62 MEMOIR OF FLEEMING JENKIN 



and companion ; and this was the subject of remark 

 in Manchester, where some memory of it lingers till 

 to-day. He thought it one of the advantages of his 

 profession to be brought in a close relation with 

 the working classes ; and for the skilled artisan he 

 had a great esteem, liking his company, his virtues 

 and his taste in some of the arts. But he knew 

 the classes too well to regard them, like a platform 

 speaker, in a lump. He drew, on the other hand, 

 broad distinctions ; and it was his profound sense 

 of the difference between one working man and 

 another that led him to devote so much time, in 

 later days, to the furtherance of technical education. 

 Experi- I n 1852 he had occasion to see both men and 



ence of a 



strike. masters at their worst, in the excitement of a strike ; 

 and very foolishly (after their custom) both would 

 seem to have behaved. Beginning with a fair show 

 of justice on either side, the masters stultified their 

 cause by obstinate impolicy, and the men dis- 

 graced their order by acts of outrage. ' On Wednes- 

 day last,' writes Fleeming, ' about three thousand 

 banded round Fairbairn's door at 6 o'clock : men, 

 women, and children, factory boys and girls, the 

 lowest of the low in a very low place. Orders came 

 that no one was to leave the works ; but the men 

 inside (Knobsticks, as they are called) were precious 

 hungry and thought they would venture. Two of 

 my companions and myself went out with the very 

 first, and had the full benefit of every possible groan 



