The Sun.
London, England, 1863-03-30 00:00:00

7

.., . ,
•
\.7 v4,---
...,,, N.. ...,
.......,,,,
~---. li'.'
ielGIR.Er'
~ iiiiill,,.s ._
.„,„\(,. ..._,_„,,,,,,,..„5...::„...),..,,,,,,(
.. :...,
• .....,,....0„,._.1.0,,
,:
_ .
: /"/".......4.....
..
..,_ ,:,...,:..14
1 • Ithafini
\ -
31- . 4,....:- '''.,,)/ & K' " \\''''''.4"l r-V- - -- -;-:.- ---'g-'' • , ' ' . ' , - ,
~,S •
7,- ~.. t,. / 0
....., ‘ ~>,,,
..... 1.".., ~,,,',7 )1 ''' •4 1% -- -, •' , • •
. _ •-V. --
A; 'ee 0 A -,., ..',.., ail, 111. _t frp • zy,,Asl,- ,__-, „„,, „,., _ •• -. • .
-I,- •
.. ...,..-- ILIFLT" I'l ,~ . il,p ."‘"" -60. IP gie ~,
j ''''
' ,1101 , 0r1i.,..1,,p, ,onorr. ~..y, _--
- ~, 'V's• n+
~..-'

G ~/

PRICK.... —..4d.
STAMPED ....6d.

There was only one opinion expressed as to the
quality of the metal supplied by Messrs. Makin
—it was, as we have said, the best that has yet
been tried.
As it seems probable, from the remarks made in
the House of Commons the other night, that some
members intend to honour future experiments with
their presence, we would, as a preliminary step,
earnestly recommend them to take a liberal view of
the Shoeburyness Estimates, in order that some
really stout splinter-proofs may be erected, from
which they may see the trials with something like
safety, Without some such additional safegulra,
even all the care and precautions taken by Colonel
Taylor cannot lc ng avert an accident. On Friday
the officers engaged and all the members of the
committee had very narrow escapes from two large
fragments of steel splinters which came through
the splinter-proof and passed over the heads of those
crowded in it, fortunately without touching any
one. All the splinter-proofs are more or less rough,
temporary erections, made of any strong materials
that are nearest at hand. And, indeed, in all its
appliances for shifting guns, &c., there is an evident
want of proper means to the end, which is not what
one expects to meet in a practice ground of such
national importance as Shoeburyness has now be-
come. This want of a proper plant doubles the
labours of a most zealous staff of officers, who,
without such additional -duties, are already almost
overworked.

THE LATE RIOTS.

STA LEYBBIDGE, Saturday.

There is reason to believe that the disgraceful
proceedings of the malcontent recipients of relief in
this populous neighbourhood have at length been
finally checked. Farther disorders had been appre-
hended, and as early as 9 o'clock this morning a
troop of the 14th Hussars took up a position in front
of the Town-hall, to be ready for any emergency ;
but happily their active services have not been
needed. It will be remembered that on Tuesday
evening the working classes, assembled in public
meeting, passed a resolution to return to their
schools next morning and await the decision of the
Relief Committee, who had promised to reconsider
the minute by which money payments of 3s. 4d.
per week had been substituted by tickets for 3s. only.
Unfortunately the news received on Wednesday
morning of the resolution adopted by the Mansion-
house Committee went far towards the reopening of
the whole question ; and up to this morning it was
doubtful if the discontented would not recede from
the terms of compromise by which they had them-
selves agreed to abide it acceded to by the Relief
Committee. A meeting of the Relief Committee
was fixed for 11 o'clock this morning to receive a
deputation on the subject, and up to the last mo-
ment there was uncertainty as to the result. The
meeting was held at the Town-hall, and there was
a rather full attendance of members. There were
present, in addition to the committee, Sir J. S.
Shuttleworth, Mr. I. W. Maclure, Mr. Commis-
, sioner Farnall, and Mr. John Cheetham. The de-
putation consisted of 13 working men, being one
from each school. Upon their admission the chair-
man (Mr. Birks) briefly opened the proceedings by
asking what was to be the nature of the com-
munication they had to make. The leader of the
deputation (Mark Der went) said he was very
glad to have to make a satisfactory report, which
was that they had transmitted to the several
schools the question whether they would accept the
committee's proposal to give the relief half in tickets
and half in money, and they had unanimously
agreed that they would each accept the proposal.
As to the qnestion whether, in consideration of the
relief having been reduced from 3s. 4d, to 3s. per
week, the committee would agree to take off a day's
work per week, they did not propose to press it. It
would be a very acceptable concession, and if made
they would prefer to have Monday, because that
would be the best day on which to seek employment
elsewhere. The chairman inquired how it was, if
they were unanimous, that a message had been re-
ceived yesterday to the effect that the central
school bad resolved to have the whole 3s. in cash
and that only on condition of a day's attendance
per week less ? A member of the deputation said
such a proposition had been made, but it had never
received the sanction of the school, and when it was
made it was with a proviso that if the other schools
accepted the compromise they would accept it also.
The chairman said he was very glad to hear the re-
sult of their deliberations. If any cause of discon-
tent in future arose, he hoped they would seek a
solution in a more reasonable way than had been
adopted in this matter, by sending a deputation to
the committee.

