ABSTRACT
Trade Unionism everywhere underwent great changes corresponding to the new economic and social conditions; but the new Unions assumed many different forms, and followed to a large extent different policies. The reawakening of Trade Union activity is still more clearly shown by the attempt, in 1845, to bring together all the Trade Unions into a single body for common action and mutual defence. The National Association of United Trades stands just at the point of transition between the older Unionism and the new. In 1847, on the unsupported accusation of two convicts, John Drury and three other leaders of Sheffield Trade Unionism were accused of incitement to destroy machinery. The Stonemasons and the Carpenters among the building trades lived on, and the former continued as the most stable and powerful Trade Union in the country down to the formation of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers.
