The Sun.
London, England, 1854-04-17 00:00:00

THE STRIKE AT STOCKPORT.

The extent to which the strike would spread was not
ascertained up to Saturday night, even by the most
active of the leaders engaged in counselling resistance to
the proposed reduction. The magistrates having pro-
hibited the open air meeting which was to have been
held in the borough on Friday, the promoters of it had
bills placarded on the walls under cover of the night,
stating that it would take place near Bredbury tollbar,
about a mile along the road to Hyde, and just where a
sudden bend of the wall of the Mersey hides the town
from view. The spot chosen was a field beyond the
jurisdiction of the borough magistrates. The meeting
was small for en out-door demonstration, consisting
only of about 3,000 persons of both sexes. Nine dele-
gates from various places were the speakers, including
Mr. Cowell, from Preston. The most remarkable speech
was that of Mr. Matthew, of Heywood, who commenced
the often-used assertion that capital and
labour Ying
were identical in their interests. He said the
fact that a master could put up a notice in his mill
they
to take away their wages showed there was a power
b
which should not exist. The masters said they could
not sell their cloth. Well, they were not asked to give
it away ; let them wait till they could sell it. The Mai.
classes)tmustle competesea(si
id;
snoo t l
wownaignt with
at foreignersso theyeo t h
did
ithed ;t
that
ttc
ktt
they
eeoyyf
tens(ths said
e w
people
across
must destroy the home markets. So long as they sent
bales of cloth abroad in ships, the working people at
home were injured, for every inch the ship sailed from
these shores the cloths on board her depreciated in
value, Why all this talk about Turkey—this equip-
meet of fleets and armies to protect her liberties—
while the people were so little cared for at home by
those who were in power ? He wished them to under-
stand this question of foreign trade. He could not walk
to the other end of that platfrom with so little deprecia-
tion as he could to the middle only, and so it was with
the cloth they sent abroad ; the further they sent it the
greater was the depreciation in value. The further they
took their goods to market the more men they had to
employ in taking them, or in unproductive employment, -
and the more men not employed in producing wealth
the more work, of course, must be entailed upon those
who did produce it. He was one of those who
believed
in the old-fashioned doctrine that those parents who
did not care for their own households were worse than '
infidels, and those who did not care for their own people.
at home were no better. Ever since we had been ex-
porting goods from our country in the same ratio had
our people been deteriorating, and wealth in the hands
of those who produced it had been growing less.
Mr. COWELL, of Preston, said that the masters of
Preston had sent agents to Ireland, who had brought
from workhouses and elsewhere a large number of
miserable, degraded, and poverty-stricken people, in
order to fill the mills and to frighten or starve their old
hands into submission. Because he and others had used
their influence to send those people back, a bill had been
filed against them for conspiracy ; but, instead of this
step terrifying the Preston hands, the arrest of himself
and 10 others only enlivened and emboldened all, and
some 20 or 30 men of ability, talent, and energy came
forward and promised to conduct the agitation in case
he (Mr. Cowell). and his companions were incarcerated.
They were to be tried for conspiracy simply because,
seeing the cotton-masters growing richer and richer, and
the workers growing poorer and poorer, they lifted their
voices to tell the people that the time had come to rea
a portion of the benefits and profits of free trade.
they were all unanimous, the 10 per cent. cause must
triumph throughout the length and breadth of the land.
The proceedings lasted two hours, and another meet-
ing was announced on Monday morning of • all who
should be on strike.