“Lord Londonderry further informs the traders and shopkeepers, that having by his measures increased very largely the last year’s trade to Seaham, and if credit is so improperly and so fatally given to his unreasonable pitmen, thereby prolonging the injurious strike, it is his firm determination to carry back all the outlay of his concerns even to Newcastle. “Because it is neither fair, just, or equitable that the resident traders in his own town should combine and assist the infatuated workmen and pitmen in prolonging their own miseries by continuing an insane strike, and an unjust and senseless warfare against their proprietors and masters.” [291] Some account of these developments will be found in _The Co-operative Movement in Great Britain_, by Beatrice Potter (Mrs. Sidney Webb). [292] The collapse was duly reported to the Home Secretary (Home Office Papers, 40--33, 34, 35). [293] See Ashworth’s paper before British Association, 1837; _Remarks upon the Importance of an Inquiry into the Amount and Appropriation of Wages by the Working Classes_, by W. Felkin, 1837; _Appeal to the Public from the United Trades of Preston_, February 14, 1837 (in Home Office Papers, 40--35). [294] The United Society of Operative Plumbers (reorganised 1848) still dominates its branch of the trade, and retains traces of the federal constitution of the Builders’ Union. The sister organisation of carpenters (now styled the General Union of Carpenters and Joiners) has been overtaken and overshadowed by the newer Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners; whilst the Operative Bricklayers’ Society has absorbed practically all the older societies in its own branch of the trade. [295] Glasgow was still the principal centre of the cotton industry, especially in weaving. In 1838 there were in the Glasgow area about 36,000 handlooms devoted mainly to cotton, with two persons to a loom, whilst in all Lancashire there were only 25,000 (Parliamentary Papers, xlii. of 1849 and xxiv. of 1840; _The Chartist Movement_, by Mark Hovell, 1918, p. 14). Combination among the cotton operatives of Glasgow was of old standing. After the strike of 1812, already referred to, trouble broke out again in 1820 and 1822, when outrages were committed (_Arts and Artisans_, by J. G. Symons, 1839, p. 137).