special creation, now remains the monument of his sagacious foresight, to fulfil the duties of a High Court of Appeal in all union life.
This intervention, under all the circumstances, was altogether inevitable. Public questions of the most vital kind came up to the front in quick succession, towards the close of the nineteenth, and during the twentieth century. The settlement of these questions, in directions most favourable to progress, and to the well-being of the masses of the people, was only one part of the case. Another part, not less important, was that there should be prompt settlement, so as to give the benefits of victory, and of the new order of things, to the generation which fought the battles. As regarded legislation in particular, this expediting work had been rendered possible to us by the "Special Hansard" facilities, which Parliament had latterly adopted, and of which mention has already been made.
This authoritative intervention on our part in these questions, remarked the president, opened quite a new era to the great body of the working classes. When they had successfully set their own house in order, their views as to the great edifice of the nation were given with the more self-confidence, and listened to with the more attention and good-will. It must be remembered, too, that the vast union membership consisted now, throughout, of well educated and fairly well-off persons; and that, as the rule, the unions
