  1. An Act against Truck, 1701—2. A Wages Assessment at a Warwickshire Quarter Sessions, 1738—3. Spitalfields Weavers Act, 1773—4. A Middlesex Wages Assessment under the Spitalfields Act, 1773—5. Agricultural Labourers' Proposals for a Sliding Scale of Wages, 1795—6. Debates on Whitbread's Minimum Wage Bill, 1795-6—7. Arbitration Act for the Cotton Industry, 1800—8. Amendment of the Arbitration Act, 1804—9. The First Factory Act, 1802—9A. Minutes of Committee on Children in Factories—10. Calico Printers' Petition for Regulation, 1804—11. Report on Calico Printers' Petition, 1806—12. Cotton Weavers' Petition against the Repeal of 5 Elizabeth c. 4, 1813—13. Debates on the Regulation of Apprentices, 1813-1814—14. Resolutions of the Watchmakers on Apprenticeship, 1817—15. Report of Committee on the Ribbon Weavers, 1818—16. The Cotton Factory Act of 1819—17. Oastler's First Letter on Yorkshire Slavery, 1830—18. Factory Act, 1833—19. Proposals for a Wages Board for Hand-loom Weavers, 1834—20. Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1842—21. Debate on Factory Legislation, 1844—22. Factory Act, 1844—23. Recommendations of the Commission on the Health of Towns, 1845. The eighteenth century was nearly a blank period in the history of direct regulation of industrial conditions by the State. There was no systematic intervention on the scale of Tudor or Victorian times; and political opinion hardened against the principle and destroyed the machinery which had been inherited from the sixteenth century. Such machinery, for the regulation of wages, was still occasionally used in the early part of the eighteenth century, as is shown by occasional examples of wages assessments at Quarter Sessions (No. 2). Acts were The history of Factory legislation (Nos. 9, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22) shows how the policy of non-interference was abandoned in another field. The employment of children in the new factories was one result of the eighteenth century system of Poor relief. It produced horrors which the first Factory Act was designed to remedy (No. 9). But the use of steam-power and the growth of big industrial districts led to the wholesale employment of children not under the Poor Law. Public opinion was at last aroused by the campaigns of Oastler and others, who pointed to the contrast between the Anti-Slavery agitation and the conditions of the English mills (No. 17). The successive Acts of 1819, 1833, 1842 and 1844 (Nos. 16, 18, 20, 22) show how legislators were forced to extend the principle of regulation from children to young persons and women, and from cotton mills to other textile factories and to mines. In the debate on the AUTHORITIES For modern writers on general conditions, see Authorities for Section I. The history of agitation for Factory legislation is to be found in Hutchins and Harrison, History of Factory Legislation; Von Plener Die Englische Fabrikgesetzgebung; Alfred (S. Kydd), The Factory Movement; Cooke Taylor, The Factory System and the Factory Acts; Keeling, Child Labour in the United Kingdom, Part I. Details of the agitation are given in Hodder, Life of Shaftesbury; Podmore, Life of Owen; Hutchins, The Public Health Agitation; Greenwood, Richard Oastler. A general view is given in Dicey, Law and Opinion in England; Kirkman Gray, Philanthropy and the State; Held, Zwei BÜcher zur Sozialen Geschichte Englands. Bibliographies are in Hutchins and Harrison, op. cit.; Cunningham, op. cit.; and Cambridge Modern History, Vol. XII. Contemporary.—See Authorities for Section I. In addition, for Wages Assessments under the Spitalfields Act in 1784 and 1795, see collection in British Museum, 1029, p. 4. The Reports of Factory Inspectors are valuable sources after 1833. See also Hansard Parliamentary Debates on Wages, and Factory Legislation, 1795, 1813-14, 1816, 1832-3, 1844, 1846. The chief contemporary literary sources for general conditions are given under Section I. The Factory legislation movement is described by some of the actors: Owen, Observations on the Manufacturing System; Oastler, Yorkshire Slavery, Life and Opinions, Letters from the Fleet, etc.; Memoir of the Life and Writings of Michael Sadler; Nassau Senior, Letters on the Factory Act; L. Horner, On the Employment of Children in Factories. 1. An act for the more effectual preventing the abuses and frauds of persons imployed in the working up the woollen, linen, fustian, cotton, and iron manufactures of this kingdom. III. And to prevent the oppression of the labourers and workmen imployed in the woollen, linen, fustian, cotton and [Cf. 12 Geo. I. c. 34, sec. iii.—"every clothier, sergemaker or woollen or worsted stuffmaker, or person concerned in making any woollen cloths, serges or stuffs, or any wise concerned in employing woolcombers weavers or other labourers in the woollen manufactory, shall ... pay unto all persons by them employed ... the full wages or other price agreed on in good and lawful money of this kingdom; and shall not pay the said wages ... or any part thereof, in goods or by way of truck."] 2. The particular rate of wages of all manner of artificers, labourers, and servants, as well by the day with meat and drink as without, as also by the whole year in gross or by task, made and provided, having a special regard and consideration to the prices of provisions and all other circumstances necessary to be considered at this time. April, 1738.
3. An Act to impower the magistrates therein mentioned to settle and regulate the wages of persons employed in the Silk Manufacture within their respective jurisdictions. Whereas it would be for the benefit of persons employed in the Silk Manufacture, if the magistrates were impowered to settle, between the master weavers and their journeymen, the price of labour in the several branches of the said manufacture; be it therefore enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament, assembled and by the authority of the same, that from and after the first day of July, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-three, the wages and prices for work of the journeymen And be it further enacted, that if after the said first day of July, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-three, any master weaver, within either of the aforesaid districts, shall give more or less wages, or pay larger or less prices, to any of the journeymen weavers aforesaid, for their work, than shall be settled or allowed as aforesaid, and shall be convicted of the said offences before any two of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace, within either of the districts or jurisdictions aforesaid where the said offence shall be committed, on the oath or oaths of one or more credible witness or witnesses, he shall forfeit the sum of fifty pounds; to be levied by distress and sale of the offender's goods; and the said penalty, when recovered, shall be paid into the hands of the Master of the Weavers' Company, first deducting the expense of such prosecution, to be distributed by him, in conjunction with the Wardens of the said company, to any distressed journeymen weavers And be it further enacted, that if any journeyman weaver or weavers within the districts aforesaid, shall ask, receive, or take more or less wages, or larger or less prices for their work than shall be settled by the respective quarter-sessions, as aforesaid; or shall enter into any combination to raise the wages or prices of the said work, or for this purpose shall decoy, solicit, or intimidate, any journeyman or journeymen weavers within the districts aforesaid, so that he or they quit their masters, for whom they shall then be employed; or shall assemble themselves in any numbers exceeding the number of ten, in order to frame or deliver petitions or other representations, touching their wages or prices of work, except to the said Justices of the Peace, or to the Lord Mayor, Recorder, and Aldermen of the city of London, at their respective Quarter Sessions, and shall be convicted of any of the said offences, on the oath or oaths of one or more credible witness or witnesses, before any two or more of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace, within either of the districts or jurisdictions aforesaid where the offence shall be committed, [he or they] shall forfeit a sum not exceeding forty shillings: And if the said forfeiture be not immediately paid, it shall and may be lawful for the said Justices to commit the said offender to the House of Correction, to hard labour, for any time not exceeding three months; the said forfeiture, when recovered, to be applied in the same manner as the forfeiture of fifty pounds afore-mentioned. And be it further enacted, that it shall and may be lawful for any two Justices of the Peace, within the limits and jurisdictions aforesaid, on information upon oath made before them by any person or persons whatsoever, that there is reason to suspect that any master or journeyman weaver, within the districts or jurisdictions aforesaid, hath been guilty of any of the offences aforesaid, at request of such informant, to issue their summons, in writing, signed by any such two Justices, requiring any clerk, foreman, apprentice, servant, or other person or persons employed or retained by such person so suspected to have offended, or any other person or persons whatsoever, whose attendance shall appear necessary for the purpose of giving evidence in the premises, to attend and testify concerning the premises: And if any person so summoned shall not And be it further enacted, that if any master weaver residing within the limits aforesaid, shall, directly or indirectly, in any manner whatsoever, retain or employ any journeyman weaver out of or beyond the limits aforesaid, with intent or design to elude or evade this act, or shall give, allow, or pay, or cause to be given, allowed, or paid, to such journeyman, any more or less wages than shall be settled, as aforesaid, every such person shall, for every such offence, forfeit fifty pounds; to be sued for by action of debt, in any of His Majesty's Courts of Record at Westminster, wherein no essoin, protection, or wager of law, or more than one imparlance, shall be allowed, and wherein the ordinary costs of the suit shall be paid; one moiety of which said forfeiture, when recovered, shall belong and be paid to His Majesty and His successors, and the other moiety to the person who shall sue for the same. Provided always, and be it further enacted, that nothing in this act contained shall extend, or be construed to extend, to fix, control, or regulate, the wages or allowances to be paid to servants in the said business of a weaver, bona fide retained and employed as foreman. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that from and after the passing of this act, no person or persons, being silk weavers, residing within the districts aforesaid, shall have in his or their service at any one time more than two apprentices, upon pain of forfeiting for every offence the sum 4. Sir John Fielding presents his respects to the Earl of Suffolk and acquaints him that he had the pleasure yesterday of assisting at the general Quarter Sessions for the county of Middlesex to carry into execution the late Act of Parliament for the regulating of the wages of journeymen weavers in Spitalfields, etc., and the wages were then settled by a numerous and unanimous bench to the entire satisfaction of those masters and journeymen weavers who appeared there in behalf of their respective bodies, and I sincerely hope that this step will prove a radical cure for all tumultuous assemblies from that quarter so disrespectful to the King and so disagreeable to Government, as it will amply reward your Lordship's judicious attention to a matter so conducive to peace and good order, for by this statute your Lordship has conveyed contentment to the minds of thousands of his Majesty's subjects. The Act for the appointment of clergymen with proper salaries agreeable to my proposals was also carried into execution to attend the gaols, and this preventive step will, I am persuaded, be attended with very salutary effects; and as the important business of the sessions is over, I hope your Lordship will take the advantage of my Lord North's leisure to settle the affair regarding my general prevention plan which now lies before him for his Majesty's approbation. I am, with unfeigned truth, my Lord, 5. At a numerous meeting of the day labourers of the little parishes of Heacham, Snettisham, and Sedgford, this day, 5th November, in the parish church of Heacham, in the county of Norfolk, in order to take into consideration the best and most peaceable mode of obtaining a redress of all the severe and peculiar hardships under which they have for many years so patiently suffered, the following resolutions were unanimously agreed to:—1st, That the labourer is worthy of his hire, and that the mode of lessening his distresses, as hath been lately the fashion, by selling him flour under the market price, and thereby rendering him an object of a parish rate, is not only an indecent insult on his lowly and humble situation (in itself sufficiently mortifying from his degrading dependence on the caprice of his employer) but a fallacious mode of relief, and every way inadequate to a radical redress of the manifold distresses of his calamitous state. 2nd, That the price of labour should, at all times, be proportioned to the price of wheat, which should invariably be regulated by the average price of that necessary article of life; and that the price of labour, as specified in the annexed plan, is not only well calculated to make the labourer happy without being injurious to the farmer, but it appears to us the only rational means of securing the permanent happiness of this valuable and useful class of men, and, if adopted in its full extent, will have an immediate and powerful effect in reducing, if it does not entirely annihilate, that disgraceful and enormous tax on the public—the Poor Rate. Plan of the Prices of Labour Proportionate to the Price of Wheat.
