ttempted explosions are very common. On Friday,
September 29th, 1843, an attempt was made to blow up the saw-works of
Padgin, in Howard Street, Sheffield. A closed iron tube filled with
powder was the means employed, and the damage was considerable. On the
following day, a similar attempt was made in Ibbetson's knife and file
works at Shales Moor, near Sheffield. Mr. Ibbetson had made himself
obnoxious by an active participation in bourgeois movements, by low
wages, the exclusive employment of knobsticks, and the exploitation of
the Poor Law for his own benefit. He had reported, during the crisis of
1842, such operatives as refused to accept reduced wages, as persons who
could find work but would not take it, and were, therefore, not deserving
of relief, so compelling the acceptance of a reduction. Considerable
damage was inflicted by the explosion, and all the working-men who came
to view it regretted only "that the whole concern was not blown into the
air." On Friday, October 6th, 1844, an attempt to set fire to the
factory of Ainsworth and Crompton, at Bolton, did no damage; it was the
third or fourth attempt in the same factory within a very short time. In
the meeting of the Town Council of Sheffield, on Wednesday, January 10th,
1844, the Commissioner of Police exhibited a cast-iron machine, made for
the express purpose of producing an explosion, and found filled with four
pounds of powder, and a fuse which had been lighted but had not taken
effect, in the works of Mr. Kitchen, Earl Street, Sheffield. On Sunday,
January 20th, 1844, an explosion caused by a package of powder took place
in the sawmill of Bently & White, at Bury, in Lancashire, and produced
considerable damage. On Thursday, February 1st, 1844, the Soho Wheel
Works, in Sheffield, were set on fire and burnt up.

Here are six such cases in four months, all of which have their sole
origin in the embitterment of the working-men against the employers. What
sort of a social state it must be in which such things are possible I
need hardly say. These facts are proof enough that in England, even in
good business years, such as 1843, the social war is avowed and openly
carried on, and still the English bourgeoisie does not stop to reflect!
But the case which speaks most loudly is that of the Glasgow Thugs,
{221a} which came up before the Assizes from the 3rd to the 11th of
January, 1838. It appears from the proceedings that the Cotton-Spinners'
Union,