It will be observed that there is no mention in this classifica tion of measures for the protection of agricultural workers or of persons employed in office work of any kind. There is in England no legislation for the benefit of office workers as such. They bene fit merely incidentally from any provisions of the Public Healtn Acts or local bye-laws which may affect the buildings in which they work. Even the Bank Holiday Acts (1871 and 1875), requir ing certain days to be kept close holidays, only apply to banks, the customs, inland revenue offices and bonding warehouses, and (optionally) to docks, though the practical effect of these Acts is very much more far-reaching. There is likewise no legislation expressly for the protection of regular agricultural workers, apart from the Agricultural Wages Act (see below). But here again, the Public Health Acts intervene as regards the accommodation to be provided for occasional workers brought from the towns, whole families together, for such work as picking hops and fruit. There still exists also an Act of 1867 requiring gang-masters, who hire children, young persons or women with a view to their being em ployed in agricultural labour, to be licensed and thus subjected to a certain amount of control. It is necessary also to mention the Act of 1677, "for the better observation of the Lord's Day." But this Act is not strictly part of labour law, since it merely prohibits persons, under penalty, from working in their ordinary callings on Sundays, and does not impose any penalty upon em ployers for employing persons on that day. It is now practically obsolete. Provided these points are borne in mind, it will be most convenient to follow the main divisions into which English labour legislation falls, and to consider appropriate parts of our subject under the headings (a) to (e) given above.
Places to which the English Factory and Workshop Acts apply are either "factories" (i.e., places where mechanical power is used, together with certain specified kinds of undertaking always treated as "factories") or "workshops" (i.e., workplaces other than "factories"). In either case, in order to bring a place under the Acts, it is essential that in them manual labour shall be exercised either in the making of any article, or in the altering, repairing, ornamenting or finishing of any article or in the adapting for sale of any article. Under the Act of 19o' it was further invariably
essential that the labour should be exercised "by way of trade or for purposes of gain." But the Factory and Workshop Act of 1907 extended that law, with permissive modifications, to work done for outsiders in the workrooms of charitable or reformatory institutions, notwithstanding that it is not carried on by way of trade or for purposes of gain. The definition of "factory" and "workshop" does not exclude homeworkers' premises. But where only the family living on the premises is employed without the use of mechanical power, a special name "domestic factory or workshop" is used, and such places are expressly exempted from many of the provisions of the law. It should be noted that the employment of a single person outside the family living on the premises converts even a dwelling place into an ordinary factory or workshop, as the case may be. And, moreover, if any mechani cal power is used, even a family group working in their own home are subject to the ordinary law. Thus even the smallest under takings come under the general provisions of the Acts, contrary to the practice in some countries where the employment of a certain minimum number of workers is necessary in order to bring a workplace under regulation. The principal difference for practical purposes between a "factory" and a "workshop" is one of administration, workshops being left as far as sanitary con ditions are concerned to some extent to the operation of the Public Health Acts and subjected in consequence to inspection by the officials of the local authorities, while sanitary conditions in factories are controlled by provisions contained in the Act of 1901 itself, enforced by the factory inspectors under that Act. "Fac tories" are differently regulated according to whether they are "textile" or "non-textile," as regards hours of work and such mat ters as artificial humidification of the air special to the textile in dustry. The Act of 1901 also deals with accident prevention and health in docks, building works, and railway sidings used in con nection with a factory or workshop. Laundries were expressly brought under the general provisions of the law with certain modifications by the Act of 1907.
(b) The law relating to mines is in two divisions, applying respectively to coal mines (including all mines of coal, stratified ironstone, shale and fireclay), and to metalliferous mines (with which for some purposes quarries are included). The Acts in question are the important consolidating Coal Mines Act of 1911, together with unrepealed parts of the Coal Mines Regulation Acts 1887-1908, and the Coal Mines Acts 1919 and 1926; and for metalliferous mines, the Metalliferous Mines Regulation Acts 1872 and 1875 and the Mines Accidents (Rescue and Aid) Act 1910. The Quarries Act 1894 divides the regulation of quarries between the Metalliferous Mines Regulation Acts and the Fac tory and Workshop Acts.