president's address SECTION F. 137 



these guilds constituted a combination between employers and 

 employed which was opposed to the public good, for we find 

 that tliey were suppressed by law about the time of Henry 

 VIII. Following this, we have the inevitable reaction 

 indicated by the laws of EHzabetli and her successors. These 

 laws were of the most oppressive, obnoxious, and meddlesome 

 character, and the condition of affairs engendered by them 

 ought to be sufficient to show the utter futihty of State 

 interference with the conduct of the industrial life of the 

 nation. Mr. G. Howell, referring to the tendency now being 

 manifested towards a return to this State interference, says, 

 " If a cure for this frenzy be possible, probably the best cure 

 will be a careful perusal of the legislation prior to the com- 

 mencement of the present century, and a careful study of its 

 effects. It nearly killed our early trade and nearly starved 

 our people. It needs no prophet to foretell that the same 

 results would follow if such laws were re-enacted." In the 

 years 1 824 and 1825 these laws which, for nearly two centuries, 

 had fettered the commerce and trade of England were re- 

 pealed, and from that period we may date the growth of those 

 organisations which we now know as trade unions, which have 

 played so important a part in the industrial progress of the 

 race, and which are now in the acute stage of their develop- 

 ment. The early attempts of the unionists at organisation, 

 were, however, of a very imperfect character. Their energies 

 were usually directed to the advocacy of strikes of a virulent 

 and meaningless nature, entailing much suffering and loss, and 

 faihng to effect any useful purpose. In 1850 the establish- 

 ment of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers inaugurated 

 a new regime, and set an example which has been more or less 

 closely imitated by succeeding unions. These unions were 

 equipped for effective service by the accumulation of funds, 

 and the institution of schemes of provident and other benefits. 

 The passing of the Trade Union Act in 1871 gave the unions 

 a legal status. It must not be lost sight of, however, that the 

 trade unions of which we are now speaking are organisations 

 of a very different character from those which within the last 

 few years have sprung into being in England and these 

 Colonies. The establishment of the unions of 1825 and 

 1850 was a protest against the improper interference of the 

 State with the right of workers to dispose of their labour as 

 they thought fit. They did not require that all their members 

 should receive the same rate of wages. While they demanded 

 the right of their members to refuse to work except on their 



