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 — 1 8E0