a matter
of course, of a very serious nature had arisen. In 1837, the great
cotton-spinners' conspiracy, which led to the memorable trial, had kept
above twenty thousand persons in Lanarkshire, for four months, in a
state of compulsory destitution. In 1842, the colliers' strike threw a
still greater number into a state of idleness for five months, which led
to a general system of plunder, and forcible seizure of the farmers'
produce in the fields; only repressed, with infinite difficulty, by the
introduction of a large military force, aided by the yeomanry of the
county, who were on permanent duty for six weeks, and the establishment
for a few months, by subscription, of a powerful police. In October
1842, twenty policemen, who had some prisoners in charge for combination
offences, were assaulted by a furious mob of two thousand persons on the
streets of Airdrie, in the centre of the mining district of the county,
the house in which they had taken refuge set on fire, and the prisoners
by main force rescued from the hands of the law.[5] These facts were
known to the whole county, and the terror which, in consequence,
pervaded the agricultural inhabitants of the mining districts was so
great, that in a petition to government praying for protection, they
stated--that they would be better if law were altogether abolished, and
every man were allowed to defend himself by fire-arms, than they were
now; for that, if they used lethal weapons in defence of their property,
they ran the risk of being transported for culpable homicide--if they
did not, they were certain of being plundered by the combined workmen.
And what did the county do to arrest this disgraceful and perilous
system of outrage and plunder? Why, in the full knowledge of all these
facts, they passed a solemn resolution at Lanark, on 30th April 1843,
that _they never would again, on any occasion, or under any
circumstances of necessity whatever, sanction the employment of any
police or defensive force raised at their expense_.

We do not suppose that the inhabitants of South Wales or the banks of
the Clyde are particularly short-sighted or selfish, or more inclined to
resist assessment for objects of public utility or necessity than those
of other parts of the empire. On the contrary, we know that they are in
a remarkable degree the reverse; and that in no part of the world are
undertakings in public improvement or charity entered into with more
alacrity, and suppo