The Sun.
London, England, 1834-09-26 00:00:00

MIDDLESEX INTERMEDIATE SESSIONS

THE TRADES' UNION AND OPERATIVE DUILDERS.
Richard Bird, John Foley, and Thomas Eaton, three
operative builders belonging to the Trades' Union, -were
indicted for riotously assembling together in the parish of
St. Pancras, on the 23d instant.
The prosecution was instituted by Messrs. Grissell and
Peto, extensive master builders, residing at Lambeth, who,
in consequence of their trade having been impeded by the
conduct of the Trades Unionists, resolved not to employ
any man who belonged to any of the Unions, and who re-
fused to undertake not to join any Union. The effect of
these Unions was, that, if a master was under a contract to
complete a certain building within a given time, these (he
would call them) misguided men had only to combine to-
gether, and the purpose of the master would be defeated by
their strikinc, in the midst of their engagement, and he (the
master) would be liable to the extent of his contract, and
which might tend to his ultimate ruin. He (Mr. Clark-
son) would not express any opinion in favour or in opposi-
tion to the Trades' Unions, or whether the masters had
done right or not in the line of conduct they had thought
proper to adopt with reference to those Unions ; but he
would complain of the defendants as having been guilty of
a most aggravated attack on the liberties and privileges of
their fellow-men. The Learned Counsel then stated the
facts of the case. The prosecutors were employed
in building the North London Hospital near the Lon-
don University. They caused a painted board to be
placed near the building offering to give immediate
and constant employment to any bricklayers, plasterers,
carpenters, and others who were not members of any of the
Trades' Unions. This announcement had the effect of
irritating many labouring men who were members of the
Unions, who, not content with refusing employment them-
selves, determined to prevent other men from honestly get-
ting their bread. About eleven o'clock on the morning of
Monday last the defendants and two other men came oppo-
site the North London Hospital, and commenced hooting,
hissing, and yelling at the men employed in the erection of
that building. They called out to the men at work on the
scaffold, " Come down, you, and we will smash you. The
Trades' Unions for ever. You slaves, come down." The
men took no notice of this ; but the violent conduct of the
defendants caused a crowd of persons to collect together,
and the hooting and hissing were continued for a consider-
able time. One man then threw a stone at the men on the
scaffold, which missed them, but broke two valuable squares
of glass. This man was pointed out to the prosecutors'
foreman, who went out for the purpose of taking him into
custody, when he was attacked by Bird and Foley, and
beaten severely. These were the whole circumstances of
the case. The Learned Counsel then called a great
number of witnesses, persons in the employ of the prose-
cutors, who were examined at great length, and whose
evidence completely confirmed the statement he made on
the part of the prosecution, and added several minor cir-
cumstances relative to the conduct of the defendants, and
the mob that were assembled on the occasion.

The Jury returned a verdict of Guilty against all the de-
fendants. _ _ _

The CHAIRMAN then addressed them to the following
effect :—Prisoners, I much regret the formation of the
Trades' Unions, because I am convinced that no surer
means could be put in the hands of the masters who are
disposed to injure their men than the conduct of those men,
exciting a sympathy in the public mind in favour of the
masters. Until the Trades' Unions were established such
a thing as a combination among the masters, except in one
instance, was not heard of. That was the case of ten mas-
ter typefounders, and their conspiracy lasted just as many
days as there were members of it. The interests of the
working classes are the same, while those of the masters
are as varied as the trades they follow. In fact nothing is
so difficult as to unite a number of masters to perform any
one trade together. The working classes in this country,.
in their sober and reflecting moments, have sense enough
to distinguish between their real friends and a set of de-
signing fellows who only use them as the instruments of
their own aggrandizement. I regret that so many of them
have been led away as they have been ; but the public
must be made aware, that although the law allows men to
combine to prevent their being oppressed by their masters,
yet it does not allow them to combine to prevent other
men from getthig their living as they choose. I regret that
the Court must mark its sense of your conduct by a severe
sentence ;. but I beg it may not go forth to the public that
your sentence is passed because you are members of the
Trades Unions ; on the contrary, it is simply because you
have violated the laws of your country, and without any
reference whatever to the question whether you were
Unionists or not. The sentence of the Court upon you,
Foley, is, that you be imprisoned twelve months in the
Hause of Correction ; that you, Bird, be imprisoned eleven
months in the same prison ; and you, Eaton, ten months.
The prisoners were then removed.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

