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

This district continues in the same unhappy I
state it has now been in for the last two creeks.
Though fewer outrages in the way of robbing
potatoe-fields here have taken place during the
last two days, I do not by any means consider
the. worst over. was informed this forenoon
that delegates have been again despatched to
some of the districts that have but partially
joined the strike, particularly Ayrshire, and
where there are a great many collieries. The
colliers in Kilwinning, in that county, resolved
to strike yesterday, and to-day a great meeting
of delegates would be held in the above town,
to receive reports from the other colliers in I.le
district, all of whom, it is understood, will
join in the strike. Should this prove cor-
rect the whole of the coal districts in Scotland,
with one exception or two, may be considered in
a state of turmoil. I have been told that the
moulders, wrights, and other mechanics con-
nected with the coal and iron trade in Airdrie,
Coatbridge, &c., wanted to join with the colliers.
The latter were quite agreeable, but finding
they could not be firm and decided among
themselves, they, as a trade, cast them off, and
told them to be united among themselves, and
then come to them. The colliers in their union
are said, on this occasion to be more closely
united than at any former period. Had not this
been the case, I believe that a compromise would
have been accepted on the part of some of the
men whose employers' pits are near the Clyde,
and in connexion with the iron works. If
no agreement is come to within a week from
this, the depredations of the colliers will not, I
am afraid, be confined to stealing potatoes.
Every one knows that, as a body of workmen,
they are most improvident, and as they will in a.
day or two be three weeks without receiving pay,
their resources will be completely dried up, and,
then it will either be submission or more out-
rage--which of thu two I believe no one in this
neighbourhood can say. A great deal Will de-
pend upon how matters proceed in England.
The carters in the city, owing to the extra demand
for shippers and others apprehending a scarcity
of coal, had a " turn out'' the other (lay for an
advance, which after a little demur they obtain-
ed, and now get l s. 4d. a waggon instead of Is.ld.
That is, they are all back to their prices of 1840.
The price of coals has, in consequence of this and
the strike, advanced ls.- a waggon, and if the
strike continues, no doubt this sum will shortly
be doubled.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—Lord Hill has retired from the
command of the army, and has been succeeded
in that high post by the Duke of Wellington.
Though a Morning Contemporary, whose opinions
often coincide with our own, seems to have taken
alarm at the fact, we can ourselves see no reason
for the apprehension that is expressed in the
journal alluded to. That "the Duke's resump-
tion of the army will be construed as the pro-
clamation of a Government of coercion," is an
opinion in which we do not agree. Though the
Duke of Wellington is Commander-in-Chief, he
is subject to the direction of the Ministers in the
use to be made of the military force, which can-
not be employed at the will of the individual
. who is at the head of it. If it were to be appre-
hended that the Duke of Wellington's dispo-
sition would induce him to make a coercive use'
of political power, his appointment to the
office of Commander-in-Chief would be rather
a subject of congratulation than alarm ; for
it will henceforth be his duty to act only
under the direction of the Government, tyre mem-
bers of which will be responsible for the orders
they issue to the authorities at the War-office.
The Duke of Wellington will henceforth stand
in a more intelligible, and, indeed, a more eon-
stitutional position than he' has done since the
accession of the Tory party to power. He has
hitherto exercised the leadership of the House
of Lords, while he has continually repudi-
ated the responsibility attaching to a
member of the Government. During the
time that Lord Hill held the post of Com-
.mander-in-Chief, he abstained from taking any
part in the proceedings of the. Upper House. It is
to be supposed that his successor will see the pro-
priety of adopting a similar course. In this event
the Duke of Wellington's appointment will pre-
vent the gratification of those coercive predilec-
tions which our Contemporary seems to fear his
Grace will have an opportunity of indulging in.
That the qualities of energy and promptitude are
essential in the man who is appointed to the head
of the army, no one will attempt to deny. These
qualities still belong in a high degree to the Duke
of 'Wellington. The assertion that the present
disturbances are to he met by " the tactics of' the
police office rather than those of the camp," and
that "Mayors and Sheriffs, superintendents and
subalterns, have generalship enough for the oc-
casion," must not be considered as an argument
against placing an experienced military
commander at the head of the army. If
the present disturbances are improperly
made the subject of military interference,
the Goverment will be responsible, whoever
may happen to be the Commander-in-Chief;
for that functionary has only to act in obedience
to the Ministers, and for any fault committed
by him they will be held accountable. We are
ready to admit that the Duke of Wellington
may continue to claim that exemption from per-
sonal responsibility which he has lately been so
eager to assert; but his actions will henceforth
have to be accounted for— if not by himself—by
the Goveinment that has appointed him.
STANDARD.—As respects the insinuated
motive in this morning's Chronicle for the Duke
of Wellington's appointment, we have this to say,
that that appointment Was resolved upon inure
than a week before the slightestdisorder had oc-
curred in the manufacturing districts. The ap-
pointment was announced in the Standard on
Friday, at two o'clock. 1.. mt(we published early on
Friday, became of the Queen's speech), and Friday
was the day upon which the first intelligence of
serious disorders reached town. To ascribe the
replacing of the illustrious Duke in that station
which he never ought to have quitted, to any-
thing that has happened within the last week,
is as absurd as to ascribe it to what may
happen fifty years hence. Lord Hill's de-
clining health has been long and deeply
lamented, and all well-informed persons are aware.
that the Duke of Wellington only waited for
the termination of the session to assume an office
which, according to usage, he could not occupy
concurrently with the place be filled as minis-
terial leader of the House of Lords. But what if
the illustrious Duke had been appointed to an
office of more power than that of Commander-in-
Chief, in contemplation of popular discontent ! Is
not his Grace the man who sacrificed the cherished
principles of his life, and forfeited the support of
the friends whom he most loved and must have
most respected—avowedly in order to obviate a
civil war? Has not his civil course been as uni-
formly marked by concession as his glorious mi-
litary career by victory ? Surely such a man is
the last whose appointment to an active station
ought to create a suspicion of violent design.
To excite such a suspicion is, however, the ill-
disguised purpose of the article we have quoted.