THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES %.■. ENGLISH ASSOCIATIONS OF WORKING MEN BY J. M. BAERNREITHER Doctor of Law, Member of the House of Deputies in Austria ((Sniargeb anb ^cbiscb bu t^c giutbor) TRANSLATED BY ALICE TAYLOR. With a Preface by J. M. LUDLOW, Chief Kegistuae, of Friendly Societies. LONDON SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO PATERNOSTER SQUARE 1889 7/^7 CONTENTS. PATIT T. INTRODUCTION, CHAPTER I. Scope and Limits of the "Work. PAGB Miserable condition of the working classes in England forty years ago. — Peaceful revolution since the Eeform Act ; its causes and motive powers. — An apparent paradox. — Social improvement of the working classes. — Altered conditions of labour. — Increase of national wealth. — Economic and social elements of progress. — Development of associative life. — Friendly Societies, Trades-unions, and Co-operative Societies. — Benefit Building Societies. — Working-men's Clubs. — Social counter- poise to accumulation of capital. — Limitations to general advance of working classes in culture. — Differentiation of employments in con- sequence of machinery. — Fluctuations of trade and industry. — Aristocracy of workmen. — Moral value of working-men's associations; their educational importance. — Practical aspirations of the English working classes. — Higher view of wages. — Better relations between labour and cajjital. — Public spirit of the working classes. — Three causes of social development in England ....... 3 CHAPTER II. Greater Britain. Historical aspect of industrial production in England. — Discovery of the New World. — Merchant Adventurers. — Maritime apprenticeship of England. — Three periods of her Expansion. — The Mercantile System. — The Navigation Act. — Theory of the Balance of Trade. — The Methuen Treaty. — Treaty of Utrecht. — Loss of the American Colonies. — Acquisition of India and Australia. — Peace of Vienna. — England Mistress of the seas. — The new Colonial System. — Growth of England's commercial supremacy. — Adam Smith and Free Trade. — Mr. Huskis- son's reforms. — The Anti-Corn Law League. — Increase of production since 1840. — Effects of mechanical improvements. — Statistics of Ex- ports and Imports. — Increased consumption of foreign food. — The wage-earning population. — Preponderating importance of manufac- tures. — Over-production and depression. — Foreign competition. — The Fair Trade Movement. — Protection in America and on the Continent. — Importance of the Colonies. — Comparison of foreign and colonial Exports. — Foreign and colonial food-supply. — Imperial Federation and the working-classes. — Effect of English national expansion on English views. 25 7 iv Co7ite7iis. CHAPTEE III. Society and the Ixdividual. Social order and individual enterprise. — Ecclesiastical origin of the Guilds. — Physiocracy and Communism in France. — The Statutes of Labourers.— Individualism in England. — New popular conception of society. — Carlyle on Work and Wages.— Moral aspect of the question. —Lord Shaftesbury and Canon Kingsley. — Patient attitude of the •working classes. — Social tendency of thought in England. — Growing recogoition of the duties of the individual to society. — Social elements of the wage question. — Eicardo. — John Stuart Mill. — " Habits and requirements " of the working classes. — A " fair day's wages for a fair day's work." — Capital and Co-operation. — Industrial Eemuneratiou Conference in 188.5. — Moral education of the working classes. — Arnold Toynbee. — Growing importance of the Land Question. — Views of George and Wallace. — " Municipalisation " of the Land . . .64 CHAPTER IV. The State, Self-Government, and Self-Help. Moral cause of changes in the State system. — Self-government: municipal aud Social. — State-interference and laissez faire. — England and the Continent compared, — Peculiar conditions of State-action in England. — Co-operation of voluntary self-governing associations. — Their importance in this respect. 1. Legislative and Adminstrative Action of the State : — Growth of Factory Legislation since 1833. — The Factory and Workshop Act, 1878. — Its administration and working. — Vigilant attitude of the Trades- unions. — Alkali, etc., Works Regulation Act, 1881. — Coal Mines Eegu- lation Act, 1872. —Metalliferous Mines Eegulation Act, 1872.— Mer- chant Shipping Acts, 1854-1880. — Civil and criminal relations of labour. — Question of Contract of Service. — Master and Servant Act, 1867.— Employers and Workmen Act, 1875. — Conspiracy and Pro- tection of Property Act, 1875. — Laws relating to Arbitration. — Em- ployers' Liability Act, 1880. — Its working and effects. — Employers' Insurance Companies. — Action of the Trades-unions.- Payment of ■wages in public-bouses. 2. Old and New .Sf//-Gor?rwfneH« .-—The old magisteri^. in 1879, or the daily wages of the Scotch coal-workers, amounting to 3.s. 9J. in 1870, to ds. Ilc7. in 1873, and to 3s. 2d. in 1878 ; and if, lastly, we take into account the fact that each depression not only involves a reduction of Scope and Limits of the Work. 19 wages, bat also throws a portion of the workmen out of employ- ment altogether, we have done enough to point out the all-impor- tant fact which imposes a second and essential limitation, to qualify the favourable judgment of the progress of the working classes in England. So far as conceims the workman who is not deprived of employment altogether, the question is one of, perhaps, very straitened means, but not of absolute want. The misery begins with the failure of work, which in England affects larger and larger numbers of workmen, as soon as a glut in the market sets in. It is at such times that the power of resistance inherent in the English character asserts itself in the most marvellous manner ; but still the weaker individuals succumb to the strain, and swell that dark residuum of English society which teems in the destitute quarters of London, Grlasgow, Liverpool, and other large cities, and whose iitterly forlorn condition remains the gloomiest feature of English civilisation. This configuration of working-class relations renders a general judgment extremely difficult, and explains how it is that statisti- cal dissertations on the wage-income and the growing savings of the working classes, such as have appeared frequently in England of late years, usually encounter contradiction. All arithmetical data are correct only as regards certain grades of workmen and certain relations. If we compare the various opinions expressed in England itself as to the progress made by the working classes in culture and refinement, we find that, as regards the progress itself, nobody, as we have said, disputes it, but that people differ widely as to its extent and degree. This is not to be wondered at. It is not only that a natural optimism influences the one party, who are anxious above all things to demonstrate the pro- gress already achieved, while an equally natural pessimism im- pels the other, who stands, perhaps, in immediate contact with the shady side of the development ; but, above all, these cardinal questions have to be considered : By what process of induction was this or that conclusion arrived at ? What particular part of the whole complex subject was observed ? Under what con- ditions was this done ? And, lastly, according to what method were the results appraised ? The works of Porter, Dudley Bax- tei', Leone Levi, Giffen, Thorold Rogers, and many others, will 20 English Associations of Working Men. frequently recur to our notice in the course of these pages. Wa shall certainly not fail to pay careful attention to their calcula- tion of averages, and the results based by them on the law of large figures ; but we shall not exaggerate the value of statistics. Our object is, rather, to put clearly before our readers the inner forces of the working-men's movement, as well as the different forms which social self-government has assumed in England. AVe renounce, therefore, at the outset all design of passing a judgment on the extent and operation of the wage movement and the conditions of labour generally ; but w^e shall endeavour to point out the element that determines the upward advance in the life of the working classes in England. This element un- doubtedly lies in the fact that in England there has gradually been formed an aristocracy of workmen, a kind of vanguard, which already counts many hundred thousands, and which is daily growing in numbers. This vanguard consists of the mem- bers of those working-men's associations which we purpose to describe. They are the organizing force of the English working classes, whose interests they represent as their superiors, while reaching a helping hand to those of their brethren whom they seek to raise from the lower grades. Viewed in this light, the real importance of the working-men's associations becomes apparent. It does not consist only in the fact that these associations provide means of insurance to the workman, protect his interest as a wage-earner, and supply him with food, healthy dwellings, and places of social resort, — but they add to these immediate objects a great deal more. Friendly Societies are not only associations for purposes of insurance, but bodies which undertake to teach their members to practise thrift and providence and care for the future. Trades-unions are no longer one-sided combinations for the purpose of obtaining higher wages, but the champions and guardians of the economic interests of the workmen in a broad and legitimate sense. Co-operative Societies are not simpl}'- social institutions, which procure practi- cally for the English workman the advantages which he derives so abundantly at the present day from the importation of cheap food and the cheap production of many articles of industry, but Scope and Limits of the Work. 2i schools in which he learns to understand business life in all its bearings and with all its difficulties and dangers. And still more than all this, the English workman, who has established and who directs all these countless associations of the most various kinds, has ceased to be an inactive spectator of the proceedings of the State and society. His life has received a new pui'pose and character. His evening, his Saturday afternoon, and partly also his Sunday, are now devoted to an intellectual work which brings him into close contact with all kinds of financial, social, and legislative questions. His understanding and his insight in economic matters are increasing ; he is learning by his own experience to recognise the difficulties which oppose themselves to the carrying oiit of social institutions ; he is be- coming more moderate in his claims, calmer in judgment, and more contented with success. On the other hand, he is losing nothing of that pertinacity in the pursuit of his ends which has always been his distinctive characteristic. Step by step, by his meetings, journals, and congresses, he is attracting the general interest of the public, acquiring an influence in local bodies and in Parliament, and becoming a more active, independent, and powerful factor in State life. But the main thing is that his world of thought is filled with things clearly practicable and attainable, and that no Utopias find place in it. It would be an entire error to suppose that the English workman does not extend his thought to the distant future, or picture to himself one very different from the to-day ; but in his acts and condvict he reckons with present facts, and he employs the freedom of movement which he enjoys without limit in his associations, to obtain one thing after another. No more striking words have ever been uttered with regard to this than by the American Minister, Mr. Russell Lowell. In a great inaugural address which he delivered (6th October, 1884), as President of the Midland Institute at Birmingham, he said : " It is only when the reasonable and practicable are denied, that men demand the unreasonable and impracticable ; only when the possible is made difficult, that they fancy the impossible to be easy." Upon the whole the English workman confines himself to what 22 English Associations of Working Men. is possible, Marx lived in England for years without having been able to gain any appreciable influence over the English working classes, the majority of whose leaders know him only by name. Now it is impossible to deny that during the last few 5'ears, more especially in connection with the land question, socialistic watchwords hitherto unheard have found their way into assemblies of English workmen, and that theories of conti- nental socialists have spread and even acquired a certain in- fluence. But neither Henry George, with his ideas of expropria- tion ; nor Hyndman, with his notions derived from Marx, which he is seeking to propagate among the unemployed, will succeed — unless some unforeseen and over-mastering events upset all existing prognostics of development — in effecting any change in the method which the English working-man has deliberately and consistently adopted. On the contrary, all these new-fangled ideas, however soaring and ambitious they appear at first sight, will be turned by the English people into the peaceful channel of reflection, where they can be quietly dealt with by all con- cerned in them, and where whatever is sound in them will eventually be transformed into practical schemes of solid benefit to the working classes. In close and constant connection with this attitude of the working-man stands the fact that the views of all classes in England have completely changed with regard to the question of wages. The Englishman of to-day thinks quite differently on this subject to the Englishman of forty years ago. The question is no longer regarded as one simply economic, but social and ethical. Not onlj^ do science and the legislature fearlessly deduce the logical results of this change, but the very classes, who some twenty or thirty years ago selfishly endeavoured to resist them, now readily accept the consequences of their new position. In this manner the relations between capital and labour have un- questionably drawn closer together in England than in any other country in Europe. The power developed by the workmen through their associations first procured for them the recognition of their interests, while the moderation they have shown has gained them the respect and sympathy which they now univer- sally enjoy. Unanimous as is the verdict as to the improvement Scope and Limits of the Work. 23 in the lot of the working classes in general, nowhere is this fact more cordially and generally confirmed than in England. The deep-rooted distrust between capital and labour has been, even if not entirely eradicated, still essentially mitigated. The touch- stone of this happier disposition is the treatment of the question of wages. Both sides have been brought in England to treat this question as one of common concern, and to recognise each other as entitled to equal rights and an equal share in its solution. Each party has learned to understand the point of view and the legitimate interests of the other, and to take account of their calculations and claims. We are far from saying that in the intercourse between the representatives of labour and capital there is no rough jostling of conflicting views and interests ; nay, this intercourse is still often entirely broken off, and the rupture ends in a strike. But we hope, in our second volume, to be able to show clearly, from the ever-growing importance of the Boards of Conciliation and Arbitration, as well as from the whole posi- tion taken up by the associations of employers in respect of those of the employed, and the indirect effect these associations have also had upon the manufacturers and workmen outside them — how the relations have assumed a peaceful character, how far this mutual rapprochement has extended, and what fruits it has borne. If now we are asked what are the prospects opened out by this demeanour of the English working-men, we must decline to quit the ground of actual fact or cast a horoscope. Nothing short of an exhaustive inquiry into the development of the working-men's associations will afford a glimpse into the vista of the futare. This much, however, is certain, and may be affirmed at once, that the English working-man feels his interests to be inseparably bound up with those of the great industries of his country. Since he has obtained more and more an equal voice in the gi-eat pro- cess of production in England, this process is become his own concern as well. The English working-man has made enormous progress in comprehending the political situation of his country in respect of trade and industry, and he is resolved to make efforts and even sacrifices on its behalf, as the Lancashire artisans did so nobly in the cotton famine during the American War of Secession. Certain it is that, were England put to the proof, her working 24 English Associations of Working Men. classes would be found in tlie forefront of those willing to make sacrifices. Reverting briefly, in conclusion, to tlie foregoing introductory- remarks on the progress of the working classes in England, we are confronted with three great decisive facts as the conditions on which the development of their culture depends. Firstly, there is the gigantic process of production, which, after centuries of preparation, now imports from foreign countries, in colossal dimensions, cheap food as well as raw stuffs, and exports for sale throughout the world the manufactured products, increased by the treasure found in English soil. Secondly, there is the great social movement, which directs and governs the march of English thought, science, and legislation. Lastly, there are the great characteristics of the English people, the power of self-help and of self-government. On these pillars rests the social development of England. It will be expedient to consider each of these points separately, before proceeding to the main subject pf our work. -CHAPTER 11. Greater Britain. Historical aspect of industrial production in England.— Discovery of the New World. — Merchant Adventurers.— Maritime apprenticeship of Eng- land.— Three periods of her Expansion. — The Mercantile System.— The Navigation Act.— Theory of the Balance of Trade.— The Methuen Treaty.— Treaty of Utrecht.— Loss of the American Colonies.— Acquisi- tion of India and Australia.— Peace of Vienna.— England mistress of the seas.— The new Colonial System.— Growth of England's commercial supremacy.— Adam Smith and Free Trade.— Mr. Huskisson's reforms. — The Anti-Corn Law League.— Increase of production since 1840. — Effects of mechanical improvements.— Statistics of Exports and Imports.— Increased consumption of foreign food. — The wage-earning population. — Preponderating importance of manufactures.— Over-production and de- pression.— Foreign competition. — The Fair Trade Movement.— Protection in America and on the Continent. — Importance of the Colonies. — Com- parison of foreign and colonial Exports. — Foreign and colonial food- supply. — Imperial Federation and the working-classes. — Effect of English national expansion on English views. Industrial production in England lias an historical background, which alone renders it intelligible. Politics, the spirit of enter- prise, the progress in mechanism and chemistry, as well as in human skill, have been labouring for centuries, like concentric forces, for the attainment of one object, the establishment, im- provement, and extension of all branches of the great industrial process of production. The wealth accumulated in this way, even at an early period, and the trained energies of the English people, have offered increasing means for the pursuit of this object, so that the development of the industrial system has made not only constant, but astonishing progress. Frederick List, who has thrown such valuable light on the commercial policy of England, rightly appeals to English history 26 English Associations of Working Men. for evidence to prove liow closely general politics are connected with political economy. He lias shown how England has acquired power by her policy, productive energy by her power, and wealth by her productive energy ; and further, how, in conse- quence of her policy, England has accumulated power on power, and multiplied her capabilities of production. The facts and events brought about by England's industrial position in the world reach back to the time when the discovery of the New World brought a total change in the history of man- kind. Humboldt, in the second volume of his " Cosmos," de- scribes in charming language how the Oceanic discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries doubled to the inhabitants of Europe the works of creation, and at the same time offered to human intelligence a new and powerful incentive for the perfecting of natural science, and how the acquaintance of the European nations with the western hemisj)here led to a correct and enlarged conception of the universe. Along with this broader view of the physical world went an extension and trans- formation of political ideas and aspirations, a total revolution in the system of commerce, as well as a rise of new and important political communities, in the shape of colonies and settlements. Italy and Germany at that time were pushed into the background, whilst the five Western Powers : Portugal, Sj^ain, Holland, Prance, and England, contended for the possession of the New World. The rivalry of these five nations for the New World, as Pro- fessor Seeley shows in his admirable work,* sums up a large part of the history of the world since the sixteenth century. As an Englishman himself, he can take pride in expatiating on this reflection, since it was England who issued victorious from the contest. At the close of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries, when the New World began gradually to be opened out, England appeared to be the least concerned in it. She took no part in the decisive voyages of discovery, and still in Queen Elizabeth's time was called " in a great pool a swan's nest." During the century following the voyages of discovery • J. E. Seeley: " The Expansion of England," LondoD, 1883. Greater Britain. 27 by Columbus and Vasco de Gama, while in Spain that stream of wealth was pouring over the peninsula, which excited there the lust of adventure without promoting any capacity for busi- ness, and caused a revolution in property and prices without giving to the mother-country any sound economical basis ; while, together with the gold, came also that " breath of poison " which was followed by the extraordinary torpor and eneiwation of the seventeenth century ; — England had forcibly but finally struggled through the Reformation and, in organizing her State and self- government, laid the foundations of that internal strength, unity, and spontaneous activity, on which rose the fabric of her future greatness. It is true that under the two first Tudors English merchants had undertaken voyages to Newfoundland and Labra- dor, but without any permanent assistance from the State. It is as if fate from the very first had thrown the English nation upon Self-Help. It was the time of " Merchant Adventurers," men who, as Schanz says of them, " did not restrict themselves to any settled route or settled place, who ventured forth, not as instruments and emissaries of the Government, or mere organs of finance and exchange, but independently on their own account, and ploughed the seas wherever they could, establishing trade connections, founding settlements, and obtaining value for Eng- lish wares." * The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 con- cluded this maritime apprenticeship of England with a brilliant proof of her capacity. After that the nation turned her eyes from insular matters to the ocean and the New World, and then began her great maritime and industrial career, the construction of a Greater England — Greater Britain. Queen Elizabeth, at her death in 1603, had left the English people fully equipped to enter on that career, which they pur- sued with a recklessness and consistency that has excited in turns the hatred or admiration of the world. Speaking roughly, we may divide this expansion of England into three great periods, occurring about the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. These periods exhibit, in proportion as her external * Dr. George Schanz : " Englische Handelspolitik gegen Ends des Mit- telalters," p. 332. 28 English Associations of Working Men, power expanded, a corresponding increase and elevation of lier internal forces, the whole combining to perfect that grand system of trade and industry which governs the social history of Eng- land, as well as her economic theories, and the thoughts and wishes of her people. In the seventeenth century the great personality of Cromwell stands as the central figure of that policy which aimed at the extension and consolidation of England's power abroad, Blake and Monk commanded the English fleet which, in the naval war with Spain, won Jamaica and Dunkirk. Out of the " swan's nest " arose a rival of mighty Holland, mightier even than she. This new naval power was thrown back, it is true, under the feeble and demoralised government of Charles II. But the check was only temporary, for two circumstances co-operated more and more in favour of England against the Dutch. The first was her superiority in population, compared with which Holland possessed then, as now, too small a basis in the mother-country for colonial expansion ; and the second was her insular position, while Holland was exposed to constant invasions in the conti- nental wars. The English colonies were perpetually expanding ; Carolina and Pennsylvania were founded, New York and Dela- ware were taken from the Dutch, and the first settlements were formed on the West Coast of Africa. The result was, that at the close of the seventeenth century, just a hundred years after the defeat of the great Armada, a royal dynasty, which had come into hopeless collision with the intellectiial development of England, had been dethroned, and the island kingdom had not only gained a position of equality among the great naval powers of Western Europe, but was preparing to out-do all competitors. Not only, however, did the English emerge victorious from their wars with Holland, but they also made the commercial policy of the Dutch, which in the first half of the seventeenth century was at the height of its prosperity, the subject of the most assiduous study, and imitated it with such success that the customs revenues in England, which in 1580 had amounted only to £14,000, rose in 1G42 to £500,000. The seventeenth century was also in England the century of mercaniilism. This epoch is Greater Britain. 29 everywhere distlngulslied by the fact that governments and peoples now began to recognise the importance of wealth to the power of a State and the progress of its inhabitants, and did their utmost to obtain as many commodities as possible for them- selves. It was a time, not of cosmopolitan, bnt of national ideas, and each Grovernment tried to gain the greatest advantage to its country from intercourse with the world. These efforts produced a number of administrative measures and economic theories, all tending to the same object, all contributing to educate the national mind more and more in this direction, and all awakening in Western nations the desire to become great, powerful, and. wealthy. We should only be repeating well-known facts were we to remind our readers how at that time the extension of political power, the encouragement of navigation, and the spread of trade and commerce began to be accepted everywhere as maxims of State ; how England in particular promoted her home manufac- tures together with raw production in her colonies, and trans- planted negro labour from Africa to the West Indies ; and how the English spirit of enterprise began to assert its activity in all directions in the numerous companies for Spanish, French, and African trade. It is more important to recognise that the mercantile measures, which a later theory subjected to such sharp criticism, were relatively right, since they enabled people to ob- tain what they wanted. The views represented by the Balance of Trade and the Navigation Act are the poles on which turns the commercial policy of England in the seventeenth century, the basis on which the English continued in later times to build under different circumstances and with altered theories and al- tered laws. The success of the Navigation Act was so complete that even Adam Smith calls it the wisest of all the commercial laws of England. Modern writers recognise its importance more clearly than ever. " The only direct blow," says Cunningham,* " which was struck by the English Government at Dutch com- merce was the Navigation Act of 1651. Its aim — and an aim in * W. Cunningham: "Growth of English Industry and Commerce," Cam- bridge, 1882, p. 327. 30 English Associations of Working Men. which it was very successful — was to divert as much as possible of the carrying trade of the Dutch into our hands. This, even more than her success in the Indies, had been the envy of English merchants: it had been urged in 1641 that neither our import nor our export trade could be profitably developed, but that England was admirably situated for becoming an emporium for all nations and for doing a large carrying trade for the rest of the world. By forbidding the export or import of goods except in English ships or the vessels of nations to which the goods be- longed, the carrying trade of the Dutch between English and foreign ports was at once stopped : though there were more than once slight relaxations, the Navigation Act was maintained until the aims of its most sanguine promoters had been more than ac- complished." As to the Balance of Trade, no doubts are any longer enter- tained, for we know that its theoretical basis was unsound, but that the practical measures of that time were successful in collecting and training the domestic forces of the nation. We quote the same author again on this point, because he is at once quite modern and quite unprejudiced. " To keep," he says,* " a commercial balance in our favour was, according to them, the best means of maintaining the treasure of the prince and the purity of the current coin of the realm. But it was also necessary for the statesman to watch the state of this balance, as it served as a criterion of the condition of the country, by analogy with the individual craftsman it was argued that the man who bought more than he sold would soon come to poverty, but that if a man sold more than he bought, that his aifairs were in a good condition, and that he was in a position to save monej-. The analogy was, however, false ; it is undoubtedly the case that a nation which consumes more than it produces is in a bad wa}^, but it is not possible to identify exportation with production, or importation with consumption. In many cases imports may be necessaries of life without which production cannot continue : such in the present day is corn ; in our day too there has been a great exportation of capital, owned b}^ English subjects but used * Ihid., pp. 314, 315. Greater Britain. 3 1 abroad, and a great importation of the profits on foreign invest- ments : all these things render exportation and importation a most imperfect representation of national production and national consumption. In the seventeenth century, however, matters were very different : England supplied all the thrifty wares she needed, her exports consisted of a surplus stock of the necessaries of life, her imports on the other hand were mere luxuries, spices, wines, silks, etc. ; if the value of the imports exceeded that of the ex- ports, it showed that we were consuming a quantity of mere luxuries that was gi'eater than our surplus stock of necessaiies. The balance of trade did as a matter of fact serve as a very rough criterion of the economical condition of the countr3\" It was this criterion which, in the eighteenth century, when the repressive and violent period of Mercantilism was succeeded by a period of diplomacy and treaties, induced the English to ratify or reject their conventions, according as the balance of trade showed the superiority or weakness of England in the vari- ous branches of home manufacture, as against this or that foreign country. Thus, for example, while in the so-called Methuen Treaty,* the real importance of which has been so brilliantly established by List in opposition to the hostile criticism of Adam Smith, a convention was concluded on these principles with the industrially weaker kingdom of Portugal, whereby a market was opened for the woollen goods of England, Parliament, on the other hand, rejected the most-favoured nation clause of the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), which would have secured an import of French wines, brandies, silk, oil, paper, etc., to the value of more than £1,700,000 a year, against which England then could only reckon on exports to Prance, made so prosperous, industrially, by the policy of Colbert, of the annual value of £270,000.-^- * Concluded in 1703. It was abrogated in 1834. {Note to (he English Edition.] t Macpherson's "Annals of Commerce," 1805, vol. iii. p. 31. The same author makes a remark elsewhere, which we cite to show what a practical view Euglish.- men have always taken of their commercial relations. " On the other hand," he says, " there are branches of trade which would be ruinous if the imports did not exceed the exports, or, in other words, if the balance were not unfavovr- ablf, according to this standard of estimation. Such is the trade with all our West India settlements, which have been formed and supported by British 32 English Associations of Working Men. Cleverly, however, as England laboured by means of treaties and enterprise and improvements in manufacturing skill, as well as by tlie organization of her system of money and credit, since the establishment of the Bank of England (1694), to advance her position in the world, it was after all by force of arms that she eventually acquired it. In the eighteenth century, or, more strictly speaking, from 1688 to 1815, during the second great period of her history which we are considering, Greater Britain, the creation of Queen Elizabeth, contended with Greater France, the creation of Colbert, for the sovereignty of the seas, which at length she acquired beyond dispute. The treaties of Utrecht (1713), of Paris (1763), and of Vienna (1815) are the landmarks of this expansion of England. Until the last quarter of the eighteenth century this expansion appeared to be boundless. By the Peace of Utrecht England obtained Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Hudson's Bay from Prance, and Gibraltar, Minorca, and the right of negro traffic to the Spanish South American provinces from Spain ; by the Treaty of Paris she gained Canada, a portion of the Lesser Antilles, some coast territory in Africa, and military advantages in India. The first check she suffered was in 1776, when the American colonies declared their independence, which England was forced to recog- nise in the Peace of Versailles (1783), ceding at the same time Florida and Minorca to Spain, and Tobago and the Senegal with its dependencies to Prance. But thanks to British energy and the bold and indomitable perseverance of the English race, the way was prepared about this very time for a new and still larger expansion of England ; for almost in the same decade when she lost one great colonial empire, she gained the keys to two others. It was at this very time that Lord Clive laid the foundations of the East Indian Empire and Cook took possession of New South capitals, and in a great measure owned by proprietors resident in Great Britain. Therefore the outward cargoes are to be considered as the stock employed in the culture of the plantations ; and the homeward cargoes are in fact the pro- ceeds of that culture, the excess of which is not a loss to the nation, but the real amount of the net profits coming into tie pockets of the proprietors, and giving a very comfortable demonstration how much the amount of the product is more than the prime cost. In other words, the outward cargoes are the seed, and the inward cargoes are the harvest." — Ibid., vol. iii. pp. 342, 343. Greater Britain. 33 Wales. And now began tlie last act of tliat great struggle waged by England with France for a hundred years for the dominion of the seas. The loss of the American colonies, which the elder Pitt had been unable to avert, through the obstinate narrow- mindedness of George III., was destined to be brilliantly retrieved by the policy initiated by the younger Pitt. By dint of unparal- leled exertions and sacrifices, England gathered together all the material and moral forces at her disposal, to annihilate at sea first the French E,epublic and then the French Empire, together with its allies. In the twenty-one years of that contest the English fleet captured or destroyed a total of 1,110 ships of war belonging to France, Holland, Spain, Denmark, Russia, and other nations, of which no less than 115 ships of the line, 9 fifty-gun ships, 215 frigates, and 349 sloops and smaller vessels were French,* — a catalogue of ships, the full significance of which is shown by Por- ter's statement, that, in the year 1811, out of the 24,106 vessels of 2,474,774 tonnage, forming the commercial navy of the United Kingdom and its dependencies, 4,023, with 536,240 tons, were admitted to British registry as good prizes.f On the maritime ruin of other sea-faring nations England gi-adually built up the fabric of her daXaa-a-oKpaTia. The Peace of Vienna put its seal to it. Heligoland, Malta, Ceylon, Mauritius, the Cape, together with large territories in the East and West Indies, and on the coasts of South America and Africa, were then added to England's for- mer possessions, and have remained so ever since. During the half century ending with the Treaties of Vienna (1815), the specific energies of England had also been indefatig- ably exerted at home. Her commercial genius, her industrial activity, and her inventive talent had not only succeeded, despite war and foreign dangers, in retaining what she had won, but had struck out new paths, increased her home products, and inaugu- rated, with the inventions of Arkwright, Hargreave, Crompton, Cartwright, Watt, and Whitney, a totally new method of pro- duction. The expansion gained by England in the war opened out for all these accumulated forces a wide field of action * Fonblanque's " How we are Governed," ed. 1858, p. 126. t G. E. Porter : "Progress of the Nation," ed. 1851, pp. 394, 396. D 34 English Associatiojis of Working Men. Reviewing her histoi'ical position at the time of the Peace of Vienna, it must be admitted that, through her successful conduct of the war, as well as the specific energies of her people, she had obtained all the conditions that enabled her to become the great ccmmercial and industrial nation that she is at the present day. The manner in which she turned this position to account, in the various directions taken by her moral and intellectual progress in the nineteenth century, — the third period of her modern life, — will always remain one of the most interesting examples of the development of a nation. This development, however, only con- cerns us so far as it has determined, and still determines, the condition of the working classes. We shall, therefore, discard all details and confine ourselves to stating those cardinal facts which, in our opinion, govern the general economic and social condition of England in the nineteenth century. They form the points of view from which we shall afterwards consider : what are the guarantees of progress as regards the most important j)art of the community at large, namely, the working classes who have entered on this new path of development ; what dangers beset them on this path ; in what direction there is still room for further efforts ; and to what limits those efforts are probably subject. With this object in mind we shall attempt to show, in a brief survey, the direction taken by the colonial system and the com- mercial policy of England and the revolution effected by modern machinery in the process of production. In the statement made by Lord Chatham in Parliament, that the British colonists in America had no right to manufacture even a nail for a horse-shoe, and in the speech of Sir Robert Peel in 1842, Avhen he demanded that the colonies should be treated as integral portions of the Empire, is expressed the entire change experienced by the colonial policy of England. The old system regarded the colonies as dependencies of the mother-country, as large domains for the creation of raw produce, and as markets reserved for English manufactures : the new system regards them as members of the same body. Politically, the new colonial system means in the first place a vast expansion of the idea of the English State. " There might easily have been a great Greater Britaiji. 35 emigration from England which would not in any way have en- larged the English State. For by Greater Britain we mean an enlargement of the English State, and not simply of the English nationality. It is not simply that a population of English blood is now found in Canada and in Australia, as in old time a Greek population was spread over Sicily, South Italy, and the western coast of Asia Minor, That was an extension of the Nationality but not of the State, an extension which gave no new strength, and did not in any way help the Greek name when it was attacked and conquered from Macedonia. In like manner at present we see a constant stream of emigration from Germany to America, but no Greater Germany comes into existence, be- cause these emigrants, though they carry with them, and may perhaps not altogether lose, their language and their ideas, do not cari'y with them their State. This is the case with Germany because its emigration has happened too late, when the New World is already carved into States, into which its emigrants are compelled to enter, as with Greece it was the result of a theory of the State, which identified it with the city. But Gi'eater Britain is a real enlargement of the English State ; it carries across the seas not merely the English race, but the authority of the English Government. We call it, for want of a better word, an Empire. And it does resemble the great empires of history in this respect, that it is an aggregate of provinces, each of which has a government which is sent out to it from the political head-quarters, and which is a kind of delegation from the supreme government. But yet it is wholly unlike the great empires of the Old World, Persian or Macedonian, or Roman or Turkish, because it is not in the main founded on conquest, and because in the main the inhabitants of the distant provinces are of the same nation as those of the dominant country. It resembles them in its vast extent, but it does not resemble them in that violent military character which has made most empires short-lived and liable to speedy decay." * This enlarged idea of the State, which had been invoked, though in vain, by. Burke, at the time of the American War of Inde- • Seeley's " Expansion of England," pp. 42, 43. 36 English Associations of Working Men. pendence, and wliich Peel was the first to put forward as the programme of the Government, owes the great progress it has made in the minds of Englishmen np to the present day, above all, to the revolution in England's commercial policy. The cir- culation of commodities throughout her world-wide empire was enormously quickened by the triumph of Eree-trade principles, and closer commercial contact strengthened the political ties which had been originally formed by occupation or conquest. The acquisition of the colonies, therefore, means a correspond- ingly large expansion of the field of English economics. The English system of Free-trade is to be explained not by theory, but mainly by history. How England at length succeeded, through the efforts of her Government, the extension of her colonies, the immigration of foreign workmen and manufacturers, and the mercantile S3^stem, in changing from a country that ex- ported only particular articles of industry which could not be con- sumed at home, and imported only certain articles of luxury, such as spices, wine, silk, etc., into a huge workshop, drawing raw material from all parts of the world and disposing in all quarters of her manufactured wares, has been described by List, if in a one-sided manner, nevertheless with accuracy of perception. He has shown us— and the soundness of his judgment is confirmed by the most recent English writers — that England's woollen manufacture formed the basis of her industrial development, wool having been the first commodity that made its way to foreign markets, and thus stimulated a number of other branches of production and promoted the increase of navigation. " Erom the woollen trade," he says, " sprang all the other branches of manufacture, as off-shoots from a parent stem ; it is the basis of the industry, the commerce, and the naval supremacy of England." The course of this development was guided, and, apart from a few undoubtedly wrong measures, happily guided by a series of acts of State, such as the imposition of import and export diities, as well as the restriction and even prohibition of the freedom of navigation. But there came a time when the growth of industrial production in England had so advanced, and her maritime trade assumed such dimensions, that all these measures Greater Britain. 37 were felt to be so many cramping and mischievous restraints. That was the time when England's ascendancy in all these respects was gained, and her superior strength in the free in- terchange of commodities with other nations was bound to assert itself still more. It was natural that the recognition of the change thus effected in the peculiar interest of England was only slow and gradual, even in those circles which in the long run derived the most advantage from Eree-trade. But already in the eighteenth century, the development of industry, commerce, and navigation had sufficiently advanced to enable a discerning eye to foresee what principles would shape the national economy of the future. The merit of this insight, pursued with rare gifts of observation and power of logic, will always belong to Adam Smith. The form in which he states the results of all his in- vestigations must not mislead us. It is the form of a theory which, since his time, has misled many into construing his state- ments into a doctrine applicable to all circumstances alike, where- as, in fact, he simply stated the natural course of development which England was necessarily bound to pursue. Eor in his work, notwithstanding that it seems a skilful unity, it is possible to separate the generalisations due to the influence of the doc- trinaire physiocrats of Erance from those classical investigations derived from an inductive study of history, which convinced his cotemporaries that England's industry, commerce, and navigation had infinitely more to gain by freedom of movement than by the restrictions existing at that time. The influence of his work was enormous, for he expressed the formvila of the future. Eree- trade was bound to come in England, for it lay in the womb of her material development. But it did not come at once. Its birth was delayed, in the first place, by the war with Napoleon ; and even when that war was ended, more than a quarter of a century had to elapse before all prejudices were overcome. Eree-trade measures, like all reforms in England, were introduced only by degrees, and their ultimate achievement was the result of a series of cautious and successful experiments. It was Huskisson in particular who, when in office, took the first decisive step. At his instance, in 1822, the restrictions on navigation were partially removed, and 3^ English Associations of Working Men. his customs tariff of 1824 already contained the characteristic features of reform. He not only changed prohibitions into moderate duties, but also lowered the latter, especially those on raw stuffs. Had Huskisson not met his death by an accident at the opening of the railway from Liverpool to Man- chester in 1830, the Free-trade movement would very likely have been settled ten years before it was. But, after his death, long- continued attacks had to be made on the customs system before it gradually fell to pieces. Prominent among the agitations of that period was that of the Anti-Corn Law League, — that great movement of which Cobden was the leading champion both in and out of Parliament, and during which the English working classes for the first time, though by no means with a unanimous voice, took part in the discussion with the same lively interest that they evince in all the economic questions of the present day. Attempts were made at different times, by means of a sliding- scale, adjusted according to the current price of wheat, to arrange a compromise between the increasingly urgent demands of in- dustry for cheap food and the interests of those concerned in maintaining the Corn Laws ; but the stone had been set rolling, and no one could now arrest its course. Scarcely a session passed without the reduction or abolition of a duty, till at length, be- tween 1842 and 1846, the contest was terminated by the virtual repeal of the corn duties, and the triumph of the Free-trade system all along the line. In 1846 Sir Eobert Peel, who had become, much against his original intention, the political exponent of Free-trade ideas, was able to declare in Parliament, with perfect truth, that England by the remission of her duties upon the raw material, by the incitements offered to skill and industry and by competition with foreign goods, had defied her com- petitors in foreign markets, and had even been enabled to exclude them.* Thus began the new phase in the economic history and com- mercial polic}'- of England, which brought to iinexpected maturity all the conditions, as well natural as acquired, which were re- • Speech in the House of Commons, 27ch January, 1816. Hansard, Vol. Ixxxiii., 3rd series, p. 278. Greater Britain. 39 quisite for her industrial expansion. What Huskisson had already said in Parliament in 1826, — namely, that the nation which has the largest trade must necessarily derive also the largest advan- tage from the establishment of free international commercial relations, — the English people by their untiring energy, and the English Government by means of skilfully-framed treaties of commerce, concluded on the footing of equal rights, but carried out between countries of most unequal industrial powers, made a practical reality far exceeding all predictions. The advance made by English production since 1840 is, in fact, enormous. Economically, it is due to that circulation of raw products and manufactures which Free-trade did so much to promote ; technically, it is due. on the contrary, to the develop- ment of mechanical power, which, though established long ago, never exercised its full influence on the extension of production until the middle of the present century. This extension has been promoted as much by the increased facilities for transport, as by the improvements in manufacture. In the first place, the net- work of railways, which since 1840 began to spread over the whole of England, and then steam navigation, have enabled that circulation to attain its present volume and rapidity. At the close of the year 1842 the railways in the United Kingdom ex- tended over 1,857 miles ; at the end of 1855 the mileage had reached a total of 8,280 ; and at the end of 1883 this total had increased to 18,681, along which were conveyed in the same year nearly 684 million passengers (exclusive of season-ticket holders), and more than 266 millions weight of goods and minerals. Tiie statistics of shipping tell a similar tale. During these three years, the total tonnage of British and foreign vessels entered and cleared at ports in the United Kingdom, increased from 935,000 tons in 1842, to 18 1 million tons in 1855, and 65 million tons in 1883.* Between 1870 and 1880 the carrjang power of the commercial navy of England increased to the extent of about seven million tons. * The figures in the text are taken from the Statistical Abstracts for the United Kingdom, 1840-1854, 1855-1869, and 1870-1884 ; and from the Annual Statements of the Trade of the United Kingdom with Foreign Countries and British Possessions. 40 English Associations of Working Men. To the influence exercised by meclianical improvements in tlie various branclies of production on the social condition of the working classes, we shall frequently have occasion to refer. But we desire to touch here on that aspect of the question which is connected with the increase of production. Complex and many- sided as is the history of modern, and especially of English tech- nology, the effect and operation of the new system of machinery may be comprehended in a general point of view. This effect is felt in point of power, space, and time. Dynamically, the work performed by the machine with the same power is out of all pro- portion to that performed by manual laboixr. Leone Levi, in his " Work and Pay," calculates that if all the yarn were spun by hand which is spun in England in the course of a year by the machine, which spins 1,000 threads simultaneously, 100,000,000 men would be necessary to accomplish it. In point of space, the machine has concentrated the process of production in large mills, kept going by a common motive power, so that a single large weaving establishment, worked by machinery, comprises in one building as many looms as were formerly contained in several villages of weavers. Nor is the saving in time thus effected less remarkable, since production, which in individual trades was more or less piece-meal and slow, is now concen- trated in this respect, and therefore far more speedily accom- plished. A most striking in-stance of this is given in the German edition of John Percy's great work on metallurgy, where, in reference to the refining process of iron, we find it stated that to convert 100 cwt. of pig-iron into malleable iron, by employing one refining apparatus, the old method of refining in the charcoal hearth lasted one and a half weeks, the puddling lasts one and a half days, and the Bessemer process only twenty minutes. We pass over at present those other facts which exercise a specific influence on English production, and which we shall have to deal with to some extent later on, — for example, the intensity of manual labour in England, the advantages of her climate, the treasures of coal and iron in her soil, and her water currents used as motive power, — and would only touch briefly on the vast increase which that production has experienced since 1840. In doing so we must confine ourselves to large figures. A glance Greater Britain. 41 first at trade In tlie aggregate, then at the great staple articles of iron and steel, wool and cotton, and, lastly, at the importation of the chief necessaries of life, will suffice for our immediate purpose. Earlier writers, such as Macpherson and othei'S, estimate the total value of English imports and exports for 1760 at 2G^ millions sterling, and for 1800 at 74 millions. In 1840 it had increased to nearly 103 millions, and in 1883* reached a total of no less than 732 millions. Thus the total trade of England, with- in the pei-iod we are considering, increased nearly seven-fold : and it must be borne in mind that these figures, owing to the fall in the prices of most articles of merchandise, give only an approximate index to the still larger augmentation in the volume of trade. The total exports of iron and steel since 1840, taking the volume and declared value together, show the following scale of pro- gression : — rear. Tons. Declared Value. Millions.- 1840 1845 1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 0-26 0-35 0-78 1-U9 1-44 1-61 2-82 2-45 3-79 3-82 4-35 4-04 3-49 3-13 3-83 2-55 3-50 5-35 9-46 12-15 13-47 2403 2574 28-39 27-59 31-59 28-59 24-49t 21-70 21-81 • statistical Abstract, 1870-1884, p. 35. t Note to English Edition.— In the German edition this table concludes with 1884. I have thought it useful to add the figures for 1885 and 1886 ; they show to some extent the depression of business during these years, and thus modify our conclusions in one or two particulars, but without affecting their general soundness. 42 English Associations of Working Men. Witli regard to wool, we subjoin, side by side with tlie total exports of woollen manufactures of all kinds (/.e., yarns and stuffs, including worsted, carpets, and mixed stufl's), the total imports (i.e., sheep, lamb, llama and alpaca), and also a separate column showing the excess of imports, or the quantities of foreign wool which have been manufactured in England, and which, together with her home produce, form the raw material for her woollen industry. Imports in lbs. Exports Yarn. stuffs. Year. Total. Excess of Imports. Lbs. Value. Yards. Value. Millio QS. 1840 49-43 48-42 3-79 045 68 37 5-32 1845 76-81 7415 9 40 106 106-83 7-69 1850 74-42 59-93 1379 1-45 150-51 8-58 1855 99-30 69-84 20-40 2-02 133-03 7-71 1860 148-39 117-63 27-53 3-84 190-37 12-15 1865 212-20 129-76 31-67 5-42 279-20 20-10 1870 263-25 170-70 35-53 4-99 292-70 21-66 1875 365-06 192-99 31-72 5-09 317 53 21-65 1880 463-50 226-10 26-46 3-34 262-35 17-26 1881 450-14 184-55 29-73 3-23 272-87 18-12 1882 488-98 225-01 31-83 3-39 265-21 18-76 1883 495-94 218-71 33-48 326 255-90 18-31 188 4 526-52 249 60 39-27 3-89 '290-27 2013 1885 505-68 238-18 43-49 4-38 272-98 18-84 1886 596-47 284-46 45-65 4-41 279-60 19-73 With regard to cotton, we compare below the totals imported into England and there consumed, with the exports of cotton yarn and cotton manufactures, both in qiiantity and value. It would lead us too far afield to enter into other branches of industry. But we must observe that it is exactly in a number of smaller manufactures that a far more decided expansion has hitherto taken place than in the larger staple articles, a fact of no inconsiderable influence on the gross result of the movement Greater Britain. 43 Imports. Exports. Yam. Stuffs Year. Lbs. Lbs. Value. Yards. Value. Millions. 18iO 553-81 118-47 7-10 790-63 17-56 1815 67906 135-14 6-96 1,091-68 19-15 1850 56110 131-37 6-38 1,358-18 21-87 1855 767-38 16549 7-20 1,937-73 27-57 1860 1,140-59 192-20 9-87 2,776-21 42-14 1865 675-06 103-53 10 34 2,575-69 4692 1870 1,101-19 186-07 14-67 3,266-99 56-74 1875 1,229-49 215-60 13-17 3,562-46 58-59 1880 1,404-08 215-54 11-90 4,495 6i 63-66 1881 1,471-35 254-93 1316 4,777-27 65-92 1882 1,519-11 238-25 12-86 4,349-39 62-93 1883 1,48710 264-77 13-50 4,538-88 62-93 1884 1,497-50 270-90 13-81 4,417-28 58-93 1885 1,219-47 245-80 11-86 4,374-51 55-11 1886 1,51718 254-33 11 48 4,850-21 57-36 of English trade and manufacture. An example of this occurs in the jute trade, which since 1870 yields the following figures : — Imports. Exports, Yarns . stuffs. Year. Cwts. Lbs. Value. Yards. Value. Millions. 1870 2-37 12-66 0-19 51-93 0-78 1875 3-41 15-94 0-22 102-10 1-40 1880 4-63 16-83 023 183-20 2 25 1881 4 92 1806 0-24 204-29 2-36 1882 5-93 21-85 0-28 212 48 2-39 1883 7-38 21-17 026 227-25 2-50 1884 5-08 27-26 0-31 242-84 2-45 1885 5-71 30-70 0-27 21507 1-90 1886 5-34 3070 0-27 216-10 1-80 But the most interesting example of the interchange of com- 44 English Associations of WorkiTig Men. modities which is now being carried out in England, is unques- tionably the increase in the imports of articles of food required for her home consumption. We give the figures relating to wheat, bacon and hams, beef, and raw sugar, in hundredweights, and those relating to tea (so far as it is retained for home consump- tion and not re-exported) in pounds. Wheat and Bacon and Beef. Baw Tea. Wheat Meal. Hams. Sugar. Year. Million c wts. Million lbs. 1840 10-56 0-006 0029 3-59 32-25 1845 4-95 0-005 008 4-85 44-19 1850 20-97 0-35 0-13 609 51-17 1855 13 94 0-24 0-23 7-32 63-42 1860 31-84 0-32 0-26 8-81 76-81 1865 25-84 0-71 0-24 10-25 97-83 1870 36-90 0-56 0-21 12-79 117-55 1875 5954 2-63 021 16-26 145-32 1880 68-45 5-33 1-01 17-00 158-32 1881 71-34 4-62 1-06 18-65 160-05 1882 80-56 2-90 0-69 19 83 164-95 1883 84-55 3-69 1-09 20-36 170-78 1884 66-17 3-41 109 19-62 175-06 1885 81-28 4-05 1-14 19-42 182-40 1886 65-79 4-21 0-99 16-13 178-80 Reckoned per head of the population, the respective amounts for the years 1860, 1870, 1880, and 1883 are :— Wheat, 118, 122, 210, and 250 lbs.; bacon and hams, 1^, 2, 16, and 11 lbs.; raw sugar, 34, 41^ 54, and 62 lbs. ; tea, 2\, 4, 4^, and 4| lbs. The above few figures will, perhaps, suffice to give the reader an idea of the industrial expansion that has taken place in Eng- land since the year 1840. In ever-increasing proportions England has imported foreign raw materials and food, enlarged her manu- factures, and at the same time established a scale of increasing production and increasing wealth which has become of the utmost importance to the social condition of the country. Our only object in reverting to the basis of this development has been to show how wide is the field in which the English working-man forms that link of the chain which occupies our especial attention. For the development of English industry is Greater Britain. 45 a historical fact, which has caused a complete revolution in the aggregate condition of the population of England within a space of scarcely a century. History affords, perhaps, no other instance of so entire a change, effected within relatively so short a period, not only in the life and habits of a large part of a nation, but also in their traditional relations. How the system of manufactures, with its network of railways, has created new towns and enlarged old ones in a manner formerly unknown ; how whole counties have changed their economic character, and agricultural been converted into manufacturing districts ; how the rural population has been attracted by the manufactories, and the manufacturing population itself, through the system of wages and the employ- ment of women and children, received an inducement to multiply, and thereby furnish constantly new hands for new manufactures, — all this has long been a matter of notoriety. It was under these conditions that the population of the United Kingdom — to say nothing of the surplus given to the colonies — increased from 11 millions in 1760, to 16 in 1800, to 27 in 1840, and, lastly, to more than 36 millions in 1885. Our concern, however, is with that portion of the population which is composed of the working classes. Rich as England is in statistical information, it is im- possible to state at once how numerous are the wage-earners of the present day, since it is impossible to trace the exact line of demarcation between them and the lower middle classes, as well as the temporary recipients of public relief. Professor Leone Levi * estimates the total of the working classes broadly at 12,200,000, distributed among 5| million families, an estimate with which Mr. Giffen agrees so far as to reckon the number of families at 5 millions.f The number of wage-earning workmen engaged in manufactures is calculated by Leone Levi at 6| millions out of the above total, while Jeans puts it at nearly 8 millions.;}: Other authorities give still higher figures. According * See his report prepared for Sir Arthur Bass, in the Times of 23rd Jan- uary, 1885. t " The Statistics of the Working Classes in the Last Half-century," by Robert Giffen, London, 1883. X J. S. Jeans : " On the Comparative Efficiency and Earnings of Labour at Home and Abroad," in the Journal of the Statistical Society, vol. xlvii.. Part v., December, 1884. 46 English Associations of Working Men, to these estimates, the industrial workmen amount to nearly a quarter of the total population of the United Kingdom. This quarter of the population — if such it be — is at the present day directly dependent on manufacturing industry, — directly depen- dent on that industiy being remunerative, and directly dependent on its being stable and constant. How these altered conditions of life have brought to many millions of people entirely different relations of life, — a new world of thoughts, aspirations, cares, and results ; how the in- dustrial community is in fact a new form of human settlement ; and how this population, in their character, tastes, and aptitudes, have become, so to speak, a new race, with new wants and en- tirely new claims on society, legislation, and the State, — all these matters will frequently occupy our attention. Closely connected with them is the question. What provision has been made for the future of this industrial system, the basis of the England of to-day, on which her whole modern life, and, in particular, the present and future of her millions of working-men depends ? The best heads in England, of all classes and parties, are at present occupied with this question. Experience and science combine in giving the answer, on which England's attitude in the immediate future, her measures, laws, and policy in this respect depend. The English working-men's associations stand in the very centre of this movement, and take the liveliest share in the discussion ; for they know that it concerns themselves most nearly of all. We will therefore endeavour to characterise the situation as a whole. If, with this object, we consider the United Kingdom by itself, without its colonies, we cannot deny the one-sidedness of the development. Adam Smith himself, as is well knowTi, designated it as the great object of political economy not to give any pre- ference to foreign as compared with inland trade, on the ground that the wealth and power of the country depended on the equal importance of both. Malthus also regards those countries as especially fortunate, where " the resources in land and the capi- tals employed in commerce and manufactures are both consider- able," but where " neither preponderates greatly over the other."* • " Essay on Population," ed. 1826, vol. ii. p. 146. Greater Britain. 47 He reckons up a number of advantages resulting from tins equi- poise, and says that " it is the union of the agricultural and commercial systems, and not either of them taken separately, that is calculated to produce the greatest national prosperity." * The present state of England no longer answers these con- ditions. Her manufacturing system far preponderates over all other interests ; and the process of manufacture has become, during the last half century, more and more dependent on sale in foreign markets. No one, indeed, will wish to undervalue the great advance made also in England's power of consumption, and the consequent importance of her home market. Nevertheless, the Englishman's main attention is rightly directed to the fluctu- ations in sale abroad ; for he knows that the foreign market now determines the prosperity of English manufactures. This fact is also proved by the figures already cited, which show how largely England stands in need of the importation of the most necessary articles of food. Porter reckons that between 1801 and 1810 600,946 persons in England were fed on foreign wheat, estimating the yearly consumption at eight bushels per head ; in 1841-1849 the number had already risen to 2| millions ; t ^-nd at the present day it amounts to half of the entire population of the United Kingdom. The 250 lbs. of wheat per head, imported by England for home consumption in 1883, tell an eloquent tale ; and if to this we add the fact that the cultivation of wheat in England, which in 1869 covered 3,688,000 acres, in 1883 covered only 2,613,000 — being a decrease of more than a million acres in these fourteen years — we have shown pretty clearly the direction in which the development moves. And yet in this very one-sidedness lies, or at all events has lain hitherto, the magnitude of England's economic progress. The law that governs a particular manufacture — namely, the cheap supply of raw materials and food, and a brisk sale abroad — has become the law of English economics in general. All the powers and energies of the nation have been exerted in this direction, and have achieved a brilliant result through the • " Essay on Population," ed. 1826, vol. ii. p. 161. \ " State of the Nation," p. 143. ^ 48 English Associations of Workiitg Men. augmentation of prodnction, the widening of tlie labour-market, and the realisation of enormous industrial profits. The net re- sult of all this is an increase of the national wealth — of the material for distribution between landed property, capital, and labour — the aggregate increase of which may perhaps be esti- mated by the returns of property and profits assessed to the income tax, amounting in 1855 to 308 millions sterling, in 1865 to 396 millions, in 1875 to 571 millions, and in 1882 to 601^ millions. A penny in the pound income tax yielded in 1853 the sum of £809,000, and in 1884 no less than £1,970,000, or more than double. In spite, however, of all these brilliant results, it is impossible to conceal that England has to contend with growing difficulties in order to maintain her position. Englishmen themselves are well aware of the fact, " This world-wide demand " (for Eng- lish goods), says Mr. Cunningham,* "has been so great as to give an extraordinary stimulus to particular branches of trade ; but the effect has been that English capital has flowed, and drawn English labour in its stream, into the directions that were pointed out by the demands of foreign countries, not by the de- mand of our own. And this has introduced an extraordinary degree of instability into all our industries ; the state of our chief trades depends directly and immediately on circumstances which lie as completely beyond our control as the state of the weather. Depending, as our manufacturers do, not only for a sale, but for materials and food, on foreign countries, any social change in foreign lands, or rupture between foreign countries, may be a most serious matter. In olden days the policy of our country determined the direction of our trade ; in the present generation there is a danger lest the needs of our trade should reconcile us to a policy that has for its sole object the avoidance of disturbances, which, in the interests of our industry, it would be recklessness to face. The Civil War in the States opened our eyes to the dependence of one great branch of our trade on that country ; a qiiarrel with any European power might seriously endanger our food supply ; while there is hardly a petty quarrel • " Growth of English Industry and Commerce," pp. 406, 407. Greater Britain^ 49 in any distant region which does not affect the demand for our goods. Just because England has come to be the workshop of the world, she is no longer self-sufficing nor mistress of her own fate. This has been very prominently borne on most minds — even during a period of peace — by the hostile tariffs of other countries, and their effect on our trade. However true it may be that such tariffs affect the wealth of the country that imposes them more than they affect ourselves, this is comparatively beside the mark, so long as they inflict, and are likely to continue to inflict, a very serious blow upon the industries by which we live." Undoubtedly, in the course of affairs hitherto a series of hindering elements have intervened. In the first place there are causes of complaint which are by no means novel in the history of English manufacturing industry. Between 1870 and 1874 production advanced with such leaps and bounds, and so outran the demand, that the inevitable consequence was a commercial crisis and a serious fall in prices. Since at the same time very large capitals had been invested in almost all branches of manu- facture, and those capitals could not possibly be immediately withdrawn, inasmuch as countless new establishments had been founded and the old ones enlarged, this cause of over-production still to some extent continues, and prevents any real recovery of the market. Add to this the fact that England of late years has had a succession of bad harvests. But there are deeper-lying causes still to account for the pre- vailing depression. England has lost much of her carrying-trade since direct communication between other nations has increased, nor does there appear any prospect that in this respect a change will take place again in her favour. In regard also to her ex- ports a remarkable symptom is apparent. The quantity and value of her exported articles no longer keep pace with each other, the value of the articles, notwithstanding the increase of bulk, being stationary, and in some cases even lower than before. The fall in prices which this fact reveals is the consequence of the greater efforts and sacrifices that England is obliged to make in order to dispose of her ever-growing quantity of products ; it is a significant proof of the successful competition of other nations, and involves a reduction of profits as well in commerce E 50 English Associations of Working Men. as in manufactures. Professor Neumann-Spallart, a competent authority on the subject, estimates that Great Britain's share in the commerce of the world amounted in 1875 to 24 per cent, of the entire aggregate of foreign exchanges of all countries, but had sunk in 1882 to a percentage of 19*50. In like manner, according to his computation, her share in the industries of the world exhibits a relative decline ; for example, in the case of coal, which, as compared with the total production of other countries, fell from a percentage of 53*6 in 1868 to 40*7 in 1883, as also in regard to pig-iron, the production of which declined from 44 per cent, in 1876 to 39 per cent, in 1883.