The strike in Lancashire has advanced to a new stage
; it has reached one of those results which are natural to such movements --a considerable riot. The Beene of the tumult was Wigan, where a fanto7 population is combined with a large proportion of work- ing colliers—usually a robust, an uneducated, and an ill-controlled class. Certain coal-owners had met and resolved to throw open their collieries for men who would return at the old prices ; a re- solution which they endeavoured to keep secret, but it became known, and was associated with steps taken by some coal-owners to procure labourers from a distance. The masters got away from the meeting in safety ;- an unsuccessful pursuit roused the blood of the workpeople ; they assembled in great crowds ; they attacked a hotel in which the fugitive coal-owners were supposed to be concealed; and then, warming to their work, encouraged by the darkness of the night, and unchecked by any force on the side of the local authorities, they put out the lights of the town, held it in possession for several hours, and committed great damage. In this state of affairs a hopeless task was thrust upon the Mayor : it fell to him, as the ohief local magistrate, to go forth against the riot- ers; and to support him he had an effctive force of nine police- men! This force, indeed, behaved well; but to display such a force was a sort of despairing joke, and it soon became necessary to put the men out of the way in a place of concealment, whence, with a zealous sense of duty, the head constable managed "to keep up communications with the Mayor." The most useful com- munication which the Mayor could now effect, however, was that with Preston, to summon a body of soldiers ; and the arrival of a detachment on Saturday secured tranquillity for the time. On the Monday the riot was renewed in the neighbourhood, by a direct attempt to break into a part of Lord Balcarres's colliery and at- tack a number of hands which he had brought from Wales. From this point also the rioters were repulsed, not without the use of fire-arms ; and soldiers again garrisoned the colliery.
Preston was less violently disturbed ; but the position of affairs there is far from being satisfactory. The masters have put forth, by the hand of Messrs. Birley and Co., a statement justifying their conduct, by showing that they offered terms to the men almost equal to the ten percent; while they declare that they shall con- tinue the closing of their mills until the men absolutely give up combined resistance. On the other hand, the men take pains to circulate explanations, that Messrs. Birley and Co. might easily have adjusted certain arithmetical difficulties in order to give the ten per cent required ; and they remain as firm as the masters in their combination. They are at present well supported by funds from surrounding districts, which appear to be unconscious that the drain thus carried on must eventually cease by exhaustion. That the feeling in the town does not grow more mild, appears to be shown by the difficulty felt in sparing more troops which had been demanded for Wigan, and which were supplied from the cavalry
barracks near Manchester. The authorities at Wigan have been severely censured for having made so slight a preparation to pre- serve the peace of the town, either by the ordinary means or by any extraordinary aid. It has been not without reason presumed that parsimony was the motive for keeping the police force so ex- cessively short of the requirement ; and if so, the Wigan people are likely to discover their false economy, when they have to pay in damages that which they saved in police. But there is some ground to apprehend that other towns are not better provided than Wigan ; and if that is the case, it is evident that the military force already in the district is not sufficient, since it has already been necessary to contrive more than one shift of troops from place to place.
