The Evening Star SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2738, 25 November 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1871.

It is only now and then that glimpses are obtained of the social dangers grow ing up amongst us : but they do sometimes crop above the surface. We have been accustomed to think that when we left England wc left labor competition behind us, and that the Australasian Colonies have leisure to build up systems whereby the hours of toil may be shortened, in order that the children of working men may pass the joyous time of childhood and youth in acquiring education, and developing strength for successful future battle with the world. Accordingly, a school system has been established, at great expense to the community, through which the cheapest and best education can be given ; and eight hours’ movements find favor with persons of every class. Had it not been for the disclosures in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday, wc should have been loth to believe that the cupidity of parents could have led to ignoring desirable advantages offered for their children, and still worse, to reproducing that system of slavery which rendered legislative interference necessary at Home. It is now thirtyeight years since the Factory Act passed, which required that “no per- “ sou under eighteen years of age “ should be allowed to work " in any cotton, woollen, silk, or flax factory more than twelve hours a day, nor more than sixty-nine hours in one week : and work was not to be commenced earlier than half-past live in the morning, nor continued later than half-past eight in the evening. It was also provided that in two years and ahalf after passing the Act, no children under thirteen years old should be allowed to work more than nine hours a day, except in silk mills, where they might work ten ; but the week’s work was not to extend beyond forty-eight hours, and no child under thirteen was to be employed. It must be observed that in these factories the employment was of the lightest character. It required continued and intense attention, but the works were carried on with plenty of light, in large, lofty rooms, capable of being well ventilated, under shelter, shaded from the, sun in summer, and protected from cold in winter. The injury to the health of children arose mainly from their being worked too young, during too many hours : the injury to the mind that no opportunity was afforded for obtaining the commonest rudiments of education. That Act has been supplemented by others in the same direction, and legislation on the same subject was even found neces sary in 18G7. The principal opponents of the measures were the parents of the children themselves. Unnatural as it may seem, these little responsibilities were looked upon as so many young cattle owned by those whoso blood run in their veins ; who were mainly begotten that they might be used as gainers

of wages for their fathers and mothers. | Marriages amongst factory operatives were entered into with this special object, and he was considered the luckiest man that had the largest family able to work in a factory. Two generations have passed since the government of England stepped in to protect the child against the hardheartedness of its parents, and with the happiest results. But if legal restriction was needed in factories still more was it found to be required in mines. The revelations that inquiry into mining systems led to, were of a most startling character. In pits, in some parts of Britain, not only men but women and children labored. Amid foul and heated air, in dark and foetid caverns, hewn out with pick and shovel, almost nude, with none to check them, no wonder that those deep places of the earth were nurseries for vice and immorality. As a necessity, coarseness in feeling and morals grew up which manifested itself above ground ; and where these prevail cupidity and selfishness take natural root. Many good people imagine tint natural affection for children, under favorable circumstances, will induce parents to spare them from early toil, and lead to securing the best education their means will allow. To prove that society must compel them to do this, it is only necessary to point to the case in our yesterday’s report of the proceedings in the Magistrates Court. Two hoys, the elder under thirteen had between them what is technically called “abend” in a coal mine: they two being considered equal to one man. The father appeared, from the evidence, to be able to earn ample wages. He had full and constant work, and these two boys should have been at school and developing bone and muscle by healthy and athletic sports, with ample hours of rest. Yet what is the fact] These poor little slaves to their father were dragged from their beds to go ami work in the mine at four o’clock in a morning—which means they must rise at three—and they continued to labor until seven at night, with trifling intervals of a “ spelland this had been going on for a year and a half or two years : that is, one hoy must have gone to work at about eleven years of age and the other at nine or ten. In a family where such twisted notions of paternal duty prevail in the mind of the head, it is natural to expect the malefic influence will run throughout. Whether the mother has the same idea of human rights or not, we cannot say; but this much is certain, that a girl of the family who represented herself as thirteen years old, was so ignorant of the nature of an oath, that in another case her evidence was taken for what it was worth, without being sworn. It is observable that there seemed to he no consciousness of impropriety in the detail which the father gave of these facts. They seemed to he things of everyday life, acquiesced in by those engaged as fellow-workmen as matters of

course ; anti this is the most distressing feature in the case, for it proves that many entertain like notions. But society cannot afford to permit this arbitrary dooming of children to degradation and ignorance. For its own protection it must step in and insist on the natural rights of children being secured to them ; and if parents, through greed, will not do their duty freely, or do not know what it is, the State must step it to prescribe and compel its observance. Mr Hodgkins deserves thanks for eliciting the facts disclosed, for, though they were not necessary to his case, and ho knew it, they arc too important to be overlooked.