We have noticed elsewhere the substantial complaints alleged by the
Trades Unionists, who made their demonstration in Hyde Park on Whit Monday, against the Criminal Law Amendment Act, the Master and Servants' Act, &c. The demonstration is said to have numbered about 50,000 people, and the procession to have extended a mile and a half, the people walking four abreast. The speaking was not very elaborate and not very wise, Mr. Odger, for instance, committing himself to the very erroneous statement that " recent legislation had left the working- men in a worse position than any in which they had ever been before," which so far as it is true at all—and that is not very far
-is the result of a legislative miscarriage, for unquestionably the repeal of the Combination law and the substitution of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, was proposed by the repre- sentatives of working-men, and devised for their good. The address put forth by the Trades' Unionists dwelt on the vast benefits con- ferred by Unions on the working-classes, on their tendency to
secure law and order, as well as industrial independence and self-reliance. The Gas Stokers' case and the Chipping-Norton case were, of course, the main subjects of not unnatural or unjustifiable denunciation ; but though the words were strong and often foolish, the whole demonstration was conducted in the most orderly and temperate manner. The weakness of the demonstrationists was " banners." In some parts of the proces- sion almost every man carried a banner. And while this is the case, we may be pretty sure that the outside of the show is almost as important as the inside,—that the interior steam is not likely to cause an explosion. Nevertheless, the mischief must be remedied.
