The Express.
London, England, 1864-09-20 00:00:00

TWENTY-THREE MINERS CHARGED WITH
NEGLECT OF WORK AT SEDOLEY.

At the Birmingham Police-court, yesterday,
before the Rev. W. Lewis and the Rev. J. Y. Rooker,
twenty•three miners were charged by Mr. John
Williams with neglecting their work on the 13th of the
present month without lawful excuse. The accused were
escorted to the court by a baud of music, and there
were some huodreds of miners who followed in the
procession. At intervals the bend played outside the
court. Mr. Underhill, of Wolverhampton, appeared for the
complainant, and Mr. Sheldon appeared for the defence of the
men. Mr. Underhill commenced by defies that he proposed
to take the case against Robert Hodgkin, as representing the
whole, and proceeded to detail that the complainant, Mr.
John Williams, was master at the Banton Meadow Colliery,
and that all workmen were bound by the rules therein tomato
give fourteen days' notice when they desired -to leave their
employment, and to give that notice on the " papday."
On Tuesday, the 13th of the present month, it was the
duty of Hodgkin and the other defendants to have been
at work. They, however, were not at work that day, nor
had they been seen at the colliery since that day. The
neglect bad therefore been continuous and Nom
vated. The men had certainly a perfect right to
leave after proper natio*, but they must be bold es liable
to fulfil a stipulated 'Ferret as the master.
. .

Mr. Sheldon, for thew defame, maintained that the men
were really not in complainant's employ, and therefore had
broken no contract with him. He ingeniously endeavoured
to show that the reduction of 3d. per day without notice
had nullified the engagement between the masters and
men, and that, apart from these objections, the woikmen
were afraid to go to work in consequence of the threats
that had been held out to them by those on strike.
Witnesses were called both by the prosecutor and the
defence.

The Bench, having consulted, said that the men had shown
no @Wedeln or lawful excuse for their absence from work,
and the threats were so simple as almost to amount to no
threat at all, and it seemed to the Beech that the men had
conspired not t) work. The police were always ready and
silting to assist them, and they might all retorts to work
immediately, and have the expenses deducted from their

erThe heerhag lasted three hours, sad the wort wee aro wded
all the time.

THE SHIP CARPENTERs AND THE "PHARE" MEET-
nor BELFAST. —Our readers will share the 'addiction with
which we announce the termination of the ship tarpons's'
dispute, and the return of the protestant artisans to their
work io the yard of Messrs. Harland and Wolff. The sane-
mine given by the catholic workmen that they bad not, by
informations or otherwise, been accessory to the arrest of
their protestant fellow-labourers Ina removed the wry
eel distrustful feeling which an opposite impression bad
engendered ; and there is reason to hope that • better
understanding, now established, will remain. The asser-
tion of the catholic workmen is abundantly confirmed by
the Rev. Mr. Macnaughtan, on the authority of die of the
stipendiary magatrates. With the adjustment of this
dispute, to the settlement of which the firmness and disc e.
lion of Meseta Harked and Wolff have materially contri-
buted, the labours of the " Peace" Society may naturally
terminate. if need arises, it can be revived. It has aimed
to do • good work, which its continued existence may
hinder, if the spirit ditylayed In some of the speeches de-
livered on Saturday as allowed further occasions for its
manifestation. The remarks of Mr. Macneughtan were wise
and charitable ; and we must in fairness add, those of Mr.
Rea were unexceptionable; but other gentlemen. if they
did sot dodo to awaken once more the old fend of protes-
tant and catholic, and so roan distrust in the admiaistration
of justice, used language which could scarcely ban any other
effect. We can only hope that the moral of the riots has
been better learned by the community at large than by some
of those who have put themadves prominently forward as
peacemaker., with very little, we fear, of the spirit of
in their hearts. It is exceedingly undesirable that
peaceu opportunities should be given to Mr. Hugh Manna
and to Mr. C. H. Word for the expression of their nore•
drained partkanship.—iforrAmi Whig.
INUNDATION IN INDIA —The Lahore Chronicle
repeats an unusual ecoeetricity on the part of the rivet
Chenab, which has caused considerable damage to Mooltan,
if not to other stations in its neighbourhood. For some
time its unusual shallowness bad been remarked by the
Lahore editor, and attributed by him to a landslip or glacier
which had dammed up the river in some of the solitudes of
the Himalaya, when all at awe it burst on Mooltan with
• fury it had never been remembered to exhibit before. A
correspondent from the latter city writes : —" The water
has flowed in so suddenly and with such velocity that we
awoke this morning only to find ourselves, as it were, cer an
island, every direction as far as the eye can reach being •
perfect sea, All communication between the city and
cantonments has been completely cut off. The
commasioner's house has some three or four
feet of water round it. The greeter portion of
the suburb" of the city, including Tole Khan
and Emam Poore, have been submerged, and the market
place baa shared the same fate. The standing crop have
all been destroyed, whole villages washed down, and the
panic-struck inhabitants know sot whither to fly, or how
to amps from the deluge. Woodlands, the property of
General Van Courtlaud, the favourite resort of the Ma.
dente of the station, is all but • wreck. Its fine walks,
itsgarden, containing the choicest flowers, and it. orchard
stocked with the most delicious fruits, are all sub-
merged. All around is desolation—the flood has ex-
tended for several miles, as far as the railway line ; ad
the destruction of property caused by it must be im-
mense." Great efforts ware made by the local eteriecers
to divert the course of the flood. bat to no purpose ; the
water toppling one the brands almost immediately they
were erected.

FORBIDDING THE BANNS—A scene of rare OCCIII,
ream took place is the Manchester Cathedral an Solidity
morning. During the readies of beans by the Rev. Mr.
Trontbeck, a women roes from her seat, and when two Dames
were mentioned, she said in a loud toss of rotes, " 1 forbid
that." She was requested by one of the apparitore to make
her objection in the vestry after serval*, and she resumed
her place. The scene cowed some commotion in the
crowded church. _ _

The Northern Whig describes a shod:lug disader,
by which a small sailing-boat was upset in Belfut Lough on
flatarday, sad four men were drowned. The deolased
appear to hare been all more or lees intoxicated. Each of
the four was married and had a (may depending upon him
for support.