The employers of labour appear to have been frightened by
the rapid success of the nine-hours' movement into a somewhat serious resolution. A meeting, attended by masters from all parts of England and Scotland, and employing more than 100,000 hands, was held on Thursday, at the Palace Hotel, London. They resolved to form a defensive coalition against the demands of the- men, more especially with regard to the reduction of hours, whicl• as they believe, will not stop at fifty-four hours a week. Softie- trades are already asking for fifty-one hours, and Mr. Scott Russell pleads for forty-eight hours. An association of this kind, which must act through lock-outs, may prove, unless wisely managed, the most dangerous Trades' Union of all, as if successful over any great district, or any particular trade, it might settle wages with as little deference to competition as the Trades' Unions wish to show. The combination is certain to drive the Trades' Unions still closer together, and compel all the free labourers to join, unless, indeed, it has the judgment to follow up a half-hint of Mr. Morley's, and organize an im- mense Pension Fund for all workmen who stay so many years in one employ. The ultimate instrument for bringing workmen to reason without oppressing them must be the instinc- tive dread of old age, which on the Continent makes the peasant think any property, however small, better than any wages, however- large.
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