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supplied the workman with a shield that was proof against the fiery darts of avarice and exploitation. Religion built him a sanctuary where labour was honoured, where his person was respected, but where he was taught that man does not live by bread alone.

A just estimate of the revolution and progression of human motive in the past is everything to history. It is the same where the study of institutions is concerned; and efforts thereto are crowned by success only when an impartial survey is made of their origin, the conditions under which they flourished, due account being taken of attitudes that were hostile to them, and transformations which turned them from their original intention or brought about their ruin. All this applies to our besetting problem, the relations of Labour and Capital.

This very same labour problem is not of yesterday, neither did it make its first appearance in the Middle Ages; it appeared in the days when Roman rule was supreme, yea, even before that time. It was a nightmare to the aristocracy in the days of the Empire; it absorbed the attention of generals and dictators, more than did victories or defeats, in the days of the Monarchy and Republic. Since the word 'property,' or its equivalent, has been pronounced, the ruin which democracy seems to threaten to-day was not far removed from the minds of those who enjoyed capital or property. What is human must fluctuate; the line of supposed progress is that of a curve, now attaining altitudes, again returning to the plane from which it rose. Centuries ago the labour question was acute. Solutions for the alleviation of the labourer were adopted under Roman rule, but became submerged in time; the problem again appeared, a boisterous era intervened, a remedy was found, to be overthrown again in time. And so the wheel is come full circle' again to-day; but, strange! to form a trade union, to become syndicated, is a special kind of crime; it is a daring menace on the part of the proletariate. Why should this be? Labour was better knit and more intimately organized in the days when Rome was mistress of the world and in the Middle Ages than it is to-day. Symptoms of degeneracy are round about us, the progress of decay is a gnawing reality. Union is strength. Organizations have their terrors for tyrants and rulers. 'Interciderat sortis humanae commercium vi metus.' Household enemies were a constant

menace to those who guided the destinies of Rome. In the days of the Republic and in the early period of the Empire, the workmen's corporations, collegia as they were called, were suspected, and in some cases dissolved. Cæsar and Augustus particularly dreaded these reunions because of the seditions, real or imaginary, attributed to them. Under these rulers liberty ceased to exist, the Senate lost its power, the Forum was abandoned. This is not dissimilar to the attitude of English monarchs and the spirit of English law, from the days of Edward I to those of George IV, towards labour unions.

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Notwithstanding prohibitions liberty will assert itself: emancipation must follow in the wake of enlightenment and humanity. Mr. Belloc says: The doctrine of human equality was inherent in the very stuff of antiquity, as it is inherent in those societies which have not lost tradition.' Strabo tells us that Rome taught humanity to man.' Indeed, the most striking feature of that servile basis upon which Paganism reposed,' says Mr. Belloc, 'was the humane equality recognized between master and slave. The master might kill the slave, but both were of one race, and each was human to the other.' The slave was, in a sense, a chattel, but he could be redeemed. As a unit he had a tolerably bearable life, unless adverse circumstances played against him pitilessly, which, after all, was only rarely. The Cato type of landlord, in reality a model slave-driver, we would fain believe was the exception. The number of slaves in proportion to the rest of the population-in Rome they were probably two to one -had a deterrent effect on masters, for if the slaves got out of hand, and recognized their power it might be said, delenda est Roma. So many slaves, so many foes' would then be a reality. But Virgil tutored Rome in her duty, which was to spare the prostrate and humble the proudthe Magnificat of Paganism-Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento-hae tibi erunt artes-pacisque imponere morem, parcere subjectis et debellare superbos.'

Nature has dictated association' as a means of safeguarding the human race. Thereby strength is acquired, means are provided for living in greater security, enjoying tranquillity and happiness, while facilities which are conducive to well-being are at hand. This is recognized to-day, as it was in the Middle Ages; but the semi-cultured Kelt, the untutored Teuton, as well as the more civilized Roman,

centuries before, availed themselves of its beneficent services. In Roman days, restrictions were placed on 'associations': they were sometimes suppressed, but in all cases by authority, because of a real or imaginary abuse. An association can become a very perfect machine of tyranny; it can intrigue more efficiently because of its diversified ramifications; it can become a menace to liberty and to State authority. In Rome, where rule was more or less a tyranny and where the notion of fear was never absent from the ruling mind, great caution was exercised with associations. The slaves, because of their number, were a menace, though their relations with their owners were mostly free and authority was scarcely felt. Rival policies had their organized advocates. Demagogues, with less idealism and single-mindedness than Robespierre, ever intrigued amongst the lower classes. Hence a purple halo of dread was the setting in which the ruling brow reclined. Heated invective soon became a dagger-blade, and the assassin was ever ready to ply his art. Thus fell Julius Cæsar, the greatest man of all this world.'

