SPEECHES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EARL OF SHAFTESBURY, K.G. 
 
 UroX SUBJECTS IIAV1^'G RELATION CHIEFLY TO THE 
 CLAIMS AND INTERESTS OF 
 
 THE LABOURING CLASS. 
 
 WITH A PREFACE. 
 
 LONDON: 
 CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 
 
 18(38.
 
 rnrNTKD bi william olowes and sons, stamford street 
 
 ANM) CHAH!N(J CEOSS.
 
 o 
 
 M 
 
 a: 
 
 HH 
 
 PEEFACE. 
 
 The idea of giving to the world a volume of speeches originated 
 with my friends, and not with myself ; and it is only in reluc- 
 tant obedience to their wishes that I now venture to offer this 
 selection to the notice of the public. 
 ^ The object is to show the movement, by legislation and othoy 
 ^ means, towards the regulation of industrial labour for children 
 '^ and young persons, in the interest of their moral and physical 
 condition. It purposes also to give some statements of other 
 efforts made, with the same view, for the improvement of special 
 classes, and of large masses of aggregated populations. 
 
 The first Sir Eobert Peel, in 1802, after a long experience 
 and use of the system, carried a measure to provide for the care 
 and education of apprentices, who were sent down by barge- 
 loads into Lancashire from the workhoiises in London. 
 
 It had little or no effect. Sir John Hobhouse, now Lord 
 Broughton, passed a bill, in 1825, for certain regulations in 
 cotton mills ; one in particular, for tlie prohibition of night-work 
 in specified departments ; and, at a much earlier period, Mr. 
 Nathaniel Gould, whose name will ever be cherished in the; 
 manufacturing districts, had pressed tlie state of the children 
 on the consideration of the mill-owners. 
 
 But the great movement which sought the reduction of tlic 
 
 335188
 
 i V Preface. 
 
 liours of work did not begin until 1830, wlien Mr, Oastler, the 
 Rev. Mr. Bidl Mr. Walker, and, above all, Mr. John Wood, 
 worstcd-spiuuer, of Bradford, whose zeal was only equalled by his 
 munificence, appeared in the field. Michael Thomas Sadler at 
 tliat time maintained the cause in Parliament with unrivalled 
 eloquence and energy. The evidence of the Committee which 
 he obtained, revealed to the world at large all the physical and 
 moral evils of the system. He lost, however, his seat in 1833. 
 It was then that, at the request of a deputation, the duty passed 
 into my hands ; and I desire to record the invaluable services of 
 the remarkable men who preceded me. Had they not gone 
 before, and borne such an amount of responsibility and toil, I 
 do not believe that it would have been in my power to have 
 achieved anything at all. 
 
 Nor can I, in justice to the operatives of the counties of 
 Chester, Lancaster, and York, withhold an explanation of the 
 principles on which the agitation was conducted. They agreed 
 from the outset that all should be carried on in the most con- 
 ciliatory manner ; that there should be a careful abstinence 
 from all approach to questions of wages and capital ; that 
 tlie labour of children and young persons should alone be 
 touched ; that there should be no strikes, no intimidation, and 
 no strong language against their employers, either within or 
 without the walls of Parliament. The movement was closed in 
 tlie spirit in wliich it began. The great principle of the ten 
 hours limit having been afiirmed by the legislature, there arose 
 no noisy and affronting exultation. Both j^arties, in the interest 
 of peace, had nuido moderate concessions to each other. The 
 men embraced the act with gratitude ; the employers accepted 
 it with clieerfulness ; and to this we may ascribe the unbroken 
 Jiarmony between them that has subsisted to the present day. 
 The great and terrible trial of the cotton famine may also be 
 adduced in proof of the beneficial character of these remedial 
 measures. The heroism and resignation, then manifested, called 
 forth universal sympathy and admiration ; and though I readily 
 concede to the rci)eal of tlie Corn Laws the principal share in
 
 Preface. v 
 
 producing that marvelloiis tranquillity, I claim (and this on the 
 authority of the operatives themselves) a part for the " Ten 
 Hours Act ;" because it showed unanswerably that the legislature 
 had done for them, all that it could do, in the way of justice 
 and humanity. 
 
 It was in no invidious spirit that the textile fabrics were the 
 first selected for legislative operation. Everything could not 
 be done at once ; the prominence of these fabrics, with the vast 
 numbers engaged in them, had attracted the attention of every 
 one — and it was manifest, besides, that their order and discipline, 
 the multitudes gathered under a single roof, whose toil was 
 governed by the precision and publicity of steam-power, offered, 
 for the enactment of legal restrictions, facilities which could not 
 be found in employments of a less symmetrical and more widely 
 spread character. 
 
 Very little was said on the introduction of my bill in 1833. 
 It was allowed to go to a second reading without opposition, 
 the government being determined to issue thereupon a Commis- 
 sion for further inquiry. The Commission being carried on a 
 division, and having reported, after the delay of a few months, 
 the House went into committee on the bill ; but the first and 
 important clause having been rejected, I threw the whole into 
 the hands of the ministry. The clauses underwent, in conse- 
 quence, very serious modifications ; but though the measure 
 fell far short of what I desired, it contained, nevertheless, some 
 humane and highly useful provisions, and established, for the first 
 time, the great principle that labour and education should be com- 
 bined. In order to give tlie act a fair trial, little was done, for 
 a few years in Parliament (though much out of it), beyond 
 repeated remonstrances to the government, and an anxious 
 observation of its working. It was not until 1838 that, in con- 
 sequence of official negligences and delays, I actively resumed 
 the question. From that time it was frequently before the 
 House, and passed through many vicissitudes of success and 
 defeat. It survived the powerful opposition of the government 
 of Sir Piobert Peel, who threatened, in 1844, to break up liis
 
 vi Preface. 
 
 iidministration unless tlie House of Commons rescinded the vote 
 it had passed in favour of the ten Lours principle. That vote 
 was rescinded accordingly. 
 
 Throughout the whole of its parliamentary career two gentle- 
 men, Mr. Fielden, the great manufacturer of Todmorden, and 
 Mr. Brothorton, the member for SaKord, rendered it the most 
 important— in truth, indispensable services. The House of Com- 
 mons felt the full weight of the singular experience, zeal, and 
 disinterestedness of Mr. Fielden;— and the warm-hearted reso- 
 lution and perseverance of Mr. Brotherton, who had himself 
 l)een a factory lad, have left an impression on the minds of 
 many, and specially on my own, that can never be effaced. 
 
 In 1845, having resigned my seat for Dorset, being unwilling 
 any longer to resist the abolition of the Corn Laws, I gave the 
 conduct of the amending bill I had introduced for fixing the 
 limit of ten hours, to the care of Mr. Fielden. That bill was 
 defeated by a majority of ten. 
 
 In 1847, Sir E. Peel having quitted office, another amending 
 bill to the same effect was brought in by Mr. Fielden, carried 
 successfully through the House, and sent to the Lords, where, 
 under the able management of the first Lord EUesmere, it passed, 
 after an interesting debate, by a large majority. The bill became 
 law ; but its operation was greatly impeded by legal intricacies 
 and every form of ingenious difficulty. 
 
 In 1848 I was enabled to resume the charge of the measure ; and 
 in 1850, emerging from many struggles, it was reduced to good 
 working order. One provision alone was wanting, the provision 
 for confining the labour of children of tender years within the 
 liours between six and six. This was effected in 1853 by Lord 
 Palmerston, when Secretary of State for the Home Department ; 
 and since that day tlie act has required neither impulse nor 
 amendment. 
 
 In 1840, the ten hours question being fairly afloat, acknow- 
 ledged in principle, and defying hostility, it seemed that a 
 favourable hour had arrived for entering on the second part of 
 the undertaking.
 
 Preface. vii 
 
 A Rojal Commission, therefore, was moved for and granted, 
 to " Inquire into tlie state of cliildren in trades not protected 
 by tlie Factory Acts." The Eeport having been made in 1842, 
 became the basis of two bills, one for the removal of females 
 from the mines and collieries, the other for the care and educa- 
 tion of children in calico print-works. No more was done at 
 that time ; for, although the ability and diligence of the Com- 
 missioners had collected a vast amount of evidence showing the 
 fearful condition of some one himdred and fifty trades, public 
 opinion was not sufficiently ripe for so many extensive changes. 
 
 In the year 1862 I ventured to propose a renewal of the 
 Commission, stating that since the issue of the first reports 
 many trades had disappeared, and that others of a dangerous 
 nature had started into existence. It was obtained ; and 
 on its voluminous evidence and wise recommendations was 
 founded the legislation of 1864 and 1867. The bills were 
 introduced by the governments of the day, by Mr. Bruce in 1864, 
 and by Mr. Walpole in 1867. To the zeal and ability of the 
 Commissioner Tremenheere, and Mr. Thring, the standing 
 counsel to the Home Office, the public is indebted for the admi- 
 rable arrangements of these measures. These bills were referred 
 to a Select Committee ; and perhaps I may be allowed to men- 
 tion with gratitude the readiness of many of the great em- 
 ployers of labour to place themselves under restrictions for the 
 benefit of the community. 
 
 The agricultural part of the question was reserved to the 
 last, first, because it presented the greatest difficulties ; and, 
 secondly, because it required all the sympathy and experience to 
 be derived from the proofs of success, furnished by the factories, 
 to obtain for it a favourable reception. The subject of agri- 
 cultural gangs I introduced to the House of Lords, on 11th April 
 1867, who referred it for farther inquiry to the Employment 
 Commissioners. I shortly afterwards, on 18th June, presented 
 a bill with provisions for the education, and, in some instances, 
 for the regulation of the time of the youngest workers engaged 
 in field-labour. The principle of it was affirmed by a second
 
 yiii Preface. 
 
 reading ; and there seems to bo no doubt that these children, 
 like their fellows in the towns, will, so soon as the Com- 
 luissioners have made a further report, be placed within the 
 reach of the benefits and blessings of education. 
 
 It is most desirable that means should be instituted for 
 brinf^ing the rural children in larger numbers, and more regu- 
 larly, into the elementary schools ; that their education should, 
 if possible, be prolonged beyond the present scanty term ; and 
 that, by the instrumentality of night-schools and other appliances, 
 opportunity should be afforded of retaining, and refreshing, the 
 knowledge which so many have acquired at nine years of age, 
 but which they have totally lost at the age of seventeen. Never- 
 theless, with all these deficiencies, which the wisdom of Parlia- 
 ment ^vill endeavour to supply, I cannot refrain from making, 
 on behalf of the first-rate agricultural labourer, a larger claim 
 than is usually admitted, to be considered a man of education. 
 That he is " a skilled artisan " will any one deny '? Look at him 
 engaged with the jjlough ; see the the length and straightness of 
 each furrow, its mathematical precision, the steadiness of his 
 hand and eye, and his masterly calculation of distance and force. 
 Observe a hedger in all the various branches of that part of 
 labour", and admit the accuracy of judgment that is required for 
 a calling so apparently humble. No spinner could do what he 
 does, any more than he could do what is done by the spinner. 
 His talk, too, may be of bullocks ; it may be also of sheep ; it 
 may be of every parochial matter ; but then it is talk upon his 
 sjiecial vocation ; and oftentimes how sound and sensible it is ! 
 lie has not, of course, the acquirements and acuteness of the 
 urban operative ; his labom^ is passed in comparative solitude, 
 and lie returns to his home at night, in a remote cottage or a 
 small viUagc, without the resource of clubs, mechanics' insti- 
 tutes, and the friction of his fellow-men. Still, he may say, with 
 the most scientific, that he is master of the profession to which 
 he is called ; and every one will rejoice to add, to this honourable 
 and useful career, whatever is possible to comfort and adorn it. 
 
 Among the improvements of agricultural life, I cannot omit
 
 Preface. ix 
 
 to mention one, which, whatever rebuke it may excite from some, 
 has the approval of many experienced and thoughtful landowners. 
 
 The exclusion of girls of tender years from held labour 
 (the periods of harvest, of course, excei)ted) would tend greatly 
 to the moral, physical, and financial, advancement of the rural 
 population. They go to theii* work under no supervision, or 
 control, and are exposed (most injuriously to the female con- 
 stitution, as every medical man will testify) to all the vicissitudes 
 and inclemencies of the seasons. One of the main difficulties 
 would lie, no doubt, in the strong antipathy of the girls them- 
 selves to the restraints of domestic service. They prefer the 
 freedom, it may be the license, of out-door, or associated, labour. 
 The taste may be seen, to a large extent, in the localities where 
 the factory system prevails ; it may be seen in many of our 
 country districts, and I have very lately seen it in the south of 
 France. The alteration might cause some trouble, and, perhaps, 
 for a time, a little inconvenience ; but I ventui-e to think that 
 it is indispensable to the real and permanent welfare of our 
 race of husbandmen. The truth must be plainly stated ; we 
 require, in many classes of society, a new generation of wives 
 and mothers. 
 
 The speeches on Lunatics and Lunatic Asylums are in harmony 
 with the purpose of all the others, dealing, as they do, with the 
 condition, mental and physical, of many thousands of the 
 poorer sort. The address to the young men in houses of busi- 
 ness in Manchester is equally applicable to the young men in 
 similar establishments in all our great cities. They may be 
 numbered by tens of thousands. The speech on Irrigation in 
 India touches a matter which is of vital importance to millions 
 of oui* fellow-subjects. And that on Religious Liberty in Turkey 
 (religious liberty being the basis of civil liberty) concerns 
 the freedom and progress of some fourteen millions of Christians 
 in whose independence and welfare none are more interested 
 than the people of Great Britain. 
 
 In the direction of labour, very little now remains to be done. 
 The legislature has covered nearly the whole of the industrial
 
 X 'Preface. 
 
 occupatioiis ; and the limit which, in their caution, they imposed 
 of not extending the Factory Acts, at fii-st, lower than to such 
 ((stablishments as contained fifty work-people, will hardly out- 
 live the next session. The acts, if brought into operation with 
 sagacity and zeal, will remove many of the abuses which have 
 shocked the public mind by their cruel character and their defi- 
 ance of all amendment. 
 
 But in other directions there is much room for personal and 
 legislative effort. The Poor Laws, though vastly improved, are 
 still much in arrear. It is more than probable that a^ better 
 administration of them, in all their departments, would produce 
 a greater amount of good at one half of the expense. 
 
 In all the large towns of the United Empire, and specially in 
 London, there are myriads of vagrant children of both sexes ; 
 the seed-plot of every mischief, if left to themselves, but easily 
 reclaimable, if taken in time. For these are provided the valuable, 
 though, of course, temporary, institutions of ragged schools, 
 trainiug-shii)s, refuges, reformatories, and the like. But, while 
 effective so far as they go, they are inadequate to the extent of 
 the demand. If we have thii-ty thousand children in the ragged 
 schools of the metropolis, w^e find full the same amount beyond 
 their pale ; and we could rapidly fill a dozen school-vessels, 
 were the funds at hand for the maintenance of the lads. 
 
 It must, too, be borne in mind that these wandering tribes elude 
 all permanent or systematic treatment. If forty thousand 
 people, as it is estimated, flow into London every year, as many 
 flow out ; and there is within the circle of the town itself an 
 enormous migratory mass, perpetually on the move, and giving 
 rarely a three months' residence to any locality on which they 
 may drop down. No one will fancy that such stragglers as 
 these can ever be met by any of the ordinary appliances. 
 
 But it is to sanitary and domiciliary improvements, without 
 wliich all schemes for education will be nearly fruitless, that the 
 public must look for the most beneficial and lasting results ; 
 and it is to the neglect of them that it must look for the most 
 disastrous issues, physically and morally. I trust I shall not be
 
 Preface. xi 
 
 regarded as speaking iu too dogmatic a spirit, when I assert, 
 after more thau thirty years of anxious and constant inquiry, 
 that the horrible state of our towns, and the condition of the 
 dwellings of many of our people, lie at the root of two thirds 
 of the disorders that afflict our land. Good drainage, good 
 ventilation, good and healthy houses, and an ample supply of 
 good water, would, by their efiects, abate the demands on private 
 charity, and the public rates; would go far to extinguish 
 epidemics, and largely reduce fevers ; would lessen mortality, 
 and increase the length of man's working-life. There would be 
 fewer young widows, and fewer orphans. New habits would bo 
 formed, and the spirit of vagrancy much suppressed ; and, with it, 
 a fruitful means of the spread of disease. The magistrates would 
 have more leisure, and the police less trouble. Intemperance, 
 also, the great ciu'se of our country, the cause and consequence 
 of innumerable evils, would bend before their influence. Much 
 legislation, now necessary, would become needless ; even Sunday- 
 trading, and liquor-bills, would be superseded by the self-im- 
 posed restrictions of the people themselves. 
 
 The peoj)le will shortly be in the possession of absolute power. 
 It will be for them to preserve these benefits that they have 
 attained. They will no longer require any advocates, though 
 doubtless many woidd bo at hand, should the necessity arise. 
 The twofold object of those who undertook these movements 
 has received, in one part, an accomplishment, while the other 
 is yet wrapped in the future. The first object was the hapjiiness, 
 honour, and prosperity of the Working-People themselves. That 
 this end has been attained, is attested by the united voice of the 
 operatives, the employers, the inspectors, and all who are con- 
 versant with industrial life, and especially by the generous 
 avowals of the late Sir James Graham and of Mr. Eoebuck, 
 who had given, during many years, the hottest opposition to all 
 factory legislation. 
 
 The second contemplated the interest of the State, iu the 
 probability of the event which has just consigned to the people 
 at large the government of this great empire. Though an
 
 jii Preface. 
 
 issno so Riulilcn and extensive bad not been foreseen, it was 
 manifest tbat scrioiis changes conld not be very far distant. 
 Whether these humble efforts have contributed, in any measure, 
 however small, to render the revolution less dangerous, and 
 more gentle, is yet to be developed. 
 
 S. 
 May, 18G8. 
 
 Note. In 1862, the last account made up, the number of children at 
 school daily, between the ages of eight and thirteen, employed in the testil(i 
 fabrics, originally protected by the Factory Act, was 64,411. 
 
 In 1833, a few attended Sunday school. Perhaps not fifty would have 
 been foimd in day schools. 
 
 \Vlien the Factory Acts Extension shall be in full operation over the 
 additional surface of fourteen hundred thousand women, children, and young 
 persons, engaged in trades, and when the principle of them shall have been 
 api)lied to the agricultural districts, it may safely be calculated that the 
 number, combining education and labour, will be six-fold what it is at 
 present. 
 
 I subjoin some passages from a statement sent to me a few days ago by 
 Mr. Baker, now Chief Inspector of Factories, who for thirty-four years has 
 devoted the gi-eatest ability and most consummate judgment to this depart- 
 ment of the public service. 
 
 " Remembering as I do wlien there was no Factory Act, except that of 
 1802 — when the little secular education that factory-workers obtained 
 was almost wholly in the Sunday-school — when children of tlie tenderest 
 years were employed fourteen or fifteen hours a-day, and often, all night — 
 when factory cripples were a specific class of deformities constantly to be 
 seen in the manufacturing districts, and wlien human life indeed was held 
 in small comparison with commercial profits— I cannot but regard every 
 movement towards reasonable legislative restriction of labour, as provi- 
 dential in every sense, whether nationally, locally, or individually. What 
 should we have been as a people, morally and s<jcially, but for the means 
 which this has afforded to the workers for instruction both in domestic and 
 general acquirements? ... Its value is already manifest in the improved 
 character of the people amongst whom the law has been longest extant : 
 similar results are following in districts where it has even been but 
 recently introduced ; and everywhere, both at home and abroad, the great 
 princi[.les of the Factory Acts are recognized as the readiest and most 
 politic method of bringing all labour within the scope of education, which, 
 however variously carried out, cannot fail to be productive of the happiest 
 effects on the people."
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 I'AliK, 
 
 PuEi'ACE iii— xii 
 
 Children in Factokies ........ 1 
 
 {House of Commons, 2Vth Juhj, 1838.) 
 
 Children not Protected by the Factory A(;ts . . . .16 
 {Houxe of Commons, ith Aujusf, 1840.) 
 
 Children in Mines and Collieries ...... 81 
 
 {House of Commons, Itli June. 1842.^ 
 
 Jmhcation of the WocKiNfi Classes ...... G2 
 
 {House of Commons, 2Slh February, 18-43.; 
 
 CoNMlTION OK THE ACKICTLTIRAL LABorRJNC POPILATION . , 87 
 
 {Sturminster, Dorsetsh.re, November, 1843.) 
 
 Ten IloiiiS Factory Bill 91 
 
 {House of Commons, 15///. March, 1844. 
 
 Tin III tiKs Factory Bill . . . . . . . IKJ 
 
 {House of Cominoiis, ]0lli Mo;/, 1844. 
 
 Treatment of Lunatics . . • . . . , .131 
 
 {House of Commons, IZrd July, 1844.; 
 
 Legislation for the LAiioriaNo Cla^^ses ..... H.t 
 {Munrhesler, 2Gth October, 1844.)
 
 xiv Table of Contents. 
 
 VAGR 
 
 Ciiii.uKEN IN Calico Ppjnt-AVorks 152 
 
 {House of Commons, ISth February, 1845.) 
 
 IlEGfLATioN OF Lunatic Asylums . . . . . .169 
 
 (House of Commons, Gth June, 1845.) 
 
 Social Coxdition of the LAisocraxG Classes .... 186 
 (JJath, 2ath Mmj, 1845.) 
 
 Ten Hours Factory Bill . . . . . . • .197 
 
 {House of Commons, 2dth January, 184G.) 
 
 Dwelling Places of the Working Classes ..... 214 
 {Hanover S(iuare Rooms, 22nd May, 1846.) 
 
 Public Health Bill 218 
 
 {House of Commons, Sth May, 1848.) 
 
 E.MIGKATION AND Eagged Schools. ...... 227 
 
 {House of Commons, Gth June, 1848.) 
 
 Emigration AND Ragged ScHoois. ...... -251 
 
 {House of Co:iimons, 24.th July, 1849.) 
 
 Lodging Houses fob the "Working Classes ..... 269 
 {Hoiise of Commons, Sth April, 1851.) 
 
 Religious Liberty in Tirkey 281 
 
 {House of Lords, Wth March, 1854.) 
 
 Young Men's Christian Association ...... 295 
 
 {Manchester, 25th March, 1856.) 
 
 Sanitary Legislation 307 
 
 {Social Science Congress, 1 858.) 
 
 Literary Institutes for Working Men 309 
 
 {Swindon, 22nd November, 1S59.) 
 
 Religious Service in Theatres 316 
 
 {House of Lords, 2ith February, ISGO.)
 
 \ 
 
 Table of Contents. xv 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Indian Irrigation and Inland Navigation ..... 339 
 {House of Lonh, 5th July, ISGl.) 
 
 Legislation on Social Subjects ....... 358 
 
 (Social Science Congress, 186G.) 
 
 Refuges for Homeless Children ...... 373 
 
 [Willis s Rooms, lllh April, 1866.) 
 
 Homeless Boys of London ........ 379 
 
 (Blackivull, ISth December, 1866.) 
 
 Clerical Vestments Bill ........ ^86 
 
 {House of Lords, lith May, 1867.) 
 
 Agricultural Gangs . . . . . • . . .110 
 {House of Lords, Uth April, 1867.) 
 
 Representation of the People Bill . . . . . .421 
 
 {House of Lords, 23rd July, 1867.)
 
 ERRATUM. 
 
 Page 40-1, fur " viz." read " in."
 
 Children in JFactories. 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 
 Friday, July 20, 1838* 
 
 On tlie question that the House do resolve itself into a Com- 
 mittee of Supply, 
 
 Lord Ashley rose and said that he felt exceedingly sorry to 
 interfere with the order of the day, and he felt himseK most 
 reluctantly driven to adopt that course ; he had made every efifort 
 to avoid it, but the Hoiise must be aware that those efforts had 
 been made in vain. Nothing, then, remained for him but to 
 bring the question forward on the present occasion. In doing 
 this, he felt that at least his was a perfectly constitutional course, 
 and from that course he had resolved not to swerve until he 
 should obtain from the Queen's Government a full, final, and 
 decisive answer. Were he to do otherwise, his sincerity might 
 reasonably be suspected after the many pledges he had given on 
 the subject, and after the many ministerial promises and infringe- 
 ments of them ; and he trusted that in discharging this important 
 duty, he should prove how unfair it was to designate the excite- 
 ment which prevailed on the subject as unjust agitation. 
 
 According to returns made up to the year 1835 — returns even 
 
 then confessedly imperfect — it af)peared that the number of 
 
 persons manually engaged in cotton and other mills amounted to 
 
 354,684. Of coTu-se the numbers directly and indirectly interested 
 
 in these trades greatly exceeded that amoiuit. From the able 
 
 pamphlet of Mr. Greg, he learned that not fewer than 4,000,000 
 
 men, women, and children, were interested in the various branches 
 
 ■ / 
 
 * From " Hansard.'
 
 2 Eouse of Commons, 20th July, 1838. 
 
 of these manufactures. From tlie statement wliicli lie intended to 
 lay before the Honse he hoped to be able to show that the question 
 was one not only of importance to the manufacturing districts, 
 but of great moment to the countiy at large. Of the 354,684 
 persons manually engaged in cotton mills, 196,385 were females, 
 being about 55 per cent, drawn in this way from their domestic 
 duties and occupations to the unsuitable labour of the mills. 
 Since the year 1816, 80 surgeons and physicians had deposed to 
 the cruel and alarming oppression to which factory children were 
 exposed. This evidence he need hardly add was confii-med by the 
 medical commissioners appointed in 1833. In 1815 it appeared 
 that the length which a child travelled in a single day iu the per- 
 formance of its labour was 8i miles. In the year 1832 the distance 
 they travelled daily was 20, often 25 miles. This was stated with 
 respect to the mill of the hon. member for Oldham, from obser- 
 vations made by himseK, a mUl which did not work at such high 
 speed as others of the same class. In some the length travelled 
 per day amounted to 30 mUes, being a severity of labour exceed- 
 ing that imposed upon soldiers in forced marches, oi- under arms 
 before the enemy, a fact established by the evidence of the eminent 
 surgeon, Mr. Guthrie. 
 
 The consequences of this cruel labour were apparent in the 
 returns relating to mortality iu the manufacturing districts. 
 This was an issue as to matters of fact, and he had spared no 
 pains to establish his facts on grounds which could not be 
 shaken. His calculations he had submitted to the most careful 
 investigation ; they had been examined by one of the fii-st actu- 
 aries in England, or perhaps in Europe, who had gone through 
 them with the greatest accuracy and patience. The result on 
 which he staked his credit was, that in those districts where the 
 factoi-y system extensively prevailed as many persons died under 
 20 years of age as under 40 in any other pari of England. 
 
 Not many days ago a document was transmitted to him from 
 Mr. William Pare, the superintendent registrar in Birmingham, 
 which drew a comparison between the mortality of that town and 
 Manchester. He (Lord Ashley) had submitted it, lest there should 
 bo some mistake, to the same actuary, and the result was, that in 
 Bii-miugham one half of the population attained their 16th year, 
 while in Manchester one half died within the first three years. 
 From the several comparisons which had been instituted, it 
 appeared that the value of human life was much gi-eater in 
 Birmingham than in Manchester, arising in pari, no doubt, from 
 the superiority of its geographical position, but mainly from the 
 superior natm-e of the employment, and the better habits of the
 
 Children in Factories. 3 
 
 working people. So much for tlieir bodies ; but wliat was their 
 moral state ? Since 1816 no less than 60 clergymen, either by 
 documents or in person, had exhibited the vicious and awful con- 
 dition of those districts, and the utter hopelessness of any efforts 
 to impart to people engaged in factory labour anything like 
 moral or religious instruction. In 1835 a petition was jjresented 
 from 200 Sunday-school teachers, declaring that it was quite im- 
 possible, even on the Sabl^ath-day, to convey to their minds, 
 wearied and exhausted as they were, any beneficial instruction 
 whatever. 
 
 The noble lord then read several extracts from the evidence given 
 before the committee on combination by Mr. Sheriff Alison, of 
 Glasgow. Mr. Sheriff Alison said — " I would recommend that the 
 hours of employment of workmen should be peremptorily fixed at 
 10 hours a day. I am quite sure that this would have the best 
 possible effect, both upon the spinners, and in particular upon the 
 piecers and the factory children ; and I am quite sure it is the only 
 thing that can possibly be done which will ever remedy the evils to 
 which the inferior class of labourers connected with cotton fac- 
 tories are exposed." "When asked whether he considered " this 
 mitigation of labour as a sine qua non with respect to any im- 
 provement of the maniifacturing population ?" " I think," he 
 said, "it is, decidedly; I am quite sure that all attempts to 
 improve the condition of the factory children would be nugatory 
 without it ;" and he added, in answer to this question : " Do you 
 see any means whatever of securing the peace and the happiness of 
 those people, and the peace and happiness of the empire, except by 
 giving to the children both the time and the means of a moral 
 and religious education ?" " I think not ; unless they can get the 
 means of moral and religious education, and time for it, and 
 unless the habits of moral depravity which now overspread the 
 skilled classes from the opera1;ion of those combinations are 
 removed, I am perfectly certain that the existence of the British 
 empire will be overthrown, that the moral pestilence will overturn 
 entirely the social state of the coimtry, and I see already around 
 me every day in Glasgow that we are just to be considered as 
 standing at the gate of the great pest-house. I see the laboui-ing 
 classes depraving to an extent under my eyes which I cannot find 
 language sufficiently strong to impress the committee with." 
 This was neither more nor less than an ample fulfilment of the 
 pi'ophecy uttered before a committee of the House of Commons 
 in 1816 by the late Sir Robert Peel, when giving evidence in 
 support of a l)ill to limit the hours of factory labour. " Such 
 indiscriminate and unlimited employment of the poor will be
 
 4 House of Commons, 20th July, 1838. 
 
 attended witli effects to the rising generation so serious and 
 alarming, that I cannot contemplate them without dismay ; and 
 thus tha't great effort of British ingenuity, whereby the machinery 
 of our manufactures has been brought to such perfection, instead 
 of being a blessing to the nation, will be converted into the 
 bitterest curse." 
 
 Did the noble lord opposite, then, think that this question was 
 to be evaded? Did he believe matters of this kind could be 
 forgotten by the people because they were not listened to with 
 attention in that House ? It was utterly impossible. The evil 
 was increasing daily and hourly ; and unless they addressed 
 themselves to it speedily and effectively, it would assume a mag- 
 nitude which they would never be able to master. It was not his 
 business, at that moment, to enter into any statement of the com- 
 parative merits of the 10 or 12 hours bill; but, looking to the 
 measure which had been ■introduced and passed by the present 
 Government, he did require a full and fijial answer as to their in- 
 tentions with respect to their own law. If it were good, let them 
 enforce it ; if bad, let them mend it ; if it were unnecessary or 
 dangerous, let them repeal it. But to leave the law in its present 
 condition was equally unwise and absurd. It not only withheld 
 just protection from the factory children, but, by pretending to 
 give protection, deprived them of the sympathy of a deluded 
 public. 
 
 The noble lord then alluded to the history of the Factory Bill in 
 so far as he had been identified with it. In 1833 he introduced a 
 measure nominally called the Ten Hours Bill ; it met with great 
 support in the country, iipwards of 200,000 having signed peti- 
 tions in its favovir. The Government then felt something must 
 be done, and they introduced a bill which was substituted for his 
 on the gi'ound of its superior humanity and higher moral preten- 
 sions. In particular, it enacted that no children under nine 
 should be employed in factories (making exceptions, however, 
 with respect to silk and lace mills), and that those above that age 
 and under 13 should be worked only 48 hours a week. Those who 
 employed the children were also compelled to give them two hours 
 of instruction every week. Such were the provisions by which 
 the sympathy of the public and the support of that House had 
 been obtained to the defeat of his own biU; but those were 
 the very clauses that were the first to be violated, and violated 
 they had been to the present day. The noble lord and his col- 
 leagues were perfectly aware of those violations of the law, 
 and yet they connived at them. {No, tw, from Lord J. Russell.) 
 Would the noble lord say that he was not aware that the edu-
 
 CMldren in Factories. 5 
 
 cational clauses of liis own bill had been set at nought in almost 
 every factory in the countiy ? Had the Government been left 
 in ignorance of the operation of their own bill ? Had they been 
 left in the belief that it was carried into eflFect, and generally, 
 or even partially, obeyed throughout the populous districts ? 
 Why, in August, 1834, seven months after it came into operation, 
 Mr. Rickards, who had charge of the great manufacturing dis- 
 trict in Lancashire, reported that unless an efiPective system of 
 check and control were adopted, the execution of the law must 
 depend on the will of indi\ddual millowners, the grossest abuses 
 must prevail, the act itseM become a standing jest, and the 
 situation of inspector perfectly iiseless. 
 
 The noble lord then read several extracts from the inspectors' 
 reports. He was anxious to state the whole of his case, not from 
 private documents, not from individual reasonings, but from the 
 official statements of inspectors appointed by the Government to 
 cany the act into operation, and who made their reports to the 
 noble lord the Secretary of State for the Home Department four 
 times every year. He would undertake to show from those reports, 
 and from them exclusively, that the act had been systematically vio- 
 lated from the time when it passed tiU the present day, and that, 
 notwithstanding the urgent representations and remonstrances of 
 their own inspectors, the Government had done nothing whatever 
 to assist them in the discharge of their duties. Mr. Rickards 
 said, " The utter impracticabihty of the education clauses is so 
 obvious that should this matter be hereafter called in question, I 
 trust I shall stand excused for dispensing with it altogether." 
 Such was the fate of the princix^al of those clauses, on the 
 strength of which ministers had been enabled to reject the 
 bill of 1833. In a joint report of the inspectors in the same year 
 it was stated that, unless the superintendents had power to enter 
 the mills whenever they pleased, the act itself would become a 
 dead letter. In 1835, Mr. Rickards said, " I have repeatedly 
 urged in former reports, and stiU beg to repeat to your lordship, 
 that it is essential to the efficiency of the act that the superin- 
 tendents should be empowered to enter the mills from time to 
 time, as they may think proper." Yet nothing whatever had been 
 done to assist the inspectors in that respect. Delay was the most 
 convenient coin-se of jDolicy which the noble lord could follow, and 
 delay was therefore preferred to justice. 
 
 Had the act in 1836 and 1837 been better obseiwed ? Did the 
 inspectors discover any further inherent power in the act to 
 enable them to carry it into effect without the interference of the 
 Legislature ? During the whole of that time Mr. Homer and Mr.
 
 6 House of Commons, 20th July, 1838. 
 
 Howell were still loud in their remonstrances. The fonner, in 
 1837, said, with gi*eat emphasis, at the end of his report — " I can- 
 not omit to lay again before your lordship (the Secretary for the 
 Hi:)me Department) my firm conviction that an alteration in the 
 law as regards the age of the children is absolutely necessary, in 
 order to cany into effect the intention of the Legislature — that 
 no child under 13 shall work more than 48 horn's a week. In 
 many instances," continued the inspector, " children under 11 
 work 12 hours a day." In .^838, Mr. Homer reported — " I must 
 again state that the protection afforded to children under 13 is 
 veiy incomplete, owing to the defective nature of the act." The 
 noble lord might j)erhaps say, that within the last two or three 
 weeks he had received communications from the manufacturing 
 districts which proved that the law was now better observed ; but 
 was this a state of things to be endured, that, the act itself being 
 tut.'Jly inoperative, we should be content with the voluntary con- 
 formity of a few .P If that House were to sit for 12 mouths, and 
 if he were allowed to bring the matter forward every week, he 
 had no doubt that the law would be obsei-ved ; but whenever 
 Parliament was prorogued, every abuse and license would recom- 
 mence. He was not to be supposed to say anything in disparage- 
 ment of the inspectors, whose zeal and diligence were certainly 
 gi-eater than their powers, and who no doubt had great difficul- 
 ties to contend with ; and least of all should he say anything against 
 the supeiintendents, so long as they could allege their insufficient 
 authority. 
 
 Now let the House hear the operation of the Bill in a few of its 
 details. By Clause 31 magistrates had the power to mitigate 
 the penalties which were imposed on convictions under the act, 
 and to what extent had this power been earned ? Absolutely to 
 neutralise the force of the kw. What was the forcible lan- 
 guage of Mr. Horner, upon this part of the subject, in the report 
 of October last ? He said—" The extent to which those miti- 
 gations had been can-ied would tend rather to increase than check 
 the future violations of the law. The disreputal^le miUowner, who 
 is regardless of the discredit of a prosecution for violating the 
 law, solely made for the protection of helpless children, looks only 
 to the amount of the penalty imposed on his neighboui-s, and 
 finds, on casting up the accoimt, that it is far more profitable to 
 disobey than to observe the Act." After these representations of 
 the state of the law made by his own inspectors, how could the 
 noljle lord opposite reconcile it with his conscience as an in- 
 dividual, and with his pubUc duty as a Minister of the Crown, 
 durmg the whole course of his administration never to have
 
 Cliildren in Factories. 7 
 
 brouglit forward any measure for tlie removal of so tremendous 
 an evil ? From a return now made periodically to tliat House, 
 ib appeared that between the 1st of May, 1836, and the 1st of 
 January, 1837, there were 822 convictions, more than one-half of 
 which were for the grievous offence of overworking the children, 
 and working them without surgeons' certificates, which was tanta- 
 mount to overworking. The average amount of penalties was 
 2^. 5s. Between the years 1837 and 1838, the niimber of convic- 
 tions was 800 ; and, whilst on this subject, he would, just in pass- 
 ing, say a word or two in i"eply to an observation which had been 
 made to him hj the Under Secretary of State for the Home De- 
 partment the last time it was discussed — namely, that there had 
 been an abatement of the number of convictions during the last 
 year. It was true that during the first quarter of the year there 
 ■was some abatement; but the aggregate for the whole year was 
 800, being only an abatement of 20. " I cannot ascribe this," 
 said one of the inspectors, " to any increased willingness to ol^ey, 
 or any increased alacrity to enforce, the law ; but I ascribe it to 
 the difficulty of the times, and to the inclination which the mill- 
 owners in consequence feel to throw a niimber of children out of 
 work." What did the House think was the average amount of 
 penalties dui-ing the last year ? He had ali'cady stated that in the 
 year 1836 the average amount was 21. 5s. Last year the average 
 amount was only IL 10s. 
 
 Could the House, then, doubt that it was far more profitable 
 for a millowner to disobey than to obey the law, when he (Lord 
 Ashley) told them that a millowner had only to pay a x^eualty of 
 11. 10s. for a gross violation of it, although he gained far more 
 than that sum by the houi's du.ring which he overworked a child, 
 and when, in the almost certain case of his over working 100 
 children at once, it was only considered as a single offeuce, and 
 then the highest penalty that could be inflicted on him for it 
 would not amount to more than 2s. 6d. a-head for each child ? 
 He had no hesitation in affirming that a mei'ciless gi'iping ruffian 
 would gain more than 500 times the amount of such a penalty 
 dui*ing the hours he overworked these unfortunate children. 
 Now, the amount of these convictions was taken from the returns 
 for England only; but was it to be supposed that this state- 
 ment showed the full amount of offences committed against this 
 Act in Great Britain, because we read that the inspector for 
 Scotland, Mr. Stuart, contrary to the evidence of the sheriff of 
 Lanarkshire, contrary to the evidence of many respectable gentle- 
 iiien, and contrary even to common sense, had sent in a return 
 of "nil" for Scotland, or, in other words, had stated that
 
 8 House of Commons, 20tJi July, 1838. 
 
 tb rough all Scotland not one offence had been committed 
 Ui^ainst this Bill? Let it be observed, too, that the number 
 of convictions vras no index of the number of offences committed. 
 First of aU, there was the difficulty of detecting the offences; 
 next there was the difficulty of procuring evidence; then no 
 offence could be prosecuted to conviction unless it were brought 
 ti'> the notice of the inspector withiu 14 days of its commission. 
 How, then, could one-third of the offences against this Act ever 
 be brought to light? The inspectors themselves declared the 
 thing to be impossible. The House might perhaps be desirous 
 to see after what fashion these penalties had been remitted and 
 adjudicated upon. Befoi-e, however, he came to that part of the 
 subject, let him state the reasons why the spirit of this law had 
 evaporated until it had become a mere corpus tnortuitm. The fact 
 was, that the millowners sat on the bench, and adjudicated in 
 their own cases. There were, undoubtedly, exceptions to that 
 position, bright and honourable exceptions, some of them mem- 
 bers of that House, who did not concur with him in opinion upon 
 the question of factory legislation. It was only right to state, 
 that he had heai-d nothing but commendation of the manner in 
 which the mills of the honourable meml)er for Derby, Mr. Strutt, 
 were managed. But that he might not be considered as accusing 
 a large class of men without cause, and on his own responsibility 
 alone, he begged to read a few extracts from the valuable report 
 which he then held in his hand. Mr. Howell, the inspector, hav- 
 ing said that the magistrates gave certificates in amass, proceeded 
 to add, " As if to exemplify the futility of the countersigning of 
 the magistrates as a check on the certificates of the surgeon, 
 cases have in my district occurred in which the manufacturer, 
 being a magistrate, has countersigned the certificates for his own 
 factory, and two magistrates, being both millowners in the same 
 to\vn, have reciprocated civilities in this manner for each other to 
 a considerable extent." The nol)le lord next proceeded to read an 
 extract from a report of Mr. Horner. " I have had," said Mr. 
 Horner, " in my district, millowners trying cases as magistrates 
 against other millowners residing in the same town with them- 
 selves. I had one instance of a millowner sitting as a magistrate 
 on an information presented against his own sons, as tenants 
 of a miU of which he was the proprietor." Mr. Homer also 
 added, that another miUowner had adjudicated upon an informa- 
 tion filed against his own brother; and that, in all these cases, 
 the magistrates had awarded the lowest penalties which the law 
 onabjed them to impose, and this too in cases where the penalties 
 were infiicted for a second and even a third offence.
 
 Children in Factories. 9 
 
 And now let tlie House bear in mind that all this sad state of 
 things had arisen 'fi-om the measures i^roposed and carried by 
 her Majesty's Government; for, by Sir John Hobhouse's Act, 
 which the existing Act repealed, it was enacted that no magistrate 
 being concerned by himself or his relatives in mills shoiild be 
 allowed to adjudicate on points of factory law. As the House 
 might wish to see by an instance how the existing law operated, 
 he would mention a case which he had taken out of the report, 
 and which, if quoted incorrectly, could be immediately set right by 
 honourable gentlemen then present, and who were qutdified to 
 contradict him. On the 10th of December, 1836, an information 
 was laid against a millowuer. The resistance to that informa- 
 tion, and the manner in which the magisti'ates dealt with it, ap- 
 peared to Mr. Horner to be so flagrant as to require him to make 
 a special report upon it to Government. He had selected three 
 out of the many charges which were i)referred against this mill- 
 owner. The first was for employing 29 young children more than 
 nine hours a-day. The second was for employing 24 children 
 without surgeons' certificates, which was, in point of fact, a con- 
 fession that they were overworked. The third was for employing 
 22 children more than 12 hours a day. Now, before whom was 
 this information tried? Why, before three magistrates all in- 
 terested in mills. What was the amount of the penalties which 
 the magistrates could have imposed on this millowuer, had they 
 awarded them to the full extent of the law P The full amount 
 would have been 160L What was the amount of penalties actx;ally 
 awarded? Would the House believe him when he stated that, 
 notwithstanding this was a most flagi'ant case, and notwithstand- 
 ing the gi'eat profits which the magistrates knew that the mill- 
 owner must have derived by his merciless conduct to these poor 
 children, the penalties, which might have been extended to 1601., 
 had the magistrates put the law fully into execution, were reduced 
 down to 17Z., which was not more than the result of ten minutes' 
 labour of those children whom he had unmercifully overworked 
 for several hours ? And this was the way in which, with the 
 knowledge of the Government, the present Act was carried into 
 efTect. 
 
 Now, let the House see whether there was the same caution 
 exhibited with respect to other parts of this Bill. Since the time 
 this Act was brought into operation the whole amount of the 
 penalties levied was 4,422L ; but in consequence of certain regula- 
 tions made by the inspectors themselves, every child taking out a 
 certificate was obliged to j)ay 6d. for it as a sort of remuneration 
 for the trouble of writing it. Now, what simi did the House
 
 10 House of Commons, 20th July, 1838. 
 
 think bad been levied in this manner upon tbe wages o£ all 
 children under 14 years of age since tbe passing of tbe Factoi-y 
 Act ? A sum not much under 12,000Z. And this for a certifi- 
 cate which, so far from giving protection to tbe child, only gave 
 impunity to the aggressor upon its hours of comfort and repose. 
 If this certificate gave any protection to the child, be should not 
 complain of the tax levied upon it; but when this certificate— 
 for which tbe child was compelled to pay — was put into tbe 
 master's band, and was used by him as a shield to protect himself 
 from any conviction under this Act, be must say that tbe law was 
 at once ridiculous and tyrannical. 
 
 Was it then surprising that there should be discontent and 
 dissatisfaction among the operatives in tbe manufactai-ing dis- 
 tricts, when they saw that tbe law which bad been passed for tbe 
 protection of young children was daily violated, not only with 
 impunity, but also with advantage to tbe rich, and with tre- 
 mendous consequences to the poor ? Could tbe House be sui-pnsed 
 that these men thought that its members were inclined to legis- 
 late for tbe richer in opposition to tbe poorer classes, and that, 
 as a necessary consequence, they held in equal contempt tbe 
 makers of tbe law, tbe administrators of tbe law, and the law 
 itself ? With respect to tbe education clauses, be would say but 
 little ; for it was universally confessed that they were not observed 
 in one mill out of 50, and where they were observed, "there," 
 said Mr. Homer, " tbe schooling given is a mere mockery of in- 
 struction." And yet would tbe noble lord opposite venture to say 
 that tbe education of the manufacturing classes was a matter of 
 indifference to the country at large ? Would be refuse to attend 
 to the language of bis own inspector, Mr. Homer, who said that 
 vice and ignorance, and their natural consequences, misery and 
 suffering, were rife among tbe ]3opulation of these districts ? Tbe 
 Bill which* the noble lord bad bimseK introduced, and bad after- 
 wards withdrawn, on this subject, acknowledged tbe defects of tbe 
 existing law. Habes confitentem reum. If, then, tbe noble lord 
 admitted tbe existence of these defects, it was unnecessary for 
 him to point out where tbe new law, bad it passed through 
 Parliament, would have amended tbe defects of tbe old. He 
 (Lord Ashley) was anxious that that Bill should have become law, 
 because, if it bad bad no other effect, it would have given force to tbe 
 Act now in tbe statute-book ; and though it was not by any means 
 all that he desired, yet it would have conferred great benefit on 
 the younger classes in the manufacturing districts. Tbe learned 
 Solicitor- General bad twitted him with bis desire for a Bill which 
 was short of all be sought for ; be had asserted that tbe interests
 
 Cliildren in Factories. 11 
 
 of humanity were not concerned in tlie passing of tliat measure. 
 Why, would it not have given life and activity to what was now a 
 dead and sapless trunk ? It would have limited the hours for 
 their labour, it woixld have provided education for them, and it 
 would have given them a knowledge of their rights as men, and 
 of their duties as Christians. But the noble lord opposite had 
 thought right to withdraw it. Had the Bill been converted into 
 law they might have straitened a few millowners, but they would 
 have given lil^erty and joy to thousands of helpless children, and 
 the year of delay, which was now to be passed in vice, ignorance, 
 and suiferiug, might have beeu devoted to mercy, and to moral 
 and religious education. The noble lord, however, had his reasons 
 for leaving the law as it stood at present. For his own part, 
 he (Lord Ashley) thought that to leave the law in its present 
 state was unjust by the children, whom they consigned by it to 
 oppression; by the honest mill owner, who was anxious to con- 
 form to it, and who was defrauded by those who did not ; by 
 the dishonest millowner, whom they tempted and encouraged to 
 violate its enactments ; by the law itseK. which they knew will be 
 violated, and violated with impunity ; and by the executive govern- 
 ment, which ought to demand and deserve respect. 
 
 Some time ago he had brought before the House the course 
 which her Majesty's Ministers had thought fit to adopt. He 
 would not weary the House by repeating what he had then said ; 
 but there was one point to which he must briefly advert, as show- 
 ing the animus by which they were influenced, and the lamentable 
 perplexity of the law. In the year 1836 the Government brought 
 in a Bill, not to amend the existing law, but to repeal one of its 
 best provisions, which secured to the child of not moi'e than 12 
 years of age immunity from 12 hours' labour. That Bill, having 
 been cai-ried on the second reading by a majority of two only, was 
 withdi'awn by the Government in deference to the sense then ex- 
 pressed by the House, the Government giving at the same time, 
 both by speech and in writing, a most solemn pledge that the 
 existing Act should be rigorously and speedily enforced. How 
 had the Government redeemed that most solemn pledge ? By an 
 immediate and monstrous violation of the law. [Sear, hear, and 
 a smile from Lord John Russell.) The noble lord laughed. [^Lord 
 John Russell, " It is so absurd.'"'\ The noble lord might think so, 
 but he fancied that the House would l)e disposed to agree with 
 him when they heard the statement which he was about to make 
 to them. Shortly after that pledge v/as given, there came out a 
 letter from Mr. Inspector Horuer, verbosa ct grandis epistola, ad- 
 dressed to all the surgeons in his district. Here let him explain
 
 12 Eouse of Commons, 20th July, 1838. 
 
 that, before a child could be allowed to work 12 hours a day, a 
 certificate from a surgeon must be given in proof that the child 
 had attained 13 years of age ; and therefore, when the noble lord 
 stated that the Act would be rigorously enforced for the future, 
 the country expected that it would be immediately carried out. 
 Here the noble lord stated the substance of Mr. Horner's letter. 
 It contained instructions to the different surgeons how they were 
 to grant certificates, and what they were to consider as fitness for 
 12 hours' laboui-. The surgeons were told that they were not to 
 ask a question as to the age. " If you find," said the letter- writer, 
 " a child not more than 12 years of age with such an unusual degree 
 of development as to have the appearance of 13 years of age, you 
 will be justified in inserting the word 'thirteen' in the certifi- 
 cate." So that, although they knew the child to be 12, yet if they 
 found an unusual degree of development, they would be justified 
 in inserting the word thirteen. The document then proceeded to 
 define the wi-iter*s notion of this iiniisual degree of development, 
 which was, that no child who had attained the height of 4 feet 
 3j inches should be considered less than 13 years of age. The 
 surgeon was then to give the child a certificate in proof of its 
 having attained the age of 13, for so the Act required. 
 Lord J. Russell. — Read the clause. 
 
 Lord Ashley might have made a legal mistake as to the tech- 
 nicalities of the Act, but the language of the clause was, " That no 
 young person or child shall be allowed to work more than 12 
 hours a day, without first requiring and receiving from such per- 
 son a cei-tificate in proof that such child is above the age of 13." 
 Then was formed, to meet and almost nullify this clause, the regu- 
 lation he had mentioned, that any child who had attained the height 
 of 4 feet 3i inches should be held to be 13. Was it possible the 
 noble lord could think that this regulation caiTied out the spirit 
 of the Act ? Was he not aware that such an order must have the 
 eflFect of setting completely at naught its provisions ? If he wanted 
 any motive to assign for it, he could find it in certain facts that 
 he would lay before the House. When the order in question was 
 issued, his hon. friend the member for Oldham had taken the 
 measurements of all the chUdi-en in his own mill, and what was 
 the result ? That out of 103 children then in his service between 
 the ages of 9 and 13, 57 were found to be at or to exceed the 
 height of 4 feet 3^ inches. He (Lord Ashley) also procured the 
 measurements of the children in another mill, and found that out 
 of 318 between the ages of 9 and 13, 71 were at the height of 
 4 feet 3J inches, or above it, 2 of whom were between 9 and 10 
 yeai-s of age, 15 between 10 and 11, 45 between 11 and 12, and 9
 
 i 
 
 Children in Factories. 13 
 
 between 12 and 13. It was unnecessary to inquire furtLer. By 
 this regulation, 40, or perhaps nearly 50 per cent, of tlie children 
 who enjoyed the benefit of the Act passed for their protection, in 
 working only eight hours a day, according to its merciful pro- 
 visions, were at once transferred to a servitude of 12 hours' 
 duration. 
 
 Thus had the considerate intentions of the House for the pro- 
 tection of these children of 10 years of age been can*ied out. Thus 
 had the pledge of the Government been accomplished. What 
 remedy had been applied ? Had the noble lord the moment he 
 heard of this great grievance proceeded instantly to remove it ? 
 Representations on the subject were made to him, memorials were 
 transmitted to him, but nothing was done. When the House met, 
 indeed, and he gave notice of his intention to bring the subject 
 before it, then, and not till then, as usual, was there shown an ample 
 profession of readiness to investigate the complaints. November, 
 December, January, and February passed away without anything 
 being done to cancel the regulation or give effect to the spirit of 
 the Act. But when he had given notice of a motion, he received 
 a letter from the noble lord opposite, stating that he had sub- 
 mitted the regulation to the law officers of the Crown, who declared 
 that it did not come within the provisions of the Act, and that it 
 must be cancelled. Cancelled accordingly it was, but could they 
 cancel the effects of it ? That result the noble lord must know to be 
 impossible till an Act was passed to remedy the abuses at present 
 perpetrated. Could a single instance be named in which a child 
 transferred under this regulation from a labour of eight hours' 
 duration to one of 12 was brought back to its former condition 
 when it was cancelled ? Mr. Howell, the inspector, a gentleman 
 whose fidelity and diligence in the discharge of his duties were 
 most commendable, stated, that on inspecting several of the cotton 
 mills, he found children working as 13 years old who not only 
 were, but were admitted to be, under that age, and the cause 
 was that the surgeons had looked to the height, and not to the 
 ages of the children. The order was made in 1836 ; it was can- 
 celled in March, 1837, but not till it had produced the most 
 frightful aljuses. Mr. Horner, wi-iting in Mai'ch, 1837, stated, 
 that from the great imperfection of the Act in all that related to 
 the determination of the age of the children, it was impossible 
 for the inspectors to check the most palpable frauds. He was 
 fully persuaded that one-half of the children now working under 
 a surgeon's certificate that they were 13 years old, were, in fact 
 not more than 12, and many not more than 11. Mr. Ilorner, 
 added, " that until the defects inherent in this part of the law
 
 14 House of Commons, 20tJi July, 1838. 
 
 were remedied, the object of tlie law woidd, to a great extent, be 
 defeated." Yet the opinion of Mr. Horner, a man of great ability 
 und experience, was treated witli supreme contempt. He (Lord 
 Asliley) tbongbt it would bave been more becoming if tbe noble 
 lord, foi-titiod Iiy tbis opinion, bad called for additional powers for 
 tbe protection of tbe cbildren, or bad at least introduced a Bill for 
 tbe auiendment of details, eitber a Bill for increasing tbe amount 
 of tbe penalties leviable, or for preventing interested magistrates 
 from sitting on tbe bencb. One Bill bad been laid aside, under 
 one pretence, among otbers, of tbe indisposition of tbe Under 
 Secretary for tbe Home Department; but tbe House bad been 
 sitting for eigbt montbs, and during all tbe time, from November 
 till tbe 7tb of May, wbicb was tbe day fixed for tbe second read- 
 ing, tbat bon. gentleman was in bis place, and perfectly able to 
 attend to tbe progress of tbe measure. Tbe excuse of illness, 
 tberefore, would not do, and it was, besides, inadmissible on 
 anotber ground, for it was not to be tolerated tbat tbe passing of 
 a useful measure sbovild be impeded by tbe illness of any func- 
 tionary, bowever efficiently be migbt discbarge bis duty. 
 
 Tbiis bad a great measure, closely affecting tbe temporal and 
 eternal welfare of so vast a portion of tbe population, been 
 set aside and treated like a turnpike bill. But tbe noble lord 
 migbt be assured tbat tbe people of tbis country bad too miicb 
 bumanity, and tbat be (Lord Asbley) wbo bad bumbly undertaken 
 tbe sulgect was too strongly determined to obtain justice, to 
 allow tbe matter to rest in its present state. Did be really tbink 
 tbat be could stifle public sympatby, or silence bim (Lord Asbley) 
 by sucb devices ? " Tbougb be sbould bold bis peace, tbe very 
 stones woidd immediately cry out." Tbe interest wbicb tbis 
 question excited was not confined to England ; it bad extended to 
 France, wbere it bad been discussed in tbe Cbamber of Deputies, 
 and bad engaged tbe eloquent pens of some of tbe ablest writers 
 of tbe country, M. Sismondi and otbers, wbo bad not disdained to 
 support tbe cause of tbe belpless cbildren in France and Switzer- 
 land. He bad received witbin tbe last fortnigbt a communication 
 from France, requesting bim to join in a general society to wipe 
 out this blot from tbe civilization of Cbristian Europe, in tbe 
 propriety of wbicb be heartily concurred. He bad hoped tbat 
 tbis country would bave been tbe first to set tbe example of such 
 an association, and he felt ashamed tbat anotber country, pos- 
 sessing advantages so much inferior, sbould bave anticipated it in 
 setting on foot a general scheme for the amelioration of tbe con- 
 dition of infant labourers. Tbis was an evil tbat was daily on 
 the increase, and was yet imremedied, though one-fifth part of
 
 Children in Factories. 15 
 
 tlie time tlie House liad given to the settlement of the question of 
 negro slavery would have been sufficient to provide a remedy. 
 When that House in its wisdom and mercy decided that 45 hours 
 in a week was a term of labour long enough for an adult negro, 
 he thought it woiild not have been unbecoming that spirit of 
 lenity if they had considered whether 69 hours a- week were not 
 too many for the children of the British empire. In the aj^peal 
 he had now made he had asked nothing unreasonable, he had 
 merely asked for an affirmation of a principle they had already 
 recognised. He wanted them to decide whether they would amend, 
 or repeal, or enforce, the Act now in existence. Bvit if they 
 would do none of these things, if they continued idly indifferent, 
 and obstinately shut their eyes to this great and growing evil, if 
 they would give no heed to that fierce and rapid cancer that was 
 gnawing the very vitals of the social system, if they were care- 
 less of the growth of an immense population, plunged in ignor- 
 ance and vice, which neither feared God nor regarded man, then 
 he warned them that they must be prej^ared for the very worst 
 results that could befal an empire. The noble lord concluded 
 by moving a resolution : " That this House deeply regrets that 
 the law affecting the regulation of the labour of children in fac- 
 tories, having been found imperfect and ineffective to the pur- 
 poses for which it was i^assed, has been suffered to continue so 
 long without any amendment."
 
 ( 16 ) 
 
 Children not protected by the Factonj Acts. 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 
 Tuesday, August 4, 1840. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, 
 
 It is, Sir, -with feelings somewliat akin to despair tliat I now 
 rise to bring before tlie House tlie motion of which I have given 
 notice. When I consider the period of the session, the long dis- 
 cussions that have already taken place to-day, the scanty attend- 
 ance of members, and the power which any member possesses o£ 
 stopping me midway in my career, I cannot but entertain mis- 
 givings that I shall not be able to bring under the attention of 
 the House this subject, which has now occupied so large a portion 
 of my public life, and in which is now concentrated, in one hour, 
 the labour of years. Sir, I must assure the House that this 
 motion has not been conceived, nor will it be introduced, in any 
 hostile spirit towards her Majesty's Ministers ; quite the reverse. 
 I do indeed trust, nay more, I have reason to believe, that I shall 
 obtain their hearty and effectual support. 
 
 I know well that I owe an apology and an explanation to the 
 House for trespassing on their patience at so late a period — 
 my explanation is this : I have long been taunted with naiTow 
 and exclusive attention to the children in the factories alone ; I 
 have been told, in language and wi'iting, that there were other 
 cases fully as grievous, and not less numerous ; that I was unjust 
 and inconsiderate in my denouncement of the one, and my omis- 
 sion of the other. I have, however, long contemjilated this effort 
 which I am now making ; I had long resolved that, so soon as I 
 could see the factory children, as it were, safe in harbour, I would 
 undertake a new task. The Committee of this session on Mills 
 and Factories having fully substantiated the necessity, and ren- 
 dered certain the amendment of the law, I am now endeavouring 
 to obtain an inquiry into the actual circumstancies and condition 
 of another large part of our juvenile population. 
 
 I hardly know whether any argument is necessaiy to prove
 
 Children not jprotecied by the Factory Acts. 17 
 
 that tlie future liopes of a country miist, under God, be laid in 
 tlie character and condition of its children; however right ifc may 
 be to attempt, it is almost fruitless to expect, the reformation of 
 its adults: as the sapling has been bent so will it grow. To en- 
 sure a vigorous and moral manhood, we must train them aright 
 from their earliest years, and so resei*ve the full development of 
 their moral and physical energies for the services hereafter of our 
 common country. 
 
 Now, whatever may be done or proposed in time to come, we 
 have, I think, a right to know the state of our juvenile popula- 
 tion ; the House has a right, the country has a right. How is it 
 possible to address ourselves to the remedies of evils which we all 
 feel, miless we have previously ascertained both the nature and 
 the cause of them ? the first step towards a cure is a knowledge 
 of the disorder. We have asserted these truths in our factory 
 legislation ; and I have on my side the authority of all civilized 
 nations of modern times; the practice of this House; the common 
 sense of the thing ; and the justice of the principle. 
 
 Sir, I may say with Tacitus, " opus adgredior, opimum casibns 
 . . . ipsk etiam pace saivnm." To give but an otitline of all the 
 undertaking would occupy too much of your time and patience ; 
 few persons, perhaps, have an idea of the niimber and variety of 
 the emjiloyments which demand and exhaust the physical energies 
 of young children, or of the extent of suflfering to which they are 
 exposed. It is right, Sir, that the country should know at what a 
 cost its pre-eminence is purchased, and how 
 
 " Petty rogues submit to fate. 
 That great ones may enjoy their state." 
 
 The number I cannot give with any degree of accuracy, though I 
 may venture to place them as manifold the numbers of those 
 engaged in the factories — the suffering I can exhibit, to a certain 
 degree, in the documents before me. 
 
 I will just read a list of some of these occupations, as many 
 as I have been able to collect ; but I will abstain from entering 
 into detail upon every one of them : I will select a few instances, 
 and leave the House to judge of the mass by the foi'm and taste 
 of the sample. Now, this is a list of some of the occupations 
 in which I find them engaged (I have not, by any means, a full 
 statement) ; and in which the employment is both irksome and 
 unhealthy : — 
 
 " Earthenware, porcelain, hosiery, pin-making, needle-making, 
 manufacture of arms, nail-making, card- setting, draw-boy-weav- 
 ing, iron-works, forges, &c., iron foundries, glass trade, collieries, 
 
 c
 
 18 Home of Commons, Ath August, 1840. 
 
 calico-printing, tobacco manufactui'c, button factories, bleacliing 
 and paper-mills." 
 
 Now, wiU the House allow me to set before tliem, in a few 
 cases, the evidence I bave been able to obtain illustrative of the 
 nature and effects of these several departments of industry ? 
 
 The first I shall take is the manufacture of tobacco, a business 
 of which, perhaps, but little is generally known; in this I find 
 that " children are employed 12 hours a day. They go as early 
 as seven years of age. TL« smell in the room is very strong and 
 offensive ; they are employed in spinning the twist tobacco ; in the 
 country, the children work more hours in the day, being frequently 
 until 9 and 10 o'clock at night. Their opportunities for education 
 ai*e almost none, and their appearance altogether sickly." 
 
 The next department I shall take is that of bleaching. In 
 bleaching, " children are employed at 11, and oftentimes younger. 
 They go to work at any time of the day or night, when they have 
 a deal of Avork. The same children labour all night for two or 
 three nights in a week. Their opportunities for education are 
 very few, except in a Sunday-school." 
 
 Now, here let the House observe the extent of toil and of watch- 
 fulness oftentimes imposed on children of very tender years. 
 During two or three nights in a week they are deprived altogether 
 of their natural rest ; a demand so severe on the bodily powers, 
 that, when exacted of the police and soldiery of this metropolis, it 
 has been found most pernicious to their physical constitution. 
 From the Potteries, Mr. Spencer (a factory commissioner) re- 
 ported, in 1833, " The plate-makers of most works employ boys, 
 often their own, to be their assistants; their occupation is to 
 remove the plates to the drying-houses, which are heated to 120 
 degrees ; and in this occupation, in which the boy is kept on the 
 ran, he is laboriously employed from 6 o'clock in the morning till 
 7 in the evening, excepting the intei-vals of breakfast and dinner." 
 Agam, " In other works some of the children, called cutters, in 
 attendance upon the printer, appear to me to suffer from a pro- 
 longed attendance at the factory. They are compelled to attend 
 m the moi-nmg an hour before the printer, to light fires and pre- 
 pare his apartment, and often wait in the evening for some time 
 after the rest have departed to prepare for the ensuing day." 
 Again, " When there is a fair demand, the plate-makers and their 
 assistants work three or four nights per week till 10, and some- 
 times as late as 11." 
 
 Sir, I will proceed. On the subject of draw-boy-weaving, Mr. 
 Homer and Mr. Woolriche reported from Kidderminster in 
 Ibdd:— "Every weaver of Brussels carpeting must have an
 
 Children not protected by the Factory Acts. 19 
 
 assistant, called a drawer, who is usually a boy or girl ; few are 
 taken under 10 years of age; the working liours are extremely 
 irregular ; this irregularity tells very severely on the drawers, who 
 must attend the weaver at whatever time he is at work ; they are 
 often called up at 3 and 4 o'clock in the morning, and kept on for 
 16 or 18 hours." 
 
 With respect to the iron foundries I have not obtained any 
 evidence ; though much, I am sure, would be derived from an in- 
 vestigation of this department. As to iron mines, it will be 
 unnecessary to do much more than simply refer the House to 
 a report from the mining districts of South Wales, by Mr. Sey- 
 mour Tremenheere, the government inspector, dated February, 
 1840. and piiblished in the extracts from the Proceedings of the 
 Board of Privy Council on the matter of Education. I will, how- 
 ever, take the liberty to read one or two extracts. " Parents," 
 says the inspector, " if they send their children at all to school, 
 seldom do so for many months at a time. They are liable to 
 be away whenever the father has not earned as much as usual, 
 or has spent more. They think insti-uction of any kind very little 
 neeessaiy for the girls. The boys are taken into the coal or 
 iron mine at 8 or 9 years old." Elsewhere he says, " Hence the 
 custom of taking their children of 7 years old to sit for 8 and 
 10 hoiirs a day in a mine; it is certain from the time he (the 
 child) enters the mine, he learns nothing more there than to be a 
 miner." Now let the House hear the consequences of this defect 
 of education — the result of this overwork in the first j^ears of 
 life : — " They leave their homes at an early age, and they sjiend 
 the surplus of their wages in smoking, drinking, and quarrelling. 
 Boys of 13 will not unfrequently boast that they have taken 
 to smoking before they were 12. Early marriages are very fi-e- 
 quent. They take their wives from the coke-hearths, the mine, 
 and coal-yard, having had no opportunities of acquiring any 
 better principles or improved habits of domestic economy, and 
 being in all other respects less instnicted than their husbands." 
 
 As to the frame-work-knitters, a department of the lace trade, 
 nothing can be worse or more distressing. Mr. Power, a factory 
 commissioner, wi'ote from Nottingham, 1833 — " A great propor- 
 tion of the population of the county of Leicester is employed 
 in the frame- work-knitting: of this number more than one-half, 
 probably two-thirds, are young persons between the ages of 6 
 and 18; that they work an inordinate number of hours daily; 
 that the hours of work of the yoiing persons are for the most part 
 commensurate witli those of the older class ; that the occupation 
 is pui-sued in very low and confined shops and rooms, and that the
 
 20 House of Commons, Uh August, 1840. 
 
 hours of labour are 16 in the day. With regard to the state 
 of health of men, women, and children employed, their habits 
 of work and subsistence are more destructive of health, comfort, 
 cleanliness, and general weU-being, than any state of employment 
 into wliich I have had at present an opportunity of inquiring. 
 Mr. Macanlay, a surgeon of great talent and experience at Leices- 
 ter, observed to me, that scarcely any of them of long-standing in 
 the trade were quite sound in constitution." 
 
 There is another depai'tnient of industry called card-setting, 
 in which children are employed to make part of the machinery of 
 the cotton-mills. In answer to some questions I. put to a gentle- 
 man resident in the neighbourhood of some card- setting establish- 
 ments, he says — " Childi-en are employed from 5 years old and 
 upwards ; their length of labour extends from 5 or 6 o'clock 
 in the morning to 8 at night." 
 
 I will now exhibit the state of the collieries, and I cannot 
 well imagine anything worse than these painful disclosures. In 
 reference to this, I will read an abstract of evidence collected 
 from three witnesses by Mr. TulFnell in 1833 : — " Labour very 
 hard, 9 hours a day regularly, sometimes 12, sometimes above 13 
 hours ; stop two or three minutes to eat ; some days nothing at all 
 to eat, sometimes work and eat together ; have worked a whole 
 day together without stoi^ping to eat; a good many children 
 in the mines, some under 6 years of age ; sometimes can't eat, 
 owing to the dust, and damp, and badness of the air; sometimes 
 it is as hot as an oven ; sometimes so hot as to melt a candle. A 
 vast many girls in the pits go down just the same as the boys, by 
 ladders or baskets ; the girls wear breeches ; beaten the same as 
 the boys ; many bastards produced in the pits ; a good deal of 
 fighting among them ; much crookedness caused by the labour ; 
 work by candlelight ; exposed to terrible accidents : work in very 
 contracted spaces ; children are plagued with sore feet and 
 gatherings." " I cannot but think," says one witness, " that 
 many nights they do not sleep with a whole skin, for their backs 
 get cut and bruised with knocking against the mine, it is so low. 
 It is wet under foot ; the water oftentimes runs down from the 
 roof ; many lives lost in various ways ; and many severely injured 
 by bui'niug ; workers knocked up after 50." " I cannot much 
 eiT," says Mr. Commissioner Tuffnell, " in coming to the conclu- 
 sion, both from what I saw, and the evidence of witnesses given 
 on oath above, that it must appear to every impartial judge of the 
 two occupations, that the hardest labovir, in the worst room 
 in the worst-conducted factory, is less hard, less cruel, and less 
 dem- iralizing, than the labour of the best of coal mines."
 
 Children not protected by the Fact or ij Acts. 21 
 
 Now, tlie next is a trade to wliich I must request tlic particu- 
 lar attention of tlie House. The scenes it discloses are really 
 horrible : and all who hear me will join in one loud and common 
 condemnation. I speak of the business of piu-making. Several 
 witnesses in 1833 stated, that " it is very unwholesome woi-k ; we 
 do it near the wire-works, and the smell of the aquafortis, through 
 which the wire passes, is a very great nuisance. Children go 
 at a very early age, at 5 years old, and work from 6 in the morn- 
 ing till 8 at night. There are as many girls as boys." One 
 witness, a pin-header, aged 12, said, " I have seen the children 
 much beaten ten times a-day, so that with some the blood comes, 
 many a time ; none of the children where I work can either read 
 or wi'ite." Another witness said, " It is a sedentary employment, 
 requiring great stress upon the eyes, and a constant motion of 
 the foot, finger, and eyes." This is fully confirmed in a letter I 
 have just received; there it is stated, eyesight is much affected; 
 the overseers of the poor have sent many cases of this nature to 
 the Eye Institution of Manchester. " Each child," reports Mr. 
 Commissioner Tuffnell, " is in a position continually bent in the 
 form of the letter C, its head being about 8 inches from the 
 table. My inquiries," he adds, " fully corroborated the account of 
 its being the practice of parents to borrow sums of money on the 
 credit of their children's labour, and then let them out to pin- 
 heading till it is paid. One woman had let out both her children 
 for ten months, and another had sold hers for a year." 
 
 Here I must entreat the attention of honourable members to 
 this system of legalised slavery ; and I cannot better invite it, 
 than by reading an extract from a letter which I have lately 
 received. " You also know," says my informant, " the practice of 
 the masters in securing the services of these little slaves. One 
 man in this town employs from four to five hundred of them. A 
 very ordinary practice is, for the master to send for the parents 
 or guardians, offer them an advance of money, an irresistible 
 temptation, and then extract a bond,* which the 'magistrates en- 
 force, that the repayment of the loan shall be effected through the 
 labour of the child. A child of tender age can rarely earn more 
 than from ninepence to one shilling a week. Thus the master 
 becomes bodily possessor of the children as his hand fide slaves, 
 and works them according to his pleasure." And now mark this : 
 " If he continues with the employment to pay Avages, and keep 
 the loan hanging over the head of the parents, who do not refuse 
 to take the wages, yet cannot repay the loan, the master may 
 
 * For specimens see note (B) at \s. 29.
 
 22 House of Commons, ith August, 1840. 
 
 keep possession of the child as liis slave for an indefinite time. 
 This is done to a great extent ; the relieving-officer has tried in 
 vain to lireak through the iniquitoiis practice ; but it seems that 
 the magistrates have not power to do it." 
 
 Now, may I ask, is this not a system of legalised slavery ? 
 Is not this a state of things which demands the interposition of 
 Parliament, or at least an investigation, that we may know to 
 what an extent these hon'id practices have been carried ? Surely 
 the House will not now be t^stonished at the concluding i-emark 
 of Mr. TuiFneU's report : " Knowing," says he, " the cruelties 
 that are sometimes practised, in order to keep those infants at 
 work, I was not surprised at being told by a manufacturer that 
 he had left the trade, owing to the disgust he felt at this part of 
 the business." Let me conclude this branch of the subject by an 
 extract from a letter descriptive of these works : " These children 
 are collected in rooms varying in size, height, and ventilation ; 
 the filthy state and foul atmosphere of some of these places is 
 very injurious to the health of the children — they are filled to 
 a most unwholesome extent. No education during the week, 
 and very few go to a Sunday-school. I can only tell you, that 
 from my own observation of the effect of the trade as now 
 carried on, I do not hesitate to say that it is the cause of utter 
 ruin, temporal and spiritual, to eight out of every ten children 
 that are employed in it." This, Sir, is the language of a gen- 
 tleman of great experience, and very conversant, too, with the 
 temporal and spiritual condition of the poorer classes of whom he 
 is speaking. 
 
 The next and last trade which I shall now describe is the 
 calico-printing ; a business which demands the labour of several 
 thousand children. Mr. Horner, in an admirable pamphlet,* 
 which he has recently published, on the subject of infant labour, 
 both at home and abroad, says—" It is by no means uncommon 
 for children to work as teer-boys as early as 6 and 7 years of 
 age; and sometimes as young as 5. Children of 6, 7, and 8 
 years old,_ may be seen going to work at "—What hour will the 
 House think? at what hour of a winter's night? or at what 
 hour of the night at all ? Why, he proceeds—" at 12 o'clock 
 of a winter's night, in large numbers, sometimes having to walk 
 a mile or two to the works. When they are twelving, the first 
 set goes at 12 o'clock in the day, and works till 12 at night. 
 Sometimes they do not send away those who have worked from 
 
 * On the Employment of Children in Factories and other Works, in the 
 United Kin-(l(jm, and in some Foreign Countries ; by Leonard Horner, 
 Inspector of Factories. London, 8vo, 1840.
 
 Cliildren not protected by the Factory Acts. 2?> 
 
 12 in tlie day to 12 at niglit, but let tliein sleep a few hours in 
 the works, and then set tliem on again. There is no interval for 
 meals in the night set, except breakfast, the children taking 
 something with them ; and even their breakfast i-s taken at the 
 works. The custom of taking their meals in the works is very- 
 injurious, for they do not wash their hands, and they consequently 
 sometimes swallow deleterious colouring matter." A person, 
 whose name is not given, states, that " being frequently detained 
 in his counting-house late at night, till 12 or 1 o'clock, he has 
 often, in going home in the depth of winter, met mothers taking 
 their children to the neighbouring px'int-works, the children 
 crying." All this I can confirm and exceed, by the statements of 
 a letter I hold in my hand, from a medical gentleman, living in 
 the very centre of print-works. I wish there were time to read 
 the whole of it, but I fear I have already fatigued the House 
 by the number of my extracts. " Many children," he writes, 
 " are only 6 years of age : one-half of them, he believes, are 
 under 9; the labour of children is not only harder, but of 
 longer duration. During night-work the men are obliged to 
 shake their teerers to keej) them awake, and they are not seldom 
 rovised by blows. This woi'k is very fatiguing to the eyes ; their 
 sight consequently fails at a A-^ery early age. They have to clean 
 the blocks ; this is done at the margin of the brook on which the 
 works stand. I often see these little creatures standing up to the 
 calves of their legs in the water, and this, even in the severest 
 weather, after being kept all day in rooms heated to a most 
 oppressive degree. The injui-ious effect of this close and heated 
 atmosphere is much aggravated by the effluvia of the colours ; 
 these are in most cases metallic salts, and .... very noxious. 
 The atmosphere of the room is consequently continually loaded 
 with poisonous gases of different kinds." 
 
 Sii', these are a few facts, and only a few, of the many that I 
 could adduce for your consideration, were I not afraid of being 
 wearisome to the House. But I think I have sufficiently proved 
 that there prevails a system of slavery under the sanction of law ; 
 the i^areuts sell the services of their children, even of the tenderest 
 years, for periods of long and most afflicting diu-ation ; that, in 
 many instances, children of not more than 5 or 6 years old are 
 employed in these trades from 12 to 16 hours a-day, of course 
 deprived of all means of education, while their health is under- 
 mined, or utterly destroyed. If the inquiry I move for be granted, 
 it vrill develop, I am sure, cases far more numerous, and quite as 
 painful, as those I have been able to produce. 
 
 I may here, perhaps, be called upon to suggest a remedy. Sir, I
 
 24 House of Commons, Uli August, 1840. 
 
 am not yet prepared to do so, but I will state my objects, and 
 the motives of my proposition. 
 
 My first and great object is to place, if possible, the children of 
 this laud in such a jjosition, and under such circumstances, as to 
 lay them open to what Dr. Chalmers would call " an aggressive 
 movement" for education; to resei've and cherish their physical 
 energies, to cultivate and improve their moral part, both of which, 
 be they taken separately or conjointly, are essential to the peace, 
 security, and progi'ess of the empire. Sir, we have had the honour 
 of setting the example in these things, and other nations of the 
 world have begun to follow that example ; we must not now fall 
 back into the rear, and become the last where once we were first. 
 I have here a most valuable document, for which I am indebted 
 to the kindness of that distinguished Frenchman, the Baron 
 Charles Dupin; it is the Repoi-t of a Commission of the Cham- 
 ber of Peers, dated February, 1840, on the propriety, nay, the 
 necessity, of extending the protection of the laws to the young 
 and helpless workers in all departments of industry. " What is 
 the state of morality," says the document, " among the young 
 children employed in the workshops ? — None at all ; everywhere 
 there is want. It is a curious fact," the reporter adds, " that the 
 immorality seems to be greatest in those very places where the 
 children are admitted into the workshops at the earliest ages." 
 Now let the House pay attention to what follows : " We were 
 desirous of ascertaining the amoimt of difference in force and 
 physical power between parties which had respectively attained 
 the age of manhood in the parts of France most devoted to agri- 
 cidture, and those where manufacturing industry is more generally 
 diffused. The councils of revision in the recruiting department 
 exhibited the following facts :— For 10,000 young men capable of 
 military service, there were rejected as infirm or otherwise unfit 
 in body, 4,029 in the departments most agricultm-al ; for 10,000 in 
 the depai-tments most manufactiiring, there were r^ected 9,930." 
 The reporter then proceeds to speak in detail: "There were 
 found," he says, " for 10,000 capable of military service, in Marne 
 10,309 incapable; in the Lower Seine 11,990 incapable; in L'Eure 
 14,451 incapable." After such a statement as this, will not the 
 House be prepared to concur in his closing obsei-vation ? " These 
 deformities cannot allow the Legislature to remain indifi'erent; 
 they attest the deep and painful mischiefs, they reveal the in- 
 tolerable nature of individual suffering, they enfeeble the country 
 m respect of its capacity for miHtary operations, and impoverish 
 it in regard to the works of peace. We should blush for agricul- 
 tui-e, if m her operations she brought, at the age adapted to
 
 Children not p-oteded hy the Factorij Acts. 25 
 
 labour, so small a proportion of horses or oxen in a fit state for 
 toil, compared with so large a number of infirm or misshapen." 
 
 Doubtless, if we could conduct tlie same investigation (which, 
 I fear, we have not the means of doing), we should obtain, in 
 respect of the greater extent and longer prevalence of these 
 trades among us, far most distressing results. This report, I 
 must say, is most honourable to the Chamber of Peers, most 
 honovirable to the Bai-on Dupin, and it will be honourable to the 
 French nation, if they adopt the advice and enact the provisions 
 suggested by these wise and excellent statesmen. 
 
 I next desire to remove these spectacles of suffering and oppres- 
 sion from the eyes of the poorer classes, or at least to ascer- 
 tain if we can do so : these things perplex the peaceable, and 
 exasperate the discontented ; they have a tendency to render 
 capital odious, for wealth is known to them only by its oppres- 
 sions; they judge of it by what they see immediately around 
 them, they know but little beyond their own narrow sphere; 
 they do not extend their view over the whole siirface of the land, 
 and so perceive and understand the compensating advantages 
 that wealth and property bestow on the community at large. 
 Sir, with so much ignorance on one side, and so much oppression 
 on the other, I have never wondered that perilous errors and 
 bitter hatreds have prevailed; but I have wondered much, and 
 been very thankful that they have prevailed so little. 
 
 Again, this inquiry is due also to the other branches of trade 
 and manufacture, which are already restricted in their employ- 
 ment of children by the acts of the Legislature — it is requisite 
 we should know how far the exception operates unfavourably 
 on the restricted trades, and how far it impedes the full develop- 
 ment of the protective principles of existing laws. Manufac- 
 turers, I know, loudly complain, and I think with some reason. 
 A respectable millowner in the West Riding of Yorkshire writes 
 to me, — " When the cotton trade is brisk, we find the demand for 
 young persons to set cards so great, that hands are with difiiculty 
 obtained for woollen-mills in this neighbourhood." The House 
 will with difiiculty believe for how minute an addition to the 
 dailj^ wages parents will doom their children to excessive labour. 
 " The proprietor of a large cotton-mUl told me," says Mr. Horner, 
 " that they suffer severely from the neighbouring print-works 
 caiTying off the children under 13 years of age, where they 
 employ them at any age and any niimber of hours; that they 
 would gladly employ two sets of children, each working half a 
 day, both for the sake of their work, and for the sake of the 
 children themselves, that they might be more at school, and have
 
 26 House of Commons, 4th August, IS-iO. 
 
 more play, biit tliat tliey cannot get them as the priut--5vorks 
 cany them oflf." 
 
 No doubt, provisions still more beneficial to the children, and 
 more convenient to the millowners, might be introduced under 
 a more wide-spread system of restriction — the supply of hands 
 for moderate toil would be increased, and more work would be 
 done, at far less expense of health and happiness. 
 
 I next propose by this inquiry, and the remedy which may 
 follow, to enlarge the sphere of safe and useful employments. 
 How many are there now, to which no one of principle or com- 
 mon humanity would consign the children ! by this excessive toil, 
 moreover, one unhappy infant does the work of two ; redress this 
 grievance, and you will have opened a comparatively safe and 
 healthy career to twice as many children as can now be employed. 
 I have heard, on the authority of the Poor-Law Commissioners, 
 that they have now under their guardianship more then 30,000 
 children, for whom they must provide a calling ; they hesitate, 
 and most laudable is their hesitation, to consign these helpless 
 infants to such a destiny ; why, will the House listen to a state- 
 ment I received only a few mornings ago ? it is well worthy of 
 your attention, as showing how this system has proceeded to so 
 frightful an extent, that even persons, whose interest it is to get 
 rid of the children, shrink from the responsibility of exposing 
 them to its horrors. " I have now," says my informant, " made 
 more minute inquiry into this business of wholesale demoraliza- 
 tion. I have examined the relieving-officer of the Board of 
 Guardians. He assures me, that he has rarely known an in- 
 stance of children in a family turning out respectable members of 
 society, who have been brought up in pin-shops ; that the Board 
 of Guardians have been obliged to give up the sending children 
 from the poor-house to the pin-works, on account of the invariable 
 consequences of it— the entire corruption of the children; and 
 that childi-en, once contaminated in these works, very rarely are 
 found worth having in factories or elsewhere." Now, Sir, if this 
 be the case; if the children be thus contaminated by the employ- 
 ment of their earliest years; if they really become not worth 
 having in factories or elsewhere, what kind of citizens will they 
 make in after-life? what has this country to hope for in their 
 peaceful obedience or beneficial activity ? 
 
 Next, I hope to trace some of the secret and efiicient causes of 
 crime and pauperism ; and by learning the causes, to ascertain 
 the remedy. It is very curious and very instructive to obsen^e 
 how we compel, as it were, vice and misery with one hand, and 
 endeavoiu- to repress them with the other; but the whole course
 
 Children not protected by the Factory Acts. 27 
 
 of our manxifacturiug system tends to these results : you engage 
 cliildren from their earliest and tenderest years in these long, 
 painful, and destructive occupations; when they have approached 
 to manhood, they have outgrown their employments, and they 
 are turned upon the world without moral, without professional 
 education ; the business they have learned avails them nothing ; 
 to what can they tiim their hands for a maintenance ? the chil- 
 dren, for instance, who have been taught to make pins, having 
 reached 14 or 15 years of age, are unfit to make pins any longer ; 
 to procure an honest livelihood then becomes to them almost im- 
 possible ; the governors of prisons will tell you, the relieving- 
 officers wiU tell you, that the vicious resort to plunder and prosti- 
 tution ; the rest sink down into a hopeless pauperism. 
 
 Again, intemperance, the besetting sin of England, and the 
 cause of many of its woes, is itself the result, in many cases, of 
 our system of labour : just hear the effects of it in one department. 
 The letter I shall quote refers, it is true, to calico-printing only ; 
 it furnishes, nevertheless, a very good example of the effects 
 of that unhealthy and prolonged toil I have endeavoured to 
 descrilie. 
 
 " The most prominent evil," says the wi'iter, " is the excitement 
 to habits of intoxication. The heated atmosphere in which they 
 work, and the prof vise perspii-ation, occasion a buiiiing thirst ; 
 and the mouth and throat are often so parched, as to cause a very 
 distressing sensation ; they drink excessively ; on leaving their 
 highly-heated workshops, they feel disagreeably chilled, and re- 
 lieve it by taking spirits. A tendency to diamkenness is thus 
 produced; the drunkenness, gambling, and vicious habits of the 
 men are imitated by too many of the children." 
 
 Imitated by the children, to be sure they are — but such is our 
 system ; we not only withdi'aw them, when young and pliable, 
 from the opportunities, at least, of doing good, but we thrust 
 them, unwatched and uncared for, into dens of vice, and misery, 
 and crime. — I should indeed be glad to read the whole of this 
 admirable letter, but I have already transgressed too long on the 
 indulgence of the House. 
 
 These things, Mr. Speaker, at all times worthy of deep and 
 anxious consideration, are now tenfold so, when we remember the 
 vast and rapid tendency there is in the present day to multiply 
 infant labour, to the exclusion of that of adults : the House is, 
 perhaps, but little aware of the mighty progress that has been 
 made dui-ing the last fifteen years towards the substitution of the 
 sinews of the merest children for the sinews of their parents. 
 
 Lastly, my object is to appeal to, and excite the public opinion:
 
 28 Eoiise of Commons, Uh August, 1840. 
 
 wliere we cannot legislate, we can exliort, and laws may fail 
 where example will succeed. I must appeal to the bisho^Ds and 
 ministers of the Church of England, nay, more, to the minis- 
 ters of every denomination, to urge on the hearts of their 
 hearers the mischief and the danger of these covetous and cruel 
 practices. I trust they will not fall short of the zeal and eloquence 
 of a distinguished prelate in a neighbouring country, who, in these 
 beautiful and emphatic words, exhorted his hearers to justice and 
 mercy : 
 
 " Open your eyes," says the Prince Archbishop, " and behold ! 
 parents and masters demand of these young plants to produce 
 fruit in the season of blossoms. By excessive and prolonged 
 labour they exhaust the rising sap, caring but little that they 
 leave them to vegetate and i^erish on a withered and tottering 
 stem. Poor little children ! may the laws hasten to extend their 
 protection over your existence, and may posterity read with 
 astonishment, on the front of this age, so satisfied with itseK, 
 that in these days of progress and discovery there was needed an 
 iron law to forbid the murder of children by excessive labour." 
 This is language worthy of the compatriot of Massillon and Fene- 
 lon. It is the language of the primate of Normandy, uttered in 
 the Cathetli-al of E,ouen, " that country of France," says M. Dupin, 
 " in which the early labour of children has produced the greatest 
 evils." Sir, I must say, from the bottom of my heart, that it is 
 not a little agreeable, amid all our differences of opinion and re- 
 ligious strifes, to find one common point, on which we can feel a 
 mutual sympathy, and join together in harmonious action. 
 
 And now, to conclude this long, and, I fear, wearisome ad- 
 di-ess— my first grand object, as I have already said, is to bring 
 these childi-en within the reach of education ; it will then be time 
 enough to fight about the mode. Only let us exhibit these evils- 
 there^ is wit enough, experience enough, activity enough, and 
 principle enough in the country, to devise some remedy. I am 
 sure that the exhibition of the peril wiU terrify even the most 
 sluggish, and the most reluctant, into some attempt at amend- 
 ment ; but I hope for far better motives. For my own part I will 
 say, though possibly I may be charged with cant and hypocrisy, 
 that I have been bold enough to undertake this task, because I 
 must regard the objects of it as beings created, as otirselves, by 
 the same Maker, redeemed by the same Saviom-, and destined to 
 the same immortality ; and it is, therefore, in this spirit, and 
 with these sentiments, which, I am sure, are participated in by all 
 who hear me. that I now venture to entreat the countenance of 
 this House, and the co-operation of her Majesty's Ministers ; first
 
 Children not protected hy the Factory Acts. 29 
 
 to investigate, and ultimately to remove, these sad evils, wLicli 
 press so deeply and so extensively on such a large and such an 
 interesting portion of the human race. 
 
 I will therefore. Sir, with very sincere thanks to the House, for 
 the patience with which they have heard me, now move — 
 
 "That an humble Address he presented to her Majesty, praying that 
 her Majesty will be graciously pleased to direct an inquiry to be made 
 into the employment of the cliildren of the poorer classes in Mines and 
 Collieries, and in the various branches of trade and manufacture in which 
 numbers of childrc^n work together, not being included in the provisions of 
 the Acts for regulating tlie eiuployment of children and young persons in 
 mills and factories; and to collect information as to the ages at which they 
 are employed, the number of hours they are engaged in work, the time 
 allowed each day for meals, and as to the actual state, condition, and treat- 
 ment of such children, and as to the effects of such employment, both with 
 regard to their morals and their bodily health." 
 
 Note (A). The Commission was granted, and the reports of it, con- 
 jointly with those of that granted in 1862, form the basis of tlie Factory 
 Acts Extension Acts. 
 
 Note (B;. Specimens of Contracts entered into by Furtnta, talxn from 
 ciciual Documents. 
 
 I, Sarah H , do hereby hire and engage my daughter, Martha H , 
 
 to work for S. E , at sheeting pins, for and during the term of 51 weeks, 
 
 from tliis 29th day of June, 1831. As witnesseth my hand. 
 
 Witness, B. E . Sarah H , 
 
 + her mark. 
 
 I, Thomas H , do hereby hire and engage my daTighter, Sarah H , 
 
 to work for I and K at heading of pins, for and during the term of 
 
 51 weeks, from this 25th day of November, 1835. 
 
 As witness my hand and name, 
 
 Witness, L. M . T. H , 
 
 + his mark. 
 
 I, R. O , do hereby hire and engage my daughter, A. O , to 
 
 work for P and Q , at sheeting of pins, for and during the 
 
 term of 51 weeks, from this 27th day of November, 1835. 
 
 As witness my hand and name, 
 
 W itness, R. S . E. O — , 
 
 + his mark.
 
 30 House of Commons, Uh August, 1840. 
 
 I, Aun E , do hereby hire and engage my sou W. E , to work 
 
 for F and G , at heading of pins, for and during tlie term of 51 
 
 weeks, from this 4th day of Deeember, 1835. 
 
 As witness my liand and name, 
 
 Witness, H. I. D . Ann E , 
 
 + her mark. 
 
 I^ F. G , do hereby hire and engage my daughter, M. A. G , 
 
 to work for H and , at sheeting of pins, for and during the 
 
 term of 51 weeks, from tliis Ith day of December, 1835. 
 
 As witness my hand and name, 
 
 Witness, W. S . F. G , 
 
 -f his mark. 
 
 I, B. C , do hereby liire and engage my son, D. C , to work 
 
 for E and F , at heading of pins, for and during the term of 51 
 
 weeks, from tliis 8th day of January, 1836. 
 
 As witness my hand and name, 
 Witness, G. M . B. C . 
 
 I, Mary U , do hereby hire and engage my daughter, B. U , to 
 
 work for V and W , for the term of TWO YEARS, Sundays 
 
 excepted, at sheeting of pins, from this 5th day of January, 1836. 
 
 As witness my hand and name, 
 
 Witness, V. W . Mary U , 
 
 + lier mark.
 
 Children in Mines and Collieries. 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 Tuesday, June 7, 1842. 
 
 Speech on moving for leave to bring in a bill to make re2:i)litions respecting the age 
 and sex ot'cliiMieii aud young persons employed in the mines and collieries of 
 the United Kingdom. 
 
 SlE, 
 
 It will not, I liope, be deemed presumptuous on my pai-t wlien 
 I rise to proi^ouud my motion to the House, and wlien I ask for 
 its sympathy and patient hearing, if I add at the same time that 
 I feel quite certain of obtaining their indulgence. The novelty of 
 the subject, its magnitude, the deep and solemn interest which is 
 felt throiighout the country, the consideration of its vital influence 
 on the welfare of so large a portion of our fellow- subjects, wiU, of 
 themselves, be sufficient to obtain your indulgence ; nor can I 
 forget, Sir, how often and how undeservedly I have experienced 
 forbearance at the hands both of yourself and of the House. 
 
 Perhaps, Sir, I may be allowed just so far to speak of myself as 
 to say, that there is some little reason why I should be thus for- 
 ward in briugiug this matter under the notice of Parliament. 
 The Report on your table is the First Report of a Commission 
 for which I had the honour to move, in August, 1840. The prayer 
 of that motion was granted by the then Administration ; and I 
 shall avail myself of this opportunity, and of every other fitting 
 opportunity, to express my sincere and heartfelt thanks to the 
 members of the late Government, and more especially to my 
 Honourable Fi-iend the Member for Perth,* at that time Under- 
 Secretary of State, and to my Noble Friendf in the other House, 
 then at the head of the Home Department, not only for the Com- 
 mission which they gave, but for the Commissioners whom they 
 appointed, gentlemen who have discharged the duties assigned to 
 them with unrivalled skill, fidelity, and zeal. 
 
 * Hon. Fox Jlaulo, now Earl of Daliiousie. f Maiqnis of Normanby.
 
 32 House of Commons, Itli June, 1842, 
 
 Sir, it is not possible for any man, -whatever be bis station, if 
 he have but a heart within his bosom, to read the details of this 
 awful document mthout a combined feeling of shame, teiTor, and 
 indignation. But I will endeavour to dwell upon the evil itself, 
 rather tban on tbe parties that might be accused as, in great 
 measure, the authors of it. An enormous mischief is discovered, 
 and an immediate remedy is proposed ; and sure I am that if those 
 who have tbe power will be as ready to abate oppression as those 
 who have suffered will be to forgive the sense of it, we may hope 
 to see the revival of such a good understanding between master 
 and man, between wealth and poverty, between ruler and iixled, as 
 will, under God's good providence, conduce to the restoration of 
 social comfort, and to the permanent security of the empire. 
 
 Sir, when I moved for the Commission, I ventured to state the 
 manifold and important information that I thought would be 
 obtained by the coimtry from its extended investigations — that 
 expectation has been fulfilled — other Reports will develop more 
 amply the whole length and breadth of our perilous position : 
 but, ex pede Hercxileni ; it has shown you the ignorance and neg- 
 lect of many of those who have proj)erty, and the consequent vice 
 and suffering of those who have none ; it has shown you many sad 
 causes of pauperism; it has shown you the physical disorders 
 which our system has engendered, and the inevitable deterioration 
 of the British race ; it has shown you in part our condition, moral, 
 social, and religious. We know not what a day may bring foilh. 
 I know it will be said, " Y ice is not new — danger is not new ; this 
 has occurred before, and will occur again." That is true ; but I 
 maiutain that our danger is absolute, not comparative — our fore- 
 fathers had to dea] with thousands, we with millions ; we must 
 address ourselves to the evil boldly and faithfully, or it will soon 
 acquii-e so enormous a magnitude, as to be insuperable by any 
 effort either of genius or principle. 
 
 I shall now proceed to the statement I have undertaken respect- 
 ing^ the condition of the working classes in our mines and col- 
 lieries, ajid the measures requisite to ameliorate that condition. I 
 am son-y to detain the House by reading documents ; I shall often 
 have occasion to trespass on their patience ; but the subject de- 
 mands it. I think that the points I wish to establish should be 
 made out by statements and evidence, rather than by any attempts 
 at declamation. In the first place, I shall present the House with 
 the result of the evidence respecting the age and sex of persons 
 employed in the mines and collieries. The extent to which the 
 employment of females prevails varies very much in different 
 districts— in some parts of the country none but males are em-
 
 CJdldren in Mines and Cullicries. 33 
 
 ployed, iu other places a great number of females. Witli respect 
 to the age at which children are worked in mines and collieries 
 in South Staffordshire, it is common to begin at 7 years old; 
 in Shropshire some begin as early as 6 years of age; in War- 
 wickshire the same; in Leicestershire nearly the same. In 
 Derljyshire many begin at 5, many between 5 and 6 years, 
 many at 7. In the West Riding of Yorkshire it is not un- 
 common for infants even of 5 years old to be sent to the pit. 
 About Halifax and the neighljourhood children are sometimes 
 brought to the pits at the age of 6 years, and are taken out of 
 their beds at 4 o'clock. Bradford and Leeds, the same ; in Lan- 
 cashire and Cheshire, from 5 to 6. Near Oldham childi'en are 
 worked as low " as 4 years old, and in the small collieries towards 
 the hills some are so young they are brought to work in their 
 bed-gowns." In Cumberland, many at 7 ; in South Durham, as 
 early as 5 years of age, and by no means uncommonly at 6. In 
 reference to this I may quote a remark of Dr. Mitchell, one of the 
 Commissioners : he says, " Though the very young children are 
 not many in proportion, there are still such a number as is painful 
 to contemplate, and which the great coal-owners will perhaps now 
 learn for the first time, and I feel a firm l^elief that they will do 
 so with sorrow and regret." Now, in justice to the great coal- 
 owners of the North, I must say, that if they had been the only 
 parties with whom we had to deal, the necessity for this Bill 
 would perhaps not have existed: they have exhibited, in many 
 respects, care and kindness towards their people. Many children, 
 the Report goes on to state, are employed in North Diu'ham and 
 Northumbei-land at 5, and between 5 and 6 : " The instances in 
 which children begin to work at 7, and between 7 and 8, are so 
 numerous, that it would be tedious to recite them." In the east 
 of Scotland it is more common for children to begin work at 5 
 and 6 than in any part of England. In the west of Scothind 
 children are taken down into the pits at a very early age, often 
 when 8 years old, and even earlier. In North Wales the cases are 
 rare of children being employed at 5 or 6 — they are very common 
 at 7. In South Wales more cases are recorded of the employment 
 of children in the pits at very early ages than iu any other dis- 
 trict. It is not unusual to take them into the pits at 4 years. 
 Many are absolutely carried to the work. In South Gloucester- 
 shire cases are recorded of children employed at 6 years, the 
 general age is about 9. In North Somersetshire many begin to 
 work between 6 and 7. In the south of Ireland no children at all 
 are employed. All the underground work, which in the coal- 
 mines of England, Scotland, and Wales, is done by young chil- 
 
 D
 
 34 House of Commons, 1th Jane, 1842. 
 
 dreii, appears iii Irelaud to be done by young persons between the 
 ages of 13 and 18. Now, with respect to sex, the report states that 
 in South Staffordshire no females are employed in undergi'ound 
 work, nor in North Staffordshire. In Shropshire, Wai-wickshire, 
 Leicestei'shire, and Derbyshire, the same. In the West Riding of 
 Yorkshire the piuctice of employing females undergi-ound is uni- 
 versal. AJjout Halifax and the neighbourhood girls from 5 yeai-s 
 old and upwards regularly perform the same work as boys. At 
 Biudfonl and Leeds, far from imcommon. In Lancashire and 
 Cheshire it is the general custom for girls and women to be em- 
 ployed. In North Lancashire, throughout the whole of the dis- 
 tinct, girls and women ai'e i-egularly employed undergi-ound. In 
 Cumberland there are none, excepting in one old collieiy, nor in 
 Durham, nor in Northumberland. In the east of Scotland the 
 employment of females is general, but in the west of Scotland 
 extremely rare. In North "Wales, some on the siu-face, none 
 underground. In South Wales it is not uncommon. In Glouces- 
 tershire and Somersetshire there are none. In none of the col- 
 lieries in the coal-fields of Ireland was a single instance foiuid of 
 a female child, nor a female of any age, being employed in any 
 kind of work. I must obsei-ve that, with respect to that country, 
 neither children of tender years nor females are employed in 
 imdergi-oimd operations. I have often. Sir, admired the gene- 
 rosity and wai-m-heartedness of the Irish people ; and I must say, 
 that if this is to be taken as a specimen of their barbarism, I 
 would not exchange it for aU the refinement and polish of the 
 most civilized nations of the glolje. 
 
 The next point to which I desire to call the attention of the 
 House is the character of the localities to which these yoimg 
 creatures are consigned. The state and nature of the places in 
 which they work form a most material consideration in this siib- 
 ject, for they must necessarily affect the safety and salubrity of 
 the employment. If the ventilation and di-ainage of these places 
 be good, then much protection is given to the health of the em- 
 ployed ; if otherwise, the most fearful diseases maybe engendered; 
 and the early prostration inflicted of a working-man's capacity to 
 obtain his livelihood. Now, it appears that the character of the 
 places of employment diffei-s according to the depth of the seams 
 of coal, wbich vary from \0 inches in some districts, to 10 or 20 
 yards m others. In South Staffordshire, for instance, the places 
 of working are descriljcd as, comparatively speaking, comfortable 
 to those who are habituated to them. Dr. Mitchell says—" In the 
 coal-mines of this district the state of the place of work, to persons 
 who have been accustomed to it, is very comfortable. The coal-
 
 Children in Mines and Collieries. 35 
 
 beds are sufficiently thick to allow abundance of room. The mines 
 are warm and diy. There is a supply of fresh air from ventila- 
 tion, though less than there might easily be." In Leicestershire 
 and Warwickshire they are described as being the same — but in 
 Derbyshire the state of things in this respect is described as 
 being very different: — "Black-damp very much abounds — the 
 
 ventilation in general is exceedingly imperfect 
 
 Hence fatal explosions frequently take place : the workpeople are 
 distressed by the quantity of carbonic acid gas which almost 
 everywhere abounds, and of which they make great complaint, 
 and that the pits are so hot as to add greatly to the fatigue uf 
 the labour." 
 
 " While efficient ventilation," the report adds, " is neglected, 
 
 less attention is paid to di-ainage Some pits are dry 
 
 and comfoi-table Many are so wet that the people 
 
 have to work aU day over their shoes in water, at the same time 
 that the water is constantly dripping from the roof : in other pits, 
 instead of dripping, it constantly rains, as they term it, so that in 
 a short time after they commence the labour of the day their 
 clothes are di*enched ; and in this state, their feet also in water, 
 they work all day. The childi-en especially (and in general the 
 younger the age the more painfully this imfavoiirable state of the 
 place of work is felt) complain bitterly of this." It must be borne 
 in mind that it is in this district that the regular hours of a full 
 day's labour are 14, and occasionally 16 ; and the children have to 
 walk a mile or two at night without changing their clothes. In 
 the West Riding of Yorkshire it appears that there are very few 
 collieries with thin seams where the main roadways exceed a yard 
 in height, and in some they do not exceed 26 or 28 inches : nay, in 
 some the height is as little even as 22 inches ; so that in siich 
 places the youngest child cannot work without the most con- 
 strained postiu'e. The ventilation, besides, in general is very 
 bad, and the drainage worse. In Oldham the moimtain- seams 
 are wi-ought in a very rude manner. There is very insufficient 
 drainage. The ways are so low that only little boys can work in 
 them, which they do naked, and often in mud and water, dragging 
 sledge-tubs by the girdle and chain. In North Lancashire, " tlie 
 drainage is often extremely bad: a pit of not above 20 inches seam," 
 says a witness, " had a foot of water in it, so that he could hardly 
 keep his head out of water." In Cumberland, it appears, the 
 mines are tolerably dry and well ventilated, and in South Durham 
 the same, with some exceptions. In North Durham there are 
 some thin seams, and in Northumberland many not exceeding 
 2 feet, or 2 feet 2 inches. G-reat complaints are made by children
 
 36 House of Commons, lih June, 1842. 
 
 of pains and wounds from the lowness of the roof ; but the ventila- 
 tion is excellent — as good, perhaps, as it can be in the present state 
 of that science." Yet, I regret to add, the " drainage, not being so 
 essential to the safety of the coal-mine as ventilation, has been 
 much less attended to in this district." In East Scotland, where 
 the side-roads do not exceed from 22 to 28 inches in height, the 
 working-places are sometimes 100 and 200 yards distant from the 
 main-road, so that females have to crawl backwards and forwards 
 with their small carts in seams in many cases not exceeding 22 to 
 28 inches in height. The whole of these places, it appears, are in 
 a most deplorable state as to ventilation, and the drainage is quite 
 as bad as the ventilation. The evidence, as given by the young 
 people and the old colliers themselves, of their suffei-ings, is abso- 
 lutely piteous. In North Wales, in many of the mines, the roads 
 are low and narrow, the air foul, the places of work dusty, dark, 
 and damp, and the ventilation most imperfect. In South Wales, 
 in many pits, the ventilation is grossly neglected, and the report 
 complains of the quantity of carbonic acid gas, which produces 
 the most injurious effects, thoiTgh not actually bad enoxigh to pre- 
 A'ent the people from working. So long as a candle will bum, the 
 laboiu" is continued. With respect to the mines in Glamorgan- 
 shire and Pembrokeshire, the sub-commissioner states the ventila- 
 tion to be most imperfect, and productive of diseases which have 
 a manifest tendency to shorten life, as weU as to abridge the num- 
 ber of years of useful labour on the part of the work-people. 
 
 Sir, the next subject to which I shall request your attention is 
 the nature of the employment in these localities. Now, it appears 
 that the practice prevails to a lamentable extent of making young 
 persons and children of a tender age draw loads by means of the 
 gii-dle and chain. This practice prevails generally in Shropshire, 
 in Derbyshire, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, in Lancashire, 
 in Cheshire, in the east of Scotland, in North and South Wales, 
 and in South Gloucestershire. The child, it a,ppears, has a girdle 
 bound roimd its waist, to which is attached a chain, which passes 
 under the legs, and is attached to the cart. The child is obliged to 
 pass on all fours, and the chain passes under what, therefore, in 
 that posture, might be called the hind legs ; and thus they have to 
 pass through avenues not so good as a common sewer, quite as 
 v.-et, and oftentimes more contracted. This kind of labour they 
 have to continue during several hours, in a temperature described 
 as perfectly intolerable. By the testimony of the people them- 
 selves, it appears that the labour is exceedingly severe; that the 
 girdle blisters their sides and causes great pain. " Sir," says an 
 old miner, " I can only say what the mothers say, it is barbarity
 
 CJiildren in Mines and Collieries. 37 
 
 — absolute barbarity." Robert Novtli says, " I went into the pit at 
 7 yeai's of age. When I drew by tlie girdle aud cbain, tlie skin 
 was broken and the blood ra,n down If we said any- 
 thing, they would beat us. I have seen many draw at 6. They 
 must do it or be beat. They cannot straighten their backs during 
 the day. I have sometimes pulled till my hips have hurt me so 
 that I have not known what to do with myself." In the West 
 Riding, it appears, girls are almost universally employed as trap- 
 pers and hvu-riers, in common with boys. The girls are of all 
 ages, from 7 to 21. They commonly work quite naked down to 
 the waist, and are dressed — as far as they are dressed at all — in a 
 loose pair of trousers. These are seldom whole on either sex. In 
 many of the colliei'ies the adult colliers, whom these girls serve, 
 work perfectly naked. Near Huddersfield the sub-commissioner 
 examined a female child. He says, " I could not have believed 
 that I should have found human nature so degraded. Mr. Hol- 
 royd, and Mi-. Brook, a surgeon, confessed, that although living 
 within a few miles, they could not have believed that such a system 
 of unchristian cruelty could have existed." Speaking of one of 
 the girls, he says, " She stood shivering before me from cold. The 
 rug that hung about her waist was as black as coal, and saturated 
 with water, the di'ippings of the roof." " In a pit near New Mills," 
 says the sub-commissioner, " the chain passing high up between 
 the legs of two girls, had worn large holes in their trousers. Any 
 sight more disgustingly indecent or revolting can scarcely be ima- 
 gined than these girls at work. No brothel can beat it." — Sir, it 
 would be impossible to enlarge upon all these points ; the evi- 
 dence is most abundant, and the selection very difficult. I will, 
 however, observe that nothing can be more graphic, nothing more 
 touching, than the evidence of many of these poor girls them- 
 selves. Insulted, oppressed, and even coiTupted, they exhibit, not 
 unfrequently, a simplicity and a kindness that render tenfold more 
 heart-rending the folly and cruelty of that system that has forced 
 away these young persons, destined, in God's providence, to holier 
 and happier duties, to occupations so unsuited, so harsh, and so 
 degrading. 
 
 Now, Sir, it appears that they drag these heavy weights some 
 12,000 yards, some 14,000, and some 16,000 yards daily. '' In the 
 east of Scotland," says the commissioner, " the persons employed 
 in coal-bearing are almost always girls and women. They carry 
 coal on their backs on unrailed roads, with burdens varying from 
 I cwt. to 3 cwt., — a cruel slaving," says the sub- commissioner, " re- 
 volting to humanity. I found a little girl," says he, " only 6 years 
 old, carrying half a cwt., aud making regularly 14 long journeys
 
 38 BoMse of Commons, 7tJi June, 1842. 
 
 a-day. With a burden varyiBg from 1 cwt. to I5 cwt., tlie lieiglit 
 ascended and the distance along the roads, added together, ex- 
 ceeded in each jouniey the height of St. PauUs Cathedrah" Thus 
 we find a child of 6 years old, with a biirthen of at least half a cwt.,- 
 making 14 times a-day a journey equal in distance to the height 
 of St. Paul's Cathedral. Tlie commissioner goes on : " And it not 
 nnf requently happens that the tugs break, and the load falls upon 
 those females who are following," who are, of course, stnick off the 
 ladders into the depths below. However incredible it may be, yet 
 I have taken," he adds, " the evidence of fathers who have rap- 
 tured themselves by straining to lift coal on their children's backs." 
 But, Sir, if this is bad for the children and young persons, the case 
 is far worse for pregnant women. For them it is horrible. I will 
 quote the evidence of one woman who deposes to her own suffer- 
 ino-s ; and let me here obseiwe that the evidence of the workpeople 
 themselves is worth more than all the rest ; for they know what 
 they suffer, and what the consequences are. I can say for them 
 that I have ever found their statements most accurate, and that I 
 have never met with attempts to mislead in the evidence given by 
 working men of their own condition. To return, however, to the 
 situation of the women in a state of pregnancy. " I have a belt 
 round my .waist," says Betty HaiTis, " and a chain passing be- 
 tween my legs, and I go on my hands and feet. The road is very 
 steej), and we have to hold by a rope, and where there is no rope, 
 by anything we can catch hold of. It is very hard work for a 
 woman. . . . The pit is very wet. I have seen water up to 
 my thighs. . . . My clothes are wet through almost all day 
 long. ... I have drawn till I have had the skin off me. The 
 belt and chain is worse when we are in the family way." " A 
 woman has gone home," says another, " taken to her bed, been 
 delivered of a child, and gone to work again under the week." " I 
 have had," says a witness, " three or four children born the same 
 day that I have been at work, and have gone back to my work 
 9 or 10 days after : four out of eight were still-bom." There is 
 further evidence to the same effect : " The oppression of coal- 
 bearing," says EUspee Thompson, " is such as to injure women in 
 after life, and few exist whose legs are not injured, or haunches, 
 before they are 30 years of age." " Jane Watson had two dead 
 children : thinks it was so from the oppressive work. A vast 
 number of women have dead children, and false births, which is 
 worse : they are not able to work after the latter. I have always 
 been obliged to work below till forced to go home to bear the 
 baini, and so have all the other women. We return as soon as 
 able— never longer than 10 or 12 days ; many less, if they are
 
 Children in Mines and Collieries. 39 
 
 miicli needed. It is only horse- work, aud ruins the women : it 
 crushes their haunches, bends their ankles, and makes them okl 
 women at 40." Another poor girl says, '* We are worse off than 
 horses : they di'aw on iron rails, and we on flat floors." Another 
 witness, a most excellent old Scotchwoman, Isabel Hogg, says, 
 " From the great sore labour, false births are frequent, and verj' 
 dangerous. . . . Collier peoj^le suffer much more than others. 
 You must just tell the Queen Victoria that we are quiet, loyal 
 subjects : women-people here don't mind work ; but they object to 
 horse-work; and that she would have the blessings of all the 
 Scotch coal-women if she would get them out of the pits, and 
 send them to other labour." Well, Sir, and I say so too. And 
 she would have the blessing not only of all the Scotch women, but 
 of every woman who has the least feeling of the sex within her, 
 and of every man too who has ever known what it is to have a 
 wife, a sister, or a mother. 
 
 But now I will call the attention of the House to the hours 
 of work and the physical effects on the workpeople. " When 
 workpeople are in fuU employment," says the repoi't, "the 
 regular hours of woi'k for children and young persons are rarely 
 less than 11 ; more often they are 12 ; in some districts they are 
 13, In Derbyshire, children, &c. work 16 hours out of the 24, 
 reckoning from the time they leave their home in the morning 
 until they return to it in the evening." As regards the east 
 of Scotland, there is " overwhelming evidence that the labour 
 is often continued, on alternate days, at least 15, 16, 17, and 
 18 hours out of the 24." Anne Hamilton, 17 years old, says — 
 " I have repeatedly wi-oxight the 24 hours, and after 2 hours of 
 rest and my peas (soup), have returned to the pit and worked 
 another 12 hours." " Now, in the great majority of these mines 
 night- work is a part of the ordinary system of labour — one which 
 the whole body of the evidence shows to act most injuriously both 
 on the physical and moral condition of the workpeople, and more 
 especially on that of the children and young persons." " Though 
 the labour," says the report, " cannot be said to be continuous, 
 because intervals of a few minutes necessarily occur ... it is, 
 nevertheless, generally uninterrupted by any regular time set 
 apart for rest and refreshment, what food is taken in the pit 
 being eaten as best it may while the labour continues." But in 
 the coal-mines of Ireland a fixed time is allowed, at least for 
 dinner. Here, too, I am glad to be able to repeat that a different 
 system prevails in the sister island. Now, with regard to the 
 physical effects of the lal^our on the workpeople, it appears that 
 in some parts of the country a curious effect is produced by the
 
 40 House of Cummons, 1th June, 1842. 
 
 results of this species of labour, not being discernible, in many 
 cases, until a certain period of life. On tliis bead the report says — 
 " Witb the exception of tbe east of Scotland (of wbicli tbe account 
 is deplorable), the physical condition of persons employed (so long 
 as they can pursue their labour) derives a favourable character 
 from the advantages of high wages, yet the testimony," it con- 
 tinues, " is equally full that the nature and circumstances entail 
 ultimately grievous disease;: " This is confirmed by the e\ddence 
 of the children themselves as to the effect upon their own health ; 
 and the Simday-school teachers depose to the extreme fatigue 
 which the few who do attend the school exhibit when they go on 
 the Sunday. Mr. William Sharpe, F.R.S., a surgeon at Bradford, 
 " has for 20 years professionally attended the Low Moor Iron 
 Works : there are cases of deformity, and also bad cases of scrofula 
 apjiarent, induced by boys being sent too early into the j)its, by 
 their working beyond their strength, by the constant stooping, 
 and by occasionally working in water." The chief employment of 
 children and young persons in North Durham and Northumber- 
 land, that of " putting," is very severe — gi'eat numbers of the 
 younger children are often completely exhausted by the laboiir, 
 while those more advanced in years say that it deprives them 
 of appetite and produces a constant feeling of sickness. " The 
 youngest of the putters are greatly to be commiserated; many 
 of them declared," says the sub-commissioner, " that the severity 
 of theii" labour was such that they would willingly suffer a dimi- 
 nution of wages to procure a limit to the hours of work." But 
 notwithstanding all this, the coal-fields of the north stand out in 
 almost every respect in a veiy favourable contrast with the other 
 districts. But the east of Scotland beats them all : — From the 
 tender age and sex of the great proportion of the workpeople, the 
 long hours of work, the wi-etched condition of the pits, the meagre 
 and unsubstantial food, the degree of fatigue produced by colliery- 
 work, the labom- in this district is extreme. The evidence of the 
 children is intolerably distressing. Agnes Kew, 15 years old, 
 says—" It is sore crushing work : many lasses cry as they bring 
 up their bvu-dens." Again, another says—" It is sare fatiguing 
 work : it maims the women." In another place, Mr. T. Batten, 
 surgeon of Coleford, says—" Has known cases of nervous relaxa- 
 tion in young boys. Had one case of epilepsy in a boy about 13, 
 brought on ]:>y too much exertion : another boy died of hemorr- 
 hagia purpurea, from the same cause. The boy was not more 
 than 7 years of age." There is one phenomenon very remarkable 
 in the physical condition of the miners, which is seen in their 
 extensive muscular development : at first it was supposed that an
 
 CJiildren in Mines and Collieries. 41 
 
 emisloyment wliicli j)rod\iced siicli a result could not be essentially 
 l^rejudicial ; but those well acquainted witli the suljject pronounce 
 this development to be unnatural, and therefoi'e injurious. 
 
 Ifow, Sir, the x^hysical effects of this system of labour may be 
 classed under these heads : — Stunted growth, crippled gait, irrita- 
 tion of head, back, and feet, a variety of diseases, premature old 
 age, and death. " Several," says Dr. Scott Allison, " become 
 crooked. Diseases of the spine are very common and very 
 serious. Several of the girls and women so employed are dis- 
 torted in the spine and pelvis, and suffer considerable difficulty at 
 the period of pai'turition." Diseases of the heai't are very fre- 
 quent, say all the medical witnesses ; " many are ruptured, even 
 lads, from over-exertion ; some are ruptured on both sides." But 
 the most destructive and frequent disease is asthma. " Some are 
 affected at 7 or 8 years of age. Most colliers at the age of 
 30 become asthmatic." Dr. Scott Allison adds — " Between the 
 twentieth and thirtieth year many colliers decline in bodily 
 
 vigour, and become more and more spare At first, 
 
 and, indeed, for several years, the patient, for the most part, does 
 not suffer in his general health ; but the disease is rarely, if ever, 
 cured. ... It ultimately deprives him of life by a slow and 
 lingering process." " The want of proper ventilation," says an old 
 miner, " is the chief cause : the men die off like rotten sheep." 
 There is another most curious disease, of which the House now 
 hears perhaps for the fii'st time. It is the melanosis, or black 
 spittle. From the state of the atmosphere in which the peoj^le 
 worked, there is oftentimes not sufficient oxygen to decarbonize 
 the blood ; and Dr. Thompson, of Edinburgh, says — " Workmen 
 in coal-mines occasionally die of an affection of the lungs, accom- 
 panied with the expectoration of a large quantity of matter of a 
 deep black colour." Dr. Makellar calls it " the most serious and 
 fatal disease which he has had to treat among colliers — a carbona- 
 ceous infiltration into the substance of the lungs." Dr. Scott 
 Allison says — " The symptoms are emaciation of the whole body, 
 constant shortness and quickness of l^reath, occasional stitches in 
 the sides, quick pulse, usually upwards of 100 in the minute, hack- 
 ing cough day and night, attended by a copious expectoration, for 
 the most part perfectly black. The disease is never cured. It 
 invariably ends in the death of the sufferer." Who, then, can be 
 surpi-ised that the consequences are prematiu-e old age and death? 
 Not only, however, is the death of the collier premature, but so is 
 the exhaustion of his strength : he is early deprived of the power 
 of earning a livelihood. Mr. Massey, clerk to the Wellington 
 Union, says — " That when about 40 years of age, the greater part
 
 42 House of Commons, 7th June, 1842. 
 
 of the colliers may be considered as disabled, and regular old 
 uieu." The evidence, in this respect, is universal. In the east of 
 Scotland the system is thus sj^oken of by the sub-commissioner : — 
 " Its baneful eflfect on the health cannot well be exaggerated. I 
 Lave been informed by competent authorities, that 6 months' 
 labour in the mines is suificient to effect a very visible change in 
 the physical condition of the children." The Rev. Richard 
 Buckly, rector of Begelly, says — "The foul air of the mines 
 seriously affects the lungs of the children and young persons 
 employed therein, and shortens the term of life;" and here is a 
 summary of the condition of the collier by the commissioners : — 
 " By the same causes the seeds of painful and mortal diseases are 
 very often sown in childhood and youth : these slowly but steadily 
 developing themselves, assume a formidable character between 
 the ages of 30 and 40 ; and each generation of this class of the 
 population is commonly extinct soon after 50." No doubt excep- 
 tions might be quoted to these results, l)ut I am only speaking of 
 the great mass of j^ersons employed in the collieries. 
 
 Here, let me obseiTe to the House, the moral eflfects of the 
 state of things which the collieries present are equally prominent 
 and equally alarming. It begets a slave-driving system. It might, 
 indeed, be assumed without proof ; but I shall state a few cases in 
 order to exhibit those effects to the House and the country, and to 
 show how necessary it is, immediately, if possible, to address our- 
 selves to the evil. A clergyman, the Rev. W. Parlane, of Tranent, 
 says — " Childi-en of amiable temper and conduct, at 7 years of 
 age, often return next season from the coUieries greatly corrupted, 
 and, as an old teacher says, with most hellish dispositions." See, 
 too, here how the system superinduces habits and feelings of 
 ferocity that are perfectly alarming. Hannah Neale says—" My 
 boy, 10 years old, was at work : about half a year since his toe was 
 cut off by the bind falling ; notwithstanding this, the loader made 
 him work until the end of the day, although in the greatest pain." 
 Isaac Tipstone says — " I was Inillied by a man to do what was be- 
 yond my strength. I would not, because I could not. The man 
 threw me down, and kicked out two of my ribs." Jonathan Watts 
 says—" A ])utty lias Iwaten a boy with a stick till he fell. He 
 then stamped on him till the boy could scarcely stand. The boy 
 never told, and said he would not, for he should only be served 
 worse. Boys are pulled up and down by the ears. I have seen 
 them beaten till the blood has flowed out of their sides. They 
 are often punished until they can scarcely stand." John Bostock, 
 speaking of Derbyshire, says—" The corporals used to take the 
 burning candle-wicks after the tallow was off, light them, and
 
 Children in Mines and CuUieries. 43 
 
 burn his arms. I have known my uncle take a boy by the ears 
 and knock bis bead against tbe wall, because bis eyesigbt was bad, 
 and be conld not see to do bis work as well as otbers." From tbe 
 soutb part of tbe West Riding, and about Bradford and Leeds, 
 tbe accounts are more favourable ; bvit abont Halifax girls are 
 beaten as severely as boys. Tbey strike tbem in tbe face and 
 knock tbem doAvn. " I bave seen tbis many times," says a wit- 
 ness. Han-iet Craven, aged 11, says — " A man flung a piece of 
 coal as big as my bead at me, and it stiiick me in my back." " I 
 met," says tbe sub-commissioner, " tbe girl crying bitterly. Tbe 
 several marks on ber person and tbat of ber sister were sufficient 
 proofs of ill-treatment." " I remember meeting," be adds, " one 
 of tbe boys crying very bitterly, and bleeding from a wound in bis 
 cbeek. I found bis master, wbo told me, in a tone of savage defi- 
 ance, tbat tbe cbild was one of tbe slow ones, wbo would only move 
 wben be saw blood, and tbat by throwing a piece of coal at bim be 
 bad accomplished bis purpose, and tbat he often adopted tbe like 
 means." William Holt says — " I bave seen boys get an eye 
 knocked out by a stone flung at them by tbe master." No doiibt 
 there are many exceptions to this state of things ; but I am sorry 
 to say tbat colliers are generally spoken of and known in many 
 places as remarkably uneducated and ferocious. Their habits 
 besides beget an utter recklessness of human life : in no part of 
 the habitable globe, perhaps, is there such utter indifference dis- 
 played towards the life and limbs of human beings as in these 
 collieries. The chief constable of Oldham says — " There are so 
 many killed, tbat it becomes quite customary to expect such 
 things, and people say, ' Oh, it is only a collier !' There would," 
 be said, " be more feeling exhibited if a policeman were to kill a 
 dog in tbe streets. Even tbe colliers amongst themselves say so ; 
 so that wben tbey learn which it is tbat is killed, that is all they 
 think about it." But now mark the effect of tbe system on 
 women : it causes a total ignorance of all domestic diities ; they 
 know nothing tbat tbey ought to know ; they are rendered unfit 
 for the duties of women by overwork, and become utterly de- 
 moralized. In the male the moral effects of the system are very 
 sad, but in tbe female they are infinitely worse, not alone upon 
 themselves, but upon their families, upon society, and, I may add, 
 upon tbe country itseK. It is bad enough if you corrupt tbe man, 
 but if you cori-upt tbe woman you poison tbe waters of life at the 
 very fountain. Sir, it appears that tbey are wholly disqualified 
 from even learning bow to discbarge the duties of wife and 
 mother. Matthew Lindley, a collier, says — " I wish tbe Govern- 
 ment would expel all females from mines ; tbey are very immoral ;
 
 44 House of Commons, 1th June, 1842. 
 
 they are worse than the men, and use far more indecent language." 
 George Ai-mitage says — " Nothing can be worse." At a meeting 
 of 350 working-colliers, in Barnsley, it was voted, with only five 
 dissentients, that " the employment of girls in pits is highly in- 
 juri(jus to their morals ; that it is improper work for females ; and 
 that it is a scandalous practice." Indeed, it universally appears 
 that " wherever girls are employed, the immoralities are scanda- 
 lous." The Eev. Richard Roberts says — " The practice of work- 
 ing females in mines is highly objectionable, physically, intel- 
 lectually, morally, and spiritually." " It is awfully demoralizing," 
 says Mr. Thornely, a justice of the peace for the county of York : 
 " the youth of both sexes work often in a naked state." The sub- 
 commissioner for the east of Scotland says — " The employment of 
 females in this district is universally conceived to be so degrading, 
 that all other classes of operatives refuse intermarriage with the 
 daughters of colliers who work in the pits." Joseph Fraser, a 
 coUier, says — " The employment unfits them for the duties of a 
 mother : the men drink hard, the poor baims are neglected ; in 
 fine, the women follow the men, and drink hard also." " Under 
 no conceivable circumstances," says the sub-commissioner, " is 
 any one sort of employment in collieries proper for females : the 
 practice is flagrantly disgraceful to a Christian, as well as to a 
 cirilized country." " I have scarcely an exception to the general 
 reprobation of this revolting abomination." " I am decidedly of 
 oiDinion," says Mr. Thornely, " that women brought up in this way 
 lay aside aU modesty, and scarcely know what it is but by name. 
 I sincerely trust that before I die I shall have the satisfaction of 
 seeing it prevented, and entirely done away with." I know, Mr. 
 Speaker, that the commissioners have not, by any means, told 
 the worst of the story. They could not, in fact, commit to print 
 for general circulation all the facts and circumstances that had 
 come to their knowledge in connexion with this system ; but surely 
 it does not recpiire any very vigorous imagination on the part of 
 those who have read or heard these statements, to draw from them 
 conclusions which will show a state of things which is not only 
 disgi-aceful, but most perilous to the welfare of the country. 
 
