did honour to their order, were compelled to succumb to the power of capital. The strike, which lasted for several months, was severely felt, and will be remembered as one ofthe most disastrous of these unfortunate disputes which has ever occurred in Oldham. The nation generally, however, was then enjoying great prosperity, and after the struggle was over the abundance of employment and the remunerative wages paid caused it to be, not forgotten certainly, but to be much less seriously felt than would otherwise have been the case.

By far the most extensive iron works in the town, or, indeed, in this district, are the Hartford Works, belonging to Messrs. Platt Brothers & Co. (formerly Hibbert, Platt, & Co.) Mr. Butterworth states that in 1846 the number of operatives employed at the old works was 473, and at the new 400 ; but some idea may be formed of the amazing progress of the business since that time when we state that the number now employed at the old works is 750, and at the new works, 1700, exclusive of boys. Some time before the outbreak of the war upwards of 2000 hands were employed at the new works. The astonishing success which has attended this firm is something wonderful, even in this age of steam and railways, but it shows what can be accomplished by the combined influence of science and art, enterprise and energy, and capital and labour. At the Great Industrial Exhibition in London in 1851, the contributions of machinery for the manufacture of cotton from this establishment fully maintained its reputation, far excelling everything in the same department, and a prize medal was awarded to the firm. In the more recent Exhibition at Paris the same superiority characterised their specimens of machinery, and at its close the French Emperor showed his sense of the benefits conferred on mankind by the products of science and art by bestowing on the most eminent men in each department a special honour, and amongst others Mr. John Platt was

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