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THE 
 
 EN&LISH FACTOEY LEGISLATION. 
 
 BY 
 
 EKNST, EDLER VON PLENER, 
 
 FIRST SECRETARY TO THE IMPERIAL AND ROYAL AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN 
 EMBASSY IN LONDON. 
 
 TRAl^SLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL GERMAN, 
 
 WITH THE author's CONSENT, 
 
 By FEEDEKICK L. WEINMANN. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION 
 By ANTHONY JOHN MUNDELLA, Esq., M.P. 
 
 <^^ OF THE^ 
 
 TJNI7EESITr; 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1873. 
 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
^e''*" 
 
 f.1^6 
 
 LONDON : 
 BKADBURV, AGNEW, & CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. 
 
 ^ 
 
 s-r&i^' 
 
TO 
 
 THE RIGHT HONOUKABLE 
 
 THE EAKL OF SHAFTESBUEY, E.G. 
 
 To whose untiring efforts and powerful advocacy on the 
 Platform and in the Senate millions of toilers in the 
 Factories of Great Britain are indebted for those wise 
 and beneficent laws which have been instrumental in 
 protecting Infant life, securing the education of young 
 persons and children, and promoting their material 
 and moral well-being, the following translation is, with 
 his Lordship's kind permission, 
 
 Respectfully dedicated 
 
 By his Lordship's 
 Obedient, humble servant, 
 
 FREDEEICK L. WEINMANN. 
 
 LoxroN, February, 1873. 
 
INTEODUCTION. 
 
 A FEW months ago Dr. Weinmann con- 
 sulted me as to the desh'ability of publishing 
 a translation of Herr von Plener's work, *' Die 
 Englische Fabrikgesetzgebung." There ap- 
 peared to me such abundant reason for beheving 
 that its publication would be useful and ac- 
 ceptable to the English public, and specially 
 opportune at the present time, that I urged upon 
 him to undertake it in the form in which it is 
 now presented to the reader. 
 
 So far as I am aware, Herr von Plener's work 
 is the first attempt at a complete history of 
 English Factory Legislation and the causes 
 which gave rise to it. The reviews of it, both 
 English and foreign, do justice to the great 
 care and accuracy of the original, and I venture 
 to think that in these respects it has not 
 suffered in translation. Having myself had 
 nearly thirty years' experience of the working 
 of the Factory Acts, and having taken during 
 
vi IXTEODTJCTION. 
 
 that period considerable interest in their growth 
 and development, I feel that I can hardly 
 speak too strongly in appreciation of the care 
 and industry of Herr von Plener in the com- 
 pilation of this history, and of his just per- 
 ception of the causes which have led to such 
 beneficent results. 
 
 The many evils in which the Factory Acts 
 had their origin have nearly passed away 
 from the knowledge and recollection of the 
 present generation of Enghshmen. There are 
 even some amongst our ablest legislators and 
 political economists who begin to question 
 whether they were ever needed, or could fairly 
 be regarded as within the functions of Govern- 
 ment. To such questionings this history will 
 furnish a sufficient answer. And if any further 
 answer is needed, I would give it in the 
 eloquent and forcible reasoning of the Duke 
 of Argyll. Writing in 1867, he says :— - 
 
 "The last report on the employment of children 
 shows that evils as bad as ever existed before 
 the passing of the Factory Acts prevail at this 
 moment among large classes of our operative 
 population, and demand again, as imperatively as 
 before, an authoritative interference of Positive 
 Institution with the freedom of the individual 
 
IXTRODITCTIOX. vii 
 
 will. The fact of such legislation has indeed 
 gained a sort of silent acquiescence, and some 
 of the old opponents have admitted that their 
 fear of the results in an economical point of 
 view has proved erroneous. But there is no' 
 clear and well-grounded intellectual perception 
 of the deep foundations of principle.on which 
 it rests. Nor is there among a large section 
 of politicians any adequate appreciation of the 
 powerful influence it has had in improving the 
 physical condition of the people and securing 
 their contentment with the laws under which 
 they live. 
 
 "When, however, we think for a moment 
 of the frightful nature of the evils which this 
 legislation has checked, and which to a large 
 extent it has remedied — when we recollect the 
 inevitable connection between suifering and poli- 
 tical disaffection — when we consider the great 
 moral laws which were being trodden under 
 foot from mere thoughtlessness and greed — 
 we shall be convinced that if, during the last 
 fifty years, it has been given to this country) 
 to make any progress in political science, that 
 progress has been in nothing happier than in 
 the factory legislation. 
 
viii INTRODUCTIOX. 
 
 " No Government and no Minister has ever 
 done a greater — ^perhaps, all things considered, 
 none has ever done so great a service. It was 
 altogether a new era in legislation — the adop- 
 tion of a new principle — the establishment of a 
 new idea." * 
 
 An argument which is freely advanced 
 against the interference of the State with the 
 relations ot capital and labour is that it tends to 
 undermine the independence and self-reliance 
 of the class which it seeks to protect, and 
 teaches them to look to the State rather than 
 to their own exertions to remedy evils requiring 
 redress. My answer to this is that the factory 
 operatives of Lancashire and Yorkshire have 
 made greater advances in self-reliance and in- 
 dependence during the past fifty years than any 
 other class of English operatives. Building and 
 Benefit Societies, Co-operative Associations, 
 both for distribution and production, have taken 
 their rise and flourish amongst them on a scale 
 of magnitude unknown in any other part of the 
 United Kingdom. 
 
 But a special value and interest attaches to 
 Herr von Plener's history at this moment from the 
 fact that in almost all countries where manufac- 
 
 * The Reign of Law, cap. VII., p. 402. 
 
INTRODUCTION. ix 
 
 turing is conducted on an extensive scale, and 
 where the social and educational condition of the 
 people is an object of public solicitude, steps 
 are being taken to adopt and extend the prin- 
 ciples of English Factory Legislation. Although 
 to our own country belongs the honour of 
 their initiation, others have gone far beyond us 
 in their application, more especially in securing 
 physical and educational advantages for toiling 
 children. 
 
 By a law passed in the North German Par- 
 liament in 1869, no child under the age of 12 
 years can be employed in any factory, and all 
 children so employed above the age of 12 must 
 attend school daily till the completion of their 
 14th, and in some States till the completion 
 of their 16th year. 
 
 The Social Science Association of Germany 
 warmly advocates the restriction of the hours 
 of labour of unmarried women, and the en- 
 tire exclusion of married women from factory 
 labour. 
 
 In nearly all the cantons of Switzerland 
 children are excluded from factories and work- 
 shops till the completion of their 12th year, 
 and are continued as half-timers till the 14th, 
 15th, and 16th year. 
 
X INTEODUCTIOX. 
 
 France has been more culpable than any- 
 other State in its neglect of suitable regula- 
 tions for the women and children employed 
 in its vast industries. The events of the 
 late disastrous war have at length aroused her 
 attention to some of the causes of her weakness 
 and to the fearful consequences of her long in- 
 difference and neglect. In May of the present 
 year the National Assembly appointed a Com- 
 mission of Inquiry on the motion of M. Joubert. 
 Those who are curious to know the results and 
 are unable to avail themselves of the full report 
 of the commission should read an article which 
 appeared in the Revue des Deux Mondes of 
 July 15th, 1872, entitled " Les Lois sur le 
 Travail des Enfimts," by M. Eugene d'Eichthal. 
 Although in depicting the horrors, moral and 
 physical, w^hich have resulted from the un- 
 restricted employment of women and children 
 it falls short of the report of the Commission, it 
 gives a faithful resume of the report and of 
 the proposed changes in the law. The latter, I 
 believe, have now received the sanction of the 
 Legislature, and may be briefly summarised as 
 follows : — No child may be employed in any 
 factory or workshop until it has attained the 
 age of 10 years. Until 13 years are reached 
 
INTRODUCTION. xi 
 
 the child must attend school half-time. On 
 attaining the age of 13 the child will be 
 subjected to examination to ascertain if it 
 has received a fair elementary education, and 
 if unable to satisfy the inspector on this head 
 must continue as a half-timer at school and 
 work until the completion of the 15th year. 
 Children may not be employed in mines or 
 quarries before the age of 13, nor females at 
 any age. Children under 16 and women are 
 prohibited from working on Sundays and on 
 fete-days recognised by the law. These, and 
 many other conditions, are to be enforced by a 
 strict system of inspection. 
 
 Belgium has in preparation a new and com- 
 plete industrial code, according to which the 
 labour of children will be regulated from the 
 10th to the 18th year. Sweden has already 
 completed hers ; and in the manufacturing 
 States of the American Union great progress 
 is making in improving the laws relating to 
 labour and in the better enforcement of those 
 which already exist.* 
 
 There is abundant evidence that in our own 
 country the laws regulating the employment of 
 
 * See Report of the Bureau of Statistics of Labour. Boston. 1871. 
 
xii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 children, young persons, and women will con- 
 tinue for some time to come to receive the 
 attention of the Legislature. During the last 
 session of Parliament a bill was introduced by 
 myself and others having for its object the re- 
 duction of the hours of labour in factories of 
 the above mentioned from 60 to 54 hours per 
 week. As a Commission appointed by the 
 Government is now engaged in investigating 
 the conditions of factory labour and is expected 
 to report thereon early in the next session, I 
 refrain from further comment on the subject. 
 It is sufficient for my purpose to state that the 
 factory operatives of Lancashire and Yorkshire, 
 supported by many of the largest employers, 
 are urging the reduction of hours on the atten- 
 tion of Parliament ; and although the majority 
 of the employers are opposed to any change 
 in this direction, many of them are anxious 
 that the minimum age of the children to be 
 employed should be increased. In the last 
 Report of the Inspectors of Factories, Mr. 
 Redgrave expresses himself very decidedly in 
 favour of this view. He says : — 
 
 " I have long regarded the employment of 
 children of 8 years of age in factories as a great 
 social evil, an evil which is greatly increased 
 
INTRODXJCTIOX. xiii 
 
 when parents endeavour to set them to work 
 before that age. I thmk they ought not to be 
 employed in factories until they are 10 years 
 of age, and that no child under 13 should be 
 employed at all in rooms in which processes 
 are carried on which would affect the health of 
 children of tender years, as the card-room in a 
 cotton factory, or the heckling-room in a flax 
 factory, or in running moulds in a pottery." * 
 
 Mr. Baker's report dwells largely upon the 
 injurious effects of factory labour on women — 
 more especially upon married women — and the 
 physical degeneracy and high rate of mortality 
 it entails upon their offspring. This branch of 
 the subject is pregnant with such important 
 consequences to the nation that I specially 
 commend his last report to the careful consider- 
 ation of all who take any interest in social and 
 sanitary science. 
 
 The following extract from Mr. Baker's Ee- 
 port will suf&ce to show the importance which 
 he attaches to this branch of the subject : — 
 
 " In whatever employment we find females 
 engaged (for we see that textile occupations 
 have now ceased to be legislated for specially), 
 
 * Report of Inspectors of Factories, 1872, p. 22. 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the social value of this question must at once 
 present itself to every considerate mind. In 
 whatever light we may regard it, it is of the 
 deepest interest to society, as. well as to indi- 
 viduals. I approach it, therefore, with a strong 
 sense of my inability to do justice to it. And 
 yet I think the time has arrived when a sub- 
 ject of so much importance to the welfare of 
 the working classes may well put in a claim to 
 some of that consideration which the progress 
 of social and sanitary questions, generally, is 
 eliciting." * 
 
 I have endeavoured in the foregoing pages 
 to enlist the interest of the reader in the whole 
 question of Industrial Legislation rather than 
 to enforce upon his attention any special views 
 of my own. I do not conceal my agreement 
 with the Duke of Argyll, that " progress in 
 Political Science has been in nothing happier 
 than in Factory Legislation." Public opinion 
 of late has made marvellous advances in the 
 direction of compulsory education, and this can 
 only be accomplished by harmonising the laws 
 which reguhxte education and Industrial em- 
 ployment. If, however, we are content to set 
 
 * Report of Inspectors of Factories, 1872, p. 81. 
 
IXTRODUCTIOX. xv 
 
 -education aside, it is impossible to overlook the 
 national consequences of physical degeneracy 
 in a large and increasing portion of the popu- 
 lation. Physical degeneracy implies mental 
 and moral weakness, with their inevitable ac- 
 companiments — intemperance and crime." 
 
 I can hardly do better, in closing my re- 
 marks, than by submitting to the reader the 
 following suggestive statement on this subject, 
 extracted from the Report of the French 
 Commission, to w^hich I have previously re- 
 ferred : — 
 
 " It cannot be said that the apprehensions 
 which have prevailed on this subject are ex- 
 aggerated. The statistics of military recruit- 
 ing show that out of 325,000 young men 
 who have been presented to the conscription 
 109,000 have been rejected for defective height, 
 ricketiness, infirmity, or feebleness of consti- 
 tution. In this contingent of vice and malady, 
 what is the proportion furnished by the rural 
 districts and the centres of industry ? Against 
 10,000 conscripts from 10 agricultural depart- 
 ments the proportion rejected is 4,029 ; against 
 the same number of able conscripts from 10 
 industrial departments the number rejected is 
 9,930. In the departments of the Marne, the 
 
xvi INTRODUCTION". 
 
 Seine-Inferieure, and the Eure, essentially manu- 
 facturing departments, against 10,000 ad- 
 judged fit for service the number rejected is 
 14,451." 
 
 A. J. MUNDELLA. 
 
 London, 
 January, 1873. 
 
AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 The author hopes the following history and 
 expose of the English Factory Legislation may prove 
 interesting to the German i)uhlic. As yet these 
 higlily remarkable enactments, which now apply to 
 every trade, have, strictly speaking, neither on the 
 Continent nor even in England, been thoroughly ex- 
 pounded. The numerous English pamphlets pub- 
 lished during the period while the Ten Hours Bill 
 was bemg agitated were mostly of an ephemeral cha- 
 racter suited for the occasion, and, with the exception 
 of a chapter in the works of Wing and Fielden, the 
 history of the said legislation is nowhere treated in 
 detail. Ure, in his " Philosophy of Manufactures," 
 selected some of the results of the inquiry of 1833, 
 in order to support his panegyrics on the factory 
 and labour system connected therewith. Alfred's 
 " History of the Factory Movement," which, 
 in accordance with its design and extent, should 
 contain a complete History of the Factory Legisla- 
 
 b 
 
xviii AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 tion, is diffuse and prolix, and only affords, so to 
 say, a history of the agitation of the fourth and 
 beginning of the fifth decade. He supplies many 
 interesting details and reprints many of the 
 speeches delivered at the meetings. But the 
 parliamentary speeches are only quoted by him 
 exceptionally, and, singularly enough, very little 
 attention is paid to the reports submitted to Parlia- 
 ment. In respect to statistical data they are al- 
 together wanting.* 
 
 Among foreign writers, L. Faucher was un- 
 doubtedly the first to impart very interesting infor- 
 mation in his " Etudes sur 1' Angle terre," and 
 F. Engels, in his " Lage der arbeitenden Classe in 
 England," although he sometimes strung together 
 facts with a certain bias, has given a fair and 
 clear account of the whole movement. His book, 
 notwithstanding certain shortcomings, is still valu- 
 able, affording as it does a source of information 
 with regard to the condition of English workmen in 
 1840 and following years. Later on, Karl Marx, 
 availing himself of the Eeports of the factory in- 
 spectors, managed, in his work on " Das Capital," 
 to give, in a comprehensive and so to say 
 attractive form, a compendium of the English 
 
 * Tupping, on ''The Factory Acts of 1855," simply reprints the text 
 of the Acts. A German translation of the most important English 
 Factory Acts was published in a convenient form by the Austrian 
 Minister of Commerce in 1869. 
 
AUTHOR'S PREFACE. xix 
 
 legislation in the matter of factories. Properly- 
 speaking, he simply supplies an illustration of his 
 theory of the " Absoluten Mehrwerth " (absolute 
 higher value) eifected by an extension of the 
 worldng day, but apart from this particular object 
 the work in question is tolerably free from other 
 views personal to the author. Karl Marx's is un- 
 questionably among the best German exposes at 
 present in print on the English factory legislation. 
 
 The following pages, comprising as they do the 
 whole history of the development and present work- 
 ing of the factory legislation in England, result 
 from a careful study of Parliamentary Reports and 
 publications bearing upon the subject. The author 
 has therefore mtentionally quoted the principal pro- 
 visions of laws subsequently repealed, because this 
 appeared to him the best way of presenting 
 a faithful delineation of this arduous legislative 
 labour. In quoting from the voluminous publica- 
 tions of the Inquiry Commissions, he has confined 
 himself within the narrowest limits, so as not to 
 give to his work an extension out of proportion to a 
 subject which, after all, is not one of the first mag- 
 nitude. Therefore has he purposely refrained from 
 following the plan usually availed of in works of the 
 kind — viz., reproducing the statements and evidence 
 of witnesses. The latter is entirely omitted, and 
 he has endeavoured to set forth in the body of the 
 
XX AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 work and accompanying notes that only which he 
 deemed absolutely necessary and essential. On the 
 other hand, he considered it a duty — taking into 
 account the restraint voluntarily imposed upon him- 
 self—to quote all authorities and sources of infor- 
 mation, albeit some of them were not easily acces- 
 sible on the Continent. The annexed statistical 
 summaries afford incontestable proof of the practical 
 significance and extent of the legislative enactments 
 relative to the subject in hand, and they conclude 
 with a concise summing-up of the general economic 
 and social results produced thereby. 
 
 These pages, which are simply preliminary to a 
 larger work on the condition of the English 
 working classes, are now published in this mo- 
 nographic form, firstly on account of the special 
 interest which the subject treated of therein 
 possesses even in its present settled aspect, 
 and which is still further enhanced as regards 
 Austria by the impending new legislation in this 
 respect, and, secondly, because the work recently 
 published by L. Brentano on the English Trades' 
 Unions describes another and still more important 
 feature of English working men's affairs in so excel- 
 lent a manner that, for some time to come, the 
 treatment of the same subject by another writer 
 would almost appear a superfluous undertaking. 
 The author, therefore, begs favourable consideration 
 
AUTHOR'S PREFACF. xxi 
 
 for this contribution as a temporary instalment 
 towards tlie dissemination of a better knowledge of 
 the condition of the working classes in England. 
 
 May an exact knowledge of the English factory 
 legislation remove the still prevalent disinclination 
 existing on the Continent against legislative action 
 with regard to working hours, and Governments and 
 Legislatures understand that a well-meant and 
 moderate interference by the State in favour of the 
 working classes does not essentially contain the 
 germ of Sociahsm, but that it is rather apt to 
 lead them to feel an interest in the stability and 
 preservation of the established social order, and 
 thus remove the dangers of a social revolution. 
 Contrary to continental custom in such matters, 
 the English Government has done more for the 
 improvement of the working classes than the Go- 
 vernment of any other country, and perhaps for 
 that very reason is it that, as a rule, the great 
 struggles between Capital and Labour have re- 
 mained in England confined to the questions imme- 
 diately at issue ; whence, happily, the absence of 
 that animosity between the higher classes and the 
 workmen unfortunately so noticeable on the other 
 side of the Channel. It is desirable, at the same 
 time, that masters should not blind themselves to 
 the fact that a reduction of the hours of labour — 
 so highly commendable on general humanitarian 
 
xxii AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 grounds — being in no way directly prejudicial to 
 their interests, it would be far preferable that they 
 graciously concede a claim, which the workmen 
 will abandon under no consideration whatever, to 
 having their consent wrenched from them in the 
 midst of excited and violent popular commotions. 
 
 E. PLENER. 
 
 London, July, 1872. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction, by A. J. Mundella, Esq., M. P. . . . v 
 
 Author s Preface xvii 
 
 Moral and Health (Sir Robert Peel's) Act, 1802 ... 1 
 First Parliamentary Inquiry with regard to the condition of 
 
 the Factory Population (1815) . . . . .4 
 
 Cotton Mills Act (1819) 4 
 
 Sir John Hobhouse's Act (1825) 5 
 
 Agitation for a Ten Hours* Bill . . . . . . . 6 
 
 Factory Act of \^Z1 6 
 
 Tom Sadler's Ten Hours' Bill 8 
 
 Lord Ashley's Ten Hours' Bill, and appointment of a Royal 
 Commission of Inquiry into the condition of the Factory 
 
 Labourers (1833) 10 
 
 Factory Act of IS3S 15 
 
 Further agitation for a Ten Hours' Bill 22 
 
 Commission of Inquiry of 1842, into the condition of Labour 
 
 in Mines and small Industries . . . . . . 23 
 
 Mining Act of 18i2 24 
 
 Second Report of the Children Employment Commission of 1 843 25 
 
 Factory Act of 18U 27 
 
 Print Works Act of iS4:5 33 
 
 Ten Hours' Act of 18i7 36 
 
 Factory Legislation of 1850 ; — Establishment of a normal Work- 
 ing-day 40 
 
 Act of 1853, regulating the Children's Working-day . . . 43 
 Table, showing the number and condition of the Persons em- 
 ployed in the Textile Industry in the United Kingdom in 
 
 1868 45 
 
 Working-time in Bleaching and Dyeing Works . . . , 47 
 Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry of 1857 . . . .47 
 
 Bleachworks Act of 1860 48 
 
 Lace Manufactories Act of 1861 50 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Bakehouse Ad of 186S 51 
 
 Legislation on Iron and Coal Mines ..... 52 
 
 Commission of Inquiry of 1862—1866 56 
 
 Condition of the Fictile Industry . ..... 57 
 
 Legislative enactments of 1864 . . . . . . . 60 
 
 Chimney-sweepers' Boys . . . . . . .61 
 
 State of Labour in Potteries 62 
 
 Lace and Hosiery Manufactories 65 
 
 Millinery and Dressmaking Business 67 
 
 Shoemaking Industry ... . . . ... .70 
 
 Tailoring Business . . . . . . . . . 71 
 
 Hatters and Glovers . .71 
 
 Hardware Industry 72 
 
 Machine Manufactories . . . . . . . .72 
 
 Paper Manufacture . . . . . . . . . 75 
 
 Glassworks .......... 75' 
 
 Factory Act Extension Act of 1867 . . . . . . 81 
 
 Workshops Regulation Act of 1867 83 
 
 Factory and Workshops Act of 1867 . . . . . . 91 
 
 Conclusion : — Effects of the Factory Legislation . . .92 
 Table of Production previous to and after the Factory Act . . 102 
 Influences of the Factory Legislation on the interests of the 
 
 Working Classes . . . . . . . . . 103 
 
 Effects of the Factory Legislation on the general Culture of the 
 
 People . 110 
 
 Government Inspection . . . . . , . ,115 
 The Saturday Review on Herr von Plener's " Englische Fabrik- 
 
 gesetzgebung " 119 
 
 Appendix, containing Abstracts of the Continental Laws and 
 Kegulations respecting the Employment and Education of 
 Children and young Persons employed in Factories, 
 Workshops, &c 121 
 
y^^ OF THB 
 
 THE 
 
 ENGLISH FACTOEY LEGISLATION. 
 
 The first law enacted with the object of regu- JJ°^f\^",^^ 
 
 1 . 1 . -ir»ii • r> i • l^ Health Act 
 
 latmg the period oi labour in lactones was the so- of 1802. 
 called ''Moral and Health Act" of 1802 (42 Geo. (42 Geo. 3, 
 3, c. 73), usually known under the name of the ^' ^^'"^ 
 Elder Sir Robert Peel's Act. The immediate cause 
 of passing this Bill was the fearful spread, through- 
 out the factory district of Manchester, of epidemic 
 disease, which made terrible havoc among the 
 youthful labouring population on account of their 
 scanty mode of living and peculiar way of working. 
 When towards the end of last century, manufac- 
 turing industry, particularly with regard to textile 
 fabrics, began to develop itself, numerous factories 
 were established in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, 
 and Lancashire, abounding as they do in water- 
 courses, and the number of these factories became 
 so considerable that the supply of children from the 
 respective neighbourhoods was soon found inade- 
 quate to the demand. At the same time, general 
 misery prevailed in the southern agricultural counties, 
 and unprincipled Poor-law guardians, anxious to 
 rid their parishes as speedily as possible of pauper 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 children, sliowed great eagerness to meet tlie re- 
 quirements of large industrial establishments for 
 cheap labour. Children were, therefore, transferred 
 in large numbers to the North, where they were 
 housed in pent-up buildings adjoining the factories, 
 and kept to long hours of labour. The work was 
 carried on da}^ and night without intermission, so 
 that the beds were said never to have become cold, 
 inasmuch as one batch of children rested while the 
 other batch went to the looms, only half the re- 
 quisite number of beds being provided for all.* As 
 a natural consequence of such a state of things, the 
 whole population became alarmed at the appearance 
 of epidemic fevers, especially in Manchester, so 
 notorious in those daj^s for its unhealthiness and 
 filthy condition. A Board of Health was apj)ointed 
 in 1796, who, in their first report,t plainly pointed 
 to the crowding of workmen in factories as the 
 direct and chief source of such epidemic fevers. 
 Nothing, however, was done until 1802, when Sir 
 Eobert Peel carried the above-mentioned Bill, by 
 which it was for the first time attempted to deter- 
 mine the hours of labour and afi'ord protection to 
 factory children. But the said law simply dealt 
 with the then existing evils originating from the 
 unregulated employment of apprentices and, to a 
 certain degree at least, showed a partiality for trade 
 customs, as may be inferred from the provision 
 which compelled the employer to clothe his appren- 
 
 * Sir Robert Peel's Evidence. Comm. 1816, p. 139 ; Memoirs of 
 Robert Blincoe, by Alfred, History of tlie Factory Movement, I. pp. 
 18—23, seq. 
 
 t This Report is piiblisbed in the evidence of Sir Robert Peel (see 
 note, ante I, and in Fielden's "Curse of the Factory System," London, 
 1836, p. 7. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 tices. The latter were not to work more, than 
 twelve hours a day, and with the exception of some 
 temporary regulations in respect to large factories, 
 night- work was entirely prohibited. Every ap- 
 prentice had to receive daily instruction during the 
 first four j^ears of his time, school-attendance' to be 
 reckoned as working-time. Religious instruction 
 on Sundaj^s was distinctly regulated, and some 
 useful sanitary clauses were inserted. Justices of 
 the peace had to appoint two visitors whose duty it 
 was to send in a report at the quarter sessions, and 
 in cases of urgency to provide for all sanitary 
 requirements. This well-digested law, which to 
 this day has not been formally repealed,* has in a 
 great measure proved inoperative tlirough want of the 
 necessary provisions for carrying it into effect, and 
 owing also to the still midetermined state of the 
 new manufacturing system.?^ But even in such 
 places where the law was acted upon, a new advance 
 of the said system rendered its protection illusory. 
 As before mentioned, the Act of 1802 referred only 
 to the so-called parish apprentices, who supplied the 
 first elements of labour- to the large- establishments 
 then in course of » formation. The introduction of 
 steam-power removed the necessity of erecting 
 factories in water-abounding dictricts, and supplied 
 a great desideratum in many respects, by allowing 
 theu' estabhshment in populous towns w^hose needy 
 inhabitants afforded a sufficient number of hands to 
 satisfy the first requirements of manufacturers. 
 
 Thus, those children whose parents resided in 
 the neighbourhood of such factories were admitted 
 
 * Report of Inspectors of Factories, May, 1848, p. 32 ; Children 
 Employment Commission, 1862, Eep. I. §§ 559, 560. 
 
 B 2 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 First Par- 
 liamentary 
 inquiiy 
 with regard 
 to the 
 condition of 
 the factory- 
 population. 
 
 Cotton 
 Mills. 
 
 (59 Geo. 3, 
 c. 6Q.) 
 
 into them without participating in the protection 
 provided by the Apprentices Act.* Sir Eobert 
 Peel, again demanding (in 1815) that legal protec- 
 tion should likewise be granted to these children, 
 obtained the appointment of a Commons' committee 
 to consider the matter. 
 
 This was the first inquiry instituted by Parlia- 
 ment t with regard to the condition of the factory 
 population. The evidence of the several witnesses 
 afforded, for the first time, a circumstantial and 
 eloquent description of the injurious action of 
 factory labour on children, and of the grasping 
 efforts of parents to derive profit and income from 
 the children's wages, while pointing to the in- 
 efficient working of the protective enactments 
 hitherto in force. It was only in 1819, and after 
 the Bill had been submitted to the consideration of 
 a committee of the Upper House, that a new law 
 (59 Geo. 3, c. 66) was enacted, but this Act applied 
 exclusively to Cotton Mills, and not, like the former, 
 to both cotton and wool factories. It limited, for 
 the first time, the age at which children might 
 be admitted into factories — viz., nine years, and 
 restricted to twelve each day the hours of labour for 
 children from nine to sixteen years of age. This 
 being exclusive of meal-time — one hour and a half 
 per day — the number of hours per week was fixed 
 at seventy-two, night-work being once more pro- 
 hibited. For the first time, also, rules were laid 
 down to compensate by extra hours time lost 
 
 ♦ Sir Robert Peel's Evidence, 1816, p. 133. 
 
 t Report of the Minutes of Evidence taken before the Select Com- 
 mittee on the State of Children employed in the Manufactories of the 
 United Kingdom. 1816. Pari. Pap. III. 397. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 5 
 
 through accidental intermission in consequence of 
 scarcity or excess in the supply of water-power, after 
 the rate of an additional hour per day. Several 
 supplementary statutes were afterwards added to (60 Geo. 3, 
 this Act; first, 60 Geo. 3, c. 5, conceding to the ^- ^-^ 
 owners of such cotton-mills as had been destroyed 
 by fire, or damaged by some other casualty (pro- 
 viding they were in possession of other factories in 
 active operation at the time), the privilege of em- 
 ploying in the latter, during night-work, the hands 
 thrown out of the former in consequence of the 
 accident, and of appointing the meal-time at any 
 period of the day that might best suit their con- 
 venience. Mr. Nath. Gould having again called 
 the attention of Parliament to the condition of 
 factory children, the famous radical member, Sir 
 John Cam Hobhouse (subsequently Lord Brough- 
 ton), carried in 1825 a more comprehensive Bill /g q^^ ^ 
 (6 Geo. 4, c. 63), which, repeating as it did most of c. 63.) 
 the former provisions, was the first to shorten the 
 Saturday labour and to stipulate special and de- 
 tailed penalties against the transgressors of the 
 law, the carrjdng out of which was farther simpli- qq q^^ ^ 
 fied and facilitated by the statute 10 Geo. 4, c. 51.* c. 51.) 
 
 The farther development of factory industry, and 
 especially the enormous increase noticeable at that 
 time in wool- spinning, f subject then to no legal 
 restrictions, were conducive towards bringing 
 promptly and effectively to light the evils resulting 
 from over-work, and public opinion, at that period 
 
 * 10 Geo. 4, c. 63, validated only the preceding Act, in which a 
 mistake in foim had occurred. Compare T, E. May, Pari. Practice, 
 6th ed. p. 499. 
 
 + In 1820 there were imported 9,789,0201b. of foreign wool ; and 
 in 1830, 35,546,104 lb. 
 
 / 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LECtISLATION. 
 
 Cotton 
 Industry. 
 
 (1 & 2 Will. 
 4, c. 39.) 
 
 excited by the impending electoral reform, turned 
 its attention with unfeigned interest to the agitation 
 which certain workmen, Radical-tories, and Philan- 
 thropists were energetically and successfully carry- 
 ing on in the wool-districts of Yorkshire for the 
 purpose of introducing a Ten Hours Bill. At the 
 head of this agitation stood paramount Richard 
 Oastler (the renowned "Factory King"), who with 
 indefatigable zeal and powerful eloquence success- 
 fully organised large meetings of the working-men 
 of Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield, and other places. 
 Co-operating with him was the Rev. Mr. Bull,* 
 and the manufacturers, Mr. S. Wood and Mr. 
 Walker, whilst in Lancashire short-time committees 
 had been likewise formed for the same purpose. 
 In immediate connection with this first stage of the 
 movement. Sir J. Hobhouse had brought in a Bill, 
 in 1831, to reduce the working-time of the whole 
 textile industry to eleven hours and a half, but the 
 energetic opposition of the wool manufacturers of 
 Yorkshire made it fall through, and there was only 
 a statute, although an important one, passed, 
 limited in its application to the Cotton Industry 
 (1 & 2 Will. 4, c. 39), which repealed the four pre- 
 vious Acts, prohibited night-work to all persons 
 between nine and twenty-one years of age, and 
 fixed the time of labour {bv persons under eighteen 
 at twelve hours per day, and nine hours on Satur- 
 days {i.e., sixty-nine hours per week). The re- 
 covery of lost time was facilitated and night-work 
 permitted in this respect even to persons from six- 
 
 * He published in Bradford a weekly agitation paper, " Tlie British 
 Labourer's Protector and Factory Child's Friend." See Alfred, 1. c. I., 
 p. 98, seg. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 teen to twenty-one years of age. All cotton mill- 
 owners, as well as their parents, brothers, and sons, 
 were disqualified from acting as justices of the 
 peace in cases of infringement of the law. 
 
 /This was virtually the first Factory Act which 
 was, at least to some extent, carried out, and 
 which gave rise to still farther agitation. Despite 
 the law, most factories worked thirteen hours, and 
 numerous cases of infringement were subsequently 
 brought to light.* Out of several children of the 
 legally determined age, one only was dismissed the 
 factory after /twelve hours' work, the remainder 
 having to do overtime.! In many cases the men 
 were compelled to subscribe to a fund out of which 
 the manufacturer paid the fines incurred by him 
 for breaking the law,t which seems to have been 
 better observed in Scotland than in England, § and 
 in the latter kingdom more so in town than in 
 country districts. In Manchester, for instance, an 
 association of cotton-spinners was formed, who, in 
 order to prevent competition on the part of the manu- 
 facturers working overtime, proceeded on their own 
 joint account against aU who infringed the law, thus 
 securing uniformity in regard to working-time. ||' 
 
 Meanwhile the agitation, rendered still more 
 intense by the political movements of the reformers, 
 went on increasing in Yorkshire. Next to philan- 
 thropists and workmen, standing without the pale 
 of political circles, the leaders of the ten hours 
 
 '' Before the Parliamentary Committee of 1832. Rep. §§ 6630, 
 6639. 
 t Ibid. §§ 7352, 9755. 
 
 J Report of the Parliamentary Committee of 1832, § 7349. 
 § Ibid. §§ 6238, 6239. 
 i Report of tlie Parliamentary Committee of 1832, §§ 7351, 7360. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 movement belonged mostly to the Tory and Esta- 
 blished Church parties, who were not on the populai 
 side in respect to the Reform movement. Th( 
 Tories gladly availed themselves of the factory 
 agitation in order to outdo in popularity the liberaL 
 party with regard to their demands relative to 
 ^ extension of the franchise to the middle class, and 
 the repeal of the corn-laws, both taking subjects 
 with the public. A great impression was pro- 
 I duced by a meeting held at York, at which thousands 
 of working-men, with their wives and children, w^ere 
 present in the Old Castle Yard in a pelting rain, in 
 order to listen to the powerful exhortations of 
 " King Richard" (Oastler) and adopt energetic reso- 
 lutions.* Soon after this, Oastler and Tom Sadler 
 made a triumphal entry into Manchester, whither 
 they repaired for the purpose of exciting to action 
 the men of Lancashire, who had stood aloof. In 
 1832, the new parliamentary leader of the agitation, 
 Tom Sadler, brought in a Bill limiting to ten 
 the hours of labour for persons under eighteen 
 years of age and extending this legal protection to 
 wool, flax^ and silk factories. When the Bill came 
 on for ^cond reading, it was met by a storm of 
 oppos^ion from the manufacturing members, who, 
 under 'pretext of insufficient information, stopped 
 its farther progress through the House. Sadler 
 was compelled to yield. A Special Committee was 
 appointed to examine witnesses and collect pro- 
 fessional evidence on the Bill, but no formal report 
 
 * Alfred, 1. c, gives several of Oastler's speeches in extenso. They 
 are, like all agitation speeches held in meetings, passionate and full of 
 repetitions, but must have been of great effect when listened to 
 separately. In 1870 a statue was erected at Bradford in honour 
 of Oastler. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 was drawn up.* However, the questions put by 
 Sadler — in fact the whole manner in which he 
 selected his witnesses and conducted their examiA. 
 nation — fui-nished the most glaring proofs of the / 
 injurious effects of the system upon the health and ) 
 morals of the youthful factory population. The 
 witnesses belonging to the working-classes were 
 chiefly wool-spinners from Yorkshire, enjoying no 
 legal protection whatever, and a very few only were 
 from the cotton districts. The princij)al evidence 
 as to the baneful influence of factory labour was 
 elicited from numerous medical men, who absolutely 
 declared that the youthful frame could not contend 
 against more than twelve hom's' labour. And 
 then a cry was raised throughout England and 
 echoed all over the Continent at sight of the 
 sufferings so graphically described of the poor little 
 factory children, compelled to slave under a cruel 
 treatment from thirteen to fourteen hours a day, of 
 young girls more wild than civilised, and of the 
 apathetic exhaustion of men gTown old at thirty. 
 
 Meanwhile Parliament had been dissolved and 
 fresh elections were ordered to take place in con- 
 formity with the reformed electoral law. Sadler 
 
 * Report from the Committee on the Bill to Regulate the Labour of 
 Children in the Mills and Factories of the United Kingdom, with 
 Minutes of Evidence, Appendix, and Index. Pari. Pap. 1831-32, 
 XV. 706 and 682 pages. At the end of the evidence of the witnesses 
 Sadler appended several mortality lists, in order to prove that in the 
 factory districts, properly so called, ahout as many people died under 
 the age of 20 as in other places before the age of 40 years. These 
 lists were severely attacked by I. E. Drinkwater, one of the Factory 
 Commissioners of 1833, and Sadler wrote in vindication ** Factory 
 System : the Official Tables Appended to the Report of the Select 
 Committee on the Ten Hours Factory Bill vindicated in a series of 
 Letters addressed to J. E. Drinkwater," published in 1836, after 
 Sadler's decease. 
 
