The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-27 00:00:00

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showing an increase of £11,000; but the increase
up to the 17th of March, when the Reciprocity
Treaty came to an end, was £16,216. So that in
the following week their traffic was affected adver-
sely to the extent of £5,200. He had told them
that might be the case at first, but their traffic would
improve afterwards. The advantage would be that
Canada would trade more with England, and under
that process their trade and traffic would increase.
Ile felt certain that the breaking off of the treaty
would result in favour of Canada. Everything
would be much cheaper in Canada than in the
States. He gave an instance of an American gen-
tleman who brought the whole of his family into
Canada, lived in an hotel for three weeks, pro-
vided the whole of them with new clothes and other
requisites, returned to the States, and was a gainer
by the transaction. With regard to Canadian bar-
ley, it was estimated that the loss to the American
brewers would be something like $2,000,000 a year.
The Confederation of the British and American
colonies, Upper and Lower Canada, New Bruns-
wick, Nova Scotia, and others, which now had their
eaen dt
the
ea wasd,
vwouldg
ebs e
of of re
nl
toenrg_
sbeep a
unitedra t e c u:nt od me;hpoeu sr
change and free trade between a total population
of about 4,000,000. The products of one place
would be available in another. There had recently
been very strong expressions of opinion in favour
of confederation, and it was believed that a bill
After
corn_ re
would soon be brought into the British House of
Commons to make them one undivided confedera-
tion. Vast improvements would follow. The Inter-
colonialv ie lvi
n g hßailwaye
pas t
difficultieso ul d be indispensable.aud
progress
of
the
report pany, hea
and
statement concluded
atem enbt
of
ymaoevelonugntths
. -
e adoption of the
Mr. T. BARING, M.P., seconded the motion.
A discussion ensued, in the course of which Sir
Stokes, kjeas Jarvis,
d easnd
Messrs..P.), d
ams, boi sn e
Taylor,t
Mercer asked various questions, in reply to which,
The CHAIRMAN stated they could not raise the
Harley,llart r clagned
fares so as.to cover the loss on American currency;
the working expenses could not be reduced from the
alleged amount of 4s. to 3s. per train per mile ; they
proposed to work the intercolonial railway when
made, and might have to raise capital to provide the
requisite rolling stock for that purpose. It could be
made a profitable operation. The managers of the
Grand Trunk and Great Western of Canada had
drawn up a proposed working or traffic arrange-
ment between the two companies, which was at
present under tile consideration of the Great Wes-
tern of Canada Board, and when they expressed
their opinion the directors of the Grand Trunk
would consider it.

The report was unanimously adopted. Mr. New-
march in England, and Mr. Taylor in Canada, the
retiring auditors, were unanimously re-elected ; and
the retiring directors, Messrs. Ferrier, "catkin, Pot-
ter, and Swift, were also unanimously re-elected.
The special meeting for the consideration of an
agreement in reference to the construction of the
proposed bridge at Buffalo was adjourned to June 7,
with the understanding that a copy of the agree-
ment should be circulated among the proprietors 10
days prior to the intended meeting.

