Part 19 (1/2)

The effect this had upon the youth was so great that he resolved to devote his life to helping the poor and friendless

There was plenty of work for him to do Children in factories and mines required to be protected from the cruelties to which they were subjected; chiers to which they were exposed; the hours of labour in factories were excessive; thieves required to be shoay of escape froed schools and other institutions needed support

These and nu the entire of his long life, and by his help many wise alterations were ht and trust to Providence for the rest,” was his ht before Parliarate; and the grown-up burglars and vagabonds, seeing howTo this he ithout a uarded by a detachment of thieves, atched to see that none but those of their class went in

Lord Shaftesbury was in the chair, and thecolars and crireat number of other bad characters

First of all the chairave an address; then so quite plainly and simply how they spent their lives

When Lord Shaftesbury urged theive up their old lives of sin one of them said, ”We must steal or we shall die”

The city ed them to pray, as God could help theentleood, but it won't fill an empty stomach”

It was, indeed, a difficult problem how best to aid the poor fellows; but Lord Shaftesbury solved it As a result of the conference three hundred thieves went abroad to Canada to begin life anew, or were put into the way of earning an honest living

One of the subjects which occupied a great deal of Lord Shaftesbury's attention was the condition of the young in coal an to work in irls and boys were labouring in the pits by the tiht For twelve or fourteen hours a day these poor little toilers had to sit in thetrap doors as the coal was pushed along in barrows All alone, with no one to speak to, sitting in a da atmosphere, the poor children had to stay day after day; and if they went to sleep they got well beaten Rats and mice were their only coladdened by the daylight

It was a shocking state of existence, nor did it grow better as the children got older

Then they had to drag heavy loads along the floors of the irls had a girdle fastened round their waists, a chain was fixed to this, and passed between their legs and hooked to the carriage Then, crawling on hands and knees through the filth andtheainst the low roof

Girls and wohts of coal Children stood ankle deep in water, pued for thirty-six hours continuously; so that it was no wonder the children died early, that they suffered ainst such cruelties Lord Shaftesbury was constantly warring; and his warfare was not in vain

Quite as badly off were the little chimney sweeps Boys were kidnapped, and sold to cruel h chimneys filled with soot and shted below, and they would thus be forced to ascend The consequence was thatin the deaths of these poor little fellohilst numbers died early from disease

Lord Shaftesbury roused the country to a sense of the wrong that was being done to the chimney sweeps, and Bills were passed in Parliament for their protection

Not only children, butand overwork

Lord Shaftesbury visited the factories to see how the labourers were actually treated; and this is one of the things that ca in a ht by the machinery and badly injured When the accident happened she had not cohteenpence was deducted froes!

Horrified at such treatainst the owners of the factory, and obtained 100 for the woman

For shorter hours and better treatled in and out of Parlia and fierce, it ended in victory

Such labour took up ood earl It brought him, too, plenty of ene to make the rich and selfish do justice to the poor and downcast

He not only gave his tih the eldest son of an earl, and later an earl himself, he hardly knehere to turn for the