3rd. That a petition to parliament to regulate the price of labour, conformable to the above plan, be immediately adopted; and that the day labourers throughout the county be invited to associate and co-operate in this necessary application to parliament, as a peaceable, legal, and probable mode of obtaining relief; and, in doing this, no time should be lost, as the petition must be presented before the 29th January, 1796. 4th. That one shilling shall be paid into the hands of the treasurer by every labourer, in order to defray the expenses of advertising, attending on meetings, and paying counsel to support their petition in parliament. 5th. That as soon as the sense of the day labourers of this county, or a majority of them, shall be made known to the clerk of the meeting, a general meeting shall be appointed, in some central town, in order to agree upon the best and easiest mode of getting the petition signed: when it will be requested that one labourer, properly instructed, may be deputed to represent two or three contiguous parishes, and to attend the above intended meeting with a list of all the labourers in the parishes he shall represent, and pay their respective subscriptions; and that the labourer, so deputed, shall be allowed two shillings and sixpence a day for his time, and two shillings and sixpence a day for his expenses. 6th. That Adam Moore, clerk of the meeting, be directed to have the above resolutions, with the names of the farmers and labourers who have subscribed to and approved them, advertised in one Norwich and one London paper; when it is hoped that the above plan of a petition to parliament will not only be approved and immediately adopted by the day labourer of this county, but by the labourers of every county in the kingdom. 7th. That all letters, post paid, addressed to Adam Moore, labourer, at Heacham, near Lynn, Norfolk, will be duly noticed. 6. Debate in the Commons on Mr. Whitbread's Bill to regulate the wages of Labourers in Husbandry. December 9. Mr. Whitbread presented to the House a bill "to explain and amend so much of the act of the 5th of Elizabeth, intituled: 'An act containing divers orders for artificers, labourers, servants of husbandry and apprentices,'" as empowers justices of the peace, at, or within six weeks after, every general quarter sessions held at Easter, to regulate the wages of labourers in husbandry. The bill was read a first time. On the motion for the second reading, Mr. Whitbread said, that he had brought forward this bill under the idea that it was possible, by adopting its regulations, to give great relief to a very numerous and useful class of the community. The act of Elizabeth empowered justices of the peace to fix the maximum of labour. This bill went only to empower them to fix the minimum. However the House might decide with respect to his bill, he trusted at least that the act of Elizabeth would be repealed. Mr. Fox said, that the bill was undoubtedly a bill of great delicacy and importance, and with respect to which, he admitted that, to a considerable extent, there might exist a rational difference of opinion. The act of Elizabeth, as his hon. friend had truly stated, empowered the justices to fix the highest price of labour, but it gave them no power to fix the lowest. It secured the master from a risk that could but seldom occur, of being charged exorbitantly for the quantity of service; but it did not authorise the magistrate to protect the poor from the injustice of a griping and avaricious employer, who might be disposed to take advantage of their necessities, and undervalue the rate of their service. If the price of labour was adequate to the support of the poor at ordinary times, though not equal to the accidental high price of provisions at the present moment, it might be contended that there was less necessity for any new legislative regulation. But, taking the average price of labour for some years past, including that period during which the scarcity had operated, no man could deny that the price of labour was greatly disproportionate to the rate of provisions. That the general price of labour should be adequate to the support of the general The bill was ordered to be read a second time on the 3rd of February, and to be printed. February 12th, 1796. The order of the day being read for the second reading of the bill, Mr. Whitbread said, that ample time had been given for members to consider maturely its object and regulations, and to collect from their constituents such information as they might require. For his own part, every inquiry he had instigated, convinced him of the necessity of remedying the grievances of the industrious poor by some legislative provisions. Whether those which he had suggested were the most proper to be adopted, was a question for the decision of the House? Having bestowed considerable pains in drawing up the bill, he might have left it for their consideration upon its merits alone, did not the novelty of the measure demand a few words in explanation. He felt as much as any man how greatly it was to be desired that there should be no legislative interference in matters of this nature, and that the price of labour, like every other commodity, should be left to find its own level. From reasonings upon the subject, the result was, that it always would find its level. But the deductions of reason were confuted by experience; for he appealed to the sense of the House, whether the situation of the labouring poor in this country was such as any feeling or liberal mind would wish? He did not mean that the wages of the labourer were inadequate for his subsistence and comfort in times of temporary scarcity, and unusual hardship; but even at the period preceding such distress, the evil had prevailed. In most parts of the country, the labourer had long been struggling Mr. Pitt said, that in the interval which had taken place since the first reading of the bill, he had paid considerable attention to the subject, and endeavoured to collect information from the best sources to which he had access. The evil was certainly of such a nature as to render it of importance to find out a proper remedy, but the nature of the remedy involved discussions of such a delicate and intricate nature, that none should be adopted without being maturely weighed. The present situation of the labouring poor in this country was certainly not such as could be wished, upon any principle, either of humanity, or policy. That class had of late been exposed to hardships which they all concurred in lamenting, and were equally actuated by a desire to remove. He would not argue how far the comparison of the state of the labourer, relieved as it had been by a display of beneficence never surpassed at any period, with the state of this class of the com Mr. Lechmere said, that the bill was not only founded in humanity, but policy also. The late alarming scarcity ought to induce every man who wished to encourage the industrious poor, to promote every plan of relief for them at such a crisis. No agricultural labourer could at present support himself and his family with comfort; for a barley loaf was at the enormous price of 12½d., while the whole of the labourer's daily wages amounted to no more than one shilling. Haud ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco, was a noble sentiment; but he would rather have the labourer enjoy the honest fruits of his industry, than be obliged to receive his due as an eleemosynary gift. It appeared to him that the minimum of agricultural labour should be fixed. Mr. Buxton said, that the bill did not appear likely to be of much service, for if the price of labour were to be fixed by the justices of peace, he feared many industrious people would be thrown out of employ, and become a burthen to their respective parishes. The people he alluded to were those who by sickness or old age were rendered incapable of doing so much as a common labourer, and who consequently would be rejected for persons of more strength and activity. He had consulted with various well informed farmers and gentlemen in Norfolk who unanimously concurred in opinions that the bill would be injurious. Mr. Vansittart commended the hon. gentleman who introduced the bill, for his humane intentions, but he had no hesitation in voting against it, because he thought any arbitrary Mr. Burdon did not think that the industrious poor were in that wretched situation stated by some gentlemen. The industrious labourer, in many instances, was able to support his family, and lay up something for his old age. From the average price of labour for some years, the House must perceive that the wages of the labourer were considerably increased. The friendly societies, if they continued to extend, would be productive of infinite good. As to the bill, he was convinced of its inadequacy to correct the abuses of which it complained. He recommended rather to repeal the act of Elizabeth than set it up as a precedent to act upon. Mr. Fox said that no man was more against the idea of compulsion as to the price of labour than he was. The question now was, not on the general principle, but on that particular state of the law, which rendered some measure necessary to be adopted for the relief of the labouring poor, while the law, as it stood, was saddled with so many restrictions. He approved of the bill proposed by his hon. friend, as calculated to correct that which was bad in its present operation, and to secure at least to the labourer the means of partial relief. But if the House objected to the measure as improper, if they were of the opinion that it was not the most judicious or desirable that might be applied, he hoped they would go to the root of the evil, and provide some remedy adequate to the extent of the grievance. If, therefore, they should give a negative to the second reading of the bill, he should consider that by so doing they pledged themselves to take the subject into their early and most serious consideration. If what his hon. friend had brought forward should induce the House to go into a full examination of the subject, and to provide a remedy commensurate to the evil, he would not only have accomplished his own benevolent intentions, but would have done a much greater service to the country, than even if the bill which he had now brought forward were adopted. Mr. Whitbread said:—"I cannot but congratulate the House on the able and eloquent speech of the chancellor of The motion was negatived. After which, the bill was ordered to be read a second time on that day three months. 