The Sun.
London, England, 1845-02-19 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 19, 1845.

prints and dye-works—were, speaking generally,
hehlthy occupations. Many of the processes took
place in the open air. Some of the processes must
be carried on in a high state of temperature,
but, speaking generally, the children employed in
these works were healthy, and the operation could not
be said to be unhealthy. The marked feature of fac-
tory labour, with which they dealt last year, was labour
conducted by machinery. Now, v.hat were the facts
with respect to it ? Why, that it was easily regulated
with respect to time,and the labour might be stopped with-
out injury. All these cireatestances were wanting with
respect to calico-printing, because, when once the process
began, it must be continuously carried on without inter-
ruption until completed, otherwise the work runs a risk
of being destroyed or irrevocably injured. With respect
to the work there were months in the year when they
were deemed to be slack, and there were other
periods when the works must be continuous
Now, with regard to the employment of young children,
it would not be possible for the manufacturers to avoid
employing them; and for this reason, that unless the
manufacturers were satisfied to sacrifice a large amount
of profit, the employment of children would be indis-
pensably necessary. His Noble Friend had mentioned
another branch of mantencturine employment, that
whi:h was called block-printing. Now' this was a branch
of trade to which the profits would not admit the appli-
cation of manual labour, as it would not pay, and
therefore it was that children were employed in that
department; they did the work as well as adults, and
therefore their services were required to carry it on. If,
then, the Legislature were to raise the wages of children
to the amount of that of adults, the result would be,
either the total suspension of that branch of manufac-
tures, or the wages would be so much increased that
the article, the produce of block-printing, would be so in-
creased in price as to materially retard the consumption.
He had mentioned those circumstances in order that the
House might see the necessity of drawing a line of dis-
tinction between the different departments of labour in
manufactories. But now permit him to mention a few
of the peculiar and increasing difficulties that exist to
prevent legislation upon this subject. He believed it
had been stated that in France the legislative regula-
tions with regard to the mode of employing children were
very satisfactory. But in France the machinery used
was not the steam power, and the labour was not so con-
centrated ; and the consequence was, that, according
to the reports of the medical men, it was not so easy to
deal with disease as in the English factories ; that eva-
sion was practical to a great extent, and the result of
that evasion was, that while the idle and dishonest man
benefited by it, the honest labourer was placed under the
most cruel disadvantages. Now he begged to observe,
that in the particular trade to which the Noble Lord had
directly alluded, the hours of labour were comparatively
short, and in many instances there was no night-work
at all. If the system of inspection advocated by the
Noble Lord were carried out, the honest manufacturer
would be placed in an unfavourable position, while op-
portunities would be afforded to the dishonest employer to
evade the law. He was bound to state that late hour
work had existed, but not to the serious extent stated by
the Noble Lord. Late hour work was disadvantageous to
the manufacturers, and it was to their interest to repress it.
When late hour work did occur, it was occeeioned by
competition, and the House ought to be cautious how
they legislated with the interests of the labourer. He
did not object to the introduction of the measure, but he
was bound to give his consent to it with considerable
reluctance, because the Noble Lord appeared to proceed
further with this system of legislation. The question,
then, was, how far were they go, and where ought they,
to stop ? If they went too far in interfering with the re-
gulations of the working population of the country, there
was no doubt it would be attended with serious results.
At the same time, he could not refuse to consent to the
introduction of the Bill, but he must reserve for himself
and the Government the most perfect discretion with
respect to the mode in which the details of the Bill were
to be carried out.
Mr. WALLACE was happy to find the Government
gave their consent to the introduction of this measure.
From the cautious manner in which the Right Hon.
Baronet had allowed the Bill to be introduced, it would
be necessary for all parties to make out an extremely
good case before they could be admitted to partake of
its exemptions. The Right Hon. Baronet had distinctly
stated there were three classes of persons who might be
said to be included in the proposal of the Noble Lord.
Now he did think the dyeing and bleaching
departments ought to be considered as coming under the
category of the Noble Lord, and he would take leave to
intimate that it was his intention to make an effort to
prevail upon the House to include these branches in the
Bill. It would be his duty to bring their case under the
consideration of the House when the Bill arrived at the
proper stage for his doing so. and he trusted he should
succeed in prevailing upon the House to include them in
the Bill.
Mr. HUME was glad to hear the statement of the
Right Hon. Baronet, and the conclusion he had come to.
He agreed with the Noble Lord in lamenting the pre-
sent condition of the labouring classes, but he must, at
the same time, remind the Noble Lord that the manu-
facturing population was not the only suffering
part of the community. Distress existed as well
in the agricultural as in the manufacturing dis-
tricts. He only differed from the Noble Lord in
the remedy he proposed. The Noble Lord was taking
a wrong course to effect his object ; and although the
Government had yielded last year—reluctantly, no doubt
—to some of his proposals, thinking them to be of a
beneficial tendency, still they might unconsciously carry
this system of interference too far. He warned
the Government of this, and cautioned Honour-
able Members to watch the progress of the
Bill when it should be again brought before them.
