The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-29 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, MARC a 29, 1861.

THE BUILDERS' STRIKE.

The history of the new strike has been rapidly enlarged.

Mr. William Jones, the secretary of the Masons' Union,
did by no means give the public that " true and unvarnished
account" of the affair which he professed to communicate.
He omitted some very material facts from his statement.
Nobody would have conjectured from his version of the
story that the renewal of the quarrel proceeded from the
unions themselves, and that the proposition of the masters
was but a reply to a proposition of the men. We were left
to infer that all on a sudden, when everything was quiet,
the masters had issued a ' notification " diametrically op-
posed to the rules and regulations" by which the trade had
been hitherto guided. It is true that the notice was a judi-
cious one, and perfectly defensible on its own merits ; but
the masters were still left under the imputation of having
disturbed the relations between themselves and the work-
men by the introduction of a scheme which, whether ad-
vantageous or otherwise, was, at any rate, gratui-
tous. As the trade was going on smoothly, they
might have left well alone, and reserved the revision
of their terms until those terms had been called in
question. • That was the impression conveyed by the
secretary's manifesto. He commenced the whole
story with the statement that whereas the "recog-
nised" wages of London masons were ss. 6d. per day, Mr.
Kelk, of Pimlico, and Messrs. Lucas, of Lambeth, had,
" with a few days' notice," proposed to reckon these wages
by the hour, and proceeded to announce that in conse-
quence of their proposition, and the refusal of the masters
to withdraw it, the men had struck. Not a syllable did he
say of any previous negotiation, or of any notice served on
the masters by the men themselves. It now appears that
the question of working time was reopened in the most de-
cided manner by the Trade Unions, and that Messrs. Kelk
and Lucas in issuing their proposition was simply endea-
vouring to close a calamitous quarrel by a final adjustment
on most liberal terms. The public will at once discern how
materially the case is affected by the circumstances now
brought to light.

' On the 7th of this month—that is to 'say, when it was
known that the firms in question had taken the contract
for the Great Exhibition building—the masons, carpenters,
and joiners of London addressed them with a deliberate re-
newal of their old demands. Regardless of their late de-
feat, and the miseries by which it had been attended, the
Unions once more required of the masters that they should
pay ten hours' wages for nine hours' work. Mr. R. W.
Grey, on behalf of the stone masons, and Mr. Geo. Potter,
for the carpenters and joiners, repeating their hypocritical
talk about " mental improvement," and " educational en-
lightenment," asked in plain terms for their" nine hours,"
and concluded by demanding a categorical answer within
28 days. It was then only, and under these circumstances,
that Messrs. Kelk and Lucas " issued a proposition."
They had been called upon in peremptory terms for a
reply, and a reply they gave. On the 15th, after taking
eight days to consider, they put forth the notice in ques-
tion. It stated that from the 23d inst. the wages both of
skilled mechanics and labourers would be increased at the
rate of about id. per hour in each case, or, reckoning by
the week, at the rate of Is. 11d. additional for mechanics
and 81d. for labourers. It continned as follows :—" This
arrangement of payment by the hour will enable every man
employed by us to work any number of hours he may
think proper, being paid for the time he actually works
in accordance with the above increased rates. It
is hoped that this arrangement will secure that hearty
co-operation and good feeling we have at all times been de-
sirous to establish between ourselves and those engaged
with us."