7. An act for settling disputes that may arise between masters and workmen engaged in the cotton manufacture in that part of Great Britain called England. That, from and after the first day of August in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred, in all cases that shall or may arise within that part of Great Britain called England, where the masters and workmen cannot agree respecting the price or prices to be paid for work done, or to be done, in the said manufacture, whether such dispute shall happen or arise between them respecting the reduction or advance of wages or any injury or damage done, or alleged to have been done, by the workmen to the work, or respecting any delay, or supposed delay, on the part of the workmen in finishing the work or the not finishing such work in a good and workmanlike manner; and also in all cases where the workmen are to be employed to work any new pattern which shall require them to purchase any new implements of manufacture for the working thereof, and the masters and workmen cannot agree upon the compensation to be made to such workmen for or in respect thereof, and also respecting the length of all pieces of cotton goods, or the wages or compensation to be paid for all pieces of cotton goods that are made of any great or extraordinary length, and respecting the manufacture of cravats, shawls, polycat, romall, and other handkerchiefs, and the number to be contained in one piece of such handkerchiefs, and the wages to be paid in respect thereof, and in all cases of dispute or difference arising or happening by and between the masters and workmen employed in such manufacture, out of, [In cases of dispute the points of difference shall be stated to a justice whose award shall be final. Justices who are cotton manufacturers cannot act.] 8. An act to amend an act, passed in the thirty-ninth and fortieth years of his present Majesty, intituled, An act for settling disputes that may arise between masters and workmen engaged in the cotton manufacture in that part of Great Britain called England. II. And be it further enacted, that, in all cases where an arbitration may be demanded by the said recited act, where the party complaining and the party complained of shall come before or agree, by any writing under their hands, to abide by the determination of any justice of the peace or magistrate of any county, city, town, or place, within which the parties reside, it shall and may be lawful for such justice of the peace or magistrate to hear and finally determine in a summary manner the matter in dispute between such parties; but if such parties shall not come before, or so agree to abide by the determination of such justice of the peace or magistrate, then it shall be lawful for any such justice or magistrate, and such justice of the peace or magistrate is hereby required, on complaint made before him, and proof by the examination of the party, making such complaint, that application has been made to the person or persons against whom such cause of complaint has arisen, or his, her, or their agent or agents, if such dispute has arisen with such agent or agents, to settle such dispute, and that the same has not been settled upon such complaint being made, or where the dispute relates to a bad warp, such cause of complaint shall not be done away within forty-eight hours after such application, to summon before him such person or persons, or agent or agents, on some day not exceeding three days, exclusive of Sunday, before the making such complaint, giving notice to the person making such complaint of the time and place appointed in such summons for the attendance of such person or persons, agent or agents, as aforesaid; and if at such time and place the person or persons so summoned shall not appear by himself, or send some person on his, her, or their behalf, to settle such dispute, or appearing shall not do away such cause of complaint, then and in such case it shall be lawful for such justice, and he is hereby required, at the request of either of such parties, to nominate arbitrators or referees for settling the matters in [For criticism of the act see Petition of Cotton Weavers, 1813, Pt. III, Section III, No. 12, page 576.] 9. An act for the preservation of the health and morals of apprentices and others, employed in cotton and other mills, and cotton and other factories. ... All such mills and factories within Great Britain and Ireland, wherein three or more apprentices, or twenty or more other persons, shall at any time be employed, shall be subject to the several rules and regulations contained in this act; ... II. And be it enacted, that all and every the rooms and apartments in or belonging to any such mill or factory shall, twice at least in every year, be well and sufficiently washed with quick lime and water over every part of the walls and ceiling thereof; and that due care and attention shall be paid by the master or mistress of such mills or factories to provide a sufficient number of windows and openings in such rooms or apartments, to insure a proper supply of fresh air in and through the same. III. And be it further enacted, that every such master or mistress shall constantly supply every apprentice during the IV. And be it further enacted, that no apprentice that now is or hereafter shall be bound to any such master or mistress shall be employed or compelled to work for more than twelve hours in any one day (reckoning from six of the clock in the morning to nine of the clock at night), exclusive of the time that may be occupied by such apprentice in eating the necessary meals: Provided always, that, from and after the first day of June one thousand eight hundred and three, no apprentice shall be employed or compelled to work upon any occasion whatever between the hours of nine of the clock at night and six of the clock in the morning. VI. And be it further enacted, that every such apprentice shall be instructed, in some part of every working day, for the first four years at least of his or her apprenticeship.... VII. And be it further enacted, that the room or apartment in which any male apprentice shall sleep shall be entirely separate and distinct from the room or apartment in which any female apprentice shall sleep, and that not more than two apprentices shall in any case sleep in the same bed. VIII. And be it further enacted, that every apprentice, or (in case the apprentices shall attend in classes) every such class, shall for the space of one hour at least every Sunday be instructed and examined in the principles of the Christian religion ... and such master or mistress shall send all his or her apprentices under the care of some proper person, once in a month at least, to attend during divine service in the church of the parish ... or in some licensed place of divine worship; and in case the apprentices cannot conveniently attend such church or chapel ... the master or mistress ... shall cause divine service to be performed in some convenient room or place in or adjoining to the mill or factory.... IX. And be it further enacted, that the justices of the peace for every county ... shall ... appoint two persons, not interested in, or in any way connected with, any such mills or factories, to be visitors ...; one of whom shall be a justice of peace ... and the other shall be a clergyman of the Established Church.... Examination of Richard Arkwright, June 7, 1816. Q. What is your opinion of the Act known under the name of Sir Robert Peel's Bill? I could wish to confine myself to facts as much as possible. What have you known of that Act? That Act has not been followed up, with respect to the visiting of magistrates, for these thirteen years. I think they visited my mills at Cromford twice. p. 278. Are you of opinion that Sir Robert Peel's Bill, which passed in the year 1802, has accomplished much benefit for the children, for whose protection it was intended? I certainly thought that the discussions upon that Bill, and the Bill itself, did a great deal of good, but that can be only matter of opinion. 10. A petition of several journeymen calico printers, and others working in that trade, in the counties of Lancaster, Derby, Chester, and Stafford, in England, and in the counties of Lanark, Renfrew, Dumbarton, Stirling, and Perth in Scotland, was presented to the House, and read; setting forth that great numbers of the petitioners and other journeymen calico printers have, for a series of years past, been greatly distressed for want of work in their trade, and that this distress has chiefly arisen from a very general, if not universal, practice of the master calico printers in the counties above enumerated, who systematically carry on the said trade by employing in it, in many instances, a greater number of out-door apprentices than of journeymen, and, upon an average, nearly two of such apprentices to three journeymen, a practice of great injury to the petitioners, their families, and, ultimately, even to the apprentices themselves; and that one of the injurious effects, to the petitioners by this system is, that, in many instances boys are taken as apprentices to the said trade or business on verbal agreement, whereby they are at liberty to absent themselves from the service and control of their masters on Ordered, that the said petition be referred to the consideration of a committee. 11. Your committee have naturally endeavoured to ascertain the cause of those discontents, and, as far as they have been able to collect from the minutes of evidence referred to them, they find it has arisen principally from the multiplication of apprentices. That this has gone to an extent, and that the disproportion of apprentices to journeymen exists to a degree, far beyond that understood to prevail in any other mechanical profession whatever, appears to your committee in several instances. In one instance, that of the shop of Berry and Co. of Lancashire, they find that 55 apprentices were employed, and only two journeymen; in another, that of the shop of Tod and Co. of Dumbarton, there were 60 apprentices, and only two journeymen. Such a disproportion, your committee conceive, must strike as extraordinary any one in the least degree acquainted with the custom of trade. The practice of introducing such an increased number of apprentices, which commenced about the year 1790, does not appear from the minutes of evidence to have proceeded from any scarcity of hands to supply the demands of the masters, or make up the work required; on the contrary, it appears that in the course of the period when this excessive multiplication of apprentices went on, a number of journeymen were seeking in vain for employment. With regard to the multiplication of apprentices, while your committee declare that they are not friendly to the idea of imposing any restrictions upon trade, they are ready to state that the inclination of their minds is this, that either all restrictions ought to be abolished, and the masters and journeymen left to settle matters between themselves, or an additional restriction ought to be introduced to counteract the evils obviously resulting from the restrictions which already exist. This restriction your committee mean of course to apply The salutary effects of leaving the masters and journeymen to settle their affairs between themselves, is particularly exemplified in the calico printing business: for, although in Lancashire and Derbyshire, etc., where there is nearly a proportion of one apprentice to one journeyman, and between masters and journeymen a consequent jealousy, productive of perpetual variance and confusion; there is in the neighbourhood of London, where a different feeling prevails, and where matters are amicably adjusted between the parties, a very different proportion of apprentices and journeymen. In 14 shops examined by one of the witnesses, in 1803, the number of journeymen were 216, the apprentices only 37. But to return to the subject of restrictions: your committee are persuaded that as the Legislature has thought proper to interpose its authority, to prevent the journeymen from concerting measures among themselves to settle their affairs with the masters, it would be ready to remove any complaints which might arise from advantage taken by the masters of the existence of such restriction. The wisdom and humanity of Parliament would shrink from sanctioning the Combination Law, if it appeared to them, at the time of its enactment, likely to operate only in favour of the strong, and against the weak; if it had any apparent tendency to secure impunity to oppressors, and to give an undue advantage to the masters, who can combine with little danger of detection, and who can carry their projects into execution with little fear of opposition. The Legislature could never mean to injure the man, whose 12. A petition of several cotton weavers resident in the division of Bolton Le Moors, in the county of Lancaster, was presented and read; setting forth, that the petitioners are much concerned to learn that a bill has been brought into the House to repeal so much of the Statute 5 Elizabeth, as empowers and requires the magistrates, in their respective jurisdictions, to rate and settle the prices to be paid to labourers, handicrafts, spinners, weavers, etc.; and that the petitioners have endured almost constant reductions in the prices of their labour for many years, with sometimes a trifling advance, but during the last thirty months they have continued, with very little alteration, so low, that the average wages of cotton weavers do not exceed 5s. per week, though other trades in general earn from 20s. to 30s. per week; and that the extravagant prices of provisions of all kinds render it impossible for the petitioners to procure food for themselves and families, and the parishes are so burthened that an adequate supply cannot be had from that quarter; and that, in the 40th year of His present Majesty a law was made to settle disputes between masters and workmen Ordered, That the said Petition do lie upon the Table. [The wages clauses of 5 Eliz. 4 were repealed by 53 Geo. III, 40, 1813.] 