under the act to be Inspectors of Facto- | enter any school in which children emries, in order to carry into effect the vari- ployed in factories are educated; and at ous provisions which it contained. all times to take with him into any factory the certifying surgeon of the district, and any constable or other peace officer whom he may mean to assist him; and may examine, either alone or in the presence of any other person, as he shall think fit, every person whom he shall find in a factory or in such a school, or whom he shall have reason to believe to be or to have been employed in a factory within two months next preceding the time when he shall require him to be examined touching any matter within the provisions of the Factory Act. And the inspector or sub-inspector may, if he shall see fit, require such person to make and sign a declaration of the truth of the matters respecting which he shall be examined. After the expiration of six months from the passing of the act, it was declared | unlawful to employ in any factory any child under the ages restricted to fortyeight hours' labour in the week, unless on every Monday the employer should receive a ticket from some schoolmaster, certifying that such child had for two hours at least for six out of seven days of the week next preceding attended his school. The school might be chosen by the parents or guardians of the child; but in case of their omitting to appoint any school, or in case of the child being without parent or guardian, the inspector might appoint some school in which the child might be taught, and the employer was allowed to deduct from its weekly earnings any sum not exceeding one penny in every shilling, to pay for the schooling of such child. By the Amended Factory Act (7 Vict. 2. 15), every person who begins to occupy a factory must give notice thereof, and full details respecting the same, "to the office of the Factory Inspectors, London." There are various penalties for the offences constituted by the two acts, and the duty of seeing them carried into effect is devolved upon four inspectors, called the Inspectors of Factories, each of whom has sub-inspectors employed under him. The United Kingdom is divided into four districts, and at the head of each is a chief inspector. The four inspectors assemble together at their office in London every half year, and make a joint report to the Secretary of State for the Home Department of such matters as appear necessary. Each inspector makes a report to the same authority every half year; but the reports were formerly made quarterly. By the amended act the word “child” means a child under the age of thirteen ; and the term "young person" means a person of the age of thirteen and under the age of eighteen. No child under the age of eight can be employed in any factory. Under the act 3 & 4 Wm. IV. nine years was the age of admission, but, with a reduction of the hours of working, an earlier age has been substituted. A child who has completed his eighth year must obtain a medical certificate, as required by 3 & 4 Wm. IV., before he can be employed; and a similar certificate is also required from young persons between the ages of thirteen and sixteen. These certificates can only be granted by a certifying surgeon duly appointed by the Inspectors of Factories, and they are only valid at the factory for which they were granted. The certifying surgeons visit factories weekly, and are responsible to the inspector of the district, who, as well as the sub-inspector, has the power of annulling certificates which have been improperly Under the act 3 & 4 Wm. IV. the occupiers of factories appointed the certifying surgeons, who were generally the medical attendants of their own families. The powers of inspectors and sub-granted. inspectors are very considerable. An inspector or sub-inspector is authorized to enter every part of any factory, at any time, by day or by night, when any person shall be employed therein; and to enter by day any place which he shall have reason to believe to be a factory; and to Persons under eighteen are not allowed to work between the hours of half-past eight in the evening and half-past five in the morning; nor more than twelve hours in one day; nor more than sixty-nine hours in any one week (3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 103, § § 1, 2). Females above the age of eighteen can only be employed for the same time and in the same manner as "young persons;" an arrangement introduced for the first time by the amending act. No "child" is to be employed more than six hours and a half in any one day, unless when the dinner-time of the "young persons" begins at one o'clock in the afternoon, in which case children who begin to work in the morning may work for seven hours in one day. Children must not be employed after one o'clock in the afternoon, except when they work on alternate days; but in silk-factories, children, if above eleven, may be employed solely in the winding and turning of raw silk for any time not exceeding ten hours on any working day, but not after half-past four P.M. on any Saturday, and such children are not required to produce a certificate of school attendance. Under the former factory act children of any age might be employed in silk-mills. Again, as to silk-mills, children