LEGISLATION 
 
 AS AFFECTING 
 
 THE LABOURING CLASSES. 
 
 A fActure 
 
 DELIVERED TO THE 
 
 HASLEMERE LIBERAL ASSOCIATION, JANUARY 23, 1885. 
 
 (WITH ADDITIONS.) 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY STONE, 
 
 LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 GUILDFORD: 
 
 PRINTED AT THE WEST SURREY TIMES OFFICE. 
 
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 I could not help thinking, when the chairman invited me to 
 give an address to the Liberal Association here, that it was 
 probable that the members had had of late almost a sufficient 
 amount of political instruction; and I should have hesitated 
 to volunteer to add anything to what you have heard from 
 the able lecturers who have addressed you during the last 
 few months. At the call of the chairman, however, I was 
 very willing to come and say a few words to you, because I 
 feel, as he has already indicated, that the present is a very 
 important crisis is our history; and that it is very desirable 
 that persons who have had the opportunity of paying rather 
 more attention to the study of political questions should do 
 what they can, be it ever so little, for the assistance of those 
 who have perhaps had fewer advantages, but who will have 
 in the near future so great a share of political power, and 
 therefore of political responsibility. And I desire not only 
 to address the new electors themselves, but to impress upon 
 many, to whom they will look up for guidance and informa¬ 
 tion, the urgent importance of keeping clearly before their 
 minds those sound and well-established principles on which 
 all useful legislation must be based. 
 
 What I thought to do this evening was to refer somewhat 
 in detail to the legislation of former times as specially affect¬ 
 ing the labouring classes, and to endeavour to see how far 
 
4 LEGISLATION AS AFFECTING THE LABOURING CLASSES. 
 
 the past can throw a light upon what is necessary or desirable 
 for the future. But it would be scarcely possible to confine 
 any observations within the limits of this description; because 
 there are very few subjects of legislation which concern only 
 one class, and many measures which may at first seem to 
 have no special bearing on the working classes may indirectly 
 affect them. On the other hand, I do not intend to confine 
 myself to matters of legislation in the strictest sense; but 
 shall include more generally the influence which govern¬ 
 ment has upon a country, whether by the passing of laws or 
 in connection with the administration of affairs. 
 
 I would remark, in the first place, of legislation mainly 
 affecting the labouring classes, that it is a very modern subject. 
 When we look back upon the history of past centuries, we 
 find wonderfully little about the labourers. If you go back to 
 antiquity, you will find that the great mass of the people 
 were slaves, having no rights whatever, and not thought 
 worthy of any legislation. When we discuss the democracies 
 of the past, we are apt to lose sight of that fact. It is only 
 in very recent times, in any country, that all classes, including 
 the lowest, have had any share in the government. We are 
 told that, at one period in the history of Greece, in the 
 Athenian community there were 400,000 slaves to 20,000 
 citizens; and the vast bulk of the population were thus con¬ 
 sidered to have no rights at all. In Borne we find a some¬ 
 what similar state of society, and there at one time the laws 
 even gave the master a right to take the life of a slave without 
 responsibility to anyone. If we come on to the history of the 
 early period of modern Europe, we still find that the mass of 
 the lower classes, though not exactly slaves in name, were 
 very much in the same position, under the names of villein 
 or serf; and the main legislation of the country altogether 
 passed them by. When we hear of any law affecting the 
 labourers, it is something of a highly severe and restrictive 
 character. One of the first laws concerning them was passed 
 very soon after the great pestilence known as ‘the Black 
 
LEGISLATION AS AFFECTING THE LABOURING CLASSES. 5 
 
 Death’—the Statute of Labourers, a.d. 1350, by which the 
 rate of wages was fixed, and labourers were forbidden to 
 move from one parish to another under the most severe 
 penalties. That was the kind of legislation enacted if the 
 working classes were thought to be worth making laws about 
 at all; and it was not until the early part of this century that 
 any tendency was shown towards a special consideration of 
 their separate welfare. 
 
