On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
serve to correct many erroneous notions on the subject of which it tt * Bt 8 . ff he Factory Bill was framed in exact accordance with the Commendations of the Central Board . Before it came into operation , the regular "hours of work in factories throughout the kingdom varied between nine and fourteen daily , the majority being between twelve and thirteen hours , exclusive of meals and stoppages from accidents ; while , if * press of business occurred , the operatives were ready to continue at work for fifteen , sixteen , or more hour * , and w ^ re glad to go on for the sake of the additional pay . Indeed the time they would labour is almost incredible , as in the fallowing instance extracted from the Report of the Central Board :
( ' "' Woiked all last night ' ( I found her working at a quarter before six , p . m . Commissioner } ; worked from a quarter before six yesterday room ; will work till six this evening ; thirty-four hours , exclusive of two hours for meals ; did this because the hands were short , and she should gain afl additional shilling ; has at this moment , although she has been standing already twenty-four hours , no pain in her knees or ancles ; is not tired , or else would not do it . ' ' It ' s all our pleasure , they do not force us to do it ; would prefer the present hour * and pay , to a reduction of both /'—Report , p . 11 .
But this was the dreadful evil to the children—who were found in the factories , in rare instances , so young as five and six years of age , but the great majority of whom were under nine —as long as the adult operatives went on , it was necessary that they should also ; the work must have stopped without them . It is scarcely necessary to enlarge on the misery they endured .
' * We have been struck with the perfect uniformity of the auftwers returned to the Commissioners by the young workers in this country , in the largest mid-best regulated factories as well as in the smaller and less advantageously conducted . In fact , whether the factory be in the pure air of the country , or in the large town ; under the beat or the worst nmnagenrent ; and whatever l > e the nature of the work , whether light or laborious ; or the kind of treatment , whether considerate
and t'entte , or strict and harsh ; the account of the cu ' ild , when questioned as to its feeling of fatigue , is the same . The answer always being ' Sick-tired , especially in the winter nights / * So tired when she leaves the mill that she can do nothing / ' Feels so tired , she throws herself down when she gangs haiue ^ no caring- what she doe */ 4 Often much tired , and feels sore , standing so long on her legs . * ' Often so tired she could not e ; it her supper . * * Night and morning verv tired : has two msters in the mill ; has heard them complain to
her mother , and she says tlicy inu ^ t work . * When the tow is course we are so tired we ure not able to set one foot by the other / Whiles I do not know what to do with myself ; » a tired every morning m * I can be '
*• Yocn < j persons of more advanced nge , speaking of their own feelings when ybrmger , give to the Commissioners such representation ^ a * the following ;— ? Many a time haa been so fatigued that she cbiild
Untitled Article
The Factory Bill 4 * 4
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1836, page 451, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2659/page/59/
-