WHILE measures involving

in conjunction with the highest

and the excitement of party feelings were engrossing the attention of the Legislature and of the public mind, a subject of deep importance and painful interest was presented to the notice of the House of Commons, by a Member whose generous exertions on behalf of a suffering but neglected class of the community had, on former occasions, been attended with honour able success. The condition of children employed in Factories had been within a recent period the subject of a public investigation, the result of which was the discovery, that mis-management and mercenary cruelty had gradually built up a system which was distorting and crippling the rising generation of our most important districts. A law was passed to prevent the continuance of that evil. It was then alleged that the condition of children in other employments was even worse, and the benevolent exertions of Lord Ashley procured the appointment of Commissioners for Inquiry into the Employment of Children. They examined into the state of young persons in one branch of employment-mines and collieries; and the course of their inquiries brought to light more than the sufferings of children alone, for they found the case of the women in many places no less pitiable. The frequent juxtaposition of enormous wealth with the lowest degree of destitution and want has often been remarked as a characteristic feature of society in England; the Report of the Commissioners referred to exposed

sections of the people sunk in the lowest moral and intellectual barbarism. In the midst of the refinements of the nineteenth century, in the heart of a Christian and enlightened community, and with all the channels for the exposure of oppression and abuses which our political system affords, it appears hard to realize as truth the picture of children consigned by their parents almost from the cradle to perpetual labour, at an employment entailing on them premature adolescence, disease, and misery, and amid scenes which ensurea moral degradation even worse than the physical suffering which accompanies it. Still less, if possible, would the ear of modern refinement have been inclined to credit tales, now too well established, of women compelled to work like beasts of burthen in noisome caves where the sun never enters, surrounded by an atmosphere of vice and pollution which can hardly be depicted with decency, and under circumstances of coarse and loathsome exposure to which savage life scarcely affords a parallel.

The details of this frightful system will best appear from the selections which we shall presently furnish from the Commissioners' Report, and which Lord Ashley cited in his able introduction to his motion in the House of Commons on the 7th of June.

He began with complimenting the late Government on the readiness with which they had appointed the Commission, and on their choice of Commissioners ;

and then proceeded to prove the necessity of immediate legislation by reference to the Report before the House. First, he quoted the statements of the Report with respect to the ages of the children employed:"In South Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, and Cumberland, children begin to work at seven years of age; about Halifax, Brad ford, and Leeds, at six; in Derbyshire and South Durham, at five or six; in Lancashire, at five, and near Oldham as early as four; and in some small collieries of the last neighbourhood, some children are brought to work in their bed gowns. Lord Ashley observed in passing, that had it only been the great coal-owners with whom they had to deal, the necessity for the Bill would not have existed. North Durham and Northumber land, many children are employed at five or six, but not generally; that age is common in the East of Scotland; in the West of Scotland, eight; in South Wales, four is a very usual age; in South Gloucestershire, nine or younger; in North Somersetshire, six or seven. In the South of Ireland no children at all are employed. All the underground work, which in the coal-mines of England, Scotland, and Wales, is done by young children, appears in Ireland to be done by young persons between the ages of thirteen and eighteen."

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He next adverted to the em ployment of females: "The practice of employing females underground is universal in West Yorkshire and North Lancashire; it is common at Bradford and Leeds, in Lancashire, Cheshire, and South Wales: general in the East of Scotland, rare in the West; and no women are employed in

Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Cumberland, Durham, Northumberland, Gloucestershire, or Somersetshire. In none of the collieries in the coal-fields of Ireland was a single instance found of a female child or a female of any age being employed in any kind of work. I must observe," said Lord Ashley, "that with respect to that country, neither children of tender years nor females are employed in underground operations. I have often admired the generosity of the Irish people, and I must say that if this is to be taken as a specimen of their barbarism, I would not exchange it for all the refinement and polish of the most civilized nations of the globe."

