The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-10 00:00:00

,--.6-e-

THE FACTORY QUEST! ON;
• E
T' On Saturday evening an assembl4tio SPA_P
.4,000
_persons attended in the Free
manchestev to witness the presentati ?
Countess of Shaftesbury of an -a'
marble bust of the noble earl her huslxiA f:,
monials of *gratitude of factory optgati*ga (I.;lais • l:fP-
lordship's powerful advocacy of the Ten'kfo ,4L 14_
Mr. JONES, a factory worker, presided.— e tittd -
he rejoiced, in common with thousands of others,
that they could speak from actual experience of the
benefits of their past labours in the-oause-of short-
time working. He believed 'few 'employers
would like to return to the long-hour system—
(cheers)—and that no spirit of hostility was kept
up between masters and men on this important
questio.:. Their interests were, in fact, identical ;
the operatiN ef4 envied not their employer's wealth,
they asked for " labour's toil, sweet competence,
and nothing more." Such evils as remained they
hoped to remedy without appeals to Parliament,
but, if need were, the factory workers would be as
prepared as ever they were to enter the field, rely-
ing that their noble champion would again lead
them on to victory. (Great cheering.)
Mr. STANLEY, another factory worker, read the
address, which was handed to the Countess by four
young workwomen, .and the bust was uncovered
amid protracted cheering.
The Countess of SHAFTESBURY read the follow-
ing reply :—" My good friends, it will not require
many words from me to express the deep and
heartfelt gratitude with which I receive the testi-
monial of your respect and affectiop. I priie it
highly, as coming from a large body of my country-
men whose character for intelligence and morality
qualifies them to estimate at their true vulue'sny
efforts made for the welfare of the community.
You will believe, I am sure, that, having watched
the progress of your exertions with lively interest,
I warmly rejoiced in your success, and it is my
fervent prayer to God that it may be blessed through
many generations to you and to your children."
(Great cheering.)
The Earl of SHAFTESBURY, who was most warmly
greeted on rising,,added his thanks to those of the
Countess, to whoth he said their testimonials were
indeed more due than to himself; for he must tell
them that in the year 1833, when the matter was
propounded to him, he had great doubts, not of the
justice of the cause, but of his own competency to
undertake it. He sought counsel on the right hand
and on the left, but he left the issue to the decision
of his wife, and she, without a moment's hesitation.
said, "Go forward, and to victory !" - (Pro-
longed cheering.) Drawing a moral from
this anecdote, let the men of Lancashire and
Yorkshire learn a little more to submit to the
counsel of their wives—(loud cheers)—for, if he
knew anything of the character of Lancashire and
Yorkshire women, they would give good advice to
their husbands and keep their houses in order.
(Cheers.) They could not reflect without the
deepest gratitude on the contrast between the pre-
sent state of things and what it was before this
movement was instituted. Many of those present
could recollect very well the long and tedious hours
inflicted upon children of tender years, the utter
impossibility that any of those wretched children
could receive the slightest education or moral
training at home or in school; that they Were
fading away, drooping into an early grave, and
looking when they 'issued from the mills more
like walking- spectres than, as they ought
to be, rosy and joyful, full of the prospect of future
life. Those who survived that trying time were
early cut off from life or superannuated, enfeebled,
deprived of the use of their limbs, or lost the power
of sight, and so dragged on a miserable though
short existence. His hearers could recollect their
own' condition and that of their homes when they
had no such thing as home comfort, and from the
effect of protracted labour walked, not with the
dignity of free citizens, or with the manly bearing
of artisans and mechanics in other employments.
In achieving so great an improvement for them-
selves in the last 22 years, he rejoined to know
that they had observed and secured the rights of
-other4'; they had not trenched on the rights or pri-
tilegest:of capitalists, and they had displayed
throughout a wisdom, a forbearance, a self-control
worthy the imitation of all classes pf operatives.
At any one moment was there anything that could
have caused fear for the peace of the country, or
had they ever thought of resorting to that fearful
process which was called a strike ? There were
not wanting those, not of their own body, but who
ought to have known better, who privately insti-
gated such a step, but they were always too wise,
too judicious, too well aware that nothing of that
sort could issue but in mischief. They knew
the real secret of their strength, which. was
the justice of their cause ; they determined to
persevere, and under God's blessing they relied
on their continuous appeal to public opinion
in this free country, where we enjoyed
the discussion, and where there was a free press,
-wifteir:' though 'it might now and then say unplea-
