Frame-Breakers Abroad in Nottinghamshire

NOTTINGHAM, November 23, 1811. — The disturbances which began in the villages about Arnold have spread across the hosiery districts. Parties of men, their faces blackened and armed with hammers and hatchets, enter the workshops after dark and break the frames upon which cheap 'cut-up' stockings are wrought by unapprenticed hands.

Letters bearing the signature of 'Ned Ludd' warn masters that their machinery shall be destroyed unless the old prices and the customs of the trade are restored. Upwards of two hundred frames are reported broken within these few weeks.

The working stockingers complain that the new practices have reduced their wages to a pittance while flooding the market with goods of inferior make. The masters reply that they cannot be denied the use of their own property.

Several troops of horse are now quartered in the town, and it is said that Parliament may be asked to make the breaking of frames a capital felony.