The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-04 00:00:00

system, that they could at this rate, by resigning
just one halfpenny a-week, obtain the same wages
as of old and yet only work ten hours for five
ditys and six hours and a half on • Satur-
days. The arrangement suggested by the masters
resolved itself simply into this :
Five days, of 10 hours, at 7d. per hour.. £1 9 2

Saturday, 6} hours, up to 1 o'clock.... 0 3 91

Total £1 12 1

According to the old system of payment, they
could earn for the ten hours' work upon five days,
and 81 on Saturday,33s. According to the new sy stem
of payment by the hour, they would earn exactly
the same sum, minus one halfpenny although
leaving off work at one o'clock on the Saturday.
Yet, as if this were not enough in the way of conces-
sion by the. masters, Messrs. LUCAS and Messrs.
KELK have now consented to pay up this additional
halfpenny ! So that the gain will be clearly all on
the side of the workmen—the loss all on the side of
. the master contractors. The men will earn
the self same wages as of yore—namely, 335. a
week, although leaving off work after only six
hours and a half labour on the Saturday. It is
calculated that the concession of this one halfpenny
per week above referred to will involve a loss to
Messrs. BELK and Messrs. LUCAS, of £14,000
sterling on their present contracts. Yet with this
concession generously made to them, with this clear
loss by the employers of £14,000 sterling glaring
upon the recognition of the delegates—the latter
brazen faced demagogues had the consummate
effrontery to make a supplementary demand, to the
effect that the men should receive an increase of pay
as well as the conceded half holiday—in point of ,
fact that Messrs. KELK and Messrs. LUCAS should
raise their now certain loss of £14,000 to some-
where'about £40,000 ! One little incident at one of
the conferences which have recently taken place
between the master contractors and the deputation
of the delegates, is really worthy of being parti-
cularly borne in recollection: It is related thus
that " At a previous interview one of the delegates
actually asked Mr. LUCAS if the men accepted his
proposition of payment by the hour, what guar-
antee he would give that he would not limit
the work to nine hours by closing his
yards. To this unguarded question Mr.
LUCAS at once replied, ' Then you want me to
give guarantees that I will not concede the demands
for which you now actually profess to be striking !'
As no one could explain away this manifest slip of
the delegate no answer was given, and Mr. LUCAS
explained that the best guarantee he could give
the men that he would not comply with their
demand of limiting the hours to nine was that it
was not his interest to do so :" adding, " He would
be a loser by having his horses, machinery, and
yards idle, and it was the certainty of this loss
which had induced him with all masters
to resist the strike of 1859; for though by
that suspension the masters lost heavily,
yet their loss was but a tithe of what it would be if
they closed the works after nine hours' labour."
That incident and that argument, viewed together,
comprise within them the whole significance
of the strike. The delegate's slip of the
tongue reveals point blank what it is that
he and his fellows are now striving for under
the clap-trap title of a Nine Hours' Movement
—for purposes of education forsooth ! The
simple and manly statement made thereupon by Mr.
LUCAS expresses, as plainly as words can express
anything, what it is that the masters have been
striving to guard themselves against when resisting
the dictation of those dreadful strikes. If the
workmen will but look upon the Question for once
rationally this afternoon—those strikes may, from
this time forth, be prevented from recurring.

The intelligence brought yesterday from America
looks more and more like a pacific settlement of
the secession question. The late Administration,
n one way, has been the cause of this. It so com-
pletely denuded the General Government of the
means of offence, and placed the military stores it did
possess so largely and so completely in the power
of the Southern States, that even if Mr. LINCOLN
wished to retain the few forts and arsenals in
southern territory which he still possesses, and to
recapture the Federal property which has been
taken from him, he could not do it. His
navy is all over the world, from Japan to the Medi-
terranean, and the Coast of Africa ; his little army
broken up into ineffective detachments ; in fact, the
Traitors, for such they were to the Federal Govern-
ment, who have just left office, had planned a per-
fect conspiracy to enable the Southern States to de-
tach themselves, should they be beaten in the Presi-
dental conflict. Here, and everywhere, it was thought
either that the threats of secession were mere
bullying noises, or that the energetic North would
soon bring the Southerners to their senses;
but the thing has been too cleverly managed. The
North found itself, when the 4th of March came,
unarmed; and not only that, but even somewhat
anxious for the personal safety of its new President
at Washington itself. It found that, instead of
collecting, as General JACKSON determined to do,
the Federal Customs, by its ships of war in the
Southern ports, it had not even ships enough to
relieve the beleaguered Fort Sumter, which it is
daily expected must be abandoned to the Seceders.
It is a wonderful historical fact, that a President and
his Cabinet, for how can we separate them, have
been proved before all the world to have conspired
to break up the Union which they governed, unless
their candidate were returned at an election.
What, however, could considerate men expect the
Filibuster of the Ostend Conference to stick at ?
He who was ready to take Cuba whether Spain
would sell it or not, was the very man to put arms
into the hands of the South, and to enable them to
break up the Union.
It is not wonderful that English readers were a
little perplexed with the President's Message. To
this day, two such leading men in the Senate atWash-
ington as DOUGLAS and BRECKENRIDGE contend
for opposite interpretations—the former regarding
it as meaning peace, the latter as a declaratiou of
war. The fact must be, that with all the apparent,
and in a sense real, firmness of Mr. LINCOLN, the
situation did not admit of a clear deliverance,

BUCHANAN'S treachery had rendered it impossible
for him to decide on coercion, and he would not,
even with facts as they were, encourage secession.

Firm to one thing he must in honour be—to the
essential feature of the programme of his party, the
non extension of slavery in the territories. For
the rest, he and Mr. SEWARD have endeavoured

,hus far to get off, by ignoring, as null and void,

;he stubborn facts of the South. This can hardly

be done much longer. Still, by these last ad vices,
We find Mr. LINCOLN steadily refusing to see or

acknowledge the Southern Commissioners,

The Southern Congress, however, is anything
but halting and undecided in its course. It has
just appointed its judges for the different States;
it has named commissioners to the European States;
it has decided on its tariff of duties lowered .11

comparison with those of the North, and has, it ,i
aaid,even deferred the final settlement of these duties
till it has
able on ascertained whether they will be accept_
side the water. Arms, troops, and
money
they have been providing by vigorous, and,
perhaps, in the circumstances, prudent measures .
)