* North America and Germany in particular show in some industries a much more rapid progress than England. But in regard to these calculations, it should not be forgotten, quite apart from the caution with which all these general statistics must be received, that the argument they contain can only claim a relative weight. It is naturally much easier to make strides, expressed by high percentages, in the first stages and starting from small begin- nings, as most of the other countries did until within the last few years, in comparison with the already highly-developed industries and navigation of England. An increase expressed by percentages shows naturally a more rapid progression in the case of small figures than in that of large ones ; and on this account it would be as well to suspend any summary judgment on the so-called decline of England, so long as the absolute bulk of her trade and manufactures, apart from merely temporary fluctuations, still continues, in spite of all competition, to increase. This much, however is certain, that foreign competition will, at least, put English supremacy to the proof, and that this supremacy can hardly be maintained to the extent it has been hitherto. Up to a certain point, the free-trade arguments, so pro- minently advanced of late by Mr. Giffen, that the very increase in the production and power of exchange on the part of other countries is a condition of the growth of English manufactures, which require exchangeable commodities as a set-oif for their own pi'oducts, is doubtless correct ; but the danger lies, not in • F. X. von Nenmann-Spallart : "Die Verlegung des -wirtbschaftlicben Schwerpunktes," published in the Deutsche PMiidschau for July, 1885. Greater Britain. 5 1 the fact that other nations produce more than they did formerly, but in this, that, as a consequence of that increased production, they either exchange fewer commodities with England than before, seeking, as they do, to buy the raw material direct with their own manufactured goods, and to protect their own market by levying duties, or attempt, with the help of lower wages, to underbid English labour in the world's market, and even in England herself. We cannot obviously enter here into the question as to what prospects other countries have of achieving the success for which they are striving ; but it is undeniable that England is at present placed somewhat at a disadvantage in having limits imposed vipon her foreign trade, to which she was formerly a stranger. Mr. Jeans, in his latest work,* cites an array of remarkable statistics. In 1871 England's exports to Russia were 60 per cent., as compared with those of Germany ; in 1881 the percentage had decreased to 49. In 1873 England exported to Sweden and Norway considerably more than Ger- many ; in 1882 the proportions were reversed. The same was the case as regards Belgium, which in 1872 received £2,000,000 more in goods from England than from Germany, while in 1882 she took about £1,500,000 more in German than in English wares. France imported in 1872 about half as many goods from Germany as from England ; in 1882, on the contrary, her Ger- man, as compared with her English imports, were 65 per cent. The same results are shown in the trade with the United States. In 1872 the English imports thither amounted to 40 per cent, rf the aggregate, in 1882 the percentage was only 26. Between 1878 and 1882 English exports to Chili showed an absolute decrease, while those of Germany and Italy increased. In the same years, English exports to China exhibit only a small increase, whilst the exports thither from the United States were multiplied sevenfcl I, those from Europe sixfold, and those from Japan were doubled. This state of things has given rise to a movement in England, which aims at supplanting the hitherto unassailed principles of Free-trade by those of what is known as Fair-trade. A Fair- trade League has actually been formed for the propagation of •"England's Supremacy; its Sources, Economics, and Fangers," by J. S. Jeans, London, 1S85. 52 English Associations of Working Men. a new law of international trade, whicli, briefly stated, maintains that England should treat other nations like for like, duty for duty, free-trade for free-trade, and retaliate against those countries which impose new or maintain old restrictions against England, The recent appointment by a Conservative Ministry of a Royal Commission to inquire into the depression of trade and industry originated in fears and desires of this description. We do not belong to those who believe in the success of these endeavours, for it means in its consequences the retrogression of the whole development which has hitherto taken place in England ; and, moreover, notwithstanding all menacing signs ot foreign competition, there appears no occasion at present, or for a long time to come, to introduce so great a change, for we can point out in the aspect of the industrial position of England, side \>'Y side with those menacing symptoms, also hopeful features. A circumstance must first be mentioned, to which our attention has so frequently been drawn in England, not only by theorists, but also by large manufacturers. This is the relative advantage derived bj^ England from the commercial policy pursued by the United States, her most formidable competitor, as well as by the States on the Continent. Jeans has stated this point very clearly in his work already mentioned : — " It may seem a paradox, but we nevertheless maintain it to be true, that England would probably have more to fear from other manufacturing nations if they abolished their protective duties, than she has now that they are in operation. Why is this? Simply because so long as the present system of pro- tection is maintained, protectionist countries are little likely to be able to compete with a free-trade country in neutral markets. But, on the other hand, if countries now protectionist, and equally endowed with ourselves in the matter of natural resources, were to forswear their economic fallacies, and become converted to the true faith, they would be likely, in course of time, by throwing off the fetters that now impede their proper development, to prove formidable rivals in the markets to which they are now denied access. Suppose for a moment that the United States were able to produce textiles as cheaply as Great Britain, there would, in that case, be no good reason why the Greater Bfitain. 53 stuffs of Massacliiisetts and Connecticut should not successfully compete with the same products made in England, in markets all over the world. It may be said that there is the ocean freight against American manufacturers ; but it need cost no more to export the manufactured article than it now does to export the raw cotton whence England produces the manufactures that have secured her a reputation in all parts of the world. It is the same with many other commodities, the raw materials of which are more or less largely imported from America. But it is obvious that so long as the United States artificially keep up the price of their manufactures by high wages, expensive works, dear transportation, and so forth, they cannot hope to obtain an outlet for manufactures that arc produced in competition with those that England is happily enabled to supply under a system of Free-trade, which, if it does not mean high wages, means perhaps more than equivalent advantages in cheap living, low rents, inexpensive clothing, and other advantages to em- ployer and employed alike. The working man in the very heart of England— in Birmingham, Manchester, or Bradford — is able to purchase breadstuffs as cheaply as the Russian peasant or the Massachusetts cotton operative, while he can purchase most of the luxuries and conveniences of life much more cheaply." We can add nothing to these words to show more clearly the advantage England enjoys in this respect. But a circumstance of far more importance to her industrial position is her relation to her colonies. The unfavourable signs we have referred to above disappear when we turn our eyes from Great to Greater Britain. Against the difficulties occasioned by the accumulation of a gigantic population of workers, by the stagnation in her hitherto existing markets, and by her dependence on other countries in regard to raw materials and food, England possesses in her colonies a reserve, the value of which is increasing every year. Mr. Goschen, by no means one of those dreamers of expansion, as are some of his fellow-countrymen, spoke on this subject in 1885 as follows : — " I think," he said, " that, looking to the picture of industry and commerce now, the chief hope is this, that the teeming millions of the old country may find customers in the teeming and increasing millions in Greater Britain beyond the seas. I shoiild be sorry to be a statesman who would in any 54 English Associatiois of Working Men. degree attempt to minimize the value of our colonial possessions, or the value of foreign dependencies. This is not a question only for statesmen and politicians. It is a question for the working clr.sses of the country; it is a question for every trader, for every manufacturer, for every merchant. It is there that we may see caiise for hopefulness, there where populations are increasing, and we may coniidently trust that there we may still maintain our supremac3^" * I" reality, there is no subject that engrosses at present more eager attention in England than the relations of the mother-country with her colonies. In the first place, those colonies demand consideration as a vast field for labour. British North America, with her 3,372,000 square miles, and Australia, with her 3,104,000 square miles, received respectively, from 1840 to 1883, no less than 1,200,000 and 1,380,000 British emigrants, and still offer unlimited space for the siirplus labour of the mother-country. The advantage enjoyed by the Englishman in finding in those territories a climate that allows Europeans not only to live, but also to endure physical labovir, and in not only retaining in his new home the language and customs, the religion and laws of his native country, but finding them already established there as the existing order of things, facilitates what has hitherto been called emigration, but what is becoming more and more, in the eyes of Englishmen, a mere transfer of active labour from one portion of the empire to another. It has been justly observed that, owing to modern means of inter- course, Quebec is now for all practical piirposes as near Liverpool as Liverpool was near London at the time when General Wolfe stormed the heights of Abraham, and that communication between London and India is now easier than it was between London and the Highlands in the middle of the last century. " The mother- country," says Professor Seeley, "having once for all ceased to be a step-mother, and to make unjust claims and impose annoying restrictions, — and since she wants her colonies as an ovitlet both for population and trade, — and since, on the other hand, the colonies must feel that there is risk, not to say also intellectual impoverish- ment, in independence, — since, finally, intercourse is ever increas- ing, and no alienating force is at work to counteract it, but the dis- * Speech at a meeting of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, 23rd June, 1885. Greater Bntatn 55 cords created by the old system pass more and more into oblivion, it seems possible that our colonial empire so-called may more and more deserve to be called Greater Britain, and that the tie may become stronger and stronger. Then the seas which divide us might be forgotten, and that ancient preconception, which leads us ahva3^s to think of ourselves as belonging to a single island, might be rooted out of our minds. If in this way we moved sensibly nearer in our thoughts and feelings to the colonies, and accustomed ourselves to think of emigrants as not in any way lost to England by settling in the colonies, the result might be, first, that emigration on a vast scale might become our remedy for pauperism ; and secondly, that some organisation might gradu- ally be arrived at which might make the whole force of the empire available in time of war." * Among the working classes these ideas have made great pro- gress, but those very grades of the working population who are bound to solve in this manner the problem of their existence are destitute of the means of doing so. The well-paid and in every way strong worker in England is scarcely yet compelled to seek for work in New Zealand or Canada, whilst the needy and weaker have not sufficient money, energy, or knowledge to cross the seas without State aid. England will, therefore, be obliged, as was once the Roman Empire, to assist colonisation in the interests of State. Measures of this kind are already emphatically demanded, and those by the very advanced wing of the great English working- men's party. " A great national measure of colonisation would not only relieve the glut of labour at home, but in time repay the cost to the nation, by turning those who by their competition for work lower the value of labour into future customers for our home manufactures. I do not think there would be any great difficulty in finding the right men willing to leave their poverty behind them, if the Government would decide to establish them in the colonies." f We come now to the second great function performed by the colonies, as markets for English manufactures. As such we have to consider not only the boundless territories of Canada and Aus- • "Expansion of England," p. 298. t So speaks a trades-unionist at the Remuneration Conference (Report, p. 151), to which we shall hereafter have occasion to refer. 56 English Associatiotts of Working Men. tralia, an inexliaustible field for the expansion of the English race, but especially India, as well as England's minor colonies, depen- dencies, and harbours scattered over the globe, and forming so many outlets for her spirit of enterprise ; — outlets which, if closed in this or that particular quarter, her skill, pertinacity, and courage have, at all events hitherto, succeeded in reopening in another, and thereby drawing new regions and populations into the compass of her trade. In forming a judgment, therefore, of the position occupied at present by productive industry in England, it is essential to in- stitute a comparison between the movement in colonial and foreign markets. A clear conception on this point is obtained at once by com- paring the totals of English exports to foreign countries and British possessions from 1870 to 1883. The total value of English exports (including British and foreign and colonial produce) to the various foreign countries amounted in 1870 to £188,689,245. During the two years of inflation it increased so rapidly as to amount in 1872 to £248,979,616; and in 1883 it sank again to £215,036,149, a figure which, roughly speaking, has been main- tained pretty constantly during the last three years, and which may therefore serve as a standard of present expansion.* This means an increase in the total exports since 1870 of about 14 per cent. On the other hand, the total value of exports to British possessions amounted in 1870 to £55,391,332, and since then has increased withovit any great bounds forward, but almost without any relapse, to £90,400,921 in 1883, being an increase since 1870 of about 63 per cent.f This parallel will appear the more evident from a comparison of the following tables. They give the exports of specially British produce, firstly, to the six leading commercial countries of the Continent, and secondly, to the five principal colonies, and show the extent of the respective markets for English products. * " Statistical Abstract, 1870-1884," pp. 38, 39. t lioie to English Edition. — The value of exports to foreign countries has fallen from £215,000,000 in 1883 to £180,000,000 in 1886, a decrease of 13-4 per cent., while the value of exports to the colonies in the same years has fallen from £90,000,000 to £82,000,000, a decrease of 8-8 per cent. Greater Britain. 57 Declared Value of British and Irish Produce Exported from the United Kingdom to the following Foreign Countries. Year. In million pounds sterling. Germany. France. Holland. Belgium. Russia. United States. 1840 5-57 2-37 3-41 0-88 160 5-28 1845 7-05 2-79 3-43 1-47 2-15 7-14 1850 7-41 2-40 3-54 1-13 1-44 14-89 1855 9-79 6-01 4-55 1-70 — 17-31 1860 1335 5-24 611 1-61 3-27 21-66 1865 17-74 9-06 8-13 2 93 2-92 21-22 1870 20-41 11-64 11-22 4-48 6-99 28-33 1875 23-28 15-35 13-11 5-78 8-05 21-86 1880 16-94 15-59 9-24 5-79 7-95 30-85 1881 17-43 16-97 8-89 707 6-15 29.79 1882 18-51 17-42 9-37 808 5-77 30-97 1883 18-78 17-56 9-50 8-32 5-03 27-37 1884 18-72 16-74 10-23 8-50 4-99 24-42 1885 16-41 14-97 8-87 7-80 4-19 21-99 1886 15-67 13-61 8-19 7.12 4-42 26-82 Declared Value of British and Irish Produce Exported from the United Kingdom to the folloioing British Possessions. Year. In million pounds sterling. India (with Ceylon and the Straits Austi-alia. North American Cape of Good Hope Hong Kong. Settlements. Colonies. and Natal. 1840 602 2-04 2-84 0-41 1845 6-70 1-20 3-55 0-64 1-53 1850 8-02 2-60 3-23 0-79 0-50 1855 10-91 6-27 2-88 0-79 0-38 1860 19-31 9-70 3-72 2-06 2-44 1865 20-39 13-33 4-70 1-70 1-54 1870 22 53 9-89 6-78 1-85 3-40 1875 27-28 19-49 9-03 4-90 3-59 1880 33-70 16-93 7 70 6-62 3-77 1881 32-60 21-37 8-41 7-07 361 1882 3212 25-36 6-69 7-49 3-03 1883 35-22 24-21 915 4 -.55 2-89 1884 33-95 23 89 8-65 4- 10 3-21 1885 31-63 25-16 7-20 3-82 3-75 1886 33-44 22-38 7-88 3-30 2-31 58 EnglisJi Associations of JVorking Men. By these figures it appears that from 1840 to 1870 the exports to the six principal foreign countries increased more rapidly than those to the colonies, but that after 1870 the proportion began to change. The total value of British produce exported to the above-mentioned foreign countries in 1883 is only about 4 per cent, more than in 1870,— namely, £86,598,916 against £83,088,325, while the corresponding exports to the colonies show an increase of about 70 per cent., or £76,043,772 against £44,482,856. The growing importance of Australia is especially striking. The Aus- tralian market has widened since 1870 at such a rate of progress — the further course of which it is impossible to foresee, — that at the present day its importance is nearly equal to that of the United States market. From these facts and figures, which coixld be considered from various points of view, and might be supplemented by a host ot details, it is plain that the colonial market has shown of late years a relatively far greater power of absorption than the foreign ones, and that the colonies furnish a set-off against the restrictions which England has to experience on the Continent and partly also in the United States. This fact offers a strong counterpoise to those pessimist views of the condition of English industry which have now-a-days become well-nigh the fashion. But it is also in their function as suppliers of corn and meat that the colonies are becoming more and more invaluable to the mother-country. How important is the foreign, and especially the colonial, food-supply to the English working-man of the present day we shall demonstrate fully in that portion of our work which treats of Co-operative Societies. The supply of colonial bread-stuffs for the working classes was only rendered possible by the enormous increase during the last ten years in the wheat-production of America, Australia, and India, an increase as unexpected as it is seriously felt on the Continent of Europe. England alone, of all the European States, has derived advantage from it, in being able thereby to supply her woi'kmen with cheaper food. "In the six years ending 1882," says Mr. Jeans, " the acreage under corn crops in the United States alone increased from 93 to 126 million acres, or 35 per cent. In the same interval, the total volume of the corn crops produced Greater Britain. 59 rose from 2,178 million to 2,699 million bushels, or nearly 25 per cent. The same movement is going on in our colonies and in India. Canada has enormously increased its area under cereals between 1875 and 1884. In South Australia the area under cul- tivation increased from 959,000 acres in 1871 to 1,400,000 acres in 1880. In Victoria the quantity of wheat grown has increased from 5,500,000 bushels in 1873 to close on 10,000,000 bushels in 1881, — being an increase of nearly 100 per cent., concurrently with which, however, there was only an increase of about 100,000, or 13 per cent., in the population. In Australia, generally, the acreage under wheat was roughly 1,000,000 acres in 18G7, and 3,-500,000 acres in 1882. In India, again, it is stated that sufii- cient corn can be grown, after meeting native wants, to supply the whole population of this country ; and such a claim certainly receives strong corroboration from the fact that, between 1879 and 1883, the exports of Indian wheat increased from a little over 1,000,000 to more than 19,000,000 cwts." It is a consequence of these facts that, next to the United States, which still take the lead in the importation of wheat to England, the colonies during the last few years have acquired more and more importance. The two following tables will illrs- trate this very clearly : — Quantities of Wheat (i.e. Grain, and Flour in equivalent weight of Grain) in million cwts. Imported from the following Countries. Year. Eu«-Ja. Geimary. Austrian Ten-i lories. Egypt. United States. 1840 116 500 0-37 0.01 1-55 1845 1-45 2-53 0-05 — 0-40 1850 2-75 5-47 017 1-07 2-34 1855 4-29 030 1-89 1-93 1860 5 -Co 6-89 0-33 85 9-31 1865 8-09 7-20 61 0-01 1-49 1870 10-32 4-48 0-46 0-10 15-15 1875 10-15 6-61 0-42 2-11 26-37 1880 2-?6 2 82 1-41 1-60 44-78 1881 4-09 3-09 1-38 1-07 45-70 1882 9-68 5-56 1-97 0-17 44-88 1883 13-44 5-28 2-20 117 40-21 1884 552 3-27 1-95 1-00 35-56 1885 12 08 3-74 2-35 0-11 38-93 1886 3-74 2-33 1-75 04 38-93 6o Eftglish Associations of Working ATen. Quantities of Wheat {i.e. Grain and Flour) in million cwts. Imported from the following British Possessions. Year. India. Australasia. British N. America. 1840 0-63 1845 — — 1-00 1850 — — 0-35 1855 — 007 1860 — 1-31 1865 , — — 0-52 1870 0-008 0-09 3-40 1R75 1-33 1-26 4-06 1880 3-23 461 4-54 1881 7-33 3-31 3-20 ■ 1882 8-46 3-08 3-11 1883 11-24 279 2-42 1884 7-98 5-36 2-61 1885 12-17 5 44 2-09 1886 11-02 0-82 4-04 These two tables demonstrate also the great change and partial displacement effected in the commercial relations of England. A few years ago it would have been scarcely credible that Eng- land should import in a twelvemonth (1884) very nearly as much wheat from Australasia as from Russia. Nor is it less interesting to notice what increased quantities of live stock, meat, cheese, and fish England obtains from her colonies, and especially from Canada and Australia. We quote the following data for comparison from the official statistics for 1884.* During this year 139,213 live oxen and bulls, of the value of £3,316,567, were imported into Great Britain from the United States; 111,424, of the value of £2,234,386, from the Continent ; and 59,054, of the value of £1,260,465, from Britisll North America. Of live sheep and lambs, the Continent supplied 853,145, worth £1,948,898 ; British North America, 61,367, worth £127,249; and the United States, 30,317, worth £73,237. The most significant figures are those connected with the imports of dead animals, the transportation of which in a fresh or preserved state has been enabled by the recent discoveries in chemistry and * " Annual Statement of the Trade of the United Kingdom for 1884," com- piled in the Custom House from documents collected by that department. Greater Britain. 6 1 physics. In 1884 Great Britain imported in fresh mutton, from Australasia (by far the largest portion being from New Zealand), 304,124 cwts., worth £822,842; from Holland, 116,422 cwts., worth £373,096 ; and from the United States, 32,229 cwts., worth £92,802. Of bacon, the United States supplied 1,924,298 cwts., worth £4,371,625 ; the Continent, 665,337 cwts., worth £2,035,292 ; and British North America, 171,636 cwts., worth £390,773. Of meat, preserved otherwise than by salting, 259,853 cwts., worth £714,947, came from the United States ; 128,569 cwts., worth £309,197, from Australasia ; 13,967 cwts., worth £36,057, from British North America ; and 19,573 cwts., worth £228,713, from the Continent. Of cheese, England imported 976,190 cwts., worth £2,479,908, from the United States ; 589,237 cwts., worth £1,496,564, from British North America ; and 358,335 cwts., worth £915,462, from the Continent ; Australasia also contributed a small quantity (2,800 cwts., of the value of £7,900) to the English market. Of cured or salted fish, 258,354 cwts., worth £464,268, came from British North America; 178,109 cwts., worth £433,113, from the United States; and 377,748 cwts., worth £593,058, from the Continent. Reviewing, then, these relations of England with her colonies and the United States, it is clear that she occupies a position in the commercial world widely differing from that of any other European State. We must not forget that, if it is really true that the New World contains the life and energies of the future, England, standing as she does with one foot planted on the Old World and the other on the New, combines the advantages of both. On the other hand, this double position multiplies infinitely the difficulties of governing her enormous empire, and increases, moreover, the dangers incident to her position as well as to her policy. This is not the place to frame conjectures as to the possible or probable course of events ; it is enough for our purpose to have shown that the commercial intercourse between England and her colonies has increased since 1870 to an extent which is too little regarded on the Continent. The future will decide what effect this unparalleled growth in the circulation of commodities will have inside the vast economic territory of the British Empire, 62 English Associations of Working Men. and wliat attitude will be adopted in regard to this question by tLe colonies, some of whom find it to their interest at present to pursue a policy of protection, albeit of mild protection, towards the mother-country. It is readily intelligible that on a question which has a political as well as a commercial aspect, there should be diversity of opinion. Thus Imperial Federation is the w^atchword of those wdio desire to see the mother-country and her colonies drawn closely together in a vast impei'ial and customs union, and who quote Burke and Adam Smith to prove the necessity of consti- tuting for this world-wide empire a central Grovernment and, if possible, a central Parliament. A not unimportant movement in this direction has been made by the Imperial Federation League, in which prominent politicians of England and the colonies have taken part. A different and, in our opinion, a deeper judgment on this question of union is formed by those who think that community of interests, not wi'itten constitutions or a Parliament, will iiltimately form the bonds of federation, and who w^ould prefer to see all efforts directed towards the further- ance of this means. We merely mention these political and commercial schemes for the purpose of adding that the working classes are fully alive to their importance. It is certainly remarkable that the annual Congress of Trades-unions, held in 1884 at Aberdeen, passed a resolution in favour of establishing a closer union between Eng- land and her colonies. A similar resolution was passed in 1885 at a Conference convened by the London Working-men's Associa- tion, the terms of which we quote, because they show how correctly the English working-men appreciate the intimate con- nection between the great basis of English production on which they themselves stand, and the colonies. The Association resolved, that, " Considering how absolutely the industrial prosperity — nay, the existence — of the population of Great Britain, according to its actual rate of increase, depends upon the maintenance and continued growth of our external trade, — and considering, more- over, how largely (under the present extreme industrial competi- tion and prohibitive fiscal policy of foreign countries) an external trade in products of British manufacture is dependent on our Greater Britain. 6i colonial markets, this Conference recognises the vast importance and imperative necessity of establishing forthwith an inseparable fiscal and political union or federation — analogous to that of the United States — between the mother-country and her colonies, by the complete abolition of all tariffs in restraint of free trade throughout the empire, and by the adequate representation of our colonies and dependencies (according to the amount of their civilized population, and their share of imperial taxation) in a paramount Diet of Parliament of the whole empire, which would constitutionally be authorised to utilise and develop by all needful waj's and means the boundless commercial and territorial re- sources of the British commonwealth." * But the part played by the English workman in this question is a more important one than is expressed in resolutions of this sort. Among the social institutions transplanted from the mother- country to her colonies, which serve to strengthen the intellectual ties formed by a common advance in culture and education, and which, next to the community of material interests, constitute the strongest guarantees for the integrity of the empire, are the colonial branches of the various working-men's associations. In this way every working-man who goes out to the colonies knits closer the bond which, in the interests of England's home labour for the future, cannot possibly be knit too closely. This grandeur of England's position has had a corresponding effect on the Englishman's conception of the world in general It has enlarged his desires, widened his view, and strengthened his activity and courage. It has implanted in the people a practical turn of thought, far removed from all Utopias, and decisive as regards the manner in which the social problem is being developed in England. We have, therefore, to deal in Eng- land not only with external relations, but also with individuals wholly different from those on the Continent. • Times, loth January, 1885. CHAPTER III. Society and the Individual. Social order and individual enterprise. — Ecclesiastical origin of the Guilds. — Physiocracy and Communism in France. — The Statutes of Labourers. — In- dividualism in England. — New popular conception of society. — Carlyle on Work and Wages. — Moral aspect of the question. — Lord Shaftesbury and Canon Kingsley. — Patient attitude of the working classes. — Social tendency of thought in England. — Growing recognition of the duties of the indi- vidual to society. — Social elements of the wage question. — Ricardo. — John Stuart Mill. — " Habits and requirements" of the working classes. — A" fair day's wages for a fair day's work." — Capital and Co-operation. — Industrial Eemuneration Conference in 1885. — Moral education of the working classes. — Arnold Toynbee. — Growing importance of the Land Question. — Views of George and Wallace. — " Municipalisation " of the land. In every economic epoch the same problem invariably recurs. The question is, how to reconcile the interests and the self-seek- ing of the individual with the interests and the common welfare of society. The individual is inclined, in the pursuit of gain, to follow merely his own advantage, while society scans with a critical eye the proceedings dictated by purely personal motives, and represents a moral order, intended to enable its individual members, with their rival aims and businesses, to co-exist in peace. The question, therefore, is always one of the intervention of a moral judgment and will, superior to the individual, and act- ing as a corrective in the sphere of private enterprise. Hence we invariably find in economic history on the one side the impul- sive business energy of the individual, and on the other a higher, governing element, which operates to restrain but also to educate the individual, and which we may term the associative element of economic life. In this way a reciprocal w^orking is established between individual enterprise and social order. In every epoch 64 Society and the Individual. 65 of culture, though perhaps under varying forms, the one element exei'cises on the other an influence which may be pernicious and destructive, but which may also be wholesome and edifying. In the consideration and right judgment of this economic re- lation of individuals to society, great progress has been made since we have comprehended histoi-ically the various changes it has undergone. This method has sharpened our view and shaken off our prejudices. No system of economy has ever recognised this contrariety and the necessity of a higher means of adjustment, though various ways have been suggested in various quarters to arrive at a solution of the problem. The different stages of transi- tion make it difficult to form a proper judgment. Periods of " organ- isation " alternate with periods of" disorganisation " ; intervals of suffering with seasons of comparative calm and compromise. As regards the preponderance of the social element in relation to the individual, or the reverse, the history of society shows a series of remarkable vicissitudes. The medigeval Church, while fully alive to the importance of individualism, nevertheless es- tablished, through her ordinances and her authority in general, a compact system of society, so elaborate and firmly settled, that this idea, even at the present day — or rather just at the present period of uncertainty and transition — still exercises a powerful attraction, although the conditions that underlay it have long since disappeared. It was the ecclesiasticism of the Middle Ages that gave birth to the Guild, in which the powers of the indi- vidual were strictly limited and confined by social and religious ordinances. Later on, when this social system had lost its essen- tially ecclesiastical basis, the State instead undertook to regulate trade and commerce, industries and manufactures, by means of guiding or restricting precepts of every kind, until the gather- ing strength of individualism succeeded in first loosening, and then bursting, the old barriers. This individualism acquired ulti- mately, in the course of the eighteenth century, so powerful a position throughout the whole Western world as to outweigh en- tirely the element of association, and assert a monopoly of power which inevitably led to a reaction. Since then the restoration of the associative element to its proper rights has formed the " social problem " for the nations of Europe. 66 EngUsJi Associations of Working Men. On the Continent, this cycle of change has stamped all its vari- ous stages most sharply on the page of history in France. It was there that the Mercantile System was most nakedly expressed ; it was there that, in the seventeenth century, individvial industry was most fettered by edicts of every kind ; but it was there also that the reaction in favour of individualism stepped in, almost suddenly, directly, and as a matter of dogma. Physiocracy is the doctrine of individualism, one-sided as ever a doctrine was, inas- much as it assumes • that social order, the necessity of which it neither cared nor was able to deny, underlies the exertions of the individual, and that a pre-established harmony exists between the interests of the community at large and the energies of the individual. " C'est de I'essence de I'ordre naturel des societes politiques," declares the physiocrat Mercier de la E,iviere, " que I'interet particulier d'un seul ne puisse jamais etre separe de I'in- teret commun de tons " ; and even late in our century he finds an echo in the words of Bastiat, " les interets abandonnes a eux- memes tendent a des combinaisons harmoniques, a la preponder- ance progressive du bien general." Extreme, however, as was the transition from the principles of Colbert to these ideas, equally extreme was the reaction experienced by the latter when people once perceived that the " doctrine " led to the abandonment of all social order whatsoever. The fruit of this reaction was French Communism, in its way just as one-sided as the doctrine of the physiocrats. In the " Phalanstery " of Fourier individual interests were to be merged in those of the community in just as one-sided a fashion as in Bastiat's " Harmonies Economiques " the interests of the community were concentrated in the hands of the individual. The course of events in England exhibits in the main the same circle of change. Edward III., in his Statutes of Labourers, was able, while imposing strict limits on individualism, to reconcile the contradiction of which we are speaking by enacting that " reasonable prices " should be paid for food and " reasonable wages " paid for labour ; while Elizabeth, in the famous legisla- tion of her reign, was forced to make substantial concessions to the growing power of individualism, until the latter acquired in England also an unlimited sway. At the present day, on the contrary, England, like the Continent, is again in the midst of that Society and the Individual. 67 reactionary current which is tending to impose on individualism not indeed the old but new restrictions, resulting from the cir- cumstances and requirements of our time. It would be, of course, very tempting to pursue this parallel further, and to inquire in what respects the course of social development in England differs from that on the Continent, notwithstanding that the leading fea- tures of both movements coincide. In doing so we should find, especially as regards the time when individualism was at its height, that social life in England possessed a certain counter- balance in the self-government as well as in the strong religious convictions of the people, and that even the English scientific view of individualism, candidly considered, was in no way tainted with that doctrinaire spirit of one-sidedness which one is accus- tomed to meet with, especially in Germany. It would, further, be a subject of extreme interest to inquire what literary move- ment heralded that reaction against unlimited individualism in England, and how it came to pass that among men of learning, in the press and on the public platform, and finally in Parliament and legislation, ideas gradually cropped up, and proposals assumed a definite shape, which, taken collectively, represent a new con- ception of society in the popular mind destined to initiate a new stage of civilisation in England. To attempt an explanation of these questions lies beyond the scope of this introduction. Since, however, this new conception of society forms a foil, so to speak, to all the variations of the social movement in England, and must be noticed if we are to understand any social institution or social aspiration now existing in England, we would endeavour in this introductory chapter, first, to give a sketch, but not in any way a full history, of this phase of thought, and secondly, to show what effect it has had on " economic laws," and especially how far it has stood what will always be the crucial test of the English working-man, — namely the question of wages. 1. The revolution wrought in the views entertained by English- men on the mutual relations of the various classes of the indus- trial community has not been brought about by means of politics or doctrine, but is the fruit of a moral reaction against the evils caused by the one-sided pursuit of industrial gains, evils which 68 EnglisJi Associations of Working Men. afflicted a large portion of the working classes, and weighed like a nightmare on the conscience of the English public. The first outcry against these abuses came from men of all ranks in life. Their persistent warnings caused the nation gradually to awaken and to recognise the duty of atoning for its long neglect. It was these men whose personal influence disseminated the moral ideas which they represented, and ^vilose practical example and un- tiring efforts, exerted in large or small circles, embodied those ideas in practical institutions, quickened zeal and secured co- operation. It was they who developed by their words and ex- ample the fu.ndamental power of implanting new ideas in other men, and thereby exercising a reforming influence on their will and conduct. After the year 1840 this movement began to ex- pand. Let us listen to some of those who took part in it. At that time Carlyle, in his " Past and Present," thus addressed his cotemporaries : " The time for levitj'-, insincerity^, and idle babble and play-acting, in all kinds, is gone by ; it is a serious, grave time. Old long-vexed questions, not j^et solved in logical words or parliamentary laws, ai'e fast solving themselves in facts, somewhat unblessed to behold ! This largest of questions, this question of Work and Wages, which ought, had we heeded heaven's voice, to have begun two generations ago or more, cannot be delayed longer without hearing earth's voice. ' Labour ' will verily need to be somewhat ' organised,' as they saj^^, — God knows with what difficulty. Man will actually need to have his debts and earnings a little better paid by man ; which, let Parliament speak of them or be silent of them, are eternally his due from man, and cannot, without penalty, and at length not without death-penalty, be withheld. How much ought to cease among us straightway ; how much ought to begin straightway, while the hours yet are ! " Carlyle is perhaps the strongest representative of the literary view then rapidly gaining ground in England ; namely, that every social reform is a moral reform, a reform of the individual as well as of the community at large. He appeals with his ciy of warning to all classes of societj-, and demands the fulfilment of duty and inward reform from the workman as strictly as from his superiors in rank. " The cure," he says, " if it is to be a cure, must begin at the heart ; not in his condition only, but Society and the Individual. 69 in himself must tlie patient be all changed." The fact that the Englishman had the moral strength to follow in the main this admonition, explains the progress he has made in culture since 1839, the year when Carlyle wrote these words. First of all, it was the workman himself who followed this advice. " Hence there was at this period," says Lloyd Jones, an old combatant from the working classes, " what may be called a great awakening. National politics, industrial progress, social growths and social neglects of various kinds, had been allowed to take their own course. There was no provision for education, no check to speak of on life-destroying labour, no true recognition of that in man which struggles upwards and lifts him out of the brute condition, giving him what God has willed he should have, a life beyond and above that of mere getting and spending. Men had opened their eyes and had seen, not their nakedness alone, but their corruj)tion, their degradation, their rapidly-approaching moral death." * In treating of the working-men's associations we shall notice the practical operation of this growing spirit. It was the moral impulse given by the pioneers of the movement that created the institutions which in their turn became the schools for educating later generations in the same ideas. But also the upper classes of society — whom, when they fail to fulfil their duties, Carlyle compares to " a tree planted on preci- pices, from the roots of which all the earth has been crumbling " — followed the same course, prepared and trained in the principles of self-government, of which for centuries they had been the leaders. A few shining representatives stand out from their ranks at the very beginning of the movement. The name of Shaftesbury is well known on the Continent. The speeches he has delivered since 1838, both in and out of Parliament, are clarion calls addressed to the moral conscience of his cotem- poraries, and especially to the fellow-members of his own class. " The vast proportion of the evils," he declared in a reply to the Lancashire Short-time Committee, in 1842, "which affect and endanger this countiy is not ascribable to physical or commercial • " Progress of the Working Class," 1832-1867, by J. M. Ludlow and Lloyd Jones, London, 1867, p. 87. /O English Associations of Working Men. causes— these may liave their influence, but in the main the mis- chief is to be traced to a moral origin. Over a large surface of the industrial community man has been regarded as an animal, and that an animal not of the highest order ; his loftiest faculties, when not prostrate are perverted, and his lowest exclusively devoted to the manufacture of wealth. Women and children follow in the train of ceaseless toil and degrading occupation, and thus we have before us a mighty multitude of feeble bodies and untaught minds, the perilous materials of pi'esent and future pauperism, of violence and infidelity. . . ." But in the same speech he was able already to perceive the ccfmmon work, which was then in its beginning, in respect to the social problem. " Political differences are suppressed, and parties of all com- plexions aspire to and may claim an equal share in vindicating the rights of humanity and the character of the nation. Nor may we forget our deep obligations to the public press, which both in the capital and in the provinces exhibited a spectacle neither seen nor imagined in any country but this, the spectacle of the journals of extreme opinions and discordant pri-nciples combining to sustain a public man because they believed that, with no private purposes of his own, he was engaged in an honest endeavour for the public good." Still more confidently did he express himself on this subject two years later. " I dare," he said, " to hope for better things — for restored affections, for renewed understanding between master and man, for combined and general efforts, for large and mutual concessions of all classes of the wealthy for the benefit of the common welfare, and specially of the labouring people. It may not be given to me to pass over this Jordan ; other and better men have preceded me, and I entered into their labours ; other and better men will follow me and enter into mine ; but this consolation I shall ever continue to enjoy — that, aviidst much injustice, and someivhat of calumny, ive have at last lighted such a candle in England ns, by God's hlessing, shall never he pnt out.^' We will conclvide this series of quotations wdth a passage written by Canon Kingsley. He was one of those men who, as exponents of Christian sociology, preached so successfully the gospel of duty. Soon after 18GU he was already able to observe a good deal of the effect produced on the general condition of Society and the Individual. yi society by tlie co-operation of tlie upper classes. In the preface to " Alton Locke," addressed to tlie Undergraduates of Cambridge, he writes on this subject as follows : " For thirty years past gentlemen and ladies of all shades of opinion have been labouring for and among the working classes as no aristocracy on earth ever laboured before ; and do you suppose that all that labour has been in vain ? that it has bred in the working classes no increased reverence for law, no increased content with existing institutions, no increased confidence in the classes socially above them ? If so, you must have as poor an opinion of the capabilities of the upper classes as you have of those of the lower." The foregoing remarks may perhaps give a notion how the co-operation of efforts originating from classes socially diiferent, but directed to the same end, prepared the way for the new con- ception of society. The first thing that strikes one in this respect is the slow and gradual recognition of the new ideas. The oppo- sition of the classes, from whom sacrifices would be demanded through the new order of things, and the passive attitude of the State, explain why a struggle of many j'ears in and out of Parlia- ment was needed to consummate the final change of views. As a consequence of this opposition, the practical results were only slow and gradual. In such a course of things the danger is that reform can never ripen, since those who are most closely inter- ested in the reform — in other words, those who hope that it will better their position — either cannot or will not wait. That such was not the case in England, and that this slowly-completed pro- cess was not interrupted bj^ any violent revolution, is exclusively the merit of the English workman. The self-denial and self- sacrifice of the earlier generation of workiug-men purchased the progress of their successors of to-day, and even now the English workman quietly endures all the uncertainties and hardships of the present, in the hope that, by slowly but steadily pushing onwards, he may bequeath to his children a good, and possibly to his grandchildren a still better, future. Often, no doubt, he seems to be impatient, and his impatience vents itself, but hitherto he has always returned to his habit of quiet labour, and derived confidence for the future from the successes he has gradually achieved. This patient behaviour has exposed him to miich bitter 72 EnglisJi Associations of Working Illen. criticism from German and international Socialists; but it is due to a characteristic deeply-rooted in the English workman in common with all the sons of the Anglo-Saxon race ; namely, the iron tenacity wherewith he clings to his personal independence, which it is his pride to have preserved through periods of hard- ship and oppression. The reason why the working-man's question has been seriously grappled with in England, is not because the working-man has appealed to the State, but because the English nation has made this question their own. One-sided interests, asserted in a one- sided manner, may bring about in a State great changes, upheavals, and displacements of social strata, and even revolutions, but they will leave unsolved all those questions which postulate a change in the opinions, the collective judgment, and the attitude of society at large. The Humanistic movement and the Reformation, the Mercantile System and the Age of Enlightenment are examples of how the entire range of a nation's ideas was enriched by new material, how that material filled the thoughts and judgments of a whole epoch, revolutionized the entire sphere of intellect and action, created a literature and policy of its own, and gave a new form to society and life, — in a word, introduced a new era of civilization. The social " idea " now prevailing — if we may so designate the problem, how to reconcile the intellectual and moral progress of the working classes with the new methods of pro- duction based on machinery and large industries — has, as we have already shown, although originating in causes essentially similar, made its appearance in the various States of Europe in very different manners. In those countries where, possibly from the exaggerated views of theorists, or from any other cause, that idea has continued to represent the interests of one class alone, it lias no doubt gained adherents, roused opponents, and influenced politics and legislation ; but it has never succeeded in becoming, so to speak, a new life-blood for the age, permeating all the arteries of the nation, and shaping all its thoughts and energies anew. It has never been more than partially understood, and has had only a partial influence on human action. It has become a great power, but a power which has stepped uninvited into the conflicts of the day, and embittered instead of allaying or adjusting them. Society and the Individual. 73 In England, the social idea is, theoi^etically speaking, decidedly in its infancy, and least a matter of principle, though it appears to have acquired there a broader basis than in any other country. This, as we have already observed, is, in the first place, largely due to the fact that already at an early period — it may be dated from the passing of the first Factory Act in 1833— attempts of a practical kind were made to remove some of the evils, and that men of all ranks were to be found who urged the neces- sity of opening to the working classes at least a share of the civilization enjoyed by the rest of the community. The unshaken religious faith of the English nation has contributed immensely to the universal application of social ideas, and confirmed the truth of Laveley's remark, that the Christianity of Penn and Washington formed a better cement for the foundations of a State than the philosophy of a Vergniaud or a Mirabeau. Furthermore, the free expression of opinion in literature and the press has made the English nation familiar with the necessity of a social reform in all directions. And lastly, the very efforts made to obtain this reform have exhibited in England, as in no other country, a series of continual compromises with existing relations, inclinations, opinions, and even prejudices, and thus gained adherents in circles which elsewhere still continue to hold aloof. This much is certain, that the social idea in England no longer takes the shape of pay- ments made in instalments, and at the demand of the working- men, but has become a general standpoint, from which society and the State weigh and determine the position of the working classes in i-elation to all questions that agitate the nation, whether of education, health, industry and trade, law or taxation, not in- deed for such as stand with noise and urgent clamour at the door, but for those who sit as brethren at the council-table, and repre- sent quietly and confidently their interests, which are recognised on all sides. In this way the social idea in England is not that acid and corroding element, so to speak, that Socialism is on the Continent, but is diffused throughout the whole organism of gociety, not acting as a solvent to its existing forces and sapping their power, but assimilating itself with them, and preparing their gradual reformation. It appears to us hopeless to think of solving what is called the 74 English Associations of Working Afen. social problem until a nation, as a whole, has learnt to think socially ou the subject. England's superiority lies in this, that she is nearer this goal than the Continent is. From the above remarks, it seems plain that it is impossible to define in any single phrase the entire purport and beai'ings of this social tendency of thought. No doctrine in England, like the Crerman so-called theory of surplus value, has yet formed a school in literature or even in politics, but the working classes have been left at liberty to put forward what they consider their legitimate claims to a share in the general progi'ess of civiliza- tion, and to advocate those claims with all their innate energy and independence. Of the justice of these claims in general the public has become convinced, and, be their realisation near or distant, has stamped them with a recognition which, as being based on the practical progress and success achieved by all those concerned in them, has been accepted as the starting-point of further development. People in England hitherto have done very little in the way of theoretical, but a good deal in the way of practical Socialism, thanks to an active exhibition of Christian sympathy. " Communism means barbarism, but Socialism means, or wishes to mean, co-operation and community of interests, sym- pathy, the giving to the hands not so large a share as to the brains, but a larger share than hitherto, in the wealth they must combine to produce, — means, in short, the practical application of Christianity to life, and has in it the secret of an orderly and benign reconstruction." * Of course we do not mean to say that the development is wholly placid and peaceful. The universal recognition so readily con- ceded to the claims of the working classes, is not of itself enough to solve a number of questions which deeply affect the interests of one or the other part of the industrial community. Powerful and diverging forces accordingly confront each other, but these forces do not exhaust themselves in an aimless struggle. Work- ing, we might say, at one and the same point, but in different directions, they move it steadily on in the line of a resultant in the pai'allelogram of forces. During the last ten years, it is true, * Mr. Lowell's address at the Ciiminghara Midland Institute, October Gtb, 1884. Society and the Individual. 75 the influence of foreign Socialistic doctrines, particularly those of Marx and Lasalle, has undoubtedly increased ; and the heads of many have been turned by the example of the Socialistic measures adopted by Continental States. Nevertheless, we believe that all this will only strengthen the one force in the parallelogram, with- out manifesting that seemingly incurable schism which has been created in other countries by the Socialism of mere doctrinaires. We must, therefore, not allow ourselves to be misled if we meet in England with the most diverse and extreme views and schemes as to the future structure of society. These views and schemes swarm, so to speak, round the real kernel of the matter, which is this, that in England, notwithstanding the fact that individual impulse, and the selfish pursuit of personal advantage, are stronger and keener there than in any other country, nevertheless in her legislation, in the new form of self-government, and in her volun- tary institutions, based on the principle of self-help, a direction has been taken leading to a new organisation of societjr, in which a new equilibrium will be established between the individual and the community. This thought is strikingly expressed by a modern English writer in the following words : " The individual," says Mr. Cunningham, " who follows his own interest, without regard to the Family or the State, is always a social danger ; and a self- seeking which is absolutely unlimited by a regard for these institutions cannot be the basis of a permanent civilisation ; only in a well-established and highly-organized society can such indi- vidualism be suffered to exist at all." * 2. The practical results obtained by this intellectual movement in England are obvious to the observer. The working of the English working-men's associations reveals them in various ways. We will consider at present only the question of wages. Whoever pictures to himself the progi^essive condition of Eng- land and the growth hitherto of her national income, and observes how at the same time the wage-income of the woi-king classes has risen, will involuntarily recall to mind the words of Adam Smith, that " it is in the progressive state, while the society is advancing to the further acquisition, rather than when it has acquired its full * " Growth of English Industry and Commerce," p. 251. J 6 EiiglisJi Associations of Working Men. complement of riclies, tliat the condition of the labouring poor, of the great body of the people, seems to be the happiest and the most comfortable." * At first sight one might suppose that out of the vast reservoir of national wealth, into which flow the profits of trade and industry, and of home and colonial produc- tion, all classes of the industrial community, and, therefore, the working classes also, would be now more abundantly supplied than formerly, inasmuch as the contents of that reservoir increase from one decennium to another. But we should be falling into the errors of the wage-fund theory, were we to ascribe the more equitable distribution of the national income, as regards the working classes, so far as that disti'ibution has been effected already or may be effected in the future, to this increase of pi'o- duction alone. It is due rather to the fact that the English workman has succeeded in bringing into play, next to those economic laws of supply and demand which ultimately regulate the standard of wages, a new social element — namely, the require- ments of a higher state of life and culture. This is the Archi- medean point, not from which the present social structure will be lifted from its hinges, but from which an impulse will be given for a complete I'eadjustment of all its relations. It would be a great mistake to suppose that the English have ever overlooked the social elements of the wage question. Even E-icardo is not open to this charge. As is well known, he calls the " natural price of labour " that price " which is necessary to enable the labourers, one with another, to subsist and to perpetu- ate their race, without either increase or diminution " ; whilst the market price of labour, according to his view, is " the price which is really paid for it, from the natural operation of the proportion of the supply to the demand." If, therefore, according to his theory, the market price of labour exceeds its natural price, — that is to say, if the price actually paid, as regulated by supply and demand, exceeds the cost of the necessary means of subsistence, — then the position of the workman is decidedly favourable, though it contains at the same time the germ of a relapse, his very prosperity tending to increase the population, * "Wealth of Nations," book i. chap. viii. p. 133, ed. 1817. Society aiid the Individual. yj and, by thus multiplying the sources of supply, to cause a fresh depression in wages, falling frequently, in consequence of the reaction itself, below the level of the necessary means of subsis- tence. The net result, therefore, of Ricardo's theory is this, that the market price of labour, in other words, the amount of wages actually paid, " oscillates like a pendulum " about the line repre- sented by the necessary means of subsistence, and is the result of a law which excludes human ivill and operates like a law ot nature, like a kind of economical law of gravitation, continually dragging down the working classes to the level of the bare neces- saries of life. And yet Ricardo himself did not mistake the social element in the wage question. " It is not to be understood," he says, " that the natural price of labour, estimated even in food and neces- saries, is absolutely fixed and constant. It varies at different times in the same country, and very materially differs in different countries. It essentially depends on the habits and customs of the people. An English labourer would consider his wages under their natural rate, and too scanty to support a family, if they enabled him to purchase no other food than potatoes, and to live in no better habitation than a mud cabin ; yet these moderate demands of nature are often deemed sufficient in countries where ' man's life is cheap,' and his wants easily satisfied. Manj'- of the conveniences now enjoyed in an English cottage would have been thought luxuries at an earlier period of our history." * Thus he declares plainly that the regulation of wages is subject to the operation of another element besides the law of supply and demand. But, as economic theories in England are at all times simply the reflection of existing realities, and the English work- man, at the time when Ricardo wrote, had not the power to make his interests, which consist in the prominent assertion of the social element in the wage-question, prevail, those interests were obscured in real life, and became even in theory a neglected quantity. Half a century later the facts, and with them the theories, had changed. That altered tendency of thought, of which we are * "Principles of Political Economy," ed. 1821, chap. v. p. 91. yS English Associations of Working Men. speaking, lifui found powerful expression. England's greatest economical theorist of recent days, John Stuart Mill, lived to see the awakening of the working classes, their union into powerful organizations, their resolute efforts to attain a higher standard of life, and the success which those efforts achieved. When speak- ing of the economic laws that regulate their wages, he takes account of the working-man's wishes, his claims and his require- ments in respect of culture. He devotes the fourth book of his " Principles of Political Economy " to describing the connection between economical and social progress, and his standpoint is characterised by the fact that in this portion of his work he does not speak of the influence of industrial progress on society, but, on the contrary, dwells on the influence of the progress of society on production and distribution. He seeks to show that a society in which man's power over nature and the security of person and property are increasing, and the " business capacity " of work- men, combined for large undertakings, is being trained and developed, may accomplish, concurrently with the increase of production and accumulation of capital, another and a new distri- bution of national wealth. Mill rightly starts with the premiss that it is wrong to consider economical facts simply as fixed, immutable quantities, and in this way to examine their inter- dependence, — in other words, the laws of production, of the em- ployment of capita] and labour, of population and of ground-rents, — as though their relations were permanently settled ; but that along with the study of these economic statics must go a study of economic dynamics ; namely, an inquiry into the results furnished by an observation of economical facts in their changes and natural development, in motion as well as in equilibrium, — in a word, into the relative position of landlords, capitalists, and labourers in the state of progressive civilization which England now enjoys. Mill is therefore clearly convinced that the purely economic relation between capital and labour, and therefore between supply and demand, is only one regulator of wages, and that another is at work beside it, which he terms the " habits and requirements " of the working classes. These habits and requirements, sanctioned as they have been since his time by the ratifying verdict of the nation, have be- Society and the Individual. 