a] ENGLISH FORMS OF SOCIALISM. 303

abourer the administration of capital. The Act of 1844 ds.
"as only g rudimentary step in this direction. In 1847 mr 40
he Ten Hours Bill became law. Cobden was abroad ab
the time, and took no part in its final stages. In the
thirgy years that followed, the principle has been extended
With astonishing perseverance. We have to-day a complete,
Winute, and voluminous code for the protection of labour ;
buildings must be kept pure of effftuvia; dangerous machinery
Must be fenced ; children and young persons must nob clean
¥ while in motion ; their hours are not only limited but fixed ;
Sontinuous employment must not exceed a given number of
hours, varying with the trade, but prescribed by the law in
given cages ; go statutable number of holidays is imposed;
the children must go to school, and the employer must every
Week have a certificate to that effect; if an accident happens,
Utice must be sent to the proper authorities ; special pro-Visions
 are rade for bakehouses, for lace-making, for colliories,
 and for a whole schedule of other special callings; for
the due enforcement and vigilant supervision of this immense
host of minute prescriptions, there is an immense host of
'Dspectors, certifying surgeons, and other authorities, whose
business it is “to speed and post o'er land and ocean” in
*estless guardianship of every kind of labour, from that of
the Woman who plaits straw at her cottage door, to the
Winer whe descends into the bowels of the earth, and the
Seaman who conveys the fruits and materials of nniversal industry
 to and fro between the remotest parts of the globe.
Bug all this is one of the largest branches of what the most
Mportumnate Socialists have been accustomed to demand; and
1 we adq to this vast fabric of Labour legislation our system
of Poop Law, we find the rather amazing result that in the
Country where Socialism has been less talked about than any
Other country in HKarope, its principles have been most
Xtensively applied.