“That summer of 1816, a group of out-of-work miners set out to walk from Bilston to London—a distance of 125 miles. They had a petition for the prince regent, an accounting of their hardships. They carried signs—Willing to Work, but None of Us to Beg—and carts of coal, which they planned to present to the prince. They were slow and steady. They were orderly and unthreatening. But they were stopped. They had to be stopped. The government would prefer not to admit that there were hardships, but it would never admit that the prince might be responsible for any. At the edges of London, the procession was met by the police. There was no possible way the marchers could meet with the prince, the authorities said. But they would buy the carts of coal and they would buy beer for all the marchers. There would be no better offer. The lesson was clear. Being polite got you nowhere.”
Nicholas Day, from his book A World Without Summer
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