WHAT was to be done? To combine and attempt to recapture their property was a course which the traders dare not adopt unless they were inclined to risk broken bones along with the loss of property. Besides, the sudden reduction of prices had, as a matter of course, brought the blacksmiths a host of grateful allies. Only one resource was left to the upholders of the law. The military would have to be called out.*
The military were called out, and they came. People held their breath in awe, dreading a fearful and sanguinary conflict. But the blacksmiths were no less deficient in diplomacy than in daring. Their leader mounted an extemporised platform and addressed the military. Unfortunately history contains no report of that speech. Its effect, however, was electric. From dangerous opponents it changed the soldiers to cordial confederates, and they who had come to punish the marauders stayed to share in the pillage. Instead of restoring the illegally-seized goods to the rightful owners, they became ready purchasers of the cheapened provisions.*
abridged
* Thanks to the unrest of the period, this was far from unusual. Only a month earlier, the 33rd or Ulster regiment of light dragoons and the 21st or Beaumont’s regiment of light dragoons had both been there. Indeed, Mackenzie reveals they had ‘assembled in various parts of the town in rather a tumultuous manner’ after news leaked that the two regiments were to be merged.
* The Crowley Crew were of course quite wrong to act as they did, since they merely passed the pain on from Winlaton families to the families of farmers and grocers round about. The blame belonged to the French, for trying to force their idea of good government onto the rest of Europe, and to Westminster, for protectionism, cronyism and failing to recruit for their Navy properly. On impressment, see also Press Pass; and see posts tagged Free Trade and Markets.