§ MR. JACOB BRIGHTasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether it has come to his know-lodge that a firm of brushmakers in Bristol have given notice of a reduction of 10 per cent in the wages of their workpeople, in consequence of the competition of prison and reformatory-made brushes in that town?
MR. ASSHETON CROSS,in reply, said, he had received no complaints upon this subject, and therefore had not made inquiries into it; but he did not think there could be the slightest truth in it, as the last Report he had from the Bristol Reformatory was to the effect that the whole amount of work then going on in this trade was equivalent only to that of four men and nine women working full time. He did not see how this could involve any interference in the trade.