10 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 was not returned, and Lord Ashley (afterwards 
 Lord Shaftesbury) once more brought in, without 
 ^ delay, a Ten Hours Bill, which, if not expressl}^, 
 yet by its tenour, restricted the hours of labour, even 
 in the case of adults, to ten hours. On the motion 
 of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Althorp, 
 seconded by Mr. W. Patten, the House declared 
 that it intended in no way regulating the working 
 hours of adults, who, as such, were free subjects 
 and at liberty to act as they thought fit, deciding 
 that a Royal Commission should be appointed in 
 order to institute a new comprehensive inquiry into 
 the condition of factory labourers. 
 
 The appointment of this commission had not 
 only for its object the collection of fresh materials 
 for the Legislature, but the commissioners were also 
 "instructed" to present a more favourable report 
 of the state of the factory population than did that 
 of Sadler's committee the year before. The whole 
 affair assumed at the time the character of a political 
 party question, the Tories, for the greater part, still 
 smarting under their defeat in the Reform question, 
 and endeavouring with delight to bring to the surface 
 everything likely to damage in the eyes of the 
 public the industrial middle -classes, who had become 
 more influential and attained a much higher position 
 than heretofore in public esteem.* The labours of 
 this commission f were proceeded with much more 
 
 * A society had been formed in London, under Tory influence and 
 the patronage of the Duke of Sussex, for the improvement of the con- 
 dition of the factory children. 
 
 f I. and II. Report of the Central Board of Her Majesty's Commis- 
 sioners appointed to collect information in the manufacturing districts 
 I as to the employment of children in factories, and as to the propriety 
 
 and means of curtailing the hours of their labour, with Minutes of 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 11 
 
 systematically than were those of its predecessor, 
 and the numerous and in many respects very 
 valuable materials gathered together were prefliced 
 by an elaborate report, in which it was principally 
 maintained that the whole ten hours' agitation on 
 the part of the men sprang less from a feeling of 
 sj^mpathy with the unhappy children than from the 
 hope that the new Act would contain a clause in 
 favour of adults, permanently restricting their 
 number of hours to ten likewise. The workmen 
 were of opinion that the reduction of wages con- 
 sequent upon the adoption of short time would only 
 be temporary, and that owing to a falling off in the 
 production, the demand and the prices would respec- 
 tively rise in such ratio that more men would be 
 wanted and employed at shorter hours at the same 
 or even a higher rate of wages than hitherto paid 
 for long time.* 
 
 The commissioners did not take this view of tl^e 
 case, but were of opinion that the deficiency in the 
 production caused by the restricted number of 
 working hours would not benefit home-labour, but, 
 on the contrary, prove advantageous to foreign com- 
 petitors ; they therefore, in accordance with the 
 unanimous testimony of the masters, t looked upon 
 the reduction of the working day to ten hours as a 
 ruinous and impracticable measure, at the same 
 
 Evidence and Reports by the District and Medical Commissioners. 2 
 vols. Pari. Pap. 1833, 450. Supplementary Report. 2 vols. Pari. 
 Pap, 1834, together 1586 resp. 1617 pages folio. 
 
 • I. Rep. p. 35, and D. 2, p. 108 (Tufnell). These are about the 
 same arguments which are advanced at the present time by the Trades 
 Unions for the restriction of the working hours, in order to distribute 
 the same quantity of work among more hands. 
 
 + H. Ashworth says, I. Rep. p. 42, that twelve hours' work daily 
 was absolutely necessary to pay interest on the invested capital. The 
 
12 ENGLISH FACTOEY LEGISLATION. 
 
 time that it constituted a dangerous encroachment 
 on the rights and liberties of adult workmen. On 
 tlie other hand, however, they admitted something 
 must be done for the children, whose sufferings 
 were so forcibly described in the medical reports,* 
 and for whom even ten hours' work was considered 
 too great an exertion. The report therefore pro- 
 posed to reduce the time of labour for children of 
 from nine to thirteen years of age to eight hours. 
 In order to obtain the requisite number of such 
 hands during the whole of the working day, it was 
 
 loss of two hours would increase the costs of production from five to 
 seven per cent. , and the wages would, consequently, be lessened by more 
 than the minus of the two hours. The reduction of the time of labour 
 would render the speedy execution of great commands impossible. The 
 factories worked by water power, which were very frequently subject to 
 interruptions, would have the regular routine of their business dis- 
 turbed, and the value of the water wells would likewise be considerably 
 decreased in consequence. D. 2 (Tufnell), p. 222. 
 
 * In their numerous and copious statements the medical men expressed 
 themselves altogether in an adverse sense on the factory system. Many 
 of their testimonies are quoted in extenso by Engels : " The Condition 
 of the Working Class in England," pp. 17B — 203. Much material is 
 also published in F. Gaskell's " The Manufacturing Population of Eng- 
 land," 1833, pp. 173—213 ; also in W. Cooke Taylor's " Factories and 
 the Factory System," 1844, pp. 20 — 33. Crooked growth of the spine, 
 malformation of the bones in consequence of standing long in an up- 
 right condition, scrofulous and pulmonary diseases caused by the long 
 stay in the unhealthy factory rooms, were pointed out as the most 
 prevalent forms of maladies. On the other hand, it was admitted by 
 the medical witnesses that many industries which are not conducted 
 exactly on the principles of factories, such as potteries, needle- 
 manufactories, mines, &c. , were much more injurious to the health of 
 the youthful labourers. The alleged cruel treatment of the children 
 could not be imputed, according to the Report, to the manufacturers, 
 as they did not come into personal contact with the factory children at 
 all, who were, on the contrary, employed and controlled as auxiliary 
 hands by the adult workmen. An epitomised collection of all the 
 opinions and evidence favourable to the employers and the factory 
 system was prepared with great ability and published in 1834 
 under the title "Analysis of the Evidence taken before the Factory 
 Commissioners, as far as it relates to the Population of Manchester and 
 the Vicinity, Read before the Statistical Society of Manchester," &c. 
 Of a like tendency are the statements in Ure's "Philosophy of Manu- 
 , factures," edit, of 1861, vol. iii. c. land 2. 
 
EIs^GLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 proposed, for the first time, to divide the labour in 
 such way that the children who had worked their 
 eight hours were to be relieved by fresh batches. 
 This is the actual breach in the provisions of the 
 Ten Hours Bill, whose chief object was the 
 estabhshment of a working day of equal duration 
 for all persons employed in factories. This almost 
 entirely new idea was unpopular alike with the 
 workmen and the manufacturers, although affording 
 to the latter the means of rendering possible a con- 
 tinuation of the longer hours — a possibility which 
 was jeopardised by the Ten Hom^s Bill. Their 
 chief objection to this ^proposition was the difficulty 
 of obtaining a sufficient number of children for the 
 double working-hours, combined with the appre- 
 hension that, notwithstanding the shortening of the 
 working-day, no corresponding reduction could be 
 attempted with regard to the children's wages. In 
 the interest of the children they likewise recom- 
 mended the rejection of such a relay system, on the 
 plea that their unemployed time would be spent in 
 idleness and loitering, and that moreover it was to 
 be apprehended that later on, when the children had 
 grown into manhood, more hands would be seen in 
 the market than could actually find employment. 
 The opponents as well as the supporters of the Ten 
 Hours Bill were therefore more favourable to the 
 adoi^tion of a more advanced age for admission 
 rather than to the introduction of the double 
 working divisions for children of an early age. It 
 is singular how this very relay system, at first 
 condemned by all as impracticable and ruinous,* 
 has become one of the principal features in 
 
 * Before Sadler's Committee already the relay system was denounced 
 
14 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 the development of the English factory legisla- 
 tion, forming as it does, in connection with com- 
 pulsory schooling, one of the chief advantages of 
 the present system. If the commission were re- 
 solved once for all not to restrict the hours of 
 labour for grown-up people — i. e., not to reduce 
 them to the same number as that adopted for 
 protected hands — and at the same time not alto- 
 gether to exclude children from the works, no other 
 means remained but the introduction of the division 
 of labom\ The report was therefore particularly 
 in favour of the new sj^stem.* During the time 
 when children would be excluded other children or 
 adults would be taken on, and thus under every 
 circumstance would the increase in wages be profit- 
 able to the workers. Only those parents who derived 
 an income from their children's wages would, 
 properly speaking, have a direct interest in the con- 
 tinuation of the hitherto prevailing long-hours 
 system, since manufacturers would alone be affected 
 by an increase in wages, and that only in an im- 
 perceptible degree. The school regulations could 
 only be practically observed by the adoption of the 
 relay system, the attendance of the fired children 
 at Sunday and evening classes having been hitherto 
 productive of the most unsatisfactory results.! 
 
 as cruel and impracticable by Oastler, because the infringement of the 
 law was ratber facilitated by the employment of the relieved children 
 in other factories during the other half of the day. Rep. § 9826. 
 It would only have the eflect of burdening more work upon the adults. 
 Whitehead, ibid. § 585. The employers maintained that the legal 
 difficulties would force them to dismiss all children under thirteen 
 years of age, whereby the supply of skilled hands trained in their 
 youth would be cut off, to the great detriment of industrial under- 
 takings. Suppl. Rep., 1834, p. 6. 
 
 * Supplementary Report, pp. 10 — 13. 
 
 t I. Report, p. 29 ; A. 2, p. 9* ; Fielden 1. c. p. 30. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 15 
 
 Dui'ing the session of 1833, Lord Ashley's Ten 
 Hours Bill had already passed the second reading, 
 but the introduction therein of a clause by which 
 infractions of the law were made punishable by 
 imprisonment, provoked a new attack in committee 
 on the part of the manufacturers. Notwithstanding 
 the persistence of Oastler, and that a mass-meeting 
 was held in Yorkshire in favour of the retention of 
 this penal clause. Lord Ashley sacrificed it to its 
 opponents in Parliament and thereby brought his Bill 
 to grief.* The Whig Government, who beheld with 
 satisfaction the failure of the Tory Bill, now carried 
 one of their own, in which most of the propositions 
 of the Royal Commissions w^ere transformed into 
 legal provisions. The new law of August 29, 1833 Lord Al- 
 (3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 103, frequently quoted as Lord ^^^^^'^ 
 Althorp's Act), prohibited night work (that is to sa}^, (3 & 4^^111 
 between the hours of 8.30 p.m., and 5.30 a.m.) to 4, c. 103.) 
 all persons under eighteen employed in cotton, -^^^^^ ' 
 wool, worsted, hemp, flax, tow, and linen spinneries 
 and weaving-mills, and for the first time made a 
 distinction between cliildi'en from nine to thu'teen 
 years of age, and so-called " young persons," from 
 tliirteen to eighteen", fixing tlie maximum number of 
 hours at forty-eight per week, or nine per day for 
 the former, and at sixty-nine per week, or twelve 
 per day, with regard to the latter. In silk-factories, 
 however, children mider thirteen years of age were 
 allowed to work ten hours per day, also to be 
 admitted before the age of nine. Daily attendance 
 at school for at least two hours, as well as two 
 entire and eight half-holidays in the year, were like- 
 wise provided for. The certificates as to age were 
 
 • Alfred, 1. c. n. c. 3. 
 
16 ENGLISH FACTOHY LEGISLATION. 
 
 no longer to be given, as hitherto, by the parents of 
 factory children, but by a physician or surgeon, and 
 for the carrying out of the law four factory in- 
 spectors were appointed, to whom a penal jurisdic- 
 tion was delegated concurring with that of the 
 justices of the peace. This law has not been 
 formally repealed, but most of its provisions, espe- 
 cially those relating to penal proceedings and ad- 
 ministrative action, have been modified by the 
 Factory Act of 1844. As a sort of transitory ar- 
 rangement, the law should come into operation only 
 by degrees, in a manner corresponding with the 
 gradation of age, so that the reduction of the work- 
 ing-day to eight hours for children under thirteen 
 years of age should not come into force until March 
 1, 1836 (§ viii.) * 
 
 Notwithstanding this evident tendency of the 
 Act to injure as little as possible the interests of 
 the manufacturers, the inspectors during the first 
 years reported numerous infractions which, how- 
 ever, were not all punished, as their right to lay an 
 information in such cases expired within fourteen 
 days, and as, contrary to Sii' J. Hobhouse's Act, 
 which was repealed by the new Factory Act, even 
 manufacturers might now exercise the functions of 
 justices of the peace whenever the law was infringed. 
 The duties of their office were of course per- 
 formed in a most partial manner, the offenders 
 being in most cases let off scot free. The over- 
 working of several children simultaneously by the 
 same manufacturer was regarded as one contraven- 
 tion of the law only, and punished accordingly, and 
 
 * This Act was explained and amended in two unimportant points 
 by i Will. 4, c. 1 (20 Feb. 1834). 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATIOX. 17 
 
 the low scale of fines (in 1836, 21 5s. ; in 1837, 
 11. 10s. on an average for one transgression) ren- 
 dered it more profitable to unprincipled employers 
 to infringe than to obey the law. As the certificates 
 with regard to age were only to be given on an 
 estimate of the outward appearance of the indivi- 
 dual, the greatest discrepancies and irregularities 
 resulted as a matter of course, and these Inspector 
 Horner thought to remove by substituting height 
 as a standard for age : a child who did not reach 
 three feet ten inches should not be taken as nine 
 years old, and one who did not measure four feet 
 three inches and a half should not pass for thirteen 
 years, except in cases of an extraordinary muscular 
 development at the age of twelve, when thirteen 
 years might knowingly be certified.* This esti- 
 mation of the age by the height of the child 
 very naturally led to the creation of spurious 
 certificates. Besides, the measure test was fixed 
 at a very low standard, so that children under nine 
 years of age might easily measure three feet eleven 
 inches in height and be admitted to factory work 
 by the medical officer, whereas other measure- 
 ments gave diff'erent results : Fielden, for instance, 
 three feet eleven inches, and Cowell, four feet for 
 children nine years old. Fielden and Cowell likewise 
 ascertained the average height of a child of twelve 
 years of age to be four feet five inches and a half, 
 
 * Lord Shaftesbury's Speeches upon Subjects relating to the Labour- 
 ing Class, 1868, pp. 6—9, 12. 
 
 The registers of births and deaths, which were very negligently kept 
 at the beginning of the present century, aiforded no reliable information 
 regarding the age of factory children. It was in the year 1822 that 
 registers of baptisms were first introduced ; but the Dissenters did not 
 have their children entered, and only since the creation of the Registrar- 
 General's office, in 1837, have regular lists of births been kept. 
 
 c 
 
18 ENGLISH FACTOEY LEGISLATION. 
 
 and four feet five and one -third inches respectively, 
 so that in virtue of that Act, children of twelve 
 years of age, whose time of labour the law limited 
 to eight hours a day, could be worked twelve hours. 
 On the other hand, parents who derived an income 
 from their children's wages, did their utmost to 
 qualify their either too young or too diminutive 
 children for admission into the factory. Very often 
 they fraudulently brought before the medical officer 
 older children instead of their brothers or sisters 
 intended for admission, or they stuffed cotton into 
 the stockings of the children so as to make them 
 appear taller.* 
 
 Manufacturers were still of opinion that the coming 
 into full force of the law would compel them to dismiss 
 the greater number of their young hands, or to cease 
 carrying on their manufacture in presence of foreign 
 competition, and they agitated to such efiect that 
 they succeeded partly in intimidating, partly in per- 
 suading the factory inspectors to this extent at 
 least that the latter were induced to propose to 
 Government, in August, 1835, or six months before 
 the restriction of the working hours to eight per 
 day in favour of children between twelve and thirteen 
 years of age was to come into operation, that 
 a supplementary Bill might be introduced allowing 
 
 * C. Wing, "The Evils of the Factory System," p. 30. The un- 
 certainty of tins test with regard to age, which, however, was a/bolished 
 again in 1837, is stated in detail in E. Saunders's "The Teeth a Test of . 
 
 Age, Considered with Reference to Factory Children," 1837, the ahthoj?'^ ■ 
 
 proving that at a greater height of body the most important organs are 
 often backward in their normal development, and proposing the examina- 
 tion of the teeth as the best test for determining the age, on account 
 of their relatively independent development in the human oiganism. 
 Of the second growth of teeth twelve would be a criterion for an age 
 of nine years, and twenty-eight for an age of thirteen years. 
 
Efs^GLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 children of eleven years of age and more to work 
 twelve hoiu's a day, or sixty-nine hours per week. 
 The President of the Board of Trade, Mr. Poulett 
 Thompson, thereupon brought in a Bill, in 1836, 
 proposing to amend the 8th clause of the Factory 
 Act of 1833, and thereby despoil 35,000 children 
 between the ages of twelve and thkteen of the pro- 
 tection they were legally entitled to.* This Bill 
 was adopted 1)y the small majority of two votes only, 
 and Government was compelled, by the thi'eatening 
 attitude of fresh agitators for a Ten Hours Bill, to 
 withdraw the former, and to let the Factory Act 
 formally take its course, although aware that its 
 practical enforcement would not produce the desired 
 results.! 
 
 * At the instance of Oastler, S. Hindley brought in a Bill, in the 
 same session, proposing to reduce the time of labour and restrict the 
 working of the machinery to ten hours, in order to make the short 
 working day general, and at the same time to guarantee its observance 
 more effectively. But the Bill did not even come on for a second read- 
 ing. Alfred, 1. c. II., pp. 91—105. 
 
 t Respecting the working of the Factory Act, a Parliamentary Com- 
 mittee conducted a comprehensive inquiry, under the presidency of 
 Lord Ashley. Rep. I. — VI. from the Commission on the Act for the 
 Regulation of Mills and Factories, etc., Pari. Pap. 1840, X., together 
 914 pages. These six Reports contain only the evidence of witnesses, 
 and a well -arranged register. The actual Report, which was published 
 in 1841 (Pari. Pap. Ib41, IX., 557), testifies the undoubted im- 
 provement in the condition of the young factory workers since the last 
 inquiry, and advances, with reference to the frequent infringements of 
 the law, several propositions for a more effective execution of the same, 
 many of which propositions were adopted in the Factory Act of 1844. 
 The age to be exempt from nightwork was to be raised from eighteen to 
 twenty-one years, and the working day reduced from fifteen to fourteen 
 hours {i.e. from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.), since its long duration, as compared 
 with the legally determined working time of the protected persons, 
 encouraged and facilitated infringements of the law. The overtime for 
 recovering lost time was to be placed under a stricter control, and not 
 to be allowed in factories which were worked by steam and water power 
 at the same time, because of the easy mode of balancing any loss of 
 time in these establishments. Fixed hours were to be set apart within 
 the working day for meals, in order that a break should really take 
 place in the work. The time of labour for children was to be reduced 
 
 C 2 
 
ENGLISH FACTOEY LEGISLATION. 
 
 After the law had expressly restricted the young 
 labourers to a fixed time of working, which the 
 employers considered too short for their interests, 
 they tried to make arrangements to keep their 
 machines going longer within the legal working- day 
 (from 5^ o'clock a.m. till 8|- p.m.) than the twelve 
 hours guaranteed to the protected persons, and 
 this they could only achieve by establishing re- 
 lays which commenced work at different times 
 of the day, so that formally the legal working time 
 of those individually under protection was not 
 exceeded. As these different working turns did 
 not, contrary to the two relaj^s of the children, 
 relieve one another at the same machines, but took 
 their turn at different machines at different times of 
 the day, and as the whole machinery was at work 
 all the time so long as one set of labourers were 
 employed, the work of the group which were taking 
 rest had to be performed at the same time, during 
 the relief and meal-times, by the other set of hands, 
 together with their own work.* It is plain that in 
 these complicated combinations of the different 
 hours into which the several periods of labour were 
 divided, the excess of work done by protected 
 persons who had to stay in the factory during the 
 whole working-day, in order to be ready to take 
 
 from eight to seven hours, and the employment of the same child before 
 and after dinner jDrohibited. Certificates as to age were to be issued 
 only by officially appointed medical officers. Every illegal employment 
 of each protected individual person was to be considered a special 
 oifence, and punished accordingly. Silk factories and lace manufac- 
 tories were to be subjected to the regulations of the Factory Act, but a 
 longer time of labour might yet be allowed in silk throwing-mills, 
 which require a large number of children's hands for doing the easy 
 work. 
 
 * Inspector Howell, 7 May and 6 July, 1838. Report of Inspectors 
 of Factories, April 30, 1848, p. 7. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 their turn, was very difficult to prove without their 
 own testiruony, and the factory inspectors therefore 
 unanimously declared that so long as the employers 
 had the power to work relays, to fix irregular meal- 
 hours, and to continually alter at pleasure the 
 working- time of every individual, no legal restriction 
 of the time of labour could be enforced against their 
 will. As many manufacturers attempted to change 
 the meal-time, by having it either before or after 
 the regular working time, and allowed only half an 
 hour's interval in the midst of the latter, the 
 inspector obtained a legal opinion from the Law 
 Officers of the Crown, according to which no part 
 of the legally allowed meal-time was permitted to 
 be taken, either before the commencement or after 
 the termination of the regular work ; but the Home 
 Secretary suifered nevertheless the contrary practice 
 to prevail, by which the legal time allowed for 
 takmg meals became perfectly illusory as a real 
 break in the work. While the manufacturers had 
 endeavoured to arrange the work of the young 
 people in such a way that the reduction of their 
 working time should impede, as little as possible, 
 the manufacturing process, they could not do the 
 same to an equal degree in respect to children, for 
 whom the law had provided two separate working 
 periods, with a strict obligation to attend school. 
 Before the passing of the law, they had urged as 
 one of the chief obstacles, the difficulty of obtaining 
 the larger number of children required, in conse- 
 quence of the double set of hands to be employed ; 
 but when the law, with its strict regulations 
 regarding schooling — considered so onerous by the 
 manufacturers — came into force, they obviated this 
 
22 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 inconvenience by the wholesale dismissal of the 
 "^ children and the employment of " young persons " 
 
 'v / /or machines in their stead.* 
 
 -^r^ The agitation for a Ten Hours Bill was conse- 
 quently kept up ; in Manchester and Glasgow 
 short-time committees were again organised who 
 made the uncurtailed application of the Factory 
 Act and the further gradual reduction of the time 
 of labour their special aim. The agitation for the 
 repeal of the Corn Laws, which had meanwhile 
 increased, added a new element to the fermentation 
 prevailing in the manufacturing districts, already 
 excited by the Chartist movement, while the oppo- 
 nents of the Anti-Corn Law League supported with 
 all their might the aims of the working-men against 
 their Free Trade employers, though they were equally 
 in dread of the democratic and communistic tenden- 
 cies of the Chartists, t In 1840, Government 
 having withdrawn the draft of a fresh supple- 
 mentary law to the Factory Act, Lord Ashley | 
 exposed before Parliament the condition of the 
 young people employed in mines and other indus- 
 tries not under legal regulation, and obtained the 
 appointment of a Royal Commission for the purpose 
 of inquiring into the condition of the operatives 
 
 * In 1835 (before the Factory Act had come into full force) there 
 were in 3164 factories, 56,455 children ; in 1838 (under the reign of 
 the Factory Act) only 29,283 children were employed in 4217 facto- 
 ries ; consequently, despite the increase of the number of factories and 
 the introduction of double working groups, the number of children 
 decreased by about one half. This decrease in the number of children 
 after the introduction of the double working groups was still more 
 conspicuous in the silk-factories of Derbyshire ; as in 1845, when the 
 half-time system was introduced there, the number of children fell 
 from 431 to 128 ; and in 1850 there were only 12. Reports of In- 
 spectors of Factories, Oct. 31, 1856, p. 19 ; April 30, 1857, p. 79. 
 
 + Alfred II. cap. 9. 
 
 X Shaftesbury, 1. c. p. 16. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATIOX. 23 
 
 engaged in these (so-called) " free " industries. 
 The Report of this Commission, which constitutes 
 at present the most extensively known of all Blue 
 Books of the kind, obtaining even on the Continent 
 a more than ordinary attention, disclosed the most 
 revolting abuses, and unfolded one of the darkest 
 pictm-es of the material and moral misery and de- 
 pravity of this class of the labouring population. 
 
 The first part of the Report* treated of the 
 condition of the workers in mines, and drew par- 
 ticular attention to the very early age at which 
 children were put to fatiguing mining work. The 
 age of admission varied from between four to seven 
 years of age, and a very large number of the 
 labourers employed were under thirteen, since 
 children, on account of their diminutive size, were 
 best fitted to draw the loads through the low 
 galleries. Girls and adult females performed the 
 same work as the men, but were especially employed 
 in drawing coal-waggons. Very often children of 
 both sexes worked together in a half-naked state. 
 The working-time was usually from eleven to twelve 
 hours, extending frequently to sixteen hours, and 
 when there was a great demand for coals, night-work 
 was had recourse to. There was no fixed time for 
 meals, and accidents were of frequent occurrence 
 owing to the deficient inspection and fencing in 
 
 * Children Employment Commission, I. Rep. Mines. Pari. Pap., 
 1842, XV., 281 Images. The Reports of the Sub-Commissioners are 
 contained in the Pari. Pap. of 1842, XVI., 886 pages, and XVII., 937 
 pages. All very comprehensive and exhaustive. As the most important 
 results of this inquiry have been very practically epitomised and 
 arranged by Engels, 1. c. , pp. 289—300, and the principal abuses of 
 women and children's labour remedied by the Mining Act of 1842, 
 only the concluding remarks of the principal Report have been quoted 
 in the text. 
 
24 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATIO:?^. 
 
 of the machinery and to defective ventilation. 
 The wages were not, save in a few exceptional 
 instances, particularly low, nor the provisions exactly 
 bad, but the extensively practised truck system left 
 the workmen no chance of bettering their condition. 
 The work was mostly conducted by sub-contractors, 
 who themselves kept the truck-shops and bound 
 parish-orphans by apprenticeship indentures till 
 they were twenty-one years of age without paying 
 them any wages except in the shape of board and 
 clothing. The workmen were in most cases crippled 
 and simultaneously subject to an abnormal develop- 
 ment of certain muscles and to numerous diseases, 
 especially of the respiratory organs, known as 
 melanosis. Immorality and ignorance prevailed to 
 a most frightful extent. Although the Commis- 
 sioners did not propose any distinct legislative 
 measure in the shape of a Bill, Lord Ashley,* on 
 the basis of their Eeport, introduced one, with the 
 object of excluding women altogether and boys 
 under thirteen years of age from underground 
 work in mines, and of cancelling all apprenticeship 
 indentures ; but he failed in securing legal sanction 
 . for these propositions. The Mining Act, 5 & Q 
 
 (sTe Vict ^^^*- ^- ^^ (August 10th, 1842), though it pro- 
 c. 99) Aug. hibited underground work by women in general, and 
 10, 1842. Y)j boys under ten years of age, left the existing 
 indentures in force till the apprentices had reached 
 s, the age of eighteen, and permitted in future con- 
 tracts to be entered into for a term of eight years 
 for new apprentices ten years old. The pay- 
 ment of wages in public houses was prohibited, and 
 
 * Shaftesbury, 1. c. pp. 31, 47, seq. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. ' 
 
 wages so paid could be claimed over again by the 
 workmen. The Government was empowered to 
 appoint mine inspectors who were to report on the 
 observance of the law, but they were not invested 
 with such extensive authority as the factory inspec- 
 tors. The Act contained no clause restricting 
 the time of labour or prohibiting night-work, no 
 du'ections for school attendance and certificates of 
 age, and was therefore beneficial to the mining 
 population only by the prohibition of female and 
 children's work, although the immediate exclusion 
 of the numerous class of female workers in mines 
 produced much temporary distress, especially in the 
 eastern parts of Scotland.* 
 
 In the following year the Children Emplojnnent 
 Commission published their second Report on the 
 condition of young labourers in those branches of 
 industry not as yet under the operation of the 
 Factory Act, and brought to light t a terrible state 
 
 * I. Report of the Commission appointed to inquire into tlie opera- 
 tion of 5 & 6 Vic. c. 99, 1843, the results of which are succinctly put 
 together^ by L. Faucher, in his "Etudes sur 1' Angleterre, " II., 363 — 
 396. Another very instructive inquiry on the mining woi'kers of a 
 single district was published in 1843. Report of the Midland Mining 
 Commission (South Staffordshire). Pari. Pap. 1843, XIII. 306 pages. 
 The inquiry was caused by a strike on a large scale of the workmen 
 against the sub-contractors ( ' ' butties") who, from foremen of the original 
 gang formed for working a mine, had become the most cruel of masters. 
 Truck and long intervals for paying wages, neglect of all pi-ecautions for 
 security, long terms of apprenticeship for parish orphans, had also in 
 this district produced misery and degradation. 
 
 + Children Employment Commission. II. Report, Trades and Manu- 
 factures. Pari. Pap. 1843, XIII., 245 pages; the Valumes XIV. and 
 XV. (889 and 886 pages) embody the Reports of the Sub-Commis- 
 sioners and the evidence of the witnesses. Vol. XLII. of the Pari. 
 Pap. of 1845 contains the Alphabetical Register. The chief results of 
 this inquiry may be gathei'ed from Engels' and from Faucher's accounts, 
 partly also from Ledru Rollin's ** Decadence de I'Angleterre," and other 
 more or less partial descriptions. Only the concluding remarks, there- 
 fore, in page 195, are given here : In many trades children commence 
 work at four, five, six, and seven years of age. Parents send their children 
 
26 ENGLISH FACTOEY LEGISLATION. 
 
 of things and abuses in these " free " industries ; but 
 since no powers to do so had been delegated to 
 them, they proposed no reforms, and the sufferings 
 of these people remained consequently without legal 
 remedy until 1864, when the first Factory Exten- 
 sion Act was passed. 
 
 The difficulties mentioned above of carrying out 
 the Factory Act of 1833 induced Sir Eobert Peel's 
 Cabinet, in 1844, to bring in a new and consolidating 
 Bill respecting the Industries subject to that Act, 
 and Sir James Graham proposed, on the 5th of 
 Februar}", that it should not be allowed to work 
 children from eight to thirteen years of age longer 
 than six hours and a half a day, that the gene- 
 ral working- day for children and young persons 
 should be from 5.30 a.m. to 7 p.m. (6.30 a.m. till 
 8 p.m. in winter), and that the recovery of lost 
 time should only be allowable in mills worked by 
 water-power. Lord Ashley, in a powerful speech, 
 explained in committee* the disadvantages and the 
 
 to work as early as possible, and frequently repay by the latter's labour 
 money debts owing to the master. Long running indentures till the 
 twenty-first year with board and lodging, but without wages. No legal 
 protection for the apprentices against unmerciful masters, but numerous 
 convictions of apprentices for breach of contract. The magistrates were 
 adverse to give their decision in favour of the cancelling of a contract, 
 in order that the apprentices might not again become a burden to the 
 parish. Bad treatment of the children, especially by grown-up work- 
 men, particularly in the locksmiths' trade at Wolverhampton. Time of 
 labour on an average from ten to twelve hours. Considerable moral 
 depravity and ignorance. Sunday schools quite insufficient. Evening 
 schools ineffective, because of the fatigue of the children. Great 
 poverty and bad food, particularly in the nail-making, needle, lace, 
 hosiery, tobacco manufactories, potteries, and calico-printing works. 
 These so-called "free" industries exhibited a much more melancholy 
 picture than the large organised manufacturing industry, and the 
 unregulated long children's work in them acted like a premium for 
 pai'ents greedy of gain who preferred employing their children at the 
 earliest age in these indiistries and sending them to the large factories 
 afterwards. 
 
 * Shaftesbury, 1. c. p. 91. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 27 
 
 injurious effects of factory work, and recommended 
 that the night hours during which protected persons 
 were prohibited from working, should commence 
 as early as 6 p.m. The Ministry and the manu- 
 facturers opposed, but Lord Ashley's amendment was 
 carried. In the discussion which followed the House 
 rejected, in a contradictory- manner, both limits of 
 twelve and of ten hours as the period of labour. 
 There remained to the Government, therefore, no 
 alternative but to bring in a new Bill, omitting the 
 clause respecting the hours of labour, and when this 
 came on for discussion in the House, Lord Ashley 
 again proposed* to restrict the working-hours for 
 young persons to ten, to commence in October, 
 1847. Sir Eobert Peel opposed this clause with 
 the whole weight of his authority, pointing to the 
 injurious ejffect that would accrue to home pro- 
 duction by reducing the period of labour, and to 
 the working-men by the decrease of their wages, with 
 the possibility of the small trades — which were sub- 
 ject to no legal restrictions and rapidly declining — 
 reviving with all the injurious effects of their un- 
 controlled long working-hours ; and threatening, 
 moreover, to tender his resignation, he succeeded 
 in obtaining the rejection of Lord Ashley's amend- 
 ment by a majority of 297 against 159. t 
 
 The Factory Act of 6th June, 1844 (7 Vict. c. Factory 
 15) reduced the working time for children of eight ^. 
 (no longer nine) to thirteen years of age employed 15) JuneG, 
 in the textile industry t to six hours and a half per ■'^^^^• 
 
 Textile 
 * Shaftesbury, 1. c. p. 116. Industry. 
 
 + Annual Eer/ister, 1844, p. 107 seq. On the motives of the 
 
 different divisions, see L. Faucher, 1. c. I. p. 483. 
 
 + In silk throwing mills children of eleven years of age were allowed 
 
 to work ten hours daily, and were not compelled to attend school. 
 
28 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 day (the working- day running from 5.30 a.m. to 
 8.30 P.M.), and no child that had been occupied 
 in the morning was allowed to work in any factory 
 on the same day after 1 o'clock p.m. As a conces- 
 sion, those factories where the labour of young 
 persons was restricted to ten hours a day were 
 also allowed to employ children for ten hours, but 
 only on three alternate days of the week. While, 
 on the one hand, the age of admission for children 
 had been reduced by one year, all adult females 
 were, on the other hand, placed under the same 
 legal protection as the young persons. For the 
 purpose of establishing, if possible, a uniform time 
 of labour, it was enacted that the legal hours for 
 children or young persons should be reckoned 
 from the time when either of them had first begun 
 work in the morning. One hour and a half was to 
 be allowed for meal-time, between 7.30 a.m. and 
 7.30 P.M. A break of at least half an hour was to 
 be made in the five hours' work before 1 p.m., for 
 dinner, and all protected persons were to take their 
 meals at the same time in the day, and outside the 
 factory building, and they were not to be permitted, 
 under any pretext whatsoever, to work after 4.30 
 p.m. on Saturdays. If time happened to be lost 
 through an accident to the machinery, or want or 
 excess of water in factories worked by that power, 
 protected persons, after a previous notification to 
 the factory inspector within six months after the 
 stoppage, could be employed one hour per day extra 
 (with the exception of Saturdays) in order to make 
 up for the loss sustained. If the stoppage occurred 
 through an unforeseen accident during the day, the 
 time lost thereby could be recovered by night-work, 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 29 
 
 by young persons, but not by children. No ces- 
 sation from work should be deemed one of the 
 eight legal half-holidays, except notice to the con- 
 trary had been previously given. Parents or per- 
 sons having any direct benefit from the wages of the 
 children had to send each of them to school for at 
 least three hours daily during the first five days of 
 the week. In winter two hours and a half in the 
 afternoon w^ere considered sufiicient.* Those chil- 
 dren who worked ten hours on 'alternate days were 
 to attend school for five hours on each non-working 
 day.f Certificates for school attendance had to be 
 given weekly, and were to be filed by the manufac- 
 tm-er for inspection by the factory inspector. The 
 school fees, which were to amount to no more than 
 twopence per week, were allowed to be deducted 
 from the children's wages by the employer, but at 
 no higher a rate than the twelfth part of the weekly 
 wages. The surgical certificates of age, w^hich still 
 testified the corresponding age from the outward 
 appearance of physical development only, were, as a 
 rule, to be exclusively issued b}^ the physicians (or 
 surgeons) appointed by the factory inspectors ; if 
 
 * The Factory Act of 1833 provided only twelve hours' school attend- 
 ance weekly. 
 
 f This system of the alternate ten hour days applied originally to 
 the country districts in which the factory children usually lived at a dis- 
 tance from the factory, in order to afford them more opportunity of attend- 
 ing school. But the object of better instruction was seldom attained 
 thereby, since the children attending school on alternate days received 
 their instniction either in separate schools, consequently without coming 
 in contact with their companions of the same age, or they lost their 
 places in the common schools because they unavoidably remained behind 
 the other children who attended school daily. S. Report of Inspectors 
 of Factories, December 31, 1866, p. 100. This alternate system 
 remained in its application far behind the half-time system. In some 
 cases, as in the dyed wool factories, it proved advantageous, as the 
 children had not to change their dress for going to school. S. Report 
 of Inspectors of Factories, April 30, 1850, p. 40. 
 
