kisson was not the man to vacillate in his duty, or to give way to complaints. He defended his policy with his accustomed precision and fulness. Every attempt to make the Government hesitate whether to go onward or backward signally failed by his adroit answers. Motions for committees of enquiry were rejected again and again. Bills for removing restrictions met a favourable reception, and laws were passed, not to restrict, but to extend still further the policy of commercial freedom, love for which had already taken root in the very heart of the people. APPENDIX. TAXES REDUCED OR REPEALED. 1823. Stone brought coast wise,267. 88. per cent. ad valorem repealed. Great Britain Coal exported. Barilla Borax Irish goods imported into Great Britain British goods imported into Ireland. United Kingdom. Duty on coal exported in British ships to any country except the United States of America, reduced from 17. 2s. to 178. per chaldron. Reduced from 11s. 4d. to 58. 3d. per cwt. Various rates reduced. Various rates repealed. 1824. Coals brought into the Coals by weight reduced from 78. 6d. to 48. per ton, port of London Raw and thrown silk Raw silk of British territory in India, from 48. to 3d. per lb.; of other sorts, from 58. 6d. to 3d. per lb. Thrown silk, not dyed, from 148. 8d. to 7s. 6d. per lb. Drawback on British manufactured silk exported repealed. From 138. 11d. reduced to 128. 74d. per imperial gallon. Foreign sheep's wool, from 6d. to 1d. per lb. Various rates repealed. 1825. Various rates reduced. Coffee of British possessions in America, from 18. to Foreign, from 98. 2d. to 48. 8d. per cwt. From 18. 6d. to 8d. per gallon. Madder and madder root Madder, from 128. to 68. per cwt. Madder root, from 58. to 1s. 6d. per cwt. Reduced to 101. per cent. ad valorem, with a further duty of 34d. per square yard if printed. Foreign, 118. 2d. to 6s. per cwt.; British possessions, from 18. 8d. per cwt. to nil. Indigo Flax British possessions, from 5d. to 3d. per lb.; other, from 5d. to 4d. From 5d. to 1d. per cwt. Skins, lamb, undressed. From 148. to 18. 6d. per 100. Reduced to 68. per piece if plain, and 58. if bordered handkerchiefs. From 18. 8d. to 6d. per lb. From 28. 6d. to 18. per lb. Foreign, from 1d. to d. per lb.; British possessions, from 1d. to nil. Reduced to 17. per cwt. From 28. 6d. to 18. 6d. per cwt. Of British fishery, from 98. 11d. to 18.; foreign, from 391. 188. to 267. 128. per tun. From 17. 78. to 158. per last. From 10d. to 5d. per lb. Dressed, from 27. 158. 6d. to 17. 108. per lb.; undressed, from 18. to 108. per lb. From 61. 108., bound, and from 51. per cwt., unbound, to 17. per cwt. on books of editions prior to 1801, and to 51. per cwt. on books of editions printed in or since 1801, bound or unbound. From 158. 10d. to 48. 8d. per cwt. Common, from 88. per doz., quarts, and 88. 2d. to 48. Repealed. Repealed. Quarantine duty on ship-Various rates repealed. ping From 128. 7 d. to 88. 6d. per gallon. From 28. 6d. to 18. per lb., if from British possessions. CHAPTER III. RELATIONS OF MASTERS AND SERVANTS. Relations of Masters and Servants.-Laws against Workmen.-The Combination Laws-Report of Committee on the same.-Repeal of Combination Laws.-Factory Labour.-Factory Laws.-The Truck System.— Emancipation of Slaves. Ir is of the utmost importance to the community at large that the relations between masters and men, or between capital and labour, should be established on a satisfactory basis. The nation requires a continuous production of wealth, and anything which checks its progress is a public calamity. How sad when the springs of national prosperity are wilfully dried up, when factories are shut up and work rejected, whilst labourers are parading the streets begging for their daily bread. But such incidents have unfortunately been and are still of frequent occurrence, and the differences between employers and employed, which might be arranged amicably, are too often the cause of much animosity and national loss. Of late years, especially, there has been too great a disposition to strikes and turn-outs. Low wages, long hours of labour, incompatibility of character and temper, besides questions connected with machinery and apprenticeship, have given rise to frequent disputes; but it is not too much to say that ignorance of economic laws is generally at the bottom of them all. At one time the Legislature erroneously conceived that we could remove all possibility of difference by making it highly penal on the artisan to offer any objection to whatever rate of wages was offered to him.' The statutes of labourers retained a good portion The legislation on master and servant dates back as early as the 23rd Edward III., when every man and woman able in body and within the age of three score, not living on merchandise, not exercising any craft, not having of his own whereof to live, nor land about whose tillage he might employ himself, nor serving any other, should be bound to serve, if required, at the accustomed wages. If he refused he was to be committed to jail till he found surety to enter into the service. If he departed before the term agreed, he was to be imprisoned. None were to pay more than the old wages, upon pain of forfeiting double what they paid; if the workman took more he was to be committed to jail, the overplus wages to go to the King's use in alleviation of the dismes or quinzimes assessed on the town or district. By 25 Edward III. s. 2, carters, ploughmen, and other servants were to serve by the whole year or by other usual terms, and not by the day. By 12 Richard II. no servant or labourer could depart out of the hundred where they dwelt to serve elsewhere, unless