that its use should be forbidden in certain cases, especially in fiery and dusty mines.

The use of high explosives, which are comparatively flameless, is advocated. The objections on the ground of the poisonous nature of the fumes produced do not seem to be well founded. A Lancashire collier was said to have been poisoned by the gases from roburite, but the Committee of Inquiry, on which Professor Dixon and two medical men took part, decided that, though roburite itself was a strong poison, the fumes from it, when strict care was exercised, were not more deleterious than those of other explosives.

Removal of Dust. Though this is recommended where there are great accumulations of dust, it cannot be done to any great extent.

Watering. This is evidently the most practical precaution, but various methods of carrying it out are suggested. It is largely adopted in Durham, South Wales, Staffordshire, Yorkshire, and Derbyshire. In other districts there appears to be little damping.

It has been objected that watering would loosen the strata and bring down the timbers and roof, and lift the floors. This would, however, only happen if too much water was used, whilst watering would have an additional advantage in lowering the temperature of deep mines, and so rendering them more comfortable to work in.

Watering by means of spray seems to be the most effectual means of damping the dust, not only on the floors, but also that on the sides and roofs of the roadways. The requisite pressure may be that of the water itself, or obtained by means of compressed air.

The Commission, therefore, recommends that the Inspector should have power to order watering to be done, or to insist on more efficient means being adopted where,

in their opinion, those in use are inefficient. conclude with the following suggestions :

They

1. That the firing of shots should take place between the shifts, and when the majority of the men are out of the mine

2. Where general watering is not prescribed by the Inspector, that the roads on either side of the place where a shot is fired, should be thoroughly wetted for a space of at least thirty yards

Lastly, that large accumulations of dust, whether on the floor or roof, should not be allowed to remain.

It now only remains for legislation to enforce the recommendations of the Commission, to reduce the number of those fearful explosions which render the life of a collier more precarious than that of a soldier, and to illustrate the benefits which the researches of science confer on humanity.

TRADE GUILDS.

BY FREDERICK W. EDWARDS, M.S.A.

In previous papers read before this society from time to time, and published in its Proceedings, I endeavoured to trace in special detail the growth and position of technical, commercial, and industrial education. The pursuit of the necessary knowledge of these important phases of practical instruction resulted in the accumulation of a considerable amount of interwoven matter of so interesting and generally unknown a character, that I now venture to bring that portion before you relative to the kindred subject of Trade Guilds, particularly those which sprang up and flourished so extensively in England during the middle ages. I propose to briefly survey their general origin, constitution, development and effect, concluding with a short reference to the objects, customs, ceremonies, characteristics, and influence of a few of these ancient, powerful, and wealthy commercial institutions.

Mediæval Guilds present a close analogy to the collegia opificum which existed under the Roman Empire. These were associations arising out of the urban life of the period, the primary objects of which were common worship and social intercourse, their secondary objects being the protection of the trades against unjust taxes, and their internal regulation. They also served as burial clubs, defraying the expenses of burial and funeral sacrifices for deceased members, in some cases out of legacies left for that purpose. It has been suggested that Mediæval

Europe reverted to and borrowed this part of the industrial organization of the Roman Empire, but the better opinion is that Medieval Guilds were not a relic of Roman civilization, but an original institution. Hallam describes them as fraternities by voluntary compact, to relieve each other in poverty, and to protect both from injury. Their two essential characteristics were the common banquet and the common purse. They had also, in many instances, a religious, sometimes a secret, ceremonial to knit more firmly the bond of fidelity. They readily became connected with the exercise of trades, the training of apprentices, and the traditional rules of art. A vast number of such fraternities existed throughout Europe during the Middle Ages. Every hamlet had a Guild of some kind, and in the towns they were very numerous.

Another community, differing from these, but which was also of importance during the same period, was the "Guild Merchant." It existed in the towns, and was, as compared with the craft Guilds, an aristocratic fraternity. It seems that originally the "Guild Merchant" was an association of the owners of the land on which the town was built, and of estates in the neighbourhood. Many similar patrician families carried on business in the towns, and for a considerable time governed them through the Guilds Merchant. Eventually, in every case, the aristocratic municipality had to give way, though sometimes not till after a long and fierce struggle, to the general body of the citizens, as represented by the plebeian Craft Guilds.

In London the victory of the more popular plebeian party had become assured as early as the reign of Edward II.

The Guilds Merchant and the Craft Guilds were thus the germ of the municipalities of Europe. Speaking of English communities from this point of view, Hallam

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says: They are frequently mentioned in Anglo-Saxon documents, and are the basis of those corporations which the Norman kings recognised or founded. The Guild was, in its primary character, a personal association; it was in the State, but not the State; it belonged to the city without embracing all the citizens; its purposes were the good of the fellows alone. But when the good was inseparable from that of their country, its walls and churches, the principle of voluntary association was readily extended; and from the private Guild, possessing the vital spirit of faithfulness and brotherly love, sprang the sworn community, the body of citizens bound by a voluntary but perpetual obligation to guard each other's rights against the thefts of the weak or the tyranny of the powerful."

The early returns, discovered by Toulmin Smith, present a vivid picture of the state of the Social Guilds and Craft Guilds of the provincial towns of England during the fourteenth century. They are the answers of the Guilds to an inquisition directed by Richard II and his Parliament sitting at Cambridge in 1388. Two writs were ordered to be issued to the Sheriff of each county; the first calling upon "the masters and wardens of all Guilds and brotherhoods (social guilds) to send up to their king's council all details as to the foundation, statutes, and properties of their Guilds;" the second calling upon the masters, wardens and overlookers of all the mysteries and craft (craft guilds) to send up in the same way copies of their charters or letters patent." These writs are in Latin. The returns are, some in Latin and NormanFrench, but a majority in early English.

By the time of Edward II, the government of London had assumed, partly in consequence of the terms of the city's charters, partly as the result of civic resolutions, a popular form, composed of both Anglo-Saxon and Norman