The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-04 00:00:00

THE STRIKE IN THE BUILDING

TRADE.

MONSTER MEETING IN HYDE-PARK.
Yesterday evening, between '40,000 and 50,000
of the workmen connected with the building trade
met in Hyde-park, for then purpose of considering
the step the master builders were about to take in
shutting up their shops rather than concede the
hour per day asked for by the men.
The arrangements for holding the meeting were
very good. The assembly arranged themselves in
a circle, and some thousands sat on the ground,
thus enabling those in the back rows to see what
was going on. In the centre a platform of chairs
was raised for the speakers, and chairs were pro-
vided for the committee and the representatives of
the press. The proceedings were of a most orderly
character, and not the slightest approach to a dis-
turbance occurred.
Mr. TRACY, a working man, occupied the chair,
and said the object in calling them together that
evening was net to argue the question of the nine
hours' movement, but to make a demonstration to
prove that the assertion made by the masters,
" that the working classes cared not about the
movement," was false, and also to prove that the
working classes had the movement at heart, and
were determined to make it a success. (Cheers.)
This movement did not originate from idleness on
the part of the inen, but from the tyranny exercised
towards them by the masters, and which they called
political economy. Another motive for that
meeting was to call upon them to rise up
and oppose the tyranny their masters would
inflict upon them by the terms of that
document which they were trying to impose
upon them. Their forefathers had fought for their
rights ; but those days had gone by, and they had
now the sword of reason and intellect to fight their.
battles with. (Cheers.). These were the days of
morality, and though it was said they wanted to
obtain that to which they had no right, they were
anxious to preserve law and order, and had as great
a desire to preserve property as those who possessed
it. After what they had done would they sign
themselves as slaves, and give up every liberty by
putting their hands to that fiendish document?
(Loud cries of " No, never.") Would they do for
their children what their forefathers would not do
for them ? (No). Then they must stand up and
show their employers and the Government, which
was supporting them, that they would rather die in
the workhouse, and for himself, he would rather
die in the street and let his bones lie unburied till
Doomsday, than sign it. Their employers had met
their request with the most lawyer-like policy, not
by argument, but by misrepresenting their case to
the public. They had not time then to argue the
question, because a meeting there after sunset was
illegal, and therefore he would not dwell longer on
the subject, but call upon them all to maintain
order, and after the meeting was over to disperse
quietly to their respective homes. (Cheers.)
Mr. CREMER, a joiner, moved that this meeting
views with regret the position of antagonism as-
sumed by the employers, inasmuch as the spirit
they display is calculated to widen the breach al-
ready existing, by endeavouring to trample out the
spirit of humanity which originated and still ani-
mates the nine hours' movement, and as the pledge
which they would extract from us by signing the
document they propose submitting would rob us of
every privilege of freemen, and reduce us to the
condition of serfs, we determine to use every moral
power of resistance, and pledge ourselves to use all
constitutional means, for bringing the nine hours'
movement to a successful termination." (Cheers).
He expressed the great amount of diffidence he felt
in proposing this resolution, because any word he
might drop might have a great effect upon
his fellow-workmen for weal or woe ; but
it was only his paramount sense of duty
that decided him to undertake so responsible
a position. The reasons and the arguments
made use of by their enemies were many and
various. The Times of last Saturday thought
proper to honour them with an article—he said
honour, for it was an honour to them to have
brought the question so prominently before the
public that the leading paper of the day had no-
ticed them. But when the Times honoured them
with an article it pursued a course which he ex-
pected they would pursue. It wrote in the inte-
rests of a class which they always had been mixed
up with—and that was the moneyocraey of the
country. It said they were acting in the spirit of
a bygone age, and in a few lines after, before the
editor's ink could have been dry, he recommended
them to follow the spirit of a bygone age; such
