The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-20 00:00:00

THE STRIKE AT PRESTON.

The latest reports from Preston state that the manufac-
turers will either carry their point as to a reduction of 10
per cent., or close their mills ; and that, on the other hand,
the operatives are determined to resist the proposal,
and will strike almost en masse rather than be defeated.
Throughout the whole of Preston the middle classes have
no sympathy with theirresistance, the prevalent idea being
that the masters really cannot afford to keep their mills open
at the old rate of wages until some improvement in the
markets takes place. The spinners in the employ of Mr.
Paul Catterall, New IIall•lane, have struck, as also have
the spinners, weavers, and their dependents at the mills
of the following firms :—Messrs. Swainson and Birley,
Zishwick ; and Messrs. R. and R. G. Threlfall. At Messrs.
Birley Brothers all the spinners are out, but some of the
weavers aro still working ; at Mr. J. Humber's every-
thing has been stepped ; at Messrs. W. Humber's, E.
Gardner's, and J. Naylor's the operatives are working
up the stock of cotton at the old price. At Mr. D.
Irving's and Messrs. Rattray and Simpson's, the weavers
nave struck. Mr. Huntiugton has his hands at work
at a reduction of 5 per cent. This arrangement,
however, will only last for a week, when the reduction
may be taken off, or a greater one proposed. In another
week the spinners' notices at Mr. Seed's, Derby-street, and
Mr. Parker's, Roach Mill, will expire, and in three weeks
the notices at the whole of the twenty-three mills where
spinning is carried on will be up. About fourteen mills
were stopped in Preston prior to the present agitation.
At present there are between 1,000 and 2,000 weavers on
strike and between 400 and 500 spinners. These figures
lo not, however, give a correct idea of the total number
on strike, for there are piecers, creelers, &c., dependent
aeon the above whose number cannot at uresent be
scertained.

A LADY ArornrcAßY.—A young woman, named
Poumergue, has just passed a brilliant examination before
the Academy of Montpellier in the section of pharmacy,
and been admitted, with one of the first numbers, to
follow the lectures on botany, chemistry, toxicology, and
elementary physics.

THE NORWICH MunnEß.—Tlie trial of William
Sheward, charged with the murder of his wife, Martha
Sheward, under such extraordinary circumstances at
Norwich, in June 1351, will take
place in a few days at
Norwich Assizes. The trial will extend over two days at
least. Mr. O'Malley, Q.C., Mr. C. Cooper, and Mr.
E. 'fillet are retained for the prosecution ; and Mr.
Metcalf,: and Mr. S. Reeve will defend the prisoner.

TllE EDUCATION OF NEGLECTED CHILDREN.
'he Council of the Yorkshire Board of Education, having
had under their consideration the means to be adopted to
promote the education of neglected children, have re-
solved upon convening a conference in each of the large
towns of Yorkshire immediately after Easter. This action
has been determined upon in order to elicit the opinion
of all interested in the subject, of every rank and shade of
thought. The conference will be of a semi-public cha-
racter, and will be followed by public meetings, at which
general principles will be submitted for adoption. The
several points of discussion have not yet been settled, but
among them will be the consideration of the present sys-
tem of education, and the possibility of its extension to
meet the necessities of neglected children ; whether ad-
ditional school provision be needed, and the source or
sources from which such provision should be applied, and
the nature of the management of schools so provided ;
also the mode in which the religious question should be
dealt with in such schools. The council do not look to
local action to initiate new measures, but feel that it is
necessary to keep the attention of the public consentrated
en the subject, that Parliament may be urged to avoid
delay in the introduction of an extended system of national
lucation.

ROMANTIC ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE AND COURAGEOUS
CONDUCT OF A GIRL.—A very romantic attempt at suicide
I occurred on Friday at the Duchess of Beaufort's 'Wood,
Stoke Park, near Bristol. A young man of the grade of
s commercial clerk, named William Derman, had, in
company with a young woman, named Ireland, to whom he
was paying his addresses, walked out from Bristol
to the wood, which is a favourite walk with the
residents of that city. Whilst in the wood some dis-
agreement arose, and young Derman left his companion
and went away.
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of him, and was horrified at finding her lover suspended
by his handkerchief from the branch of a tree. As soon
as the first shock had passed over, the young woman, with
much presence of mind, clambered up the tree, and having
no knife of any kind to cut the noose, and being unable to
untie the knot, she seized the handkerchief with her
teeth, and so far managed to tear it that it became
unequal to the young man's weight, and he fell to the
ground. Having removed the pressure from his neck, she
screamed for assistance, and some labourers who were
working in an adjacent field hastened to the spot. The
young man was insensible, but a waggonnette was pro.
cured, and the rash youth was driven with all speed to
the Bristol Royal Infirmary.
THE BADDESLEY ENSOR MURDER. —The fol-
lowing is the written statement of Michael Atkins, who,
at the late 'Warwick Assizes, was sentenced to death
for the murder of his wife, at Baddesley Ensor, near
Atherstone, on the 11th of December last, but who
has since obtained a reprieve:—" I reached my home
on the 11th day of December last, 1868, about ten
minutes after ten o'clock at night, and my dear wife
was in bed, and chill, and she did light the candle
and come down stairs and let me in ; and cn
my return to the house I perceived that the gun was
not on the nails ari it ought to be, and I reached it
down, and sat me down on a chair that was under
the gun. lly dear wife was in her night dress, and she
had been to the cellar to cut a candle, and she was hanging
up the scissors from cutting the candle in the corner that
the witness Day said he saw my dear wife in, and I had
got the gun in my hands when she did come in the corner,
with one band above that piece of wire that is on the gun,
and the other hand below the guard-loop, and my dear
wife was in that corner, where, as the witness Day said,
he saw her in, when the gun exploded and shot my dear
wife. Whether my jacket did catch the hammer of the
gun Ido not know. I was twitting the our, and whether
it was that or not I do not know • but it ex I.:eled and ab9t
ms sitar