necessary, for the protection of the weavers in the silk trade, and the
ribbon trade in particular, and to enable them to support themselves and
families, and also for protecting the parishes in which these trades are
carried on, that some legislative interference should take place; and
your committee think that a remedy could be found in the extension of
the provisions of the Spitalfields and Dublin Acts, or at least a trial
of that extension for a period of a few years, by way of experiment.
Your committee cannot but remark, that whilst the Statute of 5th
Elizabeth, c. 4, was in force, that the distressing circumstances now
complained of, never occurred.
3 June, 1818.
16. THE COTTON FACTORY ACT OF 1819 [_Statutes, 59 Geo. III, 66_], 1819.
An Act to make further Provisions for the Regulation of Cotton Mills
and Factories, and for the better Preservation of the Health of young
Persons employed therein.
I. No child shall be employed in any description of work, for the
spinning of cotton wool into yarn, or in any previous preparation of
such wool, until he or she shall have attained the full age of nine
years.
II. And be it further enacted, that no person, being under the age of
sixteen years, shall be employed in any description of work whatsoever,
in spinning cotton wool into yarn, or in the previous preparation of
such wool, or in the cleaning or repairing of any mill, manufactory or
building, or any millwork or machinery therein, for more than twelve
hours in any one day, exclusive of the necessary time for meals; such
twelve hours to be between the hours of five o'clock in the morning and
nine o'clock in the evening.
III. And be it further enacted, that there shall be allowed to every
such person, in the course of every day, not less than half an hour to
breakfast, and not less than one full hour for dinner; such hour for
dinner to be between the hours of eleven o'clock in forenoon and two
o'clock in the afternoon.
IV. Provided nevertheless, and be it further enacted, that if at any
time, in any such mill, manufactory or buildings as are situated upon
streams of water, time shall be lost in consequence of the want of a due
supply, or of an excess of water, then and in every such case, and so
often as the same shall happen, it shall be lawful for the proprietors
of any such mill, manufactory or building, to extend the before
mentioned time of daily labour, after the rate of one additional hour
per day, until such lost time shall have been made good, but no longer.
V. And be it further enacted, that the ceilings and interior walls of
every such mill, manufactory, or building shall be washed with quick
lime and water twice in every year.
17. OASTLER'S FIRST LETTER ON YORKSHIRE SLAVERY [_The Leeds Mercury,
Saturday, October 16, 1830_], 1830.
Slavery in Yorkshire.
To the editors of the Leeds Mercury.
"It is the pride of Britain that a Slave cannot exist on her soil;
and if I read the genius of her constitution aright, I find that
Slavery is most abhorrent to it--that the air which Britons breathe
is free--the ground on which they tread is sacred to liberty."
Rev. R.W. Hamilton's Speech at the Meeting held in the Cloth-Hall
Yard, Sept. 22nd, 1830.[357]
Gentlemen,--No heart responded with truer accents to the sounds of
liberty which were heard in the Leeds Cloth-hall yard, on the 22nd
instant, than did mine, and from none could more sincere and earnest
prayers arise to the throne of Heaven, that hereafter Slavery might only
be known to Britain in the pages of her history. One shade alone
obscured my pleasure, arising not from any difference in principle, but
from the want of application of the general principle _to the whole
Empire_. The pious and able champions of _Negro_ liberty and _Colonial_
rights should, if I mistake not, have gone farther than they did; or
perhaps, to speak more correctly, before they had travelled so far as
the West Indies, should, at least for a few moments, have sojourned in
our immediate neighbourhood, and have directed the attention of the
meeting to scenes of misery, acts of oppression and victims of Slavery,
even on the threshold of our homes!
Let the truth speak out, appalling as the statements may appear. The
fact is true. Thousands of our fellow-creatures and fellow-subjects,
both male and female, the inhabitants of a _Yorkshire-town_, (Yorkshire
now represented in Parliament by the giant of anti-slavery
principles,[358]) are at this very moment existing in a state of slavery
_more horrid_ than are the victims of that hellish system--"_Colonial
Slavery._" These innocent creatures drawl out unpitied their short but
miserable existence, in a place famed for its profession of religious
zeal, whose inhabitants are ever foremost in _professing_ "Temperance"
and "Reformation," and are striving to outrun their neighbours in
Missionary exertions, and would fain send the Bible to the farthest
corner of the Globe--aye in the very place where the anti-slavery fever
rages most furiously, her _apparent charity_ is not more admired on
earth, than her _real_ cruelty is abhorred in heaven. The very streets
which receive the droppings of an "Anti-Slavery Society" are every
morning wet with the tears of innocent victims at the accursed shrine of
avarice, who are compelled (not by the cart-whip of the negro
slave-driver) but by the dread of the equally appalling thong or strap
of the overlooker, to hasten half-dressed, _but not half-fed_, to those
magazines of British Infantile Slavery--_the Worsted Mills in the town
and neighbourhood of Bradford_!!!
* * * * *
Thousands of little children, both male and female, _but principally
female_, from SEVEN to fourteen years, are daily _compelled_ to _labour_
from six o'clock in the morning to seven in the evening with
only--Britons, blush whilst you read it!--_with only thirty minutes
allowed for eating and recreation_.
* * * * *
The Blacks may be fairly compared to beasts of burden _kept for their
master's use_. The whites to those _which others keep and let for
hire\_! If I have succeeded in calling the attention of your readers to
the horrid and abominable system on which the worsted mills in and near
Bradford are conducted, I have done some good. Why should not children
working in them be protected by legislative enactments, as well as those
who work in cotton mills. Christians should feel and act for those whom
Christ so eminently loved and declared that "of such is the kingdom of
heaven."
Your insertion of the above in the Leeds Mercury, at your earliest
convenience, will oblige, Gentlemen,
Your most obedient servant,
Richard Oastler.
Fixby Hall, near Huddersfield, Sept. 29th, 1830.
[Footnote 357: September 22, 1830, an anti-Slavery meeting at the
Coloured Cloth Hall, Leeds, addressed by Lord Morpeth, Henry Brougham,
etc., in favour of the abolition of Slavery in the British colonies.]
[Footnote 358: Brougham.]
18. FACTORY ACT [_Statutes, 3 and 4 Wm. IV, 103_], 1833.
An Act to regulate the Labour of Children and young Persons in the
Mills and Factories of the United Kingdom.
... no person under eighteen years of age shall be allowed to work in
the night, that is to say between the hours of half-past eight o'clock
in the evening and half-past five o'clock in the morning, except as
hereinafter provided, in or about any cotton, woollen, worsted, hemp,
flax, tow, linen, or silk mill or factory....
II. And be it further enacted, that no person under the age of eighteen
years shall be employed in any such mill or factory in such description
of work as aforesaid more than twelve hours in any one day, nor more
than sixty-nine hours in any one week, except as hereinafter provided.
VI. And be it further enacted, that there shall be allowed in the course
of every day not less than one and a half hours for meals to every such
person restricted as hereinbefore provided to the performance of twelve
hours work daily.
VII. And be it enacted, that from and after the first day of January one
thousand eight hundred and thirty-four it shall not be lawful for any
person whatsoever to employ in any factory or mill as aforesaid, except
in mills for the manufacture of silk, any child who shall not have
completed his or her ninth year of age.
VIII. And be it further enacted, that from and after the expiration of
six months after the passing of this act, it shall not be lawful for any
person whatsoever to employ, keep, or allow to remain in any factory or
mill as aforesaid for a longer time than forty-eight hours in any one
week, nor for a longer time than nine hours in any one day, except as
herein provided, any child who shall not have completed his or her
eleventh year of age, or after the expiration of eighteen months from
the passing of this act any child who shall not have completed his or
her twelfth year of age, or after the expiration of thirty months from
the passing of this act any child who shall not have completed his or
her thirteenth year of age: Provided nevertheless, that in mills for the
manufacture of silk children under the age of thirteen years shall be
allowed to work ten hours in any one day.
[XI. No child under thirteen to be employed without a certificate that
the child is of normal strength and appearance.]
XVII.... it shall be lawful for His Majesty by Warrant under his Sign
Manual to appoint during His Majesty's pleasure four persons to be
Inspectors of factories and places where the labour of children and
young persons under eighteen years of age is employed, ... and such
Inspectors or any of them are hereby empowered to enter any factory or
mill, and any school attached or belonging thereto, at all times and
seasons by day or by night, when such mills or factories are at work....
XVIII. And be it further enacted, that the said Inspectors or any of
them shall have power and are hereby required to make all such rules,
regulations, and orders as may be necessary for the due execution of
this act, which rules, regulations, and orders shall be binding on all
persons subject to the provisions of this act; and such inspectors are
also hereby authorised and required to enforce the attendance at school
of children employed in factories according to the provisions of this
act....
XX. And be it further enacted, that from and after the expiration of six
months from the passing of this act, every child hereinbefore restricted
to the performance of forty-eight hours of labour in any one week shall,
so long as such child shall be within the said restricted age, attend
some school....
19. PROPOSALS FOR A WAGES BOARD FOR HAND-LOOM WEAVERS [_First Report
from Committee on Hand-loom Weavers' Petitions, 1834 (X), pp. 48-9_],
1834.
_Evidence of Hugh Mackenzie, June 28, 1834._
Have the goodness to explain to the Committee ... what are the boards of
trade for which you have sent up petitions to the House?
We have endeavoured upon many occasions to make this system of a board
of trade, which we pray for, as well understood as possible.... Now the
old Spitalfields Act every one that is not friendly to the present
proposed plans of boards of trade never fails to bring forward as an
objection, as a thing which has been practically tried and failed. There
is, however, nothing more different. The Spitalfields Act carried its
own ruin in its constitution; it was framed upon the principle of being
local, and confined to one place only. It was impossible that such an
act could stand long, for whilst competition went on in the country,
other manufacturers who were only at ten miles distance, or anywhere
where the act did not extend, were at liberty to set up the same kind of
work, and pay for it, without any transgression of the law, at a great
reduction. This being the case, the trade of Spitalfields then began to
spread to different parts of the country where the act did not extend;
the consequence was, that Spitalfields was soon undersold by cheaper
goods than it could make itself, and this led to the ruin of the
Spitalfields Act. But had the thing been made general, and extended over
the whole nation, the towns in the neighbourhood could not have
underwrought Spitalfields; they would have been on the same footing. Had
that act been made general, it would have been very good for the country
at large; not the fixed price that the Spitalfields Act contained, but
the minimum, the lowest price; it might rise and fall according to the
circumstances of the trade. Now our views of it are exactly and
principally founded upon that; a board of trade that shall extend over
the whole nation, and that it shall be under one superintending head. We
suppose that that superintending head could be nothing short of His
Majesty's Board of Trade in London, and that boards of trade in local
places in the country, who are only branches, locally established, not
to do as themselves pleased, but they are to be all subordinate to one
general board: that these boards shall be at all times guided by the
circumstances of the times; and that this data, or lowest minimum of
price, shall be taken from what the manufacturer or manufacturers of
respectability are able and willing to pay, provided that others were
obliged to pay the same prices with him, and that he could not be
undersold in the market: that the foreign trade shall by no means be
excluded from the consideration of the board; they are to be taken into
consideration whether it is expedient that the prices shall be brought
down a little, or up a little, just as the nature of trade might
require....
Have you any parties introduced in these boards of trade consisting of
masters and workmen, who would belong to neither party, who would act in
conjunction with them in arbitrating where there was a difference of
opinion whether the master paid too little or too much wages? Yes, we
had conceived that the self-interest of both parties might induce them
to differ, supposing an equal number of manufacturers and weavers
composed this board; and one party under such circumstances must of
course be in the wrong. Now the only arbiter that could be brought forth
under such circumstances must be a neutral, that was pretty well versed
in the nature of trade, and that arbitrator could be none other than His
Majesty's Board of Trade in London.
In Glasgow or anywhere in Scotland, have you a board of trade in
operation upon the principles you approve of, that you think would
answer all purposes? It is going on just now; it is working at Paisley
very finely, and at Glasgow.
* * * * *
Just explain those principles as far as you can? The working of the
Paisley board at the present time, and the working of the Glasgow board,
are exactly upon the same principles. The principle is this, that for
all the species of work made at Paisley, the manufacturers made out a
table of prices, and the weavers made out another; they were
reciprocally handed to each other for correction, and the result was,
they came to a mutual agreement; they entered into a 12 months'
agreement, that they would issue no more work out to their workmen
below the minimum price fixed, say it was 1s. for a certain fabric.[359]
[Footnote 359: _Cf._ Fielden's proposals, as reported by the Committee's
Second Report, 1835 (XIII), p. 14.
