“The toffs in the House of Lords, they don’t care about our plight. They make their money off the sweat of our brows and the muscles of our backs, and we are expected to say, ‘Yes, milord. Thank you, milord’ when they bother to throw a crust or two our way. They and those like them sweep our concerns aside, treat our lives with all the care of a fistful of spillikins, and can end our ability to earn on a whim. As long as their pockets are lined, that’s all that matters to them. And a man doesn’t have to be titled. He can be wealthy enough to do as he likes, and if what he likes is to cause us misery, what choice do we have? They are far removed from the labor, removed from the struggle to put food in their children’s mouths.

“They make decisions that affect many, and not for the good, but only concern themselves with themselves. How can they increase their wealth and their grip on the people who labor for them? It all comes down to brass, and those who would grasp it, connive for it, and harm others to acquire it.”

Heads nodded, and a murmur went through the people. Juliette shivered. With Finch’s broad-sweeping generalities, he lumped every aristocrat together and painted them all as evil. In his mind there was no difference between the men he described and her father. Any man who had a title, a seat in Lords, or had enough money to employ someone else must be by nature greedy and granite hearted. If a man was prosperous and tried to be broad minded and progressive in the approach to business and industry, he was the enemy. Finch was making wild assumptions that because men were wealthy, they must not care about their workers at all.

Did not these men, by their very wealth and businesses, provide employment, food, shelter, and more for the men they hired?

What about noblesse oblige?

Another shiver racked her spine. What would this crowd say if they knew who she really was?

“It is time to put a stop to this abuse. If they won’t listen to reason, maybe they will listen to something more forceful.” Finch swung his fist in the air, and a small cheer went up. “They want to ruin our way of life? I say we ruin theirs. Mill owners who want to bring in new equipment and reduce the workforce? They should beware. We will not be silent. We will take action. You heard what happened in Hammersmith. Let that be a warning to all.

“Here in London we must continue the work of our brave compatriots in the north. We will not let our workshops, our skills, our way of life be supplanted by machinery. Weavers, thread makers, brewers, rope workers, miners, smelters … we are in danger of losing everything for which we have labored!”