The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-09 00:00:00

TIM TRADES tNross BILL.

-----
It is not surprising that Mr. Hughes and Mr.
Munclella should w:sh to see their bill become la..v
this session. The recent caw, in which it w4-:s de-
cided that a union might be robbed by its officers
with impunity, is sufficient reason why workin:,, men
and theiv representatives should desire immediate
legislation. Mr. Bruce's promise of leg'slat'en for
next sessi n will certainly not induce them
to remain content with a state of things so (Lasrous
to them when they re umber that for live years
ts,our3ppwosi:-1
various Achnin;&rations have been prorn!sino.
to
quite, amendatsh
long,lalvotfhboa isi, lainril top tperyo,ma ni
promise
hh aast fi ;ore nearly, enairlllyd )eilflryniistollilt
regard to the licensing laws. Even oiltlhies
tion—a by no means safe one—that theN
unurcu Bill will be passed this year,
still have on their hands next year the Irish land
question, the licensing question, the completion
County
Administrationtheof
Bill, educationaland
otherorganisation,matters
inferior importance. Mr. Bruce istt theof scarcely
neither so desti-
tute of work nor so skilled in g
that he need grudge two Private memberselngthrough it
the credit
of legislating on a subject with which they are
cert3ii,ly much better acquainted than he is.

WAGES AND WORK.
During the course of his speech on the Trades
Union Bill, Mr. Thomas Brassey made a remarkable
statement by way of sliming the close relationship
that there is between good wages and good work.
He said that when the North Devon Railway was
begun the men were paid 2s. a day ; dur;ng the course
of the contract wages rose to 2s. 6d., and then to 38.;
but that it was found that labour was cheaper at the
higher rate than at the lower. It is no new revela-
tion that better work can be - done by a
labourer able to afford meat than by ono who has to
live on bread and cheese ; but it is a very startling
fact, witnessed to by the member of a firm whichhas
every inducement to get its labour as cheap as pos-
sible, that an increase in wages of 50 per cent. is met
by an increase in work of more than 50 per cent.
The old saying, "A fair day's wages for a fair day's
work," has now an additional and more forcible
meaning than before.
AMERICANISING OUR INSTITUTIONS.

Four years ago a good deal used to be said about
Americanising our institutions. In fact, it was the
gravest political offence known. The mere imputa-
tion of it was enough to ruin any statesman, how-
ever eminent in public opinion. The stigma of it was
sufficient to extinguish any political reform,
however wise or needed. It would be an insult
to the Americans to say that the scene which
took place in the police-court during the hearing of
the Murray-Carington charge was to assimilate
our courts of justice with theirs, as much an insult
as it is to the four-footed animals to call a drunken
wife-beater a brute. Nevertheless, it is the intro-
duction of such rowdyism as this that the noble
dukes and earls who took part in this disgraceful
fray mean when they talk of Americanising, and we,
therefore, ask them to look at home the next time'
they accuse some noisy stump orator of that grave
offence.