THE EDINBURGH REVIEW ON SOUTHERN SLAVERY.
The Edinburgh Review well knows that the white laborers of England
receive more blows than are inflicted on Southern slaves. In the Navy,
the Army, and the Merchant service of England, there is more of cruelty,
more physical discomfort, than on all the farms of the South. This
Review, for twenty years, has been a grand repository of the ignorance,
the crimes, and sufferings of the workers in mines and factories, of the
agricultural laborers, of the apprentices, and, in fine, of the whole
laboring class of England. We might appeal to its pages almost _passim_
to establish these facts. Half the time of Parliament is consumed in
vain efforts to alleviate the condition of the cruelly-treated, and
starving poor; and much of this Review is taken up in chronicling the
humane, but fruitless action of Parliament. No man in the South, we are
sure, ever bred slaves for sale. They are always sold reluctantly, and
generally from necessity, or as a punishment for misconduct. The
South-West has been settled in great part by farmers from the older
slave States, removing to them with their negroes. The breaking up of
families of whites and of blacks keeps equal pace. But we have no law
of impressment in the South to sever the family ties of either blacks or
whites. Nor have we any slavery half so cruel as that to which the
impressed English seaman is subjected. The soldiers torn from their
wives and children, to suffer and to perish in every clime and on every
sea, excite not the sympathies of the Reviewer; they are all reserved
for imaginary cases of distress, occasioned by the breaking up of
families of Southern negroes. The so-called slave trade of the South is
no evil, because the instances of the improper severing of family ties
are rare. Will some Yankee or Englishman, ere the charge is repeated
that slaves are bred to be sold like horses, when they are old enough
for market, point out a single instance in the present, or the past, of
a Southerner's pursuing such a business? Yankees and Englishmen kill
their wives annually, yet it has not occurred to Englishmen at all, and
not to the Yankee till very lately, to abolish the marriage relation.
When Englishmen correct the thousand real and pressing evils in their
society, it will be time enough to call on us to do away with the
imaginary abuses of slavery. These remarks have been elicited from us by
an article on Southern slavery, in the April number of the Edinburgh
Review, which is equally distinguished for the falsity of its charges
and the ill nature of its comments. As a full justification for the
indefinite continuance of negro slavery, we give below an extract from
an able article from the same Review, in its January number, 1846,
entitled "Legislation for the working classes." In showing the many
evils arising from emancipating the whites, the Reviewer demonstrates,
though not intending it, the absurdity of emancipating negroes. If
Irishmen, who are as intellectual a race of men as any in all Europe,
have lost infinitely in physical comfort, and gained nothing in morals
or in mind by liberty, what will it avail negroes? Let Hayti and Jamaica
answer. But Frenchmen, Scotchmen and Englishmen, we mean the masses, the
proletariat, have lost as much by emancipation as Irishmen. History and
statistics, the jails, the gallows, and the poor-house tell the same sad
tale everywhere. We would be willing, if necessary, to rest the complete
justification of negro slavery on this single extract:
[From the Edinburgh Review, 1846.]
The moral and domestic feelings of the slave are sacrificed, and
his intellect is stunted; but in respect of his physical condition
he may be a gainer. "It is necessary," says Aristotle, in his
celebrated justification of slavery, "that those who cannot exist
separately should live together. he who is capable of foreseeing
by his intellect, is naturally a master; he who is able to execute
with his body what another contrives, is naturally a slave:
wherefore the interest of the master and slave is one." There is a
certain degree of force in this argument, if it is limited to the
economical relations of the two parties. It is the interest of the
master to maintain his slave in good working order. In general,
therefore, he is comparatively well fed, clothed and lodged; his
physical wants are provided for; his food descends into his mouth
like the manna in the wilderness; he is clothed like the lilies of
the field; he has no thought or care for the morrow. Although
complaints were made of insufficient food and overwork, the
arguments against negro slavery in our West India colonies were
founded, mainly, on the necessity of constant punishment--on the
_driving system_, as it was called--and the cruelty of the
inflictions. The Report of the French Commission, framed by the
Due de Broglie, which recommended the gradual abolition of
slavery, likewise bears testimony to the excellent physical
condition of the slaves in the French colonies. It is on account
of the advantages which may belong to dependence upon a wealthy
lord, as compared with a needy independence, that the slave in
Menander exclaims, that "it is better to obtain a good master,
than to live meanly and wretchedly as a freeman." So the
Rhetorician Libanus, who lived in the fourth century, in a
declamation entitled a _Vituperation of Poverty_, after having
enumerated the privations and sufferings which fall to the lot of
the poor freeman, proceeds thus:--"None of these evils belong to
slavery. The slave sleeps at his ease, being fed by the cares of
his master, and supplied with all the other things needful for his
body. But the poor freeman is constantly awake, seeking the means
of subsistence, and subjected to the severe dominion of want which
compels him to hunger." The well-informed author of _Haji Baba_
describes the astonishment of the vizier of the Shah of Persia, on
hearing from the British ambassador that there is no slavery in
England, and that the king is using his influence to put it down
in other States. "Indeed!" said the vizier, "you surely cannot be
so cruel! What would become of the poor slaves if they were free?
Nothing can be happier than the lot of ours; but if they were
abandoned to their fate, they would starve and die. They are our
children, and form a part of our family."
A similar feeling is described by Mr. Kohl as existing among the
serfs in the Baltic provinces of Russia, with respect to their
recent emancipation. The serf is now no longer _abscriptus glebae_;
but it is not difficult for his lord to find the means of
detaining him on the estate if he wishes so to do. Mr. Kohl
continue thus:--"Though the right which the peasant has thus
obtained is so frequently useless to him, the counter right of his
master, of banishing him from his native place, is very often
turned against him. Formerly, a noble could not, by any means, get
rid of his serfs; and, whenever they were in want, he was forced
to support and maintain them. At present, the moment a peasant
becomes useless and burdensome, it is easy to dismiss him; on
account of which the serfs, in some parts of the provinces, would
not accept of the emancipation offered, and bitterly lamented the
freedom, as it was called, which was forced upon them. The serf
often mournfully complains that he has lost a father and kept a
master, and his lord now often refuses the little requests of his
peasants, saying, 'You know you are not my children now.'" A
similar state of feeling is likewise reported to exist among the
serfs of Russia Proper, who, in many cases, prefer the certainty
of slavery to the risks of emancipation. Mr. Featherstonhaugh, in
his _Travels_ in the Slave States of North America, relates that
Mr. Madison, the ex-President, informed him that he had once
assembled all his numerous slaves, and offered to manumit them
immediately; "but they instantly declined it, alleging that they
had been born on his estate, had always been provided for by him
with raiment and food, in sickness and in health, and, if they
were made free, they would have no home to go to, and no friend to
protect and care for them. They preferred, therefore, to live and
die as his slaves, who had always been a kind master to them."
