and their deductions of wages from the workpeople, than any others.

§ 5. As before shown the statute 2 and 3 Edward VI. c. 15 refers, not to associations of journeymen alone, like our modern trade-societies, but to the abuses of craftsmen in general. But the regulations of the statute of apprentices, 5 Elizabeth, c. 4, codified the order existing for centuries among the craft-gilds and applied it to all the trades of the time.

§ 6. According to this statute no one could lawfully exercise, either as master or journeyman, any art, mystery, or manual occupation, except he had been brought up therein seven years at least as an apprentice.

§ 7. Every householder dwelling in a city, towncorporate, or market town, might take apprentices for seven years at least. But only those youths might be taken as apprentices whose parents possessed a certain fortune; and none could be bound but those under twenty-one years of age.

§ 8. Whoever had three apprentices must keep one journeyman; and for every other apprentice above three, one other journeyman.

§ 9. With regard to journeymen, in most trades it was enacted that no person should retain a servant under one whole year; and no servant was to depart, or be discharged, but upon a quarter's warning.

§ 10. The hours of labour were fixed by the Act to about twelve hours in summer, and from day-dawn until night in winter.

§ 11. Wages were to be assessed yearly by the justices of the peace, or by the town-magistrates, at every general sessions first to be holden after Easter. The same authorities were to settle all disputes between masters and apprentices, and to protect the latter.

§12. The Act of 1 James I. c. 6 expressly extends this

G

power of the justices and town magistrates to fix wages, to the wages of all labourers and workmen whatever.

§ 13. So long as the regulations of the statute of apprentices were maintained the position of the workmen was secure; while the long term of service assured them that which above everything they desired-regularity of employment.

§ 14. The magistrates were, according to the intention of the Act, to assess the wages so as to 'yield unto the hired person, both in the time of scarcity, and in the time of plenty, a convenient proportion of wages;' and the hours of work were not excessive for that time, especially as the manner of carrying on work was not then so exhaustive as it is now-a-days.

§ 15. The restrictions as to apprentices prevented the skilled workmen from being lowered to the level of common labourers through unlimited competition. But the operation of this statute was restricted by interpretation to cities, towns-corporate, and market towns, and to those trades only which were established in England before the 5th of Elizabeth was enacted.

§ 16. Trade-unions originated with the non-observance of these regulations, as will be seen by considering, --(1) some of the trades subject to the statute; (2) some of those which were incorporated by charter; (3) some which were free from any restrictions, whether by charters, or acts of parliament.

PART II.-Trades Subject to the Statute 5 Elizabeth, c. 4.

§ 17. The woollen manufactures were the old staple trade of England, and the craft-gilds of the woollen weavers were of great importance; the number of the workmen employed in this trade led them to combine whenever they felt a temporary want of sufficient

organisation. This trade was regulated, as to the use of machinery, by 5 and 6 Edward VI. c. 22; and was further regulated as to the number of looms one weaver might have by 2 and 3 Mary, c. II. Later on the trade came under 5 Elizabeth, c. 4. But the assessment of the wages by the justices in this trade seems to have fallen into disuse before the year 1720. In that year the justices fixed the rate of wages, but it was not carried out in practice. The absence of a fixed rate of wages led to oppressions of the workmen by the masters; this led the workmen to combine.

§ 18. In 1725 combinations of workmen employed in woollen manufactures were prohibited by 12 George I. c. 34; and in the following year (1726) an Act was passed ordering the justices to fix once more the rate of wages in this trade. In accordance with this Act the workmen in 1756 petitioned the justices to fix such rate of wages; but, as the masters presented a counterpetition, the justices refused. The workmen were thus prohibited from combining by an Act which was enforced, and the justices refused to carry out the Act for fixing the rate of their wages.

§ 19. The immediate consequences of this state of things were that the weavers revolted; they hindered the journeymen who went on working, and drove them from their looms. This strike led to riots, and resulted in a loss to the country estimated at from 15,000l. to 20,000l. This strike induced the masters to agree with the workmen, and peace was again established. In the same year (1756) the justices were again ordered by 29 George III. c. 33 to settle the rates of wages yearly in the woollen manufactures. But the whole system

was on the eve of a great change.

§ 20. These early conflicts were the results of individual attempts by the masters to abolish the existing

order of things; but, as the Legislature still maintained the old laws, these contests did not lead to the formation of permanent trade-societies. These were brought into existence by the transition of the woollen manufactures from the domestic to the factory system, and by the attempts of the master manufacturers to repeal the 5 Elizabeth.

§ 21. In the last century the woollen manufactures were carried on by small masters, in their own homes. In 1806 the number of such small masters in Leeds and its environs was estimated at 3,500. Every one of these had served a seven years' apprenticeship; even where the statute of apprentices was not known, either to masters or men, its regulations were maintained because they corresponded to custom.

§ 22. In the year 1806 in Armley, a small clothworkers' village of from 4,000 to 5,000 inhabitants, there were ninety-seven apprentices bound for seven years and only four for a shorter period. Each master employed on the average ten journeymen and apprentices, the rule being one apprentice to two or three journeymen; the master was regularly assisted by his wife and children, the latter, when working with their father, were not compelled to be bound by indenture.

§ 23. As a rule, those employed worked in their master's house, where the wool was passed through all its various stages until it became dressed cloth, and even, if necessary, dyed. Sometimes, however, the journeymen did the work in their own homes, and were assisted in their labours by their wives.

$24. The master himself taught the apprentice his trade. If the learner had a prospect of ever becoming a master himself, he was also taught how to buy the raw materials, in which case the master received a premium on taking the apprentice. After a seven years' apprenticeship the apprentice could settle down at once and

become a master; but as a rule he first worked a year or two as a journeyman. Under this system a young man of good repute could generally get credit for as much wool as would enable him to start as a small master; but perhaps its chief advantage consisted in the promise of permanent and regular employment which it offered, for slackness of trade did not at once stop work in the workshops, as the master went on working, although he could not find an immediate sale for his products when he took them to the market.

§ 25. If a sudden stagnation occurred in the home or foreign markets, or by a large firm becoming bankrupt, the losses were distributed over a larger area than at present, they fell on the whole body of the manufacturers; and though each small master individually suffered by it, there were but few, if any, whom it ruined. If such an extreme case happened, the small master often took work from another so as to maintain his family.

§ 26. Like the trade of the masters, the employment of the journeymen was exceedingly regular; as a rule they were hired by the year; they had board and lodgings at their master's, and received besides from 81. to 10. annually. Journeymen often worked for the same masters continuously for more than twenty years. If trade became slack, or there was no sale for the goods, the journeymen were not suddenly discharged in masses; such dismissals scarcely ever happened, for the masters and the men worked on in the hope of better times. The masters considered it to be a part of their duty to keep in times of distress those workmen to whose exertions in good times they owed their wealth. If a master was in want of work for his journeymen he used to look about for a job for him at another master's; if a job could not be found, he was kept on by his old master. To quote the words of a master of that time, 'the men