 The first division of legislation to which I shall ask your 
 attention does not concern the labourers exclusively: it is 
 one which must have a great interest for every class, for the 
 richest as well as fur the poorest—I mean the subject of 
 expenditure and taxation. I do not wish to go too much 
 over familiar ground, but it would be a great omission if I 
 were to say nothing on this head. However well taxes may 
 be imposed, and however fairly adjusted between the rich 
 and the poor, the poor man must always be more concerned 
 about their proper regulation than the rich. Suppose that 
 the rich man paid one-tenth of his income in taxation, and 
 the poor man one-twentieth, yet that one-twentieth would 
 involve far more sacrifices on the part of the poor man than 
 the one-tenth would on the part of the rich. We all know 
 that, in fact, the proportion is very much the other way. 
 But, independently of the actual individual amount of taxa¬ 
 tion, there is the most important question whether the national 
 taxes are so imposed as to interfere as little as possible with 
 the general prosperity of the country. In discussing this 
 subject people sometimes confound two very different things. 
 We must keep separate the two questions of the amount of 
 national expenditure, and the manner of raising it. Ho doubt, 
 unless the expenditure is reduced, the amount collected cannot 
 be diminished; but nevertheless the burden of a given amount 
 of taxation on a country may be almost indefinitely reduced 
 by wise financial measures. Formerly taxes were imposed 
 without any regard to scientific principles in respect of their 
 effect upon commercial and trading interests. One of the 
 
6 LEGISLATION AS AFFECTING THE LABOURING CLASSES. 
 
 first of general English taxes was an oppressive and harsh 
 one called the * Hearth Tax.’ This existed up to the end of 
 the seventeenth century, and was a tax levied upon every 
 fireplace in every house. This burden fell in greater 
 proportion upon the poor man than upon the rich; but 
 its chief hardship was that it necessitated a visitation 
 from house to house: the tax-collector entered every room, 
 to the annoyance and inconvenience of house-holders. 
 The financiers of those days thought it an excellent tax, 
 because it could be raised with certainty, though some¬ 
 times levied by the seizure of the goods of the poor. It was 
 thought a great improvement when that tax was succeeded 
 by the Window Tax, which was, however, still a serious 
 burden on the dwellings of the poor, leading to deprivation 
 of light and injury to health, and the remnants of its evil 
 effects may still be seen in blocked windows and other 
 defects in the construction of cottages. 
 
 Many more examples might be given of such directly 
 mischievous taxes; but, as we all know, the grand improve¬ 
 ment of the present century has been the abolition of the 
 fallacious, though plausible, system of Protection. I do not 
 wish to go at any length into a question which is familiar to 
 you all; but just now, when old ideas on the subject of Pro¬ 
 tection are revived by some politicians, it is very important 
 that the labouring classes should keep clearly in mind what 
 a return to Protection would mean. There has been lately 
 published an interesting comparison, showing what was the 
 condition of things before the repeal of the Corn Laws, and 
 what has happened since, by Mr. Giffen, of the Board of 
 Trade, an eminent statistician, and his conclusions have still 
 more lately been confirmed by Professor Leone Levi. What¬ 
 ever may be said about depression and dulness of trade and 
 so on, there is no doubt that these gentlemen have established 
 the fact that there is a most extraordinary improvement in 
 the position of working men, due to the removal of the taxes 
 upon food and upon raw material for the use of our manu- 
 
LEGISLATION AS AFFECTING THE LABOURING CLASSES. 7 
 
 facturers, leading at once to increased work and cheaper food; 
 and though the lower prices of corn may have unfavourably 
 affected agriculturists, the question really is whether, by a 
 return to Protection for the sake of the interests of a small 
 class, we are to debar the great mass of the population from 
 those necessaries and comforts which Free Trade has given 
 them. Mr. Giffen has made out, by comparisons of the pay¬ 
 ments in several important trades, that wages have risen 
 during the past fifty years from 50 to as much as 150 per 
 cent.; i.e. (in the case of weavers and spinners in some kinds 
 of fabrics) as much as 2J times more than was received fifty 
 years ago; whilst the hours of labour have diminished about 
 one-fifth. But the cost of living in some important items 
 has diminished, and in others remained stationary. The price 
 of wheat in the years from 1837—46, as compared with the 
 average of the last ten years, was ten shillings per quarter 
 higher in the first period than in the last; and it is now at a 
 lower price than ever. What is of even more importance 
 than the actual diminution, is the absence of those great fluc¬ 
 tuations to which the prices of the necessaries of life were 
 subject before the time of Free Trade, which meant the risk 
 of famine and of actual starvation when the high prices 
 came. 
 
 In 1810, wheat was 106s. per quarter ; and in 1812 it 
 was 126s. per quarter; in the four years up to 1841 the price 
 was over 72s. per quarter. Such prices meant the most 
 violent fluctuations in the absolute necessaries of life—changes 
 not accompanied by an equivalent increase of wages, which 
 only grow very gradually. It was no wonder that, under 
 such a state of things, there were riots and disturbances and 
 incendiarism, to which we have been happily strangers since 
 trade has been free. The prices of other things, which are to 
 some extent luxuries to the poor man, have diminished still 
 more. Sugar has fallen from 68s. to 21s., and the price of 
 tea has been reduced enormously, from the abolition of the 
 duty in one case and its reduction in the other; and the 
 
