The discussion of Thursday night as to the exclusion of
girls from employment at the mouth of coal-pits, was decided by a majority of 76 (188 to 112) against interference. The Home Secretary, however, agreed to exclude both boys and girls under twelve from work of this kind, and intimated his willingness to consider before the Report stage whether he should not fix the age for girls as high as fourteen. But the argument against the employment of women at the pit-mouth was very feebly pnt, nor was any attempt made to show that even for the older and stronger girls, it was an improper kind of work. Mr. Burt's curious remark that this sort of work unfits women for domestic life, which he supported by the evidence of one of the deputa- tion to the Home Secretary, who assured Mr. Matthews that she had tried service, and could not bear its monotony, shows in a very strong light the extent to which some good men are pre- pared to interfere with personal freedom. Would Mr. Burt
prohibit all sorts of female occupations which are supposed to unfit women for domestie life ? If so, he should begin, we think, by prohibiting women from taking to the stage. That interferes, we imagine, a good deal more effectually with domestic life than working at the pit brow.
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