Chapter XLV: Section I: Industrial Organisation and Social Conditions (2)

To what is the want of trade owing?--The want of market for our goods.

To what is the want of market owing?--It is impossible for me to say, but I believe if we had an opening in America, we should have sufficient market for our goods; when we lost the Continental trade we had America to depend upon, now we have lost America we have no regular markets to depend upon.

11.--EVIDENCE OF THE CONDITION OF CHILDREN IN FACTORIES [_Report of Committee on Children in Manufactories_, 1816 (_III_), _pp_. 89 _and_ 132-133], 1816.

_Mr. Robert Owen, again called in, and examined._

Have you anything to add to your evidence of yesterday?--Some questions were put to me yesterday respecting the early age at which children are employed at Stockport; I knew I had made a memorandum at the time, but I could not then put my hand upon it; I have since found it; and I can now reply to the questions regarding those cases. Mr. George Oughton, secretary to the Sunday school in Stockport, informed me about a fortnight ago, in the presence of an individual, who will probably be here in the course of the morning, that he knows a little girl of the name of Hannah Downham, who was employed in a mill at Stockport at the age of four. Mr. Turner, treasurer to the Sunday school, knows a boy that was employed in a mill at Stockport when he was only three years old. Mr. Turner and Mr. Oughton, if they were sent for would, I have no doubt, state these cases before the Committee.

They were mentioned to you as a rare instance?--They were mentioned to me in the midst of a very numerous assembly of very respectable people; I inquired of them whether they knew, as they were surrounded with, I believe, two or three thousand children at the time, what was the age at which children were generally admitted into cotton mills; their answer was, Some at five, many at six, and a greater number at seven. I have also received very important information from a very respectable individual at Manchester, relative to the age at which children are employed, the hours they are kept to work, and a variety of other particulars from very authentic sources.

Name those sources?--Mr. Nathaniel Gould and Mr. George Gould.

Does the information you propose to give come from the manufactory to which it relates?--No manufacturer would give information against himself.

State what you know relative to the number of hours which children and others are employed in their attendance on mills and manufactories?--About a fortnight ago I was in Leeds; and in conversation with Mr. Gott, whose name is well-known to many gentlemen in this room, he stated to me that it was a common practice, when the woollen trade was going on well, to work sixteen hours in the day: I was also informed by Mr. Marshall, who is another principal, and considered a highly respectable manufacturer in Leeds, that it was a common practice to work at flax-mills there sixteen hours a day whenever the trade went well: I was also informed by Mr. Gott, that when the Bill, generally known by the name of Sir Robert Peel's Bill, was brought in last session of Parliament, the night-work at Leeds was put an end to. In Stockport, on Sunday fortnight, I saw a number of small children going to the church; they appeared to me to be going from a Sunday school; the master was with them; I stopped the master, and asked him what he knew of the circumstances of the manufacturers in Stockport; he said he knew a great deal, because he himself had formerly, for many years, been a spinner in those mills; his name is Robert Mayor, of the National School in Stockport; he stated that he was willing to make oath that mills in Stockport, within the last twelve months, had been worked from three and four o'clock in the morning until nine at night, that he himself has frequently worked those hours.

_Sir Robert Peel, Bart_.

The house in which I have a concern gave employment at one time to near one thousand children of this description. Having other pursuits, it was not often in my power to visit the factories, but whenever such visits were made, I was struck with the uniform appearance of bad health, and, in many cases, stinted growth of the children; the hours of labour were regulated by the interest of the overseer, whose remuneration depending on the quantity of the work done, he was often induced to make the poor children work excessive hours, and to stop their complaints by trifling bribes. Finding our own factories under such management, and learning that the like practices prevailed in other parts of the kingdom where similar machinery was in use, the children being much over-worked, and often little or no regard paid to cleanliness and ventilation in the buildings; having the assistance of Dr. Percival and other eminent medical gentlemen of Manchester, together with some distinguished characters both in and out of Parliament, I brought in a Bill in the Forty-second year of the King, for the regulation of factories containing such parish apprentices. The hours of work allowed by that Bill being fewer in number than those formerly practised, a visible improvement in the health and general appearance of the children soon became evident, and since the complete operation of the Act contagious disorders have rarely occurred.

