[65] _Sheffield Iris_, August 7 and September 9, 1790. The Scissorsmiths’ Friendly Society, cited by Dr. Brentano, was established in April 1791. Other trade friendly societies in Sheffield appear to date from a much earlier period. [66] Sir J. A. Picton’s _Memorials of Liverpool_, 1875; _A Digest of the Evidence before the Committee on Artizans and Machinery_, by George White, 1824, p. 233; _Conflicts of Labour and Capital_, by G. Howell, 1890, pp. 82-3. [67] _Report of Committee on the Woollen Manufacture_, 1806, p. 16; see also _Conflicts of Labour and Capital_, by G. Howell, 1890. [68] See Chapter III. [69] In volume entitled _Tracts Relating to Trade_, in British Museum, 816, m. 13. Tankard-bearers were water carriers. [70] _Reasons against the designed leather impositions on gloves_, B.M. 816, m. 13. [71] We shall have occasion later to refer to the absence of effective Trade Unionism in those trades which are still carried on by small working masters. [72] The assumption frequently made that the Craft Gilds, at their best period, included practically the whole working population, appears to us unfounded. The gild system at no time extended to any but the skilled handicraftsmen, alongside of whom must always have worked a large number of unapprenticed labourers, who received less than half the wages of the craftsmen. We venture to suggest that it is doubtful whether the Craft Gilds at any time numbered as large a proportion of the working population as the Trade Unions of the present day. See _Industrial Democracy_, p. 480. [73] “Tumults,” or strikes, among the coal-miners are occasionally mentioned during the eighteenth century, but no lasting combinations. See, for those in Somerset, Carmarthenshire, etc., in 1757, _Gentlemen’s Magazine_, 1757, pp. 90, 185, 285, etc. In 1765 there was a prolonged strike against the “yearly bond” by the Durham miners (_Calendar of Home Office Papers_, 1765; Sykes’ _Local Records_, vol. i, p. 254). The Keelmen, who loaded coals on the Tyne, “mutinied” in 1654 and 1671 “for the increase of wages”; and there were fierce strikes in 1710, 1744, 1750, 1771, and 1794. We have, however, no particulars as to their associations, which were probably ephemeral (Sykes’ _Local Records_; Richardson’s _Local Historian’s Table Book_; _Gentlemen’s Magazine_, 1750). [74] Many instances of insolence and aggression by the woolcombers are on record; the employers’ advertisements in the _Nottingham Journal_, August 31, 1795, and the _Leicester Herald_ of June 1792, are only two out of many similar recitals. [75] _Jubilee Souvenir History of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers_, 1901, p. 12.