The dispute between certain millowners and the operative spin. ners
at Manchester has not been accommodated, and the men have given notice of a strike if the reduction of wages be enforced. The points at issue have not changed ; the masters still appear to plead low prices for the manufactured article, the men per contra high prices for provisions. The most striking fact bearing upon this immediate dispute, is the large purchase of cotton, by speculators and even the trade, in the face of a high price of raw cotton; as if the masters were preparing for some vast extension of make in the face of low prices for calicoes. The facts necessarily suggest a suspicion of some reckless speculation at work ; and it must cer- tainly look ill to the men, if they are asked to suffer the conse- quences in wages to save profits. The idea of largely increased make is not justified by any material change in the great markets abroad : upon the whole, they appear to be rather mending than otherwise ; but the very existence of low prices proves that there is no room for extended production. Nor is the state of the home market encouraging. If agriculture at present enjoys remune- rating prices, there is a general tendency to put a check upon con- sumption ; and the threat of strikes in the iron and other trades of the North also indicates more contraction, at the same time that it multiplies the direct signs of uneasiness for the winter.
