The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-05-02 00:00:00

3 Ontabrod, not long

ago, thp

ceneics and crueltiea practised in the thin seam coal
mines of England and Scotland, as exhibited to us by
the report of a parliamentary committee. We were
shocked, more recently, by the appalling ignorance and
degrading vice, exhibited to us as existing in the ma-
nufacturing districts; and we have now to look upon
a similar record of mingled cruelties, selfishness, and
suffering, which is brought before us by a report of
the " Children Employment Commission," as existing
amongst the population employed in the lace manufac-
tures of this country. We shall take leave to bring a
few of the details of the report in question before our
readers, premising only a few explanations necessary
to enable them more clearly to understand the subject.
The manufacture of lace comprehends a number of
different branches, in all of which; and in some exclu-
sively, young persons and children are employed—
some of the latter, to use the, language of one of the
commissioners, "as soon as they can tie a knot or use a
needle !" The first of these branches, which we shall
notice, is that of "drawing," which consists in draw,.
ing out with a needle the threads which hold together
the separate widths, which make up the entire piece as
it comes out of the machine, In the Nottinghamshire
district the children commence their work at four, five,
and six years of age. Mr. Grainger, the commissioner
before referred to, found one child placed at its work
by its parental BEFORE IT WAS TWO YEARS OLD!
We quote a portion of the evidence collected by thiS
gentleman respecting the hands employed in drawing :

" Mrs. Houghton examined.—ls a lace-drawer, and has
four children ; Harriet eight years, Ann six, Mary four, and
Eliza two years old; of these the three elder are employed as
lace-drawers. Harriet was not quite three when she began
to work, Ann was about the same, and Mary was not quite
two years old ! I Eliza ' has tried and drawn a few threads
out.'—[Sub-Commissioner.—All this was interrupted with
Mind you work,' Take care,' Make haste,' Now, Anne,
get on,' Mind your work.']—Begins generally at 6 a.m. in
the summer, and 7 in the winter ; in the former goes on till
dark, in the latter till 10 p.m. The two biggest children
work with witness these hours; Mary begins at the same
time time in the morning, but she leaves off about 6 p.m.
The children have no time to get out to play. They go out
very seldom.' Have breakfast when they have time to yet it
the same with dinner and tea. Have about a quarter of an
hour for each meal. The children are obliged to sit at their
work. They sit all day. [` Mind your work.'] The work
tries the eyes. The black is the worst. It is drees work.'
[` Now, mind your work.'] The children have very good
health."

"The children have very good health !" So says
the parent ; and the commissioner remarks that '6 they
are very fine and pretty girls, and appear healthy."
But let us only reflect upon the amount of toil which
they endure, and ask ourselves how long such mere
infants can hold up under it. The " two biggest"
work, we are told, in summer, from six o'clock till dark,
and, in winter, from seven till ten, p.m." The latter is
fifteen hours ; the former may be seventeen ; on the
average, therefore, they work sixteen hours a day, sit.
ting the whole time on chairs, "their legs being too
short to reach the ground." And was this inhuman
amount of toil imposed upon these innocents from ne-
cessity ? No. The father of these very children was
earning 235. per week as his regular wages !

Now, what does the reader imagine is the paltry sum
for which mere infants are thus mercilessly sacrificed?
—for, we are told, that a few years of such labour re-
duces them to mere shadows in body, and to a condi-
tion of mind little short of idiotcy. Three shillings per
week is stated to be " a very high average," whilst ano-
ther is convinced that it is " much more than is usually
named." •

