remembered that it is care only at the outset, and that when in habitual
action the care required is really less, and the measures should be
characterized as means for avoiding care and trouble and diminishing
pecuniary loss.
The effect of sanitary care in the mines of Camborne is, so far as it
has been carried, marked in the following table, made up by Mr. Blee, a
medical practitioner in the neighbourhood, from the mortuary registers,
showing the average age of death of the population as compared with the
average of death in two other adjacent parishes of Illogan and Gwennap,
in both of which some beneficent alterations have been made, especially
in Illogan, but the works are stated to be new, and the circumstances
not so favourable as at Camborne:—
TABLE showing the average Ages of Persons dying above 30, and
registered, in three years in the Parish of Camborne, in two years in
Gwennap, and in one year in Illogan.
┌────────┬───────────────┬────────┬───────────────────────────────────┐
│ │ Males. │Females.│ Proportion per cent. of Miners’ │
│ │ │ │ Deaths by Mine Accidents. │
├────────┼───────┬───────┼────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
│ │Miners.│ Not │ │ │
│ │ │Miners.│ │ │
├────────┼───────┼───────┼────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
│Gwennap │ 45│ 60│ 64│ 16│
│Illogan │ 49│ 68│ 64│ 32│
│Camborne│ 54│ 60│ 63│ 5│
└────────┴───────┴───────┴────────┴───────────────────────────────────┘
The improvement in Camborne had not reached the residences, where the
miners kept pigs, in sties close behind the house, and a dungheap is
carefully fostered in a catch-pit adjacent. Dr. Barham, and the medical
men practising in the vicinity, attribute to the decomposition of
vegetable matter in the “soaked soil from the receptacles near the
dwellings a form of fever which has been hanging about Camborne, and has
often passed into the typhoid condition, and has been attended with
great prostration of strength.”[30]
I have obtained through Mr. Baker, of Leeds, who, as superintendent of
factories, has had good means of making an accurate comparison, the
following contrast of the results as shown in the state of mortality
amidst the population of two contiguous manufacturing districts employed
in similar proportions in the same description of work, and differing
only in the state of the atmosphere in which they lived. The districts
are the townships of Great Bradford and Horton, in Yorkshire, both in
the parish of Bradford, and contiguous, differing only in elevation and
atmospheric influence.
“The town of Bradford lies in a hollow formed by the high land of the
surrounding country, a part of which forms the township of Horton, and
both populations, in about an equal ratio, are employed in
worsted-mills, built about the same period of time, in the same kind
of architecture, with the same appliances for ventilation and
purification in every respect, differing only in comparison as to
numbers both of population and mills.
Population. Births. Deaths.
Bradford 34,560 1 in 25·8 1 in 37·3
Horton 17,618 1 in 28·0 1 in 47·0
“The difference between the two localities will at once be seen, and
can only be accounted for by the difference in atmospheric influences,
the former population being resident in ill-conditioned dwellings,
without sufficient ventilation; the latter residing in localities
which, though undrained in many instances, are yet open to pure air
and breezes which never reach the town without the most perfect
contamination.”
Dr. Barham mentions, as an example of the benevolent foresight which
economizes the strength and life of workmen, and perceives that there is
a profit as well as humanity in so doing, that at Tresavean, a great
copper mine in Gwennap, as a substitute for the ladders, before
universal, machinery has been erected for the raising and lowering of
the miners. This, he states, will be effected at the cost of 2000_l._ at
the least, but this sum, it is calculated, will soon be repaid by the
saving of the time and fatigue of the men.
Such evidence as that above given, and as will be submitted in other
instances, will leave little doubt that, by a combination of practicable
sanitary regulations comprehending the economy of the residence as well
as the place of work, the enormous suffering and waste of life which at
present depresses large masses of the working population may be rendered
comparatively inconsiderable. The amount of such depression on the
mining population, in making it consist of young persons and more
transient, is marked in a return prepared by Mr. R. Lanyon, the medical
practitioner acquainted with the locality, and which was read at the
Polytechnic Society in Cornwall.
