The Express.
London, England, 1851-10-06 00:00:00

GREAT MEETLNG OF SEAMEN AND

PITMEN.

NEWCASTLE, SATURDAY EVENING.—A great meet-
ing of the seamen and pitmen has been held on Newcastle
Town-moor today. The meeting has long been talked of,
and considerable alarm has been felt regarding it, as it was
thought it prognosticated one of those strikes that have su
oft proved prejudicial to the district. The meeting had
two objects—first, to discuss the grievances of the two
bodies ; and secondly, to form a union between them for
mutual support. The morning was gloomy and wet, not-
withstanding which numerous steam-boats arrived from
Shields, Sunderland, Seaham, Hartlepool, and Stockton
filled with seamen, their wives, and sweethearts, and by
noon there was a large muter of seamen and pitmen. At
that hour a procession was formed, and with nume-
rous banners., about forty, and four bands of music,
they defiled through the principal streets to the
moor, about a mile from this town. A tempo-
rary platform was erected, which was soon filled
with delegates. There weree between three and four
thousand persons at the meeting, two-thirds of whom were
Shields and Sunderland seamen, the other proportion was
made up of seamen from the out-ports and pitmen, the
paucity of pitmen being reams le, en old grudge that
exists between them and the tars proving too powerful in
preventing any union that their leaders might try to make.
John Smith, a seaman's dekgatis of Shields, occupied the
chair, sad with the exception of a little " spice" for the tars
about the navigation laws, and the people's charter for the
pitmen, the speakers, who were ail hired lecturers, kept to
the point. The meeting adopted resolutions embodied
in the form of petitions to parliament and her Majesty's
government, praying redress of their alleged grievances,
that a commission may be issued to inquire into the evils
thereby induced, and to report thereon to the said govern-
ment. That this meeting hereby resolve to petition parlia-
ment for the repeal of all clauses in the ith and Bth Vie.,
cap. 112, as relate to seamen's register tickets, for a total
and unconditional repeal of the 13th and 1 ith Vic., cap. 19,
known as the Mercantile Marine Act; for the removal of
the present shipping offices; and for the amendment of the
present navigation laws. This meeting also, considering
the great danger to which seamen are exposed by vessels
being sent to sea without being properly manned, resolve
to petition parliament fur an act to compel all ship-
owners to properly man their ships according to the
following scale, viz.: vessels of six keels, and under ten,
two able-bodied seamen before the mast ; ten, and under
fifteen, three able-bodied seamen • fifteen keels, and under
171, four able-bodied seamen ; and vessels of 171 keels, and
under *..W keels, five able-bodied seamen ; and all other ves-
sels to be in toiled in proportion. That this meeting
having heard the various resolutions and petitions read and
explained, embracing the respective grievances of the sea-
men and the miners, hereby resolve to use every legal and
eonAitutionat MAUI to obtain a redress of the same, and
that we severally and collectively agree to aid and assist
each other in obtaining a redress of the grievances spe-
cified."

After passing these resolutions tho meeting quietly
broke up, and marched down to the quay side and to the
railway station, and by steamboat and railway train peace.
ably departed to their home..
There seems no danger of a strike, as the seamen are now
ret:ipt of all they ever demanded—viz., 41. 10s. per
voyage during the winter months, and upon the whole tae
shipping oftle,s are working well, and proving very useful
and economical to both seaman and shipowner in settling
disputes about wages, common at this time of the year,
when timber vessels arc arriving from America and from
the Baltic.

The agitation seems chiefly kept up by delegates—men
'ho have been leadin4 au easy life 'bra the last strike. and
subsisting upon sub.:criptions from the hard earned earnings
of " poor Jack." Seamen's wages were never better than
they arc at the present moment.