8 LEGISLATION AS AFFECTING THE LABOURING CLASSES. 
 
 effect has been to add greatly to the comforts of the working 
 classes, inasmuch as the consumption of tea has increased, 
 since 1841, from 1\ lb. per head per annum to 4J lb., and 
 that of sugar from 15 lb. to 65 lb., or more than fourfold. 
 This in itself is a conclusive proof of the decided advance in 
 the use of comforts, and of comparative luxuries, amongst 
 the poorer and working classes. And this increase has oc¬ 
 curred in spite of circumstances which of themselves would 
 probably have led to an opposite result; viz., the growth 
 of our population, and the closer crowding upon our limited 
 area; and the advance—of which we now hear so much—of 
 competition with us by other nations in all branches of trade 
 and manufactures. 
 
 These changes for the better amongst our population are 
 due in large measure to the abolition of our old fiscal system, 
 under which taxes were imposed, for the benefit of special 
 and in the main richer classes, to the detriment of the 
 labourers and the poor, and through them to the real injury 
 of the whole community. Nor must we forget that by the 
 abolition of the paper duties, and stamps on newspapers, the 
 sources of knowledge have been brought within the reach of 
 the poor; while another wise reduction has brought about 
 that marvellous extension of communication by letters 
 through the post. 
 
 The other branch of the department of finance—that of 
 National Expenditure—is one on which the new voters may 
 hereafter have something to say. Some of it is, no doubt, of 
 no benefit to the working man, nor, indeed, to anybody else. 
 It is an expenditure which is necessary up to a certain point, 
 but in itself is an almost unmixed evil. It must always be 
 remembered that practically the whole of our National Debt 
 arose from wars in the past. To-day, out of eighty-eight 
 millions of annual expenditure, thirty-one millions are spent 
 on the Army and Navy, and twenty-nine and a half millions 
 for interest and reduction of National Debt; and the money 
 spent under the last head is quite as much a war expenditure 
 
LEGISLATION AS AFFECTING THE LABOURING CLASSES. 9 
 
 as that for the army and navy. I think the new voters will 
 ask themselves how many of those millions have been spent 
 in attempts to achieve the impossible, to prop up hopelessly 
 fallen causes, and to turn back the irresistible tide of natural 
 forces; how many for objects utterly unprofitable, when they 
 have been attained, to ourselves or to anyone else; how 
 many, alas! in fighting on the wrong side, in supporting 
 tyranny and oppression, or even in undisguised and greedy 
 robbery on our own account. The poor man is trebly in¬ 
 terested in questions of peace and war: he feels the war-tax 
 most severely, he himself is the food for powder, and he 
 suffers first when trade is stopped. And it is not only in 
 actual war that public money may be wasted ; there may be, 
 and has been, enormous extravagance of military expenditure 
 in time of peace. Just now there is a strong pressure on our 
 Government to strengthen our navy, and that the British navy 
 must be strong no one will dispute. But working men will 
 remember that an ironclad vessel may represent what is 
 equal to a year’s labour of from 5,000 to 10,000 men, which 
 might have been employed in increasing the wealth of the 
 community; and that many an ironclad has become obsolete 
 without having been once used for any purpose whatever, 
 not even for its own work of destruction. They will there¬ 
 fore, I trust, insist—in military and naval expenditure above 
 all other—on the strictest care and economy, or millions will 
 still be wasted under the influence of panics, and on ephemeral 
 and useless fancies. 
 
 But, on the other hand, there is much public expenditure 
 which is beneficial, and from which the labouring classes 
 reap their full share, or more. Such is the outlay on public 
 improvements—the maintenance of roads, the erection of 
 bridges, the improvement of towns, and the like; or again, 
 expenditure for inspection of factories and workshops, the 
 examination of the affairs of Friendly Societies, and the sani¬ 
 tary inspection of houses ; which latter is mainly for the good 
 of the poor, since the rich man can better protect himself, 
 
10 LEGISLATION AS AFFECTING THE LABOURING CLASSES. 
 
 though, no doubt, all classes of society profit directly or 
 indirectly. But the most striking item under this head of 
 classification is the immense expenditure—now four and a 
 half millions a year—for primary education, on which I shall 
 say a few words presently. I mention these things to show 
 that, whilst the imposition of the taxes has been re-arranged 
 in such a way that many burdens have been taken off, and 
 the condition of the labourer has immensely improved, at the 
 same time the expenditure of public money includes many 
 things which are for his especial benefit. 
 