On examining the ages of 2145 _men_ engaged in mining, it was found that
their average age was 30 years, and that the average period they had
been engaged in work was 15 years. On examining the condition of 1033
_men_, artisans, agricultural labourers, living and working in the
vicinity, it was found that their average age was 40 years, and that
their average period of work then completed was 25 years. Of the mining
population one-third only had reached 50 years of age, whilst of the
non-mining population one-third had attained 70 years of age.
I might submit these two examples, the one as a young and comparatively
weak population, the other as a comparatively mature and strong
population. The adult mining population of 30 years of age is not, I
apprehend, a population advancing to a further stage of maturity, but
one kept down by noxious agencies and premature mortality to that limit
of age, with no chance for them or for other generations to pass beyond
it whilst in this employment, except through the operation of sanitary
measures in removing the causes of depression.
The difference in the proportions of ages between a depressed and
unhealthy and a comparatively long-lived and strong population, is shown
in the following comparative view of the ages of the miners and of the
1033 non-mining labourers who were living and working:—
┌──────────────┬───────┬─────┬──────┬─────┬──────┬─────┬─────┬────────┐
│ │ 30 │ 40 │ 45 │ 50 │ 55 │ 60 │ 70 │80 Years│
│ │ Years │Years│Years │Years│Years │Years│Years│ and │
│ │of Age │ and │ and │ and │ and │ and │ and │upwards.│
│ │ and │under│under │under│under │under│under│ │
│ │ under │ 45. │ 50. │ 55. │ 60. │ 70. │ 80. │ │
│ │ 40. │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
├──────────────┼───────┼─────┼──────┼─────┼──────┼─────┼─────┼────────┤
│Miners 1651│ 772│ 377│ 239│ 125│ 56│ 29│ 1│ │
│Labourers 1033│ 695│ 422│ Not │ 284│ Not │ 144│ 48│ 7│
│ │ │ │given.│ │given.│ │ │ │
│ │ Per │ Per │ Per │ Per │ Per │ Per │ Per │ Per │
│ │ cent. │cent.│cent. │cent.│cent. │cent.│cent.│ cent. │
│Miners │ 47│ 23│ 14│ 7½│ 3½│ 1½│ │ │
│Labourers │ 67│ 41│ │ 27│ │ 14│ 4½│ ½│
└──────────────┴───────┴─────┴──────┴─────┴──────┴─────┴─────┴────────┘
So that whilst in every 100 men of the younger population of workpeople
there would not be 2 men of the experience beyond sixty years of age,
not 8 above fifty, or not a fourth passed forty; in the older population
there would be 14 beyond sixty, 27 beyond fifty, or a clear majority of
mature age, and, it may be presumed, of the comparatively staid habits
given by age. Dr. Scott Allison found that the average age of the living
male heads of families of the _collier_ population at Tranent whose
condition he has contrasted with that of the agricultural population,
and whose ages he could ascertain, was 34 years; whilst the average age
of the living male heads of the agricultural families was 51 years and
10 months. He considers that the like proportions would be found to be
more extensively prevalent, and would serve as fair indications of the
relative condition of the different populations.
Whenever the adult population of a physically depressed district, such
as Manchester, is brought out on any public occasion, the preponderance
of youth in the crowd and the small proportion of aged, or even of the
middle aged, amongst them is apt to strike those who have seen
assemblages of the working population of other districts more favourably
situated.
