The Sun.
London, England, 1842-08-16 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 16, 1842.

which was extinguished after the mob left the town.
A troop of Dragoons has just entered.

BURSLE M.

MONDAY MORNING.— The whole district is involved
in a state of general confuiion. Meetings were held
this morning, which were numerously attended, and
at which nothing was admitted but the People's
Charter. All the pits are stopped, and the " turn-
outs" have compelled both potters, carpenters, brick-
layers, and other artificers to abstain from work, and
join in their revolutionary proceedings. A very
general opinion prevails that in the course of the day
the, mob will be reinforced by several thousand men
from the neighbourhood of Manchester.
It was expected that in the course of the day a party
of men from Leek or Congleton; would march to the
district, and, being reinforced by the turn-outs at
Hanley, would proceed to Burslem. This informa-
tion has naturally excited some consternation in the
neighbourhood. Special constables are at this very
moment being sworn in, and the•. troops are quite pre-
pared for a resolute and determined encounter, if the
state of things should render it necessary. Groups of
beggars are still peranibulating the district, and, not
content with soliciting charity, they have the audacity
to fix the amount of contribution which they expect
to receive from their benefactors. The several omnibus
drivers were assured this morning by the men that
when they returned the whole of the Potteries would
be found in a blaze.

STATE OF THE. STAFFORDSHIRE

DISTRICT.

(Abridged from the Staffordshire Examiner of
Saturday.)
The turn-out among the colliers still continues ;
and there is but little prospect of their resuming
work. They declare that they would rather eat the
grass by the road side than work for two and sixpence
per day. The masters, on the other hand, resolutely
maintain their inability to accede to the terms of
the men. Meetings ...ontinue to be held in various
parts of the district, when resolutions similar to those
passed at Westbromwich,- on Monday week, are
adopted. At a meeting in Stafford•street, this morn-
ing (Friday) about two thousand colliers assem •
bled, and were addressed by Cooper, a Chartist
from Leicester. He decried the aristocracy, the
bishops, and the Anti-Corn-law agitation ; and
extolled the Charter as an unfailing panacea. The
meeting was also addressed by Linney, a power-
loom weaver, from Manchester, and Candy, who
we regret to
hear, has broken a blood-vessel during
the week. On Wednesday morning a body of col.
Tiers assembled at Wednesbury. About twelve or
fourteen thousand men from the neighbourhood of
Lye-waste, Rowley, &e., marched through Dudley,
on their way to the place of meeting : they were
joined by immense numbers from the surrounding
districts ; and at Wednesbury about twenty thou-
sand. The men in this neighbourhood do not ap-
pear to evince the slightest disposition to violence ;
but listen with a kind of dogged indifference to the
harangues delivered to them, except as far as relates
to the resolution not to work at the reduced wages.—
A meeting of the most influential iron and coal mas-
ters was held at the hotel, Dudley ; and a very nume-
rous body of colliers was in the neighbourhood. The
terms of the men were not acceded to ; and they ex-
pressed their disapprobation of the masters by hisses.
A party attacked the George Inn, kept by Mr.
William Barlow, and 135 sash squares were quickly
demolished, and much internal mischief done to his
premises. Mr. Alcock's shop also was partially as-
sailed, and sixteen squares broken. Mr. Ryles's house
was beset by a party of sixty colliers, and eighty-four
squares broken, and the panels of his doors and shut-
ters beaten in. The furniture was much injured in-
side the house, looking-glasses were split, tables
broken, and indentations in the wall over the child-
ren's beds, almost deep enough to hold- a pullet's egg.
A pistol was fired, and the party obeyed the signal,
and left the town by the Waterloo-road, towards
Henley, leaving a number of their bludgeons on
the ground. They had remained longer absent
than was expected by their fellows in the other parts;
for, after the firing of the pistol, when going to
attack the George Inn and Mr. Ryles's, two sky-
rockets were sent up in the direction of Cowbridge
between Burslem and Hanley, and little doubt can
be entertained that they were informed of the military
having been sent for. In consequence of an express
sent as soon as could with safety be done, to New •
castle, the Rifle company was brought, and arrived
about three o'clock. _ _

During the afternoon a party of colliers from Long-
ton and the neighbourhood: turned out those at
Norton, three miles from Burslem. One of the pro.
prietors, Mr. Dean, was severely injured by a stone ;
and the " turn-outs" ducked two of his bailiffs in a
dirty puddle, and then in a water-pit belonging to
one of the engines.

