LONGMAN, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, PREFACE. It is hoped that Parliament, during the present Session, will be again called upon to legislate in behalf of the children employed in factories; and, for the sake of the many who are unprotected in consequence of the defects in the existing law, as well as for the sake of the honest mill-owner who strictly obeys the law, but is exposed to unfair competition from the too easy evasions of it by his less scrupulous neighbour, it will be a matter of great regret if another Session should be allowed to terminate without an amending Act having passed. The The chief purpose of the present publication is to show, and especially to our manufacturers, that it is not now in this country alone that the employment of children in factories is restricted by law. inhumanity, injustice, and impolicy of extorting labour from children unsuitable to their age and strength,of subjecting them, in truth, to the hardships of slavery (for they are not free agents), — have been condemned by the public voice in other countries; and their governments have either already applied, or are now engaged in preparing, a remedy for this vice of modern times. I have entered into a somewhat lengthened detail of the recent proceedings in France; for they bring forcibly before us the baneful consequences of this system, and give as it were a reflection of that which did exist, and in some branches of manufacture, and in mines, does still exist, in our own country. I have also felt that the wise and humane sentiments expressed in the several Reports, and in the speeches delivered in the Chamber of Peers when the question was discussed, may stimulate our legislators not to relax until the evil in every shape be put down, and may reconcile our manufacturers to the interference to which they are subjected, when they see that the example of England has been followed by other nations, and that the overruling necessity of restricting the labour of children has been admitted, after the most calm and dispassionate inquiries. In the introductory observations I have alluded to some of the causes why the law of 1833 was passed in so imperfect a state, with so many facilities for evading its most important enactments, as a warning to guard against similar risks of imperfection in the amending Act. I have pointed out the necessity of restricting the labour of the children. within more definite limits than are fixed by the present Act; and I have urged the justice and policy of extending these restrictions to other kinds of employment besides that in Factories; for, until that is done, the law will be felt to be partial and unfair, and will only imperfectly attain its object. London, June 3. 1840. CONTENTS. Page V. Bill to regulate the Labour of Children employed in VIII. Law in the State of Massachusetts, relative to the Education of Children in Factories |