was the inconsistency and sophistry of th,:. '1 imes.
He condemned the strike as the spirit of a bygone
age, aid yet recommended them to continue to
work 10 hours a day because their forefathers had
done so. The reason they had gone on so long in
the spirit of a bygone age was, because their em-
ployers were deaf to the feelings of humanity.
They had brought the question before them for the
last 18 months, and they were deaf to their appeals.
Would the working men now allow their masters
to crush them down to the position of serfs ? (No,
no.) That would be the position they would be
placed in, for they would abnegate tneir rights as
freemen. When their forefathers worked 10 hours
a day there was not the same amount of competi-
tion that there was at present, and a man now did
three times the amount of work in 10 hours that
our forefathers did. (Cheers.) Would. those pre-
sent assist them in getting that one hour ? (Yes,
yes, and cheers.) If their employers closed their
shops, they must act in a firm, respectful, and
courteous manner ; and if they saw any one at-
tempting to commit a breach of the peace, they
must endeavour to prevent it, for their employers
were endeavouring to their utmost to get them into
a breach of the peace, and if they could their pun-
ishment would be severe. He concluded by urging
them, in the words of Shakspeare, to. be true to
themselves, and then they could not be false to any
one. (Cheers.)
Mr. BLOOMFIELD, a bricklayer, seconded the re-
solution, and said the quesion that evening resolved
itself into this whether they were to exist as free-
men or whether they were to become slaves. The
masters had held their meeting, and had told them
they must be slaves. They were, in fact, to be
"ticket-of-leave men," with this exception, that
those men had their tickets to show their freedom,
while the working men were to have theirs to show
their slavery. (Cheers and laughter.) The em-
ployers had put forth a pamphlet by a so-called
" factory operative," which was entirely fallacious
in its arguments and its statements. It was, in
fact, only a defence of that bugbear, the so-called
political economy. Everything in political economy
was against labour, then let them go against poli-
tical economy. According to the programme of
the Times, a number of men at work on a job must
not complain of a grievance, for if any two men
spoke together upon it, they
would be at once
accused of attacking the principles of political
economy. The masters had given them a challenge,
were they prepared to accept it ? (Yes, yes.) He
said they were.
Mr. OSBORNE, a plasterer—They had, to decide
that night whether they would sign that detested
document which was a disgrace to the concocters
of it and to the country. (Cheers.) The shoemakers
struck some years ago, and when both parties were
nearly exhausted, the differences were settled in
one day by arbitration. The document was with-
drawn, the men received a proper remuneration for
their labour, and went t. work cheerfully. Their
own differences might be settled by arbitration if
the masters would. (Cheers.)
Mr. PACEY, a mason, felt surprised that the me-
tropolitan builders should have assumed the position
they had, for they must know something of the
great strike at Liverpool.
Mr. POTTER then addressed the meeting, and
was enthusiastically received. He said he was
anxious to offer some explanations to them, be-
cause the master builders and a portion of the
press had grossly misstated the nine hours' move-
ment. After twenty months' delay and three
memorials the masters had met, and came to con-
clusions contrary to truth, to gentlemanly conduct,
and toe ustice. They were not satisfied with tak-
ing the part which they ought to have taken,
but had come to conclusions as to the men's future
conduct wbich as a body they had never thought
of I{6 asked the meeting what they thought of
tits
last. lie read the document the men
were required to sign, to Elie effect that they would
not join any society that woun.
interfere with any
Saturdaystat me n 9f the master builders in the limes
of
_Principle that
meachaster,aanndshthouatlatheeyngraecgoegnwiistehd tt
his m
~.ster sepa-
rately.
(Hisses.) He had to inform the 12asterc
builders that they had not to fight the builders o.
London alone, but the men of the whole country.
A meeting would take place to-morrow (this day)
at Oxford in favour of the movement ; and there
were no less than 80 of the principal towns of
England that had sent in their approval of the
movement, and their determination to support it.
(Cheers.) They had been charged with being
liberal at other people's expense, and not saying
anything about a reduction of wages ; but when
he saw working men living in garrets with six i 4

