BILL FOR RESTRAINING THE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN MINES AND COLLIERIES.
In a previous session, after having been the means of carrying a humane law to prevent the cruelties inflicted on children employed in factories, Lord Ashley procured the appointment of commissioners for inquiry into the employment of children. These commissioners examined into the state of young persons in mines and collieries; and the course of their inquiries brought to light more than the sufferings of children alone; for they found the cases of the women in many places equally pitiable. This subject was brought forward by Lord Ashley in the house of commons on the 7th of June, when his lordship moved for leave to bring in a bill for restraining the employment of women and children in mines and collieries. The speech of Lord Ashley disclosed a state of things in the mining districts the most appalling. Cruel oppressions were perpetrated by the mine owners and overseers, especially upon women and children; and frequently parents showed an utter callousness to the sufferings of their offspring. The work assigned to girls and young women was destructive of health, and was conducted under circumstances so indecent that it was difficult for the noble speaker to state the details to the house. The commons received the intelligence with amazement and indignation; they had no conception that such outrages upon female decency, and upon humanity, existed in England. Lord Ashley proceeded to state the means, which he should call upon the legislature to adopt for an immediate removal of the most hideous and appalling features of the system he had described. The means explained by his lordship were fourfold: the total exclusion of female labour from all mines and collieries in the country; the exclusion of all boys under thirteen years of age; the prevention of the employment of males under twenty-one years of age as engineers; and the abolition of apprenticeship. Lord Ashley concluded his able and humane speech in this appropriate and emphatic language of scripture:—“Let us break off our sins by righteousness, and our iniquities by showing mercy to the poor.” A hearty concurrence was manifested on all sides of the house in the proposition; and the bill having been brought in, was passed rapidly through all its stages, and finally read a third time amidst loud cheers. Before the measure came into the upper house, it was announced by Lord Wharncliffe that ministers would be passive respecting it, each individual member taking what part they deemed prudent. The second reading was moved by the Earl of Devon, who, after vindicating the measure, contended that without any evidence the house would be justified in preventing the employment of women in the places described. Subsequently, the earl explained the alterations which it had been thought advisable to make in the bill; namely, the postponement of the time at which the employment of females should cease until the 1st of March next; the abandonment of a clause for regulating the hours during which children should be employed; the restricting the term of apprenticeship in any mine or colliery to eight years instead of entire prohibition; and the enacting that no boy be apprenticed under ten years of age. Several noble lords spoke for and against the measure; but the motion for going into committee was carried by forty-nine against three. In committee several amendments were successively proposed by Lords Beaumont, Littleton, Skelmersdale, Dunmore, and Mount Cashel; but they were all rejected, and the several clauses were agreed to, with some verbal amendments, and the bill reported. The third reading was opposed by Lord Londonderry, but without success; and the bill passed. The amendments were subsequently agreed to in the commons.