aaaaaah /12:09 ich, who's funding this Berk?/ I really really thought ( er fort) that TTT was having an attack of being-well-read
this Berk as a play on Edmund Burke see above
no such hope - back to normality - come on, keep up this is AB
Now - you history O levellers are almost right - 1799 Combination Act and this forbad trades unions, 1825 Combination of Workmen Act allowed vay limited trade union activity
and so ..... on advice of the Home Secty, the Tolpuddle men were indicted for unlawfully administering an oath - only certain people ( courts and so on) were allowed to administer an oath
( in pursuit in this case of trades union activity. since there was an oath involved, unlawful activity was suspected)
and off they went to Oz
BUT
there were questions in parliament almost immediately which today would elicit no more than 'so what?' that the Freemasons adminstered oaths and that one of the Kings brothers was head mason, and thus guilty of the same offence
and this led to their return - some years later - - - up to 1839
The magistrate lived at Moreton hall just outside Dorchester