The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-14 00:00:00

THE F

BILL

(From the Times.) 1
The desperate tenacity with which Ministers stick to tiler
twelve hours of factory labour, is something which stands
quite alone in our times. Really there would be a degree of
heroism about it, but for the utter miserableness of the ob-
ject.. Many occasions have there been in Sir Robert Peel's
life when he might have shown himself a groat man. We
will not say that lie has entirely thrown them away; but lie
has most unhappily reserved the cream and flower of his
strength for an ignoble and inevitably unsuccessful war with
labouring women and children. The only account of his ob-
stinacy is to suppose that now, as on some former emergen-
cies, the Premier is not entirely his own master. We do
think better of him than to believe he really does stake the
prosperity of the empire, including that very prosperous cir-
cumstance, his own possession of office, on the first and the
last hour of the factory woman. And, after all, it is conso-
latory to remember that Sir Robert has not so wholly and
inseparably identified himself with the Govermiaent Bill as
the Home Secretary.
But with what a singular ill grace does this unwonted tena-
city now show itself, considering how many things great and
sacred have been touched—yes, touched in the strongest
sense, handled, abstracted, mangled, and even destroyed.
But it is capital, capital invested in factories, and, by an in-
direct but probable consequence, capital invested in land,
which is now in danger. Of all things, wealth in every
shape is the most cowardly, suspicious, and touchy. It is the
most thin-skinned of all the children of selfilmess. The miser

might as* well be flayed alive, for any comfort he has of
his hoard. A hungry mouse stirs behind the wainscot,
and he imagines a dozen robbers ransacking his chests. He
is shipwrecked, and, leaving his wife and children to the
sailors, he instinctively ties his bag of money to his neck, and
dies the natural death of a dog. His house is on fire; he
runs away from his terrified family, and nothing is heard of
him till, when all is over, the firemen find in some hiding-
place .a few calcined bones, and among them a fused lump of
gold and silver. So, after the nation has borne everything,
swallowed everything, sacrificed everything, done every.
thing, laughed at every terror and every scruple, at last it
makes a stand—for what ? pro aria ac fotis? No. For
twelve hours' labour a day I
The isle is frighted from its propriety. It is terrified by a
vision of bankruptcy. It imagines the whole of its wealth
running out; a universal unproductiveness of capital—a great
blight on money. Who have caused this panic P The factory
women and children. To the disordered senses of the capi-
talist that feeble cry is a voice of thunder, that small loss a
tremendous defalcation, that hour or two of leisure a univer-
sal standstill of labour and machinery. So it has always
been. Forty years ago the northern manufacturers wrote,
subscribed, published, and published again, the same terrors,
the same exaggerated statements, the same melancholy pre-
dictions of universal ruin, as Sir James Graham now intro-

Luces to the House with so much pomp of sympathy from
he Manchester millowners. Of course they had some
truth on their side, otherwise it is not to be supposed that se
many honest men would have published what they did.
The particular custom which they considered the palla-
dium of British prosperity, and in behalf of which they so
strenuously deprecated all legislative interference, was that
of working their apprentices by relays during the whole of
the 24 hours, so that the engine never stopped night or day.
In their fervid and inventive fancies a single hour's stop-
page was utter ruin. Their calculations to prove this point,
were elaborate, ingenious, and, of course, quite infallible.
They made quite as much of the twenty-fourth hour as their
degenerate sons, with the assistance of Mr. Senior, have
made out of the eleventh hour. However, Parliament ven-
tured to pass an Act prohibiting the employment of Appren-
tices during any of the nine night hours, thus reducing the
daily task to fifteen hours. The manufacturers were not
utterly ruined, but rather the contrary, though they remon-
strated a good deal at first. So thoroughly is it the nature
of the capitalist to exaggerate into mountains the most
trifling impediments to wealth—to dream of the workhouse
and the gaol in the midst of growing heaps and improving
dividends. Exquisitely and painfully susceptible of danger,
he hears the faintest rustle in the leaves, and is ready to
drop with terrors—et corde et genibus tremit.
The British people are by nature brave, confiding, and
hopeful. It gets over difficulties by not seeing them, and is
not defeated through being unconscious of defeat. But all
this will be changed if it allows itself to borrow its tone
from the craven spirit of the capitalist, whether that capi•
talist derive his wealth from horses or from horse-powers.