79 come a social power which exercises a strong influence on the question of wages. That question has consequently assumed materially more importance in connection with the process of production, and occupies in that respect a very different position at the present day to that which it held when Ricardo wrote. Industrial production in England depends on the possibility to compete in foreign markets. In the days before the repeal of the corn laws the other conditions of national production were as follows. An artificial price of wheat, protected by duties, com- manded a high rent and a low purchasing power of wages. The ordinary profit in industrial enterprise was high, and was main- tained at the cost of labour. As to the rate of wages, the law of supply and demand was pressed to the utmost, and there was little or no margin between the income of the working classes and their " necessary means of subsistence." If one of the links in tliis chain received a blow, — if, for example, the trade had miscalculated in respect of foreign consumption or foreign competition, or profits had been impaired by technical or commercial mistakes, — the loss by no means always fell on the responsible party, but. the shock was felt on all sides, and it was the workman who was the hardest hit, since he not only suffered a reduction of wages, but also lost his employment. But since the English workman is gradually seeking to bring the social regu.lator — his requirements in point of culture — to bear on the question of wages, he will assuredly, in so doing, place a certain check on the operation of supply and demand. The higher habits and requirements of the working classes, the higher " standard of life " on which they are insisting, are far from being the simple result of favourable conditions in respect of wages ; but, on the contrary, these habits and requirements constitute a limit which the combined will of the working-man is seeking to impose on a reduction of his wages. The question above all is as to an objective standard for the " habits and requirements " which the English workman is at present asserting. Such a standard alone can secure the univer- sal recognition of his standpoint. In spite of many errors and mistakes the English workman has kept to this objective standard in his requirements, and has found a happy formula to express it. 8o English Associations of Working Men. What the English workman of to-day requires is to be able to marry and set up a household, to live in health and decency, to give his children a suitable education, and to be in a position to provide against old age, sickness, or accident. He wishes to have access in his spare hours to the means of enlarging his knowledge and cultivation, so as to work in his sphere for the welfare of his class. Family, education, provision for the future, the self- government of his associations — these words contain the sum and substance of his " habits and requirements," equally far removed from a socialistic Utopia as from indolent submission to a hard lot. The life of English workmen, even in the higher grades, is a serious one. The best among them — who not only take care of their families, but uphold the interests of their class, keep the others together, and form the cement of those associations and unions to which their fellow-workmen are so deeply indebted — lead a life the sole variety of which consists in their passing from one form of work to another, from their work in the factory to their work in the club or at the desk. The artisans of the manufacturing districts in the north of England in particular — the untiring workmen of Lancashire, Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumber- land — are patterns of this kind. They form the picked troops of the entire army of English workmen — men who have trained their comrades to a moral consciousness of what they not only may but must demand. "A fair day's wages for a fair day's work" — so runs the formula in which this standpoint is comprised. Originating from the trades-unions, it constitutes now, so far as the wage question is concerned, the fundamental programme of the whole brotherhood of labour in England — a programme also which is generally accepted by modern economical science as containing not only the elements of the wage question, but also an ethical postulate. This formula is a right one, because it expresses not merely what the English workman demands as his right, but what he undertakes as his corresponding obligation ; the " fair day's wages " are consequent and conditional upon the " fair day's work." Thus the demand assumes the dignity of a moral claim ; and this moral standpoint constitutes the strength of the working classes in the struggle for higher wages. Now the postulate contained in this formula leads to the practical Society and the Individual. S"! endeavour to make the price of wages as constant a quantity as possible. Hitherto, as we know, not only has it been a variable quantity, but, whenever a miscalculation occurred in the great process of production, the payment of wages has been terminated altogether by a dismissal of the workmen. But the actual raising of wages, no less than these efforts to make wages a constant quantity in the process of production, must naturally cause a displacement in the entire chain of those economical conditions which regulate the production itself. In fact, the efforts made in this direction by the English workman, and especially by the trades-unions, have a corresponding effect on English production, in point of cost, profits, and ability to compete. This reaction explains further why those efforts formerly encountered such stubborn opposition, and why those who were foremost in making them were represented as the enemies of England's greatness and power. But all this is now changed. The English workman has succeeded in bringing the social element of the wage-question into general recognition, and converting it, at least partially, into a practical reality. The manner in which the rise of wages in England has reacted on production, as well as on profits and prices, we shall have occasion hereafter to demonstrate in detail. In doing so, we shall endeavour also to explain how the progressive improvement and adaptation of machinery has effected a saving on another point in the cost of production ; and how the higher working capacities of the English workman, which are mainly the fruit of his better way of living, have more than repaid the increased cost of that living, and given a start to England as compared with most of her competitors, which has compensated again for the rise in wages. We shall then be able to show how the working-man has attained, or has a prospect of shortly attaining, the object expressed in his formula of " a fair day's wages for a fair day's work." In saying that the raising of wages is the object of the English workman, we mvist add at once that it is his nearest object. His common-sense is directed to this object, because he is willing to sacrifice his strength and time to the nearest attainable aim, but not to a mere theory. Still, the theoretical view of wages, even G 82 English Associations of Working 3 fen. in England, and especially since the days of Mill, has taken a large horizon ; it seeks to read the future, and to discover therein a new system of relations between the working classes and national production. We quote from Mill's " Principles of Political Economy " a passage bearing on this point : — " When co-operative societies shall have sufficiently multiplied, it is not probable that any but the least valuable workpeople will any longer consent to work all their lives for wages merely ; both private capitalists and associations will gradually find it necessary to make the entire body of labourers participants in profits. Eventually, and in perhaps a less remote future than may be sup- posed, we may, through the co-operative principle, see our way to a change of society, which would combine the freedom and independence of the individual with the moral, intellectual, and economical advantages of aggregate production ; and which, without violence or spoliation, or even any sudden disturbance of existing habits and expectations, would realize, at least in the industrial department, the best aspirations of the democratic spirit, by putting an end to the division of society into the in- dustrious and the idle, and effacing all social distinctions but those fairly earned by personal services and exertions. Associa- tions like those which we have described, by the very process of their success, are a course of education in those moral and active qualities by which alone success can be either deserved or attained. As associations multiplied, they would tend more and more to absorb all workpeople, except those who have too little understanding, or too little virtue, to be capable of learning to act on any other system than that of narrow selfishness. As this change proceeded, owners of capital would gradually find it to their advantage, instead of maintaining the struggle of the old system with workpeople of only the worst description, to lend their capital to the associations ; to do this at a diminishing rate of interest, and at last, perhaps, even to exchange their capital for terminable annuities. In this, or some such mode, the exist- ing accumulations of capital might honestly, and by a kind of spontaneous process, become in the end the joint property of all who participate in their productive employment — a trans- formation which, thus effected, would be the nearest approach Society and the Individual. 83 to social justice, and the most beneficial ordering of industrial affairs for the universal good which it is possible at present to foresee." * Prom this passage we can see how closely even the advanced theoretical opinions of Mill correspond with existing facts, and how widely in this respect they differ from the schemes of continental Socialists, however much they may resemble them in their aims. We meet with the same tendency to keep to practical ground — to believe in evolution^ and not in revolution in economy — in the efforts made by the English workman. He regards the bettering of his wages as the nearest and therefore most important object to be attained, and hopes in this way gradually to accomplish great changes in the relations of the various classes of the industrial community, as well as in the laws of the State. In this sense must be understood the experi- ments made with productive associations and industrial partner- ship ; in this sense the English workman also is a Socialist, though he has hitherto turned a deaf ear to those who preach an uncompromising and sudden revolution of the existing economic order, and whom he designates in plain terms as Communists. We cannot give a better picture of these more advanced views and schemes of social reformers in England than by giving a brief account of a Conference held in London, in January, 1885, under the presidency of Sir Charles Dilke, which was composed of delegates of a ntamber of Trades-unions, Co-operative Societies, and Friendly Societies, as well as of other associations for social objects, and in whose proceedings a considerable number also of Members of Parliament, representatives of social science, and some large manufacturers and shipbuilders took part. These proceedings t are of the utmost interest as regards the present question, inasmuch as the Radical wing of the working-man's party took the lead in the discussion, and had an opportunity of making their various wishes public. The three questions • Vol. ii. p. 374, sixth edition. t They have been published in a portly volume, entitled, " Eeport of the Proceedings and Papers read at the Industrial Remuneration Conference in Prince's Hall, Piccadilly, under the Presidency of the Eight Hon. Sir Charles Dilke," London, 1885. 84 English Associations of Working Men. around which all the essays read and speeches delivered grouped themselves, were as follows : — 1. Has the increase of the products of industry within the last hundred years tended most to the benefit of capitalists and labourers, or to that of the working classes, whether artisans, labourers, or others ? and in what relative proportions in any given period ? 2. Do any remediable causes influence prejudicially (a) the continuity of indvistrial employment, (ft) the rates of wages, (c) the well-being of the working classes ? 3. Would the more general distribution of capital or land, or the State management of capital or land, promote or impair the production of wealth and the welfare of the community ? These questions alone suffice to show that the range of dis- cussion was not narrowly restricted, but that ample scope was given for the expression of extreme views. The Conference itself brought out opposite opinions into strong relief, but at the same time furnished rich materials to elucidate the points at issue. The most widely differing representatives of labour and of social science gave each their various descriptions of the present state of things, their comparisons with the past, their proposals for the future. Views were expressed, which showed a near affinity to, and were directly influenced by, con- tinental socialism ; but, nevertheless, it was again made evident that a socialistic doctrine, such as could enlist any appreciable portion of workmen under its banner, did not exist in England, because the English workman confines his thoughts to the attainable and practicable, and because his leaders, especially those who represent the great trades-unions, will not hear of State help, and persist in regarding the reformation of the system of employment and the development of their institutions based on tlie principle of self-help, as the cardinal point of their endeavours. Let us hear first Mr. J. Gr. Hutchinson, a joiner, of Leeds, in an essay on " Labour and its Reward " : " The old political economy," he says, " that decrees that labour is a commodity that must, equally with the products of labour, be ruled by supply and demand ; the old political economy that ordains that tie wages of labour will, in the normal order of thinfrs, be Society and the Individual. 85 determined by the terms on whicli the labourer will consent to produce, and will constantly tend to a bare level of subsistence ; — this doctrine, that has been a palliative to salve the consciences of our capitalists and employers, must be abandoned as being out of date and not in accordance with our new religion of humanity. Man's labour, as the support of his life, cannot, in common fairness, be placed on a par with a bale of cloth. If the man were as inert as the bale of cloth, if he had no require- ments, if he did not need to live, to be clothed and housed, then their positions might be identical. But so long as the man has human aspirations, so long as he is able to discriminate between right and wrong, it is not only unjust, it is cruel, to place his labour as a commodity in juxtaposition with that of an inani- mate article, to be ruled by the inexorable law of supply and demand. Besides, man in his present position does not stand on equal ground with the capitalist in bargaining for employ- ment ; he cannot, in the great majority of cases, ' take it or leave it,' as he is told to do. No ; the work must be his at one price or another, — and often, too often, the man who has the giant's power, uses it as a giant." These are the views long since expressed and often repeated on the Continent, and particularly in Germany ; only in England it has never been deduced from them that the State immediately is to help, but on the contrary that the workman must help him- self. Mr. John Wilson, a delegate from Durham, and a promi- nent member of the Miners' National Union, who was chosen as a Member of Parliament at the election of 1885, takes up the gloves at any rate against what another speaker at the Con- ference had termed " freedom of contract," and asks what free- dom of contract could there be between " a highwayman with a pistol in his hand and himself unarmed, or between a capitalist and a workman dependent upon his day's toil for his day's living." After this comparison, however, a rare exhibition of class hatred in England, he immediately added that he did not ask that the law should step in, and as with a knife divide the £1,000 of the capitalist, and give him a share. " As by the force of co-operation, and by the power of their unions, miners had worked their way to the advantageous position they now held, 86 EnglisJi Associations of Working Men. so in the future they would work at their social amelioration 6?/ their own efforts J ^ Not less characteristic are the remarks made by Miss Edith Simcox, the delegate of a dressmakers' union, in an essay read at the Conference on the "Loss or Gain of the Working Classes during the Nineteenth Century." She verges on that social ideology which has hitherto been seldom met with in England, but does not dispute the fundamental feature of all social efforts in this country, — namely, the demand for gradual development. " A social war," she says, " would not right the wrongs which a state of social or economic war has produced ; but a revolution may yet be effected in the minds and consciences of the com- munity, which will find its expression in a radical reformation of the theory and practice of the economic world. What we want is, on the part of the many, more wisdom in discerning, more firmness in demanding, their just rights ; on the part of the few, more wisdom in discerning, more courage in discharging, their just obligations. Each step forward on either side will make the next step easier for both, and as the few and the many draw together, the distinction between the two classes will cease to be that between workers and spenders. There will always be a few whom the democracy will delight to honour above the rest ; but these few will be those whose services to the common good outweigh and outnumber the services of their fellows, not those whose only cleverness is to have appropi'iated to them- selves the largest share of the collective earnings." We purposely cite here the most extreme opinions expressed at the Conference, in order to give an idea of the line followed by the most extreme wing of the so-called working-man's party in England. To this party Professor Beesly belongs, who, in his essay on the " Education of Public Opinion," * writes as follows : " No serious improvement will take place in the continuity of employment, or the rate of wages, or the well-being of the working classes, until the public opinion treats the wealth of the capitalist as a fund entrusted to him by society, to be administered for the benefit of society, and more especially of that particular • Page 216. Society and the Individual. %"] group of workers for which he is responsible. I say his wealth, not his capital. The introduction of the latter word does but obscure the truth that the whole of his wealth is entrusted to him for the special purpose above mentioned, and not merely that particular portion of it which, according to Adam Smith, ' he expects to afford him a revenue ' ; or, according to Ricardo, ' is employed in production ' ; or, according to Mill, ' is destined to supply productive labour with the shelter, protection, tools, and materials which the work requires, and to feed and otherwise maintain the labourer during the process.' Looked at from the social point of view (and any other point of view is here repudi- ated as misleading), this wealth is entrusted to him, not simply for production, but for production securing adequate comfort and dignity to the producers, including himself, he being, as it were, the managing partner for the rest. There need be no fear that public opinion will ever grudge him such reasonable superiority in comfort, and even luxury, as befits his position, as long as the industrial co-operation which he superintends is carried on wisely and prosperously. But it must be understood that the support of the co-operators in as much comfort and dignity as the state of the trust fund will permit is the first charge upon it ; and that they must not be pinched as long as the trustee has carriages, horses, handsome furniture, a cellar of wine, and a staff of domestic servants. The larger profits made during good years, instead of being used for a reckless expansion of the business, or an increased scale of personal expenditure, are to be considered and treated as a reserve fund for providing continuous employment and a steady rate of wages in bad times. It may be asked in what respect our ideal capi- talist of the future will differ from the manager of a co-operative society of the present day ? Chiefly in this. He will not be an elected officer, subject to removal, and more or less fettered by his electors. He will be the hereditary capitalist — as he is now, administering his wealth according to his free discretion — as he does now. Only he will be judged, and he will judge himself, by a different standard of duty." We have quoted this last passage because in many parts of England and Scotland we ourselves have found similar views 88- English Associations of Working Men. exj^ressecl, with all tlieir consequences, even among large em- ployers of labour, but especially among the younger generation of such employers. It must be stated, however, that even these most advanced exponents of social science in England display the peculiar characteristics of the English tendency of mind, — namely, reliance on self-exertion, the awakening of the moral conscience, and a firm adherence to gradual devS'lopment. The sketch, we have endeavoured to give of these new ideas would, however, be very incomplete if we failed to refer expressly to a question we have already touched upon. We have said that the English workman is fully conscious that his new rights involve new obligations. The great successes achieved by the working classes in England are due entirely to the fact that the education of those classes to a higher grade of culture has kept pace with the struggle for higher wages. Many years ago the workmen of Paisley, in an address to their employers, very rightly said that whatever circumstances lowered the moral level of a group of workers lowered equally their wages, and that whatever raised that level put the workers in a position to obtain higher wages. It is greatly to the credit of English literature, wdiich for the last few decades has been full of the question of the distribution of the national income between the employers and employed, that it has carefully abstained from the dangerous habit of speaking exclusively of the rights of the lower classes. It has consequently been avowed that the moral law which is to influence the rela- tions between masters and workmen, has a double and reciprocal sanction ; in other words, that the right to demand higher wages can be acquired only by admitting the duty of spending those higher wages in a proper manner. What the late Arnold Toynbee says on this point, in his Lectures on the Industrial Revolution in England, accurately expresses an idea which is constantly put before the English workman, which he has laid to heart, and which has helped immensely to cou.nteract one-sided assertions : ".We have no reason to suppose that human nature, as it is now, will alwaj'^s remain the same. We have reason, on the other hand, to suppose that employers, under the influence of the wider and deeper conceptions of which I have spoken, may be willing Society and the Individual. 89 to forego, in the struggle for the division of wealth, some part of that share which would come to them if they chose to exert their force without restraint. It may be said, ' This is chimorical ; human nature will be the same, and always has been the same.' This I deny, and I instance that great change of opinion which took place in England with regard to slaveiy. If such a rapid change could take place in our moral ideas within the last hundred years, do not you think it possible that in the course of another hundred years English employers and English workmen may act iipon higher notions of duty and higher conceptions of citizenship than they do how ? I am not speaking to employers alone. The matter is as much in the hands of the workman as it is in the hands of the employer. It is not merely a question of the distribution of icealth ; it is a question of the right use of wealth. You know only too well that many working-men do not know how to use the wages which they have at the present time. You know, too, that an increase of wages often means an increase of crime. If working-men are to expect their employers to act with larger notions of equity in their dealings in the labour-market, it is at least rational that employers should expect that workmen will set about reforming their own domestic life. It is at least reasonable that they should demand that working-men shall combine to put down drunkenness and brutal sports. High wages are not an end in themselves. No one wants high wages in order that working-men may indulge in mere sensual gratification. We want higher wages in order that an improved material condition, with less of anxiety and less of uncertainty as to the future, may enable the working-man to enter on a purer and more worthy life. So far from high wages being an end in themselves, we desire them for the workman just in order that he may be delivered from that engrossing care for every shilling and every penny which engenders a base materialism. Therefore, in deal- ing with the siibject of wages, I do not hesitate to insist that you cannot separate it from, the whole question of life." * Thus the new social tendency of thought, of which we are speaking, may be summed up in the remai'k, that another and • Pages 175, 176. 90 English Associations of Working Men. higher conception of duties in respect of the relations between labour and capital is gaining ground throughout England, and finding daily more vigorous expression in associated life, in self- government, and in the legislation of the State, In the bosom of the English economic order of the present day lies a new economic theory, which has not indeed been yet formiilated anywhere, but in which important progress has already been made. This is perhaps the place to refer briefly to another question which is beginning to play a great part in England, and which actively occupies the labouring classes. We mean the land question. This movement also manifests the characteristic feature of the England of to-day, the desire to admit the great masses of the working classes to a share in those healthy conditions and comforts of life which are enjoyed in such abundance by the middle classes. Landed property in England is now confronting the second assault made upon it in the course of this century. The first proceeded from the capitalists and manufacturers, the present one proceeds, in the first instance, from the working-men. The tendency and aim of these attacks are, however, very different. The first attack, in which the assailants gained a complete vic- tory, was directed against the corn duties and the ground-rents guaranteed through their means by the State. That class of society which represents the interests of industrial profit perceived very early that the workman is paid not in money but in commodities, and they succeeded in uniting the low standard of the cost of production with the inevitable increase of wages, by obtaining the unlimited importation of cheap food from abroad, and thus raising the intrinsic value of wages without having to put their hands into their own pockets. The present assaults on landed property are mainly caused, in the first instance, by the pressure of an ever-growing population, by the tying up of landed property in England, and the restrictions which make it difficult and expen- sive to acquire land ; but in their theoretical basis, as well as in the so-called practical schemes put forward by their authors, they go far beyond the previous agitation. The Anti-Corn Law move- ment solved indeed a portion of the bread question at the expense Society and the Individual. 9 1 of the landlord, but owing to the general economic expansion in England, the latter did not remain uncompensated for the loss he had sustained : the present movement, on the contrary, strikes at the roots of landed property altogether. The land question, started already by the Chartists in a radical spirit, treated since the time of Mill, as a subject of orthodox national economy, in a friendly spirit of reform, and incorporated since Mr. Gladstone's Irish Land Act of 1881 into a practical measure of State, is now the topic of the liveliest discussion in all circles, and especially in those of the working-man. It is as if all socialist ideas, which hitherto, in respect of moveable capital, have been subject to a strict and self-imposed restraint in Eng- land, had launched at once their concentrated forces on the existing form and tenure of landed property. At every working- man's congress the land question crops vap for discussion ; it is canvassed from various standpoints in a host of pamphlets, and it unquestionably now engrosses to a large extent the thoughts of the labouring classes. An English Land Eestoration League, a Scottish Land Restoration League, an Irish Land Eestoration League, a Land Nationalisation Society, a Land Law Reform League, and a Highland Land Law Association are all actively engaged in proposals of reform ; while, on the other hand, a Liberty and Property Defence League has undertaken to defend the existing relations. The entire movement is undoubtedly assuming larger dimensions from day to day, and the whole ques- tion seems pressing forward to a solution, as did that of political reform in 1832, or the free-trade movement, which was ter- minated in 1846. The most widely-differing views are entertained, and the most different schemes put forward. Nevertheless, it is in so far easy to survey the movement in its entirety, as there are two distinct and mutually antagonistic aims pursued. The movement may be traced directly to two books, which have had an extraordinary influence, and around which group them- selves almost all the ideas now current on the subject. These are Henry George's well-known book on "Progress and Poverty," and Alfred Russell Wallace's " Land Nationalisation : its Necessity and its Aims." The first-named work is already well-known on the Continent. 92 English Associations of Working Men. Henry George seeks to justify, on grounds of political economy as well as abstract right, the revolution which he holds to be necessary in the land question. On both these heads his line of argument may be traced to very simple conclusions. Making use of Ricardo's theoiy of rent, he endeavours, in the first instance, to prove that low wages are caused by high rents, and that the real opposition, therefore, lies not between labour and capital, wages and profits, but between labour and landed property, wages and rents. Now since, in consequence of the growth of population, the improvements in the means of produc- tion, and speculative purchases of land, rents have a constant tendency to rise, wages, for the same reasons, have a constant tendency to fall. Beside this economical deduction, he places another, based on abstract right. The only exclusive title to property is, in his opinion, the title of the producer. A man has no property but what he produces. Land and soil can, therefore, never become private property, because it is a free gift of Nature. Moveable and immoveable property are false distinctions of lawyers ; the natural antitheses are : wealth and land, property and nature. Occnpatio and implantatio are not sufficient titles for the acquirement of immoveable property. Mr. George then proceeds to state the practical consequences of these views. He demands a nationalisation of the land, that is to say, the State- management of the entire landed property in the nation ; and he would accomplish this by providing that the State should absorb the ground-rents by means of taxation. The propositions con- tained in this book are indefensible on first principles, but they arrest attention from a certain elevation of thought and an attractive style. No book has been more widely read by the working classes during the last few years. Theoretically, Mr. Wallace takes his stand on exactly the same ground. This writer has gained a hearing, though to a far less extent than Mr. George, mainly by his re-advocacy of an ideal system of peasant proprietorship, already foreshadowed by Mill, and by his attempts to convince his fellow-countrymen of the advantages of such a system, by comparing the conditions of land tenure in Great Britain with those on the Continent. The nationalisation of the land, which forms the basis of his argument, Society aiid the Individual. 93 is his handle for constructing a kind of right of landlordship for the State, while dividing the land itself into portions measured by acres, and granting it to what he describes as " occupying owners." Thus the two divergent elements of his scheme are, on the one hand, the State-management of landed property in the aggregate, and on the other, the establishment of a kind of peasant proprietorship by dividing landed property into shares. With the purely agricultural aspect of this question we have here no concern. In two respects, however, the land question is one that immediately affects the industrial workman. The Uto- pian idea of splitting up the land into small peasant holdings differs widely from the scheme of enabling the working classes to obtain, either for use or possession, small pieces of ground near their dwellings, a possibility at present denied to them, except in a comparatively few places, owing to the exclusive and restricted conditions of land tenure in England. Practical experiments have already been made in this direction, and are said to have been made with success. Yet this can only be feasible with re- gard to certain classes of industrial workmen and under peculiar conditions. For if this system were to become general, the English labourer would have to acquire the taste and skill possessed by the French to enable him to cultivate the soil in addition to his regular employment, — a transition he would perhaps find it more difficult to accomplish than those people suppose who regard the change as a new piece of fortune for him ; while, moreover, it would be extremely doubtful whether siTch a change would be to the advantage of his general way of life. For the English workman's habits are essentially urban. It is just the more highly educated, more industrious, and more aspiring portion of their members who have hitherto employed their leisure hours in adding to their technical skill and know- ledge, or taking part in the business of their various associations, in enlarging the range of their ideas by the study of books and newspapers, and thereby contributing to the advancement of themselves and their fellow-workmen, — a tendency which they would only neglect to their own loss and detriment. Far more general importance, on the contrary, attaches to the 94 English Associations of Working Men. question, By what means the various municipalities can be en- abled, by acquiring land, to obtain space for the establishment of healthy quarters for the working classes. The recent Acts con- cerning working-men's dwellings, to which we shall have occasion to revert in the course of this introduction, constitute an im- portant step in this direction. At any rate, the " municipalisation of the land," to use a phrase applied to this movement, stands within nearer and more practicable distance than the " national- isation of the land." CHAPTER IV. The State, Self-Government, and Self-Help. Moral cause of changes in the State system. — Self-government : Municipal and Social. — State-interference and laissez faire. — England and the Continent compared. — Peculiar conditions of State-action in England. — Co-operation of voluntary self-governing associations. — Their importance in this respect. 1. Legislative and Administrative Action of the State : — Growth of Fac- tory legislation since 1833. — The Factory and Workshop Act, 1878. — Its administration and working. — Vigilant attitude of the Trades-unions. — Alkali, etc., Works Kegulation Act, 1881. — Coal Mines Eegulation Act, 1872, — Metalliferous Mines Eegulation Act, 1872. — Merchant Shipping Acts, 1854-1880. — Civil and criminal relations of labour. — Question of Contract of Service. — Master and Servant Act, 1867. — Employers and Workmen Act, 1875. — Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act, 1875. — Laws re- lating to Arbitration. — Employers' Liability Act, 1880. — Its working and effects. — Employers' Insurance Companies. — Action of the Trades-unions. — Payment of wages in public-houses. 2. Old and New Self- Government : — The old magisterial system. — Changes introduced by establishment of large industries. — Increased requirements of modern administration. — Inadequacy of the old system. — Local Boards and Government supervision. — The Poor-law Union.: — Public Health Act, 1818. — Establishment of the Local Government Board. — Advantages of the new system. — National Education and the Working Classes. — Dark features of social life. — Eeformatories and Industrial Schools. — Public Health Act, 1875. — Effects of sanitary legislation. — Improvement of Working-men's dwellings. — Centralisation of the new system. — Division of administrative labour. — Co-operation of the Government. 3. Self Government of the Working Classes : — Problems left to the Work- ing-men's Associations. — Advantages of freedom of association in England. — Self-reliance and mutual confidence displayed in W^orking-men's Associa- tions. — Publicity of their proceedings. — Enlargement of their aims. — Their character as voluntary institutions. — Their tendency to centralisation. — Development of ofiBcial organism. — State supervision and voluntary effort. — Social guarantees against revolutionary change. — Increased cost of pro- duction. — Countervailing advantages enjoyed by England. — Adjustment of labour relations a source of strength in future competition. In the last chapter we endeavoured to show liow what is called the social element in economic life has been strengthened in g6 English Associations of Working Men. our time by the moral consciousness of the nation, which will lead, and in part has already led, to a wide-spreading revolution in the relations of the various classes of the industrial com- munity and in economic laws. That this movement has altered also the relations of the State to society is obvious. The prac- tical recognition of the fact that the development of English industries has created entirely new conditions of life for the working classes, which necessitate a readjustment of their rela- tions to the community at large, points forcibly also to recon- structive changes in the sphere of English State-life. To review and examine these reconstructive changes is not easy, for they cannot yet be considered as in any way complete. It has been said, indeed, that every stage in a nation's progress may be termed a stage of transition, and that no particular mark or token can therefore be affixed to any epoch. This is true, however, only up to certain point ; for undoubtedly a nation, and especially also the legislation of a nation, makes more rapid and decisive strides at critical times than in periods of comparative calm, and it is equally indisputable that the present is such a critical time for all nations alike. This explains the fact that, while the changes now being effected in State life in England are easily discernible, their consequences cannot yet be reviewed with any certainty. Nevertheless, the positive results of the last few decades suffice to point out the direction pursued by the State in England with regard to the new demands of society. To obtain a correct standpoint, however, it must not be over- looked that the State is not the only embodiment of social order, but that national life in all countries finds expression in other forms besides. We refer to those associations of individuals for the attainment of objects differing in kind, but embracing com- mon interests and obligations, which may be designated as self- governing bodies in the widest sense of the term. Generally speaking, it may be said that in proportion as these spontaneous elements in a community increase in strength, and in the com- petence and willingness to exercise public administrative func- tions, the sphere of State action is correspondingly narrowed ; and that where, on the contrary, they are too feeble, incompetent, and unwilling to j^erform those functions, the necessity of pro- The State, Self -Government, and Self -Help. 97 viding for certain unsatisfied requirements of national life leads to " State intervention." This Self-Go vernment in the widest sense is divisible, however, into two classes, — namely, Self-Grovern- ment properly so called, and the voluntary associations of a people. The first applies only to those cases where the State has delegated its functions to an administrative body for the purpose of providing for the wants of a particular locality. English " Local Self-Grovernment " is perhaps the most perfect kind of this self-government that exists. Even voluntary associations, however, may assume forms which constitute them the represen- tatives of social order. Of course this will not be the case where these associations are simply the strengthened expression of a one-sided interest, of the selfishness of a class or group of persons. But where, on the other hand, they gradually discard this lower and narrow-minded form, and divest themselves of their one- sided character, where they cease to regard themselves as mere centres of self-interest, and impose obligations on their members, pursuing a social object in properly constituted administrative forms, they approach more and more nearly to the regular self- governing bodies, supplement those bodies, and, together with them, constitute those forms of social order which stand outside the strict sphere of State mechanism, but the importance of which must be rightly appreciated to enable one to judge cor- rectly of the action of the State at a given time and in a given society. Every nation, in the course of its history, amid struggles and experiments, discovers at length, under the guiding infliTence of great rulers or statesmen, the formula of public law which denotes the relation of the State to these various bodies. It is this tha constitutes the form of State-Grovernment and legislation, which finds expression not only in the administrative functions peculiar to the State, but also in the legally-recognised action of local self- government and of voluntary bodies, as well as in the co-operation of all three factors. What practical shape these forms assume among a people at a certain time is a question to be determined not by any theory, but only by the relative power and capacity of development possessed by the various self-governing bodies. All theory on this point is mere abstraction founded on given II gS English Associatiotis of Working Men. circumstances, and can only serve as a gnide wlien some void or other is apparent in these mutual relations. Where the social energies of individuals are comparatively weak, theory will rightly push the State into the foreground ; where they are strong, the contrary will be the case. " It is not possible," says Thorold Rogers, " to define the precise limit at which laissez-faire ends and the action of Government, parliamentary or municipal, begins. The eificiency of spontaneous and independent actions varies with the subject, the community, perhaps the a^fe." * The legislation and administration of the /central power of a State comprise, therefore, only one part of the great task to be performed ; the other part depends on the spontaneous energies inherent in the people, and both parts must work in harmony together, unless serious defects of management of one kind or another are to occur. If we compare the relations of these two elements at the present day with those that existed only a few decades ago, we must at once admit that an important displace- ment has taken place in favour of State interference. The same cycle of change which we noticed in the last chapter of this in- troduction in connection with the historical relations of economic order to individualism, is found repeated in the historical rela- tions of the State, as the most important representative of econo- mic order, to its subjects. State influence, once so preponderating and all-pervading thoughout the whole of Europe, yielded to a great restriction of its sphere of action, onl^^^ to resiime in recent days its former tendency to expand. The course of this develop- ment in England differs from that on the Continent in the fact that the spontaneous energies of Englishmen imposed much ear- lier and much narrower restrictions on State action than was the case abroad ; but it is again assuming at the present day a con- tinental phase by the extension of this State action. The different manner in which this movement has shaped itself in England and on the Continent is a subject which here we can only briefly point out. Unc.er th3 Tudors strong analogies can be perceived between * Address delivered at the Social Science Congress at Huddersfield, 9th Octo-^ ler, 1883. The State, Self-Govemmeiit, and Self -Help, 99 England and the Continent, as regards the relations of the State to society, inasmuch as there, as well as here, the Government at that time undertook to be the guardian of the people. After that time, however, the course of national life in England more and more diverged from that on the Continent. The " glorious Revo- lution " of 1G88 formed the decisive and final turning-point. The dethronement of the Stuarts put an end to those ideas of absolute monarchy of which Hobbes, a generation before, had been so stout a champion. When Bolingbroke, in the eighteenth century gave expression in his " Patriot King " to the idea of a monarch ruling over the heads of parliamentary parties, of a personal kingship, a " paternal government," his views were merely the echo of a time which was rapidly fading into oblivion. While on the Continent the State is continually developing into something outside of and above the nation, entrusted, nay, overburdened with the task of supporting the whole community, and acting as the political and economical guardian of the masses, the State in England is content to grasp only a few attributes of power, and delegates to self-governing bodies all those functions which con- stitute paternal government on the Continent. In the second half of the eighteenth century England and the Continent present two totally different pictures. On the Continent we perceive an enlightened Absolutism, penetrating deeply all relations of society; in England we see a people who, whether in larger or smaller centres of administration, are essentially self-governing. We do not remind our readers of this familiar contrast for the purpose of weighing its advantages and disadvantages. People in England have certainly sacinficed the fate of the weaker elements of the nation and the comfort of living under State care ; but while, under the paternal care and guardianship of the Continent, the spontaneous energies of the people must neces- sarily be stunted, the English nation has succeeded in maintain- ing an unbroken energy, a self-dependence and a self-confidence, which form the basis of her entire system of administration. From these few remarks it is sufficiently clear, that if the State in England is beginning to interfere again actively in social rela- tions, it is doing so under conditions wholly different from those on the Continent. It is those peculiar characteristics of the lOO EnglisJi Associations of Working Men. English, nation, wliicli we have jnst mentioned, that form the foundations, in the first instance, of her strong substructure of self-government, and, in addition to that, of a large number of voluntary institutions, which minister to public objects and com- plete the fabric. We have already said that in modern and most recent days the development of voluntarily associated life in England has been absolutely gigantic. It embraces all relations of life, and has grappled with social problems with a strength, and power of initiative unparalleled elsewhere. To form a judgment as to the action of the State, or more correctly speaking, of the central Government in England, it is indispensable to examine at the same time the action of the regular self-governing bodies, as well as of the voluntary associa- tions in that country. State-action, self-government, and the various associations based on the principle of voluntary self-help, particularly those working-men's associations which have already been brought into a legal form, constitute a network of adminis- trative regulations and independent institutions, each fitting into and supplementing the other, and in the co-operation of which lies the secret of social progress in England. If, then, we see the State at present growing more active, and enlarging its sphere of action under the pressure of wants not satisfied in any other way, are we justified at once in concluding that the two other elements of power — namely, self-government and the voluntary associations — are declining in importance, and becoming too feeble and crippled for coping with the social tasks and requirements of the present day ? The answer to this question will be found by considering the working-men's associations as one of the most important adjuncts to the system of State-life in England, and as indicating the relations of the working classes to society. At present we pro- pose to give merely a brief summary of the new relations assumed by the Government, the self-governing bodies, and the voluntary associations in regard to social problems and to one another. 1. Legislative and Adviinistrative Action of the State. The Government in England has directly intervened in two ways in the development of the working classes : on the one The State, Self -Government, and Self- Help. loi hand, by creating new and important departments for the protec- tion of the workman ; and on the other, by giving a new legal meaning to the contract of service. The first object was attained by the Factory Acts, and by analogous codifications of the law respecting the mining industry and shipping. The second object was attained by a series of Acts reforming the status of the work- man in regard to the civil and criminal law. We will consider briefiy both these groups of State measures. Since the passing of the first effective Factory Act in 1833, more than half a century has now elapsed, which has been occu- pied with gradual legislation on this subject, and during which that legislation has constantly enlarged not only its field of opera- tion, but its aims. At the present day, — reviewing, as v/e can, the effect of these enactments extending over so long a space of time, — it cannot be doubted that this legislative development has increased to an extraordinary extent the power directly exercised by the State in respect of the relations between the employer and employed, and that the successful results exhibited thereby have contributed more than anything else to modify the views enter- tained in England respecting " State interference." There is no branch of English legislation that penetrates more deeply into the domain of private rights, but also none the justice and neces- sity of which at the present day has been more universally admit- ted by all those whose interests it affects. In former years it was no easy task to describe this legislation by gathering mater- ials from the numerous Factory Acts, but the new codification embodied in the Factory and Workshop Act of 1878,* makes it • 41 Vict., ch. 16. The preliminary labours of this codification were con- ducted by a Eoyal Commission appointed in 1875, who had to inspect the numerous special statutes and examine their operation, and for that purpose pursued their investigations in London, as well as in the large manufacturing towns of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The Commission published a report in 1876, which deals exhaustively with the question. It gives a history of this branch of legislation, explains the reasons of the special regulations then exist- ing for the various branches of manufacture, and seeks to trace them back, as far as possible, to common principles. Its concluding resolutions formed the general groundwork of the Bill which was subsequently introduced. The debates that took place in Parliament in 1878 (" Hansard," vols, ccxxxvii. and ccxxxviii.) are remarkable for the calmness, practical sense, and intelligence I02 English Associations of Working Men. easy to trace the leading features of factory legislation in Eng- land. These features have since been modified in respect of particular industries by the Factory and Workshop Act of 1883 (46 and 47 Vict., ch. 53), but not in any manner affecting general principles. The Factory and "Workshop Act of 1878, in its present form, extends practically to all factories, — that is to say, to all estab- lishments in which steam, water, or other mechanical power is used to work any machinery ; secondly, to all workshops in which any manual labour is exercised in the making, repairing, or adapting for sale of any article ; and lastly, to domestic work- shops.* The provisions of the Act fall under two heads, the first consisting of regulations for health and safety in the management of factories and workshops, and the second of regulations affecting the persons specially protected by the Act; that is to say, children imder fourteen (those under ten are under no circumstances to be employed), young persons under eighteen, and women. With regard to the first head or group, the Act gives full directions for insuring the cleanliness and proper ventilation of factories and workshops, and for preventing overcrowding. Strict provision is made for the fencing of machinery and dangerous vats and struc- tures, to prevent accidents. No children, young persons, or women are allowed to clean any machinery while in motion, or to work between the fixed and traversing parts of any self-acting machine. Notice of all accidents must be sent forthwith to the inspector and the certifying surgeon of the district for the purpose of displayed by all j^arlies in Parliament on this question. Mr. Redgrave, the Chief Inspector, has written a very comprehensive commentary, entitled " The Factory and Workshop Act, 1878 " (London, Shaw & Sons, 1879). Another commentary is Mr. Notcutt's "Law Relating to Factories and Workshops ; with Introduction and Explanatory Notes" (London, Stevens & Sons, 1879). With respect to the earlier legislation up to 1870, Dr. von Plener's work, " Die Enghsche FabrikFgesetzgebuug (Vienna, Gerold, 1871), is still the best authority. The administration of the Act can be seen from the Annual Reports of the Chief Inspector of Factories and Workshops. • iiote to the English Edition. — The Act defines these as referring to cases " where persons are employed at home; that is to say, in a private house, room, or place which, though used as a dwelling, is, by reason of the work carried on there, a factory or workshop within the meaning 9f the Act " (§ 16). The State, Self-Govennnent, and Self- Help. 103 immediate investigation and report. The provisions particularly affecting the protected persons relate to their hours of employ- ment and leisure, their holidays, and the school attendance of the factory children. In regard to the period of their employment^ the Act contains a series of distinctions. Speaking generally and without regard to special exceptions, their work, except on Saturdays, proceeds on what is called the " ten hours' system," extending from six or seven in the morning to six or seven in the evening, with intervals for meals or rest amounting altogether to two, and in many cases to one and a half hours. Since half an hour of this aggregate amount of leisure is usually taken at the end of the working day, the work ends accordingly at half-past five or half-past six, instead of at six or seven. On Saturdays, however, the period of employment lasts only from six or seven in the morning to one or two in the afternoon, with an interval of an hour, or at least half an hour, for meals ; so that the total number of working hours per week amounts respectively to fifty- six or fifty-nine. Children may only be employed in factories and workshops either for half a day, i.e., in morning or afternoon sets, or on the alternate day system. For all persons under the age of sixteen a medical certificate of fitness for employment must be obtained by the occupier of a factory (in the case of workshops it is optional), stating that the person in question is not incapacitated by disease or bodily infirmity. With regard to the meals of children, young persons, and women, it is provided that they are to be at regular hours and simultaneous, and all employment during meal-time is absolutely forbidden. Every child, young person, or woman is entitled to have as holidays the whole of Christmas Day, and the whole either of Good Friday or Easter Monday or Whit Monday, and also eight half holidays or four whole holidays in the year, at least half of which must fall between the 15th of March and the first of October. In addition to these general provisions, there are a number of special regula- tions for particular works and factories, forbidding altogether in some cases the employment of children, young persons, and women, and allowing overtime and night work within certain limits and under definite control. The persons thus specially protected by the Act have become I04 English Associations of Working Men. the regi^lators of the hours of work in general ; for although legislation in England has consistently avoided any regulation of those hours for grown up men, the " normal day's work," so strictly adhered to in the case of children, young persons, and women, indirectly affects all factories and workshops where men are employed together with the protected persons. The change in public opinion, the efforts made by the trades-unions, and the growing power of the working classes in England, altogether, have long since made these regulations the general rtile. In addition to this, there is the general Sunday's rest, stribtly in accordance not only with law but also with the habits and re- ligious usages of the people, which, coupled with the practice, now equally general, of leaving off work on Saturday afternoons, leaves the working classes free time from two o'clock on the Saturday till early on the following Monday. This pause in the week's labour has a vital bearing on the moral and intellectual progress of those who profit by it. The requirements of religion, in the first place, play a great part in England, and occupy a por- tion of the Sunday, and the remainder of the day is a boon to the workman, in proportion as the former widespread mania for drink is decreasing, and his intellectual tastes are tending to expand. The regulations of the Factory Act respecting the school attendance of the factory children are of the utmost importance. Children, if employed for one half of the day, must give at least one attendance during the other half; and if employed on the alternate day system, must give two attendances on each off day. Further restrictions still may be imposed indirectly on the em- ployment of children in factories by the new Elementary Educa- tion Acts, for the School Boards and the School Attendance Committees are empowered to compel the children in their re- spective districts to attend school twice a day until they have passed a certain standard, thus excluding them from all factory work in the meantime. The occupier of the factory is bound to superintend and keep account of the school attendance of the children he employs ; he must obtain from the teacher a certifi- cate (given weekly) of such attendance, otherwise he is not entitled to keep the child in his employment the following week. In the case of home employment an extension of work The State, Self -Government, and Self- Help. 105 hours is allowed ; namely, from six in the morning to nine in the evening, and on Saturdays to four in the afternoon, with an allowance, however, of 4| and 2| hours resj)ectively for meals and absence from work. Restricting ourselves in this chapter to general points of view and a summary of English legislation, we have mentioned only the leading provisions of the Factory Act of 1878. We proceed to advert to the wide influence which that Act has exercised on the relations of the working classes, because it is exactly this branch of administration, taken in hand by the Government in England, which has become a focus for social development, and because to this focus gravitate the thoughts and efforts as well of employers as of all classes of workmen, while the working-men's associations and their aims are intimately connected with this Act and its administration. With regard to the administration and working of this Act, copious information is supplied by the admirable yearly Reports of the Chief Inspector of Factories and Workshops. In 1883 and 1884 we endeavoured, by means of repeated tours with the inspectors of factories, and by making numerous inquiries among employers and workmen, as well as representatives of working-men's asso- ciations, to complete our opinion of the practical working of the Act. Its administration is conducted by the Home Office, through the medium of a Chief Inspector in London, five Superintending Inspectors in London, Manchester, Glasgow, and Leeds, and forty- eight other Inspectors distributed over England and Scotland. Part III. of the Act defines the ofScial functions and powers of these inspectors. It is their duty to visit, whenever necessary, all factories, workshops, and schools situated within their re- spective districts, and to ascertain whether all the provisions of the Act are complied with ; for this purpose they are empowered to call for documents and examine witnesses, and require them to sign a declaration of the truth of the matters respecting which they are examined. All offences under the Act are to be prose- cuted, and all fines recovered before a court of summary jurisdic- tion. The Chief Inspector derives his information from the reports which his subordinates are bound by their official direc- tions to furnish him once a week. It is considered, howeverj io6 Eftglisk Associations of Working Men. most important tliat he should be in constant personal contact with them, satisfy himself of their activity personally and on the spot, and hold frequent conferences of inspectors in London. In this way the whole service is based upon close investigation and prompt decision, the result of which has been that the Inspectors of Factories have become not only a new authority in the State organism, but an active and mediating element between the in- terests of labour and capital. It is largely due to them that these two factors do not confront each other in England with that un- compromising hostility and distrust which they exhibit in other countries. The inspectors are enjoined in their instructions to do their best " to soften prejudices and further a good feeling be- tween masters and workmen " ; and neither party will deny them the merit of admirably discharging this duty. Their activity at the present day is enormous and astounding, if we consider that the number of factories and workshops under inspection, which in 1833 was only 3,094, amounted in 1884 to no less than 132,000 ; * and that the discharge of their official duties involves not only personal visits of inspection, the examination of witnesses, prose- cutions at law, and the compilation of weekly reports, but also a constant round of travelling. The great importance of the in- spectors is due to the fact that, on the one hand, they do not take too narrow-minded a view of their duties, and that, on the other, they do not intermeddle in matters beyond their control. f They * G. Shaw-Lefevre : " Opening Address : Transactions of the National Asso- ciation for the Promotion of Social Science (Birmingham Meeting, 1884)," London, 1885, Longman, Green & Co. t " I have applications for advice," says Mr. Eedgrave in his Report for 1883 (p. G), "in almost all the relations between master and servant. One apprentice asks whether, after having worked at his trade, his master can insist upon his cleaning knives and boots in the house; another, whether he can be compelled to take out parcels ; another, whether deduction can be made from his pay for absence from work ; another, whether on his master owing him six weeks' wages, his acceptance of one week's wages would bar his claiming the balance ; then, supposing he proceeded against his master for the balance and the master did not pay, how was he to get his due ? Again, young ladies in dressmakers' workrooms have applied to know whether their employers could refuse them leave to go and seek other employment ; whether a week's or a month's notice to leave was required ; whether they are not entited to a fortnight's holiday ; and complaints of iusufHcicnt food and ill-ventilated bedrooms. Although I The State, Self-Government, and Self -Help. 107 exercise tact and an intelligent influence on employers as well as workmen in a number of questions, which are only indirectly connected with their strictly official duties ; but in this officium boni viri they keep within proper limits, and carefully abstain, on principle, from meddling with questions of wages, or intervening in wage disputes and strikes, since to do so would undoubtedly destroy their authority. From the large employers of labour they meet with cordial and unstinted support. In all matters concerning the health and safety of the workman, the due obser- vance of the prescribed hours of employment, proper accommoda- tion for meals, and the school attendance of the children, most of the English factories, and particularly those of most recent con- struction, are models of careful forethought and arrangement, though certainly, in regard to the small ones, there is still much room for improvement, and ample necessity for exercising strict vigilance and control. In connection with the Factory Act, we must not omit to notice the position taken up by the trades-unions. They keep watch over its strict observance with a kind of jealous scrutiny, not only through their organs of the press, but also through their repre- sentatives in Parliament. Their chief wish is that the number of inspectors, each of whom on an average has considerably over 2,000 factories and workshops under his superintendence, should be increased, and that some of them should be chosen from among the working-men themselves, as has actually been done in some cases of late years. In reply to this demand, it is urged that it is desirable to continue choosing the inspectors from those circles, particularly officials versed in a technical knowledge of their duties, whose antecedents have not brought them into alliance with either manufacturers or workmen. With regard, lastly, to the general question, how far the Factory Act of 1878 is strictly enforced, all witnesses concur in stating that the provisions respecting the periods of employment, and the school attendance of children, are at present carried out cannot satisfy all my correspondents, it is a pleasing proof that we are looked upon as impartial judges, and our advice sought as that of unprejudiced persons." io8 English Associations of Working Men. satisfactorily. As to illegal overtime, tlie vigilance of the in- spectors has checked the evil. The number of prosecutions by the inspectors for offences against the Act has amounted of late years to an anniial total of from 700 to 900. The particular offences are published in the general reports of the Chief In- spector, together v^^ith the names of the employers concerned. The great influence exercised by factory legislation on the health of the workman, and his security against accidents, will occupy our attention hereafter in connection with the question of insurance. On the other hand, we feel bound to mention the fact, which is established on all sides, that, as regards the super- intendence of home industry, the Act has remained a dead letter. The inspectors content themselves with inquiring into, and even- tually bringing before the court, some particularly bad case here and there ; but in general these " domestic workshops," which are far too numerous and difficult of access for effective control, still elude their influence and authority altogether. For chemical factories there is a special measure of protection to the workman in the Alkali, etc., AVorks Regulation Act of 1881 (44 and 45 Vict., ch. 37), the last of a series of enactments on this subject dating from 1863, and containing provisions of a sanitary nature. This Act prescribes, among other things, that noxious and offensive gases in these works must be, as far as possible, condensed ; that the best practicable means must be taken for preventing the discharge of such gases ; and that acid drainage, or alkali waste shall not be discharged in a m.anner in- jurious to health. The supervision of these factories is entrusted to inspectors acting under the Local Government Board. Who- ever visits the great chemical factories in Glasgow and Newcastle- upon-Tyne, will be able to observe with interest how the pro- visions of this Act have influenced and changed the technical arrangements of those works, what an impulse they have given to invention, and how materially they have improved the conditions of labour in this dangerously unhealthy branch of industry. The same man, to whose increasing efforts is largely due the progress made in factory legislation, gave also the first impulse to the regulation of the mining industry and the protection of the persons employed in it. Lord Ashley (afterwards the Earl of The State, Self -Government, and Self- Help. 109 Shaftesbury) succeeded in obtaining tbe appointment of a Royal Commission to inquire into the employment of children in mines. The result of their labours was the Act of 1842, which prohibited the employment of women and children in mines and the paj-- ment of wages in public-houses. The Act of 1860 added further provisions with reference to State inspection. The mining regu- lations were supplemented by the Act of 1862. Meanwhile, the English miners, and especially those employed in the collieries, had formed themselves into powerful trades-unions, which con- stituted the Miners' National Union ; and under the leadership of the late Mr. Alexander Macdonald, himself a former working miner and afterwards Member for Stafford, strove both in and out of Parliament for further legislative reforms. Mr. Macdonald, the first President of this Union, was a man who, like Oastler and Sadler, understood how to organize large bodies of workmen and secure a hearing for their legitimate demands. His efforts met with a readier response than was the case in the days of his pre- decessors ; and he received powerful aid not only from the work- men, but from Parliament and the press. At his death, in 1881, he left behind him a common oi-ganization of miners, which holds one of the first places in respect of unity, consciousness of pur- pose and success, among the numerous working-men's associa- tions in England. His efforts for the abolition of the truck system, for the passing of an Employers' Liability Act, and, lastly, for the extension and consolidation of the Mining Acts in general, were crowned with great success. The English miners justly regard the Coal Mines Regulation Act of 1872, which forms a comprehensive codification of the law relating to mining, as in a great measure his work. This last-named Act (35 and 36 Vict,, ch. 76) * contains pro- visions respecting the employment of women, children, and young persons, the payment of wages, the powers of inspectors, and regulations for insuring the safety of all employed. No boy under ten, and no woman or girl of any age, are allowed to work • See M. Peace, "The Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1872," London, 1S73; L. A. Atherley-Jones' " Miner's Manual," London, 1882; and, for the working of the Act, the annual Eeports of the Inspectors of Mines, which are rich in statistical and other information. no English Associations of Working Men. in any mine below ground ; and boys between ten and twelve are only allowed to work in mines where, by reason of the thickness of the seams, svich employment is necessary ; and even then only by special leave of the Secretary of State, and with limitations of the hours of labour. Boys between twelve and thirteen, and male young persons under sixteen, are not allowed to work for more than iifty-four hours in any one week. With regard to the employment above ground of the persons specially protected, to their meals and schooling, the Act contains provisions analogous to those in the Factory and Workshop Act. A series of minute directions with regard to wages prohibit, among other things, their payment at public-houses, and regulate the mode of pay- ment by weight. The staff of inspectors, consisting of fourteen principal and twelve assistant inspectors for England and Scot- land, is organized similarly to that connected with the factories, though they are insiifficient, as is admitted on all sides, for the exercise of a searching supervision and control. The numerous provisions respecting the safety of the mines, the construction of shafts for working or ventilation, the strict certificates of com- petency required from managers, the obligation to make reports, particularly in case of accidents, the precautionary rules of every kind, the system of signalling, the state of the working shafts, the daily inspection of the condition of the ventilation, the pre- vention of explosions, and so on, are closely connected with the efforts made by science and practical experiment in various directions, — particularly in regard to safety lamps, atmospheric pressure, fire-damp, etc., — to avert the most threatening dangers to which mining operations are exposed, and which, in conse- quence of the increasing depth of the mines, constantly demand greater care and caution. For metallic mining, the Metalliferous Mines Regulation Act of 1872 (35 and 36 Vict., ch. 77) forms an analogous supplement to the Act of 1842. With respect to boys' labour its provisions are still stricter, since they prohibit their employment altogether until the completion of their twelfth year. Lastly, we must mention here the numerous Merchant Ship- ping Acts, the most important of which, namely, the Act of 1854, has been supplemented by a host of other statutes, the principal The State ^ Self-Governinent, and Self- Help. in ones being in 18G2, 1863, 1867, 1871, 1872, 1873, and 1876.