It is a matter of great regret to many persons
here that there is not more harmony of action be-
tween the Mansion-house and the Central Execu-

tive Committee. The course adopted by the former
in remitting the £5OO is thought likely to create
an impression that the Central Committee have been
dealing harshly with the operatives, and gives a
colour to the assertion that the recent outbreak was
a contest of the cotton lords versus the operatives.
Such an impression is the reverse of truth. There
are only four or five so-called cotton lords on the
Central Executive Committee the larger proportion
of the committee representing the territorial aristo-
cracy of the county and the commercial and other
interests. Great credit is given generally to the
Mansion•house Committee for the sunessful efforts
they have made to raise a fund for the relief of the
prevalent distress and as having been the first in the
field—but at the same time it is alleged that for
want of local knowledge and correct information,
they have been a good deal misled in the distribu-
tion of their funds, and in one instance, it is said,
in reply to a letter, they intrusted a sum of money
for distribution to a man who had not only been
the leader of a local strike, but had been connected
with the strike against the joiners and bailders of
London—a man whose moral character was not
high and who had been the inmate of one of the
county gaols.
The military are to remain here for some days.
The courtesy and attention of Sir G. Wetherall,
commandant of the district, in his communications
with the authorities of the various towns in this
neighbourhood during the late tumults, are spoken
of in the highest terms.

Sir J. K. Shuttleworth said, in reference to the
proposed remission of a day's attendance per week
at the schools, it was undesirable to enter upon that
question to-day, inasmuch as the Central Cmmittee
at Manchester had it in contemplation to make
changes in the mode of relief which would be a con-
siderable modification of the present system. Dur-
ing the inclemency of the winter it had been thought
undesirable that the men out of employ should be ex-
posed to outdoor work, and he therefore wrote to the
Poor Law Board on the subject. The result was that
a system of indoor mental employment had been sub-
stituted for outdoor manual labour; but now that the
spring was advancing, and milder weather might
be anticipated, it was under consideration whether
outdoor work would not be better. Probably the
working men themselves would prefer healthy
outdoor employment to the monotony and confine-
ment connected with the school system. In that
case they would probably be paid by the hour, at
the rate of 3d. per hour, which was half-a-crown
for the day of ten hours, and was the amount
usually paid for out-door labour. It was not in-
tended that such work should go on in inclement
weather, and it would be necessary to make some
difference in the scale of payment according to the
numbers in a family, and to make some departure
from the rule in case of sickness ; but, of course,
these were matters of detail which would require
careful consideration. As to the nature of the work,
that would depend upon the authorities in the
various towns, but probably it would be found in
most of them that there were streets unpaved and
unsewered upon which they might be employed.
He did not mean that they should make permanent
improvements, because local Acts might interfere
with a proposition ct that kind very much, but
they might put streets in better temporary repair,
so as to add to the healthiness and salubrity of the
dwellings in those streets of the working men them-
selves. All that would have to be matter of ar-
rangement, and no doubt the committee would be
considerate, and make the tasks as little irksome as
possible, whatever they might be. In the mean-
time he would advise them not to listen to men who
sought to excite their passions. There were men
who thought the relief ought to be greater, who told
them what a mean pittance it was, and said it was
less thin the criminal in gaol was receiving. These
were appeals to their passions. The cause of their
present sufferings could not be laid upon any class
of the community, and they could not make the
thing otherwise than it was by any action they
might take. Those who were doing most to help
them were suffering as well as they, and they
thought, the working men should kindly co-operate
with the committee, and endeavour to make their
duties as light as might be. He had spoken Biron 1 y
to them yesterday, because he thought their conduct
in the late acts of violence was disgraceful and
without excuse. The committee were disposed to
consider their welfare in the kindest spirit, but
they would not bend in the slightest degree
to any agitation, and if there was any at-
tempt at intimidation, they would probably
have to withdraw their subscriptions &together
from the town. He was glao t, see the tone in
which they had rapt the committee to-day, and in
anything he
such a ppiiic he should be glad to do

/I>PAPER

, -",,, t..-:. is: E.,- , • s A..
could to forward their views if wi,
reason. —.l-'.
":: .7'." 1,1,;:.
g--7:::, 4,,,,kv
Mr. John Cheetham thought that . rtarettor -'-‘«.f.-.---
committed on this occasion was that the olierativis, S
when they felt themselves aggrieved by the change
in the mode of relief, did not send a deputation to
confer with the committee, as they had done now.
There had been men who had sought to poison their
minds against the committee, but he was sure that
no men could have tried more earnestly to serve
them than did the members of that committee. He
regretted that they had not sought an interview
with them earlier.
The deputation then withdrew.
Now that a peaceful solution of the differences
between the committcc and the discontented opera-
tives has at length been arrived at, it may not be
undesirable to edvr.,rt to a few facts connected with
the matter upon which attempts have been made to
mislead public opinion concerning it. The attend-
ance revired at the schools is five days of five hours
each per week. It has been said that the committee
have dealt harshly with the unemployed in reducing
the scale of relief, but the fact is that the ecalf) of
relief here is still high as compared with that given
in other distric s. .An Irishman in the deputation
was pointed out, who, with his wife and three chil-
dren, is receiving 14s. per week under this scale,
and yet the average earnings of such a man in full
employ at the cotton mill would not exceed 13s. 6d.
to 14s. Taking the average of relief given in other
districts, such a man would not receive more than
10s. With regard to the ticket system, the reason
urged by one of the discontented operatives hero
why he objeeted to tickets was that it was degrad-
ing; but the distribution by tickets has been prac-
tised in other districts and not objected to as degrad-
ing. It has been found in practice that where men
have really wanted to change their tickets into
money instead of food they have found only too
much facility. A publican is know to have paid
for all tickets the full value, and to have given the
bearers a glass of ale each into the bargain. The
strongest reason urged for making the compromise
now arrived at, and paying partly in money, is in
the case of unmarried men, who have their lodgings
to pay for weekly, and therefore require money as
well as food.