a room, out of work three months in a year, and
averaging only-a pound a week, he did not think
they could afford a reduction of wages. (Hear,
hear.) Sir Morton Peto had said that this nine
hour movement would cost the country £300,000 a
year, but if it did, how could it be better spent
than in improving the wprking classes ? (Cheers.)
Sir Morton Peto advocated the Saturday half-
holiday, which cost the country £200,000 a year,
and yet le would resist this demand, which wonld
cost only £lOO,OOO a year more, and be a much
greater boon. He could not say more to them
than " Liberty to them that dared to, contend for
it." (Vociferous cheers.)
The resolution was then carried, and three hearty
cheers were given for the nine hours' movement.
Immediately afterwards a copy of the Times
newspaper, suspended from a gibbet, was burned
amid the hisses of the multitude.
The meeting then quietly dispersed.

THE INGRATITUDE OF ITALY TO

FRANCE.

entThhuesrie is a cessation
asniwidehkept inuplteaoly of that
ntinnalp vigorous
plaudits
sso
long
wouldas thebe
Ftroeon ch
painfulkept
tou bp theirele succession oi
is
It victories, and the Constitutionnel immediately cries,
ungrateful." The French ear had become accus-
tomed to sounds of thankfulness and sounds of joy,
to transports of delight, and to the extravagant in-
toxication of recovered freedom. Peace has b_ en
made, and a " horrid sound of silence " comes over
the scene. The French press complains that im-
mediately the conflict ceased the Italian gratitude
seemed spent. The peace of Villafranca has stopped
the cries of joy, has frozen up all their flowing
sympathies, has crushed their hopes, and dissipated
their illusions. " Italy delivered," say the disap-
pointed Benefactors, " differs little in mood from
Italy oppressed." Yet M. de Cassagnac is ready to
prove that all has been done for Italy which an
Emperor of the French ought to have risked and
laboured at for that country. So much the worse
for her if she does not know that she is substan-
tially, and to every useful purpose, free. So much
the worse for her if she withdraws her gratitude
because France has not indulged her to the full
fruition of all her hopes, and has paused before the
sacrifices which the complete enfranchisement of
Italy would have demanded. To have obtained
Venice and the Quadrange would have cost long
sieges and new battles, an immediate war upon the
Rhine, conflicts in Central Italy, insurrection in
Hungary, and a change in policy which would in-
volve the abandonment of the cause of order and
the advocacy of that of revolution throughout
Europe. There was no duty which impelled France
to such sacrifices for such a result. Her gift of
freedom, such as it is, is a free gift. Victor Em-
manuel has not the prerogative of imposing as he
may list new labours on the Hercules of France.
There would be much reason in these remon-
strances if we could admit the assumptions on
which they are based. But we do not think those
Italians for whom anything has been done are un-
grateful for what the French have effected for them.
The French army cannot expect the Venetians to
be grateful to them for having sealed their fate
irrevocably by cutting them off from the rest of
Italy, and closing the iron hand of Austria upon
them. France has up to this time earned no grati-
tude from Tuscans or Modenese. But Lombardy,
which has obtained what it desired, is exulting and
thankful. Milan, with the exception of a few wary
lovers of their money bags, who are calculating the
future cost of freedom, is gay and demonstrative ;
and Sardinia is ready to do almost anything to
show her gratitude—even, perhaps, to that strong
proof which the diplomatic agent of the Emperor
of the French is now demanding. We see no proofs,
or even symptoms, of Italian ingratitude. Gari-
baldi, who seems to be the 'Washington of this great
struggle for freedom, is not wanting in almost pas-
sionate acknowledgment of the service which the
Emperor has rendered to his country. While he
refuses to submit the cause of Italy to the arbitra-
ment of diplomatists, and while he remains in arms
to obtain for Central Italy what has been achieved
for Lombardy, he exhorts his countrymen never
" to forget the gratitude they owe to Napoleon and
to the heroic French nation, whose valiant sons still
lie, for the cause of Italy, wounded and mutilated on
the bed of suffering." These are not the words of
coldness or ingratitude, nor is it acknowledgment
grudgingly given. The fact is, not that Italy is un-
grateful for the past, but that she is uncertain as to
the future. Accustomed to read her destinies in the
commands of foreigners, she waits, hushed in sus-
pense, to hear what gloss the treaty of Zurich will
publish upon the text of the Convention of Villa -
