crepancy is even more apparent than in other trades, from the impossibility of subjecting the work done to any effective supervision, and Mr. Briggs pointed out in his original address to his workmen, three ways in which a little additional thought on the part of every man employed might effect a saving of upwards of 3,000l. a-year. It will be at once evident how powerful a motive to diligent labour is introduced by proprietors who can honestly say to their men, We have endeavoured to make your real interest so identical with our own that every man who by neglect or carelessness wastes the property of the company is reducing the amount available for bonus on the general earnings.' Such a consciousness, more than anything else, will make men careful themselves, and watchful over their fellows."

V.-A Trade Society.

As an example of a successful organisation, in course apparently of further and rapid development, the account of one year's proceedings of the Friendly Operative Carpenters' and Joiners' Society will be read with interest. The statement is taken from the Manchester Guardian of the 20th November:

"It is somewhat of a novelty for trade unions to publish elaborate and detailed reports of their proceedings. Such a report has just been issued by the society named above, for the year ending August, 1866. The financial statement, which occupies the greater part of a pamphlet of a hundred pages, is preceded by a preface signed by Robert Last, the general secretary, of which the following are the principal portions:-The union now numbers 140 lodges, comprising 9,490 members, being an increase for the year of 40 lodges and 2,504 members; a condition which must be exceedingly gratifying to the members at large; and rendered still more cheering by the fact that we have recently succeeded, for the first time, in planting our standard in our sister isle, a lodge having been opened in the important commercial city of Belfast; and that there is a very fair prospect of an early extension of our union to the land of Burns. Five additional lodges have been opened in the British metropolis during the year, as also one in each of the following towns:-Tipton, Widnes, Warwick, Workington, Bootle (near Liverpool), Cirencester, Frome, Elland, Buxton, Bilston, Worcester, Wells, Rugby, Prestwich, New Mills, Ramsgate, Barnsley, Great Grimsby, Withington, Liverpool, Newark, Merthyr Tydvil, Holborn Hill (Cumberland), Weston-super-Mare, Earlestown, Askham-in-Furness, Oystermouth, Birmingham, Stratford-on-Avon, Abergavenny, Cardiff, Belfast, Mansfield, Newton Heath, and Brecon. The total expenditure of the society during the last twelve months has been 6,577l., independent of large sums voluntarily distributed by the several lodges irrespective of legitimate support. Out of this large sum 2,0777. has been expended on strikes; the principal items being, Carlisle, 5734; Preston, 1,0737.; Gloucester, 617.; Dudley, 25.; Leicester, 277.; Keighley, 397; Barrow-in-Furness, 297.; Birmingham, 387.; Bristol, 30l.; Nottingham, 461.; Derby, 14.; Oldham, 127.; Liverpool, 227.; Warrington, 197. The remainder included expenditure in connection with local disputes of minor importance, in addition to the sum of 217. for travelling members leaving their homes whilst strikes were pending. I much regret that we have not yet arrived at that happy era when strikes shall become things of the past. But, notwithstanding all the plausible theories that have been launched by well-meaning social economists, and the earnest protests and counsels addressed to the operative class, the fact, to my mind, remains clear, that until some intelligible, practicable scheme has been introduced whereby trade differences, when pushed to an extreme, can be satisfactorily adjusted, we have no alternative but to avail ourselves of the policy which has previously enabled us to vindicate our claims and preserve our rights; hoping that the time is not far distant when the combined intelligence of all concerned shall have devised a mode of

