The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-06-06 00:00:00

THE MASONS STRIKE.

Yesterday, a meeting of the employers, and men
now out on strike, was held at the Clarendon-
rooms, South John-street, for the purpose of making a
mutual statement of their grievances, in order to settle
the present existing dispute. Mr. William Rathbone, Mr.
J. R. Jeffery, and the Rev. H. S. Brown. had consented to
hear statements on both sides of the question. Before
business was commenced, one of the masters objected to
the presence of the secretary of the Trades' Association,
who lived at Manchester, and was not, therefore, " one of
the Master Masons, or one of the men," belonging to
Liverpool, who were invited.
The deputation from the masters c assisted of Messrs.
E. Glaister, R Wells, J. Gabbett, E. Sterling, R. Har-
greaves. The operatives deputed to attend were—Messrs
James Harris, Timothy Grindrod, John Fletcher, Edward
Willan, Mark Robinson, William Eaves, Joshua Millar,
James Carlisle, James Leslie, John Black, John Cowden,
Joseph Hoes, James M'Evoy, and Mr. Richard Harrott,
Secretary to the operative stone masons, also attended
the conference. Several of the workmen expressed a hope
that Mr. Armitage would be allowed to remain, and that
was ultimately agreed to, with the understanding that he
should not take any part in the proceedings, unless he was
referred to, and requested to answer any question on
trade subjects. This point having been settled,
James M'Evoy, an operative, commenced the business by
reading the first resolution of the society, by which it
stipulated that the hours of labour should be from six in
the morning, until helf-past five in the afternoon, and not
to go to work until seven o'clock on the Monday morning.
These .points, he argued, were necessary—to allow
them time to see their friends who might live at a dis-
tance, and in order to affor i them proper recreation. He
also advocated the general principle of shortening the
hours of labour, in order to extend the lives of the masons,
whose trade was very dangerous.
Wi Raves then advocated the proposition, that one-
half hour should be allowed for breakfast, and one-half
hour for dinner, during the winter months.
Mr. Jeffery What hour would you enter upon your
work ?

Mr. Eaves : At daylight. We will take seven o'clock as
daylight during those mrnths, and knock off for breakfast
at eight o'clock.. _ _ _

James Leslie then spoke to their proposition with regard
to wages. He asserted that while, in all other trades,
wages had increased, in the masons' trade it had decreas,d
since 1854. He stated t at the average week's earning of
a mason was, after making deductions, £1 4s 103 ; while,
if they obainrd what they asked for, it would be £l6s lid,
making a difference cf is :30 per week. That was all
they asked for. As the employers had already agreed to
pay the wages at four o'clock, and not at a public house,
there could be no objection to that point.
James Harrison then advocated the necessity of the
masters erecting sheds at the buildings at which they
were employed, which would be advantageous to the
operative, as it would prevent them from getting wet, and
thereby enable them to go on with the work without in-
termission, and thus prevent the tendency to disease that
might prove injurious to health.

John Black than advocated the system, that the masters
should be compelled to have all boys legally apprenticed to
the business, at the age of 14 years. This rule was
partially acted upon by the trade, but not solely ; and
they bpd that the masters would see it carried out by
all the employers in the towr.
Mr. Jeffery suggested that it would be better to have
the age of toe boy limited to sixteen, instead of fourteen,
as it would give him greater facilities for obtaining the
rudiments of a practical education, and make him a better
mason.

An Operative said they were all agreed to it, but could
not carry it out, as a boy must be apprenticed for seven
years, and could not be kept at his trade after he was
twenty-one years of age.
Mr. George Glaister addTessed the meeting on behalf of
the masters. He said there was no necessity at the present
moment, when there was abundance of labour in the
market, to demand a rise of wages, and that it was unjust
towards the public to do so. He contended that in some
instances an artificial scarcity of labour was produced by
concert among some of the operatives ; and yet, notwith-
standing this, labour was at present abundant.
Mr. E. Stirling, employer, reminded the operatives that
by demanding en advance in the value oflabeur they would
throw it out of the market, and thus inflict an injury up in
themselves. If the value of such labour was increased,
architects could not use stonework any more. He stated
that he had proposed to build sheds and light them with
gas, so that the hones of work and wages should not be
abridged in winter, but he was met by the reply that he
wanted to abridge their lives. He suggested paying by
the hour, as a means of meeting many of the difficulties.
Mr. James Harris said the operatives would be ready to
entertain the question of the hour system if six months
notice were given.
_ _

Several other speakers having addressed the meeting on
both sides,

Mr. Rathbone, Rev. H. S. Brown, and Mr. Jeffery,
briefly addressed the meeting, with the object of inducing
some agreement. Mr. Jeffery made some suggestions, the
principal of which were, that labour should be paid for by
the hour, that defined hours should be fixed every month
at which to begin and leave off work, and in regard to
meal-times ; that sheds should be given, and that any
advance of wages which might be agreed upon, should
not take place until after present contracts had expired..
Mr. Jeffery also threw out some suggestions with regard
to the question of apprenticeship. It appears, however,
that the operatives present weevil not empowered by the
body generally to entertain the question of payment by
the hour.