 Surely it is evident that to remove, or even to mitigate, these 
 sad evils, will require the vigorous and immediate interposition 
 of the logislatm-e. That interposition is demanded by public 
 reason, by public virtue, by the public honour, by the public 
 character, and, I rejoice to add, by the pubHc sympathy: for 
 never, I believe, since the first disclosure of the horrors of the 
 African slave-trade, has there existed so universal a feeling on 
 any one subject in this country, as that which now pei-vades
 
 Children in Mines and Collieries. 45 
 
 the lengtli and breadtli of tlie land in abhorrence and disgust 
 of this monstrous oppression. It is demanded, moreover, I am 
 happy to say, by many well-intentioned' and honest proprietors 
 — men who are anxioiis to see those amelioi'ations introduced 
 which, owing to long-established prejudices, they have them- 
 selves been iTnable to effect. From letters and private communi- 
 cations which I have received on the subject, I know that they 
 will hail with the greatest joy such a bill as I shall presently 
 ask leave to introduce. In that bill I propose, in the first place, 
 and at once, to cut off the principal evils. Much, no doubt, may 
 be left for future legislation ; but there are some of the evils of so 
 hideous a nature that they will not admit of delay — they must be 
 instantly removed — evils that are both disgusting and intolerable 
 — disgusting they would be in a heathen coiuitry, and perfectly 
 intolerable they are in one that professes to call itself Christian. 
 The first provision, then, which I shall propose will be the total 
 exclusion of all females from the mines and collieries of this 
 coimtry. I think that every principle of religion — I think that 
 every law of natiire calls for such a step ; and I know of no argu- 
 ment that can be raised against it, unless one of a most unworthy 
 and of a completely selfish character. I believe, indeed, there are 
 but very few proprietors who have any real interest in keeping 
 women so employed ; but there are some interested parties who 
 wish to retain females in the pits, and I am anxious to state to 
 the House and the coiuitry what the motives are for inducing or 
 compelling those wretched females to undergo the shameful toil 
 and degradation to which they are subjected. I will take the 
 evidence of the working people themselves, one of whom says — 
 " Girls and women never get coal; they always remain drawers, 
 and are considered to be equal to half a man." Another collier 
 says — " They prefer women to boys, as they are easier to manage, 
 and they never get to be coal-getters, which is another good thing." 
 Another witness says — " The temptation to employ women arises 
 from their wages being lower than that of males." The under- 
 looker at Mr. Woodley's states — " One reason why women are 
 used so frequently in the coal-pits is, that a girl of 20 will work 
 for 2s. a day, or less, and a man of that age would want 3s. Gd. 
 It makes little difference to the coal-master; he pays the same 
 whoever does the work. Some would say he got his coal cheaper, 
 but I am not of that opinion ; the only difference is, that the 
 collier can spend Is. to Is. Qd. more at the alehouse." Another 
 remarks, — " ¥7hcn a lad gets to be half, he is all for getting coal : 
 but a lass never expects to be a coal-getter, and that keeps her 
 steady to her work." I ask the House to estimate the benefits of
 
 46 House of Commons, 7th June, 1842. 
 
 removal, by merely olDsei-ving tlic effect o£ tlie e\al. There is no 
 economy in tlie practice, for EUspee Tliompsou says— "I can say, to 
 my own cost, that the bairns are much neglected when both parents 
 work below ; and if neighbours keep the children, they require as 
 much as women sometimes earn, and yet neglect them." Mr. M. 
 T. Sadler, a surgeon at Barnsley, says—" I strongly disapprove of 
 females being in pits : the female character is totally destroyed by 
 it ; their habits and feelings are altogether different ; they can 
 neither dischai-ge the d-ity of wives nor mothers. I see the 
 greatest difference in the homes of those colliers whose wives do 
 not go into the pits." Mr. Wood, the sub-commissioner, says — 
 " The result of my inquiries is in every case to show that the 
 employment of female children and young persons in such labour 
 shuts them out entirely from all useful and necessary knowledge ; 
 the wives are so little capable of rendering a house comfortable, 
 that the husband is constantly driven to the alehouse, whence 
 arise aU the evils of drunkenness to themselves and to their 
 families. From this source a fearful deterioration of the moral 
 and physical condition of our working population is rapidly 
 taking place." Now, I rejoice to say that in this matter we are 
 not left to mere speculation, for we have the evidence of Mr. 
 James Wright, manager for the Duke of Buccleuch, and, I have 
 his Grace's authority for adding, a most intelligent and honest 
 man. He says — " Four years ago I sviperintended Mr. Ramsay's 
 mines ; females and young children were excluded ; and a vast 
 change was observable in the comfort and condition of the 
 colliers who availed themselves of the new regulations." He goes ' 
 on : " Some families left at the period, being desirous to avail 
 themselves of the labour of their female children, many of whom 
 have returned, and the colliers are much more regular than here- 
 tofore." This evidence is confirmed by Thomas Hynd, coal- 
 viewer in Mr. Dundas's pits, who says — " When Mr. Maxton first 
 issued the order, many men and families left, but many have 
 returned, for they find, now the roads are improved, and the out- 
 put not limited, they can earn as much money, and get homes. 
 Many of the females have gone to service, and prefer it." Again, 
 Mr. James Wright says — and here I am very anxious for the 
 attention of the House, because I would entreat them to observe 
 bow the mischief is first engendered, and then perpetuated, by the 
 toleration of these practices : women are allowed to work below, 
 and because they are so, the evils here stated continue without 
 aVjatement; a man would complain and resist, but a woman is 
 submissive — " I feel confident," he says, " that the exclusion of 
 females will advantage the colliers in a physical point of view,
 
 Children in Mines and Collieries. 47 
 
 Inasmucli as tlie males will not work on bad roads (females are 
 wrought only where no man can be induced to draw or work : 
 they are mere beasts of burden). This will force the alteration of 
 the economy of the mines." Pray, Sir, obsei-ve what follows : 
 " Owners will be compelled to alter their system : they will venti- 
 late better, and make better roads, and so change the system as 
 to enable men, who now work only two days a week, to discover 
 theii' own interest in regularly employing themselves." Mr. Max- 
 ton, of Amiston, and Mr. Hunter, the mining overman, asserts — 
 " That in conseqxience of a new ventilation, and an improved 
 mode of railing roads, a man and two boys take nearly as much 
 money as when the whole family were below, and many of the 
 daughters of miners are now at respectable service." Mr. Maxton, 
 of Arniston, again contends that "Women ought to be entirely 
 disused underground ; and no boys oiight to be pennitted to go 
 below under 12 years of age. These have been the rules in this 
 colliery for some time past, and already the good effects are being 
 felt: the houses of the workmen are clean and comfortable, the 
 children are well looked after by their mothers, the young women 
 are going out to service, and the whole workpeople have a better 
 moral aspect. Colliers, prior to our regulation, emigrated in the 
 j)roportiou of one-fourth ; but now not in that of one-tenth." 
 This is very important testimony, for the colliers, I understand, 
 are people of very migratory habits ; and now listen to this as a 
 crowning point -. — Mr. James Wright concludes : " Since young 
 children and females have been excluded from his Grace's mines, 
 we never had occasion to increase the price of coal." All this is 
 confirmed by the experience of Mr. Hulton, of Hulton, who has 
 for 25 years been in occupation of coal-pits. That gentleman 
 has been kind enough to write to me, and has exhibited a most 
 striking contrast in the state of the j)opulation of his mines with 
 that of the surrounding districts. 
 
 The next point for legislation is the exclusion of all boys 
 under 13 years of age ; and this I confess may be looked upon 
 as my weak point, for here I am likely to find the greatest oppo- 
 sition. I shall, however, biiefly state to the House the reasons 
 why I think it necessary to limit the admission of children into 
 the pits to those who have arrived at the age of 13. In the 
 first place, the Factory Act i)rohi))its full labour imder 13 years 
 'jf age : in the next place, in the cotton and wool districts fre- 
 'iuent complaints have been made of a deficiency of young per- 
 sons, who, it is alleged, are called off to the print-works and 
 coal-mines, where labour is not regulated by law. It is therefore 
 contended that an undue advantage is thus given to these depart-
 
 48 Bouse of Commons, 1th June, 1842. 
 
 ments of industry, to the prejudice of tliose of wool and cotton. 
 Now, I am extremely anxious to bring them all to this one level ; 
 and if my proposition be adopted, a due supply of children under 
 13 years of age will be obtained from the coal-pits, and the pro- 
 prietors of wool and cotton mills, as they themselves have alleged, 
 will be enabled to have two complete sets of workers, the demand 
 for children under 13 years of age being thus supplied to work in 
 two relays of 6 hours in the day each (though I should myself 
 prefer 5), according to the provisions of the Bill introduced, 
 but not carried, in the last session. Indeed, almost all the evi- 
 dence goes to show that 14 years of age would be the proper limit 
 required for full labour. My own feelings, I must say, lead me 
 to that opinion ; but as 13 is the age stated in the Factory Act, I 
 am not disposed to deviate from it. If a child once goes down 
 into a pit, he must remain in it. All who go down must work full 
 time, and, if required, throughout the night. 
 
 As for subterranean inspection, it is altogether impossible ; and, 
 indeed, if it were possible, it would not be safe. I do not know 
 what the case may be 25 years hence, but certainly, at the present 
 time, I for one should be very loth to go down the shafts for the 
 purpose of doing some act that was likely to be distasteful to the 
 colliers below. Nor are we without evidence as to the hazard of 
 such proceedings. Dr. Mitchell says — " Cases have occurred 
 where diabolical characters have deranged the gear during the 
 night ; . . . and in consequence, the first party descending has 
 been dashed to pieces." In these mines, too, the House must 
 recollect, the miners have a morality and a policy of their own. 
 "It is well known," says Dr. Mitchell, "that persons who have 
 done actions not deemed very heinoiis by the miners, have taken 
 shelter in the mines ;" and he adds, " there are few constables who 
 would willingly go down after them." But I urge most strongly 
 that children are, in many cases, left altogether in these pits to the 
 butties and overlookers, and that it is in their power to treat them 
 as they please. There is abundant evidence, too, to show that the 
 children never dare complain of the ill-usage they receive. Punish- 
 ments may be prohibited by the masters, as in many cases they 
 are ; but, as one of the commissioners very truly remarks, these 
 people work alone, in secluded places, at great distances from each 
 other, and they are consequently enabled to inflict any punishment 
 they please almost without notice. Nor is there, I contend, any 
 necessity for employing children in such offices. One witness 
 says — " Coal-woi'k is at best of an o'er sair kind, and few lads can 
 acquire the knowledge of ' heaving,' or have good strength to 
 ' put,'till 14 years of age. Colliers frequently exhaust themselves,
 
 Cliildren in Mines and Collieries. 49 
 
 and if i*egiilar they would not need tlie assistance of siicli quanti- 
 ties of infant labour." Indeed, tlie very custom of taking those 
 children into the mines had its origin in vice. The habits of ir- 
 regularity and intoxication common among miners are the caiise 
 of it; and unhappily, from the system which prevails, those habits 
 are transmitted from father to son. We have it in evidence that 
 many of the miners work 8 or 9 days only in a fortnight, earn 
 some money, and then spend the rest of their time, until those 
 earnings are exhausted, in di'inking, cock-fighting, and gambling. 
 They then have to work again to make up for lost time ; and thus 
 it happens that they take down their wives and children into the 
 pits with them, and make that cruel demand on female and infantile 
 labour, which would be wholly unnecessary were they steady to 
 their work and decently frugal in their habits. Biit take away the 
 power of permitting young children to work in the pits ; put an 
 end at once to this abuse — this monstrous and shameful abuse — 
 and, depend uj)on it, they will soon attain their legitimate ends in 
 an honest way. 
 
 The next point is one of real importance : it is the necessity 
 of making a provision that no person shall be employed in 
 charge of an engine or an engine-house who is under the age 
 of 21 years. The whole subject of accidents in coal-pits has 
 been under the investigation . of this House, and has been re- 
 ported on, yet nothing has been done ; but I am sure that we 
 must speedily direct our attention to this subject, if we wish 
 to save many heads of families for the service of their country, 
 and many families of children from destitution and the poor- 
 house. Now, the frequency of their occurrence is fully pi'oved 
 and their cause is also elaborately detailed in the evidence. To 
 give only one statement : Dr. Mitchell says — " The accidents 
 which occur in the mining districts of South Staffordshire are 
 numerous, and, to judge from the conversation which one con-, 
 stantly hears, we might consider the whole population as engaged 
 in a campaign." But my proposition will be limited to a single 
 point. In many districts it is common to draw up the miners and 
 let them down again into the pits in baskets worked by engines. 
 The engines are put up in small buildings near the mouth of the 
 shaft ; and those engines are freqiiently left in the charge of chil- 
 dren, 12, 11, and even 9 years of age. The testimony is uniform 
 and universal as to this shameful neglect in the districts where it 
 prevails. One witness says — " It is common in Derbyshire, as 
 elsewhere, to employ very young children as engineers to let down 
 and draw up the workpeople. I have met with children only 10 
 vears old havinj' the lives of- colliers left to their mcrcv, ujid have
 
 50 Home of Commons, 1th June, 1842. 
 
 seen others so inattentive to their duty as to let the corve be 
 drawn over the pulley, and half a ton of coals be thrown down 
 the shaft." These children draw up or let down six at a time. 
 The accidents resulting from the practice are inniimerable. One 
 of the witnesses, a miner, says — " The worst thing that has ever 
 been brought about against the coUiers is in the masters employ- 
 ing little bits of lads as engineers. Until a man has come to 
 maturity of age, and to know the value of a man's life, he is not 
 to be trusted with the mamgement of an engine." That is a very 
 just and sensible remark, from an experienced working-man, and 
 one to which I hope the House will jjay attention. But just hear 
 what is said by Mr. Wilde, the chief constable of Oldham — and I 
 call more particular notice to his statements, because it is Mr. 
 Wilde's duty to collect evidence for the coroner's inquests. " It 
 is," he says, " a general system here to employ mere children to 
 attend these engines and to stop them at the proper moment; 
 and if they be not stopped, the two, or three, or four, or five per- 
 sons wound up together are thrown over the beam down into the 
 pit again. There have been people wound over at Oldham Edge, 
 at Wernertho, at Chamber Lane, at Robin Hill, at Oldbottom, 
 and on Union Ground here, within the last six or seven years ;" 
 and he adds, " I do not know a case in which children were not 
 the engineers. Three or four boys, were killed in this way at the 
 Chamber Lane Colliery by the momentary neglect of a little boy, 
 who, I think, was only 9 years of age ; and who had turned away 
 from the engine when it was winding up, on his attention being 
 attracted by a mouse on the hearth." But the witnesses who have 
 given evidence on this point also hesitate not to state the motive 
 which induces the employment of those children. They say, and 
 -ivith great tmth, " If the masters can get such a duty discharged 
 by a boy, to whom they give 5s. or 7s. a week, it is so much gained 
 to them txpon the wages of a man, whom they ought to employ." 
 I think the House will concur with me, therefore, in believing that 
 the Legislature may well interfere to check the great cause of 
 these lamentable results, by putting an interdict upon the prac- 
 tice of employing young childi-en in such responsible occupations. 
 And now, Mr. Speaker, the fourth and last point on which I 
 appeal to this House, is one on which I tnist every member of the 
 House will have as strong a feeling of indignation as that which 
 animates myself. I speak now of the practice of assigning boys 
 as apprentices to the butty colliers ; and I do not hesitate to say 
 that anything more enormous was never brought under the notice 
 of the legislative assembly of a free country. The districts in 
 which this system of apprenticeship is most common are South
 
 Children in Mines and Collieries. 51 
 
 StaflPordsliire, Toi-ksliire, Lancashire, and the west of Scotland. 
 " In Suutli Staffordshire," says the sub-commissioner, " the 
 number of children or young persons as apprentices is exceed- 
 ingly numerous : these apprentices are paiipers or orphans, and 
 are wholly in the power of the butties. Such is the demand for 
 this class of children, that there are scarcely any boys in the 
 union workhouses. These boys are sent on trial between 8 and 9 ; 
 and at 9 are bound for 12 years, that is, to the age of 21 years 
 complete." Now, Sir, was there ever such a thing ? " There are 
 probably," says Mr. William Grove, " 300 apprentices belonging 
 to the collieries in this town of Bilston. One man has now five 
 in his house." Just see what an abominable system this is. Ask 
 youi'selves whether any state of slavery is worse. Take what I 
 am now going to read to you as a sample : — " Many of the col- 
 liers," says the sub-commissioner, " take two or three apprentices 
 at a time, supporting themselves and families out of their labour." 
 Mark this : he is idle himself, and lives on the toil of these 
 wi'etched creatures. " As soon as either of them is old enough, 
 he is made a getter, and is then worth from 10s. to 15s. a week. 
 At the age of 14 the apprentice woi'ks side by side with other lads, 
 who ai'e getting 14s. a week (he himself getting nothing) ; at 17 or 
 18, side by side with freemen, who may go where they please, and 
 are earning 20s. or 25s." " The orphan," says the sub-commis- 
 sioner, " whom necessity has driven into the workhouse is made 
 to laboiu" in the mines until the age of 21, solely for the benefit of 
 another." Not a penny may he earn for himself, not a step may 
 he take without the permission of another. And is this system of 
 apprenticeship necessary P It is given in evidence that there is 
 nothing to be learned that might not be acquired in 10 days. Dr. 
 Mitchell says — " Notwithstanding this long apprenticeship, there 
 is nothing whatever in the coal-mine to learn beyond a little 
 dexterity, readily acquired by short practice. Even in the mines 
 of Cornwall, where much skill and judgment are required, there 
 are no apprentices." Then, Sir, see the treatment to which these 
 unfortunate lads are subjected, placed as they are completely in 
 the power of these men, in seclusion and darkness, afraid to aj^- 
 peal, utterly defenceless, without friends or protectors of any sort. 
 Just see the horiid power exercised by these men. I will read to 
 you some excellent testimony, that of Mr. Baylis, agent to Mr 
 Lonsdale. Mr. Baylis says — " The men -will send a boy where 
 they do not go themselves, and some have their limits broken and 
 others lose their lives." Mark the cowardice of the deed. " Some 
 parishes will not let the butties have their pauper children. But- 
 ties get apprentices, and send their own children to learn other
 
 52 House of Commons, 1th June, 1842. 
 
 trades : tlie apprentices have not a ]}oliday, if tliere be one, or any 
 means of employing them ; — it is the apprentices who are sent to 
 mind the steam-engine, and pnmp up water on Sundays." They 
 are not even allowed the rest of the Sunday. " It is the appren- 
 tices who on that day clean the boilers." Mr. Ellison, a master 
 manufacturer in the West Riding of Yorkshire, gives similar 
 testimony : — " When the coUiers," says he, " are in need of hur- 
 riers, they apply to the poor-law guardians for i:)auper children. 
 I have been," says he, " a guardian myself, and know it to be 
 the fact. They cannot get them elsewhere, on account of the 
 severity of the labour and the treatment hurriers experience." 
 
 But I will now go to the detail of cases of individual opj)ression, 
 and will quote, in the first instance, the evidence given by two 
 boys, Thomas Moorhouse and Henry Gibson. Thomas Moorhouse 
 said, " ' My master served me very bad ; he stuck a pick into me 
 twice.' [Here (says the sub-commissioner) I made the boy strij), 
 and found a large cicatrix, likely to have been occasioned by such 
 an instrument, which must have passed through the glutei muscles, 
 and have stopped only short of the hip joint : there were twenty 
 other wounds occasioned by hurrying in low workings.]" Henry 
 Gibson (Wigan) said, " There is a lad called Jonathan Dicks, from 
 St. Helen's Workhouse ; he gets thrashed very ill. I saw his 
 master beat him with a pickaxe on his legs and arms, and his 
 master cut a great gash in his head with a blow of a j^ickaxe." 
 
 Here is another case, to which I am particularly anxious to 
 call the attention of the H(juse, because I believe it to be a case 
 of unparalleled brutality, and because I directed the attention of 
 the Government to the circumstances at the time they occurred. 
 I saw this case stated in the newspapers more than a year ago, 
 and it appeared to me that the magistrates, under whose attention 
 it had been brought, had awarded a very small punishment for a 
 veiy great misdemeanour. I immediately went to the Home 
 Secretary, and expressed my fears that it was too late to take any 
 steps upon the case, adding at the same time, however, that it was 
 a matter in which, perhaps, he might think it right to show that 
 oflBcial vigilance was alive to such conduct. My noble friend, 
 with that courtesy and kindness which I ever experienced at his 
 hands, instantly made inquiry, and afterwards informed me that 
 the facts, as I had represented them, were not only siibstantiated, 
 but actually con-ect. I now find the case detailed at length in 
 the appendix to the report ; and I must entreat the House to 
 allow me to state it at full length. It is the case of " Edmund 
 Kershaw, who (says the sub-commissioner) was apprenticed by 
 the overseers of Castleton to a coUier near Rooley-Moor. Mi:
 
 Cliildren in Mines and Collieries. 53 
 
 Milner (the surgeon) examined tliis boy, and foiiud on bis body 
 from 24: to 26 wounds. His back and loins were lieateu to a jeUy ; 
 bis bead, wbicb was almost cleared of bair on tbe scalp, bad tbe 
 marks of many old wounds. . . . One of tbe bones in one 
 arm was broken below tbe elbow, and seemed to have been so for 
 some time. Tbe boy, on being- brougbt before tbe magistrate, 
 was unable to sit or stand, and was placed on tbe floor in tbe 
 office. It appeared that tbe boy's arm bad been broken by a blow 
 witb an iron rail, and tbe fracture bad never been set, and tbat be 
 bad been kept at work for several weeks witb bis arm in tbat con- 
 dition. It was admitted " — wbat an admission ! — " by tbe master, 
 tbat be had been in the habit of beating the boy' with a flat piece 
 of wood, in which a nail was driven, and projected about half an 
 inch. The blows bad been inflicted with such violence that they 
 had penetrated the skin, and caused tbe wounds described by Mr. 
 Milner." Now, was not this enough for one poor child, at least ? 
 Not at all SO; — "The boy bad been starved for want of food, and 
 his body presented all the marks of emaciation. This bi'utal 
 master had kept him at work as a waggoner until he was no 
 longer of any use, and then sent him home in a cn,rt to his 
 mother, who was a poor widow residing in Rochdale." Well 
 might aU the charter-masters in Shropshire speak of tbe system 
 with horror, and say it was as bad as tbe African slave-trade. 
 For my part, I think it quite as bad, if not worse ; for, at any 
 rate, slaves have the advantage of working in tbe light of tbe 
 open day, besides that they may possess, sometimes, the allevia- 
 tions of a domestic, if not a happy condition. 
 
 But now, I ask, what is to be said of such a system as this ? 
 These wretched apprentices have committed no crime, and even if 
 they had so, they would not deseiwe to meet with such a punish- 
 ment. Only a few days ago I went over the new prison at Pen- 
 tonville. Never have I seen such preparations as are there made 
 for seciiring a proper degree of comfort to the prisoner. Such care 
 for light, such care for ventilation, such care tbat every necessary 
 requirement of the prisoner should be furnished. He is to have 
 books, tools, instruction — to hear the human voice at least 14 times 
 a day. Sir, I find no fault with that ; but I pray you to bear in 
 mind that all this is done for persons who have forfeited their 
 liberty by the laws of their country ; but here you have a number 
 of poor children, whose only crime is that they are poor, and who 
 are sent down to these horrid dens, subjected to every privation, 
 and every variety of brutal treatment, and on whom you inflict 
 even a worse curse than this — the curse of dark and perpetual 
 ignorance. Ignorant such people umst be ; for, from the time
 
 64 House of Commons, 1th June, 1842. 
 
 you take tliem down the shaft of tliie pit, not one hour have they 
 of their own to learn their duty either to their fellow-man or to 
 their Almighty Maker. And here I tell you that this matter 
 nearly affects yourselves. It affects you as the makers of laws — 
 laws which you enact in order that they may meet with obedience 
 and respect. You are anxious to enfoi-ce these laws — you are 
 anxious to enforce, for instance, the new poor law. I say nothing 
 now as to the wisdom, or otherwise, of that law, but surely it is 
 wise to relax the rigour or your laws where such relaxation is 
 just and safe. "Where is the right to inflict a servitiide like this ? 
 Is orphanism a crime ? To maintain such a system would be 
 not only oppression, but an insult (I say it advisedly) to the 
 poorer classes : but they need not fear, for they will find, I can 
 see, a defence in this House. Here is a case made out — meet that 
 case fully and fairly. Do not only make laws to meet such cases 
 in future, but endeavour to meet the first injustice also. Let 
 apprenticeship be abolished on the spot ; let every existing inden- 
 ture be cancelled. " Undo the heavy burthens, and let the op- 
 pressed go free." 
 
 I will detain the House only a short time longer ; for I know 
 that I have already trespassed too much upon your attention. 
 You win, however, I am sure, forgive me when you remember 
 how long I have laboured in this cause, and how deeply I have it 
 at heart. I ask, is all this cruelty necessary ? Cannot we attain 
 our ends by any other means ? You have seen not only how 
 needless, but how wasteful and ruinoiis, to themselves and their 
 families, is the employment of females in these severe and de- 
 grading occupations : you have seen how wasteful and ruinous is 
 the employment of children of such tender years, when we not only 
 deprive them of all means of education, but anticipate the efforts 
 of that strength which should be reserved for the service and de- 
 fence of a future generation. Sir, I am sure that, under proper 
 regulations, the occupation itself may be rendered both healthy 
 and happy : indeed, all the evidence goes to show that a little 
 expense and a little care would obviate a large proportion of the 
 mischiefs that prevail. No employments that are necessary to man- 
 kind are deadly to man but by man's own fault: when we go beyond, 
 and enter on the path of luxury and sensual gratification, then 
 begins the long and grim catalogue of pestilential occupations. 
 
 Having thus endeavoured to state the case, may I occupy 
 a few minutes to show that this present effort is not a de- 
 sultory movement, but part of a large plan, wisely or imwisely 
 conceived, for the social and moral improvement of the working 
 classes. There are other reports to come, which will show a
 
 Cliildren in Mines and Collieries. 55 
 
 greater, a deeper, and, if 1 may use the term, a fiercer necessity 
 for change of some kind. I had long observed the enormous toil 
 of a large pi-oportion of the community, and the total disemploy- 
 ment of the other — physically injurious to the one, and morally 
 injurious to both. I thought I had a right to interpose in behalf 
 of the childi-en and young persons, to redress the balance, and to 
 avert the mischief by shortening the hours of labour, and by that 
 means to call into action those who were unemployed, and to 
 afford some relief to those who were already overworked. This 
 has been the limit of my exertions — I have never attempted to 
 legislate for the adults, or interpose between master and man in 
 the matter of wages. I have laboured to bring them within the 
 reach of moral and religious education, knowing full well that 
 they are the seeds of future generations of citizens ; and that, in 
 the progress of opinions and of things, there can be neither safety 
 nor hope but by our becoming, under God's blessing, a wise and 
 an understanding people. Sir, we can estimate our loss or acqui- 
 sition of territory by geographical measurement ; and so we can 
 calculate in finance by increase or deficiency of revenue ; but it is 
 not so easy to arrive at the moral statistics of a country. Many 
 persons love to estimate the condition of a kingdom by its crimi- 
 nal tables ; but surely these figures exhibit very scantily the moral 
 state of a people. A people may be in a frightful condition as 
 citizens, and yet but few of them appear before the magistrate 
 or infringe the laws : — why take, then, such a picture as this ? I 
 use it to show that criminal statistics are only a symptom, and 
 not the extent of the internal disorder. 
 
 The paper which I hold in my hand is a statement taken from 
 the police returns of Manchester, for one year, up to December 31, 
 1841, and in it I find the following : 
 
 Taken into oustoHy 13,345 
 
 Discharged by the magistrates . . , 10,208 
 
 Of these there were under 20 years of age . 3,0G9 
 
 Including the females • . . , . 745 
 
 Surely, it would be unsound for the House to conclude that of the 
 13,345 taken into custody, the 10,000 discharged were perfectly 
 innocent, immaculate in all the duties of private citizens. I do 
 not, in general, set any great value on what are now called educa- 
 tional statistics ; yet I cannot but observe, as a matter of curiosity, 
 in how many of these persons one avenue to moral and intellectual 
 improvement was absolutely closed up. Of the whole number, 
 6,971 could neither read nor write; 5,162 could read and write im- 
 perfectly ; 220 only had superior instruction, which was, we may
 
 66 House of Commons, 7th June, 1842, 
 
 fairly concliide, of no very hlgli cliaracter. Now, in tlie column 
 wliich follows there are many sources of crime, of immorality, of 
 utter degradation, fatal and wide-spreading, the results of which 
 may never be seen before a commissioner of police or a judge of 
 assize, aud will therefore never be ascertained by a statistical 
 return. I find within the limits of the borough of Manchester 
 the number of 
 
 Pawnbiokei's to be . . . . .129 
 
 Beer-houses ....... 769 
 
 I'ublic-houses ....•• 498 
 
 Brothels 309 
 
 Brothels lately suppressed . . . .Ill 
 
 Brothels where prostitutes are kept . . IG'i 
 
 Houses of ill-iame where prostitutes resort . . 223 
 
 Street-walkers in ths borough . . . .763 
 
 Thieves known to reside in the borough, who do 
 
 nothing but steal . . . . .212 
 
 Persons following some legal occupation, but who 
 are known to have committed felony, and aug- 
 ment their gains by habitual violation of the law 160 
 Houses for receiving stolen goods ... 63 
 Houses suppressed lately .... 32 
 
 Houses for the resort of thieves. . . . 103 
 
 Houses lately suppressed ..... 25 
 Lodging-houses where the sexes indiscriminately 
 sleep together . . . . . ,109 
 
 Again, in the year ending September, 1840, there were confined 
 in Durham gaol 141 pitmen ; no very great number in respect of 
 the population. Out of these, 64 were confined for breaking some 
 small condition of their bond. No i^ei-fect picture, however, of 
 the state of. society among the mining people can be amved at 
 from this return. How little does it reveal of that which the in- 
 quiry has disclosed ! li- will be much better collected from the evi- 
 dence of Mrs. Goodger, the mistress of an infant-school in that 
 district, who states, that " when she fii-st came, oaths were exceed- 
 ingly common in the mouths of girls 5 and 7 years old," and when 
 reprimanded for their conduct, " they did not scruple to caU her 
 the most opprobrious names that cotild be imagined." The witness 
 further declares that she " thinks the bad language might be cor- 
 rected by the parents, who, instead of doing this, frequently 
 abuse her for ptinishing the children." 
 
 I hope. Sir, that the House will not consider that I am speaking 
 dogmatically on these subjects — my intercourse with the working 
 classes, both by correspondence aud personal interview, has for 
 many years been so extensive, that I think I may venture to say
 
 Children in Mines and Collieries. 57 
 
 that I am conversant witli tlieir feelings and liabits, and can state 
 their probable movements. I do not fear any violent or general 
 outbreaks on the part of the population : thei"e may be a few, bnt 
 not more than will be easily repressed by the ordinary force of 
 the country. But I do fear the progress of a cancer, a perilous, 
 and, if we much longer delay, an incurable cancer, which has 
 seized upon the body social, moral, and political ; and then in some 
 day, when there shall be required on the part of our people an 
 unusual energy, an unprecedented eft'ort of virtue and patriotism, 
 the strength of the empire will be found prostrate, for the fatal 
 disorder will have reached its vitals. 
 
 Thei'e are, I well know, many other things to be done ; but 
 this, I must maintain, is an indispensable preliminary ; for it is a 
 mockery to talk of education to people who are engaged, as it 
 were, in unceasing toil from their cradle to their grave. I have 
 endeavoured for many years to attain this end by limiting the 
 hours of labour, and so bringing the children and young persons 
 within the reach of a moral and religious education. I have 
 hitherto been disappointed, and I deeply regret it, because we are 
 daily throwing away a noble material ! — for, depend upon it, the 
 British people are the noisiest and the most easily governed of 
 any on the face of the earth. Their fortitude and obedience under 
 the severest privations sufficiently prove it. Sure I am, that the 
 minister of this country, whoever he be, if he will but win tJieir 
 confidence by appealing to their hearts, may bear upon his little 
 finger the whole weight of the reins of the British empire. And, 
 Sir, the sufferings of these people, so destructive to themselves, 
 are altogether needless to the prosperity of the empire. Could it 
 even be proved that they were necessary, this House, I know, 
 would pause before it undertook to affirm the continuance of 
 them. What coidd induce you to tolerate further the existence of 
 such abominations ? Just hear. Sir, and it is the last, the statement 
 of William Hunter, a mining overs-man in the Arniston Colliery: — 
 " I have been 20 years," says he, " in the works of Mr. Robert 
 Dundas. Women and lasses were wrought below, when Mr. 
 Alexander Moxton, our manager, issued an order to exclude them. 
 Women always did the heavy part of the work, and neither they 
 nor the children were treated like human beings, nor are they 
 where they are employed. Females submit to work in places 
 where no man, or even lad, could be got to labour in ; they work 
 in bad roads, up to their knees in water, in a posture nearly 
 double ; they are below till the last hour of pregnancy ; they have 
 swollen haimches and ankles, and are prematurely brought to 
 the grave, or, what is Avorse, a lingering existence." Well might
 
 58 House of Commons, 7th June, 1842. 
 
 that good man Mr. Bald exclaim — " Tke state of these females 
 after pulling like horses through these holes, is more easily con- 
 ceived than exi^lained : their perspiration, their exhaustion, and 
 tears very frequently, it is painful in the extreme even to witness." 
 Is it not enough to announce these things to an assembly of 
 Christian men and British gentlemen? For twenty millions of 
 money you purchased the liberation of the negro ; and it was a 
 blessed deed. You may, this night, by a cheap and harmless vote, 
 invigorate the hearts of thousands of your coiintrypeople, enable 
 them to walk erect in newness of life, to enter on the enjoyment 
 of their inherited freedom, and avail themselves (if they will 
 accept them) of the opportunities of virtue, of morality, and 
 religion. These, Sir, are the ends that I venture to j)ropose : 
 this is the barbarism that I seek to restore.* The House will, I 
 am sure, forgive me for having detained them so long ; and stUl 
 more will they forgive me for venturing to conclude, by imploring 
 them, in the words of Holy "Writ, " To break off our sins by 
 righteousness, and our iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, 
 if it may be a lengthening of our tranquillity." 
 
 * A member, in a preceding discussion, had said that " this kind of legislation 
 would brine; back the barbarism of the Middle Acres." 
 
 Note. — In answer to a question from Mr. Milner Gibson, M.P. for Manchester, 
 Lord Ashley explained that " he had selected JIanchester, not because he thought 
 it pre-eminent in vice, but because a most accurate and important document had 
 been drawn up relative to it — one which completely illustrated the position he wished 
 to establish." 

 
 ( 59 ) 
 
 Reply to Lancashire Sliort-time Commktee. 
 
 Manchester, September 26, 1842. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 The address whicli I have just had the honour of receiving 
 demands from me a more ample reply than an ordinary acknow- 
 ledgment. I will not attempt to qualify the force of your senti- 
 ments and expressions by showing how little I have deserved such 
 commendation, for yoii are the Isest judges of the value of my 
 efforts. I will joyfully accept your praise, and hoj)e that it may 
 be an incentive to myself and others to enter the broad and diffi- 
 cult, but not thankless field of the social and moral improvement 
 of the working classes. 
 
 But though I am honoured and satisfied by your api^roval, I 
 will not disguise from you my firm conviction that the measures 
 which I have hitherto either carried or suggested, are but pre- 
 liminaries in the great undertaking of domestic regeneration. 
 Ton have sj)oken with kindness of the zeal I have manifested 
 and the labour I have undergone on behalf of yovir constituents : 
 yet all that has been done is small in comparison with what re- 
 mains to be done ; and the only reward^ if any be due, that I look 
 for at your hands, is your constant and hearty co-operation, at 
 present and hereafter, on projects alike beneficial to yourselves, 
 to your children, and to mankind. 
 
 TThe vast proportion of the evils which affect and endanger this 
 coimtry is not ascribable to physical or commercial causes, — 
 these may have their influence, biit in the main the mischief is to 
 be traced to a moral origin. Over a large surface of the indus- 
 trial community man has been regarded as an animal, and that, i 
 an animal not of the highest order ; his loftiest faculties, when not 
 prostrate, are perverted, and his lowest exclusively devoted to the 
 manufacture of wealth. Women and children follow in the train 
 of ceaseless toil and degrading occupation, and thus we have 
 before us a mighty multitude of feeble bodies and itntaught 
 minds, the perilous matqrials of present and future pauperism, 
 of violence and infidelity. \
 
 60 Manchester, 2(jih September, 1842. 
 
 It is mncli to Ijo regretted tliat a great part of our fellow-sub- 
 jects, who might entertain or exj^ress an interest in the remedy of 
 such evils, are altogether ignorant of their existence. Tet I am 
 not without hojje that a healthy and vigoroiis public opinion has 
 been permanently awakened to the discovery and correction of all 
 these abuses. We have seen in the Colliery Bill the first fruits of 
 that revival. The researches of astute and able commissioners 
 have disclosed a world of unknown abominations. Political dif- 
 ferences were suppressed, and parties of all complexions aspire 
 to^ and may claim, an equal share in vindicating the rights of 
 humanity and the character of the nation. Nor may we forget 
 our deep obligations to the public press, which both in the capital 
 and in the provinces exhibited a spectacle neither seen nor 
 imagined in any coimtry but this, the spectacle of the journals 
 of extreme opinions and discordant principles combining to 
 sustain a public man because they believed that, with no private 
 piirposes of his own, he was engaged in an honest endeavour for 
 the public good. 
 
 I mention these things that they may impart to you, as they 
 did to me, consolation and encouragement ; they may animate 
 you to perseverance in your just and necessary demands for a 
 reasonable time-bill, for a measm-e which, by the more equal dis- 
 ti'ibution of labour, shall save you from the alternation of ab- 
 solute idleness and intolerable toil, and call into employment 
 many whose energies are dormant while yours are overwrought. 
 I entreat you to believe that, while my cou\'iction of its necessity 
 is greatly deepened, the resolution I had formed to persevere in 
 the face of all kinds of opposition has undergone no abatement. 
 
 Nor must we omit to press upon the attention of the public the 
 gi'aduid displacement of male by the substitution of female labour, 
 in a large proportion of the industrial occupations of the country; 
 an evil we have long observed with fear and sorrow. This evil, as 
 you well know, is not confined to the mills and factories of the 
 United Kingdom, but is spreading rapidly and extensively over 
 other departments, desolating, like a torrent, the peace, the eco- 
 nomy, and the virtue of the mighty mass of the manufactui-ing 
 districts. Domestic life and domestic discipline must soon be at 
 an end ; society will consist of individuals no longer grouped into 
 families ; so early is the separation of husband and wife, of parents 
 and children.' Thousands of young females of tender years are 
 absorbed, day by day, in the factories and workshops ; every hour 
 is given to their toil, and that toil the most unsuited to their age 
 and sex. In the precious season of youth there is no consideration 
 for the hai-vest of adult life : they become, not a few of them, wives
 
 Mephj to Lancashire Short-Time Committee. 61 
 
 and motliers, but in utter ignorance of every domestic acdoniplish- 
 liient; often unwilling, more fre(]uently unable, to discharge any 
 cimjugal and maternal duty. I draw a veil over the enormous 
 licentiousness wbicb alike disgraces and endangers these piirsuits. 
 But the late imhappy disturbances have exhibited to you and to 
 the world the pernicious results of violating the order of Pro- 
 vidence by the abstraction of the females from their peculiar 
 calling. Their presence, nay more, their participation in the 
 riots, has I'ead us an awful lesson; for when the women of a 
 country become brutalized, that countiy is left without a hope. I 
 speak these things openly and without fear, because y-ou know 
 that I love and respect you, and that I have ever said, as I con- 
 scientiously believe, that the working classes of these realms are 
 the noblest materials in existence, for industry, patriotism, and 
 virtue. 
 
 Yet, reform in these matters, great and beneficial in themselves, 
 would be really valuable only as they preceded and conferred the 
 opportunities of. moral and religious education. This must be 
 our principal, our only indispensable object. But in order that 
 the children be rightly instructed, they must have leisiu-e both to 
 learn and practise the lessons of the school. We must keep 
 before our eyes the undeniable but iU-considered fact, that every 
 child in these districts is an immortal being; and that another 
 generation, neglected like the present, and left in ignorance and 
 sin, will probably witness the final extinction of the British 
 empire. 
 
 You have concluded your address by a sincere and fervent 
 pi'ayer that it would please Almighty God to bless me and mine 
 with prosperity and peace — may the prayer return to your own 
 bosoms. Only let us proceed towards the attainment of our com- 
 mon object in dutiful submission to the law, and with due refer- 
 ence to the interests of all parties ; and I shall still be animated 
 by the hope, which has never deserted me, of seeing the restora- 
 tion of content among all classes — the revival of good-wiU be- 
 tween master and man — a blessing on every house, and a home 
 for every labourer.
 
 62 ; 
 
 Education of the WorJcing Classes. 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 
 February 28, 1843. 
 
 Speech on moving " That an humble address be presented to her Majesty, praying 
 that her Majesty will be graciously pleased to taiie into her instant and serious 
 consideration the best means of dill'usiiig the benefits and blessings of a moral 
 and religious education amongst the working classes of her people." 
 
 Sir, 
 
 Tlie question that I have imdertaken to submit to the 
 deliberation of this House is one so prodigiously vast, and so 
 unspeakably important, that there may well be demanded an 
 apology, if not an explanation, from any individual member who 
 presiunes to handle so weighty and so difficult a matter. And, 
 indeed, had any real diiFerence of opinion existed, I should probably 
 have refrained from the task ; but late events have, I fear, proved 
 that the moral condition of oiir i)eople is unhealthy and even 
 perilous — all are pretty nearly agreed that something further 
 must be attempted for their welfare ; and I now ventiu'e, therefore, 
 to offer for the discussion both matter and opportunity. 
 
 Surely, Sir, it will not be necessary as a preliminary to this 
 motion to inquire on whom should rest the responsibility of our 
 present condition — oiir duty is to examine the moral state of the 
 coimtry ; to say whether it be safe, honourable, happy, and be- 
 coming the dignity of a Christian kingdom ; and, if it be not so, 
 to address ourselves to the cure of evils which, unlike most invete- 
 rate and deeply-rooted abuses, though they cannot be suffered to 
 exist without danger, may be removed without the slightest griev- 
 ance, real or imaginary, to any community, or even any individual. 
 
 The present time, too, is so far favourable to the propounding 
 of this question, as that it finds us in a state of mind equally 
 distant, I believe, from the two extremes of opinion ; the one, that 
 education is the direct, immediate, and lasting panacea for all our 
 disorders ; the other, that it will either do nothing at all, or even
 
 Education of the Working Classes. 63 
 
 exasperate tlie mischief. That it will do everything is absurd; 
 that it will do nothing is more so — every statesman, that is, 
 every true statesman, of every age and nation, has considered a 
 moral, steady, obedient, and united people, indispensable to ex- 
 ternal greatness or internal peace. Wise men have marked out 
 the road whereby these desii-able ends may be attained ; I will not 
 multiply authorities ; I ynB. quote two only, the one secular, the 
 other sacred. " I think I may say," observes the famous John 
 Locke, " that, of all the men we meet with, nine parts in ten are 
 what they are, good or evil, useful or not, by their education. It 
 is that which makes the great difference in mankind." " Train up 
 a child," said Solomon, " in the way he should go ; and when he is 
 old he will not depart from it." 
 
 Now, has any man ever shown by what other means we may 
 arrive at this most necessary consummation ? If it be required ia 
 small states, and even in despotic monarchies, much more is it 
 required in populous kingdoms and free governments ; — and siich 
 is our position — our lot is cast in a time when our numbers, 
 already vast, are hourly increasing at an almost geometric ratio 
 — our institutions receive, every day, a more liberal complexion, 
 while the democratic principle, by the mere foi'ce of circum- 
 stances, is fostered and developed — the public safety demands, 
 each year, a larger measure of enlightenment and self-control ; 
 of enlightenment that all may understand their real interests ; of 
 self-control tha^t individual passion may be repressed to the ad- 
 vancement of piiblic weKare. I know not where to search for 
 these things but in the lessons and practice of the Gospel : true 
 Christianity is essentially favourable to freedom of institutions in 
 Church and State, because it imports a judgment of your own and 
 another's rights, a sense of public and private duty, an enlarged 
 philanthropy and self-restraint, unknown to those democracies 
 of former times, which are called, and only called, the polished 
 nations of antiquity. 
 
 Sir, I do not deny, very far from it, the vast and meritorious 
 efforts of the National Society ; nor will I speak disj)aragingly of 
 the efforts of some of the dissenting bodies ; but in spite of all 
 that has been done, a tremendous waste still remains unculti- 
 vated, " a great and terrible wilderness," that I shall now 
 endeavour to lay open before you. 
 
 Sir, the population of England and Wales in the year 1801 was 
 8,872,980 ; in 1841 it had risen to 15,906,829, showing an increase 
 in less than half a century on the whole population of 7,033,849. 
 If I here take one-fifth (which is understated, one-fourth being 
 the ordinary calculation,) as the number supposed to be capable
 
 64 House of Commons, 2Sth Felrmry, 1843. 
 
 of some education, there will result a number of 3,181,365; 
 deducting one-third as provided for at jDrivate expense, there 
 wiU be left a number of 2,120,910 ; deducting also for children 
 in union workhouses, 50,000; and lastly deducting 10 per cent. 
 for accidents and casualties, 212,091; there will then be the 
 number of 1,858,819 to be provided for at the public expense. 
 Now by the tables in the excellent pamphlet of the Rev. Mr. 
 Burgess, of Chelsea, it appears that the total number of daily 
 scholars in connection with the Established Church, is 749,626. 
 By the same tables, the total number of daily scholars in connec- 
 tion with dissenting bodies is stated at 95,000 ; making a sum total 
 of daily scholars in England and Wales, 844,626 ; leaving, with- 
 out any daily instruction, the number of 1,014,193 persons. These 
 tables are calculated upon the returns of 1833, with an estimate 
 for the increase of the Church of England scholars since those 
 returns, and with an allowance in the same i^roportion for the 
 increase of the dissenting scholars. But if we look forward to 
 the next ten years, there will be an increase of at least 2,500,000 
 in the population ; and should nothing be done to supply our 
 want, we shall then have in addition to our present arrears, a 
 fearful multitude of untutored savages. 
 
 Next, I find as a samj^le of the state of adult and juvenUe 
 delinquency, that the number of committals in the year 1841 was, 
 of persons of all ages, 27,760; and of persons under the age of 16 
 years, the proportion was 11^ per cent, I quote these tables in 
 conformity with established usage and ancient prejudice ; but 
 they are, vdth a view to any accurate estimate of the moral 
 condition of the kingdom, altogether fallacious — they do not 
 explain to us whether the cases be those of distinct criminals or, 
 in many instances, those of the same individuals reproduced : if 
 the proportion be increased we have no clue to the discovery 
 •whether it be real or fictitious, ]permanent or casual; if diminished, 
 we congratulate each other, but without examining how far the 
 diminution must be ascribed to an increased morality, or a more 
 effective Police — it is very weU to rely on an effective Police for 
 short and turbulent periods ; it is ruinous to rely on it for the 
 goveniment of a generation. For after all, how much there must 
 ever be perilous to the state, and j)erilous to society, which, 
 whether it be manifested or not, is far beyond the scope of 
 magisterial power, and curable only by a widely different process ! 
 I will not, therefore, attempt a comparison of one period of crime 
 with another ; if the matters be worse, my case is established ; if 
 better, they can be so only through the greater diffusion of 
 external morality. That morality, then, which is so effective
 
 Education of the Working Classes. 65 
 
 even on the surface of tlie nation, it slionld be our earnest and 
 constant endeavour to root deeply in their hearts. 
 
 Having stated this much in a general way, I will now take a 
 few of those details which form a part of the complement of this 
 mass of wickedness and mischief — we shall thus leam the prin- 
 cipal seats of the danger, its character and extent locally, and, in 
 a great degree, the mode and nature of the remedy. 
 
 Sir, there have been laid upon the table within the last few 
 days, a report by Mr. Horner and Mr. Saunders, inspectors of 
 factories ; and also the second report of the Children's Employ- 
 ment Commission ; from these documents I shall draw very 
 largely ; and I wish to take this, opportunity, as their final 
 report has now been presented, of expressing to the commis- 
 sioners my sincere and heartfelt thanks for an exercise of talent 
 and vigour never before surpassed by any public servants. 
 
 The first town that I shall refer to is Manchester — some of 
 those details I shall now quote I stated in the last session ; but I 
 shall ventiire to state them again as they bear immediately on the 
 question before us. By the police returns of Manchester, made iip 
 to December, 1841, we find the number of persons taken into 
 custody during that year, was 13,345. Discharged by magistrates 
 without punishment, 10,208 ; of these, under 20 years of age, 
 there were males, 3 069, and females, 745. By the same returns 
 to July, 1842 (six months), there were taken into custody, 8341 
 (this would make in a whole year, were the same proportion 
 observed, 16,682) ; of these, males, 5810 ; females, 2531. Now as 
 to their instruction ; with a knowledge of reading only, or reading 
 and writing imperfectly, males, 1999 ; females, 863. Neither read 
 nor write, males, 3098 ; females, 1519 ; — total of these last, 4617. 
 At 15 and under 20, 2360 ; of these, males, 1639 ; females, 721. 
 But take what may be called the " curable " portion, and there 
 will be, at 10 years and \7nder 15, 665 ; males, 547 ; females, 118. 
 Discharged by the magistrates without punishment (in six 
 months), 6307, or at the rate of 12,614 in a year. Can the House 
 be surprised at this statement, when the means for supplying 
 opportunities to crime and the practice of debauchery are so 
 abundant? It appears that there are in Manchester — pawn- 
 brokers, 129 ; this may be a symptom of distress ; beer-houses, 
 769 ; public-houses, 498 ; brothels, 309 ; ditto, lately suppressed. 
 Ill: ditto, where prostitutes are kept, 163; ditto, where they 
 resort, 223 ; street-walkers in borough, 763 ; thieves residing in 
 the borough who do nothing but steal, 212; persons following 
 some lawful occupation, but augmenting their gains by habitual 
 violation of the law, 160; houses for receiving stolen goods, 63; 
 
 F
 
 66 Hoiiee of Commons, 28i7t February, 1843. 
 
 ditto, suppressed lately, 32; liouses for resort of thieves, 103; 
 ditto, lately suppressed, 25 ; lodging-touses wliere sexes indiscri- 
 minately sleep together, 109. 
 
 But there is another cause that aids the progi-ess of crime which 
 prevails in the town of Manchester. 1 will mention the fact that 
 a vast n amber of children of the tender est years, either through 
 absence or through neglect of their parents, I do not now say 
 which, are suffered to roam at large through the streets of the 
 town, contracting the moot idle and profligate habits. I have 
 nere a return that I myseH moved for in the year 1836, and I see 
 that the number of children found wandeiing in the streets, and 
 restored to their parents by. the police in 1835, was no less than 
 8650, in 1840 it was reduced to 5500 — having heard this table the 
 House will not be sui-prised at the observations I am about to 
 read from a gentlemen of long and practical knowledge of the 
 place. " What chance," says he, " have these children of be- 
 coming good members of society ? These unfortunates gi'adually 
 acquire vagi'ant habits, become beggars, vagrants, criminals. It 
 does not appear unfair to calculate that in the borough of Man- 
 chester 1500 children are added to 'les classes dangereuses' 
 annually. Besides," he adds, "the moral evil j^roduced by these 
 1500, let a calculation be made how much money per annum this 
 criminal class costs the state." 
 
 I will next take the town of Birmingham ; and it will be seen 
 by the police returns for 1841, that the number of persons who 
 were taken into . custody was 5556, of these the males were 4537, 
 and the females 1018. Of these there covdd neither read nor 
 write, 2711 ; who could read only and wi-ite imperfectly, 2504 ; read 
 and wTite weU, 206 ; having superior instruction, 36. 1 feel that 
 it is necessary to apologise to the House for troubling them with 
 such minute details; nevertheless, details siich as these are ab- 
 solutely indispensable. Now from a report on the state of educa- 
 tion in the town of Birmingham, made by the Birmingham 
 Statistical Society — one of those useful bodies which have sprung 
 up of late years, and which give to the pubHc a gi-eat mass of 
 information, that may be turned to the best pui-poses — I find that 
 the total number of schools of all kinds in the town of Birming- 
 ham is 669 ; but then the society calls everything a school where 
 a child receives any sort of instruction, perhaps in a place more 
 fitted to be a sty or coal-hole. Now out of the whole mass of the 
 entire population of Binningham there were 27,659 scholars. A 
 vast proportion of these schools are what are called " dame- 
 schools;" and what these are in tnith, may be known by the 
 surveyors' report, who says of them, " moral and religious in-
 
 Education of the Working Classes. C7 
 
 struction forms no part of the system in dame-scliools. A 
 mistress in one of this class of schools on being asked whether 
 she gave moral instruction to her scholars, replied, ' No, I can't 
 afford it at Sd. a week.' Several did not know the meaning of 
 the question. Very few appeared to think it was a pai-t of their 
 duty." This, then, being the number of the schools for educating 
 the young, and the character of the education imparted to them, 
 I may now be allowed to state what are the means for the practice 
 of vice. From the police returns for 18-iO, it appears that the 
 number of these places is 998, and they are thus distributed : — 
 Houses for reception of stolen goods, 81 ; ditto for resort of 
 thieves, 228 ; brothels where prostitutes are kept, 200 ; houses of 
 ill-fame, where they resort, 110; number of houses where they 
 lodge, 187 ; number of mendicants' lodging-houses, 122 ; houses 
 where sexes sleep indiscriminately together, 47 ; add to this, 
 public-houses, 577 ; beer-shops, 573. I will close this part by read- 
 ing to the House an extract from a report made by a committee 
 of medical gentlemen in Birmingham, who, in the most bene- 
 volent spirit, devoted themselves to an examination of the state of 
 Birmingham ; and who, looking to the removal of the growing 
 evils that threaten the population, assert, that " the first and 
 most prominent suggestion is the better education of the females 
 in the arts of domestic economy. To the extreme ignorance of 
 domestic management on the part of the wives of the mechanics 
 is much of the miseiy and want of comfort to be traced. Numerous 
 instances have occurred to us of the confirmed drunkard who at- 
 tributes his habits of dissipation to a wretched home." 
 
 I wiU next take the town of Leeds ; and there it will be seen 
 that the police details would be very similar in character, though 
 differing in number, to those of Manchester and Birmingham — 
 the report of the state of Leeds for 1838, is to this effect : — " It 
 appears that the early periods of life furnish the greatest portion 
 of criminals. Children of 7, 8, and 9 years of age are not un- 
 freqiiently brought before magistrates; a very large portion 
 under 14 years. The parents are, it is to be feared, in many 
 instances the direct causes of their crime." " The spirit of laAv- 
 less insubordination (says Mr. Symons, the sub-commissionerl 
 which prevails at Leeds among the children is very manifest ; it 
 is matter for painful apprehension." James Child, an inspector 
 of police, states that which is well worthy of the attention of the 
 House : He says there is " a great deal of drunkenness, especially 
 among the young people. I have seen children very little higher 
 than the table at these shops. There are some beer-shops where 
 there are rooms up stairs, and the boys and girls, old people, and
 
 68 House of Commons, 2StJi February, 1843. 
 
 married of both sexes, go up two by two, as they can agree, to 
 have connection. ... I am sure that sexual connection begins 
 between boys and girls at 14 and 15 years old." John Stubbs, of 
 the police force, confirms the above testimony. " We have," he 
 says, " a deal of girls on the town under 15, and boys who live by 
 thie\4ng. There are half a dozen beer-shops where none but 
 young ones go at all. They support these houses." 
 
 I will now turn to Sheffield : — The Rev. Mr. Livesey, the 
 minister of St. Philip's, having a population of 24,000, consist- 
 ing almost exclusively of the labouring classes, gives in evidence, 
 " Moral condition of children ... in numerous instances 
 most deplorable. . . . On Sunday afternoons it is impossible 
 to pass along the highways, &c., beyond the police boundaries 
 without encountering niimerous gi'oups of boys, from 12 years 
 and upwards, gaming for copjDcr coin . . . the boys are eai'ly 
 initiated into habits of drinking. But the most revolting feature 
 of juvenile depravity is early contamination from the association 
 of the sexes. The outskirts of the town are absolutely polluted 
 by this abomination ; nor is the veil of darkness nor seclusion 
 always sought by these degraded beings. Too often they are to 
 be met in small parties, who appear to associate for the purpose of 
 promiscuous intercourse, their ages being apparently about 14 or 
 15." The Rev. Mr. Farish states, " There are beer-houses at- 
 tended by youths exclusively, for the men will not have them in 
 the same hoiises with themselves." Hugh Parker, Esq., a justice 
 of the peace, remarks, "A great proportion of the working classes 
 are ignorant and profligate . . . the morals of their children 
 exceedingly depraved and corrupt . . . given, at a very early 
 age, to petty theft, swearing and lying; during minority to 
 drunkenness, debauchery, idleness, profanation of the Sabbath ; 
 dog- and prize-fighting." Mr. Rayner, the superintendent of 
 police, deposes, that " Lads from 12 to 14 years of age constantly 
 frequent beer-houses, and have, even at that age, their girls with 
 them, who often incite them to commit petty thefts . . . 
 vices of every description at a very early age . . . great 
 number of vagrant children prowling about the streets . . . 
 these con-upt the working children. . , . The habits of the 
 adults confirm the children in their vices." George Messon, a 
 police officer, adds, " There are many beer-shops which are fre- 
 quented by boys only ... as early as 13 years of age. The 
 girls are many of them loose in their conduct, and accompany the 
 boys. ... I remember the Chartist attack on Sheffield last 
 winter. I am certain that a great number of young lads were 
 among them— some as young as 15 : they generally act as men."
 
 Education of the Working Classes. 69 
 
 All this was confirmed by Daniel Astwood, also a police officer ; 
 by Mr. George Crossland, registrar and vestry clerk to the board 
 of guardians ; by Mr. Ashley, master of the Lancastrian school ; 
 by Dr. Knight, and by Mr. Carr, a surgeon. Mr. Abraham, the 
 inventor of the magnetic guard, remarks, " There is most vice 
 and levity and mischief in the class who are between 16 and 19. 
 Toil see more lads between 17 and 19 with dogs at their heels and 
 other evidences of dissolute haliits." Mr. James Hall and others 
 of the working people say, the " morals of the children are ten- 
 fold worse than formerly. . . . Thei'e are beer-shops fre- 
 quented by boys from 9 to 15 years old, to play for money and 
 liquor," Charlotte Kirkman, a poor woman of the operative class, 
 aged 60, observes ; and I much wish here to draw the attention of 
 the House, because it is extremely desirable that they should 
 know in what light the best and most decent of the working 
 people regard these things, " I think morals are getting much 
 worse, which I attribute in a great measiire to the beer-shops. 
 
 . . . There were no such girls in my time as there are now. 
 "When I was four or five-and-twenty, my mother would have 
 
 knocked me down if I had spoken improperly to her 
 
 Many have children at 15. I think bastardy almost as common 
 now as a woman being in the family-way by her husband. . . . 
 Now it's nothing thought about." " The evidence (says the sub- 
 commissioner), with very few exceptions, attests a melancholy 
 amount of immorality among the children of the working classes 
 in Sheffield, and especially among young persons. "Within a year 
 of the time of my visit," he continues, " the town was preserved 
 from an organised scheme to fire and plunder it, merely by the 
 information of one man, and the consequent readiness of the 
 troops. A large body of men and boys marched on it in the dead 
 of the night; and a very large quantity of crowsfeet to lame 
 horses, pikes, and combustibles were found on them, at their 
 houses, and left on the road. Several were pledged to fire their 
 own houses. I name this, as a further illustration of the perilous 
 ignorance and vice prevailing among that young class between 
 boys and full-grown men, who were known to be among the chief 
 actors in these scenes." 
 
 Mr. Symons — and I shall the more eff"ectively quote his opinions, 
 because he is most strongly opposed to the political views which I 
 venture to hold — further says, and it is right that I should state 
 it in justice to so excellent a body of men : "If vice increases in 
 Sheffield, the blame assuredly rests not on the clergy ; few towns 
 are blessed with so pious or active a ministry. It is not for want 
 of exertion on their parts if the churches and chapels are un-
 
 70 House of Commons, 28th February, 1843. 
 
 filled, and the schools scantily attended ; and this remark applies 
 also to part of the Wesleyan and some other religiovis denomina- 
 tions." 
 
 I shall now pi-occed to another district, to Wolverhampton, and 
 there I find Mr. Home giving the following description : — 
 " Among all the children and young persons I examined, I found, 
 with very few exceptions, that their minds were as stnnted as 
 their bodies ; their moral feelings stagnant. . . . The children 
 and young persons possess but little sense of moral duty towards 
 their parents, and have little affection for them. . . . One 
 child believed that Pontius Pilate and G-oliath were apostles ; 
 another, 14 or 15 years of age, did not know how many 2 and 2 
 made. In my evidence taken in this town alone, as many as 5 
 children and young persons had never heard even the name of 
 Jesus Christ. . . . Tou will find boys who have never heard 
 of such a place as London, and of Willenhall (only three miles 
 distant), who have never heard of the name of the Queen, or of 
 such names as Wellington, Nelson, Bonaparte, or King George." 
 " But," adds the commissioner, " while of sciij)ture names I could 
 not, in general, obtain any rational account, many of the most 
 sacred names never having even been heai'd, there was a general 
 knowledge of the lives of Dick Tui-pin and Jack Sheppard, not to 
 mention the preposterous epidemic of a hybrid negro song." — 
 This we may suppose is an elegant periphrasis for the popular 
 song of " Jim Crow." — Mr. Home goes on to say — " The master 
 of the British School deposes, ' I have resided, as a teacher, for 
 the last six years, during which I have obseiwed that the character 
 and habits of the numerous laboui-ing poor are of the lowest 
 order.' The master of the National School says ' besotted to the 
 last degi-ee.' " — Sir, there are many things of an extremely horrid 
 description to be detailed conceming the physical condition of the 
 children in these parts, but I forbear to touch them at present, 
 being engaged only on their moral deficiency. 
 
 I now go to WiUenhaU, and there it is said, — " A lower con- 
 dition of morals cannot, I think, be foimd— they sink some 
 degrees (when that is possible) below the worst classes of children 
 and young persons in Wolverhampton ; they do not display the 
 remotest sign of comprehension as to what is meant by the term 
 of morals." Next, of Wednesfield, it is said the population are 
 " much addicted to drinking ; many besotted in the extreme ; poor 
 dejected men, with hardly a rag to their backs, are often seen 
 drunk two or three days in the week and even when they have 
 large families." The same profligacyand ignorance at Darlaston, 
 where we have the evidence of three parties, an overseer, a col-
 
 Education of the WorJcing Classes. 71 
 
 lector, and a i-elieving officer, to a very curious fact ; I quote this 
 to shew the litter recklessness and intellectual apathy in which 
 these people live, caring little but for existence and the immediate 
 physical wants of the passing hour ; they state, " that there are as 
 many as 100 men in Darlaston who do not know their own 
 names, only their nicknames." But it is said, that in Bilston 
 things are much better. It is remarked that the " moral condition 
 of children and young persons on the whole was very superior to 
 that in Wolverhampton ;" he excepts, however, " the bank-girls, 
 and those who woi-k at the screw-manufactories." Among them, 
 " great numbers of bastards ;" the bank-girls di*ive coal-carts, ride 
 astride upon horses, drink, swear, fight, smoke, whistle, sing, and 
 care for nobody." Here I must obseiwe, if things are better in 
 Bilston, it is owing to the dawn of education, " to the great 
 exertions of the Rev. Mr. Fletcher, and the Rev. Mr. Owen, in the 
 church ; and Mr. Robert Bew (chemist), and Mr. Dimmock (iron 
 merchant), among the dissenters." Next, as to Sedgeley, " chil- 
 dren and young persons," says the rector, " grow up in irreligion, 
 immorality, and ignorance. The number of girls at nailing con- 
 siderably exceeds that of the boys ; it may be termed the district 
 of female blacksmiths ; constantly associating with depraved 
 adults, and young persons of the opposite sex, they naturally fall 
 into all their ways; and drink, smoke, swear, &c., &c., and become 
 as bad as men. The men and boys are usually naked, except a 
 pair of trowsers ; the women and girls have only a thin ragged 
 petticoat, and an open shirt without sleeves." — Look to War- 
 rington ; the Honourable and Reverend Horace Powys, the rector, 
 says, and there is no man more capable, from talent and character, 
 of gi™ig an opinion, — " My conviction is — and it is founded on 
 the observation of some years — that the general condition of the 
 children employed in labour in this town is alarmingly degraded, 
 both religiously, morally, and intellectually." And here, too, is 
 the evidence of the Rev. John Molyneux, a Roman Catholic 
 priest, who began by stating his peculiar qualifications to give 
 testimony, having a congregation of 3000 persons, and chiefly 
 among the poorer classes. " Children in pin-works," he said, 
 " are very immoral — they sit close together, and encourage each 
 other in cursing and swearing, and loose conversation, which I 
 grant you they do not understand," — a conclusion in which I 
 cannot agree : — " but it renders them," he adds, " prone to adopt 
 the acts of immorality on which they converse." — " Those girls 
 who from very early labour at pins go to the factories, do not 
 ever make good housekeepers : they have no idea of it ; neither of 
 economy, nor cooking, nor mending their clothes."
 
 72 House of Commons, 28</t February, 1843. 
 
 Next, Sir, I will examine the Potteries. Mr. Scriven, the sixb- 
 commissiouer, uses these expressions : — " I almost tremble, how- 
 ever, when I contemplate the fearful deficiency of knowledge ex- 
 isting throughout the district, and the consequences likely to result 
 to this increased and increasing population. ... It will ap- 
 pear," he adds, " by the evidence from Cobridge and Burslem, 
 that more than three-fourths of the persons therein named can 
 neither read nor wi-ite. ... It is not from my own know- 
 ledge," he continues, " that I proclaim their utter, their absolute 
 ignorance. I would respectfully refer you to the evidence of their 
 o-vvTi pastors and masters, and it will appear that, as one man, they 
 acknowledge and lament their low and degraded condition." Mr. 
 Lowndes, clerk to the board of guardians of the Burslem union, 
 says : " It is with pain that I have witnessed the demoralizing 
 eflfects of the system as it has hitherto existed. ... It ap- 
 pears to me fraught with incalculable evils, both physical and 
 moral." Mr. Grainger, a sub-commissioner, in his repoi-t respect- 
 ing Nottingham, writes : " All parties, clergy, police, manufac- 
 tiu'ers, workpeople, and parents, agree that the present system 
 is a most fertile source of immorality. . . . The natural re- 
 sults . . . have contributed in no slight degree to the im- 
 morality which, according to the opinion universally expressed, 
 prevails to a most awfvd extent in Nottingham. Much of the 
 existing evil is to be traced to the vicious habits of parents, many 
 of whom are utterly indifferent to the moral and physical welfare 
 of their offspring." " Education of the girls more neglected even 
 than that of boys. . . . Yast majority of females utterly 
 ignorant. . . . Impossible to overstate evils which result 
 from this deplorable ignorance." .... " The medical prac- 
 titioners of Birmingham forcibly point out the 'misery which 
 ensues; improvidence, absence of all comfort, neglect of children, 
 and alienation of all affection in families, and drunkenness on the 
 part of the husband.' " And here I have to call the attention of 
 the House to the testimony of a most respectable person, a simple 
 niechanic ; and I am very anxious to put forward the views of this 
 individual, because his statements are the result of long and per- 
 sonal experience. I refer to the evidence of Joseph Oorbett, a 
 mechanic of Birmingham. I confess that I should like to read 
 the whole of the report. I recommend it strongly to your at- 
 tention ; it will be found in the appendix to Mr. Grainger's report. 
 I cannot, however, refrain from quoting one or two passages of it. 
 " I have seen," he says, " the entire min of many families from 
 the waste of money and bad conduct of fathers and sons seeking 
 amusement and pastime in an alehouse. From no other single
 
 Education of the Working Classes. 73 
 
 cause alone does half so much demoralization and misery proceed." 
 He then adds, " from my own experience," and here he spoke with 
 feeling on the subject, for he referred to what he had seen in his 
 ovm home, and what he had witnessed with respect to his parents : 
 " My own experience tells me that the instruction of the females 
 in the work of a house, in teaching them to produce cheer- 
 fulness and comfort at the fireside, would prevent a great amount 
 of misery and ci-ime. There would be fewer drunken husbands 
 and disobedient children. . . . As a working man, wdthin 
 my observation, female education is disgracefully neglected. I 
 attach more importance to it than to anything else." I cannot 
 think that any one will be displeased to hear such sentiments 
 coming from a man in the situation of Joseph Corbett. Take 
 this as a proof of what the working people may be brought to, if 
 they cease to be so utterly neglected. This is an instance, among 
 many, to show what thousands of right-hearted Englishmen, if 
 you would but train them, you might raise up among the ranks of 
 the operative classes. 
 
 This, Sir, is pretty nearly the whole of the statements which I 
 have to make as to these districts ; but there are other opinions, 
 by persons of great authority on this subject, and which, with the 
 permission of the House, I will read, althoiigh I have not per- 
 mission to give the names of the writers. One gentleman, whose 
 opportunities of observation are unequalled, speaks of " the pre- 
 sent existence of a highly demoralized middle-aged and rising 
 generation, worse and more debased than, I believe, any previous 
 generation for the last 300 years." A clergyman, writing 
 from one of the disturbed districts, says : — " The moral con- 
 dition of the people is as bad as it is possible to be. Yice is 
 unrebuked, unabashed ; moral character of no avail. ... A 
 spirit of disaffection prevails almost universally — magistrates, 
 masters, pastors, and all superiors, are regarded as enemies and 
 oppressors." Another, in writing from the disturbed districts, 
 states : — " I took down myself the following words, as they fell 
 from the lips of a Chartist orator — ' The prevalence of intem- 
 perance and other vicious habits was the fault of the aristocracy 
 and the mill-owners, who had neglected to provide the people with 
 sufficient means of moral improvement, and would form an item 
 of that great account which they would one day be called upon to 
 render to a people indignant at the discovery of their own debase- 
 ment.' " Another remarked : — " A working man's hall is opened on 
 Sundays, and in this 300 poor children are initiated into infidel 
 and seditious principles." Another said : — " A wild and satanic 
 spirit is infused into the hearers." An officer of great experience
 
 74 Eouse of Commons, 28th February, 1843. 
 
 to whom I put tlie question — " What are tlie consequences to be 
 appreli ended if the present state of things be suffered to continue ?" 
 replies : " Unless' a speedy alteration be made in the manufac- 
 turing districts, a fresh and more extensive outbreak will again 
 occur, threatening loss to the whole nation." 
 
 I must now remark, that this condition of things prevails, 
 more or less, throughout the whole of England, but particularly 
 in the manufacturing and trading districts. The evil is not 
 partial, it is almost uni\ -^rsally diffused over the surface of the 
 country. The time I might be allowed to occupy would be insuf- 
 ficient for me to travel through the whole of the details ; but the 
 House win find, in the second report of the Children's Employ- 
 ment Commission, which is devoted to the statement of their 
 moral condition, the proof that it everywhere afflicts the country 
 — it is nearly universal throughout the whole of the coal and 
 iron-fields of Great Britain and Wales. Look to the east of 
 Scotland ; one clergyman says : — " The condition of the lower 
 classes is daily becoming worse in regard to education ; and it is 
 telling every day upon the moral and economic condition of the 
 adult population." Another clergyman remarks : — " The counti-y 
 win be inevitably ruined unless some steps are taken by the 
 Legislature to secure education to the children of the working- 
 classes." Of North Wales we see it stated : — " Not one collier- 
 boy in ten can read, so as to comprehend what he reads ;" while of 
 South Wales it is observed : — " Many are almost in a state of 
 barbarism. Religious and moral training is out of the question. 
 I should certainly be within bounds by saying that not one gi'own 
 male or female in fifty can read." In the West of Scotland I find 
 the same class of persons described as follows : — " A large portion 
 of the colliery and ironwork hands are living in an utterly depraved 
 state, a moral degradation, which is entailing misery and disease 
 on themselves, and disorder on the community." There is an 
 equally lamentable state of things existing in Yorkshire, Durham, 
 Lancashire, North Staffordshire, and Cumberland. The replies 
 of many of the children who were questioned by the commis- 
 sioners, show a state of things utterly disgraceful to the cha- 
 racter of a Christian counti-y. One of the children replied to a 
 question put to him : " I never heard of France; I never heard of 
 Scotland or Ireland ; I do not know what America is." James 
 Taylor, a boy II years old, said that he "has never heard of 
 Jesus Christ ; has never heard of God, but has heard the men in 
 the pit say ' God damn them ;' never heard of London." A girl 
 18 years old, said, " I never heard of Christ at aU." This, 
 indeed, the commissioner adds, is very common among children
 
 Education of the War Jang Classes. 75 
 
 and young persons. She proceeded to say, " I never go to church 
 or chapel;" again, "I don't know who God is." The sub-com- 
 missioner who visited Halifax has recorded this sentence: "You 
 have expressed surprise," says an employer, " at Thomas Mitchell 
 not having heard of God; I judge thei'e are very few colliers here 
 about that have." 
 
 Now can it be possible that such a state of things should exist 
 without being attended with the most pernicious consequences ? 
 But I will go further, and rejoice that it is not possible — an evil 
 unfelt is an evil unseen; nothing but an urgent and a biting 
 necessity will rouse us to action from our fancied security. 
 
 First, Sir, observe the effects that are j)roduced by the drunken 
 habits of the working-classes ; you cannot have a more unanswer- 
 able proof of the moral degradation of a people. I know it is 
 frequently asserted that inebriety has yielded, in many instances, 
 to gi'eater habits of temperance; but suppose it to be so, the 
 abatement is merely fractional ; and no guarantee is given, in an 
 improved morality, that those persons will not retiirn to their 
 former vicious courses — the abatement, however, has not taken 
 place, at least in those districts which were lately subjected to the 
 inquiries of the commissioners. Will the House now listen to 
 some statements on this subject, which, lamentable as is the con- 
 dition they disclose, descrilDe but a tenth part of the evils spring- 
 ing out of this sad propensity ? In the year 1834 a Committee 
 was appointed, on the motion of Mr. Buckingham, to investigate 
 the causes and effects of drunkenness. That Committee produced 
 a report, which, by-the-by, has never received a tithe of the 
 attention so valuable a document deserved — from that report we 
 learn that the sum annually expended by the working people in 
 the consumption of ardent sjiirits is estimated at twenty-five 
 millions ! and " I have no doubt," says a witness of great ex- 
 pei-ience, " that it is, in fact, to a much larger extent." I wrote 
 to the chaplain of a county jail, a gentleman of considerable 
 observation and judgment, and put to him the following question, 
 — " How much of the crime that brings prisoners to the jail can 
 you trace to habits of intoxication ?" Now mark his reply : " In 
 order to arrive at a just conclusion, I devoted several nights to a 
 careful examination of the entries in my journals for a series of 
 years, and although I had been impressed j)reviously with a very 
 strong conviction, derived from my own personal experience in 
 attendance on the sick poor, that the practice of drinking was the 
 great moral pestilence of the kingdom, I was certainly not i>re- 
 pared for the frightful extent to which I find it chargeable with 
 the production of crime: I am within the mark in saying that
 
 76 House of Commons, 28tli Fehriiary, 1843. 
 
 three-fourths of the crime committed is the result of intem- 
 perance." In corroboration of this, I will appeal to the very- 
 valuable evidence given by Mr. J. Smith, the governor of the 
 prison in Edinburgh. That witness states—" Having been for a 
 number of years a missionary among the poor in Edinburgh, and 
 having for two years had the charge of the house of refuge for 
 the destitute, I have had, perhaps, the best opportunities of ob- 
 serving how far drunkenness produced ignorance, destitution, and 
 crime ; and the result of jay experience is a f.rm conviction that 
 but for the effects of intemperance, directly and indirectly, instead 
 of having 500 prisoners in this prison at this time, there would 
 not have been 50." 
 
 The next document to which I shall refer I regard as of a most 
 important nature, and as one which deserves the most serious 
 attention of the House. It is a memorial drawn up by a body of 
 working men at Paisley, and addressed to their employers. It 
 bears assui-edly a remarkable testimony as to the moral effects of 
 intemperance. I entertain a strong opinion of the great value of 
 this paper, not only from the opinions which it expresses, biit 
 because it develops the sentiments of that class who are the 
 agents and victims of this disastrous habit, and who speak, there- 
 fore, from practical knowledge. It states that " drank enness is 
 most injurious to the interests of the weavers as a body : drunk- 
 ards are always on the brink of destitution. There can be no 
 doubt that whatever depresses the moral woi'th of any Ijody of 
 workmen, likewise depresses their wages ; and whatever elevates 
 that worth, enables them to obtain and prociTre higher wages." 
 This, Sir, in my opinion, is as sound political economy as ever 
 has been spoken, written, or published. Again, I find it stated 
 in the report of Mr. Buckingham's committee, that the estimated 
 value of the property lost or deteriorated by drunkenness, either 
 by shipwi-eck or mischiefs of a similar character, was not less 
 than 50,000,000?. a-year. These are the financial losses ; and it 
 may be easy to estimate, with sufficient accuracy, the pecuniary 
 damage that society undergoes by these pernicious practices ; but 
 it is not so easy to estimate the moral and social waste, the intel- 
 lectual suffering and degradation which follow in their train. To 
 that end I must here invite the attention of the House to evidence 
 of another description ; I will lay before them the testimony of 
 eminent medical men, who wiU show what ruin of the intellect 
 and the disposition attends the indulgence of these vicious enjoy- 
 ments—we shall see how large a proportion of the cases of lunacy 
 is ascribable to intoxication ; but we shall draw, moreover, this 
 startling conclusion, that, if thousands from this cause are de-
 
 Edticatwn of the WorJcing Classes. 77 
 
 prived of their reason and incarcei'ated in madhouses, there must 
 Ix- manifold more who, though they fall short of the point of 
 absolute insanity, are impaired in their understanding and moral 
 l^erceptions. The first medical aiithority to which I shall refer is 
 a very eminent physician, well known to many members of this 
 House, I mean Dr. Corsellis, of the Wakefield Lunatic Asylum : 
 " I am led," he says, " to believe that intemperance is the exciting 
 cause of insanity in about one-third of the cases of this insti- 
 tution ;" and he adds, " the proportion at Glasgow is about 26 per 
 cent., and at Aberdeen 18 per cent." Dr. Browne, of the Crichton 
 Asylum, Dumfries, says — " The applications for the introdiiction 
 of individuals who have lost reason from excessive drinking con- 
 tinue to be very numerous." At Northampton, the superinten- 
 dent of the asylum says — " Amongst the causes of insanity in- 
 temperance predominates." At Montrose, Dr. Poole, the head of 
 the asylum, says — " Twenty-four per cent, of insane cases from 
 intemperance." Dr. Prichard, who is well knoAvn, not only in the 
 medical, but also in the literary world, writes to me that — " The 
 medical writers of all countries reckon intemperance among the 
 most influential exciting causes of insanity." Esqu.irol, who has 
 been most celebrated on the Continent for his researches into the 
 statistics of madness, and who is well known to have extended his 
 inquiries into all countries, was of opinion that " this cause gives 
 rise to one-half of the cases of insanity that occur in Great 
 Britain." Dr. Prichard adds that "this fact, although startling, 
 is confirmed by many instances. It was found that, in an asylum 
 at Liverpool, to which 495 patients had been admitted, not less 
 than 257 had become insane from intemperance." It is confirmed 
 as a scientific fact by statements of American jDhysicians almost 
 without exception. Dr. Rensselaer, of the United States, says 
 that " in his opinion, one-half of the cases of insanity which came 
 under the care of medical men in that coimtry arose more or less 
 from the use of strong drink." These things, Sir, not only inflict 
 misery and suffering on a very large class of the present com- 
 munity, but they entail a heavy loss on the country at large. It 
 cannot be denied that the state has an interest in the health and 
 strength of her sons ; but the eff'ects of various diseases on one 
 generation are transmitted with intensity to another ! I may 
 also mention, to support these opinions, that the number of ad- 
 missions to the Somerset Hospital, Cape ToAvn, in the course of a 
 year and nine months, was 1050, and of these not less than 763 
 were the result of intemperance. It was also found, by post- 
 mortem examinations, that in the same period the number of 
 deaths in that hospital, which was caused by intemperance, was
 
 78 Huuse of Commons, 28th February, 1843. 
 
 not less tlian eiglit out of ten. Now look to the pauperism it 
 produces ; one instance sliall suffice : Mr. Cbadwick gave in evi- 
 dence before the Committee on Drunkenness, in 1834,— "The 
 contractor for the management of the poor in Lambeth, and 
 other parishes, stated to me that he once investigated the cause 
 of pauperism in the cases of paupers then under his charge. The 
 inquiry," he says, " was conducted for some months, as I investi- 
 gated every new case, and I found in nine cases out of ten the 
 main cause was the ui^governable inclination for fermented 
 liquors." 
 
 Next, Sir, vice is expensive to the public : Mr. Collins, in his 
 valuable statistics of Glasgow, observes, — " The people will cost 
 us much, whether we ^vill or not ; if we wiU not suffer ourselves to 
 be taxed for their religious instruction, we must svifFer to be taxed 
 for the punishment and repression of crime." I will now just 
 give a shoi-t estimate of the amount of the expense to which the 
 countiy is subjected directly for the suppression of crime. I find 
 that the expense of jails in 1841 was 137,449L ; during the same 
 period the expense of houses of coiTection was 129,163Z. ; making 
 together a total of 256,612L The expenseof criminal prosecutions in 
 1841 was 1 70,521 Z. ; the charge for the conveyance of prisoners was 
 23,242Z. ; the charge for the conveyance of transports to the hulks, 
 &c., 8,195Z. ; and the expense for vagrants, 7,167Z. These items 
 make together the sum of 209,125?. The expense of the rural 
 police, and it should be remembered that this is only for a few 
 counties, is 139,228L Thus the charges under the three heads 
 which I have mentioned, amount, in a single year, to 604,965t. 
 But here. Sir, is a document well deserving, I think, of the atten- 
 tion of the House, — a curious illustration of the facts we are 
 asserting ; I have not been able to verify it myself, but I will take 
 it as stated. In the county of Lancaster, in 1832, the number 
 of criminal cases tried at the assizes was 126, and the average 
 charge for each of them 40Z. The number of cases tried at the 
 sessions was 2,587, and the average charge for each of these was 
 71. 19s. The aggregate amount of charge was 25,656?. Now in 
 addition to this average charge, let us take the estimate cost for 
 the transportation across the seas of each person convicted at 
 2ol. This would be a gi-oss sum for the cost of each prosecu- 
 tion of 65? ; — if the calculation, then, of Mr. Burgess be correct, 
 that lis. in the year will supply the education of one child for 
 that term, we must confess that for the expense of a single 
 convict, we might, during the space of twelve months, give 
 moral and religious education to 117 children. Nevertheless, 
 Sir, it is a melancholy fact, that while the coimtry disburses
 
 Education of the Working Classes. 79 
 
 the Slims I have mentioned, and more too, for the punish- 
 ment of crime, the State devotes but 30,000Z. a year to the 
 infusion of virtue ; and yet, I ask you, could you institute a 
 happier and healthier economy in your finances, than to reduce 
 your criminal, so to speak, and increase your moral expenditure ? 
 Difficulties may lie in your way ; mortifications may follow your 
 attempts, but you cannot fail of raising some to the dignity of 
 virtuous men, and many to the rank of tranquil and governable 
 citizens. 
 
 I have not here included an estimate of the loss inflicted on 
 society by plunder, violence, and neglect ; nor can I arrive at it ; 
 it must, however, be necessarily very large. Let us use, as an 
 approximation, a statement made by a late member of this House 
 (Mr. Slaney) tliat, in one year, in the town of Liverpool alone, 
 the loss by plunder was calculated at the enormous sum of 
 700,000L 
 
 Thus far, Sir, I have endeavoured to lay before you an outline 
 of our present condition, and to collect into one point of view a 
 few of the more prominent mischiefs. A partial remedy for these 
 evils will be found in the moral and religious culture of the infant 
 mind ; but this is not all : we must look further, and do more, if 
 we desire to place the working-classes in such a condition that 
 the lessons they have learned as children they may have freedom 
 to practise as adults. 
 
 : Now, if it be true, as most undoubtedly it is, that the State has 
 a deep interest in the moral and physical prosperity of iill her 
 children, she must not terminate her care with the years of in- 
 fancy, but extend her control and providence over many other 
 circumstances that affect tlie working man's life. Without enter- 
 ing here into the nature and variety of those practical details, 
 which might be advantageously taught in addition to the first and 
 indispensable elements, we shall readily perceive that many things 
 are requisite, even to the adult, to secure to him, so far as is pos- 
 sible, the well-being of his moral and physical condition. I speak 
 not now of laws and regulations to abridge, but to enlarge his 
 freedom ; not to limit his rights, but to multiply his o^ipoi'tunities 
 of enjoying them ; laws and regulations which shall give him 
 what all confess to be his due ; which shall relieve him from the 
 danger of temptations he would willingly avoid, and under which 
 he cannot but f aU ; and which shall place him, in many aspects 
 of health, happiness, and possibilities of virtue, in tliat j)Osition of 
 independence and security from which, under the present state of 
 things, he is too often excluded. 
 
 Sir, there are many evils of this description which might be
 
 80 JSouse of Commons, 28th February, 1843. 
 
 urged ; but I shall name three only, as indications of what I mean, 
 and as having a most injurious and most lasting effect on the 
 moral and physical condition of an immense portion of our people. 
 I will briefly state them ; and there will be then no difficulty in 
 shewing their connection with the present motion ; and how deep 
 and how immediate is their influence on the morals of infants and 
 adults, of children and parents ; and how utterly hopeless are all 
 systems of education, so long as you suff"er them extensively to 
 prevail. 
 
 The first I shall take is the truck system. Now hear what Mr. 
 Home, the sub-commissioner, says on this subject : — " The truck 
 system encourages improvidence, by preventing the chance of a 
 habit of saving, for nobody can save food. It prevents a family 
 from obtaining a sufficient supply of clothes, and more comfort- 
 able furniture, in proportion to the possession of which it is 
 always found that the working man becomes more steady, indus- 
 trious, and careful. It therefore amounts to a prevention of 
 good conduct." In another place, he says : " The poor working 
 man never sees the colour of a coin, all his wages are consumed 
 in food, and of the very worst qiiality ; and to prevent the chance 
 of his having a single penny in his possession, the reckonings were 
 postponed from week to week, until sometimes two or three 
 months had elapsed." Now, as to the corrupting eff"ects of this 
 system, Mr. Home, in his report, emphatically says : — " One final 
 remark should, however, be made on the particular evil of the 
 system, which principally relates to the moral condition of the 
 children aud yoimg persons, nothing can be worse than the 
 example set by the truck system — an example which is constantly 
 before the eyes of the children, and in which they grow up, 
 familiarised with the grossest frauds, the subtlest tricks, and the 
 most dishonest evasions, halntually practised by their masters, 
 parents, and other adults, in the very face of law and justice, and 
 with perfect impunity." Such is the result of this part of the 
 inquiry made by Mr. Home. That gentleman uses the emphatic 
 language that the truck system not only familiarises the mind, 
 and the mind too of the child, with the grossest frauds, but that 
 it tends to prevent the practice of any of the moral virtues. See, 
 too, the eff'ect as stated in the evidence produced before Parliament. 
 It is notorious that the system has led to the most serious eff"ects 
 in several parts of the country. The whole man suffers ; his ex- 
 perience ; his thrifty habits ; his resolutions of forethought ; he 
 is widely and justly discontented, becomes a bad subject, and ripe 
 for mischief. In 1834 the existence of the truck system drove the 
 mining districts of South Wales into open rebellion; it produced
 
 Education of the Working Classes. 81 
 
 the disturbances that took place in Staffordshire in 1842 ; and no 
 one can calculate the flood of the moral and physical mischiefs 
 that devastated those counties as the result of their outbreak. 
 
 I will take, in the second place, the payment of wages in public- 
 houses, beer-shops, and localities of that description. Tou have 
 recognised the principle of interdicting such a practice in the 
 Colliery Bill of last year ; let me shew how necessary it is that a 
 law of that kind should become universal : — " Payment of wages 
 in cash," says Mr. Home, " are made in a public-house (for the 
 convenience, they pretend, of change), where it is required that 
 every man shall spend a shilling as a rule, which is to be spent in 
 drink. Boys have also to spend proportionately to their wages 
 (generally sixpence), and either they thus learn to drink by taking 
 their share, or, if they cannot, some adult drinks it for them till 
 they can. The keeper of this house generally delays the settling 
 of accounts, so as to give more time for drinking previously." 
 Now, Sir, I have frequently heard discredit thrown on the exer- 
 tions that have been made to promote the improvement in the 
 moral condition of the working classes, in consequence of the 
 criminal conduct of some who had received a moral and religious 
 education. No doubt it is true that persons may be found in jails 
 who have received their education in Sunday and other schools ; 
 but there is many a man who will trace his ruin to the practice I 
 mention ; whole families have been pauperized ; and, by a per- 
 verted logic, moral teaching itself is declared to be useless, because 
 the system we allow has made moral practice next to impossible. 
 
 The third, is the state of the dwellings of the poor — I will at 
 once put before the House a picture drawn by an able hand ; — 
 Captain Miller, the valuable superintendent of the jDolice at Glas- 
 gow, wi-ites thus : " In the veiy centre of the city there is an 
 accumulated mass of squalid wretchedness, which is probably 
 unequalled in any other to\vn in the British dominions. There is 
 concentrated every thing that is wretched, dissolute, loathsome, 
 and pestilential. These places are filled by a population of many 
 thousands of miserable creature.:. The houses in which they live 
 are unfit even for sties ; and every apartment is filled with a pro- 
 miscuous crowd of men, women, and children : all in the most 
 revolting state of filth and squalor. In many of the houses there 
 is scarcely any ventilation ; dunghills lie in the vicinity of the 
 dwellings ; and from the extremely defective sewerages, filth of 
 every kind constantly accumulates. In these horrid dens the 
 most abandoned characters of the city are collected; from whence 
 they nightly issue to disseminate diseases, and to pour upon the 
 town evei'y species of crime and abomination." Will any man 
 
 G
 
 82 House of Commons, 28th Fehruarij, 1843. 
 
 after this tell me that it is to any purpose to take etildren for 
 the purposes of education during 2 hours a day, and then 
 turn them back for 22 to such scenes of vice, and filth, and 
 misery ? I am quite certain this statement is not exaggerated, I 
 have been on the spot and seen it myself ; and not only there, but 
 I have found a similar state of things existing at Leeds, at Man- 
 chester, and in London. It is impossible for language to describe 
 the hoiTid and disgraceful scenes that are exposed to the sight in 
 these places, and I am sure no one can recollect, without the most 
 painful feelings, the thousands and hundreds of thousands, who 
 ought to be the subjects of any system of education, that are 
 hopelessly congregated in these dens of filth, of suflferiug, and 
 infamy. 
 
 Turn, then, to the invaluable report of Mr. Chadwick on the 
 sanitary state of the population, which has just been presented to 
 the House. He shews clearly how indispensable it is to establish 
 some better regulations with regard to the residences of the 
 people, if you wish to make them a moral and religious race, and 
 that all your attempts at their reformation will be useless, if steps 
 are not taken to promote their decency and comfort. He says, 
 amongst the conclusions at which he arrives towards the end of 
 his report : — " That the formation of all habits of cleanliness is 
 obstructed by defective supplies of water ; that the annual loss of 
 life from filth and bad ventilation is greater than the loss from 
 death or wounds in any wars in which the country has been en- 
 gaged in modem times ; that of the 43,000 cases of widowhood, 
 and 112,000 cases of destitute orphanage, relieved from the poor's- 
 rate in England alone, it appears that the greatest proportion of 
 deaths of the heads of families occurred from the above speci- 
 fied and other removable causes ; that their ages were under 45 
 years — that is to say, 13 years below the natural probabilities 
 of life, as shewn by the experience of the whole population of 
 Sweden ; that the younger population, bred up under noxious 
 physical agencies, is inferior in physical organization and general 
 health to a population preserved from the presence of such 
 agencies ; that the population, so exposed, is less susceptible of 
 moral influences, and the effects of education are more transient, 
 than with a healthy population ; that these adverse circumstances 
 tend to produce an adult population short-lived, improvident, 
 reckless, and intemperate, and with habitual avidity for sensual 
 gi-atifieation ; that these habits lead to the abandonment of all the 
 conveniences and the decencies of life, and especially lead to the 
 over-crowding of their homes, which is destructive to the morality 
 as well as to the health of large classes of both sexes ; that defec-
 
 Education of the Working Classes. 83 
 
 tive towB-cleansing fosters habits of the most abject degradation, 
 tending to the demoralization of hirgc nnmbors of human l)eings, 
 who subsist by means of what they find amid the various filth ac- 
 cumulated in neglected streets and by-j)laces." Now, Sir, can any 
 one gainsay the assertion that this state of things is criiel, dis- 
 gusting, perilous ? — indifference, despair, neglect of every kind — 
 of the household, the children, the moral and the physical i^art — 
 must follow in the train of such evils ; the contemplation of them 
 distresses the standers-by, it exasj)erates the sufferer and his whole 
 class, it breeds discontent and every bad passion ; and then, when 
 disaffection stalks abroad, we are alarmed, and cry out that we are 
 fallen upon e^al timeSj and so we are ; but it is not because poverty 
 is always seditious, but because wealth is too freqiiently oppressive- 
 This, Sir, completes the picture I desired to lay before the House : 
 it has been imperfectly, and I fear tediously drawn. There is, 
 however, less risk in taxing the patience than in taxing the faith 
 of indulgent hearers. I have not presumed to propose a scheme, 
 because T have ever thought that such a mighty undertaking de- 
 mands the collective deliberation and wisdom of the executive, 
 backed by the authority and influence of the Crown. But what 
 does this picture exhibit. Mark, Sir, first, the utter inefficiency 
 of our penal code — of our capital and secondai'y punishments. The 
 country is weaned with pamphlets and speeches on jail-discipline, 
 model-i^risons, and corrective processes ; meanwhile crime advances 
 at a rapid pace ; many are discharged because they cannot be 
 punished, and many become worse by the very punishment they 
 undergo — punishment is disarmed of a large part of its terrors, 
 because it no longer can appeal to any sense of shame ; — and all 
 this, because we will obstinately persist in setting our own wilful- 
 ness against the experience of mankind and the wisdom of Revela- 
 tion, and believe that we can regenerate the hardened man while 
 we utterly neglect his pliant childhood. You are right to punish 
 those awful miscreants who make a trade of blasphemy, and pol- 
 lute the very atmosphere by their foul exhibitions ; but you will 
 never subdue their disciples and admirers, except by the imple- 
 ments of another armoury. You must draw from the great depo- 
 toiy of truth all that can create and refine a sound public oj^inion 
 — all that can institute and dift'use among the people the feelings 
 and practices of morality. I hope I am not dictatorial in repeat- 
 ing here, that criminal tables and criminal statistics furnish no 
 estimate of a nation's disorder. Culprits, such as they exhibit, 
 are but the representatives of the mischief, spawned by the filth 
 and corruption of the times. Were the crimes of these offenders 
 the sum total of the crimes of England, although we should lament
 
 84 House of Commons, 28th February, 1843. 
 
 for the individuals, we might disregard the consequences ; but the 
 danger is wider, deeper, fiercer; and no one who has heard these 
 statements and believes them, can hope that 20 years more will 
 pass without some mighty convulsion, and displacement of the 
 whole system of society. 
 
 Next, Sir, observe that our very multitude oppresses us ; and 
 oppresses us, too, with all the fearful weight of a blessing con- 
 verted into a curse. The King's strength ought to be in the mul- 
 titude of his people ; and sc it is ; not, however, such a people as 
 we must shortly have ; but in a people happy, healthy, and vir- 
 tuous : " Sacra Deum, sanctiqvie patres." Is that our condition of 
 present comfoi't or prospective safety ? You have seen in how 
 many instances the intellect is impaired, and even destroyed, by 
 the opinions and practices of our moral world ; honest industry 
 wiU decline, energy will be blunted, and whatever shall remain 
 of zeal be perverted to the worst and most perilous uses. An evil 
 state of morals engenders and diffuses a ferocious spirit ; the 
 mind of man is as much affected by moral epidemics as his body 
 by disorders ; thence arise murders, blasphemies, seditions, every- 
 thing that can tear prosperity from nations, and peace from indi- 
 viduals. See, Sir, the ferocity of disposition that your records 
 disclose: look at the savage treatment of children and appi'en- 
 tices ; and imagine the awful results, if such a spirit were let loose 
 upon society. Is the character of your females nothing ? — and 
 yet hear the language of an eye-witness, and one long and deeply 
 conversant with their character : " They are becoming similar to 
 the female followers of an army, wearing the garb of women, but 
 actuated Ijy the worst passions of men ; in every riot or outbreak 
 in the manufacturing districts the women are the leaders and ex- 
 citers of the young men to violence. The language they indulge 
 in is of the most hoiTid description — in short, while they are demo- 
 ralised themselves, they demoralise all that come within their 
 reach." People, Mr. Speaker, wiU oftentimes administer consola- 
 tion by urging that a mob of Englishmen will never be disgraced 
 by the atrocities of the Continent. Now, Sir, apart from the fact 
 that one hundredth part of " the reign of terror " is sufficient to 
 annihilate all virtue and all peace in society, we have never, except 
 in 1780, and a few years ago at Bristol and Nottingham, seen a 
 mob of our countrymen in triumphant possession. Conflagration 
 then and plunder devastated the scene ; nor were they forgotten 
 in the riots of last year, when, during the short-lived anarchy of 
 an hour, tliey fired I know not how many houses within the district 
 of the Potteries. 
 
 Consider, too, the rapid progress of time. In 10 years from
 
 Education of the WorMng Classes. 85 
 
 this lioiir — no long period in the history of a nation — all who 
 are 9 years of age will have reached the age of 19 years ; a 
 period in which, with the few years that foUow, thei'e is the least 
 sense of responsibility, the power of the liveliest action, and the 
 greatest disregard of human suffering and human life. The 
 early ages are of incalculable value ; an idle reprobate of 14 is 
 almost irreclaimable ; every year of delay abstracts from us 
 thousands of useful fellow-citizens ; nay, rather, it adds them to 
 the ranks of viciousness, of misery, and of disorder. So long 
 as this plague-spot is festering among our people, all our laboiu-s 
 will be in vain ; our recent triumphs wiU avail us nothing — to no 
 pui'pose, while we are rotten at heart, shall we toil to improve our 
 finances, to expand our commerce, and explore the hidden sources 
 of our difficulty and alarm. "We feel that all is wi-ong, we grope at 
 noonday as though it were night; disregarding the lessons of 
 history and the "Word of God, that there is neither hope nor 
 strength, nor comfort, nor peace, but in a virtuou.s, a " wise and an 
 understanding people." 
 
 But if we will retrace our steps, and do the first works — if we 
 will apply ourselves earnestly, in faith and fear, to this necessary 
 ser\dce, there lie before us many paths of peace, many prospects of 
 encouragement. Turn where you will ; examine the agents of 
 every honest calling, and you will find that the educated man 
 is the safest and the best in every profession. I might quote the 
 testimony of distinguished officers, both military and naval, and 
 they will tell you that no discipline is so vigorous as morality. I 
 have here the earnest declaration of various manufacturers, that 
 tnistworthiness and skill will ever follow on religious training. 
 You have heard the opinions of the judges at the late special 
 assizes, more particularly the charge of that eminent lawyer and 
 good man. Chief Justice Tindal. I have read correspondence of 
 the clergy in the disturbed districts, and they boldly assert, that 
 very few belonging to their congregations, and none belonging to 
 their schools, were found among the insurgents against the public 
 peace; because such persons well know that, however grievous 
 their wrongs, they owe obedience to the laws, not on a calculation 
 of forces, but for conscience' sake. 
 
 Nor let tis put out of mind this great and stin-ing consi- 
 deration, that the moral condition of England seems destined by 
 Pro-vddence to lead the moral condition of the world. Year after 
 year we are sending forth thousands and hundreds of thousands of 
 our citizens to jieoiile the vast solitvides and islands of anotlier 
 hemisphere ; the Anglo-Saxon race will shortly overspread half 
 the habitable globe. "What a mighty and what a rapid addition to
 
 86 House of Commons, 2Sth February, 1843. 
 
 the happiness of mankind, if these thousands should cany with 
 thorn, and phmt in those distant regions, our freedom, our laws, 
 our morality, and our religion ! 
 
 This, Sir, is the ground of my appeal to this House ; the plan 
 that I venture to propose, and the argument by which I sustain 
 it. It is, I know, but a portion of what the country requires ; 
 and even here we shall have, no doubt, disappointments to undergo, 
 and failures to deplore ; it will, nevertheless, bear for us abundant 
 fiiiit. We owe to the poor of our land a weighty debt. "We call 
 them improvident and immoral, and many of them are so : but that 
 improvidence and that immorality are the results, in a great mea- 
 sure, of our neglect, and, in not a little, of our example. We owe 
 them, too, the debt of kinder language, and more frequent inter- 
 course. — This is no fanciful olsligation ; our people are more alive 
 than any other to honest zeal for theii* cause, and sympathy with 
 their necessities, which, fall though it often-times may on unim- 
 pressible heai-ts, never fails to find some that it comforts, and many 
 that it softens. Only let us declare, this night, that we will enter 
 on a novel and a better coiirse — that we will seek their temporal, 
 through their eternal welfare — and the half of our work will then 
 have been achieved. There are many hearts to be won, many 
 minds to be instructed, and many souls to be saved : " Oh Patria 1 
 oh Divuvi donius /" — the blessing of God wiU rest upon our endea- 
 vours ; and the oldest among us may perhaps live to enjoy, for 
 himself and for his children, the opening day of the immortal, be- 
 cause the moral, glories of the British empire. 
 
 The following Table, showing the state of parts of London, which it was intended 
 to quote, was accidentally omitted. 
 
 The London C'iti/ Mission Report of two districts just examined, 1842. 
 In a small district immediately contiguous to Holborn Hill, found, 
 
 families ......... 103 
 
 Consisting of, persons . . . , . 
 
 From 6 years and upwards, could not read . 
 Of these, above 20 years of age 
 In five courts and alleys in the Cow-cross district : — 
 Heads of families ...... 
 
 Cannot read. . . . . . . 
 
 Young persons, between 7 and 22 . 
 Cannot read ..... 
 
 391 
 280 
 119 
 
 158 
 102 
 
 106 
 
 77 
 
 "Can we be surprised," says the Report, "at the number of public criminals? 
 Neighbourhoods su(;h as these chiefly supply our jails with inmates. So late as 
 October last there were in the House of Correction alone 973 prisoners, exclusive of 
 children, and out of these 717 had no education at all."
 
 ( 87 ) 
 Condition of the Labouring Population. 
 
 Sturminster, November, 1843. 
 
 At tlie anuixal dinner of tlie Sturminster Agricultural Society. 
 in Dorsetshire, Lord Asliley occupied the chair, and replied to the 
 toast of his health proposed by Lord Grosvenor, now Marquis of 
 Westminster. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 The language of my noble friend in proposing my health, 
 and the manner in which you received his proposition, so far ex- 
 ceed anything that I could have expected, that I am at a loss to 
 conceive what I can have done to obtain such high and undeserved 
 approbation — but such as you award me I accept, assuring you 
 that while it urges me to continued and still greater exertions, I 
 shall desire no larger recompense on earth than the esteem and 
 co-operation of my fellow-citizens. 
 
 It is customary on these occasions to make a few observations 
 from the Chair, relative to the business of the evening, and I am 
 desirous of conforming to the custom, not only because it is the 
 custom, but because there seems to be, and is, at the present time, 
 a more serious demand for oui* single and combined efforts, a more 
 pinching necessity to mitigate, nay, by God's blessing, altogether 
 to remove, many sad and perilous evils that threaten to impoverish 
 and degrade the labouring population. On these topics, gentle- 
 men, I can speak to you with great freedom, because I feel assured 
 that no one here present is chargeable with any share in the mis- 
 chiefs we so much deplore ; nay, more than this, that every one 
 of you will cheerfully lend his aid to remove every source of com- 
 plaint, whensoever it shall be proved. The first step towards a 
 remedy is in a knowledge and an abhon-ence of the existing 
 wi'ong ; the second, in that sense of duty which commands iis, 
 both great and small, rich and poor, with hearty faith and Chris- 
 tian diligence, amidst all the alternations of failure and success, 
 of disappointment and hope, to use all appropriate means, to 
 exhaust every legitimate power, and never to desist until we shall 
 have either accomplished our end, or ascertained it to be impossible. 
 
 Gentlemen, I shall not be considered as departing from the 
 business of the day, or as thrusting in irrelevant matter, if I 
 dwell more on the condition of the workman than on the pro- 
 gress and prospects of live and dead stock. The paper I hold
 
 88 Sturminsier, November, 1843. 
 
 iu my liand sets forth, no doubt, many subjects of agi-icultural 
 importance; but we are not, and ought not to be, excluded from 
 discussing others of pi-imary vahie — for our first duty and our 
 dearest interests lie in the physical and moral welfare of our 
 people. To begin elsewhere is to begin at the wrong end, and to 
 postpone to mere display or personal advantage the fulfilment 
 of those obligations which alone can sanctify the possession of 
 property, and render its tenure a joy to all classes, alike honour- 
 able, beneficial, and secure. Gentlemen, if we be agreed in this, 
 as I am sure we are, I shall have no difiiculty in obtaining your 
 apjjroval of an abstinence from all controverted topics while at 
 this table — eveiy topic has its time and place ; let those which the 
 Parliament has undertaken be reseiwed for Parliament, for the 
 hustings, or places specially appointed — our business is of a higher 
 cast, local, it is ti-ue, but, because local, within our reach, if we will 
 but go to our work with the smallest amount of zeal and self-denial. 
 Now the county of Dorset is in every man's mouth — every 
 paper, metropolitan and provincial, teems with charges against 
 us ; we are within an ace of becoming a byword for poverty and 
 oppression. As Englishmen, as human beings, and as Chrivstians, 
 we ought to examine these acctisations, refute whatever is un- 
 tnie, and remedy what cannot be denied. I do not think that 
 your task will be veiy difficult ; for these charges, thoiigh some- 
 what founded in tnith, have been pushed, by other parties than 
 those who first made them, with woful exaggeration ; that which 
 is only partial, is assumed to be universal; all that is good is 
 suppressed, all that is bad most zealously produced; and the 
 owners and occupiers of land in this coimty are represented as 
 guilty of much that they have never done, and of much that they 
 cannot control. Nevertheless, the statements are weighty, and 
 the period important ; they are made by no nameless or spiteful 
 reporter, but by an officer of the Government, and by a landed 
 proprietor of your own county. The language of Mr. Austin and 
 Mr. Sheridan must not be overlooked ; it is not necessary here to 
 repeat theii- statements ; many of you must have heard, and all 
 of you must have read them ; I wish, too, to avoid touching on 
 any points which may excite individual feeling ; but I must con- 
 fess that, as your compatriot and representative, I had rather 
 incur your utmost displeasure, and even the hazard of forfeiting 
 your friendship, than refrain from declaring fuUy, freely, and 
 immediately, that these things ought not to be. In so doing I 
 cannot Ije charged with any unworthy motive ; and I regret that 
 such imputations have been thrown upon Mr. Sheridan, who, I 
 am convinced, by all that I have seen of him, acts by a higher 
 iind nobler impulse. Gentlemen, are we prepared to look these 
 
 1
 
 Condition of the Lahouring Population. 89 
 
 chai'ges in the face, discuss their justice, repel what is false, but 
 iMvrect what cannot be gaiusajed? Do we admit the assertion 
 that the wages of labour in these parts are scandalously low, 
 painfully inadequate to the maintenance of the husbandman and 
 his famil}-, and in no proportion to the profits of the soil ? If we 
 are able to deny this statement, we shall also be able to disprove 
 it — let us do so without delay ; but if the reverse, not an hoiir is 
 to be lost in rolling away the reproach. I do not pi-etend to give .,. 
 advice as to the precise mode of doing these things, I am not 
 sufficiently practical, or conversant with the hiring and payment 
 of labour ; but this I know, that if a larger self-denial, an abate- - 
 ment of luxuries, a ciirtailing even of what are called comforts, be 
 necessary to this end, let us begin at once with the higher and 
 wealthier classes — it must be done ; there is neither honour, nor 
 safety, nor joy (setting aside all higher considerations) to dwell in 
 a house, however fair the outside, which rests on such rotten and 
 cnimbling foundations. Do we deny that the dwellings of the 
 poor are oftentimes ruinous, filthy, contracted, iU drained, ill ven- " 
 tilated, and so situated as to be productive of many forms of 
 disease and immorality ? If we do, let iis take the same course, 
 and refute our accusers ; but if not, let us hasten to wipe out the 
 stain ; tlie remedy is within our reach ; it needs no deliberation ; 
 and, I must say, allows of no delay — shall we suffer these hot-beds 
 of misery and sin to afflict and devour their victims ? for even where 
 the life of the labourer is spared, his health is broken down, and 
 he becomes incapable of toil to support either himself or his 
 family. Thei'e is a mighty stir now made in behalf of education, 
 and I heartily thank God for it ; but let me ask you to what pi^r- 
 pose it is to take a little child, a young female for instance, and 
 teach her for six hours a day the rules of decency and every 
 virtue, and then send her back to such abodes of filth and pro- 
 fligacy, as to make her unlearn by the i^ractice of an hour the les- 
 sons of a year, to witness and oftentimes to share, though at first 
 against her will, the abominations that have been recorded. Gentle- 
 men, if you desire to have a moral and well-conducted people, you 
 must do your best to place, and to keep, them under such circum- 
 stances that they may have the mea,ns and opportunity to biing 
 into action the lessons they have been taught, the principles they 
 have acquired. People go to their boards of guardians, and hear> 
 the long catalogue of bastardy cases, they cry out " sluts and pro- , 
 fligates," assuming that, when in early life these persons have l^een 
 treated as swine they are afterwards to walk with the dignity of 
 Christians. 
 
 And now, gentlemen, notwithstanding the oiienness with which 
 I have spoken to you I hope, nay, I believe, I shidl obtain your
 
 90 Stur minster, November. 1843. 
 
 forgiveness — it would have been easy^to take a safer course, hold 
 a more flattering language, and, by suppressing the reality, in- 
 dulge the imagination; but I should not then have done either 
 my duty to you, or had respect to the consistency of my own 
 principles. You ought to know and reflect on these things ; and 
 I ouglit not to be lynx-eyed to the misconduct of manufac- 
 turers, and blind to the faults of landowners. We have the means 
 of a vast superiority in virtue and comfort over the thickly- 
 crowded districts ; let us do our best to profit by the advantage, 
 and attain the desirable issue that our great and only rivaliy 
 should lie in a competition of moral and physical benefits to all 
 our people. Set yourselves to mitigate the severity of the poor- 
 law ; its greatest suj^porters admit that it is severe ; but that 
 severity may be mitigated or increased by the mode of its admi- 
 nistration ; begin a more frequent and friendly intercourse with 
 the labouring man — we have lost much in departing from the 
 primitive simplicity of our forefathers ; respect his feelings ; re- 
 spect his rights ; pay him in solid money ; I say it again emphati- 
 ^ ~ cally, pay him in solid money ; pay him in due time ; and, above 
 all, avoid that monstrous abomination which disgraces some other 
 counties, but from which, I believe, we are altogether free, of 
 closing your fields in the time of harvest ; give to the gleaner his 
 ancient, his Scriptural right ; throw open your gates, throw them 
 wide open, to the poor, the fatherless, and the widow. Gentle- 
 men, these men appeal to you with every claim of justice, service, 
 and affection — they and their fathers have tilled your fields ; they 
 have replenished, and still replenish your armies in order to ex- 
 tend your dominion, and defend your shores — often have I heard 
 the great Duke of Wellington declare that all his ability and 
 courage would have effected nothing, had he not been called to 
 command so noble a material as the British labourer. Such 
 service they have rendered once ; they may be summoned to do 
 so again ; and surely then we shall find oiir accotmt in a vigorous 
 and loyal peasantry. But let us draw ovir resolutions from a higher 
 source, recollecting that all wealth, talent, rank, and power, are 
 given by God for his own service, not for our luxury ; for the 
 benefit of others, not for the pride of ourselves; and that we must 
 render an account of privileges misused, of means pei*verted, of 
 opportunities thrown away. Employ them aright, and they sanc- 
 tify the possession of property, bless its use, and grace its enjoyment 
 — accomplishing still higher and better ends by leading the poor, 
 who experience their value, to thoughts of piety and peace ; and, 
 in their heart and prayer, to bless Almighty God that such men 
 (and such we all must strive to become), are invested with statioi 
 and leisure, and property and power. 
 
 >a^
 
 ( ^Ji ; 
 
 Ten Hours Factory Bill, 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 Fkiday, March 15, 1844. 
 
 Speech in moving that the word ' Night,' in the second chiuse of the Ten Hours 
 Factory Bill, shall be taken to mean from six o'clock in the evening to sis 
 o'clock on the following morning. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, 
 
 Nearly eleven years have now elapsed since I first made 
 the proposition to the House which I shall renew this night. 
 Never, at any time, have I felt greater apprehension or even 
 anxiety ; not through any fear of personal defeat, for disapiDoint- 
 ment is " the badge of all our tribe ;" but because I know well the ^ ih*'' 
 hostility that I have aroused, and the certain issues of indiscre- \ K 
 tion on my part affecting the welfare of those who have so long ,' 
 confided their hopes and interests to my charge. 
 
 And here let me anticipate the constant, but unjust accusation 
 that I am animated by a peculiar hostility against factory-masters, 
 and have always selected them as exclusive objects of attack. I 
 must assert that the charge, though specious, is altogether untnie. 
 I began, 1 admit, this public movement by an effort to improve 
 the condition of the factories ; but this I did, not because I ascribed 
 to that department of industry a monopoly of all that was perni- 
 cious and cruel, but because it was then before the piiblic eye, 
 compi'ised the wealthiest and most responsible proi^rietors, and 
 presented the greatest facilities for legislation. As soon as I had 
 the power, 1 showed my impartiality by moving the House for the 
 ' Children's Employment Commission, for an inquiry into the moral 
 and physical condition of children engaged in the various depart- 
 ments of industry. The ciirious in human suflfering may decide 
 on the respective merits of the several reports ; but factory-labour 
 has no longer an unquestionable pre-eminence of ill-fame, and we 
 are called upon to give relief, not because it is the worst system, 
 but because it is oppressive, and yet capable of alleviation. 
 
 Sir, I confess that ten years of experience have tau.ght me that
 
 92 House of Commons, 15th March, 1844. 
 
 avarice and cruelty are not the peculiar and inherent qualities of 
 any one class or occupation ; — they will ever be found where the 
 means of profit are combined with great and virtually irrespon- 
 sible power — they wiU be found wherever interest and selfishness 
 have a purpose to serve, and a favourable opportunity. We are 
 all alike, I fully believe, in the town and in the country — in 
 manufactures and in agriculture — though we have not, all of us, 
 the same temptations, or the same means of rendering our pro- 
 pensities a source of proilt. And oftentimes what we will not 
 , do. ourselves we connive at in others, if it add in any way to our 
 convenience or pleasure. Look at the frightful records of the 
 1 London dressmakers — for whom do they wear out their lives in 
 heartbreaking toil ? Why, to supply the demands and meet the 
 sudden and capricious tastes of people of condition ! Sere is 
 neither farmer nor manufacturer at f avdt ; the scene is changed, 
 and the responsibility too : we must ascribe it entirely to the 
 gentler sex, and, among them, not a little to our own intimacies 
 and connections. 
 
 And here it is just to state, that if I can recite many examples 
 of unprincipled and griping tyi'anny, I can quote many also of 
 generous and parental care, and of willing and profuse expenditure 
 for the benefit of the people. If there are prominent instances of 
 bad, there are also pi-ominent instances of good men. I will sup- 
 pose, for the sake of ai"gument, that all are the victims, rather 
 ; than the causes of the system ; bvit whatever the cause, the con- 
 V dition inflicts a great amount of physical and moral suff"ering. I 
 <S know I am arousing a fierce spirit of reply — be it so — " Strike me, 
 but hear me." 
 
 I shall, for the present, altogether leave to others that part of 
 
 the question which belongs to trade and commerce. I am neither 
 
 imwilling. nor perhaps unable, to handle it ; but I desire to keep 
 
 myself within the bounds that I have always hitherto observed in 
 
 the discussion of this matter, and touch only the consideration of 
 
 the moral and physical eff'ects produced by the system on the great 
 
 body of the workpeople. 
 
 ,' I am spared, too, the necessity of arguing the propriety or im- 
 
 / propriety of interfering to regulate the hours of labour for persons 
 
 [ under certain ages ; the princij)le has long been conceded and 
 
 acted on by parliament. Our controversy can relate only to the 
 
 degree in which it shall be earned out. I have never omitted an 
 
 opportunity of asserting the claim I ventured to put forward 
 
 nearly eleven years ago ; and I return, therefore, this evening to 
 
 my original proposition. 
 
 Sir, I assume, as one ground of the argument, that, apart from
 
 Ten Hours Factory Bill. 93 
 
 considerations of liumanity, wbicli, nevertheless, slioiild be 
 paramount, the State has an interest and a right to watch over 
 and provide for the moral and physical well-being of her people. 
 The principle is beyond question ; it is recognised and enforced 
 under every form of civUized government. Let us see what is 
 
 i done by the powei's of Europe. 
 
 Now, what has been determined by Russia in this matter ? In 
 a despatch addressed some time ago by, I think. Count Nesselrode 
 to the then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of this country 
 — the noble lord, the member for Tiverton (Lord Palmerston) — 
 this subject is alluded to, and it is stated that, " the Emperor 
 admits the necessity of supervision — considering," says the memo- 
 
 j randumby the Minister of Finance, " that the number of children 
 
 I occupied in spinning mills is likely to increase every year, the 
 Imperial government deemed it indispensable to take such pre- 
 paratory measures as will lead to legislative enactments hereafter." 
 Then follow many regulations respecting the moral and physical 
 
 I treatment of the children. 
 
 In Austria " the period of labour is cruelly long^ often fifteen, 
 
 t not unfrequently seventeen hours a day. The question of shoi-ten- 
 ing the labour of children is under discussion." In Switzerland 
 the regulations are very strict : " in the Canton of Argovia no 
 children are allowed to work, under fourteen years, more than 
 twelve hours and a half ; and education is compulsory on the mill- 
 owners." In the Canton of Zurich "the hours of labour are 
 limited to twelve ; and children under ten years of age are not 
 allowed to be employed. The clergy are the insjDectors, and the 
 system of inspection is very rigorous." In France a bill has been 
 framed almost on the same principles as our own, with the same 
 
 j restrictions. The system is, however, but imperfectly carried out 
 
 1 on account of defective machinery ; but the principle is recognised ; 
 
 ' and there are 1,200 unj)aid inspectors. In Prussia, by the law of 
 1839, no child who has not completed his or her sixteenth year is 
 
 . to be employed moi-e than ten hours a day ; none under nine years 
 
 ' of age to be employed at all. 
 
 j Now, if foreign powers consider it a matter both of duty and 
 
 I policy thus to interpose on behalf of their people, we, surely, 
 should much more be animated by feelings such as theirs, when 
 
 I we take into our account the vast and progi-essively increasing 
 
 j numbers who are employed in these departments of iudxistry. 
 
 i See how it stands. In 1818, the total number of all ages and 
 both sexes employed in aU the cotton factories was 57,323. In 
 1835, the number employed in the five departments — cotton, 
 woollen, worsted, flax, and silk — was 354,68-l. In 1839, the
 
 94 House of Commons, 15th March, 1844. 
 
 number in the same five departments was 419,590; the total 
 number of both sexes under eighteen years of age, in the same 
 year, was 192,887. 
 
 Siumltaneously, however, with the increase of numbers has 
 been the increase of toil. The labour performed by those engaged 
 in the processes of manufacture is three times as great as in the 
 beo-iuning of such opei-ations. Machinery has executed, no doubt, 
 the work that would demand the sinews of millions of men ; but 
 it has also prodigiously multiplied the labour of those who are 
 governed by its fearful movements. I hope the House will allow 
 me to go through several details connected with this j^ortion of 
 the subject ; they are technical, it is true, but, nevertheless, of 
 sufficient importance to be brought under your attention. 
 
 In 1815, the labour of following a pair of mules spinning cotton- 
 yarn of Nos. 40 — reckoning twelve hours to the working-day — in- 
 volved a necessity for walking eight miles. That is to say, the 
 j)iecer who was employed in going from one thread to another in 
 a day of twelve hours performed a journey of eight miles. In 
 1832, the distance travelled in following a pair of mules spinning 
 cotton-yarn of the same numbers, was twenty miles, and frequently 
 more. But the amount of labour pei'formed by those following 
 the mules is not confined merely to the distance walked. There 
 is far more to be done. In 1835, the spinner put up daily on each 
 of these mules 820 stretches ; making a total of 1,640 stretches in 
 the course of the day. In 1832, the spinner put upon each mule 
 2,200 stretches, making a total of 4,400. In 1844, according to a 
 return furnished by a practised operative spinner, the person 
 working puts up in the same period 2,400 stretches on each mule, 
 making a total of 4,800 stretches in the course of the day ; and in 
 some cases the amount of labour required is even still greater. 
 "^1 The House will now, probably, like to know how I have arrived 
 at these conclusions. The calculations on which they are founded 
 have been made by one of the most experienced mathematicians 
 in England. At my request he went down to Manchester, and 
 himself made the measurements and calculation upon the spot. 
 The measurements, I should state, were made in five diff"erent 
 , -.^ mills, spinning, respectively, yarns of the following numbers : — 
 -^-'14, 15,30, 38, and 40. In the mill spinning No. 14 yarns the 
 least distance possible to be travelled over was seventeen miles 
 per day ; the greatest possible twenty-seven miles. In that 
 spinning No. 15 yarns the least distance was nineteen — the 
 greatest twenty-nine miles. In that spinning 30 the least dis- 
 tance was twenty-four — the greatest thirty-seven miles. In that 
 spinning 38 the least distance was fifteen — the greatest twenty 
 
 I
 
 Ten Hours Factory Bill. 95 
 
 tliree miles ; but this was a maclmie of an old construction. In 
 tliat spinning 40 the least distance was seventeen — the greatest 
 twenty-five miles. Now, the mules which are to be followed 
 advance and recede — as they advance the yarn is elongated ; and, 
 by bearing this in mind, honourable gentlemen may see how the 
 calculations were made. The yarn is stretched in elongated 
 threads, and the calculations were made thus : — In the first case, 
 the least, the assumption is, that only one thread would be broken 
 in each movement of the mule. In the second case, that which 
 shows the greatest amount of labour, the calculation is made upon 
 the assumption of four threads being broken. Now it is almost 
 impossible that only one thread shall be broken ; and, on the 
 other hand, it is very improbable that four threads should be in 
 the same condition. We may, therefore, discard these extreme 
 suppositions, and take the average of supposing two threads to 
 be broken. On this assumption, then, the following will be the 
 distances travelled : — In a mill spinning No. 14 yarns, twenty- 
 two miles ; No. 15 yams, twenty-four miles ; No. 30 yams, thirty 
 miles ; No. 38 yarns, nineteen miles (old machine) ; and No. 40 
 yarns, twenty-one miles. While these calculations wei'e in pro- > 
 gress the machinery was not driven at its full speed ; it might 
 have been impelled atjjue-third, at least, of greater ,i:elocity. I ^ 
 
 But this is not all : there is another portion of the labour 
 which is very oppressive, particularly to youngpersons — and to 
 show its character I will read arnaEe~iiiadel)y the measurer upon 
 the spot : — " I may also suggest that in estimating the fatigues 
 of a days' work, due consideration should be given to the necessity 
 of turning the body round to a reverse direction not less than y^ 
 from four to five thousand times in a day, besides the strain of 
 continually having to lean over the machine and return to an 
 erect position." The House will be aware of the great strain 
 requisite, after leaning over the machinery, in bringing the body 
 back to an upright position — it often happens, indeed, that the 
 body is bent forward in the form of a right angle. Now, in the 
 fine mills, spinning, for instance, No. 100 yarns, the distance 
 travelled will be far less. It will only be 14 miles ; but then the 
 House must bear in mind that though the distance is less, the 
 labour is equal, and in some respects greater. The exertion of 
 leaning over the machinery is in these cases much increased, l>y 
 reason of the more fi'equent breakages, and consequent toil in 
 repairing them. Some of the measurements to which I have 
 alluded were made in the mill of a gentleman named M'Counell. 
 to whom I must express my obligation for the kindness with 
 which he offered every facility to the gentleman who went down
 
 96 House of Commons, 15th March, 1844. 
 
 to the manufacturing districts for the purpose. Mr. M'Connell 
 stood by the measurer, and made calculations simultaneously 
 with him. At the close of the work they compared notes ; and 
 it was found that Mr. M'Connell's measurements gave a less dis- 
 tance than those of the mathematician. But when they came to 
 inquire into the reason of this difference, it was found that Mr. 
 M'Connell had left out of his calculation all the diagonal 
 movements. He had calculated only the straight movements, 
 without reckoning the immense number of paces which the 
 piecer has to make on either side. Now, these calculations are 
 substantiated by those of several practical men. The honourable 
 member for Oldham, Mr. Fielden, has himself measured in his own 
 mill the distances travelled by the piecers ; and the results of his 
 observations he published in a pamphlet in 1836. The distance 
 laid down by the honoiwal>le member is twenty miles. But I 
 . \i have still another authority. 1 submitted the case to the operative 
 JV I spinners of Manchester; and I have a document here, signed by 
 "•ij I twenty-two of these men, in which they state that twenty miles 
 ""^ / is the very least distance travelled, and they believe it to be 
 still . greater. I have another document, sent to me in 1842, by 
 another set of operative spinners, confirming what I have said, 
 and stating that the labour is progressively increasing — increasing 
 not only because the distance to be travelled is greater, but 
 .^ because the quantity of goods produced is multiplied, while the 
 ; hands are, in proportion, fewer than before; and, moreover, 
 \ because an inferior species of cotton is now often spun, which it 
 ''^ is more difl&cidt to work. WeU, now, I know that the measure- 
 ments which I have stated to the House have been disputed by a 
 mill- owner of great respectability — by Mr. Gregg, a very well- 
 known gentleman, with large capital, who carries on one of the 
 most extensive concerns of this kind in Europe. This gentleman 
 published his contradiction to the statement which I have made, 
 in which h'e estimated the distance at eight miles ; and I sub- 
 mitted it to the same mathematician who made the original 
 calculation. The moment he looked at it he said, "It is altogether 
 inaccurate; Mr. Gregg cannot know anything of the matter;" 
 and after speaking of the details, he thus sums up the question : 
 — " Referring the matter to scientific considerations, Mr. Gregg's 
 table must either be the result of some strange and most grievous 
 blunderings, or of a gross perversion of observed facts, which, 
 \i though extremely rude and ill-chosen for the object professedly 
 "^ in view, could not, by any possibility, carry a fair and judicious 
 inquiry so very far away from the truth as to give only about 
 one-tlurd of the real distance." Now this is the toil impo3ed
 
 Ten Iloin-s Factory Bill. 97 
 
 upon a very largo portion of the population of the mannfnetiiriiig 
 districts — this is the labour imposed in the spinniug-rooui. In 
 the carding-room there has also been a great increase of labour — 
 one person there does the work formerly divided between two. 
 In the weaving-room, where a vast number of persons are em- 
 ployed, and i^rincipally females, an operative, wi-iting to me, 
 states that the labour has increased, within the last few years, 
 fully ten per cent., owing to the increased speed of the machinery 
 in spinning. In 1838, the number of hanks spun per week 
 was 18,000 ; in 18-13. it amounted to 21,000. In 1819, the number 
 of picks in power-loom weaving per minute was 60 — in 181-2 it 
 was 140, showing a vast increase of labour, because more nicety 
 and attention are required to the work in hand. 
 
 Now, Sir, it is no difficult transition from such a statement of ") _, i^i^' 
 daily toil, passed as it is in crowded rooms, heated atmospheres, / ^ At 
 noxious gases, and injurious agencies of various kinds, to the 
 following statement of physical mischiefs to the workers em- 
 ployed. Since 1816, eighty surgeons and physicians, and three \ 
 medical commissioners in 1833 (one of whom. Doctor Bisset 
 Hawkins declared that he had the authority of a large majority 
 of the medical men of Lancashire), have asserted the prodigious 
 evil of the system. The government commissioners themselves 
 furnish a summary of particulars : — " The excessive fatigue, pri- | 
 vation of sleep, pain in various pai'ts of the body, and swelHng of I 
 the feet, experienced by the youug workers, coupled with the 
 constant standing, the peculiar attitudes of the body, and the 
 peculiar motion of the limbs required iji the labour of the factory, . 
 
 together with the elevated temperature, and the impure atmo- c ■■'■*" 
 sphere in which the labour is often carried on, do sometimes ulti- 
 mately terminate in the prodiiction of serious, permanent, and 
 incurable diseases." Dr. Loudon states — " I think it has been 
 already proved that children have been worked a most unreason- 
 able and cruel leugth of time daily, and that even adults have >, '-^ 
 been expected to do a certain quantity of labour, which scarcely 
 any human being is able to endure. As a physician, I would 
 prefer the limitation of ten hours for all persons who earn their 
 bread by their industry." Dr. Hawkins says — " I am compelled 
 to declare my deliberate opinion, that no child should be employed 
 in factory labour below the age of ten, that no individual uudor 
 the age of eighteen should be employed in it longer than ten 
 hours daily." When I was myself in the manufacturing districts, j 
 in the year 1841, 1 went over many of the hospitals, and consulted;' 
 many of the medical men in that part of the country. The result 
 is contained in a note which I drew up at the time, and which is 
 
 H
 
 98 House of Commons, 16(h March, 1844. 
 
 as follows: — "Scrofulous cases apparently universal; tLe wards 
 were filled with scrofulous knees, Lips, ankles, &c. Tlie medical 
 gentleman informed me that tliey were nearly invaiiiibly factoiy 
 cases. He attributed the presence of scrofula to factoiy employ- 
 ment under all its circumstances of gi-eat heat, low diet, bad 
 ventilation, protracted toil, &c." Now the same evils are found 
 to exist in other parts of the world where the same system is 
 followed. A very admii-able work was published a few yeai's ago 
 by a French physician. Dr. ViUerme, employed by the Academie 
 des . Sciences to examine and report upon the condition of 
 artisans. He states, when speaking of factories in France, that, 
 " In the operations of the cotton business, cough, pulmonary 
 inflammation, and the terrible phth isis, ^ attack and carry off 
 many of the workpeople; but numerous as are the victims of 
 these disordei's, their premature death seems to me less de^Dlorable 
 than the development of scrofula in the mass of our workpeople 
 in manufactories." Mark that: he considers death a less evil 
 than the tenible prevalence of scrofulous disorder. Another 
 y^ effect produced by the system is an injurious affection of the eye- 
 i>' sight. Any person conversant with the cotton business knows 
 ^^ how early in life the eye is apt to become so enfeebled as scarcely 
 ^ J to be of any effective service. There is one more fact to which 
 1^, I wish to call the attention of the House. Those honoiirable 
 v^ gentlemen who have been in the habit of perusing the melancholy 
 ^ details of mill accidents should know that a large proportion of 
 those accidents — particirlarly those which may be denominated 
 the minor class, such as loss of fingers and the like, occur in the 
 last hours of the evening, when the people become so tired that 
 they absolutely get reckless of the danger. I state this on the 
 authority of several practical spinners. 
 
 Hence arise many serious evils to the working classes — none 
 greater than the early prostration of their strength, theit prema- 
 ture superannuation, and utter incapacity to sustain their families 
 by the labour of their hands. I will prove my assertions by the 
 following table, from which you will observe that at the very 
 ysKj^,- period of life at which, in many other departments of industry, 
 . J^ Y men are regarded as in the prime of their strength, those employed 
 in the cotton manufacture are superannuated and set aside, as 
 incapable of earning their livelihood by factory labour. The ages 
 „above forty are seldom found in this employment. Now, during 
 the great turn-out in 1831, from forty-two mills in Mosely, Ashton, 
 and in other parts of Lancashire, out of 1,065 persons who joined 
 in that turn-out, there were between forty-five and fifty years of 
 age, only fifty-one. In 1832, it appeared by certain returns from 
 
 :k 
 
 /.
 
 Ten Hours Factory Bill. 
 
