The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-13 00:00:00

them that makes the new skin come" (No. 285).
" I have always sore feet in summer time" No.
583).—" Feet often so sore that the skin comes off
with my stockings" (No. 504).—" Worked when
the skin was off my feet very badly" (No. 492).
" I have often had the skin off my feet " (No. 232).
—" Her feet very often got raw" (No. 448).—" My
feet were always sore in summer : they were blood-
raw at bottom, and my ankles are swelled with a
deal of pain" (No. 463).—p. 28.
But, it may be asked, how is it possible to keep
those children going " for four days and nights
together." Well : it is not possible. They will go
to sleep, these perverse little souls. Not even their
aching heads, their blood-raw feet, nor the cloth
sawing against their cut and festering fingers, nor
the hoarse, rough voice of the hired bully, no, nor
the feeling that they are upholding " th• great
manufacturing interests of the country,"—nothing
can hinder them from sleeping " standing at their
work :"

Mr. Butt—How did you awaken them (alluding
to the little children of one of these establidhments,
when they fell asleep " standing at their work ?"
Many a time by shouting, and at other times getting
a board and rapping it on the table, making a loud
report that used to startle them, and I conld keep
them awake then for an hour, or more than that,
perhaps, by frightening them.—p. 32.
We search in vain the annals of American slavery
for anything like this. Dante's " Inferno" contains,
to our mind, nothing so horrible. The establish-
ment here alluded to employs " nearly six hun-
dred" workers, and (mark this, reader) it " affords
rather a favourable than an unfavourable specimen
of the management of bleaching-works in that part
of the country."
" I :have scores of times seen both adults and
children asleep at their work, and very dangerous
work too" (No. 10).—" Very often they go to sleep
over their work" (No. 51).—" I have had almost
every day to take a board and beat it on the table
to waken them, as they were slumbering at their •
work." "At that time they would be hooking
cicth; and while they should be doing it, I see them
nodding and trying to catch the hook" (No. 83).
" As to the older ones, I have often and often seen
them down asleep, not being able to hold up for
their work. If the manager had gone out, they
would drop down in a minute in the packing-boxes
and go to sleep" (No. 68).—" We have often gone
to sleep on the tables, or with our heads on the wet
cloth, or anywhere where wo could sit still" (No.
878).—" The little ones very often fall asleep
standing to their work. They fall asleep stading
before their hooks. I have to keep them awake
and my heart is [so sore for them that I cannot
speak to them. I have worked at bleach-works in
the finishing room, twenty years, and it has always
been so in all the works where I have been." (No.
462)—" It falls very hard upon the weaker boys. I
often saw them sleeping on their legs, and I have
done so often myself. Their whole frame suffers.
I have known at least eight in the last twelve years :
who have fallen into consumption and died." (No. %.
414)—p. 29. _

This retiring from work to die is of course very
common :

" I have often been ill from working in the great
heat. My leg is now bad from it, and the doctor
told me I must give up. The girls very often suf-
fer from it ; go away and die from it and the long
hours." (No. 646)—p. 29.
Mr. Hopley, after indicating ten consecutive wit-
nesses—ten consecutive witnesses, mark you—em-
ployed at different establishments, who mention
" many cases within their knowledge of boys and
young men having died from the long hours," and
after showing that with females matters are area
worse, thus continues :

" Reader, it is no use mincing words. Look upon-
all this calmly, weigh the matter well, and have
the manly or womanly honesty to call it by ita
right name : and what is it? WIEOLZSALB MUD.,
DEB—murder for GOLD!

