The Express.
London, England, 1850-03-15 00:00:00

isßp.

Mr. C. LUSHINGTON seal he thonrlot it hie duty as
one of t'e members for the city of Westminster to put a
questinn to the Noble lord (Lord Ashley), as • member of
tae Board of Health, of which he had given but a 1120111011-
tau notice, because the cause of it had only just arisen;
and he put the question under the ibliuenes of diegant at
an set whirl% onset that moment in actual perpetration. Ae
he wan rOTiling to perform his duty in that house he passed
throuih St. hiergatet's churchyard, and under the tower of
the chureb, and within a few yards of that how, le saw an
own gr,ve ready for the interrarnt of a eorpse. (Hear, hear.)
Now. it bring in evidence that interment. is Sr. .largaret'e
courehyard were injarioas to the h..ath of moo. hers of that
louse, and also to society I. geoend, be begrd leave to sok
the ae:ble lord whether the Board of Health lad any power
to put an sod winch a nui,ar.c-: ?
Lnrd ASHLEY did not wonder the the hon. gentleman
protested against the coolinsance of the horr:d system of in.
trammel int. ratata, gad he hoped that he and other gentle-
men wool! direct their atteetiun to the report of the Board
of H^del on the subjact, ilist they might ere in all its
lesgth and breath the Roam of the spasm. He in grettsd
to Pay that ,he hoard possessed no power whatever.
Mr. OOULBUUN observ.d the', with regard to St. Mu.
gnu'. Chweryard, he had b, to io oommanseatiou with the
parbh sattieri, les, a..d was maurrl by them that they were
about t purehlaa • Initial ground in the country.
B.r G. GREY 'aid bs had had a romosuric Won with the
Dean of Wes darer, .who it f 'fated him that they were
aNly wahin4 to au. what parli,ineut should d tide on as to
letainnea's gaa,erally. The shit ropurt refernd to by toe
moblo lord bad ant lowa Icy g is th hands of gov tomcat,
bat a belt, founded on that re p..rt, was being prepared, and
le hoped ,ould .insa he introdeetd.
110%, SMUT OF RUSSIAN TROOP!.

Mr. AMSTIOT, Sitar relents g in the question his had pot
L ri rilseevAbit, • few days ors, all or h-
deowoi 01 Ow Resits troops ifo6ll the Mesabi's' provisoes,
sad the answer given by the motile lord—asked whether,
ivied thing had to this condition of the Turkish frostitroil
that aide, and the 'store and imposing force of the squw yin now
fa Ike *stirs of the Levant, it was the tots stints of the oo-
votossat to wltlaritow that squadron Wan Lb* Russia.

-~:

troops bad evacuated the Densities
to the convection of BaltAmaa.
Viscount PALMERS sah; Ya bed ststaiiikontral
to the loniser questi.on , thit cn assurance hod bemitiven. by
the Remits' government to this goverment of Ter sr teat
the umber of troops in those prettiness would be rednotd,
is ressordeeee IP kik Use staralatioas of the oaavitatiota, as.
sooa as the state of the weather and the roads permitted.
Be bad no reason to doubt that that arrangement would be
carried into effect; but the stadia' of the novices into
the ffltditerrasean had so reference whatever to that

Vesamtion •
Mr ANSTEY asked if there was say intention at
present of withdrawing the squadron from tools water.
Viscount PALMERSTON said it was probable they
would proceed to Malta when tee service on which they
were engaged hod been performed.
HUNGARIAN REFUGEES.
Mr. OSBORNE pre notice tho., on an early day, be
should put a question to the noble lord (P•interston) re-
'peening the vestment of the iltusgarim refugees by the
Austrian 'c.v. tamest.
THE GRECIAN BLOCKADE.
Mr. 0. BANKEd asked whether the blucunde at Athens
still continued or not ?
Viscount PALMERSTON said there bad never been
whet could rrictly be valid a blockade in any of the ports
of Greece. A blockade meant the prevention of the entry
or egress of any vessel. whether toticrou to that country
or neutrals. No such blockade had ever been established la
the Piteous. What had taken place was this: the Greek
vessels bed been prohibited from leaving the port; hut that
mewling bad been discontinued, by an order of Sir William
Pa. ker, on the lot of this month, in corm qui-cc,! of a cow.
inuniesti from her Majesty's government, announcing the
of offer and the official romeranze of the good offices of
Frame. •

THE FACTORY ACT.