Diffident of my own abilities to originate legislative measures, I should have contented myself with the one alluded to, had I not perceived, that, owing to the present use of steam power in factories, the Forty-second of the King is likely to become a dead letter. Large buildings are now erected, not only as formerly on the banks of streams, but in the midst of populous towns, and instead of parish apprentices being sought after, the children of the surrounding poor are preferred, whose masters being free from the operation of the former Act of Parliament are subjected to no limitation of time in the prosecution of their business, though children are frequently admitted there to work thirteen to fourteen hours per day, at the tender age of seven years, and even in some cases still younger. I need not ask the Committee to give an opinion of the consequence of such a baneful practice upon the health and well-being of these little creatures, particularly after having heard the sentiments of those eminent medical men who have been examined before us; but I most anxiously press upon the Committee, that unless some parliamentary interference takes place, the benefits of the Apprentice Bill will soon be entirely lost, the practice of employing parish apprentices will cease, their places will be wholly supplied by other children, between whom and their masters no permanent contract is likely to exist, and for whose good treatment there will not be the slightest security. Such indiscriminate and unlimited employment of the poor, consisting of a great proportion of the inhabitants of trading districts, will be attended with effects to the rising generation so serious and alarming, that I cannot contemplate them without dismay, and thus that great effort of British ingenuity, whereby the machinery of our manufactures has been brought to such perfection, instead of being a blessing to the nation, will be converted into the bitterest curse.

Gentlemen, if parish apprentices were formerly deemed worthy of the care of Parliament, I trust you will not withhold from the unprotected children of the present day an equal measure of mercy, as they have no masters who are obliged to support them in sickness or during unfavourable periods of trade.

12.--CHANGE IN THE COTTON INDUSTRY AND THE INTRODUCTION OF POWER-LOOM WEAVING [_William Radcliffe, The Origin of Power-Loom Weaving_, 1828, _pp._ 9-10, _etc._], _c._ 1785-1807.

The principal estates being gone from the family, my father resorted to the common but never-failing resource for subsistence at that period, viz., the loom for men, and the cards and hand-wheel for women and boys. He married a spinster (in my etymology of the word) and my mother taught me (while too young to weave) to earn my bread by carding and spinning cotton, winding linen or cotton weft for my father and elder brothers at the loom, until I became of sufficient age and strength for my father to put me into a loom. After the practical experience of a few years, any young man who was industrious and careful, might then, from his earnings as a weaver, lay by sufficient to set him up as a manufacturer, and though but few of the great body of weavers had the courage to embark in the attempt, I was one of the few. Availing myself of the improvements that came out while I was in my teens, by the time I was married (at the age of 24, in 1785), with my little savings, and a practical knowledge of every process from the cotton-bag to the piece of cloth, such as carding by hand or by the engine, spinning by the hand-wheel or jenny, winding, warping, sizing, looming the web, and weaving either by hand or fly-shuttle, I was ready to commence business for myself; and by the year 1789, I was well established, and employed many hands both in spinning and weaving, as a master manufacturer.

From 1789 to 1794, my chief business was the sale of muslin warps, sized and ready for the loom (being the first who sold cotton twist in that state, chiefly to Mr. Oldknow, the father of the muslin trade in our country). Some warps I sent to Glasgow and Paisley. I also manufactured a few muslins myself, and had a warehouse in Manchester for my general business.

