The Duke of Hamiltonhaving presented two petitions from the women employed in certain mines and collieries in Stirlingshire, against the Mines and Collieries Bill, went on to say, that independently of all the considerations to which the petitioners referred, he leaked upon this bill as most objectionable in principle and detail. It trenched on that right which every man and woman ought to enjoy, of disposing of their labour in what way they thought proper. He had no doubt whatever of the humane intentions of the promoters of the bill, but he thought they were wholly mistaken in the practical way in which they proposed to carry out those intentions. It might be very well to desire to relieve a woman from the drudgery of labour in a colliery—though, by the way, the extent of that drudgery was greatly overrated; but what kind of substitute did they propose to give for this labour? None whatever. The poor females so employed did not desire to be relieved from it. It was sweet to them, because by it they were enabled to maintain themselves, or, perhaps, a parent or a child, or, perhaps, all three. Deprive them of that labour and they were made 317 miserable, as well as these dependent on them. On all these grounds he thought the bill most unjust in its principle, and most ruinous to those poor persons in its consequences.
§ Petition to lie upon the Table.