The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-12-10
For the Southern Pres.

NEW YORK, 18th Dec, 1850.
resume the subject of the condition of the
English peasantry and operatives, as delineated
by the writer quoted in my former letter.
LAST year mass of evidence was laid before
Parliament touching the condition of children
employed in factories, which describes system
of torture compared with which the treatment
of American slaves appears truly benevolent
When this evidence was published the whole
press of England repeated, day after day, that
the worst kind of slavery exists in England
Children Of tender years, (babies they would be
called in America,) it was shown, are shut up in
factories during twelve, fourteen, and sixteen
hours every week day, and there compelled to
work necessarily, or as hard at least as their
slight frames will permit, and for wages which
but Just satisfy their ruined appetites.* The
pale cheek, parched lips, swoln stomachs, de-
formed limbs, and melancholy looks of these
little wretches, will be easily imagined They
die off with strange rapidity but the places of
those who perish are instantly filled, and fire.
quent change of persons makes no alteration in
the scene Verify, the life of the bulk of the
people Of England is worse than DEATH
Page AZ.
In the slave States of America, a strong
healthy boy or girl is worth ESQ. In London,
on the CRATES Of Poor Houses, one reads
strong healthy boys and girls 10Th the usual
Fee not far the usual fee. You do not pay the
fee to obtain the boy or girl, but the parish off,
GERS pay you for taking one. The usual fee in
London is Gl0, so that in America you pay FIVE
times as much as you receive in England. To
be sure the boys and girls in London are neither
strong nor healthy; the notice on the Work
House gates says that they are 10th to invite
customers, just as the keepers of gin shops pla-
card their windows with mountain dew and
cream of the valley
"'Ah! but says a respectable Englshman,
'the young Americans who cost ESQ, are born in
slavery the others are free.born English chill
dren. The buyer Of an American child can do
what he likes with it; the English children are
merely bound apprentices for term of years,
and the parish pays with each of them an appren-
tce fee, as a recompense to the master for teach
ing them his trade. The magistrate is party
to the indentures Of apprenticeship; he requires
the child's consent be CANCELS the bond If the
child is i'll treated. English children are pro-
tected by our glorious and inimitab Constitu-
ton, which makes no difference between rich
and poor 1t is absurd to compare apprentices
press of England, not |, that calls English chill
words, let us come to facts.
"About three years ago, woman called
Esther Hbner, was hanged in London for beat
ing and starving to death a parish apprentice
In this case, the constitution and law interfered
in behalf of the pauper girl-but when? Not
before the papper girl was murdered, but after
Does the law Interfere to prevent the murder of
apprentices this is the question. The evil
1apna in tha ,,oce of Estbnr TEhnar proy.J III ,t
a number of girls (pauper apprentices,) were
employed in workshop; that their victuals con-
sisted Of garbage commonly called hogs .wash,'
and that Of this they never had enough to stay
the pains Of hunger; that they were kept half
naked, half clothed in dirty rags; that they slept
in heap on the floor, amid filth and stencil ::
that they suffered dreadfully from ood that
they were forced to work so many hours to-
gether that they used to fall asleep while at
work that for falling asleep, or for not working
as h I'd as their mistress wished, they were
beaten with fists and with sticks, dragged by the
hair dashed to the ground trampled upon, and
otherwise tortured; that they were all found
more or less, covered with chblans, scurvy,
bruises, and wounds that one of them died of
i'll treatment; and-mark tlis-that the dis
covery of the murder was made in consequence
of the number of collins which had issued from
Esther Hibner's premises, and raised the curiosity
of her neigh5ors. For this murder, Esther Hib-
ner was hanged; but what did she get for all
the other murders which, referring to the num-
Der of collins, we have a right to believe she
committed? She got for each El0. That is to
say, whenever she had worked, starved, beaten,
dashed, and trampled girl to death, she got
another girl to treat in the same way, with Flo
for her trouble. She carried on trade in the
I'd nf oh AND f.hn 'hoI
conducted it with moderation, if the profit and
custom of murder had not made her grasping
and careless, the constitution which protects the
poor rs well as the rich, would never have in
terfered with her. The law did not permit her
to do what she liked with her apprentices, as the
Americans do with their slaves-oh no These
free born English children were merely bound as
apprentices, with their own consent, under the
eye of a magistrate, in order that they might
learn n trade, and become valuable subjects
But did the magistrate ever visit Mrs Hibner's
factory, TO see how she treated the free born
English girls? Never. Did the parish officers I?
No. Was there any legal provision for the dis
covery Of a woman's trade in murder! None.
That woman has not traded in murder for the
last three years but why not? She was hanged
three years ago. But what hanged her the
glorious constitution, or the number of collins !
Plainly the number of coffins that is, the i'm
punity, the security, with which she had MUIR
dered, the forlorn state of her apprentices, the
utter neglect of them by parish officers and ma
gistrates.
"Since Mrs. Hibner was hanged the inimita-
bic constitution has been altered, but not with
respect to parish apprentices. You still read on
the gates of London poor houses, "strong,
healthy boys and girls, &c" and boys and girls
you may obtain by applying within, as many as
you please, all frce-born, with the usual fee.
Having been paid for taking them and having
gone through the ceremonies of asking their
consent, and signing bonds before a magistrate,
YOU may make them into sausagcs for any thing
the constitution will do to prevent you. If it
should be proved that you kill even one of them,
you will be hanged: but you may haf-starve
them, beat them, torture them, any thing short
of killing them, with perfect security; and using
a little circumspection, you may kill them too,
without much danger Suppose they die; who
cares their parents: they are orphans, or have
been abandoned by their parents. The parish
oficers' Very likely indeed, that these, when