[216]Foster died in 1831, and McGowan settled at Glasgow. “Almost every spinning district,” writes the Poor Man’s Advocate of June 23, 1832, “of any consequence, was enrolled in the Union. The power of the Union, of course, increased with its members, and a number of the worst-paying employers were compelled to advance the wages of the spinners to something like the standard rate.... The Union, however, which Mr. McGowan had mainly contributed to mature, has since, from distrust or weariness, sunk into comparative insignificance.”
[217]The letter is preserved in the MS. “Contribution Book” of the Liverpool Sailmakers’ Friendly Association, established 1817.
[218]Address of the National Association for the Protection of Labour to the Workmen of the United Kingdom(4 pp. 1830), in Home Office Papers, 40—27.
[219]Given as Appendix to the pamphlet On Combination of Trades (1830). Compare Wade’s History of the Middle and Working Classes (1834), p. 277.
[220]Thirty-one numbers, extending from March 6 to October 2, 1830, are in the Manchester Public Library (620 B).
[221]The numbers from January to September 1831 are in the British Museum. See Place’s letter in Westminster Review(1831), p. 243.
[222]Home Office Papers, 40—26, 27.
[223]Home Office Papers, April 8, 1831, 44—25.
[224]Union Pilot and Co-operative Intelligencer, March 24, 1832 (Manchester Public Library, 640 E).
[225]Meanwhile the coalminers of Northumberland and Durham, under the leadership of “Tommy Hepburn,” an organiser of remarkable ability, had formed their first strong Union in 1830, which for two years kept the two counties in a state of excitement. Strikes and riotings in 1831 and 1832 caused the troops to be called out: marines were sent from Portsmouth, and squadrons of cavalry scoured the country. After six months’ struggle in 1832 the Union collapsed, and the men submitted. See Home Office Papers for these years, 40—31, 32, &c.; Sykes’ Local Records of Northumberland, &c., vol. ii. pp. 293, 353; Fynes’ Miners of Northumberland and Durham(Blyth, 1873), chaps, iv. v. vi.; An Earnest Address and Urgent Appeal to the People of England in behalf of the Oppressed and Suffering Pitmen of the Counties of Northumberland and Durham(by W. Scott, Newcastle, 1831); History and Description of Fossil Fuel, etc. (by John Holland, 1835), pp. 298-304.