It may as well go to learn greatness in the parlour of the
money-lender, and largeness of mind at the stall of the
huckster. Your monied men are great in their place. Lettliem
be attended to on currency and revenue. But beware how
you °diver up to the rigorous demands of mercantile con-
venience all the women and young persons in the most po-
pulous districts of the empire. We see in these debates a
something rusty and leprous diffusing itself through the mind
of Parliament. The rust of gold and silver is the worst Of all
rusts, because it is invisible. Other corrosions stain the
hands, or the garment ; the secret canker of gold poisons the
soul, and makes it callous to social appeals of the most ap-
palling and sacred urgency.
Certainly it is a day of deterioration and ignominy which
is marked by such portents as the sudden recantations we
have lately witnessed. Mr. Gaily Knight with his " time
to get sober," and Mr. Liddell reproaching Ministers for
their inconsiderateness in not having earlier let their sup-
porters know how much they staked on the question, are
prodigies. The Act must mean more than the authors are
aware of. It is so unnaturally base. We view them scarcely
as conscious agents, but as ordained types of truckling, for
the warning of the age. The sacred nature of the cause—
the monstrous inequality of the compromise—justify the mind
iu imparting a little of the preternatural to this history.
Surely these two persons are meant to be remembered— not
merely as Ministerial dummies, not merely as Parliamentary
men of straw, but as mementos to • a selfish and sentimental
age of the dangers attending susceptible feelings, showy
Virtues, and weak resolves. • Whenever we hear of gratui-
tous professions of kindness, ending in as gratuitous a cut
direct, we shall be reminded of Mr. Liddell and Mr. Gaily
Knight.
Nothing 'his occurred within our recollection so calculated
to destroy the sympathy and confidence of the • people, as
the whole discussion of this question. How can the people,
already scarcely aware of any benefits received, respect a
body which seems so loth to help them at any risk, and
which is so ready to rescind its decisions in their favour ?
It already suspects Parliament to be a mere function of the
Government. The rejection of Lord Ashley's measure would
certainly go some way to countenance that, impression. Yet
how dangerous just now to efface from the popular mind all
trust in Parliament, and refer the people to themselves for
legislation and deliverance ! Such, however, is the advice,
not of Chartists, not of Whigs, not of Mr. Ferrand or Mr.
Muntz, but of Ministers themselves. They remand all
ameliorations, even those of the most unquestionable and de-
sirable kind, even the protection of women and minors, to the
internal and spontaneous workings of the labour market.
" The law cannot help you ; help yourselves. You have
heretofore, struck for more wages, and got them. Why do you
not strike for less time ?"
Very well. This is not our way of effecting great social
improvements •, we would rather have them done by the
nation. But if the Government will not do them,. and leaves
the matter in the hands of the people, we have nothing to
do but to acquiesce.
(From the Herald.)
No one, we suppose, even of the warmest advocates of the
long•hour system, will attempt, to deny, that the adherence
of the Government to that system, however conscientious,
has inflicted the most serious• injury on the Conservative
cause that it has sustained since the last grand mistake in
1829. That injury, too, is wide-spread, and consists of many
parts. One of these, and by no means a slight one, is the
deterioration of the character of the House of Commons.
This is too often the forerunner of some hazardous organic
change. In 1828, one-half of the House
•of Commons reso-
lutely opposed the Romish claims. In 1829, on the word of
command being given, nearly one hundred members were sud-
denly converted, and simultaneously discovered that to be
just and necessary, which, only twelve months before, they
had declared to be unjust and dangerous. From that instant
a deep resolve was taken in hundreds of thousands of British
bosoms to reform, i. e., to punish, to break up, and utterly to
remodel an assembly, the conscience and principle of which
were seen to be a mere pretence. And the people, having
so resolved, did not long want an opportunity or
an instrument. The dissolution of 1831 remitted the
question to their decision, and wherever there was any real
constituency, in nineteen cases out of twenty, the re-
sponse was, " Away with the borough system, which pro-
duced the disgusting exhibition of 1829, and let U 3 have
almost 'any change, almost any system, rather than that.'
There were two features in the calamity of 1829 which are
most painfully recalled to mind by some of the events now
passing. One of these is the incongruous mixture of parties
which took place at that period, as now. The Conservatives
effected their own destruction by casting themselves into the
hands of the Liberals; and these latter were only too happy
to greet with the greatest warmth the conversion of their
opponents to. their own views, assured that the common sense
of the nation would soon adjudge that if the country was to
be governed on liberal principles, it ought to be governed by
liberal men. The nation did so decide, and it took only a few
months to carry that judgment into execution. Another un-
pleasant feature is the occurrence every now and then of in-
dividual conversions, as we saw them in 1827-1828 (the
Brownlows, &c.), in which men, after voting consistently and
steadily for one view of the question, suddenly became, con-
vinced of their error, and passed over to the opposite ranks;
assigning reasons (as they were called) which to other men
seemed the most miserable apologies for changing sides, and
forced the hearers.to suspect, by their very weakness, that
some other cause, which it was not so convenient to explain,
had in reality worked. those conversions which, upon the face
of them, seemed utterly inexplicable. 'We were grieved to
the very heart to behold this dry-rot• again , infecting the
Conservative body, and:-especially so when the two speeches
of the new converts of Friday night, Mr. Liddell and Mr.
