only did away
with the criminal liability and left the victims of the boycott or
blacklist free to sue the combination for damages; but by the "Trade
Disputes Act," 6 Edward 7, chapter 47 (December 21, 1906) the
following paragraph was added:

"An act done in pursuance of an agreement or combination by two or
more persons shall, if done in contemplation or furtherance of a trade
dispute, not be actionable unless the act, if done without any such
agreement or combination, would be actionable."

And also a clause as to picketing:

"It shall be lawful for one _or more[1]_ persons, acting on their own
behalf or on behalf of a trade-union or of an individual employer or
firm in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute, to attend at
or near a house or place where a person resides or works or carries on
business or happens to be, if they so attend merely for the purpose of
peacefully obtaining or communicating information, or of peacefully
persuading any person to work or to abstain from working."

[Footnote 1: The italics are our own.]

And another upon inducing the breaking of contracts, loss of service:

"An act done by a person in contemplation or furtherance of a trade
dispute shall not be actionable on the ground only that it induces
some other person to break a contract of employment or that it is an
interference with the trade, business, or employment of some other
person, or with the right of some other person to dispose of his
capital or his labor as he wills."

Furthermore, after the Taff Vale case, trades-unions were exempted
from all liability:

"(1) An action against a trade-union, whether of workmen or masters,
or against any members or officials thereof on behalf of themselves
and all other members of the trade-union in respect of any tortious
act alleged to have been committed by or on behalf of the trade-union,
shall not be entertained by any court.

"(2) Nothing in this section shall affect the liability of the
trustees of a trade-union to be sued in the events provided for by
the Trades-Union Act, 1871, section nine, except in respect of any
tortious act committed by or on behalf of the union in contemplation
or in furtherance of a trade dispute.

"(3) In this act and in the Conspiracy and Protection of Property
Act, 1875, the expression 'trade dispute' means any dispute between
employers and workmen, or between workmen and workmen, which is
connected with the employment or non-employme