30 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION^. 
 
 given by other medical men, they had to be counter- 
 signed by a justice of the peace. The examining 
 medical officer had to be paid by the manufacturer ; 
 but he was entitled to deduct as much as threepence 
 from the wages of the persons examined. The 
 factory inspector was empowered to annul every 
 certificate in case the age therein mentioned ap- 
 peared to him to be stated too low, or in the event 
 I of the child, after medical examination, proving 
 
 too weak to stand the factory work. In case of a 
 certificate of age being refused by the surgeon 
 or annulled by the inspector, the latter was fur- 
 ther empowered to direct, for the purpose of ascer- 
 taining the real age, a requisition to the regis- 
 trar of births and deaths, or to the clergjTnan, to 
 produce a copy of the entry of the birth or baptism. 
 But even a certificate of the real age did not render 
 the employment of a protected person permissible 
 in a factory if the original surgical certificate was 
 refused or annulled in consequence of bodily 
 infirmity. For the purpose of carrying out the 
 law the factory inspectors and sub-inspectors were 
 invested, under the administrative control of the 
 Home Secretar}^, with extensive powers. They had 
 a right to enter a factory and all the rooms 
 therein at any time, to inspect the certificates and 
 registers, to examine each person on the spot, and to 
 require them to make a formal declaration of the 
 truth of their depositions ; to dispense with school 
 attendance, to require, with the authority of a 
 justice of the peace, the services of constables, and 
 to summons witnesses and accused persons. The 
 manufacturers were obliged to apprise them of the 
 opening of a factory, and of the extension of the 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 31 
 
 working-hours for the purpose of recovering lost 
 time, and likewise of the ten hours' work on 
 alternate days. In like manner the certifying 
 surgeon had to report to them every accident that 
 occurred. Those who transgressed against the law 
 were subjected to a summary process before a 
 justice of the peace,* before whom the complaint 
 could be laid by the factory inspector (in Scotland, 
 by the procurator-fiscal). The right of filing 
 an information expu'ed after two (in some cases 
 after three) months from the date of the offence. 
 For greater facility in establishing the evidence, cer- 
 tain legal presumptions were laid down, namely : — 
 For the purpose of determining the time of com- 
 mencement of work the tabular divisions of time 
 exhibited in the factory were to be taken as a rule 
 of guidance until proof to the contrar}^ had been 
 tendered, and the admission of a person into the 
 factory (except for the purpose of bringing pro- 
 visions) presupposed that person's employment 
 therein. In the same manner the surgical certifi- 
 cate of age was to be proof of the supposed age 
 until the contrary was established by counter- 
 evidence; but it did not exonerate those employers 
 who, aware of the incorrectness of the certificate, 
 
 * Section 71 of the Act disqualified only those manufacturers who 
 were owners, or brother, father, or son of the owner of the factory 
 in which the offence had taken place, whilst, as mentioned above 
 (jjage 7), the law of 1831 had excluded all manufacturers from the 
 office of magistrate in such cases. The inspectors who were invested by 
 the Factory Act of 1833 with a jurisdiction concurring with that of the 
 justices of the peace, lost it in 1844, and they are now only administra- 
 tive functionaries who appear before the justices of the peace as public 
 prosecutors. In this sense must the respective passages in § 76 of 
 (intisVs "Englisches Verwaltungs-Recht," and §46 " Communalver- 
 fassung" (The English Administration and Municipal Constitution) be 
 rectified. 
 
g2 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 employed persons tinder the legal age. Masters 
 were, in the first instance, responsible for all 
 infringements of the law, and next to them their 
 managers and foremen. The fines for employing a 
 protected person contrary to the provisions of the 
 statute, and a child without a certificate of school 
 attendance, were from 1/. to SI, for each protected 
 person, and from 2L to 51. when the illegal employ- 
 ment had taken place during the night. Every 
 repetition of such an illegal employment was to be 
 considered in the light of a fresh offence. Parents 
 were liable to a fine of from five to twenty shillings, 
 for giving their consent to the illegal work of their 
 children, as well as for neglect in sending them to 
 school. Non-observance of the sanitary regulations 
 was punished by a fine of from 3Z. to 101. ; omission 
 of the arrangements for protection against the 
 dangers of accidents from the machines, by 51. to 
 201. ; the neglect of fencing the dangerous parts of 
 the machinery, after having been cautioned by the 
 inspector, and if a bodily injury to anyone should 
 actually have occurred, by 101. to lOOZ. ; obstruction 
 of the official functions of the inspector, by SI. to 
 501. } forgery and use of forged certificates and regis- 
 ters, by 51. to 201., or imprisonment in the House of 
 Correction for a period not exceeding six months. 
 The fines would be remitted either entirely or partly 
 by the Home Secretary ; as a rule, they were to be 
 devoted to school purposes. There was no appeal 
 allowed from penal sentences, except in cases where 
 the fine exceeded the amount of SI., or the offence 
 was punishable by imprisonment. The appeal lay 
 to the Quarter Sessions. 
 
 Among the industries whose condition was ex- 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 33 
 
 amined into by the Children's Employment Com- 
 mission, the calico print-works had been especially 
 designated as among the most injurious to children. 
 Long work, often lasting till very late in the night, 
 in hot unhealthy rooms, a total want of instruction, 
 and low wages, made the lot of young calico-printers 
 one of the most miserable of the whole industrial 
 population. Lord Ashley,* therefore, brought in a 
 Bill the following year for their protection, by 
 prohibiting women and all young children from 
 performing any night-work whatever, by restrict- 
 ing the work of children under the age of tliir- 
 teen to eight hours, and by subjecting them at 
 the same time to the same school attendance as the 
 factory children. The law adopted in consequence, 
 8 & 9 Vict. 0. 29 (Print-works Act, June 30, 1845), ^ct!*"""'^' 
 contained provisions closely akin to those of the (8&9Vict. 
 Factory Act of the previous year, and similar ^- 29) June 
 clauses in regard to the inspection, proceedings, 
 fines, and certificates of age. It prohibited night- 
 work (by " night," in this Act, was meant the time 
 comprised between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.) by women 
 and children, but not by male young persons, the 
 legal definition of whom reached only — contrary 
 to the law of 1844 — to the sixteenth year of age ; 
 and it contained no sanitary directions, nor any 
 regulations as to the duration of labour and meal- 
 time ; so that children of eight and under thirteen 
 years of age and women could be made to work 
 from 6 A.M. until 10 p.m., and boys above thirteen 
 years of age for twenty-four hours without inter- 
 ruption. Just as defective were the school-regula- 
 tions, which on account of the irregular system of 
 
 * Lord Shaftesbury's Speeches, p. 152. 
 
34 ENGLISH FACTOEY LEGISLATION. 
 
 working in this line of industry (making, as it 
 was maintained, a regular attendance at school 
 during the working period impossible), provided only 
 for a minimum of thirty days' schooling, with 150 
 real school-hours during the last six months pre- 
 ceding the admission into the factory,* and during 
 the subsequent six months of further employment. 
 The schooling of these print-works children was, 
 by reason of its irregularity, totally ineffective, and 
 all reports of school and factory inspectors con- 
 firmed from year to year the unexampled ignorance 
 of thes.e children, who went to school at arbitrarily 
 irregular intervals, merely in order to complete the 
 legally prescribed 150 hours, but without learning 
 anything thereby. 
 
 The carrying out of the Factory Act of 1844 
 succeeded, on the whole, much better than its oppo- 
 nents had predicted. The chief difficulty consisted 
 in procuring the larger number of children required 
 by the introduction of the half-time system, for 
 where formerly three children worked for eight hours 
 four children had to be employed to perform six hours' 
 work.t But in course of time, manufacturers not 
 
 * Tlie Act fixed these six months from the first of January till the 
 last day of June, and from the first of July till the thirty-first of 
 December, whereby many children who had visited no school during these 
 very peiiods were altogether excluded from admission into the printing 
 works. In order to remedy this evil (Report of Inspectors of Factories, 
 October 31, 1846, pp. 8 & 9) an Amending Act, 10 & 11 Vict. c. 70 (July 
 22, 1847), abolished this calendary restriction. 
 
 t In some districts, though, an increase in the number of children 
 did take place at the rate of more than one-third. In Inspector L. 
 Horner's district, out of 7526 children employed there in 1843, even 
 then 2488 only worked half time, and 5038 for eight hours. Instead 
 of the latter being increased by 1680, the law (alone ?) increased their 
 number by 4902, that is, by 65 per cent., so that in 1845 the total 
 number amounted to 12,428. Report of Inspectors of Factories, April 
 30, 1845, p. 14. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 35 
 
 only gave themselves no trouble to procure a greater 
 supply of children, but rather reduced their number as 
 far as possible on account of the onerous school and 
 register regulations. In 1835, there were employed 
 in the textile industry 27,715 boys and 28,378 
 girls under thirteen years of age ; but in 1850, 
 the numbers employed were only 21,137 boys, and 
 19,638 guis, thus showing a decrease in the num- 
 ber of factor}^ children (of the legal age) of 15,318.* 
 The discharged children were replaced by machinery 
 and adult females, who performed the work of several 
 children. 
 
 Although the results of the Factory Act, in so far 
 as they were relatively advantageous to children, 
 satisfied tlie promoters of this protective legislation 
 to a certain degree, the old adherents of a Ten 
 Hours Bill did not give up their agitation in favour 
 of a reduction of the time of labour for young 
 persons and women,t and after Lord Ashley had 
 lost his seat in Parliament, his coadjutor in the 
 agitation of 1830 and the following years, Mr. J. 
 Fielden, who had already unsuccessfully proposed a 
 Ten Hours Bill the year previous, again brought 
 in a Bill I in 1847, which limited the time of 
 labour for all young persons and women to eleven 
 hours a day, or sixty-three hours weekly, at once, 
 
 * Report of Inspectors of Factories, October 31, 1850, pp. 15, 49. 
 
 t Oa-s-tler wrote from the Debtors' Prison bis "Fleet Papers," and 
 Ph. Grant published a journal under the title^ *'The Ten Hours' Advo- 
 cate," in which particularly the legal restriction of the working power 
 of machinery was advocated for the purpose of securing the observance 
 of the reduced time of labour. Alfred, 1. c. II. 210, 246. At this 
 time also we find a short Act, 9 & 10 Vict. c. 40 (August 3, 1846), 
 exempting all cord and rope factories not attached to flax-sj)inning 
 mills from the operation of the Factoiy Act. (Ropeworks Exemption 
 Act.) 
 
 t Annual Register, 1847, pp. 110—123. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 and from May 1st, 1848, to ten hours and fifty- 
 eight hours respectively. After a short but sharp 
 opposition in the House of Commons by Sir Kobert 
 Peel, supported by the " manufacturing interest " in 
 the House, the Bill, which Government had only 
 reluctantly countenanced, was carried, and having 
 • v^ received the Royal assent, its first provisions came 
 
 Ten Hours ^^^^ force on the 1st of July, as 10 Vict. c. 29 
 Act. (June 8, 1847).* 
 
 2Q*?T^^* s' With this law the object of a nearly twenty years' 
 1847. ' agitation appeared to be accomplished, and as — 
 1 according to the returns of 1847 — out of 544,876 
 ; workmen (the total number employed in the 
 j textile industry) 363,796 had to be classed under 
 (the designation of young persons and women, 
 its importance was much greater than that of the 
 previous Factory Acts, which referred chiefly to the , 
 curtailment of children's labour. The commence- 
 ment of the operation of the new law coincided with 
 ^J a great commercial crisis, which compelled nume- 
 rous manufactories to stop working, or to work only 
 half-time, so that the legal reduction of the working 
 time corresponded to an analogous necessity of 
 the trade to follow a similar direction. The 
 reduction of the wages in the year 1847 is there- 
 fore to be ascribed not so much to the new law 
 as to the general stagnation of trade. With the 
 re\dval of production which took place simul- 
 taneously with the adoption of the ten hours' 
 working day, there arose a tendency among the 
 manufacturers to keep their establishments longer 
 
 * All other provisions of the Factory Acts of 1833 and 1844 
 remained in force. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 37 
 
 at work during the legal working day (that is, 
 from 5.30 a.m. to 8.30 p.m.), than the number of 
 hom's fixed as working time for the protected 
 persons, without, however, keeping any of these 
 protected persons longer employed than the legal 
 maximum ; and this they endeavoured to accom- 
 phsh by the reintroduction of the so-called relays 
 of young persons who, sunilarly to the working divi- 
 sions mentioned in page 20, commenced and left 
 off work at different hours ; a system which had been 
 put an end to by the provision of the Factory Act 
 of 1844 (sect. 26), which states that the working 
 time of all i)ersons employed in a factory shall be < 
 
 reckoned from the moment any of the protected 
 persons had, generally speaking, commenced work. 
 These working divisions, falsely called "relays,"* 
 did not represent two complete separate groups of 
 hands relieving each other at the same kind of 
 work, but a greatly complicated combination of 
 hands and hours which, as a rule, required the 
 presence of the workmen in the factory during the 
 whole working day (from half-past five in the morn- 
 ing until half-past eight in the evening), thus com- 
 pletely eluding the very object of the Ten Hours 
 
 * This expression has been derived from the postal terminology. "By 
 the term relay it is not meant that you should put each horse of your 
 team in a diiferent place at the end of every mile, diversifying the rota- 
 tion by the temporary substitution of a spare horse (which for this pur- 
 pose accompanies you througli the journey, being tied behind when not 
 in collar) to take the place first of one and then of another of the 
 original team, each of which resumes its own place or takes that of 
 some other after a brief respite."/ Inspector Howell's Report, Oct. 31, 
 1848, p. 95. The working divisions. A. andB., for example, worked 
 from 6 till 9 o'clock (three hours), the divisions A. and C. from 94 till 
 2 o'clock (lour hours and a half), and the divisions B. and C. from 3 
 o'clock till 74 (four hours and a half), so that the class B. worked in 
 fact less than the legal maximum time, but their work was distributed 
 over thirteen hours and a half. 
 
38 ENGLISH FACTOEY LEGISLATION. 
 
 Bill; namely, the reduction of the actual working 
 time and respective^ the prolongation of the free 
 leisure hours of the workmen, and facilitating their 
 employment during the same day in different facto- 
 ries, whereby free scope was given to an infringe- 
 ment of the law. The inspectors, therefore, backed 
 by the opinion of the crown -lawyers,* and acting in 
 conformity with the above-mentioned section 26 — the 
 evident meaning of w^hich prescribed also equal 
 closing time for the protected workpeople — laid nu- 
 merous complaints against the manufacturers' work- 
 ing '' rela3^s." The latter, who had somewhat easily 
 reconciled themselves to the provisions of the Factory 
 Act of 1844, respecting the equal w^orking hours, so 
 long as the w^orking time of the protected persons 
 amounted to twelve hours, declared, after the intro- 
 duction of the ten hours system, that the said 
 clause was impracticable, if thereby was implied 
 definite equal closing time for all protected persons ; 
 and they showed that it was particularly desired by 
 weak and elderly women to be allowed to work half- 
 time in the afternoon and up to a later hour than 
 the rest of the workmen. The justices of the 
 peace, mostly belonging to the manufacturing class, 
 acquiesced in this view and, as a rule, acquitted 
 the employers.! The application, therefore, of this 
 
 * Pari. Papers, 1847—1848, LI. p. 243. The law officers were of 
 opinion that the working time for protected persons, must be reckoned 
 to begin from the hour posted up in the factory as that for commencing 
 work. 
 
 + This struggle of the manufacturers against the Ten Hours Bill is 
 very vividly described by Marx, " Capital, " pp. 259—268, from the 
 Reports of the Factory Inspectors. A few small errors, however, have 
 crept into the work of the otherwise very careful author. In page 
 262, the opinion of the Crown lawyers on the meal times dates from 
 since 1847, whilst it was given in 1837. See Eeport of Inspectors 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 law was constantly set aside, the more so as the 
 factory inspector for Scotland joined issue with the 
 manufacturers, and the Home-Secretary ordered 
 that no summons for infringement of the letter of 
 the law by the employment of " relays " of protected 
 persons should be granted if there was not suffi- 
 cient ground to presume that they had been reall}" 
 emj^loyed longer than the legal working time. In 
 order to put an end to this deplorable state of 
 things, which was continued, despite the repeated 
 half-j^early protests of the factory inspectors, and 
 in order to obtain a generally valid decision on the 
 interpretation of the Act, the inspectors, in a case 
 where a woman had worked ten hours, but had 
 terminated these ten hours at a later time in 
 the day than ten hours after the time at which 
 another protected person had commenced work in 
 the same factory, brought an action before a supe- 
 rior tribunal, the Court of Exchequer, which, on 
 the 8th of February, 1850, decided that, although 
 the Factory Acts prescribed that work should com- 
 mence and meals be taken at one and the same 
 hour, they, however, contamed no further restric- 
 tions, and that therefore the protected persons were 
 at liberty to engage themselves for a shorter time 
 than the legal number of working hours, and to 
 finish their work at any time they pleased within 
 the legal working day (from 5.30 a.m. till 8.30 p.m).* 
 
 of Factories, April 30th, 1848, p. 8. In note 159 Hobhouse's Act is men- 
 tioned as still in force in 1847, whereas it had been expressly repealed 
 already by section 48 of the Factory Act of 1833. In page 270 it is stated 
 that only in 1850 the long working time of children above eleven years 
 was restricted to silk-winding and silk-thi'owing mills ; but this was 
 done by section 72 of the Factory Act of 1844. 
 
 * Ryder v. Mills, Pari. Pap. 1850, XLII. p. 479, and 3 Ex. 
 Eep. 853. 
 
40 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 By this decision the practice of the alternate 
 relays (shifting system) was declared legally admis- 
 sible, and manufacturers who had up to that time 
 refrained from working long time with the aid of 
 these relays now speedily followed in the wake of 
 their competitors. It was to be feared that this 
 wrongly designated "relay system" would extend 
 itself to all industrial districts,* notwithstanding 
 the great dislike of the workmen, if, on the repre- 
 sentations of the factory inspectors, the Legislature 
 had not interfered in order to secure and further 
 develop the principle of the factory legislation 
 by the establishment of a uniform working-day 
 which should afford the protected persons a rea- 
 sonable leisure time after leaving off work. 
 (13 & 14 This was accomplished by 13 & 14 Vict. c. 54 
 
 Vict. c. 54) (August 5, 1850), which reduced the legal worldng 
 1850. ' day for all young persons and women to the time 
 comprised between six in the morning and six in 
 the evening, and fixed the legal hour and a half 
 for meal-time within these twelve hours, so that 
 the real working time during the first five days in 
 the week was increased to ten and a half hours a 
 day. On Saturdays no protected person was 
 allowed to work after 2 o'clock, p.m. Extra work 
 for the recovery of lost time was only allowed in 
 case of interruptions of some magnitude ^ until 
 7 P.M., and additional work for less important 
 interruptions occurring during the day was equally 
 prohibited from occupying more than ten hours and 
 a half during the night immediately following. 
 
 * In Lancashire the relay system was, with a few local exceptions, 
 still in the minority. Report of Inspectors of Factories, April 30, 1850, 
 pp. 4,25. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 41 
 
 With regard to the winter months, the manufac- 
 turers were permitted, with the consent of the 
 inspectors, to run the working day. from 7 a.m. 
 to 7 P.M. Children above eleven years of age em- 
 ployed in silk-throwing and silk-winding mills, to 
 whom up to that time ten hours' work had already 
 been permitted without being liable to school- 
 attendance, were in every respect placed on an 
 equal footing with young persons. Every pro- 
 tected person found working or simply staying in 
 the factory during the hours affixed in the factory 
 for meal-time was considered to be illegally em- 
 ployed. 
 
 The former infringements of the law and diffi- 
 culties in its observance were caused by the difference 
 in time between the legal working day (that is to 
 say, the time dm-ing which protected persons were 
 allowed to work at all) and the legal working time 
 {i.e., the number of the said persons' working hours 
 per day). The new Hmitation of the working day 
 now made it fully consistent with the legal working 
 time (including the time for meals), and in this 
 sense there exists now, but only since the year 
 1850, an actual normal tuorking day, with equal ^ 
 hours for commencing and leaving off work, and 
 pauses for rest. The law, by its clear and distinct 
 provisions, put a speedy and lasting end to the 
 uncertainties and agitation that existed in the manu- 
 facturing districts, and met with less resistance and 
 ill-will than had been expected. The employers 
 (especially those who had introduced no relay 
 system) gained two hours per week (now sixty in- 
 stead of fifty-eight hours) and the operatives 
 willingly acquiesced in the additional half-hour 
 
42 ENGLISH FxVCTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 during the first five days of the week, inasmuch as 
 an increase in wages was at the same time implied 
 thereby ; more particularly, however, was the gain 
 of nearly the whole Saturday afternoon most bene- 
 ficial in its results to all working men, since the 
 adult male labourers employed in the textile industry 
 who, although otherwise unfettered, were always 
 dependent for assistance in their work on protected 
 persons, also fully participated in the boon. 
 
 The Act of 1850, which up to the present day 
 still regulates the working time of the majority of 
 the factory labourers, applied only — as it had been 
 passed for a special reason arising out of the diffi- 
 culties of carrying the Ten Hours Act into effect — 
 to the persons protected by it, and left the work 
 performed by children from eight to thirteen years 
 of age still under the operation of the Factory Act 
 of 1844. Consequentl}^ a great discrepancy became 
 apparent between the new working time (from 6 a.m. 
 to 6 p.m) and the ,old worldng day (from 5.30 a.m. 
 to 8.30 p.m), which permitted the employment of 
 children as auxiliary hands to adult male labourers 
 before and after the working hours of young 
 persons and women, and so admitted of the 
 machinery being kept going for a longer time than 
 the new working day allowed.* Another incon- 
 venience resulting from the new law was the inter- 
 ruption of children's work for ten hours on alternate 
 days. The manufacturers, after the' introduction 
 of the Ten Hours Bill, frequently availed them- 
 selves of the permission given by the Factory Act 
 of 1844 to employ children for ten hours each on 
 
 * This was of frequent occurrence. See Report of Inspectors of Fac- 
 tories, Oct, 31, 1850, p. 7. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 43 
 
 alternate days ; the children going to school both 
 in the morning and in the afternoon on non-working 
 days ; and through the working days being altered 
 every week, each child received five entire days' 
 schooling in a fortnight, and the total working time 
 was according to this system even less than under 
 that of employing double working divisions daily.* 
 As these children were employed as auxiUary hands 
 to young persons and w^omen whose working 
 time was now confined to ten hours and a half, the 
 continuation of this work was no longer legal by 
 reason of the additional half-hour, and the inspec- 
 tors, though convinced of the beneficial working of 
 the system, which ensured better attendance at 
 school and neater outward appearance in clothing 
 on non-working daj's, were obliged to susj)end it 
 everywhere. 
 
 The Legislature soon took another step in advance 
 in order to adapt the children's worldng day to that 
 of the yoimg persons and women, and prohibited, 
 by 16 & 17 Vict. c. 104 (August 20, 1853), the (I6&17 
 emplo3'ment of children before six o'clock in the 1q^}\ ^ 
 morning, and after six in the evening, main- 20, 1853. 
 taining, however, the proviso contained in the 
 previous Act in reference to altering this time in 
 the winter months to seven instead of six o'clock, 
 respectively, and extending the hours for extra 
 work to 7 P.M. in factories worked by water-power. , 
 
 With this law the series of legal restrictions of 
 the working time for the great textile industry, 
 properly so called, terminates, and although there 
 was no disposition to consent to the restriction of 
 the working power of the machinery, repeatedly 
 
 * Beport of Inspectors of Factories, Oct. 31, 1850, p. 8. 
 
44 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION 
 
 moved on previous occasions, the same object — 
 namely, the establishment of a uniform day of 
 labour for all working men — was nevertheless carried 
 cle facto by the time of labour of adults being 
 imj)licitly reduced also.* Manufacturers, as a whole, 
 submitted to the new order of things, and the factory 
 inspectors reported the following year a pretty 
 general observance of the law, and only complained 
 seriously of the want of precaution and of the danger 
 arising from the insufficiently fenced-in and pro- 
 tected parts of the machinery, particularly the hori- 
 zontal transmission cjdinders and wheels, which in 
 n9&20 spite of a special supplementar}^ statute, 19 & 20 
 Jimeso,^^^ Vict. c. 38 (June 30, 1856), was not removed.! 
 1856. Another very frequent infringement of the law,, 
 
 difficult to be noticed by the inspectors, consisted 
 in the practice followed by many manufacturers of 
 working their machines each time at the respective 
 commencing and closing hours during the da}^ for 
 some minutes longer, thereby prolonging the usual 
 
 * A return submitted to Parliament in the year 1870 (Pari. Pap. 
 Sess. No. 453) of the number and condition of persons employed in the 
 textile industry throughout the United Kingdom in 1868 will be seen 
 tabulated on the opposite page. 
 
 f As only those parts of the mill gearing were to be fenced with 
 which the protected persons came in contact during their * ' ordinary 
 occupation," all those persons who were put to any other work by the 
 foreman, besides their usual occupation, in the performance of which 
 they might have come iuto contact with any of the non-protected parts 
 of the machinery, were deprived of the legal protection and claims for 
 damages respectively in case of injuries sustained. 
 
 The arbitrators appointed under the Factory Act of 1844 for examining 
 dangerous machines were engineers who certainly had a knowledge of 
 their construction, but did not understand the dangers arising from the 
 work done, and the manipulations going on in the work-rooms ; and 
 they were not, like other experts, authorised to examine witnesses. 
 For this reason the inspectors declared themselves in general against 
 these arbitrators' opinions, which, as a rule, prejudiced the claim for 
 damages in an action to that effect. Report of Inspectors of Factories, 
 Oct. 31, 1856, p. 3, seq., and also in later reports. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORS LEGISLATIOX. 
 
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46 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 period of labour.* In order to rectify this irregu- 
 larit}^, the legal supposition of the Factory Act of 
 1844, that unless the contrary be proved the 
 presence of a person in the factory was to be con- 
 sidered as employment in the same, was not suffi- 
 cient; for the employer alwaj^s had the advantage 
 of bringing forward counter evidence, that is to 
 say, to prove the non-occupation of the person or 
 persons in question, by either locking the door and 
 quickly removing the workmen from the workroom, 
 or instantly stopping the machines, whereas it was 
 extremely difficult for the inspector, who was usually 
 admitted too late into the workrooms, to prove the 
 actual employment of a certain person. In con- 
 sequence of a petition from working men's delegates 
 respecting the infringement of the clauses relating 
 to the limitation of the working hours, Inspector 
 ^ Horner drew up a memoir, with propositions for a 
 reform of the law. Presence in the factory should 
 establish employment in the same, notwithstanding 
 all evidence to the contrary. The locking of the 
 factory gate, the refusal to give the name of a pro- 
 tected person, the leaving the workrooms at the first 
 appearance of the inspector in the factory, should 
 constitute a punishable obstruction of the inspector 
 in the exercise o^ his official duties. The working 
 time should be regulated by the nearest railway 
 clock; no meal-time should last less than thirty 
 
 * The *' fraudulent " manufacturer, for instance, commenced a 
 quarter of. an hour before 6 a.m. and closed at a quarter past 6 p.m., 
 filching from the half hour allowed for breakfast five minutes at the 
 commencement and five minutes at the end, and likewise ten minutes 
 at the beginning and the end respectively of the nominal dinner-hour, 
 with a quarter -of an hour prolonged work after 2 o'clock p.m. on 
 Saturdays, thus realising a gain in time amounting to 340 minutes per 
 week, cr 27 working days during the year. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 47 
 
 minutes, and the prohibition of staying in the work- 
 rooms during meal-times should also be extended to ) 
 children. The manufacturer should be made per- 
 sonally responsible for all over-work, and the fines 
 increased so as to equal at the very least the profits 
 to be derived from the infraction of the law.* 
 
 The next curtailment of the working time applied Bleaching 
 to the bleaching and dyeing works, where long and dyeing 
 hours of labour in hot rooms (from 30 to 50 degrees 
 centigrade) required particular regulation. Not- 
 withstanding the irregular manner in which the 
 work m this industry was earned on, the manufac- 
 turers never working • for stock, but only executing 
 short orders, the Royal Commissioner, who, in con- 
 sequence of a Bill proposed by Lord Shaftesbury, 
 investigated, in 1855, the condition of the workmen 
 employed in these works, advocated the extension 
 of the factory legislation to these industries.! His 
 report remained without result, and in 1857 a Com- 
 mittee of tlie House of Commons was appointed to 
 take new evidence. After a prolonged inquiry, this 
 Committee recommended not to subject bleaching 
 works to factory legislation, since the continual 
 interruption of this class of work admitted of no 
 uniform working time, and the work m bleaching 
 establishments was not, after all, so very injurious 
 to health. X Only in 1860 did the Legislature take 
 
 • Pari. Pap., 1859 (Sess. 2) XXVIL p. 365. 
 
 + Report of the Commissioner appointed to inquire how far it may 
 be advisable to extend the provisions of the Factory Act to Bleaching 
 Works. With Evidence and Appendix. Pari. Pap. 1855, XVIIL 148 
 pages. 
 
 X Report of the Select Committee appointed to inquire into the 
 circumstances connected with [among others] Bleaching and Dyeing 
 Establishments, &c. Pari. Pap. 1857 (Sess. 2), XV. 532 pages 
 Evidence. The Report is to be found in the Pari. Pap. of 1857 — 1358, 
 XI. p. 685. 
 
48 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 steps for regulating this industry, and the statute, 
 
 ^23^&24 23 & 24 Vict. c. 78 (August 6, 1860), subjected all 
 
 Aug. 6, bleaching and dyeing ivorks for cotton, silk, wool, 
 
 I860. and flax (with the exception of those carried on in 
 
 the open air) to the factory laws, but with the 
 
 essential modification that over-work was permitted 
 
 to the extent of two hours a day for the purpose of 
 
 recovering lost time, not only in cases of mechanical 
 
 interruptions of the work, but also w^hen occurring 
 
 in consequence of "fluctuations in trade, the nature 
 
 of the process, or any other cause."* 
 
 The practical efi'ect of this Act w^as an almost 
 uninterrupted course of w^ork till 8 o'clock p.m., 
 under pretext of recovering lost time, creating 
 thereby a new deviation from the uniform working 
 da}", which was especially felt in such factories as, 
 b}^ reason of their importance, were subject to the 
 general Factory Acts, as also to the Printworks Act 
 and the new statute, so that one set of hands left 
 off work at 6, another at 10, and a third at 8 
 (25 Vict. o'clock P.M.! By 25 Vict. c. 8 (April 11, 1862) it 
 ii^\^62^ was forbidden to employ children, young persons, 
 and women at night — i.e., from 8 p.m. till 6 a.m. — 
 except for recovering time lost during the day, 
 without, however, placing them under the provisions 
 of the Factory Act relating to working hours, meal- 
 
 * The Act contained no pi-ovisions respecting meal-times, the fencing- 
 in of machinery, &c., and was, moreover, one of the worst framed 
 English statutes. In 1861 there were employed in England and Ireland 
 in 253 of such manufactories 7677 adult male workmen, 3055 adult 
 females, 1603 male and 847 female "young persons," and 378 male, 
 and 141 female, children. Total number of protected persons, 6024. 
 In the West of Scotland there were in 33 bleaching works 1074 adult 
 men, and 4094 protected persons. 
 
 t Report of Inspectors of Factories, Oct. 31, 1861, p. 21 ; April 30, 
 1864, p. 40, and other reports. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 49 
 
 time, school attendance, inspection, &c.* Subse- 
 quently those factories in which, by the use of 
 mechanical power, the bleached and dyed materials 
 were calendered, dressed, and finished,t were by the 
 statute 26 & 27 Vict. c. 38 (June 29, 1863), sub- {^^/^%^^ 
 jected to the provisions of the BleacliAvorks Act of June 29, 
 1860. As this process of finishing is frequently ^^^'^• 
 carried on in workrooms connected neither with 
 the business department nor under the same roof as 
 the bleaching establishments worked by machinery, 
 and as the same evils resulting from long hours in 
 badly ventilated workrooms were also matters of 
 complaint, the Act 27 & 28 Yict. c. 98 (July (27 & 28 
 29, 1864) likewise extended the provisions of the juw 29 
 Act of 1860 to those workrooms in which the work 1864. 
 was exclusively performed by manual labour, with 
 this restriction, however, that all those workshops 
 in which only male persons above fourteen years of 
 age were emplo3^ed should not be subject to the 
 operations of the above Act. This last law, as 
 regards the subject with which it deals, touched 
 upon the boundary line of work performed in great 
 manufactories and handicraft work, and its enforce- 
 ment was fraught with great difficulties so long as 
 the latter was entirely free from legal restrictions ; 
 because with the workrooms in which the goods 
 
 * In 1863 there were, besides 4.557 adult men, 2162 women, and 
 871 boys and girls employed in open bleaching works. Report of In- 
 spectors of Factories, April 30, 1863, p. 10. 
 
 f There has ever existed a divergence of opinion as to the meaning 
 of the term "finishing." Some manufacturers, and with them the 
 Court of Common Pleas (Howarth r. Coles, 12 C. B. N. P. 189) refus- 
 ing to admit the propriety of its application to any kind of business 
 carried on like a separate trade without immediate connection with the 
 bleaching business. Hence the natural conse|uence of constant disputes 
 with the inspectors, and great uncertainty in the application of the 
 law. 
 
50 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 were made ready for delivery were very frequently 
 connected cutting and sewing rooms, wliich, as such, 
 were free from any legal restrictions as to the hours 
 of labour, and were therefore kept open during 
 longer hours than the proper workrooms, a dis- 
 crepancy which disturbed and upset the whole 
 management.* At about the time when bleach- 
 ing works were placed under the operation of the 
 factory legislation, it was likewise sought to extend 
 the application of the latter to lace manufactories, 
 whose condition had already occupied the attention 
 of the Royal Commissions of 1833 and 1842. 
 These, however, being greatly outnumbered by the 
 shops where work was done by hand, could not 
 then, in justice, be exclusively subjected to the 
 legal restrictions. 
 Lace When working by hand became less prevalent, 
 
 manufac- h^q question of bringing Lace Manufactories under 
 the operation of the factory laws was revived, and 
 in 1861 a new inquiry was instituted. The estab- 
 lishments in which lace was made, but not finished, 
 and which, as such, were in a great minority as 
 
 * The new law, which was passed in pursuance of the Report 
 of the Children Employment Commission of 1^62, to be mentioned 
 hereafter, further allowed the masters, according to the requirements of 
 the season, to arrange the commencement and termination of their 
 working days ad libitum, from either 6 o'clock a. m. till 6 o'clock p.m. , 
 or from 7 A. m. to 7 p. m. , or from 8 A. m. till 8 p.m., and extended this 
 privilege also to children, in open violation of the Factory Acts, which, 
 even in cases of recovering, did not allow children to work after 7 o'clock, 
 P.M., and even of the Bleach work Act of 1860, which excluded 
 children altogether from overwork. The inspectors, therefore, seriously 
 complained of this Act, which made an inroad into the uniform work- 
 ing day, and re-established the late closing hours, with all the attend- 
 ant evils and injuriousjconsequences. Report of Inspectors of Factories, 
 Jan. bl, 1865, pp. 134—138 ; Oct. 31, 1865, pp. 83—88. The 
 number of newly subjected persons was estimated at 2300. Children 
 Employment Commission, 1862, Rep. I. § 531. 
 
 tones. 
 
 / 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 51 
 
 compared with the latter, had adopted a "relay 
 system " similar to that practised in the textile 
 industry as previously described under the designa- 
 tion of so-called " false relays." This explains itself 
 by the nature of the work necessitating frequent 
 interruptions until the bobbins were returned from 
 the lace carriages for the purpose of re-spooHng. 
 If the Legislature refused l^o take this circumstance 
 into consideration, double the quantity of bobbins 
 would have had to be used in order to carry on the 
 work uninterruptedly during the legal hours.* 
 Parliament, however, was not disposed to impose 
 such a considerable outlay upon this ever much 
 favoured branch of industry, and allowed, on the 
 occasion of the extension of the factory legislatioi 
 to the lace manufactories worked by either steam or' 
 water power, the exceptional employment of boys 
 above sixteen years of age between the hours of 4 
 o'clock A.M. and 10 o'clock p.m., limiting, however, 
 the actual working hours within this time to nine 
 per diem (24 & 25 Vict. c. 117, August 6, 1861). "\2o & 26 
 
 In connection with these supplementary Acts, c. ii7) 
 the statute 26 & 27 Vict. c. 40 (Juiy 13, 1_863)^ fg^|-^^' 
 must be mentioned as prohibiting the injurious Bake- 
 night ^yrtrk \xiBrikphmi.siP.si to persons under eighteen ^o^ses. 
 years of age, between tlie hours of 9 o'clock p.m. y^q^^^\q) 
 
 July 13, 
 * Report addressed to Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for 1863. 
 the Home Department, upon the expediency of subjecting the lace 
 manufacture to the regulations of the Factory Act. Pari. Pap. 1861, 
 XXII. pp. 461 — 591. The principal recommendations of the Com- 
 missioner were adopted in the Act, except the proposed extension of 
 the legal restrictions to workrooms in which, besides the actual manu- 
 facturing business, the spooling of the bobbins is carried on. The 
 Report estimated the number of protected persons engaged in this 
 industry at from 2UU0 to 3000 in Nottinghamshire and 900 in Devon- 
 sliire. 
 
 e2 
 
52 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 and 5 o'clock a.m., without, however, fixing the 
 hours of labour within the regular working time, or 
 extending the factory legislation to the journejanen 
 bakers. The few hygienic regulations of this law 
 were based upon the sanitary Acts, especially the 
 Nuisances Eemoval Act, and their application was 
 left to the respective local authorities and their 
 public health officers, and was excluded from central 
 control by Government inspectors.* 
 
 Mines. Mines had been subjected to general regulations 
 
 so far back as 1842, and in the course of 1850 
 and following years two supplementary laws were 
 passed f chiefly providing, by increasing the number 
 of inspectors to twelve, for a better supervision of 
 the precautionary measures in coal mines. It was 
 
 Coal and ^^ly in 1860 that a new comprehensive law (23 & 24 
 
 IrouMines. "^ / , . ^ . 
 