* * * * *

At Midsummer, 1801, on taking[322] stock very accurately we[323] found we had upwards of £11,000 in our concern; I had also a landed estate in Mellor, in which was comprehended Podmore, where my father was born, with a rent roll, and good tenants of upwards of £350 per annum, charged with about £1,800 on mortgage. Mr. Ross's father was a merchant and magistrate in Montrose, and rich, and, my partner being an only son, could at any time lend us a few thousands, which he afterwards did to the amount of £6,000, including the £2,500 paid down on the formation of our partnership. With this real capital--an unlimited credit (£5,000 with our bankers amongst the rest), an excellent trade, and every prospect of its continuing so for a time, we came to the conclusion of purchasing the premises in the Hillgate, from Mr. Oldknow and Mr. Arkwright, then standing empty, which I never should have thought of for a moment, but from what had passed at the Castle Inn, for the sole purpose of filling them with looms, etc., on some new plan, and just so much spinning machinery as would supply the looms with weft. But beyond the common warping, sizing, weaving, etc., all was a chaos before me; yet so confident was I, that with such assistance as I could call in, we should succeed, that before I began I laid a trifling wager with my partner, that in two years from the time I commenced, I produced 500 pieces of 7-8ths and 9-8ths printing cambrics, all wove in the building in one week by some new process, which I won easily. And as the price for weaving alone when we began was 17s. per piece, and had never been below 16s. at any time, we thought we were justified in what we were doing, even if little improvement could be found. And if the goods made abroad from the annually increasing export of twist, and their prohibitions of our goods in consequence, had not gradually reduced this price of weaving from 17s. (with a profit of 10 to 20 per cent. to the master), to 4s. to the weaver (and no profit to the master!), we should have been handsomely rewarded by our trade. But to return from this digression, we concluded our contract about Michaelmas with Messrs. Oldknow and Arkwright, for the premises above mentioned; and I brought my family to Stockport in the latter end of December, 1801. I must here observe that we had at that time a large concern in Mellor, that with its various branches for putting out work, employing upwards of 1000 weavers, widely spread over the borders of three counties, in a vast variety of plain and fancy goods, all of which had been raised (like a gathering snowball) from a single spindle, or single loom by myself, and was then upon such a system as apparently might go on without my personal attention.

* * * * *

I shut myself up (as it were) in the mill on the 2nd January, 1802,[324] and with joiners, turners, filers, etc., etc., set to work; my first step was some looms in the common way in every respect, which I knew would produce the cloth so much wanted, and in some degree cover our weekly expenses.

Before the end of the month I began to divide the labour of the weavers, employing one room to dress the whole web, in a small frame for the purpose, ready for the looms in another room, so that the young weaver had nothing to learn but to weave; and we found this a great improvement, for besides the advantage of learning a young weaver in a few days, we found that by weaving the web as it were back again, the weft was driven up by the reed the way the brushes had laid the fibres down with the paste, so that we could make good cloth in the upper rooms with the dressed yarn quite dry, which could not be done in the old way of dressing, when the weft was drove up against the points of the fibres, which shewed us the reason why all weavers are obliged to work in damp cellars, and must weave up their dressing, about a yard long, before the yarn becomes dry, or it spoils.

This accomplished, I told my men I must have some motion attached to either traddles or the lathe, by machinery, that would take up the cloth as it was wove, so that the shed might always be of the same dimensions, and of course the blow of the lathe always moving the same distance, would make the cloth more even than could possibly be done in the old way, except by very skilful and careful weavers.

This motion to the loom being at length accomplished to our satisfaction, I set Johnson to plan for the warping and dressing, suggesting several ideas myself. His uncommon genius led him to propose many things to me, but I pointed out objections to them all, and set him to work again. His mind was so teased with difficulties, that he began to relieve it by drinking for several days together (to which he was too much addicted) but for this I never upbraided him, or deducted his wages for the time, knowing that we were approaching our object; at length we brought out the present plan, only that the undressed yarn was all on one side, and the brush to be applied was first by hand, then by a cylinder, and lastly the crank motion.

* * * * *

The partnership being thus dissolved,[325] I proceeded in my business with a double prospect of success; first, by the real business I was doing weekly, of 6 to 700 pieces per week, of printing cambrics, mostly woven in the factory, and the other part in weaving-families in the neighbourhood, on the small looms I had furnished to them, delivering them dressed warps on the beam, and pin-cops for the weft. This system had now become practicable, and was so greatly approved of by the weavers, that, had I weathered the calm, which soon after came upon my credit, I might, in a short time, have had all my looms in the dwellings of the operative weavers on the plan I had been driving at from the first, and from the superior advantage of machine dressing. The evenness produced by this mode of preparation, and the working in my loom, not only rendered these goods of ready sale, but gave me a weekly profit of 90l. to 100l., which, along with the second branch of income that formed my double prospect, viz., the premiums of licenses under patent rights beginning to pour in from the first houses in the trade, to the amount of 1,500l., in the eight months from the first of July, 1806, to March, 1807, when my vessel became quite becalmed.

