farriers’ strike. 
581 
The masters could have their choice of the men, as each 
offered to comply with the conditions, and they could now 
refuse employment to those who had been the chief instiga¬ 
tors of this distressing strike. The society, which had enjoyed 
a brief hour of triumph, was hurled to the ground, having 
enacted and enforced its arbitrary and tyrannical laws. The 
system that had existed and been paramount for generations 
ceased to exist. The ugly hydra-headed monster, with assist¬ 
ance from an allied society, paid its votaries one week’s allow¬ 
ance, viz., los. for married members and 12s. for single men; 
but when the second week’s pay-day came it was found there 
was not a sixpence in the exchequer for its silly and disap¬ 
pointed victims, and consequently there it lay prostrate, 
despised, forsaken. It will be unable to again interfere with 
willing and contented labour. It will be unable again to 
silence the music of the anvil or the ring of a thousand 
hammers. I take this result as an indication of the onward 
progress in our profession, and I hold it up as an example to 
other associations throughout the land. 
Many noble acts of devotion could be related of the 
masters sharing their stock of shoes with each other, and 
dividing their men with their less fortunate brethren. How 
also they had to marshal their men to and from their homes, 
piloting them through pickets. Throughout the whole of this 
severe trial it was truly refreshing to witness the perfect 
harmony and good faith which prevailed amongst us. Having 
passed unscathed through this ordeal, w r e have learned to 
feel a deeper and more sincere regard for one another, we 
feel more closely cemented together, and the respect and 
esteem we did entertain before the strike has now assumed 
a purer nature. 
Let us for one moment contrast with this picture the state 
of things that would have existed had no association been in 
existence. We should have been isolated from one another, 
consequent upon the rivalry and jealousies inherent in the 
profession ; the ordinary feeling of shyness, reserve, and sus¬ 
picion, would have been intensified, and kept us apart; the 
views, opinions, and resolves, of the one would be wholly un¬ 
known to the other; vre should have been reluctant to open 
our minds to one another, or to trust one another. Instead 
of unanimity there would have been diversity of interest, in¬ 
triguing, animosities, unfounded and unconscious enmities, 
embittering probably a whole life; and, being thus disunited, 
each acting independently of his fellow, the men could easily 
insinuate, misrepresent, victimise, and the masters one after 
another would have been forced to succumb to the demands, 