 99 
 
 mills in Harpur and Lanark, that out of 1,600 persons, there were 
 above the age of forty-five, only ten individuals. In 1839, the 
 retimis from certain mills in Stockport and Manchester showed, 
 that the number of hands employed in these mills was 22,09-1. 
 Now of all that immense multitude, how many does the House 
 suppose were above forty-five years of age? Why, only 143 
 persons ; and of these, sixteen were retained by special favour, and 
 one was doing boy's work. I have in my hand, also, a list of lol 
 spinners, made out in 1841, only seven of whom were above forty- 
 five years of age, and almost all of these people had been refused; 
 employment. Why ? Because it was declared that they were too 
 aged for labour ! I have other authority, too, to prove the state 
 of matters in this resj)ect. I hold in my hand a letter from a 
 person who went down to Bolton to make returns for me, in which 
 he states — " I have just seen fifty reduced spinners ; two are more 
 than fifty years of age, the rest will not average forty years of 
 age. One man, T. E., worked for sixteen years at Mr. O.'s mill ; 
 he is forty-three years of age ; he has frequently applied for work, 
 but is invariably answered, he is too old." The same evil exists 
 in France and other countries where the manufacturing system 
 prevails. Dr. ViUerme says — " There are few cities in which 
 one meets with old people employed in manufactories ; it is found 
 to be more economical to pay younger workmen, though at a 
 higher rate." In the year 1833, a letter was addressed to me liy 
 Mr. Ashworth, a very considerable mill-owner in Lancashire, 
 which contains the following curioiis passage : — " Ton will next 
 very naturally inquire about the old nien, who are said to die, or 
 become iiufit for work, when they attain forty years of age, or 
 soon after." Mark the phrase, " old man," at forty years of age ! 
 " As all spinners (he continues), whether young or old, are paid 
 the same price per pound for spinning, the production of an old 
 man is at greater expense by reason of the diminished quantity ; , 
 this, and not ill-health, may sometimes occasion his discharge."; 
 . . . . " Old men of every description adhere to habits contracted 
 in early life ; hence they are troublesome to manage, and often 
 disagree with the overlookers — this may sometimes lead to their 
 discharge; but it appears not iinfrequently that they become 
 disinclined to work when the earnings of their families are suf- 
 ficient to maintain them." Indeed ! why, there cannot, I think. 
 be a more alarming feature in the case than the last-mentioned 
 fact — that men, of perhaps forty, should be maintained in idleness 
 by the labour of their families. But I have the additional testi- 
 mony of a government commissioner, Mr. M'Intosh, who, in his 
 report in 1833, says - " Although prepared by seeing childhood 
 
 ,4
 
 100 House of Commons, Ibth March, 1844. 
 
 occupied in siicli a manner, it is very difficult to believe tlie ages 
 of men advanced in years, as given by themselves, so complete is 
 their premature old age." Now, Sii', I am the more inclined to 
 rest my case with confidence on these commissioners, because 
 they were sent expressly to collect evidence against that taken 
 by the committee of 1832 ; and it is upon their reports, in con- 
 siderable measure, that I will ground my appeal to this House. 
 
 Now, let this condition of things be contrasted with the con- 
 dition of agricultural life ; and let us see how much longer is the 
 duration of the working powers in that class of labour. In June, 
 1841, on an estate in "Worcestershire, out of forty-two agricultural 
 labourers, there were, over forty-five years of age, twenty. Out 
 ' of twenty-five on one in Lincolnshire, eleven exceeded forty years 
 of age. At a place in Wales, out of thirty-three labourers, twelve 
 exceeded the age of forty, and seven were above sixty. At another 
 estate in Lincolnshire, out of sixty-two labourers, thirty-two 
 exceeded forty years of age. At one in Scotland, out of sixty 
 laboiu-ers, twenty-seven were over foi-ty years of age. Again, in 
 England, out of thirty-nine labourers, twenty-nine exceeded forty 
 years of age. On an estate in the Isle of Wight, out of eighteen 
 labourers, there were found ten exceeding forty years of age. On 
 another, out of seventeen, seven were above forty years of age. 
 On another farm, out of fifteen labourers six were over forty 
 years of age ; and, on an aggregate of farms in the neighbourhood, 
 '' there were thirty labourers, every one of them exceeding forty 
 "u I years of age ! So that the total shows, that of J341 labourers, 180 
 r ' I were above forty years of age. Contrast the condition of these 
 — f-> people with that of a multitude of 22,000, of whom only 143 were 
 above the age of forty-five. There is yet another instance. On 
 < an estate in Dorset, in 1844, out of 427 labourers 118 are above 
 ,' forty-five years of age. And these men may go on much longer ; 
 ■*V_» for I can appeal to honourable gentlemen on both sides of the 
 ■^^ House, whether they have not known agricultural labourers at 
 the ages of fifty, sixty, and seventy years, still capable of working 
 and of earning wages. 
 
 You will, naturally enough, inquire what becomes of many of 
 
 these worn-out and superannuated spinners and factory hands. 
 
 j A few may retire to other businesses ; those who have, by natui-e. 
 
 \ a more vigorous mental and physical constitution may, in some 
 
 instances, suiwive ; but a large proportion sink into a state of 
 
 pauperism and decrepitude. 
 
 I hold in my h;ind a statement which will give the House some 
 idea of the condition into which a vast mass of these people full 
 when it becomes impossilAe for them to earn their subsistence by
 
 w. 
 
 Ten Hours Factory Bill 101 
 
 factory lal>our. It will be borne in mind that tlie present system 
 has prevailed so long, and is of such a nature as completely to 
 have destroyed every idea of thrift and economy. The education 
 both of males and females is such that domestic economy is almost 
 wholly unknown to them ; and it very rarely hapj)ens that they 
 have the foresight to accumulate savings during the period at 
 which they can work to subsist upon in the days of their old age. 
 It will be also remembered that their strength is so wholly 
 exhausted that they are unable to enter into any different active 
 occupation when discharged from the mill ; and that, therefore, 
 they sink down into employments of the nature of which I will 
 give a specimen to the House. In June, 18-11, from a return 
 which was presented to me, it appeared that in 11 auction rooms 
 in Manchester, out of 11 common jobbers, as they are called, 9 
 were discharged factory hands. Of 37 hawkers of nuts and 
 oranges, 32 were factory hands ; of 9 sellers of sand, 8 were 
 factory hands ; of 28 hawkers of boiled sheep^ feet, 22 belonged -j 
 to the same class ; of 14 hawkers of brushes, II were factory | 
 hands ; of 25 sellers of coals, 16 were factory hands— thus oivb of 
 ]J.a-^^ersous_jgursumg_^^ miserable occupations, 89 were dis- 
 
 charged factory hands. I may add that, upon a further examina- 
 tion being made, it was found that of ^jil^discharged factory 'H 
 hands,_217_^were maintained entirely by the earnings of their 
 children. In Bolton, many discharged spinners were employed"\ 
 in sweeping the streets ; and of 60 sellers of salt and gatherers of / 
 rags, 50 were factory hands. In 1842 an inquiry was made in / 
 Manchester, and it was found that of 245 cast-off spinners, there 
 were maintained by the earnings of their children 108. The rest 
 were following such occupations as I have already alluded to, or 
 engaged in begging, picking up dung, and other miserable avoca- 
 tions. With reference to these men, I asked the question, how 
 many may expect to be taken up on a revival of trade ? The 
 answer was, scarcely one ; that the masters required young hands 
 and unexhausted strength, and that they would rather take men 
 of twenty-five than of thirty-five years of age ; and Dr. Bisset 
 Hawkins, one of the commissioners in 1833, gives similar testi- 
 mony, that — " The degree in which parents are siipported by their 
 youthful offspi-ing at Manchester is a peculiar feature of the 
 place, and an unpleasing one ; the ordinary state of things in this 
 respect is nearly reversed." 
 
 Sir, neither the existence nor the consequences of these 
 destructive causes have escaped the attention of continental 
 writers and legislators. Their testimonies and their laws strongly 
 confirm the opinions and statements of those who, in this country,
 
 102 House of Commons, 15th March, 1844. 
 
 liave so long m-ged upon the public consideration tlie perilous 
 necessity of withstanding tlie further progress of such pernicious 
 agencies. [By the system we permit, the laws of nature are 
 absohitely ovTtraged.T)ut^iol with impunity.' The slow but cei-tain 
 penalty is exacted in the physical degradation of the human race, 
 including, as it does, the ruin, of the body, and the still more fatal 
 corrui^tion of th§ moral part. 
 
 In the year 1840 a commission was issued in France. A report 
 was made to the French Chamber of Peers by M. Dupin, the 
 Baron Charles Dupin ; and to that eminent person I am indebted 
 for the copy of the report from which are taken the extracts to 
 which I am about to refer. I hope the Hoiise will attend to the 
 facts adduced by this gentleman. 
 
 " We were desirous," says the reporter, " of ascertaining the 
 amount of difference, in force and physical power, between the 
 li parties which have respectively attained the age of manhood in 
 
 ^' \ the parts of France most devoted to agriciilture, and those where 
 
 V >! manufacturing industry is more generally diffused. The councils 
 
 4 0^ ,' of revision in the recruiting department exhibited the following , 
 ^ ^ fi facts : — For 10,000 young men capable of military service, there «'' 
 ,<■ y i ""'ere rejected as infii-m, or otherwise unfit in body, 4,029 in the , 
 ]ht. I ^i departments most agricultural: for 10,000 in the department?,; 
 ■ ^ > ''.'^ most manufacturing, there were rejected 9,930." The reporter 
 '^ ll^ then proceeds to speak in detail : — " There were found," he says, 
 " for 10,000 capable of military seiwice, in Marne, 10,309 incapable ; 
 in the Lower Seine, 11,990 incapable; in L'Eure, 14,450 inca- 
 pable." Now, what is the comment of the reporter on this ? I 
 will take the liberty of reading it to the House, because of the 
 solemn warning it conveys to all governments and nations. " These 
 deformities," he proceeds, " cannot allow the legislature to remain 
 indifferent; they attest the deep and painful mischiefs— they 
 reveal the intolerable nature of individual suffering ; they enf eeljle 
 the country in respect to its capacity for military operations, and 
 impoverish it in regard to the works of peace. We should blush 
 for agi-iculture if, in her operations, she brought, at the age 
 adapted to labour, so small a proportion of oxen or horses in a fit 
 state for toil with so large a number of infirm and misshapen." 
 Now, this is a retura which I have once before quoted ; l)ut I 
 quote it again because it is so singularly adapted to our present 
 ^v> position. We have no means of applying to our population the 
 \^\^ same test as that in France, because we have not the same courts 
 Y i^' ^^^' examination into the ability Of people to carry arms ; but if 
 I .t. such triljunals existed I fear that they would set forth results far 
 ^"' more distressing. If, for the comparatively short time that
 
 \' 
 
 Ten Hours Factory Bill 103 
 
 manufactures liave been established in France, sucli terrible 
 results are exhibited, what must be the case in England, where 
 they have prevailed for considerably more than half a century ? 
 Just see what Dr. Villernie says. Dr. Villerme, having enlarged 
 on the j)ernicious effects of factory labour, adds — " In examining 
 men from twenty to twenty-one years of age, I found them 
 physically unfit for the military service in proportion as they 
 came from the working classes of the factory (classe ouvriere cle la 
 fabrique) at Amiens. One hundred fit men required 193 conscripts 
 from the middling class ; 100 fit men requii-ed 343 conscripts from 
 the working class." 
 
 Is this all .'' By no means — we have, if possible, yet stronger 
 testimony from Prussia. The sovereign of that country thought 
 fit to enforce a law of protection for all under sixteen years of 
 age, against more than ten hours' labour in the course of the 
 day. What was the reason assigned ? — here is the document 1 — 
 From the Official Gazette of Laios, 9th March, 1839. 
 
 " His Majesty was pleased to dii-ect the attention of his 
 ministers to a report from Lieutenant George Von Horn, that \J 
 the manufacturing districts would not fully supply their contin- 
 gents for the recruiting of the army, that the physical develop- 
 ment of persons of tender years was checked, and that thei'e was 
 reason to believe that in the manufactiu'ing districts the future 
 generations would grow xrp weaker and more crippled than the 
 existing one was stated to be — employed from eleven to fourteen 
 hours daily in excessive labour, frightfully disproportioned to the 
 powers of persons from eight to eighteen years of age." Then 
 followed an inquiry very similar to our own, which fxilly con- 
 firmed every statement ; and the document proceeds — " The 
 preceding facts show that urgent necessity for legislative inter- 
 ference felt by the King to put a stop to such premature, 
 unnatural, and injm-ious employment of the young operatives in 
 factories." 
 
 I need not detain the House by an endeavour to show that 
 similar or worse mischiefs must have arisen in our own country — 
 I speak of those districts only where the manufacturing system 
 has long and extensively prevailed ; I know that the agricultural 
 parts and hilly regions of Yorkshire and Lancashire still send 
 forth a noble race of human beings. But let me here impi'ess 
 upon the House the necessity of deeply considering these im- 
 portant statements. The tendency of the various improvements 
 in machinery is to supersede the employment of adult males, and 
 substitute in its place the labour of children and females. "VVTaat 
 will be the effect on future generations, if their tender frames be
 
 104 House of Commons, 15th March, 1844. 
 
 subjected, without limitation oi* control, to sucli destructive 
 agencies ? 
 
 Consider this : in 1835, the numbers stood thus — the females in 
 the five departments of industry, 196,383 ; in 1839, females, 
 242,296; of these, the females under 18, 112,192. The pro- 
 portions in each department stood — females in cotton, 56 ^ per 
 cent. ; ditto worsted, (y^h ditto ; ditto silk, 70? ditto ; ditto flax, 
 70-1 ditto. Thus, while the total amount of both sexes and all 
 ages in the cotton manufacture, in 1818, were equal only to 
 57,323. the females alone in that branch, in 1839, were 146,331. 
 Now, the following is an extract of a letter from a great mill- 
 
 OAvner in 1842 : — " The village of , two miles distant, sends 
 
 down daily to the mills in this town at least a thousand females, 
 single and married, who have to keep strictly the present long 
 hours of labour. Seven years ago, these persons were employed 
 at their own homes ; but now, instead of the men working at the 
 power-looms, none hut girls or women are allowed to have it." 
 But, Sir, look at the physical effect of this system on the women. 
 See its influence on the delicate constitutions and tender forms of 
 the female sex. Let it be recollected that the age at which the 
 " prolonged labour," as it is called, commences, is at the age 
 of thirteen. That age, according to the testimony of medical 
 men, is the tenderest period of female life. Observe the appalling 
 progress of female labour ; and rememlier that the necessity for 
 particular protection to females against overwork is attested by 
 the most eminent surgeons and physicians — Dr. Blundell, Sir 
 Anthony Carlisle, Sir William Blizard, Dr. EUiotson, Sir George 
 Tuthill, Sir Benjamin Brodie, John Henry Green, Esq., of St. 
 Thomas's, Charles Aston Key, Esq.. George James Guthrie, Esq., 
 Mr. Travers, Sir Charles Bell, Dr. Hodgkin, John Morgan, Esq., 
 of Giiy's Hospital, Samuel Smith, Esq., surgeon, of Leeds, Dr. 
 Young, of Bolton, John Malyn, ilsq., Peter Mark Roget, Esq., 
 some time physician to the Manchester Infirmary. Here are 
 some specimens of their evidence : — " Is it not especially necessary 
 to give protection from excessive labom- to females when approach- 
 ing the age of puberty ?— Quite important ; if they are afterwards 
 to become mothers, quite essential ;" this is an universal opinion. 
 Many anatomical reasons are assigned by surgeons of the manu- 
 facturing towns, that " the peculiar structure of the female form 
 is not so weU adapted to long-continued labour, and especially 
 labour which is endured standing." Mr. Smith, of Leeds, de- 
 clares—" This (the operation of the factory labonr) occasionally 
 produces the most lamentable eff'ects in females, when they are 
 expecting to become mothers." On the anatomical diflaculty of
 
 Ten nonrs Factory Bill 105 
 
 pai-tiirition, lie states — "It is often the painful duty of the 
 accouchenr to destroy the life of the child. I have seen many 
 instances of the kind, all of which, with one single exception, have 
 been those of females who have worked long hours in factories." 
 " There is a foundation in nature," says Dr. Blundell, " for the 
 customary division which assigns the more active labour to the 
 male, and the sedentary to the female " — " among savages, the 
 woman is often the di'udge." George James Guthrie, Esq. : " Have 
 you not been a medical officer in the armies of this country 
 for a considerable length of time P — Yes. Would you sanction, 
 for a continuance, soldiers being actually under arms for twelve 
 hours a day for a succession of days ? — Such a thing is never done 
 nor thought of ; a soldier is never kept u.nder arms more than 
 five or six hours, unless before the enemy. Is the female sex well 
 fitted to sustain long exertion in a standing posture ? — It is not. 
 Is it not more than ordinarily necessary to protect females 
 against excessive labour when approaching the age of puberty ? — 
 Certainly it is." " The ten hours," he adds, " you propose to give 
 to the children in factories is the work you would not give to 
 soldiers, even when soldiers are employed, in public works ; they 
 would not then be worked more than twelve hours, granting them 
 time for their meals ; and for the work they woiild have additional 
 pay." 
 
 Now, Sir, mark the fearful superseding of adult workers ; " the 
 tendency of improvements in machinery," say all the inspectors, 
 '' is more and more to substitute infant for adult labour." 
 Dr. Vnierme, in his Tableau d'etat pliysiqiJie et ■)noral des ouvriers, 
 urges the same results, that " children and women are employed 
 instead of men." In one mill (1831) adults, 70 ; sijindles to each, 
 104; piecers, 305. In the same mill (1841) adults, 26; sj)indles 
 to each, 223 ; piecers, 123 ; being one-sixth, instead of one-fifth, 
 as before, of the hands employed. In Bolton (1835) thirty-nine 
 mills set up 589,784 spindles; the same mills set up (1841) 
 740,000 spindles ; piecers to these spindles (1835), 2,44:3 ; ditto in 
 1841, 2,426 ; spinners to them in 1835, 797 ; ditto in 1841, 727. 
 Observe, too, the process of double-decking and self-actors. In 
 1831, twenty-three mills employed 1,267 spinners (Manchester) ; 
 in 1839, the same twenty-three miUs employed 677 spinners ; thus 
 throwing out 590 spinners, without any abatement of productive 
 power. In 1829, in Manchester, sj^inuers, 2,650 : 1841, in Man- 
 chester, spinners, 1,037 ; thrown out entirely, 1,613. In 1835, 
 2,171 spinners worked 1,229,204 spindles ; in 1841, 1,037 spinners 
 worked 1,431,619 spindles. Observe, too, that the labour is greatly 
 increased upon children in all mills alike. In 1829, in the mill of
 
 106 Hov.se of Commons, 15th Ilarch, 1844. 
 
 Mr. ; spinners, 70 ; spindles worked, 43,680 ; piecers, 230. 
 
 In 1841, in same mill, spinners, 26 ; spindles, 43.796 ; piecers, 134. 
 lu 1829, in a mill, spinners, 53 ; spindles, 23,800 ; piecers, 125. 
 In 1842, spinners, none ; spindles, same number ; piecers, 84. In 
 1829, in thirty-five mills, spinners, 1,088 ; spindles, 496,942. In 
 1841, in same mills, spinners, 448 ; spindles, 556,375 ; self-actors, 
 473, wi-onght by cbildren and young persons only. A working 
 spinner makes tbis statement, and it is a fair sample of the 
 whole — " My wheels are trebled ; the piecers reduced to eight ; 
 thus two do the work of three. Self-acting greatly augments 
 labour by the increased velocity of the machine, and the greater 
 number of spindles apportioned to each piecer." 
 
 Here, Sir, pause to consider the multitudes of females on whom 
 
 this system must exercise its influence, and their great increase 
 
 since 1835. " Mr. OrrelFs mill," says the inspector, and I will 
 
 quote this as an example, " at Heaton Nonis, is l)y far the largest 
 
 in Stockport. We are employing (says Robert M'Liire, the 
 
 manager) altogether in that mill, and in connection with it (as 
 
 carters, gas-men, and others), 1,264 hands at this time, of whom 
 
 846 are females. The whole number of looms is 1,300, all standing 
 
 on one flat, attended by 651 females, and twenty-one males." But 
 
 ,•)> there is a reason for this suljstitution ; I will show, by an extract 
 
 from a letter dated in March, 1842, the motives that actuate some 
 
 minds. .liJi!li\^^^jinianufacturer (says the writer), infoi-med me 
 
 aj'' i ■ that he emj)loys~femaTes exclusively at his power-looms ; it is so 
 
 universally ; gives a decided preference to man-ied females, 
 
 especially th ose wh o ha ve fam ilies at honie^ dependent on them 
 
 '^ A '• lor suppoi-t ; they are attentiveTdocile^ more so than, lihmarried 
 
 females, and are compelled to use their utmost exertions to pro- 
 
 ^ jeure the necessaries of life." 
 
 Thus, Sir, are the virtues, the peculiar virtues, of the female 
 character to be pervei-ted to her injury — thus all that is most 
 dutiful and tender in her nature is to be made the means of her 
 bondage and suffering ! But consider again, I entreat you, what 
 a multitude of females it is on whom this system has its opera- 
 tion. Just sui-vey the enormous increase since 1835. This is the 
 further testimony of the Siib-inspector Baker, in his report of 1843. 
 ■ I There are employed in his district more than in 1838, 6,040 
 ,^ . f ) persons ; of these, 785 males, 5,225 females. " The small amount 
 ; j^' ,^ of wages," says the Insj^ector Saunders, " paid to women acts as 
 ^ a strong inducement to the mill-occupiers to employ them instead 
 
 "^\^ j of men, and in power-loom shops this has been the case to a great 
 '^ extent." Now hear how these poor creatures are worked. Mr. 
 
 \y^ Baker reports, as to "having seen several females who, he was 
 
 'sr 
 
 V* V
 
 Ten Hours Factory Bill. 107 
 
 uire, could only just liave completed their eigliteentli year, -wlio 
 had been obliged to work from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., with only one 
 hour and a half for meals." In other cases, he shows, females are 
 obliged to work all night, in a temperature of 70 to 80 deg. Hence 
 Mr. Saunders (1843) deduces the necessity of a law protecting all 
 females, up to the age of twenty-one ; adding, medical men in- 
 variably declare the urgent necessity of protecting from excessive 
 labour all females up to that period of life. " I found," says 
 Mr. Horner, October, 1843, " many you.ng women, just eighteen 
 years of age, at work from half -past five in the morning imtil 
 eight o'clock at night, with no cessation except a quarter of an 
 hour for breakfast, and three quarters of an hour for dinner. 
 They may fairly be said to labour for fifteen hours and a half out , 
 of twenty-four." " There are," says Mr. Saunders, '' among them, ' 
 females who have been emjiloyed for some weeks, with an interval 
 only of a few days, from six o'clock in the morning until twelve / 
 o'clock at night, less than two hom-s for meals, thus giving them 
 for five nights in the week six hours out of its twenty-four to go icj^ 
 to and from their homes, and to obtain rest in bed." " A vast 
 majority," says Mr. Saunders, in January, 1844, " of the persons "J 
 employed at night, and for long hours during the day, are females ; ^ 
 their laljour is cheaper, and they are more easily induced to 
 undergo severe bodily fatigue than men." - 
 
 Where, Sir, under this condition, are the possibilities of 
 domestic life ? how can its obligations be fulfilled ? Regard the 
 woman as wife or mother — how can she accomplish any portion of 
 her calling ? And if she cannot do that which Providence has 
 assigned her, what must be the effect on the whole surface of 
 society ? But to revert to the physical eff"ects. Mr. Saunders 
 says in the same report, "The surgeon distinctly condemns such 
 employment ; though the effect may not be immediately apparent, 
 it must have a tendency to undermine the constitution, produces 
 premature decay, and shortens the duration of hiiman life. No 
 female," he adds, " ought to work more than ten hours ; and that 
 twelve hours produces severe injury to those in a state of preg- 
 nancy;" he often witnesses the effect of so much standing when 
 partui-ition comes on ; adding, " work in the night is the most 
 injurious ; it is unnatural, and not adapted to the constitution of 
 women." Another surgeon, of great expenence in Lancashire, 
 wiites to me that, " after thirteen is the age when young women 
 begin to be most susceptiljle of injury from factory work," and 
 much more at this period of their lives " than at the earlier ages." 
 He proceeds to details : " the effects of long-continued labour in 
 factories become more apparent after childbii-th. The infants are at
 
 108 House of Commons, l^th March, 1844. 
 
 birth below the average size, have a stinted, shrivelled appearance. 
 I would take a score of factory births, and the same of healthy 
 parents, and distinguish between them." " Children are much 
 confided by factory mothers to care of others — opium administered 
 to the infants in various forms — the quantity of this pernicious 
 ',/ drug thus consumed would almost stagger belief — many infants 
 ,( are so habituated to it, that they can scarcely exist when deprived 
 
 t?i\ of the stimulus — immense numbers fall victims to hydrocephalus 
 — mothers' milk becomes deteriorated — infants fed upon substi- 
 tutes in her absence — hence internal disorders, of which the usual 
 remedy is gin." " Miscarriages very frequent, and all the physical 
 and surgical mischiefs of mistreated pregnancy — varicose veins 
 produced by the continued evil practice — aggravated greatly in 
 pregnant women." " Again, troublesome ulcers of the legs, arising 
 from varicose veins, which in some cases burst and bring on a 
 v'^'- dangerous and sometimes fatal haemorrhage." " The practice of 
 / f^ ^procuring abortion is very frequent, even among married women." 
 y f " I have, moreover, the personal testimony of several females to the 
 truth of these statements — they speak of the intolerable pain in 
 their breasts by such long absences from children, and the suffer- 
 ing of returning to work within ten days of confinement." 
 
 Look again to the effects on domestic economy; out of thirteen 
 married females taken at one mill, only one knew how to make 
 her husband a shirt, and only four knew how to mend one. I 
 have the evidence of several females, who declare their own 
 ignorance of every domestic accomplishment. The ixnmarried 
 declare, " not a single qualification of any sort for household 
 servants." The married, " untidy, slovenly, dirty ; cannot work, 
 sew, take care of children, or the house ; cannot manage expenses ; 
 perpetual waste and extravagance." But hear the history of their 
 daily life from their own lips. 
 
 " M. H., aged twenty years, leaves a yoimg child in care of 
 another a little older for hours together ; leaves home soon after 
 five, and returns at eight ; during the day the milk runs from her 
 breasts until her clothes have been as wet as a sop." M. S. (single) 
 leaves home at five, returns at nine; her mother states she knows 
 nothing Ijut mill and bed ; can neither read, write, knit, nor sew. 
 H. W. has three children ; leaves home at five on Monday, does 
 not retuni till Saturday at seven ; has then so much to do for her 
 children that she cannot go to bed before three o'clock on 
 Sunday morning. Oftentimes completely drenched by the rain, 
 and has to work all day in that condition. " My breasts have 
 given me the most shocking pain, and I have been dripping wet 
 with milk." I will conclude this part with an extract from a
 
 Ten Hours Factory Bill. 
 
 109 
 
 f: 
 
 letter dated February, 1840. by Dr. Johns, Superintendent Regis- 
 trar of tlie Mancliester district — an important document, when we 
 consider that it was written to controvert some of my statements 
 respecting the mortality of those districts. " Very young chil- 
 di'eu," says Dr. Johns, " are by the existing system not sufficiently 
 taken care of by their mothers ; as regards themselves during 
 gestation, and their offspring after childbirth — the women during 
 l^regnancy continue as long as possible at their work ; and sooner 
 than they ought they again attend the factories, leaving their "\ 
 infants to the care of ill-paid and unsuitable persons, to take the , 
 oversight of the children in their absence ; nor ought we to omit ' 
 that soothing drugs — the well-known nostrum. Godfrfiy^scordial;^ 
 are often had recourse to, with a view to lull the troubles of the 
 little unfortiuiates, and hence, perhaps, may be attributable to 
 the improper use of narcotics the frequent deaths from convul- 
 sions. It is most desii-able that mothers should not be, if possible, > 
 abstracted from their attention to their helpless infants, certainly ' 
 not during the period of lactation and teething." 
 
 So much. Sir, for their physical and, if I may so speak, their 
 financial condition : the picture of their moral state will not be 
 more consolatory. And, first, their excessive intemperance : — 
 
 Mr. Roberton, a distinguished surgeon at Manchester, says, in 
 a published essay — " I regard it as a misfortune for an operative 
 to be obliged to labour for so long hours at an exhausting occu- 
 pation, and often in an impure atmosphere. I consider this 
 circumstance as one of the chief causes of the astounding ine- 
 briety of our population." I read in a pi'ivate letter from 
 Manchester, 1843 — '"Intemperance is making progress; on 
 Sundays there is more drinking than there has been for many 
 years ; the people who sell ale, &c., state to me that they never ' 
 sold more on Sunday, nor as much as they now do." Mr. Braidley, 
 when boroughreeve of Manchester, stated that in^on^ gin-shop, -J 
 
 during eight successive Saturday evenings, from seven till ten . -j^^'l^ 
 o'clock, he observed, on an average rate,' 412^persons enter by the "^ k^ 
 hour, of which the females wer€!k,60)per cmt. Many females state 
 that the labour induces " an intolerable thirst ; they can drink, 
 but not eat." I do not doubt that several of the statements I 
 have read will create sui-prise in the minds of many honourable 
 members ; but if they were to converse with operatives who are 
 acquainted with the practical effects of the system they would 
 cease to wonder at the facts I have detailed. I might detain the 
 Hoiise by enumerating the evils which result from the long 
 working of males and females together in the same room. I 
 could show the many and painful eflfects to which females are 
 
 y
 
 110 House of Commons, I5th March, 1844. 
 
 exposed, and tlie manner in whicli tliey lament and shrink from 
 tlie inconveniences of their sitnation. I have letters from Stock- 
 port and Manchester, from various individnals, dwelling on the 
 mischievous consequences which arise from the practice of modest 
 women working so many hours together with men, and not being 
 able to avail themselves of those opportunities which woiild 
 suggest themselves to every one's mind without particular men- 
 tion. Many mills, I readily admit, are admirably regulated, but 
 they are yet in a minority — were all of such a description as 
 sevend that I have seen, they might not, perhaps, require any 
 enactments. But to return. Mr. Rayner, the medical officer of 
 Stockport, says — " It has been the practice in mills gradually to 
 dispense with the labour of males, but particularly gi-own-up 
 men, so that the burden of maintaining the family has rested 
 almost exclusively on the wife and children, while the men have 
 had to stay at home, and look after household affairs, or ramble 
 about the streets unemployed." But listen to another fact, and 
 one deserving of serious attention; that the females not only 
 perform the labour, but occupy the places of men; they are 
 forming various clubs and associations, and gradually acquiring 
 all those privileges which are held to be the proper portion of the 
 male sex. These female clubs are thus described : — " Fifty or 
 sixty females, married and single, form themselves into clvibs, 
 ostensibly for protection; but, in fact, they meet together to 
 drink, sing, and smoke ; they use, it is stated, the lowest, most 
 brutal, and most disgusting language imaginable." Here is a 
 dialogue which occurred in one of these chd^s, from an ear- 
 witness : — " A man came into one of these club-rooms, with a 
 ^ child in his arms. ' Come lass,' said he, addressing one of the 
 •f' women, ' come home, for I cannot keep this bairn quiet, and the 
 ij^ other I have left crying at home.' ' I won't go home, idle devil,' 
 
 ^^* she replied ; ' I have thee to keep, and the bairns too, and if I 
 A can't get a pint of ale quietly, it is tiresome. This is only the 
 
 ^ second pint that Bess and me have had between us ; thou may 
 
 ^^ ^"P ^f thou likes, and sit thee down, but I won't go home yet.' " 
 
 Whence is it that this singvdar and unnatural change is taking 
 place? Because that on women are imposed the duty and burthen 
 of siippoi*ting their husbands and families — a perversion as it 
 were of nature, which has the inevitable effect of introducing into 
 families disorder, insubordination, and conflict. What is the 
 ground on which the woman says she will pay no attention to 
 her domestic duties, nor give the obedience which is owing to her 
 husband ? because on her devolves the labour which ought to fall 
 to his share, and she throws out the taunt, " If 1 have the labour,
 
 }y 
 
 Ten noiirs Factory Bill. Ill 
 
 I will also have the amusemeut." The same mischief is taking 
 place between children and their parents : the insubordination of 
 childi'cu is now one of the most frightful evils of the manufacturing 
 districts. " Childreu and young })ei'sons take the same advantage" 
 of parents that women do of their husliands, frequently usin^ 
 oaths and harsh language, and, if corrected, will turn round 
 
 and say, ' you, we have you to keep.' One poor woman 
 
 stated that her husljand had chided two of their daughters for 
 going to a public-hoiise ; he made it worse, for they Avould not 
 come home again, stating, ' they had their father to keep, and 
 they would not be dictated to by him.' " This conduct in the 
 childi'eu is likewise gi'ounded on the assertion that the parents 
 have no right to interfere and control them, since, without their 
 labour, the parents could not exist ; and this is the bearing of 
 childreu, many of whom are under thirteen or fourteen years of 
 age ! Observe carefully, too, the ferocity of character which is 
 exhibited by a great mass of the fe male p opulation of the manu- 
 facturing towns. Recollect the (Outbreak of 1842, and the share 
 borne in that by the girls and woUieiir; and the still more fright- 
 ful contingencies which may be in store for the future. "I met," [yi^ 
 says an informant of mine, " with a mother of factory workers,^ 
 who told me that all the churches and chapels were useless places, 
 and so was all the talk about education, since the young and old 
 were unable to attend, either in conseqiience of the former l>eing 
 imprisoned in the mills so many hours, and being in want of 
 rest the little time they were at home ; and the hitter being com- 
 pelled to live out of the small earnings of their children, and can- ^ -■ 
 not get clothing, so they never think of going to churches or y^^ 
 chapels. She added, ' when you get up to London, tell them well ^ 
 turn out the next time (meaning the women), and let the soldiers 
 fire upon us if they dare ; and depend upon it there will be a 
 break out, and a right one, if tliat House of Commons don't alter 
 things, for they can alter if they will, by taking mothers and 
 daughters out of the factories, and sending the men and Ijig lads 
 in.' " But further, what says Sir Charles Shaw, for some years 
 the superintendent of the police of Manchester — what is his 
 opinion of the condition of the females of that town, and the 
 effects produced, by the system under which they live, on their 
 conduct and character ? " "Women," says he, "■ by being em- 
 ployed in a factory, lose the station ordained them by Providence, 
 and become similar to the female followers of an army, wearing ^ 
 the garb of women, Ijut actuated by the worst passions of men. ' <;• 
 The women are the leaders and exciters of the young men to 
 violence in every riot and outbreak in the manufacturing districts, 
 
 / 
 
 1
 
 112 House of Commons, lofh March, 1844. 
 
 and the langnaffc they indulge in is of a horrid description. 
 While they are themselves demoralized, they contaminate all that 
 comes within their reach." 
 
 This vnll conclude the statement that I have to make to the 
 House. And now, Sir, who will assert that these things should be 
 permitted to exist? Who will hesitate to apply the axe to the 
 root of the tree, or, at least, endeavour to loj) off some of its 
 deadliest branches? What arguments from general principles 
 would they adduce against my proposition ? What drawn from 
 peculiar circumstances ? They cannot urge that particular causes 
 in England give rise to particular results : the same cause pre- 
 vails in various countries ; and wherever it is f oiTnd it produces 
 the same effects. I have already stated its operation in France, in 
 . ^ Russia, in Switzerland, in Austria, and in Prussia; I may add also 
 
 y in America ; for I perceive by the papers of the first of Febniary, 
 tlia^ a bill has been proposed in the legislature of Pennsylvania 
 to place all persons under the age of sixteen within the protection 
 of the " ten hours " limit. I never thought that we should have 
 leai-ned justice from the city of Philadeli^hia. In October last I 
 Adsited an immense establishment in Austria, which gives em- 
 ployment to several hundred hands ; I went over the whole, and 
 conversed with the managers, who detailed to me the same evils 
 and the same fruits as those I have narrated to the House — pro- 
 longed labour of sixteen and seventeen hours, intense fatigue, 
 enfeebled frames, freqvxent consumptive disorders, and early 
 . ^^deaths — yet the locality had every advantage; well-built and 
 ^ \, airy houses, in a fine open country, and a rural district ; never- 
 ]^ .J theless, so injurious are the effects, that the manager added, 
 jJ^y stating at the same time the testimony of many others, who 
 
 ''i ^:^ resided in districts where mills are more abundant, that, in ten 
 years from the time at which he spoke, " there would hardly be a 
 man in the whole of those neighbourhoods fit to carry a miisket." 
 Let me remind, too, the House of the mighty change which has 
 taken place among the opponents to this question. When I first 
 brought it forward in 1833, I could scarcely number a dozen 
 masters on my side — I now count them by hundreds. We have 
 had from the West Riding of Yorkshire a petition signed by 
 three hundred mill-owners, praying for a limitation of labour to 
 ten hours in the day. Some of the best names in Lancashire 
 openly support me. I have letters from others who secretly wish 
 me well, but hesitate to proclaim their adherence ; and even 
 among the members of the Anti-Corn-Law League I may boast 
 of many firm and efiicient friends. 
 
 Sir, under all the aspects in which it can be viewed, this system 
 
 1
 
 Ten Hours Factor ij Bill. 113 
 
 of tilings must be aljvogated or restrained — it affects the interaal 
 tranquillity of tliosc vast provinces, and all relations between 
 employer and employed — it forms a perpetual grievance, and ever 
 comes uppeiTuost among tlieir complaints in all times of difficulty 
 and discontent. It disturbs tbe order of nature and tbe rights 
 of the labouring men, by ejecting the males from the woi'kshop 
 and filling their places by females, who are thus withdrawn from 
 all their domestic duties, and exposed to insufferable toil at half 
 the wages that would be assigned to males for the support of 
 their families. 
 
 It affects, nay, more, it absolutely annihilates all the arrange- 
 ments and provisions of domestic economy — thi-ift and manage- 
 iiient are altogether impossible; had they twice the amount of 
 their present wages they would be but slightly benefited — every- 
 thing runs to waste ; the house and children are deserted ; the 
 wife can do nothing for her hiisband and family ; she can neither 
 cook, wash, repair clothes, or take charge of the infants ; all must 
 be paid for out of her scanty earnings, and, after all, most im- 
 perfectly done. Dirt, discomfort, ignorance, recklessness, are 
 the portion of such households ; the wife has no time for learning 
 in her youth, and none for practice in her riper age ; the females 
 are most unequal to the duties of the men in the factories ; and 
 all things go to rack and ruin because the men can discharge at 
 home no one of the especial duties that Providence has assigned 
 to the females. Why need I detain the House by a specification of 
 these injurious results ? They will find them stated at painful length 
 in the Second Report of the Childi-en's Employment Commission. 
 
 Consider it, too, under its physical aspect. Will the House 
 turn a deaf ear to the complaints of suffering that resound from 
 all quarters ? Will it be indifferent to the physical consequences 
 on the rising generation ? You have the authority of the govern- 
 ment commissioner, Dr. Hawkins, a gentleman well skilled in 
 medical statistics — " I have never been," he tells you, " in any 
 town in Great Britain or in Europe, in which degeneracy of form 
 and colour from the national standard has been so obvious " as 
 in Manchester. I have, moreover, the authority of one of my . ,, 
 
 most ardent antagonists, himself a mighty mill-owner, that, if the {^,.. ^|J 
 present system of labour be persevered in, the " county of Lan- 
 caster will speedily become a prcfvince of pigmies." The toil of ^''' 
 the females has hitherto been considered the characteristic of 
 savage life ; but we, in the height of our refinement, impose on 
 the wives and daughters of England a burden from which, at 
 least during pregnancy, they would be exempted even in slave, 
 holding states, and among the Indians of America. 
 
 I 
 
 ik
 
 ^ 
 
 11-1 House of Commons, 15th March, 1844. 
 
 But every consideration sinks to nothing compared witli that 
 which springs from the contemplation o£ the moral mischiefs 
 this system engenders and sustains. Ton are poisoning the very 
 sources of order and happiness and virtue ; you are tearing up, 
 root and branch, all the relations of families to each other ; you 
 are anuiTlUng, as it were, the institution of domestic life decreed 
 by Pro\ddence himself, the wisest and kindest of earthly ordi- 
 nances, the mainstay of social peace and virtue, and therein of 
 national security. There .^s a time to be born, and a time to die — 
 } this we readUy concede ; but is there not also a time to live, to 
 / live to eveiy conjugal and parental duty ? — this we seem as stiffly 
 *v^o deny ; and yet in the very same breath we talk of the value of 
 education and the necessity of moral and religious training. Sir, 
 it is all in vain ; there is no national, no private system that can 
 supersede the influence of the parental precept and parental 
 example — they are ordained to exercise an tmlimited power over 
 the years of childhood; and, amidst all their imperfections, are 
 accompanied with a blessing. IWhose experience is so confined 
 that it does not extend to a knowledge and an appreciation of 
 the maternal influence over every grade and department of 
 society ? It matters not whether it be prince or peasant, all that 
 is best, all that is lasting in the character of a man, he has learnt 
 at his mother's knees. Search the records, examine the opening 
 years of those who have been distinguished for ability and virtue, 
 and yoii will ascribe, with but few exceptions, the early culture of 
 their minds, and above all, the first discipline of the heart, to the 
 intelligence and affection^f^the mother, i^at^least of. somejpious 
 ^J^flnaanj who, with the self-denial and tenderness of her sex, Eas 
 entei-ed as a substitute on the sacred ofiice. No, Sir, these 
 sources of mischief must be dried up — every public consideration 
 demands such an issue — the health of the females, the care of 
 their families, theii- conjugal and parental duties, the comfort of 
 their homes, the decency of their Hves, the rights of their 
 husbands, the peace of society, and the laws of God ; and, until a 
 vote shall have been given this night — which God avert — I never 
 will believe that there can be found in this House one individual 
 man who will deliberately and conscientiously inflict on the 
 women of England such a burthen of insuff'erable toil. 
 
 Sir, it is very sad, though perhaps inevitable, that such weighty 
 charges and suspicions should lie on the objects of those who call 
 for, and who propose this remedial measure. I am most un- 
 willing to speak of myself ; my personal character is, doubtless, 
 of no consequence to the world at large ; but it may be of con- 
 sequence to those whose interests I represent, because distrust
 
 Ten Hours Factory Bill. 115 
 
 begets delays, and zeal grows cold when held back in its career 
 by the apprehension that those whom it would support are 
 • actuated by unworthy motives. Disclaimers, I know, are poor 
 things when uttered by parties whom you listen to with suspicion ■ 
 or disHke ; but consider it calmly ; are you reasonable to impute to f 
 me a settled desu-e, a single purpose, to exalt the landed and 
 humiliate the commercial aristocracy ? Most solemnly do I deny 
 the accusation; if you think me wicked enough, do you think 
 me fool enough for such a hateful policy ? Can any man in his 
 senses now hesitate to beHeve that the permanent prosperity of 
 the manufactui-ing body in all its several aspects, physical, moral, 
 and commei'cial, is essential, not only to the welfare, but ab- 
 solutely to the existence of the British empire ? No, we fear not 
 the increase of your political power nor envy your stupendous 
 riches ; " Peace be withia youi* walls, and plenteousness within 
 your palaces !" We ask but a slight relaxation of toil, a time to 
 live, and a time to die ; a time for those comforts that sweeten 
 life, and a time for those duties that adorn it ; and, therefore, 
 with a fervent prayer to Almighty God that it may please him to 
 tui'n the hearts of all who hear me to thoughts of justice and of 
 mercy, I now finally commit the issue to the judgment and 
 humanity of Parliament.
 
 ( 116 ) 
 
 Ten Hours Factory Bill. 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 
 May 10, 1844. 
 
 On moving " That the Clause (And be it Enacted, That from and after the 1st day 
 of October in the present year, no young person shall be employed in any 
 Factory more than eleven hours in anv one day, or more than sixty-four hours 
 in any one week; and that from and after the 1st day of October, 1847, no 
 young person shall be employed in any Factory more than ten hours in any 
 one day, or more than fifty-eight hours in any one week ; and that any person 
 who shall be convicted of employing a young person for any longer time than 
 is in and by this Clause permitted, shall for every such offence be adjudged to 
 pay a penalty of not less than £ , and not more than £ ,) be now read a 
 second time." 
 
 It may seem to be almost superfluous, after three distinct 
 declarations of this House (and in a single session), to appeal 
 again, by rhetoric or argument, to your feelings or understanding. 
 We determined only seven vreeks ago, three times, actually, that 
 the period of labour should be less than twelve hours ; and twice, 
 virtually, that it should not exceed ten. The world at large 
 believed that a middle term would be offered ; but her Majesty's 
 Ministers have refused concession — they have invited, nay, more, 
 have compelled us to revive the debate, and now summon the 
 House of Commons to revoke its decision. We, then, who stand 
 in the old paths, and protest against this novel and somewhat 
 questionable course, shall not be regarded as guilty of weaiying 
 your attention, and wasting your time, if we ui-ge eveiy possible 
 consideration, and press forward every hithei-to-omitted argument, 
 as some counterpoise to the enormous weight of ministerial 
 influence and oflicial authority. 
 
 Sir, I cannot but be aware that enough has been said on the 
 physical and social condition of the people — one way or the other, 
 the minds of all are fully made up ; and it is, indeed, unnecessaiy 
 to say more, as all, even the hottest of my opponents, admit that
 
 Ten Hours Factory Bill 117 
 
 a reduction of tlie hours of labour, could it be effected without 
 injury to the workmen and manufacturers, would be highly 
 desirable. The only objection, then, in the minds of many honour- 
 able and thinking men, is the danger to the people themselves ; 
 and I find myself in the condition of being summoned to refute 
 the charge that I, who propose the scheme, am far more inhuman 
 than those who resist it. Now I, for one, will reject the use of 
 such epithets as these; nor will I retort any accusations that, 
 here or elsewhere, have cast on me the imputation of malignity 
 or cant. I regret but one thing in the course of these debates ; I , 
 deeply regret that I should have been accused of calumniating 
 the whole body of masters. I totally disclaim it. I should be 
 ashamed of myself if I held such language towards a class of men 
 that can boast of as worthy and munificent iudi^dduals as ever 
 supported or adorned the institutions of this country ; nor am I, 
 because I address myself to a particular evil, to be considered as ^ 
 the enemy of the Factory System. Remove some few imperfections, / 
 and it may become a blessing, if not absolutely, at any rate ^ 
 relatively, to the present state of o\ir labouring people. 
 
 Sir, when I first introduced this subject, I did not attempt to 
 handle the commercial argument — I did not think it necessary 
 for my view of the question, nor do I now ; but I owe it to those -r;! uc"^ 
 whose interests I represent to show that I have not left any part — 
 without due consideration ; that I have not rashed, like an enthu- 
 siast, into this career, neither knowing nor caring what con- 
 sequences might ensue from the attainment of my ends. I said 
 then that I entertained a full confidence that what was morally. / 
 wrong could not be pfiUtLcijUyLi'ight ; I had, and I have, an equal v/p- 
 confidence that what is morally right cannot be politically wi'ong ; \ 
 and everything that I can acquire by thinking, reading, and, above ~ 
 aU, by communication with those who are able to instruct me 
 from their practical esx^erience, confirms my conclusion. 
 
 And now, Sir, I shall entreat, with much respect and earnest- 
 ness, the indulgence of the House to a subject always, perhaps, 
 dry, and now both dry and somewhat exhausted. 
 
 Now, after all that has been -m-itten and said on the subject, I 
 can discover no more than four arguments urged by our oi:)ponents 
 against this measure — all of which are comprised in the Manchester 
 Petition lately presented to this House. 
 
 1st. That the passing of a ten hours' bill would cause a diminu- 
 tion of produce. 
 
 2nd. That there would take place a reduction, in the same 
 proportion, of the value of the fixed capital employed in the 
 tj-ade.
 
 /i^ 
 
 118 House of Commons, 10th May, 1844. 
 
 3rd. That a dimiuution of wages would ensue, to the great 
 injiu'y of the workmen. 
 
 4th. A rise of price, and consequent peril of foreign com- 
 petition. 
 
 Even supposing that these assertions be separately, they cannot 
 be collectively, true ; it is very fair to place before us a variety of 
 possible contingencies, but it must not be urged that we are 
 threatened by a combination of them. Any one event may occxir ; 
 but such an occuiTcnce prevents, in one case at least, the full 
 accomplishment of the other. 
 
 Let us look at the first argument, that " the passing of a ten 
 hours' bill would cause a diminution of produce." It has hitherto 
 been urged by all our antagonists that a reduction of one-sixth of 
 the time would involve a corresponding reduction of one-sixth of 
 the produce. I am happy to say that the opponents of the Bill 
 have somewhat receded from their ground, and state, in their 
 petition, an abatement of one-seventh ; this is so far a gain on 
 our side of the argument. But is the case so ? What authority 
 do they urge for the assertion ? do they quote any facts ? None 
 on the face of the petition. But I think I shall be able to urge 
 some very sufficient reasons to disprove altogether these general 
 assertions, and establish some more favourable to myself. 
 
 The first statement to which I shall refer is contained in a letter 
 from a gentleman who carries on a very large concern, employ- 
 ing, I believe, no less than 1,200 hands ; it is dated March, 1844. 
 " It is a mistaken notion," writes this gentleman, " to suppose 
 that the produce of yam or cloth from machinery would be cur- 
 tailed in an arithmetical proportion to the proposed reduction of 
 ' working hours from twelve to ten, because in very many instances 
 X the workman can produce much or little during the day, as he 
 1/ feels disposed, or as his strength enables him ; and in my own 
 
 'i . trade, in which we employ at least 1,200 hands, I have proved 
 beyond a doubt that, whenever we have reduced the hou.rs for 
 I working from twelve to ten per day, which is equal to one-sixth, 
 ■ , the quantity of work produced has not fallen below one-tenth or 
 even one-tweHth." Another very important testimony is to be 
 • found in a valuable essay, published in 1831, entitled, " An 
 Inquiry into the State of the Manufacturing Population," and 
 written, I believe, by the owner of the largest establishment in 
 Europe, Mr. Gregg. " That a reduction of the hours of labour 
 would cause a corresponding reduction in the quantity produced," 
 says the wi-iter, " we entirely deny ; it is probable that, if factories 
 were to work ten hours instead of twelve, the loss in the quantity 
 produced would not be one-sixth, but only about oue-tweHth, and
 
 Ten Eours Factory Bill 119 
 
 in mule-spinning scarcely so much. We know that in some cases, 
 when the mills only worked four days in the week, they have 
 often produced five days' quantity, and the men earned five days' 
 wages. That this would be the case to a considerable extent 
 every one must be aware, as all men will be able to work miich 
 hai'der for ten hours than they can for twelve." Another gentle- 
 man, who js the propriet qr_j)f_ a large estabUshnientj writes to me 
 thus:— "lam persuaded by experience, and from actual expji'inient^ 
 that the mill-occupier would lose very little by such a regulation 
 (a ten hours' biU) ; the workers would be so improved in their 
 physical condition, that they would do very nearly as much work 
 in ten and a half as in twelve hours." Now, I have been anxious Vv^-^f V 
 to obtain upon this point the opinion also of the operative cotton- "^ - /} •■! 
 spinners themselves, and I_^ubuiitted.Jwo_,que^tions to them, to ^^ 
 which I have received answers from twenty of the principal towns 
 in Lancashii'e. My first question was — " Is the reduction in the 
 produce in the direct proportion of the reduction in time — that is, 
 would a reduction of one- sixth in the hours of work lead to the 
 reduction of one-sixth in the amount of produce ?"" The answer I 
 have received from twenty principal manufacturing towns was — 
 •" Certainly not." My next question was — " At how much do you 
 estimate the reduction of produce ?" The answer took the view 
 the most advantageous to my opponents, and was — " Not more 
 than one-eighth." 
 
 So far, then, as argument can go, and practical opinion, the 
 case is established ; there is no set-off to this statement — at least I 
 have heard none ; our adversaries have nowhere adduced actual 
 facts to show that the abatement of produce is, in any degree, 
 proportionate to the abatement of time. 
 
 Now the second argument may very probably follow on the 
 foundation of the first, that " a reduction would take place, in the 
 same proportion, of the value of the fixed capital employed in the 
 trade;" this is not unlikely ; but what does it amount to ? Great 
 authorities have calculated the diminution of produce by one- 
 twelfth, or about 8 per cent. Let us admit this sum, as indicating 
 the amount of the diminution of value on the fixed capital. Is 
 this pure loss ? are there no compensating circumstances ? Look 
 at this estimate, furnished to me by one of the largest proprietors 
 in the cotton trade of England. Here it is : — 
 
 " Calculations of expenditure saved by diminution of hours of 
 labour. — Horse power at work in the concern, 200 ; Original fixed 
 capital, 100,000Z., or 500Z. per horse power, which is the usual 
 estimate. Diminution of produce by reason of two hours less 
 laboui', I will say 10 per cent., putting the ai-gument advan-
 
 120 House of Commons, lOth May., 1844. 
 
 ta/'eously for mv opponents, for tlie reduction of produce wiU 
 not exceed l-12tli. The calculation will then stand thus :— Oil 
 12 hours time, or 69 houi-s per week, the quantity of production is 
 now measured by 69 hoitrs; and this table will showtlie yearly 
 cost of fixed capital : — 
 
 Interest on fixed capital at 5 per cent, per annum . 5 
 
 Depreciation by wear and tear 6 
 
 Coal, oil, tallow, repairs, &c. .... 
 Gas (nearly) 
 
 12 
 1 
 
 24 
 
 That is, 24 per cent, of the fixed capital for cariying on the 
 concern, for a production of 69— say 69,000 bundles of majiu- 
 factured goods— then 24 divided by 69 = 24-69, which is nearly 
 f per cent, per annum of the fixed capital for each thousand 
 Ixuidles. 
 
 " On 10 houi-s time, or 59 hours per week, the production being 
 calculated at 10 per cent, less, may be measured by 62 hours 
 production : — 
 
 Interest on fixed capital at 5 per cent, per annum . 5 
 
 Depreciation by wear and tear 5 
 
 Coal, oil, tallow, repairs, &c. 10 
 
 Gas(haM) * 
 
 Total . 20* 
 
 That is, 2O5 per cent, of the fixed capital for cai-rying on the 
 concern for the production of 62,000 bundles — then 2O5 divided 
 by 62 = 20A^-62, which is a trifle less per 1,000 bundles than when 
 working 12 hours, so far as the fixed capital is concerned. Now 
 from the above table it appeal's that the cost of goods (allowing 
 the wages to be reduced in proportion to the work done) will be 
 less than at present." 
 
 But the cardinal argument of my honourable opponents is hung 
 on the sui^posed reduction of the operatives' wages, and on the 
 calculated mischiefs that would ensue to the workpeople fi"om 
 so large an abatement of their weekly earnings. Sir, I have 
 already obsei-ved, and I must observe again, that these statements, 
 founded as they principally are on the researches of Mr. Honier, 
 must be taken with many grains of allowance. Mr. Horner, with 
 perfect candour, admits the plea, when he tells us that he draws 
 all his inferences from the statements made by the masters, and
 
 Ten Hours Factory Bill. 121 
 
 that he has 'never been able to obtain, on the other side, the 
 statements of the workpeople. This is an important considera- 
 tion ; the men themselves take a different view ; and while they 
 admit an abatement of earnings, urge that it will be in a lower 
 proportion. Sir, very hard things are said about the foUy and 
 the nonsense, with other expressions equally pointed, of exjiecting 
 twelve hours' wages for ten hours' work. Sir, I am not aware 
 that anybody expected any such thing. It should be borne in 
 mind that the earnings of these workpeople are regulated by the 
 piece, and not by time ; that a man receives every week a certain 
 sum, not for the labour, but for the produce of sixty-nine hours ; 
 and the abatement of his wages wiU be estimated, not by the 
 limitation of the time, but by the reduced amount of yarn or 
 cloth that he carries to the counting-house. A reduction of one- 
 sixth of the time may involve, as I have endeavoured to show, a 
 reduction of one-twelfth of their earnings. Should the demand 
 continue — and there is nothing in this bill to affect either the 
 demand or the rate of spinning per pound — the wages will fall 
 only in proportion to the abatement of produce, one-tenth or one- 
 twelfth, for the prices of labour will be governed, like those of 
 aU commodities, by the demand and supply. 
 
 To this extent the operatives anticipate fully a reduction of 
 their earnings. I endeavovired to show, some shori time back, 
 the calculations of household economy, by which they were 
 prepared to meet even an abatement of one-sixth; this, however, 
 is beyond the mark. The countervailing advantages of a rediiced 
 time are so great, as compared with a reduction of wages, that 
 they readily accept the loss, and find their interest in the im- 
 provement of health of body and mind ; in social and domestic 
 comfort ; in the practice of household economy ; and specially in 
 the prolongation, by three or four years of their working life, of 
 their physical capacities to obtain a livelihood. 
 
 The fourth and last argument with which I have to deal is 
 founded on an apprehended rise of price, and consequent ad- 
 vantages to the foreign competitor. Now, on this head I must 
 produce two calcvilations exhibiting very minutely the degree to 
 which such a result may take place. I will state it as founded on 
 two establishments. The amount of sunk capital in each is 
 20,000^, each having 40-horse power at work; one spinning 
 No. 36, the principal count of yarn used ; the other manufactur- 
 ing shii-ting cloth from the same.
 
 122 Home of Commons, 10th May, 1844. 
 
 Spinning Establishment, Worhing 69 Hours per Weeh 
 and Spinning 16,000 lbs. of No. 36. 
 
 £, s. d. 
 
 Weekly wages paid 87 10 
 
 Wear and tear, coal, oil, gas expenses, 
 
 caiT-iage, &c. . . . . 49 
 
 Interest on capital sunk, at 5 per cent. 19 5 
 
 Depreciation on capital, at 5 per cent. 19 5 
 
 Profits at 10 per cent, per annum, on 
 
 the capital 38 10 
 
 £213 10 
 
 Weaving Establishment, Worhing 69 Hours per Week, 
 and Weaving 3,350 Pieces of Shirting. 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 Weekly wages paid 233 6 8 
 
 Wear and tear, oil, coal, gas expenses, 
 
 carriage, &c 78 3 4 
 
 Interest on capital sunk, at 5 per cent. 19 5 
 
 Depreciation on capital at 5 per cent. 19 5 
 Profits, at 10 per cent, per annum, on 
 
 tlie capital 38 10 
 
 £338 10 
 
 Again, the time being reduced to 60 hours, or one- seventh, less, as 
 before observed, the production will not be reduced more than 
 one-eighth, that is to say : — 
 
 Spinning Establishment, Worhing 60 Hours per WeeTc, 
 will Produce 14,000 lbs. of No. 36 Yarn. 
 
 £. s, d. 
 
 Weekly wages paid 76 10 
 
 Wear and tear, coal, oil, gas, &c., ex- 
 penses, carriage, &c., being l-7th 
 
 less 42 
 
 Interest on capital sunk, at 5 per cent., 
 
 as before 19 5 
 
 Depreciation on capital, at 5 per cent., 
 
 less l-7th . . . . . . 16 10 
 
 Profits, at 10 per cent, per annum, on 
 
 capital, as before . . . . 38 10 
 
 £192 15
 
 Ten Hours Factory Bill, 123 
 
 This is the total cost for spinning 14,000 lbs., allowing profits an>l 
 interest to remain the same, which is 3f|jC?. per lb., or 1-lOth part 
 of a penny nxore when working 60 hours instead of 69. 
 
 Weaving Establishment, Working 60 Hours per Weeh, 
 loill Produce 2,950 Pieces of Shirting. 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 Weekly wages paid 205 
 
 Wear and tear, coal, oil, gas expenses, 
 
 carriage, &c., l-7th less . . . 67 
 Interest on capital sunk, at 5 per cent., 
 
 as before 19 5 
 
 Depreciation on capital, at 5 per cent., 
 
 less 1.7th 16 10 
 
 Profits, at 10 per cent, per annum, on 
 
 capital, as before . . . . 38 10 
 
 £346 5 
 
 Which is the total cost for manufacturing 2,950 pieces of shirt- 
 ing, being 2s. 4cZ. per piece, or fths of a penny more when work- 
 ing 60 hours instead of 69, allowing profits and interest to remain 
 the same. 
 
 This, then, on a miniite and accurate calculation, is the fair 
 estimate of the advantage, if advantage it can be called, which is 
 oflFered to the foreigner as a set off to the great advantages to be 
 bestowed on our own people ! 
 
 But, Sir, I should like to try the question by the test of 
 experience, and examine what has really been the effect upon 
 production and upon the earnings of the workmen in all those 
 cases where the hours of labour have been reduced. Forebodings 
 were uttered of the most melancholy description — were they, any 
 of them, fulfilled ? This great question was agitated from 1815 to 
 1819. Several witnesses of experience and character maintained 
 before Committees of the Lords and Commons in 1816, 1818, and 
 1819, the same propositions as those laid down in the Manchester 
 Petition of the present year ; I^Jiat is to say, " the diminution of 
 produce, the rise of price, the reduction of wages." Now ob- 
 serve ; the houi's of labour, before the restriction of 1820, ranged 
 between thirteen and sixteen in the day. The Secretary to the 
 Associated MiU Owners, in 1819, gave in the following table, 
 which falls short of the exact truth ; but this is its result — 
 
 The total number of cotton mills was 325. Of these 5 worked
 
 124 House of Commons, 10th May, 1844. 
 
 66 hours a week ; 19 ditto, 68 to 68* ; 38 ditto, 69, the present 
 dm-ation — in aU, 62. But the 263 which remained worked in a 
 range from 70 to 93 hours a week. The popiilation employed in 
 the 62 mills was 7,486. But the population in the 263 mills was 
 nearly 50,000. Here observe what a large proportion of the 
 workers were occupied on the long periods of labour. Well, what 
 was tbe result ? In 1819 the Act passed, to take effect from 
 January 1, 1820, which reduced the hours in all the cotton 
 factories to twelve actual working hours. It had been most 
 boldly asserted that there would be a diminution of produce; 
 but how was this confirmed ? I ■^vill just compare the prophecy 
 and the issue. In three years, from 1817 to 1819 inclusive, the 
 cotton wool imported was 451,934,946 lbs. Now, 1820 was the 
 fii'st year under restriction of labour to 12 from 14 and 15 hours a 
 day ; in three years, from 1821 to 1823 inclusive, the cotton wool 
 imported was 466,776,751 lbs. The estimated weekly consumption 
 in those years, before restriction, was, in 1817, 2,051,400 lbs. ; 
 1818, 2,132.000 lbs.; and 1819, 2,116,809 lbs. In the three years 
 after restriction the weekly consumption was, in 1821, 2,476,800 
 lbs.; 1822, 2,750,100 lbs. ; and 1823, 3,025,000 lbs. You must 
 observe, too, there was no falling off in aggregate production ; for 
 instance, the average quantity of cotton yarn retained for home 
 consumption, and exported in each year, before restriction, from 
 1818 to 1820, both inclusive, was 134,420,757 lbs. ; whilst in the 
 thi-ee years, from 1821 to 1823, after restriction, the quantity was 
 140,142,224 lbs. The official value of cotton goods exported from 
 Great Britain in two years, 1818 and 1819, before restriction, was 
 37,988,893L In the three years after restriction, from 1821 and 
 1822, the official value was 46,202,208Z. The official value of yarns 
 for the two years exported, before restriction, in 1818 and 1819, 
 was 2,882,529^. In the two years after restriction, 1821 and 1822, 
 the value was 4,250,450L Look to the aggregate of goods for five 
 years before and five years after restriction ; from 1815 to 1819, 
 both inclusive, the aggregate official value of goods exported was 
 95,787,626?. From 1821 to 1825, the aggregate official value was 
 124,090,6981 The statement of yarns, did I enter upon it, would 
 be still more striking. 
 
 But now, with respect to the second apprehension, which lay in 
 " the consequent advance of prices, and in the advantage to the 
 foreigner;" that argument has proved no more true as to the past 
 than I believe it will as to the future. The declared value of the 
 cotton goods exported in 1818 and 1819, together, was 29,032,412?- 
 before restriction. But the declared value of cotton goods exported 
 in 1821 and 1822, together, was after restriction only 28,321,210Z., 
 
 I
 
 Ten Hours Factory Bill. 125 
 
 being an increase of twenty-one and a lialf per cent, in tbe quantity, 
 and a decrease of two and a iialf per cent, in the price. The same 
 statement holds good in respect of the yarns exj^orted. The declared 
 value of yarns exported in 1818 and 1819 was 4,902,088/. The de- 
 clared value in 1821 and 1822 was 4,915, 207L, being an increase of 
 forty-seven and a half per cent, in the quantity, a s nearly as possible, 
 at the same cost. The same might be seen on an aggregate of five 
 years. The declared value of goods exported before resti-iction from 
 1815 to 1819, both included, was 75,445,940?. The declared value 
 from 1821 to 1825, after restriction, was 72,249,105Z. But let us con- 
 sider still further the advantage given, as is said, to the foreigner, 
 with respect to two countries from which the competition is the 
 greatest. The import of cotton wool into France for consumption 
 in 1820 was 20,203,000 kilogrammes, or, at 100 kilogrammes to 
 220.} lbs., 44,547,615 lbs. The same in 1840 was 52,942,000 kilo- 
 grammes, or about 116,737,110 lbs., being an increase of 162 per cent. 
 The export of cotton twist and woven cottons from France in 1820 
 was 1,441,000 kilogrammes. The same in 1840, 4,440,000 kilo- 
 grammes, being an increase of 208 2 per cent. The consumption 
 of cotton in America in 1826 (I cannot obtain an earlier year) 
 was 103,483 bales, or 38,392,193 lbs. The same in 1840 was 
 297,288 bales, or 110,293,848 lbs., being an increase of 187 per cent. 
 The total value of manufactiu-es exported from America in 1826 
 was 1,138,125 dollars, as stated in Hunt's Merchant's Magazine, 
 published at New York. The total value in 1840 was 3,549,607 
 dollars, being an increase of 212 per cent. 
 
 The statements respecting the French trade I believe to be 
 strictly accurate — they are taken from Mr. MacGregor's tables. 
 But new turn to the British trade. The imports of cotton wool 
 into Great Britain for consumption in 1820 was 152,829,633 lbs. 
 The import of cotton wool in 1820 was 592,488,010 lbs., being an 
 increase of 288 per cent. The total of manufactured cottons 
 (twist and goods) exported from Great Britain in 1820, as by 
 official value, was 22,531,079Z. The total value expoi-ted in 1840 
 was 73,124,730Z., being an increase per cent, of 225. Thus, while 
 foreign countries increased 162 per cent, in the first case (France), 
 and 187 per cent, in the second (America), on the amounts 
 respectively of 44,547,615 lbs., and 110,293,848 lbs., the British trade 
 increased 288 per cent, on the amount of nearly 153 millions. In 
 support of my argument I quote Mr. M'Cidloch. " It is ludicrous 
 indeed," says that able writer, "to suppose that a half -peopled 
 country like America, possessed of boundless tracts of unoccupied 
 land of the highest degree of fertility, should be able successfully 
 to contejid in manufacturing industry with an old, settled, fully-
 
 126 House of Commons, 10th May, 1844. 
 
 peopled, and very i-icli country, like Great Britain." Mr. M'Cullocli 
 speaks like a man of sense. 
 
 Now, the third point of alarm which I wish to test by the 
 experience of the past, is the question urged so strongly then, and 
 with double vehemence now, the reduction of wages. Now, here 
 is the actual statement of the case, which will show how weak was 
 the ground on which the assertion was based. I will take the 
 facts, without pretending to assign the causes. In 1818 and 1819, 
 the two years preceding the limitation of the hours of labour, 
 these were the wages of the operatives : — The fine spinners made 
 11. 12s. per week, the coarse spinners from 20s. to 28s. per week, 
 the women spinners 17s. per week, the reelers 10s., the stretchers 
 14s., the pickers 9s. I find from the same table — a table in Tooke's 
 "High and Low Prices" — that in 1820, the first year of the 
 limitation, the wages continued the same. I have not been able 
 to get any tables to show the state of their earnings in the two 
 following years ; but the subject is a veiy important one, and we 
 can arrive at it by an easy ]5rocess. The records of the opei'ative 
 spinners in Lancashire show for many years the prices paid for 
 spinning per lb. In 1818 and 1819, in the Manchester and Bolton 
 district, those prices were for 40s. Sid. per lb. ; 60s. 5id. per lb. ; 
 80s. 8id. per lb. ; 100s. 9d. per lb. ; 150s. Is. lOd. per lb. ; and 
 200s. 5s. 4d. per lb. I find that, in 1821 and 1822, the years follow- 
 ing the limitation of labour, the same prices were obtained for 
 spinning as in 1818 and 1819. I have already shown to the House 
 that the weekly consumption of cotton-wool, in the three years 
 following the restriction, was greater than in the three years 
 preceding the restriction. Therefore, as there was a greater 
 quantity of cotton wool to be worked up, and the prices of working 
 it up were not reduced, we have good ground for asserting that 
 wages continued at least at the same level. So much for the 
 predictions of wages to be reduced. 
 
 Did the loss then fall on the profit of the manufacturer? 
 Suppose, for the sake of argument, that it was so ; surely an 
 adequate return must have been left, for I find that the 
 
 Cotton wool imporied in 1818 amounted to 177,282,158 lbs. 
 
 But in 1842 to 475,060,700 lbs. 
 
 The total number of cotton establishments in 1819 . 344 
 The same by latest rettu-ns (1839) .... 1815 
 
 And mills are, at this moment, in course of constmction in every 
 quarter. But let people say what they will, the whole siabject is 
 contained in an extract from a letter wiitten to me in March, 
 1844, by a veiy large proprietor : —
 
 X 
 
 Ten Hours Factory Bill. 127 
 
 " When," says he, " we see around us men of aU trades and ' 
 professions going into the cotton trade, some with little capital, 
 others with less knowledge or experience of the business — when 
 we see gentlemen, brokers, merchants, doctors, lawyei-s, drapers, 
 tailors, &c., leaving their respective professions and trades, and ^ 
 see them building mills in almost every town in Lancashire — 
 when we see capital thus finding its way into the spinning and 
 manufacturing business, surely the profits cannot be s o sma ll that 
 a little reduction of the hours of labour to sufi"ering thousands 
 is impracticable." *—r^ 
 
 Now, Sir, I have long been regarded as a monomaniac on these 
 subjects, as a man of peculiar opinions, one having a fixed idea, 
 but without support, or even countenance, in my wild opinions — 
 yet is it not the fact that the reduction of the hours of labour is'a" 
 question maintained and desii'ed by many great manufacturers 
 in the cotton trade ? I may quote in this House the members for 
 Oldham, Salford, Ashton, and Blackburn — I will just indicate a 
 few withoiit its walls, firm friends of the measure ; Mr. Kay, of 
 Bury ; Mr. William Walker, of Bury, perhaps the largest con- 
 sumer of cotton in that district ; Mr. Hamer, of the same place, 
 a partner in the finn of the late Sir Robert Peel ; Mr. Cooper, of 
 Preston ; Mr. Tysoe, of Salford ; and Mr. Kenworthy, of Black- 
 bum, I set great store by the opinions of this gentleman last 
 named, because he has passed through aU the gradations of the 
 business, and has by his own talent and integrity raised himself 
 from the condition of an operative to the station of a master. I 
 may add, too, the name of Mr. Hargreaves, of Acci*ington — no 
 inconsiderable person in Lancashire — who feels so strongly on 
 this subject, that he attended a public meeting in support of the 
 question, and moved a resolution himself. 
 
 Now, consider here the famous argument of Mr. Senior — an 
 argument urged almost more frequently than any other — to prove /- ' 
 
 the ioUy and mischief of my demand, Eveiy one, no doubt, will ^"' ,}•"" 
 readily acknowledge the talents and learning of this gentleman, ,"^ 
 
 but^^practical jxperimentsjire^ worth_ten thousand of his calcula- " \ 
 tions. Mr. Senior declares that the profit of the manufacturer i 
 arises from the labour of the last two hours ! Now observe — this 
 assertion might be met in various ways by reasoning, but a fact 
 is far better. I find a letter addressed, in April, 18-44, to the 
 editor of the Bolton Free Press, and signed, a Bolton Cotton 
 Spinner, but known to be by Mr. Thomason, a highly respectable 
 miU-owner, — he speaks from personal experience ; and what does 
 he say ? These are his words : — " There is also another consider- 
 ation for employers, namely, that in a day's work of twelve hours, •
 
