The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-07 00:00:00

INDUST.RIAL PARTNERSHIPS.

Cn Wednesday evening, at a meeting of the Department
of Economy and Trade, a branch of the National Associa-
tion for the Promotion of Social Science, at the office of
the association, in Adam-street, Adelphi, Mr. Currer
Briggs read a paper on " Industrial Partnerships." Mr.
Thomas Hughes, M.P., had intended to preside, but Mr.
Fawcett, M.P., who in his absence was voted to the chair,
explained that sudden illness prevented Mr. Hughes from
attending the meeting. Adverting to the subject of Mr.
Briggs's paper,
The CHAIRMAN said that he some years ago carefully
considered the question of strikes, and came to the con-
clusion that legislation could not put an cud to the dis-
putes between masters and men, and that the only way
of doing so was to adopt some scheme for the formation
of a mutuality of interest between employers and em-
ployed.
Mr. Br:lc:Gs commenced by observing that industrial
partnership was the last and moat important phase of
that co-operative movement, the idea of which, twenty-
four years ago, was first conceived in the shrewd brains
of a few Rochdale flannel-weavers. The special object
of such an association was to establish a direct inter-
course between the producer and the consumer, whereby
the la tervention of middlemen and dealers was dispensed
with. Co-operative workshops went beyond that,
and were attempts on the part of labourers to
dispense not only with the middleman or dealer, but
also with the capitalist or employer. Such at-
tempts, however, could prove successful only in
small and, as it were, retail businesses. The employment
of capital was essential to production on a large scale.
Industrial partnerships between capitalists and their work-
men possessed combined elements of success, which did not
belong to the ordinary relations between employer and em-
ployed, or to any association of mere labourers unsup-
ported by capital from without. Those elements of success
which were essential to the prosperity of any combined
enterprise—viz., first, unity of authority in management,
and, secondly, the stimulus given to the productive
energies of the labourer by granting to him a direct
personal interest in the prosperity of the undertaking
wherein he was engaged—were practically illustrated in
the report which he was about to lay before the meeting
of an undertaking with which he was connected—the
Whitwood and Methley Junction Collieries. He had
carried into actual practice the systemshic.;:i dispensed
f inclustria
l
partnerships in that undertaking, v
nearly £1,200 weekly in wages to 1,200 men and boys.
A few years ago there were constant struggles between
the employers and the employed ; Whitwood was a
hotbed of strife and ill-feeling between them. During
the ten years that he had actively participated in the
management of the collieries previous to the adoption of
the industrial partnership principle, there were four
strikes, which lasted seventy-eight weeks, besides innume-
rable miners' disputes and consequent interruption of
work. Since August 1865, when the industrial part-
nership principle was introduced, there had been no
strike, and it had not been necessary to bring a single
case of neglect before the magistrates. Peace and pros-
perity had succeeded perpetual strife and suffering.
In November 1864, the employers announced to their
workmen that they were willing to register their company
under the Act of 1862, with the primary view of securing
the co-operation of all connected with the collieries,
whether as managers, workpeople, or customers, that they
would retain at least two-thirds of the share capital, which
would be taken at the sum then standing on the books
of the company as capital; that they would retain in their
own hands the control and management of the col-
lieries, and that in the distribution of the remaining
third of the share capital a decided preference would be
given to applications for shares, first from the officials and
the operatives, and secondly from purchasers of the produce
of the collieries. They also announced that whenever the
profits of the collieries exceeded 10 per cent. on the
capital employed, the officials, agents, and workpeople
should receive one-half of the excess profit as a bonus
in addition to their respective earnings. Eighty per
cent. of the workpeople had taken shares in the company.
Recently the company afforded a dividend of 12 per
cent., and the results were so gratifying that he hoped
the industrial partnership principle would be established
throughout the country. He was convinced that it was
the only means of putting an end to quarrels between
masters and men. (Applause.) In answer to a question,
Mr. Briggs said the company allowed their workpeople
to contribute to a union. The majority of the men, how-
ever, said there was now no necessity for making such
contributions. Some years ago 600 or 700 of the work-
men contributed ls. weekly to a union, but now only
twenty did so.

After some conversation on the subject of the paper, and
a vote of thanks to Mr. Briggs, the meeting separated.

THE CHANCERY VACATION.— On Monday next
the Whitsuntide Chancery vacation commences, and will
end on the 20th inst., both clays inclusive. Vice• Chancellor
Matins is the vacation judge.

