The Short-time folks are busy again. They have taken up
a new and improved position ; and though the matter has not made BO much noise as if a factory or two had been burnt down, their new course, steadily pursued, may possibly lead, with help already rising into view, to a most important social change. Not disheart- ened by Lord ASHLEY'S defeat, the Lancashire Central Short-time Committee have determined to see what they can do themselves, without waiting for Parliament ; they have resolved to attempt bringing about a Ten-hours system of labour, by cooperation among themselves and by soliciting the cooperation of .employers. The enterprise is good, and thus far their spirit is excellent. They have thrown aside hostilities ; they profess to approach their em- ployers "respectfully," and to seek from their sympathy and good- will what they could scarcely wring from any class. We lay no stress on the word " respectfully " as implying servility, or the de- meanour of inferior to superior, because that is not apt to be the 'humour of the Lancashire workmen ; but we take it to mean re- spect as between man and man—a considerate courtesy, quite in- compatible with threats or the imputation of bad motives and feel- ings. The desired system is one that could much better be real- ized by mutual arrangements than by act of Parliament. Any set of men are morally at liberty to agree that they will limit their la- bour to certain hours , and to do so is no interference with freedom of trade, of labour, or any other freedom. It would, for innume- rable reasons repeatedly shown, be greatly to the interest of the workpeople ; it would be greatly to the interests of the masters, because beneficial to the workpeople, and also because a check to" over-production "; greatly to the interest of the nation, as a counteraction to over-toil, already felt to be intolerable by sbopmen and other town classes. A desire for mutual good un- derstanding is the greatest step towards it ; and if the men are " re- 'potful" and sincere, the masters will hardly be other than sincere and respectful too. The difficulty will be, 'for the few to begin, without being hurt by the competition of'tbose who are too timid, too avaricious, or too shortsighted to 'be among the first. Cannot the men fall upon some plan of helping employers through that strait ? It might be devised : it would be only just ; and it would greatly smooth their own way.
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