Rule Bill. There was something pathetic in the position of their few followers seated on the benches behind. Some had risen to go out, but found their way blocked first by the Bishops, not yet dispersed, and beyond them the solid phalanx of peers who had been standing before the Throne. If they had chanced to be going the other way, towards the bar, motion would have been easy enough. They might have drifted out with the tide. To go against the tide was quite another matter, and after vain effort they gave up the attempt, resuming their seats, and sitting patiently whilst the great majority swept past them. By-and-by the pressure was removed from the upper end of the Chamber, and the minority, fit, few, and forty-one, made haste to escape.

ant.

In the House of Commons when a great division takes place there is one moment when the House is absolutely empty, save for the presence of the Speaker, the Clerks at the table, the Sergeant-at-Arms, and the messengers attendThe Sergeant-at-Arms, advancing to the bar, glances keenly round to see that there are no lingerers, and then signal is given to lock the doors. After the cheers and counter-cheers that mark the close of the debate, with the bustle of departing crowds stilled, a strange quietness falls upon the place. The interval is to be counted only by seconds until the doors are unlocked, and one stream enters from beneath the gallery, the other from behind the Speaker's Chair. There is no parallel to this in similar circumstances in the House of Lords, there being, in fact, no locked doors by the passages outward on either side of the throne. So far-reaching was the throng of "Not Contents," that almost before the rear had straggled out of the House by the bar, the vanguard entered from the other side. The benches rapidly filled up. The peers seemed to come in more quickly than they had made their way out. But fully forty minutes elapsed between the signal to start and the announcement that all was over.

Here, again, the House of Commons, in some respects less spectacular than the Lords, has the advantage. In the Commons, when a division is completed, the tellers, having handed in their report of the figures, range themselves in line facing the Mace on the table, and he who represents the winning side receives from the Clerk the paper setting forth the result. The floor of the House is a clear space, save for the presence of the four tellers. They retire a few paces, and, with obeisance thrice made to the Chair, advance to the table, where the teller for the victorious side proclaims the result of a contest upon which, perchance, may rest the fate of a Ministry. It is obvious that here is fine opportunity for what on the stage is known as business. Lord Randolph Churchill will not forget that night in June eight years gone by when the paper containing the doom of Mr. Gladstone's Ministry was handed to Mr. Rowland Winn, Whip for the Opposition. As the Whips marched backward to take up their position for advance, there was time for noble lords and hon. members to leap on the benches, wave their hats in triumph, and shout themselves hoarse, whilst Mr. Rowland Winn, the fateful paper in his hand, stood impassive, awaiting opportunity to advance and announce the result.

This morning, as Big Ben was sounding the third quarter of an hour past midnight, there was no space on the floor of the House of Lords for tellers to march up and down. Four hundred and sixty marquises, dukes, and a' that, Old Nobility and New, Bishops and the Master of Buckhounds, were gathered within the four walls. There was no room for them on the benches, and, these filled, noble lords stood round the Woolsack, an almost impenetrable mass, threatening asphyxia to the panting Lord Chancellor.

Presently a noble lord was seen making his way through the throng, handing a piece of paper to the Lord Chancellor over the shoulder of a peer who could not get further

On June 8, 1885, the Gladstone ministry was defeated on a Budget question, and

went out.

out of the way. A great silence fell upon the assembly.. Without assistance of the token, possible in the Commons, of the paper being in the first instance handed to the Ministerial or Opposition teller, no doubt existed as to the way the aggregate of votes had gone. It is true the Lord Chancellor, forty minutes earlier, had uncompromisingly declared that the Contents had it. Even a Lord Chancellor may be mistaken. Still there remained disclosure of the precise figures by which the fate of the Bill had been sealed. Amid the hush the voice of the Lord Chancellor sounded with clarion clearness-"For the second reading, 41; against, 419."

So there had been a mistake somewhere, and, after all, it was the "Not Contents" who "had it."

