The Express.
London, England, 1850-04-26 00:00:00

SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE COLLIERY
DIS tRICTS.
WOL

r, APRIL 21.

The exertions wiich I hays from tints to time
milked as being made to put down the track 'picot la this
part of tbe estuary ecstasy, unabated, and to a emaiderable
same they have bees mewled with esenion. The peer nt. a
set appear to be at ell deterred by didleuldes is their
may ; ea the exatrary, se them have omen, they have applied
diemeehree more inantally to their task. There have- been
Mae ern bard before the niegietrutes %ere to-day ; these
bey. completely eareesd the mode is which the system i
&mdse.. d, and it beatisfactoey to be enabled to announce that
eenviettose km bees obtained. As fromeirealutaacee which
lave waste my Wm/ledge I lied filet this iniquitous prei tin
avedieg is differ. at parts cif the country where large
WO: are visit on, I shall endeavoar to give a sketch rather
than a report of a cast before the magistrates here, for the
gablaace sad inlonsation of those interest:d is other parts
of the country. At Grimsby, where some hew docks are in
courts of emstreetiou, I am informed that the tommy
practice has sprung an, so it has at Olasgow and other
party, and everywhere it appear to be equally obnoxious.
Messes. Lloyd. Foster, and Co., of the Old Park
Work., near Weilnesbory, had so leas thank four-
teen inforiaatioes pending against them (all laid
wider the Track Act, I & 2 Will. IV.), to be
dee.ded by the magistrates kers to-day. This
drat is ow of the oldest. established and moat

wealthy in this port of the country; ono or two members
of the tira me of the Society of Friends, sad hereabouts
they occupy a very high position. The cutest of their
" wale " is eacessoes, and m • matter of necessity, the
manna: sad spirit in which they are conducted has a eon.
siderabl- effect in the midst of suck • population. The
t• works " themselves speak for this ; no one can have tra-
velled over or be in say way familiar with the South
Staffordshire iron country without Maas struck with then
as he pa...es, even amidst the enormous emblems of industry
which meet him at every tura. Traversing thus birth rood
between Wednesbary and Darlaston, the Old Park
Works are the conspicuous object ; huge furnaces'
foe the manufacture of machinery, and numb. rim smaller
mains for earning on the operations of mining arc seen on
every side.; at the present moment the nuntlications of the
works trend over something like three miles. The iron
trade is bad, too, just now ; yet Mean. Lloyd and Co. find
employment on this eastern for about 1,600 panties—when
the trade is brisk the number is all probability reaches 2,000.
Cadortimatelo, in some respects, for their owe reputation,
but especially man so for the poor, helelese, reckless, untie.
wad people a their employ, the piropneton of the Wedneo
bury OW Park Works have act always punned that course
sat calculated to improve the moral condition of the people
la their employ , or to elevate them in the social scat.
Keen. Lloyd hays in their employ • person named Law.
ream, who is a bettiemiser, and the peonies of this man
appears to lave been to take care that every man employed
at their works received payment in such a that the
gam portios of the amount of his earnings should be en.
tdeel at his employers' tommy-shop. To the great
body of the workmen this practice is as hateful as
it is oppeasive ; for obvious reasons, however, they submit
mlartaatly to the estrange. A circumstance occurred
▪ mouths dare which seems calculated to lead to ocar-
✓ains which may pat an end to the existing state of things.
A sun naiad Daolan, employed m • bananas, was takon
Oa at the Old Park Works; Dalin earned something like
2s. id. a day ; the practice at the works use to settle with
the men only mice in a fortnight or three week., and in the
meantime to give cheques for • taw shillings on account, the
same being nominally payable at the office of the Birming-
ham Banking Company, which is ale sail's from the works,
bat really at Messes. Lloyd's Tommy shop. Bootee sub.
mated for a while, and them resented this condition. The
molt wee, that he laid no less than seven information • .

against 'he Mews. Lloyd for an illegal contract to pay in
goods instead of money, and these in:ormstions it was which
came on 1.4 heanng biros the imagist:mei to-day.
• There were present on the bench John Leigh, Esq.
(stipmdiare magistrate), William Foster, and Henry
Walker, kn., together with a pest number of the mag-
nates of the mon trade of the district. Mr. &Meant Allen
appeared ha the defendants; and Mr. George Edmonds, of
Eirminehanas foe the prosecution. The information was
laid under the first and second William IV., which prohibits
the pa; meat (sewage, in gocds instead of money, and the
main sections relied upon were the second and third, which
imposed the penalty, and the 2:ith, which set forth that " say
agreement, understanding, device, contrivance, collusion,
or arratigemsnt whatsoever on the subject of wages, whether
direct cr tadirset, whether written or oral. whereby either
shall have endeavoured to impose an obligation on them,
shall be a ecatreet.. '

