The annual Trades' Union Congress was opened at South- port
on Tuesday with a speech from Mr. T. R. Threlfall, which presented some points of interest. It was intensely Democratic in tone, the speaker averring that Parliament would never be an efficient body till it was " leavened " with working repre- sentatives; that the rich were quite as bad as the landlords ; that every city in England consisted of two cities,—the one all luxury and the other all misery ; and that every man had " a right to live, and a right to shelter, food, and clothes, and if Christianity were trite, to brotherly consideration." The latter of these rights is undeniable, and the former three are admitted by our law ; but Mr. Threlfall should have stated that as to these three Christianity puts in a rider,—" He that will not work, neither shall he eat." The speaker contended for free education on the ground that all men paid taxes—an argument which would compel us to establish a free delivery of letters—and held that the quickest road to diminish misery world be to make eight hours the legal day. That would diminish the labour of each, and therefore cause more to be employed—a remark of which the speaker hardly sees the fall force. Would he like universal half-time P It should be noticed that Mr. Threlfall—with, we believe, all workmen—while distrustful of his representatives, likes officials, and wants more and yet more inspectors. In England, as on the Continent, the people are learning to rely on the bureaucracy as their defenders—a curious and beneficial change.
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