The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-08-16 00:00:00

SCOTLAND.

We have already given a report of the turn-out of the col-
liers at Airdrie and other places in the neighbourhood of •
Glasgow. The military are still stationed there, but their
presence seems to be of little avail in restraining the starving
depredators. On Monday night a large potato field near
Calder, the property of Mr. Lindsay, was completely cleared
of its contents ; and on the same day, another field at Ras-
bush, not more than half a mile from the head-quarters of
the military, was severely visited. Indeed, so far as appear-
ances go, this turn-out would seem to be the most alarming
that has ever taken place in the mining districts in the west
of Scotland. At a large meeting of the colliers on Saturday
last, they resolved unanimously not to return to their em-
ployment until their " reasonable" demands were complied
with; and at three district meetings held on Monday, that
resolution was deliberately confirmed. 1% hatever be their pre-
sent circumstances, the colliers appear to be united and deter-
mined to continue the strike ; and this resolution, the con-
duct of the employers at the meeting in Airdrie, where the
Sheriff presided, on Friday last, would seem to have con-
siderably strengthened. At that meeting the facts adduced,
and which are now made generally known throughout the
mining districts, have tended greatly to excite the sym-
pathy of the community, and to render the conduct of the
masters exceedingly unpopular. One or two of these it
will be sufficient to detail ;---The men complained (and as-
serted that it was a grievance, without exception, in every
coal pit in the neighbourhood) that, instead of trying the
quality of the contents of their hutches by a riddle, the
openings of which should not be more than one inch square,
the masters have adopted the use of an article called " a
skree," which is generally from eight to ten feet in length,
and its bars from one to two and a half inchesapart, through
which coals of considerable size are suffered to drop, to the
great injury of the profits of the workmen, it being generally
understood that the men are not paid for any coals that go
through the bars of the skree. In this way they insist they
are defrauded not only of the small coals, for which the mas-
ters get as high as Gs per 30 cwt., but of a great quantity of
larger coals that find their way through the article in question.
They were also loud in complaint against the truck system,
practised by nearly the whole of the masters, the effect of which
is to compel the workmen to pay an exorbitant price for their
provisions and other necessaries. The men also complained
that their pay days had been unnecessarily lengthened from a
fortnight to a month, by which means they were kept out of
the use of ready money, and compelled to have recourse to the
Itdh.epsystem.
aonf
dtalksi.n
pg
eirn tpeorue sntdfrfoo
rma
ltlh em
omnei
ens,
masters' stores. Another grievance which was pointedly re-
ferred
thered troa eweafs
paid them before the pay day,---even when such wages were
fairly earned and wrought for. All the 'furnaces at Calder
are extinguished ; there are five out at Dundvvan, eight at
Gartsherrie, and two at Chapelhall. The miners have
pealed to the shopkeepers for assistance to carry on the
strike, (and when it is considered that many of them are
altogether dependent upon the colliers for a subsistence, it
will not appear wonderful that their appeals are attended to),
and in this way considerable sums have been raised ; sums
from ss. to £1 are extensively contributed, and one grocer,
we are informed, is so involved in the success of the colliers,
as to find it in his interest to offer them the loan of Xl5O, to
be returned when they got into employment, 'Wednesday,
the fields in the vicinity of Airdrie anti Coatbridge were
fearfully ravaged, and a greater quantity of this valuable
root carried off than on any one occasion since the com-
mencement of the strike,
We deeply regret to state that, on Monday and Tuesday
night, serious riots took place amongst the weavers of Dun-
fermline. It appears that a week or two ago the proprietors
of some of the large shops in the town, containing twenty
or thirty looms, have seen cause to reduce the wages of their
workmen. This the men were much dissatisfied with ; but
no serious outbreak took place till Monday night, about
ten o'clock, when a large party assembled, paraded the prin-
cipal streets of the town, put out the lamps, and broke the
windows of those who had proved obnoxious to them.
From thence they proceeded to their factories, and set on
fire the Ipoms in one or two factories, which were consumed,
though the flames were extinguished before the buildings
were reached. On Tuesday, Mr. Sheriff Monteath went
over to Dunfermline, and exerted himself strenuously to
preserve the peace of the town, by swearing in special
constables, &c. ; but on Tuesday night the riotous assem.
blage again appeared, broke more windows, set on fire
more looms, and broke into the shop of a man named
Scotland, who, besides being a partner in one of the fac-
tories, keeps a grocer and spirit-dealer's shop, gutted his
shop
threw them into the street. We
understand
rioters
ef dits
also
the sheriff was conducting one el
the
contents,to
prison,
thatwhenn
the
mob
set
upon
the
emitshies•
wo
unded several, and rescued the prisoner. It may
.be
stated also, as a specimen of the wild justice obtairiel
un
among them, that when they were breaking the windows of
one of the inhabitants, under the impression that he was a
partner in a factory, he looked out of the window and told
them that they were mistakeu, on which the mob immediately

desisted. The sheriff, we understand, made application for
a military force, and in consequence half a troop of the En-
niskillen Dragoons proceeded across the Frith on Wednesday
morning ; and as a report was spread that the mob intended
to force the jail, to rescue several of the rioters who were
confined there, they were drawn up to protect it. A heavy
shower falling in the afternoon served to clear the streets.
There was also a meeting of the weavers in the Abbey Pend,
to draw up resolutions, in the afternoon ; but we have not
heard the results.

We understand that matters have to some extent been
adjusted between the masters and the workmen ; but consi-
derable alarm was manifested on 'Wednesday evening by the
arrival of a large body of colliers from the eastward. The
presence of the troops preserved order. In the course of the
day there was a meeting of operatives in Dunfermline, when
certain resolutions were agreed to, and a deputation appointed
to wait upon the masters. A negociation followed, which
resulted in a compromise of the points in dispute. About
midnight more troops arrived from Stirling ; and on Friday,
parties of dragoons marched to some of the collieries in the
vicinity, to aid the civil powers in searching for property
carried off from the warehouse entered 0:1 Monday, as well
as to secure the apprehension of the more active depredators.