diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17306-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 281215 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17306-h/17306-h.htm | 11479 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17306.txt | 11360 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 17306.zip | bin | 0 -> 270093 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
7 files changed, 22855 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/17306-h.zip b/17306-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..be3e887 --- /dev/null +++ b/17306-h.zip diff --git a/17306-h/17306-h.htm b/17306-h/17306-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ec7dea4 --- /dev/null +++ b/17306-h/17306-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,11479 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4 { + text-align: left; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + color: gray;} + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844, by Frederick Engels</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Condition of the Working-Class in England +in 1844, by Frederick Engels, Translated by Florence Kelley Wischnewetzky + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844 + with a Preface written in 1892 + + +Author: Frederick Engels + + + +Release Date: December 13, 2005 [eBook #17306] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING-CLASS +IN ENGLAND IN 1844*** +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>Transcribed from the January 1943 George Allen & Unwin reprint +of the March 1892 edition by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk</p> +<h1>The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844<br /> +With a Preface written in 1892</h1> +<p>by<br /> +FREDERICK ENGELS</p> +<p><i>Translated by Florence Kelley Wischnewetzky</i></p> +<p><i>London</i></p> +<p>GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD</p> +<p><i>Museum Street</i></p> +<h2><!-- page v--><a name="pagev"></a><span class="pagenum">p. v</span>PREFACE</h2> +<p>The book, an English translation of which is here republished, was +first issued in Germany in 1845. The author, at that time, was +young, twenty-four years of age, and his production bears the stamp +of his youth with its good and its faulty features, of neither of which +he feels ashamed. It was translated into English, in 1885, by +an American lady, Mrs. F. Kelley Wischnewetzky, and published in the +following year in New York. The American edition being as good +as exhausted, and having never been extensively circulated on this side +of the Atlantic, the present English copyright edition is brought out +with the full consent of all parties interested.</p> +<p>For the American edition, a new Preface and an Appendix were written +in English by the author. The first had little to do with the +book itself; it discussed the American Working-Class Movement of the +day, and is, therefore, here omitted as irrelevant, the second—the +original preface—is largely made use of in the present introductory +remarks.</p> +<p>The state of things described in this book belongs to-day, in many +respects, to the past, as far as England is concerned. Though +not expressly stated in our recognised treatises, it is still a law +of modern Political Economy that the larger the scale on which Capitalistic +Production is carried on, the less can it support the petty devices +of swindling and pilfering which characterise its early stages. +The pettifogging business tricks of the Polish Jew, the representative +in Europe of commerce in its lowest stage, those tricks that serve him +so well in his own country, and are generally practised there, he finds +to be out of date and out of place when he comes to Hamburg or Berlin; +and, again, the commission <!-- page vi--><a name="pagevi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. vi</span>agent, +who hails from Berlin or Hamburg, Jew or Christian, after frequenting +the Manchester Exchange for a few months, finds out that, in order to +buy cotton yarn or cloth cheap, he, too, had better drop those slightly +more refined but still miserable wiles and subterfuges which are considered +the acme of cleverness in his native country. The fact is, those +tricks do not pay any longer in a large market, where time is money, +and where a certain standard of commercial morality is unavoidably developed, +purely as a means of saving time and trouble. And it is the same +with the relation between the manufacturer and his “hands.”</p> +<p>The revival of trade, after the crisis of 1847, was the dawn of a +new industrial epoch. The repeal of the Corn Laws and the financial +reforms subsequent thereon gave to English industry and commerce all +the elbow-room they had asked for. The discovery of the Californian +and Australian gold-fields followed in rapid succession. The Colonial +markets developed at an increasing rate their capacity for absorbing +English manufactured goods. In India millions of hand-weavers +were finally crushed out by the Lancashire power-loom. China was +more and more being opened up. Above all, the United States—then, +commercially speaking, a mere colonial market, but by far the biggest +of them all—underwent an economic development astounding even +for that rapidly progressive country. And, finally, the new means +of communication introduced at the close of the preceding period—railways +and ocean steamers—were now worked out on an international scale; +they realised actually, what had hitherto existed only potentially, +a world-market. This world-market, at first, was composed of a +number of chiefly or entirely agricultural countries grouped around +one manufacturing centre—England—which consumed the greater +part of their surplus raw produce, and supplied them in return with +the greater part of their requirements in manufactured articles. +No wonder England’s industrial progress was colossal and unparalleled, +and such that the status of 1844 now appears to us as comparatively +primitive and insignificant. And in proportion as this increase +took place, in the same proportion did manufacturing industry become +apparently <!-- page vii--><a name="pagevii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. vii</span>moralised. +The competition of manufacturer against manufacturer by means of petty +thefts upon the workpeople did no longer pay. Trade had outgrown +such low means of making money; they were not worth while practising +for the manufacturing millionaire, and served merely to keep alive the +competition of smaller traders, thankful to pick up a penny wherever +they could. Thus the truck system was suppressed, the Ten Hours’ +Bill was enacted, and a number of other secondary reforms introduced—much +against the spirit of Free Trade and unbridled competition, but quite +as much in favour of the giant-capitalist in his competition with his +less favoured brother. Moreover, the larger the concern, and with +it the number of hands, the greater the loss and inconvenience caused +by every conflict between master and men; and thus a new spirit came +over the masters, especially the large ones, which taught them to avoid +unnecessary squabbles, to acquiesce in the existence and power of Trades’ +Unions, and finally even to discover in strikes—at opportune times—a +powerful means to serve their own ends. The largest manufacturers, +formerly the leaders of the war against the working-class, were now +the foremost to preach peace and harmony. And for a very good +reason. The fact is, that all these concessions to justice and +philanthropy were nothing else but means to accelerate the concentration +of capital in the hands of the few, for whom the niggardly extra extortions +of former years had lost all importance and had become actual nuisances; +and to crush all the quicker and all the safer their smaller competitors, +who could not make both ends meet without such perquisites. Thus +the development of production on the basis of the capitalistic system +has of itself sufficed—at least in the leading industries, for +in the more unimportant branches this is far from being the case—to +do away with all those minor grievances which aggravated the workman’s +fate during its earlier stages. And thus it renders more and more +evident the great central fact, that the cause of the miserable condition +of the working-class is to be sought, not in these minor grievances, +but <i>in the Capitalistic System itself</i>. The wage-worker +sells to the capitalist his labour-force for a certain daily sum. +After a <!-- page viii--><a name="pageviii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. viii</span>few +hours’ work he has reproduced the value of that sum; but the substance +of his contract is, that he has to work another series of hours to complete +his working-day; and the value he produces during these additional hours +of surplus labour is surplus value, which cost the capitalist nothing, +but yet goes into his pocket. That is the basis of the system +which tends more and more to split up civilised society into a few Rothschilds +and Vanderbilts, the owners of all the means of production and subsistence, +on the one hand, and an immense number of wage-workers, the owners of +nothing but their labour-force, on the other. And that this result +is caused, not by this or that secondary grievance, but by the system +itself—this fact has been brought out in bold relief by the development +of Capitalism in England since 1847.</p> +<p>Again, the repeated visitations of cholera, typhus, smallpox, and +other epidemics have shown the British bourgeois the urgent necessity +of sanitation in his towns and cities, if he wishes to save himself +and family from falling victims to such diseases. Accordingly, +the most crying abuses described in this book have either disappeared +or have been made less conspicuous. Drainage has been introduced +or improved, wide avenues have been opened out athwart many of the worst +“slums” I had to describe. “Little Ireland” +has disappeared, and the “Seven Dials” are next on the list +for sweeping away. But what of that? Whole districts which +in 1844 I could describe as almost idyllic, have now, with the growth +of the towns, fallen into the same state of dilapidation, discomfort, +and misery. Only the pigs and the heaps of refuse are no longer +tolerated. The bourgeoisie have made further progress in the art +of hiding the distress of the working-class. But that, in regard +to their dwellings, no substantial improvement has taken place, is amply +proved by the Report of the Royal Commission “on the Housing of +the Poor,” 1885. And this is the case, too, in other respects. +Police regulations have been plentiful as blackberries; but they can +only hedge in the distress of the workers, they cannot remove it.</p> +<p>But while England has thus outgrown the juvenile state of capitalist +exploitation described by me, other countries have only <!-- page ix--><a name="pageix"></a><span class="pagenum">p. ix</span>just +attained it. France, Germany, and especially America, are the +formidable competitors who, at this moment—as foreseen by me in +1844—are more and more breaking up England’s industrial +monopoly. Their manufactures are young as compared with those +of England, but increasing at a far more rapid rate than the latter; +and, curious enough, they have at this moment arrived at about the same +phase of development as English manufacture in 1844. With regard +to America, the parallel is indeed most striking. True, the external +surroundings in which the working-class is placed in America are very +different, but the same economical laws are at work, and the results, +if not identical in every respect, must still be of the same order. +Hence we find in America the same struggles for a shorter working-day, +for a legal limitation of the working-time, especially of women and +children in factories; we find the truck-system in full blossom, and +the cottage-system, in rural districts, made use of by the “bosses” +as a means of domination over the workers. When I received, in +1886, the American papers with accounts of the great strike of 12,000 +Pennsylvanian coal-miners in the Connellsville district, I seemed but +to read my own description of the North of England colliers’ strike +of 1844. The same cheating of the workpeople by false measure; +the same truck-system; the same attempt to break the miners’ resistance +by the capitalists’ last, but crushing, resource,—the eviction +of the men out of their dwellings, the cottages owned by the companies.</p> +<p>I have not attempted, in this translation, to bring the book up to +date, or to point out in detail all the changes that have taken place +since 1844. And for two reasons: Firstly, to do this properly, +the size of the book must be about doubled; and, secondly, the first +volume of “Das Kapital,” by Karl Marx, an English translation +of which is before the public, contains a very ample description of +the state of the British working-class, as it was about 1865, that is +to say, at the time when British industrial prosperity reached its culminating +point. I should, then, have been obliged again to go over the +ground already covered by Marx’s celebrated work.</p> +<p><!-- page x--><a name="pagex"></a><span class="pagenum">p. x</span>It +will be hardly necessary to point out that the general theoretical standpoint +of this book—philosophical, economical, political—does not +exactly coincide with my standpoint of to-day. Modern international +Socialism, since fully developed as a science, chiefly and almost exclusively +through the efforts of Marx, did not as yet exist in 1844. My +book represents one of the phases of its embryonic development; and +as the human embryo, in its early stages, still reproduces the gill-arches +of our fish-ancestors, so this book exhibits everywhere the traces of +the descent of modern Socialism from one of its ancestors,—German +philosophy. Thus great stress is laid on the dictum that Communism +is not a mere party doctrine of the working-class, but a theory compassing +the emancipation of society at large, including the capitalist class, +from its present narrow conditions. This is true enough in the +abstract, but absolutely useless, and sometimes worse, in practice. +So long as the wealthy classes not only do not feel the want of any +emancipation, but strenuously oppose the self-emancipation of the working-class, +so long the social revolution will have to be prepared and fought out +by the working-class alone. The French bourgeois of 1789, too, +declared the emancipation of the bourgeoisie to be the emancipation +of the whole human race; but the nobility and clergy would not see it; +the proposition—though for the time being, with respect to feudalism, +an abstract historical truth—soon became a mere sentimentalism, +and disappeared from view altogether in the fire of the revolutionary +struggle. And to-day, the very people who, from the “impartiality” +of their superior standpoint, preach to the workers a Socialism soaring +high above their class interests and class struggles, and tending to +reconcile in a higher humanity the interests of both the contending +classes—these people are either neophytes, who have still to learn +a great deal, or they are the worst enemies of the workers,—wolves +in sheeps’ clothing.</p> +<p>The recurring period of the great industrial crisis is stated in +the text as five years. This was the period apparently indicated +by the course of events from 1825 to 1842. But the industrial +history from 1842 to 1868 has shown that the real period is one <!-- page xi--><a name="pagexi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xi</span>of +ten years; that the intermediate revulsions were secondary, and tended +more and more to disappear. Since 1868 the state of things has +changed again, of which more anon.</p> +<p>I have taken care not to strike out of the text the many prophecies, +amongst others that of an imminent social revolution in England, which +my youthful ardour induced me to venture upon. The wonder is, +not that a good many of them proved wrong, but that so many of them +have proved right, and that the critical state of English trade, to +be brought on by Continental and especially American competition, which +I then foresaw—though in too short a period—has now actually +come to pass. In this respect I can, and am bound to, bring the +book up to date, by placing here an article which I published in the +<i>London Commonweal</i> of March 1, 1885, under the heading: “England +in 1845 and in 1885.” It gives at the same time a short +outline of the history of the English working-class during these forty +years, and is as follows:</p> +<blockquote><p>“Forty years ago England stood face to face with +a crisis, solvable to all appearances by force only. The immense +and rapid development of manufactures had outstripped the extension +of foreign markets and the increase of demand. Every ten years +the march of industry was violently interrupted by a general commercial +crash, followed, after a long period of chronic depression, by a few +short years of prosperity, and always ending in feverish over-production +and consequent renewed collapse. The capitalist class clamoured +for Free Trade in corn, and threatened to enforce it by sending the +starving population of the towns back to the country districts whence +they came, to invade them, as John Bright said, not as paupers begging +for bread, but as an army quartered upon the enemy. The working +masses of the towns demanded their share of political power—the +People’s Charter; they were supported by the majority of the small +trading class, and the only difference between the two was whether the +Charter should be carried by physical or by moral force. Then +came the commercial crash of 1847 and the Irish famine, and with both +the prospect of revolution</p> +<p><!-- page xii--><a name="pagexii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xii</span>“The +French Revolution of 1848 saved the English middle-class. The +Socialistic pronunciamentos of the victorious French workmen frightened +the small middle-class of England and disorganised the narrower, but +more matter-of-fact movement of the English working-class. At +the very moment when Chartism was bound to assert itself in its full +strength, it collapsed internally, before even it collapsed externally +on the 10th of April, 1848. The action of the working-class was +thrust into the background. The capitalist class triumphed along +the whole line.</p> +<p>“The Reform Bill of 1831 had been the victory of the whole +capitalist class over the landed aristocracy. The repeal of the +Corn Laws was the victory of the manufacturing capitalist not only over +the landed aristocracy, but over those sections of capitalists, too, +whose interests were more or less bound up with the landed interest,—bankers, +stock-jobbers, fund-holders, etc. Free Trade meant the re-adjustment +of the whole home and foreign, commercial and financial policy of England +in accordance with the interests of the manufacturing capitalists—the +class which now represented the nation. And they set about this +task with a will. Every obstacle to industrial production was +mercilessly removed. The tariff and the whole system of taxation +were revolutionised. Everything was made subordinate to one end, +but that end of the utmost importance to the manufacturing capitalist: +the cheapening of all raw produce, and especially of the means of living +of the working-class; the reduction of the cost of raw material, and +the keeping down—if not as yet the <i>bringing down</i>—of +wages. England was to become the ‘workshop of the world;’ +all other countries were to become for England what Ireland already +was,—markets for her manufactured goods, supplying her in return +with raw materials and food. England the great manufacturing centre +of an agricultural world, with an ever-increasing number of corn and +cotton-growing Irelands revolving around her, the industrial sun. +What a glorious prospect!</p> +<p>“The manufacturing capitalists set about the realisation of +this their great object with that strong common sense and that contempt +for traditional principles which has ever distinguished <!-- page xiii--><a name="pagexiii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xiii</span>them +from their more narrow-minded compeers on the Continent. Chartism +was dying out. The revival of commercial prosperity, natural after +the revulsion of 1847 had spent itself, was put down altogether to the +credit of Free Trade. Both these circumstances had turned the +English working-class, politically, into the tail of the ‘great +Liberal party,’ the party led by the manufacturers. This +advantage, once gained, had to be perpetuated. And the manufacturing +capitalists, from the Chartist opposition, not to Free Trade, but to +the transformation of Free Trade into the one vital national question, +had learnt, and were learning more and more, that the middle-class can +never obtain full social and political power over the nation except +by the help of the working-class. Thus a gradual change came over +the relations between both classes. The Factory Acts, once the +bugbear of all manufacturers, were not only willingly submitted to, +but their expansion into acts regulating almost all trades, was tolerated. +Trades’ Unions, hitherto considered inventions of the devil himself, +were now petted and patronised as perfectly legitimate institutions, +and as useful means of spreading sound economical doctrines amongst +the workers. Even strikes, than which nothing had been more nefarious +up to 1848, were now gradually found out to be occasionally very useful, +especially when provoked by the masters themselves, at their own time. +Of the legal enactments, placing the workman at a lower level or at +a disadvantage with regard to the master, at least the most revolting +were repealed. And, practically, that horrid ‘People’s +Charter’ actually became the political programme of the very manufacturers +who had opposed it to the last. ‘The Abolition of the Property +Qualification’ and ‘Vote by Ballot’ are now the law +of the land. The Reform Acts of 1867 and 1884 make a near approach +to ‘universal suffrage,’ at least such as it now exists +in Germany; the Redistribution Bill now before Parliament creates ‘equal +electoral districts’—on the whole not more unequal than +those of Germany; ‘payment of members,’ and shorter, if +not actually ‘annual Parliaments,’ are visibly looming in +the distance—and yet there are people who say that Chartism is +dead.</p> +<p><!-- page xiv--><a name="pagexiv"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xiv</span>“The +Revolution of 1848, not less than many of its predecessors, has had +strange bedfellows and successors. The very people who put it +down have become, as Karl Marx used to say, its testamentary executors. +Louis Napoleon had to create an independent and united Italy, Bismarck +had to revolutionise Germany and to restore Hungarian independence, +and the English manufacturers had to enact the People’s Charter.</p> +<p>“For England, the effects of this domination of the manufacturing +capitalists were at first startling. Trade revived and extended +to a degree unheard of even in this cradle of modern industry; the previous +astounding creations of steam and machinery dwindled into nothing compared +with the immense mass of productions of the twenty years from 1850 to +1870, with the overwhelming figures of exports and imports, of wealth +accumulated in the hands of capitalists and of human working power concentrated +in the large towns. The progress was indeed interrupted, as before, +by a crisis every ten years, in 1857 as well as in 1866; but these revulsions +were now considered as natural, inevitable events, which must be fatalistically +submitted to, and which always set themselves right in the end.</p> +<p>“And the condition of the working-class during this period? +There was temporary improvement even for the great mass. But this +improvement always was reduced to the old level by the influx of the +great body of the unemployed reserve, by the constant superseding of +bands by new machinery, by the immigration of the agricultural population, +now, too, more and more superseded by machines.</p> +<p>“A permanent improvement can be recognised for two ‘protected’ +sections only of the working-class. Firstly, the factory hands. +The fixing by Act of Parliament of their working-day within relatively +rational limits has restored their physical constitution and endowed +them with a moral superiority, enhanced by their local concentration. +They are undoubtedly better off than before 1848. The best proof +is that, out of ten strikes they make, nine are provoked by the manufacturers +in their own interests, as the only means of securing a reduced production. +<!-- page xv--><a name="pagexv"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xv</span>You +can never get the masters to agree to work ‘short time,’ +let manufactured goods be ever so unsaleable; but get the workpeople +to strike, and the masters shut their factories to a man.</p> +<p>“Secondly, the great Trades’ Unions. They are the +organisations of those trades in which the labour of <i>grown-up men</i> +predominates, or is alone applicable. Here the competition neither +of women and children nor of machinery has so far weakened their organised +strength. The engineers, the carpenters, and joiners, the bricklayers, +are each of them a power, to that extent that, as in the case of the +bricklayers and bricklayers’ labourers, they can even successfully +resist the introduction of machinery. That their condition has +remarkably improved since 1848 there can be no doubt, and the best proof +of this is in the fact, that for more than fifteen years not only have +their employers been with them, but they with their employers, upon +exceedingly good terms. They form an aristocracy among the working-class; +they have succeeded in enforcing for themselves a relatively comfortable +position, and they accept it as final. They are the model working-men +of Messrs. Leone Levi & Giffen, and they are very nice people indeed +nowadays to deal with, for any sensible capitalist in particular and +for the whole capitalist class in general.</p> +<p>“But as to the great mass of working-people, the state of misery +and insecurity in which they live now is as low as ever, if not lower. +The East End of London is an everspreading pool of stagnant misery and +desolation, of starvation when out of work, and degradation, physical +and moral, when in work. And so in all other large towns—abstraction +made of the privileged minority of the workers; and so in the smaller +towns and in the agricultural districts. The law which reduces +the <i>value</i> of labour-power to the value of the necessary means +of subsistence, and the other law which reduces its <i>average price</i>, +as a rule, to the minimum of those means of subsistence, these laws +act upon them with the irresistible force of an automatic engine, which +crushes them between its wheels.</p> +<p>“This, then, was the position created by the Free Trade policy +of 1847, and by twenty years of the rule of the manufacturing <!-- page xvi--><a name="pagexvi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xvi</span>capitalists. +But, then, a change came. The crash of 1866 was, indeed, followed +by a slight and short revival about 1873; but that did not last. +We did not, indeed, pass through the full crisis at the time it was +due, in 1877 or 1878; but we have had, ever since 1876, a chronic state +of stagnation in all dominant branches of industry. Neither will +the full crash come; nor will the period of longed-for prosperity to +which we used to be entitled before and after it. A dull depression, +a chronic glut of all markets for all trades, that is what we have been +living in for nearly ten years. How is this?</p> +<p>“The Free Trade theory was based upon one assumption: that +England was to be the one great manufacturing centre of an agricultural +world. And the actual fact is that this assumption has turned +out to be a pure delusion. The conditions of modern industry, +steam-power and machinery, can be established wherever there is fuel, +especially coals. And other countries beside England,—France, +Belgium, Germany, America, even Russia,—have coals. And +the people over there did not see the advantage of being turned into +Irish pauper farmers merely for the greater wealth and glory of English +capitalists. They set resolutely about manufacturing, not only +for themselves, but for the rest of the world; and the consequence is, +that the manufacturing monopoly enjoyed by England for nearly a century +is irretrievably broken up.</p> +<p>“But the manufacturing monopoly of England is the pivot of +the present social system of England. Even while that monopoly +lasted, the markets could not keep pace with the increasing productivity +of English manufacturers; the decennial crises were the consequence. +And new markets are getting scarcer every day, so much so that even +the negroes of the Congo are now to be forced into the civilisation +attendant upon Manchester calicos, Staffordshire pottery, and Birmingham +hardware. How will it be when Continental, and especially American, +goods flow in in ever-increasing quantities—when the predominating +share, still held by British manufacturers, will become reduced from +year to year? Answer, Free Trade, thou universal panacea.</p> +<p>“I am not the first to point this out. Already, in 1883, +at the <!-- page xvii--><a name="pagexvii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xvii</span>Southport +meeting of the British Association, Mr. Inglis Palgrave, the President +of the Economic section, stated plainly that ‘the days of great +trade profits in England were over, and there was a pause in the progress +of several great branches of industrial labour. <i>The country +might almost be said to be entering the non-progressive state</i>.’</p> +<p>“But what is to be the consequence? Capitalist production +<i>cannot</i> stop. It must go on increasing and expanding, or +it must die. Even now, the mere reduction of England’s lion’s +share in the supply of the world’s markets means stagnation, distress, +excess of capital here, excess of unemployed workpeople there. +What will it be when the increase of yearly production is brought to +a complete stop?</p> +<p>“Here is the vulnerable place, the heel of Achilles, for capitalistic +production. Its very basis is the necessity of constant expansion, +and this constant expansion now becomes impossible. It ends in +a deadlock. Every year England is brought nearer face to face +with the question: either the country must go to pieces, or capitalist +production must. Which is it to be?</p> +<p>“And the working-class? If even under the unparalleled +commercial and industrial expansion, from 1848 to 1866, they have had +to undergo such misery; if even then the great bulk of them experienced +at best but a temporary improvement of their condition, while only a +small, privileged, ‘protected’ minority was permanently +benefited, what will it be when this dazzling period is brought finally +to a close; when the present dreary stagnation shall not only become +intensified, but this, its intensified condition, shall become the permanent +and normal state of English trade?</p> +<p>“The truth is this: during the period of England’s industrial +monopoly the English working-class have, to a certain extent, shared +in the benefits of the monopoly. These benefits were very unequally +parcelled out amongst them; the privileged minority pocketed most, but +even the great mass had, at least, a temporary share now and then. +And that is the reason why, since the dying-out of Owenism, there has +been no Socialism in England. With the breakdown of that monopoly, +the English working-class will <!-- page xviii--><a name="pagexviii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xviii</span>lose +that privileged position; it will find itself generally—the privileged +and leading minority not excepted—on a level with its fellow-workers +abroad. And that is the reason why there will be Socialism again +in England.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>To this statement of the case, as that case appeared to me in 1885, +I have but little to add. Needless to say that to-day there is +indeed “Socialism again in England,” and plenty of it—Socialism +of all shades: Socialism conscious and unconscious, Socialism prosaic +and poetic, Socialism of the working-class and of the middle-class, +for, verily, that abomination of abominations, Socialism, has not only +become respectable, but has actually donned evening dress and lounges +lazily on drawing-room <i>causeuses</i>. That shows the incurable +fickleness of that terrible despot of “society,” middle-class +public opinion, and once more justifies the contempt in which we Socialists +of a past generation always held that public opinion. At the same +time, we have no reason to grumble at the symptom itself.</p> +<p>What I consider far more important than this momentary fashion among +bourgeois circles of affecting a mild dilution of Socialism, and even +more than the actual progress Socialism has made in England generally, +that is the revival of the East End of London. That immense haunt +of misery is no longer the stagnant pool it was six years ago. +It has shaken off its torpid despair, has returned to life, and has +become the home of what is called the “New Unionism;” that +is to say, of the organisation of the great mass of “unskilled” +workers. This organisation may to a great extent adopt the form +of the old Unions of “skilled” workers, but it is essentially +different in character. The old Unions preserve the traditions +of the time when they were founded, and look upon the wages system as +a once for all established, final fact, which they at best can modify +in the interest of their members. The new Unions were founded +at a time when the faith in the eternity of the wages system was severely +shaken; their founders and promoters were Socialists either consciously +or by feeling; the masses, whose adhesion gave them strength, were rough, +neglected, looked down upon by the working-class aristocracy; but <!-- page xix--><a name="pagexix"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xix</span>they +had this immense advantage, that <i>their minds were virgin soil</i>, +entirely free from the inherited “respectable” bourgeois +prejudices which hampered the brains of the better situated “old” +Unionists. And thus we see now these new Unions taking the lead +of the working-class movement generally, and more and more taking in +tow the rich and proud “old” Unions.</p> +<p>Undoubtedly, the East Enders have committed colossal blunders; so +have their predecessors, and so do the doctrinaire Socialists who pooh-pooh +them. A large class, like a great nation, never learns better +or quicker than by undergoing the consequences of its own mistakes. +And for all the faults committed in past, present, and future, the revival +of the East End of London remains one of the greatest and most fruitful +facts of this <i>fin de siècle</i>, and glad and proud I am to +have lived to see it.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">F. Engels</span>.<br /> +<i>January</i> 11<i>th</i>, 1892.</p> +<h2><!-- page 1--><a name="page1"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 1</span> +INTRODUCTION</h2> +<p>The history of the proletariat in England begins with the second +half of the last century, with the invention of the steam-engine and +of machinery for working cotton. These inventions gave rise, as +is well known, to an industrial revolution, a revolution which altered +the whole civil society; one, the historical importance of which is +only now beginning to be recognised. England is the classic soil +of this transformation, which was all the mightier, the more silently +it proceeded; and England is, therefore, the classic land of its chief +product also, the proletariat. Only in England can the proletariat +be studied in all its relations and from all sides.</p> +<p>We have not, here and now, to deal with the history of this revolution, +nor with its vast importance for the present and the future. Such +a delineation must be reserved for a future, more comprehensive work. +For the moment, we must limit ourselves to the little that is necessary +for understanding the facts that follow, for comprehending the present +state of the English proletariat.</p> +<p>Before the introduction of machinery, the spinning and weaving of +raw materials was carried on in the working-man’s home. +Wife and daughter spun the yarn that the father wove or that they sold, +if he did not work it up himself. These weaver families lived +in the country in the neighbourhood of the towns, and could get on fairly +well with their wages, because the home market was almost the only one, +and the crushing power of competition that <!-- page 2--><a name="page2"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 2</span>came +later, with the conquest of foreign markets and the extension of trade, +did not yet press upon wages. There was, further, a constant increase +in the demand for the home market, keeping pace with the slow increase +in population and employing all the workers; and there was also the +impossibility of vigorous competition of the workers among themselves, +consequent upon the rural dispersion of their homes. So it was +that the weaver was usually in a position to lay by something, and rent +a little piece of land, that he cultivated in his leisure hours, of +which he had as many as he chose to take, since he could weave whenever +and as long as he pleased. True, he was a bad farmer and managed +his land inefficiently, often obtaining but poor crops; nevertheless, +he was no proletarian, he had a stake in the country, he was permanently +settled, and stood one step higher in society than the English workman +of to-day.</p> +<p>So the workers vegetated throughout a passably comfortable existence, +leading a righteous and peaceful life in all piety and probity; and +their material position was far better than that of their successors. +They did not need to overwork; they did no more than they chose to do, +and yet earned what they needed. They had leisure for healthful +work in garden or field, work which, in itself, was recreation for them, +and they could take part besides in the recreations and games of their +neighbours, and all these games—bowling, cricket, football, etc., +contributed to their physical health and vigour. They were, for +the most part, strong, well-built people, in whose physique little or +no difference from that of their peasant neighbours was discoverable. +Their children grew up in the fresh country air, and, if they could +help their parents at work, it was only occasionally; while of eight +or twelve hours work for them there was no question.</p> +<p>What the moral and intellectual character of this class was may be +guessed. Shut off from the towns, which they never entered, their +yarn and woven stuff being delivered to travelling agents for payment +of wages—so shut off that old people who lived quite in the neighbourhood +of the town never went thither until they were robbed of their trade +by the introduction of machinery and obliged to look about them in the +towns for work—the weavers stood upon <!-- page 3--><a name="page3"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 3</span>the +moral and intellectual plane of the yeomen with whom they were usually +immediately connected through their little holdings. They regarded +their squire, the greatest landholder of the region, as their natural +superior; they asked advice of him, laid their small disputes before +him for settlement, and gave him all honour, as this patriarchal relation +involved. They were “respectable” people, good husbands +and fathers, led moral lives because they had no temptation to be immoral, +there being no groggeries or low houses in their vicinity, and because +the host, at whose inn they now and then quenched their thirst, was +also a respectable man, usually a large tenant farmer who took pride +in his good order, good beer, and early hours. They had their +children the whole day at home, and brought them up in obedience and +the fear of God; the patriarchal relationship remained undisturbed so +long as the children were unmarried. The young people grew up +in idyllic simplicity and intimacy with their playmates until they married; +and even though sexual intercourse before marriage almost unfailingly +took place, this happened only when the moral obligation of marriage +was recognised on both sides, and a subsequent wedding made everything +good. In short, the English industrial workers of those days lived +and thought after the fashion still to be found here and there in Germany, +in retirement and seclusion, without mental activity and without violent +fluctuations in their position in life. They could rarely read +and far more rarely write; went regularly to church, never talked politics, +never conspired, never thought, delighted in physical exercises, listened +with inherited reverence when the Bible was read, and were, in their +unquestioning humility, exceedingly well-disposed towards the “superior” +classes. But intellectually, they were dead; lived only for their +petty, private interest, for their looms and gardens, and knew nothing +of the mighty movement which, beyond their horizon, was sweeping through +mankind. They were comfortable in their silent vegetation, and +but for the industrial revolution they would never have emerged from +this existence, which, cosily romantic as it was, was nevertheless not +worthy of human beings. In truth, they were not human beings; +they were <!-- page 4--><a name="page4"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 4</span>merely +toiling machines in the service of the few aristocrats who had guided +history down to that time. The industrial revolution has simply +carried this out to its logical end by making the workers machines pure +and simple, taking from them the last trace of independent activity, +and so forcing them to think and demand a position worthy of men. +As in France politics, so in England manufacture, and the movement of +civil society in general drew into the whirl of history the last classes +which had remained sunk in apathetic indifference to the universal interests +of mankind.</p> +<p>The first invention which gave rise to a radical change in the state +of the English workers was the jenny, invented in the year 1764 by a +weaver, James Hargreaves, of Standhill, near Blackburn, in North Lancashire. +This machine was the rough beginning of the later invented mule, and +was moved by hand. Instead of one spindle like the ordinary spinning-wheel, +it carried sixteen or eighteen manipulated by a single workman. +This invention made it possible to deliver more yarn than heretofore. +Whereas, though one weaver had employed three spinners, there had never +been enough yarn, and the weaver had often been obliged to wait for +it, there was now more yarn to be had than could be woven by the available +workers. The demand for woven goods, already increasing, rose +yet more in consequence of the cheapness of these goods, which cheapness, +in turn, was the outcome of the diminished cost of producing the yarn. +More weavers were needed, and weavers’ wages rose. Now that +the weaver could earn more at his loom, he gradually abandoned his farming, +and gave his whole time to weaving. At that time a family of four +grown persons and two children (who were set to spooling) could earn, +with eight hours’ daily work, four pounds sterling in a week, +and often more if trade was good and work pressed. It happened +often enough that a single weaver earned two pounds a week at his loom. +By degrees the class of farming weavers wholly disappeared, and was +merged in the newly arising class of weavers who lived wholly upon wages, +had no property whatever, not even the pretended property of a holding, +and so became working-men, proletarians. <!-- page 5--><a name="page5"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 5</span>Moreover, +the old relation between spinner and weaver was destroyed. Hitherto, +so far as this had been possible, yarn had been spun and woven under +one roof. Now that the jenny as well as the loom required a strong +hand, men began to spin, and whole families lived by spinning, while +others laid the antiquated, superseded spinning-wheel aside; and, if +they had not means of purchasing a jenny, were forced to live upon the +wages of the father alone. Thus began with spinning and weaving +that division of labour which has since been so infinitely perfected.</p> +<p>While the industrial proletariat was thus developing with the first +still very imperfect machine, the same machine gave rise to the agricultural +proletariat. There had, hitherto, been a vast number of small +landowners, yeomen, who had vegetated in the same unthinking quiet as +their neighbours, the farming weavers. They cultivated their scraps +of land quite after the ancient and inefficient fashion of their ancestors, +and opposed every change with the obstinacy peculiar to such creatures +of habit, after remaining stationary from generation to generation. +Among them were many small holders also, not tenants in the present +sense of the word, but people who had their land handed down from their +fathers, either by hereditary lease, or by force of ancient custom, +and had hitherto held it as securely as if it had actually been their +own property. When the industrial workers withdrew from agriculture, +a great number of small holdings fell idle, and upon these the new class +of large tenants established themselves, tenants-at-will, holding fifty, +one hundred, two hundred or more acres, liable to be turned out at the +end of the year, but able by improved tillage and larger farming to +increase the yield of the land. They could sell their produce +more cheaply than the yeomen, for whom nothing remained when his farm +no longer supported him but to sell it, procure a jenny or a loom, or +take service as an agricultural labourer in the employ of a large farmer. +His inherited slowness and the inefficient methods of cultivation bequeathed +by his ancestors, and above which he could not rise, left him no alternative +when forced to compete with men who managed their holdings on sounder +principles and with all the advantages bestowed by farming <!-- page 6--><a name="page6"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 6</span>on +a large scale and the investment of capital for the improvement of the +soil.</p> +<p>Meanwhile, the industrial movement did not stop here. Single +capitalists began to set up spinning jennies in great buildings and +to use water-power for driving them, so placing themselves in a position +to diminish the number of workers, and sell their yarn more cheaply +than single spinners could do who moved their own machines by hand. +There were constant improvements in the jenny, so that machines continually +became antiquated, and must be altered or even laid aside; and though +the capitalists could hold out by the application of water-power even +with the old machinery, for the single spinner this was impossible. +And the factory system, the beginning of which was thus made, received +a fresh extension in 1767, through the spinning throstle invented by +Richard Arkwright, a barber, in Preston, in North Lancashire. +After the steam-engine, this is the most important mechanical invention +of the 18th century. It was calculated from the beginning for +mechanical motive power, and was based upon wholly new principles. +By the combination of the peculiarities of the jenny and throstle, Samuel +Crompton, of Firwood, Lancashire, contrived the mule in 1785, and as +Arkwright invented the carding engine, and preparatory (“slubbing +and roving”) frames about the same time, the factory system became +the prevailing one for the spinning of cotton. By means of trifling +modifications these machines were gradually adapted to the spinning +of flax, and so to the superseding of hand-work here, too. But +even then, the end was not yet. In the closing years of the last +century, Dr. Cartwright, a country parson, had invented the power-loom, +and about 1804 had so far perfected it, that it could successfully compete +with the hand-weaver; and all this machinery was made doubly important +by James Watt’s steam-engine, invented in 1764, and used for supplying +motive power for spinning since 1785.</p> +<p>With these inventions, since improved from year to year, the victory +of machine-work over hand-work in the chief branches of English industry +was won; and the history of the latter from that time forward simply +relates how the hand-workers have been <!-- page 7--><a name="page7"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 7</span>driven +by machinery from one position after another. The consequences +of this were, on the one hand, a rapid fall in price of all manufactured +commodities, prosperity of commerce and manufacture, the conquest of +nearly all the unprotected foreign markets, the sudden multiplication +of capital and national wealth; on the other hand, a still more rapid +multiplication of the proletariat, the destruction of all property-holding +and of all security of employment for the working-class, demoralisation, +political excitement, and all those facts so highly repugnant to Englishmen +in comfortable circumstances, which we shall have to consider in the +following pages. Having already seen what a transformation in +the social condition of the lower classes a single such clumsy machine +as the jenny had wrought, there is no cause for surprise as to that +which a complete and interdependent system of finely adjusted machinery +has brought about, machinery which receives raw material and turns out +woven goods.</p> +<p>Meanwhile, let us trace the development of English manufacture <a name="citation7"></a><a href="#footnote7">{7}</a> +somewhat more minutely, beginning with the cotton industry. In +the years 1771-1775, there were annually imported into England rather +less than 5,000,000 pounds of raw cotton; in the year 1841 there were +imported 528,000,000 pounds, and the import for 1844 will reach at least +600,000,000 pounds. In 1834 England exported 556,000,000 yards +of woven cotton goods, 76,500,000 pounds of cotton yarn, and cotton +hosiery of the value of £1,200,000. In the same year over +8,000,000 mule spindles were at work, 110,000 power and 250,000 hand-looms, +throstle spindles not included, in the service of the cotton industry; +and, according to MacCulloch’s reckoning, nearly a million and +a half human beings were supported by this branch, of whom but 220,000 +worked in the mills; the power used in these mills was steam, equivalent +to 33,000 horse-power, and water, equivalent to 11,000 horse-power. +At present these figures are far from adequate, and it may be safely +assumed that, in the year 1845, <!-- page 8--><a name="page8"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 8</span>the +power and number of the machines and the number of the workers is greater +by one-half than it was in 1834. The chief centre of this industry +is Lancashire, where it originated; it has thoroughly revolutionised +this county, converting it from an obscure, ill-cultivated swamp into +a busy, lively region, multiplying its population tenfold in eighty +years, and causing giant cities such as Liverpool and Manchester, containing +together 700,000 inhabitants, and their neighbouring towns, Bolton with +60,000, Rochdale with 75,000, Oldham with 50,000, Preston with 60,000, +Ashton and Stalybridge with 40,000, and a whole list of other manufacturing +towns to spring up as if by a magic touch. The history of South +Lancashire contains some of the greatest marvels of modern times, yet +no one ever mentions them, and all these miracles are the product of +the cotton industry. Glasgow, too, the centre for the cotton district +of Scotland, for Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire, has increased in population +from 30,000 to 300,000 since the introduction of the industry. +The hosiery manufacture of Nottingham and Derby also received one fresh +impulse from the lower price of yarn, and a second one from an improvement +of the stocking loom, by means of which two stockings could be woven +at once. The manufacture of lace, too, became an important branch +of industry after the invention of the lace machine in 1777; soon after +that date Lindley invented the point-net machine, and in 1809 Heathcote +invented the bobbin-net machine, in consequence of which the production +of lace was greatly simplified, and the demand increased proportionately +in consequence of the diminished cost, so that now, at least 200,000 +persons are supported by this industry. Its chief centres are +Nottingham, Leicester, and the West of England, Wiltshire, Devonshire, +etc. A corresponding extension has taken place in the branches +dependent upon the cotton industry, in dyeing, bleaching, and printing. +Bleaching by the application of chlorine in place of the oxygen of the +atmosphere; dyeing and printing by the rapid development of chemistry, +and printing by a series of most brilliant mechanical inventions, a +yet greater advance which, with the extension of these branches caused +by the <!-- page 9--><a name="page9"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 9</span>growth +of the cotton industry, raised them to a previously unknown degree of +prosperity.</p> +<p>The same activity manifested itself in the manufacture of wool. +This had hitherto been the leading department of English industry, but +the quantities formerly produced are as nothing in comparison with that +which is now manufactured. In 1782 the whole wool crop of the +preceding three years lay unused for want of workers, and would have +continued so to lie if the newly invented machinery had not come to +its assistance and spun it. The adaptation of this machinery to +the spinning of wool was most successfully accomplished. Then +began the same sudden development in the wool district, which we have +already seen in the cotton districts. In 1738 there were 75,000 +pieces of woollen cloth produced in the West Riding of Yorkshire; in +1817 there were 490,000 pieces, and so rapid was the extension of the +industry that in 1834, 450,000 more pieces were produced than in 1825. +In 1801, 101,000,000 pounds of wool (7,000,000 pounds of it imported) +were worked up; in 1835, 180,000,000 pounds were worked up; of which +42,000,000 pounds were imported. The principal centre of this +industry is the West Riding of Yorkshire, where, especially at Bradford, +long English wool is converted into worsted yarns, etc.; while in the +other cities, Leeds, Halifax, Huddersfield, etc., short wool is converted +into hard-spun yarn and cloth. Then come the adjacent part of +Lancashire, the region of Rochdale, where in addition to the cotton +industry much flannel is produced, and the West of England which supplies +the finest cloths. Here also the growth of population is worthy +of observation:</p> +<p>Bradford contained in 1801 29,000, and in 1831 77,000 inhabitants.</p> +<p>Halifax ,, ,, 68,000, ,, ,, 110,000 ,,</p> +<p>Huddersfield ,, ,, 15,000, ,, ,, 34,000 ,,</p> +<p>Leeds,, ,, 53,000, ,, ,, 123,000 ,,</p> +<p>And the whole West Riding 564,000, ,, ,, 980,000 ,,</p> +<p>A population which, since 1831, must have increased at least 20 to +25 per cent. further. In 1835 the spinning of wool employed in +the United Kingdom 1,313 mills, with 71,300 workers, these last being +but a small portion of the multitude who are supported <!-- page 10--><a name="page10"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 10</span>directly +or indirectly by the manufacture of wool, and excluding nearly all weavers.</p> +<p>Progress in the linen trade developed later, because the nature of +the raw material made the application of spinning machinery very difficult. +Attempts had been made in the last years of the last century in Scotland, +but the Frenchman, Girard, who introduced flax spinning in 1810, was +the first who succeeded practically, and even Girard’s machines +first attained on British soil the importance they deserved by means +of improvements which they underwent in England, and of their universal +application in Leeds, Dundee, and Belfast. From this time the +British linen trade rapidly extended. In 1814, 3,000 tons of flax +were imported; in 1833, nearly 19,000 tons of flax and 3,400 tons of +hemp. The export of Irish linen to Great Britain rose from 32,000,000 +yards in 1800 to 53,000,000 in 1825, of which a large part was re-exported. +The export of English and Scotch woven linen goods rose from 24,000,000 +yards in 1820 to 51,000,000 yards in 1833. The number of flax +spinning establishments in 1835 was 347, employing 33,000 workers, of +which one-half were in the South of Scotland, more than 60 in the West +Riding of Yorkshire, Leeds, and its environs, 25 in Belfast, Ireland, +and the rest in Dorset and Lancashire. Weaving is carried on in +the South of Scotland, here and there in England, but principally in +Ireland.</p> +<p>With like success did the English turn their attention to the manufacture +of silk. Raw material was imported from Southern Europe and Asia +ready spun, and the chief labour lay in the twisting of fine threads. +Until 1824 the heavy import duty, four shillings per pound on raw material, +greatly retarded the development of the English silk industry, while +only the markets of England and the Colonies were protected for it. +In that year the duty was reduced to one penny, and the number of mills +at once largely increased. In a single year the number of throwing +spindles rose from 780,000 to 1,180,000; and, although the commercial +crisis of 1825 crippled this branch of industry for the moment, yet +in 1827 more was produced than ever, the mechanical skill and experience +of the English having secured their twisting <!-- page 11--><a name="page11"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 11</span>machinery +the supremacy over the awkward devices of their competitors. In +1835 the British Empire possessed 263 twisting mills, employing 30,000 +workers, located chiefly in Cheshire, in Macclesfield, Congleton, and +the surrounding districts, and in Manchester and Somersetshire. +Besides these, there are numerous mills for working up waste, from which +a peculiar article known as spun silk is manufactured, with which the +English supply even the Paris and Lyons weavers. The weaving of +the silk so twisted and spun is carried on in Paisley and elsewhere +in Scotland, and in Spitalfields, London, but also in Manchester and +elsewhere. Nor is the gigantic advance achieved in English manufacture +since 1760 restricted to the production of clothing materials. +The impulse, once given, was communicated to all branches of industrial +activity, and a multitude of inventions wholly unrelated to those here +cited, received double importance from the fact that they were made +in the midst of the universal movement. But as soon as the immeasurable +importance of mechanical power was practically demonstrated, every energy +was concentrated in the effort to exploit this power in all directions, +and to exploit it in the interest of individual inventors and manufacturers; +and the demand for machinery, fuel, and materials called a mass of workers +and a number of trades into redoubled activity. The steam-engine +first gave importance to the broad coal-fields of England; the production +of machinery began now for the first time, and with it arose a new interest +in the iron mines which supplied raw material for it. The increased +consumption of wool stimulated English sheep breeding, and the growing +importation of wool, flax, and silk called forth an extension of the +British ocean carrying trade. Greatest of all was the growth of +production of iron. The rich iron deposits of the English hills +had hitherto been little developed; iron had always been smelted by +means of charcoal, which became gradually more expensive as agriculture +improved and forests were cut away. The beginning of the use of +coke in iron smelting had been made in the last century, and in 1780 +a new method was invented of converting into available wrought-iron +coke-smelted iron, which up to that time had been convertible into cast-iron +<!-- page 12--><a name="page12"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 12</span>only. +This process, known as “puddling,” consists in withdrawing +the carbon which had mixed with the iron during the process of smelting, +and opened a wholly new field for the production of English iron. +Smelting furnaces were built fifty times larger than before, the process +of smelting was simplified by the introduction of hot blasts, and iron +could thus be produced so cheaply that a multitude of objects which +had before been made of stone or wood were now made of iron.</p> +<p>In 1788, Thomas Paine, the famous democrat, built in Yorkshire the +first iron bridge, which was followed by a great number of others, so +that now nearly all bridges, especially for railroad traffic, are built +of cast-iron, while in London itself a bridge across the Thames, the +Southwark bridge, has been built of this material. Iron pillars, +supports for machinery, etc., are universally used, and since the introduction +of gas-lighting and railroads, new outlets for English iron products +are opened. Nails and screws gradually came to be made by machinery. +Huntsman, a Sheffielder, discovered in 1790 a method for casting steel, +by which much labour was saved, and the production of wholly new cheap +goods rendered practicable; and through the greater purity of the material +placed at its disposal, and the more perfect tools, new machinery and +minute division of labour, the metal trade of England now first attained +importance. The population of Birmingham grew from 73,000 in 1801 +to 200,000 in 1844; that of Sheffield from 46,000 in 1801 to 110,000 +in 1844, and the consumption of coal in the latter city alone reached +in 1836, 515,000 tons. In 1805 there were exported 4,300 tons +of iron products and 4,600 tons of pig-iron; in 1834, 16,200 tons of +iron products and 107,000 tons of pig-iron, while the whole iron product +reaching in 1740 but 17,000 tons, had risen in 1834 to nearly 700,000 +tons. The smelting of pig-iron alone consumes yearly more than +3,000,000 tons of coal, and the importance which coal mining has attained +in the course of the last 60 years can scarcely be conceived. +All the English and Scotch deposits are now worked, and the mines of +Northumberland and Durham alone yield annually more than 5,000,000 tons +for shipping, and employ from 40 to 50,000 men. According <!-- page 13--><a name="page13"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 13</span>to +the Durham <i>Chronicle</i>, there were worked in these two counties: +In 1753, 14 mines; in 1800, 40 mines; in 1836, 76 mines; in 1843, 130 +mines. Moreover, all mines are now much more energetically worked +than formerly. A similarly increased activity was applied to the +working of tin, copper, and lead, and alongside of the extension of +glass manufacture arose a new branch of industry in the production of +pottery, rendered important by the efforts of Josiah Wedgewood, about +1763. This inventor placed the whole manufacture of stoneware +on a scientific basis, introduced better taste, and founded the potteries +of North Staffordshire, a district of eight English miles square, which, +formerly a desert waste, is now sown with works and dwellings, and supports +more than 60,000 people.</p> +<p>Into this universal whirl of activity everything was drawn. +Agriculture made a corresponding advance. Not only did landed +property pass, as we have already seen, into the hands of new owners +and cultivators, agriculture was affected in still another way. +The great holders applied capital to the improvement of the soil, tore +down needless fences, drained, manured, employed better tools, and applied +a rotation of crops. The progress of science came to their assistance +also; Sir Humphrey Davy applied chemistry to agriculture with success, +and the development of mechanical science bestowed a multitude of advantages +upon the large farmer. Further, in consequence of the increase +of population, the demand for agricultural products increased in such +measure that from 1760 to 1834, 6,840,540 acres of waste land were reclaimed; +and, in spite of this, England was transformed from a grain exporting +to a grain importing country.</p> +<p>The same activity was developed in the establishment of communication. +From 1818 to 1829, there were built in England and Wales, 1,000 English +miles of roadway of the width prescribed by law, 60 feet, and nearly +all the old roads were reconstructed on the new system of M’Adam. +In Scotland, the Department of Public Works built since 1803 nearly +900 miles of roadway and more than 1,000 bridges, by which the population +of the Highlands was suddenly placed within reach of civilisation. +The <!-- page 14--><a name="page14"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 14</span>Highlanders +had hitherto been chiefly poachers and smugglers; they now became farmers +and hand-workers. And, though Gaelic schools were organised for +the purpose of maintaining the Gaelic language, yet Gaelic-Celtic customs +and speech are rapidly vanishing before the approach of English civilisation. +So, too, in Ireland; between the counties of Cork, Limerick, and Kerry, +lay hitherto a wilderness wholly without passable roads, and serving, +by reason of its inaccessibility, as the refuge of all criminals and +the chief protection of the Celtic Irish nationality in the South of +Ireland. It has now been cut through by public roads, and civilisation +has thus gained admission even to this savage region. The whole +British Empire, and especially England, which, sixty years ago, had +as bad roads as Germany or France then had, is now covered by a network +of the finest roadways; and these, too, like almost everything else +in England, are the work of private enterprise, the State having done +very little in this direction.</p> +<p>Before 1755 England possessed almost no canals. In that year +a canal was built in Lancashire from Sankey Brook to St Helen’s; +and in 1759, James Brindley built the first important one, the Duke +of Bridgewater’s canal from Manchester, and the coal mines of +the district to the mouth of the Mersey passing, near Barton, by aqueduct, +over the river Irwell. From this achievement dates the canal building +of England, to which Brindley first gave importance. Canals were +now built, and rivers made navigable in all directions. In England +alone, there are 2,200 miles of canals and 1,800 miles of navigable +river. In Scotland, the Caledonian Canal was cut directly across +the country, and in Ireland several canals were built. These improvements, +too, like the railroads and roadways, are nearly all the work of private +individuals and companies.</p> +<p>The railroads have been only recently built. The first great +one was opened from Liverpool to Manchester in 1830, since which all +the great cities have been connected by rail. London with Southampton, +Brighton, Dover, Colchester, Exeter, and Birmingham; Birmingham with +Gloucester, Liverpool, Lancaster (via Newton and Wigan, and via Manchester +and Bolton); also with Leeds (via Manchester and Halifax, and via Leicester, +Derby, and <!-- page 15--><a name="page15"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 15</span>Sheffield); +Leeds with Hull and Newcastle (via York). There are also many +minor lines building or projected, which will soon make it possible +to travel from Edinburgh to London in one day.</p> +<p>As it had transformed the means of communication by land, so did +the introduction of steam revolutionise travel by sea. The first +steamboat was launched in 1807, in the Hudson, in North America; the +first in the British empire, in 1811, on the Clyde. Since then, +more than 600 have been built in England; and in 1836 more than 500 +were plying to and from British ports.</p> +<p>Such, in brief, is the history of English industrial development +in the past sixty years, a history which has no counterpart in the annals +of humanity. Sixty, eighty years ago, England was a country like +every other, with small towns, few and simple industries, and a thin +but <i>proportionally</i> large agricultural population. To-day +it is a country like <i>no</i> other, with a capital of two and a half +million inhabitants; with vast manufacturing cities; with an industry +that supplies the world, and produces almost everything by means of +the most complex machinery; with an industrious, intelligent, dense +population, of which two-thirds are employed in trade and commerce, +and composed of classes wholly different; forming, in fact, with other +customs and other needs, a different nation from the England of those +days. The industrial revolution is of the same importance for +England as the political revolution for France, and the philosophical +revolution for Germany; and the difference between England in 1760 and +in 1844 is at least as great as that between France, under the <i>ancien +régime</i> and during the revolution of July. But the mightiest +result of this industrial transformation is the English proletariat.</p> +<p>We have already seen how the proletariat was called into existence +by the introduction of machinery. The rapid extension of manufacture +demanded hands, wages rose, and troops of workmen migrated from the +agricultural districts to the towns. Population multiplied enormously, +and nearly all the increase took place in the proletariat. Further, +Ireland had entered upon an orderly development only since the beginning +of the eighteenth century. There, too, the population, more than +decimated by English <!-- page 16--><a name="page16"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 16</span>cruelty +in earlier disturbances, now rapidly multiplied, especially after the +advance in manufacture began to draw masses of Irishmen towards England. +Thus arose the great manufacturing and commercial cities of the British +Empire, in which at least three-fourths of the population belong to +the working-class, while the lower middle-class consists only of small +shopkeepers, and very very few handicraftsmen. For, though the +rising manufacture first attained importance by transforming tools into +machines, workrooms into factories, and consequently, the toiling lower +middle-class into the toiling proletariat, and the former large merchants +into manufacturers, though the lower middle-class was thus early crushed +out, and the population reduced to the two opposing elements, workers +and capitalists, this happened outside of the domain of manufacture +proper, in the province of handicraft and retail trade as well. +In the place of the former masters and apprentices, came great capitalists +and working-men who had no prospect of rising above their class. +Hand-work was carried on after the fashion of factory work, the division +of labour was strictly applied, and small employers who could not compete +with great establishments were forced down into the proletariat. +At the same time the destruction of the former organisation of hand-work, +and the disappearance of the lower middle-class deprived the working-man +of all possibility of rising into the middle-class himself. Hitherto +he had always had the prospect of establishing himself somewhere as +master artificer, perhaps employing journeymen and apprentices; but +now, when master artificers were crowded out by manufacturers, when +large capital had become necessary for carrying on work independently, +the working-class became, for the first time, an integral, permanent +class of the population, whereas it had formerly often been merely a +transition leading to the bourgeoisie. Now, he who was born to +toil had no other prospect than that of remaining a toiler all his life. +Now, for the first time, therefore, the proletariat was in a position +to undertake an independent movement.</p> +<p>In this way were brought together those vast masses of working-men +who now fill the whole British Empire, whose social condition <!-- page 17--><a name="page17"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 17</span>forces +itself every day more and more upon the attention of the civilised world. +The condition of the working-class is the condition of the vast majority +of the English people. The question: What is to become of those +destitute millions, who consume to-day what they earned yesterday; who +have created the greatness of England by their inventions and their +toil; who become with every passing day more conscious of their might, +and demand, with daily increasing urgency, their share of the advantages +of society?—This, since the Reform Bill, has become the national +question. All Parliamentary debates, of any importance, may be +reduced to this; and, though the English middle-class will not as yet +admit it, though they try to evade this great question, and to represent +their own particular interests as the truly national ones, their action +is utterly useless. With every session of Parliament the working-class +gains ground, the interests of the middle-class diminish in importance; +and, in spite of the fact that the middle-class is the chief, in fact, +the only power in Parliament, the last session of 1844 was a continuous +debate upon subjects affecting the working-class, the Poor Relief Bill, +the Factory Act, the Masters’ and Servants’ Act; and Thomas +Duncombe, the representative of the working-men in the House of Commons, +was the great man of the session; while the Liberal middle-class with +its motion for repealing the Corn Laws, and the Radical middle-class +with its resolution for refusing the taxes, played pitiable roles. +Even the debates about Ireland were at bottom debates about the Irish +proletariat, and the means of coming to its assistance. It is +high time, too, for the English middle-class to make some concessions +to the working-men who no longer plead but threaten; for in a short +time it may be too late.</p> +<p>In spite of all this, the English middle-class, especially the manufacturing +class, which is enriched directly by means of the poverty of the workers, +persists in ignoring this poverty. This class, feeling itself +the mighty representative class of the nation, is ashamed to lay the +sore spot of England bare before the eyes of the world; will not confess, +even to itself, that the workers are in distress, because it, the property-holding, +manufacturing class, <!-- page 18--><a name="page18"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 18</span>must +bear the moral responsibility for this distress. Hence the scornful +smile which intelligent Englishmen (and they, the middle-class, alone +are known on the Continent) assume when any one begins to speak of the +condition of the working-class; hence the utter ignorance on the part +of the whole middle-class of everything which concerns the workers; +hence the ridiculous blunders which men of this class, in and out of +Parliament, make when the position of the proletariat comes under discussion; +hence the absurd freedom from anxiety, with which the middle-class dwells +upon a soil that is honeycombed, and may any day collapse, the speedy +collapse of which is as certain as a mathematical or mechanical demonstration; +hence the miracle that the English have as yet no single book upon the +condition of their workers, although they have been examining and mending +the old state of things no one knows how many years. Hence also +the deep wrath of the whole working-class, from Glasgow to London, against +the rich, by whom they are systematically plundered and mercilessly +left to their fate, a wrath which before too long a time goes by, a +time almost within the power of man to predict, must break out into +a Revolution in comparison with which the French Revolution, and the +year 1794, will prove to have been child’s play.</p> +<h2><!-- page 19--><a name="page19"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 19</span>THE +INDUSTRIAL PROLETARIAT.</h2> +<p>The order of our investigation of the different sections of the proletariat +follows naturally from the foregoing history of its rise. The +first proletarians were connected with manufacture, were engendered +by it, and accordingly, those employed in manufacture, in the working +up of raw materials, will first claim our attention. The production +of raw materials and of fuel for manufacture attained importance only +in consequence of the industrial change, and engendered a new proletariat, +the coal and metal miners. Then, in the third place, manufacture +influenced agriculture, and in the fourth, the condition of Ireland; +and the fractions of the proletariat belonging to each, will find their +place accordingly. We shall find, too, that with the possible +exception of the Irish, the degree of intelligence of the various workers +is in direct proportion to their relation to manufacture; and that the +factory hands are most enlightened as to their own interests, the miners +somewhat less so, the agricultural labourers scarcely at all. +We shall find the same order again among the industrial workers, and +shall see how the factory hands, eldest children of the industrial revolution, +have from the beginning to the present day formed the nucleus of the +Labour Movement, and how the others have joined this movement just in +proportion as their handicraft has been invaded by the progress of machinery. +We shall thus learn from the example which England offers, from the +equal pace which the Labour Movement has kept with the movement of industrial +development, the historical significance of manufacture.</p> +<p>Since, however, at the present moment, pretty much the whole industrial +proletariat is involved in the movement, and the condition of the separate +sections has much in common, because they all are industrial, we shall +have first to examine the condition <!-- page 20--><a name="page20"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 20</span>of +the industrial proletariat as a whole, in order later to notice more +particularly each separate division with its own peculiarities.</p> +<p>It has been already suggested that manufacture centralises property +in the hands of the few. It requires large capital with which +to erect the colossal establishments that ruin the petty trading bourgeoisie +and with which to press into its service the forces of Nature, so driving +the hand labour of the independent workman out of the market. +The division of labour, the application of water and especially steam, +and the application of machinery, are the three great levers with which +manufacture, since the middle of the last century, has been busy putting +the world out of joint. Manufacture, on a small scale, created +the middle-class; on a large scale, it created the working-class, and +raised the elect of the middle-class to the throne, but only to overthrow +them the more surely when the time comes. Meanwhile, it is an +undenied and easily explained fact that the numerous, petty middle-class +of the “good old times” has been annihilated by manufacture, +and resolved into rich capitalists on the one hand and poor workers +on the other. <a name="citation20"></a><a href="#footnote20">{20}</a></p> +<p>The centralising tendency of manufacture does not, however, stop +here. Population becomes centralised just as capital does; and, +very naturally, since the human being, the worker, is regarded in manufacture +simply as a piece of capital for the use of which the manufacturer pays +interest under the name of wages. A manufacturing establishment +requires many workers employed together in a single building, living +near each other and forming a village of themselves in the case of a +good-sized factory. They have needs for satisfying which other +people are necessary; handicraftsmen, shoemakers, tailors, bakers, carpenters, +stonemasons, settle at hand. The inhabitants of the village, especially +the younger generation, accustom themselves to factory work, grow skilful +in it, and when the first mill can no longer employ them all, wages +fall, and the immigration of fresh manufacturers is the <!-- page 21--><a name="page21"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 21</span>consequence. +So the village grows into a small town, and the small town into a large +one. The greater the town, the greater its advantages. It +offers roads, railroads, canals; the choice of skilled labour increases +constantly, new establishments can be built more cheaply because of +the competition among builders and machinists who are at hand, than +in remote country districts, whither timber, machinery, builders, and +operatives must be brought; it offers a market to which buyers crowd, +and direct communication with the markets supplying raw material or +demanding finished goods. Hence the marvellously rapid growth +of the great manufacturing towns. The country, on the other hand, +has the advantage that wages are usually lower than in town, and so +town and country are in constant competition; and, if the advantage +is on the side of the town to-day, wages sink so low in the country +to-morrow, that new investments are most profitably made there. +But the centralising tendency of manufacture continues in full force, +and every new factory built in the country bears in it the germ of a +manufacturing town. If it were possible for this mad rush of manufacture +to go on at this rate for another century, every manufacturing district +of England would be one great manufacturing town, and Manchester and +Liverpool would meet at Warrington or Newton; for in commerce, too, +this centralisation of the population works in precisely the same way, +and hence it is that one or two great harbours, such as Hull and Liverpool, +Bristol, and London, monopolise almost the whole maritime commerce of +Great Britain.</p> +<p>Since commerce and manufacture attain their most complete development +in these great towns, their influence upon the proletariat is also most +clearly observable here. Here the centralisation of property has +reached the highest point; here the morals and customs of the good old +times are most completely obliterated; here it has gone so far that +the name Merry Old England conveys no meaning, for Old England itself +is unknown to memory and to the tales of our grandfathers. Hence, +too, there exist here only a rich and a poor class, for the lower middle-class +vanishes more completely with every passing day. Thus the class +formerly most <!