The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-02-19 00:00:00

THE FACTORY SYSTEM.

The name of Mr. Richard ()utter may be unknown to
many of our readers, but it is well known in Leeds, in
Yorkshire, and the manufacturing districts of England.
Although a person in the middle ranks of life, lie has dis-
tinguished, and even rendered himself popular by the
fearless honesty of his principles, the boldness with which
he evows his sentiments, and, above all, for the open
war he has declared against the abominable slavery of
the steam factories. He is an able and undaunted sup-
porter Of Mr. Sadler, in whose cause, or, rather, in the
cause of starved and murdered infants, he has exposed
himself to considerable persecution from the mill tyrants.
But the honesty of his character, and the invincible cou-
rage based upon that honesty, have enabled him to sur-
mount all the obstacles thrown in his way, and despise
the slanders invented for the purpose of injuring him.
This individual has recently published a couple of
pamphlets containing his political views, which are pecu-
liarly addressed to the working classes, and are admira-
rably calculated to infuse sound opinions into the minds
(alas ! too long allowed to be perverted) of his compa-
triots. In one of these publications he calls attention to
the factory system in the following spirited manner :

"On the 29th of Sept., 1830, I first heard that pool little
English babes, even at seven years old, were obliged to work in
the factories of Bradford and its neighbourhood, from 6 o'clock
in the morning to 7 o'clock in the evening, with only 30 mi-
nutes' interval, in all that time, for meals, and play, and rest,
and improvement ! I then knew little more of the hateful and
abominable horrors of that hellish system. I did indeed know
that very many individuals, who made much noise in the religious
world, who loudly declaimed against Negro Slavery,' were 'mak-
ing to themselves riches' by such unholy, and unchristian, and in-
human means. But I had then never dreamt, that, in the
worsted mills of Bradford and its neighbourhood, this excessive
labour was frequently protracted to 16, and even 18 hours a
day, with still the same short intervals of time for rest, &c.;
nay, that in one instance, at least 16 hours of labour was re-
quired by a • liberal' master, and not one moment of rest was
ever allowed. I knew not at that time that human nature could
endure such excessive toil. I had then heard of the straps, but
not of the billy-rollers, and pieces of wood and iron—of fists,
• and feet with heavy clogs on, which were used as instruments
of wanton torture, or for the purpose of keeping drowsy nature
ihne uarsthOViyncsetassteanotillaubioenkr.
activity,a during
rot ihe
then
I;l,eees ln toolndg gar
to tLaciteld
tish factories little children were seizecl by the hair or by their
limbs, and dashed with violence by an angry overlooker upon the
fizctory floor; or that cruelty had invented and executed the horrid
plan of suspending these little suffirers from poles fixed in the fac-
tory walls by ropes tied round their bodies. I. knew nothing then
of the heavy fines which were 'kept back by fraud,' by the mas-
ters from these infant labourers. 1 did not then know of the hun-
dreds of hapless children of British parents, who were annually
offered up to Moloch, on the shrine of Christian cruelty and
avarice. I was not then aware of the thousands of my -fellow
creatures who were ruined iu health and limb, and, when they
were worked till they could work no more, were kicAed out of
the mill, and left to do as they could between an unfeeling over-
seer and starvation. 1 had not then heard of the sullen mutter-
ings of the unemployed parent, maddened with rage at his own
and his children's undeserved wrongs—of the sorrowing hearts
and weeping eyes of many,a mourning mother—nor of the un-
heeded sighs of the poor factory child. But I had heard
enough—my blood rushed to my cheeks—l blushed for Eng-
land and for my native county, and resolved on that day, and
hitherto I have kept my vow, (may I never live to break it !)
that, sink or swim, I would never teasingly endeavour to stop
this horrid crime."

So much fur honest Richard Oastler's indignant ab-
horrence of infant slavery. It does honour to his heart—
it is an inimitable and splendid burst of natural eloquence,
ten times more natural and more beautiful, because more
simply expressed, than all the hollow sentimentality, and
the turgid oratory of Lushington, Macaulay, Buxton,
and others, on the subject of slavery in the West Indies.
The pamphlet before us, in addition to Mr. Oastler's
introductory remarks, from which the above extract is
taken, contains also a report of a speech delivered by him
at a meeting of the electors of the East Riding of York-
shire, in which he allildes to the same subject. He says,
"There is another part of the factory system which deserves
exposure and reprobation. Will you believe it, that so deter-
mined are the factory masters to hold the children of the poor
in slavery, that almost every witness that we have had up be-
fore the Select Committee (and mind you, they have gone by
the positive orders of the House of Commons, for a summons
was sent down to command their attendance, and in many
instances they got leave of their masters to go before the sum-
mons reached them-)s I say that in most of those cases the per-
sons hare been persecuted by being discharged from their work.
(Shame.) We have had to support some of those individuals
who lost their work simply because duty gave evidence before the
Rouse of Commons. e could not find money for all; we have
done our best. If they had not gone up, a tipstaff of the House
of Commons would have taken them to Newgate, and because
they did go, they are to be sent to the poorhouse. I say it is
hateful, it is a disgrace to any one of them ; but they are
`liberal respectable gentlemen,' at least Baines says' so! (A
laugh.)"

These extracts are rather long, but they justify us in
making room for them, even at the expense of other mat-
ter, for they afford an admirable exposure of the boasted
system of "enlightenment," under the factory system.
We cannot resist, however, giving place to a few lines
more on a very important subject. It is rather facetiously
treated, we confess, but still the genuine good sound
sense of the author is conspicuous :
" I stated distinctly that a property tax should be instituted
to pay all the expenses of the nation. I think so still. (Cheers.)
I merely mentioned propert3, but I ought to have said, property
and machinery-1 mean that kind of machinery which is worked
by the individual who does nut belong to it. 1 would not have
a single machine taxed which belongs to the labourer, and
which assists hint in working at home. Some persons have
taunted me, and said—'Oh, if you tax machinery, you must
tax the knife and the fork, the spade and the plough.' I have
said to them—" If that be necessary, do it ; put a tax of a
farthing upon the knife, a halfpenny upon the spade, and a
penny upon the plough, when used by other persons than the
owner; and if you tax the steam engiiie and the machinery in
the factory in the same ratio, you will raise a famous sum an-
nually, and thus protect in the same proportion the industrious
artisan, though 1 fancy you will find the trifle of a farthing and
a halfpenny on the knife and the spade, scarcely pay for col-
lecting—but if you will not tax the steam engine without the
spade and the plough, so be it, say I.' But I think that if the
machine belongs to the man who works at or with it, as, for in-
stance, the loom of a weaver in his own cottage, that is part of
his own labour, and ought, in my opinion, to be exempt from any
tax, because, if it were taxed, it would be equivalent to a tax upon
labour. If, however, he is dragged from his cottage to work at
machinery in factories, which capitalists have bought—then
ought machinery to be taxed, because that becomes distinctly a
monopoly qt. property vested in machinery. The tax upon it is
neither more nor less than a property tax."
Farewell, Mr. Richard thistle'. •If there were an
hundred men such as you in the House of Commons, the
country would not long continue in its present wretched
condition.—Guardian and Public Ledger.