The Sun.
London, England, 1841-04-13 00:00:00

STATE OF TIPPERARY.

Accounts have reached town to•day which represent
tiro northern parts of the county of Tipperary to be in
a state bordering, on actual insurrection. The town o
Nenagh has the appearance of a place preparing for a
siege, the streets being crowded with troops despatched
thither from the garrison of Limerick, comprising a
troop of the 17th Lancers, and two companies of the
20th Foot, and two or three pieces of ordnance were
expected to arrive there in the course of Friday even-
ing. The orders of the military are to scour the dis-
turbed districts day and night in bodies of twenty-five
and thirty, and to be in constant readiness for
active duty at five minutes' warning. In the mean-
time the work of bloodshed and outrage progresses
with fearful rapidity. Two more murders were com•
mitted in the broad daylight yesterday on the lands of
Curraghmore, in the parish of Kilbarron. The names
of these unhappy victims to Ribbonism were Tierney
and Glecson. Major-General Sir Parker Carroll, the
commanding-officer of the district, has been served with
a Rockite notice, warning him to be prepared for the
fate which momentarily impends over him, in conse-
quence of ejecting a woman from some land, the same
being in direct contravention of the Ribbon Code. The
list of outrages, in the shape of similar notices, together
with assaults on the person, &c., would occupy too mach
of your space. I shall, therefore, merely abridge some
of the particulars elicited at the inquest on the body of
the wretched Hayes. This barbarous deed was com-
mitted within about six miles of Nenagh, on the borders
of the mighty Shannon, and in one of the wildest dis-
tricts of Ireland. Contiguous to the house of the un-
happy man are half-a-dozen lonely dwellings, which are
chiefly occupied by fishermen, and are situated between
mountains, which command a picturesque view of that
magnificent river. There is no direct passage to the
place, and the Coroner and his party were obliged,
after leaving the high road, to traverse for upwards of a
mile an almost inaccessible tract of country ere they
reached the fatal spot. The first witness examined was
Bridget Hayes (widow of deceased). Her husband was
a carpenter. He was employed on the sth inst. in re-
pairing a boat for the Rev. Dean Holmes. He left off
work between the hours of seven and eight o'clock on
that evening. When he came home he ate his supper,
took a smoke, and said his prayers. After that he went
to the door, and saw a man pass by. Witness asked
him who the man was, and be replied that he did not
know. He then went to the fire and kindled his pipe,
and remained standing on the floor till the strange man
(whose name witness did not know) came in. The man
was armed with a two-handed wattle. He came over
to the fire and lit his pipe. He did not sit down ; he
stood at the fire. Deceased desired the strange man
to sit down ;he said he would not. During this time
the stick remained on the ground. The deceased then
said, " Perhaps you're a man that wants to cross the
Shannon ?" to which he replied, that be did not.
Deceased then asked him to remain for the night,
and desired witness to put down his supper. The
man said he had already eaten it. Deceased got up,
and walked towards the dresser. Witness observed a
change come over his countenance, as if he were afraid.
Witness kept her eye on deceased. Did not look
round until she heard a blow and saw him fall. Witness
then ran between the man and deceased, lest he might
strike him again. The man caught her by the head,
tore her cap and handkerchief, and dragged her out
into the yard :he then said, "Go in now, or give
you the same treatment I gave him ; give up the land
now." He afterwards went off in an opposite direction
to that in which he came. This happened about nine
o'clock in the evening. When witness went into the
house she found deceased lying on his back. He was
kicking and struggling dreadfully at the time. He
spoke in a faltering tone. Witness, assisted by a man
named Martin Darmody, put the deceased on a bed.
All he said was, that he wished to be taken to his
brother. He died about one o'clock on the following day.
The Jury returned a verdict of " Wilful murder
against some person or persons unknown."—Tinzes.

HAWKHURST GANG.

The neighbcurhood of Chichester, about a cen-

tury ago, was much the resort of smugglers, but
more especially of the celebrated Hawkhurst
which was broken up in 1749, by the execution of the
following desperadoes :—Benjamin Tapner of West
Stoke, William Carter of Hants, Richard Mills of
Trotton, Richard Mills the younger of Stedham, John
Cobby of Sidlesham, John Hammond of Bersted, and
William Jackson died two hours after the sentence was
announced. These with others were implicated in
several murders, which they deemed it expedient to
perpetrate for their protection in their outlawry, but
the one for which they suffered was the murder of
Chater, a shoemaker of Fordingbridge, and Galley
an exciseman, who were seized upon by the smug-
glers on their way to Major Battine, at East
Marden, for the purpose of giving information
against Dimer, a smuggler, who, with others,
had been engaged in breaking open the custom
house at Poole. Chater was murdered by being hung
in a well at Lady Holt Park, and Galley died three
days previously from wounds received from the smug-
glers. The whole of the prisoners were hanged at a
spot about a mile from this city, and the body of Ben-
jamin Tapner was hung in chains on Rook's hill. The
bodies of Mills and Jackson were thrown into a hole
near the place of execution , and near to it is erected a
stone, having the following inscription :
" Near this place was buried the body of William
Jackson, a proscribed snipler, who, upon a Special •
Commission of Oyer and Terminer, held at Chichester
on the 16th of January, 1748.9, was, with William.
C ater, attainted for the murder of William Galley, a
Custom-house officer, and who likewise was, together
with Benjamin Tapner, John Cobby, John Hammond,
Richard Mills the elder, and Richard Mills the younger,
his son (attainted for the murder of Daniel Chater),
but dying a few hours after sentence of death was pro-
nounced upon him, he thereby escaped the punishment
which the heinousness of his complicated crimes de-
served, and which was the next day most justly inflicted
upon his accomplices.

