The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-03-01 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL SPI'ANDARD.

of the factory system seemed to have far outstripped the imagi-
nation of the most gifted of poets. When considering the sub-
ject, he had once turned to a book !which all valued—he meant
"Paradise Lost," and here he found i description of the plagues
which were to afflict posterity, which, seemed to have a special
reference to the effects of the factory system. The passage oc-
curred in the address of the angel to Adam previously to the
latter's exclusion from Paradise :

" Immediately a place
• Before his eyes appeared, sad, noisome, dark;
A lazar-house it seemed; wherein were laid
Numbers of all diseased : all maladies
Of ghaStly spasm, or racking torture, qualms
Of heartsick agony, all feverous kinds,
Convulsion, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs,
Intestine stone and ulcer, colic pangs,
-moping melancholy,
Marasmus, and wide wasting pestilence,
Dropsies, and asthmas, and joint-racking rheums,
Dire was the tossing, deep the groans."
(Cheers.) Was it possible, he asked, to read the catalogue of
ills which affected the manufacturing districts, without instantly
determining to aid the endeavours of the persons who had
already lifted up their voices in favour of those who had not
the power to make their own contracts
.? (Hear, hear.) How
could anybody argue for the policy of a system of cruelty
which was not equalled amongst the most barbarous of nations ?
The factory children were treated as if they made their own terms.
Oh, but it was said in reply, they are under the control of their
parents, and we therefore need be under no fear on their ac-
count. Why, there was a period when the people of Europe—
England not excepted—actually sold their children for slaves ;
and this system lasted until so late a period as the reign of
Henry the Seventh. (Cheers.) How could it be said, then,
that children were safe if left to the control of their parents ?
" Gentlemen," said Mr. Condy, "when interest comes in
collision with humanity, I would not trust my own heart—
wherefore should I, then, trust to any other man ?" Why a
people once the most civilised in the world—the Hindoos—
would now continue the system of infanticide but for the strong
arm of British law. It was but lately that a petition had been
presented to the British government pretended to be signed by
Hindoo women, praying. that they might be allowed to con-
tinue their reasonable diversion of roasting themselves alive.
(Laughter.)—Could the widows of Hindoos have any interest
in the perpetuation of this custom ? Certainly not ; any
their
relatives, who came in for a share of their substance, could;
and so could the homicidal priest, who got another liberal
portion besides certain mortuary fees, consequent upon the
ceremony. The propriety of the custom was solemnly argued
before the Privy Council; by certain loose-tongued lawyers, in-
fluenced, no doubt, by a pretty liberal fee, who strongly con-
tended for its continuance. (Hear.) Suppose some sneering
Gibbon .or incredulous Hume, some three centuries hence,
were to record that a petition had been presented to the legis-
lature, to allow the Hindoos the privilege of burning them-
selves—would their statement be believed ? (Cries of " No,
no !") But we live just in time to know that, if a penny fee be
offered for the justification of any outrage on humanity, there
will always be some persons ready to find out a reason for its
perpetration, even though it should sweep whole provinces
from the face of the earth: (Cheers.) Mr. Condy then read
several extracts from the speech of Mr. Oa'stier at the Dews-
bury meeting, on the 6th February. These extracts referred
to the evils of the system as it existed in Yorkshire. It will be un-
necessary to insert the extracts, as our readers are by this time
sufficiently conversant with the hardships undergone by the
poor factory children. One extract will suffice :-

1
" Before I carne into this room (said Mr. Oastler) I met with
an operative who said he had five children working in a mill in
this neighbourhood, and that many a time he had carried them
in his arms at five o'clock in a morning to that mid, and had
fetched them back at nine at night." (Shame, shame.) Mr.
Condy admitted that not the masters only were to blame.
Blame attached to the public for quietly allowing the system to
reach and continue at its present height. He believed there
were many of the masters who would be glad to get rid of
the odium of the factory system, if they could do so with due
regard to their proper interests; and they were only deterred
from making the attempt by the represeptations of certain
doctrinal people as to the impropriety of legislative interfer-
ence, who assured them that, unless they made the children in
their establishments work fourteen hours per day, their property
would all go to ruin. They would certainly perceive their mis-
take some day, and would then doubtless thank the public for
disabusing them. As to the profitableness of the long hour
system, it had been calculated by a gentleman at Dewsbury,
that the additional hours were not worth the additional
cost, from the fatigue of the children, and the confusion which
ensued in the endeavour to keep them to their work. In
reply to the- argument of the impropriety of legal inter-
ference, Mr. Condy remarked that it was deemed legal to in
terfere on behalf of the negro slaves; and these being private
property, surely the owners had a right to demand the power
to do what they liked with their own. (Laughter.) Neither
was it considered an unwarrantable exercise of power .to pro-
vide for the precious health of the adult felon at the hulks.
Still it was denied that a similar interference was right on
the part of the infant population. There was a proverb in a
certain book which said—" The wise man cousidereth all