These, then, are the plain facts of the case, and they strip
the Unions of even the little warrant which might have
been thought to exist for their present proceedings. The
terms of the trade were not disturbed by any gratuitous in-
novation on the part of the masters. The quarrel was re-
opened by the men themselves, and the employers were
left with no other alternative than to combine for a general
"lock-out" as before, or to suggest conditioLs which might
remove the causes of dispute at once and for ever. They
chose the latter course, and with excellent judgment. The
plan of paying by the hour was recommended during the
the last strike, as the best escape from these otherwise end-
less quarrels, and the actual advance of wages conceded
rendered the proposition an extremely favourable one. The
whole question is settled by a single stroke. If Mr. Grey
and his friends do really set so much store by an additional
hour of leisure in the day, they can take at their discretion.
It will cost them very little. They can knock off work an
hour earlier than at present, and still earn their ss. 3d. a-
day, being exactly the pay of an ensign in the army, and a
good deal more than the ordinary salary of a curate. At
the small charge of 3d. they may enrich their minds and
Improve their faculties by all the opportunities Which they
profess to desire. They may even save something out of
this, for when the men can settle their own terms of work
they need no longer pay a Trade Union to do so for them.
We tell these Unions once more, as we told them on the
last occasion, that they will find no support in public
opinion. Everybody in the kingdom sees through their
pretexts and understands their designs. Their demand for'
nine hours is known and felt to be utterly preposterous.
Their feeble and hapless wives work half as long again.
The very children at their knees are taken to work
ten hours in factories, and only escape with that limi-
tation of toil because the Legislature has stepped in
to protect them from more. That strong and hearty
men, exerting themselves only at a very measured
rate, should pretend to object to terms exacted from women
and children, would indeed be an unintelligible absurdity
were not the real meaning of the demand perfectly ascer-
tained. The unions do not care a pin about "health and
intelligence" or any other such pretext. They simply
want to make work go further—to add 10 per cent. to the
fund of employment out of which workmen are to live.
That is the great object of their trade organisation, and it
is pursued with a tenacity destructive to the best interests
of the men. On this principle everything like excellence,
whether in skill or industry, is positively discouraged, If
a man wishes to do a little extra work and get a little extra
wage, either to lay by for a rainy day or push himself up
in the world, the rules of the union absolutely forbid him.
These societies do not want first-rate workmen, or first-rate
work, or first-rate anything. They prefer a dead level,
above which no man should rise, and below which they
will allow no man, however, undeserving, to sink. A
mason ie a mason, and has a right to ss. 6d. a-day from
his employer. The employer dares not offer less, and the
man dares not earn more. That is the system, and the
only object of the nine-hours' movement is to procure ss.
6d. a-day for a greater number of men for a greater number
of days.

The men had better be wise in time. They may depend
upon it they will not win. The feeling of the country is
dead against them, and well it may be, for they are the
best paid of all the classes who work for their daily bread.
Nobody believes for an instant that they want to enlighten
their minds by evening study. Nobody has the least idea
that they would spend in a mechanics' institute the hour
deducted from work. The design of the unions is
as transparent as it is futile. Mr. George Potter inno-
cently appeals to political economy as justifying the sellers
of labour in an attempt to enhance its value. The principle
is sound, but not so its application. The attempt has
been made, and has failed. Political economy should
teach the men what that failure proved. It showed that
the value of labour was not what they wished to make it,
and It Is purely suicidal on their part to rponmmPnce the
struggle after that result has been ascertained. We earnestly
hope they will think better of their resolution. They will
not enlist the public on their side, and without the public
they will not succeed against their masters, especially now
that terms so truly reasonable have been offered for their
acceptance. They had better not persuade themselves that
the new Exhibition building calls indispensably for their
work. The whole project of an Exhibition may be abandoned,
or, what is more likely, they may see the building raised by
foreign workmen brought in over their heads ; but there is
one thing they will certainly not see, and that is the adop-
tion of their quarrel by the country at large.--Times.

DOGS AND LIBERTY.—I wish every ear in these
British realms was as sensitive as my own to the mournful.
howlings of chained-up dogs, panting, struggling, and im-
ploring to be free—to be free, if only for an hour each day
—to be free to rush and bound and gambol over the field
and common, with the wild, invigorating enjoyment which
it does good to the tired human heart only to behold. The
very life of the dog is in action. Look at his limbs—their
wiry structure, and the quivering, nervous sense that aches
for freedom to spring, and dash and bound wherever there
is space for exercise, and air to scent and pant in. Yet,
behold I on the morning of a fresh, frosty day, what tor-
tured captives clank in their chains, which no generous
hand ever comes to loosen ; and then, at the close of the
same day, what piteous howlings tell the often-repeated
tale of a life-long anguish, doomed to know no ameliora-
tion ; until the cramps of death shall kindly come and still
for ever that unconquerable animation which is the
natural and inalienable birthright of the dog.— Once a
Week.

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TBE KINGSTON MURDER.

Mr. W. Carter, the coroner for this division of
the county of Surrey, held an inquest yesterday at
the Compasses Inn, Kingston, upon the body of
Diana Wickens, the unhappy young woman whose
life was destroyed on Tuesday morning last by her
step-sister, a married woman named Martha Bradish,
the wife of a sergeant-major in the 3d Regiment of
Royal Surrey Militia, by nearly severing her head
from her body with a razor.
The woman charged with the commission of the
dreadful crime already, as the public are aware,
stands committed by the magistrates to take her
trial upon the charge of wilful murder; but the me.
lancholy occurrence still continues to create intense
anxiety in the town.
Mr. Wilkinson, of the firm of Guy and Wilkin-
son, solicitors, of Kingston, attended to watch the
case on behalf of the prisoner.

