The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-01-15 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

"To a considerable extent ?—Yes, to a great extent. I know
sma girl so bow-legg'd that you could put a chair between her
rs
4- Has it at all affected you ?—Yes ; I am very much knock-
knee'd.
" Have you seen one of the, witnesses in waiting of the name
of Openshaw, a boy ?—Yes.
" Is there anybody that you have witnessed in your neigh-
bourhood that is as strikingly deformed as he is P—A great deal
more so • oue man that is working now at a mill near Brechin,
about 2U miles from Dundee, and who is about 30 years of age.
This man does not stand, with his deformity, above 4 feet 6
inches high; and had he grown to his proper height, 1 think he
would have been about-5 feet Bor 9. He has- been in mills
since he was five years old, and he is reduced to that state, that
he slides about on a stool to do his work; and though he is about
30 years of age, he can now do uo more than a girl's work."
The next mill was Strathmartin, distant only half a
mile from the former. Fifteen hours, exclusive of meals,
the time. But the overseers were jealous of their know-
ing the time.
" After the overlooker found I was possessed of a watch, 1
had logt the key, and he took the watch and broke it, and gave
it me back, and said I had no use for a watch, and chastised me
for letting the hands'kuow the time of day."
Here the boys and girls all slept in one apartment,
with a small division about four feet high bet Ween them.
After staying a year and a half there, he endeavoured
to get some other employment, but was forced to return
back to Duntruin mill, as overlooker. There the sys-
tem, since he had been away from it, was worse.
"At what time of the morning did you have to attend your
lhbour there?-1 have been called up by the master, who stood
at the door cursing and swearing, at three o'clock in the
morning.
"how, late iu the night were you kept at that work ?—We
were never kept less-than till ten and eleven o'clock at night.
"Were the hands principally young ones at that mill?—Yes,
there was a great number of them below twelve.
"Were they very poor?—Yes, very poor; the poorest of the
poor.
‘• Where did they come from P—Some from the poor-houses in
Edinburgh.
" Were they sent young ?—Yes;- they came at 6 and 7 years
old.
" And• they were sent for a stated length of time ?—Yes.
" For a number of years ?—Yes: rkuow some that were en-
gaged for three and four years.
"Were those children worked as long as you have been stet-
ing ?—yes..
" No exceptions in favour of the younger children and the
girls P—Not in the least.
"Was that excessive working accompanied by excessive
beating ?—Yes, very frequently they were beaten; children
were not able to stand the .work: and, if they had made the
least fault, they were beaten excessively.
"Did you ever hear of any one attempting to escape from
that mill ?—Yes : there were two girls that made their escape
from the mill through the roof of the house, and left nearly all
their clothes behind them."
No person- will have anything to do with any of,the
wretches so reared, for they are quite helpless. if the
females, when grown up, are not ugly, they may' find
relief in prostitution.
The flogging or strapping is continual, and when it
happens to be extreme the overseer is fined.
"Did you know any individuals brought to trial for inflicting
the extreme punishment you have described ?—I heard of one;
there was an overlooker in Mr. Edwards's mill, at West End,
Dundee, who was brought before the Justice for licking a girl;
and on, being examined before the Justice he was fined ; but the
master returned the line back to the overlooker, and turned
away this girl whom he had struck, and also her sister and two
other sisters who were connected with her. Mr. Edwards was
questioned about it in the Advertiser paper, and he refused to
answer. The only reply he made was, that he could do any-
thing he liked with his own, though four or five suffered by that
transaction o: taking the overseer to justice for that bad usage."
Thus the overseer is encouraged to violence, and he
is paid for making himself the scape-goat of the master,
who cannot be reached.
- -

The poor children are hardly able to stand from fatigue;
and the overlookers keep continually strapping them- to
prevent them from dropping down asleep.
We shall return more than once to this interesting sub •
ject. The evidence of the eminent medical. men exam-
ined on the effects of this system on the population is well
deserving consideration.—Morning Chronicle.