Gaily Knight, reminded us .so forcibly of those droppings be-
fore the storm of 1829 to -which we have already alluded. No
two speeches of such brevity, we will 'venture to say, were
ever before fraught with so much loos and -damage to the
party to which, the speakers belonged, - Infinitely better
would it have been to have calmly and quietly changed sides,
without making any remark' about it, than to
rather o hatvhearctialule b.d
the attention of the public to such reasonings,
stitutes for reasoning, as these. One of the gentlemen chiefly
regietted that, on the former occasion, 3linisters had not
•sisore Efrrttlkly declared the firmness of their determi-
diakisoilsisarnuch as he quite believed that. if they had
'-atiViSnit, Wetly Members who had voted against them would
Vbteil for them! He himself, as well as others, had
imagined, in the former debate, that they were allowed the
exercieilbf their own judgment.. He now, however, found
vat it a4' made .a point of" by the Government; and be-
lieving that the Government knew best, and were actuated
by{ the•most conscientious motives, he would leave the matter
;in their! -heads, and- would restore to them his support. The
drift of all this is, that however Mr. Liddell may like a little
liberty at times, yet that, whenever the Government chooses
to be pOSitive and peremptory, he is prepared to fall into the
ranks, and do as he ;is bid. Upon this principle of " confi-
dence in Ministers"—even in a question of working a poor
-.factory girl more hours than her constitution will bear—it is
evident that Mr. Lidell might vote for making the girls work
-20 hours out of the 24, as well as for 12 ; for, in truth, he
surrenders his own judgment, the moment the Govern-
ment becomes • resolute; and merely leaves it to them
to say for what measure he shall vote. But is this
the proper and dignified course for an English county
Member? Still -more intolerable, if thatsbe possible, is the
plea of the other convert, Mr. Pally Knight. The question
of a ten hour clause has now been before Parliament for more
than a dozen years. It has been often argued in Mr. Knight's
hearing. Only last month it was discussed in three or four
long debates, spread over a period 'of ten days. After listen-
ing to all this discussion, after hearing even the able speeches
of Sir Robert Peel and Sir James Graham—speeches which
left nothing to be said on that side of the question, Mr. Gaily
Knight, on three several divisions, voted for the ten hour
clause ! He is now going to vote against it ; and he very
naturally asks himself. " What has occurred to justify such
a change of opinion, ?" And he answers, "Nothing, except
time for inquiry, time to get sober !" He adds, that " since
the Bill was last under discussion, he had paid great attention
to the subject." That is, he first votes three times on a
question, having the liberty of going away. without voting
he pleases, and then`" he pays great attention to the subject".
and
dy wefnl
followed
etdr u thatmn asuch : exhibitions t iHo nnswie as these,nfcn ni f ontsi
fact, would ruin the character of any assembly as noreason-
able and safe tribunal? .

HOUSE OF LORDS, 11141 g
Their Lordships met at Five.o'Cloclt.
Messengers from the Commons brought up bbvertu-
Bills, which were read a first time.
The Earl of MINTO gave notice that he should. ,
to ,morrow move for a return of the services of her ;
Majesty's ship Queen while in the Mediterranean.
The Common Law Courts (Ireland) Bill passed
through Committee, and was ordered to be read a
third time on Friday.
The Common Law Courts (England) Bill Om.,
passed through Committee, and was ordered to be read
a third time on Friday. - _ - -
The Marquis of NORMANBY postponed till tb-•
morrow his question relative to the appointment 01:
Mr. Gray to the magistrav in Ireland.
LordWHARNCLIFFE postponed his motion with.'
respect to the new Houses of Parliament till FridaY
next.
Lord LYTTELTON presented a petition from
Worcestershire against the union of the sees of S.
Asaph and Bangor.
RAILWAYS.
