TRADE-UNIONS 75 



wao-es, diminished labour, freedom from care ; in hard times, 



O * * ' 



and in sickness, from want of work and want of bread, the 

 union protects us; neither by accident nor in old age shall we 

 or ours be paupers ; we ask no patronage, receive no charity, 

 fear no oppression ; we live as free men, owing our welfare to 

 uur own providence, and we shall maintain our power by using 

 it with prudence.' There is indeed a sad reverse to this plea- 

 sant picture. The best things may be misused, and trade-unions 

 have been misused : but were we to abolish all institutions mis- 

 applied, all rights abused, all customs warped from their true 

 aim, what fragment of society could we retain ? Let us neither 

 seek to destroy trade-unions, strong as they are for good and 

 evil, nor yet fear with a firm hand to set a legal limit to their 

 power. With good laws and sound teaching these bodies may 

 yet become the pride of our country, affording one more proof 

 of the great faculty Englishmen possess of self-government. 

 Under bad laws, ignorant dislike, and unsound advice, they 

 may indeed turn to a curse, fostering disloyalty and outrage, 

 fatal to trade, and to the well-being of all classes. God grant 

 that we mav be wise in time! 



