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British Government Inspection, 1832–1875: Some Observations*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

P. W. J. Bartrip
P. W. J. Bartrip
Affiliation:
Wolfson College, Oxford
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Extract

Many historians now recognize that the establishment of central government inspection was of great importance in advancing mid-nineteenth-century social and administrative reform. MacDonagh, for example, calls the appointment of inspectors ‘a step of immense, if unforeseen, consequences’. Parris, in many respects MacDonagh’s critic, acknowledges that inspectors ‘played a leading role in legislation, including the development of their own powers’. Other authorities have taken a similar line; indeed, Burn maintains that the period could be characterized ‘the age of the inspector’, so pervasive was his influence.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , September 1982 , pp. 605 - 626
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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References

1 MacDonagh, O., ‘The nineteenth century revolution in government: a reappraisal’, Historical Journal, 1 (1958), 59CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Parris, H., ‘The nineteenth century revolution in government: a reappraisal reappraised’, Historical Journal, iii (1960), 35.Google Scholar

2 Burn, W. L., The age of equipoise: a study of the mid-Victorian generation (London, 1964), p. 17Google Scholar. See Roberts, D., Victorian origins of the British welfare state (New Haven, 1960), p. 319Google Scholar; Perkin, H., ‘Individualism versus collectivism in nineteenth century Britain: a false antithesis’, Journal of British Studies, xvii (1977), 107.Google Scholar

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4 P. W. J. Bartrip, ‘Safety at work: the factory inspectorate in the fencing controversy, 1833–1857’, Centre for Socio-legal Studies Working Paper no. 4 (March, 1979), 36; Manchester Courier, 7 and 21 Apr. 1855; ‘The National Association of Factory Occupiers: special report of the executive committee, July 1855’, in the Cobbett, J. M. collection of factory pamphlets, 1832–1856, University of London, Goldsmiths’ Library, p. 31Google Scholar; Ball, N., Her majesty’s inspectorate, 1839–1849 (London, 1963), p. 35.Google Scholar

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8 My calculations are based chiefly on civil service estimates and occasional parliamentary returns on inspection. I make no claim that calculations based on different data employing a different definition of inspection would not yield somewhat contrasting results. It should be noted that in 1875 the board of trade employed twenty inspectors of corn returns. This office pre-dated the reformed parliament and its officials have not been included in my figures. Also excluded are inspectors in the department of art and science who had no statutory foundation either for their own appointments or for their professional activities.

9 Lubenow, W. C., The politics of government growth: early Victorian attitudes towards state intervention, 1833–1845 (Newton Abbot, 1971), p. 137.Google Scholar

10 The phrase is used by Parris, ‘A reappraisal reappraised’, p. 35.

11 Report of the royal commission on the employment of children in factories (Parl. Papers. 1833, xx), p. 72.

12 Parl. Papers, 1833, ii, 263–78.

13 Parl. Papers, 1833, xx, 68; see Marvel, H. P., ‘Factory regulation: A re-interpretation of early English experience’, Journal of Law and Economics, xx (1977), 379–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14 Tremenheere to Sir G. Grey, 31 Dec. 1846, P.R.O. H.O. 45, O.S. 1490.

15 Djang, T. K., Factory inspection in Great Britain (London, 1942), p. 28Google Scholar; Thomas, M. W., The early factory legislation: a study in legislative and administrative evolution (Leigh-on-Sea, 1948), pp. 68–9.Google Scholar

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17 Roberts, Victorian origins, p. 305.

18 Bartrip, P. W. J. and Fenn, P. T., ‘The administration of safety: the enforcement policy of the early factory inspectorate, 1844–1864’, Public Administration, lviii (1980), 87–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19 Seaman, L. C. B., Victorian England: aspects of English and imperial history, 1837–1901 (London, 1973), p. 57.Google Scholar

20 The Factories and Workshops Act, 1867 (30 and 31 Viet. c. 146) defined a workshop as ‘any room or place whatever, whether in the open air or under cover, in which any handicraft is carried on by any child, young person, or woman and to which and over which the person by whom such child, young person, or woman is employed has the right of access and control’. See Report of the royal commission on the working of the factory and workshop act (Parl. Papers, 1876, xxix), p. xciii; Parris, Government and the railways, p. 206; Djang, Factory inspection, p. 34.

