The Sun.
London, England, 1834-05-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

, .
These two or three days have brought us many
letters on the subject of the strike among the jour-
neymen tailors, nor, although such communications
come from interested parties, ought they to .be re-
jected because of their strong bias in favour of the
respective interests of the writers, but canvassed,
on the contrary, and carefully sifted for whatever
truth may be in them. We have no room at pre-
sent for any of those productions. either from master
tailors or men, but we shall occasionally touch upon
the contents of both. There is-an objection to one
of the demands of the men, which is urged by all
the masters we have conversed with, and which de-
serves serious notice. The journeymen require that
precisely the same wages shall be given to all the •
men without exception. We would, therefore, be
much-obliged to any of them who will explain to us
why cloth worth ss. per yard should not fetch the .
same price in the market as cloth worth 20s. ; for if
all artists, good and bad, are to be paid alike, why
should not all goods which go by the same name,
however different their qualities,fetch an equal sum of
money ? We can conceive no oppression upon the
masters more cruel, no robbery more criminal or
barefaced, than would be such a rule for the pay-
ment of journeymen established against the mas-
ters of any trade whatever ; nor against journey-
' men of superior qualifications could there be a law
more barbarous than that which awarded to them,
as their maximum of daily or weekly wages, the
very same sum which was made the minimunz for
the clumsy, incapable, or idle and drunken work-
man. Such a rule, indeed, would be fortunately no
less impossible to execute, than it would be iniqui-
tous in its nature. The consequence in the .long
run must be, that all indifferent workmen would
be gradually weeded out of the respectable shops,
and this, too, with impunity to the masters, for the
best men would not, in the long run, be mad
'enough to sacrifice themselves and their families for
the solo benefit of the undeserving. Again, the mu-
tineers want to fix another yoke, ostensibly upon the
necks of the masters, but in reality on that of the more
dexterous and meritorious workmen. They insist that
all work shall be done upon the master's premises.
There are three objections to this-Ist, that it would
take away the bread from many thousands of indus-
trious and active women,who now make up waistcoats
and other light articles of apparel ; 2d, that it
tends to aggravate, nay to produce, an evil which
has been dwelt upon with much -apparent emphasis
by the leaders of the journeymen, and by that scur-
rilous scamp who signs certain papers as their se-
cretary ; viz., the unhealthiness of their sedentary
employment, which they carry on for so many hours
in foul and unwholesome air ; for it is manifest,
that if anything can communicate a foetid or pesti-
lential property to air, it is the congregation of 20,
30, or 40 men in one apartment of moderate size,
where they'can during several months of the year
have no ventilation of any kind, and where they sit
for many hours without any change or interruption.
Now if journeymen were to work at home with their
families about them, or even where they could form
parties of three or four at a time, they would be
less exposed to heat and fever—they would be
less tempted to drinking or other modes of vice
—and 3d, the best among them, being paid by
time piece, would be able to reap the fruits of
their superiority, and to earn far more than the
average wages of their craft, against which fair
and equitable advantage the levelling requisition
of the union plotters has been directed. A good
exposure is administered by the correspondent
already mentioned to the pretence of some of the
combined workmen who talk about the necessity of
, intellectual recreation as one of the grounds on

which they ca.ll for a diminution of the hours of
labour. The " Constant Reader," however, refers
to the state of the streets for proof of the elevating
character• of those refreshments in which journey-

men tailors are prone to indulge, and to the reports
of police-offices for the leffects-of their-indulgences.
upon themselves and others. The letter of a
" Journeyman" deserves to be considered, as does
every suggestion offered bond fide with a view to
the interests of the poor. 'the complaint of ill-
treatment suffered by journeymen from tyrannical
or unprincipled masters is; we are afraid, very far
from being unfounded, but, like similar occurrences
in private families, they bring their own cure. No
bad master of a private house has a chance of being
so well served as those who treat their domestics
with kindness' and consideration. We point atten-
tion to an important communication from Newbury,
under the head of " Trades' Unions," where, at a
meeting of the inhabitants, they resolved against
employing any persons in any branch of business
who were members of trades' unions. If this manly
spirit spreads through the country, the game is up
with the " strikers."—Tintes.
" TRADES' UNIONS.
