ABSTRACT
A consequence of the Industrial Revolution was the employment of children from an early age in sweatshops, factories, mills, and mines and the physical, mental, and moral toll of the conditions under which they worked was incalculable. As in Britain, child labour had been a political and social issue from the early part of the century, culminating in a formal attempt to improve conditions in the 1840s.3 A law of March 1841 banned children under the age of eight from working for large enterprises or in factories that used machinery or kept a re burning. Working hours were to be limited (to eight hours a day for ages
eight to twelve, and twelve hours for ages twelve to sixteen). Children under thirteen were not to be employed for night work, and employers were required to ensure that their young employees had some schooling. Because these requirements were not consistently enforced, however, in many areas they had little impact. e impetus for reform was lost under the Second Empire, a situation exacerbated by indierence and resistance from parents and industrialists, and it was considerably later that further measures to protect children in the workplace and ensure them their rights to education were put in place.4 e 1874 Loi sur le travail des enfants et des filles mineures dans l’industrie raised the minimum working age to twelve, although it remained at ten for some industries, with a maximum twelve-hour working day, no night work, and, for those under twelve, two hours of schooling a day. Penalties for breaking the law were stiened with the creation of a centralised factory inspectorate, but, as in Britain, the eect of such legislation was oen to drive child labour underground.5
