WHEN ENGLAND WAS NOT MERRIE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17181, 26 October 1923, Page 7

WHEN ENGLAND WAS NOT MERRIE.

THE DAYS BEFORE THE FACTORY ACTS. HUMANITARIAN COURAGE OF LORD SHAFTESBURY. There is a terrible picture of the social conditions that existed in England Lin early Victorian days in Mr and Mrs J. L. Hammond's “ Lord Shaftesbury.’ ’ Lord Shaftesbury will always live in English history as the author of the Factory Acts which regulated the hours of work for women and young children, fixed the minimum ago at which children could be cmpolyed, and prevented certain debasing employments altogether. In 1831 a Committee of the House of Commons investigated industrial conditions in the North. T H REE DA U GHTER S. The evidence before it makes as- ! tounding reading. For example:— i A tailor at Stanningly, Samuel Coulson, who had three daughters in the mill, described the life of his household when the mill was busy. In the ordinary time the hours were from six in the morning to half-past eight at night : in the brisk time, for six weeks in the year, these girls, the youngest of them “ going eight.” worked from three in the morning to ten or half- : past ten at night. What was the length of time they could be in bed during those long hours?” ”It was near eleven o’clock before we could get them into bed after getting a little victuals, and then at morning my mistress used to stop up all night, for fear that we could not get them ready . for tho time ; sometimes we have gone to bed and one of us generally awoke.” " Were the children excessively fatigued by this labour?” c Many times; we have cried often when we have given them the little victualling we had to give them ; we had to shake them, and they have fallen asleep with the victuals in their mouths many a time.” IN THE MINES. Bad as the conditions were in the . mills, they were worse still in the j mines: — In every district except North Staffordshire, where the younger children were needed in the Potteries, the em- ' pldyment of children of seven was comi mon; in many pits children were emi ployed at six, in some at five, and in [• one case a child of three was found to be employed. Even babies were sometimes taken down, into the pits to keep the vats from their father's food. The youngest children were employed a:; trappers; that is. they were in charge of the doors in the galleries, on the opening and closing of which I tho gaiety of the mine depended. For I tho ventilation cf the mine was contrived on a simple principle ; there were two shafts, one on the downcast, the other the upcast. A fire was lighted at the foot of the upcast to drive the air up the shaft, and air was sucked drown through tho downcast to fill the vacuum. This air was conducted by means of a series of doors through all the workings of the mine on its passage to the upcast, and these doors were in the charge of a little boy or girl, who sat in a small hole, with a string in his or her hand, in darkness and solitude for twelve hours or longer at a time. Women were employed, like the children. to push, or, to use the Yorkshire term, to “Jiurry” the corves of coal. Tney did not as a. rule compete with tne men as hewers, though women hewers were not quite unknown. They were hired by the men, and were content with smaller wages than men wanted. Y\ itnesse.s described their emulous spirit. Harnessed like a horse to a. coal carriage, a woman I would show all a horse's determination to keep ahead of her rivals. On the other hand they were obedient to their masters, and easy to manage. In Scotland, women and children were also used to carry coal in baskets on their backs up steep ladders and along the passages from the workings to the pitbottom. in some cases girls of six were found carrying scwt of coal. A FIFTEEN-HOUR DAY. Tne length of the working day was inhuman, and it is difficult for us to - imagine how grown men, to say nothj hig of women and children, were able to endure the, strain : j Mr Horner, in 1849, stated that in his district 114 mills were working young persons and women by relays! “Th general the time of working is extended to thirteen and a half hours, from 6 a.m. to 7.30 p.m.. with an hour and a half off for meals: but in some instances it amounts to fifteen hours, from 6.30 a.m. to 8.30 p.m.. with the To these long working hours were often added a considerable journey at the beginning and end of the day. Children lived in the fountry and worked in the towns. Lord Shaftesbury gave one glaring example to & Commission which sat in 1867 : He gave as an illustration of the hardships inflicted on children the case of Hannah and Sarah Adams, aged eleven and thirteen, who worked for six weeks at Peterborough. Their home was eight miles away, so that they walked sixteen miles a day. Their j hours of work wore from 8 a.m. to 5 or 6.30 p.m. A vounger sister. Susan, i aged six. had worked with them at one | time, hut her strength had given out. I THE CHIMNfeY-SWEEP’S BOY. Of all the unhappy children in early Victorian days the chimnev sweep's hoy was perhaps the most unhappy - The mischief went on till public opinion was shocked bv a terrible case at Manchester, in 1847. in which a master sweep. John Gordon, was tried for the death cf a hov of seven, named Thomas Price. The child was forced to go, for the second time, into a hot flue at- Messrs Tennant’s chemical works ; lie s'reamed ancf sobbed, but in vain, for the master declared ‘ the young devil is foxing.” Finally. he was taken out half asphyxiated, thrown on straw, and cruelly beaten in the hope that he might he beaten back to consciousness. Soon after lie died in convulsions. A medical witness found that death was duo to convulsions produced by suffocation. and that there were severe , bruises.