The Sun. — 1867-06-24 (London, England)

LINLEY. No wonder Mr. OVEREND summed up the result of his evidence in a few indignant words—" Do you say that a man in your station of life—the overseer of a colliery and a farmer—hired one of your men to do that deed, and that you paid him a sum of money for shooting a neighbour with whom you had no quarrel ?—is that the state of things at Dore—is that what you did ?" And the answer is characteristic—" Yes ; it was a state of things I objected to, and it was six months before I would have anything to do with it." The evidence of SAMUEL CROOKES, which occupied the principal part of Saturday's proceedings, confirmed the statements of Broadhead. The witnesses are now as anxious to tell the whole as they were previously careful to withhold as much as possible, not from any scruples of conscience— that commodity is unknown among them—but from a selfish fear that something they have not told may subsequently be discovered, and that they may be punished after all. CROOKES was eager to tell about a case of " blowing up" more than ten years ago. When told it was unnecessary to go into it, he asked, " But have I not to come out with everything whether it is ten years or twenty, for if they should come out afterwards I should not get my certificate ?" The principal items of this worthy's career during the ten years come to a pretty formidable list for a man who has contrived to keep out of the felon's dock all through it. He asks to have them read over, as he may have forgotten something, and Mr. OVEREND reads—" You shot LINLEY twice. Blew up WHEATMAN and SMITH, BAXTER, JOSEPH WILSON, REANEY'S wheel, and JOSEPH HELLEWELL, at Blonk Wheel. There was the case of JOHN HELLEWELL you were to shoot." This is one man's share of the infamous work during a comparatively ' limited period. It shows us how much the best system of police depends for assistance on the public, since CROOKES committed all these crimes with impunity, so far as the law was concerned. The worst of it is that we cannot set down one or two men, SHAW, CROOKES, or BROADHEAD, as exceptional monsters, like those ruffians who, after a few days notoriety, meet their fate on the gallows. There are hundreds of men belonging to this very union, living in the same town, who knew as much as they chose to know. Why did they keep men idle on the books for years without asking what they were paid for ? Why did they carefully refrain from inquiring too closely into the evident falsification of the accounts? Why did they not notice that the extraordinary accidents that kept occurring in Sheffield and its vicinity always befcl men who had broken the rules ? We should be slow to set down all the saw grinders of Sheffield as deliberate abettors of murder and arson, but we must believe that fear kept them silent. The great body of them knew the dangerous and unscrupulous men with whom they had to deal, they dared not offend them by refusing to countenance their crimes. And this is the protection of the rights of working men. This is the combination which gives strength to the workmen and stability to the trade. We need no longer wonder at the stream of emigration that flows from our ports, and when we hear of working men starting for a land of liberty, where they can prosper unfettered by social tyranny, we shall know henceforward it is not the tyranny of the masters they fear, but the oppression of their fellow-workI men.  On Saturday a grand banquet took place at the Trinity House, and a brilliant company assembled to do honour to the occasion. The Duke of EDINBURGH, the present Master, was absent, his Royal Highness having been elected to that office on the death of Lord