The labourers in Warwickshire have taken their first false step.
The Tachbrooke branch of the Union warned Lord Warwick's 'bailiff that they should, from a given date, require the Union terms, 16s. a week for 65 hours' labour. They should then have given a week's warning, as required by law and by their contracts ; but instead of this, having no reply, they quitted work at once, leaving 200 tons of hay upon the ground. They were accordingly summoned, and fined by the magistrates £1 each, with coats amounting to 13s. 8d. The men were clearly in the wrong, as the Union managers ought to have seen. If the masters dismiss them summarily for joining a Union, they think it very justly an oppres- sion, yet they do not hesitate to dismiss the masters for refusing to obey a Union, and fine them heavily besides. There is no justice whatever in such a proceeding, which, moreover, just before the corn harvest, might be most injurious to the country.
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