 The next subject on which I shall touch is very important, 
 and concerns the working classes above all others: I mean 
 the Administration of the Poor Laws and the Relief of the 
 Poor. The history of these laws is very curious and instruc¬ 
 tive. In the earliest days the laws were very stringent 
 against the labourer, in compelling him to remain in one 
 place, in interfering to prevent any attempt to raise wages, 
 and especially in attempting to put down begging. As an 
 example, a law of Edward VI. provided that every man who 
 refused to work should be apprehended and branded with 
 ‘ V/ as a vagabond, and should be put to do the most dis¬ 
 agreeable and the hardest work which could be found for 
 him, and fed upon refuse food, with a little water to drink. 
 If he continued to beg, and was found to be still wandering 
 and idle, he was to be again apprehended and branded with 
 ‘ S,’ signifying that he was the slave of the whole community, 
 and to be compelled to work without any wages at the call 
 of anyone. That law was actually placed upon the Statute- 
 book, though probably never acted upon to any great extent. 
 
 In the reign of Queen Elizabeth was passed the first Poor 
 Law Act, by which it was provided that every poor man who 
 was in want was to be supported and maintained at the 
 expense of his parish; and in a general way that has remained 
 the law of the land ever since. At first, and for many 
 generations, the effect of the law was intended to be, and was, 
 that every man should be made to work, and should be kept 
 
LEGISLATION AS AFFECTING THE LABOURING CLASSES. 11 
 
 in a place where he would be compelled to work, if he re¬ 
 ceived relief. From mistaken notions of benevolence at a 
 later period, in the reign of George III, and subsequently, 
 that law was very much relaxed. Out-door relief was allowed 
 to be given, and also payments to labourers in augmentation of 
 wages. The history of the effect of those changes in the law 
 is a remarkable instance of what evil may be done by legis¬ 
 lation inspired by benevolent motives, without being based 
 on sound principles. At first the idea appeared a very plausible 
 one, and it was supported by the plea that the expense of 
 maintaining paupers would be reduced, by assisting them to 
 support themselves; but after thirty or forty years’ experience 
 it was found that the evils of the plan had become altogether 
 intolerable. Just before the passing of the Eeform Bill a 
 Commission of Inquiry was appointed; and one of the early 
 Acts passed by the Eeformed House was the Poor Law, nearly 
 as it now exists. At that time it was found that in some 
 instances the whole of the labourers in a parish were receiv¬ 
 ing relief from the poor-rate; and many estates, and at least 
 one whole parish, had actually been allowed to go out of 
 cultivation because the rates had become so heavy that they 
 exceeded the produce of the land. At that time there was a 
 custom of dividing all the paupers out to work amongst the 
 tenant-farmers and others, and the ratepayer had to take 
 these people, whether he liked them or not. The farmer had 
 thus an apparent advantage; he paid these pauper labourers 
 just what he liked; but many of the paupers were so idle 
 and inefficient that it was impossible to get any effective 
 work out of them. Whole gangs were kept all day doing 
 nothing, but were supported at the expense of the parish. 
 The man who desired to work on his own account was often 
 ridiculed so much that he became a pauper in his turn. 
 There was also a plan which looked very benevolent, of 
 giving every labourer an allowance according to the number 
 of his children; but it was followed by most disastrous 
 results in the encouragement of early and improvident 
 
12 LEGISLATION AS AFFECTING THE LABOURING CLASSES. 
 
 marriages. Illegitimate children shared in this allowance, 
 and a premium was thus placed upon immorality, since a 
 woman with a family of three or four was maintained in a 
 life of comfortable idleness. The state of society amongst 
 the poor had reached a condition which can scarcely now be 
 realized, and it may be interesting to quote the report of one 
 of the Assistant Commissioners. 
 
 ‘ This evil/ he says—that of the intolerable burden of the 
 rates—* however great, sinks into insignificance compared 
 with the dreadful effects which the system produces on the 
 morals and happiness of the lower orders. A person must 
 converse with paupers—must enter workhouses and examine 
 the inmates—must attend at the parish payments—before he 
 can form a just idea of the moral debasement which is the 
 offspring of the present system; he must hear the pauper 
 threatening to abandon his wife and family unless more 
 money is allowed him—threaten to abandon an aged and 
 bed-ridden mother, to turn her out of his house and lay her 
 down at the overseer’s door, unless he is paid for giving her 
 shelter—he must hear parents follow the same course in 
 respect to their sick children—he must see mothers coming 
 to receive the reward of their daughters* ignominy ... It is 
 as difficult to convey to the mind of the reader a true and 
 faithful impression of the intensity and malignity of the evil 
 in this point of view as it is to give an adequate idea of the 
 horrors of a shipwreck or a pestilence.’ 
 
