The Sun.
London, England, 1842-08-15 00:00:00

DUNFERMLINE.

EDINIi@.O.4II, iaDAY, AUG. 11.—W a deeply regret,
to state, that on Mondey and Tue.Sday night, serious riots
took ple,e4:eielonsst..ate weavers of Dunfermline.
It appeargA4se e. week or. two ago the proprietors of
some of tifegarge stoops in that town, contaming..twenty
or thirty -I,:;.ir3e,ittkel seen cause to reduce the wages of
their weriptiepe
..xwi .the,., men were much dissatisfied
with ; ba,„nde.e.erio.4, nutt:re* took place till Monday
night, ahoy e o'elo* -when a large party 2.6.
leer bled, moteled. the
.peincipal streets Of the town, ex-
tingnishekibwlemps., and broke., the windows of those
who had psoveiVolmoaiuus to there. From thence the)
proceeded to the factories, and set fire to tt e looms in
one or twqSacterier:, which were consumed, ,though the
flames wercitigut:shed before the buildings wore reached.
On Tnisdav ,gr.. Sheriff Monteith went over to Dun-
fermline, and exerted himself strenuously to presery the
peace of the town by swearing in special etaistables,
bet on Tuesday night the riotOus assemblage again ap-
peared. broke more witinewt., set itn fire mere leotth-, and
broke into the shop of a man named ScOtlind, who, be-
sides being a partner in one of the tactorn:s, keep
grocer and spiritedealer's shop, gutted his shop of its
contents, and threw them into the street. We under-
etsnil, alse, that when the Sheriff was conductingone of
the prisoners to prison, the mob set upon the cuustables,
wounded several, and rescued the prisoner. ft may be
stated &so, as a specimen of the wild justice obtaining
among them, that when they were breaking the windows
of one of. the inhabitants, wider the impression that he
was a partner in a factory, he looked out of the window
and told thorn they were mistaken, on which the mob
immediately desisted.
The Sheriff (Monteith), we understand, made applica-
tion for ii—military force, and, in consequence, half a
treep of the Inniskillen Dragoons proceeded across the
Frith yest'etifity meriting ; and, as a report was spread
that the n-telt intended to force the gaol, to rescue seve-
ral of the r:oterS aho were confined there, they were
drawn up tt, pr otect it. A heavy shower falling in the
act; rnoon,servoi to clear the streets.

There wAs a 1.,. a weeting of the weavers in the Abbey
Pend, to tiliw in the afternoon, but we
have not heard the results.

Thing* have a remar',:ably gloomy appearance, and it
wo .1d apl;eat that the serious rioting in Dunfermline
bad been premeditated. The rioters appear to have been
well organised, there not being the slightest misunder-
standing awing them as to their unlawful proceedings.
The appearance of the military among them has cer-
tainly teutLA to suppress a little outward appearances of
aiditional disturbances, but there is evidently a deep-
rooted determination to commit mischief, and it. is impos-
sible to predict ulterior proceedings.
We regret to state that it is confidently asserted that
many wives of the weavers were to be seen encouraging,
if not aiding the infuriated mob.
Business is at a stand-still, which must necessarily
greatly increase the existing distress.

OLDHAM.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Twelve o'clock, Oldham, August 11, 1842.
Snt,—You have already seen the state of things in
these districts from the Manchester papers of yester-
day. Up to this time nothing fresh has taken place.
except that the cessation from labour is extending.
itself to even the smaller trades. Yesterday morning
the operatives of Oldham who had hitherto taken no
voluntary part in the proceedings of the surrounding
districts, assembled about 2,000 strong at five o'cloek,
at. and proceeded to the vacant 'land behind the
Albion inn, where they were addressed by several
speakers, Who spoke pi... their grievances, and the un-
feeling conduct or 4overnment, and of the unprinci-
pled clairioxternof the. masters, &c., in attempting to
reduce the wages of the people ; and although no fresh
reduction had been attempted in Oldham, the speakers
contended that if it was submitted to at Ashton and
S':alybridge, that it must' certainly come to Oldhanl
in a few weeks, and as they were already deep sunk
in poverty and misery by low Wages and dear bread,
that they could not be much worse off let come what
might, and that they had better make a stand at once.
A resolution was agreed to not to work any more
until they.had. the wages, of 1840, and that they woub;
neither work themselves, nor allow any others to work,
until this object was attained ; and this they have car-
ried out to the letter; so that neither cotton-
mills, hat-manufactories, or coal-works, or any
other businesS is going on. The speeches of the
various speakers were moderate at all their meeting-.
In nearly ll eases the masters have been on the alert,
and have immediately stopped their milk on the ap-
proach of the mob, so that no destruction of property
in this town has taken place. lam sorry to say that
in Saddle‘vorth one muster did present a blunderbus,
and attempted to tire na the mob, but the fire missing.
the Mob rushed in a body into the mill, took the bhm-
det-bussebeat the master very severely, but did no fur-
ther damage. Large quantities of Specials are being
sworn in, 'hut as there are no military nearer
than MarieheSter, seven miles off (and there none
can be spared), we tar if any irritation was given
to the mob, they would oon have the town in,
their own hands, but as our people are generally slow
to violegce, we trust, we shall escape bloodshed ant)
dc" tructloo of property. I may just add that the ope-
ratises :wear au have a (leap system of organization.
and more regularly conduct their business than eve:
appeareehbe,thre in the manufacturing districts.
In conclusion, allow' me to say something must
be done4.fit the middle classes (who have also suffered
deeply) appear rather to look on the whole as the
dawn or a--change .
that may be for the better bn
cannot be for the worse.- am your's, most respect-
fully. e „ , PHILO.