ing on the rate of wages or the number of
hours they would work, so long as this agreement referred to the wages
or hours of those only who were present at the meeting. It declared,
however, the illegality of any violence, threats, intimidation,
molestation, or obstruction, used to induce any other workmen to
strike or to join their association or take any other action in regard
to hours or wages. Any attempt to bring pressure to bear upon an
employer to make any change in his business was also forbidden, and
the common law opposition was left unrepealed. The effect of the
legislation of 1824 and 1825 was to enable trade unions to exist if
their activity was restricted to an agreement upon their own wages or
hours. Any effort, however, to establish wages and hours for other
persons than those taking part in their meetings, or any strike on
questions of piecework or number of apprentices or machinery or
non-union workmen, was still illegal, both by this statute and by
Common Law. The vague words, "molestation," "obstruction," and
"intimidation," used in the law were also capable of being construed,
as they actually were, in such a way as to prevent any considerable
activity on the part of trade unions. Nevertheless a great stimulus
was given to the formation of organizations among workingmen, and the
period of their legal growth and development now began,
notwithstanding the narrow field of activity allowed them by the law
as it then stood. Combinations were continually formed for further
objects, and prosecutions, either under the statute or under Common
Law, were still very numerous. In 1859 a further change in the law was
made, by which it became lawful to combine to demand a change of wages
or hours, even if the action involved other persons than those taking
part in the agreement, and to exercise peaceful persuasion upon others
to join the strikers in their action. Within the bounds of the limited
legal powers granted by the laws of 1825 and 1859, large numbers of
trade unions were formed, much agitation carried on, strikes won and
lost, pressure exerted upon Parliament, and the most active and
capable of the working classes gradually brought to take an interest
in the movement. This growth was unfortunately accompanied by much
disorder. During times of industrial struggle non-strikers were
beaten, employers were assaulted, property was destroyed, and in
certain industrial communities confusion and outrage occurred e