English Gilds *

that he was enabled to get by these mills the advantage of very expensive machines . Sometimes , too , the master himself performed the work by machinery in the mill , in order that it might be well dene .

. hi this domestic system of industry the work was chiefly performed by persons who were its proprietors . It was not so in the system of the " rich 1 y < .- ; tcr clothiers ' ' which arose in tho West of England . They bought tho foreign wool directly from

the importer , and the native in the fleece , or from the wool-stapler . Thoy then gave it to men to v . ' . v'k up , jiartly in their own houses , partly in the masters ' . For every single process through which the wool had to go until its completion , tho masters

gave tho ware to another class of workers , none of whoin wont out of his own line . B y this the workers obtained great skill in the performance of their operations . As in this system , so also in the AYtem oi' the master manufacturers which came into

existence with the origin of machinery , the workers were not the owners of the work thoy worked oir Tho merchants , for tho most part possessors of largo capitals , now became manufacturers themselves , and erected mills . In one or several buildings they kept more or loss operatives working-up by machinery ,

iiiiuor tho employers' or their overseers' superintendence , the materials belonging to them . These changes in the manner of carrying on industry led to others in the position of journeymen . The first change was , that tho apprentices were often no longer bound by indenture , though they mostly

fit ill served their seven years without it . In the mills , however , it also soon became usual to employ workers who had served no apprenticeship , besides great numbers of women and children ; tho Litter at at earlier age than would have been possible without

machinery , and according to the 5 th Elizabeth , o . 4 . Their labour was of course much cheaper than that of skilled workmen . Tbe number of employers who had served no apprenticeship increased more and more . Whereas formerly the cloth of no master

who had not served a ;_ -even years' apprenticeshi p was admitted to the cloth-halls , the trustees framed in 17 ' JG a new regulation , according to which those manufacturers also were to bo admitted who had earned on tlie trade of a clothworkor for only live years . Soon after , all persons were admitted to the cloth-halls without any qualification .

-According to the " ' Pules and Orders of tlie Clothiers' Community , 1803 , " the chief object of the Institution was to cany out the legal regulations as , o apprentices , in their ori ginal purity . But it is declared at the same time that those who till now

had carried , on the trade contrary to these regulations should continue without molestation . The activity of the society was only to extend to the future . The Exiles complain besides that the abuses ¦ which had arisen , especially the large number of

hands who had been driven into the trade , had destroyed the mutual dependence between masters and men , and had produced pride and overbearing on the part of the farmer . Henceforth all apprentices were to be considered unlawful who had not been bound by indenture for seven years . They

woro to be bound , moreover , at so early an age that their term would have expired before their majority , as no indenture was binding after their twenty-first year . The only exception was made in the case of a son of a lawful workman who served his father seven years . I must here mention that with the factory

system a new kind of apprentices sprung up , namely , apprentices bound to journeymen ; hitherto all had been bound to the master . Nobody , as the Eules further ordain , was to learn two trades at once . In other Eules , workmen of other trades also stated that this regulation of the 37 th Edward III ., c . 5 was to bo maintained .

To the prosecution of this chief object the Institution added tho assistance of the sick , ancl of the widows of deceased members , under entirely similar conditions as arc still now used in Trade Unions . The necessary moneys woro collected , in every single case , in the name of the sick , or the widow of the deceased . In Leeds the contribution of each

member was Id . a week , and at Halifax 3 d . Twice a year a committee of thirteen was elected b y the members at a general meeting , to manage the affairs of tlie Institution . Seven wore to form a quorum . Pines were imposed for not accepting office when chosen . On resigning , the committee had to render

account of their doings . There "were also stewards , who had to provide for tho collection of contributions , and the assistance of the sick . Besides , we find hero also what we found in the Statutes of all Gilds , from the Gilds of Abbotsbury , Exeter , and

Cambridge , namely , that all offences at meetings , by using bad language , ill-behaviour , and the like should be punished . The committee had tho ri ght to alter the rules according to need . If any cause of complaint arose either as to apprentices or as to some

othor rule , tho mon of the workshop were first to inquire into the case , to try and arrange tho difficulty . But wherever they did not succeed , the difference was to bo brought before the committee , -whose decision was to bo final . The masters , however , did not continue long in l he Institution . The fact -was that it also assisted