The Sun.
London, England, 1852-01-06 00:00:00

consoling to know, however, that the gentleman who
wrote the article in that pape.r'and the secretary of
the Masters' Association were identical—Mr. Sidney
Smith—a gentleman certainly of " versatile" powers,
but neither " Sidney the wise, nor Sidney the witty."
—(Cheers and laughter.") In conclusion, he called
on them to remember that their position was a passive
one in resisting the strike of the employers, and that
they had only been called into activity by the neces-
sity of making preparations for their defence.
Mu. USHER said he was glad to hear that prepara-
tions were being made to meet the crisis. He was
sure the men were quite prepared to enter into the
system of self-employment. The members of the
society had not only a great many tools, but a very
considerable amount of money at their disposal,
which they would readily lend to the council.—(Hear,
hear.) He believed that the movement would not only
aid working men, but that it would be of the utmost
advantage to the small employers, because a number
of the repairs that the men would be enabled to get
would be taken to those factories where the employers
badidentified themselves with the men.
Several other speeches followed, which protracted
the meeting till a late hour. Their tenour was in
approval of the proceedings of the council, and ex-
pressive of sympathy with the labourers whose dis-
charge would be consequent upon the closing of the
factories. It was intimated that means would be
taken to afford pecuniary assistance to any who should
be so situated.

THE ENGINEERS AND MECHANICS.
(From the Manchester Guardian)
Since our last publication, various communications
have been made to the newspapers in reference to the
disputes between the engineers and machine-makers
and the Amalgamated Society of workmen. Speeches
have also been made at the meeting of the latter body ;
and by a comparison of the two we are enabled to
arrive at a tolerably clear perceptical of the true
merits of the questions at issue.
We have stated on a former occasion that the ad-
vocates of the Amalgamated Society were evidently
desirous of keeping out of view the most obnoxious of
the demands which they are preferring—namely, that
which requires the expulsion of the labourers employed
in working, or rather in watching, self-acting ma-
chines, and filling up their places with members of
the society. They were, of course, far too cunning
to put forward so odious a demand in any general
form; but that it constitutes a part of their general
design there cannot be the slightest doubt on the
mind of any man who carefully attends to the facts
which have come before the public. At a meeting of
the workmen which was held in London on Tuesday
last, Mr. W. Newton, " a member of the executive
council of the Amalgamated Society," and apparently
the presiding spirit in, and the mouthpiece and advo-
cate of that society, denied with some warmth that
any such demand had been made or was thought
,of.
He said that the society—
" Disavowed all intention of removing any persons at
present in employment; there was nothing in the pre-
sent proceedings of the council that expressed or implied
any such intention; they had never asked for the re-
moval of a man from a machine, who was working at it,
who had earned a title to work at it by the time he had
been employed at it; and so far from the opinions of
their members being against those men, they had fos-
tered and encouraged them."
Now, this would be all very fine if it was true, but
we know perfectly well, from the demand made upon
Messrs. Hibbert and Platt, that it was not true, and
that the only fostering and encouragement which the
labourers in question will receive from the members
of the Amalgamated Society, when the latter can have
their own way, will be immediate expulsion from
their employment and their only means of earning a
livelihood. '
It is true that Mr. Newton refers to the demands
made upon Messrs. Hibbert and Platt as being merely
a dispute between them and their own workmen,
" who demanded the abolition of over-time, and asked
for the discharge of a certain number of men whom
they called illegal men"—namely, the very men whom
the society has always " fostered and encouraged"—
so far at least as fair words, contradicted by foul ac-
tions, can go. " But the society," Mr. Newton says,
" had nothing to do with all this, and had never taken
part in the proceeding. He himself attended at Old-
ham in his individual capacity, to try to prevent a
strike which must be attended with so much misery."
Now, it may be, and no doubt is, very convenient
for Mr. Newton to divest himself of his official
capacity whenever he pleases, and to try to exonerate
the Amalgamated Society by throwing the blame of
making cruel and odious demands upon particular
bodies of workmen, but the public will naturally look
a little under the flimsy veil with which he strives to
shroud the proceedings at Oldham. It may be very
true that the bolt was shot by Messrs. Hibbert and
Platt's workmen, but people will want to know who
forged it, and they will draw certain inferences from
the presence on the spot of Mr. Newton. What the
"individual capacity" of that gentleman (who lives in
London, and is not, we believe, a mechanic or engi-
neer at all) had to do with a dispute between a Lan-
cashire firm of machine makers -and their workmen
he does not explain, and we are at a loss to conjec-
ture. The public, however, will very naturally infer
that his presence was not a private, but an official act,
and that the demand with which he busied himself
was virtually the demand of the society of which he
is the active agent.
If it was not so, and if the labourers against whom
the demands of the Oldham workmen were levelled
were men whom the Amalgamated Society had always
" fostered and encouraged," how came it to pass that
the attempt to drive them from their employment was
not visited with the censures of the society ? and why
did Mr. Newton, " member of the council," &c., en-
deavour, as we know he did very recently, to induce
Messrs. Hibbert and Platt to comply with the demand
of their workmen, and to dismiss the men of whom
the latter complained ? The truth is obvious enough.
The demand for the expulsion of the labourers is as
much the act of the society as those for the abolition
of over-time and piece work, and nobody pretends to
doubt that if the workmen, in whose name it has been
years.
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A PRACTISED ROBBER.—A young man named
Thomas Read, said to be very respectably corrected, has
been committed by the Gloucester magistrates for trial on
three charges of robberies committed at hotels at Gloucester
and Worcester. The prisoner assumed the character of a
commercial traveller. On Sunday evening he appeared at
the Angel Inn, Worcester, in that character, engaged a bed,
and was shown to his room, where he remained for some ten
minutes. In that brief space of time he contrived to pick
two locks, and to abstract from a box twelve silver teaspoons,
two pair of tablespoons, and a pair of salt spoons. Proceed-
ing by railway to Gloucester by the first train next morning,
he sold the plate and put up at the Greyhound Commercial
Inn, where he dined, and paid his bill. Before leaving,
however, he picked the lock of a drawer and box, and ab-
stracted 501. in gold, leaving other money in notes in the box.
A third robbery, of a great coat, was committed at another
inn which he had patronised. He was apprehended at the
Gloucester Railway Station as he was proceeding by a first-
class train to Birmingham.
WEST WHEAL ALFRED MINING COMPANY. -A
meeting of the shareholders of this company was held yes-
terday at the officer, 2, Broad-street; Mr. Cole in the chair.
The report stated that the mine would be drained to the
30-fathom level this week, and that before the next quar-
terly meeting, it would be unwatered and in course of
working. The expenditure to the end of December was
2,443/. 15s. Bd. ; and there was a balance left to the credit
of the company of 2681. 12s. 2d. The main part of the ex-
penditure had been incurred in machinery and pit work, and
therefore could not be deemed as part of the assets of the
company. After a
vots air
of thanks to the ch
meeting eeparitted.man, the