  AUTHORITIES CITED. Abram, W. A.—Memorials of the Preston Guilds. An Account of the Poll for Members of Parliament for the Borough of Shrewsbury etc. (1747). Boeckh, A.—Public Economy of Athens, translated by George Cornewall Lewis (1842). Brentano, Lujo—On the history and development of Gilds and Origin of Trade-Unions. “Britannia Languens, or a discourse of trade.” (1680.) Bryce, J.—The Holy Roman Empire (1887). Cowell—A Law Dictionary: or the Interpreter etc. (1727). Cunningham, W.—The Growth of English Industry and Commerce (1885). Dugdale, W.—Antiquities of Warwickshire. Ebner, Dr Adalbert—Die klÖsterlichen Gebets-VerbrÜderungen bis zum Ausgange des Karolingischen Zeitalters (1891). Eden, Sir F. M.—The State of the Poor. Eyton, W.—Antiquities of Shropshire. Farquhar—The Recruiting Officer. Foucart—Les Associations rÉligieuses chez les Grecs. Froude, J. A.—History of England from the fall of Wolsey to the death of Elizabeth (12 vols., 1862-70). Gneist—Geschichte des Self-Government in England. Gneist—Das heutige Englische Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsrecht. Gough—The Antiquities of Myddle (1834). Green, J. R.—A Short History of the English People (1886). Gross, Charles—The Gild Merchant (1891). Grote, George—History of Greece (1888). Hallam, H.—View of Europe during the Middle Ages. 1 vol. Harrison, W.—A description of England (in “Elizabethan England,” Camelot Series). Hatch, E.—The Organisation of the Early Christian Churches (Bampton Lectures, 1881). Howell, G.—Conflicts of Capital and Labour (1890). Howell, Thomas—The Stranger in Shrewsbury (1825). Kemble, J. M.—The Saxons in England. Longfellow—The Golden Legend. Macaulay, Lord—History of England from the Accession of James II. (1889). May, Erskine—Constitutional History of England. 3 vols. (1887). Merewether and Stephens—History of the Boroughs. Nichols, J.—The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester (1795-1815). Ordericus Vitalis—Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy (Bohn’s Series). Owen and Blakeway—History of Shrewsbury. [Owen, Hugh]—Some Account of the Ancient and Present State of Shrewsbury (1808). Pidgeon’s Memorials of Shrewsbury (old Ed.). Pidgeon’s Some Account of the Ancient Gilds, Trading Companies, and the origin of Shrewsbury Show (1862). Poynter, E. J.—Ten Lectures on Art (1880). Quarterly Review, Vol. 159. Riley, H. T.—Memorials of London ... in the XIII, XIV, and XV Centuries. Rogers, Thorold—Six Centuries of Work and Wages (1889). Rogers, Thorold—The Economic Interpretation of History (1888). Scott, Sir Walter—Marmion. Sinclair, D.—The History of Wigan. Smith, Toulmin—English Gilds (E. E. T. S.). State Papers, Domestic (Elizabeth). Statutes at Large (6 vols, 1758). Stow, John—A Survey of London (Carisbrooke Library). Strype—Ecclesiastical Memorials (1821). Stubbs, W.—Constitutional History of England (1883). Stubbs, W.—Select Charters (1884). Stubbs, W.—Lectures on MediÆval History. Taylor MS. in Library of Shrewsbury School (Reprinted in S. A. S. Vol. III.). Thackeray, W. M.—The Four Georges. Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary, being the Diary of Celia Fiennes. Transactions of the Shropshire ArchÆological Society (cited as S. A. S.), Vols. I-XI. Wordsworth, W.—The Happy Warrior. INDEX. Abbey at Shrewsbury, 11, 31, 60 11, 14, 17, 25, 146
CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. & SONS, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. Footnotes: [1] I speak of the old edition. I have not had the advantage of using the newer work. [2] That the land did not contain a population adequate for its cultivation is evident from a Statute of 1350 which allows the people of the Marches of Wales (and Scotland) to go about in search of work at harvest-time, as they had been accustomed to do aforetime. (Rot. Parl. II. 234.) Work and Wages, pp. 131-2. [3] Cf. Thackeray, The Four Georges, p. 320, “decayed provincial capitals, out of which the great wen of London has sucked all the life.” [4] Macaulay. History of Eng., Vol. I. pp. 165-6. Infra, Chap. VII. [5] Cf. infra, Chap. VII. [6] Brentano, 44, 52, 54, 58. Green, Short Hist., 193. G. Howell, Conflicts of Capital and Labour, 22-25, 29, 31. [7] Cunningham, Growth of Industry, 212. Brentano, 90, 95. [9] Cf. especially Chap. VII. [10] The Hist. and Development of Gilds. Cf. especially Note 1. [11] Ibid. 8. “The objects of the ??a??? were of the most varied description; ... associations of this kind were very common in the democratic states of Greece, and to this class the numberless political and religious societies, corporations, unions for commerce and shipping, belonged.” Boeckh, Public Economy of Athens, p. 243. [12] Grote, Hist. of Greece, Vol. VI. p. 247, n. 1, where several interesting parallels with the MediÆval Gilds will be found. (Cf. also infra, p. 34, note 2.) [13] E. Hatch, Bampton Lectures, Lect. II. notes. [14] Cunningham, p. 124. [15] Cf. Die klÖsterlichen Gebets VerbrÜderungen bis zum Ausgange des Karolingischen Zeitalters, von Dr Adalbert Ebner. Similar spiritual confederations are found in Italy in the second quarter of the eighth century, and in the ninth they become common in southern Europe. Alcuin speaks of them by the terms pacta caritatis, fraternitas, familiaritas. The monks of the allied houses were termed familiares. Dr Brentano (p. 20) says that at later times “conventions like that between the Fraternity of London Saddlers and the neighbouring Canons of St Martin-le-Grand, by which the saddlers were admitted into brotherhood and partnership of masses, orisons, and other good deeds with the canons, were common.” [16] Brentano, pages 1, 2. They are printed in Kemble’s The Saxons in England, Vol. I. Appendix D. [17] Brentano, 49. [18] Gneist, Self Government, Vol. I. p. 110; Verwaltungsrecht, Vol. I. p. 139. [19] Stubbs, III. 576, 578. [20] Work and Wages, p. 126. [21] Stubbs, I. 452. [22] Stubbs, I. 449: Select Charters, 63, cap. 27, 28: 67, cap. iii., viii., 1., etc. [23] Select Charters, 66, 12: 72, 6. [24] Stubbs, I. 450. [25] Select Charters, 67, iii., viii., 1. [26] Ibid. 72, ii. cap. 6. [27] Cunningham, 129, Stubbs, I. 452, Brentano, 42. [28] Gross, I. 5; II. 28, 37. See note 1 to this Chapter. [29] Cf. note 1 to this Chapter. [30] Ibid. [31] Select Charters, 167 etc.; Stubbs, I. 452, and n. 1; Eyton’s Shropshire, XI. 134. [32] Quarterly Review, Vol. 159. [33] Gross, I. 135, 136 and notes; II. 133, 149. [34] Ibid. I. 42. [35] Cf. note 2 to this Chapter. [36] Select Charters, 265. [37] Select Charters, 162, “Communam scilicet gildam.” [38] Gross, I. 83 and note 1. [39] Stubbs, I. 451. [40] Select Charters (Helston), 314. [41] Gross, I. 54. The Rolls of the Shrewsbury Merchant Gild contain a large number of names of “foreigners.” For instance in 1209 there were apparently 56 foreigners; in 1252 these had increased to 234. [42] Printed in Gross, II. 114-123. [43] Select Charters, 166 (Charter of Henry II. to Lincoln). [44] Gross, II. 235, and cf. note 2 to this Chapter. [45] Cf. the “Chepgauel” at Totnes. Gross, II. 236. [46] Gross, I. 57. [47] Owen and Blakeway, I. 169-174. Erskine May, Const. Hist. III. 276-77. [48] This close relationship of, and actual difference between, the two bodies is very distinctly seen at Bristol in the reign of