The Sun.
London, England, 1850-03-15 00:00:00

with the Eastern Counties Company or with the con- '
tractor for the working of the line was for the present
hopeless, and it might be advisable for the directors to
shut up the line until the railway system in that particu-
lar part of the country was sufficiently developed, so as
to afford enough traffic to cover the working expenses.
Mr. MORTDIER, a director, stated, in answer to a
shareholder, that the ultimatum offered by the Eastern
Counties Company was to this effect—to finish the line
for them as far as Cambridge, to give 1 per cent. upon
the paid-up shares—that the unpaid shares should be
forfeited, and that the duration of the debentures should
be extended from four to ten years, and that the holders
of them should consent to a reduction of interest from
51. to 31. per cent. The directors were, therefore, en-
tirely left in the hands of the debenture-holders, who had
refused to accede to the terms, on the ground that they
were not sufficiently fair.
It was stated, in reply to further questions, that the
purchasing of lands and conveyancing would amount to
14,0001., and the construction of the line to 23,000 L,
making a total of 37,0001. Six and a quarter miles of
the line had yet to be made. The directors would not
make a further call until they had exhausted every
means in their power to recover the arrears of calls.
The report was then received.
A resolution was next adopted, directing the board to
make every exertion to obtain payment of calls, and t)
forfeit all shares in respect of which the parties holding
them were not able to pay the arrears.
The retiring directors and officers were then re-elected,
and after a vote of thanks to the Noble LOrd, the meet-
ing separated.

country in which his future lot was cast. In principle,
this part of the plan of conditional pardon was
similar to that of the " passholders" created by Lord
Stanley, from whose wages a reduction was made. He
considered it of importance that convicts should be as
much as possible dispersed, as the bringing together a
large number was a source of much danger, and with
that view the Government had been anxious that they
should be dispersed not only in those colonies where
they were already sent, but also in as many different
colonies as possible. Unfortunately the attempt made
to gain that end was frustrated by the opposition of cer-
tain colonies to receive convicts, and as those colonies
had not originally been penal settlements, Government
had not thought itself justified in endeavouring to over-
rule that resistance. New South Wales also must now
be considered as in the same position, so large a portion
of its inhabitants having gone there since it had ceased
to be a penal colony, as to give them a right to have it
considered as a free colony. Van Diemen's Land, how-
ever, was originally established as a convict colony,
large sums had been expended on it by the Government
with a view to carry out that purpose, and the free in-
habitants who had gone there had done so with their
eyes open, and ought not to expect any extra-
ordinary indulgence. If they sent convicts to the
colonies, they should take the utmost care that
it should not bo done to the injury of the colonists.
They had altered many and were endeavouring
to alter all the regulations respecting the superintend-
ence and government of convicts that were injurious to
them. But their great object was in sending convicts to
any colony, that free emigration to the same colonies
should be promoted by all means. That would prevent
the evils resulting from an exclusive convict element in
society. Parliament had voted a sum of money fur that
purpose, and they had appropriated it to a certain ex-
tent in sending free emigrants to New South Wales and
other colonies. Tbey had also sent out the wives and
families of such convicts as were reported to have be-
haved well, under certain regulations. In Van Diemen's
Land they had adopted measures to secure a superior
class of colonists. Persons of that class were thereby
enabled to settle there with the greatest possible benefit
to themselves. Practically they got their lands fur
nothing. Several ships had arrived there lately, and the
labourers had obtained employment at once, at wages
varying from 101. to 151. per annum. In the northern
parts of New South Wales, there were the finest pas-
toral lands, of almost unlimited extent. He regretted
the vote of the colonial legislature at Sidney against
sending convicts with tickets of leave there, in conse-
quence of which they had been preventing these
men from going to those parts at present. Free settlers
did not like the seclusion and absolute solitude of these
regions where wool was cultivated. They preferred the
associations of towns. But the growth of wool in these
pastoral regions was just the employment for convicts
with tickets of leave. In Western Australia Government
had determined to establish a very small colony, and
they had sent 70 convicts of the best class there. But it
was not intended that there should be any large number
of coerced convicts in any of the colonies. The con-
victs would be employed in those works which most
developed the resources of the country, in opening up
communications between the colonies, the formation of
roads, &c. He looked forward
~to the greatness and
prosperity of Western Australia, as coal, timber, and
other natural resources existed iu abundance. All they
wanted was sufficient labour. He now had stated what
were the arrangements in progress and in contempla-
tion, with regard to convicts under sentence of trane-
portation. •,.11e was aware improvements might be
made. He had confined himself entirely to the
interests of Great Britain, as the Bill only referred
to that. He regretted the gre it increase in the
number sent .nced to transportation. It had greatly
increased. In 1848 the number was 2,658,
and in 1849 above 3,000, while, a few years before, the
number was about 600. They had formed several set-
tlements, but many of them were over crowded. He was
sure their Lordships would see that the subject was one
of deep importance, and it should be thoroughly under-
stood. He had avoided matters of a controversial nature,
or the motives ascribed to Government, which they did
not entertain. A fiundation had boon laid to establish a
system of convict renal discipline, deterring to offenders,
and beneficial to the country. With these observations
he should move the second reading of the Bill.
The Bill was than read a second time.
STATE OF OUR RELATIONS WITH GREECE.
Lord STANLEY gave notice that to-morrow he
should call attention to the state of our negotiations with
regard to the affairs of Greece, and that he would ask
for information from the Noble Marquis opposite (the
Marquis of Lansdowne) upon the questions arising upon
recent communications made by Russia upon this sub-
ject, and also respecting the precise moment when orders
were sent out to put an end to coercive measures towards
Greece.

