THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 495 



" The city business of the Association will, during 

 the present month, be removed to very large and 

 handsome premises, near the Heralds' College, in Queen 

 Victoria street, now building expressly for its use. 



" I have not mentioned the extreme difficulty which 

 the committee experienced in inducing wholesale 

 houses to deal with the Association, especially when 

 its doings found their way into print. Though ready 

 money was always offered, together with good orders, 

 most of the wholesale houses hung back, declaring that 

 unless the orders were very large indeed, they should 

 not feel warranted in encountering the fierce opposition 

 of the retail traders. And now let us mark the con- 

 sequences of this opposition. Very large orders being 

 out of the question, so long as custom proceeded only 

 from a limited number of persons, each of moderate in- 

 come, and Civil servants generally not yet joining in 

 the movement, 'the cooperators were obliged, in self- 

 defence, to extend admission to quasi-membership 

 beyond Civil Service bounds. Even this extraneous 

 aid barely carried them through the struggle ; the re- 

 tailers having, over and over again, succeeded in deter- 

 ring particular firms from supplying them with goods. 

 These quasi-members, however, called by us ' subscri- 

 bers,' were by no means admitted to any share in 

 management, which indeed during the first year was 

 strictly confined to a Post-Office Committee, though 

 afterwards extended to representatives from the Civil 

 Service generally. The exclusion of the general public 

 from authority we have regarded as one of the chief 

 causes of our success. Subscribers, however, by an 

 annual payment of 5s., obtain all the commercial ad- 

 vantages enjoyed by full members, except that their 



