The Sun.
London, England, 1867-10-03 00:00:00

by prices so low as almost to proclaim the worth-
lessness of the articles proffered for sale.
Until of late years our laws for the protection
of trade reputation were so notoriously ill contrived
as to be in practice all but a delusion. Probably per-
sons conversant with their working would pronounce
them even now to stand at some distance below per-
fection. Yet they were a precious boon to the hon-
ourable manufacturer earnestly striving after excel-
lence ; and must have borne no small part in the
general advancement of Birmingham manufactures,
creating thereby a gratifying contrast between our
past condition and present. How obstructive such a
state of things must have been to the growth of a
general desire for improvement—to a frame of mind
which should lead the masters to promote and the
junior artisans to hail such an institution as that--
each of his hearers would judge for himself. But the
evils of deceptive trade did not terminate with inju-
ries to the characters and pecuniary interests of in-
dividuals—a whole community suffered severely and
permanently. Having incidentally referred to the
town of Sheffield, the learned gentleman said he
grieved to speak in disparagement of the home of
James Montgomery, Ebenezer Elliott, and Samuel
Bailey, and of those just, enlightened, and benevo-
lent citizens who were doing their best to root out
devilish principles which it was not in the power of
language to stamp with infamy commensurate with
their deserts. The real mention of Sheffield would
recall a portentous danger which must often have
painfully occupied the thoughts of his hearers. He
adverted to consequences but too recently anticipated
by some persons of steadfast minds from the prin-
ciples avowed and the courses pursued by many
trades' unions. That he was himself wholly free
from alarm was more than he could aver ; yet such
was his reliance on the sterling good sense of English-
men of every condition that his hopes far outweighed
his fears. If words of his could gain the ear of trades
unions, he would implore them to reflect on the
inevitable results of the policy to which they would
appear to be giving themselves up. Led away by the
desire for equality—often a generous impulse, yet as
often the parent of unnumbered evils—they fought
against the ordinances of nature. They did not, it
is true, ask as heretofore for " the equal division
of unequal earnings ;" but they did worse—they
framed regulations to prevent strength and skill
from effecting more for the employer than he
obtained from a lower grade of capacity. This
principle of trade, combined with restraints on tak-
ing apprentices, whereby the supply of labour was
lessened and youths were cruelly precluded from
becoming artisans, enhanced prices and debased
equality ; emulation was checked, legitimate ambi-
tion had no outlet, and an approach was made to
the stagnation of intellect which belonged to slavery.
And, sad to say, this calamity was bearing us down
with increasing weight, while competing nations
were pressing upwards and onwards with newborn
energy, and thrusting us from the position we had
so long held, not, we must admit, by the paltry shift
of low prices and inferior goods, but by the produc-
tion of better articles than ours, which they were
selling at moderate rates. He did not, however,
forget that we ourselves suffered from trash being
often substituted abroad for English goods, and
fraudulently sold as such ; but that was an injury
of far less moment, although by no means to be
despised. In the meantime, and until these reac-
tionary steps were arrested such hostilities between
employers and employed must bring back the state
of things which followed the riots of 1791 ; and
bring them back under aspects more fearful than on
the former occasion. Then society was divided
vertically, each party collecting under its banner
followers of every degree ; but now the threatened
severance was horizontal—labour arraying itself
against capital ; which implied enmity on the part
of the working classes against all above them. Late
events, however, must have disclosed the awful
abyss opening before us—an abyss into which
(although all interests would ultimately be engulfed)
labour would assuredly be hurried before capital
was called upon to take its turn. But this disclosure
could not fail of producing a powerful effect. As
yet the majority of working men had not bowed
their necks to the yoke of trades' unions, and
he hoped and believed that the larger part even
of those who bore that yoke would indignantly re-
sist all attempts to urge them into crime. And
without crime the coercion sought to be exercised
over fellow workmen, over the youth of the nation,
and over masters could never be enforced. Mean-
time a system was elevating itself into importance
founded on conditions diametrically opposed to those
of trades' unions. He referred to co-operation in its
various branches, which, however they might differ
to the eye, agreed in holding sacred the individual
rights of all, and in giving to each member, in addi-
tion to a fixed remuneration for his labour or his
capital, an interest rising or falling in amount with
the rise or fall of prosperity in the undertaking.
This principle, honestly carried into effect, with due
intelligence and industry, had wrought wonders,
both at home and abroad. Peace took the place of
war—not a peace of cold neutrality, but a firm
alliance, in which even the most humble felt himself
raised above a mere hireling, and placed on the foot-
ing of a friend and partner. Now that the sound-
ness of co-operation had been proved by multiplied
experiments, it would be to doubt of human nature
itself were wo to turn away with distrust from a
principle giving scope to the noblest impulses of the
heart. Discarding its aid we should lose, according
to his settled convictions, our best prospect of escape
from the chronic animosities now encompassing us,
and swelling with every succeeding year into more
disastrous proportions. Reverting for a moment to
the history of the trades of Birmingham, he said the
continued prosperity of the town could only be re-
tained by an uninterrupted series of victories. In
no place on the face of the globe was so rapid a suc-
cession of trades necessary for the full employment
of the population. Staple trades, with the exception
of gunmaking, there were none, or next to none.
Numerous manufactures, however, started into
existence, prospered for a time, and died out again
at the caprice of fashion. What was better, because
of more permanent benefit, discoveries in science
were speedily applied here to the arts of life.
The learned gentleman alluded to the great dis-
coveries and services rendered by the late Mr. Muntz
in connection with the admixture of metals, and to
the difficulties encountered by him before success
was attained ; and he claimed for Birmingham the
distinction of having produced the steam-engine,
since it was at Soho that the sublime invention of
Watt was matured, and in Birmingham alone could
be found a body of workmen possessed of sufficient
skill and versatility to manufacture so complex a
machine with sufficient precision. Although our local
history could not show a second exploit with any
pretensions to rival the transformation of the steam-
engine from the barbarism of its northern handicraft
to the surpassing excellence which it attained in the
workshops of Soho, yet could he occupy their time
for hours with the enterprises to which Birmingham
had given birth, all illustrating the ingenuity and
the perseverance of her sons, each having its story of
good or ill fortune. For in trade, as in every earthly
affair, success could never bo insured. Not seldom
must the aspirant learn to bear calamities with for-
titude, and patiently content himself as best he might
when he had earned a right to the consolation of
having merited a better lot than had fallen to him
by the chances of life; and each narrative, whether
ending happily or unhappily, would tend to excite
the young to resolutely pursue a career of honourable
exertion, in which diligence would be directed by
knowledge, guarded by caution, and governed by
rectitude; for although " 'tis not in mortals to
command success," it could not be doubted that to
deserve it offered the only rational hope of its attain-
ment. The most famous scholar of English growth
was beyond contradiction, Richard Bentley, whom
Pope called

" - Mighty scholiast, whose immortal pains
Made Horace dull, and humbled Milton's strains,"
who never would have exposed himself to the ridi-
cule of his contemporaries and successors had he had
the training of a Boulton or a Muntz. They learnt to
reason, not so much in words as in deeds, and deeds
of moment, where to be captivated by a fallacy was
to be led to ruin ; while, on the other hand, to ar •
rive at the truth by seizing nice distil coons was to
arrive at wealth and fame. Had Boulton's estimate
of the immense capabilities of Watt's engine, ob-