The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-04 00:00:00

CAPI7 AL AND LABOUR.

A special general meeting of the members of the Work-
ing Men's Association has been held at the Bell, Old
Bailey, for the purpose of receiving a report from the sub-
committee on the propriety of convening a Labour Parlia-
ment, and holding a conference on the labour question
between employers and workmen.. Mr. George Potter
occuped the chair. It was proposed to hold a conference
between twelve representative working men connected
with trades unions, and twelve large employers of
labour, representing the staple manufactures of the
country, to see if they could not devise some remedy
by which the lamentable disputes continually arising
between labour and capital might be greatly lessened, if
not altogether avoided. It was also proposed to con-
vene on an early day a Labour Parliament in London, on
which all the trade organisations throughout the United
Kingdom should be represented. The object of this Par-
liament of Labour would be detailed in the resolutions to
be submitted. There was also, said the chairman, the
important subject of improved dwellings for the working
classes to be considered. He bad also received a letter
from Professor Leone Levi, requesting the co-operation of
the association in circulating a cheap edition of his work
relating to the wages and conditions of the working
classes. After some discussion the following resolutions
were adopted :—" That this association is of opinion that
the present is an opportune time for holding a conference
of large employers of labour and representative work-
ing men connected with trades unions, fir the pur-
pose of considering whether the relations between
capital and labour cannot be brought into more har-
monious action, whereby the disputes which are now con_
stantly arising between those interests may be averted ;
and that the executive committee be instructed to make
immediate arrangements for the holding of such confe-
rence." "That a National Labour Parliament be convened
in London for the first week in May next, for the follow-
ing purposes :-1. To consider the present position of
trades unions and their future prospects. 2. To consider
what, if any, legislation is necessary to place trades
unions on a legal and secure basis. 3. To consider means
for the adoption of an organised system of emigration,
whereby the surplus unemployed labour of the country
may be utilised. 4. To consider the necessary measures
for securing a proper representation of the labour interest
in the Reformed Parliament." " That a special committee
(all members of trades unions) be elected to convene such
Parliament, and snake all necessary arrangements/
"'That the plans submitted to Mr. Torrens, M.P., and Dr.
Englander, for the erection of dwellings for the working
classes on an improved system, be referred to a sub-com-
mittee for consideration, with instructions to place itself
in communication with the above-named gentlemen as to
time best means to, be adopted to carry the plan into prac-
tical operation."

';',V7' ,4 VD ROBBERY.

At the Notts Scssion3, Harriet Clay, aged 17, and
Henry Rossall, aged 27, were charged --- the former with
stealing £3O, the property of her father, at Mansfield, on
the 11th January ; and the latter with receiving, harbour-
ing, and maintaining her, well knowing that she had com-
mitted the above felony. The female prisoner pleaded
guilty. Mr. Mellor (for the prosecution) said it would be
conducive to the interests of justice to call the girl as a
witness. Richard Clay, the father, deposed to £3O being
kept in his bedroom, and his daughter knew where it was.
George Webb said he saw Harriet Clay on the night of
the 11th January, and she asked him to write a letter to
Rossall (who is amarried man). The note was for the prisoner
to meet her near the Exchange clock at Nottingham. The
mother of the female pri,oner proved missing the money, and,
after some further evidence had been offered, Harriet Clay, a
girl of prepossessing appearance, was examined, and said she
was the daughter of Richard Clay. On Monday night
previous to the robbery she stayed at an eating-house in
Nottingham with the prisoner. Rossall asked witness if
she had got any money, and she replied that she knew
where her mother kept it. He asked how much inmity
there was, and she said she did not know. He then asked
her if she could get it, and she told him she had a key that
would fit the drawer. He told her to get it, and if she did
so she was to take a ticket from Mansfield to Radford (near
Nottingham), and he would meet her. She went home on
the Tuesday morning, and in the evening she got her
clothes and the money. She went to Nottingham that night
and met Rossall between eight and nine, and gave him
the money. After that they took separate tickets for
Grantham, where they slept together. He paid the bill
the next morning out of the money she had given him.
They then went to London, and took lodgings in a coffee•
house. Rossall then bought a new purse, and put the
money into it. He then placed it in her hand, telling her
to say he never had it. He said, " They will ask you
whether I have had the money, and you must say No."
She had known Rossall about seven weeks. She never
knew he was a married man. He promised to marry her,
and then they would go to America.—William Metham,
cattle-dealer, of Mansfield, said he went to Nottingham
and Grantham, and thence to London, in search of the
prisoners, and, with the assistance of the metropolitan
police, found them in a coffee-house in London. A verdict
of guilty was returned against both prisoners, and they
were both sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment,
with hard labour. The female prisoner was removed
screaming.

