The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-03 00:00:00

THE FACTORIES BILL.

To the Right Honourable and Honourable the Metn-
b-.!rs of the House of Commons, the following
statement of facts is respectfully submitted by a
deputation of manufacturers and mill-owners, re-
presenting more than two hundred firms exten-
sively engaged in the cotton, woollen, and similar
trades.

Theybeg leave to say that the branches of manu-
facture which must be affected by any changes in the
factory law supply thirty-five out of the forty-four
millions of the exports of the United Kingdom, and,
both indirectly and immediately, give employment to
a large proportion of the British population. It is
obviously of the highest importance that the mea-
sures designed to establish an interference with so
large an amount of national production, and with the
condition of so vast a number of individual pro-
ducers, should be based on sound and accurate in-
formation; but they regret to find much misappre-
hension prevailing in various quarters, and dangerous
misstatements given to the world under the sanction
of influential names. Sincerely anxious to promote
and preserve the comforts of the operative, and to ad-
vance their condition in the social scale, they beg
leave to state, that benevolence, when misdirected by
erroneous representations, is almost certain to injure
the objects of its favour, and they, therefore, earnestly
request you to examine the evidence for the alleged
facts, by which an interference with the hours of
labour is attempted to be justified.
The erroneous statements of which they complain,
and a refutation of which they propose to lay before
you, are chiefly contained in the Morning Post of
March 16, arid form what purports to be the substance
of a speech delivered by Lord Ashley, on moving that
the duration of factory-labour for females and non-
adults should be limited to ten hours. Before enter-
ing upon the separate examination of these statements
the members of the deputation have to complain that
the data of many of the calculations and statistical in-
ferences brought forward in the speech attributed to
the Noble Lord are nowhere given, and they respect•
fully submit that it is unreasonable to demand assent
to conclusions when the premises are withheld. How-
ever correct calculations may be, their results must
be worthless if the measurements on which they are
founded be erroneous ; and however true a statistical
return may be, it can furnish no ground for inference
if it be made up from partial survey and selected
cases.

