The Sun.
London, England, 1834-05-27 00:00:00

double wages, on the occasion Of the cleat i of the King.
Mr. REID resumed, and said the memories of some present
appeared to be very short, however, he would pass that.
He trusted it would not go forth to the world that the
master tailors looked upon the question as one merely of a
pecuniary nature ; it was upon principle they had acted,
and if they went on as they had begun, they would be the
glory of the metropolis. (Immense applause,) The men
themselves acknowledged that they did not strike merely
for more wages, but that their object was to make every
thing subservient to labour ; and taking into consideration
the degrading terms in which the men had offered their
services, it ought also to be remembered that before the
grand council of the grand consolidated union (laughter)
ordered the men to go back to work upon the best terms
they could make, there was a split, a great dissatisfaction
in the camp, a sort of tiring of the slavery to which they had
reduced themselves, therefore the matter was merely one of
policy; but bearing all these things i n mind, they must see that
the men were not sincere ; or, at all events, if they werei
where could there be the slightest hesitation in signing
the declaration, as well as stating the same fact by word of
mouth ? He would even go further, and implore the
meeting to continue firm to the test—to persevere in the
declaration,—to go on in the course they had already pur-
sued, and then the grand council would find, that for their
own benefit, as well as for that of the misguided
men, they must absolve them from all connection with
such bodies. It was his firm opinion that the greater part
of the men had come back in a spirit of rank hypocrisy,
and were acting in that way still, at the dictation of those men
who had succeeded in making them so fatally their dupes.
It had been asked, why put the men in such a degrading
situation as so put the declaration before them after their
words have been given ? • In answer, he would ask, Who
was it, the masters, or the men, that struck the first blow ?
—name that party, and the question was fullyanswered. He
was as anxious as any one in the world, and would go as far to
elevate the journeyman in the world ; but those were not
the means which would have that effect. They owed a
duty to themselves, for they had pledged themselves to
stand firm and shake not. They also owed a duty to the
men, and only by standing firm could they save them from
the degrading slavery they were now under. But there
was another party to whom they owed a duty,—chat was
to the public. (Cheers.) They had received the support
of the respectable portion of the press, merely because they
had shown themselves ready to uphold the spirit of their first
resolutions, and to keep their faith to the public. (Loud
cheering.) It was a well known fact that the
shoemakers were the next to have struck, and
that they had only been prevented by the stand of the mas-
ter tailors; so that, as other trades were to have followed,
they, by their spirited conduct, had done incalculable good.
( Cheers.) After an eulogium on the conduct of the com-
mittee, he concluded by imploring the meeting to continue
firm, or they would lose all the advantages they had already
obtained. (Great applause. )
Mr. PEMBER said tests, declarations, and oaths had been
abolished in a great measure by the Legislature, and were
not in good odour at the present day : therefore he called
upon them not to introduce them in their trade without
very serious consideration : it might only serve to keep up
the dissention a longer time. He thought it would be
better to leave the government to put down trades' unions.
He would read an extract from the Times of that day, and
beg the attention of the meeting to it. It was this :
" May you not in one hour, by unwise measures, be con-
necting all those men into an engine of violence ?"
Mr. Bxanow, in order to show the necessity
of the declaration, said, that a man applied to
him for work in the course of last week. He asked
him if he was a unionist, he said no, and work was given
him. In about two hours he received the declaration, and
laid it before his men, all of whom but that man at once
agreed to sign it. He then acknowledged he was a
unionist ; he was ready to leave when he (Mr. B.) liked.
Then, said he, that must be immediately. (Cheers.)
Mr.. HOWELL proposed to alter the declaration so as to
insert the word " association" in place of trades' union.
It would then run, "an association having for its object
to fix the price of labour otherwise than by private con-
tract." (Loud cries of " That is the same.") He con-
tended it was not, because neither master or man appeared
to know what was meant by trades' unions.
Mr. SMITH said the remarks of the last speaker had
convinced him of the necessity of the amendment. They
knew the feeling was fast dying away on Friday last, and, but
for the declaration, it would altogether have disappeared.
He had lost all his men, but he had got others ; and he
would pause long and anxiously before he would lay such
a declaration before them, for he was satisfied with them,
and he owed them a debt of gratitude.
