[252] Lord Melbourne to Sir Herbert Taylor, September 26, 1831 (_Papers_, chap. v. p. 131). The workmen’s combinations began at this time to attract more serious attention from capable students than they had hitherto received. Two able pamphlets, published anonymously--there is reason to believe at the instance and at the cost of the Whig Government--_On Combinations of Trades_ (1830), and _Character, Objects, and Effects of Trades Unions_ (1834), set forth the constitution and proceedings of the new unions, and criticise their pretensions in a manner which has not since been surpassed. The second of these was by Edward Carlton Tufnell, one of the factory commissioners, and remains perhaps the best statement of the case against Trades Unionism. Tufnell also wrote a pamphlet, entitled _Trades Unionism and Strikes_ (1834; 12mo); and Harriet Martineau one _On the Tendency of Strikes and Sticks to produce Low Wages_ (Durham, 1834; 12mo), neither of which we have seen. A well-informed but hostile article, founded on these materials, appeared in the _Edinburgh Review_ for July 1834. Charles Knight published in the same year a sixpenny pamphlet, _Trades Unions and Strikes_ (1834, 99 pp.), which took the form of a bitter denunciation of the whole movement. [253] See his letter of March 30, 1834, in _Lord Melbourne’s Papers_, chap. v. [254] _Leeds Mercury_, April 26, 1834. Joseph Hume said he had had the “greatest difficulty in prevailing upon the Ministers not to bring in a bill for putting down the Trades Unions” (_Poor Man’s Guardian_, March 29, 1834). [255] Letter dated September 3, 1833, in _Times_, September 9, 1833. [256] R. _v._ Bykerdike, 1 Moo. and Rob. 179, Lancaster Assizes, 1832. A letter was written to certain coal-owners, “by order of the Board of Directors for the body of coal-miners,” stating that unless certain men were discharged the miners would strike. Held to be an illegal combination. See _Leeds Mercury_, May 24, 1834. [257] _Times_, August 22, 1835. [258] _Poor Man’s Guardian_, September 29, 1832. [259] _Times_, February 27, 1834. [260] R. _v._ Marks and others, 3 East Rep. 157.