to Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lancashire, and
Yorkshire. At first frame-breaking was carried on by large bodies of
operatives in broad daylight, and when these open proceedings were put
down by military force, they were succeeded by nightly outrages,
sometimes attended by murder. Early in 1812 a bill was passed making
frame-breaking a capital offence.

In spite of this riots grew into local insurrections, and a message from
the prince regent on June 27 recommended further action to parliament.
It was natural, in that generation to connect all disorderly movements
with revolutionary designs, and this belief underlies an alarmist report
from a secret committee of the house of lords on the prevailing tumults.
Accordingly, Sidmouth obtained new powers for magistrates to search for
arms, to disperse tumultuous assemblies, and to exercise jurisdiction
beyond their own districts. In November many Luddites were convicted,
and sixteen were executed by sentence of a special commission sitting at
York. These stern measures were effectual for a time, and popular
discontent in the manufacturing districts ceased to assume so acute a
form until after the war was ended.

The sufferings of the poor in the rural districts, though generally
endured in silence, were at least equally severe with those of the
artisan class, and it is difficult to say whether a good or bad harvest
pressed more heavily on agricultural labourers. When the price of wheat
rose to 130s. per quarter or upwards, as it did in 1812 and other years
of scarcity, the farmers were able to pay comparatively high wages. When
the price fell to 75s., as it did in years of plenty like 1813, wages
were reduced to starvation-point, but supplemented out of the
poor-rates, under the miserable system of indiscriminate out-door relief
graduated according to the size of families. In either case, the entire
income of a labourer was far below the modern standard, and the
prosperity of trade meant to him an increase in the cost of all
necessaries except bread. As for their employers, the golden age of
farming, which is often identified with the age of the great war, had
really ceased long before. Not only did the high price of a farmer's
purchases go far to neutralise the high price of his sales, but the
excessive fluctuations in all prices, due to the opening and closing of
markets according to the fortunes of war, made prudent speculation
almost impossible. The frequently recurring