Page:The Laboring Classes of England.djvu/135

 {|
 * Cotton Spinners of Manchester, 1810,|||£224,000
 * &emsp;"""1826,|||200,000
 * &emsp;"""Since|||176,000
 * Spinners of Preston|||74,313
 * Town of Preston|||107,096
 * Glasgow Cotton Spinners|||47,600
 * Loss to the City of Glasgow|||200,000
 * Loss to the County of Lanarkshire|||500,000
 * Strike in the Potteries|||50,000
 * Leeds Mechanics' Strike, Twelve Months|||187,000
 * Wool Combers of Bradford, Ten Months|||400,000
 * Colliers|||50,000
 * |||£2,216,009
 * }
 * Loss to the County of Lanarkshire|||500,000
 * Strike in the Potteries|||50,000
 * Leeds Mechanics' Strike, Twelve Months|||187,000
 * Wool Combers of Bradford, Ten Months|||400,000
 * Colliers|||50,000
 * |||£2,216,009
 * }
 * Wool Combers of Bradford, Ten Months|||400,000
 * Colliers|||50,000
 * |||£2,216,009
 * }
 * |||£2,216,009
 * }

About eleven millions of dollars; and if all the other strikes and turn-outs were taken into account, it would swell the amount to over 20 millions of dollars, spent in a vain attempt to protect the wages of labor. Whilst the English capitalist can make use of the law to crush the producer, the producer can never make use of the law to protect himself; witness the case of the Dorchester laborers, and Glasgow cotton spinners, so well known; and, also, the case of the Stockport weavers, in 1840. The Stockport cotton masters offered a reduction of 2s. in the 12s.; and, availing themselves of the power given to them by the combination laws, caused several of the turn-out weavers to be arrested for conspiracy. For what? one count of the indictment was, "That they conspired to raise their wages." On this they were tried, convicted, and imprisoned. We might also instance the case of the six poor girls in the flax mills at Dundee, described on pages 91 and 92.

Let us see now what steps have been taken by the manufacturers to reduce wages.

In the appendix (C) to the first annual report of the Poor Law Commissioners, the reader will find a letter