Chapter III: Labour in Factories (2)

There is at present in the metropolis, a Society for "improving the dwellings of the industrious classes;" but what is one society? This is a matter which ought to interest the owners of property, and the employers of labour, throughout the country. Such a society as the one named may do great good by building model houses, making scientific investigations, and frequently laying before the public information on the subject. But the proper division of labour, as it seems to me, would be that the state should give every legislative facility for contemplated improvements in the way of building, should encourage all researches into the subject, and be ready to enforce by law such regulations as, without any great intrusion upon private property, might secure for small houses those primary requisites without which it cannot be expected that they will be anything but nests of disease. In fact the state might, eventually, so order the matter that builders should not merely build such houses as the poor would take, for there is nothing in the way of a shelter which they will refuse to occupy, but such as ought to be let to them, with due care at least for the public health. The local authorities should take upon themselves, the lighting, cleansing, paving, supplying with water, and the like. For private individuals there remains the most important part of the task, namely, the building of an improved class of small houses. In this good work the employers of labour may be expected to come prominently forward. Many a man will speculate in all kinds of remote undertakings; and it will never occur to him that one of the most admirable uses to which he might put his spare capital, would be to provide fit dwelling places for the labouring population around him. He is not asked to build alms houses. On the contrary, let him take care to ensure, as far as he can, a good return for the outlay, in order to avoid what may, possibly, be an unjust interference with other men's property; and also, and chiefly, that his building for the poor may not end in an isolated act of benevolence, but may indicate a mode of employing capital likely to be followed by others. In the present state of things, the rents of small houses are disproportionately high because of the difficulty and uncertainty of collecting the rents for them; but by any improvement you introduce into the habits of the occupiers of such houses, you make this difficulty and uncertainty less; and thereby diminish rents. And thus, in this case, as in many others, physical and moral improvement go on acting and reacting upon each other. It is likely, too, that these poor people will pay with readiness and punctuality even a higher rent, if it be for a really good tenement, than a small one for a place which they must inhabit in the midst of filth, discomfort, and disease, and therefore with carelessness and penury. Besides; the rents they pay now, will be found, I believe, sufficient to reimburse the capitalist for an outlay which would suffice to build tenements of a superior description to the present ones.

I do not mean to say that the beginners of such a system of employing capital might not have a great deal to contend with: and it is to their benevolence, and not to any money motives, that I would mainly appeal. The devout feeling which in former days raised august cathedrals throughout the land, might find an employment to the full as religious in building a humble row of cottages, if they tell of honour to the great Creator, in care for those whom he has bidden us to care for, and are thus silently dedicated, as it were, to His name.

* * * * *

The allotment system has not hitherto, I believe, been tried to any extent in the manufacturing districts. Mr. James Marshall, and Mr. Gott, of Leeds have begun to try it; but I think it is but recently; and that there has not yet been time to ascertain the result of the system. I cannot but think, however, that it will be found more beneficial in manufacturing, than even in rural, districts. Let us enumerate some of the probable advantages. It would form an additional means of support--it would tend to endear home to the working man--it would provide a pleasing change of employment for him in good times--it would render him not so listless when out of work--and it would give him knowledge, an additional topic of conversation, and an interest in various things which he might never, otherwise, have felt the least concern for. Moreover, it amuses and occupies the little ones in a family; and it leaves less temptation for parents to employ children too early, in factories or workshops, when they can find something else for them to do which may be profitable. In this respect, indeed, any improvement in domestic comfort, or any additional domestic pursuit, is likely to be beneficial, as it enlarges the sphere of household duties, and creates more reasons for the wife and children being left at home. Again, as there is hard labour to be done in a garden, this allotment system might occasionally prevent the sense of an almost unnatural dependence being so much exhibited, or felt, when the children are employed in some factory, and the grown up people are not. This is one of the greatest evils that at present attend the state of manufactures. Some of the advantages which I have reckoned above, as likely to be connected with the allotment system, are trifling things; but small impulses, all tending one way, may lead to great results. The main objection which, I suppose, will be taken, is that to make allotments in crowded districts is scarcely practicable. Some beginning, however, has been made at a place so crowded as Leeds, and at any rate, in any future building arrangements, room might be left for allotments of land, which would also secure many advantages with respect to the sanitary condition of the people. It may be remarked, too, that any manufacturer, who possessed cottages with allotments to them, would have an easy mode of rewarding good behaviour. Such cottages would be eagerly sought after by the men, and might be given, in preference, to those of good character.