Lord Ashley is represented by the Morning Post
as stating that, besides other laborious occupations,
the persons engaged in mule-spinning have to travel
the following distances :—" In the mill which spun
No. 14, the least distance possible to be travelled was
seventeen miles, the greatest twenty-seven miles;
No. 15, the least nineteen miles, the greatest twenty-
nine miles ; N0..30, the least twenty-four miles, the
greatest thirty-seven miles ; No. 38, the least fifteen
miles, the greatest twenty-three miles ; and No. 40,
the least distance was seventeen miles, and the greatest
twenty-one miles." This calculation is given on
anonymous authority, but is said to have been made
"by an eminent mathematician." We are not told
whether this mathematician based his calculation on
actual survey or mere guess, or on the statements of
some other unnamed party ; and yet, on such feeble
evidence, we find an attempt made to impeach the
veracity or accuracy of Mr. It. H. Greg, whose
knowledge of the processes of the cotton-manufacture
is not surpassed in this or any other country, and
whose character for honour and integrity is as high
and unimpeachable as that of the Noble Lord to
whom this speech is attributed. But, in truth, the
decision of the question of distances requires no
further knowledge of mathematics than is comprised
in the use of a measuring tape, and a tolerable
acquaintance with the four first rules of arithmetic.
Now, it is obvious that the quantity of yarn spun
by the mules in a given time will be the exact mea-
sure of the distance to be traversed by the spinner,
who goes backwards and forwards nearly in a straight
line. Taking the No. 30 yarn as that which is given
by the author of the speech as the kind imposing the
necessity of traversing the greatest distance, we have
to state, as the result of our experience, that the
average produce of such yarn, by a pair of mules, is
from 20 to 24 hanks, of 840 yards each, per spindle
per week ; we have, however, heard of one instance in
which the produce amounted to 28 hanks. Taking
the extreme of 28 hanks, this will give a length of
26 miles and two-thirds per week, or about 4i miles
per day ; and doubling this for the two frames, we
find that the extreme distance travelled by the spinner
is just nine miles per day.
The distance to be traversed by the piecer cannot
be estimated with similar precision, because it depends
on the breaking of the threads ; and in good spinning
it will happen that several stretches will be made in
succession without the breaking of a single thread.
In fact, the breakages will be few in proportion to the
goodness of the cotton, and the perfection of the pre-
vious processes to which it has been subjected before
it has been placed on the mule. It must be further
observed, as is shown in the diagram, that the process
of piecing or mending a broken thread of the yarn,
can only be performed when the carriage begins to
move from the roller-beam, and cannot be accom-
plished consistently with good work when the car-
riage has gone more than about twenty-four inches.
Consequently, the " stloping" and "bending of the
body to a right angle," described in another part of
the speech, so far from being necessary on such yarn,
is neither usual nor desirable. The nearest approxi-
mation we can make to the distance traversed is under
eight miles in twelve hours for persons above thirteen
years of age. We state this as the result not only of
careful calculation, but also of actual measurement
of steps paced over, and attested by Messrs. Hor-
rockses, Miller and Co., Paul Catterall, Son, and Co.,
William Taylor, of Preston, whose names we deem
quite sufficient to give authority to the statement, and
whose machines, it will be admitted, run as rapidly as
any in the trade.
Two instances havo come to our knowledge, one
of eleven miles, and the other thirteen four-tenths
miles, which the parties have given as the most ex-
treme cases they know of, whilst other cases have
been adduced in finer spinning which did not reach
five miles, a day. We have given the authority of our
computation, and a diagram to facilitate comprehension,
and we leave it to your candid judgment to deter-
mine between this plain statement and the unknown
calculations of the anonymous mathematician.
The next assertion to which we have to direct at-
tention is the alleged displacement of male adult
labour, the substitution of that of women and children
and the consequences which the author of the speech
supposes to have followed from such displacement.
Our answer to this assertion, or rather train of' asser-
tions, will be brief, and, we trust, satisfactory. Had
any such displacement taken place, the number of
adult males thrown out of employment must have
produced a surplus of supply in the labour-market,
and, consequently, the wages for all kinds of adult
male labour would have fallen ; but no such conse-
quence has followed, and the wages for even un-
skilled moor of males, such as porters, carters, day-
labourers, &c., is much higher in the manufacturing
than in the agricultural districts. The alleged in-
crease of the number of spindles, by double-decking,
&c., only proves that breakages have been diminished,
to a corresponding extent, by the use of superior
cotton, and greater skill and expenditure in the pre-
paratory processes. They have not, therefore, added
to the Wipe of the operative; and they have ziot

i'displaced labour to any inconvenient extent, ns is
, already proved by the rate of wages.
We caanot see why there should be a greater ob-
jection to the employment of women in spinning and
weaving than in knitting or sewing. The Scriptures
inform us, and their authority is confirmed by the
Homeric poems, that spinning and weaving have been
female employments from the earliest ages. Female
organisation gives a delicacy of touch which enables
women to piece a broken yarn, to do a weaver's knot
or thread a needle, with much greaters facility than
men. A great many of the . men now employed in
power-loom weaving are those who have previously
been hand-loom weavers ; but young men avoid the
occupation, or make use of it as a transitory employ-
ment, and only betake
.themselves to it when the
higher employments are fully stocked. So far as
our experience has gone, the Lancashire women are
not deficient in domestic knowledge, for the comforts
in the cottages of the operatives are acknowledged
by all who have seen them to be superior to those of
the working classes gonerally,and are certainly infinitely
above those to be found in the dwellings ofthe farm-la-
bourers. It is difficult to get. the women of Lanca-
shire to act as domestic servants on account of the
lighter work and higher wages paid in the mills ; and
this is the reason why so many of the domestic ser-
vants of Lancashire are brought from the agricul-
tural counties.

