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works are well provided with fanners in the preparing-rooms; | fatigued to attend school, even when a school is provided for there are between 800 and 900 workers, all occupying them. This is more uniformly the declaration of the children houses originally built by the company, of a very different in the factories of Scotland than in those of England. The and superior description from those generally occupied by evidence of other witnesses, both as to the capacity of the persons of the same situation in life in this country. They children for receiving instruction, and as to their actual state have a chapel, and every establishment necessary for their in regard to education, is conflicting. Few will be prepared accommodation. The population of the village amounts to to expect the statements that will be found on this head in 4,253 persons, one half of which is a population engaged in regard to Scotland, where the education of the children is manufactures; yet in the last twenty years the landed pro- neglected to a far greater extent than is commonly believed, prietors of the parish have only been called on to pay for where only a very small number can write; where, though the poor 2127. 14s. 1d., not much more than 107. per an- perhaps the majority can read, many cannot; and where, with num." some honourable exceptions, it seems certain that the care "In like manner, from the statements and depositions once bestowed on the instruction of the young has ceased to obtained under the present inquiry in the several districts in be exemplary. The reports of the Commissioners for ScotEngland, and from all classes of witnesses, it appears that, land, who will be found to have kept this subject continually in the great majority of cases, corporeal punishment is pro- before their view, are decisive on this head." hibited by the proprietors; while it is proved on oath, by several witnesses, that operatives and overlookers have been suspended, and even dismissed from their employment, for disobeying this command. It is impossible to read the evidence from Leeds, Manchester, and the western district, without being satisfied that a great improvement has taken place, within the last few years, in the treatment of children. What ill-treatment still exists is found chiefly in the small and obscure factories, while both in the large and small factories in England it is inflicted by workmen over children whom they themselves hire and pay, and who are completely under their control. In Scotland, personal chastisement, when inflicted, is inflicted by the overlooker; in England, by the work-people."

The injuries resulting to the work-people in factories, especially to children, from the want of proper care in the construction of the machinery, are justly pointed out:"One of the great evils to which people employed in factories are exposed, is, the danger of receiving serious and even fatal injury from the machinery. It does not seem possible, by any precautions that are practicable, to remove this danger altogether. There are factories in which everything is done that it seems practicable to do to reduce this danger to the least possible amount, and with such success that no serious accident happens for years together. By the returns which we have received, however, it appears that there are other factories, and that these are by no means few in number-not confined to the smaller mills, in which serious accidents are continually occurring, and in which, notwithstanding, dangerous parts of the machinery are allowed to remain unfenced. The greater the carelessness of the proprietors in neglecting sufficiently to fence the machinery, and the greater the number of accidents, the less their sympathy with the sufferers. In factories in which precaution is taken to 'prevent accidents, care is taken of the workpeople when they do occur, and a desire is shown to make what compensation may be possible. But it appears in evidence, that cases frequently occur in which the workpeople are abandoned from the moment that an accident occurs; their wages are stopped; no medical attendance is provided; and whatever the extent of the injury, no compensation is afforded."

The general bearings of the evidence are thus summed up:

From the whole of the evidence laid before us, of which we have thus endeavoured to exhibit the material points, we find :

"1st. That the children employed in all the principal branches of manufacture throughout the kingdom, work during the same number of hours as the adults.

"That this excessive fatigue, privation of sleep, pain in various parts of the body, and swelling of the feet, experienced by the young workers, coupled with the constant standing, the peculiar attitudes of the body, and the peculiar motions of the limbs required in the labour of the factory, together with the elevated temperature and the impure atmosphere in which that labour is often carried on, do sometimes ultimately terminate in the production of serious, permanent, and incurable disease, appear to us to be established. From cases detailed in the evidence, and the accuracy of which has been strictly investigated, we do not conceive it to be possible to arrive at any other conclusion. The evidence, especially from Dundee and Glasgow; from Leicester, Nottingham, Leeds, and Bradford; from Manchester and Stockport; in a word, from all the great manufacturing towns, with the exception, perhaps, of those in the western district, in which there is little indication of disease produced by early and extensive labour, shows that grievous and incurable maladies do result in young persons from labour commenced in the factory at the age at which it is "3rd. That at the age when children suffer these injuat present not uncommon to begin it, and continued for theries from the labour they undergo, they are not free agents, number of hours during which it is not unusual to protract it."

