"The overlooker used to come with a strap, and give us a rap or two."

"Did they strike the young children as well as the older ones, the girls as well as the boys?"

"Yes."

"State the effect upon your health of those long hours of labor."

"I was made crooked with so much standing." Here the witness showed his legs, which were very crooked. "How tall are you?"

"About four feet, nine inches."

"Were the children unhappy? Have you seen them crying at their work?"

all."

"What effect did working by gaslight have upon your eyes ?"

"It nearly made me blind."

Factory Acts passed.

As a result of such testimony, Parliament passed a "Factory Act" in 1833, which forbade the working in factories of children under nine years of age. Later acts entirely stopped the employment of women and children in mines, where their condition was even worse than in factories. Gradually the hours of work in the factories were cut down, and

better conditions established. At the same time, it was ordered that factory children should spend at least a part of each day in school, in order that they might not grow up entirely uneducated. In this way only could the introduction of the factory system of manufacturing be prevented from becoming more of a curse than a blessing to the great body of the people.

A reform of the criminal law was also begun at this time. The old criminal law was very harsh, and provided the penalty of death for more than two Other

passed.

hundred offences. These included such reforms offences as injuring Westminster bridge, picking pockets, and unlawfully killing deer, as well as serious crimes. Changes in the law now began, which ended by leaving only murder and treason punishable with death. These reforms not only made the law less barbarous, but also made its penalties more certain. Now that its provisions were more reasonable, judges and juries did not hesitate so much to punish those who committed crimes.

Many other important reforms were carried out. These included, among others, a reform of the system for relieving distress among the poor, which was very much needed; and also a reform of the manner of governing the cities. It would take too long to go into the details of these, and other measures. But it should ever be borne in mind that one of the first and greatest of the results which followed the giving of more power in Parliament to the people was the clearing away of old abuses in the government.

Instead of the disorder and anarchy which the Tories feared would come from the Reform Act, there came a period of active good government, and a time of general prosperity for the whole country.

TOPICS FOR THOUGHT AND SEARCH

1. Why should the reform clubs be called "Hampden Clubs''? Why were the Tories so alarmed by such movements as that which led to the meeting in St. Peter's Field?

2. Did the Whigs take up the cause of reform because they believed the people should rule, or because alliance with the people was the only way in which the Tory government could be overthrown?

3. Write an account in your own words of the importance of the reform of Parliament.

4. Compare the abolition of the slave trade and slavery in the British Empire with their abolition in the United States.

5. Make a list of the evils growing out of the Industrial Revolution which needed to be corrected. Make another list of the benefits which it brought.

XXXVII

THE EARLY REIGN OF QUEEN

VICTORIA

POINTS TO BE NOTICED

Accession of Queen Victoria; her character; Prince Albert; Victoria's constitutional rule.

Inventions and improvements; gaslight; the railway and steamboat; penny postage; the telegraph and telephone.

Famine in Ireland; Sir Robert Peel, Prime Minister; the Corn Laws repealed (1846).

Causes of the Crimean War; siege of Sebastopol; charge of the Light Brigade; end of the war.

The Mutiny in India; its causes; siege of Lucknow; end of the Mutiny; effects on the government of India; the Queen proclaimed Empress of India (1877).

Queen.

EARLY on a June morning in 1837, a carriage dashed up to the gates of the palace where the Princess Victoria was living, and the Archbishop of Canterbury Victoria and the Lord Chamberlain of England got becomes hastily out. They had driven through the night, from Windsor Castle, the royal residence, twentyfive miles away, and asked to see the Princess at once. "We are come on business of state," said they, “and even Her Highness's sleep must give way to that.”

After a few minutes, the Princess came into the room, a shawl thrown hastily about her shoulders, and her hair in disorder.

Then the messengers fell upon their knees, and informed her that, through the death that night of her uncle, William IV., she had become the sovereign Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, and mistress of all the British dominions beyond the seas.

The new Queen was barely eighteen. She had lost her father when she was less than a year old, and had been brought up carefully by her mother, the Duchess of Kent. Long afterwards, she wrote of her early

years:

"I was brought up very simply-never had a room to myself till I was nearly grown up. I always slept in my mother's room, till I came to the throne. In the small

houses at the bathing places, to which we went in summer, I sat and took my lessons in my governess's bedroom."

At the news that her uncle was dead, and that she had become Queen, her eyes filled with tears.

Character

The sweetness, kindness, and good sense which she showed charmed all her people. Because of these qualities, and because of her long reign of of the new sixty-four years, she was one of the most important rulers of her time, and one of the greatest sovereigns that England has ever had.

Queen.