The Coroner, after the jury had been sworn, said
they were all probably aware of the nature of the
sad occurrence that had called them together, but
he begged to remind them that although a person
already stood committed for trial upon the charge
of having destroyed the life of the deceased they
had nothing to do with that matter, but it would be
their duty to hear the evidence that would be laid
before them, showing how the death of the de-
ceased was occasioned. He at the same time re-
quested that they would dismiss from their minds
all that they had heard or read upon the subject, and
return their verdict solely upon the sworn testimony
of the witnesses who would be brought before them.
Alexander Oaths, the staff-sergeant belonging to
to the 3d Royal Surrey Militia, who first saw the
unfortunate woman Martha Bradish after the deed
had been committed, was then examined, and he
repeated the evidence he gave before the magistrates
on Tuesday last, and which went to show that he
saw her come out of her husband's quarters, and that
she went up to him and told him that she had mur-
dered her sister. At the same moment he said that
he heard a noise, as though some one had fallen, in
the prisoner's room, and upon going in he saw the
deceased lying on the floor, with her throat cut in
a fearful manner, and in the agonies of death. She
had nothing on but a chemise, and the upper part
of it was completely saturated with blood. The
witness also stated that Mrs. Bradish had one child,
a girl six years old, but she, it appeared, was not
at home at the time the affair happened.
In answer to a question put by the Coroner,
the witness said that he had no doubt whatever
that the injury he observed upon the throat of the
deceased had been occasioned by her sister, Mrs.
Bradish, and before she was taken away she said,
" Oh ! it must be a dream ; it cannot be true."
. _

James Davidson, another staff-sergeant in the
regiment, who was the next witness, repeated the
evidence he gave on Tuesday before the magistrates.
He saw Mrs. Bradish in the act of washing her
hands and arms at the pump, but, in consequence
of the distance he was from her, he could not tell
whether she had any blood uponlher or not. He then
stated that he had known the deceased to be residing
with the sergeant-major and his wife for about a fort-
night, but he did not know her name.
Thomas Lyon was then called to prove the name
of the deceased, and he stated that he had known
her for 12 months, and he had always heard her
called Diana Wickens. He also said that she had
been away for 18 months in service, but at the time
this happened she was out of place.
John Gunner, the police-constable, then proved
that he took Mrs. Bradish into custody upon the
charge of murdering her step-sister. He also said
he saw the deceased lying on the ground dead, with
her throat cut, and Mrs. Bradish, who was in the
same room, said, " I cut that young woman's throat,
you must take me to the station." When the pri-
soner said this Mr. Cory, the surgeon, asked her
what it was done with, and Mrs. Bradish, who was
leaning upon her husband's arm, left him and went
to a cupboard and took a razor from the top of it,
and handed it to Dr. Cory, and he gave it to the
witness. The razor appeared to have been washed,
but there were still some spots of blood on it. After
this he said that he took Mrs., Bradish to the police
station and made a charge of wilful murder against
her. The charge was entered on the sheet and read
over to the prisoner by Sergeant Parsonage, whn
was the officer on duty, and she replied that it was
quite correct. This witness also produced a cotton
dress, one sleeve and other portions of which were
very bloody, and this garment was identified as
belonging to Mrs. Bradish.

The- witness Davidson was recalled, and he stated
that the accused woman had on the dress which had
been produced when he saw her washing her
hands and arms at the pump.
Ms. Armstrong, the inspector, proved that he saw
Mrs. Bradish at the police station about 9 o'clock on
the morning of the dreadful occurrence, and that the
moment he went in she said it was a shocking thing
she had done. He prayed her not to speak, but to
leave her case in the hands of her legal adviser; but
notwithstanding this caution she said she must have
been insane or she never could have destroyed a
sister whom she loved so well.

Sergeant Parsonage said I received charge
of a woman named Martha Bradish on Tuesday
morning last. She was brought to the station
by the officer Gunner, who charged her with the
wilful murder of Diana Wickens. The prisoner
when she was charged said that her own name was
Martha. Bradish, and that the name of the person
whose death she was alleged to have caused was
Diana Wickens. I cautioned her before she said
this, and when I read the charge over to her she
said it was quite correct. She was very much
excited, and seeing a newspaper upon the table, she
said " Oh, a newspaper. I was reading a newspaper
last week, and there were accounts of some most
dreadful murders in it, and to think that I should
be the cause of another !" After this she said " I
know where I am. lam in the station house."
Mrs. Baker, the wife of a police sergeant, proved
that she searched Mrs. Bradish at the station, and
she noticed marks of blood upon the feet of her
stockings. They appeared to be quite fresh and to
have been caused by walking through blood with-
out any shoes on.