* * * * *

In the year 1770,[326] the land in our township was occupied by between fifty to sixty farmers; rents, to the best of my recollection, did not exceed 10s. per statute acre, and out of these fifty or sixty farmers, there were only six or seven who raised their rents directly from the produce of their farms; all the rest got their rent partly in some branch of trade, such as spinning and weaving woollen, linen, or cotton. The cottagers were employed entirely in this manner, except for a few weeks in the harvest. Being one of those cottagers, and intimately acquainted with all the rest, as well as every farmer, I am the better able to relate particularly how the change from the old system of hand-labour to the new one of machinery operated in raising the price of land in the subdivision I am speaking of. Cottage rents at that time, with convenient loomshop and a small garden attached, were from one and a half to two guineas per annum. The father of a family would earn from eight shillings to half a guinea at his loom, and his sons, if he had one, two, or three alongside of him, six or eight shillings each per week; but the great sheet anchor of all cottages and small farms was the labour attached to the hand-wheel, and when it is considered that it required six to eight hands to prepare and spin yarn, of any of the three materials I have mentioned, sufficient for the consumption of one weaver,--this shews clearly the inexhaustible source there was for labour for every person from the age of seven to eighty years (who retained their sight and could move their hands) to earn their bread, say one to three shillings per week, without going to the parish.

* * * * *

From the year 1770 to 1788[327] a complete change had gradually been effected in the spinning of yarns. That of wool had disappeared altogether, and that of linen was also nearly gone; cotton, cotton, cotton, was become the almost universal material for employment. The hand-wheels, with the exception of one establishment, were all thrown into lumber-rooms, the yarn was all spun on common jennies, the carding for all numbers, up to 40 hanks in the pound, was done on carding engines; but the finer numbers of 60 to 80 were still carded by hand, it being a general opinion at that time that machine-carding would never answer for fine numbers. In weaving no great alteration had taken place during these eighteen years, save the introduction of the fly-shuttle, a change in the woollen looms to fustians and calico, and the linen nearly gone, except the few fabrics in which there was a mixture of cotton. To the best of my recollection there was no increase of looms during this period,--but rather a decrease.

I shall confine myself to the families in my own neighbourhood.[328] These families, up to the time I have been speaking of, whether as cottagers or small farmers, had supported themselves by the different occupations I have mentioned in spinning and manufacturing, as their progenitors from the earliest institutions of society had done before them. But the mule-twist now coming into vogue, for the warp, as well as weft, added to the water-twist and common jenny yarns, with an increasing demand for every fabric the loom could produce, put all hands in request of every age and description. The fabrics made from wool or linen vanished, while the old loomshops being insufficient, every lumber-room, even old barns, cart-houses, and outbuildings of any description were repaired, windows broke through the old blank walls, and all fitted up for loomshops. This source of making room being at length exhausted, new weavers' cottages with loomshops rose up in every direction; all immediately filled, and when in full work the weekly circulation of money, as the price of labour only, rose to five times the amount ever before experienced in this subdivision, every family bringing home weekly 40, 60, 80, 100, or even 120 shillings per week!!!

[Footnote 322: _Ibid._ pp. 15-16.]

[Footnote 323: Radcliffe and his partner Ross.]

[Footnote 324: _Ibid._ pp. 20-21.]

[Footnote 325: _Ibid._ p. 41.]

[Footnote 326: _Ibid._ pp. 59-60.]

[Footnote 327: _Ibid._ pp. 61-62.]

[Footnote 328: _Ibid._ p. 65.]

13. EVIDENCE BY FACTORY WORKERS OF THE CONDITION OF CHILDREN [_Report of Committee on Factory Children's Labour_, 1831-2 (_XV_), _p._ 192, _etc._], 1832.

_Evidence of Samuel Coulson._

5047. At what time in the morning, in the brisk time, did those girls go to the mills?

In the brisk time, for about six weeks, they have gone at 3 o'clock in the morning, and ended at 10, or nearly half past at night.

5049. What intervals were allowed for rest or refreshment during those nineteen hours of labour?

Breakfast a quarter of an hour, and dinner half an hour, and drinking a quarter of an hour.

5051. Was any of that time taken up in cleaning the machinery?

They generally had to do what they call dry down; sometimes this took the whole of the time at breakfast or drinking, and they were to get their dinner or breakfast as they could; if not, it was brought home.

5054. Had you not great difficulty in awakening your children to this excessive labour?

Yes, in the early time we had them to take up asleep and shake them, when we got them on the floor to dress them, before we could get them off to their work; but not so in the common hours.