THE NEW REFORM ACT AND THE 11,ATING QUES-
TION.—At the Liverpool Police-court, at a hearing of
appeals against poor rates for the township of Kirkdale, a
point was raised under Section 7 of the new Reform Act.
The appellant, who was owner of premises, and on the 6th
of July, 1867, was assessed to the poor on a compounded
rate, based his appeal on the fact that by the Reform Act
the tenant only was liable to the payment, inasmuch as the
Act provides that " no composition shallremain in force be-
yond the 29th day of September, 1867." The magistrates
ordered the appellant to pay the proportion of rates due
from the 6th July, 1867, to the 29th of September in that
year, leaving the overseers to recover the balance from the
tenant. The solicitor for the appellant taking an excep-
tion to the decision of the bench, they granted him a case
for the superior court.

THE DIETARY IN IRISH PRlSONS.—Unfavour-
able comments some time since made in various journals
on the dietaries in Irish borough and county gaols caused
the Chief Secretary to appoint a committee to inquire into
the subject, and their report has appeared in a small blue-
book of forty pages. Dr. Stokes, physician in ordinary
to the Queen in Ireland, and Drs. Hill and Burke, in
pursuing their investigation, contrasted the prison dietary
with that of the population without. The feed of the
Irish peasant, they find, has much improved within the
last twenty years. Instead of the potato, wheaten bread
is eaten, and milk is very generally used. Butchers' meat
is not altogether the rarity which it wan in former times,
and, on the whole, there is an approximation among the
small farmers and their labourers to a mixed diet. The
committee do not wish to make the prison dietary better
than the average food of the people ; nor do they see any
special necessity for a more generous gaol diet in the
severity of the labour imposed upon criminals, which is,
in fact, lighter in Irish than in English prisons. They
find reason, however, to object to the inadequate inspec-
tion of the food, as respects its quality, and to the long
fast entailed upon the prisoners where only two meals a
day are given. They advise a third or supper,
and among dietetic changes would substituti, vegetable
and meat soup for new milk on certain days, and por-
ridge, with milk, instead of gruel, " the nutritive value
of which is of the lowest." They publish scales of
d staries, and express the opinion that the health of the
prisoners would improve with a diet of greater variety.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MARCII 4, 1868.

St. James's Palace yesterday presented a brilliant

spectacle, and the first levee of the season inau-
gurated the Royal receptions of 1868 with suitable
splendour. It was largely attended, and 150 pre-
sentations made to the Prince of `VALES, on behalf
of her MAJESTY, showed that the old traditional
etiquette has not, as some would have us believe,
gone altogether out of favour. Many circumstances
combined to render the occasion a cheerful and

Perhaps we have no right to be surprised at any-
thing that the Prussians do, but at the same time
we may be excused a little wonder at the very
barefaced course they are pursuing with respect to
Hanover. For some time past a great deal of angry
feeling has been apparent, but still there was no
ground to suppose that Count BISMARCK would
fulfil his threats and act according to this fashion.
The last intelligence is to the effect that a Royal
decree has been issued at Berlin, which seques-
trates the private fortune of King GEORGE
of Hanover ; and should this prove sub-
stantially correct, the world will have no
excuse for any longer mistaking:or misrepresenting
the real character of the Prussian Government. To
appropriate another person's property is always
held to be a monstrous thing, and since it is the
" private fortune" that is referred to, it is quite
evident that no political object is endangered by the
right owner possessing it. It is partly through
meanness, and partly through spite and malice,
that such an intention has been formed, and it is
worthy of reprobation accordingly. It is all of a
piece with the rest of Berlin diplomacy that no
notice of such a plan was allowed to appear in the
speech just delivered by the KING at the close of
the Prussian Chambers, and very significant
also that the sinister scheme should have been kept
in the background until the Parliamentary Session
was cloEed. Every one who is at all versed in Prus-
sian politics must be pretty well aware by this time
that a straightforward course is the very last that
the'statesinen of Berlin ever deem it advisable to
pursue; as for the Chambers, they ara sent to the
right about so soon as it is necessary to take any
direct steps of any sort whatever, and they indeed
emulate the position of the ibis Faneant of French
history. The unfortunate King GEORGE may have
been a little imprudent in his recent attempts to
keep up the connection with his friends and allies,