In 1824 a select committee of the House of Commons was ap pointed to enquire, among other matters, into the "combination laws." This committee reported that "those laws had not only not been efficient to prevent combinations either of masters or workmen, but on the contrary had, in the opinion of many of both parties, had a tendency to produce mutual irritation and dis trust, and to give a violent character to the combinations, and to render them highly dangerous to the peace of the community." They further reported that in their judgment "masters and work men should be freed from such restrictions as regards the rate of wages and the hours of working, and be left at perfect liberty to make such agreements as they mutually think proper." They there fore recommended that "the statute laws which interfered in these particulars between masters and workmen should be repealed," and also that "the common law under which a peaceable meeting of masters or workmen might be prosecuted should be altered." In pursuance of their report, an Act, 5 Geo. IV. c. 95, was at once brought in and passed. But the immediate results of the change which it effected were regarded as so inconvenient, formid able and alarming, that in the session of 1825 the House of Com mons appointed another select committee to re-examine the vari ous problems, and review and reconsider the evidence submitted to their predecessors. They reported without delay in favour of the total repeal of the Act of 1824, and the restoration of those pro visions of the combination laws, whether statutory or customary, which it had been more particularly intended to abrogate. The consequence was an act passed in 1825 of which the preamble declares that the Act of 1824 had not been found effectual, and that combinations such as it had legalised were "injurious to trade and commerce, dangerous to the tranquility of the country, and especially prejudicial to the interests of all who were concerned in them." The effect of this act was to leave the common law of conspiracy in full force against all combinations in restraint of trade, except such as it expressly exempted from its operation, as it had been before the Act of 1824 was passed. It comprised, however, within itself the whole of the statute law relating to the subject, and under it no persons were liable to punishment for meeting together for the sole purpose of consulting upon and determining the rate of wages or prices which they, being present, would require for their work or pay to their workmen, or the hours for which they would work or require work in any trade or business, or for entering into any agreement, verbal or written, for the purpose of fixing the rate of wages or prices which the parties to it should so receive or pay. But all persons were sub jected to a maximum punishment of three months' imprisonment with hard labour who should by violence, threats or intimidation, molestation or obstruction, do, or endeavour to do, or aid, abet or assist in doing or endeavouring to do, any of a series of things inconsistent with freedom of contract which the act defined.
new form of combination which excited a good deal of alarm among employers, the term "trades union" as distinct from trade union, was applied. All these general movements, however, proved shortlived, and the most extensive of them, the "Grand National Consolidated Trades Union," which was formed in 1834 and claimed half a million adherents, only had an active existence for a few months, its break-up being hastened by the conviction and transportation of six Dorchester labourers for the administra tion of unlawful oaths. In the years of depressed trade which followed, trade unionism once more declined, and the interest of workmen was largely diverted from trade combinations to more general political movements, e.g., Chartism, the Anti-Corn-Law agitation and Robert Owen's or other schemes of co-operation.
From 1845 we trace another revival of trade unions, the charac teristic tendency of this period being the amalgamation of local trade clubs to form societies, national in scope, but confined to single or kindred trades. High rates of contribution, and the pro vision of friendly as well as trade benefits, were among the feat ures of the new type of union, of which the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, formed in 1851, was the most important example. The growth of unions of the new type was followed by a develop ment of employers' associations in the 'sixties, and by a number of widespread strikes and lock-outs, and also by various efforts to promote arbitration and conciliation by the establishment of joint boards of employers and employed.
A series of outrages at Sheffield and Manchester in 1865-1866, in which officials of some local trade societies were implicated, led to the appointment in 1867 of a royal commission on trade unions, whose report was followed by the passage of the Trade Union Act of 1871, which as amended by subsequent legislation governs the legal position of trade unions.
Under these statutes, construed with the Conspiracy and Pro tection of Property Act, 1875, the law relating to combinations, whether of workmen or of masters, entered upon a new phase.
The Act of 1871 laid it down that the purposes of any trade union shall not, by reason merely that they are in restraint of trade, (a) be deemed to be unlawful, so as to render any member of such trade union liable to criminal prosecution for conspiracy or otherwise, and (b) be unlawful so as to render void or voidable any agreement or trust. It further enacted that certain trade union contracts shall not be enforceable by the courts, e.g., any agree ment for the payment by any person of a subscription or penalty to a trade union, and any agreement to provide benefits to mem bers. The act also made provision for the registration of trade unions, and for the purchase or lease of buildings by trade unions. The Trade Union Act of 1876 amended the law of 1871 on mat ters of minor administration, and provided for the amalgamation of unions. It altered the definition of trade union.