The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-28 00:00:00

THE COP' ENTRY STRIKE.

The strike is yin tually at an end. After six
weeks of standing ou t by operatives, representing
nearly 18,000 souls, tl ie men are giving in in detail.
In the course of the past week a number of the
hands have returned to work in some of the fac-
tories, and a still It xger number of outdoor
weavers are engaged.
We have now some explanation of the strike.
In its earlier stage the rike was partial—limited,
in fact, to the "hands" clef the manufacturers who
declined to give the pric e s which had, up to the last
six weeks, been paid for work. Subsequently the
strike became general, a nd one of the conditions
insisted upon by the o yeratives was that they
should not resume work n any factories unless the
price list agreed upon at a general meeting of the
weavers had been accepted and signed by the
masters. The negotiatioi a with the employers was
delegated to a committee appointed by the opera-
tives for this purpose, as I tell as for conducting the
general business in the in ,merest of the strike. The
manufacturers, while pr, xfessing their readiness to
treat each with his own I tands, refused to treat with
or recognise the committee. This has been the
position of affairs durii cg the last month, large
meetings of the operati yes being held daily in
the interval, to receive i N'ports of the progress of
the strike. These assemblages were addressed by
members of the committee , and delegates from the
weavers of Derby and other places, the principal
burden of the speeches being exhortations to the
working men "to stand to their rights" and " main-
tain their unity of action a," certain success at no
distant time being the re ward of perseverance in the
cause. This unity was, ,however, more ideal than
real ; it is doubtful wheel ier it was ever acted up
to among the large class of out-door weavers, par-
ties who do not work ian the factories, but have
small looms in their ow i houses. At all events,
first symptoms of a return to work occurred among
them, and their example has been followed by the
hands in a few of the factories. Subsequently to
this partial return to wet rk, the committee them-
selves initiated a resolutic in, which was adopted at
a public meeting, to the ei feet—" That each manu-
facturer's hands should an eet, and, if the employer
is prepared to pay the ist price, as revised and
agreed to by a public mu eting held Aug. 10, 1860,
the hands resume work ox t condition that they take
out their cards and regi sier their names not to
work below the list." Di iring the week that has
followed the adoption of this motion, hands have
been gradually dropping: into work, although by
far the larger portion of the weavers are still out,
and the strike still assume ?s for the local trade of the
town and neighbourhood very formidable propor-
tions.
In the great majority of instances the men have
returned to work at pric, :l s substantially the same as
the list prices which they received before the
strike, but the acceptan c e of any list has been suc-
cessfully resisted by the. employers, and in no case
have the operatives bee a able to obtain from the
manufacturers what was. a prominent object of the
strike, their signature to a list, with a view to gua-
ranteeing the permanen .! of the rate of labour remu-
neration. The masters say that they will neither di-
racily nor indirectly recognise any list of wages that
may emanate from the Weavers' Committee, and
som of them have notified that, in order to prevent
any fature misunderstanding, the price paid per
piece on which the warp, is taken shall be:stated on
every weaver's note ! Ifit is difficult to point out
what object has been gained by the strike, there is
unfortunately no difficulty in indicating its disas-
trous results to the operatives themselves as well as
to the general trade of Coventry. The loss to the
retail trade of the town through the stoppage of
circulation of wages is nt its lowest estimate £6,000
a-week. This estimate assumes that the wages of
the operatives, taking men, women, and children,
average only 10s. ahead per week. The calcula-
tion is considered by m any parties conversant with
the trade to be too low, and that from £B,OOO to
£9,000 a-week would more accurately represent the
weekly loss to trade.
The strike bears heavily on the ratepayers of the
three parishes constituting the Coventry Corpora-
tion, the number of in-door paupers in the past week
being 220 against 152 in the corresponding week of
last year. The number of persons receiving out-
door relief during the strike has been from 86 to 96
each week, being an excess over the average of from
40 to 50. In money and kind the out-door relief
last week amounted to £6l 2s. Bd. The principle
adopted by the guardians in the administration of
out-door relief is to give each married applicant for
himself and wife ls. a day for three days per week
—6d. in money and 6d. in bread.
For every two children an additional ls. is al-
lowed. Strong objections have been urged against
the course thus adopted by the guardians, on the
ground that public rates are by their so doing em-
ployed in aid of the object of the strike. The com-
plaints on this head were brought to a culminating
pointat the meeting of the guardians on Wednesday
last,when Mr. Hart, a guardian, and one of the largest
manufacturers in Coventry, protested against the
course adopted by the board, and offered to en-
gage each out-door applicant to work for him as
they severally asked for relief. The offer was not
adopted by the operatives, and the guardians were,
of course, compelled to refuse the whole body the
relief sought.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

COLCHESTER-AUG. 25.

There was a small supply of wheat, which sold at 4s per
qr. over late rates, many refusing to sell at that advance.
Beans and peas is dearer. The past week has been mostly
wet, and the crops must have sustained considerable dam-
age.
Wheat, white 6os to 68s Beans, Mazagan..37s to 42e
red 54s to 64s ! Middle & small 40s to 481
Barley 2Bs to 32s White peas • 38s to 401
Oats