the edict by which Louis XVI. suppressed the guilds and monopolies established by Colbert, the freedom of labour was asserted in these memorable words: 'Dieu, en donnant à l'homme des besoins, en lui rendant nécessaire la ressource du travail, a fait, du droit de travailler, la propriété de tout homme; et cette propriété est la première, la plus sacrée et la plus imprescriptible de toutes. 'Nous regardons comme un des premiers devoirs de notre justice d'affranchir nos sujets de toutes les atteintes portées à ce droit inaliénable de l'humanité qui éloignent l'émulation et l'industrie, et rendent inutiles les talents.' After the lapse of a century, the elaborate report of the latest French Commission on the Condition of the Working Classes concludes with a similar declaration. The unrestricted right to labour is proclaimed as the ground-work of industrial prosperity. No corporate body, under whatsoever plea, or by whatever name it may be designated, is entitled to deprive the individual workman of his freedom. 229 CHAPTER X. LABOUR STATISTICS. tion of the in times of Or the necessity for more perfect labour statistics I can Denuncia speak from experience, acquired in ten years of close workman study of that much-debated question, the relative depression. efficiency and economy of English and foreign labour. Whenever the trade of this country passes through a phase of depression, a disposition is evinced to impute the entire blame and responsibility for our commercial misfortunes to the British workman. It is said that he is deficient in technical knowledge, that he is illdisciplined, an idler, and a drunkard. These grave charges cannot be disposed of by mere assertion on either side. The impartial public will be reluctant to believe in the degeneracy of masses of the population. On the other hand, we do not wish our working-men to live in a fool's paradise, and to find themselves beaten in the international competition, in which they have so long been victorious, because they have not been made acquainted in due time with the industrial progress of foreign countries. In so far as it lies in the power of a private individual, I have endeavoured to bring together the best information on the subject, and to place it fairly before employers and employed. I have been a Compilabour sta lation of tistics left to dividuals in England, private in taken in foreign countries ment. humble labourer in the same field in which Mr. Mundella, Mr. Lowthian Bell, Mr. Newmarch, and others have shown the way. But the task is too extensive to be carried out by a private individual, and it is scarcely satisfactory that the greatest industrial nation in the world should rely on the desultory labours of a few independent inquirers, and on the facts and detailsadmirably collected and digested though they be-set forth in the 'Economist' and 'Statist.' Information on the relative efficiency of labour is of vital importance to the nation at large, and especially to that vast body of operatives whose livelihood depends on successful but under competition with foreigners. In France, and still more in the United States, the greatest pains are taken by by Govern- the Governments in the preparation of labour statistics. Mr. William Holms has directed public attention to the minute statistics, relating to wages in the various industries, prepared from time to time by the French authorities. I would support his suggestions by pointing to the still more comprehensive information collected and published by the Government of the United States. In 1876, Mr. Young, the chief of the Bureau of Statistics, produced an invaluable volume, of nearly 900 pages, on Labour in Europe and America. The book contained, according to the declaration on its title-page, a special report on the rates of wages, cost of subsistence, and condition of the working-classes in Great Britain and all the manufacturing countries of Europe. The relative position of the working-classes in America was minutely and impartially compared with that occupied by persons in the same sphere of ness of the employment abroad. The industrial capacity was investigated, as well as the material and moral condition of the people. It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of such a publication, issuing from a Government department having at its command resources, which cannot be within the reach of a private individual. If the United States Government find it worth their while to issue such a publication, it must be obvious that the subject is worth an effort on the part of this country, where a policy of free trade has been adopted, and where the industrial population has to contend against the industry of all nations-not, as in the United States, behind a high rampart of protection, but in the open field. Not only has the collection Completeof labour statistics been undertaken by the American inquiry in Government, but the several States of the Union have organised a bureau of statistics of labour, from which very valuable publications are annually issued. Massachusetts has led the way in this important work. The census of 1875 was most complete, not only in relation to population, but to all matters pertaining to wages, cost of material, value of products, running time of manufacture, classification of labour, hours employed, day and piece work. In the introduction to the volume of labour statistics, issued for 1877, Mr. Wright very truly says that the bureau under his superintendence cannot solve the labour question, for it is not solvable; but the State can provide materials for more satisfactory adjustments of the relations between labour and capital. Having shown what important improvements had been effected in these matters in Massachusetts by the America. Labour ment pro- instrumentality of his department, Mr. Wright makes some observations, which I strongly commend to the appreciation of Her Majesty's Government: These desirable results are attained, not by unhappy and unfortunate agitations, not by strikes and their consequent demoralising influences, but by all the contributions to the sum of the intelligence of the labourer and the capitalist; and any means which the legislature can adopt, which will add to the information of the people on subjects concerning their daily lives, are of untold value, and surely return to the Government a hundredfold. To popularise statistics, to put them before the masses in a way which shall attract, and yet not deceive, is a work every government, which cares for its future stability, should encourage and enlarge.' I urge this subject on the attention of the Government the more confidently, because I feel convinced that all that is necessary can be done with very little additional trouble to the various departments, whose co-operation would be necessary. Mr. Hunt would be responsible for the department of mining, Mr. Redgrave for the textile industries, the Commissioners of Customs for the foreign trade. These departments are already in possession of most of the information required; and it only remains to have that information collated, compared, digested, and presented in a compendious form, under the supervision of Mr. Giffen, in a few additional pages to the Statistical Abstract.' If the information already collected is incomplete, any questions which it may be thought necessary to address, either to foreign governments or |