them on with his hat, they march ed at the point of the bayonet, to come to close action with the Imperial Guard. But the latter began a retreat, which was soon converted into flight, and the most complete rout ever exhibited by soldiers. The famous rout of Vittoria was not even comparable to it."

The General then adds several reflections on the importance of the victory, and in enumerating the loss sustained, says :

"Of those who were by the side of the Duke of Wellington, only he and myself remained untouched in our persons and horses. The rest were all either killed, wounded, or lost one or more horses. The Duke was unable to refrain from tears on witnessing the death of so many brave and honourable men, and the loss of so many friends and faithful companions, and which can alone be compensated by the importance of the victory."

Report of the Committee of the House of Commons on Parish Apprentices.

The Committee appointed to exainine into the number and state of Parish Apprentices, bound into the country from the parishes within the Bills of Mortality, and to report the same, with their observations thereon, to the House :-Have examined the matter to them referred, and agreed upon the following Report :

Your Committee have to observe, that the attention of Parliament has for some time been called

to this subject, and that so long ago as the session of 1811, a bill was brought into the House to amend the laws in respect to Parish Apprentices, and to make certain regulations with the view of ameliorating their condition; but was withdrawn, in order that some information might be procured which was conceived to be wanting.

A committee was in consequence appointed, which set on foot an inquiry. This inquiry has since been prosecuted with as much perseverance as was required by a subject of so much importance to the happiness and well-being of a large class of the community, though hitherto but little made an object of the attention of Parliament.

It would have been obviously an impracticable task to have attempted to ascertain the number of parish apprentices bound, from various parts of England, to a distance from their parents; and the Committtee were therefore under the necessity of limiting their inquiry to those points which were capable of being ascertained till the parishes, which are comprehended in the Bills of Mortality, would afford a tolerable criterion to enable a judgment to be formed, as to the comparative number of parish apprentices bound near home and at a distance, and as to the advantages or disadvantages resulting from the latter plan.

This was the more practicable, as by the act passed in the 2d and 7th years of his present Majesty, some humane regulations were made in the management of Parish Apprentices in those parishes;

and

and by the latter act, in certain of those parishes, namely, the seventeen parishes without the walls of London, the twenty-three in Middlesex and Surrey, being within the Bills of Mortality, and the liberty of the Tower of London, and the ten parishes within the city and liberty of Westminster, a list of poor children bound apprentices was directed to be delivered annually from each parish to the clerk of the company of Parish-clerks, to be bound up and deposited with that company. To those lists your Committee have had access, an abstract having been made by the clerk of the Committee; and it appears from them that the whole number of apprentices bound, from the beginning of the year 1802 to the end of the year 1811, from these parishes, amounts to 5815; being 3446 males, and 2369 females. Of these were bound to trades, watermen, the sea-service, and to household employment, 2428 males and 1861 females, in all 3789; fifteen of whom were bound under eight years of age, 493 between eight and eleven years, 483 between eleven and twelve, 1656 between twelve and fourteen, and 1102 between fourteen and eighteen. Though not immediately applicable to the subject of inquiry, it may not be altogether irrelevant to mention, that of this gross number of children amount ing to 3789, there were bound to the sea-service, to watermen, lightermen, and fishermen, 484; to household employments, 528; and to various trades and professions 2772: the remaining children amounting to 2026, be

ing 1018 males, and 1008 females, were bound to persons in the country; of these, 58 were under eight years of age, 1008 between eight and eleven, 316 between eleven and twelve, 435 between twelve and fourteen, and 207 between fourteen and eighteen, besides two children whose ages are not mentioned in the returns from their parishes.

Before they enter on the subject of what has become of these children, your Committee beg leave to observe, that from all the parishes within the city of London, only eleven apprentices have been sent to masters at a distance in the country; that of the five parishes in Southwark, only one (St. George's) has sent any considerable number; that in Westminster, the parish of St. Anne has not sent any since the year 1802; those of St. Margaret and St. John, since the year 1808; and the largest and most populous parish of St. Pancras has discon tinued the practice since the year 1806. From those of Newington, Shadwell, Islington, and several others, no children have at any time been sent.

The Committee directed precepts to be sent to the various persons in the country to whom the parish apprentices, to the amount of 2026, were bound, directing them to make returns, stating what had become of them, to the best of their knowledge. These returns have in general been complied with, but in some instances have not, owing probably to the bankruptcy or discontinuance in business of the parties to whom these children were apprenticed; and in

some

turns made by each master, or by the overseer, as well as the names of such masters as have not given any answers at all, or unsatisfactory ones; but they conceive that it might be invidious to do so, especially as those details would make no difference in the state of the question which it is their object to bring before the consideration of the House. They therefore abstain from inserting any such returns in their Appendix, satisfied that the House will give them credit for the reason of such omission. They think it right, however, to state generally, that of the children bound in ten years, the following is the proportion of the different trades and employments: Silk Throwsters....... 118 Silk Manufacturers..

