The Industrial Revolution

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1027928145

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-159926

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Cunningham, William http://d-nb.info/gnd/128907487

Title:: The Industrial Revolution

Place of publication:: Cambridge

Publisher:: The University Press

Year of publication:: 1922

Scope:: xxii S., S. 404-886

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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THE COMBINATION LAWS 733 The measure seems to have been rushed through the House A.D. 1776 of Commons under the influence of panic; its earlier stages 1850. were taken on three successive nights. There were no petitions in its favour and there is no report of any debate in Hansard; it was not introduced because of pressure from the outside, but it was hurried on by Government. The Bill was not accepted so readily when it was introduced into the and despite House of Lords. The London artisans had come to hear of es its the proposal which was being pushed on so fast, and the Calico "V*** Printers petitioned the Lords against it. Counsel was heard on their behalf, and the opponents of the scheme thought it worth while to divide the House, though the Government carried the day. But the matter did not rest here, as there were numerous petitions from all parts of the country point- ing at the injustice of the Act and demanding its repeal’ The matter came up for re-consideration in the next session; but whatever may have been the original motives for introducing the Bill, there were, in the then temper of the legislature, valid economic grounds for maintaining the measure. Parliament had honestly considered the practica- bility of fixing a minimum rate of wages, and had come to the deliberate conclusion that any attempt to do so would be futile so far as the labourers were concerned, and would Trade Societies criminal. ‘At the same period seditions emissaries were first detected endeavouring to excite insurrection among the manufacturers of different parts of Lancashire. This was to be done by associating as many as possible under the sanction of an oath, nearly similar to that adopted in London and which, with an account of the secret sign which accompanied it, has been trans- mitted from various quarters to Government and laid before your Committee; dangerous meetings were disguised, a8 in London, under the appearance of Friendly Societies, for the relief of Sick Members.” Second Report from Com- mittee of Secrecy relative to State of Ireland. Reports, reprints, 1801. First series, X. 831. 1 17, 18, 19 June, 1799. Commons Journals, LIV. pp. 653, 662, 666. 2 Commons Journals, Lv. 645. The London petition runs thus: That during the last session, an Act was passed to prevent unlawful Combination of Workmen, ...and that the said Act by the Use of such uncertain Terms, and others of the same Nature, bas created new Crimes of boundless Extent, to which are affixed Fines, Forfeiture and Imprisonment,...and that in many Parts of the said Act, the Taw is materially changed to the great Injury of all Journeymen and Workmen; and that, if it be not repealed it will hereafter be dangerous for the Petitioners to converse with one another, or even with their own Families; and that its im- mediate Tendency is to excite Distrust and Jealousy between their Masters and them, and to destroy the Trades and Manufactures it purports to protect.”

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