A despotism is in great danger when people form opinions for themselves; but that very habit constitutes the safety of a democracy, and the conservative instincts of a wealthy class, living under the rule of the many, will prompt them to stimulate individual thought and inquiry as the most obvious means of averting the dangerous pressure of a united but uninstructed mass. It may be expected that the gulf separating capitalists from labourers will be filled up by the gradual fusion of the two classes; but we cannot expect a state of society in which every one will be rich. Poverty and want, with their grim attendants crime and preventible disease, may however be abolished, or nearly so; and when everybody willing to work finds it easy to get a living, the greediness of great gain will be diminished, and more ample leisure secured for intellectual cultivation. The present greatness of England depends upon the industry of the mass, guided by the superior knowledge and skill of a few hundred thousand people. What will it be when millions stand as high in intellectual and moral culture as the fortunate minority do now? This is what we may reasonably expect before many generations have passed away.

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CHAPTER XII.

WORKMEN'S COMBINATIONS AND PROSPECTS.

THE recurrence of strikes of an extensive character has led to many remarks on Trade Societies and combinations of workmen, most of which, having been written by partisans of the capitalist class, have exaggerated the errors and denied the merits of the organizations which the artisans have set up. Strikes are a prodigious evil. The cost of the great Preston Strike in 1854 was estimated at more than 500,000l., of which 92,000l. was contributed by the operatives themselves. More recently the shoemakers' strike deranged a large trade for a considerable time; and the Builders' Lock-out has cost the men at least 30,000l. in direct payments, besides punishing the employers to an extent which must be enormous, but which has not been ascertained. Unfortunately we have no statistics of strikes, so that it is impossible to say what proportion have succeeded, and

what proportion have failed. Generally speaking, when a strike is based upon an accurate calculation of the possibilities of trade it succeeds quickly, and the general public never hear of it; while when the workmen make a mistake, the quarrel is prolonged, and attracts universal attention. Even when strikes fail in their specific object, it would not be correct to assume that they have no influence in raising the rate of wages, although any good they do is most expensively purchased. As manifestations of resistance to what the working men think wrong, and of a determination to obtain as large a portion of profits as possible, they must have their use until better methods of ascertaining the real value of labour can be contrived. If capitalists could succeed in reducing the working class to a series of isolated units, they would probably be able to lower the general rate of wages much nearer the starvation point than it is at present. As matters stand, the co-operation of a large portion of the working class enables them to hold out against proposed reductions, or arrangements they do not like, until they can ascertain what the labour market, fairly appealed to, is able to afford them. Individually a number of workmen possess capital to such a small extent as to be inoperative for their protection against the

squeezing process, but collectively they may insure themselves the best market rate for their work. Political economists who deny this, talk of a market price as if it were a fixed invariable thing, instead of which there are always two market prices both in buying and selling, and the man who has a good supply of capital, habitually purchases cheaper and sells dearer than those who are compelled to live from hand to mouth, and cannot afford to hold their goods long enough to test the question of what is the highest price to be obtained for them.

The gravest errors committed by the working men are when they try to adopt a protectionist method of diminishing competition, or opposing the introduction of machinery. These errors, however, are seldom fairly judged, and are spoken of as if they were peculiarly the mistakes of the class supported upon weekly wages. The fact is, all classes are protectionist just so far as they are able to be so, and think it will pay. The landed class fence about their property with all sorts of restrictions, supposed to be beneficial to themselves at the expense of the community, and they have still their 1s. duty on corn. Lawyers and doctors build up purely artificial barriers to competition, and ship-owners still clamour for special favours to be paid for by other people. Nor is the resistance to modes of operation which

would change old habits, and cause a transfer of profits, at all peculiar to any one set of men. If an inventor produces a new process or engine, the manufacturer does not take it up if he can help it -nay, will stifle it if he can, unless likely to be a source of immediate profit. With the working class the same sort of feeling prevails; and when they object to a change which looks as if it would be temporarily mischievous, they may be making an economical mistake; but that arises from ignorance, the chief blame of which rests upon those who might have taught them better, and did not choose to take the trouble.

An important strike recently occurred in the shoe trade in Northampton and other towns, nominally against machinery, but really in the hope of staving off the factory system, which the men considered would be the result of the change. Their trade, although not highly paid, was in some respects a pleasant one, carried on at their own homes, and leaving opportunity for discharging parental obligations. If such men, without compensating circumstances, should be compelled to submit to the factory system, their home life would be broken up, their wives probably obliged to leave their children at the summons of the factory bell, and the whole status of the people reduced. Who