Slavery excludes the principle of competition, which reduces the
wages of the free laborer, increases his hours of work, and
sometimes deprives him of all means of subsistence. The
maintenance of slaves as one household, or _familia_, likewise
conduces to thrift; their supply on a large scale is, or ought to
be, less expensive than when each laborer, as in a state of
freedom, has a separate cottage and a family of his own. With
slaves thus supported, there is no more waste than with horses or
cattle. There is none of the loss or damage which arises from the
drunkenness and improvidence of the free laborer expending his own
wages. Again, the slave-master can regulate the number of his
workmen, and can in this manner control the amount of population.
The means may doubtless be harsh and cruel, but they are effective
for their end. In general, indeed, slave classes show a
disposition to diminish rather than increase in number; and,
where the slave trade has not been prohibited, the number is kept
up rather by new importation than by births. Hence the evils of an
abundant population never manifested themselves while the mass of
the people was in a servile and semi-servile state. Moreover, it
can scarcely be doubted, that under certain circumstances industry
may be promoted, and the produce of the land increased, by the
existence of a slave class. Mr. M'Culloch, indeed, thinks that the
tropical countries can never be effectually cultivated by free
labor. "Were the slaves completely emancipated in the United
States, Cuba, and Brazil," says he, "it is all but certain that
the culture of sugar and cotton would be as completely abandoned
in them as in Hayti. And if the change were accompanied by a
considerable improvement in the condition of the black population,
the sacrifice might not, perhaps, be deemed too great. But where
is the ground for supposing that such would be the case? Indeed,
the fair presumption seems to be the other way. Little, at all
events, would be gained by turning a laborious, well-fed slave,
into an idle, improvident, and perhaps beggarly freeman." If we
look merely to the present, and confine our views to _economical_
results, Mr. M'Culloch's arguments certainly appear strong. And
although it is true that all hope of _future_ improvement, in
respect of his physical condition, is denied to the slave, yet it
must be admitted, that practically, and looking to the actual
generation, the absence of a power of rising in the world is no
severe privation to a peasant class. Neither in England among the
agricultural laborers, nor in the Continental States among the
small proprietors, are there many instances of a person quitting
the condition in which he is born. Nor is any slavery so
indellible (where the slaves have the same colored skin as their
masters) as to prevent frequent emancipations of individual slaves
from personal affection and other causes. The freedmen formed a
numerous class among the Romans; and it is known to what important
posts slaves have risen in the Turkish empire.
After these remarks, (the intention of which cannot be
misunderstood by any reader of this Journal,) we can better
estimate the effects of the change from slavery to personal
freedom, upon the emancipated slave. He is relieved from the
liabilities and burdens, but he at the same time forfeits the
advantages of slavery. While the slave is exonerated from his
legal obligations to his master, the master is exonerated from his
legal and moral obligations towards his slave, and his interest in
the conservation and protection of his slave is at an end. The
slave (to use the common phrase) becomes his own master. With the
acquisition of this power, he incurs the obligations of
self-support. He becomes independent; and, being so, he must
provide for his self-defence. Self-dominion is not an unmixed good
to the work. It imports onerous duties. It implies the necessity
of providing for a man's own wants, and those of his family. The
freedman is no longer forced, by the fear of corporal punishment,
to do a prescribed task of work. But he must work in order to earn
wages; and, what is more, he must find work for himself. He is no
longer incapable of acquiring property, or of reaping the fruits
of his own industry. But he is, in consideration of this power,
bound to provide for his own support. He is no longer incapable of
contracting a lawful marriage, or begetting free legitimate
children. But he is bound to maintain his wife and children by his
own exertions; and if he deserts them, or allows them to starve,
he is subject to legal punishment. He is no longer fed and
maintained merely according to his physical wants, without
reference to the value of his services; but, on the other hand, he
is delivered over to the unchecked operation of the principle of
competition; and he must content himself with the scanty pittance
which the rivalry of the labor market may assign him. He is no
longer treated as a mere animal or implement of production,
without feeling, mind, or moral character; he does not follow the
religion of his master, and he may voluntarily choose his own
creed. But, in becoming a free moral agent, he accepts the
responsibilities of that condition; his path is open to virtue,
but he is answerable for his acts and their consequences if he
deviates into other ways; he can, by foresight, determine his own
lot, but he must, in compensation, suffer the penalties of his own
improvidence.
When we contemplate the actual results of the change in question,
and compare the state of the working classes in countries where
they are free, with the state of a slave class, we find that the
only benefits of freedom, which have been fully enjoyed by the
laboring classes, are the _negative_ ones, (such as exemption from
bodily inflictions, and other ill treatment;) but that the
_positive_ benefits which they have hitherto derived from the
social independence, have been less prominent. The _positive_
benefits--which are economical and domestic--which consist in the
acquisition, enjoyment and transmission of wealth, and in the
development of the family affections--are more remote, and depend
on numerous preliminary conditions which hitherto have rarely
co-existed in any community. The entire harvest of the change will
not be reaped until civilization has made further progress--until
the providence, industry, intelligence, and peaceableness of the
working man are such as to render him altogether fit for
self-support, and to protect society against the shocks arising
from his delusions and violence.
But, in proportion as the positive advantages are distant, the
disadvantages of the change make themselves sensibly felt. As soon
as slavery has ceased to exist, the freedom of action for the
working classes is complete; they are masters of their own
conduct, and their conduct determines the condition of the great
mass of the community. If, then, their moral state is low, and
they are exempt from all legal compulsion, they are likely to make
a bad use of their liberty. Whenever the moral restraints are
weak, and the rights of the freeman are exercised without
limitation, and with an inward consciousness of power, political
or social dangers cannot be far off. A slave-class, emancipated at
once, affords the strongest example of the evils arising under
this influence. Their moral condition is, at the best, like that
of children; they have had no experience of self-management; and
the rights of freedom are, from their novelty, prized most highly.
Some countries, however, from which slavery has long been
banished, exhibit a nearly similar state of things. Thus, in
Ireland, the freedom of the working classes has produced the
smallest amount of positive advantages, combined with the largest
amount of disadvantages. The peasantry are in the lowest physical
degradation; they derive the smallest possible quantum of
happiness from their power of disposing of themselves and their
families, and of acquiring property; while their rights of
citizenship are too frequently perverted to purposes detrimental
to themselves, and dangerous to the public peace.