between eight and eleven can only be employed half a day, and are required to attend school. When the labour of "young persons" is restricted to ten hours a-day, any "child" may be employed ten hours on alternate days; but the occupier of the factory must give notice to the inspector of this arrangement with regard to the children. No child or young person is to be employed for any purpose in any factory after halfpast four on Saturdays. The time for meals is regulated both by the act of 3 & 4 Wm. IV. and that of 7 Vict. At least one hour and a half must be allowed for meals to every young person between half-past seven in the morning and half-past seven in the evening. One hour is to be given before three o'clock in the afternoon. No child or young person is to be employed before one o'clock in the afternoon without an interval of thirty minutes for meal time. During meal times no child or young person is to be in any room wherein any manufacturing process is then carried on. All young persons are to have time for meals at the same period of the day, unless for special cause to be allowed in writing by an inspector. Holidays are fixed by both acts, which in England or Ireland are Christmas-day and Good Friday; and in Scotland the days set apart as fast-days. All children and young persons are besides to have eight half-holidays yearly, and at least four must be allowed between the 15th of March and 1st of October. No cessation from work is deemed a half-holiday unless notice thereof has been fixed up the previous day in the factory. In making up time lost by accident, provisions are carefully introduced to prevent any unnecessary infringement on the ordinary working hours. Notice must be sent by post to the sub-inspector of factories, stating the intention to recover lost time, and a notice to the same effect must be previously fixed up at the entrance of the factory. The act contains provisions for painting and whitewashing, or cleaning with soap and hot water the interior of factories; also various regulations for the prevention of accidents and for protecting the workers from discomforts. No child or young person is to be employed where the wet spinning of flax is carried on, unless sufficient means are used for protecting the workers from being wetted, and, when hot water is used, for preventing the escape of steam into the room occupied by them. No child or young person is allowed to clean any shaft or any wheel, drum, or pulley while the same is in motion, nor to work between the fixed and traversing part of any selfacting machine in motion. Such parts of the machinery as are dangerous, and near to which children or young persons are liable to pass, are to be securely fenced. In case of accident to any of the workers, the occupier of the factory must give notice of the same to the certifying surgeon of the district, and he is required to investigate it and to report thereon to the inspector, for which purpose the surgeon has the same powers and authority as an inspector. The Secretary of State, on the report of one of the inspectors of factories, may empower him to direct an action to be brought in the name and on behalf of the person injured for recovery of damages. By the first Factory Act every child employed in a factory was required to attend school two hours daily; but by the amending act the time is extended to three hours, between eight in the morning and six in the evening, on every working day except Saturday. When the children work on alternate days, they are required to attend school on the other days for five hours each day. The occupier of a factory must obtain every Monday a certificate from the schoolmaster that each child has attended school as required by the act, and such certificates must be kept for six months after the date thereof, and be produced during this period when required by either an inspector or subinspector. The inspector may require a sum not exceeding twopence per week to be paid by the occupier of a factory to the schoolmaster towards the expenses of instructing any child employed in the same, and any such sum thus required may be deducted from the child's wages. If an inspector, on his personal examination, or on the report of a sub-inspector, shall be of opinion that any schoolmaster who grants certificates of the school attendance of children employed in a factory is unfit to instruct children, by reason of his incapacity to teach them to read and write, from his gross ignorance, or from his not having the books and materials necessary to teach them reading and writing, or because of his immoral conduct, or of his continued neglect to fill up and sign the certificates of school attendance required by the act, the inspector may annul any certificate granted by such disqualified schoolmaster, by a notice in writing addressed to the occupier of the factory in which the children named in the certificates are employed, setting forth the grounds on which he deems such schoolmaster to be unfit. After the date of such notice no certificate of school attendance granted by such schoolmaster shall be valid for the purposes of this act, unless with the consent in writing of the inspector. When an inspector annuls a schoolmaster's certificate, he is required to name some other school within