stated that an "abuse" that had attracted much attention was resort to illegal, that is to say, to trade-union, functions. "These clubs were, in very many instances, composed of persons working at the same trade; the habits and opportunities of association which the friendly societies gave to them doubtless afforded facilities of combination for raising wages and other purposes.” The committee thought that this "abuse,” in the case of the registered societies, had been slight. The committee

, which, in 1824, investigated the operation of the combination laws was more positive as to the widespread utilization of friendly societies for trade-union purposes. After the repeal of the combination acts in 1824, the sudden outburst of activity on the part of working-class organizations led in 1825 to another investigation. The committee printed the rules of a large number of organizations which had been particularly active along trade-union lines since the repeal of the combination acts, and in general these rules conformed substantially to the rules of friendly societies, with additional provisions incorporating trade-union functions. The committee emphasized the existence of secret rules and regulations, conflicting in some cases with the printed regulations "by which they are ostensibly governed." These revelations indicate the widespread use of friendly societies as cloaks for trade-union activities. The relaxation in law and in law enforcement in respect to combinations led to the gradual emergence of trade unions in

me and formal rules as well as in functions; while the various laws favoring associations which conformed strictly to friendly-society functions still further promoted a differentiation in organization which was earlier exceptional.78

The policy of the government in connection with the ** Report from Committee on Friendly Societies, 1825, 7, 8, 23; Report from Committee on Combination Laws, 1825, 4, 24-59.

friendly societies act of 1793 was a compromise between two conflicting motives. The authorities were agreed that working-class organizations should in general be exterminated. They were in accord, also, in the eager desire to reduce the poor rates. By the action taken, the tendency toward organization, which had long been severely restricted, and which was to be dealt with so ruthlessly by the combination acts of 1799 and 1800, was allowed to survive in the friendly societies in the hope that they could be rendered relatively "harmless” to employers by supervision, and at the same time made serviceable in reducing the indirect costs of labor in the form of the poor rates. Whatever may be one's judgment concerning the wisdom or justice of the government's policy, the fact remains that the friendlysociety movement, especially before the hand of authority directed its course, was a significant expression of working-class consciousness and capacity for concerted action.

There was published at Manchester in 1756 a booklet entitled The Worsted Small-ware Weaver's Apology. It was supposedly written by "Timothy Shuttle," member of a weavers' box club which had presumed to enter into a conflict with the employing weavers.

The “Apology" was for not heeding the advice that the cobbler should stick to his last. “As it is the first time,” the writer states, “that ever anything appeared in print in behalf of the worsted small-ware weavers, it is very likely to meet with a great deal of stiff censures, and scornful jeers, from those who are either enemies to the weavers, or has them in . . . contempt.” The fate which the unlettered “Timothy Shuttle” bemoaned was a fate common to subordinate classes. Whenever they have found a voice, it has met rebuff in various forms, the advice that the cobbler should stick to his last being the mildest. In general they have been voiceless,

The student of the history of subordinate classes therefore finds himself confronted with the two-fold difficulty of inadequate first-hand records and of such records as exist having been written for the most part by members of dominant groups from their own point of view—a point of view obscured, however, by the fallacious identification of group interests with social interests. This we found to be measureably true even in the case of the rising and influential class represented by such men as Arkwright, Boulton and Wedgwood, in their relations to the older aristocracy. In the case of the industrial workers, the information is far less extensive, and the upper-class bias in most of the records—a bias at times obvious but more often subtle and implicit—is far more serious. In consequence, the history of the most important development in the social life of modern England—the rise of the industrial workers must remain in its early stages a tentative and vague outline.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Non-CONTEMPORANEOUS ACCOUNTS AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES

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back to 1788. CHAPMAN, S. J., The Lancashire Cotton Industry. A Study in

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valuable bibliography. CHEYNEY, E. P., Industrial and Social History of England. Rev. ed.

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bridge, 1894. A valuable work. CUNNINGHAM, W., Alien Immigrants to England. London, 1897. CUNNINGHAM, W., Growth of English Industry and Commerce,

Part I, in the Middle Ages; Part II, in Modern Times. Two volumes of Part II, consecutively paged. 4th ed. Cambridge, 1912. Conservative in tone but thorough in scholarship, this most important of comprehensive works in its field is valuable

alike for its interpretations and its bibliographical aids. DANIELS, G. W., Early English Cotton Industry. Manchester, 1920.

Introduction by Professor Unwin. A notable instance of pains

taking research in the obscurer sources of economic history. DIRCKS, H., Life, Times, and Scientific Labors of the Second Marquis

of Worcester. London, 1865. Worcester's Century of Inventions is reprinted with notes; other documents are appended;

and bibliographies are included. Dobbs, A. E., Education and Social Movements, 1700-1850. London,

1919. Somewhat indefinite and diffuse.