[After a long quotation from the Evidence on the Fac-
tory Bill, the Guardian proceeds--]
Our limits are exhausted, or we would produce parts of
the evidence of a much more harrowing descriytion, but
we shall return to it on the first opportunity. One thing,
however, we beg to impress on the minds of our readers,
namely, that almost without a single exception, the pro-
prietors of these mills, where the greatest cruelties, aris-
ing from the hardest toil have been perpetrated, are gen-
tlemen of unbounded liberality, and reformers par ex-
cellence. They are men learned in all the mysteries of
political science, who march in the front rank with the
schoolmaster, whose wives and daughters shed tears at
the bare recital of colonial- slavery, who pray with and
for the negro, and tender their alms in order to purchase
his manumission ; but, alas I they have no tears for the
poor white slaves in their father's factories—no sigh for
the emaciated and deformed infant—no horror for the
strap—no pity for the wretched and sickly female, once
as healthy and beautiful as themselves, who wastes and
spins away her existence for a pittance of six shillings a
week, four of which, in many cases, she is obliged to
spend at the factory store, where every article that is sold
is charged 20 per cent. higher than in the ordinary hux-
ter's shop.
One word more and we have done. The man who
brought. this infamous system to light, and by whose sole
and unaided exertions it has been exposed in all its de-
formities—who made the echoes of the House of Com-
mons ring with the cruelties of the system,—has now no
seat in Parliament. To the everlasting disgrace of Le eds
he has been rejected by his own townsmen—beaten by
the strap-masters of the mills—opposed by the advocates
of infanticide, who, all powerful in their locality, have
been enabled to pour their political and selfish resentment
on the friends of the poor. But Mr. Sadler will be im-
mortalized when they are forgotten, when their factories
are valueless, and the rotten economy they support is on-
ly remembered from the evils it inflicted, and the destruc-
tion of human life of which it was the cause. The min-
isterial papers, now hunting after popularity, appear dis-
posed to take up the question; but we trust it will be
recollected that they conceald the evils to the last mo-
ment, and opposed Mr. Sadler with all the bitterness of
party vindictiveness. The press of Loudon, with the ex-
ception of the Standard, which we followed in the cause
of justice, at an humble distance, was opposed to him,
but he has his reward. He drew the veil aside, and now
that it is drawn, and the truth must be. told, they stand
aghast at the enormities disclosed. They. crawl in upon
the rear of victory to pilfer that which belongs to others—
but they are welcome !—Guardian and Public Ledger.

means of comfort and of an, honest independence, make
him reckless of character, and qualify him for acts of
violence and depredation. It is true, we hear seldom
of the offence of machine-breaking now, but the reason is
not that the results of the special commissions, or the still
subsisting punishment of death, have terrified from the
crime, but because the farmers have very generally sub-
stituted the hand-labour of the flail once more for that
of the thrashing-machine; but the midnight bumings
still go on. Neither continued executions by judge and
jury, of guilty men sometimes, and of innocent ones oc-
casionally, can stop this crime of a fierce and ignorant
spirit of revenge—its cause lies deeper than penal laws
can reach. The, Spring-gun Bill of Lord Melbourne,
which was to put men, women, or children, as the case
might happen to be, to death, without the intervention
of judge or jury, would only have made matters worse.
The penal legislation has been long tried without effect—
let the remedial now be attempted—improve the condi-
tion of the labourer.—Morning Herald.

MR. POULETT THOMSON—THE MINISTRY.
We propose to offer some additional observations on
the speech of Mr. P. Thomson, which he gives us to un-
derstand embodies his opinions and those of " his col-
leagues."
He tells us France has, by the advice of our•govern-
ment, abolished the prohibitory system of trade, and
decided on embracing the principle of free trade. We
should like to know to what article this new system is
bonajide applied. Do the French consent to receive our
iron manufactures at other than prohibitory duties? Do
they take our cotton goods ? , Do they take our earthen-
wares ? Is there any one article they will consent to
take from us on terms that will admit of commercial
exchange ? If so, we be Mr. Poulett Thomson will
give to the public the tariff on which it is based. But he
knoWs, and we know, that he was practising sheer hum-
bug on his Manchester audience when he indulged in
this statement. The French government profess a great
willingness to do many things which they have no in-
tention of doing; fOr the people of that country are
opposed to the projects that are recommended. They
see how keen our rulers are in the desire of reorganizing
the commercial system, and they profess to feel in unison
with them, but they commit themselves to no acts of ac-
quiescence. They think it sufficient to show such agree-
ment of sentiment as may answer their end of binding
the imbecile government of Lord'Grey, in foreign policy,
to their views.

The French government, nearly twelve months ago,
entered into an equivocal treaty to abolish the slave
trade, honestly, as respected France, and this document
served to make a flourish about the liberality of France
for one evening last session of parliament; but we beg to
ask Lord Palmerston if this treaty has been carried into
effect.

The foreign slave trade is carried on as extensively as
ever. Our rulers are anxioi4s to keep this fact in the
back ground, but they endeavour to drive our West
India colonists into equal competition in the sale of their
produce with foreigners who carry on the slave trade,
and who have by this means labour at nearly one half the
price of our colonists.
The name of "free trade" and " liberal systems" leads
men who do not understand the questions they are con-
ducting into very absurd measures. To forward "free
trade" and our intercourse with France, we last year
equalized the duties on French, Spanish, and Portu-
guese wines. It was then said, "We shall all drink de-
lightful French wine at cheap prices." The public now
learn, by experience, what every wine- merchant would
have told them at the outset, that we have for years im-
ported nearly all the good wines France produces, ,and
that it is only drank by the higher classes. The result
of this " liberal measure," therefore, is not to increase
the consumption of French Wine; it remains stationary,
the revenue is diminished, and the only•point established
is the ignorance of the government.
Mr. P. Thomson, on his own part and for his " col-
leagues," calls the government the "people's govern-
ment," not the king's government. We wish the peo-
ple much joy of their intelligent rulers.—Morning Post.