The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-25 00:00:00

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•
would accelerate and secure the dccisions. Qsewho had 4brepi.:7\
previously deterred by the difficulties lr)f-gro question?. _ But'
there are few who like to be evoked-A:tutof- mental hide.
cision or indifference to assist in politiejd'emergeneies. It is i
not respectable to be a mere brute op:kilt/on to-the Ministet.itd::;4
scale. This is not, forsooth, a Miifistirial. question. -1tZ0.7..
would not look well—it would cut rather a`oorry.figure in histOrt,'."'
—that Ministers had resigned in favour of twelve litairr Et
-
work for women and young persons. Dut are we th suIiPOIOA
mean a gentle intimation that the country rune some little riN?
losing their services? We must take care what we are about..
If we don't let Sir James Graham keep these people to their work,
why then—we may possibly lose not only two hours' labour a day,
but her Majesty's Ministers into the bargain; and if the former
loss is ruinous, how much more the hitter 1' Cutting off the two
hours will only shut np the mills; but if Sir James Graham re-
signs, the Constitution is at an end. How nimbly and cheerfully
—with what renewed heart and strength—will the poor creatures
run from spindle to spindle after six o'clock on a bright summer's
evening, when they know that they are paying the price of Sir
James Graham's multifarious services in the Mr me-office: Orr
the other hand, supposing for a moment such a calamity, imagine
the factories closed at six o'clock, and Sir James Graham spending
the spring of 1845 in unofficial though dignified leisure, what a
damp would that national bereavement cast on the amusements or
occupations of those two or three hundred thouland factory idlers !
Surely Sir James Graham cannot mean such a threat! Then, why
bark without biting P That long list of Right Honourable's
In the minority every Minister every underling—makes
it look like a Ministerial measure. Let there be no
mistake in the matter. Is it a Ministerial question, or
is it not ? For the benefit of those who are not familiar with
Parliamentary forms, It is as well to explain the particular mode
of procedure by which the House was asked to stultify Itself. Its
the second, or interpretation clause of the Factory Bill, the word
night was defined as the period from eight o'clock hi the evening
to six o'clock on the fallowing morning. Lord Ashley thereupon
moved that "the word ' night' shall be taken to mean from six
o'clock in the evening to six o'clock in the following morning;
and the word ' meal-time' shall be taken to mean an Interval of
cessation from work for the purpose of rest and refreshment, at the
rate of two hours a.day, with a view to effect a limitation of the
hours of labour to ten in the day." The division of last Monday -
night was in favour of this amendment.. The Bill was' thus left
incousistent with itself. The above amendment, compared, with
the clause forbidding young persons and all females to work in the
night, rendered the Bill a Ten Hours' Bill, as far as those clauses
were concerned. But the eighth clause implicitly allowed them
twelve hours' daily labour. It enacted, "that no young person,
and no female of any age, shall be emp'oyed in a fae.
tory in any one day more than twelve hours, or after
the expiration of twelve hours from the time when
any child or young person in the factory first begins
to work in the morning, over and above the time given for meal.
times, save in the cases hereinafter excepted." The alteration,
therefore, in the second clause entailed the necessity of altering
the eighth clause, i. e. the word," twelve" to " ten ;'' and if MI.
nisters had resigned themselves to the vote of last Monday, they
would have made this substitution as a matter of course. This
they would not do, Hence the debate of last night, which was
nothing but the old fight over again. This being, then, nothing
else than a third night of the debate, and the chief speakers hav-
ing already exhausted themselves and the subject, much novelty
or interest was not to be expected. The day after the feast is the
best part of the feast, some people say! but it is not so in a Par.
liamentary debate. Speakers thrust out in the brisk competition
of the first nights now have elbow room. Odds and ends of state-
mega and argument are now produced. Remainders are disposed
of, and forgets remembered. People who delight in the peculia-
rity, rather than in the obviousness of their views, now find a
place which they could not in the broad field of the earlier discus-
sion. The most prominent and the most rational sentiment of the
evening was the impropriety of asking the House to convict itself
of indiscretion, and perpetuate a burden which it had just pro.
nounced to be intolerable. What can be more odious than to de.
clare a suffering class to be free, and immediately withdraw the
word of freedom ?

