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W&& THE LEADIB. [No. 29& Saturday/
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AFFAIRS AT MANCHESTER. The present aspec...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Recruits For 1856. The Avar Extends And ...
tiatos" for peace . A continued and an extended war > erefore , lies before us for 1856 . An extended war will demand an extension of our forces . Probably our naval machinery , recruited with the floating batteries , of which the Emperor Napoleon claims the invention , will be sufficient for all the duties before it ; but it is manifest that operations in Bessarabia , in Asia , and in the Baltic , as well as in the Crimea , will call for a great increase to the land forces , even if there be no demand for military operations in Central Europe . It
becomes important , therefore , to look ahead , m order to ascertain the sources from which our land armies may be recruited . No doubt more numerous and efficient levies can be secured by better arrangements at home . The graduated pay which is allowed to the sailors of the navy , in the formation of a first class between the able-bodied seaman and the petty officers , presents inducements to engage in that force without the dead weight of an increase of pay to every hand . As it is , about every tenth man pf the crew is sure of high pay , according
to his capacity ; and smart young men find something worth speculating in . Extra pay for the Crimean service , a larger allowance of commissions , and continued improvement in the relations of the soldier , will gradually operate upon the available Glasses at home . An absurdity that has kept numbers out of the ranks will no doubt be corrected by the necessities of the case . The examining surgeons axe afflicted with crotchets that make them reject very serviceable applicants for fanciful defects . In , a recent case , some supposititious prevalence of flat feet among the recruits caused wholesale rejection by a medical officer . In some respects , however , the comparatively
slight draft that has been made upon the resident population in this country is an ad van tage . It leaves a larger proportion as a reserve to be called forth at a future stage ; and when we know that Russia has already been enforcing her fourteenth levy , that she has drafted off one-fourth of her able-bodied manhood , while our own drafts have been limited to a very small proportion of the humblest class , we feel that we have a ¦ weight of strength behind which is alone sufficient , without greater mechanical and scientific aids , to make us stronger than the enemy . But we have other resources ¦ u pon which we can draw before we press more deeply into our own population .
Prejudices are entertained in the East against the Greeks , and yet certain Greek populations certainly deserve some consideration from this country . The lonians are , to a great extent , our fellow-subjects ; they ouglit to share the z'esponsibilities of the Empire ; they have a right to share the opportunities of the British . It is a grievance with the Ionian force that they cannot find employment . On the other hand , there are serious objections to the withdrawal of any large proportion of the British army from India ; as our total force
cannot be diminished hi that empire without risk . It is true that Russian agencies hare probably helped to render the Indian soldier in some quarters a less trustworthy sentinel of British interest $ than he lias been , and flint he might bo advantageously replaced . British regiments in India , or even Native Indiun regiments , would probably be rendered available for service in South Russia , if they could be replaced by troops from another quarter ; and we sec no reason why the Ionian regiments should not hero find the employment that is denied to thorn elsewhere .
There aro other resources in the far East which would bo extremely available . In the island of Ceylon there , is a force called " The Ceylon Kifles . " It has proved very steady in discipline , it is highly efficient , and it is
xecruited without difficulty . The men are not , as the name implies , natives of Ceylon ; they are drawn from Singapore and Penang ; and some have even been found at Bantam . They belong to the fierce Malay tribes ,. can be obtained in considerable numbers . By increasing this force , a European regiment or two in the South of India might be set free ;—nay it is probable that the force itself might be advantageously transported for service to
the Crimea , or even take its part in the Asiatic campaign . The quality of the men has been well tried . They prove very suitable to be officered by Europeans ; they are Mahommedans , yet not very squeamish as to the circumstances amid which they are thrown ; they are easily kept in a state of practical discipline ; they are naturally fierce and adventurous ; and , in short , they constitute the materials for exactly such a corps as would ~ most valuable .
W&& The Leadib. [No. 29& Saturday/
W && THE LEADIB . [ No . 29 & Saturday /
Affairs At Manchester. The Present Aspec...
AFFAIRS AT MANCHESTER . The present aspect of affairs at Manchester is ominous , and the sad experience of the winter before last suggests a catastrophe which , under the present circumstances , it is not pleasant to contemplate . " With the war upon us , the people ' s food at famine prices , a severe winter before us , and discontent abroad among the working-classes , a Strike in Manchester , the very heart of our domestic industry , is not exactly the thing we should have wished for most .