The nature of the localities in which the labourers were employed, was the next point to which Lord Ashley directed the attention of the House:"The health depends much upon the ventilation and drainage of the places; and they differ according to the depth of the seams of coal, which vary from ten inches in some places to ten or twenty feet in others. In South Staffordshire, for instance, says Dr. Mitchell, the coal-beds are sufficiently thick to allow abundance of room; the mines are warm and dry, and there is a supply of fresh air. The case is pretty much the same in Northumberland, Cumberland, and South Durham, with some exceptions in the last place; and in North Durham there are some thin seams. The mines are damp, and the water in them is sometimes deep, in Warwickshire and Lancashire. In Derbyshire,

Black damp very much abounds; the ventilation in general is exceedingly imperfect." 'Hence fa

tal explosions frequently take place: the work-people are distressed by the quantity of carbonic acid gas which almost every where abounds, and of which they make great complaint, and the pits are so hot as to add greatly to the fatigue of the labour. While efficient ventilation,' the Report adds, 'is neglected, less attention is paid to drainage. Some pits are dry and comfortable. Many are so wet that the people have to work all day over their shoes in water, at the same time that the water is constantly dripping from the roof: in other pits, instead of dripping, it constantly rains, as they term it; so that in a short time after they commence the labour of the day their clothes are drenched; and in this state, their feet also in water, they work all day. The children especially (and in general the younger the age the more painfully this unfavourable state of the place of work is felt) complain bitterly of this.' It must be borne in mind that it is in this district that the regular hours of labour are not less than fourteen or sixteen a day. In the West Riding of Yorkshire, it appears that there are very few collieries where the main road exceeds a yard in height, and in some it does not exceed twenty-six or twenty-eight inches; nay, in some it is even as little as twenty-two inches in height; so that in such places the youngest child cannot pass along without great pain, and in the most constrained posture. In East Scotland, where the side-roads do not exceed from twenty-two to twenty-eight inches in height, the working-places are sometimes 100 and 200 yards distant from the main-road; so that females have to crawl backwards and forwards

with their small carts in seams, in many cases not exceeding twentytwo to twenty-eight inches in height. The whole of these places, it appears, are in a most deplorable state as to ventilation, and the drainage is quite as bad as the ventilation. The evidence of their sufferings, sufferings, as given by the young people and the old colliers themselves. is absolutely hideous. In North Wales, the main-roads are low and narrow, the air foul, the places of work dusty, dark, and damp, and the ventilation most imperfect. In South Wales, in many pits, the ventilation is wholly neglected; and the Report complains of the quantity of carbonic acid gas, which produces the most injurious effects, though not actually bad enough to prevent the people from working. This, indeed, is the general result of the Report of the Commissioner for that district. With respect to the mines in Glamorganshire and Pembrokeshire, he states the ventilation to be most imperfect, and productive of a manifest tendency to shorten life, as well as to abridge the number of years of useful labour on the part of the workpeople."

After these statements he proceeded to describe the nature of the employment practised in these localities:-"Now, it appears that the practice prevails to a lamentable extent of making young persons and children of a tender age draw loads by means of the girdle and chain. This practice prevails generally in Shropshire, in Derbyshire, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, in Lancashire, in Cheshire, in the East of Scotland, in North and South Wales, and in South Gloucestershire. The child, it appears, has a girdle bound round

its waist, to which is attached a chain, which passes under the legs and is attached to the cart. The child is obliged to pass on all-fours, and the chain passes under what, therefore, in that posture, might be called the hind-legs; and thus they have to pass through avenues not so good as a common sewer, and oftentimes as much neglected. This kind of labour they have to continue during several hours, in a temperature described as perfectly intolerable. By the testimony of the people themselves it appears that the labour is exceed ingly severe; that the girdle blisters their sides and causes great pain. Sir,' says an old miner, 'I can only say what the mothers say, it is barbarity-absolute barbarity.' Robert North says-'I went into the pit at seven years of age. When I drew by the girdle and chain, the skin was broken and the blood ran down. If we said any thing, they would beat us. have seen many draw at six. They must do it, or be beat. They cannot straighten their backs during the day. I have sometimes pulled till my hips have hurt me so that I have not known what to do with myself.' In the West Riding, it appears, girls are almost universally employed as 'trappers' and 'hurriers,' in common with boys. The girls are of all ages, from seven to twenty-one. They commonly work quite naked down to the waist, and are dressed-as far as they are dressed at all-in a loose pair of trousers. These are seldom whole on either sex. In many of the collieries, the adult colliers, whom these girls serve, work perfectly naked. Near Huddersfield, the Sub-Commissioner examined a female child. He says -'I could not have believed that

