the aid of both military and police was invoked. The movement collapsed, and finally died away when the repeal of the Corn Laws had restored prosperity to the nation. Many have laughed at the working classes for trying to gain some infinitesimal fraction of political power; but working men are generally acute, especially where their own interests are concerned, and they saw that this was the ultimate means of material prosperity; nor has the event failed to justify their belief.1 In the somewhat quieter times which followed the collapse of the Chartists, their influence went on extending, and though the workmen ceased to agitate they were not idle, but continued steadily organising themselves in Trades Unions. A large number of Unions were formed between 1850 and 1860.2 These institutions were not, however, recognised by law till a Commission was appointed, including Sir William Erle, Lord Elcho, and Thomas Hughes, to inquire into their constitution and objects (February 1867). Their Report disclosed the existence of intimidation, with occasional outrages-as was natural when the men had no other way of giving utterance to their wishes. —but on the whole the Report was in favour of the repeal of the Act of 1825. This Act was accordingly repealed.3 The Unions were legalised by the Trade Union Act of 1871, and this Act was further extended 5 and amended in 1875 and 1876. The old law of master and servant had passed away, and employer and employed were now on an equal political footing. It has remained for the men by the exercise of silent strength to place themselves on an equal footing in other respects. Meanwhile the employers, alarmed at Trades Unionism, had entered into a similar combination by forming the National Federation of Employers in 1873, and the long struggle of the working classes for industrial freedom did not result in any lessening 1 Toynbee points this out very clearly, and shows how political influence led to the legislation of Trade Unions; Industrial Revolution, p. 196. 2 Howell, Trades Unionism New and Old, p. 59.

4

3 By the 38 and 39 Victoria, c. 31 and c. 32.

4 The 34 and 35 Victoria, c. 31 and 32; Howell, Trades Unionism New

and Old, p. 61.

5 By the 38 and 39 Victoria, c. 86.

6 Cf. Webb, History of Trades Unionism, pp. 312, 313.

of the feeling of class antagonism.1 The formation in 1895 of the Industrial Union of Employers and Employed is a recent attempt to bring about better relations between master and man,2 and if its objects were carried out on a wide scale, it would do much good. Apart from the question of antagonism, Trades Unions have done much to gain a greater measure of material prosperity for the working classes, and to give them a larger share than formerly in the wealth which the workers have helped to create. When we look back upon the last half-century, we are inclined to wonder that trades unionists have been so moderate in their demands, considering the misery and poverty amidst which they grew up.

§ 240. The Working Classes Fifty Years Ago.

For it must continually be remembered that the condition of the mass of the people in the first half of this century was one of the deepest depression. Several writers have commented upon this, and have taken occasion to remark upon the great progress in the prosperity of the working classes since that time. It is true they have progressed since then, but it has hardly been progress so much as a return to the state of things about 1760 or 1770. The fact has been, that after the introduction of the new industrial system the condition of the working classes rapidly declined; wages were lower, and prices, at least of wheat, were often higher; till at length the lowest depth of poverty was reached about the beginning of the reign of Queen Victoria. Since then their condition has been gradually improving, partly owing to the philanthropic labours of men like Lord Shaftesbury, and partly owing to the combined action of working-men themselves. To quote the expression of that well-known statistician, Mr Giffen: 5 1 Cf. Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, pp. 196-198.

2 See the Report of the Preliminary Industrial Conference held at London, March 16, 1894 (Methuen, London).

3 See the tables in Porter, Progress of the Nation, ii. 252, 253.

4 Porter, Progress of the Nation, i. 156; Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 101.

5 Essays in Finance, Second Series (1886), p. 390, on Progress of the Working Classes.

It is a matter of history that pauperism was nearly breaking down the country half a century ago. The expenditure on poor law relief early in the century and down to 1830-31 was nearly as great at times as it is now. With half the population in the country that there now is, the burden of the poor was the same." The following table will show1 the actual figures of English pauperism at a time when the wealth of the nation was advancing by leaps and bounds.

It will be noticed that the rate was highest in 1818, which was shortly after the close of the great Continental War, but fell rapidly after 1830, and since 1841 the rate per head of population has not been much more than six or seven shillings.

