The Sun.
London, England, 1833-11-28 00:00:00

- ----- -
GERMAN PAPERS.

CoNsTANTINOYLE, OCT. 25.—According to accounts
from Aleppo of the 10th and 16. h of September, Ibrahim
Pacha is engaged in draining the marshes at Alexandrette,
in which undertaking seine 1,000 workmen are employed.
His object is to purify the air of that country, which would
be a great advantage to navigation, as the harbour of
Alexandrette is the only safe one during the winter season.
The inhabitants of Mount Libanus, and of the territory of
Naplous, are said to have refused to comply with the order
for delivering up their arms. It is reported that the Arabs
had returned to the neighbourhood of the strong castle of
Mrsirib, three days journey from D.tnascus, and that they
had defeated the Egyptian Cavalry sent against them.
Great sensation had been excited in Syria by the sudden
absconding of Selitn Bey, one of the principal and most
distingui-lied Generals of Ibrahim's army. People bewilder
themselves in conj.ctures respecting the motives that in•
duced him to this unexpected step. (S lint B. y and some
other officers of Ibrahim's suite arrived at Constantinople
in the beginning of October.
Accounts from Candia, which come down to the 9,11
October, say that Mehemet Ali's Seraskier had, by the
advice of the Consuls of France anti Russia, signified to
the insurgents that the inhabitants of the island should be
subject only to the charadoch (poll tax) of four, eight,
and sixteen piastres per held, and should pay no taxes but
those which were usual under the direct sovereignty of the
Porte. They are also to be at liberty to sell their pro-
perty, and to emigrate to whatever place they choose ; but
the Greeks do not trust the-e promises, and the less so as
the Consuls of France and Russia would not undertake to
pledge themselves to the fulfilment of them. The incur
gents still remained assembled in Mornitz, though the
Seraskier had repeatedly commanded them to disperse.
On the 2d October Admiral Alalcoltu came to Soda, as
it seems, to lend his assi-tance towards the termination of
this dispute. His endeavours were, however, unavailing,
and he 1.-ft Candia much dissatisfied with the Greeks.
Tie latest accounts from Candia announce the arrival of
the Egyptian squadron under Ostnar Paella, who, it is
said, having landed his troops, took a village by storm, and

dispersed the rebels assembled in it.
Letters direct from Alexandria, dated 2d October, say,
" As soon as the Viceroy heard of the insurrection which
broke out in Candia af. er his departure, he ordered part
of his fleet, which was ready for sea in the harbour of
Alexandria, to sail, and gave instructions to his admiral,

o.toar Pacha, Positively enjoining him, as we are as-
sured, to put down the insurrection in Candia at any price.
This squadron sailed on the 2811 Septt-mber. The Vice-
roy has since hired transports to convey troops, to the
number of four or six thousand men, to Candia, which
will make the Egyptian force in the island amount to
twelve or fourteen thousand turn. The Pacha seetrs to
have been induced to send this reinforcement, by tl e report
that part of the Candiat Turks have joined the Greeks."
Differences have arrisen respecting the trinute to he paid
to the Porte by Mehemet Ali. The Porte demands that
the Pacha shall for Egypt pay five years arrears, at 10,000
pulses (the purse at 500 Turkish piastre.), and 10,000
purses for the Paehalick of Syria► for two years arrears, at
the rate of 20,000 purses per annum. Mehemet Ali,
boa ever, will not hear of the ptyment of arrears, and
offers the 30,000 purses (about 750,000 Spanish piastres)
for Egypt, Candia, Syria, and A iana, only from the be-
ginning of the next year of the 'leeks. Edliam Effendi,
the Commissioner of the Porte, who is intrusted with the
r.gulatinn of this affair, not feeling him-elf authorised to
accede to these proposals of the Paella, has sent a Tartar
from Alexandria to Constantinople for the Sultan's co:n-
mands.—Austrian Observer, Nov 16.

