The Sun.
London, England, 1865-03-20 00:00:00

THE MIN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING}, MARCH 20, 1865,

the iron works in the north are not closed. Among
the large establishments in full employment are
Messrs. Hanks, Crawshay, and Sons, of Gateshead,
the Britannia Fence Horses, the Bortley Ironworks,
and the Stockton Rolling Mills. The blast furnaces
upon the Tyne and Tees are also fully employed,
and as yet the iron shipbuilding yards of the Tyne
and Wear have suffered no special inconvenience
through the lock-out, however soon they may do so.
Middlesborough, which wholly depends upon the
iron trade, is in a very depressed state ; and it is
hard to say who are the most to be pitied, the poor
labourers, hundreds of whom have been thrown out
of employment through a dispute in which they had
no part, or the small shopkeepers who will soon be
cleared out by the credit they have to give. The la-
bourers have no union funds to fall back upon to keep
" the wolf from the door," and their case is very
much to be sympathised with. The news of the
result of the York conference seems to have a para-
lysing effect upon the Jarrow men, or, to use the
words of one of their number, it " stunned them,"
so unexpected was it. All along, the men have
buoyed themselves up with the belief that the
Messrs. Palmer's contracts and the necessities of
the ship-yard were so great that their works could
not be closed for any lengthened period ; conse-
quently when the York conference assembled the
men were in good hopes that, whatever the Staf-
fordshire masters resolved, Mr. Palmer would be
compelled to open his works. This belief was in
a manner confirmed on Thursday by the fact that
the millmen received an offer of work, providing
the Union would allow them to "go in." The
Union, however, would not give their consent to
this offer unless the works were declared open to
puddlers and millmen alike. When the news ar-
rived last night that the conference had broken
up without any definite arrangement having been
made the men were for the first time brought to be-
lieve that the lock-out was in all seriousness to be
forced upon them for an indefinite period. To-day
there was no-action among the men. They simply
perambulated th 3 streets in considerable numhers,
and quietly discussed the various points of the dis-
pute. Underlying this excitement there exists a
dogged- determination to " fight it out." Many of
the workmen, especially the young men, are pre-
paring to emigrate, some to Wales, others to Ame-
rica and the continent. From present indications
there is no apprehension of any breach of the peace
occurring in the neighbourhood, although on Friday
it was rumoured that the labourers were so exaspe-
rated at being thrown out of work through no
fault of their own that they had threatened to mob
the puddlers.

A report from Consett this evening states that
great dissatisfaction is manifested at the result of
the meeting at York yesterday, and the policy of the
Brierly-hill Executive is generally condemned.
The shops of the village still remain open, but it is
the inclination of the shopkeepers to close after next
week. A meeting of puddlers is appointed to be held
in Auckland on Monday.
_ .