inal or civil liability of English workmen in trades disputes, unless the two measures are considered together. Is there any objection to my request?

Mr. MOON. Certainly not.

The CHAIRMAN. Without objection, the acts referred to by you will be included as a part of your remarks and as a part of this hearing. Mr. EMERY. They are as follows:

CONSPIRACY AND PROTECTION OF PROPERTY ACT 1875 AND TRADE DISPUTES ACT 1906. [Chapter 86. An act for amending the law relating to conspiracy and to the protection of property, and for other purposes (August 13, 1875).]

Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

1. This act may be cited as the conspiracy and protection of property act, 1875. 2. This act shall come into operation on the first day of September, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.

CONSPIRACY AND PROTECTION OF PROPERTY.

3. An agreement or combination by two or more persons to do or procure to be done any act in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute (between employers and workmen) shall not be indictable as a conspiracy if such act committed by one person would not be punishable as a crime.

1

An act done in pursuance of an agreement or combination by two or more persons shall, if done in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute, not be actionable unless the act, if done without any such agreement or combination, would be actionable.

Nothing in this section shall exempt from punishment any persons guilty of a conspiracy for which a punishment is awarded by any act of Parliament.

Nothing in this section shall affect the law relating to riot, unlawful assembly, breach of the peace, or sedition, or any offense against the State or the sovereign.

A crime for the purposes of this section means an offense punishable on indictment, or an offense which is punishable on summary conviction, and for the commission of which the offender is liable under the statute making the offense punishable to be imprisoned either absolutely or at the discretion of the court as an alternative for some other punishment.

Where a person is convicted of any such agreement or combination as aforesaid to do or procure to be done an act which is punishable only on summary conviction, and is sentenced to imprisonment, the imprisonment shall not exceed three months, or such longer time, if any, as may have been prescribed by the statute for the punishment of the said act when committed by one person.

4. Where a person employed by a municipal authority or by any company or contractor upon whom is imposed by act of Parliament the duty, or who have otherwise assumed the duty of supplying any city, borough, town, or place, or any part thereof, with gas or water, wilfully and maliciously breaks a contract of service with that authority or company or contractor, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that the probable consequences of his so doing, either alone or in combination with others, will be to deprive the inhabitants of that city, borough, town, place, or part wholly or to a great extent of their supply of gas or water, he shall on conviction thereof by a court of summary jurisdiction, or on indictment as hereinafter mentioned, be liable either to pay a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds or to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding three months, with or without hard labor.

Every such municipal authority, company, or contractor as is mentioned in this section shall cause to be posted up, at the gas works or water works, as the case may be, belonging to such authority or company or contractor, a printed copy of this section in some conspicuous place where the same may be conveniently read by the persons employed, and as often as such copy becomes defaced, obliterated, or destroyed shall cause it to be renewed with all reasonable despatch.

If any municipal authority or company or contractor make default in complying with the provisions of this section in relation to such notice as aforesaid, they or he shall incur on summary conviction a penalty not exceeding five pounds for every day

Words "between employers and workmen" repealed by part 3, section 5, trade disputes act, 1906.

during which such default continues, and every person who unlawfully injures, defaces, or covers up any notice so posted up as aforesaid in pursuance of this act shall be liable on summary conviction to a penalty not exceeding forty shillings.

5. Where any person wilfully and maliciously breaks a contract of service or of hiring, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that the probable consequences of his so doing, either alone or in combination with others, will be to endanger human life, or cause serious bodily injury, or to expose valuable property, whether real or personal, to destruction or serious injury, he shall, on conviction thereof by a court of summary jurisdiction, or on indictment as hereinafter mentioned, be liable either to pay a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds, or to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding three months, with or without hard labour.

MISCELLANEOUS.

6. Where a master, being legally liable to provide for his servant or apprentice necessary food, clothing, medical aid, or lodging, wilfully and without lawful excuse refuses or neglects to provide the same, whereby the health of the servant or apprentice is or is likely to be seriously or permanently injured, he shall on summary conviction be liable either to pay a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds, or to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding six months, with or without hard labour.