THE MINING DISTRICTS OF STAFFORD-
SHIRE AND WARWICKSHIRE. .
BIRMINGHAM.

MoNDAr,--At present all remains in quietness and
uncertainty ; but the repeated meetings of the colliers,
not by hundreds alone but in thousands, coupled as
these are with the exaggerated accounts from Man-
chester, begin to excite more than usual alarm in the
minds of the inhabitants.

The strike has now extended throughout the length
and breadth of the Staffordshire and Warwickshire
collieries. In the southern part of the county and
the districts bordering on Birmingham, Wolverhamp-
ton, Walsall, and Dudley, there is scarcely a pit at
work. It will hence be seen that the vast population
embraced in a circle of some twenty miles in diame-
ter, inhabiting the towns and villages from Stour-
bridge to Cannock, and mostly dependent for their
subsistence on occupations which require a large
supply of coal, must shortly be thrown out of work
unless the colliers resume their avocations.

But there are certain obstacles existing to the ac-
complishment of this desirable object.
The colliers in South Staffordshire, under the guid-
ance of Chartist agitators, have resolved, almost una-
nimously, to abstain from work until every master in
the district agrees to their terms; there is a specific
clause in one of their printed regulations, that even
though a part of the employers should consent to give
the wages demanded of them, these terms are not to
be accepted by the colliers until every master in the
district shall have done the same. In other words,
it would appear that one master may be allowed to
coerce, not only all the men, but all his fellow mas-
ters in the district.
The Chartist O'Neill proposed the resolution to
which I have adverted, and it was adopted unani-
mously at a meeting of 12,000 colliers. It has been
ratified by similar meetings, and may be considered
to have received the sanction of 40,000 persons in the
district. Such a resolution is tantamount to an eter-
nal holiday. These 40,000 persons have pledged
themselves to this, and having done so, they are called
upon to adopt another resolution, that they will not
work until the Charter becomes the basis of the Con-
stitution.
Unless some speedy steps are adopted, and those
steps are of a very energetic character, we can see
nothing but confusion and distress among a population
of some half million.

Yeomanry Cavalry, were in perfect readiness to act,
if their services were required. I
It would appear that these precautionary steps were
not altogether unnecessary. This morning at an early
hour a number of men employed at Lord Ward's
open-work collieries in this neighbourhood were sud-
denly surprised by an attack made by some hundreds
of the turn-out colliers. The men were obliged to
fly for their lives. The overlooker was dreadfully cut
about the head; one of the men was thrown into the
reservoir ; another had his arm broken, and all of the
unfortunate fellows, who were peacefully and indus-
triously earning their bread, were in one way or
other dreadfully maltreated. Another meeting is
appointed to be held in this vicinity on Thursday
next, and, as a matter of course, business, as to-
day, will be again suspended, and the middle classes
of society, sworn in as special constables or yeo-
manry cavalry, are put to very considerable incon-
venience.

Dudley is at this moment in a state of great un-
easiness. The streets are thronged with idlers. The
language of O'Neill and Cook, at the meeting held at
Russell's-hall to-day, was so guarded, that it was not
deemed expedient to apprehend them.
In the neighbourhood all is quiet.

ALARYI Al' DERBY.

EXPECTATION OF THE TURN-OUTS.

