The Sun.
London, England, 1829-06-03 00:00:00

sputit OF THE• LONDON JOURNALS.
Some reasonable-, hopes may at length be in-
dulged, that thevillainous and atrocious outrages
committed 'eltlier'-ky the Spitalfields and Bethnal-
green gentry, or in the name of them, will, by the
strong hand of the law, be stopped, or at least more
rarely perpetrated. It is impossible for society to
exist under such a system. It is not in nature to
think of it, without being moved to a strong desire
for exemplary punishment upon its authors ; and
that punishment, if we may judge from the proper
spirit and language of Mr. Peel's declarations in the
House of Commons last night, is in a fair way to
be inflicted. Let any man read the proceedings de-
tailed in our police report of Worship-street. Fel-
lows, who can earn 355. per week at journeyvrork,
(upwards of 901. per annum, by a single pair of
hands), admit other ruffians into their rooms at
midnight, and look on while their masters' pro-
perty is cut to pieces—the master who, in most
eases, has paid them beforehand, in confidence of
having the silk or velvet, whichever it may be,
wrought and re-delivered according to a contract
voluntarily made by these accomplices in the act
of its destruction. Nothing ever happened among
the poor Irish equal to such a practice as this,
for ungrateful and treacherous baseness. Nothing
was ever calculated like this system to undermine
all_ trust between man and man, and eventually to
ruin the manufacture upon which it operates. What
master will, unless he be a madman, venture to carry
on his business in a town where no protection is
afforded him against the crimes of his own de-
petulents—crimes, however, which have arisen in a
great measure from his own contemptible subser-
viency to those dependents ? It is true that pro-
jects, founded no less on duplicity and falsehood
than these conspiracies for high wages by the half-
taught journeymen, were first set going by the masters
themselves, for wringing high prices from the public,
the journeymen being made the instruments of their
plots, and the intended dupes of them being his
Majesty's Ministers, Loud clamours, gross misre-
presentations, artful processions, lying petitions, were
got up as diligently by the masters, in the progress of
their attempt to secure a monopoly of sales, as com-
binations, outcries, discussions in coffee-shops, collu-
sive entrances into weavers' dwellings, and midnight
attacks on silk and velvet goods, are now got up by
the said weavers to force a monopoly rate of wages.
Verily the journeymen are apt scholars, and their em-
ployers were but shallow-pated blockheade. We
hardly pity them : for their sakes we would scarcely
move across the street in the way of either adminis-
tering the law or of amending it; but if the vile spirit of
these mutinous robbers be indulged, no man can fore-
see to what other purposes beyond the raze of looms
and machinery it may ere long be converted.--Tines,
We rejoice to state that a happy arrangement is
made, by which Mr. Alderson retires from the con-
test for the representation of the University of Cam-
bridge, and leaves the honour to be soaped by one
who has been already successful in the more peaceful
competition of se-let-we : this is alike honourable to
him who retires and to him who continues in the
field— •to Mr. Alderson and Mr. Cavendish. It is
needless here to describe the mariner in which the
latter gentleman has distinguished himself in the
University ; but it may be proper to state that hi:
election will, in all probability, settle future con-
tests, and bring back the University to that tranquil
state which best comports with its habits, and is
most beneficial to its studies and discipline. It were
An unholy alliance between Cambridge and Cork
Castle ! and should a forced union (an Irish wed,
ding !) be attempted, we should wish some inquiry
to be made into the manner in which church pro-
perty is administered, and livings disposed of, in a
certain part of the county of Dorset, from which,
we apprehend, it will appear that the protection aff
forded to the ecclesiastical establishment and reve-
nues in this region is such protection as the vulture
affords to its prey, which coves whilst it. devours

A petition was presented last night by Mr. Ward
from Mr. Moore, a master manufacturer, who has
lately suffered severely from the outrages in Spite'.
fields. Jt is much more easy to complain of the
evil, than to indicate a remedy, Mr. Peel, for
instance, set oat with something like a reproach di-
rected against the masters themselves for what bad
taken place. " With respect to the masters, I much
lament (he says) that they should have given way
so much as they have done to the workmen ; for it
would haire been much better for them at once to
have resisted to the uttermost such unjust de-
mands . . . Why does not the master apr
peal to the existing law, before he requires any
other?—(Hear, hear.)—Why does he not apply to
the Magistrate at the Police-office, who is ready to
execute that law in his favour ? The law, as it now
stands, says, that if any one by vielenee, or by
threats, or by molestation, shall force any manufae,
lurer to make any alteration in his mode of carrying
on his business, any person so offending shall, on
conviction, be imprisoned for any term not exceeding
three calendar months. Surely it is in vain to re-
quire at the hands of Government an additional
police force, unless the parties themselves are
willing to come forward to assist themselves." Mr.
P. Thompson furnished rather an awkward commen-
tary on this part of Mr. Peel's speech, for he
spewed that Mr. Moore had suffered more than any '
other person, precisely because he had pursued the
Coarse recommended by him. " This very peti-
tioner (Le observed) was one of those who had most
decidedly rested the encroachments of the work-
men, and the consequence was that he had suffered
in proportion. Indeed tti.t: course that those masters
who determined to put the law force against the
offenders had to pursue was one p:egnant with
extreme difficulty ; not only did they by that
means throw themselves open to the vengetZuce
of the workmen, but when he thought that he
had collected a sufficient case to bring home con-
vistion to the person against whom he was proceed-
ing, lie found that his witnesses had been intimidated
from stating what they knew, and expressed them-
selves most unwilling to come forward to give their
testimony." In short, nothing is more easy than to
say, have recourse to the law. But the law, in a
disturbed district, is a dead letter. Mr. Peel ad-
mits that he has no preventive means of sufficient
efficacy at his disposal. "It is said there is not a
sufficient police force in the district. I admit it ;
but at the same time I must observe, that I have
done all that was in my power during the present
Session to put the police of the metropolis on a
more serviceable footing." If those who commit
outrages will only be sufficiently stupid to remain on
the spot till a detachment of soldiers can be sent
against them from the Tower, then a proof will be
afforded that in cases of emergency the Government
is sufficiently strong to repress violence. But in all
other cases it says, help yourselves—get witnesses
how yr_nr can ; and after having shown yourselves
men of split by consenting to sacrifice two or three
hundred pounds a week, on convicting any offender
the Court ss ill sentence him to three months impri-
sonment. A mighty consolation, no doubt, and greatly
calculated to make sufferers in love with law and Go-
vernment. Mr. Moore will find that Government
can contrive to spend fifty or sixty millions a year
very well, without troubling themselves with the
security of 6tizens. Mr. Peel launched out into
exclamations against the folly of the weavers of Spi-
talfields, who are ex-posed to such disadvantages in
their competition with ITancheeter and other large
manufacturing places, hastening by these ,outrageous
means the ruin which is sure to overtake them at
last. But the weavers of Spitalfields compare their
situation, not with that of the people of the manu-
facturing towns, but with that of their nearest
neighbours. In fact, a place like the metropolis,
•where every thing is excessively dear,—house rent,
,coals, food, &c.,—is not suited for a manufacture,
and it does not require the gift of prophecy to
foretel that the manufacture will soon cease to exist
-here. But these considerations are not likely to
have mach influence on weavers in a state of dis-
tress : for it was admitted on all hands that
there is great digress itr Spitalfields, though good