ABSTRACT
Working-class leaders like Howell and Cremer of the Reform League regarded it first and foremost as a means of checkmating those employers who might attempt to break strikes by using the new transport facilities to import French, Belgian, German, or Italian labour rapidly and cheaply. The Labour leadership of 1865, in short, was at once strenuous, practical, and far-sighted, and the Reform League agitation was immeasurably helped thereby. Howell’s paid Secretaryship, too, was of especial importance during the Reform League’s critical opening period after April 1865, and those enthusiasts who taxed themselves to meet Howell’s salary until League funds proved sufficient never did anything wiser. Bright addressing a great Trades meeting urged that it was only by continuing the expansion of the National Reform League, the National Reform Union, and similar organisations that working men would prevent a repetition in 1867 of what had happened in 1866.
