The Express.
London, England, 1853-11-03 00:00:00

EVENING, NOVEMBER 3, 1853.

the parish of Wigan, of which the borough is as it were the
centre, has a population of awards of 79,000 souls, includ-
Jag, as it does, the following townships, each of which has a
purely eoal•miniug population :—Pemberton, OrreU, Inc*
Hindley, Aspull. Haigh, Abram, iipliolland, Billing;
(Higher and Lower), aed Winstanley. The colliers from
all thee. places are now on strike; and not only do they
come to Wigan in great numbers wh e there is anything
like excitement or attraction—such &selections, fairs, wakes,
Ac., and always on Saturday nights—bat it is believed that
they formed a majority of the mob by whom the uproar and
rioting was commenced on Friday night. Yet Wigan, from
its situation, forms a natural centre into which the county
constabulary for the Leigh, Bolton, Chorley, and Preston
divisions might be drawn with great advantage, not only for
the peace of its neighbourhood, but for the issuing of men

when anything occurred in the other districts. As
things stand at present, Wigan is the centre of the sphere
of operations of the several divisions mentioned; but the
county constabulary have no right within the borough, and
because they have no right, their own action is crippled.
The committee of the House of Commons recently appointed
on the question of police management it has been observed,
might well turn their attention to the cue, if the authori-
ties in boroughs like Wigan, so insufficiently prepared fur
any emergency like the present, do not bestir themselves
and anticipate such an interference with their local self-
government by rendering it unnecessary.
Overawed by the great military strength now concen-
trated in the borough and neighbourhood, it is thought the
colliers will not attempt for the present any further violence
as a body. The fact that they have commenced a more
active canvass for subscriptions than has heretofore been
adopted, gives some ground for this opinion. It is well
known that they were sadly tried by want and suffering
when the present riots commenced. They have not so
large a body of fellow operatives in employ ss the factory
people to fall back upon for support, and their own means
being exhausted, they are almost literally reduced to a state
of starvation. Their wives and families have suffered more
than the colliers themselves, and the women in some of
their miserable dwellings present a pale, haggard, care-
worn, end most wretched appearance. Many of them are
reduced to the last extremity. It would be difficult for
any one who has not visited the cottages of these
people to conceive the evidences of suffering and ema-
ciation which some of the women present. Between the col-
liers and the factory turnouts, the shopkeepers of Wigan are
literally overrun with beggars. The keeper of a provision
shop says that yesterday he had far more beggars than
customers. This morning a body of colliers were seen
yoked to a cart, drawing it through the street, whilst
others called at the shops and houses soliciting alms and
provisions. Some of those whose windows and property
had been destroyed on Friday night did not give them
a very courteous reception ; in one or two cases a fist and
peremptory refusal was given, but generally much for-
bearance was manifested, and in some eases great kindness
was shown. At an early hour their cart had eighteen or
twenty loaves in it and a considerable quantity of potatoes.
The greatest fear now entertained by the authorities is, not
that there will be combined attacks on property as hereto
fore, but that isolated acts of vengeance, much more difficult
to be foreseen and prevented, will be resorted to. On Sunday
morning a band of men,witk faces blackened and dtsguised,
presented themselves at a row of cottages at Pllackrod,
and entirely destroyed the windows. The occupants were
labourers who had accepted work In the coal mines of Lord
Halcarres' and had given offence by becoming " knob-
sticks." Many of the master colliers reside at lone houses
in the country around Wigan, and threats have been ut-
tered against these parties from which it appears that a de-
sign exists of destroying their residences by throwing hand-
grenades through the windows, and bottles containing com-
bustibles. Fortunately but few of these people are rich
enough to afford firearms, and, with the exception of a shot
fired on Monday night in the outskirts of the borough at a
messenger on horseback, riding for assistance from the au-
thorities to check the outbreak at Bpringsbridge (and which
fortunately took no effect), we have not heard of any such
weapons being used. Still there is no security against men
so densely ignorant as the colliers. One opinion they hold
strongly is, that the military having been called in the
Mayor of Wigan, they have no power to act beyondb the
limits of the borough, and that if they confine their opera-
tions to the country, they will be beyond the reach of the
soldiery.

Theplaces most threatened during the put night were
the houses of the manager of Mews. Braucher and Co.'s
colliery, Walthew Hoase, Orrell, and of Mr. Peace, at
Haigh. The saw-mils, it was also feared, would again be
attacked. Mounted messengers were riding backwards and
forwards between these places and Wigan throughout the
night. A body of county police, armed with cutlasses,
were stationed at Orrell,with orders to send for the military
if any outbreak were attempted, and similar precautions
had been taken at the other places.
It is satisfactory to learn that two-thirds of the colliers
(150) of Messrs. Ackers, Witley, and Co., Bicker's-lane
Colliery, Abram, have returned to work, and that about
100 have also gone in at Messrs. Blundell and Co.'s Col-
liery, Pemberton, at the old prices. The turnouts threat-
ened to pull down the engine house, but have not attempted
to do so.

The prisoners taken by the police on Friday night (all of
them mere boys, except ens), six in number, and who were
remanded from Monday, were brought before the magis-
trates this morning for further examination.
Clayton and Morris were discharged. Luy and Hughes
were remanded until Monday week Baker stands com-
mitted to take his trial for felony, and Harebell was ordered
to give securities to keep the pesos.
The magistrates met this afternoon, and resolved to put a
stop to the tugging, and consequent intimidation by colliers.
The services of the troops will be required if necessary. it
is understood that the soldiers are to be withdrawn from
the saw mills, a Capt. Gerard with the Lancashire
Hunan, took up his quarters there on Wednesday night.
The yielding of the turnout colliers will no doubt be
greatly accelerated by the secosaion from the union of
n.:arly a •housand men who work at Farington, near
Preston, in the pita of Mr. Wm. Buhall. The cause of se-
cession is that the coition found on Wednesday night that
the central committee in Preston had no funds out of which
to pay their weekly allowance. The men hays intimated
their readiness to go down at the old terms, and although
Mr. Bsahall declined to re-engage them until the next
week, it is thought an arrangement will be come to before
then.

Upwards of 80 county constobles have been brought into
the villages round Wigan, where they serve as armed pa-
trols, and will be able to check a sudden pouncing on the
houses or works of any obnoxious masters in the outskirts.