The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-29 00:00:00

THE LAW OF STRIKES.

Lord St. Leopards has contributed the following
concise summary of the present laws as to work-
men's strikes and combinations :

The masters consider the proceedings of the build-
ing trades' unions wholly inconsistent with the
law, which was framed with a jealous regard to the
interests of the working man. The act of Parlia-
ment (6 George IV., cap. 129), which repealed
all the former laws relative to the combination
of workmen, states, that combinations interfering
with the free employment of capital and labour are
injurious to trade and commerce, dangerous to the
tranquillity of the country, and especially to the
interests of all who are concerned in them. The
object of the act is then declared to be to make pro-
vision as well for the security and personal freedom
of individual workmen in the disposal of their skill
and labour, as for the security of property and per-
sons of masters and employers.
The act then makes the following offences punish-
. able by imprisonment not exceeding three months,
with or without hard labour, namely :—Where any
person shall by violence to the person or property,
or by threats, or by intim. dation, or by molesting,
or in any way obstructing another-
1. Force or endeavour to force any journeyman,
manufacturer, or workman, or other person to de-
part from his hiring, employment, or work, or to
return his work before it is finished.

2. Or prevent or endeavour to prevent any jour-
neyman, manufacturer, workman, or other person,
not being hired or employed, from hiring himself
to, or from accepting work or employment from,
any person or persons.
3. Or for the purpose of forcing or inducing any
other person to belong to any club or association,
or to contribute to any common fund, or to pay any
fine or penalty, or on account of his not belonging
to any club or association, or not having contri-
buted or having refused to contribute to any com-
mon fund, or to pay any fine or penalty, or
on account of his not having complied,
or his refusing to comply, with any rules,
orders, resolutions, or regulations made to
obtain an advance or to reduce the rate of
wages, or to lessen and alter the hours of working,
or to decrease or alter the quantity or work, or to
regulate the mode of carrying on any manufacture,
trade, or business, or the management thereof.
4. Or shall force, or endeavour to force, any ma-
nufacturer or person carrying on any trade or busi-
ness to make any alterations in his mode of regu-
lating, managing, or carrying on such trade,
manufacture, or business, or to limit his number of
apprentices, or the number or description of his
journeymen, workmen, or servants.
But the act provides-
1. That any persons may meet together for the
sole purpose of consulting upon and determining
the rate of wages or prices upon which the persons
present at such meeting or any of them, shall re-
quire or demand for his or their work, or the hours
or time for which he or they shall work in any
manufacture, trade, or business ; or may enter into
any agreement, verbal or written, among them-
solves for the purposes of fixing the rate of wages
or prices which the parties entering into such

13y a later act, 22d Viet., c. 34, passed to protect
theAvorking man; it is provided that no one, whether
in attual 'employment cr not, shall by reason
merely of -his, entering into any agreement with
any workman, or other person or persons, for the
purpose of-fixing, or endeavouring to fix, the rate
of wages or retnune—,tion they, or any of
them, shall work, or i L.An---erely of his endea-:
Vouring -peaceably, and In a reasonable manner,
and without threats or intimidation, direct or in-
direct, to ;persuade others 16' cease or abstain from
work, in order to obtain i lie rate of wages or the
altered hours of labour so fixed. or agreed upon,
shall be d'eeriu or taken to be guilty of'', nkoksta-,
tioncor obstt•oetion". -within the meaning of the
former act, and shall not tk-refole he suliject to.
prosecution or indietment for Conspiraes
,13ut it
is provided' that nothing contained in this later act
shall authorise any attempt to induce any workman
to break or depart from any contract.

TELEGRAPH 110.SLATOAPORE
CHINA.

The Times, in a recent article, condemning the
supineness of the Government in not promoting
telegraphic eommunication to India, advocated the
immediate laying of a submarine cable in two sta-
tions from Rangoon to Singapore, in order to faci-
litate our communication with China. The Indian
Government has long since agreed to lay this line
along the Malay peninsula, having stations at Ten-
asserim and .Ptnang, but have wasted most valuable
time in argnini_ihe question Of 'cost with the Ito
perial Government. We are happy, howeVer, to
be able to,state that the news of our warlike rela-
tions with China has urged the Home Government
to action, atul•instructions have been given for en-
tering into' a: contract for laying the cable from
Rangoon to Singapore. by the end of Ably; and
;there is no doubt that, at that time, Siezepaee will
be in telegraphic communication withiondon. The
working of this line will, of course, be in the hands
of the Indian Government, as all other lines are in
India. The line from Calcutta to Rangoon was to be
finished last' month, and intelligence to that effect is
expected by an early mail. No decision., has yet
been arrived at in referenee to the line from Singa-
pore to _Hon ...Kong, for _ Avhieh_ two_ projecta _had
been bud before the Government some Months ksitots
—one to run,from Singapore to Polo Condone, thence
along the coast of Cochin-China, with a station
at the Bay of Touren, thence to the Island of Hainan,
which will shortly be open to British-trade, thence
to Hong Kong.. Our readers may remember that
this is, the. route advocated by ,us in December last,
when the claimsof Sarawak were before the public;
and we hear that Lord .Elgin and Sir 'J. Bowring
have also, proneunced faVour of this route. If this
line be adopted, the 'French Government will doubt-
less be willing to afford some support to the under-
taking. Then, again, a line could easily be,run from
Puha Coedore to-Bankok ; -and -wO happen to kno*
that support could be obtained from the present en-
lightened King of, Siam, who prides himself on his
English writing, and syinpathises with all our scien-
tific movements: ne 6eoond project is to run a line
from Singapore to Sarawak, on the Borneen coast,
thence to the Island of Labuani thence to Manilla,
and thence to Hong Kong. After the late fearful
massacre of Christians in B-mmeo, we think it would
be highly impolitic to use
,tbat coast, to say nothing
of the entire absence of any pecuniary support from
its rulers. There should n'ot,- we think, be any hesi-
tation on the part of the Government as to which of
these two routes deserve support ; and it must be
some red-tapeism which keeps isrfrom pronouncing
an opinion on the subject, and thus put the matter
in motion. A company could be formed, and a capi-
tal raised, we believe, in a few days. In discussing
these plans, we have not lost sight of the fact, that
India is notyet in telegraphic communication with
this country. The cable to effect this—that is, from
Aden to Kurracliee, however, leaves Liverpool on-the
30th inst., by Messrs. Newell and Co.'s steamers, Im-
perador and Imperatriz. We are at a lossto know why
the laying of this section could not have been per-
formed simultaneously with the one from Suez to
Aden. Surely there were more than two vessels to be
found in Great Britain suitable for the purpose.
Waiting for the return of the ImVerador and Impe-
ratriz is about the most old-fashioned way of doing
things possible,-and not at all in keeping with tele-
graphic movements. It reflects little credit on the
Board of Trade, and we trust a similar blunder
will not be repeated.—China Telegraph.

