The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-02-03 00:00:00

Liberiwol etalOart. people, which is as much a raw material of any
branch of manufacture as the cotton, the silk, or the

iron, which is its foundation. We have already
cheapened the latter class of raw materials; and we
shall be urged, by another course of agitation, to
It is really astonishing to observe how effectually
cheapen every article of consumption which enters
some men can blind themselves not only to the na-
into the composition of the former. The other
tural consequences of their own acts, but even to
the interpretation to be put upon the professed de-
argument upon which the league took refuge, when
signs of others. Some animals, we know, when
convinced that the cry for cheap labour would not
menaced by their hunters, conceal their heads, and go down with the country,—viz., the argument
one themselves in security; and there are that we must place foreign commodities more within
men, possessed of intellect the reach of the consumer, so as to serve as returns
sufficient in ordinary matters, who, when party ob-
for our exports,—will lead us to the same result.
j
Both of them involve the ultimate abolition of all ects are to he advanced, and party predilections to
c
be indulged, possess the same weakness as the less customs duties, and the substitution of some other
mode of raising the public revenue.
noble branches of the creation ; who will not,—to

SDAY MORNING, FEB. 3, 1546.

then ima,
legislators, and othe

use a somewhat vulgar but expressive phrase,—
look
_beyond their noses.' Amongst this class

of wilfully blind creatures, we place- a late Whig

The able speech of Lord Ashley, on Thursday
night, in urging his motion for leave to introduce a
Ten Hours' Factory Bill, ought to decide the ques-
tion as to the practicability of such a measure being
carried out, without injury either to employers or
their operatives. On the grounds of humanity and
morality, the necessity of the measure has been
proved years ago. His Lordship shews us now
that the experiment of a reduction of the hours of
labour for adults to eleven hours per day has been
tried by Mr. Gardner, an extensive spinner and
manufacturer of Preston; and the result has been,
from Mr. Gardner's own data, that the total pro-
duce of working has not decreased at all. The
leading argument, hitherto used against reduction,
has been, that the produce would decrease in pro-
portion with the reduction in time; and that, hence,
reduction of wages must follow. No such reduc-
tion of wages has taken place in Mr. Gardner's
The quality of the work done was better,
owing to the workers being able to retain their
energies during the eleven hours of working more
easily than during twelve. The health of the hands
employed has undergone a marked improvement.
In reply to Lord Ashley's question as to "the
means of improvement, if any, which the diminution
of daily labour was found to give to both sexes for
the comfort and duties of domestic life," the follow-
ing statement was furnished him, by Mr. Gardner,
which his Lordship considers "the most striking
and satisfactory of all" :

Chancellor of the Exchequer, who rejoices in the
title of Lord Monteagle, and is thus enabled to

vent II

es in the upper chamber of the

legislature

In the debate in the House of Lords, on Thurs-
day night, Lord Ashburton, a high authority, one
would imagine, advanced the following remarks

upon the pone

y of ministers

A free trad

f it could he established, was common
:stion was bow to establish a system of

having such complicated interests
w of trade as this country possessed,
s with equally artificial systems of
ting against the system of this coon-
ible way, and the people of this country
),000,000 upon their shoulders. If
system of free trade, he agreed that
with common sense. The noble

free trade in a cour
and so artificial a sy

about the article of lea amonlst
rated, and from which millions
This was an article of consum p-
mar required, who bad to enter
;rs who obtained tea at one-third
they had tree trade, how were
lit and ray their debt ? They
for revenue. The noble
nputation on the British
t the farmers of other
d in that; but the

" When our mills worked 12 hours, the number that
tended night school was 27, and a few months after the

they increased to 96 ; the female part of our
hands tarried their leisure time more to the needle, and
those that are married, to their domestic concerns; I be-
lieve there is a be'ter taste for reading among the work-
people and he instances the demand for Bibles and
Testaments."

We may add, that the hands themselves were uni-
versally satisfied with the change, and the best
relations subsisted between them and their em-
ployer.

I'rotn other evidence adduced by his Lordehip, it
was shown that similar results had attended experi-
ments made in different parts of the country, where
the time had been limited to ten hours a day.
" In October last," he says, " I received a letter from
a very large powerloom weaver in Scotland, who volun-
teered the communication to me, knowing the part I had
taken on this question, and in what way I was likely to be
engaged with it, and he says he has himself instituted the
experiment, with these results About six months ago
we came to the resolution of employing our workpeople
only 65 hours a-week, instead of 69 ; it has been entirely
successful; we have ha•l no reason to. regret the change,
neither have our work people ; we made no alteration in
the wages, and there never was more earned in our works
than at present by those employed at work paid by the
piece. We have it in coreemplation now to reduce our
time to 60 hours. The more I have considered the matter,
the more convinced have I become that for all parties a
ten•hours' bill would be advantageous.' I have a similar
report from a large worsted mill near Bradford ; the pro-
prietor says he has lately tried the ten-hours plan with
profit and advantage. I have another report from a wool-
len mill near Leeds ; the overlooker says, the limitation
of the hours of labour has been of incalculable benefit to
the labourers, not only in relieving physical suffering, but
in distributing the wages over a longer period. I have
another report from a worsted weaver in the West Riding;
he says, I have been trying the ten-hours' principle,
and I get nearly as much work done as my neighbour gets,
who works for a longer time.' A manufacturer in the
West Riding writes, that he " used to work 16 hours
a-day, but he gets more work and better work in 10 than
he ever did in 16.' (Hear, hear.) These are the results
of experiments instituted in various parts of this country,
and in every instance the atnount'of work produced has
not fallen off, the wages have not diminished, the physical
condition of the people has been much improved, they
have turned to great moral advantage the time placed at
their disposal, and the best understanding has arisen be-
tween the employer and the operative."

