Glasgow spinners who were accused of assassinating a blackleg of grossly immoral character.[1] The memory of the Dorchester Labourers was still fresh, and Archibald Alison, who was writing the history of modern Europe to "prove that Providence was on the side of the Tories," had, as Sheriff of Lanarkshire, the case in hand. Already Alison was breathing out threatenings of slaughter against the Trade Unionists within his jurisdiction.[2]
Into the last-named affair the Association threw itself with energy. A Parliamentary inquiry into the conduct of the Trade Unions as a whole was set on foot, largely on the initiative of Daniel O'Connell, who was regarded as displaying unusual animosity against them. A Committee of Trades Delegates was set up in London to watch over the inquiry on behalf of the Unions! The London Working Men's Association appointed three of its members on this Committee, Lovett, of course, being Secretary, and gave twenty-five shillings out of its scanty funds towards expenses.[3] The Parliamentary Inquiry fizzled out in spite of the voluminous charges of Alison, and the Committee found it necessary to do no more than issue a manifesto or two and to give help to the witnesses for the Trade Unions during their visit to London.
This action gained the Association further support. Three of the accused spinners were admitted as honorary members, and thus communications were opened up with the working people of the North. The London Working Men's Association was rapidly becoming a propagator of working-class solidarity. With its hundred and fifty allied associations in all parts of the country,[4] the Association could safely lay claim to the leadership of working-class opinion. Its agitation was not local: it was national and general. It aimed at no partial measures but at a radical reform of the institutions of the country, which would pave the way to social legislation in any desired sense.
In fact the Association was carried away by the excitement of the times and its own success in winning support for its radical programme. It had already achieved a considerable triumph, for the Birmingham Political Union in its desire to gain popular support for its Currency scheme had declared in favour of the radical programme. The Association was spurred on by this success and by the desire to seize and maintain
- ↑ Parliamentary Papers, 1837-38, viii. 211-12.
- ↑ Pp. 92-187.
- ↑ Additional MSS. 37,773, p. 99.
- ↑ See Address of Radical Reformers of England, Scotland, and Wales to the Irish People (1838) for list.
