The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-31 00:00:00

CLOSE OF THE COVENTRY STRIKE.

COVENTRY, AUG. 30.
The event which I indicated in my communica-
tion of Tuesday hag come to pass—the Coventry
strike, which has been maintained over so long a
period, and attended with so much privation and
suffering to the working classes and such vast loss
to the general trade of the town, is virtually at an
end, For some days previous it was evident that
the pressure of want was becoming too powerful for
the committee to hold together the organised mass,
and the resolution initiated by that body on Tues-
day that contract work should be resumed was con-
sidered by a large number of the operatives at the
time of its proposal to be significative of a break-up
of the strike. It was argued that, as there were
hundreds who had contracts uncompleted of vary-
ing quantities of goods, there could be no guarantee
that the weaver, under the pretext of completing
a contract, might not undertake ten times its
amount of new work at the same or any lower terms
which he could obtain from the manufacturer.
General confidence was evidently shaken, and yes-
terday morning its result was seen in the large
number of men and women surrounding the prin-
cipal factories in the town, with the view of apply-
ing for work. At a later period of the day a meet-
ing of the operatives was held, when the considera-
tion of the resolution submitted to the meeting on
Tuesday was resumed. Mr. M'Lean, one of the
committee, in submitting the motion, observed that
" the committee was desirous this struggle should
now terminate, and he therefore hoped the resolu-
tion would be passed." It was in the following
terms ;
" That in the opinion of this meeting it is desirable that
all factory hands, and all out-door hands should finish their
present contracts, but that no new ones should be made
except on the piece principle, in accordance with the rules
of the trade ; and that all who act upon this resolution pay
liberally for the support of those who cannot go to work
on th ese conditions, and that under no circumstances shall
weekly wages be accepted. Each person going to work to
rective the authorised card of the trade."
The motion, which was put to the meeting and
carried, was followed by a resolution of a more
sweeping character, and which seems to supersede
it, inasmuch as it really permitted the operatives
to consult their own discretion in reference to the
terms on which they should resume work. This
was also initiated by the committee, and was to
the effect :
" That the hands. should, treat with their_ several,em;
TATO rjeci ro"w. eVer, being empowered to withdraw' the
hands from any factory they may select, with the view of
carrying out the list of prices and the piece principle of
payment."

In support of the resolution the advantage of
fighting the manufacturers singly was strongly in-
sisted upon, and it was very clearly indicated in the
course of the remarks made upon the subject that
the resolution was directed more particularly
against those manufacturing establishments in
which the system of weekly wages prevailed.
In fact, the names of several of the manufacturers
adopting this mode of payment were broadly men-
tioned by persons in the meeting of those upon
whom the experiment of a "call out" would be
first tried.
Other resolutions, having reference to the organi-
sation of the " Association for the Protection of
Labour," having been passed, the proceedings were
brought to a close.
Immediately subsequent to this break-up of the
strike the operatives pressed forward in great num-
bers—l may say in hundreds—to offer their labour
at the factories, and for some hours in the afternoon
those streets of Coventry in which the factories are
situated presented, in consequence, a scene of more
than ordinary animation. lam assured that in
every case work was resumed on the employers'
terms, both as to amount of wages and mode of
payment. I ascertained last evening that the hands
had returned to the following factories on weekly
wages :—Messrs. Hart and Co., Spencer and Hors-
fall, Iliffe, Peters, and J. and J. Cash; and I have
been informed that to-day all the other factories
have their " hands " all in, i.e.—as many as they
can find employment for. In fact, the experience
of yesterday and to-day must have awakened the
operatives as from a dream. Throughout the whole
period of the strike they seem to have acted on the
assumption that there was more labour than hands
to perform it. They have found that the question
is-no longer one merely of " the men going to work,"
so much as of whether they can get work, and I
regret to say that a demonstration has already been
afforded in a very unpalatable shape that, as it
respects the ribbon trade of Coventry, the case
is the reverse of that of " two masters wanting
one man." I saw last evening a number of
men who informed me that up to that time they
had been unable to get work. While not only
the weavers, but other parties in Coventry have
been standing in apprehension of the bolt that was
to scatter ruin over them in the shape of the French
Treaty, two events less under legislative and
human control—an untoward season, and the pre-
ference which our countrywomen have given
" broad brims" and the other varieties of the straw
hat and the ribandless bonnet over bonnets with
riband decorations—have done more than the
treaty to bring the Coventry riband trade to a pass
at which employment is scarce. During the period
of the strike a large portion of the summer trade
has gone by, and the trade for winter and spring
goods has not commenced. I regret to say that
even with the close of the strike the prospects of
the Coventry trade are sufficiently gloomy to war-
rant us in anticipating that for some time to come
there will be hundreds of operatives out of work.
Should this struggle, as irdicated at the meeting
of yesterday, be prolonged, it will really be a con-
test between weekly wages and piece-work ; and in
the shape which the demands of the operatives at
present assume this will, in point of fact, act as a
check on the improvement of the producing power
of the machinery that may be employed in the
riband trade, while all the circumstances by which
we are surrounded indicate that it is in bringing
more skill and capital into the trade, that we have
the best chance of success in that field of competi-
tion on which we have recently entered with our
Continental neighbours.

MURDER BY POISON.—The modern poisoner has
discarded the rough agencies of his earlier brethren. He
treats you secunduni artem' and gives you the benefit of the
latest discoveries in toxicology. He considers your circum-
stances—your little peculiarities of constitution—your
habits, and then passes his arm under your own, and, with
soft expressions of sympathy and commiseration, blandly
edges you into your grave. He knows that the business in
hand is a ticklish one. He is playing a game at chess—
with poisons and antidotes for his pieces—against Mr.
Herapath of Bristol, and Dr. Alfred Taylor of Guy's Hos-
pital for his adversaries, and must give them check-mate—
or stale-mate at the least—under very sharp penalties in
case of defeat. The two gentlemen named are supposed to I
possess some skill at the game.—Once a Week.

THE FRENCH OYSTER FISHERY.—The port of
Cancale now possesses 291 fishing boats, manned by 1,700
men. There are 41 large fishery establishments along the
coast, extending over a space of not less than 10 miles ;
there are, besides, 1,200 parks for oysters, capable of con-
taining more than 80 millions of those shell• fish. The pro-
duce of the boat fishery (fish, lobsters, &c.) at Cancale
amounts every year to about 1,700,000 f. The money dis-
bursed annually amounts to about 100,000 f. The Minister
of Marine, struck with the importance of Cancale, has
made that port the chief town of the maritime inscription
of the 'district,