762 LAISSEZ FAIRE 
repeal of the Combination Acts had very little immediate 
and apparent result as gauged by the improved terms they 
obtained from their employers, but for all that it was of 
fundamental importance. The alliance which Place effected 
between the advocates of artisan interests and the Radicals in 
Bgl, Parliament was exceedingly significant; eventually it proved 
assistance $0 be extraordinarily fruitful. To the public the Trade Union 
Lo in, appeared to be an immoral terroriser, oppressing the indi- 
vidual ; but the Radicals, whom Place instructed, insisted that 
the questions which had been raised should be decided in 
such a sense as to give legal protection to the individual 
labourer in asserting his claims. The Radical sense of justice 
demanded that the labourer should be in the same position 
as the employer in this matter, and that the combination of 
labourers should not be regarded as a crime, when the com- 
ponte binations of masters were permitted to exist. The Radical 
measure of Sense of justice was also involved in the assertion of the 
Ts principle which lay at the basis of Trade Union agitation up 
action. tj]l 1875,—that no action which was legal, if done by other 
persons for other purposes, should be condemned as criminal 
when it was done by a Trade Union for trade purposes. 
The association of labour movements with Radicalism 
has brought about a new cleavage in English political life, 
Hitherto the landed gentry had been inclined to take the 
responsibility of doing their best to protect the labourer from 
the capitalist and moneyed man; but they were now viewed 
with suspicion by the artisans, for the corn-law agitation had 
opened up a wide gulf between the industrial and agricultural 
interests. Nor were the Whigs, who came into power with 
the Reform Bill, inclined to break with their capitalist con- 
nection, and to trust the artisan with any real power in the 
matters which concerned him most deeply. The Radicals had 
insisted that he should have fair play, so far as the adminis- 
tration of the law was concerned ; and this result was attained 
in 1875 by measures? passed in the first House of Commons in 
which the power of the enfranchised artisans was clearly felt? 
! The Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act and Employers and Work. 
men Act (38 and 39 Vict. 86, 90). 
2 Webb, Trade Unionism, 270. The fact that the Conservatives were then in 
power did not greatly affect the attitude of working class leaders towards political 
parties. 
A.D. 1776 
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