436. (4*) The principle, that government Ought to interfere as little as possible between workmen and their employers, is so well established, that it is important to guard against its misapplication. It is not inconsistent with this principle to insist on the workmen being paid in money--for this is merely to protect them from being deceived; and still less is it a deviation from it to limit the number of hours during which children shall work in factories, or the age at which they shall commence that species of labour--for they are not free agents, nor are they capable of judging, if they were; and both policy and humanity concur in demanding for them some legislative protection. In both cases it is as right and politic to protect the weaker party from fraud or force, as it would be impolitic and unjust to interfere with the amount of the wages of either. NOTES: 1. Twenty eight shillings per cwt for the finer, twenty one shillings per cwt for the coarser papers. 2. I cannot omit the opportunity of expressing my hope that this example will be followed in other trades. We should thus obtain a body of information equally important to the workman, the capitalist, the philosopher, and the stateman. 3. The expense of a patent in Spain is stated in the report to be respectively 2000, 1200 and 1000 reals. If these are reals of vellon, in which accounts are usually kept at Madrid, the above sums are correct; but if they are reals of plate, the above sums ought to be nearly doubled. 4. In the year 1824 the law against workmen going abroad, as well as the laws preventing them from combining, were repealed, after the fullest enquiry by a Committee of the House of Commons. In 1825 an attempt to re-enact some of the most objectionable was made, but it failed. Chapter 34 On the Exportation of Machinery