 That was the state of things brought about by a benevolent 
 law which was not based on sound principles of political 
 economy. That state of things has passed away, and we now 
 have comparatively strict rules, forbidding out-door relief 
 except in certain cases, and, as far as possible, insisting that 
 those who require relief should go into the workhouses. That 
 system has not been carried quite far enough; but it has 
 been much improved of late by the Union Chargeability Act, 
 which extended the area of rating, and particularly in 
 London by the Metropolitan Poor Law Act of 1870, which 
 
LEGISLATION AS AFFECTING THE LABOURING CLASSES. 13 
 
 spread the charge for in-door poor over the whole metropolis, 
 while that of the out-door poor remained on the separate 
 parishes. The effect has been that while the proportion of in¬ 
 door paupers has greatly increased, the whole number has de¬ 
 creased. It is evident that the system of compelling those who 
 apply for relief to go into the workhouse, though at first sight 
 it may seem both hard and wasteful, does diminish pauperism, 
 and helps to remove one of the great blots on the social con¬ 
 dition of this country. That there is much yet to be done in 
 this direction will appear from the fact that in Wales the 
 percentage of out-door paupers is 82, and in London only 25 
 of the whole number. In the whole of England and Wales, 
 between 1849 and 1883, the number of out-door paupers 
 decreased from 955,000 to 599,000, while that of in-door 
 paupers increased only from 133,000 to 182,000 ; and between 
 1873 and 1883 the percentage of all paupers to the population 
 decreased from 38 to 29. This is a substantial improvement, 
 but it leaves much to be desired. 
 
 How far the reduction of pauperism can be carried by legisla¬ 
 tion or otherwise is one of the most important questions of the 
 future. There have been proposals for a scheme of compulsory 
 payment in the way of assurance by every person in the kingdom, 
 so that every one, at a certain age, would be required to make 
 a contribution towards a public fund, and would be able, when 
 the time comes, instead of asking as a dependent for charity 
 at the public expense, to say that he had contributed for the 
 purpose, and therefore was entitled to support out of the 
 National Fund. Whether such an arrangement is practicable 
 or not I do not now propose to consider; but so long as there 
 are seven or eight hundred thousand paupers in this country, 
 we cannot say that legislation has had its full and satisfactory 
 effect. There are two sides to the whole question. The law 
 that every poor man has a right to support at the public 
 expense, so as to save him from starvation, has probably been 
 one cause why we have been saved from those Violent dis¬ 
 turbances—those frequently recurring revolutions, which have 
 
14 LEGISLATION AS AFFECTING THE LABOURING CLASSES. 
 
 had such disastrous effects in many other countries. On the 
 other hand, I think that perhaps the one greatest defect in the 
 English character is the want of thrift, and this may be due 
 to the knowledge that at the worst every man has a public 
 fund to fall back upon, which makes no distinction between 
 the sober man and the drunkard, between the idle spend¬ 
 thrift and the victim of unavoidable misfortune. The French, 
 no doubt, are a much less stable people politically than our¬ 
 selves ; but they are far more thrifty and saving, and some of 
 their best observers attribute the difference to the cause which 
 I have indicated. I must not omit to refer to the establish¬ 
 ment of Savings Banks and Life Insurance under public 
 management, measures the fruits of which are already con¬ 
 siderable, and will become continually more important. 
 
 A departure from the principles of strict political economy 
 may appear to have been made by the recent provision of 
 primary education far below its actual cost, and to that 
 extent at the public expense. The incalculable advantages 
 which must result from this measure would justify almost 
 any such theoretical irregularity; but it is easy to perceive 
 the wide difference between assistance in this form and the 
 gift of money or food. The education of a man’s children 
 does not give him any direct immediate advantage; on the 
 contrary, he is often a serious loser by deprivation of the 
 earnings of his family, in addition to which he has in most 
 cases to pay some substantial part of the cost in the shape of 
 fees. There is therefore no danger that the provision of 
 public elementary schools, supported by rates and taxes, will 
 produce the same demoralizing effects as the indiscriminate 
 almsgiving of which I have just been speaking. Again, 
 education is a matter of so special a character that it would 
 be impossible for a poor and ignorant class of parents to 
 provide it for their children in a satisfactory manner without 
 aid from the State; but State interference almost necessarily 
 implies some grant of public money. In addition to this, we 
 must remember that there are in this matter the arrears of 
 