We rejoice to see that the Commissioners have directed their attention to the principal evil resulting from the unremitting employment of children in factories-the neglect of their education. If education were really national, as it ought to be, the want of a proper system of instruction amongst so large and important a body of the rising generation, would be the real ground for the interference of the State between the employer and the employed:

"From the same evidence it appears, that the physical evil inflicted on children by factory labour, when commenced as early and continued as long as it now is, is not the only evil sustained by them. From the statements and depositions of witnesses of all classes, it appears, that even when the employment of children at so early an age, and for so many hours as is customary at present, produces no manifest bodily disease, yet, in the great majority of cases, it incapacitates them from receiving instruction. On this head, the statements of the children themselves must be admitted to be of some importance; and it will be found that the young children very generally declare that they are too much

"2nd. That the effects of labour during such hours are, in a great number of cases, permanent deterioration of the physical constitution; the production of disease often wholly irremediable; and the partial or entire exclusion (by rea son of excessive fatigue) from the means of obtaining adequate education, and acquiring useful habits, or of profiting by those means when afforded.

but are let out to hire, the wages they earn being received and appropriated by their parents and guardians.

"We are therefore of opinion that a case is made out for the interference of the legislature in behalf of the children employed in factories.

"4th. In regard to morals, we find, that though the statements and depositions of the different witnesses that have been examined are to a considerable degree conflicting, yet there is no evidence to show that vice and immorality are more prevalent among these people, considered as a class, than amongst any other portion of the community in the same station, and with the same limited means of information. Distinguished from other classes by being collected together (both sexes, young and old) in large numbers, the language and behaviour common to uneducated people, under such circumstances, is found to be checked in no in considerable degree by the presence of fathers, mothers, and brothers; and for any evil of this kind which may, nevertheless, exist, the proper remedy seems to be a more general and careful education of the young people."

Much of the evidence collected by the Commissioners would naturally relate to the probable effect of the measures

before Parliament; and they consequently offer the following | shall not in any case be allowed to work at night; that is conclusions, on a view of the whole character of what is called to say, between the hours of ten at night and five in the the "Ten-hour Bill":morning.

the fight of licensing its practitioners to the Company of But in truth, the Legislature in passing this act contemApothecaries. Better to demand as a qualification the di-plated manifestly no such purpose, as that which it has ploma of some foreign school, or to institute a new board for the trial and examination of applicants. Nor, if the Apothecaries' Company were a great public establishment, instead of being a mere private incorporation, and were regulated in regard to all its arrangements by some certain rules from which it could not depart, instead of being entitled to make for itself what by-laws and other regulations it pleases, would it still have any rational claim to be placed at the head of our national medicine.

But the apothecaries have not been contented with insisting that no one shall presume to practise medicine without their licence. By another clause of their act it is provided that no person shall have a right to be even examined by them for a certificate, unless he shall have served an apprenticeship of not less than five years to an apothecary. The absurdity of this regulation would be ludicrous were it not for its monstrous injustice. Of course, every medical practitioner who finds it necessary to be the dispenser of drugs to his patients, ought to have acquired the habit of distinguishing, and measuring, and mixing the various articles of the materia medica. But to pretend that this cannot be done without standing behind a counter for five years, is nonsense. Indeed, we are not aware that such an assertion has ever been distinctly made. The Company of Apothecaries themselves would probably be unwilling to affirm, in so many words, anything so ridiculous. In point of fact, there were few country practitioners in England before this act came into operation, as there are still few, if any, in Scotland, where it does not operate, part of whose professional education had not consisted in an attendance for some time, in a shop where medicines were sold. But not a great many of them, certainly, had devoted five years to the pestle and mortar alone. For a young man who has made himself sufficiently acquainted with chemistry, as well as with the other studies belonging to his profession, one year's practice in compounding and selling medicines, instead of five, will be found amply sufficient to give him the requisite knowledge and skill.

been made to serve in the hands of the parties by whom it was procured. Parliament was taken in by the title of the bill, which bore to refer to the practice of apothecariesmerely a matter which the Company of Apothecaries might be, naturally enough, supposed to have some claim to interfere with. It never could have been imagined, that under the description of apothecaries were, in fact, comprehended almost all persons practising medicine throughout the kingdom, and that the whole profession was thus made over to be farmed and fleeced for the profit of this city company.

