§ SIR CHARLES DILKE (Gloucester, Forest of Dean)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to a case at Blackburn County Court, in which William Guest sued for compensation for the death of his wife, alleged to have been caused by a shuttle flying, and in which the Judge nonsuited the plaintiff, and stated that there was no legal evidence that the particular loom was dangerous; and, whether there is any ground for the distinction drawn among shuttles employed in cotton manufacture, by which some are held to be dangerous machinery and others not?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEY,) Lancashire, BlackpoolMy attention has been called to this case. So far as can be judged from the newspaper reports, the Judge nonsuited the plaintiff on the ground that no evidence was produced either that the loom at which the plaintiff's wife was working was dangerous, or that she had been struck by a shuttle at all. His decision appears to me to decide nothing except as to the manner in which this particular case was 1171 presented to him; but, no doubt, the danger from unguarded looms varies greatly in degree according to the speed and other conditions.