There are so many statistical returns in the speech
attributed to Lord Ashley resting. on vague and ano-
nymous authority, that we trust it will not be deemed
disrespectful, if we hesitate in recognising them as
evidence, until we know something of the sources
from whence they have been obtained. We find
medical evidence of ten years ago quoted as applicable
to the present day ; the condition of the spinners who
were brought down to very humiliating employments
during the depressed state of trade in 1841, when
twenty-nine mills were stopped in Stockport alone,
and when the practice of workinc, half-time was
common throughout the country, has been adduced as
a picture of their general state; and, finally, we have
before us the important fact, that the only one of
Lord Ashley's witnesses mentioned by name in the
report of the debate, was thoroughly discredited, and
finally abandoned by the Noble Lord himself. We,
therefore, do not feel called upon to answer, paragraph
by paragraph, every assertion put forward in the
name of anonymous statisticians ; we cannot tell how
many of them were furnished by William Dodd, or
how many observers of facts, equally trustworthy,
may have catered for the array of dubious figures in
the statements ascribed to the Noble Lord; but we
shall show from the use, or rather abuse, that has
been made of a foreign statistician, how little reliance
can be placed on the anonymous collections of pre-
tended facts at home.

The speech attributed to the Noble Lord quotes
the authority of M. Villerme, to prove the tendency
of the cotton manufacture " to produce coughs and
pulmonary consumptions and early death." So far is
M. Villerme from making this statement, or anything
like it, that he strongly asserts the direct contrary.
He does, indeed, attribute such a tendency to one
branch ofi the manufacture as practised in France—
the process of batting cotton ; but this process has
been disused in England for more than twenty years;
and M. Villerme himself states that the mechanical
invention by which batting has been superseded,
wherever he has found, it, completely obviates the
evil. He also states that the same objection, but to a
less extent, may be urged against another process of
minor importance, that of carding; but the rising of
dust and flue can only take place in an ill-conducted
card-room ; in every modern mill in this country the
cards are boxed up, and the dust and flue, in processes
where they occur, are carried away by a revolving
fan, which removes every inconvenience. 'With these
exceptions, which are peculiar to France, and which
scarcely, if at all exist in England, M. Villerme de-
clares that in all matters connected with ventilation,
respiration, &c., the condition of nearly all the per-
sons engaged in the cotton manufacture is superior to
that of the operatives who work in their own houses.
M. Villerm6 deprecates legislative interference
with factory labour, as of injurious tendency to the
working classes. " Men may declaim on the subject,"
he says; " they may ask Government to prevent all
evils, just as they would ask physicians to cure all
diseases; but no amelioration of the operative's con-
dition will follow: it is not quite so easy to do good
in this world as some people imagine it to be."—(Vil-
lerme, vol. ii., p. 343.)
With this we shall conclude, appealing to your
judgment whether legislation can be justly or safely
founded on evidence which we have shown to be so
utterly unworthy of credit.
Signed on behalf of the Deputation,
HENRY AS HIVITH.
London, March 28, 1844.