The consequences of the act have been, that no person graduated or licensed by the eminent and distinguished bodies that have been mentioned above, is now permitted to practise medicine (except simply as a physician or surgeon, not dispensing drugs) in any part of England-and, that, in place of such well-educated professional men, the country must be contented with the services of so many druggists' apprentices. This is a grievous hardship and injustice to the excluded graduates-to those who after preparing themselves for the exercise of their profession by a long, laborious, and expensive course of study, find themselves thus debarred from entering it;-and it is also a hardship in reference to the community, which is deprived of their services. The company, we may here remark, have not allowed their oppressive privilege to remain a dead letter. For some years past they have employed the powers with which they are invested, with more and more severity every year. According to a return furnished a few weeks ago to the House of Commons by themselves, it appears that the number of prosecutions for penalties which they have instituted since the 29th of March 1825, have been two in that year; two in 1826; one in 1827; nine in 1828; nine in 1829; sixteen in 1830; fifteen in 1831; and eighteen in 1832. In addition to these cases, numerous persons, they inform us, have discontinued practising on being threatened with prosecution. They complain of not having been able to enforce the law to the extent they would have The injustice of this monopoly in the hands of the Com-wished, "in consequence of the great unwillingness and pany of Apothecaries, as bearing upon the prospects and backwardness in parties, when called upon, to furnish evifair claims of the members of one of our most eminent pro- dence, or to come forward as witnesses." Here then we fessions, is enormous; but the inconsistencies which it in- have a confession, under their own hands, of the public abvolves are, if possible, still greater. The act declares that, horrence of their monopoly. after the 1st of August 1815, none but licentiates of the Apothecaries' Company shall be allowed to practise, except persons then actually practising. Upon what ground is this exception tolerated? If it be indispensable for the safety of the lieges that nobody should be allowed to compound or vend drugs without having served an apprenticeship of five years to an apothecary, surely it is a strange thing to assert, that a person not so qualified may, nevertheless, be permitted to practise to the end of his life without injury or danger, because he was actually practising on the 1st of August, 1815. Or, if it shall be said, that justice to the established practitioners demanded that they should have the benefit of this exemption, let the danger be what it might, why, we ask, was it limited to them? Why was it not extended to all who had already finished, or even to all who had already begun their professional education-very few of whom can be supposed to have found it much more convenient, than would the established practitioners have done, to stop short in the course they have marked out for themselves, and to throw away five years in standing behind a counter, and running errands under the superintendence of a number of the Apothecary's Company?

But further, upon what principle are the people of England and Wales alone to be protected by this five years' apprenticeship? How comes it that, if such an ordeal be necessary to make a finished or even ordinarily competent medical practitioner, mere graduates of the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, and Dublin, and of the colleges of surgeons of London and Edinburgh, are not only allowed to practise in any part of Scotland or Ireland, or the colonies, but are even admitted into the service of the East India Company, and into his Majesty's army and navy? If the Legislature considered the five years' apprenticeship to be an essential part of medical education, why did they not enforce it universally? How, above all, came they not to require it from those whom the Government selects to take care of the health and the lives of our soldiers and sailors?

Notwithstanding the difficulties they have had to encounter, however, they have contrived to work the act to some purpose. By another return it appears that from the 29th of March 1825, to the 19th of June 1833, their certificates alone have brought them 22,8227. 168. But this is the least part of what the monopoly enjoyed by the Company puts into the pockets of its members. Their principal gains must arise from the premiums paid to them by their apprentices. There has also been laid before the House of Commons a return of the manner in which the money received for certificates has been expended; but it only accounts for 18,5647. 10s. 5d. of it. Of that sum, it appears, 10,2187. 12s. has been paid in the course of the eight years to the examiners, besides 980%. to their secretary; and 4,604l. 58. 3d. have gone to defray law charges. Of the other items one is "Remuneration to Beadle for extra trouble during same period,—4657. Os. 1d." The beadle seems to have his fair share of the spoil.

