LAW IN POLITICS. 413 



to strengthen character. It tends to subordi- 

 nate the present to the future — and the temporary 

 interests of Self to the permanent welfare of a 

 Brotherhood of men. And this it tends to do in 

 classes otherwise prone to follow only the im- 

 pulse of the moment, and to consider only the 

 apparent interests of the individual. 



These considerations should disabuse our minds 

 of the unjust and unreasonable prejudice against 

 the principle of Combination which still betrays it- 

 self so strongly in the language of many politicians. 

 When the Working Classes combine for the pro- 

 tection of their own labour against the effects of 

 unrestricted competition, they are simply taking 

 that course which is recommended alike by reason 

 and by experience. It is the course which Par- 

 liament has indicated as the right course both by 

 what it has itself done, and by what it has declined 

 to do. Nor can there be any greater mistake than 

 to suppose that this course involves necessarily 

 any rebellion against the laws of economic science. 

 Combination is an appeal to the most funda- 

 mental of all Natural Laws — to the law of Con- 

 trivance — to the power of Adjustment — wielding, 