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, MARCH: l5, 1850.

Mr. BLAIR presented a petition praying for the re-
peal c f all taxes upon knowledge.
Mr. GOULBURN presented a petition from Bradford
praying for an amendment of the Factory Act.
Mr. VERNON SMITH presented a petition from
Bolton against the relay system in factories.
Mr. F. 0. CONNOR presented a petition, signed by
members of the National Land Company resident in
Manchester, in favour of the winding up of the com-
pany; also petitions from places in Nottinghamshire,
and from Lincoln's Inn, praying for a repeal of the

taxes on knowledge. -
Mr. MACGREGOR presented a petition from Glas-
gow (as we understood) praying for the repeal of the
Excise duty on soap and other commodities.
Colonel SIBTHORP presented petitions from places
in Lincolnshire against the relay system in factories.
Mr. HUME presented a similar petition from factory
workers in Huddersfield.
Mr. BROCKLEHURST presented a similar petition
from the factory population in Macclesfield.
TEN HOURS BILL.
Sir G. STRICKLAND presented petitions from
factory workers in Preston and Bolton in favour of the
_ _

Ten flours Bill.
Mr STAFFORD and Lard JOHN MANNERS presented
similar petitions from Halifax and other parts of tho

manuracturing districts.
Mr. COWAN presented several petitions from differ-
ent places in Scotland against the Marriage Affinity Bill.
Lord JOCELYN presented a petition in favour cf ex-
tending the jurisdiction of county courts.
Mr. BANKES presented a petition from Bolton pray-
ing for an effective Ten Hours' Bill.
Mr. COBDEN presented a petition from the West
Riding of Yorkshire to the same effect.
Mr. ADDERLEY presented a similar petition from
Bolton.
Mr. SPOONER also presented a similar petition from
the same place.
Mr. CARDWELL presented a petition from Liver-
pool against Sunday labour in the Post-office.
SAVINGS' BANKS.
The LORD MAYOR of DUBLIN gave notice that to-
morrow he should put a question to the Chancellor of
the Exchequer on the subject of savings' banks.
RAJA OF SAT TARA.
Mr. HUME moved for a return of the amount of
money paid for the maintenance of Shahoo Maharaj,
the adopted son and heir of Pertaub Shean, the late
Raja of Sattara, of the Ranee, his widow, and the rest of
the family, since the Raja's death in October, 1847, and
the dates on which the payments were made; together
with copies or extracts of all correspondence with the
Ranee, and of the orders sent out to the present time by
the Court of Directors of the East India Company re-
specting the future maintenance of the Raja's surviving
family.
The return was agreed to without any opposition.
GREENWICH HOSPITAL.
Mr. FIUME moved for a return of the prices of various
articles of food, clothing, and household stores bought
for the use of the Royal Hospital at Greenwich, and of
the rate of wages paid to artizans employed in that es-
tablishment; together with the prices of provisions at
Bethlem Hospital; and of bread and meat bought by the
Commissariat Department, during each of the years 1836
to 1849 inclusive (in continuation of a statement in Par-
liamentary Paper No. 189 of Session 1836).—Agreed to,

