The proposi of the Newcastle Engineers, communicated through Mr. Mundella,
that the three hours in dispute between them and the Masters should be conceded by the masters in return for a proportionate lowering of the men's wages to be determined by arbitration, was declined by Sir W. G. Armstrong on behalf of the employers, in a letter dated last Saturday, though not made known till Monday even in Newcastle,—from which we infer that private efforts were vainly made to induce the employers to reconsider their determination. The masters' reasons, which we have considered at length elsewhere, amount to this, —that even if the Newcastle men still on strike are sincere in preferring a nine hours' day with a lower wage to a ten hours' day with a higher one, the best of the old hands, who have already got employment in other districts, would not be tempted back by such terms ; that the rate of wages thus agreed upon would soon have to be raised, in order to bring fresh labour into a market rendered short of labour by this artificial diminution of each man's working power ; and that the masters could not desert their class—who are strenuously supporting them in their resist- ance. A meeting of the men on strike was held immediately on the receipt of Sir W. G. Armstrong's answer, and resolutions passed pledging the men to revert to their original demand, and expressing the utmost confidence in their president, Mr. Burnett, and hearty gratitude to Mr. Mundella for his services as mediator. It was obvious that the men were rather relieved than disappointed at the rejection of the compromise they had pro- posed. They are sincerely eager for the nine hours' day, but they are naturally not enthusiastic for the reduction of their own wages as its price. They think they can got the boon without the sacrifice.
