The Express.
London, England, 1867-06-14 00:00:00

RESTRICTION OF THE HOURS OF LABOUR.

THE GOVERNMENT SCHEME.

The important bill before parliament, introduced
by Mr. Walpole, Lord John Manners, and Sir John
l'akington, which treats directly of the hours of work, is
at present before a select committee. In it the govern-
ment propose that no child under the age of 8 years shall
be employed in any "handicraft" whatever throughout
the United Kingdom, " handicraft " being understood to
mean " any manual labour exercised by way of trade or
for purposes of gain in, or incidental to, the making any
article or part of an article, or in, or incidental to, the
altering, repairing, or ornamenting any article." No
child under 13 shall be employed on any one day in any
handicraft except for a period of not more than 61 hours,
and such employment shall take place between the hours
of Gin the morning and Bat night. No young man under
the ago of 18, and no woman, shall be employed in any
handicraft during any period of 24 hours for more than 12
hours, with intervening periods for taking meals and rest,
amounting in the whole to not less than one hour
►nd a half, and, with certain exceptions in the ease
of male young persons, such employment shall take
place only between the hours of 6 in the morning and
9 at night. No child, young person, or woman, is
to be employed in any handicraft after 2 o'clock on
Saturday afternoon. The penalties are tines on the
occupier of the workshop, or on the parent of, or the
person deriving any direct benefit from the labour of,
or having the control of, the child, young person, or
woman employed. Officers of local authority will
have the power to examine workshops, &c., on com-
plaints being made as to their defective sanitary con-
dition. The bill also contains a provision enforcing
the employment of a fan or other mechanical means
for the prevention of the inhalation of dust by work-
men in processes of grinding. The act, it is pro-
posed, shall come into operation on the Ist of January,
1868. In letter-press printing, and in any workshop
in which the mechanical power is water, and in
any workshop or class of workshops with respect to
which one of her Majesty's principal secretaries of state
certifies by license under his hand that it has been proved
to his satisfaction that, by reason of the nature of the
business, it is necessary to carry on the name throughout
the night, it shall be lawful to employ male young persons
during the night, " subject to the same intervals of rest
which may be allowed during the day, and subject to this
provision, that no male young person employed during the
night shall be employed during either the preceding or
succeeding day, and that no male young person shall be
employed for more than six nights in any fortnight."

Camitrr CovNclL.—There will bo a cabinet
council to-morrow afternoon at 4 o'clock, at the
First Lord of the 'Treasury's official residence, in
Downing-street.

the Court.

BALMORAL, Jinni 12.

The Queen drove out yesterday morning, accom-
pftnied by Princess Christian ; and in the afternoon her
Majesty went out, accompanied by Prince Leopold, and
attended by the Duchess Dowager of Athole and Miss
MacGregor.

Prince and Princess Christian went out
Princess Louise and Princess Beatrice went out driving.
The Duke of Richmond had the honour of dining with
the Queen and royal family.

The Prince of Wales rode out yesterday, attended by
Lieutenant-Colonel Keppol.
In the evening the Prince of Wales and Prince Lonis of
Hesse dined with the Earl and Countess of Wilton at their
residence in Grosvenor-square.
A committee of her Majesty's Most Honourable
Privy Council sat yesterday at the Privy Council-
office, Whitehall, on the subject of the cattle plague. The
Lords present were Lord Robert Montagu and the Right
Hon. C. B. Adderley.