-- page 22--><a name="page22"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 22</span>stable +has become the most restless one. It consists to-day of a few +remnants of a past time, and a number of people eager to make fortunes, +industrial Micawbers and speculators of whom one may amass a fortune, +while ninety-nine become insolvent, and more than half of the ninety-nine +live by perpetually repeated failure.</p> +<p>But in these towns the proletarians are the infinite majority, and +how they fare, what influence the great town exercises upon them, we +have now to investigate.</p> +<h2><!-- page 23--><a name="page23"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 23</span>THE +GREAT TOWNS.</h2> +<p>A town, such as London, where a man may wander for hours together +without reaching the beginning of the end, without meeting the slightest +hint which could lead to the inference that there is open country within +reach, is a strange thing. This colossal centralisation, this +heaping together of two and a half millions of human beings at one point, +has multiplied the power of this two and a half millions a hundredfold; +has raised London to the commercial capital of the world, created the +giant docks and assembled the thousand vessels that continually cover +the Thames. I know nothing more imposing than the view which the +Thames offers during the ascent from the sea to London Bridge. +The masses of buildings, the wharves on both sides, especially from +Woolwich upwards, the countless ships along both shores, crowding ever +closer and closer together, until, at last, only a narrow passage remains +in the middle of the river, a passage through which hundreds of steamers +shoot by one another; all this is so vast, so impressive, that a man +cannot collect himself, but is lost in the marvel of England’s +greatness before he sets foot upon English soil. <a name="citation23"></a><a href="#footnote23">{23}</a></p> +<p>But the sacrifices which all this has cost become apparent later. +After roaming the streets of the capital a day or two, making headway +with difficulty through the human turmoil and the endless lines of vehicles, +after visiting the slums of the metropolis, one realises for the first +time that these Londoners have been forced to sacrifice the best qualities +of their human nature, to bring to pass all the marvels of civilisation +which crowd their city; that a hundred powers which slumbered within +them have remained <!-- page 24--><a name="page24"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 24</span>inactive, +have been suppressed in order that a few might be developed more fully +and multiply through union with those of others. The very turmoil +of the streets has something repulsive, something against which human +nature rebels. The hundreds of thousands of all classes and ranks +crowding past each other, are they not all human beings with the same +qualities and powers, and with the same interest in being happy? +And have they not, in the end, to seek happiness in the same way, by +the same means? And still they crowd by one another as though +they had nothing in common, nothing to do with one another, and their +only agreement is the tacit one, that each keep to his own side of the +pavement, so as not to delay the opposing streams of the crowd, while +it occurs to no man to honour another with so much as a glance. +The brutal indifference, the unfeeling isolation of each in his private +interest becomes the more repellant and offensive, the more these individuals +are crowded together, within a limited space. And, however much +one may be aware that this isolation of the individual, this narrow +self-seeking is the fundamental principle of our society everywhere, +it is nowhere so shamelessly barefaced, so self-conscious as just here +in the crowding of the great city. The dissolution of mankind +into monads, of which each one has a separate principle, the world of +atoms, is here carried out to its utmost extreme.</p> +<p>Hence it comes, too, that the social war, the war of each against +all, is here openly declared. Just as in Stirner’s recent +book, people regard each other only as useful objects; each exploits +the other, and the end of it all is, that the stronger treads the weaker +under foot, and that the powerful few, the capitalists, seize everything +for themselves, while to the weak many, the poor, scarcely a bare existence +remains.</p> +<p>What is true of London, is true of Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, +is true of all great towns. Everywhere barbarous indifference, +hard egotism on one hand, and nameless misery on the other, everywhere +social warfare, every man’s house in a state of siege, everywhere +reciprocal plundering under the protection of the law, and all so shameless, +so openly avowed that one shrinks <!-- page 25--><a name="page25"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 25</span>before +the consequences of our social state as they manifest themselves here +undisguised, and can only wonder that the whole crazy fabric still hangs +together.</p> +<p>Since capital, the direct or indirect control of the means of subsistence +and production, is the weapon with which this social warfare is carried +on, it is clear that all the disadvantages of such a state must fall +upon the poor. For him no man has the slightest concern. +Cast into the whirlpool, he must struggle through as well as he can. +If he is so happy as to find work, <i>i.e</i>., if the bourgeoisie does +him the favour to enrich itself by means of him, wages await him which +scarcely suffice to keep body and soul together; if he can get no work +he may steal, if he is not afraid of the police, or starve, in which +case the police will take care that he does so in a quiet and inoffensive +manner. During my residence in England, at least twenty or thirty +persons have died of simple starvation under the most revolting circumstances, +and a jury has rarely been found possessed of the courage to speak the +plain truth in the matter. Let the testimony of the witnesses +be never so clear and unequivocal, the bourgeoisie, from which the jury +is selected, always finds some backdoor through which to escape the +frightful verdict, death from starvation. The bourgeoisie dare +not speak the truth in these cases, for it would speak its own condemnation. +But indirectly, far more than directly, many have died of starvation, +where long continued want of proper nourishment has called forth fatal +illness, when it has produced such debility that causes which might +otherwise have remained inoperative, brought on severe illness and death. +The English working-men call this “social murder,” and accuse +our whole society of perpetrating this crime perpetually. Are +they wrong?</p> +<p>True, it is only individuals who starve, but what security has the +working-man that it may not be his turn to-morrow? Who assures +him employment, who vouches for it that, if for any reason or no reason +his lord and master discharges him to-morrow, he can struggle along +with those dependent upon him, until he may find some one else “to +give him bread?” Who guarantees that willingness to work +shall suffice to obtain work, that uprightness, <!-- page 26--><a name="page26"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 26</span>industry, +thrift, and the rest of the virtues recommended by the bourgeoisie, +are really his road to happiness? No one. He knows that +he has something to-day, and that it does not depend upon himself whether +he shall have something to-morrow. He knows that every breeze +that blows, every whim of his employer, every bad turn of trade may +hurl him back into the fierce whirlpool from which he has temporarily +saved himself, and in which it is hard and often impossible to keep +his head above water. He knows that, though he may have the means +of living to-day, it is very uncertain whether he shall to-morrow.</p> +<p>Meanwhile, let us proceed to a more detailed investigation of the +position, in which the social war has placed the non-possessing class. +Let us see what pay for his work society does give the working-man in +the form of dwelling, clothing, food, what sort of subsistence it grants +those who contribute most to the maintenance of society; and, first, +let us consider the dwellings.</p> +<p>Every great city has one or more slums, where the working-class is +crowded together. True, poverty often dwells in hidden alleys +close to the palaces of the rich; but, in general, a separate territory +has been assigned to it, where, removed from the sight of the happier +classes, it may struggle along as it can. These slums are pretty +equally arranged in all the great towns of England, the worst houses +in the worst quarters of the towns; usually one or two-storied cottages +in long rows, perhaps with cellars used as dwellings, almost always +irregularly built. These houses of three or four rooms and a kitchen +form, throughout England, some parts of London excepted, the general +dwellings of the working-class. The streets are generally unpaved, +rough, dirty, filled with vegetable and animal refuse, without sewers +or gutters, but supplied with foul, stagnant pools instead. Moreover, +ventilation is impeded by the bad, confused method of building of the +whole quarter, and since many human beings here live crowded into a +small space, the atmosphere that prevails in these working-men’s +quarters may readily be imagined. Further, the streets serve as +drying grounds in fine weather; lines are stretched across from house +to house, and hung with wet clothing.</p> +<p><!-- page 27--><a name="page27"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 27</span>Let +us investigate some of the slums in their order. London comes +first, and in London the famous rookery of St. Giles which is now, at +last, about to be penetrated by a couple of broad streets. St. +Giles is in the midst of the most populous part of the town, surrounded +by broad, splendid avenues in which the gay world of London idles about, +in the immediate neighbourhood of Oxford Street, Regent Street, of Trafalgar +Square and the Strand. It is a disorderly collection of tall, +three or four-storied houses, with narrow, crooked, filthy streets, +in which there is quite as much life as in the great thoroughfares of +the town, except that, here, people of the working-class only are to +be seen. A vegetable market is held in the street, baskets with +vegetables and fruits, naturally all bad and hardly fit to use, obstruct +the sidewalk still further, and from these, as well as from the fish-dealers’ +stalls, arises a horrible smell. The houses are occupied from +cellar to garret, filthy within and without, and their appearance is +such that no human being could possibly wish to live in them. +But all this is nothing in comparison with the dwellings in the narrow +courts and alleys between the streets, entered by covered passages between +the houses, in which the filth and tottering ruin surpass all description. +Scarcely a whole window-pane can be found, the walls are crumbling, +door-posts and window-frames loose and broken, doors of old boards nailed +together, or altogether wanting in this thieves’ quarter, where +no doors are needed, there being nothing to steal. Heaps of garbage +and ashes lie in all directions, and the foul liquids emptied before +the doors gather in stinking pools. Here live the poorest of the +poor, the worst paid workers with thieves and the victims of prostitution +indiscriminately huddled together, the majority Irish, or of Irish extraction, +and those who have not yet sunk in the whirlpool of moral ruin which +surrounds them, sinking daily deeper, losing daily more and more of +their power to resist the demoralising influence of want, filth, and +evil surroundings.</p> +<p>Nor is St. Giles the only London slum. In the immense tangle +of streets, there are hundreds and thousands of alleys and courts lined +with houses too bad for anyone to live in, who can still spend <!-- page 28--><a name="page28"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 28</span>anything +whatsoever upon a dwelling fit for human beings. Close to the +splendid houses of the rich such a lurking-place of the bitterest poverty +may often be found. So, a short time ago, on the occasion of a +coroner’s inquest, a region close to Portman Square, one of the +very respectable squares, was characterised as an abode “of a +multitude of Irish demoralised by poverty and filth.” So, +too, may be found in streets, such as Long Acre and others, which, though +not fashionable, are yet “respectable,” a great number of +cellar dwellings out of which puny children and half-starved, ragged +women emerge into the light of day. In the immediate neighbourhood +of Drury Lane Theatre, the second in London, are some of the worst streets +of the whole metropolis, Charles, King, and Park Streets, in which the +houses are inhabited from cellar to garret exclusively by poor families. +In the parishes of St. John and St. Margaret there lived in 1840, according +to the <i>Journal of the Statistical Society</i>, 5,366 working-men’s +families in 5,294 “dwellings” (if they deserve the name!), +men, women, and children thrown together without distinction of age +or sex, 26,830 persons all told; and of these families three-fourths +possessed but one room. In the aristocratic parish of St. George, +Hanover Square, there lived, according to the same authority, 1,465 +working-men’s families, nearly 6,000 persons, under similar conditions, +and here, too, more than two-thirds of the whole number crowded together +at the rate of one family in one room. And how the poverty of +these unfortunates, among whom even thieves find nothing to steal, is +exploited by the property-holding class in lawful ways! The abominable +dwellings in Drury Lane, just mentioned, bring in the following rents: +two cellar dwellings, 3s.; one room, ground-floor, 4s.; second-storey, +4s. 6d.; third-floor, 4s.; garret-room, 3s. weekly, so that the starving +occupants of Charles Street alone, pay the house-owners a yearly tribute +of £2,000, and the 5,336 families above mentioned in Westminster, +a yearly rent of £40,000.</p> +<p>The most extensive working-people’s district lies east of the +Tower in Whitechapel and Bethnal Green, where the greatest masses of +London working-people live. Let us hear Mr. G. Alston, <!-- page 29--><a name="page29"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 29</span>preacher +of St. Philip’s, Bethnal Green, on the condition of his parish. +He says:</p> +<blockquote><p>“It contains 1,400 houses, inhabited by 2,795 families, +or about 12,000 persons. The space upon which this large population +dwells, is less than 400 yards (1,200 feet) square, and in this overcrowding +it is nothing unusual to find a man, his wife, four or five children, +and, sometimes, both grandparents, all in one single room, where they +eat, sleep, and work. I believe that before the Bishop of London +called attention to this most poverty-stricken parish, people at the +West End knew as little of it as of the savages of Australia or the +South Sea Isles. And if we make ourselves acquainted with these +unfortunates, through personal observation, if we watch them at their +scanty meal and see them bowed by illness and want of work, we shall +find such a mass of helplessness and misery, that a nation like ours +must blush that these things can be possible. I was rector near +Huddersfield during the three years in which the mills were at their +worst, but I have never seen such complete helplessness of the poor +as since then in Bethnal Green. Not one father of a family in +ten in the whole neighbourhood has other clothing than his working suit, +and that is as bad and tattered as possible; many, indeed, have no other +covering for the night than these rags, and no bed, save a sack of straw +and shavings.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The foregoing description furnishes an idea of the aspect of the +interior of the dwellings. But let us follow the English officials, +who occasionally stray thither, into one or two of these working-men’s +homes.</p> +<p>On the occasion of an inquest held Nov. 14th, 1843, by Mr. Carter, +coroner for Surrey, upon the body of Ann Galway, aged 45 years, the +newspapers related the following particulars concerning the deceased: +She had lived at No. 3 White Lion Court, Bermondsey Street, London, +with her husband and a nineteen-year-old son in a little room, in which +neither a bedstead nor any other furniture was to be seen. She +lay dead beside her son upon a heap of feathers which were scattered +over her almost naked body, there being neither sheet nor coverlet. +The feathers stuck so fast over the whole body that the physician could +not examine the corpse until it was cleansed, and then found it starved +and <!-- page 30--><a name="page30"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 30</span>scarred +from the bites of vermin. Part of the floor of the room was torn +up, and the hole used by the family as a privy.</p> +<p>On Monday, Jan. 15th, 1844, two boys were brought before the police +magistrate because, being in a starving condition, they had stolen and +immediately devoured a half-cooked calf’s foot from a shop. +The magistrate felt called upon to investigate the case further, and +received the following details from the policeman: The mother of the +two boys was the widow of an ex-soldier, afterwards policeman, and had +had a very hard time since the death of her husband, to provide for +her nine children. She lived at No. 2 Pool’s Place, Quaker +Court, Spitalfields, in the utmost poverty. When the policeman +came to her, he found her with six of her children literally huddled +together in a little back room, with no furniture but two old rush-bottomed +chairs with the seats gone, a small table with two legs broken, a broken +cup, and a small dish. On the hearth was scarcely a spark of fire, +and in one corner lay as many old rags as would fill a woman’s +apron, which served the whole family as a bed. For bed clothing +they had only their scanty day clothing. The poor woman told him +that she had been forced to sell her bedstead the year before to buy +food. Her bedding she had pawned with the victualler for food. +In short, everything had gone for food. The magistrate ordered +the woman a considerable provision from the poor-box.</p> +<p>In February, 1844, Theresa Bishop, a widow 60 years old, was recommended, +with her sick daughter, aged 26, to the compassion of the police magistrate +in Marlborough Street. She lived at No. 5 Brown Street, Grosvenor +Square, in a small back room no larger than a closet, in which there +was not one single piece of furniture. In one corner lay some +rags upon which both slept; a chest served as table and chair. +The mother earned a little by charring. The owner of the house +said that they had lived in this way since May, 1843, had gradually +sold or pawned everything that they had, and had still never paid any +rent. The magistrate assigned them £1 from the poor-box.</p> +<p>I am far from asserting that <i>all</i> London working-people live +in such want as the foregoing three families. I know very well +that <!-- page 31--><a name="page31"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 31</span>ten +are somewhat better off, where one is so totally trodden under foot +by society; but I assert that thousands of industrious and worthy people—far +worthier and more to be respected than all the rich of London—do +find themselves in a condition unworthy of human beings; and that every +proletarian, everyone, without exception, is exposed to a similar fate +without any fault of his own and in spite of every possible effort.</p> +<p>But in spite of all this, they who have some kind of a shelter are +fortunate, fortunate in comparison with the utterly homeless. +In London fifty thousand human beings get up every morning, not knowing +where they are to lay their heads at night. The luckiest of this +multitude, those who succeed in keeping a penny or two until evening, +enter a lodging-house, such as abound in every great city, where they +find a bed. But what a bed! These houses are filled with +beds from cellar to garret, four, five, six beds in a room; as many +as can be crowded in. Into every bed four, five, or six human +beings are piled, as many as can be packed in, sick and well, young +and old, drunk and sober, men and women, just as they come, indiscriminately. +Then come strife, blows, wounds, or, if these bedfellows agree, so much +the worse; thefts are arranged and things done which our language, grown +more humane than our deeds, refuses to record. And those who cannot +pay for such a refuge? They sleep where they find a place, in +passages, arcades, in corners where the police and the owners leave +them undisturbed. A few individuals find their way to the refuges +which are managed, here and there, by private charity, others sleep +on the benches in the parks close under the windows of Queen Victoria. +Let us hear the London <i>Times</i>:</p> +<blockquote><p>“It appears from the report of the proceedings +at Marlborough Street Police Court in our columns of yesterday, that +there is an average number of 50 human beings of all ages, who huddle +together in the parks every night, having no other shelter than what +is supplied by the trees and a few hollows of the embankment. +Of these, the majority are young girls who have been seduced from the +country by the soldiers and turned loose on the world in all the destitution +of friendless penury, and all the recklessness of early vice.</p> +<p><!-- page 32--><a name="page32"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 32</span>“This +is truly horrible! Poor there must be everywhere. Indigence +will find its way and set up its hideous state in the heart of a great +and luxurious city. Amid the thousand narrow lanes and by-streets +of a populous metropolis there must always, we fear, be much suffering—much +that offends the eye—much that lurks unseen.</p> +<p>“But that within the precincts of wealth, gaiety, and fashion, +nigh the regal grandeur of St. James, close on the palatial splendour +of Bayswater, on the confines of the old and new aristocratic quarters, +in a district where the cautious refinement of modern design has refrained +from creating one single tenement for poverty; which seems, as it were, +dedicated to the exclusive enjoyment of wealth, that <i>there</i> want, +and famine, and disease, and vice should stalk in all their kindred +horrors, consuming body by body, soul, by soul!</p> +<p>“It is indeed a monstrous state of things! Enjoyment +the most absolute, that bodily ease, intellectual excitement, or the +more innocent pleasures of sense can supply to man’s craving, +brought in close contact with the most unmitigated misery! Wealth, +from its bright saloons, laughing—an insolently heedless laugh—at +the unknown wounds of want! Pleasure, cruelly but unconsciously +mocking the pain that moans below! All contrary things mocking +one another—all contrary, save the vice which tempts and the vice +which is tempted!</p> +<p>“But let all men remember this—that within the most courtly +precincts of the richest city of God’s earth, there may be found, +night after night, winter after winter, women—young in years—old +in sin and suffering—outcasts from society—<span class="smcap">rotting +from famine, filth, and disease</span>. Let them remember this, +and learn not to theorise but to act. God knows, there is much +room for action nowadays.” <a name="citation32"></a><a href="#footnote32">{32}</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>I have referred to the refuges for the homeless. How greatly +overcrowded these are, two examples may show. A newly erected +Refuge for the Houseless in Upper Ogle Street, that can shelter three +hundred persons every night, has received since its opening, January +27th to March 17th, 1844, 2,740 persons for one or more nights; and, +although the season was growing more favourable, the number of applicants +in this, as well as in the asylums of Whitecross Street and Wapping, +was strongly on the increase, <!-- page 33--><a name="page33"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 33</span>and +a crowd of the homeless had to be sent away every night for want of +room. In another refuge, the Central Asylum in Playhouse Yard, +there were supplied on an average 460 beds nightly, during the first +three months of the year 1844, 6,681 persons being sheltered, and 96,141 +portions of bread were distributed. Yet the committee of directors +declare this institution began to meet the pressure of the needy to +a limited extent only when the Eastern Asylum also was opened.</p> +<p>Let us leave London and examine the other great cities of the three +kingdoms in their order. Let us take Dublin first, a city the +approach to which from the sea is as charming as that of London is imposing. +The Bay of Dublin is the most beautiful of the whole British Island +Kingdom, and is even compared by the Irish with the Bay of Naples. +The city, too, possesses great attractions, and its aristocratic districts +are better and more tastefully laid out than those of any other British +city. By way of compensation, however, the poorer districts of +Dublin are among the most hideous and repulsive to be seen in the world. +True, the Irish character, which, under some circumstances, is comfortable +only in the dirt, has some share in this; but as we find thousands of +Irish in every great city in England and Scotland, and as every poor +population must gradually sink into the same uncleanliness, the wretchedness +of Dublin is nothing specific, nothing peculiar to Dublin, but something +common to all great towns. The poor quarters of Dublin are extremely +extensive, and the filth, the uninhabitableness of the houses and the +neglect of the streets, surpass all description. Some idea of +the manner in which the poor are here crowded together may be formed +from the fact that, in 1817, according to the report of the Inspector +of Workhouses, <a name="citation33"></a><a href="#footnote33">{33}</a> +1,318 persons lived in 52 houses with 390 rooms in Barral Street, and +1,997 persons in 71 houses with 393 rooms in and near Church Street; +that:</p> +<blockquote><p><!-- page 34--><a name="page34"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 34</span>“In +this and the adjoining district there exists a multitude of foul courts +and alleys; many cellars receive all their light through the door, while +in not a few the inhabitants sleep upon the bare floor, though most +of them possess bedsteads at least; Nicholson’s Court, for example, +contains twenty-eight wretched little rooms with 151 human beings in +the greatest want, there being but two bedsteads and two blankets to +be found in the whole court.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The poverty is so great in Dublin, that a single benevolent institution, +the Mendicity Association, gives relief to 2,500 persons or one per +cent. of the population daily, receiving and feeding them for the day +and dismissing them at night.</p> +<p>Dr. Alison describes a similar state of things in Edinburgh, whose +superb situation, which has won it the title of the Modern Athens, and +whose brilliant aristocratic quarter in the New Town, contrast strongly +with the foul wretchedness of the poor in the Old Town. Alison +asserts that this extensive quarter is as filthy and horrible as the +worst district of Dublin, while the Mendicity Association would have +as great a proportion of needy persons to assist in Edinburgh as in +the Irish capital. He asserts, indeed, that the poor in Scotland, +especially in Edinburgh and Glasgow, are worse off than in any other +region of the three kingdoms, and that the poorest are not Irish, but +Scotch. The preacher of the Old Church of Edinburgh, Dr. Lee, +testified in 1836, before the Commission of Religious Instruction, that:</p> +<blockquote><p>“He had never before seen such misery as in his +parish, where the people were without furniture, without everything, +two married couples often sharing one room. In a single day he +had visited seven houses in which there was not a bed, in some of them +not even a heap of straw. Old people of eighty years sleep on +the board floor, nearly all slept in their day-clothes. In one +cellar room he found two families from a Scotch country district; soon +after their removal to the city two of the children had died, and a +third was dying at the time of his visit. Each family had a filthy +pile of straw lying in a corner; the cellar sheltered besides the two +families a donkey, and was, moreover, so dark that it was impossible +to distinguish one person from another by day. Dr. Lee declared +that it was enough to make a heart of adamant bleed to see such misery +in a country like Scotland.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><!-- page 35--><a name="page35"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 35</span>In +the Edinburgh <i>Medical and Surgical Journal</i>, Dr. Hennan reports +a similar state of things. From a Parliamentary Report, <a name="citation35a"></a><a href="#footnote35a">{35a}</a> +it is evident that in the dwellings of the poor of Edinburgh a want +of cleanliness reigns, such as must be expected under these conditions. +On the bed-posts chickens roost at night, dogs and horses share the +dwellings of human beings, and the natural consequence is a shocking +stench, with filth and swarms of vermin. The prevailing construction +of Edinburgh favours these atrocious conditions as far as possible. +The Old Town is built upon both slopes of a hill, along the crest of +which runs the High Street. Out of the High Street there open +downwards multitudes of narrow, crooked alleys, called wynds from their +many turnings, and these wynds form the proletarian district of the +city. The houses of the Scotch cities, in general, are five or +six-storied buildings, like those of Paris, and in contrast with England +where, so far as possible, each family has a separate house. The +crowding of human beings upon a limited area is thus intensified. <a name="citation35b"></a><a href="#footnote35b">{35b}</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“These streets,” says an English journal +in an article upon the sanitary condition of the working-people in cities, +“are often so narrow that a person can step from the window of +one house into that of its opposite neighbour, while the houses are +piled so high, storey upon storey, that the light can scarcely penetrate +into the court or alley that lies between. In this part of the +city there are neither sewers nor other drains, nor even privies belonging +to the houses. In consequence, all refuse, garbage, and excrements +of at least 50,000 persons are thrown into the gutters every night, +so that, in spite of all street sweeping, a mass of dried filth and +foul vapours are created, which not only offend the sight and smell, +but endanger the health of the inhabitants in the highest degree. +Is it to be wondered at, that in such localities all considerations +of health, morals, and even the most ordinary decency are utterly neglected? +On the contrary, all who are more intimately acquainted with the condition +of the inhabitants will testify to the high degree which disease, wretchedness, +and demoralisation <!-- page 36--><a name="page36"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 36</span>have +here reached. Society in such districts has sunk to a level indescribably +low and hopeless. The houses of the poor are generally filthy, +and are evidently never cleansed. They consist in most cases of +a single room which, while subject to the worst ventilation, is yet +usually kept cold by the broken and badly fitting windows, and is sometimes +damp and partly below ground level, always badly furnished and thoroughly +uncomfortable, a straw-heap often serving the whole family for a bed, +upon which men and women, young and old, sleep in revolting confusion. +Water can be had only from the public pumps, and the difficulty of obtaining +it naturally fosters all possible filth.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In the other great seaport towns the prospect is no better. +Liverpool, with all its commerce, wealth, and grandeur yet treats its +workers with the same barbarity. A full fifth of the population, +more than 45,000 human beings, live in narrow, dark, damp, badly-ventilated +cellar dwellings, of which there are 7,862 in the city. Besides +these cellar dwellings there are 2,270 courts, small spaces built up +on all four sides and having but one entrance, a narrow, covered passage-way, +the whole ordinarily very dirty and inhabited exclusively by proletarians. +Of such courts we shall have more to say when we come to Manchester. +In Bristol, on one occasion, 2,800 families were visited, of whom 46 +per cent. occupied but one room each.</p> +<p>Precisely the same state of things prevails in the factory towns. +In Nottingham there are in all 11,000 houses, of which between 7,000 +and 8,000 are built back to back with a rear parti-wall so that no through +ventilation is possible, while a single privy usually serves for several +houses. During an investigation made a short time since, many +rows of houses were found to have been built over shallow drains covered +only by the boards of the ground floor. In Leicester, Derby, and +Sheffield, it is no better. Of Birmingham, the article above cited +from the <i>Artisan</i> states:</p> +<blockquote><p>“In the older quarters of the city there are many +bad districts, filthy and neglected, full of stagnant pools and heaps +of refuse. Courts are very numerous in Birmingham, reaching two +thousand, and containing the greater number of the working-people of +the city. These courts are usually narrow, muddy, badly ventilated, +<!-- page 37--><a name="page37"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 37</span>ill-drained, +and lined with eight to twenty houses, which, by reason of having their +rear walls in common, can usually be ventilated from one side only. +In the background, within the court, there is usually an ash heap or +something of the kind, the filth of which cannot be described. +It must, however, be observed that the newer courts are more sensibly +built and more decently kept, and that even in the old ones, the cottages +are much less crowded than in Manchester and Liverpool, wherefore Birmingham +shows even during the reign of an epidemic a far smaller mortality than, +for instance, Wolverhampton, Dudley, and Bilston, only a few miles distant. +Cellar dwellings are unknown, too, in Birmingham, though a few cellars +are misused as workrooms. The lodging-houses for proletarians +are rather numerous (over four hundred), chiefly in courts in the heart +of the town. They are nearly all disgustingly filthy and ill-smelling, +the refuge of beggars, thieves, tramps, and prostitutes, who eat, drink, +smoke, and sleep here without the slightest regard to comfort or decency +in an atmosphere endurable to these degraded beings only.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Glasgow is in many respects similar to Edinburgh, possessing the +same wynds, the same tall houses. Of this city the <i>Artisan</i> +observes:</p> +<blockquote><p>“The working-class forms here some 78% of the whole +population (about 300,000), and lives in parts of the city which exceed +in wretchedness and squalor the lowest nooks of St. Giles and Whitechapel, +the Liberties of Dublin, the Wynds of Edinburgh. There are numbers +of such localities in the heart of the city, south of the Trongate, +westward from the Saltmarket, in Calton and off the High Street, endless +labyrinths of lanes or wynds into which open at almost every step, courts +or blind alleys, formed by ill-ventilated, high-piled, waterless, and +dilapidated houses. These are literally swarming with inhabitants. +They contain three or four families upon each floor, perhaps twenty +persons. In some cases each storey is let out in sleeping places, +so that fifteen to twenty persons are packed, one on top of the other, +I cannot say accommodated, in a single room. These districts shelter +the poorest, most depraved, and worthless members of the community, +and may be regarded as the sources of those frightful epidemics which, +beginning here, spread desolation over Glasgow.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Let us hear how J. C. Symonds, Government Commissioner for <!-- page 38--><a name="page38"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 38</span>the +investigation of the condition of the hand-weavers, describes these +portions of the city: <a name="citation38"></a><a href="#footnote38">{38}</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“I have seen wretchedness in some of its worse +phases both here and upon the Continent, but until I visited the wynds +of Glasgow I did not believe that so much crime, misery, and disease +could exist in any civilised country. In the lower lodging-houses +ten, twelve, sometimes twenty persons of both sexes, all ages and various +degrees of nakedness, sleep indiscriminately huddled together upon the +floor. These dwellings are usually so damp, filthy, and ruinous, +that no one could wish to keep his horse in one of them.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>And in another place:</p> +<blockquote><p>“The wynds of Glasgow contain a fluctuating population +of fifteen to thirty thousand human beings. This quarter consists +wholly of narrow alleys and square courts, in the middle of every one +of which there lies a dung heap. Revolting as was the outward +appearance of these courts, I was yet not prepared for the filth and +wretchedness within. In some of the sleeping-places which we visited +at night (the Superintendent of Police, Captain Miller, and Symonds) +we found a complete layer of human beings stretched upon the floor, +often fifteen to twenty, some clad, others naked, men and women indiscriminately. +Their bed was a litter of mouldy straw, mixed with rags. There +was little or no furniture, and the only thing which gave these dens +any shimmer of habitableness was a fire upon the hearth. Theft +and prostitution form the chief means of subsistence of this population. +No one seemed to take the trouble to cleanse this Augean stable, this +Pandemonium, this tangle of crime, filth, and pestilence in the centre +of the second city of the kingdom. An extended examination of +the lowest districts of other cities never revealed anything half so +bad, either in intensity of moral and physical infection, nor in comparative +density of population. In this quarter most of the houses have +been declared by the Court of Guild ruinous and unfit for habitation, +but precisely these are the most densely populated, because, according +to the law, no rent can be demanded for them.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><!-- page 39--><a name="page39"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 39</span>The +great manufacturing district in the centre of the British Islands, the +thickly peopled stretch of West Yorkshire and South Lancashire, with +its numerous factory towns, yields nothing to the other great manufacturing +centres. The woollen district of the West Riding of Yorkshire +is a charming region, a beautiful green hill country, whose elevations +grow more rugged towards the West until they reach their highest point +in the bold ridge of Blackstone Edge, the watershed between the Irish +Sea and the German Ocean. The valleys of the Aire, along which +stretches Leeds, and of the Calder, through which the Manchester-Leeds +railway runs, are among the most attractive in England, and are strewn +in all directions with the factories, villages, and towns. The +houses of rough grey stone look so neat and clean in comparison with +the blackened brick buildings of Lancashire, that it is a pleasure to +look at them. But on coming into the towns themselves, one finds +little to rejoice over. Leeds lies as the <i>Artisan</i> describes +it, and as I found confirmed upon examination: “on a gentle slope +that descends into the valley of the Aire. This stream flows through +the city for about a mile-and-a-half and is exposed to violent floods +during thaws or heavy rain. The higher western portions of the +city are clean, for such a large town. But the low-lying districts +along the river and its tributary becks are narrow, dirty, and enough +in themselves to shorten the lives of the inhabitants, especially of +little children. Added to this, the disgusting state of the working-men’s +districts about Kirkgate, Marsh Lane, Cross Street and Richmond Road, +which is chiefly attributable to their unpaved, drainless streets, irregular +architecture, numerous courts and alleys, and total lack of the most +ordinary means of cleanliness, all this taken together is explanation +enough of the excessive mortality in these unhappy abodes of filthy +misery. In consequence of the overflows of the Aire” (which, +it must be added, like all other rivers in the service of manufacture, +flows into the city at one end clear and transparent, and flows out +at the other end thick, black, and foul, smelling of all possible refuse), +“the houses and cellars are often so full of water that they have +to be pumped out. And at such times the water rises, even <!-- page 40--><a name="page40"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 40</span>where +there are sewers, out of them into cellars, <a name="citation40a"></a><a href="#footnote40a">{40a}</a> +engenders miasmatic vapours strongly impregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen, +and leaves a disgusting residuum highly injurious to health. During +the spring-floods of 1839 the action of such a choking of the sewers +was so injurious, that, according to the report of the Registrar of +Births and Deaths for this part of the town, there were three deaths +to two births, whereas in the same three months, in every other part +of the town, there were three births to two deaths. Other thickly +populated districts are without any sewers whatsoever, or so badly provided +as to derive no benefit from them. In some rows of houses the +cellars are seldom dry; in certain districts there are several streets +covered with soft mud a foot deep. The inhabitants have made vain +attempts from time to time to repair these streets with shovelfuls of +cinders, but in spite of all such attempts, dung-heaps, and pools of +dirty water emptied from the houses, fill all the holes until wind and +sun dry them up. <a name="citation40b"></a><a href="#footnote40b">{40b}</a> +An ordinary cottage in Leeds occupies not more than five yards square +of land, and usually consists of a cellar, a living room, and one sleeping-room. +These contracted dwellings, filled day and night with human beings, +are another point dangerous alike to the morals and the health of the +inhabitants.” And how greatly these cottages are crowded, +the Report on the Health of the Working-Classes, quoted above, bears +testimony: “In Leeds we found brothers and sisters, and lodgers +of both sexes, sharing the parents’ sleeping-room, whence arise +consequences at the contemplation of which human feeling shudders.”</p> +<p>So, too, Bradford, which, but seven miles from Leeds at the junction +of several valleys, lies upon the banks of a small, coal-black, foul-smelling +stream. On week-days the town is enveloped in a grey cloud of +coal smoke, but on a fine Sunday it offers a superb picture, when viewed +from the surrounding heights. Yet within reigns the same filth +and discomfort as in Leeds. The <!-- page 41--><a name="page41"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 41</span>older +portions of the town are built upon steep hillsides, and are narrow +and irregular. In the lanes, alleys, and courts lie filth and +<i>debris</i> in heaps; the houses are ruinous, dirty, and miserable, +and in the immediate vicinity of the river and the valley bottom I found +many a one, whose ground-floor, half-buried in the hillside, was totally +abandoned. In general, the portions of the valley bottom in which +working-men’s cottages have crowded between the tall factories, +are among the worst built and dirtiest districts of the whole town. +In the newer portions of this, as of every other factory town, the cottages +are more regular, being built in rows, but they share here, too, all +the evils incident to the customary method of providing working-men’s +dwellings, evils of which we shall have occasions to speak more particularly +in discussing Manchester. The same is true of the remaining towns +of the West Riding, especially of Barnsley, Halifax and Huddersfield. +The last named, the handsomest by far of all the factory towns of Yorkshire +and Lancashire, by reason of its charming situation and modern architecture, +has yet its bad quarter; for a committee appointed by a meeting of citizens +to survey the town, reported August 5th, 1844: “It is notorious +that in Huddersfield whole streets and many lanes and courts are neither +paved nor supplied with sewers nor other drains; that in them refuse, +<i>debris</i>, and filth of every sort lies accumulating, festers and +rots, and that, nearly everywhere, stagnant water accumulates in pools, +in consequence of which the adjoining dwellings must inevitably be bad +and filthy, so that in such places diseases arise and threaten the health +of the whole town.”</p> +<p>If we cross Blackstone Edge or penetrate it with the railroad, we +enter upon that classic soil on which English manufacture has achieved +its masterwork and from which all labour movements emanate, namely, +South Lancashire with its central city Manchester. Again we have +beautiful hill country, sloping gently from the watershed westwards +towards the Irish Sea, with the charming green valleys of the Ribble, +the Irwell, the Mersey, and their tributaries, a country which, a hundred +years ago chiefly swamp land, thinly populated, is now sown with towns +and villages, <!-- page 42--><a name="page42"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 42</span>and +is the most densely populated strip of country in England. In +Lancashire, and especially in Manchester, English manufacture finds +at once its starting point and its centre. The Manchester Exchange +is the thermometer for all the fluctuations of trade. The modern +art of manufacture has reached its perfection in Manchester. In +the cotton industry of South Lancashire, the application of the forces +of Nature, the superseding of hand labour by machinery (especially by +the power-loom and the self-acting mule), and the division of labour, +are seen at the highest point; and, if we recognise in these three elements +that which is characteristic of modern manufacture, we must confess +that the cotton industry has remained in advance of all other branches +of industry from the beginning down to the present day. The effects +of modern manufacture upon the working-class must necessarily develop +here most freely and perfectly, and the manufacturing proletariat present +itself in its fullest classic perfection. The degradation to which +the application of steam-power, machinery and the division of labour +reduce the working-man, and the attempts of the proletariat to rise +above this abasement, must likewise be carried to the highest point +and with the fullest consciousness. Hence because Manchester is +the classic type of a modern manufacturing town, and because I know +it as intimately as my own native town, more intimately than most of +its residents know it, we shall make a longer stay here.</p> +<p>The towns surrounding Manchester vary little from the central city, +so far as the working-people’s quarters are concerned, except +that the working-class forms, if possible, a larger proportion of their +population. These towns are purely industrial and conduct all +their business through Manchester upon which they are in every respect +dependent, whence they are inhabited only by working-men and petty tradesmen, +while Manchester has a very considerable commercial population, especially +of commission and “respectable” retail dealers. Hence +Bolton, Preston, Wigan, Bury, Rochdale, Middleton, Heywood, Oldham, +Ashton, Stalybridge, Stockport, etc., though nearly all towns of thirty, +fifty, seventy to ninety thousand inhabitants, are almost wholly working-people’s +<!-- page 43--><a name="page43"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 43</span>districts, +interspersed only with factories, a few thoroughfares lined with shops, +and a few lanes along which the gardens and houses of the manufacturers +are scattered like villas. The towns themselves are badly and +irregularly built with foul courts, lanes, and back alleys, reeking +of coal smoke, and especially dingy from the originally bright red brick, +turned black with time, which is here the universal building material. +Cellar dwellings are general here; wherever it is in any way possible, +these subterranean dens are constructed, and a very considerable portion +of the population dwells in them.</p> +<p>Among the worst of these towns after Preston and Oldham is Bolton, +eleven miles north-west of Manchester. It has, so far as I have +been able to observe in my repeated visits, but one main street, a very +dirty one, Deansgate, which serves as a market, and is even in the finest +weather a dark, unattractive hole in spite of the fact that, except +for the factories, its sides are formed by low one and two-storied houses. +Here, as everywhere, the older part of the town is especially ruinous +and miserable. A dark-coloured body of water, which leaves the +beholder in doubt whether it is a brook or a long string of stagnant +puddles, flows through the town and contributes its share to the total +pollution of the air, by no means pure without it.</p> +<p>There is Stockport, too, which lies on the Cheshire side of the Mersey, +but belongs nevertheless to the manufacturing district of Manchester. +It lies in a narrow valley along the Mersey, so that the streets slope +down a steep hill on one side and up an equally steep one on the other, +while the railway from Manchester to Birmingham passes over a high viaduct +above the city and the whole valley. Stockport is renowned throughout +the entire district as one of the duskiest, smokiest holes, and looks, +indeed, especially when viewed from the viaduct, excessively repellent. +But far more repulsive are the cottages and cellar dwellings of the +working-class, which stretch in long rows through all parts of the town +from the valley bottom to the crest of the hill. I do not remember +to have seen so many cellars used as dwellings in any other town of +this district.</p> +<p><!-- page 44--><a name="page44"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 44</span>A +few miles north-east of Stockport is Ashton-under-Lyne, one of the newest +factory towns of this region. It stands on the slope of a hill +at the foot of which are the canal and the river Tame, and is, in general, +built on the newer, more regular plan. Five or six parallel streets +stretch along the hill intersected at right angles by others leading +down into the valley. By this method, the factories would be excluded +from the town proper, even if the proximity of the river and the canal-way +did not draw them all into the valley where they stand thickly crowded, +belching forth black smoke from their chimneys. To this arrangement +Ashton owes a much more attractive appearance than that of most factory +towns; the streets are broad and cleaner, the cottages look new, bright +red, and comfortable. But the modern system of building cottages +for working-men has its own disadvantages; every street has its concealed +back lane to which a narrow paved path leads, and which is all the dirtier. +And, although I saw no buildings, except a few on entering, which could +have been more than fifty years old, there are even in Ashton streets +in which the cottages are getting bad, where the bricks in the house-corners +are no longer firm but shift about, in which the walls have cracks and +will not hold the chalk whitewash inside; streets, whose dirty, smoke-begrimed +aspect is nowise different from that of the other towns of the district, +except that in Ashton, this is the exception, not the rule.</p> +<p>A mile eastward lies Stalybridge, also on the Tame. In coming +over the hill from Ashton, the traveller has, at the top, both right +and left, fine large gardens with superb villa-like houses in their +midst, built usually in the Elizabethan style, which is to the Gothic +precisely what the Anglican Church is to the Apostolic Roman Catholic. +A hundred paces farther and Stalybridge shows itself in the valley, +in sharp contrast with the beautiful country seats, in sharp contrast +even with the modest cottages of Ashton! Stalybridge lies in a +narrow, crooked ravine, much narrower even than the valley at Stockport, +and both sides of this ravine are occupied by an irregular group of +cottages, houses, and mills. On entering, the very first cottages +are narrow, smoke-begrimed, old and ruinous; and as the first houses, +so the whole town. A few streets <!-- page 45--><a name="page45"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 45</span>lie +in the narrow valley bottom, most of them run criss-cross, pell-mell, +up hill and down, and in nearly all the houses, by reason of this sloping +situation, the ground floor is half-buried in the earth; and what multitudes +of courts, back lanes, and remote nooks arise out of this confused way +of building may be seen from the hills, whence one has the town, here +and there, in a bird’s-eye view almost at one’s feet. +Add to this the shocking filth, and the repulsive effect of Stalybridge, +in spite of its pretty surroundings, may be readily imagined.</p> +<p>But enough of these little towns. Each has its own peculiarities, +but in general, the working-people live in them just as in Manchester. +Hence I have especially sketched only their peculiar construction, and +would observe, that all more general observations as to the condition +of the labouring population in Manchester are fully applicable to these +surrounding towns as well.</p> +<p>Manchester lies at the foot of the southern slope of a range of hills, +which stretch hither from Oldham, their last peak, Kersallmoor, being +at once the racecourse and the Mons Sacer of Manchester. Manchester +proper lies on the left bank of the Irwell, between that stream and +the two smaller ones, the Irk and the Medlock, which here empty into +the Irwell. On the left bank of the Irwell, bounded by a sharp +curve of the river, lies Salford, and farther westward Pendleton; northward +from the Irwell lie Upper and Lower Broughton; northward of the Irk, +Cheetham Hill; south of the Medlock lies Hulme; farther east Chorlton +on Medlock; still farther, pretty well to the east of Manchester, Ardwick. +The whole assemblage of buildings is commonly called Manchester, and +contains about four hundred thousand inhabitants, rather more than less. +The town itself is peculiarly built, so that a person may live in it +for years, and go in and out daily without coming into contact with +a working-people’s quarter or even with workers, that is, so long +as he confines himself to his business or to pleasure walks. This +arises chiefly from the fact, that by unconscious tacit agreement, as +well as with outspoken conscious determination, the working-people’s +quarters are sharply separated from the sections of the city reserved +for the middle-class; or, if <!-- page 46--><a name="page46"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 46</span>this +does not succeed, they are concealed with the cloak of charity. +Manchester contains, at its heart, a rather extended commercial district, +perhaps half a mile long and about as broad, and consisting almost wholly +of offices and warehouses. Nearly the whole district is abandoned +by dwellers, and is lonely and deserted at night; only watchmen and +policemen traverse its narrow lanes with their dark lanterns. +This district is cut through by certain main thoroughfares upon which +the vast traffic concentrates, and in which the ground level is lined +with brilliant shops. In these streets the upper floors are occupied, +here and there, and there is a good deal of life upon them until late +at night. With the exception of this commercial district, all +Manchester proper, all Salford and Hulme, a great part of Pendleton +and Chorlton, two-thirds of Ardwick, and single stretches of Cheetham +Hill and Broughton are all unmixed working-people’s quarters, +stretching like a girdle, averaging a mile and a half in breadth, around +the commercial district. Outside, beyond this girdle, lives the +upper and middle bourgeoisie, the middle bourgeoisie in regularly laid +out streets in the vicinity of the working quarters, especially in Chorlton +and the lower lying portions of Cheetham Hill; the upper bourgeoisie +in remoter villas with gardens in Chorlton and Ardwick, or on the breezy +heights of Cheetham Hill, Broughton, and Pendleton, in free, wholesome +country air, in fine, comfortable homes, passed once every half or quarter +hour by omnibuses going into the city. And the finest part of +the arrangement is this, that the members of this money aristocracy +can take the shortest road through the middle of all the labouring districts +to their places of business, without ever seeing that they are in the +midst of the grimy misery that lurks to the right and the left. +For the thoroughfares leading from the Exchange in all directions out +of the city are lined, on both sides, with an almost unbroken series +of shops, and are so kept in the hands of the middle and lower bourgeoisie, +which, out of self-interest, cares for a decent and cleanly external +appearance and <i>can</i> care for it. True, these shops bear +some relation to the districts which lie behind them, and are more elegant +in the commercial and residential quarters than when they <!-- page 47--><a name="page47"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 47</span>hide +grimy working-men’s dwellings; but they suffice to conceal from +the eyes of the wealthy men and women of strong stomachs and weak nerves +the misery and grime which form the complement of their wealth. +So, for instance, Deansgate, which leads from the Old Church directly +southward, is lined first with mills and warehouses, then with second-rate +shops and alehouses; farther south, when it leaves the commercial district, +with less inviting shops, which grow dirtier and more interrupted by +beerhouses and gin palaces the farther one goes, until at the southern +end the appearance of the shops leaves no doubt that workers and workers +only are their customers. So Market Street running south-east +from the Exchange; at first brilliant shops of the best sort, with counting-houses +or warehouses above; in the continuation, Piccadilly, immense hotels +and warehouses; in the farther continuation, London Road, in the neighbourhood +of the Medlock, factories, beerhouses, shops for the humbler bourgeoisie +and the working population; and from this point onward, large gardens +and villas of the wealthier merchants and manufacturers. In this +way any one who knows Manchester can infer the adjoining districts, +from the appearance of the thoroughfare, but one is seldom in a position +to catch from the street a glimpse of the real labouring districts. +I know very well that this hypocritical plan is more or less common +to all great cities; I know, too, that the retail dealers are forced +by the nature of their business to take possession of the great highways; +I know that there are more good buildings than bad ones upon such streets +everywhere, and that the value of land is greater near them than in +remoter districts; but at the same time I have never seen so systematic +a shutting out of the working-class from the thoroughfares, so tender +a concealment of everything which might affront the eye and the nerves +of the bourgeoisie, as in Manchester. And yet, in other respects, +Manchester is less built according to a plan, after official regulations, +is more an outgrowth of accident, than any other city; and when I consider +in this connection the eager assurances of the middle-class, that the +working-class is doing famously, I cannot help feeling that the liberal +manufacturers, the “Big Wigs” of Manchester, <!-- page 48--><a name="page48"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 48</span>are +not so innocent after all, in the matter of this sensitive method of +construction.</p> +<p>I may mention just here that the mills almost all adjoin the rivers +or the different canals that ramify throughout the city, before I proceed +at once to describe the labouring quarters. First of all, there +is the old town of Manchester, which lies between the northern boundary +of the commercial district and the Irk. Here the streets, even +the better ones, are narrow and winding, as Todd Street, Long Millgate, +Withy Grove, and Shude Hill, the houses dirty, old, and tumble-down, +and the construction of the side streets utterly horrible. Going +from the Old Church to Long Millgate, the stroller has at once a row +of old-fashioned houses at the right, of which not one has kept its +original level; these are remnants of the old pre-manufacturing Manchester, +whose former inhabitants have removed with their descendants into better-built +districts, and have left the houses, which were not good enough for +them, to a population strongly mixed with Irish blood. Here one +is in an almost undisguised working-men’s quarter, for even the +shops and beerhouses hardly take the trouble to exhibit a trifling degree +of cleanliness. But all this is nothing in comparison with the +courts and lanes which lie behind, to which access can be gained only +through covered passages, in which no two human beings can pass at the +same time. Of the irregular cramming together of dwellings in +ways which defy all rational plan, of the tangle in which they are crowded +literally one upon the other, it is impossible to convey an idea. +And it is not the buildings surviving from the old times of Manchester +which are to blame for this; the confusion has only recently reached +its height when every scrap of space left by the old way of building +has been filled up and patched over until not a foot of land is left +to be further occupied.</p> +<p>The south bank of the Irk is here very steep and between fifteen +and thirty feet high. On this declivitous hillside there are planted +three rows of houses, of which the lowest rise directly out of the river, +while the front walls of the highest stand on the crest of the hill +in Long Millgate. Among them are mills on the river, <!-- page 49--><a name="page49"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 49</span>in +short, the method of construction is as crowded and disorderly here +as in the lower part of Long Millgate. Right and left a multitude +of covered passages lead from the main street into numerous courts, +and he who turns in thither gets into a filth and disgusting grime, +the equal of which is not to be found—especially in the courts +which lead down to the Irk, and which contain unqualifiedly the most +horrible dwellings which I have yet beheld. In one of these courts +there stands directly at the entrance, at the end of the covered passage, +a privy without a door, so dirty that the inhabitants can pass into +and out of the court only by passing through foul pools of stagnant +urine and excrement. This is the first court on the Irk above +Ducie Bridge—in case any one should care to look into it. +Below it on the river there are several tanneries which fill the whole +neighbourhood with the stench of animal putrefaction. Below Ducie +Bridge the only entrance to most of the houses is by means of narrow, +dirty stairs and over heaps of refuse and filth. The first court +below Ducie Bridge, known as Allen’s Court, was in such a state +at the time of the cholera that the sanitary police ordered it evacuated, +swept, and disinfected with chloride of lime. Dr. Kay gives a +terrible description of the state of this court at that time. <a name="citation49"></a><a href="#footnote49">{49}</a> +Since then, it seems to have been partially torn away and rebuilt; at +least looking down from Ducie Bridge, the passer-by sees several ruined +walls and heaps of débris with some newer houses. The view +from this bridge, mercifully concealed from mortals of small stature +by a parapet as high as a man, is characteristic for the whole district. +At the bottom flows, or rather stagnates, the Irk, a narrow, coal-black, +foul-smelling stream, full of débris and refuse, which it deposits +on the shallower right bank. In dry weather, a long string of +the most disgusting, blackish-green, slime pools are left standing on +this bank, from the depths of which bubbles of miasmatic gas constantly +<!-- page 50--><a name="page50"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 50</span>arise +and give forth a stench unendurable even on the bridge forty or fifty +feet above the surface of the stream. But besides this, the stream +itself is checked every few paces by high weirs, behind which slime +and refuse accumulate and rot in thick masses. Above the bridge +are tanneries, bonemills, and gasworks, from which all drains and refuse +find their way into the Irk, which receives further the contents of +all the neighbouring sewers and privies. It may be easily imagined, +therefore, what sort of residue the stream deposits. Below the +bridge you look upon the piles of débris, the refuse, filth, +and offal from the courts on the steep left bank; here each house is +packed close behind its neighbour and a piece of each is visible, all +black, smoky, crumbling, ancient, with broken panes and window frames. +The background is furnished by old barrack-like factory buildings. +On the lower right bank stands a long row of houses and mills; the second +house being a ruin without a roof, piled with débris; the third +stands so low that the lowest floor is uninhabitable, and therefore +without windows or doors. Here the background embraces the pauper +burial-ground, the station of the Liverpool and Leeds railway, and, +in the rear of this, the Workhouse, the “Poor-Law Bastille” +of Manchester, which, like a citadel, looks threateningly down from +behind its high walls and parapets on the hilltop, upon the working-people’s +quarter below.</p> +<p>Above Ducie Bridge, the left bank grows more flat and the right bank +steeper, but the condition of the dwellings on both banks grows worse +rather than better. He who turns to the left here from the main +street, Long Millgate, is lost; he wanders from one court to another, +turns countless corners, passes nothing but narrow, filthy nooks and +alleys, until after a few minutes he has lost all clue, and knows not +whither to turn. Everywhere half or wholly ruined buildings, some +of them actually uninhabited, which means a great deal here; rarely +a wooden or stone floor to be seen in the houses, almost uniformly broken, +ill-fitting windows and doors, and a state of filth! Everywhere +heaps of débris, refuse, and offal; standing pools for gutters, +and a stench which alone would make it impossible for a human being +in any degree <!-- page 51--><a name="page51"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 51</span>civilised +to live in such a district. The newly-built extension of the Leeds +railway, which crosses the Irk here, has swept away some of these courts +and lanes, laying others completely open to view. Immediately +under the railway bridge there stands a court, the filth and horrors +of which surpass all the others by far, just because it was hitherto +so shut off, so secluded that the way to it could not be found without +a good deal of trouble. I should never have discovered it myself, +without the breaks made by the railway, though I thought I knew this +whole region thoroughly. Passing along a rough bank, among stakes +and washing-lines, one penetrates into this chaos of small one-storied, +one-roomed huts, in most of which there is no artificial floor; kitchen, +living and sleeping-room all in one. In such a hole, scarcely +five feet long by six broad, I found two beds—and such bedsteads +and beds!—which, with a staircase and chimney-place, exactly filled +the room. In several others I found absolutely nothing, while +the door stood open, and the inhabitants leaned against it. Everywhere +before the doors refuse and offal; that any sort of pavement lay underneath +could not be seen but only felt, here and there, with the feet. +This whole collection of cattle-sheds for human beings was surrounded +on two sides by houses and a factory, and on the third by the river, +and besides the narrow stair up the bank, a narrow doorway alone led +out into another almost equally ill-built, ill-kept labyrinth of dwellings.</p> +<p>Enough! The whole side of the Irk is built in this way, a planless, +knotted chaos of houses, more or less on the verge of uninhabitableness, +whose unclean interiors fully correspond with their filthy external +surroundings. And how could the people be clean with no proper +opportunity for satisfying the most natural and ordinary wants? +Privies are so rare here that they are either filled up every day, or +are too remote for most of the inhabitants to use. How can people +wash when they have only the dirty Irk water at hand, while pumps and +water pipes can be found in decent parts of the city alone? In +truth, it cannot be charged to the account of these helots of modern +society if their dwellings are not more cleanly than the pig-sties which +are here and there <!-- page 52--><a name="page52"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 52</span>to +be seen among them. The landlords are not ashamed to let dwellings +like the six or seven cellars on the quay directly below Scotland Bridge, +the floors of which stand at least two feet below the low-water level +of the Irk that flows not six feet away from them; or like the upper +floor of the corner-house on the opposite shore directly above the bridge, +where the ground floor, utterly uninhabitable, stands deprived of all +fittings for doors and windows, a case by no means rare in this region, +when this open ground floor is used as a privy by the whole neighbourhood +for want of other facilities!</p> +<p>If we leave the Irk and penetrate once more on the opposite side +from Long Millgate into the midst of the working-men’s dwellings, +we shall come into a somewhat newer quarter, which stretches from St. +Michael’s Church to Withy Grove and Shude Hill. Here there +is somewhat better order. In place of the chaos of buildings, +we find at least long straight lanes and alleys or courts, built according +to a plan and usually square. But if, in the former case, every +house was built according to caprice, here each lane and court is so +built, without reference to the situation of the adjoining ones. +The lanes run now in this direction, now in that, while every two minutes +the wanderer gets into a blind alley, or, on turning a corner, finds +himself back where he started from; certainly no one who has not lived +a considerable time in this labyrinth can find his way through it.</p> +<p>If I may use the word at all in speaking of this district, the ventilation +of these streets and courts is, in consequence of this confusion, quite +as imperfect as in the Irk region; and if this quarter may, nevertheless, +be said to have some advantage over that of the Irk, the houses being +newer and the streets occasionally having gutters, nearly every house +has, on the other hand, a cellar dwelling, which is rarely found in +the Irk district, by reason of the greater age and more careless construction +of the houses. As for the rest, the filth, débris, and +offal heaps, and the pools in the streets are common to both quarters, +and in the district now under discussion, another feature most injurious +to the cleanliness of the inhabitants, is the multitude of pigs walking +about in all <!-- page 53--><a name="page53"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 53</span>the +alleys, rooting into the offal heaps, or kept imprisoned in small pens. +Here, as in most of the working-men’s quarters of Manchester, +the pork-raisers rent the courts and build pig-pens in them. In +almost every court one or even several such pens may be found, into +which the inhabitants of the court throw all refuse and offal, whence +the swine grow fat; and the atmosphere, confined on all four sides, +is utterly corrupted by putrefying animal and vegetable substances. +Through this quarter, a broad and measurably decent street has been +cut, Millers Street, and the background has been pretty successfully +concealed. But if any one should be led by curiosity to pass through +one of the numerous passages which lead into the courts, he will find +this piggery repeated at every twenty paces.</p> +<p>Such is the Old Town of Manchester, and on re-reading my description, +I am forced to admit that instead of being exaggerated, it is far from +black enough to convey a true impression of the filth, ruin, and uninhabitableness, +the defiance of all considerations of cleanliness, ventilation, and +health which characterise the construction of this single district, +containing at least twenty to thirty thousand inhabitants. And +such a district exists in the heart of the second city of England, the +first manufacturing city of the world. If any one wishes to see +in how little space a human being can move, how little air—and +<i>such</i> air!—he can breathe, how little of civilisation he +may share and yet live, it is only necessary to travel hither. +True, this is the <i>Old</i> Town, and the people of Manchester emphasise +the fact whenever any one mentions to them the frightful condition of +this Hell upon Earth; but what does that prove? Everything which +here arouses horror and indignation is of recent origin, belongs to +the <i>industrial epoch</i>. The couple of hundred houses, which +belong to old Manchester, have been long since abandoned by their original +inhabitants; the industrial epoch alone has crammed into them the swarms +of workers whom they now shelter; the industrial epoch alone has built +up every spot between these old houses to win a covering for the masses +whom it has conjured hither from the agricultural districts and from +Ireland; the industrial epoch alone enables the owners of <!-- page 54--><a name="page54"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 54</span>these +cattle-sheds to rent them for high prices to human beings, to plunder +the poverty of the workers, to undermine the health of thousands, in +order that they <i>alone</i>, the owners, may grow rich. In the +industrial epoch alone has it become possible that the worker scarcely +freed from feudal servitude could be used as mere material, a mere chattel; +that he must let himself be crowded into a dwelling too bad for every +other, which he for his hard-earned wages buys the right to let go utterly +to ruin. This manufacture has achieved, which, without these workers, +this poverty, this slavery could not have lived. True, the original +construction of this quarter was bad, little good could have been made +out of it; but, have the landowners, has the municipality done anything +to improve it when rebuilding? On the contrary, wherever a nook +or corner was free, a house has been run up; where a superfluous passage +remained, it has been built up; the value of land rose with the blossoming +out of manufacture, and the more it rose, the more madly was the work +of building up carried on, without reference to the health or comfort +of the inhabitants, with sole reference to the highest possible profit +on the principle that <i>no hole is so bad but that some poor creature +must take it who can pay for nothing better</i>. However, it is +the Old Town, and with this reflection the bourgeoisie is comforted. +Let us see, therefore, how much better it is in the New Town.</p> +<p>The New Town, known also as Irish Town, stretches up a hill of clay, +beyond the Old Town, between the Irk and St. George’s Road. +Here all the features of a city are lost. Single rows of houses +or groups of streets stand, here and there, like little villages on +the naked, not even grass-grown clay soil; the houses, or rather cottages, +are in bad order, never repaired, filthy, with damp, unclean, cellar +dwellings; the lanes are neither paved nor supplied with sewers, but +harbour numerous colonies of swine penned in small sties or yards, or +wandering unrestrained through the neighbourhood. The mud in the +streets is so deep that there is never a chance, except in the dryest +weather, of walking without sinking into it ankle deep at every step. +In the vicinity of St. George’s Road, the separate groups of buildings +approach each <!-- page 55--><a name="page55"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 55</span>other +more closely, ending in a continuation of lanes, blind alleys, back +lanes and courts, which grow more and more crowded and irregular the +nearer they approach the heart of the town. True, they are here +oftener paved or supplied with paved sidewalks and gutters; but the +filth, the bad order of the houses, and especially of the cellars, remains +the same.</p> +<p>It may not be out of place to make some general observations just +here as to the customary construction of working-men’s quarters +in Manchester. We have seen how in the Old Town pure accident +determined the grouping of the houses in general. Every house +is built without reference to any other, and the scraps of space between +them are called courts for want of another name. In the somewhat +newer portions of the same quarter, and in other working-men’s +quarters, dating from the early days of industrial activity, a somewhat +more orderly arrangement may be found. The space between two streets +is divided into more regular, usually square courts.</p> +<p>These courts were built in this way from the beginning, and communicate +with the streets by means of covered passages. If the totally +planless construction is injurious to the health of the workers by preventing +ventilation, this method of shutting them up in courts surrounded on +all sides by buildings is far more so. The air simply cannot escape; +the chimneys of the houses are the sole drains for the imprisoned atmosphere +of the courts, and they serve the purpose only so long as fire is kept +burning. <a name="citation55"></a><a href="#footnote55">{55}</a> +Moreover, the houses surrounding such courts are usually built back +to back, having the rear wall in common; and this alone suffices to +prevent any sufficient through ventilation. And, as the police +charged with care of the streets, does not trouble itself about the +condition of these courts, as everything quietly lies where it is thrown, +there is no cause for wonder at the filth and heaps of ashes and offal +to be <!-- page 56--><a name="page56"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 56</span>found +here. I have been in courts, in Millers Street, at least half +a foot below the level of the thoroughfares, and without the slightest +drainage for the water that accumulates in them in rainy weather! +More recently another different method of building was adopted, and +has now become general. Working-men’s cottages are almost +never built singly, but always by the dozen or score; a single contractor +building up one or two streets at a time. These are then arranged +as follows: One front is formed of cottages of the best class, so fortunate +as to possess a back door and small court, and these command the highest +rent. In the rear of these cottages runs a narrow alley, the back +street, built up at both ends, into which either a narrow roadway or +a covered passage leads from one side. The cottages which face +this back street command least rent, and are most neglected. These +have their rear walls in common with the third row of cottages which +face a second street, and command less rent than the first row and more +than the second.</p> +<p>By this method of construction, comparatively good ventilation can +be obtained for the first row of cottages, and the third row is no worse +off than in the former method. The middle row, on the other hand, +is at least as badly ventilated as the houses in the courts, and the +back street is always in the same filthy, disgusting condition as they. +The contractors prefer this method because it saves them space, and +furnishes the means of fleecing better paid workers through the higher +rents of the cottages in the first and third rows. These three +different forms of cottage building are found all over Manchester and +throughout Lancashire and Yorkshire, often mixed up together, but usually +separate enough to indicate the relative age of parts of towns. +The third system, that of the back alleys, prevails largely in the great +working-men’s district east of St. George’s Road and Ancoats +Street, and is the one most often found in the other working-men’s +quarters of Manchester and its suburbs.</p> +<p>In the last-mentioned broad district included under the name Ancoats, +stand the largest mills of Manchester lining the canals, colossal six +and seven-storied buildings towering with their slender <!