The Sun.
London, England, 1851-02-24 00:00:00

PROTECTION OF APPRENTICES
AND SERVANTS.
On Friday a Bill was issued " For the better Pro-
tection of young Persons under the Care and Con-
:rol of others as Apprentices or Servants ; and to
evable the Guardians and Overseers of the Poor to
institute and conduct Prosecutions in certain Cases."
The text is as follows :
Whereas it is expedient to make provision for the
better protection of young persons who are under the
care and control of others as apprentices or servants :
Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most excellent
Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the
Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons, in this
present Parliament assembled, and by the authority
of the same,
1. That where the master or mistress of any young
person under the age of eighteen* shall be legally
liable to provide for such young person, as an ap-
prentice or as a servant, necessary food, clothing, or
lodging, and shall wilfully and without lawful excuse
refuse or neglect to provide the same, or where the
master or mistress of any such young person shall un-
lawfully and maliciously assault such young person,—
so that by reason of such refusal or neglect to provide as
aforesaid, or by reason of such assault or assaults, the
life of such young person shall be endangered, or the
health of such young person shall be injured, such
master or, mistress shall be guilty of a misdemeanour,
and being convicted thereof shall be liable to be im-
prisoned, with or without hard labour, in the common
gaol or House of Correction, for any term not ex-
ceeding three years.
2. That the costs and expenses of the prosecution
of any such misdemeanour as aforesaid may be
allowed and ordered by the court before which the
indictment shall be tried, in like manner as the costs
of the prosecution in certain cases of misdemeanour
under the Act of the seventh year of the reign of
King George the Fourth, chapter sixty-four, or may
be allowed and ordered by the Court of Queen's
Bench, in case the indictment shall have been re-
moved into that court.
3. That where any young person under the age
of eighteen shall have been or shall be hired as a
servant from the workhouse of any union or pariah,
or shall have been or shall be bound out as an ap-
prentice by the guardians of any union, or the
guardians or overseers of any parish, it shall be
lawful for such guardians or overseers respectively,
and they are hereby required so long as such young
person shall be under the age of eighteen, and shall
be known to them to reside within such union or
parish respectively with the master or mistress by
whom such young person was so taken as a ser-
vant or apprentice, to cause the relieving officer,
or, where there is no relieving officer, then some
othe officer duly authorised for the purpose, to visit
such young person at least four times in every year,
and to report to them, if he shall find reason to be-
lieve that such young person is not supplied with
necessary food, or is subjected to cruel or illegal
treatment in any respect.
4. That where any complaint shall be made of an
offence against this Act, or of any bodily injury in-
flicted upon any poor person under the age of
eighteen years, for which the party committing it is
liable to be indicted, and the justice of the peace be-
fore whom the examination is taken shall certify under
his hand that he deems its necessary for the purpose of
public justice that the prosecution should be conducted
by the guardians of the union or of the parish, or
where there are no guardians by the overseers of the
parish in which the offence shall have been committed,
such guardians or overseers, as the case may be,
shall, upon personal service of such certificate or a
duplicate thereof upon the clerk of such guardians,
or upon any one of such overseers, conduct the prose-
cution, and shall pay the costs reasonably and pro-
perly incurred therein (so far as the same shall not
be allowed to them under any order of the court
trying the indictment, or of the Court of Queen's
Bench), out of the common fund of the union, or
out of the funds in the hands of the guardians or
overseers (as the case may be) of such parish.
5. That in the case of a union or parish under a
board of guardians, the clerk or some other officer of
such union or parish, and in the case of a parish not
under a board of guardians one of the overseers
thereof, may, if the said justice of the peace before
whom the examination is taken shall deem it neces-
sary for the purposes of public justice, and shall
certify as hereinbefore-mentioned, be bound over to
prosecute.
6. That the words " guardians," " union," " over-
seers," " justice of the peace," " officer," "poor,"
" parish," and " workhouse," used in this Act, shall be
construed in like manner as in the Act of the fifth
year of the reign of King William the Fourth, chapter
seventy-six.
7. That this Act shall extend only to England and
Wales.

' The worth in lta'ics are proposed to be inserted in
Committee.

THE RIOT IN BARHAM- UNION WORK.

HOUSE.

The Ipswich Express, of Tuesday, says—" If we can-
not prove that this over-crowding of the house, and the
subsequent riot, were the results of a wilful and planned
attempt to effect political and selish objects, we shall,
at all events, present such a case as will imperatively
call on the Government to probe this matter to the
uttermost."

'rho riot took pile° on Sunday, the 9th instant.
" Let the reader," says the Express, " remember that
on Tuesday evening—less than f,rty-eight hours after
the riot—Mr. Disraeli stood pledged to introduce in the
House of Commons his motion regarding agricultural
distress ! On the Sunday night, then, we hail 124 able-
bodied paupers in the house, 37 of whom—and amongst
them the principal rioters—had come ia on the
Saturday. On Monday ten out of the number
were., committed to prison, and on the fullow day (Tues-
day) no less a body than 50 of them left ta, house at
their own request! Not a single application had been
made by a farmer for labourers, and yet, the demonstra-
tion being o'er, half a hundred of them suddenly de-
camped."

The Express then asks the following-questions:—
" 1. Was there, or was there not, a prevalent report
that some of the farmers of the Bosmere and Claydon
Union intended to fill the workhouse for the sake of ac-
complishing private and political ends?
" 9.. As a consequence of the feeling outside, were
not acts of insubordination in the union-house fully
expected, and were not paupers as they came in
cautioned by the governor against aiding in a riot?
"3. If the guardians were cognisant of this state of
thicgs, did they matte adequate or reasonable provision
for c'aecking riotous conduct at once?
"4. Has any guardian ever said We'd fill the union-
house to overflowing; that will speak volumes to the
Legislature? '
"5. Have any farmers of the Hundred been heard to
say, We wish the paupers would pull the house down?'
"6. Did a pauper named Pung (one of the rioters),
when charged with a misdemeanour before the maeis-
tratee in the board-room a short time since, tell those
gentlemen that the farmers had told him when he came
to the house to kick up a row?'
' '• 7. 13 it a fact that any farmers in this hundred have
said, in the hearing of their labourers, they wish they
would go into the union-house and kick up a row?'
8. Are the able•bodied paupers Principally from the
wealthiest parishes and from the wealthiest farmers?
" a. Hive not a great majority of the applications for
relief been made within the past month?
" 10. Has a guardian who employed four men, dis-
charged three of them oa the plea that he could not
get his rent reduced?' And did he add, As soon as there
is an arrangement in my rents, send for you?' And
are net there men still in the union?

" 11. Did a pauper, who, on being discharged, said,
I shall have to go to the union,' receive this reply from
his nester, I wish you'd all go; we want to swell the
rates so as to make the landlords and parsons come
down in their rents and tithes?

" 12. Did a guardian ever say, " I wish you'd fill the
house so full that the paupers had to be hung out of the
windows ?' "

....-- -
Our contemporary thus concludes:_" It is out of our
province to place witnesses on oath, and subject them
to severe examinations, but we call on the Govern-
ment to institute a searching inquiry into the case, with
a view of eliciting whether any parties in connexion
with the Barham Board, or other residents in the union,
have encouraged an undue crowding of the house, for the
purpose of effecting selfish and political ends."