The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-11 00:00:00

Mr. Hughes, M.P., on Co-operation.

On Saturday night Mr. T. Hughes, M. P., addressed
a meeting at the Whitechapcl School-room upon
co-operation. The immediate object of the assembly
had reference to the opening of a co-operative store
in Peabody's Buildings, Spitalfields.
Mr. HUGHES, after some general observations,
said he supposed that all present had heard how
much co-operation had done for the working people
in several parts of England. He himself had been
connected with many such societies fora considerable
number of years. There were a good many things
at which persons tried their hands in this complicated
state of society. There were a good mmy plans
which one joined, and principles which one believed
in at various times, which were found to be false at a
later period of life. He had had 20 years' practical
experience of the co-operative movement, and his
faith was increased iu it., and not diminished.
(Hear, hear.) Ile did not mean to say that there
had not been many and considerable failures in
co-operation. There was one such failure in White-
chapel. It was a very sad blow to the movement,
and tended to discourage it. He -referred to the
failure of the great engineering establishment. How-
ever, it was easy for any one who was acquainted
with the principle to account for such break downs.
It was invariably seen that they had failed through
want of earnestness in the movement on the part of
those who conducted such stores, and not from the
weakness or failure of the principle upon which
these societies:were founded. The longer he lived,
and the more he saw the development of the move-
ment, the more thoroughly was he convinced that,
above every other movement at present known in
England, it was enabling the working classes to
take that position which it was good for them and
the country they should. (Hear, hear.) They
were beginning here, as it was quite right they
should, with the very A B C of the movement.
There were many developments of the principle,
but the simplest was that of the co-operative store.
He believed they were. pretty well acsinainted with
the main outlines of this plan. They became their
own shopkeepers and customers, and the more they
spent the' greater return they got. In past years
there had been great difficulty in finding good in-
vestments for the small savings of the working
classes. There were the small savings banks, which
offered excellent mediums, but they did not give
very large returns. Besides the savings banks there
were building societies, which were no doubt profit-
able investments, and perhaps as good as could be
found in any class of society. But still, the persons
to whom co-operative stores were most useful were
those who perhaps could not afford to save sufficient
to become members and hold shares in building so-
cieties. There was no investmentso good for working
people, so advant-ageous, in which they could place
their money, as co-operative stores. They would
of course take care to purchase the best goods, and
sell them at such prices as they might arrange. The
profits which were derived from the sales will be
divided pro rata. A sufficient margin must be left
for incidental expenses. He knew two or three
small stores which had been started in neighbour-
hoods
which were not so good for a store as this—
and London, he would observe, was behind other
parts of England in this movement—and at the emit
of the half year a bonus was declared of Is. in the
pound upon all purchases. The result was that the
purchasers not only had better articles than they
could get elsewhere, at the most reasonable prices,
but at the end of the period he named they got the
profit stated. He trusted that all present would
join the movement which was now proposed. The
principle had spread through all the towns of
Lancashire, Yorkshire, and other parts of the north.
There was not a town or village there in which they
Would not find a flourishing co-operative store. In
the north there had been but few failures. (Hear,
hear.) His opinion was that it required a consider-
able amount of ingenious blundering and folly to
get a properly established store into the wrong
groove. The more shareholders and customers the
better and more profitable would be the concern.
The particular store which they were met to ad-
vance was situate in Peabody's Buildings, where he
shovld imagine a number of persons liveJ who would
become good customers. Resolutions were then
passed in favour of such institutions, and this one
in particular. In conclusion, the hon. member
spoke upon the necessity of the working classes in
the receipt of good wages saving something. Ile
was a dishonest man and a bad member of society
who did not do so. (Hear, hear.)
A cordial vote of thanks was given to Mr. Hughes
for taking the chair. In reply, he expressed his
belief that the movement was to do more for
England than any other known. He was only too
glad to render them any assistance. There was no
part of England where it was more needed than in
the east end of London, nor any part where it
ought to do so well if they supported it.

The Correspondencia of Madrid says :—" Advices
from Peru state that moro than two hundred men aro occu-
pied in fortifying the Chincha Islands with gnus of heavy
calibre."