* These Acts, wliich still await consolidation, are generally re- ferred to, together with the Merchant Seamen (Payment of Wages) Act of 1880, as the Merchant Shipping Acts 1854-1880. They have effectually checked the incredible abuses, owing largely to the greed of unscrupulous owners, and consisting in sending unseaworthy ships to sea, in order to make profit out of their loss by means of over-insurance. In addition to these provisions, which will ever be associated with the name of Mr. Plimsoll, these Acts contain a complete code of law with regard to the respective duties of the captain and his crew, the dis- cipline of the seamen, the protection and registration of the crew, the victualling of merchant vessels, the prevention of accidents, and so forth. All these grovips of statutes, which we have thus sketched in outline, are included by Englishmen under the general denomi- nation of " labour protection Acts." They have contributed immensely to the elevation of the working classes, and one meets with the effects of their operation at every step. One of these effects, however, has been to equalise the position of all manu- facturers in respect to the hours of labour, and thus to impose a check, at least on one side, to unfair competition. Formerly the honest and humane employer was seriously and unfairly handicapped in competing with rivals who screwed the utmost labour out of their workmen ; but since protective legislation has successfully coped with these abuses, the honest employers have profited considerably by the change, and are indeed as staunch supporters of these Acts as the workmen themselves. We come now to the second group of statutes, which relate to the civil and criminal side of the relations of labour. f * Note to the English Edition. — 25 and 26 Vict., ch. 63 (Merchant Shipping) ; 26 and 27 Vict., ch. 51 (Passengers in Emigrant Ships) ; 30 and 31 Vict., ch. 124 (Medicines, etc.) ; 34 and 35 Vict., ch. 110 (Unseaworthy Ships, Collision) ; 35 and 36 Vict., ch. 73 (Emigrant Ships, Eegistry, etc.) ; 36 and 37 Vict., ch. 85 (Merchant Shipping) ; 39 and 40 Vict., ch. 80 (Unseaworthy Ships and Miscellaneous). t T. J. Arnold, " Employers' and "Workmen's and Conspiracy and Protection of Property Acts," London, 1875 ; Bojanowski, " Unternehraer und Arbeiter nach Englischen Eecht," Stuttgart, 1877 ; James Edward Davis, " The 112 English Associations of Working Men. With regard to the contract of hiring and service, its obliga- tions and working, there has been a total change of standpoint in English legislation. As is well known, the old legislation, as em- bodied in the Statute of Labourers of Edward III., and in those of Elizabeth, rested on anything but the so-called " freedom of contract." Their ultimate object was to compel the population to work ; they regarded the labour of the lower classes as indis- pensable to public order, and it was simply a consequence of this view, which, as is well known, was carried out in England with great severity, that neglect to work, the breach of contract, was treated as a breach of public order, as an offence, involving ci'iminal punishment. This view was maintained in English legislation for a remarkably long time, and its last traces were not abolished until the Act of 1875. Even up to 1867, the workman who had committed an intentional breach of contract was liable to imprisonment by a justice of the peace ; while, on the other hand, his right of complaint against his employer was of a purety civil character, and moreover the liability to im- prisonment incurred by the employer, in the event of his failing to pay the sum eventually awarded to the workman, was scarcely ever practically enforced. In addition to this, the laws respect- ing wages were too often administered in a very one-sided manner by the magistrates, who stood on much closer relations with the employers than with the workmen, and in many cases were actually chosen from the ranks of the former. The neces- sity for reform in these relations led, after the question had been studied by a Select Committee, to the Master and Servant Act of 1867 (30 and 31 Vict., ch. 141). In this Act the simple breach of contract was divested, indeed, of the character of criminality; but, on the other hand, the penalty of imprisonment, with or without hard labour, was retained for breaches of con- tract of an airo-ravated character. This distinction, and the cor- 'too^ Labour Laws," London, Butterworths, 1875 (an admirable commentary) ; A. Fraser, " Treatise on the Law of Scotland relative to Master and Servant," second edition, 1882 ; George Howell, " A Handy -book of the Labour Laws," Loudon, H. W. Foster, 1876 (a good and comprehensive work) ; J. Mac- donnell, " Law of Master and Servant," London, 1883 ; C. Petersdorff, " Practical Compendium of the Law of Master and Servant," London, 1876. The State, Self-Government, and Self- Help. 113 responding operation of tlie Act, gave rise to hostile criticism. It was urged with justice that the discrimination between simple and qualified breaches of contract revived the inequality of treatment, as between the master and workman, which had formerly been contested, and that such a boundary line could not be drawn with any accuracy, and led to an arbitrary administration of the Act. To review fully, however, the reform that took place in 1875, we must first refer to some previous statutes dealing with the mutual relations of workmen to their employers, exclusively of a criminal nature. When the Act of 1825 (6 George IV., ch. 129) finally repealed the Combination laws, this repeal was accom- panied with special provisions, by which acts of violence, com- mitted by threats or intimidation to the injury either of person or property, were made criminal offences. But although these provisions were impartially conceived, they practically operated only against the workman. It was intended by them to prevent the freedom of combination from being abused, and on that account penal provisions were directed against exercising com- pulsion on a person to induce him to neglect work, or hindering him from making agreements to work, or forcing him to enter a trades-union, or compelling an employer to make changes in his way of business, or to limit the number of workmen or apprentices, etc. The legal recognition of trades-unions in 1871 necessitated another alteration of these provisions. This was done by the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1871 (34 and 35 Vict., ch. 32), which was framed also to meet the many objections raised against the loose and vague provisions of the former statute. It was urged, however, even against this new Act, that it was a piece of class legislation, that practically it operated only against the workman, on the ground that the employer was not criminally liable for exercising compulsion on those in his employment, and that the expressions in the Act as to intimidation, molestation, etc., were still ambiguous and obscure. Legislation had reached this point when the Conservative Ministry of Mr. Disraeli, in 1875, took up with undeniable ability the work of reform, with the view of giving full, but as we shall I 114 English Associations of lVo?'king Alen. see, not undue effect to freedom of contract, of strictly separating the civil from the criminal element of the law, and of codifying both elements in two distinct Bills. After an elaborate inquiry, con- ducted by a Royal Commission,* this object was realised by the introduction of two Bills, which were piloted through the Com- mons by the then Home Secretary, Sir Richard Cross, and passed into law the same year under the titles of the Employers and Workmen Act (38 and 39 Vict., ch. 90), and the Con- spiracy and Protection of Property Act (38 and 39 Vict., ch. 86). They govern the entire civil and criminal relations between labour and capital, and occupy accordingly one of those main positions of English law which we are bound to notice at this stage, to enable a clear understanding of what follows. As regards the Employers and Workmen Act, which relates to the purely civil aspect of the question, it provides that all disputes between an employer and a workman arising out of or incidental to their relation as such, shall be heard and deter- mined by the County Court, or optionally, in case the amount claimed or awarded or the security given does not exceed £10, by a court of summary jurisdiction, thus meeting the objection that non-stipendiary justices of the peace, sitting singly, were not proper judges to decide disputed questions as to wages be- tween labour and capital. The powers of the Court deserve particular notice. The justices in England have at all times intervened judicially in questions concerning wages ; in earlier days, indeed, by directly fixing the amount of what they con- sidered " reasonable wages," but aftei-wards, and up to 1875, by being invested with authority, not only to decide, but to direct and order. This principle has been adhered to in the Employers and Workmen Act, and the judge is accordingly empowered, * See, in particular, the " Second and Final Report of the Commissioners nppointed to Inquire into the Working of the Master and Servant Act, 1867, and the Criminal Law Amendment Act, and for other purjposes," which contains a summary of earlier legislation and a searching discussion of the whole field of inquiry. A very interesting debate on the Employers and Workmen Bill took place on the second reading in the House of Commons, on June 10th, 1875 (" Hansard," vol. ccxxiv. pp. 1GG8 seq.). The State, Self- Government, and Sclf-Help. 1 1 5 according to the circumstances of the case, to adjust and set off against each other all claims on the part either of the employer or of the workman, to rescind contracts, to award damages, or, if the defendant is willing to give security, and the plaintiff consents, to order the performance of the contract. The courts of summary jurisdiction have similar powers as to contracts between masters and apprentices ; they may make orders direct- ing the apprentice to perform his duties, or rescind the instru.- ment of apprenticeship itself, and order the whole or part of the premium to be repaid. In this way the Act, restricted as it is to the purely civil side of the relations of labour, is not simply a formal exposition of private rights, but an active and governing element of contract. The criminal side of the relations of labour is dealt with, as we have already said, in the Conspiracy and Protection of Pro- perty Act of 1875. This statute formulated comprehensively the " wilful and malicious " breach of contract, which had been included in the Master and Servant Act of 1867 in the vague expression, " qualified breach of contract," and coupled with it the provisions of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1871, which reappeared in this new enactment. In the first place, any person who wilfully and maliciously breaks a contract of service or of hiring, in three specified cases, is liable either to pay a penalty not exceeding £20, or to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding three, or, in the third case, six months with or without hard labour. The three cases are as follows : — (1) Where a person employed by a municipal authority, or by any company or contractor on whom is imposed by Act of Parliament, or who have assumed the duty of supplying any place with gas or water, wilfully and maliciously breaks a contract of service, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that the probable consequences of his so doing will be to deprive the inhabitants wholly, or to a great extent, of their supply of gas or water ; (2) Where the probable consequences of the breach of con- tract of service will be to endanger human life, or cause Ii6 English Associations of Working Men. serious bodily injury, or to expose valuable property to destruction or serious injury ; (3) Where a master being legally liable to provide for his servant or apprentice necessary food, clothing, medical aid, or lodging, wilfully and without lawful excuse refuses or neglects to provide the same, whereby the health of the servant or apprentice is or is likely to be seriously or permanently injured. A penalty not exceeding £20, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, with or without hard labour, is imposed also on certain offences taken from the Criminal Law Amendment Act. They relate to those acts of annoyance, violence, or intimi- dation which arose out of the strikes and the struggle for higher wages, such as hindering others from taking work or compelling them to join in a strike, hiding their tools or clothes (or " rat- tening," as it is popularly called), watching a house or factory to prevent strange workmen going thither diiring a strike (a practice known as " picketing "), following persons about from place to place, and so forth. All these acts are only made punishable where they are done with a view to wrongful and illegal compulsion ; no penalties attach to the exercise of per- suasion and wholesome influence. These two Acts thus completed for the first time in our days the distinction between civil and criminal offences. They are well adjusted to existing relations, and protect in no narrow or exclusive spirit the interests of the public. A series of other enactments regulated further the relations of wages. We should mention first the laws relating to courts of arbitration. The Act of 1824 (5 George IV., ch. 96) had already dealt, to some extent, with this subject, and more recently it has been regulated anew by the Councils of Conciliation Act of 1867 (30 and 31 Vict., ch. 105), and the Masters and Workmen Arbitration Act of 1872 (35 and 36 Vict., chap. 46). Inasmuch, however, as the voluntary boards of ai'bitration and conciliation got a start of legislative efforts in that direction, we propose to consider the purport and operation of these laws in connection with the voluntary institutions in question. The State, Self -Government, and Self -Help. W] A position of great importance, on the other hand, as regards the present law of wages in England, belongs to the Employers' Liability Act of 1880 (43 and 44 Vict., ch. 42).* This Act, which was to continue in force for seven years, is equally inter- esting in regard to the legal principles it enunciates, as in regard to the operation it has had in various directions. The English law as to the liability of employers turns on the notion of " common employment." It is a general principle of English law that a person is liable only for injuries which he him- self has caused ; an exception to this principle occurring when a person acts under commission from another, — as, for example, a workman in the service of his employer. In this case steps in, according to the maxim " respondeat stiperior" the liability of the employer as against the third party. The English employer is liable therefore for an injury occasioned to the third party by one of his workmen. But if this third party is also in the service of the employer, the latter is not liable by common law. The English law assumes that whoever enters into employment, has naturally been aware of the risks incidental to that employment, and is willing, in consideration of the payment of his wages, to undertake them ; and the practice of the English law further assumes that these incidental risks, thus tacitly undertaken by the workman in entering into his labour contract, include also any injuries to which he is exposed by the negligence of a fellow- workman. If, therefore, a workman suffers injury by the negli- gence of a fellow-workman, he has, according to the doctrine of common employment, no claim to compensation against the em- ployer; whereas, if the injured person is not a workman, and therefore stands outside the relation of labour, he has certainly a claim to compensation against the employer. It is to obtain a * The materials for this Act are contained in the Eeports of the Select Com- mittee on Employers' Liability for Injuries to their Servants, 1876 and 1877. The best commentary on the subject is that of W. Howland Roberts and George Henry Wallace, " A Summary of the Law of the Liability of Employers for Personal Injuries," London, 1882. It contains in particular a clear account of the doctrine of " common employment." See also T. Beven : " The Law of the Employers' Liability for Negligence of Servants," London, 1881 ; A. H. Euegg : "Treatise upon the Employers' Liability Act," London, 1882; and E. R. Turner : " Employers' Liability Act," London, 1882. ii8 English Associations of Working Men. change in this relation of liability that the efforts of the workmen have been directed. The late Mr. Macdonald was the advocate in Parliament of their demand for the total repeal of the doctrine of common employment, which had thus limited the liability of the employer as against his workmen. The employers, on the other hand, protested against this alteration of the law on different grounds. They declared that it would tend to increase accidents, since the workmen would think rather how to cause than how to prevent them ; and, further, that those whose interest or desire it was to promote every possible occasion of dispute, would take advantage of such accidents to breed ill-will and dissension be- tween the workmen and their employers. The result of these conflicting demands was, as is usually the case in England, a compromise. The doctrine of common employment was not actually repealed, but was virtually restricted in its application, by making the liability of the employer expressly extend to a series of important cases, in which, according to that doctrine, he had formerly been exempt from liability. The five cases are as follows : — Where personal injury is caused to a workman (1) By reason of any defect in the condition of the ways, works, machinery, or plant connected with or used in the business of the employer ; or (2) By reason of the negligence of any person in the service of the employer who has any superintendence entrusted to him whilst in the exercise of such superintendence ; or (3) By reason of the negligence of any person in the service of the employer to whose orders or directions the work- man at the time of the injury was bound to conform, and did so conform, where such injury resulted from his having so conformed ; or (4) By reason of the act or omission of any person in the service of the employer done or made in obedience to the rules or bye-laws of the employer, or in obedience to particular instructions given by any person delegated with the authority of the employer in that behalf; or (5) By reason of the negligence of any person in the service TJie State, Self-Govej-mnent, and Self- Help. 119 of tlie employer who lias the charge or control of any signal, points, locomotive engine, or train upon a rail- way. No liability accrues to the employer in cases (1) where the de- fect in the works was not connected with any negligence on his part, or on that of some person in his service appointed to attend to them ; or (2) where the injury did not result from any im- propriety or defect in the rules ; or (3) where the workman knew, but failed to give information of the defect or negligence which caused his injury. The amount of compensation, subject to the deduction of any money payable under penalty, is not to exceed the estimated earnings, during the three years preceding the in- jury, of a person in the same grade employed during those years in the like employment and in the district in which the workman was employed at the time of the injury. Actions for compensation, which must be commenced within a specified time, are triable in the County Court in England, in the Sheriff's Court in Scotland, and in the Civil Bill Court in Ireland. As regards the jiidicial working of the Act, the experience now of several years enables one to affirm that it has neither confirmed the hopes of the workmen nor the fears of the employers. The number of civil actions brought under its provisions is com- paratively small. The total number of cases tried in the County Courts in 1881, 1882, and 1883 was 443 in England and 234 in Scotland, and the amounts of compensation awarded were £18,124 and £4,249 respectively. In 1884 there were 99 cases in England, and 149 in Scotland, the corresponding sums awarded for com- pensation being £8,882 and £2,127. It must not be forgotten, however, that the effect of these, as of all judicial decisions in England, is to serve as precedents and guides for settling analo- gous disputes out of court.* Outside the law-courts, however, the Act has brought about all the more active a movement. Above all must be mentioned the effect it has produced on the insurance system. At first many of the assurance societies accommodated their manner of business * Eeturns relating to the Employers' Liability Act, 1880. Presented to Par- liament, 1884 and 1885. 120 English Associations of Working Men. to meet the new state of things, by undertaking as risks, in return for the payment of extra premiums by the employer, the possible claims for compensation under the Act, and paying into court, on his behalf, the sum judicially awarded. With the same object, entirely new assurance societies were started, which carried on a fierce competition for custom. But soon many of the employers also, in particular industries, found it to their interest to protect themselves against the possible consequences of the Act by form- ing insurance companies of their own. The first institution of this kind was started by the Iron Trades Employers' Association, the counter-association to the well-known trades-union of the Amalgamated Engineers. In the insurance company which they established, each employer pays annually for each of his workmen, according to a special scale of risks, one-ninth, one-third, or two- thirds per cent, of his yearly wages, in return for which the Association undertakes to defend him in court, and pay whatever compensation may be awarded. The same system prevails in other combinations of employers for this purpose, — as, for example, the Master Builders' Association. Still more important, however, is the practice adopted by a number of large concerns, which on the one hand require their workmen to renounce their claims to compensation, or, as it is termed, to " contract themselves out of the Act " ; but on the other hand, as compensation for so doing, either establish new associations in union with their workmen for insuring them against accidents, and subscribe up to 25 per cent, of the fund, or give their support to old societies of this kind. This course has been adopted by the London and North Western Railway with nearly fifty thousand of their employes ; and a great movement took place also among the workmen, more especially soon after the passing of the Act, in the coal-districts of Lancashire and Staffordshire, in the direction of " mutual assurance." On the other hand, numerous cases occurred in which employers compelled their workmen by pressure to renounce their claims to compensation, and this gave the trades-unions a handle for taking up a position hostile to the Act.* At the Trades- * See the Keport on the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth Annual Trades- union Congresses ; printed in Manchester by the Co-operative Printing Society, Limited. Some valuable material respecting the working of the Employers' The State, Self-Government, and Self -Help. I2i union Congresses in 1881-4 repeated resolutions were passed, condemning the " permissive character " of the Act, The trades- unions urged, not without justice, that every renunciation by the workman of his legitimate claim to compensation was contrary to the spirit of the Act, and defeated its special object, which was above all preventive, and was intended to compel employers to conduct their business with the utmost possible safety to the lives and limbs of their workmen. The compensation itself, they said, was a secondary consideration ; the main thing was the prevention of accidents ; and steps must be taken to prevent an employer from purchasing immunity, by his mere subscription to a benefit society, from the duty, imposed on him by the Act, of providing for the safety of his workmen. Mr. Macdonald, accordingly, intro- duced an amending Bill in 1881 (January 19th), which declared all renunciations of the right to compensation under the Act to be illegal arrangements. The Bill was withdrawn at the end of the session, without reaching a second reading (August 10th). It was re-introduced in 1883 (February 16th) by Mr. Burt, but was rejected by a large majority (149 to 38),* partly because the House of Commons was not disposed to interfere with freedom of con- tract, and partly because it was deemed advisable to allow further time for ascertaining the working of the Act. Meanwhile, however, the trades-unions got up an agitation to prevent the workmen, as far as possible, from renouncing their rights, and established a fund (the trades-unions of the United Carpenters and Joiners, for example, contribiited fourpence yearly per member) for defending their members in any suits brought under the Act. In some cases Trades Councils have paid as much as £150 costs, in order to bring important cases before the courts of appeal. Summing up the working of this Act, which has been so im- portant as regards the relations of the workman to his employer. Liability Act, as well as the position taken up in regard to it by various classes of workmen, is contained in the Provident, a monthly periodical pubhshed at Wigan, in Lancashire, since 1881. * Note to the English Edition. — The Government, in supporting Sir J. Pease's amendment, which proved fatal to the Bill, stated as one of their reasons for so doing, that as the Act had only been passed for seven years, the whole question would shortly be revived. 122 English Associations of JVorking Men. we are bound at once to admit that in its present sliape its in- fluence lias not been favourable, since it lias created a new point of dispute between labour and capital, without removing the old one, on which account it has been described in many quarters as a half-step taken on a wrong path. Hence it is difficult to foresee whether, when the seven years of probation have expired, the Act will be renewed in its present form, or whether it will be thought better to settle the'whole question either on the ground of insur- ance, or by enlarging the area of liability, and prohibiting all contracting out of the Act. On the other hand, it is not to be denied that the Act has given a great impulse to independent insurance against accident, more especially in the mining industry, as we shall hereafter have occasion to notice in more detail. Just as little can it be denied that the Act has made employers more careful, and thus materially diminished the number of accidents. With regard, lastly, to the enactments concerning the payment of wages, we find the Truck and Cottage System prohibited already by two Acts of 1831 (1 Will. IV., ch. 36 and 37). Provisions against the payment of wages in public-houses occur, as we have already noticed, in the Coal Mines Regulation Act of 1872, and the Metalliferous Mines Act of the same year. This prohibition has since been made a general one by the Paj^ment of Wages in Public Houses Prohibition Act of 1883 (46 and 47 Vict., ch. 31). 2. Old and Neiv Self- Government. There was a time when exclusive attention was paid to con- stitutional law, and the qiiestion of administration was neglected. At the present clay we have to guard against the danger of judg- ing economic relations independently of their connection with the administrative action of the State. An active interchange of functions exists between public government and economic life. The former receives from the latter its prescribed aims, and gives it siipport and security in exchange. Government, however, must always be considered in two aspects, — namely, according to the outward form which it assumes, and the men who are called on to administer it. Nowhere are these two aspects of the question brought more distinctly into relief than in the changes experienced by Self- The State, Self -Government, and Self- Help. 125 Government in England during the course of this century. At the beginning of the century we find it still existing in its ancient forms. What these forms, and what the ancient system were, has been described by Grneist in a historical and' systematic manner. This old self-government rests on the old centralised power of the Crown, which delegated particular administrative functions for certain areas — such as counties, hun- dreds and tithings — to unpaid officers, who however were real officers of State, and whose responsibility, therefore, was fully recognised by the law. " The objects of self-government are not the private interests of the self-governing bodies, but public duties, — such as service on juries, the administration of police and public safety, the recruitment for the regular army and militia, the poor-law, public health, and public highways, the assessment and apportionment of parochial taxes, and the management of parochial property ; all this regarded merely as means to an end, — namely, the fulfilment of duties towards the State." * The old system of self-government rests accordingly in the hands of a number of unpaid officers, whose powers and duties are well known. Such are the Lord-Lieutenant of the county, the Sheriff", the Coroner, the Justices of the Peace, High-constables, Way- wardens, Churchwardens, and Poor-law Guardians, — all of whom, with the sole exception of the Coroner, are appointed by the Crown, and bound to take office. This side of English self-government gives, however, a very imperfect notion of the institution as a whole. Its practical centre lies rather in the spontaneous activity of the governing classes, to whom these offices are delegated by commission from the Crown, — in the willingness and competency of a sufficient number of persons to discharge these duties conscientiously, as officers of State, without any emolument. " Such offices require a higher degree of education, a settled independence and secure position in life, and the habit of demanding and obtaining respect from other men; in short, a character which proceeds only from the union of education with personal independence. Self-govern- * Gneist: " Self-Government, Kommunalverfassung und Verwaltungsgerichta in England," Berlin, 1871, p. 70. J 24 English Associations of Working Men. "nent accordingly fills these offices with persons who possess jufficient property to be independent, who employ that property in qualifying themselves by means of a better education for those offices, and who are able to devote their powers, in union with their neighbours, to the community, and thus enlists society, from the top downward, in the service of the State." * That England possessed the requisite number of men, who were not only fully competent for this task, but who discharged it from the height of an independent position in life and a refined education, has tempted us to regard this old self-government as an ideal, and to overlook its defects. The central figure of this old system of self-government, termed by Grneist the " magisterial," is the Justice of the Peace, of whom Chief-Justice Coke made the often-quoted remark, that it was an office the like of which, if properly filled, did not exist through- ovit the whole Christian world. The office attests to this day, though overladen with new and different functions, the great- ness and simplicity of a bygone order of society. The twelve thousand acting justices of the peace now distributed over the various counties in England, and constituting a powerful element, as the immediate representatives of the conscience, the order, and the power of the State, give the clearest notion of the operation of the old system of self-government on the internal stability and union of the English nation. In this respect it has had a world-wide importance in history. " The education of the nation for State functions," says Gneist, "laid the foundation for the greatness of England. The details, as in old Roman life, are simple, sober, and business-like, very different from the brilliant pictures once spread throughout Europe by Montesquieu and Delolme. But these simple institutions are solid and enduring, and, when tested by great tasks, they show all the vigour and greatness of a free nation. In the struggle with the American colonies, and still more in the struggle against French revolution, the result clearly showed how this political training of the nation had created within a little island a State which has incorporated Scotland and Ireland, colonised North America, appropriated the * Gneist, xd supra, p. 900. The State, Self- Gov eminent, and Self- Help. 125 most favoured part of Asia and a new continent, become the mistress of the seas, and rivalled the other powers in the glory of her arms." * But just as, since the beginning of this century, the economical and social conditions of English society have experienced a rapid and organic change, so also a transformation has taken, and is taking, place in most of the foundations of her ancient fabric of self-government, in the way of additions, limitations, and modifications, which have already given it a different aspect, and will probably result in further reconstruction, though not in such a manner as to justify, in our opinion, the conclusion arrived at by Grneist, that State-life in England has overpassed its zenith, and that its foundations are now in the nineteenth century beginning to tremble.f Mechanical invention, and the consequent establishment ot large industries, gave an impulse to a change in self-government. The displacement thus occasioned in the population rent asunder old connections, and the new assemblages of workmen in the towns and manufacturing districts created new wants, which became more urgent every day. The middle, as well as the working classes, put forward new claims upon the Government. We have designated the new grouping of the producing classes, which has been effected in England by modern industry and modern commercial intercourse, as a new form of settlement. This fact shows its consequences in the system of self-government. The Government found itself confronted with a number of pre- viously neglected questions, regarding elementary education, the poor laws, the law' of settlement, health, wages, dwellings, and food-supply, as it were in an entirely new society. To solve * Gneist, ut supra, p. 61. t This last reflection runs like a thread thoughout the whole of Gneist'a book which we have quoted. In his last work, " Das Englische Verwaltungs- recht der Gegenwart in Vergleichuug mit dem Deutschen Verwaltungssysteme," Berlin, 1883 and 1884, Gneist is evidently impressed by the remarkable results achieved both by the new system of State- and self-government since 1870, which cannot fail to strike an unprejudiced observer, and is more ready than formerly to acknowledge that, taking existing circumstances into account, the new administrative system in England has made successful progress towards the solution of formerly neglected problems. 126 EnglisJi Associations of Working Men. these questions was a task to which the old form of self-govern- ment was unequal, for they demanded an energy, a stability, and a knowledge of technical details such as not only exceeded the amount of work which the old class of unpaid officers usually performed, but went far beyond the business capacities of the old gentry. The country squire of old times, educated at Eton, accomplished by travel, intelligent and impartial, who lived on an inherited estate, and was well acquainted with county matters, who, supported by the traditionary respect due to his family, held the dominant position in the old system of self-government, would never have been able, had his qualities been ever so distinguished, to satisfy these new demands. True it is that from his class have proceeded, not only in, but also out of. Parliament, legislative and other proposals as well as practical efforts of the noblest kind, intended to grapple with the social abuses connected with manufacturing industry. But for carrying out new measures new organs were required, especially permanent aiithorities with professional knowledge. It is true that the growth of manufactures and the spread of trade had created a new middle class. But the manufacturers, merchants, traders, and shipowners, who compose the present industrial community, were still less fitted than the old gentry for acting as the personal organs of self-government in the new order of society, neither their mode of life nor their course of training having qualified them for the task. The pursuit of profit demands all the powers, all the time, and all the thoughts of this class. In the fierce competition of trade none can hope to be successful but those who devote all their energies to their busi- ness ; divided time and divided attention mean only loss. What leisure they have is taken u}) with technical and commercial questions connected with their business. It would be doing them an injustice not to acknowledge that this middle-class, at the present day, have become more competent and willing, under the influence of new ideas, to co-operate in matters of common social interest, than was the case during the first part of this century. Even in those earlier days we can admit the practical insight, the great energy, and the business ability of this class, very manj'' of whom had raised themselves from the position of The State, Self- Government, and Self- Help. 127 ■workmen ; and we readily acknowledge that some of them even then had striven in a self-sacrificing spirit, out of love for their fellow-creatures, and from religious feeling, to promote the wel- fare of their workmen. But it was hopeless to think of making them, as a class, the organs of reform. Taken altogether, their training was far too one-sided ; they were far too much engrossed with their own business affairs, and far too removed from im- partiality, to be either qualified or inclined to act as organs of the Government in the conflict between capital and labour, in which they must have been the judges in their own cause. These facts sufficiently explain the gradual development of a new form of self-government, which as a new social structure superseded the old magisterial self-government, exercised by the county magnates. These new institutions which, appearing in different parts of the organism of self-government, assumed in the course of half a century such large dimensions, and reached a certain climax in 1871, are to be met with since the Eeform Bill of 1832. They are patent and easily discernible. The administrative unit is no longer the county and district, but the town, the municipality. The functionaries within this limit, for certain purposes, are no longer unpaid officers appointed by the Crown and responsible directly to the State, but a certain category of ratepaying inhabi- tants now elect boards which are intended to administer local affairs, but which are soon obliged to appoint paid officers to cope with the burden of business and confine themselves to passing reso- lutions, issuing directions, and appointing the officers. As against these organizations, however, the central government of the State claimed at once an effective control ; these boards being no longer in any sense the immediate organs of State, but the representa- tives of purely local interests, and their members no longer the depositaries of State power, chosen for their reputation and property, but the champions of interests primarily affecting them- selves. Hence State control became a necessity, and side by side with this new form of self-government there has arisen a new form of State-government by means of central departments, which, after the fashion of the Ministries on the Continent, exer- cise a supervising and guiding authority over the separate 128 EnglisJi Associations of Working Men. branches of self-government, through the medium of a widespread staff of inspectors. In this manner, first of all, the way was prepared for the reform of the Poor Laws of 1834, after a Royal Commission, appointed in 1833, had brought to light a mass of valuable materials. In place of the parish, as an administrative unit, was substituted a Poor Law Union, consisting of several parishes compulsorily united, with a common workhoiise, and the adminis- tration of the Poor Laws was transferred from the justices of the peace and their parish officers to new elective boards of guar- dians, including the justices of the peace, biit as non-elected members. At the same time a central authority under the Crown was constituted, consisting of the Poor-law Commissioners (for England and Wales), who exercised their powers through in- spectors. These Poor-law Boards formed the model for a number of other boards. The insufficiency of the old system of self-government was shown, in particular, in the management of public health. The justices of the peace were wholly inadequate to deal with it, and the unhealthy condition of the large towns and manufac- turing districts led, in the first instance, to the appointment of a Royal Commission, the results of whose labours were published in 1844 and 1845. Those labours were turned to account in the Public Health Act of 1848 (11 and 12 Vict., cap. G3),' by the constitution of Local Boards of Health, entrusted to deal with sewerage, drainage, scavengering, lighting, building, water-supply, the erection of labourers' dwellings, markets and slaughter-houses, precautions against fire, interment, regulations against offensive and ITU wholesome trades, and so forth ; and by the appointment of a General Board of Health, as a central State authority, invested with regiilating powers and rights of supervision, the latter of which were exercised through ins]3ectors, and clothed with the functions of a court of approval. In the same way the manage- ment of highways was transferred to District Boards. After the usual English method of effecting all permanent im- provements by means of a preliminary commission of inquiiy, followed by an Act of Parliament, this new form of self-govern- ment was more and more adjusted to circumstalices, until at The State, Self-Govermnent, and Self -Help. 129 length, since 1870, it lias been carried to its full legislative and administrative consequences. By the Local Government Board Act of 1871 the central State authorities appointed to control and supervise the new system of self-government were united into a single body, the Local Government Board, which since then has acted as a Crown department for self-government, especially in relation to the Poor Laws, the management of public health, and regulations as to building and highways. Since 1870, finally, the system of education has been similarly reformed, on the basis of general compulsory attendance at school, by the introduction of School Boards, and receives in the Education Department of the Privy Council a central State authority which exercises the func- tions of a Ministry of Education. These new branches of self-government are of the greatest importance to the towns and manufacturing districts. There, especially in the last few decades, an active municipal life has been developed, which is endeavouring to remedy the defects and abuses connected- with the Poor Laws, 'public health, and public education. In strange contrast to the old system of self- government, still prevailing in the rural districts, this new form of self-government has developed with surprising rapidity, and been of decisive importance to the elevation of the working classes. The latter owe to it a systematic management of all matters connected with their health, dwellings, and education, and a support given to their institutions, resting on the principle of self-help, which has powerfully promoted the objects which those institutions are endeavouring to attain. In judging of the present condition of workmen in England, this new municipal self-government forms a most important element. It shows us that what we call the social problem cannot be settled by any special laws or single measures, but that it is a question of dis- covering for a new form of living and settlement a new form ot social government and social legislation ; in a word, that the social problem is a question of culture, which can never be solved by dealing only with separate points. It will therefore not be out of place, perhaps, to offer some re- marks on those branches of the new system of self-government in Engla^id which are strictly connected with the labour question, K 130 English Associations of Working Men. and especialW witli the pi'Ogress recently made by English work- men. Let us turn first of all to the question of education. The old national schools in England owe their origin and sup- port to the initiative either of private persons or large societies, such as the Nonconformist British and Foreign School Society, established in 1803,* the Church of England National Societ}^, founded in 1811, and other bodies of that kind. The co-operation of the State, which began its first annual grants in 1834 with a contribution of £20,000 that year for public education, consisted till 1870 of a series of increasing subsidies, the avowed object of which was to promote the education of the children of the work- ing classes, and of a certain degree of supervision over the schools thus subsidized. The Education Acts of 1870, 1873, 1876, and 1880,t by which attendance at school was made a matter of general obligation, dealt with previously existing arrangements as follows. J Every child of the statutory age has to attain a pre- scribed minimum of elementary knowledge. Where existing school arrangements suffice to afford the necessary instruction, no change is made in those arrangements ; but where they offer no guarantee for the due execution of the new Act, school districts must be established, each administered by a School Board. This dualism between the old National Schools and the new Board Schools is the characteristic feature of the present system of elementary education in England. These two kinds of schools exist side by side, and although the Board Schools, wliich were intended to remedy neglect and supply the defects in the previously existing system, are rapidly increasing in number, there is no thought at present of letting all the old schools be absorbed by the new system, but the competition between the two classes * l^^ote to the English Edition. — Its original name was the "Royal Lancastrian Institution," having owed its origin to the exertions of a young Quaker, Josej^h Lancaster, on behalf of the children of the poor. t 33 and 34 Vict., ch. 75 ; 36 and 37 Vict., ch. 86; 39 and 40 Vict., ch. 79 ; 43 and 44 Vict., ch. 23 (Attendance at School). J We have consulted the following commentaries on the English law of ele- mentary education : H. J. Gibbs, " Handbook of Elementary Education Law," 1877; Glen, "Elementary Education Acts, with Notes," 1881; Hugh Owen, '* Elementary Education Acts," 1870-1880, London, 1884 (a comprehensive work of 698 pages, dealing exhaustively with this entire branch of government). The State, Self -Government, and Self-Hclp. 131 of schools is regarded rather as a spur to the favourable develop- ment of each. The costs of school instruction have been defrayed hitherto by the school fees (which, however, have been already opposed by the Radicals), as well as by rates and additional grants from the State. The latter now exercises supervision over all schools alike, which it does by means of twelve principal and 112 ordinary inspectors. The energy with which the State, as well as the municipalities, and especially the large towns, are striving to carry out this new system of education, is remarkable. During 1870 the average number of children attending school in England, "Wales, and Scotland amounted to 1,453,531 ; in 1886 it had risen to 3,915,315. The State, which in 1870 contributed £840,336, gave a grant amounting in 1886-7 to £3,945,576. The number of State in- spected schools in 1870 was 10,949; in 1886 it was 22,114, or more than double. This system, which has been carried out with a careful re- gard to the interests of different religious denominations, and consequently with the more ready concurrence of those factors of society which are naturally interested in popular education, will assuredly not fail in its effect upon the working classes. But the value of the new elementary schools consists further in this, that it has not been exaggerated in regard to the prosperity and after life of the working-man. The importance of that educa- tion which, as regards the working classes, first begins when they have left school, has never been overlooked in England. Long before the introduction of the new system of primary schools, what is known as " adult education " played a prominent part, and partly compensated for the defects then existing in popular education. This branch also of national education has within the last few decades been improved and extended. With the assistance of the municipalities, mechanics' institutes of vari- ous grades, as well as numerous night schools, have been estal - lished in all the manufacturing centres. The larger manufacturing establishments, the railway companies, the principal ship-build- ing yards, and so on, all emulate each other in the establishment of institutions of this kind, which, while improving the skill of their own workmen, elevate their standard in every respect. The 132 Efiglish Associations of Working Men. various ^vorking-men's associations, and especially the co-opera- tive societies, have taken the same direction through their "edu- cational departments." We have seen the cro-R-ded halls of these institutions in all parts of England, and have listened to the lectures which are held there every night. Everywhere we have found that the young workmen eagerly embrace the opportunity, now so abundantly afforded them, of increasing their aptitude and knowledge. They -willingly prolong for this purpose their hours of work, and devote, in particular, their free Saturday afternoons to striving with the tenacity peculiar to the Anglo- Saxon race to attain a higher grade of culture and usefulness, and thus obtaining higher wages and a higher position in life. We must mention here another class of institutions, which not only are most deserving of notice on account of the object they have in view, but which testify strikingly to the manner in which voluntary enterprise, local self-government, and the State com- bine and supplement each other in the solution of social prob- lems. We allude to those institutions which provide for the care of children and young persons who have either been driven already upon the road of crime or are in danger of being so driver. This provident care has certainly a larger field for its exercise in England than on the Continent, — nay, a field alarming in its ex- tent. The accumulation of large numbers of poor persons out of work in the large towns and manufacturing districts has created in some places a class of the population who, owing to the build- ing of new quarters in the towns, are still more closely packed to- gether than before, and who lead lives of wretchedness, starvation, dirt, immorality, drunkenness, and crime, such as have given rise from time to time to sensational revelations of the most astound- ing character.* Whoever has had a closer insight than others into this lowest and saddest residuum in the large cities, more especially in London, Liverpool, or Glasgow, will have to wait som? time before he can find a countervailing element of social life in England to neutralize the painful impression he has • Among the more recent publications of this sort mav be mentioned, " The Bitter C17 of Outcast London,"' London, 1883 ; " Outcast Manchester Series," Manchester, 188-1 ; " How the Poor Live," by George K. Sims : London, Chatto & Windus. Tiic State, Sclf-Gorcniiiicnt, and Self- Help. 133 formed. Notwithstanding the many improvements wrought even in this respect during the last few 3'ears, this melancholy state of things still to a large extent prevails, and it is like a cruel irony of Nature that, even under circumstances such as these, the fecundity of the English race is constantly generating anew this dark residuum of English society. The dissolution of family ties, which is a necessar}^ consequence of this state of things, throws a host of children and young persons literally upon the streets, and it is they who form the object of the noble efforts now being made to rescue this element of the population and insure for them the possibility of an honest existence for the I'est of their lives. The institutions engaged in this work are of two kinds ; namel}^, purely private establishments, and such others as are founded and sup- ported hy private persons, societies, or self-governing corporations, but are subject at the same time to the supervision and supreme control of the State. The first, particularly the numerous " Homes for Destitute Children," form a branch of English benevolent in- stitutions, which are maintained entirely by private contributions, and which, supported as they are b}"- the personal co-operation of the upper and middle classes and the assistance of large funds, per- form, in spite of many defects in their management, a great work of Christian charity. Our present concern, however, is with the second class of these institutions, — namely, the Reformatory and Industrial Schools ; the former being places for juvenile offenders, and the latter institutions of compulsory education. Both owe their origin to private and voluntary effort, and have only gradu- ally come under State supervision. As regards the Reformatories, the first impulse to their estab- lishment proceeded from the Philanthropic Society, which founded an institution of this kind for juvenile offenders, who were lodged there under the Parkhurst Act of 1837-8 (1 and 2 Yict. ch. 82). This institution was removed in 1849 to Redhill, in Surrey, being remodelled partly after the pattern of the Reformatory School founded at Mettray, in 1839, by M. de Metz, and similar ones were afterwards established in all parts of England and Scotland. Here again we meet with the self-denying energy of men and women of the higher classes, all of whom carry on the work with different plans and views, but with equal self-sacrifice and con- 134 English Associations of Working Men. sistency of purpose. It was, first of all, the Rev. Sydney Turner, afterwards for twenty years the Government Inspector of Refor- matories and Industrial Schools, who, by organizing the institution at Redhill, prepared the way for further effort. Then came the late Mr. Barwiclv Lloyd Baker, whose life, devoted to true humanity, has been so charmingly depicted by Holtzendorff in his " Country Squire," and whose Reformatory School, which he established as long ago as 1852 on his property at Hardwicke Court, in Gloucester- shire, formed the model for a whole series of similar institutions. Again, there was Miss Carpenter, who laboured, especially in Bristol, with untiring devotion to obtain the establishment of Female Reformatories ; and many other instances might be cited. Along with this went the develoiDment of Industrial Schools for vagrant, destitute, and disorderly children, in connection with the movement for Ragged Schools, in which the late Earl of Shaftes- bury took such a prominent part. Owing to the spontaneous efforts of private persons, societies, and municipalities, all these institutions so increased in number and importance that after 1854 they began to occupy the attention of the Legislature. In 1866 some final and comprehensive enactments were passed, deal- ing with both classes of these institutions ; namely, the Reforma- tory School Act (29 and 30 Vict., ch. 118) and the Industrial School Act (29 and 30 Vict., ch. 117), both for England and Scotland, and, subsequently, the corresponding Acts of 1867-8 (31 and 32 Vict., ch. 59, and 31 and 32 Vict., ch. 25) for Ireland. These Acts established the entire system on the following principles. Both of these classes of compulsory institutions are subject, as regards their legal basis, to some conditions in common : firstly, that they are under the immediate direction of jorivate persons, societies, or self-governing bodies, and defray a large part of their expenses hy means of rates and voluntary contribu- tions ; secondly, that they must be registered and subject to Government inspection ; and, thirdly, that the State jorovides a substantial grant, and also compels the parents to contribute to the extent of their power. Furthermore, their system of treat- ment has this common feature, that detention is not in the char- acter of detention in a prison but in a school, in which (no doubt under stricter discipline in the Reformatories) school training The State, Self-Governnient, and Self- Help. 135 and the teaching of a trade, or of agriculture, go hand-in-hand. All these institutions find, as far as possible, employment and service for their inmates after leaving, or transplant them to the colonies, especially to Canada ; they exercise a control and super- vision over them for three years after their discharge, and do their best, by means of advice and active help, to settle them in life. Lastly, the object pursued by these institutions is the same, inasmuch as they also aim at the reform of juvenile offenders. The institutions differ only in their conditions of admission, and in the fact that in the Reformatories a criminal element is received, while the Industrial Schools have mainly a preventive mission. Detention in the Reformatories is a matter resting with the discretion of a justice, and every admission to a reformatory must be preceded by at least ten days' confinement in a State prison. Admission into these Reformatory Schools takes place between the ages of ten and sixteen, but detention can last till the age of twent3'--one. Certified Industrial Schools receive children coming within any of the following descriptions: namely, those who (being under fourteen) are found begging or receiving alms (whether actually or under the pretext of selling or offering for sale anything), or being in any street or public place for these purposes ; or are found wandering and not having any home or settled place of abode, or proper guardianship, or visible means of subsistence; or are found destitute, either being orphans or having a surviving parent who is undergoing penal servitude or imprisonment ; or who frequent the company of reputed thieves ; or whose parents or guardians are unable to control them, or whom the Poor-law authorities represent to be refractory ; or those who (being under twelve) have been charged with minor offences punishable by imprisonment or a less punishment, but have not been convicted in England of felony or of theft in Scotland (29 and 30 Vict., ch. 118) ; also the children (being under fourteen) under the care or control of any woman convic- ted of a crime after a previous conviction (Prevention of Crimes Act, 1871, 34 and 35 Vict., ch. 112) ; also children (above five years of age) who habitually neglect to attend school (Elementary Education Act, 1876, 39 and 40 Vict., ch. 79) ; and also children 136 English Associatiojis of Working Men. who live witli prostitutes or frequent tlieir company (Industrial Schools Act, 1880, 43 and 44 Vict., ch. 15). In recent years the School Boards also have established similar institutions for com- pulsory industrial training ; a fresh class of such schools having existed since 1876, called " Certified Day Industrial Schools," in which children are kept only for the day ; as also the " Truant Schools," which are specially intended to deal with refractory children and those who habitually neglect school.* In 1882 there were in England and Scotland 61 Reformatories and 150 Industrial Schools, containing altogether, at the close of that year, 24,215 children and j^oung persons of both sexes ; viz., 19,528 boys and 4,687 girls, of whom 6,601 were in Reformatories, and 17,614 in Industrial Schools. The Treasury grant in 1882 for Reformatories was £87,241, in addition to which £35,585 was derived from rates, contributions by parents, and voluntary sub- scriptions and legacies. The grant for Industrial Schools was £170,472, besides which there were other receipts amounting to £150,222. The work done by these institutions can be measured by some very remarkable figures. Whereas in 1856 the number of commitments of juvenile offenders to prisons in England and Wales was nearly 14,000, a steady decline is observable until 1882> when the number sank to 5,700. f * }>!oie to the English Edition. — "The Day Industrial Schools," says the Inspector in his last Report (for 1886), " continue generally to meet a great \Taut in a thoroughly practical manner, and I am certain that an extension of such schools would be of the greatest advantage to the country." Of the Truant Schools he says : " These schools generally seem doing good work, but I do not think the present number, ten, is suflScient to meet the wants of the country. The result is that many truants are sent to ordinary Industrial Schools." He recommends that the permission given by the rules of Truant Schools to use the solitary system of confinement on admission should be withdrawn, as being unnecessary, and, in the case of nervous children, in- jurious. — Eeport, p. 34. + See Annual Eeports of the Inspector appointed to visit the certified Eeform- atory and Industrial Schools of Great Britain. These reports are rich in statistical and other information. Note to English Edition. — In 1886 the total number of schools under inspection in England and Scotland was 226; viz., 58 Eeformatory Schools, 142 ludusti-ial Schools, 10 Truant Schools, and IG Day Industrial Schools. The total number of juveniles under detention in the Eeformatory and Industrial Schools (including Truant Schools) at the close ot The State, Self-Goveriiinent, and Self -Help. 137 In this way these establishments are rescuing more and more numbers of the young generation from the residuum of English society to which we have referred, transplanting by degrees the lost and dangerous elements of the community, and becoming links in the chain of those institutions which further the upward progress of the present class-movement in England. With regard to health and dwellings, legislation has not been idle since the first Public Health Act of 1848 (11 and 12 Vict., ch. 63), but has been embodied in a systematic form in the similarly entitled Act of 1875 (38 and 39 Vict., ch. 55). This statute, in conjunction with the Public Health (Water) Act of 1878 (41 and 42 Vict., ch. 25), and the Act of 1875 against the Adulteration of Food and Drugs (38 and 39 Vict., ch. 63), forms a groundwork for the administrative action which is delegated to local authorities under the control of the Local Government Board in London. The Public Health Act of 1875 includes provisions with respect to sewerage and drainage, water supply, and the regulation of cellar-dwellings and lodging-houses, and deals with the whole subject of nuisances connected with water-courses, offensive trades, furnaces, chimneys, and so on. It deals further with the sale of unwholesome food, with infectious diseases, hos- pitals, and mortuaries, the regulation of streets and buildings, the lighting of streets, public pleasure-grounds, markets, and slaughter-houses. The Act vests the management of all these matters in the local urban or rural authorities, who are to appoint special of&cers for the purpose, and, in particular, a medical officer of health. There are other provisions relating to rating and borrowing powers, the audit of accounts, the alteration of areas and union of districts, and, lastly, the supervision to be exercised by the Local Government Board. Under the influence of this new sanitary legislation an entire revolution is taking place in the manufacturing towns of England. the year was 26,940 (viz., 21,971 boys, and 4,969 girls), of whom 6,272 belonged to the former and 30,668 to the latter class of institutions. The Treasury grant in 1886 for Eeformatory Schools was £83,400, and for Industrial (includ- ing Truant) Schools, £185,539, as compared with £35,022 and £155,260 respec- tively derived from other sources. In 1886 the number of juvenile commitments to prisons in England and Wales was 4,924. 138 English Associations of Working Men. Every eiFort is being made by the local sanitary authorities to retrieve the neglect of former years. What has been already done in this respect at Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Bradford, and many other towns in England, shows a progress which has resulted in benefit to at least a large portion of the working classes, and has materially improved their condition of health. This is evidenced by the general statistics of mortality, the diminution of which is a fact, and which, collectively speak- ing, can only be affected when large masses of the population share in the decrease. Mr. Gr. Shaw-Lefevre estimated in 1884 that if the same rate of mortality had prevailed in England during the preceding ten years which had prevailed before, half a million more of men would have died,- — in other words, that the nation had retained so much more vital energy than in former years. An interesting calculation was made by Dr. Watt, who estimated the total loss of wages sustained annually by the working classes by illness, at no less than £13,000,000.