Star.
London, England, 1831-01-06 00:00:00

ASSASSINATION OF A MASTER

Monday night the neighhoirhood of Hyde and Ashton-
under-Line was thrown into the greatest consternation by a
report that Mr. Ashton, jun. of the former place, had fallen
by the hand of assassins. Upon inquiry it proved but too
true.. This young gentleman, who was but 23 years of
age, was proceeding, at 7 o'clock in the evening, from the
factory to his father's house, when he was waylaid by one
or more villains. His body was found shortly afterwards, bat
life was extinct. It appeared that two bullets had passed
through the chest, and from the appearance of foot-marks
under an adjoining hedge, it is conjectured that more than
one person was engaged in this diabolical enterprise, but
nothing has at present transpired to direct suspicion towards
any individual. The Ashton weavers are still, to the number
of 20,000, out of work, but their conduct bas been perfectly
peaceable, and there is no reason for attributing the san-
guinary outrage to any feeling connected with the " turn-
out," as the spinners in the Hyde factories are in employ-
ment, and Mr. Ashton bore the reputation of a good master,
and was generally much respected.—Times.
MANCH ESTI& JAY. 4.
A great and painful sensation has been created here to lley by the in.
taiga*, dthe murder d Mr. T. Ashton, a MY et MS it lops&
cottou-spinners and manufacturers at Hyde, hails adglibmnibsel. Mr.
Ashton had taken tea at his father's house ead/y last seed bad
then gone to a newly.ereeted factory about a slid of a Oa
had left the factory at half-peat 6to retturn hens. AMIN 8 de
was found lying on the road, killed by &shot theough this Yet. ICY
assassin mast have stood close to him. These was self in=
in frost, but two behind; showing that the pistol bad boss
so near as not to allow the scup or bells to separate till they enema
the body.
Had this melancholy taken place at Ashton, where the
journeymen spinners are at variance with their masters, It would at ones
have been attributed to the former; but this assassination canes at a
place where there is no dispute about wages. It la said, however, by
those who attribute it to the tum.outs, that as the Ashton masters jai.
Sty their reduction of wages by the feet, that the Hyde masters pay a
great deal less than they, the irritation of the men is even greasy:,
against the Hyde masters than against the!? own. On the Ober
hand, it is urged that this was a kind-hearted yaws Imo
liked by the working-people, and not yet taking enough et
meat as to be chargeable with 'being instrumental in reida=
wages. But to this it is replied, that in all probability he was taken
for his elder brother, who, more frequently than he was, was accustomed
to go to that new factory. Such is the conversation to-day on 'Change,
and although it may be supposed that amongst the class of persons
who congregate there, the current of feeling is in favour of the masters,
it is certainly difficult to account for this barbarous and daring murder,
perpetrated obviously through other motives than to commit robbery,
without the suspicion arising in the mind that it is somehow or other
connected with the unfortunate disputes in the neighbourhood. With
every disposition to believe well of the body of working men,....end I am
sure that there is not one in ten thousand of them that would not ere.
emu such a deed,—yet that single individual in the ten thousand may
base been heated to it by the sense of wrong working on a natural and
haulms malignity, just as Bellingham was urged to the murder of
Mr. Pereeval ; and if this has been the case, it would have been not less
unjust to attribute the death of the minister to a combination of decayed
penitents than it would be to attribute the death of Mr. Ashton to the
Ashton turnouts. I regret to say, that there are yet no symptoms of
secoacilemeat between the Ashton masters and their men. The latter
dressed to be paid 4s. 2d. for spinning oue thousand hanks of
yore, forty banks to the ponnd. The masters will give no more
than Ss. 9d. alleging that the Hyde masters pay only Ss.
Lookers-on think that if either party would come to 4s. thus
splitting the difference, the other would accept it. But the masters
refuse to meet the men, and the men refuse to meet the masters; and
thus, through the pride of the parties, the one Is impoverishing the other
and the shopkeepers and every other class in the neighbourhood are
suffering dreadfully by the quarrel. Nor is there say &woe of a me•
diator, for the man who would recommend the masters to come up to,
and the men to come down to, 4s. would be spurned by both. All is
quiet here in Manchester, the attempt to excite a turnout having failed.
A curious revolution is going on in spinning, through the superiority
of new machinery over old, which 1 may describe in another letter.