Description:This single-sheet Miner's Manual was published in response to attempts by coal masters to crush the activities of organised labour. The notice probably dates from the early 1830s.
"This Act shall not extend punishment..."
The authors look for protection in an Act of Parliament passed during the reign of King George IV:
This Act shall not extend to subject any Persons to punishment who shall meet together for the sole purpose of consulting upon and determining the Rate of Wages or Prices, or the Hours of Time for which they shall work, or who shall enter into any Agreement, verbal or written, among themselves, for the purpose of fixing the Rate of Wages or Prices, or the Hours of Time for which they shall Work.
The notice was printed by J. Swinnerton of Macclesfield, and is now among the collections at Stoke-on-Trent Museums.