Edward IV., when it was the custom for the Mayor and Council of the town to choose the chief officers of the Merchant Gild, and to pass ordinances for its regulation. Gross, II. 25. [49] On the early use of coal, cf. Work and Wages, p. 124. [50] The Statutes of Labourers first gave a recognised position to the “men who neither held land, nor were free burgesses,” but who had a dwelling, and paid the rates of some town. Cf. Cunningham, 193-4. Supra, p. 19. [51] Quarterly Review, Vol. 159; Economic Interpretation, p. 298. [52] Cf. “Butchers’ Row” at Shrewsbury, where also the High Street was formerly called Bakers’ Row (Pidgeon’s Handbook, old Ed. p. 37). The Street which was afterwards known as Single Butcher Row had been earlier called “Shoemakers’ Row” (Phillips, p. 200). [53] Cf. the Monks’ Gilds alluded to above, p. 8 and n. 2. [54] “Which is now the only fragment left to the incumbent of the Church’s income before the Reformation.” S. A. S. x. 223. [55] Longfellow expresses this well in The Golden Legend: “The Architect [56] At Worcester a Gild School educated 100 scholars. The substitute which the Government provided at the Reformation was for less than half that number. Toulmin Smith’s Collection, p. 203 and note. [57] Ordinances of the City of London, framed in 1363. [58] The Greeks had private Societies called ??as?? and ???e??e? which also presented this feature. Cf. Foucart, Les Associations rÉligieuses chez les Grecs. [59] Brentano, 54. Cunningham, 203, n. 2. [60] Cf. supra, p. 20. In writing thus I have not forgotten that an opposite view is taken by Dr Brentano, Mr J. R. Green, Mr Geo. Howell, and in fact most of the writers who have touched on the subject. [61] Gross, I. 114. [62] Hartlepool, 1673. “It is ordered at a general guild ... that whosoever ... shall presume to come in and within the liberty of this corporation, to trade or occupye ... to the prejudice of the free trades and companyes within the corporation” etc. Gross, II. 106-7. [63] Cunningham, 209, n. 1. [64] Tailors’ Composition, of 1478. [65] The Bailiffs are to apprehend on the third day any person coming to the town “suspitiouslie wthoute anie lawfull errand or occasion,” and to detain him in prison “till he have found suertie of his good bearing or els to avoide the towne.” “And if anie man be comitted to their warde by the wardens wth the fower men ordeigned to the said wardens to be assistaunt in counsell in good counsell giving of anie crafte wthin the said Towne and Frauncheses that then that person that is so comitted to warde ... be not deliv’ed out of warde by the Bailiffs wthout assent and agreement of the said wardens and fower men.” “Item ... that no manne of their Crafte journeyman or other be attendant nor at the calling of anie gentleman, nor to noe other person otherwise than the lawe will but onlie to the wardens of their Crafte for the good rule of the same and assisting of the Bailiffs for keeping of the peace and for good rule of the Towne.” Mercers’ Composition, 1480-81. The searcher is “to make serche and espye all suche p’sones as frawdelentlye abbrygg, wtdraw or cownceyle the payments of theyre dewties” (such as Toll, Murage, etc.). No livery is to be worn except that of the Gild or Corporation. When the town bell rings the alarum members of the Gild are to go to the help of the Bailiffs only. [66] Tailors’ Composition, of 1478. Cf. Eng. Gilds, pp. 286, 385, 407, 420, etc. [67] There are examples of the town drawing up trading ordinances to which the Gildsmen conformed. Cf. The Usages of Winchester and the Ordinances of Worcester in Eng. Gilds, pp. 349, 370. Cf. also pp. 334-337. [68] Also before