Lord Portman on Wages and Unions 



407 



man. That is clearly the right course of pro- 

 ceeding. There can be no doubt that every 

 individual must make an individual con- 

 tract with the master he wishes to 

 serve or the man he wishes to em- 

 ploy. And therefore, so far as the law 

 goes, it is quite open to make such contracts 

 as each man may think fit. So far for the 

 old law. Now let us see what the law at 

 this moment is. It is this. The Masters' 

 and Servants' Act, passed in 1868, enables 

 magistrates to enforce these contracts which 

 have been made. Any contract made by 

 master and man which the master .breaks 

 the magistrates can enforce, and any contract 

 so made which the man breaks the magis- 

 trate can also enforce. And under that 

 statute there are various modes of enforcing 

 the contract. The Act is perfectly reciprocal 

 — fair to both parties — and the magistrates 

 have power to serve both as justice may re- 

 quire. Then comes the Act called the 

 Trades' Union Act, 34 and 35 Vic, chap. 

 31, passed in the year 187 1. That only 

 affects this particular county and this par- 

 ticular question, inasmuch as it says the 

 rules of every union that are to be enforced 

 must be registered ; and if they are not 

 registered any money taken by the receivers 

 of money may be put into their- own pockets 

 and used for their own purposes, and the 

 man who thinks he is going to get something 

 by having paid contributions to the union 

 will fail to get any money if the treasurer 

 so pleases, because there is no law to force 

 him to pay unless the rules are registered. 

 So far as I know, the rules of what is called 

 the National Union, which is recommended 

 to the poor of this county as a great resource 

 or them, are not registered. Therefore, in 

 point of fact, the men are paying their money 

 to those who choose to spend it, and have 

 no safety that they will be paid what they 

 have been promised shall be paid. The 

 next measure is the Criminal Law Amend- 

 ment Act, chap. 32, of the same year. 

 That measure restrains all violence, 

 with a view to coercion. It is applicable to 

 both sides. If a master uses violence — as 

 laid down in the Act — to constrain or coerce 



his man, he is liable ; if a man uses that 

 violence towards his master, he is also liable, 

 the Act being entirely reciprocal like the other. 

 All the three last Acts are in full operation, 

 aud, if necessary, the magistrates will not 

 fail to carry them into operation. I may 

 observe to you, in reference to the last Act 

 but one which I have mentioned, that the 

 law recognizes union. It is not for us, 

 therefore, that union is illegal. A union 

 may be very foolish, and may be very wrong ; 

 it may be very tyrannical and very despotic ; 

 it may defraud men by not being registered ; 

 but these are offences with which we can 

 deal. However, to say that a union as a 

 union is wrong cannot be maintained. All 

 societies are unions together under all sorts 

 of names. In one place they are called con- 

 gresses, in another synods, in another cham- 

 bers, in another associations, and so on ; but 

 all these are unions, and there can be no 

 reason in the world why the labourers should 

 not form their unions, if they do so honestly 

 and for a good purpose. There can be no 

 more reason why the labourers should not 

 have their unions than that we and other 

 people should not have ours. I venture to 

 say this because some people have fancied 

 that from the very fact of a man being in a 

 union he is doing an illegal or wrong thing. 

 He may be in a very bad union, and in one 

 for a very bad purpose, but the fact of joining 

 such a body is not an offence against the law. 

 Now there is another class of persons to 

 whom that law applies particularly, viz., the 

 men who amuse themselves by giving lectures, 

 those who come into a district and fancy they 

 know everything about it, although they were 

 probably never in it before, and they really 

 know nothing about it. But they have as 

 good a right to walk about this county as 

 anybody else, and to make speeches where 

 they like. There is no prohibition, and there 

 is no reason they should not tell all the truth 

 they think it desirable to tell; but they should 

 be very careful that they do tell the truth, 

 they should not believe a master who says he 

 gives more wages than he really does, or a 

 labourer who says he receives less than he 

 does, but they should endeavour to ascertain 



