BY A. J, TAYLOR, F.L.S., F.R.G.S. 39 



" the incurable and detestable evil," a Temporary Act, pro- 

 tecting tlie funds of the Unions, was passed in the year 1869, 

 and two years afterwards was passed a Trade Union Act, 

 which sanctioned their objects and legalised their action. 



What a shout of victory must have gone up when the 

 workers realised that the law might be appealed to in the 

 future for their protection, and might no longer be used as 

 an instrument of persecution and revenge in the hands of 

 their masters ! 



And it was in their onward march from this point that we 

 have had a splendid illustration of the truth of Mr. 

 Gladstone's utterance when he declared that we may always 

 trust the People. 



" After the passing of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 

 1871," writes Howell (p. 126) — and let the record ever remain 

 to the honour and glory of the Trade Unions — " the agitation 

 for the total repeal of all the jDcnal laws affecting labour 

 became more and more intensified and persistent ; " but 

 " the action for securing this end was constitutional and 

 methodical ; the public mind was educated by meetings, 

 lectures, publications, annual congresses, deputations to 

 ministers, and interviews with members of Parliament, and 

 by debates, bills, and petitions, until at last a Conservative 

 Government in 1875, after a slight show of resistance, with 

 the excuse and help afforded by the report of another Royal 

 Commission, granted the workmen's demand." 



So much for the history of Trade Unions in Great Britain 

 up to the time when the National Conscience found expression 

 in the voice and action of the Legislature, and set the 

 workmen free. 



During the past 27 years the British workmen have shown 

 themselves worthy of the confidence reposed in them ; and 

 by their conduct they have justified before the whole world 

 the action of the Nation's Legislature in granting them the 

 freedom they now enjoy. 



My notes on the history of Trade Unions would 

 hardly be complete without some reference to the labour 

 struggles in the United States, and on the Continent. I 

 have dealt most fully with the evolution of Unionism in Great 

 Britain, because there we find the best illustration we can 

 obtain of Unionism as a factor in Social Evolution, for there 

 we have a land 



" Where freedom broadens slowly down 

 From precedent to precedent; 

 "Where faction seldom gathers head, 

 But by degrees to fulness wrought 

 The strength of some diffusive thought 

 Hath time and space to work and spread." 



The era of the Civil War — we are told by Dr. Ely, in his 

 History of the Labour Movement in America — brought into 



