Star.
London, England, 1825-10-28 00:00:00

JUVENILE COMBrN4TION.

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About three weeks ar, a circumstance accursed at
Galashiels. whieh, from its faicical and truly ridculnus
nature should go far to put combinations out of fashion.
In that busy and prosperous little town, there are
about thirty mister manufacturers, who employ, as
piece's, from 80 to 100 little children, few of whom are
tinder eight, or above ten or eleven years of age. Our
old Scots proverbs contain a great deal of concentrated
wisdom, and the familiar saying —e as the old cock
ern% s the yrung cock learns," was strikingly exempli-
Geal o'i the present occasion. In our workshops and
manufactories little is talked of save the combieations
of tradesmen ; and hence the handful of smaidiets in
question could not do less than get up a tiny strike of,
their own. Whether their elders and betters contrived
the plot, remains as yet a matter of doubt, but certain
it is, that on some secret signal being given, the com-
munity of piecers stood as stock still as if twenty sluices
Lad been suddenly closed on the numerous fulling and
carding machines that are set in motion by the waters
of the Gala. Early in the morning, something like a cock-
pit was.held,at which divers "rules" were proposed and
adopted, office-bearers chosen.and pennies and even half-
pennies subscribed to the fee-fund which was to protect
the in against the starving.out system, which was slue to
be tesorted to by their alarmed employers. More than-
tit's, they had actually hired a room in a pablic•
h"use, with the view of stating their grievances pub-
licly, and, as a matter of course, getting their speech :s re-
ported by some country cot respondent of the newspapers.
But alas ! alas ! scarcely had they formed into lint, and
commenced processing through the streets, with ban-
ners composed of cast-eff pinafores, and decorated with
mons filched from webs of hodden gray, when all their
plans were suddenly thwarted. The novelty of the
affair brought every old woman to her door, and then
was witnessed a sort of melee, which would have moved
to laughter Diogenes in his tub. Here an angry father
seized his boys by the " cuff of the neck," and inflicted
summary chastisement on the spot ; there a breathless
mother singled out her offending girls, and skelped
them back to their several spindles. Some of the big.
ger boys admonished their comrades to stand firm, and
actually made a thew of resistance; but it would not
do. In a few minutes the whole party were put to the
rout, and diverged and divided—this way and that—
with all the haste of a knot of school-boys, whom some
Dominic has detected robbing his garden, and who are
brought to their senses by the apparition of a huge pair
of taws, which might serve as a substitute for a cat-
o'-nine-tails. And thus ended the notable combination
of the spruce piecers of Galashiels—an affair that ap-
pears so utterly tidiculous, that sensible persons will be
apt to view it in the light of a joke. But it is not so;
the children were as serious as bairns can well be; and
our information is derived from a respectable Gala-
shiels manufacturer who, as Dryden quaintly expresses
it, merely related to us " all that he saw, and part of
which he was."

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.