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

the Vicar of Leeds, expressing his full approbation of the
Ten Hours' Act, and stating that since the passing
of that Act fifty night school's had been opened, Which
were
would all be closed if the relay system
permitted to remain in force. He (Lord Asli,l??,
contended that if the House, after reeelv`ir';
favourably the proposition of the Hop. Member io
Oldham solely on account of the principle that soit
additional education was needs), were to permit thid
A
Ten Hours' Act to be made null and void,wee,t
hereafter be chargeable with hypccrisy ion•
began to talk of the necessity of educat
The Ten Hours' Bill also had given greater faeil
siiY, t 0
„d
the manufacturing labourer to cultivate patches of ae
for himself. Sanguine as ho had been of
td
to
measure, it had done more than he expe,. •
when
and no one could say that the reople in the facto
districts were not in the highway to social facto)
tivation and improvement. The Noble Lord then !sal:
statements from different parties, both lay and cleric .
in the factory districts, all of whom bore testimonY t;e.,
that
the good effects of the Ten Hours' Act, and stated
belief that the relay system would undo all the geed t.ea„,
bad been hitherto ffeeted in the factory district
by the Ten Hours' Bill, and would reduce the people 130
that state of semi-barlarisin in which they were b
that beneficent measure passed. He had now P-1;
before the House the state of the poor, the band
the legislation that had taken
effect that was likely to be produced by amt istake tent
had been made, and which he was anxious o rectify
by the measure he sought now t introdue'a
The Noble Lord concluded by moving for leave to brig
in the Bill of which he had given notice.
claimed
Mr. EDWARIJS seconded the motion, and T►iat
Place, aud
the indulgence of the Bettie f,r a short time.
"1"
question mightily affected the neighbourhood in t
he resided; and to show the interest felt in the subjee
he called on the House to witnese the men in the ga
deroy
—(Laughter.) Ile maintained the working ehissesa
his district were against the relay system; it was i;to
which would Lever answer, and be never submitted io
by the people of England. Besides, be contended it an!
ectf.
impracticable, for unless they employed new inspa
ti
he could not see how persons working 15 hoursa
could be discovered to have worload more than 10 hoine
consecutively. The speed of the machinery bad bedeubscu.
much increased, that sery little difference exi'tel2
tween the present system and the former system °h
ire
hours labour. The men of Lancashire and Yorksh
wanted the Act of 1847 to be carried out in its trutoa
spirit and integrity, and it was their determination
urge the Government to do so—a task, he believed, tlie4
would accomplish, seeing that they had been 30 yesile
struggling to obtain the boon already granted thew'. de
had always been a Protectionist; but since free tlaee
came into operation ho bad not opposed it; and this in%
could say, that in Bradford thousands of the viol tl
classes who two years ago were starving in the stn
eye
were now fully employed.—(Hear, hear.) It vv" is
same in his own neighbourhood, but it was not s°.
Lancashire, and he had been ii.f e•meel that the fora'
markets were absolutely glutted with English man 0
tures. He believed the matter should be settled at o.
and fn. ever s , and the working classes would then Pe:.
satisfied. He would implore of those in that Wh.
ii ho?e families, like his own, had arisen from the indir:
try of the working classes, to show their gratitude lobe
that occasion, by supporting the Bill brought in by
Noble Lord the Member fur Path.
The moton having b en put from the Chair, ha
Sir GEORGE GREY said that although certainly
had indulged in the hope that after the repeated !no
protracted discussions which had taken place on
question of the reduction of the hours of labour on eLea'a
tain classes employed in manucactures, although:hed
hoped that after those repeated discussions, they ha eel
arrived at a satisfactory result, and that it vi°ll,_
therefore be unnecessary to revive what could not °a;
carried on without the clashing of interests in the grad
branches of national industry, between whom it was
tie
withstanding all this,i.
so much importance that harmony should exist—
and f the law, were such that he thought his Nob
the present state of eircunastseabei4
Friend was justified in coming to this House and
to
ing a legislative remedy for what he believed to
say
existing evils. He (Sir George Grey) hodueedld,
in o
i nothing of the nature of that remedy ; tp
Noble Lord himself said nothing of it, for he rather f!:
formed the House what the purport of the Bill woula
for
he, than the particular details of it; but eptaa's'e, rhe oe
himself, and looking back to tho part he (Sir Gac);
Grey) had taken in supporting the existing restrietio
on the hours of labour of those employed in,
factories, he believed an amendment was expedient, "Ina'
should as soon as possible be proposed and adopted, vi.t!
the concurrence of those reasonable and moderate anwe''s
who, on former occasions, entertained conflicting vi! e_
on the subject.—(Cheers.) Though that was his d
still he was not prepared to say, after the part he advise
taken, that he would consent to the proposal, or e"Ylia
the adoption of any amendment of the law which woo
be inconsistent, he would not say with the letter, 12;
the spirit of the Act of 1847, or against the object 0!
