[352] The largest and most powerful of the other Unions in 1851 were those of the Ironfounders and the Stonemasons, which numbered between four and five thousand members each. It must be remembered that the previous ephemeral associations of the cotton-spinners and miners, which often for a time counted their tens of thousands of members, were exclusively strike organisations, with contributions of 1d. or 2d. per week only. The huge associations of 1830-34 had usually no regular subscription at all, and depended on irregularly paid levies. A trade society which, like the Amalgamated Engineers, could count on a regular income of £500 a week was without precedent. [353] See the resolutions of the Birmingham Delegate Meeting of the Iron Trades, September 28, 1850, in the _Trades Union Advocate_, November 1850. [354] It was resolved: “That we are prepared to assist the workmen at Messrs. Platt to the utmost of our power, but cannot consent to the men leaving their situations, because they may not at present be able to obtain the working of the machines.” The best account of the struggle is to be found in the _Jubilee Souvenir History of the A.S.E._ (1901), pp. 34-41. [355] Lord Goderich, afterwards the Marquis of Ripon, gave the Executive a cheque for £500 to enable the strike pay to be kept up on a temporary emergency; one of many generous efforts, during a long lifetime, to assist the wage-earning class. [356] Executive Circular of April 26, 1852, in _Operative_, May 1, 1852. A number of the men refused to sign, and many emigrated. E. Vansittart Neale advanced £1030 to members for this purpose, the whole of which was repaid by the borrowers. [357] Among the abundant literature on this great struggle may be mentioned the _Account_, by Thomas (afterwards Judge) Hughes, in the _Report on Trade Societies_, by the Social Science Association, 1860; J. M. Ludlow’s lectures, entitled _The Master Engineers and their Workmen_, 1852; a pamphlet, _May I not do what I will with my own?_ by E. Vansittart Neale; _Jubilee Souvenir History of the A.S.E._, 1901; and the evidence given by William Newton (for the men) and Sidney Smith (for the employers) before the Select Committee on Masters and Operatives (Equitable Councils, etc.) in 1856. The employers’ manifestoes will be found in the _Times_ from December 1851 to April 1852; the men’s documents and reports of their meetings in the _Operative_ (edited by Newton), and in the _Northern Star_, then at its last gasp.