22 OCTOBER 1853, Page 1

The operatives of Lancashire continuing partially " on strike," masters

of the towns have struck very generally, and now scores of thousands of hands are standing idle, at a loss to themselves of thousands upon thousands weekly, and at a proportionate loss to the retail commerce of the district. There are exceptions to the strike of the masters, and two of great magnitude,—Manchester, where the operatives have not struck, but only agitated ; and Stockport, where the masters have yielded most of the demands. But, this time, the masters in general cannot yield. At Stockport there has been a tendency for prices to keep above the mean level of the manufacturing districts; and this probably, or better ma- nagement, has enabled the masters to be an exception in giving higher wages; not a new fact in that town. The opposite state of things at Burnley, and many other towns, is a pledge of per- severance in the strike of employers, because they cannot rise to the exceptional Stockport level. The strike will continue till the men are made to understand that they must yield ; and the prac- tical question is, how can they be best and soonest made to under- stand that necessity.