"MASTER HUMPHREY" IN ENGLAND.

Evening Star, Issue 3593, 28 August 1874, Page 2

"MASTER HUMPHREY" IN ENGLAND.

(No. L) „ , Wolvkrhamptow, June 30, Une of the moat interesting events of the month is an addresa on strikes and the procedure of trades unions, delivered by Mr Wad atone to the workmen employed at the Aston Hall Colliery, in which he is a shareHolder. b'ome three months ago these men were served with a notice of 15 per cent, reauction in wages, and, rather than acquiesce in it, they all, with tbe exception of four, struck work. Latterly the owners of the colliery found they would have to give way, and the men were accordingly notified that they might resume work at tbe old rate, bat this they refused to do unless the four recalcitrants were discharged, in this dilemma the manager of the oolliery wrote to Mr Gladstone, who owns the cottages in which the workmen live, inquiring if he weuldailow them to continue their tenancy whilst interfsnng with the undoubted liberties of their fehow-workmen. Mr Gladstone thereupon n f OU Bt^ ik<s * dl ßcla»u»ing any intention of interfering as landlord, but. askmg them to meet him and discuss the matter. aio^* fereuce . acco *dingly held. Mr strated wit^l? but .. eara « atl lV romonriohfc P omtw ? oxxt that their Jig" ™ combine or to strike did nob arise rom their bqmg in the majority, but iron teuaa ssasygfi m 5“o ufle of their liberty. He then nroeeeded to about the exorcise of thq

franchise in counties, from which the bulk of his audience were debarred, remarking that the ebief argument used by the oppoBents of its reduction was the tyrannica 1 attempts of majorities of working men to coerce the minorities. Mr Gladstone ha> been a good deal censured for using this argument; but surely it was a legitimate one. The men were disposed to take tlu law into their own hands, and Mr Gladslom showed that the result was their being deprived of any voice in making the Jaw. However that may be, the appeal seems to have been successful. The men have returned to work, and no more is said as to the exclusion of the non-unionists. The locked-out agricultural laborers cannot complain of want of sympathy on the part of the working classes in towns. Manchester has been the scene of one of those imposing displays of strength aptly called **demonstrations.” The object was to express sympathy with the farm laborer in his efforts to obtain a less wretched stipend, and to this end the operatives of no less than seventy different trades formed themselves in procession and marched through Manchester, The numbers of each trade ranged from one hundred te fire hundred, so the procession from first to last must have counted many thousands. Each trade was preceded by a band of music and four men who bore aloft its flag. It bad judiciously been arranged that the trades should take their place in the precession in alphabetical order, and there being no trade whose name commenced with A, an opportunity was afforded of awarding the place of hon«r to •ne who has nobly distinguished himself by his generous and enlightened sympathy in the present controversy. At the head of the procession therefore was borne a portrait of a Bishop—it is needless to say the Bishop of Manchester—which elicited the most hearty hunts of cheering as it lei the way. I should require sheets of paper to give a list of all the trades that lent their aid to this demonstration. Suffice it that they ranged right through the directory from bakers and boilermakers to wheelwrights and waagonmakers. The printers were handsomely represented, and in a waggon they conveyed a printing press in full operation, striking off copies of the Bishop of Manchester’s let'er, which were sold as fast as they were pro’dneed. In another part of the procession Were two money-boxes, each nearly the size of a watering cart, mounted on four wheels and drawn by a horse. Into these the spectators were invited to cast their mites, and the appeal was, to all appearance, a successful one. judging from the jingling of pence and half-pence. The favorite air of the bands appeared to be that of “The Farmer’s Boy,” the words of which were taken up lustily, and sung with equal enthusiasm by the members of the procession and the lookers on. The end of the inarch was Pomona Gardens, which possesses a hall;ca; able of seating 20.000 persons. In addition to this, several platforms were erected, from which Mr Arch and his associates addressed the crowds. The enthusiasm was unbounded, and it is hardly possib’e to believe otherwise than that such a magnificent expression of sympathy must have a marked effect on the| sttuggle that is pending.

As ft contrast to this—not a tery refreshing contrast certainly—it is worth while to glance at meetings held by the Farmers’ Union. The latter hare got a live mantuis to advocate their cause, for the land-owning aristocracy have discovered that if their tenants are made to pay the laborers sufficient to enable them to live as human beings, it is possible that rents may not keep ftt quite so exorbitant a figure. The misery and degradation of thousands of industrious men are, of course, not to be considered in comparison with such a calamity as that of the idle classes not having quite so much to ■pend on luxury. Consequently we are always hearing of farmers’ meetings being addressed by some titled incapable or other The speech of the Marquis I have referred to is unique, and indeed highly valuable as a specimen of aristocratic logic. It seems Mr Arch had. denounced, with words of horning indignation, the insidious appropriation and inclosure of commons, which, in truth, amounted to neither more nor less than the confiscation, by -a few .rich conspirators, of valuable public property —the only public property from which the poor derived any considerable benefit. Well, the Marquis, with the evident impression that he was administering a settler to Mr Arch, pointed but that the cliarge of spoliation was entirely unfounded, “ because the inclosure and appropriation had been effected by Act of Parliament!” This is about as good as it would be to say that a robbery cannot have beep committed because it was effected by policemen. The poor Marquis’s obtuse intellect was apparently incapable of grasping the fact that a crime is twice as criminal and twenty times as mischievous when commit ted by means of the law than when committed in spite of it. As to the responsibility of legislators, he evidently had not the remotest conception; appearing, indeed, to imagine that if such persons sacrificed public welfare to their own private interests, they were doing precisely what was to he expected, and what was in all respects most becoming. -