The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-05 00:00:00

Mr. W. D. SeythOur, M.P., on Strikes.

Mr. William Digby Seymour, Q. C., in his charge
to the grand jury at the Newcastle quarter- sessions
on Wednesday, said the year just closed had been
characterised by depression and stagnation, and
what had been the cause—what the black spot which
would make the past year have a miserable notoriety
in the years that had preceded it—at all events, in
the memory of most of them ? The last year had
been a year of strikes. Certainly it was remarkable
when they looked over the several trades, and saw
the number of strikes and disturbances between the
ordinary relations of capital and industry which had
unfortunately sprung up in various parts of this
district. The axe of the shipwright, the hammer of
the ironworker, the chisel of the joiner, the trowel of
the mason, and the implements of mechanism of
various other cognate trades in this locality, had
been more or less suspended during the last twelve
months. Among all these unhappy disturbances
none had been attended with such great and serious
results as the strike in the iron trade. It would be
very foreign to his duty to speculate upon the causes
which led to the step that was taken by the masters
in the reduction of the wages of their men, whether
arising from the necessary results of foreign com-
petition or any local circumstances affecting it.
That step was taken, but when they looked at the
misery that had followed the course adopted by the
men on strike, it was impossible to pass over without
comment the extraordinary results which were now
held up to the light of day. Some 10,000 or 12,000
men had been on strike during the 19 weeks which be-
gan on the 16th of July, and ended at the close of
November. Now, to gauge the amount of misery
and suffering which had affected families and house-
holds, and those more or less dependent on the trade,
would be impossible for him and wearisome for them.
But there were figures which could not lie, and
which pointed amoral and told a very sad and dis-
tressing tale. Among the 10,000 or 12,000 men
who had bean on strike, it might 1:”. taken as a
very moderate estimate to assert that the total loss
in wages value had been £300,000 ; and what had
they got to sustain them in the battle which they
had waged against their employers ? The whole
contributions from the various union sources had
only amounted to something like £lO,OOO, divided
amongst about three thousand men. What a small
percentage of the absolute loss in wages—wages
which not only affected the men themselves, but the
small shopkeepers or other tradesmen who were de-
pendent for their custom on the operatives con-
nected with the iron districts ! But the loss was
not merely to be measured by the loss in wages, but
it had been calculated, and calculated as consider-
ably within the mark, that the loss to the trade
itself—the money value of this strike, had amounted
to no less a sum than £1,250,000. So here they
had figures to show the terrible consequences of
those unhappy disputes between masters and men.
!Ile could not help saying this—that trade was
governed by laws which were inexorable in their
incidence. It did not depend on the mere calcu-
lations of masters here or men there. It was
governed by general printiples, exactly as the rising
and falling of the tides of the ocean; and until the'
men were taught the general and elementary les-
sons of political economy those strikes would con-
tinue—these miserable disturbances would exist.
They had had a great deal of eloquence expended
in talking about men's political rights by the cham-
pions of their political emancipation. It was well
to discuss these matters, and right that political
justice should be done to the operative classes of
the people ; but for his part, till a better under-
standing was brought about among the people
of those elementary lessons which governed the laws
of supply and demand, and the relations between
capital and labour, he could not help thinking that
one argument—the strongest and the soundest that
could be urged—in favour of the admission of the
operative classes to a further enjoyment of the
exercise of the franchise would be wanting to the
friends and advocates of popular emancipation.
He hoped the year on which they had now
entered would not be attended with the miserable
circumstances of the past, and that they wou!d see a
better feeling permeating the masses of the people.
As surely as the loss of employment led to poverty,
and degradation led to crime, so surely the strikes
and disturbances which bad affected the labour
market of 1866 would more or less affect the calen-
dar of the present and future years.

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE—This Day.

LONDON, Jan. s.—Wind this day at noon—Easterly ;
moderate breeze, and cloudy weather, with very hard
frost.

PLYMOUTH, Jun. 4.—Wind S.W.—Arrived.—Diedrich
Lohose, from Bremen for Porto Rico, with loss of anchor
in the Downs.

Sw4.NsnA, Jan. 4.—Wind B.W—Sailed—Annie Morse,
for Baltimore.

(13T TELEGRAPH.)
GRAVESEND, Jan. 5.
No arrivals.

DEAL, Jan. 5.
Anchored—Lochiel, for Sydney; Elgin, for Philade'
pbia ; Counakyle, for Shangbae ; Robena, for New York-
all from London.

MODERN NESTORS.—From a list of fellows of the
Royal Society, it appears that the eldest members of it are
Lord Brougham, late Lord High Chancellor; Sir Henry
Ellis, late librarian of the British Museum ; and Mr. Wil-
liam Lawrence, late president of the Royal College of Sur-
geons, the youngest of whom is in his 84th year, having
been born in July, 1783.

THE STORM IN NORTHUMBERLAND.—The weather
was intensely cold on the Northumberland coast on Thurs-
day night, and the upper roaches of the rivers were being
covered with ice. A great quantity of snow. had falbu, but
the storm appeared to be over, and the wind having got
round to the NAV. the sea was falling and vessels were
proceeding from the Tyne to sea. The Resolution, from
Aalborg, reached the Tyno ou Thursday, having the crew
of the Danish bark Ellerslie, from Helsingbourg for Lon-
don, with oats, on board, the vessel having been struck by
a sea and thrown on to her beam ends, which caused the
pumps to choke. The screw steamer Brunette put into
the Tyno on Thursday, short of fuel and with her master
very ill. The Brunette was bound from Havre for Gotten_
burg, and had encountered fearfully heavy weather.