§ MR. HARDYsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the Report of the Factory Inspectors for the six months ending the 30th day of April last would be in the 553 hands of Members; and whether any communications respecting the Bill "for the further amendment of the laws relating to Labour in Factories," as now proposed to be amended, had been made by the Factory Inspectors, or any of them, to the Secretary of State for the Home Department; and, if so, whether he would have any objection to lay such communications on the table?
§ SIR GEORGE GREYsaid, that the Reports of the Factory Inspectors were always laid before Parliament shortly after they were received at the Home Office. He found by inquiries yesterday, that the Reports for the last half year had been received, and as soon as a sufficient number of copies had been printed they would be laid before Parliament. He had received several communications from some of the Factory Inspectors regarding the Bill of the hon. and gallant Member for North Lancashire (Colonel W. Patten), but he did not think those communications were of a character to be laid before the House, unless they were accompanied by a great deal of explanatory correspondence. He did not know the opinion of the fourth, but three of the Inspectors of Factories did not concur in the expediency of the measure proposed by the hon. Member.