de unionists, who had always aimed at a reduction in the hours of
labour, and to the theoretical socialists, who held that the exploiter's
profits came from the final hours of the day's work. The Fabian plan of
"Trade Option" was regarded as too moderate, and demands were made for a
"Trade Exemption" Bill, that is, a Bill enacting a universal Eight Hours
Day, with power to any trade to vote its own exclusion. But the more
the subject was discussed, the more obvious the difficulties became,
and at last it was recognised that each trade must be dealt with
separately. Considerable reductions of hours were meantime effected in
particular industries; an eight-hour day became the rule in the
Government factories and dockyards; the Board of Trade was empowered to
insist on the reduction of unduly long hours of duty on railways;
finally in 1908 the Miners' Eight Hours Act became law; and the demand
for any general Bill faded away.

The autumn meetings were occupied by a course of lectures at Willis's
Rooms on "A Century of Social Movements," by Frank Podmore, William
Clarke, Graham Wallas, Hubert Bland, and Mrs. Besant, and with the
beginning of the year 1890 we come to the publication of "Fabian
Essays," and a new chapter in the History of the Society.

FOOTNOTES:

[16] On this passage Shaw has written the following criticism, which I
have not adopted because on the whole I do not agree with it: "I think
this is wrong, because the Fabians were at first as bellicose as the
others, and Marx had been under no delusion as to the Commune and did
not bequeath a tradition of its repetition. Bakunin was as popular a
prophet as Marx. Many of us--Bland and Keddell among others--were
members of the S.D.F., and I was constantly speaking for the S.D.F. and
the League. We did not keep ourselves to ourselves; we aided the working
class organisations in every possible way; and they were jolly glad to
have us. In fact the main difference between us was that we worked for
everybody (permeation) and they worked for their own societies only. The
real reason that we segregated for purposes of thought and study was
that the workers could not go our pace or stand our social habits.
Hyndman and Morris and Helen Taylor and the other bourgeois S.D.F.-ers
and Leaguers were too old for us; they were between forty and fifty when
we were between twenty and thirty."

[17] On this passage Shaw comments, beginning with an expletive, and
proceeding: "I was