like those of our modern trade societies, but to the abuses of craftsmen in general, at that date. The regulations in the statute of apprentices, 5 Eliz. c. 4, codified the orders or ordinances existing for centuries among the craft-guilds, and applied them to all the trades of the time.

§ 6. According to this statute no one could lawfully exercise, either as master or journeyman, any art, mystery, or manual occupation, except he had been brought up therein, for seven years at least, as an apprentice.

§ 7. Every householder, dwelling in a city, town-corporate, or market town, might take apprentices for seven years at the least. But only those youths might be taken as apprentices whose parents possessed a certain fortune; and none could be bound but those under twenty-one years of age.

§ 8. Whoever had three apprentices must keep one journeyman; and for every other apprentice above three, one other journeyman.

§ 9. With regard to journeymen, in most trades it was enacted that no person should retain a servant under one whole year; and no servant was to depart, or be discharged, but upon a quarter's warning.

§ 10. The hours of labour were fixed by the Act to about twelve in summer, and from day-dawn until sunset in winter.

§ 11. Wages were to be assessed yearly by the justices of the peace, or by the town-magistrates, at every general sessions first to be holden after Easter. The same authorities were to settle all disputes between masters and apprentices, and to protect the latter.

§ 12. The Act of 1 James I. c. 6 expressly extends this power of the justices and town-magistrates of fixing wages, which was previously limited to particular crafts, to the wages of all labourers and workmen whatever.

13. So long as the regulations in the statutes of apprentices were maintained, the position of the workmen was secure; while the long term of service assured them that which above everything they desired-regularity of employment.

§ 14. The magistrates were, according to the intention of the Act, to assess the wages so as to "yield unto the hired

person, both in the time of scarcity, and in the time of plenty, a convenient proportion of wages ;" and the fixed hours of labour for that time were not excessive, especially as the manner of carrying on work was not then so exhaustive as it is nowadays.

15. The restrictions as to apprentices prevented the skilled workmen from being lowered to the level of common labourers, through unlimited competition. But the operation of this statute was limited by interpretation to cities, townscorporate, and market towns, and to those trades only which were established in England before the 5th of Elizabeth was enacted.

§ 16. Trade unions originated with the non-observance of these regulations, as will be seen by considering (1) some of the trades subject to the statute; (2) some of those which were incorporated by charter; (3) some which were free from any restrictions, whether by charters or by Acts of parliament.

PART II.—TRADES SUBJECT TO THE STATUTE, 5 ELIZ. c. 4.

§ 17. The woollen manufactures were the old staple trade of England, and the craft-guilds of the woollen weavers were of great importance. The number of the workmen employed in this trade led them to combine whenever there was a temporary want of sufficient organisation. This trade was regulated, as to the use of machinery, by 5 and 6 Ed. VI. c. 22; and was further regulated as to the number of looms one weaver might have by 2 and 3 Mary, c. 11. Later on the trade came under 5 Eliz. c. 4. But the assessment by the justices of the wages in this trade seems to have fallen into disuse before the year 1720. In that year the justices again fixed the rate of wages, but it was not carried out in practice. The want of a fixed rate of wages led to oppressions of the workmen by the masters; which oppressions led the workmen temporarily to combine.

§ 18. In 1725 combinations of workmen employed in woollen manufactures were prohibited by 12 Geo. I. c. 34; and in the following year (1726) an Act was passed ordering the justices

once more to fix the rate of wages in this trade. Again the statutory rates of wages seem to have fallen into disuse, for in 1756, the workmen petitioned the justices, in accordance with this Act, to fix such rate of wages; but the masters presented a counter-petition, and the justices refused. The workmen were thus prohibited from combining, by an Act which was enforced, while the justices refused to carry out the Act for fixing the rate of their wages, thus inflicting a double wrong.

§ 19. The immediate consequences of this state of things were that the weavers revolted; they hindered the journeymen who went on working, and drove them from their looms. This strike led to riots, and resulted in a loss to the country, estimated at from £15,000 to £20,000. This strike induced the masters to agree with the workmen, and peace was again established. In the same year (1756) the justices were again. ordered, by 29 Geo. III. c. 33, to settle the rates of wages yearly in the woollen manufactures; but the whole system was on the eve of a great change.

