New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1850-04-11
Labor and the Poor in England.
sPITALFIELps.

SPlTALFlELpS.
SpitalGeds is district Of London wei known
as the seat Of extensive silk manufactures, one
tenth OF the silk goods made in England being pro
duced there About 20 goo operatives are employed
in this district They are mainly the descendants
of the French artisans who let their own country
in 1855 after the reyo, alton Of the edrt o' Nantes
As class these wcayers have always been re.
markable for intelligence refinement and a love OF
intellectual pursuits, which have made them much
superior to the generality Of laboring people IN
Great Britain This superiority they still retain,
although they have from necessity greatly fallen on
not in taste, perhaps but IN the means o. srat.iy
ing the love Of science and of natural beauty
Formerly they were great botanstsi fifty years
since there existed among them a Horticultural
Society. then the only one IN England. They had
also Historical Society, an chronological Society
and Mathematical Society, all kept mp BY opera
tive weayers. Dooud the inventor Of the achro
matte telescope, vas Spitslields weaver and it
was at their looms that the British Government
found Simpson and Edwards when they were
made Professors Of Mathematics at the Military
Schools Of Woolwich and Chatham. And not only
were the wages Of the weayers then sufficient 70
permit such degree OF mental cultivation, bat
they enjoyed an amount oil domestic comfort and in
dependence 10 which they IRE now strangers. On
holidays they used 10 60 with their families % dine
at the little public gardens which were then nuIner
Gus ia the enyirons of the city aud there too, they
might often be seen in little groups spending SO
ciay in the fashion of their French ancestors, the
leisure hours that remained after their labor was
accomplished Now all this IS changed. For
them leisure and holidays are alike abolished, and
study and social intercourse are Injuries enjoy ed
by stealth while from morning till midnight, on
Sundays and all other days the dull noise Of looms
is incessant throughout the quarter occupied by
their narrow and poverty stricken habitatons
Mr. Macsulay Mr. Golden and any and oil other
historians and economists may demonstrate to their
own perfect satisfaction that the condition Of the
laboring classes in England has steadily improved
for the past two or three hundred years, Dat they
cannot hope 70 prove il to the Spitalieds wesvers
TAey know the contrary from their own painful
experience. That has been unyarying and certain,
constantly from worse 10 worse.
With regard TO the amount Of their pay in for
mer times we have no more exact means Of judg-
tag thah the degree oi cOulosI Iney chJoyS" a-~
their general intelligence and refinement The
first precise statistics are Of the year 1924. Then
the average weekly earnings of the operatives.
taking the whole body together employed and IN
employed, was "A shillings pence per week, or
abou. 50 so. In 1899 this pnce had iaHen OF moro
than One-hdlf the average being only shiliDgs
and in lsi9 there had been accomplished still
further reduction Of from Is to 20 per cent, bring
Jog the average earnings down to shillings 6
pence, or little more than 81 IS per week. And
while the returns TO the weaver have undergone
this terrible dimisution bis work has grown much