7. Every person who, with a view to compel any other person to abstain from doing or to do any act which such other person has a legal right to do or abstain from doing, wrongfully and without legal authority

1. Uses violence to or intimidates such other person or his wife or children, or injures his property; or

2. Persistently follows such other person about from place to place; or

3. Hides any tools, clothes, or other property owned or used by such other person, or deprives him of or hinders him in the use thereof; or

4. Watches or besets the house or other place where such other person resides, or works, or carries on business, or happens to be, or the approach to such house or place; or

5. Follows such other person with two or more other persons in a disorderly manner in or through any street or road,

shall, on conviction thereof by a court of summary jurisdiction, or on indictment as hereinafter mentioned, be liable either to pay a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds, or to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding three months, with or without hard labour.

NOTE. Last paragraph of this section repealed by second paragraph second section trade disputes act, 1906. 'Attending at or near the house or place where a person resides, or works, or carries on business, or happens to be, or the approach to such house or place, in order merely to obtain or communicate information, shall not be deemed a watching or besetting within the meaning of this section."

8. Where in any act relating to employers or workmen a pecuniary penalty is imposed in respect of any offence under such act, and no power is given to reduce such penalty, the justices or court having jurisdiction in respect of such offence may, if they think it just so to do, impose by way of penalty in respect of such offence any sum not less than one-fourth of the penalty imposed by such act.

LEGAL PROCEEDINGS.

9. Where a person is accused before a court of summary jurisdiction of any offence made punishable by this act, and for which a penalty amounting to twenty pounds, or imprisonment, is imposed, the accused may, on appearing before the court of summary jurisdiction, declare that he objects to being tried for such offence by a court of summary jurisdiction, and thereupon the court of summary jurisdiction may deal with the case in all respects as if the accused were charged with an indictable offence and not an offence punishable on summary conviction, and the offence may be prosecuted on indictment accordingly.

10. Every offence under this act which is made punishable on conviction by a court of summary jurisdiction or on summary conviction, and every penalty under this act recoverable on summary conviction, may be prosecuted and recovered in manner provided by the summary jurisdiction act.

11. Provided, that upon the hearing and determining of any indictment or information under sections four, five, and six of this act, the respective parties to the contract of service, their husbands or wives, shall be deemed and considered as competent witnesses.

12. In England or Ireland, if any party feels aggrieved by any conviction made by a court of summary jurisdiction on determining any information under this act,

the party so aggrieved may appeal therefrom, subject to the conditions and regulations following:

(1) The appeal shall be made to some court of general or quarter sessions for the county or place in which the cause of appeal has arisen, holden not less than fifteen days and not more than four months after the decision of the court from which the appeal is made.

(2) The appellant shall, within seven days after the cause of appeal has arisen, give notice to the other party and to the court of summary jurisdiction of his intention to appeal, and of the ground thereof.

(3) The appellant shall immediately after such notice enter into a recognizance before a justice of the peace, with or without sureties, conditioned personally to try such appeal, and to abide the judgment of the court thereon, and to pay such costs as may be awarded by the court;

(4) Where the appellant is in custody the justice may, if he think fit, on the appellant entering into such recognizance as aforesaid, release him from custody;

(5) The court of appeal may adjourn the appeal, and upon the hearing thereof they may confirm, reverse, or modify the decision of the court of summary jurisdiction, or remit the matter to the court of summary jurisdiction with the opinion of the court of appeal thereon, or make such other order in the matter as the court thinks just, and if the matter be remitted to the court of summary jurisdiction the said last-mentioned court shall thereupon rehear and decide the information in accordance with the opinion of the said court of appeal. The court of appeal may also make such order as to costs to be paid by either party as the court thinks just.

13. In this Act,

DEFINITIONS.

