, have lost large and lu-
crative branches of trade and manufactures, and Ireland
nearly all its mineral commerce, by strikes. Spitalfields
has driven the silk trade to the north by dictating an
Act of Parliament rate of wages to the capitalist. The
trade of Sheffield is rapidly leaving it by the in-
sane tyranny of the artisans. How can it be other-
wise ? Capital owes no allegiance to any soil or trade,
or manufazture. It cannot be bullied out of its own
terms. It will do what it pleases, and go where it
e
likes, and has this great advantage ver its assailants, that when it is idle it doesnot need to be fed. It
may, indeed, be possible to prescribe the conditions on
which it is to be employed, but itis not possible to com-
pel its employment, if it does not accept
i of those condi-
tions. Presume to dictate to it, andt will insensibly
steal out of the dictator's company, and
stricted speculation. Meet it everywhere
its use, and it will noiselessly emigrate to rao/1
mosphere. Arrest it, if it be possible, on its flight, andt
it will altogether evaporate, and leave labour without
employment, and its suicidal tyrant without wages.
Strikes in such a country as this ! Are there not four
millions of Irishmen starving on sixpence a day, and two
millions and a half totally without employment ? Are
there not a million and a half of unemployed English
and Welsh paupers in our union workhouses ? Are
there not two hundred thousand Scotch "able-bodied
poor ?" Here are upwards of four millions of the people
wj:olmlnheafrlee fetters less
re:
ready to fill up any gap, or to rush into any port of in-
dustry that will shelter them from the storm of poverty.
Until they are all absorbed into the labour market, fairly
paid workmen who strike for a rise of wages, infallibly
bring an old house about their ears. Colliers strike for
a rise on 3s. 6d. a day, and large importations from
Ulster instantly displace the recusants, and create a re-
dundancy of labour. Weavers strike in Manchester,
and Mr. Muggeridge draws hosts of emigrants from
Wilts and Dorset to jump into the shoes of the Lance-
shire operatives. Liverpool bricklayers and carpenters
strike, and shoals of underpaid workmen from Devon-
shire are glad to get the wages which the local hands
despise. British navigators turn out, and a whole
colony from Ireland cheerfully accept of re-
muneration, amounting to seven or eight times what
they can earn at home, and so permanently supersede
the malcontents, when they offer to resume their
work, they are not accepted. Let this system of
strikes go on long enough, and the wages of the skilful.
artisan will sink to the level of those of the hodmen, and
those of the highest-paid districts will equalise themselves
with those of the Tipperary serf, or the Dorsetshire
ploughman. Force up wages in any trade, and such a
temptation will thus be held out to labour, that a glut
in the supply of operatives will rapidly beat down the
price. But the higher wages are, the lower profits be-
come ; the inducement to employ capital in the trade
diminishes, the demand for labour consequently falls,
and wages come down. Where, of course by moderate
wages, profits increase, capital is called into the market,
employment enlarges, and wages mount. Let the work-
ing classes, then, beware of tampering with capital, or
with the customers of the capitalist, by inconsi-
derate turn-outs, or mere experimental strikes. So long
as 4,000,000 of paupers are waiting to be employed, and
capital can live without food, the inevitable result must
be signal discomfiture. If they will venture on the ex-
periment, let them wait until the corn-law is repealed,
and the new tariff passed. The nation will have
50,000,000/. a-year more to spend on manufactures ;
foreign trade will also be extended, and the much
greater cheapness of all the necessaries of life will
enable the labourer to sustain a turn out for a much
longer period, at a time, too, when universal commercial
activity will render his assistance more indispensable.
In the existing stagnation of trade, when the supply of
labour is greater than the demand, common sense will
show him the necessity of postponing his action upon
the market to a more convenient season, when greater
intelligence and more ripe advice may at least convince
him that his wisest policy with 4,000,000 of competitors,
ready and eager to jump into his shoes, is to let sleeping
dogs lie, to know when he is well, and to keep a good
place when he has got it.—Dispatch.

Shortly after five o'clock on Monday Lord Melbourne
entered the House of Lords, and took his seat in his usual
place on the Opposition benches. His Lordship had not been
in the House two minutes before the Duke of Wellington
crossed over and shook hands with him. The Duke and
Lord Melbourne were in conversation a short time.