"The principal feature of Mr. Fielden's Bill is, that returns shall be
made every three or six months of the prices of weaving paid by the
smallest number of manufacturers, who collectively made one-half of the
goods of any description in the parish or township whence the returns
are sent, and the average of the highest prices paid by a majority of
such manufacturers, shall be the lowest price to be paid in such parish
or township during the succeeding three or six months. The effects of
the measure would be to withdraw from the worst-paying masters the power
which they now possess of regulating wages, and to confer it upon those
whose object it is to raise the condition and character of the
workpeople."]
20. COAL MINES REGULATION ACT [_Statutes 5 and 6, Victoria 99_], 1842.
An Act to prohibit the employment of women and girls in mines and
collieries, to regulate the employment of boys, and to make other
provisions relating to persons working therein.
... That from and after the passing of this act it shall not be lawful
for any owner of any mine or colliery whatsoever to employ any female
person within any mine or colliery, or permit any female person to work
or be therein, for the purpose of working therein, other than such as
were at or before the passing of this act employed within such mine or
colliery; and that from and after three calendar months from the passing
of this act it shall not be lawful for any owner of any mine or colliery
to employ any female person who at the passing of this act shall be
under the age of eighteen years within any mine or colliery....
II.... That from and after the first day of March, one thousand eight
hundred and forty-three, it shall not be lawful for any owner of any
mine or colliery to employ any male person under the age of ten years
... other than such as at the passing of this act shall have attained
the age of nine years, and were at or before the passing of this act
employed within such mine or colliery.
III.... That it shall be lawful for one of Her Majesty's principal
Secretaries of State, if and when he shall think fit, to appoint any
proper person or persons to visit and inspect any mine or colliery; and
it shall be lawful for every person so authorised to enter and examine
such mine or colliery ... at all times and seasons, by day or by night,
and to make inquiry touching any matter within the provisions of this
act; ...
[VII. No provision of the Act to affect employment on the surface.]
X. And whereas the practice of paying wages to workmen at public houses
is found to be highly injurious to the best interests of the working
classes; be it therefore enacted, that from and after the expiration of
three months from the passing of this act no proprietor or worker of any
mine or colliery, or other person, shall pay or cause to be paid any
wages ... at or within any tavern, public house, beer shop, or other
house of entertainment.
[XI. Wages so paid can be recovered as if no payment made.]
21. DEBATE ON FACTORY LEGISLATION [_Parliamentary Debates, 3rd Series,
Vol. 73, Cols. 1073-1151_], 1844.
Hours of Labour in Factories. House of Commons in Committee on the
Factories Bill. March 15, 1844.
_Lord Ashley_ rose to propose the amendment of which he had given
notice--
"That, the word 'night' shall be taken to mean from six o'clock in the
evening to six o'clock in the following morning; and the word 'mealtime'
shall be taken to mean an interval of cessation from work for the
purpose of rest and refreshment, at the rate of two hours a day, with a
view to effect a limitation of the hours of labour to ten in the day."
The form of my amendment (said the noble Lord) requires some preliminary
explanation. I move it in its present shape at the suggestion of my
right hon. friend and the Government, though I fear that in adopting
that course I subject myself to some disadvantage. The House will allow
me at the outset to explain my amendment. I propose that the word
"night," in this clause shall be taken to mean from six o'clock in the
evening till six on the following morning, that will leave twelve clear
hours during which work shall cease, and I propose further, that out of
the twelve hours of day, there shall be two hours during which there
shall be a cessation of labour; but that no person shall be affected by
this amendment, except those who, under clause ten, are guaranteed
against night-work, children, and young persons under thirteen years of
age. If I succeed in this amendment it will be necessary to make some
corresponding alteration in the eighth clause. The tenth clause I
propose to leave, as that will afford an opportunity of giving some
relaxation through the summer months. During the winter months, that is
from the 15th of October to the 15th of March, hours of labour are not
to exceed ten, two being for meals; but during the summer months, that
is from the 15th of March to the 15th of October, the hours to be twelve
and two for meals, making fourteen in the whole. Now, I would say with a
view to conciliate opposition, that though I shall be ready to propose,
as I intend to do, to limit the labour of all young persons and children
to ten hours in each day, I am yet willing to obtain that object in
parts and by degrees; that is, I propose to limit the hours of labour
for such persons to eleven hours a day from the 1st of October in the
present year, and ten hours a day from the 1st of October, 1845. Nearly
eleven years have now elapsed since I first made the proposition to the
House which I shall renew this night. Never, at any time, have I felt
greater apprehension or even anxiety; not through any fear of personal
defeat, for disappointment is "the badge of all our tribe;" but because
I know well the hostility that I have aroused, and the certain issues of
indiscretion on my part affecting the welfare of those who have so long
confided their hopes and interests to my charge.
And here let me anticipate the constant, but unjust, accusation that I
am animated by a peculiar hostility against factory masters, and I have
always selected them as exclusive objects of attack. I must assert that
the charge, though specious, is altogether untrue. I began, I admit,
this public movement by an effort to improve the condition of the
factories; but this I did, not because I ascribed to that department of
industry a monopoly of all that was pernicious and cruel, but because it
was then before the public eye, comprised the wealthiest and most
responsible proprietors, and presented the greatest facilities for
legislation.
As soon as I had the power, I showed my impartiality by moving the House
for the Children's Employment Commission. The curious in human suffering
may decide on the respective merits of the several reports; but factory
labour has no longer an unquestionable pre-eminence of ill fame; and we
are called upon to give relief, not because it is the worst system, but
because it is oppressive, and yet capable of alleviation. Sir, I confess
that ten years of experience have taught me that avarice and cruelty are
not the peculiar and inherent qualities of any one class or
occupation--they will ever be found where the means of profit are
combined with great and, virtually, irresponsible power--they will be
found wherever interest and selfishness have a purpose to serve, and a
favourable opportunity.
* * * * *
This will conclude the statement that I have to make to the House--and
now, sir, who will assert that these things should be permitted to
exist? Who will hesitate to apply the axe to the root of the tree, or,
at least, endeavour to lop off some of its deadliest branches? What
arguments from general principles will they adduce against my
proposition? What, drawn from peculiar circumstances? They cannot urge
that particular causes in England give rise to particular results; the
same cause prevails in various countries; and wherever it is found, it
produces the same effects. I have already stated its operation in
France, in Russia, in Switzerland, in Austria, and in Prussia; I may add
also in America; for I perceive by the papers of the 1st of February,
that a Bill has been proposed in the Legislature of Pennsylvania, to
place all persons under the age of sixteen within the protection of the
"ten hours" limit. I never thought that we should have learned justice
from the City of Philadelphia. In October last I visited an immense
establishment in Austria, which gives employment to several hundred
hands; I went over the whole, and conversed with the managers, who
detailed to me the same evils and the same fruits as those I have
narrated to the House--prolonged labour of sixteen, and seventeen hours,
intense fatigue, enfeebled frame, frequent consumptive disorders, and
early deaths--yet the locality had every advantage; well-built and airy
houses in a fine open country, and a rural district; nevertheless, so
injurious are the effects, that the manager added, stating at the same
time the testimony of many others who resided in districts where mills
are more abundant, that, in ten years from the time at which he spoke,
"there would hardly be a man in the whole of those neighbourhoods fit
to carry a musket."
Let me remind, too, the House of the mighty change which has taken place
among the opponents to this question. When I first brought it forward in
1833, I could scarcely number a dozen masters on my side, I now count
them by hundreds. We have had, from the West Riding of Yorkshire, a
petition signed by 300 mill-owners, praying for a limitation of labour
to ten hours in the day. Some of the best names in Lancashire openly
support me. I have letters from others who secretly wish me well, but
hesitate to proclaim their adherence; and even among the members of the
Anti-Corn-Law League, I may boast of many firm and efficient friends.
Sir, under all the aspects in which it can be viewed, this system of
things must be abrogated or restrained--it affects the internal
tranquillity of those vast provinces, and all relations between employer
and employed--it forms a perpetual grievance and ever comes uppermost
among their complaints in all times of difficulty and discontent. It
disturbs the order of nature, and the rights of the labouring men, by
ejecting the males from the workshop, and filling their places by
females, who are thus withdrawn from all their domestic duties and
exposed to insufferable toil at half the wages that would be assigned to
males, for the support of their families. It affects--nay, more, it
absolutely annihilates, all the arrangements and provisions of domestic
economy--thrift and management are altogether impossible; had they twice
the amount of their present wages, they would be but slightly
benefited--everything runs to waste; the house and children are
deserted; the wife can do nothing for her husband and family; she can
neither cook, wash, repair clothes, nor take charge of the infants; all
must be paid for out of her scanty earnings, and, after all, most
imperfectly done. Dirt, discomfort, ignorance, recklessness, are the
portion of such households; the wife has no time for learning in her
youth, and none for practice in her riper age; the females are most
unequal to the duties of the men in the factories; and all things go to
rack and ruin, because the men can discharge at home no one of the
especial duties that Providence has assigned to the females. Why need I
detain the House by a specification of these injurious results? They
will find them stated at painful length in the Second Report of the
Children's Employment Commission. Consider it, too, under its physical
aspect! Will the House turn a deaf ear to the complaints of suffering
that resound from all quarters? Will it be indifferent to the physical
consequences on the rising generation? You have the authority of the
Government Commissioner, Dr. Hawkins, a gentleman well skilled in
medical statistics--
"I have never been (he tells you) in any town in Great Britain or in
Europe, in which degeneracy of form and colour from the national
standard has been so obvious as in Manchester."
I have, moreover, the authority of one of the most ardent antagonists,
himself a mighty mill-owner, that, if the present system of labour be
persevered in, the "county of Lancaster will speedily become a province
of pigmies." The toil of the females has hitherto been considered the
characteristic of savage life; but we, in the height of our refinement,
impose on the wives and daughters of England a burthen from which, at
least during pregnancy, they would be exempted even in slave-holding
states, and among the Indians of America. But every consideration sinks
to nothing compared with that which springs from the contemplation of
the moral mischiefs this system engenders and sustains. You are
poisoning the very sources of order and happiness and virtue; you are
tearing up, root and branch, all the relations of families to each
other; you are annulling, as it were, the institution of domestic life,
decreed by Providence Himself, the wisest and kindest of earthly
ordinances, the mainstay of social peace and virtue, and therein of
national security.
_Right Hon. Sir J.R.G. Graham[360]:_
Sir, I never rose to discharge any duty in this House which I considered
at the same time more painful and more imperative. The pain, I must
admit, is considerably increased by the eloquence of the address which
my noble friend has just concluded, and especially of the passage which
marked the close of his speech. The noble lord has asked whether any man
will be found in this House to resist the proposal which he has thought
it his duty to make, and he has appealed to considerations of justice
and mercy, intimating, if not directly, at least by implication, that
resistance to his motion is inconsistent both with justice and mercy. I,
on the other hand, having due regard to those sacred principles which my
noble friend has invoked, am bound, on my own part, and on the part of
the Government, to offer to the proposal of the noble Lord my decided
opposition.
The noble lord said, the time is come when, in his opinion, it is
necessary to lay the axe to the root of the tree. Before we do this let
me entreat the Committee carefully to consider what is that tree which
we are to lay prostrate. If it be, as I suppose, the tree of the
commercial greatness of this country, I am satisfied that although some
of its fruits may be bitter, yet upon the whole it has produced that
greatness, that wealth, that prosperity, which make these small islands
most remarkable in the history of the civilised world, which, upon the
whole, diffuse happiness amidst this great community, and render this
nation one of the most civilised, if not the most civilised, and
powerful on the face of the globe.
* * * * *
My noble friend stated that he would not enter into the commercial part
of the question; but if I can show that the inevitable result of the
abridgement of time will be the diminution of wages to the employed,
then I say, with reference to the interests of the working classes
themselves, there never was a more doubtful question before Parliament
than this. The House will remember that the branches of manufacture
affected by this Bill are dependent upon machinery. Such is the rapidity
with which improvements are made, that no machinery can last more than
twelve or thirteen years without alterations; and master manufacturers
have been obliged to pull down machinery that was perfectly sound and
good to make the necessary alterations which competition forces upon
them. Well, then, it is necessary to replace machinery in the course of
twelve or thirteen years. You are now discussing whether you shall
abridge by one-sixth the period of time in which capital is to be
replaced, all interest upon it paid, and the original outlay restored.
