The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-24 00:00:00

THE BUILDER& STRIKE.

It would appear that, through some misappre-
hension of the plan on which the payments to the
" lock-outs" was to be made on Monday, a consi-
derable number of labourers did not apply at the
proper places, and consequently did not receive the
allowance made by the conference of the United
Building Trades. Considerable discontent arose
among the unpaid labourers, and yesterday, about
midday. a crowd of them assembled outside the
Paviors' Arms, where the conference hold their daily
sittings, and with much violence of manner de-
manded to be paid. The secretary of the confer-
' ence was especially and loudly called for by name,
and the angry men were certainly more energetic
than elegant in the epithets they showered upon
Mr. Potter and his colleagues, who have the arduous
task of conducting the affair on the part of the
operatives. Threats of personal violence, and of an
assault upon the committee.room, were frequently
uttered, and at one time there appeared every pro-
spect of a serious riot. Mr. Potter, however, soon
made his appearance at one of the windows of the
club-room, and asked the labourers what they
wanted. The reply from a score of voices was-'--
"We want our money." " You have had it," was
the reply. "You're a --, we have not had it;"
and the clamour grew so great that for some time
Mr. Potter in vain attempted to make himself
heard. When comparative silence was at last re-
stored, he said that £175 had been given to the la-
bourers' delegates to pay them with, and that if
each of the labourers present had not received
their quota of ls. Id., they would do so on applica-
tion at their respective branch houses. To this
statement some replied that they had applied, and
had been told that there was no money
-for them, as

the conference had only paid their delegates £49,
the whole of which had been distributed. On this
statement Mr. Potter produced a receipt for £175,
signed by the labourers' delegates, Messrs. Gresham,
Johnson, and O'Mara, and for a short time pro-
duced something like order, but the uproar again
broke out more loudly.thanbefore, and language
of the most threatening and violent character
was applied to the members of the conference.
In the midst of the riot Mr. Noble (brick-
layer) appeared at the window with a paper
in his hand, and the crowd of angry and
excited men below became somewhat more orderly,
in the expectation of receiving some further ex-
planation. Mr. Noble said—Fellow-workmen, I
will tell you exactly what we have done with the
money we have received. The sum we sent to pay
the bricklayers Is. ld. a-head, which was all we
could give, was £5B. To the masons we sent £29 ;
to the painters, £l9 ; to the plasterers, £33 ; to the
carpenters and joiners, £152; and to the labourers'
committee, through your delegates—Gresham,
Johnson, and O'Mara—Xl7s. In addition to this,
we paid the Woolwich men, 557 in number, the
stone-sawyers, smiths, and plumbers, and to Trol-
lope's men alone we paid £l2O. (A Voice, " Yes,
they got it all, and we got none.") Steady, my
friends. Why they are the men you called out for
the nine hours, and they must be maintained.
(" Aye, aye, that's right enough.") We paid to
those men a dividend of 12s. for the mechanics, and
Bs. for the labourers ; that amounted to between
£6OO and £7OO, which was the whole of the money

hat was collected. There was no more. It was

equally divided among the whole lot, labourers and
mechanics alike, and the amount that each received
was Is. ld. a head. If you want anything more
plain and straightforward than that, perhaps you
will tell me. I see that my words are being taken
down ; but you call upon me to make an exposure,
and when you come in this way to test the integ-
rity of those who are trying to do their best for you,
it is necessary that our position should be fully
made known to you, and we fear nothing. The
point is this :—lf the masters had not shut their
doors and locked out the men, we should
have had ample money to carry out the
Nine Hours' movement ; but the masters
have locked out many thousands of men, and
do you suppose we can guarantee you anything
like a tangible support? Do you know how much
we should want to give you anything like a tan-
gible amount? Why, £20,000 or £30,000 a week.
The fact of the matter is, my friends, that this is a
question of principle against capital, and if you are
not inclined to stand for a week or two against the
oppressive means which the masters are using
against you, why then the working man must fall
to-nightß t the c o
theyun t
tr
ra
ds e only yd e
legatesus t
arebeing
to aroused,
meet,h
to
0 and
see
what assistance they will give you. They
last week and adjourned until to-night, ineYornideeit•
that in the meantime they might take the opinion
of their several societies, and to-night we shall
opinionsare. ieilEonOgNivnheiecrsh
we
know what
receivedhave
ehat th e these
from
the
Amalgamatedh
anddivi
dt
ehde
amongi2o froymoutahlel,
and thosehatters,
of you who have
have
ave been equally
not got their proper
quota will do so on applying
rt your proper houses. Then, again, we have six
delegates going round the country, but there has
not been time yet to get any funds from them. To•
morrow, no doubt, the masters will open their
shops, and will present you the document to sign.
Now, those of you who are prepared to act like
men, you will not sign, and they will be obliged to
open their shops without it. I repeat that this is
a question of principle against capital ; if you do
not act like men you will lose • if you act like men
you will win. (A Voice—" We want our rights.")

