Editing Robert Peel (section)

====Factory Act====
Peel's promise of modest reform was held to, and the second most famous bill of this ministry, while "reforming" in 21st-century eyes, was in fact aimed at the reformers themselves, with their constituency among the new industrial rich. The [[Factory Act 1844]] acted more against these industrialists than it did against the traditional stronghold of the Conservatives, the [[landed gentry]], by restricting the number of hours that children and women could work in a factory and setting rudimentary safety standards for machinery.<ref>Adelman, ''Peel and the Conservative Party: 1830–1850'', 40–42; Ramsay, ''Sir Robert Peel'', 302–05; Read, ''Peel and the Victorians'', 125; 129.</ref> This was a continuation of his own father's work as an MP, as the elder Robert Peel was most noted for the reform of working conditions during the first part of the 19th century. Helping him was [[Lord Shaftesbury]], a British MP who also established the [[Mines and Collieries Act 1842|coal mines act]].