13. Apprentices.—Mr. Rose adverted to the petition Mr. Serjeant Onslow allowed that the number of signatures to the petition entitled it to a respectful consideration. As to the allegations of the petition, he thought it very extraordinary that the petitioners should really expect that parliament would allow them to bring actions upon this statute, against whom they pleased, well-founded or ill-founded, without being subject to costs in case of failure. From his experience in a certain judicial situation, he could say, and he believed he might appeal to all his professional friends about him for the confirmation of his statement, that he never knew any indictment brought under this statute except against a person of great skill and acquirements. The preamble of the Act stated its object to be "to prevent the introduction of unskilful workmen": and yet no indictments were ever brought against unskilful workmen, but only against very skilful and ingenious men. This shewed pretty clearly the spirit in which such prosecutions were brought. Mr. D. Giddy said, that he should not vote for the committee, if he did not think it likely that the resolution they would come to would be directly opposite to that which was expected by the petitioners. He certainly did entertain great doubts, whether in the present state of the commercial world there was any use in those apprenticeships, although they might have been necessary in the infancy of commerce. It frequently happened, that a young man had not a talent for that particular business to which he had been bound an apprentice, and was yet possessed of other talents, by the exercise of which he might obtain a most respectable subsistence. Mr. Butterworth also felt inclined to disapprove of the Act as highly injurious to trade in general, and to rising talent. In illustration of the hardships of the Act, and of the manner in which it was generally enforced, he mentioned a case which had come within his own immediate observation. In an office of which he had the command, there was a young man of great skill, and consequently of great value to his employers; he, however, had not served the regular apprenticeship, and his fellow-workmen therefore combined against him, demanding his discharge. He (Mr. B.) interfered on behalf of the young man, but in vain; for the conspiracy amongst the workmen attained that height that their request was obliged to be complied with. The young man was discharged, and though skilful in that particular trade, he had been compelled to sell the furniture, the produce of his industry, to support a wife and family, who were dependent on him for support. He did not oppose the committee, because he was convinced that the determination would be in favour of the repeal of the 5th of Elizabeth. The petition was then referred to a committee. Wednesday, April 6, 1814. Apprentice Laws.—Mr. H. Davis presented a petition from certain master manufacturers of the city of Bristol, praying that so much of the Act of the 5th of Elizabeth, cap. 4, as inflicted penalties on persons exercising trades to which they had not served regular apprenticeships, should be repealed. Ordered to lie on the table. Mr. P. Moore presented a petition from the manufacturers of Coventry, praying that that part of the 5th of Elizabeth, Mr. Serjeant Onslow said, most unquestionably he did not mean to go beyond the terms of his notice, in the measure he should introduce. He had stated explicitly the part of the Act that he wished to have repealed, and he had not since altered his determination. With respect to the second point of the hon. gentleman's interrogatory, "Whether he intended to hurry the Bill through the House?" he would answer that he certainly did not. But the hon. gentleman seemed to forget that the present period was virtually almost the commencement of the session, and that very important business was yet to come on. He (Serjeant Onslow) certainly did wish to have the sense of the House taken on the Bill, before the session terminated. And this, he thought, could be done without any imputation of hurry. In the last session the Treasurer of the Navy (Mr. Rose) had presented a petition from a great number of persons who were desirous that the penalties should be continued; and moved for a committee to investigate the allegations of the petitioners. A committee was granted—it sat from day to day—and the evidence adduced before it was printed. He (Serjeant Onslow) enquired of that right hon. gentleman whether he intended to found any motion on this evidence? And, understanding that he did not, he stated, at the close of the last session, that he would himself submit a motion on the subject. Soon after Mr. P. Moore said it was very true that his constituents (the freemen of Coventry) were obliged by Act of Parliament to serve a regular apprenticeship, before they could carry on the business alluded to by the learned gentleman. Now they were alarmed lest by the proposed Bill they should be deprived of a right which they had long enjoyed. They therefore were anxious that the Bill should not be hurried through the House. The petition was ordered to lie on the table. Wednesday, April 27, 1814. Apprenticeship Laws.—Mr. Serjeant Onslow rose to move for leave to bring in a Bill to repeal part of an Act, passed in the 5th year of Elizabeth, entitled "An Act containing divers orders for artificers, labourers, servants of husbandry, and apprentices." ... The reign of Queen Elizabeth, though glorious, was not one in which sound principles of commerce were known; and a perusal of the other clauses of the Act, as well as the one creating the penalties for exercising trades contrary to its provisions, would fully confirm that assertion; Mr. Philips.—The persons most competent to form regulations with respect to trade were the master manufacturers, whose interest it was to have goods of the best fabric; and no legislative enactment could ever effect so much in producing that result, as the merely leaving things to their own course and operation. The proof of this was to be found in the fact that the manufactures for which the country was most famous, were precisely those to which this Act did not apply. If this narrow principle had been carried into every branch of art, the machinery of Sir Richard Arkwright would have been lost to the country—and the genius of Mr. Watt, whose inventions had added more to the productive powers of the empire, than if the population had been increased one half, would have been still unknown. The hon. gentleman then proceeded to point out the evil effects which arose from the system of combination among tradesmen [workmen]. Leave was given to bring in the Bill. Friday, May 13, 1814. Apprentice Laws.—Mr. Serjeant Onslow moved the second reading of the Bill, which was warmly opposed by Sir Fred. Flood, who, though a friend to liberty, disliked licentiousness. The Bill went to abrogate that most salutary law of the 5th of Elizabeth, and to revive the practice which Mr. Protheroe seconded the motion, as the Bill proceeded on no general comprehensive system, but simply on a repeal without any efficient substitute for what was to be repealed. He objected to the measure in a moral point of view; in which respect he was upheld by the opinions of Lord Coke and Sir Wm. Blackstone. He had heard much of vexatious prosecutions under the Act of Elizabeth; but, on enquiry, he found that at Bristol for the last 20 years, there had not been one such prosecution. If apprenticeships were more encouraged, he was satisfied that combinations among journeymen would almost entirely be put an end to. If the House were to lower its attention down to the humble cottage, they would there see the advantages of this system, in beholding careful masters provided for the youths, who, in addition, were provided with food and clothing, while their morals were protected. He should be happy that the present Bill were withdrawn, and some measure unaccompanied by its disadvantages were introduced. Mr. Hart Davis could not disguise from himself that the present measure was attended with many difficulties. It would undoubtedly be of great advantage to our manufacturers that the present law should be repealed, and that every restraint should be removed from the rising generation. Supposing a person brought up to a trade for which from his constitution he was not fit, was he to be excluded from pursuing any other pursuit, or occupation whatever? Suppose the trade of button-makers, which was a trade that speedily passed away; or of gun-makers, of whom probably 40,000 might be in a few months thrown out of employment, was it to be held that they could follow no other occupation, but must remain a burden upon the community? The more he considered the present measure, the more he was satisfied of its utility. Mr. Protheroe explained that he could wish a general review of the whole system. Mr. Giddy thought if any one measure more than another could be said to involve the general rights of mankind, the present was that measure. What was this but the general right of the inhabitants of this country to employ the energies of their mind and body in the way they themselves pleased? And if a system were to be continued by which men were deprived of this general and undoubted right, it seemed to be incumbent on those who contended for the continuance of such a restriction to shew on what principle it was founded. If gentlemen attended to the time in which the law in question was passed, they would find it was a period in which many ill-advised monopolies had been granted, and one in which remonstrances on that subject had been made by the House of Commons on the impolicy of such a system, which had not been much attended to. Nothing, he was convinced, had contributed so much as the law in question to check the progress in our arts and manufactures. Sir C. Mordaunt, on the part of his constituents, the manufacturers of Birmingham, was strongly in favour of the present repeal. If the law, as it now stood, were put in force, it would have the effect of imposing the strongest possible fetters upon ingenuity and industry. Mr. Thompson liked liberty; and doing so, he wished to see every man have the liberty of employing his hands and his genius in the best way he could to his own advantage, and for the benefit of the country. This no man was at liberty to do, so long as the present law remained in force. He wished the law totally repealed, though the Bill did not go so far. The present law was necessarily broken every day. It was clear that the judges always wished to evade it, when they could do so. He knew a case of two men who were prosecuted under the Act for sawing a piece of wood; another, of a good and bad baker in the same town; where the bad one, finding that the good one had not served a regular apprenticeship, had him turned out, and got liberty to poison all his neighbours with his bad bread. Some years ago the printers struck, and there was a difficulty in getting even the parliamentary papers printed. Let those who chose it bind their children as apprentices; but let not others be compelled to do the same. Mr. Rose considered this as a subject of extraordinary difficulty. After all that had been said, he could not help thinking that if the Bill were passed into law, it would put an end to apprenticeships altogether; for no person would subject himself to a seven years' servitude when he knew that having fulfilled his indenture, he would only be on a level with a man who perhaps had not been one year at the business. He was willing to examine and improve the 5th of Elizabeth, but would not agree to this unqualified repeal. Sir J. Newport was surprised that the hon. baronet (Sir F. Flood) should be so anxious to perpetuate a statute which never was law in Ireland; and yet in that country, where no such penalties as those inflicted by the 5th of Elizabeth existed, the system of apprenticeships was freely and voluntarily adopted. He thought, on every principle of justice, that the subject was entitled to make use of his abilities and industry in those pursuits most beneficial to his interests. Sir S. Romilly had been applied to on the subject of the present Bill, by the constituents of two hon. gentlemen who had already delivered their sentiments on the measure this night (Messrs. Protheroe and Davis). He felt the highest respect for the gentlemen who had so applied to him on the subject of the present Bill; but his opinion of the measure being decidedly opposite to theirs, he thought he should not be