Question: what was the factory act and why was it made law in 1833

title: Factory Acts
text: In the 1838 session another government factory bill was introduced by Fox Maule Under - Secretary of State for the Home Department . Children in silk mills were not to work more than ten hours a day ( but this was not backed up by any certification of age ) . Otherwise , the bill made no changes to age limits or hours of work , but repealed the education clauses of the 1833 Act , replacing them with literacy tests . After a transitional period , children who could not read the New Testament were not to be employed more than nine hours a day ; children who could not read an easy reader to be published by the Home Secretary could not be employed . His political opponents mocked the thought of Lord John Russell turning his undoubted talents to the production of a reading primer , and it was soon announced that once the Bill went into committee it would be amended to restore the 1833 education clauses . The second reading of the bill was scheduled for 22 June , but in early June Russell announced that the bill had been abandoned for the session .