The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-07 00:00:00

LIGHT GOLD.

Mr. GISBORNE said he had put a question the other
day to the Right Hon. the President of the Board of
Trade, on the subject of the light coinage which had
found its way back to the Mint, and that gentleman
not being then prepared to answer it, had re-
quested that it might be repeated on a future
occasion. He would now ask if the Govern-
ment were in a situation to give any information to the
House, whether the gold coin which had been called in
had been deteriorated by wear and tear alone, or whether
it had been subjected to sweating, or any other illegiti
mate process ?
Mr. GLADSTONE, on the part of the Government,
begged to sal.- that they had no direct and positive
means of ascertaining the dates of all the light sove-
reigns sent in for re-coinage. Sovereigns of all dates
had been returned, but the great mass of them were of
the reigns of George the Third and the early part of
George the Fourth. Respecting the question, of which
the Hon. Member had been kind enough to give him
notice, whether or not the coin returned had been sub-
jected to the process of sweating or other illegi-
timate process, he could only say that the
Government ha i no means of ascertaining positively if
such were the case or not. As far, however, as a cor-
rect opinion could be founded, it was believed that the
returned coin had not been subjected to such process to
any great extent. The coin generally gave evi-
dence of very great wear, although, of ,course,
in particular cases, illegitimate means of causing
deterioration had been resorted to.
Mr. GISBORNE then gave notice that he would, that
day fortnight, move for a Select Committee to in-
quire into the deterioration of the gold coinage, and
whether any measures could be adopted for preventing
the loss arising therefrom from falling unjustly upon
the people.
Sir H. DOUGLAS begged to ask the. Noble Lord,
the Member for Dorsetshire, whether he intended to
proceed with his motion respecting the affairs of Slade,
on the day stated in the notice paper ?
Lord ASHLEY said it was certainly his intention to
bring forward his motion on that day.
Mr. STAFFORD O'BRIEN begged to ask the Right
Hon. Gentleman, the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
whether he could give the House any explanation of
the discontinuance of the experiments on the Kingston
and Dalkey Atmospheric Railway in Ireland ?
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said
thep os eRd g
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had.
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thafrhbrot
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sufficient tltHp oaworrftahi was
portion o
railway was completed without that condition being ful-
filled ; and it was the process of covering over a certain
portion which had caused the suspension.
IRISH REGISTRATION.

Mr. WYSE begged to ask the Right Hon. Gentleman,
the Secretary of State for the Home Department, at
what period it was his intention to bring forward the
Registration Bill for Ireland, and what would be the
provisions of the measure?
Sir JAMES GRAHAM said he felt great pleasure
in answering the first question which the Right
Honourable Gentleman had put to him respecting
the period at which he should introduce the Bill.
It was his intention, on the part of the Government, to
move for leave to introduce a Bill to amend the law res-
pecting the registration of voters in Ireland before the
Easter recess. As to the particular provisions of the
measure, he hardly thought it could be expected of him
that he should then state what those provisions might be.
He was not aware, that under similar circumstances, it
had been expected of any Government.--(Hear, hear.)
THE RAIL
COMMITTEE.
Mr. WALLACE, seeing the Right Hon. Gentleman
the President of the Board of Trade in his place, took
that opportunity of informing him that previous to the
Right Hon. Gentleman's coming into the House he had
given notice that, on the motion for appointing the Com-
mittee on Railways, he would move a resolution to the
effect that no director or shareholder of any railway
company should be a member of that Committee. He
-now begged to ask the Right Hon. Gentleman ifamongst
the Members whom he intended to appoint upon that
Committee there was any railway director or shareholder?
Mr. GLADSTONE said that he was obliged to the
Hon. Member for Greenock for havik communicated to
him the notice he had given, and he had no difficulty in
giving him all the information in his power in reply to
his concluding question. The gentlemen whom he had
named for his Committee were not selected by
mitt.
directors,
He could however,as far thata s thheisreknwoew
some re.
him, but were nominated at the suggestion of
and say,at least,the gentlemen who formed the previous Com-
eeledge went, one shareholder in railway companies.
The Honourable Member for Reading was Chair-
man of the Great Western Railway. The Ho-
nourable Member for Clitheroe was a Director of the
South Eastern, and two other of the gentlemen were
also railway directors. The two first-named gentlemen
were connected with what were called high fare rail-
ways, and the two last with low fare lines. There was
also the Noble Lord the Member for Totnes, who was
nominated because, as he was a Member of the
late Government, and had been upon the former Com-
mittee, it was thought right that he should be also upon
this. He believed that the Noble Lord was a director
of a new railway. He himself (Mr. Gladstone) was a
shareholder in a railway company ; but he was
not able to give the Honourable Gentleman any further
information as to the constitution of the Committee.
THE RIGHT OF SEARCH.