acting a manly part were he either to abstain from voting on the Bill, or were he to content himself with a silent vote on this occasion. He was satisfied that there were reasons sufficiently strong to support the system of apprenticeships Alderman Atkins hoped that some clause might be introduced into the Bill when it was in the committee, that would give sufficient encouragement to the apprentice system; while, at the same time, the abuses of it might be remedied. Sir F. Flood, seeing the sense of the House against him, withdrew his amendment. Mr. Canning wished the Bill to go into the committee. He was aware that the subject was attended with considerable difficulties. The difficulty would be to find the means of doing away the abuses complained of, without doing away the system altogether, which he was convinced was useful to the perfection of our manufactures, and still more useful as affecting the morality of the lower orders. Mr. Serjeant Best said that if no other member introduced a clause to that effect, he himself should feel it his duty to propose one. He thought the penal clauses of the Act of Elizabeth should certainly be repealed, but that at the same time it was much better that young people should not be left without some control. He thought that at present the masters had much more advantages from the services of the apprentices, than the apprentices had from the instruction of the master, as most of those trades might be learned in a very short time. He therefore wished that part of the earnings might go to the parents, as an encouragement to the system. Mr. P. Moore opposed the Bill, because he thought that its enactment would operate seriously to the prejudice of our manufactures both in skill and reputation. Indeed, such had been found the effect of the partial repeal of the statute of Mr. Lockhart expressed his opinion, that this Bill, if enacted, should only operate prospectively; that is, that it should not become effective until a certain period; so that those mechanics who had served apprenticeships upon the faith of the existing law, should not be injured by its operation, by being thrown out of employment at a period of life when they could not devote themselves to any other profession than that to which they had been reared. Mr. B. Shaw deprecated the idea that morality was likely to be endangered, or our manufactures injured, by the enactment of the Bill under consideration; for Scotland, to which the Act of Elizabeth never extended, was never found in any degree inferior in morality or skill in manufacture. Mr. W. Smith observed, that he never heard of any proposition of reform which was not likely to be inconvenient to some persons; and therefore he was not surprised at the assertion, that the adoption of the Bill before the House would operate to injure the interests of particular persons. The apprehension of such injury was, however, in his judgment, unfounded. But still, those who expressed the apprehension were entitled to attention; and the objections which certain petitioners urged against this Bill, would, he had no doubt, meet all due consideration in the committee. The fact was, as to the statute of Elizabeth, that its existence served to create monopolies; and the effect of those monopolies was, that when the demand for an article was large, the price was enhanced to the public; while, when the demand became small, many workmen were thrown out of employment. Therefore, the repeal of that statute would tend to serve both the public and the workmen. As to the argument advanced in support of the statute of Elizabeth, merely in consequence of its antiquity, he could not admit that it had any force. He declared that his ears were quite tired of the phrase "the wisdom of our ancestors," which phrase was, in fact, calculated Mr. Serjeant Onslow replied, and, observing upon the petitions on the table against the Bill, expressed his conviction that they were not the unsolicited acts of the petitioners; as indeed appeared from several placards about town, inviting signatures to such petitions; and those petitioners, he meant especially the journeymen mechanics, would find the repeal of the Act of Elizabeth rather materially serviceable, than in any degree injurious to their interests. The Bill was read a second time, and ordered to be committed on Tuesday. [The apprenticeship regulations of the 5 Eliz. c. 4 were abolished by 54 Geo. III. 96, 1814.] 14. 1. That the obvious intention of our ancestors, in enacting the statute of the 5 Elizabeth, cap. 4, was to produce and maintain a competent number and perpetual succession of masters and journeymen, of practical experience, to promote, secure, and render permanent the prosperity of the national arts and manufactures, honestly wrought by their ability and talents, inculcated by a mechanical education, called a seven years' apprenticeship; whereby according to the memorable words of the statute itself "it will come to pass, that the same law (being duly executed) should banish idleness, advance husbandry, and yield unto the hired person, both in time of 2. That it is by apprenticeships, that the practitioners in the arts and manufactures attain the high degree of perfection, whereby British productions have arrived at the great estimation in which they were heretofore held in foreign markets. 8. That the apprenticed artisans have, collectively and individually, an unquestionable right to expect the most extended protection from the Legislature, in the quiet and exclusive use and enjoyment of their several and respective arts and trades, which the law has already conferred upon them as a property, as much as it has secured the property of the stockholder in the public funds; and it is clearly unjust to take the whole of the ancient established property and rights of any one class of the community, unless, at the same time, the rights and property of the whole commonwealth should be dissolved, and parcelled out anew for the public good. 10. That in consequence of too minute a division of labour, injudiciously allowed in several manufactures, the workmen employed are not enabled to make throughout any one article however simple, or even to maintain themselves by their industry. 11. That the unlimited or promiscuous introduction of various descriptions of persons without apprenticeship into the manufactures occasions a surplus of manufacturing poor, and an unnecessary competition, ruinous to the commercial capital and industry of the nation; because the overflow of goods causes all the productions of the manufacturies to fall in price, and be sold to foreigners for less money than they cost in making; which deficiencies are necessarily made up by the ruin of the master manufacturers, bankruptcies, and dividends to creditors; and are the cause of increased parochial and other rates, thus necessarily created, for the support of the poor workmen, who are deprived of the fair price of their honest labour. 17. That the system of apprenticeships, whether considered in a religious, political or moral point of view, is highly beneficial to the State, and from the neglect thereof is to be attributed the great defalcation of public morals, the numerous frauds committed in trade, the increased numbers of juvenile criminals, public trials and executions. 18. That the pretensions to the allowance of universal uncontrolled freedom of action to every individual founded upon the same delusive theoretical principles which fostered the French Revolution, are wholly inapplicable to the insular situation of this Kingdom, and if allowed to prevail, will hasten the destruction of the social system so happily arranged in the existing form and substance of the British constitution, established by law. 19. That the meeting highly approves the proceedings of the 62,875 masters and journeymen, who have already presented petitions, to the House of Commons, praying for leave to bring a Bill into Parliament to amend, extend and make more effectual the statute of apprenticeship, 5 Elizabeth, chap. 4. 21. That the most effectual preventive against and check upon combinations of journeymen, as also of masters in any trade, is for the persons engaged in such trades to take apprentices as required by law. 15. Your Committee also report, That it appears by the examination that the silk, and ribbon weavers in particular, are and have been for some time past suffering great privations and distress, arising out of inadequate wages; that such distress has had the effect of reducing thousands of them to seek parochial aid, and have, in consequence, increased the poor-rate, especially in the parishes of Coventry and in the County of Warwick, where the ribbon trade is the staple manufacture, to an extent too burdensome to be much longer borne. That the low rate of wages complained of by the Petitioners is not in consequence of the want of trade, it having been proved to your committee that there are as many silk goods, particularly ribbons, now making, as at any former time. That a system of half-pay apprenticeship has been resorted to, which has been attended with ruinous consequences to the morals of such apprentices, and exceedingly injurious to the trade. That the evils complained of do not exist in London, Westminster, and Middlesex; which your committee believe That the whole of the masters and weavers in the Ribbon Trade concur in the propriety of an extension of the Spitalfields Act. Your Committee are, therefore, of opinion, that it is absolutely necessary, for the protection of the weavers in the silk trade, and the ribbon trade in particular, and to enable them to support themselves and families, and also for protecting the parishes in which these trades are carried on, that some legislative interference should take place; and your committee think that a remedy could be found in the extension of the provisions of the Spitalfields and Dublin Acts, or at least a trial of that extension for a period of a few years, by way of experiment. Your committee cannot but remark, that whilst the Statute of 5th Elizabeth, c. 4, was in force, that the distressing circumstances now complained of, never occurred. 3 June, 1818. 16. An Act to make further Provisions for the Regulation of Cotton Mills and Factories, and for the better Preservation of the Health of young Persons employed therein. I. No child shall be employed in any description of work, for the spinning of cotton wool into yarn, or in any previous preparation of such wool, until he or she shall have attained the full age of nine years. II. And be it further enacted, that no person, being under the age of sixteen years, shall be employed in any description of work whatsoever, in spinning cotton wool into yarn, or in the previous preparation of such wool, or in the cleaning or repairing of any mill, manufactory or building, or any millwork or machinery therein, for more than twelve hours in any one day, exclusive of the necessary time for meals; such twelve hours to be between the hours of five o'clock in the morning and nine o'clock in the evening. III. And be it further enacted, that there shall be allowed IV. Provided nevertheless, and be it further enacted, that if at any time, in any such mill, manufactory or buildings as are situated upon streams of water, time shall be lost in consequence of the want of a due supply, or of an excess of water, then and in every such case, and so often as the same shall happen, it shall be lawful for the proprietors of any such mill, manufactory or building, to extend the before mentioned time of daily labour, after the rate of one additional hour per day, until such lost time shall have been made good, but no longer. V. And be it further enacted, that the ceilings and interior walls of every such mill, manufactory, or building shall be washed with quick lime and water twice in every year. 17. Slavery in Yorkshire. To the editors of the Leeds Mercury. "It is the pride of Britain that a Slave cannot exist on her soil; and if I read the genius of her constitution aright, I find that Slavery is most abhorrent to it—that the air which Britons breathe is free—the ground on which they tread is sacred to liberty." Rev. R.W. Hamilton's Speech at the Meeting held in the Cloth-Hall Yard, Sept. 22nd, 1830. Gentlemen,—No heart responded with truer accents to the sounds of liberty which were heard in the Leeds Cloth-hall yard, on the 22nd instant, than did mine, and from none could more sincere and earnest prayers arise to the throne of Heaven, that hereafter Slavery might only be known to Britain in the pages of her history. One shade alone obscured my pleasure, arising not from any difference in principle, but from the want Let the truth speak out, appalling as the statements may appear. The fact is true. Thousands of our fellow-creatures and fellow-subjects, both male and female, the inhabitants of a Yorkshire-town, (Yorkshire now represented in Parliament by the giant of anti-slavery principles, Thousands of little children, both male and female, but principally female, from SEVEN to fourteen years, are daily compelled to labour from six o'clock in the morning to seven in the evening with only—Britons, blush whilst you read it!