It is said that a club is about to be established
in the new Avenue Napoleon, Paris, under the title of
.‘ The Foreigners' Club," where ,ganibling, and roulette,
and trente et quarante will be again sanctioned by
authority.

A CARELESS VOLUNTEER.—At 13ilston, John
Beach, a rifle volunteer; was charged with shooting near a
highway. After leaving drill the defendant discharged
his rifle with a blank cartridge near to the highway, and a
boy was struck by the charge. The defendant was fined
6d. and costs, and ordered to pay a sovereign to the boy.

TRIPLE BIRTIL—On the 20th of April, the wife
of Richard Roberts, in the parish of Llanbedr, near Con-
way, North Wales, gave birth to three children, all girls.
Although one of the infants has since died, her Majesty
the Queen has been graciously pleased to send a donation
of £2 to the Rev. James Hughes, M.A., rector, for the
benefit of the parents, who have ten children surviving out
of thirteen.

THE ATTEMPT ON THE LIFE OF THE DUKE OF
EDINBURGH.—The Grand Lodge of Freemasons of Scot-
land, at a meeting presided over by the Earl of Dalhousie,
have adopted an address sympathising with her Majesty
in consequence of the attempt made on the life of the
Duke of Edinburgh, expressing the horror and indig-
nation which the Freemasons of Scotland felt at the
atrocious and cowardly attack made on his Royal High-
ness, and conveying to her Majesty their warmest sym-
pathy and congratulation at the providential and happy
preservation of his Royal Highness from mortal injury.
A similar address has been agreed to by the Bath Town
Council.

A NOVEL POINT. —The Lord Chancellor has in-
timated his intention to ask the common-law judges to be
present in the House of Lords to hear the arguments
in the case of Mulcahy v. The Queen, which is
to be argued at the bar of the House on an early day
after Trinity Term. The appellant is a Fenian prisoner
now in the convict establishment at Woking, who has
appealed against his conviction for treason-felony on
the ground that one of the jurymen who tried him was
upwards of 60 years of age. The point to be raised is en-
tirely novel.

We understand that Assistant Commissary-Gene-
ral Henry Robinson has been despatched by the War
Office to Abyssinia, for the purpose of-advising Sir Robert
Napier as to the best mode of dealing with the large quan-
tity of stores and war material which has been accumulated
in that country for the objects of the expedition. Mr.
Robinson is a very active and intelligent officer, who
has seen a large amount of foreign duty, and obtained
the order of the Bath for his services inthe last China war.
—Herald.

THE LATE HON. THOMAS D'ARCY M`GEE.—A
petition to the Government is now in course of signature
amongst the Irish members of the House of Commons,
praying that a vote of money may be made out of the
Royal Bounty Fund to the surviving sister of the late Mr.
M`Gee. By the assassination of her brother—who was her
sole support for years past—she has been rendered entirely
destitute, and, as it will be a graceful act on the part of
the Government to make the grant, we have no doubt, that
a favourable answer will at once be returned to the peti-
tion. We believe the amount will be £lOO per annum.—
Canadian News.

DEAN CLOSE ON THE IRISH CHURCH QUESTION.
—A meeting of clergymen and others has been held at
the Athenaeum, Carlisle, for the purpose of " offering
prayer in behalf of our Church and nation in the present
crisis of their history." Dean Close, who presided, wound
up the proceedings by a short address. He expressed a
hope that all those present were intelligent members of the
Church of England ; if they were so, and if they agreed
with him that it was the duty of every nation on earth to
have a religion, and to bind that religion not only round
the altar, but round the throne, let them exert all their
influence, and be determined that in this remarkable
crisis of our Church and people they would stand up
for the Church of their fathers and mothers, and not
lightly consent to allow that glorious edifice of the
Reformed Church of England to be sacrificed in a moment
to the convenience and passion and ambition of political
parties. They would soon have an opportunity of shewing
themselves. He himself believed before God that the
religion of Christ ought to be the established religion of
the nation ; and he must do all that in him lay—and he
exhorted them to do the same—to preserve this treasure
intact for our descendants.

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HER MAJESTY.

OSBORNE, May 6.
The Queen, accompanied by Princess Louise
and Princess Beatrice, drove out yesterday after-
noon.

Her Majesty, accompanied by Princess Louise,
walked in the grounds this morning.
The other members of the Royal Family also
went out.