The seventh annual Congress of the Trades' Unions was opened
in Liverpool on Monday, the 18th inst. The delegates denounced the Judges' interpretation of the Law of Conspiracy in very strong terms, and would, perhaps, have aocepted a proposal to prosecute the masters who combined for the lock-out in South Wales, in order to try the law, but for the determined resistance of Mr. Macdonald, Mr. Burt, and Mr. Halliday, who argued that such a measure, besides being impolitic, would be unjust, as they ought not to use a law against which they were protesting. The resolve not to prosecute was found to be nearly unanimous, and Mr. Odger, who had made the proposal, withdrew it. The prizes for the best essays on Trades Unions were distributed, and the second one (£20) fell to Mr. John Wilson, grinder, of Sheffield, a determined opponent of Unionism. He had, however, defended Unions probably to prove that he understood that side of the question. The delegates were very angry and some of them hissed, but they agreed, in a spirit of justice we are glad to recognise, that Mr. Wilson was entitled to his prize.
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