The Sun.
London, England, 1846-05-08 00:00:00

The Bills on the table were advanced a stage, and their
Lordships adjourned•

The SPEAKER took the Chair at Four o'clock.
Sir JAMES GRAHAM, in answer to a question from Mr.
Roebuck, stated that he had advised her MAJESTY to issue
a Commission.with respect to the state of the law in the
Channel Islands, and that he should have no objection to
lay on the table of the House the reasons for his doing so.
Mr. WaTson then brought forward his motion for a Se-
lect Committee to inquire into the nature and extent of the
taxation of suitors by the collection of fees in the Courts of
Law and Equity.
Mr. Hints seconded the motion.
The ArroriAtEr• GENERAL opposed the motion,
Mr. HumE and Mr. Wit/ AAA's supported the motion.
Sir J. GRAHAM objected to the motion, because it had
been stated that the object was to impugn the conduct of the
Lord Chancellor. If such had not been stated to be
its ob-
ject he should have had no objection to the appointment of a
Committee to inquire into the fees both of the Courts of Law
and Equity.
Mr. F. BARING, in voting for the motion, did not consider
that he was passing a censure upon the Lord Chancellor.
Mr. C. BuLLEs, Mr. Escorr, and Sir R. PEEL having ad-
dressed the House, a division took place, when there ap-
peared—For the motion, 65 ; against it, 80 ; majority against
the motion, 15.
The Leith Petty Customs Bill and the Railway Companys
Bill were read a second time.
The Salmon Fisheries Bill and the Election Notices (Ire-
land) Bill were also read a second time, and the reports
ordered to be received.
The House adjourned at Eleven o'clock.

Strikes of journeymen carpenters, masons, and other arti-
ficers engaged in the construction of buildings, have pre-
vailed for some time in the most industrious parts of the
country, and the disposition on the part of other kinds of
workmen and labourers to follow the example is manifesting

itself in some new shape almost every day. Such a combi-
nation, or unanimity of feeling, or by whatever other name it
may be called, is universally regretted. The labourers re-
sort to it as the last necessity ; they have tried, they say,
other means, and can find no other by which they can
obtain a fair increase of wages. There is a great demand
for labour ; the contractors are making fortunes by
their undertakings, while the hands on whom they entirely
depend are half starved on 255. a week. We will admit all
these facts—we will admit that in many contracts the mas-
ters could pay better wages, and that in such instances they
act an unworthy and ungrateful part towards the hard-
working and skilful labourer; but the great question for the
unfortunate journeymen is, " will the strike be effectual?"
We are compelled to answer in the negative. Times are not
_ .

now as they were forty years ago, when high bounties were
given for militiamen, when such masses of young
men were wanted for the army and navy, and
countless other departments, here as well as in
the colonies—then a strike was effectual, because the supply
did not exceed the demand. The masters had no remedy—
they had no reserve to fall back upon, and if the demand
was not speedily complied with, there was no alternative
but to stop the works; and that was of little avail, because
such was the scarcity of labourers, that if any lengthened de-
lay took place, one-half of the men had found employment
elsewhere; and to obtain a supply, the masters were
obliged to give higher wages than even those which they
had at first refused. What is the state of the
country now? Notwithstanding the vast works in railways
carried on, and the rage for speculation, some time ago,
evinced by so many companies, notwithstanding the increase
f wealth and the consequent employment of capital furnish-
ing labour, the supply still far exceeds the demand. How
can it be otherwise ? Even independent of the drain for the
army and navy and colonies forty years ago, there are at
least 100 workmen now for 50 in 1800. Since that period
the population of Great Britain has nearly doubled. In
1801 the total population of England, Wales, and Scotland
was 10,942,646, while at the last census, in 1841, it had reached
18,844,434 and now it is fully 20,000,000. Cannot the jour-
neymen see the great disproportion between the two periods,
and how injuriously it must tell against them if they perse-
vere long in the strike? There are ten times the number of
men now fit to supply the deficiency that there was when
strikes were successful, and besides they ought to learn from
experience. In later times the attempt to dictate to the
masters has, we believe, in every instance failed. Several of
the trades tried it on a grand scale, among others the journey-
men tailors, some ten or twelve years since; so did the jour-
neymen masons, and other workmen, at the new Houses of
Parliament, but both attempts fell to the ground. The con-
tractors in a few weeks found masons and carpenters in other
parts of the country ready to submit both to the pay
and to the foreman put over them, and the unfortunate
0 strikers," after exhausting the greater part of their reserved
fund and starving their families, were forced to find employ-
ment elsewhere. The tailors were defeated by the women,
for greater numbers of the weaker sex were taken into em-
ployment, and performed all the light work formerly done by
the men ; and from the very nature of things and the work-
ing of circumstances no other result could have been antici-
pated. If workmen can be had, a strike never can be effec-
tual. The masters are generally men of capital or great
credit; they can afford to wait events—the journeymen
have not the means. If we except the combination funds,
they can rarely obtain a livelihood for a month—very few of
them have saved a quarter's wages, most of them have
nothing to depend upon but the wages they receive every
Saturday night. The wants of their families alone must soon
make a class of this kind yield ; and besides, every class except
their own class is against them. Never were such fearful
odds against a party in a contest. The Government is
against them, so are legislators, contractors, the
masters of all trades and crafts, all established
authorities; and even private individuals, take part
in the dispute, and generally against the journeymen. We
remember the present Viscount HARDINGE, when speaking
in the House of Commons on the tailors' strike, stated that
he would walk through the streets, wearing a coat with a
hole at each elbow, for any period, rather than encourage
such combination. He was cheered by the whole House.
We have mentioned these facts for the good of the workmen
and their families, with the fullest conviction that they can
only injure themselves by their perseverance, and that
scarcely in any one instance have they the slightest grounds
For anticipating any other result.