In some important features the present dispute differs from the unhappy quarrel which originated at Preston in 1853 . Here is no shuffling and "beating about the bush ; no blinking of the real question at issue ; no refusals to give the advance accompanied by insult ; no long period of fierce but suppressed contention ; and then ( when the men have been goaded beyond their patience ) , no
pretence that the struggle was not for wages , but for mastery : we are happy to say that there are none of these ugly symptoms about the matter ; on the contrary , the points in dispute have been fairly stated on both sides , and that with remarkable judgment and temper . We wish that Ave could add to this assurance an expression of belief that the dispute will be any the more speedily settled on these accounts ; but we « annot .
The fact is , the class of operatives now engaged is a very different one from that which struck at Preston . Here are no mobs of giddy girls and liobadchoys , plastic material for wrongheaded and violent demagogues to work upon , but solid and experienced workmen , long tried and hardened in the furnace of labour . At Preston , the spinners had no quarrel Avith the masters , but were compelled to turn out because the inaction of the weavers rendered their services unnecessary . This is a Strike of spinners only , and those Avho aro acquainted with the manufacturing districts know what that means . The Preston Strike of 1833 was u strike of
spinners , and a more determined and better organised pitched battle between capital and labour it would be impossible to conceive . As the quostioiv has been stated botweon the masters and men , it seems to be much more complicated and difficult of settlement than the advance or reduction of an equal and indiscriminate ten per cent . ; indeed , it involves some points not so much technical , as arising out of those principles Avhich govern the internal economy of the whole kingdom . We will endeavour to bo as brief and as intelligible ns possiblo in stating what theso arc . In the first place , it should bo understood that the manufacturing district , like every
other , is subject to a constant mutation . As the prices of land vary , as the art of living is cheaper or dearer , as means of transit increase and as accident directs capital into new channels , the various manufacturing towns change very much in their relative importance . No place offers a more striking instance of this than the metropolis of the cotton district itself : five-and-twenty years ago , Manchester was the head-quarters of every branch of the cotton manufacture ; at this day , its only
speciality is fine spinning ; all the other branches have migrated to other parts of the district . The causes of this change are almost too obvious to need explanation : land is dearer , and food is dearer , in Manchester , than elsewhere : and the consequence is , that it offers advantages only to that costly description of manufacture which demands the best skilled , and , therefore , best paid operatives . Coarse spinning is , therefore , on the decline in Manchester , and the men avIio have turned out ( to the aggregate of nearly 3 , 500 ) are
coarse spinners . Before proceeding any further , we Avish to explain a principle in trade which a writer in the leading journal , avIio seeks to demonstrate to the poor spinner that starvation is not half so bad as having to put doAvn your carriage or give up wine , seems altogether to ignore ; and that is , that labour is a part of the material out of which goods are made , and is not to he
paid for out of the profits . The cotton broker is not paid for his cotton out of the profits . Suppose the manufacturers were to go and say to him : " Trade is bad , and we can ' t afford to pay the same price for your cotton . " He Avould curtly reply : " Buy less ; make less stuff ; and the market will mend . " The principle Avhich regulates the price of labour is precisely the same .
Returning to the-special ense of Manchester , Ave find that food and lodging being dearer than elsewhere , a Avorknum requires more to live upon there than in any other tOAvn in the district ; but , on the other hand , the manufacturer is not so far from his market , and lie is much nearer his cotton . He has , besides , some other special advantages , Avhich would enable him to produce goods at a much cheaper rate than elsewhere , if it Avero not for the draAvbacks Avhich Ave haA r c enumerated . Xoav it is clear that AvlieneA'orthe drawbacks upon any trade exceed the advantages , that trade must cease to exist . Men cannot be expected
to Avork upon starvation wages ' , and masters cannot long trade under a loss . Here lies the Avhole matter in dispute between the spinners and manufacturers of Manchester . Wq have shown that the operative * cannot livo Avithout a higher rate of pay llinn they can obtain elsewhere . If the mnnufneturers can show that to -pixy this higher rale is beyond their ability , tlio sooner thoy sell their mills and transport their machinery to some more fit / vourable part of the district the better , for that branch of tlio trade must be practically dead in Manchester , and to porscvere in it must be inevitable bankruptcy .
It is highly probable that this is the true state of the case . Whether , therefore , the masters did ordid not giA ' e too much Avliou they conceded nd vjjiiccs in 1853 , it is not important to know ; but it is desirable to ascertain Avliafc rales I lioy can afl- ' ord to pny hii / ltcr than those which prevail
elsewhere . Blanch ester being under . special circumstances , cannot bo governed by a rate which is applicable lo Aslitoii , Hyde , or Bolton . The masters aro therefore in error when they appeal io tho rates pni < l at other places , and tlio men retort upon them with terrible logic : —" You combined llio year before last to prevent us from forcing Pr eston
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 24, 1855, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24111855/page/14/
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