Is all this romantic? Is it inevitable that the suburbs of a manufacturing town must consist of dense masses of squalid habitations, unblest by a proper supply of air, light, or water; undrained, uncleansed, and unswept; enjoying only that portion of civilization which the presence of the police declares; and presenting a scene which the better orders hurry by with disgust? Or, on the contrary may we not, without giving ourselves up to Utopian dreams, imagine that we might enter the busy resorts of traffic through extensive suburbs consisting of cottages with their bits of land; and see, as we came along, symptoms everywhere around of housewifely occupations, and of homes which their humble owners might often think of with pleasure during their day's labour, looking forward to their return at evening with delight. The richer classes, even those low down in the scale of wealth, mostly struggle to secure some portion of country air for themselves: surely they might do their best to provide for the working man something like a change from the atmosphere of the factory, or workshop, in which he must pass the greatest part of his day throughout the whole year.

Against what I have said above, it may be urged that it would prevent the workman from living near his work. In many cases this may be an inconvenience; but I do not imagine that, in general, it can be proved to be an insurmountable, or even a very serious objection. Turning again to the evidence of the Town Clerk of Leeds before the Building Committee, I find the following:

"_Lord Ashley_. I have been told by several builders in London, that
in consequence of the improvements in the metropolis, great numbers
of people have been driven to the out-skirts of the town; but they
found in the out-skirts of the town an excellent house for less money
than when they lived in miserable lodgings in the heart of the town;
is this consistent with your experience in Leeds?--Quite consistent.

"And no hardship to themselves?--The distance of going to work is the
objection; but we find the poor people will for twenty years walk two
or three miles in a morning to their work at six o'clock, and seem no
worse for it."

V. THE TOWN.

It will not be a matter unworthy the attention of a great employer of labour, to improve and embellish the town where his work is carried on. It is his duty to have some care for its public buildings, and its institutions. They are means for improving, sometimes by manifest benefits, sometimes by silent influence, the condition of his men. Surely if the employers of labour felt any thing like a home affection for the towns where they live, they could not leave them in the rude, unadorned state in which so many of them are. And where is a man's home, if not where he can do most good; where he spends the best part of his life; where he directs the labour, perhaps, of thousands, and absolutely by his own exertion may affect the condition of the rising generation? If such a man could see the many links of duty done, or duty disregarded, that connect him with the spot where he works, let it be ever so dark, squalid, and repulsive, he would still say that it was a great part of his home, and not indulge too fondly in the idea of sunny meadows and beautiful villas, to be enjoyed in some secure, golden, retirement. He would take an interest in the erection of churches, hospitals, buildings for the display of art, or indeed, in any institutions that would further his great work by elevating the sentiments, or improving the physical condition, of his men. The establishment of public baths would be another matter worthy of his attention. At these baths the poor might be admitted on payment of a small fee to cover the expense of attendants. The Romans, induced by social or political motives, had their public baths, to which citizens were admitted; who formed, however, but a small part of their people: surely higher motives might prevail with us to have similar baths, which should be open to all our population. While we are speaking of institutions of various kinds, we must not omit Monts de Piete, or Loan Societies, which may enable the poor man to get small advances on reasonable terms. It will not be enough to establish such things as we have spoken of: there is yet harder work to be done in the management of them. All charitable institutions require vigorous attention; and the better kind of men must not shrink from the public business which they are the fittest to transact. If founders or benefactors were the only people needed, one generation might monopolize the beneficence of all time; but charitable institutions require for ever duty to be done by living men. And, as I have intimated before, it is in giving thought and labour, that we may often make the greatest and the most profitable sacrifices for the good of others. But to go back to mere embellishment--it is very apt to go hand in hand with material improvements. Besides, it raises a higher standard. It declares that there is something besides food and clothing. It may create, perhaps, the love of beauty and order in minds that now seem sunk in sense. At any rate it may do so in a coming generation. And it is not a little matter if it attach the wealthier classes to these towns. This naturally brings me to a subject of which I think the reader will, on consideration, see the importance. I have heard it said, and thought, it a far-seeing remark, that one of the greatest benefits which could be conferred on manufacturing towns, would be to purify them from smoke, on the ground that the wealthier classes would then have less objection to reside in their vicinity: and, especially, that those who constitute the natural aristocracy of the place, would not be so much tempted to remove themselves from the spot where their fortunes had grown up.

Dr. Cooke Taylor, in his letters to the Archbishop of Dublin, speaking of the parts of Manchester which "have been abandoned to the poorest grade of all," says,

"Your Grace is aware that to some extent Dublin is similarly divided
into the city of the rich and the city of the poor; but I know that
many respectable and wealthy manufacturers reside in the liberties of
Dublin, while the smoke-nuisance drives every body from the township
of Manchester who can possibly find means of renting a house
elsewhere."

