"What we enjoy we dearly bought, And nobly they the battle fought, Who--though the ladies' aid they sought, Would--right or wrong--have tea. _Chorus_ "Then let us all our voices raise, And loudly chant to-night in praise Of those who gained in byegone days, The time we have for tea."] [Sidenote: The Bible Society controversy.] The struggle which the bookbinders fought with most pertinacity was, however, that which they waged against the Religious Societies--particularly the British and Foreign Bible Society--when attempting to cheapen the production of religious literature by means which, the bookbinders contended, involved unreasonably low rates of pay. In this struggle women played a prominent part. It broke out as early as 1825 when the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge reduced its prices and the master bookbinders working for it reduced wages. The strike which followed collapsed for want of funds. In 1833 the contest was resumed with the British and Foreign Bible Society. That year the five houses then employed by the Society reduced wages, and it appears that when the dispute was about to be settled by both sides accepting a compromise, a representative of the Bible Society instructed the masters to hold out. The men appealed to the Society, but were told that it could not intervene. No definite settlement was ever arrived at. The first petition which the men addressed to the Society in 1833 made special reference to the condition of the women workers. "Your memorialists beg leave to state," they wrote, "that there are a number of females (about 200) employed in binding the books of your Society, the whole of whose wages have been reduced in consequence of the late alteration in the prices of these books. Their wages were before very low. Your memorialists respectfully submit that the making it more difficult, and in some cases impossible, for females to earn an honest subsistence, by their labour, is in the same proportion to give potency to the seducers of female virtue." Reply and counter-reply were made, and the Society was heartily attacked by the Union with texts from Scripture and reflections on applied Christianity. In the defence which the Society issued in 1834, it is stated that its binders informed it that "competent and industrious men in our employ earn on an average 6_d._ an hour or 30_s._ weekly when in constant work; and women in the same description from 8_s._ to 10_s._ and upwards."