§ MR. SLANEYthen rose to move for the appointment of a Standing Committee or unpaid Commission, to consider and report from time to time on practical measures (unconnected with political changes), likely to improve the condition of the working classes, to encourage their industry, and increase their contentment. He said this subject was one which he was sure would receive the consideration of Gentlemen of all parties, and he was bound to make out a strong case to induce the Government to accede to his Motion. What he had to fear was not an opposition of argument, but rather hon. Gentlemen's quietly withdrawing from the House to go to their dinners, and, by a process often resorted to, leaving him an auditory of such diminished and diminishing numbers, as would very soon subject him to a "count out." If such should be the case, he would not make use of any harsh words, but only say that he trusted good temper and a good cause would gain him a hearing on a future occasion on a question which he believed to be of vital consequence to the best interests of the great mass of the people. He wished to show the House, if it would only lend him its kind indulgence for a brief space, that whilst the rich and middle classes of this country had been going on improving, the condition of the humbler and most numerous orders of the population had undergone no corresponding amelioration. He would 872 satisfy the House from facts that his assertions were only too true, and show them how the deteriorated condition of the working classes might be elevated by a gradual improvement in their legislation, which would not only inflict no injury upon the more favoured classes, hut strengthen their security and fortify the interests of property. The working classes might be divided into two sections—the agricultural population and the labouring population in the manufacturing and other large towns. With regard to the great body of the peasantry of this country, let them cast their eyes back and see what had been their condition, and what it was now. In the year 1790 a Committee of that House was appointed to investigate their condition, and reported that abuses of the worst descriptions prevailed with regard to large bodies of the agricultural population in the southern counties, depressing their condition, and destroying their comforts and independence. Nothing, however, was done to remedy these evils. In 1824, and again in 1830, Committees were also appointed, who all reported in equally strong terms; but still nothing was done to remove the abuses complained of. In 1833 a Commission was issued to inquire into these subjects, which reported that the law was administered in a manner most destructive to the morals and comforts of the most numerous classes; and soon afterwards disturbances broke out in the southern counties, which forced the subject on the attention of the Legislature. The consequence had been that, in 1835, a law was passed, which, under the circumstances, had done away with much of the abuses, and effected some degree of improvement in those districts. But he would state the fact broadly, that these abuses had notoriously existed for a long series of years (after reports of the facts had been laid before Parliament and the country) in twenty-six counties, from the mouth of the Humber to the Severn, southwards. And what, therefore, was the inference? Why, that there ought to be some standing Commission, or department of the State, whose special business should be to watch over the condition of the working classes, and endeavour, when they were oppressed, or suffered from the operation of the law, to suggest measures for their benefit. When the labourer arrived at seventy years of age, his only prospect was a small dole from the parish-rate to help to eke out his miserable subsistence; and if he died, his wife also 873 had to depend on a small allowance from the same source. He (Mr. Slaney) wished to promote measures calculated to secure for the labourer an independent provision, derived from the wages he received from his employer. Turning next to the labouring classes employed in manufactures, mines, and in populous cities—this population had increased in double the ratio of the agricultural population within fifty years, whilst the rate of mortality had rapidly increased. The state of the unskilled labourers in populous places was most lamentable. In 1839, the Poor Law Commissioners' report stated the abject, miserable, and neglected condition of the dwellings of the poorer classes, and the pernicious effects to their health in consequence, in the eastern parts of the metropolis. In 1840, a Committee was appointed at his (Mr. Slaney's) suggestion, to inquire into the state of the health of large bodies of the population in the large towns, such as Dublin, Glasgow, Liverpool, Birmingham, Hull, and others. The report showed that contagious fevers and diseases prevailed to an alarming extent, and various other fearful evils, causing great expense at the same time to parishes and the more opulent classes; and stated that these evils might be removed, or greatly lessened, by proper sanitary regulations. Still, after that report, nothing was done. In 1842, Mr. Chadwick's general report on the sanitary condition of the poor showed that a great proportion of the deaths of the heads of families occurred from removable causes, their ages being thirteen years below the usual average duration of life. Still nothing was done—the evils still were suffered to prevail, not from the callousness or hard-heartedness of Parliament, but because there was no body in existence whose peculiar duty it was to look after these things and suggest remedies. In 1843, a commission was issued by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Tamworth; and that commission's report completely confirmed the former reports on the same subjects. The commissioners inquired into the state of no less than fifty towns, with three millions of population—all the large towns in the kingdom, and reported that there was a general neglect in almost all populous towns of due regulations for the health and comfort of the working classes; and that severe and extensive evils followed in consequence, the removal of which was within the power and the duty of the Legislature. In 1845 874 a similar report was made; and he contended, equally in the case of the manufacturing and populous districts, as in the case of the agricultural districts, that if any body or commission had existed to discover adequate remedies, we would not have waited so many years till Bills were introduced to correct these wide-spread, appalling, and long-ascertained evils. Then the factory reports from 1830 to 1842 told a similarly distressing tale with regard to the reduced and sickly state of health and stunted growth of the children and young persons employed in factories, where no regard was paid to ventilation or cleanliness. In 1841 there was a report with respect to the hand-loom weavers, forming, with their families, no less than 600,000 persons; and it was stated that their condition, with the exception of those who were employed in coarse manufactures for domestic use, was a painful one, and that as a body they were in a state of distress. The commissioners went on to state that that evil must be obviated by their activity and intelligence in seeking other employments for themselves. He next begged to call attention to the report made in the year 1846 with respect to the condition of the railway labourers, forming, with their families, a body of about 600,000 persons, and said he considered that to remedy the evils to which he had called attention a commission should be appointed; that the functions of that commission should be rather suggestive than administrative, and that the constant attention of its members should be directed with a view to mitigate those evils. In the first place, they should look at the education of the children; and, secondly, attend to the preservation of their health. They should afford facilities to the labouring classes for providing against the contingencies constantly occurring to them, and likewise give them the means of preserving their small savings. With respect to the amount of education, in the year 1838 there was a Committee appointed to investigate that subject. They reported that the number that should be educated was one in eight; but what were the numbers educated? In East London, 1 in 27; in Birmingham, 1 in 38; in Manchester, 1 in 35; and in Leeds, 1 in 41—
Notice taken, that forty Members were not present; House counted; and forty Members not being present.
§ The House was adjourned at a quarter after eight o'clock till Thursday.