The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-26 00:00:00

eb WIT Vallition

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..._ -
SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS THIS DAY.
GLOBE.—Lord Ashley has, we perceive, pledged
himself—in a letter written in reply to some appli-
cation on the subject from a Ten-Hours' Committee
in the north—to renew his efforts in the next session
to obtain a legislative restriction of labour in factories
to ten hours a day. After the experience of the last
session, when those who advocated the restriction of
factory, labour to ten hours afterwards voted against
it when it stood part of the Factory Bill—and thus
shirked the question and stultified themselves, on the
ground of the embarrassments which an adherence to the
" cause of humanity" would occasion to Ministers, who
opposed the ten hours' resolution—we have no appre-
hensions of any very firm stand by Lord Ashley
and the other advocates for restrictions on factory
labour. There will be a grand exhibition of micros-
copic benevolence. Cases of factory labourers' debi-
litated constitutions, and of their shortened existence,
will be cited. Medical opinions, and statistical returns
of Sanitary Commissioners, will be quoted. Every
effort will, in short, be used to "make out a case" for
legislative interference in the way asked for. All this
will be done—without the least idea, on the part of
Lord Ashley and his supporters, that their attempts
will prevail with the Government or with the House
of Commons. The former will remain firm to their
declared purpose of resisting any legislative inter-
ference with the rights of labour in the
men, and of capital in their masters. The House
of Commons will 'be careful how it allows itself
to be caught napping, when it ought to be wide
awake. . Members who support her Majesty's
Ministers will call to mind the confusion of face
and agitation of feeling which were caused by the
awkward affirmation by the House of the ten-hours'
resolution moved by Lord Ashley; how Sir Robert
Peel was compelled to employ alternate reproaches
and entreaties—remonstrances and persuasions ; how
Sir James Graham was even driven to utter expres-
sive threats of resigning office—and the fears which
pervaded' the possessors and the expectants of place
and profit from the Government, lest, if the ten-
hours clause passed, the Cabinet should be shaken,
if not, indeed, be broken up. There will be no repe-
tition in the
,nett session of any such scenes as
those which took place on this question in the last. A
speech of the character we hare-described may be de-
livered by Lord Ashley. He will be followed by a
few speakers,- pro and con. Sir James Graham will
wind up the debate by a good common sense view' of
the question, in which he will demonstrate the mani-
fest absurdity and glaring injustice of the proposition.
And thus the matter will end for another year. We
should not think it worth while to advert to tile
subject, were it not that there are a number of well-
meaning people who, like Lord Ashley, allow their
feelings to lead their reasoning faculties astray. They
listen to exaggerated and frequently false accounts of
the sad effects of working in factories for twelve
hours ; and embark on a Quixotic enterprise of pre-
venting such results by agitating for an Act of Par-
liament to. restrict the hours of labour. The
benevolence of heart which moves to such efforts
as Lord Ashley has employed to effect this ob-
ject, claims commendation—the perversion of in-
tellect, or , rather the deficiency of the reasoning
powers, which such efforts display, moves commisera-
tion. Aware of the influence which such schemes
ac-
quire over the more amiable feelings of our nature—by
which the judgment is blinded to their inevitable con-
sequences—we deem it necessary to place before such
persons some of the reasons which induce us to lend
our aid to Government in its opposition to Lord
Ashley's proposition ; although by so doing we find
ourselves in antagonism to some influential indivi-
duals of our own party, with whom, on questions of
national policy, we generally' concur. All inter-
position with the employment of labour is in direct
contravention of the principles which ought to go-
vern contracts between employers and the employed,
and is an infraction of the laws of society which are in-
dispensable to the freedom of the individual and the
postulates of commercial undertakings. The prin.-
ciple, to be worth anything—and if essential to the
well-being' of the social system—must be general.
Where can its limits be placed ? The Legislature
has no more right to interfere between the owner
of a factory and his artisans, than between the mas-
ter of a house and his domestic servants. There are
many trades and commercial establishments .in
which it is utterly impossible to apply a restric-
tive enactment to reduce the hours of labour. Take
the case of a daily morning paper. To produee
the journal, a large number of men must be employed
during the entire night. The places in which they
ply their respective vocations, in furtherance of the
common object, are lit with gas. The men are neces-
sarily crowded into a small space, and the ventilation
is more or less imperfect. Let Lord Ashley visit
one of those establishments at midnight, and his
benevolence will prompt him to interfere for the
prevention of the consequences to human health
and life from such intense application in such an
atmosphere, for so many hours, constituting the entire
night. But prudence will (step in, and prevent himfrom interfering between the proprietors of the morn-
ing journals and the men in their employ. And
yet, if Lord Ashley's " principle of humanity" be
worth anything, he is bound, in consistency with his
principle, to make the attempt. The same argu-
ment will apply to the thousands of tailors who, in
a posture confessedly injurious to health, ply their
calling though the live-long day, and borrow from
the night some of the hours which tired nature
claims for repose and re-invigaration. Will Lord
Ashley include these in his "charter of benevolence?"
The system *of " over hours," by which men extend
the usual periods of work under special circumstances
by two, three, and four hours, should also be taken
into the Noble Lord's humane consideration ; and a
special enactment be made, to render such excessive
taxation of man's limited physical powers penal both
upon the employer and the employed. We
admit the abstract desirableness of assigning to
man a moderate and carefully-regulated por-
tion of labour, that recreation may be en-
joyed, intellectual and moral improvement properly
cultivated, and rest from fatigue insured. The mis-
fortune of Lord Ashley, and of the super-humane
persons who adopt his theory, is that it is simply im-
practicable. We should be sorry, indeed, to believe
it the only one which could be proposed for the "con-
summation devoutly to be wished," of improvement
in the lot of labour—and amongst the greatest of such
improvements, undoubtedly, must be ranked the re-
laxation of all extreme degrees of toil requisite for
support or comfort.
STANDARD.—The rule which we have pre-
scribed for ourselves, and which our readers have so
long kindly indulged, prevented our alluding as we
could have wished to the admirable charge of the
Bishop of Worcester, published in yesterday's
Standard. That noble and most seasonable address
could, however, well dispense with an introduction.
Our readers have seen and appreciated it, and any
compliments on our part would be flat in com-
parison with their own sense of its merits, and of
the good Bishop's claim on the- gratitude of the
country. The excellent Bishop of Salisbury, at pre-
sent administrator of the diocese of Bath, in consi-
deration of Dr. Law's infirmity and great age, has ad-

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