The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-09-27 00:00:00

EXTRACT FROM ANOTHER LETTER, SAME DATE.

" The composition to be given to the planters, and the fur-
ther loan talked of, will certainly be a guarantee for the pro-
tection of West India property, and we hope your ideas of such
property becoming more valuable will be realised. At present,
however, we cannot but view the new system as involved in
many and great difficulties; matters having gone so far, how-
ever, it behoves every one to meet the question with calmness
and deliberation, in order that the details of the act may be
carried into operation as beneficially as possible to all parties,
however nefarious and illegal the passing such an- act, in the
first instance, may have been, without due regard-to the rights
of, property, as far as a full and equitable compensation. You
justly observe, that I shall suffer great injury from the measure,
and which you can easily ascertain when I have to receive but
£23 sterling for my negroes—say 180, which will fall consi-
derably short of two years' purchase of the income I now de-
rive from my estate, although I expend two to three hundred
a-year more in their comforts than is done on any property to
my knowledge."

A penny magazine, published at Birmingham, under_
the splendid patronage of the trades' union of that town,
has been sent us by a friend, and in the present state of
the question between the employer and operative we
trust we need offer no apology for laying some speci-
mens of its pernicious materials before our readers. A
newspaper printed on unstamped paper, as this one is, is
a fraud, first upon the revenue, and secondly upon the
fair trader. This fraudulent publication, therefore, is
worthy of the cause which it espouses,—dishonesty being
the means to a dishonest end. It is true that the penny
magazine of Birmingham is not a greater fraud upon the
revenue and newspaper proprietors generally than tl
penny magazine of London, established by Lord
BROUGHAM, patronised by Lord JOHN RUSSELL, gird .
conducted by Mr. CHARLES KNIGHT. But one fraud is
not justified by another, although we frankly concede
that what is knavish in a tinker is much more censurable
and criminal in a judge or a minister of the crown. Lord
BROUGHAM and his respectable compeers in the penny
magazine of London set the example of pilfering the con
tents of the newspapers and other publications, which
pilfered materials they sold cheap by a paltry evasion of
the stamp laws. That eminent example has been fol-
lowed all over the country, and penny magazines, con-
ducted by shabby rogues, are as abundant as blackberries.
The nuisance may be considered as having reached its
climax when the trades' unions of Birmingham have es-
tablished a gazette of their own. We do not blame them
for this, considering who set the example, and the dis-
tinguished correspondence they have held with some of
his MAJESTY'S ministers. Nor do we mean to assert
that the composition or the diction of their magazine is
in any respect inferior to that of the Times newspaper;
on the contrary, the former is much more respectably
conducted. All that we stand out for is, that notwith-
standing their talents, the conductors of the penny ma-
gazine of Birmingham are cheats, and being so they
labour under many difficulties in the dissemination of
their opinions from this "-untoward blot on their repu-
tation.

