The Sun.
London, England, 1834-04-04 00:00:00

~1

N n'/11,

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vinces. At Lisbon the constitutionalists were
in anxious expectation of the interference of
Spain. DON PEDRO had at last, by a formal
decree, deprived Don MIGUEL of all the
rank, wealth, and titles of an Infante of Portu-
gal, which, it is supposed, will bring no slight
accession of pecuniary means to the Pedroite
treasury. This measure had given very gene-
ral satisfaction at Lisbon ; we are surprised it
was not resolved on before. Lord HOWARD
DE WALDEN had been formally presented to
the young QUEEN and the REGENT, but was
reported to have given some offence, especially
to the young QUEEN, in consequence of his
having appeared on the occasion in boots. One
would suppose that a Court in the critical posi-
tion of Don PEDRO'S, would be engrossed by
too many serious matters, to be able to direct
their attention to trifling violations of etiquette.
A Spanish brig of war, aided by boats from
the Portuguese steamer, Lord of the Isles,
had captured a large British cutter, supposed
to be the Express, packet, loaded with stores for
Don MIGUEL, or, as was alleged, for Don
CARLOS, and carried her into Vigo. The
Pedroite force at Oporto consisted of between
three and four thousand efficient troops.

The meeting held at Birmingham on Monday
was not more remarkable for its numbers than
for the mistaken views of some of the speakers
and the threats held out by others and applauded
by the multitude. They all seemed to take it
for granted that the Dorchester Unionists were
justified in acting as they had done because
mechanics have a right to form associations to
protect their labour from further depression. No
doubt mechanics have such a right ; that
is allowed by the law of the land ; but it is
quite a different thing to cement these unions by
unlawful oaths. Oaths of that description of
which these men were found guilty, are punish-
able by law. If the law is oppressive or de-
fective, meetings may be held to petition the
Legislature for its repeal, but not certainly to
set them at defiance. If such a principle were
to be adopted, there would be no security either
for the property of the master, or the wages of
the labourer ; in fact, it would dissolve all

the ties of social order, and one of its speedies
and most certain results would be the ruin o:

the mechanics themselves. Wages may be
raised by fair and legal means, by an increased
demand or by superior skill, but any attempt to
raise them permanently by force is contrary to
every moral and physical principle, and as hope-
less as the discovery of the philosopher's stone
or the perpetual motion. The spirit displayed
too by most of the speakers is anything but cal-
culated to benefit their cause—it has more the
air of threat and intimidation than of petition
or remonstrance, and places the Government in
a position by which it has been prevented on
principle from listening to the voice of mercy.
The Government naturally say, if we allow the
Crown to yield in this instance, and remit
the sentence out of fear, all legitimate authority
is at an end ; the next demand may be for a
permanent scale of wages, whatever be the
value of labour, or a provision for re-
fractory workmen, or the abolition of every
constitutional law or tribunal opposed to
the wishes of the labouring classes. There
would, in fact, be no end to concession, but
universal anarchy. We have a constitutional
body chosen, not by the masters only, but also
by the men. That body alone 'has the
right of making and abrogating laws, and
to dispense with laws, without their au-
thority, would be a virtual annihilation of the
constitution. The course adopted by these unions,
so far from benefitting the convicts or rais-
ing a feeling in favour of the working classes,
will have precisely the contrary effect. It will
excite apprehensions in every mind friendly to
good order and constituted authority, and, if
they persevere in their course, compel the great
body of the community to petition the
Legislature for the enactment of some
severer laws against illegal associations. De-
precating any such measures, we earnestly hope

these men will desist from violent measures in
time, and glad as we should have been to see a
more lenient sentence passed on the men con-
victed at Dorchester, their conduct cannot be
justified. The secret manner in which the
meeting was held, and the mode of administering
the oaths, prove that they did not offend through
ignorance.

It will be seen in another part of The Sun
that Government declines to interfere in the
case of the Dorchester unionists convicted of
administering unlawful oaths.

