§ 98. So thought the workmen, and they petitioned accordingly for the restitution of those ancient legal regulations; but parliament refused; they therefore tried self-help by associative effort, and hence arose combinations of workmen in all the chief trades of the time. The workmen were now placed in a position of positive injustice, for they were refused legal protection on the one hand, and, on the other, the means of selfhelp, in the shape of combination, was denied to them, and punished as a crime, by 39 and 40 Geo. III. c. 106. Employers could, and did, combine; but the workmen dared not do so publicly, and in the face of open day, as they ought to have been permitted to do, and hence arose trade unions, which were at first partially of a secret character. The secrecy of the earlier unions has been universally, but under the circumstances unjustly, condemned-unjustly because they were compelled to secrecy by repressive laws.

§ 99. Secret societies are the natural result of repression; they arise out of a sense of injustice and oppression, strengthened by the conviction that they dare not publicly discuss their grievances, real or imaginary, and that the government under which this state of things exists are opposed to the interests of those who compose such societies. Secret combinations are incompatible with free government, and cannot possibly find any large class of adherents; but tyranny and oppression will always produce men who will not be deterred, by any consideration of danger, from combining to resist what they deem an injustice.

§ 100. The enactment of the combination laws, therefore, did not prevent combination, but tended to develop it. In 1818, a common workman was prosecuted for combining, and bail to the amount of £200 and two sureties of £100 each were required for his appearance at the next sessions to answer the charge; but these prosecutions did not deter others from combining. The effects of these laws were such that the people in their despair were led to commit the grossest deeds of violence and the most infamous crimes, in what they considered to be self-defence. The whole character of the workpeople had so deteriorated that they regarded with little aversion

acts which were not only vicious, but actually criminal. Similar circumstances have produced similar results in recent times, both in this country and on the Continent, so slow are we to take to heart the lessons, and benefit by the experience of, history.

§ 101. The most serious of these outrages occurred during the years 1819, 1820, and 1823, in Glasgow, Paisley, and the surrounding districts; but the witnesses of the operatives who were examined denied that the unions had anything to do with the outrages. The fatal frequency and systematic character of these acts of terrorism, however, bear evidence to the fact of a concerted plan, although the number of those who took part in them might have been comparatively few.

PART V.-THE RAPID GROWTH OF TRADE UNIONS DURING THE PRESENT CENTURY.

§ 102. The preceding sketch supplies ample evidence with regard to the condition of the workmen in the several handicrafts of the country; of their sufferings during the period of transition from a small to a great industry; from a system of domestic manufacture to factory life; of their frantic struggles to maintain the old system and methods, and failing that, to mitigate the severity of the new conditions, and afford protection to those who were thrown upon the tender mercies of the new class of capitalists, who were then rising into power. With regard to the origin of trade unions, it has been shown that they arose out of the attempts that were made to abolish the old order of things, together with the long established customs in the several trades, and with it, moreover, the legal protection which had hitherto been relied on by the workmen as a safeguard against the encroachments of capital.

$103. Under the craft-guilds they had been protected to a certain extent by customs and laws mutually established between masters and journeymen; by the statute of apprentices this protection had been, at a subsequent period, sanctioned and guaranteed by law; with the abrogation of that law the position of the small masters and that of the journeymen was alike menaced, their prospects being rendered doubtful and

insecure; the security of the poorer class of workers and the situation of the well-to-do small masters were similarly jeopardised. The development of the factory system destroyed. whatever harmony was still left between masters and workmen, and the antagonisms which arose in consequence produced nothing but anarchy, until combinations of the workmen grew up, which tended to some extent to restore an equilibrium of the industrial forces. After the repeal of 5 Eliz. c. 4, the necessity for organisation among the workmen became more and more apparent, and hence they combined more rapidly, and with more distinctive objects than before.

