The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-09 00:00:00

of 6 per cent. per annum on the new 6 per cent.
preference stock, was declared payable on the Ist of
October next.

Mr. J. PARSON, a director, proposed that a circular
be sent to all the shareholders holding £5OO stock
and upwards, requesting them to take up their pro-
portion of the 6 per cent. stock, and thus provide
the requisite funds.
The CHAIRMAN seconded the motion, urging the
importance of clearing off the floating debt of the
company as soon as possible, and it was carried
unanimously.

The Proceedings concluded with a vote of thanks
to the chairman.

LANCASHIRE AND YORKSHIRE.

The report of the directors of this company states
that the, amount of capital on the 30th June last on
which dividend or interest was paid out of revenue
was as f0110w5—i12,693,594 consolidated stock,
£1,046,025 guaranteed and preference stocks,
£5,510,906 loans, and £94,076 advanced on calls ;
total, £22,374,601. The expenditure charged to
capital for the past half-year amounted to £299,510,
of which £101,455 was for land and for enlarge-
ment of stations, £59,937 for rolling stock, and
£138,118 for 16 new and branch lines. The revenue
account for the half year showed that £1,201,538
had been received, against £1,157,358 in the same
half of 1866, showing an increase of £44,180. The
disbursements amounted to £516,894, against
£481,167 in the same half of 1866, showing an in-
crease of £35,727. The balance of revenue applic-
able to the payment of dividend on the ordinary
stock of the company was £429,044, out of which
the directors recommended the proprietors to de-
clare a dividend at the rate of 61 per cent. per
annum, less income tax, payable on Sept. 2, carry-
ing forward £16,493 to the next account. The addi-
tional capital now chargeable to revenue, together
with the high rate of working expenses, prevented
the directors from recommending a higher rate of
dividend. The expenditure on capital account was
less than had taken place for some time past. The
directors had confined the outlay during the half-
year to the absolute necessities of the company, and
they hoped, looking at the present and prospective
wants of the company for the current half-year, to
be able to limit the expenditure on capital account
for general purposes to £lOO,OOO. The shareholders
were not likely to be called upon to sanction the
issue of any additional capital during the current
half-year. The capital account showed that
£22,475,855 had been expended, leaving a balance
of £35,906 against the company.

seem to have been held very cheaply by the Roman
ladies, for they have been found in great variety
lying about in all sorts of places. They are, as
may be supposed, very different in fashion from
those at present in use, consisting of a single and
extremely substantial pin, generally made of bone,
but occasionally of bronze, and set off by a massive
head curiously carved.
The funds raised for the purpose of carrying on
the excavations in 1859 were soon exhausted, and
after bringing to light a considerable portion of the
buricd city, the archanlogists were fain to rest from
their labours. By the liberality of Mr. Meyer, of
Liverpool, however, who has given a sum of £5O for
the purpose, excavations have been recommenced
within the last fortnight, and a small band of men,
under the direction of Dr. Johnson, are now busily
engaged in digging out fresh portions of the ruins.
Of course only a very small proportion of the whole
extent of the city his yet been cleared, and it is
expected that a considerable addition to the store of
arclimplogical knowledge will accrue from the works
now progressing at Uriconium.

With the proceedings of yesterday the annual
congress of the British Archaeological Association
finally closed, and the majority of the members and
visitors left Shrewsbury last night.

The Trade Outrages at Sheffield.

