The Sun.
London, England, 1842-09-08 00:00:00

YOUNG MOBS.

(From the "Report on the Sanitary Condition of the
Labouring Population of Great Britain.)
Whenever the adult population of a physically
depressed district, such as Manchester, is brought
out on any public occasion, the preponderance of
youth in the crowd, and the small proportion of
aged, or even of the middle aged, amongst them
is apt to strike those who have seen assemblages
of the working population of other districts more
favourably situated.
In the course of some inquiries under the Con-
stabulary Force Commission as to the proportions
of a paid force that would apparently be requi-
site for the protection of the peace in the manu-
facturing districts, reference was made to the
meetings held by torchlight in the neighbour-
hood of Manchester. It was reported to us, on
close observation by peace-officers, that the bulk
of the assemblages consisted of mere boys, and
that there were scarcely any men of mature age
to be seen amongst them. Those of mature age
and experience, it was stated, generally disap-
proved of the proceedings of the meetings as in-
jurious to the working classes themselves. These
older men, we were assured by their employers,
were intelligent, and perceived that capital, and
large capital, was not the means of their depres-
sion, but of their steady and abundant support.
They were generally described as being above
the influence of the anarchical fallacies which
appeared to sway those Wild and really dan-
gerous assemblages. The inquiry which arose
upon such statements was how it happened that
the men of mature age, feeling their own best
interests injured by the proceedings of the
younger portion of the working classes, how
they, the elders, did not exercise a restraining
influence upon their less experienced fellow-
workmen? On inquiring of the
,owner of some
extensive manufacturing property, on which be-
tween 1,000 and 2,000 persons were maintained
at wages yielding 40s. per week per family,
whether he could rely on the aid of the men of
mature age for the protection of the capital
which furnished them the means of subsistence ?
he stated lie could rely on them confidently.
But on ascertaining the numbers qualified for
service as special constables, the gloomy fact be-
came apparent, that the proportion of men of
strength and of mature age for euch service were
but as a small group against a large crowd,
and that for any social influence they were
equally weak. The disappearance by premature
deaths of the heads of families and the older
workmen at such ages as those recorded in the
returns of dependent widowhood and orphanage,
must to some extent practically involve the ne-
cessity of supplying the lapse of staid influence
amidst a young population by one description or
other of precautionary force.
On expostulating on other occasions with
middle-aged and experienced workmen on the
folly as well as the injustice of their trade unions,
by which the public peace was compromised by
the violence of strike after strike, without re-
gard to the experiences of the sufferings from
the continued failures of their exertions sor ob-
jects the attainment of which would have been
most injurious to themselves, the workmen of
the class remonstrated with, invariably dis-
claimed connexion with the proceedings, and
showed that they abstained from attendance at