Now is the doing away of this smoke a sort of chimerical and Quixotic undertaking? Not in the least. The experiments appear to be decisive upon this point; and had there been a reasonable care for the health, beauty, and cleanliness of the towns where their work is carried on, the manufacturers would long ago have contrived, I believe, that there should be no such thing as opaque smoke issuing from their chimneys. Count Rumford says in his essays,

"I never view from a distance, as I come into town, this black cloud
which hangs over London without wishing to be able to compute the
immense number of chaldrons of coals of which it is composed; for
could this be ascertained, I am persuaded so striking a fact would
awaken the curiosity, and excite the astonishment, of all ranks of
the inhabitants, and _perhaps_ turn their minds to an object of
economy to which they have hitherto paid little attention."

The essay from which this extract is made was published in 1796: what would the Count say now? I believe the calculation which he was thinking of has been made. At any rate a near approximation might be; for I am told, on scientific authority, that "the actual quantity of smoke hanging any day over London is the fourth part of the fuel consumed on that day." Mr. Cubitt, the great builder, in an examination before the House of Commons, quoted by the Sanitary Report, thus expresses himself on this subject:

"With respect to manufactories, here are a great number driven by
competition to work in the cheapest way they can. A man puts up a
steam-engine, and sends out an immense quantity of smoke; perhaps he
creates a great deal of foul and bad gas; that is all let loose.
Where his returns are 1000 pounds a month, if he would spend 5 pounds
a month more, he would make that completely harmless; but he says, 'I
am not bound to do that,' and therefore he works as cheaply as he
can, and the public suffer to an extent beyond all calculation."

To show how little loss is to be apprehended from regulations abating this nuisance, the Sanitary Report cites the authority of

"Mr. Ewart, the Inspector of Machinery to the Admiralty, residing at
Her Majesty's Dockyard at Woolwich, where the chimney of the
manufactory under his immediate superintendence, regulated according
to his directions, offers an example of the little smoke that need be
occasioned from steam-engine furnaces if care be exercised. He
states that no peculiar machinery is used; the stoker or fire-keeper
is only required to exercise care in not throwing on too much coal at
once, and to open the furnace door in such slight degree as to admit
occasionally the small proportion of atmospheric air requisite to
effect complete combustion. Mr. Ewart also states that if the fire
be properly managed, there will be a saving of fuel. The extent of
smoke denotes the extent to which the combustion is incomplete. The
chimney belonging to the manufactory of Mr. Peter Fairbairn, engineer
at Leeds, also presents an example and a contrast to the chimneys of
nearly all the other manufactories which overcast that town. On each
side of it is a chimney belonging to another manufactory, pouring out
dense clouds of smoke; whilst the chimney at Mr. Fairbairn's
manufactory presents the appearance of no greater quantity of smoke
than of some private houses. Mr. Fairbairn stated, in answer to
inquiries upon this subject, that he uses what is called Stanley's
feeding machinery, which graduates the supply of coal so as to
produce nearly complete combustion. After the fire is once lighted,
little remains to the ignorance or the carelessness of the stoker.
Mr. Fairbairn also states that his consumption of fuel in his
steam-engine furnaces, in comparison with that of his immediate
neighbours, is proportionately less. The engine belonging to the
cotton-mills of Mr. Thomas Ashton, of Hyde, near Stockport, affords
to the people of that town an example of the extent to which, by a
little care, they might be relieved of the thick cloud of smoke by
which the district is oppressed.

"At a meeting of manufacturers and others, held at Leeds, for the
suppression of the nuisance of the smoke of furnaces, and to discuss
the various plans for abating it, the resolution was unanimously
adopted, 'That in the opinion of this meeting the smoke arising from
steam-engine fires and furnaces can be consumed, and that, too,
without injury to the boilers, and with a saving of fuel. Notice of
legal proceedings being given against Messrs. Meux, the brewers in
London, for a nuisance arising from the chimneys of two furnaces,
they found that by using anthracite coal they abated the nuisance to
the neighbourhood, and saved 200 pounds per annum. The West
Middlesex Water Company, by diminishing the smoke of their furnaces
saved 1000 per annum."

But, putting aside the consideration of any pecuniary benefit to be gained, I think it would not be unreasonable to say that no considerate owner of a factory would wait for public regulations in this matter, but would, himself, be anxious to prevent his occupation from being injurious to his neighbours. In a manufacturing town, a man may find some excuse, though a most futile one, in the consideration that it would be of no use for him alone to consume his smoke, when there are hundreds of others over whom he has no influence to persuade them to follow his example. But you sometimes see one of these foul-mouthed chimneys blackening a neighbourhood generally free from such things, and it does not seem to occur to the owner of the chimney that he is doing any thing wrong, provided he is legally secure. Probably he gives away in the course of the year such a sum as would put up an apparatus which would modify, if not altogether remove, the smoke. Let him not think that charity consists only in giving away something: I doubt whether he can find any work of benevolence more useful to his neighbourhood and to society in general, than putting a stop to this nuisance of his own creation. I am not inclined to rest my case against it on the ground of health alone; though I believe, with the Sanitary Commissioners, that it would be found much more injurious than is generally imagined. When you find that flowers and shrubs will not endure a certain atmosphere, it is a very significant hint to the human creature to remove out of that neighbourhood. But independently of the question of health, this nuisance of smoke may be condemned simply on the ground of the waste and injury which it occasions. And what is to be said on the other side? What can any man allege in its favour? Our ancestors, who had glimmerings occasionally, held that

"Si homme fait candells deins un vill, per qui il cause un noysom
sent al inhabitants, uncore ceo nest ascun nusans car le needfulness
de eux dispensera ove le noisomness del smell." (2 Rolls Abr. 139.)