Such an abridgement would render it impossible that capital with
interest should be restored. Then in the close race of competition which
our manufacturers are now running with foreign competitors, it must be
considered what effect this reduction of one-sixth of the hours of
labour would have upon them. The question in its bearing upon
competition must be carefully considered; and I have been informed that
in that respect such a step would be fatal to many of our
manufacturers--a feather would turn the scale: an extra pound weight
would lose the race. But that would not be the first effect. The first
effect would fall upon the operative. It is notorious that a great part
of the power of the mill-owners, a power which alone justifies such
legislation as this, arises from the redundant supply of labour. It
follows that when a master is pressed upon by your legislation, he will
compensate himself by forcing upon those in his employ a decrease of
wages. I believe the large majority of intelligent operatives comprehend
that proposition thoroughly. I have seen many, and conversed with them,
and they have admitted that the proposal involves a necessary decrease
of wages. In the report presented in 1841 by my excellent friend Mr.
Horner, who has discharged with the most honourable fidelity the duty of
inspector of factories, there is information upon this point, and with
the permission of the House I will read a passage--a single passage
only--but one which goes to the root of the whole subject. Mr. Horner
said:
"I have made an estimate of the loss a mill would sustain from
working eleven hours a day only instead of twelve, and I find it
would amount to £850 per annum. If it were reduced to ten hours, it
would be about £1,530 per annum. Unless, therefore, the mill-owner
can obtain a proportionately higher price for the commodity, he must
reduce wages or abandon his trade. I have made some calculations as
to the probable reduction of wages, and of the whole loss that would
be thrown on the operatives. I make the amount in the case of eleven
hours a day to be 13 per cent., and in the case of ten hours a day 25
per cent. at the present average rate of wages."
Now, I believe this to be perfectly accurate. The question then arises,
whether you shall create in the manufacturing districts one sudden
general fall of wages to the amount of 25 per cent? I believe that the
adoption of the motion of my noble friend would produce that effect.
Though I am most anxious to take every precaution with regard to infant
labour--though I am as firmly resolved as my noble friend to urge upon
the House to put a limit upon female labour, still, upon the whole, I
cannot recommend the House to adopt an enactment which limits the labour
of young persons to a shorter period than twelve hours.
_Mr. T. Milner Gibson_[361]:
As the right hon. baronet had alluded to the argument of not destroying
the profits upon manufactures, he (Mr. Gibson) would read some remarks
upon that point by Mr. Senior, a gentleman whose name would be of great
weight with hon. members. In 1836 or 1837, Mr. Senior, with some other
gentlemen, went into the manufacturing districts with the view of
ascertaining the effect of factory legislation, and making observations
upon the factory population. Mr. Senior wrote a letter dated the 28th
March, 1837, to Mr. Poulett Thomson to the following effect:--
"Under the present law, no mill in which persons under eighteen years
of age are employed (and, therefore, scarcely any mill at all), can
be worked more than eleven and a half hours a day, that is twelve
hours for five days in a week, and nine on Saturday. The following
analysis will show that in a mill so worked the whole net profit is
derived from the last hour. I will suppose a manufacturer of
100,000l.--80,000l. in his mill and machinery, and 20,000l. in raw
material and wages. The annual return of that mill, supposing the
capital to be turned once a year, and gross profits to be 15 per
cent., ought to be goods worth 115,000l. produced by the constant
conversion and reconversion of the 20,000l. circulating capital, from
money into goods and from goods into money, in periods of rather more
than two months. Of this 115,000l., each of the 23 half hours of work
produces 5-115ths, or 1-23rd. Of these 23-23rds (constituting the
whole 115,000l.) 20, that is to say, 100,000l. out of the 115,000l.,
simply replace the capital; 1-23rd (or 5,000l. out of the 115,000l.)
makes up for the deterioration of the mill and machinery. The
remaining 2-23rds, the last two of the twenty-three half hours of
every day, produce the net profit of 10 per cent. If, therefore
(prices remaining the same), the factory could be kept at work
thirteen hours instead of eleven and a half, by an addition of about
2,600l. to the circulating capital, the net profit would be more than
doubled. On the other hand, if the hours of working were reduced by
one hour per day (prices remaining the same), net profit would be
destroyed; if they were reduced by an hour and a half, even gross
profit would be destroyed. The circulating capital would be replaced,
but there would be no fund to compensate the progressive
deterioration of the fixed capital."
It was clear that this principle of Mr. Senior's was sound, and if hon.
gentlemen would consider it carefully they would find it indisputable.
The House would consider whether they would not, as the right hon.
baronet had expressed it, be affecting the safety and stability of the
great staple manufactures, under the impression that they were
legislating humanely for the working classes, while, in point of fact,
the result would be that by the depreciation of manufactures, the
greatest possible injury would be inflicted upon the operatives.
_Mr. J. Bright_[362] said, It is with unfeigned reluctance that I rise
to speak, having so recently addressed the House at some length, but
being intimately connected with the branch of industry which is affected
by the proposition now under consideration, and having lived all my life
among the population most interested in this Bill, and having listened
most attentively for more than two hours to the speech of the noble
lord, the member for Dorsetshire, I think I am entitled to be heard on
the question now under discussion. I have listened to that speech
without much surprise, because I have heard or read the same speech, or
one very like it, on former occasions, and I did not suppose that any
material change had taken place in the opinions of the noble lord. It
appears to me, however, that he has taken a one-sided view, a most
unjust and unfair view of the question; it may not be intentionally, but
still a view which cannot be borne out by facts; a view, moreover, which
factory inspectors and their reports will not corroborate, and one
which, if it influence the decision of this House, will be most
prejudicial to that very class which the noble lord intends to serve.
The right hon. baronet, the Secretary for the Home Department, who is, I
presume, the promoter of this Bill, should have given the House some
reason for the introduction of a new Factory Bill. No such reason has
yet been given, and I am at a loss to discover any grounds on which it
can with fairness be asserted that the Bill now in operation has failed
in its effect. I know the inspectors affirm that it cannot be fully
carried out. Every body who knows anything of the manufactories of the
North, knew when it was passed that it could not be fully carried out;
and the proposition now made, is to render this impracticable Act more
stringent. In a trade so extensive, employing so many people, carried on
under circumstances ever varying, no Act of Parliament interfering with
the minute details of its management, can ever be fully carried out. I
am not one who will venture to say that the manufacturing districts of
this country are a paradise; I believe there are in those districts
evils great and serious; but whatever evils do there exist are referable
to other causes than to the existence of factories and long chimneys.
Most of the statements which the noble lord has read, would be just as
applicable to Birmingham, or to this metropolis, as to the northern
districts; and as he read them over, with respect to the ignorance and
intemperance of the people, the disobedience of children to their
parents, the sufferings of mothers, and the privations which the
children endure, I felt that there was scarcely a complaint which has
been made against the manufacturing districts of the north of England,
which might not be urged with at least as much force against the poorest
portion of the population of every large city in Great Britain and
Ireland. But among the population of Lancashire and Yorkshire, where
towns are so numerous as almost to touch each other, these evils are
more observable than in a population less densely crowded together. I
can prove, however, and I do not wish to be as one-sided as the noble
lord, I can prove from authorities, which are at least as worthy of
attention as his, the very reverse in many respects of what he has
stated as the true state of those districts. Now the Committee will bear
in mind that a large portion of the documents which the noble lord has
quoted, have neither dates nor names. I can give dates and names, and I
feel confident that the authorities I shall cite are worthy of the
deepest attention. I must go over the grounds of complaint which the
noble lord has urged, and although I may run the risk of being a little
tedious, yet considering that for two hours or more I have listened to
the charges which he has made, I do think that, connected as I am most
intimately with the population and the district to which the noble lord
has alluded, I have a right to an audience for the counter-statement
which I have to make. Now, with respect to the health of the persons
employed, and I will speak more particularly of the cotton trade, with
which I am more immediately connected, Mr. Harrison, the inspecting
surgeon for Preston, says:--
"I have made very particular inquiries respecting the health of every
child whom I have examined, and I find that the average annual
sickness of each child is not more than four days; at least not more
than four days are lost by each child in a year in consequence of
sickness. This includes disorders of every kind, for the most part
induced by causes wholly unconnected with factory labour. I have been
not a little surprised to find so little sickness which can fairly be
attributed to mill work. I have met with very few children who have
suffered from injuries occasioned by machinery; and the protection,
especially in new factories, is now so complete, that accidents will,
I doubt not, speedily become rare. I have not met with a single
instance, out of 1,656 children whom I examined, of deformity that is
referable to factory labour. It must be admitted that factory
children do not present the same blooming, robust appearance, as is
witnessed among children who labour in the open air; but I question
if they are not more exempt from acute disease, and do not, on the
whole, suffer less sickness than those who are regarded as having
more healthy employments."
This was the statement of a man who had for a long time been
inspecting-surgeon in a district where there are a large number of
mills, and it may be taken as a fair criterion of the rest. In the
analysis of the Factory Report, page 16, I find the following
statement:--
"In conclusion, then, it is proved, by a preponderance of seventy-two
witnesses against seventeen, that the health of those employed in
cotton mills is nowise inferior to that in other occupations; and,
secondly, it is proved by tables drawn up by the secretary of a sick
club, and by the more extensive tables of a London actuary, that the
health of the factory children is decidedly superior to that of the
labouring poor otherwise employed."
From the Factory Inspector's Reports in 1834 I have extracted the
following testimony, and no doubt this evidence is quite as good as if
it had been given this year; for from that time to this there has been a
progressive improvement in everything relating to the management of the
factories of the north of England.
"The general tenor of all the medical reports in my possession
confirms Mr. Harrison's view of factory labour on the health of the
younger branches of working hands. It is decidedly not injurious to
health or longevity, compared with other employments." Then, in page
51, Mr. Saunders says, "It appears in evidence, that of all
employments to which children are subjected, those carried on in
factories are among the least laborious, and of all departments of
in-door labour, amongst the least unwholesome." Mr. Horner says, "It
is gratifying to be able to state, that I have not had a single
complaint laid before me either on the part of the masters against
their servants, or of the servants against their masters; nor have I
seen or heard of any instance of ill-treatment of children, or of
injury to their health by their employment." And on the 21st of July,
1834, speaking on the employment of children, he says: "And as their
occupation in the mills is so light as to cause no bodily fatigue,
they would pass their eight hours there as beneficially as at home;
indeed, in most cases, far more so."
* * * * *
I think I have now said enough with regard to this part of the
subject--apparently too much for hon. gentlemen opposite, who appear
only anxious to hear and applaud one side, and many of whom have not
even heard that. But notwithstanding all these facts I admit there are
evils, serious evils, and much distress in the manufacturing districts;
many are still out of employment, and in many branches of trade wages
are low. We have violent fluctuations in trade, and periods when
multitudes endure great suffering and it becomes this House to inquire
why do these fluctuations occur, and what is the great cause of their
suffering. I attribute much of this to the mistaken and unjust policy
pursued by this House, with respect to the trade and industry of the
country. Hitherto manufacturers have had no fair chance: you have
interfered with their natural progress, you have crippled them by your
restrictions, you have at times almost destroyed them by monopolies, you
have made them the sources of your public revenue, and the upholders of
your rents, but at your hands they have never to this moment received
justice and fair dealing. I do not charge the noble lord with
dishonesty, but I am confident if he had looked at this question with as
anxious a desire to discover truth, as he has to find materials for his
case, he would have found many subjects of congratulation to
counterbalance every one which he would have had reason to deplore. The
noble lord and hon. gentlemen opposite, when they view from their
distant eminence the state of the manufacturing districts, look through
the right end of the telescope; what they see is thus brought near to
them, and is greatly magnified; but when they are asked to look at the
rural districts, they reverse the telescope and then everything is
thrown to the greatest possible distance and is diminished as much as
possible.
