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176 METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM.
young children by 8 Royal Commission. It is strange that
such (L formal inquiry has never yet been made, except with
regard to the very restricted scope of Charley’s Act. Older
children have over and over again been taken under the view
and art3 of tho State. As a consequence, we have the
Elementary Education Act, and the Factory and Workshop
Act, by which awple care is taken of young persons from the
R ~ of O five yeam upwards. Those mho survive infancy are
now pretty safo ; they will have healthy schoolrooms and
healthy workshops. But below tho age of five years they are
still, with slight exception, nbnurloneci to tho tender mercy
of their mothers-or, rather, tho old women armed with
‘‘ Gotlfrcy.” Tlle Factory Act Colntuissioncrs of 187G disn~ivsed
this subject briefly, and dccIinerl to advocate any
revtrictivo measures because they might in their opinion tend
to promote infanticide. But I venture to think that the
fearful rate of infantile mortality now existing in parts of tllo
mnnufacturirlg districts, sufficiently approximates to infauticido
to ovorbn1:ruco any evils to be expected from restrictive
legislation.
‘I‘he objection mny no doubt be made, that the exclusion
of child-bearing womeu from works in public factories would
Lo a new atid oxtremo case of interference with the natural
libarty of tho individual. Philosophers will urge that me arc3
invading abstract rights, and breaking through the teachings
of theory. Political ccouomists might, no doubt, be found to
protest likewise that the principles of political economy are
dead against such interference with the freedom of contract.
But I venture to maintain that all these supposed natural
entities, principles, rules, theories, axioms, and the like, are
at the best but presumptions or probabilities of good. There
is, 011 the whole, a certaiu considerable probability that individuals
mill fiud out for themselves the best paths in life, and
will be eventually tho best citizens when left at liberty to
chmse their omn conme. But surely probability is rebutted or
destroyed by contrary certainty. If we find that freedom
to work in factories means the destrnct,ion of a comfortable