 128 House of Comvions, 10th May, 1844. 
 
 the last hour, by reason of the exhaustion and listlessnoss of the 
 ( workers, more especially young children of thirteen or sixteen, 
 ^ ^ is the least productive in quantity, and the least satisfactory in 
 V, quality." And he adds — now mark this, — " The probability is, 
 ^'* that the twelfth hour produces more spoiled work than any 
 ^)^ other two hours of the day." Here is the opinion of a prac- 
 \^ : tical cotton- spinner ; and it is confirmed by every statement 
 \j' / that I have received on the subject; not a few experienced persons 
 ,* / ' having declared that they QouJ4,^lljJJXyie^ feel and the appear- 
 vilT ' 1 ance of the cloth, whether it had been made at the earlier or later 
 "* j periods of the day. But, further, I submitted the question to 
 the operative 'spinners of Lancashire ; and this is the answer I 
 ^^ received from twenty principal towns : — " "What is the character 
 I of the work of the two last hours ; is it equal in quality to that of 
 I the first ?" The answer which they have given me is, — 
 ' " Certainly not, especially in the winter months." 
 ~~~*" Sir, is it necessary further to detain the House by proofs that 
 the arguments of Mr. Senior rest by no means on the firmest 
 grounds ? The commercial argument, in truth, is really feeble ; 
 it has always been urged, and has never been verified, and yet 
 experience should go for something in these great considerations, 
 — it was broached in 1816 ; repeated and enforced in evidence 
 before committees, in speeches and pamphlets, in 1817, 1818, and 
 1819, and utterly refuted by the whole subsequent history of the 
 cotton trade from that day to the present — you had no diminu- 
 tion of produce, no fall in wages, no rise in price, no closing of 
 markets, no irresistible rivalry from foreign competition, althoiigh 
 you reduced your hours of working from 16, 14, 13, to 12 hours in 
 the day. What change has there occurred so mighty as to pre- 
 vent a similar resiilt in 1845 ? Is British energy so exhausted, 
 or skill so decayed, our resources so dried up, that two hours 
 taken from 12 will produce nothing but misery, when 2, 3, or 4, 
 taken from 16, 14, or 13, produced nothing but good ? You 
 argue, moreover, as though there existed no difference of opinion 
 among master cotton-spinners — as though every commercial 
 authority lay on your side, and were not found in equal weight 
 and character upon ours. 
 
 But while your financial argument has failed, not so that 
 
 arising from moral considerations. The antagonists, even, of the 
 
 'restriction pronounce it desirable, could it be safely effected ; and 
 
 / your own inspectors have told you that without such a limitation 
 
 "~=*i of the hours of toil, there can be no hopes for th e_soc ial ormoraL 
 
 i^improvement of the working classes. Here, then, springs up a 
 
 curious and important problem for solution by this House — no.
 
 Ten Hours Factor ij Bill 129 
 
 not by tliis House, for they have already resolved it — but for her 
 Majesty's Government, who deny our conclusions, and oppose 
 themselves to the thrice-recorded wishes of the British empire. 
 Which is the preferable condition for a people — high wages, Avith 
 privation of social and domestic enjoyment, without the means 
 of knowledge or the opportunities of virtue, acquiring wages, 
 which they waste through ignorance of household economy, and 
 placed in a state of moral and physical deterioration ? or lower 
 earnings, with increased advantages for mental improvement and 
 bodOy health ; for the understanding and performance of those 
 duties, which now they either know not, or neglect ; for obtaining 
 the humble but necessary accomplishments of domestic life, and 
 cultivating its best affections ? Clouds of witnesses attest these 
 things; clergy, ministers of every persuasion, doctors, master- 
 manufacturers, and operatives, have given, and are ready to give 
 again, the most conclusive evidence; but her ^Majesty's Ministers 
 refuse to listen, and wiU neither adopt the remedy we propose, 
 nor assist us with one of their own. 
 
 Sir, this House is now placed in a novel position ; it is sum- 
 moned to rescind its resolution, not because new facts or new 
 conditions have appeared, but because the Minister has declared 
 his hostility. Nothing has been stated that was not stated before 
 — no fresh knowledge communicated, no unseen dangers dis- 
 covered. The House is summoned to cancel its vote, not upon 
 conviction, but to save a government. The Minister surely has 
 no right to expose his supporters to this alternative — either to 
 abandon their opinions or dislodge their political friends. A 
 determination such as this should have been signified beforehand, 
 and not resei'ved until a time when it will be obeyed certainly 
 with gi-eat pain, and perhaps not without disgrace. Sir, I do 
 think that members should pause to consider the precedent they 
 are about to establish. Very alarming words fell from my 
 honourable friend, the member for Somersetshire — manly and 
 conscientious, as is everything that he says or does — that while 
 he retained his opinions, he should change his conduct, because 
 he found himself at variance with the Minister. .Aiid so_it_is 
 come_ tQ this,_that great q uesti ons_gtre to^be_tried^ not byithe 
 merits, but by their aspect^ as affecting the will or the fancies of 
 a^overnment, ox^posing, be it remembered, not a set of principles 
 to introduce a new system of rule or policy, but asserting a mere 
 opinion against the extension of an existing law, hastily taken L >^ 
 up, and somewhat arl)itrarily maintained. Sir, the whole question 'Zj^' 
 of representative governments is at stake — votes have been re- t . , ^^ 
 scinded before, but never such as this ; you are almost declaring, i/^^
 
 r 
 
 130 House of Commons, 10th May, 1844. 
 
 to those who are your ordinary friends, that they shall never > 
 exercise a vote hut at the will of the Minister. This is a despotism ^ 
 under the forms of the constitution ; and all to no purpose ; for 
 your resistance will be eventually and speedily overcome, but 
 your precedent will remain, more fatal to true liberty and inde- 
 pendence than all the Reform Bills. 
 
 I Sir, it is possible, nay, more, it is probable (for their efforts 
 
 1 have been great), that her Majesty's Ministers will can-y the day ; 
 
 I but for how long ? If the/ would render their victory a lasting 
 one, they must extinguish all the sentiments that gave rise to 
 jjgHne. Their error iF stupendous — " Scilicet illo igne, vocenT 
 popull, et libertatem senatus, et conscientiam humani generis 
 aboleri arbitrabantur." Could you, simultaneously with your 
 extinction of myself, extinguish for a while the sense of suffering, 
 or at least all sympathy with it, you might indeed hope for an 
 inglorious repose, and by the indulgence of your own ease, heap 
 up, for your posterity, tvirmoil, anxiety, and woe. But things wiU 
 not end here. The question extends with numbers, strengthens 
 with their strength, and rises with their intelligence. The feel- 
 ing of the country is roused ; and, so long as there shall be voices 
 to complain and hearts to sympathise, you will have neither 
 honour abroad, nor peace at home, neither comfort for the 
 present, nor security for the future. But I dare to hope for far 
 better things — for restored affections, for renewed understanding 
 between master and man, for combined and general efforts, for 
 large and mutual concessions of all classes of the wealthy for the 
 benefit of the common weKare, and specially of the labouring 
 
 • people. Sir, it may not be given to me to pass over this Jordan ; 
 1 other and better men have preceded me, and I entered into their 
 ^ labours ; other and better men wiU foUow me, and enter into 
 ' U I mine ; but this consolation 1 shall ever continue to enjoy — that, 
 i ,' amidst much injustice, and somewhat of calumny, we have at 
 ■^ ' last lighted such a candle in England as, by God's blessing, 
 
 shall never be put out. ';
 
 ( 131 } 
 Treatment of Lunatics. 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 
 Tuesday, July 23, 184 i. 
 
 Speech on moving for an Address to the Ciown, praying Her Majesty to take into 
 her consideration the Report of the Jletiopolitan Commissioners in Lunacy to 
 the Lord Chancellor, presented to the House by command of Her Majesty.* 
 
 Lord Ashley said it would be necessary for Mm shortly to 
 explain the reasons which actuated him. First, the nature of the 
 subject and the protraction of inqviiry had inevitably delayed the 
 production of the Report to this period of the Session. Secondly, 
 the statute under which the Commissioners acted would expire in 
 the next Session, and it would be necessary to call upon th<' 
 House to consider in what form and to what extent power should 
 be confided to any administrative body for the government of 
 lunatics throughout the kingdom. It was desirable, therefore, 
 that the country shotild not be taken by surprise, l>ut that these 
 weighty matters should be maturely considered during the ap- 
 proaching recess. He had been unwilling to bring foi-ward this 
 sulyect at all, but his colleagues in the Commission had thought 
 that the novelty of the subject, the great expenses incurred, and 
 the vast numbers who were subject to this jurisdiction, would 
 justify him in calling the attention of the House to it. Though 
 the Report embraced a variety of matters, those with which he 
 had to deal were limited to the civil and external govei-nment of 
 lunacy ; it was the duty of the House to prescribe the conditions 
 under which a man should be deprived of his liberty, and also 
 those under which he might be released; it was their duty t^) 
 take care that for those who required restraint there should be 
 provided kind and competent keepers, and that, while the patient 
 received no injury, the pubHc should be protected. 
 
 Insane patients were lodged either in single houses, in public 
 or county asylums, or in private asylums where paupers were 
 
 * From Hansard.
 
 132 House of Commons, 23rd July, 1844. 
 
 received. "Witli respect to the first class there were no Returns ; 
 the Commissioners were precluded by the statute from any inter- 
 ference in such circumstances ; and he must take the opportunity 
 of saying that he thought this a most imfortunate enactment, 
 not that he wished to claim for the Board the invidious and 
 burthensome power of examining and censuring the neglect of 
 private families, but because he believed that a power of this kind 
 ought to be confided to some hands that would hunt out and 
 expose the many horrible abuses that at presient prevailed. No 
 doubt there were many worthy excei)tions, but the House had no 
 notion of the abominations that prevailed in those asylums. It 
 was the concession of absolute secret and irresponsible power to 
 the relatives of lunatics and the keepers of the asylums, and 
 exposing them to temptations which he believed human nature 
 was too weak to resist. There were many patients in these single 
 houses for whom were paid not less than 500Z. per annum. This 
 was a temptation to keep such a patient in perpetual confinement, 
 becaiise with the returning health of the sufi"erer the allowance 
 would be discontinued. So strong was his opinion of the bad 
 effect of this, that if Providence should afilict any near relative of 
 his with insanity, he would consign him to an asylum in which 
 there were other patients, and which was subjected to official 
 visitation. The only conti'ol they had over the single houses was 
 this — that if a patient resided in one more than a twelvemonth, 
 the owner of the house was compelled to commtinicate rmder seal 
 the name of that patient to the Clerk of the Commission. But 
 for the most part no notice whatever was taken of this law, and 
 it was frequently evaded by removing the patient, after a residence 
 of eleven months, to some other lodging. He knew the delicacy 
 of the subject, but it was one with which the Legislature ought 
 to interfere. 
 
 The second class of houses was the coimty asyhims. The total 
 number of lunatics and idiots chargeable to unions and parishes 
 on the 1st of January, 1844, was 16,821 ; in England, 15,601 ; in 
 Wales, 1,220. In county asylums there was provision for no more 
 than 4.155 persons, leaving more than 12,000, of whom there were 
 in asylums under local acts eighty-nine, in Bethlehem and 
 St. Luke's 121, in other public asylums 343, while others were 
 disposed of otherwise, leaving in workhoiises and elsewhere 9,339. 
 Although a few of the existing county asylums were well adapted to 
 their purpose, and a very large proportion of them were extremely 
 well conducted, yet some were quite unfit for the reception of 
 insane persons. Some were placed in ineligible sites, and others 
 were deficient in the necessary means of providing out-door em-
 
 Treatment of Lunatics. lo3 
 
 ployment for their paupers. Souie also were ill-contrived aucl 
 defective iu their iutemal construction and accommodation. 
 Some afforded eveiy advantage of science and medical treatment ; 
 others were wholly deficient in these points. All of them, 
 however, had the advantage of constant super\'ision, and of not 
 giving any profit to the superintendents, so that it was not 
 necessary that the keeper should stint and spare his patients in 
 the articles necessary for the curative process, with the view of 
 realising a profit. Some of the country asylums were stated in 
 the Report to be admirably managed. It might be invidious to 
 -pecify, but he would mention those of Wakefield, Hanwell, Lin- 
 ijln, Lancaster, and Gloucester. Why, then, were not these 
 institutions multiplied ? At this moment there were twenty-one 
 counties in England and Wales without any asylum whatever, 
 public or private. The expense was one cause ; in some cases the 
 cost of construction had been exceedingly great ; the asylum most 
 cheaply constructed was that of Wakefield, of which the average 
 cost per head was 111?. ; while the highest priced was that of 
 Gloucester, which had cost, on the first accommodation, 357Z. per 
 head. In many cases the cost of construction had exceeded 1001. 
 per head. The cost of the Bedford asylum, for 180 patients, was 
 20,500Z. ; that of the Gloucester, for 261 patients, 51,306/. ; that 
 of the Kent, for 300 patients, was 64,056Z. ; that of Hanwell, for 
 1,000 patients, was 160,000/., exclusive of 36,000/. paid since July, 
 1835, for furniture and fittings. On the other hand, the best 
 constructed union houses in the country had not cost more than 
 40/. a head. No doubt a lunatic asylum was more expensive, but 
 not in that enormous degree. The reason of this difference he 
 did not know, except that many of tliem had been constructed 
 with a great display of architecture. The Commission had no 
 wish to advise the erection of unsightly buildings, but they 
 thought that no unnecessary cost should be incurred in the 
 erection of asylums. Some asylums were far too large, and on 
 this subject the Report said : 
 
 " The asylum for Kent wiU contain 300, for Sun-ey 360, for 
 West Riding 420, for Lancaster 600, and for Middlesex 1,000. 
 From the best opinions that we have been able to coUect, and 
 from the result of our own observations and experience, we think 
 it is highly desirable that no asylum for curable lunatics should 
 contain niore than 250 patients, and that 200 is perhaps as large a 
 number as can be managed, with the most benefit to themselves 
 and the public, in one establishment." 
 
 The principle had been recognized in the district asylums of 
 Ireland, and they had the great authority of Dr. Conolly for
 
 1:;34 House of Commons, 2ord July, 1844. 
 
 saying that 100 persons were the highest number that cotild be 
 managed, with convenience, in one of these asylums. It would be 
 l)etter to have two of a moderate size than one very large, to 
 which patients would be brought from a great distance. The 
 asylums of Lancaster and Middlesex were so excessively over- 
 grown that it was impossible to do full justice to the patients kept 
 in them. And yet he feared that fiu-ther enlargements were in 
 contemplation. 
 
 The third class was that of private asylums, which received 
 pei"3ons who paid their own expenses, and also paupers. The 
 total number of private patients in asylums of various descrip- 
 tions, on the 1st of January, 1844, was 4,072 ; of these there were 
 in metropolitan licensed houses, 973; in provincial, 1,426. The 
 paujjers in private or licensed houses were — metropolitan, 854 ; 
 provincial, 1,920. With respect to these a very serious question 
 arose, how far any house should be licensed to take patients or 
 paupers for jjayment. He knew there were some very good houses 
 of that description, but the pi"inciple was very dangerous. What- 
 ever might be the opinion of the House as to places of reception 
 for wealthy and independent patients, he considered there could 
 be very little doubt as to cases in which paupei's were sent to such 
 houses to be maintained, at the low rate of seven or eight shil- 
 lings, out of which the proprietor was to feed, and clothe, and 
 house the patient, and carry on the remedial process, paying all 
 these expenses, and still g^etting a profit. In the metropolitan 
 districts, at one time, the competition was so great that they were 
 preparing to take persons at seven and even six shillings a head ; 
 but the Commissioners had done everything they could to dis- 
 countenance this, and to a certain extent they had succeeded, 
 though they were still taken at eight and nine shillings. But in 
 the country this evil was still altogether unchecked, as the extracts 
 from the Repori which he should now read to the House would 
 show. 
 
 " Many asylums had formerly been private houses ; the mansion 
 was sometimes engrossed by the proprietor and a few private 
 patients, while the paupers were consigned to buildings formerly 
 used as offices and outhouses." 
 
 The following were the remarks of the Commissioners on some 
 of these houses : — 
 
 " West Auckland — Thirteen males, sixteen females ; the violent 
 and the quiet, the dirty and the clean, shut up together ; only one 
 small yard, and when the one sex was in it, the other shut up ; in 
 the day room of the males five restrained by leg-locks, and two 
 wealing, in addition, iron handcuffs and fetters from the wi-ist to 
 
 ll
 
 Treatment of Lunatics. 135 
 
 tlie ankle, all tranquil, but tbey would otberwise escape ; chains 
 fastened to floor in many places, and to many of the bedsteads ; 
 the males tbi'ougbout tbe bouse slept two in a bed. Wreckenton, 
 near Gateshead — Chains attached to the floor in several places, 
 and it was the jpractice to chain patients by the leg upon their 
 first admission, in order, as it was said, to see what they would 
 do; bedding filthy, cell off'ensive, also sleeping room; improved 
 by visitation, but still unfit. Licensed house at Derby — Damp, 
 unhealthy ; bedding in a disgusting condition from running sores. 
 At Lainston, in Hants — Even on third visit seven female paiipers 
 in chains ; these seven and three others chained to their beds at 
 night; the usual accompaniments of dirty, wet, and ill-clothed. 
 Kingdown-house, at Box — the same details. House of Industry, 
 Kingsland, near Shrewsbury — Containing from eighty to ninety 
 insane persons. They were nearly all fastened to their beds by 
 chains to the wi'ists. Union House, Redruth, in Cornwall — 
 Forty-one insane persons, several violent and requiring restraint. 
 Ditto at Bath — Twenty-one insane persons. At Leicestei* — 
 Thirty insane persons; namely, eleven males and nineteen 
 females, of whom three males and nine females were dangerous. 
 Of the males, W. K. was a noisy maniac, very cunning, and 
 occasionally striking the other men in the ward. P. R. was 
 subject to maniacal attacks, during which he was placed in a 
 strait waistcoat : he was raving mad aliout two months before our 
 ^'isit, and was consequently fastened to his bed at night, to prevent 
 him from injuring or annoying the other inmates. A. H. was 
 violent and passionate, and tried to cut others with knives, and 
 all these persons were dangerous. Amongst the other cases J. L., 
 an epileptic; J. D., a case of melancholia; J. G., formerly in the 
 asylum, and still insane, noisy, and abusive : the rest of the males 
 of the class appeared to be either harmless idiots, or in a state of 
 mental imbecility. The three most dangerous of the females 
 were C. B., admitted June 12th, 1839, a destriictive and dangerous 
 idiot; M. H., admitted the 23rd of February, 1839, an abusive 
 and dangerous lunatic : she was brought to the workhouse in a 
 state of violent excitement by two policemen. M. A. R., admitted 
 the 24th of February, 1841, a quarrelsome and dangerous idiot, 
 once knocked out the teeth of a child. To these may be added 
 the following, as properly coming within the description of dan- 
 gerous lunatics : — M. B., a sullen, ill-tempered person, who refused 
 to be employed, and had threatened, when at home, to kill her 
 mother. A. W., in the workhoiise three years, an abusive lunatic, 
 who had occasionally struck most of the women in the ward, 
 particulai'ly a paralytic patient, who could not defend herself.
 
 136 House of Commons, 23rd July, 1844. 
 
 J. S., an irritable mad woman, who threw knives at those whom 
 she happened to have a dispute with. E. H., a violent, irascible 
 person, subject to maniacal excitement, and dangerous when 
 irritated. She had been twenty- six weeks in the county asylum, 
 having become unmanageable at home after the death of her 
 mother sixteen years ago, and was said to strike the inmates 
 maliciously. A. H., a harmless lunatic, with delusions, was most 
 improperly sent to the workhouse instead of the asylum four 
 years ago. Besides the above, there were in the house six quiet 
 female limatics, all confirmed cases, and five idiots. Workhouse 
 at Birmingham — Seventy-one insane persons, amongst them was 
 an unusual proportion of epileptics, namely, eleven males and 
 sixteen females. Several of these were idiots, others were subject, 
 after their paroxysms of epilepsy, to fits of raving madness or 
 epileptic fever, during which they were stated to be excessively 
 violent. Besides these, there were several patients who were 
 occasionally under great excitement and furiously maniacal, two 
 of the females had strong suicidal propensities, and one of them 
 had attempted suicide. There is no class of persons more dan- 
 gerous than are those epileptics who are subject to attacks of 
 epileptic furor or delirium." 
 
 Of Plympton, in Devonshire, the Commissioners said, — 
 " In one of the cells in the upper coui-t for the women, the 
 dimensions of which were eight feet by four, and in which there 
 was no table, and only two wooden seats fastened to the wall, we 
 found three females confined, there was no glazing to the window, 
 and the floor of this place was perfectly wet with urine. The two 
 dark cells which adjoin the cell used for a day room are the 
 sleeping places for these three unfortunate beings ; two of them 
 sleep in two cribs in one cell. The floor in the cell with the two 
 cribs was actually reeking wet with urine, and covered with straw 
 and filth, and one crib had a piece of old carpet by way of bedding 
 besides the straw, but the other appeared to have had nothing 
 but straw, without any other bedding. In the other cell, the 
 patient who had slept in it had broken her crib to pieces, and a 
 part of it was remaining in the ceU, but the straw was heaped up 
 in one comer, and as far as we could rely iipon what was said, 
 she had slept upon the straw upon the ground at least one night. 
 The straw itseK was most filthy, the floor was perfectly wet with 
 urine, and part of the straw had been stuck to the wall in patches 
 with excrement. It must be added that these two cells, and one 
 other adjoining to it, have no window and no place for light or 
 air, except a grate over the door, which opens into a passage. The 
 persons of these three unfortunate women were extremely dirty,
 
 Treatment of Lunatics. 137 
 
 aud the condition iu which we foiind them and their cells was 
 '. i-uly sickening and shocking. Adjoining to the two sleeping 
 . i/lls of these women, and opening into the same passage, was a 
 third cell, which was occupied as a sleeping phicc by a male 
 criminal of very dangerous habits and an idiotic boy. This cell 
 was dirty and offensive, and the floor of it wet with uiine, but it 
 was not in so filthy a state as the other two. The criminal was 
 fastened at night to his bed with a chain. We strongly objected 
 to these men being confined in a cell closely adjoining to the 
 females. The whole of these cells were as damp and dark as an 
 undergrotind cellar, and were in such a fotil and disgusting state 
 that it was scarcely possible to endure the offensive smell. We 
 sent for a candle and lantern to enable ns to examine them." 
 
 That asylum had since been improved, but it was in con- 
 sequence of repeated visitations. To correct these evUs (pro- 
 ceeded the noble Lord) there was no remedy but the multiplication 
 of county asylums ; and if advice and example failed, they ought 
 to appeal to the assistance of the law, to compel the constrixction 
 of an adequate number of asylums over the whole country. If 
 constructed, however, on the same principles as had been adopted 
 in many of those now existing, they would be little better than 
 useless, and mere hospitals for incurables. Great benefit, it was 
 to be observed, as well as great saving of expense, resulted from 
 the appHcation of curative means at an early stage of insanity. 
 The keepers of all the great asylums stated that numbers of 
 persons, esisecially pauper lunatics, were sent there at so late a 
 period of the disease as totally to preclude hope of recovery. It 
 \vas the duty of the State to j)rovide receptacles for the incurable 
 patients, apai"t from those devoted to the remedial treatment : it 
 would be necessary also to enact that the patients should be sent 
 without delay to the several asylums. On this subject he would 
 read a few observations of the Commissioners. With reference 
 to Hanwell they said : 
 
 " The county asylum is nearly filled with incurable lunatics, 
 and almost all the recent cases are practically excluded from it. 
 When we visited it in March last, there were 984 patients, of 
 whom only thirty were reported curable, and there were 429 
 patients belonging to the county out of the asylum, who, if they 
 wait for the rota before they are admitted, will probably have 
 become iucui-able, and will be lunatic annuitants upon the county 
 or their parishes. Lancaster asylum contains 600 patients, of 
 whom 546 are considered incural^le ; and there are more than 500 
 pauper lunatics in the county for whom it has no accommodation. 
 Sui-rey Asylum, opened in 1841 j on 1st January, 1 844, number in
 
 138 House of Commons, 23rd July, 1844. 
 
 asylum, 382, of whom 362 are reported incurable; there are 
 belonging to the county of SuiTcy 591 pauper lunatics. This was 
 a most costly system. The superintending physician of Hanwell 
 Asylum published a table in 1842, to show how long each patient 
 had been confined there. There were 936 in the asylum ; 696 had 
 been there more than two years, and were pronounced incurable. 
 The average duration of confinement of these 696 was iipwards of 
 six years and nine months. The yearly cost was about 22Z. 4s. 
 for each patient; each patient, therefore, will have cost 140L" 
 " It should not be forgotten," the Report said, " that many 
 pauper lunatics have families, who would no longer be thrown on 
 parishes for support, if their mental maladies could be removed, 
 or even materially ameliorated." 
 
 But the benefits of early attention were most evident from the 
 following statements. It was impossible that they could press 
 too much upon the attention of all parish officers the immense 
 benefit which arose from early attention to all cases of lunacy, 
 and an early attack, medicinally, upon the disease, before it 
 became confirmed. In general, all the best practitioners at county 
 asylums complained of the late stage of the disease at which 
 patients were sent in, and hon. Members would see that the Com- 
 missioners were obliged to make frequent complaints upon that 
 subject, and the state of filth and rags in which the poor creatures 
 were transmitted from their parishes. Into the asylum at 
 Forston, in Dorsetshire, during the course of last year, out of 
 thirty-seven pauper lunatics, six had been sent in within three 
 mouths of their being attacked with the disorder, and the result 
 was most cheering, for out of the six, five were dismissed cured 
 within four months after their arrival, and the sixth, although a 
 female of seventy-five years of age, was in a state of convalescence, 
 and he had no doubt she was also now restored to her family. 
 Into St. Luke's it was well known that no patient was admitted 
 after he had been labouring under the attack for more than 
 twelve months. He was astonished to fijid, from the Returns 
 made from that hospital, that, in 1842, the cures averaged 70 per 
 cent., and that last year they reached 65 per cent. His curiosity 
 was so excited upon the suljject that he vn*ote a letter to Dr. 
 Sutherland, the visiting physician, to ask him whether those cases 
 were merely temporary, or whether they were real and substantial 
 cures. In answer the Doctor said : 
 
 " All the cures mentioned in the Report, page 81, are perma- 
 nent. Our rule is, that if any patient who has been discharged 
 from the hospital as cured relapses within three months, he is 
 readmitted, not as a fresh but as a relapsed case ; the period he
 
 Treatment of Lunatics. 139 
 
 has been at home is deducted, and he is kept in the hospital to 
 the end of the twelve months, or till he is again cured ; but all 
 such relapsed cases are deducted from the list of cures ; however, 
 we very seldom have instances of relapses — three or four during 
 the year is the average." 
 
 Was not that a most satisfactory statement ? Contrast that 
 with reports from other parts of the country. The Commissioners 
 report that — 
 
 "In the asylums of Lincoln, Leicester, Nottingham, and North- 
 ampton, the superintendents and visiting physicians have ex- 
 pressed their unanimous opinion that pauper lunatics are sent 
 there at so late a period of their disease as to impede or pi-event 
 their ultimate recovery. Opinions to the same effect from almost 
 cveiy county lunatic asylum." Chester may be taken as a sample. 
 ■■ Paupers are brought in a very bad state, in filth and rags, and, 
 from too long delays, in a state where there is little or no chance 
 of recovery." 
 
 He believed that one reason why parochial authorities were so 
 backward in sending in patients was their ignorance of the great 
 lienefit arising from early care and medical attendance, partly, 
 too, the want of a sufficient accommodation, but the great ob- 
 jection was the increased expense. They liked much more to 
 keep such unfortunates in the workhouse at an expense not 
 exceeding 2s. per week, rather than sending them to the county 
 asylum, where the minimum charge was 7s. per week. He verily 
 believed that even in the matter of expense, a first outlay, which 
 might be considerable in the beginning, woiild jjrove eminently 
 profitable in the end. His full conviction was, that the number 
 of cures which would be efi'ected, and looking at it merely as a 
 question of expense, would fully repay the expenditure in ten 
 years. Now, it was tnie that they could show but few instances 
 of restoration to reason ; how was it possible ? They could show 
 a mighty improvement in the condition of the sufferers, the 
 alleviation of their state, their occupations and amusements (all, 
 with some bright exceptions, of recent date), and that the services 
 of religion had infused a momentary tranquillity ; but they could 
 show little else ; and unless the Legislature should interfere, and 
 bring these unfortunates Ijy force within the reach of sympathy 
 and care, for every one restored to his senses we should see a 
 himdred in whom the light of reason would be extinguished for 
 ever. 
 
 Next, there were two points of deep interest to which the 
 House would do well to advert for a moment — the questions of 
 restraint, and the admission and liberation of patients. Upon
 
 110 House of Commons, 2.drd July, 1844, 
 
 restraint it was unnecessary to dwell very long, as it was a matter 
 of interaal arrangement, and beyond their immediate legislation ; 
 but lie wislied to direct the attention of the House to the chapter 
 in the Repoi-ts which handled that subject, that it might shai-e 
 the general satisfaction, and give praise to those good and able 
 men, Mr. Tuke, Dr. Hitch, Dr. CorseUis, Dr. Conolly, Dr. Vitre, 
 Dr. Charlesworth, and many more, who had brought all their 
 high moral and intellectual qualities to bear on this topic, and 
 had laboured to make the rationed and humane treatment to be 
 the rule and principle of the government of lunacy. Respecting 
 the admission of pauper patients it would be necessary to make 
 very stringent regulations : for their admission into private 
 asylums a cei'tificate was required, signed by a medical man ; 
 county asylums also, though not compelled by law, had made 
 similar regidations for their own guidance ; but for the transfer 
 of them to any lunatic ward in a workhouse no authority was 
 required but that of the master. This power was open to the 
 greatest abuses. The Report suggested that, until a sufficient 
 number of asylums had been created, certain portions of stated 
 workhouses should be licensed, and subjected to all the conditions 
 and superintendence of the appointed visitor. 
 
 The admission into licensed houses offered a better guarantee 
 of secui-ity ; and the Commissioners were satisfied that it was, on 
 the whole, well guarded, as they had not found a single instance 
 of which they could say that the fii'st confinement was un- 
 questionably, and beyond all doubt, improper; but the)'' have 
 found some instances in which the confinement was unnecessaiily 
 prolonged. The question of liberation v/as very delicate ; they 
 had two pai'ties to consider, the patient himself, and the public, 
 which must not be exposed to the evil of persons who may 
 become violent and dangerous being allowed to wander at large. 
 What was to be done .'* There was one point to which he wished 
 to direct attention with reference to this portion of the subject, 
 and that was, the fact that no more frequent cause of insanity 
 existed than was found in intoxication ; the number of persons 
 who were confined in lunatic asylums, and whose insanity origi- 
 nated in diainkenness, was very great, and would surprise any 
 j)erson who was not aware of the effects of this habit. In a 
 majority of cases, a few days' curative treatment produced a cure; 
 but then the patient relapsing into former habits became again 
 insane, and underwent a series of repeated cures and repeated 
 relapses ; in many instances such persons, if set at lil:)ei-ty, en- 
 dangered not only their own lives but those of others ; this was 
 one of the most difficult j)oints to adjudicate. He (the noble 
 
 I
 
 Treatment of Lunatics. 141 
 
 Lord) had frequently urged upon the House, and especially in his 
 Motion upon Education, the frightful consequences of inebriety — 
 a habit fostered among the people as much by the system of 
 things we permitted, and the temptations to which we suffered 
 them to be exposed, as by their ovni tendencies. 
 
 He would now call the attention of the House to the state of 
 Wales with respect to pauper lunatics. In 1843, by the Poor 
 Law Returns, the number of Welsh pauper lunatics was 1,177. 
 Of these thii-ty-six were in English county asylums, forty -one in 
 licensed houses in England, ninety in union workhouses, and 
 1.010 living with their friends. Many of these were in a wretched 
 Condition. The Commissioners stated — 
 
 '• It has been represented to iis that many of the Welsh lunatics 
 who have been in the English asylvims have been very violent, 
 and have been sent to them in a wi-etched and most neglected 
 (■■.>ndition." 
 
 He (Lord Ashley) had been charged for having included South 
 Wales in a reproach that belonged only to the north ; but what 
 was the fact ? In a letter from South Wales, one of the Com- 
 missioners, now on a visitation, stated — 
 
 " We have met with one case which we think most atrocious. 
 A. B. was sent to the Hereford Asylvim from near Brecon, on 
 Nov. 28, 1843. She died on January 30 ; she was in such a 
 shocking state that the proprietor wished not to admit her ; she 
 had been kept chained in the house of a maii'ied daughter. From 
 )>eing long chained in a crouching posture, her knees were forced 
 up to her chin, and she sat wholly iipon her heels and her hips, 
 and considerable excoriation had taken place where her knees 
 pressed upon her stomach. She could move about, and was 
 generally maniacal. When she died, it required very considerable 
 dissection to get her pressed into her coffin! This might be 
 taken as a sample of Welsh lunatics." 
 
 But it had been iirged as a reason for not building lunatic 
 asylums in Wales, that the pauper lunatics could be easily pro- 
 vided for in the English lunatic asylums, and in consequence it had 
 not been attempted to institute a curative system in that country. 
 This appeared to him, and would, no doubt, appear to every one to 
 be a great cruelty. " The greatest of all cruelties," said Dr. Lloyd 
 Williams, in speaking of this subject, " was to send the wretched 
 pauper to a jDCople whose language he could not understand ;" 
 and the general result was that the lunatic — whose state of mind, 
 in general, was characterised by suspicion of all who approached 
 him, not being able to understand the language of those around 
 him, or to communicate with them — became excited and inflamed,
 
 142 House of Commons, 23rd July, 1844. 
 
 and passed from the incipient or cui'able stage of insanity to 
 confirmed lunacy. It was true that tlie foundation of an asylum 
 had been lately laid at Denbigh ; but the present activity of all 
 parties must be ascribed in great measui-e to the inqviiry which 
 had been instituted by the Commission which had travelled 
 thi'oughout the country, and which had shown that it was the 
 determination of Parliament not to permit these crying evils any 
 longer to go unchecked and unredressed. 
 
 He now came to the Cx-iminal lunatics, the number of whom in 
 April, 1843, was 257, distributed in the following manner : — In 
 gaols, 33 ; in Bethlehem Hospital, 85 ; and in various asylums, 
 139. With respect to those criminals who were confined in the 
 various private asylums, he would put it to the House whether it 
 was not an improper and unnecessary aggi-avation of their 
 miseries towards the other lunatics to subject them to confine- 
 ment in the same place and under the same regulations as criminal 
 lunatics — he spoke not of crimes of a lighter dye, but of those of 
 whom some had committed the most atrocioiis crimes, such as 
 murder and detestable offences. He assured the House it was 
 felt by such lunatics to be a serious hardship that they should 
 have to associate with these persons : the regulations, also, which 
 were enforced in those places where criminals were confined were 
 more severe than elsewhere, and theii* severity was felt by all the 
 lunatics alike. They were likewise debarred from much indul- 
 gence which, under other eii-cumstances, their melancholy situa- 
 tion would have procured for them. 
 
 The noble Lord then proceeded to say that the whole course of 
 experience, and the judgment of all the most enlightened and 
 humane men who had reflected on the subject, went to establish 
 the necessity of instituting and maintaining the most vigilant 
 system of frequent visitation. It was in itself a most salutary 
 mode of executing a duty so essential to the comfoi-t of the 
 unhappy objects whose welfare was concerned, while it afforded 
 the opportunity of bi-inging to bear upon those institutions the 
 influence of public opinion and public notoriety, and of exposing 
 their administration to praise or blame. Now it was believed, 
 that, within the metropolitan districts of late years, vigilance had 
 generally been exercised ; but he could not say the same in the 
 prorincial districts ; an exception could be made in favour of the 
 county asylums, where the visiting justices had shown the greatest 
 attention, and in some few, though very few, of the borough and 
 rural asylums. In general this duty had been shamefully neglected. 
 It would be needless for him to detain the House by enumerating 
 facts that spoke for themselves ; for if the parties to whom the
 
 Treatment of Lunatics. 143 
 
 duty of visitation had been entrusted had discliarged their office 
 with but common vigilance, the Commissioners would never have 
 been able to have collected such materials for the Report that 
 had been laid on the table. But he should like to state to the 
 House the beneficial effects of continual visitation. He would 
 mention a case, which he felt warranted in doiiig from a sense of 
 justice to the proprietor of a very great establishment in this 
 town, whose asylum was the original cause of the Commission of 
 Inquiry being appointed in 1818, but whose asylum now presented, 
 as far as it was possible for an institution of that nature to 
 present, a most agreeable and a most consolatory picture of what 
 might be done by vigilant inspection. He spoke of Dr. Wai*bur- 
 ton's asylum at Bethnal Green. He remembei'ed that the state 
 of that asylum was so bad, that in 1826 a Commission of Inquiry 
 was instituted, when scenes of the most cruel and disgusting 
 nature were revealed, which made one shudder at the very recital 
 of them. He remembered weU the sounds that assailed his ear, 
 and the sights that shocked his eye, when visiting that abode of 
 the most wi'etched. But what was that asylum now .f^ Altogether 
 changed. There was, however, an original and inherent sin in all 
 private asylums, because they must be made to yield a profit to 
 the keeper. But Dr. Warburton had expended large sums to 
 make improvements in his establishment. He had extended his 
 grounds for affording opportimities of exercise, and had adopted 
 every means for the amelioration and care of his patients. As a 
 proof of the very great change in the system adopted at that 
 asylum, he (Lord Ashley) would simply mention that, whereas, in 
 1828, there was commonly from 150 to 200 of the patients restrained 
 by leg-locks, chains, and other fetters — certainly dui-ing the night 
 — in 1844 there were out of 582 patients only five whose violence 
 rendei'ed this species of restriction necessary ; and even the con- 
 finement or coercion resorted to was of the most moderate 
 description, and, in the opinion of the visiting officers, most 
 necessary. He would point to that case as to a sample of the 
 salutary influence which was exercised by watching the proceed- 
 ings carried on in these places of confinement, which but for 
 such constant vigilance would again become dens of iniquity and 
 oppression. 
 
 Sir, these subjects may be dull, and want the light and shade of 
 more exciting topics; but the expense which is incurred, the 
 numbers that suffer, and the nature of their sufferings wiU, 
 perhaps, justify the present demand upon your time and patience. 
 The House possesses the means of applying a real and a speedy 
 remedy. These unhappy persons are outcasts from aU the social
 
 144 House of Commons, 2Srd July, 1844. 
 
 and domestic affections of private life — nay, more, from all its 
 cares and duties — and have no refuge but in the laws. You can 
 prevent, by the agency you shall appoint, as you have in many 
 instances prevented, the recurrence of frightful ciiielties; you 
 can soothe the days of the incurable, and restore many sufferers 
 to health and usefulness, ll For we must not run away with the 
 notion that even the hopelessly mad are dead to all capacity of 
 intellectual or moral exertion — quite the reverse ; their feelings, 
 too, are painfully alive — I have seen them writhe under supposed 
 contempt, while a word of kindness and respect would kindle 
 their whole countenance into an expression of joy. Their con- 
 dition appeals to our highest sympathies, 
 
 " Majestic, though in ruin ;" 
 
 for. though there may be, in the order of a merciful Providence, 
 some compensating dispensation which abates within, the horrors 
 manifested without, we must judge alone by what we see ; and I 
 trust, therefore, that I shall stand excused, though I have con- 
 sumed so much of your vahiable time, when you call to mind that 
 the motion is made on behalf of the most helioless, if not the 
 most afflicted, portion of the human race. 
 
 H
 
 ( 145 ) 
 
 Legislation for the Labouring Classes. 
 
 Manchester, Saturday, October 26, 1844. 
 
 On tlie evening of the 26tli of October, Lord AsUey met the Lanca- 
 shire Central Short Time Committee, and a few of their friends. 
 at the Brunswick Hotel, where considerable difficulty was ex- 
 ])crienced by the committee in preventing the room from being 
 crowded. 
 
 Lord Ashley said: Gentlemen, I now rise, with feelings of 
 unusual gratification, to thank you for the address which has 
 just been pi-esented to me. I may say that I am more than 
 satisfied with those expressions of thanks and renewed confidence 
 contained in the document which I now hold in my hands. It is 
 quite as much as I can expect for any past services I may have 
 rendered in this good cause ; but I have much more to require 
 for the future than a mere approval of my own conduct. I have 
 to require at your hands, that you will persevere in demanding 
 this measvire of justice for your children, in the same spirit of 
 respectful but determined entreaty which has hitherto character- 
 ized the whole of your operations. Gentlemen, I must, in this 
 stage of our proceeding this evening, express, in your presence, 
 the obligations both you and I are under to my friend — for as 
 such I am proud to call him — I mean your delegate to London 
 during the last session of Parliament, and whom you have 
 chosen, on this occasion, to put this address into my hands. I 
 have had many opportunities of judging of his zeal and efficiency. 
 and I assure you that very much of our success in the last 
 session of Parliament is attributable to his services, and those of 
 his worthy colleague ; nor should I be doing my duty, when, if 
 in Manchester, did I omit to mention, with the gi-eatest respect, 
 the names of some excellent friends to this cause, and to whose 
 efforts in former years the present position of the question is in 
 no small degree attributable. I do not think that, in the town of 
 Manchester, the name of your best and earliest friend, Nathaniel 
 
 L
 
 14(i Manchester, 'lUh October, 1844. 
 
 Gould, can ever be foi-gotten. After liim came tliat great and 
 good man, who is now gone to his rest, I mean the late Michael 
 Thomas Sadler — a man designed by God to promote this cause 
 at a time when good, courageous, and powerful minds were alone 
 adequate to the task, and without whose preliminary labours, I 
 hesitate not to say that my efforts would have been altogether un- 
 availing. Gentlemen, that man mvist never be forgotten. But 
 there are others whose services must not be passed over. I trust 
 I shall never omit to mention the name of John Wood, of Brad- 
 ford ; for if ever there was Christianity in the heart of man, it is 
 to be found in that excellent person. He has ever stood your 
 friend, sparing neither toil nor money ; and I can tell you that at 
 this moment his zeal is as warm, and his spirits as unbroken, as 
 on the very first day he imdei-took to mix himseM up vnth this 
 mighty question. Surely, among your allies in Lancashire, your 
 minds will recui- to the names of Mr. Brotherton and Mr. Fielden. 
 Their services to your cause in Parliament are beyond commenda- 
 tion. They have ever, since the first day I was engaged in this 
 matter, been to me, in all its stages, the most staunch and untiring 
 friends. There are two other friends to be named with deep grati- 
 tude — Mr. Oastler and Mr. Bull. Mr. Oastler I have lately seen, 
 and I know that his feelings are unchanged on this subject; and 
 I am told that Mr. Bull is as warm-hearted and as vigorous as he 
 ever was in your cause. I have thought it right, being in Man- 
 chester, and at a meeting of the workpeople, to make honourable 
 mention of those men who, when the question was surrounded with 
 greater hazards than it is at present, did not fear to come forward 
 and declare in the face of contempt, and prejudice, and power, 
 that, by the aid of God's blessing, they would strive against every 
 difficulty, and persevere until they had brought the struggle to a 
 successful termination. 
 
 Let us now consider the position of the measure at the 
 present time. Just bear in mind this important fact, that from 
 the very first hour it was mooted in Parliament to the present 
 day it has continually advanced, by slow degrees, it is time, yet 
 by safe and certain improvements. It has struck root down- 
 wards, and be assured it will soon bear fruit upwards. If this 
 be so (and who can doubt it?) then I say there is great cause 
 to rejoice in the progress which has been made; and if you are 
 of the same mind as when I first began the measure, and as 
 resolved as you were then, that it is indispensable to your physical 
 and moi-al welfare, you would be wrong to distrust the Providence 
 which watches over you. There is every reason to hope that the 
 day is not far distant when our labours will be brought to a
 
 Legislation for the Lahonring Classes, 147 
 
 happy issue ; and that tlio women and children of this great 
 empire will, God helping them, eventually enjoy these social and 
 domestic blessings which, for so many years, we have been seek- 
 ing to obtain. Gentlemen, I should like to point out to you, in a 
 few words, what are the advantages that we have gained since we 
 fii'st began to stir in this question. I have had occasion, in my 
 tour through these districts, to address my friends ; and I have 
 asked them to tax their memories, and contrast the present state 
 of the mUls with what it was sixteen years ago. Why, gentle- 
 men, if you consider your position now as compared with that 
 period, you could scarcely believe you were living under the same 
 system. In the act which we obtained last session of Parliament, 
 there were provisions which ought to repay both you and me for 
 all the exertions we have made since we first began our labours. 
 The first is an enactment for children of tender years — judge by 
 yourselves — you know what a blessing it would have been to you 
 had your labour in youth been limited to six hours a day ; what 
 an inexpressible advantage had two or three hours each day been 
 assigned for wholesome instruction ! — what a benefit if in early 
 life you should have had two or three hours left for healthy 
 recreation and enjoyment ! You know well what a blessing all 
 this would have been to you, and therefore you have great cause 
 to lift up youi* hearts to God, and thank him for the mercy now 
 extended to your children. There is another clause in this bill 
 to which I shall jjrietiy allude ; you must know, from sad ex- 
 perience, how numerous and crviel are the accidents, deaths, and 
 mutilations that occur in these districts from the unguarded 
 state of machinery ; — it is no trifling point to have gained hy the 
 present law that, so far as human provision can go, your lives 
 and limbs will be protected against these sad mischiefs. The 
 legislature has said that your persons shall not be exposed to 
 unnecessary danger ; that any neglect on the part of the pro- 
 prietors which shall have caused injury to any human being 
 shall be prosecuted at the public expense. This is a novel, but it 
 is almost a divine principle of protection to those who cannot 
 protect themselves. I will not here further allude to it, as I wish 
 to avoid saying anything needlessly, which, by recurring to the 
 past, may lead to exasperation; I have simply mentioned the 
 circumstance now, to show you what strides we have already 
 made in the right direction. But there is another provision 
 contained in the present bill, founded on justice and nature ; one 
 which, I feel convinced, will work out very great and beneficial 
 results. I speak of the clause which provides that no woman, 
 of whatever age, shall be worked in any mill or factory more than
 
 148 Manchester, 2ufh Odoher, 1844. 
 
 twelve hours a day. I wish that the limitation had been reduced 
 much lower ; but this is a good point gained ; and it is a consola- 
 tion to know that respect has been paid to the claims and weak- 
 ness of the sex, to such a degree as that no woman may. in any 
 circumstances, be forced to toil more than twelve hours in the day.' 
 This provision alone is, I have declared already, and I declare 
 again, worth all the lalwur, and anxiety, and sacrifice, we have 
 endured since we commenced the advocacy of this question to 
 the present time. 
 
 Now, my object in coming here is, first, to explain any little 
 obscurity that there might appear to be as to the mode I adopted 
 in dealing with the subject in the last session of Parliament; 
 and next, that I may both give and receive counsel in the present 
 state of the question. How far explanation is necessaiy as 
 to the course I adopted is for you to determine ; and I shall be 
 ready and most willing to explain any matter which may 
 appear obscure, and answer any questions which any operative 
 may think proper to put to me ; but at present I hardly think it 
 advisable at this hour of the night, after the toil you have endured 
 during the day, to detain you with lengthy details of matters 
 that even then may be difficiilt to be understood by those who 
 are not conversant with the forms of the House of Commons. 
 / It will perhaps be sufficient to say. that it was necessary for me 
 to adopt the course I pursued in order to presei^ve the bill which 
 is now become law, and to obtain which had required great care 
 and watchfulness. It was in constant jeopardy, and a false step 
 on our part would have caused the loss of it, perhaps, for ever. 
 Here was our difficulty ; we had to combine two objects, — the 
 preservation of the bill, and the affirmation of our own great 
 principle of the ten hours. ( It is my firm conviction that I have 
 succeeded ; the biU is now the law of the land ; and the principle of 
 ten hours is as fresh and vigorous as at any period, and scarcely 
 even retarded by the prodigious exertions of official power. 
 
 Gentlemen, it has been said that I am the enemy of the factory 
 masters and of the factory system : allow me to say a few words on 
 this point. To caU me the enemy of the factory masters is to 
 caU me both insane and unchristian ; there is neither justice, nor 
 principle, nor common sense in being the enemy of any one class of 
 gentlemen, and particularly of a class of gentlemen which presents 
 as many instances of intelligence and -virtue as any other in this 
 community. I have never been the enemy of factory masters ; I 
 should be ashamed to entertain any hostiHty against that class 
 amongst whom I know so many that are ornaments to our 
 country; men who have exhibited a degree of generosity and
 
 Ler/islaiion for the Lajourinj Classes. 1-19 
 
 l.ieuevolence that I have seldom found equalled amongst other 
 classes of the community. In so large a body of men there must 
 lie. as in other classes of society, some far better than others ; 
 -^.ime, no doubt, very greatly inferior. If all factory masters 
 were like some that I could name, there would be no necessity 
 for the legislature to interfere ; but in this, as in every other case, 
 laws of the statute book are made to restrain the vicious, who 
 will not be restrained by the laws of humanity and justice. But 
 if ever I had been the enemy of the manufacturers (which I deny), 
 I have, since the commencement of my present tour in these 
 districts, experienced sufficient of their courtesy to force, were it 
 necessary, a change of opinion. I must say, that to whatever 
 place I have gone, I have been received by all the masters whoni 
 I have waited on,i and by those even who differ from me in my 
 riews upon this question, with kindness, and offers even of hospi- 
 taUty. ^ They have given me all and every information I could 
 desire, and with the utmost willingness. For me to admit, then, 
 that I am the enemy of the whole class, would be to allow that I 
 am justly chargeable not only with the greatest folly, but the 
 greatest mckedness. Now, it would be almost equally foolish and 
 wicked in me were I to call myself the enemy of the factoiy system. 
 I am the enemy of its abuses, but not of the system itself. Why, 
 it would be the very extreme of absurdity for any one to 
 call himself the enemy of a system by which hundreds of thou- 
 sands of human beings have obtained, and must, moreover, con- 
 tinue to obtain, an honest livelihood. /^ Did I attempt to endanger 
 its existence, I should consider myseK the greatest enemy of the 
 working people, who dei'ive from it all their maintenance. No, 
 gentlemen, I am only the enemy of its abuses ; and those abuses 
 we seek to remedy. Let us but shorten the term of daily labour, 
 giving, thereby, to those employed the means of enjoying their 
 inalienable right of time for self -improvement and domestic life, 
 and I believe that, in the present state of the country, the factory 
 system might thus be made the channel of comfox'ts and even 
 blessings to this large community. Wlien I have contemplated 
 a multitude of twelve or fourteen hundred jjeople, congi-egated 
 under a single roof, governed by the revolutions of a single 
 engine, all within reach of daily intercourse, of watchful care, of 
 every happy influence, I have often reflected what prodigious 
 means of doing good had been placed by Providence in the hands 
 of such employers. \ I do say, when I have contemi^lated one of 
 these enormous buildings, alive with human beings, and under 
 the authority of a single proprietor, I confess I have often said 
 to myself — " I wish to God I were a factory owner." I do,
 
 150 Manchester, 26i7t October, 1844. 
 
 indeed, believe that by sucb an instrumentality as this ancient 
 sympathies might be revived, and ancient habits restored between 
 master and man — a state of society so beaiitif nlly expressed in the 
 book of Ruth, when " Boaz said unto the reapers, The Lord be 
 with you. And they answered him and said. The Lord bless thee." 
 Now, just consider what and how valuable are the objects we 
 seek. It is to purify the social system ; to restore the woman to 
 her domestic duties and the care of her family ; to j^rovide that 
 the yovmger part may have time to learn what is necessary to 
 fit them for their future stations in life ; and that, as wives and 
 mothers, they may have leisure to practise those duties which 
 they shall have learned as children. It is to establish a better 
 understanding between master and man ; to allay heart-burnings 
 and effect an interchange of conciliation. We seek to give men 
 time for religious and intellectual improvement, for something 
 beyond mere animal life. If such be the objects we have in view, 
 we must surely consider the ways by which they are to be at- 
 tained. Tou must ever bear in mind that you are immortal 
 beings, in pursuit of certain ends now, yet of still higher ends 
 hereafter. Though you have a right to demand this boon 
 from the legislatiire, you are, at the same time, l^ound to 
 demand it with forbearance. Ask whatever is fitting from 
 your employers ; but you will not forget that those things must 
 also be asked for from higher sources — from Him who alone can 
 give, turn the hearts of your opponents, and afterwards enable 
 you, when you shall have received them, to'use all for your own 
 advantage and His glory. I may honestly assert that, were I 
 not fuUy con^dnced that such were your intentions, and that such 
 would be the result of our exertions, I, for one, would have 
 nothing more to do with the conduct of this question. There 
 are here and elsewhere various gentlemen who have long been 
 your friends in this cause. Why do you suppose that we have 
 been ready to undergo all this toil, and anxiety, and almost peril 
 in your behaK ? Why do you suppose that I have been ready to 
 break my political friendships, and sever many ancient connexions ? 
 It is because we believed that these duties have been imposed 
 upon us by our common Master. God has given me leisure and 
 freedom from the necessity of daily toil ; and I willingly there- 
 fore devote them to the service of those people who have neither 
 the one. nor the other of these responsible gifts. But I wiU seize 
 the occasion of impressing upon your minds that, if such be the 
 character of these principles, you must look with reverence to the 
 source from which they are derived. \^ cannot too often repeat 
 it ; it is my most fervent desire to impress upon jow the solemn 
 
 I
 
 Legislation for the Labouring Classes. 151 
 
 obligation, that, when yon shall have obtained the measure yon 
 so earnestly pnrsue, yon shonld tnrn it to the high purpose for 
 which it has been sought by myself, and, I believe, by all your 
 friends in Parliament and in the country, f While you are respect- 
 fully soliciting from man that concession to which you are so 
 justly entitled, I myself will never relax in my efforts, or com- 
 promise one jot of your righteous demands ; I will persevere 
 with an unlaroken and determined spirit, until our labours shall 
 have reached a happy consummation. But remember that your 
 first request must be made to God, and your second to man ; you 
 will then go forward with resolution and strength, sure of 
 ultimate success, and exhibiting, in the manner both of the pur- 
 suit, and of the enjoyment of such a happy issue, the high and 
 patriotic example of a wise and an understanding people.
 
 ( 152 ) 
 
 Children in Calico Print-Works. 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 
 February 18, 1845. 
 
 Speech on moving " That leave be given to bring in a Bill to regulate the Labour 
 of Children in the Calico Print-Works of Great Britain and Ireland." 
 
 Lord Ashley rose to bring forward tlie motion of wliich 
 lie liad given notice, and addressed the House to this effect : — • 
 Sir, the siibject which I feel bound to submit to the consideration 
 of the House is so much akin to others which I have had the 
 honour to bring forward, that I fear I cannot promise anything 
 in the way of novelty in the evidence I have to adduce, or in the 
 arguments I shall derive from it; but, nevertheless, I do hope 
 that the House will extend to me its patient indulgence while I 
 lay before it the case of a large class of our fellow-subjects, whose 
 claims have never yet been represented in this assembly. I am 
 about to speak in behalf of a large body who have been much 
 oppressed, and I may say, have been altogether forgotten ; but 
 whose interests not only are of great value to themselves, but, if 
 taken in connection with those of their contemporary labourers, 
 are calculated to have a powerful influence on the destinies of the 
 empire. 
 
 It will be recollected that in the year 1840 I had the honour to 
 move in this House for a commission to inquire into the employ- 
 ment of children in the various departments of labour. That 
 commission made a very voluminous report ; and in a summary 
 of that repoi-t, from which I shall read a few extracts, they stated 
 what was the condition of many thousands, I may almost say 
 hundreds of thoiisands, of children. I do not here mean those 
 employed in the factories, but those employed in the various 
 trades and branches of labour in these realms, and who are com- 
 pelled to commence labour at very tender years. There are 
 instances of their beginning to work at the early age of 3 and 4 
 years; more between 5 and 6; and, in many instances, regular
 
 Children in Calico Print-Works. 153 
 
 employment begins from 7 to 8, and in most instances, between 
 8 and 9. With respect to the employment of girls, the report 
 states, tliat " A large proportion of the cliildren and young 
 persons employed in this branch of trade are girls, the propor- 
 tion in Lancashire being upwards of one-third of the whole 
 number under thirteen." It further appears from the report that 
 the young girls work as long each day as the adults, which 
 sometimes extends to 16, 17, and even 18 hours consecvitively. 
 Schools are wholly out of the reach of these poor children, in 
 consequence of the early age at which they are set to work; and 
 the result is, that the greatest demoralization prevails in those 
 districts. This is the summary presented by the commissioners, 
 and adduced from a close survey of large numbers employed in 
 various trades in the realm. 
 
 Of all these cruel and pernicious employments — pernicious, I 
 mean, in the extent to which they are caiTied on — only one has 
 been brought under the consideration of the House. I had the 
 honour of proposing to the House the removal of females from 
 employment in collieries ; but of all the trades and manufactures 
 that have been inquired into, that is the only one with respect 
 to which any measure of relief has been afforded, or any motion 
 made. In all other respects nothing has been done, — or, rather, 
 everything has been left undone ; not one hour has been struck 
 off from their term of labour, — not one hour added to their 
 instruction. They have not had even the advantage of public 
 opinion being awakened in their favour, — public opinion, which 
 has such powerfid influence when brought to bear on other cases, 
 has been of no advantage to those on whose behalf I have 
 ventured to come forward. I own I do not wonder at this 
 reluctance when I consider the enormous labour it would require 
 to wade through those ponderous folios of the evidence collected 
 by the commissioners, to arrive at all the information they 
 contain, and to drag to light those records of suffering, ignorance, 
 and shame. 
 
 But it may perhaps be said that I myseK am chargeable with 
 this neglect; for it was my duty, being more cognizant of the 
 evil, to endeavour to find a remedy. Undoubtedly it was more 
 my duty than that of any other ; but my excuse is, that I have 
 lacked the opportunity, and it will not be denied that I have not 
 had any great encouragement. I am, however, now prepared tt) 
 take up the subject, and I do trust that in consideration of the 
 urgency of the case, and also of the moderation of what I am 
 about to propose, the House may be induced to give me a part, if 
 not the whole, of what I ask on behalf of these young persons. 
 
 M
 
 154 House of Commons, 18th February, 1845. 
 
 Now, I hope it will be borne in mind, througliout the wliole of 
 the discussion on tbis question, that I limit my demand entirely 
 to children under the age of 13, which are children according to 
 the definition of the Factoi-y Act — a vast number of these chil- 
 dren ai-e females, and therefore entitled to the special protection 
 of this House. Sir, 1 do not consider that in the exclusion of 
 those of more advanced age from the operation of the measure 
 which I shall propose either justice or humanity will be satisfied ; 
 but the demand which I ?iow make is more in accordance with 
 what I hope to obtain than with what I think to be just. 
 
 Calico printing, to which I beg now to call the attention of the 
 House, is thus described in the commissioners' report : — " CaHco 
 printing, with its subsidiary processes of bleaching and dyeing, 
 is caiTied on to the greatest extent in the cotton districts of 
 Lancashire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, and the west of Scotland. 
 There are also a few pi-int-works near London, and several near 
 Dublin." "With respect to the age of the children employed, the 
 report said : — " In Lancashii-e, Cheshire, and Derbyshire, instances 
 occur in which chUdi-en begin work in this employment as early 
 as between 4 and 5, and several between 5 and 6 inclusive ; many 
 between 6 and 7, still more between 7 and 8, and a great majority 
 between 8 and 9. Out of 565 children, taken indiscriminately 
 from returns obtained from each section of this district, it 
 appears that one child began work between 4 and 5 ; three 
 between 5 and 6 ; 68 between 6 and 7 ; 133 between 7 and 8 ; 
 156 between 8 and 9 ; 127 between 9 and 10 ; 49 between 10 and 
 11 ; 26 between 11 and 12 ; and 2 between 12 and 13. In the east 
 of Scotland childi-en commence work at the same early ages." 
 The Rev. John Demj^ster, Minister of Denny, states that infants 
 may be seen at work as early as 5 years of age, having got at 
 school little more than a knowledge of the alphabet, and that 
 they go to a continuous employment, at all ages, from 7 upwards. 
 The Rev. J. A. Bonar states, " our common schools now often look 
 like infant schools, from the paucity of older children." But the 
 print-fields in Kent afi'ord, in regard to infant labour, a re- 
 markable exception to all others in the United Kingdom. In the 
 works of Mr. Swaisland there were found only two girls and five 
 boys, and in Mr. Applegath's, only six boys under 13 years of 
 age. 
 
 There are instances in Ireland of children beginning work at 
 6 ; but, says the sub-commissioner, " out of 833 persons visited, 
 only 109 were under 13 years of age." In Ireland the system 
 presents, as I have shown, a remarkable contrast to the state of 
 things in England, showing, as it does, a remarkable care for
 
 Children in Calico Print-Works.- 155 
 
 childi-eu of tender years. Now a word as to the numbers em- 
 ployed. From retui-ns made from print-works in Lancashire, 
 Cheshire, and Derbyshire, the children \inder 13 j'^ears amount to 
 5.64G. •• But," says the report, '' it must be borne in mind that 
 these returns give only the number of children employed at the 
 time the return was made ; and it has often happened that at that 
 time half the tables in the works have been standing idle." But 
 we can arrive at it by calculation ; there are block tables in these 
 establishments, each requiring one chUd, amounting to 8,16t; ; 
 long tables, each requiring two, 168 ; total, therefore, if the 
 tables are in full work, 8,492. It is estimated that in the print- 
 fields in the whole of Scotland there are teerers amounting to 
 5,000. " But this estimate," says the commissioner, " by no 
 means includes the total number ; . . . there are several other 
 departments in which, though they commence somewhat later 
 than as teerers, many children are employed. The works also at 
 West Ham, in Essex, are on the largest scale, and those at 
 Carshalton, in Surrey, are considerable." Total number, there- 
 fore, as stated in the report, 13,492. But this is confessedly mvich 
 under the truth ; and when we add the number employed in 
 bleach-fields and calendering departments, sometimes detached 
 from printing-works, we cannot put the whole niTmbers at less 
 than 25,000, — and I have reason to believe, from inquiry that I 
 have made, that this amount is under the reality. 
 
 I now beg leave to call the attention of the House to what mxist 
 have an important effect on the moral and physical condition of 
 those employed — I mean the state of the places in which this 
 work is carried on. On this point the commissioners state : — 
 " There is perhaps no description of manufacture in which the 
 convenience and comfort of the places in which the various 
 operations are can-ied on differ so materially in different establish- 
 ments, and even in different departments of the same establish- 
 ments as in calico-printing. . . . With the view of lessening, as 
 far as practicable, the noxiousness of these operations, some 
 proj^rietors spare neither troul^le nor expense to secure proper 
 ventilation, temperature, and drainage ; but in great numbers of 
 cases those conditions of the place of work are dejilorably neg- 
 lected." Here are samples. The hooking and lashing-out rooms, 
 and the singeing-rooms, are very disagreeable places, the air of 
 which is filled with dust, and in the latter with small burnt 
 particles, which irritate the eyes and nostrils exceedingly. " On 
 going into this room with a friend," says the sub-commissioner, " we 
 were both instantly affected, oiu* eyes began to smart, and we felt 
 a ticklish sensation in the throat and nostrils, much the same as
 
 156 House of Commons, l^th February, 1845. 
 
 that produced by taking suuff. We noticed, too, that all the 
 children who were employed in this room were more or less 
 affected with inflammation and copious discharge of the eyes." I 
 specify these things, not as arguments against the employment of 
 children in these works, which may probably be unavoidable, 
 but as good and cogent reasons against the sad prolongation of 
 labour in such localities. Again, " the temperature of the work- 
 shops usually varies from 65 to 80 degrees. . . . The stoves are often 
 overheated, and I have," he adds, " occasionally seen them red-hot. 
 The temperatvire to which the stenters are exposed is very high, 
 from 85 to 100 degrees. I have foimd them, between 11 and 12 
 years old, working 14 hours. The temperature at which," says 
 the commissioner, " I usually found these stoves, when the girls 
 were filling them, was 110 degrees, or fever heat, and the steam 
 rising from the wet goods as they are hung up is still more 
 suffocating and oppressive than dry heat would be." I will now 
 read some of the evidence on this point : — " Robert Crawford, 
 block-maker, states, that in the kiln, where the block runs 
 thi'ough on rollers to dry the colours, no one can work above three, 
 or at most five minutes. Mary Moody and Mary Maxwell, stove- 
 girls, state that the girls often faint from exhaustion caused by 
 the heat. John Rodger, machine-printer, states that the girls 
 who attend on the dash-wheel have to stand with the feet and 
 petticoats always wet, and that this in severe weather causes 
 great hardship. Mr. David Young, surgeon, of Bridgetown, says, 
 that from his experience as a medical man, he knows that at 
 certain periodical seasons the dash-wheel produces very injurious 
 effects on women. But a far different account is given of Mr. 
 Swaisland's works in Kent ; there the whole of the premises, 
 particularly the room where the teerers work, are clean, spacious, 
 lofty, and well ventilated, heated in winter by warm- water pipes, 
 and thoroughly drained. The same is said of the works of 
 Mr. Applegath, and at West Ham, in Essex ;" showing, therefore, 
 that health and cleanliness may be consulted by care and atten- 
 tion, and without any formidable diminution of profits. 
 
 Now, Sir, to give a complete pictui-e of the case I have to 
 present to the House, I must likewise show them what is the 
 nature of the employment in which these children are engaged. 
 It is quite true that the labour is not in itself heavy ; it is the 
 continuity of it during so many hours that produces a debilitating 
 effect on both body and mind. Sir, 1 quote from the Report of 
 the Commissioners : — " The work of the teerers does not require 
 much muscular exertion, while it admits of some variety, as they 
 occasionally bring the colour from the colour-shop, and it is also
 
 Children in Calico Print-WorJcs. 157 
 
 their duty to wasli tlic blocks and cleanse the sieves ; but, on the 
 other hand, their exertion of attention must be almost unremitting ; 
 they must keep their arms in a continual rotatory motion, and 
 during the whole time they are at work they must be upon their 
 feet." 
 
 And now consider what are the hours of work. " The regular 
 hours of work in the diiFerent departments of the iDriut-field are 
 rarely less than 12, including the time allowed for meals, biit it 
 is by no means uncommon in all the districts for children from 
 5 to 6 years old to be kej^t at work for 14, and even 16, hours 
 consecutively." " In those of Lancashire, Cheshire, and Dei'by- 
 shire, the nominal (the nominal, be it observed, not the actual) 
 hours of work are 12, including meal hours; but there can 
 scarcely be said to be any regular hours, for all the block-printers 
 are in the habit of working overtime, and as they are paid by the 
 piece, and are independent of machinery, they are at liberty to 
 work what hours they please." Now, what is the testimony on 
 this subject of the persons employed in these works ? These 
 matters, I fear, must be stated, though I am perfectly aware that, 
 in biinging foi'ward evidence of this kind, I am trespassing on 
 the patience of the House. But I would rather lay before you a 
 true picture of facts, than indulge in any general rhetorical 
 display that might, after all, leave you ignorant of the exact 
 truth. Thomas Sidbread, block-printer, says — " I began to work 
 between 8 and 9 o'clock on Wednesday night, but the boy had 
 been sweeping the shop from Wednesday morning. You will 
 scarcely believe it, but it is true, I never left the shop till 6 o'clock 
 on the Saturday morning, and I had never stopped woi'king all 
 that time ; I was knocked up, and the boy was almost insensible." 
 " There were men there, and children too, who came on a Monday 
 morning and stayed till Saturday night." Henry Richardson 
 states — " At 4 o'clock I began to work, and worked all that day, 
 all the next night, and until 10 o'clock the following day. I had 
 only one tserer during that time, and I dare say he would be 
 about 12 years old. ... I have known children made ill by 
 working too long hours ; the boy that worked for me at the 
 Adelphi was sometimes unable to come to his work from being 
 sick with over working." In the west of Scotland " the regular 
 hours for work are from 6 to 6, with two intervals for meals, 
 sometimes of one hour each, leaving about ten working hours." 
 " I have been hitherfo," says the sub-commissioner, " describing 
 the regular hours ; but these, I am son-y to say, are but too 
 frequently prolonged by over hours. . . . Two or three hours of 
 over work a day is, however, not uncommon, making on the
 
 108 House of Commons, IStJi February, 1845. 
 
 whole 14 or 15 liours, including meals." The sub-commissioner 
 adds — " Instaaices were found of girls working at the steam cans 
 fi>r 38 hom-s in succession." lu some establishments, however, 
 these long hom-s are not aUowed. Mr. T. Greig, of the finn of 
 Watson, Jackson, and Greig, stated to the sub-commissioner that 
 in three yeai-s the utmost number of hours actually worked 
 by any one was 13 per day, and the utmost for the children was 
 10 a day, the average not being above nine-and-a-half. Does not 
 that prove most undoubtedly that the proti-acted houi*s I have re- 
 ferred to are not necessary ? Does it not show that the profits of 
 the employer need not be derived from the exhaustion of the 
 child ? It is undoubtedly true that this labour is not continued 
 throughout the whole year. The trade has its flushes and its 
 pauses; such is the technical expression to denote periods of 
 great demand and cessation from lalx)ur. But this excess on 
 either side is highly injurious — extreme toil or absolute idleness ; 
 the one cannot be considered as a healthy compensation for the 
 other. It must, moreover, be borne in mind that the print-works 
 are always most busy during the winter, in preparation for the 
 spiing trade — at that time of year when toil and exposure are the 
 least endurable. 
 
 But of all the featui-es of this employment, that which I am 
 now about to describe is the most abominable — I speak of the 
 practice of night work. The commissioner says — " The occasional 
 practice of night work in print-groimds in all the districts is 
 universal, while in many it is so general and constant that it may 
 be regarded as a part of the regular system of canying on this 
 branch of the trade. In Lancashire, Cheshii-e, and Derbyshire, 
 night work is stated to be so common that those establishjnents 
 in which it does not exist are exceptions to tbe general practice. 
 In working in the night, relays of pi-inters and children are 
 almost invariably used ; the contrary is rarely the case except 
 where there is a difficulty in procuring children." " Relays are 
 sometimes from 6 to 6, or 12 o'clock in the day to 12 o'clock at 
 night (called twelving), or from 4 in the morning till 12, and from 
 12 to 9 at night." Now just hear what are the depositions of the 
 young persons themselves as to the period they work, as well as 
 to the effects produced on them. The fii-st I shall mention is 
 Margaret Isherwood, eight years old. She says—" Before she 
 was six years and a half old she worked all night three or four 
 nights a week." Henry Hughes, nearly 9, teerer, says — "I have 
 worked all night many a time. I have worked aUday and all 
 night too, without stopping, except for meals." Julia Cunliffe 
 aged 10, says — " I came on Friday morning at 7 o'clock, worked all 
 
 4
 
 Children in Calico Print-Worlcs. 159 
 
 (lay and all nigLt until Saturday morning at 6 o'clock. ... 1 
 took snuff to keep myself awake." Ellen Radcliffe, aged 10, saj's — 
 " I was once a teerer, but I oould not stiuid the work. I once 
 ^worked three nights teering blue colour, but it made me sick and 
 giddy in my head." Margaret Moms, going 10, says — " Many 
 times I worked all day and all night too. Sometimes I have gone 
 at 8 o'clock in the moniing, worked all day and all night until 
 8 o'clock the next morning." " Robert Kellat, block -printer, has 
 seen a child named Hellin, seven years old, work from 6 o'clock 
 in the morning until 11 o'clock at night for a week together on 
 an average ; he teered for his father, who worked him quite 
 beyond his strength." " I have known a man," says William 
 Ai'cher, a foreman, " work three days and three nights, without 
 ever going home, and he had the same teerer all the time." In 
 the west of Scotland night work apjiears to be very common 
 occasionally in almost all establishments. In the east of Scotland 
 the evidence shows that night work is not uncommon ; but in 
 Ireland, which again appears to the gi'eatest advantage, it is said — 
 " In general there is no night work in the print-fields of Ireland. 
 . . . There are exceptions to this, though rare." 
 
 With respect to treatment, the commissioners state, that the 
 " tendency of the imj)rovements progi'essively made in the pro- 
 cesses of calico-printing has been to diminish the labour of the 
 children, and to lessen their danger of injuidng their work ; at the 
 same time there has been a growing disapprobation on the part 
 of the workpeople of any opi^ressive treatment of the children. 
 . . . Severe punishment, which was fonnerly common, is now 
 scarcely known." This, Sir, is matter for rejoicing, and, so fai* as 
 it goes, we thankfully accept it. But here comes the fearful and 
 important consideration for the Parliament and the country — the 
 physical suffering is bad enough, but the moral degradation is 
 worse. The commissioners state, and this is their general report, 
 that " the evidence collected in the Lancashire district tends to 
 show that the children employed in this occupation are excluded 
 from the opportunities of education ; that this necessarily con- 
 tributes to the growth of an ignoi'ant and vicious populaticm ; 
 that the facility of obtaining early employment for chUdi-en in 
 print-fields empties the day schools ; that parents without hesita- 
 tion sacrifice the futiu'e welfai-e of their childi'en through life for 
 the immediate advantage or gratification obtained by the pittance 
 derived from the child's earnings." This is not my language ; it 
 is the language of the report. But this is not all. The evil is a 
 growing one. The state of things is becoming worse. Mr. Emery, 
 master of the school at Disley, says — " When I first came into
 
 160 House of Commons, IStJi February, 1845. 
 
 this district, which is now many years since, my scholars stayed 
 much longer with me ; and I then had a chance of making some- 
 thing of them. On looking at the number of scholars, it appeared 
 that they had diminished one half since 1832, notwithstanding the 
 remarkable increase of population in this district within the last 
 ten years." Mr. Emery attributes the falling off of the school 
 " to the facility of getting employment at high wages for veiy 
 young children, and to the indifference of the parents about the 
 education of their children. . . . The block-printers," he adds, 
 •' can make from 20s. to 30s. a week, and of course they might 
 afford, at 2d. a week each, to send their children to school." The 
 testimony to this effect is almost general. " Of the means of 
 instiniction," says the commissioner for Scotland, " that are pro- 
 dded, the children of the manufacturing population generally, 
 and those employed in the print-fields in particular, cannot avail 
 themselves, on account of the early age at which children are 
 removed from school, and the long hours during which their 
 labour is continued." Again : " Of many of the children in the 
 print-gi'ounds of Lancashire, and especially of those who have 
 been the least educated, it is stated that they appear to have no 
 sense of moral obligation ; they are generally not tiTistworthy, 
 and are given to pilfering, lying, and fighting. ... Of the same 
 class in Scotland, it is stated that the ease with which parents are 
 enabled to rid themselves of the burden of their children's support 
 weakens all parental and domestic ties, saps the foundation of 
 morality, and stops all progress in the mental and moral culture 
 of the children." "Well, then, with these facts before them, with 
 this concurrent testimony from all parts, is it surprising that the 
 Centi"al Board shoidd have reported, in language to which I 
 must implore the serious attention of the House — " That the girls 
 are prevented, by their early removal from home and the day- 
 schools to be employed in labour, from learning needlework, and 
 from acquiring those habits of cleanliness, neatness, and order, 
 ■svithout which they cannot when they grow up to womanhood 
 economise their husbands' earnings, or give to their homes any 
 degree of comfort — and this general want of the qualifications of 
 a housewife in the women of this class is stated by clergymen, 
 teachers, medical men, employei-s, and other witnesses, to be one 
 great and universally prevailing cause of distress and crime among 
 the working classes ?" 
 
 I shaD not weary the House with any further evidence as to 
 the moral and physical condition of children engaged in the 
 print-works. But I will ask if that be a state of things which 
 should be allowed to continue p Any effort we may make may, in
 
 Children in Calico Print-Works. 161 
 
 the outset, be imperfect, on account of the difficulties that stand 
 in the way of all legislation on such a subject ; but at any rate 
 we may strike at the main evil, and correct the law as far as we 
 can. In spite of all obstacles, I will not shiink from proposing a 
 remedy. In the first instance, I shall propose the total abolition 
 of night work for aU females of whatsoever ages, and all of both 
 sexes under thirteen, to commence in October next. I am quite 
 sure that in this I am not proposing anything that can be in the 
 least injui-ious to the interests either of the workmen or their 
 masters. If the House will allow me, I will state on what evidence 
 I found that opinion. Morally and physically, nothing can be 
 more injurious than this night work. W. Archer, a foi'eman, was 
 asked — " Did night work affect your health ?" and the answer was 
 — " Yes ; it is the worst part of our trade. I always felt very unwell 
 in the morning — almost the same as if I had been drunk over 
 night." " What is your opinion of night work ?" " It is my 
 opinion that night woi'k is the greatest injury, both to the chil- 
 dren and printers ; night work ought to be stopped." John 
 Williams, operative, says — " The working by gas injures the 
 eyes. . . . More affected at morning after working by night, than 
 in the night after working by daylight." Daniel Hawthorn, gas- 
 engineer, says — " Children always look pale and sickly when they 
 have been working night and day." A deputation of calico 
 printers say — " Mght work is doubly distressing on this account, 
 where a great quantity of gas is burning in a room badly ven- 
 tilated ; the air is hurtful to breathe, and bad for the constitution. 
 Children of deHcate constitutions are obliged, in a long succession 
 of night work, to desist from coming to the shop, othei'wise they 
 die off." " When children first come to work, f I'om being robust 
 they will become pallid and weak." " Almost all classes of 
 witnesses in all the districts concur in stating that the effect of 
 night work is most injurious, physically and morally, on the 
 workpeople in general, and on the children in jjai-ticular." The 
 Rev. J. Harbottle, Baptist minister, says — " I consider the un- 
 seasonable hours duiing which young persons are oftentimes 
 employed, as unfitting them for any improvement in mind, as 
 well as exceedingly injurious to health." " One general effect is, 
 that when any meeting takes place of an evening for moral and 
 religious pui-poses, the workpeople seem quite overcome with the 
 effect of having been at work so many hours, young persons 
 especially." 
 
 Sir, I may ventui'e to assert that night work is neither neces- 
 sary nor advantageous to the trade. The Report says — "No 
 countei-vaUing advantage is ultimately obtained from it even by
 
 102 House of Commons, I8th February, 1845. 
 
 the emjiloyers." Again : " In working in tlie night it is generally 
 considered that more work is spoiled than in the day, and an 
 abatement is made for bad work." Mr. Robert Hargreaves, of 
 Acerington, one of the highest authorities in the kingdom, says— 
 " I do not like the principle of night work ; there is danger of 
 fire, and a necessity for a double set of superintendents. The 
 work done is much worse." The sub-commissioner for the west 
 of Scotland reports, that " The great majority of printers would 
 not object to a prohibitioL of night work for children and young 
 persons." Mr. Gilbert lunes, manager of Cogan print-works, " is 
 veiy strongly of opinion that over hours are injiirious both to 
 workmen and employers." He " considers that a law reducing 
 and regulating hours of work in print-fields would put all on a 
 footing, and so would soon produce no inconvenience." Mr. Ken- 
 nedy, the sub-commissioner for Lancashire, Cheshire, and Derby- 
 shire, reported — and this is a most valuable statement, to which 
 I should desire to call the especial attention of the House — " I 
 have been favoured," says he, " by an influential house with an 
 inspection of those books which show rates of production in their 
 roUer printing-machines, during a period of four months, when 
 they worked fifteen houi's a day. . . . The proportion of spoiled 
 work from the beginning of the first to the end of the fourth 
 jnonth actually doubled itself, whilst the average production of 
 the machines decreased from 100 to 90 per cent. In fact, the 
 amoiTnt of spoiled work increased to such an alarming degree, 
 that the parties refeiTcd to felt themselves completely obliged to 
 shorten the hours of labour to avoid loss, and as soon as the 
 alteration was made, the amount of spoiled work sank to its 
 former level. I am informed," he adds, " the general experience 
 of this branch of trade is, that under whatever circumstances 
 night work is tried, tbe produce is distinguished by a larger 
 share than ordinary of spoUed work." Now, just consider the 
 whole force of this statement ; observe the false economy, the 
 actual waste, of excessive toil, and disregard of the times and 
 seasons that nature has appointed — a large decrease in the quan- 
 tity produced ; a still larger deterioration in the quality of the 
 article — the causes of all this mischief, night work and over toU, 
 are removed, and then the good and the maiTed produce retui-n 
 to their former proportions. I have also permission to read the 
 following extracts from the letters of two most respectable and 
 intelligent persons. Mr. John Graham, superintendent of the 
 works at Mayfield, says — " So far as we are concerned at Mayfield, 
 it would be advisaljle to give up night work for women, young 
 persons, and childi-en, night work being imderstood as those hours
 
 Children in Calico Print-Worls. 1G3 
 
 netween 10 p.m. and 6 a.m." Mr. David Cooper, of Priniroso 
 Works, Clitliero, observes — " I allude ouly to Messrs. Thoiusou's 
 works. There may be other printers who may be unable to adopt 
 snch regulations." He says that Mr. Thompson for many years 
 (_arried on night work, but had for years been induced to give it 
 up, partly frt)m feelings of Immanity, and partly from motives of 
 economy, because he found it injurious to his workpeople, and 
 because the amount of spoiled work was so considerable. It is 
 clear, therefore, that a law may be proposed with benefit to all, 
 to save these unfortunate children from the effects of such a 
 system. 
 
 I would next propose a reduction of the hours of labour in 
 behalf of those under a certain age — under the age of thirteen, for 
 instance. I am bound to state that those two gentlemen whom I 
 last quoted — Mr. David Cooper and Mr. John Graham — do not 
 recommend a reduction of the hours of labour — they confine their 
 recommendation to the abolition of night work ; but I hold, Sir, 
 that the evil of excessive labour on the part of these young per- 
 sons is so manifest and extensive, that it must not be left without 
 a check. I propose, therefore, that in October, 1846, allowing 
 thereby nearly two years before the operation of the enactment, 
 none under thirteen years of age shall be allowed to work more 
 than eight hours a day for six days in the week, or more than 
 twelve hours a day for three alternate days in the week. I shall 
 propose also, in conformity with the provisions of the Factory 
 Bill, that two hours a day of schooling shoxdd be required with 
 respect to those children who work eight hours a day for six days 
 in the week ; and three hours of schooling on alternate days with 
 respect to those who work twelve hours a day for three days in 
 the week. Should more lal^our be required, it may be obtained by 
 relays, to which the trade is accustomed. 
 
 - I do not know whether it is necessary for me to notice the 
 I various arguments which I may anticipate as likely to be iirged 
 against my pi'oposed provision with respect to the education of 
 the childi'en. In the first instance, I may be told that parents 
 may be safely tnisted to attend to the physical and moral welfare 
 of their children. Now, in answer to this I may refer to the 
 results of the investigations of the commissioners, which prove 
 the utter carelessness of the i ai-ents of those childi-en in reference 
 to their education, even when they have ample means of providing 
 for that education. Mr. Kennedy says — " One of the chief points 
 for observation is the carelessness of the parents as to the future 
 welfare of their offspring, as shown by depriving them of the ad- 
 
 — -
 
 164 House of Commons, l^ih February, 1845. 
 
 to their ample means of supporting them." Commissioners were 
 sent to examine all the various mining and manufactui'ing dis- 
 tricts ; and one of them, Mr. Fellowes (Derbyshire), states the 
 sole wish of parents examined by him to be to make all they could 
 of their children at as early an age as possible, without regardiug 
 their future welfare. Mr. Austin (Lancashire) says, parents 
 will not avail themselves of the many facilities offered in that 
 district for the education of their children ; they will not send 
 them to school. In ScotL'nd, all classes of witnesses state that 
 the difficulty is to get the parents to send their children to school ; 
 and as respects Wales, it is stated that the parents estimate even 
 one penny a week as more than education is worth. But perhaps 
 I may be told that poverty is the cause of this reluctance on the 
 part of the parents ; but attend to the statement made by that 
 intelligent individual, Mr. Symons. He, on the contrary, says 
 that the evidence of all witnesses shows that when trade improves 
 fewer children will remain in school, and that sensual gratifica- 
 tions are far oftener the obstruction to education than povei'ty. 
 Mr. Fletcher says, that the earnings of the population in the 
 neighbourhood of Oldham in prosperous times are amply suflficient 
 to enable parents to pay for their children's education ; but they 
 will take nothing but Sunday-school instruction, because it does 
 not interfere with work and costs nothing. Mr. Grainger says, 
 many of the parents are utterly indifferent to the moral and 
 physical welfare of their offspring ; aud it would be a senous 
 error to mistake this indifference for desperation arising from 
 distress and misery. He adds, that in the best of times, when in 
 Birmingham, for example, many mechanics were earning from 
 21. to 5^ or 6L a week, instead of making provision for the future 
 and promoting the welfare of their families, these large wages 
 were but too often wasted in vice and extravagance. Now, Sir, 
 in this deplorable state much of the population is being brought 
 up. It must, I think, be evident to every one, that unless parents 
 themselves receive the benefit of education, they wiUbe indifferent 
 to the education of their progeny ; and yet we are bringing up a 
 race of parents in an entirely demoralized condition, and who 
 will be ignorant of the gi-eat advantages which must ever accom- 
 pany reUgious improvement; the present generation of these 
 chUdren is utterly neglected, j^hysically and morally; and we 
 find, in consequence, that such a complication of evils has 
 been suffered to accumulate, that even the powers of this House 
 will scarcely be able to extricate the population from the evils 
 that suiTound them. 
 
 Sir (continued the noble Lord), I have very gi-eat fears that, not
 
 Children in Calico Print-Works. 1C5 
 
 only in the delivery of individual speeches, but in the frequent 
 reproduction of subjects of the same class, I shall become exceed- 
 ingly tedious to the House. It may, therefore, be some com- 
 pensation to know that I suffer nearly as much as I inflict. The 
 liiboxir of research, the extent of correspondence, the trespass on 
 the time of this House, cheered by little or no prospect of success 
 — may be urged as an adequate proof that these endeavours have 
 not been wantonly undertaken; but where the interests are so 
 serious, much may and ought to be hazarded; and it is better 
 to fail in the attempt than never to have aspired to such a 
 measure. 
 
 Sir, I am at a loss to conceive on what grounds an opposition 
 wiU be made to my proposal; it cannot be said that I have 
 selected one interest only as the object of attack — this is the third 
 in the series that I have ventured to reform. I have, too, I hope, 
 been careful, for such at least was my intention, in my language 
 respecting the conduct and character of individual print 
 masters; I have endeavoured to expose the pernicious system 
 of their labour, but without imputing to them either the author- 
 ship or the encouragement of the mischiefs that afflict the pre- 
 sent generation — the evil has, as it were, come down to them by 
 inheritance. 
 
 Now, in every debate on similar subjects it has been invai-iably 
 conceded that protection should be extended to young children ; 
 their inexperience, their helplessness, the deep interest that the 
 State was supposed to have in their moral and physical weKare 
 extorted this admission. There may have been some, thoiigh 
 very few, who thought differently, and believed that they might 
 safely be left to the affectionate solicitude of parents and 
 guardians; these objections were overruled, and the legislature 
 has, in various enactments, asserted the principle for which I now 
 contend; I ask no other — this bill, I must again observe, will 
 affect young children only, those only of the age which the 
 government, in the Factory Bill of 1833, protected by a limitation 
 of eight hours of daily lal)our and regular attendance at school ; 
 a measure of rmequal and imperfect success, biit productive, 
 nevertheless, of much moral and jihysical benefit to thousands of 
 the workers. 
 
 Sir, in the various discussions on these kindred subjects, there 
 has been a perpetual endeavour to drive us, who seek the aid of 
 the law, from the point under debate, and taunt us with a narrow 
 and one-sided humanity ; I was told that there were far greatei- 
 evils than those I had assailed, that I had left untouched much 
 worse things. It was in vain to reply that no one could grapple
 
 166 House of Commons, ISth February, 1845. 
 
 with the Avhole at once. My opponents, on the first introduction 
 of the Ten Hours' Bill, sent me to the collieries ; when I invaded 
 the collieries, I was referred to the print-works ; from the print- 
 works I know not to what I shall be sent, for can anything be 
 worse ? Yet, if I judge by what I have heard and read out of 
 doors, I concliule that it will be to the Corn-laws; but let me 
 appeal to the most zealous advocate for their abolition, and ask 
 him what their repeal could do more for the benefit of the manu- 
 facturing classes than perpetuate the present state of commercial 
 prosperity? We have cheap provisions and abundant employ- 
 ment, but what, nevertheless, is the actual condition of these 
 childi'en ? The repeal of the Corn-laws would leave these infants 
 as it found them, neither worse nor better, precisely in the con- 
 dition in which they are in those countries where no Corn-laws 
 prevail, in France or Belgium. Whatever it might do for others, 
 it would do nothing for these ; but I solemnly declare that, if I 
 believed the removal of the impost would place these many 
 thousands in a position of comfort, and keep them in it, I would, 
 in spite of every difficulty, and in the face of every apprehension, 
 vote at once for the entire abolition. 
 
 Sir, it has been said to me more than once, " Where will you 
 stop ?" I reply, without hesitation, " Nowhere, so long as any 
 portion of this mighty evil i-emains to be removed." I confess 
 that my desire and ambition are to bring all the laboiaring 
 children of this empire within the reach and the opportunities of 
 education, .within the sphere (if they will profit by the offer) of 
 happy and useful citizens. I am ready, so far as my services are 
 of any value, to devote what little I have of energy, and aU the 
 remainder of my life to the accomplishment of this end; the 
 labour would be great and the anxieties very heavy ; but I fear 
 neither the one nor the other; 1 fear nothing but defeat. I 
 should cheerfully undertake it all had I but the hope of your 
 countenance and support. 
 
 And who will deny that it is a matter well worthy of the time 
 and deliberations of this august assembly .'' Look to the increas- 
 ing numbers of your people, look to the increasing facilities for 
 mischief. I speak not of this class or that, manufacturing or 
 agricultural, the principle is the same in both, though the danger 
 may be less in the one than in the other— the march of intellect, 
 as it is called, bearing -with it good and evil, while it multiplies 
 the agents of mischief, leaves millions of the poorer sort only as 
 fuel for the fire ; crime is increasing in amount and deepening in 
 character and intensity ; the valuable tables of criminal offenders 
 prepared at the Home Office attest the accuracy of this assertion
 
 Children in Calico Print- WorJcs. 1G7 
 
 — in 1843, " tlairteen persons were Lung for murder." Of these, 
 ^ays the preface, three were females for the mm-der of tlieir 
 husbands, two were males for the murder of their wives, one fur 
 the murder of his child, one of his father. And in a summary 
 deduced from these tables, written by Mr. Jeliuyer Symons, and 
 published in a most able article of the '* Law Magazine " for last 
 December, it is stated — " Murders, and attempts to murder and 
 maim, have increased 38 per cent, on the average of the last four 
 years, rapes 57 per cent., other horrid offences 53 per cent. 
 Arsons, which exhibit malice in its worst shape, have increased 
 by 28 per cent., and if those of the present year were taken into 
 account the increase would be far greater." The public journals 
 confirm to the f uU this horrid statement ; scarcely a week elapses 
 but that the newspapers detail some crime that, in novelty and 
 atrociousness, exceeds the imagination of mankind. I will not 
 dwell on many cases ; of two only I will ask, whether the records 
 of sin in England present any instances of similar wickedness : — 
 one mother, a year ago, who poisoned her four children in succes- 
 sion for the sake of their burial-money ; another, within these few 
 days, who held her own daughter alive over the fire untU the 
 wi'etched infant was roasted to death ? 
 
 To what, Mr. Sj)eaker, wiU all this grow, if no remedy be applied 
 or even attempted ? If we will not, as a nation, undertake the 
 mighty task, let us not, by a continuance of the present system, 
 render it impossible to private enterprise. Within the last few 
 years the means of education, though still inadequate, have been 
 greatly diffused, schools are multiijlied, and zealous and qualified 
 persons, within and without the Established Church, are ready to 
 devote their energies to this service ; but the entire absorption of 
 the children by almost unceasing toil in so many departments of 
 industry defeats their efforts and breaks all their hopes. Does 
 this state of things afi'ord us any security P Far from it. Time 
 was when men believed, or rather maintained, that utter ignor- 
 ance and excessive labour were the best guarantees for the tran- 
 quillity of the people — a sad delusion ; for the most hardly worked, 
 and the most brutally ignorant, can ever find time and intellect 
 for mischief. Hundreds throng to the beershops and pothouses 
 to listen to seductive compositions in prose and verse, in which 
 vice and violence are dignified into heroism ; compositions written 
 with fancy and power and embellished with all the excellence of 
 modern art. What a monstrous perversion of the noblest 
 faculties, of talents bestowed to refine and elevate mankind ! But 
 their guUt is our guilt, we incur it by conniving at it — certainly, 
 by not repressing it.
 
 108 House of Commons, 18th February, 1845. 
 
 " Oh, gracious Cod ! how far have we 
 Profaned thy heavenly gift of Poesy ; 
 Made prostitute and profligate the Muse, 
 Debased to each obscene and impious use, 
 Whose harmony was first ordained above, 
 For tongues of angels, and for hymns of love I" 
 
 Sir. I mucli fear that I shall appear dogmatic if I again pre- 
 sume to impress upon tliis House the hollowness and danger of 
 our actual position. We may obtain a surphis and reduce taxes, 
 increase our fleets and extend our commerce — excellent things in 
 their way, but all unavailing, if they rest not on the moral and 
 physical prosperity of the great mass of our people. We may 
 flourisli for a wliile. and we may exchange congratulations ; ])ut an 
 hour of difficulty will soon disclose that we have done nothing 
 whatever to assitre our external dignity or internal peace. 
 
 But while there is life there is hope ; we have little to fear but 
 from indifference or delay; and facilities for mischief, now so 
 rife, are, in the order of a merciful Providence, alike facilities for 
 good. The march of intellect, the restless activity, the railroads 
 and steamboats, the stimulated energies of mind and body, the 
 very congregating of our people into masses and large towns, may 
 be converted into influences of mighty benefit. Let the State but 
 accomplish her frequent boast, let her show herself a faithful and 
 a pious parent; such eff'orts, be assured, will not be lost in the' 
 sight of God, and. in security and joy, her children wiU be " like 
 olive plants rotmd about her table." 
 
 i
 
 ( IGU ) 
 Regulation of Lunatic Asylums. 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 Friday, June 6, 1845* 
 
 Speech on bringing forward two Bills, for the Regul.ation of Lunatic Asylums, and 
 for the Better Care aud Treatment of Lunatics in England and Wales. 
 
 LOKD Ashley said : My motion requires some preliminary 
 explanation. By tlie two bills I intend to effect tlie repeal of 
 many existing acts respecting tlie treatment of lunatics, and 
 substitute sucb other enactments in their place as time aud 
 circiunstances have rendered necessary. Before entering into 
 the general principle of my motion, I wish to obsei-ve that my 
 proposition will apply only to England and Wales. I wish that 
 circumstances enabled me to extend the bills to Ireland and 
 Scotland ; for I believe that not in any country in Europe, nor in 
 any part of America, is there any place in which paitper lunatics 
 are in such a siiffering and degraded state as those in Her 
 Majesty's kingdom of Scotland. I assume, in the first place, that 
 the House, or at least a considerable portion of those hon. Members 
 who may honour me with their attention, have read the Report of 
 the Commissioners in Lunacy made in the last session of Par- 
 liament ; and I will also assume that it is unnecessary foi* me to 
 repeat the statement which I made in the course of last year on 
 the subject which I now seek to bring under your notice. You 
 will allow it, perhaps, to form a part of my present speech. 
 
 It is necessai-y I should begin by reminding you that the laws 
 affecting lunatics may be divided into four classes, and that that 
 law, as it now stands, is embodied in nine several statutes. These 
 nine several statutes may be divided, as I have said, into four 
 classes; first, those which are relative to county asylums; second, 
 those relating to licensed asylums, public asylums, and the 
 visitation of those respectively ; third, relative to persons found 
 
 * From " Hansard."
 
 170 House of Commons; 6th June, 1845. 
 
 lunatic by inquisition, tlie appointment of visitors, and of a 
 " commission in lunacy," to perform duties formerly discharged 
 by masters in Chancery; fourth, relativB to criminal lunatics. 
 Now, I do not intend to touch more than the first two of these 
 classes. I mean to amend the single act contained under class 1, 
 as well as to amend and combine the three which are contained 
 under class 2. The three bills contained under class 2 are as 
 follows :— 2nd and 3rd of WiUiam IV., c. 107 ; 3rd and 4th of 
 William IV., c. 64 ; and 5th and 6th of Victoria, c. 87. These 
 various statutes I propose to consolidate into one, entitled " A 
 Bill for the regulation of the Care and Treatment of Lunatics in 
 England and Wales;" and I must solicit, for a topic in itself 
 uninviting and di-y, your forbearance and indulgent attention. 
 
 But before I proceed further with this part of the subject, I 
 may be permitted for a moment to recur to the state of the law as 
 it existed imder the 14th of George III., the only law for the 
 regulation of private asylums previously to 1828. In those days 
 there was no power of punishing any ofi'ence — there was not even 
 the power of revoking or refusing any license. There was also 
 extreme laxity in the signature of certificates, one only being 
 deemed sufficient ; and that might be, nay, it often was, signed 
 by a person not duly qualified, or by the proprietor of the mad- 
 house in his medical capacity ; and to the care of this person the 
 alleged lunatic was consigned. Houses licensed under this act 
 were not required to be visited more than once a year. There 
 was no power to discharge any patient who might prove to be 
 of sound mind. Licenses could be granted only on one day in the 
 year. Pauper lunatics were sent without medical certificates ; 
 there was no rettu-n of pauper patients made to the board ; and 
 no plans were required of houses previously to the granting of 
 licenses. There were no returns of the cases of lunatics kept 
 singly in houses for gain ; there were no visits of medical persons 
 to the patients required. A measure was then introduced by Mr. 
 Gordon, in 1828, to remedy these defects ; and no enactment on 
 your statute book has been attended with more satisfactory results. 
 I stated them at some length in my speech of last year. Evasions, 
 no doubt, will be found wherever temptation and opportunity are 
 combined ; we can only pretend to mitigate, not to aboUsh the evil. 
 
 Now, the first of the bills which I intend to submit to the con- 
 sideration of the House will establish a permanent commission, 
 and thereby secure the entire sei-vices of competent persons. It 
 wiU give the power of far more detailed and frequent visitation, 
 and fix the limits of expense, now regularly increasing. It wlU
 
 Begulation of Lunatic Asi/Iums. 171 
 
 place " hospitals " or subscription asylums under proper regula- 
 tions, by requii-ing them to have the same orders and certificates 
 as ai"e necessary in licensed houses, and by subjecting them to the 
 same visitations as county asylums. My bill will also provide an 
 additional security against the imi^roper detention of paixper pa- 
 tients, by requiring that the person signing the order for their 
 confinement shall personally examine them beforehand, and that 
 the medical officer who certifies as to their insanity shall see them 
 within seven days previous to their confinement. I may add that 
 neither of these safeguards exists at present. I propose, also, that 
 my measure shoiild compel every person receiving a patient to state 
 his condition, mental as well as bodily, when first admitted, and 
 the cause of his death when he dies. It will also direct that every 
 injury and act of violence happening to a patient shall be recorded, 
 and will require a case-book to be kept, thereby aftording addi- 
 tional securities against mismanagement, and showing how far 
 the patients have the benefit of medical treatment. It will also 
 authorize the visitors to enforce a proper supply of food (in 
 licensed houses) to pauper patients, who are at present fed at the 
 discretion of the proj^rietor. Further, it will enable the visitor to 
 order the admission of a patient's friends ; at present, they are 
 admitted or excluded at the caprice of the person who signs the 
 order for the patient's confinement. It Likewise will enable the 
 visitors to sanction the temporary removal of a patient in ill 
 health to the sea-side, or elsewhere. It, moreover, will enforce an 
 immediate private return of all single patients I'eeeived for profit, 
 and authorize the members of a small private committee, named 
 by the Lord Chancellor, to visit them if necessary. This is the 
 provision of the law in France: in that country licenses are 
 prescribed for every house, and certificates and visitors for every 
 lunatic. The abuses and cruelties perpetrated in these retreats 
 for single patients would sui-pass the belief of the House. I have 
 said before, and I say again, that, should it please God to afflict 
 me with such a visitation, I would greatly prefer the treatment 
 of paupers in an establishment like that of the Surrey Asylum, to 
 the treatment of the rich in almost any one of those receptacles. 
 These returns are universally evaded at present, the law rendering 
 it unnecessary to make any return, unless the patient has been 
 confined for tw^elve months. The bill will give the Chancellor 
 power to protect the property of lunatics against whom a com- 
 mission has not issued by a summary and inexpensive process, 
 and it subjects all workhouses in which any lunatic is kept to 
 regular visitation.
 
 172 House of Commons, Oth June, 1845. 
 
 The second bill whicli I intend to lay before the House is called 
 for by the report of the commissioners, and the facts whicb I 
 produced in my statement of last year ; and, presuming that the 
 House wiU accept this for granted, I think it may not be neces- 
 sary for me to go over the evidence that was then laid before the 
 House ; nevertheless, I do feel it necessary to call the attention of 
 the House to tbe principal defects vrbicli are pointed out by our 
 report as to pauper lunatics and county asylums. First, tbat 
 there are 40 counties in England, and only 16 county asylums ; 
 and 12 counties in Wales, and only one disgi-aceful borough 
 asylum. Of the 24 counties in England having no asylums, one 
 lias 500, two upwards of 400, three upwards of 300, seven iipwards 
 of 200, and 11 nearly one hundred lunatics each ; and Wales has 
 1,000 hmatics. The second is, that of the 16 counties which have 
 asylums, one has 800, one has 600, one has 500, one more than 
 300, three more than 200, and the rest more than 100 lunatics, 
 for whom there is no accommodation in the asylums which have 
 been erected, and no other receptacle. The third defect is, that 
 all the existing asylums are full of incurables, or persons said to 
 be incurable. The fourth defect is, that no system has been 
 adopted in the county asylums to give preference to urgent cases, 
 or those capable of cure. The fifth fault in the present state of 
 the law is the detention of lunatics in workhouses, where there is 
 no sufficient medical or moral treatment. At the Union work- 
 house of Redruth, there were 40, and of Leicester 30 hmatics ; 
 and at Binningham not in the Union 70 lunatics. The sixth is, 
 there is no real visitation or true account of those lunatics who 
 are not in asylums ; for example, the lunatics of North and South 
 Wales, and those in England not in asylums, being 9,339 with 
 their friends or in workhouses. 
 
 I think I may now proceed to illustrate the necessity for these 
 alterations by reference to one or two cases. 1 find, from the 
 report before me, that in the Leicester Union workhouse — 
 
 "There were thirty insane persons, of whom three males and 
 nine females were dangerous lunatics, in the strict sense of the 
 word, and most unfit inmates of the place, and where, as we were 
 informed, they had been long detained in spite of the remon- 
 strances of the visiting surgeon and some of the magistrates. In 
 the parish workhoiise at Birmingham there were seventy-one 
 insane persons, subject to insanity in vai-ious forms, several of 
 them being epileptics, liable after their paroxysms of epilepsy to 
 fits of raving madness, during which they were usually excessively 
 violent and furiously maniacal."
 
 Regulation of Lunatic Asijlmns. 173 
 
 Take tlie case of a priv^ate liouse at Derby visited in 1842 : 
 
 " The straw in the paupers' beds was fonnd filthy, and some <)f 
 the bedding was in a disgusting condition from running sores, 
 and was of the worst materials and insufficient ; two cells in 
 which three sick epileptic paupers slept were damp, unhealthy, 
 and unfit for habitation ; the beds of some of the private patients 
 were in an equally bad state ; neai-ly all the provisions of the law 
 for the regulation of licensed asylums were violated. . . . The 
 magistrates of the borough, who are its visiting justices, had not 
 visited the house for the space of a year minus eight days. . . . 
 In 1843 it was again in a veiy bad state ; the paupers were still 
 occupying what had been the coachhouse and stables ; the rooms 
 were low, comfortless, and ill-ventilated, and one of the apart- 
 ments most off"ensive. It has been visited within the last six 
 weeks of the present year ; the commissioners report that the 
 condition of the private patients was improved, but that of the 
 paupers was so bad that another communication must be made 
 by the board to the magistrates of the borough." 
 
 Now, here is an excellent sample — though there are exceptions, 
 I admit — of the mode and measure of provincial visitation by the 
 provincial magistracy. I am speaking in reference to the visita- 
 tion of private asylums only ; the supervision and care of the 
 county asylums are, on the whole, extremely satisfactory ; but 
 look at this, the justices in the preceding year visited the asylum 
 but once ; they received a shock, no doubt, by the spectacle they 
 witnessed, and they took a good course to avoid a repetition of it; 
 for, says the report, " during the last year no visiting justices 
 were appointed." It is very true that many private asylums are 
 of a superior character ; liut the tendency of such establishments 
 is to this state of things. Every one must perceive that the 
 pittance of seven shillings or eight shillings a week given to the 
 proprietor of an asylum for the maintenance and cure of a paupei' 
 lunatic is altogether insufficient ; the j)roprietor actually and 
 justifiably looks to realize a profit; and, however great his 
 humanity, which I have seen in frequent instances, will not 
 generally go beyond that point which will leave him an adequate 
 return for himself. 
 
 I will now, by a very striking example, illustrate the deplorable 
 condition in which some of the pauper lunatics in Wales have 
 been placed, I will mention the case of Mary Jones, who was 
 consigned, be it observed, to the care of her mother. The report 
 made upon her case I will now read, with the pei'mission of the 
 House :
 
 174 House of Commons. Gth June, 1845. 
 
 "We went to the cottage between eight and nine o'clock in 
 the evening, accompanied, at our request, by Dr. Lloyd "Williams, 
 who interpreted to us the answers given to questions put through 
 him. In a dark and offensive room over a blacksmith's forge, 
 upon opening a bolted door, we discovered the miserable object of 
 our search. The only window was closed up by boards, between 
 which little air could find admission, and only a feeble glimmering 
 of light. In the middle of this loathsome chamber was Mary 
 Jones, the lunatic, on a foal pallet of chaff or straw, and here she 
 had been confined for a i^eriod of fifteen years and upwards. She 
 was seated in a bent and crouching posture on her bed of nauseous 
 and disgusting filth. Near to her person, and just within her 
 reach, was a cup into which she was accustomed to pass her 
 excretions, which she emptied from time to time into a chamber 
 utensil. This last vessel contained a quantity of feculent matter, 
 the accumulation of several days. By her side were the remnants 
 of some food of which she had partaken. Within a few feet of 
 the pallet, which was on the floor, stood a large earthen jar, 
 nearly full of fetid urine, the produce of the three other persons 
 in the cottage. It had, as stated by the mother, been placed 
 there in order that it might, from the warmth of the room, 
 itndergo a more speedy decomposition for the purpose of being 
 used in dying wool. The stagnant and suffocating atmosphere, 
 and the nauseous efiluvia which infected it, were most intoler- 
 able." 
 
 Listen to the effects of this treatment : 
 
 " This long and close confinement had prodxTced in Mary Jones's 
 person the most frightful distortions. The chest bone protruded 
 forwards five or six inches beyond its natural place, and there was 
 an excoriation of the parts below. The legs were bent backwards, 
 and the knee-joints were fixed and immoveable. The ankles and 
 feet wei-e also greatly twisted and deformed. She was emaciated 
 in the last degree; her piilse was feeble and quick ; and her coun- 
 tenance, still pleasing, was piercingly anxious, and marked by an 
 expression of despair. Her garments were loathsome, and from 
 her person was emitted a most offensive odour. . . . For about 
 ten years past she had been confined to the dismal chamber in 
 which we found her, the window of which had been boarded during 
 nearly the whole of that time." 
 
 Now, observe the whole enormity of this case : this poor woman 
 was removed to the hospital. What says Dr. Williams ? 
 
 " We have the clearest evidence that if this poor creature had
 
 Begulation of Lunatic Asi/huns. 175 
 
 been properly treated iu tlie first instance, she would have been 
 completely cured." 
 
 He adds : 
 
 " August 14, 1844, — After I wi-ote to you yesterday I gave lier 
 (i. e., Mary James), some money to buy calico, and I was gratified 
 to find that she took a needle and thread and commenced sewing 
 very tidily." 
 
 On the authority of Dr. Williams, of Denbigh, I am enabled to 
 say that she must have been at one time fully capable of cure, 
 and that she still had sufiicient intellect to enjoy existence, when 
 she was placed in favoui'able circumstances. 
 
 It is time that I shoiild now come to that part of my statement 
 vrhich has reference to the alterations that I intend to propose. 
 The second bill which I shall ask leave to introduce will be an 
 extension of the act of the 9th of George IV., c. 40. "We have 
 taken this act for our basis, and have been scrupulous in de- 
 pai'ting as little as possible from its provisions : the act is far 
 from perfect, biit I must speak with deference of a law that has 
 laid the foundation of such asylums as Sun-ey, Hanwell, and 
 others. The principal amendments are these : — 1st. Instead of 
 permitting, I propose to require every county and borough which 
 has no asylum to provide one, either for itself or in union with 
 some other county or borough. 2nd. That every county which 
 has an asylum, but insufficient accommodation, is to provide 
 further accommodation. This is according to the law in France ; 
 every department in that country is compelled to furnish adequate 
 receptacles for its insane poor. 3rd. In ex-ecting new asylums, 
 and providing further accommodation where it is required, regard 
 should be had to the proportion of curable and chronic lunatics ; 
 I pitrposely avoid the use of the term " incurable." Separate 
 buildings I propose should be provided for the chronic at a less 
 cost, and parts of the workhouses, with the consent of the Poor 
 Law Commissioners, may be adapted, in which case they are to 
 be separated from the other part of the building, and to be 
 deemed co\inty asylums. 4th. Counties having asylums may 
 unite with other counties not having one. 5th. To extend the 
 act to boroughs having courts of separate quarter sessions, and to 
 every place not contril)uting to county rates. 6th. To assist 
 magistrates in erecting asylums, and ascertaining the propor- 
 tionate numbers of curable and chronic lunatics, and providing 
 separate buildings for them, and for diminishing the expense of 
 building asylums, the plans are to be submitted to the Com- 
 missioners in Lunacy, and the estimates to the Secretary of
 
 176 House of Commons, 6th June, 1845. 
 
 State; it is provided also that asylums for boroughs may be 
 erected without the boimdaines of the borough. 7th. The time 
 for the repayment of money borrowed for building asylums I 
 propose to extend from fourteen to thirty years. 8th. General 
 rules for the government of asylums should be submitted to the 
 Secretary of State. 9th. Copies of the accounts of asylums are 
 to be sent to the Secretary of State. We also propose that all 
 recent cases of lunacy are to be sent immediately to an asylum -. 
 this is an indispensable prv^vision, for it is clear that if svich cases 
 are met with instant attention, the number of cures will be, as I 
 shall presently state, in the proportion of from 70 to 90 per cent. ; 
 whereas if they are suffered by neglect to become chronic or 
 inveterate cases, the amount curable is scarcely anything per 
 cent., or at the very outside, and under the most favourable 
 results, only from 6 to 8 per cent. We next j)rovide for the 
 reception of all lunatics who are not chargeable, whether wander- 
 ing or otherwise : they are to be apprehended, and those whose 
 friends cannot pay for them are to be admitted into the asylum 
 as paupers. Our next provision is, that a quarterly inspection of 
 all lunatics who are not in asylums is to take place by a medical 
 man, who shall return lists of them, describing their condition, to 
 the Commissioners in Lunacy. Amongst other provisions apper- 
 taining to this part of the bill is one by which every pauper 
 lunatic shall, in the first place, be deemed to belong to the parish 
 from which he is sent until he shall be proved to belong to 
 another; and, with reference to this proviso, a clause will be 
 introduced in order to protect counties from this casual charge 
 becoming permanent, in cases where adjudications shall be made 
 respecting lunatic paupers ; and, lastly, power is to be given to 
 remove chronic lunatics to the asylums provided for such cases. 
 These are the main enactments ; the others may be reserved for a 
 future stage of the bill. 
 
 But now as to the actual state of the pauper lunatics in the 
 existing coimty asylums. I will take the great asylum of HanweU, 
 in Middlesex. In that asylum there were, in the month of March, 
 1844, 984 patients, of whom thirty only were reported to be 
 curable. There were waiting for admission 429 pauper lunatics, 
 all of whom were, in consequence of the delay in applying a 
 curative treatment, fast becoming incurable. Within the first 
 three months of 1844 there were no less than forty hmatic 
 patients, to whom admission was refused into the HanweU 
 asylum, making in the whole year 160 patients. Of these, sup- 
 posing that 6 per cent, were cm-able, there would remain perma-
 
 Regulation of Lunatic Asi/lums. 177 
 
 nently tlirown upon tlie county of Middlesex for support no less 
 than 150 lunatics in eacli year. The second instance to which I 
 shall refer is that of the lunatic asylum of the county of Lan- 
 caster, which contained in the year 1844 about 600 hmatics. Of 
 these nearly all had been previously detained in the workhouses 
 of their different parishes so long as to greatly diminish all 
 probability of their cure. In the whole county there were then 
 waiting for admission into the asylum about 500 lunatics, for 
 whom no room whatever could be made. I next turn to the 
 Surrey Lunatic Asylum, where I find, on the 1st of January, 1844, 
 no less than 382 patients, of whom 362 were reported as incurable, 
 whilst there were in private asylums and elsewhere in the county 
 209 kmatics waiting for admission. I take these very magnificent 
 establishments, because they afford striking examples of the want 
 of provision for the treatment of recent cases, and they likewise 
 offer the most convincing proofs of the increase of incui'able 
 lunatics throughout the counties in consequence of the neglect of 
 early treatment. Let us now look to the treatment pursued in 
 other asylums, and contrast the effects of recent attention with 
 those where the cases have experienced neglect of longer or 
 shorter date. I refer in this respect to the report of the Dorset 
 County Lunatic Asylum, made at the Epiphany Sessions for the 
 year 1845, which states that there had been discharged during 
 that year twenty-three lunatics as cured, of whom seventeen had 
 been admitted in the same year. And what did the superintendent 
 say with respect to this fact ? He reports thus : 
 
 " This is a lai'ger number of recoveries than has taken place 
 in any year since the opening of the institution, and may be 
 attributed to a greater number than formerly being admitted in 
 the incipient stage of the disorder." 
 
 Of sixteen persons who had been admitted during the first 
 three months of their attack no less than thirteen were cured, 
 making 81 per cent. In cases even of relaj)se, the proportion of 
 cures was not less than 58 per cent., and in the cases themselves 
 the disorder had existed for more than three but less than twelve 
 months. In St. Luke's Hosj)ital the cures during 1843 amounted 
 to 631 per cent., and in 1842 to 70t per cent., the cases in many 
 instances having been of several months' standing. I find, too, in 
 a paper recently read before the Medical Society, communicated 
 by Dr. Forbes Winslow, a gentleman who has paid much attention 
 to this class of disorders, and who is justly entitled to be heard, 
 an opinion that a large proportion of the many thousand incurable
 
 178 House of Commons, Qth June, 1845. 
 
 lunatics in England and "Wales had been reduced to this melan- 
 choly state by the neglect to which they had been subjected in the 
 incipient state of the malady. In fact, that nine out of ten cases 
 recovered if subjected to treatment within the first three months 
 of the attack. There is similar testimony in other countiies ; from 
 the reports of the State Lunatic Asylum of New York for the 
 year 1844, sent to me by Dr. Brigham, I find it stated that — 
 
 " Few things relating to the management and treatment of the 
 insane are so well established as the necessity of their early treat- 
 ment. . . . By examining the records of well-conducted asylums 
 it appears that more than eight out of ten of the recent cases 
 recover, while not more than one in six of the old cases are cured." 
 
 And I find the same facts reported by the physicians of the 
 Hartford Lunatic Asylum, in the United States. Many impedi- 
 ments, however, are thrown in the way of the speedy application 
 of the curative treatment in cases of pauper lunacy, — first, no 
 magistrate, in any county having a public asylum, has it in his 
 power to authorize the transmission of paviper lunatics to a 
 private asylum for treatment in case the county asylum should 
 be too full to receive them. The law has been so determined by 
 a late decision in the Court of Queen's Bench, which renders it 
 additionally necessary for the government to apply themselves to 
 a removal of existing difficulties; the parish authorities, moreover, 
 are indolent, indifi^erent, or they seek to avoid the expense ; but, 
 after all, the main impediment lies in the want of adequate accom- 
 modation. And whence is this defect ? It may be traced to the 
 past and present fear of the enormous cost to be incurred in the 
 construction of asylums. 
 
 Here, then, I approach the financial part of our project ; and, 
 although I admit that this is a most dry and uninviting topic, I 
 still am under the necessity of entering upon some details respect- 
 ing this branch of the subject, as it is of the most essential 
 importance; and hon. Members will allow that without some 
 explanation on this head I shall have but little hope for any bill. 
 The main impediments in the way of constructing county 
 asylums has been, I have already said, and at present is, the fear 
 of the enormous expense supposed to be necessarily attendant 
 upon such undertakings. Now, the county asylum at Hanwell 
 has cost in all the sum of 196,000Z. On the original cost the rate 
 per head for 1,000 patients was 1601, and on 800 patients 245^. 
 The Surrey Asylum cost 85,000Z., or 237^. per head for each 
 patient. But this is far too large an estimate to be taken as an
 
 Begulation of Lunatic Asylums. 179 
 
 allowance of tlie cost per head ; it is the opinion of the commis- 
 sioners tliat SOI. per head would be an ample allowance for the 
 construction of lunatic asylums, and to provide that the en- 
 lightened curative system in the treatment of patients recom- 
 mended by the best authorities be adopted and acted tipon. Of 
 this we shall be able to furnish ample proofs in the committee on 
 the bill. The great error, as it has appeared to us, in the con- 
 struction of lunatic asylums, is that they are all built upon the 
 presumption that every one of the patients is of the same 
 character, requiring the same minute care and the same pre- 
 cautions. This view of the question greatly enhances the 
 expenses ; but we look at the matter in a totally different way. 
 We make a distinction between the different classes of lunatics ; 
 we provide a distinction between chronic cases and recent cases. 
 For chronic cases of lunacy we provide good diet, warmth, clothing, 
 air, and exercise ; and, in addition, occupation, which we recom- 
 mend to be of the healthiest description — I mean occitpation in 
 the open air, such as gardening, or on farms. But the chronic 
 patients do not require the same careful supervision which the 
 recent cases would constantly call for, nor do they require the 
 same medical attention as the patients who are under curative 
 treatment demand ; and therefore the care and attention shown to 
 them is not by any means so costly as that of the patients who 
 are undergoing the whole of the c^^rative process, and towards 
 whom every minute precaution and care must be constantly 
 obsei'ved. 
 
 Let us take therefoi-e the proportions of these respective classes 
 of patients, and adapt them to the estimates for bviUding new 
 asylums. Suppose we take 12,500 pauper lunatics to be the 
 number requiring accommodation. From this number deduct 10 
 per cent, for the harmless lunatics, who may safely be left at home 
 under the care of their relations, but also under medical super- 
 vision. Of the remainder, 40 per cent, are considered to be 
 cui-able, and 60 per cent, are chronic or inveterate cases. Apply 
 this to a county asylum having 300 lunatics ; deduct 10 per cent., 
 there will be 270 left ; of these 40 per cent., or 108, are curable, 
 and to be admitted into the " recent-case " hospital : the remainder, 
 60 per cent., or 162, are patients for the chronic department of 
 the asylum. The gross expense of such an asylum would be as 
 follows : — taking the recent cases at 80Z. per head, they would 
 amount to 8,640L ; and taking the chronic cases at 50?. per head, 
 they would be 8.100?. : making in the whole 16,740/. for these two 
 classes ; but, as aU cases of epilepsy and of violent patients must 
 
 ■
 
 ISO House of Coonmons, Gth June, 1845. 
 
 he under especial care in tlie recent-case hospital, I will add one- 
 sixth of the whole expense, or 3,290L, to the sum already mentioned 
 as the cost of this extra care, by which the sum total for 300 
 patients in an asylum will be 20,030/. We propose to extend the 
 term of repayment, out of the county rates, of the cost of these 
 asylums from fourteen to thirty years ; thus the annual burden 
 on the county rates in the case I have referred to would only 
 be 6661. Now, compare the burden which our plan would impose 
 with that under the present system ; the average expense of con- 
 struction of eleven county asylums has been 1701. per head. Thus, 
 under the old plan, an asylum for 300 lunatics cost 51,000/. ; under 
 the new plan, as I have just shown, it will cost 20,030/. Take 
 then the gross expense of providing for 12,500 lunatics, at 170/. 
 per head, it would be 2,125,000/. thi-oughout England and Wales; 
 whilst under our plan it would be 813,750/., being a difference of 
 1,311,250/., leaving for the thirty-six counties in England and 
 Wales unprovided with asylums an average of 22,604/. (and in 
 many counties much less), repayable in thirty years. Now, if we 
 look to the number of chronic cases, and to the mode of their 
 treatment, we cannot wonder at the enormous expense which lies 
 on the counties. There are pauper lunatics in asylums, say 
 7,000 ; in workhouses and elsewhere, 10,000 ; curable in asylums, 
 20 per cent., or 1,400 ; in workhouses, 20 per cent., 2,000 ; making 
 together 3,400. Incurable in asylums, 5,600 ; in workhouses, 
 8,000 ; making together 13,600. Now, the average duration of 
 the lives of lunatics has been calculated by Dr. ConoUy at ten 
 years, which is a very low average. Observe this ; the following 
 would be the average annual cost, at 20/. per head : — 60 per cent. 
 of 5,600 (or 3,660) lunatics in asylums, at 20/. per head, would 
 have cost, for one year, if cured, 67,200/. ; if allowed to become in- 
 curable, and they live the average of ten years, 672,000/. : in same 
 way, 60 per cent, of 8,000 (or 4,500) lunatics, would have cost 
 96,000/. ; if incui-able, 960,000/. Now, with respect to the duration 
 of life in an insane person, I am strongly persuaded that the 
 average of ten years is far too low a basis to calculate upon. 
 Dr. Hitch, of Gloucester, says that insanity by no means shortens 
 life, and he gives tables to show this. He asserts that out of 105 
 deaths, there were sixteen above fifty years of age, seventeen above 
 sixty, and seventeen above seventy, being nearly 50 per cent, of 
 the whole mortality. I may here call attention to another feature 
 in the economy of the plan which we propose, namely, that 
 exhibited in the case of the Hanwell Asylum, which is, in fact, the 
 case of every asylum. By the present system, the cures only
 
 Regulation of Lunatic Asylums. 181 
 
 average 6 per cent, instead of 60. The number of applications 
 refused every yeai* is 160. There are thus 150 incurable lunatics 
 thrown upon the covmty annually, instead of sixty -four, Ixiing an 
 annual difference of ninety-six. Now, had these been sent and 
 cured within the first six months, they would have cost at the 
 annual rate of 16Z. lis. Q^d. each, or 1,591Z. 10s. But supposing 
 them to become incurable, and live the usual period, the cost 
 would be 31,8oOL This system prevailing throughout the whole 
 kingdom, the present plan would reduce the additions to the 
 chronic lists from ninety-four to thirty annually ; and the calcula- 
 tions which I have laid before the House show that in Middlesex 
 alone there would be an annual saving of 30,000Z, This is a saving 
 which, in the course of ten years, will more than cover the whole 
 additional outlay for the construction of a new asylum. 
 
 But this is not all the good that will result from our plan. By 
 recoveiTng the patient, not only wiU the expense of his maintenance 
 for life in a lunatic asylum be avoided, but he will be restored to 
 his occupation — and his family, instead of being thrown upon the 
 parish for support, will again look to him for their means of 
 existence. The system which we propose to substitute for the 
 present one will effect a cure in seventy cases out of every hundred. 
 But other and veiy great advantages wiU arise by redixcing the 
 size of these asylums. They are by far too large for an efiicient 
 administration of the curative process. There must be, to insure 
 success, a minute attention to diet, exercise, and classificati(jn — 
 the patients must be seen daily, sometimes hourly, and occasionally, 
 in certain circumstances, during the night. No one man can 
 undertake the charge of more than 300 patients : the experience 
 of all practical men is concurrent on this point : no one presses it 
 more vigorously than Dr. ConoUy. Hear the testimony of 
 Dr. Julius, an eminent physician at Berlin : 
 
 " Every public or private institution," he wi'ites, " has certain 
 limits in which it must be restricted." He insists particularly " on 
 schools, hospitals, and, moi*e than all, penitentiaries and lunatic 
 asylums, as places where the individualising treatment of every 
 case will contribute much, and more than anything, to its success." 
 
 He proceeds to lament the extension of HanweU, and adds, that 
 
 " This institution, excellent as it is, warns mankind not to en- 
 large asylums beyond the limits which are traced by the moral 
 and physical powers of the individual that has to guide and 
 manage it." 
 
 Our present business, however, is to affirm that indigent lunatics
 
 182 House of Commons, Gth June, 1845. 
 
 ought to be maintained at the public charge. I entertain, myself, 
 a very clecided opinion that none of any class should be received 
 for profit ; but all, I hope, wiU agree that paupers, at any rate, 
 should not be the subjects of financial speculation. How is it 
 possible that the proprietor of the house should, out of 85. a week, 
 give the patient everything that is required — fuU diet, ample space 
 of house and grounds, all the expensiveness of the non-restraint 
 system, and realize in the remainder an adequate return for him- 
 self and his family ? The thing is next to impossible, and ought 
 not to be attempted. 
 
 And now. Sir, it seems to me unnecessary to weary the House 
 any further by preliminary matter; for whatever remains and 
 requires explanation, may be made the subject of discussion, 
 should the House be pleased to j^ermit the introduction of these 
 Bills, and the subsequent consideration of them in committee. 
 StiU more is it unnecessary to urge upon this House, an assembly 
 of educated, humane, and Christian men, the duty of coming forward 
 to the aid and protection of this utterly helpless class, who, under 
 the marked visitation of a wise though inscrutable Providence, 
 demand an unusual measure of our sympathy. Sir, it is remarkable 
 and very humiliatLag, the long and tedious process by which we 
 have arrived at the sound practice in the treatment of the insane, 
 which now appears to be the suggestion of common sense and 
 ordinary humanity. The whole history of the world, until the 
 era of the Reformation, dees not aiTord an instance of a single 
 receptacle assigned to the protection and care of these unhappy 
 sufi"erers, whose malady was looked upon as hardly within the 
 reach or hojie of medical aid. If dangerous, they were incarcerated 
 in the common prisons ; if of a certain I'ank in society, they were 
 shut up in their houses under the care of appointed guardians. 
 Chains, and whips, and darkness, and solitude, were the apj)roved 
 and only remedies. The practice has descended to our own day ; 
 and Dr. Conolly assures us that he has formerly witnessed — 
 
 " Humane English physicians daily contemplating helpless in- 
 sane patients boimd hand and foot, and neck, and waist, in illness, 
 in pain, and in the agonies of death, without one single touch of 
 compunction, or the slightest approach to a feeling of acting 
 either cruelly or unwisely. They thought it impossible to manage 
 insane people in any other way." 
 
 The honour of these discoveries, and the first practice of 
 them belongs unquestionably to the French nation ; it is to the 
 genius and humanity of their professors that we owe such mighty
 
 Regulation of Lunatic Asylums. 183 
 
 advances in the science of mental disorders. Some improvements 
 were attempted in the early pai-t of the last century ; but it was 
 reserved for Pinel, in the centre of Paris, in the very moment of 
 the reign of terror, to achieve a work which, for genius, courage, 
 and philanthropy, must ever rank him amongst the veiy principal 
 of mankind. The naiTative is so graphic and interesting, that I 
 must entreat permission to detain the House by the recital of a 
 few passages : — 
 
 "Pinel undertook what appeared to be the rash enterprise 
 of liberating the dangerous lunatics of the Bicetre. He made 
 application to the commune for permission. Couthon offered 
 to accompany him to the great bedlam of France. They were 
 received by a confused noise ; the yells and angry vociferations 
 of 300 maniacs mixing their sounds with the echo of clanking 
 chains and fetters, through the dark and dreary vaults of the 
 prison. Couthon turned away with hoiTor, but pennitted the 
 physician to incur the risk of his undertaking. He resolved to 
 try his experiments by liberating fifty madmen, and began by 
 unchaining twelve. The first was an English ofiicer, who had 
 been boimd in his dungeon forty years, and whose history every- 
 body had forgotten. His keepers approached him with dread ; he 
 had killed one of their comrades by a blow with his manacles. 
 Pinel entered his cell imattended, and told him that he should be 
 at liberty to walk at large, on the condition of his promising to 
 put on the camisole or strait-waiscoat. The maniac disbelieved 
 him, but obeyed his directions mechanically. The chains of the 
 miserable prisoner were removed; the door of his ceU was left 
 open. Many times he was seen to raise himself and fall backwards 
 — his limbs gave way ; they had been fettered during forty years. 
 At length he was able to stand, and to stalk to the door of his 
 dark cell, and gaze, with exclamations of wonder and delight, on 
 the beautiful sky." 
 
 I ask, Sir, was there ever such an instance of needless suffering ! 
 
 " He spent the day in walking to and fro, was no more confined, 
 and duiing the remaining two years which he spent at Bicetre 
 assisted in the management of the house. The next madman 
 liberated was a soldier of the French Guard, who had been in 
 chains ten years, and was the object of general terror. His 
 disorder had been kept up by cruelty and bad treatment. When 
 liberated, he assisted Pinel in breaking the chains of his fellow- 
 prisoners. He became immediately kind and attentive, and was 
 ever after the devoted friend of his deliverer. . . . The result was
 
 184 House of Commons, 0th June, 1845. 
 
 beyond all hoije. Tranquillity and harmony succeeded to tumult 
 and disorder ; even the most furious maniacs became tractable." 
 
 This was indeed a man to be honoured by every nation under 
 heaven ! Would to God that such were the character, the motive, 
 and end, of all our rivalry with that great people. Well would 
 it be for mankind, if, by our mutual harmony, we kept the world 
 at peace, while we prosecuted and enforced their noble discoveries. 
 I could furnish to the House many recent instances of similar 
 triumphs in our own counti-y ; but I will not now detain them by 
 the nan-ative. The system passed from France into this country, 
 but was of slow gi'owth. We are mainly indebted for it to the 
 Society of Friends, and that remarkable family of the Tukes who 
 founded the Retreat at York, soon after the victoiies of Pinel in 
 France. Samuel, the son of William Tuke, is still alive, a man 
 of singular capacity and benevolence ; and surely he must be 
 gi-atified to perceive that his example has obtained not only the 
 approval, but the imitation of the best and wisest men of this 
 country, and 1 may add, of America ; for I have here very copious 
 documents, sent to us by Dr. Brigham, the eminent physician of 
 the State Asylum of New Tork, which show the zealous and 
 liberal efforts of the local governments in these great and necessary 
 undertakings. 
 
 But, Sii% to secure not only the progress, but even the con- 
 tiuuance of this improved condition, we have need of a most 
 active and constant supei-vision ; if this be denied, or even abated, 
 the whole system will relapse. There is the strongest tendency, 
 and it is not unnatural, amongst the subordinate officers of 
 every asylum to resoi^t to coercion ; it gratifies all the infirmities 
 of pi-ide, of temper, and indolence. The disclosures of the former 
 state of the public hospital at Bedlam, of the private one at 
 York, and more recently, of a large portion of the countiy, in 
 our report of last year, sufficiently attest how indispensable 
 are the provisions we have suggested for visitation and publicity. 
 Such arrangements wiU supersede the necessity of much minute 
 legislation : on no one point is Mr. Tuke more hearty in his con- 
 cuiTence, with a view to prevent the return of those disgraceful 
 practices which have both afflicted and dishonoured mankind. 
 Clearly then, Sir, it is our duty, and our interest too, whUe we 
 have health and intellect — " Mens sana in corpore sano," leisure 
 and opportunity — it is our duty and our interest, I say, to 
 deliberate upon these things before the evil days come, and the 
 years of which we shall say that we have no pleasure in them.
 
 Regulation of Lunatic Asylums. 185 
 
 Here we are sitting in deliberation to-day — to-morrow we may be 
 the subjects of it. Causes, as slight apparently as tlieyai'e sudden, 
 varying through every degree of intensity — a fail, a fever, a 
 reverse of fortune, a domestic calamity — will do the awful work, 
 and then, " Farewell, king !" The nlost exalted intellects, the 
 noblest affections, are transformed into fatuity and corruption, 
 aud leave nothing but the sad though salutary lesson, how frail 
 is the tenure by which we hold all that is precious and dignified 
 in human nature. But, Sir, it is the temper of our times — and 
 most heartily ought we to thank God for it — and especially of our 
 own country, to view all such things as incentives to earnest and 
 ^•igorous action. I invite you, therefore, in this spirit, to accept 
 or to amend the proposition I have submitted to your considera- 
 tion ; and be assured that it is not in the order of Providence that 
 such labour should be altogether without fruits ; for one of two 
 results you cannot fail of attaining : either you will behold the 
 blessings of happiness and health i-evisiting the homes of the 
 emancipated sufferers, or you wUl enjoy the satisfaction of having 
 laboured with disinterestedness and zeal for those who cannot 
 make you the least compensation.
 
 ( 186 ) 
 
 Social Condition of the Labouring Classes. 
 
 Bath, Tuesday, May 25, 1845. 
 
 Lord Ashley addi-essed tlie meeting as follows : 
 
 " Mr. SutcliiFe. and Gentlemen, — Although most of those who 
 are present are fully aware of the circumstances to which I am 
 indebted for the honour of an introduction to you, I think it will 
 be advisable that I should shortly review them as a preliminary 
 to the few observations which I shall touch upon in my address. 
 When, in obedience to a sense of duty, as no longer deeming it 
 right to oppose the repeal of the Corn Laws, I resigned my seat 
 for the county of Dorset, I was almost willing to retire altogether 
 from public life, and all its distracting vocations ; for, however 
 tempting to the young and inexperienced — however full of pro- 
 mise of usefulness and of honour to those who have never tried it 
 — the House of Commons does not present to its more practised 
 Members such an amount of unalloyed enjoyment as to render it 
 of all sublunary things the most to be desired. The immense 
 consumption of time, the constant demand on the moral and 
 physical energies, the enormous effort which is required to do 
 the smallest good, and the misunderstanding and abuse which 
 constantly attend that attempt — these circiimstances, when seen 
 and felt, greatly diminish the attraction of parliamentary honours. 
 Add to these the state of jDublic parties, the uncertainty of 
 the opinions of your own ordinary political friends, and the total 
 impossibility of reposing entire confidence in any public man — 
 consider all these things, and you have but little left to inspire 
 any inordinate desire of senatorial privileges. 
 
 But these sentiments, although they would not justify a man 
 in suiTcndering a tnast that was confided to his hands, would, 
 I think, release him from the obligation of seeking a renewal of 
 it at the cost of much toil, vexation, and expense. So far as my
 
 Social Condition of the Labouring Classes. 187 
 
 past and public life was concerned, matters still were incom- 
 plete. The Factory Bill, on behalf of which I had so long 
 laboured, was struggling for legislative existence, and many other 
 questions of social interest of the highest importance remained 
 unadjusted. It was then that your offer was presented to my 
 notice. An offer so honourable demanded my most serious and 
 respectful consideration. In these days a man may not choose 
 inactivity; and, therefore, as you well know, the issue was 
 that I did not venture to decline the flattering proposition. It 
 seemed to me, in a great degree, a pro%ddential summons, and I 
 obeyed it. And now I stand here as no man's enemy ; nor am I 
 chargeable with having wantonly disturljed the peace of your city. 
 Had 1 thrust myself, unsolicited, on your notice, I might, perhaps, 
 have been justly exposed to such an imputation ; but you have a 
 right — and I in accepting your offer recognize that right — nay, 
 more, you have a solemn duty, in the discharge of your responsible 
 trust, to select that person who, according to yoiir judgment, 
 mil best represent your principles in the councils of the nation, 
 and give them beneficial effect by a steady and judicious coui'se 
 of action in the legislature. I say, then, I am not chargeable 
 with having disturbed the peace of your city, because, as I said 
 before, you have the right to select the representatives who shall 
 best declare the piinciples which you profess. — And what are 
 those principles ? I think I may infer them from the facts of 
 the requisition which I had the honour to receive, so numerously 
 and so respectably signed. I gather that your i^rinciples are those 
 which have governed nearly the whole of my parliamentary life, 
 because I cannot conceive any qualification that should recommend 
 me to the notice of the electors of Bath but that which is founded 
 on an examination and approval of my parliamentary course. 
 Now, gentlemen, I decide at once that you will avow, and will 
 maintain, the great principles of our constitution in Church and 
 State — those great principles which, ever since the revolution of 
 1HS8, have been recognized and cherished by the people of these 
 realms — the Crown, the Bishops, the Houses of Lords and Com- 
 mons, and every institiition ecclesiastical and civil. I say the 
 great principles of the Constitution, because the mere bigoted 
 adherence to details, probably only external, is manifestly 
 impossible in the present day. The growing demands, and, 
 indeed, the exigences of the realm, require an occasional adapta- 
 tion to the necessities of the times ; and I rejoice, and we may 
 be thankful, that our system of polity is capable of a safe and 
 most beneficial expansion. Tou may lengthen your cords, and 
 strengthen your stakes, and in the very elongation of the support-
 
 188 Bath, 2:>tli May, 1845. 
 
 ing powei" make the edifice you would sustain more erect and 
 symmetrical. 
 
 But it is not by reference to speculative statements — it is by 
 reference to practical statements, that we in this country ascertain 
 our unity of sentiment ; because it is better that we understand 
 each other in seeing in what we have acted, rather than what, 
 before trial, we had professed together; and I will, therefore, 
 touch on some of the principal topics of the day, in hope — nay, 
 in the full belief — that yov and I shall find abundant matter for 
 harmony and co-operation. Now, I wiU not dwell long upon 
 questions of foreign policy, because they are not the stirring 
 topics of the present time. We are often charged in this country 
 ■nith an indifi'erence to foreign politics ; and no doubt they do 
 occupy a secondary place in our consideration. And I see no 
 harm in that ; on the contrary, I rejoice in it. I rejoice that the 
 attention of the public is drawn to subjects within its reach, 
 under its own observation, and affecting its real interests. But 
 we may, by referring to this subject, thank God that there is, in 
 this country, an increased and increasing desire to avoid, not 
 only for ourselves, but for all others, the hoiTors, and also the 
 glories, of war. That minister who, whilst not tarnishing the 
 honour of the nation, will make the greatest efforts, and even 
 sacrifices, for the maintenance of peace, wiU stand the highest in 
 the esteem and in the affection of the people. No ; it is to social 
 questions that the attention of the public is mainly directed ; it 
 is to the cleansing away of that enormous mass of filth and 
 suffering, physical and moral, which for years has been suffered 
 to accumulate around our internal polity, poisoning the very 
 soui'ces of public and private life, and endangering the national 
 security, most certainly the national honour, in the almost inde- 
 finite mass of domestic con-iiption. Now, I have some experience 
 of these things, both of the evils that prevail and of the remedy 
 which may be applied to them. When, some years ago, these 
 subjects were first mooted, I remember that throughout the manu- 
 facturing districts there were thousands and tens of thousands 
 who were brought in no respect within the pale of education, or 
 within the sound of the gospel. Obseii^e the different effect 
 which has been produced ; at this moment there may be within 
 those manufacturing districts no less, 1 believe, than upwards of 
 forty thousand children, between the ages of eight and thirteen, 
 who are i-eceiving an excellent education. But 1 will touch more 
 on that by-and-by : I wish now to return to those social questions 
 to which I was before refen-ing ; because 1 maintain that these are 
 the questions which not only do and ought to engage your prin-
 
 Social Condition of the Labouring Classes. 189 
 
 cipal attention, but that they are those which involve most seriously 
 the permanent interests of this realm. Now obsei've, can there 
 be greater wisdom in the government of a country th:in to devote 
 itself to the internal condition of all its interests ? What nation 
 can be so secure as that which is built like a city at unity with 
 itself ? What nation can be so free from internal tumult and 
 from external assault ? " Out of the heart," says the wise man, 
 " proceed the issues of life." The heart of a couuti-y is its people. 
 Let that people, in their habits, their thoughts, and their manners, 
 rise in the scale of civilization and Christianity, and then you will 
 drink water abundantly out of your own cisterns, and you will not 
 only enjoy them yourselves, but will diffuse them in streams of 
 richness and plenty for the delight and refi-eshment of other lands. 
 But, gentlemen, one obstacle, prodigious and almost insuper- 
 able, meets us at every turn, darkening with its shadow every 
 burst of sunshine, and stopping, by its mass, every avenue to 
 social improvement. Faith, we know, can remove mountains, 
 and faith, we believe, will remove the evils of Ireland ; but it 
 must be no ordinary faith, perseveringly exhibited in no ordinary 
 efforts. I never can speak of that country without shame and 
 remorse. Centuries of misgovernment and neglect have brought 
 that island into the condition it now is in, from which all the 
 wisdom, the zeal, and the hearty desire of every government for 
 the last quarter of a century has not been able to extricate it. 
 The evils of that country spring from her social system, and 
 spring from her religion, both alike traceable to this country, and 
 both demanding the succour and the sympathy of the English 
 people. Her Majesty's present Ministers have determined boldly 
 and most wisely in their endeavours to improve the social con- 
 dition of that country. I do not deny the hazai-dousness of the 
 experiment ; I cannot but regret the embarrassment likely to 
 arise to the landed proprietors of that portion of the realm ; but 
 poor-laws for Ireland were emphatically demanded; they were 
 just, necessary, and inevitable. It may be called amputation, but 
 you know amputation is often necessary to preseiwe life ; and all 
 that we can require is confined to the expression of the simple 
 wish that certain persons who call so emphatically for this terrible 
 operation should administer it under the soothing and beguiling 
 influence of the ether of courteous sympathy and civil language. 
 Turning to the other suggestions which are made for the imj^rove- 
 ment of Ireland, I do not think there are many here who will not 
 take very large excejitions to the plan of encouraging the Roman 
 Catholic religion, fostering its colleges, and endowing its priest- 
 hood; for these things involve great concession of principle,
 
 190 Bath, 25th May, 1845. 
 
 without any compensating or proportionate benefit. Those who 
 take the highest ground of opposition declare that they are sinful ; 
 those who assume a hiwer ground maintain that they are useless 
 in one aspect, and perilous in another. That they are useless as 
 means of conciliating you have the experience of the last twenty 
 years, and more especially in the recent legislation upon the 
 Colleo-e of Maynooth. The fact is, that all our statesmen lie 
 under a gi-ievous mistake ; they endeavour to control the people 
 through the priests, whereas they should endeavour to control the 
 priests through the people. Depend upon this — the diificulty does 
 not lie with the Irish nation ; the difficulty lies with the sacerdotal 
 and monkish orders, who, reversing the piety of Aaron, stand 
 between the living and the dead — the living word of God and the 
 dead congi-egation. Only allow profound security of life and 
 limb, with free discussion and an open Bible, and you will cease 
 to be pei'plexed in your determination how Ireland is to be 
 governed — Ireland, 
 
 "Great, gloiious, and free; 
 Bright flower of the earth, and first gem of the sea." 
 
 Then that quotation, so often used in the agitation of that unhappy 
 
 country, and used for purposes other than those for which I use 
 
 it now, will have its fulfilment, and Ireland will occupy her true 
 
 position, not as a gangrene in the side of England, but, as she 
 
 ought to be, and as, by God's blessing on oiu* efforts, she will 
 
 eventually become — her ti-ue and powerful arm of strength. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, to continue upon these subjects, there are 
 
 matters of much interest in the present day. I do not anticipate 
 
 that you and I shall be much at variance in consequence of the 
 
 part which I thought it my duty to take in respect of the repeal 
 
 of the corn-laws. It is, in fact, a consequence in some measure 
 
