splendid political career,-he had not been so long before the public; he could not refer, like him, to their experience alone, to be entitled to exempt himself from the appropriate questions"What are your opinions, Mr. Hobhouse? What is it you intend to do for us?" It was, therefore, no desertion of the ancient Purtiy of Election in Westminster, when he now declared, that if he were put in nomination, he should stand at the hustings to answer the questions of every Elector. You," concluded Mr. Hobhouse, are the friends of order, and by chusing a Reformer, you will do your best to prevent a Revolution; for you must entirely subdue the arbitrary system by which it has been attempted to govern this country, or submit yourselves to the worst of despotism-a barrack-bound tyranny. If I am chosen by you, to the People all my gratitude will be due. To the People I shall recur for advice, for admonition, and, if it be necessary, for orders; for a man cannot be a Representative when he ceases to express the will of his Constituents.".

Mr. Hobhouse, during the whole of his speech, which was delivered with great animation, was frequently interrupted with loud and unanimous bursts of approbation; and we will venture to say, that at no subsequent meeting of the Electors of Westminster, will it be inquired- "Who is he, or what is he?"

Mr. COBBETT was then proposed by Mr. Jenkins, as a proper person to represent the City in Parliament, and seconded by Mr. Hunt. On this proposition some confusion arose, but order was quickly restored by the exertions of the worthy Baronet.

Mr. HUNT then addressed the Meeting. He declared that no personal consideration should induce him to obstruct the success of the public cause; and that he would struggle, cordially and actively in aid of any man, whom the majority of that Meeting might recommend. He said he had promised to come forward himself and oppose Sir M. Maxwell, or any other Ministerial tool, provided no other person offered. He then made some observations on the political opinions of Sir Benjamin Hobhouse, the father of the Candidate; but as it was afterwards stated that Mr. Hobhouse had been proscribed by his family on account of his devotion to his country and the public cause, it is not necessary to repeat them.

Mr. WISHART then proposed Lord J. Russell, son of the Duke of Bedford. Nothing can shew more the state of complete perdition into which the Whig Faction has fallen in this country, than the chilling reception this proposition encountered from such a numerous and intelligent Meeting. There is something in the name of Russell to warm the heart of every Englishman, and the Bedford Family is certainly the most patriotic and respectable in the English Aristocracy-yet it is tainted with this infernal Whiggism -a sin so foul and abominable, that even the consecrated names of Russell, Hampden, and Sydney, would not be considered a sufficient atonement. This proposal expired in the hands of its author; there not being more, we think, than six voices in its favour.

Our limits will only admit us giving a short summary of the remaining proceedings of this highly interesting Meeting. Mr. Wooler was repeatedly called upon, but, not being an Elector, he declined coming forward. Guided as the Meeting was in its deliberations by the wisdom of Sir Francis Burdett; comprising such a numerous body of Electors; and with unexceptionable Candidates for its choice, we were at a loss to conceive why Mr. Sturch should wish the Assembly to pause in its proceedings. Delay might be attended with the most pernicious consequences; and no man could expect that any subsequent Meeting which could be obtained, would have more authority and wisdom in its decision. That any usurping Junta of private individuals should controul or dictate to the Independent Electors of Westminster, who had thrown off the yoke of the Whig and Tory Factionswho had baffled all the attempts of Corruption to enslave them, was, to us, totally incomprehensible,

At the conclusion, the Chairman, in an eloquent speech, commented on the observations of the different speakers. He censured severely the illiberal attacks on Mr. Hobhouse, on account of the political opinions of his father. It reminded him of the fable of the wolf and the lamb, when the former could find no other fault against the latter, it was charged with the crime of the parent. The pretensions of Mr. Hobhouse he considered not inferior to any man, with the exception of Major Cartwright, who had been abandoned merely from the impossibility of carrying his election. He paid a merited compliment to the talents of Mr. Cobbett, and regretted that tyranny had driven him from his Country; but he did not think he was likely to be returned for Westminster.