things; but the eyes of the fool are in the ends of the earth."
Our sympathies were to be extended to the negro slaves (and he
thougnt Justly extended to them,) and to the housebreaker
serving his imprisonment on the Thames, and still not one pang
was to be deducted from the Sufferings of the poor factory child-
ren of Lancashire and Yorkshire ; and this, only because com-
merce must be protected, and a free trade upheld. And why
was this? Because the nation had been engaged in a long and
expensive war; an enormous national debt had been incurred;
and if the steam-engine were allowed to stand for five minutes,
the interest of that- debt could not be paid. (Loud cheers.)
Here was the nation plunged into an inextricable debt, and we
called upon children under ten years of age to bear the burden.
Truly it was a glorious achievement to push the Corsican into
the sea in which he had threatened to push us ; but what was the
result? The sword has been turned from our enemies, and
plunged into the bowels of suffering infancy. Before, you sacri-
ficed-men ; we now give you children. In fact, the factory sys-
tem was not a whit better than settled, legalised infanticide.
(Loud cheers.) Mr. Condy continued at great length to attack
the factory system and its advocates; combining argument, illus-
tration, and sarcasm, with the happiest effect. He exposed the
monstrous doctrine of a system which practically inculcated that
infant labour was to supersede that of adults, and quoting Dean
Swift's satirical proposal to the Irish, to fatten and dispose of
their superfluous offspring, suggested that the same mode might
now-be advantageously adopted with the useless parents of the
factory children. He concluded a speech of which our sketch
will afford but an imperfect idea, by moving the first resolution,
and sat down amidst loud applause.

which the sabbath was desecrated, and the children deprived of
the benefits of religious instruction. This, in his opinion, called
for the most energetic interposition of the ministers of religion.
They were frequently aroused to their work by a leathern in-
strument which he would show to the meeting. [The rev. gen-
tleman herd exhibited a leathern strap with a knot in the centre,
from which depended two thongs; and the sight of it caused -a
general murmur throughout the room. He stated that he had
received it from the father of two children at Byerley, Who had
been so ill-treated at a factory that he had been compelled to
remove them.] The overseer, in using this strap, was in the
habit of putting the heads of the children bet Ween his knees'
and lashing them until they were so bruised and lacerated that
they could not rest in their beds. (Cries of " Shame.") The
rev.
_gentleman concluded by moving a resolution expressive of
the detestation in which the meeting held the conduct pursued
towards factory children, and of its determination to support
the proposed bill for improving their condition,—which was
seconded by. Mr. GouLD, and carried unanimously.
Mr. O'CONNELL proposed the second resolution, in which he
warmly and heartily concurred that 'the Meeting was convinced
that the rains of oppression were a national loss, and that le-
gislative interference, on the Subject of the condition Of factory
children, was imperatively called for."
This resolution was seconded by Mr. HELps,_who denied the
truth of what had been advanced to Show that the proposed li-
mitation would have the effect of ruining the foreign trade of
the country in the staple cotton manufacture, and went into a
statement from the American tariff' and the evidence before the
committee, in support of his position, as far as related to the
United States and the kingdom of France. The measure pro-
posed steered clear of legislative interference in the concerns
of. individuals, and left the question of wages to be decided be-
tween the parties, merely limiting the hours of night and day
work, particularly for children under nine years of age.
The resolution was carried unanimously.
WILLIAMS, M.l'., in moving the third resolution, said
that: he had received information froni Manchester that the
nianufactureri there were determined to effect amelioration,
'and were ready to co •operate by stopping the working of their
steam-engines, except during certain hours, under heavy pe-
nalties. The hon. and gallant member concluded by moving
a resolution expressive of the satisfaction of the meeting that
Mr. Sadler's bill had been taken up by Lord Ashley, which
was seconded by Mr. LYALL, and carried unanimously.
Mr. ll6iccii+inE, M.P., proposed the fourth resolution, -call-
ing upon all the towns and villages in the empire to evince the
Same anxiety on British as they had before done on that of ne-
gro slavery,
Mr. OASTLER seConded. \the resolution, and went into a dis-
gusting detail of the punishment's inflicted on, and the miseries
endured by, factory children. He also eulogised the conduct
of Mn Sadler and others, who had contributed both their time
and their money in aid of ,ihe cause, and concluded with hoping
that when the operatives were subscribing,—when the little
children themselves, out of their miserable pittance, were con-
tributing to the cause, it would not be considered too much to
ask from the British public, and particularly from that meeting,
such pecuniary assistance as they might be disposed to give to
the cause of the oppressed factory children. (Cheers.)
Lord TEYNnAM assured the meeting that the bill would have
his most cordial support in the House of Lords.
Votes of thanks to Mr. Sadler, Lord Ashley, and the Lord
Mayor, were then proposed and carried, on which thanks were
teturned.