The Sun.
London, England, 1859-07-30 00:00:00

_
We are threatened within the next few weeks
with one of the ,greatest Calamities ,which can be-
fall an intlastri4l. nation--a calatriity,`too, which
will fall most heavily on fhose who:e wrongheaded-
ness and folly are the causes of it. The workmen
in the building • trade, who have long bpi] agitat-
ing for a reduction of the hours of labour to nine
daily, instead-of ten, as at preserif, 'hive nQw taken
the unwarrantable step of directing th& men em-
ployed by a particular firm, to strike,, not for an
advance of wages, but for a curtailment of one
hour in the day's ,work. This, proceeding does, in-
deed, carry us back 4„1- days which we .hoped had
for ever gone by. Nothing has given thinking men
so much pleasure during the last few years as the
progress made by the labouring classes in good
sense, honesty, self-control, and their acquaintance
with the first laws of political economy which re-
, late., to the employment of capital. lii former
times, when a- hardened Exchequer and narrow
financial laws depressed the en ergTes of the country,
there was only one way by Which the working man
who thought. himself injured revenged himself on
the society which be cop ceived to iniiibt.the injury.
The agricultural labourer set fire to ricks, the arti-
san broke. machinery, the mobs of great towns
turned out to, hiss Royalty,:or to pelt the pieservers
of the peace.- - --Those were--the days -of Chartism.
and "strikes," - one the politied system of the im-
patient masses,, the other ti e means'lsy which they
'sought to enforce compliance withAheir desires.
The miseries brought on* country. by these events
will never -be blotted from. the minds of those who
are old enough to recollect them. Evetn in the
reign of-the present Queen, in those days when Sir
R.:Peel succeeded to power, the already stagnant
trade of England was still 'further choked by the
general rebellion of English labour in 'the north
-against the so-called tyranny of capital. The
terrible days 4f 1842 haVe been- -almost forgotten
by the new generation which has risen up at Man.; ' chester and the other great northern towns since
that time; but who can appreciate. the ruin that
was then worked, and the moral depression which
followed when it was fully proved that, struggle as
the workmen might, it was the master who must
win in the Icing run ?
And yet in'those days; men did not " strike" for
nothing. The people who stood out against the
cotton-spinners *and iron-founders all over'England
had real and deeply-felt grievances. They asked
for more wages . because bread was dear and their
families were starving. Political economy replied •
that the price of food did not regulate the rate of
wages, which depended on the supply of labour in
each particular trade. The manufacturers who
could get a man for half;-w-crown- a.-day would not
give three shillings because Aliesivarterujoaf was
at 13d.,, nor would they employ men at all when
the same labour could bePerformed;by a woman or
:a Child. It is ill arguing with a lingry'stomach,
and the workmen who stood Cut 'by hundreds of
thousands in 1842 urged their natural rights to a
full meal and such wages for their labour as would
enable them to procure it. Then the system of
Protection, in spite of its recent triumph, haunted
the consciences of legislators, who knew that the
evils suffered by the poor were not entirely owing
to unavoidable economical causes ; and yet, with all
these things in their favour, have the leaders.of the
great " strikes" of past years gained -their-point, or
the respect of their countrymen ? Is it not notori-
ous that even these excusable, we had almost said ;-
legitimate, outbreaks, have ended invariably. in the
eventual submission of the workpeople after the
sav:ngs.of years had been devoured in a few weeks'
idleness, or in supporting conferences,: delegates,
orators, and a:1 the apparatus of agitation;? -
If these things, be so, what can come of the pre-
sent movement? 'The men who nowintend to stop
work throughout the vountry—to ruin, as far as
they can,. hundreds of employers . whose ,enterprise
has given bread, to the workmen and, their families
—to bring a great branch of industry to a stand-
still—to :disappoint all who are waiting for the
completion of important works, and, what is per-
haps of not least importance, to throw out of em-
ployment all the subsidiary trades, such as painters,
Joiners, and others--have-no ground- of complaint
with their condition which will bear a moment's
examination. They are working for better wages
than ever, bread is unprecedentedly cheap, and for
many months they must, if they continue to work,
be laying up no contemptible savings. Their
fathers and grandfathers worked 10 hours a-day,
and often more, for about two-thirds of what they
receive, and that, too, with wheat at war prices,
and:every article of consumption paying ,a heavy
to _The-prosant race of workmen,-}yawing nothing
to quarrel with fortune or their masters about, have
decided that 10 hours a-day is too protracted a
period of labour for a full-grown map, and they
hare begun by "striking" work to gel: rid of the
extra honr, it being not; obscurely intimated that
if tnis agitation be successful an agitation will
begin to reduce the hours to eight.
It may be said, why should not men work just
as long as they please, their pay being propor-
tioned to the labour they are willing to undergo ?
But this is just the point. These very reasonable
and enlightened men, who have their conferences,
their committees, and their secretaries, want to go
home an hour earlier than heretofore, but to re-
ceive just the same sum as is now paid for ten
hours' work. Any attempt to reduce the payment
in accordance with the diminished supply of the
article paid for would produce the most intense in-
dignation in the " Conference of the United Build-
ing Trades." It is indeed to be regretted that, in
spite of the progress of knowledge and the general
extension of reading among the class to which the
operatives belong, such doctrines should still exist
among them. In every part of their conduct they
are in the wrong. They are wrong in what they
aim at, and in the means they take for securing it.
That full-grown, strong-bodied men, should, object
to working ten hours a-day, when a woman or a
child works as long, and a poor maid of .all work
is on her legs from six in the morning till eleven
at night, is utterly absurd. And, if there were
any reason in their claims, the plan of enforc-
ing them by recourse to the tyrannical ma-
chinery of "strikes" would be sufficient to con-
demn them with moderate, right-thinking men.
Can the operatives not understand what has been
told them by every writer on political economy,—
that wages must find their level according to the
quantity of work done, and that an employer who
i pays for eight hours' work the price of ten must
expect shortly to be in the Gazette'? One of two
' things must inevitably happen—either the firmsr
will be compelled to stop work, and so the
he
will people be reduced to starvation, or the void ilol work-
people
filled up by competitors from other departmentsof
labour, and the men on " strike" foreed,to come back
humbly, and either work full time or accept re-
duced wages.
That the public will support the employers in this
trialisbeyond adoubt. All persons with whom they
indulgence,
and contracted will give them every
and any violation of the peace on the part of the
men will be signally punished. These last are, in-
deed, out of mere wantonness preparing every kind
of misery for themselves. At a time when they, in
common with the whole community, are enjoying a
reasonable amount of prosperity they think proper
to throw all these advantages away, and when
winter comes with its enforced cessation of work
the punishment of their improvidence and reck-
lessness will be heavy indeed.---Tintes.

