The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-11-07 00:00:00

THE AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS'
VOTE.

The Rev. Sidney Godolphin Osborne writes to the
2imes:—

"At a time when political parties are engaged in a
heated strife which compels them to seek for weapons
of offence against each other with little regard to
what weapon they handle for the purpose, it for ever
happens that common sense and truth are altogether
shunted. We do not really expect it to be otherwise;
electioneering oratory and party manifestoes are
accepted for what they are worth, as so many baits
for votes. I doubt whether they have, however, any-
thing like the value for the purpose we are apt to
attribute to them; the veil is too thin to conceal
the real features. The platform pleader dresses
his arguments for the occasion to meet the cup.
posed expectancy of his audience ; he is cheered
for what he was expected to say, and the more
cheered if he says it well; but, after all, it is only
a more or less eloquent and graceful tribute to
the supposed opinions of those whose votes he is
trying to obtain; the pledges asked of him and
given are taken at their worth—they are for ever
in reality not seriously demanded or seriously given
—they are mere canvas-plated goods. To me there
is something approaching to comedy in the way the
lot of the agricultural labourer has come to the front;
it is platforrned far pAnd wide without reference to any
peculiar party feeling. Tory, Whig, and Radicsl
have all discovered that my old friend Hodge needs
the elevation social which shall make him a farmer
on his own account, lift up his head when at work as
toiling in his own interest. Where were all these
friends of the labourer in the many years in which I,
in the Times, fought in his behalf, that he should not
be defrauded in his wages and housed little better—
nay, not so well—as the farmer's pigs, the landlord's
horses? When I look back to that day, and read
over again the records as taken from the Times of all
that I then brought forward, and all the doing so
brought upon me, I confess, in sorrow, I see where I
was wrong; I had not then taken into account that
the agriculturd labourer had no vote. I own to
much mistrust as to the real value of all the
philanthropy thus hustings - begotten, and I
credit the agricultural labourer—a very different
being from what he was when I fought his battle
almost single-penned—with too much common sense
to believe that he does not see through this sudden
interest in his condition. It will take a great deal
more than all this talk on all sides to persuade him
that any law will ever exist to take from others land
to sell to him, or that, if it were so, except in very
rare cases, his lot in these days would be improved
by making him a small fanner. ibis no mean judge
of all that this would entail upon him in relation to
any real profit he could make in that character. His
wages have risen; he must be better housed to retain
him as a servant; the price of all he wears and all he
eats is low; in good or bad seasons he has no fear of
not finding employment if industrious, and if he is
not, to farm on his own hand would ho ruin. Allot-
ments of reasonable extent are most valuable to such
labourers; they give profitable interest in spare hours
from regular work. The experience of a long life in
agricultural districts would have been wasted on me
if I had not arrived at the conclusion that more than
this, so far from being a benefit as the rule, would be
an injury. There is much real good warning in the
letter of Charles Kingsley. I write in no party
spirit; at my age few men can care for party. I
still, however, respect Hodge too much not to view
ith some regret that vote-begotten interest in him."

A DESPERATE BURGLAR GANG.
EXCITING CHASE.-A POLICEMAN SHOT
DEAD.

On Wednesday night of last week four men broke
into Netherby Hall, the residence of Sir Frederick
Graham, and stole a quantity of jewellery. Informa-
tion was given to the county police at Carlisle, and the
roads were watched. Two police-officers met the gang
who are supposed to have committed the robbery
about two miles from the city, and charged them with
the offence. The men thereupon drew revolvers and
fired. Sergeant Roach was shot in the arm, and
police-constable Johnson received two shots in the
side. The men were tracked to Carlisle, and constable
Fortune, of the City Police, followed them, when they
turned upon him, and assaulted him so severely about
the head that he was left lying on the road for about
an hour in an unconscious state. The next heard of
the miscreants was about ten o'clock on the Thursday
evening, when three men, answering the description
of those who were concerned in the outrage, went to
Plumpton Station, which is about twelve miles south,
of Carlisle OR the London and North Western Rail-
way, and asked what time the next train left for the
south, Finding that the last train had gone, two of
them went to a public-house near, whilst the third
waited outside. Their movements had been observed
by a local farmer, who, being suspicious that
tney were the men the police were in
search of, informed police-constable Byrnes,
who was stationed at that village. He chal-
lenged them, and one of the three drew a revolver,
pointed it at the constable's bead, and fired. The
ball entered the temple, and passed out at the back of
his head, and he fell, bleeding profusely. The men
then appeared to have dragged his body across the
road, and thrsiwn it over the wall into an adjoining
field. The report of firearms attracted neighbours,
who heard groaning at the back of the wall, where
they found the injured man. Medical assistance was
brought from Penrith, but it was of no avail. The
constable died at one o'clock on Friday morning. He
was about 34 years of age, and was highly respected
by his superior officers. The three men, after dis-
posing of his body, decamped. They were next heard
of at Penrith Station at half-past ten o'clock, where
Geddes, guard of a goods train going south, observed
them jump upon the train as it was in motion. He
turned the lantern upon them, and seeing that they
were strangers, and suspecting that they might be the
fugitives for whom everybody was seeking, he thought
his best plan was not to disturb them until they
at Tebay, his next stopping station. In pass-
ing Shap Station, Geddes threw a note to a pointsman
to tell him to wire to Tebay, but the pomtsraart did
not observe it. At Shap Summit, Geddes succeeded
in getting the note into the hands of a driver of an
engine that was standing there, asking him to wire
to Tebay for the force to be collected to
apprehend the men. This telegram was delayed in
transmission. When Geddes arrived at Tebay with
his train at midnight he found his message was just
being taken off the wires. With commendable die
cretion, he did not go near the truck in which the
three men had concealed themselves under a tar-
paulin sheet until he had collected a force of twenty
railway men armed with sticks. He then jumped
into the waggon, and the three fugitives at once
jumped out and endeavoured to escape. Two of them
were knocked down by sticks by the railway men,
but they made such a desperate resistance that it
took the whole staff to hold them, and the third man
ran away while the other two were being secured.
The two prisoners were tied to telegraph posts until
the police came. They were taken to Carlisle. They
gave their names as Anthony Behrens Rudge,
years of age, dog trainer, and John Martin, 34 years
of age, who said his occupation was that of a runner
for betting men. Both had revolvers in their posses-
sion, and one barrel of one of them had been dis-
charged. The third man seems to have run round
the train and when it. resumed its journey south in
charge of another guard he had got into it again,
for when it arrived at Lancaster he was seen to
quit the goods train and hurry to an express for
the south, which was standing at the platform ready
to start. The railway officiate, however, were on the
alert, and he was captured with marks of blood on his
clothes. He also was sent to Carlisle, and on his
arrival a crowd of several thousand persons had
assembled at the station, and such was the fury of
the mob that it was only by the great exertions of
Mr. Dunn, chief constable, and Superintendent
Sempill that he was saved from being lynched. He
was, however, safely conveyed to the station. He
gave his name as James Baker, aged 28, greengrocer,
Montague street, Bethnal-green. The three prisoners
were formally charged with robbery, attempted
murder, and murder in the three cases. The only
one who made any reply was Baker, who said he had
been in Newcastle on the Wednesday night, and had
left Carlisle for Lancaster by a passenger train.