The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-23 00:00:00

FACTORY INSPECTORS' REPORTS,
--

The usual reports, just laid before ParHamm',
from the Inspectors of Factories, deal with several
subjects of great interest. The number of opera-
tives on full time in the eotton districts is stated to
have increased by above 60 per cent. in the course
of the year 1863, but work was less abundant in the
latter part of the year, and the earnings are lament-
ably insufficient owing to the inferior character of
so much of the material. The diminished mortality
continues. The improved health of the operatives
is attributed to the change to outdoor labour in
many instances, less of riotous living in some, and
shorter working hours for the women and children.
But the diminished supply of nutritious food has
began to tell, and perhaps also the extra labour
which Surat cotton entails; and medical men say
that the people are thinner and show diminished
stamina, and that the constitutional vigour of great
numbers is gradually being undermined, though
this result is not manifested in increasing sickness,
bat rather in retarding recovery. The report from
the schools is satisfactory ; the attendance has con-

tinued good, and many schoolmasters have kept
children in their schools without payment rather
than turn them into the streets. The sewing.
schools have taught needlework to hundreds of
grown-up women who were quite ignorant of it.
Mr. Redgrave reports, " I saw a mother, for
instance, in a sewing-school, making a frock for
her sixth child ; this woman had Dever used a
needle until she came to the sewing-class."
He gives an account, also, of the improve-
ments which are being effected by the operatives
under the Public Works Act. The wages earned
at such works have been low, but would improve
as the men became accustomed to the work, and
they have proved intelligent workers and ready
to learn. There has been no backwardness in
endeavouring to obtain work in cotton factories;
but generally the operatives have been disinclined
to leave their neighbourhood, and this feeling
has naturally been fostered indirectly by the
masters and the house-owners. Mr. Redgrave
supposes the cotton imported this year will cost up.
wards of £80,000,000, but he notices the effect of
high price in producing economy. The" waste"
from the various processes of the manufacture of
cotton is now worked up again, and is the means of
giving employment to many hands. The preju-
d that recognisedbe
thevi o
mill.
worked
ii.
eid
dice against the re-manufacture of woollhenearwsatehatreaoe
still t
t
the trade is that they will be required and will be
has subsided, and left the " shoddy" trade an
important branch of the woollen trade of York.
shire, giving the consumer cloth of a fair quality
at a very moderate price ; and doubtless the
" cotton waste"
as
hse supplying pa ptchloyeui
course
cotton
taotnof
n trerectionaadmittedde ;
e rvMr.want.iv es Redgrave
Cottondugdy r
tahvt
o the opinion
b mills
trad
of e
also lO will
0 reportsreab e
expelcitk
ea,, , trade
But"i
to "of
swnhoi
tc he no one has
ehea
where
he
evreer
there
worked. will
i‘ b
ier.
. upwards
Ba
Baker
er
ownersythee hands
tseen the
are to be found. To a certain extent the
deficiency of labour is likely to be suppleby l' d
im-
provements in machinery. Mr. Redgrave mentions
a mill in Manchester in which he noticed new card•
ing engines, and on inquiry learned that 12 are
doing the same quantity of work that 75 did before;
the manufacturer says he requires 14 fewer hands,
and finds a saving in waste amounting to about 10
per cent., and a great saving in power, coal, oil,
tallow, shafting, and strapping, and give cheerful
rooms and a good atmosphere to breathe. Still Mr.
Redgravo has to conclude with the expression of
his hope that if a scarcity of hands shall give rise
to a demand for an advance in the rate of wages,

the warm
sympathy which has been so deeply felt
by the whole country far the distressed districts,
the mutual respect and good feeling which have
existed between employer and employed during the
last two eventful years, and the experience the ope-
ratives have had that the interests of themselves
the and
question
of w
masters
wages
ce
3of a
identical,l all
will tend to divest
angry
gry feeling, so that
it may be settled upon terms which each party may
consider as just and fair to himself.

THE BILL FOR BUILDING THE NEW PALACE OF
JUSTICE is to be proceeded with this session, says to-day's

Law Tinto,