250 REPORT — 1861. 



amount of wages paid or proposed to be paid. But strikes very seldom achieved the 

 object sought ; and it became their duty to inquire if, in the few cases where suc- 

 cess was possible, that success could be equally secured without resort to this terrible 

 engine of strife and sutlering. Examples were then given of eight unsuccessful strikes, 

 which represented the amount of wages lost at £1,082,650, profit lost ±210,602, sub- 

 scriptions £270,617, making a total of £1,563,869. AH these strikes have termi- 

 nated unsuccessfully ; so that there has been no compensation for the loss. If these 

 sacrifices were necessary, the endurance of the working-classes would command 

 admiration ; but he could'not admit the justice or desii'ability of a restriction which 

 prevents a parent and an employer from mutually arranging to bring up a youth to 

 a good trade ; he could not admit the wisdom of shutting out an eificient workman 

 because he had not been apprenticed; nor could he see why any society should dic- 

 tate the price of labour. With regard to the establishment of an arbitration court 

 for the settlement of disputes, he suggested that it should be honorarj-, that the 

 parties to the dispute should each name an equal number of jun-nien, that the 

 County Court judge for the district should be president or umpire^ and that the 

 business of the Court should be conducted without lawyers. A bill giving power 

 to the Lords of the Treasury to arrange such courts on petition would restrict them 

 within useful limits. Adverting to the establishment of cooperative societies and 

 manufactm'ing companies with limited liability, he said the prospects they held out 

 ought to stimidate prudential habits, and so improve the moral tone of working men. 

 The operations of such societies would also supply a sort of wages barometer, show- 

 ing what amount it is prudent to pay, because the conductors coidd have but smaU 

 interest in paying too low a wage, since what is not paid in wages will be in profits, 

 and the amount of profits declared would, in times of steady trade, also infiuence 

 wages for the next half-year. If these societies prospered, we might see individual 

 employers in self-defence constituting their workpeople partners in profits. But 

 they had still to stand the test of " hard times," and they could not be expected to 

 pass scatheless through a crisis. He concluded that strikes to restrict the number 

 of worlanen in a ti-ade ought not to succeed, and that sti-ikes against improved 

 machinery were attempts to prevent the development of himian intellect and the 

 progress of civilization ; and generally he concluded that strikes were wholly in- 

 jm-ious, an entire waste of efibrt, to the extent of not less than a million of pounds 

 sterling annually, or the bread of 38,460, with 4000 to 5000 additional who would 

 be required by the profits lost through strikes. Improvements in the constitution 

 of trade societies would, he thought, prevent many strikes, and woidd secure the 

 support of employers for these societies ; that cooperative societies, by teaching 

 pmdence, will be useful aids ; and that an honorary and volvmtary comt of arbitra- 

 tion would amicably settle such disputes as mightremain. 



MECHANICAL SCIENCE. 



Address of J. F. Bateman, C.E., F.E.S., President of the Section. 

 To those who favour us with their attendance for the first time, it may be suificient 

 to say that the object of the Section is the promotion of mechanical science in a 

 wide sense ; for to this Section also stands refeiTed all questions of civil engineer- 

 ing, which, although they may in themselves be only remotely connected with 

 mechanics, yet depend for their successful issue upon the proper application of 

 mechanical knowledge. Indeed, it would be difficult to say to wJiat material pur- 

 suit in life mechanical skill is not of primary importance. In Manchester espe- 

 cially this Section should be well supported : for in this district have been born 

 or have resided some of the most distinguished projectors and inventors of the 

 age — men whose ingenuity and labours have conferred incalculable benefit upon 

 the world — such men as the Duke of Bridgewater, Sir Richard Arkwright, and 

 Samuel Crompton, in days not long gone by, and whose places have been well 

 filled by the inventors and mechanics of our own time. Amongst the questions 

 which have recently attracted popular attention, and which are specially deserving 

 of the consideration of the mechanical men of the day, are the improvements 



