l system of
delegation, a kind of federal republic, all the trades being represented
by delegates, who formed a sort of congress. Another regulation which
Mr. Huskisson noticed was to this effect:--"Each delegate shall be paid
out of his own work with, these exceptions only--the president, the
secretary, and the treasurer are to be paid out of the general funds."
The delegates are elected for six months, and may be re-elected. Here
he remarked was a tax levied upon each workman for the maintenance of
general funds applicable to purposes of a most mischievous character.
Other articles declared that it was the duty of the delegates to point
out the masters disliked, and to warn such masters of the danger in
which they were placed in consequence of this combination. Here, Mr.
Huskisson rightly observed, was an acknowledgment of the dangerous
nature of these associations. But, he asked, what followed? Why another
duty of the delegates was to try everything which prudence might dictate
to put the disliked masters out of the trade: not everything which
fairness and justice might dictate to workmen who sought to to obtain a
redress of grievances, but everything which "prudence" might dictate. In
such a position, "prudence" must be understood as implying that degree
of precaution that might prevent the "Union" from being brought within
a breach of the law, such as the crime of murder. Was it, he asked,
fit, right, or reasonable that persons engaged in commercial or other
pursuits should, by combinations thus organized, be kept in constant
anxiety and terror about their interest and their property. After
noticing other regulations of this class of associations, Mr. Huskisson
went on to show that others were governed by regulations, if possible,
more extraordinary. One of these regulations was, that no man coming
into any given district or county within the control assumed by the
associating parties, should be allowed to work without previously paying
five pounds sterling, to be applied to the funds of the association.
In a similar spirit, another regulation set forth, that any child being
permitted to assist, should at ten years old be reckoned a quarter of a
man, and pay a proportionate sum accordingly. It was also provided that
any man being called in by any collier to his assistance should not be
at liberty to work, unless previously adopted, like the collier, by the
society, and unless, like him, he should previously pay his f