Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/522

Rh and Iron Shipbuilders, the Steam-Engine Makers, Ironmoulders of Scotland, Amalgamated Tailors, and Amalgamated Carpenters and Joiners he affirmed that, while in the nine years preceding 1884 their receipts were 2,818,548, their expenditure was 2,963,186, of which amount 1,207,180 was spent in unemployed benefit, 592,273 in sick benefit, 975,052 in compensation for loss of tools, superannuations, accidents, funerals, minor grants and benefits, and expense of management, only 188,680 had been spent in connexion with &quot;trade movements,&quot; or about 6 per cent, of the whole sum expended.

There are no really trustworthy means of arriving at anything approaching to an accurate estimate of the actual numerical strength of the trade unions in the United Kingdom. According to the last Report of the registrar general of friendly societies, there were in the year 1883 registered in his office 195 trade unions with 253,088 members and 431,495 funds, of which 12 returned over 10,000 funds, 9 over 10,000 members, and 6 over 10,000 income. But this of course conveys a very inadequate notion of the dimensions to which trade unionism has attained, since many of the largest and most influential societies are still unregistered.

The following table shows the number of delegates and the aggregate membership of the societies represented by them at the trade unions congresses in the years from 1880 to 1886, both inclusive:—

U Number of Delegates. Number of Bodies repre sented. Trade Councils repre sented. Trade Unions repre sented directly. Total Number of Persons repre sented. Number repre sented by Trade Councils. repre sented directly (approxi mate). 1880 1*3 105 17 88 474,213 92,511 381,702 1881 154 122 18 104 460,797 86,376 374,421 1882 153 126 23 103 608,337 102,972 405,365 1883 173 135 21 114 561,091 94,166 466,925 1884 142 116 21 95 597,636 109,984 487,652 1885 162 136 27 109 631,606 131,368 500,238 1886 143 121 24 97 635,380 122,207 513,173

We shall not be far wrong, perhaps, if we set down the number of trade unionists in all the three kingdoms at about 800,000.

 TRAGEDY.See.  TRAJAN (c. 53-117 A.D.)., the fourteenth Roman emperor, was a native of Italica, in Spain. The family to which he belonged was probably Italian and not Iberian by blood. His father began life as a common legionary soldier, and fought his way up to the consulship and the governorship of Asia. He was one of the hardest fighters in Judaea under Vespasian and Titus ; he served too against the Parthians, and won the highest military distinction open to a subject, the grant of the triumphal insignia. Thus he acquired a prominent place among the brand new patricians created by the Flavians as substitutes for the nobles of old descent who had succumbed to the cruelty and rapacity of the emperors from Tiberius to Nero. The younger Trajan was rigor ously trained by his father, and deeply imbued with the same principles and tastes. He was a soldier born and bred. No better representative of the true old hardy Roman type, little softened either by luxury or educa tion, had come to the head of affairs since the days of Marius. The date of his birth was probably 53 A.D. His training was almost exclusively military, but his ex perience as an officer gave him an acquaintance with almost every important province of the empire which was of priceless value to him when he came to the throne. For ten years he held a commission as military tribune, which took him to many lands far asunder ; then he filled important posts in Syria and Spain. How much actual warfare Trajan saw in those days we can hardly tell ; he certainly went through some severe service under his father s command against the Parthians. By the year 89 he had achieved a considerable reputation. At that time L. Antonius Saturninus headed a rebellion in Germany, which threatened seriously to bring Domitian s rule to an end. Trajan was ordered in hot haste from Further Spain to the Rhine. Although he carried his troops over that long and arduous march with almost unexampled rapidity, he only arrived after the insurrection had been put down. But his promptitude raised him higher in the favour of Domitian, and he was advanced to the consulship in 91. Of the next five years of his life we know nothing posi tively. It is not unlikely that they were spent at Rome or in Italy in the fulfilment of some official duties. When the revolution of 96 came, and Nerva replaced the murdered Domitian, Trajan had conferred upon him one of the most important posts in the empire, that of consular legate of Upper Germany. An officer whose nature, as the event showed, was interpenetrated with the spirit of legality was a fitting servant of a revolution whose aim it was to substitute legality for personal caprice as the dominant principle of affairs. The short reign of Nerva really did start the empire on a new career, which lasted more than three quarters of a century. But it also demon strated how impossible it was for any one to govern at all who had no claim, either personal or inherited, to the respect of the legions. Nerva saw that if he could not find an Augustus to control the army, the army would find another Domitian to trample the senate under foot. In his difficulties he took counsel with L. Licinius Sura, a lifelong friend of Trajan, and in October 97 he ascended the Capitol, and with all due solemnity proclaimed that he adopted Trajan as his son. The senate confirmed the choice, and acknowledged the emperor s adopted son as his successor. In a letter which Nerva sent at once to Trajan he quoted most significantly a line from the begin ning of the Iliad, where Chryses, insulted by Achilles, prays to Apollo : &quot; May thy shafts afford- me vengeance on the Greeks for my tears.&quot; After a little hesitation Trajan accepted the position, which was marked by the titles of imperator, Caesar, and Germanicus, and by the tribunician authority. He immediately proceeded to Lower Germany, to assure himself of the fidelity of the troops in that province, and while at Cologne he received news of Nerva s death (January 98). The authority of the new emperor was recognized at once all the empire over. The novel fact that a master of the Romans should have been born on Spanish soil seems to have passed with little remark, and this very absence of notice is significant. Trajan s first care as emperor was to write to the senate an assurance like that which had been given by Nerva, that he would neither kill nor degrade any senator. He ordered the establishment of a temple and cult in honour of his adoptive father, but he did not present himself at Rome for nearly two years after his accession. Possibly he had taken measures before Nerva s death to secure the revenge which Nerva craved, but probably did not live to see. In his dealings with the mutinous praetorians the strength of the new emperor s hand was shown at once. He ordered a portion of the force to Germany. They did not venture to disobey, and were distributed among the legions there. Those who remained at Rome were easily overawed and reformed. It is still more surprising that the soldiers should have quietly submitted to a reduction in the amount of the donative or gift which it was custom ary for them to receive from a new emperor, though the civil population of the capital were paid their largess (congi- arium) in full. By politic management Trajan was able to represent the diminution as a sort of discount for immediate payment, while the civilians had to wait a con siderable time before their full due was handed to them.

The secret of Trajan s power lay in his close personal relations with the officers and men of the army and in the soldierly qualities which commanded their esteem. He possessed courage, justice, and frankness to a high degree. Having a good title to military distinction himself, he could afford, as the unwarlike emperors could not, to be generous to his officers. The common soldiers, on the other hand, were fascinated by his personal prowess and