 (•>3&24 ^ict. c. lol) was passed lor coal and iron mines, 
 Vict.c.iol) which, considering the danger to human life arising 
 from the pecuhar mode of working them, referred 
 to measures of safety, sufficient ventilation, shaft 
 timbering, &c. The owners were bound, independ- 
 ently of the observance of the general legal enact- 
 ments, to draw up and present special regulations 
 for each separate mine, and these, providing the}' 
 were not objected to hy the Home Secretary within 
 fort}^ days, were to come into force with statutory 
 authority. Whenever they were considered in- 
 sufficient to ensure the greatest possible security, 
 
 * The excessive long working hours in tlie unhealthy bakeries had 
 already before the year 1848 led to Parliamentary debates, but with- 
 out result. Compare ''The Case of the Journeymen Bakers" by Dr. 
 W. Guy, 3rd edit. 1865. 
 
 + 13 k 14 Vict. c. 100 (August 14, 1850) ; and 18 k 19 Vict. c. 108 
 (xiugust 14, 1855). 
 
 18G0. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 53 
 
 the Home Secretary was empowered to propose 
 alterations to the owners of the mines, and these, 
 on their side, when they had cause to raise objec- 
 tions, could insist on the case being submitted to 
 arbitration by experts for the definite settlement of 
 such bye-laws. It was the dut}^ of the inspectors, 
 Avhenever any working arrangements perilous to 
 life came under their notice, to demand of the 
 owners that they be put a stop to, and to report the 
 circumstance to the Home Secretary. But the 
 owner in. such a case was at liberty to take excep- 
 tion lilvewise, and demand the opuiion of experts. 
 In case he neglected to propose the appointment of 
 arbitrators or to act up to their decision, he 
 rendered himself liable to a fine. The real object 
 of the factory legislation — to protect young persons 
 against the injurious influences of too long working 
 hours — was only looked upon as of secondary import- 
 ance, and did not entail heavy penalties. Indeed, 
 the law prohibited as a rule the employment of 
 boys under twelve years of age in underground- 
 work, but nevertheless allowed boys of even ten to 
 twelve years of age to work in the mines, provided 
 they produced a school certificate of their ability 
 to read and write at the time of their admission, 
 and of their attendance at school for at least 
 three hours each time on two days of the week 
 during the term of their employment. This rule 
 had also the effect of causing a pretty considerable 
 dismissal of the class . of boys liable to school 
 attendance, on account of the aversion of the owners 
 of mines, and their foremen and managers, to be 
 hampered with the production of school attend- 
 ance certificates, and because of the difficulty of 
 
54 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 fixing a proper time in the day for the said attend- 
 ance. In those places were the bo3^s were not dis- 
 missed, there were either no proper schools for 
 them to go to, or the parents, disregarding the 
 law, did not send their children to them, and the 
 owners of the works did not trouble themselves 
 about the school certificates, so that the provisions 
 of the Mining Act as regarded school attendance, 
 according to the unanimous reports of the in- 
 spectors and with a very few exceptions, remained a 
 dead letter. The precautionary measures, on the 
 other hand, which subsequently were still rendered 
 (25 & 26 ^^ore stringent (25 & 26 Vict. c. 79, August 7, 
 Vict. c. 79) 1862), by the clause relating to double shafts in 
 18^2 ^^^^ mines, were attended with pretty satisfactory 
 
 results, combined as they were with mechanical 
 improveiiients and more careful attention on the 
 part of some of the larger works. Whilst, for 
 instance, from 1850 to 1860, one fatal accident 
 occurred on an average for every 67,000 tons of 
 coals raised, the proportion in the years 1864 to 
 1868 was one for 93,000, and in 1868 one only 
 for 103,494 tons. But, the absolute number of 
 deaths was, nevertheless, very large, namety, one 
 thousand per annum on an average,* Most of the 
 serious accidents by explosions occur through the 
 neglect of the general legal regulations, or the 
 special rules by either managers or the miners 
 
 * In 1865, 984 miners met with their deaths in colleries ; in 1866, 
 the number was 1484 ; and in 1868, 1190. The number of deaths in 
 iron mines was 69 in 1865 ; in 1866, 8 ; and 70 in 1868. In 1865 
 there were employed in 3256 colleries, 290,000 miners, of whom 90,000 
 were under twenty years of age. The number of miners employed in 
 iron mines was 32,600, of whom 7600 were under twenty years of 
 age; and in other metalliferous mines there were 70,800, of whom 
 18,400 were under twenty years of age. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 55 
 
 themselves, and so long as those most directly- 
 interested are wanting in zeal and precaution, the 
 best system of Government inspection will always 
 fall short of its object. The functions of the in- 
 spectors cannot be extended so far as to include a 
 permanent control and supervision of the mines 
 and the work carried on therein, which, in the first 
 instance, would prove impossible through the in- 
 sufficient number of officers ; and secondly, because 
 it would be shifting the responsibility from the 
 persons most directly concerned in the matter. 
 The arrangements for ventilation, for instance, 
 require an almost hourly examination which cannot 
 possibly be attended to by any other than the 
 overseer. In mining districts, inspectors are the 
 official representatives of Government, to whom 
 questions in dispute are submitted for decision, 
 and who only then proceed to an actual inspection 
 of the works in order to enforce the law, when they 
 have been apprised of an impending danger, or 
 when an accident has really occurred.* 
 
 * A Parliamentary Committee having considered, in 1866 and 1867, 
 the question of reforming the mining legislation, and drafts of a new 
 law having been submitted to the House of Commons in 1869, 1870, 
 and 1871, Government, at the beginning of the last session (1872), 
 brought in a new compi-ehensive Bill for coal mining, by which it was 
 intended partly to amend, partly to consolidate, the former Acts. The 
 work of boys of ten to thirteen years is restricted to six hours a day if 
 employed more than thi-ee days in any one week, and not more than 
 ten hours in any one day. Twenty hours school attendance per week. 
 Young male persons between thirteen and sixteen are permitted to 
 work fifty-six houi-s a week in mines, but at intervals of at least twelve 
 hours' duration. The safety regulations were made more stringent 
 than those hitherto in force ; only in case of accident it devolved upon 
 the owner or manager of the mine to prove that the accident was not 
 caused by neglect. Managers will be made more responsible for acci- 
 dents, and required to have a certificate of competency. The 
 maximum fine for owners and managers was fixed at 201., and at 21. 
 for workmen. Infractions of the law entailing the occurrence of serious 
 
56 
 
 EXGLISH FACTOEY LEGISLATIOX. 
 
 Second 
 great Com- 
 mission of 
 inquiry, 
 
 1862— 
 1866. 
 
 The beneficial results of the factor}^ legislation 
 to the operatives employed in the textile industry 
 rendered an extension of its protective provisions 
 to other branches of industry more and more de- 
 sirable. Lord Shaftesbury, with whose name nearly 
 all philanthropic legislative work is closely identi- 
 fied, moved in 1861 the appointment of a new 
 Eoyal Commission for inquiring into the condition 
 of the young labourers in those branches of industry 
 not as yet under the control of the factory legisla- 
 tion, and for proposing suitable legislative enact- 
 ments. This second great Commission, whose mem- 
 bers laboured from 1862 till 1866 with extraordinary 
 diligence and to an almost complete exhaustion of 
 the subject,* found a much easier field than did their 
 predecessors in 1840 and following j^ears. The 
 decided improvement in the condition of the textile 
 labourers in moral and material respects, and the 
 continuous increase in the production, notwith- 
 standing the reduction in the hours of labour, had 
 gradually convinced the manufacturers and the 
 public at large, that their originally violent opposi- 
 tion to the legal reduction of labour was falla- 
 cious and groundless, and that its furtlier extension 
 to other branches of industry would not be fraught 
 with such ruinous consequences as had been gene- 
 rally supposed and predicted in 1843, the exag- 
 gerated description of which was the principal 
 reason why no practical course was given to the 
 
 accidents were to be punislied with imprisonment not exceeding three 
 months. The Metalliferous Mines Bill, brought in at the same time, 
 contains the same provisions respecting hours of work, school attend- 
 ance, &c. ; but does not require that each mine shall be placed under a 
 certified manager. 
 
 * The results of their labour are published in five volumes. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 57 
 
 recommendation of the first Children Emplo^^ment___ 
 Gxiuimission^xcept in the case of mines. 
 ^ The Commission which first inquired into the coiir Fictile 
 dition of the Fictile Industry (earthenware, porcehiin, ^""^ ^^^ ^^^ 
 &c.,) was most encouragmgly welcomed m amemon* 
 drawn up by the greatest pottery manufacturers of 
 Staffordshire, who themselves urgently advocated 
 the reduction of w^orking hours for children. The v 
 increasing philanthropy, the better appreciation of 
 the value of all measures tending to elevate the 
 material and moral condition of the working classes, 
 and a certain pride in a working-class population 
 not pauperised, had already induced many great and 
 wealth}^ manufacturers to establish factory schools 
 on their own account, to reduce children's labour, 
 to introduce rational sanitary regulations, and to 
 adopt other beneficial measures which, however, 
 could only remain without injurious consequences 
 to their business so long as their competitors were ^ 
 deprived of the possibility of securing to them- 
 selves a cheaper mode of production by the inordi- 
 nate emj)loyment of children and young persons, 
 and an utter disregard of expensive sanitary pre^^^. 
 cautions. On the other side, the increasing admi-\ 
 nistrative activity of the modern State had consider- \ 
 ably removed the earlier apprehensions about the \ 
 intervention of the State in economic affairs, so \ 
 that fortunately, numerous circumstances concurred 
 to open a favourable prospect to a general legisla- 
 tive regulation of trades and industries, and the 
 compulsory reduction of working houi's for young 
 people. 
 
 In the j^ottery districts of Staffordshu'e, the Com- 
 mission found the workmen in a very unfavoui'able 
 
58 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 s anitary c ondit ion, in_conseguence_ofthe long hours 
 of labour m hot and badly — o r not-a^-all ^— venti lated 
 drying -rooms, ^nd the inha l ing of flint-d ust^ used 
 
 _for enamelling , as well asof t he vapours o i the 
 metallic solutions employed for the same purpose. 
 
 '^s a riile, the jHrnf? of^ labour w as not excessively 
 long, except in the case of children employed as 
 wheel-turners ; but it was very frequently ve ry irre^i , 
 ular, as many workmen abstained from working on 
 the first two days of the week, and then endeavoured 
 to earn the whole amount of their weekly wages 
 by increased labour on the other four days, and 
 for that reason exerted the children employed as 
 auxiliary hands beyond their powers. The Com- 
 missioners, thoroughly convinced of the necessity 
 and beneficial efi'ect of the introduction of the fac- 
 tory legislation in this industry, were only unde- 
 cided as to whether or not the so-called half-time 
 divisions of the children would disturb the regular 
 routine of the work, since it was difficult to obtain 
 the larger number of children required for that 
 pui-pose, and the workmen strongly objected to a 
 change of the auxiliary hands on the same day, and 
 whether the introduction of that system would not 
 in the end be attended by certain material losses to 
 the children, the more so, as most of the manu- 
 facturers recommended the exclusion of all children, 
 and the reduction of the age of "young persons " (not 
 liable to school-attendance) to ten or twelve years in 
 place of the half-time divisions. This proposition, 
 which it is well known had monopolised in 1833 and 
 1844 the sympathies of the supporters of the Ten 
 Hours Bill and those of the manufacturers, could no 
 longer stand the test in presence of the undeniable ad- 
 
r 
 
 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 59 
 
 vantages which the half-time system had effected for 
 the education of the children. The daily attendance at 
 school, combined with the daily labour, had, notwith- 
 standing the notoriously bad condition of the earlier 
 English primary school system, nevertheless pro- 
 duced pretty satisfactory results, and the compulsory 
 regular school attendance had frequently produced 
 among the factory children a better class of pupils 
 than the so-called whole-day pupils had turned out 
 to be. As, on the other hand, the economic appre- 
 hensions that the reduction of the time of labour 
 would lessen the wages of the children and at the 
 same time impose upon the masters — on account of 
 the larger number of children required — a greater 
 expenditure in wages had proved groundless, for 
 the simple reason that in many factories machines 
 or young persons were employed in j^lace of the 
 children, the Commission at length recommended 
 the extension of the factory legislation with all 
 its i^rovisions to the pottery industry as well as to 
 the matches and percussion-cap manufactories, in 
 which a still worse sanitary state prevailed. In the 
 paper-hanging manufactories, into the condition of 
 which an inquiry was instituted at the same time, 
 the masters objected to the introduction of the 
 factory laws on the ground of the serious losses in 
 paper, colours, and even time, which they would 
 have to incur by a repeated interruption of the work 
 arising from fixed meal hours during the day, as it 
 would requu'e at least half an hour to damp the felt- 
 rollers again.* But the Commissioners would not give 
 
 * Mr. Potter, a manufacturer, framed the draft of a Bill which 
 closely tallied with the Factory Act, but rejected the fixed hours for 
 meals. Children Employment Commission, 18(52, Rep. I. § 394. 
 
60 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 v^^y further than to grant exemption — during the im- 
 mediate transition time — from the provision relative 
 to the simultaneous meal hours for all protected per- 
 sons, and recommended at the same time the extension 
 of the entire factory legislation, without exception, 
 to fustian manufactories, in which children were 
 employed in cutting the woof in a sloping position 
 in badly ventilated rooms, and continually inhaling 
 the fine dusty particles of the texture, and they 
 added the stringent proviso that no child under 
 eleven years of age should be admitted therein. 
 Pottery These, the first propositions of the Commission, 
 
 percussion- were the next session at once embodied in the 
 Tnd'c7^'^ statute, 27 & 28 Vict. c. 48 (July 25, 1864), which 
 tridge subjected all manufactories of earthenware, percus- 
 
 inamifac- . 7 • /• .7 i . • 7 
 
 toi-ies; siou-caps, lucifer matches and cartridges, paper- 
 paper- staining smd fustian cutting,* to the general factory 
 antrfuSian legislation, with the relaxing transitory provision, 
 cutting. that during the first six months, children of the age 
 v'^t^ ^48^ ^^ eleven years, and during the next two years and 
 Jiiiy 25, a half after the passing of the Act, children of twelve 
 years of age, were allowed to be employed as young 
 persons. A new provision was added, to the effect 
 that every workshop, under pain of a penalty of 
 from 3L to 101., should be well ventilated and kept 
 clean, and that masters should be entitled to issue 
 special regulations which, when approved of by 
 Government, were made comj)ulsor3^ for the work- 
 
 * The Commissioners estimated the number of the persons protected by 
 the new law as follows :— In pottery factories, 11,000 ; in percussion- 
 cap factories, 1 50 ; in mamifactories of matches, 1613; in paper-hang- 
 ing factories, 1150 ; in cotton velvet mills, 1563 children and young 
 persons (Children Employment Commission, I. § 639) ; and respectively 
 6322 and 1326 adult females in potteries and cotton velvet mills. 
 Ibid. p. 159. 
 
 18G4. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 61 
 
 men, under penalty of a fine, as far as sanitaiy pre- 
 cautions were concerned. 
 
 The Commissioners, moreover, occupied them- CLimney 
 selves with the chimney sweepers' hoys, who, not- ^oy^^'^^'* 
 withstanding repeated protective legislation,* were 
 employed in a barbarous manner as brooms for 
 sooty chimneys. Thoughtless prejudices of the 
 hoilseholders, added to the proverbial rudeness of 
 the master chimney sweej^ers, prolonged, in open 
 defiance of the legislative enactments, a custom 
 productive of shocking physical and moral misery 
 among the poor boys. The proposition of the 
 Commissioners to adopt stricter legislative measures 
 (especially the compulsory introduction of soot- 
 holes), and to ensure their observance by more 
 stringent supervision by the police, w^ere not adopted 
 altogether in the new Act, 27 & 28 Vict. c. 37 (27 & 28 
 (June 30, 1864), which again reduced the age for J^'^^ 30^''^ 
 the admission of apprentices to ten years, and ia64. 
 forbade persons under sixteen to climb chimneys as 
 w^ell as to aiford any assistance to chimney climbers, 
 
 * The oldest law that took the parish orphans employed as chimney 
 sweepers under its protection is that of 1788. The statute 4 & 5 Will. 4, 
 c. 35 (July 25, 18^4), prohibited the engagement of apprentices under 
 ten years of age, and prescribed building regulations respecting the 
 obtusion and rounding off of the chimneys. In 1840 a Committee of 
 the House of Lords sat to consider on the treatment of these boys, and 
 the statute 3 & 4 Vict. c. 85 (August 7, 1840) was passed, which forbade 
 all persons under twenty-one years of age to climb up a chimney, pro- 
 hibited the engagement of apprentices under sixteen years of age, and 
 added some more stringent provisions to be observed in the construction 
 of buildings. The Children Employment Commission, in their Report, 
 I. §§ 599— 638, and pp. 295 — 321, gave a description in detail of the 
 su^erings in general, as well as of the specific disease to which the 
 chimney boys were subject, and of the non-observance of the law 
 through the magistrates refusing to convict the transgressoi's. In 
 several places vohmtarj' societies were formed for the proseciition of the 
 masters. The Report advanced the opinion that all chimneys can be 
 swept with an elastic sweeping machine. 
 
62 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 without, however, in other respects extending the 
 protective provisions of the Factory Act to the 
 boys.* 
 Potteries. The first introduction of the new extending legis- 
 
 lation met, especially in the pottery districts of 
 Staffordshire, with the same difficulties and objections 
 as those experienced in 1833 and 1844. The 
 masters above all dwelt upon the impossibilit;)^ of 
 carrying on the fictile industry to the same extent 
 in the ordinary manner, because, first of all, the 
 greater number of children required by the half- 
 time system could not be obtained, and then, 
 because the short orders peculiar to their trade 
 urgently required an unrestricted command over the 
 time of labour. Besides, there were certain diffi- 
 culties inherent to the organised mode of working 
 in their trade, impeding as it did the application of 
 the Act, which, in this case, extended for the first 
 time in a more comprehensive manner the provisions 
 originally framed only for the great textile industry 
 to a trade which had not yet adopted the mode of 
 production belonging to the great manufactory 
 system. The workman in the potteries was not the 
 employer's workman only, but he undertook to 
 supply within a certain time to the manufacturer 
 who furnished the material and the work-room a 
 certain quantity of pottery-ware, and withm this 
 
 * The new law of 1864 is likewise disregarded on account of the want 
 of authoritative supervision. According to the statements of the secre- 
 tary of a protection society for chimney-sweeping boys, at least 2000 
 between the ages of five to ten years are employed as climbing boys. 
 Parents sell their children to unscrupulous masters, who club together 
 for the purpose of paying their fines. Only in Edinburgh and Glasgow 
 where the whole trade was placed under a very strict licensing system 
 and police inspection, were the evils previously prevailing removed. 
 — Children Employment Commission, Rep. V. §§ 134 — 1^9 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 63 
 
 term for delivery he was completely master of his 
 own time as well as of that of the assistants em- 
 ployed and paid b}^ him. The irregular habits in 
 their mode of living and their tendency to drink 
 had, as previously mentioned, induced them almost 
 as a rule not to work at all, or but very little, on the 
 first two davs in the week, and to work overtime 
 on all the others. Under these circumstances the 
 young hands engaged in wedging and beating the 
 clay, in turning the driving-wheels, in carrying the 
 moulds to and from the oven, &c., were kept to 
 long hours of w^ork, thereby injuring their health. 
 An end, therefore, had to be put to this practice, 
 detrimental alike in a sanitary and moral point of 
 view, by the compulsory introduction of a uniform 
 working day for adult workmen also, since they, in 
 consequence of the peculiar nature of their trade, 
 were never able to work without assistants, especially 
 so long as the driving-wheels were not turned by 
 machinery ; and here again was proved to what 
 extent the EngHsh factory legislation, though pro- 
 fessedly and formally confining itself to women, 
 young persons, and children, regulates, in fact, the 
 working-time of male adults also. Many masters 
 and workmen alike met at this junctm^e the school 
 regulations in respect to half-time children by 
 the plan of dismissing them, and endeavouring 
 to replace them partly by young persons and 
 partly by the employment of machinery ; but when 
 towards the end of the year 1865 the stagnation of 
 the trade, caused by the American war, was succeeded 
 by a greater activity, the children who in the mean 
 time had found employment in collieries or non-regu- 
 lated trades, flocked back to the potteries, and 
 
64 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 before long the gratifying results of school atten- 
 dance on the part of the children and the more 
 regular habits of living observed by the adults 
 became manifest, the increase in wages, consequent 
 on the revival of trade, rendering the transition 
 to the new system more easy.* And when the 
 price of the different wares rose by about fifteen per 
 cent., and numerous new potteries were established, 
 many masters who had originally offered strenuous 
 resistance to the factory legislation, and predicted 
 the ruin of the entire industr}^, declared that, not- 
 withstanding the reduction of the hours of labour, 
 the same quantity of goods was produced as before, 
 on account of the regularit}^ with which the daily 
 work was performed, and that the salutary effects 
 upon the health and morality of the formerly so 
 decried pottery districts could not be too highly 
 estimated. The applying of the Factory Act to 
 Fustian fustian cvtting was just as auspiciously attended by 
 an improvement in this trade, so that the rise of 
 wages, although produced by other causes, refuted 
 the very apprehensions of a reduction of the amount 
 of wages in the ratio of the reduction of the working 
 time ; but the exclusion of all children under eleven 
 years of age will most likely be productive of a 
 lasting effect also in this instance, since the wages 
 which had declined for adults, in consequence of the 
 extensive amount of children's work, to the rate 
 
 * Of 2913 children under eleven years of age employed in potteries 
 in 1864, 1850 were dismissed or withdrawn from the works by their 
 parents. The remaining number of 1063 had towards the end of 1865 
 increased again to 1663. Report of Inspectors of Factories, October 31, 
 1865, p. 94. The reports of subsequent years describe the beneficial 
 effects of the school regulations of the Factory Act in Staffordshire, 
 so greatly deficient in other respects. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 65 
 
 almost of children's wages, have, since the removal 
 of the children, risen again to a scale at least 
 relatively commensurate with the work performed 
 by adult labourers.* 
 
 The Children Employment Commission went on 
 to examine other trades, which were still more 
 behind the great manufacturing system than those 
 regulated by the Act of 1864. These were the Lace ^^:^^^'^ 
 and Hosiery Manufactories, especially those of Not- Manufac- 
 tinghamshii-e. Here the state of labour, although ^^^^^' 
 it had somewhat improved since the inquiry of 
 1844, was still bad enough, since little children, 
 mostly under six and seven years of age, had to 
 work uninterruptedly at the lace and net work in 
 badly ventilated and over- crowded rooms for a few 
 pence per week. In this case it was likewise proved 
 that the establishments which had adopted the 
 mode of more extensive production had made some 
 sanitary provisions, and did not insist upon that 
 exhausting method of working to which the so- 
 called mistresses in " lace schools," and even parents 
 themselves, trained the unfortunate children. Most 
 of the great manufacturers were quite willing to 
 submit to a legal reduction of the time of labour, 
 but insisted that the small workshops which com- 
 peted with them by means of low wages and long 
 work should be subjected to similar restrictions. 
 
 * "Wages in fustian cutting had declined till 1864 to almost one-half 
 and respectively one -third of the former amount since the introduction 
 of children's labour in 1825, without the work having been otherwise 
 simplified by either machinery or other contrivances. Since the ter- 
 mination of the American war, and the introduction of the Factory 
 Act (1865), they soon rose considerably by about 75 to 100 per cent. 
 Report of Inspectors of Factories, Oct. 31, lb64, p. 20 ; of Oct. 31, 
 1865, pp. 23 — 29. Compare also, for the past, Engel's "Condition of 
 the Labouring Classes" (Lage der arbeitenden Classen), p. 238. 
 
66 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 The Commission recommended the exte^ision of the 
 whole factory legislation to all those houses in 
 which children worked for wages, and the application 
 of the provisions respecting the age of admission 
 and the hours of labour to the children employed by 
 their parents in their private houses, but did not 
 attempt the further step of also subjecting the 
 latter to the provisions of the Factory Act as 
 regards school attendance — an inconsistency which 
 can only be explained by the still prevailing aversion 
 of public opinion in England to general compulsory 
 education.* 
 
 * According to the estimate of the Commission, there were employed 
 in the lace manufactories, — deducting such lace manufactories, projierly 
 so called, as are worked by machinery, and which came under the 
 operation of the Factory Acts as early as 1861 — nearly 150,000 persons, 
 the greater number of whom were women, girls, and childi'en. In the 
 "dressing rooms" the lace produced by machinery is dipped into a 
 sort of starch, stiffened, rolled, and stretched, frequently also by the 
 application of steam power, and in these rooms there may be employed 
 some thousands of young females. The " finishing " operation com- 
 prises numerous little processes, such as widening or stretching the 
 loops, removal of superfluous threads, touching up the designs, &c., 
 which are usually pei-formed with scissors and needles, and mostly by 
 very young girls, either in the warehouses of the manufacturers, in so- 
 called ' ' lace schools " of small middlemen, or in the houses of the 
 parents. The Commission estimated the number of female hands em- 
 ployed in warehouses at about 20,000, among whom were 5000 children, 
 so that the remaining number worked in private houses. The fast- 
 declining system of manufacturing lace by hand is carried on either in 
 pillow-lace schools or in the parents' houses, and mostly in country 
 districts. In addition to the excessive work in hot, narrow rooms, 
 there exists a generally prevailing truck system, by means of which the 
 already very small earnings are still further reduced. Children Employ- 
 ment Commission, Rep. II. §§ 67—72 ; Rep. I. pp. 182—186. Mr. 
 Felkin, a very competent person in Nottingham, estimated the number 
 of hosiery oi^eratives at 120,000, of whom 100,000 were employed on 
 rather more than 40,000 hand-looms. Of these 100,000, half the 
 number, that is, all assistant hands, were women and children, but 
 many hand-looms were also worked by women themselves. The 
 increase of female labour in this industry is shown by the following 
 numbers from the Nottingham district : — In 1851, in a population of 
 95,178 souls, the females were in excess by 6044 ; in 1861, in a popu- 
 lation of 118,429, their number in excess was 9885; consequently 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 67 
 
 If protection against too long and unregulated 
 employment, and the introduction of certain sanitary- 
 measures for reducing the injurious effects of labour 
 in common work-rooms to the smallest possible 
 compass, are the chief aims of the legislation, the 
 Commissioners found in the dress-making busi- Millinery 
 ness a state of things which urgently called for making 
 reform ; and here, on account of the almost exclu- business. 
 sive employment of females, the condition of the 
 workwomen is at the same time the condition of 
 the whole industrial class belonging to this trade. 
 As a general rule only girls above thirteen are 
 engaged by milliners and dressmakers, and the 
 work is usually done on their own premises, the 
 work-girls being commonly boarded and lodged by 
 their employers. The apprentices who live in the 
 house pay during the first two or three years, 
 besides the work they have to do, from 201. to 50L 
 annually for board and apprenticeship, and receive, 
 when out of their time, yearly wages from SI. to 161. 
 besides board ; first hands get from 30Z. to 70Z., but 
 during the season they are called upon to work 
 most unendurable overtime without extra pay, 
 whilst the out-door workers, whose usual weekl} 
 pay amounts to from 8 to 12 shillings, are paid extra 
 for overtime. Many employers, from conceivable 
 reasons, are therefore in favour of this labour 
 system, recalling the forms of husbandry, and 
 assert that the control and discipline observed by 
 
 increase of tlie female' surplus 3841 in ten years. Mr. Felkin, in 
 "Children Employment Commission Report," I. p. 238. In straw- 
 plaiting factories a similar state was shown to exist as in the two pre- 
 vious trades. The census of 1861 gives the following figures : — 41,228 
 female workers, 3815 men, of whom 1838 under twenty years of age. 
 Rep. II. § 299. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 ENGLISH FACTOEY LEGISLATION. 
 
 living together under the same roof were the only 
 safeguards for the girls against the dangers of pro- 
 stitution, which those who lived apart so easily fell a 
 prey to; and this circumstance, as well as the more 
 respectable treatment and the assumption of a 
 more secure Hving for some time, combined with 
 the pre-conceived notion of the *' gentility " of the 
 millinery and dress-making business as compared 
 with other employments, especially domestic service, 
 fully explained why girls constantly devoted them- 
 selves to a work which often kept them twenty 
 hours together at the sewing-table, in an atmo- 
 sphere poisoned by gas and the common process of 
 respiration. The long hours of labour, which in 
 cases of pressing orders are as a rule extended 
 through the whole night, and the unhealthy con- 
 dition of the defectively or not- at- all ventilated and 
 over-crowded work and sleeping rooms produce 
 lung, heart, and eye diseases to a disproportionate 
 extent and in particularly dangerous forms. Better 
 conditions can only be established by legal com- 
 pulsion, for so long as a competitor is at liberty to 
 accept inconsiderate orders to be executed in the 
 shortest possible time, better disposed people cannot 
 possibly be expected to send away customers.* 
 
 Other needlewomen, who attend to the coarser 
 work of seaming and sewing shirts, collars, &c., and 
 to the cheap tailoring work and stitching of hats, 
 shoes, and gloves, were, and still are, in an equally 
 bad position. Especially is the state of health of 
 
 * The census of 1861 gave for the United Kingdom 370,218 milli- 
 ners and dressmakers. Of the 286,298 dwelling in England and 
 Wales, 62,7S8 were under twenty years of age, and 5759 under thirteen 
 years. Rep. II. §§ 315—402 ; and the Special Reports in the 
 Appendix. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 69 
 
 the poor tailoresses in the east end of London, who 
 work for the large ready-made clothes shops and 
 outfitters, most deplorable; their wages are very- 
 low, and a portion of the small sum is usually 
 deducted by middlemen, through whose agency the 
 work is " given out." * Altogether, the periodically 
 excessive extension of the working time occurs but 
 seldom in these cases, inasmuch as it is not imme- 
 diate delivery, but rather the execution of large 
 commercial orders w^hich is the object of this kind 
 of business. For that very reason, however, needle- 
 women have all the year through to work very long 
 hours, mostly in badly ventilated rooms, in which a 
 great many children of very tender age are also 
 employed. A great portion of the work is done in 
 the country at the needlewomen's or jobbers' own 
 houses, or the pieces are cut and seamed in so-called 
 factories, that is, in workshops with a larger or 
 smaller number of sewing-machines, and then given 
 to out-door workers to finish at home. In some 
 districts (especially in the Irish shirt-cutting estab- 
 lishments) sewing-machines tend to concentrate 
 work in a factory-like manner, and in some estab- 
 lishments sewing machines are even worked by 
 steam power; whereas, hat and shoe stitching 
 sewing-machines belonging to, and worked at home 
 by the workwomen, have again increased the amount 
 of home work. Everywhere, however, the sewing- 
 machine has produced rather favourable effects than 
 otherwise on the health of those employed at them, 
 and especially on their wages; for wliilst the 
 
 * Rep. II. C. §§ 146, 147. In 1855 a Committee of tlie Lords 
 sat on a proposition for the restriction of the working time for needle- 
 women, but without resTilt. 
 
70 ENGLISH FACTOEY LEGISLATION. 
 
 weekly pay of the children varies between ninepence 
 and two shillings, and that of the female hand- 
 workers between two shillings and sixpence and six 
 shillings — only in particularly favourable cases 
 reaching as high as eighteen shillings — the machine 
 hands earn as much as from four to five shillings in 
 the case of children, and from nine to eighteen 
 shillings in that of adults ; so that it may almost be 
 taken as a rule that the sewing-machine, in conse- 
 quence of the increase of the piecework system, has 
 raised the weekly pay by about one third.* 
 
 Young male needleworkers are almost as numerous 
 
 as young needlewomen, and their work is frequently 
 
 the same. The sewing-machine has effected in the 
 
 Shoe- large Shoe-making Industry a separation of the sexes, 
 
 making gince nearly all boots for women and children are 
 
 industry. . -^ . 
 
 stitched exclusively by female hands with the sewing- 
 machine. During the last few years this branch 
 of industry has largely extended, and gives employ- 
 ment to more than half the number of all the work- 
 men of this class, under what may almost be called 
 a factory system, especially in Leicestershire, North- 
 amptonshire, and the east end of London. With the 
 exception of some large newly- constructed establish- 
 ments the condition of the workshops is injurious 
 
 * According to tlie census of 1861 there were in England and 
 Wales 287,082, in Ireland 61,771, and in Scotland 18,345— 
 together 367,198 needlewomen of this kind. In England they are dis- 
 tributed according to occupation and age as follows : Shoemakers — 
 119,007 of all ages; among this number there are 10,892 under 
 twenty and 2,646 under fifteen years of age. Seamstresses — 76,015 
 of all ages; among that number, 10,791 under twenty and 2014 under 
 fifteen years of age. Tailoresses — 27, 386 of all ages ; among that 
 number 5759 under twenty and 863 under fifteen years of age. 
 Glovers — 23,605 of all ages ; among them 6832 under twenty and 
 2661 under fifteen years of age. Rep. II. § § 403 — 456, and Special 
 Reports in Appendix. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 71 
 
 to health, and in this respect children are worse off 
 still, since, as assistants to their parents, they are 
 obliged to work the same length of time as the latter 
 in their small unhealthy lodgings. In the Tailoring Tailoring 
 Business, properly so called, the sewing-machine has ^^smess. 
 likewise replaced male by female hands, and the 
 nmnber of formally indentured apprentices is con- 
 stantly decreasing. The state of the place where 
 the work is carried on is generally bad, even in 
 what are known as first-class West-end houses in 
 London ; that of the middlemen is worse still, and 
 in the lodgings of the small tailors in the East-end 
 it attains a degree of indescribable insalubrity, often 
 alluded to in official reports, but to no effect. The 
 same evils in regard to ventilation and the preser- 
 vation of health are met with in the small workshops 
 of Hatters and Glovers, and her€, as everywhere, the Hattersand 
 fact recurs that in large establishments approaching ^ ^^^^' 
 the factory system the workrooms are in a much better 
 sanitary condition, and the hours of labour shorter 
 and more regular, than is the case with the scanty 
 accommodation afforded by the small masters.* 
 
 ♦ Eep. IV. N. §§ 11, 31, 49, 57, 58. The census of 1861 gives 
 the following figures for England and Wales : — 
 
 England and Wales. 
 
 Under 15 years 
 of age. 
 
 From 15 to 20 
 years of age. 
 
 Above 20 years 
 of age. 
 
 Shoemakers 
 
 Tailors 
 
 9,442 
 3,536 
 
 254 
 288 
 
 50,756 
 
 23,475 
 
 1,696 
 
 805 
 
 175,536 
 
 94,212 
 
 9,515 
 
 2,461 
 
 Hatters 
 
 
 
 13,520 
 
 76,732 
 
 281,724 
 
 The figures for London axe : — 
 
72 
 
 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 Metal 
 
 (hardware) 
 
 Industry. 
 
 Machine 
 Manufac- 
 tories. 
 
 The Metal (Hardware) Industry of England em- 
 braces the great manufacturing system as well as the 
 small handicraft. The blasting-furnaces, ironworks, 
 rolling mills, &c., employ comparatively but a small 
 number of young workmen, scarcely any children, 
 and women only in exceptional cases. The work of 
 the young hands consists generally in supplying the 
 furnaces with ore, opening and closing the puddling- 
 fumaces, assisting at hammering, &c. They are 
 usually engaged and paid by the workman himself, 
 and receive relatively good wages (from six to twelve 
 shillings per week) ; but they have also to do night- 
 work, and are frequently exposed to injuries from the 
 red-hot iron. However, the hard work they have to 
 undergo, in mostly open workshops, imparts to these 
 lads a much healthier appearance than any other 
 occupation would do. 
 
 The same may be said of the large Machine 
 Manufactories, which have to a great extent adopted 
 the working hours of the textile industry, and 
 
 London. 
 
 Under 15 years 
 of age. 
 
 From 15 to 20 
 years of age. 
 
 Above 20 years 
 of age. 
 
 Shoemakers 
 
 1,004 
 
 375 
 
 61 
 
 3 
 
 7,594 
 
 4,151 
 
 524 
 
 87 
 
 28,891 
 
 20,292 
 
 2,497 
 
 313 
 
 Hatters 
 
 Glovers « ..•••>•• 
 
 
 1,443 
 
 12,356 
 
 51,993 
 
 
 
 
 
 Grand Total 14,963 
 
 89,088 
 
 5,717 
 
 In Scotland there are 6016, in Ireland, 9000 -workmen under eighteen 
 years of age employed in these trades. The recommendations of the 
 Commission were, for the clothing trades, similarly to those for lace and 
 woven goods — extension of the Factory Act to the large and middle- 
 class establishments, and subjection of the small private workshops 
 under the provisions of the Factory Laws respecting age and working 
 hours. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 73 
 
 whose well-paid men constitute one of the finest 
 specimens of the English working-classes. But in 
 the hardware industry of Birmingham, embracing 
 the production of almost all possible goods in cop- 
 per, iron, gold, silver, steel, electro-plate, tin, 
 bronze, &c., as well as in the locksmiths' and 
 nailmakers' workshops of the Wolverhampton dis- 
 trict and in the cutlery manufactories of Sheffield, 
 the small-trade system is still practised to a large 
 extent, thus, by the employment of children and 
 long working hours, competing with the larger 
 manufactories; so that small workshops and im- 
 perfect machinery naturally resulted in an irregular 
 division of time and a longer day's work. Fatal 
 lung diseases, caused by the inhalation of metal 
 dust in non-ventilated workshops, moral depravity, 
 and total ignorance of the generally underpaid 
 youthful operatives, are the melancholy characteris- 
 tics noticeable in these districts.* 
 
 * Since the inquiry of 1842, there has indeed been some improvement, 
 especially in the Wolverhampton district ; but the replies to the ques- 
 tions of the Special Commissioners of 1863-1864 disclosed such total 
 ignorance on the part of the children as can scarcely be imagined. 
 Children of ten and upwards knew absolutely nothing of God, Jesus 
 Christ, Queen, England, London, &c. , or gave the most nonsensical an- 
 swers. Hep. III. §§ 108, 109 ; Rep. IV. § 74. The knife-grinders in 
 Sheffield in particular are suffering from the fine dust which, from the 
 blade and the grinding-stone, enters the respiratory organs, and the 
 mortality of these men amounts to thirteen in one thousand, which is 
 more than double the average rate of mortality in general. Rep. IV. 
 § 1 4. The employment of a ventilation-fan, which carries away the 
 dust from the grinding-stone into a box, whence it is removed by the 
 air, appears to be urgently required. Rep. IV. § 42. The wages of 
 the young auxiliary hands in the hardware industry vary considerably, 
 viz., from six to ten shillings per week. The adult mechanics are, as 
 a rule, well paid, especially in Sheffield, where they enjoy a certain 
 independence of their employers, inasmuch as they hire the motive 
 power and the grinding troughs, and then set to work as they think 
 proper. Rep. IV. A. ^ 36. See Table, verso. 
 