of protecting women and children for which it was ton-
proposed.—(Hear proposed.—(Hear, hear ) It may be desirable, in e9u,:,
sod ring the question, to recur briefly to the existnT,
state of the law, without going back to the Act of 183
d,
the 3d and 4th of William 4, which enacted that n
young person should work at night, or, in other wohelse
from half-past eight in the evening to half-past hv
in the morning, leaving fifteen hours, and excledieg
females from its operation. The second S(c;
tion limited the hours of labour to twelve 011;
of the fiftceu, leaving an hour and a half for each wee':
It was lawful to employ young persons from half-pas"
five iu the morning
provided the working time did not exceed twelve hours;
to -half- past eight in the eveuing,
and then came the 7 and 8 of Victoria,passed
by which women were classed with and
young persona
subject to the seine restrictions. By the 30th a 315
sections of the Act, the hours of lsbour for children 1A.,:
tween the ages of eight and thirteen, were regulated
and they were worked by what was termed " t' .e sPtera
f relays," as authorised by that Act. The 26th sec,:
tion limited the time of night, as he had already eut
served, from half-past five in the morning to alPas_
in 1847,
eight in the evening, provided they did not exceed tea
hours at continuous labour. No doubt the conflictingt
decisions given with regard to the construction of
clause had led to a great deal of confusion. The in-
Spector of factories entertained the same oPini°ll
Bath,
regarding it as his Noble Friend the Member for
and he was bound to say that successive Governments,
his Right Honourable Friend opposite, the Member for
Ripon, and himself, and the law advisers of the Crowe,
agreed in that opinion. But his Noble Friend must be
aware that the opinions of secretaries of state and
legal advisers of the Crown were of no authority."'"
that opinions which were binding could only be de
'
clared by competent courts of justice, by the aeg
of
is
tes, add ultimately by one of their supreme
judicature. After the construction put upon it by the
judges of the Court of Exchequer—a construction
fte arr
proved of by the Lord Chief Baron—and of which, a.
reading it aitintively, he (Sir G. Grey) had not a wora
to say—it did, in his opinion, render that clause, instead
courts
tra
of being a benefit, as it was intended, a positive injury.
The fact was, that section fixed the same hoar for the
commencement of their work of all parties in the facto-
ries, bnt under the working of the system, and the inter-
vals of rest allowed, the period of terminating it might
vary, provided the whole time employed did not exceed
ten hours. That construction was open to great and se
, rious objections, not only t the operative classes but to
the employers of labour ; and it was, therefore,
desirable
that the law should be made clear and distinct and unim-
pechable, to prevent the inconvenience which must ne-
cessarily follow to both parties, if they did not adhere
strictly to the law as now laid down by indisputable au-
thority. The objects of the limitation of hours of labour
were two ; first, a physical object ; for one of the many
grounds laid down during the discussion of the Bill by
his Noble Friend and others was, that such a system as
applied to young persons and females was physically
injurious ; that it deteriorated their health, shortened
their lives, and altogether destroyed bodily vi-
gour.—(Hear, hear.) But he (Sir George Grey)
differed with his Noble Friend in saying that the system
of relays or shifts was necessarily inconsistent with the
attainment of that object. Relays wee analogous to a
case where a young perion was employed, nominally, at
continuous labour with the same set, as it was termed,
or, in other words, the set was engaged to work—but
all connected with it did not do so at the same time.
Some were therefore set to work at six o'clock,
others at eight, and so on; but those who went to work
at six leaving elf two hours earlier than those who wort
to work at eight. The " shift" system was, however,
different, for the same persons may be employed
throughout the whole range of fifteen hours, and may
come at half-past five o'clock in the morning and go
away at half past eight iu the es enieg. They may also
not work more than ten hours, and his Noble Friend had
overlooked the fact that the phySical objects may be at-
tained under either system. On that account he did not
object to the system of " shifts" or " relays" on the phy-
aical part of the question; but when he came to the
moral objection it was quite a different thing.—(Loud
cries of " Hear, hear.") He (Sir George Grey) con-
fessed, however, that his Noble Friend, in speaking of
the state of the law, lost sigh; of the distinction
betwe el the different classes in the factories,
and that whatever might be tho intentions of Par•
liainent towards women and young children, no doubt
existed that legal restriction was never intended on adult
labour. Many of his Noble Friend's observations ap-
plied to the adult system, and although he (Sir George
Grey) did not say his Noble Friend had no cause to do
so, yet it was hardly
fair to say that restrictions were
necessary, when it was the clear intention of Parliament
in passing the Act to impose none whatever. But it
moralh good of women and young persons, that they
was avowedly its intention to promote the social and
should
get proper religious and moral instruction, and
enjoy proper recreation, and that women should
bo enabled to attend to their domestic affairs; and he
was bound to state—and he did so with great satisfaction
—that the results in that view had been all that the
most sanguine advocates of the principle could wish.—
(Cheers) From the reports he received from ministers
of religion, and indeed from all quarters, he was bound
to say that young persons and women had shown that
they duly appreciated the benefits they derived from the
Ten Hours' Bill.—(Cheers.) Schools had been opened,
instruction given on religious subjects, industrial pur-
suits—such as needle-work—taught, so necessary to the
domestic comfort and convenience of the poorer classes.
and every aaticipat: on realised to such a degree, that all
who supported the Bill had great reason to be thankful.
He remembered a prediction which was uttered
during the discussion, that the employers of labour would
not give the Bill their hearty concurrence after it pils3.'d
into a la,. Now, he must say, in justice to the mal-
oa ne~s, that the results he had described were in a g.re as
measure owing to the cordial concurrence they had given
in carrying it into effect. It was competent fur them to
keep time in their mills from half-past five in the morn
ing ur til half-past eight, without, of course, subj
ecg
them to more than ten contipmous hours' libour, and it
was because they allowed time for instruction that these
great benefits had been derived to the working classes.