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

in the power of the Executive to institute a suit
and give the damages, by way: of compensation,
to the party injured. The regulations regarding
children were not at present the same in silk
mills as in cotton and other factories, and he now
proposed to bring silk mills under precisely the same
regulations in respect to children as other factories.
He had mentioned the principal provisions in the Bill, with
the exception only of that portion of the Bill. of last
session to which attention had been more especially
directed. He did not mean to interfere with that por-
tion of the Bill which prescribes the rules regarding
education.—(Hear.) A child from eight to thirteen
years old he proposed should not be employed continu-
ously formore than six hours and a half, and that the other
portion of the day should be devoted to education. The
Government last year proposed to do something with re-
spect to the quality of the education given to the chil-
dren in factories. The enactments throughout the
existing law of factory education were, he was
afraid, almost illusory, for persons had been
employed that were little qualified, indeed, even for du-
ties so humble as those entrusted to them. Even the
stoker of the furnace was occasionally to be found
acting the part of schoolmaster ; and there was an
undeniable want of every proper facility and appa-
ratus in the shape of books and other requisites. in
fact, the system had been one not of education, but bf
mere confinement, leaving the children without illy
knowledge or instruction whatever. He (Sir James
Graham) was, however, bound to state, that
these evils were giving way, under the force of public
opinion, to a better state of things, and he indulged the
hope that there were now many millowners who were
sincerely anxious to supply the means of instruction to
those employed by them. The experience of last year,
however, had determined him not AO' interfere with the
quality of the instruction now offered.—(Hear, hear.)
It had been the hope of the Government that a measure
providing scriptural teaching, superintended by the vi-
gilant inspection of officers appointed by the Privy
Council on Education, would meet with general con-
currence. He confessed that that hope, in his mind at
least, had vanished. Reliance must now be placed, and
it was not a vain reliance, after what they had lately
seen, but he confessed that with him it was a confident
hope—reliance must be placed on the honest rivalry
which had arisen between the Church and the Dissenters, .
by whom he trusted great efforts would be made to dif-
fuse amidst the immense masses of the population sound
general knowledge in connexion with scriptural instruc-
tion. He was quite satisfied that if good schools were
established in the manufacturing districts the people
would have sufficient discrimination 'to prefer them to
bad schools. If the Legislature provided that the children
should have sufficient leisure for instruction, he was confi-
dent that they would be instructed, and instructed in a
manner infinitely superior to anything that had yet been
witnessed. At all events he was not prepared at pre-
sent, either directly or indirectly, to interfere with the
quality of the instruction to be afforded ; all that he
asked the House to do was, to alloW leisure to the chil-
dren, which would secure for them, without being over-
strained by labour, an opportunity of attending the
school for at least three hours every day, with the ex-
ception of Saturday, which was a' half holiday. He
would express an earnest hope that the effect of the dif-
fusion of knowledge, based upon soundprinciples of in.
struction and upon religious truth, would have the effect
of averting that which, if left unchecked, would be a
source of the greatest and most serious national injury
—the evil of a dense population living without know-
ledge, without instruction, and withOttt religion. The
Right Hon. Baronet then moved for leave to introduce a
Bill to amend the Factory Act.
Mr. lIUME said he was surprised that the Govern-
ment should continue to introduce measures like that
which had just been announced. If they interfered
with any class in this manner they should interfere with
all. • They should not confine themselves to the em-
ployment of one class at particular times, but they
should extend the measure to every branch of manu-
factures. It would appear as though experience were
lost upon those who made these attempts at legislation.
Here were parents, children, and manufacturers all in-
terested in the subject of employment as one affecting
the means of subsistence, and yet the Government were
attempting to throw every difficulty in the way of its
fair exercise. It would be much better if the iovern-
ment would take into consideration the cause of that
anxiety to which reference had been made. It was the
want of employment. What was it which pre-
vented employment ? Bad legislation. Why not
remove that instead of attempting to bolster
up evils by this patchwork legislation ?. All
experience showed that measures of this kind
could not succeed, and he was anxious that
the Government should look to causes and not
attempt to correct the results of bad legislation.
They ought not to restrict the employment of children
in one manufactory, and leave it unrestricted in another.
Education should be made a national object, and they
should require that every child should be educated. He
greatly deprecated the requiring certificates, considering
it extremely objectionable. It was to be provided, too,
that in all instances of accident, loss of limb, or injury,
an action at law might lie against the proprietor of the
factory. Why should not railway companies and other
bodies be subjected to the same process.? He thought
that this part of the measure required to be well con.,
sidered. If there ever was a demand upon the Govern-
ment, it was that they should provide an efficient mea-
sure of general education, leaving religion to the different
religious sects. But the present measure was one to
which he entertained the strongest objection.
Mr. STUART WORTLEY said he believed

there could be no greater evil than the absorp-
tion of the bulk of the female population in
factory employments. lie deprecated the system of
employing persons in factories for so long a period as
that contemplated by the Bill. His Right lion. Friend
had referred to the authority upon which he founded
the measure he was now about to bring in, and said that
it was derived from the Inspectors of Factories, but he
(Mr. Wortley) wished that his Right lion. Friend bad
paid more attention to some suggestions which had been
made by those gentlemen. Mr. Saunders, in his last