—with only thirty minutes allowed for eating and recreation. The Blacks may be fairly compared to beasts of burden kept for their master's use. The whites to those which others keep and let for hire! If I have succeeded in calling the attention of your readers to the horrid and abominable system on which the worsted mills in and near Bradford are conducted, I have done some good. Why should not children working in them be protected by legislative enactments, as well as those who work in cotton mills. Christians should feel and act for those whom Christ so eminently loved and declared that "of such is the kingdom of heaven." Your insertion of the above in the Leeds Mercury, at your earliest convenience, will oblige, Gentlemen, Your most obedient servant, Fixby Hall, near Huddersfield, Sept. 29th, 1830. 18. An Act to regulate the Labour of Children and young Persons in the Mills and Factories of the United Kingdom. ... no person under eighteen years of age shall be allowed to work in the night, that is to say between the hours of half-past eight o'clock in the evening and half-past five o'clock in the morning, except as hereinafter provided, in or about any cotton, woollen, worsted, hemp, flax, tow, linen, or silk mill or factory.... II. And be it further enacted, that no person under the age of eighteen years shall be employed in any such mill or factory in such description of work as aforesaid more than twelve hours in any one day, nor more than sixty-nine hours in any one week, except as hereinafter provided. VI. And be it further enacted, that there shall be allowed in the course of every day not less than one and a half hours for meals to every such person restricted as hereinbefore provided to the performance of twelve hours work daily. VII. And be it enacted, that from and after the first day of January one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four it shall not be lawful for any person whatsoever to employ in any factory or mill as aforesaid, except in mills for the manufacture of silk, any child who shall not have completed his or her ninth year of age. VIII. And be it further enacted, that from and after the expiration of six months after the passing of this act, it shall not be lawful for any person whatsoever to employ, keep, or allow to remain in any factory or mill as aforesaid for a longer time than forty-eight hours in any one week, nor for a longer time than nine hours in any one day, except as herein provided, any child who shall not have completed his or her eleventh year of age, or after the expiration of eighteen months from the passing of this act any child who shall not have completed his or her twelfth year of age, or after the expiration of thirty months from the passing of this act any child who shall not have completed his or her thirteenth year of age: Provided nevertheless, that in mills for the manufacture of silk children under the age of thirteen years shall be allowed to work ten hours in any one day. [XI. No child under thirteen to be employed without a certificate that the child is of normal strength and appearance.] XVII.... it shall be lawful for His Majesty by Warrant under his Sign Manual to appoint during His Majesty's pleasure four persons to be Inspectors of factories and places where the labour of children and young persons under eighteen years of age is employed, ... and such Inspectors or any of them are hereby empowered to enter any factory or mill, and any school attached or belonging thereto, at all times and seasons by day or by night, when such mills or factories are at work.... XVIII. And be it further enacted, that the said Inspectors or any of them shall have power and are hereby required to make all such rules, regulations, and orders as may be necessary for the due execution of this act, which rules, regulations, and orders shall be binding on all persons subject to the provisions of this act; and such inspectors are also hereby authorised and required to enforce the attendance at school of children employed in factories according to the provisions of this act.... XX. And be it further enacted, that from and after the expiration of six months from the passing of this act, every child hereinbefore restricted to the performance of forty-eight hours of labour in any one week shall, so long as such child shall be within the said restricted age, attend some school.... 19. Evidence of Hugh Mackenzie, June 28, 1834. Have the goodness to explain to the Committee ... what are the boards of trade for which you have sent up petitions to the House? We have endeavoured upon many occasions to make this system of a board of trade, which we pray for, as well understood as possible.... Now the old Spitalfields Act every one that is not friendly to the present proposed plans of boards of trade never fails to bring forward as an objection, as a thing which has been practically tried and failed. There is, however, nothing more different. The Spitalfields Act carried its own ruin in its constitution; it was framed upon the principle of being local, and confined to one place only. It was impossible that such an act could stand long, for whilst competition went on in the country, other manufacturers who were only at ten miles distance, or anywhere where the act did not extend, were at liberty to set up the same kind of work, and pay for it, without any transgression of the law, at a great reduction. This being the case, the trade of Spitalfields then began to spread to different parts of the country where the act did not extend; the consequence was, that Spitalfields was soon undersold by cheaper goods than it could make itself, and this led to the ruin of the Spitalfields Act. But had the thing been made general, and extended over the whole nation, the towns in the neighbourhood could not have underwrought Spitalfields; they would have been on the same footing. Had that act been made general, it would have been very good for the country at large; not the fixed price that the Spitalfields Act contained, but the minimum, the lowest price; it might rise and fall according to the circumstances of the trade. Now our views of it are exactly and principally founded upon that; a board of trade that shall extend over the whole nation, and that it shall be under one superintending head. We suppose that that superintending head could be nothing short of His Majesty's Board of Trade in London, and that boards of trade in local Have you any parties introduced in these boards of trade consisting of masters and workmen, who would belong to neither party, who would act in conjunction with them in arbitrating where there was a difference of opinion whether the master paid too little or too much wages? Yes, we had conceived that the self-interest of both parties might induce them to differ, supposing an equal number of manufacturers and weavers composed this board; and one party under such circumstances must of course be in the wrong. Now the only arbiter that could be brought forth under such circumstances must be a neutral, that was pretty well versed in the nature of trade, and that arbitrator could be none other than His Majesty's Board of Trade in London. In Glasgow or anywhere in Scotland, have you a board of trade in operation upon the principles you approve of, that you think would answer all purposes? It is going on just now; it is working at Paisley very finely, and at Glasgow. Just explain those principles as far as you can? The working of the Paisley board at the present time, and the working of the Glasgow board, are exactly upon the same principles. The principle is this, that for all the species of work made at Paisley, the manufacturers made out a table of prices, and the weavers made out another; they were reciprocally handed to each other for correction, and the result was, they came to a mutual agreement; they entered into a 12 months' agreement, that they would issue no more work out "The principal feature of Mr. Fielden's Bill is, that returns shall be made every three or six months of the prices of weaving paid by the smallest number of manufacturers, who collectively made one-half of the goods of any description in the parish or township whence the returns are sent, and the average of the highest prices paid by a majority of such manufacturers, shall be the lowest price to be paid in such parish or township during the succeeding three or six months. The effects of the measure would be to withdraw from the worst-paying masters the power which they now possess of regulating wages, and to confer it upon those whose object it is to raise the condition and character of the workpeople." 20. An Act to prohibit the employment of women and girls in mines and collieries, to regulate the employment of boys, and to make other provisions relating to persons working therein. ... That from and after the passing of this act it shall not be lawful for any owner of any mine or colliery whatsoever to employ any female person within any mine or colliery, or permit any female person to work or be therein, for the purpose of working therein, other than such as were at or before the passing of this act employed within such mine or colliery; and that from and after three calendar months from the passing of this act it shall not be lawful for any owner of any mine or colliery to employ any female person who at the passing of this act shall be under the age of eighteen years within any mine or colliery.... II.... That from and after the first day of March, one thousand eight hundred and forty-three, it shall not be lawful for any owner of any mine or colliery to employ any male person under the age of ten years ... other than such as at the passing of this act shall have attained the age of nine years, and were at or before the passing of this act employed within such mine or colliery. III.... That it shall be lawful for one of Her Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, if and when he shall think fit, to appoint any proper person or persons to visit and inspect any mine or colliery; and it shall be lawful for every person [VII. No provision of the Act to affect employment on the surface.] X. And whereas the practice of paying wages to workmen at public houses is found to be highly injurious to the best interests of the working classes; be it therefore enacted, that from and after the expiration of three months from the passing of this act no proprietor or worker of any mine or colliery, or other person, shall pay or cause to be paid any wages ... at or within any tavern, public house, beer shop, or other house of entertainment. [XI. Wages so paid can be recovered as if no payment made.] 21. Hours of Labour in Factories. House of Commons in Committee on the Factories Bill. March 15, 1844. Lord Ashley rose to propose the amendment of which he had given notice— "That, the word 'night' shall be taken to mean from six o'clock in the evening to six o'clock in the following morning; and the word 'mealtime' shall be taken to mean an interval of cessation from work for the purpose of rest and refreshment, at the rate of two hours a day, with a view to effect a limitation of the hours of labour to ten in the day." The form of my amendment (said the noble Lord) requires some preliminary explanation. I move it in its present shape at the suggestion of my right hon. friend and the Government, though I fear that in adopting that course I subject myself to some disadvantage. The House will allow me at the outset to explain my amendment. I propose that the word "night," in this clause shall be taken to mean from six o'clock in the evening till six on the following morning, that will leave twelve clear hours during which work shall cease, and I propose further, that out of the twelve hours of day, there shall be two hours during which there shall be a cessation of labour; but that And here let me anticipate the constant, but unjust, accusation that I am animated by a peculiar hostility against factory masters, and I have always selected them as exclusive objects of attack. I must assert that the charge, though specious, is altogether untrue. I began, I admit, this public movement by an effort to improve the condition of the factories; but this I did, not because I ascribed to that department of industry a monopoly of all that was pernicious and cruel, but because it was then before the public eye, comprised the wealthiest and most responsible proprietors, and presented the greatest