book 5

, chap. 8, p. 297.

{120} "Principles of Population," vol. ii., p. 76, _et seq_. p. 82, p. 135.

{122} "Philosophy of Manufactures," London, 1835, p. 406, _et seq_. We shall have occasion to refer further to this reputable work.

{125} "On the Present Condition of the Labouring Poor in Manchester," etc. By the Rev. Rd. Parkinson, Canon of Manchester, 3d Ed., London and Manchester, 1841, Pamphlet.

{131a} "Manufacturing Population of England," chap. 10.

{131b} The total of population, about fifteen millions, divided by the number of convicted criminals (22,733).

{134a} "The Cotton Manufacture of Great Britain," by Dr. A. Ure, 1836.

{134b} "History of the Cotton Manufacture of Great Britain," by E. Baines, Esq.

{135} "Stubborn Facts from the Factories by a Manchester Operative." Published and dedicated to the working-classes, by Wm. Rashleigh, M.P., London, Ollivier, 1844, p. 28, _et seq_.

{136} Compare Factories' Inquiry Commission's Report.

{138} L. Symonds, in "Arts and Artisans."

{140} See Dr. Ure in the "Philosophy of Manufacture."

{141} Report of Factory Inspector, L. Homer, October, 1844: "The state of things in the matter of wages is greatly perverted in certain branches of cotton manufacture in Lancashire; there are hundreds of young men, between twenty and thirty, employed as piecers and otherwise, who do not get more than 8 or 9 shillings a week, while children under thirteen years, working under the same roof, earn 5 shillings, and young girls, from sixteen to twenty years, 10-12 shillings per week."

{143a} Report of Factories' Inquiry Commission. Testimony of Dr. Hawkins, p. 3.

{143b} In 1843, among the accidents brought to the Infirmary in Manchester, one hundred and eighty-nine were from burning.

{144} Factories' Inquiry Commission's Report, Power's Report on Leeds: passim Tufnell Report on Manchester, p. 17. etc.

{145} This letter is re-translated from the German, no attempt being made to re-produce either the spelling or the original Yorkshire dialect.

{147a} How numerous married women are in the factories is seen from information furnished by a manufacturer: In 412 factories in Lancashire, 10,721 of them were employed; of the husbands of these women, but 5,314 were also employed in the factories, 3,927 were otherwise employed, 821 were unemployed, and information was wanting as to 659; or two, if not three men for each factory, are supported by the work of their wives.

{147b} House of Commons, March 15th, 1844.

{147c} Factories' Inquiry Commission's Report, p. 4.

{148a} For further examples and information compare Factories' Inquiry Commission's Report. Cowell Evidence, pp. 37, 38, 39, 72, 77, 59; Tufnell Evidence, pp. 9, 15, 45, 54, etc.

{148b} Cowell Evidence, pp. 35, 37, and elsewhere.

{148c} Power Evidence, p. 8.

{149a} Cowell Evidence, p. 57

{149b} Cowell Evidence, p. 82.

{149c} Factories' Inquiry Commission's Report, p. 4, Hawkins.

{151} Stuart Evidence, p. 35.

{152a} Tufnell Evidence, p. 91.

{152b} Dr. Loudon Evidence, pp. 12, 13.

{153a} Dr. Loudon Evidence, p. 16.

{153b} Drinkwater Evidence, pp. 72, 80, 146, 148, 150 (two brothers); 69 (two brothers); 155, and many others.

Power Evidence, pp. 63, 66, 67 (two cases); 68 (three cases); 69 (two cases); in Leeds, pp. 29, 31, 40, 43, 53, _et seq_.

Loudon Evidence, pp. 4, 7 (four cases); 8 (several cases), etc.

Sir D. Barry Evidence, pp. 6, 8, 13, 21, 22, 44, 55 (three cases), etc.

Tufnell Evidence, pp. 5, 6, 16, etc.

{154a} Factories' Inquiry Commission's Report, 1836, Sir D. Barry Evidence, p. 21 (two cases).

{154b} Factories' Inquiry Commission's Report, 1836, Loudon Evidence, pp. 13, 16, etc.

{155} In the spinning-room of a mill at Leeds, too, chairs had been introduced. Drinkwater Evidence, p. 80.

{156} General report by Sir D. Barry.

{157a} Power Report, p. 74.

{157b} The surgeons in England are scientifically educated as well as the physicians, and have, in general, medical as well as surgical practice. They are in general, for various reasons, preferred to the physicians.

{159a} This statement is not taken from the report.

{159b} Tufnell, p. 59.

{160a} Stuart Evidence, p. 101.

{160b} Tufnell Evidence, pp. 3, 9, 15.

{161} Hawkins Report, p. 4; Evidence, p. 14, etc. etc. Hawkins Evidence, pp. 11, 13.

{162a} Cowell Evidence, p. 77.

{162b} Sir D. Barry Evidence, p. 44.

{162c} Cowell, p. 35.

{163a} Dr. Hawkins Evidence, p. 11; Dr. Loudon, p. 14, etc.; Sir D. Barry, p. 5, etc.

