The bargain is unfair in many cases, and I think there should be more protection given to a man who is not experienced in negotiations and also not experienced in handling comparatively large sums of money. If a man has all his life been mainly engaged in administering a wage coming in week by week, and not in the habit of handling sums of several hundred pounds at a time, I question, with all respect for the liberty of the subject and the right of a man to do what he likes with his own, if it is a kindness to give him full control over a very large sum of money relative to the wages he has been in the habit of drawing, leaving him very often to be the victim of some person more experienced than himself in dealing with financial matters. I think all these bargains that are made for lump sums should be subject to more scrutiny than is the case under the present Act. In fact, I am doubtful whether the Act would not be more wisely administered by considering these payments as being in the nature of alimentary payments and not compounding them for a lump sum at all, but payable week by week and not arrestable for debt or otherwise, but treated purely as aliment of the worker.

In regard to the administration of payments in the case of children, we have seen from recent disclosures that the Public Trustee Office has now become an expensive means of administration. I am not familiar with the exact form of administration of workmen's compensation funds in England, but we have quite an elaborate system in Scotland, but economical, as most Scotch procedure is, we being brought up to regard waste in any shape or form as a very serious offence against morality. I therefore hope the question of the administration of these funds will also be looked into. Generous provision for accidents should be made, and the liability should be placed, as it is at the present time, on the employer for the particular business that he has. It does not do to say you are putting too heavy a burden on industry. You can be pretty generous, because no workman will seek an accident; he would rather be without it. You can be pretty generous, and if the sum is high, then all the greater care will be taken, and the ultimate burden on the industry will be all the less. I trust therefore the Government will take the practically united opinion of the whole House, and I believe I carry the right hon. Member for the City of London (Sir F. Banbury) with me when I say that, because I know that there is no more humane man in the whole of this House than the right hon. Baronet. I hope the Government will take the united opinion of the whole House in its desire to see that those who happen, in the struggle for life, to suffer accident are property provided for. If they will do this, I feel sure that a Bill of this kind could be passed into law in the briefest possible time, with the universal approval of both employers and employed in this country.