In the course of some inquiries under the Constabulary Force Commission
as to the proportions of a paid force that would apparently be requisite
for the protection of the peace in the manufacturing districts,
reference was made to the meetings held by torchlight in the
neighbourhood of Manchester. It was reported to us, on close observation
by peace-officers, that the bulk of the assemblages consisted of mere
boys, and that there were scarcely any men of mature age to be seen
amongst them. Those of mature age and experience, it was stated,
generally disapproved of the proceedings of the meetings as injurious to
the working classes themselves. These older men, we were assured by
their employers, were intelligent, and perceived that capital, and large
capital, was not the means of their depression, but of their steady and
abundant support. They were generally described as being above the
influence of the anarchical fallacies which appeared to sway those wild
and really dangerous assemblages. The inquiry which arose upon such
statements was how it happened that the men of mature age, feeling their
own best interests injured by the proceedings of the younger portion of
the working classes, how they, the elders, did not exercise a
restraining influence upon their less experienced fellow-workmen? On
inquiring of the owner of some extensive manufacturing property, on
which between 1000 and 2000 persons were maintained at wages yielding
40_s._ per week per family, whether he could rely on the aid of the men
of mature age for the protection of the capital which furnished them the
means of subsistence? he stated he could rely on them confidently. But
on ascertaining the numbers qualified for service as special constables,
the gloomy fact became apparent, that the proportion of men of strength
and of mature age for such service were but as a small group against a
large crowd, and that for any social influence they were equally weak.
The disappearance by premature deaths of the heads of families and the
older workmen at such ages as those recorded in the returns of dependent
widowhood and orphanage, must to some extent practically involve the
necessity of supplying the lapse of staid influence amidst a young
population by one description or other of precautionary force.
On expostulating on other occasions with middle-aged and experienced
workmen on the folly as well as the injustice of their trade unions, by
which the public peace was compromised by the violences of strike after
strike, without regard to the experiences of the suffering from the
continued failures of their exertions for objects the attainment of
which would have been most injurious to themselves, the workmen of the
class remonstrated with, invariably disclaimed connexion with the
proceedings, and showed that they abstained from attendance at the
meetings. The common expression was, they would not attend to be borne
down by “mere boys,” who were furious, and knew not what they were
about. The predominance of a young and violent majority was general.
In the metropolis the experience is similar. The mobs against which the
police have to guard come from the most depressed districts; and the
constant report of the superintendents is, that scarcely any old men are
to be seen amongst them. In general they appear to consist of persons
between 16 to 25 years of age. The mobs from such districts as Bethnal
Green are proportionately conspicuous for a deficiency of bodily
strength, without, however, being from that cause proportionately the
less dangerously mischievous. I was informed by peace officers that the
great havoc at Bristol was committed by mere boys.
The experience of the metropolitan police is also similar as to the
comparatively small proportion of force available for public service
from such depressed districts. It is corroborative also of the evidence
as to the physical deterioration of their population, as well as the
disproportion in respect to age. Two out of every three of the
candidates for admission to the police force itself are found defective
in the physical qualifications. It is rare that any one of the
candidates from Spitalfields, Whitechapel, or the districts where the
mean duration of life is low, is found to possess the requisite physical
qualifications for the force, which is chiefly recruited from the open
districts at the outskirts of the town, or from Norfolk and Suffolk, and
other agricultural counties.
In general the juvenile delinquents, who come from the inferior
districts of the towns, are conspicuously under size. In a recent
examination of juvenile delinquents at Parkhurst by Mr. Kay
Shuttleworth, the great majority were found to be deficient in physical
organization. An impression is often prevalent that the criminal
population consists of persons of the greatest physical strength.
Instances of criminals of great strength certainly do occur; but
speaking from observation of the adult prisoners from the towns and the
convicts in the hulks, they are in general below the average standard of
height.
Reverting to the observations as to the influence of adverse physical
circumstances on the morals of the population, I must here include in
the observation the younger portion of the population.
I might adduce the evidence of the teachers of the pauper children at
Norwood to show that a deteriorated physical condition does in fact
greatly increase the difficulty of moral and intellectual cultivation.