Mrs. Arnold, the wife of the proprietor of the suttling-
house, St. James's Palace, yesterday appeared on a sum-
mons, charging her with serving during the hours of divine
service on Sunay last.
The informer's witness was served at ten minutes before
one last Sunday.
Mrs. Arnold was licensed by the Board of Green Cloth,
and thought she had a right to be governed by the time of
service at the Chapel Royal.' Her house was in the Palace
precincts, and she had several orders to execute on Sundays
from gentlemen of his Majesty's household, King's messen-
gers, and other persons holding situations under his Ma-
jesty expected to be served at all times.
Mr. CONANT said that she must be regulated by the
time of divine service at St. James's Church.

Mrs. Arnold—But if his Majesty sends me an order for
the supply of his household what am I to do ?
Mr. CONANT—Consider the household as the rest of the
public, and don't serve, them in church time.
She was then convicted in the penalty of 10s.

QUEEN-SQUARE.
Yesterday Mr. William Todd, of No. 3, Pavilion, Batter-
sea-fields, was summoned before Messrs. WHITE and SHITT,
by William Beale, the driver of the cabriolet, No. 735, to
show cause why he refused to pay him the sum of eight-
pence, his legal fare.
A solicitor attended for Mr. Todd. _

It appeared from the statement of the complainant that
the defendant hired him off the stand in Palace-yard, and
ordered him to drive to Vauxhall-bridge. When passing
the House of Lords, he desired witness to drive faster,
which he refused to do, as he was then going at the rate of
six or seven miles an hour. The defendant ordered him to
stop, and he got out. Witness demanded his fare, whiCh
was eightpence, and he refused to pay it ; he, however,gave
witness his address, and he now summoned him for the
money.

Solicitor—Have you ever drove the defendant from Pa-
lace-yard to the Vauxhall-bridge before ? Witness—l
really cannot say. I have driven persons to the Vauxhall-
brid;e.
Solicitor—What pace did you drive at ? Witness—A
trot.

Solicitor—Will you swear that it was not a walk ? Wit-
ness—l will. I went at the rate of six or seven miles an hour.

The Solicitor, in reply to the charge, admitted that his
client had done wrong in not paying him the money, which
he ought to have done, and then summoned the complainant.
His client was in the habit almost every evening of taking a
cab in Palace-yard to Vauxhall-bridge. He never paid
more than eight-pence. His client was well known to all
the cabriolet-drivers about Palace-yard, and if there was
any strange cab-driver there they were sure to tell him.
When his client got into the defendant's cab there was a
general cry amongst the drivers of " Mr. Eightpenny," and
the defendant, who had driven his client only the day before
the same distance, aware that he would not get more than
his fare, had set out on a walk to annoy him, and begot out
of the cab. The Solicitor here read a clause in the Act of
Parliament, by which it appeared that hackney-coachmen,
cabriolet-drivers, &c., are subject to a penalty if they do not
drive with reasonable expedition.
Mr. SHuTT said that Mr. Todd had acted wrong in not
paving the complainant the fare demanded, and, then he
could have summoned him under the clause above men-
tioned. As it was he had taken the law into his own
hands, and he must pay the fare and the expenses.
The Solicitor then applied for a summons against the
complainant under the clause he had quoted.
The Magistrates, after consulting together, said that they
did not think they could grant a summons under the cir-
cumstances._

The solicitor applied for a summons against the driver of
a cabriolet for taking him from Palace-yard to the Vaux-
hall Bridge, and charging him one shilling, that being 4d.
more than the legal fare, which was immediately granted.

