The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-02-13 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We are compelled to postpone until next week a report of the
meeting
of the Foreign Aid Society, and several other coin-
munications.

'tar aibernaol k-,taoarb.

TUESDAY MORNING, FEB. 13, 1814.

By a reference to our Irish news, it will be seen
that the trial of O'Connell and his confederates is
at length drawing to a close, if even it has not al-
ready done so at the time at which we write. On
Saturday evening the jury returned a verdict of
guilty upon the third, fourth, fifth, seventh, and
eleventh counts, the purport of which will be found
detailed in the report of the proceedings, which is
admitted by the organs of the traversers themselves
to be equal in its consequences, to a verdict of
guilty upon the whole. The return, however, was
decided by Justice Crampton to be informal, owing
to the jury not having said guilty, or not guilty,
upon the remaining counts ; and the jury were sent
back to fill up this omission. Owing to the late
hour (nearly midnight) at which they retired for this
purpose, it was considered best to adjourn the court
over Sunday; and, nine o'clock yesterday morn-
ing was finally fixed upon for receiving their com-
plete finding. There is no probability that anything
can arise from this course being pursued, to alter
the effect of the decision to which the jury have al-

ready come.
We hope to be able to give the complete verdict,
with anything of importance which has transpired
in Dublin up to a late hour yesterday, in an early
Second Edition, which our subscribers will be fur-
nished with gratis, on application at our office.

Government has at length made a move—we trust
only the first of a series—to wrest the suffering
working classes of England from the domination of
tyrant capital. On Tuesday last Sir James Graham
moved for leave to bring in a bill " to amend the
act for regulating the employment of children in
factories," the chief provisions of which we shall
briefly place before our readers, preliminary to a few
observations which we feel bound to offer upon
them.
It is proposed, in the outset, that the term " child"
should be defined to apply to children between the
ages of 9 and 13, instead of S and 13, the age pro-
vided for under the existing act; and that no such
child should be employed for a longer time than six
hours and a-half each day—such six and a-half hours
to be either in the morning or the afternoon. The
term " young persons" is to apply, as under the
-existing act, to persons between the ages of 13 and
18 years ; and, so far as relates to this class of
workpeople, no material alteration is proposed, be-
yond the extension of the present restrictive clauses
to silk mills, which have hitherto not been under
regulation as to the hours of labour. The time at
which it is proposed that such "young persons"
should work, is from half-past five o'clock in the
morning to seven o'clock in the evening, during the
summer months, and from half-past six o'elock,
a. m., until eight o'clock, p. m., in the winter; thus
making thirteen hours and a half per day, of which
one hour and a half would be allowed for "meals
and rest !"

Under the present law, all persons above the age
of eighteen, without distinction of sex, have been
treated as adults, and no limitation of the hours of
labour imposed. Acting, however, upon the repre-
sentations of the Factory Inspectors, with respect
to the injurious results of the long hours of labour
imposed upon females, Sir James Graham has
decided that no female should, under any circum-
stances, be required to work for more than twelve
hours out of the twenty-four—the inspectors them-
selves recommend ten hours as the extreme ; thus
placing them under the clause which applies to the la-
bour of "young persons," viz :—imposing upon them
attendance for thirteen hours and a half per day, with
an hour and a half for "meals and rest." Regula-
tions are also proposed for restricting the existing
power of making up for short time, for providing
against accidents from machinery, and for other
remedial purposes. The educational clauses, which
last year excited so violent an uproar in the camp of
dissent, are omitted in the present bill, the Govern-
ment contenting itself with providing that a cer-
tificate from some school should be a necessary
condition to a child receiving employment, and
insisting that sufficient time be allowed for school
attendance. Of course the voluntary efforts now
making to provide efficient schools, have had some
share in inducing this determination.
We cannot say that we are at all satisfied with
this measure, although we acknowledge the value of
many of its provisions. So far as the clause limiting
the hours of labour of children, from nine to thirteen
years of age, is concerned, it has our unqualified
approbation. No child of such tender years ought
to be immured in the factory for more than half the
working day, thus depriving it of the recreation
necessary to its growth and health, and of the
opportunity of mental cultivation. But we should
have been glad to see some provision made, with
respect to the kind of schools empowered to grant
certificates. If we do not insist upon the education
provided being education in the tenets of, and regu-
lated by, the Church of England, still we are bound
to take care that it is sound and wholesome educa-
tion, conducted by competent persons, and not the
mockery of education which has been afforded un-
der the existing measure.
With respect to the clauses affecting "young
persons" between the ages of thirteen and eighteen
years, we have strong objections to them. For a
boy of such tender years—for a girl just verging
upon womanhood—who can deny that thirteen
hours and a half's attendance upon the drudgery of
the factory, with but an hour and a half per day for
" meals and rest" (!)—for meals which, in five
cases out of nine, must be taken with the factory
floor for a table, and " rest " which cannot be
taken at all—is a slavery alike destructive to health
and to morality ? Such a proposition is disgraceful
to Sir James Graham, and savours far too much of
the heartless utilitarianism of " liberal" philosophy
to be acceptable to the English people. It will be
scouted, we do not hesitate to say, by nine-tenths of
the manufacturing population, who, for this class of
workers at least, must have and will have a TEN
HOURS BILL.
There is one consideration connected with these
and the preceding clauses, which strikes us as a
formidable obstacle to their working advantageously
together. You restrict the labour of children, under
thirteen, to six hours and a half. per day, and thus
render necessary a double set; of such hands for
each factory. You have thus a growing population
training up to factory labour, one half of whom may
possibly be surplus hands on reaching the age when
they may be allowed to be plunged into the full
drudgery of factory life. What, we ask, is to be
done with this surplus ? The difficulty of the ques-
tion is great, and we do not pretend to be able to
solve it satisfactorily. It must be met, however;
and we cannot see how, except by further restric-
tions on the hours of labour of the class styled
" young persons," and limitation especially of the
hours of female labour.