LAISSEZ FAIRE
and tentative; the final form which each measure assumed
was the result of compromise; it is singularly hard to trace
the connection between opinion and action. There was, ab
least, a very general consensus of feeling that something
must be done, and that it was worth while for the State to
make definite efforts to foster and promote human well-being.
We can follow the course of affairs most easily if we fix our
which were attention in turn on subjects which successively attracted the
necessary . 7 v
toreatiseit. consideration of Parliament. There were (a) some measures
which tended to the amelioration of existing conditions by
giving a better status to the workman personally; (b) some
which were specially directed to improving the conditions of
work in various callings; while (¢) others embodied attempts
Lo ensure more favourable conditions of life.
These objects had not of course been wholly ignored even
'n the days when the Industrial Revolution was in full swing,
nd laissez faire was dominant. The horrors of the slave
rade! and the condition of pauper apprentices generally had
leservedly excited commiseration and called forth legislative
interference? and charitable efforts, and Acts were passed for
‘mproving the position of Scotch colliers?, for protecting
sailors® against evils precisely similar to those to which
Mr Plimsoll afterwards called attention’. Some pains were
taken to define their proper rations’, and attempts were
made to secure the humane treatment of Lascar and other
Asiatic sailors during their sojourn in this country’. The
continued interest which was shown in improving the con-
dition of negro slaves, and the diplomatic engagements with
i See above, pp. 477, 607.
i «Whereas many grievances have arisen from the binding of poor children as
apprentices by Parish officers to improper Persons and to Persons residing at
a distance from the Parishes to which such poor Children belong, whereby the
32id Parish Officers and Parents of such Children are deprived of the opportunity
of knowing the manner in which such Children are treated and the Parents and
Children have in many Instances become estranged from each other,’ etc.
56 Geo. IIL ec. 139.
3 A philanthropic society for training and apprenticing neglected children of
both sexes was founded in 1788, and organised an industrial school called the
Philanthropic Reforms in 8. George's Fields. An account of the nature and views
of the Philanthropic Society, 6. ¢ See above, p. 531.
§ 31 Geo. ITI. c. 39; 8 and 4 Vic. c. 36. 6 3 Hansard, ccxrv. 1319.
1 80 Geo. III. c. 33. This Act only applied to the African trade.
3 54 Geo. IIT. ec. 134.
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