Mr. Cory, the surgeon, was then examined, and
he spoke to the frightfal character of the injuries
received by the deceased, and also expressed his
opinion that she was asleep at the time the attack
was first made upon her, and that two violent cuts
with a very sharp instrument were inflicted. He
said that from the appearances presented he thought
it extremely probable that the deceasei awoke with
the first cut, and that the second was then inflicted,
and as the windpipe was completely divided the
deceased could not have cried out. The injuries that
he observed were such as would have been inflicted
by an instrument like the razor that was produced.
The Coroner asked the witness if anything else
took place

Mi. Cory said when he saw the young woman.
was dead he turned round to (Irs. Bradish and said
to her " How came this accidmt ?" and she replied
" Good God, doctor, this would not have happened
if I had had your advice before." Ile had attended
her professionally a few months previously.
The Coroner said they cotld not enter into any
investigation relative to the state of health or mind
of the prisoner, which could mly properly be made
the subject of inquiry before another tribunal.
In reply to further question put by the Coroner,
Mr. Cory said that he feltthe sofa on which the
deceased had apparently bees lying and the pillow,
and the latter and the bed clothes were warm. He
also stated that two of the ingers of the deceased
were cut in such a manner al to raise the inference
that she had grasped the Dstrument with which
the injury was inflicted, and that in the agonies of
death she had sprung from the sofa to the place
where she was found•

The Coroner then addressed a few observations
to the jury, and said that th 3 evidence appeared to
him to be, unhappily, so conclusive that there
could be no doubt that tb3 deceased lost her life
through the act of her unfmtunate sister. If they
were satisfied of this fact they were bound to return
a verdict to that effect.

The jury, after a very brie,consultation, returned
verdict of wilful murder afainst Martha Bradish.

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TIVERTON 2LECTION.

TIVERTON,
The Right Hon. Viscount Palmerston, having
been appointed by her Majesty
MATAcH 28.
to the office of Lord
Warden of the Cinque Port% vacated his seat for
the borough. of Tiverton. The first intimation of
this event was itn
PLP:ied in the House of Commons
on Friday night, last,
when Mr. Brand formally
moved for a writ under the circumstances we have
named. His lordship's address Was sent down from
London on the following day, and the election was
fixed for Thursday. Although it was known that
no opposition would be offered to the noble Pre-
mier's re-election, the affair excited more than
ordinary interest in consequence of his lordship's
announcement that he should personally seek a re-
newal of the suffrages of the electors. The visit is
probably attributable in same measure to the cir-
cumstance that the Earl and Countess of Shaftes-
bury are at present staying at Torquay, where they
were joined on Tuesday by Viscount and Viscountess
Palmerston. His lordship left Torquay on Wed-
nesday for Tiverton, where he passed the night. The
election was fixed for two o'clock at the Town-hall
to-day ; long before that hour the streets were
crowded, and the excitement was heightened by the
presence of the Tiverton Rifle Corps, a very fine
body of men, commanded by Captain Heathcote
Amory, a near relative of the late Mr. Heathcote,
M.P., who sat so many years for the borough.
Lord Palmerston was escorted by the Volun-
teers from the Three Tuns Hotel to the
Town-hall, where the ceremony commenced
about half-past 2 o'clock. The election took place
within the building, bat Lord Palmerston after-
wards addressed the electors from one of the win-
dows. The Rifles were drawn up in front, and the
strictest order was maintained. But for the attend-
ance of Mr. Rowcliffe, who distinguished himself at
a former election, the proceedings would have been
exceedingly tame ; his salient questions, however,
called forth some smart repartees from the Premier,
and led to explanations which would not otherwise
have been given.
Mr. J. H.AmoRY moved the re-election of Lord
Palmerston, and Mr. R. H. WERE having seconded
the nomination,

His lordship was declared duly elected, amid the
cheers of those inside the building.
At the close of the ceremony the noble lord pro-
ceoded to one of the front windows and thanked
the electors.

