ABSTRACT
The most important mass of legislative enactments relating to labour is contained in the Factory Acts, consolidated into the very important, long, and complicated statute known as the Factory and Workshop Act, 1878. A number of additional relaxations or changes have been made by order of the Secretary of State, under powers given in several sections; thus another day has been allowed to be substituted for the Saturday half-holiday in the case of printing-offices engaged in printing newspapers, railway time-tables, and other urgent publications, as also in certain workshops where clothes are being made. In the United States an Eight Hours Act has been passed in some of the States, but being purely permissive in character, has proved to be a dead letter. An Act which defines a day's labour as being that of eight hours, in the absence of any stipulation to the contrary, is easily set aside, and has been generally disregarded.
