provided that after 1875 no child under 10 years of age should be employed, that childhood should last till 14, unless after the age of 13 an educational certificate was gained, and that schools recognised by the Education Department should in general be substituted for factory schools. The Act also limited the period of continuous labour for women, young persons, and children to 4 hours, a concession which is still limited to textile factories.

In 1876 a Commission was appointed to consider the question of consolidating all the existing Acts regulating factories and workshops. This short review has at this stage brought to the reader's notice nineteen Acts, varying in date from 1833 to 1874, and all still in force at the date of the appointment of the Commission. The result of this Commission was the Factories and Workshops (Consolidation) Act, 1878, which was only repealed by the Act now in force, namely, the Factory and Workshops Act, 1901.

The Act of 1878 abandoned any numerical criterion between factories and workshops, and reverted to the use of mechanical power as the main criterion. On this basis it built up a fivefold classification, which is still in operation, viz. (1) Textile factories, together with certain allied workplaces; (2) non-textile factories; (3) workshops employing women, young persons, and children; (4) women's workshops; and (5) domestic workshops. At this stage there was no need to create a class of men's workshops, as the Act did not legislate for them. The creation of a special class of women's workshops was due to a feeling then current that where adults were alone concerned matters of hours "ought to be left to the good sense and increasing intelligence of the people themselves."

The uniform working periods, 6 A.M. to 6 P.M., or 7 A.M. to 7 P.M., were introduced for Classes (1), (2), and (3).

Further progress was made in the regulation of dangerous industries by the absolute prohibition of the employment of children and young persons in certain branches of the white lead and other similar factories.

The whole of the previous legislation was repealed.

The Period from 1878 to 1901.-The chief feature of this

period is the commencement of the detailed regulation of dangerous and unhealthy trades which is now of such extreme importance in factory legislation. Thus the Factory and Workshop Act, 1883, was passed to provide, in the case of white lead factories, for special ventilation, lavatories, baths for women with hot and cold water, suitable meal rooms, the wearing of overalls and respirators, and the provision of acidulated drinks.

The Factory and Workshop Act, 1891, introduced several innovations. We may note specially

(1) The power given to the Secretary of State to draw up special rules for dangerous or unhealthy trades.

(2) The prohibition of women's labour during the four weeks after childbirth.

(3) The application to men's workshops of the sanitary provisions of the Factory Acts.

(4) The extension of the period of employment in women's workshops to 10 P.M.

(5) The prohibition after 1892 of child labour under II years of age.

(6) The enforcement of a 'particulars clause' for pieceworkers in textile trades.

(7) The obligation to keep a list of outworkers, to be open to the inspection of the Factory Inspector; and

(8) The retransfer of workshops for sanitary purposes to the local public health authority.

The last three of these points were further dealt with by the Factory and Workshop Act, 1895, which (a) authorised the Secretary of State to extend the particulars clause by Special Order, (b) imposed a further obligation of sending the lists of outworkers to the Factory Inspector, and (c) required a local authority to report to the inspector as to action taken by it in regard to sanitary complaints.

This period closes with the passing of the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, which consolidated and extended the existing law.

The Act of 1907, dealing with Laundries, and the Act of 1911, dealing with Cotton Cloth Factories, need only be mentioned here.

LEGISLATION AS TO MINES

Lord Ashley's Act.-The earliest legislation as to mines was Lord Ashley's Act, 1842, which was an Act to prohibit the employment of women and girls in mines and collieries, and to regulate the employment of boys, and to make other provisions relating to persons working therein. The prohibition of the employment of women and girls underground was absolute as from March 1, 1843.

Males under 10 years of age were not to be employed underground.

The miscellaneous provisions dealt with the following

matters:

(a) A Secretary of State was authorised to appoint proper persons to visit and inspect any mine or colliery.

(b) Where there were vertical or other shafts no steam or other engine used for bringing persons up or down the shafts was to be under the care of any person other than a male of the age of 15 years and upwards.

(c) Wages were not to be paid in public-houses.

