The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-06-14 00:00:00

THE BIRKENHEAD ELECTION.

THE election for Birkenhead Commissioners, on
Tuesday, resulted in the return of all the Candi-
dates on the Blue list by a respectable majority.
They have now a majority of sixteen to five on the
whole Board ; and it is to be hoped that, forgetting
all election animosities, they will carry their profes-
sions into practice, and steadily apply themselves to
the improvement of the township, the completion of
the Docks, and the promotion of those industrial
works on the banks of the Great Float, which are
so anxiously desired. Birkenhead possesses great
facilities for Shipbuilding on a large scale, and no
exertions should be spared to render all its re-
sources available.

THE COTTON PORTERS' STRIKE.-INTI-
MIDATION OF WORKMEN.

Liverpool has during the last three months become
notorious as the scene of " strikes"—the inaugurative
step having been here taken by many trades to raise the
standard of remuneration. The one which is at present
agitating the town is, perhaps, the most remarkable of
them all. For a long series of years the cotton porters
have had 3s. 6d. per day, and many steady, good men as
much as 255. per week. During the times that food has
been plentiful and cheap, and labour in abundance, when
Ireland could have sent us over hundreds of good men
ready to work at a considerably lower rate,—when skilled
labour all around us was paid at an average rate of about
Hs. a week, these cotton porters received their 21s. per
week. And all this while the skilled workman was work-
ing longer hours for 16s. a week, as were the shoemakers
or for Hs., as were the tailors ; the superior class of
joiners and engineers receiving only a very few shillings
more, and in some cases not a penny more, than these
porters who admittedly stand at the foot of the social
ladder.

These men, then, who have so much reason to congra-
tulate themselves on their fortunate position, have now
taken a most unreasonable step ; and during the past week
they have posted the town with placards, stating that,
unless their employers in a body acknowledge to them
their just right to have four shillings per day, and pledge
themselves to give four shillings per day to every man
they may employ, they will not work. The mercantile
community have, during the entire week, been at great
inconvenience from the strike amongst the dock labourers
and cotton porters, who have formed themselve& into an
association. The strike commenced on Monday, and at
first several firms acceded to this dictation;, but, at a
meeting of the different commercial associations, held at
the Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, it was unani-
mously resolved that every master shall be at liberty to
engage his porters at such a rate of wages as may be to
their mutual advantage ; considering that the system of
submitting the engagement of labour to the control of
porters' associations is not only inconsistent with freedom
of trade, but injurious to the interests of the porters
themselves. Several deputations from the workmen
waited upon the associated bodies of the mercantile class
during the week; but the terms proposed werenot conceded.
In reply to the placard issued by the Chamber of Com-
merce, inviting the porters to give up the struggle, the
operatives issued a notice, declining the conditions
offered ; and whilst they denied that they were actuated
by any spirit of dictation or feeling of disrespect to the
employers, they (the porters) required 4s. per day, and,
as a body, would do all in their power to obtain it in a
legal and peaceable way. All those houses giving the ad-
vance would have their men as usual; but it was urged
that the great body of the labourers should stand true to
each other until some more satisfactory decision was come
to by the representatives of the mercantile associations.
On Wednesday there was a numerous meeting of the men,
when they resolved to adhere to their original determina-
tion of refusing to work until their terms were complied
with. On Thursday the men again assembled, and ware-
housemen from several mercantile firms made applications
for hands, but none of them were obtained ; a portion of
the turn-outs positively refused to work unless all were
allowed to return to their employment. Subsequently an
intimation was received from a number of the employers
offering to pay the 4s. per day, but without binding them-
selves by any such agreement as that insisted on.. On Friday
a deputation from the workmen had again an interview
with the Chamber of Commerce, the result of which was,
that the workmen re-confirmed their former resolution.
Two meetings of the men were subsequently held at the
George's Dock, and they unanimously resolved to issue a
placard, calling upon their fellow-workmen to " come
out," and remain out, as a body, "until all should go in
together, and be reinstated in their former positions."
It appears that these unreasonable and wrong-headed
men will not load ships outwards with salt, the inward
cargoes of which happen to have been discharged by
stevedores who do not belong to their club. They will
not discharge cargoes of cotton, the porters to receive and
warehouse which are not also of the club. In the Bruns-
wick Dock, several ships have been stopped for a short
time in consequence of this. Many of the merchants
Ii have engaged men from other places, and are determined
to sacrifice the loss of their not being practical porters.
It is said that hundreds of men will be brought into port
nest week. On Friday several porters went to work ;
and, during the week, the corn-porters, whose wages
have been advanced, were partially doing the work
of the dock-porters. While the body of the men remain
" out," however, it seems a somewhat dangerous step for
a man to accept of honest labour ; and one serious case of
intimidation came before the magistrates at the police-
office, on Thursday, when Robert Reece, cotton-weigher,
was committed to hard labour, for three months, for using
intimidating language to James Hunt, a fellow-labourer,
who had gone to work for the usual day's wage, 3s. 6d.
On Saturday the men assumed a more antagonistic
position. They issued placards in whiok they state that
as those employers who are giving the 4s, a-day have in,

MONDAY EVENING, JUNE 13

BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
EASTERN AFFAIRS.
PARIS, MONDAY MORNING.—The English packet
Caradoc, bearing the orders of Admiral Dundas, arrived
at Malta on the Bth. The Assemblee Nationale states
that a note received on Friday, from St. Petersburg, had
been communicated to the different courts of Europe.
The Russian Cabinet declares that the Emperor will
maintain the demands stated in the last despatch of
Prince Menschikoff, but that he has no intention of mak-
ing war against Turkey, or to interfere with the integrity
and independence of the Ottoman Empire; yet, in the
event of the Divan persisting in its rejection of the Em-
peror's demands, he will deem it necessary to order the
occupation of the Danubian provinces by his army, but
such occupation would not bear the character of a decla-
ration of war, as the existing treaties allow the occupation.
under the circumstances.