The Sun.
London, England, 1840-08-05 00:00:00

THE: SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, iS.IO

led the child into the commission of crime should not be .
continued. There was no objection to make this Bill a
subject of periodical legislation. The Bill for the regula-
tion of prisons in Scotland, which was of equally grave a i
nature, was a Bill of only ten months' duration. The
principal measure was new only so far as it was compul-
sory; for the children, who were its objects, were already
taken into the schools, when the parents consented, and it
was found that the greatest benefits were derived as re-
garded the children themselves, where the parents did not
interfere or take them away. Believing that the Bill was
calculated to do great goo 3, he was anxious that it
should pass without delay.
Lord GRANVILLE SOMERSET could not admit
that Hon. Members were to be precluded from at all re-
ferring to the principle of this Bill, because it had been
discussed before, and the Right Honourable Gentleman
opposite had so high an opinion of its beneficial
character, that he wished it to pass without delay.
To him (Lord Granville Somerset) the principle was
too important for him to allow it to pass without stating
his objections to it. In one respect alone it was highly
objectionable, if there were no other objection to it. Its
effect would be to extend the punishment of all infants
beyond the period which the law at present adjudged to
their offences. An infant who had once been convicted
for an offence would have the record of that conviction
fastened upon him for the rest of his days ; and would con-
tinue in a state of complete coercion as regardedhis present
employment up to the age of twenty-one, and all the
prospects of his life afterwards. He firmly believed that
no house of one hundred Members would pass such a Bill.
He should, therefore, use every means in his power of
throwing it out.—( Hear.)
Mr. AG L lONBY asked the Hon. Secretary (Mr. F.
Maule) whether a clause to the effect that due regard
should be had to the religious profession of the parents,
might not be introduced on the third reading, so
as to meet the objection of the Honourable Mem-
ber for Knaresborough ? He took the opportunity of
denying that the Bill would have the effect of
continuing the punishment of the children beyond the
terms of their legal sentence. On the contrary, he con-
ceived it would confer upon them the greatest blessings.
It would rescue them from the contamination of bad
example, and from the temptations to which they were
before exposed, and would confer on them the blessings of
education, physical, moral, and religious. As a Magis.
trate he was surprised that any Magistrate would oppose
this Bill.--( Hear, hear.) He had found for many years
at the Quarter Sessions, that there was no part of
the Magistrates' duty so difficult and distressing as
to deal with those children, whom they were
compelled, under the present state of the law, to send to the
contamination of a gaol, with the positive certainty that
they would, at the expiration of their sentence, be returned
to their old haunts and habits, and be presented at the bar
at the next sessions—(Hear)—and so on, from year to
year, until the commission of weightier offences caused
them at length to be sent out of the country. He
hoped the Hight Hon. Gentleman the Under Secretary
would not withdraw the Bill.

Mr. MUNTZ said the object of the Bill was to make
all infant felons wards in Chancery. At present all those
persons were regularly restored, after their term of punish-
ment, to their old education in the arts of thieving, until
they were fully accomplished. He could not see what ob-
jection on earth there could be to place these poor chil-
dren under the protection of the Lord Chancellor.
On the question that the Report be brought up, the
House was about to divide, when the Usher of the Black
Rud appeared at the Bar, and summoned the House to the
Lords, to attend a Royal Commission.
On the return of the SPEAKER, he stated that
the House had been to the House of Peers, where
her Majesty's Royal Assent was given to several Bills, (for
which see Lords' Report).
The House then divided on the question that the Re-
port on the Infant Felons Bill be received. The numbers
were—

For the Report 4O
Against it 5
Aiajority 35
The Bill was then ordered to be read a third time to-
morrow. _

The Report on the Administration of Justice Birming-
ham) Bill was brought up, and the Bill was ordered to be
read a third time to-morrow.

--- - .... -
The Report on the Highway Rates Bill was brought up,
and the Bill was ordered to be read a third time to-morrow.

.... ._
The Court of Chancery Bill was read a second time,
and committed pro forma. Report to be brought up to-
morrow. .

The Imprisonment for Debt Bill was read a second time,
and ordered to be committed to-morrow.

The Church Discipline Bill was reported, and ordered to
be read a third time to-morrow.
LABOUR OF CHILDREN.

