The Sun.
London, England, 1853-07-06 00:00:00

ECCLESIASTICAL COITRTS.

Mr. COLLIER moved for leave is bring in a tell e
transfer the testamentary jurisdiction of the y.,e,clesiasticea
Courts to the Courts of Common Law and the County
Courts. Aft 3: sketching what he had done ou a previous
occasion, and referring to the promises of Government,
proceeded to say that though he had no hope of carrying ,
his bill this sesCon, he now felt it to be his duty to intro-
duce it. He had no snore to do with the subject of abuses
but would deal with remedies Woofs, and he remarked that
he addressed himself only to the testamentary juriseict'on.
of the courts, for as to ther other juisdictions, the only
mode of treatment which would be satieactory to the
country would be the abolishing of Ors -7 ecclesiastical
court in the kingdom. His pro/semi differed from that of
the Solicitor-Geaeral, inasmuch as the latter designed to
do away with all but the diocesan courts, whereas he
would do away with all. He would abolish altogether the
testamentary jurisdiction of the county courts. He pro-
posed that all wills about which there was no dispute
should be proved in those courts. He would create county
districts, corresponding to the circuits of the county court
judges. The undisputed will of any man should be proved
in the circuit in which he dwelt at the time of his death,
and thus he would get rid of the legal difficulty of bona
notabilia. He would establish a system of registration ;
every will should be registered in the county courts, and
transmitted to a registrar-general in London. Each
county court judge should appoint a registrar out of the
present ecclesiastical courts, whereby men of experience
would be gained, and compensation be saved. The juris-
diction of the county courts should extend over real and
personal property. Where a dispute arose, it should, where
the cause in dispute was under 3001., be tried in the locality
where it occurred, and he would give the outlay courts au
equitable jurisdiction. He considered the technical difficul-
ties of testamentary questions to be over-stated, and he re-
ferred to the old historical character of the county courts
in proof of the efficiency they had poesessod. lie would give
jurisdiction in higher cases, and also appeals, to the superior
courts of common law, which should retain their power
over real property, to which jurisdiction should be added
that of the ecclesiastical courts as regarded personality.
He would appoint an officer, to be called the clerk of pro-
bates, to each of the superior courts. The jurisdiction
should be concentrated into one court. Compensation
should be given to those who were deprived of offices, but
not to practitioners ; and proctors should be admitted to
practise as attorneys in all the superior courts. Dwelling
upon the necessity of the same sweeping reform in the law
which had be an adopted in other institutions, he urged the
subject on the consideration of the government.

Mr. HUME Fooonded the motion:
Lord PALMERSTON supported the motion with gre.;.t
pleasure, and complimented the ability which, had been
displayed by Mr. Collier in dealing with the subject. But
ho dwelt upon the complicated and difficult nature of the
question, and, after stating that thegovernment were quite
aware of the necessity of p:actical remedies, said that they
had not felt that they should be justified in legislating
without great deliberation. He had said that government
had intended to bring in a bill on the subject, but, regard-
ing the hopelessness of passing it this session, and the de-
sirability of having the report of the commission now
sitting, they had thought it better to delay introducing
their measure until the early part of next session.
Mr. HADFIELD would have liked a mcre specific
explanation from the government as to the premised re-
form.

Sir B. HALL urged that the admitted difficulty of the
ques'don was the ieason why government should not have
left legislation to an independent member, and he instanced
various cases of ecciss:ftstical abuse in roof that re mciy
wasimpernfirely

Thec ATTORNEY-GI:NEI-I.AL said that ail parties.
were agreed in the necessity of reform, but urged that
no one could blame the government for waiting for
:epo7t of the CO -31 mist:ca, afi which it would
be their immediate duty to Fepare meai are on the
subject.
After some observations from Mr. DUNLOP and Yr.
PELLATT,

Leave was given to bring in the biil.
THE HOURS OF LABOUR IN FACTORIES.

