s//? WILLIAM SIEMKXS, F.K.S. 



weaver, rind every other tradesman, represented in most exquisite 

 pieces n f \vork. These Guild Associations were not Trades Unions 

 in the modern sense. They were not comhinations to raise prices 

 or regulate wages ; all that was left to its natural course. 15 nt 

 they were very antagonistic to what has been called "shoddyism." 

 Any master \\lio was found selling wares proved to be of a kind 

 inferior to what they were represented to be, or who took an old 

 article and brushed it up to make it appear new and sold it as such, 

 was liable to be expelled from the Guild. 



It would be well if a little of the supervision then in force 

 could, in another form, be still applied. But I do not know 

 whether we are not actually in the way of accomplishing this 

 result. Give a young man a love of his craft or calling, and 

 you have almost gained the victory as regards his future. A 

 man '^ho is really proud of his calling, who understands the 

 principles upon which lie is working, who knows that he can 

 produce an article equal to or better than any that can be 

 brought against him, would never stoop to produce an inferior 

 one ; he would rather stand aloof. If the method were prac- 

 tised of first cultivating the taste of a young man in the science 

 that underlies his calling, and then giving him sound instruction 

 in the application of that calling, I believe that, with good moral 

 training to start with, he would never join a trades union with no 

 higher aim than tenpence an hour as the ultimate object in life. 

 Such men remind one of the ants, which seem to be moving about, 

 carrying things to and fro, without having apparently any definite 

 purpose in view. Perhaps if Sir John Lubbock was here, he could 

 tell us whether those ants which brought up food or constructing 

 material to the nest, share alike with those which merely run about 

 like busybodies accomplishing nothing ; if so, they are real trade 

 unionists in the modern sense. 



I hope that, through the dissemination of practical science, a 

 higher spirit will take possession of the artizan ; that he will 

 work with the object of attaining higher results, instead of only 

 discussing with his employers questions of rates of wages ; 

 where rightly interpreted, the interests of the two are, absolutely 

 identical. Another habit which I wish to see brought out 

 through this education is that of seeing. We all have, I hope, 

 eyes, and we imagine we see ; and yet very few people, indeed, can 