Mr. GUTIIKIE said the whole merits of the case were
now before the meeting ; and as amendments had been
suggested, it was the duty of the committee to show upon
what grounds they had proceeded. Although much hat
been said, he had heard nothing that induced him to alter
his opinion. When the declaration had been proposed in
the committee, of which they had done him the honour of
appointing him a member, he had opposed it as being
hurtful to the feelings of the men, and subjecting them
to a test and a degradation, which (as they were
actuated by no feelings of hostility towards the men),
seemed objectionable. The consideration of the subject
had been adjourned to another meeting, and in conse-
quence of the evidence laid before the committee—the
same as was laid before that meeting to-day—namely, that
Mr. Browne's successor, Mr. Douglas, had given the men
leave to go back to their employment, the committee had
come to the resolution, that under all the circumstances
they were bound to put that test to the men (Cheers), to
ascertain whether they were re-lly seceders from the
union, or only unionists in disguise. An application
had been made to him on Saturday, to know if he
wanted hands, and he understood from a very intelligent
person that Browne had acted basely towards the men,
that they had been deceived, but that there was a deter-
mination on their part that when next they struck they
would have the masters disunited, and the trades' unions
united, and that the producers of wealth wouldpropose such
laws as would be advantageous to themselves, and make
the whole nation glad to accede to them. That was a fair
representation of the circumstances in which they stood.
If any proof was wanting that the unions were not yet
at an end it was this, that last Saturday night they
had not a farthing to pay the unionists, and that
in consequence of numbers of those who were discharged
having again obtained employment and contributed, their
funds had again revived. A gentleman had observed that
tests were out of fashion, but the meeting was misled by
the general allusion to those religious tests which in the
political world had excited so much disapprobation. But
there could be no objection to the test of a man's
honesty, when two men struck their hands to a
bargain. There could be no objection to put their signatures
and seals to it. He thought when the men only got leave
to work for the purpose of contributing funds to the union,
the committee had a right to consider that a deception had
been practised, and to require them to sign the declaration.
The first resolution to which the masters had come was,
that no man should be employed who did not secede from
the union. All the masters had signed their names to that
resolution, and by their firmness one object was obtained.
It was the duty of the committee to try and attain the
other, and prevent the men from obtaining funds for a
future strike. It was plain that though the strike was at
an end the union was not, and the committee would have
been false to their trust if they had not secured the trade
from the imposition attempted to be practised on them.
A gentleman had objected to the masters taking up this
question, and thought that it should have been left
to the Legislature ; but that gentleman took a wrong
view of it. It was entirely a question between the
employers and employed, with which the Legislature
could not interfere. With respect to the amendment
which had been proposed, he would beg to remind the
meeting, that they had all set their names to a declaration
of which the present was little more than a transcript. If
the masters had thought it an honour to be allowed
to put their names to that declaration, why should
they now flinch from following it up? e (Mr.
Guthrie) had been at first against putting any test to
the men, but he had been convinced by the arguments
brought forward, and by the acts of the trades' unionists.
He who refused to put that test to his men would betray
himself, and would stand in the situation of a beaten party
over whom the men had, in fact, triumphed, for the point
the men cherished was the maintenance of the union. In
conclusion, he would call on the masters, one and all, to
insist on all in their employment signing the declaration,
without reservation. (Mr. Guthrie sat down amidst very
great applause. )
Mr. SPRAGUE, of Bond-street, observed that the mas-
ters had been charged with tyranny towards the men;
but, on the contrary, they had always acted in the most
friendly manner. He would ask the gentleman who pro-
posed the amendment, what situation would they be placed
in if the workmen carried their point. What, he would
ask, could 1,400 men do against 14,000? He was con-
vinced that the committee had not one dissentient voice
among them as to the propriety of putting that test to the
workmen.
The CHAIRMAN said the articles alluded to by Mr.
Pember in the Times of that morning was a political one,
and related to a discussion in the Cabinet. (Laughter.)
Mr. WAINWRIGHT said that, least the amendment of
Mr. Hunter should fall to the ground for want of a
seconder, he would second it. ( Loud cries of " Question.")
Mr. STU LTZ said the question was, let the men sign the
declaration lie held in his hand, and then they -would ob-
tain employment. (Cheers and laughter. )
Mr. HOUSLEY trusted the meeting would adhere to