The Sun.
London, England, 1867-07-24 00:00:00

French Wages and Workmen.

A report rendered to the Foreign-office this year
by Mr. Julian Fane, secretary of embassy at Paris,
speaks of wages of skilled artisans in various towns
in France as ranging from sf. to 10f. a day; for in-
ferior workmen from 2lf. to 3if. ; for work-women
in a clothing establishment from 2f. to 4f. or sf. ;
for children, from If. to 2f. The general rate of
money wages in France may be said to have in-
creased about 40 per cent. in the last lo years,
but the rise in money wages has been
accompanied by a very considerable rise in the
price of the ordinary articles of consumption
and in rent of lodgings, so that the improvement
in the position of the labourer, meaning his power
to supply himself with the necessaries and
comforts of life, has been far from commensurate
with the rise in the money value of his labour. Still
the relative proportions in which money wages and
the price of commodities have risen leave a margin
in favour of the former, and to this extent there
has been a rise in real wages, enabling the labourer
to feed, lodge, and clothe himself somewhat better
than he could fifteen years ago. This has been
the natural consequence of the rapid development
of industrial enterprise and the increased demand
for labour, and it may also have been affected by
the greater facilities afforded to the labcurer by
the influence of opinion, and recently by legisla-
tion, to claim a larger share in the profits of produc-
tion. It is difficult to estimate the relative price of
labour iu England and France. The rate of money
wages may be higher in one country than the other,
but no just comparison can be instituted unless the
quantity and quality of labour supplied in each case
is fairly appraised. It is a question which only
experts can decide, and they differ upon it. Com-
binations to influence the rate of wages were for-
merly punished in France as misdemeanours, but
three years ago a law was passed under which they
aro not illegal, unless accompanied by violence
(including insults), or menace, or fraudulent
manoeuvres, including false representations.
Ample advantage has been taken by the
workmen of this change in the law. There is
scarcely a trade in France whose members
have not combined in the last three years for the
purpose of increasing the rate of wages and dimin-
ishing the duration of labour ; and their efforts to
this end have usually met with success. The em-
ployers, for the most part, assert that the law has
proved to them an unmitigated evil, subjecting them
to the tyrannous coercion of the employed. Vari-
ous forms of the co-operative system are in course
of trial in France with a view to prevent or lessen
this collision of interests. The association of
masons, for instance, is ono that has met with
remarkable success ; some of the workmen are
shareholders, and others are engaged as or-
dinary labourers and have no share in the
profits, while some members of the associa-
tion are simply holders of capital. In other
establishments the workmen are allowed to share
in the profits of the business by means of rewards or
prizes allotted to them, or to the more worthy
among them, by the proprietors at the end of the
year, or by facilities for procuring food, clothing,
lodging, and education for their children on advan-
tageous terms. Mr. Fano gives it as his jugdment
that the fault in the organisation of the co-operative
societies has been generally too much faith in the
combination of skill and labour, and too little re-
gard for the advantage of capital ; and that the
workman should aim at becoming in some measure
a capitalist himself, by the aid of societies of con-
sumption enabling him to effect savings in expendi-
ture, before he seeks to become a co-operator with
the capitalist in industrial enterprise.

THE HOUSE OF LORDS.—The Sultan, on passing
from the Peers' Lobby on Monday, saw Mr. Herbert's
fresco, and on leaving the House of Lords went into the
Victoria Gallery and inspected Mr. Maclise's two pictures
of the "Meeting of Blucher and Wellington after the
Battle of Waterloo" and "the Death of Lord Nelson."
Thence the Royal party proceeded along the Black Rod
Corridor, through Sir Augustus Clifford's apartments, and
left the Palace by the Royal Court.

FROM A COTTAGE TO A THRONE.—The Empress
of Morocco is a native of Chaley, near Dole, in France,
where she was born on the 20th November, 1820, in a
poor thatched cottage. Her name was Virginia Lanter-
nier. She went with her parents in 1834 to Algeria,
and the whole family were taken prisoners by the Mo-
roccans. Her father was killed, and her mother died a
short time afterwards. The captors, dazzled by the
great beauty of Virginie, spared her, and by a concur-
rence of romantic circumstances the Emperor's son fell in
love with her and made her his wife. This Empress has
since sought out and brought her three sisters to the
Moroccan Court, to which they are now attached.
THE PROPOSED BOROUGII OF HACKNEY.—Mr. J.
J. H. Homer, a licensed victualler, carrying on business
in Mare-street, and who has been for many years past an
active member of the Licensed Victuallers' Asylum and
Schools, has offered himself as a candidate for the represen-
tation of the borough of Hackney prcposed to be consti-
tuted under the Government Reform Bill.