Report: had stated, in language than which nothing
could be stronger, that the labour of persons of the age
contemplated in the present Bill should in no instance
be allowed to exceed eleven hours during the day. Mr.
Horner expressed a similar opinion also. He thought
with those exceptions that the measure was likely to
effect much good, and to improve the operation of the
present Act.
Mr. HINDLEY felt glad that this Bill had been in-
troduced, because he thought it would be an improve-
ment upon the former Act. He perfectly concurred with
the Hon. Member who had just sat down, that an alte-
ration should be made in the number of hours during
which it was proposed to require the young persons to
labour, and that this subject required the most serious
consideration of the House. He should wish the Hon.
Member for Montrose, who took a very abstract view
of this question, to consider the facts of the matter. He
(Mr. Hindley) considered that while the Government
allowed certain privileges to the manufacturers, they also
should retain the right to themselves of inter-
fering when a system was • adopted which was
likely to produce great physical and moral evils.
They heard much of their wealth and of their great pro-
duction; hut if that vast amount of production was tak-
ing place at the sacrifice of the health, morals, and in-
telligence of the people, it might be purchased, like gold,
too dearly. They had been told that their interference
in this subject would endanger their foreign commerce.
This he disproved by showing that, under the present
Act, the manufacture of cotton had increased 130 per
cent. Public opinion was in favour of the reduction:of
the amount of human labour ; he alluded to the exer-

tions made by the drapers' assistants, and the persons
employed in other occupations, to procure a curtailment
of the hours of labour. The drapers of Manchester had
ceased to employ their assistants on Saturday after-
noons. There was a general impression that human la-
bour had been too much employed in this country; that
it had been tasked till human strength sank beneath it.
He contended that, with respect to the cotton trade, a
shortening of the hours of labour would be attended
with advantage in rendering the amount of labour
more proportionate to the limited supply of cotton they
had this year received from America. He urged
on the Government the propriety of taking
up this question in a right and determined
spirit. It was not for him, as their political opponent
(as he generally was), to tell them what to do in order
to brii.g the people of England around, them in sup-
port of their exertions. They had the means of doing
so, by showing a determined spirit in support of the in-
terests of the labouring classes.

Lord ASHLEY said the House was well aware how
inconvenient it was to discuss the principle of a Bill in
its earliest stage.—(Hear, hear.). He :therefore would
not attempt to occupy their attention at that moment,
but he could not feel satisfied without rising to express
his gratitude to the Government for the advance they
had made.—(Hear, hear.) He would not advance his
own views and sentiments then, but. simply repeat his
thanks to Ministers for the advance now made.—

;Cheers.)—Leave was then given to bring in the Bill.
POOR-RATES IN IRELAND.

Major MACNAAIARA, on behalf of Mr. F
French, moved for a return of dates on which, and the
places where, the military or police have been employed
in enforcing the collecticn of poor-rates in Ireland,
between the Ist day of January, 1843, and the Ist day
of January, 1844 ; specifying the number of men em-
ployed, and the amount collected, on each occasion; and
also a return of the date and amount of each rate made
in the different poor-law unions in Ireland, under the
provisions of the Act 1 and 2 Vic. e. 56, for the more
effectual relief of the destitute poor in that country;
specifying the amount of each rate remaining uncollected
on the Ist day of January, 1844.
SELECT COMMITTEE ON RAILWAYS.

Mr. W. GLADSTONE moved, that the Select Com-
mittee on Railways should consist of the following gen-
th men :—Mr. William Gladstone, -Mr. Labonchere,

Lord Seymour, Mr. Wilson Patten, Viscount Sandon,
Mr, Gishorne, Lord Granville Somerset, Sir John East-
hope, Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Russell, Mr. Patrick Maxwell
Stewart, Mr. Green, Mr. Maclean, Mr. 'I homely, and
Mr. Cardwell.

Mr. WALLACE said, he should now propose the
amendment of which he had given notice, and which
was to the effect that no person should be on the Com-
mittee who had a direct interest in any railway. In
doing this, ho believed he was bringing under the con-
sideration of the House, no novel principle, but one
which had obtained for a very considerable time—
namely, that no Honourable Member would allow his
name to remain on a Committee o
wh had a direct pecu-
niary interest in the matter on which that Committee
had to sit. Before he went further, he wished to state
that what he had advanced last evening in reference to
a railway in his own immediate locality was
strictly and substantially correct, and that the concession
11111(10 by the Government, on the subject of the railway
tax, instead of being used, as it ought to have been, to
diminish the fares of the third-class-carriages' had been
used b y the directors to enhance their own dividends.
lustel4 of reducing fares, they thereaud rtofits, so tha t