LEGISLATION AS AFFECTING THE LABOURING CLASSES. 15 
 
 past generations to make up, and it would be unreasonable to 
 expect parents to be very willing to provide for their children 
 at a great sacrifice that which they never received themselves. 
 At the same time I cannot agree with those who think that 
 we should go farther, and give every child a free education. 
 The argument that compulsory attendance equitably involves 
 free schools, implies that every man has a right to bring into the 
 world as many children as he pleases, and throw them upon 
 society, incapable of providing for their own livelihood, and 
 even untrained to the most elementary duties. This appears 
 to me a dangerous error, and I should be sorry to see carried 
 any further the sacrifice of independence necessarily involved 
 in the present system. However this may be, the educational 
 legislation of recent years is beyond question the greatest 
 boon which has ever been conferred on the labouring classes 
 of this country, and its benefits will be felt throughout society 
 in the diminution of crime and pauperism, and the increase 
 of productive power. How great the change is may be under¬ 
 stood when I mention that fifty years ago the first vote of 
 £20,000 for education was only obtained in spite of the most 
 strenuous opposition, whilst the grant of last year was 4| 
 millions sterling. 
 
 The next branch of legislation on which I shall touch is 
 the character and administration of our penal laws. I fear 
 it may almost sound offensive to include this amongst the 
 subjects of legislation specially affecting the working classes; 
 but without saying, as some persons may, that laws have been 
 made by the rich to be obeyed by the poor, it will not be 
 unfair to say that the poor man must in many cases be more 
 tempted to a breach of the law than the rich, especially when 
 we remember how large a proportion of our penal laws arc 
 concerned with offences against property. I dare say many 
 of you are acquainted with the history of our penal laws, and 
 ' are aware that some of the greatest changes in English legis¬ 
 lation have taken place in this department. In the past 
 century there were 160 capital offences named in our law- 
 
16 LEGISLATION AS AFFECTING THE LABOURING CLASSES. 
 
 books; and Bills increasing the number were brought in 
 session after session, and passed almost without discussion. 
 When an attempt was first made by Sir Samuel Bomilly to 
 abolish some of these punishments, he was met by the most 
 determined opposition ; and if he passed any Bill through 
 the House of Commons it was certain to be thrown out in 
 the Lords. A statute making it a capital offence to associate 
 for more than one month with people called ‘ Egyptians,’ i.e., 
 gypsies, was in force at one time, and under it thirteen 
 persons were hanged at one Assize. Stealing goods of a greater 
 value than forty shillings was punishable by hanging; and 
 stealing linen exposed in a bleaching-ground was also a 
 capital crime. 
 
 A strange provision in those times of severity was known 
 as ‘ the benefit of clergy.’ If a man sentenced to death was 
 not able to read, he had to be hung; but if he could read, 
 his life was spared. It was the business of the Clerk of the 
 Assize to test the prisoners on this point; and if he were a 
 humane man, he would let many pass with very scanty 
 scholarship. Sometimes, however, the judges were very 
 strict; and if they found that a condemned man could not 
 really read, he was sent to the gallows. The effect of this 
 privilege was to give the richer man, who had had some 
 education, an exemption from punishment. Not only has 
 that privilege been entirely abolished, but all the hanging 
 Acts have long passed away, partly because the feeling against 
 these statutes became so strong that no jury would convict 
 under them. A woman was indicted for stealing a £10 note, 
 and convicted; but the jury found that the value of it was 
 only 39s., so as to bring it below the statutory limit of 40s., 
 larcenies to the amount of which involved hanging. 
 
 Connected with this is another matter in which an extra¬ 
 ordinary change has taken place; that is, in the treatment of 
 prisoners and in the state of prisons. Nothing could have been 
 more horrible than the state of those dungeons of which we 
 read down to the early part of this century. And not only 
 
LEGISLATION AS AFFECTING THE LABOURING CLASSES. 17 
 
 prisoners for criminal offences, but also those detained for 
 debt were sufferers ; and, in the latter class, a man might be 
 kept in prison for life by the action of a single creditor. At 
 that time the prisons were filthy and unwholesome to the 
 last degree; there was often no separation of sexes, and no 
 discrimination between a boy or girl committed for a first 
 offence, and a confirmed criminal. In all these points an 
 entire reformation has taken place, not the least important 
 part of which has been the establishment of industrial schools 
 and reformatories for the detention and training of young 
 persons who have entered or are verging on a criminal 
 career. 
 
