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Thursday, May 19, 2011

Lord Byron and the Luddites

I recently had the opportunity to witness a fascinating historical re-enactment.‭ ‬It was the open air reading of a speech for a group of students.‭ ‬This reading was a reminder of how little the effects of capitalism,‭ ‬and the crisis that is capitalism,‭ ‬change.‭ ‬Two hundred years ago,‭ ‬in the midst of the trade depression during‭ ‬the European war against Napoleon’s France,‭ ‬English weavers rose up in a campaign of machine wrecking that has gone down in history as Luddism.‭ ‬Across Nottinghamshire,‭ ‬Yorkshire and‭ ‬Lancashire,‭ ‬groups of weavers attacked machines held by owners benefiting from the collapsing labour market.

The response of the masters was first to call in the militia and the army,‭ ‬and ultimately to make the very act of frame wrecking a capital offence.‭ ‬In the midst of this mayhem,‭ ‬we have another recognisable feature:‭ ‬the celebrity campaigner.‭ ‬In this case,‭ ‬it was the first modern celebrity himself,‭ ‬George Gordon,‭ ‬Lord Byron.

The poet used his position as the inheritor of a peerage to make a maiden speech in the House of Lords against the‭ ‬Frame Breaking Act.‭ ‬Not trusting himself to improvise a speech,‭ ‬he wrote it out before hand.‭ ‬Although,‭ ‬by accounts his delivery was poor‭ (‬much as the modern re-enactment was‭)‬,‭ ‬it is a clear example of what his hero,‭ ‬the poet,‭ ‬Alexander Pope meant when he wrote:
“‬True Wit is Nature to Advantage drest,
What oft was Thought,‭ ‬but ne'er so well Exprest‭”

It was a finely crafted piece of prose.‭ ‬He used his skill with the pen to rally to the defence of those workers.‭ ‬He‭ ‬observed‭ ‬“As the sword is the worst argument than can be used,‭ ‬so should it be the last.‭ ‬In this instance it has been the first‭; ‬but providentially as yet only in the scabbard.‭ ‬The present measure will,‭ ‬indeed,‭ ‬pluck it from the sheath‭; ‬yet had proper meetings been held in the earlier stages of these riots,‭ ‬had the grievances of these men and their masters‭ (‬for they also had their grievances‭) ‬been fairly weighed and justly examined,‭ ‬I do think that means might have been these workmen to their avocations,‭ ‬and tranquillity to the country.‭”

He was no socialist,‭ ‬but he had a clear sympathy for the predicament of the impoverished weavers,‭ ‬and the desperation that lay behind their actions:‭ ‬“they have arisen from circumstances of the most unparalleled distress:‭ ‬the perseverance of these miserable men in their proceedings,‭ ‬tends to prove that nothing but absolute want could have driven a large,‭ ‬and once honest and industrious,‭ ‬body of the people,‭ ‬into the commission of excesses so hazardous to themselves,‭ ‬their families,‭ ‬and the community‭”‬.‭ ‬In fact,‭ ‬a socialist speaker could hardly have put the case more plainly.‭ ‬In countering the outcry against these‭ ‘‬mobs‭’ ‬he asked:‭ ‬“Are we aware of our obligations to a mob‭? ‬It is the mob that labour in the fields and serve in your houses‭ ‬– that man your army and recruit your navy‭ ‬– that have enabled you to defy the world,‭ ‬and can also defy you when neglect and calamity have driven them to despair.‭”

The weavers,‭ ‬he asserted:‭ ‬“were not ashamed to beg,‭ ‬but there was none to relieve them:‭ ‬their own means of subsistence were cut off,‭ ‬all other employment preoccupied‭; ‬and their excesses,‭ ‬however to be deplored and condemned,‭ ‬can hardly be subject to surprise‭”‬.‭ ‬Nor was this simply the reaction of those frightened by technology but of men‭ ‬“willing to dig,‭ ‬but the spade was in other hands‭”‬.

‬Throughout he deployed his famed wit to skewer the masters and the originators of the law,‭ ‬but it was at the end of his speech he was most scathing:

“‬Suppose one of these men,‭ ‬as I have seen them meagre with famine,‭ ‬sullen with despair,‭ ‬careless of a life which your lordships are perhaps about to value at something less than the price of a stocking-frame‭; ‬suppose this man surrounded by those children for whom he is unable to procure bread at the hazard of his existence,‭ ‬about to be torn for ever from a family which he lately supported in peaceful industry,‭ ‬and which it is not his fault than he can no longer so support‭; ‬suppose this man‭ – ‬and there are ten thousand such from whom you may select your victims,‭ – ‬dragged into court to be tried for this new offence,‭ ‬by this new law,‭ – ‬still there are two things wanting to convict and condemn him,‭ ‬and these are,‭ ‬in my opinion,‭ ‬twelve butchers for a jury,‭ ‬and a Jefferies for a judge‭!‬” (The full speech can be found online here)‬

A year later,‭ ‬in‭ ‬1813,‭ ‬such a jury of butchers was sadly found,‭ ‬and‭ ‬17‭ ‬men were executed at‭ ‬York.‭ ‬Then as now,‭ ‬the masters had recourse to the bayonet and the noose.‭ ‬Then,‭ ‬as now,‭ ‬this was never forgotten.
PIK SMEET

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