The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-01-08 00:00:00

INKANT LABOUR.

The evidence on the factories' regulation bill is of a
mature to make'all'ieaergrinaequainted with our manu
fr.ibt-tiring 'prifitilatibn 'ailidder. 'We have often heard just
reFrobation of the misery with which military greatness
and 'glory are purchased, but if the evidence which has
been published concerning the state of factories were ap-
plicable to the majority' of our maritifaCturing population,'
the misery by whibh manufacturing greatness and glory
are purchased must be almost as intense, and in its dura-
tion and 'Consequences still more 'distressing and perni-
cious to mankind.

In some of the factories, if this evidence is to be trusted
(into which children are sold as into slaverY), children, in
some instances mere infants, are kept at work for 14, 15,
and. even" I 7 hours a day (exclu.sue of the intervals in
which the' poor animals are allowed to feed.) Beating in,
various shapes is what children me commonly subject to
—nor, even, perhaps, in' the excess in which it is said to
be employed in the mills, does-it constitute a substantive
grievance of the first magnitude; but the beating is em.
ployed to urge them to labour beyond the power of their
exhausted natures—to keep them standing when fatigue
would impel them to fall down—to keep them awake
when nature almost forces them to sleep.
The minds and feelings of children may blind them to
the moral suffering, but their frames cannot withstand
the influence of the fatigue, the miserable fatigue and
over-watching which are forced upon them. They grow
up-diseased •in body as well as weakened in mind, and
'devoid of .the commonest eduCation, even that household
education which must be acquired in the cottage of the
most uncultivated labourer. They grow up savages, but
savages without' energy, strength, or health. Many of
them are under so miserable a system, it is a consolation
to know it die in childhood.

This evidence does not extend to all or to the largest
part of the manufacturing population even of the dis-
tricts to which it'ielates, and we are not, therefore, on
accountofit, warranted in pronouncing the adVaneement
of oiir Manufactures to be a national calamity and curse.
But the evil extends far enough to make it matter of na-
tional concern, while it is sufficiently limited on the other
hand to.make it possible that the exertions of the legis-
lature ma sti'v and remove this moral plague.—Globe.

THE MAGAZINES.

PROSPECTS OF THE MpTISTRY.—Never had an En-

gglisli .icitillnistratlon a . stronger body of supporters in
he representative assembly. Never, therefore, to the
eye of the "superficial; did an English administration
appear more pin.verful. But, examined a little closer,
p`e shdll find thativhat seems the cause of their strength is
net Unlikely ,to be the cause of their disunion. An over-
whelming preponderance of members are returned, en-
gaged to the most popular opinions, and the considera-
;ion of the most popular opinions is at once forced upon
he government: The ministers run every hazard of
losing* Majority they have obtained, unless they con-
Sent to embrace the policy to which that majority are
pledged. The consequence of this is an immediate discus-
sion' among the members of the cabinet how far to resist
the movement, orhow far to advance with it. Had the pro-
portion of reforming members been less great, it is obvious
that there might have been less disagreement among the
ministers ; for the more liberal would have said to the
more conservative—" With this House of Commons we
cannot carry popular measures to the extent we wish, and
we 'are' contented, therefore, with approaching to the
boundary that you would appoint." The conservative
policy Would have been embraced, and the very necessity
of securing" a dubious majority would have made the cabi-
net unanimous. 'But the. amazing strength of the libe-
ral party, and the lengths to which they have carried their
professions to' their constituents, give one part of the
cabinet the courage to advance, as it strikes into the,
other moiety 'of the cabinet the fear of proceeding. One.
says—" We have now the power to forward the work of
good government." The other says—" Things are gone
too far—now is the time to resist continued innovation ; ".
with . one it. is the very moment .to advance—with the
other to.' stand still. This, We. have cause to believe, is
the real state of feeling amongst the ministers, (although,
perhaps, it ,is more easy to point out the conservative,
than the 'progressing
.portion,) and 'thus, as we com-
menced by saying, their seeming strength is the cause of
their probable disunion. * * It May, be recollected that,
in opposition to the 'generality of our contemporaries, we
insisted that the necessity of a creation of peers, so far
froin'heing removed by the passing of the reform bill,
would become doubly imperious by that event. * *
Consider the church reforro, the taxes on knowledge, the
abolition of slavery; nay, the minor points of the 'open-
in & of the East India_ monopoly, and- repealing the bank
charter. IS it likely that, on these questions, the tory
majority of the Peers will 'yield to the liberal majority of
the Commons ? * * When the people distrust, even
gOod becoMeS soured to them benefits are derived from
unworthy 'motives. the most necessary delays exasperate
them; and every unavoidable obstacle seems to them to
have been artfully arranged on purpose to thwart their.
reasonable desires. How, with such a House of Lords,