"And a pretty mess they made of it," I put in. "But all the kings and, emperors in Europe, an' all th' landlords an' all that had got rich by robbery, an' all th' bishops and clergy, little an' big, hangers on o' th' aristocrats to a man, took alarm. They thowt their turn would come next, an' they raised the cry of England in danger. It wasn't the people of England that wer' fleyed. Not they. They knew well enough nowt could make them waur off nor they were. Th' war were a put up job of th' king and th' nobles and th' squires. And who profited by it? The noble and the squire an' the sleek parson with his tithes. What has made corn as far beyond the poor man's reach as though a grain of wheat were a ruby or a pearl? The wars, always the wars. And the people, the thousands upon thousands of men and women who have no part nor parcel in this war, save to send their children to die on a gory bed, what voice or what part have they in all this? The part and the part of sheep driven to the slaughter"-- "But what has Horsfall to do with all this?" I asked, very naturally I think. "He has this to do with it, Ben. Ever since th' bad times began, Englishmen ha' been told to stand together shoulder to shoulder agen a common enemy. Th' poor ha' borne their sufferings wi'out much murmuring as long as they saw th' rich suffer wi' themselves. Patriotism isn't a rich man's monopoly. Poor folk love th' owd country, though aw wonder sometimes what they love it for. But now what do we see? These new machines offer th' masters th' chance o' supplying their customers at a less cost to theirsen than they ha' done up to now. Aw'll give yo' an illustration of what aw mean. A lace frame such as they're putting up i' Nottingham costs £120. They say it'll save the work of four. Th' master saves in a year more than th' cost o' th' machine. He saves it, but who loses it? Why th' wage earners to be sure. And that's what they call standing shoulder to shoulder. Aw call it deserting your comrade and leaving him to shift for his-sen. Th' 'Leeds Mercury' only last week said there were twenty thousand stocking-makers out of employment in Nottingham, and yo' may judge for yersen what that means." "But what can yo' do, George? Yo' cannot fight agen th' law o' th' land. Th' masters ha' th' law at their backs--yo'll nobbut get yersen into trouble. It's waur nor kickin' agen th' pricks. Yo' surely wi'not ha' ought to do wi' machine breaking. That'll nobbut land thee i' towzer, an' happen waur nor towzer." "It isn't towzer 'll stop me, Ben. Aw'm groping i' th' dark just now. Frame breaking and rick burning seems but spiteful work, but it is action, and action of some sort seems called for. If we submit like dumb cattle, our rulers say we are content and have no grievances; if we assemble in great numbers and proclaim our wrongs they hang us for sedition. What can we do, where shall we turn? Aw cannot see daylight which ever way aw turn."