§ 104. Trade unions were formed for the purpose of resisting the aggressions of the rising manufacturers, and to prevent the spread of the gross abuses which naturally resulted from the disintegration of labour, caused by a new system, under new conditions, and governed by a new class. The primary object of the unions was the maintenance of the independence of the workmen, and the consolidation of their order, just as the Frith-guilds formed a kind of barrier against the tyranny of mediæval magnates, and as the craft-guilds opposed the aggressions of the old burghers. The journeymen only resorted to combinations as a means of self-help, when legal aid was denied to them, and when there was no other preventive power between them and industrial slavery. The earlier associations had been formed for the purpose of enforcing the laws as they then stood, such were those of the clothworkers, the hatters, the calico-printers, the silk-weavers, etc. When it was found that the legally established companies or societies failed to maintain intact the regulations and customs of the several trades, other associations were formed for the purpose of continuing the industrial warfare, and protecting the interests of the journeymen. Originally all the craftsmen in the trade belonged to the society lawfully established for their mutual protection; their contributions were in a sense voluntary, or levied according to the varying necessities of the hour; but changed conditions gave to these associations of workmen new forms of life, the full maturity of which are as yet scarcely seen, not even by the experiences of 1889 and 1890,

§ 105. When these combinations became more frequent, and their actions more important and defiant, it was thought that the power possessed by the criminal courts for dealing with their proceedings was either too uncertain, or too dilatory for the purpose of suppressing them; and accordingly as strikes occurred in particular trades, the legislature was called upon to apply more effectual remedies. The result was that many statutes were passed during the latter part of the last century for the protection of employers in different trades. These statutes, generally called the "combination laws," prohibited all agreements, or associations of workmen, for the purpose of advancing wages, or controlling their masters in the management and regulation of their business, and empowered the magistrates to convict summarily, and punish with imprisonment for two or three months, any workman who should take part in them. After the prohibition of all combinations, only the more zealous and fearless openly combined; but under the cloak of friendly societies many associations were formed, fixed payments being demanded, just as in the Middle Ages political associations were formed under the cloak of religious guilds: secrecy was the child of suppression; the legislature forged at once the chains of the workmen, and the weapons for their deliverance.

§ 106. The rules of the earlier societies were necessarily crude and imperfect, they show indeed but the merest outlines of an organisation; many of them were designed only as temporary expedients for present purposes, and for the emergencies which gave rise to them. The articles of these associations were perfected more and more as time went on, and as occasion required, until some of them more than realised the ideas of the later craft-guilds, and were elaborated into the almost perfect form which we now find in the modern trade unions. The germ of federation is to be found in some of the earlier trades' movements, but it was short-lived, and was sternly put down by law. A faint outline of amalgamation can also be traced, but the Corresponding Societies' Acts rudely put an end to that idea, and it had to be abandoned.

§ 107. When the journeymen found that they were denied the protection of the law, and dared not openly combine, they

tried to fix a statement list of prices; this the employers also opposed, as, in their opinion, they alone had the right to fix the price of labour, and the terms upon which journeymen should work. The idea of arbitration was also broached, but it was equally unsuccessful; the modern methods of procedure by courts of arbitration is, however, but an amended method of the ordinances of craft-guilds for the regulation of wages, and the subsequent appeals to the justices to decide between the contending parties. A workman in the silk-weaving trade could obtain an arbitration summons for twopence, on application to the town clerk or magistrates, for the purpose of adjusting any differences as to price, before a magistrate or justice of the peace. None of these things gave permanent relief to the workmen; their condition became worse, and their wages more precarious; distress brought disorder; this in its turn called forth greater efforts for the purpose of inaugurating associations. which should replace the old guilds, embracing all those belonging to the craft, and whose objects should be either to maintain the old order of things, or create a new order, more suited to the times, and the circumstances of each particular handicraft.

§ 108. That these efforts were to some extent successful is proved by the fact that at the commencement of the present century the legislature had discovered not only that strikes were common in almost every trade, but they had also become acquainted with the different purposes for which the associations were formed, the means by which they were supported, and the manner in which they were conducted. The manufacturers, moreover, were not idle; complaints against the workmen. were abundant enough, and accordingly, in the year 1800, a statute was passed, 40 Geo. III. c. 106, directed against all associations of workmen established for any and all of these purposes.

By the first section of this statute all agreements between journeymen and workmen for obtaining an advance of wages for themselves or for other workmen, or for lessening the hours of work, or for preventing or hindering any person from employing whomsoever he should think proper to employ, or for