A. The labour of thousands is influenced by the _weather_; it is
suspended or prevented in many instances by stormy or rainy weather;
and in some few instances it is promoted by such a state of things.
Among those whose labour cannot be executed on _wet days_, or
executed but imperfectly, and who are consequently deprived of their
ordinary means of living on such days, are--paviours, pipe-layers,
bricklayers, painters of the exteriors of houses, slaters, fishermen,
watermen (plying with their boats for hire), the crews of the river
steamers, a large body of agricultural labourers (such as hedgers,
ditchers, mowers, reapers, ploughmen, thatchers, and gardeners),
costermongers and all classes of street-sellers (to a great degree),
street-performers, and showmen.
With regard to the degree in which agricultural (or indeed in this
instance woodland) labour may be influenced by the weather, I may
state that a few years back there had been a fall of oaks on an estate
belonging to Col. Cradock, near Greta-bridge, and the poor people,
old men and women, in the neighbourhood, were selected to strip off
the bark for the tanners, under the direction of a person appointed
by the proprietor: for this work they were paid by the basket-load.
The trees lay in an open and exposed situation, and the rain was so
incessant that the “barkers” could scarcely do any work for the whole
of the first week, but kept waiting under the nearest shelter in the
hopes that it would “clear up.” In the first week of this employment
nearly one-third of the poor persons, who had commenced their work with
eagerness, had to apply for some temporary parochial relief. A rather
curious instance this, of a parish suffering from the casualty of a
very humble labour, and actually from the attempt of the poor to earn
money, and do work prepared for them.
On the other hand, some few classes may be said to be benefited by
the rain which is impoverishing others: these are cabmen (who are
the busiest on _showery_ days), scavagers, umbrella-makers, clog and
patten-makers. I was told by the omnibus people that their vehicles
filled better in hot than in wet weather.
But the labour of thousands is influenced also by the _wind_; an
easterly wind prevailing for a few days will throw out of employment
20,000 dock labourers and others who are dependent on the shipping
for their employment; such as lumpers, corn-porters, timber-porters,
ship-builders, sail-makers, lightermen, watermen, and, indeed, almost
all those who are known as ’long-shoremen. The same state of things
prevails at Hull, Bristol, Liverpool, and all our large ports.
_Frost_, again, is equally inimical to some labourers’ interests;
the frozen-out market-gardeners are familiar to almost every one,
and indeed all those who are engaged upon the land may be said to be
deprived of work by severely cold weather.
In the weather alone, then, we find a means of starving thousands
of our people. Rain, wind, and frost are many a labourer’s natural
enemies, and to those who are fully aware of the influence of
“the elements” upon the living and comforts of hundreds of their
fellow-creatures, the changes of weather are frequently watched with a
terrible interest. I am convinced that, altogether, a wet day deprives
not less than 100,000, and probably nearer 200,000 people, including
builders, bricklayers, and agricultural labourers, of their ordinary
means of subsistence, and drives the same number to the public-houses
and beer-shops (on this part of the subject I have collected some
curious facts); thus not only decreasing their income, but positively
increasing their expenditure, and that, perhaps, in the worst of ways.
Nor can there be fewer dependent on the winds for their bread. If we
think of the vast number employed either directly or indirectly at the
various ports of this country, and then remember that at each of these
places the prevalence of a particular wind must prevent the ordinary
arrival of shipping, and so require the employment of fewer hands; we
shall have some idea of the enormous multitude of men in this country
who can be starved by “a nipping and an eager air.” If in London
alone there are 20,000 people deprived of food by the prevalence of
an easterly wind (and I had the calculation from one of the principal
officers of the St. Katherine Dock Company), surely it will not be too
much to say that throughout the country there are not less than 50,000
people whose living is thus precariously dependent.
Altogether I am inclined to believe, that we shall not be over the
truth if we assert there are between 100,000 and 200,000 individuals
and their families, or half a million of people, dependent on the
elements for their support in this country.