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I should have found human nature so degraded. Mr. Holroyd and Mr. Brook, a surgeon, confessed, that although living within a few miles, they could not have believed that such a system of unchristian cruelty could have existed.' Speaking of one of the girls he says-She stood shivering before me from cold. The rug that hung about her waist was as black as coal, and saturated with water, the drippings of the roof.' In a pit near New Mills,' says the Sub-Commissioner, the chain, passing high up between the legs of two girls, had worn large holes in their trousers. Any sight more disgustingly indecent or revolting can scarcely be imagined than these girls at work. No brothel can beat it.' Sir," continued Lord Ashley, "it would be impossible to enlarge upon all these points without going too far into the evidence, from which the most abundant selections might be made. I will say, however, that nothing can be more graphic and touching than the evidence of many of these poor girls. Insulted, oppressed, and even corrupted as they are, there exists oftentimes, nevertheless, a simplicity and kindness in these poor beings, which render tenfold more heart-rending that system which forces away these young people from the holier and purer duties which Providence appoints for them, to put them to occupations so unsuited, so harsh, so degrading. It appears that they drag these heavy weights, some 12,000 yards, some 14,000 yards, and some 16,000 yards daily.'. In the East of Scotland,' says the Commissioner, the persons employed in coal-bearing are almost always girls and women. They carry coal on their backs on unrailed roads,

with burdens varying from cwt. to 3 cwt.-a cruel slaving,' says the Sub-Commissioner, revolting to humanity. I found a little girl, only six years old, carrying cwt., and making regularly fourteen long journies a day. With a burthen varying from 1 cwt. to 14 cwt., the height ascended and the distance along the roads, added together, exceeded in each journey the height of St. Paul's Cathedral.' Thus we find a child of six years old with a burthen of at leastcwt., going fourteen times a day a journey equal in, distance to the height of St. Paul's Cathedral! The Commissioner goes on-And it not unfrequently happens that the tugs break, and the load falls upon those females who are following; who are of course struck off the ladders. However incredible it may be, yet I have taken the evidence of fathers who have ruptured themselves by straining to lift coal on their children's backs.' But, if this is bad enough for the fathers of the children, the case is still worse for pregnant women: it is horrible for them." Lord Ashley observed, "that he had ever found these people most accurate in their evidence on their own condition. 'I have a belt round my waist,' says Betty Harris, and a chain passing between my legs, and I go on my hands and feet. The road is very steep; and we have to hold by a rope, and, where there is no rope, by any thing we can catch hold of. It is very hard work for a woman. The pit is very wet. I have seen water up to my thighs. My clothes are wet through almost all day long. I have drawn till I have had the skin off me. The belt and chain is worse when we are in the family way.' 'A woman has gone

home,' says another, taken to her bed, been delivered of a child, and gone to work again under the week.' The oppression of coalbearing,' says E. Thompson, 'is such as to injure women in afterlife: and few exist whose legs are not injured, or haunches, before they are thirty years of age.'

Jane Watson had two dead children; thinks it was so from the oppressive work. "A vast number of women have dead children, and false births, which is worse, as they are not as able to work after the latter. I have always been obliged to work below till forced to go home to bear the bairn ; and so have all the other women. We return as soon as able-never longer than ten or twelve days; many less, if they are much needed. It is only horse-work, and ruins the women; it crushes their haunches, bends their ankles, and makes them old women at forty." Another poor girl says We are worse off than horses: they draw on iron rails, and we on flat floors.' Another witness, a most excellent old Scotchwoman, Isabel Hogg, says-'From the great sore labour, false births are frequent, and very dangerous. Collier-people suffer much more than others. You must just tell the Queen Victoria, that we are quiet, loyal subjects; women-people here don't mind work, but they object to horse-work; and that she would have the blessings of all the Scotch coal-women if she would get them out of the pits and send them to other labour.' Well, Sir, and I say so too," added Lord Ashley.

The next point related to the hours of work. "When workpeople are in full employment," says the Report, "the regular hours of work for children and