The church rates, as affecting both church-
men and dissenters, will certainly be abolished.
The plan has been decided on, and it is such
as will leave nothing to be complained of here-
after on this head. Thus one of the greatest of
the grievances of the dissenters will be removed,
and that without delay.
In the report of the Poor Law Commission,

page 345, we find the following passage in re-
ference to registration :—" When a general re-
gistration of births shall have been established,
a measure which cannot be long delayed, the
proof of the fact of birth will be much easier."
As it is intended to make parochial settlements
ultimately depend altogether on birth, a certi-
ficate of the fact will be absolutely necessary to
the poorest persons, and no persons will then
hesitate to pay a small fee to procure it. The
difficulty with regard to the expense of a ge-
neral registration will thus be lessened, if
not entirely removed. A respectable officer
may be appointed by the parish, and as he may
also keep the parochial accounts, the salary
allowed by the parish, and the fees on registra-
tion of births, marriages, and deaths, will make
the office one of some consideration. It will,

no doubt, be sought after by intelligent and
respectable persons, who will be able to furnish
general statistical information on which reliance
may be placed. If this can be effected with-
out a heavy charge to the public purse, even
the most eager Dissenter will admit that advan-

tage limy arise to the public from some little
further delay. As the Government must have
been acquainted with the poor law report for
some time, their postponement of the subject
may be easily accounted for, without imput-
ing to them indifference to the claims of the
Dissenters.

The German Papers inform us that the
Porte wants money, and finds it difficult to
borrow. To be sure—who will lend without se-
curity for repayment ? And since every one knows
that the days of the Turkish power are numbered,
by Russia, what security can she give for a
loan ? The way to obtain assistance from
others would have been for the Porte to have
maintained her independence. But was this
possible ?

Mr. ROBERT GR/EME has offered himself
for Perthshire, and Lord LYNEDOCH has left
for Scotland in consequence. Lord ORMELIE'S
election cost 30,0001. The Whigs and Re-
formers will of course support Mr. GIUEME.
Sir GEORGE MURRAY is canvassing the county
against him.

The first Cabinet Council since the com-
mencement of the holydays will be held on

Monday.

We find that Mr. MUNDELL'S publication,

from which we have given an extract relative to

proceedings in Parliament, embraces-1. Edu•
cation and Establishments for Education. 2.

Religion and Establishments for Religion. 3.
Jurisprudence, and Establishments for dis-
pensing justice. 4. Industry, and the exercise
of it. 5. Public opinion, in so far as the Le-
gislature is concerned. 6. The rules and forms
of Legislative Proceedings. It thus comprises
most of the leading topics of recent discussion.
While Trades' Unions are adding to the dis-

tress which has produced them, we conceive we

shall render an acceptable service to our readers
and the country at large, by bringing before
them what Mr. MUNDELL says relative to
Wages, which he defines to be " the recompense
of labour. The money amount or price depends
upon the quantity and description of work to be
done, and the number of working men able and
willing to do it, estimated in the money of the

period of employment. The money recompense
or price of labour, is like the price of everything
else. It depends upon demand and supply.
The Legislature, therefore, should no more in-

terfere with the price of labour than it should
with the price of anything else. Wherever it
has interfered, the interference has deranged the
general operations of industry, the result of
which is to limit the general amounts of its
products.

" Nevertheless, in the case of wages, the legisla-
ture has interfered both directly and indirectly. Its
indirect interference has been more mischievous than
its direct interference, for its effects have not been so
immediately apparent.
" The wages of labour were directly interfered with
by the statute of labourers, 25 Edward 111., anno
1350, by which all workmen were compelled to work
for the same wages which had been usual in the last
ten years, and to accept their wages either in money,
or, at the option of the employers, in wheat, not rated
higher than 10d. a bushel, that is, 6s. Bd. a quarter. *
" Though the price of wheat does not appear to
have increased much in England, in the course of the
ensuing century, yet, in the next statute of labourers,
23 Hen. VI. c. 12, anno 1446, the wages, &c., thereby
assigned were considerably increased.f
" These statutes of labourers deserve the more atten-

