mended on the floor;—all, in short, who take no heed to the notices posted in the mills, or to the express orders of their employers, but climb up to the death which is carefully removed out of their natural reach, are assumed to he murdered by their employers' carelessness and not their own, and pointed out to their comrades, not as fatal examples of their own obstinacy, but of that of their masters. A more flagrant instance could not be found of a temper and views unsuited to the office of inspection. Inspectors should, in the very first place, discharge their function without fear or favour. Mr. Horner's rash confidence in his own interpretation of law, and enforcement of incompatible explanations and orders, show that he may be absolved from any charge of fear; but, as to favour, there is no acquitting him of most serious and disqualifying offences. In the Reports before us, there is no hint, from beginning to end, of any of the injuries he reports being caused by the fault of the sufferers themselves, and not "in the course of their employments" at all,—either ordinary or occasional. Mr. Horner's reply to this objection is found in the Circular which requires the millowners to guard against "all accidents" which can happen from shafting; and he declares his inability to see why it is not done. He appears to be entirely unconscious that he is thus bringing into the field of argument, of political morality and of law, one of the greatest problems which can occupy the minds of men; or that he is begging the question on a point which has hitherto defied the wisdom of legislators from the earliest days of social organisation till now. Without entering in an episodical way upon the great question of the proper sphere and duties of Government, we may refer Mr. Horner, and all who suppose the matter to be as simple as he does, to cases out of factory bounds. Are railway proprietors or directors to be held up to society as the murderers of all the people who perish by leaving the train before it has completely stopped; or by trespassing on the rail, or other recklessness? Is every drunken vagabond who lies down in the
