AND TEE DUKES OF RICHMOND. I7l 



When a bill was brought before the House of 

 Lords for limitins: the hours of labour in Factories, 

 his Grace gave it his unqualified support, stating 

 that he felt with the noble mover that "it had 

 sprung from the stern experience of the husband 

 and the father, from the general feeling and opinions 

 of the working classes, and from the tendency of 

 steam machinery to attract to its service the con- 

 tinuous labour of the weaker sex." 



During the Parliamentary sessions of 1848 his 

 Grace did not take any very active part in the 

 debates. He was a supporter of a motion brought 

 into the Lower House by Lord George Bentinck, 

 " For a Select Committee to inquire into the present 

 condition and prospects of the interest connected 

 with and dependent on sugar and cofifee planting 

 in her Majesty's East and West Indian possessions 

 and in the Mauritius, and to consider whether any 

 and what measures can be adopted by Parliament 

 for their relief." 



After a most searching inquiry into the whole 

 business, the report was agreed to, greatly to the 

 gratification of Lord George, who exclaimed, " We 

 have saved the Colonies ; it is the knell of Free 

 Trade." In which opinion the Duke of Richmond 

 participated. 



After the Duke of Wellington had efi'ectually 

 quelled the Chartist riots, the Marquis of Lansdowne 



