2 The labor question may be said to have come into public view simultaneously with the repeal, between sixty and seventy years ago, of the Combination Laws which had made it an offence for laboring men to unite for the purpose of procuring by joint action, through peaceful means, an augmentation of their wages. From this point progress began.— Glad stone, quoted in Wallas's " Life of Francis Place." Chapter viii of this Life gives an excellent account of Place's relation to this repeal. The subject is more generally treated in Webb's ', History of Trade Unionism." than in the period immediately preceding the attention of the leaders of the working people, but if so, this was only because it became merged in larger social and political agitations of the period, in which the trade combinations played an important part.' If it were our purpose to trace the intellectual and moral forces which resulted in the great national awakening which may be said to have culminated in the reform bills of the thirties, rather than the actual changes in the laws and the industrial system, it would be necessary to study the socialistic movement of which Robert Owen was the apostle. Inasmuch as his specific proposals failed it is only necessary to call attention to the enthusiasm and the enlightenment resulting from his crusade, which permeated more or less completely the whole movement for larger freedom and constructive reform. His demonstration that the great distress from which particular classes suffered was " a new economic phenomenon, the inevitable result of unfettered competition and irresponsible ownership of a means of production," 2 contributed to the partial allevi ation of those evils by Parliament, and made easier the adoption of less radical and more practicable remedies.
It would also be essential, in a full account of the forces which gave shape to the ideas and policies of the period, to include the contribution of Malthus and other political economists, and to trace the rise of the Manchester or laissez-faire school and its influence upon legislation. Such inquiries would be aside from our present purpose, closely related as they are. Even within the field of actual reform it is necessary to pass over such important although minor events as the fight for a free press and cheap news papers, a movement popular among the poor, and the organization of the metropolitan police force of London, which, although as unpopular as the other was popular, was likewise in the long run beneficial.
It was in this period that the criminal law was thoroughly reformed under the leadership of Sir Robert Peel, the death penalty being abolished for many offences, over three hundred acts relating to the criminal law Webb : "The History of Trade Unionism," chapters ii and 7 Ibid., p. 143.
having been wholly or partially repealed, and the remainder codified into a consistent and intelligible system.' Catholic emancipation, while of greater importance in Ireland than in England, was, nevertheless, a significant change for a large element of the population in both countries. The removal of the disabilities under which Roman Catholics labored, by which it became possible for them to enter the universities and to hold high office in the state, was only an indication of a radical change for the better in the political and social status of those who professed that faith. Other dissenters from the established church shared in the liberal movement in a manner which added to their standing in the community and gave them increased reason for looking upon themselves as citizens and equal sharers in the social and industrial life.
A humanitarian movement totally unprecedented in volume and intensity swept over the face of England in the thirty years under review. It brought about the beginning of the factory acts, the restriction of child the protection of pauper apprentices, and the agitation against slavery in the colonies and in foreign countries, as well as the organization of private societies for the amelioration of the condition of the poor. In the text-books of history attention is largely focussed, so far as this period is concerned, on the enormous political revolution, although it was brought about without the violence accompanying similar political changes in France and other In the brief twenty years between the close of the Peninsular War and the reform of the English Poor Law the political control of England passed completely from the aristocracy to the middle classes. The suffrage was placed upon a new basis, parliamentary representation was wholly reformed, and even the great 1 J. R. Thursfield: "Life of Peel," in English Statesmen Series.
2 It is now admitted that the legislation for the factories has worked almost entirely beneficent results. None of the evils anticipated from it have come to pass. Almost all the good it proposed to do has been realized. —McCarthy : "The Epoch of Reform," p. 96.
Some of the grievances under which the English people suffered before this Epoch of Reform were severe enough to have warranted an attempt at revolution if no other means of relief seemed attainable, and if that desperate remedy had some chance of success. —McCarthy:
"Epoch of Reform," Introduction, p. vi.
leaders of the earlier period retained their positions and their influence only in so far as they frankly accepted the new situation and acted upon the idea that the change which had been made was not even to be questioned.
Such then were some of the more important changes in this period so marvellously productive of change and prog ress. The balance of power shifted from the cdun try to the town, from the landed interests to the industrial and commercial interests, from the aristocracy to the middle classes. The development of the factory system, the introduction of .labor-saving devices, the introduction of steamships, the repeal of taxation, the division of labor, the introduction of elementary education, the better pro tection of children and of operatives engaged in dangerous occupations, and the increased dignity which are insepa rably associated with political and religious freedom, all combined to elevate the position of the average citizen, to increase the national dividend, and to give to the producer, as compared with the unproductive classes, an increased share in the national product. If in the whole history of England a golden moment were to be chosen in which to discontinue relief extended from the public funds to large numbers of people, it would have been in the exact period in which the Poor Law Commission had the oppor tunity to test their ideas of the advantages of strict ad ministration. It is not improbable that if the relief given so lavishly before the industrial and social changes had been made, or even after they had begun, but before the country had adjusted itself to the new conditions, had been withdrawn earlier, the results would have been different and that the unpopularity gained by the Commis sioners even as it was would have been greatly 1 The transition was made with little warning, and without any pre liminary training in thrift, but at a time when wheat was plentiful and cheap. When soon afterwards there were crop failures and high prices, there were bitter complaints, especially from Lancashire and other north ern counties in which the abuses of the old system had been much less serious than in southern counties. From these counties it was the tax payers rather than the poor that testified to the excellence of the law. In a later period the resentment of the working population was strongly exhibited. Rose, in his volume on the " Rise of Democracy," says that " ' physical force' chartism gained its strength from the popular hatred against the Poor Law." Is it not probable that the great improvements which are supposed to have resulted from the stricter administration of the Poor Law may have been due instead in large part, in so far as they were changes in personal character, to the other causes that have been outlined — causes which it will be noticed are not economic alone, but to a large extent educational, social, and moral ? If we can imagine the history of the English poor between 1820 and 1850 without the intervention of the Poor Law, either in its more liberal or in its stricter administration, is it not probable that the changes occurring in the occupations and habits of the people would have been virtually what they were in fact In other words, has not the part which was played by the Poor Law in its more lax form and the effect of the introduction of the more severe standards been greatly exaggerated ? When we compare this single influence with those which even in their bearing on the welfare of the poor alone are of such greater sweep and magnitude, it becomes obvious, not indeed that a lax administration of the Poor Law can be defended, but that it is an error to give disproportionate emphasis to its effect upon the welfare and character of the laboring population. The change from an agricultural to an in dustrial community might rather be regarded as making possible an improvement in Poor-Law administration, al though the new problems caused by the increased popu lation of the towns are many and serious. England was saved from pauperization, revolution, and other unforeseen disasters, not by deciding to distribute less relief or by deciding that the able-bodied poor, if assisted at all, should be assisted only in the workhouse, wise as these decisions were, but by the rise of religious and political liberty, by introducing in advance of other countries modern forms of agriculture and industry, by developing her com merce and trade, by the adoption of a more nearly demo cratic organization of society, and by listening to the voice 1 Private relief is often far better than public relief. Cunningham records that in 1819 and in 1826, when there was a great deal of distress among the Scottish weavers, large relief funds were started to which the wealthy contributed more largely than they would have done in England where the Poor Law was so abundant. See Cunningham : " Growth of English Industry and Commerce in Modern Times," p. 638.