Page:The Factory Controversy - Martineau (1855).djvu/32

 none of the recommendations of his Lordship that might he adopted to prevent straps falling upon, and lapping round horizontal shafts fas communicated to them in the Circular Letter of the Inspectors of the 15th of March, 1854) had been carried into effect; so that a fatal accident, similar to that on which they had adjudicated, might happen in their own mills any day.'"—(Report, April, 1855, p. 4) Lord Palmerston seems never to have been struck with the possibility that the magistrates had not set aside the law, after all. Instead of asking their reasons, he "was indiscreet enough," as the Report of the Committee of the Association relates (p. 7), "to write a threatening letter to four magistrates at Oldham, of most unquestioned respectability, who had differently, but correctly, as they conceive, interpreted the law. His Lordship, moreover, directed the Inspector to commence prosecutions against three of these magistrates, who were pointedly reported to him, by Mr. Horner, to be factory occupiers, for neglecting to fence the horizontal shafts in their own factories; and he did not scruple to assign as his reason for this peremptory act, that they had presumed to adopt a different interpretation of the law from his own."

That this representation of Mr. Horner's conduct is correct, we learn by a letter of his own, published in the Oldham Chronicle of February 10th, 1855:—

"Factory Inspectors' Office, London, 2nd January, 1855. Messrs. J. "Worthington & Sons, Brook Mills, Hollinwood.

",—After the dismissal of the information laid against Messrs. Folson and Collins, for not having securely fenced a certain horizontal shaft in their factory, on which occasion your Mr. N. Worthington was one of the magistrates who heard the complaint, I directed Mr. Sub-Inspector Davies to visit your mills, to ascertain, for the information of Viscount Palmerston, whether there were in your mills any horizontal shafts not securely fenced as the law directs, and whether any measures had been adopted by you towards the prevention of straps lapping on horizontal shafts since the circular letter of the