 /7^^ OF THB '^'^ 
 
 /mwTTTTRi^.qTT'tnl 
 
74 
 
 ENGLISH FACTOEY LEGISLATION. 
 
 Metal (Hardware) Industry in England and 
 Wales (Census 1861). 
 
 
 Of all 
 
 iges. 
 
 Under twenty years 
 of age. 
 
 TweYity years and 
 upwards. 
 
 Males. 
 
 Females. 
 
 Males. 
 
 Females. 
 
 Males. 
 
 Females. 
 
 Iron — Manufac- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ture and foun- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 dries , 
 
 123,430 
 
 2,341 
 
 30,810 
 
 1,252 
 
 92,620 
 
 1,089 
 
 Bronze — Manu- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 facture and 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 foundries .... 
 
 15,985 
 
 299 
 
 4,941 
 
 108 
 
 11,044 
 
 191 
 
 Coj>j>er — Manu- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 facture 
 
 3,827 
 
 3,961 
 
 795 
 
 2,451 
 
 3,032 
 
 1,510 
 
 Miscellaneouslron 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Trades 
 
 181,999 
 
 15,921 
 
 14,012 
 
 5,806 
 
 56,839 
 
 8,639 
 
 Sundry Bronze 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Trades 
 
 30,712 
 
 3,711 
 
 9,744 
 
 1,547 
 
 10,904 
 
 2,040 
 
 Tin and Sheet- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 metal — Manu- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 facture 
 
 Total 
 
 10,544 
 
 4,268 
 
 3,127 
 
 2,571 
 
 7,417 
 
 1,697 
 
 366,497 
 
 30,501 
 
 63,429 
 
 13,735 
 
 181,856 
 
 15,166 
 
 Male and female workers under 20 years "I 
 
 of age. J 
 
 Females of 20 years of age and more .... 
 
 77,164 
 15,166 
 
 92,330 
 
 If one-tenth of the number be deducted for young male operatives between eighteen 
 and twenty years of age, aboiit 83,000 persons would come under the legal protection 
 of the Factory Act. Rep. III. § 219. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 75 
 
 The Paper Manufacture is conducted entirely on paper 
 the factory system, and the injurious effects of the manufac- 
 work on the young assistant hands in this branch 
 result from night-work, which is almost general, and 
 the long hours of labour in very hot work-rooms.* 
 
 The condition of the apprentices and assistants 
 in the Glass Works is much worse,! the require- Glass- 
 ments here being that the once prepared mass of ^°^ ^' 
 glass should go through the melting and working 
 process without interruption till it is finished. For 
 this reason night-work is indispensable, and the 
 establishment of a uniform working day imprac- 
 ticable. The boys have to perform heavy and 
 fatiguing work in a very high temperature, and are 
 often obhged to remain longer than the men, in 
 order to prepare fresh work, or remove the work 
 done. Moreover, the nature of the work performed 
 by the helpers, who must be constantly on the move, 
 and very often make from sixteen to twenty miles in 
 six hours, excludes the employment of adults in 
 
 * The census gives no particulars of the working-class statistics of 
 this branch of industry. The Commission estimated the total number 
 of workers at 100,000, among whom were 50,000 females, including 
 about 2000 under thirteen years of age, and 10, 000 between thirteen and 
 eighteen years of age ; then 500 boys under thirteen, and about 10,000 
 between the age of thirteen and eighteen years. Rep. IV. § § 246 — 249. 
 
 f According to the census of 1861, there were 13,809 males, and 
 1237 female workers employed in the glass manufacture in England and 
 Wales, among which number there were 3934 children and young 
 persons. Rep. IV. § 291 ; App. Q. § 32. 
 
 X Rep. IV. App. Q. §§ 88, 101, 116, 69. The week's work is' 
 habitually divided into a certain amount to be performed during the 
 regular working hours, and a half to be done by overtime, for the 
 latter of which a little more wages are paid ; of this the boys gene- 
 rally receive a few pence for themselves, whence a great desire for 
 such overtime. Q. § § 104, 109. The boys are often ill-treated by 
 the workmen, and many leave the trade after the space of a few years. 
 Q. §§ 131, 156. Much drunkenness prevails among the adults, and even 
 among the boys. Q. § § 147, 178. Want of Instruction. Q. § 165, sec[. 
 
76 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 The Commission did not hesitate to recommend the 
 extension of the factory legislation to the whole of the 
 Metal (Hardivare), Paper, and Glass Industries, with a 
 few modifications rendered indispensable by the parti- 
 cular nature of these trades, and likewise to the other 
 smaller trades inquired into by them, in all of which 
 long and irregular working hours in mostly unhealthy 
 workshops, and want of education of the young 
 labourers, were the prevalent features.* The condi- 
 tion of the young labourers since the last twenty- 
 
 * In the Artificial Flowers Manufacture, according to the census of 
 1861, females were almost exclusively employed. Of these 5851 were 
 under twenty, and 4946 above that age. Rep. IV. § 169. In the 
 Cigar and Tobacco Manufacture there were 3968 male persons 
 employed, about 800 of whom were under eighteen years of age, and 
 872 females, in England and Wales ; in Scotland about 1200, and in 
 Ireland about 1000 male persons under eighteen years of age. Rep. 
 IV. § § 120, 121. In the Gutta-percha Factories there were employed 
 937 male persons, 152 of whom were under twenty years of age, and 
 343 females. Rep. IV. App. L. §. 5. Spindle Workers, 2174, of 
 whom 672 were under eighteen. Rep. IV. App. K. § 8, The number 
 of Turners was 7628, 1785 of whom under twenty years of age. Rep. 
 IV. App. K. § 27. The Final Report (Rep. IV. § 146) estimated 
 the number of the workmen belonging to the class of persons protected 
 by the Factory Act, employed in the Umbrella Factories, at 1000, and 
 those employed on Carpet hand-looms also at 1000. These numbers, 
 however, are too high, and in the same manner do the numbers quoted 
 from the more correct special report relating to the other trades men- 
 tioned in this note differ from those given in the summary estimate in 
 the final report. Of Printers there were 34,571 males, of whom 8266 
 under eighteen years of age, and 489 females. Rep. V. § 6. Female 
 work has not been introduced to such an extent in this trade as is 
 usually supposed, and is confined mostly to less important subsidiary 
 work. Rep. V. App. A. § 7. Night-work is general in Newspaper 
 Printing Offices, and in establishments doing work for lawyers, rail- 
 ways, &c., on account of the pressing necessity of speedy delivery, and 
 the great printers raised very great objections against the introduction 
 of the Factory Act into their trade. Rep. V. App. A. § § 151 — 154. 
 Bookbinders, 6556 male, and 5364 female workers (Census 1861). 
 According to the estimate of the Special Commissioner, there were 
 employed in the bookbinding trade in London 1545 persons, of whom 
 three-fifths were females. A conspicuously bad state of affairs was 
 found in the Brickfields. Early age for admission, and the working 
 together of young people of both sexes in deficient garments, produce 
 shocking rudeness and depravity. Drunkenness is general. The 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATIOX. 77 
 
 five years having thus been once more the object of 
 inquiry, it was found that, although it had undoubt- 
 edly imjDroved since the year 1840, still a similar result 
 was obseiTable — viz., that in respect to sanitary 
 measures and length of working time the children 
 employed in the so-called small trades were much 
 worse off than those engaged in the great indus- 
 tries organised after certain rational principles, and 
 that unfortunately it was their very parents against 
 whom the children required to be mostly pro- 
 tected,* since they put them at the earliest age 
 either to their own trade, as assistants, or bound 
 them as apprentices to some other business, thus 
 straming their youthful powers to the utmost, regard- 
 less of their physical capabilities, in order to derive 
 income from their earnings. Now, if through want 
 of education and an absence of moral sense, coupled 
 with the poverty of the parents, this absolutely unre- 
 stricted right of freely disposing of the labour of their 
 own children as a source of income necessarily leads 
 to a general degeneracy of the youthful labouring 
 population, and if in the present state and mode of 
 production, and at the present rate of wages, the work 
 of children has become a social necessity, the State, 
 which possesses a factory legislation, should seek 
 to reduce this evil to its very simplest expression, 
 
 female labourers are brutalised, and "ruder than sailors." Tbeir 
 work is hard, and their working hours are long. Rep. V. App. K. § § 
 11, 70 ; L. § 5. Rep. V. § § 88, 89. As the chief work in the 
 brick-kiln is done during the hot summer months, the statistical figures 
 are uncertain. The Commission estimated — according to the census — 
 of the total number of 37,768 hands employed, about 10,000 to be 
 under eighteen years of age, and 1852 females ; and in South -Staiford- 
 shire alone the Special Commissioner calculated 1500 girls and children 
 of eight to seventeen years of age, in 2000 workpeople. Rep. V. App. 
 L. 2. comp. Jno. N. Peake, "Brickyard Children," London, 1872 ; also 
 Geo. Smith, " The Tileries, " Tunstall, 1872. 
 
 * Childi-en Employment Commission, Rep. V. § 162. 
 
78 ENGLISH FACTOEY LEGISLATION. 
 
 which can only be accomplished by the extension of 
 the protective legislative enactments to all trades, 
 without exception. For when the State in regard to the 
 textile industry — which, although employing youthful 
 labourers in remarkably large numbers, was the first 
 to adopt the factory system on an extensive scale — 
 fixed a certain age for admission into the factories, 
 determined the length of the working day, prescribed 
 school attendance, and set down other conditions for 
 the work of children and young persons in factories, 
 the principle of State protection of the young labourer 
 against the injurious effects of wage- work had then 
 been established, and the interest of the nation in the 
 condition of its rising industrious population (as the 
 future generation of the majority of the people) 
 had been formally recognised. And the extension of 
 the protective legislation to other industries could 
 only experience a momentary check through the op- 
 position of apprehensive manufacturers, or through 
 the difficulty of its administrative execution ; but it 
 could be opposed in future neither on principle, nor on 
 the plea of the so-called liberty of industry or that 
 of paternal authority for both these latter had been 
 put under restraint by the first law — however limited 
 it may have been in its application — and subordi- 
 nated to the general considerations for the welfare 
 of the children and the young labourers. Paternal 
 authority and family right were no longer admis- 
 sible as objections to the extension of the law to 
 other trades, inasmuch as the State intended by 
 factory legislation not only to protect the child 
 against its employer, but also against its parents, 
 who sent it to the factory for the sole purpose of 
 deriving income from its wages ; and now that master 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 79 
 
 and father are so often united in one and the 
 same individual, with the dangerous temptation of 
 wielding absolute authority, should the State sud- 
 denly show respect for the rights of the father, 
 who often proves himself the severest task-master? 
 If, therefore, the general duties of the State and 
 tlie interests .of society demand an extension of 
 the protective provisions of the factory legislation 
 to all trades, economical and technical reasons 
 require still more imperatively that all children 
 earning wages be treated alike so soon as the legis- 
 lation goes beyond its original sphere — the textile 
 industry — where manufacture on a large scale is the 
 rule, and where the protective clauses of the legisla- 
 tion really benefit all persons employed therein. For 
 so soon as the provisions of the legislation — ori- 
 ginally enacted for the textile manufactories only 
 — are extended to all " factories " in general, a 
 discrepancy is apparent from the fact of the co- 
 existence of great and small manufactures in most 
 industries (as proved by all Continental imitations 
 of the English Factory Act), which, provided the 
 law be observed in the large factories, places, to 
 tlie detriment of these " manufacturers," a premium 
 upon children's labour in those workshops where 
 the same business is carried on, although not so 
 extensively as to bring them under the designation 
 of ' ' manufactories." Poor and unscrupulous parents 
 will send their children to those places whence they 
 bring home the greatest amount of wages, and greedy 
 masters engaged in any of the so-called "free" 
 trades will strain to the utmost the w^orking power 
 of the youths placed at their unrestricted disposal as 
 cheap agents of production in their competition with 
 
80 ENGLISH FACTOEY LEGISLATION. 
 
 the great manufacturer, who has to conform to the 
 legal working time. When, therefore, the struggle 
 between the great and small industries — the final 
 issue of which cannot be in the least doubtful — is 
 protracted by an arbitrary prescription, the dis- 
 crepancy becomes more glaring still, by the fact that 
 it having been found impossible to give an accurate 
 definition of the term "factory," and the definition 
 being therefore wanting,* it has been sought to 
 supply the deficiency by taking the number of 
 workmen employed in an establishment as the stan- 
 dard.! In the entire hardware industry, for in- 
 stance, it is impossible to strike a distinct line 
 between factories and workshops, and the mere 
 numerical distinction gives rise to this serious injus- 
 tice that the dismissal of one or two workmen often 
 sufiices to set aside the obnoxious regulation. 
 
 If the extension of the protective legislative enact- 
 ments to all children, young persons, and women 
 proved a just and necessary demand, complying with it 
 was nevertheless attended in England by many serious 
 difiiculties, through the Factory Act having been 
 closely adapted in many points to the customs prevail- 
 ing in the textile industry, and its provisions respect- 
 ing the normal working-day from 6 o'clock a.m. till 
 6 P.M., and the fixed hours for meals, not absolutely 
 applying to industries whose manufacturing process 
 required night-work, nor to the variable and subor- 
 dinate small trades. The English Government, 
 which in 1867 attempted to codify the recommen- 
 dations of the Commission, considered therefore 
 
 * As in tlie North-German Law on Trades and Industries of June 21, 
 1869, and tlie Bavarian Statute of January 15, 1840. 
 
 t Twenty in Art. I. of the French Law of March 24, 1841, and § 
 82 of the Austrian Law relating to Trades and Industries of May 1, 1860. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 81 
 
 the absolute extension of the minutiae of the 
 provisions of the Factory Acts to all branches of 
 industry as impracticable, and saw no other way 
 than, first, to distinguish between manufactories 
 and workshops, and afterwards to pass separate Acts 
 for them, subjecting the former, with certain modifi- 
 cations, to the existing legislation, and extending to 
 the latter only its broad general provisions, such as 
 the duration of the time of labour, obligatory school 
 attendance, &c. 
 
 The first of these laws, the statute 30 & 31 Vict. Factory Act 
 c. 103 (Factory Act Extension Act, Aug. 15, 1867),* ^J*"'''^"'' 
 applies to all furnaces, iron and copper 2vorks, (so & 31 
 machine manufactories worked by machinery, metal ^}^^\^' 
 (hardtvare), and gutta percha factories, all paper Aug.' 15, 
 mills, glass works and tobacco many factories, printing ^^^^• 
 offices, and bookbinders' shops ; and lastly, to all iron and' 
 those establishments in which, in the course of a Copper 
 year, ffty and more persons are employed together at Machine 
 one and the same time for a period of one hundred manufac- 
 
 1 • 1 T tones, 
 
 days at least. As the new law stipulated numerous Metal 
 
 modifications which were not to be applied to the (liardware) 
 
 manufactories hitherto under the rule of the factory percha 
 
 legislation, no uniform factory code was drawn up, factories ; 
 
 despite the purported general extension of the ex- ^\\\^^ 
 
 istmg legislative enactments to the industries newly s^a^s- 
 
 to be regulated ; but the process of the special legis- tobacco 
 
 lation was further developed, while the abortive ma^ufac- 
 
 special Act relating to print tvorks, lace mamfactories, printing 
 
 and bleaching and dyeing works was left untouched, ^^JJj^^;^. 
 
 * This law, as well as the subsequent one, though it had been re- ^^^ ' 
 
 ferred to a special committee, passed both Houses without opposition, 
 and without any essential alteration (except that the number of work- 
 men constituting a factory was reduced from 100 to 50). The most 
 important provisions of the new Act are contained in the Schedule. 
 
 G 
 
82 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 by the new Act. Boys under twelve years of age and 
 females are not to be employed in glass works, like- 
 wise no children under eleven in 7netal grinding ; in 
 the latter trade, ventilation-fans for carrjdng away 
 the injurious metal dust are to be introduced by 
 direction of the factory inspectors. Deviations from 
 the original factory legislation refer to the recogni- 
 tion of certain trade customs which do not " agree " 
 with the normal working day of the textile industry, 
 and are either determined once for all, or must be 
 conceded by the Home Secretary by a special ad- 
 ministrative order. 
 Special The following modifications have special reference 
 
 modifica- -^q the first class : boys above sixteen j^ears of age 
 are allowed to be employed in printing offices on 
 alternate days for fifteen hours, and in alternate 
 weeks during the night. In bookbinders shops 
 young persons above fourteen and women may 
 be kept at work for fourteen hours, and in paper 
 mills and glass ivorks young persons for the custo- 
 mary number of hours, provided they do not 
 exceed sixty hours per week. In blast furnaces, 
 iron mills, paper mills, large printing estabhshments, 
 and works driven by water-power, night-work is 
 permitted to young male persons for the same hours, 
 and with the same pauses as in daytime, provided 
 they are not employed on the preceding or following 
 day, and that they shall not be employed, in the 
 case of blast furnaces, more than six, and in the case 
 of paper mills more than seven, nights in one fortnight. 
 On the other hand, extensive discretionary powers 
 are given the Home Secretary, such, for instance, 
 as to allow occasionally, with regard to the " customs 
 and exii^encies " of certain trades, fifteen hours' work 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 83 
 
 by young male persons of sixteen and upwards (but 
 not on more than twelve days in four weeks, and 
 not more than seventy-two days in one year) ; to 
 consent to the alteration of the general working 
 hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and from 8 a.m. to 8 
 P.M. (instead of the statutory working day from 
 6 A.M. to 6 P.M.) and to the working on Saturdaj^s till 
 tliree o'clock, and respectively four o'clock in such 
 factories where that alteration has been granted ; to 
 allow night-work, under the restrictions mentioned 
 above in this matter, to young male persons in those 
 trades whose requirements may render such night- 
 work necessary ; to dispense from the observance 
 of the regulations which require that meals shall 
 be taken at the same hours outside the workrooms ; 
 to grant the transferring or contracting of the 
 four entire or eight statutory half holidays ; and, 
 lastly, to sanction that males sixteen years old be 
 subject, with regard to employment, to the same 
 regulations as adults. 
 
 With the second Act (30 & 31 Vict. c. 146, Workshops 
 Workshops Regulation Act, August 21, 1867), the ^^f^^ 
 Legislature entered on the more troublesome ground (30 & 31 
 of the small trades and handicrafts, properly so c/i46) 
 called, to which it had been found impossible to Aug. 21, 
 extend the stringent regulations of the normal 
 working-day and fixed meal times. In this juncture, 
 the question to be considered could only be that of 
 uniformly extending to the young workmen and 
 women the statutory protection against overwork, 
 but even this general protection was not vouchsafed 
 at the same rate to the persons employed in the 
 same trade. The general working day for children 
 is fixed from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., and for young per- 
 
 G 2 
 
84 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 sons and women from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m., within 
 which time they shall each work the number of 
 hours respectively set down for them by the factory 
 legislation. The Saturday half-holiday from 2 p.m. 
 is equally to be applied here, but may, with the 
 consent of the Secretary of State for the Home 
 Department, be made to begin only at tln-ee or four 
 o'clock respectively, in case the day work — which 
 must be proved — should not commence before either 
 7 or 8 A.M. The same minister may also, in this 
 instance, allow certain trades to have day or night- 
 work done for fifteen hours by young male persons 
 of sixteen years of age or more, under the condi- 
 tions specified in the Act aforesaid. Surgical certi- 
 ficates of age are not required, and the obligation of 
 the children to go to school has been fixed at a ten 
 hours' attendance per week (in the Factory Act 
 the hours are fifteen, and twelve and a half respect- 
 ively), without, however, naming certain days for 
 that purpose, the parents and employers being made 
 responsible, under penalty of a fine, for the chil- 
 dren's attendance, and the payment of the school- 
 fees being deducted from the wages of the children. 
 in metal grijuling trades ventilation-fans are made 
 compulsory by order of the authorities. The pe- 
 nalties for the infringement of this Act are in 
 general the same as set down in the Factory 
 Act. At the suggestion of the Children Employ- 
 ment Commission *— who, should considerations 
 of retrenchment unfortunately not permit the 
 State inspection of all trades, had in imitation 
 of the Bakehouses Act proposed the local ofiicers as 
 executive agents — the said inspection and surveil- 
 
 * Rep. IL §§ 198—209 ; Rep. III. §§ 147—156. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 85 
 
 lance of workshops is to be entrusted to municipal 
 officers of health, with the restriction, however, 
 that they shall not be entitled to enter a workshop, 
 where they suspect the law is being transgressed, 
 otherwise than by authority of the local magistrate, 
 before whom they must previousl}^ have laid a com- 
 plaint. Factory inspectors, by-the-way, are simply 
 authorised to visit workshops during working hours, 
 but are not armed, in respect to these, with powers 
 similar to those exercised by them in the matter of 
 factories. 
 
 This extension of the protective provisions of 
 this same Factory Act — which were originally passed 
 only as a kind of exceptional legislation for a distinct 
 branch of industry — to the whole mass of great and 
 small industries, marked an extraordinary progress ^ 
 in modern legislation. For the first time it was 
 thereby declared — for the whole extent of the 
 United Kingdom — that all work done for wages by 
 young persons and women * shall be placed under 
 supervision, and subject to distinct regulations. 
 And here we may notice a stage in that process 
 which characterises the struggle between State and 
 Society, where all but the mere economic elements 
 react against the rapid victory of the modern 
 industrial society, and create an order of things 
 which, though not deduced from the old authority 
 principle and the moral sphere of the State, yet 
 promote general utility, " the happiness of the 
 greatest number," and tend to results similar to those 
 aimed at by a different order of philanthropists. 
 
 * The Children Employment Commission estimated the number of 
 persons to be protected by the new legislation at 1,400,000. Rep. V. 
 §146. 
 
86 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 The carrying out of the Factory Act Extension 
 Act, for which purpose the number of the sub- 
 inspectors was increased from twenty-five to thirty- 
 nine, did not exactly meet with the same difficulties 
 
 M as the Factory Acts of 1833 and 1844, because the 
 numerous new industries which came under the new 
 Act, being spread over various local centres, failed 
 to offer such a unanimous opposition to the new 
 restrictions as the textile industry by its compact 
 action had been able to do ; however, it was cer- 
 tainly not natural to suppose that the numerous 
 trades which since 1868 had been restricted by 
 legislative enactments would simultaneously cease, to 
 resist, and that there would at once ensue such a 
 general and absolute application of the law as is 
 now observed in Lancashire and Yorkshire. Thus, 
 during the first years of this new order of things, the 
 law was very differently obeyed, and this difference 
 became all the more remarkable through the dissi- 
 milarity in the modus operandi of the two inspectors. 
 First, the hook and newspaper printers, and with 
 them most of the town trades, raised objections to 
 the hitherto unheard-of hours from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., 
 
 ^ and the Administration, availing itself of its legal 
 power, did indeed allow paper mills, glass ivorks, 
 Sheffield hardware works, printing offices, and such 
 other trades as are in immediate relation with retail 
 tradesmen, or in which a higher class of workmen 
 than common factory operatives are generally em- 
 ployed, the privilege of continuing the previous 
 working hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and from 8 a.m. 
 to 8 p.m.* Most of the ladies' wearing apparel 
 
 * Pari. Pap. 1S68— 69, LI. pp. 127, 143. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 87 
 
 establishments urged that they could not adopt the 
 uniform working day, and petitioned to be allowed 
 the privilege, at least during four months in the 
 year, of working seventy hours a week.* Many 
 trades did not, as a rule, work more than the legal 
 hours — ten and a half — a day, and consequently 
 were on the right side of the law in this respect ; 
 but the second and most important regulation 
 respecting the application of the so-called half-time 
 system (with parallel school attendance) for children, 
 which had stood the test of twenty years' experience 
 in the textile industry, was at first scarcely acted 
 upon at all by these trades.! Children under 
 thirteen years of age were either simply dismissed — 
 as was the case in the large iron factories, which 
 indeed never emploj^ed many such young assistants, 
 and which on account of a general stagnation in 
 the trade could then easily reduce the number of 
 hands — or they were replaced by machines,! or 
 the school regulations were simply disregarded in 
 the small trades, especially in the poor districts of 
 London, where the destitution of parents and the 
 wretched condition of the workshops precluded aU 
 possibility of bringing the educational and sanitary 
 measures into operation. § Matters, however, as- 
 sumed a better aspect at the commencement of the 
 following year, 1869, and the stringent manner in 
 
 * Report of Inspectors of Factories, Oct. 31, 1868, p. 13. 
 
 + In the whole district of one inspector, which embraces the east of 
 England, London, Yorkshire, half Lancashire, and Scotland, there 
 were in 1869 only 733 half-time pupils in the sense of the new law. 
 Report of Inspectors of Factories, April 30, 1869, p. 34. 
 
 t Report of Inspectors of Factories, Oct. 31, 186S, p. 182 ; April 30, 
 1869, p. 79. The latter was chiefly the case in the small industries of 
 Birmingham. 
 
 § Report of Inspectors of Factories, Oct. 31, 1868, p. 14. 
 
V 
 
 88 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 which the law was enforced, combined with the 
 general feeling of the impossibility of an alteration 
 ' in the law, was remarkably quick in convincing a 
 
 large number of employers that the adoption of 
 a regular working day, with uniform working hours, 
 would further the interests of the producer and con- 
 duce at the same time to the general improvement of 
 the working classes. The number of applications 
 for an alteration in the working hours did not at all 
 increase, as it had been predicted they would,* and 
 the inspectors were able, at the close of this and the 
 next year, to point with satisfaction to the increasing 
 observance and approval of the Factory Act Ex- 
 tension Act.f 
 
 It proved, however, much more difficult to enforce 
 the observance of the second Act of 1867 — the 
 Workshops Kegulation Act, the carrying out of 
 which, as mentioned before, was left to Ihe local 
 authorities. In this respect, an opinion — by no 
 means justified by the wording of the Act — had 
 speedily gained ground that the local authorities 
 were left at liberty to decide whether the law should 
 be enforced or not in their respective districts, and 
 indeed many town councils, when called upon by 
 the inspectors to carry out the law, expressed their 
 determination **not to meddle with trade matters 
 in their parishes." More numerous by far were 
 
 * Petitions in favour of modification amounted in one half of the 
 United Kingdom, which contains more than 12,000 factories, to not 
 more than 577, and of this number 384 emanated from printing offices. 
 Report of Inspectors of Factories, Oct. 31, 1869, p. 151. 
 
 + Report of Inspectors of Factories, Oct. 31, 1869, p. 160; April 30, 
 1870, p. 43. The prosecutions for infringements of the law amounted 
 in the six months from May till October, 1868, to 257 ; in the next six 
 months, Nov. 1868, till April, 1869, to 430 ; from May till Oct. 1869, 
 to 182 ; and from Nov. 1869, till April, 1870, to 397. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATIOX. 89 
 
 those corporations who, -without answering thus 
 peremptorily, contented themselves with simply- 
 ignoring the law altogether ; and the reports of the 
 Inspectors of 1868 and 1869 stated that the Work- 
 shops Regulation Act was a dead letter throughout 
 nearly the whole country.* But even in the few 
 parishes which did not entirely reject the law, its 
 clumsy and ambiguous provisions were a great 
 obstacle to its application, since the local officer of 
 health, entrusted with the surveillance of the work- 
 shops, had fii-st to file a formal information before 
 the justice of the peace or magistrate, in order to be 
 authorised to enter the workrooms in which he 
 suspected an illegal employment of protected 
 persons. On the other hand, a great many large 
 towns were altogether without a sanitary officer, 
 presumed by the law to be an executive agent,! 
 while in •others the existing officers of health were 
 somewhat reluctant, beyond seeing to the condition 
 of the Avorkrooms in a sanitary point *of view, to 
 interfere with the working time, school attendance, 
 &c.| This widespread non-observance of the 
 
 * Reports of Inspectors of Factories, Oct. 31, 1868, pp. 251, 260, 
 270, 293, 302 ; April 30, 1S69, pp. 81, 101 ; Oct. 31, lb69, pp. 74— 
 79, 87, 99—106, 160, 227, 232, &c. Birmingham and Sheffield, 
 which contain a large number of the smaller trades, refused absolutely 
 the application of the law, Oct. 31, 1869, pp. 82, 233. Compare also, 
 Economist, Commercial History of 1868, p. 24. 
 
 t For such, as well as for other refractory parishes. Inspector Red- 
 grave proposed the inspection of the workshops by the Factory Sub- 
 Inspectors, at the expense of the respective parishes. Report of 
 Inspector of Factories, Oct. 31, 1869, p. 104. 
 
 J So in several districts of London. Report of Inspector of Factories, 
 Oct. 31, 1868, p. 52. But that, even with the bad framing of the 
 Act, its application was not altogether impossible, several districts in 
 Staffordshire and Leicestershire proved, where the indefatigable activity 
 of the municipal officers obtained the best results as regards the at- 
 tendance at school, as well as the general improvement of the young 
 
90 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 Workshops Regulation Act, together with the in- 
 creasing effective operation of the other law of 1867 
 (on factories), brought a large number of children 
 and young persons from the great manufactories 
 into the small workshops, where the children's 
 wages underwent no reduction, and more especially 
 into those trades where both systems of manufacture 
 clashed with one another, and where the legal 
 restrictions found a limit to their operation in the 
 number of persons (fifty) employed in an under- 
 taking. 
 (33 & 34 The totally insufficient provisions of the Acts 
 
 Au!' 9 ^^^ relating to cotton print, bleaching, and dyeing 
 1870. works could not possibly remain in force after the 
 
 extension of the factory legislation to all great 
 industries, and after the regulation even of the 
 workshops, and by the statute 33 & 34 Vict. c. 62 
 (August 9, 1870) the principal provisions of the 
 Factory Act of 1867 were extend^ also to these 
 industries. The modifications were of a similar 
 nature to those of 1867, in consequence of a per- 
 mission of the Home Secretary (in regard to the 
 customs and requirements of the trade), namely : 
 fifteen hours' work by young male labourers above 
 sixteen years of age ; thirty minutes' overtime by 
 children and young persons, in order to finish the 
 work in hand; ten and a half hours' work by children 
 on alternate days. For open bleach works extension 
 of the working day was allowed beyond the hours of 
 6 A.M. to 6 P.M., during which young persons and 
 females might be employed the statutor}^ working 
 time of ten hours and a half, &c. The preparation 
 
 labourers. Reports of Inspectors of Factories, Oct. 31, 1868, pp. 319 — 
 322 ; April 30, 1870, p. 52. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 91 
 
 of dried fruit and fish was likewise placed under the 
 operation of the factory legislation, with the restric- 
 tion that females were also permitted to be employed 
 at the most for fifteen hours, but only during ninety- 
 five days in the year. All previous Acts relating to 
 print and dyeing works were repealed.* 
 
 The above-mentioned difficulties arising through Factory 
 the local authorities in the carrying out of the ^^ ^^' 
 Workshops Regulation Act and the pressure of the 1871. 
 urgent recommendations of the factory inspectors in- 'i?.*.*" ^^ 
 duced Parliament to pass, inthe session of 1871, afinal io4.) 
 Act (34 & 35 Vict. c. 104, 21 August, 1871), which " 
 completely transferred the duty of enforcing the | 
 provisions of that Act from the local bodies to the i 
 inspectors and sub -inspectors of factories, who t 
 were to embrace in their reports workshops as well 
 as factories. Simultaneously the existing provision 
 of reporting all accidents preventing an injured 
 person returning to work by nine o'clock on the 
 morning following the accident was restricted only 
 to fatal accidents and accidents caused by machinery 
 or escape of gas, by which the injured person is 
 prevented returning to his work for forty-eight 
 hours after the accident. The same Act expressly 
 subjects all Government establishments to the 
 Factory Acts, forbids the employment of females 
 mider the age of sixteen years and of children 
 under the age of ten in brick works and brick fields, 
 and orders all payment of penalties to be made 
 into the Exchequer. The Home Secretary received 
 further powers to permit to trades depending by the 
 nature of their business on the weather or on the 
 seasons of the year the employment of young 
 
 * See ante, pp. 33, 47—49. 
 
92 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 persons of fourteen years and upwards and of 
 women for fourteen hours in any one day, with an 
 additional half-hour for meals, provided that the 
 protected working hours shall never extend beyond 
 10 P.M., and not be continued for more than ninety- 
 six days in a year, or for more than five consecutive 
 days in a week. An analogous extension of the 
 working hom^s may be granted in the matter of 
 brickworks during the summer.* 
 
 The conclusion of the history of the English 
 factory legislation may afford an appropriate occasion 
 for an examination into the effects of State inter- 
 vention on a purely economical ground. 
 
 Although the factory legislation restricted only 
 the work performed by young persons and women 
 to certain regulations, and formally left unshackled 
 the work done by male adults, jet, as through the 
 industrial organisation, and particularly of the tex- 
 tile industry which originally was first '' regulated," 
 the work of adult workmen is dependent upon the 
 assistance of boys and women, the statutory hmita- 
 tion of the working time of the latter was, on the 
 whole, tantamount to a reduction of the hours of 
 labour in general. 
 
 This curtailment of the working time appeared, 
 in the first instance — supposing similar conditions 
 
 * 34 Vict, c. 19 (25 May, 1871) exempts masters from penalties in 
 respect to Sunday work by Jewish workpeople, provided the work- 
 shop closed on Saturday until sunset, and be not opened for business on 
 Sunday, and that the whole amount of weekly working hours do not 
 exceed the legal maximum prescribed by the Workshops' Regulation Act 
 of 1867. During last session (1872) a Bill was brought in by Mr. 
 Mundella and other Members of Parliament for a further curtailment 
 of the working hours of the protected persons : all Saturday work 
 ought to cease after 1 o'clock p.m. ; a protected person should not, 
 except for recovering lost time, be employed for more than nine and a 
 half hours on any day, nor for more than fifty-four hours per week. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATIOX. 93 
 
 of production to exist — as a diminution of the 
 quantity of goods hitherto manufactured equal to 
 the quantity produced in the hom's now cut off. As 
 the profits of the manufacturer originate in every 
 single portion of the product, the amount hitherto 
 accruing as such ceased — notwithstanding the 
 decrease in the cost of the raw material, of work- 
 ing expenses, and of wages paid for the quantity 
 produced in the last two hom's — simultaneously 
 with the fact of the non-production of this quantity, 
 that is to say, there resulted in reality a decrease in 
 the manufacturer's income. Only this quantitative 
 decrease of the whole bulk of produce explains the 
 decrease in the amount of profit, but by no means 
 the circumstance alleged by Senior in his well- 
 known letter, viz., that the profits were gained only 
 in the last two or three hours,* while the preceding 
 hours simply replace the cost of raw material, the 
 working expenses, and the amount of wages. This 
 view arose from a particular habit of reckoning on 
 the part of the manufacturers, but is by no means 
 based upon the nature of the process of production, 
 which creates all the elements of value in the com- 
 modity at each individual part of the produce. 
 
 The next injurious effect of the factory legislation 
 to the manufacturers was the depreciation in the 
 value of the fixed capital consequent upon the 
 reduction of the working day. The co-operation 
 of this element in the process of production finds 
 its expression and reproduction in fixed parts of the 
 aggregate value of the produce. It matters Kttle, 
 therefore, in this regard, whether it be assumed, 
 according to the usual modes of calculation, that 
 * Senior, Letters, p. 12. Marx, ** Capital," p. 192, and note. 
 
94 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 the yearly- to-be-replaced expenses of the productive 
 employment of the fixed capital consist in yearly 
 " use " (interest), maintenance, wear and tear,* or 
 whether certain component parts of its value are 
 transferred to the product by the process of realisa- 
 tion ; t it will always remain a question of a certain 
 per-centage of the standing capital, which must be 
 reproduced at the individual parts of commodities, 
 and it is evident that this reproduction will be 
 effected all the sooner that the quantity of commodi- 
 ties manufactured in a given time will be greater. 
 The shortening of the working day furthermore dis- 
 tributes all ordinary working expenses for inspec- 
 tion, insurance, repairs of buildings, rates and 
 taxes, &c., just as takes place with regard to the 
 annual per-centage to be set apart for wear and tear 
 of machinery, over a smaller quantity of goods pro- 
 duced, and figures therefore as an increase of the 
 cost of production. Frequently also will the oftener 
 occurring interruptions during the manufacturing 
 process of a certain quantity of goods which result 
 from the shorter working day cause even a rela- 
 tively larger consumption of raw material.! A 
 further difficulty in the application of the Factory 
 Acts arose, for the manufacturers, from the mode 
 
 * Hermann, *'Staatswirthscliaftliclie Untersuchungen, " 2nd edit, 
 p. 343. 
 
 t Marx, 1. c. pp. 171, 374. 
 
