Page:The Factory Controversy - Martineau (1855).djvu/39

 and they received a negative answer. The opinion of counsel was then obtained; and that opinion was that the action of Government had taken the case out of the plaintiffs hands. There remained a doubt whether the prosecution was to take place under the Factory Act, or under Lord Campbell's Act (two years later in date). Counsel was disposed to think that it would be under the two together, by which means the Factory Act might be made to apply to an action in the name of an administratrix, which it could not do without the help of the later Act.

The case went to trial, before Mr. Justice Cresswell, the damages being laid at £1,000. Glad as Messrs. Wild would have been to have done whatever was required without coming into court, they were not at all ready to accede to the suggestions of the Judge in the course of the trial—that the affair should be settled elsewhere. They had incurred the annoyance of the prosecution, and its severe expenses; and they now insisted on the matter being gone through with. Twice, therefore, they declined an agreement out of court, as the Judge recommended; and when they yielded to his third recommendation, it was on the condition that the sum they should pay to the widow (£150) should be regarded as a pure benefaction on their part, and by no means as damages decided in a court of law. On that understanding the case was closed. Yet, did the spirit of the prosecution manifest itself in the final transaction, as clearly as in any prior circumstances of the case. It will scarcely be believed that the Solicitors to the Treasury forwarded, through a Liverpool office, a demand for the £150. Of course, they received a refusal, they having no business whatever with the money. Much surprise was expressed at this refusal, and an assurance was given that the money should be carefully laid out by Government for the benefit of the widow. The final reply of Messrs. Wild's Solicitor to the Liverpool agents closed the business with due spirit, and baulked the Inspectors and the Home Office of the