A vote of thanks was proposed to the gentleman who pre-
sided, and a hope was expressed that they would be
enabled to throw oil on the water, but Mr. Rathbone
expresses his inability to do so, ann hoped that a deputa-
tion would bs appointed on each side, to confer together
and settle the question.
The presiding gentleman, in returning thanks, hoped
that, although no result had eminated from the meeting,
good would aventnally arise from it.

At LEWIS Sc. COMPANY'S, Ranelagh street,
BOYS are CLOTHED from the Ages of 6 to 20 Years

THE TOTIENHAM COURT-ROAD ACCIDENT.—The jury, on
Thursday, returned a verdict without imputing criminal
blame to any individual, though they find that cutting
holes in the wall was the immediate cause of the accident,
and that this cutting away was done in an unskilful and
improper manner. The jury, however, expressed strong
condemnation of the present conflicting state of the law,
as to district and police surveyors, whose duties appear
to be quite independent and antagonistic.
MURDEROUS ASSAULT UPON A POLICE SERGEANT 4T
WIBSET.—Some two months ago, a female, the keeper of a
beerhouse was committed for trial on a charge of having
committed perjury, when bringing a charge again t Ser-
geant Brier, of the rural constabulary, and since then a
large portion of the reckless class have borne him no slight
amount of ill-will. On Wednesday evenirg, at half-past
ten o'clock, he was waylaid by a number of persons, who,
on his way home, attacked him with the utmost brutality.
They seized his staff, and with that and another stick,
netted him for a langth of time with successive blows on
the face, head, and back, and all parts of the body, until
he was neerly insensible, His head and brow was dread-
fully cut and bruised. One eye was nearly destroyed,
while the clotlys were almost torn from his body, and his
back resembled that of a soldier bleeding at the, triangles.
In this condition the ruffians took him for exhibiion into a
beerhouse, where their conduct drew forth applause. They
again took him out, and kicked and again beat him un-
mercifully. Their object appeared to be to take him to a
reservoir at Wibsey Bank and throw him in. Some females,
however, hearing of the affray, informed Samson Bairstow,
why, was in bed, and through his exertions, and the ap-
pearance of other policemen, the unfortunate Brier was
rescued; but only one of the ringleaders, named John
Lightowlers, a carter, was captured. Brier lies in a very
dangerous state.
PUBLIC MEETING OF SUBSCRIBERS TO THE LTYNDRILL
COLLIERY FUND.—On Thursday afternoon, a meting of
subscribers to the above fund, was held in the Court House,
Barnsley, for the purpose of fixing a scale of payment to
the widows, and making suitable provision for the
children. Several delegates were present from neighbour-
ing towns, and the whole of the proceedings were
characterised by the greatest unanimity, Mr. Hope being
called to the chair, Mr. Newman, one of the secretaries;
read the report, which stated that the subscriptions
amount to £10,046 16s 6d ; of which sum 44,181 Has
been paid to the Wakefield and Barnsley Union Bank,
£B9l is 9d to the Barnsley Banking Co., and £3OO is in the
bands of Messrs. Glyn and Co., London. The sum already
expended in relief to the sufferers amounts to £660 19s 7d.
The total number of individuals rendered destitute by the
appalling calamity is now found to be 92 widows, and 180
children under 13 years of age, besides a number of aged
relatives. On the motion of the 11 'T. B. E. Roberts, seconded
by the Rev. B. Charlesvvorib, the report was unanimously
adopted. On the motion of Mr. Parker, seconded by Mr.
Plinsoll (London), it was resolved : " That, as a gee eral
principal, the relief for the future be as follows : —For a
widow and one child, 6s ; ditto and two children, 7s 6d ;
ditto and three allure_
en, ; and if more than three
Children, 2s '3o for the widow, and 2s for each child up to
the age of 1:.; years ; and that it be imperative upon the
mothers of children between the ages of 3 and 13 to send
them to school, the expenses of their so doing to b. paid by
the committee ; and in ease of their refusal, the children's
Olaf to be witheld.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.-YESTERDAY.

