The Sun.
London, England, 1846-03-05 00:00:00

AUCHINLECK.

The disturbances which have recently revived the
fame ofLockerbie, and which more recently, were ex-
ceeded at Penrith, bid fair to be rivalled in this, previ-
ously quiet place. •Forsome timepast the bile of the Irish
labourers, engaged upon the Kilmarnock and Cumnock
Extension Railway, and at the Iron works now erecting
in this neighbourhood, has been disturbed and in-
creased by some commotion agitating their own ranks.
Every spare corner and every extra bed, in Auchinleck,
has more than its proportion of Irishmen; and, what-
ever the causes, the scenes which have daily and nightly
occurred of late are anything but pleasant. On the
night of Saturday, the 21st ultimo, a number of
these dissolute, and regardless men paraded the streets,
and committed a violent and unprovoked assault
upon a person of the name of Foggo, a gardener,
residing at Dumfries House Gate-house, striking him
several severe blows, and otherwise abusing him. On
the same evening the house of one of the landlords of
the Irishmen, Terrance Lovel, was entered for the'purpose
of maltreating one of their countrymen, who was accom-
modated there. The landlord, having endeavoured to
divert the storm about to burst upon his lodger, was
himself assaulted, the inmates severely beaten, and
turned out into the street. The mob then proceeded to
wreck the interior of the house. On the Sunday fol
lowing, while the sober and serious part of the com-
munity were in attendance upon Divine worship,
another riot took place in the streets of the village ;
but, through the activity and courage of the inhabitants,
who powerfully seconded the efforts of the police-
officer who had arrived from Cumnock, six of the
rioters were apprehended and conveyed to Cumnock
gaol, and thence to Ayr, on the following morning. On
Monday, one of the gangers—himself an Irishman—
having become obnoxious to the labourers, the whole
of the Irishmen struck work, and demanded that ho should
be dismissed. Such was the state of alarm into which
the village was thrown, and such the fears entertained
by the inhabitants, that a meeting was held on Tuesday
evening, and a body of the population patrolled the streets
throughout the night. A petition, setting forth the
state of matters, was also got up and numerously signed,
and forwarded to the sheriff of the county ; and, in
the meantime, arrangements were made for raising
a• small body of resident policemen, for the se-
curity of life and property. Such a state of matters
cannot long be tolerated. The works of the railway
are proceeding in the immediate vicinity of the village ;
and a rainy day has ever been dreaded, since the com-
mencement of these works, as something worse than
an Egyptian plague. Driven from their work by the
wetness, idleness gives opportunity fur a display of all
their brutal appetites. Of course matters are worse
since the strike. It is so far gratifying to think, that
the Highlanders upon the line— who, unfortunately, are
a small though able body of men—keep themselves en-
tirely apart from the Irish, and from these riotous pro-
ceedings; and that they voluntarily offered to assist the
inhabitants in preserving order and the supremacy of
the law.

On Tuesday last, four of these rioters were tried be-
fore the sheriff, and sentenced to forty days' imprison.
ment. On Thursday, two were tried for assaulting
Fuego and Love], and received fourteen days' imprison.
[neut.—Ayr Observer.