The same evening a meeting was held at the Clock Inn, when a telegram was read from Mr. Scudamore to the Liverpool postmaster stating that the Manchester strikers had gone in to their duties. In his anxiety and excess of zeal during this troublous time the Under-Secretary was not above practising deception on the men, believing probably that the end justified the means. It was to get the recalcitrants back to work that this telegram was sent from headquarters. But the ruse was detected by the presence in Liverpool of a Manchester delegate, who was able on the spot to at once contradict it and reassure the Liverpool men that his town was firm. The suspension of the leaders was the signal for a general strike, and brought to a culminating point all the resentment and dissatisfaction which had been rankling within the breasts of the men for a twelvemonth past. In an instant the disquieting news was flashed from Manchester and Liverpool to every outpost in the kingdom. The beacons flamed up everywhere in a single hour. With one accord the men not only of Liverpool, but of Bradford, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, and Cork, struck, and refused to resume their duties until the suspended men at Manchester were reinstated. As showing the spirit that animated them, one of the Manchester officials of the association, who was on sick leave through an accident, immediately on learning the step that had been taken sent a message to his chief to the effect that he also was to be regarded as out on strike. But the secret censorship exercised over all telegrams suspected of emanating from the affected men considerably handicapped them in their action. Still, by the use of their prearranged code—whole sentences being signified by such names and words as “Turkish,” “Canadian,” “Trunks,” “Bonds,” “Arabia,” &c., &c.—they were fairly well able to communicate with Manchester and other places. Conflicting rumours, which it was not always easy to contradict or verify on the spot, were set afloat as to the movements. But what had been a strike at Manchester and elsewhere became a little later a lock-out at various other offices in the provinces. The assistance and sympathy shown by the telegraphists of other towns betrayed a feeling of general unrest, and there were other symptoms as unmistakable which decided the authorities to deal summarily with the whole. They decided on a _coup d’état_, hoping that one bold stroke would terrorise them into obedience and smash their organisation.