 of the part which I then took, that I have now the honour to 
 
 stand before you. I will not enter into any discussion of that 
 
 measure, either of the causes which gave rise to it, or of the 
 
 results which may follow. The time is yet too early for us 
 
 to decide either iipon the good or the evil which may spring 
 
 therefrom. But this thing must be manifest to every one, be he 
 
 friend or foe to that measure, that if those corn-laws had been in 
 
 existence when the present scarcity occurred, there would not 
 
 have been found in the kingdom one party able to oppose their 
 
 suspension ; and being susj)ended, I do not believe there would 
 
 have been found a single party to renew their operation. But 
 
 when we ^re taunted ynih being bound, as they say, to go a little 
 
 further into legislation, injurious to aU classes of the trading
 
 Social Condition of the Labouring Classes. 191 
 
 community, I reply at once that I deny not only the character of 
 the obligation, but the obligation itseK. We are bound to 
 nothing that we were not bound to before. We were bound then, 
 as we are bound now, to do all that we believe in our conscience 
 to be for the welfare of the realm, the peace of the world, and 
 the advantage of mankind. And tbis brings me to another point 
 of no small interest in the present day, upon which I will 
 detain you for a few minutes, because it certainly is wi-apt up 
 with the vital interests of this nation. Most assuredly, tlie 
 condition of the large mass of the people of these realms, both in 
 secular and in religious knowledge, is not such as can give to 
 those who inquire into these matters either satisfaction or hope. 
 No doubt in late years great advances have been made ; but the 
 population has widely outstripped the provision made for it, and 
 thousands may be found in our highways and hedges, in our 
 streets and alleys, in our courts and lanes, who are living in a 
 state of practical heathenism — a heathenism as complete as if 
 they were found in California or Timbuctoo. Now, heathenism, 
 wherever it prevails, produces a deep moral and physical degi'ada- 
 tion, and those people are not exempt from the operation of that 
 universal law. You may see that, in their countenances, and 
 their persons, many of them bear the impress of a disordered Hfe. 
 Now I will return to the point which I indicated some time ago. 
 I have seen some of the evils, and I have seen some of the 
 remedies. I have seen the effects produced on large masses of 
 the childi-en engaged in factory operations ; I know what they 
 were when the work of legislation was begun in 1830, and I know 
 exactly what they are now ; and I will give you the testimony of 
 their own people, ■vvi-itten to me when I desired operatives of 
 intelligence to give me their opinions as to the effect produced, 
 first, by the limitation of hours, and then by the education of the 
 childi'cn; and the answer given to me was this : " So greatly are 
 they improved that you woiild not know them to be the same race 
 of human beings." I go further {and I am indicating these things 
 because at the time that I point out the mischief I wish to show 
 you "there is a remedy at hand) — I go further, and talk of the 
 condition of those who are engaged beneath the surface in the 
 mines of the earth, (jro over those districts where that system 
 once prevailed ; take with you the blue books which record what 
 their condition was, and with your own eyes see what their con- 
 dition is now ; and you will tell me, as has been told me by several 
 in those districts — ay, and by masters themselves who were 
 opposed to the legislation I had the honour to introduce — you 
 wiU, I have no doubt, say at the conclusion of your voyage
 
 192 Bath, 25th May, 1845. 
 
 of inspection, that hj the restoration of women to their true 
 position in society we have revived that which oiight to be the 
 glory and strength of every country — I mean the domestic system ; 
 we have restored to those districts the domestic system and the 
 benign influence of females, and we have there i^lanted seeds of 
 strength which will grow up, I doubt not, when the present 
 generation is dead and gone, into a tree, the leaves of which 
 shall be for the refreshing of the nation. Tou may go to the 
 pi-int- works, and see thousands and thousands of children extri- 
 cated from the most cniel and debasing toil, and not only put 
 under a limitation of the hours of labour, but provision made 
 that they should be taught their duty to God and to man. The 
 same effects that followed in the first instance have followed in this ; 
 and be assured, they will follow in every instance where you go 
 forward with faith in your hearts, and the word of God in your 
 hands, for the pui-pose of making Him known to human beings 
 who may differ from you in this world in the degrees of life, 
 but who are equal to the best of us in the light of immortality. 
 
 This, however, is only a fraction of what remains to be done ; 
 this is but a fraction of all that must be overhauled and examined 
 before the good old ship Britannia will be al)le to float erect, and 
 defy all the enemies of her honour and her peace. In examining 
 the records of the reports made by the Children's Employment 
 Commission, which I moved for in 1840, I see enumerated a 
 number of ciaiel and distressing trades exhausting the energies of 
 the tender plant, sending many to a premature grave, and con- 
 signing all the rest to a degrading existence in after life. Examine 
 those records, and see what remains. I will not detain you by an 
 examination of this ; I will pass on to one other class who are 
 now beginning to occupy some of the public attention, found in 
 great numbers in our large towns — found, I believe, in a smaller 
 degree in the city of Bath, but principally in London, Liverpool, 
 and Manchester — that class known by the singular denomination 
 of ragged scholars. Which of you will take the trouble to peram- 
 bulate those gi'eat concentrations of human life? If you will 
 penetrate these alleys and courts, and dive into the recesses of 
 suffering, darkness, and ignorance, yoii will see a state of things 
 which I will defy either Dickens to describe, or Hogarth to paint. 
 You will see a state of things which will offend evei-y physical 
 sense, that will shock every moral feeling ; and if you do not 
 close that walk with a determination that you will devote 
 every energy you can spare towards the evangelization of that 
 wretched class, you are not the men I take you for, and I do 
 not desire to be your representative. But it is because I hold
 
 Social Condition of the Labourimj Classes. 193 
 
 you to be men of a different mould, and that you are animated by 
 these great and divine principles, that I shall esteem it a special 
 honour to be the representative of Bath. It is not necessary 
 that I should enlarge here on the duty of training a child in the 
 way he should go ; that is, I know, with yon, a foregone con- 
 clusion. Neither is it necessary to say that the State has already 
 seen it most just that it should no louger confide altogether to 
 the voluntary principle so important a matter as the education of 
 the people. I do not say that a national scheme of education is 
 within our reach — it is, in fact, beyond our reach ; but, neverthe- 
 less, let us do all that in us lies ; let us strengthen the things 
 that remain ; let us seize every opi^ortuuity ; let none slip of 
 doing partial, if we cannot effect entire, good ; trusting that, in 
 the good providence of God, the day will come when we shall 
 openly confess as we now feel, and reduce it to action, that, after 
 all, we have one Lord, one faith, one baptism. I do not mean to 
 say that education is a panacea for all the evils, or for the very 
 largest proportion of them, that affect this country ; and certainly 
 not such an education as we find in the greater number of oiir 
 schools, consisting in dexterous displays of mental arithmetic, 
 geographical information, and all those exhibitions which pander 
 to the vanity of the master, and deteiiorate the chai-acter of 
 the boy by feeding that quality of the mind in him which we 
 ought rather to check. No ; that education which we shoiild 
 all desire for the children of this realm is most admirably 
 described in the language of our catechism, " To learn and labour 
 truly to get my own living, and to do my duty in the station 
 to which it has pleased God to call me." Reflect, and you 
 will see that education is a much wider thing than the mere 
 lessons and lectures of the schoolroom : it ought to be connected 
 with the discipline of the jjarent and the whole domestic system. 
 And if it be so decided, that the education of the children of these 
 realms must be connected with the discipline of the parents, the 
 domestic system, and social example, just consider the impediments 
 presented in many of our rural districts — but in many more of the 
 districts of our great and overgrown cities — to the grown poor of 
 these realms. Let me first direct your attention to that to which 
 I have no doubt you have already given some thought ; just con- 
 sider, first, the state of the dwellings of a large proportion of the 
 poor ; just see how, in many of these dwellings, you may find two, 
 and three, and four families in a single room ; you may see, as I 
 have seen, as many as thii-teen or fourteen persons sleeping in tlie 
 same narrow apartment. Consider the jjosition in which they are ; 
 consider the total want of all the necessaries and the decencies of
 
 194 Bath, 2bth May, 1845. 
 
 life ; consider liow pernicious the atmosphere in whicli they live, 
 the total want of drainage, and the mephitic vapours perpetually 
 exhaling; consider the total defect of water for purposes of 
 health and cleanliness. I am directing your attention to these 
 things, because you will see in a moment the conclusions I wish 
 you to draw from them. They are producing a resu.lt on the 
 physical and moral condition of our people that can be estimated 
 only by a personal inspection. My firm belief is, that the 
 physical condition of our people arises, in no' small measure, from 
 our long neglect, from suffering these things to grow up without 
 any i-estriction — above all, from exaggerating that principle which 
 some persons are so exceedingly anxious to promote, the principle 
 of non-interference. The fact is, we have come to the present state 
 of mischief because we did not interfere in time ; if we had inter- 
 fered in time we should have but few of these evils to contend with 
 now. Again, many of the difficulties which beset this country, 
 I would say to the extent of one-half of its pauperism, ai"e caused 
 by the condition in which, in our towns, and, I regret to say, 
 in many of our rural districts, we suffer large masses of the 
 population to dwell. The physical condition which is super- 
 induced by the mephitic air, by the want of ventilation, by the 
 defect of water, by all the circumstances I have mentioned, bring 
 on such a general depression of the whole health, as drives 
 hundreds and thousands to the beerhouse and the gin-palace ; I 
 have seen myself many persons in the prime of health, and able 
 to maintain their families on their earnings — I have seen those 
 persons being compelled, in order to be near their work, to 
 live in those miserable and unhealthy localities, brought down 
 from strength to weakness, and from weakness to the grave, 
 leaving on the world a widow and children to be maintained by 
 the parish or by private bounty. And we find a great fact 
 testified by the records of the fever hospitals, that some of 
 these localities are never free from fever (I believe that you, 
 in Bath, can scarcely understand this ; you have no such places 
 as are to be found in Liverpool, and Manchestei*, and London), 
 and when it gets on the ascendant its victims are — who ? They 
 are not the young, and the weak, and the feeble; but the 
 records of the fever hospitals wiU testify that these dreadful 
 fevers invariably settle on the heads of families in the prime of 
 life, and their ravages are principally among persons between the 
 ages of twenty-two and thirty-five, those who generally leave, 
 when carried to their graves, the largest number of helpless and 
 destitute orphans. 
 
 Now, these things cannot be allowed to remain as they are.
 
 Social Condition of the Labouring Classes. 195 
 
 If you search the records of the Health of Towns Commission 
 you will be able to see at a single glance more than I could 
 tell you if I detained you here a considerable time ; but they 
 are records which must be searched if you msh to understand 
 what is the great and crying social evil of the day in which 
 we Hve. These things cannot be left as they are — yet one 
 advantage we have gained, we have learnt that these mischiefs 
 arise from known and preveutible causes. Private duty will do a 
 gi-eat deal towards the removal of them, but legislation will do a 
 great deal more, by directing and stimulating our lagging efforts. 
 But these things must not remain as they are, if we have the 
 shghtest regard for the welfare of oiir country. Although I will 
 not go quite so far as to say that to preach the gospel to these 
 people is altogether useless, inasmuch as we know that the word 
 of God wiU not return to Him empty, this I do know, that, in the 
 present state of things, we are encoiu-aging a fatal and deadly 
 agency, unceasingly, actively, and powerfully retarding every 
 hope of the physical and moral improvement of the people. Now, 
 I will not weary you by a specific enumeration of all the evils we 
 dread, and the remedies we propose. It may be summed up in 
 this — that our statesmen must not be content, as hitherto, to 
 await the development of the mischief, saying that sufficient for 
 the day is the evil thereof ; but they must search out and nip the 
 system in the bud, and take for their text in all that they do, 
 zeal for the honour of God, and all imaginable good for the 
 children of men. It is that system of waiting until the mischief 
 is developed which has brought us into our present difficulty, for 
 then it is developed in all its gigantic proportions, and it fills 
 those who contemplate it with alarm and despair. But let the 
 mischief be searched out and strangled in its birth. And now there 
 is no longer any excuse for idleness, because we know the whole 
 extent of the mischief ; and I am sure that the constituencies of this 
 realm will support those who shall declare that they will direct 
 their attention and direct all their energies to the removal of these 
 great evils. Whether we have such ministers at the present day 
 — whether we have men actuated by such a spirit and wisdom — ■ 
 remains to be seen. I confess that I am disposed to rely somewhat 
 on Loi"d John Russell, and one or two of his colleagues. I 
 confess that I have seen in his policy, and have read in the 
 expression of his sentiments, that which elicits from me the 
 expression of a desire to repose in him a certain amount of 
 confidence. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I have dwelt at some length on these matters, 
 because I think it right that there should exist as little room as
 
 196 Bath, 25t1i May, 1845. 
 
 possible for misunderstanding between a representative and bis 
 constituents. I bave i-atber indicated principles tban stated precise 
 measm-es, and I bold myself free to decide tbe time and tbe mode 
 of asserting tbem. But I cannot conclude witbout a passing obser- 
 vation upon tbe aspect of affairs at tbe present day. Tbere is mucb 
 tbat is dark — mucb of various kinds — moral, religious, and political 
 — to excite our apprebension ; mucb from witbout, and not a 
 little from witbin. Disunion prevails everywbere. We cannot 
 resist tbe common enemy, nor can we combine to defeat bim. Tbe 
 present scarcity bas grievoasly and perilously affected our country, 
 and tbe failure of a single root bas brougbt soitow upon our 
 peasantry, and stained tbe patb of all our glory. But we bope 
 tbat an abundant barvest will, by tbe blessing of God, restore us 
 wbat we bave lost, and bring witb tbe enjoyment of it a larger 
 measure of sobriety and tbankfulness. Yet amidst all tbese 
 calamities we may discern indications of a better state of tbings ; 
 we may see tbe davsm of a better spirit, wbicb acts in every rela- 
 tion of public and private life. Aggressive war is denounced, and 
 commerce is fostered — not only as a means of making wealtb, but 
 as a bappy and legitimate metbod for tbe civilization of nations, 
 and tbe revival of brotberly intercourse among all tbe families of 
 tbe eartb. We bave begun to attacb a loftier value to man as 
 sucb, be be noble or be be plebeian, be be black or be be wbite, 
 collectively and individually, botb as a mortal and as an im- 
 mortal being. Tbese are, indeed, times of progress; notbing 
 is stationary, and tbe invention of to-day is antiqiiated to- 
 moii'ow. Tbe astounding powers of locomotive intercourse, 
 railways, and electrical telegrapbs (tbe rapid growtb of tbe last 
 few years), tbe running of many to and fro, and tbe multiplication 
 of knowledge, are manifestly tending towards some great and 
 unseen issue. Eril, no doubt, will be mixed witb tbe good ; and, 
 like all otber faculties given to man, many will pervei't tbem to 
 tbe vilest j)urposes. But it is for us wbo recognise wbence tbey 
 came, and for wbat end tbe'y were proposed, to labour and to 
 pray, witb all our bearts, tbat tbey may speedily accomplisb tbe 
 true and blessed object of tbeir mission, wbicb is, " Glory to God 
 in tbe bigbest, on eartb peace, good-will towards man."
 
 ( 19' ) 
 
 Ten Hours Factory Bill. 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 
 Thursday, January 29, 1846. 
 
 Speech on moving for leave to brincr in a Bill for limiting the hoiD's of labour of 
 young persons in factories to ten hours. 
 
 Lord Ashley said : Sir, it has so often been my diity to solicit 
 the indidgence of the House, that I may seem to be acting 
 merely in conformity with ceremonial when I prefer my earnest 
 entreaty for its j)atient attention on this occasion ; but at no time 
 have I felt it more necessary to make this request. I am about 
 to revive the discussion of a proposition oftentimes propounded 
 in this House, and as often rejected ; one upon which I can offer 
 no novel arguments, and which moreover was submitted to the 
 House at a peiiod not very distant, and was then determined and 
 decided. I think, however, that I can assign good reasons for 
 the course I am about to take. In the first place, I must assert 
 very respectfully, though very positively, that the decision was 
 not a decision of the House ; it was the decision of the Minister. 
 This House has twice affii-med my proposition ; and we all know 
 in what way the reversal of that jiidgment was obtained. Next 
 I obsei^ve, that a very large majority of those gentlemen who 
 from their position and knowledge must be best acquaiated with 
 the feelings of the manufacturing and commercial districts, 
 indeed no less than thirty-three of forty-two of the representa- 
 tives of those districts, suppoi*ted my jiroposition, and voted for 
 the Ten Hours Bill through all its divisions; and I confidently ex- 
 pect a similar exhibition of local opinion on the present occasion. 
 Moreover, I must assert the continued and undiminished desire 
 of the workpeople for this measure — a desire that, instead of 
 abating, seems, as far as I can see, to gather strength and reso- 
 lution under every defeat. Nearly two years have elapsed since 
 I last submitted this question to the House; and during the 
 interval events have occurred of such a character as will illustrate
 
 198 House of Commons, 29th January, 1846. 
 
 in the most forcilile manner the truth and the safety of the 
 principles I have endeavoured to maintain ; I have also obtained 
 from foreign countries most important information, justifying, 
 as I think, the strongest assertions and strongest arguments, I 
 have ever been able to adduce in this House. It will be my 
 endeavour to abstain from wearying hon. Members by the pro- 
 duction of evidence which has oftentimes been brought before it in 
 various reports and debates. I believe it will be some disadvan- 
 tage to my argument, if I abstain from refreshing the memory of 
 gentlemen present, with a detail of all that evidence which shows 
 the great pressure upon the physical condition of the workers ; 
 but I wall forego the advantage, because the question now is 
 nan-owed to this single proposition — can this be done without 
 injury to the manufacturer, and without a serious diminution 
 of the wages of labour ? For I have met with no one, wherever 
 I have been, who will deny the great moral and physical benefits 
 to be derived if this limitation were assigned to the hours of 
 work. 
 
 The first matter to which I shall call the attention of the 
 House is a series of experiments instituted in the manufacturing 
 districts by various parties in respect of the reduction of the 
 hours of labour. Mr. Gardner, a gentleman who has very large 
 mills in Manchester and Preston, instituted those experiments ; 
 and he was good enough, in the course of last year, after his 
 experiments had run through twelve months, to send wp his son 
 and his principal agent to London, to give me an account of his 
 operations. I put to them several questions, the answers to 
 which were committed to wi-iting ; and they are so exceedingly 
 important that I must solicit the indulgence of the House while 
 1 read them ; they completely prove that the hours of labour may 
 be reduced, not only without loss, but with actual benefit both 
 to the master and operative. The first question I put to them 
 was with respect to the comparative produce of labour where the 
 limitation was eleven hours instead of twelve. The reply was 
 this — 
 
 " The produce of eleven hours at Mr. Gardner's mills was not 
 reduced at aU." 
 
 He added an obsen^ation — 
 
 " I could not understand how it was that our men could turn 
 off as much work (and some a little more) in eleven hours as ever 
 they did in twelve. I said to one of them, 'John, will you tell 
 me how it is that you can do more work in eleven hours than 
 you did in twelve ?' ' Why,' said he, ' we can lay to in eleven
 
 Ten Hours Fact or ij Bill. 199 
 
 hours a day better than we could when we worked twelve, because 
 we get more rest at night, and we are in better spirits all the 
 day through, and, besides, the afternoons are not so long.' He 
 coiild spin, he said, ten years longer, if Mr. Gardner would keep 
 on eleven hours.'' 
 
 I could give you more such cases. The second question I put to 
 them was, Was the quality of the produce for eleven hours better 
 or worse than that from twelve ? To this I received the following 
 answer : 
 
 " The work is decidedly better since the change to eleven 
 hoiirs ; when we worked twelve hours I had very often to find 
 fault with the spinners for not making their cops hard enoxigh. 
 Most of our spinners are generally spinning pin cops, which have 
 to be wove wet, and if they are not made very hard they will fly 
 off in the weaving, and they are nothing but waste. I can say that 
 since the change the work is decidedly better. At the present 
 speed at which the machinery is generally run it is very hard 
 woi'k for the spinners to keep up and make such work as will 
 give satisfaction, particularly where they spin coarse numbers 
 and work twelve hours in the day." 
 
 The next question I put was — 
 
 " Were the wages reduced or raised, or kept at the same level in 
 eleven hours as compared to twelve hours ?" 
 
 The answer was to the eflfect that the wages were the same. And 
 the gentleman then gives a statement showing the average rate 
 of wages paid for a certain number of weeks, when they worked 
 twelve hours, and eleven hours ; and by this it appears that in 
 fact there was a slight increase of wages under the eleven-hour 
 system as compared with the twelve. The next question I put 
 was — 
 
 " What were the effects of the change of system upon the 
 health of the workers P" 
 To this it was answered, that — 
 
 " The hands undoubtedly have better health since the change 
 to eleven hours, and I covdd give you several cases of both weavei's 
 and spinners ; I -will give but one. Joseph Parker, a very sober, 
 industrious man, and a very good spinner, having been in tlie 
 employ of Mr. Gardner for seventeen years, was so often off his 
 work in the winter time, when we worked until half-past seven, 
 that he was obliged to conclude that he could not stand spinning 
 any longer. . . , Since the change to eleven hours he has
 
 200 House of Commons, 29th Januartj, 1846. 
 
 done more work than ever he did before, and has only been off 
 work once through sickness, which will be very soon two years." 
 The next point to which I turned my inquiries was, whether the 
 means of improvement (if any) which the diminution of daily 
 labour gave to both sexes for the comfort and duties of domestic 
 life had been turned by the parties concerned to any advantage 
 in their social and moral condition? To this I received the 
 following reply : — 
 
 " Whenever mills worked twelve hours the numbers that at- 
 tended night school were twenty- seven; and a few months after 
 the change they increased to ninety-six. The female part of our 
 hands turn their leisure time more to the needle, and those that 
 are married to their domestic concerns. I believe there is a 
 better taste for reading among the workpeople. Mr. Gardner 
 intimated that, as he was a subscriber to the Biljle Society, he 
 wished his hands to have Bibles and Testaments at the society's 
 prices ; and the first week I sold myself 136 books, and every 
 week's end I sell a few." 
 
 On asking as to the feeling produced between employers and 
 employed under the operation of this system, I received the 
 following information : — 
 
 " I can confidently say, that there is not a gentleman in all 
 Lancashire that stands so high in the estimation, not only of 
 his own workpeople, but of all the operatives. I will conclude 
 by saying, fii'st, that at the present speed at which machinery is 
 generally run it is impossible for the hands to keep up, when 
 they work 12 hours a day. Secondly, when the speed and time 
 they work, and the atmosphere they breathe, is taken into 
 consideration, no one will wonder at the death-like appearance of 
 the factory -workers ; and if the hours of labour were reduced, 
 it would be like giving them so much more life." 
 
 But Mr. Gardner himseH pul)lished a letter describing the 
 results of his experiments. He says — 
 
 " I am quite satisfied that both as much yarn and power-loom 
 cloth may be produced at quite as low a cost in 11 as in 12 hours 
 a day. . . . AU the arguments I have heard in favour of long 
 time appear based on an arithmetical question ; if 11 produce so 
 much, what will 12, 13, or even 15 hours ]5roduce ? This is coirect 
 so far as the steam-engine is concerned ; whatever it wiU produce 
 in 11 hours, it will produce double the quantity in 22 ; but try this 
 on the animal — horse — and you will soon find he cannot compete 
 •with the engine, as he requires time both to rest and feed." — " It
 
 Ten Hours Factory Bill. 201 
 
 is, I believe, a fact not to be questioned that there is more bad 
 work made the last one or two hours, than the whole of the first 
 nine or ten hours." 
 
 I saw this gentleman in October last, and he stLU maintains all 
 the opinions he has expressed heretofore, as to the result of the 
 limitation-of-time system. But there are various other places 
 where this system is in operation, and with similar advantageous 
 conseqiaences. The Messrs. Horrocks and Jackson, of Preston. 
 have made similar experiments, and with equal success. These 
 gentlemen have been working on the eleven-hour system since 
 May last. Mr. Knowles, of Bolton, a very considerable spinner, 
 commenced the reduction in April last. 
 
 " I saw Mr.Knowles," says the writer of a letter, " three weeks 
 since, and he said so satisfied was he with the change, that he 
 never intended to work his mill any longer than 11 hours per 
 day. He had been connected with the working of factories more 
 than 40 years, and he always thought that the hours in factories 
 were far too long. I asked him respecting the work turned off 
 in 11 hours compared with 12 hours. He said, when he made 
 the change, he never expressed any wish that his hands would 
 turn off as much work in 11 hours as in 12 ; but some of the 
 spinners did as much work in 11 hours as ever they did in 12 ; 
 others did a little less, but not in proportion to the diminution 
 of time. The difference was so little, that he had no hesitation in 
 saying, that he did not lose one penny in the year by the change," 
 
 The following is an extract of a letter from a large power-loom 
 weaver in Scotland, which he communicated to me, knowing the 
 part I have always taken with regard to this question ; he writes 
 to me thus : 
 
 " Six months ago we came to the resolution of employing 
 our workpeoj)le only 65 hours a week instead of 69. It has 
 been entirely successful; we have had no reason to regret the 
 change, neither have our workpeople. We make no alteration in 
 the wages, and there never was more earned in our works than at 
 present by those employed at work paid by the piece. We have it 
 in contemplation now to reduce our time to 60 hovirs. The more I 
 have considered the matter, the more convinced bave I become, 
 that for all parties a Ten Hours BiU would be advantageous." 
 
 A communication received from a worsted mill, near Bradford, 
 informs me — 
 
 " The proprietor has lately been trying the ten hours principle 
 with his weavers, and with profit and advantage." 
 
 p
 
 202 House of Commons, 29th January, 1846. 
 
 From a woollen mill near Leeds I have received the following : — 
 
 " The limitation of the hours of labour has been of the most 
 incalculable benefit to the people in that neighbourhood, not 
 only in relieving physical suifering, but in distributing wages 
 over a longer period during the year." 
 
 From the West Riding of Yorkshire, a worsted manufacturer 
 writes as follows : 
 
 "I have been trying the ten hours principle; I get nearly as 
 
 much work as gets, who works a longer time for the 
 
 same wages. used to work 16 hours a day ; he declares 
 
 that he gets more work and better work than ever he did in 16." 
 
 These were the experiments made in various parts of England, 
 and in every single instance you have found that the amount of 
 produce has not fallen off, neither have the wages of the operatives 
 been diminished ; and the general facts show a great moral and 
 social improvement in the condition of the people. I was anxious 
 also to ascertain what was the result of this system in Prussia, 
 where, in 1839, the king passed a deci'ee limiting the hours of 
 labour, to children under 16 years of age in factories, to 10 hours, 
 and where the system has been in full operation ever since. In 
 reply to various questions of mine, I received the following 
 answers from Elberfeld : 
 
 " Thei'e has been no diminution of work in consequence of 
 the limitation of the time for children at 16 and under to 10 
 hours a day." — " The salutary influence of the law on the physical 
 as well as moral condition of the labouring classes is evident." — 
 " There is no diminution of the wages perceptible in consequence 
 of the limitation of the hours of labour." — " At first there was 
 undoubtedly a very strong feeling against the law in a consider- 
 able body of the millowners ; but this has literally disappeared." 
 
 "With respect to the observance of the law, on making inquiry 
 of the Director of the Home Department, he says — 
 
 ' ' Not a single remonstrance has been addressed by any one of 
 the millowners to the government or the provincial states, much 
 less has any resistance taken place." 
 He further says — 
 
 " There were some malcontents. They were afraid of foreign 
 competition ; but they seem soon to have been satisfied that this 
 fear was imaginary, the produce of the work not having dimi: 
 nished." 
 
 The example we have set with respect to the regulation of
 
 Ten Hours Factory Bill. 203 
 
 labour in factories has been followed by various foreign countries. 
 It has been followed by France ; and the French government has 
 passed a law as nearly as possible a transcript of our own. Our 
 example has forced the government of Prussia into an enactment 
 which provides for the moral and physical improvement of the 
 operatives of that country ; and you may depend upon it that if 
 we persevere in the course on which we have entered, we shall 
 compel foreign countries to adopt a similar policy. 
 
 Let me just point out to the House what are the general results 
 of our factory regulations on the moral, physical, and financial 
 condition of our operatives. I request the particular attention of 
 the House to this subject, for I believe that the residts in question 
 offer a complete contradiction to all the opinions put forward in 
 the year 1833, against the measure which I introduced at that 
 period. Let the House see what were the predictions then made, 
 as compared with the actual results of our legislation. I recollect 
 that in the year 1833, when I first brought forward a bill for 
 a limitation of the hours of labour, there were four predictions, 
 which were constantly ringing in our ears, which were repeated 
 at every meetiug, and were transcribed into every joiu-nal adverse 
 to the measui'e. The fii'st of these predictions was, that the great 
 cotton trade would be destroyed by any limitation of the hours of 
 labour ; the second was, that the wages of the protected parties 
 woidd be diminished ; the third was, that the wages of children 
 would be reduced to a mere fraction ; and the fourth was, that the 
 chUdi-en woidd be dismissed, and that great suffering would 
 universally ensue. Now, let the House permit me to state the 
 actual results, as compared with those pi-edictious. It has been 
 said, in the first place, that our great cotton trade would be 
 destroyed by any diminution of the hours of labour. In answer 
 to that prediction, I need only refer to the state of our cotton 
 trade in the years 1835 and 1836, and during the last three years ; 
 and it is not, I believe, necessary that I should dwell any further 
 upon that part of the question. But it was predicted, in the 
 second place, that the wages of the protected parties would be 
 diminished. Now, there were two classes who were at that time 
 pi'otected by our legislation. There were, first, persons under the 
 age of thu-teen, who were called " children ;" and there were, 
 secondly, persons between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, who 
 were called "young persons." The law enacted that young 
 persons between the ages of thirteen and eighteen should not be 
 exposed to a longer duration of work than twelve hours in the 
 day. Now, before the year 1833, the average wages of those 
 young persons were os. M. per week, while their average wages
 
 204 House of Commons, 29th January, 1846. 
 
 since that period have been 6s. lid. per week ; tlius showing an 
 increase of 30 per cent, in the averages drawn from the four great 
 towns of Manchester, Bolton, Preston, and Oldham. Let us next 
 pass to the third prediction, that the wages of children would be 
 reduced to a mere fraction. The average wages of children under 
 thirteen years of age, for twelve or more than twelve hours' labour 
 a day, were, before 1833, 3s. Id. per week ; and, since 1833, their 
 average wages for six hours' labour a day have been 2s. 2d. per 
 week. But although ther^^ has been in that case an apparent 
 abatement of wages, the families have not, in many instances, 
 suffered in consequence ; because, by that admirable provision re- 
 stricting the labour of children to six hours a day, a gi-eater de- 
 mand has been created for the labour of those children, and many 
 families which could formerly obtain employment for one child 
 only now find employment for two children ; so that the aggre- 
 gate wages are at present frequently greater than the wages 
 received under the old system. Let us look at the fourth predic 
 tion, which was that the children would be dismissed, and tha 
 much physical suffering would ensue. It is very difiicult to 
 obtain statistical returns with respect to children imderj thirteeen 
 years of age employed before the year 1833. But this we know — 
 that very few of them indeed were receiving any education at all ; 
 whereas, I have grounds for asserting that there are now 30,000 
 children, under thirteen years of age, working six hours a day, 
 and receiving education during three hours, that education being 
 in many instances of a very excellent description, and having been 
 much improved during the last two or three years. I have also 
 been informed that in the towns of Manchester, Bolton, and 
 Preston, the increase of children at school has been, since the 
 year 1833, as eight to one, exclusive of those who attend night 
 schools ; while the increase of those above thii-teen years (who 
 labour twelve hours a day), in places for teaching persons of that 
 age, has been little or none. Let me add the remarks of the 
 Comuiittee of Operative Spinners upon that point — remarks 
 which ought to cany with them great weight, for they had been 
 extremely opposed to the clause which limited the labour of 
 children to haU time. They have written to me as follows : 
 
 " We also instituted an inquiry into the moral and physical con- 
 dition of piecers and young persons now, as compared with the same 
 class in 1833, and from every quarter we learn that it is much 
 improved ; and since the bill of 1833, which restricted the hours 
 of labour to eight in the day, and that of 1844 to six in the day, 
 with enactments for education, their physical and moral condition 
 has been improved to such an extent, that they do not appear to
 
 Ten Hours Factory Bill. 205 
 
 be tlie same race of beings. We bave recently conversed witb a 
 large number of tbe operatives and tbose men especially wbo 
 have devoted a large portion of their time and much of their 
 means to the promotion of this question, and they all declare that 
 tbe benefits which have arisen to themselves and their cliildrcn 
 are more than sufficient to repay them for their time and sacri- 
 fices, and that sooner than go back to their old system they would 
 part with the last shilling they have in the world in defence of the 
 restrictive system of factory labour." 
 
 I have felt great satisfaction in reading that statement, for it 
 not only justifies my past conduct, but gives me great assurance 
 of future success in my efforts upon this subject. I hope I am 
 not assuming too much for our efforts, when I ascribe to them the 
 collateral advantage of the half-holiday system for warehousemen 
 in Manchester, and other great towns, at one time so energeti- 
 cally opposed, but now as warmly approved by the employers. I 
 have reason to know that the system has been attended with the 
 most beneficial results ; and I believe that the hon. Member for 
 Durham will bear me out in that statement. Among all the 
 alterations that have been effected since the year 1833, I am sorry 
 to perceive that nothing has been done for the benefit of young 
 persons between the ages of thrrteen and eighteen. Those young 
 persons are exposed under the existing law to twelve hours' actual 
 labour per day ; now a very large j)ortion of them are females, 
 and I think I may appeal to the House to say, whether it is not 
 cruel to take a young female on the very day on which she has 
 passed the age of thirteen, at the most tender period of her life, 
 and to demand of her precisely the same work in duration, and 
 frequently the same in intensity, which is demanded from ripe 
 and vigorous manhood ? Observe the resvdts to which this 
 practice must lead. I believe every one will admit that it is a 
 matter of vital importance to the peace and welfare of society, 
 and to the comfort and well-being of the working classes, that 
 females should be brought up with such a knowledge of domestic 
 arts and household concerns as may enable them efficiently to 
 discharge the various duties of wives and mothers. But how CLin 
 it be possible that young women, whose labour has been so heavy 
 and so prolonged that they are in many cases unable to cook 
 their own suppers, or even to eat the suppers prepared for them — 
 how is it possible that they should learn the details of domestic 
 life, which constitute the comfort of the working man's home, and 
 contribute so powerfully to the morality of the rising generation, 
 because women must have, and ought to have, almost undivided
 
 206 House of Commons, 29tJi January, 1846. 
 
 influence on cliildren during tlie earliest and most impressible 
 years of tbeir existence ? I am not expressing my own opinions 
 merely upon that point, because tbe commissioners appointed in 
 the year 1840 to inquire into the employment of young persons 
 Avent so far as to state, that it was the universal opinion of 
 clergymen, medical men, teachers, and others, that the condition 
 of the women was one great and univereally prevailing cause of 
 the distress among the working classes. I will now read to the 
 House the result of an experiment made by a friend of mine, who 
 had set up in the neighbourhood of several large factories a 
 night school, for the pui-pose of affording education to the young 
 i)eople employed in those factories. That gentleman writes to me 
 as follows : — 
 
 " In October, the schoolmaster opened two evening classes, 
 one for the young men, and the other for the young women, 
 
 employed during the day in the mills of . Each class met 
 
 twice in the week, on alternate evenings, and between the hours 
 of eight and nine. The eagerness to receive instruction was so 
 great, that forty young men and thii-ty-eight youjig women 
 entered immediately. . . . Some of the pupils, after leaving 
 the mills at eight in the evening, came the distance of nearly two 
 miles to the classes. But so great was the fatigue they had 
 undergone during the day, that although they evinced an earnest 
 desire to be insti'ucted, it was soon found that their physical 
 powers were too much exhausted by the day's work to enable them 
 to give proper attention to the teachers, and as many as four and 
 five together were observed to have fallen asleep. Within the space 
 of a few months, the classes were deserted by all but five young men. 
 They were accustomed to excuse their want of attention to the 
 teachers, by saying that they were up at five o'clock in the morn- 
 ing, and that after leaving the classes they had to take their 
 suppers ; and, consequently, did not get to bed till eleven, and 
 that owing to the long hours and short nights' rest, they found it 
 impossible to keep awake during the evening lessons." 
 
 I have often heard it said, that there is a factoiy establishment 
 in another country which completely proves that twelve hours 
 labour a day are qiiite consistent with health, comfort, happiness, 
 and moral and intellectual improvement; and when discussing 
 this subject we have always been referred to the case of LoweU, 
 in the United States. Now, 1 believe that this case of Lowell 
 fully establishes everything that 1 have urged upon this matter. 
 Let us l^egin by assuming-— for it is only nominally the case— that 
 the hours of labour are the same in both countries— that is to say.
 
 Ten Hours Factory Bill. 207 
 
 twelve hours a day. You must still observe, at the very outset, 
 that there is one great and leading distinction. Dr. Bartlett, an 
 eminent physician of the United States, wrote a book, entitled 
 " A Vindication of Lowell," and in that book he states — 
 
 " By a statute of the commonwealth it is provided that no person 
 under the age of 15 years shall be suffered to work more than nine 
 months of any year in a manufacturing establishment, the 
 remaining thi'ee months to be passed at school." 
 
 Dr. Bartlett further avers, that — 
 
 " The law is enforced with unflinching strictness, so that even 
 in times of scai'city of hands no plea that he ever heard of was 
 admitted for the wi-esting of the law from its important design." 
 
 There is another very great and leading distinction. What is 
 the case in the English factory? In the English factory, 
 children having reached the age of 13 years are admitted to the 
 full period of 12 hours' labour, and for the whole year. What is 
 the period at which the young people at Lowell begin to work ? 
 The avei-age age is very much higher than in England. Out of 
 nearly 2.000 girls employed there, the average age was 23 years. 
 I will take two or thi-ee uaills. In one mill, 657 young women are 
 employed — what is their average age ? Twenty-two years and a 
 quarter ; and the average time during which they have been at 
 work in the mill is three years and three quarters ; and, conse- 
 quently, at the period of their entry they were about 19 years of 
 age. In English factories they begin to work 12 hours a day at 
 13 years of age. I will take the instance of another miU, in 
 which there are 203 young women, whose average time of employ- 
 ment is four years and a quarter. They also were about 19 years 
 of age when they began work. I will just quote now from a 
 most interesting and aiithentic work, published at the end of last 
 year, called " Lowell as it was, and as it is," published by an 
 American clergyman, the Rev. Henry Mills, who wi-ote the work 
 at the solicitation of the great proprietor of Lowell, who furnished 
 him with the necessary statistics for the purpose. Observe 
 another great and leading distinction between our factory people 
 and those at Lowell ; observe whence they come, and how long 
 they remain in the mUls. What does the Rev. Mr. Mills say ? 
 He says — 
 
 " We have no permanent factory population. This is the 
 ■nade gulf which separates English manufacturing towns from 
 LoweU ; only a very few of our operatives have their homes in
 
 208 House of Commons, 29th January, 1346. 
 
 this city ; the most of them come from the distant interior of the 
 
 country." 
 
 They are mostly, says Dr. Scoresby, the daughters of the 
 
 provincial farmers. Mr. Mills goes on to say — 
 
 " To the general fact here noticed should be added, that the 
 female operatives in Lowell do not work, on an average, more 
 than four and a half years in the factories ; they then return ti:) 
 their homes, and their places are taken by others. Here then 
 (he says), we have two important elements of distinction between 
 English and American operatives. The former are resident 
 operatives, and are so for Hfe, and constitute a permanent de- 
 pendent factory caste — the latter come from distant homes, to 
 which in a few years they return. The English visitor to LoweU, 
 when he finds it so hard to understand why American operatives 
 are so superior to those of Leeds and Manchester, will do well to 
 remember what a different class of females we have to begin with 
 — gii'ls weU educated in vii-tuous rural homes." 
 
 Now, let us look at the statistical returns respecting female 
 operatives. On inquiry it has been found that — 
 
 " Of the 6,320 female operatives in Lowell, 527 have been 
 teachers in common schools." 
 
 Again, it is to be obsei'ved — and this is another very leading 
 distinction between the two countries — that with, us " there are 
 more maiTied women," says Dr. Scoresby, "than at LoweD." 
 Just let me point out that even at Lowell there is the same pre- 
 dominance of females employed in mill labour, an evil of which 
 we bave complained so often in this country, and which I have so 
 often heard ascribed to the operation of the Com Laws. The 
 total population of Lowell is 30,000, of whicb the operatives 
 number about 10,000, of which 2,915 are males, and 6,320 females. 
 So, you obsei-ve, even in that country there is the same predomi- 
 nance of female over male labour ; and it must be ascribed to 
 some other cause than to those commercial restrictions that are 
 said to be the cause of so much mischief with us. WeU, but now 
 obsei've again, that notwithstanding all these flattering statements 
 as to the condition of LoweU, notwithstanding that there is in 
 America complete freedom from all commercial restrictions, no 
 limitation, nothing which can prevent the free action of the manu- 
 facturer in any way he may think proper — yet in LoweU, with aU 
 these advantages, you may hear the language of complaint ; you 
 may hear the same language which you hear in this countx-y ; you 
 wiU hear stated by operatives, by word of mouth as weU as by 
 
 I
 
 Ten Hours Factory Bill. 209 
 
 petitiiDii, the same complaints of over-toil, of premature decay, of 
 sinking heiilth, and an early grave. Look at these documents. I 
 quote now from a public document, proceeding from the common- 
 wealth of Massachusetts House of Representatives : 
 
 " Special Committee repoi-t that four petitions, signed by 2,139 
 persons, of which 1,1-51 are from Lowell, mostly females, have been 
 presented, praying the Legislature ' to pass a law providing that 
 ten hours shall constitute a day's work.' The petitioners declare 
 that they are confined from thirteen to foui-teeu hours per day in 
 unhealthy apartments, and are thereby hastening, through pain, 
 disease, and privation, down to a premature grave. 
 
 If that be true, how much more true must be the language if 
 applied to the case of our own operatives, who begin their labour 
 at eight years of age, confined in the unhealthy towns in which 
 labour is carried on, and continue their work till the latest period 
 at which they are able to gain their livelihood ? What opinion 
 does the Select Committee, to whom the petition was refeiTcd, 
 express ? — 
 
 " We think (say the committee) there are abuses. We think 
 many improvements may be made. We think it would be 
 better if the hours of labour were less — if more time was allowed 
 for meals — if more attention was paid to ventilation and pure air. ' 
 
 They then proceed to comment, with very great severity, and in 
 many instances with unfairness, on the state of the English 
 factories and the people engaged in them. They go on to say — 
 
 " We acknowledge all this ; but we say the remedy is not with us. 
 We look for it in the progressive improvement of art and science — 
 in a higher appreciation of man's destiny — in a less love for 
 money, and a more ardent love for social happiness and intel- 
 lectual superiority." 
 
 These are the opinions of the committee, expressed in their 
 special report; and it appears to me that they have passed an 
 opinion which is applicable, in all respects, to the case before us. 
 Sii", it would really be weU for all parties, both master and opera- 
 tive, if this long-agitated question could be finally set at rest. If 
 you will not concede the whole that we require, concede at first 
 some part of it, and let the success or the failure of the ex- 
 periments determine the further progress or revocation of the 
 measure. Nothing, you may be assured, will be easier than to 
 repeal such a law should its results prove injurious ; the opera- 
 tives wiU themselves be the first to cry out if their condition be 
 seriously aflfected ; should the results be beneficial, we shall trast
 
 210 House of Commons, 29t7i Jamiary, 1846. 
 
 to yoiir wiUingness to accomplisli our desires, and give ns the 
 remainder of our present prayer. We are ready at any rate to 
 try tbat issue. But without some such aiTangement as this the 
 manufacturing population will never desist from their efforts 
 for redress; vain is the hope to weary them out by perpetual 
 refusals ; they gather resolution under defeats ; and at no period 
 have they been more unshaken and courageous than in this 
 present hour, in which I am urging, for the tenth time, I believe, 
 their just and reasonable demands. Ton cannot wonder at 
 their perseverance; it is natural and praiseworthy; they feel the 
 pressure of intolerable and all-absorbing toil ; they perceive the 
 success of experiments towards the alleviation of it in their own 
 depai*tment of industry ; they perceive too the contemporaneous 
 efforts, arising in no small degree oiit of their own, to obtain the 
 half-holiday system and the early closing of shops, both of which, 
 wherever practicable, have proved highly beneficial. Their grow- 
 ing intelligence shows to them the moral and physical advantages 
 of abridged labour ; and their claims, when stated in this House, 
 always meet with respect, and sometimes with considerable 
 support. 
 
 In stating these claims I have abstained from a repetition 
 of evidence adduced, at various times, to exhibit the amount of 
 moral and physical suffering endured by these young persons. 
 This has been a disadvantage to my argument, but 1 was fearful 
 of wearying the House. 1 have abstained also from repeating 
 the several calculations made by experienced operatives them- 
 selves, on which we maintained that either there would be no 
 abatement of wages, or that, if there were any, they would be 
 enabled, under a reduced period of labour, to establish such 
 economies as would more than compensate for a diminished income. 
 Be this as it may, I say emphatically on their behalf, that they 
 are fully prepared — and 1 did not, when 1 proposed the question 
 to them, hear a dissentient voice — to submit to any contingency 
 in return for this concession to their prayers. Sir, we have 
 reason to thank this House, that its successive intei-positions in 
 behalf of the factory population have produced most beneficial 
 results, and specially l)y its enactments which enjoin that certain 
 hours in every day should be set apart for the education of the 
 younger workers ; but the education of a people requii'es some- 
 thing more than this one provision : you must give them time, 
 not only for the acquisition of the necessary elements, but time 
 to retain and practise them. You give to the children, by your 
 present system, a certain amount of literary teaching until the 
 age of 13; they are then, at that pei-iod, when the acquisition
 
 Ten Hours Factor y Bill 211 
 
 and experience of whatever is practical would begin, advanced to 
 the full extent of labour, and debarred by their unceasing occupa- 
 tion fi-om the attainment of knowledge, useful — we may say in- 
 dispensable — to their welfare in after life. This is especially true 
 of the females, Avho form so large a proportion of the manu- 
 facturing population. Their accomplishments, though few and 
 simple, yet unsjieakably important to society at large, must be 
 learned in the daily detail of household aiFairs. They are unsexed 
 in nature and habits by such constant abstraction from domestic 
 duties — duties which they alone can perform — and the community 
 suffers in their toilsome devotion to employments which demand 
 the powers and habits of men. It can find no compensating 
 circumstances in any system which hinders the peace, the com- 
 forts, or the honour of the working man's home ; biit these things 
 will rise or fall with the character and condition of the females ; 
 and all the statesmen of every age, and all the maxim-mongers 
 have never sui-passed the concentrated wisdom of Madame 
 Campan, who, in answer to a question of the Emperor Napoleon, 
 " What shaU I do for the benefit of France ?" replied, without 
 hesitation, " Give us. Sire, a generation of mothers." 
 
 Sir, I cannot conclude the appeal that I have now ventured to 
 make to the House mthout a retrospect at the manner in which 
 the question has been conducted from the beginning to its present 
 position. I believe that it has been eminently beneficial to the 
 operatives themselves. Of oversights and mistakes, through 
 human infirmity, I may have committed an abundance, but in 
 expressions and in sentiments I have nothing to recall or even 
 to regret. I have carefully abstained, both here and among the 
 people themselves, from all exciting language ; I have studied to 
 produce and to maintain a good understanding between the 
 employer and the employed ; I have never ceased to exhort those 
 who confided this measure to my charge, that their thoughts, 
 their feelings, and their actions, must be brought under the 
 dominion of self-control. "Well, Sir, I rejoice to say that the 
 effort has been successful. I might have resorted to other means, 
 and kept up their zeal by every inflammatory topic on a subject — 
 be assured — not less interesting to them than the repeal of the 
 Corn Laws ; I might have collected them, not by hundreds but 
 by thousands, and talked to them of their wrongs and their 
 rights, of where submission ends, and where resistance begins ; 
 but I have done no such thing ; and I may now say, to the high 
 honour of those who have so long and so patiently sustained this 
 conflict, that I have never witnessed one menacing effort, or heai'd 
 from them one vindictive expression. Sir, we must not shut out
 
 212 House of Commons, 20th January, 184G. 
 
 of our view tlie mde sui'face of society to be affected by owv 
 decision. It is the concern of many thousands. This single class 
 has been selected out of many to bear the forefront of the battle ; 
 but the vote of this evening will affect them all alike, for it may 
 fairly be taken as a representative of the whole : it will be a fatal 
 night whenever you decide adversely, for you will have closed all 
 hopes of moral, and even of secular improvement to multitudes of 
 the young and helpless. And will not this tend to widen the 
 interval — ah-eady a deep and yawning gulf — that separates the 
 rich from the poorer sort ? The rise of the more affluent classes is 
 very observable ; numberless luxuries of mind and sense, hitherto 
 attainable by none but the wetilthy, are brought within the reach 
 of much smaller people — they are elevated propoi-tionally in the 
 scale of society. The overtoiled operatives, both as children and 
 as adults, are alone excluded from the common advantage ; a few, 
 it is true, of special genius, may triumph over every opposing 
 obstacle; but the mass are abandoned to a state of things in 
 which moral and intellectual culture, forethought and economy, 
 and the resources of independent action, are far beyond their 
 means, and not even in their contemplation. This, siu-ely, is an 
 unsound and fearful position ; the contrast is seen, felt, and 
 resented ; it revives and exasperates the ancient feuds between 
 rich and poor ; and property and station become odious because 
 they seem founded on acquirements from which multitudes are 
 excluded by the prevailing system. 
 
 Sir, I cannot fail to perceive that to weary the House with 
 repetitions of these things" would be useless, and. therefore, dis- 
 respectful. I will persist, nevertheless, to anticipate success, 
 though I must, perhaps, remember that the aiTay of capitalists, 
 backed by the weight of the Ministry, will present an obstacle 
 almost insuperable by persons of far gi-eater power and station 
 than myself. By my covirse in the last few years, I have accu- 
 mulated such an amount of public and official odium and distiTist, 
 that I cannot but feel I am addressing many whose minds are 
 already averted from the proposition. Should I be defeated, I 
 shall wait for fairer times, and more propitious hearts, con- 
 scientiously resolved never to abate one iota of my principles; 
 and fully convinced that if this now mighty nation be destined to 
 sustain its independence, and glory, and power, the counsels of 
 thinking and unselfish men, for the social and religious improve- 
 ment of all classes of the realm, must eventually and abundantly 
 prosper.
 
 Ten Hours Factory Bill 213 
 
 REPLY. 
 
 Lord Ashley, in reply, said he would now refer to two state- 
 ments made by the hon. Member for Durham.* The statements 
 which had reference to the increased rate of speed of Mr. Gardner's 
 mills, he, on the best authority, had reason for believing to be 
 incoiTect. As to the other statement, he had requested the hon. 
 Member for Durham to wait until he had explained the circum- 
 stance to which he had referred. [The noble Lord inquired if the 
 hon. Member was in the House, and having been informed in the 
 negative, proceeded.] He had to complain of great discourtesy 
 on the part of the hon. Member for Durham, who, having made a 
 charge against him — a charge of a personal nature — had not 
 remained in the House to hear his reply to it, though he had been 
 requested by him (Lord Ashley) to do so. The circumstance to 
 ' which the hon. Member alluded was briefly this. The year before 
 .ast he was in Lancaster, on a visit to [the hon. Member for 
 Oldham ; and it occun-ed to him that, as he was within a short 
 distance of Rochdale, where were situated the mills of the hon. 
 Member for Durham, he might as well go over there. He be- 
 lieved himself to be perfectly conversant with all the operations 
 of mills, and therefore did not deem it necessary to add to his 
 experience by an additional inspection of the mills at Rochdale ; 
 but he visited them simply and solely that he might see the hon. 
 Member, or leave his name, because the hon. Member, having 
 attacked him in the House in a way which was highly unjustifi- 
 able, he thought he would be acting, in colloquial phrase, " like a 
 gentleman," to show him that he entertained no resentment 
 towards him, and wished to meet him on friendly terms. He saw 
 the hon. gentleman's brother on his an-ival — conversed for haK 
 an hour with him, but said that he did not think it necessary to 
 go over the mills. Why did he say so ? In the first place, 
 because he was afraid, had he done so, that it would have been 
 said by the hon. Member that he wanted to spy out some defect, 
 or discover some mismanagement in their an-angement: and 
 secondly, because he had never said a word in disparagement of 
 the conduct of those mills. That, and that only, he solemnly de- 
 clared, to be the reason why he did not inspect them. He could 
 not help, therefore, stating that he thought the hon. Meml)er for 
 Durham had travelled a little out of the record, when he stated 
 that he was one-sided in all his statements because he had not 
 gone over his mills ; for he could assure the House that he had 
 given them the whole history of the case. 
 
 * John Blight, Esq.
 
 ( 214 ) 
 
 Dwelling-places of the Working Classes. 
 
 Hanover Squaee Rooms, May 22, 1846. 
 
 Extract from Speech delivered by Lord Ashley at the Hanover Square Rooms, at 
 a meeting of the Society, founded in the year 1842, " for improving the Con- 
 dition of the Working Classes." 
 
 But the great matter upon wliicli we rest our claim to your 
 further support, is the experiment that we have instituted, and 
 with great success, for the improvement of the dwelling-places of 
 the working classes. Now, I believe of all the physical questions 
 that aflfect the condition of the woi'king classes of the present 
 day, there is no one point of so much importance as the condition 
 of the dwelling-places where they and their families reside. I do 
 not speak merely from book ; I do not speak merely from the ac- 
 counts that have been given to me; because I have, not only 
 in past years, but during the present year (having, from certain 
 circumstances, rather more leisui'e than I formerly had), devoted 
 a very considerable number of hours, day by day, to going over 
 some of the worst localities in various parts of this great metro- 
 polis. And all that I have seen tends to confirm the opinion I 
 have formed from all that I have heard, both publicly and in 
 pi'ivate, and which I have stated in ptiblic meetings and in the 
 House of Commons. I have ever maintained the opinion, and I 
 defy any person to gainsay it, that a large proportion of o\xr 
 efforts will be thrown away — whether they be directed to the im- 
 provement of the physical condition of the people, whether they 
 1)6 directed to their moral and spiritual improvement, to the esta- 
 blishment of schools for their education, to church extension, or 
 domiciliary visitations — all these efforts will be thro^oi away, so 
 long as we leave the working people in the condition in which they 
 may be seen in various parts of this great metropolis ; living in 
 crowded rooms, sometimes two or three families in a single apart- 
 ment ; these rooms and places so foul and so dark, that they are
 
 Dwelling-places of the WorJcing Classes. 215 
 
 exposed to every physical misclaief that can beset the human 
 frame : without light, without water, without drainage, without 
 ventilation. I can assure you that some of those places in which 
 large families reside, are so filthy, that I have found it impossible 
 to go into some of them. The stench, the closeness of the air, 
 pressed so strongly upon the senses, that I was unable to do so ; 
 and, in spite of all the resolutions I made at the entrances of 
 some passages, I never could succeed in penetrating to the bottom 
 of them. And I am not singular in that ; for when I went on 
 an inspection last year with an eminent physician, he told me 
 that, habituated as he was to enter places of that description, he 
 was frequently obliged to wiite his prescriptions outside the door. 
 In these courts and rooms, thronged with a dense and most 
 immoral population of every caste and grade of character, 
 but almost every one of them defiled by perpetual habits of in- 
 toxication, amid riot and blasphemy of every description, noise 
 and tumult accompanied with every indecency that I have ever 
 seen or read of, reside multitudes of the poor; and, I ask, to 
 what pui'pose is it that you take children of tender years out of 
 these rooms : that jou educate them for some hours during the 
 day ; that you give them an excellent moral and spiritual educa- 
 tion, if you send them back at night to imlearn, in ten minutes, 
 all that it cost you five hours to teach ? The fact is, this is the 
 great and pressing evil of the day — of that, I mean, which affects 
 the material condition of the people, and is principally prevalent 
 in the metropolis and the large towns of the kingdom. The dwell- 
 ing-houses of the working jaeople in many of the rural districts 
 a,re in an infamous condition, and must be looked to when there 
 is the time and the means ; but these are things which can be re- 
 medied by the proprietors, if the proprietors be excited to a sense 
 of their duty, — and if they do not care for their duty, to a sense 
 of their danger. In these districts, improvement can be more 
 easily introduced. But in the metropolis, and the great towns of 
 the kingdom, you have not the same means of working on the 
 people and the fears of the proprietor. Many of these alleys, many 
 of these courts, belong to small persons, on whom you can 
 produce no effect whatever. Many holders of house property — if 
 you were to endeavour to produce an effect, and they were as 
 open as others to a sense of duty, and the spirit of humanity 
 — are in such a state of poverty and destitution themselves, 
 that they have not the means, I really believe, of improving 
 the condition of the dwelling-houses where so many of the 
 poor reside. This is, therefore, a matter you must look to ; 
 and I say, most emphatically, it is the duty of every person who
 
 216 Hanover Square Booms, 12nd May, 1846. 
 
 lias the least regard for tlie welfare of liis species, to endeavour, 
 either by his own efforts, or else by contriljuting to the efforts 
 of this or of kindred societies, to roll away from this kingdom, 
 and especially from this metropolis, that great and disgusting re- 
 proach. You may have seen that we have established a certain 
 number of houses for artizans of a certain standing in society, 
 persons who may be estimated as making from 15s. to 30s. a 
 week on the average. We have also estalilished models of houses 
 for destitute persons, for widows, who may there enjoy every 
 comfort, quiet intercourse, with every material advantage, at a very 
 low rate. 
 
 We are now proceeding, and, if we succeed in obtaining the 
 requisite funds we shall proceed, to found a building which is of 
 far greater importance, with a view to general imitation, than 
 almost any other institution, that I can well conceive, in this 
 great metropolis. Our intention is, if, by God's blessing, we 
 succeed in obtaining the funds, to erect in the heart of the parish 
 of St. Giles's, a model lodging-house — a house where a young 
 man coming up fi-om the country for the first time, or others, 
 who wish to live in a place where some, at least, of the decencies 
 of life are observed, may find a place of retirement and of shelter 
 at a moderate rent. No person can know, except those who have 
 been in the habit of going over this great metropolis, — no person 
 can know the condition, physical and moral, of the various lodging- 
 houses in this town. This very day, I have had an intei'view with 
 a person of very great experience in these matters, and who has 
 gone over these disgusting tenements.. He tells me, there is 
 every reason to believe that many of these dens are places where 
 half the burglaries and half the violence perpetrated in London 
 and the neighbourhood are concocted by the parties who frequent 
 them. Now, just conceive the condition into which many of these 
 young people are thrown! Many of these young men come up, 
 having received a decent education, and many of them charged 
 with very good principles and very excellent intentions, withoiit 
 any one to advise or guide them. They resort to the first 
 lodging-house they find on their path, which affords them a bed 
 for four-pence or three-pence halfpenny per night. The proba- 
 bilities are most terribly against that party, that he may fall into 
 the worst connections by taking up his abode in such a receptacle; 
 and I believe that, if you trace the first cause of the fall of many of 
 these men, who come up from the country to engage in the various 
 artisan trades that are carried on here, you will find it is owing to 
 the bad connections they formed within the first few days of their 
 arrival, by ha^ iug been driven to betake themselves to some of
 
 Dwelling-places of the Wvrking Classes. 217 
 
 these detestable places of abode, whicli are the resort, and neces- 
 sarily the resort, of the worst characters in the town. And it is 
 to no purpose to appeal to the police. Yon may say to them, 
 " Here is an evil house to be got rid of;" and the police interfere ; 
 but it is only to knock it down in one place that it may be set up 
 iu another, because these persons have no better refuge. The occu- 
 piers of these lodging-houses are persons of the worst description ; 
 and if you drive them from one locality, they only betake them- 
 selves to one a little removed. Unless, therefore, some parties 
 in the condition of this Society will come forward and institute 
 buildings such as I have mentioned, which will give them every- 
 thing that health and decency can require, placed, too, at the same 
 time, under careful and moral regulations, I do not think that you 
 will be able, in any one degree, by resort to the law or by the aid 
 of the police, to abate the smallest fraction of this great and pre- 
 vailing mischief.
 
 ( 218 ) 
 Public Health Bill. 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 
 May 8, 1848. 
 
 Speech on the Adjourned Debate.* 
 
 Lord Ashley was anxious to impress on the House the abso- 
 lute and indispensable necessity of instituting some measure 
 which might remove some portion at least of the grievances that 
 pressed so severely on the working population. His honourable 
 friend near him said the other night that this was essentially a 
 working man's question, and he had never in his life said a truer 
 thing, for it affected the whole of the working man's life : it began 
 at home ; it affected his capacity to eat and sleep in comfort, to 
 go abroad, and to gain a livelihood by which he might be enabled 
 to rear his family in decency and respectability. He knew that 
 this question was well comprehended by the working classes, and 
 was one of the matters they had really at heart. He had not 
 attended a single meeting of working people in which this had 
 not been a prominent feature ; he had constant correspondence 
 with them from all parts of the country, and in every part he 
 found them alive to this question. He need only mention that 
 the other day, when there was a meeting of trade delegates in the 
 metropolis, amongst the grievances urged, and the first on which 
 they came to a resolution, which they did him the honour to com- 
 municate to him, was the sanitary condition in which they and 
 their families were left by the neglect of legislative enactments. 
 He, therefore, assured the House that this was a most important 
 question, not only with respect to the moral condition of the 
 working classes, but also in reference to the amount of political 
 content or discontent which they would find existing amongst the 
 masses. Nor was this a question which touched persons of a 
 higher class at second-hand only. They knew the result of sani- 
 tary abuses by the large addition to the rates, by the increased 
 demands on private charity, by accessions to the bills of mortality; 
 imd, more, they knew it in some cases by the results on themselves. 
 * From " Hansard."
 
 Public Health Bill. 219 
 
 Fever miglit break out in some noxious and remote district ; but 
 when at length it came to desolate some contiguous and wealthier 
 region, then they began to see the consequences of this intolerable 
 evil. He did not mean to conceal or deny that there were great 
 difficulties in legislating on this subject, and no doubt the propo- 
 sition of remedies was beset by every species of obstacle. A great 
 number of local interests were to be encountered, a great number 
 of local feelings to be provoked, and it no doubt required some forti- 
 tude and perseverance to devise a legislative measure which should 
 apply a remedy to aU those prodigious evils. But that could be 
 no argument whatever for stopping this measure on the very 
 threshold, for refusing to go into committee, and there seeing 
 whether they could draw the teeth and pare the talons of this wild 
 beast which had created so much terror. 
 
 He gave the Government the highest praise for the manner 
 in which they had addressed themselves to this subject, and the 
 boldness with which they had encountered the opposition and 
 braved the difficulties surrounding the question. But he would 
 fairly tell them, that he thought the measure was susceptible of 
 very great improvement ; but whether it was so or not, he implored 
 the House to let the Government have an opportiinity of dealing 
 with the measui-e in committee ; for it was one, as he said before, 
 which had taken siich strong hold of the minds of the people, that 
 it was essentially necessary to prove to them, not only by general 
 argumentation, but in detail, what was feasible in regard to the 
 removal of the various abominations in existence. He confessed he 
 was very much astonished when he heard it stated by certain dis- 
 sentients in that House, and out of it, that the law as it now stood 
 was adequate to the removal of those evils. If they looked at the 
 list of Acts on the statute book, they would find no doubt, a great 
 number levelled at abuses of this nature, which might perhaps be 
 remedied if all those acts were enforced ; but who was to enforce 
 them ? to say that the statute-book was open to all, was like the 
 well-known saying, that the London Tavern was open to all : it 
 was open, no doubt, provided it could be paid for. But this was a 
 most perplexing and tedious process, which you could not call 
 upon the working men, or any number of them, to put in oj)era- 
 tion. The old laws might be equal to the removal of abuses, but 
 they were by no means equal to the institution of improvements ; 
 there was a law for removing masses of filth or noxious stenches, 
 but there was none by which you coidd furnish to the working 
 classes a pure, ample, and constant supply of water. 
 
 The honourable member for West Surrey (Mr. H. Drummond) 
 had remarked that some persons had got up an agitation for the
 
 220 House of Commons, 8th Mai/, 1848. 
 
 purpose of forcing tliis measure on the country. He (Lord Ashley) 
 had been most deeply implicated in the movement, and was ear- 
 nestly anxious to carry a legislative measui-e in fui-therance of the 
 object ; he, therefore, took to himself aU the blame the honour- 
 able member conveyed in the rebuke, and left ^him to prove what 
 selfish interests he (Lord Ashley) had entertained in the matter. 
 He asked the honourable gentleman whether it was not the case 
 that in the opposition to this measure there was full as much of 
 selfish and pecuniary interest as in the advocacy of the great 
 reform to which the Bill was directed? When the honourable 
 member treated this subject with such great jocosity, he (Lord 
 Ashley) really thought the honourable member must have for- 
 gotten, or perhaps have never known, the very deep feeling enter- 
 tained upon this question throughout the country, and could not 
 have known that in almost every large town and populous locality 
 boards had been formed for the purpose of making periodical re- 
 ports, and exciting public interest on the subject, aU beginning and 
 ending with one and the same complaint, the utter inadequacy of 
 the law for the removal of the great and pressing evils now endured. 
 The city which he (Lord Ashley) represented might almost be said 
 to be in clover as regarded this question. Two petitions, very amply 
 and respectably signed by the inhabitants of Bath, had been pre- 
 sented to the House ; one to the effect that, approving of many parts 
 of the Bill, they thought that, on the whole, they could make out 
 such a case for Bath that it ought to be exempted from the 
 operation of the law ; the other that, though many people took 
 exceptions to parts of this Bill, yet upon the whole they thought 
 it exceedingly good, and called for by the necessities of the 
 country, and therefore requested their rei^resentatives not to give 
 way to any local interests, but to suffer the general necessity to 
 overrule them. He should, therefore, vote for going into com- 
 mittee, with a view to the introduction of such amendments as 
 might be found necessary. 
 
 The honourable member for West Surrey had asked, what 
 possible connection there could be between typhus and crime H 
 Could there be a doubt that the same condition of things and 
 habits of life which give rise to fever, also powerfully stimulated 
 the action of immorality and violence ? If the honourable member 
 would consider the modes of life so prevalent amongst some unfor- 
 tunate classes, and the noxious influences by which they were 
 surrounded, he would perceive with the slightest attention that 
 their operation on the physical state was such as made it impossible 
 for them to practise, or even remember, many of the lessons of 
 decency and virtue which they might have been taught in their
 
 Puhllc Health Bill. 221 
 
 early life. The noljle Lord then quoted, in illustration, the state- 
 ments of Dr. Neil Arnot respecting tlie condition of Glasgow, and 
 Mr. F. Cooper resjiecting that of Southampton : 
 
 " In Glasgow, which I first visited, it was found that the great 
 mass of the fever cases occurred in the low wynds and dirty nar- 
 row streets and courts, in which, because lodging was there 
 cheapest, the poorest and most destitute naturally had their 
 abodes. From one such locality, between Argyle Street and the 
 river, 754 of about 5000 cases of fever which occurred in the 
 previous year were carried to the hospitals. In a perambiilation 
 on the morning of September 24, with Mr. Chadwick, Dr. Alison, 
 Dr. Cowan (since deceased, who had laboured so meritoriously to 
 alleviate the misery of the poor in Glasgow), the police magistrate, 
 and others, we examined these wynds, and to give an idea of the 
 whole vicinity I may state as follows : — We entered a dirty low 
 passage like a house door, which led from the street through the 
 first house to a square court immediately behind, which court, 
 with the exception of a narrow path round it, leading to another 
 long passage through a second house, was occupied entirely as a 
 dung receptacle of the most disgusting kind. Beyond this court 
 the second passage led to a second square com-t, occiipied in the 
 same way by its dunghill ; and from this court there was yet a third 
 passage leading to a third court and third dungheap. There were 
 no privies or drains there, and the dungheaps received all filth 
 which the swarm of wretched inhabitants could give; and we 
 learned that a considerable part of the rent of the houses was 
 paid by the produce of the dungheaps. Thixs, worse off" than wild 
 animals, many of which withdraw to a distance and conceal their 
 ordure, the dwellers in these courts converted their shame into a 
 kind of money by which their lodging was to be paid ! The inte- 
 riors of these houses and their inmates correspond with the 
 exteriors. We saw half-dressed wi-etches crowding together to be 
 warm ; and in one bed, although in the middle of the day, several 
 women were imprisoned under a blanket, beeai;se many others 
 who had on their backs all the articles of dress that belonged to 
 the party were then out of doors in the streets. This picture is 
 so shocking that, without ocvilar proof, one would be disposed to 
 doubt the possibility of the facts ; and yet there is, perhaps, no 
 old town in Europe that does not furnish parallel examples. 
 London, befoi-e the great fire of 1666, had few drains, and had 
 many such scenes, and the consequence was a pestilence occun'ing 
 at intervals of about 12 years, each destroying at an average about 
 a fourth of the inhabitants. Who can wonder that pestilential 
 disease should originate and spread in such situations ? And, as
 
 222 House of Commons, Sth May, 1848. 
 
 a contrast, it may be obsei-ved here, that when the kelp manufac- 
 ture lately ceased on the western shores of Scotland, a vast popu- 
 lation of the lowest class of people, who had been supported chiefly 
 by the wages of kelp labour, remained in extreme want, with cold. 
 hunger, and almost despair, pressing them down — yet, as their 
 habitations were scattered and in pure air, cases of fever did not 
 arise among them." 
 
 With respect to Southampton, Mr. Francis Cooper, surgeon, 
 stated : 
 
 " During the period of my parochial attendance on the poor, I 
 have more than once been compelled, in the depth of winter and 
 at midnight, to stand in the street, and walk to and fro till my 
 assistance has been reqi;ired, not being able to breathe the air of 
 the apartment in which the wretched sufferer lay. And very 
 recently, on being sent for to a poor woman, I was obliged to 
 absent myself till the very moment of parturition, the air being 
 so bad, so offensive, that a sort of stiipor and lassitude rendered 
 me unable to remain. On visiting the patient the following morn- 
 ing, I was curious to ascertain the actual dimensions of the outlet 
 at the back of the tenement, and found it 6 feet long by 3 feet 
 wide, and at the end of the yard, so called, a privy was erected, 
 only about 3 feet deep, and from which the urine and other liquid 
 deposits were carried away by ground leakage, thus keeping up 
 continual smeUs of a most noxious character, and acting as one of 
 the most active agents of destruction to health. The rooms, too — 
 only one above and below — were so low and small, so ill-contrived, 
 as to be unfit for human residence ; the structural arrangements 
 so utterly bad as to be a rejjroach, not only to our civilization, but 
 to our very humanity. There was no water laid on, no conve- 
 nience for stowage, the coals being under the stairs, and the 
 pantry (I suppose I must call it so) being placed between the 
 back-door, opening on the yard and the sitting-room, into which 
 every breeze from the west carried the effluvium from the spot at 
 the back of the dwelling, and which, in warm weather, was con- 
 tinually breathed by the occupiers, whose powers of resistance to 
 the deadly influence of such malaria could not possibly continue 
 for any length of time. Tlie tenements, several in number, were 
 erected at the back of others of large dimensions, and on the side 
 of undrained privies, without drainage, without water, with no 
 positive useful structural arrangement of any kind — mere brick 
 and mcrtar run up, as the technical expression is, no party-wall 
 (the Act of Lord N<jrmauby is constantly evaded), no basement 
 elevation, no internal apj^liance for securing comfort or preserving 
 health, and yet 3s. 6d. per week was paid for rent, 9Z. 2s. a year, or
 
 Public Health Bill 223 
 
 18 per cent., for what could not have amounted to more than 50i. 
 or 60Z., at the outside, as the original cost of erection. Who can 
 wonder at the poverty and Avi-etchedness of the poor ? Who can 
 be surprised that disease makes such havoc amongst the labouring 
 population ? Need we comment on the disastrous tendencies which 
 such a state of things suggests ?" 
 
 The unhappy beings who were compelled to live in scenes of such 
 putridity and filth grew gradually debilitated and powerless. They 
 became unable to do a day's work, and, sinking into the most 
 abject condition of pauperism, were tempted to perpetrate deeds 
 of violence, and to commit crimes of the foulest and most 
 disgraceful description. There was no man whose evidence on 
 matters affecting the poor was of higher authority than Dr. South- 
 wood Smith ; and in his examination before the Commissioners for 
 Inquiring into the State of Large Towns and Populous Districts, 
 he gives the following evidence : 
 
 " Do you think that neglect of decency and comfort is likely to 
 render those persons reckless of consequences, and inclined to a 
 mode of getting their living dishonestly ? — The neglect of the 
 decencies of life must have a debasing effect on the human mind ; 
 and hopeless want naturally produces recklessness. There is a 
 point of wi'etchedness which is incompatible with the existence of 
 any respect for the peace or property of others ; and to look in 
 such a case for obedience to the laws when there is the slightest 
 prospect of violating them with impunity, is to expect to reap 
 where you have not sown. 
 
 " I have myself seen a young man, 20 years of age, sleeping in 
 the same bed with his sister, a young woman 16 or 17 years old. 
 That incestuous intercourse takes place under these circumstances 
 there is too much reason to believe ; and that when unmai'ried 
 young men and women sleep together in the same room, the 
 women become common to the men, is stated in evidence as a 
 positive fact; but I regard another inevitable effect of this 
 state of things as no less pernicious ; it is one of the influences 
 which, for want of a better term, may be called unhumanizing, 
 because it tends to weaken and destroy the feelings and affections 
 which are distinctive of the human being, and which raise him 
 above the level of the brute. I have sometimes checked myself in 
 the wish that men of high station and authority wovdd visit these 
 abodes of their less fortunate fellow-creatures, and witness with 
 their own eyes the scenes presented thei*e ; for I have thought 
 that the same end might be answered in a way less disagreeable 
 to them. They have only to visit the Zoological Gardens, and to 
 observe the state of society in that large room which is appro-
 
 224 House of Commons, 8th May, 1848. 
 
 priated to a particular class of animals, wliere every want is 
 relieyed, and every appetite and passion gratified in full view of 
 the whole community. In the filthy and crowded streets in our 
 large towns and cities you see human faces retrograding, sinking 
 down to the level of these biaite tribes, and you find manners 
 appropriate to the degradation. Can any one wonder that there 
 is among these classes of the people so little intelligence — so 
 slight an approach to humanity — so total an absence of domestic 
 affection, and of moral and religious feeling? The experiment 
 has been long tried on a large scale with a dreadful success, 
 affording the demonstration that if, from early infancy, you allow 
 human beings to live like brutes, you can degrade them down 
 to their level, leaving to them scarcely more intellect, and no 
 feelings and affections proper to human minds and hearts. Have 
 you examined frequently the houses of individuals among the 
 poor in these neglected districts ? — Yes. Have you noticed par- 
 ticularly the state of the air in their apartments ? — I have ; and it 
 sometimes happens to me in my visits to them, as physician to the 
 Eastern Dispensary, that I am unable to stay in the room even to 
 write the prescription. I am obliged, after staying the necessary 
 time at the bedroom of the patient, to go into the air, or to stand 
 at the door, and wi-ite the prescription ; for, such is the offensive 
 and unwholesome state of the air, that I cannot breathe it even 
 for that short time. What must it be to live in such an atmos- 
 phere, and to go through the process of disease in it ?" 
 
 There was another witness also, whose testimony on such ques- 
 tions as those was of the very highest importance, the Rev. 
 J. Clay, chaplain of Preston gaol ; and he, too, was most decidedly 
 of opinion that the physical condition of human beings exercised 
 a most potent influence over their moral condition : 
 
 " It should be impressed upon every one desirous of the melio- 
 ration of his kind, that filthiness of person and sordidness of mind 
 are usually united ; and if you would banish squalor and sickness 
 from the labourers' cottage, you must remove ignorance and cor- 
 ruption from his head and heart. Amidst the dirt and disease of 
 filthy back com-ts and alleys and yards, vices and crimes are 
 lurking altogether unimagined by those who have never visited 
 such abodes." 
 
 Nothing coiild be more distinct, continued the noble Lord, than 
 the reverend gentleman's statement of the connection between 
 disease and crime, and between filth and immorality. His own 
 personal observation entirely con-oborated the testimony of Dr. 
 Southwood Smith and Mr. Clay. From the examinations he had 
 himself made, as well as from the evidence he had been able to 
 
 I
 
 Public Health BUI 225 
 
 collect, be had arrived at the conclusion that more than one-lialf of 
 the habits of iutoxicatiou which disgraced large towns and popnlons 
 districts arose from the sanitary condition in which the population 
 were permitted to live. It was impossible to visit the squalid locali- 
 ties in which the poor were huddled together in many of the towns 
 of England, and to view their pallid, sinking, worn-out forms, and 
 their livid, hueless faces, without experiencing a feeling of com- 
 passion which almost prompted one to justify the act of human 
 beings, who, to escape fi'om the contemplation of their unutter- 
 able anguish, and to proj) a sinking constitution, had recourse to 
 aj-dent spirits, or other modes of deleterious excitement. He had 
 gone over the records of the fever hospitals of London, and was 
 able to trace in them the connection between the sanitary and 
 moral condition of the people. He had also discovered this terrible 
 and startling truth, that fever, which was the offspring of bad air 
 and defective drainage, fell, in the large proportion of cases, not 
 on children, not on old people, but on adults in the very pi'ime 
 of life. It did not cut off those who, being very yoiuig, could 
 not contribute to the general prosperity of the realm ; nor those 
 who, being very old, were a burden to it; but it hurried to 
 the grave the heads of families, who left behind them a flock of 
 children and a widow or widower, as the case might be, to be 
 sustained out of the parish funds, or by the charity of private 
 individuals. If the honourable member for West Sun-ey, or any 
 one else, doubted this statement, he would implore of him, before 
 he hazarded another opinion, to perambulate the pauper districts of 
 the metropolis and jiidge for himself. He would then be able to 
 know, by means of personal inquiries, whether the fact was so, and 
 also whether the poor people thus miserably circumstanced were or 
 were not sensible of their condition, and did or did not desire to be 
 relieved from it. He (Lord Ashley) had repeatedly heard, from the 
 lips of the inhabitants of these filthy localities, this sickening and 
 awful complaint — the full force of which might be felt with peculiar 
 emphasis, just at this moment when we were enjoying so genial an 
 atmosphere — that they looked with terror at the approach of fine 
 weather. What was a blessing to others was to them a positive 
 curse ; for they assured him that when the sun shone f oi-th in its full 
 splendour, the " summer stinks " — that was their phrase — became 
 altogether intolerable. Well, can anything be more pitiable, more 
 touching, or more deplorable than the reflection such a complaint 
 presented to the imagination ? 
 
 But the most cogent aspect in which this question could be 
 viewed, was that which had reference to the influence of the 
 physical condition of those poor people on their moral nature.
 
 226 House of Commons, 8th May, 1848. 
 
 Let them collect the evidence of all the ministers of all religious 
 denominations — let them collect the evidence of all the Scripture- 
 readers, district visitors, and city missionaries throughout the 
 kingdom — and if, out of the entire body, there could be found 
 twenty to deny that there was an intimate connection of misery 
 with filth, and of crime with both — if there could be found twenty 
 to deny that the connection between the moral and physical con- 
 dition of the pool" was most intimate and inevitable, he (Lord 
 Ashley) would not only oppose the present Bill, but would under- 
 take to join any man, or any number of men, in an effort to resist 
 any proposition that might at any future period be made to make 
 this question the subject for a legislative enactment. His noble 
 friend the member for Plymouth had been taunted for saying that 
 all attempts to diffuse education amongst the poor were little 
 better than vain and profitless, so long as they were permitted to 
 continue in their present sanitary condition ; but the noble Lord 
 had said nothing more than had been already expressed on many 
 occasions by others. He (Lord Ashley) concurred unresei'vedly in 
 the statement, and was most distinctly of opinion that it was next 
 to impossible that any genuine or lasting good should residt from 
 education so long as Parliament left the people in their present 
 physical and domiciliary condition. His experience of the ragged 
 schools confirmed him in the conviction, for he there saw the 
 extreme difficulty, if not the absolute impossibility of training 
 children in the way they should go, who, after school-hours, were 
 permitted to return to the filthy purlieus from which they had 
 issued in the morning, there to unlearn in one hour what their 
 preceptors had spent a week in endeavouring to teach them. In a 
 few isolated cases the power of education might prevail over all 
 evil influences ; but on the great mass of cases its beneficial efi'ect 
 would be wholly counteracted. 
 
 He had to thank the House for the kindness with which they 
 have heard him, and should apologize for having trespassed at 
 such length on their attention. In conclusion, he would express 
 an earnest hope that the House would permit the BiU to go into 
 committee, there to undergo such alterations and amendments as 
 might be considered necessary. He trusted that they would con- 
 cede thus much ; and by so doing make one onward step to the 
 recovery of those unhappy people, and to the recognition of their 
 right to be placed on a level with sentient and immortal beings. 
 
 n
 
 ( 227 ) 
 
 Emigration and Ragged Schools. 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 
 June 6, 1848. 
 
 Speech on a motion to bring under the notice of the House the state of a portion of 
 the juvenile population of the Metropolis, and to move, "That it is expedient 
 that means be annually provided for the voluntary Emigration to some one of 
 Her Majesty's Colonies, of a certain number of young persons of both sexes, 
 vpho have been educated in the schools ordinarily called ' Kagged Schools,' in 
 and about the Metropolis." 
 
 Sir. 
 
 The House will, I am sure, excuse me, not only from bringing 
 under their deliberation the subject of which I have given notice, 
 but also for entreating their most patient attention. It has been 
 my lot, on many occasions, to introduce questions very deeply 
 affecting the condition of the working classes ; but on no occasion 
 have I ever introduced a subject more vitally interesting to the 
 parties that I represented, or more intimately connected with the 
 honour and welfare of the whole community. 
 
 Of the existence of the evil no one can doubt who perambulates 
 the streets and thoroughfares of this vast city, and observes the 
 gi'oups of filthy, idle, tattered children either squatting at the 
 entrances of the courts and alleys, or engaged in occupations 
 neither useful to themselves, nor creditable to the locality. If he 
 proceed to estimate their moral by their physical condition (and it 
 will be a just estimate), — if he examine the statements before the 
 police officers, or the records of the various tribunals — or, above 
 all, if, by personal inspection, he seek to understand the whole 
 mischief, he will come to the conclusion that these pressing and 
 immediate evils must be met by the application of an immediate 
 remedy. This state of things afflicts every sense of humanity ; it 
 appeals to every notion of justice ; and I must say, in reference to 
 the character of the age and the temper of the times in which we 
 live, that it is matter for grave consideration to all, who consult,
 
 228 House of Commons, 6tJi June, 1848. 
 
 not only the reputation, but even tlie safety, of this great metro- 
 polis. 
 
 I am happy to say that this is no controversial question; no 
 interest is assailed — I cannot anticipate any opposition except 
 from those who believe that they can suggest a better plan ; and, 
 indeed, it is less from any overweening confidence that I have 
 hit the true method, than from a desire to excite discussion, and 
 stimulate general effort, that I have propounded this matter for 
 our present debate. 
 
 I may, perhaps, assume that the evil is acknowledged, but I do 
 not think that it is fully estimated. I wish much to show the 
 nature and extent of the mischief, to prove that it cannot be dealt 
 with in any ordinary way, nor brought under the separate in- 
 fluence of any existing agencies — the evil is peculiar, and must be 
 met by peculiar means, administered by a pecu.liar agency. 
 
 Till very recently, the few children that came under our notice 
 in the streets and places of public traffic, were considered to be 
 chance vagrants, beggars, or pilferers, who, by a little exertion of 
 magisterial authority, might be either extinguished or reformed. 
 It has only of late been discovered that they constitute a 
 numerous class, having habits, pursuits, feelings, manners, cus- 
 toms, and interests of their own; living as a class, though 
 shifting as individuals, in the same resorts; perpetuating and 
 multiplying their filthy numbers. For the knowledge of these 
 details we are mainly indebted to the London City Mission ; it 
 is owing to their deep, anxious, and constant research ; it is owing 
 to the zeal with which their agents have fathomed the recesses of 
 human misery, and penetrated into places repulsive to every 
 sense, moral and physical ; it is owing to such exertions, aided by 
 the piety, self-denial, and devotion of Sunday-school teachers, that 
 we have advanced thus far. Certain excellent persons, who gave 
 their energies to Sabbath training, were the first to obseiwe these 
 miserable outcasts : and hoping, by the influence of the gospel, to 
 effect some amendment, opened schools in destitute places, to 
 which the children were invited, not coerced. Hence the clue to 
 a vast amount of information, a part of which I shall now proceed 
 to lay before the House ! 
 
 Our first consideration must have reference to the numbers of 
 this particiilar class— it is difficult to form an accurate estimate ; 
 but from all the inquiries that I have been able to make — and I 
 can assure the House that no trouble has been spared— I should 
 say that the naked, filthy, roaming, lawless, and deserted children 
 in and about the metropolis, exceeded, rather than fell short of, 
 30,000. There are, doubtless, many more in this vast city who
 
 Emigration and Bagged Schools . 229 
 
 may be considered as distressed children, objects of cbarity and of 
 the public care ; but I speak now of that generation in particular, 
 which is distinct from the ordinaiy poor, and beyond the observa- 
 tion of the daily perambulators of squares and thoroughfares. 
 
 The House will, perhaps, be curious to learn what are the habits 
 and dispositions of this wild race ; their pursuits, modes of liveli- 
 hood, the character of their dwelling-places, and the natural 
 history, as it were, of the species, so that some steps may be 
 taken to extricate them from their sad condition, and place them 
 in a situation where the exercise of virtue may at least be possible. 
 Depend upon it, that while they are left in their present state, and 
 exposed to all the detestable circumstances that suiTound them, 
 the efforts of the clergyman and the missionary will be in vain ; 
 you undo with one hand the work of the other : it is a Penelope's 
 web, woven in the morning but unravelled at night. 
 
 Now look at the result of an examination of 15 schools in which 
 these children are occasionally congregated ; I find the number on 
 the lists to amount to 2345, ranging between 5 and 17 years of 
 age ; but the average attendance may be taken at 1600. Now of 
 these 1600, 162 confessed that they had been in prison, not once, 
 nor twice, many of them, several times ; 116 had run away from 
 their homes, the result, in many instances, of ill-treatment; 170 
 slept in lodging houses, and on this head I shall say a few words 
 presently. I may just observe, in passing, that these receptacles 
 are the nests of every abomination that the mind of man can con- 
 ceive ; 253 confessed that they lived altogether by begging ; 216 
 had neither shoes nor stockings ; 280 had no hats, caps, bonnets, 
 or head coveidng ; 101 had no linen ; 219 never slept in beds, many 
 had no recollection of having ever tasted that luxury ; 68 were the 
 childi-enof convicts; 125 had stepmothers, to whom maybe traced 
 much of the misery that di-ives the children of the poor to the com- 
 mission of crime ; 306 had lost either one or both parents, a large 
 proportion having lost both. Now, taking the average attendance 
 at the schools as 4000, and applying to it the ciilculations applied 
 to the number just stated, we shall have 400 who confess that they 
 had been in prison ; 660 who lived by begging ; 178 the children 
 of convicts ; and 800 who had lost one or both parents ! 
 
 So much for their domestic position. Their employments are 
 in strict keeping ; we may class them as street-sweepers, vendors 
 of lucifer- matches, oranges, cigars, tapes, and baUads ; they hold 
 horses, run on errands, job for " dealers in marine stores;*' such is 
 the euphonous temi for "receivers of stolen goods," a body of 
 large influence in this metropolis, without whose agency juvenile 
 crime would be much emban-assed in its operations. See, too,
 
 230 House of Commons, 6ih June, 1848. 
 
 where many of them retire for the night, if they retire at all ; to 
 all manner of places ; under dry arches of bridges and viaducts ; 
 under porticos, sheds, and carts ; to out-houses, in saw-pits, on 
 staircases, in the open air, and some in lodging-houses. Curious, 
 indeed, is their mode of life. I recoUect the case of a boy who, 
 during the inclement season of last winter, passed the greater 
 part of his night in the large iron roUer of the Regent's Park. 
 He climbed, every evening, over the railings, and crept to his 
 shelter, where he lay in comparative comfort. Human sympathy, 
 however, prevails even in the poorest condition ; he invited a com- 
 panion less weU provided than himself, promising to " let him into 
 a good thing ;" he did so, and it proved a more friendly act than 
 many a similar undertaking in railway shares. 
 
 Let me proceed now to the lodging-houses. I attach no small 
 importance to the review of this part of the subject, because I 
 know how many of these unfortunate children are doomed to live 
 in these sinks of wi-etchedness and vice ; and how difficult, if not 
 impossible, it is to deal with them by any ordinary means, so long 
 as they are forced to resort to such haunts of pollution. I will 
 trouble you to listen to the descriptions of a lodging-house. I 
 have seen many of them myself, and they are abominable ; but the 
 statement I shall now read is given on the authority of a city mis- 
 sionary, who had been appointed to inspect these dens, and report 
 upon them. It is not an exaggerated picture of several of those 
 places, in which hundreds and thousands of the human race are 
 nightly congregated. The " parlour," — you will observe the ele- 
 gance of the terms, — " the parlour measures 18 feet by 10. Beds 
 are aiTanged on each side of it, composed of straw, rags, and 
 shavings. Here are 27 male and female adults and 31 children, 
 with several dogs ; in all, 58 human beings in a contracted den, 
 from which light and air are systematically excluded. It is im- 
 possible," he says, " to convey a just idea of their state — the 
 quantities of vermin are amazing. I have entered a room, and in 
 a few minutes I have felt them dropping on my hat from the 
 ceiling like peas." " They may be gathered by handfuls," ob- 
 served one of the inmates. " I could fill a pail in a few minutes. 
 I have been so tormented with the itch, that on two occasions I 
 fiUed my pockets with stones, and waited till a policeman came 
 up, and then broke a lamp that I might be sent to prison, and 
 chere be cleansed, as is required before new comers are admitted." 
 "Ah!" said another, standing by, "you can get a comfortable 
 snooze and scrub there ;" but nowhere else it is manifest — the jail 
 is a resource for these unfortunate people. Many boys of tender 
 yeaa-s frequent these houses ; and not a few of them are for the
 
 Emigration and Bagged ScJiools. 231 
 
 promiscuous reception of boys and girls. I press on these matters, 
 because I wisb to show the variety of circumstances that stand in 
 the way of their moral and physical improvement — here is a proof 
 in the existence of such resorts ! Inquii*e, and you will find it to 
 be true, not only of the metropolis, but of the smaller as well as 
 greater towns throughout the country, that 7-lOths of the crime 
 perpetrated in the various localities, are concocted by the society 
 that assemble in these caverns. The Warwick magistrates say, 
 and it is equally applicable to London, " such houses are the 
 general receptacle of offenders. Here the common vagrants 
 assemble in great numbers at nightfall, and, making the lodging- 
 houses the common centre, traverse their several beats." " I have 
 no hesitation," says a public officer, " in declaring my belief that 
 the principal robberies have been concocted in a vagrant lodging- 
 house, and rendered effectual through the agency of the keepers." 
 But this is not all. When a boy leaves the lodging-house, and 
 emerges into the open air, he is exposed to intluences quite as 
 deleterious to his moral and physical well-being. I will read a 
 description of a court which I have witnessed myseK. Now 
 observe, it is in such places that a large mass of the community 
 are now dwelling. In one of those courts there are three privies 
 to 300 people ; in another two to 200 people. This is a statement 
 made by a medical man, — " In a place where these public privies 
 existed scenes of the most shocking character were of daily occur- 
 rence. It would scarcely be believed that those public privies often 
 stood opposite the doors of the houses ; modesty and decency were 
 altogether impossible." But in a private house — what a strange 
 misnomer ! — is the boy exposed to better influences than in the 
 lodging-house? Very often several families are found in one 
 room. That is a fortunate family which has one room for itself. 
 Everything is transacted in that room. Cleanliness is impossible ; 
 it is a scene of filth, misery, and vice. The House mil now, I hope, 
 permit me to pass to the description of a locality which affords 
 a fair sample of the class of abodes; for those children are a 
 peculiar race, to be found in almost all instances in the most 
 filthy, destitute, unknown parts of the metropolis — places seldom 
 trodden by persons of decent habits. " These courts and alleys 
 are in the immediate neighbourhood of uncovered sewers, of 
 gutters full of puti-ified matter, nightmen's yards, and privies, 
 the soil of which is openly exposed, and never or seldom removed. 
 It is impossible to convey an idea of the poisonous condition in 
 which those places remain during winter and summer, in dry 
 weather and wet, from the masses of putrifying matter which are 
 allowed to accumulate." Now these statements are by no means
 
 232 House of Commons, 6th June, 1848. 
 
 exaggerations. I would not make sucli assertions if I could not 
 do so on my own personal knowledge. I have gone over many 
 parts of those districts, and Lave devoted a considerable portion 
 of my time to tbe prosecution of investigations on this subject. 
 When, in 1846, I lost my seat in Parliament, and finding myself 
 " studiis floi'entem ignobilis oti," I determined to explore the 
 unknown parts of the metropolis. In company with a medical 
 man and a city missionary, I have ventured to go over many of 
 those places, and I am able to say that the description I have now 
 given is below the truth. And sure I am, that if I could persuade 
 any honourable member to visit those disgusting localities, there 
 would be no more need for argument or description ; they would 
 join, one and all, in a general effort to wipe away a state of things 
 so disgraceful to the kingdom, and so injurious to the peace and 
 welfare of the whole community. 
 
 The House will have anticipated, I think, the statement of their 
 physical condition. The children are thus described by Dr. Aldis : 
 " They are emaciated, pale, and thin, and in a low condition. 
 They complain of sinking, depression of the strength, loss of 
 spirits, loss of appetite accompanied by pains in different parts of 
 the body, with disturbed sleep." " The depressed and low condi- 
 tion of health in which these people are always found induces 
 habits of intemperance, unfortunately so common among them." 
 " The children," says another, " are diminutive, pale, squalid, 
 sickly, irritable ; I rarely saw a child in a real healthy state." 
 
 One of the most pious, intelligent, and active clergymen of 
 London, the Rev. Mr. Champneys of Whitechapel, has told me of 
 the singular aptitude of those children to learn. He could only 
 attribute it to their nervous susceptibility, produced by the cir- 
 cumstances in which they were placed. But he added, that while 
 it would enable them to learn what was good, the readiness with 
 which they learned what was bad was most alarming. The con- 
 dition of those children is very peculiar. Their nervous suscepti- 
 bility is stimulated so that they acquire instruction with a 
 promptitude and activity beyond their years. Their energies are 
 quick and lively ; but they are speedily exhausted, and come to a 
 premature grave. Many, from the condition in which they have 
 been brought up, are greatly enfeebled ; and though miich may 
 be done to restore their health and strength by giving them 
 proper food, and allowing them to breathe a purer air, yet upon 
 examination it is often found that these children have all some 
 defect or other which is sufficient to exclude them from employ- 
 ment. A friend of mine, a Lord of the Admiralty, had arranged 
 that if any of those children could be selected who were fit for
 
 Emigration and Bagged Schools. 233 
 
 employment, they should be taken on board a ship in Hex* Majesty's 
 service. Five were sent to be examined ; but in the twinkling of 
 an eye the examiner rejected them, though they wei-e the picked 
 boys of the school. But after those children had been for a few 
 months at the school, where they wei'e fed and brought under 
 proper care, they appeared to be changed. They became strength- 
 ened, fit for work, and showed to what condition they may arrive, 
 when recovered from the neglect to which they had been originally 
 abandoned. If they are only placed where they may breathe fresh 
 air and receive a moderate siij^ply of food, they will become as eifi- 
 cient for the purposes of labour as any children to be found in 
 any part of Her Majesty's dominions, for the disease from which 
 those children in their original condition suffered is of that kind 
 which arises from bad air and from the want of sufficient susten- 
 ance. There is a school for such children in the neighbourhood 
 of the House whei*e we are now sitting ; there they get sufficient 
 food; and tbey are, in consequence, fit for any labour to which 
 children can be put ; and if such an opportunity again offers itself 
 as had been offered by my noble friend the Lord of the Admiralty, 
 I have no doubt that a number of them would be passed, because 
 they would be found fully competent for the labour. 
 
 Of their moral condition I need say little beyond the report of 
 one of the schools: 
 
 " The boys had been sent out daily by drunken parents to beg 
 and steal, being often cruelly treated if unsuccessful : others were 
 employed in vending and assisting in the manufacture of base 
 coin. . . Another says, of 74 admitted this year between 8 and 14, 
 known thieves, 16; beggars and hawkers, 27." But there is a 
 most remarkable statement made on the authority of a city mis- 
 sionary in a district of the east of London. His house is the open 
 resort of all who choose to come to pay him a visit, and ask his 
 advice. From January to December he received from these chil- 
 dren and young persons, 2343 visits, averaging 334 per month. 
 Of these, under 10 years of age there were 2 per cent. ; under 12, 
 9 per cent. ; above 12 and under 15, 44 per cent. ; above 15 and 
 imder 18, 37 per cent. ; above 18 and under 22, 8 per cent. Of 
 these 39 per cent, voluntarily acknowledged they had been in 
 prison ; 11 per cent, had been in once ; 4 per cent., twice ; 5 per 
 cent., thrice ; 2 per cent., four times ; 1 per cent., six times ; 3 per 
 cent., seven times ; 1 per cent., eight times ; 2 per cent., ten times ; 
 and there were 10 per cent, uncertain as to the number of times. 
 
 This is a curious picture of juvenile society in the great metro- 
 polis! and whence has it arisen? from various causes: it has arisen, 
 in a great measure, either from the desertion or the bad example
 
 234 House of Commons, Gth June, 1848. 
 
 of parents. In many instances it is good for the children that 
 they have been deserted ; in many instances, no doubt, is is good 
 that they have no parents in existence, for not unfrequently they 
 are misled by their bad example — still more frequently are they 
 tempted by necessity. There are hundreds and thousands in this 
 great city who, from their earliest years, have never obtained a 
 meal except by begging, or by steahng, or by some avocation of a 
 questionable kind. Children, in truth, are encouraged by theii* 
 parents to that course of life. Even in those instances where 
 parents do not bring up their children to habits of theft, they take 
 very good care when property is brought in of a suspicious cha- 
 racter to ask no questions, and to bestow praise for adroitness in 
 such transactions. 
 
 But whence are the parents affected ? a vast proportion of the 
 evils which sun'Oimd them arises from the sanitary condition in 
 which they are left. The same caiises which oj)erate on the chil- 
 dren operated on the parents before them — an irresistible depres- 
 sion of health, a gradual, but certain, decline of the physical 
 energies, followed by intemperate habits, and a hopeless paviperism, 
 have rendered them utterly reckless of decency, of comfort, of 
 regard for the spiritual and temporal welfare of their children, 
 reckless almost even of life itself. 
 
 With these facts under its notice, the House will not be sur- 
 prised to learn the figure that these children cut before the courts 
 of the police, and the tribunals of justice. We may see, from the 
 reports of the Metropolitan Police, reports dra,wn up with much 
 skill and accuracy, that in the year 1847 there were taken into 
 custody 62,181 persons, of all ages, and of both sexes. Of these 
 20,702 were females, and 41,479 were males ; whereof there were 
 under 20 years of age, 15,698; between 10 and 15, 3682; under 10, 
 362. Of the whole 62,000, 22,075 could neither read nor write; 
 and 35,227 could read only or read and wiite imperfectly. I do 
 not quote this statement from any belief that mere literary attain- 
 ments will have a very material influence in amending the conduct 
 of the young ; but I quote it to show the neglect in which they 
 must have passed their early years ; the want of all internal or 
 external discipline, during the most impressible period of life, 
 when moral instruction is most easily communicated. But mark 
 another striking statement at the close of the tables ; out of these 
 62.000 persons taken into custody, there were no less than 28,118 
 who had no trade, business, calHng, or occupation whatsoever. 
 They were merely vagabonds living by their wits, wandering from 
 one place to another, and making the whole world a prey fur their 
 subsistence.
 
 Emigration and Bagged Schools. 235 
 
 Now, when we bear in mind tlie condition of these children, is it 
 surprising that there shoukl be such a mass of persons without any 
 employment ? — thousands in tattered garments, unable to i*ead or 
 write, known only as wandering beggars, may offer themselves as 
 applicants for work — is it not obvious that, untrained as they 
 are, no one will engage them, more especially when such a pres- 
 sure exists that oftentimes the best workmen are compelled to 
 sustain a severe struggle ? few, however, make any application, 
 because they are sure to be rejected. But it is a serious fact, that 
 so many thousands should be habituated to idleness, or that 
 diseased activity which is the result of it ; because they think that 
 they have a necessity for living as much as any other, and they 
 take measures accordingly. Nor may we disregard the temper of 
 the times ; — the condition of these persons renders the state of 
 society more perilous than in any former day. Be assured that the 
 mischief does not admit of delay ; the Legislature is called on to 
 make an immediate effort for the mitigation, if not the total over- 
 throw, of this portentous evil. 
 
 The statements that I have already made afford but a mode of 
 approximating to the extent of the evil ; the records of the tri- 
 bunals and police coiu'ts show only the numbers of those whom the 
 constable is quick enough to apj)rehend. But there is a vast 
 amount of unseen and undetected crime ; many breaches of the 
 public order; many injuries to the peace, propei'ty, and safety of 
 individuals ; and a great prevalence of that training which forms 
 these children to a character perilous to the well-being of society. 
 I believe that the majority of ciiminals, in and about London, arises 
 out of this class ; if we were to extinguish, or greatly improve this 
 strange tribe, we should not, I allow, extinguish crime altogether ; 
 crime is inseparable from our fallen nature ; but I hold that it 
 would be considerably abated, inasmuch as the large proportion 
 of it is, manifestly, the work of the classes so neglected, and ex- 
 posed, by their necessities, to an extraordinary force of temptation. 
 A city missionary has written to me, " I look on several parts of 
 my district as breeding-places for prisons;" this is the concurrent 
 testimony of all those who are best acquainted with the race be- 
 fore lis; and how can it well be otherwise? Recollect the condition 
 of these children ; weigh their necessities, their moral state, tlie 
 manner in which they have been brought vip, the circumstances in 
 which they are permitted to remain. Having no knowledge of 
 right or wrong, except that which is begotten in some way or other 
 by their fears ; they believe that they have a right to j)rey on the 
 whole world ; "meum and tuum" depend not, in their estimation, 
 on law or principle, but on the power to hold possession; their
 
 236 House of Covimons, Gth June, 1848. 
 
 needs, so tliey conceive, giving them, not only a dexterity, but a 
 claim, in appropriating the superfluities of others. Now, then, 
 let me implore the House to consider the temptations to which 
 poor children, thus morally provided, are exposed by the repre- 
 hensible carelessness of this commercial city; remember them 
 living by their wits, hungi-y like oui-selves, and not knowing, from 
 one hour to another, whether they shall obtain anything for their 
 sustenance during the day ; look at the temptations which beset 
 them on eveiy side, temptations often commented on, and most 
 justly, in the police courts, arising from the total want of care in 
 the owners of property. I find, that of the felonies which were 
 pei-petrated last year vrithin the jurisdiction of the metropolitan 
 police, there were 814 cases of stealing tools. Sic, fi*om unfinished 
 houses where they had been left by workmen without any care or 
 supervision whatever ; that the numbei' of cases of stealing from 
 carts and carriages which had been left without any one to look 
 after them was 298 ; that the number of cases of theft from hoiises 
 in consequence of the doors being left open by the most wanton 
 neglect on the part of servants and masters was 2208 ; and that 
 the number of cases of theft of goods exposed for sale at shop- 
 doors — and hon. gentlemen will recollect how freely goods of all 
 descriptions are so exposed, especially of all kinds of provisions, 
 calculated to tempt the appetite of hungry children — of these 
 cases the number was 2299. Now, every one of these felonies 
 has increased in number, with the exception, — and this is a very 
 curious fact, — with the exception of felonies of Hnen exposed to 
 dry. Tliese have considerably abated ; and I hardly hesitate to 
 assert that this has arisen from the establishment of public baths 
 and washhouses, which enable poor people to wash and dry their 
 clothes by a cheap and speedy progress, and keep them under proper 
 care and supervision. 
 
 All these things tend to show the necessity of adopting a course 
 that shall extricate these children from their present position, and 
 save them from a return to it. I, therefore, seek to prove that 
 they are of such a singvdar description as to be beyond any 
 ordinary appliances, requiring a system of their own, unlike all 
 other childi'en in most respects, and in none more than in their 
 habits of insubordination. Take, for instance, the scenes that in- 
 vai'iably occur on the opening of a school in some new locality. 1 
 have heard teachers, who have undertaken to open such schools 
 on speculation — I do not mean a money speculation, but by wa_y 
 of experiment — I have heard them describe the roaring and 
 whistling, the drumming at the doors, the rattling at the windows, 
 which signalize the commencement of the academical coui'se. The
 
 Emigration and Ragged Schools. 237 
 
 boys, wlien admitted, oftentimes break everything, forms, slates, 
 tables, intermixing their sport with occasional fighting. There is 
 a school over the water well known, I believe, to the lion, member 
 for Kinsale — when it was first opened, in 1846, there came fonr- 
 and-twenty boys, all furnished with tobacco-pipes, who woiild 
 neither learn nor dislodge, but kept possession of the room for 
 several nights. The teachers waited with patience, trusting that 
 they would soon be tired of their " lark," and go away, having left 
 the school to those who desired better things. Their hope was 
 fulfilled ; others soon supplied their places ; and now the school is 
 in active oj)ei'ation, and is producing, thank God, most beneficial 
 results. In another, the onslaught was of a sterner character; 
 the teachers were compelled to barricade the doors, and escape 
 through the windows over the roof. Such is the character of most 
 inaugural meetings of these schools ; a fortnight or more elapses, 
 in general, before order can be maintained ; nor can it ever be 
 introduced without the highest exercise of patience in encovmter- 
 ing obstacles so unpleasant and risks so pecviKar. I heard from 
 a gentleman, not long ago, who had himseK ofiiciated as a teacher, 
 that he was once in charge of a class where a single boy was 
 especially provoking. He bore it for a while, but at last could 
 bear it no longer, and, seizing the boy by the neck, gave him a 
 thorough good shaking. This passed off, and little was said ; but 
 in three minutes thereafter the teacher found himself prostrate at 
 full length on the ground. The boy, it seems, determined to be 
 avenged for the insult which he considered he had received, got 
 upon the floor, and, passing between the legs of the teacher, sud- 
 denly expanded them, with a shout of joy; and then, having 
 thrown the gentleman on his back, he returned to his seat. Now, 
 had the gentleman given way to his anger, and punished the boy 
 for this ofi'ence, the result would probably have been that the 
 school would have been broken up ; but, exercising a more correct 
 judgment, he took no notice of what had occurred. He saved his 
 dignity by assuming that he had fallen down, and the boy, having 
 obtained his redress, was fully satisfied — the school is now in 
 eflPective operation, and I beHeve the boy is become a diligent and 
 obedient pupil. 
 
 Sometimes it has been necessary to call in the aid of the police 
 to preserve a semblance of order. This necessity gave rise, in one 
 instance, to a remarkable event. One of the policemen called in 
 was himself a philanthropist, and also a bit of a scholar ; and he 
 thought that he should most effectually attiiin his end l)y taking 
 a class ; he did so, and then the whole school became like " the 
 happy family," which may be seen any day in Trafalgar Square.
 
 238 House of Commons, 6th June, 1848. 
 
 So great was tlie entliusiasm of tlie boys for the constable, tliat 
 tliey gave him the title, which I believe he still retains, of " King 
 of the Peelers." Now, you raust bear in mind that these descrip- 
 tions are applicable to the entire class ; and that all who institute 
 i*agged schools must be prepared for similar events and situations 
 — but if they are so resolved, and exhibit forbearance, sympathy, 
 and real love for these pariahs of society, I hesitate not to say 
 that they will reap a larger harvest than may be won from many 
 schools, where the childi-en 3iave been trained to easier lives and 
 in habits of constant indulgence. 
 
 Now look to another peculiarity which forms an obstacle in the 
 way of those who would proceed by established methods. See 
 then* comparative attendance at different seasons. These children 
 ai-e not accustomed to ordinaiy rules ; they have never been sub- 
 jected to domestic disciijline, and they have no notion of being 
 forced. They may be invited, they may be soothed, they may be 
 gained by attention ; but in general they will have their own way. 
 I find that summer is peculiarly attractive to them, and tliat it is 
 difficult during that season to obtain an adequate attendance. 
 They are drawn away to prowl about the countiy. Many of them 
 go great distances in pursuit of something which they call pleasure, 
 or they may call profit — their views and projects are best known 
 to themselves — but, whatever are their motives, certain it is they 
 are often drawn away in summer to great distances. I perceive, 
 from a report of the comparative attendance at the school in the 
 Broadway, Westminster, that the number of children who attend 
 in winter is 200, while at the present season (June) the average 
 attendance is not more than 40. This comparatively thin attend- 
 ance arises also from the circumstance of the fine weather tempt- 
 ing them to remain in the streets to a later hour, begging or 
 stealing, or selling the little articles they have to dispose of. 
 
 If such be their habits, the House will see that it is next to im- 
 possible to bind them down by ordinai-y rales, and make them 
 conform to regulations which are salutary, and even palatable, to 
 children accustomed to something of domestic discipline; the 
 class has been newly discovered, and must be grappled with on a 
 new system. 
 
 In confiiTaation of what I say, observe their migratory habits ; 
 how they shift from one part of London to another, and from the 
 town to the country. In the report of the school at Broadway it 
 is stated, that out of 507 boys admitted, very few who attended at 
 the beginning of the year remained to the end of it. One of the 
 city missionaries, stationed in Westminster, has assured me that 
 one-fourth of the population in his district migrate every month.
 
 Emigration and Bagged ScJiools. 239 
 
 "Why, wliat can you do, with your ordinary rules and traditional 
 methods, in the management of such people? Nothing — you 
 must hold out to them some inducement to break their habits. 
 Government, I must think, knowing the nature of this class, and 
 knowing also that it has sprung from our neglect, and the neglect 
 of our fathei's, is in duty bound either to remove the temptations 
 to which these children are exposed, or render them less attractive, 
 or enable the youngsters, by the hope of recompense, to resist the 
 temptations so freely thrown in their path. Their whole mode of 
 life is perplexing, and defies all existing agency. Observe, they 
 can come to the schools only in the evening. It is to no jjurpose 
 to open a day-sehool, unless we also provide the food ; and this 
 addition inflicts a vast augmentation of expense. During the 
 morning they are engaged in various avocations to obtain the 
 sustenance necessary for the day ; but this obligation alone is 
 sufficient to take them out of the category of those children who 
 can submit to regularity of attendance, and conform to canonical 
 hours. 
 
 Now, Sir, to meet the exigencies of this case, the case of these 
 many thousands of children, I have heard a variety of propo- 
 sitions ; but I cannot concur in any one of them. I have heard it 
 said, in the first place, that schools should be erected, and some 
 system introduced of national education. But this cannot be 
 undertaken, because the very instant any one proposes such a 
 measure, the vexata questio is raised, as to how children should be 
 trained — whether by a secular or a religious education, and, if by 
 a religious education, what sort of rehgion ; whether that of the 
 Church of England or of a mixed character ; and while we are 
 discussing what we shall do ou these questions, hundreds and 
 thousands of the children are rising up into the ranks of thieves, 
 and perhaps murderers. 
 
 Nor can we, at once, undertake to establish schools of this 
 description. We must first consider a new element ; we must 
 consider the exj)ediency and the practicability of not only teach- 
 ing but feeding the pupils. It is a novel matter, and one of great 
 importance. 
 
 I must again repeat, in reference to the proposition of erecting 
 such schools, that we have no existing agencies by which they 
 may be superintended and controlled. The Church has none : 
 she is far too feeble amid the larger populations. The British 
 and Foreign Society have none; the National Society is alike 
 powerless. It is clear that they cannot be admitted into the 
 schools already established ; if they were so, their admission 
 would be followed by the withdrawal of the " respectable " chil-
 
 240 House of Commons, Gth June, 1848. 
 
 dren — sucli is tlie term. The parents of a better class would 
 shrink, and not reprehensibly, from the moral and physical con- 
 tamination of these wi'etched outcasts. 
 
 It is next proposed, that grants may be made by the Privy 
 Council, and schools established, subject to an inspection. Now, 
 no doubt, if such schools were established, they would do a cei-tain 
 degree of good p but it would be altogether inadequate to the evil 
 which prevails. In the first place, I do not hesitate to say, that it 
 would be next to impossible for Her Majesty's Grovernment to 
 appoint an inspector capable of estimating the character and value 
 of aU the difficulties and dilemmas to which these schools would 
 be exposed ; they could never be conformed to his notions of dis- 
 cipline. And neither of these plans would meet the difficulty of 
 determining how these children were to be disposed of after they 
 are educated. We should still have the same mass of vinem- 
 ployed poor, still the same temptations, and still the same im- 
 possibility of resisting them. The third plan v/hich I have heard 
 proposed is, the erection of a large baiTack at some distance from 
 London, at which the great mass of these children should receive 
 their education. This is designated the hospital system. Now, 
 this has been tried to a great extent in Scotland, and has been 
 found most injurious, bringing up the children, as it does, in a 
 mode of life which is in no respect their mode of life in after 
 years; abstracting them for three or four years from all con- 
 nexion with home, and from all domestic relations, and training 
 them exclusively within four walls. It has been found in all 
 instances — in the workhouse schools and elsewhere — very far 
 from answering the purposes for which such institutions are 
 established. 
 
 But I entertain another very strong objection to a wholesale 
 removal of the children from home, carrying them far away, and 
 shutting them up in some large receptacle. No doubt, in many 
 instances, it would be better if the children were removed from 
 their parents, — it would often be better if they had no parents at 
 all ; but I must lay it down as a general nile that home discipline, 
 however imperfect, is of a beneficial character, and cannot be sup- 
 plied by any other system employed elsewhere. We must also 
 recollect, that one great object of instituting these schools is to 
 produce a proportionate effect upon the parents of the children, 
 their relatives, friends, and associates. In most instances, it has 
 been found almost vain to attempt the reformation of adults by 
 direct efforts. It has been tried in various ways. In our prison- 
 discipline ingenuity is at a standstill to discover by what means 
 we can effect the permanent reformation of delinquents of riper
 
 Emigration and Bagged Scliools. 241 
 
 yeai's. They have been found, in most instances, altogetlier in- 
 accessible to the hibours of the clergyman and the missionary. 
 But very frequently an approach to them is open through the 
 medium of the children. I could mention hundreds of instances 
 where the example of children has brought the parents, by shame 
 or precept, to habits of decency and order ; and I feel confident 
 that if we had the means of extending this system, and holding 
 out the i>rospect of benefit to such parties from the reformation 
 of their lives, we should be able to produce the most striking and 
 permanent effects upon many abandoned localities within this 
 vast metropolis. 
 
 Now, to meet the many difficulties I have referred to, there has 
 been set up, at various intervals, the system of ragged schools. 
 Many, I dare say, may take exception to the name. I will not 
 detain the House by attempting to prove the value and efficacy of 
 the title. It is sufficient to say, that I know many instances where 
 the name, so far from being repulsive, has been attractive to that 
 very peculiar class ; and, though it designates those whom we 
 receive, it does not always designate those whom we turn out. 
 They are received ragged, but they are turned out clothed — they 
 are received as heathens, and in many instances, I thank God, 
 they go out Christians. Many such schools have been estabhshed, 
 not only in London but in other parts of England. They have 
 proved themselves, thereby, to be adapted to the necessities of the 
 times ; for the principles upon which they are founded recom- 
 mend themselves to the judgment of those who are most con- 
 versant with the class. But to proceed ; the number of ragged 
 schools in London and neighbourhood are now about 60. The 
 number of children who pass through them — including those who 
 attend on Sunday — are estimated at 10,000. This is not the 
 average attendance, because the greater number attend only on 
 the Sabbath. 
 
 The position of these schools, and their mode of government, 
 should next be stated to the House. They are generally j)lanted 
 in some miserable locality ; we are f oi'tunate enough, in a few in- 
 stances, to obtain a good room ; in one or two a room has been 
 erected at the expense of some charitable person ; in others Ave 
 are obliged to rest content with converted stables, and such-like 
 inconvenient places. They are opened, generally, every evening 
 at six o'clock ; the teachers are in some cases voluntary, in others 
 they are paid. The children are taught to read, write, and cast 
 accounts, and are carefully trained in the great precepts and 
 doctrines of Christianity. The promoters of these schools have 
 been beset by a variety of difficulties ; they have been discoui'aged
 
 242 House of Commons, 6th June, 1848. 
 
 by want of funds, and all those manifold and divers failures that 
 wait on every novel and infant institution ; but tbey have, never- 
 theless, had greater success than they had at first presumed to 
 anticipate. They have obtained situations for many of their 
 pupils, and in no instance have any been dismissed for bad con- 
 duct in ser\'ice. These schools are conducted altogether on a very 
 wide basis : the teachers consist of various denominations of Dis- 
 senters, as well as of the Church of England ; and ui^on the com- 
 mittees Dissenting ministers and clergymen of the Established 
 Church unite in the most hearty co-operation. Nothing can be 
 more gratifying than to attend the periodical meetings, where all 
 ecclesiastical diflferences are sunk ; and aU are pleased at seeing 
 the plant thrive under their care. 
 
 An honourable member asks me " What is the religious teach- 
 ing ?" I reply, that all these schools are under local committees. 
 There is a central committee, of which I am chairman, and which 
 holds its meetings in Exeter Hall, but it imposes no conditions 
 upon those schools that are in union with it. We require no 
 more, but in this we are positive, than that the Bible should be 
 used in all its integrity. These meetings are held once a quarter, 
 for the puiijose, among others, of collecting funds, as far as we 
 are able, and distributing them amongst the schools : but wo leave 
 it to the clergymen of the Church of England and the Dissenting 
 ministers and other teachers to attend to the religious instruction. 
 
 We must take good care, in whatever we do for the advance- 
 ment of this system, to do nothing that shall damp or discourage 
 the voluntary principle — but though it may not be damped, it 
 must be stimulated, as, unaided and by itself, quite inadequate to 
 the purpose. We must rely on the local agency of the various 
 disti-icts, and the hearty and efi'ective co-operation of the small 
 tradesmen in the vicinity ; the office is at first so physically 
 offensive, and, for a long time, so morally disheartening, that 
 ordinary service is unequal to the task. 
 
 The system, however, must, as I have said, be stimulated — and 
 the proposition which I make to the Government is this, — That 
 the Government should agree to take every year from these 
 schools a nimiber of children, say 1000 — 500 boys and the same 
 number of girls, — and transplant them at the public expense to 
 Her Majesty's Colonies in South Australia. When I make this 
 proposition, of course I do not do so in a dictatorial manner, and 
 if the Government only accede to it, they may vary it in detail 
 precisely as they please. I mention South Australia, because in 
 that colony there is at this moment the greatest demand for 
 labour. I propose, too, that the removal of the childi-en to that
 
 Emigration and Bagged Schools. 243 
 
 colony shall be tlie reward of good conduct, and tliat they shall 
 hare a certain amount of edncation ; the test of that amount may 
 be left to the Government, bnt of course with children of that 
 class or condition the destiny for which they are intended must 
 be looked to. It will not be necessaiy that the test should be of 
 very high literary attainments. Nor do I wish to assign any 
 particular period for them to be at the school, — so that they can 
 fulfil the test imposed, I desire that their removal should be the 
 reward of good conduct ; this is all that can be required. The 
 advantages of svich a scheme will be indesciibable. I am quite 
 convinced, from all the inquiry I have been able to' make, that it 
 will produce a serious and permanent benefit upon the whole 
 population of the country. When people see that their money 
 will issue in something practicable, should these schools be insti- 
 tuted, and that the children will be decently trained, and after- 
 wards removed from vice and temptation to some place where 
 they may conduct themselves like honest citizens, they will con- 
 tribute largely to establish many over the length and breadth of 
 the metropolis — let us look then to the effect it will have upon 
 the children themselves ; miserable, ignorant, and forgotten as 
 they are, those children, nevertheless, before they have passed 
 three months at these schools, begin to aspiire to better things. 
 The right hon. baronet the Home Secretary was good enough to 
 accompany me some time ago to one of these schools. It was 
 during working time — but had it not been so, and had the chil- 
 dren been at liberty to ran alsout, I doubt not, that, knowing the 
 dignity of my right hon. friend's station and the goodness of his 
 heart, they would have beset him with applications to be sent to 
 sea or to some one of the colonies. If, therefore, yoix will hold 
 out to those children as the reward of good conduct that which 
 they desire — a removal from scenes which it is painful to contem- 
 plate, to others where they can enjoy their existence, — you will 
 make the children eager by good conduct to obtain such a boon. 
 There are, be assured, amongst the children, gviilty and disgust- 
 ing as they are, many thousands who if opportunities are given 
 them, will walk in all the dignity of honest men and Christian 
 citizens. 
 
 But at present they are like tribes of lawless freebooters, bound by 
 no obligations, and utterly ignorant or utterly regardless of social 
 duties. They trust to their skill, not to their honesty ; gain their 
 livelihood by theft, and consider the whole world as their legiti- 
 mate prey. With them there is no sense of shame; nor is impri- 
 sonment viewed as a disgrace. In many instances it has occun-ed 
 that after a boy has been a short time at one of these schools he
 
 244 House of Commons, 6th June, 1848. 
 
 suddenly disappears. At the end of a few weeks lie comes back 
 to the very spot in the school where he sat when he was last there. 
 The master, going up to him, says, " My boy, where have you 
 been?" The boy answers, "Very sorry, sir, I could not come 
 before, but I have had three weeks at Bridewell." Now this has 
 happened repeatedly. Going to j^rison is with those children the 
 ordinary lot of humanity — they look upon it as a grievous act of 
 oppression, and when they come to school they speak of it as one 
 gentleman would tell his wrongs to another. But, in the course 
 of time, their hearts become alive to better things ; knowing how 
 low they have fallen in the scale of humanity, they desire to be 
 removed to other scenes ; and then it is that, if inducements are 
 held out to them to hope — and God knows what is the condition 
 of a human creature without hope — they would rise into the 
 dignity of man, and acknowledge the opportunity afforded to 
 them by the great goodness of Providence. I consider also that 
 much beneficial effect will be derived from the parents seeing that 
 something will be gained by the good conduct of their children. 
 Their motives must not be scanned too naiTOwly. Honourable 
 members should not judge them altogether by their own ; these 
 parents, no doubt, think more of the temporal than the moral 
 welfare of their children, and will thus be influenced by temporal 
 considerations ; it is, nevertheless, a step towards amendment, and 
 will, unquestionably, produce an extensive and healing effect. 
 
 But it may be urged, is your plan feasible ? I reply, that it is a 
 practical proposition, and beneficial alike to the condition of the 
 colonies. Hear the evidence of Mr. Cuninghame, of Port Phillip, 
 before the Lords' Committee on Emigration : 
 
 " The want of labour is by far the greatest impediment to the 
 progress of the colony, either social or pecuniary. . . . Four 
 years have now elapsed, during which there has been scarcely any 
 emigration. In the year 1844 there were about 1400 people sent 
 out ; but, with that exception, emigration has been at a standstill. 
 The result is, that not only is labour extremely dear, but it is 
 almost impossible to be got at aU. The wool is worse got up, and 
 everything but wool-growing is at a perfect standstill from want 
 of laljour. I have no doubt that from Port PhUHp alone the value 
 of the wool has been deteriorated to the value of 40,000L in 
 consequence of the deficiency of hands upon the last wool-clip 
 alone." 
 
 Further on the same witness said, — 
 
 " The colony will absorb many more than we could count upon 
 for future years. At present there is not merely a want of the 
 regular anmial supply which is demanded by the annual increase
 
 Emigration and Ragged Schools. 2-i5 
 
 of botli slieep and cattle, but there is a deficient supply of three 
 years to make uj). Many colonists have not built houses, nor 
 fenced paddocks, nor made any impi-ovements, owing to the want 
 of labour. I think that, if 8000 statute advdts were introduced 
 into Port Phillip just now, the whole of them woidd be absorbed at 
 good wages, and with abundant rations; . . . and that for 
 three or four years to come 4000 or 5000 might be received each 
 year." 
 
 I should be very glad if the Government would take these poor 
 children and transplant some of them every year. I will not 
 quarrel about the colony, for I am quite sure that imder the right 
 honoural^le baronet and the noble lord they will be f villy protected. 
 Mr. Cuninghame continued, — 
 
 " We can employ any species of labour, because shepherding is 
 not an exhausting or fatiguing operation." 
 
 Exactly the labour for these children, and it is to this kind of 
 work that I propose to send the lads who shall have exceeded their 
 fourteenth year. As to the condition of the settled emigrants, 
 the same gentleman also said, — 
 
 " Many instances have occurred of the change of labourers into 
 proprietors. I believe that, amongst steady and intelligent men 
 to set up for themselves after from five to eight years of labour is 
 the rule ; and to fail in doing so the exception." 
 
 In The Times of the 20th of May, 1848, I find the following 
 extract from a letter dated Sydney, January 8 : 
 
 " Tou must strain every nerve to send lis relief, for fully three- 
 fourths of the 5000 emigrants now coming out will be instantly 
 absorbed on landing, for domestic sei^vants in Sydney, Melbourne, 
 &c." 
 
 Observe, I do not propose to send them out under fourteen 
 years of age. I have a statement which has been made to me by 
 a gentleman who is well acquainted with the colonies. He says, 
 that for every 1000 sheep three persons at least are required, with 
 wages of 20?. a year and weekly rations of 101b. beef, 121b. of flour, 
 21b. of sugar, quarter of a lb. of tea, and a hovise ; thus at a station 
 of 5000 sheep, fifteen men and boys would be required. Taking 
 the numbers of farms and stations at 4000, and the numljer of 
 the seiwants in the bush at 12,000, this would make at each station 
 but three, not one-half of what is necessary. Three, then, to each 
 station would take at once 12,000 ; if, then, 1000 were sent annu- 
 ally, it would be to each station only one every four years. 
 
 So much for the boys. Now it is perfectly clear we could dispose 
 of females far more easily: the demand, indeed, for them as 
 domestic seiwants is so great, that a gentleman told me that when
 
 246 House of Commons, Qth June, 1848. 
 
 he quitted tlie colony, as lie came down to the shore to embark, he 
 found a young girl who had just landed ; and so eager were five 
 gentlemen to engage her as lady's maid to their wives, that she, 
 knowing how valuable her services were, refused to take less than 
 501. a year. Now these poor girls, above foui'teen years of age, 
 whom we see standing at the corners of the streets, filthy and 
 wi'etched, selling oranges, matches, and ten thousand other things, 
 many of whom come every evening to the ragged schools, would 
 be rejoiced at the opportunity of being sent to another country. 
 When the House considers that the males in Port Phillip are to 
 the females in a frightfully large proportion, how can they hesi- 
 tate to believe that, if 20,000 of these miserable and distressed 
 girls were transplanted to that settlement, they would at once be 
 disposed of to advantage ? And what does the House think is 
 the excess in England of females over males, according to the last 
 census ? No less than 358,159. With such- a disproportion, then, 
 at Port Phillip, can you doubt, if you will thus undertake the pro- 
 position I suggest, that no difficulty will be found in disposing of 
 all those young women, whom you will thus transplant from a life 
 of misery to one of happiness and honour ? 
 
 The Emigration Commissioners see no difficulty in the plan ; 
 they seem to think, so far as I am at libei-ty to quote them, that 
 the scheme is perfectly practicable, and reqiiires nothing to carry 
 it out but a hearty determination. I trust that I shall not be met 
 by an answer, that my proposition for these schools must be made 
 for every other school where the poor may be educated, and so a 
 system be begun of almost indefinite expense. In the fij-st place, 
 I have proved that these schools, and the children in them, are 
 most peculiar — peculiar in their qiiality, and requiring a peculiar 
 remedy. If you take, for instance, the whole average attendance 
 of the childi-en, which is about four thousand, and try it by the 
 scale of crime and destitution I have mentioned before, you will 
 conclude that, of that number nearly 1700 will have passed through 
 the prisons, and 1800 wiU have lost one or both parents. 
 
 In the next place, I doubt not that, in a financial point of view, 
 it is a real economy. I have here a letter from a most intelligent 
 gentleman, Mr. Smith, the governor of the prison at Edinburgh ; 
 now, attend to his words : " In compliance with the request of the 
 Committee of the Industrial School ;" and here the word " indus- 
 trial " recalls to my mind a part of our system to which I must 
 allude. We have established, in some of these schools, industrial 
 classes ; and with the happiest effect. I am strongly of opinion 
 that in every school where children are educated, who are here- 
 after to earn a livelihood by the sweat of their brow, some portion
 
 Emigration and Bagged Schools. 247 
 
 of tlie day or tlie week should be devoted to occupations of iu- 
 dustry. Now, if it be desirable for ordiuary cbUdren, it is doubly 
 so for tbose to wbom new notions must be imparted, notions that, 
 when reclaimed fi-om a lawless and wandering life, they will find 
 industry to be both beneficial and honourable. These industrial 
 classes have, in fact, obtained the greatest success ; and labour, 
 which in other situations is regarded as a penalty, is here con- 
 sidered as a recompense. In the school at Westmiuster we in- 
 culcate this both by precept and by practice; the children are 
 received naked — naked certainly, unless the beastly rags about 
 them can be dignified by the name of clothing — and they are told, 
 when furnished with the raw material, " you shall learn to make 
 yoiu- own things, and whatever you can make for yourselves shall 
 be your own;" industry is thereby greatly stimulated — they are 
 divided into tailors and shoemakers ; the tailors make clothes for 
 themselves and then for their companions, and the shoemakers 
 return the compliment. But this is Mr. Smith's letter : — "In 
 compliance with the request of the Committee of the Industrial 
 Ragged School, that I would inform them what had been the 
 effect of the schools on juvenile crime, it affords me very great 
 pleasure to say, that the number of commitments to prison, of 
 boys of 13 years old and imder, was about 50 per cent, less in the 
 three months ended March last than in the corresponding three 
 months of the last year ; and that I think this most gratifying 
 circumstance is mainly to be attributed to the influence of the 
 ragged schools.* It may be well for the public to know, that if 
 5/. a year be not paid for the education and maintenance of a 
 little boy at the ragged school, 111. a year will probably have to 
 be paid for him at the prison in Edinburgh, or 171. a year in the 
 general prison in Perth." 
 
 Is the House aware of the costliness of crime to the country ? 
 Suppose, now, you vote 20,000Z. a year for the ragged schools of 
 the metroj)oUs, or 100,000Z. a year for the same throughout the 
 whole kingdom ; and this sum, remember, will elicit 200,000Z. at 
 least in addition, from private persons, public bodies, and benevo- 
 lent societies — compare that grant of 100,000Z. a year with the 
 expenses of preventing and pimishing crime ; and see at once the 
 true economy of the proposed plan. The expense of Parkhurst 
 prison in the year 1847 was 14,349Z. ; of Pentonville, 18,307Z. The 
 total expense of prosecutions, removal, and subsistence of convicts 
 foi-merly paid out of county rates is 348,000Z. a year. I hear some 
 
 * Their establishment in Edinburgh is mainly owing to the e.xertions of the Rev. 
 Thomas Guthrie, whose pious and eloquent " Plea for Ragged t^chools," should i)e 
 in the hands of every one.
 
 248 House of Commons, Gth June, 1848. 
 
 one observe, " that item is for the punisliment of adults ;" wliy, 
 to be sure, it is ; but is it not in infancy that the seed is sown ? is 
 not the child the prototype of the man ? but I anticipated such 
 an objection, aud I put, therefore, this question to some of the 
 most experienced missionaries : " Does it frequently occur that a 
 man, having reached the age of 20 years untainted by crime 
 afterwards becomes an established delinquent ?" the answer was, 
 " Rarely ; in very few instances, except under the pressure of 
 peculiar circumstances, do persons of that age betake themselves 
 for the first time, to evil courses." It is principally in childhood 
 no doubt, that vicious habits are formed, and take root ; and it i 
 in childhood that we must hope for successful prevention. Bu 
 to return to the expense. The exj)enditure of county gaols foi 
 1846 was 157,145Z. ; of coiinty Houses of Correction, 160,841? 
 The rural police cost, in 1846, in those counties which hac 
 adopted it, 180,000Z. The metropolitan police in 1845 cos" 
 363,164?. ; these, with other items, making a total of more than i 
 million a year for the repression of crime. I do not ask for tha 
 sum towards the object I have in view ; but I am sure, that 
 you vigorously attack the whole mass of juvenile delinquency 
 the mass of adult crime will speedily be reduced in a very strikins 
 proportion. There is one item of expenditure of 9600Z. in prose 
 cutions for coining, which is worthy of attention ; for in thes- 
 cases of coining aud uttering bad money, children are almost ex 
 clusively employed. I am informed that there are more childrei 
 engaged in fabricating and uttering base coin in the large town 
 of Birmingham, Manchester, and Liverpool, as well as Londor 
 than in almost any other way in which the revenue is cheatec 
 and society injured ; and this sum of 9600L is nearly one-half c 
 all that I require for the removal of two-thirds of the entir 
 mischief ! 
 
 Sir, I have not in the statement that I have just made to th 
 House, enumerated the various cities and towns where a simily 
 condition prevails of the labouring population. Suffice it to sa; 
 that in almost every densely inhabited district, you may discov( 
 similar evils and similar consequences — tbe details and argumen 
 applicable to London are, in a great measure, applicable to Live 
 pool, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Bath, and other larj 
 cities. In many of these towns ragged schools have been set u 
 and attended with the happiest results. One only I must spec 
 because no one, in handling the subject of these schools, mii 
 pass over the one established in Aberdeen, and the admirable elicol 
 ertions of Mr. Sheriff Watson. Here is a singular proof of filpf 
 and unqualified success ! The report for 1847 concludes : " TjF
 
 Emigratmi and Magged Schools. 249 
 
 committee congratulate themselves and tlie community on the 
 lightness of theii* labours. It is a remarkable fact that juvenile 
 vagrancy has been entirely prevented, and juvenile delinquency 
 greatly diminished by the sole instrumentality of the schools of 
 industry, and the committee eai'nestly recommend the support of 
 those crime-preventing institutions to the benevolence of the 
 public. In every point of view, social, moral, and religious, they 
 are deserving of countenance ; they free the town and country of 
 an intolerable nuisance, they increase the security of proi^erty by 
 diminishing the niimber of depredators, they relieve the wants of 
 J the children of destitution, and, above all, they train these destitute 
 I ones to habits of decency and order, and inculcate that knowledge 
 which, with the blessing of God, maketh wise unto salvation." 
 
 I do not assert that such a result is practicable in the metro- 
 polis ; the surface is too large, and the population too various in 
 its character and shifting in its habits, to admit of equal success ; 
 but in proportion and degree the same issue wUl be ours ; the 
 whole that we seek may lie beyond our reach, but something at 
 least will be speedily attained. 
 
 It will be something to have rolled back the reproach from 
 London that, in the midst of almost countless wealth, abundant 
 professions and appliances of religion, with every facility, and 
 lacking nothing but the will to benefit her chikli'en, she should 
 have so long endured an exhibition of juvenile depravity and 
 suffering, unexampled in the history of any state of equal import- 
 ance and power. Should we fail to attain the summit of our 
 hopes, we shall at least have wiped out the charge of indifference 
 to such mighty duties. 
 
 It will be something to have conferred a benefit both on the 
 colonies and the mother-country, by the transplantation of thou- 
 sands of children untainted by crime, nay, more, trained in the 
 habits of industry and virtue, from places where they seemed 
 doomed to inevitable idleness, and consequently to misery and 
 sin, — the transplantation, I say, to regions in rivalry for their 
 labour, and abundant in assurances of reward. Thus they will bless 
 alike the land of their birth and the land of their adoption ; the 
 boys, rescued from pernicious vagrancy, will rejoice in the fi'uits 
 of honest labour ; and the girls, not recovered, thank God, but 
 saved altogether from prostitution, will walk in the happy and 
 /holy dignity of wives and mothers. 
 
 ', It will be something to have established a new principle of 
 .colonization ; and no longer regarding it merely as the drainage 
 of our gaols, or the outlet for the offscouriug of the feeble, the 
 mischievous, or the distressed, to hold it iip as an object of am- 
 bition, the recompense of moral exertion. Governments bear the 
 
 s
 
 250 House of Commons, (Jth June, 1848. 
 
 sword ; they may also bear tlie olive-brancli ; tbey are sent foi' 
 the piuiishment of evil-doers ; but hencef oi-ward they may obey the 
 apostolic precept, and be " for the praise of them that do well." 
 
 It will be something that the State, violating no principle, 
 trenching on no right, yielding to no compromise, and incurring 
 no unseen responsibility, will appear as resolute to prevent as to 
 chastise the commission of crime. She will anticipate the gaoler 
 and the hangman — and we, of the third and fourth generation, 
 who are suifering justly the sins of our fathers, for we have made 
 them our own, will, under God's blessing, take good care not to 
 transmit them to our own posterity. 
 
 Lastly, it will be something that, leaving the highei- and more 
 ambitious speculations of commerce and politics, we have lent an 
 open ear and a willing heart to the precepts of our common 
 Saviour — gone into the highways and hedges, and dived into the 
 foulest recesses of vice and miseiy, to rescue a host of' naked, 
 dirty, starving, and ignorant children, and drag them, in mercy, 
 to the upper world, there, by God's grace, to thrive in the light 
 and warmth of the everlasting Gospel. This will have been your 
 work; and God grant that you may have your reward, in the 
 contemiDlation of enlarged happiness, and in the hai-vest of a 
 wise, united, and contented people. 
 
 Lord Ashley, in reply, observed that the House seemed to think 
 that he had acted exclusively when he proposed only to include 
 the metropolis ; it was through extreme caution. His ol)ject was 
 to make an experiment, and supposing that experiment had suc- 
 ceeded, no doubt it would be extended. His ol)ject was to get in 
 the thin edge of the wedge, and then it was his intention to drive 
 it well up to the head. The government and many honourable 
 gentlemen had come forward in so generous a manner to support 
 the proposition, that he thought that if he attempted to divide 
 the House he should only take a hostile course, and convert into 
 enemies many who would otherwise be coadjutors ; he would 
 therefore, with the permission of the House, withdraw his motion, 
 but at the same time he would watch the government with jealous 
 care, and take the liberty, both in and out of the House, to jog 
 their memories. 
 
 The motion was then withdrawn. 
 
 Note. Subsequently a grant of fifteen hundred pounds was made by the 
 govemnient for iLe pnipose of emigration. The result was most successful 
 in all the cases selected.
 
 ( 251 ) 
 
 Emigration and Ragged Schools. 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 
 Tuesday, July 24, 1849.* 
 
 Lord Ashley rose to bring under the notice of the House the 
 state of a portion of the juvenile population of the metropolis, 
 and to move — 
 
 " That it is expedient that means be annually provided for the 
 voluntary emigration to some of Her Majesty's colonies of a 
 certain number of young persons of both sexes, who have been 
 educated in the schools ordinarily called ragged schools, in and 
 about the metropolis." 
 
 If he were asked why he had brought forward his motion at so 
 late a period of the session, he miist plead as his excuse his utter 
 lack of opportunity to lay the subject before the House, owing to 
 the interposition of other business day after day. But he never- 
 theless entertained a very strong desire that he should have it in 
 his power to do so, not only on account of those whose claims he 
 represented, but for the piu-pose of showing the House to what 
 profitable use the small grant he had obtained last session had 
 been turned, and the prospects of success their past experience 
 might encourage them to cherish. He had another reason, be- 
 sides, for pressing the siibject on the attention of the House — 
 that he was anxious to excite some interest, and perhaps dis- 
 cussion on the preventive, as contrasted with the ref ormati )ry. 
 system. Prison discipline seemed a favourite topic for all writers 
 and speakers ; and endless inquiries had been entered into with 
 respect to the separate, the solitary, and the associated system 
 of punishment, and with respect to summary jurisdiction and 
 flogging, and confinement. But he thought that there was really 
 a system preliminary to them all, and one which was economical 
 and efficient. If he could show that the preventive system was 