The intellects of the children of such inferior physical organization
are torpid; it is comparatively difficult to gain their attention or to
sustain it; it requires much labour to irradiate the countenance with
intelligence, and the irradiation is apt to be transient. As a class
they are comparatively irritable and bad tempered. The most experienced
and zealous teachers are gladdened by the sight of well-grown healthy
children, which presents to them better promise that their labours will
be less difficult and more lasting and successful. On one occasion a
comparison was made between the progress of two sets of children in
Glasgow, the one set taken from the wynds and placed under the care of
one of the most skilful and successful infant schoolmasters, the other a
set of children from a more healthy town district and of a better
physical condition, placed under the care of a pupil of the master who
had charge of the children from the wynds. After a trial for a
sufficient time, the more experienced master acknowledged the
comparative inferiority of his pupils, and his inability to keep them up
to the pace of the better bodily conditioned children.
The facts indicated will suffice to show the importance of the moral and
political considerations, viz., that the noxious physical agencies
depress the health and bodily condition of the population, and act as
obstacles to education and to moral culture; that in abridging the
duration of the adult life of the working classes they check the growth
of productive skill, and abridge the amount of social experience and
steady moral habits in the community: that they substitute for a
population that accumulates and preserves instruction and is steadily
progressive, a population that is young, inexperienced, ignorant,
credulous, irritable, passionate, and dangerous, having a perpetual
tendency to moral as well as physical deterioration.
The group of cases of the mining population from Alston and Garrigill,
it appears to me, will, when considered, afford an example of the
powerful nature of the physical elements of deterioration. In that
district the employers and persons of the higher classes have paid great
attention to maintain the means of moral improvement. They have only not
been made aware of the practicability or of the importance of sustaining
the physical condition of the workpeople, as exemplified in respect to
the same description of labourers at Camborne.
The duration of life amongst the mining population of the lead-miners at
Alston and Garrigill, and the adjacent district, is about 14 years less
than that given by the Swedish tables. Their physical condition was
depressed. “The young men appeared very healthy, but exceedingly few of
them,” says Dr. Mitchell, “were of a large size; and in general it may
be said they are of a small size.” He states that in moral condition
they are most exemplary:—
“The means of education in Alston parish are extensive: there is the
grammar-school, the master of which must be acquainted with Latin, but
he gives a general education; there is a charity-school, and a school
kept by a master on his own account; there is the school of the London
Lead Company at Nenthead, at which other children besides those of
their own workpeople are allowed to attend. There is a school at
Garrigill Gate, and one at Tynehead, and another at Leadgate; there
are also many dame schools and 10 Sunday schools. * * * I procured the
catalogues of several libraries, and the books are such as to convey
valuable information, and are far superior to most of the works which
are found in the catalogues of the institutions called literary and
scientific in and about the metropolis. * * * As to the intellectual
condition of the people, it is decidedly superior to that of any
district of England of which I have any knowledge. The witnesses
uniformly manifested a clearness of comprehension of the inquiries
made of them, and gave distinct replies, and added of themselves other
information hearing on the subject. Almost all of them could sign
their evidence, and most of them wrote exceedingly well. * * * The
evidence of the employers and the parochial authorities, as well as of
the men themselves, fully proves that there is a very general
sobriety, and that the contrary practice is exceedingly rare. * * *
Offences against property are very rare. It may be doubted whether we
may consider it a proof of the honesty of the people, that pigs of
lead may be seen lying by the road sides and in the fells as much
exposed as so many stones. There is no magistrate nearer to Alston
than a distance of 14 miles. Offences against the law are very rare.”
Instances have been frequently presented in the course of this inquiry
of the moral degradation of the children of workpeople, and of the
workpeople themselves, who have once been what those miners now are in
moral condition; but the cases taken from the pauper roll of the union
will serve to show that even a good education will not, of itself,
sustain such a body of workmen against the physical causes of
depression. The group of cases of widowhood, when considered, will serve
to show that the causes in question create the evils of which they are
supposed to be natural correctives.
