The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-30 00:00:00

' TIE 1 riSUN, LONDON

Weathercock as I AI.. LINDSAY answer—to that of
honest argument.. Heaven send us a few more
such weathercockH. We have enough of quite
another class, of th ose who respond most faithfully
to the intimations e f party leaders.

The Builders' Strike, 'we may hope, is at length
over. Many may yet continue to defy common
sense and famine, and to parade their allegiance to
Mr. Secretary POTTER and committee despotism,
but the real conflict is over. Short days and frost
have lessened the demand for out-door labour ; and
'as employers have found a sufficient number of
free men to carry on their work, they will no longer
hire union slave-gangs. We cannot blame them.
It is the boast of our QUEEN that she rules over the
free; that all her service—in the army, the navy,
in everything—is the service of the free ; and it
ought to be the boast of English masters that their
workmen are not subject to the lash of their own
foremen, or to that of a secret and irresponsible
committee. Never was a viler hoax practised on
masses of honest men, too many of whom cannot
even read, than that which persuaded them that
the " odious document" was a badge of slavery.
Those only are slaves who could not cordially
accept it. It is odious, not to any honest work-
man coolly considering its plain terms; but it was
and is odious enough to the NOBLES and POTTERS,
from whose fatal power it would deliver their
Imiserable tools.

And what now have these unfortunates gained
by their strike ? Their silly nine hours' movement
they have of necessity abandoned ; working men
throughout the kingdom were too industrious to
sympathise with needless idleness, and sensible
people understood at once that when there were
too many labourers, as the nine hours' men
alleged, the way to employ them was by cheapen•
ing labour, not by raising its price to the em-
ployer. We do not, indeed, wish to see wages
lowered ; but if they are at a higher rate then per-
mits the employment of all, there is no means for
the unemployed to sell their labour, but that to
which all must submit who have a larger stock of
anything than they need—to lower its price. It is
a hard alternative. But between that and finding
other occupation there is literally nothing to choose.
Nor can all the POTTERS and NEWTONS in the
world change this law of labour. Sympathy with
men fighting with masters has obtained from work-
men all over the kingdom a scanty pittance in ad-
dition to the miserable dole allowed the turnouts
by their clubs ; but even this cannot last long ; and
while it has lasted it has carried the poor wife's
furniture and clothing to the pawnbrokers, and,
alas ! too often the poor half-starved child and its
mother to the grave. Serious is the guilt of the
leaders of this movement, as seen in the homes of
their unhappy dupes. They have pretended, in-
deed, to throw the blame on the masters. That
cannot be. Those who suffered families to starve
rather than give up club rules which they could
repeal at any hour, rules for compliance with which
one of their number now lies in prison, rules in de-
fiance alike of law and reason—these are the men
against whom the charge must lie, that they ha're
sacrificed the lives of the innocent to the pride and
tyranny of the leaders.

It is ton late now to remedy the worst of the
mischief. The homes of hundreds, perhaps of thou-
:muds, are marred for a long dark winter. There
will be neither the food, nor warmth, nor neatness,
nor family comfort which there might have been.
All has been sacrificed, because the 'proprietors of
those homes had sold themselves into slavery to a
Union. Had each of them stood alone in the in-
dependance of an English freeman, he would have
gazed long on his wife and family before he would
have sacrificed thirty or five and thirty shillings a
week to fight with the inexorable laws of political
economy. From actual conversation with men, we
know that some at least obeyed only through fear.
The compulsion for resorting to which PERHAM
has been justly convicted—though we could wish
him, as the first, to be warned, and not the whole
penalty inflicted—this compulsion has been the
only known reason why thousands have submitted
to starve. Terror has done its work. But its
victims would have been wisp and happier had
they thrown up all the advantages of these clubs,
and secured the greater advantages of regular work
under some deserving master.
But this brings us to the point which we had in
view in commencing this article. The masters
have no doubt suffered much, still we would re-
spectfully suggest to them, whether now is not the
time to triumph by generosity. We do not ask
them to abandon the document. The man who
does not agree with its principle is not worth a
master's having; it has become a necessary test. But
we do want them to lend a helping hand to those
who sec through the folly, and perhaps chicanery
of the Union leaders, and who prefer the work and
wages of freemen.: Their error is surely venial.
Their repentance of it should, as far as possible,
restore to them all the just advantages they hoped
for from their Unions. Now is the appropriate time
for the masters to institute for their men
a society which should confer all the pecuniary
advantages of Unions on their men, without any
of the sad drawbacks by which the Unions are
distinguished.
We cannot now be expected to sketch even the
rules of such a society, but some leading principles
strike us as important. The men should be volun-
tary subscribers, and managers of the whole funds ;
it would not otherwise have their confidence or bo
their society. The masters should, however, sub-
scribe, and largely too, if they can afford it ; they
might perhaps reasonably ask in return, a fair inspec-
tion and auditorship, to see that their money was
not wasted. There might not be much objection, as
the men seem to value it much, to a fair amount of
assistance to men on tramp—journeying in search
of work; but the main object should be relief in
sickness, or when laid aside by accident ; perhaps,
also, when funeral expenses aro incurred ; though
this latter advantage has been fatally abused.
Details are for masters and men to arrange; but
we should like to see a frank and kind hearted
movement on the part of the masters to encourage
providing against want and sickness ; and to
prove that they warred against Union tyranny, not
against industrial providence. Surely a splendid
society might be got up if masters did but feel that
in permanently-subscribing to it—or even, if they
liked, endowing it by will—their money would not
be diverted from charity to nursing strikes, which
cause greater distress than any charity can meet.
The majority of masters, are, we are persuaded,
benevolent men, interested in their workmen's
comfort. We imagine they have now a noble
opportunity to show their benevolence.

llcr Majesty and his Royal Highncss the Prince
Consort, and the younger members of the royal family,
leave Windsor Castle, according to present arrangements,
on Tuesday next, the Gth proximo, for Osborne, to pass a
fortnight at the royal marine residence. •

Their Royal Highnesses Prince and Princess Fre-
deric William take their departure from Windsor Castle
on Saturday next, on their return to Berlin.

_ .
Further quantities of gold, in all about £1,400,
have been recovered from the wreck of the Royal Charter.
The steamer Columbian sailed from Aden on the
6th inst., with the English mail for Australia of October.
The Woodville has arrived from China with
257,500 lbs. of tea and 12 bales of silk.