BY A. J. TAYLOE, F.L.S., F.R.G.S. 35 



Under this law those who were bold enough to defy its 

 provisions were made to suffer heavily ; for the laws were 

 put in force without mercy, and oftentimes in defiance of 

 justice. As an instance, it may be mentioned in 1805 three 

 linen-weavers were sent to Wakefield gaol for three months — 

 one for the offence of carrying a letter to York requesting 

 assistance from other workmen. The men were invariably 

 punished very severely, but they invariably failed whenever 

 they attempted in turn to prosecute the masters for combin- 

 ation, athough some of their cases were fully proved. I 

 might cover pages in quoting instances in support of these 

 statmeuts, but that would only unnecessarily trespass upon 

 the time I have at my disposal. Those who are curious in 

 the matter I must refer to Howell's excellent account of the 

 Confiicis of Capital and Labour, pp. 105-7. 



" The history of these persecutions and contentions," says 

 that writer, " and the consequent privations endured by the 

 workmen, for the purpose of securing their independence, is 

 a real record of heroism. In spite of oppression the most 

 crushing ; of legal enactments the most stringent ; of punish- 

 ments the most cruel for any infraction of these acts, the men 

 continued to combine ; they contested every inch of the ground, 

 until, after a struggle of centuries, they were on the threshold 

 of victory ; partial, it is true, but still most important, viewed 

 by the light of later facts A few men in Parlia- 

 ment, with Joseph Hume at their head, had observed their 

 struggles for industrial freedom, and in the year 1824 they 

 moved for and obtained the appointment of a Select Committee 

 of the House of Commons to consider the laws relating to 

 workmen and artisans." The conditions under which the 

 workers were struggling at this time may be judged from the 

 statement of the same historian that "there are men still 

 living who can recollect the time when they had to bury the 

 books and records of their Society on the Town Moor of 

 Bolton, in Lancashire, when oaths had to be resorted to, and 

 were administered to for the purpose of securing mutual pro- 

 tection ; when to ask for a rise of wages, or even to receive an 

 advance, if offered, was a violation of the law," and when the 

 exportation of machinery and the emigration of artisans was 

 alike forbidden. 



In due time Mr. Hume's committee brought up its report. 

 Briefly summarised, it admitted that combinations of workmen 

 had taken place in England, Ireland, and Scotland, and that 

 at the time of taking evidence such combinations were in 

 existence, attended with strikes — the object being to keep up 

 ■wages, regulate the hours of working, and to impose restric- 

 tions upon the masters respecting apprentices or others whom 

 they might think proper to employ ; that serious breaches of 

 the peace had resulted, attended with loss both to masters 



