The Sun.
London, England, 1867-06-24 00:00:00

at length a point was gained, and a confes-
sion was elicited; although the man who
made it retracted it afterwards—that very r etrac-
tation was the means of eliciting the truth.. His
incautious exclamation, "Ah it wur ant: t all !"
when his own description of the cold night work
was read out to him, bore too clear the trace of
truth to be parsed over by the Commissioners. A
few days committal for contempt of Court brought
him to reason. He had plenty of time to, think
over his position away from the influence 'of his
leaders, and on his reappearance in Court lie was
ready with his tale. So startling were Vac facts he
brought forward that the examiners themselves
were surpi ised, and their subsequent inquiries leave
no doubt that there exists among the Unionists of
Sheffield an organised system of assassination and
outrage, which men holding a respectable position
in life have secretly connived at, if not openly en-
couraged. It is difficult for men beyond the fatal
influence of the trades theory to understand how
others can be so blinded to all sense of right and
wrong, so insensible to the dictates of common hu-
manity. In every society which pretends to civilisation
a murderer is looked upon with horror and aversion,
and every law avenges the wrong. But if there is
one form of murder universally admitted to be
worse than another it is that of secret and deliberate
assassination. The unpremeditated blow or thrust,
the fatal altercation, even the robbery which ends in
murder, fall into the shade beside of the conspi-
rators who follow a man about his daily work
or his evening sauntering, week after week,
until at last the shot is fired, and the mur-
derer goes and gets the money he has earned. "A
hired assassin" used to be the lowest term of
contempt and reproach, but in Sheffield the code
of morality is differently understood. All the crimes
and all the virtues are there divided into two—the
crimes come under the head of infringing the
trades' union regulations—the virtues under the head
of implicit fidelity to the trade. The offences that
usually disturb a man's conscience, murder, arson,and
perjury, are as feathers in the balance. They are
committed, we are told, " with great pain," or they
are " objected to," but they are nothing very
wonderful. A charge of gunpowder is put
down a chimney, a fellow-workman is struck
down at his work, or shot in the public
streets. If there is a fatal termination the
usual inquiry takes place, the culprit is undiscover-
able, an open verdict is returned, and the Sheffield
world goes on the same as usual. General astonish-
ment was excited in the Court on Saturday, though
the audience are by this time pretty well used to
surprises, by the appearance of GEORGE PEACE, a
well-dressed and apparently respectable man, a
saw grinder, who was formerly a farmer and the
owner of a colliery. This man admitted
employing one of his own " hands " to
" frighten" PARKER and to shoot LINLEY. No
wonder Mr. OVEREND summed up the result
of his evidence in a few indignant words—" Do
you say that a man in your station of life—the
overseer of a colliery and a farmer—hired one of
your men to do that deed, and that you paid him
a sum of money for shooting a neighbour with
whom you had no quarrel ?—is that the state of
things at Dore—is that what you did ?" And the
answer is characteristic—" Yes ; it was a state
of things I objected to, and it was six months
before I would have anything to do with it."
The evidence of SAMUEL CROOKES, which occu-
pied the principal part of Saturday's proceedings,
confirmed the statements of Broadhead. The
witnesses are now as anxious to tell the whole as
they were previously careful to withhold as much
as possible, not from any scruples of conscience—
that commodity is unknown among them—but from
a selfish fear that something they have not told
may subsequently be discovered, and that they may
be punished after all. CROOKES was eager to tell
about a case of " blowing up" more than ten years
ago. When told it was unnecessary to go into it,
he asked, " But have I not to come out with every-
thing whether it is ten years or twenty, for if they
should come out afterwards I should not get
my certificate ?" The principal items of this
worthy's career during the ten years come to a
pretty formidable list for a man who has contrived
to keep out of the felon's dock all through it. He
asks to have them read over, as he may have for-
gotten something, and Mr. OVEREND reads—" You
shot LINLEY twice. Blew up WHEATMAN and
SMITH, BAXTER, JOSEPH WILSON, REANEY'S
wheel, and JOSEPH HELLEWELL, at Blonk Wheel.
There was the case of JOHN HELLEWELL you
were to shoot." This is one man's share of
the infamous work during a comparatively '
limited period. It shows us how much the
best system of police depends for assistance on the
public, since CROOKES committed all these crimes
with impunity, so far as the law was concerned.
The worst of it is that we cannot set down one or
two men, SHAW, CROOKES, or BROADHEAD, as ex-
ceptional monsters, like those ruffians who, after a
few days notoriety, meet their fate on the gallows.
There are hundreds of men belonging to this very
union, living in the same town, who knew as
much as they chose to know. Why did
they keep men idle on the books for years
without asking what they were paid for ?
Why did they carefully refrain from inquiring too
closely into the evident falsification of the accounts?
Why did they not notice that the extraordinary
accidents that kept occurring in Sheffield and its
vicinity always befcl men who had broken the
rules ? We should be slow to set down all the
saw grinders of Sheffield as deliberate abettors of
murder and arson, but we must believe that fear
kept them silent. The great body of them knew
the dangerous and unscrupulous men with whom
they had to deal, they dared not offend them by
refusing to countenance their crimes. And this is
the protection of the rights of working men. This
is the combination which gives strength to the
workmen and stability to the trade. We need no
longer wonder at the stream of emigration that flows
from our ports, and when we hear of working men
starting for a land of liberty, where they can
prosper unfettered by social tyranny, we shall know
henceforward it is not the tyranny of the masters
they fear, but the oppression of their fellow-work-
I men.

On Saturday a grand banquet took place at the
Trinity House, and a brilliant company assembled
to do honour to the occasion. The Duke of EDIN-
BURGH, the present Master, was absent, his Royal
Highness having been elected to that office on the
death of Lord PALMERSTON. The Deputy-Master,
Capt. Arrow, presided in a very successful manner.
In proposing the health of the Master, he mentioned
that he hid seen his Royal Highness a few days
ago, and he found him the captain of his own ship
and attending to his duties ; he had heard also that
he had proved himself to be a sailor as well as a
Royal Duke. The corporation of Trinity House do
not profess to be of any politics, but during their
long career they have entertained statesmen of every
party with sincere goodwill, and on this last occa-
sion her MAJESTY'S Ministers were duly honoured,
the Chancellor of the Exchequer obta'ning a very
flattering reception. The right hon. gentleman
alluded to the manner in which the toast had been
received, declaring that he considered it to be more