The Sun.
London, England, 1842-08-19 00:00:00

int .Sun 4

LONDON :
FRID. MOTtNING, AUGUST 13, 1842.

Vt`e learn with great satisfaction that a number of
factOrie3, dye-works, and other establishments,
resumed. work in 'Manchester on Wednesday. The
masters had previously come to a resolution, gene-
rally adopted and generally circulated, not to resume
work till they were requested by their workpeople ;
ilia resumption of work, therefore, is of more im-
portance for the inference it enables us to draw,
that the. workmen wish to return to their labour,
than for the fact itself. We hope from this circum-
atance that we shall now be able, day after day, -to
eouerratulate the public on the gradual restoration of
tranquillity, 'and the gradual return of all the people
to their accustomed occupations.
Quite enough, however, has been done by this
temporary turn-out to make all Classes, master manu-
facturerg, shop-keepers, landowners, shipowners, rner-
&outs, the monied class, fundowners, tax-eaters,
ttak?smen, and clergymen--aware of the formidable
po o'er po.±,ic'..,sed by the multitude, which ayety little
improved organization, a little longer time for prepa-
ration, and a slight change in circumstances, may
enable them to use with greater success, than at pie-
sent. In spite of the ridiculous repugnance of some
Tory writers to a manufacturing population condensed
into factories, and aggregated about coal fields and
steam-engines, that population cannot be got rid off
It pays most of the taxes. The landlords know, too,
that it. pays high rents. Even the prieSts, we believe,
are.quite sensible of the improved value it gives to
tithes. The ruling classes, therefore, putting reason
jwitice, and humiity out of the question, will not
allow that population and the wealth it creates to be
annihilated.

'Beautiful and self-acting as i 3 much of our machi-
nery, it does not yet enable the capitalist and the
landlord to dispense with human labour.
,In truth,
thn more it has been improved and multiplied, the
faster have the crowded hives of the North increased
in population. As has been, so we may infer will be
the progresS. For the sake of national prosperity and
national happiness,• our • towns must oontinue to in-
crease and absorb from the rural districts the popula-
tion which can there find neither employment nor
food. It is clear, therefore, that even Tories must
make up their minds not only to the continuance but
to the increase of the town population. On this ac-
count, the display which the multitude have
~now made of their power, ought to be for all classes
an impressive, and if it be' not an impressive, it wi'l
be a fearful lesson.

It seems to us that the Turn-outs chose a wrong
time for action, and have been as much foiled by cir-
eumbtances which they did not foresee, as by the vi-
gorous measures of the Government,- Wi?llmicial the

view taken by the lifanchestcr Guardian, and .conclude
that•the whole affair, if not fully planned, had been
concocted and much talked over for some time. Its
comtaencement is nearly coeval with the anniversary
of Peterloo, which is remembered, in -Manchester and
its wighbourhood, with the most enduring feelings of
indit ;nation. Its immediate cause was an actual reduc-
' tion of wages, of which notice had been given a month
before, and which.the manufacturer, it is said, was,
' only prevented from withdrawing, at the last hour, by
the cavalier-proceedings of the men. In the colliery
districts, and in various otherplaces, propositions were
ide to lower wages. These matters, coming to-
gather, in the sacred month of August, hurried the
Turn-outs, we believe, into action at an unfavourable
time. We are, in fact, mainly induced to believe that
a turn-out had been long previously planned, by its
being carried into execution without discretion, and
without regard to existing circumstances.,
At this moment the early and the abundant har-
vest, and the settlement of those trade questions which
Sir R. PEEL so foolishly agitated, unnecessarily increas-
ing the difficulties of the country throughout the
spring and summer, are working together to revive
trade. The markets for manufactured goods have
be:tainto look up, the demand for labour has increased;
p.nd just as the great mass of the artizans, who have
endured almost , unheard-of privations, begin to
hope for better days, begin even to taste
the advantages of more work and cheaper provisions,
the fore•.planned turn-out makes them sacrifice both
hope and benefit. The willingness, nevertheless,
with which they in general complied with the request
of their fellows to turn-out, argues for the plan hav-
ing previously received their assent ; while they must
have done it with a heavy heart, to think of the great
sacrifice of beginning prospepity which they were
called on to make. They could not act with 'that
alacrity which they might have felt months be-
fore, when the demand for labour was lessening,
and wages falling while the price of food was ex-
orbitant. Their new-born hopes as labourers tended
to stifle their zeal as political agitators. Again, all
the masters, who now see a chance of better days,
must ha:Ve been very ill-disposed to the movement at
this time, and exerted themselves much more, we be-
lieve, to check it now, when they begin to work full
time with a profit, than they would have done when
they were merely keeping their mills going in order
to prevent the machinery from falling to ruin. But
these circumstances, so unfavourable to the Turn-outs,
may not exist on the next occasion, and our hearty
and sincere advice to the Government and the public
is to redress the wrongs and grievances of the manu-
facturers as speedily as possible, and take from them
all just 'grounds for hating as well as for resisting
he law.

We have not, like some of our Contemporaries,
sought a party handle to this great question. We
blame Sir R. PEEL, we admit, for having caused the
calamityby his Corn-keeping out Bill, and his Income-
.tax. To us he seems to have acted with as little dis-
'oretion as the Turn-opts, who carried a pre-formedplan
into execution, without attending to present circum-
stances. We may even say that his policy is almost
as contemptible as the cry got up at Manchester, by
some of the leaders, of " Go for gold,"; because
such a cry was efficacious in 1832, when half
the- opulent classes were ready to act on it, while
we are afraid the .Turn-outs could scarcely.muster ten
ten-pound notes amongst them. So Sir R. PEEL
when the nation requires ,to be relieved from fiscal
and commercial burdens, in deference to an old Tory
theory, chose to restore the finances by plaguing the
people with a hated Income-tax. With this excep-
tion we have not regarded this subject in relation to
party politics. In our estimation it is more a social
than a political insurrection. It is caused by the
unmerited sufferings and degradation of the working
classes. It is an attempt, though a wrong one, to
better their condition. It is an upheaving of the
industrious classes, steeped in poverty, against the
upper and opulent classes. That seems to us its real
character, and neither Whigs nor Tories are ex-
clusively to blame for that peculiar condition of the
working classes which has forced on the out-
break, and will force on others if it be
not redressed. Neither Whigs nor Tories have
excited this social insurrection. We will not
therefore, with some Liberal journals, stig-
matise the Tories for having provoked it ; still less
will we, who are well aware of the conduct of the
Anti-Corn-law League, admit for one moment that
their pursuit of a righteous object makes them in
the smallest degree blameable or responsible for the
outbreak. We humbly counsel both parties to lay
aside their disputes, and zealously bend their minds to
devising a large and liberal plan of domestic policy,
which shall remove the causes of the discontent of
the industrious classes, and raise them in society. If
this be not voluntarily done, their number is so great,
their knowledge so extensive, their organisation so
complete, that they can only be kept in obedience, if
at all, by a military force, to the destrtction of the
liberty and prosperity of our country.