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It was at a time when very little toleration was shown in Rome to associations that Christianity sought a refuge there. Christians, as a sect, a collegium, throve and survived not only the menaces of association but what, in modern language, would be called intolerance and bigotry. It was sheltered under the cloak of Judaism, which had a legal status. Among the Jewish hucksters, costers, and hawkers, in a kind of primitive ghetto, the cradle of Christianity was set in Rome. The infant Church waxed strong and powerful, as Moses did, though he was cast among the rushes. Christians had their meetings; they broke bread daily; they lived a spiritual and social life, having all things in common; they buried their dead, and near their dead they built churches. And all this partly under the benign tolerance which was granted to the Jews, partly under that liberty which was extended to funerary associations, which were treated with such leniency when others were suspect. The funeral banquet amongst Christians, a form of the agape, was a memorial service, which embraced the celebration of Mass and the distribution of the Holy Communion. The Eucharistic supper was funerary in the conditions in which it occurred, with a view to evading the law, though this was possibly a source of the abuses which St. Paul condemned when

writing to the Corinthians. At these reunions contributions were paid to a common fund, alms were distributed, the needy were helped, a spirit of brotherhood prevailed, the strength which comes from association was fostered. Abstracting from the divine element, is not that all that we expect from societies established for mutual help? There was union in life coupled with sympathy and unforgetfulness in death.

The first associations of which we read in ancient history were those religious ones which were called sodalities. They were presided over by a flamen, who offered sacrifice, and saw that the victim was distributed to the assistants at the banquet which immediately followed. In this assembly there were present those who were actuated by the same spiritual desires and had kindred interests, with the result that a feeling of strength and mutual support was fostered by the reunions. This spiritual element was maintained as an important factor in all the collegia, or Guilds, which existed throughout Roman rule; but what was first established as a purely religious association became transformed in the course of time, without shedding the spiritual, and embraced larger and material interests. The first Trade Guilds of which we have what may be considered historical certitude were those which were established by Numa Pompilius. He had the workmen distributed into nine Guilds, the names of which are recorded. They were those of pipers, carpenters, goldsmiths, tanners, leather-workers, dyers, potters, smiths, and another in which all the remaining trades were united-these were mostly unskilled workmen. These Guilds were established to secure a dilution of the different races which were unwilling to consort. Securing them an interest in their work and trade by means of the collegia, which had aspects at once utilitarian, social, and religious, different races soon forgot whether they were Etruscans, Romans, or Sabines. These trade unions secured their object, and the deadly peril of dissension was made remote.

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As time elapsed and the collegia strengthened, certain restrictions, which generally regarded sedition, were forced by law on the meetings which were held by the crafts. While the Republic flourished the collegia multiplied, and an air of contentment and well-being emanated from them. The autonomy which was theirs satisfied the craftsmen, while their interests were secure in the solidarity

which a common aim and silent or manifest strength, as the issue required, effected. Thus the labourer was not always chained to his bench. There were hours outside his work which were golden with opportunity and inspiration. Principal amongst these were those he spent in the collegium, for there he was laying the foundation of the superstructure which brought about in time his complete emancipation.

External things do not produce ideas, they only reveal them. From the formation of the craft-associations there is revealed the power of the semi-barbaric mind to grapple with problems and find a solution which suited the temper of the age, a solution which, if copied and adjusted to modern times, might relax the tension that exists to-day between Capital and Labour, between employer and employee, between government and proletariate. Such was Nature's balsam for lubricating the machinery of production and supply. The balance between the masses and the classes stands badly adjusted, and in the minds of many but a thin partition cuts us off from riot and revolution. The hammer of Thor may have saved us, for he has certainly encouraged us to put our house in order and close up the ranks. But what of the future? Shall we have reaction, compromise, or furious disorder? The bankruptcy of futile prophesy calls a halt in those speculative spheres.

Unfortunately for the collegia, they drifted in the seventh century A.U.C. from the object for which they were established. They became political sects that plotted and intrigued; they roused the populace against their governors. Now it was the Senate that was the object of their venom; then it was some military dictator. The Guilds were little better than lodges from which the mot d'ordre went forth to trusted henchmen for execution. Suspicion fell on the associations; spies were to be found in them; in some cases members were deprived of the franchise, and property which belonged to the Guilds was confiscated. The next step was taken in the days of the Cæsars, when the more dangerous of the colleges were dissolved, and the right of association denied without special licence. This was not easily granted, for rulers feared that portion of the population which was estranged from land or property, and which was made up of the humbler class generally, freedmen, labourers, and slaves. 'Pavor internus occupaverat

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