facilities for legislation. As soon as I had the power, I showed my impartiality by moving the House for the Children's Employment Commission. The curious in human suffering may decide on the respective This will conclude the statement that I have to make to the House—and now, sir, who will assert that these things should be permitted to exist? Who will hesitate to apply the axe to the root of the tree, or, at least, endeavour to lop off some of its deadliest branches? What arguments from general principles will they adduce against my proposition? What, drawn from peculiar circumstances? They cannot urge that particular causes in England give rise to particular results; the same cause prevails in various countries; and wherever it is found, it produces the same effects. I have already stated its operation in France, in Russia, in Switzerland, in Austria, and in Prussia; I may add also in America; for I perceive by the papers of the 1st of February, that a Bill has been proposed in the Legislature of Pennsylvania, to place all persons under the age of sixteen within the protection of the "ten hours" limit. I never thought that we should have learned justice from the City of Philadelphia. In October last I visited an immense establishment in Austria, which gives employment to several hundred hands; I went over the whole, and conversed with the managers, who detailed to me the same evils and the same fruits as those I have narrated to the House—prolonged labour of sixteen, and seventeen hours, intense fatigue, enfeebled frame, frequent consumptive disorders, and early deaths—yet the locality had every advantage; well-built and airy houses in a fine open country, and a rural district; nevertheless, so injurious are the effects, that the manager added, stating at the same time the testimony of many others who resided in districts where mills are more abundant, that, in ten years from the time at which he spoke, "there would hardly be a Let me remind, too, the House of the mighty change which has taken place among the opponents to this question. When I first brought it forward in 1833, I could scarcely number a dozen masters on my side, I now count them by hundreds. We have had, from the West Riding of Yorkshire, a petition signed by 300 mill-owners, praying for a limitation of labour to ten hours in the day. Some of the best names in Lancashire openly support me. I have letters from others who secretly wish me well, but hesitate to proclaim their adherence; and even among the members of the Anti-Corn-Law League, I may boast of many firm and efficient friends. Sir, under all the aspects in which it can be viewed, this system of things must be abrogated or restrained—it affects the internal tranquillity of those vast provinces, and all relations between employer and employed—it forms a perpetual grievance and ever comes uppermost among their complaints in all times of difficulty and discontent. It disturbs the order of nature, and the rights of the labouring men, by ejecting the males from the workshop, and filling their places by females, who are thus withdrawn from all their domestic duties and exposed to insufferable toil at half the wages that would be assigned to males, for the support of their families. It affects—nay, more, it absolutely annihilates, all the arrangements and provisions of domestic economy—thrift and management are altogether impossible; had they twice the amount of their present wages, they would be but slightly benefited—everything runs to waste; the house and children are deserted; the wife can do nothing for her husband and family; she can neither cook, wash, repair clothes, nor take charge of the infants; all must be paid for out of her scanty earnings, and, after all, most imperfectly done. Dirt, discomfort, ignorance, recklessness, are the portion of such households; the wife has no time for learning in her youth, and none for practice in her riper age; the females are most unequal to the duties of the men in the factories; and all things go to rack and ruin, because the men can discharge at home no one of the especial duties that Providence has assigned to the females. Why need I detain the House by a specification of these injurious results? They will find them stated at painful length in the Second Report "I have never been (he tells you) in any town in Great Britain or in Europe, in which degeneracy of form and colour from the national standard has been so obvious as in Manchester." I have, moreover, the authority of one of the most ardent antagonists, himself a mighty mill-owner, that, if the present system of labour be persevered in, the "county of Lancaster will speedily become a province of pigmies." The toil of the females has hitherto been considered the characteristic of savage life; but we, in the height of our refinement, impose on the wives and daughters of England a burthen from which, at least during pregnancy, they would be exempted even in slave-holding states, and among the Indians of America. But every consideration sinks to nothing compared with that which springs from the contemplation of the moral mischiefs this system engenders and sustains. You are poisoning the very sources of order and happiness and virtue; you are tearing up, root and branch, all the relations of families to each other; you are annulling, as it were, the institution of domestic life, decreed by Providence Himself, the wisest and kindest of earthly ordinances, the mainstay of social peace and virtue, and therein of national security. Right Hon. Sir J.R.G. Graham Sir, I never rose to discharge any duty in this House which I considered at the same time more painful and more imperative. The pain, I must admit, is considerably increased by the eloquence of the address which my noble friend has just concluded, and especially of the passage which marked the close of his speech. The noble lord has asked whether any man will be found in this House to resist the proposal which he has thought it his duty to make, and he has appealed to considerations of justice and mercy, intimating, if not directly, The noble lord said, the time is come when, in his opinion, it is necessary to lay the axe to the root of the tree. Before we do this let me entreat the Committee carefully to consider what is that tree which we are to lay prostrate. If it be, as I suppose, the tree of the commercial greatness of this country, I am satisfied that although some of its fruits may be bitter, yet upon the whole it has produced that greatness, that wealth, that prosperity, which make these small islands most remarkable in the history of the civilised world, which, upon the whole, diffuse happiness amidst this great community, and render this nation one of the most civilised, if not the most civilised, and powerful on the face of the globe. My noble friend stated that he would not enter into the commercial part of the question; but if I can show that the inevitable result of the abridgement of time will be the diminution of wages to the employed, then I say, with reference to the interests of the working classes themselves, there never was a more doubtful question before Parliament than this. The House will remember that the branches of manufacture affected by this Bill are dependent upon machinery. Such is the rapidity with which improvements are made, that no machinery can last more than twelve or thirteen years without alterations; and master manufacturers have been obliged to pull down machinery that was perfectly sound and good to make the necessary alterations which competition forces upon them. Well, then, it is necessary to replace machinery in the course of twelve or thirteen years. You are now discussing whether you shall abridge by one-sixth the period of time in which capital is to be replaced, all interest upon it paid, and the original outlay restored. Such an abridgement would render it impossible that capital with interest should be restored. Then in the close race of competition which our manufacturers are now running with foreign competitors, it must be "I have made an estimate of the loss a mill would sustain from working eleven hours a day only instead of twelve, and I find it would amount to £850 per annum. If it were reduced to ten hours, it would be about £1,530 per annum. Unless, therefore, the mill-owner can obtain a proportionately higher price for the commodity, he must reduce wages or abandon his trade. I have made some calculations as to the probable reduction of wages, and of the whole loss that would be thrown on the operatives. I make the amount in the case of eleven hours a day to be 13 per cent., and in the case of ten hours a day 25 per cent. at the present average rate of wages." Now, I believe this to be perfectly accurate. The question then arises, whether you shall create in the manufacturing districts one sudden general fall of wages to the amount of 25 per cent? I believe that the adoption of the motion of my noble friend would produce that effect. Though I am most anxious to take every precaution with regard to infant labour—though I am as firmly resolved as my noble friend to urge upon Mr. T. Milner Gibson As the right hon. baronet had alluded to the argument of not destroying the profits upon manufactures, he (Mr. Gibson) would read some remarks upon that point by Mr. Senior, a gentleman whose name would be of great weight with hon. members. In 1836 or 1837, Mr. Senior, with some other gentlemen, went into the manufacturing districts with the view of ascertaining the effect of factory legislation, and making observations upon the factory population. Mr. Senior wrote a letter dated the 28th March, 1837, to Mr. Poulett Thomson to the following effect:— "Under the present law, no mill in which persons under eighteen years of age are employed (and, therefore, scarcely any mill at all), can be worked more than eleven and a half hours a day, that is twelve hours for five days in a week, and nine on Saturday. The following analysis will show that in a mill so worked the whole net profit is derived from the last hour. I will suppose a manufacturer of 100,000l.—80,000l. in his mill and machinery, and 20,000l. in raw material and wages. The annual return of that mill, supposing the capital to be turned once a year, and gross profits to be 15 per cent., ought to be goods worth 115,000l. produced by the constant conversion and reconversion of the 20,000l. circulating capital, from money into goods and from goods into money, in periods of rather more than two months. Of this 115,000l., each of the 23 half hours of work produces 5-115ths, or 1-23rd. Of these 23-23rds (constituting the whole 115,000l.) 20, that is to say, 100,000l. out of the 115,000l., simply replace the capital; 1-23rd (or 5,000l. out of the 115,000l.) makes up for the deterioration of the mill and machinery. The remaining 2-23rds, the last two of the twenty-three half hours of every day, produce the net profit of 10 per cent. If, therefore (prices remaining the same), the factory could be kept at work thirteen hours instead of eleven It was clear that this principle of Mr. Senior's was sound, and if hon. gentlemen would consider it carefully they would find it indisputable. The House would consider whether they would not, as the right hon. baronet had expressed it, be affecting the safety and stability of the great staple manufactures, under the impression that they were legislating humanely for the working classes, while, in point of fact, the result would be that by the depreciation of manufactures, the greatest possible injury would be inflicted upon the operatives. Mr. J. Bright "I have made very particular inquiries respecting the health of every child whom I have examined, and I find that the average annual sickness of each child is not more than four days; at least not more than four days are lost by each child in a year in consequence of sickness. This includes disorders of every kind, for the most part induced by causes wholly unconnected with factory labour. I have been not a little surprised to find so little sickness which can fairly be attributed to mill work. I have met with very few children who have suffered from injuries occasioned by machinery; and the protection, especially in new factories, is now so complete, that accidents will, I doubt not, speedily become rare. I have not met with a single instance, out of 1,656 children whom I examined, of deformity that is referable to factory labour. It must be admitted that factory children do not present the same blooming, robust appearance, as is witnessed among children who labour in the open air; but I question if they are not more exempt from acute disease, and do not, on the whole, suffer less sickness than those who are regarded as having more healthy employments." This was the statement of a man who had for a long time been