THE FOLLIES OF FASHION.—The last freak of
fashion is to give the coup de grace to the pearl-powder,
white-lead, and rouge that have so long reigned. Even
belladonna is to be discarded, and " golden" hair will
shortly be as rare as the real auburn tint of nature, if not
still rarer. The decree has gone for black hair and bronze
complexions, and these will, no doubt, shortly crowd the
parks. How they are produced is the only question that
need concern us. The destructive nature of the chemical
agents usually employed for dying the hair black is well
known to our readers. To give a lady of fashion the com-
plexion of a gipsy, nothing is needed but a little walnut
juice, and we have reason to know that this has already
found its way to the toilette-table. It has at least the ne-
gative merit of not being so dangerous as some of the poi-
sonous cosmetics that have preceded it. Whether a dirty
face will long be the rage it would be rash to predict.—
Medical Press and Circular.

2.1.0
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2.14.0

31
2.14.01
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all
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FIiEFERENCIC SHARzs.
Midland, Leicester and Hitchin 4 per cent., 871
FREFERENCE SRARES AND STOCKS.
Midland A and 11 £5 p c, 104
FOREIGN RAILWAYS,
Great Luxembourg, 10 9 15-16
San Paulo, 11La., gua. 6 per cent., 151

FOREIGN HINER.

Cape Copper, 7 0-16
Chontales Gold and Silver Mining, lira., 41 13-16
Don Pedro, North Del Rey, 21 # # pm
Lustanian, 21
scottish Australian '1
St. John del Rey, lira., 57 6

BANKS:

•
Agra. lim.. A, 6
Ditto, B. 6
Alliance, liw., 134
Anglo Egyptian, lim.,
.151
Australasia, 641
Chartered Bank of India, Australia. and China. 19
Chartered der. of India. London, and China.26l
Imperial Bank, lim.. 20
Imperial Ottoman, lim., 8 5-16
Land Mortgage Bank of India, 11m., 11
London and River Plate, 44
London and County, 551 5
Ditto, new, 201
London and 11 estminster, 1031 3 2
Union of London, 391 9
MISCELLANEOUS;
Anglo-American Telegraph, Dm., 18 a 18
Atlantic Telegraph, 31;
Ditto, 8 per cent., 78;
Berlin Water Works, lim., 12/
City Discount, lim,
City Ounces, lim., 71 8
Colonial, it
Credit roncier of England. lim.. 313
international Financial ,ociety, tim., 24
Lon on and Provincial Marine, 11
Madras Irrigation and Canal (guaranteed 5 per cent. by
Indian Government). 1(0/.
National Discount Lompauy, 12 II;
Ditto, new, 11$
Peninsula and Oriental Steam,:43 1
Royal Mail Steam, 81 8
Thames and Mersey Marine, Insurance, lim., 51
Universal Ma ine, Insurance, lim., 31
Viceroy of Egypt (Mortgage) Loan, 631

ARCHANGEL, July 10. —The Ashford, returned
from her cruise in the White Sea, reports having passed on
he 2d inst., on her outward trip outside this port, the
Vivid, and on the 4th, near Three Island, all well, the
Coremunder, of Dundee. Her Majesty's Consul at this port
states that a number of vessels, which were supposed to be
wrecked, having got off shore, and 14 vessels, which had
been abandoned in the ice, having been brought into port,
the total number lost may not exceed 50. The Lyna was
brought in here from the White Sea on the Bth of July.
THE WINNER OF THE QUEEN'S PRIZE AT WIM-
BLEDON.—Sergeant Lane, of the Ist Gloucester Rifles, has
mot with a great reception on returning home to Bristol.
He tried to bolt from the crowds of friends awaiting him,
but was captured, brought back on his comrades' shoulders,
hoisted into a carriage with his colonel, and conducted
through the city in triumph.