The Sun.
London, England, 1842-02-01 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TINES.

Sir,—Our attention has been arrested by an article
from your pen, in reference to our strike at the New
Houses of Parliament, and other public works, which ap-
peared in your columns of Wednesday, the 26th inst.,
prejudicial to the cause of humanity, in which we are en-
gaged, and not strictly true; we, therefore, now ask,
what in a spirit of fairness we rely on your granting,
viz., permission, through the same columns in which
your article appeared, to lay before the public the other
and true side of the question.
Whether our efforts to annihilate cruelty the most
consummate " has been simply defeated" in London or
not—whether " open houses are provided by the union"
for the quarrymen who, in various localities, manifest
such a humane feeling towards their cruelly ill-treated
fellow-men or not—or whether our delegates proceed
from place to place in the performance of their " labour
oflove," " mo u nted" or otherwise, are questions upon which
we shall not waste our time, or seek to occupy your
pages in animadverting upon. Suffice to say, that, satis-
fied with the justness of our cause, we are as determined
now as at the first moment, and shall persevere, by
every lawful means, to succeed.
To " die of atrophy," that is, from the want of nou-
rishment, is what we do not fear, the period of a "con-
summation so devoutly wished for " by our opponents is
" very remote;" and respecting " club law ' or " new
police" law, the one we abhor, and the other we

have no intention to offend.' It is by sober,
reflecting, and purely moral means, by " surround-
ing those" who, in ignorance_ of the sacred duties
of man to man, passively submit to insult and cruelty,
" with a moral and social influence" that we intend to
pilot ourselves to the desired haVen. Contrast this with
the following paragraph in your article :—" But for
such a movement as the present, founded on misre-
presentation, and forming part of a systematic at-
tempt to establish a dangerous and unconstitutional
tyranny, we have no compassion or sympathy ;
and repeat, that it must meet with no compro-
mise, but be put down thoroughly and unflinch-
ingly, even though its progress were only to be checked
by a general stoppage of trade throughout the country."
Our business now, Sir, is to show that we have not used
" misrepresentation." We preferred several serious
charges against George Allen, foreman to Messrs.
Grissell and Peto, our late ewployer and which they, re-
fused to redress. We then courted, by every means
at our disposal, public inquiry into them, and
preferred, through the medium of The Sun, Morn-
ing Advertiser, and other of the daily and
weekly press, to submit the whole case to arbitration; a
deputation waited on Mr. Grissel, and informed him that
if he would concede our request, if by the evidence of
Allen's victims and others who had witnessed his unfeel-

ing conduct, we proved that his conduct towards us had
been such as we had attributed to him. Mr. Grissell
refused, asserting that be had lowered his dignity in
deigning even to hold converse with them; and this, Sir, is
not.much like " misrepresentation" or a desite " to esta-
blish tt,' dangerous and unconstitutional tyranny." The
following, Mr. Editor, are the charges we allege against
George Allen; we are prepared to submit them to any
just arbitration, and to be content with the result:—

Ist. Locking up the pump, or rather the door leading
to it, to prevent those under his control from getting a
drink of nature's beverage, with a view to compel us to
buy beer of an inferior quality from a house he visited,
and until we strongly remonstrated, was the only one per-
mitted to bring beer on the works.
2d. One of our shopmates had the unwelcome in-
telligence from Manchester of the decease of his mother;
he informed Mr. Allen (the foreman), of his wish to go
and see her interred, stating that he would have to be
absent for a week or a fortnight ; when Allen informed
him, if that was the case, he might stop away alto-
gether ; with an assertion that he (Allen) would not
keep a job open for any man that length of time under
such circumstances.

3G. It has also been quite customary for Allen to
order, in the most domineering manner, many a good
tradesman to " pick up his tools and be off," before he
had been marry hours on the job ; also for the most
trifling mistake, have been discharged at a moment's no-
tice, without the least consultation as to whether they
were blameable or 4Qt, ,Again, one of the men had his

EVENING SUN'
leg broken by a fall from a scaffold, and on his rotan
to his work, expected, of course, as he had been lame('
in the service of his employers, that they would continye
to give him work. But, No : Allen immediate!y e
do
cba!ged him, with an execration that he wonte, 13°13

such—d—ci hobbling fellows as him there.
4th. The same foreman told one of our 11101/51-
t
who had been at home ill for some time, and whose
was also very ill, on his return to work, to go about no
business, as he (the foreman) did not want any nil.
there of his description. We- immediately made a i,;ine°
lection for him, to enable him to procure food for 1"--'
self and his sick wife. hie
sth. Another of the men had been called from -}a.
work to attend the. death-bed of his wife, and `ben-
came from that scene to his work, he was told to
back and die with her, and be damned. In fast'F ;-
general conduct has been so bad, as to be quite unbead
able ; and, to terrify us, he has made a practice,
threatening to discharge two or three dozen of as
time, if we even complained of such conduct.
These, Sir, are facts which we are at any time. 2,5
pared to prove, and, as there is convened on our blit
a public meeting to be holden at the White C°llub
House, on the evening of Monday next, the 31st insvt:to,
we solicit the attendance of Messrs. Grissell and 'hag,
George Allen, or any of their agents in their be' so
when and where every facility shall be afforded them
lay their own statement before the public.
We are, Sir, yours respectfully,
• THE MASONS' SOCIET
THOMAS SHORTT, SSW WY.