The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-10-24 00:00:00

MR. ROEBUCK AND
_THE SHEFFIELD

WORKMEN.
On Friday evening in last week Mr. Roebuck at-
tended a meeting at the Cutlers' Hall, called by his
executive committee as a meeting of the Cyclops
workmen. Admission was by ticket. Great com-
plaints were made before Mr. Roebuck appeared that
a large body of persons had been relmit t who laid nii
connection with the Cyclops Works. Mr. Rus
a working man, was called to the chair.
Mr. Roebuck made a speech which was listened to
with great attention. In the course id it he said he
would disestablish the Irish Church tiemorro K. With
regard to trades outrages, he said he did not believe
that those outrages hail been committed by the body
of workmen at Sheffield. The opposith in to him was
at heart sectarian prejudice. He was an relocated
man. That was shown by his voice and by his man-
ner, and he did not pretend to hide it. His oppo-
nents did not like that. They wanted ante one to
represent their own narrow feelings. The Tin:es had
twitted him that he had created a Frankenstein, a
being he could not control, and said he ought to have
known the working men before giving them the
power. Well, he thought he did know working men,
and that to honest, intelligent, long, faithful servics
they would not be untrue. In reference to the expul-
sion of Mr. Cimolly from the meetings of the Royal
Commission, Mr. Roebuck said he caused Conolly to
be expelled because he would not sit with a man who
had libelled the people of Sheffield.
After Mr. Roebuck had finished, James Duffield, a
workman at the Cyclops Works, made a vigorous pro-
test against the presence in the room of large 'lumbers

of persons who were not employed at y orks.
Mr. Prior, another workman, made a speech in which
he declared that the room was packed. Great clamour
ensued, and Mr. Roebuck, without any explanation,
left the room, accompanied by his friends and nearly
half the meeting. The remainder of the meeting,
composed of workmen at the Cyclops Works, con-
tinued the proceedings, and John 'hardy moved a re-
solution that Mr. Roebuck had forfeited the confidence
of the constituency, and that the electors of Sheffield
would best discharge their duty by returning to Par-
, liament the people's candidates. Mundell& and Had.
field. This remlution was received with great
applause. Mr. Hardy, in reference to Mr. Roebuck's
tactics in visiting the various works and addressing men in
the presence of their employers, said that the Roebuck
committee had covered themselves with immortal
honour by originating and carrying out in that borough
the principles of the Marlboroughs and the Portlands
and the great landlord potentates of the country. He
was making a speech to the effect that the working
men cf Sheffield would, in spite of these tactics,
triumphantly develop the fact at the poll that they
lived in a free country, when the meeting was brought
to a sudden close by the gas being turned off. The
workmen dispersed in order, crying "Shame ! " upon
those who had played them such a trick, and cheering
for Mundella. The workmen will hold a meeting of
their own in the course of the week.