5056. Supposing they had been a little too late, what would have been the consequence during the long hours?

They were quartered in the longest hours, the same as in the shortest time.

5057. What do you mean by quartering?

A quarter was taken off.

5058. If they had been how much too late?

Five minutes.

5059. What was the length of time they could be in bed during those long hours?

It was near 11 o'clock before we could get them into bed after getting a little victuals, and then at morning my mistress used to stop up all night, for fear that we could not get them ready for the time; sometimes we have gone to bed, and one of us generally awoke.

5060. What time did you get them up in the morning?

In general me or my mistress got up at 2 o'clock to dress them.

5061. So that they had not above four hours' sleep at this time?

No, they had not.

5062. For how long together was it?

About six weeks it held; it was only done when the throng was very much on; it was not often that.

5063. The common hours of labour were from 6 in the morning till half-past eight at night?

Yes.

5064. With the same intervals for food?

Yes, just the same.

5065. Were the children excessively fatigued by this labour?

Many times; we have cried often when we have given them the little victualling we had to give them; we had to shake them, and they have fallen to sleep with the victuals in their mouths many a time.

5066. Had any of them any accident in consequence of this labour?

Yes, my eldest daughter when she went first there; she had been about five weeks, and used to fettle the frames when they were running, and my eldest girl agreed with one of the others to fettle hers that time, that she would do her work; while she was learning more about the work, the overlooker came by and said, "Ann, what are you doing there?" she said, "I am doing it for my companion, in order that I may know more about it," he said, "Let go, drop it this minute," and the cog caught her forefinger nail, and screwed it off below the knuckle, and she was five weeks in Leeds Infirmary.

5067. Has she lost that finger?

It is cut off at the second joint.

5068. Were her wages paid during that time?

As soon as the accident happened the wages were totally stopped; indeed, I did not know which way to get her cured, and I do not know how it would have been cured but for the Infirmary.

5069. Were the wages stopped at the half-day?

She was stopped a quarter of a day; it was done about four o'clock.

5072. Did this excessive term of labour occasion much cruelty also?

Yes, with being so very much fatigued the strap was very frequently used.

5073. Have any of your children been strapped?

"Yes, every one; the eldest daughter; I was up in Lancashire a fortnight, and when I got home I saw her shoulders, and I said, "Ann, what is the matter?" she said, "The overlooker has strapped me; but," she said, "do not go to the overlooker, for if you do we shall lose our work"; I said I would not if she would tell me the truth as to what caused it. "Well," she said, "I will tell you, father." She says, "I was fettling the waste, and the girl I had learning had got so perfect she could keep the side up till I could fettle the waste; the overlooker came round," and said, "What are you doing?" I said, "I am fettling while the other girl keeps the upper end up"; he said, "Drop it this minute;" she said, "No, I must go on with this"; and because she did not do it, he took a strap, and beat her between the shoulders. My wife was out at the time, and when she came in she said her back was beat nearly to a jelly; and the rest of the girls encouraged her to go to Mrs. Varley, and she went to her, and she rubbed it with a part of a glass of rum, and gave her an old silk handkerchief to cover the place with till it got well."

5080. What was the wages in the short hours?

Three shillings a week each.

5081. When they wrought those very long hours what did they get?

Three shillings and sevenpence halfpenny.

5082. For all that additional labour they had only 7-1/2d. a week additional?

No more.

5083. Could you dispose of their wages, when they had received them, as you wished: did you understand that?

They never said anything to me; but the children have said, "If we do not bring some little from the shop I am afraid we shall lose our work." And sometimes they used to bring a bit of sugar or some little oddment, generally of their own head.

5084. That is, they were expected to lay out part of their wages under the truck system?

Yes.

5086. Had your children any opportunity of sitting during those long days of labour?

No; they were in general, whether there was work for them to do or not, to move backwards and forwards till something came to their hands.

5118. At the time they worked those long hours, would it have been in their power to work a shorter number of hours, taking the 3s.?

They must either go on at the long hours, or else be turned off.

_Evidence of Gillett Sharpe._[329]

5484. Have you had any children, yourself, working at these mills?

Yes.

