The meeting was to take place in a
public room, at an hotel; and there, about eleven o'clock, the
mill-owners, who had received the foreign orders, began to collect.
Of course, the first subject, however full their minds might be of
another, was the weather. Having done their duty by all the showers
and sunshine which had occurred during the past week, they fell to
talking about the business which brought them together. There might
be about twenty gentlemen in the room, including some by courtesy,
who were not immediately concerned in the settlement of the present
question; but who, nevertheless, were sufficiently interested to
attend. These were divided into little groups, who did not seem by
any means unanimous. Some were for a slight concession, just a
sugar-plum to quieten the naughty child, a sacrifice to peace and
quietness. Some were steadily and vehemently opposed to the
dangerous precedent of yielding one jot or one tittle to the outward
force of a turn-out. It was teaching the workpeople how to become
masters, said they.
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