The Sun.
London, England, 1847-05-18 00:00:00

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—m.n whose lives are one professional and
septiaai 14iituotbropy—have assisted thos,a
to the ear.: of the Lej slature by their sanction and
tae:r .a:sauen : wen iii every urs,acii of prat:
tice, clergymen of every religious persuasion. Spring-
ing from such a source, founded on such a basis of feel-
ing and opinion, it has made its way through much dir-
fieulty against powerful opposition, till it has obtained
the sanction of an influential portion of a Cabinet, of a
conclusive majority of the House of Commons, and, so
supported and recommended, has reached the table of
Your Lordships' House. I state there things, my Lords,
not for the purpose of inducing any one of your
Lordships to abdicate your privilege of free discus-
sion or of deliberate judgment. Latest and least
of the importations to your Lordships' House, I
should be sorry to signalise my first endeavour at ad-
dressing your Lordships by proposing any surrender of
your independence any infraction ut your privileges.
My d Lorss, the principle of this Bill has been impunged
as involving legislative interference with the rights of
capital anelab:sur. I might slur this objection on the
ground of repeated precedent. lam prepared, however,
if necessary, to contend that I am advocating nothing
inconsistent with the doctrines of political economy at
all. My Lords, 1 dislike a meddling Government. I
believe with them that for the creation of the greatest
producible wealth in any given community, and, there-
fore, for the widest diffusion of that material well-being
which attends the production of wealth, the policy of
abstinence from legislative meddling is the sound policy,
and, therefore, I think it incumbent on any ona who
departs from that policy to assign distinct grounds for
ls justification. The master manufacturer and the
operative have both a right, I admit it, to say to me—
You are interfering with
my free action—you are select-
ing mine from a crowd of other occupations, to make it
plan ation,
the subject of experimental legislation. I claim an ex-
conduct. I demand an exceptional reason for your
My Lords, I find that justification, as most of
Your Lordships will anticipate, in the inherent, inalien-
able tendencies of that agent which Watt forced into the
service of man as applied to the four great branches of
our textile industry which come under the provisions of
Lois Bill—I mean the tendency, in the first instance,
attract to its ministration the labour of those
"hcill, in respect of age and sex, or both, nature never
intended for hard and continuous labour ; and next, in
its tendency
to make that labour continuous, and un-
ceasing, and protracted to a. limit of physical and
lental endurance which, in my opinion, no Christian
~noNislatura can see its subjects approach without ac-
wledging
the duty of interferinz, if it can interfere,
tor their relief and
protection.—(Hear') It is ox this
trirnd, my Lords, that, finding as I do, with regard to
ae branches of industry, the means and opportunity
of interference, I claim the right to exercise them. I
talai3i7: my Lords, finding the means and opportunity, for
and ;el° is an essential element of practical interference,
used:ill:l3Y, reply to an argument which, though often
seas think, singularly inconclusive to a course of
Tieing
very commonly
e.l_,c I hunting down a particular grievance, and which
adopted towards any man
otutilea"ura to divert his attention by pointing out fifty
World
r objects of pursuit. My Lords, there is doubtless
Wortir of abuse, and misery, and oppression in the
fold LO make a sentimental or flighty philanthropist
Lords
arms in despair. My Lords, I invite your
his arms
to interfere with these large collected ag-
illiget'lcls of labour, because theory and experience
are' me you can do so with effect—because they
neca:eu to inspection and capable of control
because
you can do much to prevent abuse,
and, then „a e hard necessity arise, to punish it.
allegedware that this very feature of the case has been
said as as a reason for non-interference. It has been
Ouru.that the factory system is the very department of
discoverable,
in which abuse and oppression are most
e and can least escape detection. We have
10. n repeatedly told that we take an unphilosophical
theYiew of
the effects of ti e use of machinery; that it is
,u.great dilninisher of the sum of mental and physical
I bour, the fertile 801andcontentment, and
that w rce of leisure
e should be cautious how we meddle with its ope-
n!s!ions. I admit these facts; but I demand your Lord-
ships' attention attention to some further facts connected with the
raployment of that fixed and expensive capital
Pt) tie scope and effect of which it becomes a
'49', from which, as a legislator, I cannot escape,
so Inquire. There is, in my opinion, no grander result.
et
human intelligence than a large cotton mill; but 1
hay this of it, that from the moment its engine is started,
eased by the capital and governed by the will of the
acute and enterprising individual who sits in its office, it
becomes the direct interest of that presiding
its motions should be genius that
as unceasing and continuous ,as
_human contrivance can make them, that there is no part
ref that vast system of wheels and levers which can
°of Commercial
without loss, or, in the ordinary and average course
t.commercial prosperity, pursue its motions without
Pain- The human labour attached hand and foot to that
!eta for the most part admits not of relays. What
lathe naturist, the inevitable consequence of this ? Why,
that Which has resulted—that with which, step by step,
Fvsleutry, cautiously, effectually, and successfully, you
control,
endeavouring for thirty years to moderate
nk,Cipo..:trol, in wise defiance of the abstract principles
or
_itch economy. That the strong impulse of gain
citirras
,?,fl;:ti direct and dangerous antagonism with the
in the
and
it almost invariably prevails
left,. and hear)—as for a time it was
lalion left to itself it reduces a part of your popu-
to the cond. •itstgate
interest in h on of slavery, unmitigated by that
t
does e Physical well-being of the party which
owner opefrate on the slave-owner of Carolina, or the
row a on
or a hunter in Leicestershire, or Rotten-
to
—(Cheers). My Lords, such things have been ;
prevent them you have repeatedly interfered and
Your labours have net been in vain. Now, my Lords,
does the same reason hold good with other departments of
human industry in which machinery of humumaancontrivance,ncontrivance
the
is less concerned? I say machinery of h
for I hold that, in some sense,
that the clod of the valley, earth itself is a ma-
chine,ley, in which you drop
the germ of future vegetation, is as much a machine as
that in which you deposit your portions of raw cotton to
be twisted and elongated. In another place, my Lords,
telling I took the liberty, at the risk of some offence, of
the lords of the soil that in this point of view I consi-
dered them as master manufacturers, and I re-assert that,
opinion here. Your Lordships, in the management of
hereditary estates which have descended to you from the
Conquest, are working with machinery as well as M.
