The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-09-12 00:00:00

FACTORY LABOUR

IT has often been made an objection to legisla-
tion, during a time of agitation on any subject,
that it is an apparent concession to agitators, and,
therefore, a dangerous precedent, as tending to
enourage insubordination to the laws. Admitting
this view of the case to be correct, it is the
more necessary that the redress of acknowledged
grievances should be made at .those times when
the greatest sufferers are the most patient in their
submission. Correction has then all the grace of
a boon unasked, and it is received with far more
gratitude than when wrung by the pressure
from without. It is not long since many thousands
of the operatives in the manufacturing districts
were out on strike, and so stout was the contention
between the masters, who closed their mills, and
the men, who refused to work, unless they obtained
an unintelligible advantage to which they gave the
title of " ten per cent.," that for a considerable
period a reconciliation seemed almost hopeless.
All this is, happily, at an end. After an endurance
of distress which might have been unendurable,
but for the conviction that the greater part was
owing to their own folly, a truce was proclaimed,
and we believe that employment now is very gene-
ral, with the prospect of still further improvement ;
and that the stern lesson taught by the experience
of last winter is not likely to be soon forgotten.
There is also the additional advantage that food is
at a much lower price, with the prospect of a still
greater reduction ; and thus both masters and
operatives have much reason to be satisfied with

their position. These circumstances, therefore,
constitute a fitting time for conceding the long-
coteted boon of a law for reducing the time for the
labour in factories of females and young persons,
to ten hours, such as was intended by the act
passed a few years since, and which was rendered
virtually inoperative through the slovenly con-
struction of the act. It is the great evil of modern
days, that while industry has been elevated into
the foremost rank of social virtues, it has been
made the substitute for every other, until work
has proved a struggle for existence, and every
higher motive sacrificed for the worship of Mam-
mon. The moral and social condition of the work-
ing classes is of infinitely more importance than
the profits of their employers, but the latter appear
to have been the object of all legislation, with little
or no regard to the former. Children of tender
years are ruthlessly sacrificed to the cupidity of
unfeeling parents, and all this has been tacitly
sanctioned by the law, for fear that ti

3 profits of

mill-owners, already over-wealthy,
any way diminished. It is to be hone

,hould be in

1, howeve

that the Manchester school no longer influences
the decisions of the House of Commons, that the
majority are swayed by higher considerations than
mere regard for the meat that perisheth, and that
a time when agitation has been lulled into profound
quietude will not be neglected for granting that
boon to the working-classes of Lancashire and
Yorkshire, which has hitherto been sought in vain
from the Legislature. It is true that Parliament
is equally in a state of rest with the interests which
we advocate ; but advantage should be taken of the

recess, to mature such measures as ought to form
the subject of discussion in the ensuing session.

OUR EXPORT TRADE

THE returns which have been published each
month by the Board of Trade, of the declared
value of exports of British produce and manufac-
tures, are satisfactory as far as they have gone, in
showing the continued increase of our export trade.
There has, however, been far more light thrown on
the subject, by a report which has been recently
published, showing the various parts of the world
to which the exports have been sent. It appears
by this list that of the total value of exports in
the year 1853, amounting to no less than
£98,933,781, the large proportion of £33,382,202,
or more than a third,was sent to our own possessions;
so that the Colonies, which it is the practice of
modern statesmen to treat with contempt, are by
far the best customers for our exports. To Aus -
tralia the amount is no less than £14,513,700,
being an increase of more than ten millions ; and
though credit has been given to Free-trade for our
extension of commerce, this item is distinctly
owing to the gold discoveries. To India the
amount is £8,185,695, and to our North American
colonies £4,898,544, the whole of the remaining
colonies being £5,784,263. Of foreign places, our
best customers are the United States, once
British colonies, to which our exports amounted to
£23,658,427, an increase owing more to the
California gold-fields than to any consequences of
Free-trade policy. The places next in order are
Germany, £8,145,081; Holland, £4,452,955 ;
Brazil, £3,186,407 ; France, £2,636,330 ; and
Turkey, £2,208,815 ; but the vast empire of
Russia stands in the list below China, Spain, Bel-
gium, Portugal, Chili, and Peru, the amount being
only £1,228,404, so that this mere fraction of ex-
port trade is all that we lose by the war with
Russia. Taking the trade with our own colonies
and the United States at £57,040,629, our exports
to the whole of the rest of the world are only
£41,893,152, so that the Anglo-Saxon race are the
greatest consumers of British produce.
With reference to the not unimportant question