Lords Sitting of 14 June 1819

COTTON FACTORIES REGULATION BILL.
On the order of the day for the commitment of this bill,
Lord Kenyonobserved, that this was not in any manner a speculative question, but a question of practical humanity, arising out of the actual sufferings of the children employed in the cotton factories, for which no relief was to be found in any of the provisions of the common law, and therefore it became necessary to resort to a special legislative measure. His lordship proceeded to enter into some detail of the evidence given before the committee, for the purpose of showing the injury that resulted to the health of the children, from being employed for 14, 15, or 16 hours a day in places heated to 80, 85 and nearly 90 degrees, and that though the evidence of some of the medical men was upon this point contradictory, yet that there were amply sufficient facts given in evidence to prove that the ill state of health of these children, arising from the number of hours they were kept at work in the manner described, imperiously called for legislative interference to prevent that waste of human life which such a system produced.
The Earl of Rosslynsaid, he should not enter much into the general principles that might be discussed in application to the present subject, but should lay it down as an incontestible fact, that parents were the natural guardians of the health and prosperity of their own children, and that the legislature ought to be slow to interfere with free labour, the regulation of which would be best provided for by leaving it to the individuals immediately concerned. He would admit, at the same time, that cases of Great abuse might occur, in which it would be wise to dispense with those established principles, but the onus of proving the enormity of the case, lay with those who undertook to call for the interference of the legislature. The noble lord who preceded him, had spoken of arts used by the opponents of the measure; but its opponents might well retort the charge upon their adversaries, who had adopted every means to excite that clamour by means of which it had passed the other House of parliament last year. The noble earl then took a minute view of the evidence before the House. Many parts of it, he observed, went to show that numberless accidents happened to the children employed in the mills, but he denied that the general bearing of the evidence upon this point, justified the exaggerated inferences of some of the witnesses. The heat of the fac-
¶
1132
tories was stated by some to average from 75 to 84 degrees, but it was only in the finer kinds of spinning that the high temperature was required, and the proportion which that description of work bore to the coarse was only as 6 to 100. He next adverted to the evidence of the medical witnesses, who stated that heat alone was not injurious to the human frame, and described even the transition from heat to cold as only sometimes attended with bad effects. The present bill, however, did not provide against this evil: its object was, to limit the hours of labour, and the inconvenience of passing from heat to cold was just as likely to be injurious after 11 hours of employment as after 12 or 14. The tendency of this occupation to destroy health and life was attempted to be proved by a reference to the very small number of persons to be found in those mills who had served 30 years. The fact was certainly true; but it was easily accounted for, as the very persons who made the assertion must have known that those mills were not in existence 30 years ago. It was in 1792 that they were first made use of. The noble lord then entered into details to prove that the average state of health enjoyed by persons employed in the cotton mil's was more favourable than in any other trade or manufacture; that the marriages were generally more numerous and productive; that there was less sickness, fewer applications for parish relief, and consequently less distress among them than among those engaged in any other laborious occupation. He did not mean to contend from this that the employment of children from 12 to 14 hours in cotton mills was in itself beneficial to health, but as it appeared to be less injurious than other occupations, he thought it unfair that it should be particularly selected for animadversion, and even legislative interference. He must protest against any such partial measure as the present. Under the present system, the children had labour, food and cloathing—under the proposed one, they would have idleness, poverty, and wretchedness. He was aware of the earnest endeavour to introduce systems, founded on false views of humanity and benevolence, and to brand all those who opposed them with an opposite feeling. It was because he was the friend of the children, and of the parents, and of the interest of the community, that he felt it his duty to move the postponement

1133
of the committal until that day three months.
The House then divided: — For the Committal, 27; Against it, 6; Majority 21. The bill then went through the committee.