in that of the smooth and bloodless uniformity of the mass.  Now, the Trade Unions are the most respectable and the most powerful element in the labour world.  They are the social bulwarks of our industrial system.  They are the necessary guard-rails of a highly competitive machine, and I have the right, as a member of his Majesty’s Government, to speak with good confidence to Trade Unionists, because we have done more for Trade Unionists than any other Government that has ever been.

How stands the case of the Trade Unionists?  Do they really believe, I put this question to them fairly—­do they really believe that there is no difference whatever between a Tory and a Liberal Government?  Do Trade Unionists desire the downfall of the existing Liberal Government?  Would they really like to send a message of encouragement to the House of Lords—­for that is what it comes to—­to reject and mutilate Liberal and Radical legislation—­and Labour legislation now before Parliament?  Would they send such a message of encouragement to the House of Lords as this—­“House of Lords, you were right in your estimate of public opinion when you denied the extension of the Provision of Meals to School Children Bill to Scotland, when you threw out the Scottish Land Valuation Bill, when you threw out the Scottish Small Holders Bill—­when you did all this you were right.”  Do you wish to send that message to the House of Lords?  But that will be the consequence of every vote subtracted from the Liberal majority.

Why, gentlemen, let me return to the general current of events.  What is the Government doing at present, and what has it done in its brief existence?  Within the limits under which it works, and under the present authority of the House of Lords, what has it done and what is it doing for Trade Unionists?  It has passed the Trades Disputes Act.  The Workmen’s Compensation Act has extended the benefits of compensation to six million persons not affected by previous legislation.  The qualification of Justices of the Peace—­the citizens’ Privy Councillorship, as I call it—­has been reduced so as to make it more easy for persons not possessed of this world’s goods to qualify to take their place on the civic Bench.  You know the land legislation for England, which is designed to secure that the suitable man who wants a small parcel of land to cultivate for his own profit and advantage shall not be prevented from obtaining it by feudal legislation, by old legal formalities or class prejudice.  And is the Licensing Bill not well worth a good blow struck, and struck now, while the iron is hot?  Then there is the Miners’ Eight Hours Bill, a measure that has been advocated by the miners for twenty years, and justified by the highest medical testimony on humanitarian and hygienic grounds.  It is costing us votes and supporters.  It is costing us by-elections, yet it is being driven through.  Have we not a right to claim the support of the Trade Unionists who are associated with the