 J "By accelerating the process of production a corresponding de- 
 crease of the expenditure of ' use ' (interest), and often also of material 
 and labour, is frequently the result. " Hermann,!, c. p. 347. "L'^co- 
 nomie du temps a beaucoup d'analogie avec celle des capitaux." 
 J. B. Say, "Cours d'J&couomie Politique," edit. 1845, I. p. 294. In 
 calico printworks, likewise, a part of the material is lost each time in 
 the process of feeding the rollers. The expenses of the weekly dressing 
 of the puddling furnaces remain the same, no matter how great or little 
 the quantity of iron produced during the week. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 95 
 
 of working peculiar to the diirerent industries. The 
 owners of spinning and weaving mills driven by water 
 had at the very outset shown resistance to the system 
 of fixed hours on account of the irregular supply 
 of their motive power ; the uniform working day, 
 therefore, which originally introduced as a regula- 
 tion for the textile industry only had naturally been 
 strictly made to answer the requirements of business 
 carried out on a scale almost unknown to any other 
 industry, could not but act still more disturbingly 
 in those industries in which not only the supply of 
 the driving power is irregular, but where the whole 
 manufacturing process is subject to interruptions, 
 especially, for instance, in all iron works, potteries, 
 glass works, paper mills, &c., and in general in all 
 trades in which night work is customary.* Foi 
 here the Legislature did not, as in the former case, 
 seem bent upon merely removing the evils growing 
 out of the exaggeration of the factory system — 
 whose already existing uniform working day had 
 only to be shortened and not to be introduced 
 afresh — but to compel all industries, however 
 fluctuating the nature of their operations, to adopt 
 a new uniform system of manufacture. And not 
 only in technical, but also in commercial respects, 
 did manufacturers suffer notable impediments 
 through the establishment of a uniform working 
 day. AU those who did not work for stock, but for 
 short orders coming in in quick succession, and 
 consequently necessitating frequent recourse to 
 overtime, found themselves impeded in their business 
 transactions, and in this mstance the nomial work- 
 
 * Hence the numerous exceptional provisions of the Acts of 1864 and 
 1867. 
 
96 ENGLISH FACTOHr LEGISLATION. 
 
 "ing da}^,. which is a creation of the great manufac- 
 turing system, seemed really to place serious 
 difficulties in the way of continuing the course of 
 trade hitherto pursued. Lastly, the higher wages 
 required by both the young and adult operatives to 
 be engaged instead of children and young persons 
 respectively, the cost for fencing-in the machinery, 
 for the registers, surgical certificates, &c., repre- 
 sented just so many extra items added to the 
 manufacturing expenses.* 
 
 The manufacturers, therefore, as is well known, 
 offered a most vigorous resistance to the factory 
 legislation, which appeared to tln^eaten them with 
 serious loss, both through a diminution in the 
 amount of goods manufactured and an increase of 
 expenditure. They first sought to either set the 
 law at defiance altogether — in which attempt, how- 
 ever, they were unsuccessful on account of the strict 
 supervision of the inspectors — or to evade it, as 
 described in the statements relating to the so-called 
 false relay system ; and a new and more stringent 
 legislation was called for (1847-50), in order to put 
 a stop to these illegal proceedings.! "When, how- 
 
 * Mr. H. Ashworth calculated as follows before the Parliamentary 
 Committee of 1840 the expenses which the country would have to bear 
 through the factory legislation : — In a spinning-mill with 650 hands, 
 the school fees amounted to 40^. ; for the keeping of the registers and 
 surgical certificates, 601. ; and the increase of the general expenses 
 of production caused by the reduction of the working hours, 501. — 
 together, 150Z. ; giving for 394,000 operatives (the number employed 
 at that time), 90,000Z, ; added to this amount 9000^. salaries for the 
 inspectors and lOOOZ. for fines, the grand total would be 100,000^. 
 
 t Some spinning-mills and other manufactories attempted, indeed, at 
 first to work with adults alone without observing the fixed meal-times, 
 and continuing the work during the night. Children Employment 
 Commission, 1862, I. § 429 ; Report of Inspectors of Factories, April 30, 
 1848, p. 15. Relays of adults. Report of Inspectors of Factories, 
 Oct. 31, 1>>47, p. 24. But this extension of the working-day of adults 
 
ENGLISH FACTOUY LEGISLATION. 97 
 
 ever, the masters had learned to bow before unavoid- 
 able necessity, they endeavoured to regain on the 
 ground of the new law what they were in danger 
 of losing by its being acted upon. In order to 
 produce in the shorter working day the same 
 quantity of goods as hitherto, the system of working 
 had to be made more productive of quicker results. 
 This could be done in two ways : first, by an in- 
 creased amount of work done by the operatives, 
 and next, by the introduction of better and faster 
 machinery. It soon became evident, that the mere 
 extension of a man's working time was not equiva- 
 lent to a corresponding increase of his productive 
 powers ; * the workmen, particularly the young 
 hands, who were no longer wearied by excessive 
 physical exertion, turned out in the shorter time 
 the same and often even a greater quantity of work, 
 in doing which they had a special interest on ac- 
 count of the almost general adoption of piece-work, 
 and the manufacturers themselves were gradually 
 brought to admit that the two last hours, formerly 
 considered indispensable, usually produced much 
 inferior work than that done in the preceding work- 
 ing time,t and that the uninterrupted regular work 
 of the new working da}^ was more profitable to the 
 undertaking — in consequence of the greater pains- 
 taking on the part of the workmen, who no longer 
 spent the first few hours unoccupied — than the 
 
 did not become general on account of the difference in the amount of 
 wages. 
 
 * "There is a certain amount of work in a man, and when that's 
 out it's all he can do." Report of Inspectors of Factories, Oct. 31, 
 1865, p. 99. 
 
 t Children Employment Commission, 1862, Rep. L § 198; IL § 369; 
 Appendix C. § 91 ; III. §§ 64, 206 ; Appendix C. § ITZ ; IV. §^ 64, 
 165 ; V. § 34. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 hitherto customary long working day with alternate 
 overwork and idleness. 
 
 Far more important, however, for the retention 
 and increase of the quantity of goods hitherto manu- 
 factured was the effect produced by the new great 
 machinery employed, and this constitutes the point 
 of junction between the consequences of the factory 
 legislation and the general tendency of modern in- 
 dustry to production on a large scale. This latter 
 process was undoubtedly accelerated and greatly 
 extended by the restrictive legislative enactments. 
 Children's labour, rendered so inconvenient by the 
 school regulations, was, wherever it could be done, 
 supplanted by machinery, and all the sooner in those 
 manufactories where the fly-wheels used to be turned 
 by children.* In the same manner the difficulty 
 which frequently arose, immediately upon the intro- 
 duction of the factory legislation, of procm^ing the 
 requisite number of children for the double working 
 sets, led to the employment of machiner}^ as a sub- 
 stitute. The reduction of the working day could 
 only be balanced by an increase of productiveness 
 through the machines, and though the astonishing 
 progress of machinery in the first half of the present 
 century (in the shape, especiall}^, of the self-acting 
 spinning and weaving machines), was to a great 
 extent caused by the general conditions of produc- 
 tion, it is an indisputable fact that it was factory 
 legislation which gave the direct impulse to the intro- 
 duction of many of the time-saving machines.! But 
 the apphcation of such fast producing machines, 
 
 * Eeport of Inspectors of Factories, Oct. 31, 1868, p. 174. 
 t Reports of Inspectors of Factories, Oct. 31, 1865, pp. 13, 39 ; 
 Oct. 31, 18G8, p. 10. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 99 
 
 which was to press more work into the shorter 
 working day, formed a considerable addition to the 
 standing capital, and acted, in consequence of the 
 demand for a still quicker reproduction of the 
 increased value of the machinery, as an additional 
 stimulus to still more intensive labour.* 
 
 When, then, great machinery obtained more 
 rapid admission into factories in consequence of the 
 new legislation, to this same legislation, on the 
 other hand, was it due that smaller industries became 
 more rapidly influenced by the forms of the factory 
 s^^stem. It appeared to be onty a fair demand that 
 the restrictions of production — as the regulations 
 respecting the normal working day, &c., were con- 
 sidered by the great manufacturers — should be ex- 
 tended to all other competitors, in order to estab- 
 lish, as it was stated, " equal conditions of produc- 
 tion." Therefore such manufactm-ers as had com- 
 plied with the law earnestly demanded, above all 
 things, not only the strict observance of its pro- 
 visions by their competitors,! but likewise an 
 immediate extension of the legal restrictions to all 
 other so-called " free " trades, which, in virtue of 
 theii' privilege of employing children and young 
 persons without any restraint, were capable of 
 
 * Senior estimated, in 1837, the proportion between fixed and 
 circulating capital in spinning-mills as 4 to 1 ; but there prevailed a 
 tendency to a further rise of 6, 7, and even of 10 to 1. Letters on the 
 Factory Acts, p. 14. 
 
 t Children Employment Commission, 1862, Rep. V. § 165 F. and 
 Marx, 1. c. y. 484. The great pottery-wai-e manufacturers formed, 
 after the introduction of the law, an association for the general observ- 
 ance of the Factory Act. The manufacturers using old machinery were, 
 in the textile industiy, the most vehement opponents of the Bill, while, 
 per contra, it was supported by the greater number of those who were 
 provided with the latest improvements, in the expectation that it 
 would render the rivalry of the former impossible. Factory Com- 
 mission, 1833, Ai^pendix ; Preface to Tables, D. 1, p. 119 o. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 affording tliem higher wages, thus diminishing the 
 supply of the very class of workmen needed by 
 great manufacturers. But the smaller manufac- 
 turer could only compete with his greater neighbour 
 by means of longer and more irregular working 
 hours. No sooner had he become subjected to the 
 observance of the shorter uniform working time, 
 than the only advantageous element of produc- 
 tion left to him was lost, and he now found 
 himself engaged in an unequal struggle against the 
 ** other expenses of plant " (Hermann) of the great 
 industry, with all the unfavourable conditions of the 
 small trade.* If he could not escape the effect of 
 the legal restrictions by evasion, he frequently saw 
 himself compelled either to give up his business, to 
 work at a loss, or to embark in the great factory Hne. 
 This coincidence of the factory legislation with 
 the increased working powers of the factory system 
 explains why the above-mentioned effects of the legal 
 restrictions upon production did not occur, at least 
 in a general way, and why the predictions and appre- 
 hensions of the masters as to the decrease in pro- 
 duce, increase of cost, and rise in prices did not sim- 
 ply prove fallacious, but why also, in the second and 
 third quarters of the present century, the develop- 
 ment of industry had progressed in a measure far 
 beyond the most sanguine expectations of the manu- 
 facturers. In the cotton industry, of which the re- 
 motest and most comprehensive statistics exist, to a 
 greater amount of attention and of diligence on the 
 part of the workmen during the first years of the 
 operation of the Factory Act is simply due the fact 
 
 * Children Employment Commission, 1862, Rep. II. § 36 j Report 
 cf Inspectors of Factories, Oct. 31, lc>07, p. 11. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 101 
 
 that while the working day was reduced from twelve to 
 ten houi's, the diminution of produce amounted only 
 to one-twelfth instead of one-sixth.* The extra- 
 ordinary progress of machinery in the textile in- 
 dustry and the more extended commercial relations 
 increased and cheapened f the production in an un- 
 foreseen degree in the years immediately following 
 the introduction of the factory legislation, as is 
 shown by the table on page 102. J 
 
 The creation of a greater quantity of goods by 
 more productive machinery succeeded better at a 
 time when the first and greatest progi'ess had to be, 
 and was, made in the construction of machines, be- 
 cause the difference was then greater as compared 
 with the former mode of manufacture. When, how- 
 ever, in a certain branch of industry the machinery 
 employed has already attained a very high degree of 
 perfection, or when the introduction of time-saving, 
 self-acting machines is not practicable in such under- 
 takings, or when the new machines camiot be at 
 once introduced for general business reasons, the 
 shortening of the working houi's is indeed attended 
 
 * Lord Shaftesbury's Speeches, p 118, 
 
 t Mr. Senior had stated already in 1837 that 1 lb. yam costs, at a 
 production of 10,000,000 lb., forty shillings ; and at a production of 
 280,000,000 lb. only two shillings. Letters on the Factory Acts, p. 16. 
 
 i The figures of the above table have been extracted from Ure'a 
 "Philosophy of Manufactures," 3rd edit. 1861, pp. 573, 574, and 
 the same author's '* Cotton Manufacture," edit, of 1861, II. 313, 504. 
 From Porter's "Progress of the Nation," 1851, pp. 170, 174, 226, 228. 
 From "Miscellaneous Statistics of the United Kingdom," VII. 1869, 
 § 319. A very insufficient compilation of the progres.s of the textile 
 industry since the introduction of the Factory Act is contained in the 
 *' Rapport du Congres International de Bienfaisance de Londres," 1862, 
 Bruxelles, 1863, IL pp. 49 — 53. Respecting the increase of the profits 
 of the manufacturers in the textile industry there are no general and 
 reliable statistical data to be obtained, but the increasing establishment 
 of new manufactories and the increase of the income-tax under 
 Schedule D prove an augmentation of the profits. 
 
102 
 
 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 
 
 
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ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 103 
 
 by a considerable diminution of the quantit}^ pro- 
 duced, and partly also by an increase of expendi- 
 ture.* 
 
 The influences of the factory legislation on the 
 interests of the working classes manifested them- 
 selves in various directions. In the first place, the 
 shortening of the working hom*s appeared to mean 
 a diminution of the amount of wages equal to 
 that which had been earned in the hours now 
 to be cut off; but as in the great industries piece 
 work is almost everywhere the rule, the deficiency in 
 the wages can only be measured by the quantity 
 dropped from the total produce. The leaders of 
 the working men, though at the first stage of the 
 agitation for a factory legislation, had entertained 
 the hope that the decrease in the quantity i)roduced 
 caused by the shortening of the working hours 
 would increase the unsatisfied demand in the pro- 
 portion of the decrease in the production, and con- 
 sequently raise the price of goods and wages alike, 
 so that the workmen would in the end receive twelve 
 hours' pay for ten homes' work; and that, in the 
 next place, notwithstanding the higher prices of 
 goods, the general consumption would not decrease, 
 and therefore new factories would have to be estab- 
 lished in order to meet this demand, by which em- 
 plojauent would be afforded to all disengaged hands. f 
 This mode of reasoning, which prevails among the 
 working classes even to this day, not only in re- 
 spect to the factory legislation, but also to other 
 
 * Report of Inspectors of Factories, Oct, 31, 1865, p. 93. The 
 prices for pottery-ware are stated to have risen fifteen per cent, since 
 the introduction of the Factory Act. 
 
 t Factory Commission, 1833. Sup. Rep. 1834, App. D. 2, p. 209. 
 
104 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 limitations to trade, is no doubt based, in the 
 first instance, on the confusion of a rise in price 
 due to an increase in the cost of production 
 with a rise in price caused by an increased demand ; 
 but it rests also on the correct thesis that when in^ 
 a trade longer working hours increase the supply of 
 labour, and have in general, as such, a tendency to 
 lower the wages,* shorter working hours, on the 
 other hand, in a particular trade, will exercise an 
 upward tendency — i. e., increase the rate of wages in 
 the same. But they forget that the workmen and the 
 masters, as has been stated above, would endeavour 
 immediately after the introduction of the Factory 
 Act to manufacture in the shorter working hours, if 
 possible, the same or even a greater quantity than 
 before, and that the increase in the productive power 
 of the machinery could much more effectively pre- 
 vent the threatening diminution in the j)roduction 
 than the curtailment of the working time was able to 
 do. This action, directed against an abatement in 
 the total produce, did not therefore allow the directly 
 and indii-ectl}^ anticipated effects of the reduction of 
 the hours of labour on the wages to take place in a 
 general and simple way ; it prevented on the one 
 hand their falling off at the rate of the amount 
 earned in the hours curtailed, and counteracted, 
 on the other, by the manufacture of an equal or 
 even greater quantity, the consequences which the 
 shorter working time — as a diminution of the supply 
 of labour — might have on the general condition of 
 production, wages, and trade. It thus came to pass 
 that in the textile industry, notwithstanding the 
 
 * Hermann, 1. . p. 569 ; Maxx, 1. c. p. 535. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 105 
 
 reduction of the working hours, wages in 1830 and 
 following years only fell one -twelfth instead of one- 
 sixth,* and gradually rose again pretty considerably 
 above the rate paid at that time. But simulta- 
 neously with this increase in wages, and by reason 
 of the gi'eater cheapness of the production and 
 the gi'owing productiveness of self-acting machines, 
 there was a decrease in the amount of wages paid per 
 piece, and this could only be balanced by the general 
 increase of production, which distributed the lower 
 piece wages over so many more parts of the produce 
 than before, that the aggregate amount of weekly 
 wages attained a higher figure, notwithstanding the 
 lower rate paid per piece. t On the other hand, the 
 
 * Lord Shaftesbury's Speeches, p. 121. 
 
 + Report of Inspectors of Factories, April 30, 1860, p. 31, contains 
 a comparative statement of wages paid in cotton-mills between 18^9 
 and 1859, which shows for 1859 a considerable increase, despite the 
 curtailment of nine hours per week. But all similar tables of wages, 
 which place in juxtaposition only the amounts of weekly wages of 
 different periods, afford no insight into the actual state of wages so 
 long as the changing figures of the rate of wages paid per piece and the 
 quantity of production are not included in the comparison. The same 
 may be said of the comparison of wages paid in England and on the 
 Continent respectively, which, on account of the higher amount paid to 
 the English workmen, leads to the erroneous view that the wages in 
 England are in every respect higher than anywhere else, whilst, on the 
 contrary, a careful examination into the conditions and circumstances of 
 production proves that the English working-man, whether he receives less 
 or even more per piece, always produces a much greater quantity of pieces 
 in a certain time than the continental workman, and that consequently 
 wages considered as part of the cost of production (cost of labour), as a 
 ** rate of payment for work done," in the sense of the capitalist and the 
 political economist, are lower in England than on the Continent. J. S. 
 Mill, Principles of Political Economy, 5th edit. II. p. 253 ; J. W. 
 Cowell in the Factory Commission of 1833, Sup. Rep. 1834. D. 1, p. 
 119 r. (The very interesting remarks of Cowell on wages in the great 
 manufacturing industry, p. 119 f — n, were literally copied by Ure, 
 Philosophy of Manufactures, edit, of 1861, pp. 317 — 328, and are 
 quoted from the latter by Marx, 1. c. p. 549.) The same view on 
 the English and foreign rate of wages has been expressed in the Reports 
 of the Inspectors of Factories, of Oct. 31, 1866, p. 35, respecting the 
 statistics of wages of English and Russian spinning mills. 
 
106 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 eiFect of tlie factory legislation was, though more 
 limited, more direct on the children's wages, which 
 constituted a regular portion of the parent's income. 
 First of all, children under the statutory age for 
 admission, who formerly were frequently set to work 
 as early as the sixth, seventh, and eighth year of 
 age, were all discharged, as were many others of the 
 prescribed legal age, on account of the school regu- 
 lations, losing thereby the amount of wages they had 
 formerly earned.* It is true that the introduction 
 of the half-time system did not in most cases exactly 
 reduce the wages in proportion to the full amount 
 corresponding to the time curtailed ; f but the total 
 amount of the weekly earnings was nevertheless 
 diminished. The relative increase in the value of 
 children's labour in general resulting from the em- 
 ployment of two sets of hands mostly reverted to 
 the workmen, who, as a rule, paid their assist- 
 ants out of their piece-work wages. On the other 
 hand, children who had not been sent to factories at 
 all before by their parents, on account of the too 
 fatiguing long hours, were in a great many cases 
 attracted to the factories by the shorter working 
 time.t But in this instance also the counter-eifect 
 produced on the factory legislation by the employ- 
 ment of large machinery established an equilibrium, 
 inasmuch as while children were superseded by ma- 
 
 * This discharging of the children in consequence of the Factory Act 
 attracted to the factories, from Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, young 
 rural labourers above thirteen years of age who were satisfied with the 
 rate of children's wages (higher still than their agricultural earnings), 
 and this brought down the general level of wages for the other town 
 labourers of their age. W. C. Taylor, Factory System, 1844, p. 24. 
 
 f Children Employment Commission, 1862, Rep. I. App. p. 145. 
 The cotton-spinners preferred " full timers " of above thirteen years of 
 age. Report of Inspectors of Factories, April 30, 1860, p. 25. 
 
 J Homer, in Senior's Letters on the Factory Act, p. 37. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 107 
 
 chineiy, the gross amount of the re tamed children's 
 wages rose at the same time through an increase of 
 production ; in Uke manner that the apprehensions 
 lest the young hands employed during their child- 
 hood as half-timers should later all find emplojanent 
 were suhsequently allayed by the fact that owing to 
 the numerous dismissals of children, their number, 
 which had decreased during the first few years, only 
 rose later in small proportion when compared 
 with the total number of workmen, as likewise by 
 the circumstance that the employment of children 
 in factories is very often only a temporary oc- 
 cupation previously to choosing a permanent busi* 
 ness, their parents sending them when too young 
 to be capable of enduring hard work to the easier 
 factory work in the textile industry.* 
 
 Respecting the health of the working classes, the 
 factory legislation can point to great results, since, 
 indeed, it owes its first origin chiefly to sanitary consi- 
 derations, the shocking state of health, especiall}^ of 
 the children employed in the textile industry, which 
 w^as first investigated and made public, having been 
 the primary motive wdiich induced j)liilanthropists in 
 and out of Parliament to call for the first Factory 
 Acts. By dint of elaborate inquiries, the fact has 
 been incontestably established that long hours of 
 labour and night-work in badly ventilated rooms, 
 combined with physical exertions peculiar to the 
 spinning industry, were detrimental to the general 
 state of health of the workman, and frequently 
 engendered particular diseases.! In this respect 
 the tliirty years' sway of the protective provisions 
 
 * Children Employment Commission, 1862, I. §§ 191—198. 
 t Although the investigation conducted before the Committee of 
 1832 cannot be exculpated of a certain partiality against the whole 
 
108 ENGLISH FACTOEY LEGISLATION. 
 
 wliich raised the age of admission of children, 
 and shortened the hours of labour, was attended 
 with the most satisfactory results ; the so-called 
 " factory leg " (deformity of the throstlers), has 
 entirely disappeared,* and all reports are unani- 
 mous as to the great improvement wrought in 
 the sanitary condition of the textile operatives of 
 the last generation. It should not, however, be 
 allowed to pass unnoticed that the very greatest 
 manufacturers were themselves active in the same 
 direction, and did more and more every year towards 
 improving ventilation and establishing bath and 
 wash rooms, together with other comforts conducive 
 to health ; nor should it be forgotten that at this 
 very period was effected the reform of the once 
 entirely neglected local sanitary administration, 
 which since then, especially in Manchester and other 
 great manufacturing towns, has wrought such a vast 
 amount of good in the shape of canalisation, water 
 supply, &c. The painful impression which the disclo- 
 sure of the misery endured by the factory population 
 produced in the fourth decade of the present century 
 caused the public at large to overlook the frequently 
 much worse condition of the workmen in the small 
 and unregulated industries, the causes of wliich were 
 less apparent, and therefore less known, on account 
 of their local decentralisation ; and here again the 
 Inquiry Commission of 1862 had to witness a highly 
 deplorable state of things. The favourable results 
 of the factory legislation in the textile industry 
 suggest the hope that the extension of the protective 
 
 factory system, the Royal Inquiry Commission, appointed in the oppo- 
 site interest in 1833, produced in the whole the same results as the 
 former, notwithstanding some conflicting medical evidence. 
 
 * R, Baker, in J. M. Ludlow's and L. Jones' "Progress of the 
 Working Classes," 1867, p. 105. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 109 
 
 enactments to other trades will also gradually effect 
 an improvement here, which cannot, however, fail to 
 be slower in its development than was the case with 
 regard to the great centralised industries, which by 
 their very nature are enabled to keep up a sanitary 
 discipline much easier than can be done among the 
 scattered trades located in small workshops difficult 
 to watch over. The latest legislation contains, there- 
 fore, additional sanitary directions for the recently 
 subjected trades in regard to ventilation, cleansing, 
 erection of protective fans against metal and glass 
 dust, &c. 
 
 A further, although only an indirect, protection 
 against bodily injury to workmen was provided by the 
 enactment of clauses respecting the fencing-in of dan- 
 gerous parts of the machines, and by the obligation 
 of the manufacturer to report to the sub-inspector, 
 through the factory surgeon, every case of accident to 
 any of the workmen (irrespective of the so-called pro- 
 tected persons) happening during his work, and of a 
 natm^e to prevent his resuming his labour by nine 
 o'clock next morning.* These stringent provisions, 
 combined with a better construction of the new 
 machines, have considerably lessened the number of 
 accidents, so that from 1850 to 1860, for instance, 
 whilst the number of the inspected factories increased 
 by thirty-eight per cent., the increase of accidents 
 amounted to only six per cent.f It must be ad- 
 mitted that great danger still exists : firstly, on ac- 
 
 * This is now altered by 34 & 35 Vict. c. 104, s. p. 
 
 + Report of Inspectors of Factories, Oct. 186t), p. 13. Summary of 
 Accidtuts in Factories : In lbG5, 3699 by machines, of which number 
 47 with a fatal result ; not by machines, 356, 20 with a fatal result. 
 In 18t)9 (after the extension of the Factory Act), by machines, 6574, of 
 that number 145 with a fatal result; not by machines, 10,204, 151 
 with a fatal result. The relatively largest number of accidents occurred 
 in the flax-mills. Respejtingthe a.cideats in mines, see note, page 54. 
 
110 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 count of the more rapid working of the machines ; 
 secondly, from the recklessness of workmen, who, 
 in their great anxiety to get through a great amount 
 of work in a short time, are extreme^ careless 
 while handling the transmission-wheels, and very 
 often clean the machines while in motion. 
 
 The effect of the factory legislation on the gene- 
 ral culture of the people has not heen so noticeable 
 as that produced on the state of the workmen's 
 health, the provisions respecting the latter applying 
 to all protected persons, and indirectly also to adults, 
 whilst the school regulations only affect children 
 of from eight to thirteen years of age. But within 
 these limits gratifying results have nevertheless been 
 obtained. The shocking moral and intellectual 
 depravity of factory children during the first three 
 decades of this century is known from the re- 
 sults of the first great inquiries, and against this 
 state of things did the Legislature direct the funda- 
 mental provision which made attendance at school 
 an indispensable condition of the employment of 
 children in factories. The school regulations of the 
 Factory Act are remarkable for this reason, that 
 they first laid down — although not as a theoretical 
 system — and realised in at least one distinct indus- 
 trial department the principle of compulsory educa- 
 tion, a principle foreign to all former English legis- 
 lation and popular views, and which, even in our 
 days, is, by virtue of the Educational Law of 1870, 
 left to the discretion of the local authorities. The 
 school regulations of the very first Factory Acts 
 had but little effect, because on the one hand the 
 school hours could be taken at any time of the day, 
 just as it suited the unequal and irregular working 
 hours before 1844, and because the general super- 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. Ill 
 
 vision was very carelessly carried out. Only since 
 the compulsory introduction of the double sets (the 
 half-time system), which reduced the working hours 
 for children to half of the ordinary working day, 
 and prescribed school attendance for a certain 
 number of hours during the other half, was an 
 effectual progress ensured. The following principles 
 constitute the most important feature of the new 
 system : — Parents to be at liberty to select what 
 school they please ; employers to insist that every 
 week certificates of punctual and regular attend- 
 ance at school be submitted to them, and, when so 
 ordered by the inspector, to pay twopence a week per 
 child to the schoolmaster, which they may deduct 
 from the children's wages, but at no higher a rate 
 than one-twelfth of their weekly earnings, the duty 
 of making up any deficiency always devolving upon 
 them, never upon the parents (sect. 39). 
 
 With a few exceptions in the shape of factory 
 schools established by great manufacturers,* for the 
 education of the children employed in their manu- 
 factories, factory children in general attend the 
 ordinary schools (since 1870, municipal schools 
 are to be established), which, as is well known, are 
 in the hands and under the superintendence of cer- 
 tain societies and religious bodies (British, National, 
 Roman Catholic, Wesleyan schools, and many others), 
 and of which a large proportion are in receipt of an 
 annual or periodical subvention from the State. The 
 
 * Messrs. Ashworth, Ashton, Salt, and others have established 
 excellent schools for the education of the children employed by them. 
 In almost all of these fees are paid ranging from one penny to fourpence. 
 Report of Inspectors of Factories, Oct. '61, 186«, -pp. '217 — 232, See 
 also Vol. VI. of the English Report on the Paris Exhibition of 1867. 
 The so-called Raikes' Sunday Schools have produced very poor results. 
 
112 ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 inspectors are in the habit of contributing towards 
 the wants of such schools as are attended by factory- 
 children from the fund resulting from the fines paid 
 for transgressing the law, wliich contributions, 
 however, amount on an average to no more than 
 about 2501. to 350Z. a year. As previously stated, 
 the number of factory children not only did not in- 
 crease immediately after the introduction of the 
 half-time system, but rather decreased in conse- 
 quence of the numerous dismissals — (in 1835 there 
 were 47,373 children employed on full time ; in 
 1839, with a double set of hands, 24,831) — and 
 of the number of children working half a day, 
 and attending school during the other half, 
 the numbers subsequently rose slowly from 
 35,122 in 1850 and 46,071 in 1856 to 81,464 in 
 1868,* The progress of these half-timers, singu- 
 larly enough, is not inferior to that of the other 
 children who go to school twice a day, which may 
 be explained by the circumstance that their early 
 familiarity with work and consequent earning of 
 wages causes a speedier development of intelligence 
 in the factory children. All depends on a judicious 
 selection of the best time for attending school in 
 proportion to the work to be performed, and owing to 
 a better adjustment of the hours (from 9 o'clock till 
 12 A.M., and from 2 till 5 p.m.) the progress in 
 England is much greater than in Ireland, where 
 school-time has been fixed for the middle of the day 
 (from 10 o'clock a.m. till 3 p.m.). Considering the 
 extremely small means and the unfortunately very 
 frequently hostile, or at all events indifferent, atti- 
 
 * Report of Inspectors of Factories, April 30, 1869, pp. lo, 31. 
 
EJ^GLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 113 
 
 tude of parents and employers, the results of the 
 school regulations of the factory legislation seem, gene- 
 rally speaking, very satisfactory, since in the cotton 
 districts, in 1866, where they have hden in operation 
 since 1833, sixty-three per cent, of the children 
 under sixteen years of age were able to read, against 
 twenty-six per cent in the pottery districts,* where 
 the said regulations have been but recently intro- 
 duced. And yet still much remains to be done for 
 education even in the old manufacturing districts, 
 since the provision that the children become liable 
 to school attendance only on their admission into 
 the factory induces many parents to entirely neglect 
 their earlier education, f so that in 1866, of the 
 whole number of children intended to be em- 
 ployed on factory work, forty per cent, were unable to 
 name a single letter. The school regulations of the 
 Factory Acts would become much more effective 
 were children not allowed to do any kind of work 
 without a previous preliminary training at school, 
 and next, were the Legislature, instead of being 
 satisfied with the simple proof of attendance at 
 school, to demand real educational certificates, 
 and make the employment of children of thirteen 
 years of age and upwards ("young persons "), 
 dependent on the proof of an actually acquired 
 school education.]: A strict supervision and control, 
 
 * Report of Inspectors of Factories, Oct. 31, 1866, p. 91. 
 
 + The so-called infant-schools do very little good. Report of Council 
 on Education, 1868-69, pp. 71, 130, 142. 
 
 X Report of Inspectors of Factories, Oct. 31, 1869, p. 40. Report of 
 Committee of Council on Education, 1869 — 70, p. 268. As conditions 
 of admission, Inspector A. Redgrave proposed the obtainment of the 
 first standard of the revised code (reading of monosyllables, -wi-iting of 
 letters (of the alphabet), numbering up to 20, and for promotion to full 
 work, that of the fourth standard (reading of longer passages, writing 
 
 I 
 
114 ENGLISH FACTOEY LEGISLATION. 
 
 and a well-regulated combination of work and 
 school attendance alone, ensured in the textile in- 
 dustry the relatively great success before noticed ; 
 where, on the contrary, such conditions are wanting, 
 as formerly in the caHco print works, bleach works, 
 dyemg works, &c., as before mentioned, a deplorable 
 state of education is the result. Very little good could 
 likewise be accomplished in the industries newly sub- 
 jected to the provisions of the Factory Act Extension 
 Act of 1867, as in these the number of children (in its 
 restricted sense) was relatively smaller, and, more- 
 over, because of the masters discharging the school- 
 going children wherever they found it possible to do 
 so.* Still less effective are — as yet at least — the school 
 provisions of the Workshop Eegulation Act of 1867, 
 stipulating as they do for a ten hours' attendance at 
 school per week, without insisting upon a regular 
 daily attendance, so that according to a return of 
 March, 1870, there were in the whole United 
 Kingdom only 2025 children attending school in 
 obedience to an Act which, by its absolute wording, 
 comprises all small trades without exception. 
 
 But, by establishing a uniform and restricted 
 working day, the Legislature exerted a most bene- 
 ficial influence over the whole working class. The 
 compulsory fixed time for commencing and leaving 
 off work acted as a salutary check upon idleness as 
 well as against excessive zeal, both which are alike 
 injurious to morals and health. The longer free 
 afternoon hours, in which adult workmen who are 
 dependent on the assistance of protected persons 
 
 from dictation, a sum in compound rules), or of the sixth standard 
 (reading of a newspaper paragraph, a sum in practice, or bill of parcels) , 
 * See ante, page 87, note f. 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 115 
 
 participate in an equal degree with the latter, afford 
 more time and opportunity for enjoying the human- 
 ising influences of private and family life, and the 
 shortening of the working day, if judiciously availed 
 of by the working classes, may become one of the 
 most excellent means for their elevation. Fortu- 
 nately, both working men and masters aKke are 
 generall}'" beginning to appreciate the advantages 
 which regularity in the working system and in the 
 mode of living, resulting from a judicious adjust- 
 ment of the working hours, confers on all concerned, 
 and thus it has come to pass that factory legislation, 
 wliich on its first introduction was ridiculed as a 
 monstrosity" and, lorimd facie, an abortive experiment, 
 and which, moreover, was attacked and set at nought 
 as an infringement on personal and industrial 
 liberty, is to-day recognised in England as one of 
 the soundest foundations of social reform, and one 
 of the most beneficial institutions of the State. / 
 
 But all its good effects could only result from a 
 strict and efficient system of Government inspec- 
 tion. The best intentioned legal enactments, which 
 closely affect, or even threaten to injure, the 
 material interests of influential and well-to-do 
 persons, will always remain ineffective so long as 
 their enforcement is not entrusted to Government 
 agents whose perfect independence and professional 
 abilities are guaranteed by an adequate salary. And 
 this the English Executive has always perfectly 
 understood. In no country is the system of Govern- 
 ment inspection so powerfully and conscientiously 
 developed as in England, smce almost every impor- 
 tant department of the administration possesses 
 there a special inspecting organisation. Parliament 
 
 I 2 
 
116 ENGLISH FACTOHY LEGISLATION. 
 
 enacts the laws, and their application is generally 
 (as regards pauperism, sanitary and scholastic affairs, 
 &c.,) left to self-governing bodies, who are themselves 
 constantly subjected to, the control of Government 
 inspectors, and these^^ properly speaking, are the 
 real guardians of the law, and afford a guarantee 
 that multiform self-government shall not arbi- 
 trarily break through the legislative unity. Notwith- 
 standing the "over-governing system " prevailing on 
 the continent, people there have never as yet arrived 
 at the English conception of the necessity of an effec- 
 tive inspection by the State in most of the branches 
 of the administration, thinking, for instance, they 
 may be able to carry out a law on factories by entrust- 
 ing its enforcement as an additional duty to the exer- 
 tions of badly paid and overburdened subordinate 
 officials. Thisjustice must be rendered to the English 
 factory inspectors, that by their indefatigable zeal, 
 conscientious fulfilment of duty, and great profes- 
 sional abihty, they have deserved 'the greatest praise 
 in regard to the good results of the factory legisla- 
 tion. They spend the greatest part of the year in 
 travelling about, constantly visiting manufactories 
 and schools, listening to all- kinds of complaints, 
 conducting prosecutions for infringements of the 
 law, and their half-yearly reports are a circum- 
 stantial and instructive periodical account of the 
 most important features of industrial life.* Most 
 
 * The present establishment is as follows : — Two inspectors, with a 
 salary of lOOOZ. each, and 1501 for stationery and travelling expenses ; 
 two assistant inspectors, with a salary of 7001. each ; 41 sub -inspectors, 
 with salaries ranging from 300Z. to 5001. The two latter classes receive 
 extra travelling expenses, and 12s. for every night they are away from 
 home. The Civil Service estimates for 1871-72 contain the following 
 items : — Salaries, 16,6971. ; travelling expenses, 45001. ; fees to sur- 
 geons who issue the certificates as to age and report on accidents, Z6501. ; 
 
ENGLISH FACTORY LEGISLATION. 117 
 
 of modern legal reforms have been and still are 
 partly prepared, partly suggested by them, and with 
 the modesty and personal reserve peculiar to the 
 English permanent officials, the two actual in- 
 spectors, Mr. A. Kedgrave, and Mr. E. Baker, 
 accomplish an uninterrupted beneficial and effective 
 work — a work far too little appreciated both by 
 Parliament and the public at large. 
 
 miscellaneous expenses, including law expenses, 150L to 500^, ; total, 
 25,347^. Each factory, as a nile, is inspected twice a year, and 
 every sub-inspector lias the supervision of about 530 works to attend 
 to.' For mines there are one inspector, with a salary of 700?., and 
 twelve colliery inspectors, with salaries ranging from 6001. to 800?. 
 For 1871-72, the following sums are included in the estimates : — 
 Salaries, 9210/. ; travelling expenses, 3800Z. ; miscellaneous expenses, 
 700?.— total, 13,710?. 
 