Every act of legislation on such a subject was an act
of useless interference in the affairs of manufacturers—an
wereary . obligedmischievous.But
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country of slaves, then, indeed, legislative interference
f it
liberty to work where he liked—he might make what
agreement he pleased, he might work as he liked. There
were some who thought the Le • 1 gis attire ought to stand
in the place of a parent, and to interfere to protect
women and children. He was not one of those.
He admitted that isolated acts of oppression might take
place, but he never would admit that any stranger could
step in effectually to supply the place of a parent. Doubt-
less in some cases, under existing circumstances, parents
might be found who would urge their children to undue
labour, but where food was cheap and labour abundant,
where, in fact, society was properly constituted, he could
not believe that such a state of things could exist. He did
not believe that such a state of things existed generally:at
present. Ile believed that the Noble Lori had been told
of certain extraordinary cases, and he must protest
against any. legislative interference in the matter, which,
in his opinion, would do more evil than good. If the
rule were laid down, it should be made applicable to all
parents and all children. He was at a loss to know why
the Noble Lord should select one class of the commu-
nity for legislative protection, while he left the others
destitute. It was contrary to nature to interfere in this
manner,—it was bad—it was erroneous—children ought
to be left to the management of their parents. If so-
ciety was in that state which the Noble Lord had stated,
let him direct his exertions towards removing the root of
the evil. Why was it that in England, which was reck-
oned the most enlightened country in the world, there
were so many monsters who disgraced the human form,
and why was it that parents, in order to obtain a liveli-
hood, were obliged to place their tender offspring in
situations of difficulty and dans er P If the Noble Lord
would visit the dwellings of the poor in the Metro
polis—(Hear, hear)—he would find there misery
equal to that which he had depicted as existing in the
manufacturing districts. Before he sat down he would
call the attention of the Noble Lord to a pamphlet upon
the working classes, addressed to the Right Rev, the
Bishop of Exeter. The Hon. Member proceeded to read.
' extracts from the pamphlet, one of which said that phi-
lanthropy was a good thing, when under the guidance of
wisdom and prudence ; but highly mischievous and pro-
ductive of great evil when used by meddling persons.
The extract quoted went further to speak of the acts of
certain persons high in station, and to say that all busy-
- bodies were dangerous, but the worst of all a Govern-
ment busy-body, for the one interfered only with the
welfare of twits, the other with the existence of mil-
lions. The Legislature, continued the Hon. Gentleman,
should give the people an opportunity of making the
most of their labour, and should remove those fetters
which monopolj, and class interests had placed upon in-
dustry. The working classes, so far from asking pro-
tection, desired to have protection abolished—they want
a fair day's wages for a fair day's work, full employ-
ment, and an opportunity of sending their labour to the
best market.—(Hear.)
Mr. COBDEN did not altogether coincide in the ob-
servations of the Right Hon. Baronet regarding calico-
printers, hut would offer a few observations on the speech
of the Noble Lord. He gave the Noble Lord great cre-
dit for his motives, but he must say that he did not see
what reference the numerous instances of great demora-
lisation had on the ptestion before the House. He did not
pretend to say that people employed in calico-printing
were treated worse than other people. But surely it
was not necessary, in speaking of calico-printing, to relate
how many people had been sentenced to death for mur-
der, arson, and other great crimes ; nor could he, for
,the life of him, see what the burning of a child to death
by its own mother had to do with the subject under the
consideration of the House. These things led the public
mind to suppose that calico-printing was necessarily of
a demoralising nature; and he left the House to say
whether it was fair to encourage such a belief. The
Noble Lord had said a great deal about the duration of
the employment of children in this branch of manufac-
ture, but the fact was, where children were employed in
an apartment where the temperament was mild, and not
hurtful to their constitutions, and where they were shel-
tered from the inclemency of the weather—they had 3s.
a week, whilst the children in agricultural employments
were exposed to the severity of the weather, and had to
work hard for is. 6d. a week. The Noble Lord said that
children engaged in calico-printing were addicted to
lying, stealing, and qu • quarrelling. He confessed he could
. .
see no reason why children in this department should be
more vicious than others; nor had the Noble Lord shown
any reason. In one or two matters the Noble Lord had cer-
tainly exaggerated—for instance, in stating that children
of three and four years of age had been employed in
calico-printing. The Noble Lord had not given is
authority, but surely he should know that it was morally
and physically impossible that children of such tender
age could labour.—(Hear, hear.) The Noble Lord
quoted cases in which children worked for long periods
without any intermission ; but he, Mr. Cobden, could
only say he had never heard of such cases. The Noble
Lord had attempted to give a tone and bearing to this
subject which did not naturally belong to it. In calico-
printing, and other trades of the same kind, the time of
labour was not fixed or compulsory ; they did not begin
and cease with the steam-engine, as in other branches—
it was the wish of their parents that children should be
employed—they worked in the same room with them,