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Great Britain and her Empire 535 century. There were no less than two hundred and fifty offenses for which the penalty of death was established. By a gradual process of abolishing one death penalty after another the long list of capital offenses was at last reduced to three in 1861. In 1835, after a parliamentary investigation had revealed the horrible con- ditions of prisons, a law was passed providing for government inspection and the improvement of their administration, and this marked the beginning of prison reform. 960. Wretchedness in English Factories. The factory sys- tem had brought untold misery to the working classes of England. Great factory buildings were hastily erected by men who paid little attention to the welfare and comfort of the workers. Around the factories there sprang up long, dreary rows of grimy brick cottages where the workmen and their families were crowded to- gether. The introduction of steam-driven machinery had made possible the use of child labor on a large scale. The conditions of adult labor, save in the most skilled classes, were almost as wretched as those of child labor. 961. Factory Reform begins (1333). Finally, in 1833, Par- liament, after much investigation, reduced the hours of child labor in cotton and woolen mills, and in 1842 women and children were forbidden to work in the mines. It was not until 1847 that a bill was passed restricting the labor of women and children in mills to ten hours. With this great victory for the reformers the general resist- ance to State interference was broken down, and year after year, through the long reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) and those of her successors, new measures were carried through Parliament, revising and supplementing earlier laws, until today England does more than any other European country for the welfare of the fac- tory operatives. 962. England's Free Trade. England is famous for its free ade, while almost all other countries protect their manufacturers by a tariff imposing customs duties on most articles imported from foreign countries. England believed heartily in protection and ship- ping laws until about the middle of the nineteenth century, when