Trade to require railway
companies to provide reasonable and satisfactory schedules of hours
for all their employees. In 1894 a bill for a compulsory eight-hour
day for miners was introduced, but was withdrawn before being
submitted to a vote. In 1899 a bill was passed requiring the provision
of a sufficient number of seats for all female assistants in retail
stores. In 1900 a government bill was presented to Parliament carrying
legislation somewhat farther on the lines of the acts of 1891 and
1893, but it did not reach its later stages before the adjournment.

*71. Employers' Liability Acts.*--Closely allied to the problems
involved in the factory laws is the question of the liability of
employers to make compensation for personal injuries suffered by
workmen in their service. With the increasing use of machinery and of
steam power for manufacturing and transportation, and in the general
absence of precaution, accidents to workmen became much more
numerous. Statistics do not exist for earlier periods, but in 1899
serious or petty accidents to the number of 70,760 were reported from
such establishments. By Common Law, in the case of negligence on the
part of the proprietor or servant of an establishment, damages for
accident could be sued for and obtained by a workman, not guilty of
contributory negligence, as by any other person, except in one case.
If the accident was the result of the negligence of a fellow-employee,
no compensation for injuries would be allowed by the courts; the
theory being that in the implied contract between employer and
employee, the latter agreed to accept the risks of the business, at
least so far as these arose from the carelessness of his
fellow-employees.

In the large establishments of modern times, however, vast numbers of
men were fellow-employees in the eyes of the law, and the doctrine of
"common employment," as it was called, prevented the recovery of
damages in so many cases as to attract widespread attention. From 1865
forward this provision of the law was frequently complained of by
leaders of the workingmen and others, and as constantly upheld by the
courts.

In 1876 a committee of the House of Commons on the relations of master
and servant took evidence on this matter and recommended in its report
that the common law be amended in this respect. Accordingly in 1880 an
Employers' Liability Act was passed which abolished the doctrine of
"common employment" as to much of its a