to suggest an enactment which should remedy the defect
in the Act of 1833; and in the following y ear, doubts
having arisen as to whether the Act of 184-4 really did
prohibit relays, the Secretary of State wrote to the in-
spectors, telling them that as he interpreted. the law the
relay and shift system was interdicted. They had there-
fore the fullest testimony as to the int entions of the
framers of the Bill, but in addition to that toetimony, he
recollected perfectly well, that in the year that the Bill
was before the House be moved an amen dment, which
he carried twice, that the labour of each clay should be
from six to six, with two hours for meals. Now let him
call the attention cf the House to the reason and neces-
sity of the Bill. He remembered well that the Act was
granted not simply upon the arguments relating to health
and suffering, but in order that the working people
should have ample time every evening for domestic re-
creation and moral improvement, so as always to keep
their body and souls in a healthful condition.—(Hear.)
Now, let the House see the effects of the shifts and relay
system. A gentleman writes thus to me...._
Mr. BRIGHT asked if the Noble Lord would give the
name of the writer ?
Lord ASHLEY said he would not. He would state
that the letter was written from Staleybeidge in'Merch,
1849. He would also state, on his word of honour as
a gentleman, that the writer was a preen fully compe-
tent to give information on the subject. The Noble
Lord continued—The writer of that let` er said—" I have
teen to-dray to see some factories which are worked
under the relay systole. * • * In one
factory I found 335 young persons and women
working by relay. They are set out at different
times in the day, so as to bring the actual working
within ten hours. They are sent out of the mill without
any regard to the distance from their homes (some of
them living two miles off ), and without, regard to the
state of the weather.—(llear, hear.) The lads of
thirteen, up to eighteen, and tb e young girls
and women, aro to be seen wande ring about the
streets, and to what temptations to vice and profligacy
they are thus exposed I need not say." There was
another very strong argument against the system of
shifts and relays—it was the utter impossibility of de-
tecting evasions of the law, and the great facilities that
it gave to employers to keep the parties elm ployed during
the whole time, and so as greatly to ,exceed the ten
hours, and sometimes eleven veld twelve. Mr. Inspector
Hall said, in one mill an employer had given work to
more than 1,000 hands, and stated that if he had the
power of distributing his hands, under the relay system,
he should have no difficulty in cheatisag the inspector.
The Noble Lord then went through a aeries of state-
ments by millowners, in order to show that it was per-
fectly impossible to detect the frauds pre ctised in the
system of relays of labour, and then proceeded to say
that seeing that such was the case, upon evidence which
was unquestionable, he had thought ii; 1;o be his duty to
bring in a Bill to reduce, if not to nega Live the evil. In
doing this, he would keep to one pa rticular point of
the mischief arising from the continuity of labour.
—(Hear, hear.) lie would undertake to prove every
single assertion that he made from faeits, so that he
should have the full concurrence of the whole House
in the passing of that Bill.—(Hear, b ear.) They all
remembered the prophecies which had been made re-
specting the Ten Hours' Bill in 1844 and 1847. They
all remembered that it had been unhesitatingly pre-
dicted, that if that Bill was passed, that it would be of
the most serious detriment to the manufacturing in-
terests—that the rate of wages would be most mis-
chievously raised ; and that the trade would
leave the country.—(Hear, hear.) Durirg the debate
of 1844, when the Hoe. Member for Bradford was
making a most eloquent speech, he had said to a friend
who was sitting by his side, " You he ar that glowing
eulogium upon the manufacturing intereets—how will it
be injured by this Bill?" The reply was, " Not at all."—
(Hear, hear, and cheers.) The Eleven Hours' Bill
had now been in operation fur three years,
and the Ten Hours' Bill for two years short of
six months, and yet none of those predicted evils
had occurred. The prophecies had all been falsified.
He remembered that a gentleman now no longer in the
Home, Mr. Mark Phillips, and the Hon. Member for
Lancashire, were heard to cry out that if the Ten Hours'
Bill passed labour would cease and capital be paralysed
in this country—that it would produce a similar result
here to that produced by the resolution of the
Edict of Nantes on the industry of France.
But was that the case ? Since 1848 vast

