The Luxembourg commission was composed of representatives elected by workmen and masters, three for each industry. The representatives met in a general assembly to discuss the reports prepared by a permanent committee of ten workers and an equal number of masters, to which Louis Blanc had added a few Liberal economists and socialists, such as Le Play, Dupont-White, Wolowski, Considérant, Pecqueur, and Vidal. Proudhon was also invited, but refused to join. As a matter of fact, only the workers took part in the sittings. The commission, although it possessed no executive power, might have been of some service. But Louis Blanc, as he himself confessed, regarded it as “a golden opportunity where socialism had at its disposal a tribunal from which it could address the whole of Europe.”[657] He still kept up his _rôle_ of orator and writer, and devoted most of the sittings to an eloquent appeal for the theories already outlined in his _Organisation of Labour_.[658] Vidal and Pecqueur undertook the task of elaborating the more definite proposals. In a lengthy report which appeared in the _Moniteur_[659] they outlined a plan of State Socialism, with workshops and agricultural colonies, with State depots and bazaars as places of sale. Money in the form of warrants was to be borrowed on the security of goods, and a State system of insurance—excepting life policies—was to be established. Finally, the Bank of France was to be transformed into a State bank. This was to extend the operation of credit, and to reduce the rate of discount simply to insurance against risk. Vidal and not Pecqueur is obviously the author of the report, for it contains some of the projects that had already appeared in his book _De la Répartition des Richesses_. None of the projects was even discussed by the National Assembly. The only positive piece of work accomplished by Louis Blanc’s commission was done under pressure from the workmen. This was the famous decree of March 2, abolishing piece-work and reducing the working day to ten hours in Paris and eleven hours in the provinces. This decree, though it was never put into operation, marks the first rudiments of French labour legislation. Louis Blanc was forced to grant it because the working-class element on the commission refused to take part in its proceedings until they were satisfied on this point. The commission must also be credited with several successful attempts at conciliation.