Lord Advocate in 1831 that at an election then within living memory for the county of Bute, which had not more than twenty-one electors, of whom but one was resident-that resident, together with the Sheriff and the returning officer, constituted the meeting, and having taken the chair, moved and seconded his own nomination, put the question to the vote, and elected himself." The mass of the people lived, performed their work, and died in the position to which they thought the Lord had called them, without questioning the causes which gave them their position.

THE ECONOMIC THEORIES

were cast in the same mould. The world did move, but the legislators, administrators, and industrial leaders had not learned the fact in 1760. The ancient doctrine of paternalism and State regulation was still recognised as expedient and desirable, and "though nominally free to move, both farmers and labourers were practically fettered to the manor by their ignorance and their poverty." The ancient theory of State made for a fixed order of society, and held it to be the duty of the Government to care for the temporal, spiritual, and eternal welfare of the individual, especially in so far as these interests did not conflict with those of the privileged. Under the old economic doctrine, wages were regulated, and the quality and often quantity of wares determined by the powers that were. Especially as the regulation of wages and the guaranteeing of good quality of wares suited the temporal interests of the "upper classes," the system hung on from age to age, until it was finally broken by the sudden and vast

movements of the Industrial Revolution. In the old days life was simple, and human relationship, social and industrial, far from complex. Regulation was not the difficult task that it may appear to have been. But when the new order came, bringing its complex and intricate relationships, the old regulations hampered trade and industry on every hand. These restrictions have been classified by Toynbee as follows:

I. INTERNAL RESTRICTIONS ON TRADE.

1. The apprentice system requiring an apprenticeship of seven years from all who followed any trade which was in existence at the time the law was passed in Elizabeth's reign.

In general, corporations would not admit a workman if he was not a freeman, a position to be attained by serving the required apprenticeship. Corporations also supervised and regulated prices and qualities.

3. The regulation of wages was largely in the hands of the Justices of the Peace.

II-EXTERNAL RESTRICTIONS.

1. Commerce was in the hands of chartered companies such as the East India and Turkish Companies.

2. Encouragement was given to the importation of raw materials and the necessaries of life, but the purchase of foreign manufactures was restricted.

3. Navigation Acts aimed to secure to English seamen the control of the world's carrying trade. “No

goods of growth or manufacture in Asia, Africa, or America were to be imported into England, Ireland, or plantations, except in ships belonging to English subjects, and manned by a crew three-fourths of whom were English subjects; while no goods of any country were to be imported except in English ships or ships belonging to the countries from which the goods came.

Thus we see at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution every branch of trade, commerce, and industry was hampered and restricted by complicated regulations, while the majority of the people were held in political bondage, and national policies were determined in the light of medieval doctrines. The wonderful expansion of trade and commerce which came with the great inventions broke the narrow bonds of the old mediæval order; the aristocratic and divine right foundations crumbled from beneath the institutions of State and the industrial structure; and society resolved into the chaos of unrestrained individualism in every activity. The old laws could not control the immense trade which had suddenly sprung up, and the time for the new restriction had not yet come. The employment of land, capital, and labour in any way to make the largest returns for the "captains of industry" was recognised as legitimate, and upheld by the learned writers on political economy. Individual liberty was the battle-cry, and it is not to be wondered at when we understand the folly of the old restrictive doctrines which held on until the eve of the Revolution, and when we remember that the new principles of State control were not yet developed. The State was to be a passive policeman, according to the new theories of the sphere of legislative action, while workers and employers were to

be allowed full freedom in selling and buying. Freedom from social and aristocratic dogmas, freedom from restriction, marked the coming of the new industrial order. "Few of the laws and customs-little, indeed, of the social organisation could stand this test. England was covered with rotten survivals from bygone circumstances; the whole administration was an instrument for class domination and parasite nurture; the progress of the Industrial Revolution was rapidly making obsolete all laws, customs, proverbs, maxims, and nursery tales; and the sudden increase of population was baffling all expectations and disconcerting all arrangements. At last it came to be carelessly accepted as the teaching both of philosophy and of experience that every man must fight for himself, and 'the devil take the hindmost' became the accepted social creed of what was still believed to be a Christian nation. Utilitarianism became the Protestantism of Sociology, and 'how to make for self and family the best of both worlds' was assumed to be the duty, as it certainly was the aim, of every practical Englishman."

Sec. 6.-Condition of the Workers under the New Order. Capitalism, unrestrained by Acts of Parliament, and unhindered by public opinion, entered upon an era of full freedom of contract and unrestricted competition, and the results which followed upon the mad rush for wealth supply materials for the pessimist and cynic who make human nature a synonym for all that is mean and selfish. Labour became a commodity to be bought and sold on the market. Conditions of life became secondary to the production of wealth. In this discussion of these conditions we shall first take up a brief consideration of

LIFE IN THE FACTORIES.

As we have seen, the old domestic system of manufacturing had perished, and "contentment spinning at the cottage door" had become the dream of the poet. Instead came the factory system, with its organised armies of workers. Great factory buildings were rushed up by men ignorant of the elementary principles of sanitation. One who visits the Lancashire district to-day will see still standing many of the old factories with their low ceilings, small windows, and absence of sanitary arrangements. So wild was the rush for wealth that nothing was thought of save space enough to work the machines, and light enough to enable the operator to tend them. In these dingy buildings, choked with dust and worn with over-work, the English freeman enjoyed to the utmost the blessed privilege of freedom of contract. Radcliffe tells us that "Old barns, cart-houses, and out-buildings of all descriptions were repaired; windows broken through the old blank walls, and all were fitted up for loom-shops; new weavers' cottages arose in every direction." Bodily and mental comfort, health, security from dangerous machines, and moral decency were hardly taken into consideration by the "captains of industry who were laying the foundations of England's greatness." The new "labour-saving machines" did not save the labourer who worked them, and proved disastrous to those thrown out of employment to wait until the fluidity of labour had adjusted the equilibrium." The horrors of the industrial conditions under unrestrained capitalism outrival those of black slavery in America. If the English worker died