October 27.
Tar spirit of unrest that has dominated the industrial world for some months past appears to be extending in Great Britain. While it is true that the immediate difficulties of the 16,000 miners in the Cambrian collieries have been overcome, and that the 150,000 operatives concerned in the lockout decided upon by the Federation of Master Cotton Spinners have now returned to work, yet the struggle between the colliers and their employers may break out again as vigorously as ever, and the cotton operatives are not, as a whole, contented. On Saturday the Shipbuilding Federated "Employers decided unanimously to continue' the lockout that had been suspended ten days previously, and once more great conflict in the British shipbuilding trade promises to banish the prospective revival in that branch of industrial enterprise. In stating that the unrest in the labour world is extending, we refer not so much to lockouts or strikes actually existing as to the temper that is being displayed by artisans all over the country. Disunion and dissatisfaction reign supreme. A yrasal of the reports of the recent.
rades Union Congress shows that in the labour ranks there are many opinions, and no common object animates the various leaders and bodies of men. In the Congress, which is largely a preserve for official trade unionism, the extent! of the fission could not be concealed. The sharpest line was drawn between the class of men who look upon their society primarily as a benefit club, and those who hold that it is an instrament with which they may protect themselves against arbitrary or unfair exactions on the part of their employers. The: division between these two classes is widening daily, and it is computed that at least twenty-five per cent of the members have protested againat the expensive political policy of the unions, and in Lancashire new unions are being formed by the dissidents. Osborne, who refused to pay lev' for the support of the Tmbour candidate, is, therefore, only one of a growing class, and it will interesting to see whether the' majority will insist eventually on the unions seceding from the position that they have assumed with respect to the Parliamentary presentation of Labour.
Not the least noteworthy feature in connexion with these unsettled conditions is_the fact that the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.