Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1879-03-12
From Our Regular Correspondent
Our European Letter.
LONDON. Eng, Feb. 10. lS7

in London. and one of their societies is
already burdened with support of two
thousand at Liverpool. Building through
out the busy district of Ashton-under.
Lyme is at a stand-still, bricklayers and
laborers having turned out in opposition
to reduction of a penny per hour. Other
strikes are reported from various districts.
not day passing that does not increase
the army of labor arrayed against capital.
At the same time fresh mills arc stopping
work, additional iron furnaces arc being
ming twenty thousand spindles, stopped
last week. On Tuesday several mill
owners gave notice Of reduction in
wages from to 10 per cent. In the Boil
ton district the mill operatives have offer
ed, in consequence of the continued de-
preston in trade, to accept a reduction of
5 per cent. The masters at present insist
on 10, If they persist there will be a
new strike engaged in by ten thousand
work people. Not 1.-The oldest inhabt-
ant" wherever you find him, remembers
such sad state of affairs as that which
exists throughout England at the present
moment. A largely-attended meeting
has been held here to urge upon the gov
eminent The necessity of appointing u
royal commission to inquire into the
present operation of foreign tariffs on Eng
lish trade. 1t was attended by several
manufacturing authorities from the north,
who made some interesting statements,
which deserve attention in the considera-
ton of the great question of the day.
Mr.. Lister drew startling picture OF
more serious taouble ahead than that from
which England is at present suffering.
There was time,' he said, "when
America owed about three hundred mil
lion pounds in foreign bonds, but now the
amount is only about eighty million
pounds, and when that is paid America
will not ask us for our goods. but our
money. " hen that period arrives there
will he such u crash in England rs has
never been known before" He stated
positively that Mr.. Mundella, liberal
member for Sheffield. had factory in
Saxony, and that thence. and from other
places abroad, goods made by the aid of
British capital Invested in foreign lands
were coming to England duty free, while
English goods sent in return were heavily
taxed. England, he urged, hid two bill
lion pounds of domestic consumption,
which should employ her own people.
Foreign nations do not share their domcs-
tic consumption with England while Eng
land shares hers with them.
An excitement of mild and pleasant
kind has been caused here in London by
the introduction of the electric light into
the reading room of the British museum,
Gas has never been allowed there, for fear
of explosion and fire, but this magic light
of science, this subjugated soul of matter,
this cold flame. drawn from the secret
reservoirs of nature, rs the waters of re-
freshment were struck from the rock of
Merbah, is rs as safe rs it is pure. 1t
flows for minds sore athirst. Hundreds
whose days are given to uncongenial toll,
can now spend their evenings in reading
and study in that magnificent, but COM
Portable. hall. Nothing in this great, busy,
rushing world of London has impressed
me more profoundly than this vast circular
chamber, this rich treasure house of
knowledge, SO light so airy. yet so ma
estc; in the hours when most thronged,
still hushed, almost silent. The abbey
scarcely inspires me with more reverence
and awe. 1t is the temple of human
genius, the Pantheon OF Christian civliza-
ton
am not old enough to remember IIud.
son, 1.-THE railway king" when the world
Was At his feet; when dukes, bishops, even
royalty mixed in his saloons, and sued for
his financial favor. But few years ago
was introduced to him, n broken but
accomplishing man, for whom the pc ople
in the north were getting up subscrip-
ton. Mr.. Ralph Ward Jackson, the faith
er of the port of West IIartleford,' and its
first member of parliament, knew in the
zenith of his fame. lie was king in the
north, king among men. Hartshorne
Hall, nesting in the green graciousness
of English trees and meadows with fruit
ful gardens in its rear. and floral lawns in
front, with n hospitable mansion, and Mr..
Jackson, its owner, was beloved and re-
spected. Some twenty years ago, when
he should have retired into private life, he
entered upon serious and elastic litiga-
ton with one Of the richest and most
corporations of England, the
London and north, eastern railway compa-
uy. They have dragged him through
every possible court in the empire. He
has won several of the suits brought
against him, and judges of the land have
against their straining of the
law SO rs to turn it into q weapon of per-
secution. Meanwhile, Jackson's money
has gone. Twenty years without any
other occupation than instructing lawyers
and feeling counsel have left him high and
dry somewhere in n modest London lodc-
ing. The thing is almost forgotten by the
people he once ruled; while several of his
clerks and subcrdinates ride In their own
chariots and dress in purple and fine
linen.
The intelligence of the British juror has
seldom been more strikingly displayed
than in u case which came before the
Canterbury county court few days ago
The plaintiffs, firm of rope and sail
makers, brought an action against the
defendant to recover the price of some
rope with which they had supplied him.
The plaintiffs counsel was so satisfied
with the case as laid before the Judge and
jury by the defendants counsel that he
declined to address the court for his eli