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CONDITIONS OF CHILDREN’S WORK 787 
Messrs Marshall's flax-mills at Holbeck, near Leeds. This was, A.D. 1776 
however, a difficuls arrangement to carry out, and in country i850. 
villages it was not easy to find a double shift of child labour. 
The manufacturers disliked a proposal that would hamper 
them, and the parents were on the whole glad to get an 
income from the children’s labour; still this suggestion went 
on the line of least resistance, and Government carried a Bill 
which practically gave effect to the recommendations of the 
Commission. The chief debate was upon the proposal to 
limit the work of those under eighteen to ten hours. Lord 
Ashley was defeated on this point, as the Government thought 
it necessary to go farther and limit those under fourteen to 
eight hours; and from the time of this defeat, the Bill became 
a Government measure to which Lord Ashley gave inde- 
pendent support. And in the main the recommendations of 
the Commissioners were accepted by Parliament. By the Limits 
Act of 1833 the employment of children under nine years of posed on 
age was forbidden. The time of work for children under fhe emgley 
thirteen years old was limited to nine hours, and for young children, 
persons, of from thirteen to eighteen years, to twelve hours; 
and night work was prohibited, ie., work between 8.30 p.m. 
and 5.30 am. But the real importance of the measure lay in 
the fact that new administrative machinery was now created. 
Previous Acts had failed partly, at least, because there had 
been no sufficient means of enforcing them. The establish- 
ment of local inspectors was originally suggested by the 
masters, apparently as a means of seeing that their neighbours 
did not indulge in unfair competition by evading the law, 
and the operatives viewed it with suspicion. In the form in and 
which the proposal was incorporated in the Act it created an casero 
independent body of men, acting under a central authority, ty 
who have proved to be not merely a means of enforcing but charged 
of amending the law. “The introduction of an external au- with en- 
. . 3 ud . Sorcing 
thority, free from local bias and partiality, greatly improved ‘tke Act. 
the administration of the law, lessened the friction between 
the manufacturers and operatives, and provided a medium of 
communication between the Government and the people at 
a time when knowledge of industrial matters was scanty in 
the extreme?” 
* 8 and 4 Will. IV, ¢. 103. 2 Hutchins and Harrison, op. cit. 40. 
50—2