gbt 1Probintes.
A meeting of the workpeople employed by Mr. Robert Gardner, an extensive cotton-manufacturer, was held at Preston, on Friday week, to ascertain the results of the regulation, adopted nearly twelve months ago by Mr. Gardner, of working eleven hours a day instead of twelve, and paying the same wages as under the longer hours' system. The manager of the works and all the overlookers were present during the whole of the proceedings. The chair was occupied by one of the hands.
The meeting was addressed by an operative-spinner, who stated the advan- tages which he had derived from the adoption of the eleven-hours system; among which were—that he had better health, a better appetite, slept more sounely, and at the end of the week received more wages for his work than formerly. So great he said, had been the advantages which he bad derived from eleven hours, that he could safely venture to say that no danger could be apprehended from the adoption of the ten-hours system. So decidedly favourable had he found the &sage, that nothing but the direst necessity could ever induce him to return to the iong-hour system again. The next speaker was the bookkeeper of the manufactory; who made a state- ment. After the eleven-hour system had been in operation for ten weeks he had been requested to take from the books a statement of the wages paid during that period, and also the wages paid in the ten weeks preceding the adoption of the eleven hours. The result was, that after a careful calculation he found, that for each pair of looms the advance paid in money to the weavers was ld. per week more than during the ten weeks preceding the change. For the same period, the spinners averaged 2d per week more than' under the old system. These were all piece-hands, or those who were paid according to the quantity of work done. The day-hands, or those who were paid by the day, got the same wages as before. When the system had been in operation a few weeks, he found that the sick-list was much diminished, and that very few had to leave work from ill-health. On referring to his books, he found that for a period of six weeks not a single spin- ner was off work from sickness; a circumstance which had never before been known: and he was glad to be able to say, from the same authority that the health of the hands continued to improve under the new regulation. Tire change to eleven hours had been commenced in April 1844, and up to the end of June only one man had been off work, sick, and he was consumptive. He was then speakingin the presence of the operatives themselves, who could bear testimony to the truth of what he had said. There was some difficulty in giving accurate particulars as to the quality of the work produced, owing to the changes in the numbers of the yarn and other circumstances; bat, on the whole, he was fully warranted in saying that the work was much better under the new than the eld system. The weavers, to whom the work of the spinner was taken to be made into cloth, could say whether or not the " cops" were not better now than under the old regulation of -twelve hours, and whether also there was not less waste made from the work of the spinners now than formerly. He might add, that the wages of the warpers and winders had been fully maintained. He thought it right to state that no alteration had been made in the speed of the machinery during the periods to which he had referred.
A power-loom weaver corroborated, in every particular, the statements made by the last speaker; and added, that he could say, for those employed in his de- partment, that they would prefer going to ten hours, even though their wages should be somewhat reduced. His wife was working in the mill, and he had no hesitation in saying that a considerable saving to hem had been effected even by the single hour a day which she could now give to her affairs at home. The superintendent of the card-room said, that their machinery had not been speeded, and yet the hands under him turned off more work and of a better quality now than under the twelve-hour system. A piecer said he had been enabled by the eleven-hours system to attend school. He understood that several schoolmasters in the neighbourhood had found a con- siderable increase in the number of their scholars since the adoption of the eleven hours.
Many others of the hands made similar statements; and ultimately resolutions were unanimously adopted, thanking Mr. Gardner for what he had done, and ask- ing him to join the workpeople in petitioning for a Ten-hours Bill.
It is the intention of the banks in 'Manchester to close their establishments at three o'clock.
The trial of John Tawell, the Quaker charged with poisoning Sarah Hart at Farnham Royal, near Slough, on the 1st January last, was commenced at Ayles- bury on Wednesday morning; and it lasted for three days. The court was densely crowded. Mr. Sergeant Bytes and Mr. Prendergast were counsel for the W'rtion; Mr. Fitzroy Kelly, Mr. O'Malley, and Mr. Gunning, for the defence. muain facts of the ease—the stifled screams heard in Sarah Hart's house- Tawell's being seen to huiry away from the gate—the discovery of the woman the agonies of death, with remnants of bottled porter and glasses on the table— the man's loitering about Slough—journey to town and tracking by the Police— are familiar to the reader. The novelty in the evidence consisted in new links to make out the chain of proof; but they were mostly of a minute kind, valuable rather in a legal sense than interesting in themselves, and in no respect altering the features of the case. While in custody, Tawell complained to Police-In- spector Perkins that Mts. Hart was always pestering him for money; and he called her a "bad-principled woman." He then said, that when he was last with her ho told her he would not allow her any more money in ; that she poured something out of a phial into a glass of water, drank it off, and fell down as if in convulsions; on which he left her, not believing her to be n earnest No phial, however, was found in Hart's house. Mr. Cluunpneys, Mr. J. T. Cooper, a chemist, and other professional gentlemen, gave very elaborate evidence as to the traces of prussic acid which they discovered in the woman's stomach: the stomach con- tained about a grain of pure acid, equal to fifty of the strength when prepared according to the London Pharmacopceia. The woman had eaten some apples; and an attempt was made to show that the prussic acid might have been formed from them, as it exists in the pips. Mr. Thomas, assistant to a chemist in Bishopegate Street, said that he had tried an experiment with apple-pips: from those of fifteen small apples he had obtained nearly half a grain of pure prussic acid. However, the balance of scientific evidence was against this view of the case. Mr. Thomas proved that Tawell bought two drachms of Scheele's prussic acid on the 1st January, at midway; on the followino day he bought sonic more, saying he had broken the bottle he had on the preceding day. Tawell was in the habit of buying medicines there for a varicose leg; and Mr. Kelly produced a prescription by. Dr. Alison for a diseased leg: one of the ingredients was prussic acid. A Mrs. Howard deposed that Mrs. Hart was taken very ill once before after Tawell visited her, in September last, when they had some stout. A very close connexion between Mrs. Hart and her former master, Tawell, was proved to have existed for many years. Tawell did not appear to be in such flonriehUig circumstances as had been supposed, for he had overdrawn his account at his banker's. Mr. Fitzroy Kelly's defence consisted in an endeavour to make out that the evidence failed. Mr. Baron Parke summed up yesterday morning. About noon, the Jury, after half-an-hour's deliberation, returned a verdict of " Guilty "; and the prisoner was sentenced to death. He bore his condemnation with great firmness.
At the Glamorganshire Assizes, last week, John Bees and Ann Williams wer0 tried for having incited a half-witted man, one Richard Edwards, to poison Tho- mas Vaughan and his wife, by giving them arsenic in beer. Ann William is a natural daughter of Mrs. Vaughan; and had formed an improper connexion with Rees, in consequence of which she, quitted her mother's house. The motive for the crime was a desire to obtain the property of the Vaughana. Edwards di- vulged the secret to Mrs. Vaughan, and gave up two packets of arsenic.. The prisoners were tried for the crime at the Summer .Assizes, convicted, and sentenced to be transported for life; but the Judges had decided, on technical objections, that the charge as then put could not be sustained: they were now tried for a misdemeanour, found guilty, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard labour.
Eight agricultural labourers have been convicted at the Salisbury Assizes, for poaching in Toffant Wood, belonging to the Earl of Pembroke, in January last; when a desperate fight took place between them and the gamekeepers. They were sentenced to be imprisoned for twelve months.
At the same Assizes, on Tuesday, three men were convicted of setting fire to farm-buildings and produce.
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