§ Lord Ashleybegged to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether it was the intention of Government to take any further proceedings in the Factory Bill?
§ Mr. Poulett Thomsonsaid, that he had allowed the measure to drop, it not being the intention of Government to persevere with it. After the division of the other night, it seemed to them that it would be extremely difficult to carry the Bill; and if it were finally carried, it would only be against the sense of so large a body of the House, as to render any effort of the kind 307 unadvisable. In withdrawing the Bill, however, he begged to say, that he considered the responsibility to rest with the House of Commons.