Lord ASHLEY then rose to bring under the notice of
the House the subject of the condition of the children of
the poorer classes employed in trade and manufactures.
He brought the subject forward with feelings somewhat
akin to despair, seeing the scanty attendance of Members,
and the advanced period of the Session to which they were
arrived. His reason for bringing forward the subject
at all was, that he had been taunted with devoting his Eaten.
tion exclusively to the children employed in factories,
while there were so many other departments of trade re-
quiring the attention and interference of Parliament.
Under these circumstances, and having previously be.
stowed much attention upon the subject, he felt it his duty
to bring the subject under the notice of the House. He
felt that the prosperity of the trade and manufactures of
the country mainly depended upon the state and condition
of those employed in the various departments connected
therewith. The subject was ono of the greatest inte-
rest, and few, he believed, were acquainted with
the extent of the various demands which were made upon
the energies and the time of the children so employed.
He had reason to believe that the children employed in
these various departments greatly exceeded the entire
number employed in the mills and factories, upon which
subject the House had already legislated. In the tobacco
trade the children were put to work at the age of seven
years, and were generally employed for twelve hours per
day. In the bleaching trade the children were employed
at eleven years of age, and they frequently laboured all
night and day for two or three days. In the potteries the
children were employed at an early age tor thirteen
or fourteen hours continuously, nd the work
was extremely severe. The Noble Lord then referred to
the state of the children employed in the Brussels carpet-
making, the frame-work knitting, and other trades, for
the purpose of showing that they were much overworked,
and had no opportunity of obtaining any education whatever.
The opinion of the Government Inspector as to the labour
to which children were put in the coal mines, was, that
the hardest labour in the worst factory was less cruel
and oppressive than the labour in the best coal
mines." Ile would not trouble the House with many more
details, as the results were almost invariably the same.
It was the custom, in many instances, for parents to bor-
row money upon the labour of their children, and the
master had a right to the labour of the child until the loan
was repaid ; so that here was a system of legalized sla-
very going on in this country. One of his correspondents
had stated to him, that the system was one which was de-
structive alike to the temporal and spiritual welfare of the
children. The next subject to which he would draw their
attention was calico printing—children of six years of age
were employed in this trade, and some of them went to
work at 12 at night—they worked 12 hours and took their
meals in the workshop, the atmosphere of which was
loaded with poisonous gases from the effluvia of the colours.
His object in drawing the attention of the House to this
subject was to place these children within reach of what
Dr. Chalmers would call an aggressive movement of edu-
cation. Continental nations were following our example,
and it would not do for us now to fall behind them in the
work of humanity, and be last where we were first. From
the Report of the French Commission it appeared that there
was no morality existing among the children employed in
manufactures, and from the Report of the Recruiting De-
partment it appeared that the number of persons rejected
as incapable from the manufacturing districts doubled that
of those rejected from the agricultural districts; and he
had no doubt that if a similar inquiry should be instituted
in this country, the rcs It would still be more deplorable.
The inquiry which he asked was due to the mill-owners
and the other manufacturers who were subject to the pro-
visions of the Factory Bill. They were labouring under
restrictions which did not press upon other trades. The
occupation to which children were subjected were of a
most cruel and dangerous nature, and even the Poor-law
Commissioners thought twice, nay thrice, before they sent
any of the 30,000 or 35,000 children who were under
their care to be engaged in them. Many of the trades :n
which children were engaged were totally unsuited to them
when they became adults— the confequence of which was,
that they either became professed thieves or sunk into
hopeless pauperism. His great object was to appeal to
public opinion—he appealed to the Bishops, and minis-
ters of all persuasions, to do all in their power
to ameliorate the condition of the youth of this country.
Amidst all their difErences of opinion, it was gratifying
to find there was one point on which the sympathy of all
could be concentrated--( Hear, hear.) He felt they had
only to exhibit the evil to obtain a remedy. He there-
fore ventured to entreat the countenance of the House and
of the Government, in his endeavours to remove those
evils which pressed so hardly cn this interesting portion of
the human race.—(Cheers.) The Nagle Lord concluded
by moving--" That an humble Address be presented to
her Majesty, praying that her Majesty will be graciously
pleased to direct an inquiry to be made into the employ-
ment of the children of the poorer classes in the various
branches of trade and manufacture in which numbers of
children work together, not being included in the provi-
sions of the Acts for regulat ng the employment of Chil-
dren and young Persons in Mills and Factories ; and to
tpil,oe y collected
time nha fleol
ormw eadt
numberi oe na
each
of
day t
hours
o ut
fhroser
theyages
meals,aatre
and
ehdni ega has
gtt
eho
de
tyhi
nea r
actual
state, condition, and treatment of such children, ;and as
to the effects of such employment, both with regard to
their morals and their bodily health."
Mr. BR OTH ERT ON seconded the motion. The
legislation with regard to children employed in factories
had tended to the amelioration of their condition, and lie did
not doubt but that similar good results would folio ,v in the
cases to which the Noble Lord had referred. Ile thought that
all employed at these manufactories, were employed too
long, and if the labouring classes had their rights, there
walaid be no necessity for their being over-worked as
they were. The President of the United States had re-
cently issued an order limiting the employment of
persons labouirng in the public works to ten hours a day,
and this regulation had elicited the warmest expression of
gratitude from the working classes of that country.
The question having been put,
Mr. FOX ?MULE said he could not proceed to state
his own opinions on this sulbjecLtowdithfourt
the
epressing his.
manner in
which he bad introduced So far from opposing the
motion the Government
bt
would u d give the Noble Lord
every assistance power in carrying out his
grateful thanks tointhetheNiroi
ogled.might appear pre Government of seizing this
dgisys the question. There might
be those who would accuse the .
He would not now enter into the subject, as it
jvs
opportunity for issuing another Commission, but he could
thQ 4108 t cgouorpical mariner consistclit with its efli.
assure the House that the inquiry suould Is,: conducted in_