A MAN KILLED IN A SHOW.—About nine o'clock
on Wednesday evening, while the performers at Parish's Theatre,
Waterloo-road, Stockport, were going through the meld-dramatic
spectacle, called St. Clair of the Isles, or Pie Outlaw of Barra, the seats
at the upper end gave way, and the spectators were precipitated to
the ground, without, as it was then supposed, any person receiving
personal injury. 'A he place was much crowded, and some difficulty
was experienced in restoring order ; and regardless of the wreck of
Umber which the accident had occasioned at that particular portion
of the booth, the performance proceeded. At eleven o'clock the
company were dismissed ; and the parties connected with the building
began to examine the extent of damage done ; when to their alarm
and astonishment, they found a man buried beneath the timber, a
piece of which lay across his throat, and he was a corpse ! As no
cries of distress were heard, it is clear the unfortunate man, who was
smoking his pipe at the time of the accident, must have been stiftb-,
cated. His name and residence was William Rooney, a nail-maker,
lodging in Edward-street.—Manchester Iferald.

SUPPOSED INCENDIARY FIRE IN WORCESTERSHIRE.
—About midnight on Friday last, a destructive fire broke out in a
barn on the farm of Mr. J. Edwards, and belonging to B. Dent, Esq.,
at Charlton, near Cropthorne, about ten miles from Worcester. The
barn with its contents, consisting of several waggons, carts, and a
gig, together with some poultry, was completely demolished. The
origin of the fire is enveloped in mystery, and it is very strongly sus-
pected that it was the work of an incendiary.
WHAT THE FRENCH SAY OF SMITHFIELD.—When
the Prefet de la Seine decided upon erecting a new market-hall in
Paris, previous to the plans being completed a commission was sent
out to visit various countries and study the establishments of that
kind. It consisted of Messrs. Anger, Inspector-General of Market-
halls of Paris; V. Ballard, architect; and A. Husson, chief clerk of
the Prefet de la Seine. Details are given by the commissioners on
the markets of London, Manchester, and other cities. While the
advantages of our establishments are placed in relief with the usual
urbanity of Frenchmen, yet they could Rot quite blink the Incon-
venience of some of our medieval concerns, amongst which Smith-
field plays a conspicuous part. " Who should believe," they say,
" that this immense metropolis has no exterior market-place for
cattle ? It is in the midst of the city, a few paces from the Cathe-
dral of St. Paul, where all this host of animals are driven to and
sold. Smithfield is the beau ideal of disorders in the way of markets,
the shifting of cows, bullocks, and horses ; the peregrination of herds
of sheep and swine ; the escaping of half furious beasts ; the
howling of dogs, shouting of drivers, screams of frightened passers-
by—add to this, that the streets through which this world of beasts
pass are choked by this throng, dirtied by their excrements, et cetera.
Whence comes all this inconvenience ? It is because the corpora-
tion opposes its removal, le•tning upon a statute enacted by Edward
lll.—five hundred years ago."—The Builder.

THE HARVEST.—Nast in importance to the fate of
the proposed scheme for lowering the duties on grain to a nominal
point isithe prospect for the ensuing harvest. On this head some
apprehension was beginning to be felt in consequence of the very wet
weather experienced for several consecutive days; but those fears
have in a great measure been set at rest by the splendid weather we
have enjoyed since Thursday. At this early period it would be
folly to enter into anything like a prediction as to what may be the
yield of the next crop, but we are certainly inclined to think that there
exists at present very little real cause for despoudeney. Rather too
much wet may have fallen to be altogether beneficial for the wheat
plant ; a warm, dry June would, however, put all right ; and for the
spring-sown corn, the hay-crop, and all kinds of culinary vegetables,
the showers must have been highly serviceable. The very Important
decline which has taken place in the value of w heat since the close
of April has had the effect of checking the supplies from the growers,
and the quantity brought forward at the different markets held
during the week has been only moderate ; nor is there a prospect of
the deliveries again increasing for some time to come. In the course of
another fortnight the hay harvest will have commenced in many of the
southern comities, and the necessity of employing all hands fn the
the
season will prevent large deliveries ; other labours incidental to he
season must follow, and it is not likely, therefore, that thevh markets
will at present be overdone with British-grown graft, be
Whether the
stocks of foreign now in bond in the kingdom are or are not to
im-
parties seem
of the .111telyinirselteerraeldscmheusmte, ,otfheee
et'svel
odpei
np
ee depend onf w theh success or failure
determined to await before entering Into extensive operations. The
business done at most of the leading provincial markets held since our
last has been on a strictly retail scale ; whilst the weather remained
unsettled, a slight increase of confidence was displayed by sellers, but
this has since given way.—Mark-lane Express.
- -

