The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-26 00:00:00

gents are very numerous, and, under the command
of Baldrick, they destroyed the Alcantara regiment,
and put a squadron of cavalry to flight. It cer-
tainly appears very incongruous to those not well up
in these affairs, and forgetful how they manage
these things in Spain, to notice how complete tran-
quillity is said to reign while the Government are
proclaiming the state of siege. This is, how-
ever, exactly the repetition of what has taken
place many times and oft before, when
disturbances, and revolts, and whatever term
should be applied by polite political phraseo-
logy to those outbursts which take place, that a
few more or less exaggerations are of trifling im-
port. The chief thing to consider is, what do
these disquieted spirits want ? or if by any possi-
bility that could be determined we might go on to
ask, if Spain would benefit by a change ? The
answer to this seems easier to give than to the former
query, and it is in the negative. Unsatisfactory
as the condition of affairs at present unquestionably
is in Spain it by no means follows that it will be
improved by a change of rulers, or that these eager
spirits, supposed to be rushing to the rescue, will
ameliorate the state of the country.

The Spanish people will not be deceived or led
astray in this way ; they have had ample experience
of the evils of revolution, the losses they entail, and
the confusion. they cause, with no corresponding
benefits to point to as compensation or consolation.
Whatever be the extent of this insurrectionary
movement, it is not to be supposed that Spain is on
the eve of a change. After a period of contention
and strife, we shall hear of the usual finale taking
place, and the martyrs will undergo the usual ordeal
of shooting and transportation, as it happens to be.
The age of progress has as yet done little or nothing
for Spain, and it is certainly mortifying to the pride
of those who expect so much to take place in the
right direction to notice how much at a stand still
is that land, once so famous in the history of nations,
and of so much importance and influence in the
councils of Europe. However it may have come
to pass such it undoubtedly is, but it is also true,
however unsatisfactory it may be to realise the
truth, that no certain and effectual remedy is before
us, and the most experienced and acute of judgment
cannot point to a cure for the evil. It seems then
that the best thing to be done under these most dis-
couraging and unpropitious circumstances will
be to take things quietly, and to let ill
alone until it appears more probable that to
make a war will be merely to substitute one
evil for another. It is no secret that the Royal
family of Spain is in great disfavour and most un-
popular, but if that family were at once driven out
of Spain who should say that a better condition of
things would ensue? We must trust to the agencies
of that great reformer, Time, to work some cure for
the unhappy country of Spain, which now presents
indeed a deplorable aspect. Another difficulty that
lies in the way of improvement is that there is
no one at all likely to work out a salutary
change. There are plenty dissatisfied spirits,
plenty officers and meddling parties, but it would
be another thing to say that any one of these, or
the whole combined, could effect the desired re-
generation. The best advice that can be given to
the Spanish Government just now is to be mode-
rate in the discharge of its duties. Any undue
exertion of authority, any excess of zeal in the
wrong direction, may do incalculable mischief,
and create difficulties that it may take months
to get over. Precaution will be the best
and surest mode of effecting the desired end, and as
it is idle to disguise the fact that the powers that
be are not favourites, there can be but one course to
pursue with wisdom. Since nothing of a decisive
character is likely to follow from these disturbances
it will be well for the interests of Spain in general

that they should be checked as speedily and as
quietly as possible, and that in all cases the law
should be restrained within due litnits, instead of

exceeding its usual severity.

The public will learn with regret that the opera-
tive tailors of London have not yet learned wisdom
from experience. They have been treated with un-
expected leniency, they have been warned, advised,
and reasoned with, in vain. They have already lost
many weeks' pay, and are no nearer their object
than they were at the outset, in fact they are further
off, since the masters are recovering from the
temporary depression consequent upon the strike,
and are rapidly organising their resources. No one
can believe that the whole tailoring trade of
London will collapse even supposing Mr. DRurrT
and his followers to preserve their resolution
for ever. There is no inscrutable mystery in the
art which restricts its performance to a certain
number of workmen. What man has done man
may do is a well known adage, and we should
hardly suppose the making of coats and waistcoats
would prove the exception to the rule. Broadcloth
in plenty will be forthcoming, and hands will not
be lacking to make it. However resolute the men,
however wide extended their association, they will
find the world too wide and circumstances too
strong for them after all. They cannot govern
or regulate the wishes of the whole body politic,
and the law, which provides every loud and
general demand with a full supply, is older and
more forcible than any Trades' Union regula-
tions. Such ill-directed and mischievous attempts
to carry a point of private interest iu opposition
to the public good always end in their own de-
feat, and we fear the tailors' strike will only be
another instance of the causeless suffering
inflicted by perverse and mistaken theories.
At the full meeting of the Operative
'Tailors' Association, held on Saturday, the present
position of affairs was considered and discussed.
\Ve regret to find that the result of this discussion
was that the strike should be continued even if it
were necessary to do so through the coming winter.
It is only fair to the association to add that they
have no intention of infringing the law, and they
appointed a sub-committee to devise some effectual
mode of action which should keep within the
bounds laid down by Baron Bramwell. So far
then it is their own affair and their own loss, but
it is impossible not to regret the trouble they are
bringing on themselves and their families, a whole
winter's inaction and loss of wages. What that
signifies is only too well known to the wives and
children of men on strike. However rich the hoards
of the association, they can hardly afford to allow
each man from 365. to 425. per week, which was
we believe the average of wages before the strike.
If indeed the funds in reserve can keep them in

anything like comfort during a prolonged strike,
it can only say that it proves the tailors' case
to be not a very hard one since they can
afford to subscribe so much. When we think of
the hosts of men and women, too anxiously looking
out for regular employment i❑ this overcrowded
London, it is aggravating to see men quarrelling
with what no one can deny to be an ample provi-
sion for their position in life. At all events, if it is
not, thousands of educated men, clerks, and medical
officers, and even curates, contrive to live on it with-
out raising such s chorus of complaint. If all the men
of various ranks and degrees whose annual earnings
amounted to less than £lOO a-year were to strike
work to-morrow, the Operative Tailors would
find theumelves the centre of a goodly corn-