Lord ASHLEY, in moving her leave to introduce " a bill
to declare the intentions of that legislature in respect of the
hours and mode of working under the factory acts," said it
.ou'd not be necessary for him to detain the house by any
lengthened statements or arguments; the cue was may
simple • and he would endeavour to despatch it as speedily
es possible. In 1847, a bill had been poised reducing the
bows of labour in factories from 12 to 10 hours a day for all
pumas under eighteen yens of age. That ball consisted of
act se two douses to be engrafted on the act .11844, leaving
all the provisions of that actuntouched, except by the limita-
tion stove stated. By the set of 1844 the peeled of labour
swallowed to range from 61 am. to 81 p.m.-15 hours ; but
dime was &chose reqairiog that the labour of all young
posses should be reamed fro is the hour at which they
enamenced in the morning, and shoul t not exceed 10 hours
a day. The result was to make the lab ur of young persons
continuous from the time at which they b. gun ; hence the
system of relays and shifts under that into quotation of the
section was altogether impossible. Ater the palming of the
eat of 1547, it was dinovered by same parties that those
'mei ma which die- clod the p. Cud at which the labour of
children and young persons should commence were not so
stringent in their wording as to precede altogether
the employment of relays. In a vrtein r.umber of mills
relays were iatrodseed; upon that • ry great discontent
arose, very great toutunon, and a great number of therm
tiktory decisions. illsgietrat..s at Bradford took one view ;
them at Manchester took another; all over the country I
there were contradictory decisions; Bed no man working a
sill knew exactly what the law was. logs -eiors, acting on
th it own interpretation of the act, end Wined g that relays '
were altogether forbidden, eroceeded against the parties on
that ground ; but they w. re of en defeated by the decisions
of the mirth To prevent this confusion it was considered
desirable that a ease shniallf be tried in one of the .upesior
courts; ft was tried in the Court of Exchequer ; the melt
was a decision adverse to the interpretation given by the in-
spectors; and Mr. Baron Parke, in ginner the judgment of
the court, dec:ared that the words et the net were
not sufficieutly stringent to carry icto effect what
they very. strongly conjectured mist have ben
the intention of the legislature. Believing that
the intercii;tion of shifts and relays wm the in.inien
of the legisla ore, he now asked leave to introduce a bill
which 'helod c ary that intention into ffect. He bad little
et no doubt that the gielature intended the labour of eh
young persons employed in factories to be relieved from the',
time at which that lebeur began, sed sot to be taken by
pens and parcels, with considerable interests, then by cauelug
their detention in the milt for full 15 hour. a day. Mr.
Boon Parke, in his judgment, showed clearly enough that
the opir ion of the court was, that the legislature meant to
interdict tells; be said, " It is cot enough that we conj. e- '
lure, even strongly, th .t it was the in emit n of the legisis-
tun to have protdoited the act ; as i is a penal act, there
must be worms indicating this plainly and clearly ; and ap
plying this rule of construction we do not think there are
weeds in the statute sufficiently plain and clear to
render the conduct of the defendant liable to
punishment." In the last tame, in D.os, saber ISE), et Mr.
inspector Horner, he said, " I can speak from positive
knowledge, that it was the intertien of tin framers of the
bill of 1841, that the working by shifts, which bud been
prettiest under the act of 1533. should be prevented " He
added When the bill of 1541 was preparing, the in-1
specters were celled u; on by the cemetery of state of that
day (Sir James Graham), to suggest an enactment which
should remedy the eel. et in the act of 1O33; and they oil
so." In the iollowicg year, doubts hasiog meat, the ton-
ter was brought by toe inspectors lettere the secretary of
state (Sir J. Graham), sad he direeto his under secretary
to write to the limp, coon, tellino them that in his view tilt it
interpretation of the law was correct, and that, in fag, ra
lays were interdicted, es the time of wishing of young per-
sons mum be reek sued tom their starting. Hera use the
toll testimony of the framer. as to the intention with which
they propounded the bill; and he woul l appeal to all mem.
