The Express.
London, England, 1867-10-01 00:00:00

shall carry water and fertility into every corner of the de-
sert. Besides these, if there is any other solution than
the co-operative one, I have not heard of it, for I suppose
nobody at this time of day really believes, whatever he
may write in newspapers, that letting capital and labour
tight it out on the present lines, the legislature drawing
up a solemn duelling code for them, and the rest of the
nation taking sides as the instinct or prejudice guides
them, is going to bring us peace at the last and universal
prosperity. For England, fighting it out on the present
lines, with such legislative help as I have indicated,
means driving all our best artisans out of the country in
the next ten years. True, they wi'l only leave the old
country to take part in the WWI battle elsewhere. Eng-
land is only • little ahead of other nations in this
matter—a little deeper in the war—a little nearer the
issue, be that issue what it may. But the fact that
our artisans will find no better conditions elsewhere after •
few years won't help us. America and the colonies may
perhaps be able to stave off the issue for a generation, but
we can't—and if in the crisis which is now actually on at
last, in this present year, 1867, we get quit of the bone
and muscle of the country, and let our picked artisans go
off, in despite of any life here except one of constant war-
fare, we shall never see them or their equals again in these
islands. What proof, then, has coperation given us as yet
in England that it can succeed where all other remedies
have failed? I will at once admit that, if we look simply
at the comparative result, of the two great branches of the
movement, the attempt amongst us to introduce the prin-
ciples of co-operation into the realm of productive industry
has been a failure. Every nation would seem to develop
its own distinct character in this movement ; and it is in
France that the associations of workmen have been most
successful and are most widely spread ; in Germany
that the system of giving credit to the workmen by
means of association his spread with such wonderful
results through the efforts' of Mr. Sbultze Delitach, while
we are far ahead of both in our organisation of distribution
and consumption. Still enough has been done, even before
the latest development of the co-operative movement
known as partnerships of industry, to show that, even
without help from the other classes of society, there is
good hope that the working class will realise for them-
selves that ideal of the co-operator—well being and well
doing, moral, intellectual, and physical, placed within
the reach of those who have no property but their labour.
For here and there associations of working men have
overcome the first difficulties of want of capital, want of
knowledge of business, jealousy and impatienceof control
by men of their own rank, and the tremendous temptations
to dishonesty which are suddenly thrown in the way of
men taken suddenly from the bench, or forge, and en.
trusted with the handling of money. (Mr. Hughes was
greatly applauded during the delivery of the address, and
on its conclusion.)
Mr. ARCHIBALD BRIGGS, of the Whitwood Collieries,
spoke to the first proposition :—" That industrial part-
nership is the true remedy for the evils arising from the dif-
ferences between capital and labour." He said their firm
was the first which attempted on a large scale to cam out
the principle of industrial partnerships. Their primary
object was to fight against the evils of strikes and combs-
nations, and the result was eminently gratifying. They
were wearied out with the repeated strikes which
occurred, and so they resolved to make a proposition to
their men to divide a certain proportion of their
profits amongst them. They set apart 10 per cent. of
the profits as a fah return for their capital, and proposed
for any excess of profit on this amount to give their men
half. The first year they divided 12 per cent, amongst
the shareholders and 2 per cent, amongst the men ; while
the second (last) year they divided 13 per cent. amongst
the shareholders, sad 3 per cent.
tamilsn t the men. lie
im thought, however, that the proved feeling between
meters and men, and the undoub moral advancement
which had been made, were even more to be noted than
the material advantage which had resulted from the
change.
Mr. PYRAH, a miner employed at the Whitwood col-
lieries, confirmed the account of the previous speaker as to
the improved feeling between the masters and men. He
and hi. three boys worked at the colliery, and he bad already
received 241. in the shape of bonus. (Applause./
Mr. VANBITTART NIALS, who said he was • theorist,
and not practically acquainted with the working of in-
dustrial pertnerships, advocated their claims on the
grounds of reasonableness and expediency.
Mr. 0..7. HOLTOAKA said he supposed he had senti-
mental proclivities like other people hut he did not
like to proclaim them in resolutions about indus-
trial partnerships. The resolution said that indus-
trial partnership was " the " true reward for the
evils arising from the differences between capital and
labour. He wanted to say "• " reward. They bad not
got far enough to say more than this at present. Under
the old relations of capital and labour the working man
received the smallest amount of wsgm possible under the
circumstances from his master, and he did the smallest
amount of work possible in return. When he worked
on the bench, be thought it a crime to do anything
which would be of any benefit to his employer. (Laughter.)
During the 22 years he (Mr. Holyoake) lard passed amongst
working men, be never met with a person who had any
different idea ; but we had now outgrown this kind of
thing. He argued that it was eminently to the interest
of employers to join these partnerships of industry on
account of the increased rigour and sldll which men would
put into their work.
Mr. SIMPSON. as chairman of a co-operative store, waa well
aequainted with the benefits of the 00-operstive system; but,
as a Manchester cotton spinner, having sbotrisoo people de-
pendent upon him, he must say that be had been met with
a serious practical difficulty at the outset as regards the
formation of these partnerships of industry. Mr. Briggs
spoke of dividing the profits over 10 per cent. with the
men, hut bow were they to manage when the profits were
nothing like 10 per cent? (Hear, bear.) The employer
encountered all the risk in bad times, and it was hardly
reasonable to expect him to share his profits with his work.
people just at the time when trade happened to be
most prosperous.
Mr. W. MORRIE; said the ease laid before the meeting
was hardly a fair one. During the last two or three years
coal had advanced in price frem 80 to 100 per cent.
Mr. Batons—Not so much as that; it has increased, and
so have colliers' wages.
Mr. MORRIB repeated that the experiment could hardly
be considered applicable to the trade in this district, as
nothing like the same amount of profit was available for
division.