A vote of thanks to the chairman and directors
concluded the proceedings.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIDIES.—The working men of the kingdom are
presenting themselves opportunely before the public
for observation. Our impression of yesterday con-
tained no less than three reports of their proceedings,
from each of which much seasonable information
may be derived. In the first of these we are intro-
duced to a certain League formed, in direet contra-
diction of Mr. Forster's estimate, by an aggregate
combination of all the Trade Societies iu London for
a political object. Less than a fortnight ago Mr.
Forster assured the House of Commons that opera-
tives of dissimilar trades and different feelings could
never be expected to unite, and that a combination
of the several classes of artisans " fcr political pur-
poses was a thing quite beyond probability. Yet
here we have already a, meeting of " delegates" from
70,000 men, all co-operating tlirougli g"rs'irgrlt:
organization for a purpose purely political. That is
the combination actually at work—in what kind of
spirit the reader will presently see. Lord Elcho had
read in a circular letter that this "Reform League"
of Trade Unions had at one of its meetings passed
a vote of want of confidence:in him, in consequence
of his having in one of his speeches in Parliament
" vilified the people in a most shameful manner."
Ile therefore wrote to the Secretary of the League,
declaring himself unconscious of any such offence,
and asking to be furnished with the evidence on
which the charge was based. The secretary replied
with a production of the words held to justify the
imputation, and they were as follows :—•" Though
by a lowering of the franchise a certain number of
good and intelligent working men would get votes,
yet it would also let in the mass of men who were
improvident and indolent." These expressions
coupled with a contrast between " noisy agitators"
and " thoughtful workmen," constituted in the
opinion of the League, the libel alleged, and though
the secretary coolly admitted that " villified in a
most shameful manner" was perhaps rather a strong
" expression" and " open to objection," he substan-
tially maintained and reiterated the charge. Now,
Lord Elcho explained that his words as actually
used were not " improvident and indolent," but
" improvident and ignorant"—a difference of some
moment. Taking, however, the assertion in either
form, to what does it amount ? Simply to this—.
that the working class consists, like all other classes,
of good,, bad, and indifferent, and that the good,
also as in all ocher classes, form the least numerous
division. If this is slander, then the working men
have been slandered similarly by a didtinguished
specimen of their own body, quoted by Mr. Hughes
himself, who replied, when asked his opinion of the
Franchise Bill, " Well, sir, it will bring in a good
bit of the best of us." But if there is a " best " in
any assortment of qualities, there must also be a
" worst," and this is all that Lord Elcho said. Mr.
Hughes's friend, a pattern man himself, " influen-
tial among trade unions and artisans," would, we
may be sure, have readily admitted that " the best"
in his classification were not the most numerous,
without ever dreaming that he was " vilifying the
people in a most shameful manner." But this will
not do for the Trade Unions League. They will
have no such discrimination. It is, in their opinion,
disgraceful slander to say of working men that any
or many of them are in arrear of the others in fore-
thought or knowledge, and they denounce Lord
Elcho accordingly, and would proscribe him if they
could. It turns out that they had no such authority,
as might be presumed, for their action in this mat-
ter; but, apart from that question, we must cer-
tainly conclude that these combined delegates,
whatever else they might have been, were certainly
somewhat captious, and not a little unreasonable.
The next case is equally fatal to Mr. Forster's
doctrine of the incompatibility of different trades.
The filemakers of Sheffield are at variance with their
employers, a partial " strike" having produced, as
usual of late times, a general " lock-out." Under
;these circumstances, the Sheffield artisans come to.
London from their own town to solicit the assist-
ance of all other trades in their quarrel, and with
such support do they meet that, after their claims
had been advocated by tailors, farriers, boilteirl;
makers 2tinplate-workers, and ropernakersa,t
on"
general' metropolitan " Working Men s Ass. ocfiavio
Ur.
adopts unanimously a resolution in th9irthis
dis-
We do not enter into the meritso of
unlikely to
pute. We simply ask Mr. -Forstercint
so far from "wage-receivers'h' b
arc ready to do
" band together" as a class,A,
een ectu ally upon the
this most comprehensively
quite enough that wage-
first inducement. Itg °bserve, that
theon other to secure the latter
and wage-receivers
I oirnfellowz.
one side of the controversy
Nor do we say that
Payers are arrayed on i 5
the sympathyOn
w° think it no more than might have
the contrary, we
ofyt unnatural'e and blameworthy.
dwe are onlysurprised
this is in any
per-
been epected, an that a
vith so much authority as M. Forder
son speaklng
should have sugg
ested a different conclusion. The
re us is that of tbe Building
third case before Trades,
now agitating for an increase of wages. The car-
penters and joiners demand Bd. per hour, and this
Payment the masters agreed to give to the " most
skilled mechanics," provided the less skilled were
allowed by their Unions to accept
a less rate. This
proposal is rather more critical than it appears, for it
establishes and applies to f • pro essional.merits some
such a discrimination as Lord Elcho applied to moral