b •rs of the house woo were member. is 1544, es tithe inteoti
with whica they voted for it. (Hear.) He had received a
letter from a gentleman, giving In a ftw weeds, a graphic
account of the privations sad loses to which the people were
exposed by this system. Lie said, I have been
to-day to • see sme of the factories when the so called
system of relays is carried on; god I have seen
such evidence of the evils t f that mode of wcokiag that I
cannot refrain :root pouring out my feelings to you. In one
factory I ((rood 335 young persons sod women work-
ing by relays. They are sent out at different times
of the day so as to bring the actual woraten
within ten hours. They are sent out of the mill
without any regard to their dinettes Item their homes, or the
state es the weether. (II ear. beer.) Some of them, I un-
dentood, lived two miles utf, and thus the half-hour, or hour
or two hours, could not possibly be tar, e 1 to any good
account whatsoever. TO, lads of 13 up to 18, and the young
girls and women are wandering all about the air. eta ; scd to
what temptations to vice end profligacy no y ere thus exposed
I need nut say." The manager of on, of the mills op Om of
the einem with abhorrence, end he told me that one of his
own daughters is exposed in another mill to all those mis-
chiefs. He and others say that the fanny laws never
worked iso oppressively on the osrrarives as now. Another
very strong argument against 'ho system was the utter ims
peribility of detecting evasions of the law, end the glen
facility which it gave employers for occupying the
partite all the time, or fur extending the test
hours to eleven or twelve. He could not cement"
the grounds on which any re infinite could be of
fend to this measure ; he eeuld not tinning or anticipate
any argument against it. He knew that every hostile top'.
and anument urged in 1841 and 1547 bad been Lot
only falsified, but acme al, reversed, (Hear, hear.)
After two years' experience of the Ten Hours' Bill, he
would undertake to show that every 41161111 prediction had
been falsified—that every lone fit hod resulted where every
evil bad been foretold. (Hear.) In 1844 and 1847 com-
plete ruin to the manufacurieg interest was fentold should
a ten boon' bill pass. The Eleven Hoare Bill had been in
operation three years; the Ten Hones' Act hod b....ea in
operation two years all but six weeks He would appeal to
all who heard the speeches of hen. gentlemen on one mi-
nisterial side of the house on the 'test right of the session,
whether the prediction of complete ruin to the menu( .c-
-luring interest had in any degree been verified? (Hear,
hear) fled not speeches of the most glowing character
announced the prosperity of the manufacturing districts
lie eh odd be glad to hem of :any rent in which the
predictions of those who opposed the m &sure had been veri-
fied, or where its supporters had been at Molt when they
snorted that no berm whatever would theme from It
Taking the other view, which was w. II worthy the attention
of the house, he should be able to show that there had been
seek an improvement in the moral, social, and physical con-
' Melon of the people employed in the mil's, as he could
hardly leave behoved to have resulted from a measure of that
Mia ad so short a time, had be not bad it on good authority.
Hs seuld produce testimonies enough to occupy the atten-
us. al *a house for a fortnight ; but he would only gin
UM
Of two, orienting the house to regard them
tesTesentaties instances. First, bad been said wages
be reduced, in many /1111411C.1., to the minimum sl
astaistaace. In some instanots, hey hod been reduced, but
is so case in proportinn to the redue ion of time--one-sixth.
