localities in England, Scotland, and Ireland. In February, 1876, their Report, with a volume of evidence, was laid before Parliament. The Report dealt exhaustively with the question; it traced out clearly and distinctly the course of legislation, the causes of the differences of regulations in different trades; it pointed out wherein some differences might cease, and others be mitigated, and by a series of resolutions laid down the groundwork for the consolidation of the various Acts.

The outline thus drawn was, in its main features, the groundwork of the Act of 1878.

This Act, and the Acts of 1883, 1889, 1891, and 1895, by which it has been supplemented, deal with five classes of works:

Textile Factories,

Non-textile Factories,

Workshops,

Workshops in which neither children nor young

persons are employed,

Domestic Workshops,

and enact that special requirements shall apply to

Laundries,

Docks,

Wharves,

Quays,

Warehouses,

Buildings in construction; and
Buildings of a certain height.

A "factory

factory" is defined to be a place in which machinery is moved by the aid of steam, water, or other mechanical power.

Factories are divided into two classes, Textile Factories and Non-Textile Factories. The words Textile Factories and Non-Textile Factories were first used in 1878 in an Act of Parliament. The old legal term of factory was originally defined to mean a factory in which cotton, wool, &c., was operated upon by the aid of steam or water-power; but as the regulations differ in such factories from those in other factories, it has been necessary to use distinctive terms for the two classes of factories.

The term "Textile Factory sums up a class of factories dealt with under former Acts, and the regulations affecting them continue the same as before as to hours of work and meals, and education of children, limewashing, holidays, &c., &c. In one or two particulars the precise enactments of the old Factory Acts have been varied and made applicable to all factories, and these variations will be noticed in their place.

The term "Non-Textile Factory" applies to the occupations enumerated in the Acts of 1864 and 1867, whether using power or not, and includes in addition all

unnamed occupations in which mechanical power is used. This definition releases from the special factory regulations all those occupations which were factories | under the Factory Act, 1867, by reason of fifty persons being employed, and in which mechanical power was not used.

The works, which are Non-Textile Factories, whether power be used or not are the following:

Under the Act of 1864,

Where persons are employed for hire in

The manufacture of Earthenware,

The Manufacture of Machinery, of any article of Metal, or of Indiarubber or Gutta Percha, by the aid of mechanical power,

Paper Manufacture,

Glass ditto,

Tobacco ditto,

Letter-Press Printing,

Bookbinding.

All the unnamed occupations in which power is not used, except those specially named in the Acts of 1864 and 1867, are defined to be Workshops.

The above definitions appear to mark very clearly the cause and course of factory legislation.

The first principle was that where power was used, and where the large majority of persons employed were women and children, their labour required regulation, sanitary conditions required supervision, and the education of the children must be made compulsory.

The Textile Factories came within that category, and hence, having been first legislated for, the regulations are retained.

Then other occupations came under review in which the proportion of women and children employed was not so large as in "Textile Factories," in some of which the labour was not so hard, and in others of which

the attention and strain in waiting upon the moving power was not so continued or so uninterrupted.

In these, the limits of the hours of work have been somewhat relaxed, but the great principles of sanitary condition and education of the young are as rigidly required as in Textile Factories.

These are the Non-Textile Factories.

The next class of works are those in which no power is used. They are called Workshops.

In these the hours of work and meals, and education, are as strictly provided for as in Factories, but unless circumstances satisfy the Secretary of State that they are required, registers and certificates of fitness will not be compulsory.(a)

The next class of works to which fewer regulations. apply are the Workshops in which none but women above the age of 18 are employed.

In these Workshops the actual number of hours of work and of meals must be the same as in Non-Textile Factories, but with more elasticity of arrangement.

The last class of works may be designated "Domestic Workshops." These are Workshops carried on in a private house, room, or place in which the only persons

(a) See section 15 of the Act of 1895.