ON COMBINATION.—No. 11.

EFFECT 'spoil IN!) UST RY—MACHINERY
--MANUFACT UR E and upon the LA-
B 0 URER S.
Combinations of ..orkmen have undoubtedl%
had the effect of keeping up wages, and yet have.
produced, and are producing, consequences tha•
threate❑ the future welfare of industry, to which
it is impossible that too close attention can br
paid. The master manufacturers who have a
large capital invested in building and machinery,
to which long continued idleness is ruinous,
dare not make deductions in the wages of their
hands to meet the occasional depression in the
markets, and to counteract the low rate of profit
on all manufactured articles. The payment of
spinners, weavers, and others engaged in thp
cotton trade, has varied much less during the
last twenty years than is generally imagined, and
in many cases has increased rather than lessened.
In 1810 a spinner, working at what is called a
stretcher, earned 255. 10d. per week; in 1830 th,
same man earned 305., and this notwithstanding

:he manufactured articles have in some cases
Fallen 30, 50, 100, 200 per cent. This has

arisen from the extraordinary improvement in
machinery, and the consequent increased amount
of production, so that although the labourer has
still but two hands, he is enabled to superintend
an improved machine, which turns out a triple
quantity of work. The masters being at issue
with their men, and knowing what enormou-
loss they must suffer from a " strike," which
would follow a reduction of wages, have bent
all their energies to produce machines and in-
crease the speed of their engines, to meet the
difficulties of the markets. That gigantic servant
of all-work, the steam-engine, is ever ready to
supply power, a power differing from human
power in this, that it never tires, and, being
unreasoning, never rebels. Combinations, there-
fore, among the operative manufacturers have
kept up wages, hut have also been mainly instru.
mental in giving life to a rival, which is hourly
growing more independent of their assistance.
this has led to an evil which has fallen heavily
upon the masters, namely, over-manufacturing
and gluts, which have pushed down prices at
particular junctures far below a proper standard,
and from this they have seldom been able to
rally, but have been forced to keep up a rate of
production beyond a healthy demand, for here,
as in the first instance, the men have withstood
all compromise. This has necessarily had a
tendency to force production. A master em-
ploying a certain number of hands, and a certain
value of machinery, makes ten or twenty thou-
sand pieces of calico per week, and finds his
profit so limited as barely to pay his expenses.
He increases the power of his engine, improves
the construction of his looms, adds three or
more picks or movements to their rate of work.
ing, pays the same price for the raw material,
and employs the same number of hands, is
doubly strict in requiring good work, and now
turns out one fourth more calico, which we will
suppose he sells at the same rate, and he gains
a profit. But the same circumstances attend
other masters, they produce more and the market
is overstocked. Prices fall, for buyers have as
accurate a knowledge of the state of things as
sellers, and the same process is repeated again
and again. The minimum of selling-prices must
however arrive, though it is difficult to say how
far mechanical improvements may extend, and
then it is that the struggle between masters and
men must be decided.
These have been the effects of combinations
upon machinery and upon manufacture, namely,
the establishment of a permanent low rate of
profit, and a constant tendency to over produc-
tion. These have reacted upon the men in the
following manner :—the increased siz. of thr
machines and their increased speed have called
for a double portion of labour, and an exactness
and quickness of attention, amounting to inces-
sant occupation, to a demand on the part of the
master of an improved quality of work, and to
enforce this, the imposition of heavy fines on all
flaws or slight damages, which flaws and damae;es
in many cases ate unavoidable, and thus securing
a draw back equivalent to a reduction of wages.
Another consequence has been turn outs, of
strikes, in which thousands of workmen have
abandoned their employment, rather than sub-
mit to a slight, and in some instances, a neces
sary reduction of wages. Some of those " strikes"
have continued for several months, and have
gone nigh to destroying the manufacturing
capital of the districts e Inch have been involved
in them. A mongst other instances of the con
sequences, Macclesfield may be pointed out ; the
relractGry spirit of the men engaged in the silk
trade—the staple of the town—having driven the
capital and enterprise to Manchester in a very
great mea,ure. During these " strikes" a degree
at mi ery has been suffered by the operative,
' which language cannot describe, the wretched
pit ance doled out from the Union fund being
quite insufficient to prevent famine and disease
from inflicting their bitterest woes upon the
deluded people. Nor have their interests suf
fered alone. The shopkeepers, whose trade is
dependent upon their earnings, have been in-
volved in equal distress, whilst enormous loss
has been sustained by the masters. To support
life, the workmen have been compelled to con-
tract debts, to pawn their furniture and clothing,
so that when eventually they returned to work it
has required months of the most painful sacri-
fices to pay them.
During these periods the orderly and indus-
trious artizan having been driven by the fact of
the Union to starvation, and seeing the seeds of
a constant recurrence of similar disasters, has
both abandoned his trade and his country, and
carried his skill to America, and several mills in
that country can be pointed out, the heads of
which are composed chiefly of emigrant turn-
outs. The masters too in their endeavour to
escape from the ruin attendant upon their capital
and machinery lying idle, have encouraged emi-
grations from agricultural and other districts,
and thus produced a surplus population, and an
excess of labourers.
Not only have these depressions driven away
in numerous cases the better disposed labourers,
but they have also occasionally forced capitalists
to abandon their particular branch of trade, and
in some instances have induced them to carry
away their skill, capital, and enterprise into
foreign countries, disgusted with, and utterly
incapable of; managing their turbulent hands.
The truck and cottage systems are both the re-
sults of a low rate of profit, and from the impossi-
bility of ;:ringing wages down to something like
a par with them, the master becomes a retail
shopkeeper, or builds cottages; the workmen
are expected to purchase the necessary articles
of daily consumption at his shop, and to inhabit
his houses. In both cases he makes no bad
debts, and secures an enormous profit, the pay-
ment for rent and goods being punctually
sopped in their wages. The laws against