Sir,—ln the recent trial of Dr. Smethurstlerrors
of the greate4importance, and more or less ap-
parent, have gained publicity. In consequence of
the weight attached to them by the Lord Chief
Baron Pollock in his charge to the jury their cor-
rection has become a matter of the utmost necessity.
The most prominent of these errors is the
statement given in evidence by Professor Brande,
that it,is a new fact in chemistry that chlorate of
potash (meaning the mixture of hydrochloric acid
and chlorate of potash) dissolves copper, and that
he should have committed the same blunder as that
acknowledged, by Professor Taylor. This state-
ment is untrue, dud requires correction:the more
so as the learned judge urged this. as a strong
point on the consideration of the jury; and, again,
I emphatically repeat not true, for this mixture
has long been known as one of the - most
powerful solvents, actually used to dissolve
and separate copper from its ore's, and,
so far from presenting obstacles to the
detection of arsenic, it affords the means, as was
discovered by Drs. Freseniu3 and Von Babo of se-
parating arsenic from the blood organs and tissues
of the body (ride Lancet vol. 1 for the year 11844).
Indeed, by a slight modification of their process, I
have been enabled
,in a great number of instances
to separate the minutest trace of many metallic
poisons in numerous cases which I have been called
upon by coroners to investigate.
It should also be known that the presence of
chlorate of potash interferes in no way with the
action of the tests by which the presence of arsenic
in an aqueous solution can be most incontestably
proved, and that Reinsch's process in itself is not a
test but is only a method by which arsenic can be
separated from matters that do not admit of the
conclusive applientlan of the propar tests.
Again, Reinsch's process was represented es the
most efficient known, but it is ill-adapted where
the bloodorgans and tissues form—The subjucts of
analysis, and is totally inapplicable' in all cases un-
less copper, perfectly free from arsenic, be em-
ployed. draw particular attention to the import-
ance of using perfectly pure copper, as Dr. Taylor
in evidence emphatically expressed hii determina-
tion to use the same copper gauze (which he has
himself found to contain arsenic) in any future
analysis he may be called upon to make where
ehlorale of potash is not present.
With the conviction of Dr. Smethurst a new era
in our jurisprudence commences; for it is certain
that cases similar to that of Isabella Bankes have
occurred in the practice of our most celebrated ac-
coucheurs from natural causes, that while the mor-
bid appearances observed in her case were not such
as our present experience warrants us to expect in
a case of antimonial or- arsenical poisoning, they
were such as might arise from natural disease ; that
in no other case has poison been found in the blood
without, on examination, its presence being most sa-
tisfactorily demonstrated also in the various organs
and tissues,---a fact on which my own long ex-
perience in toxicological analyses entitle me to ex-
press a. most positive opinion.

I will observe, in conclusion, that in all cases of
medico-legal inquiry it would be well, to adopt the
course pursued by Mr. Wakley, i.e, that the analyst
employed should take only half the suspected mat-
ter, the remainder being Sealed up by`bim and left
in safe custody, in case hiS results should be called
in question.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant.
J.: E. D. RODGETtS, '
Formerly Lecturer on- Chymistry at the St. George's

School of Anatoiny and Medicine.
41, Denbigh-street, Belgrave-road, S:W., Aug. 20.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

Sir,—ln order to remove any impression that
may exist in the minds of the public with respect
of the summing up of the judge haring a tendency
to influence the minds of the jury, I beg to inform
you that at the close of the defence, and before the
judge commenced his summing up, 11 of the jury
were convinced upon the evidence adduced of the
prisoner's guilt, and the remarks of the judge con-
firmed their opinions.—I am, Sir, yours,
Aug 23. ONE OF THE JURY.