ABSTRACT

I inquired the reason for all this formidable precaution, and was told by one party that Messrs. Strutt, about twelve or thirteen years ago, had some misunderstanding with their work-people, concerning wages and other matters, and several threatening letters had been sent them ; but, as they had not taken any notice of these letters, several large piles of cottons had been burned, and the whole premises placed in imminent danger. Another account is, that at the time above-mentioned, the Messrs. Strutt were in the habit of slaughtering their own cattle, and compelling the work-people to buy of them, in preference to the town butchers, a covered cart being sent round each week to their dwellings, leaving a certain quantity at each. The butchers, conceiving this to be an unjust monopoly on the part of Messrs. Strutt, entered (as is supposed) into a kind of league for their own protection, and some persons even go so far as to charge them as the incendiaries. Be this as it may, it had the desired effect, the slaughtering system having since been suspended, and this species of truck abolished.