The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-01 00:00:00

THE WEATHER.-SUN OFFICE, OCTOBER 1.

THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
63—highest since noon yesterday.
61—lowest this morning and during the night.
68—this day at noon.

certainly as wide as the poles apart. The former
cannot get rid of the old-fashioned notion that
there is something like a moral principle on which
Representation must be based; and, like the Duke
of RICHMOND, in the early days of Reform, he can-
not deny the natural right of every mature man,
subject to the laws of the kingdom, influenced by
its legislation, and contributing to its finances, to a
share in the representation. Lord TEYNHAM and
the Duke are right; unless we assume the morality
of political slavery, one man's civil rights are equal
to those of his neighbours. And the grand advan-
tage of a principle is this, that you plant your
foot on firm ground, and proceed in security,
to make the requisite limitations and decide
the necessary conditions. Grant that every
taxpayer and every man affected by legislation ought
to have a vote, it is then easy to calculate circum-
stances, and consider the friction under which any
general principle must be worked, and to allow for
it. 'We have never been advocates for unqualified
universal suffrage; but we assume the representa-
tion of every man to be the normal principle, and
only introduce the necessary limitations. Lord
JOHN, and the aristocracy, in regard to Reform, be-
lieve in their right to octroi for us a franchise,
according to their conception of our fitness for their
purposes, not of our right to control their doings
with us and for us.

BARO3fETER-29.87.
WIND, Westerly; rather fresh, with squally weather.
Boone rain in the morning.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAY.—Morning, 4h. 33m.—Afternoon, 4h. 52m
To-Mounow-Morning,, sh. 11m.—Afternoon, sh. 32m,

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THE SUN.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1859.

Lord /011 N put on, we are told, the cap of the
Freedom of Aberdeen city, and was loudly cheered
—we would have cheered more loudly if
he had unveiled for us the statue of the liberty he
meant to give us next spring.

•

The Builders' Strike has now entered upon quite
a new phase. Conciliation, and conciliation on the
part of the men, too, has been attempted and failed.
The position now is, that the masons have separated
from the " Trades' Conference" which the masters
objected to as illegal and irresponsible, and have
endeavoured to treat by themselves with the
masters. The masons were disposed to give up the
nine hours demand ; indeed, the London masons
found that their brethren in the country did not
sympathise with this movement—a circumstance
greatly to their credit, and which in our estimate
of the working men generally, ought to be taken
into account. If they are too ready to be led away
by glib-tongued POTTERS and NOBLES, it should be
remembered that their class includes also a POME-
ROY, with his terse letters, and a PLUMMER who
made the first-rate speech on which we had occasion
to comment a little while ago ; and perhaps equally
important, a HARNOTT, of Bristol, who if left to his
own unbiassed judgment would, we believe, come to
a sound conclusion.
The masters, however, in a modified sense, ad-
here to the declaration ; that is, to its spirit. The
declaration has no other object than the perfect
freedom of master and man. This is its spirit;
this is its meaning. That it assumes a form which
would debar men from belonging to the present
trade unions, arises from the fact that those unions
have made rules and regulations which have no-
thing to do with their proposed benevolent objects;
objects which every man in England approves.
Their rules enslave the men to a few conceited com-
mittee men, who manage the Union, and deprive
the men of their free agency in dealing with the
master, and enslave him too, The master cannot
make such regulations as his own business may re-
quire, or his own common sense and that of his
men may devise and mutually accept. Mr. MYERS,
or Sir MORTON PETO, or Mr. TROLLOPE must go,
cap in hand, to Mr. Secretary POTTER, and make
their rules subject to the approbation of worthies
of his elms. We cannot wonder that masters
are determined no longer to be the subjugated
rulers over Mr. POTTER'S slaves. They regard
their declaration as a masons' emancipation act;
and we must think they are substantially right.
They do not now press for the form of the thing,
but they maintain that, to be masters of trades'
union slaves, is not the position they mean any
longer to assume. They demand a revision of the
laws of these unions in a sense favourable to the
workman and masters' freedom before they can give
The Central Masters' Committee, however,

