The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-25 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, FEB. 25, 1867.

Yesterday ;was a grand day in Berlin, the KING
opened in person the first session of the North Ger-
man Parliament with great pomp and display
amid " enthusiastic cheers." His INLinsTv deli-
vered an elaborate speech, which seemed to claim
for the Prussian Government every possible virtue
and excellence. After stating that mighty events
had brought about the moment before them, and
that great hopes were bound up in it, he went on
to affirm that Divine Providence had led Germany
to the object before them by paths they " neither
chose nor foresaw." Really this is a most extraor-
dinary thing to hear even from a Prussian
Monarch. What then becomes, we may well ask,
of all the plans and projects, the manoeuvres and
machinations of the last few months, if all was
predestined, and the Berlin Government only
walked in the paths assigned to them ? It is most
absurd to go on after this fashion and give wrong
names to things, instead of keeping to the truth
and admitting undisputed facts. It is easy to see
that the real object in view is the re-establishment
of the Germanic Empire, and all the hints about
former mismanagement tend in that direction.
The longing of tha German people for what it lost
has never it is said ceased, and history is filled
with the record of the effects made to regain it.
The moral which the oompilers of this speech
would draw seems to be that for the future the
" Union" of Germany must be sought for in com-
pany with facts ; but what fact there is now appa-
rent, except the supremacy of Prussia, we really do
not see or comprehend. The force of this is seen
in the paragraph succeeding this grandiloquent de-
scription, and the Assembly were informed that in
the draft of the Constitution to be laid before
them they would find that individual States would
only have such sacrifices asked from them as were
indispensable to secure various desirable ends.
Still it is sacrifice, call it by what name you please,
and this will turn out in the end to be the meaning
of the whole affair. The smaller States and princi-
palities will have to give way in everything where a
collision of interests takes place, and although their
repinings and regrets may be merged in the re-
joicings of the strong, still the feeling will remain
deep-rooted and ineradicable. We do not give much
for the development of prosperity which demands
such heavy sacrifices to begin with, and gives no
sure promise of any adequate compensation here-
after.

We come next to a most extravagant assertion,
and one to which much credit will not be given by
those who have studied the bearings of things of late
in Germ%ny. After thanking the allied Govern-
ments for the readiness with which they have met
the requirements of the common Fatherland, the
KING goes on to say that he would have been found
ready to display the same devotion to the general
welfare of Germany had not PROVIDENCE placed
him as heir to the Prussian Crown, "at the head
of the most powerful State of the Confederation, and
for that reason called to the leadership of the Com-
monwealth." Such a supposition is perfectly idle,
and cannot possibly advance the work before us.
We all know, whether we choose to admit it or not,
that to gain the objects before them the Prussian
Government have stopped for no suggestion of
honour and for no consideration of justice, and it
therefore can make no difference to be told that
they could have acted otherwise had circumstances
placed another State in a position to act with like
contempt for fair-play and constitutional principles.
We have before this expressed a wish that in dis-
coursing upon the changes of the Prussian plans
the KING would take the responsibility of his own
acts upon himself, or at all events make his advisers
bear the burden of them, instead of distinctly
declaring, as he does over and over again in
this Speech, that he is actuated by the
interposition of Providence. It is lamentable to
hear such profanation, for it is nothing less, and
we feel convinced that few of those who sympathise
with his policy can really approve of such a mode of
discourse. Whether right or wrong, whether for
good or for evil, the Berlin Cabinet has worked and
striven to attain this end ; but, then, at the moment
of success, they draw back ; and say that it was not
their doings, but that of Heaven, which brought
dismay and disappointment to some and loss of
liberty and political extinction to others.

No one can wonder at the information vouch-
safed by the KING, as to the necessity for complete
" unanimity" being attained, and also as to the
difficulty of such attainment being arrived at. At
the same it is rather like leaping in the dark for
the gentlemen of the North German Confederation
to do as they are desired to by the KING, and to
lay the foundations of the building, and then leave
the more perfect completion to the subsequent
combined co-operation of the German Sovereigns
and races. He came to another astounding
piece of intelligence, namely, that the German
movement of late years has not borne any
hostile tendency towards their neighbours,
no " striving after conquest ;" but the Ger-
man races unite only for defence, and not
for conquest. What, then, was the meaning of all
that struggle for the possession of the Elbe duchies?
We think that the inhabitants of Schleswig-Hol-
stein would tell a very different tale ; and if King
WILLIAM had been in the palace of truth instead of
at Berlin he would have told a different story
respecting Denmark. The object which this new
Parliament is to set before itself is to secure the
work of progress in Germany, and, above all, to
" fulfil her peace-loving mission in the council of
nations." Hitherto the mission of Germany has
seemed to be much more akin to war than
to peace, but if we are to believe
the great oracle which spoke yesterday at
Berlin a change has come over the spirit of the
dream. The end sanctifies the means is a very
dangerous doctrine, and one not likely to pro vo
more satisfactory in the instance of nations than
of individuals. Prussia dared the venture ; she
has broken promises, spurned treaties, and dis-
carded all former ties of allegiance. It remains for
the future to decree whether a Power that has
been gained by fraud, and is wielded by superior
strength alone, can flourish and succeed, or whether
it is doomed to the same fate -which has attended

the mightiest empires and overcome the most bril-
liant Sovereigns whose thrones have had no foun-
dation in the respect of their people.

