GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, UNITED KINGDOM OF. 



391 



distress and Mr. Stanhope's bill to facilitate the 

 sale of glebe lauds. Parliament was not pro- 

 rogued till December 24. 



Proposed Reforms in the Constitution of the House 

 of Lords, After the defeat of the motion of Lord 

 Rosebery for a committee to inquire into the 

 constitution of the House of Lords with a view 

 to extensive reforms, Lord Dnnraven presented 

 a bill which was withdrawn after eliciting from 

 the Government a promise to introduce at some 

 future time a measure for facilitating the en- 

 trance of life peers into the House, and before 

 the end of the session he brought in a tenta- 

 tive bill, which, however, found little support, 

 and was not carried beyond a second reading. 

 The Prime Minister also approved the propo- 

 sition to give the Upper House the power that 

 the House of Commons already possessed of 

 expelling unworthy members. Lord Cadogan 

 proposed a committee which should not only 

 revise the standing orders and strike out such 

 obsolete rules as that requiring the members 

 of the House of Commons to stand uncovered 

 while the Lords sit covered in joint session, 

 but should also elaborate substantial changes 

 in the constitution such as making the age 

 of entrance twenty-five instead of twenty-one 

 years, disqualifying peers who do not attend 

 the sittings of the House, increasing the num- 

 ber required for a quorum, which is at present 

 three, and allowing peers to resign their seats. 



Resignation of Sir Charles Warren. In the 

 autumn of 1888 a series of ghastly murders 

 took place in London and its environs, at inter- 

 vals usually of a few days, most of them in the 

 densely populated Whitechapel district. The 

 seven victims were all women of degraded 

 lives, and their bodies were mutilated in a 

 manner indicating that the murders were ah 1 

 the work of a single hand. The popular indig- 

 nation at the inefficiency of the police was 

 great, its chief objects being the Home Secre- 

 tary, Henry Matthews, and the Chief Commis- 

 sioner of the Police, Sir Charles Warren, who 

 had distinguished himself as the leader of the 

 Bechuanaland expedition, was afterward a com- 

 mander of constabulary in Ireland, and was 

 then placed at the head of the Metropolitan 

 police, in which capacity he rendered himself 

 obnoxious to the London democracy by taking 

 vigorous measures to prevent a meeting of the 

 unemployed in Trafalgar Square. He had dif- 

 ferences with the Secretary of the Home De- 

 partment because Sub- Commissioner Monro, 

 who had charge of the detective force, consulted 

 directly with the Secretary, and tendered his 

 resignation, but withdrew it when Mr. Monro 

 himself resigned. Mr. Matthews continued, 

 however, to advise with the latter regarding 

 criminal matters and the re- organization of the 

 detective bureau. When accused of incompe- 

 tency because the police failed to catch the 

 Whitechapel murderer, Sir Charles Warren 

 defended himself in a magazine article explain- 

 ing that he was in no wise responsible for the 

 organization or discipline of the detective force. 



Secretary Matthews reprimanded him for pub- 

 lishing matter relating to the police, which wa- 

 forbidden by a regulation issued from the Home 

 Office. Warren replied that the Metropolitan 

 police is governed by statute, and denied the 

 authority of the Home Secretary to regulate 

 the force, at the same time again offering his 

 resignation, which was accepted on Novem- 

 ber 10. 



The Sweating System. A select committee of 

 the House of Lords was appointed to inquire 

 into the sweating system at the East End of 

 London, and the scope of the inquiry was after- 

 ward extended to embrace the whole country. 

 Many employers made concessions to their 

 work-people as soon as the investigation was set 

 on foot. The sweating system in its narrower 

 sense is understood as meaning the employ- 

 ment of labor by sub-contractors, who, being 

 without capital or commercial standing, can 

 practice impositions on their employes with 

 impunity. In a larger sense it is taken to 

 comprehend all the methods by which, in 

 house-labor, piece-work, and other forms of em- 

 ployment not protected by the regulations of 

 trade unions or the factory acts, the hours of 

 work are lengthened, the rate of production 

 stimulated, and wages cut down to a minimum. 

 The sub-contractors in the clothing industry of 

 the East End of London are accustomed to hire 

 unskilled hands at a shilling a day for sixteen 

 hours' work, and women receive only seven 

 shillings a dozen for finishing trousers, each 

 pair taking four hours to finish. The merchants 

 in clothing, furniture, shoes, and other articles 

 produced with a considerable subdivision of 

 labor make arrangements for their supply with 

 contractors, who sometimes furnish the mate- 

 rials, and sometimes receive all or part of them 

 from the merchants. The contractors have 

 the articles made, either complete or in parts, 

 by sub-contractors, who carry on the manu- 

 facture in their own houses or in ill-ventilated 

 workshops, training children, youths, women, 

 and foreign immigrants to perform each one 

 some minute part of the process. In so far as 

 women and children are employed, these sweat- 

 ers' dens come within the purview of the fac- 

 tory and workshop act of 1878. There are, 

 however, such legal formalities required to be 

 gone through with before an inspector can gain 

 entrance that when he arrives all evidence of 

 evasions of the law can be removed. Many of 

 the contracting tailors, shoemakers, and cigar- 

 makers are Jews, and to some extent, though 

 not as often as was supposed, their victims are 

 immigrant Jews from the east of Europe. One 

 effect of the subdivision of labor incident to 

 the contract system by which the large retailers 

 of London obtain their stock of goods is that 

 the skilled tailors, shoemakers, and other trades- 

 men have been forced by the competition of 

 sweaters to emigrate to other places, and the 

 apprenticeship system has disappeared. The 

 laborers that become skilled only in some single 

 mechanical manipulation are not only reduced 