procedure that shall happily supersede the kind of warfare of which strikes are the climax. Heavy as our expenditure has been on strike account, in no former year have so many towns obtained advantages; and I am glad to say that not a single instance has occurred of those advantages being solicited in which every effort has not been made to bring about an amicable settlement before adopting the only remaining resource; and it is pleasing also to observe that the conduct of the operatives on strike (on which so much depends in our efforts to secure the good opinion of the public) has, on the whole, been most exemplary. The following are the advantages referred to:-Burnley has obtained an advance of 28. per week; Dudley, 18., and a further advance of 18. to take place in January next; Barrow, 28.; Merthyr Tydfil, 18.; Carlisle, 38.; Preston, 28.; Manchester, Salford, and vicinities, 18. advance, and another advance of 18. and the reduction of an hour in time, to come into operation in March; London, 28. 8d. per week advance; Runcorn, 18.; Leicester, 4s.; Southport, half-an-hour reduction in the weekly working time and 38. advance in wages; Blackpool, 28. per week; Warrington, 28.; Frome, 28. and half an hour reduction in the weekly working time; Sheffield, the Saturday halfholiday; Macclesfield, 38. advance; Rosendale 28. and two hours less; Wolverhampton, two hours, and a trifling advance in wages; Northwich, the half-holiday on Saturdays; Chorley, 28.; Chesterfield, 38.; Birmingham, an advance of 4d. per hour, and one hour less time; Swansea, 38. per week, and a reduction of two hours during nine months of the year, and four hours and a-half for the remaining three months; Keighley, 28. per week, and a reduction of three hours and a-half; Cheltenham, 38. and two hours less; Ulverstone, 2s. and one hour per week; Bolton, 28.; Retford, 1s. advance; Leigh, 28. additional; Kendal, Saturday Lalfholiday; Derby, 2s. more during the winter months, and two hours and a-half less the year round; Eccles, 2s. weekly; Redditch, one hour less weekly and 18. advance; Neath, 38. and three hours less time; Wigan, 28.; Gloucester, 38. and one hour less time; Hull, 28.; Dewsbury, a weekly reduction of five hours; Elland five hours less; Atherstone, four hours and a-half; Bath, 38.; Oldham, 28.; St. Helens, 2s.; Padiham, 28.; Liverpool and environs, 38. per week; Canterbury, 38.; Lancaster, two hours reduction; Shrewsbury, 28.; Nottingham, three hours and a-half reduction; Bridgwater, 38. and one hour reduction; and Newport, 38. and two hours and a-half less in weekly working hours. It will be observed that fifty-one different towns have secured various privileges during the year. During the year 4927. has been disbursed to members out of employment; for tools burnt, 1197.; for tools purloined, 657.; for accident donations, 200l.; funeral allowances for members, fifty-nine at 10l. each, 590l.; donations for thirty-eight members' wives, 1527. In addition to this expenditure, 1,9137. has been disbursed in the relief of those of our brethren who have been incapable of following their employment through ill health, being an excess of 8761. as compared with the amount expended last year on sick and superannuation benefits. In closing this somewhat brief sketch of the operations and progress of the union during the past financial year, I need scarcely further endeavour to urge the great fact to which they all unmistakably point, namely, that our organisation is daily increasing in strength, in prestige, and in popularity; daily becoming more powerful for good, more perfect and compact in all its working arrangements, and better adapted to serve the great end we have in view of maintaining our legitimate position in the industrial world, and securing what every honest Englishman, if he does justice to himself and his family, will unwaveringly and manfully strive to obtain—a fair day's wage for a fair day's work.'"

VI.-International Union for Strikes.

FROM the Manchester Guardian of the 16th November :

"The progress of the ironworkers' strike in the north has furnished a somewhat curious illustration of the policy which was advocated by the English delegates at

the congress of working men, held last September, at Geneva. It may be remembered that the representatives of British industry went to that conference prepared to enforce to the utmost the principle that union is strength, and to induce their continental brethren to join them in forming one gigantic association, under the authority of which strikes might be made to take effect universally throughout the western world. That was the dream which had fascinated the imagination of those who despatched the emissaries from this country, and a very intoxicating dream it undoubtedly is. The power of combinations has been abundantly exem plified in modern society. In various directions we have seen what great results may be accomplished by the collection of very small contributions from myriads of subscribers, and the thirty centimes, or annual threepence, which was fixed as the quota to be paid by members of the new international union, might easily produce a revenue not to be despised by any Chancellor of the Exchequer in Europe. In fact we are told that the institutors of the movement have been more than satisfied with the progress made since its beginning at the London Exhibition of 1862, in which time 160,000 names have been inscribed upon the lists of the association, in France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, and Switzerland. Of course, if the founders are content, no one else has any business to be critical. But, as we have said, the English theory of union, and especially of union in strikes, is even now receiving singular illustration from the proceedings of the ironworkers. That powerful body of operatives has recently had rather severe experience of the evils of divided counsels. Nor is it at all extraordinary that the two executives which ruled in the trade should occasionally differ respecting the expediency of a particular strike, so that the Staffordshire men might at one time find lukewarm support in the north, while at another the workpeople on the Tyne and the Tees might be feebly backed at Wednesbury and Brierley Hill. Against this source of weakness a union of the whole trade would seem to be the rendiest and surest remedy, and an attempt to put it in force has accordingly been made. But the experiment appears to have broken down almost as soon as it was begun. The seeming willingness of the executives to combine was at once frustrated by the opposition of their constituents. A report we published on Monday showed that the projected amalgamation, instead of bringing additional assistance to the men now out of work in the north, has practically resulted in stopping the supplies.

"This effect, which should not be regarded as accidental, is of ill omen for the magnificent visions which dazzled some of the delegates who went to Geneva. In truth, as we observed at the time, the English members of the congress were doomed to disappointment in propounding their favourite nostrum of universal strikes. In an article on the proceedings in the current number of the Revue des Deux Mondes, M. Louis Reybaud points out some other differences of opinion which are scarcely less significant. The French delegates, in settling the qualification for seats in the council, were particularly anxious to exclude all who were not themselves bona fide working men, actually employed in manual labour. It was the only way, they said, to prevent the introduction of mere advocates; and, without intending any animosity towards other classes, they held that the interests of labour could not be safely confided to any persons who were not labourers themselves. But their proposal met with an obstinate resistance from the representatives of England and Switzerland, and the former declared emphatically that if they consented to it, they would be immediately disowned by their constituents in London. It was impossible, they urged, for them to forget the services they had received from men whose only labour was that of the mind. A warm discussion appears to have ensued, but ultimately the French proposal was negatived by twenty-five votes to twenty, and so the members of the Association are left free to choose their representatives from what rank of society they please. The decision can scarcely be held favourable to the cause of peace, but the course taken by the English delegates was an almost necessary consequence of that pursued in the unions at home. Our working men seem never to apprehend that there can be any risk in confiding their cause to persons whose interests are not identical with their own. Nor are we disposed to quarrel with what is, at all events, a generous error. Still, the fact

