The Press.
London, England, 1856-10-11 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

closed on the 24th of March by an address from
Lord Ardmillan, one of the Judges of the Court of
Session.
DURING THE LATE GREAT MINERS' STRIKE in the
west of Scotland a certain sheriff's substitute held and
expressed the opinion that magistrates could not inter •
fere to repress great assemblages of men held for the
known purpose of intimidating their fellow•workmen,
unless violence bad been actually committed. The Lord
Justice Clerk, last week, combated this mistake in
addressing the Sheriffs of Lanark, Renfrew, and Dum-
barton, at the close of the Glasgow circuit. He said :
The law of Scotland does noZ require that there should
be an act of violence in order to entitle magistrates to pro-
tect workmen disposed to continue at their labour, and
to punish those who are guilty of any species of intimida-
tion. The question is, what were the object and purpose
of the parties in their conduct, whether accompanied with
violence or not—did they intend to intimidate, and was
their object to create fear and lead to other workmen giving
up their labour ? If they assembled in numbers near the
works where workmen were willing to labour, or on the
roads they traversed in going to their works, or near their
houses, though no act were done and no expression used
by way of threat, yet, if it is plain to a jury or a magistrate
that they did not assemble for any other purpose than to
overawe the workmen disposed to remain at their work
at the wages offered them, then such conduct is a viola-
tion of the law.

LORD PANMLTRE last week attended a meeting at
Forfar, at which the " toll-bar question" was dis-
cussed. The leading neighbouring landowners were
present, and after the report of the committee ap-
pointed in April last had been read, Lord Panmure
addressed the meeting. He said :
It had long been his opinion that there did not exist in
this country such an example of taxation without repre-
sentation as in the mode of collecting and spending the
statute-labour money of the counties of Scotland. They
were most unequally taxed on this subject, many buildings
used for business purposes being exempted which ought to
pay statute-labour money ; and those who paid statute-
labour money had no means whatever of knowing bow
their money was expended. He trusted that this subject
would be taken up as a general question, because he
thought that the whole community would be benefited by
turning their attention to reform in this matter. If the
taxation was equally spread over all subjects which ought
to be made liable he did not believe it would increase, but,
on the contrary, it would diminish the rates ; and he
thought a much better system of levying the taxation for
the maintenance of the roads might easily be invented. If
the committee did reassemble, he hoped they would give
their attention to the subject of the consolidation of the
turnpike trusts, because when they went to Parliament for
a new bill it would be better to have some matured plan by
which these turnpike roads might be managed more econo-
mically and systematically than at present ; and it would
be necessary to have that plan concocted and adopted by
the county at least two or three years before the expiration
of the present act.

Tlli LORD ADVOCATE OF SCOTLAND, the Right
Hon. James Moncrieff, M.P., has consented to deliver
a lecture to the Young Men's Christian Association,
in the Victoria-hall, on Monday, the 13th instant.
The subject of the lecture will be, " Social Reform—
Indifference and Disunion its greatest Obstacles."

THE ANTICIPATED RETIREMENT OF MR. WGREGOR
from the representation of Glasgow since the dis-
closures of the British Bank, has brought forward
Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Dunlop of Creighton, and the
Lord Provost (W. Orr) as possible candidates.