h when the matter in question was a
specific social one. Not to mention the Welsh insurrection of 1839, a
complete battle was waged in Manchester in May, 1843, during my residence
there. Pauling & Henfrey, a brick firm, had increased the size of the
bricks without raising wages, and sold the bricks, of course, at a higher
price. The workers, to whom higher wages were refused, struck work, and
the Brickmakers' Union declared war upon the firm. The firm, meanwhile,
succeeded with great difficulty in securing hands from the neighbourhood,
and among the knobsticks, against whom in the beginning intimidation was
used, the proprietors set twelve men to guard the yard, all ex-soldiers
and policemen, armed with guns. When intimidation proved unavailing, the
brick-yard, which lay scarcely a hundred paces from an infantry barracks,
was stormed at ten o'clock one night by a crowd of brickmakers, who
advanced in military order, the first ranks armed with guns. They forced
their way in, fired upon the watchmen as soon as they saw them, stamped
out the wet bricks spread out to dry, tore down the piled-up rows of
those already dry, demolished everything which came in their way, pressed
into a building, where they destroyed the furniture and maltreated the
wife of the overlooker who was living there. The watchmen, meanwhile,
had placed themselves behind a hedge, whence they could fire safely and
without interruption. The assailants stood before a burning brick-kiln,
which threw a bright light upon them, so that every ball of their enemies
struck home, while every one of their own shots missed its mark.
Nevertheless, the firing lasted half-an-hour, until the ammunition was
exhausted, and the object of the visit--the demolition of all the
destructible objects in the yard--was attained. Then the military
approached, and the brickmakers withdrew to Eccles, three miles from
Manchester. A short time before reaching Eccles they held roll-call, and
each man was called according to his number in the section when they
separated, only to fall the more certainly into the hands of the police,
who were approaching from all sides. The number of the wounded must have
been very considerable, but those only could be counted who were
arrested. One of these had received three bullets (in the thigh, the
calf, and the shoulder), and had travelled in spite of them more than
four miles on foot. These people have proved that they, too, possess
revol