and several of the cotton towns; but above all I have letters that
assure me that at this moment we can do anything in Wales."

"Glamorganshire is right to a man," said Wilkins a Baptist teacher. "And
trade is so bad that the Holiday at all events must take place there,
for the masters themselves are extinguishing their furnaces.

"All the north is seething," said Gerard.

"We must contrive to agitate the metropolis," said Maclast, a shrewd
carroty-haired paper-stainer. "We must have weekly meetings at
Kennington and demonstrations at White Conduit House: we cannot do more
here I fear than talk, but a few thousand men on Kennington Common every
Saturday and some spicy resolutions will keep the Guards in London."

"Ay, ay," said Gerard; "I wish the woollen and cotton trades were as bad
to do as the iron, and we should need no holiday as you say, Wilkins.
However it will come. In the meantime the Poor-law pinches and
terrifies, and will make even the most spiritless turn."

"The accounts to-day from the north are very encouraging though," said
the young man. "Stevens is producing a great effect, and this plan of
our people going in procession and taking possession of the churches
very much affects the imagination of the multitude."

"Ah!" said Gerard, "if we could only have the Church on our side, as
in the good old days, we would soon put an end to the demon tyranny of
Capital."

"And now," said the pale young man, taking up a manuscript paper, "to
our immediate business. Here is the draft of the projected proclamation
of the Convention on the Birmingham outbreak. It enjoins peace and
order, and counsels the people to arm themselves in order to secure
both. You understand: that they may resist if the troops and the police
endeavour to produce disturbance."

"Ay, ay," said Gerard. "Let it be stout. We will settle this at once,
and so get it out to-morrow. Then for action."

"But we must circulate this pamphlet of the Polish Count on the manner
of encountering cavalry with pikes," said Maclast.

"'Tis printed," said the stout thickset man; "we have set it up on a
broadside. We have sent ten thousand to the north and five thousand
to John Frost. We shall have another delivery tomorrow. It takes very
generally."

The pale young man read the draft of the proclamation; it was canvassed
and criticised sentence by sentence; altered, approved: finally put to
the vote, and unanimously carried. On the morrow it was to b