The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-16 00:00:00

t the manufacturing districts. Every Honou -able Gentleman
would recollect that a very large proportion of the authorities
which the Noble Lord had quoted gave neither dates nor
names, but he intended to give in most cases the dates
and in all cases the names; and he thought that no Hon.
Member would deity that the authorities he should quote would
be worthy of attention. He would go over the ground of com-
plaint of the Noble Lord, although at the risk of being tedious,
but considering that for two hours and a quarter they had
listened with the utmost possible attention to the charges of the
Noble Lord, he therefore thought that he had a right, con-
nected as he was with that population, and with those districts'
to claim the attention of that House to the statements which he
should offer to the house as counter-statements to those of the
Noble Lord. And, first of all, with respect to the health o
the persons employed in the cotton trade. Mr. Har-
rison, who was the Inspecting Surgeon for Preston,
said that he found the average amount sickness, among the
children he had examined, was four days each, and that that
sickness was not generally caused by factory labour. He said
he was not a little surprised to find so few children suffering
from accidents which had been cans 'd by machinery. Con-
sidering the protection which was given in the factories he
expected that accidents would h.- of less frequent occurrence
thin they had hitherto been. He said that he had examined
1,650 children, and not one of them was deformed. Now
this was the statement of the inspecting surgeon of one
of the districts to which the Noble Lord had referred.
The Factory. Inspector's Report of 1834 confirmed Mr. Harri-
son's view with respect to the effects of factory labour. He (Mr.
Bright) did not see why that report was not just as good evi-
dence now as it was in 1834, considering the improvement with
respect to the management of factories in the North of England.
That report stated that factory labour was not injurious to
bealth and longevity compared with other employment. Mr.
Sanders, a factory inspector, said, " it appears in evi-
dence that of all employments to which children are sub-
ject, that carried on in factories is among the least
laborious, and the least unwholesome." Mr. Horner, in
July, 1834, in his report, said it was gratifying to
be able to state that he had not had a single complaint laid
before him, either on the part of masters against servants, or
servants against masters ; nor had he seen or heard of an in-
stance of injury to health arising from factory employment.
Mr. Harrison, on the 24th July, 1834, in speaking of the em-
ployment of children, said that the eight hours which the chil-
dren passed in the factories were passed more beneficially to
themselves than if they were at home. Now there were trades
in this metropolis, to which the Noble Lord had adverted, the
employment in which was most detrimental to health.—
( Hear, hear.) He (Mr. Bright) had some exacts
from a report which had been made respeeting
the condition of the persons employed, and he would
read one or two of them to the House, It was supposed that
15,000 young women were employed as milliners in London.
The report stated these young persons were employed about
four months in the year, or during the fashionable season.
Their regular hours of work were 15 in number, but were
often extended to 18. In many establishments the hours of
working during the season were unlimited, the young women
getting six, sometimes four, and three, and occasionally only
two hours allowed for sleep out of the 24, and very frequently
they were compelled to work all night. The Sub-Inspector
described the labour of these young women as quite unparal-
leled in the history of manufacturing pursuits. Sir James
Clark, the eminent physician, in his evidence, said that
this system had the most pernicious effect on the health of
the young women. As he ( Mr. Bright) was coming down to the
House that afternoon a gentleman placed in his hand an ac-
count of a fact which had come under his knowledge within
the last few days, as to a girl, only seventeen years of age, with
whom 401. was paid to a dressmaker at the west-end of the
town as a premium for three years' apprenticeship. From
Friday four weeks until Friday last she had little more than
four hours' rest out of the twenty-four. On Sunday week she
worked from two o'clock on Saturday morning until Sunday
morning at eight o'clock—a period of thirty hours—without
any rest. The gentleman who had care of the girl, and who
placed her in the situation, fetched her back, on account
of excessive cruelty; and this was not at all unusual. If
he were to state the party for whom this particular dress was
made, at which this unfortunate creature worked for thirty
hours without any cessation, and even on the Sabbath, it must
cause great pain and astonishment elsewhere, although the in-
dividual in question was by no means cognisant of the fast.