" A numerous and very respectable meeting of the in-
habitants of Newbury and Speenhamland was held on Wed-
nesday last, on the subject abovenamed. The meeting
was called by the Mayor, in consequence of a requisition
to him, signed by nearly 100 of the inhabitants. The fol-
lowing resolutions were proposed and carried, with the ex-
ception of about 20 or 30 hands being held up against
them. Some members of the unions attended the meeting
and were heard with attention, but their statements were
not calculated to remove the impression that almost unani-
mously exists here against the improper formation of these
clubs, or societies, or. lodges, or any other cognomen by
which they are known. It is hoped and believed that this
in so far as it will show the indus-
trious spirit reigns here, on
early notice of the formation of a lodge at Newbury will
erally, not to subject themselves to
eisnaUch unlawful fraternity. The reso-
bttt
the
eeouidictationattended
ma
alo•iisftethea
ntrigsi
ao:gt
lutions were—
" 1. That it is the decided conviction of this meeting
that the prevalence of trades' unions would be destructive
of the commercial and trading interests of this country, and
that they would prove more particularly injurious to, the
interests of the labouring classes.
"2. That the inhabitants of this town, seeing no better
Means of accomplishing the much-desired end contemplated
by this meeting, do resolve that we will not employ any
member of the trades' union.
"3. That in order snore effectually to carry the last re-
solution into effect, it is resolved, that all persons having
an interest in the suppression of trades' unions be requested
to subscribe the following declaration ; and that the decla-
ration be carried round from house to house for the pur-
pose of signature :
We, the undersigned inhabitants of Newbury and
its vicinity, do hereby declare our determination not to
employ any person who is a member of a trade's union.'
the
"4. That the thanks of the meeting be given to
mayor for calling the meeting, and for be
impartial con-
duct in the chair. Times.
We have elsewhere given a report of a meeting
of the inhabitants of St. Paul's, Covent-garden, on
the subject of trades' unions. We can conceive
nothing more mischievous than the anarchy caused
by the unions, and we are glad to see that all those
who employ workmen are fully alive to the danger
to which they are exposed, and determined to meet
it manfully. No man can consider himself a master
so long as he is under the control of workmen who
dictate to him the mode in which he shall conduct
his business, and protect each other in all 'sorts of
irregularities. We regret the distress to which all
misguided journeymen tailors will be exposed by
their foolish scheme ; for the result of the strike
will be to overwhelm the trade with strangers from
all parts, and when the strike is over, a number of
workmen, unable to find employment, will be literally
beggars. The worst of the matter is, that many inno-
cent families, dragged into those unions, and kept in
them by fear, will suffer equally with others. The
idea of an union of all the trades, each trade in
succession, under a strike, receiving assistance from
all the rest, sufficiently indicates the course which
the masters must pursue. The masters as well as
the men suffer greatly from a strike ; their shop
rents and taxes must all the while be paid, while
nothing is coming in ; but the purses of the mas-
ters and their credit will enable them to hold out
longer than the men ; and if the worst comes to
the worst, the masters throughout the metropolis
NV ill aid the masters who are suffering from a strike.
The unions must be put down by vigorous and
well-combined efforts. The system is necessarily
the worst of all tyrannies. The leaders must abet
the men in all their misconduct, because, if they
were to show any ba,kWardness, bolder men would
drive them from their eminence. In this way

every quarrelsome, ill-conditioned workman is able
o set his master at defiance, becalise he knows
hat the leaders of the union must protect them
( r incur the reproach of neglecting the interests of
the men. This is one of . those conjunctures which
eminently call for the display of promptitude and
firmness. Hesitation or indecision now, at the
critical moment; can never be allowed for after-
wards. The masters must put their shoulders fairly
to the wheel. Success is certain, if the masters
are true to themselves. In society, they who pos-
sess property must be the masters of those who
possess only their hands,--Morning Chronicle.
