system of spinning is behind the latest processes
of Manchester. The croppers whose occupation
was thus interfered with, became as violent
as the silversmiths of Ephesus, and were the chief
leaders in the Luddite riots. They were
generally of the stubborn resolute Yorkshire race;
ignorant, violent, determined, holding together
for good or ill, and resolved to destroy the new
frames, which they believed would throw poor
men out of work and starve their families.

There is a wild old Yorkshire legend extant,
which pretty well proves the opinion
entertained of the croppers by their contemporaries.
We give it in the words of a most reliable
authority: "The tradition is, that in consequence
of their dissipated and wicked ways, all
the croppers at their departure hence went to a
certain place that—to describe it negatively—
was neither purgatory nor paradise, and that in
the course of time they became so numerous in
that particularly warm region, and withal so
very, very unruly, that the devil was at his wits'
end what to do with them, and had no pleasure
of his existence in their company. Get rid of
them he could not. There they were, and,
notwithstanding all remonstrances, declared that
they would neither depart nor yet mend their
manners. One day, while pondering upon his
difficult position, a brilliant idea suddenly
occurred to his Satanic Majesty. He knew the
fondness of the croppers when on earth for ale,
whether good, bad, or indifferent, so he went to
the door of the infernal regions, and bawled out
with all his might, 'Ale! ale! ale!' The effect
was magical. At the joyful sound the croppers
were instantaneously seized with a burning
thirst. They rushed out to a man helter-
skelter to where the delightful news came
from. No sooner were they safely out than
Satan quietly but quickly slipped in, banging
the door to and locking it after him, shouting
through the keyhole to the astonished and
deluded croppers outside, 'Now, d—n you, I
have got you out, and I'll keep you out, and
I'll take good care no more croppers ever come
in here!' And this is stated to be the reason
that from thenceforth no more croppers entered
the infernal regions."

No Ribbonmen ever banded together with
more sullen determination in their movements;
their drilling and their attacks were conducted
with military precision. Mere agricultural
labourers might have shown as much courage, but
could not have formed such subtle combinations.
Every man had his allotted place by number
(as in a regiment) in the musket, pistol, or
hatchet, companies. The form of initiation was
known by the technical name of "twisting in."
The oath taken was as solemn and terrible
as that used in the secret tribunals of the
middle ages. It was as follows: " I,—— ——,
of my own voluntary will, do declare and
solemnly swear that I never will reveal to any
person or persons under the canopy of heaven
the names of the persons who compose this
secret committee, their proceedings, meetings,
places of abode, dress, features, connexions, or
anything else that might lead to a discovery of
the same either by word, or deed, or sign, under
the penalty of being sent out of the world by
the first brother who shall meet me, and my
name and character blotted out of existence,
and never to be remembered but with contempt
and abhorrence; and I further now do swear,
that I will use my best endeavours to punish
by death any traitor or traitors, should any rise
up amongst us, wherever I can find him or
them; and though he should fly to the verge of
nature, I will pursue him with unceasing
vengeance. So help me, God, and bless me to keep
this my oath inviolable."

At the time of the crisis of disorder in
1812, when the Luddite conspiracy was
netting over the greater part of two counties,
Enoch and James Taylor constructed the
obnoxious frames in their smithy, which stood on
what is now the play-ground of the town school
at Marsden. These enterprising men had begun
life as common blacksmiths, but by industry,
perseverance, and inventive genius, had become
known as skilful machine-makers. The giant
hammer used in the Yorkshire smithies was in
1812 playfully known among the grimy artisans
who wielded it, as "ENOCH," and when the
Luddites made one of their midnight marches
to destroy a finishing-frame, the cant saying
was—alluding to the firm at Marsden and the
hammer that was to crush their work—

"Enoch made them, and Enoch shall break
them."

Suffering, and believing that they would suffer
more, these impetuous men totally forgot that
all improvements in a trade tend to enlarge that
trade; that all lessenings of cost in the production
of a fabric tend to increase the sale of that
fabric; and that if the finishing-machines
reduced the number of croppers, the manufacture
of them undoubtedly led to the employment of
more hammermen. To these truths they were
indifferent; all they knew, was, that the new frames
lessened the immediate work for the croppers,
and they were determined not merely to destroy
those already in use, but to terrify employers
from further adopting them.

Yet the croppers themselves, as long as they
could get work, were well-to-do men, their
wages being twenty-four shillings a week. The
Marsden people were, indeed, seldom in
distress, for the great cotton trade was already
developing, and warp and weft ready for the hand-
loom were brought from Lancashire fortnightly
and put out to Marsden weavers. But let us
be just; the times were hard everywhere, and a
shilling did not bring then what it had brought
before, and what it brings now. Men worked
week in and week out, and only just, after
all, kept the wolf from the door. Oh! there was
a sharp biting suffering, before thoughtful
working men could combine in that thirty years'
conspiracy that brought many brave lads to
the gallows, and sent many to pine away the
rest of their miserable and wasted lives in the
dismal restrictions of New South Wales. Time
is full of common sense; it brings men to the