5488. What sort of mill did she go to?

To a worsted manufactory; but it so happened with her that her stepmother dying, I took her away to manage the affairs of my house; she was very young to be sure, but she did what I had to do, except what I hired out, and she is very healthy and strong; but with regard to my boy, Edwin, he was a proverb for being active and straight before he went; there is a portion of ground of considerable extent, opposite to a building in our neighbourhood, and that boy would run seven times round that piece of ground, and come in without being much fatigued; but when he had gone to the mill some time, perhaps about three years, he began to be weak in his knees; and it went on to that degree, that he could scarcely walk; I had three steps up into my house, and I have seen that boy get hold of the sides of the door to assist his getting up into the house; many a one advised me to take him away; they said he would be ruined, and made quite a cripple; but I was a poor man, and could not afford to take him away, having a large family, six children, under my care; they are not all mine, but I have to act as a father to them; he still continued to go, but during the last six or seven months the factory has been short of work; they spin for commission; and it has so happened that they have worked less hours since last November than they formerly did, not being able to obtain so much work; and he is very much improved in that time with regard to the strength of his knees, and it has been observed by the neighbours that he grows a little, but he is bent in one knee.

5492. Have you had any other children on whom this labour has had a similar effect?

Yes, I have a daughter Barbara; she went to the mill between 7 and 8 years of age; she was straight then, but, however, a few years back, about three years since, she fell weak and lame in one of her knees, and she was off her work in consequence; but, however, in a few weeks she got a little recovered and went to the mill again, and she has continued to go there ever since, and she has got very much bow-legged, the legs are bent outwards.

_Evidence of Elizabeth Bentley._[330]

5127. What age are you?

Twenty-three.

5128. Where do you live?

At Leeds.

5129. What time did you begin to work at a factory?

When I was six years old.

5130. At whose factory did you work?

Mr. Busk's.

5131. What kind of mill is it?

Flax-mill.

5132. What was your business in that mill?

I was a little doffer.

5133. What were your hours of labour in that mill?

From 5 in the morning till 9 at night, when they were thronged.

5134. For how long a time together have you worked that excessive length of time?

For about half a year.

5214. You are considerably deformed in your person in consequence of this labour?

Yes, I am.

5215. At what time did it come on?

I was about 13 years old when it began coming, and it has got worse since; it is five years since my mother died, and my mother was never able to get me a pair of good stays to hold me up, and when my mother died I had to do for myself, and got me a pair.

5216. Were you perfectly straight and healthy before you worked at a mill?

Yes, I was as straight a little girl as ever went up and down town.

5217. Were you straight till you were 13?

Yes, I was.

5218. Have you been attended to by any medical gentleman at Leeds or the neighbourhood?

Yes, I have been under Mr. Hares.

5219. To what did he attribute it?

He said it was owing to hard labour, and working in the factories.

_Evidence of Mr. Charles Stewart._[331]

8094. Does that length of standing and of exertion tend to deform the limbs of the children so employed?

Yes, that is my opinion; I took an examination of those that were employed under me in that flat.

8095. In which of Mr. Boyack's mills are you employed?

In a tow-mill.

8097. The New Ward Mill, is it?

Yes; there are fifty hands in the room altogether, old and young; and I found that out of that fifty there were nine who had entered the mill before they were nine years of age, who are now above thirteen years of age.

8098. Having been at that employment then, four years?

Yes; and out of those nine, there were six who were splayfooted, and three who were not; the three who were not splayfooted were worse upon their legs than those who were; and one was most remarkably bow-legged; she informed me she was perfectly straight before she entered the mills.

8099. What was that girl's name?

Margaret Webster.

8100. You say she was remarkably bow-legged, was it very observable?

Very observable; I can hardly describe the woman's deformity, from the way in which she walks; but I have passed by, and thought that I was far from her, and have got on her shins as I was going past her.

8103. Have you made any other examination?

I have examined those who had not entered the mills till after twelve years of age, and found that out of fifty there were fourteen of this class; two of them were splayfooted, and one with her ankle a little wrong; the others were all perfectly straight.

[Footnote 329: _Ibid._ p. 209, Numbers 5484, 5488, 5492.]

[Footnote 330: _Ibid._ p. 195, Numbers 5127-5219.]

[Footnote 331: _Ibid._ p. 353, Numbers 8094-8103.]

