The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-23 00:00:00

souls of their fellow-men. They allowed no time, not
(Hear.) They were dealing now with the bodies laid
even for recreation or education, because the Sunday
was looked to for repose and not instruction. He had
listened to the speech of the Right Hon. Paronet at the
held of the Government, and the Hon. Member for
Clithero, but he had heard nothing from them that did
not apply equally to the existing law as,to that proposed
by his Noble Friend the Member for Dorsetshire. The
whole was a question not of principle but degree, and
not that only but of time.—(Hear.) The question must
be carried, and it did not matter whether it took place
in 1844 or 1846. If there was any error in the conclu-
sions of his Noble Friend, it lay in their hands to rec-
tify it, as the Bill would not take effect till October, 1844,
and it did not attain its minimum till 1846.—(Hear.)
In that interval, if it should appear that any error had
been committed, they would be able to correct it, for
they retained, the power in their own hands. It was his
conviction that no such dangerous consequences would
ensue, and he believed that any unfavourable conse-
quences would be more than compensated for by the in-
creased physical comfort of the labouring population.
He believed that the increase in their physical comforts,
consequent upon the diminution of the hours of labour,
would more than compensate them for the loss of the
few hours' extra pay. It had been stated by his Hon.
Friend, the Member for Pontefract, that the last two
hours of labour must, in the nature of things, be the
most unprofitable; and here he came to the factory sta-
tistics. It appeared that the greater number of accidents
to children occurred during the last two hours. The la-
bourers were exhausted with their toil, and they went
through the last two hours of their work nnconsciously.
There would, therefore, be a diminution of the number
of accidents, in consequence of a diminution of the hours
of labour. They had heard, on high authority, of the
sufferings of the agricultural population. On Monday,
they had been told that even women hail been kept to
hard labour in the fields of England for seven or eight
hours of a winter's day without changing their clothes.
Now he would ask any one to point out in what county
of England the women laboured in the- fields for eight
hours of a winter's day ?
An nom. MEMBER—Not of a winter's day.
Sir R. H. INGLIS— The whole argument was, that
it was during the inclement season of winter. For his
part, he believed that the thing was physically impos-
sible. At all exents, he had never heard of it. But
they had not the same power of remedying the suffer-
ings of the agricultural population. It was not politi-
cally possible to redress the sufferings of the agricul-
tural poo'r as they could the .`sufferings of the manufac-
turing poor. In the case of the manufacturing poor
they had the power of regulating the hours of labour
by stopping the great machine by which the labour of
all the human accessories was regulated. They had
not the power of regulating the hours of agricultural
labour; and where there was no power there could be
no responsibility. They had the power of regulating
the hours of labour in the manufactories, and therefore
it was their duty to do so.—(Cheers.) He had on
former occasions stated his opinion on this subject, and
he thanked the Committee for the attention with which
they had listened to him.—(Cheers.)
Mr. COLLETT and Mr. C. BULLER rose together for
the purpose of addressing the Committee, and for some
time neither Hon. Gentlemen would give way. There
were loud calls for Mr. C. Buller. After the lapse of
about a miuute both Hon. Gentlemen sat down, but im-
mediately afterwards both rose together again. There
were loud cries of " Buller," "Buller," " Chair,
Chair," and the greatest uproar and confusion pre-
vailed. Mr. Hawes, who had previously been in com-
munication with Mr. Collett, then advanced to Mr. C.
Buller and said something, in consequence of which Mr.
C. Buller resumed his seat, but the cries of " Buller"
" Buller," still continuing, he rose again and advanced•to
the table ; Mr. Collett, however, continued on his legs.
The cries of '" Chair, Chair," then .became general
throughput the House. and Sir C. Napier addressed some
words to the Chairman, which were inaudible. At
length after a lapse of four minutes, during which time
Mr. Collett and Mr. C. Buller retained their respective
positions, Mr. Collemgave way, and
Mr. C. BULLER proceededto address the Committee.
He said that her Majesty's Government were going to-
night to adopt the extraordinary step of calling on the
House, on the eighth clause of the Bill, to make the Bill
nonsense by nullifying the vote to which they had come
on Monday.—(Hear, hear.) Now it was the duty of the
'Government, before taking such an extraordinary step,
at the earliest, possible moment to lay before
theni the grounds upon which they called upon
them to . adopt such a proceeding.—(Hear, hear.)
He had expected that if the Government had intended
to make the House rescind the vote of Monday night,
that they would have brought forward some new argu-
ments, but they had brought forward none. They had
left everything in doubt except their determination, if
possible, to rescind the vote of Monday night. He had to
state the grounds upon which he intended to repeat the
vote which he had given on Monday night, and he had
to grapple with the arguments of one Member only who
had risen on the opposite side, and, in doing so, he was
undertaking no easy task, for seldom on a question so
exhausted had he heard a speech containing arguments
of such novelty and such force—(Cheers)—and he could
assure the Hon. Member that, in making that statement,
he was paying no unmeaning compliment ; for he could
assure the Hon. Gentleman that he had put his argu-
ments so ably as to elicit more than one cheer from him-
self (Mr. C. Buller). He had also to grapple with the
speech of his Hon Friend the Member for Sheffield.
