[58] See the petitions from Exeter and Dartmouth, February 24, 1723, vol. xx. pp. 268-9; and those from Taunton, Tiverton, Exeter, and Bristol, March 3 and 7, 1725, vol. xx. pp. 598, 602, 648. In 1729 the Bristol weavers, “while the corporation was at church,” riotously attacked the house of an obnoxious employer, and had to be repulsed by the troops (_History of Bristol_, p. 261, by J. Evans; Bristol, 1824). In 1738 they forced the clothiers to sign a bond that they would “for ever forward” give fifteen pence a yard for weaving, under penalty of £1000 (_Gentlemen’s Magazine_, 1738, p. 658; see also “An Essay on Riots, their Causes and Cure,” published in the _Gloucester Journal_, and reprinted in the _Gentlemen’s Magazine_, 1739, pp. 7-10). In 1756 there was an extensive and serious uprising (see _A State of the Case and Narrative of Facts relating to the late Commotion and Rising of the Weavers in the County of Gloucester_, in the Gough Collection, Bodleian Library). [59] Defoe’s _Tour_, vol. iii. pp. 97-101, 116 (1724). John Bright mentions his father’s apprenticeship, about 1789, to “a most worthy man who had a few acres of ground, a very small farm, and three or four looms in his house” (speech reported in _Beehive_, February 2, 1867). For a less optimistic account of the Yorkshire clothiers, who were, even in the seventeenth century, often mere wage-earners, see Cartwright’s _Chapters of Yorkshire History_. [60] _History of Leicester_, by James Thompson, 1849, pp. 431-2. [61] _A Short Essay upon Trade in General_, by “A Lover of his Country,” 1741, quoted in James’ _History of the Worsted Manufacture in England_, p. 232. [62] See, in corroboration, _Leicester Herald_, August 24, 1793; _Morning Chronicle_, October 13, 1824; Place MSS., 27801--246, 247. [63] The Dublin silk-weavers, owing perhaps to their having been largely Huguenot refugees in a Roman Catholic town, appear to have been associated from the early part of the eighteenth century; see, for instance, _The Case of the Silk and Worsted Weavers in a Letter to a Member of Parliament_ (Dublin, 1749, 8 pp.). Compare _A Short Historical Account of the Silk Manufacture in England_, by Samuel Sholl, 1811, and _Industrial Dublin since 1698 and the Silk Industry in Dublin_, by J. J. Webb, 1913. [64] The condition of the framework knitters may be gathered from the elaborate Parliamentary Inquiry, the proceedings of which fill fifteen pages of the Journals of the House of Commons, vol. xxvi., April 19, 1753. See also vols. xxxvi. and xxxvii., and the Report from the Committee on Framework Knitters’ Petitions, 1812; and _Conflicts of Capital and Labour_, by G. Howell, 1890. Felkin’s _History of the Machine-wrought Hosiery and Lace Manufactures_, 1867, contains an exhaustive account of the trade, founded on Gravener Henson’s _History of the Framework Knitters_, 1831, now a scarce work, of which only one volume was published.