Two charges against workmen, one at Clerkenwell for " con-
spiracy," and another at Greenwich for " assault," have brought into prominence the relationship of workmen to each other, and to their employers. We question the propriety of charges of " conspiracy," equally on the grounds of justice and of policy, and deprecate attempts to strain the action of the common law for the defeat of workmen acting in concert for the attain- inent of an object in itself lawful. The whole subject ap- pears involved in confusion, as we have endeavoured to show in a separate paper. The Greenwich ease was very properly treated, and punished as one of vulgar assault ; and when an assault can be proved, no objection can be made to the application of the law ; but a constructive charge is a matter of graver importance, only to be decided, we conceive, by a jury, and not by summary con- viction.
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