The Employers' Liability Bill occupied a great part of the
sit- tings both of Friday and of Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Macdonald urging the view that employers should be liable to their work- men for all negligence, whether that of the master and his superin- tendents, or that of fellow-workmen, just as they are to strangers ; Mr. Balfour urging that the strangers should lose their compensa- tion for such accidents rather than that the workmen should gain it ; and Mr. Chamberlain defending, in a very able speech on Tuesday, the compromise of the Government, which pro- poses to make employers liable for accidents due to the neglect of those to whom they have delegated their own authority, i.e., of all superintendents, just as they would be for their own neglect if they were but small employers and superintended for themselves, but not liable for injuries due to the carelessness of ordinary workmen, since workmen must be understood to accept the risks incident to the carelessness of their comrades. The amendment of Mr. Knowles was rejected by a majority of 129 (259 against 130), and the next stage of the Bill will be the discussion in Committee.
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