improvements in machinery bad been made, new mills
erected, and vast sums of money invested in this branch
of trade that were to lead to nothing but ruin. If he
were answered in this way, that they were forced
by the Bill itself to expend all this capital
to meet the changed circumstances, all he could
say was that the Ten Hours' Bill was the best
Act that had been passed for many years. But these
gentlemen were not men to cast their money into the
sea without some chance of a return. The third argu•
meat was that production would be diminished by one-
sixth in proportion to the reduction of time. What bad
taken place ? In the two years, 1845 and 1846, imme-
diately preceding the limitation of time, the exports
of cotton amounted to 20,000,000 yards. In the two
years succeeding that limitation, 1848 and 1849, this
amounted to 24,000,000 yards. The same was the
case with twisted yarn; the increase in that article
amounted to 3,000,000 lbs. A petition which had been
presented from Manchester stated, as a plea,
that a diminution of produce would take place
if this Act passed. He had shown how far this was true.
It was also stated that a reduction of wages would take
place. He would enter on that subject also. He should
show that wages had not been reduced, but on the con-
trary they had increased. He had said there would be
a rise of wages v.ithout any fear of combination, and he
would ask any Member of the House if his predictions
had not been verified. He should be able to
show that very great improvement in the mural, social,
and physical condition bad taken place in consequence
of the passing of the Act, and it was a matter of
astonishment that such beneficial results could have
been produced in so short a period. Ho could
occupy the House from that time until to-morrow in citing
instances to prove the correctness of this statement, but
one or two cases would be a sufficient evidence of the
vital improvement which had taken place throughout the
manufacturing distriete. The first assertion made by
the opponents of the measure was that wages
would be reduced in many instances to the mini-
mum of subsistence. Now, he admitted that wages
had diminished, continued stationary, and increased.
There was not a single instance in which wages had
been diminished where the piece wages had been
brought down one-sixth, in proportion to a reduction of
one-sixth L'of time. In the spinning department of one
mill the reduction of time was one-sixth, and the re-
duct.on of wages one -tenth.—(Hear, hear.) The
gentleman to whom it belonged told him that
the total loss on a mule, calculating the work at
ten instead of twelve hours, was only 5a., but that was
to be divided among four parties, and the difference to
each would consequently be very small. In the manu-
factory or weaving department there was an in-
crease of ss. instead of a loss on a mule, and the
manufacturer told him that the general improve-
ment, in all the hands, was at least 50 per cent. In
no instance had the wages beea reduced one sixth ; in
some instances they had risen, in others they had been
reduced ; but not more than one-seventeenth. He ven-
tured in the year 1844 to tell the House a few home
truths, which be would now take the liberty of repeating,
because the life of the working roan was made up with
small details. Ile would show that the working man
had been more than compensated for any re-
duction that might have taken place in his wages
from reducing the number of hours from twelve
to ten, by his improved condition. Now, here was an
instance which was given to him by an operative who
worked in a factory, and which was a fair sample of the
whole state of the factory labourers. Under the twelve-
hour system there was himself and seven chil-
dren who worked in the factory, their weekly earnings
amounted to 21. 155., and after deducting
les. for rent there was left 21. 55. Now this family re-
quired in the course of the week 26 meals,—that was
four meals for five days, and three meals for two days.
Twenty-six meals at Is. 84d, a piece, con-
sumed the whole amount after paying the rent.
Now look how it was under the ten hours. The very
same parties were now working under the operation of
the Ten Hours' Act. Now, allowing for various reduc-
tions, which amounted to about an average of 71 per
cent., the total receipts of the family were 21. Us. a
week. Deduct, as before, les. for rent and other expenses
and it left 21. Is. The saving in the meals amounted
to 4s. ed.; and then came another consideration well
worthy of the attention of the House, Bd. a week was
saved, because the eldest daughter, being no longer re-
quired at the: mills, can make the gowns of the family.
The positive saving, therefore, was ss. 4d. a week. That
operative, and others like him, were better off under the
operation of the Ten Hours' Act than they were with
higher wages under the Twelve Hours' Act, and were,
besides, vastly more improved in health. The clerk of
the St. John's Female Society had informed him that
the number of, members of the society was 300, ofwhom
17.20ths were factory workers. In 1846 and 1847
the aggregate deficiency in their
amounted to 41., but in 1848-9 441;
tchoen t rt
to
loons
es
of income over expenditure amounted
year;
and
and they expected an equal surplus th.sistksta
great
that officer also reported --e` My opinion
saving has been effected here, and the general health of
improved
the population has been considerably
since the Ten Hours' Act came into operation."
The Odd Fellows in connexion withirhathtoofNilrtseesli
leyan Methodists bore similar testimony.
was a sufficient proof that the system was good,
the recreation thus
and it was ascertained
obtained proved instrumenthatolhianst prolonging the working
pin the onaesres, instead of being
life of the operative, and the
at the age of 40,
superannuated, as was formerlyksfor many years longer.—
are now kept off the fallen
there was the assertion that
(Hear, hear.) Well, then,
the ve'd would use the time thus
the persons thus
surcehl,ehowever, was not the case, for
allowed badly.
reports from clergymen,
he had letters and
school-
masters, and other persons in similar capacities in great
numbers, and the whole of them concurred in stating
that the leisure timo was
most usefully employed.—
(lacer, hear.) The young women were known to go to
the evening schools in order to learn reading, writing,
and needle-work, and they who were formerly unable to
darn a stocking or mend a petticoat, were now enabled
not only to mend, but to make their own and their
children's clothes ; so that the expense which had for-
merly been incurred for this object, and which WAS a serious
drain upon the resources of the family, was now all
saved.—(He hear.) By the report if Mr. Homer,
who was engaged in one of the most important of the
manufacturing districts, he found that the subscriptions
to the burial clubs had very greatly decreased in his
neighbourhood, and that chiefly in consequence of
the reduction of the deaths of children
under five years of age.—(Bear, hear.) And this
be ascribed solely to the opportunity of the woman
being able to attend to their domestic duties,
and fulfil the duties of wives and mothers.
The NQ ale Lord then proceeded to read a letter from