-- page 57--><a name="page57"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 57</span>chimneys +far above the low cottages of the workers. The population of the +district consists, therefore, chiefly of mill hands, and in the worst +streets, of hand-weavers. The streets nearest the heart of the +town are the oldest, and consequently the worst; they are, however, +paved, and supplied with drains. Among them I include those nearest +to and parallel with Oldham Road and Great Ancoats Street. Farther +to the north-east lie many newly-built-up streets; here the cottages +look neat and cleanly, doors and windows are new and freshly painted, +the rooms within newly whitewashed; the streets themselves are better +aired, the vacant building lots between them larger and more numerous. +But this can be said of a minority of the houses only, while cellar +dwellings are to be found under almost every cottage; many streets are +unpaved and without sewers; and, worse than all, this neat appearance +is all pretence, a pretence which vanishes within the first ten years. +For the construction of the cottages individually is no less to be condemned +than the plan of the streets. All such cottages look neat and +substantial at first; their massive brick walls deceive the eye, and, +on passing through a <i>newly-built</i> working-men’s street, +without remembering the back alleys and the construction of the houses +themselves, one is inclined to agree with the assertion of the Liberal +manufacturers that the working population is nowhere so well housed +as in England. But on closer examination, it becomes evident that +the walls of these cottages are as thin as it is possible to make them. +The outer walls, those of the cellar, which bear the weight of the ground +floor and roof, are one whole brick thick at most, the bricks lying +with their long sides touching; but I have seen many a cottage of the +same height, some in process of building, whose outer walls were but +one-half brick thick, the bricks lying not sidewise but lengthwise, +their narrow ends touching. The object of this is to spare material, +but there is also another reason for it; namely, the fact that the contractors +never own the land but lease it, according to the English custom, for +twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, or ninety-nine years, at the expiration +of which time it falls, with everything upon it, back into the possession +of the original holder, <!-- page 58--><a name="page58"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 58</span>who +pays nothing in return for improvements upon it. The improvements +are therefore so calculated by the lessee as to be worth as little as +possible at the expiration of the stipulated term. And as such +cottages are often built but twenty or thirty years before the expiration +of the term, it may easily be imagined that the contractors make no +unnecessary expenditures upon them. Moreover, these contractors, +usually carpenters and builders, or manufacturers, spend little or nothing +in repairs, partly to avoid diminishing their rent receipts, and partly +in view of the approaching surrender of the improvement to the landowner; +while in consequence of commercial crises and the loss of work that +follows them, whole streets often stand empty, the cottages falling +rapidly into ruin and uninhabitableness. It is calculated in general +that working-men’s cottages last only forty years on the average. +This sounds strangely enough when one sees the beautiful, massive walls +of newly-built ones, which seem to give promise of lasting a couple +of centuries; but the fact remains that the niggardliness of the original +expenditure, the neglect of all repairs, the frequent periods of emptiness, +the constant change of inhabitants, and the destruction carried on by +the dwellers during the final ten years, usually Irish families, who +do not hesitate to use the wooden portions for fire-wood—all this, +taken together, accomplishes the complete ruin of the cottages by the +end of forty years. Hence it comes that Ancoats, built chiefly +since the sudden growth of manufacture, chiefly indeed within the present +century, contains a vast number of ruinous houses, most of them being, +in fact, in the last stages of inhabitableness. I will not dwell +upon the amount of capital thus wasted, the small additional expenditure +upon the original improvement and upon repairs which would suffice to +keep this whole district clean, decent, and inhabitable for years together. +I have to deal here with the state of the houses and their inhabitants, +and it must be admitted that no more injurious and demoralising method +of housing the workers has yet been discovered than precisely this. +The working-man is constrained to occupy such ruinous dwellings because +he cannot pay for others, and because there are no others in the vicinity +of <!-- page 59--><a name="page59"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 59</span>his +mill; perhaps, too, because they belong to the employer, who engages +him only on condition of his taking such a cottage. The calculation +with reference to the forty years’ duration of the cottage is, +of course, not always perfectly strict; for, if the dwellings are in +a thickly-built-up portion of the town, and there is a good prospect +of finding steady occupants for them, while the ground rent is high, +the contractors do a little something to keep the cottages inhabitable +after the expiration of the forty years. They never do anything +more, however, than is absolutely unavoidable, and the dwellings so +repaired are the worst of all. Occasionally when an epidemic threatens, +the otherwise sleepy conscience of the sanitary police is a little stirred, +raids are made into the working-men’s districts, whole rows of +cellars and cottages are closed, as happened in the case of several +lanes near Oldham Road; but this does not last long: the condemned cottages +soon find occupants again, the owners are much better off by letting +them, and the sanitary police won’t come again so soon. +These east and north-east sides of Manchester are the only ones on which +the bourgeoisie has not built, because ten or eleven months of the year +the west and south-west wind drives the smoke of all the factories hither, +and that the working-people alone may breathe.</p> +<p>Southward from Great Ancoats Street, lies a great, straggling, working-men’s +quarter, a hilly, barren stretch of land, occupied by detached, irregularly +built rows of houses or squares, between these, empty building lots, +uneven, clayey, without grass and scarcely passable in wet weather. +The cottages are all filthy and old, and recall the New Town to mind. +The stretch cut through by the Birmingham railway is the most thickly +built-up and the worst. Here flows the Medlock with countless +windings through a valley, which is, in places, on a level with the +valley of the Irk. Along both sides of the stream, which is coal +black, stagnant and foul, stretches a broad belt of factories and working-men’s +dwellings, the latter all in the worst condition. The bank is +chiefly declivitous and is built over to the water’s edge, just +as we saw along the Irk; while the houses are equally bad, whether built +on the Manchester side or in Ardwick, Chorlton, or Hulme. But +the <!-- page 60--><a name="page60"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 60</span>most +horrible spot (if I should describe all the separate spots in detail +I should never come to the end) lies on the Manchester side, immediately +south-west of Oxford Road, and is known as Little Ireland. In +a rather deep hole, in a curve of the Medlock and surrounded on all +four sides by tall factories and high embankments, covered with buildings, +stand two groups of about two hundred cottages, built chiefly back to +back, in which live about four thousand human beings, most of them Irish. +The cottages are old, dirty, and of the smallest sort, the streets uneven, +fallen into ruts and in part without drains or pavement; masses of refuse, +offal and sickening filth lie among standing pools in all directions; +the atmosphere is poisoned by the effluvia from these, and laden and +darkened by the smoke of a dozen tall factory chimneys. A horde +of ragged women and children swarm about here, as filthy as the swine +that thrive upon the garbage heaps and in the puddles. In short, +the whole rookery furnishes such a hateful and repulsive spectacle as +can hardly be equalled in the worst court on the Irk. The race +that lives in these ruinous cottages, behind broken windows, mended +with oilskin, sprung doors, and rotten door-posts, or in dark, wet cellars, +in measureless filth and stench, in this atmosphere penned in as if +with a purpose, this race must really have reached the lowest stage +of humanity. This is the impression and the line of thought which +the exterior of this district forces upon the beholder. But what +must one think when he hears that in each of these pens, containing +at most two rooms, a garret and perhaps a cellar, on the average twenty +human beings live; that in the whole region, for each one hundred and +twenty persons, one usually inaccessible privy is provided; and that +in spite of all the preachings of the physicians, in spite of the excitement +into which the cholera epidemic plunged the sanitary police by reason +of the condition of Little Ireland, in spite of everything, in this +year of grace 1844, it is in almost the same state as in 1831! +Dr. Kay asserts that not only the cellars but the first floors of all +the houses in this district are damp; that a number of cellars once +filled up with earth have now been emptied and are occupied <!-- page 61--><a name="page61"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 61</span>once +more by Irish people; that in one cellar the water constantly wells +up through a hole stopped with clay, the cellar lying below the river +level, so that its occupant, a hand-loom weaver, had to bale out the +water from his dwelling every morning and pour it into the street!</p> +<p>Farther down, on the left side of the Medlock, lies Hulme, which, +properly speaking, is one great working-people’s district, the +condition of which coincides almost exactly with that of Ancoats; the +more thickly built-up regions chiefly bad and approaching ruin, the +less populous of more modern structure, but generally sunk in filth. +On the other side of the Medlock, in Manchester proper, lies a second +great working-men’s district which stretches on both sides of +Deansgate as far as the business quarter, and in certain parts rivals +the Old Town. Especially in the immediate vicinity of the business +quarter, between Bridge and Quay Streets, Princess and Peter Streets, +the crowded construction exceeds in places the narrowest courts of the +Old Town. Here are long, narrow lanes between which run contracted, +crooked courts and passages, the entrances to which are so irregular +that the explorer is caught in a blind alley at every few steps, or +comes out where he least expects to, unless he knows every court and +every alley exactly and separately. According to Dr. Kay, the +most demoralised class of all Manchester lived in these ruinous and +filthy districts, people whose occupations are thieving and prostitution; +and, to all appearance, his assertion is still true at the present moment. +When the sanitary police made its expedition hither in 1831, it found +the uncleanness as great as in Little Ireland or along the Irk (that +it is not much better to-day, I can testify); and among other items, +they found in Parliament Street for three hundred and eighty persons, +and in Parliament Passage for thirty thickly populated houses, but a +single privy.</p> +<p>If we cross the Irwell to Salford, we find on a peninsula formed +by the river, a town of eighty thousand inhabitants, which, properly +speaking, is one large working-men’s quarter, penetrated by a +single wide avenue. Salford, once more important than Manchester, +was then the leading town of the surrounding district to <!-- page 62--><a name="page62"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 62</span>which +it still gives its name, Salford Hundred. Hence it is that an +old and therefore very unwholesome, dirty, and ruinous locality is to +be found here, lying opposite the Old Church of Manchester, and in as +bad a condition as the Old Town on the other side of the Irwell. +Farther away from the river lies the newer portion, which is, however, +already beyond the limit of its forty years of cottage life, and therefore +ruinous enough. All Salford is built in courts or narrow lanes, +so narrow, that they remind me of the narrowest I have ever seen, the +little lanes of Genoa. The average construction of Salford is +in this respect much worse than that of Manchester, and so, too, in +respect to cleanliness. If, in Manchester, the police, from time +to time, every six or ten years, makes a raid upon the working-people’s +districts, closes the worst dwellings, and causes the filthiest spots +in these Augean stables to be cleansed, in Salford it seems to have +done absolutely nothing. The narrow side lanes and courts of Chapel +Street, Greengate, and Gravel Lane have certainly never been cleansed +since they were built. Of late, the Liverpool railway has been +carried through the middle of them, over a high viaduct, and has abolished +many of the filthiest nooks; but what does that avail? Whoever +passes over this viaduct and looks down, sees filth and wretchedness +enough; and, if any one takes the trouble to pass through these lanes, +and glance through the open doors and windows into the houses and cellars, +he can convince himself afresh with every step that the workers of Salford +live in dwellings in which cleanliness and comfort are impossible. +Exactly the same state of affairs is found in the more distant regions +of Salford, in Islington, along Regent Road, and back of the Bolton +railway. The working-men’s dwellings between Oldfield Road +and Cross Lane, where a mass of courts and alleys are to be found in +the worst possible state, vie with the dwellings of the Old Town in +filth and overcrowding. In this district I found a man, apparently +about sixty years old, living in a cow stable. He had constructed +a sort of chimney for his square pen, which had neither windows, floor, +nor ceiling, had obtained a bedstead and lived there, though the rain +dripped through his rotten roof. This man was too old and weak +for regular <!-- page 63--><a name="page63"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 63</span>work, +and supported himself by removing manure with a hand-cart; the dung-heaps +lay next door to his palace!</p> +<p>Such are the various working-people’s quarters of Manchester +as I had occasion to observe them personally during twenty months. +If we briefly formulate the result of our wanderings, we must admit +that 350,000 working-people of Manchester and its environs live, almost +all of them, in wretched, damp, filthy cottages, that the streets which +surround them are usually in the most miserable and filthy condition, +laid out without the slightest reference to ventilation, with reference +solely to the profit secured by the contractor. In a word, we +must confess that in the working-men’s dwellings of Manchester, +no cleanliness, no convenience, and consequently no comfortable family +life is possible; that in such dwellings only a physically degenerate +race, robbed of all humanity, degraded, reduced morally and physically +to bestiality, could feel comfortable and at home. And I am not +alone in making this assertion. We have seen that Dr. Kay gives +precisely the same description; and, though it is superfluous, I quote +further the words of a Liberal, <a name="citation63"></a><a href="#footnote63">{63}</a> +recognised and highly valued as an authority by the manufacturers, and +a fanatical opponent of all independent movements of the workers:</p> +<p>“As I passed through the dwellings of the mill hands in Irish +Town, Ancoats, and Little Ireland, I was only amazed that it is possible +to maintain a reasonable state of health in such homes. These +towns, for in extent and number of inhabitants they are towns, have +been erected with the utmost disregard of everything except the immediate +advantage of the speculating builder. A carpenter and builder +unite to buy a series of building sites (<i>i.e</i>., they lease them +for a number of years), and cover them with so-called houses. +In one place we found a whole street following the course of a ditch, +because in this way deeper cellars could be secured without the cost +of digging, cellars not for storing wares or rubbish, but for dwellings +for human beings. <i>Not one house of this street escaped the +cholera</i>. In general, the streets of these <!-- page 64--><a name="page64"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 64</span>suburbs +are unpaved, with a dung-heap or ditch in the middle; the houses are +built back to back, without ventilation or drainage, and whole families +are limited to a corner of a cellar or a garret.” I have +already referred to the unusual activity which the sanitary police manifested +during the cholera visitation. When the epidemic was approaching, +a universal terror seized the bourgeoisie of the city. People +remembered the unwholesome dwellings of the poor, and trembled before +the certainty that each of these slums would become a centre for the +plague, whence it would spread desolation in all directions through +the houses of the propertied class. A Health Commission was appointed +at once to investigate these districts, and report upon their condition +to the Town Council. Dr. Kay, himself a member of this Commission, +who visited in person every separate police district except one, the +eleventh, quotes extracts from their reports: There were inspected, +in all, 6,951 houses—naturally in Manchester proper alone, Salford +and the other suburbs being excluded. Of these, 6,565 urgently +needed whitewashing within; 960 were out of repair; 939 had insufficient +drains; 1,435 were damp; 452 were badly ventilated; 2,221 were without +privies. Of the 687 streets inspected, 248 were unpaved, 53 but +partially paved, 112 ill-ventilated, 352 containing standing pools, +heaps of débris, refuse, etc. To cleanse such an Augean +stable before the arrival of the cholera was, of course, out of the +question. A few of the worst nooks were therefore cleansed, and +everything else left as before. In the cleansed spots, as Little +Ireland proves, the old filthy condition was naturally restored in a +couple of months. As to the internal condition of these houses, +the same Commission reports a state of things similar to that which +we have already met with in London, Edinburgh, and other cities. <a name="citation64"></a><a href="#footnote64">{64}</a></p> +<p>It often happens that a whole Irish family is crowded into one bed; +often a heap of filthy straw or quilts of old sacking cover all in an +indiscriminate heap, where all alike are degraded by want, stolidity, +and wretchedness. Often the inspectors found, in a single house, +two families in two rooms. All slept in one, and <!-- page 65--><a name="page65"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 65</span>used +the other as a kitchen and dining-room in common. Often more than +one family lived in a single damp cellar, in whose pestilent atmosphere +twelve to sixteen persons were crowded together. To these and +other sources of disease must be added that pigs were kept, and other +disgusting things of the most revolting kind were found.</p> +<p>We must add that many families, who had but one room for themselves, +receive boarders and lodgers in it, that such lodgers of both sexes +by no means rarely sleep in the same bed with the married couple; and +that the single case of a man and his wife and his adult sister-in-law +sleeping in one bed was found, according to the “Report concerning +the sanitary condition of the working-class,” six times repeated +in Manchester. Common lodging-houses, too, are very numerous; +Dr. Kay gives their number in 1831 at 267 in Manchester proper, and +they must have increased greatly since then. Each of these receives +from twenty to thirty guests, so that they shelter all told, nightly, +from five to seven thousand human beings. The character of the +houses and their guests is the same as in other cities. Five to +seven beds in each room lie on the floor—without bedsteads, and +on these sleep, mixed indiscriminately, as many persons as apply. +What physical and moral atmosphere reigns in these holes I need not +state. Each of these houses is a focus of crime, the scene of +deeds against which human nature revolts, which would perhaps never +have been executed but for this forced centralisation of vice. <a name="citation65"></a><a href="#footnote65">{65}</a> +Gaskell gives the number <!-- page 66--><a name="page66"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 66</span>of +persons living in cellars in Manchester proper as 20,000. The +<i>Weekly Dispatch</i> gives the number, “according to official +reports,” as twelve per cent. of the working-class, which agrees +with Gaskell’s number; the workers being estimated at 175,000, +21,000 would form twelve per cent. of it. The cellar dwellings +in the suburbs are at least as numerous, so that the number of persons +living in cellars in Manchester—using its name in the broader +sense—is not less than forty to fifty thousand. So much +for the dwellings of the workers in the largest cities and towns. +The manner in which the need of a shelter is satisfied furnishes a standard +for the manner in which all other necessities are supplied. That +in these filthy holes a ragged, ill-fed population alone can dwell is +a safe conclusion, and such is the fact. The clothing of the working-people, +in the majority of cases, is in a very bad condition. The material +used for it is not of the best adapted. Wool and linen have almost +vanished from the wardrobe of both sexes, and cotton has taken their +place. Shirts are made of bleached or coloured cotton goods; the +dresses of the women are chiefly of cotton print goods, and woollen +petticoats are rarely to be seen on the washline. The men wear +chiefly trousers of fustian or other heavy cotton goods, and jackets +or coats of the same. Fustian has become the proverbial costume +of the working-men, who are called “fustian jackets,” and +call themselves so in contrast to the gentlemen who wear broadcloth, +which latter words are used as characteristic for the middle-class. +When Feargus O’Connor, the Chartist leader, came to Manchester +during the insurrection of 1842, he appeared, amidst the deafening applause +of the working-men, in a fustian suit of clothing. Hats are the +universal head-covering in England, even for working-men, hats of the +most diverse forms, round, high, broad-brimmed, narrow-brimmed, or without +brims—only the younger men in factory towns wearing caps. +Any one who does not own a hat folds himself a low, square paper cap.</p> +<p>The whole clothing of the working-class, even assuming it to be in +good condition, is little adapted to the climate. The damp air +of England, with its sudden changes of temperature, more calculated +than any other to give rise to colds, obliges almost the whole <!-- page 67--><a name="page67"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 67</span>middle-class +to wear flannel next the skin, about the body, and flannel scarfs and +shirts are in almost universal use. Not only is the working-class +deprived of this precaution, it is scarcely ever in a position to use +a thread of woollen clothing; and the heavy cotton goods, though thicker, +stiffer, and heavier than woollen clothes, afford much less protection +against cold and wet, remain damp much longer because of their thickness +and the nature of the stuff, and have nothing of the compact density +of fulled woollen cloths. And, if a working-man once buys himself +a woollen coat for Sunday, he must get it from one of the cheap shops +where he finds bad, so-called “Devil’s-dust” cloth, +manufactured for sale and not for use, and liable to tear or grow threadbare +in a fortnight, or he must buy of an old clothes’-dealer a half-worn +coat which has seen its best days, and lasts but a few weeks. +Moreover, the working-man’s clothing is, in most cases, in bad +condition, and there is the oft-recurring necessity for placing the +best pieces in the pawnbroker’s shop. But among very large +numbers, especially among the Irish, the prevailing clothing consists +of perfect rags often beyond all mending, or so patched that the original +colour can no longer be detected. Yet the English and Anglo-Irish +go on patching, and have carried this art to a remarkable pitch, putting +wool or bagging on fustian, or the reverse—it’s all the +same to them. But the true, transplanted Irish hardly ever patch +except in the extremest necessity, when the garment would otherwise +fall apart. Ordinarily the rags of the shirt protrude through +the rents in the coat or trousers. They wear, as Thomas Carlyle +says,—<a name="citation67"></a><a href="#footnote67">{67}</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“A suit of tatters, the getting on or off which +is said to be a difficult operation, transacted only in festivals and +the high tides of the calendar.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The Irish have introduced, too, the custom previously unknown in +England, of going barefoot. In every manufacturing town there +is now to be seen a multitude of people, especially women and children, +going about barefoot, and their example is gradually being adopted by +the poorer English.</p> +<p><!-- page 68--><a name="page68"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 68</span>As +with clothing, so with food. The workers get what is too bad for +the property-holding class. In the great towns of England everything +may be had of the best, but it costs money; and the workman, who must +keep house on a couple of pence, cannot afford much expense. Moreover, +he usually receives his wages on Saturday evening, for, although a beginning +has been made in the payment of wages on Friday, this excellent arrangement +is by no means universal; and so he comes to market at five or even +seven o’clock, while the buyers of the middle-class have had the +first choice during the morning, when the market teems with the best +of everything. But when the workers reach it, the best has vanished, +and, if it was still there, they would probably not be able to buy it. +The potatoes which the workers buy are usually poor, the vegetables +wilted, the cheese old and of poor quality, the bacon rancid, the meat +lean, tough, taken from old, often diseased, cattle, or such as have +died a natural death, and not fresh even then, often half decayed. +The sellers are usually small hucksters who buy up inferior goods, and +can sell them cheaply by reason of their badness. The poorest +workers are forced to use still another device to get together the things +they need with their few pence. As nothing can be sold on Sunday, +and all shops must be closed at twelve o’clock on Saturday night, +such things as would not keep until Monday are sold at any price between +ten o’clock and midnight. But nine-tenths of what is sold +at ten o’clock is past using by Sunday morning, yet these are +precisely the provisions which make up the Sunday dinner of the poorest +class. The meat which the workers buy is very often past using; +but having bought it, they must eat it. On the 6th of January, +1844 (if I am not greatly mistaken), a court leet was held in Manchester, +when eleven meat-sellers were fined for having sold tainted meat. +Each of them had a whole ox or pig, or several sheep, or from fifty +to sixty pounds of meat, which were all confiscated in a tainted condition. +In one case, sixty-four stuffed Christmas geese were seized which had +proved unsaleable in Liverpool, and had been forwarded to Manchester, +where they were brought to market foul and rotten. All the particulars, +with names and fines, were published at the <!-- page 69--><a name="page69"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 69</span>time +in the <i>Manchester Guardian</i>. In the six weeks, from July +1st to August 14th, the same sheet reported three similar cases. +According to the <i>Guardian</i> for August 3rd, a pig, weighing 200 +pounds, which had been found dead and decayed, was cut up and exposed +for sale by a butcher at Heywood, and was then seized. According +to the number for July 31st, two butchers at Wigan, of whom one had +previously been convicted of the same offence, were fined £2 and +£4 respectively, for exposing tainted meat for sale; and, according +to the number for August 10th, twenty-six tainted hams seized at a dealer’s +in Bolton, were publicly burnt, and the dealer fined twenty shillings. +But these are by no means all the cases; they do not even form a fair +average for a period of six weeks, according to which to form an average +for the year. There are often seasons in which every number of +the semi-weekly <i>Guardian</i> mentions a similar case found in Manchester +or its vicinity. And when one reflects upon the many cases which +must escape detection in the extensive markets that stretch along the +front of every main street, under the slender supervision of the market +inspectors—and how else can one explain the boldness with which +whole animals are exposed for sale?—when one considers how great +the temptation must be, in view of the incomprehensibly small fines +mentioned in the foregoing cases; when one reflects what condition a +piece of meat must have reached to be seized by the inspectors, it is +impossible to believe that the workers obtain good and nourishing meat +as a usual thing. But they are victimised in yet another way by +the money-greed of the middle-class. Dealers and manufacturers +adulterate all kinds of provisions in an atrocious manner, and without +the slightest regard to the health of the consumers. We have heard +the <i>Manchester Guardian</i> upon this subject, let us hear another +organ of the middle-class—I delight in the testimony of my opponents—let +us hear the <i>Liverpool Mercury</i>: “Salted butter is sold for +fresh, the lumps being covered with a coating of fresh butter, or a +pound of fresh being laid on top to taste, while the salted article +is sold after this test, or the whole mass is washed and then sold as +fresh. With sugar, pounded rice and other cheap adulterating materials +<!-- page 70--><a name="page70"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 70</span>are +mixed, and the whole sold at full price. The refuse of soap-boiling +establishments also is mixed with other things and sold as sugar. +Chicory and other cheap stuff is mixed with ground coffee, and artificial +coffee beans with the unground article. Cocoa is often adulterated +with fine brown earth, treated with fat to render it more easily mistakable +for real cocoa. Tea is mixed with the leaves of the sloe and with +other refuse, or dry tea-leaves are roasted on hot copper plates, so +returning to the proper colour and being sold as fresh. Pepper +is mixed with pounded nutshells; port wine is manufactured outright +(out of alcohol, dye-stuffs, etc.), while it is notorious that more +of it is consumed in England alone than is grown in Portugal; and tobacco +is mixed with disgusting substances of all sorts and in all possible +forms in which the article is produced.” I can add that +several of the most respected tobacco dealers in Manchester announced +publicly last summer, that, by reason of the universal adulteration +of tobacco, no firm could carry on business without adulteration, and +that no cigar costing less than threepence is made wholly from tobacco. +These frauds are naturally not restricted to articles of food, though +I could mention a dozen more, the villainy of mixing gypsum or chalk +with flour among them. Fraud is practiced in the sale of articles +of every sort: flannel, stockings, etc., are stretched, and shrink after +the first washing; narrow cloth is sold as being from one and a half +to three inches broader than it actually is; stoneware is so thinly +glazed that the glazing is good for nothing, and cracks at once, and +a hundred other rascalities, <i>tout comme chez nous</i>. But +the lion’s share of the evil results of these frauds falls to +the workers. The rich are less deceived, because they can pay +the high prices of the large shops which have a reputation to lose, +and would injure themselves more than their customers if they kept poor +or adulterated wares; the rich are spoiled, too, by habitual good eating, +and detect adulteration more easily with their sensitive palates. +But the poor, the working-people, to whom a couple of farthings are +important, who must buy many things with little money, who cannot afford +to inquire too closely into the quality of their purchases, <!-- page 71--><a name="page71"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 71</span>and +cannot do so in any case because they have had no opportunity of cultivating +their taste—to their share fall all the adulterated, poisoned +provisions. They must deal with the small retailers, must buy +perhaps on credit, and these small retail dealers who cannot sell even +the same quality of goods so cheaply as the largest retailers, because +of their small capital and the large proportional expenses of their +business, must knowingly or unknowingly buy adulterated goods in order +to sell at the lower prices required, and to meet the competition of +the others. Further, a large retail dealer who has extensive capital +invested in his business is ruined with his ruined credit if detected +in a fraudulent practice; but what harm does it do a small grocer, who +has customers in a single street only, if frauds are proved against +him? If no one trusts him in Ancoats, he moves to Chorlton or +Hulme, where no one knows him, and where he continues to defraud as +before; while legal penalties attach to very few adulterations unless +they involve revenue frauds. Not in the quality alone, but in +the quantity of his goods as well, is the English working-man defrauded. +The small dealers usually have false weights and measures, and an incredible +number of convictions for such offences may be read in the police reports. +How universal this form of fraud is in the manufacturing districts, +a couple of extracts from the <i>Manchester Guardian</i> may serve to +show. They cover only a short period, and, even here, I have not +all the numbers at hand:</p> +<p><i>Guardian</i>, June 16, 1844, Rochdale Sessions.—Four dealers +fined five to ten shillings for using light weights. Stockport +Sessions.—Two dealers fined one shilling, one of them having seven +light weights and a false scale, and both having been warned.</p> +<p><i>Guardian</i>, June 19, Rochdale Sessions.—One dealer fined +five, and two farmers ten shillings.</p> +<p><i>Guardian</i>, June 22, Manchester Justices of the Peace.—Nineteen +dealers fined two shillings and sixpence to two pounds.</p> +<p><i>Guardian</i>, June 26, Ashton Sessions.—Fourteen dealers +and farmers fined two shillings and sixpence to one pound. Hyde +<!-- page 72--><a name="page72"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 72</span>Petty +Sessions.—Nine farmers and dealers condemned to pay costs and +five shillings fines.</p> +<p><i>Guardian</i>, July 9, Manchester—Sixteen dealers condemned +to pay costs and fines not exceeding ten shillings.</p> +<p><i>Guardian</i>, July 13, Manchester.—Nine dealers fined from +two shillings and sixpence to twenty shillings.</p> +<p><i>Guardian</i>, July 24, Rochdale.—Four dealers fined ten +to twenty shillings.</p> +<p><i>Guardian</i>, July 27, Bolton.—Twelve dealers and innkeepers +condemned to pay costs.</p> +<p><i>Guardian</i>, August 3, Bolton.—Three dealers fined two +shillings and sixpence, and five shillings.</p> +<p><i>Guardian</i>, August 10, Bolton.—One dealer fined five shillings.</p> +<p>And the same causes which make the working-class the chief sufferers +from frauds in the quality of goods make them the usual victims of frauds +in the question of quantity too.</p> +<p>The habitual food of the individual working-man naturally varies +according to his wages. The better paid workers, especially those +in whose families every member is able to earn something, have good +food as long as this state of things lasts; meat daily, and bacon and +cheese for supper. Where wages are less, meat is used only two +or three times a week, and the proportion of bread and potatoes increases. +Descending gradually, we find the animal food reduced to a small piece +of bacon cut up with the potatoes; lower still, even this disappears, +and there remain only bread, cheese, porridge, and potatoes, until on +the lowest round of the ladder, among the Irish, potatoes form the sole +food. As an accompaniment, weak tea, with perhaps a little sugar, +milk, or spirits, is universally drunk. Tea is regarded in England, +and even in Ireland, as quite as indispensable as coffee in Germany, +and where no tea is used, the bitterest poverty reigns. But all +this pre-supposes that the workman has work. When he has none, +he is wholly at the mercy of accident, and eats what is given him, what +he can beg or steal. And, if he gets nothing, he simply starves, +as we have seen. The quantity of food varies, of course, like +its quality, according to the rate of wages, so that <!-- page 73--><a name="page73"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 73</span>among +ill-paid workers, even if they have no large families, hunger prevails +in spite of full and regular work; and the number of the ill-paid is +very large. Especially in London, where the competition of the +workers rises with the increase of population, this class is very numerous, +but it is to be found in other towns as well. In these cases all +sorts of devices are used; potato parings, vegetable refuse, and rotten +vegetables are eaten for want of other food, and everything greedily +gathered up which may possibly contain an atom of nourishment. +And, if the week’s wages are used up before the end of the week, +it often enough happens that in the closing days the family gets only +as much food, if any, as is barely sufficient to keep off starvation. +Of course such a way of living unavoidably engenders a multitude of +diseases, and when these appear, when the father from whose work the +family is chiefly supported, whose physical exertion most demands nourishment, +and who therefore first succumbs—when the father is utterly disabled, +then misery reaches its height, and then the brutality with which society +abandons its members, just when their need is greatest, comes out fully +into the light of day.</p> +<p>To sum up briefly the facts thus far cited. The great towns +are chiefly inhabited by working-people, since in the best case there +is one bourgeois for two workers, often for three, here and there for +four; these workers have no property whatsoever of their own, and live +wholly upon wages, which usually go from hand to mouth. Society, +composed wholly of atoms, does not trouble itself about them; leaves +them to care for themselves and their families, yet supplies them no +means of doing this in an efficient and permanent manner. Every +working-man, even the best, is therefore constantly exposed to loss +of work and food, that is to death by starvation, and many perish in +this way. The dwellings of the workers are everywhere badly planned, +badly built, and kept in the worst condition, badly ventilated, damp, +and unwholesome. The inhabitants are confined to the smallest +possible space, and at least one family usually sleeps in each room. +The interior arrangement of the dwellings is poverty-stricken in various +degrees, down to the utter absence of even the most <!-- page 74--><a name="page74"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 74</span>necessary +furniture. The clothing of the workers, too, is generally scanty, +and that of great multitudes is in rags. The food is, in general, +bad; often almost unfit for use, and in many cases, at least at times, +insufficient in quantity, so that, in extreme cases, death by starvation +results. Thus the working-class of the great cities offers a graduated +scale of conditions in life, in the best cases a temporarily endurable +existence for hard work and good wages, good and endurable, that is, +from the worker’s standpoint; in the worst cases, bitter want, +reaching even homelessness and death by starvation. The average +is much nearer the worst case than the best. And this series does +not fall into fixed classes, so that one can say, this fraction of the +working-class is well off, has always been so, and remains so. +If that is the case here and there, if single branches of work have +in general an advantage over others, yet the condition of the workers +in each branch is subject to such great fluctuations that a single working-man +may be so placed as to pass through the whole range from comparative +comfort to the extremest need, even to death by starvation, while almost +every English working-man can tell a tale of marked changes of fortune. +Let us examine the causes of this somewhat more closely.</p> +<h2><!-- page 75--><a name="page75"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 75</span>COMPETITION.</h2> +<p>We have seen in the introduction how competition created the proletariat +at the very beginning of the industrial movement, by increasing the +wages of weavers in consequence of the increased demand for woven goods, +so inducing the weaving peasants to abandon their farms and earn more +money by devoting themselves to their looms. We have seen how +it crowded out the small farmers by means of the large farm system, +reduced them to the rank of proletarians, and attracted them in part +into the towns; how it further ruined the small bourgeoisie in great +measure and reduced its members also to the ranks of the proletariat; +how it centralised capital in the hands of the few, and population in +the great towns. Such are the various ways and means by which +competition, as it reached its full manifestation and free development +in modern industry, created and extended the proletariat. We shall +now have to observe its influence on the working-class already created. +And here we must begin by tracing the results of competition of single +workers with one another.</p> +<p>Competition is the completest expression of the battle of all against +all which rules in modern civil society. This battle, a battle +for life, for existence, for everything, in case of need a battle of +life and death, is fought not between the different classes of society +only, but also between the individual members of these classes. +Each is in the way of the other, and each seeks to crowd out all who +are in his way, and to put himself in their place. The workers +are in constant competition among themselves as the members of the bourgeoisie +among themselves. The power-loom weaver is in competition with +the hand-loom weaver, the unemployed or ill-paid hand-loom weaver with +him who has work or <!-- page 76--><a name="page76"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 76</span>is +better paid, each trying to supplant the other. But this competition +of the workers among themselves is the worst side of the present state +of things in its effect upon the worker, the sharpest weapon against +the proletariat in the hands of the bourgeoisie. Hence the effort +of the workers to nullify this competition by associations, hence the +hatred of the bourgeoisie towards these associations, and its triumph +in every defeat which befalls them.</p> +<p>The proletarian is helpless; left to himself, he cannot live a single +day. The bourgeoisie has gained a monopoly of all means of existence +in the broadest sense of the word. What the proletarian needs, +he can obtain only from this bourgeoisie, which is protected in its +monopoly by the power of the State. The proletarian is, therefore, +in law and in fact, the slave of the bourgeoisie, which can decree his +life or death. It offers him the means of living, but only for +an “equivalent” for his work. It even lets him have +the appearance of acting from a free choice, of making a contract with +free, unconstrained consent, as a responsible agent who has attained +his majority.</p> +<p>Fine freedom, where the proletarian has no other choice than that +of either accepting the conditions which the bourgeoisie offers him, +or of starving, of freezing to death, of sleeping naked among the beasts +of the forests! A fine “equivalent” valued at pleasure +by the bourgeoisie! And if one proletarian is such a fool as to +starve rather than agree to the equitable propositions of the bourgeoisie, +his “natural superiors,” another is easily found in his +place; there are proletarians enough in the world, and not all so insane +as to prefer dying to living.</p> +<p>Here we have the competition of the workers among themselves. +If <i>all</i> the proletarians announced their determination to starve +rather than work for the bourgeoisie, the latter would have to surrender +its monopoly. But this is not the case—is, indeed, a rather +impossible case—so that the bourgeoisie still thrives. To +this competition of the worker there is but one limit; no worker will +work for less than he needs to subsist. If he must starve, he +will prefer to starve in idleness rather than in toil. True, this +limit is relative; one needs more than another, one is accustomed <!-- page 77--><a name="page77"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 77</span>to +more comfort than another; the Englishman who is still somewhat civilised, +needs more than the Irishman who goes in rags, eats potatoes, and sleeps +in a pig-sty. But that does not hinder the Irishman’s competing +with the Englishman, and gradually forcing the rate of wages, and with +it the Englishman’s level of civilisation, down to the Irishman’s +level. Certain kinds of work require a certain grade of civilisation, +and to these belong almost all forms of industrial occupation; hence +the interest of the bourgeoisie requires in this case that wages should +be high enough to enable the workman to keep himself upon the required +plane.</p> +<p>The newly immigrated Irishman, encamped in the first stable that +offers, or turned out in the street after a week because he spends everything +upon drink and cannot pay rent, would be a poor mill-hand. The +mill-hand must, therefore, have wages enough to enable him to bring +up his children to regular work; but no more, lest he should be able +to get on without the wages of his children, and so make something else +of them than mere working-men. Here, too, the limit, the minimum +wage, is relative. When every member of the family works, the +individual worker can get on with proportionately less, and the bourgeoisie +has made the most of the opportunity of employing and making profitable +the labour of women and children afforded by machine-work. Of +course it is not in every family that every member can be set to work, +and those in which the case is otherwise would be in a bad way if obliged +to exist upon the minimum wage possible to a wholly employed family. +Hence the usual wages form an average according to which a fully employed +family gets on pretty well, and one which embraces few members able +to work, pretty badly. But in the worst case, every working-man +prefers surrendering the trifling luxury to which he was accustomed +to not living at all; prefers a pig-pen to no roof, wears rags in preference +to going naked, confines himself to a potato diet in preference to starvation. +He contents himself with half-pay and the hope of better times rather +than be driven into the street to perish before the eyes of the world, +as so many have done who had no work whatever. This trifle, therefore, +this something more than nothing, is the <!-- page 78--><a name="page78"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 78</span>minimum +of wages. And if there are more workers at hand than the bourgeoisie +thinks well to employ—if at the end of the battle of competition +there yet remain workers who find nothing to do, they must simply starve; +for the bourgeois will hardly give them work if he cannot sell the produce +of their labour at a profit.</p> +<p>From this it is evident what the minimum of wages is. The maximum +is determined by the competition of the bourgeoisie among themselves; +for we have seen how they, too, must compete with each other. +The bourgeois can increase his capital only in commerce and manufacture, +and in both cases he needs workers. Even if he invests his capital +at interest, he needs them indirectly; for without commerce and manufacture, +no one would pay him interest upon his capital, no one could use it. +So the bourgeois certainly needs workers, not indeed for his immediate +living, for at need he could consume his capital, but as we need an +article of trade or a beast of burden,—as a means of profit. +The proletarian produces the goods which the bourgeois sells with advantage. +When, therefore, the demand for these goods increases so that all the +competing working-men are employed, and a few more might perhaps be +useful, the competition among the workers falls away, and the bourgeoisie +begin to compete among themselves. The capitalist in search of +workmen knows very well that his profits increase as prices rise in +consequence of the increased demand for his goods, and pays a trifle +higher wages rather than let the whole profit escape him. He sends +the butter to fetch the cheese, and getting the latter, leaves the butter +ungrudgingly to the workers. So one capitalist after another goes +in chase of workers, and wages rise; but only as high as the increasing +demand permits. If the capitalist, who willingly sacrificed a +part of his extraordinary profit, runs into danger of sacrificing any +part of his ordinary average profit, he takes very good care not to +pay more than average wages.</p> +<p>From this we can determine the average rate of wages. Under +average circumstances, when neither workers nor capitalists have reason +to compete, especially among themselves, when there are just as many +workers at hand as can be employed in producing <!-- page 79--><a name="page79"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 79</span>precisely +the goods that are demanded, wages stand a little above the minimum. +How far they rise above the minimum will depend upon the average needs +and the grade of civilisation of the workers. If the workers are +accustomed to eat meat several times in the week, the capitalists must +reconcile themselves to paying wages enough to make this food attainable, +not less, because the workers are not competing among themselves and +have no occasion to content themselves with less; not more, because +the capitalists, in the absence of competition among themselves, have +no occasion to attract working-men by extraordinary favours. This +standard of the average needs and the average civilisation of the workers +has become very complicated by reason of the complications of English +industry, and is different for different sorts of workers, as has been +pointed out. Most industrial occupations demand a certain skill +and regularity, and for these qualities which involve a certain grade +of civilisation, the rate of wages must be such as to induce the worker +to acquire such skill and subject himself to such regularity. +Hence it is that the average wages of industrial workers are higher +than those of mere porters, day labourers, etc., higher especially than +those of agricultural labourers, a fact to which the additional cost +of the necessities of life in cities contributes somewhat. In +other words, the worker is, in law and in fact, the slave of the property-holding +class, so effectually a slave that he is sold like a piece of goods, +rises and falls in value like a commodity. If the demand for workers +increases, the price of workers rises; if it falls, their price falls. +If it falls so greatly that a number of them become unsaleable, if they +are left in stock, they are simply left idle; and as they cannot live +upon that, they die of starvation. For, to speak in the words +of the economists, the expense incurred in maintaining them would not +be reproduced, would be money thrown away, and to this end no man advances +capital; and, so far, Malthus was perfectly right in his theory of population. +The only difference as compared with the old, outspoken slavery is this, +that the worker of to-day seems to be free because he is not sold once +for all, but piecemeal by the day, the week, the year, and because no +<!-- page 80--><a name="page80"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 80</span>one +owner sells him to another, but he is forced to sell himself in this +way instead, being the slave of no particular person, but of the whole +property-holding class. For him the matter is unchanged at bottom, +and if this semblance of liberty necessarily gives him some real freedom +on the one hand, it entails on the other the disadvantage that no one +guarantees him a subsistence, he is in danger of being repudiated at +any moment by his master, the bourgeoisie, and left to die of starvation, +if the bourgeoisie ceases to have an interest in his employment, his +existence. The bourgeoisie, on the other hand, is far better off +under the present arrangement than under the old slave system; it can +dismiss its employees at discretion without sacrificing invested capital, +and gets its work done much more cheaply than is possible with slave +labour, as Adam Smith comfortingly pointed out. <a name="citation80"></a><a href="#footnote80">{80}</a></p> +<p>Hence it follows, too, that Adam Smith was perfectly right in making +the assertion: “That the demand for men, like that for any other +commodity, necessarily regulates the production of men, quickens it +when it goes on too slowly, and stops it when it advances too fast.” +<i>Just as in the case of any other commodity</i>! If there are +too few labourers at hand, prices, <i>i.e</i>. wages, rise, the workers +are more prosperous, marriages multiply, more children are born and +more live to grow up, until a sufficient number of labourers has been +secured. If there are too many on hand, prices fall, want of work, +poverty, and starvation, and consequent diseases arise, and the “surplus +population” is put out of the way. And Malthus, who carried +the foregoing proposition of Smith farther, was also right, in his way, +in asserting that there are always more <!-- page 81--><a name="page81"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 81</span>people +on hand than can be maintained from the available means of subsistence. +Surplus population is engendered rather by the competition of the workers +among themselves, which forces each separate worker to labour as much +each day as his strength can possibly admit. If a manufacturer +can employ ten hands nine hours daily, he can employ nine if each works +ten hours, and the tenth goes hungry. And if a manufacturer can +force the nine hands to work an extra hour daily for the same wages +by threatening to discharge them at a time when the demand for hands +is not very great, he discharges the tenth and saves so much wages. +This is the process on a small scale, which goes on in a nation on a +large one. The productiveness of each hand raised to the highest +pitch by the competition of the workers among themselves, the division +of labour, the introduction of machinery, the subjugation of the forces +of nature, deprive a multitude of workers of bread. These starving +workers are then removed from the market, they can buy nothing, and +the quantity of articles of consumption previously required by them +is no longer in demand, need no longer be produced; the workers previously +employed in producing them are therefore driven out of work, and are +also removed from the market, and so it goes on, always the same old +round, or rather, so it would go if other circumstances did not intervene. +The introduction of the industrial forces already referred to for increasing +production leads, in the course of time, to a reduction of prices of +the articles produced and to consequent increased consumption, so that +a large part of the displaced workers finally, after long suffering, +find work again. If, in addition to this, the conquest of foreign +markets constantly and rapidly increases the demand for manufactured +goods, as has been the case in England during the past sixty years, +the demand for hands increases, and, in proportion to it, the population. +Thus, instead of diminishing, the population of the British Empire has +increased with extraordinary rapidity, and is still increasing. +Yet, in spite of the extension of industry, in spite of the demand for +working-men which, in general, has increased, there is, according to +the confession of all the official political parties (Tory, Whig, <!-- page 82--><a name="page82"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 82</span>and +Radical), permanent surplus, superfluous population; the competition +among the workers is constantly greater than the competition to secure +workers.</p> +<p>Whence comes this incongruity? It lies in the nature of industrial +competition and the commercial crises which arise from them. In +the present unregulated production and distribution of the means of +subsistence, which is carried on not directly for the sake of supplying +needs, but for profit, in the system under which every one works for +himself to enrich himself, disturbances inevitably arise at every moment. +For example, England supplies a number of countries with most diverse +goods. Now, although the manufacturer may know how much of each +article is consumed in each country annually, he cannot know how much +is on hand at every given moment, much less can he know how much his +competitors export thither. He can only draw most uncertain inferences +from the perpetual fluctuations in prices, as to the quantities on hand +and the needs of the moment. He must trust to luck in exporting +his goods. Everything is done blindly, as guess-work, more or +less at the mercy of accident. Upon the slightest favourable report, +each one exports what he can, and before long such a market is glutted, +sales stop, capital remains inactive, prices fall, and English manufacture +has no further employment for its hands. In the beginning of the +development of manufacture, these checks were limited to single branches +and single markets; but the centralising tendency of competition which +drives the hands thrown out of one branch into such other branches as +are most easily accessible, and transfers the goods which cannot be +disposed of in one market to other markets, has gradually brought the +single minor crises nearer together and united them into one periodically +recurring crisis. Such a crisis usually recurs once in five years +after a brief period of activity and general prosperity; the home market, +like all foreign ones, is glutted with English goods, which it can only +slowly absorb, the industrial movement comes to a standstill in almost +every branch, the small manufacturers and merchants who cannot survive +a prolonged inactivity of their invested capital fail, the larger ones +suspend business during the <!-- page 83--><a name="page83"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 83</span>worst +season, close their mills or work short time, perhaps half the day; +wages fall by reason of the competition of the unemployed, the diminution +of working-time and the lack of profitable sales; want becomes universal +among the workers, the small savings, which individuals may have made, +are rapidly consumed, the philanthropic institutions are overburdened, +the poor-rates are doubled, trebled, and still insufficient, the number +of the starving increases, and the whole multitude of “surplus” +population presses in terrific numbers into the foreground. This +continues for a time; the “surplus” exist as best they may, +or perish; philanthropy and the Poor Law help many of them to a painful +prolongation of their existence. Others find scant means of subsistence +here and there in such kinds of work as have been least open to competition, +are most remote from manufacture. And with how little can a human +being keep body and soul together for a time! Gradually the state +of things improve; the accumulations of goods are consumed, the general +depression among the men of commerce and manufacture prevents a too +hasty replenishing of the markets, and at last rising prices and favourable +reports from all directions restore activity. Most of the markets +are distant ones; demand increases and prices rise constantly while +the first exports are arriving; people struggle for the first goods, +the first sales enliven trade still more, the prospective ones promise +still higher prices; expecting a further rise, merchants begin to buy +upon speculation, and so to withdraw from consumption the articles intended +for it, just when they are most needed. Speculation forces prices +still higher, by inspiring others to purchase, and appropriating new +importations at once. All this is reported to England, manufacturers +begin to produce with a will, new mills are built, every means is employed +to make the most of the favourable moment. Speculation arises +here, too, exerting the same influence as upon foreign markets, raising +prices, withdrawing goods from consumption, spurring manufacture in +both ways to the highest pitch of effort. Then come the daring +speculators working with fictitious capital, living upon credit, ruined +if they cannot speedily sell; they hurl themselves into this <!-- page 84--><a name="page84"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 84</span>universal, +disorderly race for profits, multiply the disorder and haste by their +unbridled passion, which drives prices and production to madness. +It is a frantic struggle, which carries away even the most experienced +and phlegmatic; goods are spun, woven, hammered, as if all mankind were +to be newly equipped, as though two thousand million new consumers had +been discovered in the moon. All at once the shaky speculators +abroad, who must have money, begin to sell, below market price, of course, +for their need is urgent; one sale is followed by others, prices fluctuate, +speculators throw their goods upon the market in terror, the market +is disordered, credit shaken, one house after another stops payments, +bankruptcy follows bankruptcy, and the discovery is made that three +times more goods are on hand or under way than can be consumed. +The news reaches England, where production has been going on at full +speed meanwhile, panic seizes all hands, failures abroad cause others +in England, the panic crushes a number of firms, all reserves are thrown +upon the market here, too, in the moment of anxiety, and the alarm is +still further exaggerated. This is the beginning of the crisis, +which then takes precisely the same course as its predecessor, and gives +place in turn to a season of prosperity. So it goes on perpetually,—prosperity, +crisis, prosperity, crisis, and this perennial round in which English +industry moves is, as has been before observed, usually completed once +in five or six years.</p> +<p>From this it is clear that English manufacture must have, at all +times save the brief periods of highest prosperity, an unemployed reserve +army of workers, in order to be able to produce the masses of goods +required by the market in the liveliest months. This reserve army +is larger or smaller, according as the state of the market occasions +the employment of a larger or smaller proportion of its members. +And if at the moment of highest activity of the market the agricultural +districts and the branches least affected by the general prosperity +temporarily supply to manufacture a number of workers, these are a mere +minority, and these too belong to the reserve army, with the single +difference that the prosperity of the moment was required to reveal +their connection <!-- page 85--><a name="page85"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 85</span>with +it. When they enter upon the more active branches of work, their +former employers draw in somewhat, in order to feel the loss less, work +longer hours, employ women and younger workers, and when the wanderers +discharged at the beginning of the crisis return, they find their places +filled and themselves superfluous—at least in the majority of +cases. This reserve army, which embraces an immense multitude +during the crisis and a large number during the period which may be +regarded as the average between the highest prosperity and the crisis, +is the “surplus population” of England, which keeps body +and soul together by begging, stealing, street-sweeping, collecting +manure, pushing handcarts, driving donkeys, peddling, or performing +occasional small jobs. In every great town a multitude of such +people may be found. It is astonishing in what devices this “surplus +population” takes refuge. The London crossing-sweepers are +known all over the world; but hitherto the principal streets in all +the great cities, as well as the crossings, have been swept by people +out of other work, and employed by the Poor Law guardians or the municipal +authorities for the purpose. Now, however, a machine has been +invented which rattles through the streets daily, and has spoiled this +source of income for the unemployed. Along the great highways +leading into the cities, on which there is a great deal of waggon traffic, +a large number of people may be seen with small carts, gathering fresh +horse-dung at the risk of their lives among the passing coaches and +omnibuses, often paying a couple of shillings a week to the authorities +for the privilege. But this occupation is forbidden in many places, +because the ordinary street-sweepings thus impoverished cannot be sold +as manure. Happy are such of the “surplus” as can +obtain a push-cart and go about with it. Happier still those to +whom it is vouchsafed to possess an ass in addition to the cart. +The ass must get his own food or is given a little gathered refuse, +and can yet bring in a trifle of money. Most of the “surplus” +betake themselves to huckstering. On Saturday afternoons, especially, +when the whole working population is on the streets, the crowd who live +from huckstering and peddling may be seen. Shoe and corset laces, +braces, twine, cakes, <!-- page 86--><a name="page86"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 86</span>oranges, +every kind of small articles are offered by men, women, and children; +and at other times also, such peddlers are always to be seen standing +at the street corners, or going about with cakes and ginger-beer or +nettle-beer. Matches and such things, sealing-wax, and patent +mixtures for lighting fires are further resources of such venders. +Others, so-called jobbers, go about the streets seeking small jobs. +Many of these succeed in getting a day’s work, many are not so +fortunate.</p> +<blockquote><p>“At the gates of all the London docks,” says +the Rev. W. Champney, preacher of the East End, “hundreds of the +poor appear every morning in winter before daybreak, in the hope of +getting a day’s work. They await the opening of the gates; +and, when the youngest and strongest and best known have been engaged, +hundreds cast down by disappointed hope, go back to their wretched homes.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>When these people find no work and will not rebel against society, +what remains for them but to beg? And surely no one can wonder +at the great army of beggars, most of them able-bodied men, with whom +the police carries on perpetual war. But the beggary of these +men has a peculiar character. Such a man usually goes about with +his family singing a pleading song in the streets or appealing, in a +speech, to the benevolence of the passers-by. And it is a striking +fact that these beggars are seen almost exclusively in the working-people’s +districts, that it is almost exclusively the gifts of the poor from +which they live. Or the family takes up its position in a busy +street, and without uttering a word, lets the mere sight of its helplessness +plead for it. In this case, too, they reckon upon the sympathy +of the workers alone, who know from experience how it feels to be hungry, +and are liable to find themselves in the same situation at any moment; +for this dumb, yet most moving appeal, is met with almost solely in +such streets as are frequented by working-men, and at such hours as +working-men pass by; but especially on summer evenings, when the “secrets” +of the working-people’s quarters are generally revealed, and the +middle-class withdraws <!-- page 87--><a name="page87"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 87</span>as +far as possible from the district thus polluted. And he among +the “surplus” who has courage and passion enough openly +to resist society, to reply with declared war upon the bourgeoisie to +the disguised war which the bourgeoisie wages upon him, goes forth to +rob, plunder, murder, and burn!</p> +<p>Of this surplus population there are, according to the reports of +the Poor Law commissioners, on an average, a million and a half in England +and Wales; in Scotland the number cannot be ascertained for want of +Poor Law regulations, and with Ireland we shall deal separately. +Moreover, this million and a half includes only those who actually apply +to the parish for relief; the great multitude who struggle on without +recourse to this most hated expedient, it does not embrace. On +the other hand, a good part of the number belongs to the agricultural +districts, and does not enter into the present discussion. During +a crisis this number naturally increases markedly, and want reaches +its highest pitch. Take, for instance, the crisis of 1842, which, +being the latest, was the most violent; for the intensity of the crisis +increases with each repetition, and the next, which may be expected +not later than 1847, <a name="citation87"></a><a href="#footnote87">{87}</a> +will probably be still more violent and lasting. During this crisis +the poor-rates rose in every town to a hitherto unknown height. +In Stockport, among other towns, for every pound paid in house-rent, +eight shillings of poor-rate had to be paid, so that the rate alone +formed forty per cent. of the house-rent. Moreover, whole streets +stood vacant, so that there were at least twenty thousand fewer inhabitants +than usual, and on the doors of the empty houses might be read: “Stockport +to let.” In Bolton, where, in ordinary years, the rents +from which rates are paid average £86,000, they sank to £36,000. +The number of the poor to be supported rose, on the other hand, to 14,000, +or more than twenty per cent. of the whole number of inhabitants. +In Leeds, the Poor Law guardians had a reserve fund of £10,000. +This, with a contribution of £7,000, was wholly exhausted before +the crisis reached its height. So it was everywhere. A report +drawn up in January, 1843, by a committee of the Anti-Corn Law <!-- page 88--><a name="page88"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 88</span>League, +on the condition of the industrial districts in 1842, which was based +upon detailed statements of the manufacturers, asserts that the poor-rate +was, taking the average, twice as high as in 1839, and that the number +of persons requiring relief has trebled, even quintupled, since that +time; that a multitude of applicants belong to a class which had never +before solicited relief; that the working-class commands more than two-thirds +less of the means of subsistence than from 1834-1836; that the consumption +of meat had been decidedly less, in some places twenty per cent., in +others reaching sixty per cent. less; that even handicraftsmen, smiths, +bricklayers, and others, who usually have full employment in the most +depressed periods, now suffered greatly from want of work and reduction +of wages; and that, even now, in January, 1843, wages are still steadily +falling. And these are the reports of manufacturers! The +starving workmen, whose mills were idle, whose employers could give +them no work, stood in the streets in all directions, begged singly +or in crowds, besieged the sidewalks in armies, and appealed to the +passers-by for help; they begged, not cringing like ordinary beggars, +but threatening by their numbers, their gestures, and their words. +Such was the state of things in all the industrial districts, from Leicester +to Leeds, and from Manchester to Birmingham. Here and there disturbances +arose, as in the Staffordshire potteries, in July. The most frightful +excitement prevailed among the workers until the general insurrection +broke out throughout the manufacturing districts in August. When +I came to Manchester in November, 1842, there were crowds of unemployed +working-men at every street corner, and many mills were still standing +idle. In the following months these unwilling corner loafers gradually +vanished, and the factories came into activity once more.</p> +<p>To what extent want and suffering prevail among these unemployed +during such a crisis, I need not describe. The poor-rates are +insufficient, vastly insufficient; the philanthropy of the rich is a +rain-drop in the ocean, lost in the moment of falling, beggary can support +but few among the crowds. If the small dealers did not sell to +the working-people on credit at such times as long as <!-- page 89--><a name="page89"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 89</span>possible—paying +themselves liberally afterwards, it must be confessed—and if the +working-people did not help each other, every crisis would remove a +multitude of the surplus through death by starvation. Since, however, +the most depressed period is brief, lasting, at worst, but one, two, +or two and a half years, most of them emerge from it with their lives +after dire privations. But indirectly by disease, etc., every +crisis finds a multitude of victims, as we shall see. First, however, +let us turn to another cause of abasement to which the English worker +is exposed, a cause permanently active in forcing the whole class downwards.</p> +<h2><!-- page 90--><a name="page90"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 90</span>IRISH +IMMIGRATION.</h2> +<p>We have already referred several times in passing to the Irish who +have immigrated into England; and we shall now have to investigate more +closely the causes and results of this immigration. The rapid +extension of English industry could not have taken place if England +had not possessed in the numerous and impoverished population of Ireland +a reserve at command. The Irish had nothing to lose at home, and +much to gain in England; and from the time when it became known in Ireland +that the east side of St. George’s Channel offered steady work +and good pay for strong arms, every year has brought armies of the Irish +hither. It has been calculated that more than a million have already +immigrated, and not far from fifty thousand still come every year, nearly +all of whom enter the industrial districts, especially the great cities, +and there form the lowest class of the population. Thus there +are in London, 120,000; in Manchester, 40,000; in Liverpool, 34,000; +Bristol, 24,000; Glasgow, 40,000; Edinburgh, 29,000, poor Irish people. +<a name="citation90a"></a><a href="#footnote90a">{90a}</a> These +people having grown up almost without civilisation, accustomed from +youth to every sort of privation, rough, intemperate, and improvident, +bring all their brutal habits with them among a class of the English +population which has, in truth, little inducement to cultivate education +and morality. Let us hear Thomas Carlyle upon this subject: <a name="citation90b"></a><a href="#footnote90b">{90b}</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“The wild Milesian features, looking false ingenuity, +restlessness, unreason, misery, and mockery, salute you on all highways +and byways. The English coachman, as he whirls past, lashes the +<!-- page 91--><a name="page91"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 91</span>Milesian +with his whip, curses him with his tongue; the Milesian is holding out +his hat to beg. He is the sorest evil this country has to strive +with. In his rags and laughing savagery, he is there to undertake +all work that can be done by mere strength of hand and back—for +wages that will purchase him potatoes. He needs only salt for +condiment, he lodges to his mind in any pig-hutch or dog-hutch, roosts +in outhouses, and wears a suit of tatters, the getting on and off of +which is said to be a difficult operation, transacted only in festivals +and the high tides of the calendar. The Saxon-man, if he cannot +work on these terms, finds no work. The uncivilised Irishman, +not by his strength, but by the opposite of strength, drives the Saxon +native out, takes possession in his room. There abides he, in +his squalor and unreason, in his falsity and drunken violence, as the +ready-made nucleus of degradation and disorder. Whoever struggles, +swimming with difficulty, may now find an example how the human being +can exist not swimming, but sunk. That the condition of the lower +multitude of English labourers approximates more and more to that of +the Irish, competing with them in all the markets: that whatsoever labour, +to which mere strength with little skill will suffice, is to be done, +will be done not at the English price, but at an approximation to the +Irish price; at a price superior as yet to the Irish, that is, superior +to scarcity of potatoes for thirty weeks yearly; superior, yet hourly, +with the arrival of every new steamboat, sinking nearer to an equality +with that.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>If we except his exaggerated and one-sided condemnation of the Irish +national character, Carlyle is perfectly right. These Irishmen +who migrate for fourpence to England, on the deck of a steamship on +which they are often packed like cattle, insinuate themselves everywhere. +The worst dwellings are good enough for them; their clothing causes +them little trouble, so long as it holds together by a single thread; +shoes they know not; their food consists of potatoes and potatoes only; +whatever they earn beyond these needs they spend upon drink. What +does such a race want with high wages? The worst quarters of all +the large towns are inhabited by Irishmen. Whenever a district +is distinguished for especial filth and especial ruinousness, the explorer +may safely count upon meeting chiefly those Celtic faces which one recognises +at the first glance as different from the Saxon physiognomy of the <!-- page 92--><a name="page92"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 92</span>native, +and the singing, aspirate brogue which the true Irishman never loses. +I have occasionally heard the Irish-Celtic language spoken in the most +thickly populated parts of Manchester. The majority of the families +who live in cellars are almost everywhere of Irish origin. In +short, the Irish have, as Dr. Kay says, discovered the minimum of the +necessities of life, and are now making the English workers acquainted +with it. Filth and drunkenness, too, they have brought with them. +The lack of cleanliness, which is not so injurious in the country, where +population is scattered, and which is the Irishman’s second nature, +becomes terrifying and gravely dangerous through its concentration here +in the great cities. The Milesian deposits all garbage and filth +before his house door here, as he was accustomed to do at home, and +so accumulates the pools and dirt-heaps which disfigure the working-people’s +quarters and poison the air. He builds a pig-sty against the house +wall as he did at home, and if he is prevented from doing this, he lets +the pig sleep in the room with himself. This new and unnatural +method of cattle-raising in cities is wholly of Irish origin. +The Irishman loves his pig as the Arab his horse, with the difference +that he sells it when it is fat enough to kill. Otherwise, he +eats and sleeps with it, his children play with it, ride upon it, roll +in the dirt with it, as any one may see a thousand times repeated in +all the great towns of England. The filth and comfortlessness +that prevail in the houses themselves it is impossible to describe. +The Irishman is unaccustomed to the presence of furniture; a heap of +straw, a few rags, utterly beyond use as clothing, suffice for his nightly +couch. A piece of wood, a broken chair, an old chest for a table, +more he needs not; a tea-kettle, a few pots and dishes, equip his kitchen, +which is also his sleeping and living room. When he is in want +of fuel, everything combustible within his reach, chairs, door-posts, +mouldings, flooring, finds its way up the chimney. Moreover, why +should he need much room? At home in his mud-cabin there was only +one room for all domestic purposes; more than one room his family does +not need in England. So the custom of crowding many persons into +a single room, now so universal, has been chiefly implanted by the <!-- page 93--><a name="page93"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 93</span>Irish +immigration. And since the poor devil must have one enjoyment, +and society has shut him out of all others, he betakes himself to the +drinking of spirits. Drink is the only thing which makes the Irishman’s +life worth having, drink and his cheery care-free temperament; so he +revels in drink to the point of the most bestial drunkenness. +The southern facile character of the Irishman, his crudity, which places +him but little above the savage, his contempt for all humane enjoyments, +in which his very crudeness makes him incapable of sharing, his filth +and poverty, all favour drunkenness. The temptation is great, +he cannot resist it, and so when he has money he gets rid of it down +his throat. What else should he do? How can society blame +him when it places him in a position in which he almost of necessity +becomes a drunkard; when it leaves him to himself, to his savagery?</p> +<p>With such a competitor the English working-man has to struggle with +a competitor upon the lowest plane possible in a civilised country, +who for this very reason requires less wages than any other. Nothing +else is therefore possible than that, as Carlyle says, the wages of +English working-men should be forced down further and further in every +branch in which the Irish compete with him. And these branches +are many. All such as demand little or no skill are open to the +Irish. For work which requires long training or regular, pertinacious +application, the dissolute, unsteady, drunken Irishman is on too low +a plane. To become a mechanic, a mill-hand, he would have to adopt +the English civilisation, the English customs, become, in the main, +an Englishman. But for all simple, less exact work, wherever it +is a question more of strength than skill, the Irishman is as good as +the Englishman. Such occupations are therefore especially overcrowded +with Irishmen: hand-weavers, bricklayers, porters, jobbers, and such +workers, count hordes of Irishmen among their number, and the pressure +of this race has done much to depress wages and lower the working-class. +And even if the Irish, who have forced their way into other occupations, +should become more civilised, enough of the old habits would cling to +them to have a strong degrading influence upon their English companions +in toil, especially in view of the <!