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Evening Star, Issue 3289, 4 September 1873, Page 3

l ord Fitzwilliam has had a rather remarkable conflict with his colliers, A man named Hargreaves refused to join the Union, and the Unionists, after threatening him, demanded that he should he dismissed, thus, as Lord Fitzwilliam says, making the owner an accomplice in a crime, the theft of Hargreaves’ wages. The men, 300 in number, struck twenty-five or twenty-six times during eighteen months, till Lord Eitzwilliam at last closed the pits. The men, left without resources, submitted and apologised, and asked for an interview. His lordship granted it, and in a rather pedagogic but very clear speech told them a bit of his mind. They were welcome as freemen to join any Union they liked, but they should not expel men who did not want to join the Union, still less should they make him an accomplice in the offence. As to coercing him, he did not care if he never reopened his pits. The coal would remain below, and would be a bank, possibly a very wealthy bank, for his descendants to draw upon. Certainly he should not bother himself by working without a profit. This sounds stern, but after all, it is just. Would any tradesman, or journalist, or farmer-, go on working without a profit, or sell a property the value of which wag euro to increase ?