26

18

ferent parts of the kingdom 246 Incapable of service........ Not accounted for or mentioned...... In parish work-houses.. Not satisfactorily or intelligibly accounted for by the persons to whom they were bound, or by the overseers where the masters have become bankrupts....... 433

2026

Of the number comprised under the last head, consisting of 433, some few of the masters have sent a return, but without giving an account of the whole of the apprentices; so that it may be fairly judged that one-third of these cannot be accounted for at all.

Your Committee having abstracted the whole list of parish apprentices boundinto the country, might make this Report more full, by enumerating the particular re

not go,

It appears by the returns from the metropolis, that the children bound to manufacturers in the country have generally been apprenticed on the same day, in numbers of from five or six to forty or fifty. They have not unfrequently been taken back to their parents, and sometimes after having been bound, have been assigned to another master. In the parish of Bermondsey, out of twenty-five apprenticed to manufacturers, sixteen, it is said, did but no reason is given for it; and in several instances, after the children have been taken into the country, they have been returned to the parish, in consequence of the surgeon having pronounced them unsound. It appears also, that of the whole number of parish apprentices, included in the above returns, no less a proportion than threefourths have been bound to masters connected with the cottonmanufacture. Most of the remarks, therefore, which they conceive it their duty to make, will be more directly applicable to that branch of employment; though many of their general observations, as to the impolicy of removing children to a considerable distance from their parents, as well as from those whose duty it is to see that they are properly taken care of and treated, are equally applicable to all professions.

In considering this subject, it is necessary to advert more particularly to the causes and circumsances attending the original appointment of a committee. A Bill having been brought into the House four sessions ago, at the desire and under the direction of one of the most populous manu

facturing districts of this king dom, the professed object of which was to prohibit the binding of parish apprentices to above a certain distance from the abode of their parents, and making other regulations in the management of them, some of the parishes of the metropolis menaced an opposition to the Bill; as taking from them the means of disposing of the children of the poor belonging to them, in the manner in which they had before been aecustomed to do. It was therefore judged expedient to ascertain the extent of the practice which had prevailed, in order to form a judgment of the necessity of continuing it; and with that view, as well as for the reasons before mentioned, these returns wore called for. There was also another reason for confining the returns to the metropolis and its vicinity, exclusive of the facility which the registers, kept as above-mentioned, afforded for that purpose.

In the populous districts of England, whether that population is caused by manufactures or by other employments, the same causes which produce it provide support for the inhabitants of all ages, by various occupations adapted to their means. Thus in manufacturing districts, the children are early taught to gain their subsistence by the different branches of those manufactures. In districts where colleries or other mines abound, they are accustomed almost from their infancy to employments under ground, which tend to train and inure them to the occupation of their ancestors: but in London the lower class of the population is not of that nature, but

is composed of many different descriptions, consisting of servants in and out of place, tradesmen, artisans, labourers, widows, and beggars, who being frequently destitute of the means of providing for themselves, are dependent on their parishes for relief, which is seldom bestowed without the parish claiming the exclusive right of disposing, at their pleasure, of all the children of the person receiving relief. The system of apprenticeship is therefore resorted to of necessity, and with a view of getting rid of the burthen of supporting so many individuals; and as it is probably carried to a greater extent there than any where else, for the reasons here stated, your Committee has been enabled to form an opinion, without the necessity of referring to any other part of the kingdom, whether it could be discontinued, without taking away from the parishes the means of disposing of their poor children. It certainly does appear to your Committee, that this purpose might be attained, without the violation of humanity, in separating children forcibly, and conveying them to a distance from their parents, whether those parents be deserving or undeserving. The peculiar circumstances of the metropolis, already alluded to, may at first seem to furnish an argument in favour of a continuance of this practice; but it can hardly be a matter of doubt that apprentices, to the number of two hundred, which is the yearly number bound on the average of ten years beforementioned, might with the most trifling possible exertion on the VOL. LVII.

part of the parish officers, be annually bound to trades and domestic employments, within such a distance as to admit of occa sional intercourse with a parent, and (what is perhaps of more consequence) the superintendence of the officers of the parish by which they were bound. That this is not attended with much difficulty seems evident, from the fact that many parishes have never followed the practice of binding their poor children to a distance, though quite as numerous those in which this practice has prevailed; and that some parishes which had begun it, have long discontinued it.

as

In making these observations, your Committee beg to be understood as not extending them to the sea service, in favour of which they make a special reservation, on account of considerations of the highest political importance connected with the maritime interests of the country. They therefore carefully abstain from recommending any interference with the law as it now stands, which admits of binding parish apprentices to the King's or merchant's naval service.

The system of binding parish apprentices, in the manner in which they are usually bound, to a distance from their parents and relations, and from those pa-' rish officers whose duty it is to attend to their moral and physical state, is indeed highly ob jectionable; but the details and the consequences are very little known, except to those persons to whom professional employment, local situation, or accident, may have afforded the means of

20

inquiry