* * * * *
The noble lord, the Member for Liverpool, says, he is most anxious to
improve the condition of the working classes; he points to more
education, a higher state of morals, better food and better clothing, as
the result of the adoption of the proposition now before the House. But
there is one thing that the noble lord has failed to prove; he has
failed to show how working only ten hours will give the people more
sugar. The noble lord is the representative of the sugar monopolists of
Liverpool, and, after voting to deprive the people of sugar, he is
perfectly consistent in denying them the liberty even to work. The
people ask for freedom for their industry, for the removal of the
shackles on their trade; you deny it to them, and then forbid them to
labour, as if working less would give them more food, whilst your
monopoly laws make food scarce and dear. Give them liberty to work, give
them the market of the world for their produce, give them the power to
live comfortably, and increasing means and increasing intelligence will
speedily render them independent enough and wise enough to bring the
duration of labour to that point at which life shall be passed with
less of irksome toil of every kind, and more of recreation and
enjoyment. It is because I am convinced this project is now
impracticable, and that under our present oppressive legislation, it
would make all past injustice only more intolerable, that I shall vote
against the proposition which the noble lord, the member for Dorset, has
submitted to the House.
[Footnote 360: _Ibid._ Cols. 1101-2 and 1108-9.]
[Footnote 361: _Ibid._ Cols. 1111-2.]
[Footnote 362: _Ibid._ Cols. 1132-5, 1148 and 1150-1.]
22. Factory Act [_Statutes_ 7 _ana_ 8, _Victoria_ 15], 1844.
An Act to amend the Laws relating to Labour in Factories.
XX. And be it enacted, that no child or young person shall be allowed to
clean any part of the mill-gearing in a factory while the same is in
motion for the purpose of propelling any part of the manufacturing
machinery; and no child or young person shall be allowed to work between
the fixed and traversing part of any self-acting machine while the
latter is in motion by the action of the steam engine, water-wheel, or
other mechanical power.
XXI. And be it enacted, that every fly-wheel directly connected with the
steam engine or water-wheel or other mechanical power, whether in the
engine house or not, and every part of a steam engine and water-wheel,
and every hoist or teagle, near to which children or young persons are
liable to pass or be employed, and all parts of the mill-gearing in a
factory, shall be securely fenced; and every wheel-race not otherwise
secured shall be fenced close to the edge of the wheel-race; and the
said protection to each part shall not be removed while the parts
required to be fenced are in motion by the action of the steam engine,
water-wheel, or other mechanical power for any manufacturing process.
XXIV. And be it enacted, that one of Her Majesty's principal Secretaries
of State, on the report and recommendation of an inspector, may empower
such inspector to direct one or more actions to be brought in the name
and on behalf of any person who shall be reported by such inspector to
have received any bodily injury from the machinery of any factory, for
the recovery of damages for and on behalf of such person.
XXIX. And be it enacted, that every child who shall have completed his
eighth year, and shall have obtained the surgical certificate required
by this act of having completed his eighth year, may be employed in a
factory in the same manner and under the same regulations as children
who have completed their ninth year; but no child under eight years of
age shall be employed in any factory.
XXX. And be it enacted, that no child shall be employed in any factory
more than six hours and thirty minutes in any one day, save as
hereinafter excepted, unless the dinner time of the young persons in
such factory shall begin at one of the clock, in which case children
beginning to work in the morning may work for seven hours in one day;
and no child who shall have been employed in a factory before noon of
any day shall be employed in the same or any other factory, either for
the purpose of recovering lost time or otherwise, after one of the clock
in the afternoon of the same day, save in the cases when children may
work on alternate days, or in silk factories more than seven hours in
any one day, as hereinafter provided.
XXXI. And be it enacted, that in any factory in which the labour of
young persons is restricted to ten hours in any one day it shall be
lawful to employ any child ten hours in any one day on three alternate
days of every week, provided that such child shall not be employed in
any manner in the same or in any other factory on two successive days,
nor after half past four of the clock in the afternoon of any Saturday:
Provided always, that the parent or person having direct benefit from
the wages of any child so employed shall cause such child to attend some
school for at least five hours between the hours of eight of the clock
in the morning and six of the clock in the afternoon of the same day on
each week day preceding each day of employment in the factory, unless
such preceding day shall be a Saturday, when no school attendance of
such child shall be required: Provided also, that on Monday in every
week after that in which such child began to work in the factory, or any
other day appointed for that purpose by the inspector of the District,
the occupier of the factory shall obtain a certificate from a
schoolmaster, according to the form and directions given in the schedule
(A) to this act annexed, that such child has attended school as required
by this act; but it shall not be lawful to employ any child in a factory
more than seven hours in any one day, until the owner of the factory
shall have sent a notice in writing to the inspector of the district of
his intention to restrict the hours of labour of young persons in the
factory to ten hours a day, and to employ children ten hours a day; and
if such occupier of a factory shall at any time cease so to employ
children ten hours a day he shall not again employ any child in his
factory more than seven hours in any one day until he shall have sent a
further notice to the inspector in the manner hereinbefore provided.
XXXII. And be it enacted, that no female above the age of eighteen years
shall be employed in any factory save for the same time and in the same
manner as young persons may be employed in factories; and that any
person who shall be convicted of employing a female above the age of
eighteen years for any longer time or in any other manner shall for
every such offence be adjudged to pay the same penalty as is provided in
the like case for employing a young person contrary to law: provided
always, that nothing herein or in the Factory Act contained as to
certificates of age shall be taken to apply to females above the age of
eighteen years.
23. RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE COMMISSION ON THE HEALTH OF TOWNS [_Second
Report of Commissioners on State of Large Towns and Populous Districts
(XVIII), 1845, pp. 13-68_], 1845.
That in all cases the local administrative body appointed for the
purpose have the special charge and direction of all the works required
for sanitary purposes, but that the Crown possess a general power of
supervision.
That before the adoption of any general measure for drainage a plan and
survey upon a proper scale, including all necessary details, be
obtained, and submitted for approval to a competent authority.
That the Crown be empowered to define and to enlarge from time to time
the area for drainage included within the jurisdiction of the local
administrative body.
That, upon representation being made by the municipal or other
authority, or by a certain number of the inhabitants of any town or
district, or part thereof, setting forth defects in the condition of
such place, as to drainage, sewerage, paving, cleansing, or other
sanitary matters, the Crown appoint a competent person to inspect and
report upon the state of the defects, and, if satisfied of the
necessity, have power to enforce upon the local administrative body the
due execution of the law.
That the management of the drainage of the entire area, as defined for
each district, be placed under one jurisdiction.
That the construction of sewers, branch sewers, and house drains, be
entrusted to the local administrative body.
That the duty of providing the funds necessary to be imposed upon the
local administrative body, and that the cost of making the main and
branch sewers be equitably distributed among the owners of the
properties benefited; and that the expense of making the house-drains be
charged upon the owners of the house, to which the drains are attached,
etc.
That some restriction be placed on the proportionate rates in the pound
to be levied in one year, but if the local administrative body finds
that there is need for larger funds, for the immediate execution of
works for sanitary measures, than can be provided by such rates, it be
empowered to raise, by loan on security of the rates, subject to the
approval of the Crown, such sums as may be requisite for effecting the
objects in view.
That provision always be made for the gradual liquidation of such debts,
within a given number of years.
That the whole of the paving, and the construction of the surface of all
streets, courts and alleys be placed under the management of the same
authority as the drainage.
That the provisions in local Acts, vesting the right to all the dust,
ashes, and street refuse in the local administrative body, be made
general; and that the cleansing of all privies and cess-pools at proper
times, and on due notice, be exclusively entrusted to it.
That it be rendered imperative on the local administrative body, charged
with the management of the sewerage and drainage, to procure a supply of
water in sufficient quantities not only for the domestic needs of the
inhabitants, but also for cleansing the streets, scouring the sewers and
drains, and the extinction of fire....
That measures be adopted for promoting a proper system of ventilation in
all edifices for public assemblage and resort, especially those for the
education of youth.
That, on complaint of the parish medical or other authorised officer,
that any house or premises are in such a filthy and unwholesome state as
to endanger the health of the public, and an infectious disorder exists
therein, the local administrative body have power to require the
landlord to cleanse it properly, without delay; and in case of his
neglect or inability, to do so by its own officers, and recover the
expense from the landlord.
That the local administrative body have power to appoint, subject to the
approval of the Crown, a medical officer properly qualified to inspect
and report periodically upon the sanitary condition of the town or
district, to ascertain the true causes of disease and death, more
especially of epidemics increasing the rates of mortality, and the
circumstances which originate and maintain such diseases, and
injuriously affect the public health of such town or populous district.
[Provisions for abating factory exhalations and nuisances; for
regulating the width of new courts, the accommodation of
cellar-dwellings and the sanitation of new houses; for power to buy out
new water companies at the end of a term of years; for controlling
lodging-houses; for providing public spaces and walks.][363]
[Footnote 363: The first general Public Health Act (1848) was based on
this report and that of the Select Committee on the Health of Towns,
1840 (XI)]
SECTION IV
COMBINATIONS OF WORKMEN
1. A Strike of the Journeymen Feltmakers, 1696-99--2. A Petition of
Master Tailors against Combination among the Journeymen, 1721--3. A
Dispute in the Northumberland and Durham Coal Industry, 1765--4.
Sickness and Unemployment Benefit Clubs among the Woolcombers,
1794--5. Combination Act, 1799--6. Combination Act, 1800--7. The
Scottish Weavers' Strike, 1812--8. The Repeal of the Combination
Acts, 1824--9. A Prosecution of Strikers under the Common Law of
Conspiracy, 1810--10. An Act Revising the Law affecting Combinations,
1825--11. The Conviction of the Dorchester Labourers, 1834--12. An
Address of the Working Men's Association to Queen Victoria, 1837--13.
A Chartist Manifesto on the Sacred Month, 1839--14. The Rochdale
Pioneers, 1844.
The history of modern Trade Unions is separated from that of earlier
combinations by the industrial changes of the eighteenth century and by
the alterations in the law affecting them. Illustrations of combinations
are given from the seventeenth century (No. 1), the early middle and
later eighteenth century (Nos. 2, 3 and 4) and the early nineteenth
century (Nos. 7 and 11). The most important changes in the law were made
towards the close of the period (Nos. 5, 6, 8, 10).
The strike of the Journeymen Feltmakers (No. 1) shows a well-organised
body of London craftsmen at the end of the seventeenth century fighting
the chartered Company on a wages question in a time of rising prices.
The struggle was long, and ended, in 1699, in arbitration by Members of
Parliament. The Journeymen Tailors' combination against which the Master
Tailors appealed to Parliament in 1721 (No. 2) was also a London
organisation, and claimed to control the hours of labour as well as
wages. The woolcombers (No. 4) were early famous for combined action,
and their system was remarkable for the way in which it combined a
fighting trade policy with Friendly Benefit. The declaration of the
miners in the northern coalfield (No. 3) refers to one of the recurring
struggles over the yearly Bindings. The result of the strike is unknown.
The Master Tailors and the employers in some other trades were
successful in procuring special Acts of Parliament forbidding
combinations (No. 2, note). At the end of the eighteenth century the two
general Combination Acts made most kinds of trade union action
specifically illegal (No. 5 and No. 6). Combination still survived, but
their leaders were always open to attack in emergencies like that of the
Scotch weavers' strike (No. 7). Their special liability under the Act of
1800 was removed in 1824, and, though an outburst of strikes led to a
revision of the law, the skilled assistance of Francis Place and Hume
saved the Trade Unions from being thrust back into their former position
(Nos. 8 and 10). But organised striking could also be brought within the
common law of conspiracy. Strikers had been proceeded against in this
way before (No. 9); and this liability remained after 1825, as well as
liability under an Act against oaths of secrecy (No. 11). The case of
the Dorchester agricultural labourers (No. 11) also serves to illustrate
the great, though short-lived enthusiasm of the Trade Union movement in
the 'thirties. Its failure was followed by the rise of Chartism. The
immediate objects of the Chartists were political, but their real
grievances and ideals were economic, as their early manifestos plainly
show (No. 12); and their leaders wavered between political methods and
the direct action of the general strike (No. 13). The Rochdale Pioneers
co-operative society (No. 14) was founded in the middle of this period
of Trade Union and Chartist agitation, and illustrates a third parallel
development of working-men's combinations under the stress of the
Industrial Revolution.
