THE BRUTAL TREATMENT OF YOUNG CHILDREN EMPLOYED IN THE MINES AND COLLIERIES OF THE UNITED KINGDOM A LITTLE MORE THAN A CENTURY AGO

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1968 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 749-749
Author(s):  
T. E. C.
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Young Children ◽  
House Of Commons ◽  
Industrial Community ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Poor

If an age is judged by its treatment of the weak and helpless, the nineteenth century deserves condemnation. The callous indifference in that century toward the employment of young children in the mines and collieries of the United Kingdom was never more vividly described than by Anthony Ashley Cooper, Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury (1801-1885) in his speech to the House of Commons in 1842. By his persistent agitation in Parliament, covering several decades, Shaftesbury eventually forced society's recognition that all children, regardless of social class, deserve the same humane treatment. Some of the cruelties inflicted by the early industrial community on these filthy and ignorant children of the poor are described by the Earl of Shaftesbury in these passages from his speech: With respect to the age at which children are worked in mines and collieries in South Staffordshire, it is common to begin at 7 years old; in Shropshire some begin as early as 6 years of age; in Warwickshire the same... In Derbyshire many begin at 5... Near Oldham children are worked as low as 4 years old, and in the small collieries towards the hills some are so young that they are brought to work in their bedgowns.... It must be borne in mind that the regular hours of a full day's labour are 14, and occasionally 16; and the children have to walk a mile or two at night without changing their clothes... In Oldham the mountain seams are wrought in a very rude manner. There is very insufficient drainage.

The Command of the Sea

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David G. Morgan-Owen
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
British Isles ◽  
Royal Navy ◽  
Naval Warfare ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Late Nineteenth

The Royal Navy thought about war in a particular way in the late nineteenth century. This chapter explains how the contemporary Navy understood strategy as it pertained to protecting the United Kingdom from invasion. By examining the different approaches taken to war against France and Germany between 1885 and 1900 it shows how the Admiralty understood the defence of the British Isles in this period in largely symmetrical terms. The battle fleet remained key to naval warfare and to preventing invasion, but it did not need to be shackled to the British coastline in order to prevent a hostile power from attempting to cross the Channel.

How Do Campaign Spending Limits Affect Elections? Evidence from the United Kingdom 1885–2019

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
ALEXANDER FOUIRNAIES
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Campaign Spending ◽  
House Of Commons ◽  
Electoral Campaigns ◽  
Limit Formula ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The World ◽  
Legal Constraints ◽  
The Cost

In more than half of the democratic countries in the world, candidates face legal constraints on how much money they can spend on their electoral campaigns, yet we know little about the consequences of these restrictions. I study how spending limits affect UK House of Commons elections. I contribute new data on the more than 70,000 candidates who ran for a parliamentary seat from 1885 to 2019, and I document how much money each candidate spent, how they allocated their resources across different spending categories, and the spending limit they faced. To identify the effect on elections, I exploit variation in spending caps induced by reforms of the spending-limit formula that affected some but not all constituencies. The results indicate that when the level of permitted spending is increased, the cost of electoral campaigns increases, which is primarily driven by expenses related to advertisement and mainly to the disadvantage of Labour candidates; the pool of candidates shrinks and elections become less competitive; and the financial and electoral advantages enjoyed by incumbents are amplified.

DOES PERTUSSIS VACCINE CAUSE PERMANENT BRAIN DAMAGE? UNITED KINGDOM COURT RULES

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. A54-A54
Author(s):  
Student
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Brain Damage ◽  
Pertussis Vaccine ◽  
Case Reports ◽  
Burden Of Proof ◽  
Medical Opinion ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Neurologically Normal ◽  
Permanent Brain Damage

1. The preliminary issue to be determined by the court is, can pertussis vaccine cause permanent brain damage in young children? The question relates to pertussis vaccine manufactured in the United Kingdom and applies to all children whether or not they were neurologically normal before vaccination. The burden of proof rests on the Plaintiff and the standard of proof is that of the balance of probability. It must be shown that it is more likely than not that the vaccine can cause permanent brain damage. 2. The medical and expert opinion is deeply divided on the issue. 3. The question is not answered by showing that there is a respectable and responsible body of medical opinion that the vaccine can, albeit rarely, cause permanent brain damage, or that this view is/may be more widely held than the contrary. 4. Similarly the advice contained in the contra-indications against pertussis vaccination . . . cannot be relied upon as though it were evidence . . . that the vaccine in fact causes permanent brain damage. 5. Reports of . . . encephalopathy resulting in . . . brain damage or death where the onset occurs shortly after DTP vaccination, raises the hypothesis that the vaccine may cause brain damage or death. It does not prove the hypothesis. Such reports do not take account of events occurring by chance, for which no explanation can be found. What they do establish is that encephalopathy resulting occasionally in permanent brain damage or death does sometimes occur in close temporal proximity to pertussis vaccination. 6. I have reviewed the evidence and reasoning of the Plaintiffs and Defendants' expert witnesses . . . . I have found myself more impressed both by the cogency and quality of the evidence and reasoning of the experts called on behalf of the Defendants. 7. When I embarked on consideration of the preliminary issue, I was impressed by the case reports and what was evidently a widely held belief that the vaccination could, albeit rarely, cause permanent brain damage. I was ready to accept that this belief was well founded. But over the weeks that I have listened to and examined the evidence and arguments, I have become more and more doubtful that this is so. I have now come to the clear conclusion that the Plaintiff fails to satisfy me on the balance of probability that pertussis vaccine can cause permanent brain damage in young children. It is possible it does, the contrary cannot be proved. But in the result the Plaintiff's claim must fail.

The economy

2016 ◽  
pp. 155-187
Author(s):  
Paul Huddie
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Government Contracts ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
History Of ◽  
Distinct Period

This chapter will show that the Russian conflict was a distinct period in Ireland’s economic history, being a catalyst for Ireland’s post-Famine agricultural recovery. It will be shown that this was caused by the increase in prices and demand which in turn encouraged farmers to alter the distribution of their tillage, export more livestock, hire more labourers and increase the latter’s wages. It will also include various (largely neglected) aspects of industry; showing Irish shipping companies’ comparable astuteness in relation to government contracts, which many entrepreneurs and merchants also eagerly sought, but also the inflexibility of the linen sector and the consequent problems experienced. Finally this chapter will show that the war was, much like the 1850s as a whole, a distinct period in the history of Irish taxation and Irish society’s relationship with its government in London in the nineteenth century and its relationship, or place within, the wider society of the United Kingdom.

Conferences in British Nineteenth-Century Coastal Shipping

2009 ◽  
pp. 77-90
Author(s):  
John Armstrong
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Shipping Industry ◽  
Common Features ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Coastal Shipping ◽  
Regulate Competition ◽  
Large Spread ◽  
The Common

This chapter examines a substantial number of British shipping conferences in the nineteenth century in order to determine their ability to regulate competition across the shipping trade. It identifies and analyses the common features of shipping conferences; the presence of conferences outside of Britain - particularly in China; the early shipping conferences, including the Glasgow-Liverpool conference; and the evidence of large-spread conferences across the United Kingdom. It discovers that coastal shipping was as involved in shipping conferences as the rest of the shipping industry, and that collaboration between firms existed even within the heightened competitive atmosphere.

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