The Earl of MALMESBURY raid he had not.
quite understood, from the answer which was given,
by the Noble Earl, the President of the Board 01"
Trade, on Tuesday last, to the Noble Earl opposite,
(Earl Fitewilliam) respecting -railways, whether 4
the Government intended to sanction the propositions
which were contained in the report which had been-
made to the Government on the subject of railway&
which propositions involved very important
The object of the first of these propositions was that
the public should be protected against paying. to
. high rates 'of passage, and the next was that the
profits on all railways should be limited to 10 per,
cent., and that in certain cases the Government should
the management of the railways. All example
in his opinion proved that it was inexpedient to place
such matters as railways under the manage-
ment of the Government of the country'
The speech of the Noble Lord had made a great inr
pression on the country ; and he would ask whethei
the Government purposed taking those matters, 111
connexion with the railways, under their
surveillance? Principles.
• - Earl DALHOUSIE was sorry that the tile
Lord did not put the question before the House et
earlier period. With respect to the right of t",l
railway companies to take a certain rate of profit, P:
thought that the Noble Lord opposite ought to have
moved for a Committee to consider it. With regs 7
to the other question, in the event of a dividend
reaching ten per cent., he thought that Governraeo! •
should be at liberty to purchase the lines under eel;
tain restrictions.
After a few words from Earl DALHOUSIE,
Earl FITZWILLIAM said, the point to whiCh LI Lw
evished to direct the attention of the Government
the recent survey which had been compleT
of the United Kikkdom in the establishment of an,
particular line of railway. - •
The matter then dropped.
CRIMINAL LAW.
Lord BROUGHAM said that, in rising to au
areo
their Lordships on the subject of . the criati,t
law of the land, for the discussion of will
their Lordships had been summoned, he 0
not avoid feeling very great anxiety, and 5'44
apprehension, when he contemplated the leVe
great importance of the subject, much Obbs
than he felt the difficulties that might surround.the
task which he had imposed upon himself: He hai'l
• did
forward in extenuation of the offence of putting hoe Akl
forward to begin this discussion—first of all, that he,'"'",,
so most reluctantly, for he had held himself 174
from the subject, as the Noble and Learned
OR the woolsack well knew, and he had °ilea it
pressed his unfeigned disinclination to grapple Wie
—that he had done all in his power to" induce it,
Noble and Learned Lord on the
.woOlsack,, 14.,„(1
his longer experience, with his greater capacity, ept
his powerful influence, both with the GoverllP?". to
and their Lordships, and in the profession'l
which he and his Learned and Noble Friend beinel
to take this important task upon himself, but
refused. But he (Lord Brougham) had no rn"iii
to think that his Noble and Learned Friend lich
be adverse to the proposition with - to
he was about to conclude, and he had no reseli,i
apprehend that any opposition would be shown.teL;ut
the Government. The measure which:he was Toe
to explain had originated in the seven reportse,°to,
Common Law Commissioners, afterwards the
.ptio
nal Law Commissioners. 'That Commission
a,
of
appointed to enter fully into the consideratia:l to
the criminal law of the land, with• a 14°000
its being digested into one general code. e. the
ask how much longer were they to remain Wit re
criminal laws scattered over so-many statutes---wtid
main diffused among so many books, and fictikolt
as it were, only in Westminster Hall ? Bow 01;09
longer were they to suffer the criminal law t0?_..,;•41
main thus diffused, thus locked up—that criPLry
law which they ordered, and commanded
one of their subjects at his peril to disebedst
It was at his peril to be ignorant of them. It.`" e 1
his peril through ignorance to disobey them. Ile .009
that many persons entertained prejudices, is his toil
utterly groundless, against all attempts at dirritteo
the law of England—at making that law av'O'f' the,
text, instead of locking it up in the traditions r•
common law. Lord Mansfield, when at the 14'0;001
said that it was always better that the f'S yor°
law should remain unwritten, because, ssl Acs iti
Mansfield, while it remains unwritten law, it njes:
self pure by rules drawn from the fountaite.viiiP
tice. He (Lord B.) approached these fall' s, i
veneration. He wished to quaff of their 5001. the'
pluck some of those flowers which grew *Nu' • '
margin—

Juvat ictegros acc eciere fontes, be
Juvatque novos aecedere bores. tams
Of the streams which• flowed from those foun"' to
wished them to quaff, and he asked them With
-1,4 he'
cull those new flowers. It did not follow r",iitiog'
cause the law was not wholly reduced to %%
they were therefore -not encumbered with nostt,°
ing or printing. There, were thirty-twe,..l7,es "'
volumes -of public statutes, besides three
..A`l osge,°'
many private Acts, containing 30,000 Prinle-14‘rej
and this was independent of the common laraie
let them look at the common law,- on w"f,ted
to
Mansfield laid- so much stress., - It .03115,,,-.