DIE ENGLISCHE FABRIKGESETZGEBUNG, 
 
 YON De. EENST von PLENER. 
 WIEN : GEROLD'S SOHN. 
 
 " Dr. von Plenee, First Secretary to the Austro- Hungarian 
 Legation in London, has performed a task which should hardly 
 have been left to a foreigner. It is perhaps characteristic of our 
 countrymen to be more intent on enacting useful legislation than 
 on registering their performances ; certain, at all events, it is that, 
 while England is the only country that has systematically regulated 
 the period of labour by statute, and endeavoured to ensure the 
 health and comfort of the artisan as far as his occupation permits, 
 nothing approaching to a survey of the subject exists in our literd,- 
 ture. Dr. von Plener appears to have filled the void so ably that 
 nothing is now left but to translate his book. He gives the history 
 of the various agitations on the matter, analyses the investigations 
 of the Commissions on whose reports legislation has mainly been 
 founded, and describes the main features of the legislation itself. 
 As a whole, this department of jurisprudence commands his warm 
 admiration, and he attributes the mitigated character of English, 
 strikes in great measure to its influence. On the Continent, it 
 would appear, legislative interference with the hours of labour is 
 decried not so much from commercial considerations, as from its 
 being supposed to concede the theory of Socialism. Dr. von 
 Plener maintains that, however the case may stand in the region of 
 abstract theory, the practical result is the very reverse." — Saturday 
 Review, January 20, 1872. 
 
APPENDIX.* 
 
 ABSTRACTS OF CONTINENTAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS 
 RESPECTING THE LABOUR AND EDUCATION OF 
 CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS EMPLOYED IN FAC- 
 TORIES, WORKSHOPS, &c. 
 
 I. France. 
 
 Report on M. Joubert's Bill relative 
 to the employment of children in 
 factories, &c. — (National Assem- 
 bly, Session 1872, No. 1132.)— 
 Law relating to the working of 
 children and women employed in 
 factories, workshops, &c. 
 
 II. Trade Law for the North German Con- 
 
 federation 
 
 III. Prussia. 
 
 1. Regulation for the occupation of 
 youthful workmen in manufacto- 
 ries .... . . 
 
 2. Law relative to some changes in 
 the regulations of March 9, 1839 
 
 3. Instructions relative to the regu- 
 lations of March 9, 1839 . 
 
 4. Instructions to ditto 
 
 IV. Austria. 
 
 Law respecting trades and manufac- 
 tures ..... 
 
 V. Bavaria. 
 
 1. Royal ordinance relative to the 
 employment in factories of children 
 under obligation to attend school on 
 working days .... 
 
 Date. 
 
 21 March, 1841. 
 May, 1869. 
 
 9 March, 1839. 
 
 16 May, 1853. 
 
 18 August, 1853. 
 12 August, 1854. 
 
 1 May, 1860. 
 
 15 January, 1840. 
 
 Added by the Translator. 
 
122 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 V. Bavaria — continued. 
 
 2. Royal ordinance respecting the 
 sanitary and moral police guardian- 
 ship of youthful workers in fac- 
 tories . . . . . . 
 
 VI. Saxony. 
 
 1. Trade laws of . - . 
 
 2. Regulations concerning registers 
 to be kept of persons employed in 
 trade. 
 
 16 July, 1854. 
 
 15 October, 1861. 
 
 VII, Sweden. 
 
 1. Royal oi'dinance for the regulation 
 of manufactories and handicrafts . 
 
 2. Special regulations in respect of 
 the employment of persons under 
 age in factories and handicrafts . 
 
 VIII. Norway. 
 
 Law concerning the organisation of 
 schools for the rural population . . 
 
 IX. Switzerland. 
 
 (No positive legislation on the subject 
 exists, except in the cantons of Zic- 
 rich, Glarus, St, Gall, Argovia, and 
 Thurgovia). 
 
 1. The Argovian factory law 
 
 2. Lower Unterwalden. Law for regu- 
 lating the lucifer-match factory. 
 
 22 December, 1846. 
 
 22 May, 1852. 
 
 16 May, 1860. 
 
 May, 1832. 
 
APPENDIX. 123 
 
 1.— FRANCE. 
 
 The following is the Report prepared on behalf 
 OF the Committee* entrusted with the exami- 
 nation OF M. Joubert's Bill, relative to the 
 Employment of Children in Factories, &c., by 
 M. Eugene Tallon, Member of the National 
 Assembly. — (Session 1872. — No. 1132.) 
 
 Legislative enactments in England have had for their 
 object the regulation of the labour of children and 
 women in factories. M. de Freycinet, entrusted in 1867, 
 with a study of these laws, says, in his conscientious 
 report, that they are not less than 17 in number. The 
 first among these measures were voted so far back as 
 1802, under the reign of George III., at the instance of 
 Sir Robert Peel, father of the late illustrious minister 
 whose economical reforms have rendered him famous 
 among the statesmen of the age. These, however, were 
 simply mere attempts at legislation, confined, at the 
 time, to textile industries alone ; but their scope has 
 since been considerably increased by successive and pro- 
 gressive amendments. The English Legislature had in 
 view to protect the workman in a physical as well as 
 in a moral sense. The laws have particular reference 
 to the hmitation of age and the number of working 
 hours for children and "young persons," as also for 
 women, who are in all the enactments assimilated to 
 the latter category, to securing for children a proper 
 attendance at school, and, lastly, to ensure to the pro- 
 
 * This committee was composed of the Count de Melun, chairman, 
 and MM. Eugene Tallon, secretaiy, Lefebure,' Jouhert, Steinbeil, Paul 
 Morin, Max Richard, &c. , &c. 
 
124 APPEXDIX. 
 
 tected workmen every condition of salubrity and of 
 safety in the workshops. 
 
 The excellent effect of these laws was soon made 
 manifest throughout the whole of Great Britain. Physi- 
 cally, the factory child can bear fair comparison with the 
 child brought up in the fields, and the progress of in- 
 telligence and learning is noticeable among the young 
 workmen, thanks to the wise equilibrium which en- 
 lightened prescriptions have established between the 
 time employed in manual, labour and that devoted to 
 study. 
 
 Public opinion, struck by these results, demanded the 
 extension and generalisation of these protective measures 
 for children to every kind of industrial labour, and, 
 with this object in view, permanent inquiries have been 
 instituted ever since 1862, and special Acts of Parliament 
 have, by a last link, brought under the scope of the law 
 the most powerful industries — not even excepting 
 metallurgy, hitherto free from all control. 
 
 This legislative nomenclature was completed by the 
 law promulgated on 25th July, 1864, and by two subse- 
 quent bills, adopted in 1868, at the suggestion of the 
 manufacturers themselves, who are thankful for the 
 benefits conferred upon them by those moralising 
 enactments. 
 
 The two fundamental laws — one of which has deter- 
 mined in England the principal conditions of labour in 
 factories, and the other strongly organised the superin- 
 tendence of their inspection — are the Factory Act of 
 the 29th August, 1833, and the Factory Regulation Act 
 of the 6th June, 1844. By these enactments the classi- 
 fication of the protected workmen is thus divided into 
 three categories : — 
 
 1. Children of both sexes from 8 to 13 years old. 
 
 2. Young persons of both sexes from 13 to 18 years. 
 
 3. "Women above 18. 
 
APPENDIX. 125 
 
 The principal protective measures adopted in England 
 are the following: — No child to be admitted to work 
 before ho has completed his 8th year. In fustian 
 shearing establishments the age of admission is even 
 fixed at 11 years. Children of from 8 to 13 years 
 only work half-a-day, in other words, 6J hours, the 
 other half being set apart for attendance at school. 
 Measures are scrupulously taken in the shape of regu- 
 lations, to ensure the children's presence at school during 
 3 hours at least each day. 
 
 Young persons of from 13 to 18 years old and women 
 of whatever age work 12 hours a day, divided by two 
 or three resting periods, amounting together to a stop- 
 page of an hour and a half. Their effective working 
 hours are therefore reduced to ten and a half. 
 
 The working hours for all protected classes are from 
 
 6 A. M. to 6 P. M. during the summer months, and from 
 
 7 A. M. to 7 P. M. during winter, thus doing away with 
 night work. 
 
 Sunday being scrupulously considered by the English 
 legislators as a day of rest, every kind of labour is sus- 
 pended on that day ; and in order to ensure a fuller 
 enjoyment of that day's rest, the Saturday's half-holiday 
 has been organised, so as to afford the workman an 
 opportunity of seeing to his private business, and to the 
 woman sufficient time to attend to her household affairs, 
 forcibly neglected during the week. 
 
 But this was not the limit of the legislators' solicitude 
 for the working classes, for the protection of whose 
 health sanitary regulations were drawn up with special 
 care, such, for instance, as the periodical whitewashing 
 or painting of the walls in the workshops, and the venti- 
 lation of work-rooms, in view of freeing them from all 
 gases, steam, or dust, injurious to the respiratory organs. 
 The engines and the machinery must also be provided 
 with casings sufficient to protect the workman from all 
 
126 APPENDIX. 
 
 kind of danger. Young persons and female workers are 
 precluded from cleaning moving machinery; neither 
 are they to take their meals in places where work is 
 carried on, &c., &c. 
 
 This shows the extraordinary amount of forethought 
 evinced by the English Legislature on behalf of the pro- 
 tected operatives, and this protection is spread over so 
 wide a field that, according to the now realised pre- 
 visions of M. de Freycinet, it covers a manufacturing 
 population of two-and-a-half million children and 
 women — nearly one-tenth of the whole inhabitants of 
 the United Kingdom. 
 
 This vast protective system is strengthened in its 
 application by a series of regulations intended to ensure 
 the efficacious working of the law, among which is the 
 obligation on the part of the master to enter the names 
 of children and young persons in a register, and to exact 
 the production of the doctor's and schoolmaster's certifi- 
 cate, with a series of penalties, should they be guilty of 
 neglect, to be applied in the shape of fines, in some 
 instances to a large amount, and in special cases even 
 imprisonment may be inflicted. Besides which an active 
 superintendence is maintained under the eye of inspec- 
 tors, appointed and paid by government; this body com- 
 prises two chief inspectors and twenty-five sub-in- 
 spectors : 
 
 The manufacturers throughout England are unanimous 
 in acknowledging that to the activity, to the sense of 
 impartiality displayed by these inspectors, is due the 
 fact that an entire application of the law has been pos- 
 sible, without individual interests being thereby 
 jeopardised to a very serious extent. 
 
 The annual cost of this inspection to the British 
 Government is about 16,000Z., or, according to estab- 
 lished data, not more than 6d. for each of those com- 
 prised under the head of protected workmen. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Such a kind of legislation, wisely prepared, prudently 
 applied, and ripened by experience, could not be other- 
 wise than productive of useful results, nor do aught but 
 exercise a salutary influence over the economical con- 
 ditions of labour. 
 
 In a country where, in general, the moral condition of 
 the working classes presents the saddest of pictures, it 
 has wrought an improvement in the morals, and exerted 
 a notable influence on the health and habits of the work- 
 ing classes. 
 
 It has also bestowed substantial advantages on industrj^ 
 itself, since the work being now performed by cleverer 
 and more experienced hands has gained both in quality 
 and in rapidity^of execution ; the future prosperity of the 
 manufacturers is in turn ensured against any serious 
 casualty, in presence of a numerous reserve of healthy 
 and intelligent workmen; the number of accidents is 
 daily decreasing, and the list of employers guilty of in- 
 fringing the law is gradually growing shorter. Thus, 
 the road entered upon by the Enghsh manufacturers not 
 only opened the way to philanthropical action, resulting 
 in the bettering of the condition of young workmen, but 
 it also gave to industry a powerful lift towards progress. 
 
 Germany, on the other hand, whose attention has long 
 ago been given to every measure likely to ensure the 
 enrolment under her standards of a numerous army, did 
 not hesitate a single moment in enacting strict regula- 
 tions in regard to the labour of children. In Prussia 
 several legislative measures have reference to tliis matter. 
 A general law on the industrial propositions, presented 
 to the North German Parliament on the 14th April, 1868, 
 fixed the lowest age of admission to labour at ] 2 j under 
 14, children are not to be employed more than 6 hours a 
 day ; from 14 to 16 years, the duration of labour must 
 not exceed 10 hours, intersected by two periods of rest. 
 The suspension from labour on Sundays and on holidays 
 
 127 
 
128 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 is strictly observed ; school attendance is ensured by the 
 strictest regulations ; and, lastly, the inspecting depart- 
 ment is efficiently organised. Such a jealous solicitude 
 manifested for the welfare of children by a nation whose 
 military strength has so unexpectedly increased in the last 
 few years, and whose industrial prosperity has made such 
 rapid strides, must lead us to a bitter retrospect of our 
 own position, and should read us a deep lesson. 
 
 In the other German States the limit as to age varies. 
 In the Grand Duchy of Baden it has been fixed by law 
 at 11 years. 
 
 In Switzerland the age of admission is determined, 
 according to the nature of the employment, at 12, 13, 
 and even 14 years. 
 
 Similar enactments are in force in the United States, 
 and in Massachusetts the limit is even fixed at 15 years, 
 with regard to certain trades. 
 
 Our Belgian neighbours, accustomed to borrow from 
 our legislation, and fortunate enough at times to improve 
 upon it, are in their turn preparing a bill with the object 
 of providing for the safety and salubrity of workshops 
 and protecting the health and favouring the civil and 
 religious education of the young workpeople. It stipu- 
 lates that the limit of the age of admission shall be 
 fixed at 10 years for apprentices and others; that 
 children between 10 and 14 shall only work for a maxi- 
 mum period of 6i hours ; and that from 14 to 18 years 
 the hours of labour be limited to 10 J hours. Before 
 the age of 18 no night work is to be allowed. 
 Several special regulations have already secured in 
 Belgium certain protective measures ; thus, on October 
 16, 1869, a general association of the manufacturers 
 of the arrondissement of Yerviers was formed for the 
 purpose of inducing both the employers and the heads 
 of families in the working classes, not to abuse the 
 strength of children by excessive or premature labour. 
 
APPENDIX. 129 
 
 A vast inquiry has just been concluded in Brussels on 
 the three questions relating to industrial labour, and we 
 have been able to gather useful information therefrom, 
 particularly in the matter of underground work and 
 metal foundries, in which, throughout Belgium, not less 
 than 112,492 workmen are employed. 
 
 Such are the principal measures edicted, and the pro- 
 gress accomplished by foreign legislations. It is obvious 
 that in more points than one we might be guided by 
 them. Without adopting such of them as are unsuited 
 to our habits, or which would prove repulsive to our 
 national genius, we may at least gather something usefiil 
 from laws evidently inspired by a well-conceived political 
 interest, and an elevated sentiment of social duties. 
 
 Law Eelatinq to the Working of Children and 
 Women Employed in Factories, Workshops, &c. 
 
 Sect. I. 
 
 Age of Admission. — Hours of Labour. 
 
 Art. 1. — Children of either sex and women employed 
 in factories, workshops, &c., or, in a general sense, work- 
 ing away from their homes under the orders of a master, 
 can only be so employed subject to the conditions stipu- 
 lated in the present law. 
 
 Art. 2. — Children shall not be employed by masters, 
 nor admitted in factories, workshops, &c., before the age 
 of 10 years at least. 
 
 Art. 3. — From 10 to 13 years of age children are not 
 to be kept to effectual labour more than 6 hours out of 
 the 24, inchiding a period of rest. The said labour may 
 only be exacted between the hours of 5 A. M. and 8 p. M. 
 
130 APPENDIX. 
 
 Sect. II, 
 
 Night Worh and Sunday and Holiday WorTc. 
 
 Art. 4. — Night work of every description is prohibited 
 with regard to children under 16. Any kind of night 
 work is prohibited with regard to girls and women, 
 irrespectively of their ages. Work performed between 
 the hours of 8 P. M. and 5 A. M. is to be considered as 
 night work. 
 
 Art. 5. — Children under 16, and girls and women of 
 any age, are precluded from working on Sundays and on 
 legally constituted holidays. 
 
 Art. 6. — Nevertheless, in factories where the fires are 
 kept up day and night, children may be employed at 
 night work or on Sundays and holidays, whenever their 
 services are indispensable. Such work as they may be 
 put to, and the period during which it shall be per- 
 formed, will be determined by ministerial regulations. 
 But in no case whatever shall such work be tolerated 
 otherwise than with regard to children 13 years old at 
 least, and the said children are not to be kept at work for 
 more than a period of 6 hours, between 6 p. m. and 
 6 A. M. 
 
 Sect. III. 
 
 Underground Work. 
 
 Art. 7. — No child is to be admitted to underground 
 work in mines or quai'ries before the age of 13 at least. 
 Girls, and women of whatever age, are precluded ad- 
 mittance in the above in the capacity of workers. The 
 stipulations contained in Art. 6, with regard to night 
 work, are applicable to underground work ; the special 
 
APPENDIX. 131 
 
 conditions of underground labour, in relation to children 
 from 13 to 16 years old, will be determined by minis- 
 terial decisions. 
 
 Sect. IY. 
 Elementary Education. 
 
 Art. 8. — No child under the age of 13 may be em- 
 ployed by a master unless his parents or guardians 
 furnish satisfactory evidence that he is actually attending 
 either a public or a private school. Every child admitted 
 into a workshop must, until he has attained his 13th 
 year, frequent the classes of a school at the stipulated 
 hours during which he is free from labour. He shall 
 be taught during at least two hours should a special 
 school be attached to the factory. Attendance at school 
 shall be proved by a form, filled in by the schoolmaster 
 and delivered every week to the employer. 
 
 Art. 9. — A child above 13 cannot be admitted to 
 work more than half-time, namely, 6 hours per day, un- 
 less he prove, by the production of a certificate from the 
 schoolmaster or the inspector of schools, and signed by 
 the mayor, that he has acquired the necessary amount of 
 elementary education. The production of the above 
 document will cease to be obligatory at the completion 
 of the 15th year of his age. 
 
 Sect. V. 
 
 Superintendence of the Children. Police Regulations in 
 the Workshops. 
 
 Art. 10. — Mayors are bound to deliver to the father, 
 mother, or guardian a book on which are inscribed the 
 surname and Christian name of the child, the date and 
 the place of his birth, his residence, and the time of his 
 attendance at school. The masters will inscribe on the 
 
 K 2 
 
132 APPENDIX. . 
 
 book the date of admission into the workshop or estab- 
 lishment and that of departure therefrom. They must 
 likewise keep a register in which are to be mentioned 
 all the indications inserted in the present article. 
 
 Art. 11. — Children under 16, the age of 16 years ac- 
 complished, and girls and women of whatever age, are 
 not to be allowed to turn wheels, to carry heavy loads, 
 nor to attend to the working of pumps or steam 
 engines. 
 
 Art. 12. — Children under 16 are prohibited from 
 working : — 
 
 {a). In workshops where explosive matters are mani- 
 pulated and where detonating mixtures are being 
 prepared, such as powder, fulminating substances, 
 &c., or any others exploding in consequence of 
 a shock or through coming into contact with an 
 incandescent body. 
 
 {I). In workshops set apart for the preparation, 
 distilling, or manipulation of corrosive and 
 poisonous substances, and of such as produce 
 deleterious or explosive gases. 
 
 (c). The same interdiction applies to dangerous or 
 unhealthy employments, such as — the dry grind- 
 ing or dry poHshing of objects in metal and in 
 glass or crystal ; the beating or dry scraping of 
 carbonated lead in manufactories of white lead ; 
 the dry-scraping of enamels with a basis of 
 oxyde or of lead in works where " mousseline " 
 glass is made ; the plating of looking-glasses with 
 mercury; gilding with mercury; and generally 
 to every operation in which, like the preceding, 
 workmen are exposed to manipulations or emana- 
 tions injurious to health. 
 
APPENDIX. 133 
 
 Art. 13. — Workshops are to be kept in a constant 
 state of cleanliness, and to be sufficiently ventilated. 
 They shall present every condition of security and salu- 
 brity necessary for the preservation of the lives and the 
 health of the children. In factories worked by mechani- 
 cal motive power, all wheels, straps, cogwheels, and, in 
 general, any part thereof presenting any cause of danger, 
 'shall be screened from the workmen by a partition 
 which shall only give admittance to the machinery for 
 the requirements of the service. Shafts, traps, and flues 
 shall be equally protected by proper hoardings. 
 
 Art. 14. — Masters or their overseers are besides to see 
 to the maintenance of morality and the observance of 
 public decency in their workshops. 
 
 Sect. YL 
 
 Inspection, 
 
 Art. 15. — In order to ensure the execution of the 
 present law, 2 inspectors-general and 15 divisional 
 inspectors are to be appointed. The inspectors will be 
 appointed by Grovernment, and selected from a list drawn 
 up by the Superior Commission hereinafter instituted and 
 bearing the names of three candidates for each disposable 
 appointment. These inspectors are to be paid by the 
 State. Each divisional inspector shall reside and exercise 
 his superintendence in one of the 15 territorial districts 
 which shall be determined by a regulation of public ad- 
 ministration. 
 
 Art. 17. — Such candidates only as are able to produce 
 the diploma of a Government or civil engineer, in the 
 same way as required of the diploma-ed pupils of the 
 Central School of Arts and Manufactures and of the 
 School of Mines, shall be admissible to the functions of 
 
134 APPENDIX. 
 
 inspector. Shall equally be admissible such as have 
 already filled, during a period of three years at least 
 the functions of inspector of children's labour, or who 
 shall prove having managed or superintended for a 
 space of five years industrial establishments occupying 
 100 workmen at least. 
 
 Art. 18. — The inspectors have the right of admittance 
 in every factory, workshop, &c. They may demand to 
 • inspect the register prescribed by Art. 10, the books 
 (livrets), the sheets testifying to attendance at school, 
 the internal regulations, and also the children. Every 
 infraction shall, after inquiry, be the object of a written 
 declaration signed by the inspector, the facts stated 
 therein to be considered truthful until proof to the con- 
 trary be adduced. In the case of underground work, all 
 infractions shall be stated concurrently by the inspectors 
 and the watchers of the mine (garde-mines). When, 
 however, the inspectors shall have discovered that there 
 exists a cause of danger or of insalubrity in respect 
 to such or such factory or workshop, they must obtain 
 the opinion of the Local Commission as to the extent of 
 the said danger or insalubrity, which opinion they shall 
 embody in their statement. 
 
 Art. 19. — Inspectors will have to address a yearly 
 report to the Superior Commission as hereinafter ap- 
 pointed. 
 
 Sect. YII. 
 
 Local Commissions. 
 
 Art. 20. — In each department shall be appointed 
 Local Commissions, whose functions shall be gratuitous. 
 These will be called upon — 1. To see to the proper 
 enforcement of the present law. 2. To certify with 
 
APPENDIX. 135 
 
 regard to the inspectors' service. 3. To address to the 
 Council General and to the Superior Commission yearly 
 reports on the manner in which the superintendence of 
 children's labour is effected. For this purpose these 
 Commissaries will visit the factories, workshops, &c., 
 and, whenever they deem proper, may on such occasions 
 be accompanied by a doctor. 
 
 Art. 21. — The Council-General will determine in each 
 department the number and the circumscription of the 
 Local Commissions; the Council will establish one at 
 least in each arrondissement ; also in the principal in- 
 dustrial or manufacturing centres, where they shall be 
 deemed needful. 
 
 Art. 22. — The Local Commissions will be composed of 
 5 members at least, or of 7 at most, to be appointed 
 by the prefect. As far as possible the prefect will en- • 
 deavour that each commission shall comprise an engineer, 
 a doctor, and an inspector of elementary schools. The 
 commissioners shall be renewed every 5 years ; but they 
 are susceptible of reappointment. 
 
 Sect. YIIL 
 
 Superior Commission, 
 
 Art. 23. — A Superior Commission, comprising 7 mem- 
 bers, whose services shall be gratuitous, is established in 
 connection with the Minister of Commerce. This com- 
 mission is appointed by the President of the Eepublic, 
 and its duties are — 1. To provide means for the 
 vigilant and uniform enforcement of the present law. 
 2. To direct, by its advice and instructions, the labour 
 of general and divisional inspectors, and to develop the 
 moral power of their inspection, and to ensure its 
 
136 APPENDIX. 
 
 efficient working. 4. Lastly, to draw up the lists of 
 candidates to be presented for appointments to general 
 and divisional inspectorships. 
 
 Art. 24. — Every year the President of the Superior 
 Commission will address to the President of the Eepublic 
 a general report on the results of the inspection, and 
 on the incidents relative to the application of the present 
 law. Within a month of its delivery the report will 
 be published in the Journal Officiel. Government will 
 render to the National Assembly a yearly account of the 
 execution of the present law. 
 
 Sect. IX. 
 
 Penalties. 
 
 Art. 25. — In case of an infringement of the present 
 law, or of the regulations of public administration 
 enacted for its enforcement, masters shall be summoned 
 before the magistrate ( juge de paix) of the district where 
 their works are situated, and sentenced to a fine of 
 "simple police," which cannot exceed 15 francs. In- 
 fringements resulting from the admission of children 
 under the prescribed age or who do not attend at school, 
 from their employment at a labour detrimental to health 
 or in workshops deficient in those conditions of salubrity 
 and security provided for by the law, and, lastly, in- 
 fringements relating to the employment of women and 
 children at night work, or on Sundays and holidays, 
 will entail the infliction of as many fines as there have 
 been children and women unlawfully admitted or em- 
 ployed by the defendants. The aggregate of such fines 
 shall not, however, exceed the sum of 200 francs. 
 
 Art. 26. — On a repetition of the offence, the masters 
 will be summoned before the Tribunal of Correctional 
 
APPENDIX. 137 
 
 Police and sentenced to a fine of from 16 to 100 francs. 
 The same penalties will be applied to the heads of es- 
 tablishments who have neglected to take such necessary 
 measures in respect to the salubrity of the workshops, or 
 to the encasing of machinery, apparatus, and shafts, as 
 are prescribed by the present law. The whole of the 
 fines together shall not, however, exceed a total of 500 
 francs. A repetition of the offence shall be considered 
 to have occurred whenever the contravening party shall, 
 within the twelve months following on a previous sen- 
 tence, have again become amenable to the law for an in- 
 fringement of the present enactment, or of the regulations 
 of public administration provided for its enforcement. 
 
 Art. 27. — In accordance with the circumstances of the 
 case, and then only when there has been a repetition of 
 the offence, the sentence may be ordered by the Tribu- 
 nal of Correctional Police to be posted up. The same 
 tribunal may equally decree, in a similar case, that the 
 sentence be inserted in one or more newspapers, at the 
 expense of the delinquent. 
 
 Art. 28.— A fine of from 16 to 100 francs shall be 
 inflicted on every master who, with regard to an in- 
 spector, to members of commissions, or to doctors and 
 engineers appointed to visit his establishment or draw 
 up a statement in relation thereto, shall have impeded 
 them in the accomplishment of their duties. 
 
 Art. 29. — The total of the fines inflicted throughout 
 each department for infringing the clauses of the present 
 law shall go towards adding to the Subvention Fund set 
 apart for elementary instruction in the budget of the 
 Minister of Public Instruction. 
 
138 APPENDIX. 
 
 Sect. X. 
 
 Executive Clauses. 
 
 Art. 30.— Art. 9 of the law of the 9th March, 1851, 
 relative to the indentures of apprenticeship, is modified 
 in so far that the employment of apprentices shall be 
 submitted to the conditions set forth in Arts. 2 and 3 
 of the present law. The regulations relative to night 
 work, to dangerous employment, to Sunday and to holi- 
 day labour, to the clauses referring to education, and to 
 those contained in Arts. 12 and 13 of the present law, 
 are equally applicable to children bound as apprentices. 
 
 Art. 31. — As a transitory measure, the clauses enacted 
 by the present law will only be applicable in one year 
 after its promulgation. 
 
 Art. 32. — At the expiration of the above-mentioned 
 delay, every enactment contrary to the present law shall 
 be and remain abrogated. 
 
APPENDIX. 139 
 
 II. NOETH GERMANY. 
 
 TRA.de law for the north GERMAN CONFEDERATION 
 ACCORDING TO THE RESOLUTIONS OF THE REICHS- 
 TAG OF MAY, 18-69. 
 
 Tit. YII.— Trade Assistants, Journeymen, Appren- 
 tices, Factory Operatives. 
 
 I. Relations of Journeymen, Assistants, and Apprentices 
 in general. 
 
 § 105. The settlement of the relations between esta- 
 blished tradesmen and manufacturers and their 
 assistants, journeymen, and apprentices, is a 
 matter of mutual agreement. 
 
 No one is obliged to work on Sundays and 
 holidays, unless by mutual agreement in cases 
 of urgency. 
 
 § 106. The authorities appointed by law have to pay 
 attention that, in the occupation of apprentices, 
 due regard is had to their health and morality, 
 and that time be given to those apprentices who 
 yet require school and religious instruction. 
 
 By local statutes (§ 142), journeymen, assist- 
 ants, and apprentices, or separate classes of them, 
 so far as they have not passed their 18th year 
 of age, can be compelled to attend an improve- 
 ment school of the place, and the masters and 
 employers to grant them the requisite time for 
 that purpose. 
 
 § 107. Every undertaker of a business is bound to pro- 
 vide and maintain at his own expense all arrange- 
 ments which are required in special regard of the 
 nature of the business and the workshops for the 
 
140 APPENDIX. 
 
 security of the workmen against any dangers to 
 their lives and health. 
 § 108. Disputes between tradesmen and manufacturers 
 and their assistants, journeymen, and apprentices, 
 which have reference to the commencement, the 
 continuation, or the termination of their relations 
 as workmen and apprentices, or to the mutual 
 obligations during the time of the same, or to the 
 issue and the contents of the certificates men- 
 tioned in §§ 113 and 124, are to be submitted t;0 
 the decision of the authorities or tribunals ap- 
 pointed for such affairs. 
 
 In the absence of such special authorities 
 or tribunals, the decision is to be given by the 
 local magistrate. 
 
 There is an appeal allowed to both parties 
 against the decision of the local magistrate to the 
 legal tribunal within ten days, which, however, 
 does not stay the preliminary execution. 
 
 By local statutes (§ 142), Courts of Arbitra- 
 tion can be entrusted with the decision in lieu 
 of the present constituted authorities and tri- 
 bunals. These Courts of Arbitration are to be 
 formed by the parochial magistracy of equal 
 numbers of masters and men. 
 
 II. Of Journeymen and Assistants in particular. 
 
 § 109. Journeymen and assistants are obliged to comply 
 with the directions of the masters in respect of 
 the work to be performed by them and the 
 domestic arrangements. They are not compelled 
 to do domestic work. 
 
 § 1 10. The relations between the master and the journey- 
 men or assistants can be terminated, if not other- 
 
APPENDIX. 141 
 
 wise agreed upon, by a fortnight's notice on either 
 side. 
 
 § 112. Journeymen and assistants can leave their employ- 
 ment before the expiration of the term agreed 
 upon, and without notice — 
 
 1. When they become incapacitated from con- 
 tinuing their work. 
 
 2. When the master commits acts of violence 
 or inflicts grave injuries affecting their 
 honour and reputation, or that of members 
 of their families. 
 
 3. When the master or his relatives induce the 
 workmen or their kindred to commit acts 
 which are illegal or offensive to morality. 
 
 4. When he does not pay the wages due in the 
 manner agreed upon, and in case of piece 
 work does not provide sufficient occupation ; 
 or when he becomes guilty of fraud or takes 
 unfair advantage ^of them. 
 
 5. When, by continuing to work, their lives or 
 health should be exposed to manifest danger, 
 notwithstanding no mention of this casualty 
 was made in the agreement. 
 
 § 113. On terminating their employment, journeymen 
 and assistants may demand a certificate respecting 
 the manner and duration of their occupation, 
 which is to be attested, on demand, free of 
 charges, by the parochial authorities when there 
 are no objections to the contents. This certifi- 
 cate must, on the request of the journeymen and 
 assistants, likewise include a statement of their 
 conduct. The legal obhgation to keep work- 
 books is abolished. 
 
 § 114. Journeymen and assistants are entirely free from 
 
142 APPENDIX. 
 
 restrictions in the choice of their masters or 
 employers. 
 
 III. Relations of Factory 0;peratives, 
 
 § 127. The provisions of §§ 105 — 114, apply also to 
 
 factory operatives. 
 § 128. Children under 12 years of age are not allowed 
 to be engaged for regular employment in factories. 
 Children may be employed in factories before the 
 age of 14, only under condition that they receive 
 daily at least three hours' instruction in a school 
 approved of by the administrative authorities. 
 Their occupation must not exceed six hours a day. 
 
 Young persons who have reached their 14th 
 year of age are not permitted to be employed 
 for more than 10 hours a day in a factory before 
 they are 16. 
 
 The time of labour of these young persons may 
 likewise be limited to six hours a day by the 
 central authority in case they should still be of 
 an age that subjects them to attendance at school 
 according to the school regulations in force in 
 the different States of the Confederation. 
 
 The local police authorities are empowered to 
 grant a prolongation of these times of labour of 
 one hour, but for not longer than four weeks, 
 when natural events or accidents have interrupted 
 the regular course of work in a manufactory and 
 occasioned a requirement of increased labour. 
 § 129. Young persons (§ 128) must be allowed during* 
 work-hours, both morning and afternoon, an 
 interval of half an hour each time, and at noon 
 of one hour for rest and recreation in the open air. 
 
 AVorking hours must not begin -before 5.30 
 a.m. nor last beyond 8.30 p.m. 
 
APPENDIX. 143 
 
 Young persons are not allowed to be employed 
 for work on Sundays and holidays, nor during 
 the hours appointed by the licensed clergyman 
 for religious instruction and confirmation classes. 
 
 § 130. Any person desiring to engage young persons 
 for regular employment in a factory must give 
 notice to that effect to the local police authorities. 
 The employer has to keep a list of the young 
 persons employed by him, containing their names, 
 ages, dwelling-place, names of parents, date of 
 entering on and leaving the work in the factory, 
 and to exhibit the same in the workrooms, and also 
 to submit, on request, a copy of the same to the 
 police and school authorities. The number of 
 these workmen is to be notified half-yearly to the 
 local police authorities. 
 
 § 131. The engagement of young persons for regular 
 employment is not allowed before the father or 
 guardian of the same has delivered a work-book 
 to the employer. 
 
 This work-book, in which must be printed on 
 the opening pages §§ 128 — 133 of the present 
 law, is issued at the j^oung person's father's or 
 guardian's request by the local police-authorities, 
 and must contain : — 
 
 1. Name, day and year of birth, and religion 
 
 of the workman. 
 
 2. Name, occupation, and dwelling-place of the 
 
 father or guardian. 
 
 3. A certificate of the previous school attend- 
 
 ance. 
 
 4. A column for entering the remarks as to 
 
 still-existing school obligations. 
 
 5. Two columns for the date of entering and 
 
 leaving the establishment respectively. 
 As a rubric for inspections and revisions, 
 
144 APPENDIX. 
 
 the master has to keep and produce this 
 book at the request of the authorities, and 
 to return the same to the father or guardian 
 at the termination of the worker's engage- 
 ment. 
 § 132. In places where the supervision of the observance 
 of the preceding provisions (§§ 128 — 133) is en- 
 trusted to special officials, they are invested with 
 the same official power as the local police autho- 
 rities in the exercise of their supervising functions, 
 and thej are especially authorised to inspect the 
 factories at any time. 
 
 The proprietors of factories, &c., are bound to 
 submit to the official inspection of their establish- 
 ments as prescribed by the provisions of §§ 128 — 
 133, at any time, and particularly at night, when 
 at work. 
 § 134. Owners of factories, as well as all those who 
 trade in finished or partly finished articles of 
 manufacture, are under the obligation to pay in 
 cash the wages of all workmen employed by them 
 in the manufacture of goods. They are not 
 allowed to give them any goods on credit. But 
 they may supply them with, and bring into account 
 when paying them their wages, lodging, fuel, the 
 use of land, regular board, medicine, medical 
 assistance, as well as tools and materials for the 
 goods to be manufactured by them. 
 § 135. The provisions of § 134 apply also to the mem- 
 bers of family, assistants, agents, managers, over- 
 seers, foremen and stewards of the employers 
 mentioned therein, as well as to tradesmen in 
 whose business one of the persons here mentioned 
 is either directly or indirectly concerned. 
 § 136. By workmen (§ 134) are here understood like- 
 wise all those who outside the factory and factory 
 
APPENDIX. 145 
 
 workshops prepare for the owner or persons in 
 equal position to him goods in a finished or partly 
 finished state for their trade or business, or dispose 
 of the same to them without making a regular 
 trade of the sale of these goods to the consumers. 
 
 § 137. Workmen whose claims have been satisfied, in 
 contravention of the provisions of §§ 134 — 136, 
 otherwise than by cash, can at any time demand 
 the payment of their dues in ready money with- 
 out any objection being admissible to such claim 
 on account of the payment received in kind. The 
 latter, so far as it is still in the possession of the 
 receiver, or he has been benefited by it, accrues 
 to the fund mentioned in § 139 (sick-fund, &c., 
 to which the workman belongs in the place where 
 he lives). 
 