LIVERPOOL.

BEFORE MR. MANSFIELD.

A " FIGHT !—Robert Walley was charged with
having beaten John Jones, in Sussex-street, Park. The
complainant's face bore evident marks of severe usage.
He said he went into a public house in the above street,
where the prisoner was, and on leaving the place he was
followed by the prisoner, who knocked him down, kicked,
and otherwise ill-used him, without, as he stated, the
slighte-t provocation. Mr. Goodere, for the prisoner, said
the fight was a " fair" one, and arose in consequence of
the. complainant ha-ring insulted the prisoner's wife, and
called her very ill names. This being proved by a female
who saw the transaction from the beginning, the prisoner
was discharged.

KNW/NC TFIE Law. —A rather respectable-looking
person, named Thomas Reynolds, was charged withhaving
assaulted police officer 517. The complainant said he was
on duty in Prince Edwin-street, the previous evening,
when he saw the prisoner acting very improperly at the
door of a private house. He told bim to go away, when
he used very foul language, and told him that he knew the
law better than he did. That may be, said the constable,
but if you are so well acquainted with it, yoq ounht to
obey it better. The prisoner then took off h s coat and
watch and handed them to a woman, and rushed at him,
striking le,al several blows in the face and chest, saying,
you —that's the way to teach you the law. In
answer to the charge, the prisoner said he was " under the
influence of drink," and did not remember what had taken
place. His Wor:hip fined him £5, or in default of pay-
ment, three months' imprisonment.
MAKING " FLITTERS" OF IT.--A powerful man, named
John Holmes, dressed as a " navvy," was charged with
having assaulted police officer 510. and with having torn
the coat off his back. The officer found the prisoner lying
asleep (drunk) on the flags ; he roused him up, when he
became outrageous, so that he took him into custody. The
pris .ner asked him if he had no assictanoe, and he
replied he had, when the prisoner fell on him, and abs 1-
lutely tore the coat off his back, and made flaters" of it.
[Here he exhibited the " article," and it certainly was
the most " flittered" looking thing that the imagination
could picture. All the " surgeon" snips of Tooley-
street—in fact, the whole " people of England" could not
doctor it up again, and there is not a"• gather-up man or
woman " in Liverpool. that would pick it out of the
gutter with a tongs ] The prisoner was fined I'2, or in
default of payment two months' imprisonment.
CURIOUS —George Stokes, an old man, with hardly any
clothes on him, wss charged by police-officer, 357, under
the following circumst antes. He said he was on duty in
Albert-street, Everton, the previous night, when he heard
great ringing of a stick (like that of an Inspector) on the
flags, and, thinking it was one of his superior offi.:ere, he
went in that direction. When he came to where the
prisoner was, he found that another officer had heard the
"knocking" also, and both met the prisoner. They asked
him what he was aboue ? when he acted in an extra-
, ordinary manner, and spoke incoherently. They put
him into his house, but in some time after he
got ito the street again, and rattled away until
he alarmed the whole neighbourhood, and at last ha was
obliged to lock him up, after he broke the stick across
his shoulders, and swore he would take his " precious life."
The prisoner; said it was all the fault of the policeman,
who had fallen in love with his daughter, and he set his
face against it, and would not allow him to visit the house.
For all that, he would come to the house e,ery night, but
it was his daughter he was attending to, in place of his
duty. Tho moment he went to bed the policeman would
enter the house, and commence " cosherin'" and drinking
coffee wi'h his daughter an i wife, and he would not
allow it. The only duty he ever did in the neighbour-
hood was drink.ng coffee with his daughter. Mr.
Mansfield said—"lt would be well for you if you
drank nothing but coffee, Prisoner : I won't allow it, and
I'll kill any ono that comes to my house in that way. Mr.
Mansfield : Pat him down till to-morrow. and let a doctor
see him, as I don't think he is quite sane.
FRIGHTFUL Ass&uLT.—An Ameriean sailor, named
David Vernon, was charged with having violently assault-
ed another sailor, named Daniel Cox. The parties lodged
in a house in Frederick-street, and it appeared that they
had some dispute about a pipe, when the prisoner took up
a heavy piece of wood, and gave the complainant a despe-
rate blow on the head, and after that caught his hand in
his mouth, and inflicted serious wounds on it by biting it
three times in a fearful manner. Dr. Wall, from the
Northern Hospital, said there was a wound in complain-
ant's head three inches long, and vary serious. He had
also three wounds on the hand from biting. The prisonsr
was sent for trial.