With such an educated class of workmen, the obtainment of a place and
the wages of an adult must be the necessary preliminary to a marriage,
and unless such place or wages were obtained, the young workman would
either remain single or seek employment further a-field. But we will
suppose, for illustration, that a casualty occurs, such as the last
death on the list, J. M., where a young miner who has married and has a
wife and two children is prematurely swept away by an epidemic at 21
years of age, leaving a widow and two destitute orphan children
dependent on poor relations, or on the ratepayers. The first mentioned,
say S. H., then takes the vacant place of work, marries, and is killed
at 34 years of age by “an accident in the mine,” leaving a widow and
seven orphan children. This third vacancy in the place of work is
occupied by another miner H. Y., who marries and works until he is 45,
when he is killed by “consumption,” leaving a widow and five children.
Such casualties do not of course actually so fall on any one place of
work, but the vacancies so created in different places at the younger
periods of life must be and are supplied by new hands coming into the
employment, and marrying as a consequence of that employment, and the
succession will fairly represent 1 he mode in which the vacancies
created by the various causes of death displayed in the last table and
in the other tables of the causes of premature widowhood and orphanage
occur.
In works where the average period of working ability is extended to the
natural period of superannuation, which the evidence shows that a
combination of internal and external sanitary measures maybe expected to
give, namely an average of full 60 years, the account for one place
would be one superannuated workman and one widow, and a family of four
or five well-grown children, who, having received parental care during
that period, will probably all have obtained, before its termination,
the means of independent self-support. Whereas with a population of only
15 or 20 years of working ability, the same place of work may during the
same period have been filled by two generations and one-fourth of
workpeople, not one of which has brought all the children dependent on
it to maturity or a condition for self-support; and the account of
widowhood and orphanage will frequently for the same place of work stand
thus:—
Workmen prematurely Dead. Orphan Children. Years’ loss of Support.
J. M. 1 widow 2 39
S. H. 1 widow 7 26
H. Y. 1 widow 5 15
That is to say, three widows instead of one, and three sets of stunted
and unhealthy children dependent for such various periods, as those
above specified, and competing for employment at the same place, instead
of one set of healthy children arrived at the age of working ability for
self-support. The occupation of the places of work by a comparatively
young and procreative population, brought forward by the premature
removal of the middle aged and the aged workers, by the various causes
of premature deaths—the acceleration of births by premature deaths in
infancy as stated in a preceding note—will, I apprehend, sufficiently
clearly account for the generally increased proportions of births in
those districts where the rate of mortality is high; and it will
scarcely be necessary to give further illustrations of the dreadful
fallacy which tends to an acquiescence in the continuance of the causes
of pestilence and premature mortality as correctives of the pressure of
population.”
Though the deaths from accidents bear only a small proportion to the
deaths from disease, yet registries show that the scattered deaths from
various descriptions of violence amount to an average of about 12,000
yearly, in England and Wales alone, or more than aroused the national
attention in the late massacre of the troops of the empire during the
war in India. The position which this class of causes occupy, in the
production of destitute orphanage and widowhood, is shown in the
previous tables; but these do not comprehend the whole of the effects;
another class of which appear on examining the causes of pauperism:
namely, the injuries which occasion permanent disablement. In an
analysis of the causes of pauperism, by _Mr. Simkiss_, the auditor of
the Wolverhampton union, the cases of which the subjoined is a list were
apparent on the pauper-roll.
┌──────┬──────────────┬──────────────────┬────────────────────────────┐
│No. of│ Previous │ Nature of │ Respective Ages. │
│Cases.│Occupations of│ Accident. │ │
│ │ the Paupers. │ │ │
├──────┼──────────────┼──────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ 18│Miners │Hurt in mines │21, 23, 27, 30, 34, 34, 40, │
│ │ │ │ 40, 43, 44, 47, 49, 50, │
│ │ │ │ 50, 51, 53, 60, 60. │
│ 2│Ditto │Burnt in mines │40, 60. │
│ 1│Locksmith │Lamed by accident │30. │
│ 1│Wheelwright │Accident by waggon│69. │
│ 1│Single woman │Lost her arm by │23. │
│ │ │ accident. │ │
└──────┴──────────────┴──────────────────┴────────────────────────────┘