Editing Luddite (section)

== Government response ==

12,000 government troops, most of them belonging to [[Militia (United Kingdom)|militia]] or [[Yeomanry Cavalry|yeomanry]] units, were involved in suppression of Luddite activity, which historian [[Eric Hobsbawm]] claimed was a larger number than the [[British Army during the Napoleonic Wars|British army]] which the [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Duke of Wellington]] led during the [[Peninsular War]].{{sfn|Hobsbawm|1952|p=58|ps=: "The 12,000 troops deployed against the Luddites greatly exceeded in size the army which Wellington took into the Peninsula in 1808."}}{{efn| Hobsbawm has popularized this comparison and refers to the original statement in [[Frank Ongley Darvall]] (1934) ''Popular Disturbances and Public Order in Regency England'', London, Oxford University Press, p. 260.}} Four Luddites, led by a man named George Mellor, ambushed and assassinated mill owner William Horsfall of Ottiwells Mill in [[Marsden, West Yorkshire]], at [[Crosland Moor]] in [[Huddersfield]]. Horsfall had remarked that he would "Ride up to his saddle in Luddite blood".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yGkTDQAAQBAJ&q=Horsfall++%22Ride+up+to+his+saddle+in+Luddite+blood.%22&pg=PT14|title=Grim Almanac of York|last=Sharp|first=Alan|year=2015|publisher=The History Press|isbn=9780750964562|language=en}}</ref> Mellor fired the fatal shot to Horsfall's groin, and all four men were arrested.  One of the men, Benjamin Walker, turned informant, and the other three were hanged.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~maureenmitchell/luddites/luddites_william_horsfall_murder.htm|title=Murder of William Horsfall by Luddites, 1812|website=Freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com|access-date=23 June 2023|archive-date=2 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170102001443/http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~maureenmitchell/luddites/luddites_william_horsfall_murder.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://huddersfield.exposed/wiki/William_Horsfall_(1770-1812)|title=William Horsfall (1770–1812) – Huddersfield Exposed: Exploring the History of the Huddersfield Area|website=Huddersfield.exposed|access-date=23 June 2023|archive-date=1 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230601020455/https://huddersfield.exposed/wiki/William_Horsfall_(1770-1812)|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://ludditebicentenary.blogspot.com/2013/01/8th-january-1812-execution-of-george.html | title=8th January 1813: The execution of George Mellor, William Thorpe & Thomas Smith | date=8 January 2013 | publisher=The Luddite Bicentenary – 1811–1817 | access-date=10 October 2020 | archive-date=19 September 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919154155/http://ludditebicentenary.blogspot.com/2013/01/8th-january-1812-execution-of-george.html | url-status=live }}</ref> [[Lord Byron]] denounced what he considered to be the plight of the working class, the government's inane policies and ruthless repression in the [[House of Lords]] on 27 February 1812:

{{quote|"I have been in some of the most oppressed provinces of Turkey; but never, under the most despotic of infidel governments, did I behold such squalid wretchedness as I have seen since my return, in the very heart of a Christian country".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1812/feb/27/frame-work-bill#S1V0021P0_18120227_HOL_7|title=Frame Work Bill. (Hansard, 27 February 1812)|website=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]|access-date=23 June 2023|archive-date=14 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230514082629/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1812/feb/27/frame-work-bill#S1V0021P0_18120227_HOL_7|date=27 February 1812|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

Government officials sought to suppress the Luddite movement with a mass trial at [[York]] in January 1813, following the attack on Cartwrights Mill at Rawfolds near Cleckheaton. The government charged over 60 men, including Mellor and his companions, with various crimes in connection with Luddite activities. While some of those charged were actual Luddites, many had no connection to the movement. Although the proceedings were legitimate jury trials, many were abandoned due to lack of evidence and 30 men were acquitted. These trials were certainly intended to act as [[show trials]] to deter other Luddites from continuing their activities. The harsh sentences of those found guilty, which included [[execution]] and [[penal transportation]], quickly ended the movement.<ref name=Trials>{{cite web|url=http://www.marsdenhistory.co.uk/people/luddites.html#link4 |title=Luddites in Marsden: Trials at York |access-date=12 May 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326170835/http://www.marsdenhistory.co.uk/people/luddites.html |archive-date=26 March 2012 }}</ref><ref>Elizabeth Gaskell: The Life of Charlotte Bronte, Vol. 1, Ch. 6, for a contemporaneous description of the attack on Cartwright.</ref> Parliament made "machine breaking" (i.e. industrial [[sabotage]]) a [[capital crime]] with the [[Destruction of Stocking Frames, etc. Act 1812]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=8adFAAAAcAAJ&dq=%22destruction%22%20%22stocking-frames%22%20parliamentary&pg=PA633 "Destruction of Stocking Frames, etc. Act 1812"] at books.google.com</ref> Lord Byron opposed this legislation, becoming one of the few prominent defenders of the Luddites after the treatment of the defendants at the York trials.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2011/no-1282-june-2011/lord-byron-and-luddites|title=Lord Byron and the Luddites {{!}} The Socialist Party of Great Britain|website=worldsocialism.org|access-date=2016-11-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624121100/http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2011/no-1282-june-2011/lord-byron-and-luddites|archive-date=24 June 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>