The Sun.
London, England, 1818-08-26 00:00:00

MR. CROSSE'S SPEECH.

" it has been too often my duty (said the
Learned Coons,l), in the course of the last twenty
Yeats, to prosecute, as well as on nieny casions
to defend, 'persoos of the labouriug classes charged
with unlawlel combinations, and other more se-
rious offences which generally result from them.
I have, therefore, been obliged to become inti-
mately acquainted with their proceedings, as far
as they have been brought from time to time be-
tore the Public. Bet whether acting for them or
against them, I trust l have never ceased, as far
as my situation would admit, to afford encourage-
ment aid protection to that portion of the labour-
Lug classes who have been compelled, by threats
and intimidation, to become the unwilling asso-
ciates‘ of crone ; and of this description I have al-•
ways found by emelt the largest portion of those
who have been brought under the band of public
justice for such offences.
" Combieations of workmen for advance of
veaecs, upon a small scale, and in single establish-
ments, have doubtless occasionally taken place
bete as long as this has been a commercial coun-
try ; hut never before the French Revolution
Were th,v so extensive and organized as they have
sine. become throeghout this Kingdom. It was
chieffy hv means of the horrible combination of the
clubs (e' :cubit's and Republicans established in
every town in Fiance, and united by Delegates and
Cominii tees into one general confederacy, that the
entire set) “.rsion of the Government of that King-
-dont was effected. This project was soon atter
imported into Ireland, and produced there the
rebellion of the people calling themselves United
Irishmen. Front thence it was introduced, for
the sante purpose, into this country, about the
year ninetv4wo, and although it happily failed at
that time of its intended effect, it was taken up by
the handicrafts for the purpose to which it has
since been so extensively and so mischievously ap-
plied.
Upon this model, permanent organized com-
binelions have been established, and now exist,
among the workmen in almost every branch of
trade, and to which every workman, either by
persuasion, or threats and insults, is obliged so
far to associate himself as to submit to all their
illegal regulations.
". By mutual correspondence and co-operation
of their Committees, and the employment of de-
legates,
those who assume a lead amongst them
cap at any time order out an insurrection in any
one or more branches of trade, in any town, or
district, or country they think fit, and levy. con-
tributions upon those trades that continue in em-
ploymeot, for the support of those whom their
orders have turned adrift.
" I,t this way the insurrection of the weavers
was ordered out in 1808, and the still more alarm-
ing and general insurrection daringly raised
against machinery in 1812, which extended
throughout the greatest part of this and two or
three adjoining counties, and which brought
many of the offenders' to an ignominious death.
lo 1816, the Committee of calico printers were.
arrested at Bolton, in the midst of their delibe-
rations, and their papers seized. They were
brought to trial in this Court for a conspiracy,
and on that occasion it appeared a general turn-
out, es it is called, of that trade, had taken place;
that the persons on trial were, or assumed to be,
each a delegate, representing some large esta-
biishment in that extensive branch of trade; that
they collected contributions, for the subsistence of
t he unemployed, from Committees of almost every
other branch of trade in London and various
oilier places, and some for Scotland and Ireland ;
for so far their correspondence and communica-
tions extended. And among the rest of their
mischievous proceedings, this incredible ftst ap-
p: ,rest, that no printer, in times of employment,
was allowed adtnission into a workshop, unless
be brought With hint a certificate from a secre-
tat e, or other-person in authority among them,
Cott he had paid up all demands, or, in other
voi-js, he was not to earn his daily bread till he
haid..purehesed a licence from some of the con-
spirators ! -
" We are now in the midst of a new insurrec-

tion of the CottOn spinners, and of several other `
traces, who have been compelled, by orders from
their Committees, so abandon their employment,
in the delesite hope of forcing an advance of their
wages; and under this hideouts and abominably
system of terror, many thousands of imlnstrious
families are at this moment wandering np and
down in a state of vagrancy and idleness, depeod-
ing for their subsistence on the small and preca-
rious wages of iniquity which their Committees,
choose to deal out from the contributions which
they levy upon other trades. Under the infLienee
of this system, ever} family in this populous dis-
trict that surrounds us is kept in a state of con-
tinual alarm and anxiety, especially those of the
uulortunate employers of the confederates, who
are doubtful of the security, of their property or
their lives for another day.
" Is this a state of things to he endured in civi-
lized society, or compatible with its existence ?
Of what avail are the justly boasted liberties,
cetoilitution„ and imlependenceof Englishmen, to
those who ate doomed to live under the arbitrary
and despotic dominion of an invisible Committee,
composed, probably, of the vilest and most des-
picable of men, terrible only because they arc un-
seen and unknowu I protest, for my part, I had
rather live under the single dominion of the worst
tyrent that ever existed in the world, than 'ruder
sorb odious authority and controul, exposed to
the continual recurrence of tumult: and insur-
rection.
" Let us consider the effect of all those pro-
ceedings. The confederates may gain their im-
mediate object, as they have often done •betore
they may extort an edvauce of wages. Since
these combinations were begun, and in the course
of about 20 years, they may have raised wages,
that is, the price of labour, to nearly double the
former amount. But as the price of labour iu all
manufactures is raised in the saute proportion, the
ferieer, theebak,r, and the butcher, who are to
purchase them, must in like proportion raise the
price of provisions. If the hatters, the tailors,
and the shoemakers combine to raise their prices,
the whole lean is equipped front head to foot
upon higher terms, and conseeee ntly he is no
better for the advance or wages; and thus 2s. now
is of no more value titan Is. was betore. Alid if
this 'truces, be carried on till every handicraft in
the kingdom has turned his shining into a gui-
nea, he quill not be one farthing richer. The nu-
merica; emount of his wages will be changed, but
the actuall productive value of them will remain
the same; so nothing in effect is gained by all
the trouble and vexation of these illegal pro-
ceedings.
" But let these deluded men reflect how much
they lose by there. All the contributions charged
upon their wages, for the support of delegates and
turn-outs, and other charges of combinations
(taxes that would not be endured it levied under
the'authorityof Parliament), are su much actual.
loss, and if to this be added the loss of wages during•
all the time they are nut of employment, they will
find not hiug to congratulate themselves upon, in.
a pecuniary view, it they' gain their object.
" Let them reflect also on the injury our trade
with foreign countries must sustain by the forced
and artificial price of English labour, and the cone
*seven( high price of English merchandite abroad.,
Already our ingenious neighbours in France rtsol
other surrounding nations have established cottritt
factories, and by the cheapness of labouteare able
to imitate all our manufaceuretolg great advan-
tage ; and while our worklefen are unemployed
amid these dissensions, they, are actieely'enge44
in driving out our trade trout all foreign markets,
.and a general stagnation and final ruin of our fo-
reign commerce Aipust be the inevitable conse-
quence. Nor will the mischief end there. What
is to become of this country, if every OpEknaan iti
to live in continual hostility with his itintployer
and the law ? While even Pe apprentices and
other children in all the factories are terained and
initiated into all the mysteries, seratagettes, and
vices of conspirators, as regularly as to their law-
ful occupations, and thus qualified to become the
most dangerous members of society.
" 1 conjure all those who hear me, and are err;.'
gaged in these combinations, to rise.lllll revolt
against the lawless tyranny which forbids.thtro to
earn their daily bread, and commands tleinvand
their families to live in poverty and idleness ; and
to deliver. over their oppressors to public justice,
if any further attempts shall he made to obstruct
their return to the natural habits of mutual
dependence and good-will with their -employers,
and to the paths of intrustry and peace."

