National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1871-04-14
How l.nce IA Made.

y
taught to make Honiton lace in what ar,
termed lace-schools. The little thing,
collect in danes room, and under hel
tuition, frequently seconded by cane
nre taught the mysteries of the art They
are apprenticed to the trade in Devon u,
eight, nine, and ten years OF age (but
in Bucks and Beds commonly at six
years, often at four and tive), earning
nothing in their first year, and sixpence
per week in the second. Afterwards
they are paid so much per sprig, the
price varying with the demand, value of
cotton, &c, but being generally I'D
I'd, or 3D., ,er sprig. :" can make
four turkeys tails day, and get 1sd., 4,
for EACH girl OF ten lately told us
with pardonable pride. A child of five
years old will earn penny in four hours
by making six "flies. One master in
the trade is said to employ as many as
5000 of these workchildren. A clever
adult hand will easily earn shilling day
at her lace-pillow IN good times in
many parts of Devon, however, the work
is paid for on the truck system. The
average earnings of n quick hand may be
put down at three shillings or three
shllhngs and sixpence week At Va
lenciennes the workers used to toll in
underground cellars from four in the
morning till eight at night, and scarcely
earn tenpence day The abuses con
nected with the lace schools were lately
exposed by the Children's Employment
Commission. 1t was found that the
hours of work in them were generally
excessive, and the atmosphere extremely
bad, owing to the crowded state of the
small rooms in which the children work
Discipline is rightly enforced, and in
some schools, in order that the lace may
be kept clean. the children sit without
shoes on brick or stone floors. These
causes, coupled with the constrained
positions of the worker, who must bend
over the pillow which rests in her lap,
lay the seeds of illness and frequently of
consumption in after lie The mortality
amongst the lace makers of Devon, we
can testify, from personal knowledge, is
large
AN INsURRECTIoN. Reports from Bra
zil of late date says it has recently been
discovered in the provinces of Minas
Geraes, that a combination existed
among the slaves, whose object was the
obtaining of their liberty by force, and
that in pursuance of this aim, three hun
dred slaves belonging to some fazendas
adjoining the gold mines or the Eng
ish Companies in the Province, had at
tempted to induce the largest bodies of
slaves employed in them, to raise them
the standard of liberty, with the expec
tation, whether well grounded or not is
yet unknown, that the slaves of other
would rally at once to their flag
of liberty, and that the movement would
speedily extend throughout the Empire
Fortunately, however, before the ar
,-"fss-Ne"ta Cor the projected inaurrec-
tion were matnred the plot was discoy- |
cred, and some thirty of the ringlead-
eas have been arrested, thus stopping the |
perilous movement for the present
The Ang Brazilian Times says, how
ever, that it is greatly to be feared that
he intended inslrrection is, though
Il ortive, too omnious an indication that
he beginning of the end is rapidly APP
1roaching to us, for it has, in truth, been
to conceal from the slaves of
he Empire, that only in Brazil on the
American continent, are there any hui
nan beings held in bondage.