* As we do not know what were Dr. Watt's materials for arriving at this total, we would attach less importance to the actixal figure than to the l^oint of view that led to the calculation. It is no doubt quite correct to say that every case of illness or accident curtails directly and at once the income of the weekly wage-earner, by putting a stop to his employment and therewith his pay, and that, therefore, the improvement of the sanitary conditions under which the present English workman lives, means an increase of his capacity of work, and, therefore, of his total income from wages. But this consideration touches only a part of a general state of things, to which we take an oj^jwrtunity here of adverting. A brisk controversy, as we have already mentioned, is now going on, as to how far the wage income of workmen is larger than it was ten, twenty, or forty years ago. To decide this ques- tion by figures is probably very difficult ; but it is quite certain that the improvement of the conditions of labour, brought about by the Factory Laws, the shortening of work hours, the Em- * This and the foregoing statements were made by Mr. G. Shaw-Lefevre in his Opening Address to the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science. — I'raiisactioiis, 1884, p. 22. TJie State, Self -Government, and Self- Help. 139 ployers' Liability Act, the Public Health Acts, the abolition of the Truck system and of the payment of wages in public-houses, and the measures against the adulteration of food, and so forth, is equivalent to an indirect raising of wages, which has decidedly raised the condition of the working classes as a whole. Antici- pating what we shall hereafter dwell on more fully, we may remark at once that the raising of wages in England has three forms ; namely, an increase of the amount of wages, an increase of their purchasing power by the cheapening of food and mantafac- tured goods, and an indirect increase by the measures taken to ameliorate the social position of the worker. We will touch at present on one more branch of legislation and self-government, — namely, that which deals with the ques- tion of working-men's dwellings. It is well known how intolerable in 'this respect was the state of things prevailing in the large manufacturing towns when Engels and Venedey visited England. Since 1851 the Legislature has interfered, though at first with only slight success, by enacting regulations for building which were intended especially to apply to the dwellings of the working classes. The beginning was made by the Acts of 1851, 18G6, 1867, and 1868, until finally, by the Artizans' Dwellings Act, 1875 (38 and 39 Vict., ch. 36), supplemented by the Artizans and Labourers' Dwellings Act, 1879 (42 and 43 Vict., ch. 63), and the Artizans' Dwellings Act, 1882 (45 and 46 Vict., ch. 54), systematic provision was made for the building of dwellings for the working classes. The object of these three Acts, which are referred to collectively as the Artizans and Labourers' Dwellings Lnprove- ment Acts, 1875-1882, is to empower and oblige local authorities to demolish and reconstruct on a new scheme houses, streets, and groups of houses which they find to be " unhealthy areas." The local authority has to prepare the improvement scheme, to submit it (after due advertisement and service of notice on all parties affected), in the case of the Commissioners of Sewers or the Metropolitan Board of Works, to a Secretary of State, and in the case of an Urban Sanitary Authority, to the Local Government Board, together with a petition praying that an order may be made confirming the scheme. A Provisional Order is then made by the confirming authority, if they see fit, but is not of any 140 English Associations of Working Men. validity until coniirmed by a Provisional Order Confirmation Act, wliich finally gives the scheme the force of law. It is a condition of confirming a scheme that new and healthy dwellings should be erected for as many families as will be displaced by the proposed improvement. As a rule, however, the local authority does not itself undertake the work of reconstriTCtion, but entrusts it to building societies or private undertakers, subject, nevertheless, to strict requirements as to the size, form, and arrangements of the new dwellings, as houses for the working classes, and, further, as to sanitary arrangements, water supply, and so forth. We shall revert to this branch of the new self-government when dealing w^ith the subject of working-men's building societies ; sviffice it now to state that, although the transformation of English working- men's towns is not accomplished without temporary disadvantages and hardships, especially to the poor and unemployed population of the large towns, and although a great portion of the work, even as regards the working classes themselves, yet remains undone, still the improvements are everywhere conspicuous, and are uni- versally admitted. A glance at the development of this new phase of self-govern- ment shows what rapid progress has been made in this field also, more especially since 1870. No doubt this development is not " organic." As is well known, Mr. Goschen, one of the best authoi - ities on the subject of self-government in England, has described the confusion between the old and new self-governing bodies, existing side by side, the mutual overlapping of powers and authorities, and the multiplicity of rates, as a chaos. Into which order must be brought by an organic reform of local government, and, at the same time, of local taxation. We cannot here go Into these questions ; our only object at present has been to show how this new system of self-government contains elements of pi\bllc life which contribute actively to the social elevation of the work- ing classes. Yet we must attempt here to point 'out the most Important common features of this new system of self-government, not only for the sake of characterising it, but also because the same features recur in those voluntary institutions which form the particular subject of our work. TJie State, Self-Governmc7it, and Self- Help. 141 The most conspicuous feature of tlie new system is its central- isation. We see how, in the place of the old parish have been substituted larger administrative areas, such as the Poor-law Union, the School District, the urban and rural Sanitary Districts, and others ; and we perceive also in the large towns (always ex- cepting London, where hitherto special relations exist, which, however, will at any rate lead to centralisation of self-government there) self-governing bodies, which administer to the police and general welfare of hundreds of thousands of inhabitants in a perfectly centralised manner. But just as the social tasks of the present day are pressing everywhere to one form or another of centralisation, to the union of forces and the economy of cost, so they are also leading of necessity to a division of laboiir. Great progress has been made in this direction already. The large number of technical problems awaiting solution, and the need of stability in administrative action, of the permanence possessed by departments or bureaus, must tend to bring individual branches of self-government practically into the hands of specially-trained and salaried officials ; and the various departments dealing with the Poor Laws, public health and housing, gas and water supply, education, and so on, into which the local authorities are divided, present the greatest possible contrast in respect of the division of labour thus entailed, to the old magisterial system. The third important feature of the new system is the relation which it occupies to the State, or in other words, the Government. We have already pointed out how, althovTgh the management of particular branches of administration has been committed to various boards and other local authorities, nevertheless the Government, through the medium of its inspectors and the central departments of State, not only exercises a control, but forms also a court of approval and appeal. On the other hand, the State makes considerable grants to the local authorities, which from 1880 to 1883 (apart from the grant for education) amounted to a yearly sum of about £3,000,000.* Of course this co-operation between the local authorities and the Government departments does not take place without frictions occurring, but it undoubtedly contri- * "Twelfth Annual Report of the Local Government Board" (1882-3), p. 114. 142 English Associations of Working Men. butes largely to implanting in the local boards, which are always the embodiment of a certain community of local interests, a sense of public duty. 3. Self- Gov eminent of the Working Classes. We come now to those voluntary institutions established by English workmen which form the special subject of our work. Here we will notice merely their position in regard to the Govern- ment and administration in general. Notwithstanding that self-government is labouring, as we have seen, to solve a nu^mber of administrative questions, especially those connected with the Poor Laws, health and education, it has hitherto taken only partial account of the particular requirements of the working classes. The important tasks of organizing the great mass of the working-classes, enabling them to participate in the progress of culture, increasing their wages, insuring them against sickness, old age, and death, providing them with cheap and wholesome food, and insuring to adults the means of continu- ing their education after leaving school, and also a certain amount of social life, — all these have been left to the associated bodies of the working-men themselves. In the development of States existing at the present day no social form has played a greater part than the combination of individuals for the attainment of a common object. In forms of the most different kinds, as guilds, brotherhoods, companies, corporations, and monastic fraternities, as clubs and societies, this idea, whether in a spiritual or a temporal garb, has in public and " secret so worked, or-ganized, built up, and destroyed, that none can understand the structure either of the present State or society, or even of present culture, without properly appreciating its importance. This social form has, therefore, been rightly made an object of study, and the admirable woi'ks of Eichhorn, Maurer, Wilda, Gierke, Brentano, and others, describe clearly how this idea, which dates from the early middle ages, has permeated and dominated State and society, law and custom, science and art. We must repeat here that this social form has nowhere been more strikingly expressed than in the England of to-day. Our remarks on the English working-men's associations will lead us into the TJie State, Self -Government, and Self- Help. 143 middle of tliis riclily-developed associative life ; but we must recall liere one circumstance, without which those associations in England would never have been thus developed. We have hither- to not spoken of the political freedom enjoyed in England. This IS the place to designate it, as we do emphatically, as the sole condition under which it has been possible to develop an associa- tive life such as now exists in England. It was the repeal of the combination laws that formed the turning-point, as cannot be too often repeated, for the development of working-men's associa- tions, based on the principle of self-help. Eree from all police surveillance^ free from every restriction of the right of meeting, and at perfect liberty to express opinions orally or in writing, associative life in England has expanded and increased in order, practical arrangement, systematic management, and nobility of aim. The English public has had the courage and strength to leave the working-men's associations full freedom of movement, at the risk even of temporary excesses and acts of violence, such as at one time stained the annals of trades-unions. It was hoped, and the hope has been realised, that the surest way of purging them of these abuses would be to give publicity to their aims, plans, and organization. Through the exertions of often simple, but consistent, working-men, these associations have been gradually learning to understand and employ the right means, which serve their purpose the best, and, above all, to avoid those faults which formerly misled their energies into excesses, instead of concen- trating them on what was practically attainable. In consequence of this, a great change has taken place in public oj)inion in their favour. If one compares the opinions now expressed as to Trades- unions, Eriendly Societies, or Co-operative Societies, in scientific works, in the transactions of learned societies, and in the press, with those which were held forty years ago ; still more, if one pictures to one's self the open and secret warfare then maintained by the employers against these institutions, and observes how totally different is their attitude at present, one will recognise the enormous changes which have been effected under a system of absolute freedom. People know that one has no longer to deal with experiments, but with recognised social organizations which, 144 English Associations of Working Men. with all tlieir present need and capacity of development, are already accomplishing a great, positive task, and not only provide for branches of what on the Continent is called public administra- tion, but have succeeded in grappling with, and partly, at least, in solving questions which public government and legislation on the Continent are still puzzled to deal with. Under these conditions of freedom the working-men's associa- tions have developed two qualities which have been of immense value to them ; we mean self-reliance, which abounds in all these associations, and mutual confidence, which prevails in them to a great extent. Self-reliance is at the bottom of the English work- ing-man's conviction that it is necessary to put his own shoulder to the wheel in order to obtain anything permanent. This conviction forms, in our opinion, a distingv^ishing feattire of the entire social development of England. All the measures, actually accomplished by the State in the form of legislation, or tinder- taken by self-government, to vindicate the claims of society against the impulses of self-seeking, are intended not to super- sede the activity of the individual, but to strengthen him in his independent struggle to obtain a social equilibrium, and afford him the necessary protection and support. " Men, not measures," is the common saying in England, where no one believes in a possible inversion of the maxim. Not less important is the mutual confidence which prevails in the working-men's associations, a confidence that never exists in secret, but only in free and open societies, which have nothing to hide either from their members or the world. Putting aside certain petty jealousies, which are to be found wherever men work together, the conduct and management of these working- men's associations in England, resting as it does on the basis of mutual self-confidence, as also the prevailing unity of effort, are worthy of all admiration. This unity of effort is assisted, no doubt, by a peculiarity of the English people, which offers an interesting phenomenon in national psychology. There is less individuality in England than in any other country. The uniformity — nay, the monotony — of life, of customs, of modes of thought, of views, and of aspirations strikes even the superficial observer of this country ; but it is a marked psychological feature of the nation. The State, Self- Government, and Self- Help. 145 and one of the secrets of its strength. If the genius of French- men may he compared to a prism, which breaks np opinions into different rays of light, the genius of Englishmen, on the contrary, may be compared to a lens, which is able to concentrate all the rays into a single point. The many individuals who think and act alike are the strength of England's institutions ; on them depend not only her compact system of political parties, but also her trade and commerce, her legislation and government — in short, whatever is attempted either in larger or smaller circles, and demands the co-operation of individuals. One may think what one likes about it, but this much is certain, that the result is to exorcise two of the most dangerous enemies to public life, — namely, disunion and confusion of ideas. All these circumstances have impressed a peculiar, but also a common, stamp on all the various associations in question. Their management is entirely open, their annual reports are printed and accessible to the public. Their meetings are remarkable for their brevity and the practical relevance of debate ; strict parliamentary forms are observed ; there is a dominant respect for opposite con- victions, which manifests the training of the English people for public life, and enables the Tory to work together in harmony with the Whig and the Radical, the Churchman with the Dis- senter. Agreement is sought for on the ground not of purely theoretical discussion, bvit of practical experiment and practical management. This character peculiar to English working-men's associations has determined the part they play as free governing bodies m the social organism of England. The English working-man has pro- claimed in his associations his intention and wish to convert his materially improved condition into a higher degree of edu.cation. Herein lies the crucial point. The mere improvement of the external conditions of life is a useless boon to a class of society — nay, it may easily be turned to their disadvantage, — if it is not the lever to raise the intellect and will of the individual to some- thing better and higher. If this upward progress is once secured, the striving after outward gain and material possessions is fully justified. The useful becomes the ethical. In this manner the working-men's associations become gradually changed from narrow- L 146 English Associations of Working Men. minded representations of self-interest into real brotherhoods of duty, which not only protect the interests of their members, but also impose upon them obligations towards themselves and the association, and also towards the community at large. By this means the associations acquire a pixblic character, and we are justified in designating them as the social self-government of the working classes in England. No doubt it might be objected at once that, as purely volun- tary institutions, they cannot be placed on a par with the in- stitutions of self-government, properly so called. But this ob- jection is true only up to a certain point. For although it cannot be denied that there is still a large portion of English working- men who do not belong to Trades -unions and Co-operative Societies, and a portion also who do not belong to Friendly Societies, and that all classes of English working-men do not take an equal part in other associations, on the other hand we must not forget that all these associations have become the governing centre for the various branches of social administration which they manage, and that the influence they exercise on the relations of wages, the system of insurance, the food-supply, and the intellectual training and education of the working-class collect- ively, extends far beyond the association itself, and benefits also those who are outside it. Moreover, it must be observed that admission to these associations is, practically speaking, by no means as voluntary as their form would lead one to suppose. These associations exercise, from their very importance, a power of attraction which is drawing to them a constantly increasing number of the working classes, and which those still outside of them will find it more and more difficult to resist. "We have already mentioned that the working-men's associa- tions, in their present state of development, show the same decisive features which we have observed in municipal self- government, — namely, centralisation, the division of labour, and subordination to State svipervision. As regards centralisation, it is as marked in the Trades-unions as in the Friendly Societies and Co-operative Societies. Among the Trades-imions of the same trades there is the tendency to " amalgamate " and form associations, with branches ramifying TJie State, Self-Governnient, and Self- Help. 147 over the whole of Great Britain. In the next place, the Trades- unions of different trades in the more important manufacturing localities endeavour to keep contact with each other by means of Trades Councils. And lastly, the threads of all the industrial activity of the empire are gathered together in the Parliamentary Committee of the Trades-unions, a council sitting in London, which is elected by the Annual Trades-Union Congress, and is entrusted with the protection of all common interests of Trades-unions. This tendency to centralisation is equally pronounced among the Friendly Societies. In these, the Orders — as they are termed — which consist of associations with numerous lodges, are steadily gaining in importance. The insurance business con- ducted by the English Friendly Societies, as we shall see further on in this volume, is leading to a demand for larger associations, and therefore to concentration. Finally, the Co-operative Societies have to a large extent combined, and possess at Manchester and Glasgow their common large establishments for importation and mercantile purposes. The division of labour — that is to say, the formation and de- velopment of an official organism — has made great progress in the working-men's associations. It is true that the English working-man feels a repugnance to being governed by officialp, but the more perfected, efficient, and powerful his associations become, the larger will be the number of those who will have to be permanently entrusted with the management of current busi- ness or of such business as demands special knowledge. All the associations of which we are speaking are subject also to a State supervision, resting, however, on voluntary submission, not on compulsion, and diff'ering, in this respect, from the State control to which the local boards are liable. All the Acts which regulate the legal position of working-men's associations * are based on the same principle ; namely, that they leave the associa- tions concerned at liberty to register themselves, and while making their enjoyment of a number of advantages depend '' * That is to say, theTrades-unioa Acts, 1871 and 1876 (34 and 35 Vict., ch. 31 ; 39 and 40 Vict., ch. 22) ; the Friendly Societies Act, 1875 (38 and 39 Vict., ch. 60) ; the Industrial and Provident Societies Acts of 1874, 1875, and 1877 (37 and 38 Vict., ch. 421 ; 37 and 38 Vict., ch. 9 ; 40 and 41 Vict., ch. 36), 148 English Associations of Woj'kiiig Men. on tlieir registration, on the other hand establish as a conse- quence of such registration, a State siipervision, which varies considerably in extent in the diffei'ent categories of those associa- tions. Consequently, all working-men's associations resolve them- selves into two kinds — the registered and the non-registered. The State exercises a direct influence only on the former, though, in spite of the facultative character of this supervision, its in- direct influence on the constitution and the progress of the non- registered societies is a growing one. The registrar's office for all these associations is a central one, situated in London. The head of the office is the Chief Registrar, a post at present filled by Mr. J. M. Ludlow, one of those veterans who has devoted a whole life of constant work and noble unselfishness to the welfare of the working classes We shall have later on to speak more particularly of the Registrar's position, sphere of action, and influence. Here we will merely remark that his office is, so to speak, the head of these associations of the working classes ; that by means of its supervising and administrative action it steadily promotes the completion of this organization ; and that it concentrates all the threads which connect with State supervision the voluntary self- supporting associations of the English working-men. Just as the Local Grovernment Board concentrates in one department the supervision of the laws relating to the public health, the relief of the poor, and local government, and as the Education Department forms a central office for education, so this Registry Office seems intended to become the central State authority for the English working-men's institutions of self-help, and to raise those institu- tions into real self-governing bodies. Li this respect the regis- trar's office, with its functions embracing the most important relations of the working classes, is one of the most interesting phenomena of State life at the present day. Its jurisdiction is as yet not extensive, for the office is only now beginning to develop ; but its influence would be underrated were it estimated only by its sphere of legal competence. It enjoys outside of this sphere a position of confidence ; and its range of action will be enlarged in the future in proportion as the working classes become convinced of its necessity and usefulness. The State, Self-Government, and Self- Help. I49 Thus, among the changed economic and political conditions which have arisen since the first Reform Act, a revolution is being accomplished in the English State, which, especially since 1870, is beginning to assume a more and more altered form. The administrative gaps left by the old system in respect of the claims of a new period have been filled up by the central Gl-overnment with entirely new branches of administration, managed directly by itself, and further by a new form of self-government as well as by voluntary associations. We are far from, seeing, in this a decay of the State in England, such as Gneist is^ inclined to assume ; on the contrary, we recognise in these transformations the necessary consequence of those changes which have taken place in the stratification of English society, ami in the form and requirements of industry and production ; and we admire the moral impulse, the energy, and the constancy displayed by the English nation in reforming their administration. Anything, of course, like a systematic reconstruction of the old system in its entirety is not to be looked for, because, although systematic measvires have been enacted since 1832 in regard to single branches of administration, nevertheless the central government, the new form of self-government, and the voluntary associations have never divided their task according to any preconcerted plan, but have separately, each in its own way, following different im- pulses, sought and found a field of work which forms in its result by no means a systematic organism, but which is, notwithstanding its complicity, a solid frame for public life, in which the sponta- neous energies of the people and the activity of the State com- bine and complete each other in a manner unknown elsewhere. The survey of these changes which have taken place in the views of English society, as well as in the forms and aims of public life in tEngland, leave no doubt as to their social signi- ficance. We see in these factors, and more especially in the organization of the English working-men, a guarantee against sudden revolutionary changes. The State in England, which is kept together not by any official hierarchy or by military power, rests practically on the preponderating strength of those elements of the nation which are interested in a peaceful and constant development of society. These elements have, diiring the last 150 English Associations of Working Men. few decades, been greatly and, as we believe, decisively strengthened by the formation of the working-men's associations. We have no fear lest the enemies to the existing order of things, who of late have put themselves forward with snch noise and agitation, will succeed in disturbing the balance of the English State, esj^ecially as the best, most highly educated, and most powerful portion of the English working-men have nothing to do with such proceedings. We cannot conclude this introduction without asking ourselves, What is the collective working of all these factors, their effect, speaking generally, on the economic position of England, which, as we know, is so closely connected with her social progress ? At the first glance it is clear that all the social changes of which we have been speaking have raised the cost of production. Directly this is caused by the demand of the working classes for higher wages, but indirectly by almost all the enactments and measures introduced for the protection of labour and the im- provement of the conditions of labour. The shortening of the hours t)f work, the free Satiirday afternoon, and the strictly- observed Sunday's rest, place important checks on the using up of existing capital, while the statutory regulations as to healthy workrooms and arrangements for safety in factories and mines, materially increase the amount of capital required in starting, as well as the cost of keeping up, the business. In addition to this there is the fact that England has to maintain a competition in foreign markets with rival manufacturers which is constantly becoming more serious, so that not only is she excluded from re- couping the increased cost of production out of the consumer, but, on the contrary, has had also to submit to a not inconsiderable decrease in prices. We cannot here undertake to state a balance of the economic process in England, but we should like to point out what place is occupied in that process by the matters of which we have hitherto been speaking, and which in detail will form the subject of the following pages. At the same time there is much to put in to the scale of advantage to England. In the first place, it must not be over- looked that the pecuniary burdens experienced by production in consequence of social regulations have been imposed, in the course TJie State, Self- Government, and Self-Help. 151 of several decades, not at one and the same time, but by de- grees, so that English industry, — already during a period of almost unlimited dominion, and consequently at a time when profits were still superabundant, — has had time and power gradually to adapt itself to the new conditions imposed by her progressive social legislation, and to assimilate itself to these conditions without difficulty ; while, moreover, it must be taken into account that along with these burdens material relief has been afforded by the importation of cheap food and raw products, as well as by the improvement and cheapening of the system of transport. Of the utmost importance, moreover, was the raising of the intensity of labour, not only through the improvements in machinery, — which produces cheaper, if not always better, pro- ducts, — but also through the increased skill of the workmen. These two elements are closely connected with the social legis- lation to which we have referred. The English spirit of invention has sought to neutralize, by the perfecting of machinery, the checks imposed by that legislation on the process of production ; and the stimulus in this respect which is evident in the factory and mining legislation in particular, is distinctly visible in the history of English industry. Nor has the living factor, the work- ing-man himself, gained any less in power and skill by this legisla- tion, but has developed productive qualities which place him. indis- putably at the head of the working classes throughout the world. We have already stated our opinion that England's colonial power and colonial possessions form a reserve fund on which she can safely reckon for support, even if, as is to be expected, her commercial and maniafacturing supremacy is curtailed. From the consideration of English social legislation and its results, we may draw this further conclusion, that England has made a second and a still more important step in advance of her rivals ; namely, in the order which she has established between her employers and employed. With the combined strength of both she is able to carry on the struggle in foreign markets with foreign competitors, an impossibility for any State that contains in its bosom that Socialism which is hostile to all order at home. PART II. FRIENDLY SOCIETIES, 153 CHAPTER I. Origin and General Character of Friendly Societies. Reasons for considering Friendly Societies before Trades-unions. — Divergent aims and character of these two classes of institutions.— Their historical 23oint3 of contact.— Connection between the Friendly Societies and the Guilds. — Temporary distrust entertained against Friendly Societies. — Their enormous growth during the present century. — Their objects of insurance. — Their course of development. — Pieconstruction of their system of insurance. — Legislation a necessity of their growth. — Difficulties and drawbacks in their career. — They have taught the English -working-man the necessity of insurance. Before beginning to considei' the English working-man's system of insurance, so far as it is contained in the Friendly Societies, "we must endeavour to answer a question which has forced itself perhaps upon many of our readers. It may be thought that the task we have proposed to ourselves in these pages, namely, to describe the English working-men's institutions of social self- help, in their connection not only with each other, but also with the progress made by the English nation altogether in education, morals, legislation, and government, ought in any case to begin with those particular institutions which we may designate as the central point of all these efforts, and which have given the most powerful impulse to the furtherance of the well-being and inde- pendence of the working classes. In this respect the Friendly Societies must yield precedence to the Trades-unions, Mr. Ludlow remarks, with perfect justice, in the book which he wrote in collaboration with the late Mr. Lloyd Jones on the progress of the working classes in England, that if the most experienced workmen in England were to decide which of their organizations they considered the most important, four-fifths or more of them would say the Trades-unions, although it is 156 English Associations of Working Men. exactly these which were for the longest time ignored by the Legislature. In point of fact, the efforts made by the Trades- unions comprise the most important, most immediate, and most practical of all questions for the working class, — the question of v/ages. The improvement, however, in their relations as to wages, had not only become, as we have already seen, the basis of all the institutions established by the working-men in England, but constitutes also vei'y frequently the limit drawn, as against the lowest grades of the working class, with reference to their participation in these institutions. In resolving, then, after mature consideration to begin with Friendly Societies, some preliminary explanation is needed. The Friendly Societies are not only the first societies that sought to organize a distinct side of the modern social life of the working classes, but after years of experiment and of compromise between independence and the demands of legislation, have now at length entered on a stage, as regards their internal organi- zation and their legal form, which points to a certain definite goal. The consideration of these institutions is, therefore, the best means of enabling one to understand the nature of all the other working-men's associations which have been developed on analogous principles. In particular, the peculiar form given to Friendly Societies by legislation has served as a type for all other institutions, while the office, which originally served only for the registration of Friendly Societies and Savings Banks, has gradually become a central aiithority for all the working- men's associations which we are proposing to describe. In addition to this, there is a further reason for considering Friendly Societies first. Speaking of working-men's insurance in general, the subject is in no way exhausted by these societies. Besides the Friendly Societies strictly so-called, there are to be considered, firstly^ the numerous benefit clubs started by the employers, and connected with factories, railway companies, etc., which usually have quite distinctive features, and are combined with subsidiary objects, stamping them as belonging to a wholly separate group. Secondhj^ since 1829 there has been in existence a system of voluntary State insurance for the working classes, known as the Government Annuity and Insurance system, which. Origin and General Character of Friendly Societies. 1 5 7 though not in a position to supply the place of the Friendly Societies, nevertheless is of importance as a supplementing ele- ment in the consideration of the question of English working- men's insurance. And, thirdly, the Trades-unions also conduct insurance business for their members, — and indeed a very special branch of insurance, — by insiiring them against the loss of work. With regard, therefore, to the first two of these subordinate branches of English working-men's insurance, although they form independent groups of insurance societies, they readily fall within the description of Friendly Societies as a whole. With regard to the insurance system of the Trades-unions, the case is very different. The latter has so grown up with the other arrangements of Trades-unions, that it is impossible to separate it from those arrangements, and describe it in connection with Friendly Societies. On the other hand, the insurance business of the Trades- unions can only be properly considered by first obtaining a clearer insight into the system of English working-men's in- surance in general, of which the centre of gravity lies in the Friendly Societies. On this groiind, also, precedence belongs to the Friendly Societies. We should have to proceed very differently if the main object of our inquiry were to consider the early history of English working-men's associations. In this case it would be indispens- able to treat of Friendly Societies and Trades-unions simul- taneously, since their origin and their growth are governed by the same economic and social conditions, and both classes of institutions are only different sides of the same historical pro- cess. Since, however, the main subject of our work is restricted to the present state of English working-men's associations and their legal rights, and since the two classes of institutions, more- over, have long since diverged in aims and character, and con- stitute self-contained organizations, it is absolutely necessary to consider them apart. But while renouncing also the idea of describing the historical connection of these institutions as at present existing, with the earlier development of culture in England, we cannot forbear to cast a general glance at this connection. The few remarks 15S English Associations of Working Men. which we shall make on this point may suffice perhaps to show how the two lines on which the development of Friendly Societies and Trades-nnions has proceeded, converge all the more as we go back into the past, nay, even touch and meet. Both institutions have a common historical origin, — the mediaeval guilds ; both received a ncAV birth at the period of large industries ; both owe their existence to the same powerful reaction of the working-classes against the deterioration of their material condition ; both are among the most conspicuous examples of English self-help ; they work side by side ; they mutually supplement each other ; they are twin-children of the same sj^irit. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries saw the sj-stem of guilds in England in full and powerful operation. Toulmin Smith, Thorold Rogers, Brentano, Ludlow, and many others, have fur-- nished us on this subject not merely with critically digested material, but with interesting observations of their own. In addition to the Erith-guilds, for the preservation of the public peace, there were in England religious guilds of every kind, which afforded their members material support, and may be desig- nated as the forerunners of Friendly Societies. Besides these there were the guilds of traders and artificers for secular objects ; and these various brotherhoods formed a certain organi- zation of labour, a certain community of religious and social relations, which gave them at that period an economical, and, at the same time, a strictly ethical stamp, only that it must not be forgotten that the early centralisation of State legislation and the peculiar system of self-government gave from the beginning to the development of these institutions in England a direction different to that which they had taken on the Continent. The objects now pursued separately by the Friendly Societies, the Trades-unions, and a number of ofher associations in England, are found united in the guilds. ]\Ir. Ludlow, in treating of the connection between the modern Friendly Societies and the old English guilds, remarks that " the guilds of the fourteenth cen- tury, under forms to a gi'eat extent religious, could fulfil the purposes on the one hand of a modern friendly society, in pro- viding for sickness, old age, and burial ; and, on the other hand. Origin and General Character of Friendly Societies. 159 of a modern trade society, by rules tending to fix the hours of labour, and to regulate competition, combined with other friendly purposes." * A complete change in these relations took place at the time of the Reformation. The property of all the spiritual frater- nities was secularised. The Act of 1545 (37 Hen. VIII., ch. 4) was the first step towards this confiscation of the landed property of the religious guilds, which two years later was completed by the Act of 1547 (1 Edw. VI., ch. 14). This was the death-blow to the guilds, for their landed property formed the mainstay of their existence. A new legislation now overlaid these decaying forms. As on the Continent, so also in England, the power of the sovereign stepped in, the development of culture in England under the powerful Tudors showing thus once more during its jprogress an analogy with that on the Continent. The Poor Laws and the Apprentices Act of Elizabeth are the landmarks of this develop- ment. Thenceforth the ways divide. While the States on the Continent, by strengthening the power of the sovereign, and perfecting the bureaucratic system, approached constantly nearer that form which we designate by the name of a police State {Polizeistaat) ; England, on the contraiy, was gradually building up the classical fabric of her Self-government. After the decisive change effected in the political and religious relations of England by the expulsion of the Stuarts, the strong tendency to self- government, self-help, and freedom of movement, which has ever since remained implanted in the English natioo, received that impetus which makes it the motive element of all their political and social institutions. Notwithstanding, therefore, the sup- pression of the old forms, spontaneous combinations of handi- craftsmen and labourers, for the purpose of providing against the accidents of life by means of mutual help, certainly never ceased to exist. " I cannot believe," says Mr. Ludlow, in his article already quoted, " that during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries— in which the genius of our people received such an enormous • Contemporary Review, March, 1873, p. 564. i6o English Associations of Working- Men. development, in which the spii'it of association showed itself so rife and daring in many ways — the old English tradition of pro- viding by private fellowship against the ordinary needs of life, without knocking at the door of either State or parish, can have died out. I think it probable that the designation of guild became old-fashioned and popish-looking ; that it might be dropped by some of the existing bodies ; that it was less and less often adopted by those newly formed. But I feel convinced that there is no historical gap between the guild of old times and the modern Friendly Society." * Mr. Ludlow is of opinion that the transition of the old guilds into the modern form of Friendlj'- Societies was completed in the first half of the seventeenth century, at the period when Puritanism abolished the old forms, as being connected with the Romish religion, and the self-help of the people was called into action in their struggle against absolute monarchy. He cites the example of a guild in Norfolk, whose lands w^ere confiscated by the Act of Henry VIII., but which nevertheless was still continuing in 1650, in the possession of its property, and was not dissolved until that year. In the same essay he mentions two Friendly Societies established in London in 1666 and 1687, and estimates that as early as the second half of the seventeenth, and throughout the whole of the eighteenth century, a not unimportant number of such Societies w^as already in existence. In his A^inual Report for 1883, Mr. Ludlow mentions altogether seventy-seven English Friendly Societies, the earliest of which dates from 1687, and the latest from 1780. In Scotland, likewise, there are a number of Friendly Societies still remaining which are between a hundred and two hundred years old, among them a Society of Dyers, at Linlithgow, which was founded in 1679. It appears, therefore, that the Friendly Societies are insti- tutions which retain an unbroken connection with the old guilds, and which increased gradually from the latter part of the seven- teenth century, until, at the close of the eighteenth, they had already acquired such importance as to occupy the attention of the Legislature. But although it may be said that they were * Contemporary Eeviciv, April, 1873, p. 738. Origin and General Character of Friendly Societies. i6i commonly establislied in England about that period, the first decided impetus given to Friendly Societies was not until be- tween 1793 and 1819. About this time the Trades-unions first acquired importance. The cause in either case is an economical one. In treating of Trades-unions, in our second volume, we shall endeavour to show how the modern combinations of workmen — the " new guilds," as Brentano calls the Trades-unions — took their origin in that state of disorganization which was brought about by the introduction of machinery, the supplanting of home indus- try, the diminution of male labour caused by the employment of women and children, the abolition of the old system of apprentice- ship, and the lowering of the standard of wages. We shall see that the working-men resorted to combination and passive resist- ance to maintain their position in life. But this period of hard- ship also awakened their self-dependence in this respect, that they began to establish, on a larger or smaller scale, those societies for mutual relief out of which the great institution of Friendly Societies has been gradually developed. Since the beginning of the present century the Trades-unions and the Friendly Societies have been developing themselves on separate but parallel lines. Regrets have been expressed in England that the course of events shoiJd have led to this separa- tion, and that the legislation of the last and the present centuries has itself contributed to drawing such a sharp line of demarcation between Friendly Societies and Trades-unions in having recog- nised the former at an early period, while ignoring the latter until about eighteen years ago. The explanation of this fact, however, lies in the different nature and objects of these two classes of institutions. The Trades-unions were originally fighting societies, and are so, under given circumstances, to this day. Their action was manifested in a rough and often violent manner ; nay, their annals in the present century have not been unstained by bloodshed. With the Friendly Societies it is different. Their objects have always been peaceful ones, which never brought them into conflict with the traditional opinions or interests of other classes, or with the law ; their outward conduct has been quiet ; all the contests about tables of premiums, the organization of the M 1 62 English Associations of Working Men. system of insurance, questions of administration and the disposi- tion of funds, have no doubt stirred many Friendly Societies to the depths and led to secessions and re-constructions, but all these matters have been merely internal affairs, and showed no aggres- sive front against inherited ideas and existing interests. Only in a passing manner have Eriendly Societies encountered the distrust of the public. Many of these Societies, particularly the large Orders, shrouded themselves in a certain mystery, endeavouring to add to their attractiveness by aping the forms and usages of Freemasonry. There was frequently also a fear of unjustifiable interference with their funds on the part of the Government, a fear which was probably created by the recollec- tion of earlier confiscations, and which especially induced those Orders to keep their proceedings secret. Moreover, it cannot be denied that the Trades-unions, in order to promote their efforts undisturbed, frequently constituted themselves as Friendly Socie- ties, so as to be more safe from interference under this innocent disguise ; and that, on the other hand, even the Friendly Societies often assisted their members when involved in a strike. But the Friendly Societies discarded these phases at a comparatively early period ; their organization and aims have been the subject of Parliamentary inquiry, of scientific discussion, and of interest in the press, and their management is at present so open, that there are scarcely any institutions in England into which a stranger finds it easier to obtain an insight. The growth and spread of Friendly Societies during the course of the present century is simply enormous. Sufficient statistical data for ascertaining the total number of Friendly Societies exist- ing at the present day are not forthcoming, and could scarcely be collected, since there are a multitude of Friendly Societies which are not registered, and as to which no statistical information exists. Any estimate of the latter is therefore only a vague one. The Fourth Report of the Royal Commission, in 1874,* estimated the total of registered and unregistered Friendly Societies in Eng- land and Wales at 32,000, containing upwards of four million • "Fourth Report of the Commissioners aiii^ointed to Inquire into Friendly and Benefit Building Societies," Part I., pp. xvi., xvii. Origin and General Character of Friendly Societies. 163 members, besides at least as many more persons (making in all eight millions) interested (as wives, children, etc.,) in the benefits promised by such societies. The funds of these societies were reckoned at over £11,000,000, and it was estimated that their existence saved no less than £2,000,000 annually to the ratepayers. In the course of the period which has elapsed since the above calculation was made, all these figures have very considerably in- creased, as we shall be able to show in reference to the most im- portant classes of Friendly Societies. Inasmuch as in recent years the efforts to strengthen the financial basis of these societies have been greatly increased, and have met with considerable success, it is probable that a large augmentation of funds has taken place in relation to the number of members. A statement has recently been published by Mr. E. W. Bra- brook, the Assistant-Registrar, from which it appears that tlie estimate formed by the Commissioners in 1874 must be far ex- ceeded at the present day, since the number of registered Friendly Societies alone in England and Wales, which had sent in their annual reports to the Registrar's office in London, amounted in 1880 to no less than 12,867, with thirteen millions of funds and 4,802,249 members. It must be taken into account, moreover, that a good third part more of these societies was in arrear with their reports, so that the niimbers just given are subject to a far from inconsiderable addition.* Scotland, Ireland, and the Colo- nies are not included in these totals. What, then, do these Friendly Societies at the present day seek in general to accomplish ? What, taken altogether, is the course which their development has assumed during the present cen- tury ? The answering these questions should give us a nearer concep- tion of the task we are endeavouring to perform. We cannot describe the general objects of Friendly Societies more succinctly than by terming them insurance Societies based on mutual principles. They have principally to deal with the various sections of the working classes, but among their contribu- * Journal of the Statistical Society, March, 1885, in an article entitled, " The Kelation of the State to Thrift ; Two Years' Statistics of Friendly Societies and Similar Institutions," by E. W. Brabrook. 164 English Associations of Working Men. tors are many members of the middle and even of the upper classes, whose pecuniary aid and co-operation in their manage- ment, esj^ecially in the smaller societies, forms an element not to be undervalued. The Friendly Societies insure first of all against disability to work, as to which, as a rule, no distinction is made, whether this disability has been caused by accident or sickness, so that sickness and accident insurance meet in one. Thus insurance against sick- ness includes to some extent insurance against old age and infir- mity, since most of the Friendly Societies identify the notion of " sickness " with that of " disability to work," and accordingly go on paying thsir allowances, though perhaps on a reduced scale, in cases also of chronic illness and other infirmity. In speaking, therefore, in these pages of sick-insurance generally, we must be understood to include in that term insurance against accident and, in some degree, against infirmity also. It has only recently been attempted to constitute provision against old age as an indepen- dent branch of Friendly Society insurance, and to establish separate accident societies for certain trades and occupations, particularly that of miners. Nearly all the Friendly Societies combine with insurance against disablement insurance against burial expenses, or provision for a limited allowance on the death of a member, or of his wife or child. Besides this, they instire annuities to members' widows and education allowances for or- phans up to a certain age. Under the name also of " endow- ments," an insurance can be made for a certain term of payment in favour of a particular person, mostly for settling a son or daughter in life. By the Act of 1875, however, a maximiim sum is fixed for insurances in all registered Friendly Societies. No member is. entitled to receive more than £200 by way of gross sum, or £50 a year by way of annuity from any one or more of such societies (sect. 27). The life of a child under five years of age cannot be insured for more than £G, nor that of a child under ten for more than £10 (sect. 28). In addition to this, there are the insurances for the relief or maintenance of members when on travel in search of employment, or when in distressed circumstances, or in case of shipwreck or loss of or damage to boats or nets ; also for medical attendance. Origin and General Character of Friendly Societies. 165 medicines and appliances, etc. (usually in connection with the sick fund) ; and lastly, the insurance of tools and implements of trade against fire. A special class of Friendly Societies combines with the objects of insurance those of thrift, by undertaking also the functions of Savings Banks. Not all of the Friendly Societies, however, unite in themselves these manifold objects. The largest ones approximate most nearly to a comprehensive system of this kind. Most of the Friendly Societies undertake sickness and burial insurances, though there are a large number which confine themselves to the latter. As regards the course of development taken by these societies as a whole, it must not be forgotten how they arose. The Friendly Societies were originally institutions of mutual benevolence. They sprang from small bodies of men who, as neighbours, brought to- gether by the same or like occupations and by social intercourse, shared the joys and also the sorrows of their day, and either of their own impulse or at the instigation of clergymen, landlords, or manufacturers, gave each other a helping hand whenever any one of them was ill, or a death in the family occasioned extra expenses. Their desire was to prevent a fellow-workman and com- panion, when ill or aged, from going to the workhouse, or, v/hen he died, to save his widow and children from that fate. They were imperfect but healthy expressions of the spirit of thrift and independence. But the difficulties began when these small beginnings had developed into large and permanent institutions. Mistakes then appeared in the calculation of allowances ; defects of management and personal weaknesses in the managers came to light ; and when by degrees a countless number of these societies had been established throughout the country, and, owing to the spontaneous force of association, the most widely differing bodies strove to realize the same idea of insuring their comrades against sickness, death, or old age, — then these Friendly Societies found themselves at once confronted with problems of statistics and mathematics, of administration and finance, of which they had never dreamt in their primitive days, and the very importance of which, for the solution of their difficulties, they then gradually learned to understand and admit. 1 66 English Associations of Working Men. And now began inside these societies a reconstruction intended to adjust their action to the haws of probability, to establish a rational system of insurance, and to introduce a properly regu- lated management of their funds ; in other words, the benevo- lent institutions gradually changed into insurance societies, with tables and rules. The manner, however, in which this reconstruc- tion was effected is characteristic of England. The societies that participated in it took in hand the work of reform of their own motion (with the active co-operation, it is true, of the vipper classes, of men scientifically trained and well versed in questions of administration and finance), not in accordance with any preconcerted plan, absolutely without any system, groping, so to sj)eak, tentative^ from one experiment to another, imperfectly enough up to the present day, but on the whole with abundant success. It wotild be unjust to imdervalue the influence exercised on this course of development by legislation and State supervision, only that influence must be rightly understood. It is not legislation that dictated to the Eriendly Societies their line of march, but the efforts of those societies for reform led to facts which re- quired legal regulation, situations arose out of which legislation had to extricate them, and it was not until the last few decades that Parliament gave expression to the idea that these social in- stitutions, which had grown by their own strength into great self- governing bodies, required more supervision from the State. Legislation has not created these institutions, but, on the con- trary, their growth has necessitated legislation. It would be just as wrong to shut one's eyes to the bad conse- quences which this course of things has had in England as to quarrel with them. Spread as they are to an extent which was never guessed or expected, these, as well as kindred institutions, have brovight themselves to their present state, by means of the spontaneous energies of the people, supported but not led by the State, through the medium of legislation ; though this has been accomplished not in a gentle order of events, not without internal struggles, not without frequent miscarriages entailing widespread misery and misfortune, not without injustice and hardships to individuals, insomuch that at times all the benefits and bless- Oi'igin and General Character of Friendly Societies. 167 ings of these societies threatened to be swallowed up, and there came moments when even strong natures began to doubt of ultimate success. We shall examine all this hereafter more closely and in detail. We must content ourselves here with offering a few general remarks. In England, as is well known, the question of insurance plays a much larger part among all classes of society than on the Con- tinent. As regards the upper classes, this fact, no doubt, is to some extent connected with the law of primogeniture, which leaves the landed property to the eldest son, whilst for the younger children allowances are secured by the insurance of capital or rents ; but nevertheless, pecuniary provision for the future by means of insurance societies is very common also in those circles which have nothing to do with entail,— the practice of saving and pro- viding for the future having long been general among all classes of society. A great nitmber of insurance companies, conducted either on principles of mutuality or on those of profit, and with enormous capitals and often under exemplary management, minister in this respect to the upper and middle classes. To the Friendly Societies belongs the inestimable merit of having propagated the conviction of the necessity of insurance among the working classes. Contributions to sick and burial societies form at the present day in England standing items even in the scanty budget of the working-man ; the inierest taken in Friendly Societies by working-men of all descriptions is universal ; and the knowledge of the proper principles of insurance has — thanks to a number of admirable jiopular pamphlets and state- ments, to the constant discussion of vital questions at meetings and in the press — increased and extended in a most surprising manner. The English workman regards with pride the Friendly Societies as his own work. With them are connected the labours, the as- pirations, and very frequently the disappointments of his father, but also the progress and success of his children, and on this accoimt he clings with tenacity to the free development of these societies, and has hitherto set his face firmly against any proposal and any attempt to exchange this self-created organization for one created by the State, We cannot refrain from quoting here the words of one of those 1 68 English Associations of Working. Men. men who, in practice and in theory alike, as an active member of a Friendly Society, and also an author, takes an effective part in the movement for reform. Mr. Robert W. Moffrey, Past Provin- cial Grand Master of the North London District of the Manchester Unity, in a Prize Essay on the importance of making provision for old age, pays the following just tribute of praise to Friendly Societies : — " Founded by men belonging to the operative class, before the subject of insurance in any shape was understood by even those far above them in the social scale, they have steadfastly kept their object in view, till at the present time these societies have at- tained such a position numerically, — have accumulated such an enormous aggregate capital, — that they have forced on the nation at large a consideration of the work they are doing. Nor would it be just to them if, in considering their present position, any one were to leave out of sight the manner in which they have risen to it. Let it always be borne in mind that the work at- tempted at their formation was such as would have taxed the ability of great financiers — that they began their work before the least glimmering of knowledge on vital statistics had been vouchsafed to them — that as it became manifest their position was unsound, they boldly grappled with the difficulties discovered — and that these self-formed and self-governed institutions have given to the world an amount of information that could never have been obtained except by their means. * And though they are not yet perfect — what human institution is ? — the amoiint of suffering they have alleviated is simply incalcu.lable. They have provided means of thrift and self-dependence to a class which would not have been reached by any other agency, and have laid deeply the foundations of provident habits among the mass of our population." * * " Forster Prize Essays on Friendly Societies," Manchester, 1874. Essay on " The Importance of Provisions being made in Conjnuctiou with the Organiza- tion of Friendly Societies, for a Deferred Annuity or Superannuation Allowance in Old Age," pp. 19, 20. CHAPTER II. Different Kinds of Friendly Societies. Prefatory remarks. — 1. Dividing Societies : the Union Provident Sick Society, Birmingham. — 2. Local Village and Country Societies : the Hitchin Friendly Institution. — 3. Local Town Societies : the Cannon Street Male Adult Provident Institution, Birmingham ; the Christ Chmxh Provident Institution, Birmingham. — 4. Deposit Friendly Societies : the Abbot's Ann Provident Society. — 5. County Societies : the Wiltshire Friendly Society. — 6. Burial Societies : (a) Local Burial Societies and Local Sick and Burial Collecting Societies ; (b) General Collecting and Burial Societies ; (c) Burial (or Industrial Assurance) Companies. — 7. Ordinary large {or general) Societies : the Hearts of Oak Benefit Society, London. — 8. Particular Trade Societies : the Managers' and Overlookers' Friendly Society, Bradford. — 9. Factory Societies and Friendly Societies in connec- tion with large Establishments : Messrs. J. Crossley & Sons, Limited, Hali- fax ; Messrs. Piatt & Brothers, Company, Limited, Oldham ; the Atlas Works, Manchester ; T. Hoyle & Sons, Limited, Manchester ; William Denny & Brothers, Dumbarton; Saltaire. — 10. Raihvay Company Societies: the G. W. B. Company ; the London and N. W. K. Company ; the Midland Eailway Company. — 11. The Working-men's Orders : the Manchester Unity ; the Foresters ♦ the Grand United Order of Oddfellows ; the Druids ; the Loyal Order of Shepherds (Ashton Unity) ; the National Independent Order of Oddfellows ; the National United Order of Free Gardeners ; other Orders of Oddfellows ; minor Orders. — 12. Societies oj Females and Young Persons : Juvenile Friendly Societies. We have already described in our introduction the character- istic tendency of English national life to association. This power of i^nion has covered G-reat Bi-itain with a network of social institutions, resembling in their wealth and manifold variety organic life, in which from a multitude of germs the elements of strength are gradually developed, in which decay forms the nutri- ment of fresh growth, and in which the form changes but the force remains. The Friendly Societies are certainly among the sturdiest mani- 169 1/0 English Associations of Woi'king Men. festations of this national strength. We have mentioned their total number, and have said that they seek to accomplish their tasks under the most different forms. This is very natural with institutions which owe their origin to the spontaneous energies of the people. Much as the large number of Friendly Societies astonishes us, we are no less surprised to see how one and the same object can inspire institutions of the most different kinds. Sprung from immediate practical wants, these societies, determined, as they are, by the local relations, and the standard of wages and educa- tion of their members, assume the widest diversity of form. They meet us now as societies devoted simply to collecting contribii- tions from their members and paying them their insurance bene- fits, now as combinations which, in addition to insurance, seek to wind certain social ties round their members and to pursue the aims of education ; now as local clubs, confined to a particular town, or country district, or even village ; now, on the contrary, as large affiliated orders extending over the entire British Empire, together with its colonies ; now, again, as associations, which pursue strictly limited objects, as, for instance, to provide for the burial expenses of their members ; now as organizations which have laboured and are labouring, either by means of the most various systems of insurance, or by uniting insurance with thrift, to elevate the economic position of the working classes. In all these forms and objects is comprised the action of the various Friendly Societies, differing in extent, differing in their manner of business, differing in success, mutually supplementing each other, and partly assisting or competing with one another. Our immediate task — namely, to show the peculiar process of development which has been going on inside this multiform world of associative life — makes it necessary to endeavour to give a brief sketch of the different forms of English Friendly Societies. It is precisely the manifold character of these societies, and their im- pulse to independent development, that have detei'mined the way and manner in which the reform inside all these institutions has been effected, the course and present form of legislation, and the measiire of si^ccess the societies have achieved. Inasmuch, how- ever, as these different forms, in which the Friendly Societies Different Kinds of Friendly Societies. 1 7 1 appear, are not stationary but progressive, here decaying and there extending and broadening, we must consider not only the characteristics of these various societies, but also what kinds have outlived their day, and what are destined to pursue with triumph the object of these institutions as a whole. If one wished to treat this subject in detail, the description of these Friendly Societies, spread over the whole of Great Britain, would easily fill a volume. We must confine ourselves to giving a general view, as we hope to be able to do by considering the Friendly Societies in groups, supplementing our remarks on the general characteristics of each group by describing some particu- lar society as a type of the groiTp in question. We begin with those Friendly Societies which are rather limited in object or local importance, and whose organization, therefore, is simpler, passing on afterwards to those whose sphere of action is larger, and concluding with those great Orders which are not only the most prominent representatives of Friendly Societies in England, but stand to-day at a high point of de- velopment, and are undoubtedly destined to play a decisive part in the English working-man's insurance in the future. In connection with these independent Friendly Societies we shall speak of the benefit clubs started by employers.* 1. Dividing Societies. These kinds of Friendly Societies are of a purely local nature. * Our chief source of information in describing the different forms of Friendly Societies is the "Fourth [Keport of the Commissioners appointed in 1871 to Inquire into Friendly and Benefit Building Societies" (Parti., 1874). As re- gards the external changes made since then in the English Friendly Societies, we have consulted the Eeports presented annually to Parliament by the Chief Eegistrar, besides a multitude of special publications, rules, and yearly reports of the various Societies themselves. I am indebted in this respect for much information, otherwise unattainable, to my convex'sations and correspondence with Mr. J. M. Ludlow, the Chief Registrar ; Mr. Samuel Shawcross (then at Leeds), the Permanent Secretary of the Foresters ; Mr. J. Collins, at Manches- ter, the Permanent Secretary of the Manchester Unity ; and many other secre- taries and managers of Friendly Societies. Much material, industriously compiled, is contained in " Das Englische Arbeiterversicherungswesen, Geschichte seiner Entwicklung und Gesetzgebuug," by W. Hasbach, Leipzig, 1883. 