The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-28 00:00:00

ve,
ceeding the price of five new ones were again referred
to, and the anchors furnished by BROWN, LE7-iNOX,
and Co., were the subject of fresh strictures. These
anchors, according to Mr. SEELY, are authors of a
particular pattern, condemned by a ccmamittee of
inspection some twelve or fourteen y ears ago as
being the worst of seven specimens submitted for
examination ! Lord CLARENCE PAGET said Mr.
SEELY had answered his complaints about the
cost of these anchors—about £170,000 more than
the market price in the 25 years during: which they
have supplied the Government. Lord C. PAGET
said, " We must take care of the lives of our sea-
men—we cannot have bad anchors." Mr. SEELY
asked, who wanted the Government to have bad
anchors? Ile, for his part, wanted the Government
to have the best material possible, but he did not see
why they should pay extra money for inferior goods.
As for the iron ballast which Mr. SEELY calculates
is answerable for a waste of £150,000 or £lBO,OOO
of the public money, he expressed his conviction that
" those pigs would squeak" when Parliament assem-
bled. Some of his statements have, no doubt, been
disputed, but there is quite enough substance
for serious complaint. Mr. SEELY, for his part, is
not disposed to let the matter rest, but is deter-
mined to bring the Admiralty accounts again before
the notice of Parliament. Sir JOHN PAKINGTON is,
we believe, sincerely anxious to secure an efficient
and economical administration, but he has great
difficulties to contend against, many of them exist-
ing in the very constitution of the Board. He has,
during his former discharge of the duties of the
office, been of good service in increasing the
naval resources of the country, and we hope
he will not rest until he has considerably
increased our fleet. He must, however, be
cautious in adopting new theories, and must submit
them all to the test of practical experience. It is
one thing to withhold a fair trial, as was done byl
the late Government in the case of Captain COLES,
and another to permit a large outlay on untried
and, possibly, unsatisfactory schemes. We hope
our First Lord will avoid both extremes. He will
find enough to employ all his energies. Probably,
however, the whole Board of Admiralty may be the
better for a little severe but wholesome criticism,
and we are, therefore, not sorry that Mr. SEELY
keeps their delinquencies so resolutely in mind.

Lord ELcno's remarks are always worth hearing,
and many will be glad to find that he has spoken
on the vexed question of strikes as well as upon
other topics. Last Saturday the noble lord deli-
vered on address at the request of the Miners of
Mid-Lothian, in the Corn Exchange at Dalkeith.
He commenced by stating that he felt especially
honoured by their asking him to come among them
just now, when he bad been held up to reprobation
as an enemy of the working classes, and when the
" great agitator himself had, on the Glasgow
platform, announced that he was not worthy to
sit in the House of Commons." So far as re-
garded the miners, their numbers are very great, and
an interest in their welfare should be increased by
the thought that they are constantly exposed to
great perils. After entering at great length upon
the subject immediately before them, the noble lord
concluded by making some impressive remarks upon
the general state of things at present. At this
moment there is unfortunately, as he says, a state
of war between capital and labour. While the men
do not think that any evil effects are produced by
these unions, the masters are much against them,
and political economists entertain the worst opinion
of their influence Ilion our national prosperity ;
and as it is emphatically put iu this
speech, " a greater or more momentous question
could not be put to this country than to decide on
which side of the argument the truth and the facts
lie the heavier." The noble lord, in giving his own
view of the matttr, said that it would never do to
seek a remedy for this state of things in the re-
enactment of our combination laws. "No ; political
economy forbids a return to penal legislation—the
feeling and instinct of our nature revolts against it.
I look to reconciliation, and not to penal legisla-
tion—l look to arbitration." No doubt there is
great force in these arguments ; and now-a-days
the natural desire of men seems to be to have
recourse to this mode of dealing with awkward
matters and settling grievances.
All this, however, must be borne in mind, and
that is the necessity for arbitration to precede
strikes and not to follow upon them. We quite
agree with Lord ELCIIO when he says that if
matters are properly arranged there will not be
near so much likelihood of strikes taking place.
If things are quitely talked over, reason takes the
place of obstinacy, and recourse is not had to ex-
treme measures. "I am convinced," said he, " that
if you could get masters and men to meet quietly
together, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred you
would have no strikes, but you would have
an agreement between them, and good feeling
would take the place of war." The
system that prevails in France seems to answer very
well, where they have the Conseils des Prudhornmes
composed of masters and men. These meet to dis-
cuss the matters which affect capital and labour, and
there are two kinds of tribunes to which appeal is
made, but it is seen that out of 133,000 cases sub-
mitted to the council of conciliation as many as
29,000 were settled satisfactorily, and went no
further. " Well," exclaims Lord ELcuo, "I want
to know what there is in a Frenchman so different
from an Englishman that we are not to have the
same thing established in this country, more
especially when it has been twice recom-
mended by Committees of the House of Commons."
It is quite true, as the noble lord says, that the
remedy which we now want is immediate, and co-
operation if it ever be established can only be very
gradually done. Arbitration seems, after all has
been taken into consideration, to be the best thing
we can do under the circumstances of the case.

Lord ELCIIO wishes a commission to be appointed
to inquire into the relations of labour and capital in
the United Kingdom. Thus we may fully ascertain
all that relates to strikes and unions, what there is
good in the latter and what there is defective also.
The noble lord declared he had such confidence in
the good sense of the workmen of the country
that if it were plainly put before them that the
result of these unions had been otherwise than
beneficial, and would be injurious to the future of
their children, that they would be the first to come
and say, " We must put a stop to this state of
things." We hope and believe that the noble lord's
remarks are correct, and it would indeed be a happy
thing for this country if the hostile unions of
capital and labour, now so unfortunately arrayed
against each other, became united in a union
of interest and feeling, "standing shoulder to
shoulder, while they manfully wrestle against the
competition with foreign labour, which daily
becomes more formidable, and which wrestles with
us now for the custom of the world." It is high
time that something decisive was done to check this
growing evil and put a stop to this state of things
between labour and capital, which is sapping the
commercial prosperity of the country and militating
against the true interests of the community. Lord
Evil() deserves great credit for the masterly style
in which he has treated the subject, awl the best