Henry W. Lucy, A Diary of the Home Rule Parliament (Lon don, 1896), 251–255.

CHAPTER XXI-THE LIFE OF THE

I

PEOPLE

134. The Children in the Coal Mines

(1842)

By ANTONY,
LORD
ASHLEY,
later EARL

OF SHAFTES

BURY (1801– 1885). Throughout his life, Shaftesbury made the working

cause of the

classes his

redress

wrong was

SHALL now proceed to the statement I have undertaken respecting the condition of the working classes in our mines and collieries, and the measures requisite to ameliorate that condition. I am sorry to detain the House by reading documents; I shall often have occasion to trespass on their patience; but the subject demands it. I own. To think that the points I wish to establish should be made out by statements and evidence, rather than by any attempts at declamation. In the first place, I shall present the House with the result of the evidence respecting the age and sex of persons employed in the mines and collieries. The extent to which the employment of females prevails varies very much in different districts-in some parts of the country none but males are employed, in other places a great number of females. With respect to the age at

which children are worked in mines and collieries in South

In

Staffordshire, it is common to begin at 7 years old; in Shropshire some begin as early as 6 years of age; in Warwickshire the same; in Leicestershire nearly the same. Derbyshire many begin at 5, many between 5 and 6 years, many at 7. In the West Riding of Yorkshire it is not uncommon for infants even of 5 years old to be sent to the pit. About Halifax and the neighbourhood children are sometimes brought to the pits at the age of 6 years, and are taken out of their beds at 4 o'clock. Bradford and Leeds,

the purpose for which he the Factory

lived, and

Acts are the
result.
"It would

not be easy

to tell how shaftesbury has

much the life

availed in warding off

revolution from England, and in softening the bitter spirit between rich and poor." Blackie. In 1840 Lord Ashley secured the

appointment

of a Parliamentary com

mission of
inquiry

into the con-
ditions of
labour in the
mines. The
first report
was issued
in May,
1842. The
state of

things which

it revealed aroused general indignation. This extract is from a speech made by Ashley on the 7th of

the same; in Lancashire and Cheshire, from 5 to 6. Near Oldham children are worked as low" as 4 years old, and in the small collieries towards the hills some are so young they are brought to work in their bed-gowns." In Cumberland, many at 7; in South Durham, as early as 5 years of age, and by no means uncommonly at 6. În reference to this I may quote a remark of Dr. Mitchell, one of the Commissioners; he says, "Though the very young children are not many in proportion, there are still such a number as is painful to contemplate, and which the great coal-owners will perhaps now learn for the first time, and I feel a firm belief that they will do so with sorrow and regret." Now, in justice to the great coal-owners of the North, I must say, that if they had been the only parties with whom we had to deal, the necessity for this Bill would perhaps not have existed: they have exhibited, in many respects, care and kindness towards their people. Many children, the Report goes on to state, are employed in North Durham and Northumberland at 5, and between 5 and 6: "The instances in which children begin to work at 7, and between 7 and 8, are so numerous, that it would be tedious to recite them." In the east of Scotland it is more common for children to begin work at 5 and 6 than in any part of England. In the west of Scotland children are taken down into the pits at a very early age, often when 8 years old, and even earlier. In North Wales the cases are rare of children being employed at 5 or 6— they are very common at 7. In South Wales more cases are recorded of the conditions of employment of children in the pits at very early ages than

June in intro-
ducing the
Mines and
Collieries
Bill to ex-

clude women

and children

from the
coal pits.
The bill
passed the
Commons
without a
division. It
was carried
in the Lords
with more
difficulty. It
was followed
by other

measures

completely revolutioniz

ing the

labour in

England.

in any other district. It is not unusual to take them into the pits at 4 years. Many are absolutely carried to the work. In South Gloucestershire cases are recorded of children employed at 6 years, the general age is about 9. In North Somersetshire many begin to work between 6 and 7. In the south of Ireland no children at all are employed.