As a further encouragement to persevere in the
cause of humanity, his Lordship shows, most con-
vincingly, the great amount of benefit to the working
classes in factories, derived from past measures of
amelioration, viz :—those measures of the past two
sessions, by which the period of working children
under thirteen years of age was reduced, first to
eight hours, and subsequently to six hours per day;
and that of young people between the ages of thir-
teen years and eighteen years, was limited to twelve
hours per day. It was predicted that these changes
would prove ruinous to those, for whose benefit they
were expressly enacted. After noticing these pre-
dictions, his Lordship continues :

Now, let us see how far the prediction in regard to these
classes was founded in truth. I shall take first the work-
ers between the ages of 13 and 18, whose labour was re-
stricted by the bill of 1833 to 12 hours a-day. The ave-
rage rate of wages for those young persons before the re-
striction of 1833 was ss. 4d. a-week ; the average rate of
their wages since the restriction has been 6s. 11d. a-week,
thus showing an increase of 30 per rent. on the average
drawn from the four large towns of Manchester, Bolton,
Preston, and Oldham. (Hear.) It was predicted also that
the wages of children would be reduce.i to a mere fraction.
Now, observe that the average rate of wages for children
under 13 years of age, at more than 12 hours a-day, before
1833, was 3s .Id. a-week. When the limitation took place
that none under 13 years should be exposed to more than
8 hours a-day, there was no diminution whatever. Since
that time Parliament has passed another law, restricting
the labour of children under 13 to 6 hours. We have seen
that with more than 12 hours' labour their average wages
were 3s. Id. ; but during the period they have been work-
ing only 6 hours a-day, their average wages have been
2s. 2d. a week. (Hear."' And though the wages have
in this way been less, yet, in many instances, the families
of these children have not suffered any loss. By the
restriction of he hours of labour of these children, there
has been a greater demand for children of that age than
formerly, and families that used to send one child to the
factory now send two, by which the weekly wages are
increased. (Hear.)

. •
So far, therefore, his Lordship's views are tri-
umphantly confirmed, and those of the politico-
economical school, who opposed the ameliorations
in question, have been completely overthrown, and
proved to be worthless. l ;t beyond this his Lord-
ship shows that these mein' tires have already exer-
cised a powerful effect, in promoting the spread of
education amongst the lal, -uring classes.—

" It is difficult," he remarks, " to obtain Aatistical in-
formation as to the condition of children under 13 years
of age before 1833, but this we know, that very few were
receiving any education at all. Now I have grounds to
assert, there are working six hours a-day. and receiving
three hours' education a-day, no less than 30,000 children
between 8 and-13 gears of age. In Manchester, Bolton,
and Preston, the increase of children at school is as eight
to one, and these are exclusive of those who attend night
schools. But the increase in school attendance of those
above 13, who are kept at the lull period of labour, 12

hours a• day, is little or notkny

Of course, the latter is likely to be the case. The
boy or girl, of 15 or 16 years of age, who has
worked twelve hours a day in a factory, is more
likely to feel an inclination for rest or sleep than for
education; and by these classes, in consequence,
the night school is deserted. .

On—this occasion, no Ministerial opposition was
offered to his Lordship; and, therefore, we are as
yet somewhat in the dark as to the grounds upon
which a Conservative Government can justify such
opposition. Sufficient, however, fell from Sir James
Graham, on Thursday, to assure us of the fact that
such opposition will be offered,—that, with respect
to the overtoiled factory workers, as with respect to
the Corn-laws, i'. -! League and the Government are
in the same boa. "It will be expedient," Sir James
says, "to postpone the discussion of the House
upon the principle of this Bill until their opinion
had been pronounced upon the great proposition of
his Right Hon. Friend at the head of Government,
in respect to the supply of Corn." But the Home
Secretary leaves us in no doubt what his own course
is likely to be, even should Lord Ashley be weak
enough to concede to his expediency and postpone
his measure until after the settlement of the
Corn-laws. _ _ _

" He (Sir James) was bound to say, speaking for him-
self, that no decision with respect to the corn laws—inti-
mately connected as that subject was with the one now
under discussion—could ever alter his opinion with res-
pect to interfering with adult labour in the manufactur•
ing districts. He could not anticipate that the noble lord
would use—certainly he had never used—any arguments
which could induce him to support the second reading of
the bill. (Hear, hear.)"
Sir James Graham is too much of a philosopher
and leaguer to interfere with " adult labour in the
manufacturing districts," or, to speak out of the
jargon of political economy, he cannot bring him-
self to throw obstacles in the way of men, women,
and helpless youth of both sexes, being worked to
id lotey and premature old age, to rear up fresh fab-