That was something worse than factory labour—there was
something worse than working twenty-two or twenty-four
hours. The same circumstances that produced this misery
were the cause of the distress of the labouring population of the
kingdom. All these evils came from absolute want. Did
they did not hear of actual starvation? And the House
passing a clause in any Act in the same direction was
nothing more than plastering the sores which their own
legislation had created, instead of going to the root of the evils—
evils which some of her Majesty's Ministers knew full well the
cause of as well as the majority of the Hon. Members of that House.
The next question to which the Noble Lord had adverted was
that of accident. The Noble Lord drew a most deplorable pic-
ture of the loss of life in the manufacturing districts. On this
subject the Noble Lord had made gross misstatements. The
Noble Lord mentioned Mr. Greg's name; now he would read
an extract from Mr. Greg's letter, which he had received the
other day, with reference to his own establishment. He said—
" It is difficult to believe how this opinion can be so prevalent
that accidents are
of such frequent occurrence in mills as to
justify the special interference of the Legislature ; why it is
not only not the fact, but the very reverse of everybody s ex-
perience. In our own mill which has now existed for
seventy years, and in which four hundred hands are em-
ployed, there never was but one limb lost, and that was
during play. Not one person's life was lost inside the mill,
while no less than four fatal accidents have occurred within
20 yards of the mill during a shorter period. Why, the carter
is exposed to more danger than 500 factory men. I hold a
farm in Hertfordshire. I had not it in my possession more
than two years when a carter was killed. In my two farms
there have been more fatal accidents in three years than in the
mill during all my experience." The Noble Lord said he would
bring documents from infirmaries and dispensaries. He wished
the Noble Lord to bear in mind that these dispensary returns
were most fallacious guides in this point, because they did not
state how the accidents occurred, but who the men were who
met with the accidents. Mr. Greg said that two persons
bad worked for him ; that they had a quarrel in a pnblic-
house, and each man had a leg broken. These poor fellows
were taken to the infirmary, and the entry was "Two
factory hands—broken legs," although machinery had no
more to do with the accidents than the Noble Lord himself.
He had also received a communication from Mr. W. R.
Greg, brother to: the gentleman last-named, in confirmation
of the document already quoted. Only two fatal accidents had
occurred in this factory during seven years. One of these
was his carter, who was run over on the high road. The
other was drowned in the pond at the rear of his mill. In
truth, factory labourers were less liable to accidents than any
others. Forty people had been killed in the mines last
year, and there were more lives lost in the Government
powder-mills at Waltham than at all the factories in Stock-
port and its neighbourhood for two years. Another mill-
owner at Bolton stated, in a letter to him (Mr. Bright), that
for four years no fatal accident had occurred in his mill, and
only one young man had received such an injury in the hand
that the member was obliged to be amputated.
He had received another communication from Mr.
Samuel Ashton, a very large manufacturer. From
his statement it appeared that from 1819 to 183 400
hands were employed ; from 1830 to 1855, 900 hands, and
from 1835 to 1844, 1,200 hands ; and yet from 1819 to 1844,
there was not a single fatal accident in his manufactory. With
another spinner who, from 1812 to 1844, had employed from
300 to 400 labourers, no fatal accident had occurred. By Mr.
Ashton, who had an interview that day with the Secretary of
State for the Home Department, he was informed that he
had employed for thirty years from 400 to 1,400 men, and
only two fatal accidents had occurred—one to an overlooker,
who did not take proper care of himself—the other death was
so mysterious and so like self-destruction that it could not be
called an accident. Another letter from a manufacturer who
had employed 560 from 1824 to 1844, had only one fatal acci-
dent. Another manufacturer stated that no fatal accident had oc-
curred in his mill, but one carter connected with the establishment
had lost his life by accident during thirty-five years. He could
bring statements from every district of the cotton trade to dis-
prove the statements of the Noble Lord. Was it not trifling
with the House—was it not unworthy of the Legislature—was
it not trifling with the country—to waste the time of the
House in passing Acts of Parliament, appointing public pro-
secutors to proceed against manufacturers on the supposition
that accidents had occurred, which never took place, and which
were never likely to take place ? He had returns from Stock-
port and Manchester—the coroners' returns. They stated
that, during the whole year—from the 11th of February, 1842,
to the 11th of February, 1843—there was no one person killed
by anything connected with shafts in mills, and only two per-
sons by machinery in factories.