he of the ancient law of servitude, and imposed heavy penalties on workers in the various trades who refused to work at a regular fixed remuneration, often below the market value.2 An artisan could not go abroad, and if he did he was liable to be stopped on the road. If any man ventured to depose before a magistrate that he had reason to believe that a certain artisan intended to go abroad, that magistrate might imprison the artisan until he had given good security that he would not quit the country. The combination laws also were very oppressive. In 1824 old statutes were still in force, which interfered in many ways with the liberty of the person as well as with the rights of labour. By a statute, of comparatively recent date, being dated from the year 1800,3 all agreements between journeymen and workmen for obtaining an advance of wages for themselves or 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 controlling or in any way affecting any person carrying on any manufacture in the conduct or management thereof, were made and declared to be illegal; power being given to one justice of the peace to convict summarily and impose two months' imprisonment upon workmen entering into any such agreement. A remedy for such a state of matters was urgently needed, and Mr. Joseph Hume, to whom the nation is indebted for many liberal and economic measures, on February 12, 1824, moved for a committee to enquire into the state of the law on the subject. In descanting on the general position of the artisan in this country, Mr. Hume laid down the broad principle, that every law ought to be repealed which shackled any man in the free disposition of his labour, provided that free disposition did not interfere with any vital interest, and thereby endanger the political existence of the state; he asserted that the property which every man has in his labour, as it is the original foundation of all other property, so it is the most sacred and inviolable. And he complained of the conditions imposed on workmen, whilst masters were left entirely uncontrolled. The committee instituted a full enquiry into the whole subject, and in their sixth report they gave the result of their observations, more especially on the working of the existing combination laws. From evidence given before the committee it appeared that combinations of workmen had taken place in England, Scotland, and Ireland, often to a great extent, to raise and keep up their wages, to regulate their hours of working, and to impose restrictions upon brought a letter patent containing the cause of his going and the time of his return under the King's seal, which was to be in the keeping of some man of the hundred. A servant wandering without such testimonial was to be put into the stocks till he gave surety to return to his place. By 13 Richard II. c. 8 the justices were to settle and proclaim between Easter and Michaelmas what should be the wages of day labourers. 2 5 Eliz. C. 4. 40 Geo. III. c. 106. 172 CHAPTER III. RELATIONS OF MASTERS AND SERVANTS. Relations of Masters and Servants.-Laws against Workmen.-The Combination Laws.-Report of Committee on the same.-Repeal of Combination Laws.-Factory Labour.-Factory Laws.-The Truck System.Emancipation of Slaves. It is of the utmost importance to the community at large that the relations between masters and men, or between capital and labour, should be established on a satisfactory basis. The nation requires a continuous production of wealth, and anything which checks its progress is a public calamity. How sad when the springs of national prosperity are wilfully dried up, when factories are shut up and work rejected, whilst labourers are parading the streets begging for their daily bread. But such incidents have unfortunately been and are still of frequent occurrence, and the differences between employers and employed, which might be arranged amicably, are too often the cause of much animosity and national loss. Of late years, especially, there has been too great a disposition to strikes and turn-outs. Low wages, long hours of labour, incompa tibility of character and temper, besides questions connected with machinery and apprenticeship, have given rise to frequent disputes; but it is not too much to say that ignorance of economic laws is generally at the bottom of them all. At one time the Legislature erroneously conceived that we could remove all possibility of difference by making it highly penal on the artisan to offer any objection to whatever rate of wages was offered to him.' The statutes of labourers retained a good portion The legislation on master and servant dates back as early as the 23rd Edward III., when every man and woman able in body and within the age of three score, not living on merchandise, not exercising any craft, not having of his own whereof to live, nor land about whose tillage he might employ himself, nor serving any other, should be bound to serve, if required, at the accustomed wages. If he refused he was to be committed to jail till he found surety to enter into the service. If he departed before the term agreed, he was to be imprisoned. None were to pay more than the old wages, upon pain of forfeiting double what they paid; if the workman took more he was to be committed to jail, the overplus wages to go to the King's use in alleviation of the dismes or quinzimes assessed on the town or district. By 25 Edward III. s. 2. carters ploughmen, and other servants were to serve by the whole year or by other usual terms, and not by the day. By 12 Richard II. no servant or labourer could depart out of the hundred where they dwelt to serve elsewhere, unless he |