The next process, " threading," is performed princi-
pally by boys about the age of eight years. At the age
of 15 the girls become winders, and the boys go to the
machines. During the seven years they are employed
in " threading," they are mere parts of the machines,
and must work for the 16, 18, 20, or 22 hours per day
that the machines work ! One child stated that he had
often stopped from four o'clock on one morning till two
o'clock the next, and that, twice or thrice in one week.
It is common to stay all night at the machines; and
the children are compelled to attend at whatever hour
they may be called for, and often in the middle of the
night. A constable, examined, states that "he fre-
quently sees a number of children, many as young as
eight or ten, little things hardly as high as the knee,
going to various factories as threaders, at all times of
the night," or " coming out in the middle of the night
in light clothing, and apparently suffering from the
cold"—a circumstance scarcely to be wondered at,
when we are informed that the tempetiture of such
factories, when the gas is lighted, is sometimes as high
as 85 degrees, whilst that out of doors, at night, may
be below freezing point ! Another witness, Mr. Wm.
Hinde, states that hundreds of these children have been
sent to their graves by their incessant labour and want
of rest. They have no regular time for their meals
they have their meals sent them, and eat them when
they can ;" and so irregular is their sleep, that they are
frequently seen lying down in the middle of the shop
floor, or under the tables, or on the old coats of the
men, glad to catch, in any discomfort, a temporary ob-
livion of their sufferings.

The process called " winding" is almost invariably
performed by children and young women, who begin
to work at the age of 12 or 14. The commissioners
declared it to be proved that in this employment they
have "no regular and certain time whatever for sleep
or recreation, being liable to be called upon at any pe-
riod during 16, 20, or 22 hours out of 24, while they
have frequently to go from one place to another, often
at considerable distances, at all hours of the night and
at all seasons." They are employed in the same facto-
ries with men, and in a great majority of cases no pre-
cautions are taken for the preservation of morality.
" In the town of Nottingham," says Mr. Grainger, '
parties--clergy, police, manufacturers, workpeople, and pa-
rents—agree that the present mode of employing children
and young persons as threaders and winde{s is a most fertile
source of immorality. There can, in fact, be but few states
more immediately leading to vice and profligacy. Children
of both sexes are called out of their parents' houses at all
hours of the night, and, as it is quite uncertain how long
they may be required, whether for two hours or the whole
night, a ready and unanswerable excuse for staying out is
furnished.- The threaders, who are usually boys, and the
winders, who are generally girls, are required at the same
time, and thus they have every facility for forming improper
connexions. • 'The natural results of such a noxious system
are but too apparent, and must have contributed in no slight
degree to the immorality which, according to the opinion
universally expressed, prevails to a most awful extent in
Nottingham. In addition to the immediate evils to the
children themselves, the domestic peace and comfort of the
families of which they are members are sacrificed to this
most unnatural state of things."
Another witness, the clerk to the Nottingham union,
says " the extent of early sexual intercourse is dread.
ful. A principal cause of this demoralization is the
facility- of boys and girls .mirtgling together in the streets
at night, and the almost total absence of parental con-
trol," whilst the vice-chairman of the board of guar-
dians gives the following striking description of the
operation of the system :

" I have known many parents come out of the country
merely to live on the labour of their young children. In one
case, a short time ago, a widow carne with three children, of
12, 14, and 15 years of age, out of Derbyshire. These chil-
dren were sent into a factory, the mother being only employed
in preparing their meals, and getting them up early enough
in the morning. They did not come home to their meals ;
they were taken in the factory. All these children died in
eighteen months. I think this resulted from their employ-
ment. Almost all the families employed in the manufacturer
less Nottingham are, with few exceptions, supported more or
the labour of their children ! Amon er evils of
by
yystem is that of reversing the order of nature; children
tlehsiss
become, at an early age, independent of their parents ; in
many cases the latter are even obliged to act as menials to
their children. Another class of evils is, that worthless fathers are enabled to spend their time in low pothouses out of the earnings of their children. The vice and immorality
springing from such a system, are too obvious to require
illustration."

The above area few only of the appalling facts
brought before us by the report; but, We ask fear-
lessly, are they not quite sufficient to warrant the im-
mediate interference of parliament, in order to put
down a syaem so dreadful ? In what are the
people
who can tolerate this awful sacrifice of infant life and
purity upon the shrine of cupidity, better than the
wretched fanatics who. stain their idols with infant
blood, or plunge them into the fire or the flood as offer-
ing to their ideal Gods ? Better ! 'Why the Christian
people, who thus mercilessly bestialize and slaughter
their offspring, are worse—a thousand times worse-
-than the benighted heathen, for whose civilization
our missionaries are to be found labouring in every
clime ! -It is doUbtless good to engross the commerce
of the world. It is a boast that we are able to supply