POST.—This morning witnessed one of those unaccountable
anomalies which we should perhaps look for in vain, except in the
British House .of Commons, Sir James Graham, having moved
that the blank in the eighth clause of the Factory Bill should be
filled up with the words" twelve" hours, was left in a minority of
three. In consequence of this division, the blank of course stilt
remained; and Lord Aihley then moved the insertion of the words
" ten" hours. The House divided; and the same men who had,
only a few minutes before, voted against the Government, now con-
ferred a similar compliment on Lord Ashley, and negatived, by a
majority of seven, the Identical motion which, on Monday last.
they had affirmed by one of nine votes. After all the debating that
has taken place on the subject, therefore, the blank in the clause
exists precisely as it did when the fill first went into Committee.
But though nothing has been done in the House, something very
important has, we fear, been effected out of it. The country has
learned that the decisions of the House of Commons are based upon
no more fixed principle than the caprice of the moment, and that,
for anything we can see, the pressing interests of humanity might
as well be entrusted to "the hazard of the die" as to a Parliamentary
rote. What may be the effect of this morning's proceedings, when
they become known in the manufacturing districts, it is melan.
choly to anticipate. Sir James Graham has taken till Monday to
consider what he and his colleagues may determine to do, and we
eaknestly hope that, among the other topics to which their attention
must be turned, they will not forget how the labourers in our fac-
tories have been now, for four days, excited into joyfulness by the
belief that the House of Commons had agreed upon ten hours as
the limit of their daily toil. Will these poor people be able to corn.
prehend the Parliamentary game of chance, by which they have been
deprived of the boon ? Will It be an easy task to convince them
that what was just and humane on the Monday, became unfitting
and impolitic on We Saturday of the same week ?

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

(From the Devonport Independent.)
LATEST FROM CHINA.

We have received letters by the Overland Mail, from onr
correspondent at Hong-Kong (China), dated Dec. 30, 1843,
from which we extract the following :

"The Rattlesnake sailed on December 10, with 200 in-
valids from the fleet, amongst whom are Lieut. Daily, from
the Pelican; Lieut. Priest, R.M., Minden; and Mr. Rogers,
Assistant-Surgeon, Minden.
"Irer Majesty's brig Childers, 16, Commander Wellesley,
will leave-China in January, for England, with 1,000,000
of dollars.

" Mr.• Miles Hammett, Master, of the Wolverine, is dead;
and Mr. Jones is appointed in his place. •
" I have just learnt that trade to the north is exceedingly
brisk, and that Wosang, in the Yang-tee-kiang, is full of
Money—dollars and sycee—waiting for English goods, which
are not to be had in sufficient quantities to meet the demand.
" We had a fine view of the eclipse on the 22d of Decem-
ber; it commenced about one o'clock, and the moon passed
right over the sun, like passing one plate over another; it
was seen better here than in any other place. I will give you .
the Chinese opinions of the eclipse: they say that the large
dragon swallows the sun. and then disgorges it again—a •
pretty strange conceit. Several of the Chinamen told me
this, but the better educated men do not believe it; still it is
very difficult to make them understand it. They are, in- '
deed, a strange people. •
" Lord Saltoun, the commander of the forces, went in the
Cornwallis for a trip to Manilla, but returned directly, as his
successor is daily expected here in the Castor.

" There are at present 47 patients in theMinden's hospital ;
of these 32 are soldiers, who aro going on shore to the mili-
tary hospital, and 10 are their own men, so that they have
but 5 belonging to the fleet." •

Her Majesty's steam-frigate Styx, Com. Vidal, was paid '
wages on Tuesday last, and sailed the same day for the
Azores, to proceed with her survey.
Her Majesty's store and guard-ship Tortoise, 12, Comman-
der Finlaison, arrived on Monday from Portsmouth, on her
way to Ascension, where she is to be stationed. She has
some passengers and a quantity of stores on board. Her
crew was paid wages on Thursday.

Her 111jesty's 'Sloop Larne, 18, Com. J. W. D. Brisbane,
having refitted, was towed out of harbour by the Confiance.
Her Majesty's ship Forte, 44, having been jury-rigged, was
towed out of harbour on Thursday, and sailed the same day
for Deptford, to be broken up.
The Adventure, naval transport, arrived on Sunday, with
tores from Portsmouth.

Ships in Harbour—Caledonia, 120, Captain A. Milne (with
the flag of Admiral Sir David Milne); San Josef, Captain. .
F. W. Burgoyne; America, 50, Captain the Hon. John Gor-
don; Conliance, steamer; Adventure, transport; Falmouth, 1.
lighter.
In the Sound—Larne, 18, Corn. J. W. D Brisbane; Tor-
toise, Com. Finlaison. _ _ _

_
DOCK -YARD.—Mr. T. Granville. leading man of ship-
wrights, to be inspector; Mr. William Stephens, to be lead- _
ing man of smiths, vice Truscott, promoted.
The naval payments for the quarter ending the 31st March,
will be made at the Pay-office, in this yard, on Monday, the -
Ist of April.
Her Majesty's sloop Ringclove, 18, Commander Sir William '
Daniell, is ordered from the West Indies, to assist in the '
blockade of the Coast of Africa.

Her Majesty's brig Star, 10, Commander J. R. Dunlop,
was spoken on the sth ult., in lat. 1 S., lon. 3 E., on her pas-
sage from Ascension to the Gambia—all well. Mr. C. Bur-
ney, of this vessel, passed his examination for Master's As--
sistant, on board the Madagascar, on the 9th of January.
Slavers are very plentiful on the Coast, nearly every ship
having taken one or more.
Her Majesty's ship Madagascar, 44, Captain John Foote,
was at Ascension on the 10th January. Her orders for Eng-
land were daily expected.
Her Majesty's brig Pantaloon, 10, Lieut. Lapidge, is or-
dered home from the Coast of Africa, to be paid off.