a broad, flat-topped horsing, too broad for young boys; they sit sometimes with the body thrown forward almost horizontally, but more often curved forward with the head down, and most so where the stone or wheel used is small, as it is in the work to which the youngest boys are first set. The workers understand by grinding the process of shaping and smoothing metal by cutting it on a revolving stone. But in most kinds of work there are one or more subsequent smoothing processes, such as glazing on a wheel covered with emery, lapping' on a wheel covered with lead, and polishing on a wheel with crocus powder, which form essential parts of the grinder's work, and are performed by him or his helpers in the same work-place as the grinding, and usually in the very same 'trough.' The various kinds of work differ in the kindand amount of dust thrown off from the wheel; it is in fork-grinding and needle-pointing that the amount is greatest and most injurious. The twenty-three stones of a needle and hackle pin manufacturer throw off in a day about seventy-five pounds of steel dust, and of stone dust a far larger amount. At least three pounds of fine dry steel dust, besides the larger quantity of dry stone dust, are produced beneath the face of each dry grinder daily; and where a fan is not employed to carry the dust off through pipes into the outer air, this flies all about, irritates the eyes, is drawn in with the breath, frets and corrodes the lungs, and brings on consumption and early death. Then, again, in all kinds of grinding, it is necessary to 'hew' and 'race' the stones, and this causes a great emission of dust, to such an extent as to affect injuriously all the workers in the place. In steel-melting, boys are occupied in the cellars beneath the furnaces, watching the bottom of the furnace, to give notice if any of the pots run; or treading clay there, and fashioning it into lids and stands for pots. Boys also go up into the furnace when the steel is poured out into moulds, to carry away waste, and in some cases to help the men in pouring. Other boys work at rollers, and sometimes have to strain their bodies considerably to enable them to heave up the weight of metal so as to pass it back over the roller; and, says Mr. White, I have seen a boy failing in his efforts, and dropping the red-hot iron or steel close by his legs.' Rolling is, indeed, often much too heavy for the age and strength of the lads engaged in it. Even in file-cutting, which, though rapid work, looks quiet, the amount of bodily force spent in the course of a day is considerable. One man calculated that in a day of ten working hours he makes 46,000 strokes, most of them with a 74lb. hammer, thus lifting a total weight of 142 tons. Boys, it is true, do not use such heavy hammers;

but

but with lighter hammers the work is still more rapid. In forging, boys sometimes have to lift hammers decidedly too heavy; one boy fourteen years old has been seen using a 221b. hammer, and others have been made to grow completely misshapen by the work. The hours of work are in some cases, Mr. White says, 'not only cruelly, but even incredibly long for children.'No wonder,' he adds, that boys sometimes fall asleep at their work, stumble, fall, when the metal flooring gets hot and slippery and work is pressing, get burned or perced with red-hot iron or steel, or otherwise suffer for there supposed negligence.' The evidence, he concludes, shows the existence of an amount of overwork of young boys which is truly fearful.'

The places they work in are often wretched in the extreme. Grinding, especially, requires the most ample ventilation, and rarely gets even a moderate amount of it. Ill-lighted, gloomy, with tattered ceilings, with wet dropping from the floor above, or slopping from the wheels on to the ground beneath; the work-rooms, or 'hulls,' are loathsome to the sight, and most injurious to the health. The mud thrown off from the stones in wet-grinding is often great, and whatever it splashes too often remains covered with the accumulating filth week after week. Worst of all are the cellars or vaulted passages beneath the steel-melting furnaces,-reached from the outside by descending stairs, through which, aided perhaps by a grating at the side, the only daylight is admitted. Overhead, along one side, is the row of steel-melting pots, with fire beneath, projecting no little heat. In one case,' says Mr. White, and that in works of about the highest standing in the trade, I found a young boy who works part of his time in one of these vaults and the remainder in a dark cellar beyond, lighted only by a dim oil lamp, and with no communication whatever with light or air, except through the vault. His health had suffered considerably?' Happily, the number of cellar-boys is not great.

The boys sometimes complain of ill-treatment from the men; and here again, as in the case of the glass makers, a connection between brutality and strong drink is plainly to be traced. Mr. White tells of one lad whom his master used to swear at and kick when he (the man) came back from the public;' and of another who spoke of different men who ill-used him, particularly a Brummagem chap,' who was always 'a-gate of hitting on us;'-' he used to get beer and was drunk. One time when he was striking at me with his fist,' said the boy, 'I tried to get out of the way, and my shirt nearly catched the shafting. If it had, I should have

been

been took round and killed.' Accidents, though not common, are sometimes very serious in these places. Revolving stones fly apart and smash all that is in the way of their fragments. Boys are drawn through rollers and squeezed flat; or their clothes are caught by rotating shafts, and their limbs broken; or a drum crushes them. Grinders are liable to frequent pain, and sometimes to serious injury or loss of sight, from sharp particles of hot steel which fly into their eyes in grinding. In such cases a fellow-worker takes out the mite with a lancet or sharp pin-'a very unpleasant sight.'_' Grinders are sometimes kept awake at night by the pain. Boys sometimes slit their fingers on circular saws, or lose them in rolling machinery, or are pierced by red-hot rods or wire, or otherwise burned. Grinders do not live out half their days. They say themselves that they "go off like dyke water, so quick;" they "go off like nothing;" "they seem to rot off at thirty-four or thirty-five, and some at twenty-three or twenty-four, according to their constitution." In dry grinding, very often before the age of twenty, grinders' disease is found to have been induced. A boy only eleven years old, who had been a grinder since the age of eight, had a fearful cough, and on examination, Dr. Hall, who has benevolently exerted himself for many years to expose the noxious nature of the trade, found the upper portion of both lungs extensively diseased. File-cutters are hurt by the confined stooping posture, and the absorption of lead, which causes colic. Other special liabilities of theirs are weakness and wasting of the thumb and wrist, and bow-legs and sundry malformations.