.When they considered
all the mills in that enormous district.# and the scores of
thousands employed, and that only twoAives were lost, was it
not absurd to pass Acts of Parliament to prevent the re-
occurrence of accidents? Why, there were five carters killed
for one factory labourer. The reports from Stockport
were still more decisive. From February, 1842, to February,
11843, there was no person killed by machinery, although that
district included twenty-six townships. He thought, after
these statements, no Hon. Member would leave the House
under the impression that accidents were more common in
manufacturing than in other districts. It was manifest that
the labourers in the manufacturing districts received higher
wages than any other class of labourers ; therefore it was
absurd for the Noble Lord to speak of the cruelty
of the millowners towards their employes—their labourers were
too well off, and too independent to submit to cruelty. Their
position enabled them to cope with the resistance of their
masters. As to the morality of the factory people, he could
cite one or two authorities to which even the Noble Lord
would pay deference. The whole of his statements were most
calumnious.—(" Order, order "from the Ministerial benches. )
The Noble Lord had introduced some such statements. Ile
had read but little about the state of education in the manufac-
turing districts, or the religious instruction which prevailed in
Leeds ; but in that town there was a larger proportion of free
sittings in the churches and chapels, and all of which were
better filled, than in the whole of 'Westminster and the Metro-
polis. Again the schools and chapels had proportionately in-
creased, much more than the population, and that was a proof
that both religion and education were progressing and not re-
trograding. He could afford many proofs to the Noble Lord
of the fallacy of Isis statement, if he (Mr. Bright) were not
unwilling to detain the House, from communications which
had been made to him without any application on his part.
However, he felt bound to trespass on them for a short time.
In a large establishment between Bolton and Blackburn, out
of 1,382 hands employed inthe mill, the whole of them could
read and write, and a majority who could do so well. He as-
serted distinctly, and without fear of contradiction, that the ma-
nufacturers of Lancashire and the north of England had done more
r the education of the children of their dependents than all of
the landed proprietors who now sought to throw obloquy upon
the characters of the manufacturers of the north. lie should
particularly call the attention of the Noble Lord the Mem-
ber for Dorset to a letter from a manufacturer at Staley-
bridge, which described a meeting, the objects of which were to
promote education. The meeting was composed of members
belonging to the different Independent congregations of that
town, and at it 2,0001. was subscribed. Out of this sum the
operatives subscribed no less than 2501. He challenged any
Noble Lord or Hon. Gentleman to show a parallel case to this
which occurred in any agi icultural county, and in which the
operatives or labourers entered into such a subscription for the
purpose of promotitig the objects of education. He thought
Mr. Horner had made a strange mistake, and done much in-
justice to many in his report, and that he Is as also assisted
and attempted to be borne out in that mistake by a clergy-
man of the Established Church. Neither of those parties
had made the slightest allusion to the Dissenters, who were
most numerous in that town.—(Some interruption here oc-
curred in consequence of cries of " Time, time" front the 'l',.ry
benches.) He could state, on the authority of the Messrs.
Chambers, the well-known publishers of Chambers' Journal,
that its circulation amounted to 8.5,000 a week, out of which
25,000 were circulated in Lancashire, while perhaps they had not
a circulation of fifty for their publication in Hampshire. It was
in Lancashire, that the London and Edinburgh publishers found
the most circulation for all the works which emanated from
their press. He should be very sorry to attempt to conceal the
sufferings of the population in the factory districts. Indeed,
he came to London before he had the honour of a seat in that
House, to impress upon her Majesty's Government the extreme
misery which pervaded certain districts. But still he should
assert that taking the whole island, and considering the various
fluctuations which tended to depress all classes, that the rate of
wages and the physical comforts of the manufacturing classes
were higher than those of any other trade or occupation in this
country, and he was prepared to establish this assertion.
—(Cries of " Time, time," and " Question," from the Mi-