in the great woollen, worsted, and flax mills of Yorkshire. No further legislation, however, took place on the subject till 1832, when first Mr. Sadler, and afterwards Lord Ashley, now Earl of Shaftesbury, urged before the House of Commons the necessity for further restraints. In deference to their earnest appeal a royal commission was appointed on the subject, and thus circumstances were made known which demanded a prompt remedy. Evidence was produced of children kept working fourteen or fifteen hours a day; of cases of deformity; of stinted growth, relaxed muscles, and slender conformation, and of numerous other injuries directly traceable to the system, to say nothing of disgusting atrocities between masters and men, and of moral enormities which might well alarm the staunchest advocate of the Laissez faire policy. It was too clear, indeed, that more restrictive legislation was wanted, and, notwithstanding a strenuous opposition, an act was passed by which night work was forbidden in the case of persons under eighteen years of age; the hours of labour of such were limited to twelve in the day, including one and a half hour for meals; the employment of children under nine was prohibited, except in silk mills; and under thirteen the hours were restricted to eight a day, or ten in silk mills; certain holidays were allowed, and certificates of health were required, under certain penalties, from a surgeon or physician previous to the admission of a child into a factory. And this act was supplemented by another authorising the appointment of inspectors of factories. But factory legislation did not end there. In progress of time further limitation was placed on the labour of children, and afterwards, from time to time, the provisions of the acts were extended to other descriptions of manufactures and workshops. Would that the law could prohibit the employment of married women in factories! No wages they can earn are equivalent to the loss produced by their leaving their homes neglected, and their husbands and children unattended.

Another subject which required legislative interference on behalf of the workmen was the abuse of paying wages in goods or provisions instead of money. The practice had long existed, and many fruitless attempts had been made to abolish it by law. As early as 1464 10 an act was passed against the abuses prevalent in the cloth-making trade, by which labourers were forced to take a great part of their wages in pins, girdles, and other unprofitable wares. A hundred years later, in the time of Elizabeth," an act prohibited payment of wages in wares and other kinds among the drapers, cottoners, and friezers in Shrewsbury. In 1701,12 in order to prevent the oppression of the labourers and workmen 759 Geo. III. c. 66; 60 Geo. III. and 1 Geo. IV. c. 5.

8 1 & 2 Wm. IV. c. 39; 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 103; 7 & 8 Vict. c. 15.

Factory Acts Extension Act, 1867, 30 & 31 Vict. c. 103, and Workshops Regulation Act, 1867, 30 & 31 Vict. c. 146.

10 4 Edward IV. c. 1, s. 5. 18 Eliz. C. 7.

12 1 Anne st. ii., c. 18.

employed in the woollen, linen, fustian, cotton, and iron manufactures, it was enacted that all payments shall be paid in coin of the realm, and not by any cloth, victuals, or commodities in lieu thereof. Ten years after 13 the woollen manufacturers were forbidden to make payments in any sort of goods or wares,' and in 174014 an act was passed forbidding payments in 'victuals, goods, or commodities,' except at the workman's request, in the manufacture of gloves, breeches, boots, shoes, slippers, wares, and other goods. And the prohibition was repeated in later times as regards clothiers, lacemakers, cutlers, and colliers. But all apparently to no effect. In 1830 it was not an uncommon practice in certain trades for employers to set up large shops or stores for the sale to their workmen of all descriptions of necessaries, and instead of paying them their wages in money to give them tickets for these shops, usually kept by some relative or servant; or if money was given, it was with the tacit or express understanding that the workmen should resort to the warehouse or shop of their masters for such articles as were there kept. We might conceive the possibility that shops well provisioned by the masters with goods purchased at wholesale prices might prove of real benefit to the workmen, since these might prevent them from losing much in the purchase of small quantities from retail shops, often not the most scrupulous, and also enable the workmen to procure what they required near at hand; especially where the factories were in sequestered localities far away from villages. But the great evil and abuse of such a system was that the truckmasters used these shops as means of gain and extortion. Not only did they charge fifteen or twenty per cent. more for goods than they were worth, but were forcing on their workmen in payment of wages goods which were useless, or which were not required. The circulation of the current coin was thus checked and often superseded. Competition amongst shops was out of the question, and in many ways the system imposed a decided loss and inconvenience to the labouring population. A large number of petitions having been presented to the House of Commons complaining of the abuse, a bill to prohibit it was introduced by Mr. Lyttleton; and, though it met with a strong opposition, on the plea that workmen ought to be at liberty to come to what agreement they pleased respecting wages, and that no law of the kind could ever be effectual, public opinion decided in favour of the measure, and it passed into law. 15

19 10 Anne c. 26; and see 1 Geo. I. c. 15, s. 11.

14 12 Geo. I. c. 34.