 not only economical and efficient, but also truly humane, he 
 * From " ilaiis;ir.l."
 
 252 House of Commons, 24<7t July, 1849. 
 
 would show enougli to rouse every well-wislier of tlie people to a 
 sense of the importance of the subject, whether viewed with 
 reference to policy or religion. 
 
 Last year he stated the number of that class whose interests he 
 then attempted to represent at 30,000. He believed that estimate 
 was very much under the mark. He then described the tempta- 
 tions to which they were exposed, and the great dangers which 
 threatened society from the existence of that class. In the 
 statement he should have to make that night, he would not be 
 able to show any great improvement in these details. Any such 
 improvement must arise from the application of another prin- 
 ciple. So long as people were left in their present sanitary state, 
 confined in courts and alleys, their dens and lurking-places — so 
 long as they were crowded together in the sties from wliich they 
 found it impossible to escape, even so long they could not hope 
 for any improvement in the social and physical condition of the 
 people. But what he wished to bring under the notice of the 
 House was the increase of schools, the improvement of the pupils, 
 and the well-grounded prospects for the future. He wished to 
 show the condition of the metropolis ; and for that purpose would 
 state the number taken into custody by the metropolitan police in 
 1847, as contrasted with the number taken into custody in 1848. 
 
 In 1847, 41,479 males were taken into custody, of whom 8,405 
 were under 20 years of age, 3,228 between 10 and 15, and 306 
 under 10. In 1848, 42,933 males were taken into custody ; of whom 
 8,776 were under 20 years of age, 3,604 between 10 and 15, and 312 
 under 10. The total increase in 1848 of males taken into custody 
 was 1,454, of whom one half was under 20 years of age. But of 
 those who had been taken into custody under 10 years of age — 
 the class which chiefly attended the ragged schools — there had 
 been an increase of only six. The whole number of males taken 
 into custody between 10 and 20, a period of ten years, was 
 12,691 ; between 25 and 50, a period of 25 years, 18,591 ; only 
 one-third more. Bvit, looking at the number of those tried and 
 convicted, there appeared a great disproportion. Between 10 and 
 20, the males tried and convicted were 1,237, whereas the males 
 tried and convicted between 25 and 50 were only 1,059. The 
 same rule prevailed in Manchester, to which he simply ref eiTed as 
 a vei'y large town, the returns being characterised by the same 
 accuracy as those for the metropolis. There were taken into 
 custody in Manchester 1.037 males between 10 and 20, and 2,157 
 between 25 and 50. But there were tried and convicted 165 
 between 10 and 20 ; 193 between 25 and 50. 
 
 Now, these returns showed the preponderating amount of
 
 Emigration and Bagged Schools. 253 
 
 jiivenilo deliuquency. They showed also the possibility of apply- 
 ing the preventive system. The crimes were perpetrated at a 
 period of life when the parties were open to the best inHuenees, 
 and were most capable of receiving permanent impressions. It 
 was also clear that the seeds of crime were sown in early life, and 
 would not, if they were then rooted out, grow up into rank 
 maturity. Being anxious to ascertain the opinions of persons 
 best acquainted with the subject, be circulated among persons 
 having the charge of ragged schools, missionaries, and others, 
 this question, " Do many adult males become criminals for the 
 first time after 20 years of age ?" From 43 committees he re- 
 ceived the answer, " Very few." One said, " A small proportion, 
 and these chiefly through drunkenness and want of employment. 
 In London, many country people, and the Irish, become criminals 
 after 20 years of age, and those chiefly from the above-mentioned 
 causes." Another said, " I should say not one in fifty." Another, 
 "I believe that among the males of the lowest classes of society 
 hardly any become criminal for the first time after 20 years of 
 age." Such were the conclusions to which those persons were 
 led, whose opinion he had sought as being most conversant with 
 the circumstances of the poorer classes. 
 
 Now, what was the condition of those to whom he wished the 
 preventive system applied ? That large class roaming over the 
 streets of London, in habits, manners, feelings, and pursuits 
 totally unlike anything with which people were acquainted in 
 ordinary life, formed a seed-plot for three-fourths of the crimes 
 of fraud and violence which prevailed in this metropolis; and 
 what he said of the metropolis he said of every great city in the 
 empire. A short time ago he was anxious to perceive with his 
 own eyes what was the condition of these people — what was the 
 state of their abodes, their lairs, their retreats for the night. He 
 and others perambulated the metropolis. They dived into its 
 recesses. The House would be sui-prised to hear what was the 
 condition in which they found those young people. Most of them 
 were living in the dry arches of houses not finished, inaccessible 
 except by an apertiire only large enough to admit the body of a 
 man. When a lantern was thrust in, six or eight, 10 or 12 
 people, might be found lying together. Of those whom they 
 found thus lodged, they invited a great number to come the 
 following day, and then an examination was instituted. The 
 number examined was 33. Their ages varied from 12 to 18, and 
 some were younger ; 24 had no parents, six had one, thi'ee had 
 stepmothers, 20 had no shirts, nine no shoes, 12 had been once 
 in prison, three twice, three four times, one eight times, and one
 
 254 House of Commons, 24:th July, 1849. 
 
 (oul}' 11 years old) 12 times. The physical condition of these 
 children was exceedingly horrible ; they were a jjrey to vermin, 
 they were troubled with itch, they were begrimed with dirt, not a 
 few were siiff'ering from sickness, and two or three days after- 
 wards two died from disease and the effects of starvation. He 
 had privately examined eight or ten. He was anxious to olitain 
 from them the truth. He examined them separately, taking them 
 into a room alone. He said, " I am going to ask you a variety of 
 questions, to which I trust you will give me true answers, and I, 
 on my part, will undertake to answer any question you may put 
 to me." They thought that a fair bargain. He put to several of 
 them the question, " How often have you slept in a bed during 
 the last three years ?" One said, perhaps 12 times, another three 
 times, another could not remember that he ever had done so. He 
 asked them how they passed the night in winter. They said, 
 " We lie eight or 10 together to keep ourselves warm." He 
 entered on the subject of their employments and modes of li^dng. 
 They fairly confessed they had no means of subsistence but 
 begging and stealing. The only way of earning a penny in a 
 legitimate way was by jjicking up old bones. But they fairly 
 acknowledged for themselves and others scattered over the town, 
 with whom they professed themselves acquainted, that they had 
 not and could not have any other means of subsistence than by 
 begging and stealing. A large proportion of these young persons 
 were at a most dangerous age for society. He had formerly met 
 one very remarkalale instance of a boy, past 17. He was struck 
 at discovering that the boy knew the French language, and asked 
 an account of his life. He said he had been in France at the 
 time of the revolution, and had fought in the barricades. He 
 and his mother had gone to Paris some four or five years ago. 
 He there got into some employment, but as the political atmo- 
 sphere became warm, he yielded to its influence, and being enticed 
 by French boys, his companions, he joined in the general warfare, 
 fought at the barricades, was taken prisoner, tried, sentenced to 
 punishment, and, at the expiration of his sentence, shipped 
 for England. There were hundreds and thousands of others in 
 London, as capable of being employed for the worst purposes as 
 the Garde Mobile of Paris. And therefore it was that, for the 
 peace of society, no less than its honour, he wou.ld direct the 
 attention of the House to the svibject. 
 
 Again, what was the moral condition of those persons ? A 
 large i^roportion of them (it was no fault of theirs) did not recog- 
 nise the distinctive rights of vicum and tuuni. Property appeared 
 to them to be only the aggregate of plunder. They held that
 
 Emigration and Haggcd ScJioaJs. 255 
 
 everytliing wliicli w;is possessed was coimuou stock; tLat he who 
 got most was the cleverest fellow, and that every one had a right 
 to abstract from that stock what he conld by his own ingeuiiity. 
 Was it matter of surprise that they entertained those notions, 
 wliich were instilled into their minds fi'om tlie time they were 
 able to creej) on all fours — that not only did they disregard all 
 the rights of property, but gloried in doing so, unless they 
 thought the avowal would bring them within the grasp of the 
 law ? To illustrate their low state of morality, and to show how 
 utterly shameless they were in speaking on these subjects, he 
 would mention what had passed at a ragged scliool to whicli U or 
 15 boys, having presented themselves on a Sunday evening, were 
 admitted as they came. They sat down and the lesson proceeded. 
 The clock struck eiglit. They all rose and went out, with tlie 
 exception of one who lagged bebind. The master took him by 
 the arm and said — " Ton miist remain, the lesson is not over." 
 The reply was, " We must go to business." The master inquired 
 wbat business ? " Why, don't you see it's eiglit o'clock. We 
 must go catch tbem as they come out of the chapels." It was 
 necessary for them, according to tbe remai'k of this boy, to go at 
 a certain time in piu'suit of theii" calling. They had no remorse 
 or shame in making the avowal, because they believed that there 
 were no other means of sa^.ing themselves from starvation. He 
 recollected a very graphic remark made by one of those children 
 in perfect simplicity, but whicli yet showed the horrors of their 
 position. The master had been pointing out to bim the teiTors 
 of punisbment in after-life. The remark of the boy was — " That 
 may be so, but I don't think it can be any worse than tbis world 
 has been to me." 
 
 Sucli was the condition of hundreds and thousands. It was 
 necessary for the peace of society that those horrors should be 
 mitigated ; but, looking to higher considerations, every one must 
 feel the duty as well as the necessity which required that means 
 should be taken to carry the knowledge of the Gospel to those 
 classes. There were two modes of dealing with those cases ; first, 
 to wait till they committed crime, then to bring them to justice, 
 and either transport them or confine them in gaol. The other 
 was to take a preventive course, and anticipate the gaoler and the 
 hangman by a system of wholesome discipline. It had been said in 
 various instances that the case was a hopeless one, and there was 
 nothing but punishment for such as these. He distrusted prison 
 discipline altogether, taken by itself alone; he had no faith in it 
 as a preventive, or as a mode generally of reforming individuals. 
 Could hon. Members fail to oljserve how prison discipline had
 
 256 House of Commons, 24//< Jtdij, 1849. 
 
 increased in severity of late years, and yet crime liad not de- 
 creased in proportion ? Nor could it decrease in prop(jrtion, 
 ueitlier would theii* prison discij^line become effective for its 
 purpose. That system niigM possibly become effective in certain 
 cases — in the cases of those who had offended in wantonness, or 
 who, on quitting gaol, had resources of their own, or friends on 
 whom to rely. But, for the great mass of those who passed 
 through the gaols, and who were afterwards discharged to re- 
 commence the struggle of ]ife, what was usually kno^vn as the 
 reformatorj^ system had no effect beyond the walls. It was not 
 his intention to question the ixtility of the institution at Penton- 
 ville, least of all whilst it had the advantage of the sei"vices of 
 the present chaialain, of whose exertions for the reformation of 
 offenders it was impossible to speak too highly. Pentonville 
 Prison had produced some remarkable and gratifying instances of 
 reformation ; but in almost all those cases the parties reformed 
 had found profitable employment in the colonies. To understand 
 how jjrison discipline failed as a reformatory system, it was only 
 necessary to reflect on the fate of a person committed to gaol. 
 In the first place, there was the long detention before trial, 
 followed in some cases l^y imprisonment after con\dction. Now, 
 it was well known that persons so circumstanced usually came 
 out of prison ten times worse than they were when they entei'ed 
 it. The testimony of those who could speak with authority was 
 conclusive upon this point. The chaplain of the Preston House 
 of CoiTectiou said — 
 
 " In 1840, I stated that, whether led astray for a moment by 
 bad companions, or assailed by ovei'powering temptations, or 
 di-iven by distress and hunger, or trained to vagaliond and thievish 
 practices, and, in all cases, with a mind totally unformed by edu- 
 cation and uninfluenced by religion, the child of 14, or 10, or even 
 eight years old, is now turned into a yard or ' day -room,' tenanted 
 by 40 or 50 older criminals. Once here, his teiTors of a prison 
 soon vanish before the levity and mei-riment of his new com- 
 panions. He finds them great objects of admiration, and many 
 are the plunderers who can relate the most attractive stories of 
 successful and daring robbery. Excited by these tales, he soon 
 becomes ambitious of imitating the heroes of them. He is 
 instructed in the arcana of the dreadful calling which he has 
 entered upon by some adept in the craft ; and thus a few weeks, 
 or even a few days before trial, have sufficed to convert the child, 
 who, until the verdict pronounced at that solemnity, was ac- 
 counted innocent in the eye of the law, into a hardened profligate, 
 
 i
 
 Emhjmi'wn and Rarjgcd Schools. 2r)7 
 
 prepared and tutored for a conrae of iniquity, and determined to 
 run it. I could f urnisli a hundred histories of misery and crime 
 springing from the pestiferous society of the untried felons' 
 ward." 
 
 It was notorious that in many of these prison yards the in- 
 mates were initiated into all the details connected with thieving. 
 It was customary to have all the characters of a thieves' drama 
 enacted by boys. This account was given by one of the young- 
 sters : " We have," said he, " after five o'clock, our time to 
 ourselves ; then there is the pickpocket, the gentleman, the lady, 
 the policeman, and the magistrate. The gentleman walks about 
 with a pocket-handkerchief hanging out of his pocket, and the 
 lady, with her chains ; they then show us the best and newest 
 way of doing the business." The chai^laiu of Pentonville Prison 
 remarked that — 
 
 " It is not possible to convey to the mind of the reader any 
 adequate idea of the extent of the corruption of mind, feeling, 
 and character, or of the completeness of the education in crime, 
 which goes on in the common gaols of the country, especially 
 before trial." 
 
 Lord Denman was of the same opinion. In his evidence given 
 before a committee of the House of Lords, his Lordship said — 
 
 " I am not reconciled to summary convictions, but I highly 
 appi'ove of frequent coiu'ts to try petty ofi'enders of all ages 
 promptly on the spot." ..." As long, however, as juvenile offen- 
 ders are mixed up in our gaols with adults, no effectual improve- 
 ment can take place." 
 
 He heartily concurred with Lord Denman in his suggestion 
 respecting the establishment of courts for the trial of petty 
 offences, and in his objection to increase summary convictions, 
 because he wished the punishment of crime to be as tedious and 
 expensive as possible, being of opinion that no remedy would be 
 applied until the gi'ievance became intolerable. Now, even on 
 the very youngest, the fear of imprisonment had oftentimes little 
 or no influence ; true it was tliat the prospect of the first im- 
 prisonment was fearful to their imaginations, and this feeling 
 would greatly aid the preventive system; bvit the second had 
 fewer terrors, and all in succession afterwards were less and less 
 apprehended. Many, indeed, of the lads sought the prison as a 
 refuge for their wants, pressed as they were by constant and 
 hopeless necessity. 
 
 He would now for a moment draw the attention of the House
 
 258 House of Commons, 24//< July, 1849. 
 
 to -what lie conceived to be the various causes of juvenile crime. 
 Their name was legion ; but the fii'st great cause was the example 
 and neglect of parents. Next came tli« various temptations to 
 which children were exjDosed. A fertile source of crime was the 
 reckless exposure in or on the outside of shops of articles of 
 value, and particularly of food, which presented an almost irre- 
 sistible temptation to hungry children. The number of penny 
 theatres was another cause of crime, and a still more fertile 
 source of evil were the casual wards. No less than 42 thieves 
 out of 150, whom he once examined, confessed that the commence- 
 ment of their career of theft was attributable to the corrupting 
 influence to which they had been exposed in the casual wards of 
 various unions. Those wards might be necessary ; but, neverthe- 
 less, it could not be denied that they tempted numbers of children 
 to leave the houses of their parents ; and, when once they quitted 
 their homes, they oftentimes never again returned to them. In 
 some cases the commission of crime might be attributed to an 
 inherent spirit of wantonness, in others it was referable to want 
 of education, in others, again, to want of employment, and in 
 many instances to a combination of both causes. In a few cases, 
 the commencement of a criminal career might be traced to op- 
 pression on the part of employers, and in some it was the result 
 of absolute want. Now, he would assert that the preventive 
 system was not only more economical, certain, and humane, but 
 that it was the only one possible. The prison had failed ; 
 criminals were not reduced in number ; or, if they were, it was by 
 the operation of means that partook more of a preventive than 
 a penal character. He would contrast the efi'ects produced by 
 the system pursued at Parkhurst and Pentonville Prison with 
 those which proceeded from the scheme which the House of 
 Commons sanctioned last year upon his recommendation. It 
 was not his intention, he repeated, to deny that both the Park- 
 burst and Pentonville establishments had done good. But he 
 wished to know in how many instances a permanently beneficial 
 effect had been produced upon persons who, ha-sdng quitted those 
 places, had returned to their old haunts, and been driven to their 
 old shifts to find employment. It was almost impossible, in the 
 circumstances of the present day, for those convicted of crime, 
 and bearing its brand on their forehead, to recover a position in 
 society when driven to their old haunts and their old companions, 
 exposed to their old temptations, and beset by their old neces- 
 sities. The story which he was about to relate to the House 
 would furnish the strongest evidence of the truth of that propo- 
 sition.
 
 Emigration and Bagged Schools. 259 
 
 In tlie course of last year lie received an invitation from 150 
 of the most notorious thieves in London, asking him to meet 
 them in some place in the Minories, and to give them his advice 
 as to the best mode by which they might extricate themselves 
 from their miserable way of life. He felt it his duty to accede to 
 the request, and went to the place appointed, where he found, 
 instead of 150, not fewer than 250 thieves assembled in a room. 
 He entered into conversation with them, and addresses were 
 made by several, the substance of which was, " We are tired of 
 our mode of living ; existence is a burden to us ; we never know, 
 from sunrise to sunset, whether we shall have a full meal, or any 
 meal ; we can get no employment — we have nothing but sorrow 
 before us ; give us your counsel as to how we shall extricate our- 
 selves from our miserable position." He replied, it was a most 
 difficult question to solve — that at the present day, so great was 
 the competition for employment, that there were always three 
 candidates for one situation— and that it was xinlikely that a 
 person who was stained by crime would be preferred to three 
 persons of untainted character. Thereupon a man rose and 
 said — 
 
 " What you say, my Lord, is most true. All in this room have 
 made attempt after attempt to get into some honest employment, 
 but we have found that our tainted characters beset us eveiywhere. 
 My own case is a proof of this. I obtained a situation, and held 
 it for five or six months. I was satisfied wdth my employer, and 
 he was perfectly satisfied with me. One day there was a knock 
 at the door ; I opened it, and in walked a ijoliceman. He asked 
 for my employer, and, when he saw him, said, ' Do you know that 
 you are employing a convicted felon ?' My employer said he was 
 not aware of it, but the policeman assured him it was the fact, 
 and then my master turned round, and dismissed me from his 
 sen^ice. Thus I was driven back to my old courses, and I declare 
 to God that the impossibility of obtaining employment compels 
 me and many others to lead the lives we do." 
 
 Now, the reformatory system might succeed with discharged crimi- 
 nals if they were not pressed by actual liecessity ; but when they 
 were placed in that position it was inefficacious, for in those cir- 
 cumstances human nature could not resist the temptation that 
 overwhelmed them. He knew of one instance of a discharged 
 offender triumphing over temptation ; but he was a man of such 
 determined character, that in order to persevere in the course of 
 reformation which he had entered on, he endured the most 
 wonderful privations — in fact, he lived the life of a martyr ; but,
 
 260 House of Commons, 24i/« Jidy, 1849. 
 
 by God's blessing, lie ultimately overcame all difficulties, and 
 was now in comfortable, nay, comparatively affluent circum- 
 stances. The scheme which the House sanctioned last year 
 had produced as much permanent advantage at an expense of 
 1,500/. as could have been derived from the system in use at 
 Parkhurst and PentonviUe at an expenditure of 150,000Z. or 
 200,000/. His scheme was to hold out a system of emigration as 
 a reward of merit to a cei-tain nvimber of children attending the 
 ragged schools. This scheme was doubly advantageous. It 
 benefited not only those who emigrated, but those who remained, 
 by inciting them to join the schools, and persevere in a course of 
 good conduct, in order to qualify themselves for the reward held 
 out. In this manner society, as well as the individual, was 
 benefited. Can the same be said of any prison results ? Has the 
 reformation of any one prisoner been the signal for others with- 
 out the walls to follow his example ? A few extracts from letters 
 wi'itten by some of the boys who had emigrated on the eve of 
 their departure from England might prove interesting to the 
 House. One boy wrote — 
 
 " I assure you, should it please God to spare my life and 
 bless my industry, it is my intention not only to remit to England 
 something for the support of ragged schools, but endeavour to 
 stir up others to do the same." 
 
 Four of the best-behaved boys were presented with a suitable 
 outfit and free passage from private sources, to the new colony 
 of Moreton Bay, in Australia. The gratitude expressed by those 
 lads, ere they embarked, was most pleasing ; and before they left 
 England, when it was clear that they would never see their bene- 
 factors again, they wrote the following letter to the com- 
 mittee : 
 
 " Gentlemen, "We could not think of leaving England without 
 expressing to you our most hearty thanks for all your care of us 
 since we were admitted into the Refuge. We thank you for our 
 protection, our education, and so worthy a master, and for our 
 food and clothing. We hope so to behave as to comfort all your 
 hearts. We may forget some we once knew ; we never can forget 
 the committee." 
 
 The following letter was addressed to him as chairman of the 
 committee for the boys by three boys who had emigrated : 
 
 "Gravesend, April 8, 1849. 
 " We write to inform you we are arrived safe at Gravesend, 
 and are quite weU. We cannot express our gratitude to your
 
 Emigration and Itagged Schools. 2G1 
 
 Lordship for yonr kindness towards us, especially when we reflect 
 on our past Hves. "When Mr. Nash took us under his care, he 
 promised he would never leave us, and he never did, but he often 
 told us to you we were indebted for ragged schools. May God 
 bless your Lordship, may God bless Mr. Nash, and every ragged- 
 school teacher ; and we Iseg one favour of you, that you will oj^en 
 more schools, such as Mr. Nash's Dormitory, at Westminster, for 
 there are many poor boys that would be veiy glad to get in them ; 
 and we do promise, through God's grace, to conduct ourselves 
 with the strictest propriety, and open a Sunday school in 
 Australia. You said you woidd pray for us, so we wiD for you, 
 every day of our lives, and tell the people in Australia what 
 kind fi'iends you are to poor boys. We are your Lordship's 
 obedient sei"vants." 
 
 Now, this was a sketch of their biography. One of the boys 
 who signed the letter Avas aged 16 ; he had long lived in a pigsty, 
 and was taken from it to the Refuge ; he had been seen seven 
 times in prison, and when rescued from his miserable position 
 was resolved to commit such a robbeiy as would entitle him to 
 the benefit of transportation. Another of the boys, aged 17, had 
 lived all his lifetime by begging and stealing ; he was connected 
 with a gang of thieves in Duck Lane, and slept under carts and 
 on the steps of doors. The third boy, aged 15, lived by begging 
 and stealing ; he had lived for days together on the rotten apples 
 in the Boi-ovigh Market. Perhaps the House would here permit 
 him to read some extracts from letters wi'itten by emigrants who 
 had arrived at Australia. A boy addressed his mother thus : 
 
 " Brisbane, Friday, December 22, 1848. 
 " Dear Mother — I write these few lines to you, hoping to find 
 you in good health, as it leaves me at present. I have arrived 
 witli safety in the colony, after a long and wearisome voyage. I 
 am in the depot now, in Brisbane. I am engaged as a shepherd, 
 or to be generally useful, to go to a ^Dlace called Wide Bay, 120 
 miles further up the bixsh. The blacks are not very wild in the 
 towTis, but they are out in the bush, where they are wild ; they 
 catch kangviroos and eat them. PaiTots and cockatoos are very 
 numei'ous here ; the natives will catch them for you, and give 
 them to you, if you give them a piece of bread or tobacco. I 
 forgot to tell you how much wages I am to receive ; it is 121. per 
 year, and my rations and washing. I am very happy at present, 
 thank God. So no more at present from your aftectionate son, 
 
 " W S ." 
 
 A similar letter had been received from a boy named Flynu, who
 
 262 House of Commons, 2ith Juhj, 1849. 
 
 went out at the same time, who had also got a phice to " mind 
 sheep," as he called it, at 121. a year, besides all his food, lodging, 
 washing, &c. Another letter was in these terms : 
 
 " Ipswich, Moreton Bay, December 26, 1848. 
 " I have a good situation as a gentleman's servant. I have 
 201. a year, board, lodging, plenty to eat and drink. I have had 
 a meiTy Christmas of it. There is j)leuty of work for everybody. 
 We were no sooner at the depot than we were all hired." 
 
 One of the girls wrote — 
 
 " I found the country better than I expected it was. I like 
 the place very much. All I wish is, that my sister Susan had 
 come out with me. . . . My dear teacher — I am happy. . . . 
 I have got a good place, for my mistress is more like a mother 
 to me. Though I am thousands of miles from you and all my 
 friends, yet you are always in my mind, and the old wall of the 
 poor- school." 
 
 Contrast the moral and social condition of these children now 
 with what it was. Those were samples of the effects produced 
 by the emigration scheme. "What had been the effect upon 
 society at large ? In order to ascertain that point, a series of 
 questions had been proposed to the committees of various ragged 
 schools in London. The questions were as follows : 
 
 " 1. Has the plan of emigration acceded to last year by the 
 government been the means of stimulating the increase of 
 schools, and the attendance and order of the ragged class ?" 
 
 The answer was unanimously " Yes." The next question was — 
 
 " To insure all the benefits that ragged schools are capable 
 of confen-ing, is it not desirable that, whei*ever possible, the 
 reformed vagrants should, either by employment or removal 
 elsewhere, be kept from returning to their old haunts and com- 
 panions ?" 
 
 The answer was the same. Then the third question was — 
 
 " Do they, in general, desire one or the other .f" 
 The answer was the same. He then asked — 
 
 " With such inducements, a fair provision of school-room, and 
 an adequate supply of proper teachers, would there be any diffi- 
 culty in obtaining the attendance of three times as many children 
 as are now receiving instruction ?" 
 
 The answer was uniformly that there would be no difficulty at 
 all. He thereupon put this question —
 
 Emigratiuni and Itajijed Schools. 2G3 
 
 " Woiikl it tlaerefore be practicable to grapple \vitlji the existing 
 race, and so greatly reduce juvenile deliuqueucy P" 
 
 The answer was imifornily " Yes." By that the House might 
 see the etfect produced on society at large by this system ; and 
 when they considered that it was produced by a sum of 1,50UZ. 
 only, he thought he had proved his point. It had effected as 
 much good as their system of prison disciijline with an expen- 
 diture of 200,000Z. In relation to this point, he was very much 
 struck by the testimony of one man who had given himseK up to 
 a vicious course of life ; he visited one of the schools, and asked 
 to be shown over it ; after seeing it he said — " I approve of this 
 very highly, and I shall subscribe a guinea a year." The answer 
 was — '• How can you do so ? we know what you are." To which 
 he replied—" It is perfectly true : I know what I am ; but if such 
 institutions as this had existed when I was a boy, I never should 
 have come to my present disgraceful condition." That was the 
 testimony of one of the greatest thieves in the metropolis. Now, 
 emigration was preferable to employment at home ; first, because 
 it abated the terrible competition of the present day; next, 
 because it removed the young jDeople far from their former 
 haui: ts and temptations, and in another view, because they were 
 thereljy relieved from the infliction of excessive labour. They 
 might depend upon it that one great cause of juvenile delin- 
 quency, where the delinquents had been in employment, was the 
 excessive toil to which they were subjected, and from which they 
 fled to dishonesty as their only resource. Two cases of that 
 excessive toil had come to his knowledge, fair specimens of the 
 whole apprentice-system. From the ragged school they had 
 apprenticed a boy to a shoemaker. He (Lord Ashley) saw him 
 the other day ; the boy made no complaint ; but, on inquiry, he 
 found that the boy began work every morning at half -past five, 
 and continued working until half -past ten at night. He said to 
 the boy — " This is pretty severe ; but I conclude you have the 
 Sunday to yourseK ?" The boy answered — " No ; only Sunday 
 afternoon, as I am kept at home to nnrse the baby." That boy 
 might resist the temptation, but 19-20ths of those who were so 
 exposed would Hee from their master's house and take themselves 
 to an evil course of life. The other case was that of a little girl, 
 who Avas also apprenticed. He found that she was engaged from 
 four o'clock in the morning until ten or eleven at night ; and so 
 fai- from having Sunday to herself, she rose on that day at half- 
 past five, and was engaged untd half -past four in washing. 
 
 He wished now to consider the ai-gniments for and against this
 
 264 House of Commons, 2Uh July, 1849. 
 
 proposition. One argument that lie liad heard against this 
 scheme was, that if they did this for the children of the metro- 
 polis, they would be called on to do the same for the children of 
 the other great towns in the country. That was perfectly true ; 
 but they might depend upon it that if they were to expend upon 
 such a project lOO.OOOL a year, they would save ten times that 
 amount in criminal prosecutions and penal expenditure. The 
 next point was, that it wovild temj)t the parents to neglect their 
 childi-en, and to abandon tlieir duty to be performed by the State. 
 He was of a different opinion. In the first place, a very large 
 proportion of those children had no parents at all. He desired 
 the House to obsei-ve that fact. In the second place, not a small 
 proportion of them were the children of convicts ; and, in the 
 third i^lace, the parents of many of the children were so poor 
 that it was next to impossible they could make any provision at 
 all for them. He would read an extract from the last report 
 published a short time ago by the London City Mission : — 
 
 " The poverty of those who avail themselves of the benefits of 
 this institution (Glasshouse Yard) is such, that the average number 
 of articles brought by each washer is less than seven, even when 
 the family apparel is included ; and the matron has frequently to 
 lend them dresses to wear while they wash those they take from 
 their backs. Their poverty is indeed such, that Mr. Bowie, a 
 surgeon in the east of London, says, ' I have seen women toiling 
 uni-emittingly to wash their own and their children's clothing, 
 who had been compelled to sell their hair to purchase food.' " 
 
 Now, would they dispose of those children by sending them to 
 the workhouse ? Let them consider the resiilt of such an arrange- 
 ment. The number of children of that class roaming about 
 London exceeded 30,000. The number of children in the unions 
 in England and Wales already amounted to 56,000 ; and if they 
 added this 30,000 to that number, they would fail in the object 
 they had in view, and throw an intolerable burden on the rate- 
 payers. But suppose they did that ; was a workhouse system of 
 education such as would give them more confidence in the success 
 of their undertaking ? He was not going to speak disparagingly 
 of the unions, many of them were most excellent, and he was sure 
 that so long as the administration of the jioor-law was under the 
 care of the right hon. gentleman the President of the Poor Law 
 Commission, everything would be done to render the manage- 
 ment of aU unions as excellent as it could be. But the result of 
 the editcation at the workhouse, when the children quitted the 
 unions, was most calamitous. Not one in fifty, he believed,
 
 Emigration and Bagged Schools, 265 
 
 occupied that situation iu life whicli they would wish it to 
 occupy, morally or socially. As a proof of that, he would read 
 the following report of the guardians of Maryleboue, which 
 appeared in the Times of the lltli of July instant : 
 
 " Hitherto the system of education," says the report, " has been 
 quite unsuccessful, which may be thus demonstrated : — From 
 July, 1840, to July, 1849, 326 female inmates, between the ages 
 of 13 and 20, have been provided with 896 sitviations from the 
 workhouse, being an average of nearly three situations to each. 
 
 '• There were 46 who left the school at the age of 13 ; 103 at 14 ; 
 72 at 15 ; 44 at 16 ; 18 at 17 ; 20 at 18 ; 12 at 19 ; 11 at 20 ; Total 
 326. Of these 89 are now leading abandoned lives ; 20 have had 
 illegitimate children that have become chargeable; 37, after 
 having had several situations and outfits, have emigrated; 10 are 
 married ; 1 passed ; 7 dead ; 10 are receiving relief either in or 
 out of the house ; 45 are supposed to be in service ; 99 nothing 
 certain is known ; 8 taken out by friends. Total 326. 
 
 " Of the boys, only one class could be traced, namely, those 
 who had been apprenticed to the captains of vessels in the 
 merchant service. From 1843 to the end 1847, 137 youths, from 
 15 to 18 years of age, left the workhouse and engaged themselves 
 in the sea service, as above described, and of these 83 returned 
 and became subsequently chargeable." 
 
 The fact was, that the workhouse system was, of all, the most 
 iU adapted for training children of that class for the seiwice to 
 which they were to be devoted ; and therefore he should hope they 
 would not think of consigning them to the workhouse, with a 
 view to advance theii" morals, or better their condition. They 
 looked, perhaps, for a remedy in the general amelioration of 
 society : they were right ; but they must wait a long time ; and 
 meanwhile they had a positive evil of gi-eat magnitude to grapple 
 with, and the question was, how they should encounter it ? "Would 
 they leave those 30,000 children as they were ? If they did, they 
 could not be surprised if they grew up in habits of fraud and 
 violence, and became the subjects of the judges and transporta- 
 tion. 
 
 Let him describe the hopeless condition of those children. 
 He had examined several of them. He asked them, did they 
 ever seek for employment ? Their answer was, " Repeatedly." 
 But let it be remembered that they were generally in an utterly 
 filthy condition, covered with vermin, with hardly any clothes to 
 their bodies, wholly unable to read or write, not having, in fact, 
 the least elements of knowledge ; and the consequence was, that 
 
 T
 
 266 House of Commons, 2Ath July, 1849. 
 
 their application for employment was met with such answers as 
 these : one would say — " How can you ask for employment in 
 this filthy state ; go and get new clothes." That was, in fact, a 
 rejection, for the wretched children had no means of getting 
 clothes, and only got their food by picking up scraps, begging, 
 and stealing. Another would ask, " Can you read or write ?" 
 The answer was, " No ;" and the reply followed, " How can you 
 come here without knowing how to read or write ?" But how 
 could the children learn, when they had no school to go to— when 
 they had no opportunity of acquiring the first principles of know- 
 ledge, sacred or profane ? How, then, obtain a subsistence .'' 
 The necessary, the inevitable consequence was, that the children 
 were driven to crime and hopeless ruin. He wished the right 
 hon. gentleman the Home Secretary would tell him how he, as 
 responsible for the peace of the country, would address himself 
 to this evil ? How would he, in his high office, attack the mis- 
 chief ? Now, what was their (the ragged- school) system ? They 
 received the children in the evening, in their rags, and at their 
 own hours. They addressed themselves to their habits, feelings, 
 and propensities, and bent themselves for a while to their iiTcgular 
 habits, until they could bend the children to their better prin- 
 ciples ; he asserted that, in no one instance, had the parents been 
 induced, by such expectations, to abandon their children. Was 
 the inducement strong enough ? Did it exonerate them from 
 the charge ? When they took the vagrants into the ragged 
 school, and held out the hope of emigi-ation, it was coupled with 
 these conditions — conditions required of every candidate for 
 emigi*ation from the government gi-ants, or from any fund under 
 the control of the Chairman of the Ragofed School Union : — 
 
 "OCi^ 
 
 '•■ Soimd health ; regular attendance for at least six months in 
 a ragged school ; the ability to write a sentence from dictation ; 
 to work the four single rules of arithmetic ; to read fluently ; to 
 repeat the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments, showing 
 a comprehension of their meaning, and answer a few simple 
 questions on the life of our Saviour. To these must be added a 
 certificate of regular attendance in some industrial class for at 
 least four months, or a competent knowledge of some handicraft, 
 or practical occupation, which would serve as an equivalent for 
 such industrial training." 
 
 Now, along with all this, the child must be maintained, and main- 
 tained too, during the process, by its parents or guardians ; they 
 must bear their share in effecting the reformation, in preserving 
 the good conduct, in supplying the necessities of the young
 
 Emigration and Bagged Schools. 267 
 
 candidates ; and, so far from being tempted to tlie crime of deser- 
 tion, they had been oftentimes themselves reformed by the 
 process. 
 
 And now. Sir, revile the system, and criticise it as they may, 
 these ragged schools have been, and are, the sole means whereby 
 religious and secular knowledge is imparted to the thousands of 
 a race sunk, whole fathoms deep, in destitution and suffering. 
 This is decidedly the opinion of that intelligent gentleman, 
 Mr. TufneU, the government inspector of schools, who was 
 engaged to examine the young pupils or candidates for emigra- 
 tion. You vote lOO.OOOL a year for the purposes of education ; 
 you might, so far as these miserables are concerned, vote one 
 hundred pence ; they cannot receive any portion of your bounty 
 — they cannot be accommodated to the system of your National 
 and Borough Road schools. What other means exist? We 
 have now 82 schools, full 8,000 children, 124 paid, and 929 volun- 
 tary teachers, of whose sei-vices I cannot speak with adequate 
 gratitude and respect. In weariness and painfulness, and with 
 every form of self-denial, they surrender themselves, body and 
 soul, to this noble cavise, hoping to excite in others a kindred 
 sympathy. But they are not successful ; the sympathy with the 
 cause is lamentably small, and especially from those who shoiild 
 be the very first in every work of charity and religion. There 
 are, thank God, some gloi-ious exceptions ; we owe much to a few 
 active laity, some pious clergy, and a munificent lady, who has, 
 alone, sustained nearly one half of our expenditure. But it is 
 manifest that we must not confide in private benevolence ; it has 
 the power, but not the will, to contend with the evil. It is then 
 to the House of Commons that we direct our attention, in the 
 hope that the Legislature will take up the duty that individuals 
 seem to reject. I can hardly appeal to your feelings, because you 
 appear to me to lie under an obligation to consider the case of 
 these desperate sufferers. " Tlieir enemies drive them into the 
 sea, and the sea throws them back upon their enemies ;" and jet 
 they are immortal spirits, as precious, body and soul, in the 
 sight of God, as the very best among us in this august assembly. 
 I commit, therefore, the issue to the repx'esentatives of the 
 kingdom, believing that they will not gainsay, by their actions, 
 what so many of them profess with their lips, when they pray 
 that " it may please God to defend and provide for the fatherless 
 children, and all that are desolate and oppressed." 
 
 Lord Ashley shortly i-eplied. He denied that he had spoken 
 disparagingly either of the discipline, or its eff'ects, of the Pai'k- 
 
 II
 
 268 House of Commons, Mth July, 1849. 
 
 hurst or Pentonville establisliments. On the contrary, he had 
 expressly stated that these institutions had produced gi-eat re- 
 formatory effects ; but they had produced these effects only in 
 those cases in which work was provided for their discharged 
 inmates in this country or in the colonies — not in the cases where 
 the convict at the close of his period of imprisonment was thrown 
 upon the world again to re-fight the great battle of life. He 
 had to complain of the statement made by the hon. Member for 
 the city of Oxford, who had just sat down, which was in fact 
 quite a peiwersion of what he (Lord Ashley) had wished to con- 
 vey. He had never pi'aised the ragged schools because no dis- 
 cipline was maintained in them. What he had said was, that at 
 the outset the habits of the children were so wild and lawless 
 that no discipline could be presei'ved, for, say the first fortnight 
 or three weeks. But he had added, that the general result was, 
 that the children were soon tamed down, and brought under 
 re,gular habits of discipline, and he could answer for it that, in a 
 vast majority of cases, the scholars of ragged schools were as 
 orderly, as attentive, and as much attached to their masters as 
 were the pupils of 19-20ths of the British and Foreign or the 
 Borough Road schools. As he saw that there was a strong feeling 
 in the House against the proposition which he had submitted to 
 them, he felt that it would be indecorous in him to press it to a 
 division ; and he woiild, therefore, without further trespassing 
 on the time of the House, at once withdraw his motion. 
 The motion was then, by leave, withdrawn.
 
 269 
 
 Lodging-houses for the Working Classes. 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 
 April 8, 1851.* 
 
 Speech on moving for leave to bring in a Bill to Encourage the Establishment ol 
 Lodging-houses for the Working Classes. 
 
 Lord Ashley had now to bring under the consideration of the 
 House a subject very homely in appearance after the stirring 
 questions that had so lately agitated the public mind, but one 
 which he thought he should be able to show was of vital import- 
 ance to large classes of the community. Twenty years ago it 
 would have been necessary to state many principles, and lu-ge 
 many arguments ; but now he believed it was necessary merely 
 to state the evil and indicate the remedy ; he wished simply to lay 
 before the House the experience of himseK and others in regard 
 to the subject — ^one which he had studied for several years, and 
 in reference to which he could say that a very great existing evil, 
 pressing upon a large portion of the labouring commxinity might 
 be removed, and that without establishing institutions of an 
 eleemosynary character. 
 
 He would first call the attention of the House to the condition of 
 a large part of this urban population, looking upon it as stationary 
 and as migratory. To begin with what might be called the station- 
 ary population, those who were living in hovises, not removing every 
 week or night by night from one lodging-house to another, but 
 permanently settled. A return made in 1842 gave the following 
 result of a house-to-house visitation in St. George's, Hanover 
 Square, reported to the Statistical Society : — 1,465 families of the 
 labouring classes were found to have for their residence only 
 2,174 rooms ; of these families 929 had btit one room for the 
 whole family to reside in, 408 had two rooms, 94 had three, 17 
 four, 8 five, 4 six, 1 seven, 1 eight ; the remaining three families 
 were returned " not ascertained." If this was so in one of the 
 best parishes in London, what must be the condition of the over- 
 * From " Hansard."
 
 270 House of Commons, 8th April, 1851. 
 
 populous and more needy parishes in tlie east of London ? Now, 
 this return said nothing of the condition of a gi-eat many of the 
 residences of the working people, in which there was not one 
 family in a room, hut two families, three, four, and, as he had 
 himself seen, five ; four occupying the corners, and the fifth the 
 middle of the room. To look first at the moral aspect of the 
 subject. In these rooms there were grown-iip persons, male and 
 female, of different families, or the same family, all living to- 
 gether ; in these rooms every function of nature was performed. 
 How could decency be preseiwed? Education was impossible; 
 pernicious example was ever before the child. Who could wonder 
 that in these receptacles nine-tenths of the great crimes, the 
 burglaries, and murders, and violence, that desolated society, were 
 conceived and hatched ? Or, if the physical state of these people 
 were considered, what must be the condition of dwellings with 
 8. 10, 20, or 25 persons, or even more, living in a single room ? 
 Nothing produced so evil an effect upon the sanitary condition of 
 the jDopulation as overcrowding within limited spaces : and if 
 people were in a low sanitary condition, it was absolutely impos- 
 sible to raise them to a just moral elevation. Their genei^al state 
 of health and capacity for work reduced, they must be brought 
 upon the parish and the general charity of the community. 
 Here was a very remarkable statement of the evils of a system 
 existing now over the sui-face of this metropolis and all oui- 
 large towns ; it was an exemplification of the effects of living 
 in a crowded atmosphere. In the report of the London Fever 
 Hospital for 1845, of one particular room in an establishment it 
 was said — 
 
 " It is filled to excess every night, but on particular occasions 
 commonly 50, sometimes from 90 to 100 men are crowded into 
 a room 33 feet 9 inches long, 20 feet wide, and 7 feet high in 
 the centre. . . . The whole of this dormitory does not allow more 
 space, that is, does not admit of a larger bulk of aii- for respira- 
 tion, than is appropriated in the wards of the Fever Hospital for 
 three patients." 
 
 What was the consequence? Why, that considerably more 
 than one-fifth part of the whole admissions into the Fever Hospi- 
 tal for that year— no less than 130 patients afi"ected with fever- 
 were received from that one room alone. The experience of the 
 Board of Health went to the same point. The horrible desolation 
 in the children's infirmary at Tooting was found to arise princi- 
 pally from enormous numbers being crowded in small ill-venti- 
 lated apai-tments. A similar case occurred, about the same time, 
 in Hackney, in a charitable institution whei-e the parties were
 
 Lodging-houses for the Woi-^mg Classes. 271 
 
 well cared for, well fed, well warmed, well clothed, surrounded by 
 a district in which there was not one death ; and yet the mortality 
 in that establishment amounted to no less than 10 or 15 per cent, 
 of the inmates, simply because they were put in ill-ventilated and 
 closely-crowded ai^artments. Such was the condition of the 
 stationary population : this was what might be seen by any one 
 who would take a walk into the more crowded parts of the 
 metropolis. How was it with the migratory population — those 
 who flitted from one lodging-house to another, and were per- 
 petually moving ? Here was a report made by one of the city 
 missionaries : 
 
 " In my district is a house containing eight rooms, which 
 are all let sej^arately to individuals who furnish and re-let 
 them. The parlour measures 18 ft. by 10 ft. Beds are ar- 
 ranged on each side of the room, composed of straw, shavings, 
 rags, &c. In this one room slept, on the night previous to my 
 inquiry, 27 male and female adiilts, 31 children, and two or three 
 dogs, making in all 58 human beings breathing the contaminated 
 atmosphere of a close room. In the top room of the same house, 
 measuring 12 ft. by 10 ft., there are six beds, and, on the same 
 night, there slept in them 32 human beings, aU breathing the 
 pestiferous air of a hole not fit to keep swine in. The beds are 
 so close together that, when let down on the floor, there is no 
 room to pass between them ; and they who sleep in the beds 
 furthest from the door can. consequently, only get into them by 
 crawling over the beds which are nearer the door. In one dis- 
 trict alone there are 270 such rooms." 
 
 The statement went on to say — 
 
 " These houses are never cleaned or ventilated ; they literally 
 swarm with vermin. It is almost impossible to breathe. Mis- 
 sionaries are seized with vomiting or fainting upon entering 
 them. ' I have felt,' said another, • the vermin dropping on my 
 hat like peas. In some of the rooms I dare not sit, or I should 
 be at once covered.' " 
 
 These were some of the worst instances. But, though they 
 were the worst instances, it must be recollected that these houses 
 were the receptacles of thousands. He hoped the House Avould 
 forgive his going into these details, because the conclusion he 
 desired to enforce was not to be proved by argumentation, but 
 by an induction of facts, the collection of which was the result 
 of much inquiry and long investigation. He was sony to say 
 the state of things he had described was not confined to London. 
 It prevailed in many parts of the kingdom, and in almost all the 
 great towns. The following was an extract from a report of
 
 272 House of Commons, Stfi April, 1851. 
 
 Mr. Rawlinson, an inspector of the Board of Healtli, being a 
 communication from a clergyman in Dover : 
 
 " From a ministerial experience of thirteen years, first in a 
 parish of 7,000 souls, then in a parish of 20,000, and now in a 
 parish of 10,000, I am perfectly satisfied of the close connection 
 subsisting between the sanitary and moral condition of our poorer 
 classes. At Fidham, Maidstone, and Dover, I found, without any 
 exception, the worst demoralization in the worst constituted 
 dwellings and neighbourhoods, the one being traceable from the 
 other directly as effect from cause. I affinn, in conscience, that 
 to raise them while they live in such places and under such cir- 
 cumstances as they do now, is impossible. No sense of decency 
 or self-respect can struggle against the difiictilty ; and the chief 
 force of our pastoral ministi'ations is rendered nugatory. I may 
 add, that I have veiy rarely met with a parish priest, accustomed 
 to minister in a large town, who has not fully felt the same con- 
 viction. The relieving officer for Charlton stated — ' There are 
 650 houses, or rather substitutes for houses — hovels. The whole 
 parish is one receptacle for filth. In reference to Barwick's 
 Alley, where there are about fifty separate small huts, built in 
 steps, one over the other, against a steep hill- side, there are but 
 three privies attached, and there is only one very dirty draw-well 
 to supply the whole neighbourhood with water. The horrid state 
 of this alley is beyond description.' " 
 
 Birmingham was in the same condition; so were Manchester 
 and Leeds. He could make that statement from his own personal 
 expeiience, having examined Manchester from one end to the 
 other. Morpeth was worth mentioning, because, being a small 
 town, it afforded a very fair sample of what occui-red even in small 
 places. Of these, there was scarcely one in the kingdom where a 
 measure of the kind he proposed ought not to be brought into 
 operation. Looking to Morpeth, the inspector said — 
 
 "In Lumsden's Lane I found lodging-houses dirty and crowded, 
 one of which was over a large ashpit, the same where the woman 
 had died of cholera. At the head of Lumsden's Yard there are 
 also open middens and privies, the drains from which pass under 
 the adjoining cottages." 
 
 And he went on to describe a place caUed Bell's Yard. He pro- 
 ceeded : 
 
 " This state of things sun-ounds the poor inhabitants with a- 
 surface of visible filth, and also keeps them in an atmosphere 
 of foul gases, where the seeds of disease most readily ripen. 
 Fever, according to the medical evidence, is almost constant in
 
 Lodging-houses for the Working Classes. 273 
 
 these places ; and cliolera, as shown, is first developed in such 
 rooms as that over the privy and ashpit situated in Lumsdeu's 
 Lane. This undue crowding is as destructive to the property as 
 to the health of the poor inhabitants. The wet and damp retained 
 by the middens generate rot, and the surface tilth is trodden into 
 the houses, the cleansing of which is consequently neglected, and 
 the result is rapid decay. If a labouring man is compelled, for 
 want of better accommodation, to reside in such tenements, he 
 loses bis health, loses his labour*, and the owner cannot obtain 
 payment from a family reduced to pauperism, and so he loses his 
 rent." 
 
 Such was a state of things which was frequently found to exist, 
 and hear the consequences. A labouring man came to a town where 
 employment was to be had when he was in the prime of life, from 
 25 to 35, and capable of making 15s., 20s., or 25s. a week. It was 
 necessary he should take a lodging near the place where his work 
 was carried on. The tenements he had to choose from were many 
 of them in ill-drained, ill-ventilated neighbourhoods, and of the 
 filthy description already mentioned. From these, however, he was 
 compelled to make his selection. What was the result ? The 
 result, as api^eared from the testimony of city missionaries and 
 ministers of all denominations, was that of hundreds and hun- 
 dreds of these men, who came in the prime of life to a town in 
 search of employment, it was found, ere long, that their health 
 was broken down, that they came on the parish, that they sank 
 into the grave, and that they left their wives and families a per- 
 manent burden on the community. Now, the following graphic 
 description of the lodging-houses in Morpeth was furnished by 
 the town-clerk : 
 
 " The table will show the narrow space afforded to each, 
 but it can give no idea of the actual state of the rooms, 
 or the scenes they exhibit. Those that offer beds have these 
 articles of luxury filled with as many as can possibly lie upon 
 them. Others find berths below the beds, and then the vacant 
 spaces on the floor are occupied. Among these is a tub filled 
 with vomit and natural evacuations. Other houses have no beds, 
 but their occupiers are packed upon the floor in rows, the head of 
 one being close to the feet of another. Each body is placed so 
 close to its neighbour as not to leave sufficient space upon which 
 to set a foot. The occupants are entirely naked, excejit nags 
 drawn up as far as the waist ; and when to this is added that the 
 doors and windows are carefully closed, and that there is not the 
 least distinction of sex, but men, women, and children lie indis- 
 criminately side by side, some faint idea may be formed of the
 
 274 House of Commons, 8tJi April, 1851. 
 
 state of these places, and their effect upon health, morals, and 
 decency. Fevers prevail, and the sick ward of the workhouse is 
 filled with typhus in its worst form from these places." 
 
 A gentleman, who had taken a great interest in the examination 
 of towns, with a view of obtaining some remedy for the existing 
 evils, gave an account of a part of Leeds, in which he stated that 
 in a yard he inspected— 
 
 " was a house containing one room, with one bed in it, and no 
 fewer than eight persons were found occupying it. In the same 
 yard was another house, comprising two rooms, and containing 
 three beds, and 31 persons were occupying them, giving an average 
 of more than 10 persons to each bed. In that yard there were 
 several other houses, in which three, four, or five persons occupied 
 each bed. In a semicircle, drawn in a radius of about a quarter 
 of a mile, they found 222 such lodging-houses." 
 
 What wonder, then, that typhus fever greatly prevailed? that the 
 medical officers reported that it mainly had its origin in the low 
 lodging-houses of the town ? Again, another from Bradford 
 writes : 
 
 " In some of these cellar- dwellings, of about four yards square, 
 there were collected sometimes 20 persons, some in beds, some 
 on the floor ; some naked men and women together : children 
 with the smallpox in the midst of them. One of these lodging- 
 house keei)ers had been fined a few days before for having 
 taken in so many. ' Sir,' said he, ' what is to be done with these 
 people? there are not houses for them; can I let them lie in the 
 sti-eet ?' ' I am told,' said his informant, ' that supposing Brad- 
 ford to contain 60.000 people, at least one-fourth are at this 
 moment thus lodged.' " 
 
 He should mention only one other place in London, with the 
 purpose of showdng the absolute necessity that existed for some 
 remedy similar to that which he contemplated ; because it was 
 right that the House should know the effect that clearances and 
 alterations, made with the view of beautifying the metropolis, 
 had on the accommodation of the working classes. When the 
 great thoroughfare of New Oxford Street was opened, a great 
 number of wi-etched dwellings were cleared away, and no provision 
 was made for the accommodation of those inhabitants who were 
 displaced, so that while the formation of that street added to the 
 beauty of the town, it had the effect of exaggerating the evil that 
 pressed on the humbler classes. There wis a district in Blooms- 
 bury called Church Lane, one of the filthiest that existed in the 
 metropolis, and one of the most unsafe to visit, from the constant
 
 Lodijing-houses for the Worl-in^/ Classes. 275 
 
 prevalence of fever. It was examined in 1848 by the Statistical 
 Society, whose committee stated in their report that it pre- 
 sented — 
 
 " a picture in detail of human wretchedness, filth, and brutal 
 degradation. In these wi-etched dwellings, all ages and both 
 sexes, fathers and daughters, mothers and sons, grown-up brothers 
 and sisters, the sick, dying, and dead, are herded together. Take 
 an instance: House No. 2, size of room 14 feet long, 13 feet 
 broad, 6 feet high ; rent 8.'?. for two i-ooms per week — under- rent, 
 od. a night for each adult. Number of families, 3; 8 males 
 above 20 ; 5 females above 20 ; 4 males under 20 ; 5 females under 
 20 ; total, 22 souls. Landlady receives 18s. a week ; thus a clear 
 profit of 10s. State of rooms filthy." 
 
 Now, the average number of persons in each house in Church Lane 
 was 24, in 1841 ; but when an examination took place in the end 
 of 1847 the average was 40 persons to each house ; and he desired 
 particidarly to direct the attention of the House to the fact that 
 the parties who had swelled those nvimbers were people displaced 
 along that line of street occupied now as New Oxford Street, 
 displaced in consequence of the formation and beaittifying of that 
 thoroughfare. When great improvements were in pi'ogress it 
 was a matter for consideration whether provision ought not to be 
 made for the accommodation of those removed, not only for their 
 own sakes, but for the sake of the community, who were exposed 
 to peculiar danger from the confluence of many persons int(» 
 places which fostered typhus and cholera. Now, to give a siini- 
 mary of the state of the country, he would mention that the 
 inspectors of the Board of Health had examined 161 populous 
 places, the aggregate population being 1,912,599 ; and he might 
 safely say that, without exception, one uniform statement was 
 made with respect to the domiciliary condition of large masses of 
 the workpeople — that it was of one and the same disgusting 
 character. 
 
 It was therefore to meet such a state of things that he asked 
 leave to bring in a biU which should be as nearly as possible a 
 transcript of the Baths and Washhouses BiU. That measure had 
 not been fully worked out in all respects, as he trusted it would 
 be ; it was coming slowly into operation ; but where it had been 
 applied it had confen-ed a boon on the people, of which the 
 benefits were incalculable. The provisions of the bill he now 
 asked leave to bring in would be — 1, That the act might be 
 adopted in certain boroughs and parishes ; 2, that the council of 
 any borough might adopt the act, the expenses to be charged on 
 boi'ough funds; 3, that on reqiiisition of ten ratepayers, church-
 
 276 House of Commons, 8th April, 1851. 
 
 wardens luigLt convene a vestry to determine whetlier the act 
 should be adopted, but the resokitions would not be deemed earned 
 unless two-thirds voted for it ; 4, that, when the act was adopted, 
 the vestry should appoint commissioners for carrying the same 
 into execution ; 5, that the overseers levy, as part of the poor rate, 
 such sums as the vestry should deem necessary ; 6, that vestries 
 of two or more parishes might concur ; 7, that town councils and 
 commissioners might erect lodging-houses, or adapt buildings, or 
 purchase existing houses ; 8, that if lodging-houses were con- 
 sidered unnecessary, or too expensive, they might be sold with 
 the approval of the Treasury; 9, that the coiincil and com- 
 missioners might make by-laws, subject to the approval of the 
 Secretary of State, and also fix charges, subject to an appeal to 
 the Poor Law Board ; and, 10, which was a necessary provision, 
 that no person receiving parochial relief should be allowed to be 
 a tenant. This bill he proposed to be altogether permissive, and 
 not compulsory ; it was desirable to follow, in this respect, the 
 precedent of the baths and washhouses. 
 
 He might now state from some experience of the model lodging- 
 houses what good effects they had produced. Nothing was more 
 remarkable than the cheerfulness with which the rents were paid. 
 By an accurate or rigorous system, by not allowing rents to fall 
 into arrear, the greatest punctuality was observed, equally bene- 
 ficial to the parties who let and the parties who paid. Another 
 advantage was the freedom from disease. There was a very 
 remarkable statement by Dr. Duncan, an officer of the Board of 
 Health, writing from Liverpool, with reference to the effect which 
 even a registration of lodging-houses had attained : — 
 
 " In a certain number of registered lodging-houses, the history 
 of which has been traced, there occurred annually, before re- 
 gistration, which involves supervision, prevention of overcrowd- 
 ing, and attention to cleanliness, 150 cases of fever. During the 
 late epidemic there occurred in these houses only 98 cases of 
 cholera, while the total cholera cases in the town were to the 
 fever cases of the i)receding years refeiTed to as two to one. So 
 that cholera after registration was only in the proportion of one 
 to three as compared with fever before registration." 
 
 The Model Lodging-house in George Street, Bloomsbury, was 
 within a stone's throw of Church Lane. The ravages of cholera 
 in Church Lane were dreadful ; in the model buildings in George 
 Street, Bloomsbury, not one person died, and there was only one 
 case of diarrhcea, which speedily yielded to medical treatment. 
 There was another benefit. The wages the people earned they 
 kept. These were not expended on medical relief or the beershop-
 
 Lodging-houses for the Worling Classes. 277 
 
 The accommodation offered in these houses held ont iudiiceiiients 
 to remain at home; the possibility of cultivating some of the 
 better part of man had been the means of reforming many iu 
 these establishments. These parties said, " The wages we earn 
 we now keep." It was impossible to go among them without 
 hearing the liveliest expressions of gratitude. One who visited 
 the Model Lodging-house in Streatham Street would see the 
 advantage to children, who had a large open space for play, in- 
 stead of running in the streets and forming evil associations. 
 Some objections had been stated to the system. First, it was 
 said an increase of rent was a consequence which working people 
 would not be able to bear. Assuming an increase, he was con- 
 %dnced they would be able to bear it. from the greater health they 
 enjoyed, and the greater activity and diligence they would be able 
 to bestow on their work. In many instances a working man was 
 calculated to lose by sickness about 30 days in a year. At Is. 6(1. 
 each day, the loss would be 21. 5s., which was a vast deal more than 
 any increase of rent for superior accommodation. He would sny. 
 besides, there was no increase of rent, but a diminution, and with 
 that an adequate profit. It was stated that — 
 
 " The average rent paid in Snow's Rents, Westminster, ' a vile 
 place,' was, in 1844, 2s. 4 2d. per week per room. The people em- 
 ployed in the docks pay from Is. 6d. to 3s. per week for single 
 rooms, which for filth and disgusting appearance were such 
 wretched hovels as" defied giving a fair description of them. The 
 single men j^ay in the lodging-houses Is. Gd. per week for half 
 a bed, and 2s. for single beds, several sleeping in the same room, 
 wanting in comfort, cleanliness, &c." 
 
 Another statement was, that the apartments rented by the 
 London Dock labourers were at 2s. to 4s., the average being 3s. 
 per week per room. Another person said — 
 
 " As near as I can judge, the average price paid -pev week for 
 the wretched rooms occupied by the lowest poor in the vilest 
 neighbourhoods is about 2s. 6d. To make up this rent the apart- 
 ments are crowded to the greatest excess." 
 
 What was the rent in the model lodging-houses ? In George 
 Street, Bloomsbury, every man had a compartment to himself, 
 with a bed, chair, and space for all necessary movements. For 
 that compai-tment he paid 4cZ. a night, exactly the same payment 
 demanded from him in the worst and most disgusting locality. 
 That house yielded a clear profit of 6j per cent, on the numey 
 invested. Then houses of three rooms, with every accommodation 
 and a constant supply of water, were given at a i-ent equal to that 
 f^xacted for one room elsewhere. The rent varied, according to
 
 278 House of Commons, 8t7i April, 1851. 
 
 the position of the rooms, from 3s. Qd. to 7s. An artisan, with 
 25s. to 30s. a week, might take a house at Qs. or 7s. ; those making 
 less, a honse at 4s. ; but they received every accommodation for 
 the same sum that they paid for one disgusting room, which often 
 had to be shared with another. Then it was said these matters 
 ought to be left to private speculation. He shoidd much object 
 to that. Private speculation was very much confined to the 
 construction of the smallest houses of the lowest possible descrip- 
 tion, because it was out of those the most inordinate profits could 
 be made. Private speculation was almost entirely in that 
 direction. Then private speculators would not imdertake these 
 houses, for to make the lodging-house system work well there 
 must be constant and vigilant superintendence. Again, at that 
 particular time there were many advantages for the construction 
 of model lodging-houses. First, the reduction of the duty on 
 bricks had greatly facilitated the ojierations. It was a reduction 
 of 15 per cent, to the consumer. On the entire cost of the house 
 in Streatham Street it was about 3 per cent. ; but when the hollow 
 brick was brought into use for houses of moderate size, a saving 
 would be eftected of no less than 25 per cent. He wished also to 
 bear testimony to the great value of reduction of the window 
 duty, and wished the Chancellor of the Exchequer were present 
 to hear the result of the experience obtained by those interested 
 in the model lodging-houses. The Streatham Street house con- 
 tained suites of apartments for fifty families. If these suites were 
 separate dwellings, there would be no window tax; but, being 
 under one roof, window tax might be demanded to the amount of 
 between 60Z. and 70?. a year, adding 25s. a year to the rent of 
 each set of apartments. The removal of the window duty would 
 permit a redviction of rent from 7s. to Qs. Qd., and so on. 
 
 Now, the present proposition violated no principle. These 
 houses were self-supporting. What had been the result of some 
 years' experience ? The Society for Improving the Condition of 
 the Laboui-ing Classes had expended 20,750Z. in building and 
 fitting up these new piles of "model houses, and 2,250Z. in improv- 
 ing, adapting, and fitting up these ranges of old dwellings, 
 making together an expenditure of 23.000Z. The net return on 
 the same, after deducting all incidental expenses, including those 
 of management and ordinary repairs, averaged 6 per cent. ; or on 
 new buildings, 51 per cent.; on old, 12 per cent. They had kept 
 one house as a curiosity, and as an illustration of the exorbitancy 
 and intolerable profits levied by the low lodging-houses. It was 
 a small house, on which the profit was not less than 30 per cent. 
 There could be no doubt that, from many of the houses a much 
 liU'ger profit was obtained. By the removal, too, of single houses
 
 Lodging-houses for the Worldng Classes. 27 1) 
 
 in some localities, much might be done to promote a better 
 cii'culation of air, and improve an entire district at a very cheap 
 rate. It would, moreover, be very desirable to remove impedi- 
 ments in the way of associations to be formed with limited 
 liabilities ; but the expense of a charter was now an insuperable 
 obstacle to the foi-mation of all societies. 
 
 He was anxious the House shoidd take up a matter which had 
 excited the interest of all civilized Europe ; from parts of which, 
 as well as from America, letters had been received, asking for the 
 plans and reports on the subject. He was certain that he spoke 
 the truth — and a truth which would be confirmed by the testimony 
 of all experienced persons, clergy, medical men. all who were 
 conversant with the working classes — that, until their domiciliary 
 condition were Christianised (he could use no less forcible a term), 
 aU hope of moral or social improvement was utterly vain. Though 
 not the sole, it was one of the prime sources of the evils that beset 
 their condition; it generated disease, ruined whole families by 
 the intemperance it promoted, cut off or crippled thousands in 
 the vigour of life, and filled the workhouses with widows and 
 orphans. 
 
 Let this be taken as a proof : in the time of cholera, in the 
 Model Lodging-house in St. Pancras there were 500 persons 
 under one roof. In a small court, called Peahen Court, in 
 Bishopsgate Street, there resided 150 persons. Mr. Grainger, 
 the inspector, went over that court, and reported to the com- 
 mittee that, if the cholera did break out there, the consequences 
 would be frightful. Three days afterwards the cholera broke out 
 on that spot. In the Model Lodging-house not a single person 
 died of cholera. In Peahen Court there were 7 deaths; and in 
 one day 12 orphans were thrown on the workhouse. He found 
 that the number of widowers, widows, and orphans, in 95 unions 
 caused by the cholera was — widowers and widows, 628 ; orphans, 
 1,689; total, 2,317. In Bradford there were 27 widowers and 
 widows, and 82 orphans ; total, 109 ; in Leeds, 35 widowers and 
 widows, and 73 orphans, 108 ; Lambeth, 81 widowers and widows, 
 and 234 orphans, 315; West Bromwich. 34 widowers and widows, 
 and 86 orphans, 110; Wolverhampton, 27 widowers and -wddows, 
 and 68 orphans, 95 ; and most of these became i^ermauently 
 chargeable on the workhouse. But what cholera did suddenly 
 and openly, fever did slowly and secretly. The cholera slew its 
 thousands, but fever its tens of thousands ; and, if they doubted 
 the fact they might have full evidence of it, within ten minutes' 
 walk of the magnificent palace that was now being built for the 
 Houses of Parliament. 
 
 His prayer was, for leave to bring in a bill to remove some of
 
 280 Mouse of Commons, 8th Ajjril, 1851. 
 
 the fatal impediments that prevented the free exercise of tLe 
 activity and vigour of the working classes. They had never 
 sufficiently tested either the will or the capacity of those classes, 
 who, from a variety of circumstances, had been placed in a con- 
 dition very disadvantageous indeed to the exercise of all their 
 energies. He saw no reason why the working people of this 
 country should not equal, if not surpass, in physical prosperity 
 their brethren of the United States. Their wages were enormous, 
 but their expenditure, in a great measure owing to their sanitary 
 condition, was wild and extravagant. Mr. Porter, of the Board 
 of Trade, had pviblished a work some time ago, called Self-imposed 
 Taxation, and in that work he said that the expenditui*e of the 
 working classes in this realm, in the consumption of three articles 
 that might be abstained from entirely, or in a great degree, 
 namely, spirits, beer, and tobacco, amounted to not less than 
 57,000.000Z. a year. Imagine that sum expended in wholesome 
 food, clothing, education, and the improvement of dwellings ; and 
 could any one say that the moral, social, political, and religious 
 condition of a responsible and immortal being would not be 
 exalted in the scale of society ? He could not believe they would 
 fail in their efforts. He felt assured that God would bless such 
 efforts, directed, as they would be, to the advancement of the 
 social, moral, and religious well-l^eing of a very large portion of 
 the human race. 
 
 He desired to add the closing remark, that it must be well borne 
 in mind that it was as necessary to pull down as to build : if these 
 foul and dark receptacles were left standing when their inmates 
 were removed, thousands arriving in London from the country, 
 or from other parts of the city, would flow into them, and per- 
 petuate the vice and wretchedness which disgraced and endangered 
 these localities. 
 
 Lord Ashley a few days afterwards introduced a bill for the registration 
 and inspection of common lodging-houses — houses where individuals or 
 families were received l)y the night. It was accepted without any pre- 
 liminary remarks, it being generally known and acknowledged that the 
 state of them, both morally and physically, was most pernicious. 
 
 Both bills passed into laws — the first, being limited by the House of 
 Commons to towns of a population of 10,000, has been adopted in one place 
 only, in Huddersfield. 
 
 The other has been very operative throughout the kingdom, and hns 
 received the amplest testimony from the police and medical men in every 
 district.
 
 ( 281 ) 
 
 Religioufi Liberty in Turkey. 
 
 HOUSE OF LOEDS, 
 
 Friday, March 10, 1854. 
 
 My Lords, 
 
 A few days ago tliere appeared, in tlie public papers, a 
 document purporting to be a manifesto from the Emperor 
 Nicolas, wbicli contained this portentous statement : " England 
 and France have sided with the enemies of Christianity against 
 Russia combating for the orthodox faith." 
 
 My Lords, it is not sui-prising that all should feel such an 
 imputation as this, nor out of place here that some notice should 
 be taken of it. England and Europe demand an explanation ; 
 and those who have been called to bear a part in the administra- 
 tion of the religious societies of this country and the Continent 
 can give, and are prepared to give, a most direct contradiction to 
 the assertions of the Czar ; and dropping, in this case, the term 
 " enemies " or " friends " of Christianity, and looking only to 
 the results, we will undertake to prove that Turkey has of late 
 done eveiything to advance, and Russia everything to retard, the 
 progress of Christianity among the nations of mankind. 
 
 But first a word as to these famous negotiations. I do not 
 believe that, from the very outset, there was on the Russian part 
 a particle or an atom of sincerity. If my noble friend, the 
 Secretaay of State for Foreign Affairs, had been an angel of light, 
 he would not have been able to bring the negotiations to any 
 other issue ; the predominant desire in the mind of the Czar was 
 the absolute, thoiigh vii-tnal, rule over the Turkish empire. 
 This is manifest in his arrogant assi;mption of a jiersonal right 
 of protection of the Christians in the East, and in his haughty 
 rejection of the efficient protectorate offered by the four powers ; 
 a most ample guarantee, if protection to the Christians had been 
 his only object of solicitude. That this was evident to my noble 
 
 u
 
 282 House of Lords, 10th March, 1854. 
 
 friend after the production of the Menschitoff note, may be 
 inf eiTed from the tone and style of the despatches which followed 
 it ; documents which, I must say, have confeiTcd no small honour 
 on the government, and have added not only to the dignity, but 
 to the literature of the country. 
 
 Now, my Lords, the Emperor of Russia is not the first man' 
 who laid to our charge the imputation of an unholy alliance with 
 infidels and Mussulmans. He took it at second hand from an 
 accomplished Member of the other House, merely adding, by way 
 of a cordial to himself, that he was combating " in defence of the 
 orthodox faith !" It is really astonishing that a gentleman of the 
 sagacity and knowledge of Mr. Cobden should have regarded 
 this question as though an alliance of Mahometans and Christians 
 were a thing unprecedented in Christian annals. He talked as if 
 the histoi'y of India had never been either written or read ; as 
 though we had never formed, as though we were not actually 
 executing now, aUiances offensive and defensive with heathen 
 powers in those countries ; and as though we had not been allied, 
 not very long ago, with these same Mahometan Turks to recover 
 possession of Egypt. My Lords, there is a wide diffei'ence between 
 an alliance with any power, heathen though it be, to maintain 
 the cause of right, justice, and order, against the aggTCSsions 
 even of professing Christians, and an alliance for the development 
 and aggrandizement of that power. Law, order, and justice, are 
 things so sacred in the eye of God, that they must be respected, 
 whoever be the recipients of them. It is not a question here, 
 whether the Turks, as siich, shall continue to reign at Constanti- 
 nople ; it is no question here, whether we shall uphold a Mussul- 
 man empire, as they say, " in its dotage :" Turkey is the battle- 
 field, and the Turks the objects of these great principles. But 
 the true question at issue is, whether we shall assert the rights of 
 a ^weaker state, maintain the independence of nations, and en- 
 deavour to assign a limit to the encroachments of a power that 
 seems bent to darken all that is light, and subjugate all that is 
 free, among the nations of mankind. 
 
 My Lords, — I have no particular sympathies or antipathies for 
 either of the parties engaged in this straggle. I wish that we 
 were well rid of them both — that the Russians were di-iven to the 
 north of Ai-changel, the Turks to the east of the Euphi-ates ; but 
 since we are compelled to make a choice ; since we must declare 
 for either one or the other — let us see whether there are no 
 alleviating circumstances in the course we have adopted ; whether 
 we have not judged rightly to prefer, as I most heartily do, the 
 Turkish to the Russian autocrat — the autocrat that has granted
 
 BeUgious Liberty in Turkey. 283 
 
 such great facilities to tlie advancement of Cliristianity and civi- 
 lization — to the autocrat who denies them in his own dominions, 
 and who would deny them stiU more fiercely should he ever 
 become, by our neglect, the master of those noble provinces that 
 he so ardently covets. 
 
 My Lords, — It is my deliberate conviction that this is a long- 
 conceived and gigantic scheme, determined on years ago, and 
 now to be executed, for the prevention of all religious freedom, 
 and so ultimately of all civil freedom, among millions of man- 
 kind. 
 
 But fii'st allow me, in a few words, to describe the gradual 
 growth, during the last twenty years, of wealth, intelligence, and 
 civilization among the Christians of Turkey. I do not deny that 
 there have been occasional outbreaks of Mussulman bigotry, but 
 they have been local, not general ; the result of some momentary 
 fanaticism, and not authorized, nay, controlled, by the govern- 
 ment. The tmth is that the great enemy of the Christian in 
 these countries is not the Turk, but the Christian himself. A 
 very large proportion of the torture, the spoliation, the imprison- 
 ment that has taken place, has been inflicted by Christians upon 
 Christians, and principally stimulated by the Greek priesthood, 
 with the view of retaining dominion over the laity of their flocks. 
 But to proceed — I desire to show the progress of the last twenty 
 yeai'S. Fii-st, the difi'usion of the Scriptures during that time 
 has, been almost incredible. Now, whatever may be the private 
 opinions of any one with regard to the Bible, no one will gainsay 
 this assertion — that the difi'usion of it has ever been the precursor 
 of lasting civilization and free institutions. Whei-ever the Bible 
 has free course, and is freely admitted into the minds of men, 
 there you will be sure to see the development of knowledge, of 
 progress, and of wider and nobler aspirations. 
 
 It was stated last year, in a speech by Mr, Layard, in the 
 House of Commons (and the statement has since been confirmed 
 by the American missionaries), that there are more than forty 
 towns and villages in Turkey (subsequent inquiry has raised 
 them to fifty) in which there are distinct congregations of 
 Protestant seceders from the Greek communion. I use the 
 term " Protestant," because it is a term of their own choosing ; 
 I should have preferred their other designation. Gospel Readers, 
 because we should therel^y have avoided an apparent admixture of 
 the Roman Catholic question — there is, however, here nothing of 
 the sort. 
 
 There are, besides, among the Armenians, both in the capital 
 and in the provinces, a large multitude heartily disposed to the
 
 284 House of Lords, 10th March, 1854. 
 
 new doctrines, and waiting only for opportunity or protection to 
 stand openly among the seceders. Twenty-five years ago not a 
 single Protestant conld be found among all the natives ; and 
 now there are more than sixty-five regular Protestant teachers in 
 Turkey, and fom-teen Protestant schools in Constantinople alone ! 
 What then was the consequence of all this ? — improvement in 
 social and moral position ; vigorous desire among the laity to 
 emancipate themselves from the thraldom of the priesthood ; 
 much resistance by the hierarchy ; and, thank God, much success 
 with the people ! 
 
 Now to what is it all ascribable ? I affirm, to the singular and 
 unprecedented liberality of the Tui-kish system : free scope is 
 there jiermitted to every religious movement; no hindrance is 
 ever experienced except from the Greek or the Armenian superior 
 clergy. Not only in Constantinoj)le, but in all the provinces, 
 associations for religious purposes are openly recognized and per- 
 mitted. Printing-presses exist at Constantinople, at Bucharest, 
 and other great towns, where we print the Scriptures in every 
 Oriental tongue, including the Turkish, for circulation among 
 the Turkish people. There are forty depots for the sale of the 
 Bible in Turkey ; and at this moment we have a host of colpor- 
 teui's and native agents perambulating the provinces, reading 
 the Word, and distributing the Scriptures, " no man forbidding 
 them." 
 
 Now contrast this with what is permitted or prohibited in 
 Russia, and draw your inference as to what we have to expect 
 should these awakening provinces fall under the dark and drowsy 
 rule of the Czar. No associations for religious purposes are 
 tolerated in Russia; — no printing-presses are permitted for 
 printing the Bible in modern Russ, the only language understood 
 by the jDcople ! — no versions of the Scriptures are allowed to cross 
 the frontier excej)t the German, Fi-ench, Italian, and English. 
 Not a single copy, I repeat, of the Bible in the modern Russ, iu 
 the vernacular tongue, can gain access into that vast empii-e ; and 
 it is Ijelieved, on the best evidence, that not a single copy has been 
 IDrinted, even in Russia, since 1823, in the tongue spoken by the 
 people ! No colporteurs, of course, nor native agents to enlighten 
 the gloomy provinces; no depots for the sale of the Scriptures; 
 no possible access to the Word of God ! 
 
 But here is a restriction which seems incomprehensible. The 
 Emperor has within his dominions a concentrated population of 
 Hebrews, amounting to nearly two millions : — not a single copy 
 of the Scriptures in the Hebrew tongue is allowed to enter Poland 
 for the benefit of this people. I am told that this is refused
 
 Beligious Liberty in Turkey. 285 
 
 with even greater severity than the importation of the modem Russ. 
 I called it incomprehensible, but on reflection it is not so : it 
 springs from his fear of the smallest particle of light and life on 
 the feelings and faculties of men, and especially this energetic 
 and wonderful race. But if this be so ; if this be the spirit that 
 governs the Emperor in his own dominions, do you think that he 
 will manifest a different spirit should he once, by right of con- 
 quest, get iDossession of these regions, in which he discerns the 
 dawn of liberty and the rights of conscience ? I cannot doubt, 
 and no one can doubt, that so far as lies in man, the rising 
 provinces of Turkey would he crushed to the level of the internal 
 pro-vinces of Ru.ssia !" 
 
 But Russia and this " orthodox faith " are not more favoiir- 
 able to missions, — not missions, be it remarked, to disturb the 
 Gi'eek Church, — but missions to the wild and ignorant heathen 
 of her own dominions, the outskirting provinces of her own 
 empire, where the people are sunk in idolatry and the grossest 
 darkness. Even thither no missionary is permitted to go ; and 
 to this hour we believe that no mission has been sent from the 
 Greek Church to supply the places of the expelled foreigners. 
 How methodical, how systematic is all this ! The Moravian 
 Brethren — and yoiu* Lordships know well the order, decency, 
 discipline, and vital Christianity of this admirable body — the 
 Moravian Brethren laboured for many years among the Calmuc 
 Tartars between the Black and Caspian Seas. About three 
 hu.ndi'ed converts had been gathered together, but the mis- 
 sionaries were forbidden to baptize any one of them, on the 
 gi'ound of an old law of the Church that " no heathen under 
 Russian sway shall be converted to Christianity and baptized 
 Ijut by the Russian Greek clergy." This mission was therefore 
 abandoned. 
 
 The Scottish Missionary Society began a mission in Russian 
 Tartary in 1802 — their operations were widely extended. A 
 Mahommedan convert of high standing was baptized by the 
 missionaries, upon which the authorities commenced a series of 
 vexatious restrictions and annoyances, which compelled the 
 society to relinquish its operations, and, after more than twenty 
 years' labour, and a large expenditure, to withdraw just at the 
 time they were beginning to reap some little fruit of their 
 exertions. 
 
 The Basle Missionary Society opened a mission among the 
 Tartars, on the confines of Persia, and laboured first in the 
 Persian dominions. Meeting with opposition there, they removed 
 into the Russian ten'itory about 1823, where they continued
 
 286 House of Lords, lOtJi March, 1854. 
 
 about ten years, until they received orders to quit tlie imperial 
 domains, and the missionaries retired to other fields of labour. 
 
 The London Missionary Society undertook a mission in Siberia, 
 on the frontiers of Chinese Tartary. They were countenanced hj 
 the Emperor Alexander (mark this, for we shall soon see a con- 
 trast between the Czars), and joined by several Russian mission- 
 aries. But in the year 1841, after twenty years' expense and toil, 
 this mission was suppressed, by an order from the Russian 
 synod ; this mission, on the frontiers of China, at the extremities 
 of the empire, to the veriest heathen in the midst of darkness, 
 ignorance, and vice, was suppressed, on the liberal and Christian 
 ground, that "the mission, in relation to that form of Chris- 
 tianity already established in the Russian empire, did not coin- 
 cide with the views of the church and the government !" 
 
 Now, in contrast with all this, take the course and policy of the 
 Turkish government. It has given fuU liberty — and it has 
 observed what it has given — to Christian missionaries of Europe 
 and America, whether Protestant or Roman Catholic, to cany on 
 theii" operations to any extent, by preaching, by the circulation 
 of the Scriptures, by printing establishments, by living agencies ; 
 it has issued edicts of toleration ; it has announced its will to 
 protect eveiy one in the exercise of that religion which he may 
 conscientiously profess. I say again, as I said at the outset, that 
 we have nothing to do with the motives of these powers : it may 
 be bigotry on the part of the Russian ; it may be indifference on 
 the part of the Turk — I look only to the resu.lts ; and there you 
 have every facility on the one side, and every obstacle on the other, 
 to the progi-ess of all that is good, and worthy, and desirable, 
 for the human race. 
 
 What then, my Lords, was the issue ? A great development of 
 knowledge and liberal sentiment, enlarged hopes and aspirations 
 of the Christian population ; but redoubled violence and persecu- 
 tions by the clergy against the laity, backed by the Russian 
 consuls. Here are samples of the character and conduct of the 
 Greek priests ! " In Turkey, the dignitaries of the Greek or 
 orthodox Church (the ' orthodox faith ' of the Imperial manifesto) 
 exercise, in some degree, the powers of civil magistrates. The 
 abuses of the Greek hierarchy," said Lord Stratford, " as well in 
 the exercise of civil authority, as in the management of tem- 
 poralities, are notorious." 
 
 This shows the character of the Greek Church in Turkey ; and, 
 to understand it well, there is no necessity to read more than 
 the correspondence relating to the condition of Protestants or 
 Seceders in Turkey, from 1841 to 1851. The letters of 1844, from
 
 Eeliijiotts LiberUj in Turkey. 287 
 
 Consul Wood, bimself, I believe, a Roman Catliolic, speak with 
 indignation of the cnielty and intrigues of tbe Greek clergy ; and 
 he adds these significant words : — " The Russian consul-general 
 of Beyrout has sent his dragoman to the aitthorities of Damascus 
 to persuade them to assist the Greek Patriarch in recovering his 
 flock !" 
 
 Other instances follow. Mr. Wellesley wi-ote to Lord Palmer- 
 ston in 1846 — " The promises of the Armenian Patriarch, that the 
 penalties should not aiFect the civil rights of the seceders, have 
 been viola.ted. They are falsely accused of crimes, charged with 
 imaginary debts, turned out of their houses. The Patriarch 
 possesses the right of banishing any Armenian from one part of 
 the Sirltan's dominions to the other." 
 
 This is the state of things which the Emperor of Russia is 
 determined, if it be possible, to perpetuate over the whole body of 
 the laity in communion with the Greek Church. We trace, step 
 by step, the efforts of Lord Stratford, then Sir Stratford Canning, 
 to obtain for the Christians of the East liberty of conscience and 
 independence of action ; and we trace also, step by step, the 
 interposition of the Russian government to prevent such con- 
 cessions. The records of the Foreign Office are full of such facts. 
 I do not ask my noble friend to rise and confirm what I say, but I 
 defy him to contradict me. 
 
 Now, the disposition of the Riissian government began princi- 
 pally to be manifested in 1844. In that year the Consul Wood 
 wrote to Lord Aberdeen : — " The menaces of the Russian consul- 
 general, siipported by the unreseiwed declaration that he would 
 protest against every proceeding which tended to the encourage- 
 ment of the professing Christian Protestants, coupled with the 
 subtle intrigues of the Patriarch, &c. &c." On this Lord Aber- 
 deen, wi'iting to Sir Stratford Canning, says, — " As the Russian 
 government have expressed an earnest desire that the English 
 authorities should be instructed to abstain from taking any 
 part in the conversion of members of the Greek Church to 
 the Protestant faith, ... I have conveyed to the Russian 
 government an equally explicit desire that the Russian consul- 
 general should be restrained in his over-zealous exertions in 
 favour of his co-religionists in Syi'ia." This is veiy good : here 
 we have the testimony of the noljle Earl, then at the head of 
 Foreign Affairs, to the vexatious, persecuting, intermeddling 
 activity of the agents of the Czar to harass the Greek laity. 
 
 The papers then proceed to detail the efforts of successive 
 British ministers to procure the public recognition and protection 
 of the Protestant Seceders from the Armenian Church at Con-
 
 288 Eouse of Lords, 10th March, 1854. 
 
 stantinople, and for all tHe Protestants. The first step is a single 
 sentence in a general proclamation ; " Metropolitans and digni- 
 taries shall not use force or injustice to their co-nationals ;" then 
 follow cases of oppression given in detail, in many of which the 
 Patriarch is the chief agent. Lord Aberdeen again declares that 
 " remonstrances must be made against religious persecution ;" 
 the Armenian Patriarch promises to protect the Protestants at 
 Hasbeya from violence, and breaks his promise. Lord Palmerston 
 then takes up the correspondance, and transmits to Constantinople 
 a memorial from the Free Church of Scotland, and j)uts the 
 question wholly on the rights of conscience. The Honourable 
 Mr. Wellesley writes to Lord Palmerston, and recounts the 
 violence stiU perpetrated against the Protestants — by whom ? by 
 the Turks ? — no such thing : by the Christians, by the clergy, by 
 the bishops and archbishops themselves. " It is true," he says, 
 " that Sir Stratford Canning, before his departure, obtained the 
 promise of the Armenian Patriarch that the penalties attending 
 excommunication should be limited to the spiritual condemnation, 
 and should not affect the civil rights of those who came under its 
 ban. Yet not only is this promise constantly violated, but other 
 means of annoyance have been found." Mr. Wellesley proceeds 
 and suggests the " incorporation " of the Protestants for their 
 protection. He points out, however, the difiicxilty which would 
 inevitably arise in obtaining such a measure — and what is that ? 
 — ^why, these are his own words, " the fear of offending the 
 Russian government " — this ever -watchful defender of the " ortho- 
 dox faith !" Lord Palmerston, nevertheless, continued to urge on 
 the minister at Constantinople a perseverance in the measures 
 proposed. 
 
 Next comes a memorandum from the Turkish Minister for 
 Foreign Affairs, affirming these principles ; then Lord Cowley 
 obtains a vizierial order of toleration. Lord Palmerston trans- 
 mitted a copy to the late Ai-chbishop of Canterbury and the 
 Bishop of London, who acknowledged it, as well they might, 
 " with great satisfaction;" the Bishop of London terming it " a 
 valuable concession to the rights of conscience !" To be sure it 
 was ; but when have we received such a boon from Russia ? 
 When has Christianity been thus set free in the Muscovite 
 dominions ? 
 
 But here is the climax ; here is the final jDoint of aggravation ! 
 Sir Stratford Canning obtains a charter of Protestant rights, 
 under the signature of the Sultan, which he thus characterizes : — 
 " Religioiis liberty, and exemption from civil vexations on account 
 o£ religion, are now secured to all the Protestant community ;
 
 Bcligmis Liberty in TurTcey. 289 
 
 and the example of its members may, with God's blessing, 
 operate favourably on the relaxed morals of the Greek and 
 Armenian clergy." 
 
 Allow me, now, a few words to show what led to this happy 
 issue — this charter of the liberties of the Eastern Christians. 
 
 " In the latter part of January of the year 184G, the fvdl vials 
 of hierarchal vengeance were poured out upon the heads of the 
 defenceless men and women in the Armenian Church who chose 
 to obey God rather than man. They were summoned, says the 
 narrator, before the Patriarch, one by one, and peremptorily 
 oi'dered to subscribe their names to a creed, which had been pre- 
 pared for the i^iirpose, on pain of the ten-ible anathema, with all 
 its barbarous consequences. In the course of a week or so they 
 were ejected from their shops and their business ; men, women, 
 and children, without regard to circumstances, were compelled to 
 leave their habitations, sometimes in the middle of the night, and 
 go forth into the streets, not knowing whither they should go, or 
 where they shoidd find shelter. The bakers were prohibited 
 from furnishing them with bread, and the water-caiTiers with 
 water. Parents were forced by the Patriarch to cast out even 
 their own children who adhered to the Gospel, and to disinherit 
 them." 
 
 What. I ask, could the fanatical Turks have done worse than 
 this ? But it proceeds : — " The Patriarch and his party resorted 
 to every species of oppression :" they had, it appears, neither pity 
 nor scruple ; lack of power, but no lack of wUl, to decapitate their 
 co-nationals. The brethren were reviled, spit upon, and stoned : 
 some were cast into prison, and anathemas sounded against all 
 for several Sundays throughout the churches. 
 
 " It was at this crisis," continues the narrative, " that the bitter- 
 ness of persecution was aiTested, from a quarter whence such an 
 interference might have been least expected. The Turkish 
 government interposed to stay the tempest of ecclesiastical fury, 
 and protected the incipient reformation. The Armenian Patriarch, 
 summoned before Redshid Pasha, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
 was charged by him to desist from his oppressive course." By whose 
 influence was this ? By the influence of Sir Stratford Canning, 
 whose noble and persevering efforts, the writer affirms, to secure in 
 Turkey liberty of conscience, are above all praise. " It matters not 
 with him," says Dr. Dwight, the American missionary, " by what 
 name the victim of persecution is ciilled, or to what nation or deno- 
 mination he belongs — whether he be Jew or Greek, Mahommedan, 
 Armenian, or Roman Catholic. This noble philanthroj^ist is always 
 ready to fly to his relief, and his influence is very great. The Lord
 
 290 House of Lords, 10th March, 1854. 
 
 has used liim (be justly continues) as an instrument in bringing 
 about as great clianges in tbis land as we bave ever seen in any pai-t 
 of tbe world ; and tbe recognition of tbe principle by tbis govern- 
 ment, tbat Protestant Rayas can live in tbis country, and pursue 
 tbeir lawful callings, and at tbe same time worsbip God according 
 to tbe dictates of tbeir conscience, is not among tbe least of tbese 
 cbanges." 
 
 My Lords, — I sbould be sorry to mention tbe American 
 missionaries in tbe East w^tbout uttering a passing word of 
 respect and admiration for tbeir most noble exertions. Wbatever 
 may arise bereafter for tbe benefit of tbe Oriental Cbristians, 
 a very large portion of tbe bonour, and I trust, too, a very large 
 portion of tbe bappiness, will fall to tbe lot of tbose praiseworthy 
 men, our missionary brethren from tbe United States. 
 
 " From tbis period," tbe narrative concludes, " tbe principle of 
 toleration in connection with tbe Tui-kisb government has been 
 steadily advancing. Tbe Sultan, in a speech delivered at Adrianople 
 during tbe year 1846, openly declared tbat difference in religion 
 is a matter that concerns only tbe consciences of men, and has 
 nothing to do with tbeir civil position." 
 
 Tbe exertions of Sir Stratford Canning were unceasing, and 
 they reached at last tbeir grand consummation. He obtained 
 from the Sultan an imperial firman, whereby tbe Protestants were 
 placed on tbe footing of tbe ancient established Christian commu- 
 nities. All previous documents bad been vizierial, only local and 
 temporary in tbeir appHcation ; but tbis Charter of Protestants is 
 imperial, and stamped with tbe Sultan's cypher. 
 Hear its important words : — 
 
 " To my Vizir, Mohammed Pasha, Prefect of tbe Police in 
 Constantinople. 
 
 " When tbis sublime and august mandate reaches you, let it be 
 known tbat hitherto those of my Christian subjects who have 
 embraced the Protestant faith have suffered much inconvenience 
 and distress. But in necessary accordance with my imperial com- 
 passion, which is tbe support of all, and which is manifested to all 
 classes of my subjects, it is contrary to my imperial pleasure that 
 any one class of them should be exposed to suffering. 
 
 " As, therefore, by reason of tbeir faith, the al)Ove-mentioned 
 are already a separate community, it is my royal compassionate 
 will that, for tbe facilitating tbe conducting of tbeir affairs, and 
 tbat they may obtain ease and quiet and safety, a faithful and 
 trustworthy person from among themselves, and by their own 
 selection" — mark tbe words — " sbould be appointed, with tbe title 
 of ' Agent of the Protestants,' and that be sbould be in relations
 
 Bditjious Liberty in Turkey. 291 
 
 with tlie Prefecture of the Police." My Lords, liere is at once 
 emancipation from the political power and tyi-anny of their 
 priests ! emancipation from the power and influence of Russia, 
 whose instruments they are ! — a recognized status, a recognized 
 independence, a declaration and assurance of the rights of con- 
 science ! The grant was indeed of indescribable importance. 
 
 But it goes fui-ther, and adds practice to principle : " You will 
 not," says the document, " permit anything to be required of 
 them, in the name of fee, or on other pretences, for marriage- 
 licences or registration. Tou will see to it, that, like the other 
 communities of the empire, in all their affairs, such as procuring 
 cemeteries and places of worship, they should have every facility 
 and every needed assistance. You will not permit that any of 
 the other communities shall in any way interfere with their 
 edifices, or with their worldly matters or concerns, or, in short, 
 with any of their affairs, either secular or religious, that thus 
 they may be free to exercise the usages of their faith. 
 
 "And it is enjoined upon you not to allow them to be 
 molested an iota in these particulars, or in any others ; and that 
 all attention and perseverance be put in requisition to maintain 
 them in quiet and security. And," — now, my Lords, attend to 
 this, — " in case of necessity, they shall be free to tnahe reiyresentations 
 regarding their affairs through their agent to the Sublime Parte." 
 
 They have, therefore, a distinct agent, an officer, a represen- 
 tative selected by themselves, to carry their grievances to the 
 very fountain of authority. Thus the political power of the 
 priest was crushed, and with it the hopes and machinations of 
 Russia ! 
 
 Here then is the whole truth ; the secret of the whole move- 
 ment ! the origin and the object of the Emi^eror's fears ! The 
 danger had become imminent ; the thing was creeping from 
 under his hand. The circulation of the Scriptures, the growth of 
 Christianity, the rights of conscience, are the resistless prelimi- 
 naries to freedom of institutions ; these i)rovinces are conter- 
 minous to his own ; no quarantine, no cordon sanitaii-e was of any 
 avail — and how, then, put out the light that had begun to burn 
 so brightly ? Nothing was left for him but the Menschikoff note, 
 and the imperious proposal of the " status quo ab antiquo." And 
 why "ab antiquo?" why these simple words, apparently so natural 
 and so harmless ? Because, had the Sultan been entrapped by 
 this demand, had he yielded but a hair's breadth to menace or 
 persuasion, then at one fell swoop would have been cancelled 
 every effort of the British ambassador for twenty years; the 
 decree of Redshid Pasha, the firman of the Sultan ; the inde-
 
 292 House of Lm-ds, 10th March, 1854. 
 
 pendent position of the Seceders annulled, the rights of conscience 
 subdued, and the whole mass of the Greek laity thrown hack 
 under the thraldom of the priestly tools of the autocrat of 
 Russia. 
 
 Do we wonder now, my Lords, at the imperial hatred of Lord 
 Stratford de Redcliffe ? do we wonder at the Nesselrode calum- 
 nies ? Has not that great and good man, year by year, and day 
 by day, dogged the steps of Russian tyranny ? has he not de- 
 tected their plans, and enabled us to expose this colossal con- 
 spiracy against the nascent civil and religious liberties of the 
 faii-est portions of the habitable globe, and of fourteen millions 
 of the human race ? 
 
 That these are the sentiments of the reigning Emperor, and 
 this his policy, may be gathered from a brief comparison of 
 himself with his predecessor. The Emperor Alexander was a 
 veiy different man ; and those who read the history of the two 
 wiU speedily perceive the difference. The Emperor Alexander 
 did all in his power to repress the bigotry of the Greek Church ; 
 the Emperor Nicholas has done, and is doing, all in his power 
 to stimulate it for political purposes and his own aggi^andisement. 
 In the reign of the Emperor Alexander, there was the most free, 
 unfettered action for the labours of the Bible Society, as much 
 as even in England itself. The Emperor gave his personal 
 sanction and aid to it. He issued an order that all letters on 
 the business of the society, as well as the Bibles and Testaments, 
 should be transmitted, free of charge, to every part of the 
 empii'e. 
 
 He gave, moreover, a house; and added fifteen thousand roubles 
 for the expenses of adaptation to the pui-poses of the society. 
 
 He formed the Moscow Bible Society, and announced it in this 
 most remarkable passage — remarkable for any man, but singularly 
 so from one of his great power and station : — " I consider," he 
 said, "the establishment of Bible Societies in Russia, in most 
 parts of Europe, and in other parts of the globe, and the very 
 great progress these institutions have made in disseminating the 
 word of God, not merely among Christians, but also among 
 heathens and Mahometans, as a peculiar display of the mercy 
 and grace of God to the human race. On this account I have 
 taken on myself the denomination of a member of the Bible 
 Society ; and I will render it every possible assistance, in order 
 that the beneficent light of revelation may be shed among all 
 nations subject to my sceptre!" These are great and glorious 
 sentiments. 
 
 He died ; and in 1826 the Emperor Nicolas ascended the
 
 Beligious Liberty in Turl-ey. 293 
 
 throne ; and wbat did he then do ? — He suppressed, by an ukase, 
 the Russian Bible Society with all its branches; suppressed every 
 privilege granted to religious societies ; and brought back that 
 Cimmerian darkness o£ the human intellect and the human heart 
 that he seems to prize so highly. 
 
 Has Turkey, I ask, done anything of the sort ? Has she not, 
 my Lords, in the last twenty years, allowed more to the progi'ess 
 of liberty and truth, than Russia, in the whole of the famous nine 
 hundred years that the Emperor boasts as the present age of the 
 alliance between the Sclavonic nations and the Greek Communion ? 
 Undoubtedly she has ; and this inference cannot be gainsaid — 
 that, if the Sultan had been less liberal towards freedom of reli- 
 gion, less considerate of the rights of conscience, there woxild have 
 been no Menschikoff note, and no invasion of the Principalities. 
 
 But now, my Lords, though these are not the matters for which 
 we undertake the war, we may rejoice that we are not engaged in 
 upholding a state of things adverse to all amelioration, and sub- 
 versive of all liberty and truth. I ti-ust that out of our present 
 policy we may extract some good to be felt to the latest genera- 
 tion — I trust, nay, I am quite sure, that my noble friend, the 
 Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, will complete what in his 
 despatches he has so admirably begun, and support Lord Stratford 
 in the largest demands for the civil and religious rights of the 
 Christians in the Ottoman empire. I trust that this country, 
 lookiug to a prosperous issue of the conflict, will consider the 
 basis of a lasting peace, how best it can restrain inordinate 
 ambition, assist the independence of weaker states, and dam up 
 the floods of barbarism. The forbearance and reluctance, my 
 Lords, manifested by the allied powei's of France and England in 
 all their strength, have conferred incalculable service on the 
 present cause, and on the hopes of expanding civilization. It has 
 secured you the sympathies of the country, the sympathies of 
 Europe, and the sympathies, too, of that people with whom I tmst 
 we shall ever be allied — our brethren in the United States ! It 
 has done much to prevent the recurrence of such an evil ; it has 
 shown that war is a solemn, fearful thing ; and that, while per- 
 mitted to us in our fallen state, it may be resorted to only in the 
 last extremity — not in the gratification of passion or revenge — 
 but as a deliberate act, to assert the rights and liberties of men 
 and nations. Seeing then, my Lords, that we have entered on 
 this conflict in no spirit of ambition, covetousness, or pride, but 
 for our own defence, and in the maintenance of great principles 
 which concern alike all the races of mankind, let us have no fear 
 for the issue ; but, ofi"ering a humble and hearty prayer to
 
 294 House of Lords, 10th March, 1854. 
 
 Almiglity God, let us devoutly trust that His aid will not be 
 wanting to bless our arms with success, and a speedy peace, in 
 this just and inevitable quarrel. 
 
 The newspapers of the 11th, the day following the delivery of this 
 speech, contained this remarkable passage, from the St, Petersburg 
 Journal of 18th February : — 
 
 " Since the year 1829, his Majesty has followed with earnest attention 
 the march of events in Turkey. The Emperor could not close his eyes to 
 the consequences of changes which, one by one, have been introduced into 
 that state. Old Turkey has disappeared since the Turkish government 
 has sought to plant institutions diametrically opposed to the genius of 
 Islamism, and to the character and customs of Mahometans — institutions, 
 more or less copied from the type of modem liberalism." 
 
 The object of his policy is hereby manifested. 
 
 I
 
 ( 295 ) 
 
 Young Mens Christian Association. 
 
 Manchester, Tuesday, March 25, 1856. 
 
 Delivered at the Tenth Annual Meeting of the Jilanchester Young Men's Christian 
 Association. 
 
 The Earl of Shaftesbury, who presided, said : Ladies and gentle- 
 men, and young men of Mancliester, — It is a matter, I assure 
 you, of mucli gratification to me, that I may present myself 
 to you without the formality of an introduction, for, although 
 not connected with this great city, I am, I believe, no stranger to 
 you — having been connected at various times with many of its 
 most impoi-tant interests. I feel, therefore, a very peculiar 
 pleasure in coming before you on the present occasion to take 
 the chair, and join with you in thanks to Almighty God for the 
 signal prosperity with which He has blessed the Young Men's 
 Christian Association of this great city of Manchester. 
 
 Now, I win begin by rejoicing with you, not only in the prosperity 
 of the institution we now commemorate, but in the wide ex- 
 tension and difi'usion of similar associations in London, and in 
 almost all the great towns of this vast empire. And I rejoice 
 because these institutions are singularly adapted to the exigencies 
 of the times; nay, I may say that they are indispensable to the wants 
 of the age in which we live. Not that they are to be regarded as in 
 themselves suflicient, or as the only indispensable institutions, be- 
 cause I have had experience enough — and so have you had experi- 
 ence enough — to know that every succeeding day requires many 
 and various agencies to bear upon the great mass of evil that sur- 
 rounds us, and to enable us to address ourselves to the great 
 amount of duty that requires our interposition : and to suppose 
 that any one association, or any one department of effort could 
 stand alone without the combination and assistance of all the 
 rest, is as if the mouth should say that it did not need the 
 eye, or the arm say it did not need the co-operation of the
 
 296 3IancJiester, 25th March, 1856. 
 
 foot. We must be banded togetber, and give tbe rigbt band 
 of fellowsbip to all wbo, in different careei's, are addressing 
 tbemselves to tbe same objects as ourselves ; for, wben you bave 
 all strained your utmost energies, to tbe last gasp of your effort, 
 tbe work will be stUl incomplete, and tbere will still be an in- 
 credible amount of labour to be performed. 
 
 But tbat tbe importance of tbese institutions is in barmony witb 
 tbe cbaracter and exigencies of tbe time in wbicb we live, must be 
 manifest to all wbo consider tbe purpose for wbicb tbey were 
 founded. Are tbey not for tbe purpose of bringing witbin tbe 
 pale of morality and Cbristian knowledge tbe thousands — I migbt 
 say tbe tens of thousands, ay, I believe tbe hundreds of thovisands 
 — of tbe young men of the British empire ; — young men wbo are 
 to be hereafter our capitalists, our bankers, and our tradesmen, 
 and who are to do much to determine the character and condition 
 of the country in wbicb they live ; — whose disposition, whose know- 
 ledge, whose Christian feeling must add much to its internal 
 heart, and, in their outward efforts, add much to tbe external 
 honour of tbe country that has given them birth ? Now, gentle- 
 men, in all that I say, and in all tbat will be said, — in all that is 
 said anywhere, on this subject, and in all tbat is done, we proceed 
 upon the grand, iindeniable assumption that you are immortal 
 and responsible beings. I have no sympathy, and you have no 
 sympathy, with those who erect capital and all its results into 
 a divinity, who hold obedience to its dictates to be a° duty, and 
 its acquisition to constitute the first and almost the sole re- 
 quirement of tbe human race — I say, wbo erect it into a divinity 
 and worship it with ten times more intensity than they do tbe 
 God tbat created them. I look upon you and address you as 
 immortal beings, sent, all of you and each of you, to fulfil a 
 part ui the destinies of this world, and to join with your brethren 
 in tbe great march towards eternity. And if we be such 
 beings, why, then, is it not manifest that we cannot labour with 
 too much earnestness, we cannot devote too much time, we cannot 
 give too much effort, nor can we too much weary heaven with 
 prayer, that institutions like this may be spread over tbe whole 
 surface of the land, and endeavour to drag within their net 
 — the net of tbe Gospel — every young man who is brought into 
 tbese departments of industry — departments of industry honour- 
 able for himself, for bis relatives, and for tbe kingdom at large. 
 
 I know it is said that we are ajit to magnify the present at the 
 expense of tbe past, and, sometimes, even of the future ; but there 
 is no necessity that we should enter into any comparison to find 
 whether tbe present state of things is better or worse than the
 
 Young Men's Christian Association. 297 
 
 state of tilings tlirough which we or our forefathers have passed. 
 The actual condition of things is quite sufficient for our contem- 
 plation, and more than sufficient for all our combined energies ; 
 and I would ask any one who hears me, or any one who may read 
 what occurs in this room, if ever there was a time in the history 
 of mankind when the perils to which young men are exposed were 
 more fearful, more abundant, and more various than they are at 
 the present moment ? 
 
 "Well, now, just let me pass in review a few of those evils 
 that beset young men, — and not young men only, but that beset 
 us all, even those of mature age, but especially young men — on 
 accovint of their excitability and deficiency of experience. First 
 of all, take the unprecedented magnitude of all the great cities 
 and of all the towns of this vast empire ; consider the tempta- 
 tions, consider the difficulties, consider the obstacles, consider 
 the impulses, consider everything that can afi'ect the appetite, 
 that can allure the sense, and that can benumb the conscious- 
 ness of responsibility, and yovi will see what is the state of things 
 within them, in their f eai'f ul exhalations operating on the physical 
 and moral condition of the great mass of our population. Look, 
 too, at the diseased activity of commerce — nobody, I hope, will 
 misunderstand me and suppose that I intend to speak in dis- 
 paragement of commercial effort — but everybody who has ob- 
 served oui- world of trade will admit that there has been, that 
 there is, and that there may be again in tenfold proportion, a 
 diseased activity of speculation that carries on people as in a 
 whii-lwind, giving them neither time to see nor feel, and wafting 
 them, as it were, against their wills to an issue they would de- 
 precate ; and all this, because they suffer themselves to be earned 
 on by the stream, along with which they must go until they are 
 thrown over the waterfall into the depths below. Consider the 
 unceasing recklessness, the unceasing competition among both 
 small and great, in things large and minute, of one town with 
 another, of one trade with another, one shop with another, one 
 man with another ; — it is this system of competition which pro- 
 duces the most serious effects upon those who are witnesses of it, 
 and, in some measure, the subjects of it, and who are themselves 
 afterwards to be placed in positions in which they will probably 
 enter into competition in the same spirit of their early experience. 
 Consider again — and here is a matter of dee]3 and solemn import, 
 and I trust I shall give offence to none when I speak of it, — but 
 I will speak of it because I know it to be that which has produced 
 the deepest and most deleterious results on the minds of young 
 men engaged in warehouses and similar establishments — I speak 
 
 X
 
 208 Manchester, 25i/t March, 1856. 
 
 of tliat conventional morality, or, if you please, tliat conventional 
 immorality, that is found in so many of tlie establishments of this 
 great empire — establishments in which the worse is made to appeal- 
 the better cause, the worse the better article ; in which the customer 
 is to be seduced in a variety of ways — and in which the persons who 
 are so to seduce and deceive are the young shop-people, taught 
 by the more experienced superintendent — taught, in truth, by the 
 one who is to gain the whole profit, how he is to sei-A'e his master's 
 turn in the present instance, and his own in time to come. I need 
 not dwell on this longer ; I am speaking to persons who know the 
 details of it much better than I do, and I merely mention it 
 becavise it is corruptive of all moral and religious piincii^le, and, 
 if not checked in the outset and qualified by the effects arising 
 from associations such as this, will tend to involve the trade of 
 England in one general denunciation of coiiTiption and dis- 
 honesty. 
 
 Again, look at the facilities for indulgence of every kind that 
 are oflPered to young men in this great aggregation of human life ; 
 look at the facilities that are offered to them for concealment, if 
 they desire concealment ; and look at the sanction that is offered 
 to them by numbers, if they are shameless enough to avow their 
 profligacy. These are great temptations, which require more than 
 an ordinary amount of principle and of grace to withstand. They 
 are met at every coraer ; they are met at every moment of the day ; 
 and no ordinary force is required of effori and association to resist 
 the overwhelming influence of these combined temptations. Again, 
 I very much think there is no slight amount of mischief arising 
 from that long detention — I know not whether it has been amelio- 
 rated here ; it has been to some extent in London, but by no means 
 to an extent commenstirate with the evil — that long detention of 
 young people of both sexes to late hours in the shops and ware- 
 houses. I believe this practice to be productive of the very greatest 
 mischief ; it lowers the whole i^hysical system by over-toil, and it 
 lowers simultaneously the moral taste and appetite, and destroys 
 in them every desire for what is wholesome, leaving only the 
 desire for what is most stimulating and sensual. Hence it is, I 
 regret to say, that hj these very means the young men so occupied 
 are addicted to profligate habits and to low amvisements ; hence it 
 is that aU those places of resort, which I will not designate, are 
 crowded ; hence it is you have in such demand the low theatre, and 
 vile literature, and everything that is most alluring to the diseased 
 sense. The body is wearied, and the spirit deadened, which 
 otherwise might have been employed in matters such as this 
 before us now, tending to reform, elevate, and dignify the personal
 
 Yuanj Men's Christian Association. 299 
 
 cliaractei' — aud therefore I see, autl I believe you know liere, tlie 
 immense value of what is called the early closing system. It 
 has been to the young of deep and permanent service, for upon 
 those who have been subjected to its benefits it acts and reacts in a 
 beneficial way ; it is an admirable movement, and is an induce- 
 ment to those who may be disposed to allow their young men to 
 join in these associations, because it shows that a good prepara- 
 tion is made for the vacant hours that are given them ; and it is 
 a good argument against those who will not do it, because it 
 shows that the movement, if rightly carried into effect, will pro- 
 duce those results that we have just now indicated. I believe 
 that the early closing movement, if extended over our large towns, 
 accompanied by such associations as this, would go very far 
 indeed to remove many of the evils of which we complain, and 
 very greatly to elevate the character of the young men employed 
 in those establishments ; and I should be very glad to knov,' that, 
 simultaneously with that, we had, not only for those young men, 
 but also for the whole operative class, the assignment every week 
 of a good half-holiday. In what way can you improve the observ- 
 ance of the Sabbath so effectually as by giving a time for amuse- 
 ment and repose on every Saturday afternoon F And I maintain 
 that all those who have concurred with me in opposition to 
 the motion of Sir Joshua Walmsley for opening places of amuse- 
 ment on the Lord's Day, are bound to go along with those 
 who entertain the opinion that I do — that if we refuse to give 
 them that form of recreation on the Lord's Day, we are bound to 
 do what we can to give them some form of recreation on some 
 other day. 
 
 There is another and a very serious view of this question. 
 The large mass of those young men who are thrown together with- 
 out any parental or superintending care are not in a condition 
 to stand against the fearful examples that are brought before 
 their eyes. Is it not too often the case that they see in those who 
 employ them an inordinate desire to be rich, or at least to have 
 the aj)pearance of being so ? The desire to be rich is not illegiti- 
 mate, and may be restrained ; it is not necessarily productive of 
 immoral effect ; but to be constantly witnesses of endeavours to 
 deceive the world, — to be constantly witnesses of various schemes, 
 artifices, and tricks by which the person with scarcely wealth 
 enough to pay his way day by day, tries to palm himself off on 
 the world as a capitalist, aud to attract all the respect and con- 
 fidence due to a man of capital, — I maintain that such a teaching 
 to young men is so pernicious that I cannot but augur from it 
 the most unfortunate results. Young men, again, are brought
 
 300 Manchester, 26th March, 1856. 
 
 away at so early a period from tlieir homes to live in the houses 
 of strangers, and altogether away from parental care, that, 
 unless they are strongly imbued with moral piTLUciples, or fall 
 into good associations, they become inevitably the victims of 
 temptation. Perhaps this is not, by contrast, so gi-eat an evil 
 now as it was some time ago ; for none can notice the progress 
 of the mind and feelings in the present day, from the highest 
 to the lowest, and from the most wealthy and exalted down to the 
 poorest labourer, without observing that the authority of the 
 parents and of home has greatly diminished. It certainly is a 
 growing evil, and I know not how it can be modified or checked, 
 except by the pouring out of God's gi'ace and a .larger embracing 
 of the doctrines and practices of Christianity. But, nevertheless, 
 even supposing the young men were not withdrawn from parental 
 care, and had such a home as I should desii'e for them, that 
 alone is not enough. As young men grow up and advance 
 into the years of manhood, they will ask — and I do not blame 
 them for it, it is natural, and proper if diily regulated — they 
 will ask for associates out of doors, for companions of their 
 own age — something beyond the parental dwelling. It is in 
 the order of nature and providence that it should be so ; but due 
 preparation should be made for it. What we want to do is not 
 to interfere with the conditions of society within the precincts of 
 their own homes, but to enable them to meet with safe friends, 
 instead of being left in the midst of gulfs and whirlpools, and 
 in the high road to pei'dition. 
 
 To ventilate, then, and drain the moral atmosphere, good 
 and wise men have founded associations such as this, of gi-eat 
 and inestimable value to the young ; and depend upon it, that 
 those who have founded them, and those who cany them on, 
 are the best friends you ever had, both for your temporal 
 and eternal interests. If in this association you choose to look 
 for it, you will find guidance and friendship, and wholesome 
 counsel in religious and even in secular matters ; and you will 
 find in it what you all need — it is in nature that you should need 
 it — you will find countenance and sanction for any feeling of 
 piety you may exhibit, for any good works you may resolve to 
 perform. As, in the other course, numbers give a sanction to a 
 profligate life, so, in this course, by the happy efi"ect of commimion, 
 numbers will give a countenance to virtue, and enable you to go 
 forward in your way rejoicing, and not be driven from the battle 
 of honesty and virtue by the sneers and jeers of those who 
 hope, by the means of ridicule, to turn you from the path of 
 rectitude. This institution, in our social system, is like the
 
 Tounj Mens Christian Association. 301 
 
 Lord's Day, in our religious system ; it is something rescued from 
 ignorance, something rescued from toil, something rescued from 
 avarice, and something rescued from sin, to be devoted to the 
 great and high purposes of advancement, to the glory of God, 
 and to the welfare of the human race. 
 
 Now, too, this association forms to young men a legitimate, a 
 strong, and a real corporation, so to speak, for mutual strength 
 and mutual advice, for mutual counsel and mutual aid. You 
 young men, be assured of this, are in a great measure the architects 
 of your own fortunes ; under God's grace you may achieve great 
 things ; but remember these things must be done by yourselves 
 — they cannot be done for you. We may counsel and advise, 
 and we may lend a helping hand ; but everything that is good 
 and lasting, everything effective and true bearing upon your 
 condition, must, in fact, be effected by yourselves ; and keep 
 in mind this truth — which I love to urge as an argument to the 
 great mass of the operative class, and it is equally true in 
 principle in some degree to you, my friends — that if you wish 
 to maintain your condition, if you wish to improve your con- 
 dition — but I revert to the first — that even if you wish to maintain 
 your condition, you must do everything in your power to elevate 
 yourselves — personally, morally, singly, and collectively. Re- 
 member this — nothing so invites attack and oppression — whether 
 it be on a nation or on a class of the community — nothing, I 
 repeat, invites aggression so much as the degradation of that 
 class or nation. On the other hand, an elevated moral condition 
 — whether it be in the working man, or whether it be in a people 
 or a kingdom — that elevated condition, that moral bearing, repels 
 aggi'ession. And of this I am quite sure — I speak of you 
 as a body — that if any effort shoidd ever be made to deprive you 
 of the privileges you now enjoy, it will be only when you have 
 depai'ted from the high tone of thought and of action which 
 you have now adopted. On the contrary, by i:)ersisting in the 
 course you have begun, and by still going forward to the higher 
 degrees of excellency, you will not only prevent encroachment, 
 but you will take from those who may have desired or thought 
 of it, not only the power, but even the desire, to make the 
 experiment. 
 
 Now, these associations, moreover, have very great intellectual 
 advantages, and this is a matter well worthy of consideration in 
 the j)resent days — when we see so many young and ardent spirits, 
 so many young men desirous of knowledge, and possessing, I 
 doubt not, so many fine abilities, and so many earaest and honest 
 hearts — it is a matter for great consideration, I repeat, at the
 
 302 Manchester, 25th March, 1856. 
 
 present day in what way we can feed the intellectual appetite, and 
 tnrn it to the best accoimt for the individual himself and for the 
 community to which he belongs. I think that you cannot do better 
 than cultivate your intellectual faculties by the highest literature 
 and the best history that you can attain. Your intellectual 
 facilities are a part of yourselves, and belong to you as much as 
 your soids belong to you; but they must be cultivated in sub- 
 ordination to the more noble part — and all in reference to the 
 gi'eat object for which you are sent here, which is not for any 
 work of time, but for a great work — the preparation for eternity. 
 But in advising you to cultivate yoiu- intellectual powers and to 
 betake yourselves to these intellectual studies, which will form so 
 noble and delightful a recreation after your work-hours, and 
 which will place you as high as you ought to be in the social scale 
 among your fellow-men, yet allow me to speak a word of counsel, 
 and say that these things — good and great as they are — are not 
 without their hazards at the present day. I will omit altogether 
 many temptations to which you might be exposed, many of which 
 must be manifest, and will only draw attention to one, and that 
 for a few moments. I said that in these days, intellectual pur- 
 suits, however great and good in themselves, were not without 
 their hazards ; and the truth is, that these intellectual dangers 
 appear to me to be in our time the great and dominant evil — the 
 great master mischief, from which we have to apprehend the most 
 fearful results. There is a plausible, a specious, a captivating kind 
 of scepticism now aljroad, j^retending in many instances great 
 reverence for religion and almost for holy writ — pretending a 
 great show of piety, and endeavouring to reconcile several diffi- 
 culties in the Scriptures and in revelation by eliminating all that 
 is most repvilsive to what is haughtily called the intellect of man. 
 Two great objects seem to divide the attention of the people of 
 the present day — the love of gold and the adoration of intellect ; 
 but that adoration of intellect is in no small measure guided 
 by the love of gold — the worship of intellect being the worship 
 of that power that gets money or money's worth. This may be 
 the history, in frequent instances, of this new cult, the adoration 
 of the intellect ; but it is not always so, for many are governed by 
 their passions and their feelings — they are governed by vanity 
 and self-conceit and aiTOgance, by the love of distinction, and a 
 spirit of implicit obedience to the supreme majesty of science. I 
 regi-et to say it, but this evil to which I have just alluded is no 
 longer confined to a few, and those comparatively obscure people ; 
 no, it begins now to be promulgated at our universities ; it begins 
 to appeal' in our great literary works ; it has got hold of ministers
 
 Young Mens Christian Association. 303 
 
 and dignitaries of the Cliuvcli of England ; it lias got hold of 
 some of the most able and distinguished of the Nonconformists ; 
 it has got hold of the ministers of the Presbyterian church; 
 and such is the state of things, that 1 believe at no time were 
 the young men of this country in greater peril than they are now 
 from the character of those principles that are widely enun- 
 ciated ; for the mode in which they are propounded is gratifjdng 
 to their taste, and is flattering to their vanity. Tour age, my 
 good friends, I say it with all deference, is just at that period 
 when you are most subjected to influences such as these, because 
 you are in the heyday of life ; you have not had the experience 
 that has fallen to the lot of persons of maturer years ; you are 
 carried forward with a great desire for distinction, and you 
 think (such is the infirmity of youth) — you think that to differ 
 from those who have gone before you — to diff'er from the received 
 opinions of the mass of mankind, shows a great superiority of 
 intellect and jjower of discernment, and places the young and 
 rising generation very far in advance of their fathers and fore- 
 fathers. It is the most stimulating food that can be ofFei-ed to 
 the appetite, and you catch at it because it costs you little trouble 
 to acquire, and administers more favourably than anything else 
 to secure the means of an occasional display ; but recollect the 
 words of Bishop Home : " a trifler," said he, " may state in three 
 lines what it may take a leai-ned man thirty pages to answer." 
 You may read the three lines, but you may never have the patience 
 or the opportunity to read the thirty pages. The doubt will have 
 entered into your minds and may never be shaken off; and even 
 if you hesitate to plunge at once into the depths of infidelity you 
 will go on your journey with a millstone round your neck, and 
 be greatly retarded in your march to immortality. Let me 
 advise you, then, that all your reading be of a practical and 
 nutritious nature ; avoid mere speculations as much as possible. 
 If you were men of learned leisure and profound acquirements, 
 I should not sjaeak to you in this way, because I should say that 
 it might be possible, were you troubled by doubt in the morning, 
 that the length of your study and researches during the day might 
 remove the doubt before the evening. If you have but a little 
 time to spare, let that little be devoted, not to handling curious 
 and unprofitable questions, but in taking that line which is most 
 conducive to your professional progress — to that which is most 
 practical in its results ; because, l^ear this in mind, although 
 there are mysterious and speculative doctrines in the Christian 
 religion, Christianity, as applied, is absolutely and essentially 
 practical. Now, I rejoice to learn from the report that has
 
 304 Manchester, loth March, 1856. 
 
 been read to us this evening, tliat almost every member of tliis 
 association is a Sunday-school teacher, and you could not possibly 
 have given to me a single fact that woiild more completely 
 have x^roved its paramount value, one that would more com- 
 pletely have proved that you had entered into the full spirit of 
 your union, than by showing that your Sabbath days are given, 
 not to idle discussions or to the indulgence of doubts, but to a 
 course that will determine your own characters — and that a happy 
 course — for the remainder of your lives, by feeding the lambs of 
 Christ's flock, and by endeavouring to advance your Redeemer's 
 kingdom, and, in that, your own hopes of eternal blessedness. 
 
 Amidst, then, all these difficulties and dangers, what security can 
 you seek for your belief ? I believe there is but one, and that is 
 to take the Bible in all its openness and simplicity — to take it in 
 its plain, straightforward meaning, to sit down to it with the 
 docility of a child, and receive the Scriptures as a tender-hearted 
 and obedient infant would receive its teaching at the knees of an 
 affectionate mother. Accept and obey the language of St. Paul, 
 where he thanks God for the simple piety of the Thessalonians, 
 because, says he, "' when ye received the word of God ... ye 
 received it not as the word of man, but as it is in truth, the word 
 of God;" and I know of nothing that is more impressive, more 
 striking, or more delightful, than to see men of gigantic under- 
 standing and profound attainments sitting down to the study of 
 Holy "Writ with all the docility of children in an infant school. 
 I need not allude to the names of men or women, of whom you 
 have often heard it said, that they accepted and obeyed the 
 I)rinciples and precepts of Christianity. I do not allude to such 
 names as those of Locke and Newton — they received Christianity, 
 it is time, but they squared it, in some measure, to their o^vn 
 notions — I speak rather in reference to such men as Drs. Chalmers 
 and Abercrombie, the "beloved physician," — men of unrivalled 
 l^ower of mind, and of deep and extensive knowledge, who received 
 the Scriptures with infantine simplicity and joy, and who never 
 found themselves so learned, so happy, so satisfied, or so elevated, 
 as when they listened to the word of God, and listened to it with 
 the affectionate attention of obedient and loving children. Mark 
 well the words of that good old man, the Rev. Mr. Wilkinson, 
 who for so many years officiated at the church near the Stock 
 Exchange, and who day by day called many of those men engaged 
 in the ardent pm-suit of wealth away for an hour to listen to his 
 eloquence, and to the divine and simple pi-ecepts that fell from his 
 tongue. And when past his eightieth year, and on the brink of the 
 gi-ave, what did that good old man declare ? Why, said he, " after
 
 Young Mens Ch-isfian Association. 305 
 
 sixty years of service, and sixty years' study of the Scriptures, 
 and everj'-tliiug that could give a help to the knowledge and 
 pursuit of the sacred records, I have never been able to get beyond 
 the prayer of the publican, ' Lord be merciful to me a sinner.' " 
 
 Now, one woi'd more. I have asked what is your security for 
 your belief, and I have stated that I believe it to be in the devoiit 
 and simple reverence of the word of God, as indeed it is. And 
 what is yom- security for yoiir own conduct? I believe that it 
 lies here — a deej), earnest, solemn sense of direct and individual 
 responsibility in every man and woman born into this world. I 
 know no sentiment that so tends to exalt, and at the same time 
 so tends to hiimble the human heart, as does the sense of direct 
 and immediate responsibility to Almighty God. If you consider 
 yourselves in relation to man, and consider the duties you owe to 
 your fellow-men, the piirpose for which you were sent on earth, 
 the duties you have to perfonn — to defend the fatherless, to plead 
 for the widow, to enlighten the ignorant, to solace the suffering, 
 to spread the knowledge of God among those who know it not, 
 and to give a helping hand to all in need — if you have ever 
 before you that sense of responsibility to man, will it not tend to 
 urge you forward in the daily discharge of that duty ? and if 
 other men were to place these principles perpetually before them, 
 would it not urge them fonvard also in the discharge of their 
 duties towards you ? Now, look higher ; regard yourselves in 
 the light of responsible beings to Almighty God, and see how 
 it lifts the whole mass ; and though you may still continiie to 
 regard yourselves as units among the many millions, yet you are 
 units to every one of whom God has given gifts of which sooner or 
 later you will be called upon to render an account. I cannot con- 
 ceive of anything that will tend more to regulate your conduct, 
 govern your hopes, and exalt your desires, than the sense of 
 individual responsibility. Ay, it has also this good effect — have 
 you not often heard many persons exclaim, when urged to do 
 some good in their generation, " Why, what can I do ? I am 
 a poor insignificant person ; it is not in my power to do good 
 to any one ; I must hold on my course, because I am utterly 
 powerless." If such a person was governed by a sense of deep 
 responsil^ility to Almighty God, that person — be it man or 
 woman — would perceive that he has been sent into this world for 
 some purpose, and that purpose must be fulfilled — that he has 
 been endowed with gifts to carry it into effect — and that, if 
 that be not done, a frightful and fearful account must be 
 required in the end. The more I think of it the more I am 
 convinced this is the best guarantee for youi' conduct ; and I
 
 306 Manchester, 2bih March, 1856. 
 
 rejoice to inculcate it on the mind of every one who listens to me, 
 whatever may be his destination in life. When you come to 
 stand before the great judgment-seat of God, the responsibility of 
 every one — of the sweeper of the crossing, the shopman, or the 
 excavator, will be just as certain and minute as the responsibility 
 of Queen Victoria, who sits upon the throne of England. 
 
 And now let me conclude by an earnest and hearty appeal 
 to you young men of Manchester that you would rise to the 
 position, the dignity, and the calling of British citizens and 
 Christian men. You will be exposed to many and various trials 
 in your course through life, many existing in the present, many 
 to arise in the future. I doubt not that difficulties of all kinds, 
 a few of which I have endeavoui'ed to indicate, will arise in 
 tenfold abundance in these the latter ages of the world. Ton 
 have but one security — a single eye to the service of Almighty 
 God. Let that be your cloud by day and your fire by night; 
 thiis will you realise at the last the blessed words of God's holy 
 book, and ascertain, in your own individual exjjerience, that 
 " the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more 
 and more unto the perfect day."
 
 ( 307 ) 
 
 Sanitary Legislation. 
 
 Social Science Congress of IS-'iS, Liverpool. 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury, as President of the Healtli Section, con- 
 cluded liis address by remarking : — 
 
 These are some of the evils ; of the remedies for them, many 
 maybe accepted, many rejected, but all should be investigated; 
 for, I say it without presumption, that the things we state from 
 the platform are foiuided on experience, and what we propound 
 is no longer matter of experiment. The operation of the Public 
 Health Act has shown, in Ely, that the town might be nearly 
 as healthy as the country; it shows a marvellous reduction of 
 mortality, to 17 in the thousand, when the mortality of rural 
 districts around it amoimts to 21 in the thousand. It is the same 
 in Croydon ; and in Livei-pool, I am informed — greatly to your 
 honour, and this adds no little to your responsibility — that your 
 sanitary aiTaugements save 3,700 lives a year as compared with 
 foiTuer times. I do not mean to say that the very highest sanitary 
 arrangements in towns will bring health and life to the same 
 standard as the highest arrangements in country districts; but 
 I assert the great improveability of ui'ban life, and the abatement 
 of much suffering among dense populations. Surely that is a 
 matter for deep and solemn consideration ; and ought we to be 
 tranquil when we are told that the preventible mortality in this 
 country amounts to no less than 90,000 a year ? Let us say, to 
 be within compass, 40,000 ; that is, four lives an hour. Again, I 
 assert, here is a matter for solemn consideration. Now, we may 
 be told by some that these things are but in the course of nature, 
 knd we ought not to interfere ; on such we will turn our backs ; 
 we will not listen to such a representation. We may be told that 
 these things are costly, and require financial effort, and the people 
 are not ready to undertake the expense ; but we may safely say 
 that it is disease that is expensive, and it is health that is cheap.
 
 308 Sanitary Legislation. 
 
 There is uotliing that is so economical as justice and mercy 
 towards all interests — temporal and spiritual — of all the human 
 race. If we be told that spiritual remedies are sufficient, and 
 that we labour too much for the perishable body, I reply that 
 spiritual appliances in the state of things to which I allude are 
 altogether impossible. Make every effort — push them forward — 
 never desist — lose not a moment— but depend upon it that in 
 such a state of things you will in the end be utterly baffled. But 
 when people say we should think more of the soul and less of the 
 body, my answer is, that the same God who made the soul made 
 the body also. It is an inferior work, perhaps, but nevertheless 
 it is His work, and it must be treated and cared for according to 
 the end for which it was formed — fitness for His seiwice. I main- 
 tain that God is worshipped, not only by the spiritual, but l^y 
 the material creation. Ton find it in the Psalms, — " Praise 
 Him, sun and moon, praise Him, aU ye stars of light." And 
 that worship is shown in the perfection and obedience of the 
 thing made. Our great object should be to do all we can to 
 remove the obstructions which stand in the way of siich worship 
 and of the body's fitness for its great purpose. If St. Paul, 
 calling oiir bodies the temples of the Holy Ghost, said that they 
 ought not to be contaminated by sin, we also say that our bodies, 
 the temples of the Holy Ghost, ought not to be corrupted by 
 preventible disease, degraded by avoidable filth, and disabled for 
 His service by unnecessary suffering. Therefore, all that society 
 can do it ought to do, to remove difficulties and impediments ; to 
 give to every man, to the extent of our power, full, fair, and free 
 opportunity so to exercise all his moral, intellectual, physical, 
 and spiritual energies, that he may, without let or hindrance, be 
 able to do his duty in that state of life to which it has pleased 
 God to call him. 
 
 Note. — This extract has been inserted in order to meet the argument, 
 at that time very prevalent, that all physical efforts were vain, nay, almost 
 worse, and that moral remedies alone could be applied.
 
 ( 309 ) 
 
 Literary Institutes for Working Men. 
 
 Swindon, November 22, 1859. 
 
 DtliveieJ at the opening of the Swindon Literary Institute. 
 
 The Earl of Sliaftesbury said : Ladies and Gentlemen, — 
 Althongh I have the honour of being known to yon, and although 
 many of you are known to me, this is the first occasion that we have 
 ever met together ; and I am exceedingly glad of the opportunity 
 which is thus afforded me of expressing my resj)ect for you 
 personally, and the great desire which I have to promote institu- 
 tions such as that which you are this evening met to inaugurate. 
 The statement which has been made by my hon. friend on my 
 left has fully explained the objects and the mode intended to be 
 pursued in the conduct of your institution, and I do not know that 
 anything further is required of me ; but as I have come down here 
 this evening, you will, I suppose, expect that I should make a few 
 supplementary remarks, and give you my own experience of 
 similar institutions in other parts of the country. These institu- 
 tions may be taken as one of the most remarkable signs of the 
 times in which we live. There are, in the present day, many 
 signs of a healthy and many signs of an unhealthy character. 
 There are signs of fear, and there are signs of comfort, and there 
 are signs to make men think. But I hold that the signs which 
 have brought us here this evening are among the most healthy 
 of them ; because, obsei-ve — we are not met here to inaugurate 
 a new theatre ; we are not met here to celebrate the opening of a 
 new gin-palace ; we are not met here to rejoice that another 
 casino has been added to the number of those which already 
 devastate society ; we are not met here to do that which is worse 
 than all the other evUs which have been laid open before the 
 people — we are not met here to inaugurate a new racing ground ; 
 but we are met to celebrate the opening of an institution, which
 
 310 Swindon, 22nd Nuvember, lSo9. 
 
 may be i^orverted, Ijut wliicli, by God's blessing, may be riglitly 
 turned to tbe moral, the physical, and the spiritual improvement 
 of hundreds of the inhabitants of this town. 
 
 With these views, I am not a little distressed to find that this 
 institution has already been made a subject of difference. To-day 
 my son bi'ought me a paper, in which he showed me a letter stating 
 that some little jealousy existed between Old and New Swindon, on 
 the supposition that one institution would injure the other. Now 
 this is great nonsense, to Stfy the least of it. My belief is that in 
 two such towns as Old and New Swindon there is ample room for 
 both ; and if I may judge by my drive to-night from the station 
 hither in Mr. Brown's open cariiage, I can hardly suppose that 
 the operatives and mechanics of Old Swindon, however ardent for 
 literature, would be disposed to take a walk to the New Town 
 during the dark and wet winter evenings. My belief, therefore, 
 is, that although the offer of New Swindon may be very generous, 
 •it is an offer that will never be accepted. On that account I say 
 there is ample room for both institutions ; and let the only rivalry 
 between them be, which can do the greatest amount of good and 
 prevent the greatest amount of evil. But I am sorry to say that 
 another difference prevails besides that to which I have alluded. I 
 am afraid that some have conceived — most erroneously — that in- 
 stitutions such as these are not consistent with religion, and they 
 think that no institution can exist unless it is openly and profes- 
 sedly founded upon a religious basis, and that basis one of a clear, 
 definite, and doctrinal principle. Now, I should be prepared, were 
 it necessary, to contest that point ; but let us pass to an observa- 
 tion of the actual state of things. There is a great tendency 
 throughout this country, among the masses of the people, to seek 
 the means of intellectual improvement and intex'course. That 
 desire, in itself, is a right one, and one which ought to be 
 cherished. I cannot hope — and no man living can hope — that 
 such a desii-e and taste should be moulded strictly in accordance 
 with his own views and opinions. He must know that the ten- 
 dency of the working classes to seek information is strong, unde- 
 niable, and irresistible ; and the wisdom of every man will be this 
 — not to oppose himself to the tide which is rushing in, but to see 
 if he cannot turn that tide into a channel where it will flow safely, 
 without bursting its banks, and doing injury to everything around 
 it. My idea is that we should endeavour to control the tendency 
 of the age, not by prohibition, but by infusing into the minds of 
 the members of institutions like this that spirit of true judgment 
 and self-control, which will make such institutions beneficial to 
 the public and harmless to those who belong to them. In this
 
 L'dcrnry Inslihdes fur Worhlng Men. 311 
 
 sense I deei^ly regi-et that any opposition of this kind slioiild be 
 raised. In some parts of the conntiy mechanics' institutions have, 
 I am aware, fallen into disuse ; but in other parts — such as the 
 West Riding of Yorkshire — they have produced the best moral 
 and physical effects ; and no spiritual mischief whatever, so far as 
 we can see, has resulted from them ; whilst among the working 
 classes members of snch associations are to he found as sound, 
 good, hearty Christians as in any part of her Majesty's do- 
 minions. 
 
 Such being the case, and admitting that these things cannot be 
 resisted, we should consider in what way we can make them most 
 conducive to the public benefit, and your scheme, I think, is a 
 good one for the pnri^ose. I heartily approve a system of 
 classes. I am glad also to find that you intend to have a libraiy. 
 That will, if rightly conducted, be of very gi-eat value ; but you 
 must consider well — and here will lie a great deal of your safe- 
 guard — you must be careful as to the books admitted into your 
 catalogue. I would advise you to lay it down as a rule, that your 
 
 D committee (who will, I presume, be the judges of the books to be 
 admitted) should, as far as possible, exclude all simply controver- 
 sial works : that they should make a selection of the best works of 
 history and general literature ; and, recollecting that your body 
 will be composed of persons diffei'ing in religious, in political, and 
 in private ojjinions, you should, in the formation of your libraiy, 
 consider as much the feelings as the tastes of those who are 
 admitted among you. One of your gi-eatest difficulties will lie in 
 the selection of what are called works of fiction — many of which 
 are, in their general character, most detestable. To say that you 
 are to exclude altogether works of fiction would be i^rejiosterous, 
 because by so doing you would exclude works of unspeakable sendee 
 to the human mind ; but I am talking of those milk-and-water, 
 drivelling, weak, nauseous, profligate, sensational works of fiction, 
 which turn the mind from sober thought and transplant many 
 who read them from the society in which they are placed into a, 
 world of diseased imagination. All this, therefore, requires to be 
 carefully weighed. Recollect, I do not say to you exclude all 
 works of fiction — I do not say to you re^jress all works of imagi- 
 nation. On the contrary, I maintain that the imagination should 
 be fed and ciiltivated. Imagination, when rightly used, will bring 
 oftentimes comfort to the human heart. It is a quality given to 
 us by God, not to be extirpated, but to be well dii-ected ; and if the 
 committee keep this in view, you will, I trust, co-operate with 
 them in making such a selection of books as will elevate the 
 mind, and lead you from that description of washy and worse
 
 312 Sivindon, 22nd November, 1859. 
 
 than useless trasli to wliich I liave alluded. [His Lordslii]i then 
 went on to observe that he hoped the library would not only be 
 a library to those who frequented the rooms of the institution, 
 but also a lending library, so that the men might take home the 
 books and read them to their wives and families.] I want (said 
 the noble Earl) to counteract the tendency which there is in all 
 institutions of this kind to abstract people from the duties and 
 the comforts of domestic life and induce them to lead a life of 
 self-indiilgence. to the exclusion of those who ought to pai'ticipate 
 in their recreations. In the use of these books, I wish to have 
 the system such that the wives and children of the men may 
 share in the benefit of the study which wiU be carried on by 
 means of the library ; and such an arrangement will have an 
 admirable effect upon society, because it will tend to cany on 
 and perfect the education of the p)eople generally. No greater 
 mistake, I maintain, ever occurred than to suppose — as many 
 people do — that education ceases at the period when a child leaves 
 the school. Education goes on to the very end of life ; and you 
 will ever find that the education the most effective and the most 
 lasting is that which a man gives to himself. It is very well at 
 school to receive from tutors and governors the elements of 
 knowledge ; it is very well to learn there the use of the weapon 
 which is put into our hands ; but be assured that the depai-tment 
 in which a man excels — that in which he is able to rise to affluence 
 and distinction — be it whatever it may — must have been acquired 
 by his own exertion, and the adaptation of study to his peculiar 
 bent of mind. Here, then, is the advantage of an institution like 
 this — that it enables a man to select the course of study for 
 which he has the most peculiar liking, and by bringing his mind 
 to bear upon the particular acquirement for which God in His 
 goodness has given him a special adaptation, either to qualify 
 himself to adorn the station in which he is, or raise himself 
 higher in the social scale. The State, no doubt, may provide 
 certain means to set men in the right path ; but actual education 
 must be acquired by a man himself — it must be done by his own 
 efforts — by his own intellectual vigour ; and there are no means by 
 which the truth can be cari'ied into any man's mind, if that man 
 will not himself go nine-tenths of the way to receive it. A few years 
 ago there was great repugnance to the education of the people. We 
 found men in this country — men who passed for wise statesmen — 
 who thought that nothing was more perilous to the public peace 
 than the knowledge of reading and wi-iting among the people. 
 But others there were who took a different view ; and the working 
 people themselves manifested so strong an impulse that it became
 
 Literary Institutes for Wu7-Mng Men. 813 
 
 impossible to resist the influeuce, and popular education made 
 great strides. 
 
 And now let me ask what mischiefs have arisen to this great 
 land, with its mighty millions, by this march of education ? Let 
 me ask what mischief has arisen from the admission of the sons 
 and daughters of toil to some of the benefits of intellectual attain- 
 ment ? You have heard from Mr. Foote that a great many young 
 men in this place, who used to pass their time at beershops, or 
 perhaps in more mischievous places, have already evinced a desire 
 to be admitted as members of the institution, and that in all 
 the gatherings the greatest order and decorum prevail. But what 
 you see here, you may see throughout many districts of the land. 
 What is it that has brought the population of the great towns 
 of Lancashire to a feeling of loyalty and obedience to the law, 
 never before surpassed in this kingdom ? There is, I believe, at 
 this moment throughout England a greater degree of loyalty and 
 industry, and a better understanding between the employer and 
 the employed, than ever before existed in this country or in 
 any other country in the woi'ld. And what is it, I ask, that has 
 brought about this happy state of things ? If it is not altogether 
 owing to education, at any rate it proves thus much — that the 
 extended education of the people is not antagonistic to such an 
 issue ; nay, further, that it will only exist under the continued 
 education of the peoj^le and the enrolment of many of them 
 in such institutions as this, by which they will be brought into 
 habits of study, of diligence, and of order. Acquirements like 
 these are by no means incompatil^le with labour ; and the converse 
 is time, that labour is by no means incompatible with such acquire- 
 ments. On the contrary, in a great majority of cases, it ^vill be 
 found that the man who devotes himself the most steadily to his 
 labour can give most attention to those intellectual pnrsuits which 
 soften society. Take the man who has done an honest day's wox'k. 
 He is fatigued, no doubt ; but if he has done a fair day's work — 
 and such as every honest man in this country would do — and no 
 more than a fair day's work should be required — I say that having 
 performed such a day's work, he would have ample strength re- 
 maining for intellectual labour. By the blessing of God, we are 
 ao formed, that when we are tired of one pursuit we can often- 
 times turn with vigour to another. The great Sir Matthew Hale, 
 after spending a long day upon the bench, would retire to his 
 room in the evening, and there recruit his mind and strength by 
 solving a variet}' of problems in algebra ; and I remember that 
 the learned and illustrious Robert Southey had so much on his 
 hands, that it was only by change of study and occupation that 
 
 Y
 
 314 Swindon, 22nd November, 1859. 
 
 his mind was sustained for work ; and, refreshed by this means, he 
 was able to do in one day more than others could accomplish in 
 five. In his room he had a number of desks, each one devoted to 
 a different subject of study ; and when wearied with one subject 
 he went to another, and in this way, enjoying refreshment at 
 every change, he was able to do more than any man who gave 
 his whole time from first to last to one single topic. And so it 
 may be to you. Having given your day to labour, you wiU find 
 that you retain sufiicient strength to devote a part of the 
 evening to intellectual pursiiits. Men can find time to go to the 
 gin-palace, and there spend their substance in riot and filthy 
 conversation ; and why cannot they devote the same time to the 
 reading room, and to matters which will be of permanent benefit, 
 and from which they will cany away with them a mind well 
 stored, instead of racking pains in the head, and diseased livers, 
 and the eternal ruin which awaits all those who frequent the 
 beerhouse, the casino, and the racing ground? I indeed miicli 
 wish that you, my good friends at the other end of the room, 
 would enter with all your hearts and minds into the contempla- 
 tion of what may be called the digniity of labour. We have 
 all our various callings in life. You are called to labour with 
 the sweat of your face, and to earn your livelihood by daily 
 toil. Others, like myself, have been placed in a different sitiia- 
 tion ; but be assured that, in the sight of thinking men, and 
 in the sight of that God who made you, there is no difference 
 Ijetween us. There may be a difference in our temporal position ; 
 but a Great Day is coming when the time level will be seen, and 
 when it will be found that the man of great wealth, and the man 
 who has been called to what the world regards as great things, 
 will undergo as strict a scrutiny as the poorest, and that he only wiU 
