The Sun.
London, England, 1870-04-28 00:00:00

SUGAR IN EGYPT.

The Khedive is about tilay down a sugar plantation
on his Daira estates; and is sanguine of being able to
raise an annual crop of one million and a half quintals
of raw sugar. There seems no reason why Egypt
should not emulate with sugar the success which
has attended her cultivation of cotton. Of course,
as the enterprise is a private one, the usual obstacle
has to be surmounted. His Highness will
he forced to come westwards for capi-
tal; but this may be raised on a mortgage of
the land itself, and western capitalists will be more
likely to assist the development of a great and valu-
able industry, than to contribute to the increase of
Egyptian war material. Things, indeed, look well
in Egypt. Feudal differences are at rest, foreign
affairs are prospering, and the indefatigable Khedive
is bent on awakening his subjects to a new branch
of domestic industry.

A MINISTERIAL' APPEAL.

The French PiiineAtirtitteihtle tyldtc§sed ksirsk_

Lai tk, 1115 electors in raterence to the forthcom-
ing plebhcite. He begins by reminding them
that this- is the season in which the hus-
bandman cuts the dead wood from his
trees, and the Emperor has also been removing the
effete part of his constitution, so that, like the trees,
the living parts May take fresh growth. He reminds
them that he himself has always endeavoured to uphold
peace and order, knowing that it is the people who
suffer in revolutions, which do not work their way
in the skies over our heads or in the earth under our
feet. The rich do not suffer, but the home of the
working man is desolated. Supposing the Republi-
cans carry the vote on the Bth of May,
what will happen P They will establish
a Republic, amid ruin and disorder, and overthrow
the rich to be themselves overthrown by a disgusted
people. M. 011ivierithen proceeds to draw a glowing
picture of the political Utopia to be attained should
the "bulletins oui " carry the day, and adjures them
to pay no heed to the insulting language of tha
opponents, but to send him " tme belle maiorit6.".

THE INNER LIFE OF FACTORIES.
The half-yearly reports of her Majesty's Inspectors oi
Factories afe of unusual interest and importance. Most
noticeable is the report of the senior inspector, Mr. Red-
grave. He writes strongly in favour of consolidation and
amendment of the existing Factory Acrs. The neces-
sity for some measure of this kind is now very
urgent, as may be easily understood from the
fact that there are in active operation some sixteen
or seventeen different Acts applying to various branches
of trade and manufacture. To expect that an
employer of labour, whose time and attention require to
be devoted to business, is to master all the details of the
intricate legal puzzle thus presented to him is altogether
out of the question. Mr. Redgrave thinks this most
necessary work should be undertaken at once. He then
prcceeds to consider certain amendments. He conceives
that the State should prevent the employment of the
young if they are unfit for such employ-
ment ; that it should limit the hours of
work of all children, young persons and women;
that it should provide education for children,
and proper meal-times and holidays for young persons and
women ; and that it should, as far as practicable, prevent
accidents and overcrowding, and add to the comfortl and
health of all employed in workshops and factories by seeing
that they are kept well ventilated and clean. All this he
proposes should be done with the least possible interfer-
ence with the arrangements and economy of factories, and
he suggests various alterations in the factory regulations
which would afford all employers of labour relief from
many technical and troublesome regulations. None
of these amendments are, he thinks, likely to
interfere with the principles on which the regulation
of labour in factories and workshops is based. If
they were adopted the administration of the Factory Acts
would be greatly simplified, while the workpeople would
be quite as efficiently protected as they are now. Among
other changes Mr. Redgrave proposes : First, to abolish
the compulsory registration of the names of the young
persons employed under eighteen years of age,
unless in the case where a surgical certificate is
absolutely required. Second, to substitute a certificate
of birth for the surgical certificate now demanded in
respect to such young persons who are over thirteen years
of age. ' The surgical certificate to be retained only for
children who may be employed under thirteen years of
age. Three. To fix the fees paid for such surgical certifi-
cates by a scale, and thus put an end to the interminable
disputes which arise between employers and the medical
officers. Fourth. To restrict the reporting of accidents
which occur in factories to those which prove fatal or
which are caused by machinery. Fifth. To make the
employment of children and young persons in facto-
ries subject to an educational test. That is to
say, Mr. Redgrave suggests that through the factory in-
spectors a system of indirect compulsion should be estab-
lished, which would induce parents for their own interest
to provide for the primary instruction of their children.
No child under 13 years of age, for example, would, under
this arrangement, be permited to work at all unless it
was able to read or had attended a primary school for at
least twelve months, and no young person under 16 years
of age would be allowed to work more than six hours a
day without a certificate of being able to read, write,
and work sums in the four simple rules of arithmetic.
Mr. Redgrave also proposes other amendments tending to
simplify the mode of legal procedure under the Factory
A-As, and to abolish certain modifications of the law
w.iich have not been found necessary. The
redorts are full of evidence which proves that
t'l9 requirements of the Factory Acts in regard
to the registration of names and the providing of surgical
co:IX-lc:Yes for young persons, arc the greatest obstacles
t) the ready and willing acquiescence of all parties in
these most valuable and useful sanitary laws. The limi-
taAion and regulation of the hours of work are com-
paratively seldom objected to, but the other petty
and formal requirements imposed upon employers are
submitted to with the greatest reluctance. They cause au
amount of irritation and annoyance which is in an inverse
proportion to their value or usefulness, and they not un-
frequently render the whole administration of the law dis-
agreeable and unpopular. In dealing with the various
m idifications of the Factory Acts Extension Act, Mr.,
Redgrave submits in his report an interesting statement
relative to the hours of work which prevail in
his district in the several trades and occupations
now under the Factory Acts. An examination
of this return establishes the fact that in the
miscellaneous trades of the country it is the rule to work'
an hour or two less in the week than the limit permitted
by the law. This must render the work of administering
the Factory Act in such cases very light indeed, and gives
employers in these trades some claim for consideration, so
that the special exigencies of their business may not be,
unduly interfered with by the strict reading of the letter
of an Act of Parliament. When the gross number of
hours worked in an establishment in a single week fall
short of those authorised by the Factory Acts there is no
room for oppressive overwork at any time, and a little
latitude might in such instances be permitted to employers
without really infringing the spirit of the law itself.
Take the case of the printer of a weekly newspaper, .
for example. In the early part of the week he has littlet
or nothing to do, and his staff are not employed more than'
eight hours a day, perhaps. On Friday night, hewever,
it would be a great convenience to him to be permitted to
employ boys a few hours later than usual. As the law
stands at present, he dare not do this, even although
these boys may have been amusing themselves for one-
half of the week. Bookbinders enjoy a privilege of
employing women and young persons for fourteen hours a
da,r, under certain conditions. Letterpress printers and
other employers in occupations subject to sudden
and uncertain demands have an equally strong claim
upoi. the Legislature, and although 111 r. Redgrave
does not suggest the extension of this modification to
them, he seems prepared to acknowledge that it would be
no more than an act of justice both to masters and work-
people. Mr. Redgrave, in his report, discusses at con-
siderable length the existing discrepancies between the
the regulations of " factories" and workshops, and with-
out exactly amalgamating the two Acts which regulate
them, he proposes to assimilate them in such a way as to
remove the anomalies which have been experienced in ad-
ministering them. Various trades in which large numbers
of women and young people are employed Mr. Redgrave'
proposes to include in the Factory Act, as well as every
establishment in which children under thirteen years of
age are employed.