The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-11 00:00:00

The Great Strike of Colliers.

Yesterday the largest meeting which has been yet held
of the colliers on strike in South Staffordshire took place at
Bilston. Detachments of men marched into the town from
Wednesbury, Great Bridge, Tipton, Dudley, Oldbury, and
Brierly Hill, each headed by bands of music and men carry-
ing mottoed banners. They were followed by armed police-
men until by the time the meeting commenced the police-
men in the town numbered 150 sabres. At the meeting there
were perhaps 8,000 persons, nearly all of them miners.
The speakers complained of alleged interference by the
police authorities, and said they should bring such interfe-
rence before the constituted authorities, for the men on strike
were peaceable and loyal subjects for her Majesty, and
would allow no one to tempt them to break the peace. We
may, however, state the alleged interference consisted only
of the retusal of Mejor Mtlinight, the deputy chief constable
of Staffordshire, to allow the bends to play to and fro on
the high road near to the collieries where miners are at
work, such movements by the men who are out being in-
tended to draw out the men who have resumed work. Lord
Leigh's offers were again severely strictured,and clergymen
and others who had counselled a return to work on mas-
ters' terms, were censured as friends only of the wealthy.
Efforts made on the previous night by individual employers
to secure some arrangement between themselves and the
leaders of the strike were described ; and the determination
repeated that henceforth no communications, with such an
obj •ct in view, shall take place between representatives of
the two contending sides. It was repeated that the masters
were quite able to give the rise, and that they were only
contending for the subjection of the men. Centrai ieoints
in the district were announced, at which bands of men wets:
to meet on the morrow (this) morning, to beat the drums
at half-past four in the morning, to "draw out the black-
legs."
The le hairman announced that pecuniary help and expres-
sions of sympathy had been received from the Birmingham
branch of the Amalgamated Engineers, whose secretary had
also been instructed by the lodge to write to the general
secretary with a view to a grant from the general fund. The
Birmingham Lodge had also formed itself into a committee
to procure help from other sources.
At the close of the meeting, a resolution was unanimously
come to that the strike should be continued till the masters
gave them " their wages."
The eighty Lancers, who are in barracks in Birmingham,
have for some time been kept " saddled-up," ready to ride
into the black country at a moment's notice, and a number
of the volunteers have been kept under arms in Bingley
Hall ready for any emergency to which the colliers' strike
might give rise in Birmingham, where there is a strong
sympathy with the colliers amongst all classes,and where a
rumour had got afloat that the colliers intended to march
into the town in vast numbers with anything but a peace-
able intention.
Yesterday the leaders of the movement received an official
communication from the Mayor of Birmingham, in answer
to a formal application which the colliers had made to his
worship desiring permission to hold a meeting in the out-
skirts of the town, and in which his worship states his rea-
son for refusing to comply with such application.
During the whole of the strike the Earl of Dudley has
had ono of his collieries (Hirnley Collier) at work by men
who had accepted the reduced wages; but the woelensen
have been subjected to much taunting and intimidation,
Yesterday the cottage of ono of these workmen, named Jos.
Roberts, who lives at Gornal Wood, was partially destroyed,
and his own life, and that also of all bis familly, attempted
by one of those dastardly trade outrages which are un-
happily so notorious in workmen's disputes in Sheffield.
At an early hour in the morning Roberts, who was sleep-
ing with his wife and children in the top storey of his
dwelling, was aroused by something like a heavily-loaded
can having been thrust through the window of the bed-
room in which they wero all lying, and almost immes
diately afterwards a terrible ext)losion happened, which
blow off the roof of the house. Assistance was soon forth-
coming, when it was found all the Tleepere had experienced
aeProvideratial escape. They were all uninjured. This is
the first colliers' strike during which this class of outrage
has been committed in this district ; but the one of yester-
day is the third crime of the kind which has been com-
mitted here during the present movement. No detection
has yet taken place in either instance, but the police autho-
rities are making every effort to secure the arrest of the
effendere.