A.D. 1776 
--1850. 
18 well as 
that of 
women 
under- 
round, 
ma 6 
yy stem of 
State in- 
spection 
vas 
rgantsed. 
Fhe con- 
ditions in 
which 
labourers 
'sved 
306 LAISSEZ FAIRE 
inderground work of women and girls was to cease absolutely 
within a specified time, which it was hoped might allow for 
heir obtaining employment in other callings’. There were 
also careful provisions with regard to the prevention of 
accidents; and the period of apprenticeship was defined so 
as to avoid the recurrence of that practical bondage which 
was once so common in Scotland? 
In this way the exercise of constant State supervision, 
both in regard to factories and mines, came to be recognised 
as desirable, with a view to securing the welfare of the labour- 
ing population. There was no conscious abandonment of the 
principles of laissez faire. The advocates of interference 
were content to maintain that they were dealing with ex- 
ceptional cases. Still the recognition of the fact that there 
were exceptions, which demanded special treatment, brought 
about an important new development in practice. The 
exclusion of women and mere children from mines became so 
complete, that the excuse of legislating on their behalf could 
no longer be maintained. The inspectors of mines were 
as a matter of fact chiefly concerned in enforcing laws and 
suggesting improvements in the conditions under which work 
was done by adult men. 
272. The State had done a great deal for improving the 
conditions in which the operatives worked before any neces- 
sity was felt for legislating in regard to the homes in which 
they lived. It was at the centres of the cotton manufacture 
that the difficulty first attracted attention, and it came into 
prominence, not as a sign of poverty? but as presenting a 
1 5 and 6 Vict. ¢. 99. 2 Reports, 1844, xv1. 9. See above, p. 531. 
8 It is most remarkable to find that public attention was still forced to the 
old, rather than to the new social difficulties, in regard to the whole question of 
poor relief. The insuperable problems of our time seem to be those connected 
with great cities,—with great masses of men huddled together, where there are 
aone of the middle and upper classes to attend to the ordinary machinery of 
government in the widest sense of the word. So far as the Poor Law Com. 
missioners of 1834 are concerned these difficulties might scarcely have existed. 
That they did exist and were very real we know from other sources. Dr Chalmers 
had endeavoured to organise a system of relief in Glasgow, which should be given 
on grounds of charity, and which should not have the demoralising effects of the 
aid that could be claimed as a matter of right (Christian and Civic Economy of 
Large Towns, 11. pp. 225—865: Political Economy, Works, xx. 400). He was not 
apparently aware that the legal relief, which he denounced, had been, as a matter 
of fact, the outgrowth of a system of voluntary and charitable assistance, such as