It followed the earlier Acts in prohibiting child labour under 9 years of age (except in silk mills); and in the provisions as to overtime and as to young persons under 18; and besides extending old enactments to new trades, it made the following new departures:

(a) Instead of one class between 9 years and 18 years of age there were to be two classes, viz. children between 9 years and 13 years of age, and young persons between 13 years of age and 18 years of age. The limit of working hours for children was 48 hours a week and 9 hours a day. They were to receive schooling for 2 hours a day on six days in the week, and the master was to be entitled to deduct a penny in the shilling from their wages for the payment of the schoolmaster.

(b) Children and young persons were to have recognised holidays, viz. Christmas Day, Good Friday, and eight halfdays.

(c) Certificates of fitness were introduced in a very simple form for children. The surgeon had to sign a certificate that the child had appeared before him and submitted to his examination, and was of the ordinary strength and appearance of a child of at least 9 years of age, or exceeding 9 years

of age.

(d) Four inspectors of factories were to be appointed by the Government to act under one of the principal Secretaries of State. They were to report to him twice a year, and were to meet twice a year for conference, 'to make their proceedings, rules, orders, and regulations as uniform as is expedient and practicable.'

In 1844 an Amending Factory Act was passed, which introduced several new features.

(a) A central office was set up in London, called 'The Office of the Factory Inspectors,' and persons beginning to occupy a textile factory were to send notice to it of their address, the nature of the moving power, etc.

(b) Certifying surgeons were to be appointed by the inspectors; separate certificates of age were required in the case of children and young persons; and to the certificate of apparent age was added a certificate of fitness, to the effect

that the child or young person was not incapacitated by disease or bodily infirmity from working daily in the particular factory for the time allowed by the Act.

(c) Women were brought under the provisions applicable to young persons.

(d) Children, now defined as between 8 years and 13 years of age, were brought under a half-time system. The hours were arranged so as to give approximately 30 hours' work and 15 hours' schooling.

(e) Definite provisions in regard to health were inserted. These covered protection from certain wet processes, and provision for meals being simultaneous, and being taken outside the workrooms.

There were also certain provisions for safety, such as the prohibition of the cleaning of mill gearing in motion by a child or young person, and the fencing of specified parts of the machinery. Notice of accidents was to be sent to the certifying surgeon. The inspector might bring an action for compensation on behalf of a person injured by machinery. He might also give notice that machinery was dangerous, and if the employer disputed this, the matter was to go to arbitration.

(g) The administrative provisions included the regulation of the hours of work by a public clock, the keeping of a register by the occupier of the factory, and the hanging up of an abstract of the Acts in force.

The Act consisted of 74 sections, and forms the basis of much of the existing legislation. It was repealed by the Consolidating Act of 1878.

One or two amendments of the Act of 1844 are worth special notice

By an Act of 1847, generally known as the Ten Hours Act, the working hours of women and young persons were reduced to a maximum of 10 hours per day, or 58 hours per week.

By the Factory Act of 1850 the normal period of employment was to be from 6 A.M. to 6 P.M., with a power to vary to 7 A.M. to 7 P.M. during the six winter months. It may also be mentioned here that particulars of work and wages

were made compulsory in 1845 in the hosiery trade and for silk weavers.

By the end of this period (1802-1850) the general lines of legislation for Textile Factories had been worked out, and no material changes came into force during the next twentyfive years. We may therefore turn to a second period and a second group.

Legislation for Textile Works, etc. (1845–1864).—The earliest Act extending factory legislation to works was an Act of 1845 to regulate the labour of children, young persons, and women in print works. The administration of the Act was put into the hands of the Factory Inspectors and certifying surgeons, and the same threefold classification of women, young persons, and children was adopted; but the actual regulation of labour was very slight. The employment of children under 8 years of age was forbidden, and children and females were not to be employed on night work, i.e. from 10 P.M. to 6 A.M. The partial employment of children was secured by forbidding employment unless the child could produce a certificate of attendance at school for a minimum number of days in the preceding half-year. Two years later the minimum school attendance for the halfyear was fixed at 30 days, and not less than 150 hours.