-- page 94--><a name="page94"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 94</span>general +effect of being surrounded by the Irish. For when, in almost every +great city, a fifth or a quarter of the workers are Irish, or children +of Irish parents, who have grown up among Irish filth, no one can wonder +if the life, habits, intelligence, moral status—in short, the +whole character of the working-class assimilates a great part of the +Irish characteristics. On the contrary, it is easy to understand +how the degrading position of the English workers, engendered by our +modern history, and its immediate consequences, has been still more +degraded by the presence of Irish competition.</p> +<h2><!-- page 95--><a name="page95"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 95</span>RESULTS.</h2> +<p>Having now investigated, somewhat in detail, the conditions under +which the English working-class lives, it is time to draw some further +inferences from the facts presented, and then to compare our inferences +with the actual state of things. Let us see what the workers themselves +have become under the given circumstances, what sort of people they +are, what their physical, mental, and moral status.</p> +<p>When one individual inflicts bodily injury upon another, such injury +that death results, we call the deed manslaughter; when the assailant +knew in advance that the injury would be fatal, we call his deed murder. +But when society <a name="citation95"></a><a href="#footnote95">{95}</a> +places hundreds of proletarians in such a position that they inevitably +meet a too early and an unnatural death, one which is quite as much +a death by violence as that by the sword or bullet; when it deprives +thousands of the necessaries of life, places them under conditions in +which they <i>cannot</i> live—forces them, through the strong +arm of the law, to remain in such conditions until that death ensues +which is the inevitable consequence—knows that these thousands +of victims must perish, and yet permits these conditions to remain, +its deed is murder just as surely as the deed of the single individual; +disguised, malicious murder, murder against which <!-- page 96--><a name="page96"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 96</span>none +can defend himself, which does not seem what it is, because no man sees +the murderer, because the death of the victim seems a natural one, since +the offence is more one of omission than of commission. But murder +it remains. I have now to prove that society in England daily +and hourly commits what the working-men’s organs, with perfect +correctness, characterise as social murder, that it has placed the workers +under conditions in which they can neither retain health nor live long; +that it undermines the vital force of these workers gradually, little +by little, and so hurries them to the grave before their time. +I have further to prove that society knows how injurious such conditions +are to the health and the life of the workers, and yet does nothing +to improve these conditions. That it <i>knows</i> the consequences +of its deeds; that its act is, therefore, not mere manslaughter, but +murder, I shall have proved, when I cite official documents, reports +of Parliament and of the Government, in substantiation of my charge.</p> +<p>That a class which lives under the conditions already sketched and +is so ill-provided with the most necessary means of subsistence, cannot +be healthy and can reach no advanced age, is self-evident. Let +us review the circumstances once more with especial reference to the +health of the workers. The centralisation of population in great +cities exercises of itself an unfavourable influence; the atmosphere +of London can never be so pure, so rich in oxygen, as the air of the +country; two and a half million pairs of lungs, two hundred and fifty +thousand fires, crowded upon an area three to four miles square, consume +an enormous amount of oxygen, which is replaced with difficulty, because +the method of building cities in itself impedes ventilation. The +carbonic acid gas, engendered by respiration and fire, remains in the +streets by reason of its specific gravity, and the chief air current +passes over the roofs of the city. The lungs of the inhabitants +fail to receive the due supply of oxygen, and the consequence is mental +and physical lassitude and low vitality. For this reason, the +dwellers in cities are far less exposed to acute, and especially to +inflammatory, affections than rural populations, who live in a free, +normal atmosphere; but they suffer the more from chronic <!-- page 97--><a name="page97"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 97</span>affections. +And if life in large cities is, in itself, injurious to health, how +great must be the harmful influence of an abnormal atmosphere in the +working-people’s quarters, where, as we have seen, everything +combines to poison the air. In the country, it may, perhaps, be +comparatively innoxious to keep a dung-heap adjoining one’s dwelling, +because the air has free ingress from all sides; but in the midst of +a large town, among closely built lanes and courts that shut out all +movement of the atmosphere, the case is different. All putrefying +vegetable and animal substances give off gases decidedly injurious to +health, and if these gases have no free way of escape, they inevitably +poison the atmosphere. The filth and stagnant pools of the working-people’s +quarters in the great cities have, therefore, the worst effect upon +the public health, because they produce precisely those gases which +engender disease; so, too, the exhalations from contaminated streams. +But this is by no means all. The manner in which the great multitude +of the poor is treated by society to-day is revolting. They are +drawn into the large cities where they breathe a poorer atmosphere than +in the country; they are relegated to districts which, by reason of +the method of construction, are worse ventilated than any others; they +are deprived of all means of cleanliness, of water itself, since pipes +are laid only when paid for, and the rivers so polluted that they are +useless for such purposes; they are obliged to throw all offal and garbage, +all dirty water, often all disgusting drainage and excrement into the +streets, being without other means of disposing of them; they are thus +compelled to infect the region of their own dwellings. Nor is +this enough. All conceivable evils are heaped upon the heads of +the poor. If the population of great cities is too dense in general, +it is they in particular who are packed into the least space. +As though the vitiated atmosphere of the streets were not enough, they +are penned in dozens into single rooms, so that the air which they breathe +at night is enough in itself to stifle them. They are given damp +dwellings, cellar dens that are not waterproof from below, or garrets +that leak from above. Their houses are so built that the clammy +air cannot escape. They are <!-- page 98--><a name="page98"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 98</span>supplied +bad, tattered, or rotten clothing, adulterated and indigestible food. +They are exposed to the most exciting changes of mental condition, the +most violent vibrations between hope and fear; they are hunted like +game, and not permitted to attain peace of mind and quiet enjoyment +of life. They are deprived of all enjoyments except that of sexual +indulgence and drunkenness, are worked every day to the point of complete +exhaustion of their mental and physical energies, and are thus constantly +spurred on to the maddest excess in the only two enjoyments at their +command. And if they surmount all this, they fall victims to want +of work in a crisis when all the little is taken from them that had +hitherto been vouchsafed them.</p> +<p>How is it possible, under such conditions, for the lower class to +be healthy and long lived? What else can be expected than an excessive +mortality, an unbroken series of epidemics, a progressive deterioration +in the physique of the working population? Let us see how the +facts stand.</p> +<p>That the dwellings of the workers in the worst portions of the cities, +together with the other conditions of life of this class, engender numerous +diseases, is attested on all sides. The article already quoted +from the <i>Artisan</i> asserts with perfect truth, that lung diseases +must be the inevitable consequence of such conditions, and that, indeed, +cases of this kind are disproportionately frequent in this class. +That the bad air of London, and especially of the working-people’s +districts, is in the highest degree favourable to the development of +consumption, the hectic appearance of great numbers of persons sufficiently +indicates. If one roams the streets a little in the early morning, +when the multitudes are on their way to their work, one is amazed at +the number of persons who look wholly or half-consumptive. Even +in Manchester the people have not the same appearance; these pale, lank, +narrow-chested, hollow-eyed ghosts, whom one passes at every step, these +languid, flabby faces, incapable of the slightest energetic expression, +I have seen in such startling numbers only in London, though consumption +carries off a horde of victims annually in the factory towns of the +North. In competition with consumption stands <!-- page 99--><a name="page99"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 99</span>typhus, +to say nothing of scarlet fever, a disease which brings most frightful +devastation into the ranks of the working-class. Typhus, that +universally diffused affliction, is attributed by the official report +on the sanitary condition of the working-class, directly to the bad +state of the dwellings in the matters of ventilation, drainage, and +cleanliness. This report, compiled, it must not be forgotten, +by the leading physicians of England from the testimony of other physicians, +asserts that a single ill-ventilated court, a single blind alley without +drainage, is enough to engender fever, and usually does engender it, +especially if the inhabitants are greatly crowded. This fever +has the same character almost everywhere, and develops in nearly every +case into specific typhus. It is to be found in the working-people’s +quarters of all great towns and cities, and in single ill-built, ill-kept +streets of smaller places, though it naturally seeks out single victims +in better districts also. In London it has now prevailed for a +considerable time; its extraordinary violence in the year 1837 gave +rise to the report already referred to. According to the annual +report of Dr. Southwood Smith on the London Fever Hospital, the number +of patients in 1843 was 1,462, or 418 more than in any previous year. +In the damp, dirty regions of the north, south, and east districts of +London, this disease raged with extraordinary violence. Many of +the patients were working-people from the country, who had endured the +severest privation while migrating, and, after their arrival, had slept +hungry and half-naked in the streets, and so fallen victims to the fever. +These people were brought into the hospital in such a state of weakness, +that unusual quantities of wine, cognac, and preparations of ammonia +and other stimulants were required for their treatment; 16½ per +cent. of all patients died. This malignant fever is to be found +in Manchester; in the worst quarters of the Old Town, Ancoats, Little +Ireland, etc., it is rarely extinct; though here, as in the <i>English</i> +towns generally, it prevails to a less extent than might be expected. +In Scotland and Ireland, on the other hand, it rages with a violence +that surpasses all conception. In Edinburgh and Glasgow it broke +out in 1817, after the famine, and in 1826 and 1837 with especial violence, +after <!-- page 100--><a name="page100"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 100</span>the +commercial crisis, subsiding somewhat each time after having raged about +three years. In Edinburgh about 6,000 persons were attacked by +the fever during the epidemic of 1817, and about 10,000 in that of 1837, +and not only the number of persons attacked but the violence of the +disease increased with each repetition. <a name="citation100a"></a><a href="#footnote100a">{100a}</a></p> +<p>But the fury of the epidemic in all former periods seems to have +been child’s play in comparison with its ravages after the crisis +of 1842. One-sixth of the whole indigent population of Scotland +was seized by the fever, and the infection was carried by wandering +beggars with fearful rapidity from one locality to another. It +did not reach the middle and upper classes of the population, yet in +two months there were more fever cases than in twelve years before. +In Glasgow, twelve per cent. of the population were seized in the year +1843; 32,000 persons, of whom thirty-two per cent. perished, while this +mortality in Manchester and Liverpool does not ordinarily exceed eight +per cent. The illness reached a crisis on the seventh and fifteenth +days; on the latter, the patient usually became yellow, which our authority +<a name="citation100b"></a><a href="#footnote100b">{100b}</a> regards +as an indication that the cause of the malady was to be sought in mental +excitement and anxiety. In Ireland, too, these fever epidemics +have become domesticated. During twenty-one months of the years +1817-1818, 39,000 fever patients passed through the Dublin hospital; +and in a more recent year, according to Sheriff Alison, <a name="citation100c"></a><a href="#footnote100c">{100c}</a> +60,000. In Cork the fever hospital received one-seventh of the +population in 1817-1818, in Limerick in the same time one-fourth, and +in the bad quarter of Waterford, nineteen-twentieths of the whole population +were ill of the fever at one time.</p> +<p>When one remembers under what conditions the working-people live, +when one thinks how crowded their dwellings are, how every nook and +corner swarms with human beings, how sick and well sleep in the same +room, in the same bed, the only wonder is that a contagious disease +like this fever does not spread <!-- page 101--><a name="page101"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 101</span>yet +farther. And when one reflects how little medical assistance the +sick have at command, how many are without any medical advice whatsoever, +and ignorant of the most ordinary precautionary measures, the mortality +seems actually small. Dr. Alison, who has made a careful study +of this disease, attributes it directly to the want and the wretched +condition of the poor, as in the report already quoted. He asserts +that privations and the insufficient satisfaction of vital needs are +what prepare the frame for contagion and make the epidemic widespread +and terrible. He proves that a period of privation, a commercial +crisis or a bad harvest, has each time produced the typhus epidemic +in Ireland as in Scotland, and that the fury of the plague has fallen +almost exclusively on the working-class. It is a noteworthy fact, +that according to his testimony, the majority of persons who perish +by typhus are fathers of families, precisely the persons who can least +be spared by those dependent upon them; and several Irish physicians +whom he quotes bear the same testimony.</p> +<p>Another category of diseases arises directly from the food rather +than the dwellings of the workers. The food of the labourer, indigestible +enough in itself, is utterly unfit for young children, and he has neither +means nor time to get his children more suitable food. Moreover, +the custom of giving children spirits, and even opium, is very general; +and these two influences, with the rest of the conditions of life prejudicial +to bodily development, give rise to the most diverse affections of the +digestive organs, leaving life-long traces behind them. Nearly +all workers have stomachs more or less weak, and are yet forced to adhere +to the diet which is the root of the evil. How should they know +what is to blame for it? And if they knew, how could they obtain +a more suitable regimen so long as they cannot adopt a different way +of living and are not better educated? But new disease arises +during childhood from impaired digestion. Scrofula is almost universal +among the working-class, and scrofulous parents have scrofulous children, +especially when the original influences continue in full force to operate +upon the inherited tendency of the children. A second consequence +of this insufficient bodily <!-- page 102--><a name="page102"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 102</span>nourishment, +during the years of growth and development, is rachitis, which is extremely +common among the children of the working-class. The hardening +of the bones is delayed, the development of the skeleton in general +is restricted, and deformities of the legs and spinal column are frequent, +in addition to the usual rachitic affections. How greatly all +these evils are increased by the changes to which the workers are subject +in consequence of fluctuations in trade, want of work, and the scanty +wages in time of crisis, it is not necessary to dwell upon. Temporary +want of sufficient food, to which almost every working-man is exposed +at least once in the course of his life, only contributes to intensify +the effects of his usual sufficient but bad diet. Children who +are half-starved, just when they most need ample and nutritious food—and +how many such there are during every crisis and even when trade is at +its best—must inevitably become weak, scrofulous and rachitic +in a high degree. And that they do become so, their appearance +amply shows. The neglect to which the great mass of working-men’s +children are condemned leaves ineradicable traces and brings the enfeeblement +of the whole race of workers with it. Add to this, the unsuitable +clothing of this class, the impossibility of precautions against colds, +the necessity of toiling so long as health permits, want made more dire +when sickness appears, and the only too common lack of all medical assistance; +and we have a rough idea of the sanitary condition of the English working-class. +The injurious effects peculiar to single employments as now conducted, +I shall not deal with here.</p> +<p>Besides these, there are other influences which enfeeble the health +of a great number of workers, intemperance most of all. All possible +temptations, all allurements combine to bring the workers to drunkenness. +Liquor is almost their only source of pleasure, and all things conspire +to make it accessible to them. The working-man comes from his +work tired, exhausted, finds his home comfortless, damp, dirty, repulsive; +he has urgent need of recreation, he <i>must</i> have something to make +work worth his trouble, to make the prospect of the next day endurable. +His unnerved, uncomfortable, hypochondriac state of mind and body <!-- page 103--><a name="page103"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 103</span>arising +from his unhealthy condition, and especially from indigestion, is aggravated +beyond endurance by the general conditions of his life, the uncertainty +of his existence, his dependence upon all possible accidents and chances, +and his inability to do anything towards gaining an assured position. +His enfeebled frame, weakened by bad air and bad food, violently demands +some external stimulus; his social need can be gratified only in the +public-house, he has absolutely no other place where he can meet his +friends. How can he be expected to resist the temptation? +It is morally and physically inevitable that, under such circumstances, +a very large number of working-men should fall into intemperance. +And apart from the chiefly physical influences which drive the working-man +into drunkenness, there is the example of the great mass, the neglected +education, the impossibility of protecting the young from temptation, +in many cases the direct influence of intemperate parents, who give +their own children liquor, the certainty of forgetting for an hour or +two the wretchedness and burden of life, and a hundred other circumstances +so mighty that the workers can, in truth, hardly be blamed for yielding +to such overwhelming pressure. Drunkenness has here ceased to +be a vice, for which the vicious can be held responsible; it becomes +a phenomenon, the necessary, inevitable effect of certain conditions +upon an object possessed of no volition in relation to those conditions. +They who have degraded the working-man to a mere object have the responsibility +to bear. But as inevitably as a great number of working-men fall +a prey to drink, just so inevitably does it manifest its ruinous influence +upon the body and mind of its victims. All the tendencies to disease +arising from the conditions of life of the workers are promoted by it, +it stimulates in the highest degree the development of lung and digestive +troubles, the rise and spread of typhus epidemics.</p> +<p>Another source of physical mischief to the working-class lies in +the impossibility of employing skilled physicians in cases of illness. +It is true that a number of charitable institutions strive to supply +this want, that the infirmary in Manchester, for instance, receives +or gives advice and medicine to 2,200 patients annually. But <!-- page 104--><a name="page104"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 104</span>what +is that in a city in which, according to Gaskell’s calculation, +<a name="citation104"></a><a href="#footnote104">{104}</a> three-fourths +of the population need medical aid every year? English doctors +charge high fees, and working-men are not in a position to pay them. +They can therefore do nothing, or are compelled to call in cheap charlatans, +and use quack remedies, which do more harm than good. An immense +number of such quacks thrive in every English town, securing their <i>clientèle</i> +among the poor by means of advertisements, posters, and other such devices. +Besides these, vast quantities of patent medicines are sold, for all +conceivable ailments: Morrison’s Pills, Parr’s Life Pills, +Dr. Mainwaring’s Pills, and a thousand other pills, essences, +and balsams, all of which have the property of curing all the ills that +flesh is heir to. These medicines rarely contain actually injurious +substances, but, when taken freely and often, they affect the system +prejudicially; and as the unwary purchasers are always recommended to +take as much as possible, it is not to be wondered at that they swallow +them wholesale whether wanted or not.</p> +<p>It is by no means unusual for the manufacturer of Parr’s Life +Pills to sell twenty to twenty-five thousand boxes of these salutary +pills in a week, and they are taken for constipation by this one, for +diarrhœa by that one, for fever, weakness, and all possible ailments. +As our German peasants are cupped or bled at certain seasons, so do +the English working-people now consume patent medicines to their own +injury and the great profit of the manufacturer. One of the most +injurious of these patent medicines is a drink prepared with opiates, +chiefly laudanum, under the name Godfrey’s Cordial. Women +who work at home, and have their own and other people’s children +to take care of, give them this drink to keep them quiet, and, as many +believe, to strengthen them. They often begin to give this medicine +to newly-born children, and continue, without knowing the effects of +this “heartsease,” until the children die. The less +susceptible the child’s system to the action of the opium, the +greater the quantities administered. When the cordial ceases to +act, laudanum alone is given, often to the extent of fifteen to twenty +drops at a dose. <!-- page 105--><a name="page105"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 105</span>The +Coroner of Nottingham testified before a Parliamentary Commission <a name="citation105a"></a><a href="#footnote105a">{105a}</a> +that one apothecary had, according to his own statement, used thirteen +hundredweight of laudanum in one year in the preparation of Godfrey’s +Cordial. The effects upon the children so treated may be readily +imagined. They are pale, feeble, wilted, and usually die before +completing the second year. The use of this cordial is very extensive +in all great towns and industrial districts in the kingdom.</p> +<p>The result of all these influences is a general enfeeblement of the +frame in the working-class. There are few vigorous, well-built, +healthy persons among the workers, <i>i.e</i>., among the factory operatives, +who are employed in confined rooms, and we are here discussing these +only. They are almost all weakly, of angular but not powerful +build, lean, pale, and of relaxed fibre, with the exception of the muscles +especially exercised in their work. Nearly all suffer from indigestion, +and consequently from a more or less hypochondriac, melancholy, irritable, +nervous condition. Their enfeebled constitutions are unable to +resist disease, and are therefore seized by it on every occasion. +Hence they age prematurely, and die early. On this point the mortality +statistics supply unquestionable testimony.</p> +<p>According to the Report of Registrar-General Graham, the annual death-rate +of all England and Wales is something less than 2¼ per cent. +That is to say, out of forty-five persons, one dies every year. <a name="citation105b"></a><a href="#footnote105b">{105b}</a> +This was the average for the year 1839-40. In 1840-41 the mortality +diminished somewhat, and the death-rate was but one in forty-six. +But in the great cities the proportion is wholly different. I +have before me official tables of mortality (<i>Manchester Guardian</i>, +July 31st, 1844), according to which the death-rate of several large +towns is as follows:—In Manchester, <!-- page 106--><a name="page106"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 106</span>including +Chorlton and Salford, one in 32.72; and excluding Chorlton and Salford, +one in 30.75. In Liverpool, including West Derby (suburb), 31.90, +and excluding West Derby, 29.90; while the average of all the districts +of Cheshire, Lancashire, and Yorkshire cited, including a number of +wholly or partially rural districts and many small towns, with a total +population of 2,172,506 for the whole, is one death in 39.80 persons. +How unfavourably the workers are placed in the great cities, the mortality +for Prescott in Lancashire shows: a district inhabited by miners, and +showing a lower sanitary condition than that of the agricultural districts, +mining being by no means a healthful occupation. But these miners +live in the country, and the death-rate among them is but one in 47.54, +or nearly two-and-a-half per cent. better than that for all England. +All these statements are based upon the mortality tables for 1843. +Still higher is the death-rate in the Scotch cities; in Edinburgh, in +1838-39, one in 29; in 1831, in the Old Town alone, one in 22. +In Glasgow, according to Dr. Cowen, <a name="citation106"></a><a href="#footnote106">{106}</a> +the average has been, since 1830, one in 30; and in single years, one +in 22 to 24. That this enormous shortening of life falls chiefly +upon the working-class, that the general average is improved by the +smaller mortality of the upper and middle-classes, is attested upon +all sides. One of the most recent depositions is that of a physician, +Dr. P. H. Holland, in Manchester, who investigated Chorlton-on-Medlock, +a suburb of Manchester, under official commission. He divided +the houses and streets into three classes each, and ascertained the +following variations in the death-rate:</p> +<pre>First class of Streets. Houses I. class. Mortality one in 51 +,, ,, ,, II. ,, ,, ,, 45 +,, ,, ,, III. ,, ,, ,, 36 +Second ,, ,, I. ,, ,, ,, 55 +,, ,, ,, II. ,, ,, ,, 38 +,, ,, ,, III. ,, ,, ,, 35 +Third ,, ,, I. ,, Wanting --- ---- +,, ,, ,, II. ,, Mortality ,, 35 +,, ,, ,, III. ,, ,, ,, 25</pre> +<p><!-- page 107--><a name="page107"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 107</span>It +is clear from other tables given by Holland that the mortality in the +<i>streets</i> of the second class is 18 per cent. greater, and in the +streets of the third class 68 per cent. greater than in those of the +first class; that the mortality in the <i>houses</i> of the second class +is 31 per cent greater, and in the third class 78 per cent. greater +than in those of the first class; that the mortality is those bad streets +which were improved, decreased 25 per cent. He closes with the +remark, very frank for an English bourgeois: <a name="citation107"></a><a href="#footnote107">{107}</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“When we find the rate of mortality four times +as high in some streets as in others, and twice as high in whole classes +of streets as in other classes, and further find that it is all but +invariably high in those streets which are in bad condition, and almost +invariably low in those whose condition is good, we cannot resist the +conclusion that multitudes of our fellow-creatures, <i>hundreds of our +immediate neighbours</i>, are annually destroyed for want of the most +evident precautions.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Working-Class contains +information which attests the same fact. In Liverpool, in 1840, +the average longevity of the upper-classes, gentry, professional men, +etc., was thirty-five years; that of the business men and better-placed +handicraftsmen, twenty-two years; and that of the operatives, day-labourers, +and serviceable class in general, but fifteen years. The Parliamentary +reports contain a mass of similar facts.</p> +<p>The death-rate is kept so high chiefly by the heavy mortality among +young children in the working-class. The tender frame of a child +is least able to withstand the unfavourable influences of an inferior +lot in life; the neglect to which they are often subjected, when both +parents work or one is dead, avenges itself promptly, and no one need +wonder that in Manchester, according to the report last quoted, more +than fifty-seven per cent. of the children of the working-class perish +before the fifth year, while but twenty per cent. of the children of +the higher classes, and not quite thirty-two per cent. of the children +of all classes in the <!-- page 108--><a name="page108"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 108</span>country +die under five years of age. <a name="citation108a"></a><a href="#footnote108a">{108a}</a> +The article of the <i>Artisan</i>, already several times referred to, +furnishes exacter information on this point, by comparing the city death-rate +in single diseases of children with the country death-rate, thus demonstrating +that, in general, epidemics in Manchester and Liverpool are three times +more fatal than in country districts; that affections of the nervous +system are quintupled, and stomach troubles trebled, while deaths from +affections of the lungs in cities are to those in the country as 2½ +to 1. Fatal cases of smallpox, measles, scarlet fever, and whooping +cough, among small children, are four times more frequent; those of +water on the brain are trebled, and convulsions ten times more frequent. +To quote another acknowledged authority, I append the following table. +Out of 10,000 persons, there die—<a name="citation108b"></a><a href="#footnote108b">{108b}</a></p> +<pre> Under 5-19 20-39 40-59 60-69 70-79 80-89 90-99 100 x + 5 years +In Rutlandshire, a +healthy agricultural +district 2,865 891 1,275 1,299 1,189 1,428 938 112 3 +Essex, marshy +agricultural +district 3,159 1,110 1,526 1,413 963 1,019 630 177 3 +Town of Carlisle, +1779-1787, before +introduction of +mills 4,408 921 1,006 1,201 940 826 633 153 22 +Town of Carlisle, +after introduction +of mills 4,738 930 l,201 1,134 677 727 452 80 1 +Preston, factory +town 4,947 1,136 1,379 1,114 553 532 298 38 3 +Leeds, factory +town 5,286 927 1,228 1,198 593 512 225 29 2</pre> +<p>Apart from the divers diseases which are the necessary consequence +of the present neglect and oppression of the poorer classes, there are +other influences which contribute to increase the mortality among small +children. In many families the wife, like the husband, has to +work away from home, and the consequence is the total neglect of the +children, who are either locked up or given out to be taken care of. +It is, therefore, not to be wondered at if hundreds of them perish through +all manner of accidents. Nowhere are so many children run over, +nowhere are so many killed <!-- page 109--><a name="page109"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 109</span>by +falling, drowning, or burning, as in the great cities and towns of England. +Deaths from burns and scalds are especially frequent, such a case occurring +nearly every week during the winter months in Manchester, and very frequently +in London, though little mention is made of them in the papers. +I have at hand a copy of the <i>Weekly Despatch</i> of December 15th, +1844, according to which, in the week from December 1st to December +7th inclusive, <i>six</i> such cases occurred. These unhappy children, +perishing in this terrible way, are victims of our social disorder, +and of the property-holding classes interested in maintaining and prolonging +this disorder. Yet one is left in doubt whether even this terribly +torturing death is not a blessing for the children in rescuing them +from a long life of toil and wretchedness, rich in suffering and poor +in enjoyment. So far has it gone in England; and the bourgeoisie +reads these things every day in the newspapers and takes no further +trouble in the matter. But it cannot complain if, after the official +and non-official testimony here cited which must be known to it, I broadly +accuse it of social murder. Let the ruling class see to it that +these frightful conditions are ameliorated, or let it surrender the +administration of the common interests to the labouring-class. +To the latter course it is by no means inclined; for the former task, +so long as it remains the bourgeoisie crippled by bourgeois prejudice, +it has not the needed power. For if, at last, after hundreds of +thousands of victims have perished, it manifests some little anxiety +for the future, passing a “Metropolitan Buildings Act,” +under which the most unscrupulous overcrowding of dwellings is to be, +at least in some slight degree, restricted; if it points with pride +to measures which, far from attacking the root of the evil, do not by +any means meet the demands of the commonest sanitary policy, it cannot +thus vindicate itself from the accusation. The English bourgeoisie +has but one choice, either to continue its rule under the unanswerable +charge of murder and in spite of this charge, or to abdicate in favour +of the labouring-class. Hitherto it has chosen the former course.</p> +<p>Let us turn from the physical to the mental state of the workers. +Since the bourgeoisie vouchsafes them only so much of life as is <!-- page 110--><a name="page110"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 110</span>absolutely +necessary, we need not wonder that it bestows upon them only so much +education as lies in the interest of the bourgeoisie; and that, in truth, +is not much. The means of education in England are restricted +out of all proportion to the population. The few day schools at +the command of the working-class are available only for the smallest +minority, and are bad besides. The teachers, worn-out workers, +and other unsuitable persons who only turn to teaching in order to live, +are usually without the indispensable elementary knowledge, without +the moral discipline so needful for the teacher, and relieved of all +public supervision. Here, too, free competition rules, and, as +usual, the rich profit by it, and the poor, for whom competition is +<i>not</i> free, who have not the knowledge needed to enable them to +form a correct judgment, have the evil consequences to bear. Compulsory +school attendance does not exist. In the mills it is, as we shall +see, purely nominal; and when in the session of 1843 the Ministry was +disposed to make this nominal compulsion effective, the manufacturing +bourgeoisie opposed the measure with all its might, though the working-class +was outspokenly in favour of compulsory school attendance. Moreover, +a mass of children work the whole week through in the mills or at home, +and therefore cannot attend school. The evening schools, supposed +to be attended by children who are employed during the day, are almost +abandoned or attended without benefit. It is asking too much, +that young workers who have been using themselves up twelve hours in +the day, should go to school from eight to ten at night. And those +who try it usually fall asleep, as is testified by hundreds of witnesses +in the Children’s Employment Commission’s Report. +Sunday schools have been founded, it is true, but they, too, are most +scantily supplied with teachers, and can be of use to those only who +have already learnt something in the day schools. The interval +from one Sunday to the next is too long for an ignorant child to remember +in the second sitting what it learned in the first, a week before. +The Children’s Employment Commission’s Report furnishes +a hundred proofs, and the Commission itself most emphatically expresses +the opinion, that neither the week-day nor <!-- page 111--><a name="page111"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 111</span>the +Sunday schools, in the least degree, meet the needs of the nation. +This report gives evidence of ignorance in the working-class of England, +such as could hardly be expected in Spain or Italy. It cannot +be otherwise; the bourgeoisie has little to hope, and much to fear, +from the education of the working-class. The Ministry, in its +whole enormous budget of £55,000,000, has only the single trifling +item of £40,000 for public education, and, but for the fanaticism +of the religious sects which does at least as much harm as good, the +means of education would be yet more scanty. As it is, the State +Church manages its national schools and the various sects their sectarian +schools for the sole purpose of keeping the children of the brethren +of the faith within the congregation, and of winning away a poor childish +soul here and there from some other sect. The consequence is that +religion, and precisely the most unprofitable side of religion, polemical +discussion, is made the principal subject of instruction, and the memory +of the children overburdened with incomprehensible dogmas and theological +distinctions; that sectarian hatred and bigotry are awakened as early +as possible, and all rational mental and moral training shamefully neglected. +The working class has repeatedly demanded of Parliament a system of +strictly secular public education, leaving religion to the ministers +of the sects; but, thus far, no Ministry has been induced to grant it. +The Minister is the obedient servant of the bourgeoisie, and the bourgeoisie +is divided into countless sects; but each would gladly grant the workers +the otherwise dangerous education on the sole condition of their accepting, +as an antidote, the dogmas peculiar to the especial sect in question. +And as these sects are still quarrelling among themselves for supremacy, +the workers remain for the present without education. It is true +that the manufacturers boast of having enabled the majority to read, +but the quality of the reading is appropriate to the source of the instruction, +as the Children’s Employment Commission proves. According +to this report, he who knows his letters can read enough to satisfy +the conscience of the manufacturers. And when one reflects upon +the confused orthography of the English language which makes reading +<!-- page 112--><a name="page112"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 112</span>one +of the arts, learned only under long instruction, this ignorance is +readily understood. Very few working-people write readily; and +writing orthographically is beyond the powers even of many “educated” +persons. The Sunday schools of the State Church, of the Quakers, +and, I think, of several other sects, do not teach writing, “because +it is too worldly an employment for Sunday.” The quality +of the instruction offered the workers in other directions may be judged +from a specimen or two, taken from the Children’s Employment Commission’s +Report, which unfortunately does not embrace mill-work proper:</p> +<blockquote><p>“In Birmingham,” says Commissioner Grainger, +“the children examined by me are, as a whole, utterly wanting +in all that could be in the remotest degree called a useful education. +Although in almost all the schools religious instruction alone is furnished, +the profoundest ignorance even upon that subject prevailed.”—“In +Wolverhampton,” says Commissioner Horne, “I found, among +others, the following example: A girl of eleven years had attended both +day and Sunday school, ‘had never heard of another world, of Heaven, +or another life.’ A boy, seventeen years old, did not know +that twice two are four, nor how many farthings in two pence even when +the money was placed in his hand. Several boys had never heard +of London nor of Willenhall, though the latter was but an hour’s +walk from their homes, and in the closest relations with Wolverhampton. +Several had never heard the name of the Queen nor other names, such +as Nelson, Wellington, Bonaparte; but it was noteworthy that those who +had never heard even of St. Paul, Moses, or Solomon, were very well +instructed as to the life, deeds, and character of Dick Turpin, and +especially of Jack Sheppard. A youth of sixteen did not know how +many twice two are, nor how much four farthings make. A youth +of seventeen asserted that four farthings are four half pence; a third, +seventeen years old, answered several very simple questions with the +brief statement, that he ‘was ne jedge o’ nothin’.’” +<a name="citation112a"></a><a href="#footnote112a">{112a}</a> +These children who are crammed with religious doctrines four or five +years at a stretch, know as little at the end as at the beginning. +One child “went to Sunday school regularly for five years; does +not know who Jesus Christ is, but had heard the name; had never heard +of the twelve Apostles, Samson, Moses, Aaron, etc.” <a name="citation112b"></a><a href="#footnote112b">{112b}</a> +<!-- page 113--><a name="page113"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 113</span>Another +“attended Sunday school regularly six years; knows who Jesus Christ +was; he died on the Cross to save our Saviour; had never heard of St. +Peter or St. Paul.” <a name="citation113a"></a><a href="#footnote113a">{113a}</a> +A third, “attended different Sunday schools seven years; can read +only the thin, easy books with simple words of one syllable; has heard +of the Apostles, but does not know whether St. Peter was one or St. +John; the latter must have been St. John Wesley.” <a name="citation113b"></a><a href="#footnote113b">{113b}</a> +To the question who Christ was, Horne received the following answers +among others: “He was Adam,” “He was an Apostle,” +“He was the Saviour’s Lord’s Son,” and from +a youth of sixteen: “He was a king of London long ago.” +In Sheffield, Commissioner Symonds let the children from the Sunday +school read aloud; they could not tell what they had read, or what sort +of people the Apostles were, of whom they had just been reading. +After he had asked them all one after the other about the Apostles without +securing a single correct answer, one sly-looking little fellow, with +great glee, called out: “I know, mister; they were the lepers!” +<a name="citation113c"></a><a href="#footnote113c">{113c}</a> +From the pottery districts and from Lancashire the reports are similar.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>This is what the bourgeoisie and the State are doing for the education +and improvement of the working-class. Fortunately the conditions +under which this class lives are such as give it a sort of practical +training, which not only replaces school cramming, but renders harmless +the confused religious notions connected with it, and even places the +workers in the vanguard of the national movement of England. Necessity +is the mother of invention, and what is still more important, of thought +and action. The English working-man who can scarcely read and +still less write, nevertheless knows very well where his own interest +and that of the nation lies. He knows, too, what the especial +interest of the bourgeoisie is, and what he has to expect of that bourgeoisie. +If he cannot write he can speak, and speak in public; if he has no arithmetic, +he can, nevertheless, reckon with the Political Economists enough to +see through a Corn-Law-repealing bourgeois, and to get the better of +him in argument; if celestial matters remain very mixed for him in spite +of all the effort of the preachers, he sees all the more clearly into +terrestrial, political, <!-- page 114--><a name="page114"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 114</span>and +social questions. We shall have occasion to refer again to this +point; and pass now to the moral characteristics of our workers.</p> +<p>It is sufficiently clear that the instruction in morals can have +no better effect than the religious teaching, with which in all English +schools it is mixed up. The simple principles which, for plain +human beings, regulate the relations of man to man, brought into the +direst confusion by our social state, our war of each against all, necessarily +remain confused and foreign to the working-man when mixed with incomprehensible +dogmas, and preached in the religious form of an arbitrary and dogmatic +commandment. The schools contribute, according to the confession +of all authorities, and especially of the Children’s Employment +Commission, almost nothing to the morality of the working-class. +So short-sighted, so stupidly narrow-minded is the English bourgeoisie +in its egotism, that it does not even take the trouble to impress upon +the workers the morality of the day, which the bourgeoisie has patched +together in its own interest for its own protection! Even this +precautionary measure is too great an effort for the enfeebled and sluggish +bourgeoisie. A time must come when it will repent its neglect, +too late. But it has no right to complain that the workers know +nothing of its system of morals, and do not act in accordance with it.</p> +<p>Thus are the workers cast out and ignored by the class in power, +morally as well as physically and mentally. The only provision +made for them is the law, which fastens upon them when they become obnoxious +to the bourgeoisie. Like the dullest of the brutes, they are treated +to but one form of education, the whip, in the shape of force, not convincing +but intimidating. There is, therefore, no cause for surprise if +the workers, treated as brutes, actually become such; or if they can +maintain their consciousness of manhood only by cherishing the most +glowing hatred, the most unbroken inward rebellion against the bourgeoisie +in power. They are men so long only as they burn with wrath against +the reigning class. They become brutes the moment they bend in +patience under the yoke, and merely strive to make life endurable while +abandoning the effort to break the yoke.</p> +<p><!-- page 115--><a name="page115"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 115</span>This, +then, is all that the bourgeoisie has done for the education of the +proletariat—and when we take into consideration all the circumstances +in which this class lives, we shall not think the worse of it for the +resentment which it cherishes against the ruling class. The moral +training which is not given to the worker in school is not supplied +by the other conditions of his life; that moral training, at least, +which alone has worth in the eyes of the bourgeoisie; his whole position +and environment involves the strongest temptation to immorality. +He is poor, life offers him no charm, almost every enjoyment is denied +him, the penalties of the law have no further terrors for him; why should +he restrain his desires, why leave to the rich the enjoyment of his +birthright, why not seize a part of it for himself? What inducement +has the proletarian not to steal! It is all very pretty and very +agreeable to the ear of the bourgeois to hear the “sacredness +of property” asserted; but for him who has none, the sacredness +of property dies out of itself. Money is the god of this world; +the bourgeois takes the proletarian’s money from him and so makes +a practical atheist of him. No wonder, then, if the proletarian +retains his atheism and no longer respects the sacredness and power +of the earthly God. And when the poverty of the proletarian is +intensified to the point of actual lack of the barest necessaries of +life, to want and hunger, the temptation to disregard all social order +does but gain power. This the bourgeoisie for the most part recognises. +Symonds <a name="citation115a"></a><a href="#footnote115a">{115a}</a> +observes that poverty exercises the same ruinous influence upon the +mind which drunkenness exercises upon the body; and Dr. Alison explains +to property-holding readers, with the greatest exactness, what the consequences +of social oppression must be for the working-class. <a name="citation115b"></a><a href="#footnote115b">{115b}</a> +Want leaves the working-man the choice between starving slowly, killing +himself speedily, or taking what he needs where he finds it—in +plain English, stealing. And there is no cause for surprise that +most of them prefer stealing to starvation and suicide.</p> +<p>True, there are, within the working-class, numbers too moral to <!-- page 116--><a name="page116"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 116</span>steal +even when reduced to the utmost extremity, and these starve or commit +suicide. For suicide, formerly the enviable privilege of the upper +classes, has become fashionable among the English workers, and numbers +of the poor kill themselves to avoid the misery from which they see +no other means of escape.</p> +<p>But far more demoralising than his poverty in its influence upon +the English working-man is the insecurity of his position, the necessity +of living upon wages from hand to mouth, that in short which makes a +proletarian of him. The smaller peasants in Germany are usually +poor, and often suffer want, but they are less at the mercy of accident, +they have at least something secure. The proletarian, who has +nothing but his two hands, who consumes to-day what he earned yesterday, +who is subject to every possible chance, and has not the slightest guarantee +for being able to earn the barest necessities of life, whom every crisis, +every whim of his employer may deprive of bread, this proletarian is +placed in the most revolting, inhuman position conceivable for a human +being. The slave is assured of a bare livelihood by the self-interest +of his master, the serf has at least a scrap of land on which to live; +each has at worst a guarantee for life itself. But the proletarian +must depend upon himself alone, and is yet prevented from so applying +his abilities as to be able to rely upon them. Everything that +the proletarian can do to improve his position is but a drop in the +ocean compared with the floods of varying chances to which he is exposed, +over which he has not the slightest control. He is the passive +subject of all possible combinations of circumstances, and must count +himself fortunate when he has saved his life even for a short time; +and his character and way of living are naturally shaped by these conditions. +Either he seeks to keep his head above water in this whirlpool, to rescue +his manhood, and this he can do solely in rebellion <a name="citation116"></a><a href="#footnote116">{116}</a> +against the class which plunders him so mercilessly and then abandons +him to his fate, which strives to hold him in this position so demoralising +to a human being; or he gives up the struggle against his fate as hopeless, +and strives to <!-- page 117--><a name="page117"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 117</span>profit, +so far as he can, by the most favourable moment. To save is unavailing, +for at the utmost he cannot save more than suffices to sustain life +for a short time, while if he falls out of work, it is for no brief +period. To accumulate lasting property for himself is impossible; +and if it were not, he would only cease to be a working-man and another +would take his place. What better thing can he do, then, when +he gets high wages, than live well upon them? The English bourgeoisie +is violently scandalised at the extravagant living of the workers when +wages are high; yet it is not only very natural but very sensible of +them to enjoy life when they can, instead of laying up treasures which +are of no lasting use to them, and which in the end moth and rust (<i>i.e</i>., +the bourgeoisie) get possession of. Yet such a life is demoralising +beyond all others. What Carlyle says of the cotton spinners is +true of all English industrial workers: <a name="citation117a"></a><a href="#footnote117a">{117a}</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“Their trade, now in plethoric prosperity, anon +extenuated into inanition and ‘short time,’ is of the nature +of gambling; they live by it like gamblers, now in luxurious superfluity, +now in starvation. Black, mutinous discontent devours them; simply +the miserablest feeling that can inhabit the heart of man. English +commerce, with its world-wide, convulsive fluctuations, with its immeasurable +Proteus Steam demon, makes all paths uncertain for them, all life a +bewilderment; society, steadfastness, peaceable continuance, the first +blessings of man are not theirs.—This world is for them no home, +but a dingy prison-house, of reckless unthrift, rebellion, rancour, +indignation against themselves and against all men. Is it a green, +flowery world, with azure everlasting sky stretched over it, the work +and government of a God; or a murky, simmering Tophet, of copperas fumes, +cotton fuz, gin riot, wrath and toil, created by a Demon, governed by +a Demon?”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>And elsewhere: <a name="citation117b"></a><a href="#footnote117b">{117b}</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“Injustice, infidelity to truth and fact and Nature’s +order, being properly the one evil under the sun, and the feeling of +injustice the one intolerable pain under the sun, our grand question +as to the condition of these working-men would be: Is it just? +And, first of all, what belief have they themselves formed about the +<!-- page 118--><a name="page118"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 118</span>justice +of it? The words they promulgate are notable by way of answer; +their actions are still more notable. Revolt, sullen, revengeful +humour of revolt against the upper classes, decreasing respect for what +their temporal superiors command, decreasing faith for what their spiritual +superiors teach, is more and more the universal spirit of the lower +classes. Such spirit may be blamed, may be vindicated, but all +men must recognise it as extant there, all may know that it is mournful, +that unless altered it will be fatal.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Carlyle is perfectly right as to the facts and wrong only in censuring +the wild rage of the workers against the higher classes. This +rage, this passion, is rather the proof that the workers feel the inhumanity +of their position, that they refuse to be degraded to the level of brutes, +and that they will one day free themselves from servitude to the bourgeoisie. +This may be seen in the case of those who do not share this wrath; they +either bow humbly before the fate that overtakes them, live a respectful +private life as well as they can, do not concern themselves as to the +course of public affairs, help the bourgeoisie to forge the chains of +the workers yet more securely, and stand upon the plane of intellectual +nullity that prevailed before the industrial period began; or they are +tossed about by fate, lose their moral hold upon themselves as they +have already lost their economic hold, live along from day to day, drink +and fall into licentiousness; and in both cases they are brutes. +The last-named class contributes chiefly to the “rapid increase +of vice,” at which the bourgeoisie is so horrified after itself +setting in motion the causes which give rise to it.</p> +<p>Another source of demoralisation among the workers is their being +condemned to work. As voluntary, productive activity is the highest +enjoyment known to us, so is compulsory toil the most cruel, degrading +punishment. Nothing is more terrible than being constrained to +do some one thing every day from morning until night against one’s +will. And the more a man the worker feels himself, the more hateful +must his work be to him, because he feels the constraint, the aimlessness +of it for himself. Why does he work? For love of work? +From a natural impulse? <!-- page 119--><a name="page119"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 119</span>Not +at all! He works for money, for a thing which has nothing whatsoever +to do with the work itself; and he works so long, moreover, and in such +unbroken monotony, that this alone must make his work a torture in the +first weeks if he has the least human feeling left. The division +of labour has multiplied the brutalising influences of forced work. +In most branches the worker’s activity is reduced to some paltry, +purely mechanical manipulation, repeated minute after minute, unchanged +year after year. <a name="citation119"></a><a href="#footnote119">{119}</a> +How much human feeling, what abilities can a man retain in his thirtieth +year, who has made needle points or filed toothed wheels twelve hours +every day from his early childhood, living all the time under the conditions +forced upon the English proletarian? It is still the same thing +since the introduction of steam. The worker’s activity is +made easy, muscular effort is saved, but the work itself becomes unmeaning +and monotonous to the last degree. It offers no field for mental +activity, and claims just enough of his attention to keep him from thinking +of anything else. And a sentence to such work, to work which takes +his whole time for itself, leaving him scarcely time to eat and sleep, +none for physical exercise in the open air, or the enjoyment of Nature, +much less for mental activity, how can such a sentence help degrading +a human being to the level of a brute? Once more the worker must +choose, must either surrender himself to his fate, become a “good” +workman, heed “faithfully” the interest of the bourgeoisie, +in which case he most certainly becomes a brute, or else he must rebel, +fight for his manhood to the last, and this he can only do in the fight +against the bourgeoisie.</p> +<p>And when all these conditions have engendered vast demoralisation +among the workers, a new influence is added to the old, to spread this +degradation more widely and carry it to the extremest point. This +influence is the centralisation of the population. The writers +of the English bourgeoisie are crying murder at the demoralising tendency +of the great cities, like perverted Jeremiahs, <!-- page 120--><a name="page120"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 120</span>they +sing dirges, not over the destruction, but the growth of the cities. +Sheriff Alison attributes almost everything, and Dr. Vaughan, author +of “The Age of Great Cities,” still more to this influence. +And this is natural, for the propertied class has too direct an interest +in the other conditions which tend to destroy the worker body and soul. +If they should admit that “poverty, insecurity, overwork, forced +work, are the chief ruinous influences,” they would have to draw +the conclusion, “then let us give the poor property, guarantee +their subsistence, make laws against overwork,” and this the bourgeoisie +dare not formulate. But the great cities have grown up so spontaneously, +the population has moved into them so wholly of its own motion, and +the inference that manufacture and the middle-class which profits from +it alone have created the cities is so remote, that it is extremely +convenient for the ruling class to ascribe all the evil to this apparently +unavoidable source; whereas the great cities really only secure a more +rapid and certain development for evils already existing in the germ. +Alison is humane enough to admit this; he is no thoroughbred Liberal +manufacturer, but only a half developed Tory bourgeois, and he has, +therefore, an open eye, now and then, where the full-fledged bourgeois +is still stone blind. Let us hear him: <a name="citation120"></a><a href="#footnote120">{120}</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“It is in the great cities that vice has spread +her temptations, and pleasure her seductions, and folly her allurements; +that guilt is encouraged by the hope of impunity, and idleness fostered +by the frequency of example. It is to these great marts of human +corruption that the base and the profligate resort from the simplicity +of country life; it is here that they find victims whereon to practise +their iniquity, and gains to reward the dangers that attend them. +Virtue is here depressed from the obscurity in which it is involved. +Guilt is matured from the difficulty of its detection; licentiousness +is rewarded by the immediate enjoyment which it promises. If any +person will walk through St. Giles’s, the crowded alleys of Dublin, +or the poorer quarters of Glasgow by night, he will meet with ample +proof of these observations; he will no longer wonder at the disorderly +habits and profligate enjoyments of the lower orders; his astonishment +will be, not that <!-- page 121--><a name="page121"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 121</span>there +is so much, but that there is so little crime in the world. The +great cause of human corruption in these crowded situations is the contagious +nature of bad example and the extreme difficulty of avoiding the seductions +of vice when they are brought into close and daily proximity with the +younger part of the people. Whatever we may think of the strength +of virtue, experience proves that the higher orders are indebted for +their exemption from atrocious crime or disorderly habits chiefly to +their fortunate removal from the scene of temptation; and that where +they are exposed to the seductions which assail their inferiors, they +are noways behind them in yielding to their influence. It is the +peculiar misfortune of the poor in great cities that they cannot fly +from these irresistible temptations, but that, turn where they will, +they are met by the alluring forms of vice, or the seductions of guilty +enjoyment. It is the experienced impossibility of concealing the +attractions of vice from the younger part of the poor in great cities +which exposes them to so many causes of demoralisation. All this +proceeds not from any unwonted or extraordinary depravity in the character +of these victims of licentiousness, but from the almost irresistible +nature of the temptations to which the poor are exposed. The rich, +who censure their conduct, would in all probability yield as rapidly +as they have done to the influence of similar causes. There is +a certain degree of misery, a certain proximity to sin, which virtue +is rarely able to withstand, and which the young, in particular, are +generally unable to resist. The progress of vice in such circumstances +is almost as certain and often nearly as rapid as that of physical contagion.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>And elsewhere:</p> +<blockquote><p>“When the higher orders for their own profit have +drawn the labouring-classes in great numbers into a small space, the +contagion of guilt becomes rapid and unavoidable. The lower orders, +situated as they are in so far as regards moral or religious instruction, +are frequently hardly more to be blamed for yielding to the temptations +which surround them than for falling victims to the typhus fever.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Enough! The half-bourgeois Alison betrays to us, however narrow +his manner of expressing himself, the evil effect of the great cities +upon the moral development of the workers. Another, a bourgeois +<i>pur sang</i>, a man after the heart of the Anti-Corn Law <!-- page 122--><a name="page122"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 122</span>League, +Dr. Andrew Ure, <a name="citation122"></a><a href="#footnote122">{122}</a> +betrays the other side. He tells us that life in great cities +facilitates cabals among the workers and confers power on the Plebs. +If here the workers are not educated (<i>i.e</i>., to obedience to the +bourgeoisie), they may view matters one-sidedly, from the standpoint +of a sinister selfishness, and may readily permit themselves to be hoodwinked +by sly demagogues; nay, they might even be capable of viewing their +greatest benefactors, the frugal and enterprising capitalists, with +a jealous and hostile eye. Here proper training alone can avail, +or national bankruptcy and other horrors must follow, since a revolution +of the workers could hardly fail to occur. And our bourgeois is +perfectly justified in his fears. If the centralisation of population +stimulates and develops the property-holding class, it forces the development +of the workers yet more rapidly. The workers begin to feel as +a class, as a whole; they begin to perceive that, though feeble as individuals, +they form a power united; their separation from the bourgeoisie, the +development of views peculiar to the workers and corresponding to their +position in life, is fostered, the consciousness of oppression awakens, +and the workers attain social and political importance. The great +cities are the birthplaces of labour movements; in them the workers +first began to reflect upon their own condition, and to struggle against +it; in them the opposition between proletariat and bourgeoisie first +made itself manifest; from them proceeded the Trades-Unions, Chartism, +and Socialism. The great cities have transformed the disease of +the social body, which appears in chronic form in the country, into +an acute one, and so made manifest its real nature and the means of +curing it. Without the great cities and their forcing influence +upon the popular intelligence, the working-class would be far less advanced +than it is. Moreover, they have destroyed the last remnant of +the patriarchal relation between working-men and employers, a result +to which manufacture on a large scale has contributed by multiplying +the employés dependent upon a single employer. The bourgeoisie +deplores all this, it is true, and has good reason to do <!-- page 123--><a name="page123"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 123</span>so; +for, under the old conditions, the bourgeois was comparatively secure +against a revolt on the part of his hands. He could tyrannise +over them and plunder them to his heart’s content, and yet receive +obedience, gratitude, and assent from these stupid people by bestowing +a trifle of patronising friendliness which cost him nothing, and perhaps +some paltry present, all apparently out of pure, self-sacrificing, uncalled-for +goodness of heart, but really not one-tenth part of his duty. +As an individual bourgeois, placed under conditions which he had not +himself created, he might do his duty at least in part; but, as a member +of the ruling class, which, by the mere fact of its ruling, is responsible +for the condition of the whole nation, he did nothing of what his position +involved. On the contrary, he plundered the whole nation for his +own individual advantage. In the patriarchal relation that hypocritically +concealed the slavery of the worker, the latter must have remained an +intellectual zero, totally ignorant of his own interest, a mere private +individual. Only when estranged from his employer, when convinced +that the sole bond between employer and employé is the bond of +pecuniary profit, when the sentimental bond between them, which stood +not the slightest test, had wholly fallen away, then only did the worker +begin to recognise his own interests and develop independently; then +only did he cease to be the slave of the bourgeoisie in his thoughts, +feelings, and the expression of his will. And to this end manufacture +on a grand scale and in great cities has most largely contributed.</p> +<p>Another influence of great moment in forming the character of the +English workers is the Irish immigration already referred to. +On the one hand it has, as we have seen, degraded the English workers, +removed them from civilisation, and aggravated the hardship of their +lot; but, on the other hand, it has thereby deepened the chasm between +workers and bourgeoisie, and hastened the approaching crisis. +For the course of the social disease from which England is suffering +is the same as the course of a physical disease; it develops, according +to certain laws, has its own crisis, the last and most violent of which +determines the fate of the patient. And as the English nation +cannot succumb under the final crises, <!-- page 124--><a name="page124"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 124</span>but +must go forth from it, born again, rejuvenated, we can but rejoice over +everything which accelerates the course of the disease. And to +this the Irish immigration further contributes by reason of the passionate, +mercurial Irish temperament, which it imports into England and into +the English working-class. The Irish and English are to each other +much as the French and the Germans; and the mixing of the more facile, +excitable, fiery Irish temperament with the stable, reasoning, persevering +English must, in the long run, be productive only of good for both. +The rough egotism of the English bourgeoisie would have kept its hold +upon the working-class much more firmly if the Irish nature, generous +to a fault, and ruled primarily by sentiment, had not intervened, and +softened the cold, rational English character in part by a mixture of +the races, and in part by the ordinary contact of life.</p> +<p>In view of all this, it is not surprising that the working-class +has gradually become a race wholly apart from the English bourgeoisie. +The bourgeoisie has more in common with every other nation of the earth +than with the workers in whose midst it lives. The workers speak +other dialects, have other thoughts and ideals, other customs and moral +principles, a different religion and other politics than those of the +bourgeoisie. Thus they are two radically dissimilar nations, as +unlike as difference of race could make them, of whom we on the Continent +have known but one, the bourgeoisie. Yet it is precisely the other, +the people, the proletariat, which is by far the more important for +the future of England.</p> +<p>Of the public character of the English working-man, as it finds expression +in associations and political principles, we shall have occasion to +speak later; let us here consider the results of the influences cited +above, as they affect the private character of the worker. The +workman is far more humane in ordinary life than the bourgeois. +I have already mentioned the fact that the beggars are accustomed to +turn almost exclusively to the workers, and that, in general, more is +done by the workers than by the bourgeoisie for the maintenance of the +poor. This fact, which <!-- page 125--><a name="page125"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 125</span>any +one may prove for himself any day, is confirmed, among others, by Dr. +Parkinson, Canon of Manchester, who says: <a name="citation125"></a><a href="#footnote125">{125}</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“The poor give one another more than the rich give +the poor. I can confirm my statement by the testimony of one of +our eldest, most skilful, most observant, and humane physicians, Dr. +Bardsley, who has often declared that the total sum which the poor yearly +bestow upon one another, surpasses that which the rich contribute in +the same time.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In other ways, too, the humanity of the workers is constantly manifesting +itself pleasantly. They have experienced hard times themselves, +and can therefore feel for those in trouble, whence they are more approachable, +friendlier, and less greedy for money, though they need it far more, +than the property-holding class. For them money is worth only +what it will buy, whereas for the bourgeois it has an especial inherent +value, the value of a god, and makes the bourgeois the mean, low money-grabber +that he is. The working-man who knows nothing of this feeling +of reverence for money is therefore less grasping than the bourgeois, +whose whole activity is for the purpose of gain, who sees in the accumulations +of his money-bags the end and aim of life. Hence the workman is +much less prejudiced, has a clearer eye for facts as they are than the +bourgeois, and does not look at everything through the spectacles of +personal selfishness. His faulty education saves him from religious +prepossessions, he does not understand religious questions, does not +trouble himself about them, knows nothing of the fanaticism that holds +the bourgeoisie bound; and if he chances to have any religion, he has +it only in name, not even in theory. Practically he lives for +this world, and strives to make himself at home in it. All the +writers of the bourgeoisie are unanimous on this point, that the workers +are not religious, and do not attend church. From the general +statement are to be excepted the Irish, a few elderly people, and the +half-bourgeois, the overlookers, foremen, and the like. But among +<!-- page 126--><a name="page126"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 126</span>the +masses there prevails almost universally a total indifference to religion, +or at the utmost, some trace of Deism too undeveloped to amount to more +than mere words, or a vague dread of the words infidel, atheist, etc. +The clergy of all sects is in very bad odour with the working-men, though +the loss of its influence is recent. At present, however, the +mere cry: “He’s a parson!” is often enough to drive +one of the clergy from the platform of a public meeting. And like +the rest of the conditions under which he lives, his want of religious +and other culture contributes to keep the working-man more unconstrained, +freer from inherited stable tenets and cut-and-dried opinions, than +the bourgeois who is saturated with the class prejudices poured into +him from his earliest youth. There is nothing to be done with +the bourgeois; he is essentially conservative in however liberal a guise, +his interest is bound up with that of the property-holding class, he +is dead to all active movement; he is losing his position in the forefront +of England’s historical development. The workers are taking +his place, in rightful claim first, then in fact.</p> +<p>All this, together with the correspondent public action of the workers, +with which we shall deal later, forms the favourable side of the character +of this class; the unfavourable one may be quite as briefly summed up, +and follows quite as naturally out of the given causes. Drunkenness, +sexual irregularities, brutality, and disregard for the rights of property +are the chief points with which the bourgeois charges them. That +they drink heavily is to be expected. Sheriff Alison asserts that +in Glasgow some thirty thousand working-men get drunk every Saturday +night, and the estimate is certainly not exaggerated; and that in that +city in 1830, one house in twelve, and in 1840, one house in ten, was +a public-house; that in Scotland, in 1823, excise was paid upon 2,300,000 +gallons; in 1837, upon 6,620,000 gallons; in England, in 1823, upon +1,976,000 gallons, and in 1837, upon 7,875,000 gallons of spirits. +The Beer Act of 1830, which facilitated the opening of beerhouses (jerry +shops), whose keepers are licensed to sell beer to be drunk on the premises, +facilitated the spread of intemperance by bringing a beerhouse, so to +say, to everybody’s door. <!-- page 127--><a name="page127"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 127</span>In +nearly every street there are several such beerhouses, and among two +or three neighbouring houses in the country one is sure to be a jerry +shop. Besides these, there are hush-shops in multitudes, <i>i.e</i>., +secret drinking-places which are not licensed, and quite as many secret +distilleries which produce great quantities of spirits in retired spots, +rarely visited by the police, in the great cities. Gaskell estimates +these secret distilleries in Manchester alone at more than a hundred, +and their product at 156,000 gallons at the least. In Manchester +there are, besides, more than a thousand public-houses selling all sorts +of alcoholic drinks, or quite as many in proportion to the number of +inhabitants as in Glasgow. In all other great towns, the state +of things is the same. And when one considers, apart from the +usual consequences of intemperance, that men and women, even children, +often mothers with babies in their arms, come into contact in these +places with the most degraded victims of the bourgeois regime, with +thieves, swindlers, and prostitutes; when one reflects that many a mother +gives the baby on her arm gin to drink, the demoralising effects of +frequenting such places cannot be denied.</p> +<p>On Saturday evenings, especially when wages are paid and work stops +somewhat earlier than usual, when the whole working-class pours from +its own poor quarters into the main thoroughfares, intemperance may +be seen in all its brutality. I have rarely come out of Manchester +on such an evening without meeting numbers of people staggering and +seeing others lying in the gutter. On Sunday evening the same +scene is usually repeated, only less noisily. And when their money +is spent, the drunkards go to the nearest pawnshop, of which there are +plenty in every city—over sixty in Manchester, and ten or twelve +in a single street of Salford, Chapel Street—and pawn whatever +they possess. Furniture, Sunday clothes where such exist, kitchen +utensils in masses are fetched from the pawnbrokers on Saturday night +only to wander back, almost without fail, before the next Wednesday, +until at last some accident makes the final redemption impossible, and +one article after another falls into the clutches of the usurer, or +until he refuses to give a single farthing more upon <!-- page 128--><a name="page128"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 128</span>the +battered, used-up pledge. When one has seen the extent of intemperance +among the workers in England, one readily believes Lord Ashley’s +statement that this class annually expends something like twenty-five +million pounds sterling upon intoxicating liquor: and the deterioration +in external conditions, the frightful shattering of mental and physical +health, the ruin of all domestic relations which follow may readily +be imagined. True, the temperance societies have done much, but +what are a few thousand teetotallers among the millions of workers? +When Father Matthew, the Irish apostle of temperance, passes through +the English cities, from thirty to sixty thousand workers take the pledge; +but most of them break it again within a month. If one counts +up the immense numbers who have taken the pledge in the last three or +four years in Manchester, the total is greater than the whole population +of the town—and still it is by no means evident that intemperance +is diminishing.</p> +<p>Next to intemperance in the enjoyment of intoxicating liquors, one +of the principal faults of English working-men is sexual licence. +But this, too, follows with relentless logic, with inevitable necessity +out of the position of a class left to itself, with no means of making +fitting use of its freedom. The bourgeoisie has left the working-class +only these two pleasures, while imposing upon it a multitude of labours +and hardships, and the consequence is that the working-men, in order +to get something from life, concentrate their whole energy upon these +two enjoyments, carry them to excess, surrender to them in the most +unbridled manner. When people are placed under conditions which +appeal to the brute only, what remains to them but to rebel or to succumb +to utter brutality? And when, moreover, the bourgeoisie does its +full share in maintaining prostitution—and how many of the 40,000 +prostitutes who fill the streets of London every evening live upon the +virtuous bourgeoisie! How many of them owe it to the seduction +of a bourgeois, that they must offer their bodies to the passers-by +in order to live?—surely it has least of all a right to reproach +the workers with their sexual brutality.</p> +<p>The failings of the workers in general may be traced to an unbridled +<!-- page 129--><a name="page129"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 129</span>thirst +for pleasure, to want of providence, and of flexibility in fitting into +the social order, to the general inability to sacrifice the pleasure +of the moment to a remoter advantage. But is that to be wondered +at? When a class can purchase few and only the most sensual pleasures +by its wearying toil, must it not give itself over blindly and madly +to those pleasures? A class about whose education no one troubles +himself, which is a playball to a thousand chances, knows no security +in life—what incentives has such a class to providence, to “respectability,” +to sacrifice the pleasure of the moment for a remoter enjoyment, most +uncertain precisely by reason of the perpetually varying, shifting conditions +under which the proletariat lives? A class which bears all the +disadvantages of the social order without enjoying its advantages, one +to which the social system appears in purely hostile aspects—who +can demand that such a class respect this social order? Verily +that is asking much! But the working-man cannot escape the present +arrangement of society so long as it exists, and when the individual +worker resists it, the greatest injury falls upon himself.