The campaign against the Tithes and threshing…

The campaign against the Tithes and threshing machines is met with considerable sympathy, even among many farmers and magistrates, who put up little resistance to the destruction of thousands of threshing machines across the country.

However, the government, led by Home Secretary Lord Melbourne, deals with the riots harshly.

Blaming local magistrates for being too lenient, the government appoints a Special Commission of three judges to try rioters in the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, and Hampshire.

Agreements made to raise wages or cut tithes are rarely honored.

Many arrests follow the riots, which add to the strong social, political, and agricultural unrest throughout Britain in the 1830s.

Across the country, nine of the rioters are hanged and a further four hundred and fifty will suffer transportation to Australia.