to be extremely deplorable, an additional grant of £400 was procured from the London Relief Fund in July, 1842,which, with local subscriptions, was applied to the assistance of the necessitous. "The state of a large body of the working classes of Oldham at this period was perfectly heart-rending. Groups of idlers stood in the midst of the main street; their faces haggard with famine, and their eyes rolling with that fierce and uneasy expression which I have often noticed in maniacs. I went up to some of them, and entered into conversation. They were very candid and communicative; for the men of this part of Lancashire retain much of the sturdy independence of the ancient Saxon character: they will go miles to do a needful service, but they will not stir one och to do homage to wealth or station. Each man had his own tale of sorrow to tell, complicated details of misery and suffering, gradual in their approach, and grinding in their result; borne, however, with an iron endurance, such as the Saxon race alone displays, and with a good deal of that noblest form of pride - the pride of independent labour. ' We want not charity, but employmentf was their unanimous declaration; and proof that this was the truth was abundant from their conduct. Many of these men were chartists, some of them manifested a great hatred of machinery, and strenuously urged an immediate appeal to arms, whilst a considerable proportion of them did not share in any feeling of dislike to machinery, and greatly deprecated any thing like an appeal to physical force."

On the evening of Monday, the Sth of August, 1842, a large body of the turnout spinners and weavers of Ashton-under-Lyne and Stalybridge visited Oldham unexpectedly, and by their menacing demeanor, prevailed on the operatives of nearly all the factories in the westerly portion of Oldham to leave off work, and join in a general turn out, the rallying cry of which was " a fair day's wage for a fair day's work." Wlth

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