ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 616, 28 June 1851, Page 4

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Sailors’ Strike, —The M rine Act of last Ses.ion do es , "** Mt « be a very successful „r , V U fi rst-fruit was a g e r nerar str i k B ; BU,io ». h h seamen or the northern ports M ment began on the Tyne, with a a- 8 I tween masters and men fineness of the winter had d’enr^ 8 ' mand for coal, and consequS ? trade. The employed resisted 7 effectually, the working of P and demand. Discovering the fo 0 r?*l 1 such complaints, thev . and took to expressing SVl?) f new ogtslntton of , h , Bo , rd o(T *«I| : 1 he Wear soon sympathised „ ilh l the sailors of Sunderland and it, ports responded to the call of their H 7 P ther north. The Humber became and Huß joined the movement. T he gt of Dade then began to be seriously a £i and sent Captain Beechy down u Nil S Helds. But Liverpool bad caught tketf fectmn, and from distant Peterhea.l I north of Aberdeenshire, the whalers Cl clamour against the Statute. gM || The stringent enforci Di J| ciphne, and heavy penalties for its | laid down by the new act, are the chief p OB at which Jack was “taken aback.” Th t also provided for a system of reeistratiml which would shew to shipmasters who w ei( | good, and who bad sailors. Of course was objected to by the latter. But the J rainy of the strike may be referred to ih'J part of the act which subjected the coashl trade to the payment of shipping office feeil while exempting its agreements from theij-E risdiction of the shipping offices, in ccekl quence of which the sailors would have ill pay in the course of the year, a much high.l amount of fees to these offices, which weies'l no use to them, than the seamen engaged long voyages. Thus they had some reasni fortheir proceedings, which were, howera,! carried on with much absurd exaggeraiij;| for instance, the issue of tickets, whichvj prove of great use to them, led themtoc'J scribe themselves at their numerous meeting 0 as “ ticketed negro-slaves.” out the aitair was likely to prove seriou Two war steamers had been sent to the nori S with detachments of marines, in order to m f in case of emergency. Several shipowoen had laid up their vessels on account of th &; difficulty of obtaining hands. The pitmK were thrown out of work. Under thesecitcumstances, the Board of Trade interfered, and Mr. Laboucbere promised redress toi deputation that waited upon him on the2o:J of February. Some of the seamen then treri to work under protest. Great excitement had been occasioned of the exposure of an almost unparalleled system of cruelty practised upon Jane Wilbred, a servant girl, not 17 years old, by MrSloane, an eminent barrister, and his wife. Their trial took place at the Central Crimi® Court on the sth February. It appeal that for some time after the prosecutrix into their service she was treated kindlyThis continued until the occasion of the desdi of a bird, after which the conduct of fendants towards her was entirely chaogH-B The evidence of the girl shewed a course' j. ill-treatment, continued beatings, anda« [i 'B ety of indelicate and inhuman acts, commit! ■ by one or both of the defendants. been fed, or rather starved, upon breads 0 water, while work beyond her strength exacted from her—improper food had W-B forced upon her—and even the natural of rest broken, or denied her altogether, the most trivial causes. At the first exs® nation, the girl was so weak and that she could scarcely stand. The u e dants, who pleaded guilty to the several of the indictment, were sentenced to ment for two years. The extent ° feeling may be gathered from i» ie • HC; ( (e after the examination before the mag is Mr. Sloane’s life was in danger f fOin furiated mob, who threatened to tear pieces, as he was being conveyed ir° court to the Compter prison.