two miles of the factory from the master of which he will receive certificates. The schoolmaster and the occupier of a factory may appeal to the Secretary of State for the Home Department in the case of annulling certificates; and the inspector is required to report (but the act says annually only, although the inspectors make half-yearly reports) each case of annulment, and the reasons for it to the Secretary of State. By a clause in the first Factory Act it is enacted that whenever it appears necessary to any inspector that a new or additional school is required, such inspector is authorized to establish or procure the establishment of such school. By the limitations of the working time for children under thirteen to half a day, they are enabled to attend school: those children who work in the morning go to the afternoon schools, and those who work in the afternoon have been to school in the morning. In many factories a change is made at the end of each month, and the children who were employed in the morning attend school and work in the afternoon. When the Factories Bill (7 Vict. c. 15) was introduced into the House of Commons there was a large party in favour of a greater diminution in the hours of labour than the bill proposed. Lord Ashley moved that the word "night" be construed to mean from six in the evening to six in the morning, and the word "meal-time" to be two hours' cessation from labour. This would have left only ten hours as the time for actual work. This amendment was resisted by ministers, who contended that it would have the effect of reducing wages; or that, if it had not this result, it would affect that portion of our manufactures connected with the export trade (35,000,000l. out of 44,000,000l.) which had already, in many instances, to endure a severe competition in the markets of the world. The amendment (a ten hours' clause) was however carried by 179 against 170 for the original motion (twelve hours). On the following night Lord Ashley stated the plan by which he proposed to carry out the vote of the House: after October, 1844, he would restrict the daily hours of labour to eleven; and two years after, the restriction to ten hours would come into In former times goods and commodities of every kind were chiefly sold at fairs, to which people resorted periodically. The display of merchandise, and the conflux of customers at these principal and almost only emporia of domestic commerce, was prodigious; and they were therefore often held on open and extensive plains. Warton, in his 'History of English Poetry,' has given us a curious account of that of St. Giles's hill or down, near Winchester. It was instituted and given as a kind of revenue to the bishop of Winchester by William the Conqueror, who, by his charter, permitted it to continue for three days. But in consequence of new royal grants, Henry III. pro operation. The government announced their intention of adhering to the period of twelve hours, as fixed by their bill. On the 22nd of March the House went into committee on the Bill, when two divisions took place: on the motion that twelve hours a day should be the limits of adult labour, an amendment was proposed which substituted ten hours, which was carried by 186 to 183; but at the next stage of the Bill, the motion that the blank in the bill should be accordingly filled up with the word "ten" was lost by 181 to 188. The ministers in the first instance were in a minority of 3, and in the second they had a majority of 7. From this dilemma the House escaped by bringing in a new bill, which was ulti-longed its continuance to sixteen days. mately carried. Mr. Leonard Horner, who is one of the Inspectors of Factories, in his report dated 16th of May, 1845, gives an instance of the voluntary shortening of the hours of factory labour from twelve to eleven hours per day, which had been effected without any diminution of profit. The plan had been in operation twelve months, and the declaration of the employers was, "that the same quantity of produce and at the same cost has been obtained by the master; and that all the workers, day hands as well as those who are paid by piece-work, earn the same amount of wages in the eleven hours as was done before by the labour of twelve hours." Encouraged by this representation, the hours of labour of persons under eighteen were reduced by 10 Vict. c. 29, from twelve to eleven, from July 1, 1847; and from May 1, 1848, the hours of persons under eighteen were reduced to ten in any one day, and not to exceed fifty-eight in any one week. These limitations were extended to all females above eighteen years of age. At this stage legislation on this difficult subject rests at present; but as dissatisfaction prevails among the mill-owners, further acts may be requisite. FACULTIES. [UNIVERSITY.] FAIR, a meeting of buyers and sellers at a fixed time and place; from the French foire, which is from the Latin feriae, a holiday. Fairs in ancient times were chiefly held on holidays. Its jurisdiction extended seven miles round, and comprehended even Southampton, then a capital trading-town; and all merchants who sold wares within that circuit, unless at the fair, forfeited them to the bishop. As late as 1512, as we learn from the Northumberland Household-book, fairs still continued to be