For these twenty years there has been nothing
but complaining on account of the disastrous effects
produced by the practice of paying the wages of
labour out of the poor rates, which, by destroying
the connection between labour and its reward, had
everywhere filled parishes with a number of unem-
ployed workmen. Of late years, the evil seems to
have gained such an ascendancy, that, according to
the most respectable evidence, the whole property of
parishes is often found insufficient for the support of
paupers. We have always understood that there
was but one remedy for this social disease, which
threatens to engulph the whole property of the
country—the power of distinguishing between the
independent labourer and the pauper. We have
never for a moment been under the delusion that the
task of bringing about this revolution would not be
one of tremendous difficulty ; and, in truth, we
never believed that there would be sufficient virtue
and public spirit in any Ministry to undertake the
task. The Tory Ministers, whose object it was to
rub on as long as possible, and to make no present
sacrifice to avert any evil, however ruinous, if
the encountering it could possibly be staved off,
might have applied themselves to the grap-
pling with the poor laws when it would have been
far less difficult to apply a remedy. • But, with the
exception of the Duke of Wellington, to whom it
would be unjust to ascribe the selfishness which we
are now condemning, the Tories suffered evils to
accumulate on evils, in all our institutions, till a
dissolution of the social system itself Was threa-
tened. The present ministers, from their accession
to office till this hour, have in their conduct exhi-
bited in every respect the most complete contrast
to their predecessors. They have boldly grappled
with the inveterate evils of our laws and institu-
tions. But let no man, or set of men, lay the flat-
tering unction to their souls, that in the discharge
of their most sacred duties to their country tlie
will receive the meed of general approbation. In
proportion to the arduous nature of the duty will
be the acrimony and bitterness of the invectives
directed against them. If the evils of the poor law
system werZ light, and could be easily remedied,
instead of being, as they are, a burden pressing with
dreadful severity on the country, and the parent of
every species of demoralization—if there were any
hope that by ordinary means the pauperism which
is spreading like a gangrene over the country could
be checked—we could make allowance for the
howl which is raised against ministers. In the
Times of yesterday there is an article (one of a
series, conceived in the same spirit) in which
the Poor Law Amendment Bill .is condemned
with as much asperity as could be displayed if Mi-
nisters were wantonly departing from a system tin-
der which the country was enjoying a full measure
of happiness and tranquillity, and were recurring
to harsh and severe remedies, when a mild course
would be equally efficient. Who doubts that the powers
of the commissioners are great ? Who doubts that, in
the exercise of these powers, they will create much
discontent ? for the habits of the labouring popula-
tion of whole districts, cannot be changed without
producing much suffering, and consequently much
discontent. The question is not—are the powers
given to the commissioners excessive ? Are pa-
rishes to be subjected, in the first instance, to some
additional expense ? But can we restore the la-
bourers to independence by other means than the
establishment of district workhouses ? It is clear
that the parishes themselves have not at present the
means of employing the redundant labourers ; and
so long as there are unemployed labourers in a pa-
rish, they reduce the whole to the level of pauper-
ism. What is now the state of the labourers
through a great part of the country ? nWe have be-
fore us the charge delivered to the Grand Jury of the
county of Norfolk, at the Easter quarter ses-
sions, 1834, by John Weyland, Esq., F.R.S. Mr.
Weyland, as we have already observed, distinguished
himself by publications on the poor'laws so early as
1807, and we perhaps have dealt out too hard a
measure of justice to him for falling then into the
general error that extraordinary means were neces-
sary to supply labour for the rapidly increasing de-
mand for it. However, the consequences of the
artificial system of supporting the families of married
men at the expense of single men, and thereby in-
suring an abundant supply of labour, though not
then anticipated, have long been bitterly felt ; and
Mr. Weyland, in his capacity of chairman of ma-
gistrates, bears his testimony to a state of things
almost amounting to a dissolution of society. " Last
year (he says) we tried in this county (exclusive of
summary convictions) prisoners to the amount of
one a day for the whole year, which was a great
increase over preceding years. In the first three
months of this year, from January to March :31,
1834, there have been tried no fewer than 340 in the
90 days, or at the rate of 3,1 prisoners for each
day, in a population of 300,000." In describing the
poor laws, as now administered, Mr. Weyland says,
--'4 What are the natural results? A market over-
stocked with labour, and therefore scanty payments
to all, combined with an expectation of good pay-
ments without work—disappointment therefore,
general discontent, and general degradation ! How
many of you would be thankful to retain labourers
from a foreign parish—dependant only on their good
conduct for support—did you not feel that you
would be compelled to dismiss them in favour of
some settled men,' whose only claim to employ-
ment is that they are pensioners upon the parish.