When the slavery of the working classes had been gradually
extinguished in Western Europe, it began to be seen that the
theory of personal freedom could not be carried consistently into
practical effect for the entire community. A man might, in the eye
of the law, be presumed able and bound to maintain himself and his
family: but want of industry, or intelligence, or providence, or
the rapine of the strong, might reduce him to destitution and
helplessness. Accordingly, unless many of the laboring class were
to be permitted to die of hunger and neglect, it was necessary to
find some means of alleviating their sufferings.
In further reply to the Edinburgh Reviewer, and to illustrate by
examples our theory of "Cannibals All; or, Slaves without Masters," read
the following from the North British Review for November, 1855, on the
Rural Population of England:
Have we not come upon a very paradise of rural seclusion? Is it
not a spot to be chosen by those who are intending to while away
existence among the never tiring sweets of a country life? But let
us step on a little way, and overtake the group of children that
is just now crossing the common. Alas! yet should we not refrain
from expressing the sad feelings which the first sight of these
infant shadows has awakened? feelings heightened by contrast; for
lately we were making our way through a fourth class street, where
the prime necessities of life are amply provided for. Besides, if
we look a second time at these shrunken forms--such is the
beneficence of the Creator--we see that childhood will have its
smiles, its laughs, its gambols, under conditions even the most
forlorn. Moreover, there is, notwithstanding that famished, watery
look--there is, taking the group altogether--there is an air of
pure rusticity--there is an innocence, comparatively, and a modest
propriety--there is a respectfulness in their style and deportment
which is greatly in their favor when thought of in comparison with
the bold, unreverential sauciness of the infant Hercules of
manufacturing towns.
But look at these unfortunates--the infant serfs of a neglected
rural district! Look at them physiologically--observe their lank,
colorless hair, screening the sunken eye, and trailing upon the
bony neck; look at the hollow cheeks, the candle-like arms, and
the unmuscular shanks which serve the young urchins for legs! But
are not these children breathing a pure atmosphere? Are they not
Nature's own? Yes; but there is one thing wanting to them--one
ominous word clears up the mystery. Starvation! Not, indeed, such
starvation as brings the sorrows of a sad lot to a speedy end; but
such as drags its pining sufferings out, through the overshadowed
years of childhood and youth; through those spasmodic years of
manhood during which the struggle to exist wears an aspect of
rugged rigor; and then through that residue of early decrepitude,
haggard, bent, idiot-like, which is indeed an unblessed end of an
unblessed existence. This rural population does pretty well if the
father be able-bodied and sober, and the mother managing, through
the summer season, of wheat-hoeing, hay-making, and wheat harvest;
that is to say, when the labor of the mother and her children
comes in to swell a little the weekly wages. During these weeks
something of needed clothing is obtained, rent is paid up, and a
pittance of animal food, weekly, is added to the bread, and the
tea, and the potato of the seven months' diet.
It would be doing a wrong to our worthy farmer friends, and to the
rural sporting gentry, to affirm that these miserables are
actually dying of want. No, they are not dying, so as inquests
must be held before they may be buried--would to God they
were--they are the living--they are living to show what
extremities men, women and children may endure, and yet not die;
or what they hold to be worse, not to betake themselves to "the
union!" But how do these same men, women and children pass five
months of the year? Gladly would one find them curled round like
hedgehogs, and hybernating in hollow trees; in rabbit burrows,
lost to consciousness. We should, indeed, count it a miracle if,
on a May morning, we were to see a group of human beings start up
alive from the sward, along with the paiglus and the cowslips. But
it is much less than a miracle to see the people of a depressed
rural district stepping alive out of the winter months!
The instances are extremely rare in which those who were born to
the soil, and destined to the plow, rise above their native level.
Such instances--two, three, or five--might be hunted up, if an
agricultural county were ransacked for the purpose; but the
agricultural laborer, even if he had the brain and the ambition
requisite, and if otherwise he could effect it, would seldom bring
with him that which the social mass, into which he might rise,
especially needs, namely, a fully developed and robust body.
Meantime, what is it that is taking place in hundreds of
instances, and every day, throughout the entire area of the
manufacturing region? Men, well put together, and with plenty of
bone, and nerve, and brain, using with an intense ardor those
opportunities of advancement which abound in these spheres of
enterprise and of prosperous achievement--such men are found to be
making themselves heard of among their betters, are seen
well-dressed before they reconcile themselves to the wearing of
gloves; by rapid advances they are winning for themselves a place
in society--a place which, indeed, they well deserve; and there
they are doing what they had not thought of--they are regenerating
the mass within which they have been received.
We extract the following from an article in the Edinburgh Review on
Juvenile and Female Labor, in its January No., 1844. It is of the
highest authority, being part of a report of commissioners appointed by
Parliament, and stands endorsed as well by the action of Parliament as
by the authority of the Reviewer:
Our limits will not allow us to go through all the employments reported
upon in these volumes; but, as specimens, we will give a short account
of the condition of the people engaged in Coal mines, Calico-printing,
Metal wares, Lace-making, and Millinery.
_Coal Mines._--The number of children and young persons employed in
these mines is enormous; and they appear to commence working, even
underground, at an earlier age than is recorded of any other occupation
except lace-making. The Commissioners report--
"That instances occur in which children are taken into these mines
to work as early as _four_ years of age, sometimes at five, not
unfrequently between six and seven, and often from seven to eight,
while from eight to nine is the ordinary age at which their
employment commences.... That a very large proportion of the
persons employed in these mines is under thirteen years of age;
and a still larger proportion between thirteen and eighteen. That
in several districts female children begin to work in the mines as
early as males.
"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.
"That although this employment scarcely deserves the name of
labor, 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.
"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.
"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
labor which all classes of witnesses concur in stating, requires
the unremitting exertion of all the physical power which the young
workers possess.
"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 labor, and work for the same number of hours; that the
girls and boys, and the young men and the 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.[32]
"That, in the east of Scotland, a much larger proportion of
children and young persons are employed in these mines than in
other districts, many of whom are girls; and that the chief part
of their labor consists in carrying the coals on their backs up
steep ladders.
"That when the work-people 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.
"That, in the great majority of these mines night-work is a part
of the ordinary system of labor, 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 work-people, and more especially on that of
the children and young persons.
