Francis Maurice Drummond

“ In connexion with trade disputes no person can now be prosecuted for conspiracy to commit an act which would not be criminal if committed by him singly, and consequently employers and employed alike may lawfully do in combination all that they would be entitled to do as individuals. The purposes of a trade union are not to be deemed illegal merely because they are in restraint of trade, and the circumstance that they are in restraint of trade is not to render any member of it liable to prosecution, nor is it to avoid or make void able any agreement or trust relating to it. ”

“ The indirect methods to which the trade unionists resort for reaching their aims are by limiting the number of workmen to be employed in any trade and by repressing or discountenancing competition among those who are actually employed in it. ”

“ A meeting of the members of each branch is held every fortnight for the transaction of ordinary business, such as receiving subscriptions and deciding upon propositions for new members. These meetings begin at half-past 7 in the evening, and close at half-past 9 or 10 o clock, but the hours are altered when it is convenient to alter them. The duties of the secretary are onerous, and his responsibility is great. No one therefore is eligible who has not been in the society two years successively, and "no member shall be elected as secretary who keeps a public or beer house." ”

“ More strictly lord and lady are the equivalents of baron and baroness, the fifth grade of the British peerage. [2] But colloquially it is applied to all grades of the peerage except the first; and, though duchesses are not called ladies in society, dukes are unquestionably lords in their capacity as members of the second chamber of the legislature. Certain of the sons and daughters of peers are lords and ladies by courtesy, while the wives of baronets are legally and the wives of knights are conventionally called ladies, although the wives of knights are more accurately described as dames. ”

“ In the latter capacity it is their special business to promote what they conceive to be the interests of the trade with which they are connected by placing the workmen, so far as combination will fulfil that purpose, on a footing approaching to equality with the capitalists by whom they are employed in the disposal of their labour. ”

“ As the feminine equivalent of king, queen is used, which Prof. Max Müller says is "the old word for mother." He also cites the translation of the Bible by Ulfilas in the 4th century to prove its meaning at that early period as wife or woman. The queen was in fact in a special sense "the woman," or "the wife," the highest of women and the highest of wives in the kingdom. [8] King should properly describe the head of a nation in distinction from the head of a tribe, as emperor should properly describe the head of a confederation in distinction from the head of a nation. ”

“ The idea of territorial sovereignty, of kingship over a land instead of over a people, grew up under the feudal system. In Britain it was unknown until long after the Norman Conquest. William the Conqueror, like Harold or Edward, was king of the English, and it was only from the reign of Henry II. that his successors were transformed into kings of England. The Eastern titles of sultan and shah are accepted as equivalent to those of emperor and king in the West. The sovereigns of China and Japan are called emperors both in common and in diplomatic parlance. ”

“ Every person, however, commits a misdemeanour, and on conviction is liable to a maximum fine of 20, or to a maximum imprisonment of three months with hard labour, who wilfully and maliciously breaks a contract of service or hiring, knowing, or having reasonable cause to believe, that the probable consequence of his so doing, either alone or in combination with others, will be to endanger human life or cause serious bodily injury, or to expose valuable property, whether real or personal, to destruction or serious injury ”

“ The revenue and reserve of all the societies are derived from admission fees and weekly or monthly subscriptions, together with the amount of the fines which are imposed for neglect of duty and breaches of the rules and regulations. These sources of income are sufficient for ordinary purposes; and extraordinary charges, such as are entailed by a "strike" or a "lock-out," are nearly always, if not invariably, met by means of "levies" made on the members by order of the executive council or central committee. ”

“ But, as the commissioners on trade unions have pointed out, it is found desirable to conjoin the objects of a friendly or benefit society with it, because by that means additional members and funds are obtained, and the authority which the union as a trade society has over its members is thus augmented. The leading aims of all trade union ism are to increase wages and to diminish the labour by which it is needful to earn them, and further to secure a more equal distribution of work among the workmen in any given trade than would be the case under a regime of unrestricted competition. ”

“ In others again for instance, in the National Agricultural Labourers Union, as distinguished from the Federal Union of Agricultural Labourers the system of management is completely centralized, the secretary or the executive committee having entire control of the funds and business of the whole association. In all large towns there are trade councils formed of delegates from the different trade unions within their area, whose function it is to discuss and supervise the general interests of the unionists in the several trades of which they are representative. ”

“ By this statute, passed in 1800, it was enacted that all persons combining with others to advance their wages or decrease the quantity of their work, or in any way to affect or control those who carried on any manufacture or trade in the conduct and management thereof, might be convicted before one justice of the peace, and might be committed to the common jail for any time not exceeding three calendar months, or be kept to hard labour in the house of correction for a term of two calendar months. ”

“ Most of them forbid the admission of more than a stipulated proportion of apprentices, and some of them prohibit the engagement of women to do work which can be done by men. Nearly all of them resist the common employment of unionists and non-unionists, and do their best to exclude non-unionists from employment altogether. But the amount expended by trade unions in the conduct of trade disputes is very much less than is generally imagined. ”

“ TRADE UNIONS are combinations for regulating the relations between workmen and masters, workmen and workmen, or masters and masters, or for imposing restrictive conditions on the conduct of any industry or business. ”

