Qllje
JANUARY 12, 1833
THE Daily Papers have been filling their columns . with extracts. from evidence before the Committee of the House of Commons on the Factories Bill. It is to be hoped that we have the worst cases brought before us. They are indeed sufficiently horrible; and must render the necessity of legislative interference in behalf of the sufferers evident to the minds of all but the most brutal. We have seldom read any thing more distressing than the accounts of the labour and sufferings which the children are made to undergo even in some of our best-regulated factories. It is clear that these poor little creatures have no natural protectors. The Legislature therefore must step in to guard them against the intolerable exactions of their too often worthless parents and unfeeling taskmasters. A limit must be'fixed by law to the age at which the employment of children in factories should com- mence, and to the number of hours each day during which they should be forced to work. Any inter- ference further than this should be discountenanced. It is a most difficult subject to legislate upon. We trust. however, that the Reformed Parliament will be found to contain many men of business, and of humanity also, who will know how far they can interfere with effect and without injury to the fair in•ereqts of any of the parties concerned
Previous page