This is quoted in a grave public document (the Sanitary Report): had we met with it elsewhere, we might have concluded that it came from that chronicle in which Mr. Sidney Smith found the account which he gives of the meeting of the clergy at Dordrecht. I quote it, however, to show how wisely our ancestors directed their attention in this instance. If they had been begrimed with smoke as we are, and, upon inquiry, had found that there was no "needfulness" to back the "noisomeness," it is probable they would have dealt with it in their most summary manner. Whereas I fear that Mr. Mackinnon's "Smoke Prohibition" Bill, amidst the hubbub of legislation, has great difficulty in finding the attention which it really deserves. The truth is, this smoke nuisance is one of the most curious instances how little pains men will take to rid themselves from evils which attack them only indirectly. If the pecuniary injury done to the inhabitants of great towns by smoke could only be put in the form of a smoke rate, what unwearied agitation there would be against it. But surely we ought not to view with less hostility, because of its silent noxiousness, a thing which injures the health of our children, if not of people of all ages, disfigures our public buildings, creates uncleanliness and gives an excuse for it, affects in some degree the spirits of all persons who live under it, renders manufacturing towns less welcome places of residence for the higher classes (which is what brings it in connexion with the subject of this Essay); and is, thereby, peculiarly injurious to the labouring population. If these pages should survive to any future age, it will excite a smile in some curious reader to see how urgent I have endeavoured to be about a matter which will then be so obvious--"What strange barbarous times they must have been," he will say to himself: "wisdom of our ancestors, forsooth!" "Far-off reader," if there be such an entity, "do not presume: thou hast thy smoke too."

* * * * *

In connexion with the subject of "the town," it may be well to go a little into the matter of sewerage, which almost, above all things, demands the attention of those who care for the health of the labouring population, indeed, for the health of rich or poor.

This subject is admirably treated in a section of the Sanitary Report of 1842, under the head of "Arrangements for public health, external to the residences." It is now almost a trite thing to show how closely connected imperfect sewerage is with disease. Scientific men will tell you that you may track a fever along the windings of an open drain. The Sanitary Report mentions that,

"In the evidence given before the Committee of the House of Commons,
which received evidence on the subject in 1834, one medical witness
stated, that of all cases of severe typhus that he had seen,
eight-tenths were either in houses of which the drains from the
sewers were untrapped, or which, being trapped, were situated
opposite gully-holes; and he mentioned instances where servants
sleeping in the lower rooms of houses were invariably attacked with
fever."

The above is a good instance to show how necessary it is to have some general measures on these matters of building and drainage. The expense of trapping a gully-drain is about 3 pounds; at least that is what, I understand, the Commissioners of Sewers are willing to do it for. Now is it likely that any poor man, having one of these nuisances before his door, will go to such an expense to have it prevented. It is probable that it would be very good economy for him to do so, even if his whole savings amounted only to 3 pounds. But we all know that few men are far-thinking enough to invest much of their capital in a thing which makes so little show as pure air. What do you find amongst the rich? Go through the great squares, where, in one night, a man will lavish on some entertainment what would almost purify his neighbourhood, and you will often find the same evils there, though in a different degree, that you have met with in the most crowded parts of the town. If the rich and great have so little care about what comes

"Betwixt the wind and their nobility"

you can hardly expect persons, whose perception in such matters is much less nice, to have any care at all. It is evident that the health of towns requires to be watched by scientific men, and improvements constantly urged on by persons who take an especial interest in the subject. If I were a despot, I would soon have a band of Arnotts, Chadwicks, Southwood Smiths, Smiths of Deanston, Joneses, and the like; and one should have gratified a wiser ambition than Augustus if one could say of any great town, Sordidam inveni, purgatam reliqui.

