then bate us till it's no use working.-I say down with the cotton lords and steam engines, down wi' 'em, burn 'em and distroy 'em, and then we shall have good old times back again; then, I say, we shall have beef in our kettles, and ale in our pots, instead of meal-porridge and butter-milk. Down with the cotton lords, my lads! down with 'em!”

These sentiments met with the cordial approbation of his auditors, and the "greasy rogues" threw up their caps, and shouted "Down with the cotton lords!"

This meeting was not a solitary one, in fact the entire rural population of a large and populous district, was discontented and partly starving. Ru

mour,

"the blunt monster, with uncounted heads,"

had carried tidings of these "sayings and doings," to the manufacturers, and had excited proportionate alarm. Precautionary measures were taken, and Manford as being the richest man amongst them, and as a sequence believed to be the wisest, had been made the organ for conveying information of this threatening state of things to govern

ment.

Great was the pride of the Manfords, on the delivery of a packet, sealed with an official seal, marked "Home Department," and indorsed "John Manford, Esq. Factory Hall."

"Well," said Mrs. Manford, "I never know'd such a thing, to be sure. To think of our John having a letter from the Secretary of State !' Good gracious, what next?"

6

This letter was just such a one as is generally received from persons in office,-abundantly oracular, and very little to the purpose. It however

contained a high eulogium upon Mr. Manford's sagacity and prudence; and recommended that the local authorities should be active, that special constables should be sworn in, and further, that military force should be in readiness, provided the civil power was too weak to cope with the emergency. This was all very well for the manufacturers, but did little to abate the distress existing amongst the operatives.

Manford's understanding, and the understandings of his brother "cotton lords," were unfit to govern the crisis; their views were limited to their factory walls, they possessed no knowledge of the bearings of the question, with them it was a mere opposition of brute force to brute force, and as often as they heard of meetings of the operatives, a posse of constables, headed by a neighbouring dunderheaded magistrate, was despatched to disperse the starving weavers. This led to a great deal of personal animosity, and slight skirmishes not unfrequently took place, as often indeed as the eloquence of Orator Sampson could screw the courage of his followers to the "sticking point."

The notions entertained by the sufferers them. selves were pitiably absurd; had they destroyed every mill then in existence, they would not have been one inch nearer the "good old times," with the ideas of which they allowed themselves to be deluded. They were however rendered desperate, partly by the pressure of want, which is a bad reasoner, and a still worse adviser, and partly by the advices of bad and violent men who served their own purposes by misleading and blinding the the popular mind.

Manford was busily engaged in all these measures, and as he was one of those men who are clear headed and shrewd, simply because they

have but one idea, it is natural that when new ones were forced into his head, the old one was for the time displaced. Anne, consequently, was nearly forgotten, and many days passed away, and found her drooping and pining, like a beautiful exotic, in the unnatural and foreign atmosphere of the mill.

CHAPTER XVI.

66

A CONFLAGRATION.

Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit
To its full height.

Henry Fifth.

It was in the depth of the winter of 18-, when the discontented labourers proceeded to put their long threatened violence into effect. The solitary mark of wisdom connected with this proceeding was, that it had strangely enough been kept secret. The blow fell the first upon Manford, who had made himself, of late, particularly obnoxious.

The hands had been at work about an hour, as they began somewhere about five o'clock in the morning, and it was still quite dark, when they were startled by a loud "hurrah," and a shower of brickbats pouring through the windows. Every thing was in a moment in the wildest confusion: the women and children shrieked, the men stormed, swore and shouted, but took no measures to defend their master's property.

The wild hubbub, the acclamations of the misguided mob, and the terrified clamours of the people, roused Manford from his sleep; and on rushing hastily to the window, he saw his magnificent mill already on fire in several places, and his machinery hurled from the windows, amidst the vociferous "hurrahs" of the destroyers. There was little time allowed him for deliberation, as his

alarmed household broke in upon him, exhibiting all the moods of fear.

"We shall be murdered, ravished, ruined, burned -oh, Lord, be gracious to us! Oh John, run, man, send for the soldiers, send for the constables. Oh Lord!-oh Lord!-they're coming here. Oh John, where's your gun-shoot 'em-shoot 'em."

In the midst of this domestic turmoil, Manford became aware that a party of the rioters were approaching the house; indeed, the light from the burning mill now illumined the neighbourhood, and made their motions quite apparent.

Manford had enough of that bull-dog courage which renders men brave, simply because they are insensible to danger; but he felt that flight, in his particular case, would be the better part of valour; and ordering all about him to get out of the way, as fast as possible, he left the house, and was fortunate enough to escape meeting with the excited rabble, as it is more than likely, had they seized him, they would have treated him roughly.

While the proprietor was thus seeking his personal safety, in flight, the work of destruction went on gloriously, in the opinion of the mob. The whole of the immense structure, with its necessary offices, and stock of manufactured goods and of raw material, was in one mass of bright flamea burnt offering to ignorance and folly. His house, too, was completely gutted, and irreverent hands made a bonfire of old Mrs. Manford's "lion beds," and all the household stuff, in which she had long delighted. The cellars were emptied and their contents transferred into the persons of Orator Sampson and his immediate myrmidons; for Sampson, a Boanerges in council, was " also foremost in the fight," and as day broke gloomily and heavily, the well ordered establishment of Factory

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