754 LAISSEZ FAIRE 
AD re the practicability of improvement by setting an example, 
and he was ready to join in inducing the Government to 
enquire into the system and introduce remedial legislation’ 
But this was not a task that could be carried through at 
once. It required a long continued agitation, and years of 
legislative and administrative activity, to bring up the con- 
ditions of textile industry in the country generally to those 
which he had voluntarily introduced in connection with his 
own works. 
The status 267. The influence of the economic experts had been 
Lr orkmen ised for the most part to justify the views of the capitalists 
improved 1nd manufacturers. Their main efforts had been directed to 
sweeping away restrictions on the employment of capital, but 
they were after all in sympathy with any changes which 
gave greater freedom and independence to the labourer. So 
far as his position was concerned, the principles of laissez 
faire had a constructive, as well as a destructive tendency. 
There were various ways in which the individual labourer 
was hampered in the effort to obtain employment on the best 
terms available. His opportunities for bargaining were re- 
stricted by the legislation which prevented him from enjoying 
freedom of movement, and also by the Combination Acts 
which refused him the liberty to associate himself with his 
fellows for the prosecution of their common interests. These 
limitations, on whatever grounds they might be excused, were 
infractions of personal liberty, and as such seemed to be 
inconsistent with generally accepted principles. 
by Sng In regard to the restrictions on freedom of movement 
ditions for there was, about 1820, a general consensus of opinion in 
ihe seit” favour of sweeping them away. The hindrances which pre- 
the voor. vented artisans from travelling within the country had never 
been intentionally imposed ; they had grown up incidentally 
since the Restoration in connection with the administration 
of the poor law. The overseers of each parish were careful 
to prevent any artisan from being hired for a year, as that 
period of service gave him a settlement or the right to relief 
in his new locality? As a consequence the eighteenth century 
\ See below, p. 776. 
1 The Act had the effect of gradually revolutionising the conditions of employ- 
ment in rural districts. ¢ The fear that in hiring a servant or treating a servant