Note 172 — Chapter II
Reading edition
When Place in 1824 urged the “Committee of Engine Silk-weavers” of Spitalfields to petition for a repeal of the Combination Laws, the meeting “Resolved, that protected as we have been for years under the salutary laws and wisdom of the Legislature, and being completely unapprehensive of any sort of combination on our part, we cannot therefore take any sort of notice of the invitation held out by Mr. Place.” When this resolution was put by the chairman, “an unanimous burst of applause followed, with a multitude of voices exclaiming, ‘The law, cling to the law, it will protect us!’” Place MSS. 27800—52; Morning Chronicle, February 9, 1824.