"That in many cases the children and young persons have little
cause of complaint in regard to the treatment they receive, while
in many mines the conduct of the adult colliers to them is harsh
and cruel; the persons in authority who must be cognizant of this
ill usage never interfering to prevent it, and some of them
distinctly stating that they do not conceive they have a right to
do so. That with some exceptions little interest is taken by the
coal-owners in the children employed in their works after the
daily labor is over.... That in all the coalfields accidents of a
fearful nature are extremely frequent, and of the work-people who
perish by such accidents, the proportion of children and young
persons sometimes equals, and rarely falls much below that of
adults."--(First Report, p. 255-7.)
With respect to the general healthiness of the employment, there is
considerable discrepancy in the evidence adduced; many witnesses stating
that the colliers generally, especially the adults, are a remarkably
healthy race, showing a very small average of sickness,[33] and
recovering with unusual rapidity from the severest accidents;--a
peculiarity which the medical men reasonably enough attribute to the
uniform temperature of the mines, and still more to the abundance of
nutritious food which the high wages of the work-people enable them to
procure. The great majority of the witnesses, however, give a very
different impression. Upwards of two hundred, whose testimony is quoted,
or referred to in the Report of the Central Commissioners, testify to
the extreme fatigue of the children when they return home at night, and
to the injurious effect which this ultimately produces on their
constitution.
While the effect of such early and severe labor is, to cause a peculiar
and extraordinary degree of muscular development in collier children, it
also stunts their growth, and produces a proportionate diminution of
stature, as is shown by the following comparison.--(Physical and Moral
Condition of Children, p. 55.)
10 Farmers' boys, between 12
and 14 years, measured, each, 56.4 inches in height.
10 Colliers' boys, 53.4 " "
----
Difference, 3. " "
10 Farmers' girls, between 14
and 17 years, measured, each, 60.5 inches in height.
10 Colliers' girls, 55.6 " "
----
Difference, 4.9 " "
51 Farmers' children, 10 years
old, measured, each, 51. " "
60 Colliers' children, 48. " "
----
Difference, 3. " "
49 Farmers' children, 15-1/2 years
old, measured, each, 59. " "
50 Colliers' children, 53. " "
----
Difference, 6. " "[34]
Labor in coal mines is also stated, by a great number of most
respectable witnesses, to produce a crippled gait, and a curvature of
the spinal column, as well as a variety of disorders--among which may be
enumerated, affections of the heart, rupture, asthma, rheumatism, and
loss of appetite;--and this not merely in a few cases, but as an
habitual, and almost inevitable result of their occupation.
"Of the effect of employment in the coal mines of the East of
Scotland in producing an early and irreparable deterioration of
the physical condition, the Sub-commissioner thus reports:--'In a
state of society, such as has been described, the condition of the
children may be easily imagined, and its baneful influence on the
health cannot well be exaggerated; and I am informed by very
competent authorities, that six months' labor in the mines is
sufficient to effect a very visible change in the physical
condition of the children: and indeed it is scarcely possible to
conceive of circumstances more calculated to sow the seeds of
future disease, and, to borrow the language of the instructions,
to prevent the organs from being developed, to enfeeble and
disorder their functions, and to subject the whole system to
injury, which cannot be repaired at any subsequent stage of
life.'---(Frank's Report, s. 68: App. Pt. I, p. 396.) In the West
of Scotland, Dr. Thomson, Ayr, says:--'A collier at fifty
generally has the appearance of a man ten years older than he
is.'"--(Evidence, No. 34; App. Pt. I, p. 371, l. 58.)
If we turn to the testimony as to the moral, intellectual, and spiritual
state of the great mass of the collier population, the picture is even
darker and more appalling than that which has been drawn of their
physical condition. The means of instruction to which they have access
are scanty in the extreme;--their readiness to avail themselves of such
means, if possible still scantier; and the real results of the
instruction they do obtain, scantiest of all--as the following extracts
will show:--
"As an example of the mental culture of the collier children in
the neighborhood of Halifax, the Sub-commissioner states, that an
examination of 219 children and young persons at the bottom of one
of the coal-pits, he found only 31 that could read an easy book,
not more than 15 that could write their names, these latter having
received instruction at some day-school before they commenced
colliery labor, and that the whole of the remaining number were
incapable of connecting two syllables together."--(Scriven,
Report, Mines: App. Pt. II, 73, s. 91.)
"Of the state of education in the coalfields of Lancashire, the
Sub-commissioner gives the following account:--'It was my
intention to have laid before the Central Board evidence of the
effects of education, as shown by the comparative value of
educated and uneducated colliers and children employed in coal
mines, as workmen, and to have traced its effects, as shown by the
superior moral habits and generally more exalted condition of
those who had received the benefits of education over those who
had not, which I had observed and proved to exist in other
branches of industry. I found, however that the case was hopeless;
there were so few, either of colliers or their children, who had
even received the first rudiments of education, that it was
impossible to institute a comparison.'--(Kennedy, Report, Mines:
App. Pt. II, p. 183, s. 268.)
"In the coalfields of North Lancashire examined by Mr. Austin, it
is stated that the education of the working-people has been almost
wholly neglected; that they have received scarcely any instruction
at all, either religious or secular; that they cannot therefore be
supposed to have any correct conception of their moral duties, and
that in fact their intellects are as little enlightened as their
places of work--'darkness reigns throughout.'--(Report, Mines:
App. Pt. II, p. 805, s. 26.)
"In the East of Scotland a marked inferiority in the collier
children to those of the town and manufacturing population.
Upwards of 100 heads of collier families, most of whom leave their
children to themselves--to ignorance and irreligion."--(_Ibid._
p. 426, l. 42.) 'Many of the children are not educated at
all.'"--(_Ibid._ p. 428, l. 30.)
It appears that, in the principal mining districts, few of the colliers
attend any place of worship; and of their entire ignorance of the most
elementary truths, either of secular or religious knowledge, the
following extracts will give some idea:--
"YORKSHIRE.--With respect even to the common truths of
Christianity and facts of Scripture,' says Mr. Symons, 'I am
confident that a majority are in a state of heathen ignorance. I
unhesitatingly affirm that the mining children, as a body, are
growing up in a state of absolute and appalling ignorance; and I
am sure that the evidence I herewith transmit, alike from all
classes--clergymen, magistrates, masters, men, and children--will
fully substantiate and justify the strength of the expressions
which I have alone felt to be adequate to characterize the mental
condition of this benighted community.'
"'Throughout the whole district of the coal-field,' says Mr.
Scriven, 'the youthful population is in a state of profaneness,
and almost of mental imbecility.'
"'The ignorance and the degraded state of the colliers and their
children,' says Mr. Kennedy, 'are proverbial throughout this
district. They are uneducated, ignorant, and brutal; deteriorated
as workmen and dangerous as subjects.'"
