The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-25 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 25, 1859.

211 E NAVI.

The Aid, naval transport, Mr. Grandy master,
having shipped a heavy cargo of dockyard stores at
Chatham, will sail from that port this day for
Portsmouth, Devouport, snd Pembroke Dockyards.
Orders have been received at Chatham, direct-
ing a large line-of-battle screw.steamer to be com-
menced at that establishment, on the same slip as
that on which the Irresistible, 80, was built, imme-
diately after that vessel has been launched.
The following appointments were made yester-
day at the Admiralty :—James M. Shore, additional,
to the Cumberland ; Thomas Anderson, chief engi-
neer, to the Royal Albert ; Charles Cotten, chief
engineer, to the Blenheim ; Walter W. Williamson,
chief engineer, to the Marlborough ; Samuel Cle-
mentS, chief engineer, to the Liffey; William H.
Houghton, acting chief engineer, to the Fisgard, as
supernumerary ; Wm. Wallace,
,acting third-class
assist.-engineer, to the Asia, as supernumerary;
T. Silk, clerk, to the Ardent ; W. A. Dangerfield,
assistant-clerk, to the Prometheus ; and Francis A.
Carter, assistant-clerk, to the Hogue.

and it is asserted that he will remove many restric-
tions which the late Emperor had imposed. By this
proceeding it is evident that his Majesty exhibits
no hostility towards the French, as was stated.
The object of Muley Abder-Rahman, in prohibiting
the exportation of wools, was to prevent French-
men establishing themselves in Barbary, as the
trade, in this article enticed many merchants of
France to the ports of the coast."

declaration in any form, and the laasters made
up their returns of the numbers by including all
the men they had at work on country jobs. He
urged.the lock-outs to try and bear -with their pri-
vations alittle longer, and to bear in mind that it
was not money but a principle they were stru,
gling for. If they did not " lick" the associated
masters now they would in the end, and he was
satisfied that before twelve mouths were over they
would re-enter the shops not only without the de-
claration but under the nine hours. (Great cheer-
ing.) He advised them in future to form a fund,
by Subscribing say ld. a week, which he szid would
amount to £lOO a week, £4OO a month, and £26,000
a year—(upon what system of arithmetic Mr. Pot-
ter makes up this annual total he did not explain)
—and that such fund should be' devoted' expressly
for the defence of the trades and their support, in
future struggles. Let them show in this way that
they respected themselves, and the masters would
respect them ; that with such a fund at their back
there would bno more attempts to compel them
to give up their trade societies. He concluded by
again recommending firmness and union as the cer-
tain means of success.
Mr. FACEY, a delegate from the conference to the
provinces, reported the result of his mission in the
western and north-western districts, where he said
not the building trades only but the whole of the
industrial community were with the movement, and
were ready to unite and amalgamate with the
building operatives. He had attended public meet-
ings in Reading, in Oxforcl,in Leamington, in War-
wick, in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Stour-
bridge, Gloucester, Swansea, Weston-super-Mare,
Bath, Bristol, Exeter (where there was a sub-sub
agent of Mr. hell's, endeavouring to seduce men
to engage with the London masters), Plymouth,
Tavistock, and Devonport, and everywhere found
sympathy for the lock-outs. It was true that the
subscriptions frora the provinces had fallen off
within the last few weeks, but that was in come-
quenee of the statements in the press, that the
battle was as good as won. But the battle was not yet
won, and nothing was more dangerous than over
weeuining confidence. He urged the necessity of
those in work doubling their subscriptions,
and concluded a long speech by denouncing
Lord Brougham, Lord Shaftesbury, Lord Radstock,
and others wl:o were supposed to take the side of
the masters; and, after charging the authors of the
odious document with conspiracyagainst the rights
of the working men, and with being, in their desire
to glut their vampire appetites with the blood of
broken hearts, the cause of the deaths referred to
in the Registrar-General's report as resulting from
the strike, submitted the following resolution :
" That, the Master Builders' Association having re-
fused the propositions submitted by A. S. Ayrton,
Esq., M.P., and ail other attempts on the part of
the men at reconciliation, determining still to abide
by the odious document, this meeting appeals to the
public for further support to enable the men to
continue to a successful issue their noble resistance
to that infamous production."
Mr. BROWN, another delegate to the provinces,
seconded the resolution, and gave a very similar
report of the result at Northampton, Leicester,
Nottingham, Derby, Manchester, Liverpool, Bol-
ton, and other manufacturing towns of the midland
and -northern counties.

Mr. OSBORNE, also a delegate, supported the re-
solution. lie found that, during his absence, one
of the masters, Mr. Farley, a plasterer, of West-
bourne-grove, bad conceded the nine hours; and
so far from finding it detrimental to his interests,
had stated that it had enabkd him to complete his
contracts with satisfaction. Ile trusted that they
would adhere to their demand of the withdrawal of
the odious document, and nine hours, and no sur-
render. (Cheers.)
The resolution was then put and carried amid
loud cheering.
A vote of thanks fo the chairman =eluded the
proceedings.
It was stated by the seconder of the vote of thanks
that a scheme was under consideration for raising
capital to enable the Conference to carry on build-
ing works, several offers of work having been made
to them if they could undertake it.
The following return shows the number of skilled
and unskilled labourers thus paid for the past week,
and the amount received by each body respec-
tively :

Masons ..
Carpenters ..
Bricklayers
Stone polishers ..
Pointers • • •
Plasterers ..
Stone sawyers
Woolwich men ..
Labourers —Lodge '1
~
ft 7? 3
71 4
11

s. d.
.. 3.50 61 0 0
.. 1,000 175 0 0
.. 580 101 10 0
.. 2 0 5 0
.. 180 31 10 0
.. 630 110 5 0
.. 50 7 10 0
.. 123 20 4 0
.. 310 42 10 0
132 16 10 0
.. 154 19 5 0
.. 250 31 5 0

5 .. 82 10 5 0
„ 6 418 52 5 0
„ 7 .. 149 18 12 6
„ 8 .. 34 4 5 0
„ 9 .. 309 38 12 6
„ 10 .. 190 23 15 0
„ 11 (paid with Woolwich men)
)7 „ 12 , ... 20 2 10 0
17 „ 13 .. 7 0 17 6
Non-society men .. 656 82 0 0
Trollope's men .. .. 110 50 0 0

5,769 £899 16 6

THE WOMAN WHO PASSED FOR A

MAN.

(From the Salford IP eekly _Yews.)
The most remarkable woman of this century was
" Harry' "Stokes, the bricksetter, who committed
suicide in the sluice of the river Irwell, at Mode
Wheel, last night week. For about 30 years this
extraordinary person had lived in Manchester and
Salford as a journeyman and master bricksetter ;
had been twice married to other women ; had kept
beerhouses and served customers at the tap as a
"jolly landlord;" had worked at her trade as
bricksetter, and erected many important buildings
in both towns ; and had obtained the reputation of
being the most skilful fire-grate setter and "chim-
ney doctor" in the neighbourhood. She always
dressed as a man, in the clothing peculiar to her
trade ; invariably superintended the men in her
employment ; and could lift a weight, spread the
mortar, and set a brick with the best of them. Her
habits were those of a man. She attended a daily
ordinary in the town along with other bricksetters,
drank, smoked, and joked with the hardest, and
joined in the evening carousals. Yet, with all this
constant and Close intimacy with the opposite sex,
this strong-minded woman contrived to keep her
own great secret ; and there is every reason to be-
lieve that she has gone down into the valley of
death at the advanced age of GO, or thereabouts,
having throughout the whole of her remarkable
life maintained an unbroken check upon those pas•
sions which crowd the streets of every large town
with the unfortunate of her own sex. Her great
endeavour was on all occasions to keep up the
manly character she had assumed. From a child
she had been accustomed to the seyere,work of one
of the most laborious occupations in which man is
engaged, and the skill she had attained in the trade
reveals an amount of persevering energy which
made her worthy of a better fate than a wretched
suicide.
She was the daughter of a bricklayer, in a vil-
lage in the neighbourhood of Doncaster. Before sho
could well balance her own little body, she was
made "useful" in the house; and, ere many years had
pasped over her head, she was brought into ac-
quaintance with some of the roughest and toughest
work in those hard wrought days. Little llarriet
Stokes's lines had not been laid in pleasant places.
She was so ground down by the iron hand at home,
that, when she was about eight years old, she put
on a tattered suit of boy's clothing, and walked
forth into the " wide, wide world." Arrived at the
village of Whitby, she looked about for work. She
had not run away from her father's house because
she did not like work, and preferred to eat the bread
of idleness. The hard treatment of parents, ignorant
of their responsibility, had driven her from the
protection of home, and from all the associations
which should enchain the young mind to home.
That she was not afraid of hard work was appa-
rent, when she offered her services to a bricksetter
in Whitby. Though somewhat undersized, she
appeared a broadset, active, useful lad, and was
speedily set to work. Her first efforts to please
were attended with success, and she was soon taken
as an apprentice. From this point we mast drop
the feminine appellative, and speak of " Harry
Stokes" as a boy who has worked his way to the
dignity of journeyman bricksetter. For something
like 20 years from this point wa lose the connect-
ing links which
.join this Yorkshire experience to
his Manchester life. About 25 years ago, however,
he was brought prominently under the notice of the
public, by the consequences of an eccentric excur-
sion which had taken into the domains of matri-
mony. Harry Stokes wanting a companion in life,
executed a matrimonial contretemps. True to his
role as a man—for he had now reached the age
when the average of bricksetters are fathers as well
as journeymen—he cast about and fixed his choice
upon a plump little widow who kept a beer-house