or.

Jobson deplored the criminal act, admitted that the two Unions had
decided no individual could be a forger, a handler, and a cutler; such
an example was subversive of all the Unions in the city, based, as they
were, on subdivision of crafts. "But," said Mr Jobson, "we were dealing
with the matter in a spirit quite inconsistent with outrages, and I
am so anxious to convince the public of this, that I have asked a
very experienced gentleman to examine our minute-books, and report
accordingly."

This letter was supplemented by one from Mr. Grotait, secretary of the
Saw-Grinders, which ran thus:--"Messrs. Parkin and Jobson have appealed
to me to testify to certain facts. I was very reluctant to interfere,
for obvious reasons; but was, at last, prevailed on to examine the
minute-books of those two Unions, and they certainly do prove that on
the very evening before the explosion, those trades had fully discussed
Mr. ----'s case" (the real name was put, but altered by the editor),
"and had disposed of it as follows. They agreed, and this is entered
accordingly, to offer him his traveling expenses (first class) to
London, and one pound per week, from their funds, until such time as he
should obtain employment. I will only add, that both these secretaries
spoke kindly to me of Mr. ----; and, believing them to be sincere, I
ventured to advise them to mark their disapproval of the criminal act,
by offering him two pounds per week, instead of one pound; which advice
they have accepted very readily."

Henry was utterly confounded by these letters.

Holdfast commented on them thus:

"Messrs. Jobson and Parkin virtually say that if A, for certain reasons,
pushes a man violently out of Hillsborough, and B draws him gently
out of Hillsborough for the same reasons, A and B can not possibly be
co-operating. Messrs. Parkin and Jobson had so little confidence in
this argument, which is equivalent to saying there is no such thing as
cunning in trade, that they employed a third party to advance it with
all the weight of his popularity and seeming impartiality. But who is
this candid person that objects to assume the judge, and assumes the
judge? He is the treasurer and secretary of an Union that does not
number three hundred persons; yet in that small Union, of which he
is dictator, there has been as much rattening, and more shooting, and
blowing-up wholesale and retail, with the farcical accompaniment of
public repudiation, than i