The Sun.
London, England, 1834-03-17 00:00:00

been engaged to supply their own places, forced
I them by intimidation to join the conspiracy, and
left the masters altogether helpless and in fetters.
Well might Sir James Graham apostrophize the
spirit of tyranny, and ask if this was not a refine-
ment of it ? But what was the measure of the Go-
vernment, the act of " interference." so loudly cri•
minated by Messrs. Hume and O'Connell ? It was
simply a loan or sale to the shipowners of fifty
butts and two hundred hogsheads from the King's
stores at Deptford, since the arbitrary conduct of
the journeymen had deprived the masters of their
own natural supplies. In our judgment, it was a
seasonable and praiseworthy protection of the weaker
party against their oppressors, and one which it may
be regretted that other trades do not furnish the
same facilities for affording to masers in similar
distress. Talk as Mr. O'Connell did of the law not
being violated ! of its being the duty of the law-
officers of the crown to prosecute ! Why, yes,
that person has been a close spectator of transactions
wherein, without transgressing the letter of any
specific law, and without yielding the slightest tan-
gible material for prosecution, dexterous and cunning
conspirators have managed to accomplish objects
the most fatal to the existence of society, all the
while enjoining their miserable dupes by no means
"to disobey the law." However, it is impossible
that such proceedings can be continued without
universal ruin. What power can withstand mono-
polies enforced by a league of numbers backed by
fear and fraud, against those who have nothing to
sustain them but funds which are rendered useless,
and facts which cannot be legally brought home to
a jury ? It may be all quite true and unquestiona-
ble that in the long run the trades' unions injure
themselves. But whom do they not injure in the
meantime, and what evil do they not inflict on un-
offending men ?—upon the masters, whom they
ruin by forcing them to break their contracts, and
on not merely those individuals of the highest
skill and merit amongst themselves, who are al-
ways sure of good wages, and almost invariably
anxious for employment, and adverse to combina-
tion and to turbulence, but on those large bodies of
journeymen who would gladly supply the demand
of the masters for substitutes in place of the refrac-
tory but for the fear of outrage and merciless per-
secution. Why, within these few months, the
journeymen builders, coal-whippers, and other
trades, have set their masters at defiance, and
brought the fortunes of many of them to des.ruc-
tion. The small capitalist is almost everywhere the
slave of his workmen. He cannot hold out against
demands, however unreasonable, and can only keep
his head above water for a time, by overcharging and
cheating his customers,—a system of expedients
which can terminate only in one manner. The
question, then, is not about the maintenance of
rights of industry, on which no man dreams of
encroaching—the problem is how to prevent the
abuse of those rights from being turned into means
of oppressing both property and personal freedom
throughout all ranks of the community. Wherein
does the crime of putting a master, no less than a
body of well-disposed journeymen, in fear of per-
sonal violence, and under the operation of that
terror, depriving the one of all use of his capital.
and the whers of his daily bread,—wherein does
that offence differ, let us ask, from the guilt of the
capital felon, who takes purses by means of a
coercion not one whit more inhuman ? The truth
is, that the law of 1825 went a great deal too
far, that the spirit and power of the combination
have every day since been advancing, and that the
many-headed despotism which now prevails through-
out the land must be checked by some more vigo-
rous and comprehensive legislation, or the country
may as well be given up at once to the tender
mercies of fierce, and worthless, and pennyless ad-
venturers, who, being adverse to labour in their
own persons, seduce others less crafty than them-
selves into these rapacious and predatory projects.

SECON D EDITION.
SUN OFFICE, Seven o'clock.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT,

THIS EVENINu.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

The SPEAKER took the Chair at 20 minutes past five.

THE OFFICE OF WARD CONSTABLE.

Mr. Sheriff WILSON appeared at the bar of the house
with a petition from the Court of Common Council, rela•
tive to the office of Ward Constable. Referred to a Com-
mittee.