The Illinois free trader and LaSalle County commercial advertiser. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1841-1843, 1842-07-15

vi tho Pdiout duu oiieEs MN premium Tor
that of his infant is Attributable 10 the coal
owner but, from remark of the COM
missioners, we should infer that such is
their impression.
at is clear" they say, "from care.
ful perusal of the whole of the dispositions,
that this fact could never have been brout
to light by the examination of the coal
owners only. 1t is in general with reluc-
lance that this lass of witnesses acknow-
ledge that children begin to work in the
pits even as early as Seuen years. With
a few exceptions, the evidence uniformly
given by the coal owners would indicate
that they are Ignorant Of the extremely
early ages At which children may be found
working in their mines" The reluctance
to acknowledge the fact looks very like a
knowledge of ii, for the practice is almost
as universal rs it is barbarous. One case
is recorded, says the report, in which a
child was regularly taken into the pit by
lis father, at three years of age. 1t was
made 10 follow him to the works, and
when exhausted with fatigue, was graded
upon the Goals until his return at night !;
and it is added that ont of thirty children
at present at work in six pits in the same
district (HalilaX,) Secenteen are between
five and nine years of age! Mr.. Fletcher,
one of the sub-commissioners. also says,
ain the smaller colieries of the Oldham
district, which have only thin strata, vary
ing in thickness from 10 inches to "a,
children are employed so early as six,
five, and even four years of age. Some
are so young that they 90 even in their
bedgowns. One little fellow whom
endeavored to question could not even
articulate ~
This practice of working infants in coal
pits is more common in the east of Scot
land than in any part of England, and in
the south of Wales worse still than in any
part of Scotland. In Ireland it is scarce
~ known at all.
1t would be cruel to set children so
young at hard labor of any description,
but the work required of thcm ia some
coal pits is the most severe AUD ,hnrrid
mat can be imagined. Mr. -lellowes,
one of the sub-commssioners, gives the
following graphic account of it 81 wish
to call the attention of the board 10 the
pits about Brompton. The seams are so
thin that several have only two feet head
way to all the works. The pits are alto
gether worked by boys. The elder one
lies on his side, and in that posture holes
and gets the coal 1t is then loaded in a
barrow or tub, and drawn along the bank
of the pit mouth, without wheels, by boys
from eight to twelve years of age, on all
toUrS, with dog belts and chains, the
passages being very often an inch or two
thick in black mud and are neither iyoned
nor wooded. In Mr.. Barnes pit these
poor boys have to drag the barrows with
one cwt. Of Goals sixty times day sixty
yards, and the empty barrows back, with
out once strengthening their backs, unless
they stand under the shaft and run the
risk Of having their heads broken by n
coal falling" - Again he says, "out Of
five children examined who worked in
the Brampton pits, three were not only
bow-legged, but their arms were bowed
in the same way, and their whole frame
appeared far from being well developed"
Mr. Scriven also, speaking of the Hall
fax mines, gives a melancholy picture of
the condition to which these poor child
rem are reduced. "rhe narrowHess OF
the space in which all the operations"
he says, "must be carried on, Of course
materially influences the labor of the
children and young persons. Fortunately
few children are needed in them as trap
pers but those that are employed, as in
r,os, "thnr disiria.is SIT III nrf,.' dori-
ness. can never forget the first uniOr
tnnate creature Of this class that | me
with. 1t was boy about eight year.
old, who looked at me as passed viii
an expression Of countenance the mos
abject and idiolc-.ike thing, a creep
ing thing, peculiar to the place. On aP
preaching and speaking to him, he shrunk
trembling and ofl',ighted in a corner, as i
was about to do him some bodily injury
and from which neither coaxlng NO
temptations could draw HIM out.
Many mines, through the want of pro
per drainage, must be almost pesllIentIa
from wet, aud it is surprising how ever
the most robust can endure it--much less
children hardly beyond the verge of IN
fancy. DR.. Mitchell gives the followln!
account of WaIbut Pit, in South Stafford
shire: