Mr. S. Morley, M.P., in writing to the Bristol Trades
Council last week, remarks that greatly as the Unions have benefitted the men, in bringing them to act unitedly and to consider their -own interests in common, they have done one mischief,—they have put middlemen between the men and the masters, in the shape of the paid agents of the Unions; and that in consequence, the masters have less direct intercourse with the men than they used to have ; and he thinks new arrangements for conducting the negotiations between masters and men are desirable, if a great deal of English capital is not to be driven abroad. This, coming from Mr. S. Morley, is a weighty opinion. The men should consider that useful as paid agents often are, their usefulness is greatly dimin- ished if there is no efficient check upon their representatives, to 'ensure the complete adequacy of their reports,—both those made in the name of their employers and those made to their employers.
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