We intimated yesterday that we must wait awhile
before we could ask three cheers for Lord Jonx
RUSSELL and Reform. We were so well pleased
with his thorough English sentiments and policy
on Italian affairs that we did not feel disposed to
mingle up the home work allotted, somewhat in-
congruously to our Foreign Secretary, with his
foreign policy. We must not, however, dismiss
his remarks at Aberdeen on Reform without the
courtesy of a brief notice ; the more so, as he
assures us, that " the matter of representation has
engaged the whole attention of Government."
We naturally hope, therefore, to find something of
the governmental mind in Lord JOHN'S speech.
We scan it as we do the illoniteur. We may perhaps
detect what the mysterious council thinks—or at
least, which way the wind seems likely to blow.
Well—and what do we learn from the Reform
Premier—for such he is in the Cabinet —why,
about as much as we knew before. We really can-
not gather the least clear conception of what Lord
JOHN purposes to do, from what Lord JOHN has
said. We- know no more than we do from the
speeches he made before the session closed. We
have a tolerable string of vague generalities, but
not a single non-elector in this country will guess'
from the speech, whether he is likely to be enfran-
chisedor not ; not a single worthless borough quakes
for its £5 or £lO a-head for each elector ; not a
single victim of coercion rejoice in the hope that his
vote is likely to be protected to him ; not any
class of voters be able to conjecture whether their
numbers are to enjoy any measure of respect ;
rather, indeed, on this point, the appearances are
very favourable to the petty Whig boroughs, and
very unfavourable to the large populations.
The constitution is not, we are informed, arranged
according to abstract principles—it is not, like that of
France or America, founded on universal suffrage ;
but the first result of the " whole attention of
Government" having been concentrated on Reform
is the discovery that the " matter is one of extreme
complication, and requires great nicety in the
Adjustment of the separate parts." That it is most
fitly figured by the ingenious devices of the cotton
machinery of Aberdeen itself—which, in one sense,
all who have hat to do with Government too well
know to be true, for assuredly there is " wheel
iwithin wheel." Lord JOHN scouted statistics. An
apprentice or clerk to a land surveyor could divide
the country into equal electoral districts and give
every man a vote. Whig statesmenship is something
higher than that. If a principle it has this is it—
" to find everywhere the fittest persons in whom a
certain degree of power shall he placed, and to give
the power to thole persons." Unfortunately there
is not a Tory in the kingdom who retains his facul-
ties at eighty years of age who would not assent
to this doctrine. The application of it is every-
thing. If Lord JOHN had vouchsafed to tell us
who, after all the discussions we have had on the
subject, he thinks are the fittest persons to be
trusted with power, he would have done something
for our entertainment during the political recess.
All, literally all we know, is, that he thinks the £lO

way.

makes this offer—" that the rules and bye laws of
the unions, so far as they affect the employers and
the employed, shall be revised by some impar-
tial authority, and that all rules and prac-
tices contrary to the spirit of the law of the
land shall be removed." If the workmen cannot
accept this offer, their cause will be pronounced a
bad one. "The spirit of the law of the ]and"—no
one can doubt, since the repeal of the Combi-
nation Laws, has been so favourable to workmen
that, if they have an honest case, they must close
with the proposal.
Lct us, however, ask our operative friends, and
those of the higher classes who incline to look
with favour on the strike, to the principle which
should settle the right or wrong of it—When is a
strike legitimate ? When can it be defended on
those principles of economical science, which
will vindicate their claim to authority, how-
ever ignorance may resist them for a time ? We
reply—Strikes are justifiable when the workmen
think they are underpaid according to the market
value of labour at that time ; when the masters
think they are properly paid ; and when neither

side can convince the other. The workman, then,

is as much justified in refusing to sell his labour
as the farmer to sell his corn, or the grocer his
commodities, if either think the customers offer
them too little for what they would purchase.
Fifty skilled or unskilled labourers say, our labour
is worth 2s. 6d. or ss. 6d. a-day—the master says,
I can have it for 6d. a-day lest. They deny if,
There is nothing for it, then, but for each to try
the truth of his opinion--the men to try and earn
more somewhere else, the master to got his work
done for sixpence less. This is all perfectly legiti-
mate striking. It is but " the higgling of the
market."

But the very opposite of this is the object of the
Trades' Unions—we speak of them solely in re-
ference to the non-benevolent part of their rules.
Their object is to monopolise a certain class of labour.
They endeavour to do it, first, by preventing per•
sons from learning the trade ; secondly, by pre-
venting each man from doing all he can, to cut off
the supply of labour. They want to make labour
dear, as the Corn-laws aimed to make bread dear,
by cutting off the natural supply of the article.
Naturally lads would learn a trade according to
their turn of mind, or according to the probabili-
ties of its being IViiturally
worth their learning.
a clever fellow would do all he could in the hours of
labour, and an industrious or needy man work
more hours than the idle or the well-of, if he had
the opportunity ; these operative protectionists,
however, would prevent this natural supply of
skilled labour from coming into the market, in order
that the arlfficial scarcity may raise the price. No
join, we mean,
man has a moral right to do this, to

iV. a confederation which shall become as compul-
I slny upon its class as an act of Parliament, to re-
strict, artificially, the supply of labour. It is as
indefensible in principle, as Corn-lows and other

franchise " too high." So did Mr. WALPOLE, SO
4t llr. HENLEY, SO latterly did Mr. DISRAELI and
Lord tii.,_
-- -,ad Lord Jon BusELI, are

monopoly laws.
There is, indeed, a natural way of raising the price
of labour if it be too low. That of those who think
it so, declining, as we have already said, to work at