§ 20. These early conflicts were the results of individual attempts by the masters to abolish the existing order of things; but, as the legislature still maintained the old laws, these contests did not lead at once to the formation of permanent trade societies. The latter were brought into existence by the transition of the woollen manufactures from the domestic to the factory system, and by the attempt of the master manufacturers to get 5 Eliz. c. 4 repealed.

§ 21. In the last century the woollen manufactures were carried on by small masters, in their own homes. Even as late as in 1806, the number of such small masters, in Leeds and its environs, was estimated at 3,500. Every one of these had served a seven years' apprenticeship; even where the statute of apprentices was not known, either to masters or men, its regulations were maintained because they corresponded to custom.

§ 22. In the year 1806, in Armley, near Leeds, a small clothworkers' village of from 4,000 to 5,000 inhabitants, there were ninety-seven apprentices bound for seven years, and only

four for a shorter period. Each master employed on the average ten journeymen and apprentices, the rule being one apprentice to two or three journeymen; the master was regularly assisted by his wife and children, the latter, when working with their father, were not compelled to be bound by indenture.

§ 23. As a rule, those employed worked in their master's house, where the wool was passed through all its various stages until it became dressed cloth, and even, if necessary, dyed. Sometimes, however, the journeymen did the work in their own homes, and were assisted in their labours by their wives.

§ 24. The master himself taught the apprentice his trade. If the learner had a prospect of ever becoming a master himself, he was also taught how to buy the raw materials, in which case the master received a premium on taking the apprentice. After a seven years' apprenticeship the apprentice could at once settle down and become a master; but as a rule he first worked a year or two as a journeyman. Under this system a young man of good repute could generally get credit for as much wool as would enable him to start as a small master; but perhaps its chief advantage consisted in the promise of permanent and regular employment which it afforded, for slackness of trade did not at once stop work in the workshops, as the master went on working, although he could not always find an immediate sale for his products when he took them to the market.

§ 25. If a sudden stagnation occurred in the home or foreign markets, or by a large firm becoming bankrupt, the losses were distributed over a larger area than at present, for they fell on the whole body of the manufacturers; and though each small master individually suffered by it, there were but few, if any, whom it ruined. If such an extreme case happened, the smaller master often took work from another, so as to maintain his family.

§ 26. Like the trade of the masters, the employment of the journeymen was exceedingly regular; as a rule they were hired. by the year; they had board and lodging at their master's, and received besides from £8 to £10 a year. Journeymen often

worked for the same masters continuously for more than twenty years. If trade became slack, or there was no immediate sale for the goods, the journeymen were not suddenly discharged in masses; such dismissals scarcely ever happened, for the masters and the men worked on in the hope of better times. The masters considered it to be a part of their duty to keep, in times of distress, those workmen to whose exertions in good times they owed their wealth. If a master was in want of work for his journeyman, he used to seek about for a job for him at another master's; if a job could not be found, he was kept on by his old master. To quote the words of a master of that time, "the men and masters were so joined together in sentiment and love to each other, that they did not wish to be separated if they could help it." If, on the other hand, a master had more orders than he could execute, he asked another master to lend him a journeyman; but working "to order," in the modern sense of the term, was seldom adopted.

§ 27. The centres of this organisation of trade were the cloth-halls to which the masters brought their products for sale. In Leeds there were two such halls, one for white cloth, and one for coloured; similar halls existed at Bradford, Halifax, and Huddersfield. The cloth was here examined and measured by the authorities. These cloth-halls were under the direction of trustees, elected for the year, by all the clothworkers of the neighbouring villages, as being the most trustworthy and intelligent of their body. It was their duty to watch over the general trade interests of the manufacturers, and to enforce the observance of all rules and bye-laws, which were framed from time to time for the government of these halls. Here, again, the rule as to apprenticeship was universally observed and enforced, for no clothworker was allowed to bring his wares into these halls for sale, unless he had served a seven years' apprenticeship.

§ 28. The introduction of machinery wrought a complete change in this state of things. The various processes which before had been chiefly performed by hand, under the master's own roof, began now to be executed in public mills by machinery. Mills were erected on rivers and streams with a view to fully