But nothing can show their mental state in so striking a manner, as the
evidence derived from the examination of the children themselves, by the
Sub-commissioner:--
"'A girl eighteen years old--I never learnt nought. I never go to
church or chapel. I have never heard that a good man came into the
world, who was God's Son, to save sinners. I never heard of Christ
at all. Nobody has ever told me about him, nor have my father and
mother ever taught me to pray. I know no prayer: I never pray. I
have been taught nothing about such things.'--(Evidence, Mines, p.
252, 11, 35, 39.) 'The Lord sent Adam and Eve on earth to save
sinners.'--(_Ibid._ p. 245, l. 66.) 'I don't know who made the
world; I never heard about God.'--(_Ibid._ p. 228, l. 17.) 'Jesus
Christ was a shepherd; he came a hundred years ago to receive sin.
I don't know who the Apostles were.'--(_Ibid._ p. 232, l. 11.)
'Jesus Christ was born in heaven, but I don't know what happened
to him; he came on earth to commit sin. Yes; to commit sin.
Scotland is a country, but I don't know where it is. I never heard
of France.'--(_Ibid._ p. 265, l. 17.) 'I don't know who Jesus
Christ was; I never saw him, but I've seen Foster, who prays about
him.'--(_Ibid._ p. 291, l. 63.) 'I have been three years at a
Sunday-school. I don't know who the Apostles were. Jesus Christ
died for his son to be saved.'--(_Ibid._ 245, l. 10.) Employer (to
the Commissioner,) 'You have expressed surprise at Thomas Mitchell
(the preceding witness) not having heard of God. I judge there are
few colliers hereabouts that have.'"--(Second Report, p. 156.)
The moral state of the collier population is represented by the
Sub-commissioners as deplorable in the extreme:--
"LANCASHIRE.--'All that I have seen myself,' says the
Sub-commissioner, 'tends to the same conclusion as the preceding
evidence; namely, that the moral condition of the colliers and
their children in this district, is decidedly amongst the lowest
of any portion of the working-classes.'--(_Ibid._ Report, s. 278,
_et seq._)
"DURHAM and NORTHUMBERLAND.--The religious and moral condition of
the children, and more particularly of the young persons employed
in the collieries of North Durham and Northumberland, is stated
by clergymen and others, witnesses, to be 'deplorable.' 'Their
morals,' they say, 'are bad, their education worse, their
intellect very much debased, and their carelessness, irreligion,
and immorality' exceeding any thing to be found in an agricultural
district."--(Leifchild, Report, Mines: Evidence, Nos. 795, 530,
500, 493, 668.)
_Calico-Printing._--This employs a vast number of children of both
sexes, who have to mix and grind the colors for the adult work-people,
and are commonly called _teerers_. They begin to work, according to the
Report, sometimes before five years of age, often between five and six,
and generally before nine. The usual hours of labor are twelve,
including meal-time; but as the children generally work the same time as
the adults, "it is by no means uncommon in all the districts for
_children of five or six years old to be kept at work fourteen and even
sixteen hours consecutively_."--(Second Report, p. 59.) In many
instances, however, it will be seen that even these hours are shamefully
exceeded, during a press of work.
"352. Thomas Sidbread, block-printer, after taking a child who had
already been at work all day to assist him as a teerer through the
night, says--'We began to work between eight and nine o'clock on
the Wednesday night; but the boy had been sweeping the shop from
Wednesday morning. You will scarcely believe it, but it is true--I
never left the shop till six o'clock on the Saturday morning; and
I had never stopped working all that time, excepting for an hour
or two, and that boy with me all the time. I was knocked up, and
the boy was almost insensible.'
"353. Henry Richardson, block-printer, states--'At four o'clock I
began to work, and worked all that day, all the next night, and
until ten the following day. I had only one teerer dining that
time, and I dare say he would be about twelve years old. I had to
shout to him towards the second night, as he got sleepy. I had one
of my own children, about ten years old, who was a teerer. He
worked with me at Messrs. Wilson & Crichton's, at Blakely. We
began to work together about two or three in the morning, and left
off at four or five in the afternoon.'
Night-work, too, with all its evil consequences, is very common in this
trade;--and of the general state of education among the block-printers
in Lancashire, the Commissioners thus speak, (p. 172.)
"The evidence collected by Mr. Kennedy in the Lancashire district,
tends to show that the children employed in this occupation are
excluded from the opportunities of education; that this
necessarily contributes to the growth of an ignorant and vicious
population; that the facility of obtaining early employment for
children in print-fields empties the day-schools; that parents
without hesitation sacrifice the future welfare of their children
through life for the immediate advantage or gratification obtained
by the additional pittance derived from the child's earnings, and
that they imagine, or pretend, that they do not neglect their
children's education if they send them to Sunday-schools."
_Metal Wares._--The chief seats of manufactures in metal are Birmingham,
Wolverhampton, and Sheffield; but many of the minor branches are carried
on in different parts of Scotland, and in Worcestershire and Lancashire.
In the various departments of this species of manufacture many thousands
of children of both sexes are employed. They begin to work generally
about their _eighth_ year, as in Birmingham and Sheffield, but often
earlier; while in _pin-making_, as carried on at Warrington, both boys
and girls commence when _five_ years old, and work _twelve hours_ a-day,
and sometimes, though rarely, even more. The hours of work in most of
the metal manufactures are very irregular, generally from ten to
thirteen a-day; but, especially in the neighborhood of Wolverhampton, it
is by no means unfrequent to extend them to fifteen or sixteen for weeks
together. The places in which the occupations are carried on are
occasionally large, clean, and well ventilated; but in the great
majority of cases, a very different description of them is given.
"In general the buildings are very old, and many of them are in a
dilapidated, ruinous, and even dangerous condition. Nothing is
more common than to find many of the windows broken; in some cases
I observed more broken than whole panes; great and just complaint
is made upon this point by those employed. The shops are often
dark and narrow; many of them, especially those used for stamping,
are from four to seven feet below the level of the ground; these
latter, which are cold and damp, are justly complained of by the
workers. From defective construction all these old shops are
liable to become 'sufficatingly hot in summer (and also at night
when the gas is lighted) and very cold in winter. Efficient
ventilation is a thing unknown in these places. The great majority
of the shops are never whitewashed, but there are many creditable
exceptions to this statement.'