The expression "the summary jurisdiction act" means the Act of the session of the eleventh and twelfth years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter forty-three, entitled "An act to facilitate the performance of the duties of justices of the peace out of sessions within England and Wales with respect to summary convictions and orders," inclusive of any acts amending the same; and

The expression "court of summary jurisdiction" means

(1) As respects the city of London, the lord mayor or any alderman of the said city sitting at the Mansion House or Guildhall justice room; and

(2) As respects any police court division in the metropolitan police district, any metropolitan police magistrate sitting at the police court for that division; and (3) As respects any city, town, liberty, borough, place, or district for which a stipendiary magistrate is for the time being acting, such stipendiary magistrate' sitting at a police court or other place appointed in that behalf; and

(4) Elsewhere, any justice or justices of the peace to whom jurisdiction is given by the summary jurisdiction act; Provided that, as respects any case within the cognizance of such justice or justices as last aforesaid, an information under this act shall be heard and determined by two or more justices of the peace in petty sessions sitting at some place appointed for holding petty sessions.

Nothing in this section contained shall restrict the jurisdiction of the lord mayor or any alderman of the city of London, or of any metropolitan police or stipendiary magistrate, in respect of any act or jurisdiction which may now be done or exercised by him out of court.

14. The expression "municipal authority" in this act means any of the following authorities, that is to say, the metropolitan board of works, the common council of the city of London, the commissioners of sewers of the city of London, the town council of any borough for the time being subject to the act of the session of the fifth and sixth years of the reign of King William the Fourth, chapter seventy-six, entitled "An act to provide for the regulation of municipal corporations in England and Wales, and any act amending the same, any commissioners, trustees, or other persons invested by any local act of Parliament with powers of improving, cleansing, lighting, or paving any town, and any local board."

Any municipal authority or company or contractor who has obtained authority by or in pursuance of any general or local act of Parliament to supply the streets of any city, borough, town, or place, or of any part thereof, with gas, or which is required by or in pursuance of any general or local act of Parliament to supply water on demand to the inhabitants of any city, borough, town, or place, or any part thereof, shall for the purposes of this act be deemed to be a municipal authority or company or contractor upon whom is imposed by act of Parliament the duty of supplying such city, borough, town, or place, or part thereof, with gas or water.

15. The word "maliciously" used in reference to any offense under this act shall be construed in the same manner as it is required by the fifty-eighth section of the act

relating to malicious injuries to property, that is to say, the act of the session of the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter ninety-seven, to be construed in reference to any offense committed under such last

mentioned act.

SAVING CLAUSE.

16. Nothing in this act shall apply to seamen or to apprentices to the sea service.

REPEAL.

17. On and after the commencement of this act, there shall be repealed:

I. The act of the session of the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter thirty-two, intituled "An act to amend the criminal law relating to violence, threats, and molestation;" and

II. The master and servant act, 1867," and the enactments specified in the first schedule to that act, with the exceptions following as to the enactments in such sched-ule; (that is to say),

(1) Except so much of sections one and two of the act passed in the thirty-thirdyear of the reign of King George the Third, chapter fifty-five, intituled "An act to. authorize justices of the peace to impose fines upon constables, overseers, and other peace or parish officers for neglect of duty, and on masters of apprentices for ill-usage of such their apprentices; and also to make provision for the execution of warrants of distress granted by magistrates," as relates to constables, overseers, and other peace or parish officers; and

(2) Except so much of sections five and six of an act passed in the fifty-ninth year of the reign of King George the Third, chapter ninety-two, intituled "An act to enables justices of the peace in Ireland to act as such, in certain cases, out of the limits of the counties in which they actually are; to make provision for the execution of warrants of distress granted by them; and to authorize them to impose fines upon constables and other officers for neglect of duty, and on masters for ill-usage of their apprentices," as relates to constables and other peace or parish officers; and

(3) Except the act of the session of the fifth and sixth years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter seven, intituled "An act to explain the acts for the better regulation of certain apprentices;" and

(4) Except subsections one, two, three, and five of section sixteen of "The Summary Jurisdiction (Ireland) Act, 1851," relating to certain disputes between employers and the persons employed by them; and

III. Also there shall be repealed the following enactments making breaches of contract criminal, and relating to the recovery of wages by summary procedure; (that is to say),

(a) An act passed in the fifth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, chapter four, and intituled "An act touching dyvers orders for artificers, laborers, servantes of hsubandrye, and apprentices;" and

