Governments, Labour, and the Law in Mid-Victorian Britain : the Trade

. . . . - . . . This page intentionally left blank Governments, Labour, and the Law in Mid-Victorian Britain The Trade Union Legislation of the s MARK CURTHOYS CLARENDON PRESS • OXFORD 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi São Paulo Shanghai Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Mark Curthoys The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data applied for ISBN ––– 13579108642 Typeset by Regent Typesetting, London Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Biddles Ltd, King’s Lynn, Norfolk In memory of P This page intentionally left blank ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My thanks are due to the archivists, librarians, and other holders of records who have enabled me to consult materials in their care. Over many years I have received great assistance from the staff of the Bodleian Library, the Modern History Faculty Library, Oxford, John Wing and his colleagues at the library of Christ Church, Oxford, David Webb of the Bishopsgate Institute, and Richard Storey and the staff of the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick. I am grateful to Mr B. A. Shillito of the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel for granting me access to that department’s papers, to David Holland for enabling me to consult the papers of S. H. Walpole, and to the many individuals who helped to locate manuscript materials. Gordon Phillips, archivist of The Times, kindly identified the authors of leading articles in that newspaper. This book is based on research undertaken while I was the holder of a postgraduate studentship funded by the Department of Education and Science. I also wish to acknowledge financial assistance from the governing body of Christ Church, Oxford. I owe a longstanding debt of gratitude to David Steele, who introduced me to the problems of the mid-Victorian period through his special subject at the University of Leeds. His advice, suggestions, and personal support have been vital throughout the preparation of this work. To those who patiently heard the preliminary results of my researches, in papers deliv- ered to the Oxford seminars run by Ross McKibbin and Philip Waller, and to others who read the widely circulated typescripts of those papers, I owe an apology for the long delay in bringing into print a revised version incor- porating the comments which they took the trouble to make. I am also grateful to the participants of seminars at All Souls College, Oxford, the University of Liverpool, the Institute of Historical Research, London, and Trinity and All Saints College, Leeds, for their suggestions. At the outset I learnt much from John Davis (who kindly passed on transcripts of the Wemyss MSS), Nicholas Fishwick, Michael Hart, and Paul Johnson; latterly, my colleagues at the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography— especially in the ‘vic’ room—have provided a congenial and stimulating at- mosphere in which to complete the work. Mark Pottle’s encouragement has also been invaluable. I was fortunate to be employed on the History of the University of Oxford project under Michael Brock, and to have benefited from his guidance over many years; I am also grateful for his practical help viii Acknowledgements in enabling me to obtain unpaid leave to complete the thesis in which this book has its origin. The examiners of that thesis, Lord Briggs and Professor Paul Smith, pointed out corrections and made many helpful suggestions for improvements. I wish to thank the Oxford Historical Monographs Committee for the opportunity to return to this subject, and Jose Harris, who read the typescript on behalf of the committee, for her penetrating comments. Brian Harrison kindly read two sections at a very late stage and his suggestions led to some important adjustments. Lawrence Goldman generously shouldered the burden of reading the entire typescript; I owe much to his candid criticisms and advice. I am also indebted to Nancy-Jane Rucker for the great care with which she edited the final text, and to Kay Rogers for guiding it through the press. Responsibility for remaining errors and shortcomings remains mine alone. My debt to the late Colin Matthew exceeds what can be expressed here. First as thesis supervisor, then as Editor of the Oxford DNB, he was a source of inspiration, encouragement, criticism, and innumerable personal kindnesses. The subject was his idea and he continued to support my work on it even when the demands of other employments led to seemingly inter- minable delays in its completion. It is a matter of immense sadness not to be able to present him with this attempt, however inadequate, to respond to his original suggestion. A further cause of regret is that my parents did not live to see the book finished. I am grateful to Judith for sharing some of the trials which accom- panied the later stages of this project. CONTENTS Abbreviations x Introduction . After the Combination Acts . ‘Under Sufferance’: Unions Outside the Law, – . Union Funds, Free Labour, and the Franchise . Reconciling Unions and the Law . Trade Unions Legalized . The Criminal Law Amendment Act, . The Gas Stokers’ Case and the Freedom to Strike . Reforming Labour Law, – . ‘The Workmen’s Victory’? Conclusion: Combination and the Liberal State Bibliography Index ABBREVIATIONS ASCJ Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners ASE Amalgamated Society of Engineers ASRS Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants CAT Conference of Amalgamated Trades CLAA Criminal Law Amendment Act, CPPA Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act, DLB Dictionary of Labour Biography ed. J. M. Bellamy and J. Saville ( vols., –) DNB Dictionary of National Biography FSIF Friendly Society of Ironfounders GBA General Builders’ Association GLCC Gas Light and Coke Company GUCJ General Union of Carpenters and Joiners H Hansard Parliamentary Debates (prefixed by series number) Matthew, GD H. C. G. Matthew (ed.), The Gladstone Diaries, vols. –, – (); vols. –, – () NAPSS National Association for the Promotion of Social Science (or Social Science Association) NAUT National Association of United Trades NFAEL National Federation of Associated Employers of Labour NFBTE National Federation of Building Trades Employers OBS Operative Bricklayers’ Society OPC Office of the Parliamentary Counsel OSM FR Fortnightly Returns of the Friendly Society of Operative Stonemasons PP British Parliamentary Papers RCLL Royal Commission on the Labour Laws, – (chairman: Sir Alexander Cockburn) RCTU Royal Commission on Trade Unions, – (chairman: Sir William Erle) SCCL () Select Committee on the Combination Laws, (chairman: Thomas Wallace) SSA Social Science Association (or National Association for the Promotion of Social Science) TRHS Transactions of the Royal Historical Society TUC Trades Union Congress TUCPC Trades Union Congress Parliamentary Committee Introduction ‘We legislate for individuals, while we are, in fact, surrounded by corpor- ations’, a newspaper writer commented in November , as the lengthy strike in the Preston cotton trade showed no sign of collapse.¹ That cele- brated dispute exposed the extent of collective activity and organization among both masters and operatives, and challenged many prevailing assumptions about economic and social behaviour. It also posed a practical, and growing problem for legislators: how, in an age which sought to apply ‘liberal’ principles to issues of government, a viable legal framework could be created for trade unions and strikes. Many of the difficulties which confronted the mid-Victorians—the need to balance individual and collective freedoms, and to reconcile the anti- competitive tendency of combination with the free working of markets— were not peculiar to their age, and became a feature common to Western industrial societies.² In Britain, during the two centuries since the enact- ment of statutes forbidding combinations ( and ), each attempted legislative settlement was challenged and either renegotiated (), re- asserted (), or sometimes (as in or in the period after ) over- turned. Yet the confidence of those politicians, such as Disraeli, who in the mid-s congratulated themselves on having resolved the legal conflict between capital and labour was not entirely misplaced. Admittedly, within a generation of their passage, the statutes of , , and , whose making is the subject of

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