[104] See, for these proceedings, the two _Reports of the Committee on the Petitions of the Cotton Weavers_, April 12, 1808, and March 29, 1809; and Richmond’s evidence before the Committee on Artisans and Machinery, 1824, Second Report, pp. 59-64. [105] It is now in the British Library of Political Science at the London School of Economics. [106] R. _v._ Justices of Kent, 14 East, 395; see F. D. Longe’s _Inquiry into the Law of Strikes_, 1860, pp. 10, 11. [107] 53 Geo. III. c. 40 (1813). [108] The Spitalfields Acts, relating to the silkweavers, were, however, not repealed until 1824; and the last sections of 5 Eliz. c. 4 were not formally repealed until 1875. [109] White’s _Digest of all the laws at present in existence respecting Masters and Workpeople_, 1824, p. 59. Place wrote to Wakefield, January 2, 1814: “The affair of Serjeant Onslow partly originated with me, but I had no suspicion it would be taken up and pushed as vigorously as it has been and is likely to be” (_Life of Francis Place_, by Prof. Graham Wallas, p. 159). The proceedings in this matter can be best traced in the House of Commons Journals for 1813 and 1814, vols. lxviii. and lxix.; and in Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates, vols. xxv. and xxvii. The master’s case is given in a pamphlet, _The Origin, Object, and Operation of the Apprentice Laws_, 1814, 26 pp., preserved in the _Pamphleteer_, vol. iii. _The Resolutions of the Master Manufacturers and Tradesmen of the Cities of London and Westminster on the Statute 5 Eliz. c. 4_, 1814, 4 pp., gives the contrary view (B.M. 1882, d. 2). The contemporary argument for freedom is expressed in _An Estimate of the Comparative Strength of Great Britain_, by G. Chalmers, 1810; see _Cunningham_, 1903, vol. ii. p. 660. The Nottingham Library possesses a unique copy of the _Articles and General Regulations of a Society for obtaining Parliamentary Relief, and the Encouragement of Mechanics in the Improvement of Mechanism_, printed at Nottingham in 1813. This appears to have been a federation of framework knitters’ societies, and possibly others, for Parliamentary action, as well as trade protection; and its establishment in 1813 was perhaps connected with the movement for the revival of the Apprenticeship Laws. [110] _Report of the Committee on the State of the Woollen Manufacture in England_, July 4, 1806, p. 12. CHAPTER II THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE [1799-1825]