{163b} Compare Stuart, pp. 13, 70, 101; Mackintosh, p. 24, etc.; Power Report on Nottingham, on Leeds; Cowell, p. 33, etc.; Barry, p. 12; (five cases in one factory), pp. 17, 44, 52, 60, etc.; Loudon, p. 13.

{167a} Stuart, p. 39.

{167b} "Philosophy of Manufactures," by Dr. Andrew Ure, p. 277, _et seq_.

{168a} _Ibid_., 277.

{168b} _Ibid_., p. 298.

{168c} _Ibid_., p. 301.

{169} Dr. Andrew Ure. "Philosophy of Manufactures," pp. 405, 406, _et seq_.

{174} Afterwards Earl of Shaftesbury, died 1885.

{176} It is notorious that the House of Commons made itself ridiculous a second time in the same session in the same way on the Sugar Question, when it first voted against the ministry and then for it, after an application of the ministerial whip.

{178} Let us hear another competent judge: "If we consider the example of the Irish in connection with the ceaseless toil of the cotton operative class, we shall wonder less at their terrible demoralisation. Continuous exhausting toil, day after day, year after year, is not calculated to develop the intellectual and moral capabilities of the human being. The wearisome routine of endless drudgery, in which the same mechanical process is ever repeated, is like the torture of Sisyphus; the burden of toil, like the rock, is ever falling back upon the worn-out drudge. The mind attains neither knowledge nor the power of thought from the eternal employment of the same muscles. The intellect dozes off in dull indolence, but the coarser part of our nature reaches a luxuriant development. To condemn a human being to such work is to cultivate the animal quality in him. He grows indifferent, he scorns the impulses and customs which distinguish his kind. He neglects the conveniences and finer pleasures of life, lives in filthy poverty with scanty nourishment, and squanders the rest of his earnings in debauchery."--Dr. J. Kay.

{179a} _Manchester Guardian_, October 30th.

{179b} "Stubborn Facts," p. 9 _et seq_.

{181a} Drinkwater Evidence; p. 80.

{181b} "Stubborn Facts," pp. 13-17.

{184} _Sun_, a London daily; end of November, 1844.

{186} I have neither time nor space to deal in detail with the replies of the manufacturers to the charges made against them for twelve years past. These men will not learn because their supposed interest blinds them. As, moreover, many of their objections have been met in the foregoing, the following is all that it is necessary for me to add:

You come to Manchester, you wish to make yourself acquainted with the state of affairs in England. You naturally have good introductions to respectable people. You drop a remark or two as to the condition of the workers. You are made acquainted with a couple of the first Liberal manufacturers, Robert Hyde Greg, perhaps, Edmund Ashworth, Thomas Ashton, or others. They are told of your wishes. The manufacturer understands you, knows what he has to do. He accompanies you to his factory in the country; Mr. Greg to Quarrybank in Cheshire, Mr. Ashworth to Turton near Bolton, Mr. Ashton to Hyde. He leads you through a superb, admirably arranged building, perhaps supplied with ventilators, he calls your attention to the lofty, airy rooms, the fine machinery, here and there a healthy-looking operative. He gives you an excellent lunch, and proposes to you to visit the operatives' homes; he conducts you to the cottages, which look new, clean and neat, and goes with you into this one and that one, naturally only to overlookers, mechanics, etc., so that you may see "families who live wholly from the factory." Among other families you might find that only wife and children work, and the husband darns stockings. The presence of the employer keeps you from asking indiscreet questions; you find every one well-paid, comfortable, comparatively healthy by reason of the country air; you begin to be converted from your exaggerated ideas of misery and starvation. But, that the cottage system makes slaves of the operatives, that there may be a truck shop in the neighbourhood, that the people hate the manufacturer, this they do not point out to you, because he is present. He has built a school, church, reading-room, etc. That he uses the school to train children to subordination, that he tolerates in the reading-room such prints only as represent the interests of the bourgeoisie, that he dismisses his employees if they read Chartist or Socialist papers or books, this is all concealed from you. You see an easy, patriarchal relation, you see the life of the overlookers, you see what the bourgeoisie _promises_ the workers if they become its slaves, mentally and morally. This "country manufacture" has always been what the employers like to show, because in it the disadvantages of the factory system, especially from the point of view of health, are, in part, done away with by the free air and surroundings, and because the patriarchal servitude of the workers can here be longest maintained. Dr. Ure sings a dithyramb upon the theme. But woe to the operatives to whom it occurs to think for themselves and become Chartists! For them the paternal affection of the manufacturer comes to a sudden end. Further, if you should wish to be accompanied through the working-people's quarters of Manchester, if you should desire to see the development of the factory system in a factory town, you may wait long before these rich bourgeoisie will help you! These gentlemen do not know in what condition their employees are nor what they want, and they dare not know things which would make them uneasy or even oblige them to act in opposition to their own interests. But, fortunately, that is of no consequence: what the working-men have to carry out, they carry out for themselves.

{189} Grainger Report. Appendix,