 § 138. Agreements entered into contrary to §§ 134 — 136 
 are invalid. The same is the case with agree- 
 ments or arrangements made between owners of 
 factories or persons in equal position to them on 
 the one part, and workmen on the other part, re- 
 specting the obtainment of the necessaries of life 
 for the latter at certain shops, as well as about the 
 employment of their earnings to other purposes 
 than a participation in institutions established for 
 the improvement of the condition of the working 
 classes and of their families. 
 
 § 139. Claims for goods which despite the prohibition 
 have been given on credit to workmen can be 
 sued for neither by the owners of factories nor by 
 persons in equal position to them, nor can a set- 
 tlement of them be demanded in the way of de- 
 duction, or any other manner whatsoever, no 
 matter whether such liabilities were contracted 
 directly between the parties, or whether the goods 
 were obtained indirectly. 
 
J4e APPENDIX. 
 
 The amount of all such claims falls to the share 
 of the sick, burial, or other similar funds, savings 
 bank, or benefit society of that class of labourers 
 to which the workman belongs in the place where 
 he lives. If there are several such funds in exist- 
 ence, the amount accrues to all of them in equal 
 proportions, and failing such fund or society, to 
 the fund for the relief of the poor of that place. 
 Tit. X. — § 152. All prohibitions and penal enactments 
 against manufacturers, trade assistants, journey- 
 men, or factory operatives having reference to 
 agreements and associations for the purpose of 
 obtaining more favourable conditions of wages or 
 labour, particularly by means of strikes or lock- 
 outs, are abolished. 
 
APPENDIX. 147 
 
 III. PRUSSIA. 
 
 I. Regulatioxs for the Occupation- of Youthful 
 Workmen-, or so-called Young Persons in Ma- 
 nufactories. 
 
 [Berlin, March 9, 1839.] 
 
 § 1. No child under 9 years of age can be regularly 
 employed either in manufactories or mines, smelt- 
 ing works, or stamping mills. 
 
 § 2. Whosoever has not enjoyed a regular instruction 
 for a term of 3 years, or who cannot produce a 
 testimonial from superiors of schools to the effect 
 that, besides being able to read his own language, 
 he has besides been taught to write, is unfitted 
 - for employment in the above-mentioned establish- 
 ments before the completion of his 16th year. 
 
 An exception to the above is admissible only 
 when the manufacturer ensures instruction to 
 youthful workmen by the establishment and 
 maintenance of a school in his own factory. The 
 sufficiency of such a school can only be judged of 
 by Government, who, in this case, has also to de- 
 termine the proportion to be established between 
 school and work time. 
 
 § 3. Young people under 16 years of age are not to 
 be employed in these establishments more than 
 10 hours a day. 
 
 Should an unfortunate casualty or a calamitous 
 event interfere with the regular course of business 
 in the said establishments, necessitating in con- 
 sequence a greater amount of labour on the part 
 of those employed in the factory, the police may 
 grant a temporary prolongation of the appointed 
 working hours. This prolongation, however, is 
 
 L 2 
 
148 APPENDIX. 
 
 not to exceed one hour daily, and may be granted 
 for a term of four weeks only. 
 
 § 4. Between the working hours (appointed in the 
 preceding §) every workman is to enjoy a whole 
 hour's recreation at noon, with an additional 
 quarter of an hour both morning and afternoon, 
 the said recreation to consist of exercise in the 
 open air. 
 
 § 5. The employment of such young people before 5 
 o'clock a.m., or after 9 p.m., or on Sundays, is 
 strictly prohibited. 
 
 § 6. Protestant workmen who have not as yet par- 
 taken of the holy communion shall not be em- 
 ployed in the above-mentioned establishments 
 during the hours set apart for their religious in- 
 struction by their respective clergymen. 
 
 § 7. The owners of the said establishments employing 
 young people are bound to keep an exact list of 
 their names, ages, addresses, parents' or guardians, 
 names, together with the date of their admission 
 into their factories ; this list to be kept in the 
 workroom, and, if required, to be submitted to 
 the police authorities or superiors of schools. 
 
 § 8. Each departure from these regulations shall en- 
 tail a fine from 3s. to 15s. for each child employed 
 in contravention to the above enactments. 
 
 Should the list described in § 7 be irregularly 
 kept, the proprietor shall for the first offfeuce pay 
 a fine varying between 3s. and 15s., and for the 
 second offence the fine shall extend from 15s. to 
 71. 10s. The police are authorised to have such 
 a list drawn up or completed at the expense of 
 the proprietor, the recovery of such outlay to be 
 made compulsory by law. 
 
 § 9. These regulations shall in no way interfere with 
 the law relative to the attendance at school, but 
 
APPENDIX. 149 
 
 the Government shall adopt such measures as 
 shall prevent the hours set apart for instruction 
 interfering as little as possible with the work of 
 the factory where children are employed. 
 § 10. It shall be the province of the officers of the 
 Board of Health, the police, and the Exchequer, 
 to make such regulations with regard to buildings, 
 &c., as they may deem necessary to ensure good 
 sanitary conditions and good morals to the work- 
 men. Neglect in reference to the above shall 
 entail a fine not exceeding the sum of 11. 105., 
 or an imprisonment proportioned to the said 
 amount. 
 
 II. — Law relative to certain Alterations in the 
 ABOVE Eegulations OP March 9, 1889, respect- 
 ing the Employment of Young Persons in 
 Manufactories. 
 
 [Berlin, May 16, 1853.] 
 
 § 1. The employment of young persons as mentioned 
 in § 1 of the regulations of 9th March, 1839 
 (Code of Laws, 1839), is to be allowed from the 
 1st July, 1853, only after the 10th year, and from 
 the 1st July, 1855, only after the 12th year of 
 their age. 
 
 § 2. From the 1st October, 1853, the employment 
 of young people under 16 years of age shall 
 be discontinued in establishments such as those 
 mentioned in § 1 of the regulations, should their 
 father or guardian fail in producing the work- 
 man's book referred to below, § 3. 
 
 § 3. The workman's book, which must contain a 
 summary of the rules regulating the employment 
 of young persons, shall, at the request of the 
 
150 APPENDIX. 
 
 father or guardian, be lodged with the police, 
 and contain : — 
 
 1. The name, day, and year of birth, and the 
 religion of the young person. 
 
 2. The name, trade,' and dwelling-place of his 
 father or guardian. 
 
 8. The school-certificate mentioned in § 2 of 
 the regulations. 
 
 4. A rubric for the regulations about schools, 
 
 5. An entry of the date of admission into the 
 establishment. 
 
 6. An entry of the date of leaving the same. 
 
 7. A column for observations and corrections. 
 This book shall remain in the possession of the 
 employer, who is bound to submit it to the police 
 when requested so to do, and return it to the 
 father or guardian at the expiration of the engage- 
 ment. 
 
 § 4. Until they have reached their 14th year, young 
 persons shall only be employed six hours a day, 
 a three hours' attendance at school, not included 
 in the working time, to be deemed sufficient for 
 them. 
 
 Should the carrying out of these regulations 
 prove injurious to the trade of already existing 
 establishments, the Minister of Commerce, In- 
 dustry, and Public Works is empowered, con- 
 jointly with the Minister of Instruction, to grant 
 temporary exceptions to their enforcement. 
 
 § 5. The morning and afternoon's fifteen minutes' 
 recreation granted to the young persons in ac- 
 cordance with § 4 of the regulations, shall be 
 extended to half an hour. 
 
 § 6. The working time fixed in § 5 of the regulations 
 at from 5 o'clock a.m. till 9 p.m. shall be fixed 
 at from 5.30 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. 
 
APPENDIX. 151 
 
 § 7. All such employment of young persons as may 
 come under the above regulations shall previously 
 be notified to the police by the employer. 
 
 § 8. The employer is moreover bound every six months 
 to give notice to the police of the number of 
 hands under 16 years of age employed in his 
 factory. 
 
 § 9. Infringements of the precepts contained in §§ 1, 
 2, 4, 5, and 6 of the present law, shall come under 
 the first clause of § 8, and infringements of the 
 precepts of §§ 3, 7, and 8 of the same said law, 
 shall be met by the second clause of § 8 of the 
 regulations of March 9, 1839. If in the space 
 of five years six infringements have entailed 
 punishment, such interdictions must be acknow- 
 ledged for the space of three months at least. 
 Any opposition to such indictment shall be visited 
 by a fine of from 35. to 15s. for every child and in 
 every case. 
 § 11. The carrying out of these regulations shall be 
 seen to, if necessary, by some inspectors of manu- 
 factories, acting as agents of the pohce, the said 
 inspectors to be invested with full police autho- 
 rity, so far as regards the execution of the law or 
 the regulations of the 9th March, 1839. 
 
 All owners of industrial establishments are 
 bound, in obedience to this law, to allow of in- 
 spections being made at any time, even during 
 the night. 
 
 III. Instructions relative to the Prussian Laws 
 OF 9th March, 1839, and 16th May, 1853. 
 
 [Berlin, August 18, 1853, and August 12, 1854. ] 
 
 I. Care is to be taken that a complete survey shall 
 be made of all establishments coming under the 
 precepts of the law. Should any doubts exist as 
 
152 APPEXDIX. 
 
 to whether an establishment has become passive 
 of the law, a careful inquiry shall be instituted 
 as to the nature and purpose of the employment 
 of yonng" persons. Should it be proYed that 
 there exists no fixed purpose for the education of 
 the young persons with a view to their following 
 an independent trade, the law is to be put into 
 practice. In the opposite case, and with regard 
 to school instruction, the general regulations 
 respecting the attendance at school are to be 
 acted upon, and not the precepts of the law of 
 16th May, 1853. Tliis also applies to the em- 
 ployment of young workmen outside the factory 
 buildings, yiz., the cultivation of fields and gar- 
 dens for manufacturing purposes, as, for instance, 
 the making of sugar from beet-root. Should there 
 occur in such cases any particular hindrances to 
 the attendance of their workmen at school, it will 
 be advisable to make the employers answerable for 
 such attendance by the enforcement of police regu- 
 lations founded on the law of 11th March, 1850, 
 BO that they might be 4iable to punishment for 
 eyery child retained by them at work during 
 school hours without the sanction of the local 
 superintendent of the schools. (See '* Amts- 
 blatt " of the Royal Government at Magdeburg, 
 1852, page 65, and the Royal Government at 
 Merseburg, 1853, page 40.) 
 II. An inquiry is to be instituted with regard to 
 every establishment coming under the law of 
 16th May, 1853, as to its deficiency in respect to 
 any particular regulations, such for instance, as to — 
 
 A. Its buildings. 
 
 B. Its moral tendencies. 
 
 c. The nature of the work performed therein, 
 and the influence thereof on health. 
 
APPENDIX. 153 
 
 As to A. If, in the matter of sanitary arrangements for 
 preserving the health of young persons, it should 
 become indispensable to make alterations in 
 already existing premises, Government has to 
 see that they be executed in a suitable space of 
 time, and, if necessary, in administrative fashion, 
 and in the mean time, according to circumstances, 
 to forbid the employment of young persons in 
 such unhealthy places. So far as practicable, 
 such arrangements having for their object the 
 constant supply of pure air throughout the 
 factory workrooms, and the removing of the per- 
 nicious influences arising from heat or cold, are 
 to be considered indispensable. 
 
 As to B. The officers are to examine whether any or 
 what particular dangers by which, according to 
 Bpecial circumstances, young persons might be 
 surrounded in an establishment with regard to 
 their morals. Such dangers should be met with 
 energy. As a general rule the following con- 
 siderations should be observed : — 
 
 1. The, joint employment of children with 
 adults is to be avoided so far as com- 
 patible with the requirements of the factory, 
 or should at least be restricted within the 
 narrowest limits possible; when altogether 
 unavoidable, it should be had recourse to 
 under the particular inspection of the em- 
 ployer. Whenever preventible, especial at- 
 tention is to be paid that girls under 16 
 years of age do not work at the same time 
 with boys or men in the same rooms, and 
 this applies especially to work carried on in 
 cigar manufactories and in printing-offices. 
 
 2. If young persons be obliged to pass the 
 night away from home on account of its 
 
154 APPENDIX. 
 
 distance from the workshop, persons of dif- 
 ferent sexes should not be suffered to occupy 
 the same dormitories at the same time. 
 Licences for letting out such dormitories 
 must, according to § 49 of the General Ordi- 
 nances, be granted exclusively to persons of 
 irreproachable morality. The admission of 
 young persons must only take place with 
 the consent of their parents or guardians. 
 3. The superintending agents, which are to be 
 stationed at every point, are instructed to 
 keep watch over the intercourse between 
 the young persons on their w^ay to and from 
 the factories. • 
 5. The youthful workmen have to take their 
 meals, where space permits it, not in the 
 workrooms, but in other rooms, and care is 
 to be taken that this is done under proper 
 control as to discipline and manners. In 
 general, oflQcers, commissioners, &c., are to 
 do their best to advance the development 
 of the moral condition of the establishment 
 commended to their care. 
 As to c. It must be carefully considered which occupa- 
 tions are in general not fit for youthful workmen, 
 and they must be entirely forbidden ; also what 
 precautions may become necessary to prevent the 
 pernicious consequences of any admissible occu- 
 pations. 
 
 Owing to the difference in the manner of 
 
 occupation, even for the same kind of work, no 
 
 precise legal directions can be given for all cases. 
 
 In general it is to be observed : — 
 
 1. That proprietors of establishments of 
 
 industry in which youthful workmen are 
 
 engaged, and where the work occasions 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 dust which might fill the rooms with 
 matters injurious to health, are requested 
 to take such precautions which shall en- 
 sure the circulation of fresh air. In 
 exceptional cases where this cannot be 
 done and where purifying the air cannot 
 be thus accomplished, care is to be taken 
 that the youthful workmen are relieved at 
 suitable intervals. 
 
 2. Where poisonous matter is concerned, the 
 employment of such workmen is only to 
 be allowed where there is no danger to 
 life, should even such danger result from 
 mistake, awkwardness, or imprudence. In 
 reference to this, the employment of 
 youthful workmen when obliged to handle 
 certain matters, especially poisonous 
 colours, can be entirely forbidden, or at 
 least be confined to certain strictly stipu- 
 lated conditions and precepts. 
 
 3. The employment of youthful workmen in 
 a long-continued stooping position is not 
 to be allowed without such precautions 
 being taken as would prevent the spine 
 becoming crooked, or any injury to health. 
 
 III. The attendance at school of the youthful 
 workmen is, in conformity with the law of 
 the 16th May, 1853, to be secured as 
 follows : — 
 A. Children who ought to attend school, must 
 henceforth be employed no longer than 6 
 hours, and receive daily, at least, three 
 hours* instruction at school. This instruc- 
 tion may be given to them at manufactory 
 schools, erected at the cost of the manu- 
 facturers, or else at the public schools,- but 
 
 155 
 
156 APPENDIX. 
 
 in both cases regulations are to be madp 
 that the children who work in the fore- 
 noon shall receive their instruction in the 
 afternoon, and that those who work in the 
 afternoon shall receive theirs in the fore- 
 noon. The arrangement as to time, 
 according to special circumstances of the 
 place, remains with the Royal Govern- 
 ment ; care must be taken, however, that 
 the manufactory schools have the same 
 claims laid to them as the public schools, 
 according to the decree of 9th October, 
 1851. 
 B. For children who have left school the 
 establishment of finishing schools is to be 
 promoted. It has not appeared proper 
 to introduce legal compulsion for the 
 establishment of or attendance at such 
 schools, as their prosperity can alone de- 
 pend on the voluntary and zealous parti- 
 cipation and co-operation of the employer, 
 parents, working children, and officers. 
 Therefore the officers must endeavour all 
 the more to excite the goodwill of the 
 associates, setting before them the blessings 
 which must accrue to all from the fur- 
 therance of such schools. 
 
 As regards the time, the use of the 
 early morning hours for the schools is 
 much to be recommended; in no case, 
 however, will they be allowed to be open 
 on Sundays or holidays during the hours 
 of Divine service, either in the morning 
 or afternoon. 
 lY. All violations of the above ordinances are 
 to be opposed with energy ; in particular, 
 
APPENDIX. 157 
 
 every extension of the working-hours 
 above the allowed time, and the employ- 
 ment of youthful workmen during night 
 (from 8.30 in the evening till 5.30 in the 
 morning), or on Sundays and holidays 
 (which would come under the law), is, as 
 a matter of course, most severely to be 
 reproved. 
 
 Extract from Instruction of August 12, 1854. 
 
 According to former experiences it is 
 already to be considered as firmly estab- 
 lished that youthful workmen under 16 
 years of age cannot be employed in mines 
 (under ground) without injury to their 
 health. 
 
 The working of windlasses and the 
 wheeling of barrows on ascending roads, 
 is to be considered as injurious to youthful 
 workmen employed on above-ground work. 
 
 It is therefore ordered, in conformity 
 with § 10 of the Regulations of March 9, 
 1839, and § 10 of the Law of May 16, 
 1854, that such occupations be no longer 
 permitted. 
 
158 APPENDIX. 
 
 IV.— AUSTEIA. 
 
 Law respecting Trades and Manufactures (in 
 Operation since May 1, 1860). 
 
 §86. Employment of children. 
 
 Children under 10 years of age are never to be 
 employed in large factories, and those over 10 
 but under 12 years old only on presenting a per- 
 mission drawn up by the parochial authorities at 
 the request of the father or of the guardian, and 
 they are then only to be put to such work as is 
 not injurious to health, and will not hinder 
 physical development. 
 
 This permission can only be granted in cases 
 where working in the manufactory does not in- 
 terrupt proper attendance at school, or where by 
 instituting special schools the manufacturer has 
 taken satisfactory steps towards educating children 
 according to the system enforced by the school 
 authorities. 
 
 § 87. Limit of ivorlcing-time. 
 
 The limit of working- time must not exceed 10 
 hours daily for persons under 14 years old, and 
 12 hours daily for those over 14 and under 16 
 years of age, and must be calculated so as to 
 admit of proper periods of rest. 
 
 Persons under 16 years of age must not be 
 employed at night-work, i.e., after 9 p.m. and 
 before 5 a.m. But for factories which are carried 
 on day and night, or would otherwise suffer 
 injury, the authorities may permit the night em- 
 ployment of persons under 16, but not of those 
 under 14 years of age, on condition that a proper 
 
APPENDIX. 159 
 
 alternation between night and day labour be 
 observed. 
 
 In the same manner the authorities may, in 
 certain urgent cases, prolong the duration of 
 working-time by two hours for workpeople under 
 16 years old, but only for a consecutive period 
 not exceeding four weeks. 
 
 The term " large factories " used in § 86, and to 
 which alone this law applies, is defined by § 82, 
 as " factories in which more than 20 persons, 
 without distinction of sex or age, are usually 
 employed, working together in the same establish- 
 ment." 
 
 By §§ 131 and 133, infractions of this law are 
 punishable by fines of not less than 10 nor more 
 than 400 florins. 
 
 By § 141, the inferior local tribunals have 
 cognisance of the offence in the first instance, 
 with appeal (§ 142) to the court immediately 
 above (Com-t of Second Instance), and by § 151, 
 the fines when levied are paid to the treasurer of 
 the friendly or benefit society to which the person 
 convicted may belong ; but if he does not belong 
 to any such society, to the fund for the relief of 
 the poor of the place where the offence was 
 committed. 
 
160 APPENDIX. 
 
 Y.— BAVARIA. 
 
 Independently of the laws, or ordinances, in force for 
 regulating the employment of children and young per- 
 sons in factories and trades, the proprietors of many of 
 the larger manufactories in Bavaria have established 
 private rules of a very liberal and humane character for 
 adjusting the labour and improving the condition of their 
 workpeople. 
 
 By law every child is bound to attend the district 
 week-day schools up to his or her 13th year, and after 
 that age to attend further the Sunday schools up to their 
 16th year fully completed. 
 
 I. Royal Ordinance relative to the Employment 
 m Factories of Children under Obligation 
 to attend School on Working Days. 
 
 [Munich, January 15, 1840.] 
 
 § 1. No child under the age of 9 years shall be ad- 
 mitted into factories, or mining, forge, and 
 foundry works for the purpose of regular employ- 
 ment. 
 
 § 2. The admission of a child having attained the age 
 of 9 years to such employment can only take 
 place on presentation of an official medical certifi- 
 cate of the physical capability of the same for the 
 intended employment, and that health and further 
 physical development are not endangered thereby ; 
 and also of a certificate of the Local School In- 
 spection stating the regular attendance at school, 
 and the acquirement of the degree of education 
 prescribed for the age of 9 years. 
 
appendix; 
 
 § 3. The maximum of the working time for children 
 from their 9th to their 12th year is fixed at 10 
 hours per day. The same must never commence 
 before 6 o'clock in the morning, and must end 
 at the latest at 8 o'clock in the evening. A full 
 hour is also to be granted to these children for 
 dinner-time, from about 11 to 12 o'clock, accord- 
 ing to the local customs and usage ; besides 
 which, in the course of the fore and after noon, 
 half an hour is to be allowed them for recreation 
 and exercise outside the establishment. 
 § 4. In respect to the further regulated fulfilment of 
 the school duties on the part of such children, it 
 will suffice if they, during the regular working 
 time, either 
 
 {a) Participate for at least two hours every day 
 
 in the public local instruction, or 
 (I) Receive for two hours daily the requisite 
 school and religious instruction in a sepa- 
 rate establishment or factory school. 
 In both cases these children are to be subjected 
 to the yearly school examination. 
 § 5. In respect to the above-mentioned establishments 
 for private instruction, or so-called factory schools, 
 the following regulations are to be observed : — 
 {a) Only such teachers shall be employed as 
 are able to prove that they possess the 
 prescribed qualifications. 
 (&) In no school of this description may more 
 than fifty children at a time receive in- 
 struction; and the same may never be 
 given before 6 o'clock in the morning, or 
 after 6 in the evening, 
 (c) Instruction in such establishments must 
 be imparted according to the existing 
 general regulations, and under the super- 
 
 161 
 
162 APPENDIX. 
 
 vision and direction of the school autho- 
 rities, as established by law. 
 
 § 6. All children without exception will have to attend 
 the public preparatory church instruction for 
 receiving, as Catholics, the holy confession and 
 communion, and, as Protestants, confirmation, 
 unless such instruction have been already afforded 
 to them by the respective clergymen of the 
 factory schools. 
 
 § 7. Owners of factories and workshops, as well as 
 their authorised representatives, who receive and 
 employ children under obligation to attend school 
 on working days, thus contravening the above 
 regulations, are subject to be prosecuted and 
 fined, according to the nature of each case, to 
 the amount of from 5 to 50 florins. They are 
 likewise bound to take, in common with the cler- 
 gyman of the parish, all requisite measures to 
 ensure that the morals of the children shall be 
 properly watched over and preserved from the 
 contaminating and seductive influence of grown- 
 up factory workmen. The issue of a prohibition 
 of the employment in the factory of children 
 under obligation to attend school on working days 
 shall be the immediate result of negligence in the 
 fulfilment of the above precautionary duty being 
 proved. 
 
 The above owners of factories, &c., have finally 
 to keep an exact register of all children under 
 obligation, &c., employed in their establishments, 
 and to have it ever in readiness on the premises 
 to show on demand to such authorities as may 
 choose to apply for it for examination and 
 reference. 
 
 § 8. It is the special duty of the police and school 
 authorities respectively to keep a watch over the 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 163 
 
 factories and workshops in their districts, to put 
 an end at once to any notorious improper state 
 of things, and to prosecute rigorously the infrac- 
 
 tion of the above regulations. 
 
 II. Royal Ordinance respecting the Sanitary and 
 ]\IoRAL Police Guardianship of Youthful 
 Workers in Factories. 
 
 [3Imich, July 16, 1854.] 
 
 Alteration and completion of the ordinance of the 
 15th January, 1840, respecting the employment in 
 factories of children under obligation to attend schools 
 on working days. 
 
 § 1. The admission of children under obligation to 
 attend schools on working days to a regular em- 
 ployment in factories and large workshops is con- 
 ditional on having completed their 10th year of 
 age, and proof being given of their having received 
 the elementary education consistent with that 
 age, as well as the corresponding religious in- 
 struction. ^ 
 § 2. The maximum of the working time for such 
 children is fixed at 9 hours per diem. 
 
 Their employment at night work is never, and 
 under no circumstances, to occur. 
 § 3. Three hours are to be appropriated daily during 
 the said working time to the school instruction of 
 such children. 
 
 In all other respects, so far as no alteration is 
 introduced by the present ordinance, the regula- 
 tions of the 15th January, 1840, respecting the 
 employment in factories of children under obli- 
 gation to attend schools on working days, remain 
 
 M 2 
 
164 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 • 
 in force, and the same are to be generally and 
 strictly carried out nnder careful superintendence. 
 The owners of factories and large work- 
 shops are especially enjoined to employ children 
 under obligation to attend school on working 
 days, always under the superintendence of a well- 
 known respectable workman or overseer, and as 
 much as possible to keep the sexes separate. 
 
APPENDIX. igg 
 
 VL— SAXONY. 
 
 T. — Trade Laws of October 15, 186L 
 
 § 62. Children under 10 years of age (from January 
 1, 1865, under 12 years of age) shall not be em- 
 ployed out of the house of their parents or 
 guardians, in workshops in which the proprietors, 
 according to paragraph 76, are bound to have 
 exposed a table of by-laws. 
 
 The proprietors described in § 76 are " those 
 who employ more than 20 workpeople, of either 
 sex, in workshops." 
 
 Public institutions for the employment of 
 children are exempted from this prohibition. 
 
 Children from 10 to 14 years of age can only 
 be employed between 5 o'clock in the morning 
 and 8 in the evening, and for a period not longer 
 than 10 hours per diem. In the work-hours are 
 to be included an interval of one hour for dinner, 
 and other suitable periods of repose. 
 
 The Minister of the Interior may, in particular 
 branches of trade to which these regulations are 
 not applicable, alter or suspend them by ordi- 
 nances. 
 
 The magistrates may, in cases of urgent neces- 
 sity, suspend them for a short time. 
 
 Contraventions of these rules will be punished 
 by fines of from 5 groschen (sixpence) to 5 thalers 
 {15 shillings). 
 
 Persons who render themselves guilty of the 
 crimes specified in Arts. 180, 352, &c., &c., of the 
 Code, towards the children they employ, may be 
 
166 APPEXDIX. 
 
 forbidden to employ children in future, in their 
 workshops by decision of a magistrate. 
 § 63. Children who are liable to schooling must be al- 
 lowed time by their employers to obtain necessary 
 instruction in the public educational establish- 
 ments of their place of domicile, in accordance with 
 the regulations of the law regarding elementary 
 schools of 1835, or they must establish for them 
 special factory schools according to the 9th 
 paragraph of the above-menticnei law. 
 
 Instruction in the schools must take place 
 between 5 o'clock in the morning and 8 o'clock in 
 the evening. 
 
 The non-obseryance of two requisitions from a 
 magistrate to obey these regulations will involve 
 the prohibition to the future employment of 
 children liable to school attendance. 
 
 II. — Regulations concerning Eegisters to be kept 
 OF Persons employed in Trade. 
 
 § 48. Each trade master who, inclusive of women and 
 children, employs in his business more than 20 
 persons, is required to keep a register of the 
 children among them who are liable to attend 
 school, in which their names, sex, age, and date 
 of entry are to be written down. This register 
 must be produced when required by a magistrate. 
 Omission to fulfil this duty, or error in the 
 register, will be punished by a fine of 5 thalers. 
 
 Magistrates, in the case of a person carrying on 
 a trade being found guilty of any offence with 
 regard to his register, have to inform the police 
 entrusted with the supervision of trades of the 
 fact. 
 
APPENDIX. 167 
 
 Care must be taken that the school hours for 
 children are neither too early nor too late, 
 especially in winter. The law only defines the 
 extreme limits. 
 
163 APPENDIX. 
 
 YII.— SWEDEN. 
 
 I.— EoYAL Ordinance for the Eegulation of Manu- 
 factories AND Handicrafts. 
 
 [ Stockholm, December 22, 1846. ] 
 
 Art. IY., § 32, Clause 4. — No one is to be engaged as 
 apprentice or operative in any factory or handi- 
 craft -who is not fully 12 years of age ; nor 
 must the contract, when the apprentice is under 
 age, extend beyond the time at which he comes 
 of age. Contract with an apprentice of full age 
 must not extend beyond the period of three 
 years. 
 § 33. In every case an apprentice or other workman 
 who has completed his 18th year of age, and has 
 attained satisfactory proficiency and knowledge 
 in any kind of handicraft, presenting testimony 
 thereof from an expert and trustworthy person, 
 shall be entitled — provided he has been a par- 
 taker of the Holy Communion, and there is 
 nothing serious brought against his character — 
 to receive from the manufactory or handicraft 
 society concerned, if he resides in a town, or, if 
 he dwells in the country, from the parish autho- 
 rities, his certificate as journeyman on payment 
 of a fee of one rix-dollar. Instead of the manu- 
 factory or society, where such does not exist, the 
 magistrates shall be competent to confer journey- 
 men's certificates. Anyone showing particular 
 aptitude for the trade he has chosen, and who is, 
 moreover, known for steadiness and trustworthi- 
 ness may, as an exception, obtain his certificate 
 as journeyman, on completing his 16th year. 
 
APPENDIX. 169 
 
 When an apprentice is admitted as journeyman, 
 his indentures shall be considered to have lapsed. 
 § 36. Manufacturers and handicraftsmen are in duty 
 bound to be watchful that workmen in their 
 employ, especially when as minors they dwell and 
 board with their masters, are kept in the fear of 
 God, orderly conduct, and good manners ; and if 
 they have not before acquired the knowledge 
 mentioned in §3, Litt. A,* that they receive in- 
 struction therein, on such days and at such hours 
 as the master appoints ; and that they should be 
 kept to frequenting Sunday schools and other 
 places of instruction designed for working men. 
 The master shall also be bound to pay proper 
 regard to the health and strength of workmen 
 in his employ, in reference to their treatment 
 and tasks set them. 
 
 II. — Kegulations in Respect of the Employment 
 OF Persons under Age in Factories and Han- 
 dicrafts. 
 
 [JStockhoIm, May 22, 1852.] 
 
 § 1. Xo labourers under 18 years of age shall be em- 
 ployed in factories within this kingdom during 
 night time, from 9 o'clock in the evening to 
 5 o'clock in the morning. 
 
 § 2. If this prohibition is transgressed, the owner 
 of the factory shall be fined six rix-dollars 
 (32 shillings) for every person employed in con- 
 travention of the prohibition. 
 
 * § 3, Litt. A. — To hare partaken of the Holy Communion, be 
 master over himself and his own property, be of good repute 
 and able to write legibly, and work the four first rules of 
 arithmetic. 
 
170 APPENDIX. 
 
 § 3. Any manufacturer or handicraft master who is 
 found to have engaged at work children under 
 12 years of age, in contravention of § 32, clause 
 4, of the ordinance for regulating manufactures 
 and handicrafts, or who has omitted to observe 
 what manufacturers and handicraft masters are 
 enjoined to do in the before-mentioned § 36 of 
 the said ordinance respecting due care for the 
 health, morality, and education of his labourers, 
 shall be subject to a similar fine. 
 
APPENDIX. 171 
 
 (^ 
 
 YIII. NORWAY. 
 
 Law concerning the Organisation of Schools for 
 THE EuRAL Population. 
 
 {Stoclcholm, IQth May, I860.] 
 
 § 10. Every manufacturing or other industrial es- 
 tablishment employing generally 30 or more 
 labourers, likewise every collection of smaller 
 establishments of the kind which appears to the 
 chapter of the diocese to be situate so close to 
 each other that they can conveniently have a 
 school between them, and which together employ 
 the above-mentioned number of labourers, shall 
 keep a school of its own for the children of such 
 labourers, which, besides satisfying the demands 
 imposed on the district school, viz., §§5 and 6,* 
 shall at the least during 16 weeks of the year 
 afford instruction corresponding to that which in 
 § 7 is treated of as the voluntary instruction at 
 the district school. 
 
 The same obligation applies to industrial 
 establishments at which schools have already 
 been organised, and where the number of opera- 
 
 * § 5 provides as subjects of instruction in district schools— Read- 
 ing, knowledge of the Christian religion, selections from the 
 "Educational Course," principally such as have reference to 
 geography, natural history, and history ; singing, writing, arith- 
 metic. 
 § 6. There shall be afforded, in the district school, 12 weeks, 
 or where the children are divided, according to knowledge and 
 general advancement, into classes, frequenting the school 
 separately, 9 weeks' instruction for each class in the course 
 of the year .... Every week shall consist of six school-days, 
 and each school- day, on an average, of six hours, but so arranged 
 that the Saturday afternoon is left free. 
 
172 APPENDIX. 
 
 tives is not less than 20. When children of such 
 parents as do not belong to the works can profit- 
 ably frequent its school, they shall have the right 
 to do so, provided no obstacle to the instruction 
 arises thereby. 
 
 The stipulations contained in this paragraph 
 shall not prevent the proprietor of any works 
 from joining the communal authorities, with the 
 consent of the chapter of the diocese, in assimi- 
 lating (absorbing) the school arrangements of 
 such works, wholly or in part, into the general 
 school system of the commune. 
 
 § 12. With the consent of the communal authorities, 
 the school commissioners may establish handi- 
 craft schools for girls and working schools in 
 general. 
 
 § 17. All expenses contingent on the formation and 
 keeping up of schools belonging to factories and 
 other industrial establishments, as stipulated in 
 § 10, shall be borne by the owners of the works, 
 and where there are several, the expenses of 
 their joint school shall be apportioned among 
 them according to the number of workmen em- 
 ployed by each. On the other hand, these 
 . fectories or works shall be exempt from rating in 
 support of the school system of the neighbour- 
 hood. When the owner of a factory or other 
 works or establishments has not organised any 
 separate school by reason of the limited number 
 of his workmen, he shall pay a yearly contribution 
 to the school funds, the amount of which is to be 
 determined by the communal authorities ; but, if 
 appealed against on the part of the owners, by 
 verdict of the diocesan chapter. 
 
 When a factory school has been inactive as 
 such for the space of one year, it shall be ab- 
 
APPENDIX. 173 
 
 sorbed, with all its means, into the general school 
 system of the neighbourhood ; but when mining 
 works are closed, their duties towards the school 
 system remain in force for five years afterwards. 
 
 § 49. Schooling shall be compulsory on children upon 
 their having completed 8 years of age, and 
 until they have been dismissed from the school. 
 This compulsory schooling shall for each year be 
 limited to the school-term stipulated according 
 to§ 6. 
 
 As a rule, dismissal from school takes place at 
 the time of the child's confirmation, but it may 
 be done earlier if the parents or guardians of the 
 child require it, providing the child has com- 
 pleted 13 years of age and the School Commis- 
 sioners find that he has attained sufficient requisite 
 knowledge and physical development. 
 
 § 51. Owners of factories and other workmasters who 
 employ the labour of children shall not, under 
 pain of the same responsibility as parents or 
 others who stand in parents' stead, so occupy the 
 children that they are prevented thereby from 
 receiving necessary instruction. 
 
174 APPENDIX. 
 
 IX. SWITZERLAND. 
 
 No positive Legislation on the subject of Factory 
 Laws exists, except in the Cantons of Zurich, Glarus, 
 St. Gall, Argovia, and Thurgovia. 
 
 The Argovian Factory Law, dated May, 1^Q2, provides : — 
 
 § 2. No children under 13 years of age can be employed, 
 and where the occupation acts injuriously upon 
 their bodily health the Government is empowered 
 to fix a higher age for admission up to 16 years 
 of age. 
 
 § 3. Children under 16 years of age are not to be 
 worked more than 12 hours, and in this is 
 included the attendance necessary for school and 
 Confirmation instruction. 
 
 On Saturdays work is to cease an hour earlier. 
 
 § 6. It is positively forbidden to put children to work 
 before 5.30 a.m., or after 8.30 p.m. 
 
 §§ 8, 9, 10, Every workman is to have a livret, or 
 book, in which his name and the residence of his 
 father or guardian are inscribed, and every manu- 
 facturer is to keep an account of all the workmen 
 he employs, and show it to the authorities if 
 required. 
 
 §§ 12, 13. Fines up to 2 francs for disorderly conduct 
 may be imposed, which go towards the aged or 
 sick relief fund, as well as for rewarding deserving 
 operatives. 
 
 All establishments where more than 10 persons 
 are employed, exclusive of the family, in one 
 room, are considered as factories, and all such 
 factories are to be regularly inspected. 
 
 The Canton of Lower Unterwalden, by a law regu- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 lating the lucifer-match factory, has made provision 
 for proper ventilation and manipulation of materials. 
 
 No persons under 18 years of age are to be em- 
 ployed, and no workman who has had a tooth extracted 
 is allowed to be employed for a fortnight after the 
 operation. All boys or girls afilicted with scrofulous 
 diseases or carious teeth are to be forbidden the 
 laboratory. 
 
 Every three months, at the expense of the owner, 
 a physician is to examine the health of the workmen. 
 
 In the cantons of Orisons, Berne, Schaffhausen, 
 Schwyz, Bale-Campagne, and Bale-Yille, it is provided 
 by the school laws that no child is to be employed 
 until he has left the school ; in the Grisons, for instance, 
 at the age of 14, and in Schwyz, Bale-Campagne, and 
 Bale-Ville at the asfe of 12. 
 
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