148 REPORT—1868. 
other countries or other trades, and thus leave the infatuated workman with worse 
prospects of success than when he began the strike. Nor can we pass over the 
selfishness with which one branch of occupation frequently pursues this system of 
strikes without reference to others, who, though unwilling to throw up their em- 
ployments, are forced into unprofitable idleness, misery and want, that other classes 
may better themselves by higher wages. The whole of this false and dangerous 
system must be superseded by some other scheme or schemes which will unite in 
harmonious working labour and capital. It is not necessary that there should be 
but oneremedy. The excesses of the working classes of France in the Revolution 
of 1848, and their vote to expel the English workmen, led to the indignant remon- 
strances of the French political economists, and eventually to the institution of the 
Conseil des Prud’hommes, courts of arbitration, and industrial partnerships, which 
have had the happiest effects. In France, in the ten years 1830-40, Mr. Mundella 
informs us the courts of arbitration have adjudicated on 135,730 cases, of which 
128,319 were amicably settled, 3530 withdrawn by consent, 3881 judgments 
pronounced, from which there were only 155 a peals. In Nottingham especially, 
according to the testimony of Mr. Mundella, the working of the Board for seven 
years up to the present time, has been most favourable, and in the highest degree 
satisfactory both to the employers and the employed. The Board consists of an 
equal number of masters and workmen on each side, with a president chosen by 
consent, and for three years and a half they have been enabled to agree on all points 
in debate without the necessity of coming to a vote. The system has recently been 
extended to Hawick, North Britain, and to the Potteries. The Council of the 
Amalgamated Trades Unions passed a resolution, desiring the establishment of these 
Boards in all branches of their Union; and there seems little doubt that the courteous 
and kindly meeting together to settle in common questions which were formerly 
sources of hostility and irritation, would, if introduced in all trades, have a won- 
derful effect in uniting two classes so essentially necessary to each other as the 
capitalist and the labourer. 
Bat there appears to be even a more powerful mode of cooperation, because it 
appeals more directly to the self-interest of the working classes, viz. industrial 
partnerships, in which the masters and workmen may unite together. Cooperative 
stores imply a combination of consumers to cheapen the price of articles pur- 
chased, but their tendency is naturally to dispense with the class of dealers or 
-middlemen, and by the saving of the profits formerly gained by them, the consu- 
mers benefit at the cost only of the relatively small expenses of managing the stores. 
But what would become of the class of dealers or tradesmen, if this principle was 
generally acted upon? In admitting the workmen into partnerships of production, 
the greater part of the difficulties between labour and production seem to vanish. 
As every one of the partners is interested in increasing the profits, he can have no 
wish to stint his own labour, or to check in any way the labour of others. He not 
only is careful not to waste the materials himself, but he keeps a vigilant eye that 
his fellow workmen may be equally careful. He is led to understand the accounts 
of a firm, and the causes of depression and prosperity of trade. Strikes frequently 
occurred when from the closeness of foreign competition the market could least 
bear them; the workman, when a partner, sees that at such times his profits would 
be diminished by any check to, or increased price of labour. 
The most remarkable and encouraging example of the new system was given in 
a aper by Mr. Briggs, read before the Social Science Committee of May last on 
the Whitworth collieries. In ten years there had been four strikes, involving 
epee 
cessation of work for seventy-eight weeks. During the whole of that period the — 
annoyance and anxiety of the partners were extreme. The profits were reduced 
to little more than 5 per cent. on their invested capital. They were compelled to 
evict families from their cottages, in order to introduce new labourers for their 
works, The police were required in large numbers for the protection of the non- 
union men, At last the painful struggle terminated in a riot in the village, the 
ringleaders of which were convicted at the York Assizes in 1863, But in 1864 
the proprietors determined to take the whole of the men into partnership, and 
a limited liability company was formed from Ist July, 1865, of which they re- 
tained two-thirds of the capital, the remainder being allotted in shares to be pur- 