Mr. Overend and his co-examiners--Mr. Chance
and Mr. Barstow—have just made a report to the
Trades' Union Commissioners of their inquiry into
the Sheffield outrages. They say :
" The first subject which engaged our attention
was that of rattening. Rattening is a mode of en-
forcing payment of contributions to and of com-
pliance with the rules of the union. The wheel-
bands, tools, and other materials of a workman are
taken and held in pledge until he has satisfied the
society by payment of his arrears, or by submitting
to the rules which he has infringed. At first it was
denied that the unions connived at this practice,
but we had not proceeded far with our investiga-
tion before it was admitted on all hands that ratten-
ing had been for a long time prevalent in the grind-
ing trades and in all trades connected with them. It
is fair to the unions to say, that in the majority of
cases where the demands of the union have been
complied with, and a payment of a small sum for
the expenses of rattening has been made, the pro-
perty taken has been restored. Rattening is always
done in the interests of the union, and very com-
monly by the direction of the secretary, who nego-
tiates with the party rattened for the restitution of
his property. In some cases a member of the
union, without express authority, rattens another
member who is known to have incurred the dis-
pleasure of the society, and takes his chance of
having his act adopted by the union. Recourse is
seldom had to the police to recover property so
taken away, but application is almost always made
to the secretary of the union immediately the loss of
tools, &c., is ascertained. The practice of rattening
is well known to be illegal, and persons detected in
illegally taking away property have frequently been
convicted and punished. The excuse offered by the
unions for this system is, that in the absence of legal
powers rattening affords the most ready means of
enforcing payment of contributions and obedience
to the rules of the union. Many articles of Shef-
field manufacture require for their comple-
tion the labour of various clases of work-
men. For example, the manufacture of a saw re-
quires the work of the saw-grinders, the saw-
makers, and the saw-handle makers. All these
workmen form separate branches of the saw trade,
and are in separate unions. They are, however, all
amalgamated together for mutual support. In case
of default by any member of any of the branches,
or in case of a dispute with the masters, as the
grinders' tools are most easily abstracted, and as
stopping the grinding stops the whole saw trade,
the course commonly adopted is to ratter the
grinders, although the dispute may be with the
sawmakers or saw-kindle makers, and on the
matter being arranged the other branches indemnify
the grinders for their loss of time and for expenses
incurred. An attempt is often successfully made to
saddle the whole course of the rattening, as well as
the cost of supporting the men while out of employ-
ment, upon the masters, even where he is no party
to the dispute, on the ground that he ought to have
compelled his workmen to comply with the rules of
the union. The system of rattening generally
proved successful in effecting its object. If, how-
ever, the person rattened continues refractory, he
commonly receives an anonymous letter warning
him of the consequences of his obstinacy. If this
warning is disregarded, recourse has been had to
acts of outrage, the nature of which will be under-
stood from a perusal of the cases actually investi-
gated
takennum bi
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With regard to the Saw-Grinders' Union
the ex-
a miners say :
" The fact of these outrages having been done in
the interest of the trade was well k own to the union,
and although in one or two instances •
individual
members had protested against them, yet no-
thing like an investigation had been demanded,
nor had there been any general vote of con-
demnation of these acts until
the case of Fearne -
hough occurred, when public indignation was aroused,
and then the outrage was denounced, and a reward
was offered by the union for the
detection
of the
offenders. The whole of the
concerted by Broadhead, and sums amounting to
nearly £2OO had been taken by him out of the funds
of the union to pay the parties
who committed them.
Although these acts were not proved to have been
directly authorised by the union, there must have
been a knowledge, or at all events a 11 we -crrounded
belief amongst its members that they
were done, not
only in the interests of
their
society, but through
the agency of some one or more of th • eir governing
body, and we report that all the
were promoted, encouraged, and connived at by the
Saw Grinders' Union; and that the
Hereford-street
outrage was promoted and encouraged by the Saw -
grinders', Saw-makers', and Saw-handle Makers'
Unions. The following members of the Saw-grinders'
Union have been engaged in the concerting or per-
petration of outrages :—Broadhead, William; Clark,
Dennis; Copley, Joseph; Crookes, Samuel ; Dean,
Phineas (dead); Hallam, James ; Pearce, George :
Shaw, George ; Smith, Elijah (dead); Taylor, John
(dead)."
In conclusion the examiners say :
" We have now given an outline of all the cases
of importance which were submitted to us for inves-
tigation. Mr. Thomas Thorpe, managing clerk to
Mr. Albert Smith, clerk to the magistrates for the
West Riding of Yorkshire and borough of Sheffield,
prepared for us a list of cases supposed to be con-
nected with trades unions, and which had been
brought before the justices within the last ten years.
It comprised, in addition to the outrages mentioned
in this report, 166 cases of rattening and 21 cases of
sending threatening letters. A very small propor-
tion, however, of the persons rattened give informa-
tion either to the police or to the justices. Most of
the outrages we have investigated were brought be-
fore the justices, and although in several cases large
rewards had been offered for the detection of the
perpetrators, the offenders have with two or three
exceptions remained unknown up to the period of
the inquiry. We believe that there are about 60
trades' unions in Sheffield, of which 13 have pro-
moted or encouraged outrages within the meaning
of the Trades' Union Commission Act, 1867. We
have to report there has not occurre 1 within the
lass ten years any act of intimidation, outrage, or
wrong promoted, encouraged, or connived at by
any association of employers. We point to the
year 1859 as the one in which outrage was moat
rife, and we notice with pleasure that it has di-
minished since that time. During the course of our
investigation matters connected with trades' unions
(such as the number of apprentices allowed to each
workman, and the class from which they may be
taken, the remuneration of labour, the restraints
exercised upon voluntary action, and the rules and
general policy of trades' unions) have frequently
been brought before our notice. These, however,
are questions for the consideration of the Royal
Commission sitting in London, and we purposely
avoid making any observation's upon them. At the