Mr. COBBETT then rose to move for leave to b ring in
a bill to limit the hours of labour of women, young parsers,
and children, in the :acto ries of the United Kingdom, and to.
provide for a me a perfect inspection of the said factories.
The hours of women and children were to be restricted re
ten hours on five days of the week, and to seven and a-half
hours on the Saturday. This would have the effect of re-
storing the Ten Hours Dill of 1847, and of including in
that bill the children of eight years of age. He had beta
strongly urged by a large flambee of his own cone ituc its
and others in the factory districts, to being in a bill to
shorten the hours of labour in these factories. He then.
explained the state of the law as it now existed on this
subject, and gave a retrospective glance at the progress o
legislation in connection with factory labour. In 1833 an
act was passed which made the "actory day 15 hours, viz.,
from half-past five to half-past e'ght. In 1844 another act
was passed, by which the labour ef young persons, between
and 18, and of women, was reet.ici el to 12 hours in the
day, but it permitted children from 8 to 13 to work fik
hours a day, so that there were employed two sets every
clay ; and there were, in point of :act, by this means, two
factory days. 1847 an act was passed, limiting the en•nied
of labour to ten hours a day in the case of women and
young persons ; but as children could work ea hours under
the act of 1841, and thus two sets could be employed every
day, the millowners were thus able to keep their factories
going 12 or 14 hours in the day. This led to the adoption
of what was called the "shift" syetem, the millowners
availing themselves of the letter of clause 26 of the act of
1833, which did not particularly define that the labour of
a women or young person should be taken in ten "conse-
cutive" hours. By this means the act was successfully
evaded. The larger body of millowners chose to adhere to
the evident meeniug of the act, and were thus subject to
great disadvantage in competing with those who pursued an
opposite course. Much dissatisfaction ensued, and the result
wo.s anappealto the Barons of the Court of Exchequer, who
decided that al though there was no doubt as to the intention of
the act, that those who extended the hours came within the.
tofethpearentacoftmtheonste. Therewas,consequently,te
interested,
to reform the
loirteTticienseiaureiong
the
raw en this respect. The hon. gentleman then referred to
a great meeting which had been held, April 14, 1849, on
which occasion the hon. gentleman, the member for Ash.
ton- under-Lyne, had made a speech to the delegates then
assembled, to confer as to what should be done after the
foregoing legal decision. The delegates repudiated the as-
sertion as to the alleged evil consequences which. were said
to have arisen from the shortening of the hours of labour.
(Hear.) He was satisfied that if hon. members examined
the reports which had been made by the different inspec-
tors on the subject, they would be convinced of the utter
hopelessness of securing the benefit of a Ten Hours' Act,
unless by some such measure as that which he now pro.,
posed. They would feel that some such alteration was
absolutely necessary, in order to prevent the daring and
systematic violations of the Ten Hours'Act which were now
going on every day. (Hear.) The hon. member then re-
ferred to the evidence given before the Factory Commis.
sioners of 1836, by Mr. Cheetham, the member fee Lanca-
shire. who laid stress on the necessity of imposing a re-
striction on the motive power, in order to secure the effici-
ency of the ten hours' system, and also to the bill intro-
duced in 1835 by Mr. Hindley and Mr. Brotherton, with
the view of restricting the hours of labour in factories.
The third clause of that bill proposed to limit the hours
of labour for all persons under 21, to teu hours a day; and
the 4th clause provided, that the hours of the working of
the machinery should be the same as those fixed for the
labour of the children. There could be no doubt that a
restriction on the motive power was necessary, to carry
out the intention of the ten hours' system. (Hear.) Thla
question was now making a great stir in the manufactur-
not
ing districts, and had met with the cordial suppe2t,
only of the workmen, the managers, and the overloekers
of these factories, but also of many master manufacturers,e
of great coneequence and opulence. • Numerous petitions
had bean presented in favour of the measure
tfrom these
different clasece, but not one had been asedyieetiopresented
against it. None of the unfavourable
had ever
been which
had been made respecting the system had e.er real-
ised, but the work which had been turned out in the shorter
• d had equal', d that which was produced under the
period
longer periods which were allowed before the introduction
_
of the Tea Hours' Act, and the _ wages earned by the work-
men had
been quite as great, =din many instances higher
(Hear, bear.) Some alteration was proposed by the
bill to be mado both in the amount of the flues said the
mode of recovery-. He believed the the fines which he ree
commended would not be considered unreasonable, when
they considered the imperative necessity of preventing the
recurrence of these offences. by inflicting a penalty which
was commensurate to the crime. The hon. member,,
hav-
ing referred to some statistics showing the injurious effects
of the prolonged hours of labour in factories on the health
of the work-people, concluded by moving that leave should
be given to bring in a bill of the nature he had described.
Mr. FIELDEN had much pleasure in seconding the
motion of his hon. and learned iziend the member foi"Old-
ham. He was himself extensively engaged as a ina eu:ac-
turer ; he had 1,300 or 1,400 men in his employment, and
felt a very deep interest in the question te.fore the house.
He believed the suggestions which had been made that
evening, with respect to the limitation of the hours of
labour in o'er factories, by his lion. friend, were of a cha-
racter precisely similar to those which bad been made in
the report of Mr. Homer, and in the propriety ef carrying
out these suggestions he (Mr. Fielden) entirely concurred.
Mr. WILKINSON thought it desirable that those who
were engaged in our manufactures should not work for so
many. hours in the day as was the case at present ; but he
should by no means like to interfere in the matter by any