The Sun.
London, England, 1833-07-06 00:00:00

7, ) C / / 11

present system ; and he wished that the protection
could be forihrt extended as to age. He wished it
extended 6'l the ige 11 twenty-one Indeed, unless the
labour of the adults was regulated, it was impossible to
protem the children. He was anxious to make the Bill
effective for its objects. The masters of Mancheste-, be
believed, only wished to labour sixty-nine hours a week,
and the Noble Lord's Bill proposed 58. Now if the par-
ties were brought together, he thought they might come
to some agreement ; and he, therefore, was of opinion,
that, in order to make a good Bill, it should be referred
to a Select Committee. At the present moment the
children were so much part of the machinery, that they
must work the whole time the mill worked, or starve.
The masters would not otherwise employ them. Their
labour, then, was not free labour. They must be there at
the time, and they must stay the whole time, without ever
going out. Would not the Members of that House feel it:a
great hardship to be confined there the whole day ? He knew
what those hardships were, for he bad worked in a factory
himself till be had reached his sixteenth year. He had
worked twelve and fourteen hours a day, and had under-
gone all the privations which factory children endured.—
(Cheers.) For these young persons he felt the deepest
sympatby—(Cheers)—and though he bad been raised to
the highestbonoor which man could confer on him—that of
sitting in the British House of Commons, he could never
forget his station.—(Cheers.) He did feel much for their
sufferings, and must stand by his order—(Repeated
cheers)—and if he could, by his labours, ameliorate their
condition, be should feel that he had not lived in vain.—
(Continued cheering.)

Mr. HYETT had abstained from opposing this mea-
sure in its previous stages, although it appeared to him
there were many difficulties and defects contained in it as
regarded the children whose condition it was the object
of the Bill to improve; and because, if even its object
should succeed, its inquisitorial interference with the ma-
nufactures of the country would strike such a blow at
the manufacturing interests of the country that not only
would the rich suffer but also those whose condition it
was now sought to remedy. He was thoroughly convinced
that such would be the effects if the details of the Bill
were carried into effect. If the House legislated at all
on this subject, be hoped at least it would not do so
partially, and not for one description of labour, but for
all. In this respect, however, there was an inconsis
tency even on the face of the Bill' itself, which struck
him very forcibly. The Bill professed to be a Bill for
regulating the labour of children and young persons em-
ployed in mills and factories in this kingdom ; but the
Bill confined its provisions to silk, cotton, and woollen
manufactories, though 'it was notorious that children
were employed in the much more injurious manufac-
tures in iron, lead, and copper in mines, night and day
—nay, even from that until the completion of the finished
article; in short, exposed to the damps of the mine,
and subjected to the scorching heat of blasts and fur-
naces.—(Hear.) To these no sympathy was extended
under this Bill, notwithstanding the large assertions to
which he bad alluded contained in its title and preamble,
—(Hear, hear.) But even with reference to the
classes of children to which the Bill was intended to
apply, if a parent and a master should conspire as it
were against a child, there was nothing in the Bill to
prevent it; indeed, such a provision would, in his opinion,
surpass the ingenuity of the Noble Lord who had intro-
duced the Bill, and the wisdom of Mr. Sadler. The
proposition in the Bill, for a time bill to be kept in every
manufactory, would materially tend to drive the respect-
able manufacturers away, and they would but give place
to less scrupulous and less humane individuals. Again,
the adult labour was much interfered with by this Bill,
and he hoped the Noble Lord opposite (Lord Ashley) was
well acquainted with the effects of restriction of labour
upon the manufactures of this country. Had the Noble
Lor4 borne in mind, when be introduced this extensive
measure, bearing upon a most important subject, that
Americans in cotton, the Lyonese in silk, and the Belgians
in woollen manufactures, were fast treading upon the
heels of this country, and that, if these nations once got
the start, this country would never reach them ?.—(Hear.)
The people of England would not starve, and if the manu-
factures were interrupted for a single weeL, prices would
drive back the population of this country from the ad-
vanced state of civilization to which by its manuf ctures
it hid arrived, into a statt, of immediate misery, if not
ultimate barbarism.—(Haar.) While he admittad that
there existed a great amount of suffering among the chil-
dren employed in factores, yet it did apperr to la!rA that
this amount had been considerably magoified, and he
alluded particularly to the instances as to the comparative
duration of life mentioned at the end of Mr. Sadler's beak
of the evidence. These tables showed the number of
death under the ages of 20 years and 40 years, in every
10,000 deaths in the large manufacturing town, as com-
pared with certain other places, and the show appeared
most alarming as against the manufacturing towns. But
his (Mr. Hyett's) opinion as to these tables was, that the
comparison had not been fairly drawn, and that rural
towns had been select:l which it was unfair to put in
comparison with manufacturing eistricts. The compa-
rison ought to have been made between large densely po-
p-alated manufacturing towns and large densely po-
pulated non-manufacturing towns. Such, however, was
not the case. In the last class be had mentioned he would
put Liverpool, and on a comparison between that town
Maccla,field, Wigan, Bradford, and Manchester (we be-
lieve), it appeared that of those who died under the age of
40 a majority of from 300 to 500 died in Liverpool over
these manufacturing towns. The tables relied upon Essex
as a marshy, and consequently unhealthy, county, and yet
it was found from the population returns that there died
in ir, under the age of 20 years, 4,269 persons, while in
other counties i❑ England the average of deaths at that
age was 4,514. I❑ the island of Ely, which was the
most marshy district in the country, the number of deaths
under 20 years of age, were 5,328, while in manufactur-
ing districts the deaths under the age of 40 years
averaged the same number to within one. So that as
many die under the age of 20 in Ely as died under 40 in
the manufacturing districts. He mentioned this to show
the erroneous principles on which the tables to which
he had referred had been formed. Besides this, there
were other considerations with reference to this subject;
and he would principally maintain that it would be
extremely difficult to bring the whole question properly
before a Committee of the whole Hou-e. He rejoiced
that amidst all the chivalrous spirit in the Noble Lord
opposite and Mr. Sadler, it had not been ventured to make
an attack upon the fulling mills of his (Mr. Hyett's) dis-
trict; on the contrary, the Bill contained a special
exception in respect to them.