 ])e the trvily great man who, with humbleness, with tnith, with 
 simplicity, and with honesty, did that which he was called to 
 do — who, in the faith and fear of God, endeavoured so to regulate 
 his own life and the lives of those who were dependent upon 
 him, that they might go through the world advancing the honour 
 of their Maker's name, and contributing to the welfare of those 
 among whom their lot was cast. I know that there are many 
 who are ambitious — that there are many who are desirous to 
 rise in the world — I know that there are many who come to 
 institutions like this because they are anxious for distinction — 
 because they wish to acquire here the usage of wdt, of eloquence, 
 and other means by which they may raise themselves above their 
 fellows and lay hold of the great prizes of life. Now I do not 
 say to any one of these — think no more of rising above your
 
 Literary Institutes for WorJciJig Men. 315 
 
 station : be content where yon are ; bnt I wonld say to all — be 
 wise, be tlioughtfnl, forecast these things before you dash into 
 a career which may be irrevocable, and which may end in ruin. 
 All can strive ; ])nt recollect it is only a few who can win ; I'eflect 
 upon the cruel disappointment which awaits those who, having 
 left their safe and sober calling, rush into a pursuit for which 
 they are unfitted, and who, foiled in the object which they 
 have in view, find themselves wholly unable to return to the point 
 from which they started. This one thing is certain, that the 
 great majority of mankind must continue at the level on which 
 they were born. But is that a degrading thought ? Is it a 
 thoiTght which should bring despair, or shame, or sorrow to the 
 heart of any man who rightly considers it ? I ask you, are there 
 no of)portunities near at hand for you to improve your condition, 
 and yet remain within the sphere in which you live ? Are there 
 no means open to you of doing good in your generation ? Have 
 you not houses to rule ? Have you not children to be trained as 
 citizens and as patriots, and, above all, as citizens of that endiiring 
 city which " hath foundations, whose builder and maker is 
 God ?" Remember what was said by one of the wisest women of 
 antiquity to her son, a man of great aspirations, who complained 
 that the town in which he was born was but a small place and 
 unlikely to produce a due effect upon the world. My son (she 
 answered), recollect that that little city has been allotted to you, 
 and it is your duty to protect and to adorn it. Little families 
 have been allotted to you, my friends : it is your duty to protect, 
 to adorn, and to elevate them : it is your duty to train up your 
 children in the way they should go. And here is a truth for 
 your contemplation ; be assured that the greatest man that ever 
 lived, whether in the command of armies or in the roll of empires 
 — whether by his thrilling discoiirses he may have been able to 
 stir up whole senates — to drive men to madness or calm them to 
 repose — I tell you that those men who fill all history will not at 
 the last great day receive higher honour, or be more accepted in 
 the sight of Almighty God, than the honest Christian, — than the 
 sons and the daughters of toil; inasmuch as " God seeth not as 
 man seeth, for man looketh on the outward aj^pearance, but the 
 Lord looketh on the heart."
 
 ( 316 ) 
 Religious Service in Theatres. 
 
 HOUSE OF LOEDS, 
 Feiday, Feb. 24, 1860. 
 
 Speech on the motion of Lord Pungannon to call attention to the peifomianee of 
 Divine Service at Sadler's Wells and other Theatres by Clergymen of the 
 Church of England on Sunday Evenings ; and to move a Resolution, that such 
 Services, l)eing highly irregular and inconsistent with Order, are calculated to 
 injure rather than advance the Progress of sound religious Principles in the 
 Metropolis and throughout the Countiy. 
 
 My Lords, 
 
 However unwilling I may be to address yonr Lordships on 
 this or any other subject, I believe that, as I am certainly the 
 only culprit in this House, and as I have been one of the principal 
 movers in originating these services, your Lordships will naturally 
 expect me to give yon some information on this subject. I rise, 
 therefore, not to justify, but to ex|)lain ; although I should have 
 thought that even the superficial knowledge which everybody 
 must have of the condition of this meti-opolis, and the difficulties 
 and dangers which beset society here, would have been quite 
 enough to have carried conviction, and have satisfied any reason- 
 able mind. But if your Lordships desire it, and will bear with me, 
 I will state the motives which have actuated myseK and others in 
 this movement, the mode in which it has been conducted, and the 
 results which we have attained. 
 
 Now, the first argument urged against these services is, that 
 between them and the associations connected with a theatre there is 
 an utter incongruity. Well, I admit that the case is an abnormal 
 one, and I am not going to find fault with those who feel startled 
 by the proposal to hold religious services within the walls of a 
 playhouse. It is natural that such a feeling should be enter- 
 tained ; and, indeed, I myself have shared it to a certain extent. 
 In deference to this feeling we have done everything in our power 
 to procure other buildings in which these services might be per- 
 formed. The necessity to do something for the vast multitudes
 
 Beli(jious Service in Tlieatrcs. 317 
 
 in tlie east and soutli of London was overwhelming ; and minute 
 inquiries were made for any large rooms or open spaces in wliicli 
 Divine service coiild he. celebrated. Nothing of this sort, how- 
 ever, could he found, and we were therefore compelled to hire 
 theatres, as being the only places fit for the reception of any large 
 body of people. My Lords, among the masses to whom religious 
 services are altogether unknown, who are rarely or never visited, 
 the greatest possible repugnance is found either to church or 
 chapel — to anything, in short, which beai's the least appearance of 
 a registered place of worship. I have heard many of these people 
 say, over and over again, that they never had been inside any 
 place of worship, and that they never would enter one so long as 
 they breathed. Possibly such a pi'ejudice may in time be over- 
 come, but meanwhile we have to deal with it. Now, there are 
 music-halls which might have been hired, although not so capa- 
 cious as the theatres ; but these places were rejected because, in 
 almost every instance, they are connected with taverns ; and it 
 was apprehended that great mischief would foUow if those who 
 were expected to attend were brought into any such connexion. 
 But before going further I will notice one of the most monstrous 
 assertions I have ever heard. Surely that may be called mon- 
 strous which is quite inconsistent with truth. The noble 
 Yiscount said that ginger-beer bottles were opened, and oranges 
 cried during Divine worship, just as during the theatrical perform- 
 ances. Now, having myself attended some of these services, I 
 can solemnly deny any such statement. What might have been 
 going on outside the walls, of coiirse I do not know ; but I can 
 quote statements made by clergymen and nonconformist minis- 
 ters who have attended these ministrations from the first of 
 January down to the present time, in order to show that nothing 
 could have surpassed the order, decency, and attention of the 
 persons present. I have myself attended three of these places, in 
 each of which there were 3,200 people of the lowest description ; 
 and during the whole of my experience I have never seen a body 
 of men so attentive to the great truths that the preacher addressed 
 to them. 
 
 I do not deny that the associations of a theatre are to a certain 
 extent incongruous with such services ; bixt is it more incongruous 
 than for a Christian missionary to enter a heathen temple, defiled, 
 as it may be, by every impure and cruel I'ite, and there announce 
 to the listeners the truths of the Gospel ? Many a minister of the 
 Chiirch of England is compelled during his ministrations to go 
 into the worst places, and exercise his sacred functions even at 
 the death-bed of a prostitute in a brothel ; but, as he is engaged
 
 ']18 House of Lords, 'lUh February, ISilO. 
 
 in his duty, the place becomes sanctified by tlie diity he performs. 
 Surely the noble Lord is passing the most complete condemnation 
 — it is he, not I — on all those that go to a theatre on a week day, 
 when he says that a theatre is so foul that it is impossible to 
 entei-tain in it a high and holy thought ; that the "Word of God 
 cannot be preached there even on a Sunday without desecration, 
 and without casting a stain on the character of a minister of the 
 Church of England. If, then, theatres be such foul places, even 
 on a Sunday, and with religious services, what must be the condi- 
 tion of those who enter them on a week day, when they must be at 
 the very depth of foulness and secularity ! 
 
 [Lord Dungannon denied that he had stated what the noble 
 Lord attributed to him. What he had said was, that there was a 
 class of persons of a serious character who objected to what 
 passed in theatres, extending even to immorality, and he had 
 asked whether those persons could aj)prove public worship in 
 those places on Sundays. He had never said it was impossible 
 for well-disposed persons to go to theatres, nor had he found fault 
 with those who went to them.] 
 
 The Eai-1 of Shaftesbury said, I understood the noble Lord 
 to say that a theatre was a place where even on Sundays no holy 
 sentiment could be felt, and I justly inferred that if that be the 
 case on Sundays, it must d fortiori be far more so on week days. 
 
 Now let me point out what is the true history of this movement. 
 Those who are really acquainted with the state of a great portion 
 of the people of this country, and particularly of the metropolis, 
 have long beheld it with dismay and apprehension. I believe I 
 may state without fear of contradiction, as the statement is 
 founded on minute inquii-y, that not two per cent, of the working 
 men in London attend any place of worship whatever. Li the 
 inquiry before their Lordships' committee on church-rates, Dr. 
 Hume, of Liveii^ool, gave the following evidence, which, bad as it 
 is, gives a result more favourable than for London. 
 
 •• Do you think, he is asked, that the active progress of irreligion 
 is one of the phenomena that now suiTound us ? — If your Lordship 
 will allow me to read a few numbers, I think those will speak for 
 themselves. In Southwark there are 68 per cent, who attend no 
 place of worship ; in Sheffield there are 62; in Oldham, 6V2 ; in 
 Lambeth, 60i ; in Gateshead, 60; in Preston, 59; in Brighton, 
 54; Tower Hamlets, 53.^; Finsbury, 53; Salford, 52; South 
 Shields, 52 ; Manchester, 51 J ; Bolton, 5U; Stoke, 51i ; Westmin- 
 ster. 50 ; Coventry, 50. I have taken 34 of the gi-eat towns of Eng- 
 land, embracing a population of 3,993,467 ; and 2,197,*388, or 52j per
 
 Beligions Service in Theatres. 319 
 
 cent, of tlie population of those towns, attend no place of worsliip 
 whatever. The population is gi-o-\\dng very rapidly in our larjje 
 towns, and religion ought to grow with at least equal i~apidity, 
 but is not doing so. Our population in England is rapidly 
 increasing ; l>ut it is still more rai:)idly becoming a t()^^^l jiopula- 
 tion. In 1851 we had 9.000.000 in towns of 10,000 people and 
 upwards, and only 8,000,000 in smaller towns, in villages, and 
 in rural districts ; and at the close of the present century I 
 believe that 70 per cent, of the gross population will be seated 
 in large towns. Therefore, if our large towns are left to them- 
 selves, practical heathenism must inevitably soon outgi-ow Chris- 
 tianity." 
 
 Listen to the statement of a city missionaiy in Lambeth. These 
 are mere representative instances, samples of what is generally 
 prevalent : — 
 
 " At 1 o'clock the public-houses open, when it is no uncommon 
 thing to see more than 100 men waiting for the opening of 
 the three gin-palaces at the Marsh Gate, and in the evening to 
 find these places f uU of men and women, who feel themselves 
 more at home here than they do in their wi-etched apartments. 
 The New Cut is as notorious for its places of amusement as for 
 its Sabbath-breaking or its drunkenness. The penny gaff, or 
 Olympic Circus, still exists, and there is reason to fear it is doing 
 a world of mischief. No respectable person goes, so they have it 
 all their own way, and corrupt the minds of youth without rebuke. 
 The Victoria Theatre is well attended. The company may be 
 seen standing at the doors about four o'clock. They are almost 
 exclusively the dii-ty poor, — the working people such as we visit. 
 Astley's, the Surrey Theatre, and the Bower Saloon are all very 
 near the district, as well as many concei"t-rooms of a low charac- 
 ter. The district is notorious for vice. Granby Street, Waterloo 
 Road, is the chief place for fallen women in this neighbourhood. 
 In this street and the next there are supposed to be more than 100 
 women who live on the wages of iniquity. They are not so 
 wi-etched in their appearance or their homes as are those at 
 Westminster, nor are they so accessible. The women who keep 
 the houses do all they can to keep me from speaking to the in- 
 mates. It is at the doors of the houses that I have my interview 
 with them. In describing the state of the district, the depravity 
 of the juvende population must not be overlooked. It is at the 
 Sunday-evening ragged school that much of this is seen. The 
 condu-ct of many of the youths is abominable ; their language is 
 outrageous, and cannot be repeated. Human nature is seen here
 
 820 House of Lords, 24.th February, 1860. 
 
 in some of its darkest shades. But for tlie ragged scliool things 
 would be worse with this class than it is." 
 
 Evidence may be multiplied without endi Here is the opinion 
 of the Rev. Mr. Weeks, whose testimony no one could gain- 
 say:— 
 
 " The late incumbent of this district, the Rev. Mr. Weeks, has 
 been recently appointed Bishop of Sierra Leone, where he was 
 before for many years a missionary of the Church Missionary 
 Society. He was for years incumbent of the district, and, after 
 gaining much knowledge of its condition, and the habits of its 
 population, he remarked in a printed statement which was issued 
 by him, ' 1 can testify that the moral and religious condition of 
 St. Thomas, Lambeth, will bear no comparison to that of Sierra 
 Leone, on the west coast of Africa, with which I was connected 
 as missionary for twenty years.' We mentioned in our introduc- 
 tory remarks, that St. Thomas's district had at present no church. 
 Contributions have been for many years collecting for the erec- 
 tion of one. And it is a remarkable fact, as illustrative of the 
 heathenish condition of parts of London, even as compared with 
 the distant parts of the globe to which foreign missionary societies 
 send labourers from England, that 29Z. 14s. 6d. has been contri- 
 buted from native congregations in Sierra Leone towards the 
 proposed new church for this part of Lambeth." 
 
 My Lords, I maintain that, in order to know what is tbe condi- 
 tion of the i^eople, it is necessary to go among them, not only by 
 day, but by night, and to visit them early and late in their dens 
 and recesses. It is necessary to see them under all their condi- 
 tions and in all their phases if we desire to become acquainted 
 with their precise character, to examine their peculiar habits, 
 and, as it were, their natural history ; and 1 defy any one who 
 has penetrated into their retreats not to come back in terror, 
 dismay, and shame at finding that among a great number of 
 peo^jle in this country there should exist a state of things so 
 perilous and so disgracefid. Not but that the special religious ser- 
 vices of the last two years have produced good fruit ; and when 
 the noble Viscount taunts me with my early prediction, and says, 
 that great Ijenefit has not arisen from those services, 1 reply that, 
 regard being had to the means which the promoters of the move- 
 ment have had at their disposal, they have come up to, and even 
 exceeded our expectations. By a letter to myself from the 
 incumbent of one of the largest parishes in Southwark, it appears 
 that nearly 100 artisans from that parish had gone to Exeter 
 Hall, because they liked the style of the service there j and what
 
 Melujious Service in Theatres. 321 
 
 was tlae result ? why, that, instead of being a])sentees from the 
 parish church, a large proportion had become habitual attenders 
 on Divine worship. This is the way the leaven works ; and if 
 a taste for God's Word is thus excited in men's minds, they will 
 settle down by degrees either as members of the Church of 
 England or of some one of the Nonconformist bodies. 
 
 Another and very material fact to be borne in mind, is the 
 peculiar character of a large portion of the people of London. 
 Considerable numbers are nomad in their habits : not less, per- 
 haps, than 50,000 or 60,000 persons in the metropolis are in an 
 almost constant state of motion, seldom being stationary for more 
 than two or three months. The statement in my hand proves the 
 migratory life, either from taste or necessity, of the population : — 
 
 " The missionary," says one witness, " has been for the long 
 period of 15 years labouring in the district, and certainly not 
 without result, although that result would doubtless have been 
 more apparent but for the migratory character of the peoi^le. He 
 estimates that of the 600 families visited by him, about 300 
 annually remove." 
 
 Again, the books of a school in district showed that, with 
 
 an average attendance of 380 scholars, there has been an average 
 of 340 new scholars every year. 
 
 "I have to deplore," says another, "constant changes of resi- 
 dence on the part of the people. Often the missionary had 
 no sooner obtained a footing in a house than its occupiers re- 
 moved. In one street, on going round, he had found all gone ;" 
 and yet let it be remembered that the city missionary must 
 revisit the whole of his district once every five weeks. 
 
 But the most remarkable evidence received on this point came 
 from a most amiable and efficient minister, the Rev. Albert 
 Rogers. That gentlemen stated : — 
 
 " As the late incumbent of Regent Square Church, the district 
 attached to which contained about 10,000 souls, of whom some 
 6,000 or 7,000 wei*e poor, and having labovired among them during 
 a period of nearly seven years, I am capable of forming a very 
 decided opinion respecting the ha])its of the lower classes. I had 
 labouring with me between 30 and 40 district visitors, one or two 
 curates, and three lay agents, and their unanimous testimony was 
 to the effect that our united efforts for the good of the poor, and 
 especially of the poorest, were almost paralysed in consequence 
 of their roving character. Repeatedly whole streets in the lowest 
 parts of the district have been cleaned out of their inhabitants, 
 
 z
 
 322 Eouse of Lords, Mth February, 1860. 
 
 and a new colony has arisen in it in the course of a few weeks. 
 Some houses were occupied by thieves and prostitutes, who 
 generally have no certain dwelling-place. Our schools suffer in 
 proportion to the roving habits of the parents of the children, 
 and it would not be difficult, from the statistics of the schools in 
 London, to prove the migi'atory character of the poor." 
 
 Now, these migratory habits of the people render it impossible 
 to bring to bear upon them the ordinary parochial machinery of 
 the Church. Moving, as they do, from one point to another, it 
 stands to reason that in this manner, at least, they can never be 
 reached. But something must be done, and that speedily ; for 
 although matters have greatly improved within the last twenty 
 years, and are still improving, yet the state of things is of the 
 most fearful description. I am speaking correctly when I say 
 that, although the regular depredators and thieves of Loudon— 
 those who live by j)erpetual breach of the law and nothing else — 
 may not, according to the inquiries I have made, exceed the num- 
 ber of 3,000, yet there is a large floating class of the most 
 dangerous description in the metropolis, who get their daily 
 sustenance by jobs of all kinds, small trades, and by picking \\\> 
 money here and there, not in a violent or fraudiilent way, but of 
 whom it may certainly be predicted, that if there should be, from 
 any cause, but a momentary suspension of order and authority, 
 they would, to the number of 100,000, be let loose upon the 
 property and lives of the inhabitants ; and sure I am that their 
 terrible excesses would throw the riots of Nottingham and 
 Bristol into the shade. A moment's sight of the poptilace when 
 aggregated in Houndsditch, Petticoat Lane, Rag Fair, the New 
 Cut, and other such places, would be better for proof than whole 
 volumes of reports, and endless speeches founded upon them. No 
 evidence, however full, no language, however strong, is adeqiiate 
 to the ti-uth. It must be seen, and felt, and tested, by personal 
 contact with the people themselves. 
 
 Such are the classes whom I and my friends desire to soften 
 and to render amenable to order and civilization. They must be 
 won, and for that purpose resort must be had to everything that 
 is true and legitimate. For this purpose I rejoice to say that 
 many Churchmen and Nonconformists have joined together in a 
 common effort. The question now is, Shall these vast masses be 
 left in ignorance, or shall they be brought in this way to a 
 knowledge of the truth ? Is the evil of thus opening the theatres 
 comparable to the evil of abandoning the people to total darkness ^ 
 I may be told that a committee of your Lordships' house, appointed
 
 Religious Service in Tlieatres. 323 
 
 at the instance of tlie Bishop of Exeter, has produced a very 
 admirable report, recommending a variety of measures for the 
 diffusion of religion. Very true ; but, in the first place, I doubt 
 whether that project will ever be carried into effect; and in the 
 next, I am not quite certain that, if can-ied into effect, it will be in 
 any degree successful. The old prejudices will still continue 
 against chvirch and chapel. But your Lordships have been told by 
 the noble Yiscount that there is church and chapel room in many 
 parts of London sufficient to contain the largest congi-egations. 
 It is not so in fact, but let it be so for the sake of argument. 
 How will that overcome existing prejudices ? In the first place, 
 the preacher may not be attractive ; yet these wild and irregular 
 people must be conciliated ; and in the next, the church or chapel 
 may be at too great a distance from the abodes of the poor. 
 Reference has also been made, by the noble Viscount, to the city 
 churches ; but the city is entirely denuded of its population on 
 Sunday, and, in many parts, even on the week days ; the churches 
 are surrounded by tenements converted into warehouses, and 
 even if the clergymen could compel the people to attend Divine 
 service, their congregations would never exceed 40 or 50 persons 
 each. The city churches are altogether useless for missionary work. 
 
 My Lords, I must maintain that in an endeavour to bring these 
 poor people to a knowledge of sacred things, we must have no 
 little regard to their habits, their feelings, and even their preju- 
 dices. They are men of like passions with ourselves, of the same 
 capacities for virtue and vice, for time and for eternity. It is by 
 OUT neglect, and by the neglect of those who preceded us, that 
 they have been reduced to their present condition. We have given 
 them no help in matters where it was impossible that they should 
 help themselves ; we have permitted every physical and moral 
 mischief to grow up around them, tainting both body and mind 
 by their poisonous influences ; and it is not for us to censure, or 
 ignore, the weaknesses that our own misconduct has created. We 
 may not treat them with indifference, and say that, unless they 
 conform at once to our rules and systems, they shall receive 
 nothing at our hands. Why, consider, there are many who dislike 
 to show their faces during the day. It is a fact that the after- 
 noon sei"vices are never so well attended as those in the evening ; 
 and for this reason, that many of these unhappy beings are so 
 filthy and so ill-clad that they are ashamed to come out in the 
 light and expose themselves to the public gaze. They creep foi-th 
 under the shadow and shelter of night, and thus occasionally 
 attend the evening service. 
 
 But there is a lower stratum of humanity still ; and this, too.
 
 324 House of Lords, 2ith February, 1860. 
 
 must be reached. We cannot stop in what we have begun ; and 
 we are resolved to go deeper and deeper, and use every legitimate 
 and every available appliance for the pui-pose of spreading a 
 knowledge of God's truth among the destitute and outcast popula- 
 tion of London. My Lords, I assert that it is not the locality that 
 can desecrate the word of Grod, but it is the word of God that 
 consecrates the locality ; and here is a proof ! The noble Viscount 
 has spoken of disorderly scenes in one of the theatres. There has 
 never been any disorder. When the people, ixnaccustomed to 
 such things, entered, for the first time, and took their seats, there 
 may have been a great deal of bustling about ; but I defy the 
 noble Yiscount to produce a single human being who will venture 
 to say that he was present during the time the services were 
 going on, and saw or heard anything that would have been 
 objectionable in the most devout and pious congregation ever 
 assembled within the walls of a church. Now for the proof of 
 what I have asserted ! At the opening of Sadler's Wells on the 
 1st of January, a most indefatigable and admirable clergyman of 
 the Church of England officiated — the Rev. Mr. Owen — well 
 known during the fury of the cholera at Bilston. What was his 
 description of the conduct of the people ? The adults, he said, 
 entered the building quietly enough ; but about 500 or 600 boys in 
 the upper gallery made considerable disturbance by shuffling their 
 feet and calling out to one another. Before the services began 
 Mr. Owen rose, and, addressing the boys, told them he had come 
 to do them good here and hereafter ; that if they would be quiet 
 and listen to what he had to say, he shoiald thank God for their 
 presence ; but that if their object was to create a disturbance he 
 entreated them to leave the place. From that moment to the 
 close of the services, which lasted an hour and a half, "you 
 might," to use the words of Mr. Owen, " have heard a pin drop." 
 Was that no triumph ? Was there here no moral discipline ? — 
 no hope for good and lasting effects ? The services began with a 
 plain hymn, then a chapter of the Bible was read, then an 
 extempore prayer was put up by the minister, then another hymn, 
 and then a sermon. Must we not regard it as a great moral 
 victory, that a minister of religion, by simply announcing to a 
 motley crew that he had come to preach to them the word of 
 everlasting life, had persuaded 2,500 persons — the mass of them 
 unaccustomed to any religious services whatever— to sit quietly 
 for an hour and a half, and listen to the glad tidings of the 
 Gospel P At the Yietoria Theatre there occurred a remarkable 
 scene. A well-known man was going in. One of the policemen 
 present said to a city missionary, " Tou should not admit that
 
 Beligibus Service in TJieafres. 325 
 
 person ; he is one of tlie most dangerous men in the district, and 
 will make a terrible disturbance ; it will take four of us to carry 
 him to the station-house." The missionary allowed the man to 
 pass. His conduct throughout was admirable ; and next morning 
 the missionary called upon him at his own house, and the man 
 suffered him to read the Bible and offer up a prayer. Was that 
 no triumph ? Was there here no prospect of better things ? Had 
 not clergymen and Nonconformist ministers described in touch- 
 ing language the good impressions they had seen produced ? The 
 experiment, in fact, has been attended with wonderful and 
 encouraging success. This letter, dated the 6th of Febitiary, 
 which I have received from Sir Richard Mayne, will show how 
 the people have behaved themselves in circumstances so trying 
 and so novel : — 
 
 " Before answering the inquiry in your letter I thought it best 
 to make special inquiry on the subject. I have now the satisfac- 
 tion to acquaint you that the people attending religious worship 
 in the theatres and public places mentioned in the memorandum 
 have conducted themselves with great propriety. There has not 
 been cause for the police interference on any occasion." 
 
 On the 23rd (for I was desirous of having the latest informa- 
 tion). Sir R. Mayne again wrote : — " The conduct of the people 
 continues to be most decorous. I have been able to reduce the 
 number of police on duty at each of the places since my letter to 
 you of the 6th of February." He had reduced the number of 
 constables at our theatres ; and yet at that very time he had sent, 
 of necessity, sixty policemen in full uniform to attend the services 
 and keep order at St. George's-in-the-East ! 
 
 Again, I say, was that no triumph — was nothing gained there ? 
 Was the contrast, though painful, not instructive ? Is it nothing 
 to find that if we only speak to the people in a kind, straight- 
 forward, sincere, open, and earnest manner, we may govern their 
 affections, and keep them in obedience and good order? My 
 Lords, what the people of England want is, not patronage, but 
 sympathy ; the bringing of heart to heart, the acknowledgment 
 on the part of persons of all conditions, of all degrees of wealth, 
 that they are men of like passions with themselves, with the same 
 hopes, the same aspirations, the same fears, and the same des- 
 tinies. If any Prime Minister of England, and those associated 
 with him in the government, will only show that sympathy, 
 especially in its highest and most solemn form, the people might 
 be led like a flock of sheep. 
 
 The question will naturally be asked, What ai-e the numbers of
 
 326 House of Lords, 2iih February, 1860. 
 
 those wlio have engaged in tliese sei-vices, and upon whom si'^ 
 happy an inflaence has been exerted? Observe, my Lords, it is 
 not in a single instance only that good effects have been produced, 
 nor have audiences been attracted by the mere novelty of the 
 thing. These services have been going on since the 1st of Janu- 
 ary, at five different theatres during the first five weeks, and at 
 seven since last week. The total number of people who attended 
 at the seven houses which were open on Sunday last was 20,700 ; 
 and allowing, for the sake of argument, a deduction of 10 per 
 cent, for people coming from mere curiosity, there would still 
 remain 18.630 persons who had come to hear the Word of God, 
 and who had never before frequented any places of public wor- 
 ship. I am aware of the assertion that these people do not 
 belong to the lowest class, which has never yet been reached, and 
 that these services only serve to withdraw good folks from the 
 churches and chapels they ordinarily attend. But this has been 
 disproved in the most emphatic manner by the experience of all 
 those who have been present at any of these celebrations. I do 
 not deny that there is a still lower class than that which has 
 hitherto come to these seiwices, a class which we shall have much 
 difficulty in reaching ; but we have, I maintain, most certainly got 
 at a very low class indeed by means of this movement. A city 
 missionary wi-ites: — 
 
 " I have been really astonished at the multitude of persons who 
 are attending these seiTices out of very low neighbourhoods, and 
 who previously altogether neglected public worship." 
 
 The incumbent of St. Matthew's, St. George's-in-the-East, a 
 young minister, who has been very zealous in going about among 
 the poorer classes, and has acquired much experience of their 
 character, states : — 
 
 " I have preached at the Ohelisk in Southwark, in Ratcliff 
 Highway ; I have preached for two seasons on the steps of the 
 Royal Exchange; and last Sunday I preached at the Gai-rick 
 Theatre. The place was densely crowded by persons of a class I 
 never before got at." 
 
 Mai-k these words, my Lords, "never before got at," from a 
 person so conversant with these classes. 
 
 "I have carefully inquired," he adds, "from the city mis- 
 sionaries, and I find that their meetings are better attended, a 
 deeper religious feeling pervades them, and their access to the 
 homes of the people is much more easy." 
 
 Another experienced clergyman says : —
 
 JReligious Service in Theatres. 327 
 
 " These cliaracters, and svicli as they, do not, and will not, 
 attend tlie ordinary ministrations of tlie Word of God in church 
 or chapel. They have an aversion to cross the threshold of a 
 place of worship, where they think their appearance would be a 
 subject of remark." 
 
 The same testimony is bome by the Rev. Newman Hall, the 
 distinguished minister of Surrey Chapel, who states that the class 
 of people who attend the special services are just those whom we 
 are most anxioxis to improve. But let me read to your Lordships, 
 in illustration, two short letters, giving an account of these 
 celebrations. They are well worthy of attention. The first is 
 from a vei*y eminent Nonconformist minister, the Rev. Mr. 
 Graham : — 
 
 " In connection with the united committee," he writes, " I 
 preached in the Yictoria Theatre last Sunday evening to a great 
 concourse of people. The assembly was of the most heterogeneous 
 character, but the great body of the hearers were evidently such 
 as never enter a house of worship, and never would, except the 
 Gospel sought them in such places as those in which it now can 
 get them to assemble. When we entered the theatre the assembly, 
 especially in the galleries, w^as noisy and confused, and cries of 
 ' Tom ' and ' Bill ' and ' Jack ' were frequent and loud ; but before 
 the sei-vice had proceeded ten minutes all were as orderly and 
 attentive as in most rehgious assemblies. Indeed, before the 
 close of the sermon, all was deeply solemn and stiU. I mingled 
 with the multitude as they issued from the sei-vice, and had an 
 oppoi-tunity of more closely observing their bearing and grades. 
 They appeared to be di'awn from the lowest stratum of London 
 population, such as the Great Master would have had compassion 
 on as sheep scattered and without a shepherd. Nowhere ui the 
 three kingdoms, during a ministry of nearly twenty years, have 
 I ever preached to an assembly of my fellow-men that seemed 
 more deeply to need the preaching of the Gospel of holiness and 
 peace. In none of the special services have I felt myself so 
 much in place as an Evangelist as preaching to those who are in 
 every sense ' the poor.' The spii'it of Chi-istian union in these 
 sei-vices makes them, I think, especially telling." 
 
 What can be more descriptive, what more touching, than this 
 narrative ? The other is from the Rev. Mr. Acworth, the vicar of 
 Plumstead, and is of equal value : — 
 
 " When I officiated," he says, " at the "Victoria Theatre, the 
 theatre was so crowded that it was found necessary by the police
 
 328 House of Lords, 24:th February, 1860. 
 
 to shut tlie door before the time of service. The congregation 
 consisted almost entirely of working men. The hnbbub that 
 existed ceased the moment I asked the dense congregation to 
 unite in prayer ; but from the few voices that joined in repeating 
 the Lord's Prayer, I judged that the larger portion of them had 
 little or no acquaintance with it. After singing a hymn I 
 preached, for nearly three quarters of an hour, upon Moses lifting 
 up the serpent in the wilderness. On giving a narrative of the 
 life and miracles of Moses, ai^d of the lifting up of the sei-pent as 
 typical of what our Saviour had suffered to obtain for us eternal 
 life, I was listened to with the most extraordinary attention, as if 
 the subject had never been heard of before. I had had a con- 
 siderable prejudice against going into a theatre ; and it was only 
 the strongly-expressed opinion of laymen who had studied the 
 character of our London population that induced me to undertake 
 the service. The best answer to my prejudice was the appearance 
 of my auditory. During a ministry of thirty years I never 
 entered so much into the feelings of the Author of our religion, 
 who ' when He beheld the city wept over it.' " 
 
 These statements I can confinn by my own personal experience, 
 having myself attended at the Victoria Theatre on three succes- 
 sive occasions. The audience each time numbered no less than 
 3,200 persons, so closely crowded that a straw could not have been 
 placed between them. From the beginning to the end of the 
 service no assembly could have been more orderly, more attentive, 
 more apparently devout, and more anxious to catch every word 
 that fell from the preacher's lips. On one of the occasions, so 
 solemn and touching was the discourse of the preacher, and so 
 moved were many even of the wildest and roughest present, that 
 when, after the " Benediction," they rose to leave the building, 
 they went so quietly and solemnly that you could hardly hear the 
 sound of a footfall. Surely no one can deny that a deep and 
 solemn impression is made on the minds of those people : it is 
 found that many come to the services week after week ; and can 
 it be doubted that we are by degrees spreading a leaven through- 
 out the whole population ? We only want, I am confident, more 
 extended machineiy, and more numerous opportunities, to produce 
 a really living and lasting effect upon those large masses. 
 
 Now, there can be no mistake as to the character of the 
 assembly. At one celebration of the service the men miistered in 
 proportion to the women as nine to one, and on another occasion 
 as seven to three. I asked a person who happened to be present, 
 and who is conversant with the character of the people in the
 
 Ttelifjious Service in TJieatres. 329 
 
 neighbourhood, and knows most of them, both by calling and by 
 name, to give me some idea of the sort of people who were 
 gathered together. The man replied that there were 3.200 present 
 he was certain, because he was expert at such calculations, from 
 Laving to count the people in the theatre ; and of that number 
 2,000 belonged to the class called " roughs " — the most violent, 
 disorderly, and dangeroits of all the men in that very quarter. 
 This man lifted up his hands in amazement when he saw how 
 quiet was their demeanour. He had expected uproar and even 
 danger, and he frankly said he could not comprehend how those 
 two thousand wild, ixnruly fellows behaved themselves so well. 
 And certainly it is a very remarkable thing, and a great moral 
 result, that so many men of such turbulent character and dis- 
 orderly habits shoiUd have been got to listen patiently and quietly 
 for an hour and a half to a religious service, an occupation so un- 
 usual, and, as we might have supposed, so distasteful to them. 
 Do you inquire as to the fruits ? A report is weekly made to the 
 committee for conducting these services as to the character of the 
 audiences on these occasions, and the effect produced. These 
 reports are one theme of congratulation and expression of thank- 
 fulness from those who have taken part in them, that they had 
 been permitted to enjoy an opportunity of making known religious 
 truth to thousands and tens of thousands, who, except for this 
 instrumentality, would have gone to their graves without a 
 knowledge of the God that made them, and of the Saviour who 
 died for them . 
 
 But it is said that the issue of holding these religious services 
 in theatres is to draw away the congregations from other places 
 of worship. Happily, the fact is jiist the reverse. I hold in my 
 hand the testimony of several clergymen and Dissenting minis- 
 ters of the districts around these theatres, who unite in saying 
 that there has been no abatement, but rather an increase, in the 
 numbers of their congregations. They state, and it is reasonable 
 that it should be so, that many of those who had attended these 
 services had been so' impressed by what they had there heard, 
 that they had become regular attendants at the churches or 
 chapels of the neighbourhood. Now, if there is a human being 
 who is well acquainted with the working people of the metropolis 
 it is the Rev. Joseph Brown, rector of Christ Church, Blackfriars. 
 Mr. Brown's parish is included within one of the most awful 
 localities in the world. I wish that your Lordships would go there 
 and spend a little time in that and similar neighbourhoods. You 
 would thus do a great service. It would be time well spent. 
 Proofs such as this, of interest in the welfare of the people, of a
 
 330 House of Lords, lith February, 1860. 
 
 desire to know, and, if possible, improve tlieir condition, tend to 
 harmony and good-will among all classes, the preservation of 
 order, and loyalty to the crown. I remember, in one of my walks 
 in the east of London, an intelligent working man said to me, " I 
 hear that there are very fine folks at t'other end, with such fine 
 carriages and horses ; why don't they come here, and see what we 
 arc a-doingon? "We are worth thinking on, for we are many." 
 He spoke the truth : they are " worth thinking on ;" and it is to 
 recover a treasure so valuable, and bring them back to the com- 
 mimion of Christian life, that the present labour is bestowed. 
 Now, Mr. Brown, whose church is near the New Ciit, says that 
 his afternoon service is not aff'ected by the services in the "Victoria 
 Theatre, and he even recommends a morning service therein for 
 the benefit of the tens of thousands who are to be found in the 
 New Cut on Sunday morning. In the New Cut, like Petticoat 
 Lane and Rag Fair, on Sunday, are thousands of persons, many 
 of whom pass the day playing at skittles, at pitch-farthing, and 
 in almost every crime ; and it is hoped that some of these, at 
 least, may be enticed into the playhouse to listen to the "Word of 
 God. However abnormal these services may be, good cannot but 
 follow the collection of 20,700 of these persons to hear the Gospel, 
 many of whom would otherwise be in the highways and the 
 streets, having no other occupation than to break the Ten Com- 
 mandments from first to last. The Rev. Newman Hall, minister 
 of Sui-rey Chapel, says : " My church was quite full with an 
 attendance of 2,500 prior to the services. There has been no 
 diminution since." The Rev. R. Robinson, of York Road Chapel, 
 states : " I am happy to say that the attendance at the chapel 
 has suffered no diminution whatever since the opening of the 
 Victoria ; even the young have not been drawn away." The 
 Rev. Hugh Allen, the rector of St. George's, Southwark. virites : 
 " None of my church services have been at all diminished, either 
 in number or interest ; and 1 have no hesitation in saying that 
 these special services at the theatres, so far as they have come 
 under my notice, were attended principally by the class of persons 
 for whom they were instituted, and tlie attention given to my 
 preaching there was as solemn and as marked as ever I witnessed in 
 any church." Of the services at Sadler's "Wells, the Rev. Daniel 
 "Wilson, of Islington (a well-known name), says : " I am not 
 aware that the congregations attending any of our churches in 
 this locality have been aff'ected by the special services." The 
 Rev. Robert Maguire, of Clerk enwell, obseiwes : " My congrega- 
 tion in Clerkenwell Church has not been in the slightest degree 
 aff'ected by the theatre services." The Rev. A. M. Henderson, of
 
 Religious Service in Theatres. 331 
 
 Clai'emont Chapel, testifies : " My congTegatiou has not been 
 lessened." The Rev. H. Ingram, of Pentonville Chapel, also : 
 " My evening congvegation has improved rather than diminished 
 since the opening of Sadler's Wells. On the evening of the 
 special services we were d'owded." With respect to the services 
 at the Garrick Theatre, Wliitechai^el, the Rev. T. Richai-dson, 
 incumbent of St. Matthew's, Pell Street, to whom I have already 
 alluded, says : " My congregation has increased ever since I 
 preached at the Garrick, and the increase has been from the 
 lowest orders." The Rev. R. H. Bayues, incumbent of St. Paul's, 
 adds : " These services have in no way affected my evening con- 
 gregation, though my chu.rch is not more than three hundred or 
 four himdred yards from the theatre." This is an important fact. 
 The Rev. W. Tyler, Mile End Chapel, says : " We are still always 
 full." The Rev. C. Stovel, Commercial Road Chapel, says : " If 
 anything, the evening attendance has improved." The Rev. 
 J. Markwell alone writes : " I must say that the congregations 
 of an evening at St. James's, Curtain Road, have, since the 
 sei^vice at the Britannia Theatre, Hoxton, fallen off greatly ; still 
 would fondly hope that God will o^vn and bless these extraordinary 
 efforts for the conversion of sinners." But here I may remark 
 that the congregations assembled at the Britannia Theatre are 
 of a somewhat superior class, and though consisting of persons 
 who are not frequenters of places of worship, are not composed 
 altogether of the wild and destitute beings who flocked to the 
 other theatres. Who can entertain a doubt that these services 
 are producing a considerable benefit by small means — an enormous 
 church and chapel extension at a small cost? The argument 
 against them, and it is the only one, is, that there is something 
 unpleasant in the association. I do not deny there is some- 
 thing abnormal in these services, something that is unpleasant. 
 But the Right Rev. Archbishop has put the case truly and well 
 when he says, that " while on the one side there is a natural and 
 legitimate sentiment, on the other there is principle." It is so ; 
 for what do those who object to these services give in exchange, 
 what do they offer in the present most awful necessity for doing 
 something ? Suppose that an appeal be made to the country for 
 church accommodation, and that the country should in time 
 respond to the appeal, would the response be equal to the demand P 
 I was told by the late Bishop of London that, when an appeal was 
 made to the public for twenty additional churches for the metro- 
 polis, by the time the money was collected, and the churches were 
 built, the population had increased in a far greater proportion 
 than the churches would contain, and the arrear remained the
 
 332 House of Lords, 2ith February, 1860. 
 
 same as before. Now, suppose tlie House should adopt the resohi- 
 tion, and suppose the services should in consequence be discon- 
 tinued, what is to be done meanwhile ? Tears must elapse before 
 this great scheme of church accommodation, even if adopted, 
 could be carried into effect, and hundreds of thousands would go 
 to their graves in utter ignorance of all saving truth, and con- 
 tributing while they live to the disgrace, dishonour, and insecurity 
 of the country. 
 
 My Lords, hard things have been said of the ministers of 
 religion who have taken a part in these services. I have a totally 
 different view ; I cannot too much commend them. I feel bound 
 and rejoice to bear my testimony to the conduct of the Noncon- 
 formist ministers in this matter. Some of their most eminent 
 men have joined this movement with hearty zeal. The noble 
 Viscount says that we are endangering the Church. Just the 
 reverse. I believe that the movement of which this is a part has 
 done more to strengthen and perpetuate the Church than any 
 other cause ; and the clergy of the Church who have participated 
 in these services have gone far to rivet the hearts of the people to 
 the Establishment. But there has been some talk of an inhibition 
 to stop these services. Now, first I doubt the legality of such an 
 inhibition; and I, for one, am prepared, if an inhibition be issued, 
 to test its legality. I question whether any human being or any 
 law has the power of preventing a clergyman in his capacity of a 
 Christian citizen from performing that great duty, the salvation 
 of souls, in season and out of season, at all times and in aU places, 
 to any who may be disposed to hearken. I hold in my hand a 
 short letter from a clergyman of the Church of England ; and 
 here I may remark that many other clergymen of the Church are 
 coming forward to join in this work — it speaks the sentiments of 
 a large body who feel that principle in such a work is paramount 
 to every other consideration. The writer says — 
 
 " I presume the right of Christian men to exhort an ungodly 
 multitude, wherever found, ought not to be interfered with ; and 
 it was only as a Christian man that I addressed the multitude in 
 the Gan-ick Theati-e. I wore no ecclesiastical dress, and used no 
 part of the Church service." 
 
 He well asserts the right of the clergy, and shows that it is 
 exercised with moderation and judgment. 
 
 My Lords, you must perceive the rising struggle to preach the 
 Gospel among this mighty mass of human beings. Can you be 
 indifferent to it ? I ask whether you are prepared, as members of 
 the Church of England, to see the Church stand aloof, and the
 
 Religions Service in Theatres, 333 
 
 wliole of this movement given up exclusively to the Dissenters ? 
 Will you say to these destitute and hungering men, " We can do 
 you no sort of good. Come, if you like, to Episcopal churches 
 and chapels, and there you shall be preached to in a stiff, steady, 
 buckram style. We will have you within walls consecrated in 
 due and official form ; otherwise you shall never hear, from us at 
 least, one word of Gospel truth ?" Are you prepared to admit 
 that the Church of England, despite the pressing and fearful 
 necessity, is bound so tightly by rule, and ruljric, and law, and 
 custom, that she can do none of the work ? Will you say, " We 
 have not a sufficient force of clergymen ; we have not churches 
 or chapels ; we have no money to ordain and support the ministers 
 of religion P" In that case the people who are benefited by these 
 sei-vices will reply. " Let the Nonconformists, then, do the work, 
 but let the Church of England take up her real j^osition as the 
 Church of a sect and not that of the nation ; she has been applied 
 to and found wanting, and let us follow those who have called us 
 to the knowledge of the truth." My Lords, I lielieve it will be 
 found that those who have been awakened to religious impressions 
 by ministers of the Church of England will connect themselves 
 with the Church, and that those who owe those impressions to 
 Nonconformist ministers will join Nonconformists. But what- 
 ever may be the case in this respect, I trust your Lordships will 
 not be heard to declare that no minister of the Church ought to 
 take part in this great movement, and fatal would it be if, for 
 any reason, our clergy were to withdi'aw from it. I have great 
 respect for the Nonconformist body. Among them I have many 
 affectionate and valued friends ; but I have a sincere attachment 
 to the Church of England. I dread to see that Church lose one 
 particle of its influence or power, or shrink from what I Ijclieve 
 to be its sacred duty. I i-ejoice to see the friendly rivalry that 
 exists between the clergy of the Church and Nonconformists, in 
 relation to this great work ; but I, for one. will not sui-render to 
 them the right, the comforts, the pi'ivilege, and the j()3\ of 
 evangelizing the masses of the people. My Lords, you are asked 
 to pass a resolution. The resolution, if passed, cannot have the 
 force of law in reference to this movement : it would he just so 
 much waste paper, and no more ; and not being backed by jniblic 
 opinion could have no influence out of doors in checking or 
 impeding us ; the only effect it could produce would be to rouse a 
 strong feeling of indignation or sorrow. I hope the noble 
 Viscount will not go away with the notion that this is a movement 
 in which the middle classes take no interest. The middle classes 
 of the present day are much better informed than thoEe of a
 
 334 House of Lords, 2Uh February, 1860. 
 
 former genei-ation. They know that the safety of their lives and 
 property, and the preservation of public order, depend on their 
 having around them a peaceful, happy, and moral population ; 
 and they feel that the course now being pursued is one which, by 
 the communication of Christian truth, will mainly conduce to 
 that issue. I implore your Lordships not to adopt this resolution ; 
 but whatever may be the decision of the House, I feel myself 
 bound to say — and I am speaking, I know, the sentiments of those 
 with whom I am associated — that, by the blessing of God, we will 
 persevere in the course which we have begun, so long as we have 
 breath to speak and materials to work upon. 
 
 The foregoing speech on the question of " Religious Services in the 
 Theatres of London " was pubhshed soon after its dehvery, in obedience to 
 the wishes and representations of several of my friends, and of others who 
 took an interest in the subject. I now append as a note the substance of 
 what I then prefixed to it as a preface. 
 
 In setting before the public one of the many schemes devised for the 
 benefit of the working population, I must avail myself of the opportunity 
 thus offered to call attention once more to the master-evil which sm-rouuds 
 and depresses them. There are many forms of ill, no doubt, and many 
 remedies that may be applied — in these days we need great variety of effort, 
 and equal variety of agency — but one evil predominates over all, and by its 
 action and reaction is daily dragging the people down to lower depths of 
 degradation. 
 
 The domiciliary state of whole legions of our fellow'-citizens has been 
 with me, for some time, a subject of observation and inquiry ; and I do not 
 hesitate to assert that it lies at the froot of nineteen-twentioths of the 
 mischiefs that we seek to redress. Not only the actual dwelling, but the 
 situation of it, the character, physical and structural, of tlie locality, 
 whether it be street, or court, or alley, or some deep, dark, and poisonous 
 recess, never penetrated except by its own wild and imknown inhabitants, 
 must be included within the term " domiciliary state ;" and in these places 
 — low, narrow, with a death-like dampness, impervious to light or air (the 
 work of greedy speculators, uncontrolled by laW; — are aggregated all tlie 
 fearful influences that breed evil and neutralize good, whenever it seeks to 
 establish a footing among these neglected classes. 
 
 Fever and disease of every kind prevail ; a poor standard of physical 
 strength, the result of the fetid atmosphere they iniiale by day and by night, 
 deprives them of power to do able-bodied work ; while loss of energy and 
 depression of spu-its drive them to seek life and support in vice and intoxica- 
 tion. 
 
 Their modes of existence are sometimes diametrically opposite. A large 
 ma.ss is found in the perpetual din and whirl of close-packed multitudes. 
 A nmaller, in the remote and silent retreats of filth and pestilence (tluougli
 
 Beligious Service in 'Theatres. 335 
 
 which no thoroughfare passes\ dwells in a kind of savage solitude, seldom 
 emerging by day from their hiding-places, and rarely visited. But whether 
 in great or small numbers, whether in the most active or the most tranquil 
 quarters, all are equally shut out from the possibility of domestic life. A 
 dozen families in a single house, though barely sufHcieut for two; as many 
 individuals of both sexes and of all ages in a single room, the common and 
 only plfiee for cooking, washing, sleeping ; the want of fre.4i air, the defect 
 of water, of every dicency, and of every comfort, give proof enough. We 
 need not wonder why the gin-shop and the tap-room are frequented ; why 
 the crime of incest is so rife ; why children are ragged and ignorant, and 
 the honest dignity of the working man's home degraded or foigotten. 
 These poor people, by no fault of their own — for they did not create the 
 evil, nor can they remedy it — are plunged into a social state which is alike 
 dishonourable and unsafe to our common country. 
 
 The main mischief of this condition of things lies in the counteracting 
 power, nay, the almost insuperable barrier, it presents to all efforts lor 
 amelioration. These efforts, nevertheless, must be made ; no good may be 
 left unattempted ; against hope we must believe in hope, and endeavour, 
 though the mass be inaccessible, to rescue individuals. A few, by God's 
 blessing, will be reclaimed, and many, no doubt, will be comparatively 
 humanized. This is the object of the special services ; and were they 
 accompanied by a simultaneous improvement of house and home, we might 
 be sure of seeing and feeling the benelicial effects of religious principle, of 
 extended education, and of the revived sanctities and joys of domestic life ; 
 we might then urge, with efiect, the foundation and use of the collateral 
 helps of savings-banks, sick funds, mechanics' institutes, reading-rooms, 
 lectures, colfee-clubs, mutual improvement societies, working men's Christian 
 and other associations, with every institution for pro[)er recreation or profit- 
 able knowledge. Such efforts as these will then have an open tield, which 
 now is denied them. 
 
 It must not be supposed that, with all these facts before the public, no 
 attemj)t has been made to devise some means of remedying, or at least of 
 abating, the evil. Better di'ainage has been established in many places, 
 and with beneficial results. The effects, however, of drainage will be but 
 small where ventilation is impossible, and while the structural condition of 
 the buildings and localities, made worse by the overcrowded masses within, 
 is so vile and pestilential. Experiments of model lodging-houses of all 
 kinds, for married couples, for single men, for single women, have been 
 instituted. The principle of them has been most satisfactorily proved, in 
 the moral and physical improvement of their inmates ; and, were the 
 financial returns equivalent to what lias been gained in health and character, 
 we might hope for a general extension of the system. But mdiajjpily the 
 price of land and the cost of building in the metropolis are so high as to 
 forbid any remunerative employment of capital, .unless by such an incrLase 
 of rent as would be intolerable to the working classes. 
 
 The Common Lodging-house Act has introduced many arrangements of 
 health, comfort, and decency for a large portion of the peojjle, which liny 
 thankfully accept and acknowledge. One or two short statements will be a
 
 336 House of Lords, 24tJi February, 18G0. 
 
 sufficient proof. The policemen engaged in tlie inspection immediately 
 after the passing of the Act report : " So abundant was the vermin, that 
 repeated changes of clothes were necessary ;" " that the evils existing in the 
 lodging-houses were beyond description. Crowded and filthy, without 
 water or ventilation, without the least regard to cleanliness or decency, 
 tliey were hotbeds of disease, misery, and crime." 
 
 Take an instance : " In one room, ten feet square, wherein three persons 
 would be allowed by the regulations now enforced, seven men, nine women, 
 and one child were found huddled together in a most filthy state ; the bed- 
 ding dirty beyond description ; no partitions or ventilation ; and a few 
 minutes before the visit of the officer one of the females had been confined." 
 
 Now, observe the effect of periodical inspection by proper authorities : 
 "The accommodation," says the Report of 1857, "given in registered liouses 
 consists of clean beds and bedding ; well-ventilated and lime-washed sleep- 
 ing-rooms ; well-cleaned kitchens ; plenty of water for all purposes ; sinks 
 drained and trapped to the common sewer wherever such is available. The 
 mixing of the sexes is carefully avoided, except in rooms used as sleeping- 
 rooms by married people, where partitions of solid material secure tlie 
 pi'ivacy of each couple. 
 
 " Property thus registered is improved in every respect, and its value 
 greatly increased. The amount paid for lodgings in these houses since 
 tlieir improvement is not greater than heretofore. 
 
 " In the houses thus registered in the metropolis good accommodation 
 was provided at the time of registration for 42,370 persons ; deducting the 
 number in the houses closed, the actual accommodation is for 28,000." 
 
 But the general effect over the whole country cannot be stated more 
 clearly than in the I'eport from Wolverhampton : 
 
 Wolverhampton, June 9, IS.'iS. 
 I HAVE to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 6th instant, 
 and, to reply to the questions proposed, viz. : 
 
 Q. How many common lodging-houses in my district? 
 A. Two hundred. 
 
 Q. How many persons frequent them annually ? 
 A. Males, about . ."40,000 
 Females, about . 171,000 
 
 J 
 
 Total , 511,000 
 
 Q. Do keepers object to inspection ? 
 
 A. They do not. 
 
 Q. Are the rooms and beds any cleaner since inspection ? 
 
 A. Very much so. 
 
 Q. Is there less or more of vice and sickness ? 
 
 A. Much less vice and immorality, in consequence of the separation of 
 the sexes who are unmarried. Tliere has not been a case of 
 fever or contagious disease since the Lodging-House Act has 
 been in force, viz., July, 1852.
 
 Beligioiis Service in Theatres. 337 
 
 Q. Is the Public Health Act beneficial or otherwise? 
 A. I think it most beneficial, especially as regards the Irish liouses, 
 which are of the lowest class, and which were in a most filthy 
 and disgusting state, but since tliey have been brought under 
 the regulations of the Lodging-Houses Act, they are now clean 
 and wholesome. 
 I beg to say, that out of the number of houses given (200), about 150 
 are Irish liouses, and keep what they term regular lodgers : still the act 
 has been carried out as far as practicable. 
 
 I am, &c., 
 (Signed) KICHARD BENNETT, 
 
 Inspector of Lodging-houses. 
 
 Yet these results, happy as they are, reach only a certain portion of the 
 population in London, and principally those of a wandering and unsettled 
 existence. The far larger portion, for which we should desire the possi- 
 bility of attaining to the honours and comforts of domestic life, are un- 
 touched. Their numbers are more than tenfold those of the migratory 
 class ; and they are lodged in tenements which, by an evasion of the sjiirit 
 of the act and under the fiction of being private dwellings, contain, 
 probably, a greater amount of filth, vice, and disease than could be found in 
 any other capital. Their inspection and regulation would be both just and 
 feasible ; but, under the plea that " Every man's house is his castle," dirt, 
 crime, and fever are permitted to reign without observation or control. 
 
 Doubtless there are still many dismal sights in the metropolis, cnougli 
 almost to teat one down with despair. And yet the state of things in the 
 present day, as contrasted with tliat of some thirty years ago, is decidedly 
 favourable. The various agencies brought into operation during that 
 period have not been without fruit, for many, who have not come directly 
 under such influence, have been partially civilized by the example of their 
 fellows ; and scenes of atrocious savageness and indecency, which were 
 often recorded to me when a young man by the cliief police-officers of that 
 day, would now be beyond the imagination of even the most depraved. 
 
 But we must not trust to this improvement as, in itself, certainly and 
 necessarily permanent. There are signs of an incipient return to a former 
 condition of things ; and every one who cares for the character of the 
 people of England must endeavour to put down the attempted revival of the 
 prize-ring, not only by law, but by public opinion. 
 
 Of one point I feel perfectly sure, and it is one which gives us much 
 hope. A great deal of the destitution and misery that we see is not 
 inevitable and inherent. It is the result of sickness and intoxication, and 
 these are, to an enormous extent, the result of the sanitaiy condition of the 
 people. Here they cannot help themselves ; the obligation is ours. Give 
 them fair play; and tliey will be both willing and able to earn sufficient 
 wages to keep their families in comfort an<l honour. 
 
 To aid the progress of tlie general improvement is the object of these 
 special services. No one contemplates them as a permanent system : our 
 desire is to fell the trees, to clear the jungle, to remove impediments. AVc 
 
 2 A
 
 888 House of Lords, 24:th February, 18G0. 
 
 hope to bring thousands of our ignorant and neglected brethren to think 
 about Christianity, Having learned it, they will, we trust, pursue it ; and, 
 rising above their attendance at the theatre, attach themselves to the 
 Church of England, or some one or other of the recognized and established 
 forms of worship. 
 
 Their humanizing eifects are already manifest in the language, manners, 
 and appearance of those who frequent them. This is no wonder; for 
 matters of such deep and vital interest can never be altogether without 
 their fraits. With many it may be transitory; with a few it may be 
 lasting ; but utterly ineffectual these services cannot be : and, surely, we 
 may fairly say of them, without fear of disappointment, as Southey said of 
 the music of church bells, that " however it may fall on many unheeding 
 ears, it never fails to find some that it exhilarates, and some that it 
 softens." 
 
 S.
 
 ( 339 ) 
 
 Indian Irrigation and Inland Navigation. 
 
 HOUSE OF LOEDS, 
 
 Fkiday, July 5, 1861. 
 
 Speech on moving that an humble Addi'ess be presented to Her JIajesty to assure 
 Her Majesty that this House has regarded with great satisfaction the Progress 
 of Public Works in various Parts of India ; and to beseech Her Majesty that, 
 with a view to confer further Benefits on that Country, She will be pleased to 
 take into Her immediate and serious Consideration the Weans of extending 
 throughout it, as widely as possible, the best Systems of Irrigation and internal 
 Navigation. 
 
 My Lords, 
 
 It will be necessary for me to bespeak the indulgence of 
 your Lordships, and to request your considei'ation of the subject 
 which I have now the honour to bring befoi-e you. It is a subject 
 which has been disciissed a good deal lately in wi-iting and at 
 public meetings ; and I should not have ventured to direct your 
 Lordships' attention to it had it not been for two recent events of 
 supreme importance. I refer to the famine which has desolated 
 so large a part of India, and the revolution which has broken out 
 in the United States of America. The famine proves unmistak- 
 ably the defect of irrigation ; and the revolution shows the great 
 hazard to which we are exposed in depending almost entirely on 
 a single source for the supply of cotton. It is not my intention 
 here to put India in the place of America, and to say that wo 
 might safely be dependent on India alone for our cotton supply ; 
 I indicate it only as one great source. The subject, confessedly, 
 is worthy of serious reflection, inasmuch as from 4 to 5 million 
 mouths (workpeople and their families) throughout the counti-y 
 look for their daily bread to a constant sitpply of that article ; 
 and, therefore, while recognising West African and Australian 
 sources for a portion of our supply, we may for present purposes 
 confine our consideration to what may be produced by the 
 territory of India. Neither is it my wish to cuter upon the
 
 340 House of Lords, 5th Juhj, 1861. 
 
 inquiry whetlier the famine might have been prevented, or the 
 short supply of cotton foreseen. The fact is, the evils are before 
 us, and we have to deliberate what can be done to avert the 
 recuiTence of such formidable mischiefs. 
 
 The two great requisites of India are ii*rigation and inland 
 navigation — irrigation for the piu-pose of fertilizing the soil, and 
 inland navigation for the purpose of carrying away the produce. 
 In India we want canals for traffic as well as fertility ; for unless 
 the ryot has a pretty good assurance that he can easily transport 
 the crop to a place of sale, he will not cultivate the soil ; and it 
 has often happened that, lacking the means of transport, a great 
 abundance has been to him a burden rather than a benefit.* 
 Here let me remark that, in any proposition we may make for 
 the purpose of extending inland navigation, we are not, directly 
 or indirectly, acting in antagonism to the railways. Railways 
 must subsist in India ; and it is certain that the more you improve 
 the country and increase the wealth of the people, the better 
 will be the prospect of the railways. But, whether the railways 
 be remunerative or not, we may fairly say of them that the 
 great develoj^ment of Indian resources has been coincident with 
 the expenditure on the works, and the partial opening of those 
 imdertakings. 
 
 Now, India is particularly adapted to the purposes of irrigation. 
 Not only is there a vast quantity of water both for flow and for 
 store, but the conformation of the country oifers but few engineer- 
 ing obstacles. An inigation system has prevailed for many 
 centuries in India. It was undertaken upon a large scale by 
 the native princes. They have set an example which we ought 
 to follow. They have laid down the true principles upon which 
 to i^rovide for the necessities of the country ; and it is for us, 
 with our greater scientific knowledge, to cai'ry those principles 
 into efl^ect. No one can doubt the extent of the imgation 
 system who has read an extract from Bepm-tson Public Works at 
 Madras in 1853 : — 
 
 " The mere mention of the number of works {i. e., works 
 executed under native princes) would give no just idea respecting 
 them, as they vary so greatly in size and value, but we may 
 
 * "The wheat, corn, and flour of Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Jlissouri, is carried 1,500 
 and 2,000 miles by river, lake, and canal to the port, and exported to Europe, 
 while the same articles grown in India at one-third of the cost rot upon the ground, 
 200 or 300 miles from the coast, for want of an outlet. I have known rice to be 
 actually unsaleable at a distance of only 60 miles from a port." — Capt. Haigh's 
 Report on the Navigaiiou oi the Godaveiy. Parliamentary Paper, H. of C, Feb. 
 6, 1860, sec. 21.
 
 Indian Irrigation and Inland Navigation. 341 
 
 notice tanks and channels in fonrteen of the chief Ryotwar 
 irrigated districts. They number 43,000 in repair, and 10,000 
 out of repair. The estimated amount of capital invested in their 
 construction is 15 millions sterling." 
 
 The reporters go on to make this strong and just observa- 
 tion : — 
 
 " An examination of this list of works suggests humiliating 
 reflections. The ancient rulers of the country, with resources 
 of science and skill immeasurably inferior to what we can 
 command, raised those numberless magnificent and valuable 
 works. . . . They are due to the enlightened intelligence of 
 princes whom we are accustomed to style barbarians." 
 
 Surely it is our duty — in possession, as we are, of far greater 
 scientific knowledge and far greater means of executing such 
 works than the native princes — siirely it is our duty to the vast 
 country over which we have assumed dominion, to do everything 
 in our power to cany into effect whatever will conduce to the 
 general welfare of the popidation. Does any one now doubt the 
 value of irrigation ? All objections to it were admirably disposed 
 of in the Report of the Commissioners.* Let any gainsayer 
 consider the great deficiency of water at times, the character of 
 the soil, and the words of Dr. Watson,t asserting that not only 
 water but river- water is indispensable; and the value of ii-riga- 
 tion in India cannot l^e questioned. In his admirable lecture on 
 cotton in India, Dr. Watson says, — 
 
 "Irrigation is essential not merely as bringing water, but also 
 organic matter, and certain, though small, quantities of salts, 
 such as gypsum and common salt." — A new, but unanswerable, 
 argument in favour of such works. 
 
 My Lords, they suffer in India as much from excess as from 
 deficiency of water — as much from deluges as from droughts ; 
 and therefore a great part of the irrigation must be by con- 
 stiticting, according to the system of the native princes, large 
 tanks, in which the excess of water during a period of fall is 
 stored, and is dealt out by distributing-channels in periods of 
 drought ; and, moreover, dealt out in sulficient quantities to 
 render rivers and large canals navigable which in time of 
 drought would othei^vidse be pretty nearly, if not altogether, 
 dried up. In this way, I am told, water may be so distributed 
 as to keep not only the surface of India in a constant stute of 
 
 * Report of Public Works, IMadras, sects. 295 et seq. 
 
 f Dr. Forbes VVutson, JI.D., Reporter on Products of India.
 
 342 House of Lords, 5ih July, 1861. 
 
 irrigation, but the canals also, and rivers, navigable by boats. It 
 is by the use of their internal waters that the Americans have 
 made those rapid strides which are the wonder of the present 
 generation : but we have advantages in India which the Ame- 
 ricans do not possess. By the distribution to which I have 
 alluded — by storing the water in tanks, and by pouring it out 
 at proper times — we may render the rivers of India navigable 
 dm-ing twelve months in the year, whereas in America the 
 rivers, being exposed to hard frosts, are, generally speaking, 
 not navigable for more than nine months out of the twelve. In- 
 land navigation, moreover, is peculiarly necessaiy and peculiarly 
 adapted to India. The watercourses are most easy to arrange 
 or construct. The canals may be easily and cheaply kept in 
 repair. They are best adapted to cany heavy burdens at a 
 low cost, and yet insure a return of the largest possible revenue 
 upon the cost of their construction. 
 
 Now, having all these advantages, what is the use which has 
 been made of them by various successive Governments ? This 
 report on Public Works states : — 
 
 " In general it may be affirmed that the greater part of the 
 flood waters of our rivers are turned to no account, and vast 
 bodies of water flow annually to the sea which naight be made 
 use of to fertilize hundreds of thousands of acres, to feed a 
 vast population, and to add enormously both to the wealth of 
 the people and the revenue of the government."* In speaking 
 of the canals, the reporters say — and the remark, though made 
 in reference to the native princes, is equally applicable to the 
 British government : — 
 
 " Still less use was made of the canals of irrigation, though 
 many of them were well adapted for water-carriage during six or 
 eight months of the year." 
 
 We will say nothing just now on the almost equal neglect' 
 for many years at least, of roads and highways. But ought 
 we not to direct our attention more especially to these im- 
 portant matters of irrigation and canals, when we know that 
 it is from the deficiency or excess of water in one way or 
 other that has arisen the greater part of the evils which 
 have afiiicted India — its famines, its pestilences, its fevers, 
 
 * " As canals foi- in-igation have been found to be prejudicial to the public 
 health in Northern India, we may here state that such a lesult has never been met 
 with in this Presidency." — Madras Papers, p. 5. 
 
 I have been informed by a gentleman of experience, that many of the irrigation 
 works in Northern India are of faulty construction.
 
 Indian Irrigation and Inland Navigation. 343 
 
 and all the consequent sufferings ? It is impossible to have 
 a strongei' proof of this than in what has taken place in respect 
 to the great Ganges Canal, which runs through a country 
 particularly in need of the agency of water. When it was 
 constructed it was left unfinished ; the distributing channels 
 were not connected with it, and it did not, therefore, peirform 
 all the purposes for which it was intended. There is no man 
 living who has more to complain of than that great engineer Sir 
 Proby Cautley. He was the engineer of that work, and he 
 achieved a considerable part of it, but a material part was left 
 uncompleted; and the conseqiience was that the Ganges Canal, 
 for a considerable time, was always quoted as a proof of failure 
 and a strong argument against the introduction into India of the 
 canal system. But what is the present state of things ? Let us 
 see what its effect has been, even in its incomplete state, and 
 while deficient in distributing channels. P. Moss, Esq., the 
 Assistant- Secretary to the Government of the Noi-th-West Pro- 
 vinces, says : — 
 
 " The beneficial effect of the canal during the past season can- 
 not be over-estimated." 
 
 What then, my Lords, would have been its results had the full 
 design been wi-ought out ? 
 
 And Captain Turnbull, the Superintendent- General of Irriga- 
 tion, states: — 
 
 " Had there been no canal there would have been no crop on 
 broad lands which are now covered with wheat and other cereals 
 in large abundance." 
 
 Observe, too, this remarkable calculation, made by Captain 
 TurnbuU :— 
 
 " According to a rough calculation, 339,243,840 lb. of grain 
 have thus been supplied to the market during the recent calami- 
 tous season, and, as each pound is an ample quantity for one man 
 daily, or, perhaps, one woman and one child daily, this would be 
 equal to the maintenance of 644,718 men, 464,718 women and 
 children for a whole year ; while it mil also have produced fodder 
 sufficient to keep from starvation the cattle of the districts 
 through which the canal has passed, and has prol^ably saved the 
 government from making remissions of land revenue to the 
 amount of 180,000?. or 200,000?." He adds, as well he may, " It 
 cannot fail to produce a veiy great imj^ression on the minds of 
 the j)eople who will thus have been saved from starvation and 
 misery, and to make them happy and contented." How, then,
 
 344 House of Lords, 5th July, 1861. 
 
 after tkis, can we wonder that the Secretary should close with — 
 " His Honour feels sure that it will be both policy and good 
 economy to push on this magnificent work to completion with the 
 utmost vigour, even though at the risk of some present financial 
 inconvenience ?" 
 
 Now, consider what an extent of countiy needing a supply of 
 water has been saved by this work ; and you may see what would 
 have been its position withoat it, by looking to what is the state 
 of those lands which are beyond the reach of the system. Look, 
 on the other hand, to districts afflicted, in times past, by the other 
 extreme. Take the delta of the Godavery. This formeily wa> 
 deluged by floods, but now, by the works earned on there, it han 
 become a habitable, profitable, and safe country. But the 
 greatest triumph of aU that may be achieved by irrigation, and 
 by opening canals, is to be found in the district of Rajamundry, 
 the wonderful work of Sir A. Cotton. I beg your Lordships to 
 listen to these results, and see how a small expenditure will 
 produce mighty benefits, and in a short space of time too, and 
 how it is that the most remunerative economy at the present 
 moment is to lay out — I will not say a large sum, but even a 
 small sum, to realize these enormous profits. The revenue of 
 this district of Rajamundry has increased within the last year 
 45,000L ; the exports in 1860 were 500,000/., being an increase of 
 180,000?. over the previous year. The bullion imported by the 
 l^eople, now becoming quite a commercial people, but who were 
 formerly among the most abject and impoverished of India, 
 amounted to 190,000Z. The total increase of the revenue is 
 175,000L, being an increase since the works began of no less than 
 90 per cent., and the profit on the expenditure has been 40 per 
 cent., which is mainly attribvitable to the works. Pray, give 
 particular attention to the benefits which have been derived from 
 the works on the canal, and you will see that, while in 1852-3 the 
 number of boats passing down to the seajjorts was no more than 
 752, in 1860, a period of eight years only, it had risen to 15,000 ; 
 and the tonnage of the boats has on an average been fully double. 
 Not having any personal experience of India, it is not possible 
 for nie to describe adequately the benefits which this canal has 
 conf eii-ed on that district ; but I have heard from persons who 
 lived there that it has been tantamount to its regeneration. But 
 your Lordships may, to some extent, judge of them when you 
 consider that it was formerly a district traversed by muddy 
 streams and narrow channels altogether impassable, and that it 
 is now traversed by this great canal, over which pass no less- than
 
 Indian Irrigation mid Inland Navigation. 345 
 
 15,000 boats in the course of tlie year. A letter which has just 
 been received contains a most remarkable statement as to the 
 advantages which these works have conferred on Rajamundry. 
 The wi-iter says, speaking, in the first place, of another dis- 
 trict : — 
 
 " Nothing is more probable than that this tract of countiy may 
 this very year be visited with famine for want of those works. 
 As it is, even at this moment a great part of the Madras Pre- 
 sidency is on the very verge of famine ; rice is selling at If?, a 
 pound — from two to three times its ordinary price, indicating 
 most terrible suflferings among the poor. In Rajamundry, on the 
 other hand, — now observe this, — where irrigation works are in 
 operation, the price is just half what it is in other districts, and, 
 while the people are entirely free from all such pressure, they are 
 exporting probably more than 80,000 tons this year to relieve the 
 suffering provinces." 
 
 So that your Lordships will see that under the operation of 
 these irrigation works Rajamundry, which was formerly one of 
 the most desolate and miserable districts, has not only become as 
 wealthy as I have described, but is actually exporting produce 
 to other provinces. What a proof is here of the value of easy 
 communication ! See the important advantage of this canal, 
 that it brings food tolerably within the reach of the people. 
 Formerly, in some cases they would have to travel from 300 to 
 400 miles in search of food, where now it is brought ' almost to 
 theii" own doors. 
 
 There are not wanting other strong proofs of the value of these 
 works, and of the necessity imposed on the government of India 
 of doing aU that in them lies to promote undertakings which so 
 materially advance the welfare of the people of India. In the 
 Appendix Z to the papers of 1853 there is a very striking and 
 suggestive statement of the result of expenditure on irrigation 
 works in the 14 years from 1836 to 1849. Within those years 
 the works were carried on in 39 i^laces ; on one point the profit 
 was 77 per cent., on another 91 per cent., on another 197 per 
 cent., on another 259 per cent. ; but the average profit on the 
 whole, taking bad and good together, was 69i per cent. ; and I 
 am told that if the results were brought down to the present 
 time they would give a still larger return. On the other hand, 
 let us see what has been the effect of neglect and omission ; and 
 first let me call your attention to the famine which took place 
 some years ago in Guntoor, which lies on the south bank of the
 
 346 House of Lords, 5th July, 18G1. 
 
 Kistnali river, and lias an area of 4,700 square miles. In the 
 report on the state of that district we read : — 
 
 " The large nnmber of ruined tanks in all parts of the country 
 indicate that formerly the extent of irrigated land was consider- 
 able ; at present it is only 4 per cent, of the total cultivation." 
 
 Here is a country which had formerly enjoyed the advantages 
 of a system of inigation. It has suffered fearfully, the tanks 
 having been allowed to fall into disrepair, probably under the 
 native princes, but which were not restored when the British 
 government obtained possession of the territory. The number 
 of ruined tanks, however, shows what the native princes had done, 
 and what they, after the experience of centuries, considered 
 necessary for the welfare of the country. The famine broke out, 
 and vast numbers of persons migrated in search of food. No 
 fewer than 200,000 perished by starvation and fever; and the 
 total loss to the zemindars, ryots, and the government, was 
 estimated at above 2,250,000L ; all of which might have been pre- 
 vented by a little providence and the expenditure, at the right 
 time, of not a fourth part of this sum. But what is the condition 
 of Guntoor at this moment ? Mr. Bourdillon — whom everybody 
 acquainted with India must know as a gentleman most capable 
 of giving information on this matter — was asked as to the present 
 state of Guntoor. He replies : — 
 
 " The works on the Kistnah were suspended by the mutiny, 
 and works of distribution very partially executed." Neverthe- 
 less, see what his reply is as to the present state of Guntoor : — 
 " You ask whether Guntoor is more safe from famine than it 
 used to be. No doubt it is, and why ? My Lords, because two 
 talooks " — that is villages or districts — " are partially watered 
 from the Kistnah. The dams are complete," he says, " but the 
 channels for them are wanting, though the cost would be small, 
 and the addition to the revenue immediate." 
 
 The cost small, the return large and immediate! Are such 
 truths to pass unheeded by the governing powers ? This work 
 is not completed; nevertheless Mr. Bourdillon says that by the 
 inigation of these districts the production has been so raised as 
 to be not only sufficient for the people themselves, but enabling 
 them in some measure to supply their neighbours. Instances 
 to show the necessity of attending to the distribution of water 
 for the prevention of floods are equally numerous and striking. 
 In Cuttack alone, by neglect in this matter, there were, during 
 a period of twenty-three years, seven years of inundation, and 
 
 I
 
 Indian Irrigation and Inland Navigation. 317 
 
 two of very severe iuuiidation ; and in 1855, iu the Muddea 
 district alone, forming but a small part of the delta of the 
 Ganges, a single flood destroyed no less than 22,000 houses, 
 8,000 persons, 40,000 cattle, and 20,000 acres of crops, worth at 
 the very least 320,000/.— all preveutible ! 
 
 I come now to the Godavery, to which it is right that your 
 Lordships should give more than ordinary attention. The full 
 navigation of the Godavery would open, perhaps, the finest cotton 
 district in the whole world. " The valley of the Godavery" — 
 this is the report of Captain Haigh — " has an area of 130,000 
 square miles, or about four times as large as Ireland." The 
 population of the valley is estimated at 8 millions, and this 
 valley alone contains a cotton-field larger than that of America : 
 America having but 4 million acres under cultivation — an area 
 not much larger than that of Yorkshire. The products of this 
 district are various and abundant. There is wheat unsurpassed 
 by any in India in quantity and quality; Indian corn, millet, 
 peas, beans, rice, sugar, hemp, oil, seeds, chilies, safflower. But 
 there are two products of especial value at the present time — I 
 mean flax and cotton — to which I wiU retvirn by and by. Yet this 
 mighty country, capable of such immense products, and of meeting 
 almost every demand which could be made by Great Britain, is 
 pretty nearly locked up by defective means of transit, and through 
 the want of canals, of railways, and of every means for the easy 
 conveyance of goods. What a discouragement this is to production 
 may be conjectured from the fact that the time occupied in the 
 conveyance to Bombay or Calcutta of goods on the backs of 
 bullocks — which is the only mode of conveying the products of 
 the country to diff'erent ports — is two months. I need hardly 
 say that when goods are conveyed on the backs of bullocks they 
 are exposed to great hazards, being subject to the influences of 
 weather, to bad roads, and, perhaps, to be plunged into the rivers 
 which it is necessary to cross ; and thus the quality of the article 
 is much deteriorated, while the cost per ton \ipon the cotton or 
 the flax would be about 160s. How splendid an opening would 
 be secured by the improvement in the navigation of the Godavery 
 may be judged of from the description given by an engineer who 
 has surveyed the district : — 
 
 " The river (says Captain Haigh) runs for 100 miles through 
 the finest cotton-fields of India, and may be said to direct its 
 course in a very direct line from the chief cotton centre to 
 Coringa, the best and safest port on the eastern coast." Another 
 authority, speaking of the Godaveiy, says, " The river, with its
 
 348 House of Lords, bth July, 1861. 
 
 numberless tributaries, may one day become tbe Mississippi of 
 the Indo-British. empire." 
 
 Now tbe estimated cost of rendering tbis river navigable for 473 
 miles, so that goods migbt be conveyed down to tbe pori, from 
 tbe port into tbe interior, is 292,000Z., being at tbe rate of 618L 
 per mile ; and if tbe works were rendered more complete, so as 
 to make tbe transit still cbeaper, tbe estimated cost would be 
 360,000/. And wbat would be tbe result ? Wby, tbat tbe cotton, 
 instead of spending two montbs on tbe backs of bullocks, and 
 exposed to eveiy bazard, would go down in boats to Coringa in 
 eigbt days, and tbat tbe cost per ton, instead of being 160s., 
 would be only 24s. Tbis great result would be obtained witb 
 tbe small outlay of public money I bave mentioned ; and wben 
 you consider tbe great interests wbicb are at stake botb in India 
 and in England, tbere can surely be little besitation as to tbe 
 course to be pursued so as to open tbe finest fields wbicb can 
 be found for tbe cultivation of flax and cotton, for tbe export of 
 Indian products, and tbe import of Britisb manufactures. 
 
 But I cannot altogetber omit anotber point, tbe consideration 
 of wbicb wiU sbow bow many sei-^dces would be performed and 
 how many interests consulted by rendeiing tbe Godavery navi- 
 gable. In tbe first place, it must be regarded as a military work. 
 Colonel Balfour, tbe Inspector- General of Ordnance, observes 
 on " tbe large pecuniary saving wbicb will ensue not only in 
 tbe conveyance of stores, but in tbe preseiwation of buman life 
 by reducing tbe risks tbat now attend ou.r soldiery during long 
 mai'cbes." He adds most tridy, " European lives in India are 
 now more valuable tban ever." Colonel Balfour gives details 
 to sbow tbe saving wbicb migbt be effected by opening up tbe 
 Godaveiy : — " Tbe marcb from Masulipatam to Nagpore is very 
 circuitoiis, and traverses one of tbe most notoriously deadly 
 jungles in India. Tbe marcb occupies, I believe, a month and a 
 half. It migbt be reduced to seven days by tbe river."* 
 
 Thus, instead of sending tbe troops, whether European or 
 
 * In tlie debate it was urged that I had not made any reference to the Bombay 
 and Nagpore Railway, which it is expected will be open in two or three years. I 
 certainly did not, and for the reasons given in the extract which follows from the 
 Reports by Captain Haigh, sect. 19: — 
 
 "But the complete failure of this e.'spensive system of conveyance, and its utter 
 unsuitableness to the circumstances of India, become more strikingly apparent, if 
 we compare the condition of Berar with its railroad to the valley of the Mississippi 
 with its rivers, and see what is the propoi-tion which the cost of carriage bears to 
 that of production in each case. I suppose this is a fair comparison, and an im- 
 portant one, America being the great competitor of India in the supply of cotton.
 
 Indian Irrigation and Inland Navigation. 
 
 349 
 
 native, from one place to another by a tedious and fatiguing 
 niarcli of six weeks tlirougli a most iinliealtliy coiuitiy, they 
 might be sent in a week by the river. Despatch, health, humanity, 
 and policy, would be alike consulted. Then, a saving would be 
 effected in the transport of stores. " On that line," says Colonel 
 Balfour, " the transport of stores and cart-hire alone amounts to 
 18,000Z. per annum ;" which 18,000/., let me observe in passing, 
 would more than cover the interest of the 360,000Z. to be expended 
 in opening the communication. 
 
 Again, there is another point materially affecting the welfare 
 of the natives and the revenue of the government. The Indian 
 government derives a large revenue from the salt-tax. Whatever 
 may be the objection to such a monopoly existing in such an 
 article, the fact is that the j)rice exacted by the government under 
 its monopoly at the place of manufacture does not by any means 
 constitute in itself an onerous tax. The great pressure upon 
 the natives arises from the difficulty of transporting the salt 
 from the place of manufacture into the interior. The Indian 
 government clears, by its monopoly, on every ton of salt two 
 pounds sterling. Now, wherever salt is cheap — that is, wherever 
 
 " A ton of cotton is carried on tlie Jlississippi from Memphis to New Orleans, 
 800 miles, for five dollars, or 1^., or at the rate of 0"30c?. per ton per mile; to 
 Mobile, by a very inferior river, 400 to 580 miles, at O'GOd. per ton ]ier mile. 
 
 " In India, cotton will be carried from Berar to Bombay for 51. 6s., or 2^d. per 
 ton per mile. 
 
 " The two cases may thus be stated : — 
 
 America 
 Berar 
 
 Cost of 
 
 Production 
 
 per lb. 
 
 Cost of Carriage 
 
 to Port, 
 
 470 Miles, 
 
 per lb. 
 
 d. 
 
 _i 
 
 9 
 
 0-.57 
 
 Ratio per Cent. 
 
 of Cost of 
 
 Carriage tj Cost 
 
 of Production. 
 
 per cent. 
 
 H 
 
 57 
 
 " So, by way of helping the ryot in his competition with the American planter 
 we provide him with a means of conveyance which makes the expense of carriage 
 to market twenty times as heavy a charge on the cost of production as it is in 
 America ! And not only so, but we are in a fair way of actually addino- to his 
 existing burdens, by making him contribute to the support of the very road which 
 is of s) little value to him ; for it now seems almost certain that this Bombay and 
 Nagpore line will not pay its own interest. 
 
 " (s such a communication suited to India, and is it likely to make Manchester 
 independent of America ?"
 
 350 House of Lords, oth July, 1861. 
 
 it can be bouglit at a small advance on the cost at the pans, 
 it is estimated that every native of India consumes annually 
 about 20 lb. But the i^rice of salt — and this shows how severe 
 must be the pressure upon the people in the interior — the price 
 of salt in Nagpore, Berar, and generally throughout the Deccan, 
 is 61., 71., lOL, and even 16Z. per ton. Here, then, in consequence 
 of the high price, it is estimated that the natives do not consume 
 more than 8 lb. per head. The cost at the pans is raised to the 
 consumer, by the difficulty of transport, from three to six-fold ; 
 but the opening of the navigation of the Godaveiy would reduce 
 the cost to one-fourth of its present amount. Now, my Lords, if 
 salt is a necessary in this country, how much more is it a ne- 
 cessary in the sultry climate of India ! and how important then 
 it is to reduce the cost of so essential an article ! In effecting 
 this, by reducing the cost of transport, you benefit youi'selves 
 and the natives alike ; for the result would be that, at a ver^' 
 moderate computation, in this one district alone, the govern- 
 ment revenue would be increased by 64,000Z. a year. Calculate 
 hence the financial results of similar facilities in all the salt 
 factories, and we shall see that the Indian excheqvier would he 
 replenished ; and great advantage would be simultaneously con- 
 ferred iipon the entire people. 
 
 Now, it has been doubted whether India possesses gi-eat capa- 
 bility of prodixction. I will show you what are those capabilities 
 of producing ; and first, as to cotton and to quantity of it. A 
 high authority states that as much cotton is wasted in India as 
 the whole quantity grown in America. At the present moment 
 there are, according to the calculation of Dr. Royle, under cotton 
 cultivation in India about 24 miUion acres. The niimber of 
 the population that is clothed in cotton, from the Himalayas 
 to Cape Comorin, must be estimated at probably 200 millions. 
 Then see the many purposes to which cotton is turned by them ; 
 it is used for almost every purpose to which textile fabrics can 
 be applied — for ropes, tents, saddles, stuffing, carpets — for 
 almost everything. Guzerat, Broach, and adjoining districts, 
 forming hardly one-hundredth part of the surtace of India, will 
 this year give us one-third of the ordinary supply we receive 
 from America ; but why ? Becaiise Guzerat has the ports of 
 Gogo and Surat, and other small ports. Dharwar will probably 
 do as much, as soon as the port of Sedashevagur shall have been 
 completed, and the ninety miles of railway to connect it with the 
 producing territory. 
 
 I have stated what is the producing power of India as to 
 quantity ; now look at its capability as to quality. I have
 
 Indian Irrigation and Inland Navigation. 351 
 
 spoken witli many gentlemen on this subject — among others to 
 Mr. Bazley, himself a cotton-spinner, and on this subject one of 
 the highest authorities ; — he states that, with all the imperfec- 
 tions, Indian cotton is at pi'esent equal in quality to 75 per 
 cent, of what is now required for the fabrics we manufacture. 
 But it may be asked what guarantee have we that India will 
 produce the finest sorts to compete with the American supply ? 
 Hear Dr. Forbes "Watson on this head. He states, in his valuable 
 wi'itings, that in Dharwar the cultivation of American cotton 
 is increasing at the rate of from 30.000 to 40,000 acres a year ; 
 that the acreage last year under this kind of cotton was 180,000 ; 
 and the quality of the crop is quite equal to the New Orleans, 
 or the American cotton. Then take the article of flax, which 
 is becoming one of great demand and necessity in this country : 
 one sample of Indian flax imported last year was valued at 64i!. 
 per ton, and the Punjaub and other districts exceed, we are told, 
 Russia in the capability of producing it. And I wish your Lord- 
 ships to weigh this important consideration, — that when we 
 talk of cotton in India we are not talking of a new cultivation 
 which we are going to introduce for the first time : we have not 
 to clear the land, or send the seed, or teach the people what they 
 have to do : they have cultivated cotton for many centuries ; all 
 that they require are roads, canals, the means of transport and 
 communication, markets, easy access to poris, and vigilant pur- 
 chasers. Give India these, and her productiveness, both as to 
 quantity and quality, will far exceed all our expectations. But 
 until we do give those facilities of transport, some of the most 
 rich and fertile regions of the world will remain altogether im- 
 poverished and useless. 
 
 Again, it has been asked whether India is capable of producing 
 speedily, and according to our wants. Just look, my Lords, at 
 such a statement as this — fii-st, of jute, an article of great im- 
 portance, and particularly so now in Dundee, there were imported 
 from India in 1841, 3,000 tons ; but in 1859 the quantity imported 
 was 53,000 tons. Take then the article of wool — in 1852 there 
 were impoi'ted from India about 5,000,000 lb. ; in 1860 the 
 quantity imported was upwards of 20,000,000 lb. And obsei've, 
 as a proof of the energy of the people, that the greater portion of 
 this wool was brought on camels' backs from distances varying 
 from 200 to 600 miles. Down to 1851 the largest quantity of 
 linseed imported from India in any one year was 6,000 tons ; in 
 1854 it had increased to 35,988 tons ; in 1855, owing to the 
 Russian war, it rose to 66,687 tons ; and in 1859 it was 96,000 tons, 
 or nearly equal to the supply from Russia and all other countries
 
 352 House of Lord^, 5th July, 1861. 
 
 combined.* I cannot but direct attention particularly to this 
 point. If the Russian war did so much to stimulate the produc- 
 tion of linseed, wbat may not the revolution in America be ex- 
 pected to do for the production of cotton ? That event is likely 
 to deliver us from our perilous habit of depending on a single 
 country for our supply, to relieve us from much hazard and 
 annoyance, and, above all, from that inculjus on the hearts of 
 hundreds of thousands — the necessity of purchasing the produce 
 of slave labour. The cotton grown in India will be grown by free 
 labour ; and this issue, I believe, will go further to abolish slavery 
 in America than all our vn.'itings, speeches, and combinations. 
 
 Having thus shown the capability of India to produce, I now 
 wish to show its capability to consume. In 1851 the value of 
 the cotton manufactures, including twist and yam, imported 
 into India from Great Britain, was 5,220,194L ; the value of 
 other articles was about 2,022,000L, making a total of 7,242,194Z. 
 The proi^ortion, therefore, in reference to the rest of the world, 
 of British cotton manufactures taken by India at that time was 
 18 per cent. In 1859 the value of the cotton manufactures 
 taken by India from Great Bntain was 14,713,812?. ; the value 
 of other articles taken by India was 5,131,108/., making a 
 total of 19,844,920/. The proportion of British goods, therefore, 
 taken by India, relatively to the rest of the world, was in 1859 
 more than 30 per cent. But 1859 may be considered a year of 
 forced export ; look, then, at 1860, and it appears that India 
 took British cotton goods to the value of 12,000,000/., and other 
 goods to the value of 5,000,000/., showing a total value of 
 17,000,000/. Now, all this shows a wonderful progi-ess ; and we 
 must bear in mind that it has been made in spite of all kinds of 
 difficulties — of war, of the mutiny, of the difficulty of transport, 
 of deluge, of drought, of famine and pestilence. Yet, so great 
 are the resources, so strong the elasticity of India, that, notwith- 
 standing all her obstacles and all her dangers, India has nearly 
 reached the point of being our best and safest customer. 
 
 Another doubt has been expressed as to the character of the 
 people, and whether they wiU respond to the efforts we may 
 make in their favour ; it is said they are generally listless and 
 idle, requiring another people to think and act for them. But let 
 us see how the stimulus of gain and self-interest acts on this 
 
 * A very experienced gentleman has furnished me a note on this point. He 
 says: — " Linseed is much more easily carried than cotton; but it is a remarkable 
 fact that the increase in eNjiorts of linseed and rape-seed is from those districts 
 which, by reason of their proximity to the coast, and other carringe-facilities, are 
 now furnishing large extra supplies of cotton."
 
 Indian Irrigation and Inland Navigation. 353 
 
 population. In Dharwar, wliere the American cotton is grown, 
 it has T)een found necessary to introduce the saw-gin, it being an 
 instrument particularly adapted to cleansing purposes. The 
 government set up a factory for these machines ; and so great 
 became the demand for them by the ryots, that the manufacture 
 was, for the sake of despatch, transferred to this country. 
 These machines cost from 11?. to 161. each, and yet the natives 
 have ali'eady purchased them to a considerable amount — about 
 12.000Z. ; and they expend on an average in this manner about 
 2,500Z. yearly. And this has been done by the lyots themselves, 
 of whom it has been said that no stimulus can induce them to 
 look beyond the day. The fact is, my Lords, I believe we have 
 been governing India for nearly a century, and have never yet 
 an'ived at a proper estimate of the character of the people. 
 They are, I believe, a people eminently commercial, active, and 
 intelligent. It may not be a very amiable consideration, but it 
 is, I believe, a true one, that, if you only make it clear to the 
 ryot that a thing wdH pay, as the jjhrase is, there is nothing on 
 earth, or below it, that the ryot will not at least attempt in the 
 hope of money. I have been told that persons will travel 
 hundreds of miles, carrying on their heads the articles they 
 have to sell ; and should they succeed in obtaining the profit 
 of a few rupees, they believe themselves amply rewarded for 
 their trouble. Now, with respect to the cultivation of cotton in 
 DhaiTvar, there can be no doubt that, if you open to the people 
 a certainty that they shall obtain a sjieedy and fair payment for 
 their productions, no effort will be sj^ared on their part to supply 
 the demand. In that way we can, I am assured, oj)en a great 
 field without having recourse to the objectionable system of 
 advances. Nothing, it is clear, can be worse than such a system. 
 It is most injurious to the man who makes the advance, inasmuch 
 as it produces a despotic and domineering habit, w^hile it leaves 
 the ryot in a state of dependence, and wholly deprives him of any 
 character of manliness and self-respect. 
 
 I cannot conclude the instances which I have ventured to 
 bring before your Lordships' notice, without adducing one which, 
 more strongly than any preceding, proves the immense advantage 
 resulting to the country from works of irrigation and internal 
 communication. I will take two districts, Cuttack and Taujore. 
 which are of about equal size, both situated in deltas of great 
 rivers, and both of equal fertility. The revenue from Cuttack 
 is 85,000Z., while that from Tanjore is 470,000/. The land in 
 Cuttack is woi-th oO.<. per acre, but in Tanjore it produces 51. 
 Cuttack has by far the best natural supply of water ; and yet in 
 
 2 B
 
 354 House of Lords, 5t]i July, 1861. 
 
 twenty-three years there have been three years of famine, four 
 years of drought, seven of innndation, two of severe inundation, 
 and only seven of moderate seasons. During that period there 
 was expended yearly in Cuttack upon waterworks 2,400^., and in 
 Tanjore 11,600Z. ; and yet in these two countries of equal natural 
 advantages, the aggregate excess of revenue from Tanjore over 
 Cuttack during the twenty-three years was no less than 6,970,000L 
 To what, I pray you, is this to be ascribed ? Is there no argument 
 here for pulilic works ? Hers is a very important paper, a report 
 of the Madras Board of Revenue to the Madras government in 
 1859. The reporters, although just and true, are not over-partial 
 to Sir A. Cotton's plans ; and thus this paj)er, dispelling as it 
 does all doubts of accuracy, shows iinquestionably the character 
 of what has been done. They say : — 
 
 " The Board now approach the third branch of the subject, the 
 cost of the two Coleroon anicuts, and the net amount of revenue 
 which they have yielded to the State. The sums expended on 
 these works, and the percentage which the net profit yielded by 
 them bears to the original oiitlay, underwent careful scinitiny by 
 the Department of Public Works and the Mahramut Commis- 
 sioners, and the I'esult at which they arrived after examining the 
 bills and revenue statements was that for an outlay of 21,738Z. 
 the government have received a clear gain of 412,052Z. in sixteen 
 years, or a profit of 118 per cent, per annum." 
 
 My Lords, here is the deliberate opinion of those gentlemen, 
 aiTived at after most cai-eful consideration. What more coiild be 
 desired ? I have heard it said of Sir A. Cotton's works that his 
 estimates were always exceeded by the actual cost. That may be 
 so ; but then it is also true that, in all instances, the expenditure 
 has been followed by enormous and almost fabulous profit ; and 
 that, with such results, he may have sometimes made insufficient 
 estimates, can haixlly be regarded as much of a reisroach. It has 
 also been said that most of his works have been carried out in the 
 deltas of great rivers. That is, no doubt, ti-ue ; but if all the 
 deltas of India were brought into the same condition as that of 
 Tanjore, the revenue of the empire would be now nearly double 
 what it is, and the people proportionately flourishing and secure. 
 When Sir A. Cotton first set his schemes on foot, he was told 
 they were impracticable ; but now that he has carried them to 
 completion, he is told, with equal assurance, that the results are 
 incredible ! 
 
 Now. after what 1 have stated as to the success of such works, 
 can your Lordships wonder at the favourable opinion which has
 
 Indian Irrigation and Inland Navigation. 355 
 
 been expressed by those authorities who are most acquainted with 
 the facts ? Lord Dalhousie, in a despatch to the Ooui-t of Direc- 
 tors, wi'ote — 
 
 " Everywhere I found evidence of the wonderful effect produced 
 by irrigation, wherever the means could be obtained ; everywhere 
 I found lands of vast extent, fertile properties, now lying com- 
 paratively waste, but wanting only water to convert them into 
 plains of the richest cultivation ; and everywhere I found among 
 the people the keenest anxiety to be supplied with that by which 
 alone they could be enabled to turn their laboiu' to good 
 account." 
 
 I find in a speech delivered by Lord Stanley in 1859, himself at 
 one time Secretary of State for India, the following statement : — 
 
 " With regard to the public works in India, I have seen some 
 doubt expressed whether the returns fi-om these works were 
 accurately given. I have since gone through the figures and 
 verified them from official documents, and I fijid they ai-e strictly 
 accurate." The noble Lord was speaking of these very works in 
 Tanjore. 
 
 The Hon. W. Elliot, a member of the Council of Madi-as, 
 says : — 
 
 " In irrigation- works the physical impediments are generally 
 few and easily met, the returns are sure, always considerable, 
 often immense ; they have increased the wealth of the inhabitants 
 in a remarkable degree ; and with property the people have ac- 
 quired habits of independence, a desire for knowledge, and for the 
 extension of useful schemes of every description." 
 
 Sir C. Trevelyan, in a report upon the state of Madras in 1859, 
 
 states that — 
 
 " Works of irrigation create new value by an immediate and 
 positive process, with a profusion of which there is no othoi- 
 example. They add from three to six fold to the annual produc- 
 tiveness of the land. This is better than the annexation of new 
 ten-itory. . . . The natives are encouraged to a life of peaceful 
 industi-y." 
 
 It is, indeed, far better than annexation ; for if only one-tenth 
 pai*t of the Presidency of Madras were cultivated after the fashion 
 of the districts I have mentioned, it would more than double tht 
 revenue and quadi-uple the comforts of the people. The words of 
 Dr. Johnson might be realized ; thei'e would be " the potentiality ' 
 of growing rich beyond the dreams ■ )f avarice." A large addition
 
 356 House of Lords, bih July, 1861. 
 
 would be made to tlie exchequer; and tliat, not only witliout 
 pressing hardly upon those who contribute to the revenue, but 
 with an increase of their resources. We should improve the con- 
 dition of the people in all senses. We should enable them not 
 only to meet the demands of the government, but also to become 
 large consumers of British manufactures, thus benefiting our own 
 countrymen and adding to the well-being of our own people. In 
 whatever light we consider this question we cannot fail to be con- 
 vinced of its deep and lasting interest. If we regard it financially, 
 we see the means of largely increasing the revenue, and at the 
 same time extending the means of those who furnish that revenue. 
 If we regard it commercially, we see benefits on both sides ; we 
 perceive the means of stin-ing the industry of Great Britain to 
 the gi'eatest extent, and, at the same time, of enabling India to 
 return to us by her produce what we require in exchange for our 
 manufactured goods. Politically it is of manifest importance 
 that we should adopt all measures that may add to the content- 
 ment and happiness of the people, and thereby give honour and 
 security to our rule. If we regard it morally, is it not, I would 
 ask, a great matter that the natives of India will be induced to 
 look with favour upon the laws, the language, the civilization, 
 and the religion, of a race of men who exhibit such powers of 
 science, and turn them to such high and beneficent purposes ? I 
 have heard that, in one of the improved districts, it was said to a 
 missionary, " Until you Christians came among us we never had 
 anything of this kind." By elevating socially the condition of 
 the j)eople we create feelings of independence and self-respect. 
 Instead of a sendle, down-trodden race, they will become able to 
 assert their rights, to exercise their privileges, and to stand erect 
 in the dignity of free men. 
 
 My Lords, when the late famine broke out in India, the people 
 of this country properly and liberally subscribed to relieve the 
 distress. It was right and humane to do so ; but I venture to say 
 that if a sum equal to that contributed for the relief of the 
 famine had been expended, in earlier days, upon the construc- 
 tion of works, it would have prevented that calamity, and have 
 rendered those districts fertile and productive for many gene- 
 rations to come. My Lords, what do we not owe, in the position 
 we occupy, to ourselves and to British India ? By the seizure of 
 the territory, we have assumed the many and various respon- 
 sibilities of empire. By the conquest — no doubt the beneficial 
 conquest — of the country, we have torn from the natives all 
 means of improving their own financial condition, of regulating 
 their own internal concerns, or of advancing, unaided, their own
 
 Indian Irrigation and Inland Navigation. 357 
 
 interests. Our duty, tben, is cleaa*. But, above all, we owe these 
 efforts, in gratitude and obedience, to Almighty God, who has 
 been pleased to place under the rule and protection of Queen 
 Victoria the most magnificent empire that ever yet figui'ed in the 
 annals of mankind. 
 
 The facts in the foregoiug speech, founded on high and indisputable 
 authority, will, I am disposed to believe, convince the people of Great 
 Britain that, b}' the judicious and diligent application of science to the soil 
 and waters of India, we shall, under God's blessing, not only advance our 
 own interests, but greatly mitigate, if not altogether prevent, the horrors of 
 drought and famine iu that countrv.
 
 ( 358 ) 
 
 Legislation on Social Subjects. 
 
 SOCIAL SCIENCE CONGKESS OF 1866. 
 
 Delivered at the opening of the Congress. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen, 
 
 Having already fulfilled tlie respective offices of a Vice- 
 President, and President, at two of tlie meetings of tbis Institu- 
 tion, if I be asked a reason of my reappearance on the present 
 occasion, tlie answer thereto will be very simple. 
 
 First, Lord Stanley, wlio bad been appointed to tbe distin- 
 guished honour, was called away to exercise his high talents in 
 tbe discharge of the duties of Secretary of State for the Foreign 
 Department ; and, 
 
 Secondly, Lord Brougham, who has so often and so powerfully 
 occupied this chair, pleaded, in refusal, the increase of age and 
 infirmities, desiring some little repose after his brilliant and 
 laborious services. However deep oiir regret, the appeal was 
 irresistible ; and the committee, though sure that it was difficult 
 to find a successor, and impossible to find a substitute; and 
 while convinced, moreover, that the noble Lord, differing from so 
 many men who at times are able, but not ready, and at others, 
 ready but not able, would here be, as usual, both ready and able in 
 any effort of science and intellect, gave way upon the point, and 
 followed his judgment rather than their own. 
 
 By this time the session was very far advanced ; most persons 
 of note had quitted London — tbe choice was necessarily limited ; 
 and tbe request was addressed to myself, with which I complied, 
 because, although weary from labour and other causes, and, in 
 many respects unfit, I wished to show that I bad not forgotten, 
 and that I never could forget, the people of Lancashire. 
 
 We are now about to celebrate our tenth anniversary, and we 
 may be summoned to show cause why our existence sboiild be 
 prolonged — we may hear that the questions are exhausted, and the 
 perpetual repetition of the same details is wearisome and use-
 
 Legislation on Social Subjects. 359 
 
 less. But let it be observed, that tlie repetition of tlie same 
 details is not in the same places, and before the same audiences ; 
 and, even if it were so, there steps in the language of the Apostle, 
 " to wi-ite the same things to you, to me, indeed, is not grievous ; 
 but for you it is safe :" safe, because we speak of things which 
 come home to every man's life, and almost to every man's bosom, 
 things which cannot be neglected, if ignorantly, without danger, 
 and, if wilfully, without both danger and crime. 
 
 It is true, no doubt, that we have given to the world several 
 volumes of transactions, abounding in most valuable reports of our 
 discussions and proceedings. They are rich in argument and 
 facts on all the subjects embraced in our programme ; and were 
 the curious and the sympathizing disposed to study them, we 
 might be spared, for some time at least, any further efforts in 
 this direction. But such is not the case ; and we must trace it to 
 a spirit, at all periods strong, but peculiarly so in our own 
 generation, a love of things, actually or apparently, new. An old 
 thought, an old fact, an old inference, dressed up in a new gar- 
 ment, and presented in a fresh light, has all the charm of novelty, 
 even to minds well conversant with the subject ; and hundreds, 
 no doubt, who would shrink from the dull and solitary pursuit of 
 facts diffused through uumei'ous and bulky octavos, are fasci- 
 nated by the human voice in the delivery of eloquent addresses, 
 or in the lively, vigorous, and profitable discussions that follow so 
 frequently on the close of the several papers. 
 
 But, though we have old subjects, see how constantly we are 
 aided by new men — and herein lies one great advantage of our 
 system. Latent science, latent zeal, latent energy, latent intel- 
 lect — latent, thi-ough diffidence, want of ojiiDortunity, or subject- 
 matter — are brought to the light of day before your assembled 
 congress. Each one who has contributed an essay, or taken part 
 in the deliberations, returns to his home, and becomes recognized 
 as a centre of influence and practical knowledge. Thus the spirit 
 and power of active service are widely diffused, silently working 
 in times of health, but prompt and loud in times of disease ; and 
 I cannot but attribute, under God's good providence, the sup- 
 pression of the late epidemic, in no small measure, to the larger 
 views, the readier knowledge, the greater capacity for imposing 
 discipline, or submitting to it, and to the faculty, so recently and 
 so advantageously exhibited, for immediate and effective co-opera- 
 tion among functionaries and volunteers, professional and unpro- 
 fessional persons — aU which issues have sprung from the ex- 
 hortations we have uttered, the lessons we have given, the facts 
 we have adduced, the proofs we have instituted, and the healthy
 
 3G0 Social Science Congress of 18G6. 
 
 and enlightening circuit, as it were, of our Judges of Assize, who 
 go forth, year by year, to set at liberty a legion of physical and 
 moral truths, long and hopelessly despised or imprisoned by the 
 ignorance or indifference of our forefathers. 
 
 It is said in many quarters, " the Congress has exhausted the 
 subject, but nevertheless it has devised no cures." The second 
 part of the sentence thus refutes the first, for the whole thing 
 then remains to be done. So far from having exhausted the 
 subject, we have barely penetrated the outer crust, nor will our 
 real difBculties diminish, as in the physical sciences, with im- 
 provements of knowledge. It is impossible for us to lay down our 
 formulae, as in chemistry, astronomy, and geology, to be obeyed, 
 and relished, the moment they are reduced to actual demonstra- 
 tion. In our pursuits, the moral and physical elements are 
 closely, intricately, and inseparably, combined. We shall, pro- 
 bably, break up, this very session, having established to oui* 
 heart's content, and that of all thinking peoj^le, the necessity and 
 practicability of many things, essential to the bodily and mental 
 welfare, nay, safety, of millions — all to be set aside or ignored, as 
 the phrase is, with some honourable exceptions, by vestries, 
 boards of guardians, and every form, pressure, and kind of single 
 or associated j)roprietors. 
 
 To pause, however, in our career would, on the part of science, 
 be a pusillanimoiis confession of defeat ; but, on the pai-t of 
 humanity and morals, it would be a resolution no less perilous 
 than disgi-aceful. 
 
 Nevertheless, some care is required in the opposite direction ; I 
 may be wrong, yet I cannot but suggest a little hesitation before 
 we embark on qviestions that are simply political or imperial. I 
 have been urged to lay before the Congress, irrigation in India, 
 bribery at elections, treaties Avith foreign nations, and many 
 other points of a similar character. But, first, I have no wish to 
 see our gatherings converted into Parliaments ; and, secondly, we 
 have enough on hand to demand, and to occupy, the activity of at 
 least two-thirds of a generation. 
 
 The President of the day is, I conclude, expected to say a few 
 words, in the nature of a charge to the Jury, on the several 
 subjects to be handled in the various sections. For my own part, 
 I approach not a few of them with fear and trembling, feeling, in 
 my ignorance, that the " safest eloquence concerning them is my 
 silence ;" and that in matters of law, the first here on the list, we 
 unprofessional persons are tempted sometimes to take a common- 
 sense view of the question ; and then we are sure to be wrong. 
 So, leaving the important princij)les and graver details to the
 
 Legislation on Social Snhjeds. 361 
 
 enlightened and distingnislied men appointed to tliis department, 
 I will simply notice one or two heads that have fallen occasionally 
 under my own observation. 
 
 A great and startling problem is proposed, " What are the best 
 means of preventing infanticide ?" I am glad that the subject is 
 introduced, and that the Congress scouts the assertion made, I 
 regret to say, not very long ago, by two eminent persons, that to 
 institute such an inquiry, was to institute a liliel against the 
 women of England. The crime has attained to formidable pro- 
 portions, and may not, in decency, be disregarded. We have not 
 yet sufficiently examined and methodised the many various and 
 complicated causes that lead to the perpetration of it by interested 
 agents, or the palliation of it before juries. My own opinion is, 
 if I may venture to say so, that, in a state of the population 
 where infant-life is not, as in vigorovis and growing colonies, of 
 high marketable value, the law will do but little. The bill of last 
 session, which did not pass into an act, offered one excellent 
 provision ; and a strict registration of all reputed to be still-born 
 might give us some further security. But we must not rely upon 
 statutes. The nostrums of some reformers are unfit to be dis- 
 cussed ; and I hope that, without much weightier arguments, we 
 shall place very small confidence in foundling hospitals. 
 
 The coroner's court is a most valuable and ancient institution ; 
 and every one will acknowledge how many admirable men we 
 number among its officers. But still, we may ask whether the 
 proceedings are not oftentimes slurred over to the miscarriage of 
 public justice, particularly in cases where no public excitement 
 has preceded the inquiry. We naay ask, too, whether the substi- 
 tution of a fixed salary for a fee does not, in many instances, 
 virtually prevent the establishment of an inquiry at all ? 
 
 Are we right — I p\it the question with diffidence before men so 
 skilled in jurisprudence — to exhibit such extreme, and almost 
 inviting, lenity towards crime and violence, in some instances, 
 simply because the parties are young ? Is it wise ? is it just, to 
 encircle property with such severity of protection, and visit 
 offences against the person with comparative indifference? It 
 may be so ; but the public would be glad to hear the reasons from 
 high and competent authority. 
 
 The subject of education will be so well handled by our liberal 
 and enlightened friend, Mr. Bruce, and his coadjutcirs, that 
 comment of mine on its principles and practice would certainly 
 be superfluous, and might, besides, be considered arrogant. But 
 I cannot refrain from a few words of gratitude and joy, when, by 
 the blessing of God, I review the past, and comj)are the state of
 
 3G2 Social Science Congress 0/1866. 
 
 tlie infantile population in factoi'ies, collieries, mines, and otlier 
 trades, with that wliich " shocked our eyes, and grieved our hearts," 
 some five and thirty years ago. 
 
 Thanks to a merciful and Almighty Providence, we have learned, 
 and learned by hajipy experience, that labour, manual labour — the 
 lot which He has, in His wisdom, assigned to the vast majority of 
 our race — is not incompatible with the highest moral dignity of 
 man. Thousands, nay, tens of thousands, under the limitation of 
 the hours of toil, are receiving a sound and effective education ; 
 the young by frequenting the schools, the adults, both male and 
 female, by the improvement of their opportunities to advance in 
 moral, domestic, and literary acquirements. 
 
 The alternation of work and study, in due succession and relief, 
 the half-time system, as it has been called, is alike healthy and 
 fruitful. The mind is not depressed by the labour, but the labour 
 is invigorated by the refreshment of the mind. Do we not all feel 
 the principle of it in ourselves ? Its practical and most blessed 
 effects we see in all the mercantile occupations governed by the 
 provisions of the Factory Acts. We see it in numberless in- 
 dustrial schools in London and elsewhere. If you doubt the 
 assertion, study the reports of Messrs. Baker and Redgrave and 
 their efficient officers, the sub-inspectors : study it in the reports 
 of Messrs. Chadwick and Tufnell in their accounts of the Metro- 
 politan Scholastic Establishments. 
 
 A short time back the excellence of the system came before my 
 eyes in a very prominent way. I visited the Potteries in company 
 with Mr. Inspector Baker, to whom we owe so much, so vei'y 
 much, of this successful issue. I need not describe to you the 
 bodily and mental degradation, in former days, of that neglected 
 district, the state of the places of work, the dust, the insupport- 
 able heat, the prolongation of toil through the day and through 
 the night, the litter ignorance, the gross immorality, with all the 
 evils that attend on a defiance of the material and spiritual laws 
 of nature. They are all set forth at large in that true bill of 
 indictment against the English nation, the five Reports of the 
 Children's Employment Commissioners. But how is it now ? 
 Though the test has, as yet, been only partially applied, the scene 
 is changed. Two thousand children are at school on the half-time 
 system ; and two thousand children are thus exhibiting the 
 results of mercy, consideration, and love. The evidence of the 
 teachers who knew them before, and who know them now, is 
 wonderful and heart- stirring. 
 
 The half-timers are equal, nay, oftentimes superior, to the 
 whole-timers, that is to say, those who study and work surpass
 
 Legislation on Social Suhjects. 363 
 
 tliose who study and do no work at all. Of tbis we bad a forcible 
 proof in the past year, wben the half-timers of the several schools 
 distanced the whole-timers in the race of competition, and, in 
 almost every instance, caiTied oflf the prizes. The reason is 
 obvious ; the character of their toil demands accuracy, precision, 
 constant, unwavering attention, and prompt obedience; every- 
 thing must be seized at the moment, because nothing can be re- 
 covered. Unbroken, unwearied after moderate toil, they bring 
 their habits with them to the school : and the discipline of pots 
 and i^ans, humble as it may appear, is found to be nobly instru- 
 mental to the acquisition of letters and learning. 
 
 " I was opposed to the measure," said one of the intelligent 
 schoolmasters; "but a few months have given me a totally dif- 
 ferent view. Formerly as I went through the streets, I heard 
 nothing but oaths and cursing, blasphemies and obscenity, from 
 children of the tenderest years. But now I hear nothing of the 
 kind ; the boys touch their caps, and the girls drop their cxirtsies, 
 and all try to exhibit affection and respect." 
 
 This I can confinn by personal obsei-vation. When I went into 
 the schools, and talked to them of their books, of the course they 
 had begun, of the hopes they entertained, and of the thraldom 
 from which they had been delivered, their eyes sparkled with con- 
 fidence, freedom, and joy ; and I blessed God — who could help it ? — 
 and I blessed the Legislature, and I blessed the employers, and I 
 blessed the schoolmasters, and in my satisfaction I blessed every- 
 body, for the glorious sight I had been permitted to witness. 
 
 All, however, is not achieved. There is much land yet to be won. 
 " Let not him that putteth on his armour, Ijoast himself like 
 him that putteth it off." I appeal to you on the behalf of four- 
 teen hundred thousand children, women, and young persons, still 
 under the slavery of cruel and oppressive trades, who are, to this 
 hour, without the pale of legislative protection. 
 
 But while I leave the remainder, I must dwell for a moment on 
 the abomination of the brickfields. Let the hardest heart that 
 can be found in England visit those spots, and if he be not moved, 
 he must at least be ashamed of his sex and of his country. 
 There the female seems to be brought to the lowest point of 
 servile ignorance and degi'adation. Hundreds of little girls, from 
 feight to eleven years of age, half -naked, and so besmeared with 
 dirt as to be barely distinguishable from the soil they stand on, 
 are put to work in these abodes of oppression. Bearing pro- 
 digious burdens of clay on their heads, and in their ai'ms, they 
 totter to and fro during many hours of toil. When I spoke to
 
 364 ■ Social Science Congress 0/ 1866. 
 
 tlieni, tliey either remained agliast witli astonisliment, or ran 
 away screaming, as tliougli some evil spirit liad appeared to them. 
 I could not restrain my indignation, nor can I now, at this wicked 
 scorn of female rights, this wicked waste of female excellence and 
 virtue. Mothers and wives they can never be, in the high and holy 
 sense of those words ; and yet, were they trained to decency and 
 truth, might there not be found some to equal the priceless 
 heroism of Lady Baker, or the Christian intellect of Mrs. Stowe ? 
 
 Is it possilile in Manchester (Manchester, so high and proud 
 that she professes to have a school of her own) to pass, without 
 notice and rebuke, another tenible phase of human suffering? 
 The law has already denounced the crime and cruelty of the 
 system of climbing-boys. Why, then, is it stiU found in so many 
 cities and places boastful of their wealth and civilization ? 
 Which of all our national sins is more atrocious, more degrading, 
 and so little justified by the plea of necessity ? The evidence 
 cannot be stated here ; it is recorded at large in the Commissioners' 
 Reports. But this fact I will adduce for your consideration. 
 When England, a few years ago, took a high and noble tone in 
 denouncing American slavery, an accomplished and zealous lady 
 of the Southern States, alluding, in a tale called " Tit for Tat," to 
 the wretched chimney-sweepers, upbraided us with our hypo- 
 crisy that, while we had so much sympathy with the blacks, we 
 had none whatever for our own white children. America, God 
 be praised, has purged herself of that foul stain. Let us be as 
 forward and as true; and let not the young republic put the 
 ancient monarchy to shame and confvision. 
 
 The subject of the education of children in the agricultural 
 districts is one of more difficulty, not in reference to the principle, 
 but in respect to the method and details. The want of the 
 agricultural children is not so much a better education, as that a 
 longer period should be devoted to it. Many persons of experi- 
 ence have known children very well taught up to seven or eight 
 years of age, then called away to daily labour, and, in consequence, 
 so unmindful of their former studies, as by the time they are 
 sixteen or seventeen to have wholly forgotten almost the very 
 letters of the alphabet. The introduction here of the half-time 
 system is neither necessary nor practicable ; it is not necessary in 
 the sense of overtoil, unhealthy occupation, or danger to life or 
 limb ; and it is not practicable, for the children do not work, as in 
 manufactures, congregated in large masses. They are separated 
 in twos and threes at considerable distances from each other, — 
 the places of labour are far remote from their school and their 
 dwellings, so that the whole day would be expended in effecting
 
 , 
 
 Legislation on Social Subjects. 365 
 
 the excliange of tlie shiclents and the -workers. The evening 
 classes, witli some exceptions, are hardly a sup^dement to this 
 defect, for, during the fine months, the lads prefer the open air ; 
 and when the winter has set in, the heavy rains, the bad roads, 
 the long distances, and the dai-k nights, and, where a separation 
 cannot be effected, the dislike of the adults to be found with the 
 youths in the same place of stiidy, all back up and aid the general 
 indiiference to books and learning. 
 
 Tet the question must be wrought out. I have myself a plan, 
 which, I admit, will require trouble, will cost a little money, and 
 may, after all, prove a failure. I may be exposed to severe 
 criticism, but it is worth a trial. I should propose two sets of 
 lads, each to work and study on alternate days. I propose it 
 simply as a principle, to be subjected to many modifications in 
 practice. At any rate, while we keep this class in view, let us go 
 forward with the other, and not listen to the resolution, as illo- 
 gical as it is cruel, that nothing shall be done to relieve the 
 miseries of the children in trades because there is a defective edu- 
 cation for the children in agriculture. 
 
 Essential, and, indeed, indispensable as is the section on piiblic 
 health in any meeting of our Congress, it need not be dwelt upon in 
 an opening address. The subject has excited a deep and general 
 interest. Almost all the causes of mischief have been dived into, 
 and brought to the surface ; and remedies of various kinds have 
 been suggested for their cui-e. The Legislature, too, by the act of 
 last session, has declared that a wider activity must be exercised 
 by the government, and larger powers be confided to it. But 
 there are yet two points on which the executive is nearly impo- 
 tent, and those of the greatest consequence to the labouring poor — 
 the wretched supply of water, and, in the widest sense that can be 
 given to the term, the adulteration of food. Let us ho])Q, and let 
 us work, in this very Congress, that another year may not elapse 
 without an efi'ectual abatement of these monstrous inflictions. 
 
 But the master-evil which nullifies every efi'ort for the benefit 
 of the working j)eople, which leaves us no rest, and on which let 
 us take good care that the public also has no rest, the evil that 
 embraces and intensifies aU the others, the hot-bed of pauperism, 
 immorality, disease, and drunkenness — drunkenness alternately 
 the cause and consequence of disease — the evil that is negative in 
 preventing every improvement, and positive in maturing every 
 mischief, that lies at the root of nineteen-twcntieths of the 
 coiTuptions that beset our social state, and forms the crowning 
 abomination of the whole, is tbe domiciliary condition of many 
 thousands of our people. But we must look not only to the
 
 366 Social Science Congress of 1866. 
 
 pestilential character of the actual dwellings, but to the nnvcuti- 
 lated, fever-breeding localities in which they stand, the dark, 
 damp, and narrow alleys never visited by a ray of the sun or a 
 breath of fresh air. To describe these things is impossible. 
 They must be seen, smelt, tasted in person. Dirt and disrepair, 
 such as ordinary folks can form no notion of ; darkness that may 
 be felt ; odours that may be handled ; faintness that can hardly 
 be resisted, hold despotic rule in these dens of despair. There are 
 hundreds where there shoiild be tens ; and thousands where there 
 should be hundreds. The overcrowding is frightful, it disgusts 
 every physical and moral sense ; and the more so when we see it 
 as a growing, not a declining, evil. The numberless displace- 
 ments, i^ast, present, and to come, fill the poor people, and us too, 
 with terrors and perplexity. And, as though this were not enough, 
 the countless hosts in London ejected from their homes, and endea- 
 vouring to find shelter in dwellings already occupied, and abound- 
 ing with life far beyond every limit of decency, health, and com- 
 fort, are encountered by some 40,000 immigrants annually, who 
 are seeking the same accommodation, and contribute, along with 
 other causes, to heap family upon family in these bursting 
 tenements, to lower the rate of wage, and yet raise the rate of 
 rent, for the great mass of the unskilled labourers. 
 
 Is there no remedy for this ? None that I can see, except a new 
 fire of London to sweep away all these filthy regions that must be 
 destroyed to be improved, and then a vast and liberal contribution 
 from all sorts and sizes of men to erect the city on a basis of 
 health and humanity. Four- and- twenty years of experience in 
 the matter have led me to no practical conclusions on a large 
 scale. We have built model lodging-houses ; and so far as they 
 go, they are a blessing to the people. But " what are they 
 among so many ?" They yield every return that a mere 
 philanthropist can desire, but, financially, nothing that could 
 tempt the large capitaKsts, who seek a remunerative investment 
 for their money. The price, too, of land is rising mightily ; and 
 the great increase of wages among carpenters, masons, and brick- 
 layers is a very heavy addition to the cost of building, and, by 
 consequence, to the amount of the rents. Houses are springing 
 up around the cities, it is true, but they are altogether for work- 
 men of large weekly receipts. Suburban villages are proposed 
 with penny trains, but the objections made to them are endless, 
 principally by the women, who assign to me very sound and 
 business-like reasons for refusing to quit their ordinary abodes : 
 and, indeed, were they to do so, the public weal would be little 
 served thereby, for the filthy tenements (unless a wholesome
 
 Legislation on Social Subjects. 3G7 
 
 system prevailed to pull down in proportion as yon build up) 
 would instantly be seized by a herd of occupants, and all the 
 mischiefs be perpetuated, and probably increased. It is neces- 
 sary, moreover, that many classes of skilled workmen should have 
 their dwellings within hourly reach of their principal and of each 
 other. To these the suburban village and the penny train are of 
 small use ; nor, in truth, to any but those who have fixed hours, 
 fixed places of work, and good and certain wages. To the 
 labourer who lives from hand to mouth, hunting around for a job, 
 hanging about the docks, the yards, the shops, the courts, always 
 uncertain of the amount of his gains, and sometimes uncertain of 
 any receipt at all, " rising early and late taking rest," the railways 
 and the residences are utterly worthless ; and yet these classes 
 are the vast majority of the ill-housed population. For these, 
 our model buildings have done nothing, and can do nothing ; no 
 one of the schemes hitherto propounded, no one of the bills sub- 
 mitted to Parliament holds out even the shadow of a promise. 
 Suppose it be ordained that tenements shall be built ; it follows, of 
 course, that they must be constructed with everything that health 
 and decency requires. But who of this class of the people will be 
 able to meet even the lowest rate of the new weekly payments for 
 family houses ? And if constructed on a plan of single rooms — 
 the utmost that these casual labourers are able to afford — we shall 
 jierpetuate, by law, a system of life subversive of every moral and 
 physical obligation. 
 
 I will refer to but one mode among the many which have been 
 devised for the amelioration of this state of things. A society, of 
 which I am president, has executed several works in the way of 
 the adaptation and conversion of existing tenements. Single 
 houses, or entire coiirts and alleys have been repaired, white- 
 washed, and ventilated — drains have been fitted to the main 
 sewers, pavements laid down, and a due sujpply of water provided. 
 The accommodation, no doubt, is not equal to that which is given 
 by new Imildings ; but many of the happy issues are obtained by 
 it, and the benefits are effected at about one-seventh of the cost of 
 fresh constructions. This plan, though qualified to efi'ect im- 
 provements on a large scale and at a cheap rate, has not, I am 
 sony to say, found many imitators : but hear the result in a 
 single locality. I had long coveted a court in a sad part of 
 London, because I knew it to be a hot-bed of fever, violence, and 
 immorality. One house alone had produced twenty-two oases of 
 fever in twelve months. At last, by the liberality of a widow 
 lady, I obtained possession of it. The society went to work, and 
 achieved its purpose. Turbulence and disease were banished. The
 
 368 Social Science Congress 0/ 1866. 
 
 medical man of tlie disti-ict -writes, " fever is imknown in tbis 
 once pestilential court ;" the police officers assure us that, whereas 
 in former days the constables never dared to enter it but in twos 
 or thi-ees, they now rarely find it necessary to go there at all. 
 And the whole of this has been done in such a way that the 
 inmates enjoy a vastly increased accommodation, with no increase 
 of rent ; and the society receives uj)on its outlay a return of at 
 least nine per cent. 
 
 Such, amidst abundant advantages and blessings, is the social 
 state, in things material, of many of our fellow- subjects. We 
 need not, however, dwell longer on these details, 
 
 " Quis aut Kurysthea durum, 
 Aut illaudati nescit Busiiidis aras ?" 
 
 But may we not lift up our eyes a little above the level of laws 
 and regulations, codes and edicts, and see whether there exist 
 not motives of action, motives of universal impulse, of greater 
 power, and more adapted to the wilful individuality of the present 
 times ? Is there nothing in the human heart, in the human 
 intelligence, in the human consciousness, to which we may appeal, 
 to beget a higher and happier public opinion, in which we might, 
 as it were, " live, and move, and have our being ;" not as a sub- 
 stitute for statiites and enactments, but to inspire, direct, and 
 govern that which statutes and enactments can never reach ? Is 
 it vain to hope that common sense may, hereafter, exercise, not 
 an absolute, perhaps, but a wider influence among civilized 
 peoples, and teach them that, nationally and internationally, men 
 do not dwell securely, and thrive, by the misery and degradation, 
 but by the welfare and honour of each other? It may be vain; 
 but it is not vain, in gatherings such as these, to proclaim the 
 tmth, to discuss its practical character, to cherish and desire it. 
 And yet I am aghast, when I observe that, in all the exhibitions 
 at home and abroad, compounded of the products of the various 
 regions of the earth, rifles and cannons, swords and torpedoes, 
 with the manifold miinitions of war, occupy a broad space in the 
 temples professedly devoted to art and science. I ventured a 
 similar remark at the Statistical Congress of 1862 ; and the same 
 thought has been stated in the present year by that -eminent 
 engineer, Mr. Hawksley, who seems to think that the great bulk 
 of the inventive and mechanical facility is, for the moment, 
 directed, almost exclusively, to refine and perfect every instru- 
 ment of destruction. I do not say this in any craven spirit of 
 submission to foreign nations, or that we should make ourselves 
 naked before our enemies — out upon such a notion ! — but simply to 
 
 I
 
 Legislation on Social Subjects. 369 
 
 express a wish that they would listen to our appeal, and entertain 
 thoughts as far remote as our own from insolence or aggression. 
 
 Does the Atlantic Cable teach us nothing? Has a merciful 
 Providence established an intercourse between two nations of the 
 same race, with kindred institutions, and common interests, only 
 that we may hear of " wars and rumours of wars," give, or receive, 
 orders for every military service, hiirl defiance at each other, and 
 pei'vert that which was intended for our peace into an occasion 
 of falling ? This mighty result of intellectual and moral power 
 has begun its career mth mutual words of congratulation, friend- 
 ship, thankfulness, and joy. May no other spirit ever pass along 
 its wires ; and may " it lead the rest of its life according to this 
 beginning !" 
 
 But turn to contemplations more purely national — why are oiir 
 colonial fellow-subjects, when they visit our shores, nearly 
 strangers in the land, and find not hospitality at every corner ? 
 Do we despise their loyalty, depreciate their afi'ection, or shiit our 
 eyes to their mighty future ? Very far from it. Our neglect is 
 the result of ignorance ; and we lose, by listlessness and inatten- 
 tion, the happy means of binding together all regions under her 
 Majesty's rule with a reciprocal esteem and regard, conducive 
 alike to the dignity and freedom of the children, and to the 
 honour and benefit of the mother-covintry. 
 
 But this is applicable, with no less force, to our fellow-subjects 
 fi'om the East. India is making prodigious strides, not only in 
 material but moral progress. Her sons come hither from every 
 presidency and every pi-ovince ; they enter our colleges, inns of 
 court, and schools of science, in j)rcparation for professional 
 career in their own country. They dash boldly into competitive 
 examination with the European, and not unfrequently carry the 
 day. In sense, justice, policy, in the spirit of Christianity, are 
 these men to be overlooked ? Attentions shown to them in 
 England strike a chord that thrills through the whole of Hindo- 
 stan. Their manners and conversation are graceful, their 
 thoughts high, and their views of the blessings of the British I'ule 
 sagacious and solid. It is from this iiile that they foresee the 
 welfare of their fellow-millions. "Abolish polygamy," said a 
 numbei", as they stood around me ; " educate our women, raise 
 them in the scale of life, and make them what all women should 
 be." I ask you, was not this "social science?" Have we 
 announced, shall we announce, the Gospel alone excepted, a 
 greater tiiith for the comfort and civilization of manlcind ? 
 
 Surely, we may have a larger sympathy, a demeanour less cold 
 and formal, expressions more genial and cheering, with more of 
 
 2 c
 
 370 Social Science Congress 0/ 1866. 
 
 our common nature, towards those -who live in our service, or 
 whose labour we employ, or whom among the poorer classes we 
 may visit at their homes, or meet along the road. We read in the 
 book of Ruth that Boaz said to his reapers, " The Lord be with 
 you ; and they answered him. The Lord bless thee !" The senti- 
 ment may ever be in our hearts, though the practice of it must be 
 regulated by opportunity. 
 
 To enunciate, diffuse, and enforce such views, we must look to 
 the aid of the most portentous engine that ever existed, the j)ublic 
 press, an engine -with such unprecedented capacities for good or 
 evil, that it can hardly be regarded as a simply human power. It 
 is idle, I think, to assert that its influence is less than in foi'mer 
 days. The influence of the press, in all its various forms and 
 ramifications, of journals, pamphlets, and periodicals, has in- 
 creased, is increasing, and can never be diminished. Doubtless 
 social science has some biisiness here ; how we may act I cannot 
 say ; but what we should desire is to see the pi'ess intrusted to the 
 stoutest intellects, the highest morals, and the truest hearts in 
 the country. The spring-tide of self-confident democracy is now 
 nigh at hand ; and I see no other hope save this (and it is a feeble 
 one) for national and individual liberty, for external and internal 
 peace, and for the grand, though homely issue of " Live and let 
 live." But the editors of the British journals (and let me include 
 those marvellous men, the body of the reporters) have never been 
 deaf to the claims of humanity and justice, to cries such as those 
 which are sent forth from these halls — nor will they be so now, 
 when we appeal to them to do that which no statutes, no edicts of 
 Privy Council, nor Acts of Parliament can achieve, to reprove, 
 rebuke, exhort, with all vigoiir and perseverance. Public opinion 
 may lead to good laws, or supersede the necessity of them, and so 
 avoid the abundant variety and complication of enactments 
 which eventually break down, or fall into disuse by their minute- 
 ness and extent. Is it not a frightful condition of things that, 
 here in the nineteenth century, we are compelled by disclosures 
 which astonish and shock the inmost conscience, to demand, year 
 by year, of the Legislature, protection for tens of thousands of 
 women and children of the tenderest age, against a system of 
 jphysical and moral suffering and degradation, such as reduces all 
 past " history to an old almanac ?" And is it not frightful when 
 we consider that the vast proportion of these intolerable tribula- 
 tions to which the children are subjected are in all cases 
 permitted, and in many cases inflicted, by the parents themselves ? 
 The law has stepped in and rescued many ; the law will again step 
 in and rescue many more; but I tremble, I confess, for the
 
 Legislation on Socicd Subjects. 371 
 
 efficiency aud permanency of any machinery, that is " cabined, 
 cribbed, confined," by the union of money interests, perverted 
 natures, and the mercenary belief that godliness is gain, and 
 therefore gain must be godliness. Turn yonr thoughts to the 
 numerous females, some 600,000, engaged in the various depart- 
 ments of dress, from the royal milliner to the most abject 
 sempstress. Their sufferings have oftentimes excited the dee^jest 
 emotion. Restrictions and regulations are demanded. But in 
 this matter who can invent them ? And, if invented, who can 
 enforce them ? A more considerate spirit, a more enlarged sym- 
 pathy, and a profounder and more practical appreciation of "do 
 as you would be done by," would stay the cries of these unhappy 
 victims, and leave our legislators but little to do. 
 
 Turn your thoughts also to this fact, and weigh it well. These 
 terrible sorrows, to a great extent, do not spi'ing from the 
 necessities, but from the luxuries, of man ; the luxuries not of the 
 rich alone, but of eveiy class from the peer to the labourer. 
 Read the tales of woe of those who toil on the apparel of the 
 wealthier circles ; nor omit the records of the needlewomen and 
 the slop-shops ; read the almost incredible narratives of all the 
 disease and death that taste and the love of show inflict on 
 children and females in the manufacture of lace, in straw plaiting, 
 in cheap jewellery, in artificial flowers, in button-making, and a 
 hundi'ed other callings. The mass of the people at large, and not 
 a select few, maintain the demimd for these adjuncts and embel- 
 lishments of human life. 
 
 I do not say this in a vain hope, or even with a wish to restrict 
 the tendencies of the age and introduce a new science of political 
 economy. I only implore you, in your meditative moments, to 
 reflect how far such things are necessary, and whether by 
 thoughtfvil and convenient arrangements, while the enjoyments 
 of the consumer will not be stinted, the happiness of the producer 
 may not be very greatly advanced. 
 
 It is now time to conclude. But there ai'e some, I fear, who 
 will reply, that I have entered on a high flight of speciilation, aud 
 have left terrestrial difficulties too far below. Nevertheless, " it 
 is good for us to be here." It is good for murmuring man to see 
 how much of the miseiy that he suffers, or inflicts, is due to him- 
 self, and how little to the decrees of a merciful Creator. It is 
 good for him to see how the principle of self-control is the grand 
 piinciple of all si)cial and individual fx'cedom ; that the sense of 
 responsibility to God and his fellow-man, whether it be in the 
 sovereign on the throne, or the labourer at the plough, is the source 
 of all that is virtuous and dignified, and considerate and true.
 
 372 Social Science Congress of 1866. 
 
 Neither is there any hope of attaining excellence, unless oni- 
 aims be directed by the highest standai'd. "Be ye, therefore, 
 perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." 
 Surely, this was said by our blessed Lord rather to elevate the 
 efforts and the prayers, than to declare the actual powers of fallen 
 man. And have we no guide ? When at night we lift up our 
 eyes, and contemplate the peace and splendour of the host of 
 heaven, how each one is conforming to the law of its nature, and, 
 as it were, rejoicing to subsei"ve the universal order, we recognize 
 an omnipotent, yet gentle principle that demands, and receives, a 
 willing and exact obedience. When we turn our thoughts to the 
 globe on which we dwell, we see, in all the works of the great First 
 Cause, the same invariable principle. It ruled at the Creation, 
 has prevailed throughoiit all time, and will bless the countless 
 ages of eternity. It is the law of kindness and of love, the law 
 that — 
 
 " Lives through all life, extends through all extent, 
 Spreads undivided, operates unspent." 
 
 Here, then, is the law for oiir ardent, but humble imitation. It 
 is rich in promise, joyous in operation, and certain as truth itself. 
 Of Such a law how can we speak but in the noblest language that 
 ever fell from the pen of uninspired man, " Of this law there can 
 be no less acknowledged, than that her seat is the bosom of God, 
 her voice the harmony of the world : all things in heaven and 
 earth do her homage, the very least, as feeling her care, and the 
 greatest, as not exempted from her power ; both angels and men, 
 and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different 
 sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent, admiring her as 
 the mother of their peace and joy." * 
 
 * Hooker's Eccles. Pol. Book I.
 
 ( 373 ) 
 
 Refuges for Homeless Children. 
 
 Willis's Rooms, April 11, 1866. 
 
 At tlie anniversary meeting of the " Refuges for Homeless and Destitute Chiiilren.'' 
 Lord Shaftesbury in the Chair. 
 
 The Chairman prefaced his remarks by saying that he would 
 not detain the meeting by any lengthy preliminary observations, 
 because this was not an ordinary anniversary of the refuges in 
 Great Queen Street and elsewhere, but he had to propound to 
 them another scheme with the view of extending this good woi'k, 
 and for the purpose of gathering a greater numljer of the poor 
 homeless and destitute children of this great metropolis. Neither 
 would he detain them by referring to the report, beyond the 
 remark that, when they came to regard this matter in all its 
 bearings, and when they came to consider how more than hopeful 
 was the reclamation of these wandering and wretched children, 
 when they heard of the great triumph that had been attained, 
 when they heard of the thousands that had been rescued from 
 the streets, brought into the home, and taught to obtain an 
 honest livelihood, and when they considered also that in propor- 
 tion to their numbers the failures and disappointments had been 
 so few, they must come also to the conclusion of the vast benefit 
 of these refuges, and that the work was one which commended 
 itself to the heart of every good Christian. 
 
 He thought, when they looked at the report, and saw what had 
 been done, and when they considered, in reference to the progress 
 which this work had made, and how little countenance and 
 support had been given to it at the outset, they would allow that 
 some thanks were due to the master mind that instituted and 
 effected the whole matter ; but while his modest and invaluable 
 friend, Mr. "Williams, was reading the report, the meeting would 
 not have gathered that it was Mr. "Williams himself who was the 
 founder of the refuges, and that it was to his zeal, intelligence, 
 and activity that their success was mainly due. In this institution 
 small beginnings had been developed into large operations, and 
 in laying before them another development of the same system, 
 he hoped it might be attended with as great success as had
 
 374 Willis's Booms, 11th April, 1866. 
 
 marked all tlieir operations hitlierto. What tliey now pui-posed 
 to do was this : they desired to obtain a ship from the govern- 
 ment, and have that ship moored in the Tliames, and to convert it 
 into a training ship, where large numbers of these poor destitute 
 boys might be instructed, with the view of drafting them into 
 the commercial or royal navies. Now how came this project to 
 arise ? The meeting would no doubt recollect a supper that was 
 given to these wild, wandering lads, the wandering vultures of 
 the metropolis, for so he might call them. About 400 boys were 
 invited ; they conformed to the ordinary usages of society, and 
 were admitted by tickets. About 150 were present, the others 
 were not present, not because they disregarded the supper, nor 
 because they had any doubt of liis friend, Mr. Williams, but, 
 as some of the boys themselves explained it afterwards, "We 
 thought it was a trap." Others, more practical, were afraid that 
 " they would get lots of jaw and nothing to eat." The object 
 of this supper was to ascertain from the lads themselves accurate 
 statements of their natural history, accurate statements of their 
 own views, and how they lived and how they slept — to obtain, so 
 far as was possible, an account of their true position in the world. 
 Only a few preliminary words were required. They answered all 
 the questions readily and truthfully. " Now, boys, we want you to 
 tell us the truth ; we only desire your good, and you have no need 
 for concealment." And they heartily promised that if they were 
 assisted they would do their best to earn an honest livelihood. 
 The next day from fifty to sixty of these boys presented them- 
 selves for admission at the refuges, and Mr. Williams took them 
 in. Now, hear the first result. They had then been in the 
 refuge in GTreat Queen Street since February ; and he could say 
 from personal knowledge of the matter, backed by the assurances 
 of Mr. Williams and other gentlemen who knew more of it than 
 himself — although he had attended at the refuge two and three 
 times in each week — that the conduct of these boys was so 
 remarkable that nothing but ocular and other unquestionable 
 testimony could have led him to believe that such an issue could 
 have been arrived at in so short a period. His friend, Mr. 
 Williams, would correct him if he were wi-ong when he stated a 
 large proportion of these children had neither father nor mother ; 
 many were left with one parent, and that one of a most dissolute 
 character ; they had received no education, some not so much as 
 that received in an occasional attendance at some night ragged 
 school. They had been accustomed to sleep in dry arches, in old 
 iron rollers, or any place in which they could nestle ; and many 
 of the boys were clear in their assertions that for years they had 
 never been inside a bed. Brought into the refuge, put to study,
 
 Refuges for Homeless Children. 375 
 
 and put to work, be (,Ea,ii of Shaftesbury) bad no hesitation in 
 saying that they were not to be surpassed by any sixty boys in 
 the entire metropolis. They were diligent in the extreme, the}"- 
 went to their employment cheerfully, and, what was more remark- 
 able, they let no foul words escape their lips, and there was no 
 quarrelling among them. It happened one day that the excellent 
 superintendent of the refuge was confined to his bed by an attack 
 of pleurisy; the whole of that large number of boys were in con- 
 sequence left without any control, excepting the old cobbler, whose 
 post was in a i-emote corner ; and yet when he (the Chairman) 
 went there, without notice, he found them in the greatest order, 
 carrying on their work, going regvilarly to the schoolmaster with 
 their day's task, and steady in the course of all their opera- 
 tions. Not a single disturbance, not a single act of rebellion, not 
 a single act of misconduct had to be rej)orted, and so well pleased 
 was he (Earl of Shaftesbiiry) with the conduct of the lx)ys that 
 he called them together, and said to them, " Boys, this is the 
 best thing I have ever seen. We put you here, we gave you a 
 good chance, and now we see that we can trust you;" then a 
 general shout of " Yes, you can." These incidents were stated 
 to prove to them that it was not true, as was sometimes urged, 
 that such lads were utterly incoiTigil^le, and must be left to the 
 ordinary operations of the law. Only introduce, he proceeded, 
 the great law of human love and kindness, and more good will be 
 eflFected than by any other agency, and the service rendered to 
 these poor little outcasts wovild be a good measure pressed down 
 and running over. No doubt they had all read the experiences 
 of an " Amateur Casual." They would recollect a character in 
 that history who was called " Punch," a terror to the whole 
 place, " prigging " the casuals' clothes, and gibing and chaffing 
 eveiy one. " Punch " was denounced by every one as incorrigible, 
 but " Punch " was an inmate of the refuge, and " Punch " was 
 equal in intelligence, activity, and obedience to any of the other 
 boys. " 'Punch,' my boy," he said to him one day, " will you be a 
 man P" " Tes, sir." " Will you set a good example?" " Yes, sir." 
 " Punch " kept his word, and being older than the rest, became a 
 model to his comrades.* 
 
 Now, the proposition he had to luring before this meeting was, 
 that a ship should be moored in the Thames, for the pui-pose of 
 receiving a greater number of these wild lads. It was not neces- 
 sary to enter into the various propositions for the general treat- 
 ment of these boys at certified industrial schools. He was not 
 prepared to say one word against these institutions ; he only 
 
 * This lad is now gone out on emigiation, full of honesty and diligence.
 
 376 Willis s Booms, llth Ap-il, 1866. 
 
 regretted that there did not exist a sufficient number of tliem. 
 The pi'inciple on which these schools were conducted was not one 
 suited to the work they had in hand. A magistrate by com- 
 mitting a lad to one of these certified industrial schools destroyed 
 the whole pith and the whole spirit of the voluntaiy principle, 
 which induced the boys to come to these refuges. The great 
 secret of the success of these refuges was the voluntary principle 
 upon wliich tbey were founded ; the boys were not forced, they 
 came of their own accord, and this accounted for the self-imposed 
 order and good conduct that generally prevailed in them. Take 
 a society called the Mai-ine Society, which was carried on pretty 
 nearly for the same purpose as that proposed for their training- 
 ship. He (Earl of Shaftesbury) had no doubt of its being a most 
 excellent establishment, but its rules were very stringent. To 
 obtain admission to it certain conditions were to be complied 
 with, one of which demanded the boy to produce the certificate 
 of his father's death — an utter impossibility in the case of many 
 of them, seeing that they had lost their parents while very young, 
 and before they had reached an age to enable them to understand 
 the nature of these events. To provide then these for out- 
 casts there was the simple proposal for a training-ship. And why a 
 ship ? For this reason ; a ship could be obtained and kept in 
 (jrder at a much less expense than the hire of houses or large 
 rooms, at very high rents, to accommodate 400 boys. Again, the 
 directors would have more influence over the boys when away 
 from the streets and afloat on the water, and such an abode 
 would be more beneficial to the health of the boys themselves. 