"As a memorial to posterity, and a warning to this
and succeeding generations—
" This stone is erected,
" A.D. 1749."

It is evident from the details given that the whole of
the north-western parts of Sussex and the eastern parts
of Hants, were a century ago much frequented by
smugglers. Here they had their rendezvous, and at
different times in woods and various places—pits, and
other secret recesses, for the depositing their contraband
goods, have been discovered. A short time ago an-
other of these places was brought to light on the Old
Broyle Common, by some labourers, who, while en-
gaged in digging a gravel-pit, suddenly broke into a
subterrancous cavern. In this place there appears to
be a regularly formed arch, branching out in several di-
rntions, but owing to its being filled with rubbish, it is
difficult to recognise its form, but this will not be long
a matter of conjecture, for workmen are now employed
in clearing it out. In one direction a man on his hands
and knees has penetrated as far as 100 yards ur.der-
ground, and in other places there is five feet standing
room. From the remains of old-fashioned wine and
Geneva bottles found therein, there can be no doubt of
its having been used by smugglers as a place of resort
and a depositary for their goods.—Sussex Express.

WEAVERS WAGES.—In the North of England
the lowest paid class of weavers—that is, those engaged on
work requiring little strength or skill, seldom earn more
than ss. or 6s. a-week. A family of six persons, two of
them employed, average about 7s. 6d. weekly. Where
three of a family are employed their united weekly wages
is only about 125., the father, perhaps, earning one-half,
and his wife and son or daughter the remainder. But
inst inees are given of families of four or five depending
on the labours of one person, and where the whole in-

come is not more than 3s. or 4s, a-week ! At Ashton-
, under-Lyne 483 families were visited, whose average
f weekly earnings amounted only to 4s. 110. 1 This is
sufficiently deplorable. In Scotland families are repre-
sented as earning, according to their number, Is.,
165., or, where there are four or five at work, 20s.
' a-week. The linen weavers in Yorkshire earn
about 7s. 6d. a-week each. Weavers employed
on fabrics requiring moderate skill are paid at a
somewhat higher rate. Their wages in some instances
amount to 125., 135., or even 165., a.week, while women
earn about a third less ; but, from this sum, the expense
of candles, dressing, and perhaps loom-rent, have to be
deducted. Where strength is required, some further im-
provement in the rate of remuneration is observable. At
a bolting-cloth factory at Wandsworth the men earn 255.
a-week, but out of this they have to pay for candles &c.,
and also for the assistance of a boy in some parts of the
work. At Diss and North Lopham, in Norfolk, the net
average wage, after deducting expenses, amounts only to
10s. At a sacking and tarpaultng factory at Bris-
tol, the average wage of sixteen weavers f'Jr two
years was 121. 7d. per man. The average wage of
sail-cloth weavers at Dundee, Arbroath; Aber-
deen, Montrose, and Kirkcaldy, is Bs. 6d., or, with
steadiness and skill, 10s. The Spitalfields wea-
vers employed on Waistcoat velvets average 20s. a week ;
weavers of broad and rich-flowered shawls at Norwich
earn about 255. a week; those employed on the finest
cloths at Leeds make from 245. to 285., and in all similar
cases, where superior skill as well as strength is required,
the rate of remuneration is equally high. But this class
of weavers are liable to be thrown frequently out of em-
ployment, so that their annual income is sometimes less
than that of the inferior operatives. Almost all descrip-
tions of weavers, however, complain of the irregularity
of work. Their wages are at once low and uncertain.
Mr. Austin, the Assistant Commissioner for the south-
western parts of England, states that the inference from
all his evidence is, " that the weavers, taken as a body,
are out of work one.third of their time I"—Abstract of
the Report of the Hand-loom Weavers' Commissioners.
A SINGULAR FACT.—A minister of the Pres-
byterian Church, lately visiting one of his parishioners,
was thus accosted by him :—" Sir," said he, " I am per-
haps able t tell you of myself what not another of your
flock could. I hare lived seventy-two years in the same
house, out of which I have decently buried fifteen corpses,
have had twelve children baptised, and have married four
wives." What added to the zest of the narrative was, that
his fourth wife, who was sitting by, immediately said,
And I think, from the delicate state of my health, you
have a good chance for a fth "