told us that by giving up the Church in Wales we should strengthen the Church in England. We are familiar with that argument. I notice that it is not usually used by the friends of the Church of England. I notice that those who are most anxious for the disestablishment of the Church in Wales-those who are prepared to wrong, to get the Church in Wales disestablished are not those who desire to see the Establishment maintained in England. I do them the credit of supposing that they know their business to the full as well as the hon. member for Aberdeen. I think I believe in this respect I speak for every single man who sits on this side of the House, and for many who sit on the other side, when I say that the fall of the Church in Wales is indissolubly bound up with the Church in England—and I believe both the Church in Wales and the Church in England can be defended, and will be defended by this House. I admit that hon. gentlemen have had, and doubtless will have in the future, large minorities in the lobby upon this subject; but they belong to a party which is irrevocably committed to a policy by which so vast a measure as Disestablishment must be thrust further and further into the far future. They belong to a party which is committed to a series of measures which must postpone indefinitely, so far as I can see, even if the country agree to it, the serious consideration of anything so formidable as a Disestablishment Bill. But I base my conviction that the Church in England and the Church in Wales are destined, in the indefinite future, to maintain the position which they have maintained from out almost the indefinite past; for if I can interpret in any way the current of public opinion, if I am right in seeing below the surface of Parliamentary debates and Parliamentary divisions, the true direction in which the thought of this country runs, I do not think it runs in the direction of Disestablishment. I believe that men, after perhaps a long reaction, are more and more coming to the conclusion that religion is the essence of society, and that society cannot be healthy if religion perish or is atrophied. While I think I recognise that tendency and current of public opinion, I think I also see that more and more people are disposed to think that if religion be one of the great interests of society-if it be, in truth, one of the things which we should foster to the best of our ability, it is to an Established Church -not alone, but to an Established Church principally—that that great duty should be assigned."

CHAPTER XX.

LABOUR PROBLEMS.

Present Prominence of Labour Problems.-One of the most notable political characteristics of the present day is the prominence attained by labour and social questions. Many of these questions are not altogether new. Our later statute-books, especially since the enfranchisement of the urban working classes in 1868, are plentifully studded with more or less successful efforts to regulate the conditions and the conduct of industry. With the advent, however, of the present era, the education of the working classes, their increased political power, and their vastly more efficient organisation; the frequent and protracted struggles of immense bodies of labour and capital; and last, but not least, the spread through the community of a keener and a higher sense of the duties of citizenship,-all these have combined to call attention to the claims of labour; to revive old and to develop new social and industrial problems; and to give to the demands for their legislative solution a force and a prominence which they never before attained.

Their Inherent Difficulty.-The solution of such problems is the most delicate and difficult task which the modern legislator has to face. His theoretical difficulties are not, perhaps, so formidable as they were. Laissez faire as an abstract principle is a spectre that has lost its power. But the practical dangers of interfering with any form of employment were never so great as they are now. The industrial organism is every year getting more complicated, its parts more interdependent, and itself more dependent on industrial systems abroad. A shock received in any one part is immediately communicated throughout the whole. To appreciate the effect of any act of intervention it is necessary to take into account not only a host of allied trades at home, but also the condition of foreign trade and industry. Especially is this the case with respect to many proposals that are now cropping up. Formerly practical demands for state interference related mostly to the conditions of a particular trade or employment; the more extreme of the current schemes cover the whole field of industry, and would virtually involve us in complete state or municipal socialism.

Past and Present Attitude of the Conservative Party.-The

Conservative party has never been slow to show its sympathy with working-class problems. On the contrary, as was clearly pointed out by Lord Salisbury in a speech at the United Club banquet in July 1891, the party has always, whether wisely or not, peculiarly identified itself with the principle of state interference in aid of industry. It did so, moreover, at a time when there was no political advantage to be gained by it. Let worshippers of the disinterested and philanthropic promulgators of Newcastle programmes note the fact! A great part of the factory legislation, which is now universally regarded as the most brilliant and successful example of state interference with labour, was passed by Conservative Governments prior to 1868, at a time when not one factory operative in a thousand had a vote; and all in the face of bitter opposition from the radical school, whose political creed was then summed up in the maxim laissez faire. The active efforts on behalf of the toilers of the nation displayed by the party in more recent times in their sanitary and educational reforms, and in many other directions, were never so marked as during their last term of office. Coal-miners, Scotch and Irish crofters, fishermen, factory operatives, and that long-neglected class, agricultural labourers, were all the objects of their ameliorative measures. There is scarcely a single important class of labour whose position the late Government did not improve. Mr. Chamberlain's statement at Sunderland, on 21st October 1891, was no more than the truth when he said

"If you look back to our recent political history you will find that, while it has been the great glory of the Liberal party to remove privileges, imposts, limitations of every kind, and to leave the individual free to make the best of his talent and opportunities, to the Conservative party belongs the credit for almost all the social legislation of our time."