GREAT WESTERN STEAM-SHIP
',COMPANY.
We publish to-day the balance sheet of the Great
Western's earnings and expenses from the be-
ginning up to the present time. It will be seen
that she has made thirty-two voyages, and has cleared
on them about 33,8001. over and above her ex-
penses and insurance, of which 33,8001. there has
been divided among the shareholders 20,3001. This is
but a poor return for the great outlay which has
been made, and the risks of the enterprising indi-
Niduals who, to our country's honour, first solved
'the problem of steaming the Atlantic, not once,
but regularly and systematically—a miserable re-
' turn, indeed, for the benefits conferred on the nation.
But when in England were public benefactors ever
rewarded ? It would be perhaps almost as hope-
less to find an instance as to discover the longitude
or square the circle, and infinitely more difficult to
find the rule. In the case of the Great Western
encouragement has not only been withheld, but
competition and opposition fostered and assisted
with the nation's purse. Both Whig and Tory seem,
indeed, to have striven to crush the owners of this
noble vessel, with a fervour which is increasing
annually. Cunard's line began with an allowance
of 60,000/. per annum, which was afterwards in-
creased to 80,0001. and now to 90,0001., while the
Great Western is left without a penny of assistance
to contend against such odds! How she has borne
up against it surprises every one, but she has, and it
is manifest to a profit, though not such as would
justify the owners in continuing the contest if they
could find a good market for her.
There was at the end of last week a report in j
town that the Peninsular and Oriental Company had
bought her for 32,0001., of which it was said that
16,0001. had been paid down. It is quite true,
we believe, that the Peninsular and Oriental Com-
pany have agreed to buy her—but the exact sum we
are unable to say, though we think it is very likely
to be 32,0001.—the sale, however, is not yet completed,
though the terms are settled.
The contest going on between this Company and
the Bristol Dock Company relative to floating out
the Great Britain, has created a considerable sen-
sation in the steam navigation world. Many
roundly blame the Company for having built a vessel
in a situation not to be able to get her out without a
favour from another party. The fact we under-
stand to be, that when she was laid down
it had been arranged with the Dock Company how
and by what means she was to be got out, and
that no difficulty whatever was anticipated up to
the moment of the Dock Company making a claim, to
which the Steam Company could not conscientiously
submit. Then, and not before, a difficulty was
started, and the Dock Company, which seems always
to be governed by feeling and small reasons, were
found to be intractable. An application, however, is
reported as likely to be made to the Legislature, when
these worthy conservators of mud and stagnant water
may find it convenient to be more reasonable.
By-the-bye we should like to know how it hap-
pens that the port of Bristol is virtually closed against
the whole steam trade. Some forty years ago these
docks were made, when there was not a steamer
thought of, and when, indeed, sailing vessels of a
much less class than now visited the port. At that
time the dock gates were ample, but not for the pre-
sent time, when vessels have not only grown in size,
but a new class has sprung into existence. To keep
pace with this other ports have provided the accom-
modation which the march of improvement has shown
to be needful. Not so, however, the Bristol Dock
Company. They stand in unimproved state quo, and
neither the fate of the William Miles in their crimping
gates, nor the loss of the trade of the city appears to
have any influence upon them. Their motto is, "these
gates served the purpose of our fathers, why should
they not ours ?" It is a fact, to the glory of this
"do-nothing body," that there is not a Glasgow and
Liverpool steamer which can get into the Bristol
Docks, and only those in the Irish trade, confined to
40 feet wide ! !—Railway Magazine.

DEATII OF A GIANT.—Last week Mr. Baker held
an inquest at the Victory, Kingsland-road, on the body of
Richard Turbox, aged 84 years. Mrs. Channess deposed that
deceased lodged with her at No. 32, Tottenham-road, West
Hackney. He was a pensioner of the East India Company,
and was a remarkably stout man, and of extraordinary sta-
ture, being six feet and a half in height. Notwithstanding
his advanced age he enjoyed very good health. On Tuesday
morning, about nine o'clock, witness was alarmed at perceiv-
ing a few drops of blood on the floor of her room, which was
beneath that of deceased's, and which fell through the ceil-
ing. She accordingly went up stairs and found him lying
doubled up before the fire-grate, with his head against the
bars. There was a wound on his forehead caused by a fall,
and he appeared to be quite dead. Mr. Lewis, a surg,eon,
was sent for, who pronounced life to be quite extinct. From
the plethoric habit of deceased, Mr. Lewis attributed death to
apoplexy. The wound on his head was not sufficient to cause
death. Verdict—" Found dead."

THE LATE ACCIDENT AT THE GLASGOW THEATRE.
—We have learned with regret that one of the sufferers died
yesterday morning in the Infirmary. His name was Wm.
Wood, a young man 18 years of age, resident in Castle-street.
It is believed that he received injuries by springing from the
gallery ; but in whatever way they were got, the immediate
cause of death was concussion of the brain. Three other
persons were taken to the Infirmary, one of whom has
since been dismissed, and the remaining two are doing well.
Paper Qf Saturday.

