Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: V CHAPTER II. THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE, [1799-1825.] The traditional history of the Trade Union Movement! represents the period prior to 1824 as one of unmitigated / .persecution and continuous repression. Every Union that can claim an existence of more than half a century possesses a romantic legend of its early days. The mid- night meeting of patriots in the corner of the field, the buried box of records, the secret oath, the long terms of imprisonment of the leading officials—all these are in the sagas of the older Unions, and form material out of which, in an age untroubled by historical criticism, a semi- mythical origin might easily have been created. /That 1 the legend is not without a basis of fact, we shall see in ! tracing the actual effect upon the Trade Union Movement j of the legal prohibitions of combinations of wage-earners ( which prevailed throughout the United Kingdom up to 1824. But we-shall findthat some combinationsof journeymen were at" aEftimes recogriiseS by the law, —- ...nM-ir I !! . - T. . - - - - "- —": ' " --'-' ' "- ' Jm and thattfie" "ntmosr" f igourF3he ComhiaatiDn. Lawa. was not felt until the far-reaching change of policy . . , .-O —.. p ,, d...,, ,/ markedT5ythe severe Acts i798oq2wHIcH apgtiecf to all iusmeswRatsoeveE This will lead us naturally lotKe"story6F"the repeaTbf the whole series of Combination Laws in 1824-5, the most impressive event in the early history of the movement. 58 Legal Regulation. There is a clear distinction—at any rate, as regards England—between the various statutes which forbade combination prior to the end of the eighteenth century, and the general Combination Act of 1799. In the numerous earlier Acts recited and repealed in 1824 the prohibition of combination was in all cases ... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.