The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1879-04-05
OUR EUROPEAN LETTER.

frODOtts.- Indh lies IN the Iua 01ld
at the Present fine.-- me COming
Tidal Wdre among Engiih Emi-
grants. = Pope Leo XIII / new
Departure.
LOSDoN. March II. 1879. D..
There is much disturbance ia the Eng
Ii III labor market, on account of which
American manufacture are being more
readily introduced. The industrial pho
iJmena which We are now witnessing
NAV no doubt be accounted for by the
prolonged depression of trade. but they
none the less challenge attention as a
proof of thr great change that has taken
place in this country during The past
irw wears. " ttch prosperity was going
/ rwnrd by leaps and bounds. Goals were
ut famine prices. house rents reached q
point never touched before. wages
sprang up ia many trades in manner
quite unprecedented and there Wns a
general brisknesa in business caused by
the large accession 10 the wages fund of
the country. II was in those daSs that
We heard of the colliers drinking Moet
aud Bollinger rs pleasant way of dis
posing of their money, and although the
allegation was probably fiction, il may
be taken as an indication of the pros
perity of the period. The caricaturcs Of
the comic papers exhibited butchers
asking extravagant prices for their
meats, colliery proprietors were max
ing fortunes, and proposals to reduce
wages were never heard of. The diff
ference between the picture of COM
mercial and industrial life as ii then
presented itself, and as it now appears.
is SO striking that II ustiiles feeling of
astonlshment that So great u change
should have taken place in su short a
time. The contrast is complete. The
coal and iron trades, and nearly all
| other trades, have experienced a degree
| OF depression almost unknown in this
generation; house property has in
| in many districts become drug on the
market, and labor has suffered as prices
have fallen. There are at this moment
waiting for settlement, numerous trade
| disputes, and in nearly every instance
| they relate, not TO fresh demands on the
part OF workmen, but to proposed re-
auctions OF wages or tO all increase i'll
the hours of labor. Some Of tho great
er railways have already enforced on
their employees a reduced scale of pay
ment; the engineering trade is threat
ened in the same direction, and there
are many instances in which strikes on
considerable scale have taken place.
The felt-hat makers of Lancashire struck
against reduction of five per cent.
In disti lets of Scotland third reduc-
tion of five per cent in the wages of
flax-spinners has taken place; great
strike of rivetters has taken place on the
Clyde against seven and half per cent
reduction; at Dundee the joiners re-
ceiye eighteen pence per day less than
| they did year ago; there has been a
considerable reduction in the wages OF
the iron shipbuilders; in the north of
England the cmpoves of the Lancaster
Wagon Company have accepted re-
duction of wages; at Liverpool there
were recently twenty thousand men
idle through the strike against re,luc-
ton in the dock laborers wages. In
| Wales the men in the employment of the
Abernant Company, numbering over
two thousand, accepted a reduction.
after weeks strike, the company hav-
ing threatened to close the pits; at
Preston leading firms have reduced the
wages in the weaving branches to the
extent OF ten per cent at Roiherham
artisans have submitted to an increase
of the working hours to nine and halt
per day, and in the leading Matchmaking
districts in Siatfordshire u reduction of
ten per cent has been accepted. These
are bnt few specimens Of the down
ward movement which il accompany ing
the depression of trade The general
allegation of the emploves i thai labor
i more than abundant; that trade in
many branches mas cCaend - hf rennn-
| ha T.
wages which became possible in davs of
unparalleled prosperity can no longer
be paid, and as a result ofall this, prep
araiions on a gigantic scale Tor whole
sale emigration to America are being
made. The idle lands in the Uniled
Stuies will Snon receive some GOOD lem
ants and several railroad companies
are at present deeply engaged IN hold
my out the varions advantages each has
to offer ~ la good homes and cheap
transportation.
The people of England hail with
gieat satisfaction The improving tone of
the Vatican since the robuster rule q
Leo NIL hhs begun to make itself felt.
During the last few years of his lie, the
late rope was mere senile tool in the
hands of the 'jesnis, 10y whom he was
used for purposes to which as II Young
er man, he would never have submit
, ted. Cardinal Pecci is altogether n man
OF different mould; and although no
very violent changes can be expected
from one in his position the reforms lac
, has already introduced do not find much
favor with the Itramonianes. One ol
the most sensible things which the new
! rope mas done Is T." discourage. To the