(Reference is made to Chapter III. for a detailed account of the work of the Conservative party on behalf of the labouring classes.)

THE LABOUR COMMISSION.

Its Appointment.-Towards the new and more delicate class of labour problems which have lately arisen, the attitude of the Unionist party has been one of cautious, while sympathetic, inquiry. With the more general interests of labour the late Government showed its sympathy by sending delegates to the International Labour Conference at Berlin in 1890; while upon several special questions, such as the practice of "sweating," colonisation and emigration, and the hours of railway servants, it appointed Select Committees whose reports have already

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formed-or will form, should it be found expedient-a sound basis for legislation. With the recent upheavals in the labour world, and the desire evinced by social reformers practically to put the whole industrial system into the crucible, it became evident that a much more extended inquiry was necessary. The Government accordingly proposed the appointment of a Royal Commission on Labour, the terms of the reference being:

"To inquire into the questions affecting the relations between employers and employed and the conditions of labour which have been raised during the recent trade disputes in the United Kingdom; and to report whether legislation can with advantage be directed to the remedy of any evils that may be disclosed, and if so, in what manner."

The Commission, subsequently appointed by Her Majesty, was large and amply representative of every political and industrial interest. At its first meeting it resolved to divide into three groups or committees: Group A, dealing with mining, iron, and shipbuilding trades; Group B, with transport and agriculture; and Group C, with textile, building, and miscellaneous trades. An important step was taken by Group C appointing female sub-commissioners to conduct inquiries in connection with women's industries; and sub-commissioners were also appointed to make special investigations into the condition of the agricultural labourer.

Nature of the Inquiry.-The terms of the reference necessarily raise the whole group of labour problems. That the Commission are fully alive to the extent and gravity of the question with which they are called on to deal, is clearly apparent from the syllabus of inquiries to be made, drawn up at their first meeting. Under the general heading of "Trade differences between employer and employed," the syllabus groups the inquiries under four heads (1) Causes of the differences; (2) their development, organisation, and conduct; (3) their cost; and (4) their prevention and settlement. Under "Causes" it notes wages, hours of labour, distribution of work, apprenticeships, introduction and supply of machinery, safety and sanitation, relations of unionists and non-unionists, use of black lists, employment of foreigners, sympathetic strikes, and various other subheadings. Under "Development and Conduct" it notes: (a) trade combinations of employers or of employed; (b) strikes and lock-outs; and (c) importation of new or foreign labour. Under "Cost" it notes economic results of strikes and lockouts to workers, to employers, and to the community at large. Finally under "Prevention and Settlement" it notes: (a) conciliation; (b) mediation; (c) arbitration; (d) sliding scales;

(e) profit-sharing; (f) industrial partnerships; and (g) cooperation.

Proceedings.—The Commission has taken a very large amount of evidence, each group sitting separately to take evidence concerning the particular industries remitted to it, and the whole Commission afterwards sitting together to take evidence on general subjects, such as Co-operation, &c. Minutes of the evidence with relative digests and indices have been periodically issued. The Commission have also issued schedules of questions to employers of labour, the answers to which have been printed in a separate volume. They have also obtained, through the Foreign Office, information as to the state of labour abroad, both in the colonies and in foreign countries, which have been digested into reports by the Secretary to the Commission. The agricultural and lady sub-commissioners have also issued a number of volumes of Reports upon the evidence they have collected. Altogether the publications of the Commission already extend to over 9000 pages, and there is a good deal more to come, including the Report of the Commission itself. It is impossible to give any summary of the evidence. But reference will be made in the following paragraphs to points of special interest that have come out in the course of the inquiry.

THE NEW LABOUR DEPARTMENT.

Constitution and Work of the New Department.-One of the first acts of the President of the Board of Trade (Mr. Mundella) on acceding to office was to announce a reform which had been in contemplation for some time, and which consisted in the organisation of a new Labour Department of the Board of Trade. The superintendence of labour interests was formerly intrusted to a single labour correspondent attached to the commercial department of the Board, who issued annual reports on strikes, trade unions, &c., but the resources and staff at his disposal were utterly inadequate for the purpose. In a memorandum on the subject, afterwards submitted to Parliament, Dr. Giffen explained that the work of collecting, digesting, and publishing statistical and other information bearing on questions relating to the conditions of labour would in future be intrusted to a separate branch of the Board, consisting of a Commissioner of Labour (in general direction of the Department), a chief labour correspondent, and three additional labour correspondents (one of them a lady), with an appropriate staff. In addition to the work hitherto carried on, it was proposed to issue a paper called the Labour Gazette, which would digest the information obtained by the Department, and to