Lord PALMERSTON, who was received with loud
cheers, said,—Gentlemen, electors of Tiverton, I beg
to return you my most sincere and heartfelt thanks
for the honour which you have just done me in
electing me again to be one of your representatives
in Parliament. The occasion which brought me
down here was that her Majesty has been graciously
pleased to confer upon me the ancient and honour-
able office of Lord Warden' of the Cinque Ports. It
is an office of ancient institution. It is not accom-
panied by any salary, but there are some small local
advantages which render it necessary for the person
upon whom it is conferred to vacate his seat in the
House of Commons. Among the agreeable circum-
stances connected with the appointment which her
Majesty has been pleased to confer, Psan assure you
with great sincerity that one is the occasion which
it has given me of again visiting my old and tried
friends in the borough of Tiverton. (Hear, hear.) I
have been so long indebted to you for the seat which
I have held in the House of Commons, I have re-
ceived so many and such repeated marks of your
confidence and goodwill, that it could not fail to be
a matter of great gratification to me that anything
should again bring me down to receive, as I have
done, renewed proof of the continuance of that good.
will and that confidence ; and I can assure you,
gentlemen, with reference to what has been said by
my hon. friends the mover and seconder. that so
long as I am able to continue the performance of my
duties in the House of Commons it will be the ut-
most object of my ambition to continue to repre-
sent my friends in the borough of Tiverton. (Hear.)
With regard to affairs in general, upon which you
naturally expect some observations from me on the
present occasion—(hear)—l believe that I may
congratulate you that the internal condition of
the country is on the whole satisfactory and good.
We had unfortunately e. bad summer last year, we
have had a winter of unexampled severity, and no
doubt during that. period of extreme rigour there
must have been and there were great sufferings
among the poorer classes of the community. The
produce of the last harvest was below the average
amount, but the result of that wise measure, the
abolition of the protective duties on corn, has been
wonderfully exemplified by that which is now pass-
ing, for, although our own produce has fallen short
of the average quantity, yet we have been enabled,
by the wise change which some years ago was made,
in the corn laws of the country, to profit by the su-
perfluities of other countries where the seasons were
more advantageous; and, while on the one hand we
have thus received greater supplies of food than we
should have otherwise had, on the other hand the
productive industry of the manufacturing districts
of the country has received an additional stimulus
to produce the commodities which were to pay for
the supply of food from abroad. (Hear.) The atten-
tion of Parliament has been directed and is directed
to various internal improvements ; and, even though
the session has hitherto been of short duration, we
have passed through the most important stages in
the House of Commons that bill about bankruptcy
and insolvency, with regard to which I can assure
vou that the anxious solicitude of all the mercantile
and trading interests of the country has for a long
period been sedulously directed. We trust that that
measure will give additional security to the interests
of commerce, and be attended with great advantage
to the nation at large. With regard to matters of
the country, it is not to be denied that the state of
Europe at the present moment affords great subject
of uneasiness and anxiety. We see on all hands
nations under the direction of their governments
arming, both in regard to land and sea. There are
questions pending not only as to internal diffe-
rences, but as to international differences also,
which may eventually produce results that will lead
to lamentable consequences. But we trust the mode-
ration of governments and a due regard to national
interests on the part of sections and parties in all
those countries may, under the blessing of Provi-
dence, so compose and settle all questions that are
at issue, that we may see the summer pass over
without the occurrence of those hostilities which
have been prognosticated to take place in the spring.
We were told that in the month of March swords
would be drawn and guns would be fired, and that
Europe would be involved in the calamities of
general warfare. March has already almost passed.
The prediction has been transferred to April, but I
trust that April like March will, according to the
old saying, if it comes in like a lion go out like a
lamb. (Hear, and laughter.) Let us hope for a
continuance of that condition of international peace
and friendship which is so much calculated to pro-
mote the interests of all the European community.
No doubt, if unfortunately war were to take place,
it would be the duty of the Government of this
country to show that they had placed the defences
of the country in that state of respectable prepara-
tion that we might be enabled to witness without
fear or alarm the storm that might rage elsewhere.
I trust, gentlemen, that we should be able to show
that we have in that respect performed our duty.
We have an army as efficient as any British army
ever could boast to be. We have a navy strong in
numbers and well equipped in all that constitutes
naval strength, and we have besides that of which
we see a specimen before us, those noble bands of
volunteers, amounting now to something like
150,000 men—(hear)—brave men, who, sacrificing
all consideration of personal ease, and frequently at
great expense to themselves, devote to the acquire-
ment of military skill those hours which perhaps