14.--WOMEN'S AND CHILDREN'S LABOUR IN MINES [_Children's Employment Commission, Mines_, 1842 (_XV_), _p._ 24, _etc._], 1842.

Sex: Employment of Girls and Women in Coal Mines. Districts in which Girls and Women are Employed Underground.

119. In England, exclusive of Wales, it is only in some of the colliery districts of Yorkshire and Lancashire that female children of tender age and young and adult women are allowed to descend into the coal mines and regularly to perform the same kinds of underground work, and to work for the same numbers of hours, as boys and men; but in the East of Scotland their employment in the pits is general; and in South Wales it is not uncommon.

120. West Riding of Yorkshire: Southern Part.--In many of the collieries in this district, as far as relates to the underground employment, there is no distinction of sex, but the labour is distributed indifferently among both sexes, excepting that it is comparatively rare for the women to hew or get the coals, although there are numerous instances in which they regularly perform even this work. In great numbers of the coal-pits in this district the men work in a state of perfect nakedness, and are in this state assisted in their labour by females of all ages, from girls of six years old to women of twenty-one, these females being themselves quite naked down to the waist.

121. "Girls," says the Sub-Commissioner, "regularly perform all the various offices of trapping, hurrying, filling, riddling, tipping, and occasionally getting, just as they are performed by boys. One of the most disgusting sights I have ever seen was that of young females, dressed like boys in trousers, crawling on all fours, with belts round their waists and chains passing between their legs, at day pits at Hunshelf Bank, and in many small pits near Holmfrith and New Mills: it exists also in several other places. I visited the Hunshelf Colliery on the 18th of January: it is a day pit; that is there is no shaft or descent; the gate or entrance is at the side of a bank, and nearly horizontal. The gate was not more than a yard high, and in some places not above two feet. When I arrived at the board or workings of the pit I found at one of the side-boards down a narrow passage a girl of fourteen years of age, in boy's clothes, picking down the coal with the regular pick used by the men. She was half sitting, half lying, at her work, and said she found it tired her very much, and of course she didn't like it. The place where she was at work was not two feet high. Further on were men at work lying on their sides and getting. No less than six girls out of eighteen men and children are employed in this pit. Whilst I was in the pit the Rev. Mr. Bruce, of Wadsley, and the Rev. Mr. Nelson, of Rotherham, who accompanied me, and remained outside, saw another girl of ten years of age, also dressed in boy's clothes, who was employed in hurrying, and these gentlemen saw her at work. She was a nice-looking little child, but of course as black as a tinker, and with a little necklace round her throat."

_Conclusions._[332]

From the whole of the evidence which has been collected, and of which we have thus endeavoured to give a digest, we find--

In regard to Coal Mines--

1. That instances occur in which children are taken into these mines to work as early as four years of age, sometimes at five, and between five and six, not unfrequently between six and seven, and often from seven to eight, while from eight to nine is the ordinary age at which employment in these mines commences.

2. That a very large proportion of the persons employed in carrying on the work of these mines is under thirteen years of age; and a still larger proportion between thirteen and eighteen.

3. That in several districts female children begin to work in these mines at the same early ages as the males.

7. That the nature of the employment which is assigned to the youngest children, generally that of "trapping," requires that they should be in the pit as soon as the work of the day commences, and, according to the present system, that they should not leave the pit before the work of the day is at an end.

8. That although this employment scarcely deserves the name of labour, yet, as the children engaged in it are commonly excluded from light and are always without companions, it would, were it not for the passing and re-passing of the coal carriages, amount to solitary confinement of the worst order.

9. That in those districts in which the seams of coal are so thick that horses go direct to the workings, or in which the side passages from the workings to the horseways are not of any great length, the lights in the main ways render the situation of these children comparatively less cheerless, dull, and stupefying; but that in some districts they remain in solitude and darkness during the whole time they are in the pit, and, according to their own account, many of them never see the light of day for weeks together during the greater part of the winter season, excepting on those days in the week when work is not going on, and on the Sundays.

10. That at different ages, from six years old and upwards, the hard work of pushing and dragging the carriages of coal from the workings to the main ways, or to the foot of the shaft, begins; a labour which all classes of witnesses concur in stating requires the unremitting exertion of all the physical power which the young workers possess.

