The Manchester Guardian states that a Trade Union of employers
of labour has really been formed in London. Its object is to defend capital against the unjust demands of labour, whether put forward through strikes or by means of legislation in Parliament. It will endeavour to support non-unionists, and to return men of intelligence and capital to Parliament. It is estimated that the masters who have signed the programme now employ 2,000,000 of workmen, and they include some of the first capitalists in the country. The scheme will, we believe, come to nothing, from the tremendous shake the workmen can give to it by ostracising its members at elections ; but if it did, the result would be this. Every strike, instead of being, as it is now, a *brutal and inconvenient form of haggling the market, would be the signal for a kind of veiled war between the rich and the poor. 'The workmen would widen their Associations to avoid sudden -defeat, till we might be, at any moment, on the verge of a struggle extending over whole counties and branches of industry, and ending in the ostracism of all employers of labour.
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