ditr.
Greg or Mr. Birley ; but, my Lords, there is this
fereuce between the machinery of God's contrivance and
nd
that of his creatures. The earth will work alone,nte?
in
h
silence of night, under the stars of heavenunli by
whichy
your
gas, unfed by your fires, admitttng
atintervals,of man, taking
nature indicates, the regulated
assistance
biro into partnership, but with no direct tendencies to
Make him its slave.—(Hear,
hear,
and cheers.) Such,
MY Lords, are the considerations which have induced
I the repugnance individually eto overcome
enter-
tain to meddling with concerns which, from their
mag-
nitude and complexity, I dread to approach.—(Cheers.)
Tyr objections have been taken to the measure,
, main
been
principal and widely distinct consequences
hatave
t It is said, tt by held out as certain o ensue.
striking off a twelfth from the time during which, when
employment is rife, you are at present able to labour,
3t.'nu will either diminish wages or incur defeat from
IcZigrt copetition. For the first of these consequences
-aye alwmays advised those with whom I had been in
Z'lilalunieation to be prepared, and I have certainly
abilFs received the answer that, to the best of their
benst",' they had counted the cost, and were prepared, on
I a """ of themselves and their families, to encounter it.
not fond of prophecying in matters of this descrip-
th if, on the one hand, I am not prepared to risk
,_%lasiserable value of my reputation for accuracy on a
ulatiou of the exact effect upon wages, on the other,
'InY man to favour me with a calculation of the
effected
of actual domestic economy which may be
her ected b..
the mother of three children who returns to
home two hours sooner than at present. I cannot
calculate this, because I cannot sew, I cannot darn, I
cannot wash, and I cannot cook. On these matters I
mstill ust refer your Lordships to your wives and servants.
less can I calculate the evanescent quantities, the
()MI effects of leisure and repose to the mind, or lay
own in advance statistical results on bodily health or
longevity. I have no duubt whatever that the averaege.
aura total of these elementa, if they could be
diminutionculad
Would show a set-off to an, probable
day be satis-
-1)f money wages, which will
one
t din assing.
lactory to those who have co-opera e
t PI
must
(Hear hear.) On this subtec
this measure.--. ' •
also call your Lordships' attention to another =cum-
sauce—the deductions now made when the work is
b • rought in by My
the operative for waste and spoil.
Lords, from such information as I can obtain, it is my
firm belief that nine-tenths of that spoiled work occurs
in the last weary hours of the operative's present ave•
rage toil. I have never met with any mau, of any class,
conversant with the subject, who has not laid much
stress on this circumstance. I pass, my Lords, to the
question of foreign competition. I do not profess to
receive with indifference, from men for whose station,
acquirements, and abilities I have profound respect, their
warnings on this subject ; but I am consoled by the re-
flection that no step has been taken in this matter which
has not been preceded by similar warnings of ruin and
similar threats of emigration to those which, I doubt
not, have assailed many of your Lordships as they have
assailed me. And yet, my Lords, I hold in my hand a
Paper which shows that England has yet held her own
against the competition of the world, and which leads
rise to think that if she is doomed to suffer decay, it will
originate rather in a diminished supply of the raw
Material than in any legislation which, for the sake of
havegst interests of humanity, your orships may
consented to adopt. My Lorde, I believe- that from
a concourse of circumstances peculiar to the character of
this nation, England is in a condition to set an example to
the
, world in this matter, as she has done in others—that
tue is able to do right and fearnot ; and morethan this, that
her example will be followed, and that foreign statesmen
who may not be disposed to follow it will be pressed by
that influence of public feeling and opinion which is
acting upon ourselves.—(Cheers.) My Lords, in the
course I have taken in accepting the conduct of this Bill
I have undertaken a grave responsibility for its eventual
Consequences. Should it prosper to the extent of my
holes and expectations, and should I live to see that
result, I reserve to myself, as my sole but all sufficient
reward, the gratification of that spectacle. Popularity
I have not sought, and utterly disclaim. If that reward
should eventually fall due, it is impossible that the intel-
lig dieand justice of the people should not place the
saon the right horse. It will be due, in the first
instance, to my Noble Friend—it will be due to the
master manufacturer, who has not allowed himself to be
!'waged by considerations which would place his own
interests in seeming, though, as I believe, delusive eon-
..irasts with those of others. It will be due to those who
fees worked through the long hours of this Bill in the
norkehop of the Legislature, and not the labourer of the
elfoer so long
hour, who now begs your Lordships' pardon
trespassing*
(Cheers.) Theon y Lr I hips' attention.—
our o s
Noble Earl concluded by moving the
Second reading of th