Page:History of the Anti corn law league.pdf/397

Rh Here is the law in one instance set at complete defiance, and a new law of the multitude in full force—that none shall work without their consent; and yet, with this evidence of supremacy, there is the full and tranquilising conviction in the minds of all other classes that their lives and property are perfectly safe in the hands of a population, which, except in its wild sense of justice with regard to the means of obtaining a better reward for labour, or a fuller representation in Parliament, pays the most punctilious regard to law and order. The conduct of the people of Paris, during the three days' struggle, lauded, and deservedly lauded, as it was, falls infinitely short in forbearance and noble mindedness to that of the people of Manchester and its neighbourhood in this fortnight's formidable contest.

"Has there been one single instance of the destruction of machinery? Bands of men have gone to a factory and ordered the hands to be turned out, and on compliance have gone away without doing damage to the amount of one farthing; and denial has occasioned little more than the demolition of panes of glass. In other instances a stop has been put to work in the briefest and easiest way. There is a plug in every boiler driven from within; and so well known is the position of every plug, that in one instant it is found, and in another moment driven in, letting the water out on the fire. The object has been not to destroy, but simply to stop and the simplest and least destructive manner has been chosen. Notwithstanding all that has been said by noble lords and most noble dukes, and by monopoly supporters, from Peel downwards to O'Connor, about distress being occasioned by over-production, accompanied by less demand for labour being occasioned by machinery; and notwithstanding all that has been said by Stephens and Oastler, about the ease with which machinery may be destroyed, there has not been a single loom or a single spindle touched. And