“ In regard to registration, trade unions are placed on a similar footing with friendly and provident and industrial societies, and they enjoy all the privileges, advantages, and facilities which those associations possess and command. ”

“ Moreover, an annual trade unions congress is held in some great centre of industry and population in one of the three kingdoms, at which delegates from almost all the trade unions throughout the realm are present and take part in debating questions, whether social or political, which are of special interest to the working classes. ”

“ In any district in which there are more branches than one, a local district committee must be formed, consisting of seven members, each branch as nearly as practicable selecting an equal number. Where there are seven branches, each one sends a representative. ”

“ But, where the unionists are strong, the mere threat of a strike is often sufficient to fulfil the intended purpose, and arbitration is still more frequently found effectual for bringing about a settlement or compromise. ”

“ The principle on which their treatment proceeded is stated by Thompson in the following memorable words:—"To make vicious and abandoned people happy," he says, "it has generally been supposed necessary first to make them virtuous. But why not reverse this order? Why not make them first happy, and then virtuous?" In 1791 he was created a count of the Holy Roman Empire, and chose his title of Rumford from the name as it then was of the American township to which his wife's family belonged. ”

“ There are no really trustworthy means of arriving at anything approaching to an accurate estimate of the actual numerical strength of the trade unions in the United Kingdom. According to the last Report of the registrar general of friendly societies, there were in the year 1883 registered in his office 195 trade unions with 253,088 members and 431,495 funds, of which 12 returned over 10,000 funds, 9 over 10,000 members, and 6 over 10,000 income. ”

“ In some trade unions for example, those of the compositors there is a special body (" fathers of chapels") whose business it is to see that the rules and regulations of the societies they belong to are faithfully observed in the establishments where they are employed. ”

“ But the rise of the manufacturing system towards the end of the last century, and the revolution which accompanied it in the industrial arrangements of the country, were attended by a vast and unexpected extension of the movement which the legislature had for so long and with so much assiduity essayed to suppress. ”

“ Their ordinary constitution is that of a society divided into districts, and again into smaller local bodies. The seat of the governing authority the general or executive council is usually fixed at some large centre of industry or commerce, as London, Manchester, or Birmingham, and it is often changed at stated intervals by a vote of the society at large. It is the policy of the trade unions, by this method of organization, to extend the area of their influence, and so to increase their power in dealing with the masters or in con trolling their own members in any emergency. ”

“ He has to summon meetings, keep minutes, report to the general secretary as to the state of trade in the district, the number of men out of work, or on the other hand he has to state what men are wanted, and he has also "to transact any other business that belongs to his office." The president, vice-president, and assistant secretary of a branch are elected quarterly, while the secretary and referee are elected annually. ”

“ Thompson was at that period between eighteen and nineteen years old, and at nineteen, he says, "I married, or rather I was married." His wife was the widow of a Colonel Rolfe, and the daughter of a Mr Walker, "a highly respectable minister, and one of the first settlers at Rumford," now called Concord, in New Hampshire. His wife was possessed of considerable property, and was his senior by fourteen years. This marriage was the foundation of Thompson's success. ”

“ Among the multitudes of workmen who then began to be employed in single factories or in neighbouring factories in the same towns, trade unions in the form of secret societies speedily became numerous and active, and to meet the novel requirements of the situation a more summary method of procedure than that which had hitherto been available was provided by the 40th Geo. ”

“ But he was quickly recalled to Bavaria, Munich being threatened at once by an Austrian and a French army. The elector fled from his capital, and it was entirely owing to Rumford's energy and tact that a hostile occupation of the city was prevented. It was now proposed that he should be accredited as Bavarian ambassador in London; but the circumstance that he was a British subject presented an insurmountable obstacle. He, however, again came to England, and remained there in a private station for several years. ”

“ But all persons were subjected to a maximum punishment of three months imprisonment with hard labour who should by violence, threats or intimidation, molestation, or obstruction do, or endeavour to do, or aid, abet, or assist in doing or endeavouring to do, any of a series of things inconsistent with freedom of contract which the Act enumerated and defined. ”

“ Whatever may have been their actual or verbal origin, it is certain that among nations which have made any considerable progress in civilization their immediate derivation has been in the great majority of cases from some kind of public office or employment. ”

“ The Eastern equivalents for these sub ordinate titles are khedive, emir, khan, and bey.
IV. Titles of Nobility. The titles of the greater nobility are prince, duke, marquis, earl or count, viscount, and baron, and most of them exist in all European empires and kingdoms. In the United Kingdom there are no princes outside the royal family. In Russia there are no dukes except the imperial grand -dukes and neither marquises nor viscounts. In Germany there are no viscounts. ”

“ Imperial or royal highness is the proper title of the sons and daughters of emperors and kings, serene highness, or highness merely, being that of the members of princely families. The German hoJicit, although it is commonly employed as the equivalent of highness or altesse, has a special signification of its own. It holds an intermediate rank between altesse royal or royal highness and altesse serenissime or serene highness, unless it is qualified by the adjectives kaiserliche or konigliche. ”

“ But attending at or near the house or place where a person resides or works or carries on business in order merely to obtain or communicate information is not watching or besetting within the statute. ”