The Sun.
London, England, 1835-10-28 00:00:00

AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS.

Yesterday afternoon, shortly before the sitting Magis-
trates at the New Bailey (J. F. Foster, E. J. Lloyd, and
G. W. Wood, Esqrs.) left the Court, a case of extraordi-
nary novelty and hardship was brought before them. The
facts as they transpired are as follow :
Two healthy, fresh-countenanced, but somewhat emaciated
agricultural labourers presented themselves in the witness-
box, whilst at the extremity of the Court were ranged, in
view of the Magistrates, sixteen individuals, one of them a
female about 30, with two infants in arms, eight children,
apparently all of them under ten years of age, and three
whose ages might be from 13 to 16 years, two of them
girls, and the third a boy. There were two others whom
we did not see, making up a party of eighteen. One of the
men stated that they came from Towersey, in Bucking-
hamshire. The farmers, he said, called a meeting to know
if any of the parishioners would go down to Manches-
ter, as everybody there was doing well. Several of us
said we would go ; they told us they thought our families
would do well to come down ; they said there would be
houses for us to go into when we got there, and every
thing provided for our use. They employed a man named
Clarke to see after people who would go down, and we went
to him. He asked what families we had got, and said we
should do well indeed to ccme : we started accordingly to
Mr. Waterhouse's, at Glossop. In answer to questions,
the man said six of the children whom the Magistrates saw
belonged to him, and two were his brother's ; the other
man said two of the rest were his own, and four belonged
to another person, but he had promised to take charge of
them, to bring them down, and do the best for them he
could. The first speaker then continued his story :—We
were brought, he said, from our own county to Glossop, in
a boat, and from Glossop Mr. Waterhouse sent us forward
in a cart. When we got there, there were forty-five of
us ; we were put in a bit of a warehouse, and I have
been there with my family three weeks, lying on a
b;t of straw, which is the only bed I have had. The
parish (he said, in answer to questions), paid the
expense of our journey down. We came by the boat
to Marple, where they told us there was to be a cart to
meet us and forward us to Mr. Waterhouse's. We did
not know to what person in Glossop we were coming when
''we left our own parish. We were sent from our own parish
to Coddington, where we met with a gentleman named
William Clarke. We travelled nearly forty miles, partly in
a waggon, to the boat where we embarked. Clarke came
with us to the boat, and when we had embarked, he told us
that we were to go to Mr. Waterhouse's, at Glossop. Two
other families came with us. I cannot tell whether Mr.
Waterhouse had desired our overseer to send any hands. I
worked at Mr. Waterhouse's three weeks, but yesterday he
hired a cart, and sent us in it to Manchester. The carter
put us down in the street and left us. He has sent another
cart-load this morning. I have seen them in town ; and he
would have sent them yesterday, but the cart would not
hold us all, so he told one of the women that he would send
them this morning in his own cart. I don't know what has
become of them. I saw them in town this morning, and
they said they were going to the boat. We two (the men)
are farmers, and the children are lacemakers. We were in
work at the time we left Buckinghamshire.
The Magistrates expressed much indignation at the de-
ception which had been practised upon these unfortunate
people, and intimated that the parties principally concerned
in thus alluring them from their homes, ought to be prose-
cuted. Mr. G. W. Wood stated that there happened now
to be in town (engaged in making inquiries on the subject
of labour) Mr. MuFridge, a Gentleman employed by the
Poor Law Commissioners ; and it was arranged that the
overseers should go up to him, represent the case, and ob-
tain his assistance, if possible, in taking measures for re-
turning the families to their native parish, from which they
have been thus unnaturally cast off. In the meanwhile it
was ordered that due care should be taken of them by the
overseers of Manchester.
We understand that the party, eighteen in number, were
set down on Thursday evening, at the Cotton Tree public-
house, in Ancoats, of course entire strangers, without means
or resources of any kind. They were, however, taken to the
workhouse, and there provided for that night.— Wheeler's
Manchester Chronicle.

The amount of cash in hand in the treasury banks
of the United States amounted, on Ist of September, to
ten millions of dollars.