"It has been already stated, that although the whole population of
the town of Wolverhampton and the neighborhood, of all ranks, are
engaged in the different manufactures of the place, yet that there
are few manufactories of large size, the work being commonly
carried on in small workshops. Those workshops are usually
situated at the backs of the houses, there being very few in the
front of a street; so that the places where the children and the
great body of the operatives are employed are completely out of
sight, in narrow courts, unpaved yards, and blind alleys. In the
smaller and dirtier streets of the town, in which the poorest of
the working classes reside, 'there are narrow passages, at
intervals of every eight or ten houses, and sometimes at every
third or fourth house. These narrow passages are also the general
gutter, which is by no means always confined to one side, but
often streaming all over the passage. Having made your way through
the passage, you find yourself in a space varying in size with the
number of houses, hutches, or hovels it contains. They are nearly
all proportionately crowded. Out of this space there are other
narrow passages, sometimes leading to other similar hovels. The
workshops and houses are mostly built on a little elevation
sloping towards the passage.'"--(Second Report, p. 33.)
The most painful portions, however, of the Report on the metal
manufactures, are those which relate to the treatment of the children
and apprentices at Willenhall, near Wolverhampton, and to the noxious
influences of those departments which are carried on at Sheffield.--(P.
83.)
"455. The district which requires special notice on account of the
general and almost incredible abuse of the children, is that of
Wolverhampton and the neighborhood. In the town of Wolverhampton
itself, among the large masters children are not punished with
severity, and in some of the trades, as among the japanners, they
are not beaten at all; but, on the other hand, in the nail and tip
manufactories, in some of the founderies, and among the very
numerous class of small masters generally, the punishments are
harsh and cruel; and in some cases they can only be designated as
ferocious.
"456. In Willenhall the children are shamefully and most cruelly
beaten with a horsewhip, strap, stick, hammer handle, file, or
whatever tool is nearest at hand, or are struck with the clenched
fist or kicked.
"457. In Sedgley they are sometimes struck with a red-hot iron,
and burnt and bruised simultaneously; sometimes they have 'a flash
of lightning' sent at them. 'When a bar of iron is drawn white-hot
from the forge it emits fiery particles, which the man commonly
flings in a shower upon the ground by a swing of his arm before
placing the bar upon the anvil. This shower is sometimes directed
at the boy. It may come over his hands and face, his naked arms,
or on his breast. If his shirt be open in front, which is usually
the case, the red-hot particles are lodged therein, and he has to
shake them out as fast as he can.' ... 'His master's name is ----,
of Little London. There is another apprentice besides him, who is
treated just as bad.' ----, aged fifteen, 'works at Knoblocks with
----. Is a fellow-apprentice with ----. Lives in the house of his
master. Is beaten by his master, who hits him sometimes with his
fists, and sometimes with the file haft, and sometimes with a
stick--it's no matter what when he's a bit cross; sometimes hits
him with the locks; has cut his head open four or five times; so
he has his fellow-apprentice's head.'
"466. The Rev. Isaac Clarkson, magistrate, vicar of Wednesbury.
'In his capacity of magistrate complaints often come before him,
made by boys against masters, from different places round about,
such as Willenhall and Darlaston, but he did not encourage them,
as they should more properly apply to the magistrates of
Wolverhampton. More complaints came before him from the mines than
from the manufactories; but sometimes there was very bad usage in
the latter. A boy from Darlaston has recently been beaten most
unmercifully with a red-hot piece of iron. The boy was
burnt--fairly burnt. Wished to cancel the indentures; but the
master had been to the board of guardians, or to the clerk of the
Stafford union, and promised to behave better in future. Has had
various similar cases brought before him.'"
The following statements of the Commissioners demand serious
consideration.--(Second Report, p. 105.)
"581. But the chief disease is that produced by the occupation of
the grinder, which is the most pernicious of any branch of
manufacture in England. The inhalation of the dust of the
grindstone and of the steel of the knife, or whatever he may be
grinding, is so pernicious, that the life of a dry grinder
scarcely averages thirty-five years, whilst that of a wet grinder
is seldom prolonged to more than forty-five years. The bent
posture and pressure on the stomach aggravate the evil.
Fork-grinding is the most pernicious, because it is done dry, and
a great deal more of the steel has to be ground off. Dr. Knight
states that he cannot better express how injurious grinding is to
the health than by stating, that 'they who are the greatest
drinkers among the grinders are sometimes the longest lived, owing
to their more frequent absence from their work.'
"582. Dust flues, in the state of perfection to which they have
now been brought, appear to be capable of greatly diminishing if
not of entirely obviating the evil. The Sheffield grinders cannot,
however, be induced to avail themselves of this security; they
know that they are doomed to an early death, yet they are
absolutely unwilling that the evil to which they are exposed
should in any degree be lessened: they regard every precaution to
prolong life with jealousy, as a means of increasing the supply of
labor and lowering wages; they are for 'a short life and a merry
one,' and hence, even when the masters are at the expense of
erecting the apparatus, these men refuse to use it, and even
frequently kick it down and break it under their feet.'"--(_Ibid._
Evidence.)
As to the moral state of this class of work-people, the Report speaks
thus.--(Second Report, p. 176-178.)
"933. The moral and religious state of the children and young
persons employed in the trades and manufactures of Birmingham, is
described by the Sub-commissioner as very unfavorable. The social
and domestic duties and affections are but little cultivated and
practiced; great numbers never attend any place of religious
worship; and of the state of juvenile crime some conception may be
formed from the statement, that of the total number of known or
suspected offenders in this town, during the last twelve months,
namely 1223, at least one-half were under fifteen years of age.
"934. As to illicit sexual intercourse, it seems to prevail almost
universally, and from a very early period of life: to this
conclusion witnesses of every rank give testimony.
"936. WOLVERHAMPTON.--Of the moral condition of the youthful
population in the Wolverhampton district, Mr. Horne says--'Putting
together all I elicited from various witnesses and conversations
with working people, abroad and at home, and all that fell under
my observation, I am obliged to come to the conclusion, that the
moral virtues of the great majority of the children are as few in
number and as feeble in practice as can well be conceived of those
who are born in a civilized country, surrounded by religious and
educational institutions, and by individuals anxious for the
improvement of the condition of the working classes.' He adds of
Willenhall--'A lower condition of morals, in the fullest sense of
the term, could not, I think, be found. I do not mean by this that
there are many more prominent vices among them, but that moral
feelings and sentiments do not exist among them. They have no
morals.'
