his contracts without apprehension, and execute them without delay, and the rights of workmen have been jealously looked after and strictly preserved; whereas in neighbouring counties, and throughout the country, a chronic warfare has existed betwixt labour and capital, to the great injury of both, owing to the want of some court commanding alike the confidence of employers and employed.

The economic and legal bearings of trade unions and strikes are of the highest importance, and they have been the fertile subjects of discussion of late. Any plan therefore which may be suggested, having for its object to prevent the resort to such a fatal issue, deserves the greatest consideration. Much interest will, doubtless, attach to the inquiry now instituted by the Royal Commission. Let us hope that the valuable information it may collect, and the mature judgment which they may form, may tend to remove any prejudice which may have been introduced on a question evidently so difficult and delicate, and have the effect of restoring the necessary harmony and co-operation between the employers and employed, without which the work of production is seriously hindered and endangered.

LETTER FROM M. T. BASS, Esq.

101, Eaton Square,

DEAR SIR,

25th April, 1866.

THE recent great advance in the rates of wages and the increasing influence of the working classes have suggested the question, what may be the total amount of their annual income. Mr. Gladstone, in his speech at Liverpool a few weeks since, placed it at about £250,000,000, while I had formed. an opinion, based on personal investigation, that the amount must be much greater.

Having been asked in the House of Commons upon what bases he gave his estimate, the Chancellor of the Exchequer replied that "he was not aware that there existed any positive information on the subject, but that the materials for arriving at it existed in the census enumeration of the occupation of the people in connection with the wages paid to the different classes of workmen."

I am persuaded that accurate information on the subject would be found of great interest and utility,

B

and having had communication upon it with Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Milner Gibson, I venture to solicit your co-operation in instituting a wide and methodical inquiry into the earnings of the working classes in the United Kingdom, in order that we may arrive at the closest practicable estimate of the aggregate amount, and be in a position to show the basis on which it is founded, with any other conditions congenial to the subject which our inquiry may develop.

I remain, very truly yours,

M. T. BASS.

LEONE LEVI, Esq., F.S.S.

In accordance with your instructions I have instituted a careful and searching inquiry into the earnings of the working classes of the United Kingdom, and I have now the honour to give you an estimate of such earnings, which I have obtained after extensive personal inquiry, and the use of the best and most trustworthy information within my reach.

concerning

worke: s.

I shall first state the sources of such information, Sources of and the principles I have adopted in pursuing the information inquiry. For the number of labourers employed number of in the different occupations I have taken the census of 1861, adding for the increase of population since that year six per cent. for England and Wales," the increase in the last decennium, 1851-61, having

(1) The estimated population in England and Wales in the middle of 1861 was 20,119,496, and in 1866, 21,210,020. Increase in four years 5.42 per cent.