The supply of water is of course one of the chief means for the purification of a town. It is at present, I fear, grievously neglected throughout the country. The Sanitary Report draws attention to the mode of supplying water to Bath, and gas to Manchester: and adduces the latter as an instance "of the practicability of obtaining supplies for the common benefit of a town without the agency of private companies." And Mr. Chadwick, after a lengthened investigation into the subject which will well repay perusal, thus concludes:

"I venture to add, as the expression of an opinion founded on
communications from all parts of the kingdom, that as a highly
important sanitary measure connected with any general building
regulations, whether for villages or for any class of towns,
arrangements should be made for all houses to be supplied with good
water, and should be prescribed as being as essential to cleanliness
and health as the possession of a roof or of due space; that for this
purpose, and in places where the supplies are not at present
satisfactory, power should be vested in the most eligible local
administrative body, which will generally be found to be that having
charge of cleansing and structural arrangements, to procure proper
supplies for the cleansing of the streets, for sewerage, for
protection against fires, as well as for domestic use."

It is possible that some of my readers may think that the wretched state of ventilation, drainage, and building, which I have been commenting upon, is mainly to be accounted for by poverty. It belongs, they may say, to an old country; it is the long accumulated neglect of ages; it embodies the many vicissitudes of trade which Great Britain has felt; it is a thing which the people would remedy for themselves, if you could only give them more employment and better wages. In answer to this I will refer to an authority quoted by Mr. Chadwick in his Essay on the "Pressure and Progress of the Causes of Mortality," read before the Statistical Society in 1843.

"In abundance of employment, in high wages, and the chief
circumstances commonly reputed as elements of prosperity of the
labouring classes, the city of New York is deemed pre-eminent. I
have been favoured with a copy of '_The Annual Report of the
Interments in the City and County of New York for the Year_ 1842,'
presented to the Common Council by Dr. John Griscom, the city
inspector, in which it may be seen how little those circumstances
have hitherto preserved large masses of people from physical
depression. He has stepped out of the routine to examine on the spot
the circumstances attendant on the mortality which the figures
represent. He finds that upwards of 33,000 of the population of that
city live in cellars, courts, and alleys, of which 6618 are dwellers
in cellars. 'Many,' he states, 'of these back places are so
constructed as to cut off all circulation of air, the line of houses
being across the entrance, forming a _cul de sac_, while those in
which the line is parallel with, and at one side of the entrance, are
rather more favourably situated, but still excluded from any general
visitation of air in currents. As to the influence of these
localities upon the health and lives of the inmates, there is, and
can be, no dispute; but few are aware of the dreadful extent of the
disease and suffering to be found in them. In the damp, dark, and
chilly cellars, fevers, rheumatism, contagious and inflammatory
disorders, affections of the lungs, skin, and eyes, and numerous
others, are rife, and too often successfully combat the skill of the
physician and the benevolence of strangers.

"'I speak now of the influence of the locality merely. The degraded
habits of life, the degenerate morals, the confined and crowded
apartments, and insufficient food, of those who live in more elevated
rooms, comparatively beyond the reach of the exhalations of the soil,
engender a different train of diseases, sufficiently distressing to
contemplate; but the addition to all these causes of the foul
influences of the incessant moisture and more confined air of
under-ground rooms, is productive of evils which humanity cannot
regard without shuddering.'

"He gives instances where the cellar population had been ravaged by
fever, whilst the population occupying the upper apartments of the
same houses were untouched. In respect to the condition of these
places, he cites the testimony of a physician, who states that,
'frequently in searching for a patient living in the same cellar, my
attention has been attracted to the place by a peculiar and nauseous
effluvium issuing from the door, indicative of the nature and
condition of the inmates.' A main cause of this is the filthy
external state of the dwellings and defective street cleansing and
defective supplies of water, which, except that no provision is made
for laying it on the houses of the poorer classes, is about to be
remedied by a superior public provision."

After considering this account of the State of New York, it will hardly do to say, that, even under favourable circumstances, you can leave the great mass of the people to take care of those structural arrangements with regard to their habitations, which only the scientific research of modern times has taught any persons to regard with due attention.

* * * * *

We have now gone over some of the principal places where the employer of labour may find scope for benevolent exertion. It has been a most inartificial division of the subject, but still one that may be retained in the memory, which is a strange creature, not always to be bound by logic, but led along by minute ties of association, among which those of place are very strong and clinging. I now venture to discuss a branch of the subject which can hardly be referred to any particular spot, unless, indeed, I were to name the manufacturer's own house as the fit ground for it: I mean the social intercourse between the employers and the employed. Some persons will, perhaps, be startled at the phrase; hardly, however, those who have come thus far with me. By social intercourse I do not merely mean that which will naturally take place in the ordinary charities, such as visiting the sick, managing clothing societies, and the like: but that intercourse which includes an interchange of thought, an occasional community of pursuit, and an opportunity of indirect instruction; which may be frequent and extensive enough to avoid the evil effects of a sense of perpetual condescension on one side, and timidity on the other; and which may give the employer some chance at least of learning the general wants and wishes of his people, and also of appreciating their individual characters.