"940. SHEFFIELD.--In all the Sheffield trades employing large
numbers of children, it is stated that there is a much closer
intermixture of the younger children with the elder youths, and
with the men, than is usual in the cotton, woollen, and flax
factories; and that the conversations to which the children are
compelled to listen, would debase their minds and blunt their
moral feelings even if they had been carefully and virtuously
educated, but that of course this result takes place more rapidly
and completely in the case of those who have had little or no
religious culture, and little but bad example before their eyes
from their cradle upwards.
"943. Habits of drinking are formed at a very early age, malt
liquor being generally introduced into the workshops, of which the
youngest children are encouraged to partake. 'Very many,' say the
police officers, 'frequent beer-shops, where they play at
dominoes, bagatelle, &c., for money or drink.' Early intemperance
is assigned by the medical men as one cause of the great mortality
of Sheffield. 'There are beer-houses,' says the Rev. Mr. Farish,
'attended by youths exclusively, for the men will not have them in
the same houses with themselves. In these beer-houses the youth
of both sexes are encouraged to meet, and scenes destructive of
every vestige of virtue or morality ensue.'
"945. But it is stated by all classes of witnesses, that 'the most
revolting feature of juvenile depravity in this town is early
contamination from the association of the sexes;' that 'juvenile
prostitution is exceedingly common.' 'The evidence,' says the
Sub-commissioner, 'might have been doubled which attests the early
commencement of sexual and promiscuous intercourse among boys and
girls.'
"953. SEDGLEY.--At Sedgley and the neighboring villages, the
number of girls employed in nail-making considerably exceeds that
of the boys. Of these girls Mr. Horne reports--'Their appearance,
manners, habits, and moral natures, (so far as the word _moral_
can be applied to them,) are in accordance with their
half-civilized condition. Constantly associating with ignorant and
depraved adults and young persons of the opposite sex, they
naturally fall into all their ways; and drink, smoke, swear, throw
off all restraint in word and act, and become as bad as a man. The
heat of the forge and the hardness of the work render few clothes
needful in winter; and in summer, the six or seven individuals who
are crowded into these little dens find the heat almost
suffocating. The men and boys are usually naked, except a pair of
trousers and an open shirt, though very often they have no shirt;
and the women and girls have only a thin, ragged petticoat, and an
open shirt without sleeves.'"
_Lace-Making._--In this occupation it is proved, by unquestionable
evidence, that it is _customary_ for children to begin to work at the
age of four, five, and six years; and instances were found in which a
child only _two_ years old was set to work by the side of its mother.
The work is of course very slight, but is trying to the eyes. The
Sub-commissioner, after detailing a case, says:--
"58. In this case, if the statement of the mother be correct, one
of her children, four years of age, works twelve hours a-day with
only an interval of a quarter of an hour for each meal, at
breakfast, dinner, and tea, and never going out to play: and two
more of her children, one six and the other eight years of age,
work in summer from 6 a. m. till dusk, and in winter from seven in
the morning till ten at night, fifteen hours.
"59. This family is singular only in the children being set to
work at the ages of two or three. It is common in this district
for children to commence work at four, five, and six; the evidence
renders this fact indubitable."--(Second Report, p. 10.)
The following extracts relate to the hours of work in the lace trade:--
"336. In the Nottingham, Leicester, and Derby districts, partly
from the causes just assigned, and partly from the dissipated
habits of the workmen, 'the hours of labor are so extremely
irregular that it is impossible to speak of them with exact
precision.' The hand-machines, especially the wide machines, are
usually double-handed; some very large ones have three men each;
the men work such machines by 'spells for shifts.' The most common
time is sixteen, eighteen, and occasionally twenty hours. 'However
long,' adds the Sub-commissioner, 'may be the hours during which
the machines are propelled, even for the whole twenty-four, either
by hand or power, there are scarcely ever two complete sets of
threaders.'
"341. Mr. William Hinde, aged twenty-nine, operative--'Among the
small masters, who have each one or two machines, it is the custom
for one set of children to work for two or three masters. The
masters often live a long way from each other; children have often
to go one or two miles. They are always wanted when the machine
comes off, whatever may be the hour of the day or night; they are
required just as much by night as by day, unless the men will
accommodate the children, which is very rarely done, especially
when trade is good. When there has been a good pattern, and the
machine in constant use, the children "have scarcely a bit of
peace," they have no regular time for meals, "no time for
nothing;" when one machine is off, another is on. Was himself
formerly a threader, and then a winder. Has often gone at six in
the morning, and has had no time to get any thing to eat, except a
mouthful now and then, till three or four in the afternoon. It is
the same now, when trade is good. The children have no regular
time for meals; they have their food sent to them, and they eat
when they can; some have nothing but a bit of bread. There is no
more regular time for sleeping than for eating; the children often
lie down "in the middle of the shop door, when it is warm." Thinks
hundreds have been sent to the grave by this work. It is enough to
kill the children, going half fed and clothed to work in the
night, at this time of the year. (The thermometer last night was
102.')--(Second Report, pp. 56-9).
Of course, work of this nature, for such hours, and at such an early
age, cannot but be followed by deplorable consequences to health in
after life, as well as to moral character. Accordingly the Commissioners
report.--(II, p. 109, 110, 181.)
"598. From the nature of their occupation, the long and irregular
hours of work, the frequency of night-work, and the insufficient
time allowed for meals--an evil of the greatest magnitude in the
case of growing children--the constitution is frequently seriously
impaired. 'The majority of the children whom I saw,' says the
Sub-commissioner, 'were pale and unhealthy-looking, and several
were of diminutive stature. The health and sight are often greatly
impaired, especially among the runners, who occasionally faint
while at work; indeed, there cannot be an occupation which more
seriously deteriorates the constitution. Short-sightedness,
amaurosis, distortion of the spine, excessive constitutional
debility, indigestion, and derangement of the uterine functions,
may be said to be almost universal: all the evidence points to
this conclusion.'
"'In the town of Nottingham,' says Mr. Grainger, 'all parties,
clergy, police, manufacturers, work-people, and parents, agree
that the present mode of employing children and young persons as
threaders and winders is a most fertile source of immorality.
There can, in fact, be but few states more immediately leading to
vice and profligacy. Children of both sexes are called out of
their parents' houses at all hours of the night, and, as it is
quite uncertain how long they may be required, whether for two
hours or the whole night, a ready and unanswerable excuse for
staying out is furnished.--(No. 138.)
"The moral condition of the lace-makers in Northamptonshire,
Oxfordshire, Beds and Bucks, is stated by Major Burns to be
extremely low, and prostitution is rife among them, from their
scanty earnings, their love of finery, and the almost total
absence of early moral culture."--(Report: App. Pt. I, p. A. 12,
s. 104.)