In short, I believe it to be the result of our (lady
experience, under this system of abuse, that many,
who would otherwise have been industrious and
careful, have been made indolent and thoughtless
of the interest of their employers ; that many who
would otherwise have been prudent, have become
spendthrifts, from the absence of an adequate mo-
tive to save ; that many who would otherwise have
been well conditioned, have become insubordinate,
in hopes of extorting by clamour what they think
is denied to their just expectations, and (it is heart-
breaking to think) malicious against those indivi-
duals whose duty it is to deny She fulfilment of
those fallacious expectations. That this, as a
general picture, is too faithful, there is every
reason to believe ; that it is not universally
true I know, and to the cause of the dis-
tinction I shall presently advert. * * * Dice,
the system lead to the encouragement of vice,
by making the sober drunken, and the honest
thieves ? It certainly has a strong tendency to do
so, inasmuch as it gives men money for no labour,
or for that which is merely nominal ; and idleness
as we all know, is the parent of vice. The money
given is not sufficient to satisfy the cravings of an
idle man ; he is under strong temptations to make
up the deficiency by the plunder of his neighbours,
a calling which is always accompanied by habitual
intoxication." Mr. Weyland, after noticing the
oftlie:_ba„stsaru(cl)h,
,laglse•ns
laws,
these
a faint outline of evils, which, beginning as a cloud,
no bigger than a man's hand, and scarcely per-
ceptible, has at length overspread and darkened the
beer-
s forciblehopsh e
observationsfrtlit
whole political atmosphere, casting a moral blight
over the length and breadth of the land, and threat-
ening a storm with force sufficient to overturn the
Whole fabric of society. Let it not be thought that
these things, having reference chiefly to parochial
management, are only of parochial importance."
In the towns, the evil is less felt. The parishes of
the metropolis, for instance, are of a magnitude to
provide for themselves all that is necessary for
efficient discipline. But the parishes m towns
ought to remember that the country parishes are
unable to extricate themselves from their present dif-
ficulties without a remedy very different from what

be obtainedy, however, under the
that
present
the ability stet.
of
canof the It
v a n toministers
to execute such a law must materially depend on
the support they receive ; and if vestries, halloed on
by newspapers, stir up a fierce opposition to the
scheme, it must be abandoned. It will require
the support of parliament and the support. of publie
opinion. The time is rapidly approaching when
the question will be decided by a servile war, and
when every man possessed of property will ha
Forced, nolens miens, to take a decided part. If
the people will not avert the danger, by adoptin
remedies while it is yet time, they must not quarrel
with the consequences. We are as much opposed
to all plans of centralization as any persons can
be, and if we saw any means by which the la-
bourers could be restored to independence short of
withdrawing able-bodied paupers from their respec-
tive parishes in which there is no employment for
them, we should be opposed to the present plan.
District workhouses are therefore essential to the re-
nedy wherever there are redundancies, and we know
that though parishes have long had the example be-
fore them of what can be done at Southwell and
dsewhere, they will not profit by them. Nothing
to easy as to tell how parishes could be kept in a
wealthy state, if they were ever in such a state
and all the criticisms of the ministerial plan which
we have seen merely inform us how the abuses
:save arisen, and how they might have been
avoided. The real difficulty is left untouched.—
' Mornittg Chronicle.
The following,' we have reason to believe, will
turn out to be the principal stipulations of the
treaty between Great Britain, France, Spain, and
Portugal, which has given rise to so much spe.cula-
tion during the last ten days :
Ist. Don Pedro binds himself to expel Don Carlos front
Portugal, and to publish an amnesty in favour of such of
the adherents of Don Miguel as may, within a limited time,
desert the cause of that sovereign.
2.d. The. Queen Regent of Spain binds herself to send
an army into Portugal to assist in placing Donna Maria
upon the throne.
3d. His Britannic Majesty binds himself to lend the
da of such a fleet as may be deemed necessary to co-
•wera.te with tha land forces of his allies in settling the
affairs of Spain and Portugal.
4th. The King of the French binds himself to contribute
to the objects of the league such aid, of every kind, as the
other three contracting parties may jointly demand.
This treaty was signed at London on the 22d of
April. It is now a week Since we inquired of our
Ministerial contemporaries whether
the conditions of the treaty, an these were not
a we were led to
make this inquiry by an intimation we Lld received
upon the subject, and upon the accuracy os' which
we placed great reliance. Our Ministerial c‘sh-
temporaries were condemned to silence. We have
now, however, the means, without their assistance,
of communicating; to the public the preceding accu-
rate abstract ofr the treaty. It is a treaty which
we believe the British Parliament will never sanc-
tion. Very great and serious inconveniences may
be prevented, however, by a strong expression of
the opinion of the legislature upon the subjeet,of
this unprincipled intervention previous to the ex-
change of the ratifications.—:Morning Post.