172 English Associations of Working lien. Their manner of business is peciiliar. They are very widely spread in England. In their primitive form they are nsnally known as " Sharing-out Clubs," in their organized form as " Divid- ing Societies." The Sharing-out Club is the simplest and certainly also the oldest form of a relief society. A fund is accumulated by means of entrance-fees and subscriptions, out of which are defrayed the members' sickness and burial expenses, and the surplus remaming at the end of the year, or a longer period (for instance, seven years in the case of what are called the " seven years' clubs "), is divided among the members as a bonus. In this primitive form many relief societies still continue to arise and disappear in England. If they succeed in consolidating themselves and accumu- lating annually a proper reserve fund, they pass into the category of Dividing Societies, which, without abandoning the principle of division, are stable institutions. All these kinds of societies have this feature in common, — that they contemplate the periodical payment of a dividend, and thus combine the objects of insurance with those of thrift. The members' subscriptions must, therefore, be regarded only partly as insurance contributions, but as savings deposits as well. With regard to Sharing-out Clubs, in the first place the advan- tages offered by these wholly ephemeral societies are of only a relative kind. But certain advantages can undoubtedly not be denied them. In the case of migratory employments, as with navvies employed in making docks or railways, whose residence in any place is only temporary, their action is beneficial, as being at once sick-insurance offices and savings banks. Eor country labourers also they are not without importance, as the Commis- sioners admit in their Report. The Rev. Fitzhardinge Portman, in his account given to the Commission of a registered society of this kind at Staj)le Fitzpaine, near Taunton, which had been under his especial supervision for twenty-five years, declared his belief that it had been of the greatest benefit to that class. " My experience," he said, " as a clergyman of more than thirty-five years' standing, is, that a little 'lump' of money, though it be only twenty-five or thirty shillings, coming in now and then, is a very great boon to our agricultural labourers ; and I have no Different Kinds of Fj'iendly Societies. 173 reason to tliink, speaking generally, tliat it is improperly or wastefully spent. It mucli more often goes towards tlie purchase of a pig, or of shoes, or of some necessary article of clothing." On the other hand, there are great disadvantages connected with this form of Friendly Societies. When, for example, the older members preponderate in number, the younger ones drop their interest in the society and leave it, having to bear the dispropor- tionate burdens of their seniors. In such cases the Society is broken up, or rather is not renewed, and the older members have to fall back upon the workhouse. It appears also that in most cases of prolonged sickness, entailing heavy expense on the society, an advance is made of a part of the anticipated death benefit, after a certain amount of sick pay has been received, and the member is thereupon excluded. This is called " burying alive." Many of these clubs are got up by speculating publicans, in which case a large share of the funds is consumed in dinners or drink at their meetings. Embezzlement on the part of their treasurers has frequently been ruinous to these clubs. It is plain, therefore, that these Sharing-out Clubs discharge very imperfectly the functions of insurance. The case is better with the Dividing Societies, which have obtained a permanent organization, and are not only widely spread but popular. Some of these are among the best-managed Friendly Societies in the country, though they never go beyond a limited sphere of action. In the first place, the combination itself of an insurance society with a savings bank has many friends ; nay, the former object is regarded in many cases as one of second- ary importance, since many members of these Dividing Societies are insured in other Friendly Societies. Furthermore, the Divid- ing Societies, while combining with sick-insurance and dividends the receipt of savings deposits and the advance of loans to mem- bers, which explains, indeed, their popularity, give only a very subordinate place to insurance. Lastly, it cannot be denied, that the very simplicity of their organization is a certain guarantee, a miscalculation of the future being impossible in such societies, since no probabilities come into account, and each year starts with a clean sheet. By this means these societies, so far as they are registered, escape the provisions of the Act of 1875, which compel 174 Engl is Ji Associations of Working Men. all Friendly Societies that deal with calculations of probability to submit annually for audit a statement of accounts, and this exemption from what is frequently found to be an onerous require- ment of the State, may very likely be connected with their popu- larity. These Dividing Societies, which also go by the name of "Birmingham Societies," and "Tontines," are common in the southern and eastern counties of England among the agricultural population, but groups of them are found also in the large towns and, indeed, in the East End of London, at Bethnal Green, and in Birmingham and Newcastle-on-Tyne, as well as in Scotland. It is hardly possible, however, to ascertain positively their number, since most of them are unregistered, and many, as we have said, are of an ephemeral nature.* • An example of a Dividing Society which enjoys great stability is the Union Provident Sick Society in Birmingham. This insurance society was founded in 1802. Its organization, as appears from the rules last revised in 1880, which lie before us, is as follows : — The objects of this society are for the mutual relief of its members in cases of siclmess and such other infirmities, whereby they would be unable to work for their support ; to render assistance on the death of a member or his wife ; to defray the necessary expenses of the Society, and to make an annual division of the funds, after providing a reserve fund and after all claims existing upon the society have been met. The society does not admit any one who is under the age of IG or above 31 years, nor any one whose trade or occuiDatiou may be deemed dangerous or unhealthy by the committee. The committee consists of twelve, exclusive of the president, vice-president, trustees, stewards, and auditors, who are ex-officio members. The twelve are chosen by rotation, half of them retiring every quarterly-night, and any mem- ber refusing or neglecting to serve in his turn is fined 2s. %d. There are regular meetings of the committee, as well as quarterly nights and an annual general meeting, which exercises the ordinary control over the management, alterations of the rules, etc. The entrance-fees amount to 3s. 6d. The fortnightly contributions from 16 to 20 years of age, are 6rf. to the sick fund and \\d. to the management fund, the former of which secures a weekly sick-allowance of 5s. for the first 52 weeks and 2s. %d. for the remainder of sickness. For members over 20 these contributions and benefits are doubled. The sum payable on the death of a member, if between 16 and 20, is £10 (which is raised by a levy) ; and if over 20 years of age, £20, and £8 on the death of his wife. The overplus, if any, remaining from contiibutions, fines, and other receipts, after payment of all claims on the society, is divided annually on the 27th of December, when every member receives an equal share in proportion to his Different Kinds of Friendly Societies. 175 2. Local Village and Country Societies. "In the South of England," says Sir George Young in his Eeport to the Commissioners, " there are not many villages with- out a club. There is hardly a village or hamlet of twenty houses and a beershop that has not had its club. There are hardly any where one or more clubs have not failed at need, and disappointed their members, even within the memory of persons now living. The number found competing against each other is often remark- able."* These clubs meet, according to old usage, at public-hoi;ses, and form societies for the relief of their members by means of sick-pay and burial-money. A large proportion of them are on the sharing-out principle. These local Village and Country Societies, as they are termed in the Fourth Report of the Commissioners, are among the oldest Friendly Societies in England, and are still pretty common in the agricultural districts and smaller country towns. The Commis- sioners state that no adequate means exist of calculating the contributions, but is bound to leave Is. of such surplus in the hands of the treasurer for the reserve fund. The rules provide that the society shall never be dissolved but in accordancei with the Act 38 and 39 Vict., ch. 60. The financial position of the society during 1870-1880 shows great stability, as will be seen from the following figures : — Year. Number of Members. Receipts. Sick Pay- ments. Paid for Medical Aid. For Burial Money. Cost of Manage- ment. Divided. Reserve Fund. 1870 1880 3,800 4,923 £ 7,302 9,179 £ 1,961 3,406 £ 410 551 £ 1,198 1,362 £ 325 449 £ 3,096 3,262 £ 8,269 15,310 I am indebted to the Secretary of the society, Mr. H. W. Yarwood, for the information that by far the largest portion of the members belong to the work- ing classes. With regard to the amount of wages earned by members on admis- sion, the society makes no inquiries ; it varies from £1 to £3, and averages 30s. per week. About 5 per cent, of the members are manufacturers and tradesmen in good circumstances, who had been working-men, however, when first admit- ted, and have remained on the books. This circumstance is found in very many Friendly Societies, and it secures an admirable element for self-govern- ment. * Fourth Eeport, p. Ix. 1/6 English Associations of Working Men. number and strength of the separate Country Societies from any samples of local experience, inasmxich as they are often of an ephemeral kind, and are started, fused, " divide," and then come to an end without anything transpiring in public. Speaking gener- ally, it may be said that these Friendly Societies are disappearing before the larger Societies, and especially the affiliated orders, for all of them suffer from the great disadvantage that their most intelligent members turn to the larger societies, where they find, in addition to the pecuniary benefits, a social union calculated to stir and instruct them and bring them together. Thus a class of the population remains behind for these village societies, whose knowledge of insurance calculations and the keeping of accounts is defective, and who have not the strength to make any progress without extraneous aid. This sufficiently explains why wishes are heard expressed by this very class for the interference of the legislature in the affairs of Friendly Societies. Although it cannot be doubted, therefore, that the majority of these country societies belong to a dying-out type, still their im- portance is not to be undervalued. It must not be overlooked, that these very incipient attempts at insurance have diffused the interest in, and knowledge of, the objects of insurance among remote circles, and gradually made these circles competent to become members of more perfect organizations, which apparently in no long space of time will have absorbed most of these local institutions. A peculiar position among these country Friendly Societies is occupied by those which are under the patronage and management of the local landlords, clergymen, and gentry. All of them are distinguished by the fact that their meetings are not held at public-houses, that these honorary mem- bers of the locality do their best to prevent abuses, above all, the favourite habit of drink, and that their insurance is conducted on a rational basis. Some of these patronised clubs make provision for the housing of the older members. We must notice here a common feature exhibited in recent years by many of these Friendly Societies Vv'hich are under the patronage of the upper classes. The management of the Friendly Societies established formerly by clergymen, landlords, etc., lay naturally at first in the hands of their founders ; at the present Different Kinds of Friendly Societies. 177 day their management is transferred in manifold ways to the ordinary working-class members, according not only as the society, after several years' working, has consolidated itself financially, but as the men who have hitherto been its leaders, have laboured to train up the originally inexperienced members to walk by themselves. Unknown by the great public, and devot- ing the silent but consistent activity of a whole life to the task, many landowners in England, and their wives and the country clergymen, have been labouring for these Friendly Societies, as they have laboured for many other institutions of common utility, have been preaching thrift and providence, have set an example for the practical exercise of these qualities by their conscientious co-opera- tion in the Friendly Societies, and have succeeded in diffusing knowledge and forming character. Out of small and very im- perfect beginnings, after many years of labour, after mistakes and experiments, the result has often been to create in this manner safe and stable institutions, the value of which for the working classes would be much undervalued if one were simply to judge them by the actual money value of their benefits paid.* * To this category belongs a Friendly Society which is remarkable in more than one respect. This is the Hitchin Friendly Institution, in Hertfordshire, The Commission of 1874 speaks of it as the most remarkable sample of its class, and indeed of the whole body of Friendly Societies, as respects financial prosperity. This prosperity has been increasing ever since. The Hitchin Friendly Institution was established in 1827, the organization and capital having been supplied by the clergy and gentry of Hitchin and the neighbourhood. For a long time the management was almost exclusively in the hands of the honorary members, who were mere subscribers and donors, tlie benefits of the institution being reserved for the ordinary members. In course of years this Friendly Society, which was intended only for Hitchin itself and the immediate neighbourhood, became gradually more consolidated, the number of its members increased, and its management passed from the hands of the honorary members, who were its patrons, into those of the ordinary or benefit members. Nothing is more significant, however, of class-relations in England than the fact that the first use made by the ordinary members of their new power, on acquiring the entire management by an alteration of the rules in 1875, was to invite by unanimous resolution the local clergy and gentry to retain their former posts as president, vice-presidents, treasurer, and trustees, and thus to give them fourteen seats at a board of thirty directors, to whom the management of the society is entrusted. This society has the usual organization, regular meetings of members, and a N 178 English Associations of Working Men. 3. Local Town Societies. In the large towns, as in the country and villages, a number of societies have existed from old date, which differ from the village clubs and country societies only in so far that they have been committee of management 'consisting of thirty persons, an acting secretary, a treasurer, trustees, and auditors. Insurance against sickness, old age, and burial is obligatory on the members in the sense that every person making an insurance of any weekly allowance in sickness must at the same time make an insurance of a weekly allowance of half the amount, to commence at a certain age, and also a payment on death. The members insuring for these combined allowances are divided into no less than ten classes, any one of which a member may select on admission or change at any time with the consent of the directors. The principle is that sick benefits exclude superannuation benefits, and vice versa, the former being only assured up to a certain age, after which the latter commence, irrespective of whether the member is^well or ill. The boundary line between the two benefits is the age of 65 or 70, at the option of tbe mem- ber, according to the class he selects. The allowances in the first class are 2s. a week in sickness, Is. a week as an annuity after 65 or 70, as the case may be, and £2 on death. The combined sick, superannuation, and death allowances, if the limit of 65 years is chosen, are obtained by the payment of premiums ranging, according to the member's age on admission, from Qd. to Is. 11|(/. per month, the premiums varying quinquennially from the age of 15 to that of 50. If the limit of 70 years is chosen, the corresponding monthly premiums range from 5Jrf. to Is. 5^d. At the age of 65 or 70, as the case may be, all contributions cease. Any member is at liberty to double or treble these premiums, or to increase them up to tenfold the amount, in return for which he obtains corresponding allowances, according to the teu different classes, subject, ho»vever, to the restriction that the sum to be assured in sickness is not to exceed four-fifths of the member's weekly earnings, calculated on an average of the year next preceding his admission. A member is entitled, during the continuance of the same sickness, to full pay for fifty-two weeks, and to half-pay for the remainder of the sickness. Every sick or infirm member who is able to do some work, but not so as during any one week to earn more than half his usual earnings, is entitled to half-pay. No member, however, shall be entitled to full pay until he shall have been altogether off the funds for forty consecutive weeks. No person can be admitted as a member who is afflicted with any disorder or constitutional weakness which may tend to shorten his life, or incapacitate him from the performance of his customary occupation. The rules provide also for a transfer of assurances. If a member shall remove to any other place, in which a Friendly Society founded on the same principles as this institution has been established, the directors, at any general meeting assembled, may transfer the member's assurance, on his ai^plication, to any such Friendly Society, and pay out of tbe funds of this institution such sum of money as shall appear to be Different Kinds of Friendly Socitties. 1/9 establislied by another class of the population, and frequently bear traces of a narrow-minded spirit. It is precisely this group that shows a wide variety of forms in respect of management ; but one will hardly be wrong in distinguishing two tendencies in these a just equivalent for the claims of such member. In like manner, any member of such other Society may, on becoming an inhabitant of Hitehin or its vicinity, be admitted a member of this institution, on payment of an equivalent, and on subscribing a declaration prescribed by the rules. The following table will show the financial position of the society : — Year. C OS Receipts. j Expenditure. o >..s o C o o ■a '1 1 • CD c4 d is a 00 o o s n c a 6 3 1 31 i c a 1828 1838 1848 1858 1868 1878 1883 35 162 280 268 285 i 343 [ 342 ! £ 39 194 330 286 315 388 400 £ 52 194 361 571 778 847 £ 43 250 538 653 893 1177 1263 £ 37 109 ' 155 158 274 200 £ 114 111 408 622 £ 10 20 12 40 24 £ 14 13 12 53 73 52 £ 14 47 183 313 324 796 888 £ 42 1,298 4,503 8,134 12,974 17,511 19,309 A small increase of members since 1848, as against a rapid accumulation of funds, the interest on which alone almost sufficed in 1883 to cover the expenses of management, cheap management, and a comparatively small demand on sick benefits — such are the features which characterise this society as a conserva- tively managed, self-contained institution, which, although confined to a small section of society, is a model of its kind. The tables of premiums for tbis society have been compiled by Mr. F. G. P. Nelson, who has frequently of late years expressed a high opinion of its con- dition. The clear knowledge obtained of the state of the insurance account in conjunction with the growing funds in hand enabled the directors in 1869 to increase the sick allowances to all the then members, and also to add a sixth part to the annuities of the twenty oldest of the society's members. In 1875 it was further resolved to add a sixth also to the annuities of the sixty members who had been the next longest in the society when they should become entitled to their annuities ; an arrangement enabled by the fact that the valuation insti- tuted by Mr. Neison in 1873 gave an estimated surplus of £2,925 of assets as compared with liabilities. Nay, more, when in 1883 a new valuation showed a i8o English Associations of Working Men. town societies. Many of tliem are decidedly on the way of pro- gress, improve their tables of premiums, institute periodical valua- tions, apply their funds with care and discretion, and altogether keep pace with the development of other ^l^riendly Societies.* The majority, however, especially the smaller societies of this kind, have been ruined by the narrow spirit of a coterie. They date from earlier times, and frequently admit only a limited number of mem- surplus of £2,988, an addition of another sixth part was voted for another group of members, amounting to fifty in number. These proceedings suflScieutly explain the marked increase of sick benefits in the table above. With regard to the position in life and earnings of the members of this society, I am informed (June, 1884) by the present secretary, Mr. H. Jeeves, that about a third of them are tradesmen in good circumstances, another third workmen of different kinds, earning on an average 20»'. a week, and a third shop- apprentices, mechanics, and about seventy women. * To this class belongs the Cannon Street Male Adult Provident Institution, in Birmingham. Established in 1841, its rules, as well as its tables of premiums, have been more than once revised. The society provides for the relief of its members in case of sickness and other infirmities disabling them from work, and for assistance on the death of a member or his wife. No person can be admitted unless he can produce a certificate of health by the society's medical officer; nor any one who is nnder the age of 16 or above the age of 40 ; nor any one whose occupation is deemed dangerous or unhealthy, such as watcr- gilders, grinders, painters, colour-makers, varnish-makers, pearl-workers, nor such railway servants as engine-drivers, stokers, guards, platelayers, or porters, or any other pernicious or dangerous calling; nor police officers, nor bailiffs- followers. The committee of management decides as to admission, and in 1883 rejected no less than 20 out of 541 applicants. The committee consists of six members, chosen by rotation, as their names stand on the club books, till the number is complete, and of the president, vice-jiresidents, and officers, who are elected by the general meeting. The funeral benefits, which amount to £5 for a member who has been in the society six mouths at the time of his decease, and to £20 if he has been a member twelve months (the sums payable on the death of a member's wife are £2 10a'. and £8 respectively), are drawn from the joint stock, which is reimbursed by a quarterly levy. The sick benefit is paid in full for the first fifty-two weeks of sickness ; after that period the member receives one-half of the allowance during the time he continues unable to work ; but after he has been in receipt of this half-pay for six months, the committee are empowered to grant quarter- pay, with permission for him to follow any business or calling for the ensuing six months. A table of premiums for sick insurance, compiled by Mr. John Fiulaison, is in force for the older members, which contains somewhat lower payments than Different Kinds of Friendly Societies. i8i bers, but bave accumulated proportionally large funds, so tbat tbeir financial position is very favourable, but tbeir action often remains narrow and exclusive. Tbe Report of tbe Commission mentions one of tbese town societies, the Friendly Union Benefit Society, in Bermondsey, established in 1809, tbe number of wbich was origin- ally limited to 100 members, afterwards to 130, and was, according to tbe returns of 1872, only 50, In this society a narrow spirit the following one, prepared by Mr. F. G. P. Neisou, wLicli has been in force since 1877. There are nine classes to choose from, and the sick benefits range from 4s. #o 20». per week. The contribu- tions vary with the age at admission, and are according to the years below, viz. : — 16 to 20 „ 24 „ 28 „ 31 „ 34 „ 37 „ Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Class 9 In these classes the sums assured (paid weekly in case of sickness) are as follow :— 4/- 6/- 8/- 10/- 12/- 14/- 16/- 18/- 20/- The corresponding premiums, payable fortnightly, are as follow ; ». d. ^. 5 5* H 6 6i 7 1 s. d. 1 s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. 8. d. 6 — — — — — — 6^ 8 10 Hi 1 1 1 3 1 4^ 7 9 11 1 1 1 3 1 5 1 7 7i 10 1 1 2 1 4^ 1 7 1 9 8i 11 1 u 1 4 1 6i 1 9 1 Hi 9 10 1 2i 1 5 1 8 1 11 2 U 10 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 7 1 10 2 1 2 4 d. 1 6 1 9 1 11 2 2 2 4 2 7 From the balance sheet of this society for 1883 we gather the following : The contributions of members amounted to £12,876, the interest on the reserve fund (£84,540) to £3,256, knd the total receipts to £16,133. The sick benefits came to £11,488, the expenses of management were £705, and £1,364 was paid for medical attendance and medicine, tbe total expenditure being £13,557. The secretary, Mr. C. Cashmore, informs me that the society is almost exclusively composed of working-men of the artizan class, but that there are also servants of various kinds, and a very few members of the middle class. The working- men members earn from 18s. to 40s. per week, and some of the foremen and superintendents more. Another of these local town societies is the Christ Church Provident In- stitution, also in Birmiughaii. It is under the management of the rector of 1 82 English Associations of Working Men. of coi'poration prevails. These features suffice to characterise this class of societies, and to show that they have only a relative value. Sir George Young sums up, therefore, correctly his opinions on these town societies by remarking that thoiigh their varieties are numerous, their numbers are rapidly diminishing under the stress of the competition of the affiliated orders, and with the exception of a very few, which are established on a sound basis, they are dying out.* 4. Deposit Friendly Societies. ■ A wholly distinct class of Friendly Societies consist of what are called Deposit Friendly Societies, which unite, in a wholly original manner, the functions of a savings banlc with those of a provident society. A clergyman, the late Hon. and Rev. Samuel Best, was the originator of a system intended to train the working classes to habits of thrift and providence by connecting the allowances with the savings, and making the former dependent on the latter. His S3-stem was certainly ingenious, but it was too artificial to obtain any wide adoption. The first institiition established on his prin- Christ Cliurch for tlie time being and of tbe vicar of St. Barnabas, who are the respective president and vice-president of the society, and of a committee of members chosen at the general meetings, together with a permanent secretary and the necessary officers. Its sick insurance arrangements are similar to those of the last-mentioned society, except that there is a separate insurance for medical attendance. A member, by paying twopence fortnightly, is entitled in all cases of sickness to the services of a doctor appointed by the society, and also to medicine gra- tuitously to a certain extent. In 1883 this insurance was made use of by 1,027 persons. The total number of members in that year was 1,108, about half of whom were men and half women. A savings bank is connected with this society, which pays 2^ per cent, in- terest on deposits. The secretary of this society, Mr. John Henry Dee, informs me that in this, as in the majority of similar institutions, the chief contingent is composed of factory-hands and workmen in different branches of trade, earning uj) to 40.5. a week, but that there are also a number of small shop- Iceepers, commercial travellers, etc., on the books. Mr. Dee calculates that out of the 350,000 inhabitants of Birmingham, more than 50,000 persons of the working classes are members of the various Friendly Societies, and he speaks of the progress made in thrift and providence as extremely gratifying. * Fourth Eeport, p. Ix. Diffij'ent Kinds of Friendly Societies. 183 ciples was the Abbots Ann Provident Society, wliicli became the model for several others of the same kind. The leading principle of these societies is, that the amount of relief in case of sickness is based not simply on the insurance, but also on the savings deposited in the bank, the arrangement being that the allowances are derived partly from an insurance fund, and partly from the individual member's credit with the society, but that the claim to such allowances practically ceases as soon as the member's own fund is exhausted. In this characteristic manner the author of the system endeavoured to promote thrift among the members by compelling them to begin by saving a small fund, and never quite exhausting it. At the same time he hoped, and experience has, to some extent, confirmed his expecta- tion, that in societies of this kind the members would abstain from claiming relief except in cases of real necessity, since every allowance meant a proportional diminution of their own fund. These societies possess the further advantage that the classification of risks enables them to admit persons without any limitation, as regards old age or health, and thus to step in and assist where the restrictions imposed by other societies operate as a bar to membership. This system, projected by Mr. Best, has its enthusiastic sup- porters, who point to its success as a proof of the advantages it offers. On the other hand, especially among the large affiliated orders, which are established of course on wholly different prin- ciples, it has been fiercely attacked, the objection being, chiefly, that the classification of members is nugatory and fallacious, and that it is contrary to the proper objects of Friendly Societies to let the allowances cease when the savings of the individual members are exhausted.* * We can only sketch in outline the constitution of this Provident Society established by Mr. Best, taking for our authority the rules, printed in Part II. of the Fourth Eeport of the Commissioners (pp. 284-8) and the Eeport itself, (pp. Ixxxiii.-xci.), which deals exhaustively with this institution. The Abbots Ann Provident Society is a savings-bank, a friendly society, and a medical club all in one. Any one is free to join it simply as a depositor, in which case he has a current account, paying in and withdrawing his money, subject to a month's notice, and receiving interest yearly on his deposits. This feature of the system 184 English Associations of Working Men. The Abbots Ann Provident Society formed the model of some larger societies, among others the Hampshire Friendly Society and the Surrey Deposit Friendly Society, the latter of which grew afterwards into a larger institution, the National Deposit Friendly Society, with country agencies. These societies diverge more or less from Mr. Best's original idea, which other Friendly Societies also took up and endeavoured to realise in various ways. With regard to all the societies of this kind, the Report makes the fol- lowing very just remarks : " It is perhaps to be regretted," says Mr. Ludlow, " that Deposit Friendly Societies should ever have been registered under the Friendly Societies Acts. They are indeed essentially Savings Banks rather than Friendly Societies. That security of provision, which it is of the essence ^f the Friendly Society to insure, however it may fall short of really doing so, they do not profess to give. They are primarily in- dividual, not social. Were they certified under the Savings Banks Act, all misapprehension of their true character would cease, and has nothing in common with Friendly Societies. Every depositor, however, so long as he has savings deposited in the bank, can share the benefits of the Bociety. A general fund is established for this purpose, distinct from the medical, sick, and old age funds, and to which each member contributes pro- portionally out of his deposits in the savings bank. The sick-rate is based on a simple average of sickness during the last five years. The allowances are paid partly from the member's own deposits and partly from the general fund of the society. There are five classes of risks, based on the probabilities of health or sickness according to age, sex, health, and occu- pation, and into which a member is enrolled after medical examination. These classes are as follows : — A. Healthy males under 35, having no hereditary complaint in their families, and not following an unhealthy trade. B. Healthy males under 45, but having an hereditary complaint in their families ; and healthy females under 40, having no such hereditary complaint. C. Healthy females under 50, having an hereditary complaint in their families ; and males under 55, of doubtful health, or following an un- healthy trade. D. Females under 60, of doubtful health. E. All persons not capable of being included in any of the above classes. The first class represents, therefore, those persona who may be considered the Different Kinds of Friendly Societies. 185 they would be recognised as an ingenious attempt, from the savings bank ground, to supply most of the objects which are aimed at by Friendly Societies." 5. County Societies, Hitherto we have dealt with societies which, at least as origin- ally constituted, are purely local. We pass now to a category of Friendly Societies which occupy, to a certain extent, a middle position between the local institutions and those larger organi- zations, some of which extend their branches throughout the British Isles, and others even to the colonies and America. The County Societies have, above all, this distinctive feature, that, like the patronised clubs, they do not depend exclusively on the self-help of the labouring classes, but are mainly established and managed under the co-operation of those classes of the com- munity which administer self-government in the counties. These societies are founded either for entire counties, or portions of coun- least likely to require relief, and this likelihood decreases gradually in the suc- ceeding classes, until it reaches a minimum in the fifth, the members of which are most likely to require relief. In the case of sick allowances a peculiar arrangement is made. Members of the first class pay one-fourth of the sick allowance from their own fund (the remainder coming from the sick fund of the society) ; members of the second class one-third ; members of the third class one-half ; members of the fourth class two-thirds ; and members of the fifth class five-sixths. Although the premiums, therefore, are the same for all members, old or j'oung, sick or sound, an equitable adjustment is thus made, since those members who are more unfavourably situated are liable, in case of sickness, to a larger pro- portionate deduction from their own fund than the others. But the essential point is that when the member is unable to draw the allotted portion from his own fund all claims for sick allowance cease, and this, accord- ing to the projector's intention, was to be the strong incentive to members to increase their deposits, and keep off relief as far as possible, to avoid "pulling their own fund to pieces." The allowances for old age are subject to analogous rules. Medical attendance is paid for partly by a small annual rate, and partly according to a special scheme. The Abbots Ann Provident Society is, as stated in the Eeport of the Com- mission, a success. In 1873 it had about 791 members, and in Abbots Ann parish itself, out of a population of 700, there were 450 members and depositors. The members were of all classes, from labourers earning lis. a week (nominal). The amount generally insured for was 8s., and sometimes 10s. a week. — Fourth Jleport of the Commission, pp. Ixxxiii.-xci. i8 5 English Associations of Working Men. ties, for the political area of the hundred, or the area of the Poor- law Union. The clergy and county nobility and gentry belong to them as honorary members, and pay yearly subscriptions, with- out, of covirse, claiming the benefits which the societies promise. Their management lies more or less in the hands of these honorary members. " Some of these societies," says Sir George Young, " have been founded in pursuance of resolutions taken by the magistrates at quarter sessions, as a means of improving the con- dition of those classes which are in part dependent on the rates, and with the hope of eventually superseding the poor law by their means." They insure against sickness and old age, provide medi- cal aid, and pay allowances for setting up young persons in life. The Report of 1874 gives a list of eleven County Societies proper, I.e., extending over the whole area of a count}", but confined to it, with funds amounting to £221,955, and 29,03G membei-s. Count- ing in the societies confined to parts of counties, the total number of members in 1874 was about 40,000. In addition to these larger Friendly Societies there are a considerable number of smaller ones, whose operation does not extend over the poor-law area, but which must be reckoned in this category, as they are patronised, at all events, by the ruling classes in the county.* This kind of societies again meet a definite want. The scattered agricultural and other labourers of the soxxthern and midland counties of England, sxxch as Berkshire, Dox^set, Essex, Hants, Hereford, Nottingham, Rxxtland, Shropshire, Wilts, Devon, Glou- cestex^, Oxfordshix^e, Somex'set, Sixffolk, Surx^ey, etc., where this class of societies is xxiost common, Avoixld have failed withoxxt the initiative of the couxity nobility and geixtxy, to find any point of ixnion ; they woxxld not have come into constant coxxtact with each othex^, and they would never have sxxcceeded, owing to their want of combixxation and waxxt of knowledge, ixx organizing axxy systeixi of ixxsxxrance, especially as they do not enjoy those higher wages which make it easier for the operatives in the towns to pxxt by sonaething for the futxxre. In this respect it is fortxxnate for thesq axxd other countx-y societies that they obtain, through their honox-- axy members, a financial support which enables them to reqxxire * Fourth Report, pi"'. xlix.-l. Different Kinds of Friendly Societies. 187 lower payments than must otherwise be the case. Hence the County Societies are accessible to a class of labourers who earn only from 10»\ to 12.?. a week, and who would, therefore, be scarcely in a position to join any of the large affiliated orders. No doubt these advantages are not without certain di'awbacks. It is com- plained that the real or benefit members of these Eriendly Societies frequently show little interest in them, and that the management, in such cases, lies exclusively in the hands of the honorary members, who, although they conduct them, no doubt, on certain safe principles, nevertheless are not in a position, considering the want of co-operation and self-control by the members themselves, to prevent abuses and imposition. Even the secretaries, or agents, who are frequently appointed for conducting their cvirrent biTsiness, are not always able to exercise an adequate check on reported cases of sickness, so that a special payment is often actually made them by the committee of management if they succeed in keeping down the sick allowances below a certain limit. The County Societies are gradually absorbing the village clubs, of which we have spoken earlier ; of course the better ones more quickly than the worse.* * The Wiltshire Friendly Society was fouudecl in 1828, aud for a long series of years was under the immediate direction of Mr. Sotlieron-Estcourt, M.P., who is still its vice-president. We have before us the latest rules of this society, dated 6th May, 1882, and the statement of accounts for 1882. The society is financially very jjrosperous, hut the number of members is diminishing rather than increasing. The members are divided into benefit members and honorary members. The former only draw the allowances ; the latter pay an annual subscription, and take part in the management of the society. This was formerly in the sole hands of the honorary members, but gradually, and particularly since 1840, all the members were placed on the same footing in this respect, although the whole institution remained, as before, under the patronage of the Lord Lieu- tenant and the leading clergy and landowners of the county. At the meetings of the society all the members have the same right of voting. A committee of management attends to the business of the society, which has one hundred and two branches scattered over the whole county. The branches, which extend over one or more parishes, are under the management of local committees, consisting of all the honorary members resident in the respective IJarishes, and of three benefit members. The three tables of premiums used by the society were compiled by Mr. Alexander Gleu Fiulaison. The first of these fixes the premiums required to 1 88 English Associations 0/ Working Men. 6. Burial Societies. We turn now to consider a large group of Friendly Societies, differing widely in size, but all of them having this in common, that they are in most part only societies for providing a sum of money in case of death, to defray the expenses of burial, and combine sick insurance as a purely subordinate part of their business. There are two distinct groups of Burial Societies, each of which has a very different value, — namely, the local and the general assure a certain sick allowance, payable daily, and also a sum of £3 at death. The premiums vary in amount, according to the age of the member at his first payment. The payments last as long as membership continues. An abstract of these tables gives the following figures : — To assure a daily sick allowance of v- 1/6 2/- Age at first payment. As well as a sum of £3 at death, the following monthly premiums are payable, viy-.: — 15 years. 20 „ 25 „ 30 „ 35 „ 40 „ 45 „ s. d. 1 1 1 1 2J 1 H 1 7 1 m 2 3 8. d. 1 5i 1 n 1 94 2 2 4 2 9 3 3 s. d. 1 11 2 \h 2 4 2 8 3 0^ 3 7 4 3^ A second table provides for certain allowances (the highest of which is £20) on the death of a member or a member's wife ; and a third table for an allow- ance, based on contributions beginning with the sixth year of life, and not exceeding £50 as a portion, payable at the age of twenty-one. A member, before drawing the sick allowances, must have belonged to the society for six months ; but he is entitled, immediately on his becoming a member, to gratuitous medical attendance. The society has its own medical officers, who are paid according to a scale agreed on with them. There is an arrangement in this, as in many other Friendly Societies, that no member can draw a sick benefit in excess of his usual wages or income. Members, while in receipt of sick benefit, must continue nevertheless to pay their monthly contri- butions. Pro'^:«ion is made for the book-keeping, balance sheets, auditing, and perio- Different Kinds of Friendly Societies. 189 burial societies. Only some, perhaps the smaller of these societies, are really social institutions ; while the larger ones do not strictly belong to Friendly Societies at all, although they are registered as such. The general freedom of association in England, coupled with the great energy and self-activity of the people, has pro- duced, no doubt, astonishing results ; but here, together with much light, there are deep shadows. We have to deal in this case with a dark side of the picture. (a) Tlie Local Burial Societies, and Local Side and Burial Collecting dical valuation of the liabilities of the society. There is a sj^ecial branch of the society oi-ganized on Mr. Best's principles, and embracing an elaborate system of superannuation insurance. A fund is constituted for this purpose out of annual contributions, as well as fines and the subscriptions of honorary members. If this fund is found deficient, a levy is made on all the members to supply the deficiency. The superannuation allowance amounts to half of the sick benefit insured for, and is payable after the age of seventy, when the sick benefit ceases. This branch of insurance, however, being arranged on Mr. Best's system, only half of the siiperannuation allowance is taken from the fund, and the other half out of the deposits of the insuring member ; and the member ceases to be entitled to any superannuation allowance when his deposit account is exlaausted. The members of the society can choose which kind of insurance they will adopt. According to the statement of accounts for 1882, the society had 4,854 ordinary, and 821 honorary, members, besides those who belonged to the branch managed on Mr. Best's system. The receipts of the society for that year were £5,895 Is. 6cZ. from premiums and subscriptions of honorary members, £287 5s. from interest on the funds (£41,058), and £1,556 19s. from allowance on income tax ; the expenditure being £5,391 2s. id. paid in benefits, and £599 3s. 9d. for he costs of management. The funds were invested to a small extent in 3 per cent, consols, but most of them in 4 per cent, debentures of English railways. The society, as the secretary, Mr. David Owen, informed me, was originally intended for the agricultural population. The wages of the agricultural labourer are now, owing to the depression of agriculture, much lower than they were six years ago ; he gets only about 10s. or 12s. a week, in cases where he got formerly 15s. or 16s. Nevertheless, the agricultural labourers still form the majority in the society, although there are a certain number also of members of other classes. Mr. Sotheron-Estcourt, in his evidence given on June 30th, 1871, before the Commission (Second Report, qu. 661), spoke as follows of the social importance of this County Society : "By means," he says, " of what we call festivals (that is to say, a jollification promoted in each parish where we have a branch), a vast amount of information is distributed, good fellowshij^, and good under- standing are promoted between different classes ; and, altogether, I should say that a vast social improvement has been carried on by means of our society during twenty or thirty years past." 190 English Associations of Working Men. Societies, have for the most part a very primitive oi'igin. Sir Greorge Young states in his Report to the Commission that they have generally grown ont of the custom of sending round the hat on the decease of a fellow-workman, who in most cases was a public- house comrade, to collect something for his funeral and family. The first step in the way of organization is to "keep one death in hand," so as to avoid the delay of collecting the money when it is wanted. This, however, will involve some trouble and responsi- bility in the collector, and a small subscription is accordingly added, sooner or later, to defray expenses. The next step, which takes place when the club gets large, and the calls in consequence become frequent, is to substitute for the " levy " a regular sub- scription, weekly or otherwise, sufficient to cover the current out- goings and something over, and at the same time to limit the benefit to about the sum to which it has now risen. The benefit thus fixed cannot long be maintained ; but in the meantime the " something over " of the contribution will often for a short time accumulate ; and it is by no means uncommon to divide a portion of it by way of bonus. In this way the decline of the club is accelerated, until the rapid diminution of stock forces upon the members the conviction that the majority of them will inevitably survive it ; and then the younger and middle-aged majority will force upon the older minority the division of what remains. " The Burial Club," adds Sir Gr. Young, " which survives a generation is an exception." It is characteristic, however, of the way in which things develop in England, that even flourishing and well-regulated Friendly Societies have grown out of these rude beginnings. In the north of England, in particular, there are Burial Societies founded by the energetic working population of that part of the country, which are well managed and firml}^ established, and which, as benefit institutions, entirely fulfil their purposes. Groups of such societies exist in Manchester, Preston, and Maccles- field. In Manchester and its connected townships, Mr. Stanley's Report to the Commissioners gave a list in 1874 of nineteen local Burial Societies, founded between 1818 and 18G3, with 110,734 members and £41,491 funds. The total cost of management differed widely in these societies, varying from 10| to 30 per cent, of the income from contributions. The Preston group consisted of nine Different Kinds of Friendly Societies. 191 societies, with 92,269 members and £19,313 funds ; and in Maccles- field there were ten societies, giving, out of a population for the town and neighbourhood of less than 40,000, a total of 27,731 members and £4,186 funds. The total strength of the registered Local Burial Societies for England and Wales, according to the data furnished by the registrar's reports for 1871-2, was estimated by the Commissioners at 718,249, or, making deductions for double insurance and double membership, in round numbers 550,000, of whom between 330,000 and 430,000 are reckoned as adults, and the remainder as children. With regard to these Burial Societies as a whole, it is impos- sible to form any general judgment, for they display both the good and bad features of English combination. The special evils alleged against them are, that in connection with the limited nature of their object, the social element does not operate in a wholesome manner, but that the officials increase the cost of man- agement by swelling the salaries, drinking habits, and dealings with undertakers. Otherwise, the evils which exist in these societies are not only common to them with the general burial societies, but exist only in proportion as the local burial society assimilates itself in type to the general.* (&) The General Collecting and Burial Societies differ from the preceding sub-division in that they do not confine their operation to single localities, but canvass in all directions, through the me- dium of an army of agents or collectors, wherever there is a chance of enlisting new members. These societies also are established on the mutual principle, but no good accrues thereby to the members, and the result is frequently just as scandalous a fleecing of the public as in the case of the most precarious insurance societies based on the principle of profit. As a rule they insure only a certain sum, in the event of death, to cover the burial expenses ; in exceptional cases, however, they insure also against sickness, though this is mostly as a mere advertisement. The management of these societies is in the hands of a committee, chosen by a nominal general meeting, and the committee appoint permanent officers as they think fit. By means of a host of col- • Fourth Report, pp. xcii. cii. 192 English Associations of Working Men. lectors, or to give them their proper name, " touts," as also by their " district managers " or " superintendents," these societies are represented everywhere wherever their business makes it desirable they should be. By these organs subscriptions are collected, new members enrolled, and according to circumstances, old members, especially if they are inconvenient, are got rid of. There is no question of anything like a social organization in these societies ; nay, they do not even deserve the name of societies at all, since their members have neither any interest in, nor any knowledge of, their objects. The Report of the Commis- sion cites the case of a society of this kind, in which the average attendance at general meetings was only 700 or 800, out of a membership of 140,000, and states other cases where even a small number of members present at a meeting had to be gathered together by the collectors, as it were by beat of drum, to vote for resolutions of the meaning and impoi'tance of which they had not a notion. This army of collectors is the pivot of the whole system of these institutions ; they have practically the institutions in their hands, and their spirit — or rather their naked interest — governs the management, and leads, as we shall see, to unheard-of abuses. The business done by these societies is very extensive, and the number of their members is surpassed only by that of the affili- ated orders. The Report of the Commission estimates the total number of policies of these General Burial Societies in the United Kingdom at more than 1,450,000, and the capital of the more important bodies of the class at £461,605. For England and Wales alone there are about 1,000,000 policies, which are in the hands, making allowance for double insurance, of about 800,000 members, of whom a third are children. Some of these societies grant upwards of 100,000 policies, and one of them as many as half a million. They have divided the country into districts, and these again into " collections," though the members residing in these divisions take no part whatever in the management. This kind of Friendly Societies is pointedly termed in England Trading Friendly Societies, and the Report of the Commission has exposed their doings with the most unsparing publicity. Different Kinds of Friendly Societies 193 That sncli institutions can exist so numerously in a countrj' where everything in life is based on self-help, watchfu.lness, and the protection of private interests, shows that there must still exist large classes of the population which are morally and intel- lectually unable to stand on their own feet, but fall victims to extortion. In fact, the extensive " business " done by these general burial societies can only be explained by the fact that they recruit their members from the lowest classes of the popula- tion in the large seaport and manufacturing towns, and to a large extent from among the Irish ; and it is an equally laborious and perilous part of the duties of a collector to have to levy contribu- tions and enlist new members in the most squalid, unhealthy, and dangerous parts of Liverpool, the headquarters of these insti- tutions. The clientele of these societies is a very fluctuating one, for the poor and ignorant population which allow themselves to be enrolled live on low and uncertain wages, but in many of these societies these very fluctuations form part of their calcula- tions, and are furthered by a practice which is termed "dropping" members. It consists in this, that whenever a collector wishes to " drop " a member, he abstains from calling for his subscription ; and as every means is taken to make direct payment to the society as difiicult as possible, the members thus get into arrear, are struck off the books, and lose — that is the object of these lapses — all their previous payments, as well as all claims to the societj^'s benefits. Nay, these societies sometimes go still farther, and carry on the lapsing process wholesale, by withdrawing their collectors and agents without notice from districts where it suits their purposes to do so, and thereby causing all the members in that district to be struck off. The interests of the agents and the societies are on this point identical. The former are frequently remunerated by the entrance fees or the first subscriptions of members, and thus it is much more profitable to them to enlist new members than to retain old ones. The Report of the Com- mission states that these general burial societies in many cases absolutely maintain themselves by their lapses. " I always calcu- late," said the secretary to the Royal London Friendly, " that at least two-thirds of the people who become insured in our office, and in similar institutions, allow their policies to lapse, and con- o 194 English Associations of Working Men. sequently deprive themselves of benefit"; and he added, "I believe that it is possible for a life office, not doing any sick or endow- ment business, to carry on its business without any accumulated fund, considering the lapses." The cost of management in these societies is enormously high ; the Report of the Commission cites instances in which it has ranged from 40 to 55 per cent., and one case where it was as high as 74 per cent. One witness, a disin- terested one, being an accountant, suggested 40 to 45 per cent, as the amount to whieh the management fund should be limited by Act of Parliament ; and another stated that it was impossible to form any correct estimate from a burial society's balance-sheet of the true amount of the management expenses. There is good reason, therefore, for saying, as is said in England, that a member of these societies may think himself lucky if he gets back one halfpenny out of every jienny he contributes. The commission paid to the agents and collectors amounts often to 25 per cent, of their receipts, to say nothing of the salaried officers of the society. Bearing these facts in mind, it is a pertinent question to ask, ho V it comes to pass that these societies attract so many members ? and how magistrates and legislators in England can tolerate such practices ? The answer to the first of these questions is, that the speculation carried on by these institutions is psychologically sound, since even the poorest man, especially in England, where a pauper's funeral is a reproach, tries hard to obtain a respectable burial, however listless or powerless he may be as regards the other incidental risks of his existence. Again, it must not be for- gotten that these societies, objectionable as are the means they employ, deal fairly for the most part on one point, namely, in their payment of the sums insured for. The punctual pajj-ment of the burial money immediately after death is a patent fact to all ; it is a fact admitted in the Report of the Commission, and universally known ; while the reverse side of their proceedings, the injustice and hardships suffered by individual members, the " lapses " and other abuses, affect a class of the population which is not in a position to agitate effectively against them, which is inaccessible to the warnings of the press, and which is too weak to enforce their rights in a court of law. The way to the judge — in these cases practical^ always an arbitrator — is not indeed for- Different Kinds of Friendly Societies. 195 mally barred, and in a few cases in which the matter actually comes to arbitration, the decision is nearly always in favour of the plaintiff, and against the society, even though the latter may have the strict letter of the rules on its side. But this remedy means expense, and the classes in question are too uneducated, too apathetic, and too helpless to resort to it, or to be able to appeal to public opinion. It is left, therefore, for official inquiry to drag the facts to light, in order to put public opinion into motion, and enable the legislature to take action. The Friendly Societies Act of 1875 has dealt with this point. Section 30, which applies specially to societies receiving contribu- tions by means of collectors, provides that a copy of the rules, together with a printed policy, duly authorised, shall be delivered to every member on his becoming a member, or insuring ; that no forfeiture shall be incurred for default in paying any contribution, until after a Written or printed notice has been delivered to the member, and a reasonable time, not being less than fourteen days, has been allowed him to pay his arrears ; that no collector shall be a member of the committee of management, or take part in the proceedings of any meeting ; that at least one general meeting of the society shall be held in every year, notice of which shall be given to the members by advertisement in the local newspapers ; that a copy of every balance-sheet shall be kept open for inspec- tion for a week before, and presented at, each general meeting, and that the annual returns shall be certified by an accountant, not being an officer of the society. These provisions of the law, however, have not prevented the ignominious collapse, in recent years, of a burial society, which in 1880 had 181,000, and in 1883 still 154,000 members. The Chief Registrar describes, in his annual report for 1884, how all the efforts made by his office to enable this society to put its man- agement into order were in vain, and how the society, by its misapplication of funds, and by the unscrupulous conduct of its managers, deceived the confidence of many thousands of poor people.* * We must notice here a question which has constantly cropped up in Eng- land, and attracted attention from the melancholy picture it reveals. This is the mortality of the numerous children insured in these burial societies. The 196 English Associations of Working Men. (c) We mention in this place a kind of societies wliicli, althoiTgh they are registered not as Friendly Societies but as Trade So- cieties, and therefore do not strictly fall within our purview, nevertheless demand notice, since they carry on a keen competi- tion with many Friendly Societies, particularly with the large burial societies, and thereby increase the evils occasioned by the latter. Tliei^e Burial (or Industrial Assurance) Companies^ as they are called in the Report of the Commission, are conducted with a view to profit ; their members are widely scattered, and their business varies in point of success and extensiveness. The tj'pe, and perhaps the largest of these societies, is the Prudential Company, which began its industrial insurance business in 1854, and was the first company to take infant lives. " Its rise of late years," says the Report of the Commission in 1874, " has been so rapid, that whilst on the 31st December, 1867, it had 358,043 Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Bill of 1854, stated that they had devoted particular attention to the question whether the insuring of burial money offered temptations to child murder, but had come to the conclu- sion that the fears expressed on that subject were groundless. The inquiries, hoAvever, made by the Eoyal Commission of 1874, which went deeper into the matter, reawakened doubts whether those fears, after all, were as groundless as they were supposed to be. The Commissioners took on this point the evidence, in particular, of coroners, to whom they addressed a series of questions. 118 coroners replied that they had no reason to suppose that the insurance of burial money had the influence which was apprehended, 75 were irnable or unwilling to give any opinion, and 45 answered the question decidedly in the affirmative. " I have not the shghtest doubt in the world," says the Coroner for Liverpool, Mr. Clarke Aspinall, in his evidence l»efore the Commission, " that an immense amount of parental neglect of a most scandalous character goes on from day to day in the town of Liverpool, and I am really disposed to think that the neglect is greater than it would be, on account of the prospect, at the end of the child's term of lingering, of the club money, as a sort of consolation to unnatural parents. . , . It is to me a source of intense i^ain to have my attention drawn to a skeleton rather than to a body, and then to find that the investiga- tion results in the death being from natural causes, or from natural causes accelerated either by improper food or by neglect, put in such a way that it is without any fault to anybody, but so putting it that it is simply hopeless to bring negligent parents to justice at all, when you have the moral conviction that they have been scandalously negligent. . . . The criminal law seems to me to be defective in dealing with such cases. I judge that to be so from the fact that, if you send a case of that kind, of wasting from gross neglect, to the assizes, it almost invariably ends in an acquittal being got, or the prose- Dijf event Kinds of triendly Societies. 197 members, it had no less tlian 1,013,041 by 29 th November, 1872, showing that it nearly trebled its numbers in live years. Its insurers are of rather a superior class; and there are certain ' proscribed streets ' in some of the large towns from which no lives are taken." As is only natural, such institutions of com- paratively general utility are matched by othei-s entirely bad. Among the latter was the notorious Friend-in-Need Society^ which upwards of twenty years ago created such excitement and brought about such misfortune by its failure. As compared with the burial societies, these insurance societies are distinguished by their excellent book-keeping and accurate records of their mem- bers, by the efficient supervision of their collectors, who receive fixed salaries, by the steps they take to check what may be called artificial lapse — i.e., that which is not owning solely to the mem- ber's own default— by their sound system of insurance, and by a cution not being proceeded witli " (Fourth Eeport, p. cxxxv.). Statistics also tell a tale iu this matter which does not exclude the suspicion that the evil existed, at any rate in some localities. Children are frequently entered in general burial societies as soon as they are born, and by the rules of most, if not all, of such societies, they can only come into full benefit at the expiration of 52 weeks. The Eeport of the Commission contains a comparative statement of infant mortality at various ages in eleven large manufacturing and seajDort towns, which show an unintelligibly high rate in Liver^iool and some other large centres of population for the second year of life. Proof is given, more- over, of the existence of a serious abuse, the insuring of children in several burial societies, thereby multiplying the benefits accruing in case of death. It would be a great error to suppose that the seat of this evil is among the real and permanent working class. Such a charge would be wholly unjustified, and has already been frequently repudiated. The evil lies, on the contrary, so far as it exists, with that unhappy class which the observer of social life in England meets with again and again, and whose means of livelihood oscillate between precarious wages and crime. So far as a high infant mortality is observable in the working class proper, the fact is due to another reason. In the manufacturing districts, where the mothers return to their work at the factory as soon as possible after their con- finement, their children are very frequently deprived of the necessary care and nurture. This subject was discussed, among others, at a recent Congress of Trades-unions,* when it was proposed that the municipal authorities should establish creches for this purpose, an institution which as yet is comparatively rare in England. * Eeport of the Fifteenth Annual Trades-union Congress, p. 37. 198 English Associations of Working Men. valuation every five years of their assets and liabilities. Of course they do not fulfil any functions of self-government, being purely business institutions ; but we have been unwilling not to notice them, because they are opposed and sought to be crushed by the better Eriendly Societies, especially the large affiliated orders, in the same way and on the same grounds as the burial societies registered under the Friendly Societies Act of 1875.* 7. Ordinary Large {or General) Societies. There are a number of Friendly Societies — estimated in the Report of the Commissioners in 1874 at 100 — which have the form of large centralised offices for life insurance. They are usually designated as " ordinary large (or general) societies." The most important of them are in London. Their organization as well as their system of insxirance are simple, but both suffer from serious defects. Their entire management is vested in a central office, which deals with all claims relating to sickness, old age, or burial. These societies have frequently some thousands of members, who pay their premiums to agents, and receive sick pay and other benefits in the same manner. Some of the largest and most centralised societies of this kind employ, however, no agents, but all payments are made and sums received by Post- office order. Members residing at a distance from the society can obviously have little or no voice in it^ affairs, which are practically in the hands of a committee, on whose sagacity and honesty the welfare of the whole society depends. The control exercised by the annual general meeting is purely nominal. Nevertheless, there are societies of this kind which have been existing for fifty years and upwards, and deservedly enjoy good credit. For what are known as the labouring classes, these societies are not of any great importance ; their members are mostly artisans in receipt of high wages, clerks, tradesmen, domestic servants, and others, who look for an investment of their savings "-on purely business principles." The premiums and con- • Fourtli Report, p. cxx\'iii., sqq. Different Kinds of Fi'iendly Societies. 199 tributions are also usually higher than in the Friendly Societies of the wage-earning labourers. Nearly all of these general benefit societies are registered as Friendly Societies, but in point of character they form already the transition to the numerous insurance companies for the middle class. Their whole business assimilates to that of these companies, which they resemble also in this, that their relations with their members are of a purely business kind, and there is no social bond of union.