xii POLITICAL LIFE 301 



during cold weather, without any inconvenience being 

 experienced. These proposals were adopted by 

 Government and became law in 1889. By these 

 means a limit was fixed restricting the amount of 

 moisture present in weaving sheds, this limit being 

 controlled by the inspector and open to the observation 

 of both masters and work-people. Still the operatives 

 were dissatisfied, and, after a time, demands arose that 

 Parliamentary action should be taken to secure the 

 abolition of steaming in the weaving sheds. I attended 

 a large meeting held early in 1896 of Members of 

 Parliament and representatives of both employers 

 and employed (I was no longer a Member), at which 

 it was decided to ask the Secretary of State to 

 appoint a committee to inquire into the subject. 

 As was natural, owing to my former interest in the 

 matter, I was requested by the Secretary of State to 

 undertake the chairmanship of such a committee, and 

 this I agreed to do on the understanding that I nomin- 

 ated the other members ; and I was fortunate in securing 

 the services of my friends the late Sir William Roberts, 

 F.R.S., the eminent physician, and Dr. Ransome,F.R.S., 

 the well-known authority on hygiene. On the 28th of 

 March, 1896, the committee was appointed to inquire 

 into the working of the Cotton Cloth Factories Act of 

 1889, and into the question of steaming and introduction 

 of artificial moisture in cotton-weaving sheds. We 

 met both in London and in Lancashire, we examined 

 eighty-five witnesses, and the evidence was supple- 

 mented by independent determinations of the moisture 

 contained in the various sheds, and, what was of equal 

 importance, the character of the ventilation. In order 

 to control this latter a maximum limit of respiratory 

 impurity, as measured by the presence of carbon di- 

 oxide, was recommended. The amount of this gas 