sant things and bring down a man's conceit a little,
was, nevertheless, an honest, feeling, and patriotic
press, always alive to the interests and welfare of
the people. (Cheers.) Collaterally the benefits of
this agitation have been very great, because it had
enlightened the public mind, and awakened thou-
sands of the affluent and highly-placed to a sense
of duties before unthought of ; and he must impress
this upon them with the more force, because he
observed in certain parts of this country an attempt
to revive that frightful, dangerous, ruinous system
of strikes to attain an end that was in view. He did
not believe that a strike ever answered. (Hear.)
He admitted the principle of combination among
freemen, but the danger of a strike was that, under
the influence of the passions of human nature, those
who dissented from a movement were compelled to
join it by direct coercion or by having their lives
rendered thoroughly uncomfortable in the society
which surrounded them. He believed that the de-
lay which had taken place in the triumph of the
short-time movement had done good to those en-
gaged in it by giving them self-control, judgment,
and experience. It prepared tho operatives for the
great boon extended to them, and he thanked. them
because the had justified his prophecies by their
conduct, in making good use of the' hours thus
bestowed upon them. He thanked God that he
had been called to be the friend and fellow-
labourer of such a body of men, because he was sure
they are the mainstay of the time in which we live.
In the hour of peace they contributed to the in-
dustry and greatness of the country, and in her
hour of peril it was among these men that we
should find the most patriotic and most determined
to uphold the honour of England. to advance our
laws, to maintain our institutions, and to resist at-
tacks upon our freedom, whether' froM foreign or
domestic sources. (Cheers.) Having obtained such
great advantages, it behoved them to set anaetxieanmal-
ple in' their lives, and thus prove the national
.
to become what were called " total
benefit of their success. He did not
abstainers,"askthe
mong so many
mbuitudtoaubde
bteomdyp,ertahtee,ruainudoftosomulaark the ruin f
intoxication
•
thousands in this country, arising from the accursed
addiction to drinking and , and he
wouldasked thembe, to show
reconcile re what Eeir employersnglish
Englishmen could
theand
minhty change in the legislation affecting
to
them.
to mention the names of their friends who had con-
It would be most ungrateful on this occasion not
tributed to the blessed issue which they were cele-
brating. Nathaniel Gould, Sadler, and Fielden
were gone from among us ; but Wood, and
Walker, and Bull, and Oastler were still alive
to enjoy the fruits of their disinterested labours.
(Cheers.) In concluding, he would remind them
that having received this great boon for themselves,
they could not be indifferent to the condition of
others who stood in need of a similar benefit. The
end they had obtained ought,' indeed, to be the be-
ginning of an effort to impart to other those bles-
sings which they enjoyed. At this moment, to the
disgrace of England be it said, there were tens of
thousands of children of tender years in toil as pro-
tracted, in suffering as severe, in ignorance and
disease as great as was that of the factory workers
of old. Let them join him in endeavouring to
remedy this great evil. (Cheers.) Let them do
everything in their power to draw attention to a
condition of things so frightful, and that could not
fail, if unchecked, most materially to affect the
honour, the interests, the prosperity, and the safety
of the whole empire. Hundreds of thousands were
growing up in the most brutal ignorance, while we
were talking of extending the suffrage. Well and
good, but for God's sake let education go along
with electoral reform by equal steps, and let us not
deprive children of tender years of the possibility
trainingof them to their duties to God, and to the
citizenship they were to possess. (Loud cheers.)

SUICIDE AT STOKE NEWINGTON.--On Sunday
morning a determined act of self-destruction was committed.
at 65, Mildmay-street, Mildmay-park, Stoke Niwington.
A lady and gentleman took furnished apartments at the
house on Monday last as a married couple, in the name of
Webster. On the following Wednesday, during:the night,
considerable disturbance was oczasioned by the nude lodger
continually runnin gup and down stairs, which was explained
by him in the morning as having been caused by Mrs. Web-
ster having miscarried; but from what subsequently trans-
pired, it appears that the wretched man had beeri trying to
procure abortion. The poor woman seemed to recover at
first, but became worse on Friday night, and died at a
quarter-past one on Saturday morning from exhaustion.
After the death of the poor woman Webster appeared like a
madman, running about the garden exclaimmg,t" Oh, my
poor wife ; my poor wife I" and in a few minutes cut his
thhoeurcaraoftetidr athrt:ryleosm,anan.d he
It
from
aboutear ato
ear,
quarter of an dividing
la
expiredt hrotn
appears that they were both very respectably connected,
but not married, and the wretched suicide had studied for
the medical profession. The bodies await the coroner's
inquest.