the decision of the judges, who had ""- o°7o
up their minds in nine cases out of ten 'o
conflicting decisions, and to apply tteb'etigl3ty
.sense of what they knew to be the laW, 117 with ty
might not be reduced to writing or cloth °`",io g
authority of judicial decision. What sue' of
number of volumes of these decisionl„„urt/46.
only to common law, and excluding the 'ir ly
equity, which had. accumulated since the' 't,toc'op
the . time when Lord Mansfield ',eft the 0000,
There were 160 closely-printed volume`', °' io
law reports, beside ten volumes of Nisi Frit° ti la W rto
proceeding from the three courts of conloP,h,- ce'Lfir
'Westminster Hall alone, without reckoningt;ssith'..i?
of Equity, sr the Courts of Ireland ; and it
that the judges and the 'lawyers should u`gpseli,
with this mass of printed matter, painful t° ;Ip, ja
and frightful to contemplate. , He ;hell Aritoo
hand a volume of three- hundred elose,'/'45f4
pages, containing- more print than t 140701
of the Code Napoleon, and what did their t dais,
think it was ? Peradventure, it was a tligf:afe;ol
whole of the common law ? No..
it was an index to the whole of the 169 'O, tf.),
reports ? No such thing. It Was en 'e cdie 9°
reports of thecourts of We fc)i,e 103
year, 1842.. A digest of the reports for tesil
years consisted of 8,000 closely printed P-3g-1,00e:
those who had .ceased-to be • students were alt,"
they could, to maketheir own,
_by purchaltieji jto
volumes, and to try to read them .if t 1'1'00:
The judges it behoved to read, to under, viel'e‘jjgeiof
inwardly digest ,that mass, because thef that et
warily called upon to give the results „doe 00,,
1-.1
lion when they passed judgment. Ti,.,„1 tatif 'olw
accumulation was now going on more,v's-aro oe
ever; for every one of these common laW repo, 001
were published half a century ago,
published,' and at' the present
raemlnloeyni in el;:foitlteerbr;
fifty-nine learned rsons were
to • writing the judgments' which,
and: in adding .to this, enormous nif ,rePe'icelvt
This was a mass which it' defied any rperlt ho
procure, any wrath-7 to retain, or illered ,P 0 whA
to understand. Was it then to be went. of. Or resse,
the most venerable of judges and able!
have itoPethil
had written on jurisprudence, should 11;0 scill'ior4t,
on,the Government to reduce thii nu!s3 the ice v"
enable . . otere .01 1,1
like order ;to those who adnun piith J
do it with satisfaction to. themselves.antbe P": 30 P/:.er
the country. . This was attempted I. evibot c„,o
towards the end of the sixth centurY ;
_t too 0,'4
Cfesar and Justinian, two of the greste) coul
lived, had made similar attempts• lifsweorlYit'sio:#lo,l
down to the history of this country. lace the 041 tbot
of Edgar an attempt was wade to pirtitees, light,
ira
plain footing. Lord Bacon, Isla,/ as l that Viola
a digest ought to be made to. give be l,swyert.„,o,
not a different, nature. But it mig",l,ol sij
Baeon shone more as 0: vig.olll.P.ihe :0,
that upon the latter subject he Ord coke :bo
to
1.;,...4 pod
then, what did they - say
that .to repeal many penal. st;at,_.T.o ehef,„,
plain, peripicuous law, div det
_'.,"';'loll how
.:'eoleo:
every subject might_ know- the. Is. 7_09.t. ccoot'e toss!oo
would be necessarily a work the. great P:beho:,,,ity
Sit Matthew Hole, considering tere awn in
the
law hooka had become, and thet_v.tb,, thel'e°,ot
their Lordships table compared
aw.,
corning.s..!;nittee.to
—but, leaving these authorities: 13“
1650 11 C;rP'C°°3llo4ll/
lature itself, they would find
.nin...r6 snoth9 ortof 91 00
with Whitelecke at its head;
..otfed by raeocautiota.oo
sat upon the same subject;
.7;816,wwhet, tbe.3. the
eminence. And, in later times,
e, „tt,- e 4 0 ,er.
• of Parham- ..0.0
come to by both Houses
u, , be per; le'
work of digesting the .law sho dots errolebert „„0,
House of Commons passed a se- it
should be employed for that pu,ry.f4(o,e,itog.v
in 1826; introduced a measure ler.