New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1846-07-30
From the London Peoples Journal
TUT TEN HOURS BILL.

ase' From the London Peoples Journal
THE TEN HOURS BILL.
The Ten, Hoprs' BIZ has been again lost. but
IL, h.. roaioritv in favor Of Ministers OF 10
Ano,ber introduction Will probably carry IT. PubHc
;;l ia at travelling toward It's triumph. II moth
r. else had been gained, 1t were worth the whole
,r6rble which the bringing forward OF the question
b.s ive 10 those concerned in IL 10 have produced
The speech OF Mr. Macaulay. That is speech winch
will spread wide conviction on the subject IL
dealt al once with the great principles OF the CUES
tiOn-whether Governments had a right 70 interfere
In the restriction U the amount OF Iacor u inter
iere between the employer and the employed and
il so on What grounds: and it declared-as 1t APP
Dears 10 ms according the best OF all PHILOSOPHERS,
common sense-tha. it has right, and IS called on
10 interfere where the health and happiness OF the
subject clearly demand IL The Right Honorable
gentleman showed that this interference had long
been recognized and acted upon and that clearly 20
the public advantage He said we had inter.ered TO
protect hares and partridees. and that surely We
might extend that interference to human be
ings He might have added that we had interiered
10 prevent dogs from overwork and had by ACT OF
Parliament abolished entirely their drawing
carts nav. by the Act against cruelty TO
animals we have interiered to protect all sorts
of brute creatures from abuse; surely, then. that
must be n singular argument winch would seek
to establish bar TO such protection tor our fellow
creatures But he showed that we had intertered
repeatedlv and in factories too. We had. thirty
vears ago reduced the hours in factories from fit
teen to twelve. We had again mtericred to re
duce the hours OF youths under eighteen. and te-
males They We're not allowed TO work IN the
night; and children between the ages OF eight and
thirteen were restricted to SIX and halt hours per
day Had these regulations produced injurious Ell
fec,s TO trade? Nobody pretended that they had
There the right and benefit, too We're established
He might also have instanced the restrictions and
prohibitions respecting females and children work
ing In MINES He reminded the House that by
their Builders Act and Health of Towns Act, they
nteriered essentially for the public health People
were not allowed TO build houses without certain
convenences nor streets less than OF a certain
width If people would not whitewash Their
houses Government would do 1t for them. The
case and the necessity OF interference We're most
logically established. The Right Honorable gentle
man put the question again on Its night basis.
bv tie doctrine that the health and happiness OF
the people must be made paramount to all other
questions that of interest. mere trading
interest must toe secondary. Tins doctrine
was well maintained. We have no right To
allow men. for their private Proht, To over
work their iellow-CreGtures. merely because they
are not their property. when they would not over
work their horses asscs because they are Their
own property Mr.. Macuulay. however. observed
that the doctrine of loss to the manufacturers. by
the reduction OF undue hours OF labor was ialscy
lie showed that two hours day, or one whole
throughout the Christian world tor these eighteen
hundred wears, or in other words period OF fifty
wears had been taken from labor during that time
and was the world any poorer for 1t On the CON
trary he believed it richer; inasmuch as ulI
ceasinc labor eXhaIsts the finely constructed hu-
man frame, which he happily termed the machine Of
machines. This the it regarded days
works. Ii II not q fact that much work
could be done III ten hours III twelve hours OF
any given day, it true applied TO series OF
DAYS And this is the fact, it regards the man
utacturins districts. The system OF forced labor
and close confinement is dcterioratnC the race,
and shortening human life and there is irightiul
idea started when we reflect Mr.. Macaulay :
assertion that though man might do more work
in twelve hours Of one day than in ten. lie could not
do the same in the course Of ten years; and that
when one ten is put to the end of another, aud this
operating from generation to another, the con
sequences become fearful TO contemplate.
We feel satisfied that the triumph of humanity
on this question is not lar off The alarm OF re
duced profits and unequaled power OF competition
with other countries. we believe to be utterly
croundless. On the one hand, unlimited working
of factories only leads to keener competition
among manufacturers. 10 the production OF far more
manufactured produce. and thereby to reduce
prices bringing with them reduced price OF labor.
On the other, meu-and still more, women and
chidren-workng fewer hours will avoid cX
haustion. debility and disease while by checking
overproduCtion ut one period, 1t tends more rccu-
larry 10 spread II over others and thus manuiac
turers. men OF foresight will be Induced 10 work
more at slack times a circumstance particularly Ia
yorablc to the working-cass.