He had a statement from one mill, the general result nil
which wee, that in the sinning department the n-
duei as of time had been one-six h, the reduction of '
work, one tenth ; that the total loss per week on every pels
of mule, working ten hours as compared with 12, was
but that 6s. bad to be divided emotion four parties, so that
the lots to r mit was no very c• said. table am one. But in
the same mill, on the weaving side, it WV jost the revel's:
there the gain one pair of mules re we• k, in ten hours as
compared with 12, was st. and firceifeithe of a piney ; hour,
tl.e mill.owntr himself added in a note—" gennal improve-
ment in the whole of the hands by toll 60 per cent." In
another mill the reduction in the weaving &ointment,
under ten hour., as empanel with twelve, was
only one-eleventh,—on the thin:line. side, one- ointh.l
A return from Manchester stated that the anions :clue+ -I
was not more than one twenty fourth port on thew tole, in
working 10 se compared with 12 hours. In some intoner, '
the wages had Veen reduced, bat is no toe the air.h, sod
in some they had rises ; te here there had been a newt-MN
it had been in the proportion of l 17th to 1 24th. But how
had that reduction been comp- nested? He bad nand is
1814, that if the bouts of labour were reduced to ten, and
the weep s in proportion, the work reple would hem ere
than enabled to men this reduction by their nosegay, et d
would find themselves in a far better poetioti; ant they
were prepared to abide the reduction, even dad it taken
piece to the full eaten.. They had doge m thin eneke a
rompe wittier, ; they were better cif now with the red ileit,ll
he had indicated and 10 hours' 'sheer, than t: ey w.r, o
12 hour.' lahour end higher wages--better in a pecuniary
Leine of view. (Hem, hear.) He had en instance sop
plied by an operative himself, whiele wee stated to he
a very fair picture of the effect of the Ten !tours Ant upon
wire and the mama of egonernieing. U d r the Teeny,
Hours Act a sus, his wife, arid seven children enact
weekly 2f. 1k ; deducting fr. m this 10• for Voir not Of
other tap aces, there remained 21. 6.. Th. yre guise din tee
entree tel the week 26 me la—four for five on, •, sod ten
f r two days—for when they were working lull time (nor
meals were indispensable; on Saturdays sod Sludgy' three

A! tsar
sok' time 26 a. 14 sensed
the while' that remolded, and-ifft safettatitete family
entllog /anther thlaip. The viryliaase pasties were now
way*, reader*Union !Ai tits 'Tea Huts Act.
Allowing that there was • reduction of 7d per cent., which
was above the average, is the 'wages; the total Is coigns of the
family would he 31 lie. per week. Deducting, se before,
10s. for rent, and other expositor., it left 21. Is. Now, in-
steed el 26 then were usiy 91 meals required, width at
brombi It down to 11 16.. 31d. The saving,
-am the' moils, headman they tad cal y three
Meese& of few la the day, amouated tq ds. 81- and
*ea seats is this tart oossideratillri tibial: was
well we thy the coosideraticia of the noose, namely, that
the eldest females better so looser confined to tke mill. for
ml. wide Ina, were able to make their owe' dream and
mader Sernlellele by whisk a Navin of at least Bd. • week
MIS was ellsehed. (Hear hear.) Then wee a positive
navies themes" of 6s. 4d.. • week. In the neat place.
it era. argued that a man able sod williag to work
would Rollos able to lay by anything against the evil
day. It was parketly elear,lodeed, that he meld lay nothing
by daring the date of things previous to the wean of the
Ten Hours Act, because if he even amid save fn. a week be
had more than that to pay in extra expenses. But was that
the case now J He regretted that he had no statements
of the money deposited in the savings busks ; hut he had
received important staismeuts from the clerks of some
sorieties in differ, at parts of the manufacturing districts,
which showed the improved state of the finaglers of the
people in cantiqueee ot the opererion of the Yen' hours'
bill. The clerk of the St John's Female Society said that
their society consisted of 300 members, of whom 17-20 the
were factory worker,. In 1846 7 the deficiercy upon the
receipts amt tinted to 41., but in 1848 9 the balance over the
expenditure amounted to 441. ; and they expected an equal
surplus is the present year. The clerk of the Bt. Jones's
School Club states There are 400 members. From
1843 to 1847, much difficulty is coveting the expenditure ;
but, in 1848-49, income. 731. ; expanses, 461 ; helmet., 271."
He adds—" Same results otserved is many other societies.
My opinion ir, that a great saving has been effected here,
sad toe general health of the population considerably im-
proved since the Ten Hours Bid came into operation. The
working slaws appear more disposed to clesnfiners and,
sobriety." The (Meer of the Old Fellows' Boasts, of
Wesleyan' Nays:—" We, the oMeers of the (Mende& Sick
Society, do certify that the fends of the sick society have
increased coneidersbly during the time of the Ten Hours Bill,
sad we attribute the cause of it in feevoarof the members hav-
leg more time for recreation and working shorter time."