Mr. Hunt then withdrew the name of Mr. Cobbett, declaring that he would support Mr. Hobhouse heart and hand, and wished his friends to do the same, in order to defeat the Ministerial tool, Lord Russell having also expressed a wish to abide by the decision of the of the Meeting, and being already in the House, Mr. Hobhouse alone remains for the undivided support of the independent Electors

A Resolution was then passed for the appointment of a Committee to carry the decision of the Meeting into effect. Thanks were voted to the Honourable Baronet, whose able and judicious conduct in the Chair, had contributed so much to the fortunate termination of the day. The Meeting broke up about five o'clock.

JOURNEYMEN OPTICIANS.

DURING the war of the Borough Faction against human knowledge and happiness, an immense number of individuals in this country rose into imaginary wealth and greatness. These mushrooms (for they are all of the fungus tribe) form now an important class in society: they are all attached to the system to a man; they love it like a parent to which they owe existence. They are, however, mere air bubbles, blown up by the circumstances of the times, and when these circumstances cease to operate, they will collapse into their original nothingness. They have no root any

where; and, really, looking to the future, we should be at a loss to say, whether property vested in the funds, or laid out in factories, machinery, and other mercantile establishments, were most likely to be permanent. The security of the fundholder is in the ability of the people to pay the taxes; or the length of time they will tamely submit to be plundered and insulted by the tax-gatherer. The permanency of the wealth and prosperity of our manufacturers and merchants, depends on the length of time other nations will be in maturing their own manufactures and commerce, when they have so many advantages in their favour.

Although the Oligarchy and the commercial interest, meaning by that interest the great capitalists and manufacturers, cling to each other, and seem identified, their interests are as opposite as the poles. Peculiar circumstances have united them for a time, but they are totally incompatible. The soul of commerce, in all ages, has been freedom and exemption from imposts; but the principles of the Borough system are despotism and taxation They cannot live together; either the Oligarchy must perish, or commerce; they stand in direct opposition, and one must eat up the other. The policy of the Borough-mongers has, undoubtedly, fostered, and, in some measure, created English commerce; but to uphold the system, which that policy has created, must be destructive of commerce. The interest clearly, then, of commercial men, is to aid the people in destroying the system; for if it triumphs, they must perish.

While, however, the trading classes, during the last twenty-five years, have been rising rapidly into affluence-while they have been gliding into worships, squireships, and justiceships-learning law and aping the manners of aristocrats, their workmen, by whose labour and skill their wealth has been accumulated-at whose costmany of them have risen from the rank of journeymen to roll in their carriages-have suffered a positive deterioration in their circumstances: they are universally in a worse situation now, than what they were before the war of the Borough-mongers.

Perhaps of all the manufactures that have been carried on in this country, the cotton manufacture has been the most profitable to those who have embarked their capital therein; yet have the masters in that business violated their solemn engagements, and kept their workmen at wages which would not purchase the necessaries of life; and to complete the barbarity and injustice of their conduct, they are endeavouring to punish the men with the most savage and unjust law in the English code, merely for attempting to do themselves justice. In the case of the Type Founders we have seen, that though the business has been nearly a monopoly in the hands of about half a score individuals, and they have been realizing enormous profits, the men have been kept at the same wages they had received 70 years. In pages 151-6, it is proved, on the most unexceptionable authority, that it is not only mechanical labourers whose wages have been actually depressed, but likewise agricultural and common labourers have experienced a deterioration in their

circumstances. That this is a fact no one can doubt, who will take the trouble to compare the prices of provisions and wages, at the two periods; and he will find that the masters situation has been greatly improved, while the situation of the workmen has been rendered infinitely worse; the former have risen into luxury, affluence, and importance, and the latter have fallen into poverty, want, and degradation.

