Mary Barton Page #56

Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life is the first novel by English author Elizabeth Gaskell, published in 1848. The story is set in the English city of Manchester between 1839 and 1842, and deals with the difficulties faced by the Victorian working class.

• Novel

								


But the masters did not choose to make all these facts known. They
stood upon being the masters, and that they had a right to order work
at their own prices, and they believed that in the present depression
of trade, and unemployment of hands, there would be no great
difficulty in getting it done.

Now let us turn to the workmen's view of the question. The masters
(of the tottering foundation of whose prosperity they were ignorant)
seemed doing well, and like gentlemen, "lived at home in ease," while
they were starving, gasping on from day to day; and there was a
foreign order to be executed, the extent of which, large as it was,
was greatly exaggerated; and it was to be done speedily. Why were the
masters offering such low wages under these circumstances? Shame
upon them! It was taking advantage of their work-people being almost
starved; but they would starve entirely rather than come into such
terms. It was bad enough to be poor, while by the labour of their
thin hands, the sweat of their brows, the masters were made rich; but
they would not be utterly ground down to dust. No! they would fold
their hands, and sit idle, and smile at the masters, whom even in
death they could baffle. With Spartan endurance they determined to
let the employers know their power, by refusing to work.

So class distrusted class, and their want of mutual confidence
wrought sorrow to both. The masters would not be bullied, and
compelled to reveal why they felt it wisest and best to offer only
such low wages; they would not be made to tell that they were even
sacrificing capital to obtain a decisive victory over the continental
manufacturers. And the workmen sat silent and stern with folded
hands, refusing to work for such pay. There was a strike in
Manchester.

Of course it was succeeded by the usual consequences. Many other
Trades' Unions, connected with different branches of business,
supported with money, countenance, and encouragement of every kind,
the stand which the Manchester power-loom weavers were making against
their masters. Delegates from Glasgow, from Nottingham, and other
towns, were sent to Manchester, to keep up the spirit of resistance;
a committee was formed, and all the requisite officers elected;
chairman, treasurer, honorary secretary:--among them was John Barton.

The masters, meanwhile, took their measures. They placarded the walls
with advertisements for power-loom weavers. The workmen replied by
a placard in still larger letters, stating their grievances. The
masters met daily in town, to mourn over the time (so fast slipping
away) for the fulfilment of the foreign orders; and to strengthen
each other in their resolution not to yield. If they gave up now,
they might give up always. It would never do. And amongst the
most energetic of the masters, the Carsons, father and son, took
their places. It is well known, that there is no religionist so
zealous as a convert; no masters so stern, and regardless of the
interests of their work-people, as those who have risen from such a
station themselves. This would account for the elder Mr. Carson's
determination not to be bullied into yielding; not even to be bullied
into giving reasons for acting as the masters did. It was the
employer's will, and that should be enough for the employed. Harry
Carson did not trouble himself much about the grounds for his
conduct. He liked the excitement of the affair. He liked the attitude
of resistance. He was brave, and he liked the idea of personal
danger, with which some of the more cautious tried to intimidate the
violent among the masters.

Meanwhile, the power-loom weavers living in the more remote parts
of Lancashire, and the neighbouring counties, heard of the masters'
advertisements for workmen; and in their solitary dwellings grew
weary of starvation, and resolved to come to Manchester. Foot-sore,
way-worn, half-starved looking men they were, as they tried to steal
into town in the early dawn, before people were astir, or late in the
dusk of evening. And now began the real wrong-doing of the Trades'
Unions. As to their decision to work, or not, at such a particular
rate of wages, that was either wise or unwise; all error of judgment
at the worst. But they had no right to tyrannise over others, and
tie them down to their own procrustean bed. Abhorring what they
considered oppression in the masters, why did they oppress others?
Because, when men get excited, they know not what they do. Judge,
then, with something of the mercy of the Holy One, whom we all love.

In spite of policemen set to watch over the safety of the poor
country weavers,--in spite of magistrates, and prisons, and severe
punishments,--the poor depressed men tramping in from Burnley,
Padiham, and other places, to work at the condemned "Starvation
Prices," were waylaid, and beaten, and left almost for dead by the
road-side. The police broke up every lounging knot of men:--they
separated quietly, to reunite half-a-mile further out of town.

Of course the feeling between the masters and workmen did not improve
under these circumstances.

Combination is an awful power. It is like the equally mighty agency
of steam; capable of almost unlimited good or evil. But to obtain
a blessing on its labours, it must work under the direction of a
high and intelligent will; incapable of being misled by passion, or
excitement. The will of the operatives had not been guided to the
calmness of wisdom.

So much for generalities. Let us now return to individuals.

A note, respectfully worded, although its tone of determination was
strong, had been sent from the power-loom weavers, requesting that a
"deputation" of them might have a meeting with the masters, to state
the conditions they must have fulfilled before they would end the
turn-out. They thought they had attained a sufficiently commanding
position to dictate. John Barton was appointed one of the deputation.

The masters agreed to this meeting, being anxious to end the strife,
although undetermined among themselves how far they should yield, or
whether they should yield at all. Some of the old, whose experience
had taught them sympathy, were for concession. Others, white-headed
men too, had only learnt hardness and obstinacy from the days of the
years of their lives, and sneered at the more gentle and yielding.
The younger men were one and all for an unflinching resistance to
claims urged with so much violence. Of this party Harry Carson was
the leader.

But like all energetic people, the more he had to do the more time
he seemed to find. With all his letter-writing, his calling, his
being present at the New Bailey, when investigations of any case
of violence against knob-sticks [44] were going on, he beset Mary
more than ever. She was weary of her life for him. From blandishments
he had even gone to threats--threats that whether she would or
not she should be his; he showed an indifference that was almost
insulting to every thing that might attract attention and injure her
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