21 On Tremenheere see Webb, R. K., ‘A whig inspector’, Journal of Modern History, xxvii (1955), 352–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar; E. L. and Edmonds, O. P. (eds.), I was there: the memoirs of H. S. Tremenheere (Eton, 1965).Google Scholar

22 On the formation of the mines inspectorate see A. J. Cassell, ‘Her majesty’s inspectors of mines, 1843–1862: a study of law enforcement’: unpublished Southampton M.Sc. Econ. thesis, 1962; MacDonagh, O., ‘Coal mines regulation: the first decade, 1842–1852’ in Robson, R. (ed.), Ideas and institutions of Victorian Britain (London, 1967), pp. 58–86Google Scholar; MacDonagh, O., Early Victorian government, 1830–1870 (London, 1978), pp. 78–95.Google Scholar

23 27 Dec. 1850.

24 27 Jan. 1855.

25 Returns of inspectors (various dates) 1853, H.O. 45, O.S. 1490; Mackworth to Lord Palmerston, 22 July 1854, H.O. 45, O.S. 5377.

26 Report of the select committee appointed to inquire into the causes of the frequency of explosions in coal mines with a view to prevent the appalling loss of life arising from them (Parl. Papers, 1852, v), p. 9.

27 12 Jan. 1867; see also 9 Feb. 1867.

28 H.O. 45, O.S. 8027, date stamped 7 Feb. 1870; see the resolution of the miners’ conference held in Manchester 10–12 Jan. 1871.

29 Atkinson to H. A. Bruce, 8 Feb. 1870, H.O. 45, O.S. 8407.

30 H. Waddington to M.Dunn, 23 Nov. 1852, P.R.O. H.O. 87 (2); H. Waddington to T. Wynne, 1 Sept. 1853, H.O. 87 (3); J. Dickinson to Sir G. Lewis, 17 Dec. 1860, H.O. 45, O.S. 7011.

31 See, for example, report of the eighteenth annual T.U.C. conference at Southport, Sept. 1885, p. 27.

32 Memorandum by Palmerston dated 7 Apr. 1853, H.O. 45, O.S. 4628; H.M. factory inspectorate minutes of meetings, P.R.O. LAB 15 (3), pp. 248–50,331–5; Bartrip,’ Safety at work’, passim; on Palmerston’s career at the home office see Roberts, D., ‘Lord Palmerston at the Home Office’, The Historian, xxi (1958), 63–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

33 ‘Safety at work’, passim; Bartrip and Fenn, ‘The administration of safety’, p. 96; P. Bartrip, W. J. and Fenn, P. T., ‘The conventionalization of factory crime: a reassessment’, International Journal of the Sociology of Law, viii (1980), 181–2.Google Scholar

34 Brough to Waddington, 10 Aug., 10 Nov. 1865, 25 Feb., 19 Mar. 1866; Boyd, R. Nelson, Coal mines inspection: its history and results (London, 1879), p. 158.Google Scholar

35 Henriques, U. R. Q., Before the welfare state: social administration in early industrial Britain (London, 1979), p. 103.Google Scholar

36 Bartrip and Fenn, ‘The administration of safety’, passim; Bartrip and Fenn, ‘The conventionalization of factory crime’, p. 183.

37 Memorandum by Palmerston, 7 Apr. 1835, H.O. 45, O.S. 4628.

38 Tremenheere to Sir G. Grey, 31 Dec. 1846, H.O. 45, O.S. 1490.

39 Letter of appointment from Waddington to Dunn, 21 Nov. 1850; Waddington to Dickinson, 27 May 1851, H.O. 87 (2).

40 Boyd, Coal mines inspection, p. 107.

41 See, for example, Report of inspector Dunn (Parl. Papers, 1854, xix), p. 626.

42 Mackworth to S. Walpole, 24 Aug. 1852, H.O. 45, O.S. 4105.

43 Bartrip, ‘Safety at work’, passim.

44 Burn, , The age of equipoise, pp. 223–4Google Scholar; Parris, , Constitutional bureaucracy (London, 1969), p. 202Google Scholar; Pellew, , ‘The Home Office’, p. 177Google Scholar; Roberts, , Victorian origins, p. 168.Google Scholar