But the Company boast that they demand other accomplishments besides a knowledge of drugs from the persons to whom they grant their certificates; and that they have even laid down a course of study which candidates are required to pursue previously to being examined. In doing all this we would remark, in the first place, that the apothecaries seem to us to have stepped very far out of their proper sphere. But the whole statement is merely a piece of solemn absurdity. Will they pretend to compare the course of study which they have established with that which is made imperative upon candidates for graduation at, for instance, the colleges of Glasgow and Edinburgh? Without entering further into particulars, is it not the fact that while the latter occupies of necessity four years, independently of a previous literary course, the former, at least until within the last three or four years, might have been gone over in six, or at most in eight months? If the regulations respecting this matter have been since, in any respect, improved, as we believe they have been slightly, the reform has been forced upon the Company by the public agitation of the subject and the apprehension of parliamentary interference, and after all exists

merely by a by-law, which may be repealed at any time. Is there any law, we ask, which prevents the Company, if they please, from licensing a person who has served the requisite five years' apprenticeship, although he have not in addition gone through any course of medical study whatever?

It commences by stating, that the gross bribery affirmed by the former report to have been committed at the said election, by the agents of Sir Charles Greville, remains uncontradicted. The names of several individuals, by whom acts of gross bribery have been proved to have been committed, are then given: among them is James Tibbitts, the town-clerk. It is added, "that the money distributed by those persons in such gross bribery, appears to have been paid to them by the said James Tibbitts; and that such money was supplied to the said James Tibbitts by Alexander Brown, the then steward of the Right Hon. Henry Richard Greville, Earl of Warwick, from the private funds of the said Earl of Warwick, standing in the name of the said Alexander Brown, at the Warwick bank of Messrs. Greenway and Greaves."

This state of things has lasted too long; and we rejoice, therefore, that a bill, some time ago brought into the House of Commons to put an end to it, has already received the sanction of that branch of the legislature. We trust that this bill, notwithstanding the powerful opposition to be expected from the body whose mischievous monopoly it goes to destroy, will be triumphantly carried through the other House by the force of its own reasonableness and justice. It leaves quite as much authority over the medical profession to the Company of Apothecaries as they can with any fairness demand. It enacts that every person who has ob- A subsequent passage is, "That it appears to your Comtained, or shall hereafter obtain, the degree of Doctor of mittee, that there were unusual and serious riots previous Medicine from the university of Edinburgh, of Glasgow, or to and at the said election, and that there were great injury of Aberdeen, shall be entitled to practise as an apothecary, to the persons of the burgesses, and destruction to their and to dispense medicines to his patients in any part of property; that the aid of the military was called in to supEngland or Wales, without having undergone any such ex-port the civil power; that such riots and disturbances origiamination, or received any such certificate from the London nated in the introduction into the borough, by the agents of Company, as the act of 1815 requires. He is merely re- the said Sir C. J. Greville, of large bodies of strangers and quired to notify his degree to that Company for registration. non-resident agricultural labourers, many of them in the In order to secure the requisite knowledge of drugs, instead employ of tenants of the Earl of Warwick, and of hired of the five years' apprenticeship, it is provided that in future fighting-men from neighbouring places; and that such no degree shall be conferred by any of the aforesaid univer- persons were maintained and paid by Henry Thomas sities, except on evidence being produced by the candidate, Cooke and others, and the money provided by the said previous to his examination, that he has served an appren- James Tibbitts, the town-clerk." Several aldermen and ticeship to a regularly licensed medical practitioner keeping members of the corporation are then mentioned by name, a laboratory for the dispensing of medicines, or that he has as having been cognizant of the introduction of these fightattended for at least twelve months at the laboratory of a ing-men, and as having culpably neglected their duty, as surgeon or apothecary, or of a public hospital or dispensary, municipal officers of the borough, in not preventing the disor that he has, during that time, been engaged in com- orders which arose. The following are the next three pounding and dispensing medicines. As to persons having paragraphs of the report:diplomas from the College of Surgeons of London, of Dublin, or of Edinburgh, or from the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, and who have acquired a knowledge of drugs in the manner just stated, they are to be admitted to examination by the apothecaries as a matter of course. Finally, it is enacted that for the future any person who has, or shall have, held any commission or warrant as a surgeon or assistant-surgeon in the Royal Navy, or as surgeon, assistant-surgeon, or apothecary in any of his Majesty's Land Forces, or as surgeon or assistant-surgeon in the service of the East India Company, may practise in any part of England or Wales as an apothecary, and dispense medicines without either the certificate of the Apothecaries or any examination by them, and without being liable to any penalty or disability whatever by reason of such practice.