(most A CORRESPONDENT.)
DERBY, MONDAY, POUR O'CLOCK.--The Magis-
trates have received two or three expresses to-day, an-
nouncing that a large body of the turn-outs have
reachld Leek, with the avowed determination ,of pro-
ceeding to Derby, and other manufacturing towns in
the Midland Circuit. The last account that came
states that they entered Leek towards noon to-day;
and their next quarters (unless interrupted) will be
Ashbourno, only 12 miles distant. It is understood
that the Uttoxeter troops of Yeomanry have been
despatched to meet them between Leek and Ash-
bourne. The Magistrates here are taking every pre-
caution. One of them (I believe) has proceeded to
London, to request assistance from Government.
Should the turnouts reach Derby, it is feared many
would join them, as there are already great numbers
who cannot find employment or food ; and I have just
been told that one class of men have already struck.
The Derby and Chaddesden troops of Yeomanry have
received orders to be in readiness ; and should
_the
news brought by the next express not be more fa-
vourable, the inhabitants will be sworn in as special
constables, as well as the pensioners. We have al-
ready from 12 to 15 soidiers here recruiting.

NOTTINGHAM.
(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)
MONDAY NOON.—On Monday noon, the working
people of Nottingham and neighbourhood met on the
open space fronting the Mansfield• road, known by the
name of the "Burton Legs," to hear read the news
relative to the strike in Manchester, and other places.
Nottingham is at the height of political excitement,
and seems impatient for the strike. The people are
suffering the greatest privations, in consequence of
the badness of trade. I write in haste. There is a
beginning in Nottingham—God only knows where
will be the end. The people are at this moment
parading the streets in thousands. There has yet
been no attack on property, and, I trust, there will
not. There seems to be a disposition on the part of
the mob to turn out the peaceable, but they have not
yet commenced.

late by the noble fortitude under suffering and patient
obedience to the laws that you have displayed ? By
correcting after every failure what had been wrong in
your conduct, you have been justly earning an in-
creasing share of respect and confidence from your
fellow-citizens, who have seen you year after year
abandoning your errors and takin6 higher and stronger
grounds for the support of your rights.
" In nothing has this been more apparent than in
the manly confidence with which you have received
and supported men like Mr. Joseph Sturge, who have
joined you from the middle classes of society.
Grievous, most grievous, would be the injury you
would do to your own cause by any ill-judged vio-
lence or illegal proceedings, which wo.uld certainly
destroy your moral power, and undo ill the results
of long years of manly fortitude and exertion. Now,
measures like the universal and forced suspension of
labour can scarcely lead to any results but confusion,
to dreadful suffering—the collision of the people with
the bayonets of the soldiery.
" You make by this no appeal to men's reason or
their moral sense of right and wrong, but leave all to
the decision of force and chance. I trust you cannot
long doubt which course is right to take.
" Meet the movement of your fellow-operatives in
a calm and friendly spirit of dissuasion, and do not
add to their error by joining in it ! If you do this,
and by such means should happily end the present
fearful state of things, the operatives of Leeds will in-
deed stand high among their brethren, and deserve
their lasting respect and gratitude ; and they will gain
a power and influence over their fellow-citizens of the
other classes of society, that will richly repay them
for their forbearance and conscientious discharge of
duty.

aNever can a righteous cause be strengthened by
any conduct not strictly just to others, and such as
Christians ought alone to use towards their brethren.
" I can honestly assure you that, if I were a Leeds
workman, instead of an employer of workmen, my
course would be the one I recommend to you.
Believe me, it is not difficult for me to judge of
what I would do in the situation of a workman
of this town. Accustomed, as I have been, to
witness the extent of their sufferings, and
the fortitude and patience with which they have
been borne, and to feel for and with each working
man, it is not new for me to suppose myself in their
-place. I hope this assurance of constant sympathy
may induce you to receive these few words of warn-
ing and advice with the attention and kindness which
can alone make them useful.

" With earnest hopes that it may please God to
avert the troubles that threaten us, and to put it into
the hearts of all of us to lay aside all strife and wrong
doing, and to act as ono Christian brotherhood,
" I remain, yours faithfully,
4 J. G. MARSHALL."