But let us see what they advance in favour of con-
spiracy, idleness, insolence, and inebriety.
"Are we for ever to bow our necks to the controul and in-
terest of a few beings equally weak and fallacious as ourselves;
and who have no claim upon our labour except for superior
sagacity in cheating us out of its fruits? Are we who produce
every thing, and keep the useless classes in luxury and idle-
ness, for ever to sweat for the pittance we obtain, whilst the
systematic plunderers who rob us return us insult for our foolish
though generous submission? I rise with the virtuous indig-
nation of an injured father; I rise with the decision of a plun-
dered husband; and I swear upon the altar of my country,
that my first duties of life shall be fulfilled, in the protection
of my children,—in the comfort and support of my wife, before
I will suffer in future the fruits of my toil to ba taken from my .
grasp!"
We will venture a trifle on the issue that the writer of
this is, if he be above the rank of an operative, the
most contemptible rogue in the parish where he resides,
and if an operative, that he is the laziest and most worth-
less of his class. As to robbing him, it is quite out of the
question ; and when he talks of " systematic plunderers,"
he evinces not only a malignant disposition, but a degree
of ignorance which, if it prevailed generally, would re-
flect deep disgrace upon the operatives of England.
The simple question between the masters and the men
is, who shall be master, he who hires, or he who is
hired? It is not contended that a master shall take an
operative and compel him to labour at a rate of wages
fixed by the former. The master has no more control
over the rate of wages than have the winds of heaven.
When the legislature were cajoled into the passing of
HUME'S most senseless and absurd bill, they were told
by the honourable member that the sole object of his
measure was to permit the scale of wages to be regulated
by the supply of, and the demand for, labour. In his
wisdom he contended that his bill would for ever put an
end to combinations. The parliament of that day, in-..
Hated as it was with new theories, believed him, and
gave his measure an experimental trial, of which we are
Convinced those who so yielded now bitterly repent.
Combinations have increased every year since the pass-.
ing of that fallacious and pernicious bill. Every un-
washed coxcomb who has attended a Sunday school, or
a mechanics' institute, now deems himself qualified to
legislate for and dictate terms to his master.. The con-
sequence is, that the social compact between employer
and operative is dissolved. All old ties of attachment
are torn asunder. The operative, in many cases, is a
sullen, heartless, abject, soured, suspicious, and discon-
tented creature—poor, even with good wages—in debt
in the most prosperous seasons—the dupe of indolent
empirics who fleece him—the prey of those who take his
last sixpence to defray the expenditure of guzzling com-
mittees, composed of indolent vagabonds and pragmati-
cal schoolmasters, who trade in sedition, and urge their
votaries on to the commission of crime.
The masters are willing, and have ever been willing,
that the rate of wages should be regulated by the supply
and demand, and we venture to assert, that as far as
Lancashire is concerned, workmen never at any period
earned better wages than they have clone within the last
few years, and could earn at this present moment of star-
vation if they felt disposed. But no; they adhere to
their clubs, and their wives and families, bereft of their
last blanket, and their last candlestick, are seen begging
in the streets.
But the workmen do not rest satisfied with asserting
their right to dictate terms to their employers; they also
claim the right to investigate their private affairs,
spect the contracts they make.with the proprietor in the
first instance, restrict them to certain conditions which
are impracticable, and in fact, wish to make them the
abject slaves of the very labourers they employ. Such
a system as this is not only pernicious as regards trade,
it is destructive as regards morals; it aims at unhinging
all orders and grades in society, and is a reproach to a
civilized country. The legislature which tolerates it for
one moment cannot be actuated by paternal or just
views, cannot appreciate public credit or security, and is
incompetent to protect the industry or encourage the en'
terprise of a great manufacturing and commercial rx*
Lion.

If these combinations could by any possible means ad"
vance the interests of the workmen, acquire for them
higher :wages, or contribute to tlieir mental or physical
enjoyments or recreations, we should he the last persona ".
in the world to condemn their policy, or take part witll
their best friends whom, by their folly, they have forced
into an antagonist position. But being satisfied, not by
the occurrences of the passing day, but by all former
pe.rience, that these conspiracies are abortive and
rious, and certain to involve the unwary in embarrass'
ments which it will take many years of a better FPI
life to repair—satisfied that they lead to beggary a"
vice—to drunkenness and crime—to acts of outrage
ending in manslaughter and murder—we have no choice,
however much it may be against our interest, but t°
range ourselves on the side of order, and vindicate the
rights of the whole community against the tyrannical in"
roads of an ignorant and unprincipled faction who w°4
in the dark, and pass decrees which they have not the
courage to avow, or sanction with their names.
But it is not the men themselves or their families who
must severely suffer from these unions—the tradesull
and shopkeepers who either support them, or connive a
their proceedings, must be ruined by the cessation pfe°l;
00,
ployment. It is not many weeks since a LiverP -
Bank stopped payment, and lately its partners were dhe;
Glared bankrupts. Who caused this failure ?
unions! It was a bank, we admit, of limited resource;
but its partners were men of honour and integrity, resource;
every intelligent resident of Liverpool now knows the
this failure would not have taken place had the limb
e. •
trade not become stagnant, owing to the strike of
workmen. Labour was at a stand-still—bills were u•
qti..
less—credit among certain classes had passed its 110,
mate boundaries—and insolvency followed. The 0131°red
ists may, perhaps, think that their employers suffer
by this failure, and that it ought to induce them to lts'ars
to the terms of the clubs. If they think so, they in,
much mistaken. The persons who suffered were thesoj
ferior tradesmen. It was a shopkeeper's bank,
very
those principally who kept accounts with it are t—
ile .0
teller
persons who give them credit for groceries, blh„ thel
meat, bacon, bread, and articles of clothing.
see that one source of their former credit is entirelY