THE SUN, LONDON SATURDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 1, 1859.

LATEST NEWS.

The following telegrams have been received at
Mr. Reuter's office :

PARIS, OCT. 1.

The llfoniteur of this morning contains a decree
admitting brandies extracted from molasses, im-
ported direct into France from Mayotte in French
vessels, free of duty.

FLORENCE, SEPT. 30.
The Savoy cross and Sardinian standard have
been hoisted on the old palace.

BIARRITZ, SEPT. 30.
The Empress of the French has paid a visit to
:he chateau of Arteaga.

BERNE, SEPT. 30.

It is rumoured that the plenipotentiaries will
come to this place on the 12th October, and there-
fore it is concluded that the Conferences will not
come to a close before the middle of next month.

COPENHAGEN, OCT. 1.

In the sitting of the Council of the Kingdom to-
day nine members asked for the reading of a motion
containing a declaration on the present state of
affairs. The President having refused the reading
of the same, these members abstained from voting
on the next division, by which the vote was ren-
dered invalid, the necessary number of members to
form an absolute majority not voting. Messieurs
Thomson and Oldensworth then left the Assembly.

MARSEILLES, SEPT. 30.
The King of the Belgians will remain two days
in Marseilles.

Advices from Naples to the 27th inst. state that
15,500 soldiers had been sent to tho frontiers, and
the number, was expected to be increased to 25,000.
The King, who had been to Gaeta, had returned to
Naples.

Advices from Rome to the 27th inst. announce
the arrival there of the Austrian Minister, Baron
Bach, who had an audience of the Pope on the 25th
inst.

ZURICH, SEPT. 30.

The Prince Napoleon has left, and will arrive in
Paris next week ; during his stay he did not hold
any interviews with the plenipotentiaries.

FRANCE.

PARIS, FRIDAY.

The Emperor's departure from Biarritz is now
said to bo adjourned to the Bth of October, and his
arrival in Paris to the 15th. There is again talk
of a speech to be made at Bordeaux. Mr. Disraeli
has had an interview with the Emperor.

We hear to-day in Paris that the anti-European
movement, commenced in China, has extended it-
self to Japan and Cochin-China.
Lcrd John Russell's speech at Aberdeen, so far as
it can be judged of by the very brief telegram re-
ceived here, gives satisfaction to the Liberal
party, who lay to their souls the flattering unction
that there is an understanding between him and
the Emperor. Other people say very much the
contrary, and affirm that his Majesty is in any-
thing but a good humour with England and its
Government.

BOURSE, Sept. 30.—The market has been steady;
the option (reponse des primes) has been declared
on the Rente at 69f. 20c. Threes, after having
bee done at 691. 10c., advanced to 691. 25c. ; Mo-
bilier varied from 810 f. to 815 f. ; Orleans, 1,395 f.
to 1,403 f. ; Lyons, 900 f, to 005 f. ; Southern, 5171.
to 520. ; Austrian, 552 f. 50c. to 555 f. ; Lombard,
555 f. to 557 f. 50c. The following were the last
quotations :

41 per Cents. .... 95 75 I Credit Fonder 690 .---
Do. end month .. ( Belgian 4/ —
3 per Cents 69 30 Piedmonteso (5) .. 86
Do. end month 69 25 I Roman B6 25
Bank Shares. 2825 Austrian —

&edit Mobilier Bl5 Spanish Threes .. -
Do. Account - Home Debt 431 -

RAILWAYS.

Cash. Account.
Orleans
Northern . 935 .. 935
New ditto. 825 .. 825
Lyons and Mediterranean 905 .. 905
Geneva
Southern
Western 590 .. 593 75
Eastern
Sardinian • 420 .. 420
Austrian
Lombard .. .
Exchange on London, at sight, paper, 25f. 13c. ; money,
25f. 11c.; three months, paper, 241.98 c.; money, 24f. 93ic.