Now it remains to account for this paradoxical fact; for it is certainly contrary to theory, and the opinions we once entertained; for we had always thought that the prosperity of masters and workmen were simultaneous and inseparable. But the fact is not so; and we have no hesitation in saying, that the cause of the deterioration in the circumstances of workmen generally, and the different degrees of deterioration among different classes of journeymen, depends entirely on the degrees of perfection, that prevails among them, which the law has pronounced a crimenamely, COMBINATION. The circumstances of workmen do not in the least depend on the prosperity or profits of the masters, but on the power of the workmen to command-nay to extort a high price for their labour; and this again depends on the degree they are combined together, so as to act in concert. The masters are united to a man to keep down wages; it is their interest; and if-workmen are not united likewise to oppose them, there is no limit to their degradation. This is sufficiently evinced in the situation of the Wolverhampton men with their 9s. a week, and the Lancashire weavers; the numbers and poverty of those mechanics have almost fendered organization impossible.

But we cannot prove more strongly by facts, the advantages and disadvantages of workmen being united and not united, than in the two cases of the Tailors and Type Founders. They are two extreme cases. The Tailors by a most masterly Combination, which does the highest honour to the intelligence and harmony which prevail among them, and which all journeymen ought to cultivate, have preserved themselves from degradation ;-they have contended for their rank in society; they have fought five pitched battles with their employers, and conquered every time. But these Type Founders, poor devils, for want of organization, have been almost screwed into a nut-shell, brow-beaten, insulted, and treated worse than dogs; and when they ventured to complain to do themselves justice, their unfeeling tyrants, who had robbed them of half their patrimony-read the Combination Act, and threatened to send them to the House of Correction !!!

The case of the Journeymen Opticians, is a case of similar injustice and hardship; and analogous to the Type Founders. They are few in number, without any sort of union among themselves; and their present wages will not purchase much more than one-half the quantity of necessaries they did at the time the war of despotism commenced. In 1795, and for twenty years before that period, the wages of a Journeyman Optician, a good hand, were £1 1s. a week, and the quartern loaf sold at 7ąd. During the war the optical trade was brisk, and some men could earn as

much as £1 7s. a week. Workmen in this business labour 12 hours a day; and their present wages are £1 4s. In some factories, the average wages of the workmen do not exceed by more than 3s. a week, what they were 40 years ago; and in other factories, the men who are working 72 hours a week, do not earn more than 18s. But the wages given in this business are by no means uniform; they depend a good deal on the disposition and character of the master. We understand the masters in this business hate each other cordially; and they only agree on one point-to keep their workmen at as low wages as possible; and they have agreed not to employ a workman who has been discharged for demanding higher wages. About ten years ago, the workmen in this business united; but for want of zeal, or a good understanding among themselves, they again separated; and since then, they have been as tame and submissive to their employers, as a flock of sheep.

There are, in this business, same as the Type Founders, a smaller class of tradesmen, termed garret-masters, who not only sell their manufacture cheaper than those of larger capital, and who carry on the trade on a more entensive scale, but they do actually give higher wages to the men they employ. This we believe is the case; in all trades, and proves that the profits of the masters do not in the least regulate the wages of the men; for the profits of the master Opticians who employ a larger capital being proportionately greater, they ought, according to this principle, to give higher wages to the workmen, instead of which they give lower.

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While, however, the workmen have been gradually retrograding in society, the masters have been rising into affluence and importance. They have nearly all become Squires at least; it is now Squire GILBERT, Squire WATKINS, Squire DOLLOND, Squire RAMSDEN, &c. A few years ago these don Opticians discontinued their annual mathematical feast, merely because a few hawkers of weather glasses, and dealers in spectacles attended. These intruders paid their seven shillings for their dinner, same as the Dons; but we suspect their presence reminded our new fledged squires of their origin, and thus spoilt their appetite, so they have ever since discontinued the anniversary.

We have only one prescription to offer to the journeymen Opticians to get them into flesh--they must unite among themselves. They see what the TAILORS have done by Combination alone; and they see the present situation of the Type Founders, which twenty years ago, was on a par with the TAILORS; but for want of union their present wages are only now about one half the wages of the TAILORS. These two cases, properly considered, contain all the instruction that is necessary to each and every class of journeymen, to teach them both their interest and duty.

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Printers' Article next week, certainly.

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