those who employ them; but until the majority of our working men of the south become very different from what they now are, greatly wiser and greatly better, there will be more lost than gained by their combinations.""

In this last sentence, Hugh Miller, with his usual sagacity, lays his finger on the true desideratum for the successful operation of combinations. The men must become wiser and better: wiser, so as to judge more correctly on what occasions there is just and good ground for making a stand; and better, that when the stand is made, it may be maintained in a Christian spirit. Let these conditions be fulfilled, and trades'-unions will work for good. It is gratifying to know that many of the most intelligent friends of trades'-unions are themselves impressed with this conviction. The committee of the Social Science Association dwell with pleasure on the obvious and earnest desire now apparent to avoid or mitigate the moral evils hitherto attendant on the quarrels between masters and men. The United Joiners of Glasgow urge that full publicity should be given to all the proceedings of trades'-unions, and reporters should be present at the monthly and quarterly meetings. They propose also, that all trades should have a court of arbitration, for the settlement of dis

G

putes likely to arise between employers and employed, so as to avoid the barbarous remedy of a strike, and the frightful amount of misery that follows in its train. The advancing influence of Christianity seems to be fast placing the strike in the same category among trades as war among nations,— a last and frightful remedy, not to be thought of till all peaceful methods of adjusting quarrels have been exhausted, and patience and forbearance have reached. their utmost limit.

From the stormy and troubled waters of combinations and strikes, we make our escape with pleasure to a calmer region and a clearer sky. Another mode of improving the resources of workmen is coming every day into more and more notice, the plan, we mean, of CO-OPERATION. Perhaps the best way of introducing this subject, and showing its bearing upon the condition of working people, is to give a brief account of its actual history, since it came into operation at Rochdale, in Lancashire, nearly twenty years ago.

In 1844, a society of working men in Rochdale set up a small store for the sale of provisions and clothing, on the principle of being at once buyers and sellers, and thereby securing to themselves the profit usually derived from the wholesale purchase,

and the retail sale of these articles.

So small was

the stock which they could secure at first, that its whole value was but £28, and a shopkeeper of the town sneeringly remarked that he could carry it all off in a wheel-barrow. It was agreed that the whole business of the concern should be transacted for ready money only, both in buying and in selling; and on the determined adherence of the partners to this rule, which at first was far from popular, but whose excellence has been fully established, the success of the undertaking has been mainly owing. The number of members at the beginning was but 28. It has gradually increased, and in 1860 it was no less than 3360. Each member at first took a £1 share, which he was allowed to pay up by weekly instalments. Members are now allowed to hold £200 of stock, but whatever be the number of their shares, they receive interest on them at five per cent. When members purchase goods, they pay, as has been said, in ready money. Corresponding to the amount of money paid, they receive tin tickets, marked with the sums, as vouchers of the payment, and when the profits are divided at the end of each quarter, they receive a share corresponding to the amount which the tin tickets show that they have purchased. To large purchasers this share of profits is very considerable; and as those whose families are large are

the largest buyers, these also receive the largest share of profits.

As a Lancashire man puts it—

"The more we eat

The more we geet;"

a glorious consolation to the fathers of big families. To Rochdale, and not to the "far West,"

we may go

"Where children are blessings, and he who hath most,

Has aid to his fortune, and riches to boast;
Where a man is a man, if he 's willing to strive,

The humblest may share in the fruits of this hive."

This society has had a career of amazing prosperity, and the members have been very greatly benefited. Not only have they obtained for their money a much larger share of the necessaries of life than they could have secured by the ordinary mode of purchase, but in consequence of the rigid adherence to the system of ready-money payments, they have acquired habits of forethought and management which are of the utmost value. The society appropriates a portion of its profits to the maintenance of a library and reading-room for the use of its members. It has given donations to the Dispensary, the Deaf and Dumb and Blind Asylums, and to the Manchester Infirmary, and has presented a handsome drinking fountain to the town of Rochdale. It has also contributed largely for relieving the distress in the dis

trict. Its operations are now on a very large scale, so much so, that over the counters, its stores, in 1860, took, on an average, nearly £3400 a week.

The "Equitable Pioneers" (as this society called itself) has pioneered to some purpose. It has become a fruitful mother of children. The accumulated investments of its members increased beyond the need of the society itself, and it became necessary to consider how the surplus capital was to be used. The idea of starting a flour-mill occurred to some of the members. The idea was carried out. This was assuming a new character; it was entering into business as capitalists, and depending not on themselves as hitherto, but on the public as their customers. The difficulties encountered in this new speculation were very considerable. But they were overcome, and the undertaking became so successful, that, in 1859, the amount of funds invested was £18,236; the business done, £85,845; and the profits, £6115.

Another stage of the co-operative movement was the establishment of a co-operative cotton-factory. This branch of their undertaking has also gone on successfully, although they have been obliged to relax a little their rule as to exacting cash-payments from the purchasers of their yarns. The building and its contents have cost no less than £40,000. It