Among the various benevolent institutions which have
been at different periods called into existence, we remember
none more thoroughly entitled to public sympathy and
public patronage than those undertaken for the reformation
of juvenile offenders. Recently we have often endeavoured
to impress this most important consideration upon the minds
of the reading and thinking people ; we have gladly availed
ourselves of the very smallest opportunity for developing
the true philanthropy involved in the maintenance of these
establishments, conscious that what cannot be realised by a
coup de plume may be accomplished through the instru-
mentality of perseverance and repetition. In this manner

we havenot continued indolent or indifferent spectators 01

the struggles made of late by many excellent persons for the

propagation of these charitable ideas. On the contrary, we
have yielded the accordance of our commendation to the
praiseviorthy exertion of such men as the Recorder of Bir-
mingham and the Solicitor to the City of London ; rejoiced,
as we were, to perceive such a laudable anxiety for the sup-
pression of vice in its most incipient and consequently
in its most dangerous state, coupled with such facilities for
the development and dissemination of the wishes entertained
by two influential public officers. Other persons we gladly
recognised, though, for comprehensible reasons, their names
were not adduced, aiding manfully with their voices, their
pens, and their subscriptions for the more universal adoption
of these views of social improvement. Literary genius and
oratorical eloquence were alike striving to foster these pecu-
liarly humanising doctrines, and without the introduction
of sectarian differences (too often the bane of similar
intentions) emulated each other in their self-imposed exer-
tions. Seeing these noble efforts for the reclamation of so
many thousands of our contemned fellow-creatures, we were
filled with sentiments of the most sanguine satisfaction ; and
these
animatedd with the prospect of some ulterior realisation of
vrine
relation snatchedt ao
tthteh the
subject,mo s t
for ea coincidencethgreepurpuaeof
keeping attention
that transpired,
alive too.
the disease and to its remedy—to
th
e poison its antidote. tefar
a Upon these hopeful princi-
pl ee s
tertin
th behalf considerable time, ever
e of such
t
looking for a traceable increase of
establishments as might be commenced upones
materialmtuulttihpelincautmireobnfeoroar
fattir
chil-
dren
sf3u'ns tdestf,er everan
equally
mfbartereial addition
received into such institutions, and 'an extension
of
similar branch institutions in different quarters of the pro--
yinees. Our anticipations• in this regard have, however,
up to the present moment continued most miserably delu-
sive ; and, instead of an improvement upon what had beer,
already accomplished, there has been a moat unanticipatedi
deficiency where deficiency was hitherto unknown. `ere
are reduced to an acknowledgment of these unfortunate
facts from circumstances which have just transpired
in relation to an establishment of the character in question,
viz., the Philanthropic Society, St. George's-fields.
This Society, formed for the especial purpose of the recep-
tion of such juvenile offenders as have been themselves com-
mitted for crimes, proceeds upon the following system
The uniting the religious and general education of 'the
child with his practical instruction in some useful branch of
industry that should enable him to maintain himself
be more
in after
life by his own honest exertions." Nothing could
definitely expressed, nothing could present more satisfactory
views of the benefit derivable from the existence
of such a society to the community at large. Nor does
it bear about it the impress of benevolence only ; it
t
has the characteristic also of promoting social economy,
well as of promoting social happiness. Those are the pre-
acknowledged facts of this Association ; now, what has been
the nature of its reception ? What has been its prosperity ?
What treatment has it received at the hands of that society
it was established to benefit ? We take shame to
announcementourselves
in undergoing the humiliation of such an
of the public behaviour,towards this admirable institutionlethargy
;
we do so, because we grieve for the i
of the people, when they should have been up and stirring.
Yesterday an annual dinner of the Philanthropic Society
gave occasion to the announcement of these unsatisfactory
particulars, in regard to which our remarks have reference;
and it is over the admissions there made of its want of pros-
perity that our lamentations are uttered. Th© particulars