In the House of Commons on Monday the Government suffered
a defeat in the lobbies in regard to the clause affect- ing the working of women and young persons in factories on Saturday. The Government proposed to make 1 o'clock the hour after which they could not be employed, and at which, therefore, the Lancashire factories must close, as their working is dependent on women's labour; but they were defeated in this by the Radicals and Irish, who insisted that 12 should be the hour of closing. On a division the Government were beaten by a majority of 22 (163 to 141). No doubt the division was something in the nature of a snap division, but the Government, and in our opinion rightly, did not attempt to rescind the vote, but determined to accept it and proceed with the Bill. On Tuesday they gave great annoyance to their own supporters by withdrawing a clause in the same Bill making laundries, including convent laundries, liable to inspection. The Nationalists violently opposed any form of inspection of the laundries conducted by the nuns— they are chiefly carried on by nuns engaged in rescue work— and the Government, rather than imperil their Bill through Irish obstruction, abandoned the whole clause. If the convent laundries were not to be subjected to inspection, they refused to put private firms at a disadvantage by inspection.
Previous page