</p> +<p>Thus the social order makes family life almost impossible for the +worker. In a comfortless, filthy house, hardly good enough for +mere nightly shelter, ill-furnished, often neither rain-tight nor warm, +a foul atmosphere filling rooms overcrowded with human beings, no domestic +comfort is possible. The husband works the whole day through, +perhaps the wife also and the elder children, all in different places; +they meet night and morning only, all under perpetual temptation to +drink; what family life is possible under such conditions? Yet +the working-man cannot escape from the family, must live in the family, +and the consequence is a perpetual succession of family troubles, domestic +quarrels, most demoralising for parents and children alike. Neglect +of all domestic duties, neglect of the children, especially, is only +too common among the English working-people, and only too vigorously +fostered by the existing institutions of society. And children +growing up in this savage way, amidst these demoralising influences, +are expected to turn out goody-goody and moral in the end! <!-- page 130--><a name="page130"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 130</span>Verily +the requirements are naïve, which the self-satisfied bourgeois +makes upon the working-man!</p> +<p>The contempt for the existing social order is most conspicuous in +its extreme form—that of offences against the law. If the +influences demoralising to the working-man act more powerfully, more +concentratedly than usual, he becomes an offender as certainly as water +abandons the fluid for the vaporous state at 80 degrees, Réaumur. +Under the brutal and brutalising treatment of the bourgeoisie, the working-man +becomes precisely as much a thing without volition as water, and is +subject to the laws of nature with precisely the same necessity; at +a certain point all freedom ceases. Hence with the extension of +the proletariat, crime has increased in England, and the British nation +has become the most criminal in the world. From the annual criminal +tables of the Home Secretary, it is evident that the increase of crime +in England has proceeded with incomprehensible rapidity. The numbers +of arrests for <i>criminal</i> offences reached in the years: 1805, +4,605; 1810, 5,146; 1815, 7,898; 1820, 13,710; 1825, 14,437; 1830,18,107; +1835, 20,731; 1840, 27,187; 1841, 27,760; 1842, 31,309 in England and +Wales alone. That is to say, they increased sevenfold in thirty-seven +years. Of these arrests, in 1842, 4,497 were made in Lancashire +alone, or more than 14 per cent. of the whole; and 4,094 in Middlesex, +including London, or more than 13 per cent. So that two districts +which include great cities with large proletarian populations, produced +one-fourth of the total amount of crime, though their population is +far from forming one-fourth of the whole. Moreover, the criminal +tables prove directly that nearly all crime arises within the proletariat; +for, in 1842, taking the average, out of 100 criminals, 32.35 could +neither read nor write; 58.32 read and wrote imperfectly; 6.77 could +read and write well; 0.22 had enjoyed a higher education, while the +degree of education of 2.34 could not be ascertained. In Scotland, +crime has increased yet more rapidly. There were but 89 arrests +for criminal offences in 1819, and as early as 1837 the number had risen +to 3,176, and in 1842 to 4,189. In Lanarkshire, where Sheriff +Alison himself made out <!-- page 131--><a name="page131"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 131</span>the +official report, population has doubled once in thirty years, and crime +once in five and a half, or six times more rapidly than the population. +The offences, as in all civilised countries, are, in the great majority +of cases, against property, and have, therefore, arisen from want in +some form; for what a man has, he does not steal. The proportion +of offences against property to the population, which in the Netherlands +is as 1: 7,140, and in France, as 1: 1,804, was in England, when Gaskell +wrote, as 1: 799. The proportion of offences against persons to +the population is, in the Netherlands, 1: 28,904; in France, 1: 17,573; +in England, 1: 23,395; that of crimes in general to the population in +the agricultural districts, as 1: 1,043; in the manufacturing districts +as 1: 840. <a name="citation131a"></a><a href="#footnote131a">{131a}</a> +In the whole of England to-day the proportion is 1: 660; <a name="citation131b"></a><a href="#footnote131b">{131b}</a> +though it is scarcely ten years since Gaskell’s book appeared!</p> +<p>These facts are certainly more than sufficient to bring any one, +even a bourgeois, to pause and reflect upon the consequences of such +a state of things. If demoralisation and crime multiply twenty +years longer in this proportion (and if English manufacture in these +twenty years should be less prosperous than heretofore, the progressive +multiplication of crime can only continue the more rapidly), what will +the result be? Society is already in a state of visible dissolution; +it is impossible to pick up a newspaper without seeing the most striking +evidence of the giving way of all social ties. I look at random +into a heap of English journals lying before me; there is the <i>Manchester +Guardian</i> for October 30, 1844, which reports for three days. +It no longer takes the trouble to give exact details as to Manchester, +and merely relates the most interesting cases: that the workers in a +mill have struck for higher wages without giving notice, and been condemned +by a Justice of the Peace to resume work; that in Salford a couple of +boys had been caught stealing, and a bankrupt tradesman tried to cheat +his creditors. From the neighbouring towns the reports are more +detailed: in Ashton, two thefts, one <!-- page 132--><a name="page132"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 132</span>burglary, +one suicide; in Bury, one theft; in Bolton, two thefts, one revenue +fraud; in Leigh, one theft; in Oldham, one strike for wages, one theft, +one fight between Irish women, one non-Union hatter assaulted by Union +men, one mother beaten by her son, one attack upon the police, one robbery +of a church; in Stockport, discontent of working-men with wages, one +theft, one fraud, one fight, one wife beaten by her husband; in Warrington, +one theft, one fight; in Wigan, one theft, and one robbery of a church. +The reports of the London papers are much worse; frauds, thefts, assaults, +family quarrels crowd one another. A <i>Times</i> of September +12, 1844, falls into my hand, which gives a report of a single day, +including a theft, an attack upon the police, a sentence upon a father +requiring him to support his illegitimate son, the abandonment of a +child by its parents, and the poisoning of a man by his wife. +Similar reports are to be found in all the English papers. In +this country, social war is under full headway, every one stands for +himself, and fights for himself against all comers, and whether or not +he shall injure all the others who are his declared foes, depends upon +a cynical calculation as to what is most advantageous for himself. +It no longer occurs to any one to come to a peaceful understanding with +his fellow-man; all differences are settled by threats, violence, or +in a law-court. In short, every one sees in his neighbour an enemy +to be got out of the way, or, at best, a tool to be used for his own +advantage. And this war grows from year to year, as the criminal +tables show, more violent, passionate, irreconcilable. The enemies +are dividing gradually into two great camps—the bourgeoisie on +the one hand, the workers on the other. This war of each against +all, of the bourgeoisie against the proletariat, need cause us no surprise, +for it is only the logical sequel of the principle involved in free +competition. But it may very well surprise us that the bourgeoisie +remains so quiet and composed in the face of the rapidly gathering storm-clouds, +that it can read all these things daily in the papers without, we will +not say indignation at such a social condition, but fear of its consequences, +of a universal outburst of that which manifests itself symptomatically +from day to day in the form of <!-- page 133--><a name="page133"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 133</span>crime. +But then it is the bourgeoisie, and from its standpoint cannot even +see the facts, much less perceive their consequences. One thing +only is astounding, that class prejudice and preconceived opinions can +hold a whole class of human beings in such perfect, I might almost say, +such mad blindness. Meanwhile, the development of the nation goes +its way whether the bourgeoisie has eyes for it or not, and will surprise +the property-holding class one day with things not dreamed of in its +philosophy.</p> +<h2><!-- page 134--><a name="page134"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 134</span>SINGLE +BRANCHES OF INDUSTRY. FACTORY HANDS.</h2> +<p>In dealing now with the more important branches of the English manufacturing +proletariat, we shall begin, according to the principle already laid +down, with the factory-workers, <i>i.e</i>., those who are comprised +under the Factory Act. This law regulates the length of the working-day +in mills in which wool, silk, cotton, and flax are spun or woven by +means of water or steam-power, and embraces, therefore, the more important +branches of English manufacture. The class employed by them is +the most intelligent and energetic of all the English workers, and, +therefore, the most restless and most hated by the bourgeoisie. +It stands as a whole, and the cotton-workers pre-eminently stand, at +the head of the labour movement, as their masters the manufacturers, +especially those of Lancashire, take the lead of the bourgeois agitation.</p> +<p>We have already seen in the introduction how the population employed +in working up the textile materials were first torn from their former +way of life. It is, therefore, not surprising that the progress +of mechanical invention in later years also affected precisely these +workers most deeply and permanently. The history of cotton manufacture +as related by Ure, <a name="citation134a"></a><a href="#footnote134a">{134a}</a> +Baines, <a name="citation134b"></a><a href="#footnote134b">{134b}</a> +and others is the story of improvements in every direction, most of +which have become domesticated in the other branches of industry as +well. Hand-work is superseded by machine-work almost universally, +nearly all manipulations are conducted by the aid of steam or water, +and every year is bringing further improvements.</p> +<p>In a well-ordered state of society, such improvements could only +be a source of rejoicing; in a war of all against all, individuals <!-- page 135--><a name="page135"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 135</span>seize +the benefit for themselves, and so deprive the majority of the means +of subsistence. Every improvement in machinery throws workers +out of employment, and the greater the advance, the more numerous the +unemployed; each great improvement produces, therefore, upon a number +of workers the effect of a commercial crisis, creates want, wretchedness, +and crime. Take a few examples. The very first invention, +the jenny, worked by one man, produced at least sixfold what the spinning-wheel +had yielded in the same time; thus every new jenny threw five spinners +out of employment. The throstle, which, in turn, produced much +more than the jenny, and like it, was worked by one man, threw still +more people out of employment. The mule, which required yet fewer +hands in proportion to the product, had the same effect, and every improvement +in the mule, every multiplication of its spindles, diminished still +further the number of workers employed. But this increase of the +number of spindles in the mule is so great that whole armies of workers +have been thrown out of employment by it. For, whereas one spinner, +with a couple of children for piecers, formerly set six hundred spindles +in motion, he could now manage fourteen hundred to two thousand spindles +upon two mules, so that two adult spinners and a part of the piecers +whom they employed were thrown out. And since self-acting mules +have been introduced into a very large number of spinning-mills, the +spinners’ work is wholly performed by the machine. There +lies before me a book from the pen of James Leach, <a name="citation135"></a><a href="#footnote135">{135}</a> +one of the recognised leaders of the Chartists in Manchester. +The author has worked for years in various branches of industry, in +mills and coal mines, and is known to me personally as an honest, trustworthy, +and capable man. In consequence of his political position, he +had at command extensive detailed information as to the different factories, +collected by the workers themselves, and he publishes tables from which +it is clear that in 1841, in 35 factories, 1,060 fewer mule spinners +were employed than in 1829, though the number of spindles in these 35 +factories had increased by 99,239. He cites five factories <!-- page 136--><a name="page136"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 136</span>in +which no spinners whatever are employed, self-actors only being used. +While the number of spindles increased by 10 per cent., the number of +spinners diminished more than 60 per cent. And Leach adds that +since 1841, so many improvements have been introduced by double-decking +and other means, that in some of the factories named, half the operatives +have been discharged. In one factory alone, where eighty spinners +were employed a short time ago, there are now but twenty left; the others +having been discharged or set at children’s work for children’s +wages. Of Stockport Leach tells a similar story, that in 1835, +800 spinners were employed, and in 1840 but 140, though the manufacture +of Stockport has greatly increased during the last eight or nine years. +Similar improvements have now been made in carding frames, by which +one-half the operatives have been thrown out of employment. In +one factory improved frames have been set up, which have thrown four +hands out of eight out of work, besides which the employer reduced the +wages of the four retained from eight shillings to seven. The +same process has gone on in the weaving industry; the power-loom has +taken possession of one branch of hand-weaving after another, and since +it produces much more than the hand-loom, while one weaver can work +two looms, it has superseded a multitude of working-people. And +in all sorts of manufacture, in flax and wool-spinning, in silk-twisting, +the case is the same. The power-loom, too, is beginning to appropriate +one branch after another of wool and linen-weaving; in Rochdale alone, +there are more power than hand-looms in flannel and other wool-weaving +branches. The bourgeoisie usually replies to this, that improvements +in machinery, by decreasing the cost of production, supply finished +goods at lower prices, and that these reduced prices cause such an increase +in consumption that the unemployed operatives soon find full employment +in newly-founded factories. <a name="citation136"></a><a href="#footnote136">{136}</a> +The bourgeoisie is so far correct that under certain conditions favourable +for the general development of manufacture, every reduction in price +of goods <i>in which the raw material is cheap</i>, greatly increases +consumption, and gives rise to the building of new <!-- page 137--><a name="page137"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 137</span>factories; +but every further word of the assertion is a lie. The bourgeoisie +ignores the fact that it takes years for these results of the decrease +in price to follow and for new factories to be built; it is silent upon +the point that every improvement in machinery throws the real work, +the expenditure of force, more and more upon the machine, and so transforms +the work of full-grown men into mere supervision, which a feeble woman +or even a child can do quite as well, and does for half or two-thirds +wages; that, therefore, grown men are constantly more and more supplanted +and <i>not re-employed</i> by the increase in manufacture; it conceals +the fact that whole branches of industry fall away, or are so changed +that they must be learned afresh; and it takes good care not to confess +what it usually harps upon, whenever the question of forbidding the +work of children is broached, that factory-work must be learned in earliest +youth in order to be learned properly. It does not mention the +fact that the process of improvement goes steadily on, and that as soon +as the operative has succeeded in making himself at home in a new branch, +if he actually does succeed in so doing, this, too, is taken from him, +and with it the last remnant of security which remained to him for winning +his bread. But the bourgeoisie gets the benefit of the improvements +in machinery; it has a capital opportunity for piling up money during +the first years while many old machines are still in use, and the improvement +not yet universally introduced; and it would be too much to ask that +it should have an open eye for the disadvantages inseparable from these +improvements.</p> +<p>The fact that improved machinery reduces wages has also been as violently +disputed by the bourgeoisie, as it is constantly reiterated by the working-men. +The bourgeoisie insists that although the price of piece-work has been +reduced, yet the total of wages for the week’s work has rather +risen than fallen, and the condition of the operatives rather improved +than deteriorated. It is hard to get to the bottom of the matter, +for the operatives usually dwell upon the price of piece-work. +But it is certain that the weekly wage, also, has, in many branches +of work, been reduced by the improvement of machinery. The so-called +fine <!-- page 138--><a name="page138"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 138</span>spinners +(who spin fine mule yarn), for instance, do receive high wages, thirty +to forty shillings a week, because they have a powerful association +for keeping wages up, and their craft requires long training; but the +coarse spinners who have to compete against self-actors (which are not +as yet adapted for fine spinning), and whose association was broken +down by the introduction of these machines, receive very low wages. +A mule spinner told me that he does not earn more than fourteen shillings +a week, and his statement agrees with that of Leach, that in various +factories the coarse spinners earn less than sixteen shillings and sixpence +a week, and that a spinner, who years ago earned thirty shillings, can +now hardly scrape up twelve and a half, and had not earned more on an +average in the past year. The wages of women and children may +perhaps have fallen less, but only because they were not high from the +beginning. I know several women, widows with children, who have +trouble enough to earn eight to nine shillings a week; and that they +and their families cannot live decently upon that sum, every one must +admit who knows the price of the barest necessaries of life in England. +That wages in general have been reduced by the improvement of machinery +is the unanimous testimony of the operatives. The bourgeois assertion +that the condition of the working-class has been improved by machinery +is most vigorously proclaimed a falsehood in every meeting of working-men +in the factory districts. And even if it were true that the relative +wage, the price of piece-work only, has fallen, while the absolute wage, +the sum to be earned in the week, remained unchanged, what would follow? +That the operatives have had quietly to look on while the manufacturers +filled their purses from every improvement without giving the hands +the smallest share in the gain. The bourgeois forgets, in fighting +the working-man, the most ordinary principles of his own Political Economy. +He who at other times swears by Malthus, cries out in his anxiety before +the workers: “Where could the millions by which the population +of England has increased find work, without the improvements in machinery?” +<a name="citation138"></a><a href="#footnote138">{138}</a> As +though the bourgeois <!-- page 139--><a name="page139"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 139</span>did +not know well enough that without machinery and the expansion of industry +which it produced, these “millions” would never have been +brought into the world and grown up! The service which machinery +has rendered the workers is simply this: that it has brought home to +their minds the necessity of a social reform by means of which machinery +shall no longer work against but for them. Let the wise bourgeois +ask the people who sweep the streets in Manchester and elsewhere (though +even this is past now, since machines for the purpose have been invented +and introduced), or sell salt, matches, oranges, and shoe-strings on +the streets, or even beg, what they were formerly, and he will see how +many will answer: “Mill-hands thrown out of work by machinery.” +The consequences of improvement in machinery under our present social +conditions are, for the working-man, solely injurious, and often in +the highest degree oppressive. Every new advance brings with it +loss of employment, want, and suffering, and in a country like England +where, without that, there is usually a “surplus population,” +to be discharged from work is the worst that can befall the operative. +And what a dispiriting, unnerving influence this uncertainty of his +position in life, consequent upon the unceasing progress of machinery, +must exercise upon the worker, whose lot is precarious enough without +it! To escape despair, there are but two ways open to him; either +inward and outward revolt against the bourgeoisie or drunkenness and +general demoralisation. And the English operatives are accustomed +to take refuge in both. The history of the English proletariat +relates hundreds of uprisings against machinery and the bourgeoisie; +we have already spoken of the moral dissolution which, in itself, is +only another form of despair.</p> +<p>The worst situation is that of those workers who have to compete +against a machine that is making its way. The price of the goods +which they produce adapts itself to the price of the kindred product +of the machine, and as the latter works more cheaply, its human competitor +has but the lowest wages. The same thing happens to every operative +employed upon an old machine in competition with later improvements. +And who else is there to <!-- page 140--><a name="page140"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 140</span>bear +the hardship? The manufacturer will not throw out his old apparatus, +nor will he sustain the loss upon it; out of the dead mechanism he can +make nothing, so he fastens upon the living worker, the universal scapegoat +of society. Of all the workers in competition with machinery, +the most ill-used are the hand-loom cotton weavers. They receive +the most trifling wages, and, with full work, are not in a position +to earn more than ten shillings a week. One class of woven goods +after another is annexed by the power-loom, and hand-weaving is the +last refuge of workers thrown out of employment in other branches, so +that the trade is always overcrowded. Hence it comes that, in +average seasons, the hand-weaver counts himself fortunate if he can +earn six or seven shillings a week, while to reach this sum he must +sit at his loom fourteen to eighteen hours a day. Most woven goods +require moreover a damp weaving-room, to keep the weft from snapping, +and in part, for this reason, in part because of their poverty, which +prevents them from paying for better dwellings, the workrooms of these +weavers are usually without wooden or paved floors. I have been +in many dwellings of such weavers, in remote, vile courts and alleys, +usually in cellars. Often half-a-dozen of these hand-loom weavers, +several of them married, live together in a cottage with one or two +workrooms, and one large sleeping-room. Their food consists almost +exclusively of potatoes, with perhaps oatmeal porridge, rarely milk, +and scarcely ever meat. Great numbers of them are Irish or of +Irish descent. And these poor hand-loom weavers, first to suffer +from every crisis, and last to be relieved from it, must serve the bourgeoisie +as a handle in meeting attacks upon the factory system. “See,” +cries the bourgeois, triumphantly, “see how these poor creatures +must famish, while the mill operatives are thriving, and <i>then</i> +judge the factory <a name="citation140"></a><a href="#footnote140">{140}</a> +system!” As though it were not precisely the factory system +and the machinery belonging to it which had so shamefully crushed the +hand-loom weavers, and as though the bourgeoisie did not know this quite +as well as ourselves! But the bourgeoisie has interests at stake, +and so a falsehood or two and a bit of hypocrisy won’t matter +much.</p> +<p><!-- page 141--><a name="page141"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 141</span>Let +us examine somewhat more closely the fact that machinery more and more +supersedes the work of men. The human labour, involved in both +spinning and weaving, consists chiefly in piecing broken threads, as +the machine does all the rest. This work requires no muscular +strength, but only flexibility of finger. Men are, therefore, +not only not needed for it, but actually, by reason of the greater muscular +development of the hand, less fit for it than women and children, and +are, therefore, naturally almost superseded by them. Hence, the +more the use of the arms, the expenditure of strength, can be transferred +to steam or water-power, the fewer men need be employed; and as women +and children work more cheaply, and in these branches better than men, +they take their places. In the spinning-mills women and girls +are to be found in almost exclusive possession of the throstles; among +the mules one man, an adult spinner (with self-actors, he, too, becomes +superfluous), and several piecers for tying the threads, usually children +or women, sometimes young men of from eighteen to twenty years, here +and there an old spinner <a name="citation141"></a><a href="#footnote141">{141}</a> +thrown out of other employment. At the power-looms women, from +fifteen to twenty years, are chiefly employed, and a few men; these, +however, rarely remain at this trade after their twenty-first year. +Among the preparatory machinery, too, women alone are to be found, with +here and there a man to clean and sharpen the carding-frames. +Besides all these, the factories employ numbers of children—doffers—for +mounting and taking down bobbins, and a few men as overlookers, a mechanic +and an engineer for the steam-engines, carpenters, porters, etc.; but +the actual work of the mills is done by women and children. This +the manufacturers deny.</p> +<p>They published last year elaborate tables to prove that machinery +does not supersede adult male operatives. According to these tables, +rather more than half of all the factory-workers employed, <!-- page 142--><a name="page142"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 142</span><i>viz</i>., +52 per cent., were females and 48 per cent. males, and of those operatives +more than half were over eighteen years old. So far, so good. +But the manufacturers are very careful not to tell us, how many of the +adults were men and how many women. And this is just the point. +Besides this, they have evidently counted the mechanics, engineers, +carpenters, all the men employed in any way in the factories, perhaps +even the clerks, and still they have not the courage to tell the whole +truth. These publications teem generally with falsehoods, perversions, +crooked statements, with calculations of averages, that prove a great +deal for the uninitiated reader and nothing for the initiated, and with +suppressions of facts bearing on the most important points; and they +prove only the selfish blindness and want of uprightness of the manufacturers +concerned. Let us take some of the statements of a speech with +which Lord Ashley introduced the Ten Hours’ Bill, March 15th, +1844, into the House of Commons. Here he gives some data as to +the relations of sex and age of the operatives, not yet refuted by the +manufacturers, whose statements, as quoted above, cover moreover only +a part of the manufacturing industry of England. Of 419,560 factory +operatives of the British Empire in 1839, 192,887, or nearly half, were +under eighteen years of age, and 242,296 of the female sex, of whom +112,192 were less than eighteen years old. There remain, therefore, +80,695 male operatives under eighteen years, and 96,569 adult male operatives, +<i>or not one full quarter</i> of the whole number. In the cotton +factories, 56¼ per cent.; in the woollen mills, 69½ per +cent.; in the silk mills, 70½ per cent.; in the flax-spinning +mills, 70½ per cent. of all operatives are of the female sex. +These numbers suffice to prove the crowding out of adult males. +But you have only to go into the nearest mill to see the fact confirmed. +Hence follows of necessity that inversion of the existing social order +which, being forced upon them, has the most ruinous consequences for +the workers. The employment of women at once breaks up the family; +for when the wife spends twelve or thirteen hours every day in the mill, +and the husband works the same length of time there or elsewhere, what +becomes of the children? <!-- page 143--><a name="page143"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 143</span>They +grow up like wild weeds; they are put out to nurse for a shilling or +eighteenpence a week, and how they are treated may be imagined. +Hence the accidents to which little children fall victims multiply in +the factory districts to a terrible extent. The lists of the Coroner +of Manchester <a name="citation143a"></a><a href="#footnote143a">{143a}</a> +showed for nine months: 69 deaths from burning, 56 from drowning, 23 +from falling, 77 from other causes, or a total of 225 <a name="citation143b"></a><a href="#footnote143b">{143b}</a> +deaths from accidents, while in non-manufacturing Liverpool during twelve +months there were but 146 fatal accidents. The mining accidents +are excluded in both cases; and since the Coroner of Manchester has +no authority in Salford, the population of both places mentioned in +the comparison is about the same. The <i>Manchester Guardian</i> +reports one or more deaths by burning in almost every number. +That the general mortality among young children must be increased by +the employment of the mothers is self-evident, and is placed beyond +all doubt by notorious facts. Women often return to the mill three +or four days after confinement, leaving the baby, of course; in the +dinner hour they must hurry home to feed the child and eat something, +and what sort of suckling that can be is also evident. Lord Ashley +repeats the testimony of several workwomen: “M. H., twenty years +old, has two children, the youngest a baby, that is tended by the other, +a little older. The mother goes to the mill shortly after five +o’clock in the morning, and comes home at eight at night; all +day the milk pours from her breasts, so that her clothing drips with +it.” “H. W. has three children, goes away Monday morning +at five o’clock, and comes back Saturday evening; has so much +to do for the children then that she cannot get to bed before three +o’clock in the morning; often wet through to the skin, and obliged +to work in that state.” She said: “My breasts have +given me the most frightful pain, and I have been dripping wet with +milk.” The use of narcotics to keep the children still is +fostered by this infamous system, and has reached a great extent in +the factory districts. Dr. Johns, Registrar <!-- page 144--><a name="page144"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 144</span>in +Chief for Manchester, is of opinion that this custom is the chief source +of the many deaths from convulsions. The employment of the wife +dissolves the family utterly and of necessity, and this dissolution, +in our present society, which is based upon the family, brings the most +demoralising consequences for parents as well as children. A mother +who has no time to trouble herself about her child, to perform the most +ordinary loving services for it during its first year, who scarcely +indeed sees it, can be no real mother to the child, must inevitably +grow indifferent to it, treat it unlovingly like a stranger. The +children who grow up under such conditions are utterly ruined for later +family life, can never feel at home in the family which they themselves +found, because they have always been accustomed to isolation, and they +contribute therefore to the already general undermining of the family +in the working-class. A similar dissolution of the family is brought +about by the employment of the children. When they get on far +enough to earn more than they cost their parents from week to week, +they begin to pay the parents a fixed sum for board and lodging, and +keep the rest for themselves. This often happens from the fourteenth +or fifteenth year. <a name="citation144"></a><a href="#footnote144">{144}</a> +In a word, the children emancipate themselves, and regard the paternal +dwelling as a lodging-house, which they often exchange for another, +as suits them.</p> +<p>In many cases the family is not wholly dissolved by the employment +of the wife, but turned upside down. The wife supports the family, +the husband sits at home, tends the children, sweeps the room and cooks. +This case happens very frequently; in Manchester alone, many hundred +such men could be cited, condemned to domestic occupations. It +is easy to imagine the wrath aroused among the working-men by this reversal +of all relations within the family, while the other social conditions +remain unchanged. There lies before me a letter from an English +working-man, Robert Pounder, Baron’s Buildings, Woodhouse, Moorside, +in Leeds (the bourgeoisie may hunt him up <!-- page 145--><a name="page145"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 145</span>there; +I give the exact address for the purpose), written by him to Oastler: +<a name="citation145"></a><a href="#footnote145">{145}</a></p> +<p>He relates how another working-man, being on tramp, came to St. Helens, +in Lancashire, and there looked up an old friend. He found him +in a miserable, damp cellar, scarcely furnished; and when my poor friend +went in, there sat poor Jack near the fire, and what did he, think you? +why he sat and mended his wife’s stockings with the bodkin; and +as soon as he saw his old friend at the door-post, he tried to hide +them. But Joe, that is my friend’s name, had seen it, and +said: “Jack, what the devil art thou doing? Where is the +missus? Why, is that thy work?” and poor Jack was ashamed, +and said: “No, I know this is not my work, but my poor missus +is i’ th’ factory; she has to leave at half-past five and +works till eight at night, and then she is so knocked up that she cannot +do aught when she gets home, so I have to do everything for her what +I can, for I have no work, nor had any for more nor three years, and +I shall never have any more work while I live;” and then he wept +a big tear. Jack again said: “There is work enough for women +folks and childer hereabouts, but none for men; thou mayest sooner find +a hundred pound on the road than work for men—but I should never +have believed that either thou or any one else would have seen me mending +my wife’s stockings, for, it is bad work. But she can hardly +stand on her feet; I am afraid she will be laid up, and then I don’t +know what is to become of us, for it’s a good bit that she has +been the man in the house and I the woman; it is bad work, Joe;” +and he cried bitterly, and said, “It has not been always so.” +“No,” said Joe; “but when thou hadn’t no work, +how hast thou not shifted?” “I’ll tell thee, +Joe, as well as I can, but it was bad enough; thou knowest when I got +married I had work plenty, and thou knows I was not lazy.” +“No, that thou wert not.” “And we had a good +furnished house, and Mary need not go to work. I could work for +the two of us; but now the world is upside down. Mary has to work +and I have to stop at home, mind the childer <!-- page 146--><a name="page146"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 146</span>sweep +and wash, bake and mend; and, when the poor woman comes home at night, +she is knocked up. Thou knows, Joe, it’s hard for one that +was used different.” “Yes, boy, it is hard.” +And then Jack began to cry again, and he wished he had never married, +and that he had never been born; but he had never thought, when he wed +Mary, that it would come to this. “I have often cried over +it,” said Jack. Now when Joe heard this, he told me that +he had cursed and damned the factories, and the masters, and the Government, +with all the curses that he had learned while he was in the factory +from a child.</p> +<p>Can any one imagine a more insane state of things than that described +in this letter? And yet this condition, which unsexes the man +and takes from the woman all womanliness without being able to bestow +upon the man true womanliness, or the woman true manliness—this +condition which degrades, in the most shameful way, both sexes, and, +through them, Humanity, is the last result of our much-praised civilisation, +the final achievement of all the efforts and struggles of hundreds of +generations to improve their own situation and that of their posterity. +We must either despair of mankind, and its aims and efforts, when we +see all our labour and toil result in such a mockery, or we must admit +that human society has hitherto sought salvation in a false direction; +we must admit that so total a reversal of the position of the sexes +can have come to pass only because the sexes have been placed in a false +position from the beginning. If the reign of the wife over the +husband, as inevitably brought about by the factory system, is inhuman, +the pristine rule of the husband over the wife must have been inhuman +too. If the wife can now base her supremacy upon the fact that +she supplies the greater part, nay, the whole of the common possession, +the necessary inference is that this community of possession is no true +and rational one, since one member of the family boasts offensively +of contributing the greater share. If the family of our present +society is being thus dissolved, this dissolution merely shows that, +at bottom, the binding tie of this family was not family affection, +but private interest lurking under the cloak of a pretended community +of possessions. <!-- page 147--><a name="page147"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 147</span>The +same relation exists on the part of those children who support unemployed +parents <a name="citation147a"></a><a href="#footnote147a">{147a}</a> +when they do not directly pay board as already referred to. Dr. +Hawkins testified in the Factories’ Inquiry Commission’s +Report that this relation is common enough, and in Manchester it is +notorious. In this case the children are the masters in the house, +as the wife was in the former case, and Lord Ashley gives an example +of this in his speech: <a name="citation147b"></a><a href="#footnote147b">{147b}</a> +A man berated his two daughters for going to the public house, and they +answered that they were tired of being ordered about, saying, “Damn +you, we have to keep you!” Determined to keep the proceeds +of their work for themselves, they left the family dwelling, and abandoned +their parents to their fate.</p> +<p>The unmarried women, who have grown up in mills, are no better off +than the married ones. It is self-evident that a girl who has +worked in a mill from her ninth year is in no position to understand +domestic work, whence it follows that female operatives prove wholly +inexperienced and unfit as housekeepers. They cannot knit or sew, +cook or wash, are unacquainted with the most ordinary duties of a housekeeper, +and when they have young children to take care of, have not the vaguest +idea how to set about it. The Factories’ Inquiry Commission’s +Report gives dozens of examples of this, and Dr. Hawkins, Commissioner +for Lancashire, expresses his opinion as follows: <a name="citation147c"></a><a href="#footnote147c">{147c}</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“The girls marry early and recklessly; they have +neither means, time, nor opportunity to learn the ordinary duties of +household life; but if they had them all, they would find no time in +married life for the performance of these duties. The mother is +more than twelve hours away from her child daily; the baby is cared +for by a young girl or an old woman, to whom it is given to nurse. +Besides this, the dwelling of the mill-hands is too often no home but +a cellar, which contains no cooking or washing utensils, <!-- page 148--><a name="page148"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 148</span>no +sewing or mending materials, nothing which makes life agreeable and +civilised, or the domestic hearth attractive. For these and other +reasons, and especially for the sake of the better chances of life for +the little children, I can but wish and hope that a time may come in +which married women will be shut out of the factories.” <a name="citation148a"></a><a href="#footnote148a">{148a}</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>But that is the least of the evil. The moral consequences of +the employment of women in factories are even worse. The collecting +of persons of both sexes and all ages in a single workroom, the inevitable +contact, the crowding into a small space of people, to whom neither +mental nor moral education has been given, is not calculated for the +favourable development of the female character. The manufacturer, +if he pays any attention to the matter, can interfere only when something +scandalous actually happens; the permanent, less conspicuous influence +of persons of dissolute character, upon the more moral, and especially +upon the younger ones, he cannot ascertain, and consequently cannot +prevent. But precisely this influence is the most injurious. +The language used in the mills is characterised by many witnesses in +the report of 1833, as “indecent,” “bad,” “filthy,” +etc. <a name="citation148b"></a><a href="#footnote148b">{148b}</a> +It is the same process upon a small scale which we have already witnessed +upon a large one in the great cities. The centralisation of population +has the same influence upon the same persons, whether it affects them +in a great city or a small factory. The smaller the mill the closer +the packing, and the more unavoidable the contact; and the consequences +are not wanting. A witness in Leicester said that he would rather +let his daughter beg than go into a factory; that they are perfect gates +of hell; that most of the prostitutes of the town had their employment +in the mills to thank for their present situation. <a name="citation148c"></a><a href="#footnote148c">{148c}</a> +Another, in Manchester, “did not hesitate to assert that three-fourths +of the young factory employees, from fourteen to twenty years of age, +were unchaste.” <a name="citation149a"></a><a href="#footnote149a">{149a}</a> +<!-- page 149--><a name="page149"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 149</span>Commissioner +Cowell expresses it as his opinion, that the morality of the factory +operatives is somewhat below the average of that of the working-class +in general. <a name="citation149b"></a><a href="#footnote149b">{149b}</a> +And Dr. Hawkins <a name="citation149c"></a><a href="#footnote149c">{149c}</a> +says:</p> +<blockquote><p>“An estimate of sexual morality cannot readily +be reduced to figures; but if I may trust my own observations and the +general opinion of those with whom I have spoken, as well as the whole +tenor of the testimony furnished me, the aspect of the influence of +factory life upon the morality of the youthful female population is +most depressing.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>It is, besides, a matter of course that factory servitude, like any +other, and to an even higher degree, confers the <i>jus primæ +noctis</i> upon the master. In this respect also the employer +is sovereign over the persons and charms of his employees. The +threat of discharge suffices to overcome all resistance in nine cases +out of ten, if not in ninety-nine out of a hundred, in girls who, in +any case, have no strong inducements to chastity. If the master +is mean enough, and the official report mentions several such cases, +his mill is also his harem; and the fact that not all manufacturers +use their power, does not in the least change the position of the girls. +In the beginning of manufacturing industry, when most of the employers +were upstarts without education or consideration for the hypocrisy of +society, they let nothing interfere with the exercise of their vested +rights.</p> +<p>To form a correct judgment of the influence of factory-work upon +the health of the female sex, it is necessary first to consider the +work of children, and then the nature of the work itself. From +the beginning of manufacturing industry, children have been employed +in mills, at first almost exclusively by reason of the smallness of +the machines, which were later enlarged. Even children from the +workhouses were employed in multitudes, being rented out for a number +of years to the manufacturers as apprentices. They were lodged, +fed, and clothed in common, and were, <!-- page 150--><a name="page150"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 150</span>of +course, completely the slaves of their masters, by whom they were treated +with the utmost recklessness and barbarity. As early as 1796, +the public objection to this revolting system found such vigorous expression +through Dr. Percival and Sir Robert Peel (father of the Cabinet Minister, +and himself a cotton manufacturer), that in 1802 Parliament passed an +Apprentices’ Bill, by which the most crying evils were removed. +Gradually the increasing competition of free workpeople crowded out +the whole apprentice system; factories were built in cities, machinery +was constructed on a larger scale, and workrooms were made more airy +and wholesome; gradually, too, more work was found for adults and young +persons. The number of children in the mills diminished somewhat, +and the age at which they began to work rose a little; few children +under eight or nine years were now employed. Later, as we shall +see, the power of the State intervened several times to protect them +from the money-greed of the bourgeoisie.</p> +<p>The great mortality among children of the working-class, and especially +among those of the factory operatives, is proof enough of the unwholesome +conditions under which they pass their first year. These influences +are at work, of course, among the children who survive, but not quite +so powerfully as upon those who succumb. The result in the most +favourable case is a tendency to disease, or some check in development, +and consequent less than normal vigour of the constitution. A +nine years old child of a factory operative that has grown up in want, +privation, and changing conditions, in cold and damp, with insufficient +clothing and unwholesome dwellings, is far from having the working force +of a child brought up under healthier conditions. At nine years +of age it is sent into the mill to work 6½ hours (formerly 8, +earlier still, 12 to 14, even 16 hours) daily, until the thirteenth +year; then twelve hours until the eighteenth year. The old enfeebling +influences continue, while the work is added to them. It is not +to be denied that a child of nine years, even an operative’s child, +can hold out through 6½ hours’ daily work, without any +one being able to trace visible bad results in its development directly +<!-- page 151--><a name="page151"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 151</span>to +this cause; but in no case can its presence in the damp, heavy air of +the factory, often at once warm and wet, contribute to good health; +and, in any case, it is unpardonable to sacrifice to the greed of an +unfeeling bourgeoisie the time of children which should be devoted solely +to their physical and mental development, withdraw them from school +and the fresh air, in order to wear them out for the benefit of the +manufacturers. The bourgeoisie says: “If we do not employ +the children in the mills, they only remain under conditions unfavourable +to their development;” and this is true, on the whole. But +what does this mean if it is not a confession that the bourgeoisie first +places the children of the working-class under unfavourable conditions, +and then exploits these bad conditions for its own benefit, appeals +to that which is as much its own fault as the factory system, excuses +the sin of to-day with the sin of yesterday? And if the Factory +Act did not in some measure fetter their hands, how this “humane,” +this “benevolent” bourgeoisie, which has built its factories +solely for the good of the working-class, would take care of the interests +of these workers! Let us hear how they acted before the factory +inspector was at their heels. Their own admitted testimony shall +convict them in the report of the Factories’ Inquiry Commission +of 1833.</p> +<p>The report of the Central Commission relates that the manufacturers +began to employ children rarely of five years, often of six, very often +of seven, usually of eight to nine years; that the working-day often +lasted fourteen to sixteen hours, exclusive of meals and intervals; +that the manufacturers permitted overlookers to flog and maltreat children, +and often took an active part in so doing themselves. One case +is related of a Scotch manufacturer, who rode after a sixteen years +old runaway, forced him to return running after the employer as fast +as the master’s horse trotted, and beat him the whole way with +a long whip. <a name="citation151"></a><a href="#footnote151">{151}</a> +In the large towns where the operatives resisted more vigorously, such +things naturally happened less often. But even this long working-day +failed to satisfy the greed of the capitalists. Their aim was +to make the capital invested in the building and machinery produce <!-- page 152--><a name="page152"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 152</span>the +highest return, by every available means, to make it work as actively +as possible. Hence the manufacturers introduced the shameful system +of night-work. Some of them employed two sets of operatives, each +numerous enough to fill the whole mill, and let one set work the twelve +hours of the day, and the other twelve hours of the night. It +is needless to picture the effect upon the frames of young children, +and even upon the health of young persons and adults, produced by permanent +loss of sleep at night, which cannot be made good by any amount of sleep +during the day. Irritation of the whole nervous system, with general +lassitude and enfeeblement of the entire frame, were the inevitable +results, with the fostering of temptation to drunkenness and unbridled +sexual indulgence. One manufacturer testifies <a name="citation152a"></a><a href="#footnote152a">{152a}</a> +that during the two years in which night-work was carried on in his +factory, the number of illegitimate children born was doubled, and such +general demoralisation prevailed that he was obliged to give up night-work. +Other manufacturers were yet more barbarous, requiring many hands to +work thirty to forty hours at a stretch, several times a week, letting +them get a couple of hours sleep only, because the night-shift was not +complete, but calculated to replace a part of the operatives only.</p> +<p>The reports of the Commission touching this barbarism surpass everything +that is known to me in this line. Such infamies, as are here related, +are nowhere else to be found—yet we shall see that the bourgeoisie +constantly appeals to the testimony of the Commission as being in its +own favour. The consequences of these cruelties became evident +quickly enough. The Commissioners mention a crowd of cripples +who appeared before them, who clearly owed their distortion to the long +working-hours. This distortion usually consists of a curving of +the spinal column and legs, and is described as follows by Francis Sharp, +M.R.C.S., of Leeds: <a name="citation152b"></a><a href="#footnote152b">{152b}</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“I never saw the peculiar bending of the lower +ends of the thigh bones before I came to Leeds. At first I thought +it was <!-- page 153--><a name="page153"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 153</span>rachitis, +but I was soon led to change my opinion in consequence of the mass of +patients who presented themselves at the hospital, and the appearances +of the disease at an age (from the fourteenth to the eighteenth year) +in which children are usually not subject to rachitis, as well as by +the circumstance that the malady had first appeared after children began +to work in the mills. Thus far I have seen about a hundred such +cases, and can, most decidedly, express the opinion that they are the +consequences of overwork. So far as I know they were all mill +children, and themselves attributed the evil to this cause. The +number of cases of curvature of the spine which have fallen under my +observation, and which were evidently consequent upon too protracted +standing, was not less than three hundred.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Precisely similar is the testimony of Dr. Ray, for eighteen years +physician in the hospital in Leeds: <a name="citation153a"></a><a href="#footnote153a">{153a}</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“Malformations of the spine are very frequent among +mill-hands; some of them consequent upon mere overwork, others the effect +of long work upon constitutions originally feeble, or weakened by bad +food. Deformities seem even more frequent than these diseases; +the knees were bent inward, the ligaments very often relaxed and enfeebled, +and the long bones of the legs bent. The thick ends of these long +bones were especially apt to be bent and disproportionately developed, +and these patients came from the factories in which long work-hours +were of frequent occurrence.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Surgeons Beaumont and Sharp, of Bradford, bear the same testimony. +The reports of Drinkwater, Power, and Dr. Loudon contain a multitude +of examples of such distortions, and those of Tufnell and Sir David +Barry, which are less directed to this point, give single examples. +<a name="citation153b"></a><a href="#footnote153b">{153b}</a> +The Commissioners for Lancashire, Cowell, Tufnell, and Hawkins, have +almost wholly neglected this aspect of the physiological results of +the factory system, though this district rivals Yorkshire in the number +of cripples. I have <!-- page 154--><a name="page154"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 154</span>seldom +traversed Manchester without meeting three or four of them, suffering +from precisely the same distortions of the spinal columns and legs as +that described, and I have often been able to observe them closely. +I know one personally who corresponds exactly with the foregoing description +of Dr. Ray, and who got into this condition in Mr. Douglas’ factory +in Pendleton, an establishment which enjoys an unenviable notoriety +among the operatives by reason of the former long working periods continued +night after night. It is evident, at a glance, whence the distortions +of these cripples come; they all look exactly alike. The knees +are bent inward and backwards, the ankles deformed and thick, and the +spinal column often bent forwards or to one side. But the crown +belongs to the philanthropic manufacturers of the Macclesfield silk +district. They employed the youngest children of all, even from +five to six years of age. In the supplementary testimony of Commissioner +Tufnell, I find the statement of a certain factory manager Wright, both +of whose sisters were most shamefully crippled, and who had once counted +the cripples in several streets, some of them the cleanest and neatest +streets of Macclesfield. He found in Townley Street ten, George +Street five, Charlotte Street four, Watercots fifteen, Bank Top three, +Lord Street seven, Mill Lane twelve, Great George Street two, in the +workhouse two, Park Green one, Peckford Street two, whose families all +unanimously declared that the cripples had become such in consequence +of overwork in the silk-twisting mills. One boy is mentioned so +crippled as not to be able to go upstairs, and girls deformed in back +and hips.</p> +<p>Other deformities also have proceeded from this overwork, especially +flattening of the foot, which Sir D. Barry <a name="citation154a"></a><a href="#footnote154a">{154a}</a> +frequently observed, as did the physicians and surgeons in Leeds. <a name="citation154b"></a><a href="#footnote154b">{154b}</a> +In cases, in which a stronger constitution, better food, and other more +favourable circumstances enabled the young operative to resist this +effect of a barbarous exploitation, we find, at least, pain in the back, +<!-- page 155--><a name="page155"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 155</span>hips, +and legs, swollen joints, varicose veins, and large, persistent ulcers +in the thighs and calves. These affections are almost universal +among the operatives. The reports of Stuart, Mackintosh, and Sir +D. Barry contain hundreds of examples; indeed, they know almost no operative +who did not suffer from some of these affections; and in the remaining +reports, the occurrence of the same phenomena is attested by many physicians. +The reports covering Scotland place it beyond all doubt, that a working-day +of thirteen hours, even for men and women from eighteen to twenty-two +years of age, produces at least these consequences, both in the flax-spinning +mills of Dundee and Dunfermline, and in the cotton mills of Glasgow +and Lanark.</p> +<p>All these affections are easily explained by the nature of factory-work, +which is, as the manufacturers say, very “light,” and precisely +by reason of its lightness, more enervating than any other. The +operatives have little to do, but must stand the whole time. Any +one who sits down, say upon a window-ledge or a basket, is fined, and +this perpetual upright position, this constant mechanical pressure of +the upper portions of the body upon spinal column, hips, and legs, inevitably +produces the results mentioned. This standing is not required +by the work itself, and at Nottingham chairs have been introduced, with +the result that these affections disappeared, and the operatives ceased +to object to the length of the working-day. But in a factory where +the operative works solely for the bourgeois, and has small interest +in doing his work well, he would probably use the seats more than would +be agreeable and profitable to the manufacturer; and in order that somewhat +less raw material may be spoiled for the bourgeois, the operative must +sacrifice health and strength. <a name="citation155"></a><a href="#footnote155">{155}</a> +This long protracted upright position, with the bad atmosphere prevalent +in the mills, entails, besides the deformities mentioned, a marked relaxation +of all vital energies, and, in consequence, all sorts of other affections +general rather than local. The atmosphere of the factories is, +as a rule, at once damp and warm, unusually warmer <!-- page 156--><a name="page156"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 156</span>than +is necessary, and, when the ventilation is not <i>very</i> good, impure, +heavy, deficient in oxygen, filled with dust and the smell of the machine +oil, which almost everywhere smears the floor, sinks into it, and becomes +rancid. The operatives are lightly clad by reason of the warmth, +and would readily take cold in case of irregularity of the temperature; +a draught is distasteful to them, the general enervation which gradually +takes possession of all the physical functions diminishes the animal +warmth: this must be replaced from without, and nothing is therefore +more agreeable to the operative than to have all the doors and windows +closed, and to stay in his warm factory-air. Then comes the sudden +change of temperature on going out into the cold and wet or frosty atmosphere, +without the means of protection from the rain, or of changing wet clothing +for dry, a circumstance which perpetually produces colds. And +when one reflects that, with all this, not one single muscle of the +body is really exercised, really called into activity, except perhaps +those of the legs; that nothing whatsoever counteracts the enervating, +relaxing tendency of all these conditions; that every influence is wanting +which might give the muscles strength, the fibres elasticity and consistency; +that from youth up, the operative is deprived of all fresh air recreation, +it is impossible to wonder at the almost unanimous testimony of the +physicians in the Factories’ Report, that they find a great lack +of ability to resist disease, a general depression in vital activity, +a constant relaxation of the mental and physical powers. Let us +hear Sir D. Barry first: <a name="citation156"></a><a href="#footnote156">{156}</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“The unfavourable influences of mill-work upon +the hands are the following: (1) The inevitable necessity of forcing +their mental and bodily effort to keep pace with a machine moved by +a uniform and unceasing motive power. (2) Continuance in an upright +position during unnaturally long and quickly recurring periods. +(3) Loss of sleep in consequence of too long working-hours, pain in +the legs, and general physical derangement. To these are often +added low, crowded, dusty, or damp workrooms, impure air, a high temperature, +and constant perspiration. Hence the boys especially very soon +and with but few exceptions, lose <!-- page 157--><a name="page157"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 157</span>the +rosy freshness of childhood, and become paler and thinner than other +boys. Even the hand-weaver’s bound boy, who sits before +his loom with his bare feet resting upon the clay-floor, retains a fresher +appearance, because he occasionally goes into the fresh air for a time. +But the mill child has not a moment free except for meals, and never +goes into the fresh air except on its way to them. All adult male +spinners are pale and thin, suffer from capricious appetite and indigestion; +and as they are all trained in the mills from their youth up, and there +are very few tall, athletic men among them, the conclusion is justified +that their occupation is very unfavourable for the development of the +male constitution; females bear this work far better.” (Very +naturally. But we shall see that they have their own diseases.)</p> +</blockquote> +<p>So, too, Power: <a name="citation157a"></a><a href="#footnote157a">{157a}</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“I can bear witness that the factory system in +Bradford has engendered a multitude of cripples, and that the effect +of long continued labour upon the physique is apparent, not alone in +actual deformity, but also, and much more generally, in stunted growth, +relaxation of the muscles, and delicacy of the whole frame.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>So, too, F. Sharp, in Leeds, the surgeon <a name="citation157b"></a><a href="#footnote157b">{157b}</a> +already quoted:</p> +<blockquote><p>“When I moved from Scarborough to Leeds, I was +at once struck by the fact that the general appearance of the children +was much paler, and their fibre less vigorous here than in Scarborough +and its environs. I saw, too, that many children were exceptionally +small for their age. I have met with numberless cases of scrofula, +lung trouble, mesenteric affections, and indigestion, concerning which +I, as a medical man, have no doubt that they arose from mill work. +I believe that the nervous energy of the body is weakened by the long +hours, and the foundation of many diseases laid. If people from +the country were not constantly coming in, the race of mill-hands would +soon be wholly degenerate.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>So, too, Beaumont, surgeon in Bradford:</p> +<blockquote><p>“To my thinking, the system, according to which +work is done in the mills here, produces a peculiar relaxation of the +whole <!-- page 158--><a name="page158"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 158</span>organism, +and thereby makes children in the highest degree susceptible to epidemic, +as well as to incidental illness. I regard the absence of all +appropriate regulations for ventilation and cleanliness in the mills +very decidedly as the chief cause of that peculiar tendency or susceptibility +to morbid affections which I have so frequently met in my practice.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Similar testimony is borne by Dr. Ray:</p> +<blockquote><p>(1) “I have had opportunity of observing +the effects of the factory system upon the health of children under +the most favourable circumstances (in Wood’s mill, in Bradford, +the best arranged of the district, in which he was factory surgeon). +(2) These effects are decidedly, and to a very great extent, injurious, +even under these most favourable circumstances. (3) In the year +1842, three-fifths of all the children employed in Wood’s mill +were treated by me. (4) The worst effect is not the predominance +of deformities, but of enfeebled and morbid constitutions. (5) +All this is greatly improved since the working-hours of children have +been reduced at Wood’s to ten.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The Commissioner, Dr. Loudon himself, who cites these witnesses, +says:</p> +<blockquote><p>“In conclusion, I think it has been clearly proved +that children have been worked a most unreasonable and cruel length +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. +The consequence is that many have died prematurely, and others are afflicted +for life with defective constitutions, and the fear of a posterity enfeebled +by the shattered constitution of the survivors is but too well founded, +from a physiological point of view.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>And, finally, Dr. Hawkins, in speaking of Manchester:</p> +<blockquote><p>“I believe that most travellers are struck by the +lowness of stature, the leanness and the paleness which present themselves +so commonly to the eye at Manchester, and above all, among the factory +classes. I have never been in any town in Great Britain, nor in +Europe, in which degeneracy of form and colour from the national standard +has been so obvious. Among the married women all the characteristic +peculiarities of the English wife are conspicuously wanting. I +must confess that all the boys and girls brought before me from the +Manchester mills had a depressed <!-- page 159--><a name="page159"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 159</span>appearance, +and were very pale. In the expression of their faces lay nothing +of the usual mobility, liveliness, and cheeriness of youth. Many +of them told me that they felt not the slightest inclination to play +out of doors on Saturday and Sunday, but preferred to be quiet at home.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>I add, at once, another passage of Hawkins’ report, which only +half belongs here, but may be quoted here as well as anywhere else:</p> +<blockquote><p>“Intemperance, excess, and want of providence are +the chief faults of the factory population, and these evils may be readily +traced to the habits which are formed under the present system, and +almost inevitably arise from it. It is universally admitted that +indigestion, hypochondria, and general debility affect this class to +a very great extent. After twelve hours of monotonous toil, it +is but natural to look about for a stimulant of one sort or another; +but when the above-mentioned diseased conditions are added to the customary +weariness, people will quickly and repeatedly take refuge in spirituous +liquors.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>For all this testimony of the physicians and commissioners, the report +itself offers hundreds of cases of proof. That the growth of young +operatives is stunted, by their work, hundreds of statements testify; +among others, Cowell gives the weight of 46 youths of 17 years of age, +from one Sunday school, of whom 26 employed in mills, averaged 104.5 +pounds, and 20 not employed in mills, 117.7 pounds. One of the +largest manufacturers of Manchester, leader of the opposition against +the working-men, I think Robert Hyde Greg himself, said, on one occasion, +that if things went on as at present, the operatives of Lancashire would +soon be a race of pigmies. <a name="citation159a"></a><a href="#footnote159a">{159a}</a> +A recruiting officer <a name="citation159b"></a><a href="#footnote159b">{159b}</a> +testified that operatives are little adapted for military service, looked +thin and nervous, and were frequently rejected by the surgeons as unfit. +In Manchester he could hardly get men of five feet eight inches; they +were usually only five feet six to seven, whereas in the agricultural +districts, most of the recruits were five feet eight.</p> +<p>The men wear out very early in consequence of the conditions <!-- page 160--><a name="page160"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 160</span>under +which they live and work. Most of them are unfit for work at forty +years, a few hold out to forty-five, almost none to fifty years of age. +This is caused not only by the general enfeeblement of the frame, but +also very often by a failure of the sight, which is a result of mule-spinning, +in which the operative is obliged to fix his gaze upon a long row of +fine, parallel threads, and so greatly to strain the sight.</p> +<p>Of 1,600 operatives employed in several factories in Harpur and Lanark, +but 10 were over 45 years of age; of 22,094 operatives in diverse factories +in Stockport and Manchester, but 143 were over 45 years old. Of +these 143, 16 were retained as a special favour, and one was doing the +work of a child. A list of 131 spinners contained but seven over +45 years, and yet the whole 131 were rejected by the manufacturers, +to whom they applied for work, as “too old,” and were without +means of support by reason of old age! Mr. Ashworth, a large manufacturer, +admits in a letter to Lord Ashley, that, towards the fortieth year, +the spinners can no longer prepare the required quantity of yarn, and +are therefore “sometimes” discharged; he calls operatives +forty years of age “old people!” Commissioner Mackintosh +expresses himself in the same way in the report of 1833:</p> +<blockquote><p>“Although I was prepared for it from the way the +children are employed, I still found it difficult to believe the statements +of the older hands as to their ages; they age so very early.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Surgeon Smellie, of Glasgow, who treated operatives chiefly, says +that forty years is old age for them. <a name="citation160a"></a><a href="#footnote160a">{160a}</a> +And similar evidence may be found elsewhere. <a name="citation160b"></a><a href="#footnote160b">{160b}</a> +In Manchester, this premature old age among the operatives is so universal +that almost every man of forty would be taken for ten to fifteen years +older, while the prosperous classes, men as well as women, preserve +their appearance exceedingly well if they do not drink too heavily.</p> +<p>The influence of factory-work upon the female physique also is marked +and peculiar. The deformities entailed by long hours of <!-- page 161--><a name="page161"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 161</span>work +are much more serious among women. Protracted work frequently +causes deformities of the pelvis, partly in the shape of abnormal position +and development of the hip bones, partly of malformation of the lower +portion of the spinal column.</p> +<blockquote><p>“Although,” says Dr. Loudon, in his report, +“no example of malformation of the pelvis and of some other affections +came under my notice, these things are nevertheless so common, that +every physician must regard them as probable consequences of such working-hours, +and as vouched for besides by men of the highest medical credibility.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>That factory operatives undergo more difficult confinement than other +women is testified to by several midwives and accoucheurs, and also +that they are more liable to miscarriage. <a name="citation161"></a><a href="#footnote161">{161}</a> +Moreover, they suffer from the general enfeeblement common to all operatives, +and, when pregnant, continue to work in the factory up to the hour of +delivery, because otherwise they lose their wages and are made to fear +that they may be replaced if they stop away too soon. It frequently +happens that women are at work one evening and delivered the next morning, +and the case is none too rare of their being delivered in the factory +among the machinery. And if the gentlemen of the bourgeoisie find +nothing particularly shocking in this, their wives will perhaps admit +that it is a piece of cruelty, an infamous act of barbarism, indirectly +to force a pregnant woman to work twelve or thirteen hours daily (formerly +still longer), up to the day of her delivery, in a standing position, +with frequent stoopings. But this is not all. If these women +are not obliged to resume work within two weeks, they are thankful, +and count themselves fortunate. Many come back to the factory +after eight, and even after three to four days, to resume full work. +I once heard a manufacturer ask an overlooker: “Is so and so not +back yet?” “No.” “How long since +she was confined?” “A week.” “She +might surely have been back long ago. That one over there only +stays three days.” Naturally, fear of being discharged, +dread of starvation drives her to the factory in spite of <!-- page 162--><a name="page162"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 162</span>her +weakness, in defiance of her pain. The interest of the manufacturer +will not brook that his employees stay at home by reason of illness; +they must not be ill, they must not venture to lie still through a long +confinement, or he must stop his machinery or trouble his supreme head +with a temporary change of arrangements, and rather than do this, he +discharges his people when they begin to be ill. Listen: <a name="citation162a"></a><a href="#footnote162a">{162a}</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“A girl feels very ill, can scarcely do her work. +Why does she not ask permission to go home? Ah! the master is +very particular, and if we are away half a day, we risk being sent away +altogether.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Or Sir D. Barry: <a name="citation162b"></a><a href="#footnote162b">{162b}</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“Thomas McDurt, workman, has slight fever. +Cannot stay at home longer than four days, because he would fear of +losing his place.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>And so it goes on in almost all the factories. The employment +of young girls produces all sorts of irregularities during the period +of development. In some, especially those who are better fed, +the heat of the factories hastens this process, so that in single cases, +girls of thirteen and fourteen are wholly mature. Robertson, whom +I have already cited (mentioned in the Factories’ Inquiry Commission’s +Report as the “eminent” gynæcologist of Manchester), +relates in the North of England <i>Medical and Surgical Journal</i>, +that he had seen a girl of eleven years who was not only a wholly developed +woman, but pregnant, and that it was by no means rare in Manchester +for women to be confined at fifteen years of age. In such cases, +the influence of the warmth of the factories is the same as that of +a tropical climate, and, as in such climates, the abnormally early development +revenges itself by correspondingly premature age and debility. +On the other hand, retarded development of the female constitution occurs, +the breasts mature late or not at all. <a name="citation162c"></a><a href="#footnote162c">{162c}</a> +Menstruation first appears in the <!-- page 163--><a name="page163"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 163</span>seventeenth +or Eighteenth, sometimes in the twentieth year, and is often wholly +wanting. <a name="citation163a"></a><a href="#footnote163a">{163a}</a> +Irregular menstruation, coupled with great pain and numerous affections, +especially with anæmia, is very frequent, as the medical reports +unanimously state.</p> +<p>Children of such mothers, particularly of those who are obliged to +work during pregnancy, cannot be vigorous. They are, on the contrary, +described in the report, especially in Manchester, as very feeble; and +Barry alone asserts that they are healthy, but says further, that in +Scotland, where his inspection lay, almost no married women worked in +factories. Moreover, most of the factories there are in the country +(with the exception of Glasgow), a circumstance which contributes greatly +to the invigoration of the children. The operatives’ children +in the neighbourhood of Manchester are nearly all thriving and rosy, +while those within the city look pale and scrofulous; but with the ninth +year the colour vanishes suddenly, because all are then sent into the +factories, when it soon becomes impossible to distinguish the country +from the city children.</p> +<p>But besides all this, there are some branches of factory-work which +have an especially injurious effect. In many rooms of the cotton +and flax-spinning mills, the air is filled with fibrous dust, which +produces chest affections, especially among workers in the carding and +combing-rooms. Some constitutions can bear it, some cannot; but +the operative has no choice. He must take the room in which he +finds work, whether his chest is sound or not. The most common +effects of this breathing of dust are blood-spitting, hard, noisy breathing, +pains in the chest, coughs, sleeplessness—in short, all the symptoms +of asthma ending in the worst cases in consumption. <a name="citation163b"></a><a href="#footnote163b">{163b}</a> +Especially unwholesome is the wet spinning of linen-yarn which is carried +on by young girls and boys. The water spirts over them from the +spindle, so that the front of their clothing is constantly wet through +to the skin; and there is <!-- page 164--><a name="page164"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 164</span>always +water standing on the floor. This is the case to a less degree +in the doubling-rooms of the cotton mills, and the result is a constant +succession of colds and affections of the chest. A hoarse, rough +voice is common to all operatives, but especially to wet spinners and +doublers. Stuart, Mackintosh, and Sir D. Barry express themselves +in the most vigorous terms as to the unwholesomeness of this work, and +the small consideration shown by most of the manufacturers for the health +of the girls who do it. Another effect of flax-spinning is a peculiar +deformity of the shoulder, especially a projection of the right shoulder-blade, +consequent upon the nature of the work. This sort of spinning +and the throstle-spinning of cotton frequently produce diseases of the +knee-pan, which is used to check the spindle during the joining of broken +threads. The frequent stooping and the bending to the low machines +common to both these branches of work have, in general, a stunting effect +upon the growth of the operative. In the throstle-room of the +cotton mill at Manchester, in which I was employed, I do not remember +to have seen one single tall, well-built girl; they were all short, +dumpy, and badly-formed, decidedly ugly in the whole development of +the figure. But apart from all these diseases and malformations, +the limbs of the operatives suffer in still another way. The work +between the machinery gives rise to multitudes of accidents of more +or less serious nature, which have for the operative the secondary effect +of unfitting him for his work more or less completely. The most +common accident is the squeezing off of a single joint of a finger, +somewhat less common the loss of the whole finger, half or a whole hand, +an arm, etc., in the machinery. Lockjaw very often follows, even +upon the lesser among these injuries, and brings death with it. +Besides the deformed persons, a great number of maimed ones may be seen +going about in Manchester; this one has lost an arm or a part of one, +that one a foot, the third half a leg; it is like living in the midst +of an army just returned from a campaign. But the most dangerous +portion of the machinery is the strapping which conveys motive power +from the shaft to the separate machines, especially if it contains buckles, +which, however, are <!-- page 165--><a name="page165"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 165</span>rarely +used now. Whoever is seized by the strap is carried up with lightning +speed, thrown against the ceiling above and floor below with such force +that there is rarely a whole bone left in the body, and death follows +instantly. Between June 12th and August 3rd, 1843, the <i>Manchester +Guardian</i> reported the following serious accidents (the trifling +ones it does not notice): June 12th, a boy died in Manchester of lockjaw, +caused by his hand being crushed between wheels. June 16th, a +youth in Saddleworth seized by a wheel and carried away with it; died, +utterly mangled. June 29th, a young man at Green Acres Moor, near +Manchester, at work in a machine shop, fell under the grindstone, which +broke two of his ribs and lacerated him terribly. July 24th, a +girl in Oldham died, carried around fifty times by a strap; no bone +unbroken. July 27th, a girl in Manchester seized by the blower +(the first machine that receives the raw cotton), and died of injuries +received. August 3rd, a bobbins turner died in Dukenfield, caught +in a strap, every rib broken. In the year 1843, the Manchester +Infirmary treated 962 cases of wounds and mutilations caused by machinery, +while the number of all other accidents within the district of the hospital +was 2,426, so that for five accidents from all other causes, two were +caused by machinery. The accidents which happened in Salford are +not included here, nor those treated by surgeons in private practice. +In such cases, whether or not the accident unfits the victim for further +work, the employer, at best, pays the doctor, or, in very exceptional +cases, he may pay wages during treatment; what becomes of the operative +afterwards, in case he cannot work, is no concern of the employer.