The Sun.
London, England, 1833-10-30 00:00:00

reflect the highest honour on them, though'
however much he may regret their decision
(which he would fain hope he might, on their
further acquaintance with him, induce them to
alter), he openly impeaches their motives, and
'questions their right to treat him with indignity,
and put an affront on the citizens of Portsoken.
It seems he treated Alderman Lucas rather
roughly in the Guildhall reading-room ; and the
Lord Mayor complains, that while he was busied
with the case of Coster, Alderman Scales termed
him worse than Coster. We are by no means
the apologists of any want of the courtesies of
life ; but we think it quite clear that Alderman
Scales meant, by saying that he was worse than
Coster, that the depriving a whole community of
their constitutional rights was a greater injustiee
than robbing an individual, and that he looked

on all who constituted the majority against him
to be guilty of an invasion of popular rights.
In the House of Commons, many men are
returned by the people who may be exceed-
ingly disagreeble to the Members of the
House ; but the choice of the people is never
set aside, except on some ground of legal dis-
qualification. The House of Lords contains
men, who are dishonest in every sense of the
word, for a man who contracts debts without
having the means ofpaying them, is unquestionably
dishonest ; but as this is not a legal disquali-
fication, a Peer in this predicament not only
votes on public questions, but adjudicates as a
Judge of the last resort on questions of private
right. We repeat it, there is no ground of
objection to Mr. Scales, except that the Court
of Aldermen do not like him. In private life,
a man may choose his company ; but in public
matters, he is not entitled to make his likings
or dislikings a principle of action. If the Court
of Aldermen cannot discover some ground of
disqualification of a determinate character, they
ought to remain passive. We confess, that if
they are allowed to reject Mr. Scales, without
assigning a cause, the right of the citizens is at
an end. There is at once an end of the popular
election of Aldermen. The citizens of London
ought not to suffer this invasion of their rights ;
they ought to consider Mr. Scales as the cham-
pion of their rights. All we object to is the
assertion, on the part of the Court of Aldermen,
of the right to arbitrary power, in setting aside
the election of the citizens, without assigning a
cause. If they can assign a cause which a court
of law would deem valid, well and good ; but
hitherto they have assigned no good cause. We
look on the whole conduct of the Court of
Aldermen in this case to be highly discreditable
to them ; and we are much mistaken if, in
these times, an'; body of men will gain in the
long run by such a course of proceeding.—
Morning Chronicle.

The most gratifying part of the evidence be-
fore the Select Committee on Manufactures,
Commerce, &c., is that which establishes the
general improvement in the condition of the
working people. In Yorkshire, the proof of
improvement, in all but one class—the handloom
weavers—is most satisfactory. Mr. John Mar-
shall, who employs 1,229 hands in his mill,
excluding the mechanics employed in repairing
the machinery, gives a detailed statement of the
wages paid to the different work-people, classed
according to their ages. He says—" I think
the operatives are exceedingly well off at present
—that the wages are as high now as they were
during the war, when everything was so much
dearer than it is at present. The " real wages
measured in provisions are higher, consequently
they produce more comfort." The 70 or 80
mechanics average from 20s. to 30s. a week, and
some receive more than 30s. The poor handloom
weavers were in a wretched condition during the
war, and Mr. Marshall states their wages to have
fallen 20 per cent. since the peace. " The chil-
dren (says Mr. Marshall) are not brought up
now to hand weaving, and therefore the hand
weavers will be relieved by a decrease of their num-
bers." This is no doubt a melancholy prospect
for the old, who cannot change their occupation;
but we fear the account is but too true. Mr. John
Brooke, a woollen manufacturer near Hudders-
field, who employs upwards of 1,000 people, says,
" We are giving as high wages at present as
ever we did since we were manufacturers, within
my knowledge." His knowledge must be pretty
extensive, for he has been all his life in the

trade ; and he may well be said to be a heredi-
tary wool manufacturer, for his great grandfather
was one. It will be recollected that some strange
statements were made, about the receipts of the
people of Huddersfield, by Mr. Fielden, in the
House of Commons. Alluding to this, Mr.
Brooke says, " In consequence of statements
made in the House of Commons, about the
earnings of families in the neighbourhood o
Huddersfield, a meeting was called of the large
manufacturers, and they were requested to bring
an account of the wages they were paying. I
was Chairman of that meeting, and particularly
requested of the gentlemen that they would be
as careful as possible in any statement they might
give ; and it appeared that, taking all the adults
working in their mills, whatever their description
of work might be, the average would be twenty
shillings a-week, and taking the average of the
work people of every person who attended that
meeting.' Mr. Brooke, however, adds that the
persons who attended the meeting were large manu-
facturers—that the domestic manufacturers did not
pay so much as the large manufacturers. Some
very curious particulars are given with regard to the
hardware manufacture, by Mr. S. Jackson, of
Sheffield. The manufacture, he said, had been
continuously increasing of late years, with the
exception of the last year, in consequence of the
disturbed state of the United States of America.
Mr. Jackson has visited many manufactories in
Prussia, in Belgium, and in France, and they
had gradually continued to improve, and he
found the competition greater every journey.
The operatives are very inferior to the operatives
in England, as it respects their comforts and
also their earnings. "At Molsheim, near
Strasburg, where they employ as many hands in
the manufacture of saws almost as they employ
in Sheffield, the wages of labour are as twelve to
one—that is to say, we have to pay for a single
article as much as the manufacturer at i\lolsheim
pays for a dozen. These observations were
made by myself at the time of my last journey.
Being a practical man, I took more interest in
ascertaining the relative situation of the opera-
tives in the two countries. I will state, from the
remarks I made, what I ascertained to be the
usual terms of employment. A sawgrinder at
Molsheim earns about 28 sous, or Is. 2d. a
day ; he can grind and glaze six dozen billet
webs (that is a species of web of which large
quantities are sent to America), which makes the
price 2d. per dozen. The Sheffield price for
the same work, not done in a superior manner,
is two shillings and sixpence a dozen." " What
would a Sheffield workman make per day at that
rate ?.—He would make from 15s. to 1/. per
day. This is a reduced price of this article ;