inspecting-surgeon in a district where there are a large number of mills, and it may be taken as a fair criterion of the rest. In the analysis of the Factory Report, page 16, I find the following statement:— "In conclusion, then, it is proved, by a preponderance of seventy-two witnesses against seventeen, that the health of those employed in cotton mills is nowise inferior to that in other occupations; and, secondly, it is proved by tables drawn up by the secretary of a sick club, and by the more extensive tables of a London actuary, that From the Factory Inspector's Reports in 1834 I have extracted the following testimony, and no doubt this evidence is quite as good as if it had been given this year; for from that time to this there has been a progressive improvement in everything relating to the management of the factories of the north of England. "The general tenor of all the medical reports in my possession confirms Mr. Harrison's view of factory labour on the health of the younger branches of working hands. It is decidedly not injurious to health or longevity, compared with other employments." Then, in page 51, Mr. Saunders says, "It appears in evidence, that of all employments to which children are subjected, those carried on in factories are among the least laborious, and of all departments of in-door labour, amongst the least unwholesome." Mr. Horner says, "It is gratifying to be able to state, that I have not had a single complaint laid before me either on the part of the masters against their servants, or of the servants against their masters; nor have I seen or heard of any instance of ill-treatment of children, or of injury to their health by their employment." And on the 21st of July, 1834, speaking on the employment of children, he says: "And as their occupation in the mills is so light as to cause no bodily fatigue, they would pass their eight hours there as beneficially as at home; indeed, in most cases, far more so." I think I have now said enough with regard to this part of the subject—apparently too much for hon. gentlemen opposite, who appear only anxious to hear and applaud one side, and many of whom have not even heard that. But notwithstanding all these facts I admit there are evils, serious evils, and much distress in the manufacturing districts; many are still out of employment, and in many branches of trade wages are low. We have violent fluctuations in trade, and periods when multitudes endure great suffering and it becomes this House to inquire why do these fluctuations occur, and what is the great cause of their suffering. I attribute much of this The noble lord, the Member for Liverpool, says, he is most anxious to improve the condition of the working classes; he points to more education, a higher state of morals, better food and better clothing, as the result of the adoption of the proposition now before the House. But there is one thing that the noble lord has failed to prove; he has failed to show how working only ten hours will give the people more sugar. The noble lord is the representative of the sugar monopolists of Liverpool, and, after voting to deprive the people of sugar, he is perfectly consistent in denying them the liberty even to work. The people ask for freedom for their industry, for the removal of the shackles on their trade; you deny it to them, and then forbid them to labour, as if working less would give them more food, whilst your monopoly laws make food scarce and dear. Give them liberty to work, give them the market of the world for their produce, give them the power to live comfortably, and increasing means and increasing intelligence will speedily render them independent enough and wise enough to bring the duration of labour to that point at which life 22. An Act to amend the Laws relating to Labour in Factories. XX. And be it enacted, that no child or young person shall be allowed to clean any part of the mill-gearing in a factory while the same is in motion for the purpose of propelling any part of the manufacturing machinery; and no child or young person shall be allowed to work between the fixed and traversing part of any self-acting machine while the latter is in motion by the action of the steam engine, water-wheel, or other mechanical power. XXI. And be it enacted, that every fly-wheel directly connected with the steam engine or water-wheel or other mechanical power, whether in the engine house or not, and every part of a steam engine and water-wheel, and every hoist or teagle, near to which children or young persons are liable to pass or be employed, and all parts of the mill-gearing in a factory, shall be securely fenced; and every wheel-race not otherwise secured shall be fenced close to the edge of the wheel-race; and the said protection to each part shall not be removed while the parts required to be fenced are in motion by the action of the steam engine, water-wheel, or other mechanical power for any manufacturing process. XXIV. And be it enacted, that one of Her Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, on the report and recommendation of an inspector, may empower such inspector to direct one or more actions to be brought in the name and on behalf of any person who shall be reported by such inspector to have received any bodily injury from the machinery of any factory, for the recovery of damages for and on behalf of such person. XXIX. And be it enacted, that every child who shall have completed his eighth year, and shall have obtained the surgical certificate required by this act of having completed his eighth year, may be employed in a factory in the same manner and XXX. And be it enacted, that no child shall be employed in any factory more than six hours and thirty minutes in any one day, save as hereinafter excepted, unless the dinner time of the young persons in such factory shall begin at one of the clock, in which case children beginning to work in the morning may work for seven hours in one day; and no child who shall have been employed in a factory before noon of any day shall be employed in the same or any other factory, either for the purpose of recovering lost time or otherwise, after one of the clock in the afternoon of the same day, save in the cases when children may work on alternate days, or in silk factories more than seven hours in any one day, as hereinafter provided. XXXI. And be it enacted, that in any factory in which the labour of young persons is restricted to ten hours in any one day it shall be lawful to employ any child ten hours in any one day on three alternate days of every week, provided that such child shall not be employed in any manner in the same or in any other factory on two successive days, nor after half past four of the clock in the afternoon of any Saturday: Provided always, that the parent or person having direct benefit from the wages of any child so employed shall cause such child to attend some school for at least five hours between the hours of eight of the clock in the morning and six of the clock in the afternoon of the same day on each week day preceding each day of employment in the factory, unless such preceding day shall be a Saturday, when no school attendance of such child shall be required: Provided also, that on Monday in every week after that in which such child began to work in the factory, or any other day appointed for that purpose by the inspector of the District, the occupier of the factory shall obtain a certificate from a schoolmaster, according to the form and directions given in the schedule (A) to this act annexed, that such child has attended school as required by this act; but it shall not be lawful to employ any child in a factory more than seven hours in any one day, until the owner of the factory shall have sent a notice in writing to the inspector of the district of his intention to restrict the hours of labour of young persons in the factory to ten hours a day, and to employ children ten hours XXXII. And be it enacted, that no female above the age of eighteen years shall be employed in any factory save for the same time and in the same manner as young persons may be employed in factories; and that any person who shall be convicted of employing a female above the age of eighteen years for any longer time or in any other manner shall for every such offence be adjudged to pay the same penalty as is provided in the like case for employing a young person contrary to law: provided always, that nothing herein or in the Factory Act contained as to certificates of age shall be taken to apply to females above the age of eighteen years. 23. That in all cases the local administrative body appointed for the purpose have the special charge and direction of all the works required for sanitary purposes, but that the Crown possess a general power of supervision. That before the adoption of any general measure for drainage a plan and survey upon a proper scale, including all necessary details, be obtained, and submitted for approval to a competent authority. That the Crown be empowered to define and to enlarge from time to time the area for drainage included within the jurisdiction of the local administrative body. That, upon representation being made by the municipal or other authority, or by a certain number of the inhabitants of any town or district, or part thereof, setting forth defects in the condition of such place, as to drainage, sewerage, paving, cleansing, or other sanitary matters, the Crown appoint a competent person to inspect and report upon the state of the defects, and, if satisfied of the necessity, have power to enforce upon the local administrative body the due execution of the law. That the management of the drainage of the entire area, as defined for each district, be placed under one jurisdiction. That the construction of sewers, branch sewers, and house drains, be entrusted to the local administrative body. That the duty of providing the funds necessary to be imposed upon the local administrative body, and that the cost of making the main and branch sewers be equitably distributed among the owners of the properties benefited; and that the expense of making the house-drains be charged upon the owners of the house, to which the drains are attached, etc. That some restriction be placed on the proportionate rates in the pound to be levied in one year, but if the local administrative body finds that there is need for larger funds, for the immediate execution of works for sanitary measures, than can be provided by such rates, it be empowered to raise, by loan on security of the rates, subject to the approval of the Crown, such sums as may be requisite for effecting the objects in view. That provision always be made for the gradual liquidation of such debts, within a given number of years. That the whole of the paving, and the construction of the surface of all streets, courts and alleys be placed under the management of the same authority as the drainage. That the provisions in local Acts, vesting the right to all the dust, ashes, and street refuse in the local administrative body, be made general; and that the cleansing of all privies and cess-pools at proper times, and on due notice, be exclusively entrusted to it. That it be rendered imperative on the local administrative body, charged with the management of the sewerage and drainage, to procure a supply of water in sufficient quantities not only for the domestic needs of the inhabitants, but also for cleansing the streets, scouring the sewers and drains, and the extinction of fire.... That measures be adopted for promoting a proper system of ventilation in all edifices for public assemblage and resort, especially those for the education of youth. That, on complaint of the parish medical or other authorised officer, that any house or premises are in such a filthy and unwholesome state as to endanger the health of the public, and an infectious disorder exists therein, the local administra That the local administrative body have power to appoint, subject to the approval of the Crown, a medical officer properly qualified to inspect and report periodically upon the sanitary condition of the town or district, to ascertain the true causes of disease and death, more especially of epidemics increasing the rates of mortality, and the circumstances which originate and maintain such diseases, and injuriously affect the public health of such town or populous district. [Provisions for abating factory exhalations and nuisances; for regulating the width of new courts, the accommodation of cellar-dwellings and the sanitation of new houses; for power to buy out new water companies at the end of a term of years; for controlling lodging-houses; for providing public spaces and walks.] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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