The Statesman.
London, England, 1818-03-25 00:00:00

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tale, sod happiness of their felloo-crestures---whose
only !Amerce after wards is pariah relief. I regret,
hoot arc, to see that the amelinratiog clauses which
the Bill bef 're me contains in its present form, are
inadequate to remedy the evils which ono exist, and
which 10'4 agt ought to have been prevented. Its
onactruititsilvitipts intended amelioretions to Cotton
only •; and permit children at nine years old to
be employed in them from that period to 16 years of
age, twelve hours and a buff per day, allow* only
etre hour and a half for meal; and 'exercise in the
open air. I bete no 4oehl the Honourable Member
ink *hem this 11111 originated, and who has devoted
Ms mach time to the subject, is aware that these
enactments are very inadequate to meet the existing
Palk, lie was probably afraid to ask more, lest he
should increase the. opposition of those, who think
themselves interested in perpetuating an oppression
ma their fellow-creatures, Worse than any slavery of
the sense extent with which the homes; race has been
hitherto afflicted. We are unacquainted with any
station, ancient or modern, that hall suffered Its hon.
dreds of thousands of children, °flowed to Snell,
years of age, to work incessantly for 15 hours per
day in an overheated unhealthy atmosphere, allowing
them only 40 minutes out of that time for dinner• and
change of air, which they breathe often in damp cel-
lars or in garrets, in confined narrow streets or dirty
lanes. And this system of oppression will be sanc-
tioned by the British Legislature if the Bill proposed
shall be allowekir to pass in its present stile; rut it is
in evidence taken before a Committee of the Hoot*
of Commons, appointed to Inveatigete the subject,
that such practices prevail in other manufactoriet as
unhealthy is the cotton. It cannot for a moment be
supposed that the Legislature will now compromise
its character by giving its countenance to loch abuses.
Far better would it be that the evil ihould remain in
its full extent, than that the poor sufferer should be-
mocked by enactments which merely hold out a petty,
paltry relief to those employed in one branch of our
manufactures, while thousands aid hundreds of
thousands in other situations are left to esperience-
• all the oppression and slavery of which I now com-
plain.
My Lord, I do hope that this important subject
will be taken up and defended by the Ministers of
the trown on its broad end tree principles: I trust
they will prove to the cotsetry at large that revolts.
lion or violent reformation is not necessary to com-
pel them to protect the oppressed and the helpless ;
and that they are willing of themselves to begin the
work of gradual reformation, at that point from
which alone any beneficial reformation can ever corn.
mence—that is, by attending well to the proper
training and education of the rising generation. Let
this point be adopted as the polar star of the domestic
policy of Great Britain, and it may safely be pre-
dicted that her pas' fleeting prosperity and success
will become as shadows when contrasted with her
future permanent strength and glory. A fortunate
opportunity at the proper woment now presents it-
self to begin this admirable work, and let us hope it
will be seized with avidity by our most enlightened
Statesmen, who, discarding the ignorant and de-
f railiog feelings a party, will unite all their efforts
sn a cause in which all have a common interest, and
by the adoption of timely preventive femurs*,
founded on principles leading to onion and good
will among mankind, will overcome those evils in the
social system, which now in every direction threaten
forcibly to dissolve all existing Governments and In.
stitutions. But, my Lord, and I put the question
to you as a practical Statesman, can the habits of the
rising generation be well and properly formed while
they continue to be immured almost from infancy
within our demoralizing and unhealthy manufactories
for 14 or 15 hours per day ? Or rather, my Lord,
could the greatest enemy to 'human nature devise
more effectual means by Which to blight every hope
of improvement or happiness to man ? Could such a
being, it; the plenitude of his cunning and hatred,
to surely settle in any other way a blasting curse on
human beings, or so certainly inflict upon them every
form and degree of misery to which their nature is
liable? To advance one step beyond a mere pretence
to ameliorate the wretched condition of the working
classes—the sole instruments by which our necessa-
ries, our comforts, and our' luxuries are produced,
they must be protected from that oppression to which
they are now exposed, and their children 'must be
placed under circumstances in which they may be
trained in habits useful to themselves and to society.
If the Bill now before the Legislature secure not
these objects, it will not effect any thing that had
not much better be left undone. Instead of confin-
ing the provisions of the Act to Cotton-mills only,
they should extend to all manufactories whatever not
carried on in private houses. Instead of children
being admitted at nine years of age to work in Cot-
ton-mills, t twelve and a half hours per day, with only
an hour and a half for meals and recreation, no child
should be admitted to work in any manufactory be-
fore ten years of age, and not for more than six hours
per !lay until he is twelve years old. And no manu-
facturer should tt. permitted to employ either ynong
or old for a longer period than twelve hours per day,
allowing them out of that time one hour for breakfast
and another for dinner, leaving ten boors for fall
and constant work, which is one more than our an-
cestors thought beneficial ; and I doubt whether nine
hours of regular and active employment, established
as the measure of daily labour to be required from
the working classes, would not be still more econo-
mical and profitable for the country.
I am fully aware of the clamour which these pre-1
positions will at first call forth from the blind ava-,
rice of commerce; for commerce, my Lord, traias
her children to tee only their immediate or apparent
interest ; their ideas are too contracted to carry them
beyond tie passing week, month, or year at the ot.
most. They have been taught, my Lord, lo cons:.
der it to be the essence of wisdom to expend millions
of capital, and years of extraordinary scientific ap-
plication, as well as to sacrifice the health, morals,
and comforts of the great mass of the subjects of a
mighty empire, that they may uselessly improve the,
manufacture of, 'and increase the demand for, pins,
needles, and threads--that4hey may have the singu-
lar satisfaction, after Immense care, labour, and
anxiety en their 'own parts, to destroy the real
~wealth and strength of their cooetry by gredstalljt
I AProlioing the morals and physical vigour of its in-
isabstsnts. for the sole end of relieving other nations
of their due sham if this eaviablo process of pint.

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