 But here came another reason, and one too of the very greatest 
 importance. There could not be any doubt existing in the public 
 mind as to the great necessity in our commercial and naval 
 services of a number of weU-trained and good-disciplined lads, 
 as the stock of our future seamen, and such lads would thus 
 furnish a supply to the two services. Was it not a fact that a 
 great portion of our ships left our ports manned by crews for 
 the most part foreigners ? Was it not a fact that on board the 
 ill-fated ship, the " London," there were no fewer than forty 
 Dutchmen in the crew, of whom it had been said that as soon 
 as the storm began these men went below and got into their 
 hammocks ? Would that have been the case if the crew had been 
 composed of well-trained and properly-disciplined English sailors ? 
 Would they not have stood fast to their work in the hour of peril ? 
 This training-ship would improve the tone of our naval services, 
 and introduce a class of well-trained lads who had chosen for 
 themselves a life on the water. 
 
 Take another consideration — look for a moment at the awful
 
 Refuges for Homeless Children. 377 
 
 number of wi-ecks that annually take place on all our coasts. 
 The loss of property by these \vi*ecks every year was estimated 
 at not less than 4,000,000/., in addition to a saci'ifice of from 
 2,000 to 3,000 able-bodied men. A very great propoilion of these 
 wi'ecks arose from the ignorance or the indiscipline or the in- 
 ability of the crews. Were it possible to introduce a better class 
 of sailors into the services, what an enormous amount of property 
 would be saved to this country! The property, pei'haps, they 
 could afford to lose; but how afford to lose 2,000 or 3,000 able- 
 bodied men every year ? who might be a defence to their country 
 in the hour of need, and whose loss will never be estimated until 
 the day when it cannot be supplied. They must, moreover, be 
 aware that in the life of a sailor none made such good sailors 
 as those who had a predilection for the sea. A man, if he had 
 been forced to sea, whether he were an officer or a seaman, 
 seldom turned out a real man to the service; his thoughts were 
 always elsewhere ; and, in fact, he was more fit for any sei^vice 
 than the one he had been placed in. Now, it did so happen that 
 these lads had a great predilection for the water, — they had a 
 positive affinity for it ; and, he would undertake to say, if any one 
 were to visit those boys, and ask them what calling they would 
 like best, a great majority of them would reply " why, go to sea." 
 Others of the lads might emigrate to distant settlements, and the 
 instiiiction given them on board the ship would not, in that case, 
 be throvsTi away. It was of great importance to the welfare of 
 Great Britain that those who emigrated to her Majesty's colonies 
 should be men of good character and well disciplined. It brought 
 credit to the country ; and late events had convinced them that 
 the gi'eater the number of good emigrants the Canadians coixld 
 get, the gi'eater would be the blessings that would accrue to us 
 and also to the settlers in that colony. 
 
 He thought he had so far succeeded in placing clearly before 
 them the object the Committee had in view. The government 
 had given them a shij), but it was given on the consideration 
 that the society should bear the whole expenses of fitting it up 
 and keeping it in proper repair. The cost of fitting up the ship 
 would be about 3,000L, and the sum required for its proper main- 
 tenance would be about 6,000Z. a-year, so with this sum annually, 
 and with 3,000Z. to start with, they believed they would be able 
 to accommodate at all times 400 boys, and prepare 200 in every 
 year for the commercial and royal navies. 
 
 He (Earl of Shaftesbury) knew that this was a good sum of 
 money, and he knew also that persons now-a-days were apt to 
 regard everything in a comnxercial aspect, and were anxious to 
 get the best interest for the money which they had expended ;
 
 378 WUUss Booms, 11th Apil, 18G6. 
 
 but he must add tliat, if tliis question were considered in a 
 commercial aspect, it had many things to recommend it. Was 
 it no return to know that every year there would be the means o£ 
 rescuing from the violence, cruelty, and crime of the metropolis, 
 200 destitute lads ? It was not in their power to abolish all the 
 vice and misery of London ; but it was in their power to greatly 
 limit the operation and power of crime by addressing themselves 
 to the juvenile population. The meeting had smiled just now 
 when he spoke to them about " Punch," and they might smile 
 still more when he told them that he propounded the follow- 
 ing question to one hundred thieves. He asked them, if 
 societies such as this could only get hold of the large mass of 
 the juvenile population of London, and place them imdei" a 
 system analogous to that which they proposed to inaugurate that 
 day, what would be the effect produced on their profession ? The 
 answer given by each declared that a work like that would strike 
 a heavy blow and great discouragement to theii' calling ; that it 
 would destroy the seedplot of the rising generation of young 
 marauders. This hapjpy resiilt would be partially attained by the 
 adoption of the proposition which he had laid before them, and 
 which would only involve an expenditui-e of3,000L at starting, and 
 an annual income of 6,000L With this income they would be able 
 to supply the commercial and royal navies with two hundred lads 
 each year, and enable them always to accommodate four hundred 
 boys in the homes. Whether the proposition would succeed he 
 could not venture to predicate ; he was siire it was a proper object 
 for their attention, and one that commended itseK to the heart of 
 eveiy one. He knew that there were already many calls upon the 
 charitable, and he knew also that many contriljuted to religious and 
 charitable works, not only accoi'ding to their means, but beyond 
 their means. But he appealed to that large body who had grown 
 rich by the advancement and increasing prosperity of the country, 
 and who never contribiited of their wealth to any purpose beyond 
 their own enjoyment. He asked them to deliberate whether they 
 would not extend a helping hand to some of these castaways from 
 all hope of a comfortable or decent life. It was stated the aggregate 
 private income of this country now exceeded annually 500,000,000^., 
 and it was to the holders of this immense wealth that he now 
 made his appeal, and he did so by all the claims of religion, of 
 Christian charity, and upon personal, political, and social interests. 
 He trusted the response would be a lilaeral one ; but whether they 
 succeeded or not, the committee and Mr. Williams would have 
 the satisfaction of knowing that though they had not achieved 
 the good they had sought, they had at least made a great and 
 noble effort. 
 
 I
 
 ( 379 ) 
 
 Homeless Boys of London. 
 
 Blackwall, Tuesday, December 18, 1866. 
 
 Delivered at the inauguration ceremony of the " Chichester '' Training Ship. 
 
 Note. 'I'his speech will be better understood if prefaced by a short extract fiom 
 the statement previously read to the meeting by Mr. Williams, the Secretary 
 to the Refuges for Honu'less Boys. 
 
 My Lord, Ladies, and Gentlemen, in consequence of certain revelations made by a 
 gentleman who spent a night in a casual ward of one of the London workhouses, 
 where beys of tender age were found mixing with the vilest men that could be 
 found in the kingdom, it was deemed advisable that an efi'ort should be made to 
 rescue these juveniles from the contaminating influences of these casual wards. 
 On the 14th February an invitation was given to the boys accustomed to sleep in 
 the casual wards of London, and other nightly haunts, to come to supper at the 
 Boys' Refuge, Great Queen Street. Nearly 200 accepted the invifcition, and the 
 meeting will not soon be forgotten by those who came to see and hear. After 
 supper the boys were assembled in an upper room of the refug ■. The hearts of 
 the spectators were much moved at the forlorn spectacle before them, and many 
 friends were so touched at the sad condition of these immortal beings that it was 
 impossible with some to restrain their tears, while other ladies and gentlemen then 
 present were seen making every possible etJbrt to prevent their feelings being 
 manifest. Quietness being gained, the noble Cliaiiman, the Earl of Shaftesbury, 
 questioned the lads in a kind and affectionate manner, with a view to ascertain 
 their mode of life, and what could be done for their future welfare. Among other 
 questions put by the noble Lord the following was one — If a ship were moored in 
 the Thames, how many of you would be willing to go on board? In an instant a 
 shower of hands wont up, to signify that they were all willing to avail themselves 
 of that opening. As a practical matter resulting from the supper, nearly sixty of 
 the boys were received into the refuge within a week from that time ; but the 
 applications for admission were so numerous week by week that a determination 
 was come to to make an effort to provide for 400 of these poor boys. The scheme 
 was this: — 1. To retain 100 boys in the refuge in Queen Street; 2, To establish a
 
 380 Blackmail, ISth December, 1866. 
 
 " training-ship," where at least 200 more boys might be educated and trained to a 
 seafaring life; 3. To hire or purchase a country home, with from 60 to 100 
 acres of land, where 100 more boys might be trained to agricultural pursuits. 
 Shortly after the supper the Earl of Shaftesbury applied to the Lords of the 
 Admiralty for a ship to be used as a training school ; and after a correspondence 
 with the authorities of the Admiralty, under the late and present government, as 
 to the completing and fitting up of the ship for the purpose for which it was to be 
 used, it was finally agreed that the hull of the vessel in which we are so comfort- 
 ably housed to-day should be handed over to the committee, and that they should 
 be allowed to draw from the dockyard masts, sails, and other stores required foi' 
 completing and fitting up the ship, to the value of 2,129^. 15s. 8d., the committee 
 undertaking to pay that amount in nine months' time. This was the only arrange- 
 ment which could be made at that time ; but it is hoped that Sir John Pakington will , 
 on the meeting of Parliament, use his influence to relieve the committee from the 
 payment to the government of this sum of 2,000/. When the committee obtained 
 possession of the ship, in October last, they lost no time in getting the works in 
 hand ; and it is their very pleasing duty here publicly to mention that immediately 
 the matter was laid before Mr. Henry Green, that gentleman, in his usual generous 
 and benevolent way, at once kindly offered to do all the work required to complete 
 and fit up the ship at cost price. For this benevolent act the committee are most 
 grateful, and beg thus publicly to tender him their warmest thanks. The com- 
 mittee also beg to tender their sincere thanks to W. M. Bullivant, Esq., for certain 
 parts of the rigging supplied by him at cost price. The vessel is now complete, 
 and we are gathered here to-day to inaugurate her as a training-ship for the home- 
 less and destitute boys of London, and to seek the Divine blessing on this noble 
 effort, which must be looked upon as one of a national character, for whether it is 
 viewed as a means for rescuing the waifs and strays of this great metropolis, or as 
 a means for supplying the diminution of seamen so generally felt in every port of 
 our country, the work which is established this day must prove beneficial to the 
 country at large ; and when it is remembered that this is the first training-ship 
 established in the River Thames for this class of boys within the present century, 
 the committee cannot but be thankful to Almighty God that they have been the 
 humble instruments in setting on foot so great a work. There are at the present 
 time 160 boys in the refuge. From this number fifty have been selected as the 
 first members of the happy family who shall take possession of this new home. 
 Fifty more could easily be added to the number from the present inmates of the 
 refuge, but until the funds for the maintenance of the boys are contributed, the 
 committee feel they must not increase their number beyond fifty, as it is their 
 wish to avoid getting into debt, even though it be for the food and clothing of these 
 poor homeless boys. But the committee have every confidence that this effort will 
 be thoroughly appreciated by the public, and especially by all who are interested 
 in keeping up oui- naval and merchant services, and they trust that it will not be 
 long before the committee have funds subscribed to support the 200 boys for 
 whom provision is made in this vessel. The boys will be under the control of the 
 commander, Captain A. H. Alston, R.N., a gentleman of great experience and of 
 sincere Christian principles ; and every care will be taken that the lads will not 
 only be initiated in all that is necessary to fit them for a seafaring life, but the 
 religious and secular instruction they will receive will be of that character, and that
 
 Homeless Boys of London. 381 
 
 only, which will fit them for performing their duty to God and their duty to their 
 fellow-men. As soon as the ship leaves this doclv, which will be shortly, she will 
 be taken down to Greenhithe, and there moored, that being the spot appointed for 
 her destination. The committee had hoped they wuiild have been able to have 
 established the " Country Home " for 100 boys as well as this ship, but at present 
 nothing has been definitely settled on this point for want of funds. One gentle- 
 man has promised 1,000^. if the scheme can be carried out. In conclusion, the 
 committee would just mention they are not expending all their energies on bovs. 
 The wants of destitute girls are ever before them. Besides the Boys' Refut^e in 
 Great Queen Street and this training-ship, the committee support two homes for 
 girls, each containing 40 inmates, and they trust that these helpless ones will not 
 be forgotten this Christmas. In addition to all the refuge operations the com- 
 mittee manage and support five day and si.\ night ragged schools, wherein upwards 
 of 1,000 poor children receive gratuitous education. The committee, therefore, 
 eai'nestly appeal for funds for the ship as well as all the other works of usefulness 
 they have in hand. 
 
 Tlie noble Chaii'man then said tliat it being so very desirable 
 tbese proceedings should be bronglit to an early close, he should 
 confine himseK to an expression of his delight and gratitude at 
 seeing so large an assembly on the present occasion, notwithstand- 
 ing the distance from London and the time of the year. He thought 
 it betokened a great amount of sympathy and feeling ; and he could 
 only pray to God that that sympathy and feeling might be reduced 
 to practice, and that it might favour and support this institution 
 through all the difficulties and trials which it would have to en- 
 counter. The statement made by his friend Mr. Williams — and here 
 let him say that the name should remind them how deeply they 
 all were indebted to the talent, the energy, the principle, and the 
 indefatigable zeal of that gentleman — the statement wliich that 
 gentleman had made had sufficiently explained to them the origin 
 and purpose of this institution. He would only just support it 
 by his own expeiieuce in saying that what Mr. Williams had 
 asserted as to the character of these lads, the condition in which 
 they had found them, and the condition of mind and body in 
 which they were now, was within the mark ; and he (Earl of 
 Shaftesbury) did not hesitate to say that the movement which 
 they were making was by no means an experiment ; the thing 
 was a positive certainty. It had already been proved that if they 
 would take out of the streets of London all these homeless, most 
 friendless, and most destitute lads, polish them gently, and apply 
 the hand of skill and aflection, they would turn out to be 
 diamonds — and diamonds, too, as clear and as bright as had ever 
 adorned the most splendid crown. Let them look at these boys ;
 
 382 Blachoall, 18th December, 1866. 
 
 some of them were now present. He did not like generally to 
 praise a lad to his face ; but here he must speak out the truth, 
 because it was an argument in their favour, and in favour of this 
 institution. The Committee took these boys from the streets in- 
 discriminately, from the very haunts of crime and misery — they 
 took them at hap-hazard, some sixty, seventy, or eighty a day. 
 These boys, before coming to them, were living in the midst of sin 
 — they did nothing but pilfer, and live by their thefts. "What had 
 they made them? They had, by God's blessing, made them the 
 reverse to what they formerly were. He (Earl of Shaftesbury) said 
 without fear or hesitation that 160 Ijoys never came together who 
 were so docile, so happy, so industrious, and so full of promise, 
 as those on whose behalf they appealed that day. Therefore let 
 him repeat that this was no experiment — it was a positive cer- 
 tainty; let them prove it by gathering in these boys from the 
 lanes and alleys of their crowded city, let them take this waste 
 humanity under their fostering care, and they would be found to 
 reply to all the eiforis put forth in their behalf, and they would 
 grow up to reflect honour on the blessed old mother-country. He 
 would not enter into the assertions, called arguments, used against 
 this institution, for there were reaUy no siich things as arguments 
 against it. There was a great deal of argumentation, but that was 
 quite a different thing. Nevertheless, persons had been found to 
 raise objection against this institution, and it was said that resort 
 must be had to the industrial and certified schools. Now, if ob- 
 jectors would show him where these schools were, in number 
 sufficient for a population near upon three millions, he would 
 willingly consider the question; but after a minute search, and after 
 applying every microscope, they could find but two industrial 
 schools in the whole of London. Well, whenever the indvistrial 
 schools were to be found in adequate force to meet the wants of the 
 population, then he (Earl of Shaftesbury) would discuss their merits 
 or demerits — but at the i^resent time, while others were deliberating, 
 shall we not act ? "While others were deliberating and considering 
 what were the best means to remedy the evil, would they not do 
 all in their power to provide a home and education, and a means 
 of Uvelihood to these homeless and destitute children, and thus 
 be the means, vmder God's grace, of saving many souls from 
 death, and many bodies from misery ? He (Earl of Shaftesbury) 
 must confess that he coidd not speak without indignation of 
 what he had read in a letter addressed to the Times newspaper, 
 coming as it did from an official and Government Inspector, who 
 of aU men should be the most careful in ascertaining the truth
 
 Homeless Boys of London. 383 
 
 of what lie said. He (Earl of Sliafteslniry) found a Government 
 Inspector coming forward in opposition to tbis movement, and 
 making a statement such as he had read in the Times, and he 
 did not hesitate to say that it was a false and abominable calumny. 
 This gentleman argued that these refuges were not entitled to 
 support, inasmuch as they took no care of the children after they 
 left their roof. Was that so ? He asked him to name the refuge 
 where this was the case. Was it so with the one with which his 
 fi-iend, Mr. Williams, was connected ? Was it not rather a fact — 
 and he (Earl of Shaftesbury) would answer for all the refuges 
 and ragged schools with which he was connected — that the care 
 exhibited for the children, not only while within the schools, but 
 when they had left their roof, was that of a tender, solicitous, and 
 high-principled parent ? When these boys Igft the schools it was 
 not true that they took no further care of them — they did what 
 they could for them in the way of getting them situations, and 
 they encouraged them to come to them at any time for their 
 advice and support ; they did, in fact, everything they could, and 
 so long as they were able, within the short term of human power, 
 they watched these poor boys, as it were, from their cradle to 
 their grave. They might ask, perhaps, why had they chosen this 
 mode of educating these boys — why train them for a seafaring 
 life ? His answer was, that wherever they went — from the banks 
 of the Thames to the furthest northern point of the metropolis — 
 if they only put the question to one of these ragged and forsaken 
 lads whether he would like to go to sea, he would invariably 
 answer, " Yes, that I should ; it is just what I want above other 
 things." On the occasion to which their secretary had alluded, 
 when he put this question to the boys, they did not merely 
 put up one but two hands, so anxious were they to show their 
 willingness to be on the water. That was the first reason why 
 they had suggested this mode of education — the hearts of these 
 boys seemed set on a seafaring life ; and it was the truth that 
 without a boy set his heart upon the sea he would never turn out 
 to be a good sailor. And, moreover, old sailors would tell them 
 that if a boy once set his heart upon a seafaring life he would do 
 but very little good at anything else. Again, he held it to be a 
 matter of vital importance to the welfare of this country that they 
 should have a supply of good, intelligent, and well-conducted boys 
 for both the royal and mercantile marine. The royal navy could, 
 in a great measure, take care of itself; but their mercantile 
 marine needed great improvement, and this improvement could 
 only be effected by their merchant ships being manned by men who
 
 384 Blackwall, 18th December, 1866. 
 
 would submit to discipline, and who were jaossessed of the principle 
 of seL£-control. Let them look at the number of wrecks every year 
 upon our coasts, and out on the open seas ; and he had no hesita- 
 tion in saying that 99 cases of every 100 — and he said this, he 
 believed, in the presence of shipowners and ship-captains — arose 
 out of the indiscipline and the drunkenness of the men. Was it 
 not a scandal and a disgrace to the honour of this great maritime 
 power, whose sole security and only defence was in its navy ? — 
 was it not, he asked, a shame that the largest proportion of our 
 mercantile marine should consist of foreign sailors ? It was 
 desirable, and essentially necessary, that they should do all in 
 their power to provide fit men to man their ships — men of 
 intelligence, men of good discipline, men of good conduct, and 
 meli who would value everything that was dear to an English- 
 man — the common defence of his ten'itory and the character 
 of his institutions. But it was not sufficient that they should 
 be simply aware of the importance of having such a class of 
 men as he had described for their mercantile marine; they 
 ought to do something to obtain this class; and from this ship 
 they might supply this jsai-t of the service with 200 boys every 
 year, fully capable cf undertaking the duties, and gathered from 
 the wandering lads of London. They must, moreover, also look 
 well to the conduct, the character, and the principle of the ship- 
 owners. They must see that the ships to which these boys were 
 consigned were provided vdth due accommodation, and that there 
 was everything necessary for the health and morality of the men. 
 It was absolutely necessary that these two things should go 
 together, if they wanted to improve the character of the mercan- 
 tile marine. He (Earl of Shaftesbuiy) could foresee the time, not- 
 withstanding the great and present difficulties, notwithstanding 
 the vast miiltitudes that throng around, and which must make us 
 stand aghast to view the amount of misery and crime that now 
 aboimds in the midst of us, he could foresee the time when by the 
 application of zeal, and the multiplication of institutions like 
 this, the population of England, instead of becoming a ciirse, 
 would become a blessing. And it would also be proved that, with 
 our millions of i)eople, there were none too many for all the necessi- 
 ties of this great country. And, above all, they would give a 
 sound, religious. Christian education to these boys, who would be 
 sent to all ports and harbours of the world, by their good con- 
 duct removing whatever was now a blot upon the honour and name 
 of the country. Instead of bringing drunkenness, disorder, and 
 disgrace into our navy, our vessels would in future be manned by
 
 Homeless Boys of London. 385 
 
 intelligent, well-conducted, and good-disciplined men — the charac- 
 ter of the English sailor would no longer be such that it should be 
 said of him that he was of all those afloat by far the most ^jrofligate. 
 The boys educated on board this ship would show quite the 
 reverse of this; they would show to the whole earth what the 
 British nation really was, and what it would continue to be ; and 
 they would enable us to repeat with certainty, with joy, and with 
 assurance, the words of the hymn that had just been heard : 
 
 *' Through every land, by every tongue, 
 Let the Redeemer's name be sung."
 
 ( 386 ) 
 
 Clerical Vestments Bill. 
 
 HOUSE OF LOEDS, 
 
 Tuesday, May 14, 1867. 
 
 The Earl of Shaftesbury. — In rising to move tte second read- 
 ing of the bill which is now before your Lordships, I think 
 there is no occasion for me to remind the House of the necessity 
 that exists for passing some measure on this subject. The 
 question has been so long before the public, and has given rise 
 to so much agitation throughout the country — we have had so 
 many remedies j)roposed for the evils that exist in connexion 
 with this matter by the clergy, the bishops, and the laity, that I 
 think it must be apparent to every person that some remedy 
 must be adopted to check ceriain practices that are now prevalent. 
 It has been stated that I have been somewhat hasty in this 
 matter. But, my Lords, this is a matter which has been long 
 considered by the country. I have long had it before me. I 
 propounded this measure to your Lordships in the month of 
 March, and it is now the 14th of May before we come to the 
 second reading. Subsequently to my propounding it, it was 
 proposed that a Commission shoidd issue to take into considera- 
 tion all matters connected with Ritualistic practices; nevertheless, 
 I thought it my duty to persevere with the measure. I offer no 
 impediment to the Commission ; but there happens to be one part 
 of Ritualistic practice which has created so much alarm and 
 dissatisfaction among the community, which has so disturbed 
 men's minds and consciences, that I am of opinion that no delay 
 ought to be allowed to intervene before the matter is discussed, 
 and some remedy at least attempted. Now, the remedy I wish to 
 propose is not by introducing any innovation. What I maintain 
 is, that these Ritualistic practices are a great innovation on the 
 system and conduct of the Church. Yet I do not meet innovation 
 by innovation, and so make matters worse. I wish to see the
 
 Clerical Vestments Bill. 387 
 
 usage and practice of the Cliurcli ever since tlie period of the 
 Reformation, which has been sanctioned by experience, which 
 has given contentment and satisfaction to our forefathers, onr 
 fathers, and ourselves — I wish to sec that usage embodied in an 
 Act of Parliament, and that statutory effect may be given to the 
 usage of this country which has now subsisted for more than 
 300 years. To effect this purpose, I take the spirit and, in great 
 measure, the words of the 58th Canon, and engi'aft them on the 
 bill now before your Lordships. Although there may be a slight 
 alteration in the words, yet in principle and details the spirit of 
 the canon is preserved. 
 
 It will be my duty, I fear, to detain your Lordships by reading 
 a cei'tain amount of documentary evidence, because I am anxious 
 to prove that the law and authorities are on our side, from the 
 Reformation down to the present day — to justify the course I 
 pursue, and show that what I propose to enact has been the law 
 of the Church of England, recognised in past times by all her 
 great prelates and divines, recognised at the present moment by 
 the two Houses of Convocation, and, I believe, by the gi*eat body 
 of the clergy. To show that what I projDose has been the law of 
 the Church from the earliest period, I must first recite the rubric 
 in the second Prayer Book of Edward VI., of 1552 : — 
 
 " And here it is to be noted that the minister at the time of 
 Communion, and at all other times of his ministration, shall iise 
 neither alb, vestment, nor cope ; but, being archbishop or bishop, 
 he shall have and wear a rochet ; and being a priest or deacon, he 
 shall have and wear a sui-plice only." (" Liturgies of Edward 
 VI., Parker Society Ed.," P. 217.) 
 
 This was the statute law of the Church, as enacted by Cranmer, 
 Ridley, and other Protestant martyrs. In the time of Queen 
 Mary the statute was repealed; but on the accession of Elizabeth 
 power was given to her Majesty to issue advertisements that 
 should have the nature of law. In 1564 Strype says (" 3 Strype's 
 Parker," P. 65) :— 
 
 " The Advertisements arose in this way : the Queen directed 
 her letter this year (1564), in the month of January, to her 
 Archbishop, requiring him, with other Bishops in the Commission 
 for Causes Ecclesiastical, that orders might be taken, whereby all 
 diversities and varieties among the clergy and laity, as breeding 
 nothing but contention and breach of common charity, might be 
 reformed and repressed, and brought to one manner of uniformity 
 throughout the realm."
 
 388 House of Lords, Uth May, 1867. 
 
 The result was that in 1565 Queen Elizabeth issued her Adver- 
 tisements in respect of the ornaments of the ministers, one of 
 which (" SiaaiTOw's Articles," 124) was as follows : — 
 
 " That every minister saying any public prayers or ministering 
 the Sacrament, or other rites of the Church, shall wear a comely 
 surplice with sleeves, to be provided at the charge of the parish." 
 
 Now follows the recognition (and it is worthy of great atten- 
 tion) by the prelates in their Injunctions and Visitation Articles, 
 that the surplice was the only dress of the minister between the 
 time of the issuing of the Advertisements of Queen Elizabeth and 
 the passing of the Canons of 1604. Parker, in his "Visitation 
 Articles in 1569 (" 1 CardweU, Doc. Ann.," 356), inquires : — 
 
 " Item, whether your priests, curates, or ministers do use in the 
 time of the celebration of Divine service to wear a surplice pre- 
 scribed by the Qiieen's Majesty's Injunctions, and the Book of 
 Common Prayer, and whether they do celebrate the same Divine 
 Sei-vice in the Chancel or in the Church, and do use all rites and 
 orders prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer, &c., and none 
 other." 
 
 Sandys, Bishop of London, in his Injunctions, 1570, orders the 
 clergy in all Divine service to wear the surplice. Grindal, Arch- 
 bishop of York, in his Injunctions for the province in 1571, directs 
 (" 2 Strype's Annals," 6) the clergy — 
 
 " At all times when ye minister the Holy Sacrament .... and 
 other Divine service in yotir parish churches and chapels, ye shall 
 when ye minister wear a clean and decent surplice with large 
 sleeves." 
 
 At the same Visitation, Archbishop Grindal orders the church- 
 wardens and ministers to see that — 
 
 " All vestments, albs, tunicles, stoles, phanons, pyxes, paxes, 
 hand-beUs, sacring bells, censers, chrismatories, crosses, candle- 
 sticks, holy water, stocks, fats, images, and all other moniiments 
 of superstition and idolatry, be utterly defaced, broken, and 
 destroyed." (" Grindal's Remains," 124.) 
 
 Again, the Ai-chbishop, in his Metropolitical Visitation in 1576, 
 inquires — 
 
 " Whether you have in your parish churches and chapels all 
 things requisite for the common prayer and administration of the 
 sacraments, specially the Book of Common Prayer with the new 
 calendar, .... and a large decent surplice with sleeves. Whether 
 all and every antiphoners, mass books, . , , , aU vestments, albs,
 
 Clerical Vestments Bill. 389 
 
 &c be utterly defaced, broken, and destroyed ? Whether 
 
 your pastor do wear any cope in any parish church or chapel ?" 
 (Pp. 157—9.) 
 
 Now, observe, my Lords, that here another authority interposes 
 — the authority of the University. Dr. Gains, in 1572, was 
 charged at his College with Romanizing. Strype (" 1 Strype's 
 Parker," 399) says— 
 
 " For that he had a kindness it appears in his private reser- 
 vation of abundance of Popish trumpery, which he might think 
 could come in play again ; and so that, out of good husbandry, 
 preserved them to save the College the charge of buying new 
 fiu'niture for the chapel. But, in the year 1572, all came out, for 
 the fame hereof coming to the ears of Sandys, Bishop of London, 
 he wi'ote earnestly to Dr. Byng, Vice-Chancellor, to see those 
 superstitious things abolished. Byng could hardly have been 
 persuaded that such things had been by him reserved ; but, 
 causing Caius's own company to make search in that CoUege, he 
 received an inventory of much Popish ware, as vestments, albs, 
 tunicles, stoles, manicles, with other such stuff as might have 
 furnished divers masters at one instant. It was thought good by 
 the whole consent of the heads of the houses to burn the books 
 and such other things as served most for idolatrous abuses, and 
 caused the rest to be defaced, which was accomplished the 13th 
 of December, 1572, with the willing hearts, as it appeared, of the 
 whole company of that hoiise." 
 
 My Lords, I continue the episcopal testimony. Archl)ishop 
 Whitgift, in 1584, required — 
 
 " That all preachers and others in ecclesiastical orders do at all 
 times wear and use such kind of apparel as is prescril)ed unto 
 them by the Book of Advertisements and her Majesty's Injunc- 
 tion." (" 1 Cardwell Doc. Ann.," 468.) 
 
 In the same year, in the Visitation Articles for the diocese of 
 Chichester {sede vacante), he asks — 
 
 " Doth your minister in public prayer wear a surplice, and go 
 abroad apparelled as by her Majesty's Injunctions and Adver- 
 tisements is prescribed ?" (" Strype's Whitgift," 243.) 
 
 Piers, Archbishop of York, in 1590, follows, and (Robertson 
 97) asks— 
 
 " Whether aU copes, vestments, albs, tunicles, .... and such 
 like reliques of Popish superstition and idolatry be utterly de- 
 stroyed and defaced ?"
 
 390 House of Lm-ds, Uth May, 1867. 
 
 Now, my Lords, I request you to observe the agi-eement between 
 the Canons of 1571 and the Canons of 1604. The Canons of 
 1571 and the Canons of 1604 recognise the sui-plice with the hood 
 as the only dress for the minister during the time of public 
 prayers, being in strict accordance — let not this escape attention 
 — with the second Prayer Book of Edward VI. and the Adver- 
 tisements of Queen Elizabeth. The Canons of 1571 contain the 
 following order : — 
 
 " No dean, nor archdeacon, nor residentiary, nor master, nor 
 warden, nor head of any college or collegiate church, neither 
 president nor rector, nor any of that order, by what name soever 
 they be called, shall hereafter wear the gray amice, or any other 
 garment which hath been defiled with like superstition ; but every 
 one of them in his own church shaU wear only that linen garment 
 which is as yet retained by the Queen's command, and also his 
 scholar's hood, according to every man's calling and degree in 
 school." (" 1 CardweU, Synodalia," 115, ed. 1842.) 
 
 And Canon 58 of Canons of 1604, which is embodied in the 
 bill, requires — 
 
 " That every minister saying the public prayers or ministering 
 the sacraments or other rites of the Church, shall wear a decent 
 and comely surplice with sleeves, to be provided at the charge of 
 the parish. And if any question arise touching the matter, 
 decency, or comeliness thereof, the same shall be decided by the 
 discretion of the ordinary. Furthermore, such ministers as are 
 graduates shall wear upon their surplices, at such times, such hoods 
 as by the orders of the Universities are agreeable to their degrees, 
 which no minister shall wear being no graduate, under pain of 
 suspension. Notwithstanding, it shall be lawful for such ministers 
 as are not graduates to wear upon their surplices, instead of 
 hoods, some decent tippet of black, so it be not silk." 
 
 This canon, my Lords, is essentially the same as the rubric in 
 the second Prayer Book of Edward YI. and the Advertisements 
 of Elizabeth, and in strict accordance with the Injunctions and 
 Visitation Articles issued by the Archbishops and Bishops since 
 the passing of the second Act of Uniformity of Edward VI. Let 
 me now draw your attention to the recognition by prelates of the 
 use of the surplice after the Canons of 1604, and before the enact- 
 ment of the present Prayer Book in 1662. 
 
 _ Bishop Cosin, in 1627, inquired in the articles for the Archi- 
 diaconal Visitation of that year, whether — 
 
 "The minister doth observe aU the orders, rites, and cere-
 
 Clerical Vestments Bill. 391 
 
 monies prescribed in tlie Book of Common Prayer in such manner 
 and form only as is there enjoined, without any omission, or 
 addition, or alteration whatsoever ? (He was not a Bishop at the 
 time.) Whether in the time of public and Divine service, .... 
 and at all other times of his ministration, when any Sacrament 
 be administered, or any other i-ite or ceremony of the Church 
 solemnized, use and wear the surplice without any excuse or 
 pretence whatever ; and doth he never omit the same ?" (" 2 
 Cosin's Work," 19.) 
 
 Observe, now, the recognitions by prelates of the use of the 
 surplice after the enactment of our present Prayer Book. Bishop 
 Cosin, in his Visitation, October, 1662 — I may here observe that 
 this eminent Bishop is ranked by all as among the very highest 
 authorities of the Anglican Chm-ch — the Bishop — 
 
 " Requires the surplice to be worn with the habit by the 
 ministers at the reading or celebrating any Divine office ; and 
 asks whether the lecturer read service, and that in a surplice ; 
 and whether, in lecturing, he used the ecclesiastical habit ap- 
 pointed for all ministers of the Church." 
 
 Archdeacon Harrison (on the " Rubrics," 175) has the following 
 note upon the word " habit :" — " This is obviously the gown." To 
 proceed. Archbishop Frewen, in 1662, in his Visitation Articles 
 for the diocese and province of York, asks, " Have you a decent 
 surplice for your parson, vicar, curate, or lecturer, to wear in the 
 time of public ministration ? Doth he read the Book of Common 
 Prayer, &c., and doth he wear the surplice while he performs that 
 office, or other offices mentioned in the Book of Common Prayer ?" 
 In 1670, Laney, Bishop of Lincoln, in his Visitation Articles, 
 inquires, " Doth your minister, at the reading or celebrating any 
 Divine office in your church or chapel, wear the surplice, together 
 with such scholastic habit as is suitable to his degree ?" And, in 
 1674, Bishop FuUer, the successor of Bishop Laney, makes the 
 like inquiry as his predecessor. In 1670, Archbishop Sheldon 
 I'equires of his clergy " an exemplary conformity in their own 
 persons and practice to his Majesty's laws and the rules of the 
 Church, .... and that in the time of such tlieir officiating they 
 ever make use of and wear their priestly luibit, the surplice and 
 hood." ('• 2 Cardwell, Loc. Ann.," 328.) Dr. Owtram. Archdeacon 
 of Leicester, inquires, in 1676, " Have you a large surplice for the 
 use of your minister in his public administrations ?" And, in 
 1679, Bishop Bar] jw in his Visitation Articles of the diocese of 
 Lincoln, inquires, '* Have you a fair surplice for the minister to 
 wear at all times of his jniblic ministration provided at the charge
 
 392 House of Lords, Uth May, 1867. 
 
 of the parisli, and dotli he make use of the surplice when he reads 
 Divine sei'vice or administers the sacrament ?" (" Han-ison," 
 178.) 
 
 And here, my Lords, I ask you, can we have a more uniform, 
 more connected " catena patrum " — (catena is the word, I believe, 
 in the present day) than this which I have just concluded ? 
 
 But I will now call attention to what has taken place in more 
 modem times, in reference to the dress of the ministers. In the 
 Lower House of the Convocation of the Province of York the 
 following resolution, seconded by the Dean of Ripon in a power- 
 ful speech, was adopted in March of the present year : — 
 
 "Whereas certain vestments and ritual observances have 
 recently been introduced into the seiwices of the Church of 
 England, this House desires to place on record its deliberate 
 opinion that these innovations are to be deprecated, as tending 
 to favour eiTors rejected by that Church, and as being repugnant 
 to the feelings of a large number of the laity and clergy ; and 
 this House is fui'ther of opinion that it is desirable that the 
 dress of a minister in public prayer, and the administration of 
 the sacraments and other rites of the Church, should continue to 
 be the sui-plice, academical hood (or tippet for non-graduates), 
 and the scarf or stole, these having received the sanction of 
 long-continued usage." (" Dean Goode's Speech in Convocation.") 
 
 This resolution was passed iinanimously by the Upper House, 
 and was can-ied by 23 to 7 in the Lower House. 
 
 And here I think it right to biing under your Lordships' notice 
 a declaration of the American Bishops, in March, 1867 — the testi- 
 mony of the Episcopal Church in the United States, identical in 
 creed and discipline with our own. Tour Lordships will not fail 
 to see the value of it. The declai-ation of the assembled bishops 
 is as follows : — 
 
 " And we, therefore, consider that in this particular national 
 Church, any attempt to introduce into the public worship of 
 Almighty God usages that have never been known — such as the 
 use of incense, and the burning of lights in the order for the 
 Holy Commimion; reverences to the Holy Table or to the elements 
 thereon, such as indicate or imply that the sacrifice of our Divine 
 Lord and Saviour, ' once offered,' was not a ' full, perfect, and 
 sixfficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the 
 whole world ;' the adoption of clerical habits hitherto unknown, 
 or material alterations of those which have Ijeen in use since the 
 establishment of our episcopate — is an innovation which violates 
 the discipline of the Church, ' offendeth against its common
 
 Clerical Vestments Bill. 393 
 
 order, and liurtetli the authority of the magistrate, and woundeth 
 the consciences of the weak brethren.' " 
 
 I will now close this part of the subject by reading to your 
 Lordships the opinion of the Pro\dnce of Canterbury. The 
 resolution passed by the Upper House of the Southern Convo- 
 cation in February last stands thus : — 
 
 " Resolved, — That having taken into consideration the report 
 made to this House by the Lower House, concerning certain 
 ritual observances, we have concluded that, having regard to the 
 dangers (1) of favouring errors deliberately rejected by the 
 Church of England, and fostering a tendency to desert her 
 communion ; (2) of offending, even in things indifferent, devout 
 worshippers in our chui'ches, who have been long used to other 
 modes of service, and thus of estranging many of the faithful 
 laity ; (3) of vinnecessarily dejDarting from uniformity ; (4) of 
 increasing the difficulties which prevent the return of separatists 
 to our communion — we convey to the Lower House our unanimous 
 decision that, having respect to the considerations here recorded, 
 and to the rubric concerning the service of the Church in our 
 Book of Common Prayer, to wit, — ' Forasmuch as nothing can be 
 so plainly set forth but doubts may arise in the use and practice 
 of the same, to appease all such diversity (if any arise), and for 
 the resolution of all doubts concerning the manner how to under- 
 stand, do, and execute the things contained in this book, the 
 parties that so doubt, or diversely take anything, shall always 
 resort to the Bishop of the diocese, who, by his discretion, shall 
 take order for the quieting and appeasing of the same, so that 
 the same order be not contrary to anything contained in this 
 book ; and if the Bishop of the diocese be in doubt, then he may 
 send for the resolution thereof to the Archbishop ' — our judgment 
 is, that no alterations from long-sanctioned and usual I'itual 
 ought to be made in our churches until the sanction of the Bishop 
 of the diocese has been obtained thereto." (" Dean Goode's 
 Remarks," &c.) 
 
 This resolution is quoted to show the opinions entertained by 
 the prelates of the impropriety and danger of these Ritualistic 
 observances, not by any means in approval of the remedy they 
 propose. And I now come to the bill, which I ask your Lordships 
 to read a second time. The object of the measure is simply, as I 
 have said before, to give statutory effect to the principle of the 
 Canon of 1604, which has had the effect of governing the system 
 of the Establishment from that time to the present, and of 
 securing peace and harmony among oiu' commimion. I do not
 
 394 House of Lords, Uth May, 1867. 
 
 know wliat objections are entertained to the bill, Ijeyond two or 
 tbree unimportant criticisms. The first is tbat the bill touches 
 but one point. That is true, and the reason is because it is the 
 only point on which there is really any legal doubt. There is no 
 doubt about incense, lights, and other points, but there is a doubt 
 about vestments ; and therefore it is the subject to which the atten- 
 tion of Parliament should be more immediately drawn. It is the one 
 point which of all others most disturbs and alarms the minds of the 
 laity, which is the most prominent, which strikes the eyes with the 
 gi-eatest force, and goes the deepest into the hearts and convictions 
 of the people. This is the reason why I thought that no time should 
 be lost in submitting a bill on the subject to your Lordships ; and, 
 should your Lordships not think proper to adopt it, some other 
 measure might be proposed more acceptable to the House. The 
 next ol)jection is one taken to the provisions of the bill. I have 
 received niimerous letters in reference to the measure ; but I do 
 not think the objections expressed in any of them go beyond mere 
 matters of the smallest detail. Great care has been taken, in 
 preparing the bill, to make nothing lawful or unlawful which is 
 not so at present. Any alterations as to matters of detail can be 
 made in the committee, but they would be so small and slight 
 that were they not made it would not be of any importance. I am 
 censured, too, for proceeding by law. Why, my Lords, law, or 
 fancied law, is the cause of the whole mischief, and by law alone 
 it must be removed. Again, the proceeding by way of Commission 
 has also been urged as vastly preferable. But yoiir Lordships 
 are now aware that the promised Commission did not precede the 
 bill, but that the bill preceded the Commission ; and it was not 
 until the bill had been some time on the table of the House that 
 a Commission was suggested. I frequently consulted many of 
 the Right Rev. Prelates in private, and showed them the bill. 
 Little or no objection was expressed to the course of proceeding I 
 proposed to j)ursue, and many of them gave me very strong hopes 
 that they would support the measure, considering it a great boon 
 to the Church. If a Commission had been proposed some three 
 years ago it might have been expedient to leave the subject to the 
 investigation of such a body; but to abandon an attempt at 
 legislation now, in consequence of the promise of a Commission, 
 of which we know neither the terms nor the members, and there- 
 by to hang up the question for a considerable time, would cause 
 great dissatisfaction to the country; and in the meanwhile the 
 state of things which has created, and which is still creating, so much 
 discontent would go on increasing without check or hindrance. By 
 such a course you would be doing for the extreme Ritualistic party
 
 Clerical Vestme^its Bill. 395 
 
 tlie very tiling they would most heartily desire. I cannot give a 
 better proof of my assertion than by reading an extract from one of 
 their recognized and authorized organs, by which you will see that 
 this is the policy which they most earnestly labour to accomplish. 
 The value which they attach to delay may be gathered from the 
 following passage, whichi I take from the " Church Times " : — 
 
 " In the meantime our counsel to our friends is, in homely 
 phi'ase, to make their hay while the sun yet shines. Every church 
 that adopts the vestments renders their abolition a great deal 
 more than proportionately difficult. We have no hesitation in 
 saying that if the ornaments rubric were only carried out in 
 every church where it would be acceptable, our position would be 
 impregnable." 
 
 And hear, in confirmation of their policy, a book of the highest 
 possible authority among them — a book fidl of amazing learning, 
 but learning, no doubt, of a most useless character — here is a 
 statement which completely harmonizes with the astute system 
 tbus counselled by the " Church Times " of making their position 
 impregnable. The " Directorium Anglicauum " assures us that 
 there are already "2,000 chui-ches which have lights on the 
 altars," the result of secret and gradual advancement. " His 
 brevibus principiis, via sternitur ad majora." 
 
 I think I have now shown your Lordships that some necessity 
 exists for legislation, and that the line which I propose is founded 
 on precedent, tradition, long and unbroken usage, on the content- 
 ment and satisfaction of the people, the peace of the Church — in 
 shoi-t, on every consideration which tends to maintain unimpaired 
 throughout the kingdom the blessings of civil and religious 
 liberty. I must, however, ask your indulgence while I detain you 
 a little longer. I am anxious, having disposed of the legal aspect 
 of the question, to inquire whether we are not standing on the 
 brink of a system which, if extended, may lead to the subversion 
 of the Church of England itself, and bear along with it political 
 evils tending to shake the existence of the empire. There are so 
 many points illustrative of that view that it would be unpardonable 
 in me if I did not advert to one or two of them for the purpose of 
 conveying conviction to your Lordships' minds. Here is one 
 point, which has, I confess, filled me with considerable alarm. A 
 short time ago a very remarkable book was published, called 
 " The Church and the World ; or. Essays upon the Questions of 
 the Day ;" and I observe, on referring to an authorized work, called 
 " The Chronicle of Convocation," June, 1866 — a work analogous, 
 so far as the proceedings of that body are concerned, to " Hansard,"
 
 396 House of Lords, Uth May, 1867. 
 
 for parliamentary debates — that an event took place in tlie Upper 
 House which I should like to state to your Lordships. The 
 Bishop of Oxford, on the occasion to which I am referring, said — 
 
 " I have now to present to your Grace and this Upper House of 
 Convocation a book which has been forwarded to me under cover, 
 directed to the Upper House of Convocation. I have not read the 
 book myself." 
 
 I can well believe, my Lords, that the Right Rev. Prelate had not 
 i-ead it, for if he had done so he would, I am sure, have been one 
 of the first to repudiate its contents. The title of the book was, 
 he added, " The Church and the World," and when he had pre- 
 sented it the Bishop of Salisbury rose, and, speaking in more 
 precise language, said — 
 
 " I think we ought to present our thanks to the author of this 
 book. I have read a good many of the essays contained in it, and 
 they are most able. Although persons may differ from its con- 
 clusions, I am sure that everybody who takes the trouble of read- 
 ing the work will find a great deal of matter in it admirably well 
 put together." 
 
 Now, my Lords, I have read the greater part of this book, and in 
 my humble judgment I never opened a book more disloyal to the 
 Church, to the Bishops, and, I may add, to the truth. I will, with 
 your Lordships' permission, give you one or two specimens of 
 the character and purpose of this publication. To begin. "We 
 have said, my Lords, that the Ritualistic system adopted in many 
 of our churches has altogether changed their Protestant character, 
 and given to them the appearance of Popish j^laces of worship, so 
 as scarcely, and oftentimes not at all, to be distinguishable from 
 those of the Church of Rome. Well, that being so, one of the 
 essays in this book contains the following passage : — 
 
 " Anglicans are reproached by Protestants with their resem- 
 blance to Romans ; they say a stranger entering into a church 
 where Ritual is carefully attended to might easily mistake it for 
 a Roman service. Of course he might " (listen to these words, my 
 Lords, of course he might) ; " the whole purpose of the great 
 revival has been to eliminate the dreary Protestantism of the 
 Hanoverian period, and restore the glory of Catholic worship ; 
 the chiirches are restored after the mediaeval pattern, and our 
 Ritual must accord with the Catholic standard. . . . Ritvial, 
 like painting and architectiu-e, is the only visible expression 
 of Divine truth. Without dogma, without any esoteric meaning. 
 
 J
 
 Clerical Vestments Bill. 397 
 
 Ritual is an illusion and delusion, a lay figure without life or 
 spirit, a vox et prceterea nihil." (P. 212.) 
 
 The book urges also the celibacy of the clergy. A whole essay, 
 indeed, is devoted to the object of demonstrating that the un- 
 married state is the highest state of human existence. It urges, 
 moreover, the revival of religious confraternities, while one of the 
 essays proceeds to contend that the Church ought to be assimilated 
 to the theatre. 
 
 "Managers," it says, "have constantly been compelled to make 
 gorgeous spectacle their main attraction ; and a splendid transfor- 
 mation scene or a telling stage procession will draw crowds night 
 after night, even in the absence of any theatrical celebrity. 
 Hence a lesson may be learnt by all who are not too proud to learn 
 from the stage. For it is an axiom in liturgiology that no pubUc 
 worship is really deserving of its name unless it be histrionic." 
 
 Here, my Lords, we have it declared that the simple worship of 
 the Almighty as hitherto observed in our churches is now to be 
 convei'ted into a histrionic display, and that the house of God is 
 to be turned into a stage, where gorgeous processions are to take 
 the place of spiritual service, and religion is to be turned into a 
 glittering drama. Again, the following passage approaches very 
 close to the adoration of the Yii-gin : — 
 
 " The veneration of the blessed Yirgin I perceived to a certain 
 extent really exalted our Divine Lord, by showing the dignity 
 attached to everything connected with the incarnation ; and that 
 Protestants misunderstand it because they practically degrade 
 Him to the level of a saint, and then of course are shocked at any 
 human creature being compared with Him." 
 
 In another essay we have the value and necessity of the con- 
 fessional vigorously asserted. It contains a remarkable statement, 
 which piu-ports to be written by a lady, who gives details of what 
 took place when she, a young girl, went to confession wthout the 
 sanction of her parents, her confession occupying six hours. She 
 adds — 
 
 " Tears have passed since then, days and weeks of severe suffer- 
 ing, mental and bodily, but never anything that can be compared 
 to those houi's and the weeks that followed them, and I know that 
 I can never pass through anything worse on the earth side of the 
 grave." 
 
 She goes on to say how absolutely indispensable confession is, 
 and she assigns this as her reason — _
 
 398 House of Lords, Uth May, 1867. 
 
 " Many persons think tliat their sins confessed in secret to God 
 are fully confessed. / believe it to he a most fatal mistake." 
 
 Now, was there ever before, my Lords, a doctrine such as this 
 sanctioned by the ai^proval of a Protestant Bishop ? Was there 
 ever a doctrine so calculated to found, and maintain, a system of 
 sacerdotal tyranny ? That no intercourse can take place between 
 a man and his Maker, without the intervention of some priest, 
 weak and fallible as himself, is a dogma as false as it is revolting. 
 Tet these are but samples, and those not the most violent and 
 extreme that might be quoted from this book. Surely it is a sign 
 of the times that such avowals have been befriended by Episcopal 
 authority. 
 
 And now, my Lords, can we wonder at results such as I will 
 now put before you ? Can we wonder at a narrative such as that 
 which is extracted from the " Church Review " of the 18th of 
 November, 1865, describing the scenes that occuii-ed at the church 
 of St. Lawi-ence, Norwich, a few days before, with reference to the 
 dedication of a cope : — 
 
 "The Church of St. Lawi-ence, Norwich. — On Sunday last an 
 unusual ceremony was witnessed at this church. A cope had 
 been purchased by a Cambridge undergraduate, and, at his wish, 
 was presented and duly dedicated to God's sei'vice in a particularly 
 impressive manner. The usual procession of choir and priest 
 entered the church for evensong, headed by the crucifer. At the 
 rear, immediately before the thuiifers, the cope was carried by 
 the deputed person who acted for the donor ; the priest went to 
 the altar accompanied by the thurifers. At the bottom step of 
 the sacrarium the cope was presented to him with these words : — 
 * Reverend Father, in the name and on behalf of the donor, I 
 present this cope for use by the priest in this Church of St. 
 Lawrence on all fitting occasions.' The priest received it with 
 these words : — ' We receive this cope to the glory of God and for 
 use in this chvirch of St. Lawrence in the name of the Father, and 
 of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.' The priest then duly 
 presented it on the altar and incensed it, after which suitable 
 versicles, responses, and a prayer were used. Then the priest 
 was vested in the cope and remained so until after the Magnificat. 
 The cope is of rich gold and white brocateUe, with crimson 
 orphreys and hood." 
 
 My Lords, I suspect a frugal mind, as weU as a devout heart, in 
 this narrative, for it added — 
 
 " The cope was supplied by Mr. R. L. Bloomfield, and is the 
 same as shown at the Ecclesiastical Art Exhibition at Norwich."
 
 Clerical Vestments Bill. 399 
 
 The stories of this kind in reference to our churches and chapels 
 might be kirgely multiplied, and notably I might call your atten- 
 tion to the Church of St. Raphael's, Bristol. Now, this cope is, 
 after all, but a very servile imitation of the Holy Coat of Treves ; 
 still, that coat, miserable as it was, excited very great com- 
 motion throughout many parts of Germany. It is, indeed, our 
 interest, no less than our duty, to mark the extremes to which 
 these things are carried, and the necessity that they should be 
 checked. At this moment there are very many men, of great 
 ability, great zeal and learning, all engaged in an endeavour to 
 promote and fix in the hearts of the j^eople this Ritualistic 
 system. And, to prove my position, I must advert to a book of 
 the highest authority with the Ritualists, which shows the great 
 lengths to which they have gone, and, beyond dispute, to which 
 they intend to go. The work which I am about to quote is the 
 " Directorium Anglicanum," a work of authoi-ity ; and it thus 
 lays down the mode of worship which, the wi-iters assert, ought 
 to be observed in the Church of England. It says — 
 
 " Ritual is the expression of doctrine, and a witness to the 
 Sacramental system of the Catholic religion." — Yery weU, to 
 begin with. 
 
 The various vestments are also described, and the times and 
 seasons at which they are to be worn thus pointed out : — 
 
 " The order of the many-coloured vestments : — White, from the 
 evening of Christmas Eve to the Octave of the Epiphany, &c. ; 
 Red, Vigil of Pentecost, and aU other feasts ; Violet, from Sep- 
 tuagesima to Easter Eve, &c. ; Black, Good Friday and public 
 fasts ; Green, all other days." 
 
 From this your Lordships wiU be able to see the advanced posi- 
 tion of the Sacramental system occupied by a portion of the 
 clergy. Now, follow a few of the orders and injunctions for the 
 administration of the Sacraments : — 
 
 " The greatest care should be taken to avoid the sacrilege of 
 allowing the smallest particle to fall from the ciborium or pyx, 
 &c. — It is impossible to communicate persons (who put their faces 
 on the floor or kneel away from the cushion) without the greatest 
 danger to the blessed Sacrament. — After the Consecration prayer, 
 it is most desirable that no person passes before the blessed 
 Sacrament, without genuflecting, bowing, or some token of rever- 
 ence. [Is not this, my Lords, an act of adorati<m ?] — Let the 
 priest test it by his minister, who will taste both the wine and 
 water. But the priest himseK ought not to taste it, (but)
 
 400 House of Lords, Uth May, 1867. 
 
 pour a drop on his hand, rub it with his fingers, and smell it. . . , 
 If it is too watery, he must not use it unless he knows that the 
 wine exceeds the water. He shall fetch a breath, and with one 
 inspiration shall say, — ' Hoc est eniin corpus meum,' so that no 
 other train of thought shall intermingle with (the words). Again, 
 he should never take the chalice at one draught, lest, by reason of 
 the impetus, he should unadvisedly cough ; but twice or thrice he 
 should take it warily. — Before mass the priest is not to wash his 
 mouth or teeth, but only his lips from without, with his mouth 
 closed, as he has need, lest, perchance, he should intermingle the 
 taste of water with his saliva. — If, after having communicated o£ 
 the body, he shall have the water already in his mouth, and shall 
 
 then for the first time perceive that it is water it is safer 
 
 for him to swallow than eject it; and for this reason, that no 
 particle of the body may be ejected with the water. — If a fly or 
 spider, or such like thing, should fall into the chalice, after con- 
 secration, it should be wainly taken out, oftentimes diligently 
 washed between the fingers, and then burnt, and the abhition, 
 together with the burnt ashes, must be put into the piscina." (A 
 laugh.) 
 
 My Lords, I do not quote these things to provoke laughter ; far 
 fi'om it. Strange and abhorrent as they may be to our Protestant 
 feelings, there are many earnest, though deluded, minds that hold 
 and teach them, and of siich it is far from my wish to speak with 
 contempt. The book then goes on to say — 
 
 " If the consecrated host .... slip from the priest's hands 
 into the chalice .... he ought not to take it out of the blood, 
 but proceed in making the sign of the cross, and other matters, 
 as if he held it in his hand. — If the Evicharist has fallen to the 
 gi'oimd, the place where it lay must be scraped, and fire kindled 
 thereon, and the ashes reserved beside the altar. In a similar 
 case we (Ed. D. A.) should put the ashes down the piscina. — If 
 any of the blood be spilled iipon a table fixed to the floor the priest 
 must take up the drop with his tongue, &c., and he to whom this 
 has befallen must do penance 40 days." (Observe, my Lords, the 
 constant repetition of the word "blood," showing the identity 
 with the Roman system.) " If any one, by any accident of the 
 throat, vomit up the Eucharist, the vomit is to be burnt and the 
 ashes reserved near the altar, and if he shall be a cleric he must 
 do penance 40 days, if a bishop " (I call the attention of the 
 Episcopal bench to this) " 70 days, if a laic 30 days." 
 
 Well, my Lords, are we then to return to the burdens that 
 neither we nor our fathers were able to bear ? Ai-e we to be sub-
 
 Clerical Vestments Bill. 401 
 
 jected to a system of Ritualism which, if merely for decoration, is 
 childish and irrevei-ent ; but which, if symbolical of the deepest 
 mysteries of our faith, amounts to blasphemy ? Will your Lord- 
 ships take the trouble to look at the Preface to the Book of 
 Common Prayer, and read that part of it which explains why 
 certain ceremonies were retained and cei-tain others were rejected ? 
 Tou will see a reference to the fact that there the great St. 
 Augustine complained of the intolerable yoke of ceremonial in 
 his times, and spoke of the condition of Christian people as being 
 worse in that respect than that of the Jews. The paragraph goes 
 on to ask if St. Augustine had lived in those days what would he 
 have said at seeing such a multiplication of observances ? Said ! 
 why, would he not have said that our Protestant worship is a 
 worship in spirit and in truth, and that it recognises only so 
 much outward observance as is necessary for reverent and decent 
 devotion ? This state of things is, beyond denial, tending to 
 Popery, and svich is the assertion of many of our prelates ; and 
 unless it be checked it must issue in Romanism ! Speaking in 
 Convocation in February, 1866, the Bishop of Llandaff said — 
 
 " This has been called a Romeward movement, while others 
 have denied that it is so. I cannot but consider this a Romeward 
 movement, and a veiy rapid movement." 
 
 What says the Bishop of St. David's ? — 
 
 " Nothing, in my judgment, can be more mischievous, as well 
 as in more direct contradiction to notorious facts, than to deny or 
 ignore the Romeward movement." 
 
 And here I cannot hesitate to call your Lordships' attention 
 for a moment to an ancient wi'iter, whose words are curious, as 
 showing how identical are the policy and action of those who 
 now seek to bring back Popery with the action of the men who 
 300 years ago were opposed to the spirit and principles of the 
 Reformation. In " Cardwell's History," in reference to the Con- 
 ference of 1559, — 
 
 " Gualter, it states, also the friend and colleague of Bullinger, 
 writing to the Queen's physician early in the year 1559, and 
 aUuding to the attempts at comprehension, entreats that they 
 would not hearken to the counsels of those men who, when they 
 saw that Popery could not be honestly defended nor entirely 
 retained, would use all artifices to have the outward face of 
 religion to remain mixed, uncertain, and doubtful, so that while 
 an Evangelical Reformation is pretended, those things should be 
 
 2 E
 
 402 House of Lords, Uth May, 1867. 
 
 obtruded upon the Churcli wliicli will make tlie returning back to 
 Popery, to superstition, and to idolatry very easy." 
 
 Mark these last words, " The return to Popery, superstition, 
 and idolatry very easy." In 1867, 300 years after, listen to the 
 same designs, the same hopes, the same facilities. The whole 
 scheme is set out in the " Church Times " of March 30, the 
 acknowledged organ of the Ritualistic party : — 
 
 " The address of Dr. Pusey " (says the journal) " to the members 
 of the English Church Union at their last monthly meeting is one 
 of considerable significance, and fraught with most important 
 lessons for the present time. It is, simply, a formal declaration 
 of war — war against iinbelief, against coldness, against timidity, 
 against all which goes to make up that form of religionism which 
 dignitaries call safe, and the ' Times ' calls English. War, then, it 
 shall be. But, that point once settled, the question is. What shall 
 he the tactics by ivhich the campaign shall be conducted ? 
 
 " The advice of Dr. Pusey is this : Let no further advances be 
 made for the present, but all attention be concentrated in fortify- 
 ing the position already attained, and in completing the military 
 education of the Church's army. This is the method by which 
 Ru.ssia has pushed her way so steadily and permanently into the 
 far East." 
 
 Observe, my Lords, the dexterity and astuteness with which 
 they press everything into their service. 
 
 " A fort is erected in the enemy's country, with clear lines of 
 communication back to the basis of supply. A village of soldier- 
 colonists gathers round the fort, and civilians follow where a 
 market springs up. When the post has been Russianized it 
 becomes, in its tm-n, the base-line of operation, and another fort 
 is thrown out some score of miles in advance, and the process is 
 repeated, until, as we have seen, Khokan, Bokhara, and the 
 neighbouring territories are in a fair way to be as Sclavonic as 
 Kazan and Perm. But two rules are inexorably maintained. No 
 fort is erected at a dangerous distance from the base-line, and no 
 non-combatants are allowed to be the pioneers of colonization. 
 Exactly identical with this should be our policy. 
 
 " Churches like St. Alban's,nolborn,and St. Lawrence's, Norwich" 
 (obsei-ve this, my Lords, the Church of the Holy Cope!), "books 
 like the 'Altar Manual,' the 'Priest's Pi-ayer Book,' and the 
 'Church and the World '" (bear in mind the title of this book), 
 " fairly represent the most advanced post yet reached by the 
 Catholic Revival in England. They are not the ultimate
 
 Clerical Vestments Bill. 403 
 
 GOAL." (Wliat is it, tlieu, my Lords ?) " Wby, the final aim, 
 
 WHICH ALONE WILL SATISFY THE RITUALISTS, IS THE RE- 
 UNION OF Christendom and the absorption of Dissent 
 WITHIN THE Church." 
 
 Here, then, my Lords, is the true object avowed — the subjuga- 
 tion of all Christendom, viz., body, soul, and spirit, to sacei'dotal 
 dominion. The journal proceeds : — 
 
 " This, then, is the thing to do. Let the advanced posts remain 
 as they are. Let each of those which is a little behind, and only 
 a little, gradually take up the same position, and let this process 
 be caiTied on (only without haste or wavering) down to the last 
 in the chain. Let a gradual change be brought i)i." 
 
 I beseech yoiu- attention, my Lords, to the quiet and secret 
 pi'Ogi'ess — 
 
 " A choral service, so far as Psalms and Canticles are concerned, 
 on some week-day evening, will train people to like a more 
 ornate worship, and that which began as an occasional luxuiy 
 will soon be felt a regular want. Where there is monthly com- 
 munion, let it be fortnightly ; where it is fortnightly, let it bo 
 weekly ; where it is weekly, let a Thursday office be added. 
 Where all this is already existing, candlesticks with unlighted 
 candles may be introduced. Where these are already found, 
 they might be lighted at evensong. Where so much is attained, 
 the step to lighting them for the Eucharistic Office is not a long 
 one. Where the black gown is in use in the pulpit on Sundays, 
 let it disappear in the week. The surplice will soon be preferred, 
 and vdll oust its rival. It is easy for each reader to see how 
 some advance, all in the same direction, can be made, and that 
 without any offence taken." 
 
 The resistance of our forefathers in the days of Qneen Elizabeth 
 has given us a Protestantism of 300 years ; may the resistance 
 in the present day assure to us one of no less duration ! 
 
 And now it may be asked why a layman should deal with this 
 question. My Lords, I wiU tell you at once why I have under- 
 taken the duty of bringing this subject under your notice. For 
 a very long time the laity of the Church of England have been 
 looking for assistance in every direction. They have turned to 
 the clergy — they have turned to the bishops. They have been 
 answered by charges and exhortations; but nothing effective 
 has been done for their relief — and this is the answer why the 
 laity have resolved to take the matter into their own hands. 
 Tliey think, moreover, that the bishops require the assistaiioe
 
 404 House of Lords, Uth May, 1867. 
 
 of tlie laity, and they liave determined, with, them, or without 
 them, to make every attempt in their power to remove this abuse 
 from the fair face of the Established Church. In common with 
 many others, I was, I confess, alarmed in no slight degi'ee at 
 what occurred in the early part of this year (in the month of 
 February). The Most Rev. Primate had p\it out an invitation to 
 the bishops of both provinces to meet at Lambeth in order to 
 discuss various important subjects connected with the Established 
 Church. In the agenda paper there was, however, no mention of 
 Ritualism, the question of all others most sharply agitating the 
 people of England. I believe I am coiTect — and if not the Most 
 Rev. Primate will set me right — in saying that some of the 
 bishops of the Northern Province declined to attend the Con- 
 ference proposed to be held at Lambeth because Ritualism was 
 not on the list of the agenda* In addition, my Lords, I must 
 say that I myself had been deeply moved, and the laity likewise 
 had been moved, by certain declarations made by the Bishop of 
 the diocese in which I have the honour to reside. In these 
 declarations strange powers were claimed, powers as great and 
 absolute as were ever claimed and exercised by any of the priests 
 of the Eastern and Western Churches. Convinced that matters 
 were approaching a fearful issue, I consulted with many of my 
 lay friends, and we agi'eed that an effort should be 'made to test 
 
 * In the course of the debate, the Bishop of Ciulisle made the following 
 explanation : 
 
 His Lordship stated that in the episcopal gatherings at Lambeth, in the springs 
 of 1865 and 1866, the subject of Ritualism had been brought forward and discLissed. 
 He was not at liberty to enter further into particulars ; but this he might say, 
 that, owing to certain causes, no decision had been come to on either occasion. 
 When, with his usual courtesy, the Most Reverend I'relate summoned the Bishops 
 to Lambeth in Febi'uary last, he was surprised and pained to find that this pressing 
 subject was altogether absent from the list of topics to be considered. On this he 
 wrote to his Grace, stating his reluctance to be present at the episcopal conclave 
 under such circumstances. This elicited a kind note expressing regret at this 
 decision. On this he attended, out of respect to his Grace, the fiist meeting, which 
 was but preliminary, and lasted for a veiy few minutes. On learning from the 
 remarks of his Grace that the decision to ignore Ritualism was still in foice, he 
 retired when the prelates dispersed to attend on her Majesty at the opening of 
 I'ailiament, and did not return to the episcopal gathering. The Right Reverend 
 i'lelate then expressed an earnest hojie that their Loidships would give a second 
 reading to the bill before them, and i-eferred to the existence of an organised con- 
 spiracy whicli, with a consistency of purpose, a perseverance of action, and a fertility 
 of resource worthy of a far better cause, was carried on in order to restore the 
 system of Popery in this country, and eflect what had been called " the subjugation 
 of an imperial race."
 
 Clerical Vestments Bill. 405 
 
 the feeling of the laity on this subject. A large connty meeting 
 was accordingly held ; and nothing could give a stronger proof 
 of the extent to which the people of England were animated 
 and resolved. I did not know until I had received accounts from 
 many parts of Dorset that the farmers could be so painfully 
 excited as they were by these Hitualistic observances. I should 
 not like to repeat the language used on this subject ; it was, 
 indeed, of the strongest description ; and no one could hear it 
 without feeHng that if these practices are continued the farmers 
 of England, instead of being, as they always have been, the 
 friends, will become the bitterest opponents of the Established 
 Church. 
 
 Now, in regard to this bill, I heai-d on high authority that 
 there was nothing to be objected to it, except on the ground that 
 it had not proceeded from the decisions of Convocation. My 
 Lords, I am bound to express the deep resj^ect I feel for the 
 individual members of Convocation of both Houses. But collec- 
 tively I do not feel the same respect for their opinions and jixdg- 
 ments ; and, for this reason, that Convocation represents only 
 the clergy, and those only most imperfectly, while of the laity 
 there is not a shadow of representation. I believe that no Convo- 
 cation is of any value that does not contain the laity as well as 
 the clergy. In the American Episcopal Church of the United 
 States the laity form the majority of their assemblies ; and when 
 I was in Paris a few days ago I had the benefit of a conversation 
 with a bishop of that Church, and learned from him that the laity 
 formed a large part of the governing body. Without them, he 
 added, Convocation would not get on at all ; but with their aid 
 the Church in America had been greatly extended, and would 
 continue, he believed, being extended far beyond its present 
 limits. Another objection I ui-ge to the supremacy of Convoca- 
 tion is that the Convocation of Canterbury does not include the 
 province of York. Yet that province contains the very pith and 
 marrow of the whole empire. The province of York contains the 
 diocese of Chester, which includes the great town of Liverpool. 
 It includes the diocese of Manchester and the whole of Lancashire 
 the Archbishopi'ic of York, and the diocese of Ripon, and the whole 
 of the West Riding of York, the diocese of Durham with the 
 whole of Durham and Northumberland, and the diocese of 
 Caidisle, including the whole of Cumbei-land and Westmoreland. 
 If the bill had proceeded from the Convocation of Canterbury, 
 which generally assumes to be exclusively Convocation, it would 
 have proceeded from the weaker of the two bodies, and from a 
 body which, as I have said already, does not represent the
 
 406 House of Lords, Uih May, 1867. 
 
 laity at all, and most imperfectly represents tlie whole body 
 of the clergy. 
 
 My Lords, I hold that this is essentially a question for the 
 laity. I -will never cease to proclaim that it is not for the bishop 
 and the minister to settle between themselves the order of the 
 service, or what vestments are to be worn, but that it is for the 
 great mass of the congregation to determine whether they will go 
 on in those usages which their fathei-s have practised for 300 
 years. It is not for the mere majority of the congregation to 
 determine what changes shall be made, but for the congregation 
 at large ; and even then it must be done consistently with the 
 law of the land. What are the minority to do ? Affected con- 
 scientiously, they cannot continue to worship in a church where 
 these Ritualistic practices prevail. And whither can they go ? 
 Must they seek in their necessity another place of worship ? 
 Doubtless they mxist, and such has been the smart and ready 
 counsel of a bishop, who preferred to give such advice to the judi- 
 cious exercise of influeuce and authority in the suppression of 
 harassing innovations. 
 
 I know, my Lords, that a great difference has gi'own up between 
 the Ulti'a-Ritualists and those denominated the High Church — a 
 gi'eater diffei'ence, perhaps, than there is between the High 
 Church and the Low. I am not about to speak with disrespect 
 of those who belong to these two bodies. The High Church, 
 I acknowledge, contains many wise, good, and learned men. 
 I have ever expressed my admiration for the vii*tues, talents, 
 and learning of the head of that party, Dr. Pusey. The Ritualistic 
 party also, no doubt, contains men of sincerity and leai-ning, who 
 think by what they are doing they are conferring a blessing upon 
 the Church and the countiy. I admit it all. But we must con- 
 sider the effect of the system they are introducing. It is alien- 
 ating many of the devout and faithful members of our communion. 
 In some it is producing a state of complete indifference, and an 
 opinion that there is little or no distinction between the Church 
 of Rome and the Church of England. Others are averted alto- 
 gether from the Church, and are going over to the Noncon- 
 formists. Congregations are broken up in all pai-ts of the 
 country, and numbers are on the point of being added to the 
 ranks of Dissent. There are noble peers here present who could 
 tell you of three or four churches in their neighbourhood being 
 completely emptied of their fonner people. See the effect it is 
 producing among many of your best friends — those who have 
 Ijeen faithfid to the Church in circumstances of difficulty and 
 danger. I will allude to that powerful body the Wesleyan Method-
 
 Chrical Vestments Bill. 407 
 
 ists. I have many friends among tliem, and I know that they 
 have been accustomed to cherish a warm attachment to the 
 Church of England. I can tell your Lordships, however, that a 
 gi'eat change is coming over their hearts and minds. With 
 regret, but conscientiously, they hesitate not to declare that if 
 these observances continue and are allowed to extend in the 
 degree in which they are extending, there must be a complete 
 change of policy, leading, as a matter of deep conviction, to help 
 in destroying the Church of England as a rag of Popery. There 
 is at all times a large body of Dissenters who desire, as a question 
 of principle, the abolition of the Establishment, and in a time 
 of difficulty and distress it may go very hard with our ancient 
 system if to this active society there be added allies drawn from 
 our former friends and supporters. My Lords, it is quite certain 
 that if the present state of things continues, if no vigorous 
 attempt be made to repress these practices, and show that the 
 Church of England is yet prominent in all her purity and all 
 her truth, another Reformation will begin in this country. But 
 that Reformation will not be like the last ; it will not descend 
 from the heads and come down to the peoj^le, thus bringing with 
 it episcopacy and all its orders ; but it will ascend from the 
 people to the heads, and may land us perhaps on the platform 
 of Geneva. There is testimony to this among persons of great 
 experience and well acquainted with the present aspect of eccle- 
 siastical affairs. Canon Blakesley, speaking in Convocation, 
 declared his opinion — " That if we look the country through, you 
 will find that it has been more Puritanized by those practices 
 than Romanized." I believe that to be true ; and that if you beget 
 in the people the spirit of the old Puritans you will also see in 
 them the action of the Puritans ; and that the Establishment, if 
 once uprooted by their assaiilts, will never regain its first position. 
 Hear also an eminent Nonconformist, Dr. Vaughan, the author 
 of one of the ablest treatises upon Ritualism which has yet been 
 published : — 
 
 " The success of the Ritualists (says Dr. Vaughan) hitherto 
 has been in corrupting the members of the Church of England, 
 not in making converts from beyond her pale." 
 
 And so it is, my Lords. They have brought none to the 
 embrace of the Churcli of England, though they have driven 
 many over its border, and have tarnished the simplicity of the 
 faith of many who remain within it. 
 
 Let me close this statement with an extract from the Charge of 
 the Bishop of St. David's, one of the most acute, profound, and
 
 408 House of Lords, Uth May, 1867. 
 
 exhaustive documents wticli I have ever read — one remarkable 
 alike for its learning, -ndt, power, and sound defence of the purity 
 of the Church of England. The Right Rev. Prelate, taking ex- 
 actly the same view which I have ventured to take, says, among 
 other things — 
 
 " I believe that in most neighbourhoods the number of those 
 who are attracted by the revived Ritual bears a small proportion 
 to that of those who dislike and disapprove it, even if they are 
 not shocked and disgusted by it. And I strongly suspect that 
 those who take pleasiu'e in it do so mainly, not on account of its 
 superior sensvious attractions, bu.t because it represents a peculiar 
 system of opinions." 
 
 But listen to these weighty remarks : — 
 
 " The Committee of Convocation, in a passage of their Report, 
 remind us that the National Church of England has a holy work 
 to perform towards the Nonconfonnists of this countiy. If the 
 innovations which ofiend many, I believe I may still say most, 
 Churchmen, are peculiarly obnoxious to the Nonconformists of 
 this country, it is not simply as innovations, but because they 
 present the appearance of the closest possible approximation to 
 the Church of Rome. And the danger on this side is far greater 
 than that which is suggested by the language of the Report. It 
 is not merely that we may make fewer converts from the ranks 
 of Dissent, but that we may strengthen them by large secessions, 
 perhaps of whole congregations, from our own." 
 
 " Perhaps !" why, my Lords, the evil is already in full action. 
 He proceeds : — 
 
 " And the danger — if I ought not rather to say the certain and 
 present evil — does not end there. These proceedings both tend 
 to widen the bi'each between vis and Dissenters, and to stimulate 
 them to more active opposition, and furnish their leaders with an 
 instiiiment which they will not fail to iise for the pui-pose of ex- 
 citing general ill-will toward the Church, and weakening her 
 position in the country." 
 
 My Lords, it cannot be denied, nor do I wish to disguise the 
 fact, that, in dealing with these things, we are dealing in a large 
 measure with the symptoms and not with the root of the disease. 
 We may take away the altar, and yet leave the spirit that erected 
 it. We may take away Ritualism, and yet leave Sacerdotalism. 
 No doiibt this is true. This is the weakness of all repressive 
 laws ; but still we must subdue these external abuses, and, while 
 seeking other means to puiify the source of the mischief, endea-
 
 Clerical Vestments Bill. 409 
 
 voiir to turn to the best account tlie powers committed to our 
 hands. 
 
 And now, my Lords, in conchiding, having thanked you most 
 heartily for the courtesy and patience with which you have listened 
 to me, allow me briefly to say a few words in reference to myself 
 on this occasion. I have at various times been called by various 
 appellations. Perhaps your Lordships will hardly believe that I 
 have sometimes been termed a High Church bigot, while at others 
 I have been described as an irrevei'ent Dissenter. I think neither 
 of those appellations can be fairly assigned to me. It has ever 
 been my heartfelt and earnest desire to see the Church of England 
 the Church of the nation, and especially of the very poorest 
 classes of society, that she might dive into the recesses of human 
 misery and bi-ing out the wretched and ignorant sufferers to bask 
 in the light, and life, and liberty of the Gospel. I have ever 
 desired that in a country, such as our own, where, under freedom 
 of thought and freedom of action. Dissent must ever be found, the 
 Church of England should extend the right hand of fellowship to 
 those who, though they differ from her in matters of discii:)line, 
 agree with her in the grand and fundamental docti'ines of the 
 faith, and so advance the great interests of our common 
 Christianity. I have ever desired that the Church of England 
 should in her wisdom, her piety, her strength, and her modera- 
 tion be a model to all the nations of the earth. It has ever been 
 my most ardent desire that in all the great dependencies of this 
 vast empire the Church of England should be powerful and 
 beneficent — that in the east and in the west, in the north and in 
 the south, and in all the regions of the earth, wherever the English 
 name is heard or English rule is obeyed — in i^rofound gratitude 
 to Almighty God, and in affectionate reverence of their common 
 mother, her children should rise up and call her blessed. This, 
 I know, is the earnest prayer of every one of your Lordships, and 
 may God give it a prosperous issue !
 
 ( 410 ) 
 Agricultural Gangs. 
 
 HOUSE OF LOEDS, 
 
 April 11, 1867 * 
 
 The Eaii of Shaftesbury, on rising to bring under tbe notice 
 of the House the Sixth Report of the Commissioners relating 
 to the Agricultural Gangs, said, — 
 
 I have no intention of troubling your Lordships at any great 
 length, particularly as I know that a del^ate of considerable impoi-t- 
 ance is going on in the other House ; but, having given notice some 
 time ago of my intention to bring this subject under your Lord- 
 ships' notice, although I have been forestalled by a motion made 
 in the House of Commons a few nights ago, yet I think it my 
 duty to show, as briefly as I can, that this House has not been 
 unmindful of the welfare of the agricultural community, and that 
 the charge made against the landlords, that they evinced no inte- 
 rest with regard to their poorer tenants, was altogether unfounded. 
 Two years ago I had the honour of bringing this subject tinder 
 your Lordships' notice, and, I believe, I was the first person who 
 drew attention to it. I then moved your Lordships to present an 
 address to the Crown, praying for the appointment of a Commis- 
 sion to inquire into the subject of the emi^loyment of children 
 and young persons in various trades not protected by the Factory 
 Acts, and that that Commission should also take into consideration 
 the system of agricultural gangs. The report of that Commission 
 was made a very short time ago, and 1 wish to read a few extracts, 
 in order to show your Lordships what the system really is. The 
 Commissioners say — 
 
 " The system of ' organized ' labour known by the name of 
 ' agricultviral gangs ' exists, as far as the Commissioners have 
 been able to ascertain, almost excltisively in the following coun- 
 ties : — Lincolnshire, Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, 
 Suffolk, and Nottinghamshire. There are a few instances of the 
 eiui^loyment of these gangs in three other neighbouring counties, 
 * From " Hansard."
 
 Agricultural Ganjs. 411 
 
 namely, in the counties of Nortliampton, Bedford, and Rutland. 
 They are not found over the whole of any of these counties, but 
 are distributed irregularly through vai'ious pai-ts of them, in 
 obedience to local circumstances. All organized agricultural 
 gangs consist of the gang-master, a number of women, and young 
 persons of both sexes. The Commissioners, in designating ' young 
 persons,' adopt the definition of the Factory Acts, namely, those 
 between 13 and 18. Children of both sexes from the age of 6 to 
 13. The ' organized gang ' — the subject of the present inquiry — 
 is called in some districts the ' public gang,' in others the ' common 
 gang,' in some places it is called the 'jobbing gang,' elsewhere 
 the ' travelling gang.' The numbers in each public gang are from 
 10 or 12 to 20, 30, and 40, very rarely above 40. But the most 
 common, because the most manageable number is about 20, em- 
 ploying in the whole about 7,000 boys and girls, from six years old 
 and upwards. In addition to the ' public gangs ' there are also 
 many ' private gangs,' employing full 20,000. The ' public gang ' 
 master is an independent man, who engages the members of his 
 gang, and contracts with the farmer to execute a certain kind and 
 amount of agricultural work with this body of slaves. The ' private 
 gang ' is a small gang, seldom exceediag 12 or 20, similarly com- 
 posed, but in the farmer's own employ, and supeiintended and 
 directed by one of the farmer's own labourers. The unanimity 
 with which the public gang system is condemned in consequence 
 of its injurious influences on the moral character of those 
 subject to it is all but entire throughout the whole evidence. The 
 number of persons who are able to speak well of the system under 
 its moral aspects, as far as they have witnessed it, is very small 
 indeed. The rest, with an earnestness of expression which testi- 
 fies to the sincerity of their convictions, are evidently deeply im- 
 pressed wdth the desire to call attention to the great amount of 
 moral evil connected wdth the system, and to urge the considera- 
 tion of some mode of improving it. A great part of the work 
 consists in making or keeping the land in a fit state for the 
 growth of crops by cleaning it from weeds of all kinds, and may 
 be included under the desciiption of weeding; 'knocking,' or 
 spreading, and putting in manure are sometimes added. Thiuning 
 or ' singling ' turnips and mangold wurzel is a work of the same 
 nature as weeding. The work also includes the putting crops 
 into the ground, as by setting potatoes and dropping seed for 
 dibblers, treading corn on light soil, &c. The work also includes 
 the getting in of certain crops when ripe, e.g. pulling turnips and 
 mangolds or beet, pulling flax, and sometimes peas, instead of 
 their being mown ; picking up potatoes when dug or turned up ;
 
 412 House of Lords, lltli April, 1867. 
 
 also gtathering garden produce in market gardens of fruit and 
 vegetables. The turnips or mangolds when pulled have also to 
 be topped and tailed." 
 
 As an instance, take the following, which is recorded by Mr. 
 Savage : — 
 
 " Mrs. Antony Adams, labourer's wife, Denton, Huntingdon- 
 shire, — 'In June, 1862, my daughters, Harriet and Sarah, aged 
 respectively 11 and 13 years, were engaged to work on Mr. 
 Worman's land at Stilton. When they got there he took them to 
 near Peterborough ; there they worked for six weeks, going and 
 returning each day. The distance each, way is eight miles, so 
 that they had to walk 16 miles each day on all the six working 
 days of the week, besides working in the field from 8 to 5 or 5| 
 in the afternoon. They used to start from home at 5 in the 
 morning, and seldom got back before 9. They had to find all 
 their own meals, as well as their own tools (such as hoes). They 
 (the girls) were good for nothing at the end of the six weeks. 
 The ganger persuaded me to send my little girl Susan, who was 
 then six years of age. She walked all the way (eight miles) to 
 Peterborough to her work, and worked from 8 to 5 J, and received 
 4cZ. She was that tired that her sisters had to carry her tbe best 
 part of the way home — eight miles, and she was ill from it for 
 three weeks, and never went again.' " 
 
 Wlien a system like this exists, it is obvious that the Legislature 
 ought not to hesitate a moment in applying a proper remedy for 
 the evil. The Report goes on to say — 
 
 " The dress of females collects wet much more than that of boys 
 or men, and even if they are at work does not dry nearly so 
 quickly. The workers are often waiting about for long intervals 
 with wet feet and their clothes soaked through up to their knees 
 or waist, or higher, doing nothing biit waiting till the weather or 
 the crop is di-ier. Children, from being shorter, are wetted l)y 
 the crops higher up their bodies than elder workers, though not 
 worse off as to rain. The gang- workers, as a rule, are the poorest 
 of the labouring class, and many of them are badly fed, shod, and 
 clothed, and have very small means of making a change of clothes 
 when they return home. Not only rain, but even in fine weather 
 the dew makes the crops very wet, some much more so than 
 others, and the higher the crop the more are the workers exposed 
 to this wet, and females, owing to their dress, much the most. 
 Hence they are often soaked through up to the knees or waist, 
 and children even higher, and have to squeeze or wi-ing out their 
 petticoats, and even take them or other parts of their dress off 
 and hang them up to dry. A young woman entirely crippled
 
 Agricultural Gangs. 413 
 
 witli rlieumatism, wliicli slie got soon after going into a gang at 
 11 years old, says, ' We have had to take off our shoes and pour 
 the water out, and then the man would say, " Now then, go in 
 again."' It is suggested by a competent person that, if the employ- 
 ment were placed under regulation, one of the several rales which 
 it is suggested should be endorsed on a licence to be required 
 from the gang-master shovild be, ' No girls to be permitted to enter 
 high wet corn in weeding.' " 
 
 In my opinion, my Lords, no female at all should be engaged in 
 this injurious and disgusting employment. To say nothing of the 
 moral considerations involved, there is not a medical man who will 
 not tell you that the most critical period of a woman's life is that 
 between 11 and 13 years of age. That is the time when a change 
 in her constitution takes place, when maladies are most easily 
 contracted, and when the female child requires to be watched with 
 the most parental and minute care. Children at that tender age 
 are nevertheless exposed, as we are told, to all the inclemencies 
 of the seasons, with eveiy malady that besets humanity, and yet 
 no hand is stretched out to rescue them from their miserable con- 
 dition. I shall next proceed to read to your Lordships the evidence 
 of Dr. MoiTis, of Spalding, who says — 
 
 " I have been in practice in the town of Spalding for 25 years, 
 and during the greater portion of this time I have been medical 
 officer to the Spalding Union Infirmary. I am convinced that the 
 gang system is the cause of much immorality. The evil in the 
 system is the mixture of the sexes in the case of boys and girls 
 of 12 to 17 years of age under no proper control. The gangers, 
 as you know, take the work of the farmers. Their custom is to 
 pay their children once a week at some beerhouse; and it is 
 no uncommon thing for their children to be kept waiting at the 
 place tiU 11 or 12 o'clock at night. At the infirmary many girls 
 of 14 years of age, and even girls of 13, up to 17 years of age, have 
 been brought in pregnant to be confined there. The girls have 
 acknowledged that their ruin has taken place in this gang work. 
 The offence is committed in going or returning from their work. 
 Girls and boys of this age go five, six, or even seven miles to 
 work, walking in droves along the roads and by-lanes. I have 
 myself witnessed gross indecencies between boys and girls of 14 
 to 16 years of age. I once saw a young girl insulted by some five 
 or six boys on the road side. Other older persons were about 20 
 or 30 yards off, but they took no notice. The girl was calling 
 out, which caused me to stop. I have also seen boys bathing in 
 the brooks, and girls between 13 and 19 looking on from the 
 bank."
 
 414 House of Lords, llth April, 18G7. 
 
 Listen now to tlie evidence of the Rev. Mr. Huntley, tlie rector 
 of Binbrooke, wlio says — 
 
 " Turning to the moral side of the picture, all is blank. The 
 benefits of education which charity has provided are thrown 
 aside by the parent. The young being occupied in manual labour 
 from morn till night, the village school is comparatively denuded 
 of schplai's. In room of moral and religious teaching, children 
 are auditors of obscene and blasphemous language, while also 
 exposed to the most j)rofligate and debased examples, thus com- 
 pleting the fii'st stage of ruin. Progressing from childhood to 
 womanhood, the girl is brought up without experience in the 
 management of domestic affairs, and it is no wonder that when 
 the duties of servitude and mai-ried life are demanded of her she 
 is ignorant of both. There is not one extensive occupier of land, 
 nor one sober-minded person throughout my parish, who does not 
 denounce the gangs as destructive to the morals of the poor."' 
 Then we have the evidence of Mr. Richard Greenwood, a farmer, 
 
 who tells US:; — 
 
 " I never employ a common gang. The common gang is very 
 bad indeed. There is a reason for them when children can't be 
 got otherwise, but I think that they could, if they tried, in many 
 cases. I don't think that work is done much cheaper by the gang. 
 I think the gang system is full of evil. There are great girls and 
 boys of 14 to 15 years of age among them, and there is always 
 something wi-ong going on. It does not matter who the ganger 
 is ; where there is a lot together, he has a control over them all. 
 I have counted 20 to 25 in the gangs that come from Binbrooke. 
 The only advantage to the farmer is that it saves him the trouble 
 of seeking the childi-en. Half the girls from Ludford have been 
 ruined by going out. I think that farmers would not be at aU 
 losers by girls not going out to work at all." 
 
 That is the testimony of a man who farms 1,000 acres ; but I now 
 adduce the evidence of some mothers whose opinions on this sub- 
 ject are entitled to the greatest weight. A very intelligent woman, 
 named Rachel Gibson, says — 
 
 " I can't speak up for any gangs ; they ought aU to be done 
 away with." Most heartily I say " amen " to that. " My children 
 shan't go to one if I can help it — i.e., as long as I and their father 
 are alive, I hope, if we can keep them ; one is seven, one five. I 
 believe that I am the same as many other people about this. 
 There are a great many mothers who send their children into 
 gangs who would not if they could help it, and they say so. 
 Nothing comes amiss to children after they have been in them, 
 no bad talk nor anything else. I know that a child, if brought
 
 Agricultural Gangs. 415 
 
 up in a gang, is quite different ivom. what it would liave been if 
 broiiglit lip otherwise; you would soon know that it had been out, 
 especially if you were to talk to it. Gangs might be very well for 
 boys, but never for girls. I did not go myself till I was 17, and 
 could take care of myself. The coming home is the worst part ; 
 that's when the mischief is done. There never was any good got 
 out of gangs, neither in talk nor in the other way, and they never 
 will be kept as they should. I don't think it proper that women- 
 kind should go into the fields at all, in gangs or not, though I 
 have done both. There would then be more in the houses to 
 mind them. Harvest work is different ; you are not under a 
 gang-master, except that sometimes the tying has been done by 
 a gang, and at harvest nnich more money can be made ; a woman 
 may make 2s. 3d. in a day, and that comes nice to any one. But 
 other work is different. I should just have liked you to have met 
 that gang coming back this afternoon, with their great thick 
 boots and buskins on their legs, and petticoats pinned up ; you 
 might see the knees of some. A girl whom I took in to live, 
 because she has no home to go to, came back to-day from the 
 gang all dripping wet from the turnips. If you don't feel any 
 hurt from the wet when you are young, yovi do afterwards, when 
 you are old and the rheumatism comes on. Girls wear a pair of 
 buskins to keep them from the wet. It is hard work when you 
 have to wi-ing the tops of turnips and mangolds up, and often 
 makes blisters on the hands." 
 
 Here are the views of another mother as to the working of the 
 system — 
 
 " What I say is, these gangs should not be as they are. There 
 are so many girls that they make lads at a loose hand — i.e., leave 
 them nothing to do. Then there is the girls coming home at dark ; 
 that is when the job is done. The gangs are drafted off, two 
 {i.e., workers) here, three there, and so on, so that the gang-master 
 cannot look after them, and is not to blame. I have gone with 
 20 in a morning, and seen only two i^erhaps come home with the 
 man at night. Then girls will have bad language among them- 
 selves, though the man might wish to stop it, but there are so 
 many together, 20 or 30 perhaps, that he can't keep them quiet. 
 1 have Avorked in gangs many years. Sometimes the poor children 
 are very ill-used by the gang-master. One has used them horribly, 
 kicking them, hitting them with fork handles, hui'dle sticks, &c., 
 and even knocking them down. These are not things to hit a child 
 with. My own children have been dropped into across the loins 
 and dropped right down, and if they don't know how to get up he 
 has kicked them. I have many a time seen my own and other
 
 416 House of Lords, 11th April, 1867. 
 
 children knocked about by him in this way. It was not from 
 drink ; he was quite sober. Sometimes, too, they cannot work 
 properly because their hands are cut all across and blistered where 
 they twist the stalk round to pull up the root. Of course he don't 
 knock the big ones ; it is the little ones he takes advantage of. I 
 have heard him use to a child most a^vful words for a girl to hear. 
 My boy, when about 10 or 11, had a white swelling on his knee, 
 and lay suffering nearly six years before he had his leg and thigh 
 taken off, all but about as long as a finger. He came back one 
 day and said he had a thorn, but others told me about the man 
 kicking him. He was a very quiet boy, and was for 'peace. The 
 doctor said it was from Ul-usage, a fall or kick ; there was no 
 thorn." 
 
 In the next place, I request the attention of your Lordships 
 to the sixth report of the medical officer of the Privy Council, 
 because he there points out how serious is the effect produced on 
 the mortality of the children by work such as that to which I am 
 referring. The report states — 
 
 " That in some entirely rural marsh districts the habitual 
 mortality of young children is almost as great as in the most 
 infanticidal of our manufacturing towns; that Wisbeach, for 
 instance, is within a fraction as bad as Manchester; and that 
 generally in the registration districts (18 others, which include 
 several in which the gang system prevails) the death-rate of 
 infants under one year of age is from two and a quai'ter to nearly 
 three times as high as in the 16 districts of England which have 
 the lowest infantile mortality. The result of this new inqiiiiy, 
 however, has been to show that the monstrous infantine rate of 
 the examined agricultiiral districts depends only on the fact that 
 there has been introduced into these districts the influence which 
 has already been recognized as enormously fatal to the infants of 
 manufacturing popvilations — the influence of the employment of 
 adult women." 
 
 It goes on to say the effect of the gang system is to increase the 
 employment of females, adult as well as young. The consequences 
 are thus described : — 
 
 " The opinions of about 70 medical practitioners, with those of 
 other gentlemen acquainted with the condition of the poor, were 
 obtained. With wonderful accord the cause of the mortality was 
 traced by nearly all these well-qualified witnesses to the bringing 
 of the land under tillage — that is, to the cause which has banished 
 malaria, and has substituted a fertile though unsightly garden for 
 the winter marshes and summer pastures of 50 and 100 years ago. 
 It was very generally thought that the infants no longer received
 
 Agricultural Gangs. 417 
 
 any injury from soil, climate, or malarious influence, but that a 
 more fatal enemy had been introduced by the emijloyment of 
 mothers in the field." 
 
 It is unnecessary to multij)ly instances of the evil consequences 
 of this system, but I think I must give you the results of the 
 employment of women in this way, as stated by the Rev. H. 
 Mackenzie, rector of Tydd St. Mary's, who says : 
 
 " The causes of the gang system are the comparative cheapness 
 of female and child labour. The effects of the employment of 
 women in field-work are : — 1. Loss of self-respect, and dirty 
 and degraded habits. 2. Slovenly and slatternly households. 
 3. Alienation of husbands by the discomforts of home. 4. Neg- 
 lect of the education of children. 5. Drinking habits among, the 
 nj.en, and opium consumption among the women. The effects of 
 the employment of girls in gang field-work are: — 1. Boldness. 
 2. Ignorance. 3. Uuchastity. 4. "Want of cleanliness in work 
 and pei'son. 5. Incompetence in sewing, mending, cooking, and 
 all that pertains to household economy. 6. Indifference to 
 parental control. 7. Unwillingness to apply themselves to any 
 regular mode of gaining a livelihood. Girls who . have up to a 
 certain time made good progress at school are materially injured 
 in morals, discipline, knowledge, and regularity by going for two 
 or three weeks to woi*k in the fields. It will be a blessing to this 
 neighbourhood if field-work for girls under age can be prohibited. 
 This in a few years would abolish field-work for women alto- 
 gether." 
 
 There is only one other exti'act with which I shall troul)le your 
 Lordships, showing how totally unnecessary it is to employ feuiales 
 in this manner, and that it is merely by indulgence in an old 
 habit that the system is persevered in. This, my Lords, is de- 
 scribed as the state of things at Eye, with a population of 2430 
 persons, and on the property of Sir Edward Kerrison : — 
 
 "It will be seen that no females are emj)loyed on the gang 
 system here. This is owing to the interest taken in it by Sir 
 Edward Kerrison, who is owner of the greater part of the parish 
 of Eye. It was entirely by his desire that girls were not em- 
 ployed in these gangs. The demoralizing effects were seen to be 
 so great that for some years j^ast only males have constituted the 
 gang, and it certainly has worked admirably, for a distinct moral 
 control is at the same time exercised over these lads by the in- 
 stillation given to the master to check all obscene language and 
 unbecoming behaviour, not only in their work, but if they are so 
 ill-behaved either by language or manner when not in their work 
 it is checked by special observation to the proper quarter, and the 
 
 2 P
 
 418 House of Lords, llih Ajml, 1867, 
 
 individual is admonislied so as to let liim know that he is not un- 
 observed, and most probably be will find it mucb more to bis own 
 interest to bebave in sucb a manner as may wan-ant tbose wbo 
 have the power and influence to belp bim in after-life. And all 
 tbese poor people well know from practical experience tbat tbey 
 have the kindest friends in Sir Edward and Lady Caroline 
 Ken'ison. Year after year young lads and young girls are looked 
 after and helped out in their start in life, and assistance given in 
 clothing and travelling expenses, where the parents require the 
 help. This has an immense moral effect on the poor of the place 
 and neighbourhood, coupled with the fact that the large land- 
 owner is a resident, and taking personal interest in the welfare of 
 the people." 
 
 Here, then, is ample proof that the employment of females in 
 these gangs is wholly unnecessary ; and that if their labour of 
 this kind can be dispensed with in a district like Eye, it can be 
 dispensed with anywhere. Such, my Lords, in a very few words, 
 is an outline of this system as described in the report of the Com- 
 missioners ; and a remedy may be easily and speedily applied to it. 
 In a recent debate in another place it was alleged that no legisla- 
 tion on the subject can be effectual. This is the old argument ; 
 always urged, and always exploded by experience. I hold that 
 when such a frightful state of things as this is found to exist it 
 is incumbent on us to strive to coii-ect it. I am myself disposed 
 to undertake, immediately after the Easter recess, a motion that 
 your Lordships should adopt a Bill containing provisions which 
 are almost certain to meet the requirements of the case. In the 
 fii'st place, I would proceed on the j)rinciples of the Factory and 
 Colliery Acts. When in 1842 I introduced a Bill in the House of 
 Commons to remove women from employment in the collieries of 
 the United Kingdom, I was told that I should do no end of mis- 
 chief by depriving women of their means of subsistence. Never- 
 theless, I persisted, the Legislatiu'e adopted my proposal, and 
 nothing but good has come out of it. From that houi- to this the 
 condition of the colliery districts has been gi-eatly imjjroved in 
 consequence of the non-employment of women in that disgusting 
 and vmsuitable labour. I shall propose by my Bill, immediately 
 it passes, to exclude from these public gangs all women whatever 
 under 18 years of age. If I were to exclude women altogether, 
 even above that age, I might be thought to be asking too much, 
 as old habits cannot be got rid of aU at once, and a little time 
 might be necessary to find some substitute for the laboiu- of 
 women. But by removing all women imder 18 from these public 
 gangs you would at once set at liberty 1478 girls out of a popu-
 
 Agricultural Gangs. 419 
 
 lation of 7000. I speak now only of the public gangs. The 
 private gangs are, it is true, the most numerous; but I should 
 reach them, in another way, by clauses which would affect the 
 whole agricultui'al population, it being perfectly manifest that 
 some measure relating to this matter must be brought in which 
 will touch the whole class. The particular machinery of the 
 Factory and Colliery Acts would be wholly inapplicable to agri- 
 cultural industry ; but, as I have said, I shoidd propose to 
 proceed upon the principles of those Acts. The main outlines, 
 then, of the Bill which I desire to introduce would be as fol- 
 lows: — 1. That no female under 18 years of age shall be em- 
 ployed in any public gang of agricultural labourers. 2. That 
 no child under S years of age shall be employed for hire in field 
 labour at all. 3. That after the 1st of January, 1869, no female 
 under 11 years of age (1 should like to say up to 13), shall be em- 
 ployed for hire in any field labour whatever. This wiU affect not 
 only the jDrivate gangs, but the entire agricultural popidation of 
 eveiy county ; exceptions, of course, being allowed for the time of 
 harvest. I maintain that physically, morally, and economically, 
 such a provision as this will be most beneficial in its effects. 
 Certainly the extensive employment of women and giids in field 
 work has tended more to degrade women and lower the rate of 
 agriciiltui-al wages than the operation of almost any other causes 
 whatsoever. I should next provide that no child between the ages 
 of 8 and 13 shall be employed for hire, in field laboiir, without pro- 
 ducing to its employer, at times to be appointed, a certificate of its 
 having attended school during the preceding intervals, for a certain 
 number of hours, calculated according to the most convenient 
 arrangements, whether by half time, alternate days, or by the 
 system under the Print Works Act, of so many hours collectively, 
 of education, in any assigned period, regard being had to the 
 seasons of the year. 
 
 My Lords, in attempting to gi'apple with this evil I hope 
 your Lordships will kindly aid me by your sympathy and sup- 
 port. In this way you will give the crowning stroke to the 
 various efforts made for many years past to bring all the indus- 
 trial occupations of the young and the defenceless under the pro- 
 tection of the law ; and that, whether they are employed in trade, 
 in manuf actui-es, or in any handicraft whatever, every child undei- 
 a certain age may be sulDJect only to a limited amount of labour, 
 and be certain to receive an adequate amount of education. All 
 that remains for your Lordships now to do, as representing the 
 landowners of the kingdom, is to embrace within the scope of your 
 beneficent legislation the whole mass of the agricultui'al popula-
 
 420 House of Lords, 11th April, 1867. 
 
 tion. Then, I believe, we shall be enabled to say that no country 
 upon earth surpasses us in the care we take of the physical, the 
 moral, and the educational well-being of the myriads of our 
 hiimbler fellow-creatures. My Lords, the object you have in view 
 is one well worthy of all the time, the anxiety, the zeal, and the 
 talents which can be bestowed upon it ; and I am satisfied that 
 your Lordships will earnestly desire to see it accomplished. 
 
 Note. — A bill was introduced and read a second time, the House thereby 
 affiiTnincr the principle. Further progress was, however, delayed until after 
 another report from the Commissioners.
 
 ( 421 ) 
 
 Representation of the People Bill. 
 
 HOUSE OF LORDS, 
 
 July 23, 1867. 
 
 On the Second Reading of the Represeutation of the People Bill, 
 
 The Earl o£ Shaftesbury said: My Lords, it is somewliat diffi- 
 cult to ai'gue against a Bill wMcli we do not wish to reject, 
 and which it seems next to impossible that we can amend. It 
 seems useless, moreover, to complain of a measure when, by so 
 doing, we have no prospect of any favourable result. Neverthe- 
 less, the members of a constituent branch of the Legislature are 
 bound, I think, to express their opinions upon this Bill, the 
 opinions which they sincerely and conscientiously feel, and not 
 to allow ourselves to be reduced to the condition of a mere office 
 of registration. 
 
 I was very anxious to hear from my noble friend, who pro- 
 pounded this measure, some statement of his views, not only as to 
 its causes, but as to its consequences. I was anxious that he 
 should do something to allay the fears that exist, to calm the 
 trouljles which prevail, and to give us some assurance that, in his 
 conviction at least, great and manifold benefits are to result to 
 the country from the passing of this great act of legislation. I 
 heard, however, nothing of the kind from him ; I heai-d only the 
 one stout assertion that this measure was so conservative as to 
 leave no grounds for apprehension. Now, that assertion was, 
 I must say, alike comforting and astounding. But when I listened 
 to the speeches of other members of the Government, who, I 
 hoped, would supply the deficiencies of the noble earl, I heard 
 not a syllable of comfort. Indeed, the greater part of the debate 
 consisted, with some exceptions, in the endeavour to set up one 
 Bill against another, one Cabinet against another, one Minister 
 against another, aU which had no bearing on the great question 
 before us — namely, the Bill which we have to consider, and all the
 
 422 House of Lords, 2^rd Juhj, 1867. 
 
 mighty consequences that are to accrue from it to the present and 
 to future generations. Now, I maintain we are bound to look this 
 question fully in the face. The opinions I hold may, no doubt, 
 seem to some exaggerated ; but I am sure that those opinions are 
 shared by many thoughtful and intelligent men, and all I can 
 venture to say is, that they are the result of much thought and 
 long experience : that they are conscientiously and honestly 
 entertained ; and that I think they ought to be fully stated, and 
 as fully confuted. 
 
 My Loi'ds, this BiU comes to us under very peculiar circum- 
 stances. It comes to us from the House of Commons without a 
 division upon the second reading — without a division on the main 
 principles, the household suffrage and the lodger franchise — 
 without a division upon the re-distribution clauses — without a 
 division on the third reading. It is, therefore, in appearance, 
 whatever it be in reality, the unanimous expression of the will 
 of the House of Commons, and as such entitled to homage and 
 respect. It was elaborated in that assembly during a period 
 of six months; but to us will be allowed for its consideration 
 about six days. It is impossible, therefore, to discuss the prin- 
 ciple of the Bill in its full extent. "We cannot consider all the 
 various plans of reform, and then select the one best adapted to 
 the necessities of the country. We are shut up to the four 
 corners of this Bill, to say whether it be good or bad ; and I 
 should not have ventured to trespass upon your Lordships' atten- 
 tion had I not felt — though this, perhaps, is one of the exaggerated 
 ■opinions which I may hold — that this is one of the last oppor- 
 tunities we shall have of expressing our opinions in a free and 
 independent Parliament, uncontrolled by the presence of a 
 powerful democratic representation. 
 
 Now, my Lords, I do not entertain any hostility to reform — very 
 far from it. I have long been of opinion that some reform, though 
 not necessary for good government, had become indispensable ; 
 indeed, inevitable. It is not necessary to enter into the varioiis 
 causes which have made it so ; but I readily admit that some 
 measure of reform could not much longer be postponed. I should 
 have wished, however, to proceed more carefully and gradually. I 
 shoiild have wished to hold up the suffrage as a great object of 
 ambition to the working man ; I should have wished to hold it up 
 as the reward of thrift, honesty, and industry. We have examples 
 before us of what, in this respect, may be done by the laboitring 
 classes. If we turn to the Potteries, we there see a large body of 
 intelligent men, who, by their own act, by their own diligence 
 and economy, have raised themselves to the possession of the 
 
 I
 
 Mepresentation of the People Bill. 423 
 
 feiiffrage. There are in tliat district about 9000 potters ; men 
 in tlie receipt of higli wages ; and I am told that very neai'ly 3000 
 of these by their own toil and care have purchased their own 
 fi'eehold, and are now living in their own houses. These 3000 
 working men by their own act have done that which almost every 
 ■working man in the receipt of good wages might have done had he 
 been so inclined. That is, to a considerable extent, my notion of 
 reform ; but I would have gone further. I would not have kept the 
 suffrage at 10?. I would have taken it as low as the Bill of last 
 year j)roposed ; namely, to 71., and on this ground — that though 
 working men are aljle, in many instances, by their own efforts to 
 reach the line of 101., we must recollect that there are differences 
 of position. A man with a family earning 21. a week is not in 
 the same jDosition as a man without any family with the same 
 weekly wages. To meet that difference I should have been glad to 
 bring down the limit to 71. ; and surely the addition of thousands 
 of such men elevated by such means, would be an honour and a 
 security to the kingdom. In this respect I have always been a very 
 consideral^le radical. Such a radical I am now, and a radical I shall 
 be to the end of my days. The thing of all others which I most 
 rejoice in is to see the woi'king man rising by his o^vn industry and 
 character from the lowest point in the scale of society to the very 
 highest point ; and if a man whom I had known as originally a 
 chimney-sweeper filled the office of Prime Minister of this country, 
 I should see in that issue one of the noblest proofs of the freedom 
 and generosity of our institutions, and of their possessing a 
 breadth and expansion that we ought, in the face of all contra- 
 diction, to assert and maintain as an equal benefit for all — bvit to 
 proceed, as is done by this Bill, to lift by the sudden jerk of an 
 Act of Parliament the whole residuum of society up to the level of 
 the honest, thrifty, working man, is, I am sure, perilous to the 
 state, and, I believe, distasteful to the working men themselves. 
 I am sure it dishonours the suffrage, and that you are throwing 
 the franchise broadcast over the heads of men who ^vill accept it, 
 but who will misuse it. 
 
 But let us not say anything now in the spirit of recrimina- 
 tion — God forbid that I should speak in that spirit when our 
 nearest and dearest interests are at stake — I have no charge to 
 make against one side or the other. It may have been perfectly 
 right for the late Government to inti'oduce a measure of the 
 character I have mentioned into the House of Commons ; it may 
 have been perfectly right for the present Government to oppose 
 it by every means in their power, to turn out that Government, 
 to take their offices, and then to bring in a measure ten times
 
 424 House of Lords, 23rcl July, 18G7. 
 
 more sweeping ; it may Lave been perfectly right in the present 
 Opposition in the House of Commons to declare that measure to 
 be too extreme, and yet by every means in their power to prevent 
 any limitation to it. I do not pretend to give any judgment — but 
 thus much may be said, that the measure proposed by Mr. Glad- 
 stone would, at least, have had this one beneficial effect — it would 
 have been a gradual change ; it would have given us something 
 like breathing time ; it would have given us a little leisure to 
 accommodate the people to the change and the change to the 
 people. The transition might not have been agreeable, yet it 
 would have been comparatively easy. But this measure pro- 
 ceeds in a rough-and-ready way to cany us to the edge of the 
 Tarpeian rock, — it topples us over like criminals, and futiu'e 
 generations will have to estimate, by the magnitude of the frag- 
 ments, what were once the dimensions and the glory of the Bi-itish 
 Empii-e. 
 
 My Lords, we are brought to household suffrage as near as 
 possible pure and simple, because the payment annexed to it is 
 the very smallest payment that could well be imposed. We are 
 told that the Government came to household suffrage because 
 they were quite sure to come to it at last. N"ow, there can be 
 no doubt aboiit that. No thinking man conversant with the state 
 of things in this country, no man seeing the progress of opinion, 
 and seeing how the notions of social and political equality are 
 rapidly developing themselves, could have had any doubt whatever 
 that in the course of a short time we must have come to the point 
 at which we have now an'ived. But why are we to jump oiit of 
 the window when we can go, with comparative safety, downstairs ? 
 Why are we to take all at once, as was remarked by Lord Chester- 
 field, that peck of dirt which shoiTld be diffused over our whole 
 life ? We could have aii-ived securely at the same end with equal 
 contentment to the people. I believe the measure proposed by 
 Ml". Gladstone, however extreme it might have been according to 
 the notions of that time, would have been accepted by the country, 
 and that they would have been for a while contented with it. 
 Now, the present measure will be accepted, it is true, but not 
 with contentment ; and this conclusion will afford a convincing 
 proof that no party should undertake to carry those measures 
 which they have long and persistently opposed. That party 
 should leave it, even with the surrender of office, to their oppo- 
 nents, who have long, ardently, and conscientiously maintained 
 them ; and in this way alone, I am sui*e, can confidence be given 
 to those for whose benefit a measure is intended. 
 
 But then, we are told that household suflFrage is the only de-
 
 Bepresentadoti of the People Bill. 425 
 
 finite and permanent resting-place. A resting-place, indeed, I 
 would ask, in what sense ? I agree with my noble friend (the 
 Duke of Marlborough) that there can be no finality. "We are not 
 now contemplating a final measure, but only a short period of 
 repose. Now, I hold that this is no resting-place whatever. The 
 suffrage is not an end, it is only a means to an end; and whenever 
 you read the periodicals of the day, or listen to the speeches 
 delivered on the platform, in every instance you hear that the 
 suffrage now obtained must be used for definite purposes which 
 are described — purposes that cannot be reached under the existing 
 system. Look, my Lords, to what happened when the last Reform 
 Bill was passed. Was the suffrage of 1832 a resting-place ? Was 
 it not used for the purpose of obtaining the great remedial 
 measures which have been passed since that time ? Far be it 
 from me to say that the legislation between 1832 and the present 
 day has not been of the noblest, the most beneficial character. 
 Ten thousand encumbrances and obstacles have been swejpt away, 
 and the country is deeply indebted to that Bill for what has been 
 done. But the suffrage henceforward wiU be employed on very 
 different matters. Between 1832 and the present time almost 
 every commercial and political impediment and difficulty has been 
 removed. There remain now none but organic and social changes, 
 the distribution of pi'ojperty and the incidence of taxation. These 
 ai'e the serious matters that deeply and intimately affect the feel- 
 ings of the great mass of the people of this country. 
 
 Now, my Lords, I wish to say that this household suffrage is 
 not a resting-place even for the suffrage itself, not merely in the 
 sense of finality, but even in the sense of repose. The measure 
 before you goes a very gi-eat way indeed ; but the arguments by 
 which all the parts of it have been sustained go a gi'eat deal 
 further. In the first place, I must recall to your Lordships' recol- 
 lection a famous declaration made by Mr. Gladstone, when Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer. Two years ago, I think, Mr. Gladstone 
 made a great declaration — that every man of mature age, and not 
 tainted by crime, had a moral right to the suffrage. [Earl 
 RirsSELL indicated dissent.] Of course, I shall withdraw the 
 statement if incorrect, but such was the imiDression upon my 
 mind. [Lord Lyttelton : Without political danger.] Without 
 political danger. Yes ; well, that comes very near the point ; for 
 none, it seems, are, in his view, politically dangerous unless they 
 are actually criminal. But last year, I think, there was a still 
 more decided declaration from the same eminent person, that 
 flesh and blood was entitled to a vote, and this year the Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer confirms the whole by saying that the
 
 42G House of Lords, 2Sr(l July, 18G7. 
 
 present Bill is for the purpose of restoring to tlie people the 
 rights that have been violently taken from them. 
 
 Now, my Lords, I must say that the result of all this has been 
 to infiise into the minds of the people — and, be assured, you 
 will never disubiase them of it whatever you may say or do — the 
 notion that the elective franchise is a right and not a trust. I 
 shrink from openly asserting to what an extent the issues of that 
 notion may be pushed. That the elective franchise was a trust, 
 was a doctrine of an elevating character ; now that you say it is a 
 right of all, I cannot see bow it is possible for us to remain within 
 the four corners of the BUI which you have now propounded. 
 
 I heard last night a remark which comes very much in aid of 
 that view. My noble friend went thus far ; lie said that the BiU 
 was introduced in order that there might be no class left in. 
 England dissatisfied with the sxiffrage — that one great object of 
 going so low was that no condition of people might bave ground 
 to complain of the state of things. Well, my Lords, ha-vdng laid 
 down this principle, tbat the suffrage is a rigbt, and that uni- 
 versal satisfaction is your object, I hold that you have also 
 laid down the great principle of universal suffrage ; it is even 
 clearer, when you come to the lodger franchise, for see how 
 that enactment will work upon the whole system. The lodger 
 franchise assumes this principle ; it contemplates the voter simply 
 as a man, and not as a man in connection witb the duties of 
 a citizen. It contemplates the voter as a man who, having a 
 certain income, is disposed to spend a portion in a certain way 
 — that is to say, lOZ. a year for a room in which to lodge. 
 That man, as a lodger, bas none of the duties of a citizen to 
 fulfil. He is not under the necessity of paying rates, he bas 
 not to sei-ve as a juror, or discharge any of the functions which 
 fall to the lot of the householder or ratepayer. Just see how this 
 will operate. Take it in the first place in the capital and the great 
 towns. You can as yet form no notion whatever of the numbers 
 that will be added to the register in London and the great towns 
 by the lodger clause. You are going to build in the dark; you 
 are laying down a principle of the most expansive character, so 
 expansive that there is no human force that will be able to con- 
 trol it. I am not going to trouble your Lordships with numerous 
 statistics, but to give merely a few simple facts. There is a 
 district which I know containing 144 houses; it now furnishes 
 fifteen voters to the register. By this lodger franchise there 
 will be furnished ninety-seven — that is, more than six times the 
 present number of voters upon 144 houses. 
 
 The Earl of Derby •• I beg my noble Friend's pardon ; do I
 
 jRepresentation of the People Bill. 427 
 
 imderstancl liim to say that in these 14-4 houses there are 97 per- 
 sons Avho i^ermaneutly occupy these lodgings from year to year, 
 and -will therefore he entitled to he put on the register under the 
 Bill? 
 
 The Earl of Shaftesbuby : I wish that my nohle Friend 
 •would wait a while — I was going to state what is the condition 
 of London and the great towns in this respect. I w^as going to 
 say that you will find in London many single houses filled by 
 a class far lower, and far more needy than anything that has 
 come within your contemplation, and containing many lodgers all 
 fulfilling the conditions of paying at least lOZ. a year. Yet no 
 calculation can at present be formed of the numbers that will be 
 put upon the register under the terms of the lodger clause. 
 These persons are generally married men with families, who 
 occupy one or two rooms. But when you come to the other 
 class, the great mass of uumari'ied men, who are lodgers, you 
 will see how wide the principle is, and how necessary it will 
 be that you should expand it so as to admit the large body of 
 men who are not paying lOL a year. Bear this in mind, that a 
 gi'eat niTmber of the young unmarried men, many of them in the 
 prime of life, active, intelligent, and earning wages of from 25s. 
 to 40s., and even 50s. a week, will not come under the category 
 of those who rent a single room at lOZ. A large number of fore- 
 men and superintendents are in that condition, but few others. 
 Now, I am ready to allow that the lodger franchise will be very 
 useful in London, because it will admit to the register a number 
 of highly competent persons — bankers' clerks, literary and scien- 
 tific persons, many who pass their days at clubs, and others in a 
 similar position . But, numerically, they will be infinitely below the 
 others that must eventually be admitted. Now, of the yoimg men 
 that I have refeii'edto, many live two or three in one room, paying 
 each his quota for it of Is. &d. or 2s. a week. And can you 
 suppose when the register comes to be filled up, and the time 
 arrives for the claim to be made, that these young men. finding 
 themselves excluded when others not one hair's breadth above 
 them in social and financial position, and in many cases in 
 the lowest condition as regards education, are put on the re- 
 gister merely because they occupy an entire room to themselves 
 — do you suppose, I say, that these young men will not feel the 
 gi-eatest possible dissatisfaction and discontent ? Believe me, 
 my Lords, there wall be no end to the agitation that will ])e ex- 
 cited by them and their friends to have the amount of the quali- 
 fication reduced. The Reform League has said that unless you 
 reduce the qualification to 2s. Qd. a week you will exclude the very
 
 428 House of Lords, 2Srd July, 1867. 
 
 pith and marrow of tlie country, — I believe this in many respects 
 to be true, and that you will exclude the young unmarried men to 
 whom I have referred, though in the prime of life, intelligent, and 
 in the receipt of excellent wages ; — it will become perfectly impos- 
 sible, I am convinced, to resist the claim that will soon be made on 
 their behalf. But if you reduce the qiialification to 2s. 6d. for those 
 that wiU not pay more, you reduce it at the same time to 2s. 6d. for 
 those that cannot pay more. You will thus flood the towns with a 
 number of voters totally different in character and position from 
 the class you have selected. I know it is the fashion to say that this 
 lodger system is almost peculiar to London. There is no doubt that 
 it prevails more in London than in any other town. In the great 
 manufacturing towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire married people 
 live much more in houses of their own ; but the unmarried there 
 far exceed the number of the married, and many of them live in 
 lodgings, particularly those of the poorer sort. I wiU go even 
 further, and say that statements have been made to me from 
 country and provincial towns which show that the number of 
 lodgers, even in such localities, is far greater than is supposed, 
 and that you will never know the whole number with which you 
 will have to deal until the lists are formed and the registers com- 
 pleted. The career iipon which you have entered in adopting 
 this lodger franchise is far wider than yoiir calculations ; yet, 
 both that and household suffrage having been adopted, they are 
 absolutely beyond your recall, and I believe beyond your control. 
 The decree once passed must be carried into effect, however un- 
 certain the prospect, and however great the danger. 
 
 In my opinion, my Lords, this bears us far on towards universal 
 suffrage, and a great many people share that opinion. You see 
 this fear by all the efforts and contrivances resorted to, in order, 
 if possible, to prevent the preponderance of one class over another. 
 If one thing was emj)hatically promised to us, it was that nothing 
 should be done which should in the least degree give one class a 
 predominance ; but, assuredly, you will soon find that a predomi- 
 nant voice has now been given. Argue as you will you cannot 
 disprove this fact except by figures, and the more yon examine 
 into figures the more clearly you will see that in every instance 
 the number of additional voters called into existence by the Bill 
 wiU be equal to that which exists already, while in a great many 
 boroughs the number will be increased three, four, and even five- 
 fold. Surely such an increase as this brings l^s into the presence 
 of the democratic influence, and will give to one class so over- 
 whelming a weight in the House of Commons, that the voice of 
 the minority there wiU be almost extinguished.
 
 Bepresentation of the People Bill. 429 
 
 Now, it was to avoid siicli a result that an attempt was made to 
 introduce cumulative voting and unicorn boroughs — that Mr. 
 Stuart Mill addressed to the other House his ahle but unintelligible 
 argument upon the representation of minorities — all this shows a 
 strong impression that democratic views will ultimately preponde- 
 rate, and that something must be done, however experimental and 
 feeble, for the purpose of resisting that mighty power. It may be 
 that democracy will prevail ; well, my Lords, if so, we must submit 
 to it. It has its advantages. All forms of government have their 
 \artues as well as their evils. But oiir business is now to consider, 
 not what are the virtues, but what are the evils of democracy. 
 Now I venture to assert that the suffrage we are about to give, 
 will produce such effects as those which I shall endeavour to lay 
 before your Lordships. I cannot but think that the democratic 
 influence in the House of Commons, and the preponderance given 
 to the representatives of that class of men, will speedily act in a 
 most dangerous way against the old-established and organized in- 
 stitutions of the country. It will act prejudicially to the Church 
 of England. I cannot believe that the representatives of those 
 who are in a great measure so unacquainted with the Church of 
 England and -ndth its benefits will have any friendly feeling to- 
 wards the Establishment itself. When we come to look at the 
 House in which I have now the honour to address your Lord- 
 ships, I ask how it will be affected hj this great democratic change ? 
 So long as the other house of Parliament was elected upon a 
 restricted principle, I can understand that it would submit to a 
 check from such a House as this. But in the presence of this 
 mighty democratic power, and the advance of this great demo- 
 cratic wave, which is rolling on even in spite of itseH — for I be- 
 lieve its rapid advance is against the wishes even of many of those 
 who give to it a considerable amount of its impetus — in such a pre- 
 sence it passes my comprehension to understand how an hereditaiy 
 House like this can hold its own. It might be possible for this 
 House, in one instance, to withstand a measure sent up for oiu* 
 acceptance, if it were violent, unjust, and coercive ; but I do not 
 believe that the democracy would permit the repetition of such an 
 offence. It would be said, by action, as is now daily said in 
 words, " The people must govern, and not a set of hereditary 
 peers never chosen by the people." Why, is not what I am now 
 saying very much in accordance with your Lordships' own 
 observation ? Are we not living in a time in which nothing 
 is taken for granted ? Everything must be ripped up to its first 
 principles, and in vain you argue that a thing is good; your 
 adversary admits it, but says that a change wiU make it better.
 
 430 House of Lords, 23rd Juhj, 18G7. 
 
 What liuuian institutions can stand sucli tests ? Tlius it is that 
 we are going on at the present day ; and thus we are continually- 
 manifesting that we have in a great measure outgrown our insti- 
 tutions. There is an expansive force among the people. The ad- 
 vance of wealth, the increase of education, the caijacity, or at 
 least the ambition, that every man now feels to occupy a higher 
 station than that in which he has been placed by Providence — all 
 these things tend to make men dissatisfied with the institutions of 
 the country, because they fancy themselves cribbed, cabined, and 
 confined by the restrictions which those institutions impose. I am 
 not afraid of direct democratic violence ; I believe that the changes 
 which we should all deprecate will rather be brought about by the 
 stealthy progress of legislation. Probably, this very House will 
 be put out not by any sudden and turl^ulent acts, but with all the 
 gradation and elegance of a dissolving view. The country may 
 have a respect for its old constitutional arrangements, but thei-e 
 the feeling ends. Thei'e is no longer any deep spirit remaining to 
 defend its institutions at any cost of safety, or of peace. 
 
 Behind this, however, there lurk other questions of greater and 
 more serioiis importance, as far as the country at large is con- 
 cerned. There are many social questions to which minds of the 
 new holders of the suffrage will be directed — questions in respect of 
 Free Trade and protection ; of money and laljour ; of wages and 
 the relations between employers and employed ; of claims now 
 made by thousands to have a much larger share than at pre- 
 sent falls to them of the ijrofits of their toil and of the capital 
 which they help to accumulate, with all the various notions of the 
 distribution of property. Wherever you go you. cannot but hear 
 these remarks. Tou hear them in the various speeches made to 
 the woi'king men ; you find them in the discvissions of the work- 
 ing classes themselves. Let me confirm this by reading a passage 
 which will show your Lordships the feeling that is growing up in 
 America, and if in America, why not here ? In The Times of 
 July 11, there was an able letter " From our own Correspondent " 
 in the United States, and in that letter I read this very remarkable 
 naiTative — 
 
 " Mr. Wade, President of the Senate, has been making a tour 
 west, in the course of which he indidged himself in some extraor- 
 dinary speeches. In Kansas, he said that, the slavery questic'U 
 being disposed of, that of labour and capital would nest demand 
 the attention of the country. ' Property,' he said, ' was not 
 equally divided, and a more equal distribution of capital must be 
 wi-ought out. That Congress, which had done so much for the 
 slave, cannot quietly regard the terrible distinction which exists
 
 Bepresentation of the Peojjle Bill. 431 
 
 between the man tliat labours and bim that does not.' He went 
 on to argue that the Almighty ' never intended ' that one man 
 should work while another feasted in idleness. The position (the 
 writer goes on to say), which Mr. Wade holds in the Radical party 
 gives these opinions a weighty significance, and they are a striking 
 commentary on the pei'verse statements of the philosophers al)road 
 who contend that this is the country of universal content, and that 
 jealousies of class are unknown. We may have a ' Re-distribution 
 of Property ' party before many years are over." — (Vide Note at 
 end.J 
 
 I am specially desirous to call the pai-ticidar attention of your 
 Lordships to this document, because it is a man of eminence in 
 the United States who lays down these principles. With the 
 strong resemblance between the two countries, the frequent inter- 
 course and interchange of ideas, and the fraternization v/hich 
 takes place between the two peoples, may we not exjicct that what 
 is going on in America will be imitated here, and that we shall 
 come in this country to the assertion of similar principles, ami 
 the agitation of similar questions ? Let me observe that such 
 oj)inious may be expressed and acted on ]jy large masses of the 
 working people — and here I am speaking of what I know — in no 
 spirit of spoliation. I am sure that a large proportion of the work- 
 ing classes have a deep and solemn conviction — and I have found 
 it among working people of religious views — that property is not 
 distributed as property ought to be ; that some checks ought to be 
 kejit upon the accumulation of proijerty in single hands ; that to 
 take away by a legislative enactment that which is in excess, with 
 a view to bestow it on those who have insufficient means, is not a 
 breach of any law, human or divine. It is certain that many 
 entertain these opinions. It is certain also that in times of 
 distress and difficulty, these opinions, urged upon the people by 
 any great demagogue, or by any person of power or influence 
 among them, would take i)Ossession of their minds and sink 
 deeply into their hearts ; and if they had power through their re- 
 presentatives to give expression to those lii'inciples, they would do 
 so speedily and emphatically. 
 
 But this measure, my Lords, will lead to other and certain evils. 
 It is curious to find an honourable gentleman in tlie House of 
 Commons, who, until lately, had no strong opinion iu favour of 
 the ballot, now declaring that he should support it by every means 
 in his power because it will henceforward be necessary to protect 
 mob against mob, people against people ; so, then, there is no 
 longer any fear of intimidation from rich manufacturers, rich 
 capitalists, rich lawyers, rich landowners, or rich anybody else ;
 
 432 Eouseof Lords, 2Srd July, 18Q7. ^ 
 
 the danger to the people is from tliemselves, and from tliemselres 
 tlicy must be protected. I fear, too, that, among other things, we 
 shall soon arrive at the institution of triennial Parliaments, and 
 with them we shall have all the various evils of frequent elections; 
 we shall lead as in America an election-life, and thus, with fre- 
 quent changes of members, and frequent changes of policy to suit 
 the fickleness of the multitude, we shall be dehiged with crade 
 oj)inions, pernicious theories, and inexperienced representatives, 
 and thus give a deadly stroke to the contemplated perfection of 
 the House of Commons. 
 
 But as a counterpoise to all this action we are promised a 
 certain amount of seciirities, some of them in the shape of enact- 
 ments, and some in the shape of hopes. We are told, in the first 
 place, that this is essentially the same Bill that was first intro- 
 duced into the House of Commons. Doubtless it is true that if 
 you take a man and divest him of shoes, stockings, pantaloons, 
 coat, and shirt, he is essentially the same man ; but by so doing you 
 have deprived him of everything which gave him decency and pro- 
 tection. In a great measure slich is the case with this Bill. Now, 
 the first provision is that the householder, to be entitled to vote, 
 shall have paid the rates levied for the relief of the poor, and 
 shall have resided twelve months. With regard to the personal 
 payment of rates, I think the argument of my noble friend (Earl 
 Grey) last evening, that personal payment could not be universally 
 insisted upon, was quite unanswerable. I am certain, from what 
 I know and have heard, that if you insist upon personal payment 
 of the rate, you will exclude so very many from the sufi"rage, that 
 you will hardly increase appreciably the constituency, at least, in 
 London. Abolish the payment of rates, and yon will flood the 
 register with such a mass of abject poverty that the boldest will 
 be appalled at the result. Residence, if insisted iipon, is, in many 
 instances, a guarantee of respectability to a certain extent ; but 
 it is not so in every case ; and I know many instances to the con- 
 trary, many in which a tenant has resided a year simply and 
 solely because he has not paid his rent, and because the landlord 
 wovdd not turn him out, fearing that, if he did so, he would lose his 
 rent altogether and not get a better tenant. Nevertheless, resi- 
 dence, no doubt, to a certain extent, is a test of respectability ; 
 but, at the same time, I will undertake to say that the 80 out of 97 
 persons living in the houses I have spoken of, and here is the 
 answer to my noble friend, will be put iipon the register if they 
 chose, having resided in them for mcu-e than a year ; and yet they 
 will not be more than a hair's breadth above the condition of 
 paupers. It is said, too, by way of comfort to us, that men must
 
 Bep-esentation of the People Bill. 433 
 
 demand to be put upon the register, and it appears, for a moment, 
 to be in some measure a security ; but I doubt very much, whether 
 it is one. The sending in of claims will be attended to by caucuses 
 and agents, if it is in the interest of any party that it should be 
 done. If any one is interested in seeming the honour of repre- 
 senting a constituency he will take good care that due prepara- 
 tion is made for the election ; and, whether demands have been 
 made or not, that those who are qualified shall be placed on the 
 register if they will subsei^ve his interests. 
 
 These are pretty nearly the legislative secui'ities given us by this 
 Bill ; but we have a number of other securities in the form of hopes. 
 I heai'd from the opj)osite side of the House last night, and I have 
 often heard it in private conversation, that this is a most conser- 
 vative measure. I have heard it said that the middle classes are 
 not consei'vative, but that if you go deeper you get into a vein of 
 gold, and encounter the presence of a highly conservative feeling. 
 In the first place, I ask is that so? And in the second place, 
 what do you mean by the term Conservative .f* Do you mean 
 to say that this large mass that they call the " residxium," of 
 which, am I presumptuovis if I say that, from various circum- 
 stances, few men living have more knowledge than I have, is 
 conservative of your Lordships' titles and estates ? Not a bit ; 
 they know little about them and care less. Will you venture to 
 say that they are conservative of the interests of the Established 
 Chiu'ch.P Certainly they are not. Thousands upon thousands 
 living in this vast City of London do not know the name of the 
 j)arish in which they reside nor the name of the minister in charge 
 of it. They are, however, very conservative indeed of their own 
 sense of right and wi'ong. They are living from hand to mouth, 
 and, in consequence, they are very conservative of what they 
 consider to be their own interests. They are aff'ectionate, grate- 
 ful, aud open to sympathy. If there were to go among them two 
 persons, one a lord and the other a plebeian, they would, without 
 adopting the lord's opinion, prefer, in many instances, the lord 
 because they would think he would have more power to forward 
 their views. Theii' own interests, as is natural, take the lead. 
 They have no wanton desire for plunder or spoliation ; but they 
 have rights and wi'ongs of their own conception, which they will 
 insist upon maintaining or redressing. They have knovra me 
 long, but were I to go to a meeting of a thousand, take a differ- 
 ent view of their interests from that which they had taken, and 
 try to persuade them to adopt my view, I am sure that 995 out 
 of the 1000 would vote against me, and would take good care to 
 look out for some one who would better serve what they con- 
 sidered their just purposes. 
 
 2 G
 
 434 House of Lords, 23r^ July, 1867, 
 
 1 cannot understand, my Lords, upon what grotmd this is 
 proved to be a conservative measure. I have heard it argued, 
 that to obtain that issue we must rely a good deal upon social in- 
 fluences. I can perfectly comi^rehend how social influences can 
 prevail where a landlord and his tenants live in mutual acquaint- 
 ance and reciprocity of kindness ; but a totally different state of 
 things is found in London and other large towns. The people 
 live together in vast masses far removed from the influences you 
 speak of, and I cannot give a better proof of it than in this state- 
 ment not long ago from an excellent clergyman of the Church of 
 England. He told me that in the whole of his district, containing 
 6000 people, there was not a single family that kept a house- 
 maid. Where were the social influences here ? and yet that is 
 only a sample of the general condition. Look, too, at what is 
 going on among all the vast aggregations of the people. Persons 
 of property, and even tradesmen, are leaving the towns for country 
 residences. In the neighbourhood of this House there is a re- 
 markable congregation. Twenty-five years ago it was so rich that 
 the minister could find agents and money for any object. The 
 other day he informed me that the wealthy were deserting the dis- 
 trict in siich numbers that the necessary agencies could hardly be 
 maintained. It is the same in the manufacturing towns — in Man- 
 chester, Huddersfield, and others I could name. The same com- 
 plaint is made everywhere — that the people of property and 
 station are leaving the towns and are removing themselves from 
 the working classes, and that a "hard and fast line" is being 
 drawn between employer and employed, between j)ersons of in- 
 fluence and those who ought to be the subject of it. Be assured, 
 my Lords, that to trust to social influences under existing circum- 
 stances such as these, is to trust to the greatest of all chimeras. 
 
 Another hope held out is that of education. I am siire I shall 
 not be misunderstood when I say that the hope from education is 
 one of the most fallacious that could be entertained for the present 
 exigency. If you would give us ten years of preparation educa- 
 tion might do a great deal ; but what you are going to do is this, 
 to give the franchise before you give education, whereas you should 
 have given education before the franchise. It will take ten years 
 to bring up the residuum by education ; but it will not take six 
 months for them, through their representatives, to destroy every- 
 thing that comes in their way. . I cannot but say, when I look at 
 the state of this vast population, when I know what they are, how 
 easily they are deluded, how impressible and open they are to bad 
 influences, that this gift of the suffrage is one of the most fatal
 
 Bepresentation of the People Bill. 435 
 
 gifts ever bestowed upon an unprepared people. In tlie interest 
 of the people you ought to have withheld it for some years, or 
 confeiTed it by gradations. Do not shut your eyes to the danger ; 
 there will be no lack of rich, unscrupulous candidates, desirous, at 
 any cost, of social position as Members of Parliament, who will 
 find the new voters purchasable as a flock of sheep. I am certain 
 jon will leani hereafter, to yoiu* great regret, that by this measiu'e, 
 instead of promoting purity, jou have unwittingly extended the 
 worst political corruption. 
 
 Again, it is said that we should throw our whole confidence on 
 the peoj)le. Yes, my Lords, I say so too, for if they are left to 
 follow their natural instincts it will be seen that they have no desire 
 in themselves to make any aggressive movement on the institu- 
 tions of the country. But they are easily excited, easily open to 
 misrepresentation ; a skilful and adroit orator may bring them to 
 almost any conviction he pleases, and then say, my Lords, in what 
 state we shall be. The nation is by no means in the same position 
 in which it was some twenty years ago. A certain moral electric 
 telegraph now runs through the whole of the people of this coun- 
 try. Anything said or done in London is felt simultaneously 
 at John o'Groat's House and the Land's End. The people act 
 together rightly or wi'ongly by one simultaneous movement. They 
 have common aifections and common action; and if in. a time 
 of distress and difiiculty designing, skilful demagogues should 
 bring their influence to bear upon the public excitement, they 
 would, in the plenitude of their strength, assail almost every 
 existing institution — 
 
 " Male'judicavit populus, at judicavit ; non debuit, sed potuit." 
 
 They would possess the power, and, defying all right, would exer- 
 cise it in their passion. I know that in the generosity of their 
 hearts many would aftenvards be grieved, but they would then 
 have done that of which they woiild have to repent unavailingly 
 in sackcloth and ashes. 
 
 Again, many are entertaining sanguine hopes that after the 
 dissolution of 1869 there wUl be large retiu-ns on the Conservative 
 side. For my own part I cannot venture to say how that will be. 
 But, certainly, if that time be a time of distress in the land, if 
 there be a lack of employment and a lowering of wages, or any- 
 thing which touches the deepest interests of the people, there 
 will be no such result; but a movement which will lead to very 
 rapid changes. This, my Lords, I believe to be the real state of 
 the case in regard to the great mass of the population, by which 
 I mean that preponderating class which will shape the whole
 
 436 House of Lords, 2'3rd Jidy, 1867. 
 
 character of the representation, which will have the greatest 
 influence in the Hoiise of Commons, and which will determine 
 the future destinies of this great empire. 
 
 As to re-distribution, I can only remark that it seems, as was 
 stated last night, to be a question which must be re-opened alto- 
 gether. And I cannot blame the Government for that event, for 
 I am convinced that, upon the principles laid down, if even an 
 angel from heaven had drawn the clauses he could not possibly 
 have given satisfaction. If you lay down the principle that repre- 
 sentation must follow wealth and population, the representation 
 will travel, as it is travelling now, rapidly to the north, where new 
 towns are springing up every day, and demanding a position in 
 the Parliament. Already I have seen a list of several which are 
 dissatisfied, and which will in the new Parliament assert their 
 right. Ton cannot avoid a new Reform Bill at every census, and 
 things are quickly approaching to one great consummation — that 
 great consummation announced by Mr. Cobden, that " the towns 
 must govern." 
 
 Surely, my Lords, all these movements are tending to Republi- 
 can issues ! If we have any doubt upon that point, we may refer 
 to the authority of Mr. Bright, who stated broadly in his speech 
 that whatever might be the outward form, the principle of the 
 Government n^iust hereafter be Republican or Democratic ; and, 
 perhaps, one of the heaviest charges which can be brought against 
 this BiU is that it is accelerating our already too rapid progress. 
 Rapid indeed it is, for what is new one day becomes antiquated 
 the next. The Reform Act of 1832 gave us a pause of 30 years. 
 But what will be given by the Reform Bill of 1867 ? My Lords, 
 I do not believe it will give us the pause of a single session. Every- 
 thing at the present day is swift and gigantic. We have gigantic 
 wars, gigantic ships, gigantic speculations, gigantic frauds, gigan- 
 tic crimes, a gigantic Reform Bill, and I much fear that we shall 
 have a gigantic downfall. Our position is, indeed, full of mis- 
 givings and fears — we are bringing, suddenly and roughly, old 
 England into collision with young England ; ancient and vener- 
 able institutions to be tried, without notice or preparation, by 
 poverty, levity, and ignoi-ance ; and by many who, being neither 
 poor, nor vain, nor ignorant, are yet too full of hot blood, eff'er- 
 vescing youth, and burning ambition, to be calm, dispassionate 
 and just. 
 
 But, after aU this, there will arise the many great and social 
 questions. From all which I have seen and heard I fuUy conclude 
 that there will spring up in this country, and speedily, too, a 
 revival of that hazardous and angry feud instituted long ago be-
 
 Bepresentation of the People Bill. 437 
 
 tween the House of Want aud the House of Have. Then yon will 
 have new schemes, new agencies, new conditions, new problems, 
 and new fears ; and to snch an extent, that those who have been 
 foremost in urging the passing of this measure ■vvill be among the 
 very first to lament and condemn it. 
 
 But, my Lords, if all this were necessary for the real advance- 
 ment of the human race, if it were necessary for the interests of 
 England, I am quite sure your Lordships would be the first to 
 accede to it. Institutions must be expanded to suit men, but men 
 are not to be dwarfed or cramped to suit institutions. Yet, my 
 Lords, I should have thought that statesmen of high minds and 
 patriotic hearts might have devised a scheme by which these dis- 
 cordant elements might have been l^rought into union, so that, for 
 a time at least, all that appears jari'ing and difficult might have 
 been reconciled in some one safe aud harmonious movement. 
 
 But, my Lords, however dark and dismal may be the future of 
 England, it is our duty to fight for our country, into whatever 
 hands the Government may fall. England, though not so great 
 and happy, may yet be a great and happy land. Whether monar- 
 chical, republican, or democratic, she will be England still ; and 
 let us beguile our fears by indulging our imagination, and by 
 picturing to ourselves that which can never be realized — that out 
 of this hecatomb of British traditions, and British institutions, 
 there will arise the great and glorious Phoenix of a Conservative 
 Democracy. 
 
 [Note. Our own Correspondent, United States, T/mes, August 26, 1867. 
 " I see the quotations made in the House of Lords from Mr. Wade's agrarian 
 speech gave rise to tlie publication in England of a contradiction purporting 
 to come from Mr. Wade. The fact that the President of the Senate did 
 make a speech of the character described to you is of so much importance 
 that I venture to trouble you with a short statement with regard to it. 
 
 "Mr. Wade, in the statement to whicli I liave referred, istates that no 
 stenographer was present when ho made his speech. This has been proved 
 to be an error. A reporter of the New York Times (one of tlie mf)st trusted 
 of its stati) was on the spot, and took notes of all that Mr. Wade said in 
 shorthand. For this fact the editor of the New York Times has vouched 
 to the public ; and to give weight to this statement he made Icnowu the 
 name of his reporter, wliich ajipears to be well known in the journaHst 
 world. This gentleman has assured his chief of tlie strict accunicy of liis 
 report, and affirms that Mr. Wade really said every word attributed to 1dm. 
 In this he is confirmal by the evidence of other jjcnsous present on the 
 occasion ; and the editor of the New York Times, having made searching
 
 438 Ilouse of Lords, 2'Srd July, 1867. 
 
 inquiries into all tlic circumstances, gave the assurance to the public tliat 
 tlie report was accurate in every particular, Mr. Wade's denial notwith- 
 standinjf. 
 
 " The truth is, that when Mr. Wade returned from Kansas he found his 
 speech had made a great commotion. What he liad said pleased the Kansas 
 people very much, and Mr. W.mIo thouglit he had made a success ; but ho 
 discovered tliat lie had failed to take into account the sentiment of the great 
 cities and populations of the North. He saw, in short, tliut ho had gone 
 too far, and his friends begged him to make some explanation. Yielding 
 to their advice, he attempted to explain away his imprudent speech, after 
 the manner of approved precedents elsewhere. 
 
 " The question for the public to decide, and the one which they have 
 decided here long ago, is whether the notes of a rejiorter. acting in tlie im- 
 partial exercise of his profession, arc to be taken as the truth, or the denial 
 of a gentleman who is told by his political associates that he has damaged 
 himself with tlie ]iiiblic ? Mr. Wade is at best a very impassioned aiad 
 hasty speaker, and if he believed (as ho evidently did) that no reporter was 
 present in Kansas, he would be very likely to say more than lie would be 
 prepared to stand by in his cooler moments at Boston, Washington, or New 
 York. Moreover, there is this important circumstance to consider. Mr. 
 Wade, while denying the accuracy of the report, has never disclaimed the 
 sentiments conveyed in it. Tliis has been pointed out to him by the public 
 journals here, but still Mr. Wade lias held his peace. Upon the whole, the 
 people in this country believe that ho made the speech, and will hold him 
 responsible for it."] 
 
 THE END. 
 
 UWIX)N: I'UISTKD ny WILUAM CLOWES and SON'S, STAMlulil) »1K1-,1-.1 
 AMI CHARING (JKOtS.
 
 L 005 120 682 9 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 AA 000 988 928