The Factory Acts

Working conditions in Irish industry prior to 1914 were frequently harsh and dangerous, particularly for women, young persons, and children. Successive Factory Acts, designed primarily for industrial conditions in Great Britain, sought to ameliorate the plight of these 'protected' workers in the face of considerable opposition. This book examines the development of this early health and safety legislation, the system of inspection by which it was enforced and the peculiar problems which the factory inspectors encountered in Ireland while seeking to ensure that minimum standards were observed notwithstanding local social and economic constraints. -- Publisher description.

Excerpt from The Factory Acts: Including the Act of 1895 Public Health (london) Act 1891 Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act, 1894. Such portions of any of the above Acts as have been repealed are printed in italics and enclosed in square brackets and special notes are attached to such parts as were temporary or are now obsolete. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This book examines how the law was made, defined, administered, and used in eighteenth-century England. A team of leading international historians explore the ways in which legal concerns and procedures came to permeate society and reflect on eighteenth-century concepts of corruption, oppression, and institutional efficiency. These themes are pursued throughout in a broad range of contributions which include studies of magistrates and courts; the forcible enlistment of soldiers and sailors; the eighteenth-century 'bloody code'; the making of law basic to nineteenth-century social reform; the populace's extension of law's arena to newspapers; theologians' use of assumptions basic to English law; Lord Chief Justice Mansfield's concept of the liberty intrinsic to England; and Blackstone's concept of the framework of English law. The result is an invaluable account of the legal bases of eighteenth-century society which is essential reading for historians at all levels.