The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-17 00:00:00

TRADES UNION LIBEL.

A singular charge of libel in connection with the trades
union was heard in the Town Hall, Leicester, yesterday
morning. John Calvert, printer, was charged with print-
ing a libel on Thomas Charlesworth and Sons, dyers and
trimmers, and Richard Broadbridge, Lucy Topps, and
William Webster were charged with publishing and
exhibiting the same in a window on December 17th. The
prosecutors dismissed a man named Thomas Calvert for
incompetency. The trades union insisted on his being re-
instated, even if he was only employed to clean
out dog-kennels. The prosecutor refused this request,
and on the following Tuesday all hands absented them-
selves, a note being left under the door, signed by the
Secretary, on behalf of the Union Committee, to the
effect that they wished Calvert to be taken back. The
strike was continued, and on the '7th of January a lengthy
bill was issued by the Committee of the Union,in which was
a libel reflecting on prosecutor's unjustly dismissing Cal-
vert, and setting girls to do the work of sturdy men. It
also stated that they had frequently gone from their word
after making agreements with the men, and called upon
the workpeople not to seek employment at their firm. The
prosecutors admitted to issuing a notice to hosiers, telling
them of the strike, and calling upon them to withhold
Christmas boxes. Calvert was remanded for a week with
a view to get at the name of the author of the libel, and
the personalty of the committee of the union. The other
prisoners were discharged. It is stated that civil proceed.
ings are being instituted against Broadbridge for aggra-
vating the offence by continuing the publication of the
libel in his window.

MR. MUNDELLA ON OUR RELATIONS TO
AMERICA.

Mr. Mundella addressed the annual meeting of the
Sheffield Chamber of Commerce yesterday, and referred
especially to our difficulty with the United States. He
thought that on such questions as the steel difficulty,
which had caused so much inconvenience at Sheffield and
elsewhere, the Board of Trade ought to interfere and
bring such disputes to an end. H e also commended the
Sheffield Chamber for having resolved to bring before the
Associated Chambers of Commerce the -desirableness of
endeavouring to get the serious questions arising out of
injury done to American shipping submitted to arbitra-
tion. That resolution would, he was assured, do much
good. He was bound to say there did not exist that
danger of war which the public were often led to suppose.
Speeches of men like General Butler, who represented
nobody but themselves, were most misleading. By all
persons in the States he was assured that General Butler
was without following.

THE LATE EXPLOSION AT WITTON.
The adjourned inquest on the bodies of seventeen of
the persons killed by the explosion at Messrs. Ludlow's
Ammunition Factory, at Witton, near Birmingham, on
Tuesday, the 9th December, was brought to a conclusion
yesterday. The jury returned a verdict to the effect that
the deceased persons met with their deaths by being vio-
lently scorched and burnt, in consequence of a quantity
of gunpowder having exploded ; but by what means the
said explosion was caused there was no evidence to %hew.
To their verdict the jury appended the following
presentment, "The jury are unanimously of opinion that
there was not sufficient care exercised at the factory, and
that these was an absence of many precautions necessary
for carrying on so dangerous a trade. The jury
are also of opinion that the manufacture of cartridges,
percussion caps, And other dangerous articles should not be
permitted to be carried on, except under the immediate
supervision of a properly qualified officer appointed by
Government, The jury also find that the statutory
distances between the sheds at the factory were infringed