The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-05 00:00:00

STATE OF TRADE.

MANCHESTER, SEPT. 4.--The long hoped ar
improvement in the weather has already had a peT-
ceptible influence on the aspect of business. Were
is a general increase of cheerfulness in the market,
and sellers have in many cases begun to show more
firmness, In some respects an actual accession of
operations may be reported. The yarn market has
been much more active than could fairly )lave been
expected ; there is more inquiry on the. -part of the
German houses, and also an increased demand for
the Mediterranean, so that there is a decidedly
better feeling, without any material alteration in
prices, and in spite of continued unfavourable ac-
counts from India, The Calcutta market is reported
very quiet, and that of Bombay declining; there is
consequently no inquiry for yarns suited to those
quarters. There is a stronger feeling in the cloth
market owing to improvement in the weather, and
there has been a more general business than for
some time, but there is no improvement in prices,
and any attempt to get an advance checks business.
The letters from Calcutta are of a gloomy character
to the 28th of July, the only gleam of hope being
in the intelligence that rains have fallen heavily
in the up-country, but there had been no resump-
tion of business to the 28th. From Bombay the
accounts are also still bad. Messrs. John Slagg
and Co. report :—" There has been a better feel-
ing to-day, owing to the decided improve-
ment of the weather, and a moderate business
has been done in nearly all deScriptions of goods at
the full rates of last week; but so far we do not
hear of any advance being realized." Messrs.
George Fraser, Son, and Co., say :—" The market
to-day has been steadier, and its tone more cheerful
in consequence of the improvement in the weather.
In prices there is little or no change."
LEEDS, 4TH.—There has been a fair attendance
of buyers in the cloth-halls to-day. The market
was not very brisk, but in small parcels of goods of
a general character, and some particularly adapted
for winter, a satisfactory amount of business was
done. The weather has greatly improved, and the
fears of a completely bad harvest have considerably
diminished. Till, however, there has been a suc-
cession of fine weather for something like a week
or 10 days, and fair progress is made with reaping
and garnering the grain, no impulse of note is
likely to be, felt in manufactures for the home
market.

ROCHDALE, 3D.—The market for flannels
and kindred fabrics has been moderate to-day.
There was a good inquiry for finished goods, of
which there was no large quantity offering. In-
deed, there are good orders on hand, and producers
are well employed. Neither Saxonies aor York-
shire goods are quite so much in demand, but
prices are firm. The stocks of goods on hand are
below an average for the season, and manufacturers
are looking for continued briskness the remainder
of the year. The wool-market was quiet, and not
much business was 'done. Prices were a trifle easier.

TBE RECENT STRIKE AT COVENTRY.

COVENTRY, SEPT. 3.

The beneficial effects of the close of the riband
weavers' strike on the general trade of this town
are already beginning to manifest themselves. Al-
though the " hands" were not all in before the after-
noon of Thursday, the result was very evident in
the greater activity observable in the shops of the
town, and the spirit which pervaded business of
every kind on Saturday. Up to the present time
the co-operation of the manufacturers in the " As-
sociation for the Protection of Labour" suggested
at the meeting of Monday lasthas not been secured.
In the meantime, however, at the suggestion of the
deputation appointed to wait on the employers, re-
solutions were adopted at a large meeting of the
operatives held on Thursday, the deputation observ-
ing that they were such as was hoped would have
the approval of the manufacturers. I give them,_
as they serve to show the character and course of
action which the association will adopt, assuming
that it will attain the consistency of a permanent
organization :
" That the first four resolutions submitted by Mr. Wid-
drington be confirmed.
" That the weavers shall return to their work, and corn
plate their contracts entered into previous to the strike ; and
that when such contracts are completed every weaver shall
be at liberty to enter into a fresh contract with any manu-
facturer, and shall take out a ticket as required by the Silk
Act.