That speech was remarkable not so much for the strength
of the arguments as for the strength of the language.—
(Cheers and laughter.) His Hon. Friend seemed most
sensitive to the charg.es made against those who took the
course which he had taken. He complained of the lan-
guage which had been used regarding those who enter-
tained similar opinions to himself. He complained that
all who voted with him had been described as destitute
of the common feelings of humanity. Now he entirely
acquitted his Hon. Friend of any such charge. He gave
him credit for as much humanity as any Hon. Member
who voted on the other side ; but, in return, he asked
his Hon. Friend to give those who voted against him
credit for something like a little. common sense.
Those who were going to vote ought to show they did
vote upon principle. If the Noble Lord's proposition
was wrong, and was carried into operation, it would
very seriously interfere with the staple interests of the
country, with the employment of a large portion of the
people, and with the absolute security and maintenance
of millions.—(Hear, hear.) The Legislature must in-
tere notwitstanding. The evil was great, and must be
grappled with—the mischief was frightful in its nature
and extent, and was so acknowledged even by those who
opposed it. The peace and prosperity of the country—
its many institutions, were perilled--and, if the Legis.
lature did not interfere, it must be subdued.—(Hear,
hear.) The old principles of legislation must in
this instance be departed from. He avowed his
willingness to depart from those principles. New
circumstances had arisen, and they required new re-
medies. The social state had undergone a revolution,
and must, he repeated, be legislated for upon new prin-
ciples. He was prepared to enter into these new prin-
ciples, and to defend them against those who advocated
the old principles of legislation, which left the people to
shift for themselves, and did not apply to that new state
of things, which existed since the revolution, which the
course of time had effected.—(Hear, hear.) He would
briefly state the grounds upon which he formed this opi-
nion. The important social change which had taken place
could be hardly exaggerated, and he would venture to say
that no man, whatever his opinions on this subject might
be, could contemplate the present condition of the people
without amazement and dread. A hundred years ago,
the great mass of the labouring population were agri-
cultural labourers, scattered over the country without
any means of communicating with each other, without
intelligence or the means of acting in concert, without
combination or centralisation ; but they were restrained
by adherence to old institutions, and acted under the
guidance of those whose authority was sanctioned by
hereditary power, and (he felt happy to say) by
hereditary attachment. The towns were thinly popu-
lated ; but the citizens, for the most part, possessed a
comparative' degree of intelligence, and were able to
protect themselves. But a new race had arisen within
the last fifty years. Millions of men were collected
together within a small space, for the first time—an
immense competition grew up between unskilled la-
bourers, who worked from the first moment they could
work until they could work no longer.—(Hear, hear.)
The greater part of this population consisted, as he had
already said, of unskilled labourers, which was the cause
of the extraordinary 'pressure. Wages were beaten
down, not by masters, but by competition their
numbers prevented them from combining, and' with
all these phenomena together, and without those
influences which formerly bound the population
together, let him ask the House could they
look on this state of things without deep con-
cern?—(Hear, hear.) He would not represent the fac-
tory labourer as crippled or disabled ; nor would he say
anything offensive to the master manufacturers, for he
believed there were a great many among them who dis-
charged the relations between man and master in a very
becoming manner, and who exhibibited the greatest
benevolence and forethought. No man could look at the
physical condition of the people, and say it was as it
ought to be.—(lifear, hear.) He would confine himself
to one or two great statistical facts. Let them look to
the labourers in Dorsetshire and Wiltshire, who ave-
raged 33 years, and contrast it with the average of life
in the manufacturing districts—in Manchester, for in-
stance, where the average of human life did not exceed
17 years.--(Hear, hear.) He did not say this by way
of attributing blame to-the naillowners, but he men-
tioned the appalling fact, as imperatively demanding the
interference of the Legislature.—(Hear, hear.) The
brevity of human life in the manufacturing districts did
not arise from casualties, or from epidemics, but from
the physical condition of the people, from over-exer-
tion, and from causes connected with labour.—(Hear;
hear.) Further than this, the present condition of the
people in those districts must lead to a de-
terioration of the physical strength and moral habits
of their children.—(Hear.) The mere temperature
in these factories was most injurious to the human con-
stitution. He had been visiting some of the factories
in the north of England a few months ago, and he found
the temperature there most inconvenient and un-
pleasant to himself. It was an Indian, a tropical cliMate,
in those factories and could not but be injurious to the
human frame. On
passing through one of these facto-,
ries, he was greatly surprised at not seeing any males—
they were all females ; and Lord Ashley had justly
observed upon the order of things being reversed in these
districts ; that the women and children did the work of
the men, who subsisted in idleness on their labours. The
relations which bound the higher and lower orders toge-
ther in other parts of the country, did not exist there.
They were without religious or literary instruction, and
their condition especially called for the interference of
the landed proprietors of England,
whose especial duty
it was to interfere. Mr. M'Culloch was no sentimen-
talist, and yet he shook his head gravely at the present
state of things, and said they required a change. In
such a state of circumstances, it was the