ile;gthy discussion ensued, in the coarse of which the
Rev. W. N. MOLLMWORTH said that working men really
took their share of responsibility in bad times as well as
the capitalist, since they had to submit to diminished
wages. Eventually the proposition was agreed to, with
the verbal amendment suggested by Mr. Holyoake. The
next proposition (adopted unanimously, after discusidon)
was, That it is desirablo to form an organised union of
the friends of industrial partnerships and co-operation."
In the evening a crowded public meeting ova held in
the Assembly Rooms of the Free-trade liTalj;eresidedover
by Mr. T. Hughes, M.P., who was su by most of
the 'gentlemen who attended the con r erence. The room
wee well filled by a mixed audience, the working class
ele-
ment predominating. The Vim. Archdeacon Sandford,
Mr. Morrison, M.P., and the Rev. J. P. Hoppa were
among the speakers.

Mr/WER BY • Putienn.—About eight o'clock on
Saturday night the inmates of the Stockport onion work-
house were alarmed by the report that a murder bad been
committed in the lunatic ward by • violent young man,
named William Burns, aged 30 ; and that the victim was
an imbecile pauper, named Issao Twigg, nearly 80 years of
age, who was in bed at the time. Twigg's wife died in the
workhouse on Sanday, since which time the old man's.
mind gave way, and he persisted inireeping his bed. Burns,
who was in the same room, suddenly broke out into • pa-
roxysm of madness, during which he seised the
leg of an iron bedstead which lay loose on the floor, and
made • desperate attack upon the old man, during which
he levelled • violent blow upon his head, splitting his
skull and besmearing the clothing with blood. 1111 im-
becile attendant named James Gasside rushed to the
old man's help, but he was not able to cops with his for-
midable umlaut, and was soon beaten down with the
weapon, and the lunatic next proceeded to demolish the
windows of the room, the noise of which brought help
from other parte of the establishment, and with some dif-
ficulty be wee secured. Surgical help was sent for, and
Dr. P. Downer attended to give the injured man what relief
he could, but be was found to be suffering from &fracture
of the skull, which terminated his existence at eight o'clock
on the following morning. Garaide's wounds are, fortu-
nately, not serious. Burns was immediately placed in safe
custody on the charge of murder, awaiting the result of the
coroner's inquest.

WIFE MURDER IN NORTHUMBERLAND.—MOR-
PITH MONDAL—John Marshall, a pitman, has been
brought to the county gaol in this town, charged with the
wilful murder of his wife, at the colliery village of North
Seaton, on Saturday night. He had been drinking, and
after his wife fetched him home he attacked her with a
poker, smashing her skull in, and leaving the poker em-
bedded in her head. The neighbours, hearing the uproar,
rushed in, and found the poor woman in • fearful condi-
tion, and she died shortly after they went to her seals-
tance.

THIS FATAL STEAMBOAT COLLISION IN BARKINO
RlACH.—Yesterday Mr. C. J. Carttar, the coroner for
Kent, held a long inquiry at the Bose and Crown, Plum.
stead, reapecting the death of John Kline Grouchy, seaman,
on board the brigantine Eclipse, of Colchester, who was
killed by his vessel being run into by the Bolivar, steam
transport for the Abyssinian expedition, in Barking Reach,
on the afternoon of Thursday last. The jury found as
their verdict that the deceased died from injuries received
through being crushed by the falling of the mainmast on
board the Eclipse, resulting from a collision with the
Bolivar, in consequence of the negligent steering of
the steamer, but whether the neglect was on the part of the
pilot or the man at the wheel, was an ogee question, which
the jury could not decide.

9PICIOIIB CAS t.—An inquiry was held by the
county coroner yesterday, at the Boundary Hotel, near
Liverpool, relative to the death of a gardener (Alfred W.
Warburton), which there was some reason to suspect had
been hastened by violence on the part of two police officers
who had arrested him for drunkenness. The surgeon who
had examined the body, wav of opinion that death had
been caused by peritonitis, the result of violence, bet as
the evidences's' not sußcient to implicate the edifiers,
an open verdict was returned.