Colonel TOItBENS objected to the Bill going to a
Committee up stairs, with such instructions as had been
proposed by the Noble Lord (Althorp), for in such case, he
was of opinion the Bill would do more harm than good.
Mr. HUME said that though it was an establi•ied
principle or rule, that r.ny restriction or regulation of
labour or wages was mischievous, yet he thought the case
of children was an exception to that rule. He had voted
for a commiszion of inquiry on the grounds of the com-
plaints a. to the allegations preterred against that impor-
tant interest, the manufacturers of this country ; but he
was of opinion that now, when so strong a feeling had
been raised in the public mind, the Bill ought to be
discussed, clause by clause, in a Committee of the whole
House, in order that the public might know all the
bearings and principles of the Bill. Such a course would
afford satisfaction to the country, and believing it to be
the best for all portions of the community, he should
support the motion for going into a Committee of the
whole. House.

Mr. M. ATTWOOD concurred in a great degree with
the sentiments expressed by the Hon. Member for Salford
(Mr. Brotherton), to whose good feelings he gave every
credit. But much had been said, in the course of the
present discussion, upon the excited state of feeling per-
vading manufacturing districts upon this subject, and he
(Mr. Attwood) could not but think that feeling would
be much increased by the proposition which had this
night been made by his Majesty's Government. He would
ask the House whether the course of proceeding which had
been proposed was or was not a course to which the
people could give any other interpretation than that it was
a desire on the part of the House to evade answering their
just demands by a tnancouvre unworthy the Legislature?
He felt satisfied the proposition would cost the confidence
of the people.

Mr. G. W. WOOD rejoiced much at the manner in
which the feeling address of the Hon. Member for Salford
bad been received by the House, and though his Hon.
Friend had pointed out a middle course to be pursued on
this question, yet he (Ml'. Wou•i) feared, from the tone
and temper manifested by the advoca'es of the Bill, there
was but little chance that a middle course would be adopted.
He, however, hoped the House would not rroceed to ad-
judicate lightly upon this important question. The ex-
isting law had not been proved to be ileffective, and until
it was shown that the proposed prohibition or restriction
would be so, great caution should be used. The Hon.
Baronet (the Member for Oxford) had made a strong ap-
peal to the feelings, by calling upon the House to afford
protection to young women under eighteen years of age,
by passing this Bill ; but he would remind the Hon. Ba-
ronet, that in such en event as the Bill passing with its
present restrictions, those females under 1S would be dis-
charged by the master, and those over 18 years of age,
whether unmarried or marriad, would be employed; an ; if
the latter, the effect upon the stati of society would be

inßt nreindie;al.