It has been at length decided for the first time
that "picketing" is an offence against the criminal law. Three stonemasons accused on this charge at Leeds have been found guilty, and sentenced to four months' imprisonment. All they did was to plant themselves in the road close to a building where the men had struck, and shout out at some new hands, "Bah, bah, black sheep !" Mr. Justice Lush and the jury held that this was intimidation. We do not regret the decision, for in the final settlement insult must be prohibited as well as violence ; but the necessity for a law clearly defining intimidation becomes more urgent every year. We shall have regular war between Unionists and Non-Unionists if the law is left so obscure. All these men pleaded that they thought them- selves within their right.
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