A TALE OP MYsTamt.----The investigation into
the mysterious death of the West Riding Clothier,
40 years ago, as men'ioned in our last paper, has
had no satisfactory result. As v‘'e bav6 .already
stated, the self-accuser, whose name •is Joseph
Royston, and whose residence is at Morton-
banks, near Bingley, set out on Friday, along
with Mr. Slater, the son of the deceased, and the
constable of Yeadon, for York. On Saturday
morning they proceeded to Cottingwrith, a village
on the banks of the Derwent, where the remains
of the senior Slater wete said to be deposited.
At this place diligent search was made, and all the
proper inquiries instituted without success. Roy-
ston, whose conduct is as unaccountable as it is
suspicious, led them from place to place, and at
length said that the body was interred in the
church-yard. That nothing might be left undone,
which seemed likely to cast a light upon this mys-
terious affair, , the Clergyman at that place was
applied to, and the register was carefully search-
ed, but no traces of such a burial could he found
in it. Baffled in their endeavours, the party re-
turned to their respective homes on Sunday ; and
on Thursday last Royston was taken before
Major Ft:trend, Esq. one of the Magistrates of
this Riding, at Bingley, where he
,underwc9t a
long examination, in the presence of the parties
to whom he had at first declared that he " killed
Slater 40 years ago, and buried him in the corner
of a corn-field." Though the conduct of this un-
happy man has in it sufficient to excite violent
suspicion of his guilt, the evidence against him
rests mainly on his own confession, anti the Ma-
gistrate, very properly judging that under such
circumstances he would 'not. be justified in com-
mitting him for trial, ordered i,i3wfor.the-present
to be discharged.—(Leeds Mercury.)

BULL BAITING.

LICHFIELD GAOL DELIVERY, Alio. O.

John Saddler, and others, in answer to an in-
dictment for a nuisance in Bull-baiting.—Mr.
PARKER, solicitor, was beard in defence of the
parties; and contended that boll-baiting was a
legal diversion The High Steward read the in-
dictment, and held that that, or any other ob-
struction on the high-way, was illegal.
Mr. PEARSON was heard on the-part of the pro-
secution, and detailed the particulars of the case,
remarking on the peculiar inhumanity of the par-
ties. The bull fell and broke his back ; and the
parties applied fire, amid the yells of the popu-
lace, to rouse- his dying energies ! Mr. Pearson
then enlar„'ed particularly on the had effect of
StiCh cuaton►s on ' the mind of the youth of the
lower orders of society. He then went to spew
the nature of the nuisance. Had the hull not
disabled himself, in the breaking of the chain, he
would have gone on in the public road, to the
imminent danger of all persons passing thereon.
He then remarked on the late case at Bilston,
where a man was trampled to death Iron► a similar
result. Evidence was then beard on the part of
the prosecution.
Mr. Benton deposed to the particulars of the
case against the defendants ; and, as constable, to
warning Saddler to put an end to the sport ; and
that Saddler said, if they would take away the
bull-baiting from the house at Brunt wood, be
would stop it at his house, but not without.
Mr. Partxsa asked a few questions in cross-ex-
amination, which went to prove that deponent did
not see Mr. Saddler in the field, hut that he saw
Astley and others of the party. The Steward ask-
ed as to the circumstance of the deponent going
as constable, and warning Saddler to desist front
baiting. the ball, and as to Saddler personally
assisting or not in getting out the bull from his
premises.
Mr. Pricket deposed to seeing the bull taken
from Saddler's premises into the field, across the
road ; it might be a minute in going across.
The STEWARD thought this was not sufficient to
prove a nuisance—there being no evidence of
passengers; and directed the Jnry to acquit-the
prisoners. He availed himself, however, of the
opportunity of.s.t.stting his opinion, that the cns-
tom of bull-baiting► was an inhuman and scanda-
lous practice. He reprobated the idea of such a
custom conferring bravery or manliness of cha-
racter on Englishmen, and trusted that it would
never be renewed in so enlightened a city.