Star.
London, England, 1816-11-15 00:00:00

PARISH Aril RENIIt'ES.

MINU TES OF EviDENca AKEN MORI+ THR COM-
MITTER OF THE HOOsE OF COMMONS.
(As soot, further Legislative Proviike is Intended to be made
%too this subject, we cannot but rends an acceptable service
to our Readers io laying before them the testimony of Sir Ro-
bert Peal, on the sire ofChildees employed in Manufactories.]

Sir ROURT Pen, •Bart. a greater of the Committee,
examined in hie Ore.
Sir ROBERT Pear,--I beg leave to band in a paper
as the substance of whet I know respecting the state
and managemeut of cotton manufactories within the
s;.ope of my acquaintance, which is not less than five-
and-forty years.—lt. was read as follows :
The Bill of last year. which I had the honour to
bring into the House of Commons, respecting young
;primes in factories, was so for matured as to enable
4i!-persesto Omeresited ashcans an opinion of the extent
which they would be affected by the measure.
" But as the Session was far advanced, and little
opportunity I.fforded of knowing the sentiments of
PEIE0(18 so interested, I though it most advisable, at
I1)at time, not to press the completion of the Bill.
" The pottery, and many ether trades, in which
young persons were employed, were never intended
to be comprehended in the measure, and the benefit
we have received from our late discussions, will
induce me (with the approbation of the Committee)
o confine the operations of the proposed Bill to the
three great manufactures of the United Kingdom,
,cotton, woollen, and flee; all of which are carried on
to considerable extent in large buildings, dependent
on machinery, and gives employment to the children
of the poor in great numbers; having also learnt that
the factories of persons of the greatest respectability
ere the most distinguished for moderation in the
hours of exacted labour, I flatter myself that the
measure in question will not make any material
alteration with respect to them. Mr. Arkwright
was the inventor of machinery, of great national im-
portance, which, was employed at a time when steam
power was little known in large buildings, which
were erected in situations commanding considerable
water power, but generally in country places remote
from inhabitants ; to work these machines, the surplus
population of large towns was sought alter, and many
thousands of parish children were supplied from I;ots-
don, Birmingham, and other populous districts.
.4 The house in which I have a concern gave em.
aunt at one time to near 'one thousand children
Of this description. Having other pursuits,it was not
often in my power to visit the factories, but whenever
such visits were made, I was struck with the uniform
appearance of bad health, and in many crises, stinted
growth of tbe children ; the hours of labour were re-1
gulated by the interest of the overseer, whose remuH
aeration depending on the quantity of work done, bet
was often induced to make the poor children work
excessive hours, and to stop their complaints by al:
fling bribes. Finding our own factories under soth
msoagemeat, and learning that the like practices'
prevailed in other parts of the kingdom where similar
machinery was in use, the children being much
overworked, and often little or no regard paid to
cleanliness and ventilation in the buildings; having
the assistance of Dr. Percival and other eminent me-
dical gentlemen of Manchester, together with some
distinguisbed characters. both in and out of Perlis-
meat, I brought in a Bill in the 42d year of the
King, for the regulation of factories containing such
parish apprentices. The hours of work allowed by
that bill being fewer in number than those *formerly
Iputised, a visible improvement in the health and
genaral appearance of the children soon became evi-
dent, and since the complete *peados of the act con-
lingoes disorders have rarely occurred.
4s Diffident' of my own abilities to originate Legiv-
Wive measures, I Amid have contented myself with
lbe one alluded to, bad I nix yerceiv.id. that owing
So_ the present use of steam power to factories, the
4!14 of the King is likely to become a dead letter.—
Large buildingsarenowevictetVisot only as formerly
on the banks of streams. bets its mid* of populous