MIDDLE TEMPLE.—The undermentioned gentlemen
were called to the degree of the Utter Bar on Saturday, and pub-
lished vi the Middle Temple Hall this day :—John Cockerton, Esq.,
Thomas &nes, Esq., Joseph Needham, Esq., Wm. Thomas Kline,
Esq., and Henry. Waller, Esq.
THE FIRST LOCOMOTIVE.—Just forty years ago Mr.
Trevethick, a mining engineer, constructed the first locomotive en-
gine at Merthyr Tydvil, and applied it successfully to the traction of
coal and coke.—Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian.
The talk here is that Mr. Bramley Moore, and other
gentlemen from Liverpool, have been in London as a deputation, the
object of whose going had reference to the admission of Brazilian
sugar ; that they had an interview of prolonged duration with Mr.
that he was, as usual,,polite, and, for a Minis-
ter,h
t
sreesitit7earny,laarGnllads_d telltoptnliet Gladstone;
theee talka was inwn interweshat sansecal nisoturtin
Impor-
tant—viz., that the Cabinet are not agreed; on the sugar question,
that they are not likely to agree, and that a " split" is inevitable.—
Liverpool Journal.
The Head. Mastership of the Dorchester Grammar
School has becoMe vacant by the retirement of the Rev. Richard
Cutler. The election of a successor is to take place nest Saturday,
the 30th inst.

PRINTING MACHINE INDEX.—We understand that
Mr. Edward Strong has contrived, by a small addition to the print-
Mg-machine, to register every copy that is thrown off, to the extent
of 100,000. As such a means of registration is much needed, the
Contrivance is likely to be generally adopted.
The venerable Earl of Harrowby, although still
Somewhat infirm from his advanced age, is in improved health, and
intends to pass the season in town.

[ADVERTISEMENT.]—,SIGHT AND HEARING TESTI-
MONIAL, 39, ALBEMARLE-STREET, PICCADILLY.—MaJor-General Sir
Howard Elphinstone begs to say that the spectacles he has now had
some time in use, have fully redeemed the assurance of the Messrs.
S. and B. Solomons as to their excellence, and having found so much
comfort and advantage from their use, far preferable to every other
kind of glasses. 13, Norfolk-street, Park-lane.—Prom the Hon.
George Cavendish, to Messrs. S. and B. Solontens.—Gentlemen, I
approve very much of the spectacles I purchased from you. I have
made use of glasses for many years, and never met with any to en-
able me to see equal to yours, and with less inconvenience to my
eyes.—l am yours' obediently, G. Cavendish, Leixlip Castle, Ireland.
—General Browne Clayton feels desirous to express the comfort and
advantage he has derived at his advanced age of seventy years, and
after twd'years' trial, from the use of Messrs. S. and B. Solomons'
newly invented spectacles. Their valuable invention fully merit the
patronage they have received. Address, Adlington Hall, Lancashire.
Improved achromatic telescopes, opera glasses, microscopes, &c., of
the same kind of lenses, to surpass any ever yet invented. The
Messrs. S. and B. Solomons' invisible operative voice conductors,
sound magnifiers, for deaf persons, give immediate relief to old-stand-
ing extreme cases of deafness. Caution—Messrs. S. and B. Solo..
mons, opticians, are not in any way connected with a person of the
same name, in their immediate neighbourhood. To prevent mistakes,
be cautious, and observe —Only to be had at 39, Albemarle-street:
Piccadilly, opposite the York Hotel.
parnicyes changearet he same as
ROenDALE, MAY 18.—There has been a ishin sttendanee
of buyers in the market to-day; and the business trans-
acted
without
The
ohaso l
marketbeen
hasr y
been
limited,
u, and
in prices.
lad Monday.