Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 41.djvu/300

 by which parliament might be induced to protect the factory hands in a letter in the ‘Leeds Intelligencer’ (20 Oct. 1831) entitled ‘Slavery in Yorkshire,’ and addressed ‘to the working classes of the West Riding.’ ‘Use your influence,’ he wrote, ‘to prevent any man being returned who will not distinctly and unequivocally pledge himself to support a “Ten-Hours-a-day and a Time-book Bill.”’ About the same time he formed the ‘Fixby Hall Compact’ with the working men of Huddersfield, by which they agreed to work together, without regard to parties in politics or sects in religion, for the reduction of the hours of labour. Oastler was also in constant correspondence with Michael Thomas Sadler [q. v.], the parliamentary leader of the movement. The introduction of Sadler's bill for regulating the labour of children and young persons in mills and factories was followed by numerous meetings, at which Oastler advocated the claims of the children. He was examined at length by the select committee on Sadler's bill. He took the chief part in organising a great meeting on 24 April 1832, when thousands of working people from all parts of the clothing districts joined in a ‘pilgrimage of mercy’ to York in favour of the bill. At Bradford, at Manchester, and other places, Oastler, sometimes in company with Sadler, was received with enthusiasm. His opponents nicknamed him ‘king,’ a title which he took to himself, and by which he soon became known throughout Lancashire and Yorkshire.

On 23 Feb. 1833 Oastler addressed an important meeting at the City of London Tavern, convened by the London society for the improvement of the factory children. This was the first meeting held in London in connection with the movement, and the first under the parliamentary leadership of Lord Ashley. After the defeat of Lord Ashley's bill and the passing of the mild government measure generally known as Lord Althorp's Act, Oastler continued to write and speak in favour of a ten-hours day. In the summer of 1835 he published a series of letters on that and similar subjects in some of the most popular unstamped periodicals of the day, in order that he might impress his views on a class otherwise beyond his reach. Poulett Thomson's bill to repeal ‘the thirteen-year-old clause,’ thus making twelve years the age-limit for those employed eight hours a day, caused a fresh outburst of excitement, during which Oastler went from one town to another addressing meetings. At a meeting organised by the Blackburn short time committee (15 Sept. 1836) he taxed the magistrates, who were there, with their refusal to enforce the Factory Acts, threatening to teach the children to ‘apply their grandmothers' old knitting-needles to the spindles’ if they again refused to listen to their complaints. This threat naturally provoked severe criticism; and Oastler, in order to make his position clear, published a pamphlet, ‘The Law and the Needle,’ in which he justified himself, on the ground that, if the magistrates refused to put the law into execution for the protection of children, there was no remedy but an appeal to force.

Meanwhile Oastler's views on the new poor law, a subject inseparably connected in his mind with the ten-hours agitation, were involving him in serious difficulties. He believed that the powers with which parliament had invested the poor-law commissioners for the supply of the factory districts with labourers from the agricultural counties would lead to the diminution of wages and the deterioration of the working classes. He also objected to the new poor law on the ground that it severed the connection between the ratepayers and their dependents, and sapped the parochial system. When, in accordance with his views, he resisted the commissioners in the township of Fixby, Frankland Lewis, on their behalf, asked Thornhill to assist them in enforcing the law. Thornhill had hitherto regarded Oastler's public work with approval. He had introduced Oastler to several statesmen, among them the Duke of Wellington, with whom Oastler carried on a long correspondence. But Thornhill would not countenance Oastler's opposition to the poor-law commissioners, and ultimately discharged him (28 May 1838).

Oastler removed to Brompton, and was supported by the gifts of anonymous friends in Lancashire and Yorkshire. But when he left Thornhill's service he owed him 2,000l., and Thornhill took proceedings at law to recover it. The case was tried in the court of common pleas before Lord-chief-justice Tindal and a special jury on 10 July 1840, when judgment was given against Oastler; but there was no imputation on his character. Unable to pay the debt, Oastler was on 9 Dec. 1840 sent to the Fleet Prison, and there he remained for more than three years.

During his imprisonment Oastler was not inactive. He published on 2 Jan. 1841 the first number of ‘The Fleet Papers; being Letters to Thomas Thornhill Esquire of Riddlesworth … from Richard Oastler his prisoner in the Fleet. With occasional Communications from Friends.’ By means of these papers, which appeared weekly, and in