Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/881

Rh FACTORY ACTS 845 la 1825 Sir John Cam Hobhouse s Bill was passed, which established a partial holiday on Saturday, and provided penalties for offences against the Act. An amending Act was passed (10 Geo. IV. c. 51), and in 1831 (by the 1 and 2 Will. IV. c. 39) night work in the cotton factories was prohibited for persons between nine and twenty-one years of age ; the working day for persons under eighteen was to be twelve hours, and on Saturdays nine. This was the time of the great political movement which brought about the Reform Act of 1832, and the factory question entered into and to some extent complicated the purely political issues. In the wool districts the unions of the working men clamoured for a restriction of non-adult labour in factories to ten hours a day, and their demand was supported by the Conservative and country party, out of opposition to the manufacturers, who were for the most part keen supporters of the Reform Bill. The wool factories had not been touched by the recent legislation, and the sufferings of the over-worked children appealed powerfully to the imagina tion of the public. After much discussion in committees and commissions, the Act of 1833 (3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 103) was passed. Night work (between 8.30 p.m. and 5.30 a.m.) was prohibited to persons under eighteen in cotton, wool, worsted, hemp, flax, tow, and linen spinneries and weaving mills ; children from nine to thirteen were not allowed to work more than 48 hours a week; and young persons from thirteen to eighteen were restricted to 68 hours a week. In silk factories children might be admitted under nine, and children under thirteen were to be allowed ten hours a day. Provision was also made for school attendance and for the appointment of factory inspectors to watch over the working of the law. The manufacturers, dreading the economical results of thelossof children s labour, subsequently induced the Government to propose that chil dren over eleven should be allowed to work the full time of 69 hours a week, but in the face of the agitation for greater restrictions this amendment was not persisted in. 1 The extension of the Factory Acts to unprotected industries now engaged the attention of philanthropists. A Mining Act (5 and 6 Viet. c. 99) was passed, which pro hibited under-ground work to children under ten and women. In 1844 the Factory Act, 7 Viet. c. 15, was passed. Children from eight to thirteen might be employed in textile industries for not more than six hours and a half per day, but in factories where &quot; young persons &quot; restricted to ten hours a day were employed, children might also be employed for ten hours a day on alternate days. Children so employed had to attend school during the &quot;half time.&quot; Adult women were brought under the same rules as &quot; young persons.&quot; Lord Ashley s 2 Printworks Act followed in 1845, A Ten Hours Bill was at last carried in 1847 (10 Viet. c. 29). Women and young persons were restricted to ten hours a day, and the legal working day was fixed from 5.30 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. By employing protected persons in relays, manufacturers were enabled to keep their works going during the whole of the legal day; and to meet this evasion, as it was deemed to be, of the factory legisla tion a uniform working day was fixed, 13 and 14 Viet. c. 54. Young persons and women were allowed to work only between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. an hour and a half being allowed for meal-time. No protected person was to work on Saturday after 2 p.m. By the 16 and 17 Viet. c. 104, 1 One of the consequences of the restrictions imposed on the employ ment of children was the increased use of machinery as a substitute. In 1835 (before the Factory Act), there were 56,455 children employed in 3164 factories; in 1838 (under the Factory Act), 29,283 children were employed in 4217 factories. Von Plener s English Factory Legislation, p. 22. 2 Afterwards earl of Shaftesbury, whose name, more than any other, is entitled to be associated for ever with the English factory legislation. children were limited to a legal day beginning at 6 a.m. and ending at 6 p.m. Bleaching and dyeing works were subjected to similar restrictions by Acts passed in I860 and 1862, calendering and finishing works in 1863 and 1864. Lace factories were placed under the regulations of the Factories Acts by 24 and 25 Viet. c. 117. Night work in bakehouses was prohibited to young persons under eighteen, by 26 and 27 Viet. c. 40. After the report of a commission, a new Factory Acts Extension Act was passed (27 and 28 Viet, c. 48), which brought manufactories of earthenware, per cussion caps, lucifer matches, and cartridges, paper-staining, and fustian-cutting within the scope of the factory legisla tion. In 1867 a distinction was drawn in legislation between factories and workshops. The Factory Acts Ex tension Act of that year applied to all furnaces, iron and copper works, machine manufactories, metal and gutta- percha factories, paper-mills, glass-works, printing offices, and bookbinders shops, and to all establishments in which over 50 persons are employed for a period of a hundred days. Special modifications, however, were introduced to suit the requirements of the different trades. In the same year the Workshop Regulation Act was passed, for small trades and handicrafts, fixing the working day for children at 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., and for young persons and women from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. Printing, bleaching, and dyeing works were brought under the general law by the Factory and Workshop Act 1870. In 1871 another Act with the same title was passed, which, inter alia, subjected Government factories to the general law. The Factory Act of 1874, the last of the series, raised the minimum of age in children to ten. By these various enactments the state has emphatically taken under its protection the whole class of children and young persons employed in manufacturing industries. It has done this in the name of the moral and physical health of the community. The slow but steady advance of the principle of interference may be traced in the titles of the successive statutes. It is needless here to discuss the wisdom of the policy, which has now received en Hoc the stamp of legislative approval. The substantive law of the Factories Acts has been re-enacted in a measure laid before parliament in the present session, which has already (May 1878) passed both Houses. In the debates in the Commons the only question of principle seriously raised was whether the freedom of adult women ought to be curtailed by legisla tive interference. Mr Fawcett s motion in the negative was rejected by a large majority. The following outline will give some idea of the scope of the law relating to factories and workshops consolidated by the new measure : Part I. contains the general law relating to factories and work shops, under the following heads (1) Sanitary Provisions ; (2) Safety; (3) Employment and meal hours; (4) Holidays; (5) Edu cation ; (6) Certificates of fitness for employment; (7) Accidents. (1.) Under the first head, the buildings must be kept in a clean state, and free from effluvia arising from any drain, privy, or other nuisance. (2. ) The second contains provisions for the fencing of dangerous machinery, and restrictions on the employment of children and young persons in cleaning, &c. , machinery in motion. (3.) A child, young person, or woman shall not be employed except during the period of employment fixed as follows: (a.) In textile factories. For young j)crso&amp;gt;is and women, the period shall be from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. or 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.; on Saturday, from 6 a.m. till 1 p.m. for manufacturing processes, and 1.30 for all employment, if one hour is allowed for meals ; otherwise at 12.30 and 1. Or if the work begins at 7 a.m., it shall end on Saturdays at 1.30 and 2 p.m. respectively. For meal times two hours at least on week days, and on Saturdays half an hour, must be allowed. Continuous employment without a meal time of at least half an hour not to exceed four hours and a half. For children. Employment to be for half time only (in morning or afternoon sets, or alternate days). The work-day is the same as