tion at the present time, that in the reign of Edward 111.
the coin was so debased, that the creditors of the crown,
and all other creditors, were defrauded, first of about a
tenth, and afterwards of a ninth part of their property,
by which also, home prices were raised in the same
proportions; and in 1348 a pestilence prevailed in
England, said to have come from the East (as the cho-
lera was said to do two or three years ago), which, ac-
cording to some writers, carried off so many of the
people, chiefly the lower orders, that not a tenth part
of them survived, and according to Hume, about one-
third of the whole population perished.
" These statutes deserve consideration on another
account, inasmuch as they serve to show the
effect of a change in the exchangeable va-
lue of money, and of the coinage. In the money of
the period, as silver was then coined, wheat was
rated at 10d. a bushel, or about 2s. 6d. of the ex-
changeable value of money in Dr. Adam Smith's time,
when our mint pound of silver, now coined into sixty-
six parts, or shillings, valued in gold, was coined into
sixty-two parts, or shillings, which then showed the
exchangeable value of gold.. Taking wheat, at 2s. 6d.
a bushel, the wages of a day labourer in husbandry, in
1446, at that rate, would be 6d. a-day in summer
and 3d. in winter, without victuals, and, including
victuals, 9d. a-day in summer and 6d. in winter.
Now, as money is continuing to rise in exchange-
able value, it is not, in the course of things, impossible
that wages may so fall as even to approach these rates.
Our strongest impressions are those which we re-
ceive in early life ; and our habits of thinking have
been so long formed by a state of things where prices
continued to rise, through the continuing fall in the
exchangeable value of money, that we are slow to be-
lieve in an opposite state of things, where prices con-
tinue to fall, through the continuing rise of the ex-
changeable value of money. The bulk of us, also, have
very undefined and confused notions respecting
paper currency ; and few are aware that paper
currency is, or ought to be, of the same exchange-
able value with the gold which it represents (gold
being now our standard of value), and still fewer are
satisfied that it always would be of the same exchange-
able value, if it were not for an exclusion, created by
the legislature, which actually lowers, though it is sup-

• Dr. Adam Smith observed upon this statute, that, at this
time, " ten pence contained about half an ounce of silver,
Tower weight, and was nearly equal to half a crown of our
present money. Four ounces of silver, Tower weight, there-
fore, equal to Gs. Bd. of the money of those times, and to near
twenty shillings of that of the present, must have been reckoned
a moderate price for the quarter of eight bushels."
He adds, " This statute is, surely, a better evidence of what
was reckoned in those times a moderate price of grain, than
the prices of some particular years, which have generally been
recorded by historians and other writers, on account of their
extraordinary dearness or cheapness, and from which, therefore,
it is difficult to form any judgment concerning what may have
been the ordinary price."— Wealth of Nations, vol. i. book ii.
chap. xi.
The wages usual for the then preceding ten years were,
X. s. d.
Weeders and hay-makers per day 0 0 1
Mowers by the acre or day 0 0 5
Reapers of corn, in the Ist week of August 0 0 2
- and after that 0 0 3
For threshing wheat and rye quarter 0 0 21
- barley, beans, peas, and oats 0 0 11
A master free mason per day 0 0 4
Master carpenters, masons, tilers, thatchers,
plasterers, &c.
Inferior carpenters, &c.
Their servants or boys 0 0 11
All without meat or drink.
t The wages assigned by thestatute were :---

(Bailiff .. . Per Ann.
11„; 1 Chief hind, carter, and chief shep.
1 2
- - i Commonherd farm servant
. 1 Woman servant
'" ....
LGirl under 14 years
Free mason
n t
slater,e r i ...
rough masnon,
....... Per Day
17
.1 ordinary carpenter, and others
.
a r concerned in building
.c F:... Labourer
eso
Master Master tiler,earPe
From Michaelmas to Easter they
..‘
I had each Id. less

s. d. s. d.
13 41 5 0
eo
1 0 0l~S 4 0
015 0 3 4
010 01.49, 4 0
0 6 0.1 3 0

O 0 41 7
.2
003 o I
O 0
J

N 6
.5 ti A mower
.2 >.'" Reaper and carter, each
.°°:,-., Other labourers and women, each
; , 4

oo 4 2
o o :3 0 2
O 2 2