English Gilds. *

the assessed wages to their Avorkmen , or evading the Act , as well as journeymen entering into combinations to raise wages , were to pay certain fines , the amount of Avhich , after the deduction of the necessary expences , was to be applied to the

relief of needy weavers and their families . By the 32 nd Geo . III . c . 44 , of the year 1792 , these regulations were extended to the manufactories of silk mixed with other materials ; and by the 51 st Geo . III . c . 7 , of 1811 , to the female workers in the respective trades . These three Acts Avere

called the Spitalfields Acts . Originally the organization of the TragJe-Society comprehended all the workers of a trade in the place : thus was it with the Silk-weavers , with the Calico-printers , with the Institution of the

Clothworkers . LikeAvise the amount of contributions depended originally on the free-will ofthe members . It is only later that Ave find closer and more restricted associations among the more zealous , and fixed contributions . As combinations of work

men were prohibited , especially after the 39 th and 40 th George III . c . 106 , Benefit-Societies Avere frequently made the cloak of Trade-Societies . Such Trade-Societies were the Friendly-Society ofthe Cloth-workers in 1802 , the Benefit-Club of

the Liverpool ShipAvrights , the Scissor-smiths ' Benefit-Society at Sheffield : and indeed this was almost the rule until 1824 . During the Avhole of the Middle Ages after Charlemagne , the Political Gilds abroad concealed themselves in like manner

under cover ofthe Religious Gilds . Mr . Dunning's account of the London Bookbinders' Society shows also that societies first instituted merely for the purpose of " taking a social pint of porter

together , " changed afterwards into Trade-Societies Such changes of Friendly-Societies may often have happened . I have pointed in part IV . to the similar transformations of Eeligious into Craft-Gilds . If in the time of the Graft-Gilds in

England journeymen ' s Associations had existed there like those on the Continent , there can be no doubt that later on Trades-Unions would also have arisen from those Associations . I have already referred in Part IV . to the different points

by which this opinion can be supported . The Trade-Society of the Calico-printers also showed similar regulations to those that prevailed in the the German journeyman's Associations . The rules of Trade-Societies cited in the foregoing pages are still very imperfect . Yet even

they show the essence of the Gilds as defined in Part I . Like the oldest Gild-Statutes , they show merely the outlines of an organization . The system is not yet worked out into details . But if one considers the statutes of one of our modern

Trades-Unions , as , for instance , those of the Amalgamated Engineers , one finds an organization elaborated into the minutest details , which is very similar to the later Graft-Gilds . It would be very interesting to show from the history of this queen of

Trade-Unions , which now ( like the Hanse in former times ) has its ramifications in all parts of the world , how its organization gradually developed itself in the same phases as that of the old Gilds did . Attempts at General Trade-Associations by the Trade-Unions were also not wanting , quite as vain and short-lived as the German ToAvn-Con .

federations . I refer to the National Association for the Protection of Labour of 1830 , and to the later similar experiment of Thomas Duncombe . It would also be very interesting to shoAV how the workmen , after the disuse ofthe customary regula

tions of Avages , laboured continually to bring about an orderly condition of ivages by statement-lists of prices ; hoAV they were constantly opposed in this , on principle , by the employers , Avho would not suffer restrictions Avhere they considered themselves

as alone having rights , until , in consequence of the threatening attitude ofthe Avorkmen , they have , since the example set by Mr . Mundella , agreed at last to an institution which is nothing but an amended edition of the regulation of

wages by the Craft-Gilds . And in some noble instances we already see the return to the sharing of profits Avith the Avorkmen , as it existed in Bruges before the degeneration of the Craft-Gilds . I believe that to show this Avould not only produce a

"dim" consciousness that "the Avorld is settling * into a neAV order after more or less of disorder , " but that it would prove that social order has to a great extent already taken the place of disorder . But to prove this in detail would require special essays which cannot be added here .

I shall be satisfied now if I have proved that the spread of disorder called forth at once in each single trade Gild-like oi-ganizations of those suffering by it , to maintain the old order , or to create a new one . I Avish only further to point to the

fact that the English , among whom the old Gilds probably originated , have in this new movement again proceeded all other nations . As each new