S.H. 1825. NARRATIVE OF THE CONDITION OF THE MANUFACTURING POPULATION; AND THE PROCEEDINGS OF GOVERNMENT WHICH LED TO THE State Trials in Scotland, FOR ADMINISTERING UNLAWFUL OATHS, AND THE SUSPENSION OF THE IN GLASGOW AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. ALSO, A SUMMARY OF SIMILAR PROCEEDINGS, IN OTHER PARTS OF THE COUNTRY, TO THE EXECUTION OF THISTLEWOOD AND OTHERS, BY ALEX. B. RICHMOND. "Who steals my purse, steals trash. 'Tis something-nothing. But he that filches from me my good name, Robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed." SHAKSPEARE. "The worst thing I could wish to my worst enemy is, that his character SECOND EDITION. LONDON: PRINTED FOR JOHN MILLER, AND SOLD BY ALL THE OTHER BOOKSELLERS. 1825. 766 PREFACE. I SHALL offer no apology for submitting the following Narrative of Facts to public inspection, being convinced I am performing an important and imperative duty to society, as well as to myself. In deference to the opinion of others, and contrary to my own, I have delayed publication, I believe, greatly to the prejudice of my own interest and character, and it now remains to be seen who was in the right, or who had most cause to be afraid of publicity. If the excitement has gone past, the time is favourable for forming a more impartial judgment, it being neither too proximate nor too remote from the occurrences; and I trust it will be found I have neither extenuated, nor set down ought in malice, to gratify either individual or party. Setting up no literary pretensions, I only pledge myself to having steadily adhered to the truth, in a plain unvarnished Statement of Facts, as far as they occurred within my own knowledge. In doing so, I have not violated even an implied promise with a single person; and, as an evidence that I have taken no undue advantage, the proof sheets were offered to all the parties, materially interested, before they were put to press. I consider I have brought forward all the persons in a sufficiently prominent manner, to enable the Public to come to a just decision; and if an attempt is made to invalidate any of my statements, written documents, and still more special references, are forthcoming, to confirm them, if called for. The march of improvement has hitherto been materially impeded by government's endeavouring to throw an impene PREFACE. trable veil of mystery over their proceedings; although society has no security against the recurrence of evil equal to a full development of past errors. From the days of Beccario I should think it difficult to find an enlightened individual, who would not prefer the prevention to the punishment of crime; but it is a very nice point to distinguish and decide upon, how far the means of prevention should be allowed to violate the sanctuary of private life, or trench upon individual liberty. Upon that point men's minds have been, and will be, various; and as much has been said, written, and conjectured, on the present subject, I am well aware conclusions will be drawn, according as opinion coincides with, or dissents from, the different views taken of that question. As I have no room for remarks upon the general principle, from those who have formerly known me I solicit a candid retrospect of their former sentiments. Personal vindication is always a painful and frequently an invidious task, and it ought to be remembered, there is little merit in a sacrifice that is certain of commanding the general sympathy of society, compared to one made at the hazard of encountering its strongest and deepest rooted prejudices. I may have been guilty of errors in judgment, but to no man, nor set of men, will I concede a more ardent desire to do good, either in the acts and deeds I have performed, or in now submitting the detail of them to the world; and, in the language of the late Mr. Curran, if I have contributed to preserve the memory of other acts and actors, that ought not to be buried in oblivion, my labour will not have been without its use. NARRATIVE, &c. &c. SINCE the publication of Smith's Wealth of Nations, many eminent writers have been engaged in illustrating the principles of political economy and pointing out the leading circumstances which promote or retard the accumulation of national wealth. The discoveries and improvements made during the same period in the exact sciences, tending to supersede and abridge human labour, have called forth energies and produced results which have astonished the present age, and set at nought the calculations of the most acute and profound philosophers and politicians of former times. In our own country almost a total revolution has been effected in the whole frame of society; capital and the means of producing all the luxuries of life have been augmented, perhaps, in a tenfold ratio; yet it is questionable if, in the midst of all this apparent improvement, the substantial comfort and happiness of the great body of the people have in any degree been promoted, and whether the enlightened philanthropist will not consider they have rather retrograded. The theorists in political economy attach more importance to the aggregate accumulation of wealth and power than to the manner of its diffusion, or its effects on the interior of society. The manufacturer possessed of capital, and the inventor of a new machine, study only how to turn them to their own profit and advantage; the statesman B |