AUTHORITIES
Modern books: The standard history is S. and B. Webb, _History of
Trade Unionism_: for the legal position, Dicey, _Law and Opinion in
England_; Schloesser and Clark, _Legal Position of Trade Unions_; for
the seventeenth century, Unwin, _Industrial Organization_. Miners'
combinations are described in Fynes, _The Miners of Northumberland
and Durham_, Tailors' Combinations in Galton, _The Tailoring Trade_
(Select Documents, Introduction). Wallas' _Life of Francis Place_
gives an account of the repeal of the Combination Acts, Podmore,
_Life of Owen_, describes the forward movement among trade unions.
For early co-operative history see Holyoake, _The Rochdale Pioneers_.
The most complete accounts of the Chartists are in Dolléans'
_Chartisme_, and _Beer_, _Geschichte des Socialismus in England_,
Part II, of which an English translation is to appear shortly.
Bibliographies in S. and B. Webb, _op. cit._ and _Industrial
Democracy_; Unwin, _op. cit._, Galton, _op. cit._, Cunningham _op.
cit._, and Fay, _Co-operation at Home and Abroad_.
_Contemporary._--1. _Documentary authorities_: Records of a
seventeenth century strike are printed in Unwin, _Industrial
Organisation_, App. A. Petitions by weavers, feltmakers, etc., are to
be found in the House of Commons Journals, Vols. 27, 36 and _passim_.
Galton, _op. cit._, covers the eighteenth century. For collections of
price lists, _e.g._, tailors, printers, brushmakers, bookbinders,
basketmakers, see Webb., _op. cit._ bibliography; also for early
rules and minutes of the Unions of keelmen, cotton spinners, miners,
etc. Official material for the history of the Combination Acts and
their repeal is in the Report from Committee on Artizans and
Machinery, 1824 (V), and on Combination Acts, 1825 (IV). There was a
Report on Friendly Societies in 1825 (X).
2. _Literary authorities._--Descriptions by those who were actors in
the events of the early nineteenth century are given in the Life of
Robert Owen (by himself), in The life and Struggles of William Lovett
(by himself), and The life of Thomas Cooper (by himself). Early Trade
and Chartist Journals are important sources:--The United Trades
Co-operative Journal, 1830, The Poor Man's Guardian, 1831-5, The
Crisis 1832-4, The Ten Hours' Advocate, 1846-7, The Stone Masons'
Circular, 1834. Other material for the early history of combinations
is to be found in rare pamphlets, such as A Voice from the Coal
Mines, 1825 (see Webb Bibliographies, _op. cit._).
1. A STRIKE OF THE JOURNEYMEN FELTMAKERS[364] [_Feltmakers' Court
Book_],1696-99.
_November 16th, 1696._ It is agreed and ordered by this Court that from
and after the 21st day of this present month of November until the
month of September next coming, the wages to be given by the master
workmen of the Mistery living within the city of London and four miles
compass of the same to the journeymen of the trade making of hats shall
be as followeth (that is to say):--
s. d.
A Beaver 3 0 with diet.
A hat of any price from 18s. to a Beaver 2 6 " "
" " 16s. price 2 4 " "
" " 14s. " 2 2 " "
" " 12s. " 1 10 " "
" " 10s. " 1 6 " "
" " 8s. or any other price up to 10s. 1 2 " "
" " 7s. or 6s. 1 0 " "
" " 5s. 0 9 " "
And also that if the journeymen free of this Company do not accept of
the wages before set down and expressed of, and from any workmaster
living within the limits aforesaid, then and in such case it shall and
may be lawful for all and every workmaster living without the freedom of
the city to employ and set to work as a journeyman any person or persons
of the Mistery being natives of this kingdom, so as such person or
persons in that case to be employed make proof before a Court of
Assistants of this Company that he or they have served his or their
apprenticeship of seven years in the said Mistery. Upon which proof so
made and on payment of the sum of twenty shillings fine to the use of
the Company, besides the Clerk and Beadle fees according to ancient
custom, such person or persons may be admitted a foreign journeyman or
journeymen of this Company, any bye-law or bye-laws, ordinance or
ordinances of this Company to the contrary thereof in any wise
notwithstanding. And it is further ordered that none of the masters or
journeymen of the Mistery do give or take more than the rates above
mentioned upon pain that the party offending shall forfeit for every
time he shall be found to act contrary to the true meaning of the above
order such sum of money, not exceeding the sum of 5l., as the Court of
Assistants of this Company shall think fit to impose on him or them.
* * * * *
_Nov. 30th, 1696._ Geo. Burkeridge and others to the number of 12
journeymen of the Mistery to this Court on behalf of themselves and all
the journeymen of the trade within the limits of the Corporation, that
they are come to a resolution among themselves not to accept of any less
wages for making of hats than what they formerly received and desire
that the late Order for lessening their wages may be set aside.
* * * * *
_June 20th,1698._ George Burkeridge, Thomas Newby and one other
journeyman came to this Court on behalf of themselves and the other
journeymen for the accommodation of the matters in difference between
them and the Company, and offered that in order thereto all matters
relating to the trade might stand on the same foot as in 1682 and suits
touching the singeing boys to be forborne. After long debate thereupon
had, the Court acquainted them, that if they would give an ingenuous
account and full discovery of their combinations and collections of
money against the Company by Wednesday next, they might expect some
favour, which the journeymen promised to comply with.
_August 5th, 1698._ The Master reported to this Court that the committee
appointed last Court to meet several journeymen of the trade with Mr.
Cox and Mr. Cholmley in order to accommodate the matters in difference
between the masters and journeymen, who had then declared their sorrow
for their unlawful combinations to raise their wages and promised to
subscribe an Instrument declaring the same, and that they would for the
future be obedient to the bye-laws of the Company and discover all such
evil practices. And a draft of such Instrument or submission being read,
it is ordered that the same be engrossed with such alteration as the
Clerk shall think fit and be signed by the persons indicted and fifteen
more of such of the journeymen as the Master and Wardens shall direct.
And thereupon the prosecutions shall be stayed. [The Instrument.]
We whose hands are hereunto subscribed and set, being journeymen
Feltmakers in and about the city of London and borough of Southwark, do
hereby acknowledge:--that we with other journeymen of the said trade
have held several meetings wherein we have conspired and combined
together to enhance the prices for making of hats, for which several of
us now stand indicted, and being now greatly sensible and fully
convinced of the unlawfulness of such conspiracies do hereby declare
our hearty and unfeigned sorrow for the same, and we and every one of us
do hereby promise and agree to and with the Master, Wardens and
Commonalty of the Company of Feltmakers, London, that neither we nor any
of us (nor any other journeyman of the trade with our or any of our
privity or consent) shall or will at any time hereafter do any act or
thing whatsoever that may in any wise tend to the promoting or
encouraging of such conspiracies or combinations. But that we and every
of us shall and will do all that in us lieth to discourage and prevent
such conspiracies and combinations for the future, and also will
endeavour to raise and collect money among the journeymen Feltmakers
what they shall freely contribute and pay towards prosecuting the French
or any other unlawful workers in the said Trade. And for that purpose
shall and will truly pay such money that shall be raised by such
contributions into the hands of the Master of the said Company for the
time being. And we do further promise that we will for the time to come
behave and demean ourselves tractable and conformable to the government
and bye-laws of the said Company.
_July 3rd,1699._ The Masters reported to this Court that on Tuesday last
he attended, with others of the Company, on the Parliament Members for
the County of Surrey, according to a Rule of the Court made by the Lord
Chief Justice Holt at the last Assizes at Kingston. And after hearing
them and the defendants and other journeymen of the trade, they made an
award and therein made no other alteration of the rates than 2d.
allowance on a Beaver, a penny on a 14s. hat, and a penny allowance on
an 8s., and so on to a 10s. hat, and they directed the indictment to be
discharged and bill in Chancery to be dismissed.
[Footnote 364: Quoted in Unwin, _Industrial Organization in the
Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries_, App. A. pp. 248-52.]
2. A PETITION OF MASTER TAILORS AGAINST COMBINATION AMONG THE
JOURNEYMEN[365] [_British Museum, f._ 816 _m._, 14 (_II_)],1721.
The case of the Master Tailors residing within the Cities of London and
Westminster, in relation to the great Abuses committed by their
Journeymen. Humbly offered to the consideration of Parliament.
The Journeymen Tailors in and about the cities of London and
Westminster, to the number of seven thousand and upwards, have lately
entered into a combination to raise their wages, and leave off working
an hour sooner than they used to do; and for the better carrying on
their design, have subscribed their respective names in books prepared
for that purpose, at the several houses of call or resort (being public
houses in and about London and Westminster) where they use; and collect
several considerable sums of money to defend any prosecutions against
them.
At this time there are but few of them come to work at all, and most of
those that do, insist upon, and have, twelve shillings and ninepence per
week (instead of ten shillings and ninepence per week, the usual wages),
and leave off work at eight of the clock at night (instead of nine,
their usual hour, time out of mind), and very great numbers of them go
loitering about the town, and seduce and corrupt all they can meet: to
the great hindrance and prejudice of trade.
Upon complaint made to some of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace, they
have issued out their warrants against these offenders as loiterers; by
virtue whereof some of them have been bound over to the Sessions, and
others have been taken up, and bound over to appear in His Majesty's
Court of King's Bench at Westminster, and the subscription books seized
by virtue of the Secretary of State's warrant: Yet they still continue
obstinate, and persist not only in putting the abovesaid difficulties
upon their masters, to the great prejudice of trade in general; but also
in collecting great sums of money to support their unlawful combinations
and confederacies.
This combination of the Journeymen Tailors is and may be attended with
many evil consequences: inasmuch as the public is deprived of the
benefit of the labour of a considerable number of the subjects of this
kingdom, and the families of several of these journeymen thereby
impoverished, and likely to become a charge and burden to the public:
And the very persons themselves who are under this unlawful combination,
choosing rather to live in idleness, than to work at their usual rates
and hours, will not only become useless and burdensome, but also very
dangerous to the public; and are of very ill example to journeymen in
all other trades; as is sufficiently seen in the Journeymen Curriers,
Smiths, Farriers, Sail-makers, Coach-makers, and artificers of divers
other arts and misteries, who have actually entered into confederacies
of the like nature; and the Journeymen Carpenters, Bricklayers and
Joiners have taken some steps for that purpose, and only wait to see the
event of others.
These Journeymen Tailors, when there is a hurry of business against the
King's Birth-day, or for making of mourning or wedding garments (as
often happens) or other holidays, and always the summer seasons, are not
content with the unreasonable rates they at present insist upon; but
have demanded, and have had three or four shillings a day, and sometimes
more; otherwise they will not work; and at such times some will not work
at all; which is a great disappointment to gentlemen, and an imposition
to the masters; and, if suffered to go on, must increase the charge of
making clothes considerably.
As to the said houses of call, or public-houses, there are a great
number of them in London and the suburbs, where these journeymen tailors
frequently meet and use, and spend all or the greatest part of the
moneys they receive for their wages; and the masters of these houses of
call, support, encourage and abet these journeymen in their unlawful
combinations for raising their wages, and lessening their hours.
The laws now in being for regulating of artificers, labourers, and
servants, were made in the fifth of Queen Elizabeth, and might well be
adapted for these times; but not altogether so proper for the trade of
London and Westminster, &c., as it is now carried on.
Therefore, the masters humbly hope this honourable house will take such
measures, by passing of a law for redress of the public grievances
aforesaid, or grant such other relief, as in their great wisdom shall
seem meet.[366]
[Footnote 365: Quoted in F.W. Galton, _The Tailoring Trade_, pp. 1-4.]
[Footnote 366: A Committee of the House of Commons reported on this
petition "that the petitioners have fully proved the allegations,"
February 16, 1721. The Journeymen petitioned in reply. Stat. 7 Geo. I, 1
c. 3 (1721) declared combinations among the journeymen tailors unlawful
in London, Westminster, and the Bills of Mortality, and fixed the hours
of labour, thirteen, and the maximum wages, two shillings a day, from
the end of March to the end of June, and one and eightpence for the rest
of the year. Justices were given power to alter the rates at Quarter
Sessions.]
3. A DISPUTE IN THE NORTHHUMBERLAND AND DURHAM COAL INDUSTRY [_Newcastle
Chronicle, September 21, 1765_], 1765.
