turned to Manchester. These invoices, containing the age, sex, &c. of each family, were kept in the office by Mr. Muggeridge, and exhibited to the manufacturers, who affixed their name and address to the invoice of such families as would suit them; after which, these precious documents were again transmitted to the parishes, with a request that they might be sent down to the manufacturers forthwith. The term of their engagement was for three years.
In this manner 10,000 persons, mostly agricultural laborers, were removed from their homes and the scenes of their childhood, and in a great majority of cases, entirely against their will, (being poor they were supposed to have no will,) to be immured in the cotton mills at Lancashire, &c.
Let us now turn our eyes to the closing scene in this tragedy. From the Report of Mr. Muggeridge, dated July, 1837, we learn that—"The condition of the laborers who were induced to migrate under your sanction, would, I am sure, at any time, be a subject of great interest and anxiety to you (the Commissioners); and at the present period, this interest and anxiety cannot but be increased by the altered circumstances in which the district is placed, compared with those which led to the introduction of migration."
"Nearly every one of the possible causes anticipated, as likely to lead to the ultimate ill success or defeat of this branch of the Commission, has been suddenly and unexpectedly realized. * * * The entire trade of the district was all at once paralyzed; distrust and want of confidence suspended for a season almost all commercial operations; the demand for additional labor ceased; large numbers of the native work-people were temporarily thrown out of occupation; and the extended preparations