This matter is not an easy one. It requires tact, patience, discretion, and the application of several of the maxims mentioned in the preceding chapter. I am not sure however, that it is any sacrifice whatever in the way of pleasure. The manufacturer's family who occasionally give an evening to social intercourse with their people, will not, perhaps, find that evening less amusing than many that they may pass with their equals.

The advantage, to the rising generation of working people, of some intercourse with their betters, would be very great. I must here quote the authority of one who has fully expressed in action the benevolent views which he has indicated in the following words. "No humble cottage youth or maiden will ever acquire the charm of pleasing manners by rules, or lectures, or sermons, or legislation, or any other of those abortive means by which we from time to time endeavour to change poor human nature, if they are not permitted to _see_ what they are taught they should practise, and to hold intercourse with those whose manners are superior to their own." This intercourse will probably lead to something like accomplishments among the young people. Some of them will profit more than others from the manners and accomplishments which they will observe. And such differences will create a higher order of love among the working people. The manners of one sex will become different from the manners of the other; and the difference of individuals in each sex will be brought into play. All this is favourable to morality. When people work at the same kind of work, have no different pursuits to call out the different qualities of the two sexes, and have all of them manners of the same rude stamp, you can hardly expect that there will be much to ennoble them in their affections.

But, in themselves, the accomplishments and acquirements, which working people may attain from social intercourse with their betters, are great things. The same kind-hearted employer, whom I have quoted before, speaks thus upon the subject. "Another point which has appeared to me of great importance is to provide as many resources as possible of interest and amusement for their leisure hours; something to which they may return with renewed relish when their daily work is done; which may render their homes cheerful and happy, and may afford subjects of thought, conversation and pursuit among them." Moreover, a habit of attention, and even scientific modes of thought, are often called out in young people when they are learning some game. Besides to do anything, or know anything, which is harmless, is beneficial. A man will not be a worse workman because he can play at cricket, or at chess; or because he is a good draughtsman, or can touch some musical instrument with skill. He is likely to have more self-respect, and to be a better citizen. He cannot succeed in anything without attention and endurance. And these are the qualities which will enable him to behave reasonably in the vicissitudes of trade, or to prepare as much as possible against them.

In the Report on the condition of children and young persons employed in Mines and Manufactures, there is some remarkable evidence given by a man who had himself risen from the state of life which he describes. It leads us to perceive the great good which any improvement in the domestic accomplishments of the women might be expected to produce. He says,

"Children during their childhood toil throughout the day, acquiring
not the least domestic instruction to fit them for wives and mothers.
I will name one instance; and this applies to the general condition
of females doomed to, and brought up amongst, shop-work. My mother
worked in a manufactory from a very early age. She was clever and
industrious; and, moreover, she had the reputation of being virtuous.
She was regarded as an excellent match for a working man. She was
married early. She became the mother of eleven children: I am the
eldest. To the best of her ability she performed the important
duties of a wife and mother. She was lamentably deficient in
domestic knowledge; in that most important of all human instruction,
how to make the home and the fireside to possess a charm for her
husband and children, she had never received one single lesson. She
had children apace. As she recovered from her lying-in, so she went
to work, the babe being brought to her at stated times to receive
nourishment. As the family increased, so any thing like comfort
disappeared altogether. The power to make home cheerful and
comfortable was never given to her. She knew not the value of
cherishing in my father's mind a love of domestic objects. Not one
moment's happiness did I ever see under my father's roof. All this
dismal state of things I can distinctly trace to the entire and
perfect absence of all training and instruction to my mother. He
became intemperate; and his intemperance made her necessitous. She
made many efforts to abstain from shop-work; but her pecuniary
necessities forced her back into the shop. The family was large, and
every moment was required at home. I have known her, after the close
of a hard day's work, sit up nearly all night for several nights
together washing and mending of clothes. My father could have no
comfort here. These domestic obligations, which in a well-regulated
house (even in that of a working man, where there are prudence and
good management) would be done so as not to annoy the husband, to my
father were a source of annoyance; and he, from an ignorant and
mistaken notion, sought comfort in an alehouse.

"My mother's ignorance of household duties; my father's consequent
irritability and intemperance; the frightful poverty; the constant
quarrelling; the pernicious example to my brothers and sisters; the
bad effect upon the future conduct of my brothers; one and all of us
being forced out to work so young that our feeble earnings would
produce only 1_s._ a-week; cold and hunger, and the innumerable
sufferings of my childhood, crowd upon my mind and overpower me.
They keep alive a deep anxiety for the emancipation of the thousands
of families in this great town and neighbourhood, who are in a
similar state of horrible misery. My own experience tells me that
the instruction of the females in the work of a house, in teaching
them to produce cheerfulness and comfort at the fireside, would
prevent a great amount of misery and crime. There would be fewer
drunken husbands and disobedient children. As a working man, within
my own observation, female education is disgracefully neglected. I
attach more importance to it than to any thing else."

