The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-19 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, JULY 19, 1869.

To-morrow the Irish Church Bill will go back to
the Lords almiist exactly in the same shape in which
it was first of all sent up to them from the House of
Commons' The Lords' Amendments having, in the
meantime, as we all know, been struck out curtly, inexo-
rably, unhesitatingly. The obliteration from the Bill
of all those elaborately arranged and (as we none of
us can doubt of course) most conscientiously consi-
dered emendations, must necessarily be looked upon
by the Pcers as something very much like an indignity.
It is a cut direct, in fact, which their
lordships
may
naturally enough feel disposed to resent. The ques-
tion now is—Will they resent it? The leaders of the
Opposition are understood to be at this moment
making up their minds as to the course they will
have to-morrow evehing to announce as the one
they are deliberately prepared to pursue under pre-
sent circumstances. Those circumstances are in a
very great measure unprecedented. They necessitate
the devolving upon the House of Lords of an
enormous responsibility. It is not, as we take it, that
the Peers are proposing to run counter to the wishes
of the nation. They maintain—mistakenly, ES we
conceive, but, as we cannot but admit at the same'
time very comprehensibly, from their point of view—

IT is unfortunately too clear that the British work-
man in many districts is still left without protection
against the evils of the truck system. The reports
we are ever and anon receiving plainly establish the
conclusion that the Truck Act is either an inadequate
measure, or—which is much the same thing—is
inadequately enforced. The enthusiastic reformers
who passed this law in 1831 rejoiced in what they
deemed a triumph of legislative skill ; but the
experience of well-nigh forty years has miserably
undeceived them. The Truck Act was designed to put
a stop to the system of paying wages in goods—a
system by which the workman was defrauded both
in quality, weight, and measure, was unable to
invest his money according to his own choice, and,
worst of all, was tempted to drink. It was pro-
vided that the employer who paid wages in goods
should be liable to penalties, and that all wages so
paid should be void. The workman might still bring
an action for cash payment, just as if he had received
no equivalent whatever. This stipulation was at that
time deemed a fine stroke of legislative strategy. It
was expected to make the Act " self-working."
Unfortunately the result has been quite the reverse.
In many cases the law is evaded ; in not a few it is
openly defied. The other day we noticed the case of
an employer who was convicted of giving one
of his workmen a ticket for goods at a store
instead of wages. The breach of the law in this instance
was flagrant, and the magistrate was enabled to
inflict the full penalty. The employer was fined
£lO, half of which he had the satisfaction of knowing
would go to the witness who had informed against
him, and another proportion to the informer's
solicitor. This further provision for rewarding a
witness may do something to prevent the open
breach of the law ; but few employers adopt this
crude and unscientific system, and consequently in
few cases does the reward secure any good result.
It is much more common to evade than to
ostensibly violate the Truck Act. The ordinary course
is to entrap the workman by paying wages at long
intervals. This at once brings the employed within
the power of the employer. Few workmen are enabled
to so regulate a month's pay as to live upon it the
whole time. An advance is needed, which the liberal-
minded master at once supplies. The money is mostly
paid in cash, and not a word is said as to the place at
which it will be spent. But the tacit understanding is
not the less complete. To conclude any bargain as
to the application either of wages or advances would
be a direct breach of the Truck Act ; and, moreover,
it be quite unnecessary. The workman knows that a
store is connected with the establishment in which
he is employed, and he is fully aware that if he
spends his money elsewhere he will vainly look for
an advance in future. He applies to the store, the
manager of which " takes care of the balance" by
giving him a check or "credit slip" instead of his
change. The truck system, with all its vices,
flourishes unchecked.

An inquiry which has just been made shewa that
this evasion of the law is common throughout the
manufacturing district of Lanarkshire. The prin-
ciple adopted is always the same, though the details
of the swindle are less discreditable in some cases
than in others. All the evils of the system before
the Act are reproduced in Lanarkshire, the goods