</p> +<p>The Factory Report says on this subject, that employers must be made +responsible for all cases, since children cannot take care, and adults +will take care in their own interest. But the gentlemen who write +the report are bourgeois, and so they must contradict themselves and +bring up later all sorts of bosh on the subject of the culpable temerity +of the operatives.</p> +<p>The state of the case is this: If children cannot take care, the +employment of children must be forbidden. If adults are reckless, +<!-- page 166--><a name="page166"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 166</span>they +must be mere over-grown children on a plane of intelligence which does +not enable them to appreciate the danger in its full scope; and who +is to blame for this but the bourgeoisie which keeps them in a condition +in which their intelligence cannot develop? Or the machinery is +ill-arranged, and must be surrounded with fencing, to supply which falls +to the share of the bourgeoisie. Or the operative is under inducements +which outweigh the threatened danger; he must work rapidly to earn his +wages, has no time to take care, and for this, too, the bourgeoisie +is to blame. Many accidents happen, for instance, while the operatives +are cleaning machinery in motion. Why? Because the bourgeois +would otherwise oblige the worker to clean the machinery during the +free hours while it is not going, and the worker naturally is not disposed +to sacrifice any part of his free time. Every free hour is so +precious to the worker that he often risks his life twice a week rather +than sacrifice one of them to the bourgeois. Let the employer +take from working-hours the time required for cleaning the machinery, +and it will never again occur to an operative to clean machinery in +motion. In short, from whatever point of view, the blame falls +ultimately on the manufacturer, and of him should be required, at the +very least, life-long support of the incapacitated operative, and support +of the victim’s family in case death follows the accident. +In the earliest period of manufacture, the accidents were much more +numerous in proportion than now, for the machinery was inferior, smaller, +more crowded, and almost never fenced. But the number is still +large enough, as the foregoing cases prove, to arouse grave question +as to a state of things which permits so many deformities and mutilations +for the benefit of a single class, and plunges so many industrious working-people +into want and starvation by reason of injuries undergone in the service +and through the fault of the bourgeoisie.</p> +<p>A pretty list of diseases engendered purely by the hateful money +greed of the manufacturers! Women made unfit for childbearing, +children deformed, men enfeebled, limbs crushed, whole generations wrecked, +afflicted with disease and infirmity, <!-- page 167--><a name="page167"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 167</span>purely +to fill the purses of the bourgeoisie. And when one reads of the +barbarism of single cases, how children are seized naked in bed by the +overlookers, and driven with blows and kicks to the factory, their clothing +over their arms, <a name="citation167a"></a><a href="#footnote167a">{167a}</a> +how their sleepiness is driven off with blows, how they fall asleep +over their work nevertheless, how one poor child sprang up, still asleep, +at the call of the overlooker, and mechanically went through the operations +of its work after its machine was stopped; when one reads how children, +too tired to go home, hide away in the wool in the drying-room to sleep +there, and could only be driven out of the factory with straps; how +many hundreds came home so tired every night, that they could eat no +supper for sleepiness and want of appetite, that their parents found +them kneeling by the bedside, where they had fallen asleep during their +prayers; when one reads all this and a hundred other villainies and +infamies in this one report, all testified to on oath, confirmed by +several witnesses, deposed by men whom the commissioners themselves +declare trustworthy; when one reflects that this is a Liberal report, +a bourgeois report, made for the purpose of reversing the previous Tory +report, and rehabilitating the pureness of heart of the manufacturers, +that the commissioners themselves are on the side of the bourgeoisie, +and report all these things against their own will, how can one be otherwise +than filled with wrath and resentment against a class which boasts of +philanthropy and self-sacrifice, while its one object is to fill its +purse <i>à tout prix</i>? Meanwhile, let us listen to the +bourgeoisie speaking through the mouth of its chosen apostle, Dr. Ure, +who relates in his “Philosophy of Manufactures” <a name="citation167b"></a><a href="#footnote167b">{167b}</a> +that the workers have been told that their wages bore no proportion +to their sacrifices, the good understanding between masters and men +being thus disturbed. Instead of this, the working-men should +have striven to recommend themselves by attention and industry, and +should have rejoiced in the prosperity of their masters. They +would then become overseers, superintendents, and finally partners, +and would thus—(Oh! Wisdom, thou speakest as the dove!)—<!-- page 168--><a name="page168"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 168</span>“have +increased at the same time the demand for their companions’ labour +in the market!”</p> +<blockquote><p>“Had it not been for the violent collisions and +interruptions resulting from erroneous views among the operatives, the +factory system would have been developed still more rapidly and beneficially.” +<a name="citation168a"></a><a href="#footnote168a">{168a}</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>Hereupon follows a long Jeremiad upon the spirit of resistance of +the operatives, and on the occasion of a strike of the best paid workers, +the fine spinners, the following naïve observation: <a name="citation168b"></a><a href="#footnote168b">{168b}</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“In fact, it was their high wages which enabled +them to maintain a stipendiary committee in affluence, and to pamper +themselves into nervous ailments, by a diet too rich and exciting for +their indoor employments.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Let us hear how the bourgeois describes the work of children: <a name="citation168c"></a><a href="#footnote168c">{168c}</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“I have visited many factories, both in Manchester +and in the surrounding districts, during a period of several months, +entering the spinning-rooms unexpectedly, and often alone, at different +times of the day, and I never saw a single instance of corporal chastisement +inflicted on a child; nor, indeed, did I ever see children in ill-humour. +They seemed to be always cheerful and alert; taking pleasure in the +light play of their muscles, enjoying the mobility natural to their +age. The scene of industry, so far from exciting sad emotions, +in my mind, was always exhilerating. It was delightful to observe +the nimbleness with which they pieced broken ends, as the mule carriage +began to recede from the fixed roller beam, and to see them at leisure, +after a few seconds’ exercise of their tiny fingers, to amuse +themselves in any attitude they chose, till the stretch and winding +on were once more completed. The work of these lively elves seemed +to resemble a sport, in which habit gave them a pleasing dexterity. +Conscious of their skill, they were delighted to show it off to any +stranger. As to exhaustion by the day’s work, they evinced +no trace of it on emerging from the mill in the evening; for they immediately +began to skip about any neighbouring playground, and to commence their +little games with the same alacrity as boys issuing from a school.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><!-- page 169--><a name="page169"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 169</span>Naturally! +As though the immediate movement of every muscle were not an urgent +necessity for frames grown at once stiff and relaxed! But Ure +should have waited to see whether this momentary excitement had not +subsided after a couple of minutes. And besides, Ure could see +this whole performance only in the afternoon after five or six hours’ +work, but not in the evening! As to the health of the operatives, +the bourgeois has the boundless impudence to cite the report of 1833 +just quoted in a thousand places, as testimony for the excellent health +of these people; to try to prove by detached and garbled quotations +that no trace of scrofula can be found among them, and, what is quite +true, that the factory system frees them from all acute diseases, (that +they have every variety of chronic affection instead he naturally conceals). +To explain the impudence with which our friend Ure palms off the grossest +falsehoods upon the English public, it must be known that the report +consists of three large folio volumes, which it never occurs to a well-fed +English bourgeois to study through. Let us hear further how he +expresses himself as to the Factory Act of 1834, passed by the Liberal +bourgeoisie, and imposing only the most meagre limitations upon the +manufacturers, as we shall see. This law, especially its compulsory +education clause, he calls an absurd and despotic measure directed against +the manufacturers, through which all children under twelve years of +age have been thrown out of employment; and with what results? +The children thus discharged from their light and useful occupation +receive no education whatsoever; cast out from the warm spinning-room +into a cold world, they subsist only by begging and stealing, a life +in sad contrast with their steadily improving condition in the factory +and in Sunday school. Under the mask of philanthropy, this law +intensifies the sufferings of the poor, and will greatly restrict the +conscientious manufacturer in his useful work, if, indeed, it does not +wholly stop him. <a name="citation169"></a><a href="#footnote169">{169}</a></p> +<p>The ruinous influence of the factory system began at an early day +to attract general attention. We have already alluded to the Apprentices’ +Act of 1802. Later, towards 1817, Robert Owen, <!-- page 170--><a name="page170"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 170</span>then +a manufacturer in New Lanark, in Scotland, afterwards founder of English +Socialism, began to call the attention of the Government, by memorials +and petitions, to the necessity of legislative guarantees for the health +of the operatives, and especially of children. The late Sir Robert +Peel and other philanthropists united with him, and gradually secured +the Factory Acts of 1818, 1825, and 1831, of which the first two were +never enforced, and the last only here and there. This law of +1831, based upon the motion of Sir J. C. Hobhouse, provided that in +cotton mills no one under twenty-one should be employed between half-past +seven at night and half-past five in the morning; and that in all factories +young persons under eighteen should work no longer than twelve hours +daily, and nine hours on Saturday. But since operatives could +not testify against their masters without being discharged, this law +helped matters very little. In the great cities, where the operatives +were more restive, the larger manufacturers came to an agreement among +themselves to obey the law; but even there, there were many who, like +the employers in the country, did not trouble themselves about it. +Meanwhile, the demand for a ten hours’ law had become lively among +the operatives; that is, for a law which should forbid all operatives +under eighteen years of age to work longer than ten hours daily; the +Trades Unions, by their agitation, made this demand general throughout +the manufacturing population; the philanthropic section of the Tory +party, then led by Michael Sadler, seized upon the plan, and brought +it before Parliament. Sadler obtained a parliamentary committee +for the investigation of the factory system, and this committee reported +in 1832. Its report was emphatically partisan, composed by strong +enemies of the factory system, for party ends. Sadler permitted +himself to be betrayed by his noble enthusiasm into the most distorted +and erroneous statements, drew from his witnesses by the very form of +his questions, answers which contained the truth, but truth in a perverted +form. The manufacturers themselves, incensed at a report which +represented them as monsters, now demanded an official investigation; +they knew that an exact report must, in this case, be advantageous to +<!-- page 171--><a name="page171"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 171</span>them; +they knew that Whigs, genuine bourgeois, were at the helm, with whom +they were upon good terms, whose principles were opposed to any restriction +upon manufacture. They obtained a commission, in due order, composed +of Liberal bourgeois, whose report I have so often cited. This +comes somewhat nearer the truth than Sadler’s, but its deviations +therefrom are in the opposite direction. On every page it betrays +sympathy with the manufacturers, distrust of the Sadler report, repugnance +to the working-men agitating independently and the supporters of the +Ten Hours’ Bill. It nowhere recognises the right of the +working-man to a life worthy of a human being, to independent activity, +and opinions of his own. It reproaches the operatives that in +sustaining the Ten Hours’ Bill they thought, not of the children +only, but of themselves as well; it calls the working-men engaged in +the agitation demagogues, ill-intentioned, malicious, etc., is written, +in short, on the side of the bourgeoisie; and still it cannot whitewash +the manufacturers, and still it leaves such a mass of infamies upon +the shoulders of the employers, that even after this report, the agitation +for the Ten Hours’ Bill, the hatred against the manufacturers, +and the committee’s severest epithets applied to them are all +fully justified. But there was the one difference, that whereas +the Sadler report accuses the manufacturers of open, undisguised brutality, +it now became evident that this brutality was chiefly carried on under +the mask of civilisation and humanity. Yet Dr. Hawkins, the medical +commissioner for Lancashire, expresses himself decidedly in favour of +the Ten Hours’ Bill in the opening lines of his report, and Commissioner +Mackintosh explains that his own report does not contain the whole truth, +because it is very difficult to induce the operatives to testify against +their employers, and because the manufacturers, besides being forced +into greater concessions towards their operatives by the excitement +among the latter, are often prepared for the inspection of the factories, +have them swept, the speed of the machinery reduced, etc. In Lancashire +especially they resorted to the device of bringing the overlookers of +workrooms before the commissioners, and letting them testify as working-men +to the humanity of the employers, the <!-- page 172--><a name="page172"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 172</span>wholesome +effects of the work, and the indifference, if not the hostility of the +operatives, towards the Ten Hours’ Bill. But these are not +genuine working-men; they are deserters from their class, who have entered +the service of the bourgeoisie for better pay, and fight in the interests +of the capitalists against the workers. Their interest is that +of the capitalists, and they are, therefore, almost more hated by the +workers than the manufacturers themselves.</p> +<p>And yet this report suffices wholly to exhibit the most shameful +recklessness of the manufacturing bourgeoisie towards its employees, +the whole infamy of the industrial exploiting system in its full inhumanity. +Nothing is more revolting than to compare the long register of diseases +and deformities engendered by overwork, in this report, with the cold, +calculating political economy of the manufacturers, by which they try +to prove that they, and with them all England, must go to ruin, if they +should be forbidden to cripple so and so many children every year. +The language of Dr. Ure alone, which I have quoted, would be yet more +revolting if it were not so preposterous.</p> +<p>The result of this report was the Factory Act of 1834, which forbade +the employment of children under nine years of age (except in silk mills), +limited the working-hours of children between 9-13 years to 48 per week, +or 9 hours in any one day at the utmost; that of young persons from +14-18 years of age to 69 per week, or 12 on any one day as the maximum, +provided for an hour and a half as the minimum interval for meals, and +repeated the total prohibition of night-work for persons under eighteen +years of age. Compulsory school attendance two hours daily was +prescribed for all children under fourteen years, and the manufacturer +declared punishable in case of employing children without a certificate +of age from the factory surgeon, and a certificate of school attendance +from the teacher. As recompense, the employer was permitted to +withdraw one penny from the child’s weekly earnings to pay the +teacher. Further, surgeons and inspectors were appointed to visit +the factories at all times, take testimony of operatives on oath, and +enforce the law by prosecution before <!-- page 173--><a name="page173"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 173</span>a +Justice of the Peace. This is the law against which Dr. Ure inveighs +in such unmeasured terms!</p> +<p>The consequence of this law, and especially of the appointment of +inspectors, was the reduction of working-hours to an average of twelve +to thirteen, and the superseding of children as far as possible. +Hereupon some of the most crying evils disappeared almost wholly. +Deformities arose now only in cases of weak constitution, and the effects +of overwork became much less conspicuous. Nevertheless, enough +testimony remains to be found in the Factory Report, that the lesser +evils, swelling of the ankles, weakness and pain in the legs, hips, +and back, varicose veins, ulcers on the lower extremities, general weakness, +especially of the pelvic region, nausea, want of appetite alternating +with unnatural hunger, indigestion, hypochondria, affections of the +chest in consequence of the dust and foul atmosphere of the factories, +etc. etc., all occur among employees subject to the provisions of Sir +J. C. Hobhouse’s law (of 1831), which prescribes twelve to thirteen +hours as the maximum. The reports from Glasgow and Manchester +are especially worthy of attention in this respect. These evils +remained too, after the law of 1834, and continue to undermine the health +of the working-class to this day. Care has been taken to give +the brutal profit-greed of the bourgeoisie a hypocritical, civilised +form, to restrain the manufacturers through the arm of the law from +too conspicuous villainies, and thus to give them a pretext for self-complacently +parading their sham philanthropy. That is all. If a new +commission were appointed to-day, it would find things pretty much as +before. As to the extemporised compulsory attendance at school, +it remained wholly a dead letter, since the Government failed to provide +good schools. The manufacturers employed as teachers worn-out +operatives, to whom they sent the children two hours daily, thus complying +with the letter of the law; but the children learned nothing. +And even the reports of the factory inspectors, which are limited to +the scope of the inspector’s duties, <i>i.e</i>., the enforcement +of the Factory Act, give data enough to justify the conclusion that +the old evils inevitably remain. Inspectors Horner and Saunders, +in their reports for October and <!-- page 174--><a name="page174"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 174</span>December, +1844, state that, in a number of branches in which the employment of +children can be dispensed with or superseded by that of adults, the +working-day is still fourteen to sixteen hours, or even longer. +Among the operatives in these branches they found numbers of young people +who had just outgrown the provisions of the law. Many employers +disregard the law, shorten the meal times, work children longer than +is permitted, and risk prosecution, knowing that the possible fines +are trifling in comparison with the certain profits derivable from the +offence. Just at present especially, while business is exceptionally +brisk, they are under great temptation in this respect.</p> +<p>Meanwhile the agitation for the Ten Hours’ Bill by no means +died out among the operatives; in 1839 it was under full headway once +more, and Sadler’s place, he having died, was filled in the House +of Commons by Lord Ashley <a name="citation174"></a><a href="#footnote174">{174}</a> +and Richard Oastler, both Tories. Oastler especially, who carried +on a constant agitation in the factory districts, and had been active +in the same way during Sadler’s life, was the particular favourite +of the working-men. They called him their “good old king,” +“the king of the factory children,” and there is not a child +in the factory districts that does not know and revere him, that does +not join the procession which moves to welcome him when he enters a +town. Oastler vigorously opposed the New Poor Law also, and was +therefore imprisoned for debt by a Mr. Thornley, on whose estate he +was employed as agent, and to whom he owed money. The Whigs offered +repeatedly to pay his debt and confer other favours upon him if he would +only give up his agitation against the Poor Law. But in vain; +he remained in prison, whence he published his Fleet Papers against +the factory system and the Poor Law.</p> +<p>The Tory Government of 1841 turned its attention once more to the +Factory Acts. The Home Secretary, Sir James Graham, proposed, +in 1843, a bill restricting the working-hours of children to six and +one-half, and making the enactments for compulsory school attendance +more effective; the principal point in this connection being a provision +for better schools. This bill was, however, <!-- page 175--><a name="page175"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 175</span>wrecked +by the jealousy of the dissenters; for, although compulsory religious +instruction was not extended to the children of dissenters, the schools +provided for were to be placed under the general supervision of the +Established Church, and the Bible made the general reading-book; religion +being thus made the foundation of all instruction, whence the dissenters +felt themselves threatened. The manufacturers and the Liberals +generally united with them, the working-men were divided by the Church +question, and therefore inactive. The opponents of the bill, though +outweighed in the great manufacturing towns, such as Salford and Stockport, +and able in others, such as Manchester, to attack certain of its points +only, for fear of the working-men, collected nevertheless nearly two +million signatures for a petition against it, and Graham allowed himself +to be so far intimidated as to withdraw the whole bill. The next +year he omitted the school clauses, and proposed that, instead of the +previous provisions, children between eight and thirteen years should +be restricted to six and one-half hours, and so employed as to have +either the whole morning or the whole afternoon free; that young people +between thirteen and eighteen years, and all females, should be limited +to twelve hours; and that the hitherto frequent evasions of the law +should be prevented. Hardly had he proposed this bill, when the +ten hours’ agitation was begun again more vigorously than ever. +Oastler had just then regained his liberty; a number of his friends +and a collection among the workers had paid his debt, and he threw himself +into the movement with all his might. The defenders of the Ten +Hours’ Bill in the House of Commons had increased in numbers, +the masses of petitions supporting it which poured in from all sides +brought them allies, and on March 19th, 1844, Lord Ashley carried, with +a majority of 179 to 170, a resolution that the word “Night” +in the Factory Act should express the time from six at night to six +in the morning, whereby the prohibition of night-work came to mean the +limitation of working-hours to twelve, including free hours, or ten +hours of actual work a day. But the ministry did not agree to +this. Sir James Graham began to threaten resignation from the +Cabinet, <!-- page 176--><a name="page176"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 176</span>and +at the next vote on the bill the House rejected by a small majority +both ten and twelve hours! Graham and Peel now announced that +they should introduce a new bill, and that if this failed to pass they +should resign. The new bill was exactly the old Twelve Hours’ +Bill with some changes of form, and the same House of Commons which +had rejected the principal points of this bill in March, now swallowed +it whole. The reason of this was that most of the supporters of +the Ten Hours’ Bill were Tories who let fall the bill rather than +the ministry; but be the motives what they may, the House of Commons +by its votes upon this subject, each vote reversing the last, has brought +itself into the greatest contempt among all the workers, and proved +most brilliantly the Chartists’ assertion of the necessity of +its reform. Three members, who had formerly voted against the +ministry, afterwards voted for it and rescued it. In all the divisions, +the bulk of the opposition voted <i>for</i> and the bulk of its own +party <i>against</i> the ministry. <a name="citation176"></a><a href="#footnote176">{176}</a> +The foregoing propositions of Graham touching the employment of children +six and one-half and of all other operatives twelve hours are now legislative +provisions, and by them and by the limitation of overwork for making +up time lost through breakdown of machinery or insufficient water-power +by reason of frost or drought, a working-day of more than twelve hours +has been made well-nigh impossible. There remains, however, no +doubt that, in a very short time, the Ten Hours’ Bill will really +be adopted. The manufacturers are naturally all against it, there +are perhaps not ten who are for it; they have used every honourable +and dishonourable means against this dreaded measure, but with no other +result than that of drawing down upon them the ever deepening hatred +of the working-men. The bill will pass. What the working-men +will do they can do, and that they will have this bill they proved last +spring. The economic arguments of the manufacturers that a Ten +Hours’ Bill would increase the cost of production and incapacitate +the English producers for <!-- page 177--><a name="page177"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 177</span>competition +in foreign markets, and that wages must fall, are all <i>half</i> true; +but they prove nothing except this, that the industrial greatness of +England can be maintained only through the barbarous treatment of the +operatives, the destruction of their health, the social, physical, and +mental decay of whole generations. Naturally, if the Ten Hours’ +Bill were a final measure, it must ruin England; but since it must inevitably +bring with it other measures which must draw England into a path wholly +different from that hitherto followed, it can only prove an advance.</p> +<p>Let us turn to another side of the factory system which cannot be +remedied by legislative provisions so easily as the diseases now engendered +by it. We have already alluded in a general way to the nature +of the employment, and enough in detail to be able to draw certain inferences +from the facts given. The supervision of machinery, the joining +of broken threads, is no activity which claims the operative’s +thinking powers, yet it is of a sort which prevents him from occupying +his mind with other things. We have seen, too, that this work +affords the muscles no opportunity for physical activity. Thus +it is, properly speaking, not work, but tedium, the most deadening, +wearing process conceivable. The operative is condemned to let +his physical and mental powers decay in this utter monotony, it is his +mission to be bored every day and all day long from his eighth year. +Moreover, he must not take a moment’s rest; the engine moves unceasingly; +the wheels, the straps, the spindles hum and rattle in his ears without +a pause, and if he tries to snatch one instant, there is the overlooker +at his back with the book of fines. This condemnation to be buried +alive in the mill, to give constant attention to the tireless machine +is felt as the keenest torture by the operatives, and its action upon +mind and body is in the long run stunting in the highest degree. +There is no better means of inducing stupefaction than a period of factory +work, and if the operatives have, nevertheless, not only rescued their +intelligence, but cultivated and sharpened it more than other working-men, +they have found this possible only in rebellion against their fate and +against the bourgeoisie, the sole subject on which under all circumstances +<!-- page 178--><a name="page178"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 178</span>they +can think and feel while at work. Or, if this indignation against +the bourgeoisie does not become the supreme passion of the working-man, +the inevitable consequence is drunkenness and all that is generally +called demoralisation. The physical enervation and the sickness, +universal in consequence of the factory system, were enough to induce +Commissioner Hawkins to attribute this demoralisation thereto as inevitable; +how much more when mental lassitude is added to them, and when the influences +already mentioned which tempt every working-man to demoralisation, make +themselves felt here too! There is no cause for surprise, therefore, +that in the manufacturing towns especially, drunkenness and sexual excesses +have reached the pitch which I have already described. <a name="citation178"></a><a href="#footnote178">{178}</a></p> +<p>Further, the slavery in which the bourgeoisie holds the proletariat +chained, is nowhere more conspicuous than in the factory system. +Here ends all freedom in law and in fact. The operative must be +in the mill at half-past five in the morning; if he comes a couple of +minutes too late, he is fined; if he comes ten minutes too late, he +is not let in until breakfast is over, and a quarter of the day’s +wages is withheld, though he loses only two and one-half hours’ +work out of twelve. He must eat, drink, and sleep at command. +For satisfying the most imperative needs, he is vouchsafed the least +possible time absolutely required by them. Whether his dwelling +is a half-hour or a whole one removed from <!-- page 179--><a name="page179"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 179</span>the +factory does not concern his employer. The despotic bell calls +him from his bed, his breakfast, his dinner.</p> +<p>What a time he has of it, too, inside the factory! Here the +employer is absolute law-giver; he makes regulations at will, changes +and adds to his codex at pleasure, and even, if he inserts the craziest +stuff, the courts say to the working-man: “You were your own master, +no one forced you to agree to such a contract if you did not wish to; +but now, when you have freely entered into it, you must be bound by +it.” And so the working-man only gets into the bargain the +mockery of the Justice of the Peace who is a bourgeois himself, and +of the law which is made by the bourgeoisie. Such decisions have +been given often enough. In October, 1844, the operatives of Kennedy’s +mill, in Manchester struck. Kennedy prosecuted them on the strength +of a regulation placarded in the mill, that at no time more than two +operatives in one room may quit work at once. And the court decided +in his favour, giving the working-men the explanation cited above. <a name="citation179a"></a><a href="#footnote179a">{179a}</a> +And such rules as these usually are! For instance: 1. The +doors are closed ten minutes after work begins, and thereafter no one +is admitted until the breakfast hour; whoever is absent during this +time forfeits 3d. per loom. 2. Every power-loom weaver detected +absenting himself at another time, while the machinery is in motion, +forfeits for each hour and each loom, 3d. Every person who leaves +the room during working-hours, without obtaining permission from the +overlooker, forfeits 3d. 3. Weavers who fail to supply themselves +with scissors forfeit, per day, 1d. 4. All broken shuttles, brushes, +oil-cans, wheels, window panes, etc., must be paid for by the weaver. +5. No weaver to stop work without giving a week’s notice. +The manufacturer may dismiss any employee without notice for bad work +or improper behaviour. 6. Every operative detected speaking to +another, singing or whistling, will be fined 6d.; for leaving his place +during working-hours, 6d. <a name="citation179b"></a><a href="#footnote179b">{179b}</a> +Another copy of factory regulations lies before me, according to which +every operative who <!-- page 180--><a name="page180"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 180</span>comes +three minutes too late, forfeits the wages for a quarter of an hour, +and every one who comes twenty minutes too late, for a quarter of a +day. Every one who remains absent until breakfast forfeits a shilling +on Monday, and sixpence every other day of the week, etc, etc. +This last is the regulation of the Phœnix Works in Jersey Street, +Manchester. It may be said that such rules are necessary in a +great, complicated factory, in order to insure the harmonious working +of the different parts; it may be asserted that such a severe discipline +is as necessary here as in an army. This may be so, but what sort +of a social order is it which cannot be maintained without such shameful +tyranny? Either the end sanctifies the means, or the inference +of the badness of the end from the badness of the means is justified. +Every one who has served as a soldier knows what it is to be subjected +even for a short time to military discipline. But these operatives +are condemned from their ninth year to their death to live under the +sword, physically and mentally. They are worse slaves than the +negroes in America, for they are more sharply watched, and yet it is +demanded of them that they shall live like human beings, shall think +and feel like men! Verily, this they can do only under glowing +hatred towards their oppressors, and towards that order of things which +place them in such a position, which degrades them to machines. +But it is far more shameful yet, that according to the universal testimony +of the operatives, numbers of manufacturers collect the fines imposed +upon the operatives with the most heartless severity, and for the purpose +of piling up extra profits out of the farthings thus extorted from the +impoverished proletarians. Leach asserts, too, that the operatives +often find the factory clock moved forward a quarter of an hour and +the doors shut, while the clerk moves about with the fines-book inside, +noting the many names of the absentees. Leach claims to have counted +ninety-five operatives thus shut out, standing before a factory, whose +clock was a quarter of an hour slower than the town clocks at night, +and a quarter of an hour faster in the morning. The Factory Report +relates similar facts. In one factory the clock was set back during +working-hours, so that the operatives worked overtime without extra +pay; in another, <!-- page 181--><a name="page181"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 181</span>a +whole quarter of an hour overtime was worked; in a third, there were +two clocks, an ordinary one and a machine clock, which registered the +revolutions of the main shaft; if the machinery went slowly, working-hours +were measured by the machine clock until the number of revolutions due +in twelve hours was reached; if work went well, so that the number was +reached before the usual working-hours were ended, the operatives were +forced to toil on to the end of the twelfth hour. The witness +adds that he had known girls who had good work, and who had worked overtime, +who, nevertheless, betook themselves to a life of prostitution rather +than submit to this tyranny. <a name="citation181a"></a><a href="#footnote181a">{181a}</a> +To return to the fines, Leach relates having repeatedly seen women in +the last period of pregnancy fined 6d. for the offence of sitting down +a moment to rest. Fines for bad work are wholly arbitrary; the +goods are examined in the wareroom, and the supervisor charges the fines +upon a list without even summoning the operative, who only learns that +he has been fined when the overlooker pays his wages, and the goods +have perhaps been sold, or certainly been placed beyond his reach. +Leach has in his possession such a fines list, ten feet long, and amounting +to £35 17s. 10d. He relates that in the factory where this +list was made, a new supervisor was dismissed for fining too little, +and so bringing in five pounds too little weekly. <a name="citation181b"></a><a href="#footnote181b">{181b}</a> +And I repeat that I know Leach to be a thoroughly trustworthy man incapable +of a falsehood.</p> +<p>But the operative is his employer’s slave in still other respects. +If his wife or daughter finds favour in the eyes of the master, a command, +a hint suffices, and she must place herself at his disposal. When +the employer wishes to supply with signatures a petition in favour of +bourgeois interests, he need only send it to his mill. If he wishes +to decide a Parliamentary election, he sends his enfranchised operatives +in rank and file to the polls, and they vote for the bourgeois candidate +whether they will or no. If he desires a majority in a public +meeting, he dismisses them half-an-hour earlier than usual, and secures +them places close to the platform, where he can watch them to his satisfaction.</p> +<p><!-- page 182--><a name="page182"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 182</span>Two +further arrangements contribute especially to force the operative under +the dominion of the manufacturer; the Truck system and the Cottage system. +The truck system, the payment of the operatives in goods, was formerly +universal in England. The manufacturer opens a shop, “for +the convenience of the operatives, and to protect them from the high +prices of the petty dealers.” Here goods of all sorts are +sold to them on credit; and to keep the operatives from going to the +shops where they could get their goods more cheaply—the “Tommy +shops” usually charging twenty-five to thirty per cent. more than +others—wages are paid in requisitions on the shop instead of money. +The general indignation against this infamous system led to the passage +of the Truck Act in 1831, by which, for most employees, payment in truck +orders was declared void and illegal, and was made punishable by fine; +but, like most other English laws, this has been enforced only here +and there. In the towns it is carried out comparatively efficiently; +but in the country, the truck system, disguised or undisguised, flourishes. +In the town of Leicester, too, it is very common. There lie before +me nearly a dozen convictions for this offence, dating from the period +between November, 1843, and June, 1844, and reported, in part, in the +<i>Manchester Guardian</i> and, in part, in the <i>Northern Star</i>. +The system is, of course, less openly carried on at present; wages are +usually paid in cash, but the employer still has means enough at command +to force him to purchase his wares in the truck shop and nowhere else. +Hence it is difficult to combat the truck system, because it can now +be carried on under cover of the law, provided only that the operative +receives his wages in money. The <i>Northern Star</i> of April +27th, 1843, publishes a letter from an operative of Holmfirth, near +Huddersfield, in Yorkshire, which refers to a manufacturer of the name +of Bowers, as follows (retranslated from the German):</p> +<blockquote><p>“It is very strange to think that the accursed +truck system should exist to such an extent as it does in Holmfirth, +and nobody be found who has the pluck to make the manufacturer stop +it. There are here a great many honest hand-weavers suffering +through this damned system; here is one sample from a good many out +of <!-- page 183--><a name="page183"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 183</span>the +noble-hearted Free Trade Clique. There is a manufacturer who has +upon himself the curses of the whole district on account of his infamous +conduct towards his poor weavers; if they have got a piece ready which +comes to 34 or 36 shillings, he gives them 20s. in money and the rest +in cloth or goods, and 40 to 50 per cent. dearer than at the other shops, +and often enough the goods are rotten into the bargain. But, what +says the <i>Free Trade Mercury</i>, the <i>Leeds Mercury</i>? +They are not bound to take them; they can please themselves. Oh, +yes, but they must take them or else starve. If they ask for another +20s. in money, they must wait eight or fourteen days for a warp; but +if they take the 20s. and the goods, then there is always a warp ready +for them. And that is Free Trade. Lord Brougham said we +ought to put by something in our young days, so that we need not go +to the parish when we are old. Well, are we to put by the rotten +goods? If this did not come from a lord, one would say his brains +were as rotten as the goods that our work is paid in. When the +unstamped papers came out “illegally,” there was a lot of +them to report it to the police in Holmfirth, the Blythes, the Edwards, +etc.; but where are they now? But this is different. Our +truck manufacturer belongs to the pious Free Trade lot; he goes to church +twice every Sunday, and repeats devotedly after the parson: ‘We +have left undone the things we ought to have done, and we have done +the things we ought not to have done, and there is no good in us; but, +good Lord, deliver us.’ Yes, deliver us till to-morrow, +and we will pay our weavers again in rotten goods.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The Cottage system looks much more innocent and arose in a much more +harmless way, though it has the same enslaving influence upon the employee. +In the neighbourhood of the mills in the country, there is often a lack +of dwelling accommodation for the operatives. The manufacturer +is frequently obliged to build such dwellings and does so gladly, as +they yield great advantages, besides the interest upon the capital invested. +If any owner of working-men’s dwellings averages about six per +cent. on his invested capital, it is safe to calculate that the manufacturer’s +cottages yield twice this rate; for so long as his factory does not +stand perfectly idle he is sure of occupants, and of occupants who pay +punctually. He is therefore spared the two chief disadvantages +under which other house-owners labour; his cottages never stand <!-- page 184--><a name="page184"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 184</span>empty, +and he runs no risk. But the rent of the cottages is as high as +though these disadvantages were in full force, and by obtaining the +same rent as the ordinary house-owner, the manufacturer, at cost of +the operatives, makes a brilliant investment at twelve to fourteen per +cent. For it is clearly unjust that he should make twice as much +profit as other competing house-owners, who at the same time are excluded +from competing with him. But it implies a double wrong, when he +draws his fixed profit from the pockets of the non-possessing class, +which must consider the expenditure of every penny. He is used +to that, however, he whose whole wealth is gained at the cost of his +employees. But this injustice becomes an infamy when the manufacturer, +as often happens, forces his operatives, who must occupy his houses +on pain of dismissal, to pay a higher rent than the ordinary one, or +even to pay rent for houses in which they do not live! The <i>Halifax +Guardian</i>, quoted by the Liberal <i>Sun</i>, asserts that hundreds +of operatives in Ashton-under-Lyne, Oldham, and Rochdale, etc., are +forced by their employers to pay house-rent whether they occupy the +house or not. <a name="citation184"></a><a href="#footnote184">{184}</a> +The cottage system is universal in the country districts; it has created +whole villages, and the manufacturer usually has little or no competition +against his houses, so that he can fix his price regardless of any market +rate, indeed at his pleasure. And what power does the cottage +system give the employer over his operatives in disagreements between +master and men? If the latter strike, he need only give them notice +to quit his premises, and the notice need only be a week; after that +time the operative is not only without bread but without a shelter, +a vagabond at the mercy of the law which sends him, without fail, to +the treadmill.</p> +<p>Such is the factory system sketched as fully as my space permits, +and with as little partisan spirit as the heroic deeds of the bourgeoisie +against the defenceless workers permit—deeds to wards which it +is impossible to remain indifferent, towards which indifference were +a crime. Let us compare the condition of the free Englishman of +1845 with the Saxon serf under the lash of <!-- page 185--><a name="page185"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 185</span>the +Norman barons of 1145. The serf was <i>glebæ adscriptus</i>, +bound to the soil, so is the free working-man through the cottage system. +The serf owed his master the <i>jus primæ noctis</i>, the right +of the first night—the free working-man must, on demand, surrender +to his master not only that, but the right of every night. The +serf could acquire no property; everything that he gained, his master +could take from him; the free working-man has no property, can gain +none by reason of the pressure of competition, and what even the Norman +baron did not do, the modern manufacturer does. Through the truck +system, he assumes every day the administration in detail of the things +which the worker requires for his immediate necessities. The relation +of the lord of the soil to the serf was regulated by the prevailing +customs and by-laws which were obeyed, because they corresponded to +them. The free working-man’s relation to his master is regulated +by laws which are <i>not</i> obeyed, because they correspond neither +with the interests of the employer nor with the prevailing customs. +The lord of the soil could not separate the serf from the land, nor +sell him apart from it, and since almost all the land was fief and there +was no capital, practically could not sell him at all. The modern +bourgeois forces the working-man to sell himself. The serf was +the slave of the piece of land on which he was born, the working-man +is the slave of his own necessaries of life and of the money with which +he has to buy them—both are <i>slaves of a thing</i>. The +serf had a guarantee for the means of subsistence in the feudal order +of society in which every member had his own place. The free working-man +has no guarantee whatsoever, because he has a place in society only +when the bourgeoisie can make use of him; in all other cases he is ignored, +treated as non-existent. The serf sacrificed himself for his master +in war, the factory operative in peace. The lord of the serf was +a barbarian who regarded his villain as a head of cattle; the employer +of operatives is civilised and regards his “hand” as a machine. +In short, the position of the two is not far from equal, and if either +is at a disadvantage, it is the free working-man. Slaves they +both are, with the single difference that the slavery of the one is +undissembled, open, <!-- page 186--><a name="page186"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 186</span>honest; +that of the other cunning, sly, disguised, deceitfully concealed from +himself and every one else, a hypocritical servitude worse than the +old. The philanthropic Tories were right when they gave the operatives +the name white slaves. But the hypocritical disguised slavery +recognises the right to freedom, at least in outward form; bows before +a freedom-loving public opinion, and herein lies the historic progress +as compared with the old servitude, that the <i>principle</i> of freedom +is affirmed, and the oppressed will one day see to it that this principle +is carried out. <a name="citation186"></a><a href="#footnote186">{186}</a></p> +<h2><!-- page 188--><a name="page188"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 188</span>THE +REMAINING BRANCHES OF INDUSTRY.</h2> +<p>We were compelled to deal with the factory system somewhat at length, +as it is an entirely novel creation of the industrial period; we shall +be able to treat the other workers the more briefly, because what has +been said either of the industrial proletariat in general, or of the +factory system in particular, will wholly, or in part, apply to them. +We shall, therefore, merely have to record how far the factory system +has succeeded in forcing its way into each branch of industry, and what +other peculiarities these may reveal.</p> +<p>The four branches comprised under the Factory Act are engaged in +the production of clothing stuffs. We shall do best if we deal +next with those workers who receive their materials from these factories; +and, first of all, with the stocking weavers of Nottingham, Derby, and +Leicester. Touching these workers, the Children’s Employment +Commission reports that the long working-hours, imposed by low wages, +with a sedentary life and the strain upon the eyes involved in the nature +of the employment, usually enfeeble the whole frame, and especially +the eyes. Work at night is impossible without a very powerful +light produced by concentrating the rays of the lamp, making them pass +through glass globes, which is most injurious to the sight. At +forty years of age, nearly all wear spectacles. The children employed +at spooling and hemming usually suffer grave injuries to the health +and constitution. They work from the sixth, seventh, or eighth +year ten to twelve hours daily in small, close rooms. It is not +uncommon for them to faint at their work, to become too feeble for the +most ordinary household occupation, and so near-sighted as to be obliged +to wear glasses during childhood. <!-- page 189--><a name="page189"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 189</span>Many +were found by the commissioners to exhibit all the symptoms of a scrofulous +constitution, and the manufacturers usually refuse to employ girls who +have worked in this way as being too weak. The condition of these +children is characterised as “a disgrace to a Christian country,” +and the wish expressed for legislative interference. The Factory +Report <a name="citation189"></a><a href="#footnote189">{189}</a> adds +that the stocking weavers are the worst paid workers in Leicester, earning +six, or with great effort, seven shillings a week, for sixteen to eighteen +hours’ daily work. Formerly they earned twenty to twenty-one +shillings, but the introduction of enlarged frames has ruined their +business; the great majority still work with old, small, single frames, +and compete with difficulty with the progress of machinery. Here, +too, every progress is a disadvantage for the workers. Nevertheless, +Commissioner Power speaks of the pride of the stocking weavers that +they are free, and had no factory bell to measure out the time for their +eating, sleeping, and working. Their position to-day is no better +than in 1833, when the Factory Commission made the foregoing statements, +the competition of the Saxon stocking weavers, who have scarcely anything +to eat, takes care of that. This competition is too strong for +the English in nearly all foreign markets, and for the lower qualities +of goods even in the English market. It must be a source of rejoicing +for the patriotic German stocking weaver that his starvation wages force +his English brother to starve too! And, verily, will he not starve +on, proud and happy, for the greater glory of German industry, since +the honour of the Fatherland demands that his table should be bare, +his dish half empty? Ah! it is a noble thing this competition, +this “race of the nations.” In the <i>Morning Chronicle</i>, +another Liberal sheet, the organ of the bourgeoisie par excellence, +there were published some letters from a stocking weaver in Hinckley, +describing the condition of his fellow-workers. Among other things, +he reports 50 families, 321 persons, who were supported by 109 frames; +each frame yielded on an average 5½ shillings; each family earned +an average of 11s. 4d. weekly. Out of this there was required +for house rent, frame rent, fuel, <!-- page 190--><a name="page190"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 190</span>light, +soap, and needles, together 5s. 10d., so that there remained for food, +per head daily, 1½d., and for clothing nothing. “No +eye,” says the stocking weaver, “has seen, no ear heard, +and no heart felt the half of the sufferings that these poor people +endure.” Beds were wanting either wholly or in part, the +children ran about ragged and barefoot; the men said, with tears in +their eyes: “It’s a long time since we had any meat; we +have almost forgotten how it tastes;” and, finally, some of them +worked on Sunday, though public opinion pardons anything else more readily +than this, and the rattling noise of the frame is audible throughout +the neighbourhood. “But,” said one of them, “look +at my children and ask no questions. My poverty forces me to it; +I can’t and won’t hear my children forever crying for bread, +without trying the last means of winning it honestly. Last Monday +I got up at two in the morning and worked to near midnight; the other +days from six in the morning to between eleven and twelve at night. +I have had enough of it; I sha’n’t kill myself; so now I +go to bed at ten o’clock, and make up the lost time on Sundays.” +Neither in Leicester, Nottingham, nor Derby have wages risen since 1833; +and the worst of it is that in Leicester the truck system prevails to +a great extent, as I have mentioned. It is therefore not to be +wondered at that the weavers of this region take a very active part +in all working-men’s movements, the more active and effective +because the frames are worked chiefly by men.</p> +<p>In this stocking weavers’ district the lace industry also has +its headquarters. In the three counties mentioned there are in +all 2,760 lace frames in use, while in all the rest of England there +are but 786. The manufacture of lace is greatly complicated by +a rigid division of labour, and embraces a multitude of branches. +The yarn is first spooled by girls fourteen years of age and upwards, +winders; then the spools are set up on the frames by boys, eight years +old and upwards, threaders, who pass the thread through fine openings, +of which each machine has an average of 1,800, and bring it towards +its destination; then the weaver weaves the lace which comes out of +the machine like a broad <!-- page 191--><a name="page191"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 191</span>piece +of cloth and is taken apart by very little children who draw out the +connecting threads. This is called running or drawing lace, and +the children themselves lace-runners. The lace is then made ready +for sale. The winders, like the threaders, have no specified working-time, +being called upon whenever the spools on a frame are empty, and are +liable, since the weavers work at night, to be required at any time +in the factory or workroom. This irregularity, the frequent night-work, +the disorderly way of living consequent upon it, engender a multitude +of physical and moral ills, especially early and unbridled sexual licence, +upon which point all witnesses are unanimous. The work is very +bad for the eyes, and although a permanent injury in the case of the +threaders is not universally observable, inflammations of the eye, pain, +tears, and momentary uncertainty of vision during the act of threading +are engendered. For the winders, however, it is certain that their +work seriously affects the eye, and produces, besides the frequent inflammations +of the cornea, many cases of amaurosis and cataract. The work +of the weavers themselves is very difficult, as the frames have constantly +been made wider, until those now in use are almost all worked by three +men in turn, each working eight hours, and the frame being kept in use +the whole twenty-four. Hence it is that the winders and threaders +are so often called upon during the night, and must work to prevent +the frame from standing idle. The filling in of 1,800 openings +with thread occupies three children at least two hours. Many frames +are moved by steam-power, and the work of men thus superseded; and, +as the Children’s Employment Commission’s Report mentions +only lace factories to which the children are summoned, it seems to +follow either that the work of the weavers has been removed to great +factory rooms of late, or that steam-weaving has become pretty general; +a forward movement of the factory system in either case. Most +unwholesome of all is the work of the runners, who are usually children +of seven, and even of five and four, years old. Commissioner Grainger +actually found one child of two years old employed at this work. +Following a thread which is to be withdrawn by a needle from an intricate +<!-- page 192--><a name="page192"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 192</span>texture, +is very bad for the eyes, especially when, as is usually the case, the +work is continued fourteen to sixteen hours. In the least unfavourable +case, aggravated near-sightedness follows; in the worst case, which +is frequent enough, incurable blindness from amaurosis. But, apart +from that, the children, in consequence of sitting perpetually bent +up, become feeble, narrow-chested, and scrofulous from bad digestion. +Disordered functions of the uterus are almost universal among the girls, +and curvature of the spine also, so that “all the runners may +be recognised from their gait.” The same consequences for +the eyes and the whole constitution are produced by the embroidery of +lace. Medical witnesses are unanimously of the opinion that the +health of all children employed in the production of lace suffers seriously, +that they are pale, weak, delicate, undersized, and much less able than +other children to resist disease. The affections from which they +usually suffer are general debility, frequent fainting, pains in the +head, sides, back, and hips, palpitation of the heart, nausea, vomiting +and want of appetite, curvature of the spine, scrofula, and consumption. +The health of the female lacemakers especially, is constantly and deeply +undermined; complaints are universal of anæmia, difficult childbirth, +and miscarriage. <a name="citation192a"></a><a href="#footnote192a">{192a}</a> +The same subordinate official of the Children’s Employment Commission +reports further that the children are very often ill-clothed and ragged, +and receive insufficient food, usually only bread and tea, often no +meat for months together. As to their moral condition, he reports: +<a name="citation192b"></a><a href="#footnote192b">{192b}</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“All the inhabitants of Nottingham, the police, +the clergy, the manufacturers, the working-people, and the parents of +the children are all unanimously of opinion that the present system +of labour is a most fruitful source of immorality. The threaders, +chiefly boys, and the winders, usually girls, are called for in the +factory at the same time; and as their parents cannot know how long +they are wanted there, they have the finest opportunity to form improper +connections and remain together after the close of the work. This +has contributed, in no small degree, to the immorality <!-- page 193--><a name="page193"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 193</span>which, +according to general opinion, exists to a terrible extent in Nottingham. +Apart from this, the quiet of home life, and the comfort of the family +to which these children and young people belong, is wholly sacrificed +to this most unnatural state of things.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Another branch of lace-making, bobbin-lacework, is carried on in +the agricultural shires of Northampton, Oxford, and Bedford, chiefly +by children and young persons, who complain universally of bad food, +and rarely taste meat. The employment itself is most unwholesome. +The children work in small, ill-ventilated, damp rooms, sitting always +bent over the lace cushion. To support the body in this wearying +position, the girls wear stays with a wooden busk, which, at the tender +age of most of them, when the bones are still very soft, wholly displace +the ribs, and make narrow chests universal. They usually die of +consumption after suffering the severest forms of digestive disorders, +brought on by sedentary work in a bad atmosphere. They are almost +wholly without education, least of all do they receive moral training. +They love finery, and in consequence of these two influences their moral +condition is most deplorable, and prostitution almost epidemic among +them. <a name="citation193"></a><a href="#footnote193">{193}</a></p> +<p>This is the price at which society purchases for the fine ladies +of the bourgeoisie the pleasure of wearing lace; a reasonable price +truly! Only a few thousand blind working-men, some consumptive +labourers’ daughters, a sickly generation of the vile multitude +bequeathing its debility to its equally “vile” children +and children’s children. But what does that come to? +Nothing, nothing whatsoever! Our English bourgeoisie will lay +the report of the Government Commission aside indifferently, and wives +and daughters will deck themselves with lace as before. It is +a beautiful thing, the composure of an English bourgeois.</p> +<p>A great number of operatives are employed in the cotton-printing +establishments of Lancashire, Derbyshire, and the West of Scotland. +In no branch of English industry has mechanical ingenuity produced such +brilliant results as here, but in no other <!-- page 194--><a name="page194"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 194</span>has +it so crushed the workers. The application of engraved cylinders +driven by steam-power, and the discovery of a method of printing four +to six colours at once with such cylinders, has as completely superseded +hand-work as did the application of machinery to the spinning and weaving +of cotton, and these new arrangements in the printing-works have superseded +the hand-workers much more than was the case in the production of the +fabrics. One man, with the assistance of one child, now does with +a machine the work done formerly by 200 block printers; a single machine +yields 28 yards of printed cloth per minute. The calico printers +are in a very bad way in consequence; the shires of Lancaster, Derby, +and Chester produced (according to a petition of the printers to the +House of Commons), in the year 1842, 11,000,000 pieces of printed cotton +goods: of these, 100,000 were printed by hand exclusively, 900,000 in +part with machinery and in part by hand, and 10,000,000 by machinery +alone, with four to six colours. As the machinery is chiefly new +and undergoes constant improvement, the number of hand-printers is far +too great for the available quantity of work, and many of them are therefore +starving; the petition puts the number at one-quarter of the whole, +while the rest are employed but one or two, in the best case three days +in the week, and are ill-paid. Leach <a name="citation194"></a><a href="#footnote194">{194}</a> +asserts of one print-work (Deeply Dale, near Bury, in Lancashire), that +the hand-printers did not earn on an average more than five shillings, +though he knows that the machine-printers were pretty well paid. +The print-works are thus wholly affiliated with the factory system, +but without being subject to the legislative restrictions placed upon +it. They produce an article subject to fashion, and have therefore +no regular work. If they have small orders, they work half time; +if they make a hit with a pattern, and business is brisk, they work +twelve hours, perhaps all night. In the neighbourhood of my home, +near Manchester, there was a print-work that was often lighted when +I returned late at night; and I have heard that the children were obliged +at times to work so long there, that they would try to catch a moment’s +rest and sleep on the stone steps <!-- page 195--><a name="page195"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 195</span>and +in the corners of the lobby. I have no legal proof of the truth +of the statement, or I should name the firm. The Report of the +Children’s Employment Commission is very cursory upon this subject, +stating merely that in England, at least, the children are mostly pretty +well clothed and fed (relatively, according to the wages of the parents), +that they receive no education whatsoever, and are morally on a low +plane. It is only necessary to remember that these children are +subject to the factory system, and then, referring the reader to what +has already been said of that, we can pass on.</p> +<p>Of the remaining workers employed in the manufacture of clothing +stuffs little remains to be said; the bleachers’ work is very +unwholesome, obliging them to breathe chlorine, a gas injurious to the +lungs. The work of the dyers is in many cases very healthful, +since it requires the exertion of the whole body; how these workers +are paid is little known, and this is ground enough for the inference +that they do not receive less than the average wages, otherwise they +would make complaint. The fustian cutters, who, in consequence +of the large consumption of cotton velvet, are comparatively numerous, +being estimated at from 3,000 to 4,000, have suffered very severely, +indirectly, from the influence of the factory system. The goods +formerly woven with hand-looms, were not perfectly uniform, and required +a practised hand in cutting the single rows of threads. Since +power-looms have been used, the rows run regularly; each thread of the +weft is exactly parallel with the preceding one, and cutting is no longer +an art. The workers thrown out of employment by the introduction +of machinery turn to fustian cutting, and force down wages by their +competition; the manufacturers discovered that they could employ women +and children, and the wages sank to the rate paid them, while hundreds +of men were thrown out of employment. The manufacturers found +that they could get the work done in the factory itself more cheaply +than in the cutters’ workroom, for which they indirectly paid +the rent. Since this discovery, the low upper-storey cutters’ +rooms stand empty in many a cottage, or are let for dwellings, while +the cutter has lost his <!-- page 196--><a name="page196"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 196</span>freedom +of choice of his working-hours, and is brought under the dominion of +the factory bell. A cutter of perhaps forty-five years of age +told me that he could remember a time when he had received 8d. a yard +for work, for which he now received 1d.; true, he can cut the more regular +texture more quickly than the old, but he can by no means do twice as +much in an hour as formerly, so that his wages have sunk to less than +a quarter of what they were. Leach <a name="citation196"></a><a href="#footnote196">{196}</a> +gives a list of wages paid in 1827 and in 1843 for various goods, from +which it appears that articles paid in 1827 at the rates of 4d., 2¼d., +2¾d., and 1d. per yard, were paid in 1843 at the rate of 1½d., +1d., ¾d., and 0.375d. per yard, cutters’ wages. The +average weekly wage, according to Leach, was as follows: 1827, £1 +6s. 6d.; £1 2s. 6d.; £1; £1 6s. 6d.; and for the same +goods in 1843, 10s. 6d.; 7s. 6d.; 6s. 8d.; 10s.; while there are hundreds +of workers who cannot find employment even at these last named rates. +Of the hand-weavers of the cotton industry we have already spoken; the +other woven fabrics are almost exclusively produced on hand-looms. +Here most of the workers have suffered as the weavers have done from +the crowding in of competitors displaced by machinery, and are, moreover, +subject like the factory operatives to a severe fine system for bad +work. Take, for instance, the silk weavers. Mr. Brocklehurst, +one of the largest silk manufacturers in all England, laid before a +committee of members of Parliament lists taken from his books, from +which it appears that for goods for which he paid wages in 1821 at the +rate of 30s., 14s., 3½s., ¾s., 1½s., 10s., he paid +in 1839 but 9s., 7¼s., 2¼s., 0.333s., 0½s., 6¼s., +while in this case no improvement in the machinery has taken place. +But what Mr. Brocklehurst does may very well be taken as a standard +for all. From the same lists it appears that the average weekly +wage of his weavers, after all deductions, was, in 1821, 16½s., +and, in 1831, but 6s. Since that time wages have fallen still +further. Goods which brought in 4d. weavers’ wages in 1831, +bring in but 2½d. in 1843 (single sarsnets), and a great number +of weavers in the country can get work only when they undertake these +goods at 1½d.-2d. Moreover, <!-- page 197--><a name="page197"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 197</span>they +are subject to arbitrary deductions from their wages. Every weaver +who receives materials is given a card, on which is usually to be read +that the work is to be returned at a specified hour of the day; that +a weaver who cannot work by reason of illness must make the fact known +at the office within three days, or sickness will not be regarded as +an excuse; that it will not be regarded as a sufficient excuse if the +weaver claims to have been obliged to wait for yarn; that for certain +faults in the work (if, for example, more weft-threads are found within +a given space than are prescribed), not less than half the wages will +be deducted; and that if the goods should not be ready at the time specified, +one penny will be deducted for every yard returned. The deductions +in accordance with these cards are so considerable that, for instance, +a man who comes twice a week to Leigh, in Lancashire, to gather up woven +goods, brings his employer at least £15 fines every time. +He asserts this himself, and he is regarded as one of the most lenient. +Such things were formerly settled by arbitration; but as the workers +were usually dismissed if they insisted upon that, the custom has been +almost wholly abandoned, and the manufacturer acts arbitrarily as prosecutor, +witness, judge, law-giver, and executive in one person. And if +the workman goes to a Justice of the Peace, the answer is: “When +you accepted your card you entered upon a contract, and you must abide +by it.” The case is the same as that of the factory operatives. +Besides, the employer obliges the workman to sign a document in which +he declares that he agrees to the deductions made. And if a workman +rebels, all the manufacturers in the town know at once that he is a +man who, as Leach says, <a name="citation197"></a><a href="#footnote197">{197}</a> +“resists the lawful order as established by weavers’ cards, +and, moreover, has the impudence to doubt the wisdom of those who are, +as he ought to know, his superiors in society.”</p> +<p>Naturally, the workers are perfectly free; the manufacturer does +not force them to take his materials and his cards, but he says to them +what Leach translates into plain English with the words: “If you +don’t like to be frizzled in my frying-pan, you <!-- page 198--><a name="page198"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 198</span>can +take a walk into the fire.” The silk weavers of London, +and especially of Spitalfields, have lived in periodic distress for +a long time, and that they still have no cause to be satisfied with +their lot is proved by their taking a most active part in English labour +movements in general, and in London ones in particular. The distress +prevailing among them gave rise to the fever which broke out in East +London, and called forth the Commission for Investigating the Sanitary +Condition of the Labouring Class. But the last report of the London +Fever Hospital shows that this disease is still raging.</p> +<p>After the textile fabrics, by far the most important products of +English industry are the metal-wares. This trade has its headquarters +at Birmingham, where the finer metal goods of all sorts are produced, +at Sheffield for cutlery, and in Staffordshire, especially at Wolverhampton, +where the coarser articles, locks, nails, etc., are manufactured. +In describing the position of the workers employed in these trades, +let us begin with Birmingham. The disposition of the work has +retained in Birmingham, as in most places where metals are wrought, +something of the old handicraft character; the small employers are still +to be found, who work with their apprentices in the shop at home, or +when they need steam-power, in great factory buildings which are divided +into little shops, each rented to a small employer, and supplied with +a shaft moved by the engine, and furnishing motive power for the machinery. +Leon Faucher, author of a series of articles in the <i>Revue des Deux +Mondes</i>, which at least betray study, and are better than what has +hitherto been written upon the subject by Englishmen or Germans, characterises +this relation in contrast with the manufacture of Lancashire as “Démocratie +industrielle,” and observes that it produces no very favourable +results for master or men. This observation is perfectly correct, +for the many small employers cannot well subsist on the profit divided +amongst them, determined by competition, a profit under other circumstances +absorbed by a single manufacturer. The centralising tendency of +capital holds them down. For one who grows rich ten are ruined, +and a hundred placed at a <!-- page 199--><a name="page199"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 199</span>greater +disadvantage than ever, by the pressure of the one upstart who can afford +to sell more cheaply than they. And in the cases where they have +to compete from the beginning against great capitalists, it is self-evident +that they can only toil along with the greatest difficulty. The +apprentices are, as we shall see, quite as badly off under the small +employers as under the manufacturers, with the single difference that +they, in turn, may become small employers, and so attain a certain independence—that +is to say, they are at best less directly exploited by the bourgeoisie +than under the factory system. Thus these small employers are +neither genuine proletarians, since they live in part upon the work +of their apprentices, nor genuine bourgeois, since their principal means +of support is their own work. This peculiar midway position of +the Birmingham iron-workers is to blame for their having so rarely joined +wholly and unreservedly in the English labour movements. Birmingham +is a politically radical, but not a Chartist, town. There are, +however, numerous larger factories belonging to capitalists; and in +these the factory system reigns supreme. The division of labour, +which is here carried out to the last detail (in the needle industry, +for example), and the use of steam-power, admit of the employment of +a great multitude of women and children, and we find here <a name="citation199"></a><a href="#footnote199">{199}</a> +precisely the same features reappearing which the Factories’ Report +presented,—the work of women up to the hour of confinement, incapacity +as housekeepers, neglect of home and children, indifference, actual +dislike to family life, and demoralisation; further, the crowding out +of men from employment, the constant improvement of machinery, early +emancipation of children, husbands supported by their wives and children, +etc. etc. The children are described as half-starved and ragged, +the half of them are said not to know what it is to have enough to eat, +many of them get nothing to eat before the midday meal, or even live +the whole day upon a pennyworth of bread for a noonday meal—there +were actually cases in which children received no food from eight in +the morning until seven at night. Their clothing is very often +scarcely <!-- page 200--><a name="page200"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 200</span>sufficient +to cover their nakedness, many are barefoot even in winter. Hence +they are all small and weak for their age, and rarely develop with any +degree of vigour. And when we reflect that with these insufficient +means of reproducing the physical forces, hard and protracted work in +close rooms is required of them, we cannot wonder that there are few +adults in Birmingham fit for military service. “The working +men,” says a recruiting surgeon, “are small, delicate, and +of very slight physical power; many of them deformed, too, in the chest +or spinal column.” According to the assertion of a recruiting +sergeant, the people of Birmingham are smaller than those anywhere else, +being usually 5 feet 4 to 5 inches tall; out of 613 recruits, but 238 +were found fit for service. As to education, a series of depositions +and specimens taken from the metal districts have already been given, +<a name="citation200a"></a><a href="#footnote200a">{200a}</a> to which +the reader is referred. It appears further, from the Children’s +Employment Commission’s Report, that in Birmingham more than half +the children between five and fifteen years attend no school whatsoever, +that those who do are constantly changing, so that it is impossible +to give them any training of an enduring kind, and that they are all +withdrawn from school very early and set to work. The report makes +it clear what sort of teachers are employed. One teacher, in answer +to the question whether she gave moral instruction, said, No, for threepence +a week school fees that was too much to require, but that she took a +great deal of trouble to instil good principles into the children. +(And she made a decided slip in her English in saying it.) In +the schools the commissioner found constant noise and disorder. +The moral state of the children is in the highest degree deplorable. +Half of all the criminals are children under fifteen, and in a single +year ninety ten-years’-old offenders, among them forty-four serious +criminal cases, were sentenced. Unbridled sexual intercourse seems, +according to the opinion of the commissioner, almost universal, and +that at a very early age. <a name="citation200b"></a><a href="#footnote200b">{200b}</a></p> +<p>In the iron district of Staffordshire the state of things is still +worse. For the coarse wares made here neither much division of +<!-- page 201--><a name="page201"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 201</span>labour +(with certain exceptions) nor steam-power or machinery can be applied. +In Wolverhampton, Willenhall, Bilston, Sedgeley, Wednesfield, Darlaston, +Dudley, Walsall, Wednesbury, etc., there are, therefore, fewer factories, +but chiefly single forges, where the small masters work alone, or with +one or more apprentices, who serve them until reaching the twenty-first +year. The small employers are in about the same situation as those +of Birmingham; but the apprentices, as a rule, are much worse off. +They get almost exclusively meat from diseased animals or such as have +died a natural death, or tainted meat, or fish to eat, with veal from +calves killed too young, and pork from swine smothered during transportation, +and such food is furnished not by small employers only, but by large +manufacturers, who employ from thirty to forty apprentices. The +custom seems to be universal in Wolverhampton, and its natural consequence +is frequent bowel complaints and other diseases. Moreover, the +children usually do not get enough to eat, and have rarely other clothing +than their working rags, for which reason, if for no other, they cannot +go to Sunday school The dwellings are bad and filthy, often so much +so that they give rise to disease; and in spite of the not materially +unhealthy work, the children are puny, weak, and, in many cases, severely +crippled. In Willenhall, for instance, there are countless persons +who have, from perpetually filing at the lathe, crooked backs and one +leg crooked, “hind-leg” as they call it, so that the two +legs have the form of a K; while it is said that more than one-third +of the working-men there are ruptured. Here, as well as in Wolverhampton, +numberless cases were found of retarded puberty among girls, (for girls, +too, work at the forges,) as well as among boys, extending even to the +nineteenth year. In Sedgeley and its surrounding district, where +nails form almost the sole product, the nailers live and work in the +most wretched stable-like huts, which for filth can scarcely be equalled. +Girls and boys work from the tenth or twelfth year, and are accounted +fully skilled only when they make a thousand nails a day. For +twelve hundred nails the pay is 5¾d. Every nail receives +twelve blows, and since the hammer weighs 1¼ pounds, the nailer +must <!