English Gilds *

men on strike . At one place the workmen of a master-manufacturer quarrelled with him and struck work . The members of the Institution wished to assist them ; xxpon this the masters left the society . When the master-manxxfacturers heard that tho object of tbe Institution was to petition Parliament

for tho maintenance of the 5 th Elizabeth , c . 4 , they required their workmen to leave it . On refusing this they were all discharged . Ehe master-manufacturers even entered into combinations for suppressing the Institution , which , strange to say ,

notwithstanding the 39 th and 40 th George III ., c . 106 . was considered allowable by the Parliamentary Committee , though it was hostile to the Institution . On the other hand , the workmen at some places forced the owners of mills who worked for others

on hire , to enter their society , as otherwise they declared they woxxld not work for them . They also hindered them from working for such masters as were hostile to the Institution . Once , when a mastermanuiacturer employed unlawful workers , his journeymen struck work . The rest of the

xnastermanufaotxxrers then promised their colleague assistance , and offered to do his work for him in the meantime . But when they attempted to do this , all their journeymen threatened to leave their factories at once . Finally , the masters signed a contract ,

according to which they obliged themselves to engage no more workmen for the future , contrary to the 5 th Elizabeth , c . 4 . When , year after year , notwithstanding all petitions of the workmen , the Acts regulating the

woollen manufacture were suspended , a factory was burnt down ; and in September , 1805 , the London Eire Insurance Companies received letters

of caution from workmen , wherein they declared that , as Parliament refused to protect their right , they would do it themselves . Though the Eeport of the Committee expressl y states that not the Institution , but individuals , must be charged with these nefarious deeds , yet they prove the exasperation

prevailing among the workmen : But notwithstanding this exasperation , and the attachment of the journeymen to their Trade-Societ y , which even then was so groat , as a master said in evidence , if it were prohibited they would rather follow it than the

laws of the land , yet this Trade Society ceased at once , when in Christmas , 1805 , the trustees of the cloth-halls again took up the petitions . The workmen at once delivered them all their funds . It is evident from this that the object of the Institution

Avas nothing but the maintenance of the existing legal and customary regulations of trade . As soon as the State ceased to maintain order , it stepped into

its place ; and as soon as there was a prospect of a more legitimate authority putting the law into practice , the Institution ceased at once . Earlier than the Trade-Society which the cloth-Avorkers began in 1802 under the cover of a Friendly

Society , the shipwrights of Liverpool had formed themselves in the last century into a Trade-Society , which was nominalty a mere benefit club . Hero too tho abuse of employing chiefly apprentices caused the origin of this union . But much earlier than the

Trade-Societies in both these trades were those of the hatters . Besides being under the 5 th Elizabeth , c . 4 , the hat trade was under the two Acts of the 8 th Elizabeth and the 1 st Jac . I ., which only confirmed the regulations of the Statute of Apprentices

expressly for that trade . In this trade prevailed , early in the eighteenth century , the system of carrying on industry by means of sub-contractors ( alias sweaters ) , who were called little masters . They received , the materials from the

master-manufacturers , and got them worked up by apprentices only , This led to combinations of the journeymen . From 1772 an extremely vigorous Trade Society existed ameng them fer maintaining the existing order and providing for the interests of the operatives . As soon as the employers attempted to give work to sub-contractors , they forced them by strikes to take

it back . The society was called the Congress , was regulated by statutes , and framed bye-laws . All workmen of the trade belonged to it . Every one had to pay a weekly contribution of 2 d . As the workmen thus prevented tho masters from employing an excessive number of apprentices , the masters

petitioned Parliament in 1777 for the repeal of the legal restrictions as to apprentices , and for prohibitions of combinations of journeymen . Both were granted by the 17 th George III ., c . 55 , which did not however repeal all restrictions , for every master

hatter was to employ one journeyman for every apprentice he mi ght take . In the tailors' trade also combinations must have existed early in the eighteenth century , as the 7 th . George I . c . 13 , forbade them . I could , however ,

find nothing as to the causo of these combinations in the Journals of the House of Commons . But it is probable that hero also , as in other trades , as foxinstance in tho woollen manufactures just mentioned , the discontinuance of the legal regulation of

wages by tho justices of the peace occasioned these combinations . This seems tho moro probable , as tho preamble of the 8 th George III ., o . 17 , speaks of those who by " many subtle devices " tried to evade the regulations of wages by the justices according to the 7 th George I ., c . 13 . By these words masters