asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether, with reference to the statement made by him as to the desirability of extending the application of the Factories (Health of Women, &c.) Bill to other manufactures, and of consolidating the Factory and Workshop Acts, it is the intention of Her Majesty's Government to ask this House to sanction the appointment of a Select Committee to inquire into and report upon the subject, with the view to legislation during the next Session?

, in reply, said, that he said the other day it was his wish to consolidate all the Factory Laws; but it was a question of some difficulty as well as of some importance. For that reason he thought it would be better to appoint a Committee to inquire and report upon the whole subject as soon as possible, with a view to legislation on the subject. He might say as well that the inquiry would embrace the question of extending the Factories Act to other manufactures than textile ones.