The next statement was this, end it was important to those
who desired to improve the conditien of the working 'kw e
and thought that that. should be a wider system of nelionsl
education fur the working cla sec No argument had hum
urged more strongly both in private audio public meshed the
Ten Hour.' Bill than this that the workers would make as
ill use of the time that would be granted to them. Where
was the evids nee of any such result ? No doubt amoopt
to large a mass of pen ins time few ins eons might be
adduced where they had rot turned to god account the
pre st blessing the y had received in that bill, but that was not
the sees with the great majority who were actuated by a
desire to make the best use of the time allowed them.
'rho statements he received, and which he would read to the
house, proved that in the most satisfactory manner. He had
abandantevidence from clergymen of the Church of Beg.
load, schoolmesten, dissenting ministers of all desomina•
tiou, all of whom spoke the same language in this matter.
First, as to the females had they misused their time ? Here
was the statement of a clergyman: " We have now 100
grown pals geing to school, who learn to read, 'elite, knit.,
and sew, and who in fact learn everything that they could
net learn under tree pressure of the twelve hears set.
(Hear, hear.) You may see women now, who are clean
and renfortable, and engaged in their domestic duties." He
recollected to have seen in a late report of Mr. Ilernerfa, a
statement to the 'Met, that several dresemakets had given
up their business since the limitation of the hours, because
the young women h.d now time to make taeir own clothes.
(Hear.) The clerk to a burial society in one of the towns of
Lancashire wrote to him, and steed that the number of
burials for two years had fallen off considerably, r.otwitte
standing. the cholera raged in the town, and that the
diminution wee in the number of children under
five years of see, and the he ascribed to the eircurretani•
that the mothers were able to go borne earlier, and give
that attention to their chi& leen which no hired service
could ever bestow. (Hear, hear.). Now, with regard te
the mode in which the melee ovum, d their time, here was
statement which he had r. ceived from a person who had
been Meek to varietal deietie a lur many years:—" In cone
action with some of the mills young men's improvement
societies, in weeich are tauteht the rudimenes of the language,
and also • sound knowledge of mechenics, geometry, the-
minty, and genera literature. These societies are s dely
demented by the y, ung men's private contributions."
Ilavilig quoted various authorities, showing the
beneficial manner in which the time saved by the
Ten Hours Act was generally 'peat by men, the
noble bred went on to say—The Rev. Mr. Snerples, of
Blackburn, nye, that immediately after the purse of the
Ten Hours Act, school rooms it:creased on all sides, and
there was a gust increase in tt.e attendance. From
Behan he had been informed Chet the number of per-
sons attending, schools and meet nnies' Meta utions was now
more than dcuble what it hid been h fore the Ten Hoare
Act. (Hear.) And here was the atria:tiny of two Remota
Catholic priests of B diem and S otkport, en which he set
prose eters. One of these clergymen sat s:—" There is not the
Lightest doubt that the sects', moral, en f physittel conditioa
of the factory. workers has been much improved. Under
the shill !system these advantages would be destroyed.
I am of opinion that the Ten HOW/ Bill 111 owe
of the best measures ever passel." (11, at, bear.)
A change had come over the minds of many re.
SO •s ohs were formerly opposed to the measure. Kr.
Rol s, of Huddersfield, who was formerly en opposest of
toe measures, declared, in reference to some persons who
bad twee convicted before him of evading the law, that he
would on ell occasions enforce the 1 sus with the utmoe
rigour, that the Ten Hours Act had produced much good, and
that the people universally lived b tar and appeared brit. r
than under the Twelve Hears Act. That was the testi•
stony of one opponent, and, he believed, that one hundred
ethen were ready to give the same. He had n sus put
before the house the statement of the case of the working
men—he bad put before •he haute the arguments adduced
against the Ten Hours Ball—he had given a complete re.
(station to every one of these arguments—he had given a
(deltic Wen to every predic im of the opponents of that
measure ; end, having done this, he new asked that this
error in legislation might be corrected—(hear, hear)—ae d
that a law no fruitful in god re belts be confirmed without
delay. (Hear.) This wee that question which, alter 17
years and upwards of advocacy, he row ramie proposed on
behalf of the operatives of Lancashire add Yorkshire. Ile
could hardly anticipate for it any present or future oppoei-
tion, and yet he was told that some attempt was to be made
to qualify the demand or to Owe to it au evasive answer.
