The Sun.
London, England, 1854-03-11 00:00:00

TIIE PRESTON STRIKE.

PRESTON, March 10.—The importation of strangers
still continues, and not unfrequently the novel spectacl e
is seen of the police force and fire-brigade being em-
ployed to escort four or five people from the railway sta-
tion to the depot, a distance of some 200 or 300 yards.
Among the recent arrivals are a number of straw-bonnet
makers from Bedfordshire. When the new hands have
been allotted to those who intend to employ them, they
are removed from the depot to the mills in omnibuses,
guarded by policemen. Considerable apprehension has
been created among the ratepayers by the introduction
of strangers unaccustomed to factory labour, and they
have given expression to their views in the following
petition, which has been adopted at a public meeting,
and now lies for signature in the town :
"TO THE HON. THE COMMONS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND

IRELAND, IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED.
"The petition of the imdersigned inhabitant householders
and ratepayers of the borough and township of Preston,
in the county of Lancaster,—
" Humbly sheweth,—That your petitioners have noticed
the introduction into your hon. house of a bill to abolish,
in England and Wales, the compulsory removal of the
poor, on the ground of settlement, and to make provision
for the more equitable distribution of the charging of relief
in unions.

" That, under ordinary circumstances, your petitioners
would have hailed the introduction of such a measure with
great satisfaction ; but, under the present peculiar situa-
I tion of the town, your petitioners believe that, unless the
borough and township of Preston be specially exempted
from the provisions of the said bill, it will bring ruin upon
a large portion of the respectable ratepayers.
" That the present extraordinary condition of the town
arises from the importation of a large number of unskilled
pauper labourers, brought into the wn and located at the
instance of a combination styling itself the `Associated
Masters of Preston.'
" That the respectable members of the before-named
combination, acting under the style or denomination of the
' Associated Masters of Preston,' binds each of its members
by a bond to obey all orders passed by a majority of its
members, failing in which the respectable members render
themselves liable to a penalty of 5,0001. each.
" That the unskilled paupers now being introduced into
the town of Preston by the before-named combination will,
under the proposed measure for the abolition of compulsory
removals, ultimately become irremoveablo paupers charge-
able upon the poor's funds, and thereby increase the poor
rates of the township of Preston to a most alarming extent,
and bring to want and beggary a large body of those rate-
payers who are now independent.
" Tht.t your petitioners therefore pray your hon. House
to insert a clause in the said measure specially exempt-
ing from its operations the township of Preston, and thus
avert the impending ruin which, withouts i
achexezegtiiron
will fall upon the town by the flood of pauper
now being imported into it from the distant counties of
England, in addition to a large number of paupers from
Ireland.
" And your petitioners will ever prey: