Is it merely some passing tumult, or are the troubles
of winter be- ginning, that Manchester is crowded with rioters, with whom troops are manceuvering ? The disorders of Staffordshire diminish in importance before the wide-spread and obstinate outbreak in Lan- cashire and Cheshire. The proximate cause is a reduction of wages in a smaller town : but what led to that step is as yet a mystery. On the face of it, bad trade is the primary cause, and long-endured losses by the masters ; but some Insinuate that it is an Anti-Corn-law plot to provoke insurrection and frighten Go- vernment.' There IS some straining to extract evidence of that, and perhaps some misapprehension. Much stress is laid on the fact that a manufacturer told his men, that if they would not accede to his terms they might go and "play." Now the phrase sounds full of contemptuous levity here in London, but it Is a common enough term in Lancashire : it means simply, being out of work ; and it is the phrase of the workpeople themselves. It may be safely assumed, that while they were disputing with the master, they threatened to "play" if they did not obtain their demands ; that the term was bandied about ; and that the master who used it retorted in terms put into his mouth. Among the leaders of the rioteis at Manchester, we observe some, if the commonness of certain local names does not deceive us, who are practised dis-
turbers, by no means friendly to the League or any thing " Whig- ,
gish "; and whose denunciations of the Anti-Corn-law people are not to be trusted. These cross suspicions, however' do not remove the fact, that thousands have risen in Lancashire to demand higher pay, and that Manchester is paraded, as Paris once was, by bands calling for bread ; but they rather complicate a matter full of trouble and danger. If the safety of Manchester depends on military de- fence in August, what may not happen before December ?
