In 1842 a commission set up by the British government to investigate the employment of children issued a report on children working in mines in the United Kingdom. Frederick Roper, one of the commissioners, visited mines in the south of Ireland. Writing about the coal field on the borders of Kilkenny and  Laois, or Queen's County as it was then called, he said: "I inspected about a dozen of the different  shafts, worked by contractors and found none but men employed. Indeed, I was informed that none but strong, able young men would be of any use in the pits, the labour being severe. I did not see any  under eighteen years of age".