Doiai,t;epsiicipal witness on behalf of the prosecution,
stated diet la was first employed at Yews. Lloyd's works a
few months since; that for the first two dap' labour he
received the amount in money ; that thereafter he invariably
received cheques for small sums, and that upon the first
cuasion of doing this he asked Lawrence, toe defendant,
when the cheque woe payable ; that Lawrence took him by
the shonider and pointed down to the tummy shop ; that toe
a considerable ume subsequently he invariably took his
cheques to the same tummy shop, and that upon one occa-
sion having asked Lawrence, the defendant, for a few
shilling; to pay his rent, instead of receiving the entire
amount of his earnings in chequer' defendant told him that
if he did not consent to receive cheques he would have
no work, and that there would be plenty of others
glad to c.,me in. It was further proved that the practice at
these works was to give to each man about one shilling out
of every live earned in money. With reference to the checks,
no evidence was called to show that a single one issued had
ever bees tendered for payment at the olio; of the Bir-
mingham Busking Company, where they were nominally
made payable.
Mr. &Tout Allen addressed the bench at great length on
behalf Ca the defendant. He relied principally on the point
that no contract had been entered into within the meaning
of the statute, and he further insisted that no fraud and no
injustice had been done in this case, inasmuch as from the
earliest times the principle of barter had existed in this
country ; that payment in goods u wages was a national
payment, and was practised en the agricultural districts, cad
in Se Alasd especially up to the present day.
lb. Edmonds replied generally foe the prosecution. Ile
adverted to the degraded, wretched, sad helpless condition
fate which the tommy system plunged the poor miners. He
demeaned it as smut tetanal system, and with reference to
the required contract, he said that that was proved by the
coatiaaants of the practice for many years at Meson.
Lloyds' works, and by the intimation which Hooka had re.
Mud to rash his cheques at Mum. Lloyds' weeny-shop
from the defendant. . . _ _

Themar,istrates-, after a brief coasultation, decided that,
althwagh then were some doubts in this ease which ought to
make the cue leniently construed under a penal *UMW, they
were aevertkelms of opinion that the information wu sue-
teased. They therefore convicted the defendant, and ad-
judgettim to pay a penalty of 51.
were darters other informations to be heard against
than parties altor this cue had terminated ; in some of them
the cwavieting evidence to be offered was of a much more
cosehuive ch./sitar.

It may be worth white to state that a fortnight since the
Mean. Lluyd were convicted in the penalty of five pounds
fir Swing illegal cheeks.
The poor gas leek- makers of Darlasten have been most
realms in putting down this scandalous system and for-
tunately they appear to have been successful. A lady named
Riddin has loos been a must notorious offender two infor-
mations were laid against her, but she appears to have in-
closed to the opinion that the time bad at length arrived
when she ought to do justice to the poor men by whose hard
earnings she has so long profited. Before the cue was galled
on to day the following memorandum wee received under
Mrs. Riddles own hand :

" In col:mouse°, of the withdrawal of ell informatems•
against me, end giving up the right of actions, if eay, for
weirs, I agree to pay 61. sad ekes my shop, not to supply
■oode to workman."--lithioux Darlaaton, April
Such of your readers as ars familiar with the condition of
the Staff.irdshire colliery district, will readily estimate how
usefully and how beneficially Mn. itiddis's example might
be followed.

ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSION (IRELAND). The
teal receipts of the Ealadestical Commissionen for Ireland
few the year ending the let of August, 1849, were
90,6421. 17e. Id., and the disbursements to 84,0001., 25,7261.
of whisk was expended on the rebeilding, enlarging, and re-
paring of chuehes.
TUE LANDOW:NEI& DRAENAGI AND INCLOSERE
CONPANY.—The half-yearly general meeting of this pros-
prom company was held on the 11th instant, at the com-
plays office, Bedford-circus, Exeter, William Porter, Esq.,
in the chair. The following report of the directors was read
—" Tour directors have to report—That having established
an office at No. 30, Parliament•street, Westminster, this step
has been already attended with decided advantage, and the
future prospects of the company are most cheering. The
acreage drained within the last half year, has been nearly
double the quantity of the corresponding half year in 1819.
The amount of wean fur which the terms have been
agreed, and now in enures of drainage, is more than double
that of the corenponding half year. The acreage now under
survey, and proposed for drainage, is more than twelve times
as moth as that of the corresponding half year in 1849.
From the mullion' report of theaffain of the Company, your
directors recommend a payment on account of dividend, at
the rate of five pomade per contuse per annum, for the half
yea ending In Mesa. lees, which will Ism a considerable
balance towards the Merv* toad." It wee weelved moans-
mously—That the repeat now read be received, printed, and
circulated among the shareholden, and that a payment at
the rate of 11. per cent. per annum, less income tax, on the
pai up capital of the company, be made to the shareholders,
as ,zonat of dividend, for the half year ending let March,
MAC payable On the iiw S'istja May next, the surplus pro-
fit being warted for the swivel meeting in Qctober next.—
Bader nom, Poo.
THE NIERDER NEAR NEWPORT.—The two Irish-
men, Murphy and Sullivan, on leaving Newport ter Mon-
mouth Coanty Owl, to which they stand asamallok slat
a the faces of some of the aowd who folissed task,:
prossedhie which called forth general enemeinm
en their way to prison, they made a searessent W•=44lN-
teadent English, to whose praiseworthy meal= is
indebted for their capture, which left so doubt es hie nisi
that it was their insults, is saes ha had travailed with
then ekes, to suds his; sad Qat Indebted tor blab
to tie Sect that, owing to their ausessailes aced meant es-
treaties at Chepstow, were bawd Is lb sill,
which Ida to tails esiel Ow Okessistaiebbe aims will
Wu. The spot when tie lady was head bas red a
subject of greet curiosity, having hese vWtsl
tort eat Isei=
rumbas
rjl.: thoprimlt I.
a ensues I. the
Meredith
is. Asia as doodad Jaw