324 History of the 



at Nottingham. The name afterwards came to be appHed to 

 breakers of machinery in general. It is to these that allusion is 

 made in the lines — 



" As the Liberty lads over the sea 



Bought their freedom, and cheaply, with blood, 

 So we, boys, we 

 Will die fighting or live free. 

 And down with all kings but King Ludd." 



In every town and village such means as were at the command 

 of the authorities were employed to quell the disturbances. In the 

 Book of the Greave of Rossendale Forest for this year we find 

 entries relating to numbering the rate-payers, and summoning them 

 to attend under the " Watch and Ward Act." Special constables 

 were attested and sworn, and a register of Expenses on account of 

 the Militia also appears. The riots soon assumed the magnitude 

 of an armed insurrection. Bands of hair-brained enthusiasts in 

 Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Cheshire assembled, and determined 

 to march up to London and remodel the Constitution. They 

 would , 



" Beard the Lion in his den," 



and having ejected him by force, like the " Liberty lads over the 

 sea," (d) would commence government on their own account. 

 With this object in view, they armed themselves with pikes, scythe 

 blades stuck on the end of poles, and other rude implements of 

 warfare. With these and a few other necessaries, including each a 

 blanket for protection from the weather when bivouacking on the 

 way, they commenced their mad enterprise. Their campaign, 

 however, soon came to a disastrous termination, and the leaders, to 

 the number of twenty-four, having been seized, were tried, and 

 afterwards executed — eight at Lancaster and sixteen at York. 



The Plug Riots of August 1842 did not assume the proportions 

 of those previously described. Bands of men entered the mills 



(rf) The American colonists in the War of Independence. 