Whereas several scandalous and false reports have been and still
continue to be spread abroad in the country concerning the Pitmen in the
Counties of Durham and Northumberland absenting from their respective
employments before the expiration of their Bonds: This is therefore to
inform the Public that most of the Pitmen in the aforesaid Counties of
Durham and Northumberland were bound the latter end of August, and the
remainder of them were bound the beginning of September, 1764, and they
served till the 24th or 25th of August, 1765, which they expect is the
due time of their servitude; but the honourable Gentlemen in the Coal
Trade will not let them be free till the 11th of November, 1765, which,
instead of 11 months and 15 days, the respective time of their Bonds, is
upwards of 14 months. So they leave the most censorious to judge whether
they be right or wrong. For they are of opinion that they are free from
any Bond wherein they were bound.--And an advertisement appearing in the
newspapers last week commanding all persons not to employ any Pitmen
whatever for the support of themselves and families, it is confidently
believed that they who were the authors of the said advertisement are
designed to reduce the industrious poor of the aforesaid counties to the
greatest misery: as all the necessaries of Life are at such exorbitant
prices, that it is impossible for them to support their families without
using some other lawful means, which they will and are determined to do,
as the said advertisement has caused the people whom they were employed
under to discharge them from their service:--Likewise the said
honourable Gentlemen have agreed and signed an Article, not to employ
any Pitmen that has served in any other colliery the year before; which
will reduce them to still greater hardships, as they will be obliged to
serve in the same colliery for life; which they conjecture will take
away the ancient character of this Kingdom as being a free nation.--So
the Pitmen are not designed to work for or serve any of the said
Gentlemen, in any of their collieries, till they be fully satisfied that
the said Article is dissolved, and new Bonds and Agreements made and
entered into for the year ensuing.
4. SICKNESS AND UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT CLUBS AMONG THE WOOLCOMBERS [_House
of Commons Journals, Vol._ XLIX, _pp._ 323-4], 1794.
March 13, 1794. Report on Woolcombers' Petitions, 323.
William Gates being asked whether it was usual to go from place to place
to seek employment, he said it was, and that their clubs or societies
subsist them till they get work.... And being asked, whether there are
any number of woolcombers who do not belong to the societies, he said,
"There are some, but not one in one hundred that does not belong to some
society."
Jonathan Sowton ... was asked, of what nature the clubs were. He said,
"It is a contribution upon every woolcomber (who is willing to be a
member of a club) according to the exigencies of their affairs: the one
end of it is to enable the woolcombers to travel from place to place to
seek for employment, when work is scarce where he resides; and the other
end of it is to have relief when he is sick wherever he may be; and if
he should die to be buried by the club; and it is necessary for him, to
entitle himself to be relieved by these clubs, to have a certificate
from the club to which he belongs, that he has behaved well in and to
the woolcombing trade, and that he is an honest man; but if he defrauds
anybody, he loses his claim to that certificate, and to the advantages
belonging to it."[367]
[Footnote 367: _Cf._ A Proclamation against combinations in the
Woolcombing industry (in Notes and Queries, Series III, Vol. 12,
September 21, 1867, pp. 224-5) in February, 1718, reciting that their
Societies interfered in questions of prices and apprentices and, if a
member was thrown out of work on account of such interference, "they fed
them with money till they could again get employment, in order to oblige
their masters to employ them for want of other hands."]
5. COMBINATION ACT [_Statutes_,39 _Geo. III_, 86], 1799.
... All contracts, covenants, and agreements whatsoever, in writing or
not in writing, at any time or times heretofore made or entered into by
any journeymen manufacturers or other workmen, or other persons within
this kingdom, for obtaining an advance of wages of them or any of them,
or any other journeymen manufacturers or other workmen, or other persons
in manufacture, trade, or business, or for lessening or altering their
or any of their usual hours or time of working or for decreasing the
quantity of work, or for preventing or hindering any person or persons
from employing whomsoever he, she, or they shall think proper to employ
in his, her, or their manufacture, trade, or business, in the conduct or
management thereof, shall be and the same are hereby declared to be
illegal, null, and void, to all intents and purposes whatsoever.
[Workmen making such agreements or combinations, or endeavouring to
prevent others from hiring themselves or to induce them to quit work, or
attending a meeting or persuading others to attend a meeting for such
purposes, are made liable to three months imprisonment in common gaol or
two months in the house of correction.]
6. COMBINATION ACT [_Statutes_, 39 _and_40 _Geo. III, c._ 106], 1800.
An Act to repeal an Act, passed in the last session of Parliament,
intituled, An Act to prevent unlawful combinations of workmen; and to
substitute other provisions in lieu thereof.
[All contracts heretofore entered into for obtaining an advance of
wages, altering the usual time of working, decreasing the quantity of
work, &c. (except contracts between masters and men) shall be void.]
II. And be it further enacted, that no journeyman, workman, or other
person shall at any time after the passing of this act make or enter
into, or be concerned in the making of or entering into any such
contract, covenant, or agreement, in writing or not in writing, as is
hereinbefore declared to be an illegal covenant, contract, or agreement;
and every journeyman and workman or other person who, after the passing
of this act, shall be guilty of any of the said offences, being thereof
lawfully convicted, within three calendar months next after the offence
shall have been committed, shall, by order of such justices, be
committed to and confined in the common gaol, within his or their
jurisdiction, for any time not exceeding three calendar months, or at
the discretion of such justices shall be committed to some house of
correction within the same jurisdiction, there to remain and to be kept
to hard labour for any time not exceeding two calendar months.
III. And be it further enacted, that every journeyman or workman, or
other person, who shall at any time after the passing of this act enter
into any combination to obtain an advance of wages, or to lessen or
alter the hours or duration of the time of working, or to decrease the
quantity of work, or for any other purpose contrary to this act, or who
shall, by giving money, or by persuasion, solicitation, or intimidation,
or any other means, wilfully and maliciously endeavour to prevent any
unhired or unemployed journeyman or workman, or other person, in any
manufacture, trade, or business, or any other person wanting employment
in such manufacture, trade, or business, from hiring himself to any
manufacturer or tradesman, or person conducting any manufacture, trade,
or business, or who shall, for the purpose of obtaining an advance of
wages, or for any other purpose contrary to the provisions of this act,
wilfully and maliciously decoy, persuade, solicit, intimidate,
influence, or prevail, or attempt or endeavour to prevail, on any
journeyman or workman, or other person hired or employed, or to be hired
or employed in any such manufacture, trade, or business, to quit or
leave his work, service, or employment, or who shall wilfully and
maliciously hinder or prevent any manufacturer or tradesman, or other
person, from employing in his or her manufacture, trade, or business,
such journeymen, workmen, and other persons as he or she shall think
proper, or who, being hired or employed, shall, without any just or
reasonable cause, refuse to work with any other journeyman or workman
employed or hired to work therein, and who shall be lawfully convicted
of any of the said offences, shall, by order of such justices, be
committed to and be confined in the common gaol, within his or their
jurisdiction, for any time not exceeding three calendar months; or
otherwise be committed to some house of correction within the same
jurisdiction, there to remain and to be kept to hard labour for any time
not exceeding two calendar months.
IV. And for the more effectual suppression of all combinations amongst
journeymen, workmen, and other persons employed in any manufacture,
trade or business, be it further enacted, that all and every persons and
person whomsoever, (whether employed in any such manufacture, trade, or
business, or not), who shall attend any meeting had or held for the
purpose of making or entering into any contract, covenant, or agreement,
by this act declared to be illegal, or of entering into, supporting,
maintaining, continuing, or carrying on any combination for any purpose
by this act declared to be illegal, or who shall summons, give notice
to, call upon, persuade, entice, solicit, or by intimidation, or any
other means, endeavour to induce any journeyman, workman, or other
person employed in any manufacture, trade, or business, to attend any
such meeting, or who shall collect, demand, ask, or receive any sum of
money from any such journeyman, workman, or other person, for any of the
purposes aforesaid, or who shall persuade, entice, solicit, or by
intimidation, or any other means, endeavour to induce any such
journeyman, workman, or other person to enter into or be concerned in
any such combination, or who shall pay any sum of money, or make or
enter into any subscription or contribution, for or towards the support
or encouragement of any such illegal meeting or combination, and who
shall be lawfully convicted of any of the said offences, within three
calendar months next after the offence shall have been committed, shall,
by order of such justices, be committed to and confined in the common
gaol within his or their jurisdiction, for any time not exceeding three
calendar months, or otherwise be committed to some house of correction
within the same jurisdiction, there to remain and be kept to hard labour
for any time not exceeding two calendar months.
VI. And be it further enacted, that all sums of money which at any time
heretofore have been paid or given as a subscription or contribution for
or towards any of the purposes prohibited by this act, and shall, for
the space of three calendar months next after the passing of this act,
remain undivided in the hands of any treasurer, collector, receiver,
trustee, agent, or other person, or placed out at interest, and all sums
of money which shall at any time after the passing of this act, be paid
or given as a subscription or contribution for or towards any of the
purposes prohibited by this act, shall be forfeited, one moiety thereof
to his Majesty, and the other moiety to such person as will sue for the
same in any of his Majesty's courts of record at Westminster; and any
treasurer, collector, receiver, trustee, agent, or other person in whose
hands or in whose name any such sum of money shall be, or shall be
placed out, or unto whom the same shall have been paid or given, shall
and may be sued for the same as forfeited as aforesaid.
[All contracts between masters or other persons for reducing the wages
of workmen or for altering the hours of work or for increasing the
quantity of work, are to be void. Masters convicted of such agreements,
shall be fined 20l.: half to go to the Crown, half to the informer and
the poor of the parish.]
XVIII. And whereas it will be a great convenience and advantage to
masters and workmen engaged in manufactures, that a cheap and summary
mode be established for settling all disputes that may arise between
them respecting wages and work; be it further enacted by the authority
aforesaid, that, from and after the first day of August in the year of
our Lord one thousand eight hundred, in all cases that shall or may
arise within that part of Great Britain called England, where the
masters and workmen cannot agree respecting the price or prices to be
paid for work actually done in any manufacture, or any injury or damage
done or alleged to have been done by the workmen to the work, or
respecting any delay or supposed delay on the part of the workmen in
finishing the work, or the not finishing such work in a good and
workmanlike manner, or according to any contract; and in all cases of
dispute or difference, touching any contract or agreement for work or
wages between masters and workmen in any trade or manufacture, which
cannot be otherwise mutually adjusted and settled by and between them,
it shall and may be, and it is hereby declared to be lawful for such
masters and workmen between whom such dispute or difference shall arise
as aforesaid, or either of them, to demand and have an arbitration or
reference of such matter or matters in dispute; and each of them is
hereby authorized and empowered forthwith to nominate and appoint an
arbitrator for and on his respective part and behalf, to arbitrate and
determine such matter or matters in dispute as aforesaid by writing,
subscribed by him in the presence of and attested by one witness, in the
form expressed in the second schedule to this Act; and to deliver the
same personally to the other party, or to leave the same for him at his
usual place of abode, and to require the other party to name an
arbitrator in like manner within two days after such reference to
arbitrators shall have been so demanded; and such arbitrators so
appointed as aforesaid, after they shall have accepted and taken upon
them the business of the said arbitration, are hereby authorised and
required to summon before them, and examine upon oath the parties and
their witnesses, (which oath the said arbitrators are hereby authorised
and required to administer according to the form set forth in the second
schedule to this act), and forthwith to proceed to hear and determine
the complaints of the parties, and the matter or matters in dispute
between them; and the award to be made by such arbitrators within the
time being after limited, shall in all cases be final and conclusive
between the parties; but in case such arbitrators so appointed shall not
agree to decide such matter or matters in dispute, so to be referred to
them as aforesaid, and shall not make and sign their award within the
space of three days after the signing of the submission to their award
by both parties, that then it shall be lawful for the parties or either
of them to require such arbitrators forthwith and without delay to go
before and attend upon one of his Majesty's justices of the peace acting
in and for the county, riding, city, liberty, division, or place where
such dispute shall happen and be referred, and state to such justice the
points in difference between them the said arbitrators, which points in
difference the said justice shall and is hereby authorised and required
to hear and determine and for that purpose to examine the parties and
their witnesses upon oath, if he shall think fit.[368]
[Footnote 368: Compare Pt. III. Section III, Nos. 7 and 8 Arbitration
Acts, pp. 568 & 570.]
7. THE SCOTTISH WEAVERS' STRIKE [_Report from Committee on Artizans and
Machinery_, 1824 (_V_), _pp._ 60-63], 1812.