11. That, in the districts in which females are taken down into the coal mines, both sexes are employed together in precisely the same kind of labour, and work for the same number of hours; that the girls and boys, and the young men and young women, and even married women and women with child, commonly work almost naked, and the men, in many mines, quite naked; and that all classes of witnesses bear testimony to the demoralizing influence of the employment of females underground.

13. That when the workpeople are in full employment, the regular hours of work for children and young persons are rarely less than eleven; more often they are twelve; in some districts they are thirteen; and in one district they are generally fourteen and upwards.

14. That in the great majority of these mines night-work is a part of the ordinary system of labour, more or less regularly carried on according to the demand for coals, and one which the whole body of evidence shows to act most injuriously both on the physical and moral condition of the workpeople, and more especially on that of the children and young persons.

15. DESCRIPTION OF THE CONDITION OF MANCHESTER BY JOHN ROBERTSON, SURGEON [_Report of Committee on Health of Towns_, 1840 (_XI_), _pp._ 221-222, _App. II_], 1840.

Until twelve years ago there was no paving and sewering Act in any of the townships; even in the township of Manchester, containing in the year 1831 upwards of 142,000 inhabitants, this was the case; and the disgraceful condition of the streets and sewers on the invasion of the cholera you have no doubt learned from Dr. Kay's able and valuable pamphlet.[333] At the present time the paving of the streets proceeds rapidly in every direction, and great attention is given to the drains. Upon the whole, it is gratifying to bear testimony to the zeal of the authorities in carrying on the salutary improvements, especially when it is known that no street can be paved and sewered without the consent of the owners of property, unless a certain large proportion of the land on either side is built upon. Owing to this cause several important streets remain to this hour disgraceful nuisances.

Manchester has no Building Act, and hence, with the exception of certain central streets, over which the Police Act gives the Commissioners power, each proprietor builds as he pleases. New cottages, with or without cellars, huddled together row behind row, may be seen springing up in many parts, but especially in the township of Manchester, where the land is higher in price than the land for cottage sites in other townships is. With such proceedings as these the authorities cannot interfere. A cottage row may be badly drained, the streets may be full of pits, brimful of stagnant water, the receptacle of dead cats and dogs, yet no one may find fault. The number of cellar residences, you have probably learned from the papers published by the Manchester Statistical Society, is very great in all quarters of the town; and even in Hulme, a large portion of which consists of cottages recently erected, the same practice is continued. That it is an evil must be obvious on the slightest consideration, for how can a hole underground of from 12 to 15 feet square admit of ventilation so as to fit it for a human habitation?

We have no authorised inspector of dwellings and streets. If an epidemic disease were to invade, as happened in 1832, the authorities would probably order inspection, as they did on that occasion, but it would be merely by general permission, not of right.

So long as this and other great manufacturing towns were multiplying and extending their branches of manufacture and were prosperous, every fresh addition of operatives found employment, good wages, and plenty of food; and so long as the families of working people are well fed, it is certain they maintain their health in a surprising manner, even in cellars and other close dwellings. Now, however, the case is different. Food is dear, labour scarce, and wages in many branches very low; consequently, as might be expected, disease and death are making unusual havoc. In the years 1833, 1834, 1835, and 1836 (years of prosperity), the number of fever cases admitted into the Manchester House of Recovery amounted only to 1,685, or 421 per annum; while in the two pinching years, 1838 and 1839, the number admitted was 2,414, or 1,207 per annum. It is in such a depressed state of the manufacturing districts as at present exists that unpaved and badly sewered streets, narrow alleys, close, unventilated courts and cellars, exhibit their malign influence in augmenting the sufferings which that greatest of all physical evils, want of sufficient food, inflicts on young and old in large towns, but especially on the young.

Manchester has no public park or other grounds where the population can walk and breathe the fresh air. New streets are rapidly extending in every direction, and so great already is the expanse of the town, that those who live in the more populous quarters can seldom hope to see the green face of nature.... In this respect Manchester is disgracefully defective; more so, perhaps, than any other town in the empire. Every advantage of this nature has been sacrificed to the getting of money in the shape of ground-rents.

[Footnote 332: _Ibid._ p. 255, etc.]

[Footnote 333: J.P. Kay. _Moral and Physical Condition of the Working Classes in Manchester_, 1832.]