'rueLing Lave failed hi checking this system t!ie
nears of evasion :;re so name ous and paldible.
In the space of a communication like tin ,
i. impossible to enter into more extended or
)articular details ; in brief, combination his
iroduced, Ist, An urgent desire to substitute
nechanical contrivances for humm labour—
:rower being supplied by steam. 21 A cou-
rant tendency to over production. 3(1 A (le-
nand for excellent work, and the imposition of
!fines for flaws, &c. ; and deductions for accide,o,l

stoppages. 4h. '6 Strikes," or turn-otys, at-
nded by wide Spreading misery, and Toni 'Al-
luring embarrassment. sb. Excess of popAi-
inn in the manufacturing districts ; and, eonse-
luently, an increase of pours' rate, and number
.1 unemployed h mds. 6h. The occa ionAl
obstruction of capital and enterprise, an , in
many instances, the removal of seats of mann-
tc:ure. And, 7zb, To the truck and cortage

ystems.
Therefore, though the rate of wag.Ps, nomi-
tally, has been kept up, in reality heavy deduc-
ions have been nude ;to which must be ath,d,
he contributions to the Union fund. Notwith-

•tanding, however, the indirect lowering of
wages (hitherto this class of operatives are better
paid than the majority of other lahourers)—the
iverage amount of all ages being 11s. per week
mithin a fraction, a rate of payment much higher
ban that enjoyed by agricultural lab nireN a•,d
hand-loom weavers, in which, though an iAdivi-
dual may get a nearly equal amount to this
e rage, the wide distinction must be made that
:ill the members of an operative's family working
it steam machinery, above nine years of age find
employment, whereas none but adults are efficient
,vorkmen either at the hand-loom or in rur,l
labour. The moral effects of combination still
remain to be considered as well as the interest of
lie public.
Nov. 25, 1833.

WHITTLE HARVEY, ESQ., M.P.—The