212 Mr. Bruce's Mines Regulation Bill. [April, 



of increase of temperature is rapid. In the case of Dukinfield it is 

 inferred that, owing to the high inclination of the strata, some of 

 the heat travels along the planes of bedding, and escapes along the 

 outcrop with greater rapidity than it would if it were obliged to 

 travel solely across the strata themselves. 



It has been suggested that in the case of Dukinfield Colliery 

 the escape of the underground heat may have been facilitated by 

 the formation of vapour at certain depths, the vapour making its 

 escape along the planes of bedding by the aid of the fissures and 

 porosity of some of the rocks. It is questionable, however, whether 

 the elastic force of the vapour would be sufficient, at the compara- 

 tively low temperature of the strata, to overcome the enormous 

 pressure to which it would be subjected at depths much below the 

 surface. 



VI. ME. BEUCE'S MINES KEGULATION BILL. 



Modern legislation in this country in reference to industrial em- 

 ployments tends more and more to impose on the Government the 

 duty of caring for the health and safety, and at least the elementary 

 education, of those who, owing either to weakness or to ignorance, 

 are unable to care for themselves. 



In our Factory Enactments, foreign countries have followed 

 gradually in our footsteps ; in the regulations affecting the mining 

 population, on the other hand, we shall probably never attain the 

 completeness of supervision, be it for good or for evil, which prevails 

 in States such as France, Belgium, and Prussia, where the minerals 

 are the property of the nation. 



Mr. Bruce's Bill for the Kegulation and Inspection of Mines, a 

 rechauffe of his Bill of last Session, consolidates the existing laws ; 

 but is in other^ respects as modest a measure as the opponents of 

 Government interference could desire. 



It continues to forbid females to work in mines, and, at the 

 urgent request of the operatives, limits, though not to the full 

 extent of their desires, the time during which youths from twelve 

 to sixteen years of age may be employed below ground. Kecog- 

 nizing the failure, in the case of young children working in mines, 

 of the attempt made to combine work and elementary instruction, 

 it forbids entirely their employment underground before the age 

 of twelve. It places women, young persons, and children employed 

 on the surface under the provisions, as regards the hours of labour 

 and education, of ' The Workshops Begulation Act of 1867,' which, 

 however, owing to its administration being in the hands of local 



