e working day for women and
children in factories and workshops, and for men in mines and on
railways.[8] In the future it will probably deal freely with the hours
of men. It enables wages boards to establish a legal minimum wage in
scheduled industries which will undoubtedly grow in number. It makes
employers liable for all injuries suffered by operatives in the course
of their employment, and forbids any one to "contract out" of this
obligation. Within these limits, it allows freedom of contract. But at
this point, in the more highly developed trades, the work is taken up by
voluntary associations. Combinations of men have been met by
combinations of employers, and wages, hours, and all the details of the
industrial bargain are settled by collective agreement through the
agency of a joint board with an impartial chairman or referee in case of
necessity for an entire locality and even an entire trade. So far have
we gone from the free competition of isolated individuals.

This development is sometimes held to have involved the decay and death
of the older Liberalism. It is true that in the beginning factory
legislation enjoyed a large measure of Conservative support. It was at
that stage in accordance with the best traditions of paternal rule, and
it commended itself to the religious convictions of men of whom Lord
Shaftesbury was the typical example. It is true, also, that it was
bitterly opposed by Cobden and Bright. On the other hand, Radicals like
J. Cam Hobhouse took a leading part in the earlier legislation, and Whig
Governments passed the very important Acts of 1833 and 1847. The
cleavage of opinion, in fact, cut across the ordinary divisions of
party. What is more to the purpose is that, as experience ripened, the
implications of the new legislation became clearer, and men came to see
that by industrial control they were not destroying liberty but
confirming it. A new and more concrete conception of liberty arose and
many old presuppositions were challenged.

Let us look for a moment at these presuppositions. We have seen that the
theory of _laissez-faire_ assumed that the State would hold the ring.
That is to say, it would suppress force and fraud, keep property safe,
and aid men in enforcing contracts. On these conditions, it was
maintained, men should be absolutely free to compete with one another,
so that their best energies should be called forth, so that each should
feel himself responsible for the guida