Legislation from 1850 to 1872.-The Act of 1842 was repealed in 1872. The first Act dealing in any detail with the inspection of mines was passed in 1850 (an Act for Inspection of Coal Mines in Great Britain). It was apparently limited to coal mines strictly so called. It authorised a Secretary of State to appoint any fit person to be an inspector of coal mines, but excluded from appointment any land agent or manager, viewer or agent of a coal mine, or any person otherwise employed in a coal mine. Such an inspector might enter, inspect, and examine any coal mine and the works and machinery belonging thereto, at all reasonable times and seasons, by day or night, but so as not to impede or obstruct the working of the coal mine, and might inquire into the state and condition of the coal mine, works and machinery, and the ventilation of the coal mine, and the mode of lighting or using lights in the same, and into all matters and things connected with the safety of the persons employed in or about the same. If the inspector found the mine or its mode of working dangerous or defective, so as

in his opinion to threaten or tend to the bodily injury of any person employed therein, he could summon the manager before him, and if the manager did not attend, or did not satisfy the inspector, then the inspector must serve notice, in writing, of the particular grounds on which he was of opinion that the coal mine was dangerous or defective on the owner or agent of such mine, and must report the same to a Secretary of State.

The inspector was to be assisted in his inspection by the production by the owner or agent of the mine of an accurate map or plan of the workings, showing the several parts, air-courses, air-doors, waterways, drains, pits, levels, and shafts.

If loss of life should occur by reason of any accident within such coal mine the owner or agent was bound, within 24 hours, to send notice to a Secretary of State, and the Secretary of State was also to have notice of the inquest.

In 1855 the foregoing Act was repealed and re-enacted with some important additions under the title of an Act to amend the Law for the Inspection of Coal Mines in Great Britain. The main feature of the Act was the introduction of General Rules for all mines and Special Rules for individual mines.

The General Rules were at first seven in number, and as they were concisely expressed are here reproduced :

(1) An adequate amount of ventilation must be constantly produced at all collieries to dilute and render harmless noxious gases to such an extent as that the working places of the pits and levels of such collieries shall under ordinary circumstances be in a fit state for working.

(2) Every shaft or pit which is out of use, or used only as an air-pit, must be securely fenced.

(3) Every working and pumping pit or shaft must be properly fenced when not at work.

(4) Every working and pumping pit or shaft where the natural strata under ordinary circumstances are not safe must be securely cased or lined.

(5) Every working pit or shaft must be provided with some proper means of signalling from the bottom of the

shaft to the surface, and from the surface to the bottom of the shaft.

(6) A proper indicator to show the position of the load in the pit or shaft, and also an adequate break must be attached to every machine worked by steam- or water-power used for lowering or raising persons.

(7) Every steam-boiler must be provided with a proper steam-gauge, water-gauge, and safety-valve.

Special rules were to be such other rules for the conduct and guidance of the persons acting in the management of the coal mine and of all persons employed in or about the same, as under the particular state and circumstances of the mine might appear best calculated to prevent dangerous accidents. Special rules were to be passed by the owner of the mine, and transmitted by him to a Secretary of State for approval. If differences arose as to approval, the special rules were finally settled by arbitration. Both general and special rules were to be exhibited in some conspicuous part of the principal office or place of business of the coal mine. The inspector was given the further duty of seeing whether the general and special rules were neglected or wilfully violated, and if that was so he must forthwith give notice in writing thereof to the owner or agent of the coal mine, and a penalty was attached to such neglect or violation.

The somewhat impotent conclusion to an inspector's report that a mine was dangerous or defective, contained in the Act of 1850, was much strengthened by a power given to the Secretary of State to direct that the inspector's report (if it was not disputed, or if disputed if it had stood the test of arbitration) should be exhibited at the mine itself, and until the danger or defect had been removed or remedied, any person employed in or about such coal mine in the dangerous area should be at liberty to discontinue his service without penalty.

Every inspector was to make an annual report and transmit it to a Secretary of State, and a copy of such report was to be laid before both Houses of Parliament.

By an Act for the Regulation and Inspection of Mines, passed in 1860, further progress was made. The age limit