Evidence of Mr. Alex. Richmond. 23 February, 1824.
Were you one of the delegates appointed by the workmen in Glasgow?
Yes; on the failure of the last application to Parliament the
association turned its attention to some Acts of Parliament that were
discovered, empowering the justices of the peace to affix rates of
wages, with a view to raising the wages; the fact was, fluctuation was a
greater evil perhaps, than the lowness of the rate; previous to that
period, fluctuations, to the extent of thirty per cent., took place in
the course of a month, in the price of labour; an attempt was made to
get an extra-judicial arrangement with the masters; the masters were
divided in opinion upon the point, some of them were for a regulation,
others opposed it; after several ineffectual attempts to come to an
arrangement with that part of the masters who opposed it, part of the
masters being in the interest of the operatives, at last a process was
entered before the quarter sessions.
Will you state how the process proceeded?
The justices of the peace found the rate demanded reasonable; it was
amended in some instances, and the masters immediately refused to pay
the rate. Our counsel in the process had consented, for the purpose of
obviating the difficulties and getting over the objections that might be
made against the expediency, to withdraw the imperative part of the
prayer; the prayer of the petition originally founded upon, prayed, that
they might be compelled to pay the price, but it was only a declaratory
decision, as the imperative part was withdrawn, for the purpose of
preventing the difficulty; we then, as the masters refused to pay, tried
every method of getting an extra-judicial decision. The present Lord
Justice Clerk had been a member of the Committee of the House of Commons
in 1809, and appeared decidedly opposed to the principle of
interference; and we conceived from the sentiments of the court, that
though they had decided the law, if we went on the expediency of the
case, we might very likely lose, and we determined therefore to try the
experiment of striking work.
What was the result of this strike?
About three weeks after the effort commenced, there was a direct
interference, on the part of government, to suppress it, by the
apprehension of all the parties concerned.
What do you mean by the apprehension of all the parties concerned?
There was a committee of five, who had conducted the process during the
whole period, and we were all apprehended and committed to gaol.
You were one of the five?
I was.
Under what law were you apprehended?
There was no specific law. There was a case I might have mentioned, but
as it applies to the combination, I will introduce it here. In 1811, a
combination had taken place amongst the cotton spinners; and in a case
that was aggravated by assault, that was tried at the Glasgow circuit,
the present Lord President Hope, who then presided, stated it as an
aggravation of the crime of combination, that there was a clear remedy
in law, as the magistrates had full power and authority to affix rates
of wages, or settle disputes: that was the ground on which we entered
the action in 1812. In the face of this, after having acted upon it on
this principle, the mere act of striking work in a body was construed as
an infringement of the Combination Law; and after having acted upon the
authority of Lord President Hope, we were convicted, on what law I am
yet at a loss to know.
Have there been any combinations, or any individuals prosecuted for
combinations, since that period?
The only other branch of the cotton trade that ever had an association
or combination efficient in Scotland, was the calico printers, and they
were the next that were followed by the suppression of the cotton
weavers' branch in 1815.
In what manner were they broken up?
By the interference of government; immediately after this case, the Lord
Advocate proceeded against them, as public prosecutor in Scotland.
Were they paid higher than other mechanics?
Yes: their wages frequently averaged from forty to fifty shillings a
week, previous to that; now they are down from twelve to fifteen
shillings.
8. THE REPEAL OF THE COMBINATION ACTS [_Statutes_, 5 _Geo. IV_, 95],
1824.
An Act to repeal the Laws relative to the Combination of Workman; and
for other purposes.
[A large number of statutes, wholly or partly repealed, including 39 &
40 Geo. III., 106, except the arbitration clauses.]
II. And be it further enacted, that journeymen, workmen or other persons
who shall enter into any combination to obtain an advance, or to fix the
rate of wages, or to lessen or alter the hours or duration of the time
of working, or to decrease the quantity of work, or to induce another
to depart from his service before the end of the time or term for which
he is hired, or to quit or return his work before the same shall be
finished, or, not being hired, to refuse to enter into work or
employment, or to regulate the mode of carrying on any manufacture,
trade or business, or the management thereof, shall not therefore be
subject or liable to any indictment or prosecution for conspiracy, or to
any other criminal information or punishment whatever, under the common
or the statute law.
III. And be it further enacted, that masters, employers or other
persons, who shall enter into any combination to lower or to fix the
rate of wages, or to increase or alter the hours or duration of the time
of working, or to increase the quantity of work, or to regulate the mode
of carrying on any manufacture trade or business, or the management
thereof, shall not therefore be subject or liable to any indictment or
prosecution, or for conspiracy, or to any other criminal information or
punishment whatever, under the common or the statute law.
V. And be it further enacted, that if any person, by violence to the
person or property, by threats or by intimidation, shall wilfully or
maliciously force another to depart from his hiring or work before the
end of the time or term for which he is hired, or return his work before
the same shall be finished, or damnify, spoil or destroy any machinery,
tools, goods, wares or work, or prevent any person not being hired from
accepting any work or employment; or if any person shall wilfully or
maliciously use or employ violence to the person or property, threats or
intimidation towards another on account of his not complying with or
conforming to any rules, orders, resolutions or regulations made to
obtain an advance of wages, or to lessen or alter the hours of working,
or to decrease the quantity of work, or to regulate the mode of carrying
on any manufacture, trade or business, or the management thereof; or if
any person, by violence to the person or property, by threats or by
intimidation, shall wilfully or maliciously force any master or mistress
manufacturer, his or her foreman or agent, to make any alteration in
their mode of regulating, managing, conducting or carrying on their
manufacture, trade or business; every person so offending, or causing,
procuring, aiding, abetting or assisting in such offence, being
convicted thereof in manner hereafter mentioned, shall be imprisoned
only, or imprisoned and kept to hard labour, for any time not exceeding
two calendar months.
VI. And be it further enacted, that if any persons shall combine, and by
violence to the person or property or by threats or intimidation,
wilfully and maliciously force another to depart from his service before
the end of the time or term for which he or she is hired, or return his
or her work before the same shall be finished, or damnify, spoil or
destroy any machinery, tools, goods, wares or work, or prevent any
person not being hired from accepting any work or employment; or if any
persons so combined shall wilfully or maliciously use or employ violence
to the person or property, or threats or intimidation towards another,
on account of his or her not complying with or conforming to any rules,
orders, resolutions or regulations made to obtain an advance of wages,
or to lessen or alter the hours of working, or to decrease the quantity
of work, or to regulate the mode of carrying on any manufacture, trade
or business, or the management thereof; or if any persons shall combine,
and by violence to the person or property, or by threats or
intimidation, wilfully or maliciously force any master or mistress
manufacturer, his or her foreman or agent, to make any alteration in
their mode of regulating, managing, conducting or carrying on their
manufacture, trade or business; each and every person so offending, or
causing, procuring, aiding, abetting or assisting in such offence, being
convicted thereof in manner hereinafter mentioned, shall be imprisoned
only, or imprisoned and kept to hard labour, for any time not exceeding
two calendar months.
9. A PROSECUTION OF STRIKERS UNDER THE COMMON LAW OF CONSPIRACY [_The
Times, June 4, 1824_], 1810.
_To the Editor of the Times._
SIR,--
That the Committee have proceeded, I will not say rashly, but, upon
misinformation, will be evident from a slight attention to the evidence
of Mr. Richard Taylor, printer.
In reply to some introductory questions, he states that he has been a
printer some 20 years--that he has turned his attention to the
combination laws--and that his opinion is, that they are of no service.
He afterwards states as follows:--
"There were some men imprisoned for combining a great many years ago,
and that created a great deal of misunderstanding; for they were some of
the most respectable of the workmen--those who had been intrusted by
their fellow-workmen at large to negotiate an advance of prices with the
masters; and of course the inflicting of imprisonment on men who are
generally respected was a thing which created a great deal of ill-blood:
a deal of mischief was the consequence of it."
Mr. Richard Taylor, then, here states that a great deal of mischief was
effected by that prosecution. But what will the Committee say, if, when
that evidence is put right, it shall be found to reflect not upon the
Combination Laws now attempted to be repealed, but upon the old common
law, which it is intended to leave in force? Mr. Taylor makes a slight
mistake as to the fact; which mistake being corrected, the whole tide of
his argument is turned away from the Combination Laws, and made to bear
upon the common law for conspiracy....
... How Mr. Taylor, knowing that some of the offenders in that case were
sentenced to two years' imprisonment, and knowing, at the same time,
that the Combination Laws do not admit of an imprisonment for more than
three months, should yet say that those men were tried upon the
Combination Laws, is most inconceivable.
I am, Sir, etc.,
J.W.[369]
[Footnote 369: John Walter, proprietor of _The Times_.]
10. AN ACT REVISING THE LAW AFFECTING COMBINATIONS [_Statutes_, 6 _Geo.
IV_, 109], 1825.
An Act to repeal the Laws relating to the combination of Workmen, and to
make other Provisions in lieu thereof.
III. And be it further enacted, that from and after the passing of this
act, if any person shall by violence to the person or property or by
threats or intimidation, or by molesting or in any way obstructing
another, force or endeavour to force any journeyman, manufacturer,
workman, or other person hired or employed in any manufacture, trade, or
business to depart from his hiring, employment, or work, or to return
his work before the same shall be finished, or prevent or endeavour to
prevent any journeyman, manufacturer, workman, or other person not being
hired or employed from hiring himself to or from accepting work or
employment from any person or persons; or if any person shall use or
employ violence to the person or property of another, or threats or
intimidation, or shall molest or in any way obstruct another for the
purpose of forcing or inducing such person to belong to any club or
association, or to contribute to any common fund, or to pay any fine or
penalty, or on account of his not belonging to any particular club or
association, or not having contributed or having refused to contribute
to any common fund, or to pay any fine or penalty, or on account of his
not having complied or of his refusing to comply with any rules, orders,
resolutions, or regulations made to obtain an advance or to reduce the
rate of wages, or to lessen or alter the hours of working, or to
decrease or alter the quantity of work, or to regulate the mode or
carrying on any manufacture, trade, or business, or the management
thereof; or if any person shall by violence to the person or property of
another, or by threats or intimidation, or by molesting or in any way
obstructing another, force or endeavour to force any manufacturer or
person carrying on any trade or business to make an alteration in his
mode of regulating, managing, conducting, or carrying on such
manufacture, trade or business, or to limit the number of his
apprentices, or the number or description of his journeymen, workmen or
servants; every person so offending, or aiding, abetting, or assisting
therein, being convicted thereof in manner hereinafter mentioned, shall
be imprisoned only, or shall and may be imprisoned and kept to hard
labour, for any time not exceeding three calendar months.
IV. Provided always, and be it enacted, that this act shall not extend
to subject any persons to punishment who shall meet together for the
sole purpose of consulting upon and determining the rate of wages or
prices which the persons present at such meeting, or any of them, shall
require or demand for his or their work, or the hours or time for which
he or they shall work, in any manufacture, trade or business, or who
shall enter into any agreement, verbal or written, among themselves, for
the purpose of fixing the rate of wages or prices which the parties
entering into such agreement, or any of them, shall require or demand
for his or their work, or the hours of time for which he or they will
work, in any manufacture, trade, or business; and that persons so
meeting for the purposes aforesaid, or entering into any such agreement
as aforesaid, shall not be liable to any prosecution or penalty for so
doing; any law or statute to the contrary notwithstanding.
V. Provided also, and be it further enacted, that this act shall not
extend to subject any persons to punishment who shall meet together for
the sole purpose of consulting upon and determining the rate of wages or
prices which the persons present at such meeting, or any of them, shall
pay to his or their journeymen, workmen, or servants for their work, or
the hours, or time of working, in any manufacture, trade, or business;
or who shall enter into any agreement, verbal or written, among
themselves, for the purpose of fixing the rate of wages or prices which
the parties entering into such agreement, or any of them, shall pay to
his or their journeymen, workmen, or servants for their work, or the
hours or time of working, in any manufacture, trade or business; and
that persons so meeting for the purposes aforesaid, or entering into any
such agreement as aforesaid, shall not be liable to any prosecution or
penalty for so doing, any law or statute to the contrary
notwithstanding.
11. THE CONVICTION OF THE DORCHESTER LABOURERS [_The Times, March 20,
1834_], 1834.
Spring Assizes, Western Circuit, Dorchester. Monday, March 17. Crown
Court (before Baron Williams). Administering unlawful oaths.
