The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-05 00:00:00

THE MURDERS AT ASHTON-

UNDER-LYNE.

FURTHER DISCLOSURES CONNECTED WITH
THE COMBINATION OF TRADES.
ASIITON, SATURDAY.—It iS to be regretted that at pre-
sent no clue has been obtained to the actual murderer or
murderers of Benjamin Cooper, but no less than nineteen
individuals are in custody, from some of whom something
appears to be expected which may lead to the desired object.
The parties in custody bave all of them been in office of
some kind in the Union, either as secretaries or commit-
tee-men, and judging from the extent of the correspon-
dence found in the club boxes of their various unions, an-
nouncing remittances from Ireland, London, Liverpool, Lan-
caster, Bolton, Rochdale, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and other
towns of the United Kingdom, they must have had the
distribution of considerable sums of money. In conse-
quence of the discovery of thk_ correspondence the
authorities of Ashton have bee 7 enabled to extend
their investigations into the nature of the Sawyers'
Union in many parts of Lancashire, and to appre-
hend other individuals against whom the charge of con-
spiracy can be clearly made out ; and they might fur-
ther extend it, and promote so wholesale a prose-
cution of the unionists which, is all probability,
would be the means of breaking up the system alto-
gether, if they were so encouraged by the Govern-
merit as to warrant them in incurring the expense. As it
is, however, the Government has done nothing more than
offer the reward of 100 f. far the discovery of the murderer
of Benjamin Cooper, and the prosecution of all the
offenders, however far distant from the county they may
be eoprehended, must fall upon the county-rate. The
members of the sawyers' unions in several distant parts of
the kingdom, by the correspondence found, might be im-
plicated in a wide-spreading conspiracy ; but this could
not be done without the countenance of the Government,
as the county of Lancaster is not likely to incur any such
expense. As it is, the authorities have not the legal means
of paying even a policeman for his exertions.
With respect to this correspondence, and the somewhat
startling announcement of the existence of these murder-
ous associations, and the method of selecting the victims,
a rigid inquiry has been made, which has led to further
disclosures of importance. The Magistrates of Ashton-
under- Lyne issued warrants for the apprehension of sixteen
or seventeen individuals residing in the towns of Roch-
dale, Bolton, Liverpool, Bury, &c., which were placed
in the hands of Newton, the deputy constable of Ashton-
under-Lyne ; Driver, the superintendent of the rural
police; and Gattey, the deputy constable of Stayley-
bridge. Newton having proceeded to Liverpool fur
the purpose of apprehending an individual not in cus-
tody, went thtace to Bolton, and succeeded appro-
. bending a man named Lomax, the Secretary of the Sawyers'
Union in that tnwn, and found in his possession a quantity
of papers tending to inculpate him and others in the
conspiracy. On seaching the club-box, lie found the
rules, and other documents connected with Trades
Unions, which sufficiently manifested that a horrid sys•
tem of coercion is pursued by the managers of the Trades'
Unions towards the operatives. In a secret drawer of the
box, the key of which Lomax kept in his pocket, was
found a book, containing the rules, regulations, and
mysteries of the Uuion, and detailir'e the whole pro-
ceedings of the Sawyers' Union, on the initiation of a
new member. These documents are in the hands of
the Aslatoa authorities, and though I have not seen '
them m) self, I am indebted to the possessor of them
for a faint sketch of their purport. It appears, then,
that a declaration and an oath arc administered to every
new member by an individual disguised in a mask.
The new member is blindfolded before he is taken to
the place where the oath is administered, before he ob-
tains admission to which he is what they term "sallied,"
that is turned round and round, so as to be unable
to find the spot again. After the oath is adminis-
tered he is conducted out, and undergoes the same round-
about process. During the ceremony of initiation a hymn
is sung, to the tune of the Old Hundredth Psalm, the
words of which arc written in the book seized, and are of
a threatening character, to all knob:ticks, viz., those who
do not jo;n the Union. This beinr, concluded, the new
member is asked by the disguised individual if he is wiping
to become a member, and if he answer yes, the declara-
tion and oath are administered to him, and ho enters into
a solemn undertaking not to divulge the secrets of the
Union. Both the Bible arid the New Testament are kissed
on the occasion; and in the course of the ceremony the
skeleton of a man, which stands at one end of the room, is
pointed out to him, and he is reminded of his doom if he
divulges anything, by the disguised man, in doggerel,
something like—
" Het e are the eyes that ceased to glare,
Here is the bosom that's ceased to beat,
Ilere is death's emblem, so beware
Of treachery, or view your fate "
This mummery, which is made as terrific as possible,
being over, the unfortunate operative is bound to the union
and its measures while it is allowed to exist. All this will
be proved in evidence from the documents seized, and
although it would require the evidence of an accomplice
to prove the method by which the union resolves upon a
murderAthere is little doubt of the correctness of the state-
men

it will be recollected that the Secretary of the Trades'
Union and others were apprended on suspicion of being
connected with the murder of Mr. Ashton, the cotton-
spinner, of Hyde, but there was no evidence to show that
the Union was at the bottom of the murder, notwithstand-
ing it was proved:that the Morleys divided 101. bet•secn
the three for the committal of the deed ; but from whom
they received it it is not known to this dey. Among the
rules of the Sawyers' Union found in the club-box (a few
only of which I have been enabled to get a sight of) are
the following :
" 1. That every man who stands out against his em-
ployer for the protection of the trade is to receive Is. Bd.
per day from the union.
" 2. That any town wishing to enter the union must
apply to the General Representative Union for that pur-
po;e, and the amount of the entrance-money is to be left
to that body.
" 3. That no town shall make a stand for an advance of
wages without the consent of the Representative Union.
" 4. That any member of the Union lending tools to
any illegal man, or men, shall forfeit the sum of lOJ.
and that each town is bound to find work for every legal
man. _ _

