288 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



The details of the strike as given in the contemporary press are 

 sad reading. They show that with all the grand advantages enjoyed 

 by the Victorian working man, in easy finances, limited hours of 

 labour, abundant leisure and freely provided facilities for study, he 

 remains almost as ignorant of the unvarying effects of economic 

 laws as his ancestors were in Britain in the early years of the nine- 

 teenth century. There is a touch of pathos in the child-like obedience 

 these men yielded to the decisions of their Unions and the direction 

 of self-constituted leaders. Persuaded by mendacious declamation 

 that their liberties as a class were at stake, they impulsively entered 

 upon a contest which Mr. Champion demonstrated at the outset to 

 be hopeless ; and they threw away peace of mind, their chances in 

 life, even their very homes, and brought distress and want to the door 

 of those they loved, as an acceptable sacrifice to a cause which not 

 one man in fifty really understood. If the members of that managing 

 committee had human sympathies, they must have experienced 

 some depressing hours when they contemplated the ruined homes 

 that strewed the battle-field of their unsuccessful campaign. One of 

 them, Mr. Trenwith, became in later years a Minister of the Crown, 

 and learned by practical experience the unwisdom of the incendiary 

 talk he indulged in during the crisis of 1890. It must be admitted 

 that as he gained in moderation so he lost ground in the esteem of 

 that section of the labour party which confounds true democracy 

 with impracticable ideas of Socialism, and cultivates a rabid distrust 

 of capital as necessarily antagonistic to labour. 



Concurrently with the collapse of the strike came the downfall 

 of the Ministry. On the last day of October Mr. Munro again 

 moved a vote of want of confidence. The Trades Hall influence 

 was behind him, and its Council passed resolutions calling upon all 

 members to support the vote and to depose a Ministry that was 

 alleged to have shown "gross partiality," to have degraded the 

 military, refused to run union steamers, purchased Japanese coal 

 and otherwise come short of expectations. The Attorney- General 

 was away in England fighting the Ah Toy case. When Mr. Gillies 

 rallied his followers he found himself abandoned at the last moment 

 by some on whom he had counted, but whose fear of the Lygon 

 Street Parliament outweighed their loyalty to their leader. The 