James Lovelace, George Lovelace, Thomas Stanfield, John Stanfield, James
Hammet, and James Brine were indicted for administering ... a certain
unlawful oath and engagement, purporting to bind the person taking the
same not to inform or give evidence against any associate, and not to
reveal or discover any such unlawful combination.[370] ...
John Lock.--I live at Half Puddle. I went to Toll Puddle a fortnight
before Christmas. I know the prisoner James Brine. I saw him that
evening at John Woolley's. He called me out and I went with him. He took
me to Thomas Stanfield's, and asked me if I would go in with him. I
refused and went away. I saw him in about a fortnight afterwards in a
barn. He asked me if I would go to Toll Puddle with him. I agreed to do
so. James Hammet was then with him. Edward Legg, Richard Peary, Henry
Courtney, and Elias Riggs were with us. They joined us as we were going
along. One of them asked if there would not be something to pay, and one
said there would be 1s. to pay on entering, and 1d. a week after. We all
went into Thomas Stanfield's house into a room upstairs. John Stanfield
came to the door of the room. I saw James Lovelace and George Lovelace
go along the passage. One of the men asked if we were ready. We said,
yes. One of them said, "Then bind your eyes," and we took out
handkerchiefs and bound over our eyes. They then led us into another
room on the same floor. Someone then read a paper, but I don't know what
the meaning of it was. After that we were asked to kneel down, which we
did. Then there was some more reading; I don't know what it was about.
It seemed to be out of some part of the Bible. Then we got up and took
off the bandages from our eyes. I had then seen James Lovelace and John
Stanfield in the room. Some one read again, but I don't know what it
was, and then we were told to kiss the book, when our eyes were
unblinded, and I saw the book, which looked like a little Bible. I then
saw all the prisoners there. James Lovelace had on a white dress, it was
not a smock-frock. They told us the rules, that we should have to pay
1s. then, and a 1d. a week afterwards, to support the men when they were
standing out from their work. They said we were as brothers; that when
we were to stop for wages we should not tell our masters ourselves, but
that the masters would have a note or a letter sent to them.
* * * * *
Mrs. Francis Wetham.--I am the wife of a painter in the town. In
October, last year, James Lovelace and another person came to our shop;
he said he wanted something painted from a design he had brought; he had
two papers with him, on one was a representation of a skull, and on the
other a skeleton arm extended with a scythe; he said it was to be
painted on canvas, a complete skeleton on a dark ground, six feet high;
over the head, "Remember thine end." I asked him what it was for,
whether a flag or a sign; he told me it was a secret for a society, and
he would tell me no more; if I wanted further information I was to send
to him, "J. Lovelace, Toll Puddle."
* * * * *
The following letter was then put in and read:--
Bere Heath, Feb. 1, 1834.
Brother,
We met this evening for the purpose of forming our committee. There was
16 present, of whom 10 was chosen--namely, a president, vice-president,
secretary, treasurer, warden, conductor, three outside guardians and one
inside guardian. All seemed united in heart, and expressed his approval
of the meeting. Father and Hallett wished very much to join us, but wish
it not to be known. I advised them to come Tuesday evening at 6 o'clock,
and I would send for you to come at that time, if possible, and enter
them, that they may be gone before the company come. I received a note
this morning which gave me great encouragement, and I am led to
acknowledge the force of union.
(Signed by the secretary.)
The following rules were then put in and read:--
_General Rules._
1. That this Society be called the Friendly Society of Agricultural
Labourers.
* * * * *
20. That if any master attempts to reduce the wages of his workmen, if
they are members of this order, they shall instantly communicate the
same to the corresponding secretary, in order that they may receive the
support of the grand lodge; and in the meantime they shall use their
utmost endeavours to finish the work they may have in hand, if any, and
shall assist each other, so that they may all leave the place together,
and with as much promptitude as possible.
21. That if any member of this society ... solely on account of his
taking an active part in the affairs of this order ... shall be
discharged from his employment ... then the whole body of men at that
place shall instantly leave that place, and no member of this society
shall be allowed to take work at such place until such member be
reinstated in his situation.
[22. If a member divulge any secret of the society, members throughout
the country shall refuse to work with him.]
23. That the object of this society can never be promoted by any act or
acts of violence, but, on the contrary, all such proceedings must tend
to injure the cause and destroy the society itself. This order therefore
will not countenance any violation of the laws.[371]
[Footnote 370: The indictment was framed on 37 Geo. III, 123, against
seditious and illegal confederacies.]
[Footnote 371: The prisoners were found Guilty. On March 19 they were
sentenced to seven years' transportation. April 16, Lord Howick, in
answer to a question in Parliament, said that he believed their ship had
already sailed. The remainder of their sentence was remitted in 1836.]
12. AN ADDRESS OF THE WORKING MEN'S ASSOCIATION TO QUEEN VICTORIA [_The
Life and Struggles of William Lovett_, _pp._ 124-8], 1837.
Madam,
While we approach your Majesty in the spirit of plain men seeking their
political and social rights, apart from mere names, forms, or useless
ceremonies, we yield to none in the just fulfilment of our duties, or in
the ardent wish that our country may be made to advance to the highest
point of prosperity and happiness....
The country over which your Majesty has been called on to preside, has
by the powers and industry of its inhabitants been made to teem with
abundance, and were all its resources wisely developed and justly
distributed, would impart ample means of happiness to all its
inhabitants.
But, by many monstrous anomalies springing out of the constitution of
society, the corruptions of government, and the defective education of
mankind, we find the bulk of the nation toiling slaves from birth till
death--thousands wanting food, or subsisting on the scantiest pittance,
having neither time nor means to obtain instruction, much less of
cultivating the higher faculties and brightest affections, but forced by
their situation to engender enmity, jealousy, and contention, and too
often to become the victims of intemperance and crime.
* * * * *
The exclusive few have ever been intent in keeping the people ignorant
and deluded, and have sedulously administered to their vices and
fomented their prejudices. Hence the use of their privileges and
distinctions to allure the wealthy and corrupt the innocent; hence
their desire to retain within their own circle all the powers of the
Legislative and Executive, all the riches of Church and State....
To this baneful source of exclusive political power may be traced the
persecutions of fanaticism, the feuds of superstition, and most of the
wars and carnage which disgrace our history. To this pernicious origin
may justly be attributed the unremitted toil and wretchedness of your
Majesty's industrious people, together with most of the vices and crimes
springing from poverty and ignorance, which, in a country blessed by
nature, enriched by art, and boasting of her progress and knowledge,
mock her humanity and degrade her character.
* * * * *
We entreat your Majesty that, whoever may be in your ministry, you will
instruct them, as a first and essential measure of reform, to prepare a
bill for extending the Right of Suffrage to all the adult population of
the kingdom; excepting such as may be justly incapacitated by crime or
defection of the light of reason; together with such other essential
details as shall enable all men to exercise their political rights
unmolested.
13. A CHARTIST MANIFESTO ON THE SACRED MONTH [_William Lovett, Life and
Struggles_, _p._ 214], 1839.
We respectfully submit the following propositions for your serious
consideration[372]:--
That at all the simultaneous public meetings to be held for the purpose
of petitioning the Queen to call good men to her councils, as well as at
all subsequent meetings of your unions or associations up to the 1st of
July, you submit the following questions to the people there
assembled:--
1. Whether they will be prepared, at the request of the Convention, to
withdraw all sums of money they may individually or collectively have
placed in savings banks, private banks, or in the hands of any person
hostile to their just rights?
2. Whether, at the same request, they will be prepared immediately to
convert all their paper money into gold and silver?
3. Whether, if the Convention shall determine that a sacred month will
be necessary to prepare the millions to secure the charter of their
political salvation, they will firmly resolve to abstain from their
labours during that period, as well as from the use of all intoxicating
drinks?
4. Whether, according to their old constitutional right--a right which
modern legislators would fain annihilate--they have prepared themselves
with the arms of freemen to defend the laws and constitutional
privileges their ancestors bequeathed to them?
[Footnote 372: Addressed to the Chartist Convention.]
14. THE ROCHDALE PIONEERS [_Industrial Co-operation_, _Ed. Catherine
Webb_, _pp._ 68-9], 1844.
The objects of this Society are to form arrangements for the pecuniary
benefit and improvement of the social and domestic condition of its
members, by raising a sufficient amount of capital, in shares of one
pound each, to bring into operation the following plans and
arrangements:--
The establishment of a Store for the sale of provisions, clothing, etc.
The building, purchasing, or erecting a number of houses, in which those
members desiring to assist each other in improving their domestic and
social condition may reside. To commence the manufacture of such
articles as the Society may determine upon, for the employment of such
members as may be without employment, or who may be suffering in
consequence of repeated reductions in their wages.
As a further benefit and security to the members of this Society, the
Society shall purchase or rent an estate or estates of land, which shall
be cultivated by the members who may be out of employment or whose
labour may be badly remunerated.
That, as soon as practicable, this Society shall proceed to arrange the
powers of production, distribution, education and government: or, in
other words, to establish a self-supporting home colony of united
interests, or assist other societies in establishing such colonies.
That, for the promotion of sobriety, a Temperance Hotel be opened in one
of the Society's houses as soon as convenient.
SECTION V
THE RELIEF OF THE POOR
1. Settlement Law, 1662--2. Defoe's pamphlet "Giving Alms no
Charity," 1704--3. The Workhouse Test Act, 1722--4. Gilbert's Act,
1782--5. Speenhamland "Act of Parliament," 1795--6. The Workhouse
System, 1797--7. Two Varieties of the Roundsman System of Relief,
1797--8. Another Example of the Roundsman System, 1808--9. Report of
the Poor Law Commission, 1834--10. The Poor Law Amendment Act,
1834--11. Outdoor Relief Prohibitory Order, 1844.
The national organisation of poor-relief was permanently affected by the
constitutional troubles of the seventeenth century. Supervision and
pressure from a central authority were removed and were not again
strongly felt till near the close of this period. This change shows
itself in the documentary evidence; national regulation is rare and
comes only as the result of a special emergency or panic (Nos. 1, 3, 4,
10). The Settlement Act of 1662 (No. 1), with its successors, was an
attempt to meet the special local difficulties which sprang from the
want of central control and uniformity. The Act of 1722 provided the
machinery for the more drastic treatment of the poor advocated in
Defoe's pamphlet (No. 2), by means of a workhouse and a system of tests
for relief; for this purpose unions of parishes could be formed (No. 3).
Gilbert's Act (No. 4) in the last quarter of the century was a reversion
to milder policy; it was intended to distinguish more clearly the
different classes of poor relieved, to provide suitable treatment for
the old infirm and children in institutions, and to find employment for
the able-bodied. It illustrates the growing pressure of industrial
changes on the working classes, as well as the current of humanitarian
feeling which ran a broken course from this time to the end of the
period. It was an adoptive, not a compulsory, Act, and no more
legislative changes of the first importance were made till 1834.
Meanwhile vast transformations were being made in town and, especially,
in country life, and the destitution line was crossed by a whole section
of the nation. The Settlement laws were relaxed, but, after Pitt's
abortive proposals in 1795, Parliament stood aside. The initiative was
thus left to the local authority. The so-called Speenhamland Act of
Parliament (No. 5) is the classic instance of the methods of
supplementary allowances adopted by the Justices in various counties.
Its aim was humane; its effect, to check the pressure for higher wages,
was not intended (see No. 5, note).
The eighteenth century system produced great local variety, some
examples of which are given from the survey published by Eden in 1797
(Nos. 6 and 7). The official workhouse, the farming of the poor to a
contractor, the employment of the poor within the workhouse, and the
relief of the rates by the Roundsman system of servile labour are
described (Nos. 6 and 7. See also No. 8).
The Poor Law Commission of 1834 (No. 9) was the culminating point of a
reaction against the results of the previous half century. Its intention
was to make a clean sweep of tradition and to reassert the principle of
uniformity. Its authors, in the spirit of their age, hoped to make their
reform negatively, by cutting away influences which corrupted human
nature. The extracts (No. 9) show their leading principles and
recommendations. The Act of 1834 (No. 10) embodied their conclusions,
leaving a large discretion to a new central authority. The Regulations
and Orders (No. 11) of these Commissioners and their successors, the
Poor Law and Local Government Boards, were, henceforward, the chief
directing force of Poor Relief policy.
AUTHORITIES