the principal marts for purchasing necessaries in large quantities, which are now supplied by the numerous tradingtowns. Philip, king of France, complained to Edward II. A.D. 1314, that the merchants of England had desisted from frequenting the fairs in his dominions with their wool and other goods, to the great loss of his subjects; and entreated him to persuade, and, if necessary, to compel them to frequent the fairs of France as formerly, promising them all possible security and encouragement. (Rymer, Fœd., tom. iii. p. 482.) When a town or village had been consumed, by way of assisting to re-establish it, a fair, among other privileges, was sometimes granted. This was the case at Burley, in Rutlandshire, 49th Edward III. (Abbrev. Rot. Orig., vol. ii. p. 338.) The different abridgments of Stow and Grafton's Chronicles, published by themselves in Queen Elizabeth's time contain lists of the fairs of England according to the months. There is also An authentic Account published by the king's authority of all the Fairs in Eng. land and Wales, as they have been settled to be held since the alteration of the style; noting likewise the Commodities which each of the said Fairs is remarkable for furnishing,' by William Owen, 12mo, Lond., 1756. No fair or market can be held except by a grant from the crown, or by prescription, which is supposed to take its rise from some ancient grant, of which no record can be found. (2 Inst. 220.) (Dugdale's Hist. Warw., pp. 514, 515; Warton's Hist. Engl. Poet., vol. i. p. 279; Henry, Hist. Brit., 8vo. edit., vol. viii. p. 325; Brand's Popular Antiq. 4to. edit. vol. ii., p. 215.) The fairs of Frankfort-on-the-Mayn and Leipzig are the chief fairs in Europe: the former held at Easter and in the months of August and September; the latter at Easter, Michaelmas, and the New Year. The whole book-trade of Germany is centred in the Easter fair at Leipzig. Nishnei Novgorod in Russia, at the confluence of the Oka and Wolga, has a great annual fair in June, which is attended by about three hundred thousand strangers, many of whom come from remote parts of Asia. of the court or of the minister of the day. Sully, the able minister of Henry IV., seeing the dilapidation of the public revenue occasioned by this system, by which, out of 150 millions paid by the people, only 30 millions reached the treasury, opened the contracts for farming the taxes to public auction, giving them to the highest bidder, according to the ancient Roman practice. By this means he greatly increased the revenue of the state. But the practice of private contracts through favour or bribing was renewed under the following reigns: Colbert, the minister of Louis XIV., called the farmers of the revenue to a severe account, and by an act of power deprived them of their enormous gains. In 1728, under the regency, the various individual leases were united into a Ferme Générale, which was let to a company, the members of which were henceforth called Fermiers Généraux. In 1759, Silhouette, minister of Louis XV., quashed the contracts of the farmers-general, and levied the taxes by his own agents. But the system of contracts revived: for the court, the ministers, and favourites were all well disposed to them, as private bargains were made with the farmers-general, by which they paid large sums as douceurs. In the time of Necker, the company consisted of forty-four members, who paid a rent of 186 millions of livres, and Necker calcu yearly-no very extraordinary sum, if correct. But independent of this profit there were the expenses of collection, and a host of subalterns to support: the company had its officers and accountants, receivers, collectors, &c., who, having the public force at their disposal, committed numerous acts of injustice towards the people, especially the poorer class, by FARMERS-GENERAL. Fermiers Généraux was the name given in France under the old monarchy to a company which farmed certain branches of the public revenue, that is to say, contracted with the government to pay into the trea-lated their profit at about two millions sury a fixed yearly sum, taking upon itself the collection of certain taxes as an equivalent. The system of farming the taxes was an old custom of the French nonarchy. Under Francis I., the revenue arising from the sale of salt was farmed by private individuals in each town. This was and is still in France and other countries of Europe a monopoly of the government. At the present time the govern-di-training their goods, selling their ment of France derives about 2,200,000l. a year from the salt monopoly. The government reserves to itself the power of providing the people with salt, which it collects in its stores, and sells to the retailers at its own price. This monopoly was first assumed by Philippe de Valois in 1350. Other sources of revenue were likewise farmed by several individuals, most of whom were favourites ck ttels, &c. The "gabelle" or sale of salt, among others, was a fruitful source of oppression. Not satisfied with oblig. ing the people to pay for the salt at the price fixed upon it in the name of the king, they actually obliged every individual above eight years of age to buy a certain quantity of salt whether wanted or not. But the rule was not alike all over France; in some provinces, which en |