In answer to a question from Sir C. NAPIER,
Sir ROBERT PEEL said that the whole question
of the instructions to be given to " the comman-
ders of cruisers for the detection of slave ships, had
been referred to a Commission, consisting of Dr. Lush-
ington and Captain Bayne. With regard to instructions
occasioned by negotiations with the United States, he
could only say, that they were consistent with the in-
structions formerly given, but he did not think a due
regard to the public service would allow him to give a
more explicit answer.
Lord PALMERSTON wished to ask whether the
Government had come to any understanding, or made
any arrangements as to the power which the com-
manders of our vessels should have of visiting ships for
the purpose of ascertaining their nationality ?
Sir R. PEEL said the instructions which had been
given this year were the same as those which had been
issued to the officers of her Majesty's Navy in the first
instance.

CEMETERIES IN LARGE TOWNS.
In reply to an HoN. MEMBER, who Inquired whether
it was the intention of Government to introduce any Bill
for the prevention of interment in large cities and towns,
Sir J. GRAHAM said the question of the health of
large towns was at present under the consideration of a
Committee ; and until this Committee had made their
Report, he cou►d not distinctly state what course the
Government intended to pursae.
FACTORIES AMENDMENT BILL.

Sir J. GRAHAM rose to introduce a Bill for the
better regulation of, and to amend the laws relating to,
factories ; and in doing so said that the Bill was similar to
the one he had introduced during the last session, which
had been founded upon the Report of a Select Committee.
His Bill introduced several important alterations and
limitations as to ages and hours of labour. As the law
now stands, the definition of children was between the
ages of nine and thirteen years. He proposed that the
specification be somewhat altered, and that the definition
of children be fixed between the ages of eight and thir-
teen. Ha proposed that children between the ages of
eight and thirteen should not be employed in any one
day fur a longer period than six hours and a half; and
that , they should not be employed both in the
forenoon and the afternoon of the same day.
Respecting young persons, the definition in the
law, as it stands, was between the ages of thirteen
and eighteen years. He did not propose to make any
alteration in this definition of ages, but he should pro-
pose, as to their hours of work, that they should not be
employed in any cotton, silk, wool, or flax manufac-
tory f.)r any portion of the twenty-four hours longer than
from half-past five to seven in summer, and from six to
eight in winter, thus making thirteen and a half hours
of work, with one hour and a half of time for rest. As
the law at present stood, all persons above the age of
eighteen were considered adults, and of their labour
there was no limitation at all. But under
the present law many persons were employed as adults
who were totally unfit for the labour. The Right Hon.
Baronet then read extracts from the report of Mr. Horner,
as to the periods of work required from persons who were
considered adults, and especially from adult females.
With the best consideration that he could give to the
reports and evidence which it had been his duty to con-
sult, he had determined to propose a limitation to the
continuous labour of females, satisfied that the
uncontrolled exercise of their industry was alike
injurious to their health and their morals.—(Hear,
hear.) He also proposed to enact a new limitation
with respect to the way in which back time was now
brought up. and which had led to great infractions of
the law. Where the power had been of a double nature
(steam-power and water-power), whenever loss of time
t givengha had
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should propose a further limitation. Power also was
given to the proper authorities to notify to millowners,
wherever and whenever, in their opinion, machinery
might be considered dangerous ; and if, after such noti-
fication, any accident should occur, it should be