The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-22 00:00:00

EVENING- EDITION .

PROVISIONS OF THE FACTORIES

ACT.

JOINT REPORT of the INSPECTORS Of FACTORIES OB
the Modifications of the existing Educational Provi-
sions of the Factories Act, which appear to them
desirable.
TO THE RiGIIT HON. Loma JOHN RUSSELL.
LONDON, JAN. 28, 1839.
My Lon?,—Having, in our individual reports, corn-
plied with that, part of the order of the House of Com-
ons, of the 15th of August last, which directs us to
report separately on the effect of the educational pro-
visions of the Factories Act, we now proceed, in obe-
dience to the latter part of the order to lay before your
Lordship our joint opinion as to the alterations of the law
which appear to us to be necessary for the better ful-
filment of what we conceive to have been the object
of the Legislature in these enactments.
The el 'uses of the Act which relate to education are
the 20th, 21st, 22a, and 23d, and they are as follow :
XX. And be it further enacted, That from and after
the expiration of six months from the passing of this
Act, every child herein-before restricted to the per-
formance of 48 hours of labour in any one week shall,
so long as such child shall be within the said restricted
age, attend some school, to be chosen by the parents or
guardians of such child, or such school as may be appointed
by any inspector, in case the parents or guardians of
such child shall omit to appoint any school, or in case
such child shall be without parents or guardians ; and it
shall and may be lawful in such last-mentioned case for
any inspector to order the employer of any such child to
make a deduction from the weekly wages of such child
as the same shall become due, not exceeding the rate of
ld. in every shilling, to pay for the schooling of such
child, and such employer is hereby required to pay the
sum so deducted according to the order and direction
of such inspector.
XXI. And be it further enacted, that, after the ex-
piration of six months from the passing of this Act, it
shall not be lawful to employ, or continue to employ, in
any factory or mill any child restricted by this Act to
the performance of forty-eight hours of labour in any
one week, unless such child shall, on Monday in every
week next after the commencement of such employ-
ment, and during every succeeding Monday, or other
day appointed for that purpose by an inspector, give to
the factory master or proprietor, or to his agent, a
schoolmaster's ticket or voucher,_certifying that such
child has for two hours, at least for six out of seven days
of the week next preceding, attended his school, except-
ing in cases of sickness, to be certified in such manner
as such inspector may appoint, and in case of any holy-
day, and in case of absence from any other cause
allowed by such inspector, or by any justice of the peace
in the absence of the inspector ; and the said last-men-
tioned ticket shall be in such form as may be settled by
any inspector.
XXII. And be it further enacted, that whenever it
shall appear to any inspector that a new or additional
school is necessary or desirable to enable the children
employed in any factory to obtain the education required
by this Act, such inspestor is hereby authorised to esta-
blish or procure the establishment of such school.
XXIII. And be it further enacted, that if upon any
examination or inquiry any inspector shall be of opinion
that any schoolmaster or schoolmistress is incompetent,
or in any way unfit for the performance of the duties of
that office, it shall and may be lawful for such inspector
to disallow and withhold the order for any payment or
any salary to such schoolmaster or schoolmistress as
hereinbefore provided.
Children in silk-mills may be employed ten hours a
day, and are not required to attend school ; and fac-
tories used solely for the manufacture of lace do not
come under the Act in any manner.
, In the enumeration of the powers and duties of the
inspectors, contained in the ldth clause, it is enacted
as follows :
" And such inspectors arc also hereby authorised
and required to enforce the attendance at school of chil-
dren employed in factories according to the provisions
of this Act, and to order tickets or such other means as
they may think fit for vouchers of attendance at such
schools ; and such inspectors are also hereby required
to regulate the custody of such tickets or vouchers, and
such inspectors may require a register of them to be
kept in every school and factory."
We shall now proceed to point out the defects in the
existing law which interfere with the efficiency of
these educational provisions, and to offer such sugges-
tions as we think will remedy them, so far as circum-
stances will allow.
In the 20th clause it is enacted, that the school may
be chosen by the parents or guardians of the child. Pa-
rents often choose, not the best, but the cheapest school :
and it sometimes happens that, on this ground, they re-
fuse to send their children to an excellent school at the
factory, at a moderate fee, because they can get what
they call " schooling" elsewhere at a cheaper rate. An
instance of this kind occurred to Mr. Horner where the
proprietors had taken great pains. to provide a good school
on their premises, when school certificates were exhibited
to him brought by some of the children from an ignorant
woman, which scarcely contained a word without a gross
error in spelling ; and the children in this case could
net be discharged from the factory without great in-