3

But the mere figures of pauperism, significant though they are, can give no idea of the vast amount of misery and degradation which the majority of the working classes suffered. The tale of their sufferings may be studied in the Blue-books and Reports of the various Commissions which investigated the state of industrial life in the factories, mines, and workshops between 1833 and 1842; or it may be read in the burning pages of Engels' State of the Working Classes in England in 1844, which is little more

1 The first figure is from Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, p. 94; others from Porter, Progress of the Nation, i. 82, 83; ii. 362, 363.

"The fact is," said Toynbee (Ind. Rev., p. 58), “the more we examine the actual course of affairs, the more we are amazed at the unnecessary suffering that has been inflicted on the people."

E.g., Reports on Employment of Children in Factories, 1816, 1833, and (mines) 1842.

This book, though avowedly Socialist, and written in a very one-sided tone, is nevertheless accurate as to facts, which are all taken from the above-mentioned Reports. It forms a convenient book of reference. It was published in German in 1845, and in a new English edition in 1892.

than a sympathetic résumé of the facts set forth in official documents. We hear of children and young people in factories overworked and beaten as if they were slaves;1 of diseases and distortions only found in manufacturing districts; of filthy, wretched homes, where people huddled together like wild beasts; we hear of girls and women. working underground in the dark recesses of the coalmines, dragging loads of coal in cars in places where no horses could go, and harnessed and crawling along the subterranean pathways like beasts of burden. Everywhere

3

we find cruelty and oppression, and in many cases the workmen were but slaves, bound to fulfil their masters' commands under fear of dismissal and starvation. Freedom they had in name; freedom to starve and die; but not freedom to speak, still less to act, as citizens of a free state. They were often even obliged to buy their food at exorbitant prices out of their scanty wages at a shop kept by their employer, where it is needless to say that they paid the highest possible price for the worst possible goods. This was rendered possible by the system of paying workmen in tickets or orders upon certain shops, which were under the supervision of their employers. It was called the "truck system"; and was at length finally condemned by the law (1887) after many futile attempts had been made to suppress it.

5

But though, as a matter of fact, the sufferings of the working classes during the transition period of the Industrial Revolution were aggravated by the extortions of employers, and by the partiality of a legislature which

1 See above, pp. 389, 400, 401.

2

Cf. Engels (ed. 1892), pp. 151-164. 3 Engels (ed. 1892), pp. 23-73, on The Great Towns. His evidence is really appalling.

4 Engels, pp. 241-260; and Report on Employment in Mines, 1842. "By the 50 and 51 Victoria, c. 46, amending the 1 and 2 William IV., c. 37.

The 22 Geo. II., c. 27; the 57 Geo. III., cc. 115 and 122; the 1 Geo. IV., c. 93, were all measures passed against "truck," and all ineffectual. The system, however, has its apologists (cf. Cunningham, Growth of Industry, ii. 650) as being convenient, and the simplest way of providing workers with provisions in out-of-the-way villages. For a vivid description of a scene at a truck-shop, see Disraeli's novel Sybil, Bk. III., ch. iii. See also note in Rogers' edition of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, i. 150.

forbade them to take common measures in self-defence, yet there was, in addition to the Revolution itself, one great cause which underlay all these minor causes, namely, the Continental war which ended in 1815. It has been forcibly and accurately expressed by a great economist: "Thousands of homes were starved in order to find the means for the great war, the cost of which was really supported by the labour of those who toiled on and earned the wealth that was lavished freely-and at good interest for the lenders-by the Government. The enormous taxation and the gigantic loans came from the store of accumulated capital which the employers wrung from the poor wages of labour, or which the landlords extracted from the growing gains of their tenants. To outward appearance the strife was waged by armies and generals; in reality, the sources on which the struggle was based were the stint and starvation of labour, the overtaxed and underfed toils of childhood, the underpaid and uncertain employment of men." 1

§ 241. Wages.

And, indeed, if we examine some of the wages actually paid at the beginning of this century, and again at the beginning of Queen Victoria's reign, we shall find that they were excessively low. The case of common weavers was particularly hard in the years of the great war, and affords an interesting example of the decrease of wages in this period. For purposes of comparison I append the price of wheat and of weekly wages in the same years;

2 Leone Levi, History of British Commerce, p. 146.

Porter, Progress of the Nation, i. 156. The prices are averages from the London Gazette, and were frequently far higher in the course of the year.