45 Martin, , ‘Leonard Horner’, p. 428Google Scholar; Lyell, K. M. (ed.), Memoir of Leonard Horner F.R.S. F.G.S: consisting of letters to his family and some of his friends (2 vols. London, 1890); Bartrip, ‘Safety at work’, pp. 6–7Google Scholar; Boase, F., Modern English biography (6 vols. London, 1965 edn)Google Scholar; The Examiner, 10 Nov. 1833; Henriques, U. R. Q., ‘An early factory inspector: James Stuart of Dunearn’, Scottish Historical Review, L (1971). Some information on inspectors is to be found in official reports.Google Scholar

46 Royal commission on the working of the factory and workshop acts (Parl. Papers, 1876, xxix), p. 39.

47 Mining Journal 23 Nov. and 7 Dec. 1850; Cassell, ‘Her majesty’s inspectors’, passim.

48 Ibid. p. 122.

49 Ibid.

50 Home office memorandum, 19 Dec. 1860, H.O. 45, O.S. 7011.

51 Cassell, ‘Her majesty’s inspectors’, p. 123.

52 Burn, The age of equipoise, p. 224.

53 Henriques, ‘Jeremy Bentham and the machinery of social reform’ in Hearder, H. and Loyn, H. R. (eds.) British government and administration: studies presented to S. B. Chrimes (Cardiff, 1974), p. 177.Google Scholar

54 Select committee on railway companies (Parl. Papers, 1870, x), p. 345.

55 Yearly accident report of the inspecting officers of railways (Parl. Papers, 1871, LX), pp. 148–9.

56 This paragraph is derived from Bartrip and Fenn, ‘The administration of safety’, pp. 97–8.

57 Report of inspector Redgrave (Parl. Papers, 1861, xxii), pp. 373–4.

58 Report of the royal commission on the working of the factory and workshop acts (Parl. Papers, 1876, xxix), p. lxxxix.

59 S. Walpole to mines inspectors, 12 Aug. 1852, H.O. 45, O.S. 4105.

60 Report of the select committee appointed to inquire into the causes of the numerous accidents in coal mines (Part. Papers, 1854, ix), pp. 352–3.

61 Inspectors to secretary of state (various dates), H.O. 45, O.S. 6779; inspectors to secretary of state (various dates), H.O. 45, O.S. 7004.

62 Inspectors to S. Walpole (various dates) 1852, H.O. 45, O.S. 4105.

63 19 and 20 Viet. c. 38; Bartrip, ‘Safety at work’, pp. 40–9; see D. G. Paz, ‘Working class education and the state, 1839–1849: the sources of government policy’, Journal of British Studies, xvi (1976) in which the importance of civil servants as policy-makers is questioned.

64 22 July 1854, H.O. 45, O.S. 5377.

65 See e.g. H. Waddington to T. Wynne, 1 Sept. 1853, H.O. 87 (3).

66 12 Jan. 1867; see 9 Feb. 1867.

67 Undated note (1867), H.O. 45, O.S. 8027.

68 Bartrip, ‘Safety at work’, pp. 54–5.

69 Report of the royal commission on the working of the factory and workshop acts (Parl. Papers, 1876, xxix), p. lxxxviii.

70 Report of the committee of inquiry into the factory inspectors’ department (1868), H.O. 45, O.S. 8002; F. W. Hayden, ‘Our officials at the Home Office: a letter to the Rt Hon. W. E. Gladstone upon certain proceedings of the Home Office in 1867, under the Rt. Hon. Gathornem Hardy, M.P.’ (London, 1869).

71 E. Baines to H. Bruce, 7 Jan. 1869, H.O. 45, O.S. 8002.

72 Report of the royal commission on the working of the factory and workshop acts (Parl. Papers, 1876, xxix), p. lxxxviii.