The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-29 00:00:00

WRONGS WHICII CRY FOR REDRESS

Mr. Crook's bill for the Protection of Women
and Children employed in Bleach Works, &c., will
be proposed towards the end of March. If, be-
tween this and then, popular opinion is not brought
to bear on this most atrocious question, it shall be
no fault of ours. We purpose that this article
shall appear in our columns frequently, until the
bill has again been brought before the house; and
we implore our brethren of the press to help the
country, and especially the Legislatire Body, to a
right way of thinking on these horribly cruel mat-
ters. Our extracts are taken almost at random
from Mr. Hopley's pamphlet :
__

Samuel Price examined—" I was in the employment of
Messrs. Ainsworth, near Bolton. They employ about four
hundred people. It was mostly from eleven till two o'clock
in the morning before we left off. In the last year I was
with thorn, from April, 1853, to April, 1854, we were busy,
-as well as I can remember, through the spring and through
the summer, for six or eight months of the year; that is,
we went to work from six to half• past six, sometimes at
four, and left off front ten to twelve, one or two in the
morning, and sometimes after that. * * • All the
people in the works averaged these number of hours—some
oven more."

[Observe that this dreadful toil was not an occasional or
exceptional fact. Girls and boys were thus working,
" through the spring and through the summer, for six or
eight months of the year."]

" At times, if a sudden order has come, we have not been
in bed more than 16 or 18 hours in the week (averaging
more than 211 hours of unrest out of the 24 during semis
successive days and nights for girls and boys, some of
then► no more than 12 years old)."—Report of the Com-
missioner appointed to inquire how far it may be advisable
to extend the Provisions of the Acts for the better Regu-
lation of Mills and Factories to Bleaching Works, pp.
10, 11, Noe. 81-84.

William Johnson, finisher—" I am twenty-four years of
age. I was eleven when I first went to work. I worked
first for Mr. Fletcher, Leylands, ten years. At my com-
mencement" (that is, when ho was a child of eleven) " I
began at twelve o'clock on Sunday night, and worked till
eight on Monday night (20 hours) ; then we started at
six o'clock on Tuesday morning, and worked till 12 at
night (IS hours) ; and we did that for two or three months
without stopping. * * * I have been at a worse place
than that for long hours since ; at Mr. Whowell's, Two
Brooks. * * * There were a deal of young girls, one
or two under ten years of age.—lbid., p. 9, No. 68.
[To have a full perception of the severity of this toil, it
should bo borne in mind that a very largo number of the
workers in these establishments are standing and " work-
ing hard" (as rapidly as possible) during almost the whole
of these lengthened periods. It is shown in evidence that
sometimes for days in succession the girls and boys have
no opportunity whatever of sitting down (save for their
hastily-snatched meals during the whole of the time spent
at the works.—Reports, passim.] I
John Hamer, finisher—" I have been 15 years in the
bleaching trade. I was employed at Messrs. Hollins',
Tootle Bridge, Bolton. * * * One morning we went to
work at five o'clock and worked till six the morning after"
(25 hours.) " All the sets were working the same hours"
(the young with the adults). * * * " I have been so
tired, though I am a strong and healthy man, that I have
often to sit at my bed-side when I get up of a morning,
and my fingers are so stiff and sore that I cannot dress my-
self. If I feel thus tired, what must the young girls and boys
feel p. 8, Nos. 61, 64.
[The frightful state ofTrostration—often ending in death
—to which the young girls and boys are reduced in some of
these establishments will be touched on presently ]

Ann Simpson (14 years old), Elizabeth Hilton (15)
Sarah Higson (16)—" We came to work last Friday morn-
ing at half-past six" (at Mr. Ridgway Bridson's Bleach-
works, Bolton). "We worked all Friday night till half-
past five on Saturday morning" (twenty-three hours.) "We
did not sleep any time in the night, except on Saturday
morning at half-past five we laid down to sleep on the
hooking-box, and slept till a little after seven" (less than
two hours' sleep—and with the clothes still on—after
twenty-three hours' work) ; " then we wont to breakfast for
half-au-hour, and then came and worked till ten minutes
past eleven."—lbid., p. 25, No. 236.