A meeting of working men was held at Manchester on
Wednesday a eek, to take measures for supporting the Preston " turn-out." The principal orator was a Ileverend Mr. Stephens ; anal the following spe- cimens of this person's oratory are giveli by the Manchester Guardian— In (the masters) refuse to redress their grievances, were the men to se ?—No. Ile saw another war, Ala r an intimation that he dared to speak, if the gentlemen of the press dared to write, Mr. Stephens explained this way, which was nothing mole than for each turnamt to take his wife's market- basket. go to the butcher's, ask for a kg of mutton, and take it away without raying for it. If the butcher stoppid him, the man was to return, refuse to eke back the meat, but wait quietly in the shop to be apprehended, declaring tens nu thief. In this way, the same thing taking place nit the baker's, and .0.t. glover's, and other shopkeepers, he would suppose a hundred operatives of ,ston found themselves obliged to have recourse to this expedient, and they were all brought before the Alagistrates—ii hat could the Magistrates do? T'..iere would Inc an end of the turn-out. '11;4 had heard of the law of the nt.111e, that ma: the law with the basket. It had been said in the Globe, that hen a 111111 it. :Manchester was lately on fire, the operatives gathered nowt it .111.1 rallStql all :1,,ISt:111CL, to extinguish the flames. It was said that, so far from lidding to put the lire out, the crowd shouted, anal laughed, and buzzard, when they SaW roof after roof fall in, lie did not know whether that was ia: or not. ( Cries if " lice, In !") If it were tiue, as he was now told, a as it a natural position of society ? lIe was quite sure that the men of Man. 4.1...,ter. if their masters behaved rept ily to them—if there was not all this mmiv this oppie,sion, this hard-hearted, cold-blooded, calculating, money- money- seraping, money-boarding, nioney-keeping spirit in their ern- pl,.) en'— if they felt and acted towards their men as they ought to do, the men lo-e their ;ivy, in the t‘ei vice nit those masters. Then, instead of talking time loot 1 people, he tInaiglit tlo• horning of that mill ought to read a • ,,-nit to .lie briaal mast. rs. It was Lis lirm opinion that, if the torch were put to evay mill in England, the hands of nine-tenths of the mills would do to, those -.lands hail done. " It I were a factory slave (thrusting his hands to tla bottom of his trouscis' poekets), and were to see a mill in flames, I would mat bring my hands an inch higher than they are now."
'Ilia man should be placed in a madhouse.
'Time Oldham strike, we are son y to say, is extending rather than tiiminishing; the operative spinners nit Lees have discontinued work, the musters declining to pay any longer a higher rate of wages then is given in the neighbourhood.-11./anchesttr Guardian.
Conciliatory measures which the inenufacturers in the l'otteries pro- mised to recommeial the Chamber of Commerce to adopt, and which were agreed to at the meeting of the Chamber on the following day, and since published, have failed to satisfy the " Board" and tine foreign delegates, although tine independent workmen consider them just and equitable. The delegates, previous to leaving the Potteries, came to certntin resolutions, the essence of which is, they will use every exertion to support the Unionists in their efforts to obtain the principle of "good front hand " mid a form of hiring of this kind—an agreement for twelve months, but determinable at the end of three months, on notice given by either party at any time. It is said the pay of the Union has been considerably increased this week. We are told 6s. for a man, Is. for Ids wife, and 6d. for each ehild.—Stajlisrdsltire Advertiser.
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