The relations between capital and labour have
long been regarded by thoughtful men as among
the most important subjects which can occupy the
attention of the statesman or the social philosopher,
though it is only within a comparatively recent date
that they have assumed their due position among
the topics of the day. Questions of war and peace,
changes in our political constitution, crises in our
relations with foreign Powers, the reduction of a
burdensome tax or the removal of an obnoxious
impost, may all appear for the moment more en-
grossing, more pressing, and more immediately
attractive; but the relations between capital and
labour are not only more important in themselves,
as powerfully affecting the welfare of the majority
of the community, but they exercise more or less
directly au influence over all the others. They have
lately occupied a good deal of public attention,
partly from the development of the principles of
social science, and the consequent prominence given
to peaceful and less satisfactory causes. The great
depression of trade of all kinds, owing to the panic
of last year, the numerous and repeated strikes
which have inflicted much injury in the Northern
and Midland counties, and the extreme distress and
destitution which has been experienced this winter
by thousands of the working classes, have all com-
bined to stimulate the inquiry as to the exact rela-
tion between employer and employed. Considerable
uneasiness has been felt as to the rumoured decrease
of English trade, and the growing competition of
foreign countries, while the position assumed by the
combinative associations among workmen has been
thought sufficiently important to occupy the atten-
tion of a Parliamentary Committee. At this
juncture, then, any fair and candid statement of
opinion by one who is familiar with the practical
aspects of the case is well worthy of consideration,
and such a statement we have now before us in a
very able and well-timed pamphlet,* by a Man-
chester man.

The writer is inclined to take an impartial and
comprehensive view of the whole question. He
does not commit himself unreservedly to the side of
either masters or men, neither is he altogether opposed
to the combination of workmen under certain limits.
He objects, however, in Coto, to the theory which
has of late gained ground that the men have the
right and the power to dictate terms to the masters,
and he endeavours to show how fatal such a doc-
trine is to the interests of trade, and most especially
'to the workmen themselves. One great obstacle
in the way of a fair understanding of the
question is strongly dwelt upon in this
very seasonable pamphlet. It is the in-
terference between employers and employed,
of those who follow agitation as a trade; " who
are neither masters nor men; who are not directly
interested in the great industries of the country ;
whose profits depend upon the extent and the
continuance of the contests they can create; to
whom a long strike is a season of prosperity ;
whose policy is not so much victory as prolonged
warfare ; whose profit is the loss of all around them."
Such interested parties are very ready with spe-
cious arguments and plausible language to assure
the men that they wilt ultimately get " their
rights," provided they hold out long enough, and
they take good good care to keep from their
knowledge those facts and figures which might
tell a very different story. Even when a
prolonged strike is successful, it too often resembles
the victory of PYRRHUS, which closely approached
to ruin. A few figures given in the pamphlet before
us show this so cle trly that they are worth quoting.
" It is calculated in the Colliery Guardian that one
strike in the iron trade, by which 10,000 or 12,000
were thrown out of work for nineteen weeks, caused
a loss in the actual wages to the men of £300,000.
£lO,OOO was the total amount distributed by the
unions, thus leaving a net loss of £290,000. In
addition to this it is calculated that a sum of
£1,250,000 was lost to the district. The subsequent
advance of wages in that district must have been
very large, and must have lasted a long time to
replace such a deficit as that !"
The writer of the pamphlet before us argues very
justly that the only genuine rise in wages is that
arising from a sound and prosperous trade, and that
any artificial advance, such as that enforced by
strikes, can only be temporary and delusive. The
men may force their employers to give them a higher
rate of wages than they can afford for a tirae, but
they cannot prevent them from withdrawing their
capital from an insecure and unprofitable invest-
ment, and leaving them to rejoice over a victory
which has ended in their total discomfiture. He
illustrates this fallacy on the part of the Unions by
a very appropriate example. The men, he says,
have more to spend for a time, but
they are only richer as a man who is
spending his capital is richer than one
who is living steadily on the interest of it.
"They are spending their capital, that is to say, they
are compelling their employers to withdraw it from
their use." In all large industries where plant,
machinery, steam-power, large buildings, &c., are
necessary the union of labour and capital is simply
indispensable to the success of both. As the Man-
chester man very aptly puts it, the employer's
capital is virtually lent at interest to the employed.
By their labour they repay him with profit no doubt,
but without that loan, that investment of capital,
they would be helpless. So long as our workmen
intend to be workmen, and are not content to live in
primitive fashion, each supported by his own rood
of ground, they must have the use of capital for
almost every branch of industry, and those who tell
them the contrary are their worst enemies.

The relations between English and Foreign
labour are discussed with great ability in the
pamphlet before us, to which branch of the subject
we shall return at an early opportunity.

* "Capital and Labour." By a Member of the Man-
chester Chamber of Commerce. Stanford.

The Atlantic Cable has transmitted some impor-
tant intelligence, which will be received with satis-
faction by all who are really desirous of the internal
peace and prosperity of the United States. The
telegram from New York, dated Saturday, states
that the Judiciary Committee has decided not to
report in fa►our of the impeachment of President
JOHNSON, so that we may hope either that the Radi-
cals are learning moderation, or that they find the
good sense and good feeling of the public too
strongly opposed to any such extreme measures
to leave them a chance of success. The less violent.
or impulsive members of the party may well
shrink from proceeding to extremities, which would
be absurd if they were not so dangerous, and the
condition cf the finances alone ought to make any
really disinterested politician hesitate in such a
course. We are very glad that the good sense of
the committee has prevented the further prosecu-
tion of this rash and unconstitutional attempt, and
we have little doubt that the main body of the
Radicals in Congress will learn with great satis-
faction that they are relieved from the necessity of
taking action in the matter. Peace is not restored
between the Executive and the Legislature, neither
has the latter modified its animosity towards the