Mr. W. G. BUNN (Hearts of Oak Benefit Society) said it had been made clear that statistics might be prepared and used in such a way as not to be entirely trustworthy, and therefore personal experience in trade matters was more valuable than second-hand information. He wished to speak from experience in reference to the subdivision of labour among artisans and mechanics, the influence of this subdivision upon the rates of wages, and upon the moral and social status of workmen. He referred particularly to two trades carried on mainly in the metropolis, viz. cabinet-making, and the making of musical instruments, chiefly pianofortes. A great many of the men employed in these trades had almost entirely ceased to be artisans in the real sense of the word, in consequence of the subdivision of labour. Originally, a cabinet-maker was a man who could produce almost any piece of furniture you named ; but in the modern sense of the word he was a very different person. The trade was in some workshops so subdivided that often he was very little more than a labourer, in the sense in which that word was used in other trades. Instead of a man being competent to act as an artisan, he was often only able to produce one particular article of furniture, and sometimes only a portion of that article was committed to him. The result was that men, instead of having to learn trades, were content 'to pick up' enough to earn a precarious living. In the pianoforte trade, in which this subdivision was carried even to a greater extent, apprenticeship was almost entirely abolished. It was a cruelty to any lad (often committed in ignorance) to apprentice him to pianoforte making for a period of seven years. It was a cruel waste of time. What would an apprentice learn? He might go to the shop of one of the largest manufacturers in London, and learn only a very small section of the trade indeed, the knowledge of which could be acquired in a comparatively short time, say in one or two years. To his knowledge there were men working in some shops who were employed in no other way than in simply cleaning off and preparing for the polished. To be confined to such monotonous work must have a material effect upon the rate of wages, and also upon the intellectual capacity of the workers. If you cramp a man's intelligence in one direction you cramp it in all. If a man is content to live on wages which he can earn without the exercise of intellectual faculties, he is often unfitted to be a citizen, and disqualified for other walks of life, and indeed spoiled all round. The effect of this upon rates of wages can be easily understood ; the men who are able to work only in certain particular and limited branches of trade are those who are most frequently out of employment. The other day he met a fellow-workman who had been out of work five or six weeks ; the trade had been fairly busy, and three or four men were wanted, but not in his department. The consequence was that he was walking the streets when he might have been workign if the trade had not been so subdivided. This man had served seven years' apprenticeship in one of the leading shops in London, and they had turned him out a 'finisher,' utterly incapable of turning his hand to any other department of the trade. Another result of this subdivision was the introduction of 'piece-work,' with its attendant evils of slaving and scamping, which at the present time would describe the condition of a great portion of the pianoforte trade. The introduction of piece-work often had the effect of encouraging bad work and underpaying. When a price had to be fixed , the fair average workman was not taken as a criterion. In every shop there were slow workmen and quick workmen, and very often the slow workman turned out the best work, but frequently the time of the quick workman was adopted as the criterion by which the price was fixed. The natural consequence was that the slow man went to the wall. The quick man would be able tot earn 35s. or 2l per week, which the slow man, who often did better work, would earn only 25s. or 30s. This was the case in many shops in the metropolis. It was all very well to point out the evil, but it was much more difficult to find a remedy. He believed that combination among the workmen was one of the most effective remedies. In the trades to which he had referred, combination, in the form of trade unionism, was weakest. In the building trades combination was much more complete. The needed remedy could be applied slowly but surely in promoting a better knowledge of the trade, and in a better diffusion of technical instruction. Nothing was more likely to benefit the condition of the workman in the future than to make him a better man himself. If he were made a more competent and a more worthy man, he would command better pay ; and if his work were done in an intelligent and scientific way, it would be more profitable to the man who performed it and to the employer too. If in this technical education you gave a man a better insight into the principles of his trade, you would do much to remedy the evils of which he had spoken. There were hundreds of men in the musical instrument trade who had not the slightest knowledge of the principles upon which the instruments were constructed. If a person, about to select a pianoforte, sought the advice of a man employed in making pianos, the probability was that the pruchaser would be deceived by the advice that would be given him by the ill-informed mechanic. Organisation was important on account of the great influence it might exercise socially. It was a matter of much regret to him that, in workmen's clubs, political objects had been thought of, while intellectual and social objects had been almost entirely ignored. (No, no.) His opinion had been formed from personal knowledge and observation. A great improvement in the management of these clubs would be the establishment of technical classes for men employed in various trades. Such classes did not exist to any great extent, and the fact that where they had been introduced they had not been found to answer was a fact to be regretted. By perseverance these clubs could be made to exert a great influence in the future in improving the position of workmen, and improving their knowledge of the trades in which they were employed.