"5. Any town applying to the Treasurer of the Repre-
sentative Union for relief, the town shall send a list of the
number of men on strike, and the Committee of Manage-
ment shall send a delegate to investigate the legality of the

claim."
From _these rules, which I believe are the least ob-
noxious that they have, it appears that '1 the representa-
tive union" receive a all and pays all. Similar rules to
these were adopted in Ireland many years ago by the trade
generally, the representative union sitting in London ; but
the Irish operativet disliked sending their collections to
England, and it consequently broke up the general con-
nection. It appears, however, from the sums received
from Ireland that the sawyers of both countries continuo
to abide by the principle.
A letter was also found in the Balton union-box from the
secretary of " the Representative Union:" whose name I
suppress for particular reasons. From this it seems that
the union has recently had a great demand upon its treasury,
as it states, " owing to the great demaeds the Committee
had to call for an additional 23. per month, and also for the
reports of the last levy in the different towns. This was
considered nceessary by the Committee, in consequence of
the expenses of the union having recently been so great."
Thiel was a printed circular, signed by the Secretary,
which had been transmitted through the post to the branch
unions of sawyers throughout the United Kingdom.
Four individuals have been committed fur conspiracy,
whose names are Thomas and James flardwicke, Davis,
and Williams. Peter Thompson, the man suspected of the
murder of Cooper, kas been also committed for conspiracy.
leaving it open for the police in the meantime to make
every inquiry. Since that time Michael Weston, Juhn
Ballow, John Lomax (the secretary of the Bolton Union),
Thomas Wilde (secretary of the Rochdale Union), Robert
Sutton, Robert Kenworthy, James Thorpe, Thomas Hos-
sal, W. Jarvis, Hugh Boyd, Patrick Tobin, John Buckley,
William Shaw, and J. Marshall, have been brought before
the magistrates of Ashton, and committed to the assizes for
trial for the conspiracy, with the exception of Michael
Heaton and John Barlow, the former of whom was admitted
as evidence, and the latter remanded on suspicion of murder
until Monday next (Jan. 4,)
Mr. Brandt, barrister, appeared before the Magistrates
to prosecute the prisoners, and said that the charge against
the prisoners was for conspiring together to harass and
annoy the master sawyers in carrying on their business,
and to injure and assault journeymen sawyers, and to pre-
vent the masters from employing such workmen as they
might choose. With respect to twelve of the party, the
evidence would consist of overt acts showing that the par-
ties were following out a system of intimidation by picket-
ting and parading the streets in bodies, by visiting
the yards of the masters for the purpose of seducing
men called " knobsticks" from their work, and of
employing to beat and ill treat those who refused to leave
their work. The objects of the society are set forth in
rules and resolutions which were formed at the same time.
Many of the resolutions are adjudications upan strikes in
different places, declaring some to be legal and otisers il-
legal (by which is meant in conformity or not with the
rules of the club), and giving assistance or otherwise to
such strikes. Others are directed against the use of saw-
mills ; and one of the rules is, that members of the union
coining to any town shall not be " thrown out of employ"
if they conform to the rules of the club—clearly intimating
that such person should otherwise be thrown out of em-
ploy. Now this rule, and all the above resolutions, are
illegal, and make every member of
.such an association
guilty of an illegal conspiracy.
The Learned Gentlemen having concluded his speech
and called his witnesses in support of the prosecution for
Taylor, on behalf of Thomson, who is suspected of being
the murderer of Cooper, the sawyer, brought forward . _
his favour a woman named Whitehead, to prove an al bi
She said that on the I Ith of December, the day thet
d-mur-
der was committed, Thompson was in her house a
after
u fi six.
e
d
Old-
ham, at four o'clock, and left afe
Now, if this were true, he could not b
the infernal machine, as the murder was conititted st six
o'clock on the evening of the 11th December ; and Old_ The
ham is four miles from Ashton. witness, however,v: tTlienmut minutes
could give no reason why she knew the day to be the
and on being further questioned by the Magistrates, she
did not know the day of the month at the time she was
speaking, and Thompson was consequently onsetpently committed for
trial on suspicion of the rhurdeand for the eeespiracy.
named Barlow is to be brought A mail e up again on Mon-
day, when some other facts connected with the diabolical
-
affair may be elicited.
•

A letter from Tripoli of the h
natives of Foam hid again revolted, under the
st, announces that
tcoemmand of their Bey, Abdnl Gelil ; that they had cc-
taken Towergha, and appeared in a considerable force in
the environs of Mesurata. The Governor of the latter
had marched against them a strong ccluem of troops, who
were surprised by the Arabs, and cut to pieces, with the
loss of five Turkish officers. The Paella, on hearing of
this disaster, immediately despatched two schooners with
'2OO men to reinforce the garrison of Mesurata.