" The man who poisons another to escape the
payment of a debt is hung. The man who stops
another in the Queen's highway and demands
" your money or your life" is hung. But these,
who build up princely fortunes with the bloody
hands and bloody feet of helpless little ones—
who wade through killing tyranny to wealth—
who live upon women's and children's life.
blood—who are guilty of the death not of
one only, but of scores of their fellow-creatures
—these roll about in carriages; and after
founding a church or two, and a school or two,
are looked upon as just, liberal, and benevolent
men ; and sit on magisterial benches ; and take
their place in Parliament ; and assume an interest
in the welfare of the poor; and argue upon the
rights of labour ! Woe to the Legislature that con-
tains within its body the rust that must corrupt !
Woe to the nation that hears such things and will * '
not raise its voice !"—p. 30.
We don't like this language somehow. It ratheir.::
awes us. But the worst of it is, we really do net
know what fault to find with it. If gold-worship-
pers will, in their race after riches, act in such
manner as to cause thinking, moral men to reek
them below the vulgar highwayman or the comolcm
poisoner, theirs be the blame, should the community
play with alliterations and talk in one breath of
manufacturers, millionaires, and murderers.
But will the nation " hear suck things, and yet
not raise its voice ?" We trust not—nay, we are
confident not. But let us help our readers to think
a little. 'I ho Select Committee of the House of
Commons (a large proportion of its members were
of the manufacturing interest) having heard all-
these horrors, came to the conclusion, in May, 1858,
that this was not a matter in which it was neces-
sary for the Legislature to interfere. Further; the
other day, Mr. Crook begged leave to bring in it
bill to place these -women and children under the
regulations of the Factories Act. lJp sprang Mr.
Kirk, Mr. Turner, Mr. Richardson, and Mr. Chest-
ham (manufacturers all), who expressed astonish-
ment at such a suggestion, and argued that there
was no sufficient cause for legislative interference.'.`.
Well, this might have been expected. But what
are we to think of Mr. Henley, the late Cabinet
Minister ? What are we to think of his arguing that
it would be imprudent to interfere, inasmuch as L
(we quote from the Times) " interference onght:jf
not to be resorted to until a strong case had,iit
been made out for so exceptional a proceeding r
At the close of the milk-and-watery debate—if it
deserve the name of a debate—only thirty members
of the House of Commons could be found to vote
for the rescne of these women and children I
Now, we revert to our first inquiry. We ask, not
of tyrannical employers, nor of upstart" reformers,*
nor of lukewarm do-nothings—we ask of men whom
we can respect, men whom we have a right to belioe •
have hearts that feel, men whom we have a right to,
believe are really interested in the social amelioration
of our people—we ask, then, of Lord Shaftesbury, we
ask of Lord Carlisle, we ask of Lord Ebury, the
Earl of Ripon, Mr. Sidney Herbert, the Bishops of
London, Oxford, Durham, Manchester—we ask, too,
of Lord Brolgham and Lord J. Russell—we ask of
every one who has taken a prominent part in move- L
meats of a social or philanthropic character—What 14
should be considered a sufficient cause for inter-
ference between employers and employed ? Are •
operatives to understand for the future that unless
they bring forward proofs of something more tyre,.
rible than girls being almost baked—" their feet -a
burnt," " their legs red as scarlet from the heat of
the sues" ; something more terrible than their
being frequently carried lifeless out of stoves ; some-
thing more terrible than bloody-handed, bloody-
footed " little ones" kept from bed and home for
two, three, and four days and nights together;
something, in short, more terrible than women and
children being literally worked to death by ex-
quisitely cruel processes, and hounded on to their ,r
destruction amid the " hallooings" and" frighten-
ings" of hired brutality ; are operatives, we ask, to
understand that unless they can bring before the
attention of the Legislature something still more
frightful than all this devilry, they may hope in
vain for a redress of grievances ? We will not be-
lieve it. We appeal with confidence to the nonage
which we have cited, and we humbly and respect-
fully, but at the same time, as we say, with
confidence, solicit them to come to the resene,of
women and helpless children. We make this ap-
peal in no party spirit whatever, but as a duty—a
duty to our country and to our Queen, herself the
mother of " little ones." When her subjects are
murdered, the loss is hers ; her's and her country's.
Let this, then, be the touchstone of the reformer's
sincerity, this the test of loyalty, patriotism, and
true nobility :—Who will stand most manfully for-
ward for the rescue of these women and little
children ?—Court Circular.

We have reason to believe that a meeting of the
Earl of Derby's supporters will tako place at his lordship's,
residence on Wednesday next. It is therefore impossible to
state, until after that day, what course the Conservative
party of the House of Commons will take with respect to
the Budget. All statements upon the matter are mere Bur.
misec—Morning Herald.

The new titles to be assumed by Lord and
will, we understand, be 'Viscount Edonham and Earl Dud-
ley.

BREACII OF PROMISE.—In the Court of Queen'l
Bench, on Saturday, the cause of Hart v. Page was trawl.
The plaintiff, Elizabeth Hart, was a widow lady residing is
Tavistock-square, and she sued the defendant, William S.
Page, an attorney, residing in Manchester-square, to recover
damages for a breach of promise of marriage. The firo
count of the declaration wag in the usual form, but there
was a second count, in which it was alleged that the plain'
tiff was a Jewess, and was about to be baptized as a mem:
ber of the Church of England, and the defendant promised
that as soon as she was baptized and became a member or
the Church of England he would marry her ; it was thou
alleged that the plaintiff was baptized, &c., but the (100%.
dant refused to fulfil his promise. The jury found for 14'
plaintiff—damages, £1,200.