The principal master-manufacturers of Leeds have entered into an engagement
with each other to employ no working man, who is a mem- ber of the. Trades Union. It is not yet determined upon when this re- solution shall be enforced. It will bring the contest, which has now been going on for some time between the masters and the operatives, to a crisis. The Leeds Mercury makes the following remarks upon the subject. " A great struggle, which sagacious men have long foreseen, is about to take place in the manufacturing districts of the West Riding of Yorkshire. That the crisis is at band is sufficiently clear from the proceedings of the master- manufacturers at the meeting held in Leeds last Saturday week. If we are rightly informed, the cessation from labour of manufacturer employing 2,000 horse power, would throw out of employment 20,000 adults and 10,000 chil- dren. It is true that the struggle, if to the extent contemplated, must be of short duration ; but, however short, the danger from such a state of things is im- minent, both to the interests of the masters and the workmen, as well as to the per- manent interests of trade and to the tranquillity of the district, and we hope such measures of reconciliation will take place immediately as to prevent the necessity for encounterirg these dangers. At what period the masters will begin to re- quire the renunciation of the Union is, we believe, not yet fixed, but if no re- conciliation takes place, it is probable that it will be in the course of the present month. The time for reconciliation is, therefore, the present; and whoever stands in the way of that adjustment on fair and equitable terms, as between master and workman, will incur a tremendous responsibility."
The general union of the building trades is not yet dissolved, but numbers have left it and returned to their employment. A meeting of delegates from all parts of the kingdom has been holding a convocation in Manchester last week. Each town has sent its representatives to this mock Parliament ; and, after the fashion of Brother Jonathan, the expenses of these delegates are paid from the general fund. Nearly
five hundred have been present, and their expenses have amounted to nearly 2,500/. ! We are informed that a number of the principal builders
of this place have got their employs filled with strangers, and cannot again receive their old and refractory hands. This is the natural result of combination.—Liverpool Courier.
Two of the members of a Trades Union Committee at Leeds, were sned five pounds each on Saturday week, for an assault upon a work- ing man who refused to join the Union. They held him, with his head downwards, in a puncheon of cold water, till he was nearly suffo- cated. This was done twice, by order of the Committee ; and it was put to the vote whether he should not have a third immersion. The man was very ill for several days in consequence of this treatment.
A verdict of manslaughter was returned at Leeds, on Thursday week, by a Coroner's Jury, against Joseph Radcliffe, an overlooker in a flax-mill in that town, for brutal treatment of a boy, which ultimately caused his death. He was committed to York Castle to await his trial.
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