they could hold land in mortmain it would be necessary to obtain a charter. [69] The Oath of the Freemen of the Mercers’ Company is given as a note to this Chapter. [71] “The position of master and journeyman was not that of capitalist and labourer, so much as that of two fellow-workers, one of whom, from his superior status, was responsible to the town for the conduct of both.” Cunningham, 211. As showing the position of an apprentice in the 15th century a Shrewsbury Indenture is given as a note to this Chapter. [72] Cunningham, 211, n. 1. Brentano, 40, 68. [73] “The Stock in Trade required to set up in business was not great and an apprentice when his term of service was over, became a master almost as a matter of course. Journeymen were scarce, or at any rate not plentiful enough to have much influence on Trade.... Thus Capital and Labour were united.” Quarterly Review, Vol. 159, p. 53. [74] Brentano, 40. [75] Merewether and Stephens. [76] For interference with Free Election on the Continent cf. Brentano. [77] Tailors’ Composition, 1563. [79] Cf. the four Auditors to superintend the accounts of the London Grocers (1348) and the six members who were chosen “to aid the Wardens in the discharge of their duties” (1397), of whom Mr George Howell says: “Other than these, no notice of the existence of a committee or of assistants, in England, appears earlier than the sixteenth Century.” Conflicts of Capital and Labour, p. 40. Brentano, p. 62. Cf. the four Assistants in the Merchant Gild of Ipswich, Gross, I. 24. [80] The “Four Men of Counsel” of the Mercers were, by the Composition of 1480-81, chosen by the Wardens. [81] Mercers’ Composition, 1480-81. Tailors’ and Skinners’, 1563. [82] Tailors’ Composition, 1563. [83] Several of these are in the Town Museum at Shrewsbury. [84] A “Key-keeper” appears later in the lists of officers. [85] Their situation is given in Some account of the Ancient and Present state of Shrewsbury, published in 1808. [86] Barbers’ Composition (1483 A.D.). [87] Quarterly Review, Vol. 159, p. 44. [88] Select Charters, p. 65. [89] Elizabethan England, p. 9. [90] Stubbs, Constitutional History, Vol. III., p. 607. [91] The writs issued in 1388 order returns of the “Charters and Letters Patent si quas habent”: cf. Toulmin Smith, pp. 128, 130. The “Compositions” spoken of below were renewals and confirmations of previously enjoyed privileges. They usually assert that the Gild has been in existence “a tempore quo non extat memoria.” [92] Charters were also necessary before lands could be acquired in mortmain. [93] Stubbs, ii. p. 504 and note 1. [94] Toulmin Smith. Introduction, p. xxiv. It is from these returns that Mr Toulmin Smith has compiled his collection of ordinances of “English Gilds,” which however comprise but a small portion of the whole, and throw little or no light on the working of the Graft Gilds. The documents have not yet been calendared, but they do not appear to contain anything relating to Shrewsbury. [95] Cunningham, p. 210, 211. [96] Green, Short History, p. 192. [97] Cunningham, p. 214. [98] Brentano, 75: Riley, Memorials, 539, 565, 568, 570, 571, &c. [99] Pidgeon’s Gilds of Shrewsbury; S. A. S., Vol. V. p. 265. [100] S. A. S., Vol. V. p. 266. [101] Pidgeon’s Gilds. [102] Merewether and Stephens. Pidgeon’s Gilds. [103] Pidgeon’s Gilds; S. A. S. Vol. x. p. 33. [104] Those of Abbotsbury, Cambridge and Exeter. Cf. supra, p. 9. [105] Toulmin Smith, pp. 29, 42, &c. [106] Ibid., 7, 8, 11, &c. [107] The little that is known about it is given in Owen and Blakeway’s History of Shrewsbury, II. 122. [108] It is printed in S. A. S., Vol. V. [109] S. A. S., Vol. VIII. [110] Bryce, Holy