But he for one was not prepared to accept any halfway
concession—(hear)—nor did he believe that those whom he
represented would be less resolute to maintain a certain goad
than they had been during 25 years to pursue one that
MS wholly centiomest. Her Majesty had lately invited
people of all nations to coma next year to this
couetry, to wittiest an exposition of all that the world cold 1
produce—every cuss, every preludes, every calling would
entribute erne thing to show its peculiar industry. Let it
be the work and industry of this house to stow a contented,
s happy, and a well govern. d people. (Cheers.) You are
not called on, said the noble lord in conclusion, to begin that
Mewrl work afresh—it is Mutely halt accomplished, and
y a are only now supplicated not to destroy it. (Cheer.)
Sir, I formerly app. sled to the humanity of the le gin-
lature. I now go so no more. I stand upon
oar Magna Charts. I stand upon our accorded
rights ; and feeling convinced se I do from the
bottom of my iota that this question concerns the temporal
and eternal welfare of many thousanife, I apical alone in
the name of Almighty 0.4 to the justice and to the honour
of parliament. (le net cheers.)
Mr. HOWARDS seconded the motion, the result of which
wee le ek.d t 3 with the greatest iuterest and anxiety by the
operatives in the annueezturing difericte. hear.) As
a proof of thet let them lo,k to the venue., where many of
these operatives were at thee moment. (Cries of "Order.")
If he was " out of order," it was from ignorance
of the rules of the house. (Hear, hear) But he
Could state that the people were most mittens
ahnut the result of this measure.
Tao question having been put, '
Sir O. GREY sail, though he 'had certainly indulged the
hope that after the repeated did-lesions which at various
time had taken place on the much disputed question of the
restriction applying to hones of labour of certain classes of
perserd employed —thmigh he had hip d after these discus-
sions that they had arrived at a settlement of that question,
and that it would not be scum iry to revive spin that
which all persons, to a certain degree, should and
did deprecate because the Testiest could not Ise
considered without necessarily placing in antogoniem
el whose interest it WWI to combine—ye t, notwithatand-
lig all that, he was ready to admit that his noble Iris red who
hale duce cl the motion, under existing circumstances and
under the present state of the law in reference to the quer,.
Lion before the en, war justified in comb g before that boson
and a eking for the epplication of a remedy fo- what he
believed to be an existing evil. (Hear, hear.) Hs noble
fiend certainly had said hut little, if anything, in reference
to the mature e the run, dy which he wished to have sp,
plie d ; and he (Sir 0. Grey) had to c elect from the speech
el his noble friend the pa port of that remedy. However,
for time If, and looking back to the part which he had
+lien on former recede, a in sew rt ire the existing reetrie-
duos en the labour of these employed is favorite, he would
eindidly admit that, whilst some amendment of the law was
expedient, and whilst it would be of great impoetence
that such an amendment should he propmed and adopted
with the coecure nee of those who former) y entertained dies
fere rit, though reasonable and need' rife, views on the clues
tens, still be wan not prepared, eau the part be had
previously taken, to proem* or advo-ate any amendment of
the law which would let ieconsistent with the act of 1847,
which No drily referred to women and ehililren. (Hear,
hear.) It might be desirable, in considering the present
miratioo, to refer briefly to the exiting of that cow.
Wdeout mine breond the 3rd and 4th Wil .1V , they found
it resetei "that no young per. n seeuld week at night,"
d, finition of "piglet" applying to the hours dween
11.1 f pot five in the evening and pest eight the followide
rte. mine , thus giving a period of 15 hour,. we bin whieb y
croons might reprieve OT elOy thi 11111 )rem. ho the 2,01 be Cti 1
of the set it was pruiille hat no youeg paces seteuld be
e mployed longer than 12 hours, including the h elf-hours
slimed foe tie ale. by the 7& 8 V.a, parsed in 1844, the
set weigh HA uobte fri •ed semen to ern, nd OD the present
OXIIII,III, we men were for the fi•-t time classed with reed;
potions, and beenme eel je de el tee siteiler restrietione. The
sectieue 30 and 31 re-imitate] the ileum of labour for Mahler.;
and as re garde 4 (Waren he were the ages of 8 end 13, no
alteration in she hot .ek it, was asked f, r. At premot
el.il.lcen worked by the system of " relays," to shish no