The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-16 00:00:00

THE BUILDERS' STRIKE.

In accordance with his promise, Mr. Coningham,
the member for Brighton, put a question to the
Under Secretary for War last evening, in the House
of Commons, as to the employment of a body of the
Royal Engineers on the new barracks at Chelsea,
in the place of the masons who had struck work.
The reply of Mr. Baring was looked forward to
with great interest by the building operatives, as to
whether the Government would justify this inter-
ference between the masters and the men. On the
reply being communicated to the deputation in
waiting they expressed themselves in strong terms
as to its unsatisfactory nature, and their determina-
tion to get the subject brought before the house in
another form, which would enable several
.membersio
i who sympathise with the men in their olppo itn
t:re to
express their opinions on the subject.
to the interference on the part of the exAeo meeting
uti
of the committees will be held this day, 0 decide
• 1-

on the course to be pursued.
The bricklayers yesterday made progress in ob-
taining some important recognitions of the terms
of the compromise. There is a class of men
b in
the building trade, more especially in
the
l arnatn c
relating to brickwork, who, having
firms who
contracts from the own,arge employers w
conveniently
yards of their join together abnendnottballeye
havesuob-r
more on their hands than they can_ .
manage, the materials being suspupb-contractor
cases
manage,
the
large
have introduced the hour system, and who have
rur:sued cannot
obtain the necessary supply of skilled workmen,
and contracts under hand, finding they
and that their works are lying idle in consequence,
have resorted to the above method a evading
at the Exhibition wortkhse;
fi_nd themselves placed.
This course has been n
difficulty in which they
orough _for some time by
Messrs. Kelk and Lucas, -
and within the last few days Mr. Smith, of Chelsea,
who has the building of
sub-contractors the Royal Marine Baths,
at Charlton ; Mr. t.,
Mr. Wilson, of tiae rasseY, Old-street-road ; and
Sews' Hosp:tal , who is building the
in Albany,- 4
Jaturday, , 1 ;
a,reet
at Norwood, and some new schools
the ' have oublet their contracts, and
with ',he jobs on the compromise, Gs.
Per day of terms of the .
have engaged the men to go on
- 10 hours for five days, with 3s. for
who
_eavin
employed 100 bricklayers at the Chelsea Bar-
racks, 80 of whom
hour g work at 12 o'clock. Mr. Higgs,
left him when he enforced the
system, finding he could not supply their
places, on Saturday discharged the 20 who re-
mained, preparatory it is understood to the contract
being sublet, with liberty to the sub-contractor to
pay the men as he pleases. Mr. Myers, also,
yesterday, offered one of his large London brick
jobs to a sub-contractor, who it is expected
will commence the work to-day under the terms
of the compromise. The 20 bricklayers who
accepted the hour system from Mr. Higgs, but
who have been discharged as above, at an hour's
notice, will have no claim upon the society for pecu-
niary aid. The first instalment of the weekly levy
of ls. per man from the carpenters and joiners work-
ing under protest was paid into the mamons' strike
committee yesterday. Each mason who ii;
working
under the compromise is paying a weekly levy of
3s. towards the support of the raen on st; ike.