FORTUNE-TELLING IN THE RiGuTlVAv.—Rose O'Donnell,
described As A fortune-teller, was charged with being drunk
and disorderly in Yark-lane. The prisoner was a pretes-
sional fortune-teller, and it appeared that she had told the
fortunes of home very " verdant female:.," in the locality, and
that her " wizardness" had been out altogether in her calcu-
lations, for the opposite of every thing she told happened
to be the case. She laid it all, of course, on :the comet,
and said the stars were a " pack of blackguards" for treat-
ing her so. She was drunk and disorderly hi Park-lane
on the previous night, and, but for the interference of officer
286, her fortune would have been told, without any mistake.
by the girls whom she had duped. Mr. Mansfield told
her fortune, at least for three days, as he sent her for that
period to jail, including hard labour.
DISHONEST WAREHOUSEMAN.—WiI jam Richardson, a
warehouseman, in the employ of Messrs Green and
Taylor, Formby-street, was charged with having stolen a
sack of flour. Inspector Comlyn raid there were some
carts taking away flour from the warehouses recently
burnt, and he observed two men (it was dark at the time)
take a sack of flour from one of the carts, and carry it to
the warehouse of which the prisoner had charge. He
watched the place until eight in the morning, when the
prisoner and another man came with a truck, and were
removing the sack, when he arrested the prisoner. He
was remanded.

STR ANGE APPLICATION.

THE ROMANCE OF A FRENCH LADY.

Yesterday, at the close of the business in the police
I court, Signor Don Francisco Tomasso, the Spanish inter-
, lied to Mr. ansfield and said he had an a 113 e- 13-
plicateion to make on behat' of a French lady, who had been
insulted and annoyed by Mr. Goodere, and also by Me.
Goodere's clerk, and another vagabond. (Laughter.) He said
the facts of the ca=e were these :—Some time ago, a person,
whom he designated the "other vagabond," wasat Boulogne,
where he met the lady in question, to whom he represented
, himself as an English lord. It was true ho was an English-
man ; but, instead of being the son of a lord, or a lord him-
self, his father and mother kept a chandler's shop, and sold
halfpenny candles in Naples. (Laughter.) The " vagabond"
induced her to elope with him, and not content with
ruining her, he obtained 28,000 francs from her, and then
abandoned her in the streets of Liverpool. She went to
the French Cansul, who ordered him (Sig. Tomasso) to
take lodgings for her, and see her properly provided for
until something could be done for her. He did so, and
that day she came into court to speak with him on
business when she was insulted as described, as the
vagabond" was in court. He then made certain state-
ments about the " vagabond," End called on his Worship
to protect the lady from such insult and annoyance
Mr. Mansfield said, if the lady complained to
him of being annoyed by Mr. Goodere, or any
one else, he would know how to deal with
the case. The liv'y subsequently came into court, but did
not make any complaint.
[We report th , above case, although ex parte ; but,
being made in open court, it becomes our duly to record
it. Of course, should any of the persons alluded to make
a reply to it before the bench, we will give it equal
publicity.]

[PITS' CLOTHING MADE wan G:IEAT TASTE
At LEWIS & COMPANY'S. Rane!azh street.

CORONERS AND THEIR FEES.—The decision arrived at
last Pontefract sessions, by the West Riding magistrates,
that in future all fees in cases of purely accidental death
should be disallowed, had at the time given great dissatis-
faction to the coroners in the West Riding. The dissatis-
faction, however, did not arise so touch from their fees
being disallowed in these eases, as from the fact of their
having no certain rule to guide them when inquests should
or should not be held. In many eases an accidental death
might occur, an investigation into the causes of which
might eliminate a charge of manslaughter against certain
parties. A cons'able might bring the coroner information
of a death, the prima facie circumstances connected with
which might appear purely accidental ; bat still the core.
ner, by declining to hold an i❑quest, might render himself
liable to an action by any p.:lson choosing to bring it.
Under these circumstance., the coroners of the West Riding
had determined to submit a case to the Court of Queen's
Bench; but finding one entirely analogous was being
brought before that court by Mr. Gaisford, one of the
coroners for the county of Gloucester, they determined to
abide by the decision therein come to. Two eases of
accii!ental death," in which the justices of Gloucester-
shire had disallowed the fees, were argued, Lord Campbell
eventually deciding to leave the matter, as at present,
entirely in the bands of the justices. The result is, that
coroners, if they wish to be safe, must hold inquests, in the
majority of cases, and run the rink of having thar fees
disallowed by the Court of quarter sessions,