The Sun.
London, England, 1838-01-20 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sir,--By giving this circular a place in your paper you will
oblige the Committee. JOHN NENVTON.
TO THE TRADE SOCIETIES OF LONDON AND
THE WORKING CLASSES GENERALLY.

At a Nleting of the Delegates and Members of the Trade
Societies, forming the London Committee acting on tehalf
of the Glasgow Cotton-spinners, which Meeting was also
numerously attended by Members of Societies not on the
Committee, the following statement was unanimously
adopted, and ordered for circulation :

Fellow Workmen,—lt is with the deepest regret that we
have to announce to you the conviction and sentence. to seine .0
years' transportation of the five Glasgow cotton. spinners, on
the three minor charges contained in the indictment, viz.,
conspiring to raise wages, and two assaults on "nob" spinners,
during the late protracted strike ; the Judge, in stnammg up,
having admitted that none of the evidence given proved any
of the capital charges.
While we thus express our regret at the conviction, let it
not be supposed that we countenance in the slightest degree
any of those atrocious acts of assassination end violence as-
serted by the witnesses for tha prosecution to have been com-
mitted by the Cotton Spinners' Association in Glasgow;
on the contrary, we look on such proceedings with the
greatest indignation and abhorrence, and repudiate them in
the name of our respective societies; hut it is becanze we
believe, after a careful perusal of the evidence, as reported
in the London papers, the convicted cotton spinners to be
guiltless of these atrocities--because we believe the Associa-

tion, of which they were members, had no other oi)j;e; in
view but the protection of their labour, by proper and justifi-
able means, and did not sanction the committal of outrage,
that we afford them our sympathy and support, and call upon
you to do the same.

Yes, fellow-workmen, notwithstanding the mass of evidence
which the Crown—after six mcnths' exertion, and three suc-
cessive postponements, in order, as they said, to enable them
more fully to establish the guilt of the prisoners—Lave taped
together, they have failed to prove any of the more serious
charges against the prisoners, which: fact alone convinces us
that the Cotton Spinners' Association is based upon prin-
ciples similar to our own societies, viz., the 'enabling the
members to procure an adequate reward for their labour by
just means. That violence has been offered to individuals__
that a man of notoriously bad character of the name of Smith
was assassinated, is too true—that such acts may have
been committed :by cotton spinners is possible, but that
they wet e sanctioned or in any way authorised either by
the Cotton Spinners' Association, or by its Committee;
or that they were perpetrated in the expectation of
reward from the society, we utterly disbelieve, On the autho-
rity of the Trades of Glasgow, who fully investigated the cir-
cumstances. We do not believe that the committee of any
:rade society ever deliberately sanctioned assassination, or that
,he members of any trade society ever contributed to a fund
raised for that purpose. We look on the Cotton Spinners'
Committee as victims to the violence of men with whom they
or their society had no feeling in common.
We are in daily expectation of a communication from the
Glasgow committee, which, on its arrival, shall be laid before
you. In the meantime we earnestly hope that our fellow
workmen will not be influenced by the base conduct of the
majority of the London press, in publishing, at full iength, the
evidence for the prosecution ; and almost entirely suppress-
ing. that for the defence. This fact would seem to confirm
the suspicions of the attempt :about to be made to crush all
trade societies, by fastening acts of atrocity upon them__
by the power of law and capital—and by the basene.ss of those
of our own class who degrade themselves and become the per-
jured instruments in the oppression of their fellow-man !
We are, fellow-workmen, the members of the London (ilasgow
Committee :

J. Norman, chairmaker,
W. Isaacs, typefounder,
J. Barrett, carpenter,
J. Barnes; bricklayer,
W. Cookes, silk-hatter,
J. Jennings, carpenter,
Adlington, plasterer,
J. Prior, carpenter,
T. BABRATT, corkcutter, Chan:
J. NEWTON, carpenter, Hon. See.
8311 Inn, 011 Bailey, Jan. 17.
The Committce request attention to the following :
That the verdict of thc jury, fifteen h► number, was returned
by a majority of one only ! Eight voting for " guilty"—seven
against.

IL Hartwell; compositor,
J. Purcell, bricklayer,
Wm. Tuck, cabinetinakor,
J. Bush, carpenter,
H. Mitchell, turner,
Bradbeer, carpenter,
Dyer, carpenter.

—That the prisoners received good characters fcr industry,
steadiness, and sobriety from the managers of one or two of
the mills who gave evidence for the prosecuTion.
That the Glasgow Committee intend publishing forthwith a
full report of this extraordinary trial.