* 8. Particular Trade Societies. Nearly all the Friendly Societies of which we have spoken admit of being characterised in a certain manner according to the general employment of their respective members, many of them having been established only by the agricultural population, others * Perhaps the largest, and certainly the hest managed society of this kind, is the Hearts of Oak Benefit Society, in London. It admits male persons between the ages of 18 and 30, who are of good health, and whose wages are not less than 24s. a week. A large number of specified occupations are excluded ; namely, drug or colour grinders, water gilders, workers in white or red lead or quicksilver, gunpowder, firework, or lucifer-match makers, type-founders, stereo- typers, electrotypers, workers in the manufacture of chemicals, miners, puddlers, sugar-bakers, cigar-makers, brass-founders, gamekeepers, police constables, soldiers, sailors, coast-guardsmen, members of fire-brigades, brewers' draymen, grinders in dry cutlery, bakers, confectioners, millers, cement-makers, j^laster- of-Paris makers, or any other occupation which the committee may conceive dangerous or injurious to health. This society has no graduated scale of pre- miums, but levies a monthly| sum of 2s. id. for sick insurance from all its members. In return for this payment the member receives a weekly sick allowance : if he has belonged to the society for less than three months, of 6s. ; if for si^ months, 9s. ; if for nine months, 12s. ; and if for a year, of 18s. These allowances are paid in full for twenty-six weeks, and for the next twenty- six weeks in half. If the sickness, or the consequences of the accident, last beyond the year, the member is placed on the " superannuated list " ; that is to say, on the list of invalids. Provision is then made for him, again according to the length of bis membership : if the latter is less than six years, he receives a weekly allowance of 2s. ; if more than six and less than eight years, of 3s. ; and if more than eight years, of 4s. A " pensioner " continues to reap the benefit of this allowance, even though he may be able to earn something for himself, :oo English Associations of Working Men. mainly by tlie population in towns or by factory operatives, and others again by the lower middle-class. But very few Friendly Societies are exclusively confined to the members of a special trade or occupation, which, on the contrary, is always the case with Trades-unions. The ruling tendency in Friendly Societies, however, is so strongly opposed to their operation being confined exclusively to a particular trade or occupation, that even those which have adopted such a character of exclusiveness when first founded usually drop it in course of time.* proviilecl such earnings do not exceed 12s. per week. For the other insurance purposes, such as, in particular, the burial allowances, rates are levied, calcu- lated quarterly according to the state of finances. The institution is managed in London. With the view, however, of giving its numerous members, scattered over the kingdom, an opportunity of taking part in the meetings, all the members are divided into sections of 1000 each, which elect delegates. This society has of late years been considerably enlarged, as will be seen from the follo\\dng table compiled from its annual reports : — Year. Number of Members. Annual Income. 1 Funds. 1865 10,571 £20,758 £40,466 1870 21,484 £40,751 £67,321 1875 64,421 £117,051 £179,995 1880 — . £206,357 £437,772 1881 — £212,975 £494,873 1882 98,873 £219,875 £559,.S27 1883 102,263 £229,843 £627,612 The "History of the Hearts of Oak Benefit Society," by W. G. Buun, Lon- don, 1879, contains a brief account of the develoj^ment of this society. * Mr. Finlaisou stated in his evidence before the Commission in 1874, that the Friendly Societies, as a rule, are composed of working-men of all classes of employment. Occasionally it happened that workmen belonging to a peculiarly dangerous emiDloyment in a town joined a Friendly Society, but the contrary was the rule. " A society," he says, " even though originally founded for the members of a particular trade, admits persons from other trades when it be- comes prosperous, and in course of time enlarges itself." The composition, however, of Friendly Societies is naturally always in- fluenced by the local industries or trades. Where the greatest diversity of trades is represented (as in fact happens in all the large manufacturing towns in Eng- land) most of the Friendly Societies reproduce on a small scale this diversity. Where only one or other branch of industry is represented, the Friendly So- Diffej'ent Kinds of Friendly Societies. 201 Nevertheless there exists In England a large Friendly Society, that of the coal miners, which is made up of several lai'ge local societies, and during the last ten years has acquired considerable importance. It is also of peculiar interest, since its main object is insurance against accidents. This union consists of the Friendly Societies of the miners in the coal districts of Northum- berland and Durham, North and South Staffordshire, Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire, North and South Wales, and the Midland Counties. These different societies, and the whole union, form in many respects such a remarkable group of Friendly Societies that we shall devote to them particular attention, 9, Factory Societies^ and Friendly Societies in connection with large Establishments. There are a very large number of Friendly Societies in Eng- and connected with manufacturing establishments, large under- takings, railway companies, and such like. They are chiefly local institutions, but differ very widely in constitution, in the range ot their objects of insurance, and in the mode of management. For cieties are for that reason pre-eminently trade societies, though they always exhibit an additional element, consisting either of agricultural labourers, mem- bers of the lower middle-class, or clerks. We may mention here a society founded in Bradford about fifty years ago, the Managers and Overlookers' Friendly Society which was established exclusively for the managers and overlookers of the woollen, worsted, and silk factories of Yorkshire. This society provides sujjport in illness, burial money, and allowances of from £20 to £50 in the case of members invalided by acci- dent. It has a number of branches, which are united into districts. This society possesses many features of the large orders. The business is transacted at periodical meetings, which serve also as opportunities of social gathering. Strict order is maintained at these meetings. The following penalties, however, taken from the rules of one of the branch societies, give an idea of the tone and manners of an earlier time. Every functionary who comes to a meeting drunk, or who takes drink while business is proceeding, pays a fine of 2s., and every ordinary member, in the same case, sixpence. Improper interference with the business, or improper ex- pressions, are punishable in the case of ordinary members by a fine of Is., and in that of a functionai-y by a fine of 2s. Any member who raises a discussion on politics or religion, or who refuses to be silent after being thrice warned by the chairman, pays Gd. Any member who boastfully extols his own good quali- ties or those of another member, pays Is. 202 English Associations of Working Afcn. the most part unregistered, and often not formally qualified for registration, their number is beyond the power of calculation. They form a group of societies differing essentially from the independent associations of working-men for insurance purposes, which are designated as Friendly Societies ; but we must notice them here, since they supplement the Friendly Societies in no unimportant manner, and, indeed, as regards certain classes of working-men, supersede them. Many of these societies date back to the beginning of the business with which they are connected ; and, indeed, there is scarcely a single large establishment in England which does not make some provision or other for its employes, whether against accident alone, or for accident, sickness, and burial. The impor- tance of the factory societies in England is still very great, for they are the only means of assistance, in case of need, to a considerable number of operatives. Many of them are admirably conducted, and work in the most humane manner. Their manage- ment is usually in the hands of working-men, while the finn acts as treasurer, exercises a kind of supervision, and represents, at any rate, a preponderating moral inflvience through its partners or chief officers. Notwithstanding, however, the good features of these societies, it cannot be denied that two circumstances combine to restrict more and more their field of action. In the first place, the large working-men's Orders are gradually drawing away from them the most intelligent and the best-paid of their members ; and in the second place, the Trades-unions, for reasons readily under- stood, are their declared enemies. Membership in these factory societies is, as a imle, compulsory on all the workmen belonging to the establishment, and the societies are financially supported by the firm. It is not to be denied that prima facie both circumstances seem of some advan- tage. Compulsion, as regards the lower grades of workmen, who have not sufiicient energy and foresight to join an independent Friendly Society, is frequently beneficial ; the subsidy given by the firm enables these societies to promise substantial benefits in return for small contributions ; their funds are in safe custody, and properly administered ; their management is cheap and, Different Kinds of Frieiidly Societies. 203 indeed, costs next to nothing, since usually the books are kept by the accountants of the firm. And yet, with all this, there are material disadvantages. On one point Sir George Young speaks out very plainly, in his Report to the Commission of 1874 r "I believe," he says, " that the intention of employers in setting up these clubs has been unduly suspected, and that it was, in fact, exactly the same as that which has forced upon working-men the starting of penny death clubs, broken-bone clubs, and other nide methods of assurance — namely, their own protection against loss by the frequent recurrence of cases of distress in which it was painful for a benevolent man to refuse the help which it speedily became onerous to afford. But no doubt," he adds, "they admit of being turned into an engine for the preventing of strikes, or other moves on the side of the employed, in the too frequent collisions of capital and labour ; and under these circumstances they are liable to abuse." * These circumstances alone would suffice to explain the hostility of the Trades-unions. There is the further fact, moreover, that these societies decidedly hinder the free relations of the workman, by binding him to his em- ployer. If he leaves him, he loses at once his membership, and with it all the benefits which he has acquired by perhaps many ■ years' subscriptions. Again, he may happen to be too old to obtain admission into any other Friendly Society, and it will be an exception if he has joined one before. It is due, nevertheles?, to the influence of the Trades-unions that many of these factory societies now repay to an outgoing member a portion of his con- tributions, and thereby enable him to purchase admission into another society. The second drawback attaching to these societies lies in the very financial support afforded by the finn. This support begets a false confidence that the benefits, which have no intrinsic re- lation to the actual contributions, will be guaranteed in any event by the employer, the result of which is that the society is laxly managed. If, moreover, the additional aid afforded by the firm is a fixed subscription, the increase in the number of members, or their advance in age, disturbs the whole calculation ; and when • Fourth Eeport, p. clxiv. 204 English Asscciations cf Woi-king Men. it is borne in mind that this aid lias no legal basis, and must always depend on the solvency of the firm, some light is thrown on the precarious character of these institutions, and it is intelligible that the Trades-unions should endeavour, as they do, to draAV over the workmen to independent insurance societies. The internal constitution of these factory societies offers, there- fore, in itself no guarantee for the solution of the question of insurance, in respect of the working-men immediately concerned. The fact, nevertheless, that so many of such societies exist, in which these evils do not appear, is due not to their constitiition, but to the men who manage them. In this respect, however, it is right to admit that perhaps in no country is more done for the woi'kmeu by their employers in an unostentatious and honestly well-meaning manner than in England. The effect of this extends far beyond the whole area of Friendly Societies. Pure Christian motives play here a great part. The factory society assumes another and special position, and acquires a peculiar value, when it forms part of a comprehensive care for the well-being of the workmen of the establishment. In this respect admirable things have been done at all times by manufacturers and companies. Well situated and healthy dwell- ings for their workmen are built ; dining-halls supply cheap and wholesome food; schools — especially technical schools of a lower, and even of a higher, kind — are maintained in order to enable the workman, by means of evening instruction, to rise to a higher class or, at least, to let his growing-up children benefit by them. Frequently all these institutions are found united, so that the factory, with its town of operatives, its schools, dining-halls, baths, reading-rooms, libraries, pleasure-grounds, and parks becomes a social organization embracing the entire life of the workmen. We refrain here from digressing further from our subject, but having touched already on the social aspect of these factory societies, we may be allowed to say a few words more in this respect. It is an essential condition of the prosperity of such institutions, comprehending, as they do, all the workman's relations of life, that the employer should live among his woi-kmen. The evils caused by absenteeism on the part of landlords are reproduced in the case of large manufactories. The growth of joint-stock com- Different Kinds of Friendly Societies. 205 panies has everywhere sharpened the antagonism between capital and labour. Where, on the contrary, as is common enough in England, already the second and third generations of a manufac- turer's family are living on the spot, and have inherited, together with the business, a certain traditional care for their employes ; where the master — and in such cases he is a personal master, and not a mere impersonal distributor of labour — comes daily into contact with his workmen ; where he sits with them every Sunday in church, and, as happens among Presbyterian bodies, administers with them, on a footing of perfect equalit}^, the spiritual and ecclesiastical functions peculiar to the same denomination ; where his wife, sons, and daughters take the lead in the various local institutions of which we have spoken ; where the whole family lead a life in keeping, no doubt, with their means, but none the less honourable ; — under such conditions as these, should any- thing be wrong in the calculations of the society, the accounts are easily balanced, for we have in such cases a place before us where the " social question " is unknown, not because it is solved, but because it has been j^revented from arising. \Ye admit that, even presuming that many such places exist, they cannot play the decisive role in the solution of modern problems, but they form an element not to be overlooked in judging of social relations as a whole.* * We will give a brief account of a number of these factory societies, with which we made ourselves acquainted on the spot, in the coarse of 1883 and 1884. Menrs. John Crossley & Sons, Limited, carpet- weavers in Hahfax, employ- ing 4,500 workmen, are insured in an insurance company against any accidents that may happen to their workmen and bring them under the penalties of the Employers' Liability Act ; whatever the firm pays in such cases, over and above the amount of damages judicially awarded, is a " matter of generosity." There is a sick fund, formed out of fines, and supplemented, when necessary, by the firm itself. Messrs. Piatt & Brothers, Company, Limited, machinists in Oldham, employ about 8,500 workmen. The society attached to the establishment provides only for accident, and for the burial expenses of any workman in case the accident is fatal. Membership is compulsory. The workmen are divided into three classes, and a rate is fixed for each class, which is levied whenever necessary. 206 English Associations of Working Men. 10. Railway Company Societies. The Friendly Society system lias received an important de- velopment on the part of most of the railway companies. The A fund of £30 is always kept in hand. The scale of subscriptions is as follows : — Class. Subscription each time. Weekly Allowance. Burial Mone^-. Workmen under li . ,, between li and 18 . ., above 18 . Id. 2d. M. 2s. 6d. 5s. Od. 10s. Od. £2 £5 £10 The full allowance is paid during twenty-six weeks after the accident, and half for the ensuing twenty-six weeks; any extra allowances beyond this are matters for the committee to decide according to the circumstances of the case. The committee consists of the operatives, in conjunction with the members and managers of the firm, who act also as president, trustees, and treasurer. The employes are left to insure themselves in other Friendly Societies against sickness and old age, the firm not undertaking this branch of insurance. When the Employers' Liability Act came into force, the firm received offers from various insurance companies to insure them against accidents to their workmen. They have declined, however, all proposals of this kind, and have also refused altogether to put pressure on their workmen, as has been done elsewhere, to contract themselves out of the Act ; a line of conduct which has done very much to maintain good relations between the firm and then- em- ployes. The Atlas Works, a locomotive factory in Manchester, employs 1,300 workmen. Membership of their society is compulsory, the management is in the hands of the employes, but the firm act as treasurers. The society insures against sickness, accident, and burial. The contributions are deducted weekly from the wages. Class. Weekly Allow- ance. Burial Money. Disablement Allowance. Entrance Money. Weekly Subscrip- tion. On the death of a Member. On the death of a Member's wife and child. 1 2 3 ' 8d. Is. Id. 2d. 3d. 2s. Gd. 5s. Od. 7s. 6ci. £3 £6 £9 15s. £1 10s. £2 5s. £7 £U £21 In case of sickness or accident, the workman receives the appointed aUow- Different Kinds of Friendly Societies. 207 London and North-Western Railway, the Great Western Railway, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, the Midland Railway, and other railway companies, have established societies which are ance, according to the class to which he belongs, for thirteen weeks in full, and for the next twenty-six weeks in half. After these thirty-nine weeks, the allowances cease. But if he has been disabled by an accident not due to his own negligence, he receives, according to his class, the allowance stated in the last column. There is no provision for old age. T. Uoijle (& Sons, Limited, calico-printers in Manchester, are a firm dating back more than a century, probably the oldest manufactory of its kind in England. It was situated, when first established, quite outside the town, which has spread so largely that the building is now in the middle of the town. The firm's relations with its employes are of a patriarchal kind, and there are work- men who have been in the manufactory for many decades. One of them died some time ago at the age of 101, having worked on the premises since he was twenty till a short time before his death. Membership of this society is compulsory on all workmen above 14. The terms are the same as in the Atlas Works, but there is no allowance in case of incapacity for work caused by accident. The society does not insure against old age, but aged workmen, who have been employed for a long time in the manufactory, are provided in one way or other. William Benny (& Brothers, ship-builders at Dumbarton, on the Clyde, have an accident fund society, membership of which is compulsory. It is managed by a committee of eighteen, one-half of whose members are chosen by the firm, and the other half by the workmen. Class. Weekly Subscrip- tion. Weekly Allow. ance. Allowance in case of death. Allowance in case of incapacity for work. Workmen with wages ) under lis ) Workmen with wages ) between lis. and 20s. ) Workmen with wages ") over 20s ) Id. 2d. Sd. 5s. 10s. 15s. £20 £30 £40 A sum is fixed by the Committee according to the nature of the case. The firm always contributes to the funds as much as do the workmen, thus paying half of the insurance money. For sick and old-age insurance the work- men are left to other Friendly Societies. One of the most comprehensive of the institutions for working-men, which owe their origin to the initiative of manufacturers, is that at Saltaire, near Bradford, estabUshed by Sir Titus Salt. In his alpaca-weaving factory at that place, no less than 3,500 workmen are employed, whose whole relations of life are regulated by a complex system of arrangements. Close by the factory is a dining-hall for workmen who do not reside in the 2o8 English Associations of Working Men. intended for their employes ; and, taken altogether, occupy the same position in the system of working-men's insurance as the factory societies we have just described.* The wealth and place itself, where tliey can get a mid-day meal with meat for ^d. or 5d., and breakfast for Id, This establishment is self-supporting. Most of the workmen live in cottages built by, and rented from, the firm. These dwellings are dry and healthy. The rent for a parlour, kitchen, and two bedrooms, is 3.5. %d. a week, and for larger cottages of the same description, 5s. The adult male employe earns on an average 25s. a week, and if he has also a couple of chil- dren employed in the factory, who can earn from 4s. to 6s. a week, the family income may easily be increased to 40s. The school arrangements at Saltaire are a model of their kind. 6,700 chil- dren receive instruction in the elementary school. There are also a Mechanics' Institute, an industrial school with evening classes, a library, a reading-room, large rooms for drawing, a chemical laboratory, and a gymnasium. In addition to this, there is a higher technical course, which benefits, however, only the officers and scientific assistants of the firm, and only in exceptional cases the workmen. Provision is made for amusement, in the shape of a theatre, balls, and a cricket club. Thei-e are sick and burial insurance societies, and a benefit society for women. Provision is also made for old age, and the pen- sioners live in cottages built for that purpose. No one who visits Saltaire can fail to be agreeably impressed with the whole aspect and arrangements of this working-man's town, with its church, its public buildings, and its rows of neat and prettily-built cottages. Saltaire has served as a model for a number of similar, though smaller, institutions in England. How dominant an element, however, in the life of the English working-man is the active power of self-help and independence is shown by the fact which has been pointed out to me, that in these cheap and good working-men's dwellings at Saltaire, notwithstanding, or rather in consequence of, all the care taken for the men, less contentment prevails than in cases in which the English workman acquires for himself these comforts, though to a smaller extent, by his own efforts in the midst of his own self-managed associations. * The Great Western Railway Company employ at their large works at Swindoji several hundred officials and more than 6,000 workmen. Here are situated the large workshoi^s of the Company for the construction and repair of their rolling-stock and plant, signals, etc. Swindon, therefore, is also the centre of all the institutions, especially the benefit societies, established for the Com- pany's employes. Of the entire working-man population of Swindon one-half may be regarded as settled there for life, the remainder being of more or less a floating kind. The skilled labourers earn from 15s. to 20*. a week ; the more skilled operatives, on whose training the Company bestow great pains, from 2o<. to 30s. ; and the best and most skilled mechanics from 30s. to 45s. There are three benefit societies. The oldest of these, which was founded in 1844, is the Locomotive and Carriage Department Sick Fund Society. Any member leaving' the service of the Company within two years from the date of Different Kinds of Friendly Societies. 209 powerful position acquired by the great railway companies in England ; the necessity, experienced by all of them alike, of organizing in some manner the servants and workmen of different his admission ceases to be a member of the society ; if he has been ia the society more than two years, he may be allowed to continue his membership a3 a non-resident member subject to certain conditions. The society is registered as a Friendly Society. Its objects are to assist the members when disabled from work by sickness (including accident) or old age, and to insure the pay- ment of a funeral allowance on the death of a member or of his wife or widow. The members are divided into three classes, according to payments and allow- ances. Inside each class the contributions are graduated further according to the member's age at admission. The contributions to the three classes range respectively from 6d. to 9d., from \d. to 6rf., and from Id. to Sd. In the event of any deficiency of funds at any time, the committee are empowered to levy an additional contribution. The sick benefit varies from 4s. to 12s. a week, the full rate being paid for the first thirteen weeks, two-thirds for the next thirteen weeks, and after that one-half so long as the sickness continues to incapacitate from work. The superannuation allowance varies from 2s. to 6s. a week, and is payable to any member who is sixty years or upwards, and who has been twenty-five years successively in the Society. The funeral allowance varies from £4 to £12 in the case of the death of the member himself, and from £2 to £6 on the death of his wife. The financial results for 1881, 1882, and 1883 are as follows : — Tear. No. of Members. Receipts. Expenditure. Reserve Fund. Old Age allowances. Sick allowances. Burial money. Expenses of Manage- ment. £ £ £ £ £ £ 1881 5,805 3,832 237 3,020 456 176 2,462 1882 3,707 4,021 293 2,463 369 179 3,400 1883 6,132 4,450 333 2,743 482 131 3,823 There is also a Medical Fund Society, established in 1847, the objects of which are to provide medicine and medical and surgical attendance for the members, their wives, and such members of their families, being within the degrees of relationsbip allowed by the Friendly Societies Act, 1875, Sec. 9, as are dependent upon them. The members consist of six classes, the contribu- tions varying with the rate of wages. This society has established a hospital in Swindon for the treatment of accidents (excepting such as happen through an act of bravado, intoxication, or any fault of the member himself), and also subscribes to different hospitals to enable the sick members to obtain P 210 English Associations of Working Men. categories wlio are employed in tlieir extensive works ; and, lastly, tlie pecxiliar dangers of tlie occupation, have stamped, however, quite a distinctive character on these railway company societies, admission. lu 1883 the number of members was 6,829, the receipts, £4,628, and the expenditure £4,53i. The third of these societies, the Evginemen and Firemen^s Mutual Assur- ance, Sick, and Superannuation Society, is very perfectly organized, but is confined to the enginemen, engine-turners, and firemen, and officers who have served as such. The members are among the best paid servants of the Com- pany. The engine-drivers of the expi-esses, always picked men, are able to earn 56s. a week, including the premiums paid for punctuality and care of their engines. The society receives substantial support from the Company. Its objects are : to make a regular allowance to every member while prevented by sickness or bodily injury from following his usual occui^ation ; to pay a sum of money upon the death of a member to his widow, child, or nominee, or to the member himself in case of permanent incapacity for his ordinary employment through accidental injury, severe sickness, or old age; to pay a regular allow- ance for life to any member who may be permanently incapacitated by acci- dental injury or old age ; to pay an allowance to the widows of deceased mem- bers, and to pay a sum of money upon the death of a member's wife. Naturally the contributions which entitle to these comprehensive benefits are corre- spondingly high, and only within the means of this best-paid class of employes. The members consist of two classes. Every new member pays an enti'ance fee, according to age, and ranging from £1 to £8. No new member is admitted above the age of 35. The entrance fee, as well as the current contiibutions, are deducted from the member's wages. The weekly contributions are Is. 6rZ. for first-class and Is. for second-class members. If any member leaving the Company's employ shall have belonged to this society for six years or uj^wards, he has the option of either becoming a " non-resident " member, or of claiming the payment of a portion of his con- tribi;tion paid to the society by him. The benefits are as follows : — 1. A weekly allowance for sickness or bodily injury of 15s. in the first class and 12s. Gd. in the second class, the full amount being paid for twenty-six weeks, and after that period one-half. 2. Assurance money, amounting to £100 in the first class and £G0 in the second class, payable [a) upon the death of a member, to his widow, children, or nominee ; (b) upon the permanent disablement of a member by accident or severe sickness, preventing him from pursuing his ordinary occupation, to the member himself ; as also ' (c) on his retiring from his ordinary occupation, having belonged to the society for not less than ten years, and being not less than sixty years of age. 3. A weekly siaperannuation allowance of 12s. in the first class and 7s. Od. in the second class, under the same conditions as to age and length of service as last stated. Different Kinds of Friendly Societies. 2(1 SO that we shall be justified in considering tliem here apart from the societies of other large undertakings. As regards their attitude and action in relation to the social 4. A weekly widow's allowance of 6s. 6i, ia tke first class and 4.?. in the second class. 5. A wife's funeral bonus of £5. The right to sick benefit ceases, as is natural, with the receipt of an allow- ance for old age or permanent disablement. The management of the society is under the control of the Company's officers. The committee of management is elected from amongst the resident free mem- bers of the society. The financial results of 1881-3 are as follow :^ Tear. O s ; for the widow and orphans of a deceased member, 6s. ; for the widow alone, 2s. ; and for a members' parents, 5s. A working-man's family, consisting of husband, wife, and even several children, can obtain medical attendance and medicine for the annual sum of 13s. The Association ajipoints the necessary number of medical officers, who receive a fixed salary and give their services exclusively to its members. This Association comprised in 1883, as appears from the annual report of that year, 80 Friendly Societies, and a total of 8,117 members. In the course of 1883, a far from healthy year at Leeds, there were 23,180 medical visits, and 70,713 consultations and prescriptions. We need scarcely repeat here, that this Association also makes no distinction between sickness and accident, and that the same premiums apply, therefore, to both contingencies. There is another large Medical Aid Association in York, which, in 1883, numbered 9,361 members, and showed an income of £2,842, as against expenses amounting to £2,647. It has built its own sick-house ; it keeps three doctor, and a chemist, and in 1883 its report showed 17,581 visits, 23,640 consultations and 51,437 prescriptions.— fVit/itf/// Societies" Journal, March, 1884. Reform Movement inside the Friendly Societies. 287 ciations must be created. The large Orders are promoting this development, to the best of their power, by endeavouring to centralize the various branches of insurance ; but they have to reckon with the strongly marked individualism of their branches, which are anything but pliant in this matter. It will be still more difficult to make these ideas penetrate into the various inde- pendent societies, though even these will be forced to conduct their insurance business on a broader basis, without which the premium system wovild lead to worse consequences than the old system of levies. We will now notice briefly a few more elements in the manage- ment of English Friendly Societies. In the first place there is the mode of investing the funds. This was formerly much easier than at present. We have already mentioned that the Govern- ment, through the National Debt Commissioners, for a long time guaranteed the Friendly Societies a higher rate of interest on their deposits than that prevailing in the market. In addition to this, however, it was possible formerly in many other ways to obtain a higher rate of interest than at present ; so that the Friendly Societies were able to realize 5 per cent, and even more, even while remaining within the limits of strict safety. No doubt the societies were frequently unable to withstand the temptation of speculating with their surplus funds. Some who succeeded in this way in making their reserve capital particularly productive, and thus improved the financial position of the society, or by a lucky throw saved it from dissolution, set a seductive but unwholesome example to others to invest their funds in profit- able but uncertain securities or speculations in land, the success or failure of which sealed the breaking up of the society. In this field also the Friendly Societies have had to pay dearly for their experience. It was the introduction of the premium system that on this point compelled the English Friendly Societies to practise greater caution. The accumulation of reserve funds by means of com- pound interest forms a fundamental principle of the new system of insurance. The reserve fund, or the capital of the society, is no longer now, as it w^as formerly, the more or less accidental surplus of the year, but, on the contrary, the rate of interest at 288 English Associations of Working Men. which the contributions can be invested, in other words, the process of accumulating the capital is one of the essential elements in calculating the amount of those contributions. In this respect the societies have undoubtedly had to contend with a growing difficulty during the recent period of a falling rate of interest. As we have already noticed, it was possible, only a few decades ago, to compile a tariff of premiums on the footing of 5 per cent, interest. At the present day this cannot be done with perfect safety on a footing of more than 3 per cent., which practically means a not inconsiderable increase in the amount of premiums. There is, further, the special difficulty of finding a safe investment for small amounts, the consequence of which is, that the small societies are frequently iinable to realize more on an average than 2 or 2| per cent, on their capital. In this respect also, successful attempts at centralization have recently been made by the establishment of so-called "Investment Associations," — that is to say, associations of several Friendly Societies for the purpose of lumping their disposable moneys together and invest- ing them cumulatively.* These associations receive amounts of five pounds and upwards from the different Friendly Societies for investment, divide the interest fro rata, and, moreover, make it superfluous for the societies to keep in hand large cash amounts to meet the current expenses, being ready at all times to make advances to them for this purpose. A further point is the cost of management. Want of economy in this respect has brought many a Friendly Society to ruin. A marked distinction, however, must be drawn between the various classes of these societies. Those which, although based on prin- ciples of mutuality, are not self-administering bodies, but are managed, like an institution based on profit, by a large number of officers, agents, collectors, and so forth, naturally show high, and often extravagant, costs of management, amounting to from 30 to 50 per cent, of the gross receipts. Since the book-keeping and balance sheets of such societies are in no way adapted to make this point come out clearly, it is often not at all easy to ascertain the extent of the costs of management proper from their annual • Friendly Societies' Jouri al, June and August, 1884. Reform Movement inside the Friendly Societies. 289 reports. Nevertheless, a notion of the expensiveness may be gained by knowing that in some of these societies the collectors of the subscriptions get a commission of up to 25 per cent, on their gross receipts. But a totally different standard must be applied to those Friendly Societies which alone really deserve the name, since they keep down the costs, by means of a real self-manage- ment, to a relatively small amount This amount, of course, varies considerably, according as to whether men are forthcoming who manage the business entirely or to a large extent without remuneration, or whether a paid secretary has to be appointed, and some compensation given to the trustees and members of the committee for their loss of time and travelling expenses. Moreover, very different views prevail as to what expenses should be reckoned and treated as costs of the society, some societies, for example, including in the general costs of management all expenditure occasioned by medical aid, while others treat the remuneration of the doctors as insurance money, which is made up to their members in the form of medical treatment. It is, therefore, very difficult to state any figure applicable generally to all societies, or even to any considerable portion of them. It may serve, however, to assist in forming an estimate on this question to know that the cost of management in the lodges of the Manchester Unity, exclusive of medical payments, and also exclusive of the payments of officers as well as the expenses occasioned by an annual festivity, amount to only 5 or 6 per cent, of the total sum paid in benefits. This is a standard which may apply to many Friendly Societies, and which shows to what an extent the management of these societies is conducted gi-ataitovisly by means of the self-activity of their members. The costs of management are defrayed either by fixed contribu- tions or, as also frequently happens, by levies, in addition to which there are the numerous fines. One of the most important questions of management is the checking of the abuses, with which societies are threatened, either by shamming in cases of sickness, or by false or forged certificates of birth or death with regard to life insurance. In- asmuch as the system of registration in England is very imperfect, abuses in the latter respect, especially in the large burial societies, U 290 EnglisJi Associations of Working Men. are of not iinfreqnent occuri'ence. A question of much, greater importance, however, is the prevention of shamming in cases of sick insurance. The Friendly Societies have adopted a series of measures to obviate this evil, which crops up more or less everywhere, but increases in times of bad trade, and gives trouble to those societies in particular which have to do with the lower and morally weaker grades of English workmen. The means em- ployed to prevent this danger are substantially as follows : — (a) According to the opinion generally prevalent in England, which is consistent with nearly all local experience, the most effective means of preventing a sick insurance society from being ■defrauded is to limit its extent. The principle of limitation is based on the experience that it is impossible to maintain an effective watch over sickness, its intensity and duration, unless the whole mode of life and habits of the member are known inside the society to which he belongs. This experience forms also the ever-recurring argument against the management of sick insurance by the State, which has absolutely no means at its command to exercise an effective scrutiny over persons for whose sick insurance it undertakes to provide. (fe) The Friendly Societies seek further, by means of a series of checks, to prevent personation. The certificate necessary to draw the sick allowance is written by the medical officer. Every large society, however, has a special fimctionary — commonly called a steward — who is entrusted with the supervision of the sick members ; and a visiting committee also is usually appointed for the same purpose, consisting of members of the committee of management, v^'ho exercise a supreme control. At the weekly meetings of the committee of management or of the branches, reports are given of the various cases of sickness, and filed as matter of record. The weekly sick allowances are only paid on the production of a certificate attesting the contimiance of the illness, and signed either by the doctor or steward. (c) The member in receipt of sick-pay is obliged, apart from the directions of the doctor, to observe a certain mode of life. He can only go out within certain hours of the day, and if found engaged in any profitable emploj^meut or in a public-house, or even after certain hours in the evenina: outside his home, he Reform Movement inside the Friendly Societies. 291 is punislied with a fine, and in the event of his repeating the offence, with the partial or entire withholding of his sick allow- ance. {d) It is a principle observed as rigidly as possible in all English Friendly Societies, that no sick or accident allowance shall reach the full amount of the wages usually earned by the member when in health. Only in very rare cases, when a work- man contributes to several societies, is an exception made to this rule. (e) Lastly, a deterrent influence is exercised by the rigour with which the societies expel any members who obtain certificates of sickness by fraud, or who practise personation to the injury of the society. Disputes arising in a Friendly Society are settled, according to most of the rules, by arbitration. They relate usually to claims of members against the society. Opinions differ as to the effi- ciency of this system. It is alleged against it that, whether the tribunal is composed of members of the society or branches themselves, or of strangers, the selection of the (permanent) ar- bitrator by the committee of management, or even by the general meeting, does not give a substantial guarantee for an impartial award, and that it is very difficult for any single member to en- force his rights against the society. Those who take this hostile view suggest, therefore, that it would be desirable to settle all disputes before the ordinary courts of law, on the ground that the expenses of so doing are not greater, and that the decision will be speedier and at the same time impartial. The great majority of persons, however, are opposed to litigation. They admit, indeed, that abuses crop up in arbitration, but consider it, never- theless, the best and cheapest means of settling disputes inside Friendly Societies. The large Orders have endeavoured to com- pensate for these abuses by instituting a formal appeal from the award of the branches to the arbitration of the district and the central body of the Order.* We have already had occasion to observe that the charge very commonly brought in former days against Friendly Societies, of * See Second Report, Questions 8,803, 8,850, 9.348, 9,743, 12,183, etc. 292 English Associations of Working Men. letting their meetings degenerate into drinking bouts, was a well- founded one.* But in this respect also a great change has taken place within the last few years. The greatest danger always was the fact that nearly all the Friendly Societies formerly held their meetings at public-houses, and stood in a kind of connection with the landlord, so that drinking was iinavoidable. The new rules, especially those of the large Orders, expressly forbid any portion of the contributions being devoted at their weekly meetings to liquor, as was once so frequently the case. The societies, and foremost again the Orders, impose heavy fines on members who get drunk at meetings, and summarily expel notorious drunkards* Any member found intoxicated while in receipt of relief forfeits his benefit at once. The bad habit of paying room-rent to the publican in the form of liquor has for the most part, indeed, been abandoned, and given place to payments in money. Many societies avoid altogether holding their meetings at public-houses, and choose either schoolrooms or other suitable places for that pur- pose. The principles of management now pursued by the Friendly Societies, in regard to questions of temperance, may have failed perhaps as yet to remove all abuses, but they have effectually furthered the progress of the institution as a whole. Along with the improvement in the system of insurance, by the sub- stitution of premiums for levies, goes the change from the old carousings at the public-house to a better and more refined kind of social intercourse, which has done an immense deal not only to better the management of the societies themselves, but also to raise the moral and intellectual level of the working- men. Any one who has attended one of the festive gatherings of the Orders or larger societies, such as a dinner to celebrate an anniversary or to do honour to a specially deserving member, and seen how the English working-men of the present day be- • In this respect also the Burial Societies are still exposed to serious abuses. A witness stated before the Commission that the Humane Sick and Burial Society at Ashtonunder-Lyne consumed in one year, at their quarterly meetings, about £112 in spirituous drinks. (Q. 17,857.) It appeared also that in the Mortality Association Burial Society, 30 per cent, of the entire expenses was wasted in liquor. (Q. 18,271 ) Reform Movement inside the Friendly Societies. 293 have, and heard them speak, will come away with the conviction that the habits of social intercourse now observed by these societies, so far from being injurious to the institution, are a powerful lever for promoting the spirit of good-fellowship, for quickening every kind of effort, and for developing the social education of the working classes. Experience has taught that those branches of Orders which cultivate in a proper manner the social union of their members, are also the most favourably situated as regards their system of insurance, or have made the greatest progress in that direction. It will be appropriate here to point out, in general terms, how the Friendly Societies, while reflecting in their management the morality', the intelligence, and the culture of the English working- man who, under the guidance of his leaders, is labouring untir- ingly to improve them, have themselves become an excellent school for his training and advancement.* Considered purely as insurance institutions, they undoubtedly still leave much to be desired, notwithstanding all their efforts after reform. But who- ever looks upon the various social arrangements of a people not as isolated measures, but as parts of a new social edifice, will admit that tables of premiums and investments of funds alone can never realise that great social object which working-men's * Mr. J. Shepherd, a member of one of the lodges of the Druids, gives the following picture of the social life in the lodges : " We who are in such a society look upon a lodge as a small family party. The lodge to which I belong, and have belonged for the last thirty years, consists of about fifty or fifty-two men. We all know each other directly or indu'ectly, and come in contact with each other ; we are all interested in each other's welfare in regard to health, and sickness, and misfortune. There is a sympathy created connected with those societies which does not at all belong to the other class of societies ; there is an adhesiveness and a kindly feeling, and a sort of mutual educational influence to a certain extent connected with those lodges which would surprise you. When I first commenced having anj'thing to do with those societies, it was a difficult thing to find working men who could be quiet and civil to each other when they met, but these societies have so far educated them up in that respect, that the greatest amount of kindness is manifested towards each other in the time of need, and there is a kindly sympathy. When a person is sick, a man goes to visit him, not as a matter of espionage, but as a friend, to talk with him, and they feel quite delighted to see any brother, as they are pleased to term him, for it is as near Freemasonry as anything can be." (Second Report, Q. 2,396.) 294 English Associations of Working Men. insurance has to fulfil, — that even compulsion and fines can never take the place of good-will ; bat that these institutions can only grow and prosper if inside the body, created either by the rules of the society or the law, there lives a spirit which attracts the members gradually but steadily, without weakness, bat honestly, to habits of providence, labour, and temperance, and a readiness for self-sacrifice. Where such a spirit is actively at work, it not only compensates for many practical defects, but is also most certainly able gradually to remove them. In this way the Friendly Societies have had an extraordinary influence on the character and conduct of the working classes in England. We cannot express this better than by quoting the words of Mr. Hard- wick, who thus describes the social advantages of these societies : " If the self-governed Friendly Societies," he says, " presented no greater contribiition to the cause of social progress than the practical educatioti afforded to the members by periodical legisla- tion, and the continued exercise of the executive function, they deserve the support of every true friend of law and order, and of moral and intellectual advancement. The social prosperity and peace of England depend not at the present day upon the blind routine worship of existing authority, but upon the moral and intellectual appreciation of the necessity of law and order for the protection of the property, and the personal liberty and rights, of even the humblest of our fellow-citizens. The improved tone, in this respect, which has been exhibited during the past few years, may be fairly ascribed, to a considerable extent at least, to the operation of the principle of self-government in the Friendly Societies established by provident working-men. It is an old maxim, that if you wish to make a good commander, you must teach him how to obey ; and it is equally true, if cheerful sab- mission to law and orderly conduct be desired from a free man, you must, to some extent, teach him how to govern. These societies have done this both in theory and practice, both by precept and example. Truly, every member of a Friendly Society has a ' stake in the country ' of immense value to himself, and therefore a direct pecuniary interest in the prevention of anarchy, and in the preservation of order. He has been practically taught that obnoxious enactments are not to be repealed or amended by Reform MovcDient inside the Friendly Societies. 295 violence, but by intellectual and moral suasion, exercised within, the limits prescribed by existing law " (p. 167). In conclusion, we must notice another circumstance, wbicb Has reference to the entire management of the Friendly Societies. This is the absolute publicity of their arrangements. All independent societies, and even all the societies connected with private under- takings, multiply printed copies of their annual balance-sheets, and make them, as well as their rules, accessible to members and even non-members. While freely admitting that this grouping of figures does not always succeed in making clear the position of the societies, still, on the whole, in this matter also, publicity has done much to explain and elucidate. CHAPTER IV. The Law of Friendly Societies. Two-fold character of Government intervention. — General cliaracter of early legislation. — Necessity of compromise. — Permissive character of legislation. — Position of the unregistered Societies. — Eeasonsfor non-registry. — Regis- tered Societies. 1. Friendly Society Legislation up to the Act of 1875. The Act of 1793. — Act of 1819.— Parliamentary inquiries 1823-27.— Act of 1829.— Act of 1834. — Loan Societies Act, 1835. — Benefit Building Societies Act, 1836. — Act of 1846. — Its " Frugal Investment " clause. — Industrial and Provident Societies Acts, 1852 and 1876. — Registration opened to the affiliated So- cieties. — Consolidation Acts, 1850 and 1855. — Reports of the Chief Regis- trar. — Royal Commission of 1871-74. — Outline of its recommendations. 2, The Friendly Societies Act, 1875. Provisions relating to insurance. — Conditions and results of registration. — Extent of Government supervision. — Powers of the Chief Registrar. — Results of Government supervision. — Annual returns. — Quinquennial returns. — Quinquennial valuations. — Diffusion of actuarial knowledge. — Cancellations and suspensions of regis- try. — Advantages and privileges of registered Societies. — Their various methods of investment. — Public officials. — Arbitration. — Peculiar condi- tions of legislation in England. — Question of Government control. — Assist- ance offered to the Chief Registrar by the large Orders. The Government in England has intervened in two ways in the matter of working-men's insurance. It has done so, in the first place, by having gradually given a definite legal form and status to the numerous Friendly Societies which owed their origin to the social spirit of the people, and having subjected these social, self-governing bodies to its supervision. But in addition to this it has established an independent, or at any rate voluntary, in- stitution in its system of Government annuities, an experiment intended to make the benefits of insurance accessible to the working classes in a form differing from that adopted by the Eriendly Societies. We shall treat of this system in the next 29G The Laiv of Friendly Societies. 297 chapter, wlien we propose also to notice some views — at present purely theoretical — which would appear to connect it with the principle of compulsory insurance by the State, an idea which, under the influence no doubt of Grerman notions and legislation, has of late been frequently discussed in England, but which is so alien to English character as to have no prospect of being carried into effect, however useful it is in familiarizing Englishmen with new aspects of the great question of insu.rance. We will begin, then, by giving a sketch of the legislation deal- ing exclusively with Eriendly Societies, which was consummated by the Act of 1875. This legislation has pursued a double aim : to establish the legal status and competence of these societies, and to institute a system of State supervision.* Any one who should seek to measure the importance of this legislation, its development, and especially the extent which State supervision has reached up to the present day, simply from the single sections of the various Acts which have been passed on this subject, would form a very incorrect judgment of English Friendly Societies. Looking at these Acts alone, there is much apparently to justify the conclusion arrived at by Grerman writers like Hasbach, who, in common with others, laments and denounces * The most important sources of information as to the administration and working of the English Friendly Societies Act of 1875, is to be found in the annual Reports of the Chief Registrar since 1876. They contain a rich fund of statistical information, showing how the Friendly Societies have gradually submitted to the Act, and what progress has been made in the directions con- templated by its various provisions. We have made use of these reports, including that for 1886, for our account. With regard to the Act itself, Mr. Brabrook's re-edition of Mr. Tidd Pratt's earlier work contains, in addition to a good introduction, a number of valuable remarks. For the history of Friendly Society legislation in England abundant material is furnished by the Report of the Royal Commission in 1871. The Fourth Report, Part I., Appendix No. 1, contains an historical sketch of the course of legislation, entitled "Legislation and Parliamentary Inquiries relating to Friendly Societies, and other Societies with which the Registrar is connected," written by Mr. Ludlow, the Secretary to the Commission. I have to thank the present Chief Registrar, Mr. Ludlow, as well as his actuarial colleague, Mr. W. Sutton, for a quantity of valuable information. A small book by Mr. Francis G. P. Neison, " Legislation on Friendly Societies," London, 1871, contains also a number of important observations. 298 English Associations of Working Men, the fact that the State in England has not interfered with far more energy in the affairs of Friendly Societies, that the societies have repeatedly succeeded in Parliament in baffling any attempts at such interference, and that the progress of reform and consoli- dation has thus been unjustifiably delayed. But deeper-lying causes than these have dictated in reality the course of English legislation, though we are far from saying that, in the interests of the working classes, it ought not to have been more rapid, or denying that the Act of 1875 contains man}^ halting and imperfect provisions. We have to deal in this matter with two powerful tendencies, to which we have already referred, and which, in other matters also, have decided the course of legislation in England. On the one 'hand, there is the desire for independence and the jealousy of State interference, which has been an inborn sentiment of Englishmen from of old, and is a lively characteristic of English working-men. On the other hand, there is the conviction that, however strong may be the spontaneous energy of the people, the problems of modern societj'^ can never be solved on an extensive scale without some fvirther intervention by the State. The whole of Friendly Society legislation, including the Act of 1875, has been a continual compromise between these two opposite ten- dencies, and can only be understood by grasping this fact. As such, therefore, it shares the fate of all compromises ; namely, of being judged adversely from the most different points of view. While some ci'itics are of opinion that Government supervision is carried too far and has tended to weaken local responsibility, others regard it as a serious shortcoming that less has been done than is necessary in bringing State influence to bear on the management of the Societies.* * Here also we find proofs of the spirit of independence, so deeply implanted in English history and in English character. We quote a passage from a prize essay by Mr. Cowell, a member of the Mutual Providence Alliance at Leeds, written on the subject of " The Defects of Friendly Societies, and How to Re- medy Them,'' and published in the Jackson Prize Essays on Friendly Societies, Leeds, 1885. The author says, on page 62 : " The history of the past fifty years, however, has especially shown both the strength and the weakness of these systems of aid to the provident poor ; and although both the one and the other have in turns been made the stalking-horse for both friend and foe to further TJie Lazu of Friendly Societies. 299 The result of these two tendencies is the permissive character of the entire legislation. The application of the Act of 1875 de- pends on voluntary registration. We have already had occasion to observe that powerful factors — such as, in particular, the working-men's orders — have ranged themselves unreservedly on the side of State supervision, and do their best to promote registration; and that the indirect influence exercised by the Registrar's office, through its activity and particularly its publi- cations, on the non-registered societies, is steadily increasing. Thus registration is gradually gaining ground, and it may be said at the present day with confidence, that the large majority of Friendly Societies have consented to be registered. Nevertheless, this is perhaps a fitting place to refer to the non- registered societies. A consideration of their legal status will form the best introduction to the account of the progress and present state of the legislation, whose sphere of action extends only to registered societies. The legal position of the non-registered Friendly Societies is altogether peculiar.* In England there is full freedom of asso- ciation ; combinations of any kind can be formed and develop their activity unmolested by political interference. But if they wish to obtain a legal competence to act, they must fulfil, accord- ing to their respective objects, the conditions which the law prescribes for joint-stock companies, insurance companies, benefit societies, and so forth. In point of civil law this competence attaches only to those Friendly Societies which are registered, some pet theory — chiefly of Parliamentary interference— it is now felt that the laws imposed by moral suasion are likely to be more beneficial and permanent than any other. When arbitrary authority — either local, municipal, or Parlia- mentary — usurps the place of voluntary effort and personal exertion, it tends to enervate the moral tone of a nation, and weaken that sense of social dignity which every man ought to encourage, but which can only be maintained by those who are least dependent upon the favours of others. Any effort, therefore, to improve and extend Friendly Societies so as to adapt them to the new in- fluences now at work, and as far as possible so as to meet the wants of the whole body of the working classes, deserves the earnest consideration and assistance of all workers in the great social vineyard of the nation." * See Fourth Report, p. cliii., on " Unregistered Societies," and George Howell's " Handbook of the Labour Laws," p. 163 (on Russell Gurney's Act of 1868). 300 EnglisJi Associations of Working Mm. . The non-registered societies, wliile absolutely free from inter- ference, have no corporate character ; they cannot acquire or hold property, or sue or be sued as corporations. The property they hold has no statutory recognition, but is simply trust property in the hands of trustees, against whom the societies have no right of action. No member can institute a suit against them, and the authority of the arbitrators appointed by these societies depends merely on voluntary submission. But in regard to the criminal law also the non-registered societies are without protection. Up to 1868 they had no power to prosecute their officers, trustees, or members for any misuse of the society's funds, even though it was a matter of a crime, such as larceny, embezzlement, or breach of trust. A great sensation was caused at that time by a judicial decision, by which the Secretary of a Friendly Society who had embezzled £4,000 was acquitted on the ground that a non- registered society had no legal persona standi. By what is com- monly known as E-ussell Gurney's Act of 1868 (31 and 32 Vict., c. 116), all associations of fellowship, although they have not the character of legal personalities, are empowered to prosecute for larceny or embezzlement any of their members wrongfully in possession of their funds. Partial as was the remedy thus pro- vided, even the applicability of this Act to non-registered societies does not appear to be undisputed. The legal status of the non-registered Friendly Societies is, therefore, a precarious one. Nevertheless, we know that a large number of such societies exist, and probably in Scotland, though certainly not in England, they form the majority. The funds in their possession amount to many millions of pounds ; and the number of members and their relatives interested in them is un- questionably very large, although the very existence of these institutions is based simply on mutual confidence. This confirms a fact which we have had occasion to urge in our introduction. Notwithstanding the laments now so commonly expressed in England, that the old confidence in dealings between man and man is disappearing, one would seek in vain for another example of a social institution, so extensive and important as that of these non-registered societies, continuing to exist in a form abso- lutely unrecognised by law, and simply as a matter of personal The Laiu of Friendly Societies. 301 trust, and never failing to find an increasing number of influential advocates to plead its cause. The immediate question is twofold : What are the real reasons why so many Friendly Societies still refuse to be registered? and What is the nature of these non-registered societies ? The objection to registration arises, no doubt, in many cases from a desire to remain free from the inconveniences of State supervision in respect of the traditional mode of management, the investment of funds in a manner not sanctioned by law, and the customary application of certain sums to dinners and festivities and other improper purposes. Many of the societies which, from these and kindred motives, renounce the advantages offered by registration, are also in a very bad position. It would be unfair, however, not to admit that many even of the non-registered societies are admirably managed, can point back to a long and honour- able past, and make a pride of continuing to conduct their affairs as they have done for many years. Non-registered societies are to be found in nearly all the groups which we have described in the second chapter of this book. Most frequently they ap- pear as dividing societies, or as societies connected with some particular branch of industry. On the other hand, there is now scarcely any working-men's Order which would not systemati- cally further the registration of its lodges. Speaking generally, all societies with branches, and conducting an extensive busi- ness, are being gradually compelled to register; and in future it will be only the local and smaller ones — comparatively remote from modern habits of intercourse, with their demands for a security based on legal recognition and not mere personal trust — which will be able to continue as non-registered societies. Up to the present day, however, the non-registered societies still con- stitute, as was shown very clearly in the Fourth Report of the Commission, a class by themselves, which finds no place in official publications, and of which, though information can be gathered here and there, no one even in England can give an approximately accurate account. As opposed to these non-registered societies, there is the grow- ing number of registered ones. The latter enjoy, both civilly and criminally, the protection and rights of legal personce. In con- 302 English Associations of Working- Men. sideration of this boon, as well as from the proper conviction that a rationally conducted system of State supervision is not an ob- stacle but a furtherance to their growth and progi-ess, they have submitted to that supervision by being registered, though only because it neither claims nor has the power to interfere in a petty and thwarting spirit of officialism, but desires, above all, to in- form, to encourage, and to educate, and recognises in these objects its proper sphere of action. Nevertheless, even among the regis- tered societies great difference of opinion prevails as to the necessary extent of State supervision ; and any further advance in this direction can only take place slowly and gradually, since an Englishman always prefers to err on the side of freedom rather than of tutelage. In proceeding now to describe the law of Friendly Societies, we will begin by giving a brief account of the legislation previous to the Act of 1875, which sums up the present state of the law. 1. Friendly Society Legislation up to the Act of 1875. The first step taken by the legislature on the subject of Friendly Societies was an Act of 1793 (33 Greorge III. c. 54), long known as Rose's Act. Since that time to the Act of 1875 (38 and 39 Vict. c. 60), more than twenty Acts have been passed, in which the law has been gradually developed. The characteristic position taken up by the Legislature towards these societies was shown already by the Act of 1793. This Act applied only to those societies which voluntarily consented to be registered ; by regis- tration a fixed status in law was given to societies which pre- viously were as good as outside the pale of law, and in addition to that they enjoyed certain advantages, but were obliged to submit to supervision on the part of the State. The Act of 1793 refers only to Friendly Societies formed for raising a stock or fund for the mutiial relief and maintenance of the members in old age, sickness, and infirmity, or for the relief of widows and children of deceased members The rules of s^^ch societies were to be exhi- bited to the justices in quarter sessions, who were only to allow and confirm them if " conformable to the true intent and meaning of the Act," after which they were to be filed with the clerks of TJie Law of Friendly Societies. 