remains that the part of a counsellor or an advocate is in these matters essentially different from that of the actors and sufferers, and that the latter are liable to be severely prejudiced by confounding the two. There is only too much reason to believe that not a few strikes in this country have been wastefully prolonged by the influence of persons totally unconnected with the trade affected. An executive council is inevitably tempted to supply some ostensible reasons for its own existence, and this temptation will more especially beset members who do not experience in their own persons the effect of its decrees. We suspect that the instinet of the French delegates at Geneva led them to a sound conclusion, but we are not surprised that their proposition found no favour with representatives accustomed to exercise influence in our English unions. If the international association fulfils the hopes of its founders, a seat in its executive council will be an object of no inconsiderable ambition.

"The conference at Geneva was troubled by another question, which seems to have been dismissed as almost insoluble. This was, What is to be done with the women and children? Society unfortunately cannot very well get on, in any rank, without women and children; and they are becoming more and more an obstacle to the successful organisation of labour. Women, it seems, are everywhere intruding into the employments of men; and, as they are often willing to work for less wages, they more or less curtail the power of the unions over the rate of pay. The question was met in a characteristic manner. Not a word was said that would imply the existence of any rivalry, but much breath was spent in deploring the sufferings and demoralisation of the unhappy work women-evils, it was said, which required that women should be excluded from all manufactures, either by a direct law, or by the agency of the police. In vain did a timid opponent suggest that to forbid a woman to work was in many cases to condemn her to starve, and that, if factories were little favourable to morality, idleness combined with misery was still less so. The conference cut short all argument by proscribing all female labour of the kind, and, as M. Reybaud observes, without pretending to say how the women are to live. But, in fact, the key to this and other chimerical proposals may be found in the theories which evidently prevailed among the delegates, and which are simply those of Owen and Proudhon, stripped of some of their more revolting features. The main object at which the conference resolved to aim is a general reduction of the time of labour to eight hours a-day, a result which supposes so many other changes contemporaneous with itself that it seems needless to consider how far the world would suffer by the diminution of production which is dreaded by M. Reybaud, or whether the additional leisure would, as he also fears, be fatal to the workman's habits of frugality. The French critic points out that the international union will find but a very limited sphere of operations on the continent. Among the lessons which our English operatives are likely to learn among their foreign allies, not the least profitable may be a knowledge of the superior liberty which they enjoy at home for prosecuting their own objects, although the laws are made by the classes whom they habitually suspect."

VII.-The "Statistical Committee" of Lloyd's.

A FEW years since the shipping casualties reported in the Register of Lloyd's were tabulated and published in Lloyd's List. The statistic represented, so far as known, the disasters of the maritime navies of the world for the six years ended with 1859. These tables attracted the attention of Mr. Henry Jeula, a member of Lloyd's, who from this source

compiled the statistics of shipping casualties which have, from time to time since June, 1863, appeared in the Journal.

Further consideration only deepened the conviction of the importance of a systematic arrangement and publication of maritime casualties. Hoping to awaken interest in the subject in other minds, Mr. Jeula extracted from Lloyd's List for 1864, the wrecks and casualties reported during each month of that year, arranging them under different heads, and in geographical divisions. These tables appeared in the Statistical Journal for September and December, 1865. Early in the present year, Mr. Jeula addressed a letter to the committee of Lloyd's, suggesting that some definite means should be adopted by which the information obtained by them, at very considerable cost, should be digested, tabulated, and published regularly.

This suggestion led to the appointment of the "Statistical Committee," who have an office on the establishment, and to whom the services of a clerk have been assigned.

On the 1st of May last, the committee commenced their work, and have since arranged a Register of Losses," of a very comprehensive character. They are endeavouring to gather all available intelligence relating to maritime disasters, as reported in Lloyd's List, which was published on the 11th October. The first extended table contained the wrecks and casualties reported from 1st January to 30th June, 1866. It is understood that the committee are now engaged upon a scheme for arranging the statistics in geographical divisions. A registrar of casualties upon this principle, if carefully kept up, will doubtless become, in the course of a few years, of great interest and value. Previous to the appointment of this committee there had not been any opportunity of readily comparing the increase or decrease of specific casualties, such as collision, abandonment, &c., beyond the very narrow limits of our own coasts.

The names of the gentlemen who form the Statistical Committee of Lloyd's are

William Wilson Saunders, Esq., F.R.S.;

Charles Leathley, Esq.; and

Henry Jeula, Esq., F.S.S.

To this committee the public are indebted for an important extension in the field of statistical research. An analysis, prepared by Mr. Jeula, of the reported wrecks and casualties for the first quarter of the present year, will be found at pp. 606, et seq.