Mr. Bright made a great speech to the Rochdale Workman's
Club on Tuesday, in which he first panegyrised the principle of these clubs, which provide amusement and refreshment without affording any dangerous temptation to drink, and spoke highly of Mr. Chamberlain's proposal for introducing the Gothenburg ex- periment of obtaining a municipal monopoly in intoxicating liquors, into Birmingham ; and next dilated on the enormous social and moral advantages to the nation which free-trade had introduced, comparing the condition of the working-class before the repeal of the Corn Laws with its condition now. The speech was instruc- tive to those for whom it was meant, but perhaps a little dull to those to whom the facts are familiar ; but Mr. Bright's indirect object was to persuade the working-men that the interference of their Trades'-Unions with the rate of wages is often most mis- chievous to themselves. He remarked on the great increase in wages of domestic servants, and said that this, which had taken place without any combination, showed how the wages of all kinds of labour must have risen without strikes or menaces of strikes,—which is doubtless true. But then, we suspect, it might fairly be replied (1) that the average wages of domestic servants, owing to the want of combination, have not risen nearly as nzych in the same time as the wages of artisans ; and (2) that they have not followed nearly as promptly the increasing demand. Unquestionably the Unions have done many silly things, and are often far too indisposed to believe in the statements of the em- ployers; but unquestionably also, when they are prudently guided, they give their adherents the benefit of every favourable economical circumstance long before an unorganised class could reap that benefit.
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