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.
BRIBERY AT ELECTIONS.
On the 6th of May, Mr. Roebuck, having given notice previously of his intention, moved for a committee of inquiry into the election of the members for Reading, Nottingham, Lewes, Penryn, and Harwich. In making this motion Mr. Roebuck entered into particulars concerning these elections, in all of which he contended bribery had been practised. He wished to inquire into these transactions in order to expose them to the people of this country. He had not, he said, confined his accusations to one side of the house or the other. He had made no party question of it: he stood up for the purity of the house; and, God willing, it should be made pure. The motion was seconded by Mr. Fitzroy, member for Lewes, who warmly challenged inquiry into his conduct. Captain Plumridge, also, member for Penryn, declared that he had never given one penny towards the expenses of his election. On the other hand, Mr. Elphinstone, another of the accused members, declared frankly that, in his election, both parties had been guilty of bribery, and that if the inquiry had proceeded, none of the four candidates for his seat would now have been members of parliament. After a lengthened discussion a committee was appointed, and at the latter part of July the report of this committee was presented to the house, shortly after which Mr. Roebuck gave notice of his intention to move the following resolutions:—“That the compromises of election petitions, as brought to the knowledge of this house by the Report of the Select Committee on Election Proceedings, must, if for the future they be allowed to pass without punishment or censure, tend to bring this house into contempt with the people, and thereby seriously to diminish its power and authority. That all such practices are hereby declared to be a violation of the liberties of the people, and a breach of the privileges of this house; which it will in all future cases inquire into, and severely punish. That whereas in the late elections for Harwich, Nottingham. Lewes, Reading, Falmouth, and Penryn, and Bridport, the present laws have been found insufficient to protect the voters from the mischievous temptations of bribery, it be ordered that Mr. Speaker do issue no writ for any election of members for the said towns, till further legislative enactments have been adopted to protect the purity of elections.” In moving these resolutions Mr. Roebuck said that they mentioned no names, but simply provided for future mischiefs. He had proved all his assertions, and much more: and would the reflecting and honest people of England believe, that in buying up poor voters, in debauching, poor constituencies, and afterwards shielding themselves by a contemptible quibble, and buying off the consequences, the conduct of members was either honourable to themselves, or beneficial to their constituents? He believed the people would say the chief criminal was the briber; the rich man who went down with money in his pocket to a large constituency.—some of them oppressed by poverty—and offered them bribes to sell their consciences. A lengthened and stormy debate took place; but the resolutions were all negatived. But, notwithstanding the house of commons refused to affirm these resolutions, the investigation that had taken place had some practical result. One of the terms on which the petition against the return of one of the members for Reading was compromised, was the acceptance of the Chiltern hundreds within a limited time. When that time arrived, however, for carrying this stipulation into effect, an unexpected difficulty occurred. The chancellor of the exchequer now made aware, by the publication of the report, for what the application was preferred, declined to grant it; and the individual who had bound himself to resign his seat, found it beyond his power to do so. The course of proceeding adopted by the chancellor of the exchequer became the subject of discussion in the house of commons on the 6th of August, when Lord Palmerston moved for “copies of any correspondence which had taken place since the 1st day of July last, between the chancellor of the exchequer and any member of this house, upon the subject of the stewardship of the Chiltern hundreds;” the result of which motion was that the copies were ordered. Subsequently, the writs for filling up vacancies created by the unseating or collusive resignation of members at Ipswich, Southampton, Nottingham, and Newcastle-under-Lyne were all ordered to be issued. The disclosures before the committee concerning Sudbury, induced Mr. Redington, the chairman, to bring in a bill for the disfranchisement of that borough; but though this bill was supported by government, and passed through the commons, owing to the late period at which it was sent up to the lords, it only reached a second reading in that house. The writ, however, was suspended sine die. In connection with this subject, it may be mentioned that Lord John Russell brought in a bill for the prevention of bribery, and remedying some of the abuses to which election proceedings were liable; which bill, with some modifications in committee, passed both houses, and received the royal assent.
LAW REFORMS.
In the early part of this session the lord-chancellor gave notice of bills respecting bankruptcy, lunacy, and county courts. Adverting first to the subject of bankruptcies, he commenced by paying a compliment to Lord Brougham, upon the improvements in that department of the law which he had introduced. His lordship continued:—“That system, however, excellent as it was, comprised within its jurisdiction only a circuit of forty miles round London. He proposed to extend the metropolitan district to a hundred miles round London; which would add a fifth to the business of the commissioners, without inconvenience to them. For the country, it was proposed to appoint commissioners at five central points, in five great towns, beyond the London district, invested with the same power which was at present reposed in the London commissioners. They would perform the same quantity of duty now performed by the London commissioners, having a similar range and a similar jurisdiction.” The course respecting the law of lunacy was somewhat similar. His lordship remarked:—“The law of lunacy was administered like that of bankruptcy, the London commissioners having jurisdiction for twenty miles round the metropolis; and the country commissions being like those of bankruptcy, directed to persons of little or no experience, though the inquiries were of the nicest and most delicate character. He proposed that two commissioners should be appointed, for the purpose of executing all those commissions, not only in the metropolitan districts, but throughout the country. From an examination of details he was satisfied that those two commissioners would be amply sufficient for discharging those and other important duties connected with lunacy. The payment of commissioners by fees would be abolished, and they would be added to the visitors at present appointed to inspect the condition of lunatics. They would be taken from among the highest members of the bar.” Concerning the county courts, his lordship said that he was averse to any sweeping change: his measure went merely to extend their jurisdiction. They were presided over by the county clerk, whose jurisdiction extended to forty shillings. “If,” said his lordship, “I appoint a particular place, and give them a jurisdiction to the extent of five pounds, and appoint persons of respectability and learning, I think I do not innovate upon ancient institutions.” His lordship proposed further, that for the recovery of debts to the amount of twenty pounds, persons should be appointed judges of these courts, who should not reside in the provinces where they administered the law, but that they should make circuits, like the judges of the land, into the provinces with which they were not acquainted, and where they had no local connections or prejudices. His lordship proposed that there should be six or eight circuits in the year, to be made by barristers of a certain standing, to be appointed by the crown; who should return to the metropolis after the circuits, where they could mix with their colleagues in the profession, and thus give a security for the uniformity of the law which they administered. The bills were generally approved of, and they passed the upper house unopposed. In the commons an attempt was made to induce government to postpone the consideration of them; and that relating to the county courts was postponed till the following year, but those respecting bankruptcy and lunacy were passed. Another bill, introduced by Sir James Graham, for the amendment of the law relating to the registration of votes in England, was delayed; and three bills proposed by Lord Campbell, to alter the administration of the house of lords as a court of appeal, to alter the system of appeal to the judicial committee of the privy council, and to amend the administration of the court of chancery, were rejected. A question of general interest respecting the marriage law was also raised this session in the commons, by Lord Francis Egerton, who moved for leave to bring in a bill to alter the laws relating to marriage within certain degrees of affinity. The chief feature of this bill was, that it would enable a widower to marry a deceased wife’s sister; but, on a division, the motion for leave to bring in the bill was lost by one hundred and twenty-three against one hundred.