The evidence before us would enable us to fill pages with horrifying details, proving how often boys, who should be the intelligent and worthy men of the next generation, are rendered brutal and miserable whilst they live, mutilated in body and mind, and compelled, in fact, to kill themselves in order to be earning a living. It is consoling to know that, now that the benefits of factory legislation are so abundantly conspicuous, the thoughtlessness or rapacity of masters, the ignorance and selfishness of parents, may fight, but will fight in vain, to avert the further interposition of the Legislature.

It is consoling, too, to find, at any rate one town-Sheffield, really smarting under the allegations of the Commissioners. The town council of Sheffield have appointed a committee to examine into the ugly facts alleged in the report. The wincing proves the existence of feeling; and feeling, touched, may lead to salutary action prior to the inevitable interference of the Legislature.

ART.

1. The Statutes of the Realm. Edited by command of His Majesty George III. London: 1810.

2. A Digest of the Laws of England. By Rt. Hon. Sir John Comyns, Knt., late Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. 5th Edition. Corrected by Anthony Hammond, Esq., of the Inner Temple. Vols. I. to VIII. London: 1822. 3. A Practical and Elementary Abridgment of the Cases Argued and Determined in the Courts of King's Bench, Common Pleas, Exchequer, and at Nisi Prius, from 1660 to the Michaelmas Term, 4 George IV. By Charles Petersdorff, Esq., of the Inner Temple. Vols. I. to XV. London: 1825.

4. Report of the (Commons) Select Committee on the Sale of Beer. Parliamentary Papers. 1830.

5. Reports from the Lords' Select Committee on the Sale of Beer Act. 1849-59.

6. Reports from the (Commons) Select Committee on PublicHouses, with Minutes of Evidence. 1853-54.

7. A Bill for Altering and Regulating the Granting of Licenses in respect of Excisable Liquors, and the Sale by Retail of Beer and other Liquors, within the Borough of Liverpool; and for other purposes. 1865.

8. The Alliance News, March 4th, 1865. Debate in the House of Commons on the Liverpool Licensing Bill. February 24th, 1865.

9. The Slain in Liverpool, in 1864, by Drink. By Rev. John Jones. London: Job Caudwell. 1865.

HEN the Licensing system was definitively established

in 1552, the banks of the Mersey gave little promise of that commercial greatness which now confronts the visitor on every hand. Liverpool had an existence as an obscure seaport even then, but absent were its miles of docks, its fleets of many nations, and its forty myriads of people; and absent, also, were the three thousand drinking-shops that now combine to enervate, impoverish, and destroy great masses of its inhabitants. In the Act of 1553, which limited the number of taverns (wine-shops) in cities and corporate towns, Liverpool is not mentioned, and not more than two such houses

could

could then have been legally opened within its precincts. For some years past, however, Liverpool has been the subject of an experiment the reverse of that which, three centuries ago, was put into operation by legislative authority; and this experiment has extended not merely to houses for the sale of beer and wine, the only houses of the drink-traffic extant in the days of the young King Edward VI., but to shops for the sale of ardent spirits-apparitions of evils that had not begun at that time to haunt the places of entertainment and dissipation.

The licensing magistrates of Liverpool, or at least a majority of them at the licensing sessions, have entered upon a policy at variance with general usage; they have done so with an asserted, and we are willing to believe sincere, desire to abate the intemperance which is the canker-vice of their town; and as some men of high respectibility are the active promoters of its policy, it is not premature to inquire into the theory on which the policy is based, and the reasons by which it is defended. All England is interested in the discussion thus invited, for next to the question whether it is proper to license the sale of intoxicating liquors at all, must follow in order of importance, the inquiry which has respect to the manner in which the Licensing system should be administered.

The rule that has obtained with successive generations of licensing magistrates, and in all parts of the kingdom, has been to grant new licences for the sale of alcoholic liquors when they are satisfied (1) that the wants of the neighbourhood justified the opening of new drink-shops; (2) that the applicants were respectable persons; (3) that the houses for which licences wer asked were suited for the public accommodation. In other words, the magistrates have professed to take into their consideration place, person, and property; does the place need more licensed houses? is the person applying to be trusted with a licence? is the property suitable for a public-house? The Liverpool bench, who stand alone in their position, unless the Wolverhampton magistrates may be joined with them, have promulgated a rule, excluding from consideration the first of these conditions, and restricting their judicial decision to the two points of the applicant's respectability and the accommodation afforded by his premises. Their theory, therefore, is that the numerical element is not one which should enter into the deliberations or affect the action of licensing magistrates. They contend that the 'wants of a neighbourhood,' as to the number of publichouses, will be discovered by the number of houses that a neighbourhood