- -
•
•
Legality of Demons
The legality of meetings held, 4.4 e
pose of discussion, but to intimidatelfellWti
tion of numbers, is a question upon whic. arich ay $l4
be said, and it will be worth investigation hereafter.
At present we desire to direct attention to another -
question of more immediate interest connected with
these displays of physical force. The inhabitants
of the streets obstructed by these processions, anti,
indeed, all who have occasion to pass through theru
for business or pleasure, justly complain of the
complete stoppage of traffic for carriages and foot
passengers by persons who conic from distant parts
of the metropolis for no other purpos than to ex -
hibit numbers, and they ask if there can be a legt..l
right to do this. Clearly, if a blockade of th
s!reets by the Reform League is lawful, it is equally
lawful for any other society at its own pleasure
and if on one day, every day. If Mr. Potter tnax
legally march his 'assembled trades' uniens
through Regent-street, so might every indivi-
dual union, every friendly society, and
even a perpetually perambulating procession by
way of advertisement—say the subscritiers to a
penny paper, each holding a copy in his hand. Let
us see if such a right exists. A street is a highway,
over which all her Majesty's subjects have an equal
right of free passage. To obstruct this highway in the
Rguallest degree i 3 not only an indictable offence. at, --
common law, but is subject to a penalty uider the
Highways Act, to be summarily imposed by jus-
tices. It has been held that even the erection of a
telegraph pole ty the roadside is an indictable oh,
struction, although in fact it stands in nobody's
way, the right of the subject being to traverse
every part of the highway.if he pleases. A high-
way may be either a footway, a bridleNray, or a,
carriage way, or all of them, user being thq.evidenCe
of the nature of the way. In the streets of ato :n

there is commonly both a footway and a carriage
way ; whatever impedes the free passage of either
for the purposes to which it is dedics,tel is
an obstruction. A ;:ilarriage has no right to
go upon the footway to the impediment
of foot passengers ; a foot passsenger has
has no right to traverse a carriage way in such a
manner as to obstruct the free passage of horses and
carriages. Such is the law of highways in general.
True, the metropolis is under two special laws, which
to some extent regulate its streets—riz., the Metro-
police Police Act, and the Metropolitan Local Ma-
nagement Act. But these acts do not repeal or
supersede the general law of highways, their enact-
ments are supplementary. They make special pro.
vision for certain kinds of obstructions likely to
occur in the streets of a great city ; but those specia
enactments do not affect or restrict the general law
of highways, save where they are inconsistent with
it. Thus, in the case under consideration, the high-
ways law punishing obstructions in general is not
restricted or repealed because the local laws have
not provided for this among the obstructions against
which they legislate. There can be no question

that the demonstrations past and threatened are
obstructions of the highway, and of the carriage-
way and footway, both. The procession certainly
has no right to march upon the carriage-way so as
to obstruct carriages and horses ; it is questionable
whether it can legally take possession of the foot-
way to the ousting of other walkers. But to this it
. may be answered that, although the whole body is
an obstruction, each individual member of it has a
lawful right to traverse the streets, and that right
is not lost because a multitude of other persons
chance to exercise their similar right at the same
time and place. The information must be against
each of them individually, and the answer would
be, "I, the defendant, caused no obstruction to any
carriage by walking on the roadway." Probably it
might be replied to this that, being a foot passenger ,
you had no right to walk along the carriage road ;
you may cross it, but you may not use it as your
footway. We merely suggest this ; it is no part of