Roman Empire, p. 95. [111] “None that is of Frenshe, Flemmyshe, Irysh, Dowche, Walshe, or any other Nacyones borne not beyng at Truse wt our Sov’ayne Lorde the kynge, but onlye mere Englysshe borne.” [112] Such Articles against the wearing of Liveries were common in the Gild Statutes. Cf. Toulmin Smith, passim. [113] Except by the Nobility to their personal dependents. Cf. Stubbs, III. 552. [114] 8 Edw. IV. c. 2. [115] 22 Hen. VIII. c. 4. The Entrance Fees for Apprentices had been raised in some cases to 30/- and 40/-. They are now reduced to 2/6 Entrance Fee, and 3/4 Fee on taking up freedom. [116] 28 Hen. VIII. c. 5. [117] 1 Edw. VI. cap. 14. [118] Hist. of Reformation, II. 72. [119] May, 1548; Council Book MS. in the Privy Council Office. Cf. Dixon, Hist. of Church of Eng. Vol. II. page 462, note. [120] Burnet, Hist. of Reformation, IV. 281. [121] Cf. Gross, I. 162, II. 14, 170, 279. [122] The Statute 14 Eliz. c. 14 was enacted “For the assurance of gifts, grants etc. made and to be made to and for the relief of the poor in the Hospitals etc.” [123] Memorials, Vol. II. Part I. page 100. [124] Against this were to be set the “enclosing” and “non-residence” grievances. [125] Elizabethan England, p. 11. [126] Ibid., p. 121. [127] Ibid., p. 117. [128] Elizabethan England, p. 117. [129] Ibid. [130] The good work of the Gilds is expressly acknowledged in many charters of the time, e.g. the charter granted to Faversham (1616) recites that long experience had shown that the dividing of the government of towns into several companies had worked great good, and was the means of avoiding many inconveniences and preposterous disorders, in respect that the government of every artificer and tradesman being committed to men of gravity, best experienced in the same faculty and mystery, the particular grievances and deceits in every trade might be examined, reformed and ordered. Gross, II. 89. [131] Cunningham, p. 181. [132] Cf. especially, 3 Edw. IV. c. 4; 22 Edward IV. c. [133] Gross, II. 1, 2, 55, 89, 186-7, 208, 250. [134] Cf. infra, pp. 90-91. The repealing statute (14 Eliz. c. 12) avowed that not only had the former Act been “supposed for the benefit of the said town” but had also been intended for the “advancing of the Corporation of Drapers, Cottoners and Friezers of the said town.” [135] Gross, II. 87. [136] Gross, II. 281. Cf. also pp. 12, 87, 199, 234, 247-8, 250, 281, 355, 360. [137] Ibid., 12. [138] Ibid., 56, 90, 91, 176, 186, 193, 199, 234, 247, 251, 264, 364, 385. [139] Merewether and Stephens, 1408. [140] Cromwell’s Charter to Swansea. Gross, II. 234. [141] Cf. the ordinance which appears in the Tailors’ records, A.D. 1711, April 11. “No combrother shall at any one time have more than two apprentices, one having served 3½ years before the other apprentice be bound, and no apprentice above 17 years taken, and he must be unmarried.” [142] It was also directed against the paying of the Shearmen in kind. [143] Cf. also 18 Eliz. cap. 15 (Goldsmiths): 8 Eliz. cap. 11 (Haberdashers). [144] In 1570-1 when Sir Henry Sidney, Lord President of Wales, passed through Shrewsbury. [145] Shrewsbury Corporation Records. [146] State Papers, Domestic, 1566? (p. 285). [147] State Papers, Domestic, 1619, Oct. ? [148] Ibid., 1620, Jan. ? [149] Ibid., 1620, Jan. ? (There are several petitions against other intruders also, by the countenance of the City of London, “who wish to engross all markets.”) [150] Ibid., 1620, Jan. ? [151] Ibid., 1620, Jan. 28. [152] Ibid., 1620, Feb. 21. [153] State Papers, Domestic, 1622. Several petitions from North Wales against the Proclamation. [154] Ibid., 1621. Petition