15 57 Geo. III. c. 115; 58 Geo. III. c. 51; 1 & 2 Wm. IV. c. 37. In 1870 a royal commission was appointed to enquire into the operation of the above act, and they found that the truck system is still largely prevalent. It appears that 155,000 persons are engaged at works where either shops are kept or poundage is charged on all advances made to the men before pay day; and the commissioners recommended the extension of weekly or quasi-weekly pays, and some alterations in the penal and prohibitory provision

And last, though not least, as a measure for the emancipation of labour, we have the abolition of slavery in the British colonies. We have already seen how, thanks to the energetic efforts of Wilberforce, Clarkson, Granville Sharp, and Macaulay, the slave trade was declared illegal from January 1, 1808; how, by the unremitted labours of Lord Brougham and his friends, the slave trade was declared piracy in 1824, and treaties were concluded with maritime powers for the maintenance of a squadron on the African coast to suppress the trade in slaves. But it was not till 1830 that Lord Brougham moved in earnest for the abolition of slavery in the British colonies. What could be said in favour of slavery? The Bible and philosophy allow that black men or Africans have a soul, as we have. Physiology demonstrates that, whether black or white, we are members of the same human family. History finds between the owner and the owned no trace of legitimate conquest. Law could attach no value to the pretended contract of ownership where there is a total absence of title, where the subjectmatter is illegal, where of the two parties one is not free to act and the other acts in bad faith. Ethnology places on a higher rank those races who work for themselves than those who cause others to work for them. Political economy affirms the superiority of free labour over forced labour. Politics condemn slavery because it corrupts the superior race; religion and charity detest it, because it oppresses the inferior race. The state of the slave population in the West Indies was indeed most pitiful. Hated by all, mercilessly treated by their masters, without law or justice to protect them, the slaves were dying rapidly out, and the number would have been speedily exhausted but for the clandestine importation of slaves from Africa, which no vigilance could entirely prevent. In appealing against such an offence Lord Brougham always rose to the highest pitch of indignation. Tell me not of

rights,' he said; 'talk not of the property of the planter in his slaves. I deny the right. I acknowledge not the property. The principles, the feelings of our common nature rise in rebellion against it. Be the appeal made to the understanding or to the heart, the sentence is the same that rejects it. In vain you tell me of laws that sanction such a claim. There is a law above all the enactments of human codes-the same throughout the world, the same in all times-such as it was before the daring genius of Columbus pierced the night of ages, and opened to one world the source of power, wealth, and knowledge, to another all unutterable woes-such as it is at this day: it is the law written on the heart of man by the finger of his Maker, and by that law-unchangeable and eternal-while men despise fraud and loathe rapine and abhor blood, they will reject with indignation the wild and guilty phantasy that man can hold property in man.' Such was the fervid manner in which Lord Brougham urged the eman

cipation of slaves in the British West Indies. The agitation caused by the Reform Bill, together with the promotion of Lord Brougham as Lord Chancellor to the House of Lords, removing as it did the most undaunted champion from the popular arena of the Legislature, retarded for a while the settlement of the question. In 1832 Mr. Fowell Buxton made a motion on the subject, but at last Lord Stanley, afterwards Earl of Derby, then Minister of the Colonies, introduced a measure, and on August 28, 1833, the famous act 16 was passed for the abolition of slavery throughout the British colonies from August 1, 1834, a compensation of 20,000,000l. being granted to the planters for the sacrifice thus imposed upon them. By the original measure all children under six years of age, or born after that date, were declared free; and all slaves above six years became apprenticed labourers, with weekly wages, till their final emancipation; some in 1838 and some in 1840. The apprenticeship system was not allowed, however, to continue as regards any class of labourers beyond the shorter time prescribed, and all slaves and apprentices became universally and absolutely free on August 1, 1838.

16 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 73. Under this statute compensation was given for the freedom of 780,993 slaves. The value of the slaves was estimated at 45,281,7367.; the average value of a slave from 1822 to 1830 having been as high as 1207. in Honduras, and as low as 271. 48. in Bermuda. The 20,000,000l. was apportioned between the West India colonies, upwards of 6,000,000l. having been given to Jamaica, 4,200,000l. to British Guiana, and smaller sums to the other colonies,

CHAPTER IV.

THE COMMERCIAL CRISIS OF 1825-6.

Favourable Prospects of Trade.-Foreign Mining and Loans.-Reaction.Bankruptcies. Help by the Bank of England.-Remedial Measures.Formation of Banking Companies.-State of Foreign Trade.-Diminution of Taxes. Savings Banks.

A HAPPY combination of events favourable to commerce and industry accompanied the introduction of Mr. Huskisson's measures. A succession of two or three good harvests in the years 1820-22, and great expectations of arrivals of gold from South America, elated the mercantile classes, whilst the resolution of Government to allow the continuance of the circulation of notes under 5l., though the Bank of England was quite prepared to adhere strictly to the act of 1819, having an ample amount of bullion on hand to meet all outstanding engagements, gave considerable satisfaction. The rate of interest was, moreover, low, and new avenues of trade were continually being opened. A slight check was experienced in 1823, owing to somewhat scantier crops, and certain political quarrels between France and Spain, which it was feared might lead to an European war. But happily neither of these causes proved serious; and, though prices remained depressed, so soon as they were removed trade improved, and it was, on the whole, regular, sound, and satisfactory. We need not wonder, therefore, if, animated by such encouraging circumstances, several large companies were formed in 1824. Then it was that the St. Catherine Dock Company, the West India and the General Steam Navigation Companies, were started. In the same year the Thames Tunnel Company was formed, and several important lines of railway for passenger traffic, such as the Liverpool and Manchester, the Birmingham and Liverpool, and the London and Birmingham, were first proposed with great éclat.' It was, indeed, a memorable year that could produce so many proposals pregnant with future success. And so prosperous was every branch of trade in 1824 that the supply of all articles fell short in proportion to

1 Mr. Francis, in his History of the Bank of England, stated that the companies in existence and projected required a capital of 372,173,000l., for which the amount of 17,605,000l. had actually been advanced. The report of the Committee of the House of Commons on joint-stock companies in 1844 gives lists of the companies, foreign loans, and schemes projected in 1824. They comprise 243 schemes, each averaging 1,000,000l., and requiring the investment of 243,000,000l., of which only 43,000,000l. had been paid.