303 the peace. Registration gave these societies certain exemptions from the stamp duties (then heavy), certain summary legal reme- dies against officers or amongst the members ; a preferential right for the societies' claims against the estates of deceased officers^ power to refer disputes to a binding arbitration, and finally the right of suing and being sued through their officers, in whom the property of the societies was to be deemed vested. From these beginnings has been built up in the course of the present century a structxire of law, which was codified in the Friendly Societies' Act of 1875, and a system of State supervision has been developed, which is conducted by a State organ, as we have already seen, the Chief Registrar in London. We will abstain from following all the phases through which legislation has passed, and must renoimce any idea of describing the various changes of opinion, and the bills and proceedings in Parliament, our only object being to sketch so far the course of legislation as to explain the present law by the history of its development. This is all the more important since from the Friendly Societies, as from a parent stem, have been thrown oif in the course of this century a number of vigorous offshoots, and the legal form which those societies have been made to assume has served as a type for a series of later institutions, — such as the loan societies, the benefit building societies, and more recently, the co- operative societies, — all of which have risen into importance in a comparatively short time, and while rich in independently ac- quired results, have essentially the same legal basis as their pro- totype. For all these unions for social purposes the various Acts relating to them provide for optional registration and the super- vision of the Chief Registrar. The next important step in Friendly Society legislation was the Act of 1819 (59 George III. c. 128). Between 1793 and 1819 a great number of Friendly Societies had come into existence, and the question of the calculation of premiums came gradually to the front. The Act of 1819 introduced two substantial changes in the law. Firstly, it required the justices not to " confirm and allow any tables of payments or benefits, or any rules dependent upon or connected with the calculation thereof," unless they were satis- fied that the tables and rules were sach as had been '' approved by 304 English Associations of I Forking Men. two persons at the least, known to be pi^ofessional actuaries or persons skilled in calculation." And secondly, it gave to Friendly- Societies the privilege of direct investment with the National Debt Commissioners, on the same footing as savings banks. In doing this, the State gave a considerable advantage to regis- tered societies by offering them a higher rate of interest than that which was current in the market. The attempt, however, then made to introduce a real control over the actuarial business proved an utter failure. The statistical materials required for calculations of probability, and the compilation of trustworthy tables, were not yet sufficiently advanced to render possible any effective scrutiny of the tables exhibited by the Societies ; and moreover, the justices at quarter sessions took too formal a view of their duty, it being stated that they contented them- selves in many cases with the certificates of schoolmasters and small accountants. In 1825 the question of Friendly Societies was considered by a select committee of the House of Commons, which was reap- pointed in 1827. The whole question assumed a broader aspect through the evidence then taken, and the recommendations put forward. While on the one hand it was insisted that no re- straints should be imposed on the freedom of Englishmen to combine for useful purposes, and that legislation must, therefore, remain optional, on the other hand the Committee of 1825 ex- pressed an opinion that no society should consist of fewer than 200 members, that Friendly Societies should, like savings banks, furnish periodical returns to the National Debt office in a pre- scribed form, and that wherever a society desired to avail itself of the Government debentures, the rules and tables should be transmitted to the National Debt office for the actuary to examine and certify, making such observations and suggestions as he might think useful. In 1829 a new Act was passed (10 Greorge IV. c. 56), which made some important additions to the law. The first provisions related to registration. With a view to making the examination of the rules of Friendly Societies more effectual, it was enacted, after the example of the Savings Bank A.ct of the previous year, that societies desiring to be registered must have a transcript of their rules submitted in England and Wales and The Laiu of Friendly Societies. 305 Ireland to a barrister-at-law appointed for that purpose, and in Scotland " to the Lord Advocate, or any of his deputies," who were to subject them to a kind of preliminary revision before being confirmed, as before, by the quarter sessions, and certified as registered by the clerk of the peace. This was the first step to the establishment of a central authority for registration. Fur- thermore, the Act required registered societies to institute an annual audit and submit to their members an annual statement of their funds, receipts, and expenditure, and also to deliver to the clerks of the peace quinquennial returns of sickness and mortality, such returns to be by them transmitted to one of the Secretaries of State, and then laid before Parliament. Finally, the Act con- ferred on registered societies varioiis legal privileges, such as allowing minors to be members, and enabling the distribution of intestates' effects under a given sum without letters of adminis- tration and to persons appearing only to be next of kin. Another Act, that of 1834 (4 and 5 William IV. c. 40), deserves notice as having extended the specified purposes for which Friendly Societies might be formed, to " any other purpose which is not illegal," — a provision which enlarged their scope of action as well as the possibility of registration. These Acts, gave birth to two of those offshoots of Friendly Societies which we have mentioned above. The first of these were the Loan Societies, the object of which is to obtain cheap credit for the working classes, and which received a formal legal sanction by the Loan Societies Act of 1835 (5 and 6 Will. IV. c. 23). With regard to the framing, certifying, enrolling, and altering of their rules, the provisions of the Friendly Societies Acts were made directly applicable. The same was done by an Act of 1836 (6 and 7 Will. IV. c. 32), with regard to Benefit Building Societies, a peculiar kind of Building Societies, whose legal status was at first closely connected with that of Friendly Societies, but since then has been established by a series of independent enactments. We have seen how about the middle of the present century the principles of actuarial science were largely improved by statistical and mathematical labours. The works of Finlaison, Neison, Rad- cliffe, and others, had thoroughly explored the entire field of insur- ance, once purely empirical, and the results of theii' labours began X 3o6 English Associations of Working Men. gradually to exercise an influence on the management of tlie societies. About this time legislation also made further steps. First, an Act of 1846 (9 and 10 Vict. c. 27) introduced a material addition as regards the legal statvis of the societies. The " bar- rister or advocate appointed to certify the rules of Friendly Societies," was to be styled the " Registrar of Friendly Societies," and was to be appointed by the National Debt Commissioners, and paid henceforth by salary instead of fees. This swept away the local registration by the justices, who had not shown themselves at all suitable organs for the purpose, and transferred it to the Registrar, thus completing the centralisation of State supervision. The Registrar was required not to certify any new society unless the tables had been certified by the actuary to the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt, or by some person duly approved, who had been at least five years actuary to some life assurance company in London, Edinburgh, or Dublin. With re- gard to the purposes for which Friendly Societies could be estab- lished, the Act contained a " Frugal Investment " clause, allow- ing those societies also to be registered which undertook to enable their members " to purchase food, firing, clothes, or other necessaries, or the tools or implements of their trade or calling," in warehouses belonging to the society, and thus to make frugal investments by receiving part of the profits accruing on the sale of these commodities in the shape of dividends on their shares. This clause opened out registration for the first time to co-opera- tive societies, and thus enabled them to acquire a legal status. The famous Rochdale Pioneers were registered at that time under this clause. Very soon, however, the scope thus afforded to these co-operative societies was found to be too narrow ; they increased so rapidly in importance, extent, and number, that a distinct legal status was given to them a few years later by the Industrial and Provident Societies' Act of 1852 (15 and 16 Vict. c. 31), and thus a new offshoot of Friendly Societies was completed, with which we shall deal hereafter more iii detail. This offshoot led to an elaborate organization of the supply of food and necessaries to the working classes, which has become at the present day one of the most effi- cient instruments of their advancement, and has received a definite legal shape in the Industrial and Provident Societies' Act of 1876. Tlie Law of Friendly Societies. 307 Reverting to the Act of 1846, we pass over, in this as in suc- ceeding statutes, all details, since the law has been comprehen- sively embodied in the Act of 1875. We confine ourselves, there- fore, to noticing those salient provisions which seem to mark distinct stages in the history of legislation. The Act of 1846 initiated, if it did not successfully carry out, an important step in regard to the affiliated societies. The large Orders, of which even then some had many hundreds of branches, and which had gradu- ally been acquiring more importance, were previously to this Act excluded from registration, in consequence not only of the Corres- ponding Societies' Act (39 Greo. III. c. 79), which rendered all societies with branches illegal, but also of the Seditions Meeting Act (57 Geo. III. c. 19), which prohibited certain meetings of more than fifty persons if held without notice. The Act of 1846 now declared that the provisions of these two Acts should not apply to Friendly Societies, thus opening to the affiliated societies, at least in principle, the door to registration. Still, other difficulties pre- vented the admission of the large Orders within the pale of the law relating to Friendly Societies, since they had undertaken to provide for other objects besides those declared lawful by the Friendly Societies Acts, particularly for the relief of members seeking for employment, and had thus pushed their purposes beyond the then proper scope of registered Friendly Societies. When, therefore, it appearedt hat these Orders, notwithstanding the theoretical provision of the Act of 1846, were unable to register either collectively or as separate lodges, except under certam circumstances and in isolated cases, the fact led to further inquiry and proposals of legislation. In 1850 a new Act was passed (13 and 14 Vict. c. 115), framed as a Consolidation Act. The material provisions, which were important as a further development of the law, are as follow. The benefits of the Act were limited to societies which should not insure more than £100 in one sum, £30 a year annuity, or 20s. a week in sickness, a limitation advantageous to the interests of the life insurance companies which competed with the Friendly Societies in the amoimt of their allowances. To promote registra- tion, an attempt was made in the Act to divide Friendly Societies recognised by the law into two classes: "certified" Friendly 3o8 English Associations of Working Men. Societies, being those whose rules and tables had been certified by an actuary (as defined in the Act of 1846), or furnished to the society by the Registrar ; and " registered " Friendly Societies, being those whose rules and tables had not been so certified. In later enactments, however, this distinction has rightly been abolished. But the most important feature of the Act was the express recognition in many of its provisions of " branches " of Friendly Societies ; thus finally enabling affiliated societies to claim the protection of the law. The Act of 1850 contained for the first time the requirement, since then rigidly adhered to, that all registered societies should make annual returns to the Regis- trar, under penalty of being disqualified to sue. Finally, the interest payable to Friendly Societies by the National Debt Com- missioners was reduced to 3 per cent., it being considered unne- cessary any longer to guarantee to their reserve fund out of State resources an interest higher than that of consols. Another Consolidation Act of 1855 (18 and 19 Vict., c. 63) is interesting, as regards the development of legislation, in more than one respect. It gives an idea of how varying in point of details has been the course of legislation, how the preponderance now of one, now of another, of those tendencies, to which we have referred, did not allow proper provisions, contained in an earlier Act, to have full effect ; but how gropingly, now advancing and now receding, has been established both the law respecting Friendly Societies and State supervision. First of all, the Act of 1855 en- abled Friendly Societies to extend the purposes of their insurance,* which meant a strengthening of their position as against the life insurance companies. The limitation of sick pay was omitted ; the maximum of life insurance was fixed at £200. The dis- tinction between " certified " and " registered " societies generally was swept away, and all fees for registration were abolished. * These purposes had been limited since the Act of 1819 to those " of which the probability may be calculated by way of average." This limitation, as Mr. Ludlow points out, had been cumbering Friendly Society legislation ever since, " inasmuch as the progress of statistical science is every day restricting the range of contingencies which ai'e not so calculable, and tends to induce the belief that the law of average would be of universal application, wherever a sufficient num- ber of instances could be procured." (Fourth Eeport, Appendix I. p. 8.) The Laiv of Friendly Societies. 3^9 Friendly Societies were empowered to purchase, hire, or lease any- building or land (not exceeding an acre) for erecting thereon a building for holding their meetings. The requirement of annual returns from registered societies to the Registrar was still, with a slight alteration, retained, though, strange to say, the penalty for not sending in these returns was omitted, although the omission has since been cured. In 1857 began the publication of the yearly reports of the Re- gistrars of Friendly Societies for the preceding year, in compliance with the Act of 1855. They form an unbroken series of official records, equally valuable from the statistical material they contain as from the influence they have had on public opinion, and on the various Friendly Societies themselves. We have noticed already the instructive labours of the then Registrar, Mr. Tidd Pratt. Since then, however, as regards the arrangement of the material, the grouping of figures, and the enunciation of fundamental principles, these annual reports of the Registrar's office have considerably improved, and rank now among the best compiled Parliamentary reports. In the long interval between 1855 and 1875, putting aside some less important Acts, such as those of 1858 (21 and 22 Vict., c. 101) and of 1860 (23 and 24 Vict., c. 58), no change was made in the legal status of Friendly Societies. All the more important, how- ever, about this very time was the internal development of these societies. Reforms in many directions, which had been pi-epared at an earlier time, were now vigorously promoted, and the improv- ments in the system of insurance, in the mode of management, and in the investment of capital, have been, as we have seen, extremely marked. While the legislature, therefore, made a long pause, other incentives to progress were actively at work, and this period must be considered as having been fully occupied with the task of reform in the self-governing societies, which continued to labour consistently and quietly in improving their tables, re- moving abuses, and perfecting their management. No doubt this spirit was not everywhere equally powerful ; many societies lagged behind, or broke up during this period, and others dragged along with them their errors and abu^ses, but in a large number a decided change for the better set in, and it was the great Orders 310 English Associations of Working Men. in particular, among them always the Manchester Unity and the Foresters, who improved their organization, and took the lead. Ultimately, the Government, after several bills had fruitlessly engaged the attention of Parliament, initiated a step which did more than any bill to further the cause of Friendly Societies, namely, the appointment of a Royal Commission to inquire into all questions connected with these societies, with the view of being able to legislate with safety on the basis of their con- clusions. The proceedings of this Commission, with the evidence and recommendations contained in its reports, not only enabled the preparation of a comprehensive bill, but produced an immediate practical effect, which deserves especial notice. Evils of various kinds, and frequently of a gross character, were discovered and unsparingly exposed ; the results of good and bad management were made apparent ; clear proof was given of the blessings aiforded by well-conducted societies, and on the other hand, no concealment was made of the mischief caused by negligence or actual dishonesty to those who had wasted their confidence on bankrupt concerns. By these means a rich fund of information was supplied, which was tixrned to good account by the press and public discussion, and while morally strengthening those societies which were striving after reform, broke the opposition which pro- ceeded from thoughtless defenders of existing evils and abuses. It is certainly not too much to say, that this Commission, to whose valuable labours we have so frequently had occasion to refer, exercised more influence from the publicity of its proceed- ings, its unsparing truth, and lastly, by the admirable digest of evidence in the report drafted by its secretary, Mr. Ludlow, than many an earlier Act of Parliament. As was to be foreseen, the reports of the Commission excited again the liveliest discussion as to the necessary extent of State supervision. The Commission made a series of recommendations, which we will endeavour briefly to review, since they may be regarded as the deliberate opinions, based on facts brought before them, of men thoroughly conversant with the subject, who, while fully respecting the spirit of independence, nevertheless thought it necessary to advocate an effective system of supervision by the TJie L aiv of Friendly Societies, 3 1 1 State. These recommendations, however, were only partially em- bodied in the Act of 1875.* The Commissioners did not hesitate to affirm that the notion of a compulsory State supervision of all the English Friendly So- cieties would encounter general opposition. They took their stand, therefore, on the ground of optional registration ; but for the registered societies they sought to carry out a strict State supervision, as well as certain settled principles of insurance and management. Their recommendations may be grouped under four heads. They relate to registration and the official duties of the Registrar, to the directions regarding the actuarial basis of the societies, to the principles of management, and to a number of miscellaneous details. With regard to registration and the powers of Registrars, the Commissioners were of opinion that the whole country should be divided into a certain number of registration districts, with a Deputy-Registrar in each, at whose offices the rules, tables of premiums, annual returns, and balance-sheets of the various Friendly Societies should be collected for public inspection. The District Registrar had to see whether the conditions of registra- tion were fulfilled, subject to an appeal to the Chief Registrar, and from the Chief Registrar himself, on legal points, to a court of law. The office of the Chief Registrar was to be an important .one. He was to supervise all registered Friendly Societies, pre- pare and publish tables of premiums, and compile proper statis- tics. He was to have more effective powers to prosecute dis- honest or negligent officers of Friendly Societies, to have authority, on the application of a certain number or prescribed proportion of members, to appoint inspectors of accounts and to call special meetings of societies, and to make a binding award either for the dissolution of the society, or for the adjustment of contributions * They are printed in the Fourth Report, p. ccxiii., and those of the minority on p. ccxvii. We cannot here enter at length into the extensive discussion to which these recommendations gave rise in the press, in periodicals, and in various publications. An excellent paper on the advantages of registration, as well as the disadvantages attaching to it, in consequence of the Act of 1855, is written by Mr. Charles Cameron in the " Transactions of the National Associa- tion for the Promotion of Social Science, 1874," entitled, " What Legislation should follow upon the Report of the Commission on Friendly Societies ? " 312 English Associations of Working Men. and benefits. To his central office in London were to be attached one or more Assistant-Registrars, and a competent actuarial staff. With regard to insurance, the recommendations of the Commis- sioners were twofold. As to the tables of premiums, they declined to recommend the compulsory introduction of tables compiled or approved by the Government, but they suggested that the Chief Registrar should cause the tables prepared by him, which were to be adjusted as closely as could be to the different requirements of the societies, to be made as accessible as possible to the societies, and to promote their adoption by his moral influence. The Commissioners rightly laid great stress on the compulsory introduction of quinquennial valuations, the importance of which we have already explained in full, and which, as we know, have now been enacted by law. With respect to the management of Friendly Societies, the Commissioners laid down in the first place the principle, that the "management fund should be kept distinct from the benefit fund." Their investigations had brought to light serious evils in this respect. They recommended further that every registered society should be bound to have its accounts and balance-sheet audited every year by a competent auditor, who should also be respon- sible, under penalties, for superintending the proposed limitation of investments. Among the recommendations on separate ques- tions of detail, it may be mentioned that the Commission sug- gested that the law should be so amended as to remove the restric- tions which then practically excluded the dividing societies, and also the affiliated orders, from registration. They recommended, further, certain restrictions on the insurance of burial-money for children, and also the grant of facilities for acquiring land for the societies, etc. A minority of the Commissioners proposed to go further as regards the influence of the Chief Registrar on the actuarial part of the question, and made recommendations aimed at guaranteeing as far as possible the accuracy of the tables used by the societies. How far these labours of the Commissioners formed the basis of the Act of 1875, in what form and with what limitations their recommendations reappeared in that Act, a short review of its most important provisions will enable us to see. The Lazv of Friendly Societies. 313 2. The Friendly Societies' Act, 1875 (38 and 39 Vict., c. 60). We are aware that the Act of 1875 extends only to Friendly Societies which have voluntarily applied to be registered. For the purpose of registry, they must conduct their business within the objects declared admissible by the Act, conform their rules and management to its provisions, and permit the exercise of a control which may even be a direct interference in their existence, in return for which the Act secures to them a number of powers and facilities. We will sum up in the following remarks the essential pro- visions of the Act. (1) The Act applies to what are termed in it Friendly Societies. All such societies can be registered under it which are established to provide by voluntary subscriptions of their members, with or without the aid of donations, for the following objects, viz. : — (a) For the relief or maintenance of the members, their husbands, wives, children, fathers, mothers, brothers or sisters, nephews or nieces, or wards being orphans, during sickness or other infirmity, whether bodily or mental, in old age (which shall mean any age after fifty) or in widowhood, or for the relief or maintenance of the orphan children of members during minority. (6) For insuring money to be paid on the birth of a member's child, or on the death of a member, or for the funeral expenses of the husband, wife, or child of a member, or of the widow of a deceased member, or, as respects per- sons of the Jewish persuasion, for the payment of a sum of money during the period of confined mourning. (c) For the relief or maintenance of the members when on travel in search of employment, or when in distressed circumstances, or in case of shipwreck, or loss or damage of or to boats or nets. {d) For the endowment of members or nominees of members at any age. (e) For the insurance against fire to any amount not exceed- ing fifteen potmds of the tools or implements of the trade or calling of the members. 314 English Associations of Working Men. The provisions as to registiy extend, further, to a number of societies not immediately connected with the objects of Friendly Societies, such as cattle insurance societies, benevolent societies, and working-men's clubs, and to societies for any purpose which the Treasury may authorize as a purpose to which the powers and facilities of the Act ought to be extended. To these working- men's clubs we propose to revert when we come to the second volume of our work. The above provisions, which are taken verbatim from the Act (Sect. 8), trace the limits of working-men's insurance very wide. They allow registered Friendly Societies to extend sick (including accident) insurance to members' husbands, wives, and relatives, and to make provision not only against old age and disablement, but for the relief of members' widows and orphans. We have already seen that the extension of the definition of " sickness " to cases of chronic illness, made sick insurance include to some extent infirmity. Furthermore, in addition to burial insurance, these societies are allowed to insure the lives and funds of their members, in order to secure a sum of money to the working-man's family, either on the birth of a child, the death of the member himself, or one of his family, or as a portion on the marriage of his son or daughter. To this are added the insurance of the members' tools or implements of trade, and for his relief or main- tenance " in distressed circumstances," which scarcely come with- in the strict limits of actuarial insurance, and in reality are based upon the levy system, though they strikingly exhibit the spirit of brotherhood prevailing in the English Friendly Societies. In tracing these limits, however, the Act has simply recognised all the functions of the different societies. No doubt even the best organized societies scarcely fulfil all these functions ; but the latter indicate, nevertheless, the extent to which the great task of working-men's insurance has been inaugurated in England, by means of the parallel action of different societies, and its realiza- tion thus brought all the nearer. The Act leaves, of course, each society to decide how far it will fulfil this practical maximum of working-men's insurance, — whether it will provide for only one or all of these objects of insurance, whether it will be constituted as a separate society or as a lodge belonging to a larger lanion, The Law of Friendly Societies. 315 and whether it shall be established permanently or only tempo- rarily. Nevertheless, the Act imposes on registered societies certain maximum limits in respect to the amounts insured. We have already once mentioned that the amounts of insurance for registered Friendly Societies have been limited by law, the intention being to separate entirely their business from that of the other insurance companies, and restrict it to sums correspond- ing to the manner of life of the working classes. Accordingly, the gross sum insured is not to be more than £200, and the an- nuity more than £50 a year, which includes all sums received from '' any one or more such societies." The life of a child under five years of age cannot be insured for more than £6, and that of a child under ten for more than £10. (2) The duty of registration is now vested in the Chief Regis- trar, who has one or more Assistant Registrars for England, and another Assistant Registrar for Scotland and Ireland respectively. In addition to this, a skilled actuary is attached to the office ; he attends to the actuarial part of the business and assists the Chief Registrar, who must be a barrister of not less than twelve years' standing. This staff forms, together with the necessary clerks, the Registry Office. To obtain registration, a Friendly Society must fulfil a number of conditions.* It must consist of seven persons at least, and its tables, if it grants annuities, must be certified by a Government official, either the actuary to the National Debt Commissioners, or some actuary approved by the Treasury. In the event of the Registrar either refusing to register a society or cancelling or suspending its registry, an appeal lies open to certain courts of law. The Act removes all impediments to the registration of the various branches either of lodges or of the affiliated societies ; nay, it goes farther, and with a view to avoiding the expense and trouble of registration by branches, allows Friendly Societies with branches to be registered as entire societies, provided they have a fund under the control of a central body, to which every branch is bound to contribute. The Act of 1876 (39 and 40 Vict., c. 32) provides still further facilities for the registration of branches. * Section 11 of the Act. 3i6 English Associations of Working Men. The niles may, of course, differ according to the objects and organization of the society ; but they must state in all cases the name and place of office of the society, the whole of the objects for which the society is established, the purposes for which the funds are applicable, the terms of admission, the conditions entitling to benefits, the fines imposed on members, the mode of holding meetings, and certain details as to management and the investment of the funds, and also provide for the keeping of the accounts, the yearly audit of accounts, and the settlement of disputes between the society and its members. They must, further, make provision for the preparation of annual returns to the Registrar of the receipts, funds, effects, and expenditure and number of members, and not only enable any person interested in the society to inspect its books, but also insure to a certain number of members the statutory right to apply to the Chief Registrar for an investigation of the affairs of the society, or for winding up the same. The guarantees, therefore, of solidity and stability required by the State as a condition of registration, consist in the rules and tables of premiums being made conformable to law. As regards the results of registration up to the present day, the first question, considering its permissive character, is this : Do the Friendly Societies make use of their right to apply for it ? Are they gradually regarding their admission into the pale of law as an advantage ? Are they overcoming the fear of State control ? and do those societies which have accepted this control, together with the corresponding privileges conferred on registered societies by the Act of 1875, exhibit that progress after which they are striving ? No satisfactory answer, in point of figures, could be given to this question, unless the total number of all the Friendly Societies were known. As to this total, however, there are only approximate estimates, of which we have already mentioned that which was made by the Commission in 1874, which gave 32,000 for England and Wales. But even the number of registered societies out of this total cannot be ascertained with exactness, there being always a number of societies on the register which have ceased to exist. The annual reports of the Chief Registrar merely show the number of societies registered The Law of Friendly Societies, 317 every year. From 1876 to 1886, the total of all the Friendly Societies admitted to registration amounted yearly to between 959 and 2,767. In addition to this, there were every year the applications under the Act of 1875 for the registry of alterations in the rules, which may be regarded altogether as a decidedly favourable movement in the sense of progressive registration.* With regard to the total number of Societies on the register, the report of the Chief Registrar for 1884 states that at the end of 1883 there were registered between 13,000 and 14,000 indepen- dent Friendly Societies,! and between 11,000 and 12,000 branches. The strongest movement in favour of registration is inside the large working-men's Orders. All newly established lodges have to be registered, and the central body does all it can to induce the old ones to do the same. Of the lodges of the Manchester Unity and the Foresters, numbering in each Order over 4,000, full two-thirds have already been registered. (3) The State supervision established for the registered Societies by the Act of 1875 may be comprehended under two points of view.J In the first place, a series of provisions insures the full publicity of their arrangements, with a view not * The progress of registration since 1877 may be gathered from the following table, taken from the reports of the Chief Registrar for the respective years :— Year. No. of Newly- Registered Societies. No. of Newly- Registered Branches of Affiliated Societies. Including Lodges of No. of formerly Independent Friendly Societies and now Branrhes of Registered Societies. Total. No. of Regi-stered Altera- tions of Rules. The Manches- ter Unity. The Foresters. 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 182 170 173 173 168 149 159 105 198 186 127 337 616 558 547 478 551 485 807 504 17 28 57 39 66 47 35 47 45 38 20 37 60 61 50 75 55 70 48 39 775 1709 1978 1522 1044 811 562 535 367 269 1084 2216 2767 2080 1759 1438 1272 1185 1372 959 1534 2520 3100 2895 2580 2312 1970 2267 2104 1997 t Compare Mr. Brabrook's estimate (p. 163 above) of the number of indepen- dent Societies, an estimate based on the returns sent in. X Compare Sections 14 and 24 sgg. of the Act. 3i8 English Associatiojts of Working Men. only of giving a sufficient insight to the Chief Registrar, but also of enabling the members themselves to satisfy themselves as to the course of business and the management in general. In the second place, the Chief Registrar is authorized and bound to intervene either on the demand of a portion of the members, or by virtue of his office, whenever the society commits irregu- larities or breaches of the Act. With regard to the first point, every Friendly Society is bound to notify to the Registrar where its registered office is situated, it having formerly been the case — particularly with societies whose relations with their members are conducted through agents — that the members of a society never knew where the office was. The society is bound, further, to appoint one or more trustees, and to send a copy of the resolution appointing them to the Chief Registrar. Once at least in every year a society must have its accounts audited and verified, either by a public auditor appointed as in the Act, or by two or more persons appointed as the rules of the society provide. Every society has to send in three kinds of reports to the Chief Registrar, namely, an " annual return," a " quinquennial return " of the sickness and mortality experienced by the society during the previous five years, and a " quinquennial valuation " of its assets, liabilities, etc. Since 1881, however, the " quinquennial returns " have been dropped. The annual return has to be sent in before the first of June, and must contain a statement of the receipts and expenditure, and funds and effects, as audited. This statement must show separately the expenditure in respect of the several objects of the society, and be accompanied by a copy of the auditor's report, if any. If the audit has been conducted by a public auditor, it is sufficient to give his name ; but if by any other person, his address and calling or profession must also be stated. The returns must be given in a form prescribed by the Chief Registrar. If any registered society fails to send in any such return, or " wilfully refuses or neglects " to furnish any information re- quired by a registrar for the purposes of the Act, or wilfully furnishes any false return or information, or does anything for- bidden by the Act, it is liable to a penalty as an ordinary offence of not less than £1, and not more than £5, recoverable at the The Law of Friendly Societies. 319 suit of the Registrar, or of any person aggrieved, in a Court of summary jurisdiction. Tlie penalty may be increased to £50, if any false entry, erasure in, or omission from, any balance- sheet, or collecting-book, or return be wilfully made, with intent to falsify the same, or to evade any of the provisions of the Act. Every society is bound to allow any member or person having an interest in its funds to inspect the books, and to supply him gratuitously, on his application, with a copy of the last annual return. The direct intervention of the Chief Registrar in the affairs of Friendly Societies takes place in the following cases : Corre- spondingly with the right as to registration, and, therefore, as to the admission of a society to the provisions of the Act, the Chief Registrar is empowered, if satisfied by proof that the registry has been obtained by fraud or mistake, or that a society exists for an illegal purpose, or has wilfully violated the Act or ceased to exist, to cancel the registry. In the same cases he may, instead of cancelling, suspend the registry for any term not exceeding three months, not less than two months' previous notice of such cancelling or suspension being given to the society, and published in the Gazette or in some newspaper cir- culating in. the county in which the society's registered office is situated. A society may appeal to the courts, as provided in the Act, from such cancelling or from any suspension of the registry which is renewed after six months. Further, upon the application of a minority, consisting of one-fifth of the whole number of members of a registered society, or of 100 members in the case of a society of 1,000 members and not exceeding 10,000, or of 500 members in the case of a society of more than 10,000 members, the Chief Registrar may, with the consent of the Treasury, either appoint inspectors to examine into the affairs of the society, or call a special meeting and direct what matters shall be there discussed and determined (Sect, 23).* He • These inspections bring to light even now incredible abuses. Thus the Chief Registrar, in his annual report for 1881, says as follows with reference to the inspection of one of the Friendly Societies : — " The management of the Society appears by the inspector's report to have been far from satisfactory. The books had disappeared, and the late secretary 320 English Associations of Working Men. may also prosecute oiScially any person who obtains by fraud or witholds or misapplies any property of the society (Sect. 16). The Chief Registrar has also very distinct powers with respect to the dissolution of a society. Many of these societies in earlier times had dragged on an existence for years, although their funds and contributions were too small to be able permanently to meet their liabilities. The later the inevitable break up ensued, the more mischievous and grievous it became as regards the older members of the society. The Act now gives the Chief Registrar the right, on the application of a minority (constituted as above in the case of inspection) setting forth that the funds of the society are insufficient to meet the existing claims, or that the contributions are insufficient to meet the benefits assured, to investigate, either by himself or by any actuary or public auditor, the affairs of the society, and if satisfied that such insufficiencies exist, he may, if he considers it expedient, award that the society shall be dissolved, and its affairs wound up, giving nevertheless not less than two months' previous notice to the society in ques- tion. The Chief Registrar may suspend, however, his award for such period as he may deem necessary to enable the society to make such alterations as will prevent the award of dissolution being made. Every award, however, when once made, is final and conclusive. Notice of every award for dissolution must be duly advertised in the Gazette or county newspaper, and the society is legally dissolved from the date of su.ch advertisement (Sect. 25). In the case of the more recently established societies. ' suspected they had been stolen from the Club box, which had been broken open.' He entirely repudiated the balance-sheets, as not rejiresenting the accounts which he had prepared. A trustee, one of the applicants, could neither produce any books nor supply information about the accounts. None of the members were able or willing to account for the disappearance of the books. According to the published statements, as examined by the inspector, there was a balance unaccounted for of £537 3s. \d. A new Committee had, how- ever, been appointed, with a fresh staff of officers, and it appeared t5 be the general feeling that it would be unwise and almost impracticable to institute proceedings against the secretary or any otber members. The inspector thought it only justice to the members to state tbat they were principally agricultural labourers, and quite incapable of managing or checking accounts " (p. 25). The Lazu of Friendly Societies. 321 whose tables have been compiled on the basis of new experience and scientific investigation, and whose rules correspond to the reqiiirements of rational management, the Chief Registrar is seldom, indeed, called upon to make use of these powers, but there still exist societies of earlier date, whose bad and partly mischievous condition has been exposed by these very later advances in actuarial science, and as regards these, legislation in England has not hesitated to empower an organ of the Govern- ment to put a summary stop to abuses. Let us glance now at the results of this State supervision. The annual returns are intended to enable the Chief Registrar to control the financial arrangements of the societies. Experience shows, in this matter, how difficult it is to bring institutions under discipline, which have grown up in absolute independence, and how reluctantly they submit to inspection and regulation, and yet how necessary, under certain circumstances, such con- trolling authority becomes. More than ten years have now elapsed since the Act of 1875, which required these annual re- turns to be compiled in a prescribed form, and the results obtained may be summed up by stating that, while a wholesome effect has been produced by these returns, so far as the Chief Registrar has succeeded in obtaining them, it has been impossible to obtain them in even approximately full numbers. A few details will suffice to show how difficult it is to make head with a reform of this kind in opposition to institutions founded on self-help, and how the chief effi^rts must be centred on inoculating them with certain sound principles, as guarantees for a good adminis- tration. These details will, perhaps, convince many persons, who might be inclined, from a Continental point of view, to condemn English government as feeble and defective, and Eng- lish legislation, on account of its tardy intervention, as timid, that to the State in England, which has no subordinate admin- istrative machinery, in the sense of that existing elsewhere, but has to keep touch with thousands of institutions through the medium only of central departments, correspondence, and, per- haps, also inspectors, one course alone is open, namely, to strive by degrees, but with inflexible consistency, to bring about in these self-governing societies a change of views, a higher sense Y 322 English Associations of Working Men. of duty, and a keener perception of their own interests ; in a word, to work for moral results and renounce all idea of that precision of administrative mechanism which is frequently at- tained in bureaucratically-governed States, but is frequently merely superficial. Whoever, therefore, judges of the data fur- nished by the Chief Registrar's reports from 1876 to 1884, from the standpoint of a stiffly organized civil government, will no doubt be much disappointed at the statistical results, and yet the Act has not failed to supply a lever for effecting much useful improvement. In 1876, the first year after the passing of the Act, which sharpened the provisions respecting these annual returns, the number sent in by the registered societies in Eng- land and Wales was 11,282, leaving 14,805 in arrear. In the next year the proportion somewhat improved, 12,338 societies having sent in returns, against 12,896 which failed to do so. After that, the number of societies which complied with the statutory requirement increased but slowly, and the Chief Registrar stated * that during the quinquennium 1875-80, the proportion which sent in their returns regularly amounted to only 21 per cent, of all the registered societies. In 1883 the number of returns rose to 14,545. On this point, also, the affiliated societies have been the Chief Registrar's allies. In 1884 no less than 70 per cent, of all the registered branches sent in returns, the lodges of the Manchester Unity having sent in 2,182 out of a possible total of 2,681, and the Foresters as many as 2,518 out of 2,669. Some of the smaller Orders exhibited no arrears. These results have been attained through the action of the central bodies, which ordered the lodges of the Order to send in the returns, and then forwarded them to the registry office. This action has had a good effect as regards also the quality of the returns, which at first, after the passing of the Act, were decidedly bad. In 1876 the Chief Registrar had to return for correction 5,000 out of the 11,282 returns received during that year. He states that the returns were found to be so imperfectly filled up, that it was impossible to reduce them to any satisfactory degree of correctness. Of those received, even after many of them had * " Eeport for 1882," p. 7. TJie Laiv of Friendly Societies. 323 been sent back for correction, less than two-thirds were in proper form. In a vast number of cases no attempt was made to fill up the inner pages of the sheet containing the amounts of receipts and payments for benefits and management, but only the front page, stating the number of trustees, number of members, etc. In some instances it was candidly stated that the accounts had not been audited. In one case a clergyman, sole auditor to a society without treasurer or trustees, sent in a return, including a balance-sheet, only filled up as respects the assets, and with a note written on it showing that he had not the most remote conception of what a friendly society's balance-sheet meant. The means suggested by the Chief Registrar for remedying these defects, are first, the liberal diffusion of information on the sub- ject ; second, a sufficient staff at the registry office to carry out fully the work of examination and correspondence with the societies for the amendment of their returns, and third, the systematic prosecution of societies which refuse or do not care to fulfil the requirements of the law. This last means of remedy is one which he employs to some extent eveiy year, but it is obviously impossible to prosecute all societies in arrear. The last few years show an average of only 41 prosecutions a year, most of which, however, were successful. Wherever a con- viction was obtained, it always produced some local effect, and the Chief Registrar accordingly made a practice of selecting the worst cases, for the sake of setting an example where most required, Prom 1878 inclusive, the quality of the returns im- proves, though as many as 2,287 in 1881, and 2,484 in 1882, had to be sent back for correction. The Chief Registrar qualifies, however, these high figures by observing that the examination of these returns in the registry office had become much more strict. "This examination," he says, in his Report for 1880, " though it is not and cannot be an audit, has had the best of consequences in improving both the book-keeping of societies and the auditing of their accounts, and in checking illegal mis- applications or investments of funds." At the same time he laments that, in spite of all his efforts, a very large number of societies and branches still failed every year to make their annual return. 3^4 English Associations of U^orkiug Men. Of the greatest importance, as regards the calculation of future tables of premiums and the revision of those actually in use, is the compilation of the " quinquennial returns " of sickness and mor- tality, as required by the Act of 1875. More than 10,000 of these returns were sent in between 1871 and 1875, and the Chief Regis- trar speaks of many of them as very able productions. Since then the Friendly Societies (Quinquennial Return) Act of 1882 (45 and 4G Vict., c. 35) ^las discontinued the compilation of further returns, on the ground that those already sent in had furnished the neces- sary materials. The Chief Registrar says of them in his Report for 1881 as follows : — " Results of the highest accuracy and importance, some perhaps at present unforeseen, may be expected from the scientific treat- ment of so vast a body of data, the equivalent to which may very probably never be again collected ; and the Chief Registrar ventures to hope, in the interest of Friendly Societies and of the industrious classes generally, that means will be supplied, in no niggardly spirit, for the carrying out of a work, the maximum cost of which will probably not reach that of a single piece of ordnance of the largest calibre " (p. 6). His expectation has been fulfilled, and the statistics of sickness and mortality in Friendly Societies, embracing upwards of six million risJcs, has been begun, and the first volume already published. When this work is once completed, and the experiences thus collected are made accessible in the practical form peculiar to Englishmen, we may anticipate a further strengthening of the actuarial basis of the societies.* The most important returns, however, which the Friendly So- cieties have to send in to the Chief Registrar are the quinquennial valuations of assets and liabilities. Their practical value, as re- gards the societies themselves, consists in their compelling them to subject their financial position to strict actuarial examination, and in this respect they constitute one of the most eifective instru- ments of reform, by the pressure they exercise on the societies to • This official publication (817 pages folio) contains a statement of the ex- periences of sickness and mortality in registered societies between 1855 and 1875. It is entitled "Abstract of the Quinquennial Returns of Sickness and Mortality experienced by Friendly Societies for the periods between 1855-1860, 1860-1865, 1865-1870, and 1870-1875 respectively. Part I., 365. Session 2, 1880." TJie Lazv of Friendly Societies. 325 " put tlieir houses in order." In addition to this, however, they supply the means of testing generally the position of these societies, both from a financial and an actuarial point of view. The results furnished by the first quinquennial valuations under the Act of 1875 give a picture of this position.* Let us look first at the figu.res. To begin with, we must repeat that many of the registered societies had not sent in their returns, so that the totals relate only to a portion. On the other hand, many of them, including all dividing and burial societies, are dis- pensed from the requirement of the Act in this respect, on the ground that their business involves either very simple calculations * The first quinquennial valuations of the Friendly Societies were published in 1883, in a Blue-book of 1185 pages, consisting of two volumes, and entitled " Reports of the Chief Registrar of Friendly Societies for the year ending 31st December, 1880. Part II. (A) and (B). Part A gives in a tabulated form the registered number, name, and registered office of each society, its date of estab- lishment, number of members, total assets, and total receipts and expenditure for 1880. Part B gives the date of valuation, rate of interest per cent. ('.«., as used in valuation and as realized), amount of funds, i^resent value of benefits and contributions, other liabilities and assets, if any, and surplus or deficiency. These tables, although not including all registered societies, are a marvellous example, in the case of many thousands of them, of making their financial status public. People in England have not been afraid to lay bare their position, as far as materials could be obtained, in the proper hope and expectation that this very publicity would be the surest and most effective stimulus to reform. Every detail has been fearlessly exposed, and so far from any fears being entertained as to the consequences of this exposure, it has been regarded as something per- fectly natural. This investigation and compilation has enabled the Registry Office to obtain a comprehensive view of the subject in a manner beyond the reach of Continental Governments, and has achieved a work from which all Governments which are confronted with the task of creating a new basis for existing but financially unsound institutions, ought to take example. As to the number of valuations sent to the Chief Registrar's office every year according to the Act, there is a marked increase, comparing the result of the second quin- quennium after the Act with the first. There were received in — 1876 . . 8 valuations. 1881 . . . 4,856 valuations 1877 . . 18 1882 . . . 3,755 1878 . . 40 1883 . . . 2,930 1879 . . . 948 1884 . . . 1,448 1880 . . . 3,542 1885 . . . 2,802 4,556 The number of valuations received in 1886 was 3,209. 15,791 326 English Associations of Working Men. or none at all. Bearing these facts in mind, the tables in question give an admirable insight into the slowly but steadily progressive consolidation of the Friendly Society system. As regards England and Wales, the valuations are given of 6,567 societies. Of these 1,537 show funds amoimting in all to £4,rX)2,070, with a surplus of £885,382. On the other hand, 5,030 societies, with funds amounting altogether to £4,378,781, exhibit larger or smaller de- ficits, the total of which is no less than £5,155,816. From Scotland, where relatively fewer societies are registered than in England and Wales, 247 valuations are returned, 78 of which show a favour- able result, being in fact a total surplus of £84,362, while 169 exhibit deficits amounting in all to £158,792. In England, there- fore, one-fourth, and in Scotland one-third, of these societies are in a very favourable position, even more so than the strict require- ments of actual solvency demand ; while three-fourths and two- thirds respectively do not appear, judging actuarially, to be within the limits of these requirements.* • Mr. William Sutton, in his evidence before the Select Committee of the House of Commons in 1885, on National Provident Insurance (of which we shall have to si^eak hereafter), gives the following opinion as to the extension of ac- tuarial knowledge. Question 1829 : " Under the Friendly Societies Act, as it at ijresent stands, registered Friendly Societies are required, as business con- cerns, to make to the Registry of Friendly Societies' Office audited annual returns, and every five years to make valuation returns, the latter serving to show whether they are likely or not, in the future, to be in a financial position ■which will enable them to meet all the claims upon their funds. On this matter I should like to say that during my nine years at the Friendly Societies' Office, and having had the proud privilege of first carrying out the actuarial duties of that office, I am pleased to say that I see now a much better jjrospect in the future. It is remarkable in the course of those nine years how a more or less accurate and extensive knowledge of actuarial matters has become diffused among the leading spirits connected with the Friendly Society system." And in Question 1831 he repeats this opinion, in speaking of periodical valuations, though he admits that the Registrar's Office has still to contend with much ignorance and opposition. "Speaking from my official experience." he says " I have no hesitation in saying that in many respects the working of the Act has been highly satisfactory. If it has done nothing else, it has gone far towards impressing upon societies that they are business undertakings, to be conducted on business principles. The all-important provision as to periodical actuarial valuations was, it should be remembered, previously only known to lodges of the Manchester Unity and a few well-managed societies, and the requirement of the Act was to the vast majority of societies an eutiiely new departure. A The Law of Friendly Societies. 327 These results afford a basis for forming an opinion as to the movement of reform recently set on foot inside the Friendly So- cieties. Far as these societies are, as a whole, from having attained actuarial solvency, a substantial advance has been made as com- pared with the time when it was said with truth that scarcely a Friendly Society in England was solvent. This progress, speaking generally, has been made within the last twenty-five years, and the not inconsiderable number of societies which in 1883 were not only fully solvent, but in possession of a surplus, were the fruit of the efforts which the societies themselves have made, and which we have described above. We readily admit that this result in itself seems modest, considering the deficits that burden the majority of the societies ; but, nevertheless, it derives importance from a number large number of societies have faithfully complied with tbe Act without any pressure being put upon them, and another large number have complied with the Act with more or less willingness. Societies appear to be slowly, but surely, recognising the fact that periodical valuations are intended to be for the benefit of the members, and for the information of intending members. In connection with this remark, I thought it might interest the Committee if I brought with me a letter which is only one of thousands, I might say, that one has received on the subject of valuations. That letter came to the office yesterday. It is addressed from the Tideswell General Funeral Society, wherever that may be. to tbe Chief Registrar of Friendly Societies : ' Sir, I am requested by decision of the trustees'and committee of management, at a meeting held at the office of the aforesaid society on the 11th day of July, to write you the following resolu- tion ; viz.. That it is the unanimous opinion of the said trustees and committee that to have a certified actuary to value the assets and liabilities of the society would only mean a waste of so much of the funds of the society. We have no property of any description, our funds consisting in money, the amount being £23 J: 8s. ; invested in the Sheffield and Eotherham Bank the sum of £231 4s. lOrf. ; in treasurer's hands, £3 3s. 2(Z. ; members' total, 70. We therefore hope that you may be able to see your way to register the amended ru'es as presented to you.' Now that is an interesting instance of the difficulty that our Chief Regis- trar mentioned in his evidence of diffusing information. Year after year pamphlets and announcements of all kinds have been sent to nearly every society by our office, and here, nearly ten years after the passing of the Act, we have a letter of that kind ; and that is only one of hundreds. Sooner or later they will see that it is for their own interest that these valuations should be as well made as actuarial skill can make them. At present there is in the great majority of cases a desire, not altogether without explanation, to look upon making valu- ation returns as a troublesome duty imposed by the Act, to be got over at the least expenditure of trouble and money." 3 ^8 EnglisJL Associations of Working Men. of concomitant circumstances to which we have already referred. We have seen, for instance, how the statistical and actuarial con- ditions of reform are becoming more and more reliable, and being gradually more widely made known and applied. We have seen, further, how the necessity is being more generally recognised of obtaining for societies based on voluntary membership a rational system of premiums and reserves instead of the obsolete system of levies. And lastly, we have seen how the xoill to achieve these reforms is growing stronger, and entitling one to assume that it will gi'adually surmount the barriers interposed by indolence and apathy. We might point again to the consolidation of the Man- chester Unity, as an example of what these elements of progress can achieve. The other large Orders have followed resolutely in its footsteps, and it is not too sanguine a prophecy to make that the remaining societies also, including even those which are not registered, will eventually, if more tardily, do the same. Speak- ing of this movement, however, as an unprejudiced observer, we Avould repeat a remark already made in our introduction with reference to working-men's associations in general. Their financial basis and financial consolidation directly depend on the wage question and the favourable or unfavourable state of things as regards production. The high and constant wages at the beginning of 1870-1880 gave a powerful impulse to Friendly Societies ; any permanent state of depression in production would decisively check their progress, nay, actually make it go back. If, therefore, a new statement of the results of valuation shall be made in future years, it will not only enable us to see how far these societies will have had the capacity and consistency to pursue the course begun, but will form a mirror of the economic relations of England, and a means of testing whether and to what extent institutions based on voluntary self-help, and drawing their resources entirely from the working-men's pockets, will have been able to pay their further way. It remains to mention a few facts, showing how far the Chief Registrar has made use of his power to interfere directly in the affairs of Friendly Societies by cancelling or suspending their registry, appointing inspectors, summoning special meetings, and issuing his award of dissolution. Every year there are a certain The Law of Friendly Societies. Z-9 number of cancellings (there were eleven in 1884) and suspensions, mostly on the ground that the society had not sent in the required valuation. In 1883 the registry of 75 societies was suspended. The reports of the last few years show further that every year some inspections into the financial state of a society, or into cases of alleged mismanagement, are applied for to, and granted by, the Chief Registrar. These inspections frequently bring to light gross abuses. Occasionally also the Chief Registrar receives an application to summon a special meeting, the cause being not unfrequently some petty quarrel in the society. But in both these cases the power of the Chief Registrar is limited to causing an investigation to be made by an impartial person appointed by himself, and de- termining which party has to bear the cost. He can further summon the special meeting and appoint the business of the day. If he finds that no breach of the law has taken place to occasion any further proceedings, his jurisdiction ceases. By these means, however wanting they may seem in respect of vigorous and search- ing authority, the minority of a society are enabled to obtain a clear decision through the investigation of the point at issue, or to bring the matter to discussion at a special meeting. In both these respects the interests of the minority are thus protected. Wanton complaints are checked by the provision as to costs, fre- quently not inconsiderable, which the Chief Registrar may impose at his discretion according to the circumstances of the case. (4) The advantages and privileges which the registered societies enjoy in abundance may be divided into three classes. First, there is exemption, in the case of certain documents, from stamp duties, together with a number of other privileges connected with civil law and procedure ; secondly, extensive protection as regards the criminal law ; and thirdly, certain advantages with respect to the investment of their funds.* The exemption from stamp duty is not now as important a privilege as it was formerly, the duties not being as high as they were. The privileges connected with civil law and procedure are of various kinds, and embrace a mxmber of technical details. The * Compare Sections 15, 16, 17, 20, and 22 of the Act. 330 English Associations of Working Men. essential point is tliat the registered societies acquire a personal status in law, and have the right of sueing and being sued, a right which has been extended by the amending Act of 1876 to all branches of affiliated societies. We have noticed already the great legal advantages attached to registration, and we will merely add at present that the Act of 1875 allows a member of a registered society to nominate any person not belonging to the society (in- cluding therefore his wife or children) for the receipt of benefits not exceeding £50, and admits minors over sixteen as members (Sect. 15). And lastly, all registered societies have power to hold land and vest property in trustees by mere appointment (Sect. 16). The protection afforded to registered societies, in respect of the criminal law, consists in this, that any person guilty of withholding or misappropriating their property, or committing any breach or abuse of trust, so far as the offence is not subject to any heavier punishment, is liable on summary conviction to a penalty of £20, or to be imprisoned, with or without hard labour, for three months (Sect. 16). With respect to the investment of funds the societies are left by the Act of 1875 veiy free. They can, so far as is conformable with law, invest their money as they choose, only not on personal security. There are certain Friendly Societies, called Loan Societies, which advance loans to their members, as allowed by statute, and these societies also can be registered, only the Act requires that the loan must not exceed one half of the amount of an assurance on the life of a member of at least one full year's standing, and that there must be two satisfactory sureties for repayment. If a society, however, has a separate loan fund, a member may borrow to the amount of £2 surmount. As will readily be understood, benefits were pro- mised at the commencement of an amount, and under conditions, fulfilling, no doubt, if not entirely, at least to some extent satis- factorily, their special objects, but not only without any adequate means, from the want of statistical data, of accurately calculating the full premiums payable, but also without any wish or inten- tion to impose them in full on the members, the societies calculat- ing as a rule on a subscription of 20 per cent, from the employers. All of these societies have suffered more or less heavy losses in this respect, these subscriptions having fallen short of what was expected. The employers, it is true, have long supported the earlier existing societies of miners ; but a circumstance has arisen in more recent years which has checked, at least for a while, their co-operation. This was the passing of the Employers' Liability Act of 1880. Many employers, in consequence of this Act, re- duced or entirely withdrew their siibscriptions, being unable, they declared, to foresee what liabilities its provisions would entail ; others compelled their workmen to " contract out of the Act," which caused much bad blood ; and it is only in a few places that workman and employer have agreed to ignore the Act and keep to the old relations. In general, however, here also the Act has brought about, however .indirectly, a recognition of the fact that the question can only be settled by insurance. A further difficulty, as regards these societies, arises from the tendency displayed at so many of their general meetings to increase as much as possible the benefits without reference to the premiums. This tendency, is kept in check, it is true, by the more prudent and discerning element at the general meetings ; but it interferes with the consolidation of the societies.* The safest means of estimating the financial position of these societies, all of which have * The following tabular statement is taken from the annual rejiorts of the Northumberland and Durham Permanent Relief Fund, with the view of show- ing the growth of this Society. But even in this, the most wealthy of the accident insurance societies, the future alone will show whether the reserves will suffice to meet the rapidly increasing liabilities of widow, disablement, and superannuation insurance. With regard to the promised superannuation Miners' Permanent Relief Society. 4'7 been registered under the Act of 1875, will be given by tbe valu- ations prescribed by the Act. With the results of these we are not yet acquainted ; but the Lancashire and Cheshire Society, as we gather from the annual report, has an actuarial deficit of £30,000. This result, after what we have said, will surprise nobody : and we are probably therefore not wrong in conjecturing that other societies also— on account of the precarious and fluctu- ating subscriptions of the employers ; the difficulty of carrying out the reduction of the benefits, and the raising where necessary of the premiums ; and, lastly, the heavy obligations imposed all at once by some great catastrophe on societies most of which are still young, and have neither sufficient members nor a large enough reserve fund at their disposal — have yet to attain full actuarial solvency. On the other hand, we do not wish to under- value the importance of the voluntary contributions given to the societies by public benevolence on the occasion of a great mining calamity. Thus the Northumberland and Durham Permanent allowance of 4s. per week, the rules already provide for its discontinuance if necessary. Receipts. Expenditure. . be S o 1 o a o a i o •-. 11 P o Subscriptions and Donations of Employer and Honorary Members 2 lU o a ca .a a. . O 2 H 1 '3 c a < a 1 s a 3 a i &^ < > .' J '• ' \' >^V' ' . -4 1 ..; ir* * • , ' ' ? / • ^r^S!