ALLEGED P_ECULATIONS IN A CON-

vier' ESTABLISHMENT.

We learn from a file of the Perth, (Western Aus-
tralia) Gazette, that an unpleasant sensation has been
caused in that colony by the discovery of extensive
defalcations in the accounts of Mr. T. H. Dixon, super-

inten dent of the convict establishment. On the 18th

of April a jury was impanelled to ascertain whether
Mr. Dixon was not a debtor to the Crown in

the sum of £442 Gs. 5d., for monys received by
him for the wages of persons employed in the
establishment. The jury found the issue in the
affirmative ; and the acting Crown solicitor then
stated that the Government would hold itself liable

for the wages which Mr. Dixon (who it is unneces-
sary to state had in the meantime been suspended
from his office) had neglected to pay over. On the
next day an application was made for a writ in
extent against. Mr. Dixon's person and estate ; but
the civil commissioner, after postponing judgment
till the I Othof May, ultimately refused the motion
on the ground of some informality in the proceed-
ings. On the 11th of August the first meeting of
Dixon's creditors was held under an insolvency
petition. The insolvent handed in a schedule of
receipts and expenditure for the last twelve months,
and also a list by which it appeared his private
debts were £673 18s. 2d. ; and, upon examination,
he stated that upon the first day of his coming into
the colony he was in debt between £3OO and £4OO.
His salary of late had been £420 with allowances,
which he valued at £BO. His account at the bank
had always been a general one; he had made no
distinction .there between the sums received and
paid by him on public or private account. In the
past twelve months he had paid £144 into the
bank and drawn £484 12s. 6d. Of his drawings
£B9 19s. 3d. was for his personal use, and the
balance was applied in payment of debts. It was
subsequently announced that his estate would pay
is. 3d. in the pound.
On the 6th of July Dixon was charged at the
quarter sessions with embezzling £B9 of the public
service moneys of her Majesty the Queen, and by
a second count with fraudulently applying the
same to his own use ; a third count charged him
with stealing certain coins the property of the
Queen, and a fourth with stealing the same, the
property of James Masters. Mr. Howell, on behalf
of the prisoner, demurred to the indictment. He
contended that the two first counts were bad
because they did not aver that the money had been
issued to the prisoner, and it might therefore have
come lawfully into his possession. The Advocate-
General having been heard in reply, the court
allowed the demurrer, but gave leave to the Crown
to file a fresh indictment either for misdemeanor
or for larceny.
At the same sessions several other persons were
indicted for various thefts at the same model refor-
matory institution, viz.:—Corporal Newton, for
stealing bookbinders' materials, and selling them
to a ticket-of-leave man named Spencer ; Corporal
Scott for stealing and selling Chubb's locks and
files ; Private Cameron, for selling government
timber, and employing convicts in cutting,and saw-
ing it ; Private Davis, for conveying out of the
establishment, and aiding in the disposal of, a
handsome turning lathe, 'which had been manufac-
tured in the blacksmith's shop there ; Private
Gogan, for selling to a ticket-holder named Bains,
, worth about £10;
aancdo pletetvales emt
`Nicol,
itclora
forsn ' tohavingols
work-boxes made
by convict labour in the carpenters' shop, and sell-
ing the same in a public-house in Fremantle. All
the prisoners were acquitted, and the Gazette of
the 15th of July thus comments on the affair
Our present and last week's issue contain as
extraordinary a record of crown prosecutions and
their results as, perhaps, the annals of any of her
Majesty's colonies exhibit. • The juries have upon
one and all returned a verdict of 'Not guilty'
against the defendants, and whether those verdicts
were arrived at from a doubt of the guilt of the ac-
cused, or from other motives, we shall not offer an
opinion upon. On ono point, however, all agree—
that a large amount of peculation in many ways
has been committed at the convict establishment,
and that an attempt at punishment of some sus-
pended delinquents has been made, with a result
that can leave no doubt of the general feeling of
the community as to the spirit in which the inves-
tigations into the affairs of the convict establish-
ment have been carried on, in secrecy, seeking out
one class of offenders, while, it is believed, another
has been allowed opportunities to gloss over their
irregularities, and to escape their consequences."

[ADVERTISEMENT.] - Mr. Benson, Lsidgate-hill, has
just published a new illustrated pamphlet on watches (free
by post for two stamps). It should bo read by al) who are
about buying a watch, as it contains prices: and Important
information as to—What watch to buy 1 wher9 to buy it 1
and how to use it !