UNION-HALL.
Six workmen in the employ of Mr. Mayne, the floor-
cloth-manufacturer, were brought up for creating a dis-
turbance on the premises of Mr. Boast, a surgeon, in the
Kent-road, and attempting to take forcible possession of an
electrifying machine, and the whole stock of materia medica
contained in the surgery. Mr. Edwards, a late partner of
Mr. Boast, was also included • in the charge, as having ex-
cited the other defendants to a breach of the peace.
Mr. Boast and Mr. Edwards had been for some time in
partnership, and carried on a highly respectable business in
the Kent-road as surgeons and chemists. In consequence
of some misunderstanding between them a dissolution of
partnership took place, and Mr. Boast retained possession
of the house and the property contained therein. On the
preceding_afternoon the six defendants went to Mr. Boast's
house, and told the assistant that they had come there by
the directions of Mr. Edwards, for the purpose of removing

an electr'ifying machine, a gas-meter, hnd the stock of drugs
and cb emicals on the premises. The assistant told the men
that 'they had no right there, and that as the partnership
between Mr. Boast and Mr. Edwards was dissolved, the
latter gentleman had no more business there than they had.
During this parley Mr. Edwards himself entered the shop,
and deired the defendants to go to work and commence re-
moving the property to a cart which was brought there for
the purpose, and was then standing at the front door. In
compliance with the direction the men fell to work, and im-
mediately proceeded to take down the medicine bottles
from the shelves, to overhaul the drawers, and take the
electrifying machine to pieces. During the progress of
the removal, Mr. Boast, who had been out visiting a
patient, returned, and, on entering his laboratory, was
astonished to find a number of strangers present, in
the act of removing his whole stock in trade, and im-
mediately warned them to desist. Seeing Mr. Ed-
wards, his late partner, encouraging the men to proceed,
Mr. Boast threatened to give them all in custody for fe-
lony if they removed a single article off the premises. The
threat of punishment, however, was of no avail ; and the
complainant, finding that all the parties were in earnest,
and appeared determined on gutting the lower part of his
domicile, closed the door to prevent it. The whole of the
parties were now shut up together in the shop, and a scene
of indescribable confusion took place, during which Mr.
Boast and his assistant had to contend against the six men,
headed by his late partner, whose object was to get the
door once more open, in order to carry off the electrifying
machine and the bottles of physic to his new place of abode.
The noise and confusion produced by the contending parties
had the effect of collecting a crowd of upwards of two hun-
dred persons in front of Mr. Boast's house ; and although
two policemen interfered to put an end to the disturbance,
which had by this time risen to a height, yet their endea-
vours were fruitless, and it was at length deemed necessary
to have a reinforcement of the police, twenty-five of whom,
under the directions of Inspector Saunders, of the P di-
vision, arrived at the scene of action, and put an end to
the affray. In the presence of the police all the defendants
even then exhibited a spirit of opposition, and one of them,
a man named Devine, thrust his fist through one of the
panes of glass in the complainant's shop, swearing by the
" Holy Paul" he would go through fire and water to serve
his employer,- that he was brought there to help to remove
the goods off the premises, and that he was prepared to
carry it into effect let the consequences be what they might.
The complainant gave the whole of the parties into custody
on the charge. _

Mr. Edwards, in his defence, contended that the partner-
ship between him and the complainant was not dissolved,
and therefore he was as much entitled to the property as
the other.

Mr. Edwards and the man Devine were then ordered to
find sureties to keep the peace, and the rest of the defend-
ants were admitted to bail onventering into their personal
recognizances to be of good behaviour
Mrs. Mary Wardle, a member of the European Female
Benefit Society, established for the purpose of giving relief
to members during their accouchement, was summoned for
withdrawing herself from the society, and refusing to refund
one guinea advanced to her for the ,purpose above specified.
The Stewardess gave evidence of the advance of the
guinea to the defendant, and produced the book of regula-
tions, and pointed out to the Magistrate's notice the 43d
clause, by which it was ordered that in the event of any
member quitting the society to whom a guinea had been ad-
vanced within twelve months since she was to refund the