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Untitled Article
* ' A mother in Manchester got employment for a sickly child of nine years of age , to work in a mill for twelve hours per day , under a false certificate , which she got by sending a fine healthy child of suitable age to a doctor ' s house to procure it . " —Report ofR > Richards , Esq ., 1835 , p . 7 .
What must be the state of institutions in a country where such a thing as this could happen ! Had any one , however fertile his imagination , sat down to invent cases which should demonstrate the necessity of legislative interference for the protection of children and young persons under the age of puberty , he could scarcely have depicted any so terribly convincing as these from real lite .
If all these sinister interests were likely to array themselves against the new system , the government by giving out , as it did only six weeks after the bill was passed , that it would probably be altered , effectually prevented any chance of their g iving way ; and with the exception of Mr . Horner , none of the inspectors appear to have exerted themselves to enforce the more difficult enactments . Mr . Rickards , inspector of the
important district comprehending Manchester , as early as February , 1834 , declares himself " hopeless of rendering the clauses as to relays and education in any way useful ; " and repeatedly , at different periods , advises an alteration . At page 38 of his Report for 1834 , we find him declaring that he believes it will be impracticable to restrict the work of children ,
even under twelve , to forty-ei g ht hours a week ; yet this has been and is now effected ; and a few lines below we find him stating as his opinion , that children of eleven " are old enough and strong enough to work in mills for twelve hours in each day ! " Medical Commissioners were employed to investigate this question ; they decided that children of eleven were not capable of such length of work , and a bill was framed
accordingly . What is the use of legislation at all if such contradictions and weaknesses are allowed ? The Factory Bill has hitherto proved a failure ; but it is satisfactory to perceive that it has done some good . The inspectors are able to prevent the occurrence of dirty or illventilated mills ; very young children are never found now working as they used to do ; no young persons under eighteen years of age ever work more than twelve hours a day , and
never in the night , and the practical result of such restriction he * been , to limit the time of labour in factories generally to twelve hours , and commonly to supersede ni ghtwork altogether , —an arrangement which is found satisfactory both to masters and operatives . It is honourable to the government that they have yielded to what they could not but perceive to be a predominant impression , although within the House they obtained a majority of
Untitled Article
456 The Factory Bill . \
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1836, page 456, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2659/page/64/
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