THE LAYING OF SUBMARINE TELE-
GRAPH CABLES.

Of all the difficulties which beset the establish-
ment of long submarine telegraph lines the greatest
are those experienced in the submersion of the cable.
We have all heard the tale of the repeated attempts
to lay the Atlantic cable, and of the constant risk
and fear of failure under which it was at last depo-
sited. The knowledge of these facts urges us to
ask why it is that no step has been taken towards
the trial of a plan which has been fully explained
in our pages—which was designed by an esteemed
naval officer--which removes most, if not all, of
the difficulties hitherto experienced—and which
has been the subject of the repeated commenda-
tion of nautical men and engineers ? We refer
to Captain J. H. Selwyn's patented method of
employing large drums or cylinders floating on
the water and carrying the cable. Hitherto
we have heard no objection offered to the ad-
vantages which he claims for it. If its novelty
be an objection, we may say farewell to all possible
improvement. Nothing can be more simple
tlan Tele-
graph or, as
he shows, less expensive ; and the
graph Company, or their contractors,
would per-
haps do well to give the principle
a fair trial be-
fore reverting to means which
have so often failed.
With whatever modifications maybe adopted, there
are fundamental errors in the process of paying
out coils of cable which no sy stem of brakes can
do other than aggravate, and there is also the risk
f (ata '3- m Selwyn, pro-
,
of a gale during the operatioi..i, for
.which no pro-
cess of laying, save that
vides in any adequate ways ihe danger to the
en-
tirelycr obviated. Furtlher,
' Nhile the Admiralty
might crew--no —n
assist small
in ans
mode 's
—is in his plan N
;Phial only requires
eaos coidear
tainly refuse such aid if involi 'ing so large an ex-
the services of steame,N in toll
penditure as that W'tiich was ; necessary for the
and repait
Agamemnon's fitting iing, they would cer
r5(i,40,000 sterling),
-•
and which—or som e sum prop ortioned to the size
and weight of tlie new cab' ,e—would otherwise
have to be borne by the cc atractors, and even-
tually by the shareholders.--2 fechanics' Magazine.