Page:The Factory Controversy - Martineau (1855).djvu/21

Rh result will be the ascertainment of what the powers of the Factory Acts really are, and a testing of their practicability. In January, 1854, a circular was issued by the Factory Inspectors, stating that they had represented to the Secretary of State that they found the time had arrived for insisting that shafts at any distance whatever from the floor should be fenced. In their own words:—

"In these circumstances, although fully aware of the great trouble and expense it will cause to millowners, we feel that we have no alternative but henceforth to enforce the provisions of sec. 21 (7 Vic.) strictly, by requiring that every shaft, whether upright, oblique, or horizontal, shall be securely fenced, whatever may be its height from the floor, unless it should be demonstrated to us that any particular shaft cannot be fenced without interfering with the action of the machinery."—Report of Inspectors, April, 1855, p. 57.

It is clear that the interpretation of this order rests upon the meaning of the words "securely fenced." The circular was submitted to Lord Palmerston before it was issued; and it was revised and abridged by him. Here begins a world of difficulty and misunderstanding, which proves, if nothing else, the dubious and ineffectual character and operation of minute legislation, interfering with industrial processes. Lord Palmerston and the Inspectors seem to be chargeable with loose statements and shifting requirements, through their own inexperience in industrial methods, and the want of precision in the law; and the manufacturers arc naturally indignant at being subject to the imperious bidding of authorities whose language is inaccurate, and whose conduct has been, in some respects, as will appear, unconstitutional and illegal.

The millowners understood this circular to convey an order that all shafts should be "permanently cased with wood or iron," Mr. Leonard Horner having repeatedly declared that sort of fencing to be the only secure one for vertical shafts, and for horizontal