POSTSCRIPT.
SATURDAY NIGHT.
There is no general change in the aspect of affairs in the North. Manchester was peaceable yesterday i; but the people still held back from work ; and the fustian-cutters and power-loom weavers went about begging for subsistence. The wages demanded by the spinners (at the raw of 1839) average about 30s. a week
Some prisoners were examined. Turner and Leech were committed for trial on a charge of conspiracy to disturb the public peace ; a placard which Turner had printed and Leech had published, and speeches by Leech at Carpenter's Hall, being the overt acts alleged. Alexander Hutchinson, the late Chairman of the Delegates' meetings, was com- mitted on a similar charge ; others were committed for riot.
Oldham has been quite tranquillized ; but at Stockport the work. people evince extraordinary obstinacy in refusing employment at the present rates. There is some dispute between the Anti-Corn-law mill- owners and the mill-owners of the opposite party, which is regarded as holding out hopes of success to the men ; and the meeting of special constables, to mediate between the masters and servants, is considered to have done mischief. Such meetings have been prohibited for the future.
At Birmingham, George White, the Chartist, was arrested yesterday, as he was coming out of a public-house. When Inspector Hall addressed him, he threw himself on the ground, and refused to move. Hall seized him, and notwithstanding his violent resistance, dragged him into the public-house. A detachment of Police was summoned, to prevent a rescue by the mob, now growing tumultuous ; and he was led before the Magistrates. He was charged with uttering sentiments and placards tending to a breach of the public peace ; and it was proved that he told the mob to come to a meeting with weapons in their pockets, that they might not be "driven like Sturge's party." White cross-examined one of the Policemen who had formerly been a Chartist, with a view of showing that there was a "spy system" in operation ; but a Magis- trate told the witness that he might refuse to answer such questions, and he did so. White was committed for trial at the Borough Sessions.
Cooper, the Leicester Chartist, was arrested at his shop in that town yesterday. When the Police entered his shop with the warrant, he kissed his wife, and said, "I'm done now, my wench "; and quietly submitted to be handcuffed to a Police Inspector. A letter from 'White was found in his pocket, of which lie observed, "I would rather that should not have been discovered." A large crowd followed him telling him to "keep up his spirits." Cooper told a newspaper-reporter, while at the Stationhouse, that he had once been a "cordwainer," and (saith the precise reporter) "over the 'last,' an instrument used in the business," he taught himself five different languages. He was once editor of the Greenwich Gazette, and afterwards reporter of the Leicester Mercury; which he left because he was "too Liberal."
John Duncan, a Chartist minister, was arrested at Dundee on Tues- day, with other ringleaders. The place was quite orderly, with a very large force of special constables.
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