PARLIAkENTA RY
REPEAL AGITATION, &c. (IRELAND).
Return of all Moneys paid to Frederick Bond Hughes,
Charles Ross, and John Jackson, on Account of any
Communications made by them to Government relative
to the Repeal Agitation in Ireland, distinguishing the
Amounts paid to each; also, the Dates of the several
Payments, specifying the respective periods at which
they commenced; together with Copies of any Instruc-
tions given to the above-named Frederick Bond
Hughes, Charles Ross, and John Jackson, with respect
to the Duties to be performed by them in Ireland:—
On the 29th September; 1843, Mr. Gurney, the short-
hand writer, was desired to send without delay a*Short-
hand writer to Ireland, for the purpose of reporting, for
the information of the Government, the speeches de-
livered at public Repeal meetings in that part of the
kingdom. Mr. Gurney, on the 20th September, selected
and dispatched to Ireland, Mr. Frederick Bond Hughes,
to perform this service.
Mr. Gurney's charge on this account, from the period
extending from the 29th of September to the 20th of
October, 1843, when Mr. Hughes returned to London, is
2341. 18s. 6d. ; of which the sum of 45/. was paid to Mr.
Bond Hughes when in Ireland, on account, to defray
personal expenses incurred there, and has been deducted
from Mr. Gurney's account.
No instructions have been given by the Government
to Mr. Frederick Bond Hughes.
Mr. Charles Ross has received the sum of 681 foes
report of the speeches delivered at the public Repeal
Meeting at Donnybrook, held on the 3d of July, 1833.
This sum of 681. included the expenses incurred by
Mr. Ross in travelling to and from Ireland, and the in-
cidental expenses incurred by him while engaged on
this service.

Mr. Charles Ross was, on the 21st August, 1843, en-
gaged by the Government to report, for the information
of the Government, the speeches delivered at public
Repeal meetings held in Ireland from the 25th August,
1843, to the time when Parliament might assemble for
the transaction of business in 1844.

His remuneration for this service was fixed at 350/.,
exclusive of travelling and other incidental expenses.
These travelling and incidental expenses amount
to 55!.

Total charged by Mr. Ross for reporting speeches de•
livered at public meetings in Ireland, and on account of
travelling to and from Ireland, and incidental expenses
incurred in the performance of this service, 4731.
Mr. Ross has received on account the following sums :
1843: July 10
August 24 l5O
• September 25 2O
November 15 3O
December 10 5O
1844: January 25 5O

368
Balance due to Mr. Ross.... 103

£473
The instructions to Mr. Ross were verbal ; they were,
that he should attend public Repeal meetings held in Ire-
land, during the period for which he was engaged, and
that he should furnish, for the information of the Go-
vernment, accurate reports of the speeches delivered at
those meetings ; and that he should take such notes of
those speeches as would enable him to depose upon oath
to the words spoken.
No moneys have been paid by the Government to Mr.
John Jackson ; nor have any instructions been issued
by the Government to Mr. John Jackson.

H. MANNERS SUTTON.
Whitehall, March 26, 1844.
A Return of the Amount paid to Frederick Bond
Hughes, Charles Ross, and John Jackson, for Ex-
penses during their Attendance at the Trial of the
Queen v. O'Connell and Others ; furnished in pursu-
ance of a Resolution of the House of Commons, dated
March 1, 1844 :
THE QUEEN V. O'CONNELL AND OTHERS.
Paid to and for Frederick Bond Hughes,
short-hand writer, for his attendance as
a witness in this case 67 days, at 11. Is.
per diem for maintenance, and 31. 3s. fur
loss of time and in lieu of taking notes,
Sze. during that period
Expenses of journeys to and fro between
Dublin and London .