The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-03 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, April 2.

The rud6ey Gas Bill was read a third time and parsed.
Mr. W. PATTEN presented a petition against the
Liverpool Guardian Gas Bill.
CALICO PRINT WORKS.

Mr. M. GIBSON, hi:mg inquired whether it was the
intention to proceed with Lord Ashley's Bill for the
regulation of calico print works, presented five petitions
from various manufacturing places against any restriu-

tion of their labour.
Mr. HAWES presented petitions from West Ham, in
Essex, and other places, to the same effect
Lord ASHLEY presented a petition from 500 opera-
tives at Crayford, in Kent, expressing their desire that
the measure should pass into law, ruggesting some
amendments ; and stating their wish that even a modi-
fied measure should be passed, rather than that the Bill

. -
should be altogether lost.
On the motion that the Bill be read a second time,
Sir J. GRAHAM said that when the Noble Lord
first brought the measure before the house he deemed
it his duty to give it his most earnest and anxious con-
sideraf on. He b. I:eved the Bill was introduced on the
12th of March—(Laughter)—and with a view to the
discussion which must certainly arise on the sec)nd
reading, he had endeavoured, with the assistance
of his colleagues in the Government, to institute
such inquiries as should place them in the posses-
sion of the fullest information respecting every
portion of its details that it was possible to obtain.
For that purpose he had made it his business to extend
his investigations to every part of the manufacturing dis-
tricts of the United Kingdom. The House was aware
that the factory inspectors had certain districts assigned
them, in which they had respectively appointed sub-in-
spectors. It was the business of these sub-inspectors
to place themselves in personal communication
with the individuals most looked up to among the indus-
trial classes. Into the hands of every one of these
sub-inspectors a copy of the Bill had been placed,
with instructions to ascertain the effects its clauses were

likely to have on the manufacturing community; and since
the first readirg, on March 12, he had assembled these
factory inspectors, and a portion of the sub-inspectors in
London, in order to get the most precise infor-
mation, and the fullest information which through their
inquiries had been obtained. Ha had given to the Bill
itself, and to the information which he had received, his
most earnest attention. As he had stated to the House
at the time this Bill was introduced, and as he stated
now, it was his most anxious desire to give his full acce-
dence to the measure of the Noble Lord (Lord Ashley),
and it was a sense of duty alone which restrained him
from givirg his support to the object of the Noble Lord.
He would further state what had been the result of the
inquiries as to the information which had been received,
and which had determined himself and his col-
leagues as to the course which they intended to
pursue with respect to this Bill. If he assented
to the second reading of the Bill, he beggi d
it to be distinctly understood that neither himself
nor the Government would consider themselves for one

moment as pledged to all the details of the enact-
ments proposed by the Noble Lord, many of which
it would be his painful duty, but still his duty, to
resist. Ile was bound to say that there were many pro-
visions in that Bill to which he could not assent, but still
he was not prepared on the part of the Government to
deny that some regulation respecting the employment
of children and females in print-works was necessary ;
and, admitting that necessity, he could not oppose the
second reading of the Bill.—(Hear, hear.) When as-
senting to the principle of a Bill on the second reading,
it was not usual to go into details, but when he recol
lected the importance of the interests involved, he
thought it was right that he should state to the House
what were the provisions of the Bill to which he ob-
jected, and what were the amendments which he, in
Committee, intended to suggest as preferable to the pro-
visions proposed by the Noble Lord. In the first place,
he objected to the great extension of the objects of the
Bill, which was apparent from comparing the interpreta-
tion clause with the title. The extension which must

take place in consequence of the construction which
must be put upon the first clause of the Bill, he had the
most insuperable objection to. The title of the Bill
referred only to the labour of children em-
ployed in calico print-works, but by the inter -
pretation clause the operation of the measure was
extended far beyond print works. By that clause the
provisions of the Bill were extended to all mills, or se-
parate houses where dying, bleaching, or calendaring
was carried on. If this was grounded on analogy with
the Factory Bill it would be found that no analogy
existed between them. In factories the labour was de-
pendant altogether on machinery which might be stopped
at any fixed hour. But the converse of the fact applied
to the subject at present under discussion ; it was un-
connected with machinery and depended almost entirely
upon the state of the atmosphere. He was bound fur-
ther to state that it appeared, as far as his inquiries ex-
tended, although in print-works children were exten-
sively employed, yet that in dying, bleaching and calen-
daring, the number of children employed was very few.
His first ohjectiou was to extending the provisions of
this Bill beyond print-works to bleaching grounds,
dying manufactories, and calendaring works
There were peculiarities connected with those works,
which he had specified at considerable length on former
occasions ; and one of the most painful circumstances
connected with the trade, was that the demand, and
consequently the labour, was not continuous throughout
the year. There was a very great demand for labour
at certain periods, while at other periods there was a
great falling off. The trade, during the spring and
autumn, gave employment to an increased number of
workers, and demanded an extension of the hours of
labour ; but after that period the demand relaxed, and
many of those workers were, comparatively speaking,
unemployed. During this period of the time, every-
thing depended on the work being executed with
the greatest possible dispatch. Everything, in
fact, was secondary to the promptitude with
which the market was supplied ; and he so far
therefore disagreed with the Bill of the Noble Lord, that
its provisions did not meet these peculiar circumstances.
He was not, therefore, prepared to assent to that part
of the Bill which enacted that children should only work
eight hours each day, or on alternate days twelve hours.
Having stated his objections to the Bill of the Noble
Lord, he should now refer- to those provisions, after the
second reading, to which be would bo ready to assent.
He would say, on the part of the Government and for
himself, that they were quite prepared to accede to that
part of the Noble Lord's measure which restricted the
hours of labour of children under eight years of age.
He agreed to the provision of the Bill Which proposed to
do away night• work by children, because the same
principle had been more than once affirmed by the House
in reference to females. In the Act of last session the
House thought it right to regulate the night labour of
females in factories, and he was therefore now prepared to
agree to that part of the Bill which provided that children
between the ages of eight and thirteen should not be
employed in calico factories at night. It now became ne-
cessary for him to make allusion to the Noble Lord's
definition of a night. The Noble Lord proposed to
establish a double definition, varying in winter and
summer ; but, upon the whole, he (Sir J. Graham) was
inclined to think it would be better to have only a single
definition of the eight,—(Hear, hear.? He would, how.