revealed from the corruption which ensued in these mixed gangs of women, boys, and girls were of such a nature, that the very same year that the report was published Parliament passed an Act by which it was forbidden to employ any child under eight years of age in a public gang, or any female in the same gang with a male. It was also enacted that every gang-master should take out a licence, and, in the case of a female gang, a woman was to act as gang-master as well as the man. The Act further gave the Justices power to limit the distance t o which a child should walk, if they thought fit.
No doubt this Act has largely mitigated the evils of public gangs, but private gangs are in no way affected by it. A large occupier near Spalding says: "The result of legislation for public gangs will be great evasion of the Act under the form of private gangs, which will require dealing with just as much."
A private gang is one formed and employed by a farmer on his own land; he therefore feels a personal responsibility in its character and proceedings. This is undoubtedly a great advantage, and if the farmer will really trouble himself about it, it may be made a very real one. But the enormous size and great length of the fen farms renders personal supervision in many cases a practical impossibility. How can a man who has perhaps farms miles apart, perhaps two or three hundred acres each in extent, and stretching in elongated fashion for miles into the fen, know much about the behaviour of his work-people? He must leave it to the master of his gang. If the latter is a strictly upright man, things may go on well; but if otherwise, a perfect sink of corruption may exist on the estate of the best-intentioned master in the world.
And even supposing that by strict and careful supervision the grosser forms of evil are kept down, the private gang system does not afford any alleviation in the labour-slavery which has been the lot of these poor fen women and children for two generations.
Let us picture to ourselves the life of one of these families, and we shall see more clearly how little benefit they have derived from the great wealth with which science has enriched their land; how,