the present argument. Bat the obstruction caused
by these demonstrations is not the consequence of
the accidental exercise of a common right by many
persons at thesame moment ; itis a deliberate design.
They meet in concert, by previous arrangement, for
the purpose of going together to do the combined
act that causes the obstruction. We cannot doubt
that the offence is thus complete ; that each is re-
sponsible for the act of all, done in pursuance of
the common design, and that each would be liable
to the penalty for obstructing the highway, and to
indictment. Further, we have no doubt than any
three or more of them might be indicted for a con-
spiracy to obstruct a highway. The object in the
present case is not punishment, but to ascertain
whether the law allows demonstrations to impede,
at their own pleasure the traffic of the streets of the
metropolis, to the serious. injury: of their inhabit-
ants, and to the inconvenience of the public. If it
may be lawfully done by the Reform League it may
be don; and we may be sure will be done, by other
associations, social as well as political. We, there-
fore, recommend the annoyed inhabitants to try the
question by laying an information against two or
three members of the .committee before one of the
police magistrates, and thence a case may be taken
upon it to the Queen's Bench. It would be de.
sirable for all parties, and for the peace and safety
of the metropolis, that the question of the right of
processions to obstruct the public thoroughfares
should be determined by authority, and that we
have suggested is a simple and inexpensive means
of bringing it to an issue, and for raising which not
even the Reform League itself could find cause for
agitation or complaint.—Law Times,

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at yidielesale prices from the largest stock in London.
THE GUARDS.—We
.understand that it is in con-
templation by the War-office authorities to make some alte-
ration in the uniform of the regiments of Foot Guards, with
the view to assimilating it more closely to that of Lino
regiments. Such a measure cannot be otherwise.than dis-
tasteful to all military men, and the trifling saving that
would be effected by the change would be a poor compen-
sation for the disappointment of 'the flower of the British
army, and the discontent that it would occasion among the
officers and men.—United Service Gazette.

METEOROLOGICAL OFFICE.--This offi3c has now
been placed under the direction of a committee of
the Royal Society. Tho new director who has been ap-
pointed is Mr. Robert H. Scott, for several years hon. sec-
retary of the Royal Geological Society of Ireland. Mr
Scott is a younger brother of the present Head Master of
Westminster, and was educated at Rugby and Trinity
College, Dublin, where he obtained in 1855 the first gold
medal in Exp3rimental Physics, with the honour of a
special notico in the Calendar. He afterwards studixi
chemistry and physics on the Continent under Liebig, H.
Rose, Magnus, and Dove, at whose request he prepared and
published, in 1862, a translation of the second edition of
his "Law of Storms," the cost of which was in part borne
by the Board of Admiralty. Mr. Scott is also author of a
"Manual of Volumetrical Analysis," and of various minor
papers upon scientific subjects.

EXTRAORDINARY CHARGE.—.'fit the Shire-ball,
Nottingham, on Saturday, the Rev. Charles Forth,
of Buford, near that town, was charged with the follow-
ing extraordinary offence. A suit is pending between Mr.
Forth and his wife in the Divorce Court, and a fortnight
since one of his servants went to Loudon to give same evi-
dence as to the matter. When she came back the rev.
defendant forced her into a chair and asked her what her
evidence was. She made no reply, whereupon ho sail,
"I suppose you have been to say that you saw me strike
your mistress." The girl replied, " Yes," and the defen-
dant then rushed away to got a piece of paper, on wit ieh•he
wrote words which in effect affirmed that the statement she
had made was false. He then seized the girl and forced a
pen into her hand, at the same time compelling her to
sign the document, the young woman being too frightened
to refuse. The magistrates treated the tnattx as a common
assault, and fined Mr. Forth Vs.
• LADvERTISEMENT.I—HoIIoway's Pills.—For all Ages.—
Such testimony to the merits of this medicine as that con-
tained in a letter lately received from a lady by Professor
Holloway should be impressed on all aged sufferers. "What
induced me principally to apply to you was that my mother,
who is over eighty years of age, found very great benefit
front the use of your remedies." The value of Such dis-
interested evidence is enhanced by the consideration that
medicineanusuallydfails
violence,suchanad-
vancedirritate
the nerves or shock the system.

NOTICE

A SPECIAL EDITION OF

Ebe

Will bo ISSUED THIS EVENING,

containing

MR. DISRAELI'S STATEMENT ON THE

BEFOR3I BILL.

MGT WATER. AT LONDON BRIDGE.

Tins DAY.—Morning, 6h. 10cu..--,Afternoon, 6h. 80m
To-MORROW: Morning, 6h. 55m.—Afterno3n, 7h. 25m

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