This evidence is the more significant, because, one sees that the poor woman had the material of character out of which the most engaging qualities might have been formed. Let her have seen better things in early life, and even if her schooling had been somewhat deficient, had she but enjoyed the advantage of such social intercourse with her betters as we are now considering, that poor woman might have been a source of joy and hope to her family, instead of a centre of repulsion.

Dr. Cooke Taylor, in his "Tour in the Manufacturing Districts," has given a table, which I subjoin, "showing the degree of instruction, age, and sex; of the persons taken into custody, summarily convicted, or held to bail, and tried and convicted, in Manchester, in the year 1841." The table was formed on statistical details furnished by Sir Charles Shaw. It shows a state of facts which has been deduced from other tables of a like nature, but the facts are of such moment, that they can hardly be kept too much in mind; especially when we consider that there are large towns in which, as I have said before, half at least of the juvenile population is growing up without education of any kind whatever. {147} If such are the favourable results even of that small and superficial education, which by the way I would rather call instruction than education, described in the second and third headings of the table, what may we not expect from a training where the youth or maiden finds in her employers not only instructors, but friends and occasional companions? What store of labour on the part of judges, jailors, and policemen, must be saved by even a few of such employers.

TOTAL IN THE YEAR 1841. Degree of Instruction

1. Neither Read nor 2. Read only or 3. Read and Write 4. Superior
Write. Read & Write well. Instruction.
imperfectly.

M. & F. Male. Fem. Male. Fem. Male. Fem. Male. Fem. Male. Fem.

1st Class Taken into 13345 9925 3420 4901 2070 3944 1218 873 119 207 13
Custody

2nd Class Summarily 2138 1661 447 795 265 660 198 193 14 13 . .
Convicted or
held to Bail

3rd Class Tried and 24 645 179 277 100 276 72 82 7 10 . .
Convicted

AGES.

Under 10 10 Years, & 15 Years, & 20 Years, & 25 Years, & 30 Years, & 40 Years, & 50 Years & 60 Years, &
Years of age. under 15. under 20. under 25. under 30. under 40. under 50. under 60. upwards.

Male. Fem. Male. Fem. Male. Fem. Male. Fem. Male. Fem. Male. Fem. Male. Fem. Male. Fem. Male. Fem.

1st 62 6 681 83 1581 656 2425 909 1805 755 1775 582 1018 284 422 85 156 60 Class

2nd 4 . . 151 17 302 84 418 150 264 93 327 75 129 39 49 14 17 5 Class

3rd . . . . 30 2 150 54 196 61 97 21 109 25 43 11 15 3 5 2 Class

Some persons may object to encouraging anything like refinement amongst the operatives; and others, who would hardly object in open terms, find it difficult to reconcile themselves to the idea of it. Whatever there is in this repugnance that arises from any selfish motive should be instantly cast aside. Do not let us be meanly afraid that the classes below us will tread too closely on our heels. What a disgrace it is, if, with our much larger opportunities of leisure, with professions that demand a perpetual exercise of the intellectual faculties, we cannot preserve, on the average, an intellectual superiority fully equivalent to the difference of rank and station. Let the vast tracts now left barren smile with cultivation: the happier lands, which the rivers of civilization have enriched for ages, will still maintain their supremacy. And remember this, that every insight you give the humbler classes into the vast expanse of knowledge, you give them the means of estimating with a deference founded on reason, those persons who do possess knowledge of any kind. Let us have faith that knowledge must in the long run lead to good; and let us not fancy that our prosperity as a class depends upon the ignorance of those beneath us. Has not our partial enlightenment taught us in some measure to be reconciled to the fact of there being classes above us? And why should we fear that knowledge, which smoothes so many of the rugged things in life, should be found unavailing to soften the inequalities of social distinction? It is the ignorant barbarians who can pluck the Roman Senate by the beard; and who, in the depth of savageness, can see nothing in sex, age, station, or office, to demand their veneration. Make the men around you more rational, more instructed, more helpful, more hopeful creatures if you can; above all things treat them justly: and I think you may put aside any apprehension of disturbing the economy of the various orders of the state. And if it can be so disturbed, let it be.