_Millinery and Dressmaking._--The portion of these instructive volumes
which describes the condition of the young women employed as milliners
and mantua-makers in our great cities, and especially in London, is,
however, that which has left the most painful impression upon our
minds--not only because the work of these unfortunate girls is of all
the most, severe and unremitting--nor because it is inflicted
exclusively upon the weaker sex, and at a period of life the most
susceptible of injury from overstrained exertion--nor yet because the
actual consequences which are shown to ensue in thousands of cases are
so peculiarly deplorable---but because the excess of labor (with all
its pernicious and fatal results) is endured in the service, and
inflicted in execution of the orders, of a class whose own exemption
from toil and privation should make them scrupulously careful not to
increase, causelessly or selfishly, the toils and privations of their
less favored fellow-creatures--a class, too, many of whom have been
conspicuously loud in denouncing the cruelties of far more venial
offenders, and in expressing a somewhat clamorous and overacted sympathy
with sufferings which cannot for a moment be compared in severity with
those which are every day inflicted on the helpless of their own sex, in
ministering to their own factitious and capricious wants. The remark may
appear harsh, but the evidence before us fully warrants it--that
probably in no occupation whatever--not in the printing fields of
Lancashire--not, in the lace trade of Nottingham--not in the collieries
of Scotland--scarcely in the workshops of Willenhall--most assuredly not
in the cotton factories of Manchester, (which a few years ago the
fashionable fair of London were so pathetic in lamenting)--can any
instances of cruelty be met with which do not "whiten in the shade" of
those which every spring and autumn season sees practiced--unreprobated,
and till now nearly unknown--in the _millinery establishments_ of the
metropolis.
The following extracts will show that we are guilty of no
exaggeration.--(II, p. 114-122.)
"622. It is estimated that there are in London, in the millinery
and dressmaking business, at least 1500 employers, and that the
number of young people engaged by each employer varies from two or
three to twenty-five or thirty-five--the average in each
establishment being about ten, making in the whole 15,000; but
this does not include journeywomen who work at their own houses,
of whom also there are great numbers.
"623. In some of what are considered the best regulated
establishments, during the fashionable season, occupying about
four months in the year, the regular hours of work are fifteen,
but on emergencies, which frequently recur, these hours extend to
eighteen. In many establishments the hours of work, during the
season, are unlimited, the young women never getting more than
six, often not more than four, sometimes only three, and
occasionally not more than two hours for rest and sleep out of the
twenty-four; and very frequently they work all night.
"625. Miss O'Neil, Welbeck street, an employer, says--'In the
spring season the hours of work are unlimited. The common hours
are from six a. m. till twelve at night--sometimes from four a. m.
till twelve. Has herself often worked from six a. m. till twelve
at night for two or three months together. It is not at all
uncommon, especially in the dressmaking, to work all night; just
in the 'drive of the season,' the work is occasionally continued
all night three times a-week. Has worked herself twice in the week
all night. In some houses which profess to study the health of
their young people, they begin at four a. m. and leave off at
eleven p. m., never earlier. Has heard there are houses in London
which work on Sundays.
"628. Miss ---- ----, manager--'has been ten years a "first hand,"
which signifies the party who takes the superintendence of the
business, as overlooker of the young persons, cutter-out of the
work, &c. The common hours of business are from eight a. m. till
eleven p. m. in the winter; in the summer from six or half-past
six a. m. till twelve at night. During the fashionable season,
that is from April to the end of July, it frequently happens that
the ordinary hours are greatly exceeded: if there is a
drawing-room, or grand fete, or mourning to be made, it often
happens that the work goes on for twenty hours out of the
twenty-four, occasionally all night. Every season in at least
half the houses of business, it happens that the young persons
occasionally work twenty hours out of the twenty-four, twice or
thrice a-week. On special occasions, such as drawing-rooms,
general mournings, and very frequently wedding orders, it is not
uncommon to work all night; has herself worked twenty hours out of
the twenty-four for three months together; at that time she was
suffering from illness, and the medical attendant remonstrated
against the treatment she received. He wished witness to remain in
bed at least one day longer, which the employer objected to,
required her to get up, and dismissed the surgeon. It frequently
happened that the work was carried on till seven o'clock on Sunday
morning. If any particular order was to be executed, as mournings
or weddings, and they left off on Saturday night at eleven, they
worked the whole of Sunday; thinks this happened fifteen times in
the two years. In consequence of working so late on Sunday
morning, or all that day occasionally, could very rarely go to
church; indeed it could not be thought of, because they generally
rested in bed.'
"639. The correctness of these representations is confirmed, among
others, by the following medical witnesses:--Sir James Clark,
Bart., Physician to the Queen--'I have found the mode of life of
these poor girls such as no constitution could long bear. Worked
from six in the morning till twelve at night, with the exception
of the short intervals allowed for their meals, in close rooms,
and passing the few hours allowed for rest in still more close and
crowded apartments--a mode of life more completely calculated to
destroy human health could scarcely be contrived, and this at a
period of life when exercise in the open air, and a due proportion
of rest, are essential to the development of the system. Judging
from what I have observed and heard, I scarcely believed that the
system adopted in our worst-regulated manufactories can be so
destructive of health as the life of the young dressmaker.'
"647. 'The protracted labor described above,' says the
Sub-commissioner, 'is, I believe, quite unparalleled in the
history of manufacturing processes. I have looked over a
considerable portion of the Report of the Factory Commission, and
there is nothing in the accounts of the worst-conducted factories
to be compared with the facts elicited in the present enquiry.
Gentlemen who, from their official situation, were well qualified
to judge, have also stated, in answer to my questions, that they
knew of no instance in which the hours of work were so long as
those above stated.'
"663. Of the general treatment and condition of these young
people, the Sub-commissioner reports:--'The evidence of all
parties establishes the fact that there is no class of persons in
this country, living by their labor, whose happiness, health, and
lives, are so unscrupulously sacrificed as those of the young
dressmakers. It may without exaggeration be stated, that, in
proportion to the numbers employed, there are no occupations, with
one or two questionable exceptions, such as needle-grinding, in
which so much disease is produced as in dressmaking, or which
present so fearful a catalogue of distressing and frequently fatal
maladies. It is a serious aggravation of all this evil, that the
unkindness of the employer very frequently causes these young
persons, when they become unwell, to conceal their illness from
the fear of being sent out of the house; and in this manner, the
disease often becomes increased in severity, or is even rendered
incurable. Some of the principals are so cruel as to object to the
young women obtaining medical assistance.'"--(No. 626.)