* * * * *
But this calculation refers to those classes only who are deprived of a
certain number of _days’_ work by an alteration of the weather, a cause
that is essentially _ephemeral_ in its character. The other series of
natural events influencing the demand for labour in this country are of
a more _continuous_ nature--the stimulus and the depression enduring
for weeks rather than days. I allude to the _second_ of the four
circumstances above-mentioned as inducing briskness or slackness of
employment in different occupations, viz.:--
B. The seasons.
These are the seasons of the year, and not the arbitrary seasons of
fashion, of which I shall speak next.
The following classes are among those exposed to the uncertainty of
employment, and consequently of income, from the above cause, since it
is only in particular seasons that particular works, such as buildings,
will be undertaken, or that open-air pleasure excursions will be
attempted: carpenters, builders, brickmakers, painters, plasterers,
paper-hangers, rubbish-carters, sweeps, and riggers and lumpers, the
latter depending mainly on the arrival of the timber ships to the
Thames (and this, owing to the ice in the Baltic Sea and in the river
St. Lawrence, &c., takes place only at certain seasons of the year),
coal-whippers and coal-porters (the coal trade being much brisker in
winter), market-porters, and those employed in summer in steam-boat,
railway, van, and barge excursions.
Then there are the casualties attending agricultural labour, for,
although the operations of nature are regular “even as the seed time
follows the harvest,” there is, almost invariably, a smaller employment
of labour after the completion of the haymaking, the sheep-shearing,
and the grain-reaping labours.
For the hay and corn harvests it is well known that there is a
periodical immigration of Irishmen and women, who clamour for the
_casual_ employment; others, again, leave the towns for the same
purpose; the same result takes place also in the fruit and pea-picking
season for the London green-markets; while in the winter such people
return some to their own country, and some to form a large proportion
of the casual class in the metropolis. A tall Irishman of about 34
or 35 (whom I had to see when treating of the religion of the street
Irish) leaves his accustomed crossing-sweeping at all or most of the
seasons I have mentioned, and returns to it for the winter at the end
of October; while his wife and children are then so many units to add
to the casualties of the street sale of apples, nuts, and onions, by
overstocking the open-air markets.
The autumnal season of hop-picking is the grand rendezvous for the
vagrancy of England and Ireland, the stream of London vagrancy flowing
freely into Kent at that period, and afterwards flowing back with
increased volume. Men, women, and children are attracted to the hop
harvest. The season is over in less than a month, and then the casual
labourers engaged in it (and they are nearly all casual labourers)
must divert their industry, or their endeavours for a living, into
other channels, swelling the amount of casualty in unskilled work or
street-trade.
Numerically to estimate the influence of the seasons on the
labour-market of this country is almost an overwhelming task. Let us
try, however: there are in round numbers one million agricultural
labourers in this country; saying that in the summer four labourers
are employed for every three in the winter, there would be 250,000
people and their families, or say 1,000,000 of individuals, deprived
of their ordinary subsistence in the winter time; this, of course,
does not include those who come from Ireland to assist at the
harvest-getting--how many these may be I have no means of ascertaining.
Added to these there are the natural vagabonds, whom I have before
estimated at another hundred thousand (see p. 408, vol. i.), and who
generally help at the harvest work or the fruit or hop-picking.
Then there are the carpenters, who are 163,000 in number; the builders,
9200; the brickmakers, 18,000; the painters, 48,200; the coal-whippers,
9200; the coal-miners, 110,000; making altogether 350,000 people, and
estimating that for every four hands employed in the brisk season,
there are only three required in the slack, we have 80,000 more
families, or 300,000 people, deprived of their living by the casualty
of labour; so that if we assert that there are, at the least, including
agricultural labourers, 1,250,000 people thus deprived of their usual
means of living, we shall not be very wide of the truth.
The next cause of the briskness or slackness of different employments
is--