70G REPORT — 1902. 



6. The Population of England and Wales during the Eighteenth Century. 

 By Professor E. C. K. Gonner, M.A. 



In considering the population for the eighteenth century, that is, for the century- 

 preceding the first census, there are two matters to consider : 



(1) The particular value of a knowledge of the population for that century. 

 jE'.f/., it would enable us to answer three important questions: — (n) Effect on the 

 country at large of Walpole's peaceful policy in the early decades, {h) Date when 

 manufacturing began to be the dominant interest in England, (c) Date when 

 changes in methods of agricultural ownership and cultivation began to affect the 

 population of rural districts. 



(2) Material for estimating population in the eighteenth century. These in the 

 main are two : («) house-tax returns — 



i. These employed by contemporaries and formed the subject of certain violent 

 controversies, especially in the latter part of the century. 



ii. But these statistics have certain peculiar defects, mainly by reason of evasion. 



(i^) Returns made of baptisms, burials, and marriages at earlier dates. 

 Parishes in England summarised in Prefaces to Census Returns, 1831 and 1841. 

 With regard to these the estimate formed on rhem tend to over-estimate the 

 population in the eighteenth century. 



The general conclusion arrived at is that the increase of population during the 

 eighteenth century was much greater than is generally thought. 



TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16. 

 The following Report and Papers were read : — 



1. Report on the Economic Effect of Legislation Regulating Women's 

 Labour. — See Reports, p. 286. 



2. History of the Regulation of Home Work, 1864-1901. 

 By Miss B. L. Hutchins. 



Factory legislation had been a subject of violent controversy in the first half 

 of the nineteenth century. During the sixth and seventh decades the opposition 

 lost much of its bitterness, and public opinion gradually inclined to accept the 

 principle of State control. The Children's Employment Commission of 1862-66 

 recommended the extension of regulation to children employed by their parents in 

 their own homes. In 1867 a Workshops Act was passed which was intended to 

 place the hours and conditions of women and children's labour under a uniform 

 svstem of regulation, not only in workshops, but in the smallest workplaces where 

 'any handicraft' was 'exercised for gain.' This Act was ill-drafted, administra- 

 tively weak, and consequently ineffective. 



From 1874 onwards there was a renewal of opposition to Factory legislation, 

 especially in regard to restrictions on women's work. The Factory and Work- 

 shops Consolidation Act of 1878 exempted domestic workshops and women's work- 

 shops from most of the provisions applicable to workshops generally. The evidence 

 given before the Lords' Committee on the Sweating System in 1889-90, showed 

 the effect of these exemptions, and in the subsequent period there has been a new 

 movement in favour of legislative control. Amending Acts have been passed, 

 aiming (among other things) at levelling up the provisions for health and safety 

 in workshops and work-rooms. Among suggestions for further strengthening the 

 law, which have been made by Mr. Charles Booth, Mrs. Sidney Webb, and others, 

 are the following : — 