-- page 202--><a name="page202"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 202</span>lift +18,000 pounds to earn this miserable pay. With this hard work +and insufficient food, the children inevitably develop ill-formed, undersized +frames, and the commissioners depositions confirm this. As to +the state of education in this district, data have already been furnished +in the foregoing chapters. It is upon an incredibly low plane; +half the children do not even go to Sunday school, and the other half +go irregularly; very few, in comparison with the other districts, can +read, and in the matter of writing the case is much worse. Naturally, +for between the seventh and tenth years, just when they are beginning +to get some good out of going to school, they are set to work, and the +Sunday school teachers, smiths or miners, frequently cannot read, and +write their names with difficulty. The prevailing morals correspond +with these means of education. In Willenhall, Commissioner Horne +asserts, and supplies ample proofs of his assertion, that there exists +absolutely no moral sense among the workers. In general, he found +that the children neither recognised duties to their parents nor felt +any affection for them. They were so little capable of thinking +of what they said, so stolid, so hopelessly stupid, that they often +asserted that they were well treated, were coming on famously, when +they were forced to work twelve to fourteen hours, were clad in rags, +did not get enough to eat, and were beaten so that they felt it several +days afterwards. They knew nothing of a different kind of life +than that in which they toil from morning until they are allowed to +stop at night, and did not even understand the question never heard +before, whether they were tired. <a name="citation202"></a><a href="#footnote202">{202}</a></p> +<p>In Sheffield wages are better, and the external state of the workers +also. On the other hand, certain branches of work are to be noticed +here, because of their extraordinarily injurious influence upon health. +Certain operations require the constant pressure of tools against the +chest, and engender consumption in many cases; others, file-cutting +among them, retard the general development of the body and produce digestive +disorders; bone-cutting for knife handles brings with it headache, biliousness, +and among <!-- page 203--><a name="page203"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 203</span>girls, +of whom many are employed, anæmia. By far the most unwholesome +work is the grinding of knife-blades and forks, which, especially when +done with a dry stone, entails certain early death. The unwholesomeness +of this work lies in part in the bent posture, in which chest and stomach +are cramped; but especially in the quantity of sharp-edged metal dust +particles freed in the cutting, which fill the atmosphere, and are necessarily +inhaled. The dry grinders’ average life is hardly thirty-five +years, the wet grinders’ rarely exceeds forty-five. Dr. +Knight, in Sheffield, says: <a name="citation203"></a><a href="#footnote203">{203}</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“I can convey some idea of the injuriousness of +this occupation only by asserting that the hardest drinkers among the +grinders are the longest lived among them, because they are longest +and oftenest absent from their work. There are, in all, some 2,500 +grinders in Sheffield. About 150 (80 men and 70 boys) are fork +grinders; these die between the twenty-eighth and thirty-second years +of age. The razor grinders, who grind wet as well as dry, die +between forty and forty-five years, and the table cutlery grinders, +who grind wet, die between the fortieth and fiftieth year.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The same physician gives the following description of the course +of the disease called grinders’ asthma:</p> +<blockquote><p>“They usually begin their work with the fourteenth +year, and, if they have good constitutions, rarely notice any symptoms +before the twentieth year. Then the symptoms of their peculiar +disease appear. They suffer from shortness of breath at the slightest +effort in going up hill or up stairs, they habitually raise the shoulders +to relieve the permanent and increasing want of breath; they bend forward, +and seem, in general, to feel most comfortable in the crouching position +in which they work. Their complexion becomes dirty yellow, their +features express anxiety, they complain of pressure upon the chest. +Their voices become rough and hoarse, they cough loudly, and the sound +is as if air were driven through a wooden tube. From time to time +they expectorate considerable quantities of dust, either mixed with +phlegm or in balls or cylindrical masses, with a thin coating of mucus. +Spitting blood, inability to lie down, night sweat, colliquative diarrhœa, +unusual loss of flesh, and all the usual symptoms of consumption <!-- page 204--><a name="page204"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 204</span>of +the lungs finally carry them off, after they have lingered months, or +even years, unfit to support themselves or those dependent upon them. +I must add that all attempts which have hitherto been made to prevent +grinders’ asthma, or to cure it, have wholly failed.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>All this Knight wrote ten years ago; since then the number of grinders +and the violence of the disease have increased, though attempts have +been made to prevent it by covered grindstones and carrying off the +dust by artificial draught. These methods have been at least partially +successful, but the grinders do not desire their adoption, and have +even destroyed the contrivance here and there, in the belief that more +workers may be attracted to the business and wages thus reduced; they +are for a short life and a merry one. Dr. Knight has often told +grinders who came to him with the first symptoms of asthma that a return +to grinding means certain death, but with no avail. He who is +once a grinder falls into despair, as though he had sold himself to +the devil. Education in Sheffield is upon a very low plane; a +clergyman, who had occupied himself largely with the statistics of education, +was of the opinion that of 16,500 children of the working-class who +are in a position to attend school, scarcely 6,500 can read. This +comes of the fact that the children are taken from school in the seventh, +and, at the very latest, in the twelfth year, and that the teachers +are good for nothing; one was a convicted thief who found no other way +of supporting himself after being released from jail than teaching school! +Immorality among young people seems to be more prevalent in Sheffield +than anywhere else. It is hard to tell which town ought to have +the prize, and in reading the report one believes of each one that this +certainly deserves it! The younger generation spend the whole +of Sunday lying in the street tossing coins or fighting dogs, go regularly +to the gin palace, where they sit with their sweethearts until late +at night, when they take walks in solitary couples. In an ale-house +which the commissioner visited, there sat forty to fifty young people +of both sexes, nearly all under seventeen years of age, and each lad +beside his lass. Here and there cards were played, at other <!-- page 205--><a name="page205"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 205</span>places +dancing was going on, and everywhere drinking. Among the company +were openly avowed professional prostitutes. No wonder, then, +that, as all the witnesses testify, early, unbridled sexual intercourse, +youthful prostitution, beginning with persons of fourteen to fifteen +years, is extraordinarily frequent in Sheffield. Crimes of a savage +and desperate sort are of common occurrence; one year before the commissioner’s +visit, a band, consisting chiefly of young persons, was arrested when +about to set fire to the town, being fully equipped with lances and +inflammable substances. We shall see later that the labour movement +in Sheffield has this same savage character. <a name="citation205"></a><a href="#footnote205">{205}</a></p> +<p>Besides these two main centres of the metal industry, there are needle +factories in Warrington, Lancashire, where great want, immorality, and +ignorance prevail among the workers, and especially among the children; +and a number of nail forges in the neighbourhood of Wigan, in Lancashire, +and in the east of Scotland. The reports from these latter districts +tell almost precisely the same story as those of Staffordshire. +There is one more branch of this industry carried on in the factory +districts, especially in Lancashire, the essential peculiarity of which +is the production of machinery by machinery, whereby the workers, crowded +out elsewhere, are deprived of their last refuge, the creation of the +very enemy which supersedes them. Machinery for planing and boring, +cutting screws, wheels, nuts, etc., with power lathes, has thrown out +of employment a multitude of men who formerly found regular work at +good wages; and whoever wishes to do so may see crowds of them in Manchester.</p> +<p>North of the iron district of Staffordshire lies an industrial region +to which we shall now turn our attention, the Potteries, whose headquarters +are in the borough of Stoke, embracing Henley, Burslem, Lane End, Lane +Delph, Etruria, Coleridge, Langport, Tunstall, and Golden Hill, containing +together 60,000 inhabitants. The Children’s Employment Commission +reports upon this subject that in some branches of this industry, in +the production of stoneware, the children have light employment in warm, +airy rooms; in <!-- page 206--><a name="page206"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 206</span>others, +on the contrary, hard, wearing labour is required, while they receive +neither sufficient food nor good clothing. Many children complain: +“Don’t get enough to eat, get mostly potatoes with salt, +never meat, never bread, don’t go to school, haven’t got +no clothes.” “Haven’t got nothin’ to eat +to-day for dinner, don’t never have dinner at home, get mostly +potatoes and salt, sometimes bread.” “These is all +the clothes I have, no Sunday suit at home.” Among the children +whose work is especially injurious are the mould-runners, who have to +carry the moulded article with the form to the drying-room, and afterwards +bring back the empty form, when the article is properly dried. +Thus they must go to and fro the whole day, carrying burdens heavy in +proportion to their age, while the high temperature in which they have +to do this increases very considerably the exhaustiveness of the work. +These children, with scarcely a single exception, are lean, pale, feeble, +stunted; nearly all suffer from stomach troubles, nausea, want of appetite, +and many of them die of consumption. Almost as delicate are the +boys called “jiggers,” from the “jigger” wheel +which they turn. But by far the most injurious is the work of +those who dip the finished article into a fluid containing great quantities +of lead, and often of arsenic, or have to take the freshly-dipped article +up with the hand. The hands and clothing of these workers, adults +and children, are always wet with this fluid, the skin softens and falls +off under the constant contact with rough objects, so that the fingers +often bleed, and are constantly in a state most favourable for the absorption +of this dangerous substance. The consequence is violent pain, +and serious disease of the stomach and intestines, obstinate constipation, +colic, sometimes consumption, and, most common of all, epilepsy among +children. Among men, partial paralysis of the hand muscles, colica +pictorum, and paralysis of whole limbs are ordinary phenomena. +One witness relates that two children who worked with him died of convulsions +at their work; another who had helped with the dipping two years while +a boy, relates that he had violent pains in the bowels at first, then +convulsions, in consequence of which he was confined to his bed two +months, since when the attacks of convulsions <!-- page 207--><a name="page207"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 207</span>have +increased in frequency, are now daily, accompanied often by ten to twenty +epileptic fits, his right arm is paralysed, and the physicians tell +him that he can never regain the use of his limbs. In one factory +were found in the dipping-house four men, all epileptic and afflicted +with severe colic, and eleven boys, several of whom were already epileptic. +In short, this frightful disease follows this occupation universally: +and that, too, to the greater pecuniary profit of the bourgeoisie! +In the rooms in which the stoneware is scoured, the atmosphere is filled +with pulverised flint, the breathing of which is as injurious as that +of the steel dust among the Sheffield grinders. The workers lose +breath, cannot lie down, suffer from sore throat and violent coughing, +and come to have so feeble a voice that they can scarcely be heard. +They, too, all die of consumption. In the Potteries district, +the schools are said to be comparatively numerous, and to offer the +children opportunities for instruction; but as the latter are so early +set to work for twelve hours and often more per day, they are not in +a position to avail themselves of the schools, so that three-fourths +of the children examined by the commissioner could neither read nor +write, while the whole district is plunged in the deepest ignorance. +Children who have attended Sunday school for years could not tell one +letter from another, and the moral and religious education, as well +as the intellectual, is on a very low plane. <a name="citation207"></a><a href="#footnote207">{207}</a></p> +<p>In the manufacture of glass, too, work occurs which seems little +injurious to men, but cannot be endured by children. The hard +labour, the irregularity of the hours, the frequent night-work, and +especially the great heat of the working place (100 to 130 Fahrenheit), +engender in children general debility and disease, stunted growth, and +especially affections of the eye, bowel complaint, and rheumatic and +bronchial affections. Many of the children are pale, have red +eyes, often blind for weeks at a time, suffer from violent nausea, vomiting, +coughs, colds, and rheumatism. When the glass is withdrawn from +the fire, the children must often go into such heat that the boards +on which they stand catch <!-- page 208--><a name="page208"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 208</span>fire +under their feet. The glassblowers usually die young of debility +and chest affections. <a name="citation208"></a><a href="#footnote208">{208}</a></p> +<p>As a whole, this report testifies to the gradual but sure introduction +of the factory system into all branches of industry, recognisable especially +by the employment of women and children. I have not thought it +necessary to trace in every case the progress of machinery and the superseding +of men as workers. Every one who is in any degree acquainted with +the nature of manufacture can fill this out for himself, while space +fails me to describe in detail an aspect of our present system of production, +the result of which I have already sketched in dealing with the factory +system. In all directions machinery is being introduced, and the +last trace of the working-man’s independence thus destroyed. +In all directions the family is being dissolved by the labour of wife +and children, or inverted by the husband’s being thrown out of +employment and made dependent upon them for bread; everywhere the inevitable +machinery bestows upon the great capitalist command of trade and of +the workers with it. The centralisation of capital strides forward +without interruption, the division of society into great capitalists +and non-possessing workers is sharper every day, the industrial development +of the nation advances with giant strides towards the inevitable crisis.</p> +<p>I have already stated that in the handicrafts the power of capital, +and in some cases the division of labour too, has produced the same +results, crushed the small tradesmen, and put great capitalists and +non-possessing workers in their place. As to these handicraftsmen +there is little to be said, since all that relates to them has already +found its place where the proletariat in general was under discussion. +There has been but little change here in the nature of the work and +its influence upon health since the beginning of the industrial movement. +But the constant contact with the factory operatives, the pressure of +the great capitalists, which is much more felt than that of the small +employer <!-- page 209--><a name="page209"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 209</span>to +whom the apprentice still stood in a more or less personal relation, +the influences of life in towns, and the fall of wages, have made nearly +all the handicraftsmen active participators in labour movements. +We shall soon have more to say on this point, and turn meanwhile to +one section of workers in London who deserve our attention by reason +of the extraordinary barbarity with which they are exploited by the +money-greed of the bourgeoisie. I mean the dressmakers and sewing-women.</p> +<p>It is a curious fact that the production of precisely those articles +which serve the personal adornment of the ladies of the bourgeoisie +involves the saddest consequences for the health of the workers. +We have already seen this in the case of the lacemakers, and come now +to the dressmaking establishments of London for further proof. +They employ a mass of young girls—there are said to be 15,000 +of them in all—who sleep and eat on the premises, come usually +from the country, and are therefore absolutely the slaves of their employers. +During the fashionable season, which lasts some four months, working-hours, +even in the best establishments, are fifteen, and, in very pressing +cases, eighteen a day; but in most shops work goes on at these times +without any set regulation, so that the girls never have more than six, +often not more than three or four, sometimes, indeed, not more than +two hours in the twenty-four, for rest and sleep, working nineteen to +twenty hours, if not the whole night through, as frequently happens! +The only limit set to their work is the absolute physical inability +to hold the needle another minute. Cases have occurred in which +these helpless creatures did not undress during nine consecutive days +and nights, and could only rest a moment or two here and there upon +a mattress, where food was served them ready cut up in order to require +the least possible time for swallowing. In short, these unfortunate +girls are kept by means of the moral whip of the modern slave-driver, +the threat of discharge, to such long and unbroken toil as no strong +man, much less a delicate girl of fourteen to twenty years, can endure. +In addition to this, the foul air of the workroom and sleeping places, +the bent posture, the often bad and indigestible food, all <!-- page 210--><a name="page210"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 210</span>these +causes, combined with almost total exclusion from fresh air, entail +the saddest consequences for the health of the girls. Enervation, +exhaustion, debility, loss of appetite, pains in the shoulders, back, +and hips, but especially headache, begin very soon; then follow curvatures +of the spine, high, deformed shoulders, leanness, swelled, weeping, +and smarting eyes, which soon become short-sighted; coughs, narrow chests, +and shortness of breath, and all manner of disorders in the development +of the female organism. In many cases the eyes suffer, so severely +that incurable blindness follows; but if the sight remains strong enough +to make continued work possible, consumption usually soon ends the sad +life of these milliners and dressmakers. Even those who leave +this work at an early age retain permanently injured health, a broken +constitution; and, when married, bring feeble and sickly children into +the world. All the medical men interrogated by the commissioner +agreed that no method of life could be invented better calculated to +destroy health and induce early death.</p> +<p>With the same cruelty, though somewhat more indirectly, the rest +of the needle-women of London are exploited. The girls employed +in stay-making have a hard, wearing occupation, trying to the eyes. +And what wages do they get? I do not know; but this I know, that +the middle-man who has to give security for the material delivered, +and who distributes the work among the needle-women, receives 1½d. +per piece. From this he deducts his own pay, at least ½d., +so that 1d. at most reaches the pocket of the girl. The girls +who sew neckties must bind themselves to work sixteen hours a day, and +receive 4½s. a week. <a name="citation210"></a><a href="#footnote210">{210}</a> +But the shirtmakers’ lot is the worst. They receive for +an ordinary shirt 1½d., formerly 2d.-3d.; but since the workhouse +of St. Pancras, which is administered by a Radical board of guardians, +began to undertake work at 1½d., the poor women outside have +been compelled to do the same. For fine, fancy shirts, which can +be made in one day of eighteen hours, 6d. is paid. The weekly +wage of these sewing-women according to this and according to testimony +<!-- page 211--><a name="page211"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 211</span>from +many sides, including both needle-women and employers, is 2s. 6d. to +3s. for most strained work continued far into the night. And what +crowns this shameful barbarism is the fact that the women must give +a money deposit for a part of the materials entrusted to them, which +they naturally cannot do unless they pawn a part of them (as the employers +very well know), redeeming them at a loss; or if they cannot redeem +the materials, they must appear before a Justice of the Peace, as happened +a sewing-woman in November, 1843. A poor girl who got into this +strait and did not know what to do next, drowned herself in a canal +in 1844. These women usually live in little garret rooms in the +utmost distress, where as many crowd together as the space can possibly +admit, and where, in winter, the animal warmth of the workers is the +only heat obtainable. Here they sit bent over their work, sewing +from four or five in the morning until midnight, destroying their health +in a year or two and ending in an early grave, without being able to +obtain the poorest necessities of life meanwhile. <a name="citation211"></a><a href="#footnote211">{211}</a> +And below them roll the brilliant equipages of the upper bourgeoisie, +and perhaps ten steps away some pitiable dandy loses more money in one +evening at faro than they can earn in a year.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>Such is the condition of the English manufacturing proletariat. +In all directions, whithersoever we may turn, we find want and disease +permanent or temporary, and demoralisation arising from the condition +of the workers; in all directions slow but sure undermining, and final +destruction of the human being physically as well as mentally. +Is this a state of things which can last? It cannot and will not +last. The workers, the great majority of the nation, will not +endure it. Let us see what they say of it.</p> +<h2><!-- page 212--><a name="page212"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 212</span>LABOUR +MOVEMENTS.</h2> +<p>It must be admitted, even if I had not proved it so often in detail, +that the English workers cannot feel happy in this condition; that theirs +is not a state in which a man or a whole class of men can think, feel, +and live as human beings. The workers must therefore strive to +escape from this brutalizing condition, to secure for themselves a better, +more human position; and this they cannot do without attacking the interest +of the bourgeoisie which consists in exploiting them. But the +bourgeoisie defends its interests with all the power placed at its disposal +by wealth and the might of the State. In proportion as the working-man +determines to alter the present state of things, the bourgeois becomes +his avowed enemy.</p> +<p>Moreover, the working-man is made to feel at every moment that the +bourgeoisie treats him as a chattel, as its property, and for this reason, +if for no other, he must come forward as its enemy. I have shown +in a hundred ways in the foregoing pages, and could have shown in a +hundred others, that, in our present society, he can save his manhood +only in hatred and rebellion against the bourgeoisie. And he can +protest with most violent passion against the tyranny of the propertied +class, thanks to his education, or rather want of education, and to +the abundance of hot Irish blood that flows in the veins of the English +working-class. The English working-man is no Englishman nowadays; +no calculating money-grabber like his wealthy neighbour. He possesses +more fully developed feelings, his native northern coldness is overborne +by the unrestrained development of his passions and their control over +him. The cultivation of the understanding which so greatly strengthens +the selfish tendency of the English bourgeois, which has made selfishness +his predominant <!-- page 213--><a name="page213"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 213</span>trait +and concentrated all his emotional power upon the single point of money-greed, +is wanting in the working-man, whose passions are therefore strong and +mighty as those of the foreigner. English nationality is annihilated +in the working-man.</p> +<p>Since, as we have seen, no single field for the exercise of his manhood +is left him, save his opposition to the whole conditions of his life, +it is natural that exactly in this opposition he should be most manly, +noblest, most worthy of sympathy. We shall see that all the energy, +all the activity of the working-men is directed to this point, and that +even their attempts to attain general education all stand in direct +connection with this. True, we shall have single acts of violence +and even of brutality to report, but it must always be kept in mind +that the social war is avowedly raging in England; and that, whereas +it is in the interest of the bourgeoisie to conduct this war hypocritically, +under the disguise of peace and even of philanthropy, the only help +for the working-men consists in laying bare the true state of things +and destroying this hypocrisy; that the most violent attacks of the +workers upon the bourgeoisie and its servants are only the open, undisguised +expression of that which the bourgeoisie perpetrates secretly, treacherously +against the workers.</p> +<p>The revolt of the workers began soon after the first industrial development, +and has passed through several phases. The investigation of their +importance in the history of the English people I must reserve for separate +treatment, limiting myself meanwhile to such bare facts as serve to +characterise the condition of the English proletariat.</p> +<p>The earliest, crudest, and least fruitful form of this rebellion +was that of crime. The working-man lived in poverty and want, +and saw that others were better off than he. It was not clear +to his mind why he, who did more for society than the rich idler, should +be the one to suffer under these conditions. Want conquered his +inherited respect for the sacredness of property, and he stole. +We have seen how crime increased with the extension of manufacture; +how the yearly number of arrests bore a constant relation to the number +of bales of cotton annually consumed.</p> +<p><!-- page 214--><a name="page214"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 214</span>The +workers soon realised that crime did not help matters. The criminal +could protest against the existing order of society only singly, as +one individual; the whole might of society was brought to bear upon +each criminal, and crushed him with its immense superiority. Besides, +theft was the most primitive form of protest, and for this reason, if +for no other, it never became the universal expression of the public +opinion of the working-men, however much they might approve of it in +silence. As a class, they first manifested opposition to the bourgeoisie +when they resisted the introduction of machinery at the very beginning +of the industrial period. The first inventors, Arkwright and others, +were persecuted in this way and their machines destroyed. Later, +there took place a number of revolts against machinery, in which the +occurrences were almost precisely the same as those of the printers’ +disturbances in Bohemia in 1844; factories were demolished and machinery +destroyed.</p> +<p>This form of opposition also was isolated, restricted to certain +localities, and directed against one feature only of our present social +arrangements. When the momentary end was attained, the whole weight +of social power fell upon the unprotected evil-doers and punished them +to its heart’s content, while the machinery was introduced none +the less. A new form of opposition had to be found.</p> +<p>At this point help came in the shape of a law enacted by the old, +unreformed, oligarchic-Tory parliament, a law which never could have +passed the House of Commons later, when the Reform Bill had legally +sanctioned the distinction between bourgeoisie and proletariat, and +made the bourgeoisie the ruling class. This was enacted in 1824, +and repealed all laws by which coalitions between working-men for labour +purposes had hitherto been forbidden. The working-men obtained +a right previously restricted to the aristocracy and bourgeoisie, the +right of free association. Secret coalitions had, it is true, +previously existed, but could never achieve great results. In +Glasgow, as Symonds <a name="citation214"></a><a href="#footnote214">{214}</a> +relates, a general strike of weavers had taken place in 1812, which +was brought about by <!-- page 215--><a name="page215"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 215</span>a +secret association. It was repeated in 1822, and on this occasion +vitriol was thrown into the faces of the two working-men who would not +join the association, and were therefore regarded by the members as +traitors to their class. Both the assaulted lost the use of their +eyes in consequence of the injury. So, too, in 1818, the association +of Scottish miners was powerful enough to carry on a general strike. +These associations required their members to take an oath of fidelity +and secrecy, had regular lists, treasurers, bookkeepers, and local branches. +But the secrecy with which everything was conducted crippled their growth. +When, on the other hand, the working-man received in 1824 the right +of free association, these combinations were very soon spread over all +England and attained great power. In all branches of industry +Trades Unions were formed with the outspoken intention of protecting +the single working-man against the tyranny and neglect of the bourgeoisie. +Their objects were to deal, <i>en masse</i>, as a power, with the employers; +to regulate the rate of wages according to the profit of the latter, +to raise it when opportunity offered, and to keep it uniform in each +trade throughout the country. Hence they tried to settle with +the capitalists a scale of wages to be universally adhered to, and ordered +out on strike the employees of such individuals as refused to accept +the scale. They aimed further to keep up the demand for labour +by limiting the number of apprentices, and so to keep wages high; to +counteract, as far as possible, the indirect wages reductions which +the manufacturers brought about by means of new tools and machinery; +and finally, to assist unemployed working-men financially. This +they do either directly or by means of a card to legitimate the bearer +as a “society man,” and with which the working-man wanders +from place to place, supported by his fellow-workers, and instructed +as to the best opportunity for finding employment. This is tramping, +and the wanderer a tramp. To attain these ends, a President and +Secretary are engaged at a salary (since it is to be expected that no +manufacturer will employ such persons), and a committee collects the +weekly contributions and watches over their expenditure for the purposes +of the association. When it proved possible <!-- page 216--><a name="page216"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 216</span>and +advantageous, the various trades of single districts united in a federation +and held delegate conventions at set times. The attempt has been +made in single cases to unite the workers of one branch over all England +in one great Union; and several times (in 1830 for the first time) to +form one universal trades association for the whole United Kingdom, +with a separate organisation for each trade. These associations, +however, never held together long, and were seldom realised even for +the moment, since an exceptionally universal excitement is necessary +to make such a federation possible and effective.</p> +<p>The means usually employed by these Unions for attaining their ends +are the following: If one or more employers refuse to pay the wage specified +by the Union, a deputation is sent or a petition forwarded (the working-men, +you see, know how to recognise the absolute power of the lord of the +factory in his little State); if this proves unavailing, the Union commands +the employees to stop work, and all hands go home. This strike +is either partial when one or several, or general when all employers +in the trade refuse to regulate wages according to the proposals of +the Union. So far go the lawful means of the Union, assuming the +strike to take effect after the expiration of the legal notice, which +is not always the case. But these lawful means are very weak when +there are workers outside the Union, or when members separate from it +for the sake of the momentary advantage offered by the bourgeoisie. +Especially in the case of partial strikes can the manufacturer readily +secure recruits from these black sheep (who are known as knobsticks), +and render fruitless the efforts of the united workers. Knobsticks +are usually threatened, insulted, beaten, or otherwise maltreated by +the members of the Union; intimidated, in short, in every way. +Prosecution follows, and as the law-abiding bourgeoisie has the power +in its own hands, the force of the Union is broken almost every time +by the first unlawful act, the first judicial procedure against its +members.</p> +<p>The history of these Unions is a long series of defeats of the working-men, +interrupted by a few isolated victories. All these efforts naturally +cannot alter the economic law according to which <!-- page 217--><a name="page217"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 217</span>wages +are determined by the relation between supply and demand in the labour +market. Hence the Unions remain powerless against all <i>great</i> +forces which influence this relation. In a commercial crisis the +Union itself must reduce wages or dissolve wholly; and in a time of +considerable increase in the demand for labour, it cannot fix the rate +of wages higher than would be reached spontaneously by the competition +of the capitalists among themselves. But in dealing with minor, +single influences they are powerful. If the employer had no concentrated, +collective opposition to expect, he would in his own interest gradually +reduce wages to a lower and lower point; indeed, the battle of competition +which he has to wage against his fellow-manufacturers would force him +to do so, and wages would soon reach the minimum. But this competition +of the manufacturers among themselves is, <i>under average conditions</i>, +somewhat restricted by the opposition of the working-men.</p> +<p>Every manufacturer knows that the consequence of a reduction not +justified by conditions to which his competitors also are subjected, +would be a strike, which would most certainly injure him, because his +capital would be idle as long as the strike lasted, and his machinery +would be rusting, whereas it is very doubtful whether he could, in such +a case, enforce his reduction. Then he has the certainty that +if he should succeed, his competitors would follow him, reducing the +price of the goods so produced, and thus depriving him of the benefit +of his policy. Then, too, the Unions often bring about a more +rapid increase of wages after a crisis than would otherwise follow. +For the manufacturer’s interest is to delay raising wages until +forced by competition, but now the working-men demand an increased wage +as soon as the market improves, and they can carry their point by reason +of the smaller supply of workers at his command under such circumstances. +But, for resistance to more considerable forces which influence the +labour market, the Unions are powerless. In such cases hunger +gradually drives the strikers to resume work on any terms, and when +once a few have begun; the force of the Union is broken, because these +few knobsticks, with the reserve supplies of goods in the market, enable +the bourgeoisie to overcome <!-- page 218--><a name="page218"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 218</span>the +worst effects of the interruption of business. The funds of the +Union are soon exhausted by the great numbers requiring relief, the +credit which the shopkeepers give at high interest is withdrawn after +a time, and want compels the working-man to place himself once more +under the yoke of the bourgeoisie. But strikes end disastrously +for the workers mostly, because the manufacturers, in their own interest +(which has, be it said, become their interest only through the resistance +of the workers), are obliged to avoid all useless reductions, while +the workers feel in every reduction imposed by the state of trade a +deterioration of their condition, against which they must defend themselves +as far as in them lies.</p> +<p>It will be asked, “Why, then, do the workers strike in such +cases, when the uselessness of such measures is so evident?” +Simply because they <i>must</i> protest against every reduction, even +if dictated by necessity; because they feel bound to proclaim that they, +as human beings, shall not be made to bow to social circumstances, but +social conditions ought to yield to them as human beings; because silence +on their part would be a recognition of these social conditions, an +admission of the right of the bourgeoisie to exploit the workers in +good times and let them starve in bad ones. Against this the working-men +must rebel so long as they have not lost all human feeling, and that +they protest in this way and no other, comes of their being practical +English people, who express themselves in <i>action</i>, and do not, +like German theorists, go to sleep as soon as their protest is properly +registered and placed <i>ad acta</i>, there to sleep as quietly as the +protesters themselves. The active resistance of the English working-men +has its effect in holding the money greed of the bourgeoisie within +certain limits, and keeping alive the opposition of the workers to the +social and political omnipotence of the bourgeoisie, while it compels +the admission that something more is needed than Trades Unions and strikes +to break the power of the ruling class. But what gives these Unions +and the strikes arising from them their real importance is this, that +they are the first attempt of the workers to abolish competition. +They imply the recognition of the fact that the supremacy of the bourgeoisie +is based wholly upon the <!-- page 219--><a name="page219"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 219</span>competition +of the workers among themselves; <i>i.e</i>., upon their want of cohesion. +And precisely because the Unions direct themselves against the vital +nerve of the present social order, however one-sidedly, in however narrow +a way, are they so dangerous to this social order. The working-men +cannot attack the bourgeoisie, and with it the whole existing order +of society, at any sorer point than this. If the competition of +the workers among themselves is destroyed, if all determine not to be +further exploited by the bourgeoisie, the rule of property is at an +end. Wages depend upon the relation of demand to supply, upon +the accidental state of the labour market, simply because the workers +have hitherto been content to be treated as chattels, to be bought and +sold. The moment the workers resolve to be bought and sold no +longer, when in the determination of the value of labour, they take +the part of men possessed of a will as well as of working-power, at +that moment the whole Political Economy of to-day is at an end.</p> +<p>The laws determining the rate of wages would, indeed, come into force +again in the long run, if the working-men did not go beyond this step +of abolishing competition among themselves. But they must go beyond +that unless they are prepared to recede again and to allow competition +among themselves to reappear. Thus once advanced so far, necessity +compels them to go farther; to abolish not only one kind of competition, +but competition itself altogether, and that they will do.</p> +<p>The workers are coming to perceive more clearly with every day how +competition affects them; they see far more clearly than the bourgeois +that competition of the capitalists among themselves presses upon the +workers too, by bringing on commercial crises, and that this kind of +competition; too, must be abolished. They will soon learn <i>how</i> +they have to go about it.</p> +<p>That these Unions contribute greatly to nourish the bitter hatred +of the workers against the property-holding class need hardly be said. +From them proceed, therefore, with or without the connivance of the +leading members, in times of unusual excitement, individual actions +which can be explained only by hatred wrought to the pitch of despair, +by a wild passion overwhelming <!-- page 220--><a name="page220"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 220</span>all +restraints. Of this sort are the attacks with vitriol mentioned +in the foregoing pages, and a series of others, of which I shall cite +several. In 1831, during a violent labour movement, young Ashton, +a manufacturer in Hyde, near Manchester, was shot one evening when crossing +a field, and no trace of the assassin discovered. There is no +doubt that this was a deed of vengeance of the working-men. Incendiarisms +and attempted explosions are very common. On Friday, September +29th, 1843, an attempt was made to blow up the saw-works of Padgin, +in Howard Street, Sheffield. A closed iron tube filled with powder +was the means employed, and the damage was considerable. On the +following day, a similar attempt was made in Ibbetson’s knife +and file works at Shales Moor, near Sheffield. Mr. Ibbetson had +made himself obnoxious by an active participation in bourgeois movements, +by low wages, the exclusive employment of knobsticks, and the exploitation +of the Poor Law for his own benefit. He had reported, during the +crisis of 1842, such operatives as refused to accept reduced wages, +as persons who could find work but would not take it, and were, therefore, +not deserving of relief, so compelling the acceptance of a reduction. +Considerable damage was inflicted by the explosion, and all the working-men +who came to view it regretted only “that the whole concern was +not blown into the air.” On Friday, October 6th, 1844, an +attempt to set fire to the factory of Ainsworth and Crompton, at Bolton, +did no damage; it was the third or fourth attempt in the same factory +within a very short time. In the meeting of the Town Council of +Sheffield, on Wednesday, January 10th, 1844, the Commissioner of Police +exhibited a cast-iron machine, made for the express purpose of producing +an explosion, and found filled with four pounds of powder, and a fuse +which had been lighted but had not taken effect, in the works of Mr. +Kitchen, Earl Street, Sheffield. On Sunday, January 20th, 1844, +an explosion caused by a package of powder took place in the sawmill +of Bently & White, at Bury, in Lancashire, and produced considerable +damage. On Thursday, February 1st, 1844, the Soho Wheel Works, +in Sheffield, were set on fire and burnt up.</p> +<p><!-- page 221--><a name="page221"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 221</span>Here +are six such cases in four months, all of which have their sole origin +in the embitterment of the working-men against the employers. +What sort of a social state it must be in which such things are possible +I need hardly say. These facts are proof enough that in England, +even in good business years, such as 1843, the social war is avowed +and openly carried on, and still the English bourgeoisie does not stop +to reflect! But the case which speaks most loudly is that of the +Glasgow Thugs, <a name="citation221a"></a><a href="#footnote221a">{221a}</a> +which came up before the Assizes from the 3rd to the 11th of January, +1838. It appears from the proceedings that the Cotton-Spinners’ +Union, which existed here from the year 1816, possessed rare organisation +and power. The members were bound by an oath to adhere to the +decision of the majority, and had during every turnout a secret committee +which was unknown to the mass of the members, and controlled the funds +of the Union absolutely. This committee fixed a price upon the +heads of knobsticks and obnoxious manufacturers and upon incendiarisms +in mills. A mill was thus set on fire in which female knobsticks +were employed in spinning in the place of men; a Mrs. M’Pherson, +mother of one of these girls, was murdered, and both murderers sent +to America at the expense of the association. As early as 1820, +a knobstick named M’Quarry was shot at and wounded, for which +deed the doer received twenty pounds from the Union, but was discovered +and transported for life. Finally, in 1837, in May, disturbances +occurred in consequence of a turnout in the Oatbank and Mile End factories, +in which perhaps a dozen knobsticks were maltreated. In July, +of the same year, the disturbances still continued, and a certain Smith, +a knobstick, was so maltreated that he died. The committee was +now arrested, an investigation begun, and the leading members found +guilty of participation in conspiracies, maltreatment of knobsticks, +and incendiarism in the mill of James and Francis Wood, and they were +transported for seven years. What do our good Germans say to this +story? <a name="citation221b"></a><a href="#footnote221b">{221b}</a></p> +<p><!-- page 222--><a name="page222"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 222</span>The +property-holding class, and especially the manufacturing portion of +it which comes into direct contact with the working-men, declaims with +the greatest violence against these Unions, and is constantly trying +to prove their uselessness to the working-men upon grounds which are +economically perfectly correct, but for that very reason partially mistaken, +and for the working-man’s understanding totally without effect. +The very zeal of the bourgeoisie shows that it is not disinterested +in the matter; and apart from the indirect loss involved in a turnout, +the state of the case is such that whatever goes into the pockets of +the manufacturers comes of necessity out of those of the worker. +So that even if the working-men did not know that the Unions hold the +emulation of their masters in the reduction of wages, at least in a +measure, in check, they would still stand by the Unions, simply to the +injury of their enemies, the manufacturers. In war the injury +of one party is the benefit of the other, and since the working-men +are on a war-footing towards their employers, they do merely what the +great potentates do when they get into a quarrel. Beyond all other +bourgeois is our friend Dr. Ure, the most furious enemy of the Unions. +He foams with indignation at the “secret tribunals” of the +cotton-spinners, the most powerful section of the workers, tribunals +which boast their ability to paralyse every disobedient manufacturer, +<a name="citation222a"></a><a href="#footnote222a">{222a}</a> “and +so bring ruin on the man who had given them profitable employment for +many a year.” He speaks of a time <a name="citation222b"></a><a href="#footnote222b">{222b}</a> +“when the inventive head and the sustaining heart of trade were +held in bondage by the unruly lower members.” A pity that +the English working-men will not <!-- page 223--><a name="page223"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 223</span>let +themselves be pacified so easily with thy fable as the Roman Plebs, +thou modern Menenius Agrippa! Finally, he relates the following: +At one time the coarse mule-spinners had misused their power beyond +all endurance. High wages, instead of awakening thankfulness towards +the manufacturers and leading to intellectual improvement (in harmless +study of sciences useful to the bourgeoisie, of course), in many cases +produced pride and supplied funds for supporting rebellious spirits +in strikes, with which a number of manufacturers were visited one after +the other in a purely arbitrary manner. During an unhappy disturbance +of this sort in Hyde, Dukinfield, and the surrounding neighbourhood, +the manufacturers of the district, anxious lest they should be driven +from the market by the French, Belgians, and Americans, addressed themselves +to the machine-works of Sharp, Roberts & Co., and requested Mr. +Sharp to turn his inventive mind to the construction of an automatic +mule in order “to emancipate the trade from galling slavery and +impending ruin.” <a name="citation223a"></a><a href="#footnote223a">{223a}</a></p> +<p>“He produced in the course of a few months a machine apparently +instinct with the thought, feeling, and tact of the experienced workman—which +even in its infancy displayed a new principle of regulation, ready in +its mature state to fulfil the functions of a finished spinner. +Thus the Iron Man, as the operatives fitly call it, sprung out of the +hands of our modern Prometheus at the bidding of Minerva—a creation +destined to restore order among the industrious classes, and to confirm +to Great Britain the empire of art. The news of this Herculean +prodigy spread dismay through the Union, and even long before it left +its cradle, so to speak, it strangled the Hydra of misrule.” <a name="citation223b"></a><a href="#footnote223b">{223b}</a></p> +<p>Ure proves further that the invention of the machine, with which +four and five colours are printed at once, was a result of the disturbances +among the calico printers; that the refractoriness of the yarn-dressers +in the power-loom weaving mills gave rise to a new and perfected machine +for warp-dressing, and mentions several other such cases. A few +pages earlier this same Ure gives <!-- page 224--><a name="page224"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 224</span>himself +a great deal of trouble to prove in detail that machinery is beneficial +to the workers! But Ure is not the only one; in the Factory Report, +Mr. Ashworth, the manufacturer, and many another, lose no opportunity +to express their wrath against the Unions. These wise bourgeois, +like certain governments, trace every movement which they do not understand, +to the influence of ill-intentioned agitators, demagogues, traitors, +spouting idiots, and ill-balanced youth. They declare that the +paid agents of the Unions are interested in the agitation because they +live upon it, as though the necessity for this payment were not forced +upon them by the bourgeois, who will give such men no employment!</p> +<p>The incredible frequency of these strikes proves best of all to what +extent the social war has broken out all over England. No week +passes, scarcely a day, indeed, in which there is not a strike in some +direction, now against a reduction, then against a refusal to raise +the rate of wages, again by reason of the employment of knobsticks or +the continuance of abuses, sometimes against new machinery, or for a +hundred other reasons. These strikes, at first skirmishes, sometimes +result in weighty struggles; they decide nothing, it is true, but they +are the strongest proof that the decisive battle between bourgeoisie +and proletariat is approaching. They are the military school of +the working-men in which they prepare themselves for the great struggle +which cannot be avoided; they are the pronunciamentos of single branches +of industry that these too have joined the labour movement. And +when one examines a year’s file of the <i>Northern Star</i>, the +only sheet which reports all the movements of the proletariat, one finds +that all the proletarians of the towns and of country manufacture have +united in associations, and have protested from time to time, by means +of a general strike, against the supremacy of the bourgeoisie. +And as schools of war, the Unions are unexcelled. In them is developed +the peculiar courage of the English. It is said on the Continent +that the English, and especially the working-men, are cowardly, that +they cannot carry out a revolution because, unlike the French, they +do not riot at intervals, because they apparently accept the bourgeois +<i>régime</i> so quietly. This is a <!-- page 225--><a name="page225"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 225</span>complete +mistake. The English working-men are second to none in courage; +they are quite as restless as the French, but they fight differently. +The French, who are by nature political, struggle against social evils +with political weapons; the English, for whom politics exist only as +a matter of interest, solely in the interest of bourgeois society, fight, +not against the Government, but directly against the bourgeoisie; and +for the time, this can be done only in a peaceful manner. Stagnation +in business, and the want consequent upon it, engendered the revolt +at Lyons, in 1834, in favour of the Republic: in 1842, at Manchester, +a similar cause gave rise to a universal turnout for the Charter and +higher wages. That courage is required for a turnout, often indeed +much loftier courage, much bolder, firmer determination than for an +insurrection, is self-evident. It is, in truth, no trifle for +a working-man who knows want from experience, to face it with wife and +children, to endure hunger and wretchedness for months together, and +stand firm and unshaken through it all. What is death, what the +galleys which await the French revolutionist, in comparison with gradual +starvation, with the daily sight of a starving family, with the certainty +of future revenge on the part of the bourgeoisie, all of which the English +working-man chooses in preference to subjection under the yoke of the +property-holding class? We shall meet later an example of this +obstinate, unconquerable courage of men who surrender to force only +when all resistance would be aimless and unmeaning. And precisely +in this quiet perseverance, in this lasting determination which undergoes +a hundred tests every day, the English working-man develops that side +of his character which commands most respect. People who endure +so much to bend one single bourgeois will be able to break the power +of the whole bourgeoisie.</p> +<p>But apart from that, the English working-man has proved his courage +often enough. That the turnout of 1842 had no further results +came from the fact that the men were in part forced into it by the bourgeoisie, +in part neither clear nor united as to its object. But aside from +this, they have shown their courage often enough when the matter in +question was a specific social one. <!-- page 226--><a name="page226"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 226</span>Not +to mention the Welsh insurrection of 1839, a complete battle was waged +in Manchester in May, 1843, during my residence there. Pauling +& Henfrey, a brick firm, had increased the size of the bricks without +raising wages, and sold the bricks, of course, at a higher price. +The workers, to whom higher wages were refused, struck work, and the +Brickmakers’ Union declared war upon the firm. The firm, +meanwhile, succeeded with great difficulty in securing hands from the +neighbourhood, and among the knobsticks, against whom in the beginning +intimidation was used, the proprietors set twelve men to guard the yard, +all ex-soldiers and policemen, armed with guns. When intimidation +proved unavailing, the brick-yard, which lay scarcely a hundred paces +from an infantry barracks, was stormed at ten o’clock one night +by a crowd of brickmakers, who advanced in military order, the first +ranks armed with guns. They forced their way in, fired upon the +watchmen as soon as they saw them, stamped out the wet bricks spread +out to dry, tore down the piled-up rows of those already dry, demolished +everything which came in their way, pressed into a building, where they +destroyed the furniture and maltreated the wife of the overlooker who +was living there. The watchmen, meanwhile, had placed themselves +behind a hedge, whence they could fire safely and without interruption. +The assailants stood before a burning brick-kiln, which threw a bright +light upon them, so that every ball of their enemies struck home, while +every one of their own shots missed its mark. Nevertheless, the +firing lasted half-an-hour, until the ammunition was exhausted, and +the object of the visit—the demolition of all the destructible +objects in the yard—was attained. Then the military approached, +and the brickmakers withdrew to Eccles, three miles from Manchester. +A short time before reaching Eccles they held roll-call, and each man +was called according to his number in the section when they separated, +only to fall the more certainly into the hands of the police, who were +approaching from all sides. The number of the wounded must have +been very considerable, but those only could be counted who were arrested. +One of these had received three bullets (in the thigh, the calf, and +the shoulder), and had <!-- page 227--><a name="page227"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 227</span>travelled +in spite of them more than four miles on foot. These people have +proved that they, too, possess revolutionary courage, and do not shun +a rain of bullets. And when an unarmed multitude, without a precise +aim common to them all, are held in check in a shut-off market-place, +whose outlets are guarded by a couple of policemen and dragoons, as +happened in 1842, this by no means proves a want of courage. On +the contrary, the multitude would have stirred quite as little if the +servants of public (<i>i.e</i>., of the bourgeois) order had not been +present. Where the working-people have a specific end in view, +they show courage enough; as, for instance, in the attack upon Birley’s +mill, which had later to be protected by artillery.</p> +<p>In this connection, a word or two as to the respect for the law in +England. True, the law is sacred to the bourgeois, for it is his +own composition, enacted with his consent, and for his benefit and protection. +He knows that, even if an individual law should injure him, the whole +fabric protects his interests; and more than all, the sanctity of the +law, the sacredness of order as established by the active will of one +part of society, and the passive acceptance of the other, is the strongest +support of his social position. Because the English bourgeois +finds himself reproduced in his law, as he does in his God, the policeman’s +truncheon which, in a certain measure, is his own club, has for him +a wonderfully soothing power. But for the working-man quite otherwise! +The working-man knows too well, has learned from too oft-repeated experience, +that the law is a rod which the bourgeois has prepared for him; and +when he is not compelled to do so, he never appeals to the law. +It is ridiculous to assert that the English working-man fears the police, +when every week in Manchester policemen are beaten, and last year an +attempt was made to storm a station-house secured by iron doors and +shutters. The power of the police in the turnout of 1842 lay, +as I have already said, in the want of a clearly defined object on the +part of the working-men themselves.</p> +<p>Since the working-men do not respect the law, but simply submit to +its power when they cannot change it, it is most natural that <!-- page 228--><a name="page228"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 228</span>they +should at least propose alterations in it, that they should wish to +put a proletarian law in the place of the legal fabric of the bourgeoisie. +This proposed law is the People’s Charter, which in form is purely +political, and demands a democratic basis for the House of Commons. +Chartism is the compact form of their opposition to the bourgeoisie. +In the Unions and turnouts opposition always remained isolated: it was +single working-men or sections who fought a single bourgeois. +If the fight became general, this was scarcely by the intention of the +working-men; or, when it did happen intentionally, Chartism was at the +bottom of it. But in Chartism it is the whole working class which +arises against the bourgeoisie, and attacks, first of all, the political +power, the legislative rampart with which the bourgeoisie has surrounded +itself. Chartism has proceeded from the Democratic party which +arose between 1780 and 1790 with and in the proletariat, gained strength +during the French Revolution, and came forth after the peace as the +Radical party. It had its headquarters then in Birmingham and +Manchester, and later in London; extorted the Reform Bill from the Oligarchs +of the old Parliament by a union with the Liberal bourgeoisie, and has +steadily consolidated itself, since then, as a more and more pronounced +working-men’s party in opposition to the bourgeoisie In 1835 a +committee of the General Working-men’s Association of London, +with William Lovett at its head, drew up the People’s Charter, +whose six points are as follows: (1) Universal suffrage for every man +who is of age, sane and unconvicted of crime; (2) Annual Parliaments; +(3) Payment of members of Parliament, to enable poor men to stand for +election; (4) Voting by ballot to prevent bribery and intimidation by +the bourgeoisie; (5) Equal electoral districts to secure equal representation; +and (6) Abolition of the even now merely nominal property qualification +of £300 in land for candidates in order to make every voter eligible. +These six points, which are all limited to the reconstitution of the +House of Commons, harmless as they seem, are sufficient to overthrow +the whole English Constitution, Queen and Lords included. The +so-called monarchical and aristocratic elements of the Constitution +<!-- page 229--><a name="page229"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 229</span>can +maintain themselves only because the bourgeoisie has an interest in +the continuance of their sham existence; and more than a sham existence +neither possesses to-day. But as soon as real public opinion in +its totality backs the House of Commons, as soon as the House of Commons +incorporates the will, not of the bourgeoisie alone, but of the whole +nation, it will absorb the whole power so completely that the last halo +must fall from the head of the monarch and the aristocracy. The +English working-man respects neither Lords nor Queen. The bourgeois, +while in reality allowing them but little influence, yet offers to them +personally a sham worship. The English Chartist is politically +a republican, though he rarely or never mentions the word, while he +sympathises with the republican parties of all countries, and calls +himself in preference a democrat. But he is more than a mere republican, +his democracy is not simply political.</p> +<p>Chartism was from the beginning in 1835 chiefly a movement among +the working-men, though not yet sharply separated from the bourgeoisie. +The Radicalism of the workers went hand in hand with the Radicalism +of the bourgeoisie; the Charter was the shibboleth of both. They +held their National Convention every year in common, seeming to be one +party. The lower middle-class was just then in a very bellicose +and violent state of mind in consequence of the disappointment over +the Reform Bill and of the bad business years of 1837-1839, and viewed +the boisterous Chartist agitation with a very favourable eye. +Of the vehemence of this agitation no one in Germany has any idea. +The people were called upon to arm themselves, were frequently urged +to revolt; pikes were got ready, as in the French Revolution, and in +1838, one Stephens, a Methodist parson, said to the assembled working-people +of Manchester:</p> +<blockquote><p>“You have no need to fear the power of Government, +the soldiers, bayonets, and cannon that are at the disposal of your +oppressors; you have a weapon that is far mightier than all these, a +weapon against which bayonets and cannon are powerless, and a child +of ten years can wield it. You have only to take a couple of matches +and a bundle of straw dipped in pitch, and I will see <!-- page 230--><a name="page230"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 230</span>what +the Government and its hundreds of thousands of soldiers will do against +this one weapon if it is used boldly.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>As early as that year the peculiarly social character of the working-men’s +Chartism manifested itself. The same Stephens said, in a meeting +of 200,000 men on Kersall Moor, the Mons Sacer of Manchester:</p> +<blockquote><p>“Chartism, my friends, is no political movement, +where the main point is your getting the ballot. Chartism is a +knife and fork question: the Charter means a good house, good food and +drink, prosperity, and short working-hours.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The movements against the new Poor Law and for the Ten Hours’ +Bill were already in the closest relation to Chartism. In all +the meetings of that time the Tory Oastler was active, and hundreds +of petitions for improvements of the social condition of the workers +were circulated along with the national petition for the People’s +Charter adopted in Birmingham. In 1839 the agitation continued +as vigorously as ever, and when it began to relax somewhat at the end +of the year, Bussey, Taylor, and Frost hastened to call forth uprisings +simultaneously in the North of England, in Yorkshire, and Wales. +Frost’s plan being betrayed, he was obliged to open hostilities +prematurely. Those in the North heard of the failure of his attempt +in time to withdraw. Two months later, in January, 1840, several +so-called spy outbreaks took place in Sheffield and Bradford, in Yorkshire, +and the excitement gradually subsided. Meanwhile the bourgeoisie +turned its attention to more practical projects, more profitable for +itself, namely the Corn Laws. The Anti-Corn Law Association was +formed in Manchester, and the consequence was a relaxation of the tie +between the Radical bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The working-men +soon perceived that for them the abolition of the Corn Laws could be +of little use, while very advantageous to the bourgeoisie; and they +could therefore not be won for the project.</p> +<p>The crisis of 1842 came on. Agitation was once more as <!-- page 231--><a name="page231"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 231</span>vigorous +as in 1839. But this time the rich manufacturing bourgeoisie, +which was suffering severely under this particular crisis, took part +in it. The Anti-Corn Law League, as it was now called, assumed +a decidedly revolutionary tone. Its journals and agitators used +undisguisedly revolutionary language, one very good reason for which +was the fact that the Conservative party had been in power since 1841. +As the Chartists had previously done, these bourgeois leaders called +upon the people to rebel; and the working-men who had most to suffer +from the crisis were not inactive, as the year’s national petition +for the charter with its three and a half million signatures proves. +In short, if the two Radical parties had been somewhat estranged, they +allied themselves once more. At a meeting of Liberals and Chartists +held in Manchester, February 15th, 1842, a petition urging the repeal +of the Corn Laws and the adoption of the Charter was drawn up. +The next day it was adopted by both parties. The spring and summer +passed amidst violent agitation and increasing distress. The bourgeoisie +was determined to carry the repeal of the Corn Laws with the help of +the crisis, the want which it entailed, and the general excitement. +At this time, the Conservatives being in power, the Liberal bourgeoisie +half abandoned their law-abiding habits; they wished to bring about +a revolution with the help of the workers. The working-men were +to take the chestnuts from the fire to save the bourgeoisie from burning +their own fingers. The old idea of a “holy month,” +a general strike, broached in 1839 by the Chartists, was revived. +This time, however, it was not the working-men who wished to quit work, +but the manufacturers who wished to close their mills and send the operatives +into the country parishes upon the property of the aristocracy, thus +forcing the Tory Parliament and the Tory Ministry to repeal the Corn +Laws. A revolt would naturally have followed, but the bourgeoisie +stood safely in the background and could await the result without compromising +itself if the worst came to the worst. At the end of July business +began to improve; it was high time. In order not to lose the opportunity, +three firms in Staleybridge reduced wages in spite of <!-- page 232--><a name="page232"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 232</span>the +improvement. <a name="citation232"></a><a href="#footnote232">{232}</a> +Whether they did so of their own motion or in agreement with other manufacturers, +especially those of the League, I do not know. Two withdrew after +a time, but the third, William Bailey & Brothers, stood firm, and +told the objecting operatives that “if this did not please them, +they had better go and play a bit.” This contemptuous answer +the hands received with cheers. They left the mill, paraded through +the town, and called upon all their fellows to quit work. In a +few hours every mill stood idle, and the operatives marched to Mottram +Moor to hold a meeting. This was on August 5th. August 8th +they proceeded to Ashton and Hyde five thousand strong, closed all the +mills and coal-pits, and held meetings, in which, however, the question +discussed was not, as the bourgeoisie had hoped, the repeal of the Corn +Laws, but, “a fair day’s wages for a fair day’s work.” +August 9th they proceeded to Manchester, unresisted by the authorities +(all Liberals), and closed the mills; on the 11th they were in Stockport, +where they met with the first resistance as they were storming the workhouse, +the favourite child of the bourgeoisie. On the same day there +was a general strike and disturbance in Bolton, to which the authorities +here, too, made no resistance. Soon the uprising spread throughout +the whole manufacturing district, and all employments, except harvesting +and the production of food, came to a standstill. But the rebellious +operatives were quiet. They were driven into this revolt without +wishing it. The manufacturers, with the single exception of the +Tory Birley, in Manchester, had, <i>contrary to their custom</i>, not +opposed it. The thing had begun without the working-men’s +having any distinct end in view, for which reason they were all united +in the determination not to be shot at for the benefit of the Corn Law +repealing bourgeoisie. For the rest, some wanted to carry the +Charter, others who thought this premature wished merely to secure the +wages rate of 1840. On this point the whole insurrection was wrecked. +If it had been from the beginning an intentional, determined working-men’s +insurrection, it would surely have carried <!-- page 233--><a name="page233"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 233</span>its +point; but these crowds who had been driven into the streets by their +masters, against their own will, and with no definite purpose, could +do nothing. Meanwhile the bourgeoisie, which had not moved a finger +to carry the alliance of February 10th into effect, soon perceived that +the working-men did not propose to become its tools, and that the illogical +manner in which it had abandoned its law-abiding standpoint threatened +danger. It therefore resumed its law-abiding attitude, and placed +itself upon the side of Government as against the working-men.</p> +<p>It swore in trusty retainers as special constables (the German merchants +in Manchester took part in this ceremony, and marched in an entirely +superfluous manner through the city with their cigars in their mouths +and thick truncheons in their hands). It gave the command to fire +upon the crowd in Preston, so that the unintentional revolt of the people +stood all at once face to face, not only with the whole military power +of the Government, but with the whole property-holding class as well. +The working-men, who had no especial aim, separated gradually, and the +insurrection came to an end without evil results. Later, the bourgeoisie +was guilty of one shameful act after another, tried to whitewash itself +by expressing a horror of popular violence by no means consistent with +its own revolutionary language of the spring; laid the blame of insurrection +upon Chartist instigators, whereas it had itself done more than all +of them together to bring about the uprising; and resumed its old attitude +of sanctifying the name of the law with a shamelessness perfectly unequalled. +The Chartists, who were all but innocent of bringing about this uprising, +who simply did what the bourgeoisie meant to do when they made the most +of their opportunity, were prosecuted and convicted, while the bourgeoisie +escaped without loss, and had, besides, sold off its old stock of goods +with advantage during the pause in work.</p> +<p>The fruit of the uprising was the decisive separation of the proletariat +from the bourgeoisie. The Chartists had not hitherto concealed +their determination to carry the Charter at all costs, even that of +a revolution; the bourgeoisie, which now perceived, all at once, the +danger with which any violent change threatened <!-- page 234--><a name="page234"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 234</span>its +position, refused to hear anything further of physical force, and proposed +to attain its end by moral force, as though this were anything else +than the direct or indirect threat of physical force. This was +one point of dissension, though even this was removed later by the assertion +of the Chartists (who are at least as worthy of being believed as the +bourgeoisie) that they, too, refrained from appealing to physical force. +The second point of dissension and the main one, which brought Chartism +to light in its purity, was the repeal of the Corn Laws. In this +the bourgeoisie was directly interested, the proletariat not. +The Chartists therefore divided into two parties whose political programmes +agreed literally, but which were nevertheless thoroughly different and +incapable of union. At the Birmingham National Convention, in +January, 1843, Sturge, the representative of the Radical bourgeoisie, +proposed that the name of the Charter be omitted from the rules of the +Chartist Association, nominally because this name had become connected +with recollections of violence during the insurrection, a connection, +by the way, which had existed for years, and against which Mr. Sturge +had hitherto advanced no objection. The working-men refused to +drop the name, and when Mr. Sturge was outvoted, that worthy Quaker +suddenly became loyal, betook himself out of the hall, and founded a +“Complete Suffrage Association” within the Radical bourgeoisie. +So repugnant had these recollections become to the Jacobinical bourgeoisie, +that he altered even the name Universal Suffrage into the ridiculous +title, Complete Suffrage. The working-men laughed at him and quietly +went their way.</p> +<p>From this moment Chartism was purely a working-man’s cause +freed from all bourgeois elements. The “Complete” +journals, the <i>Weekly Dispatch</i>, <i>Weekly Chronicle</i>, <i>Examiner</i>, +etc., fell gradually into the sleepy tone of the other Liberal sheets, +espoused the cause of Free Trade, attacked the Ten Hours’ Bill +and all exclusively working-men’s demands, and let their Radicalism +as a whole fall rather into the background. The Radical bourgeoisie +joined hands with the Liberals against the working-men in every collision, +and in general made the Corn Law question, which for the English is +the Free Trade question, their main business. They thereby <!-- page 235--><a name="page235"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 235</span>fell +under the dominion of the Liberal bourgeoisie, and now play a most pitiful +rôle.</p> +<p>The Chartist working-men, on the contrary, espoused with redoubled +zeal all the struggles of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie. +Free competition has caused the workers suffering enough to be hated +by them; its apostles, the bourgeoisie, are their declared enemies. +The working-man has only disadvantages to await from the complete freedom +of competition. The demands hitherto made by him, the Ten Hours’ +Bill, protection of the workers against the capitalist, good wages, +a guaranteed position, repeal of the new Poor Law, all of the things +which belong to Chartism quite as essentially as the “Six Points,” +are directly opposed to free competition and Free Trade. No wonder, +then, that the working-men will not hear of Free Trade and the repeal +of the Corn Laws (a fact incomprehensible to the whole English bourgeoisie), +and while at least wholly indifferent to the Corn Law question, are +most deeply embittered against its advocates. This question is +precisely the point at which the proletariat separates from the bourgeoisie, +Chartism from Radicalism; and the bourgeois understanding cannot comprehend +this, because it cannot comprehend the proletariat.</p> +<p>Therein lies the difference between Chartist democracy and all previous +political bourgeois democracy. Chartism is of an essentially social +nature, a class movement. The “Six Points” which for +the Radical bourgeois are the beginning and end of the matter, which +are meant, at the utmost, to call forth certain further reforms of the +Constitution, are for the proletarian a mere means to further ends. +“Political power our means, social happiness our end,” is +now the clearly formulated war-cry of the Chartists. The “knife +and fork question” of the preacher Stephens was a truth for a +part of the Chartists only, in 1838, it is a truth for all of them in +1845. There is no longer a mere politician among the Chartists, +and even though their Socialism is very little developed, though their +chief remedy for poverty has hitherto consisted in the land-allotment +system, which was superseded <a name="citation235"></a><a href="#footnote235">{235}</a> +<!-- page 236--><a name="page236"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 236</span>by +the introduction of manufacture, though their chief practical propositions +are apparently of a reactionary nature, yet these very measures involve +the alternative that they must either succumb to the power of competition +once more and restore the old state of things, or they must themselves +entirely overcome competition and abolish it. On the other hand, +the present indefinite state of Chartism, the separation from the purely +political party, involves that precisely the characteristic feature, +its social aspect, will have to be further developed. The approach +to Socialism cannot fail, especially when the next crisis directs the +working-men by force of sheer want to social instead of political remedies. +And a crisis must follow the present active state of industry and commerce +in 1847 at the latest, and probably in 1846; one, too, which will far +exceed in extent and violence all former crises. The working-men +will carry their Charter, naturally; but meanwhile they will learn to +see clearly with regard to many points which they can make by means +of it and of which they now know very little.</p> +<p>Meanwhile the socialist agitation also goes forward. English +Socialism comes under our consideration so far only as it affects the +working-class. The English Socialists demand the gradual introduction +of possession in common in home colonies embracing two to three thousand +persons who shall carry on both agriculture and manufacture and enjoy +equal rights and equal education. They demand greater facility +of obtaining divorce, the establishment of a rational government, with +complete freedom of conscience and the abolition of punishment, the +same to be replaced by a rational treatment of the offender. These +are their practical measures, their theoretical principles do not concern +us here. English Socialism arose with Owen, a manufacturer, and +proceeds therefore with great consideration toward the bourgeoisie and +great injustice toward the proletariat in its methods, although it culminates +in demanding the abolition of the class antagonism between bourgeoisie +and proletariat.</p> +<p>The Socialists are thoroughly tame and peaceable, accept our existing +order, bad as it is, so far as to reject all other methods but that +of winning public opinion. Yet they are so dogmatic that <!-- page 237--><a name="page237"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 237</span>success +by this method is for them, and for their principles as at present formulated, +utterly hopeless. While bemoaning the demoralisation of the lower +classes, they are blind to the element of progress in this dissolution +of the old social order, and refuse to acknowledge that the corruption +wrought by private interests and hypocrisy in the property-holding class +is much greater. They acknowledge no historic development, and +wish to place the nation in a state of Communism at once, overnight, +not by the unavoidable march of its political development up to the +point at which this transition becomes both possible and necessary. +They understand, it is true, why the working-man is resentful against +the bourgeois, but regard as unfruitful this class hatred, which is, +after all, the only moral incentive by which the worker can be brought +nearer the goal. They preach instead, a philanthropy and universal +love far more unfruitful for the present state of England. They +acknowledge only a psychological development, a development of man in +the abstract, out of all relation to the Past, whereas the whole world +rests upon that Past, the individual man included. Hence they +are too abstract, too metaphysical, and accomplish little. They +are recruited in part from the working-class, of which they have enlisted +but a very small fraction representing, however, its most educated and +solid elements. In its present form, Socialism can never become +the common creed of the working-class; it must condescend to return +for a moment to the Chartist standpoint. But the true proletarian +Socialism having passed through Chartism, purified of its bourgeois +elements, assuming the form which it has already reached in the minds +of many Socialists and Chartist leaders (who are nearly all Socialists), +must, within a short time, play a weighty part in the history of the +development of the English people. English Socialism, the basis +of which is much more ample than that of the French, is behind it in +theoretical development, will have to recede for a moment to the French +standpoint in order to proceed beyond it later. Meanwhile the +French, too, will develop farther. English Socialism affords the +most pronounced expression of the prevailing absence of religion among +the working-men, an expression so <!