There was a great struggle over the Print Works Act, and it was only passed by jettisoning proposals as to dyeing, bleaching, and calendering works. In the early 'sixties these proposals were revived, and Acts regulating the following works or processes were passed, viz. :

Bleach and dyeworks (not open-air)

Lace works

Open-air bleachfields

Calendering and finishing

Finishing, hooking, and making up in bleach and
dyeworks

1860

1864

Each of these Acts contained variations specially desirable for the trade or process included, but was otherwise on the lines of the existing Factory Acts.

Legislation for Dangerous and Unhealthy Trades, 1864.— The first extension of regulation beyond the textile trades

and its allied employments was: (a) to certain trades which were rendered unhealthy by the use of some poisonous ingredient (for instance in the making of earthenware lead glazes were used, and in the making of lucifer matches phosphorous was used); and (b) to certain trades rendered dangerous by the use of some explosive substance, as in the case of the making of percussion caps and cartridges. Two other employments, viz. paper staining and fustian cutting, were included with these four dangerous trades in an extension of the Factory Acts passed in 1864.

The germ of all the special regulations now applicable to dangerous and unhealthy trades may be found in a special clause which empowered masters to make special rules as to cleanliness and ventilation, but subject to the approval of a Secretary of State.

Legislation for all Factories and Workshops, 1867.—By the year 1867, which we have elsewhere selected as the year from which modern industrial legislation dates, the principle of the regulation of industry was definitely accepted, and the real question was how best to cover the whole field of organised industry. So far a difference had been drawn even in the textile trades between places where machinery was used, and other places where there was only hand labour. On the other hand, any workplaces where a large number of persons of different ages and both sexes were employed seemed to need more careful and detailed regulation than the smaller workplaces. A Commission appointed in 1861, at the instance of Lord Shaftesbury, to inquire into the conditions of employment of children and young persons in trades not already regulated, sat for about five years, and finally expressed its opinion in favour of a dividing line to be drawn between the larger and smaller workplaces, the larger places to be brought within the existing law as to factories, and the smaller places to be under a modified system of regulation, with local instead of central supervision. Accordingly in the year 1867 two Acts of Parliament were passed, the first being the Factory Acts Extension Act, 1867, and the second being the Workshops Regulation Act, 1867.

The Factory Act of 1867 extended the regulations and

sanitary provisions of the earlier Factory Acts to all places where 50 or more persons were employed in any manufacturing process, and also to certain enumerated places, such as various metal works, and premises in which paper, glass, or tobacco were manufactured or made up, or where letterpress printing was carried on.

Other special points were a strengthening of the sanitary provisions, and of the power to make special provision for dangerous and unhealthy industries, a power given to a Secretary of State to make Orders, and the introduction of four whole holidays in the place of eight half-holidays.

The Workshops Regulation Act, 1867, brought in all establishments where less than 50 persons were employed, and where children, young persons, or women were at work, except such as were already included under existing Factory Acts. Its classes of persons were the same as those of the Factory Acts, but its provisions were not quite so stringent. Thus children need only have 10 hours per week schooling, and young persons and women could work for 10 hours per day in a working period between 5 A.M. and 9 P.M. contained no sanitary provisions, but the local sanitary authority was already subject to certain duties under the provisions of the Sanitary Act, 1866.

The Act

The numerical basis of the classification into Factories and Workshops has been swept away, but there still remain some workplaces with a 55-hours week and some with a 60-hours week; and some workplaces are under the inspector for sanitary purposes, while others are under the local sanitary authority.

The Consolidation of the Law in 1878.-Before we come to the main subject of this paragraph it will be necessary to notice a Factory Act of the year 1874, which was largely influenced by the Education Act of 1870. That Act had made factory schools, that is, schools promoted for the purpose of instructing factory children, obsolete, and had brought all children alike into public elementary schools. It had also strengthened the idea that the school and not the factory was the proper place for children. The Factory Act of 1874 only applied to textile factories, but for them it