the agitation in favour of far greater changes of principles than were embodied in that measure, was not only very energetic, but widely extended, and a considerable proportion of the working classes still continue from time to time to urge such views on public attention. In May and June, 1831, turnouts of the cotton spinners and coal miners occurred, the former to resist proposed abatements, and the latter in opposition to the attempts then making to abolish unions of the workmen. The number of hands deprived of employment by the spinners' strike was about 600, and by the miners' turnout 1000. These unhappy differences terminated about the middle of August following, by the workmen returning to their labour on the employers' terms.

The state of the working classes of Oldham in the early part of 1833 was described in the following manner in one of the London daily papers of the time, in a communication signed "An Elector of Oldham." The writer of the article, the late Horatio Nelson, Esq., the worthy president of the Oldham Lyceum, possessed extensive and accurate information. He remarks : "Perhaps no town in Britain has increased in a greater ratio than Oldham, none where fortunes have been accumulated with greater rapidity; nor is there probably any town where, all things fully considered, the working classes are more comfortable in their circumstances, or obtain a better remuneration for their labour. Distress, from particular circumstances, does exist in Oldham, and one main cause of it is the great influx of labourers and artisans from neighbourhoods not enjoying the same prosperity and advantages that this district possesses. The hand-loom weavers are in an extremely depressed condition, but as fast as circumstances will allow they are quitting their original trade and adopting others. Few of them can now earn more than 5s. to 7s. per week. In the cotton mills the men's wages are from 15s. to 30s.; women and children's from 2s. 3d. to 8s. or 10s. The hatting trade is at present tolerably brisk,

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