directions, the law shall be known and understood, you will have to search attentively, and report to me the infractions which may be committed against these wise provisions. The multiplicity of our relations with the industrial population, the keeping of the register of the employers, the visa of the livrets, their usage as papers of surety, will be to you so many opportunities and means to exercise a control which ought not to permit any violation, if it is done with the perseverance which I expect from you.

After having excited your zeal and your ordinary devotion, I conclude, gentlemen, by making an appeal to your prudence. You have to make the application of delicate measures; some of them excite susceptibilities, which it is necessary to allay or avoid; others are new, and will permit, especially at first, a wise reserve; all require tact and moderation. I hope that under these circumstances you will know as usual how to ally, in a just measure, prudence to firmness, and that you will contribute powerfully to assure the success of a regulation which ought to be a new title for the government of the Emperor to the recognition of the country.

I beg you to acknowledge the receipt of this circular.
Receive, gentlemen, the assurance of my perfect consideration.

By the Prefect:

PIETRI,

The Prefect of Police.

A. DE LAULXURES,

The Secretary General.

APPENDIX H.

EVIDENCE GIVEN BY ABRAM S. HEWITT BEFORE THE TRADES UNION COMMISSION IN LONDON, IN 1867.

1, PARK PROSPECT, WESTMINSTER,

Tuesday, July 16, 1867.

Present: The Right Hon. Sir William Erle, the Right Hon. the Earl of Lichfield, Lord Elcho, M. P., Sir Daniel Gooch, Bart., M. P., Herman Merivale, esq., C. B., James Booth, esq., C. B., Thomas Hughes, esq., M. P., Frederic Harrison, esq., William Mathews, esq.

The Right Hon. Sir William Erle in the chair.

Mr. ABRAM S. HEWITT further examined.

By the CHAIRMAN:

Q. I think you propose to say something on the general conclusion at which you have arrived with reference to the subjects on which you have been examined here?-A. Yes; I propose to add, as the answer to a question which Mr. Mathews put to me, the conclusion which I intended to utter at the time, but which probably passed from my mind in consequence of some interruption. Mr. Mathews said to me, "Is there any other information with which you could furnish us which you think would be of use to this commission?" And my reply then was to this effect: "I am going back to America, and will then be very happy to collect the information and send it to the commissioners ;" and I stated then "It is not a question of master or workman, but of the public welfare." Now to that question I desire to add this conclusion: "The general conclusion at which I have arrived is that the effort to produce commodities at the lowest possible cost, in Europe generally, has led to the employment of juvenile and female labor to an extent and in a manner not consistent with the laws of humanity and the best interests of society; that the employment of this kind of labor has had the effect to reduce the standard of wages generally, and, instead of adding to the resources of the family, has simply secured the labor of the entire family for the wages which would otherwise have been paid to the head of the family, if he alone had worked for wages. This system is a leading argument against free trade in countries where the men only work out of the household, and generally tends to reduce the condition of the laboring classes all over the world. The restraining acts now in force in England with regard to the employment of children is a step in the right direction, and if other countries, such as Belgium, France, and Germany, could be induced to co-operate, the condition of the laboring classes in Europe could be greatly improved, although the cost of particular commodities

might be slightly increased. But the production of cheap goods may be secured at too great a sacrifice, if it be at the expense of the comfort and moral tone of the working classes; and this appears to be the point at which you have arrived in England, and against which there is an instinctive rebellion, both among the enlightened and the ignorant, manifesting itself among the latter in organizations at war with the fundamental principles of social order, such as trades union associations."

By Mr. MATHEWS:

Q. That is simply an extension of the answers, though embodying a little more matter, which you have given previously?-A. Yes, that is my idea.

By the EARL OF LICHFIELD:

Q. Are you aware whether trades unions have ever taken any steps to prevent the employment of children under a certain age?—A. I have no knowledge on that subject.

By the CHAIRMAN:

Q. I believe you have another matter which you desire to mention ?A. I desire to correct my testimony upon certain points. Itestified that the eight hours law had been passed by the legislature of the State of New York, but had been vetoed by the governor. I was so informed at the time that I gave the testimony, but within two days after the testimony had been given I received information from home that the governor had signed the bill; so that all that portion of my testimony which is in commendation of the governor for his firmness in resisting that law is out of place; he has actually signed the bill, and received the thanks of the working men for having done so. This is the form, therefore, in which my testimony ought to stand: "I am advised that the governor of the State of New York has signed the bill making eight hours a legal day's work in the State of New York, and that it is now a law."

By Mr. MERIVALE:

Q. You have no objection to its standing as your deliberate opinion that trades unions in themselves, whether conducted moderately or immoderately, are absolutely "at war with the fundamental principles of social order?”—A. I speak of trades unions as I understand them. I can imagine that trades unions for another purpose would not beat war with the fundamental principles of social order. I refer to trades unions that undertake to lay down the conditions upon which labor shall be bought and sold in the market.

