guarantee to any one that he will not scamp his work, or do the least for the most he can get. . . . A tradesunion council are not leaders of art in industry; they are, with a few exceptions, mere connoisseurs in strikes. All a union does is to strike against low wages, they never strike against doing bad work." It is indeed remarkable that with their extensive funds, widespread organisation, and trade-knowledge, hardly any union has attempted to carry on industry itself. They confine themselves to criticism and opposition. Even their funds are deposited in banks or other ordinary modes of investment, and find their way round into the hands of capitalists, perhaps their own obnoxious employers. In spite of the evils and horrors of "capitalism," the workmen can find no way of using their own capital but such as puts it into the hands of their supposed enemies.

There can be no doubt that the system of examinations will go on and prosper, and that we have not yet seen the end of the movement towards the incorporation of professions. There can, however, be equally little doubt that the public and the Legislature must keep a vigilant eye on all such bodies, and must without scruple reform them as soon as ever they fall away from their original good purpose.

Principle of Degeneration of Associations. In attempting to forecast the future of trades societies, it is indispensable to take account of what I may call the principle of degeneration, which applies to all associations of men. Every society which has perpetual succession is subject to a tendency to fall away from its original purposes. Although formed in the first instance by persons having

a definite object in view, the society subsequently becomes a distinct entity. It acquires reputation and power; it often collects endowments and acquires vested interests of various kinds. By degrees those who act as officers are drawn aside by their private interests, and there is no setting a limit to the possible divergence of the institution from the intentions of its founders.

It is hardly requisite to illustrate this statement; instances of degeneration pour upon us. St. Katharine's Hospital in Regent's Park, the city companies, sundry ancient colleges before their reformation, the Inns of Court, as they were not long ago, are sufficient instances. The change, however, is not always correctly described as degeneration; though diverging from its original purpose, a society often develops into something of unexpected utility. A small benefaction for the erection of a hospital leads to the creation of a great medical and scientific school. A convivial club of a score of members grows into the greatest of learned societies. By far the most singular of such transformations, however, is that of the Freemasons' societies.

The Freemasons' lodges were originally simple trade societies of the skilful builders who in the Middle Ages raised our grand cathedrals and our beautiful parish churches. A lodge was established at York as early as A.D. 926, and the order is said to have been introduced into England some centuries before, perhaps in 674. However that may be, the societies retained their distinctive trade character throughout the Middle Ages, as we learn incidentally from the Act 3 Henry VI. cap. 1, against masons who "confederate themselves in chapiters and assemblies." That great builder, William of Wyke

ham, was at one time Grand-Master, and as late as 1666 Sir Christopher Wren was elected deputy grand-master, in recognition of his skill as an architect and builder. Subsequently the order has become entirely disconnected from the building trade, and while ever prospering has adopted philanthropic or social purposes. The square and compasses, once the actual implements of its members, are now mere mystic symbols.

The bearing of this principle of degeneration on our subject is very evident. The existing great trade societies only need to be let alone and they will probably degenerate from their original trade purposes. But inasmuch as those trade purposes were against the public good, the process of degeneration will probably bring them more nearly into consonance with public interests. What were, under the Combination Laws, mere midnight conspiracies, are developing and will develop into widespread philanthropic bodies, headed by members of Parliament, meeting in large halls before a table full of reporters, gradually giving up their selfish and mistaken ideas. No one could have read the proceedings of the recent Trades Union Congress in London without feeling that recent wise legislation was bearing good fruit. Instead of machine-breakers and midnight conspirators, the working-men met as the members of a parliament to discuss the means and ends of legislation with dignity and propriety at least equal to that recently exhibited at St. Stephen's. No longer entirely devoted to the pet fallacies and interests of their order, their deliberations touch many of the most important social questions of the day. The more extensive the federations of trades which thus meet in peaceful conference, the more wide

and generous must of necessity become their views. Enjoying all the rights and performing all the duties of the English citizen, the trades unionist will before long cease his exclusive strife against his true ally, his wealthy employer. It is impossible not to accept the general views of Mr. Henry Crompton, that as working-men gradually acquire their full rights, their leaders will turn to the noble task of impressing upon them the duties of citizenship.

CHAPTER V.

THE LAW OF INDUSTRIAL CONSPIRACY,

THERE is no part of the law relating to labour which has been debated with more bitterness than that touching the doctrine of conspiracy, Until quite recent years the common law gave power to the judges, or they at any rate assumed the power, to treat any combination of labourers aiming at the increase of wages as a conspiracy against the public weal, an attempt at public mischief, which could be punished as a misdemeanour by fine and imprisonment. The celebrated case of the Dorsetshire labourers in the year 1834 was an instance of the exercise of this somewhat arbitrary power. The common law has now been defined and restricted, if not almost abrogated, by the Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act, 1875, which in the 3d section enacts that an agreement or combination by two or more persons to do or procure to be done any act in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute between employers and workmen shall not be indictable as a conspiracy if such act committed by one person would not be punishable as a crime. But as other parts of the same section and the same Act continue or impose special penalties in the case of proceedings involving conspiracy, some unionists are still