The Express.
London, England, 1851-02-19 00:00:00

PROTECTION OF APPRENTICES AND

SERVANTS.

This day a bill was issued " For the better Protee-
teetion of young Persons under the Care and Control of
others as Apprentices ur Servants; and to enable the
Guardians and Overseers of the Poor to institute and con-
duct Prosecutions in certain Cases." The text is as follows :
Whereas it is expedient to make provision for the better
protection of young persons who arc under the care and
control of others as apprentices or servant' : Be it therefore
enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by and
with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and tem-
poral, and commons, in this present parliament assembled,
and by the authority of the same,
1. That where the master or mistress of any young per-
son under the age of eighteen• shall be legally liable to pro-
vide for such young person, as an apprentice or es a servant,
necessary food, clothing, or lodging, and shall wilfully and
without lawful excuse refuse or neglect to provide the same,
or where the master or mistress of any such young person
shall unlawfully and maliciously assault such young person,
—so that by reason of such refusal or neglect to provide as
aforesaid, or by reason of such assault or assaults, the life of
such young person shall be endangered, or the health of
such young person shall be injured, such master or mistress
shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and being convicted
thereof shall be liable to be imprisoned, with or without
hard labour, in the common gaol or house of correction, for
any term not exceeding three years.
2. That the costs and expenses of the prosecution of any
such misdemeanour as aforesaid may be allowed and ordered
by the court before which the indictment shall be tried, in
like manner as the costs of the prosecution in certain cases
of misdemeanour under the act of the seventh year of the
reign of King George the Fourth, chapter sixty-four, or
may be allowed and ordered by the Court of Queens Bench,
in case the indictment shall have been removed into that
court.
. .

3. That where any young person under the age of
eighteen shall have been or shall be hired as a servant from
the workhouse of any union or parish, or shall have been
or shall be bound out ON an apprentice by the guardians of
any union, or the guardians or overseers of any parish, it
shall be lawful for such guardians or overseers respectively,
and they arc hereby required, so long no such young person
shall be under the age of eighteen, and shall-be known to
them to reside within such union or parish respectively with
the master or mistress by whom such young person was so
taken as a servant or apprentice, to cause the relieving
officer, or, where there is no relieving officer, then some
other officer duly authorised for the purpose, to visit ouch
young person ut least four times in every year, and to report
to them, if he shall find reason to believe that such young
person is not supplied with necessary food, or is subjected
to cruel or illegal treatment in any respect.
4. That where any complaint shall be made of an offence
against this act, or of any bodily injury inflicted upon any
poor person under the age of eighteen years, for which the
party committing it is liable to be indicted, and the justice
of the iwace before whom the examination is taken shall
certify under his hand that he deems it necessary fur the put,
jomswof public justice that the prosecution should be conducted
by the guardians of the union or of the parish, or where
there are no guardians by the overseers of the parish in
which the offence shall have been committed, such
guardians or overseers, as the case may be, shall,
upon personal service of ouch certificate or a
duplicate thereof upon the clerk of such guardians,
or upon any one of such overseers, conduct the prooecution,
and shall pay the costs reasonably and properly incurred
therein (so tar as the same shall not be allowed to them
under auy order of the court trying the indictment, or of
the Court of Queen's Bench), out of the common fund of
the union, or out of the funds in the hands of the guar-
dians or overseers (as the case may be) of such parish.
6. That in the ease of a union or parish under a board of
guardians, the clerk or some other officer of such union or
parish, and in the case of a parish not under ato of
guardians one of the overwers thereof, may, if the said
justice of the peace before whom the examination is taken
shall deem it necessary for the purposes of public justice,
and shall certify as hereinbefore-mentioned, be bouud over
to prosecute.
p 6. That the word. " guardians," "union," "overseers,"
" justice of the peace," " officer," " poor," " perish," and
" workhouse," used in this act, shall be construed in like
manner as in the act of the fifth year of the reign of Kiug
William the Fourth, chapter seventy-six.
7. That this act shall extend only to England and Wales.

• The wont• in Italic• are pommel to be lameted is committee.

THE BUDGET.

THE NEW HOUSE TAX.

The following letters have been addressed to tho
Editor of the Daily Niars :
Sta,—l am a clerk, at 1601. a year, out of which I
pay nearly 51. income tax. I live in n Ttu*, the rent of
which •23/. per annum, free from window tax. By the
new " rent tax," I have an additional burden of 11. *lt. to
pay annually. The Chancellor of the Exchequer further
proptnes a remistion of half the duty on Strewn timber.
the country had better remove all ditties from
It I am, &e., A SUFFERER.
London, Feb.lB.

SIR,--Can the Chancellor of the Exchequer be
serious in stating that by his plan of a house tax in lieu of
the Ihindnw tax, the occupier. of houses will have the bene-
fit of a reduction of one-third of the amount they now pay ?
I occupy a house at 22/. a year, mt. d at 20!, 1 pa)• for
window tax l&'. 6d. By the new plan of charging Is. in
the pound I shall have to pay 20s. ; and this the Chancellor
calls reduction of taxation. Surely this absurdity ought to
be expo-m. 1.-1 um, sir, your obedient servant,
FREDERICK RENARD.
5, Windsor-terrace, Cooper's-road,
Old Kent-rood, Feb. 18.