What I have said above is not drawn from airy fancies of my own. Such things as I have suggested, have been done. I could mention one man, who might not, however, thank me for naming him, who has devoted himself to the social improvement of his working people: and, without such an example, I should never, perhaps, have thought of, or ventured to put forward, the above suggestions with respect to the social intercourse between masters and men. It is the same benevolent manufacturer from whose letters to Mr. Horner I have made extracts before. The general system on which he has acted may be best explained in his own words. "In all plans for the education of the labouring classes my object would be _not to raise any individuals among them above their condition_, _but to elevate the condition itself_. For I am not one of those who think that the highest ambition of a working man should be to rise above the station in which Providence has placed him, or that he should be taught to believe that because the humblest, it is therefore the least happy and desirable condition of humanity. This is, indeed, a very common notion among the working classes of the people, and a very natural one; and it has been encouraged by many of their superiors, who have interested themselves in the cause of popular improvement, and have undertaken to direct and stimulate their exertions. Examples have constantly been held up of men who by unusual ability and proficiency in some branch of science had raised themselves above the condition of their birth, and risen to eminence and wealth; and these instances have been dwelt upon and repeated, in a manner, that, whether intentionally or not, produces the impression that positive and scientific knowledge is the summum bonum of human education, and that to rise above our station in life, should be the great object of our exertion. This is not my creed. I am satisfied that it is an erroneous one, in _any_ system of education for _any_ class of men. Our object ought to be, not to produce a few clever individuals, distinguished above their fellows by their comparative superiority, but to make the great mass of individuals on whom we are operating, virtuous, sensible, well-informed, and well-bred men." And again he states that his object is "to show to his people and to others, that there is nothing in the nature of their employment, or in the condition of their humble lot, that condemns them to be rough, vulgar, ignorant, miserable, or poor:--that there is nothing in either that forbids them to be well-bred--well-informed, well-mannered--and surrounded by every comfort and enjoyment that can make life happy;--in short, to ascertain and to prove what the condition of this class of people might be made--what _it ought to be_ made--what is the interest of all parties that _it should be_ made."

* * * * *

Before concluding this chapter, I must say a few more words on the general subject of interference. No one can be more averse than I am to unnecessary interference, or more ready to perceive the many evils which attend it. There is, however, the danger of carrying non-interference into inhumanity. Mankind are so accustomed to the idea that government mainly consists in coercion, that they sometimes find it difficult to consider interference, even as applied to benevolent undertakings, and for social government, in any other than a bad light. But take the rule of a father, which is the type of all good government, that under which the divine jurisdiction has been graciously expressed to us. Consider how a wise father will act as regards interference. His anxiety will not be to drag his child along, undeviatingly, in the wake of his own experience; but rather, to endue him with that knowledge of the chart and compass, and that habitual observation of the stars, which will enable the child, himself, to steer safely over the great waters. Such a father will not be unreasonably solicitous to assimilate his son's character or purposes to his own. He will not fall into the error of supposing that experience is altogether a transferable commodity. The greatest good which he designs for his son will, perhaps, be that which he can give him indirectly, and which he may never speak to the youth about. He will seek to surround him with good opportunities and favourable means: and even when he interferes more directly, he will endeavour, in the first instance, to lead rather than to compel, so that some room for choice may still be left. Not thinking that his own power, his own dignity, his own advantage are the chief objects for him to look to, his imagination will often be with those whom he rules; and he will thus be able to look at his own conduct with their eyes, not with his. This, alone, will keep him from a multiplicity of errors. Now the same principles, actuated by the same kind of love, should be at the bottom of all social government. I believe that we shall be better able in practice to place wise limits to interference by regulating and enlightening the animus which prompts it, than by laying down rules for its action determined upon abstract considerations. The attempt to fix such rules is not to be despised; but if the persons, or society, about to interfere on any occasion, desired a good object from right motives, I think they would have the best chance of keeping themselves from using wrong means. In many cases, an unwise interference takes place from a partial apprehension of the good to be aimed at: enlarge and exalt the object; let it not be one-sided; and probably the mode of attaining it will partake largely of the wisdom shown in the choice of it. If, for instance, a government saw that it had to encourage, not only judicious physical arrangements, but mental and moral development, amongst those whom it governs, it would be very cautious of suppressing, or interfering with, any good thing which the people would accomplish for themselves. The same with a private individual, an employer of labour for instance, if he values the independence of character and action in those whom he employs, he will be careful in all his benevolent measures, to leave room for their energy to work. What does he want to produce? Something vital, not something mechanical. It is often a deficiency of benevolence, and not an overflow, that makes people interfering in a bad sense. Frequently the same spirit which would make a man a tyrant in government, would make him a busy-body, a meddler, or a pedantic formalist, in the relations of ordinary life. I have taken the instance of father and son, which might be supposed by many as one in which extreme interference was not only justifiable, but requisite. In stating how necessary it is even there to be very careful as regards the extent and mode of interference, I leave my readers to estimate how essential it must be in all other cases where the relation is not of that closely connected character. I believe that the parental relation will be found the best model on which to form the duties of the employer to the employed; calling, as it does, for active exertion, requiring the most watchful tenderness, and yet limited by the strictest rules of prudence from intrenching on that freedom of thought and action which is necessary for all spontaneous development.