(b) So much of section two of an act passed in the twelfth year of King George the First, chapter thirty-four, and intituled "An act to prevent unlawful combination of workmen employed in the woollen manufactures, and for better payment of their wages," as relates to departing from service and quitting or returning work before it is finished; and

(c) Section twenty of an act passed in the fifth year of King George the Third, chapter fifty-one, the title of which begins with the words "An act for repealing several laws relating to the manufacture of woollen cloth in the county of York," and ends with the words "for preserving the credit of the said manufacture at the foreign market," and

(d) An act passed in the nineteenth year of King George the Third, chapter fortynine, and intituled "An act to prevent abuses in the payment of wages to persons employed in the bone and thread lace manufactory;" and

(e) Sections eighteen and twenty-three of an act passed in the session of the third and fourth years of Her present Majesty, chapter ninety-one, intituled "An act for the more effectual prevention of frauds and abuses committed by weavers, sewers, and other persons employed in the linen, hempen, union, cotton, silk, and woollen manufactures in Ireland, and for the better payment of their wages, for one year, and from thence to the end of the next session of Parliament;" and

(f) Section seventeen of an act passed in the session of the sixth and seventh years of Her present Majesty, chapter forty, the title of which begins with the words "An act to amend the laws," and ends with the words "workmen engaged therein;" and (g) Section seven of an act passed in the session of the eighth and ninth years of Her present Majesty, chapter one hundred and twenty-eight, and intituled "An act

to make further regulations respecting the tickets of work to be delivered to silk weavers in certain cases."

Provided that

(1) Any order for wages or further sum of compensation in addition to wages made in pursuance of section sixteen of "the summary jurisdiction (Ireland) act, 1851," may be enforced in like manner as if it were an order made by a court of summary jurisdiction in pursuance of the employers and workmen act, 1875, and not otherwise;

and

(2) The repeal enacted by this section shall not affect—

(a) Anything duly done or suffered, or any right or liability acquired or incurred under any enactment hereby repealed; or

(b) Any penalty, forfeiture, or punishment incurred in respect of any offense committed against any enactment hereby repealed; or

(c) Any investigation, legal proceeding, or remedy in respect of any such right, liability, penalty, forfeiture, or punishment as aforesaid; and any such investigation, legal proceeding, and remedy may be carried on as if this act had not passed.

NOTE.-Sections eighteen to twenty inclusive relate to procedure, penalties, and appeal in Scotland, and section twenty-one, the last of the act of 1875, relates to procedure in Ireland.

AN ACT To provide for the regulation of Trades Unions and Trade Disputes. 21st December, 1906.]

[6 Edw. VII, ch. 47.]

Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

I.

The following paragraph shall be added as a new paragraph after the first paragraph of section three of the conspiracy and protection of property act, 1875:

"An act done in pursuance of an agreement or combination by two or more persons shall, if done in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute, not be actionable unless the act, if done without any such agreement or combination, would be actionable."

II.

1. It shall be lawful for one or more persons, acting in their own behalf or on behalf of a trade union or of an individual employer or firm in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute, to attend at or near a house or place where a person resides or works or carries on business or happens to be, if they so attend merely for the purpose of peacefully obtaining or communicating information, or of peacefully persuading any person to work or abstain from working.

2. Section seven of the conspiracy and protection of property act, 1875, is hereby repealed from “attending at or near to the end of the section.

III.

An act done by a person in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute shall not be actionable on the ground only that it induces some other person to break a contract of employment or that it is an interference with the trade, business, or employment of some other person, or with the right of some other person to dispose of his capital or his labor as he wills.

IV.

1. An action against a trade union, whether of workmen or masters, or against any members or officials thereof on behalf of themselves and all other members of the trade union in respect of any tortious act alleged to have been committed by or on behalf of the trade union, shall not be entertained by any court.

2. Nothing in this section shall affect the liability of the trustees of a trade union to be sued in the events provided for by the trades union act, 1871, section nine, except in respect of any tortious act committed by or on behalf of the union in contemplation or in furtherance of a trade dispute.