The Sun.
London, England, 1860-05-29 00:00:00

no small pecuniary advantages to the employer!'
Good, and true. But let the men remember that all
this was accomplished by the diffusion of know-
ledge—by discussion, by respectful representations
to masters, by meetings to which respectable public
speakers, frequently clergymen of different deno-
minations were invited, by the willing aid of the
newspaper press, in one word, by purely moral
means. Had all the shopmen and clerks through-
out London, struck for " early closing" they would
have inflicted immense loss on their masters and
on themselves, have irritated the public by a wan-
ton interference with its habits and convenience,
have entailed lasting misery on thousands of decent
families, and instead of "better and friendlier feel-
ings between the employers and the employed" there
would have remained heartburnings which would
have died out only with the present generation.
The men say, "In making this fresh present-
ment of our desire for the nine hours' movement,
we are confident that a more careful and impartial
consideration of the subject will induce you to come
to the conclusion, that your interests as employers
will not be seriously affected by the concessien of the
nine hours' boon to the earnest and respectful soli-
citation of the men engaged in your establishments.
On the other hand, we are equally confident that
the condition of the workmen, physically, morally,
and intellectually, will be greatly improved through
the effects of the proposed reduction."
If this be true, as it has proved true, in
regard to many other departments of business,
it is the very case for a full and fair discussion.
In that of the shopmen the same argument was
strongly urged. Many masters were convinced.
Those who were, began to act on their convic
tion. Others followed. Argument and example
has done all that has been yet effected. In this
short memorial it was of course impossible to do
more than open the case: Let the men now set
to in good earnest to prove their points. They
may be quite sure that no master has any
preference for ten hours if nine hours will
serve his .purpose as well. • The majority of
the masters well know what labour is by experi-
ence. They have risen from the trowel to the con-
tractor's desk; they can fully comprehend the proofs,
if proofs there be, that they shall finish a house
as cheaply if the masons work but nine hours each
as if they work ten. It may be so. We do not
understand the case practically ; but our friend Mr.
POTTER must own that the assertion is one pre-
eminently needing proof. To the uninitiated it
seems impossible. If the men offered to work nine
hours for one-tenth less wages, we could of course
comprehend that that might be an advantage to
the masters, though we are not sure that it would
be. But if the masters are to pay one-tenth more
—if every house which now costs them £l,OOO to
build, is to cost them £l,lOO, it seems to us that
they must in the long run be losers. If the cost
were increased 10 per cent., the demand would be
lessened 10 per cent.—so every believer in ADAM
SMITH would say—and Mr. POTTER should at
once inaugurate a vigorous discussion on this
point. Let him prove that the masters' interests
will not suffer, and he will have both masters
and the public with him.
Above all, let the Union men renounce for ever
the un-English tyranny by which some of their
number injured their cause last year. It is per-
fectly fair that workmen should combine in any
way they please—that they should combine in
such numbers as to be able to demand what they
think fair wages ; what is not fair, and what
neither law nor society will tolerate, is that they
should dictate to their fellow-workman for what
wages he shall work. They have no moral right
to force a man to join their union. If they can
convince him of its advantages, it is all right. But
to abuse and blackball him because he finds it advan-
tageous to work for lower wages than themselves, or
because he prefers the rewards of labour to the allow-
ance of a club or of the parish, is inexcusable interfer-
ence with the freedom and rights of others. It may
he alleged that his conduct lowers the general
wages. To which it may be answered—lst, No
individual is bound to injure or ruin himself that
others may get the same pay for nine hours which
he is willing to take for ten. 2d, If the number of
those who will work the longer time, or what
is identical with it, take the lower pay, is but s•'zall,
they will not tell upon the general rate of wages.
But idly, If the number be large, then it shows
that lower wages are justified by the state of the
labour market, and it is cruelty to deprive so many
of the wages they would be thankful to earn.
If, however, the men would have the public
sympathy, let them avoid strikes. Let them
work on and discuss. A year or two, or more
than that, is really but a trifle in a great move-
ment. A few years longer work on the old terms
will hurt no one. We should advise the men to
maintain themselves and their families yet awhile
on their present comfortable wages, and it will
be with our heartiest good will if they
can satisfy the public and their masters that
the same wages had better be paid for nine hours'
work than ten. We are all too ready to imagine
that others must see the strength of our arguments
as clearly as we do ourselves. But we must give
each other time. The masons have appealed to the
example of the early closing movement, let them
follow it and all will be right. They have appealed
to their masters' interest as better promoted by
nine hours' work than by ten, let them establish
that and their object is attained.
.s

As to our national defences here, in England,
they are at last and in real earnest being cared for,
after all our apathy and procrastination. Although
we are at this present time at peace with all the
nations of the earth, save only the Chinese, we are,
in the midst of this almost universal tranquillity,
expending within the year £30,000,000 upon our
military and maritime departments alone. We are
none of us disposed any longer to rest contented as
we did for so many years upon such defences as
might be represented under the heads of " martello
towers" and " militia"—the latter for the most
unembodied. We have at last a noble Channel
Fleet, and one that is kept continually upon the
alert, cruising about the Channel. We have a
better order of things than has been known for
years and years past secured to us both at the
Horse Guards and at the Admiralty. Our
Ordnance Department is advancing, under the
guidance of men like Wiritwo RTH and ARMSTRONG,
to results that would have been deemed little less
than miraculous in a former generation. We have
railways, gridironing the island in all directions,
capable of concentrating our troops upon any
given point with astonishing rapidity. We have,
moreover, the electric telegraph threading the land
hither and thither, and bringing the remotest
parts of it into instantaneous communication with
each other. And now, in aid of all these means of
defence—in aid of the royal navy, in aid of the
regular army, we have (after sowing no dragon's
teeth) seen starting up at once, at the first blast as
it were of that ringing clarion note, the call of
patriotism—we have seen start forth from the ranks
of the civilians, fully armed and accoutred for
the national defence, 80,000, or rather by this
time close upon 100,000 Rifle Volunteers.
It is not so very long ago either that hardly any-