The Sun.
London, England, 1867-09-18 00:00:00

in the spring of 1863. Was using common bricks:
for the backs and machine bricks for the fronts..
Saw Jas. Kay, who told him if he used a machine,
he could not have hand-made bricks, and he had to

give up the contract. Was building nine houses in,
Crowther-street in 1863, and the walls were pushed.
down. It was a wet night, and they made such a.
wreck of the buildings that he should think a dozen.
must have been engaged. The damage would be.
about £lO. He was using machine-made bricks.
Machine-made bricks were better and cheaper than,
hand-made, and would supersede them in an open
market. He had been stopped building with thin
in consequence of these interferences.
Mr. J. Ashworth said he was a brickmaker, of
Regent-road, Salford. In June, 1861, he found
more than 60,000 bricks destroyed. Employed 30
men, all union men. He had a son in the croft who
was not a union man. He had been carrying slack
for the burner. Ile attributed it to that. Four men
were apprehended, but discharged. After that Pa-
trick Cullum was apprehended. Jonathan Edwards
and another man came from the union and called
the men away. Jas. Manning and George Kershaw
came and said he must pay £5O for the expense of
taking Cullum up. Said he would not, and they
said he would have to rue it. He and his sons and
two men then did the work, and he got a machine
and made bricks by machinery. At first he found
a market for his bricks, but afterwards, when the
hand-made brickmakers and bricklayers had amal-
gamated, the market was stopped. In Aug., 1865,
received a threatening letter (which was read) tell-
ing him that at a meeting of brickmakers it had
been agreed to shoot him, or put an end to him, if
he continued making by machine. It was signed
by a well-wisher, who desired him to advertise that
he had received it, and he did. In consequence of
the spoiling his and other bricks to the extent of
150,000, the masters offered a reward of £2OO, of
which he offered £5O. Remembered 10 days after he
got this letter W. Parks, who, dressed like his (wit-
n ess's)son was found 50y ards from the house of witness
badly beaten, and nearly killed. In the pool of blood
in which he lay were found bottles with which they
had beaten him. One bottle was filled with blasting
powder. In consequence of this he feared some out-
rage being attempted on himself, and had to keep
house a great deal. Knew of no reason for that but
that he made bricks by machine. After Parks was
hurt some masters came and went through his works
and said they thought the men had had enough, and
offered a sum of money for the machine, but he re-
fused. Had been at great loss through the giving
up his machine, and resumed hand making. A few
days after thelanonymous letter a
,man came to
him and told him two men were to take his life, and
a house had been prepared to harbour them in at
Eccles, the house of a man named John Mosley.
After that employed Ryder, a non-union brickmaker,
to do some house painting, and in August a man
came from the union and told him he must discharge
Ryder. He was obliged to do it. His son was ad-
mitted to the union now, and employing union men.
He (Mr. Ashworth) was making bricks without in-
terruption now.

Thomas Ashworth, son of the last witness, cor-
roborated the evidence of his father as to the bricks
being spolt and the visits of the union men offering
terms.

William:Ashworth, another son of Mr. Ashworth,
was giving evidence in further corroboration of the
statement of his father when our report was de-
spatched.

SOUTH GERMANY, AUSTRIA, AND
FRANCE.

(From the TVestminster Gazette.)
Europe is threatened with a new plague in the
shape of alliances. The armed peace, as was to
be expected, is breaking out in the first stage
of war—alliances for warlike purposes. These
purposes need not of necessity be aggressive,
nevertheless they point to war. The journey of
Napoleon to Germany—his interview with the
Emperor of Austria, explains itself. There is no
need of listening to Imperial speeches, or of
poring over official and diplomatic interpretations
of what was said, or done, or arranged at the
meeting at Salzburg. The matter speaks for
itself ; this ominous alliance is a matter not of
choice but of necessity. Austria is flung into
France's arms as a last resort against the
intrigues and stratagems of Prussia and the
Revolution. France also, as well as Austria,
needs an ally in the three pending questions
which affect the interests and stability of each
country alike. The conclusion of an alliance,
if it be not, indeed, already concluded, may be
safely predicted from the need of such an alliance
between two countries equally threatened in the
Eastern question, the German question, and the
Italian question. In all these questions France
and Austria are opposed by three enemies ; in the
East by Russia, in Germany by Prussia, in Italy
by the Revolution. Russia aims at the extinction
of the Ottoman Empire and the absorption of
the European provinces of Turkey. Her success
in the East would be a death-blow to the Aus-
trian Empire. The Cossack again would be the
terror of Europe. Russian policy never swerves
from its aim. Russian diplomacy is the secret
agent ever at work—not only in the Courts and
Cabinets, but in the Press of Europe. But if
France and Austria have to guard against the
predominance of Russia in the East, in Prussia
they both see an enemy who, after driving Austria
out of Germany, aims at the incorporation of the
South German States and of the German lands of
Austria, and which, thus aggrandized at the ex-
pense of its neighbours, would be a perpetual
source of danger to France. And thirdly, there is
revolutionary Italy which, if encouraged by the
new alliances that armed Europe is forming,
would not hesitate to seize upon Rome in defiance
of France, and thus inflict a most damaging blow
on the influence, military and moral, of France,
on the peace and safety of Europe. With so
many aggressive views in common, it is only in
the nature of things that Prussia, Russia, and
Italy should strike up an unholy" alliance, and
such an alliance, if not as yet actually formed,
is virtually so. And it is this danger to the peace
of Europe, to the stability of their States, and to
their rightful influence which has driven France
and Austria into a counter alliance. It is the policy
of such a defensive alliance not to take steps
likely to precipitate a struggle. It is the duty of
France and Austria to appeal to the Conser-
vative instincts of Europe, and to place their
strength in the defence of right and order against
the ambitious and revolutionary designs of the
allied aggressors. The most important question
which seems still in doubt is as to the part that
South Germany will take in a war which, when it
breaks out, will soon develope into a war of prin-
ciples most deadly in its character, and likely to
be not a seven days' war as that of last summer,
but a seven years' war, involving the whole of
Europe. . .

South Germany is in a very difficult position.
Mistrustful of Napoleon, it has, on the one hand,
a natural and deep-seated aversion of French in-
terference in the German lands, and on the other,
a repugnance easily to be conceived against the
intolerable arrogance of Prussia and against its
scheme of universal domination in Germany.
Between the choice of these two evils South Ger-
many vacillates. It is not powerful enough to stand
alone, nor united enough in opinion and policy
unreservedly to declare itself on the side of
Austria. Moreover, a strong Prussianizing party
is to be found in the South German States, espe-
cially among the governing classes. The ma-
jority of the people undoubtedly is opposed to the
schemes of Prussian aggrandizement, even though
propounded by the Liberals under the name of
German unity. And though the Grand Duke of
Baden is prepared to offer up himself and his
people at the shrine of Prussian ambition, Wur-
temburg prefers to preserve its own autonomy.
Bavaria, on the other hand, is ambitious not only
of preserving its independence, but of taking the
lead in South Germany, and of actin.; as mediator
between Prussia and Austria ; but there is also in
Bavaria a party, large and influential in official
circles, devoted to Liberalism and russian inte-
rests. The alliance between .A.ustri and Napoleon