CHAPTER XVI.

CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES.

INQUIRY into the physical and moral condition of the Operatives in the Cotton Manufacture.-THE FACTORY OPERATIVES.-Their Wages.-Tables of Wages, Prices of Provisions, &c. at Manchester and Glasgow; at the mills of Mr. Thomas Houldsworth, of Manchester, and Mr. Thomas Ashton, of Hyde.-High wages of the factory classes.-Account of Mr. Ashton's establishment.-Objections made to factory labour as unhealthy, severe, and destructive to morals and life, especially to children. These objections grossly exaggerated.-Popular agitation on the subject.-Factory labour very light, though long continued; not nearly so injurious as many indispensable and common employments.Prejudices concerning the effect of the steam-engine combated.-Mr. Thackrah's opinion on the unhealthiness of cotton mills: Dr. Kay's.-Evidence to the contrary. Tables of health of mill operatives.-Medical evidence received by the Factory Commission.-Evidence of the operatives themselves: tables of health of fine spinners.-Testimony of the Factory Inspectors to the health and comfort of the work-people.-Legislative interference to protect children in factories.-Factories Regulation Act of 1833.-Some of its provisions found to be impracticable.-State of morals in factories.-Influence of masters.-Improvements of which the factory system is susceptible.-Other classes of operatives in the manufacture.-HAND-LOOM WEAVERS. Their deplorably low wages: hours of labour.-Tables shewing the decline of weavers' wages at Bolton, Burnley, and Glasgow, from 1795 to 1833.-Occasions and immediate causes of the decline-historical review.-Permanent causes-1st. Easy nature of the employment; 2d. Less confining than factory labour; 3d. Surplus of labour-qualified and explained; 4th. The power-loom.-Proposed Boards of Trade to regulate wages-impracticable; proposed tax on power-loomsabsurd.-Desirable to facilitate the abandonment of the hand-loom.-Evils and advantages of large towns.-Intelligence of the manufacturing classes.

WE have seen the effects of the cotton manufacture, in increasing the commerce, population, and wealth of the kingdom, and in adding to the personal and domestic comforts of all classes. The philanthropist and the political philosopher will, however, inquire, what is the physical and moral condition of the vast population employed in this manufacture? The workmen who

from the earth to the sun; and it would encircle the earth's orbit eight and a half times!

The wrought fabrics of cotton exported in one year would form a girdle for the globe, passing eleven times round the equator!

This manufacture furnishes nearly one-half of the exports of British produce and manufactures; it supports more than one-eleventh part of the population of Great Britain; and it supplies almost every nation of the world with some portion of its clothing.

None of the kingdoms of Hanover, Wirtemberg, or Saxony, has a population exceeding that engaged in the manufacture of cotton in this island.

The receipts of our manufacturers and merchants for this one production of the national industry, are equal to two-thirds of the whole public revenue of the kingdom.

To complete the wonder-this manufacture is the creation of the genius of a few humble mechanics; it has sprung up from insignificance to its present magnitude within little more than half a century; and it is still advancing with a rapidity of increase that defies all calculation of what it shall be in future ages.

hours, and have undoubtedly a greater command of necessaries and comforts than at any former period. The spinners, dressers, dyers, printers, power-loom weavers, and all classes of work-people employed in aid of machinery, are also well remunerated for their labour; in the mills, the hours of labour are limited by law to twelve per day, and nine on Saturday * The hand-loom weavers employed in making plain goods, on the contrary, are in a deplorable condition, both in the large towns and in the villages; their wages are a miserable pittance, and they generally work in confined and unwholesome dwellings.

Much valuable information has been collected within the last eighteen months, by the Factory Commissioners and the Factory Inspectors, illustrative of the condition of the operatives in cotton factories; and it is such as to dissipate the clouds of misrepresentation which declaimers had breathed forth on the subject. In regard to the remuneration for their labour, it is established, that no large class of workmen in the kingdom are receiving better wages. The tables given in the last chapter, from the Supplementary Report of the Factory Commissioners, compiled from actual returns bearing every mark of accuracy, state the average weekly net earnings of 48,645 hands (adults and children) in the principal cotton districts of Lancashire and Cheshire, and the average net monthly earnings of 67,819 hands in the same places. It appears that the latter number, including 19,247 men, 20,962 women, and 27,610 children, earned £141,635 in the month ending 4th May, 1833, which is equal to 10s. 54d. per week

The law only prohibits the working of young persons under eighteen years of age more than twelve hours a day in factories; but as such young persons form nearly one-half of the hands, and are employed in many of the operations, the effect is to limit the labour of adults to the same period.

construct or attend upon all these machines are not to be confounded with the machines themselves, or their wear and tear regarded as a mere arithmetical question. They are men,-reasonable, accountable men; they are citizens and subjects; they constitute no mean part of the support and strength of the state; on their intelligence and virtue, or their vices and degradation, depend in a considerable measure not only the character of the present age, but of posterity; their interests are as valuable in the eyes of the moralist, as those of the classes who occupy higher stations. Yet the inquiry should be, not if the manufacturing population are subject to the ills common to humanity, not if there is not much both of vice and misery in the crowded towns of Lancashire; but, what is the condition of the working classes of the cotton district, compared with that of the working classes elsewhere? It is the destiny of man to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow; idleness, improvidence, intemperance, and dissoluteness, are found in every community, and are invariably the parents of wretchedness; every where, people of all ages and conditions are liable to disease and death. If our inquiries, therefore, are not discriminating, we may fall into the greatest errors.

The principal considerations will be, the command which the working classes have over the necessaries and comforts of life, their health, their intelligence, and

their morals.

The rate of wages has a very important bearing on the first and second of these considerations. It may be remarked generally, that the smiths, mechanics, joiners, bricklayers, masons, and other artisans, employed in the construction of buildings and machinery for the cotton manufacture, earn excellent wages, work moderate

hours, and have undoubtedly a greater command of necessaries and comforts than at any former period. The spinners, dressers, dyers, printers, power-loom weavers, and all classes of work-people employed in aid of machinery, are also well remunerated for their labour; in the mills, the hours of labour are limited by law to twelve per day, and nine on Saturday The hand-loom weavers employed in making plain goods, on the contrary, are in a deplorable condition, both in the large towns and in the villages; their wages are a miserable pittance, and they generally work in confined and unwholesome dwellings.

*

Much valuable information has been collected within the last eighteen months, by the Factory Commissioners and the Factory Inspectors, illustrative of the condition of the operatives in cotton factories; and it is such as to dissipate the clouds of misrepresentation which declaimers had breathed forth on the subject. In regard to the remuneration for their labour, it is established, that no large class of workmen in the kingdom are receiving better wages. The tables given in the last chapter, from the Supplementary Report of the Factory Commissioners, compiled from actual returns bearing every mark of accuracy, state the average weekly net earnings of 48,645 hands (adults and children) in the principal cotton districts of Lancashire and Cheshire, and the average net monthly earnings of 67,819 hands in the same places. It appears that the latter number, including 19,247 men, 20,962 women, and 27,610 children, earned £141,635 in the month ending 4th May, 1833, which is equal to 10s. 54d. per week

The law only prohibits the working of young persons under eighteen years of age more than twelve hours a day in factories; but as such young persons form nearly one-half of the hands, and are employed in many of the operations, the effect is to limit the labour of adults to the same period.