AT TT

tT . a
rns mimell

Nore A. (See p- 115).
Oobden to W. 0. Hunt on the Hours of Labour.

Falmouth, Oct. 21, 1836.
“ _...When upon the point of embarking on board the
Fiverpool steamer for Lisbon, a thought bas occurred to me
relative to the address which I left with you for the Stockport
 electors, and which induces me to trouble you with
this letter. I have altogether omitted to advert to the Ten
Hours Bill; and as it is a question that interests deeply the
non-electors, whose influence, I am aware, is very considerable
 in your borough, I might be considered to have wilfully
and designedly suppressed all allusion to the subject, if T did
not explain my opinions unreservedly upon it. As respects
the right and justice by which young persons ought to be
protected from excessive labour, my mind has ever been
decided, and I will not argue the matter for a moment with
political economy ; it is a question for the medical and not
the economical profession; I will appeal to —— or Astley
Cooper, and not to MacCulloch or Martineau. Nor does it
require the aid of science to inform us that the tender germ
of childhood is unfitted for that period of labour which even
persons of mature age shrink from as excessive. In my
opinion, sud I hope to see the day when such a feeling is
universal, no child ought to be put to work in a cottor-mill at
all 80 early as the age of thirteen years; and after that the