The crisis of 1842 came on.  Agitation was once more as vigorous as in 1839.  But this time the rich manufacturing bourgeoisie, which was suffering severely under this particular crisis, took part in it.  The Anti-Corn Law League, as it was now called, assumed a decidedly revolutionary tone.  Its journals and agitators used undisguisedly revolutionary language, one very good reason for which was the fact that the Conservative party had been in power since 1841.  As the Chartists had previously done, these bourgeois leaders called upon the people to rebel; and the working-men who had most to suffer from the crisis were not inactive, as the year’s national petition for the charter with its three and a half million signatures proves.  In short, if the two Radical parties had been somewhat estranged, they allied themselves once more.  At a meeting of Liberals and Chartists held in Manchester, February 15th, 1842, a petition urging the repeal of the Corn Laws and the adoption of the Charter was drawn up.  The next day it was adopted by both parties.  The spring and summer passed amidst violent agitation and increasing distress.  The bourgeoisie was determined to carry the repeal of the Corn Laws with the help of the crisis, the want which it entailed, and the general excitement.  At this time, the Conservatives being in power, the Liberal bourgeoisie half abandoned their law-abiding habits; they wished to bring about a revolution with the help of the workers.  The working-men were to take the chestnuts from the fire to save the bourgeoisie from burning their own fingers.  The old idea of a “holy month,” a general strike, broached in 1839 by the Chartists, was revived.  This time, however, it was not the working-men who wished to quit work, but the manufacturers who wished to close their mills and send the operatives into the country parishes upon the property of the aristocracy, thus forcing the Tory Parliament and the Tory Ministry to repeal the Corn Laws.  A revolt would naturally have followed, but the bourgeoisie stood safely in the background and could await the result without compromising itself if the worst came to the worst.  At the end of July business began to improve; it was high time.  In order not to lose the opportunity, three firms in Staleybridge reduced wages in spite of the improvement. {232} Whether they did so of their own motion or in agreement with other manufacturers, especially those of the League, I do not know.  Two withdrew after a time, but the third, William Bailey & Brothers, stood firm, and told the objecting operatives that “if this did not please them, they had better go and play a bit.”  This contemptuous answer the hands received with cheers.  They left the mill, paraded through the town, and called upon all their fellows to quit work.  In a few hours every mill stood idle, and the operatives marched to Mottram Moor to hold a meeting.  This was on August 5th.  August 8th they proceeded to Ashton and Hyde five