The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-25 00:00:00

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hunet fir. Throw toing *a he higtelthid eallit
the plaintiff, and that the account which had original AP'
peared in their paper was true, they were morally, though
perhaps notlegally, justified in inserting the report of the
meeting at Gloucester. 'The Learned Sergeant concluded a
long speech by calling upon the jury not to make the de-
fendants pay what it would neither be honourable nor credit-
able for Air. Bellers to receive.
Mr. Baron PARKE having summed up, the jury retired, and
after an hour's absence returned into Court, giving their ver-
dict for the plaintiff, with Mi. damages.
This was the last cause that remained to be tried, and upon
its termination Mr. Baron Parke proceeded to try prisoners..
Both of the Learned Judges will be occupied till a late hour,
and Mr. Sergeant Talfourd .15 gone forward to Monmouth
with the intention of opening the Commission there, if one of
Rtiges should hot arrive to do so in person by ten o'cleck.
.•

THE, FACTORIES BILL.
(From the Leeds Times.)
We shall not stop at present to inquire into theft°.
tires of the majority- of thalembers of the House of Com-
mons, and whether they.w6trlds. ki:Ke been equally ready
to concede a measure cejnitice'' had the clients been
their own,wietc4edly oppressedandover-laboured serfs,
and had the question concerned their Own " vested
rights," and rents; andniortgages, and class interests.
It.is enough that a great act of moral justice has been
donean • act: of unquestionable 'humanity—of real
practical philanthr6py and benevolence.. We therefore
hail the success of Lord Ashley's motion with feelings
of almost unmingled joy and satisfaction, -
The case of Lord Ashley and his supporters is based
upon irrefragable evidence. Long-continued labour is
deleterious to the human constitution in anyvase, but
especially where the tender frames of women and chil-
dren are concerned ; and the tendency of the factory
system, of late years, has unquestionably been, to absorb
a larger. proportion of female and infant labour, to the
great detriment and injury of the entire working popu-
lation. They have taken the Plice of men in almost all
departments in some factorieg4especially in Lancashire;
the consequence of which "..has' been that women and
children are employed, .while men are thrown idle.
Nature's arrangements are thus entirely reversed, and
the father, instead of being the supporter and the guar-
dian, becomes the dependent and the domestic drudge of
his wife and children !

And what is the consequence as regards the women
and children themselves ? The most fearful degradation
—often the most appalling vice ! The sacred character
of woman has been terribly lowered. Withdrawn from.
their domestic functions, their homes have been necessa-
rily neglected; 'the social and family ties have been
broken up ; children have grown up uneducated and
entirely -neglected ; the domestic affections, by which
society is held together, have been crushed and de-
stroyed ; and woman, instead of being the domestic
helpmate of man, the mistress of his household, the ma-
nager of his home, the mother of his family,—has be •
come his fellow day-drudge, the rival competitor with
him for labour, and often also the participator, if not the
rivarivitiniiin, in his bad and vicious practices.
Who can doubt the magnitude of these evils ? Who
can overlook them, or refuse to alleviate or remove
them ? Now, Lord Ashley's motion does not propose to
take women and children out of the factories, as the
same Legislature has already taken them from the coal.
mines. It merely lays down what is considered to be a
proper day's work for the women and children employed
in factories. The Legislature has already established
the principle of interference in such matters, and it now
merely carries the principle forwards in the salutary di-
rection. If anything, Lord Ashley's motion is too ex.
acting: looking upon this solely as a question of lin-
inanity,- we consider ten hours' daily labour in factories
far too much for either women or children. Lord
Ashley's proposition is, therefore, in our opinion, an ex.
ceedingly reasonable one; and,' if the Legislature is to
interfere at all, it cannot do less than affirm the Noble
Lord's motion.

But do not let us shut our eyes to the immense con•
sequences involved in the passing of this clause of Lord
Ashley's by the Legislature. A ten hours' labour bill
for women and children will also prove a Ten Hours' Bill
for men ; because, when the women and children quit
work in mills, they constitute such a large preponder-
ance of the factory operatives that the men must quit
also. Well, then, a Ten Hours' Bill will be the neces-
sary consequence of the final adoption of Lord Ashley's
clause. And the next result will be a general reduction
of'wages in proportion to the limitation imposed upon
the duration of factory labour. The reduction may be
to even a greater extent than this, if means be not
adopted by the Legislature to open up new channels of
trade and commerce. But certainly a reduction to the
extent we have mentioned—in other words, by about
one-sixth of the present weekly wages of the factory
operatives will take place immediately on the enactment
of a Ten Hours' Bill by the Legislature.
We state this to prevent subsequent disappointment
on the part of the operative classes. As for the mas-
ters, they are mostly in favour of a Ten Hours' Bill,
and a large proportion of them, during the last few
years, have been working their mills considerably under
the time prescribed by Lord Ashley's motion. Of
course, they have done this from necessity, and not
from choice ; and most of the operatives have been
obliged to be satisfied with a " short time" wage. And
they know that it was no more than reasonable that
they should be paid in proportion to the duration of
their labour, as is the case in all other employments. On
the same grounds, Lord A shley's motion, whieh en-
forces permanent short time of working, will enforce
also a permanently reduced wage, unless large remedial
measures are adopted to prevent it. And without such
measures, the limitation of the hours of factory labour
may yet possibly be regarded as even a measure of
merciless injustice. . _ ,