 Another class of laws especially affecting the labouring 
 class are those connected with the relation of master and 
 servant. The earliest English laws affecting labour attempted 
 to lay down the exact amount of wages each workman should 
 receive. Anyone who made an attempt to raise those wages, 
 or who tried to get more than the statutory rate, was punished 
 very severely. Within the present century, it was unlawful 
 for any skilled artisan to leave the kingdom, and a man who 
 did so dared not return under pain of imprisonment* When 
 it was found that these laws were ineffectual, all combina¬ 
 tions of workmen were forbidden under repressive penalties. 
 Shortly before the Reform of Parliament, Joseph Hume suc¬ 
 ceeded in getting the Combination Acts repealed; and the 
 tendency of modern legislation has been more and more, 
 whilst protecting working men against force or intimidation, 
 to allow perfect freedom of open, combination for the purpose 
 of attempting to raise wages. Whether it is always wise to 
 do that is another question; but it is only by allowing the 
 free operation of natural causes that we can bring about a 
 proper solution of the wages question. I hope we have 
 reached a time when arbitration and friendly settlements are 
 coming more and more into operation. Working men must 
 see that any combination to keep up wages for which there 
 is no fair ground may in the end make quite as great diffi- 
 
18 LEGISLATION AS AFFECTING THE LABOURING CLASSES. 
 
 culties for them as for their masters. When we have to face 
 a growing competition with foreign manufacturers, the result 
 will probably be to drive that particular trade into the hands 
 of the foreigner and defeat the very end they had in 
 view. 
 
 In connection with this subject I would mention legislation 
 arising under what are called the Factory Acts. Before any 
 such Acts were passed, terrible suffering was inflicted on 
 children and young people, in excessive hours of labour and 
 work for which they were entirely unfitted—especially in 
 mines, where girls and women were employed under condi¬ 
 tions of incredible indecency and hardship. In protecting 
 young children the law has a perfect right to step in, to 
 prevent injury to health and ill-treatment. On the other 
 hand, when it is proposed that women shall be subject to 
 like legal restrictions, the question presents greater difficulty; 
 and we have to consider whether such interference does not 
 produce hardship as well as benefit, by the deprivation of 
 earnings; and whether it is not better to leave adults of either 
 sex to their own judgment, and trust to those natural feelings 
 which wGuld keep them from accepting any employment for 
 which they are not fitted. 
 
 Connected with this subject is also that of compensation to 
 workmen in cases of accident during their employment, which, 
 as you are no doubt aware, has been effectually secured by a 
 recent Act. In fact, the scope of modern legislation seems to 
 be increasing, at least as far as good intentions can go, in 
 favour of this particular class; since I find from a list of the 
 most important measures passed through Parliament in three 
 years, that in 1880, 3 out of 10, in 1882, 10 out of 26, and in 
 1883, 10 out of 18, referred specially to them. 
 
 I have, however, left to the last the class of measures 
 which has just now perhaps the greatest interest for us. It 
 is difficult to realize how small a share, and even how small 
 a possibility of interest, the poor can have had in the ordinary 
 current of public affairs a century or two ago. In the 
 
LEGISLATION AS AFFECTING THE LABOURING CLASSES. 19 
 
 seventeenth century no newspaper was allowed to insert 
 any political news, nor might any. person publish it without 
 authority from the Crown. But it would have been of little 
 use to publish anything for the information of a class who 
 could not read, or to print newspapers when there were no 
 means of circulating them. Independently of direct political 
 power, the growth during the present century of knowledge 
 and interest, and so far of indirect influence, amongst the 
 mass of the people, must have been immense. The Reform 
 Act of 1868, followed by that just passed through Parliament, 
 has completed the work, by conferring upon nearly every 
 adult man among the working class an actual direct influence 
 over the government of his country. 
 
 It might almost occur to some of us to say, when so much 
 has been done for the working man by Parliaments which he 
 has not returned, what did he want more, and wh} 7 could he 
 not have trusted his betters to continue making laws for 
 him ? It would be useless to discuss that question here and 
 now—I will merely answer shortly: first, fbr his own educa¬ 
 tion, for the moral and intellectual training which may be 
 given by the conscientious exercise of a vote, and for the 
 difference there is between receiving a favour and working 
 something out for yourself as a right; secondly, for the sake 
 of the whole edifice of government, which must always stand 
 more firmly as its base is broadened. 
 
 To conclude, I have made out, I think, a pretty long list of 
 legislative benefits conferred on the labouring class in modern 
 times, consisting largely, we must admit, in correction of the 
 ignorance and tyranny of older days. Let us ask for a moment, 
 what is the moral of all this ? It seems to me that the great 
 moral we may find and lay to heart is that this legislation 
 has been carried out in favour of the poor by other classes 
 than their own, because those people had a grasp of certain 
 principles of sound legislation; and the chief of those principles 
 is that it has been the interest, as well as the duty, of the 
 classes which have political power, to exercise it not for the 
 
