The National Register.
London, England, 1819-07-25 00:00:00

MR. OWEN'S INSTITUTION

AT NEW LANARK.

IN our Number of last week we inserted as ac-
NOW of as Institution which, whether from the
friends or opponents of the principles upon which it
is established, is fully entitled, as a practical lesson
of Political Economy to their consideration—we
mean Mr. Owen's Institution, ut New Lanark
From the unquestioned benevcl..nce of that Gentle-
latia's intentions, and from the equally unquestioned
BeneGts which have resulted to those who have been
placed under his care and employment, as compared
with the labourers of the greater part of our Cotton
Manufactories, throughout the kincrdom, the La-
nark Establishment presents itself as an object of
deep and interesting concern. It would be so at
any time and under any circumstances, but in a
crisis like the ,present, when from a long course of
had Government, misery and vice are, like a noisome
pestilence, - raging with almost -resistless fury, and
the apparent indisposition to retrace a single step of
that ill-Gated path which has conducted us to the
brink of ruin, leaves little or nothing to be hoptsi for
from our public Rulers, every glimpse of light which
may be thrown upon us from other quarters becomes
tioully valuable, and cannot be disregarded. A few
observations therefore upon this topic cannot, we are
willing to believe, be unacceptable to our readers.

The Establishment of New Lanark was originally
begun in 1784, by Mr. Dale, of Glasgow, who was
induced to adopt that spot in preference to any other,'
by the advantages to be derived from the waters of
the Clyde for working the machinery then lately
invented, for spinning cotton yarn. The country
was at that time uncultivated, the inhabitants poor
and few in number, and the roads in the neighbour-
hood so bad that the Falls, now an celebrated, were
then unknown to la rangers. Labourers were neces-
:;arily procured from other places, anti he had re-
course to the two motlea—first, of procuring children
from various public charitieu of the Kingdom, for
whom he provided a large house where they were
led, clothed, and educated—secondly, by inducing
families to settle round the works, and for these
uh:o cottages were erected and let to them at the
most reasonable rate. Mr. Dale, with every feeling
et' kindness and humanity towards those employed
by'him, and with every attention paid to their com-
fort, still found that his Establishment presented
but just the same aspect which so generally per-
vades societies of this kind. The children were set
to work so wring, for he was obliged to take them
at six or seven years old, or he mold not have them
at all, anti confined so long, that the hours allotted
for education were found quite inadequate to any
Lenefitial progrss, and the little that remained for
relaxation was so scanty that many of them became
dwarfs both in mind and hotly, many more ran away,
and all naturally looked forward with impatience
and anxiety to the hour which was to terminate
their apprenticeship, ns an hour of deliverance from
a yoke of intolerable bondage. The adults were
able to earn more than was actually necessary for
subsistence, hut '..hese earnings were either curtailed
by idleness, or their surplus spent in drunkenness
and debauchery ; anti thus vice, and immorality,
and poverty, and debt, anti misery prevailed to as
monstrous an extent as in the corroiontling