of Drapers of Shrewsbury. [155] Ibid., 1621, May 21. Petition of Clothiers of North Wales: the Drapers of Shrewsbury are trying to draw all trade to Shrewsbury, which will be their ruin. [156] State Papers, Domestic; Oswestry Corporation Records, printed in S. A. S. Vol. III. [157] In 1622 the Bailiffs had requested a loan from the Mercers towards the establishing of a market for Welsh cloth in Shrewsbury. [158] The traders of Liverpool seem to have been the first to do this, so far as the Welsh trade of Shrewsbury was concerned. Cf. Owen’s Shrewsbury. [159] Orders of Corporation (collected by Godolphin Edwardes, Mayor in 1729). S. A. S. Vol XI. [160] Ibid. [161] Ibid. [162] Orders of Corporation (1689). [163] Ibid. (1729). [164] Ibid. [165] “1619. That the Corporation endeavour to compel the wardens of the Bakers’ Company to pay their old annuity of £4. 6s. 8d. (sic) to the Corporation.” Orders of Corporation printed in Phillips’ History of Shrewsbury, p. 170. [166] Orders of Corporation printed in Phillips’ History of Shrewsbury. [168] Glovers’ records, 1681. [169] 1782. Two members were called upon to show cause why they practise a profession contrary to that they have sworn to follow. [170] Britannia Languens, p. 355. [171] p. 88. [172] Consisting however of masters only. [173] Macaulay, History of England, Vol I. p. 204, n. [174] Cf. Howell, Conflicts of Capital and Labour, pp. 16, 62, 79, 103, 109, 472. [175] Resolution of Saddlers in 1798, voting £50. [176] This sentiment finds expression even in some of the compositions. [177] That is, masters only, not workmen. [178] The Happy Warrior of Wordsworth gives us probably a very true idea of the mediÆval conception of the perfect knight. [179] Cf. Stubbs’ Lectures on Constitutional History. [181] Scott’s Marmion. [182] Brentano, p. 21. [183] Ibid. p. 21. [184] Toulmin Smith, p. 192. [185] It is a curious coincidence that these two towns which earlier evinced such jealousy towards one another’s procession (cf. supra, p. 63) should have maintained it longest. [186] The festivities of the Preston Gild were held at intervals of twenty years. The last took place in 1882 (cf. Abram, Memorials), but many features place the Preston pageants in a different class from that to which those of Shrewsbury and Coventry belong. [187] i.e. Coventry. [188] Though there is no doubt that the Quarry was used for the performance of plays by other actors. Cf. infra, p. 119. [189] Phillips (p. 201) gives the titles of two of these plays: “Julian the Apostate” (at which Elizabeth intended to be present, but was misinformed as to the date: when she arrived at Coventry tidings reached her that it was already performed) in 1565, and “The Passion of Christ” in 1567. [190] Cf. supra, pp. 5, 36, 85, 92, 98-9. [192] Stow’s Survey, p. 124. [193] Shearmen’s records. [194] Ibid. [195] Taylor MS. [196] Shearmen’s records. [197] Ibid. [198] (1594.) Owen and Blakeway, Vol. I. p. 396. [199] Macaulay, History of England, Vol. I. p. 164. [200] Through England on a Side Saddle in the time of William and Mary, being the Diary of Celia Fiennes. [201] From the dedication to The Recruiting Officer. [202] Thackeray, The Four Georges, p. 320. [203] Perry, Church History, Vol. II. p. 512. [204] Glovers’ records, 1781. “Item, 1/- for carrying the Flag to Church on Show Day.” [205] Saddlers’ records, 1810. “Treasurer to pay 2 guineas to the apprentices to go to Kingsland on Show Monday, and that they may have the use of the Cloth, Flag and Streamers belonging to the Company.” [206] Saddlers’ records, 1812. “That £10 be allowed to dine the company instead of going to Kingsland.” [208] Britannia