By Mr. BOOTH:

Q. Is it your opinion that the eight-hour law will be acted upon in the State of New York?-A. I am now prepared to give some testimony on that subject. The passage of the eight-hour law in Illinois was followed by a general strike of the workmen in Chicago for eight hours' labor with ten hours' pay. That failed, as a matter of course, and they

have resumed work in Chicago at ten hours a day, or in some cases at eight hours a day with 20 per cent. deduction from the wages, making it an equivalent compensation for the time. In New York the workmen have not struck, but instead of that they held a convention in the city of Albany, which is the capital of the State, and in that convention, after a great deal of discussion, they resolved that after the 1st day of November next no member of a trades union would work more than eight hours per day for a day's labor, but that they would accept 20 per cent. deduction on the wages which they were receiving for ten hours; so that the question now is simply the question of working eight hours at an equivalent rate of wages to the rate received when they worked ten hours, and they have resolved to put that in force on the 1st day of November next.

Q. In what form does the act limit the day's labor to eight hours?A. It simply declares that, in the absence of any provision to the contrary, a legal day's labor shall be eight hours; so that if I contract with a man for a day's work at any given sum he is bound to give me eight hours' labor for that sum, and I am bound to accept eight hours for that sum; but there is nothing in the law to prevent a contract for more hours and a different rate of wages. I have brought with me the resolutions which were adopted by this convention. I do not know that the commission wish to hear them, but they are brief, and I brought them for the purpose of showing in what form these matters are coming up in our country. I testified before that I thought that trades unions had not reached so great a degree of development in America as here. I still think that in details they are less perfect, but I find now, on investigation, that every trade is organized into local trades unions, and that they have general conventions or assemblies which lay down the laws for the local unions; that in every one of the northern States these conventions exist, and that they have just now called a national convention to meet at Chicago in August next to organize a national labor party, with the intention, doubtless, that they shall run candidates for public office.

Q. When you say the trades unions are less perfect in America, do you mean that their control of the labor market is less effectual?-A. I think we have not felt it as you have felt it; my idea is that they have not reduced the thing to so perfect a system of watchfulness over the members; but I do think that the organization now pervades the whole of the northern States, and almost every branch of industry. Of course I have been getting information since I was last here on these points, and I find that the thing is much more perfect in America than I supposed at the time I gave my testimony.

By Mr. MATHEWS:

Q. Have you considered whether the ulterior object in demanding that eight hours shall be a day's work is to attempt by and by to get the same wages for eight hours as are now given for ten hours?-A. I have not the slightest doubt that that is the aim of the workingmen. They first

tried to get the same wages for eight hours as for ten hours. They failed in that, and now there is no doubt that, in establishing the eight hours, they look forward to having the same wages as they now have for ten hours.

Q. Eight hours is what you call in America the platform of labor?A. Yes.

Q. And eventually their object is to get the same wages for eight hours as previously they had for the longer time?-A. Yes. I should like to put these resolutions to which I have referred in testimony; and if you will allow me to read them, I think they will give you the best idea I can possibly give, from the workmen's mouths themselves, of the present state of opinion among them in the United States.

By Mr. BOOTH:

Q. They will show us what the workmen are, in fact, aiming at ?—A. Yes. This is the report of the committee, which report was adopted, I may say, by the convention: "Your committee, to whom was referred the all-important subject of good and welfare of this body;" this being a convention of the working men.

By the CHAIRMAN:

Q. Simply as workingmen, not as working builders only, for instance? -A. No; a convention of delegates representing the various local trades unions in the State of New York, so that it is practically a parliamentary body: "Whereas the legislature of the State of New York did, at its session, pass an act entitled the eight-hour labor act, making eight hours a day's work in the absence of any contract; and whereas it is only just and proper that the workingmen of our State should enjoy the benefits intended to be conferred by said act; and whereas our employers, as a body, have shown an unexpected hostility to the adoption of the eighthour system, even though we should concede a corresponding reduction of wages, and notwithstanding the fact that we have an eight-hour law, so called, have not enforced it, but still continue to work their employés as heretofore, and to cause the convicts in our prisons still to be worked ten hours: Therefore, Resolved, That wishing to do equal and exact justice to all men, and being extremely anxious to avoid all trouble or cause of disagreement between ourselves and our employers, we will insist upon no extreme measures, nor act in a manner calculated to entail loss upon those who employ labor. Resolved, That in order to give our employers ample time to fill all contracts predicated upon the present system of labor, we will not insist upon the adoption of the eight-hour system until the -, and that, commencing with that date, we will work eight hours for a day's work, at a reduction of twenty per cent. of the rate of wages then paid, and that all time worked over eight hours shall be paid for at the rate of time and a half time. Resolved, That whether we are successful or not in our present efforts to secure the hours of labor, we will still continue to advocate this reform, and, having full confidence in