franca. She is not ungrateful for the gift bestowed
upon her, but she is full of fear lest that which she
has just acquired should be taken from her by force.
The result of the French interference has been
much greater than the French themselves reckon
when they court up their claims of gratitude from
Italy. Montebello, and Magenta, and Solferino
have not only purged Lombardy of the Austrian
rule, but they have freed all the rest of Italy from
the immediate pressure of the Austrian power. In
the present attitude of the recently belligerent
Powers it would be obviously impossible for Aus-
tria alone to march an army into Italy to put down
any insurrection, or to put up any expelled friend
of Austria. The conditions which the Austrian and
the priest party throughout Italy and throughout
Europe have always declared to be the conditions of
anarchy have come to be the actual conditions of
Italy. The will of the Italian people has been now
for a considerable period the only source of action.
They have feared no foreign force ; they have been
stronger than any domestic oppression. Every-
where throughout the Peninsula the instruments of
tyranny have broken in the hands of the tyrants.
The Pope's mercenaries were permitted even to
sack cities and to butcher innocent inhabitants, and.
they were not destroyed ; but they 3,vi1l be re-
strained from repeating the offence. The Swiss
troops of the King of Naples were slaughtered not
by the people, but by the Prince who hired them.
The Grand Dukes of the Italian Duchies went forth
in peace with all who chose to follow them, There
is no force, except the French throughout the
Italian Peninsula which could control or interrupt
a gteat popular insurrection. If the Italians were
what Italians have been thought to be all the cities
of that fair country ought at this moment to be
echoing revolutionary cries and flowing with blood.
The Papal authorities, the Austrian partisans, and
all the priests ought, if what we have been scesedu-
lously told were true, to be at this moment under
the sentences of revolutionary tribunals. There
was much to remember. Bitter oppression had left
a rankling wound in many a heart, and it would
not have fairly caused surprise if some excesses had
marked this new period of exemption from the
threat or presence of an armed force. The fair
ground of surprise, however, is in that which has
really happened. Mazzini's name has never been
heard throughout the whole of this contest. When
the hope of freedom dawned, all the grotesque
igvo be ihnasv ofe thhe ea
rdda r
nothingness
on
tehs n
gs e eomf
ttho e had
evde
Rnietptea üblai
cwaanys
with their secret conclaves and their secret stabs.
No Republic, " one and indivisible," has started
into a spasmodic existence. Every proceeding has
been as reasonable, as orderly, and as little influ-
enced by extravagance and enthusiasm as if it had
been directed by an English churchwarden, and
modelled u pon the proceedings of an English ph,-
rish vestry. Private property and personal secu-
rity were never better guarded than they are at
the present moment, when all Oentral Italy is re-
lieved from the presence of those foreign armies
wnich have been so long maintained there under
the pretext of preserving " order," preventing
" anarchy," and repressing the mischievous in-
stincts of the people. The people have been dis-
pointed by the terms of the Peace, and they are
now alarmed lest they shall have to fight a hopeless
fight against invaders whom they had hoped to be
able to welcome as deliverers. But they have not
committed a single act of violence. So far as they
have yet gone, they have shown a marvellous apti-
tude for managing their own affairs, and a wonder-
ful power of abstaining from those crimes of re-
venge to which the Italian race has always been
supposed particularly prone. Their conduct has
been exemplary even beyond the power of calumfly
to question it, for doubt not that if there had been
one questionable act, one instance of severity-
capable of a double version, we should have heard
of it. The old priest party and the Austrocanti
would, if they could, have found any credible mate-
rials, and filled all Europe with their outcries.
These facts should weigh with Napoleon 111. He
has worked hard to earn Italian gratitude ; he
now has the opportunity of reviving Italian confi-
doce at the cheap rate of doing nothing. Venetia
is gone. Austria has in the fortresses retained
her power of future reconquest. These things
cannot be helped. Italy must be content to work
out her nationality with this thorn in her
flesh. All that Europe now asks for her is that
France and Austria shall let her alone. She
is behaving admirably. The cause of "or
" loses
nothing in the hands of her popular ss deemblies,
Timis Napoleoffs old "principle"—the sovereignty