Languens, p. 355. [209] The Stranger in Shrewsbury. [210] Ibid. p. 24. [211] Ibid. On p. 28 they are described as being 16 in number. They appear to have varied considerably in number at different periods. [212] The Stranger in Shrewsbury, p. 24. [213] Ibid. p. 97. [214] Ibid. p. 97. [215] In 1637. [216] Though a few patriotic members kept the arbours etc. in repair a few years longer. [217] “1822. Thomas Frances Dukes made a Combrother free of all expense, for his handsome conduct in giving up the Charter.” (Mercers’ Records.) [218] Cf. The Stranger in Shrewsbury, p. 28. [219] The Mercers decide that their dinner shall not cost above £25. [220] A similar case was tried at Ludlow in 1831 when the Hammer-men obtained a verdict in their favour and a farthing damages. [221] 5 and 6 Will. IV. c. 76. [222] Constitutional History of England, Erskine May, Vol. III. p. 285. [223] Section 41. Omnes mercatores habeant salvum et securum exire de Anglia, et venire in Angliam, et morari et ire per Angliam, tam per terram quam per aquam, ad emendum et venendum, sine omnibus malis toltis. [224] These were finally pulled down in 1859. [225] The Mercers followed this example in 1878. [226] Quarterly Review, Vol. 159, p. 50. [227] Quarterly Review, Vol. 159, p. 56. The Drapers’ company at Shrewsbury still survives to manage S. Mary’s Almshouses. [228] In 1835 there appear to have been companies in at least the following other towns in England, Alnwick, Bristol, Carlisle, Chester, Coventry, Durham, Gateshead, Haverfordwest, Kendal, Kingston-on-Thames, Lichfield, London, Ludlow, Morpeth, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Oxford, Preston, Richmond, Ruthin, Sheffield, Southampton, Wells, and York. [231] Howell, Conflicts of Capital etc., p. 494. [232] The story of the rise of Trades Unions has been told with much detail by Mr G. Howell in his Conflicts of Capital and Labour, and by Dr Brentano in the last portion of his Essay on Gilds. [233] It is to be hoped that the development of the “New Unionism” will not frustrate this hope. [234] Mr John Burns has recently been urging on Trades Unions the advisability of surrendering this feature, so that the funds may the more completely be devoted to militant purposes. [235] By Henry Lytton Bulwer, M.P., in a letter to the Handloom weavers when they petitioned for the creation of gilds of trade. [236] Foxwell, Irregularity of Employment, p. 72. [237] “There is of late a partial revival of good workmanship in many trades ... but it will require years of toil to recover our lost ground in the markets of the world.” G. Howell, Conflicts of Capital etc., p. 225. Prof. Foxwell points out that “the master cutlers of Sheffield have done something in [the] direction lately of exposing and punishing falsification” etc., Irregularity of Employment etc., p. 80 and note. Mr E. J. Poynter notices that “the firm of which Mr William Morris is the head, of which indeed he is the sole member, started the idea, now well understood, that the only possible means of producing work which shall be satisfactory from every side is to return to the principles on which all works of art and art-manufacture were executed, not only in the Middle Ages, but at all epochs up to the beginning of this century.” Ten Lectures on Art, p. 274. [238] This paper was written for the Shropshire ArchÆological and Natural History Society, and was printed in substance in their Transactions, 2nd Series, Vol. III., Part ii., p. 253. Transcriber’s Note: Foonote 118 appears on page 67 of the text, but there is no corresponding marker on the page. |
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