The Sun.
London, England, 1818-04-18 00:00:00

that description can possibly doubt the existence
of discontent- •so considerable as to -demand still
the vigilance of Government. Nor is this.surpriz--
nig, while so many impure spirits are hovering over
that irritable portion of our population, to t'►ke
-advantage of every occurrence -that May arrele-.
rate the approach of the often' announced crisis ;
while, in smite districts, the distance of the Ma-
gistrate is so remote, and the expence and time
which must be sacrificed to obtain the punishment
of crimes are so considerable, that the most auda-
cious offenders, unawed by the immediate pre-
sence of tl►e law, riot in an impunity which, by
the increase of vice consequent upon that la-
mentable deficiency, must of Utecessiy swell the
ranks of the disaffected. It suits the purpose- of
this Caterer for the politicians of the i►ot-house
to attribute the existing spirit of insubordination
to another cause, more flattering to his patrons,
the mob ;. to tke' oppression and tyranny of their
best friends, the wealthy men who employ them,
and with whose interests their own are obviously
identified. And what are these cases of injustice
and coot inely which cause the people to "fester"
(as he has it) under "universal discontent ?"
Let us take front this Register of Grievances the
first that offers itself A, is articled to 13, in a
certain matoifacture, for a term of years, in regn-.
lar employment, at stipulated wages. In conse-
quence of the decrease in the briskness of trade,
13 cannot find A full employment, and reftises to
give him the wages contracted for. A, making al-
lo►wance for the state of trade, does not insist on
the letter of his bond, but claims his li-
betty, and a dissolution'of the contract ; whici►
13 rufusei to agree to. The case goes before a
Magistrate, who, on A refusing to accept of half
work and reduced wages, and without requiring
to look at the contract, commits him to a month's
imprisonment in the lilt.use of Correction, which
A undergoes. B again insists on the services of
A,- and A still refuses him ; in consequence of
which he is committed to the distant county jail,
as a greater punishment, where he is now lin-
gerit►g under a sense of injustice more hitter than
the privations of beggary and want." Upon this
statement I have -to remark, that I believe it is
now very generally the custom (or the maonfac-
torer, in his contract with a hired servant, to in-
sert a clause empowering him to reduce the quan-
tity of his work and the price of his labour, in
proportion to the diminished demand for them.
Either A did or• did: not subject himself to dais
condition ; if he did, he had clearly no right to
demand the dissolution of the contract ; and for
his refusal to comply with the terms of it he was
legally punished; and the writer, in omitting the
mention of that circumstance, has been guil►y of
his wonted disingenuousness ;—if lie did not, it
is altogether incredible, nor will I believe it upon
such authority, that:any Magistrate would refuse
to a servant so reasonable a demand-as the dissolu-
tion of a contract which his master had violated.
As to the non-production of the. contract, that
may have arisen from the well-known nature of
all 13's agreements of that kind, or front A's not
demanding its production. The concluding sen-
tence of this candid and reraeious narrative is just
such wild nonsense as any foolish refractory fel-
low can Falk, after he has been visited, and his-
mind fashioned, by some modern man of huma-
-72 ity.

This asserted universal collusion between the
Magistrate• and the Master-manufacturer to op-
press, degrade, and enslave the poor workman, is
one of those tales for credulity, whose purpose is
to keep alive the-fever of the popular mind, to
create that dissatisfaction upon .which the necessity
of Parliamentary Reform is to be grounded.—
When the tares, Which mischievous hands have
scattered, spring_ tip among the corn, the authors
of the mischief reproach the negligence of the hus-
bandman. I shall_not,by following the bad example
of this inflammatory writer, deduce universal de-
pravity from particular instances of misconduct.—
] know that, among the labouring manufacturers,
there are very numerous and honourable examples
of behaviour the most unexceptionable : but, since
their masters 'ate thus-itjurionsly asperse t, I take
leave to express my confident beliefv bat there are
much mote of...insolence and ingratitude to be
found in them than of tyranny in their employers.
I shall state, in proof of my remark, a fact which
not bung ago fell under tny own observation, and
which fi is only one out of a thousand cases which
is cons,arnly occurring," as our Journalist ex-
pressed: hinaielt. A man who has a wite and se-
veral chilthen, having been for some time without
employment,. and being reduced to distress,
applied to a friend of mine, humbly beg-
ging to be admitted into his manufactory. Ibis
services were not wanted ; but, from a charitable
consideration for his family, he and his wife were
taken in and placed upon an equal footing with
the best workmen. What was the return made
by this wretch for such humanity ? Not very long
' after his admission, some work bring assigned to
him which he did not like, he absolutely refused to
petform it ; although the oldest servants cheer-
fully volunteered to take it from his hands. It
was, however, very properly' determined that
.the law should enforce his obedience. A warrant
trout the Magistrate was shewn to him, which lie
treated with contempt ; and feeling, I suppose,
like A, " a sense of injustice more bitter than the
privations of beggary and want," he swore with
a round '' month-filling oath" that he would rot
in jail rather titan submit. The design
of this fellow, who was recuiving very large
wages, was to bully his masters into a discharge
of him front their manufactory; an attempt hav-
ing been made to entice him away ;• this not suc-
ceeding, he was made to do his work; and to do
it well. Had this worthless ingrate possessed
the heroic courage of A, he would probably have
been visited in his prison by some wandering.phi-
lanthropist, and his case would consr'quently have
been set forth in sOrne seditious London Newspaper
as one of aggravated tyranny, I have been thus.,
minute in describing one flagrant act of ingrati-
tore, only in order to chew that it is a most
wicked misrepresentation to insinuate that the
labouring man alone is suffering under vexatious
and difficulties.

Much the same as the character of their huma-
nity is that of the regard which these politicians
profess to feel for the laws. The same writer,
from -whom we may expect a continuation of his
Memoirs of Magisterial Oppression, is, of course,