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That it appears, that the Right Hon. Henry Richard Greville, Earl of Warwick, a peer of the realm, lord lieutenant of the county of Warwick and recorder of the borough, in violation of the resolutions and standing orders of the House, did unconstitutionally apply, by his agent and steward, Alexander Brown, 3000l. and upwards towards the election expenditure and promotion of the political interest of the candidate, Sir Charles John Greville, in the transfer of such sum of money to James Tibbitts, town-clerk of the said borough, who appropriated the same to various corrupt and illegal practices at the last election, the office of town-clerk being in the appointment of the recorder. That Alexander Brown, steward of the Earl of Warwick, subsequent to the election of 1831, caused numerous persons, (many of them non-resident in the borough, and dependants of the Earl of Warwick) to be fictitiously rated to the poor of the two parishes of the said borough, and chiefly in respect of property of the said Earl, for the sole purpose of creating fraudulent votes, and that fictitious receipts for rent appeared to have been prepared by Alexander Brown in support of them. That a considerable number of such colourably rated persons were erased from the register of electors by the revising barristers, but that many were retained and voted at the last election for the said Sir Charles John Greville, and that Alderman Henry Smyth and James Tibbitts, the town-clerk, aided and abetted Alexander Brown in supporting such fictitious votes; but that the Hon. Sir Charles John Greville does not appear to your Committee to have personally participated in the above corrupt and illegal practices. That your Committee have been impeded in their inquiries by the absence of Alexander Brown, the steward of the Earl of Warwick; and that it was proved to their satisfaction, that due diligence had been used to procure the attendance of the said Ålexander Brown, and it is their opinion that such absence was wilful, and for the purpose of impeding their inquiry."

WARWICK BOROUGH ELECTION. THE history of contested elections scarcely affords anything to parallel the extraordinary scenes which appear to have distinguished the last election for the borough of Warwick. On that occasion, the candidates were the Hon. Sir Charles John Greville in the one interest, and Mr. Bolton King and Mr. Jones in the other; Sir Charles being supported by what is there called the influence of the Castle, that is, of the Earl of Warwick, the Lord Lieutenant of the county; and his two opponents by the independent party in the town. Sir Charles Greville and Mr. King were returned. Both returns, however, having been petitioned against, Sir Charles was unseated by the decision of a Committee of the House of Commons. This Committee, which made its report on the 15th of May, had, in the course of its investigations, discovered such evidence of gross bribery having been resorted to, both at the last and at preceding elections for Warwick, that they directed their chairman to move for the suspension of the writ for the borough until further in- While we write, the evidence taken by the second Comquiry should be made. Eventually, an order of the House mittee has not yet been placed in the hands of members, revived the same Committee, "to make further inquiry but a summary of it has appeared in the Times newspaper, into the proceedings of the last election for the borough of from which many curious particulars may be gathered. The Warwick, and to consider and report upon the best mode of bribery by the agents of Sir Charles Greville appears to preventing bribery, treating, and other corrupt practices in have been traced by the evidence of numerous witnesses, all future elections for members to serve in parliament for and to have been of the most reckless description, involving, the said borough." The report of this second Committee, in various instances, the deep and disgraceful guilt of inwhich commenced its sittings on the 27th of June, was pre-stigating the persons upon whom it was practised to comsented to the House on the 22d of July, along with a voluminous body of evidence. This report is one of the most remarkable expositions ever laid before Parliament.

mit the most revolting perjury. But the most extraordinary part of the evidence is that which refers to the interference of the Earl of Warwick. It is proved that sums amounting

The introduction of the fighting-men into the town was also distinctly traced to the agency of the partisans of Lord Warwick. A good many were hired by written orders from members of Sir C. Greville's Committee, and were paid by Cooke and Tibbitts. Another part of the evidence showed the intimidation exercised towards the voters by Lord Warwick, in notices to quit, and actions of ejectment served against his tenants in the opposite interest. Finally, his lordship's partisans were proved to have attempted, and partly succeeded, in the prosecution of a most daring scheme for the creation of fictitious votes, by getting persons colour-charge was made out, it was resolved to address the Queen ably rated for property in the borough belonging to his lordship, who turned out to be, for the most part, non-occupiers of such property, and, in almost all instances, not to be actually paying the rent at which they were rated, and for which, nevertheless, they had got receipts from Brown the steward. The names of 140 persons in this situation had been put, in the first instance, on the list of electors.