NEED OP ADDITIONAL LEGISLATION. 43 



-changes of the kind indicated, again it is alleged, are objected to 

 on the ground that the effects would be to increase the number of 

 working hands, cheapen labour, and make it more scarce. But 

 this feeling is, I believe, chiefly confined to the steel grinders. I 

 hope you will all agree with me that this is an altogether mis- 

 taken view of the case ; and that feelings, of whatever kind, which 

 thus stand in the way of their using the means provided for their 

 benefit, ought not to be encouraged. Past experience has made it 

 quite evident that all such measures ought, as in the case of the 

 Davy safety-lamp, to be made compulsory. 



Have we any means of knowing how such matters are 

 viewed by the employers ? In the first place, it is certain that 

 they are not themselves fully aware of the extent of the mischief ; 

 and secondly, that, although having at heart the best wishes 

 for their people's welfare, their good intentions are apt to be 

 frustrated by conflicting interests, arising out of rivalry and in- 

 creasing competition, with reduced and precarious profits ; and 

 thirdly, they do not feel that the onus rests upon them of taking 

 the initiative the legislature having, by means of the Factory 

 Acts, and otherwise, assumed the responsibility of regulating 

 such matters. 



It would seem, then, that we must necessarily fall back upon 

 government regulation and control as the only available remedies 

 for these evils. Previous to the passing of the Factory Acts the 

 ill effects of their work upon the health of the workmen were so 

 notorious that, in response to the wish of the country, a Com- 

 mission was appointed in 1833 to inquire into their causes. The 

 Factory Acts were, at that time, undoubtedly a great boon to the 

 people ; but it is evident that they are not now fitted to accom- 

 plish the object for which they were intended in the sanitary 

 regulation of our industries. 



The facts which I have eliminated and brought before you, 

 fully, I think, prove this, and also, that an inquiry is urgently 

 necessary. The vast increase in the country's industrial resources 

 and population since 1833, together with corresponding improve- 

 ments in machinery and in chemical appliances, have altered the 

 entire complexion of our industrial occupations, and have led to 