20 LEGISLATION AS AFFECTING THE LABOURING CLASSES. 
 
 exclusive benefit of themselves, but for the advantage of the 
 whole community. There are two maxims derived from 
 Christianity which appear to sum up much of the principles 
 of Liberalism. One is: ‘If one member suffer, all the 
 members suffer with it.’ The other: ‘ Look not every man 
 on his own things, but every man also on the things of 
 others.’ Those two maxims come from St. Paul, but they 
 might very well be written over the door of every Liberal 
 meeting-place, because they embody the principles on which 
 Liberal legislation has done so much towards improving the 
 condition of this community. I want to impress upon those 
 who are about to receive political power, that they ought to 
 follow these lines in the exercise of that power. There are 
 plans and projects for the exclusive benefit of the working 
 classes, which I question whether it will be of much use for 
 them to take up. Amongst the schemes now exciting atten¬ 
 tion in some quarters are the doctrines taught by Mr. Henry 
 George. It is a wonderful indication of the state of perfect 
 security into which good government has brought this country, 
 that such revolutionary doctrine may be preached in the very 
 centre of the city of London in the open day, without any 
 disturbance amongst those assembled, or interference on 
 behalf of the authorities. Mr. George, as a panacea for all 
 the ills of our social life, says that all land should be taken 
 possession of by the State, and that on no account must there 
 be any idea of purchase or compensation to present owners. 
 He says that those in possession have no right, because no 
 man ever can have a right, to own land; and that the State 
 must take it from them and use it for the public benefit. 
 On the surface, the main objection to such a doctrine is that, 
 when once applied to land, it is not likely that it would be 
 allowed to stop there. Mr. George thinks that land is a 
 special thing, of which no one has a right of separate posses¬ 
 sion. But some one else may come forward and assert a 
 similar idea in regard to other and personal property, and 
 may set up the same argument as to the existence of a defect 
 
LEGISLATION AS AFFECTING THE LABOURING CLASSES. 21 
 
 in the title; and if ideas of that kind come to be established, 
 no amount of prescription will be of any use. It is very easy 
 to see that, under such conditions, the foundations of society 
 would be upset. And, though working men might expect to 
 get some little benefit by the arrangement, they will under¬ 
 stand that as soon as one of them has gained a little property 
 by his own thrift and labour, his fellows will be pretty sure 
 to want a share of it. How far Mr. George is making way I 
 do not know. He has written and spoken on the subject 
 with great force and eloquence, and may have made converts; 
 but I hope working men will not be led away to exercise 
 the power they are to receive in such a direction. Such a 
 course would certainly lead to most violent conflicts of classes 
 without any benefit resulting to anybody. 
 
 I only now wish to make a special application to our 
 own position as a Liberal Association. While enumerating 
 measures beneficial to the labouring class, we shall not forget 
 that these, and many which I have not had time to mention, 
 have been carried out when, speaking broadly, the Govern¬ 
 ment has been directly or indirectly in the hands of the 
 Liberal Party. And not only have we done all this, but in 
 doing it we have broken down a mass of opposition and 
 have overcome the resistance of many selfish interests 
 strongly opposed to these changes. We have so completely 
 swept away all the force of objections by the enormous 
 experience of the success of our measures, that that class of 
 obstacle has almost disappeared. We are brought to a state 
 of things in which our opponents take up no definite line of 
 resistance, but only endeavour to pick holes in any proposal 
 of the existing Government. We have not now to force our 
 way onwards, so much as to regulate and guide the forces 
 of progress. The working voter will be surrounded by 
 claimants for his favour, vying with each other who can 
 promise him the most. I ask him to consider for himself 
 whether there are sound principles at the bottom of such 
 gitations as those I have glanced at, or whether they are not 
 
22 LEGISLATION AS AFFECTING THE LABOURING CLASSES. 
 
 rather found in such legislation as I have been describing.* 
 And when Conservatives seem to offer the same, or better, 
 things than Liberals, ‘ Which party,’ it should be asked, 
 ‘can give us the best securities?’ Is it those who have 
 steadily resisted each step of progress in its turn, and who 
 have even quite lately been advocating a tax on bread under 
 the name of Fair Trade; or is it the party who, during 
 the last fifty years, have been able to do so much to im¬ 
 prove the position of the working man, without his direct 
 assistance, that they may be expected to bring their work 
 to perfection now that they have called him into their 
 councils ? 
 
 ° Old-fashioned Political Economy has been a good deal disparaged 
 of late, but the following facts may be worth recalling. Jeremy 
 Bentham, one of the strictest teachers of the school, began to write about 
 1780. An introduction to his works, written about 1843, enumerates 
 tw’enty-three of the most prominent improvements in modern legisla¬ 
 tion, which at that date had been effected, and which had all been 
 advocated by Bentham. Ten others are named as still to come, and 
 with very trifling exceptions all have now been adopted. They in¬ 
 clude Free Trade, National Education, Cheap Postage, and almost 
 every step of progress above referred to. 
 

 
 
 
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