convenience to the proprietors, on account of the scanty
population around their works. To meet such cases,
as well as those where the mill-occupier employs a
total* unfit person as a teacher on his premises, and
those cases, also, where the children are taught in an
unhealthy place, we think it desirable that the power
conferred on the inspectors by the 23d clause, which,
from the preceding clause being inoperative, cannot be
exercised, should be made effective ; and that no cer- I
tificate of school attendance should be valid that has
been given by any person who shall have been declared
by an inspector unfit to teach children, or whose school-
room shall have been declared by an inspector unfit, to
be used as such ; requiring, of course, an intimation to
the mill-occupier of such a declaration, before the cer-
tificates became invalid.
By the same clause it is enacted that, when a child is
without parents or guardians, the inspector may order
the mill-occupier to deduct from the weekly wages of
the child one penny in every shilling to pay for the
schooling. We are of opinion that, in order to secure
his fees to the schoolmaster, which he very often loses
whey he has to look to the children for them, it should
be enacted that in every case the occupier shall be en-
titled to deduct from ihe wages of the child such sum
as may be approved of by the inspector, not exceeding
3d. in each week, to pay for the schooling, and that,
upon demand, he shall pay the sums so deducted to the
schoolmaster.
By the 21st clause it is enacted that no child can be
employed who does not produce every Monday, or other
day appointed for that purpose by an inspector, a certi-
ficate of having attended a school for two hours at least,
for six out of seven days of the week next preceding.
A great proportion of the schools to which the factory
children can be sent are not open on Saturday ; and as
the workers above thirteen have almost universally a
partial holyday on that day, it is but reasonable that the
children should have one too, so far as the school is
concerned, more especially as they generally work their
full time of eight hours on Saturday, as well as on other
days. We do not, however, recommend that the total
number of hours of weekly school attendance should be
diminished, but that, after attending at least two hours
on each of five working days of the week, the remaining
two
hours may he made up, either by staying longer on
all or any one of those five days, or by attendance at a
Sunday school, producing a certificate of the same,
What we now recommend amounts to no more than
• this, that the children shall have permission to have a
holyday at, school every Saturday if they attend twelve
hours the rest of the week.
ALliough the inspectors have power to order the
form of certificate of school attendance, we are of opi-
nion that it is desirable that a form should be given in
the schedule of the Act, and that it should set forth,
not only the number of days and hours of attendance,
but also the periods of the day when the children were
at school ; because it will afford, at the visits of in-
inspection, useful information as to the eight hours' em-
•ployment of the children in the factory, which may be
either together or separately, at any time between half-
past five in the morning and half-past eight in the even-
ing—that is, within a space of fifteen hours.
By the 21st clause it is also enacted that absence
from school rnaq be allowed b:' an inspector, or by a
:justice of the peace in the absence of the inspector.
We think it desirable that this should be left out. To
,be of any real use, the license should be granted before
!the child can legally absent himself, and, for many obvi-
ous reasons, the regular observance of such a rule is
•impracticable. We are of opinion that it will be suffi-
cient to enact that the child must attend school, unless
prevented by sickness or accident, or other unavoidable
cense, or unless on account of a holyday.
As the law now stands, if a child do not on a fixed
day of every week produce a certificate of his having
attended a school for two hours at least for six out of
seven days of the week next preceding, his master must
discharge him. As this is very often productive of in-
convenience to his master, and is in truth punishing him
for the fault of the child, we think it only reasonable
that he should have two weeks to look out for a substi-
tute before being obliged to dismiss the offender, and
that if the parent of the child is punished by a small
fine, and the fault is not repeated, the child should not
lose his situation. We recommend, therefore, that it
should be lawful for the occupier of a factory to employ a
nhild without aschool certificate during any time not being
tnoite than two weeks together, on requiring from such
child payment of the penalty of 6d. for each week dur-
jag which such child shall be employed without having
_attended school, a$ required by the Act ; and that the
oeetipier shall deduct the penalty from the wages next
/due to the child, besides the sum allowed to be de-
for Payment of the schooling, and shall pay the
un:_t. of the penalty in the manner provided for the
payment of other penalties
Luse 22d, which ,
waenacts that, where scnools are
4ing, the inspector is authorised to establish them,
has been wholl inoperative ; because nothing is said in
any previous orci
subsequentyre part of the Act from whence
the money required establish the school is to come ;
and clause 23d presupposes the preceding clause to have
been carried into e