That no weaver shall at any time, or under any circum-
stances, consent to work for any manufacturer under a cer-
tain stipulated list of prices, to be fixed between the weaver
and the manufacturer, and not to be below the prices as
fixed by the committees.
" That the present Weavers' Committee shallbe dissolved
on the new association being formed, and that such commit-
tee shall hold office only till such association be fully or-
ganized. That these resolutions be printed, and sent to
every manufacturer in the neighbourhood."
The second resolution, it will be observed, par- :
takes somewhat of an ex post facto character, inas-
much as it represents the weavers as determining
on Thursday evening to do that which they had
already done—returning to work, for by Thursday
afternoon every hand had resumed work who could
get work ; and I may add that in the great majority
of cases employment could only be obtained at a
reduction of wages.
But, notwithstanding the resumption of work by
the operatives, their present relations to the manu-
facturers are, so far as feeling is concerned, unto-
ward, if not unpromising. The strike, indeed, is at
an end, but this is from the compulsion of want, not
of conviction, and there is a threat of something
that is to come out of the strike. The present is not
simply an interregnum between the abdication of
the " Strike Committee" and the advent to power
of their successors, the consultees of the new Labour
Protection Association, but rather a transition state,
in which while they cry " Peace" there is no peace,
while accepting the proposals of the Vicar of St.
Michael's for reconciliation the acceptors cry " war
to the knife" against the manufacturers who do not
submit to their demand of maintaining a price list.
While the propositions which are to settle the con-
test are accepted, and an organisation based on
them is actually in progress, an element of discord,
which is not provided for by the resolutions adopted
on Monday evening, is clearly indicated as an occa-
sion for the renewal of the struggle whenever an op-
portunity offers. The fact is that the arrangements
which form the basis of the association refer to the
amount of wages, and are silent on a point which has
' been lurking throughout the ncent struggle under
the guise of a strike for a list of prices—a struggle as
to mode of payment, i.e., by piecework, or by weekly
' wages. As illustrative of the proceedings of strikes,
and the hollow character of the truce which is now

in force, I refer to expressions which fell from
speakers at meetings held at the very period when
negotiations were being carried on with a view to
reconciliation. At the meeting of Tuesday, the
morning after the conciliation meeting of Monday,
and while a deputation was applying for the co-
operation of the manufacturers, au out-door weaver
observes :

" If they had not broken confidence with each other they
could have been at work six weeks ago. A number of hands
had gone to work, and those who were still out had been
sold. Those who had gone in had got work for their looms,
but they who had fought the question would in a measure
be without. . . . He hoped, if the weavers gave way
now, it would be to rally round more strongly in future.
At a meeting on Wednesday one of the speakers
observed :
"Even in this, the eleventh hour, there was a course to
be adopted, which was that the men go into all the fac-
tories but one ; then let those in work support the hands of
that factory while out. This should be done, even though
the hands in work were receiving but the same price the
hands on strike turned out for. By these means, and with
unity, they could beat the Malakhoff or any other fac-
tory."

I quote these observations—and they might be
multiplied to an extent almost indefinite—as they
will leave your readers at no loss to perceive the
actual causes of the close of the strike, and that the
spirit in which the operatives return to work is
that of a determination of substituting weekly
wages for the piece system by another strike at the
first opportunity. These circumstances of the his-
tory of a strike point to a moral which has impor-
tant applications for the observer of social pheno-
mena, in times when the relations of wages and
capital are forced home on our attention by combi-
nations to uphold the alleged rights of labour.

As we led our readers to anticipate ingot r im-
pression of the 11th ult., Sir J. Scarlett has been ppointed
to the colonelcy of the sth Dragoon Guards, vice Lord Car-
digan, transferred to the 11th Hussars. The number of
cavalry generals whose services would give them the first
claim to the command of regiments is now very small. Of
those who have been actively engaged there remain, we be-
lieve, only the following, whom we enumerate as they stand
on the list :—Major-General Marten, late of the Royal Dra
goons, who was at 'Waterloo ; Major-eteneral Lockwood,
late of the 3d Light Dragoons, distinguished in the Affghan
of the
and Punjab campais servedajnera Goug,
7 after an Indian
same corps, who has in China and in the Sutlej and
is now, We trust, r •
Punjab campaigns; Sir Hope Grant, who
career of extraordinarY brilliancy,
fresh laurels in the scene in which he first saw activeeapsing
vice as Brigade-Major to Lord &ilium •
, Major-General
Robertson, who commanded the 7th Dragoon Guards •
in the
last Kaffir war but one; and Major-seneral Lawrenson
the Inspector-General of Cavalry ; and Major-General
Parlby, each of whom served fora short time •in the Crimea.
.--"lnny and ifavy Gazfetc,