-- page 238--><a name="page238"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 238</span>pronounced +indeed that the mass of the working-men, being unconsciously and merely +practically irreligious, often draw back before it. But here, +too, necessity will force the working-men to abandon the remnants of +a belief which, as they will more and more clearly perceive, serves +only to make them weak and resigned to their fate, obedient and faithful +to the vampire property-holding class.</p> +<p>Hence it is evident that the working-men’s movement is divided +into two sections, the Chartists and the Socialists. The Chartists +are theoretically the more backward, the less developed, but they are +genuine proletarians all over, the representatives of their class. +The Socialists are more far-seeing, propose practical remedies against +distress, but, proceeding originally from the bourgeoisie, are for this +reason unable to amalgamate completely with the working-class. +The union of Socialism with Chartism, the reproduction of French Communism +in an English manner, will be the next step, and has already begun. +Then only, when this has been achieved, will the working-class be the +true intellectual leader of England. Meanwhile, political and +social development will proceed, and will foster this new party, this +new departure of Chartism.</p> +<p>These different sections of working-men, often united, often separated, +Trades Unionists, Chartists, and Socialists, have founded on their own +hook numbers of schools and reading-rooms for the advancement of education. +Every Socialist, and almost every Chartist institution, has such a place, +and so too have many trades. Here the children receive a purely +proletarian education, free from all the influences of the bourgeoisie; +and, in the reading-rooms, proletarian journals and books alone, or +almost alone, are to be found. These arrangements are very dangerous +for the bourgeoisie, which has succeeded in withdrawing several such +institutes, “Mechanics’ Institutes,” from proletarian +influences, and making them organs for the dissemination of the sciences +useful to the bourgeoisie. Here the natural sciences are now taught, +which may draw the working-men away from the opposition to the bourgeoisie, +and perhaps place in their hands the means of <!-- page 239--><a name="page239"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 239</span>making +inventions which bring in money for the bourgeoisie; while for the working-man +the acquaintance with the natural sciences is utterly useless <i>now</i> +when it too often happens that he never gets the slightest glimpse of +Nature in his large town with his long working-hours. Here Political +Economy is preached, whose idol is free competition, and whose sum and +substance for the working-man is this, that he cannot do anything more +rational than resign himself to starvation. Here all education +is tame, flabby, subservient to the ruling politics and religion, so +that for the working-man it is merely a constant sermon upon quiet obedience, +passivity, and resignation to his fate.</p> +<p>The mass of working-men naturally have nothing to do with these institutes, +and betake themselves to the proletarian reading-rooms and to the discussion +of matters which directly concern their own interests, whereupon the +self-sufficient bourgeoisie says its <i>Dixi et Salvavi</i>, and turns +with contempt from a class which “prefers the angry ranting of +ill-meaning demagogues to the advantages of solid education.” +That, however, the working-men appreciate solid education when they +can get it unmixed with the interested cant of the bourgeoisie, the +frequent lectures upon scientific, æsthetic, and economic subjects +prove which are delivered especially in the Socialist institutes, and +very well attended. I have often heard working-men, whose fustian +jackets scarcely held together, speak upon geological, astronomical, +and other subjects, with more knowledge than most “cultivated” +bourgeois in Germany possess. And in how great a measure the English +proletariat has succeeded in attaining independent education is shown +especially by the fact that the epoch-making products of modern philosophical, +political, and poetical literature are read by working-men almost exclusively. +The bourgeois, enslaved by social conditions and the prejudices involved +in them, trembles, blesses, and crosses himself before everything which +really paves the way for progress; the proletarian has open eyes for +it, and studies it with pleasure and success. In this respect +the Socialists, especially, have done wonders for the education of the +proletariat. They have translated the French materialists, <!-- page 240--><a name="page240"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 240</span>Helvetius, +Holbach, Diderot, etc., and disseminated them, with the best English +works, in cheap editions. Strauss’ “Life of Jesus” +and Proudhon’s “Property” also circulate among the +working-men only. Shelley, the genius, the prophet, Shelley, and +Byron, with his glowing sensuality and his bitter satire upon our existing +society, find most of their readers in the proletariat; the bourgeoisie +owns only castrated editions, family editions, cut down in accordance +with the hypocritical morality of to-day. The two great practical +philosophers of latest date, Bentham and Godwin, are, especially the +latter, almost exclusively the property of the proletariat; for though +Bentham has a school within the Radical bourgeoisie, it is only the +proletariat and the Socialists who have succeeded in developing his +teachings a step forward. The proletariat has formed upon this +basis a literature, which consists chiefly of journals and pamphlets, +and is far in advance of the whole bourgeois literature in intrinsic +worth. On this point more later.</p> +<p>One more point remains to be noticed. The factory operatives, +and especially those of the cotton district, form the nucleus of the +labour movement. Lancashire, and especially Manchester, is the +seat of the most powerful Unions, the central point of Chartism, the +place which numbers most Socialists. The more the factory system +has taken possession of a branch of industry, the more the working-men +employed in it participate in the labour movement; the sharper the opposition +between working-men and capitalists, the clearer the proletarian consciousness +in the working-men. The small masters of Birmingham, though they +suffer from the crises, still stand upon an unhappy middle ground between +proletarian Chartism and shopkeepers’ Radicalism. But, in +general, all the workers employed in manufacture are won for one form +or the other of resistance to capital and bourgeoisie; and all are united +upon this point, that they, as working-men, a title of which they are +proud, and which is the usual form of address in Chartist meetings, +form a separate class, with separate interests and principles, with +a separate way of looking at things in contrast with that of all property +owners; and that in this class reposes the strength and the capacity +of development of the nation.</p> +<h2><!-- page 241--><a name="page241"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 241</span>THE +MINING PROLETARIAT.</h2> +<p>The production of raw materials and fuel for a manufacture so colossal +as that of England requires a considerable number of workers. +But of all the materials needed for its industries (except wool, which +belongs to the agricultural districts), England produces only the minerals: +the metals and the coal. While Cornwall possesses rich copper, +tin, zinc, and lead mines, Staffordshire, Wales, and other districts +yield great quantities of iron, and almost the whole North and West +of England, central Scotland, and certain districts of Ireland, produce +a superabundance of coal. <a name="citation241"></a><a href="#footnote241">{241}</a></p> +<p>In the Cornish mines about 19,000 men, and 11,000 women and children +are employed, in part above and in part below ground. Within the +mines below ground, men and boys above twelve years old are employed +almost exclusively. The condition <!-- page 242--><a name="page242"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 242</span>of +these workers seems, according to the Children’s Employment Commission’s +Reports, to be comparatively endurable, materially, and the English +often enough boast of their strong, bold miners, who follow the veins +of mineral below the bottom of the very sea. But in the matter +of the health of these workers, this same Children’s Employment +Commission’s Report judges differently. It shows in Dr. +Barham’s intelligent report how the inhalation of an atmosphere +containing little oxygen, and mixed with dust and the smoke of blasting +powder, such as prevails in the mines, seriously affects the lungs, +disturbs the action of the heart, and diminishes the activity of the +digestive organs; that wearing toil, and especially the climbing up +and down of ladders, upon which even vigorous young men have to spend +in some mines more than an hour a day, and which precedes and follows +daily work, contributes greatly to the development of these evils, so +that men who begin this work in early youth are far from reaching the +stature of women who work above ground; that many die young of galloping +consumption, and most miners at middle age of slow consumption, that +they age prematurely and become unfit for work between the thirty-fifth +and forty-fifth years, that many are attacked by acute inflammations +of the respiratory organs when exposed to the sudden change from the +warm air of the shaft (after climbing the ladder in profuse perspiration), +to the cold wind above ground, and that these acute inflammations are +very frequently fatal. Work above ground, breaking and sorting +the ore, is done by girls and children, and is described as very wholesome, +being done in the open air.</p> +<p>In the North of England, on the borders of Northumberland and Durham, +are the extensive lead mines of Alston Moor. The reports from +this district <a name="citation242"></a><a href="#footnote242">{242}</a> +agree almost wholly with those from Cornwall. Here, too, there +are complaints of want of oxygen, excessive dust, powder smoke, carbonic +acid gas, and sulphur, in the atmosphere of the workings. In consequence, +the miners here, as in Cornwall, are small of stature, and nearly all +suffer <!-- page 243--><a name="page243"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 243</span>from +the thirtieth year throughout life from chest affections, which end, +especially when this work is persisted in, as is almost always the case, +in consumption, so greatly shortening the average of life of these people. +If the miners of this district are somewhat longer lived than those +of Cornwall, this is the case, because they do not enter the mines before +reaching the nineteenth year, while in Cornwall, as we have seen, this +work is begun in the twelfth year. Nevertheless, the majority +die here, too, between forty and fifty years of age, according to medical +testimony. Of 79 miners, whose death was entered upon the public +register of the district, and who attained an average of 45 years, 37 +had died of consumption and 6 of asthma. In the surrounding districts, +Allendale, Stanhope, and Middleton, the average length of life was 49, +48, and 47 years respectively, and the deaths from chest affections +composed 48, 54, and 56 per cent. of the whole number. Let us +compare these figures with the so-called Swedish tables, detailed tables +of mortality embracing all the inhabitants of Sweden, and recognised +in England as the most correct standard hitherto attainable for the +average length of life of the British working-class. According +to them, male persons who survive the nineteenth year attain an average +of 57½ years; but, according to this, the North of England miners +are robbed by their work of an average of ten years of life. Yet +the Swedish tables are accepted as the standard of longevity of the +<i>workers</i>, and present, therefore, the average chances of life +as affected by the unfavourable conditions in which the proletariat +lives, a standard of longevity less than the normal one. In this +district we find again the lodging-houses and sleeping-places with which +we have already become acquainted in the towns, and in quite as filthy, +disgusting, and overcrowded a state as there. Commissioner Mitchell +visited one such sleeping barrack, 18 feet long, 13 feet wide, and arranged +for the reception of 42 men and 14 boys, or 56 persons altogether, one-half +of whom slept above the other in berths as on shipboard. There +was no opening for the escape of the foul air; and, although no one +had slept in this pen for three nights preceding the visit, the smell +and the atmosphere were such that Commissioner Mitchell <!-- page 244--><a name="page244"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 244</span>could +not endure it a moment. What must it be through a hot summer night, +with fifty-six occupants? And this is not the steerage of an American +slave ship, it is the dwelling of free-born Britons!</p> +<p>Let us turn now to the most important branch of British mining, the +iron and coal mines, which the Children’s Employment Commission +treats in common, and with all the detail which the importance of the +subject demands. Nearly the whole of the first part of this report +is devoted to the condition of the workers employed in these mines. +After the detailed description which I have furnished of the state of +the industrial workers, I shall, however, be able to be as brief in +dealing with this subject as the scope of the present work requires.</p> +<p>In the coal and iron mines which are worked in pretty much the same +way, children of four, five, and seven years are employed. They +are set to transporting the ore or coal loosened by the miner from its +place to the horse-path or the main shaft, and to opening and shutting +the doors (which separate the divisions of the mine and regulate its +ventilation) for the passage of workers and material. For watching +the doors the smallest children are usually employed, who thus pass +twelve hours daily, in the dark, alone, sitting usually in damp passages +without even having work enough to save them from the stupefying, brutalising +tedium of doing nothing. The transport of coal and iron-stone, +on the other hand, is very hard labour, the stuff being shoved in large +tubs, without wheels, over the uneven floor of the mine; often over +moist clay, or through water, and frequently up steep inclines and through +paths so low-roofed that the workers are forced to creep on hands and +knees. For this more wearing labour, therefore, older children +and half-grown girls are employed. One man or two boys per tub +are employed, according to circumstances; and, if two boys, one pushes +and the other pulls. The loosening of the ore or coal, which is +done by men or strong youths of sixteen years or more, is also very +weary work. The usual working-day is eleven to twelve hours, often +longer; in Scotland it reaches fourteen hours, and double time is frequent, +when all the employees <!-- page 245--><a name="page245"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 245</span>are +at work below ground twenty-four, and even thirty-six hours at a stretch. +Set times for meals are almost unknown, so that these people eat when +hunger and time permit.</p> +<p>The standard of living of the miners is in general described as fairly +good and their wages high in comparison with those of the agricultural +labourers surrounding them (who, however, live at starvation rates), +except in certain parts of Scotland and in the Irish mines, where great +misery prevails. We shall have occasion to return later to this +statement, which, by the way, is merely relative, implying comparison +to the poorest class in all England. Meanwhile, we shall consider +the evils which arise from the present method of mining, and the reader +may judge whether any pay in money can indemnify the miner for such +suffering.</p> +<p>The children and young people who are employed in transporting coal +and iron-stone all complain of being over-tired. Even in the most +recklessly conducted industrial establishments there is no such universal +and exaggerated overwork. The whole report proves this, with a +number of examples on every page. It is constantly happening that +children throw themselves down on the stone hearth or the floor as soon +as they reach home, fall asleep at once without being able to take a +bite of food, and have to be washed and put to bed while asleep; it +even happens that they lie down on the way home, and are found by their +parents late at night asleep on the road. It seems to be a universal +practice among these children to spend Sunday in bed to recover in some +degree from the over-exertion of the week. Church and school are +visited by but few, and even of these the teachers complain of their +great sleepiness and the want of all eagerness to learn. The same +thing is true of the elder girls and women. They are overworked +in the most brutal manner. This weariness, which is almost always +carried to a most painful pitch, cannot fail to affect the constitution. +The first result of such over-exertion is the diversion of vitality +to the one-sided development of the muscles, so that those especially +of the arms, legs, and back, of the shoulders and chest, which are chiefly +called into activity in pushing and pulling, attain an uncommonly vigorous +<!-- page 246--><a name="page246"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 246</span>development, +while all the rest of the body suffers and is atrophied from want of +nourishment. More than all else the stature suffers, being stunted +and retarded; nearly all miners are short, except those of Leicestershire +and Warwickshire, who work under exceptionally favourable conditions. +Further, among boys as well as girls, puberty is retarded, among the +former often until the eighteenth year; indeed, a nineteen years old +boy appeared before Commissioner Symonds, showing no evidence beyond +that of the teeth, that he was more than eleven or twelve years old. +This prolongation of the period of childhood is at bottom nothing more +than a sign of checked development, which does not fail to bear fruit +in later years. Distortions of the legs, knees bent inwards and +feet bent outwards, deformities of the spinal column and other malformations, +appear the more readily in constitutions thus weakened, in consequence +of the almost universally constrained position during work; and they +are so frequent that in Yorkshire and Lancashire, as in Northumberland +and Durham, the assertion is made by many witnesses, not only by physicians, +that a miner may be recognised by his shape among a hundred other persons. +The women seem to suffer especially from this work, and are seldom, +if ever, as straight as other women. There is testimony here, +too, to the fact that deformities of the pelvis and consequent difficult, +even fatal, childbearing arise from the work of women in the mines. +But apart from these local deformities, the coal miners suffer from +a number of special affections easily explained by the nature of the +work. Diseases of the digestive organs are first in order; want +of appetite, pains in the stomach, nausea, and vomiting, are most frequent, +with violent thirst, which can be quenched only with the dirty, lukewarm +water of the mine; the digestion is checked and all the other affections +are thus invited. Diseases of the heart, especially hypertrophy, +inflammation of the heart and pericardium, contraction of the <i>auriculo-ventricular</i> +communications and the entrance of the <i>aorta</i> are also mentioned +repeatedly as diseases of the miners, and are readily explained by overwork; +and the same is true of the almost universal rupture which is a direct +consequence of protracted over-exertion. In part <!-- page 247--><a name="page247"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 247</span>from +the same cause and in part from the bad, dust-filled atmosphere mixed +with carbonic acid and hydrocarbon gas, which might so readily be avoided, +there arise numerous painful and dangerous affections of the lungs, +especially asthma, which in some districts appears in the fortieth, +in others in the thirtieth year in most of the miners, and makes them +unfit for work in a short time. Among those employed in wet workings +the oppression in the chest naturally appears much earlier; in some +districts of Scotland between the twentieth and thirtieth years, during +which time the affected lungs are especially susceptible to inflammations +and diseases of a feverish nature. The peculiar disease of workers +of this sort is “black spittle,” which arises from the saturation +of the whole lung with coal particles, and manifests itself in general +debility, headache, oppression of the chest, and thick, black mucous +expectoration. In some districts this disease appears in a mild +form; in others, on the contrary, it is wholly incurable, especially +in Scotland. Here, besides the symptoms just mentioned, which +appear in an intensified form, short, wheezing, breathing, rapid pulse +(exceeding 100 per minute), and abrupt coughing, with increasing leanness +and debility, speedily make the patient unfit for work. Every +case of this disease ends fatally. Dr. Mackellar, in Pencaitland, +East Lothian, testified that in all the coal mines which are properly +ventilated this disease is unknown, while it frequently happens that +miners who go from well to ill-ventilated mines are seized by it. +The profit-greed of mine owners which prevents the use of ventilators +is therefore responsible for the fact that this working-men’s +disease exists at all. Rheumatism, too, is, with the exception +of the Warwick and Leicestershire workers, a universal disease of the +coal miners, and arises especially from the frequently damp working-places. +The consequence of all these diseases is that, in all districts <i>without +exception</i>, the coal miners age early and become unfit for work soon +after the fortieth year, though this is different in different places. +A coal miner who can follow his calling after the 45th or 50th year +is a very great rarity indeed. It is universally recognised that +such workers enter upon old age at forty. This applies to those +who loosen the coal from <!-- page 248--><a name="page248"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 248</span>the +bed; the loaders, who have constantly to lift heavy blocks of coal into +the tubs, age with the twenty-eighth or thirtieth year, so that it is +proverbial in the coal mining districts that the loaders are old before +they are young. That this premature old age is followed by the +early death of the colliers is a matter of course, and a man who reaches +sixty is a great exception among them. Even in South Staffordshire, +where the mines are comparatively wholesome, few men reach their fifty-first +year. Along with this early superannuation of the workers we naturally +find, just as in the case of the mills, frequent lack of employment +of the elder men, who are often supported by very young children. +If we sum up briefly the results of the work in coal mines, we find, +as Dr. Southwood Smith, one of the commissioners, does, that through +prolonged childhood on the one hand and premature age on the other, +that period of life in which the human being is in full possession of +his powers, the period of manhood, is greatly shortened, while the length +of life in general is below the average. This, too, on the debit +side of the bourgeoisie’s reckoning!</p> +<p>All this deals only with the average of the English coal mines. +But there are many in which the state of things is much worse, those, +namely, in which thin seams of coal are worked. The coal would +be too expensive if a part of the adjacent sand and clay were removed; +so the mine owners permit only the seams to be worked; whereby the passages +which elsewhere are four or five feet high and more are here kept so +low that to stand upright in them is not to be thought of. The +working-man lies on his side and loosens the coal with his pick; resting +upon his elbow as a pivot, whence follow inflammations of the joint, +and in cases where he is forced to kneel, of the knee also. The +women and children who have to transport the coal crawl upon their hands +and knees, fastened to the tub by a harness and chain (which frequently +passes between the legs), while a man behind pushes with hands and head. +The pushing with the head engenders local irritations, painful swellings, +and ulcers. In many cases, too, the shafts are wet, so that these +workers have to crawl through dirty or salt water several inches deep, +being thus exposed to a special irritation of the skin. <!-- page 249--><a name="page249"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 249</span>It +can be readily imagined how greatly the diseases already peculiar to +the miners are fostered by this especially frightful, slavish toil.</p> +<p>But these are not all the evils which descend upon the head of the +coal miner. In the whole British Empire there is no occupation +in which a man may meet his end in so many diverse ways as in this one. +The coal mine is the scene of a multitude of the most terrifying calamities, +and these come directly from the selfishness of the bourgeoisie. +The hydrocarbon gas which develops so freely in these mines, forms, +when combined with atmospheric air, an explosive which takes fire upon +coming into contact with a flame, and kills every one within its reach. +Such explosions take place, in one mine or another, nearly every day; +on September 28th, 1844, one killed 96 men in Haswell Colliery, Durham. +The carbonic acid gas, which also develops in great quantities, accumulates +in the deeper parts of the mine, frequently reaching the height of a +man, and suffocates every one who gets into it. The doors which +separate the sections of the mines are meant to prevent the propagation +of explosions and the movement of the gases; but since they are entrusted +to small children, who often fall asleep or neglect them, this means +of prevention is illusory. A proper ventilation of the mines by +means of fresh air-shafts could almost entirely remove the injurious +effects of both these gases. But for this purpose the bourgeoisie +has no money to spare, preferring to command the working-men to use +the Davy lamp, which is wholly useless because of its dull light, and +is, therefore, usually replaced by a candle. If an explosion occurs, +the recklessness of the miner is blamed, though the bourgeois might +have made the explosion well-nigh impossible by supplying good ventilation. +Further, every few days the roof of a working falls in, and buries or +mangles the workers employed in it. It is the interest of the +bourgeois to have the seams worked out as completely as possible, and +hence the accidents of this sort. Then, too, the ropes by which +the men descend into the mines are often rotten, and break, so that +the unfortunates fall, and are crushed. All these accidents, and +I have no room for special cases, carry off <!-- page 250--><a name="page250"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 250</span>yearly, +according to the <i>Mining Journal</i>, some fourteen hundred human +beings. The <i>Manchester Guardian</i> reports at least two or +three accidents every week for Lancashire alone. In nearly all +mining districts the people composing the coroner’s juries are, +in almost all cases, dependent upon the mine owners, and where this +is not the case, immemorial custom insures that the verdict shall be: +“Accidental Death.” Besides, the jury takes very little +interest in the state of the mine, because it does not understand anything +about the matter. But the Children’s Employment Commission +does not hesitate to make the mine owners directly responsible for the +greater number of these cases.</p> +<p>As to the education and morals of the mining population, they are, +according to the Children’s Employment Commission, pretty good +in Cornwall, and excellent in Alston Moor; in the coal districts, in +general, they are, on the contrary, reported as on an excessively low +plane. The workers live in the country in neglected regions, and +if they do their weary work, no human being outside the police force +troubles himself about them. Hence, and from the tender age at +which children are put to work, it follows that their mental education +is wholly neglected. The day schools are not within their reach, +the evening and Sunday schools mere shams, the teachers worthless. +Hence, few can read and still fewer write. The only point upon +which their eyes are as yet open is the fact that their wages are far +too low for their hateful and dangerous work. To church they go +seldom or never; all the clergy complain of their irreligion as beyond +comparison. As a matter of fact, their ignorance of religious +and of secular things, alike, is such that the ignorance of the factory +operatives, shown in numerous examples in the foregoing pages, is trifling +in comparison with it. The categories of religion are known to +them only from the terms of their oaths. Their morality is destroyed +by their work itself. That the overwork of all miners must engender +drunkenness is self-evident. As to their sexual relations, men, +women, and children work in the mines, in many cases, wholly naked, +and in most cases, nearly so, by reason of the prevailing heat, and +the consequences in the dark, lonely mines may <!-- page 251--><a name="page251"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 251</span>be +imagined. The number of illegitimate children is here disproportionately +large, and indicates what goes on among the half-savage population below +ground; but proves too, that the illegitimate intercourse of the sexes +has not here, as in the great cities, sunk to the level of prostitution. +The labour of women entails the same consequences as in the factories, +dissolves the family, and makes the mother totally incapable of household +work.</p> +<p>When the Children’s Employment Commission’s Report was +laid before Parliament, Lord Ashley hastened to bring in a bill wholly +forbidding the work of women in the mines, and greatly limiting that +of children. The bill was adopted, but has remained a dead letter +in most districts, because no mine inspectors were appointed to watch +over its being carried into effect. The evasion of the law is +very easy in the country districts in which the mines are situated; +and no one need be surprised that the Miners’ Union laid before +the Home Secretary an official notice, last year, that in the Duke of +Hamilton’s coal mines in Scotland, more than sixty women were +at work; or that the <i>Manchester Guardian</i> reported that a girl +perished in an explosion in a mine near Wigan, and no one troubled himself +further about the fact that an infringement of the law was thus revealed. +In single cases the employment of women may have been discontinued, +but in general the old state of things remains as before.</p> +<p>These are, however, not all the afflictions known to the coal miners. +The bourgeoisie, not content with ruining the health of these people, +keeping them in danger of sudden loss of life, robbing them of all opportunity +for education, plunders them in other directions in the most shameless +manner. The truck system is here the rule, not the exception, +and is carried on in the most direct and undisguised manner. The +cottage system, likewise, is universal, and here almost a necessity; +but it is used here, too, for the better plundering of the workers. +To these means of oppression must be added all sorts of direct cheating. +While coal is sold by weight, the worker’s wages are reckoned +chiefly by measure; and when his tub is not perfectly full he receives +no pay whatever, while he gets not a farthing for over-measure. +If <!-- page 252--><a name="page252"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 252</span>there +is more than a specified quantity of dust in the tub, a matter which +depends much less upon the miner than upon the nature of the seam, he +not only loses his whole wage but is fined besides. The fine system +in general is so highly perfected in the coal mines, that a poor devil +who has worked the whole week and comes for his wages, sometimes learns +from the overseer, who fine at discretion and without summoning the +workers, that he not only has no wages but must pay so and so much in +fines extra! The overseer has, in general, absolute power over +wages; he notes the work done, and can please himself as to what he +pays the worker, who is forced to take his word. In some mines, +where the pay is according to weight, false decimal scales are used, +whose weights are not subject to the inspection of the authorities; +in one coal mine there was actually a regulation that any workman who +intended to complain of the falseness of the scales <i>must give notice +to the overseer three weeks in advance</i>! In many districts, +especially in the North of England, it is customary to engage the workers +by the year; they pledge themselves to work for no other employer during +that time, but the mine owner by no means pledges himself to give them +work, so that they are often without it for months together, and if +they seek elsewhere, they are sent to the treadmill for six weeks for +breach of contract. In other contracts, work to the amount of +26s. every 14 days, is promised the miners, but not furnished, in others +still, the employers advance the miners small sums to be worked out +afterwards, thus binding the debtors to themselves. In the North, +the custom is general of keeping the payment of wages one week behindhand, +chaining the miners in this way to their work. And to complete +the slavery of these enthralled workers, nearly all the Justices of +the Peace in the coal districts are mine owners themselves, or relatives +or friends of mine owners, and possess almost unlimited power in these +poor, uncivilised regions where there are few newspapers, these few +in the service of the ruling class, and but little other agitation. +It is almost beyond conception how these poor coal miners have been +plundered and tyrannised over by Justices of the Peace acting as judges +in their own cause.</p> +<p><!-- page 253--><a name="page253"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 253</span>So +it went on for a long time. The workers did not know any better +than that they were there for the purpose of being swindled out of their +very lives. But gradually, even among them, and especially in +the factory districts, where contact with the more intelligent operatives +could not fail of its effect, there arose a spirit of opposition to +the shameless oppression of the “coal kings.” The +men began to form Unions and strike from time to time. In civilised +districts they joined the Chartists body and soul. The great coal +district of the North of England, shut off from all industrial intercourse, +remained backward until, after many efforts, partly of the Chartists +and partly of the more intelligent miners themselves, a general spirit +of opposition arose in 1843. Such a movement seized the workers +of Northumberland and Durham that they placed themselves at the forefront +of a general Union of coal miners throughout the kingdom, and appointed +W. P. Roberts, a Chartist solicitor, of Bristol, their “Attorney +General,” he having distinguished himself in earlier Chartist +trials. The Union soon spread over a great majority of the districts; +agents were appointed in all directions, who held meetings everywhere +and secured new members; at the first conference of delegates, in Manchester, +in 1844, there were 60,000 members represented, and at Glasgow, six +months later, at the second conference, 100,000. Here all the +affairs of the coal miners were discussed and decisions as to the greater +strikes arrived at. Several journals were founded, especially +the <i>Miners’ Advocate</i>, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, for defending +the rights of the miners. On March 31st, 1844, the contracts of +all the miners of Northumberland and Durham expired. Roberts was +empowered to draw up a new agreement, in which the men demanded: (1) +Payment by weight instead of measure; (2) Determination of weight by +means of ordinary scales subject to the public inspectors; (3) Half-yearly +renewal of contracts; (4) Abolition of the fines system and payment +according to work actually done; (5) The employers to guarantee to miners +in their exclusive service at least four days’ work per week, +or wages for the same. This agreement was submitted to the “coal +kings,” and a deputation appointed to negotiate with <!-- page 254--><a name="page254"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 254</span>them; +they answered, however, that for them the Union did not exist, that +they had to deal with single workmen only, and should never recognise +the Union. They also submitted an agreement of their own which +ignored all the foregoing points, and was, naturally, refused by the +miners. War was thus declared. On March 31st, 1844, 40,000 +miners laid down their picks, and every mine in the county stood empty. +The funds of the Union were so considerable that for several months +a weekly contribution of 2s. 6d. could be assured to each family. +While the miners were thus putting the patience of their masters to +the test, Roberts organised with incomparable perseverance both strike +and agitation, arranged for the holding of meetings, traversed England +from one end to the other, preached peaceful and legal agitation, and +carried on a crusade against the despotic Justices of the Peace and +truck masters, such as had never been known in England. This he +had begun at the beginning of the year. Wherever a miner had been +condemned by a Justice of the Peace, he obtained a <i>habeas corpus</i> +from the Court of Queen’s bench, brought his client to London, +and always secured an acquittal. Thus, January 13th, Judge Williams +of Queen’s bench acquitted three miners condemned by the Justices +of the Peace of Bilston, South Staffordshire; the offence of these people +was that they refused to work in a place which threatened to cave in, +and had actually caved in before their return! On an earlier occasion, +Judge Patteson had acquitted six working-men, so that the name Roberts +began to be a terror to the mine owners. In Preston four of his +clients were in jail. In the first week of January he proceeded +thither to investigate the case on the spot, but found, when he arrived, +the condemned all released before the expiration of the sentence. +In Manchester there were seven in jail; Roberts obtained a <i>habeas +corpus</i> and acquittal for all from Judge Wightman. In Prescott +nine coal miners were in jail, accused of creating a disturbance in +St. Helen’s, South Lancashire, and awaiting trial; when Roberts +arrived upon the spot, they were released at once. All this took +place in the first half of February. In April, Roberts released +a miner from jail in Derby, four in Wakefield, <!-- page 255--><a name="page255"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 255</span>and +four in Leicester. So it went on for a time until these Dogberries +came to have some respect for the miners. The truck system shared +the same fate. One after another Roberts brought the disreputable +mine owners before the courts, and compelled the reluctant Justices +of the Peace to condemn them; such dread of this “lightning” +“Attorney General” who seemed to be everywhere at once spread +among them, that at Belper, for instance, upon Roberts’ arrival, +a truck firm published the following notice:</p> +<blockquote><p>“NOTICE!”</p> +<p>“<span class="smcap">pentrich coal mine</span>.</p> +<p>“The Messrs. Haslam think it necessary, in order to prevent +all mistakes, to announce that all persons employed in their colliery +will receive their wages wholly in cash, and may expend them when and +as they choose to do. If they purchase goods in the shops of Messrs. +Haslam they will receive them as heretofore at wholesale prices, but +they are not expected to make their purchases there, and work and wages +will be continued as usual whether purchases are made in these shops +or elsewhere.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>This triumph aroused the greatest jubilation throughout the English +working-class, and brought the Union a mass of new members. Meanwhile +the strike in the North was proceeding. Not a hand stirred, and +Newcastle, the chief coal port, was so stripped of its commodity that +coal had to be brought from the Scotch coast, in spite of the proverb. +At first, while the Union’s funds held out, all went well, but +towards summer the struggle became much more painful for the miners. +The greatest want prevailed among them; they had no money, for the contributions +of the workers of all branches of industry in England availed little +among the vast number of strikers, who were forced to borrow from the +small shopkeepers at a heavy loss. The whole press, with the single +exception of the few proletarian journals, was against them; the bourgeois, +even the few among them who might have had enough sense of justice to +support the miners, learnt from the corrupt Liberal and Conservative +sheets only lies about <!-- page 256--><a name="page256"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 256</span>them. +A deputation of twelve miners who went to London received a sum from +the proletariat there, but this, too, availed little among the mass +who needed support. Yet, in spite of all this, the miners remained +steadfast, and what is even more significant, were quiet and peaceable +in the face of all the hostilities and provocation of the mine owners +and their faithful servants. No act of revenge was carried out, +not a renegade was maltreated, not one single theft committed. +Thus the strike had continued well on towards four months, and the mine +owners still had no prospect of getting the upper hand. One way +was, however, still open to them. They remembered the cottage +system; it occurred to them that the houses of the rebellious spirits +were <span class="smcap">their</span> property. In July, notice +to quit was served the workers, and, in a week, the whole forty thousand +were put out of doors. This measure was carried out with revolting +cruelty. The sick, the feeble, old men and little children, even +women in childbirth, were mercilessly turned from their beds and cast +into the roadside ditches. One agent dragged by the hair from +her bed, and into the street, a woman in the pangs of childbirth. +Soldiers and police in crowds were present, ready to fire at the first +symptom of resistance, on the slightest hint of the Justices of the +Peace, who had brought about the whole brutal procedure. This, +too, the working-men endured without resistance. The hope had +been that the men would use violence; they were spurred on with all +force to infringements of the laws, to furnish an excuse for making +an end of the strike by the intervention of the military. The +homeless miners, remembering the warnings of their Attorney General, +remained unmoved, set up their household goods upon the moors or the +harvested fields, and held out. Some, who had no other place, +encamped on the roadsides and in ditches, others upon land belonging +to other people, whereupon they were prosecuted, and, having caused +“damage of the value of a halfpenny,” were fined a pound, +and, being unable to pay it, worked it out on the treadmill. Thus +they lived eight weeks and more of the wet fag-end of last summer under +the open sky with their families, with no further shelter for themselves +and their little ones than the calico curtains <!-- page 257--><a name="page257"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 257</span>of +their beds; with no other help than the scanty allowances of their Union +and the fast shrinking credit with the small dealers. Hereupon +Lord Londonderry, who owns considerable mines in Durham, threatened +the small tradesmen in “his” town of Seaham with his most +high displeasure if they should continue to give credit to “his” +rebellious workers. This “noble” lord made himself +the first clown of the turnout in consequence of the ridiculous, pompous, +ungrammatical ukases addressed to the workers, which he published from +time to time, with no other result than the merriment of the nation. +When none of their efforts produced any effect, the mine owners imported, +at great expense, hands from Ireland and such remote parts of Wales +as have as yet no labour movement. And when the competition of +workers against workers was thus restored, the strength of the strikers +collapsed. The mine owners obliged them to renounce the Union, +abandon Roberts, and accept the conditions laid down by the employers. +Thus ended at the close of September the great five months’ battle +of the coal miners against the mine owners, a battle fought on the part +of the oppressed with an endurance, courage, intelligence, and coolness +which demands the highest admiration. What a degree of true human +culture, of enthusiasm and strength of character, such a battle implies +on the part of men who, as we have seen in the Children’s Employment +Commission’s Report, were described as late as 1840, as being +thoroughly brutal and wanting in moral sense! But how hard, too, +must have been the pressure which brought these forty thousand colliers +to rise as one man and to fight out the battle like an army not only +well-disciplined but enthusiastic, an army possessed of one single determination, +with the greatest coolness and composure, to a point beyond which further +resistance would have been madness. And what a battle! Not +against visible, mortal enemies, but against hunger, want, misery, and +homelessness, against their own passions provoked to madness by the +brutality of wealth. If they had revolted with violence, they, +the unarmed and defenceless, would have been shot down, and a day or +two would have decided the victory of the owners. This law-abiding +reserve was no fear of the constable’s <!-- page 258--><a name="page258"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 258</span>staff, +it was the result of deliberation, the best proof of the intelligence +and self-control of the working-men.</p> +<p>Thus were the working-men forced once more, in spite of their unexampled +endurance, to succumb to the might of capital. But the fight had +not been in vain. First of all, this nineteen weeks’ strike +had torn the miners of the North of England forever from the intellectual +death in which they had hitherto lain; they have left their sleep, are +alert to defend their interests, and have entered the movement of civilisation, +and especially the movement of the workers. The strike, which +first brought to light the whole cruelty of the owners, has established +the opposition of the workers here, forever, and made at least two-thirds +of them Chartists; and the acquisition of thirty thousand such determined, +experienced men is certainly of great value to the Chartists. +Then, too, the endurance and law-abiding which characterised the whole +strike, coupled with the active agitation which accompanied it, has +fixed public attention upon the miners. On the occasion of the +debate upon the export duty on coal, Thomas Duncombe, the only decidedly +Chartist member of the House of Commons, brought up the condition of +the coal miners, had their petition read, and by his speech forced the +bourgeois journals to publish, at least in their reports of Parliamentary +proceedings, a correct statement of the case. Immediately after +the strike, occurred the explosion at Haswell; Roberts went to London, +demanded an audience with Peel, insisted as representative of the miners +upon a thorough investigation of the case, and succeeded in having the +first geological and chemical notabilities of England, Professors Lyell +and Faraday, commissioned to visit the spot. As several other +explosions followed in quick succession, and Roberts again laid the +details before the Prime Minister, the latter promised to propose the +necessary measures for the protection of the workers, if possible, in +the next session of Parliament, <i>i.e</i>., the present one of 1845. +All this would not have been accomplished if these workers had not, +by means of the strike, proved themselves freedom-loving men worthy +of all respect, and if they had not engaged Roberts as their counsel.</p> +<p><!-- page 259--><a name="page259"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 259</span>Scarcely +had it become known that the coal miners of the North had been forced +to renounce the Union and discharge Roberts, when the miners of Lancashire +formed a Union of some ten thousand men, and guaranteed their Attorney +General a salary of £1200 a year. In the autumn of last +year they collected more than £700, rather more than £200 +of which they expended upon salaries and judicial expenses, and the +rest chiefly in support of men out of work, either through want of employment +or through dissensions with their employers. Thus the working-men +are constantly coming to see more clearly that, united, they too are +a respectable power, and can, in the last extremity, defy even the might +of the bourgeoisie. And this insight, the gain of all labour movements, +has been won for all the miners of England by the Union and the strike +of 1844. In a very short time the difference of intelligence and +energy which now exists in favour of the factory operatives will have +vanished, and the miners of the kingdom will be able to stand abreast +of them in every respect. Thus one piece of standing ground after +another is undermined beneath the feet of the bourgeoisie; and how long +will it be before their whole social and political edifice collapses +with the basis upon which it rests? <a name="citation259"></a><a href="#footnote259">{259}</a></p> +<p>But the bourgeoisie will not take warning. The resistance of +the miners does but embitter it the more. Instead of appreciating +this forward step in the general movement of the workers, the property-holding +class saw in it only a source of rage against a class of people who +are fools enough to declare themselves no longer submissive to the treatment +they had hitherto received. It saw in the just demands of the +non-possessing workers only impertinent discontent, mad rebellion against +“Divine and human order;” and, in the best case, a success +(to be resisted by the bourgeoisie with all its might) won by “ill-intentioned +demagogues who live by agitation and are too lazy to work.” +It sought, of course, without success, to represent to the workers that +Roberts and the Union’s agents whom the Union very naturally had +to <!-- page 260--><a name="page260"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 260</span>pay, +were insolent swindlers, who drew the last farthing from the working-men’s +pockets. When such insanity prevails in the property-holding class, +when it is so blinded by its momentary profit that it no longer has +eyes for the most conspicuous signs of the times, surely all hope of +a peaceful solution of the social question for England must be abandoned. +The only possible solution is a violent revolution, which cannot fail +to take place.</p> +<h2><!-- page 261--><a name="page261"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 261</span>THE +AGRICULTURAL PROLETARIAT.</h2> +<p>We have seen in the introduction how, simultaneously with the small +bourgeoisie and the modest independence of the former workers, the small +peasantry also was ruined when the former Union of industrial and agricultural +work was dissolved, the abandoned fields thrown together into large +farms, and the small peasants superseded by the overwhelming competition +of the large farmers. Instead of being landowners or leaseholders, +as they had been hitherto, they were now obliged to hire themselves +as labourers to the large farmers or the landlords. For a time +this position was endurable, though a deterioration in comparison with +their former one. The extension of industry kept pace with the +increase of population until the progress of manufacture began to assume +a slower pace, and the perpetual improvement of machinery made it impossible +for manufacture to absorb the whole surplus of the agricultural population. +From this time forward, the distress which had hitherto existed only +in the manufacturing districts, and then only at times, appeared in +the agricultural districts too. The twenty-five years’ struggle +with France came to an end at about the same time; the diminished production +at the various seats of the wars, the shutting off of imports, and the +necessity of providing for the British army in Spain, had given English +agriculture an artificial prosperity, and had besides withdrawn to the +army vast numbers of workers from their ordinary occupations. +This check upon the import trade, the opportunity for exportation, and +the military demand for workers, now suddenly came to an end; and the +necessary consequence was what the English call agricultural distress. +The farmers had to sell their corn at low prices, and could, therefore, +pay only low wages. In 1815, in order to keep up prices, the Corn +Laws were passed, prohibiting <!-- page 262--><a name="page262"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 262</span>the +importation of corn so long as the price of wheat continued less than +80 shillings per quarter. These naturally ineffective laws were +several times modified, but did not succeed in ameliorating the distress +in the agricultural districts. All that they did was to change +the disease, which, under free competition from abroad, would have assumed +an acute form, culminating in a series of crises, into a chronic one +which bore heavily but uniformly upon the farm labourers.</p> +<p>For a time after the rise of the agricultural proletariat, the patriarchal +relation between master and man, which was being destroyed for manufacture, +developed here the same relation of the farmer to his hands which still +exists almost everywhere in Germany. So long as this lasted, the +poverty of the farm hands was less conspicuous; they shared the fate +of the farmer, and were discharged only in cases of the direst necessity. +But now all this is changed. The farm hands have become day labourers +almost everywhere, are employed only when needed by the farmers, and, +therefore, often have no work for weeks together, especially in winter. +In the patriarchal time, the hands and their families lived on the farm, +and their children grew up there, the farmer trying to find occupation +on the spot for the oncoming generation; day labourers, then, were the +exception, not the rule. Thus there was, on every farm, a larger +number of hands than were strictly necessary. It became, therefore, +the interest of the farmers to dissolve this relation, drive the farm +hand from the farm, and transform him into a day labourer. This +took place pretty generally towards the year 1830, and the consequence +was that the hitherto latent over-population was set free, the rate +of wages forced down, and the poor-rate enormously increased. +From this time the agricultural districts became the headquarters of +permanent, as the manufacturing districts had long been of periodic, +pauperism; and the modification of the Poor Law was the first measure +which the State was obliged to apply to the daily increasing impoverishment +of the country parishes. Moreover, the constant extension of farming +on a large scale, the introduction of threshing and other machines, +and the employment of women and <!-- page 263--><a name="page263"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 263</span>children +(which is now so general that its effects have recently been investigated +by a special official commission), threw a large number of men out of +employment. It is manifest, therefore, that here, too, the system +of industrial production has made its entrance, by means of farming +on a large scale, by the abolition of the patriarchal relation, which +is of the greatest importance just here, by the introduction of machinery, +steam, and the labour of women and children. In so doing, it has +swept the last and most stationary portion of working humanity into +the revolutionary movement. But the longer agriculture had remained +stationary, the heavier now became the burden upon the worker, the more +violently broke forth the results of the disorganisation of the old +social fabric. The “over-population” came to light +all at once, and could not, as in the manufacturing districts, be absorbed +by the needs of an increasing production. New factories could +always be built, if there were consumers for their products, but new +land could not be created. The cultivation of waste common land +was too daring a speculation for the bad times following the conclusion +of peace. The necessary consequence was that the competition of +the workers among each other reached the highest point of intensity, +and wages fell to the minimum. So long as the old Poor Law existed, +the workers received relief from the rates; wages naturally fell still +lower, because the farmers forced the largest possible number of labourers +to claim relief. The higher poor-rate, necessitated by the surplus +population, was only increased by this measure, and the new Poor Law, +of which we shall have more to say later, was now enacted as a remedy. +But this did not improve matters. Wages did not rise, the surplus +population could not be got rid of, and the cruelty of the new law did +but serve to embitter the people to the utmost. Even the poor-rate, +which diminished at first after the passage of the new law, attained +its old height after a few years. Its only effect was that whereas +previously three to four million half paupers had existed, a million +of total paupers now appeared, and the rest, still half paupers, merely +went without relief. The poverty in the agricultural districts +has increased every year. The people <!-- page 264--><a name="page264"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 264</span>live +in the greatest want, whole families must struggle along with 6, 7, +or 8 shillings a week, and at times have nothing. Let us hear +a description of this population given by a Liberal member of Parliament +as early as 1830. <a name="citation264"></a><a href="#footnote264">{264}</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“An English agricultural labourer and an English +pauper, these words are synonymous. His father was a pauper and +his mother’s milk contained no nourishment. From his earliest +childhood he had bad food, and only half enough to still his hunger, +and even yet he undergoes the pangs of unsatisfied hunger almost all +the time that he is not asleep. He is half clad, and has not more +fire than barely suffices to cook his scanty meal. And so cold +and damp are always at home with him, and leave him only in fine weather. +He is married, but he knows nothing of the joys of the husband and father. +His wife and children, hungry, rarely warm, often ill and helpless, +always careworn and hopeless like himself, are naturally grasping, selfish, +and troublesome, and so, to use his own expression, he hates the sight +of them, and enters his cot only because it offers him a trifle more +shelter from rain and wind than a hedge. He must support his family, +though he cannot do so, whence come beggary, deceit of all sorts, ending +in fully developed craftiness. If he were so inclined, he yet +has not the courage which makes of the more energetic of his class wholesale +poachers and smugglers. But he pilfers when occasion offers, and +teaches his children to lie and steal. His abject and submissive +demeanour towards his wealthy neighbours shows that they treat him roughly +and with suspicion; hence he fears and hates them, but he never will +injure them by force. He is depraved through and through, too +far gone to possess even the strength of despair. His wretched +existence is brief, rheumatism and asthma bring him to the workhouse, +where he will draw his last breath without a single pleasant recollection, +and will make room for another luckless wretch to live and die as he +has done.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Our author adds that besides this class of agricultural labourers, +there is still another, somewhat more energetic and better endowed physically, +mentally, and morally; those, namely, who live as <!-- page 265--><a name="page265"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 265</span>wretchedly, +but were not born to this condition. These he represents as better +in their family life, but smugglers and poachers who get into frequent +bloody conflicts with the gamekeepers and revenue officers of the coast, +become more embittered against society during the prison life which +they often undergo, and so stand abreast of the first class in their +hatred of the property-holders. “And,” he says, in +closing, “this whole class is called, by courtesy, the bold peasantry +of England.”</p> +<p>Down to the present time, this description applies to the greater +portion of the agricultural labourers of England. In June, 1844, +the <i>Times</i> sent a correspondent into the agricultural districts +to report upon the condition of this class, and the report which he +furnished agreed wholly with the foregoing. In certain districts +wages were not more than six shillings a week; not more, that is, that +in many districts in Germany, while the prices of all the necessaries +of life are at least twice as high. What sort of life these people +lead may be imagined; their food scanty and bad, their clothing ragged, +their dwellings cramped and desolate, small, wretched huts, with no +comforts whatsoever; and, for young people, lodging-houses, where men +and women are scarcely separated, and illegitimate intercourse thus +provoked. One or two days without work in the course of a month +must inevitably plunge such people into the direst want. Moreover, +they cannot combine to raise wages, because they are scattered, and +if one alone refuses to work for low wages, there are dozens out of +work, or supported by the rates, who are thankful for the most trifling +offer, while to him who declines work, every other form of relief than +the hated workhouse is refused by the Poor Law guardians as to a lazy +vagabond; for the guardians are the very farmers from whom or from whose +neighbours and acquaintances alone he can get work. And not from +one or two special districts of England do such reports come. +On the contrary, the distress is general, equally great in the North +and South, the East and West. The condition of the labourers in +Suffolk and Norfolk corresponds with that of Devonshire, Hampshire, +and Sussex. Wages are as low in Dorsetshire and Oxfordshire as +in Kent and Surrey, Buckinghamshire and Cambridgeshire.</p> +<p><!-- page 266--><a name="page266"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 266</span>One +especially barbaric cruelty against the working-class is embodied in +the Game Laws, which are more stringent than in any other country, while +the game is plentiful beyond all conception. The English peasant +who, according to the old English custom and tradition, sees in poaching +only a natural and noble expression of courage and daring, is stimulated +still further by the contrast between his own poverty and the <i>car +tel est notre plaisir</i> of the lord, who preserves thousands of hares +and game birds for his private enjoyment. The labourer lays snares, +or shoots here and there a piece of game. It does not injure the +landlord as a matter of fact, for he has a vast superfluity, and it +brings the poacher a meal for himself and his starving family. +But if he is caught he goes to jail, and for a second offence receives +at the least seven years’ transportation. From the severity +of these laws arise the frequent bloody conflicts with the gamekeepers, +which lead to a number of murders every year Hence the post of gamekeeper +is not only dangerous, but of ill-repute and despised. Last year, +in two cases, gamekeepers shot themselves rather than continue their +work. Such is the moderate price at which the landed aristocracy +purchases the noble sport of shooting; but what does it matter to the +lords of the soil? Whether one or two more or less of the “surplus” +live or die matters nothing, and even if in consequence of the Game +Laws half the surplus population could be put out of the way, it would +be all the better for the other half—according to the philanthropy +of the English landlords.</p> +<p>Although the conditions of life in the country, the isolated dwellings, +the stability of the surroundings and occupations, and consequently +of the thoughts, are decidedly unfavourable to all development, yet +poverty and want bear their fruits even here. The manufacturing +and mining proletariat emerged early from the first stage of resistance +to our social order, the direct rebellion of the individual by the perpetration +of crime; but the peasants are still in this stage at the present time. +Their favourite method of social warfare is incendiarism. In the +winter which followed the Revolution of July, in 1830-31, these incendiarisms +first became <!-- page 267--><a name="page267"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 267</span>general. +Disturbances had taken place, and the whole region of Sussex and the +adjacent counties has been brought into a state of excitement in October, +in consequence of an increase of the coastguard (which made smuggling +much more difficult and “ruined the coast”—in the +words of a farmer), changes in the Poor Law, low wages, and the introduction +of machinery. In the winter the farmers’ hay and corn-stacks +were burnt in the fields, and the very barns and stables under their +windows. Nearly every night a couple of such fires blazed up, +and spread terror among the farmers and landlords. The offenders +were rarely discovered, and the workers attributed the incendiarism +to a mythical person whom they named “Swing.” Men +puzzled their brains to discover who this Swing could be and whence +this rage among the poor of the country districts. Of the great +motive power, Want, Oppression, only a single person here and there +thought, and certainly no one in the agricultural districts. Since +that year the incendiarisms have been repeated every winter, with each +recurring unemployed season of the agricultural labourers. In +the winter of 1843-44, they were once more extraordinarily frequent. +There lies before me a series of numbers of the <i>Northern Star</i> +of that time, each one of which contains a report of several incendiarisms, +stating in each case its authority. The numbers wanting in the +following list I have not at hand; but they, too, doubtless contain +a number of cases. Moreover, such a sheet cannot possibly ascertain +all the cases which occur. November 25th, 1843, two cases; several +earlier ones are discussed. December 16th, in Bedfordshire, general +excitement for a fortnight past in consequence of frequent incendiarisms, +of which several take place every night. Two great farmhouses +burnt down within the last few days; in Cambridgeshire four great farmhouses, +Hertfordshire one, and besides these, fifteen other incendiarisms in +different districts. December 30th, in Norfolk one, Suffolk two, +Essex two, Cheshire one, Lancashire one, Derby, Lincoln, and the South +twelve. January 6th, 1844, in all ten. January 13th, seven. +January 20th, four incendiarisms. From this time forward, three +or four incendiarisms per week are reported, and not as formerly until +the <!-- page 268--><a name="page268"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 268</span>spring +only, but far into July and August. And that crimes of this sort +are expected to increase in the approaching hard season of 1844-45, +the English papers already indicate.</p> +<p>What do my readers think of such a state of things in the quiet, +idyllic country districts of England? Is this social war, or is +it not? Is it a natural state of things which can last? +Yet here the landlords and farmers are as dull and stupefied, as blind +to everything which does not directly put money into their pockets, +as the manufacturers and the bourgeoisie in general in the manufacturing +districts. If the latter promise their employees salvation through +the repeal of the Corn Laws, the landlords and a great part of the farmers +promise theirs Heaven upon earth from the maintenance of the same laws. +But in neither case do the property-holders succeed in winning the workers +to the support of their pet hobby. Like the operatives, the agricultural +labourers are thoroughly indifferent to the repeal or non-repeal of +the Corn Laws. Yet the question is an important one for both. +That is to say—by the repeal of the Corn Laws, free competition, +the present social economy is carried to its extreme point; all further +development within the present order comes to an end, and the only possible +step farther is a radical transformation of the social order. <a name="citation268"></a><a href="#footnote268">{268}</a> +For the agricultural labourers the question has, further, the following +important bearing: Free importation of corn involves (how, I cannot +explain <i>here</i>) the emancipation of the farmers from the landlords, +their transformation into Liberals. Towards this consummation +the Anti-Corn Law League has already largely contributed, and this is +its only real service. When the farmers become Liberals, <i>i.e</i>., +conscious bourgeois, the agricultural labourers will inevitably become +Chartists and Socialists; the first change involves the second. +And that a new movement is already beginning among the agricultural +labourers is proved by a meeting which Earl Radnor, a Liberal landlord, +caused to be held in October, 1844, near Highworth, where his <!-- page 269--><a name="page269"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 269</span>estates +lie, to pass resolutions against the Corn Laws. At this meeting, +the labourers, perfectly indifferent as to these laws, demanded something +wholly different, namely small holdings, at low rent, for themselves, +telling Earl Radnor all sorts of bitter truths to his face. Thus +the movement of the working-class is finding its way into the remote, +stationary, mentally dead agricultural districts; and, thanks to the +general distress, will soon be as firmly rooted and energetic as in +the manufacturing districts. <a name="citation269"></a><a href="#footnote269">{269}</a> +As to the religious state of the agricultural labourers, they are, it +is true, more pious than the manufacturing operatives; but they, too, +are greatly at odds with the Church—for in these districts members +of the Established Church almost exclusively are to be found. +A correspondent of the <i>Morning Chronicle</i>, who, over the signature, +“One who has whistled at the plough,” reports his tour through +the agricultural districts, relates, among other things, the following +conversation with some labourers after service: “I asked one of +these people whether the preacher of the day was their own clergyman. +“Yes, blast him! He is our own parson, and begs the whole +time. He’s been always a-begging as long as I’ve known +him.” (The sermon had been upon a mission to the heathen.) +“And as long as I’ve known him too,” added another; +“and I never knew a parson but what was begging for this or the +other.” “Yes,” said a woman, who had just come +out of the church, “and look how wages are going down, and see +the rich vagabonds with whom the parsons eat and drink and hunt. +So help me God, we are more fit to starve in the workhouse than pay +the parsons as go among the heathen.” “And why,” +said another, “don’t they send the parsons as drones every +day in Salisbury Cathedral, for nobody but the bare stones? Why +don’t <i>they</i> go among the heathen?” “They +don’t go,” said the old man whom I had first asked, “because +they are rich, they have all the land they need, they want the money +in order to get rid of the poor parsons. I know what they want. +I know them too long for that.” “But, good friends,” +I asked, “you surely do not always <!-- page 270--><a name="page270"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 270</span>come +out of the church with such bitter feelings towards the preacher? +Why do you go at all?” “What for do we go?” +said the woman. “We must, if we do not want to lose everything, +work and all, we must.” I learned later that they had certain +little privileges of fire-wood and potato land (which they paid for!) +on condition of going to church.” After describing their +poverty and ignorance, the correspondent closes by saying: “And +now I boldly assert that the condition of these people, their poverty, +their hatred of the church, their external submission and inward bitterness +against the ecclesiastical dignitaries, is the rule among the country +parishes of England, and its opposite is the exception.”</p> +<p>If the peasantry of England shows the consequences which a numerous +agricultural proletariat in connection with large farming involves for +the country districts, Wales illustrates the ruin of the small holders. +If the English country parishes reproduce the antagonism between capitalist +and proletarian, the state of the Welsh peasantry corresponds to the +progressive ruin of the small bourgeoisie in the towns. In Wales +are to be found, almost exclusively, small holders, who cannot with +like profit sell their products as cheaply as the larger, more favourably +situated English farmers, with whom, however, they are obliged to compete. +Moreover, in some places the quality of the land admits of the raising +of live stock only, which is but slightly profitable. Then, too, +these Welsh farmers, by reason of their separate nationality, which +they retain pertinaciously, are much more stationary than the English +farmers. But the competition among themselves and with their English +neighbours (and the increased mortgages upon their land consequent upon +this) has reduced them to such a state that they can scarcely live at +all; and because they have not recognised the true cause of their wretched +condition, they attribute it to all sorts of small causes, such as high +tolls, etc, which do check the development of agriculture and commerce, +but are taken into account as standing charges by every one who takes +a holding, and are therefore really ultimately paid by the landlord. +Here, too, the new Poor Law is cordially hated by the tenants, who hover +in perpetual danger of coming under its <!-- page 271--><a name="page271"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 271</span>sway. +In 1843, the famous “Rebecca” disturbances broke out among +the Welsh peasantry; the men dressed in women’s clothing, blackened +their faces, and fell in armed crowds upon the toll-gates, destroyed +them amidst great rejoicing and firing of guns, demolished the toll-keepers’ +houses, wrote threatening letters in the name of the imaginary “Rebecca,” +and once went so far as to storm the workhouse of Carmarthen. +Later, when the militia was called out and the police strengthened, +the peasants drew them off with wonderful skill upon false scents, demolished +toll-gates at one point while the militia, lured by false signal bugles, +was marching in some opposite direction; and betook themselves finally, +when the police was too thoroughly reinforced, to single incendiarisms +and attempts at murder. As usual, these greater crimes were the +end of the movement. Many withdrew from disapproval, others from +fear, and peace was restored of itself. The Government appointed +a commission to investigate the affair and its causes, and there was +an end of the matter. The poverty of the peasantry continues, +however, and will one day, since it cannot under existing circumstances +grow less, but must go on intensifying, produce more serious manifestations +than these humorous Rebecca masquerades.</p> +<p>If England illustrates the results of the system of farming on a +large scale and Wales on a small one, Ireland exhibits the consequences +of overdividing the soil. The great mass of the population of +Ireland consists of small tenants who occupy a sorry hut without partitions, +and a potato patch just large enough to supply them most scantily with +potatoes through the winter. In consequence of the great competition +which prevails among these small tenants, the rent has reached an unheard-of +height, double, treble, and quadruple that paid in England. For +every agricultural labourer seeks to become a tenant-farmer, and though +the division of land has gone so far, there still remain numbers of +labourers in competition for plots. Although in Great Britain +32,000,000 acres of land are cultivated, and in Ireland but 14,000,000; +although Great Britain produces agricultural products to the value of +£150,000,000, and Ireland of but £36,000,000, <!-- page 272--><a name="page272"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 272</span>there +are in Ireland 75,000 agricultural proletarians <i>more</i> than in +the neighbouring island. <a name="citation272a"></a><a href="#footnote272a">{272a}</a> +How great the competition for land in Ireland must be is evident from +this extraordinary disproportion, especially when one reflects that +the labourers in Great Britain are living in the utmost distress. +The consequence of this competition is that it is impossible for the +tenants to live much better than the labourers, by reason of the high +rents paid. The Irish people is thus held in crushing poverty, +from which it cannot free itself under our present social conditions. +These people live in the most wretched clay huts, scarcely good enough +for cattle-pens, have scant food all winter long, or, as the report +above quoted expresses it, they have potatoes half enough thirty weeks +in the year, and the rest of the year nothing. When the time comes +in the spring at which this provision reaches its end, or can no longer +be used because of its sprouting, wife and children go forth to beg +and tramp the country with their kettle in their hands. Meanwhile +the husband, after planting potatoes for the next year, goes in search +of work either in Ireland or England, and returns at the potato harvest +to his family. This is the condition in which nine-tenths of the +Irish country folks live. They are poor as church mice, wear the +most wretched rags, and stand upon the lowest plane of intelligence +possible in a half-civilised country. According to the report +quoted, there are, in a population of 8½ millions, 585,000 heads +of families in a state of total destitution; and according to other +authorities, cited by Sheriff Alison, <a name="citation272b"></a><a href="#footnote272b">{272b}</a> +there are in Ireland 2,300,000 persons who could not live without public +or private assistance—or 27 per cent. of the whole population +paupers!</p> +<p>The cause of this poverty lies in the existing social conditions, +especially in competition here found in the form of the subdivision +of the soil. Much effort has been spent in finding other causes. +It has been asserted that the relation of the tenant to the landlord +who lets his estate in large lots to tenants, who again have their sub-tenants, +and sub-sub-tenants, in turn, so that often ten middlemen <!-- page 273--><a name="page273"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 273</span>come +between the landlord and the actual cultivator—it has been asserted +that the shameful law which gives the landlord the right of expropriating +the cultivator who may have paid his rent duly, if the first tenant +fails to pay the landlord, that this law is to blame for all this poverty. +But all this determines only the form in which the poverty manifests +itself. Make the small tenant a landowner himself and what follows? +The majority could not live upon their holdings even if they had no +rent to pay, and any slight improvement which might take place would +be lost again in a few years in consequence of the rapid increase of +population. The children would then live to grow up under the +improved conditions who now die in consequence of poverty in early childhood. +From another side comes the assertion that the shameless oppression +inflicted by the English is the cause of the trouble. It is the +cause of the somewhat earlier appearance of this poverty, but not of +the poverty itself. Or the blame is laid on the Protestant Church +forced upon a Catholic nation; but divide among the Irish what the Church +takes from them, and it does not reach six shillings a head. Besides, +tithes are a tax upon landed property, not upon the tenant, though he +may nominally pay them; now, since the Commutation Bill of 1838, the +landlord pays the tithes directly and reckons so much higher rent, so +that the tenant is none the better off. And in the same way a +hundred other causes of this poverty are brought forward, all proving +as little as these. This poverty is the result of our social conditions; +apart from these, causes may be found for the manner in which it manifests +itself, but not for the fact of its existence. That poverty manifests +itself in Ireland thus and not otherwise, is owing to the character +of the people, and to their historical development. The Irish +are a people related in their whole character to the Latin nations, +to the French, and especially to the Italians. The bad features +of their character we have already had depicted by Carlyle. Let +us now hear an Irishman, who at least comes nearer to the truth than +Carlyle, with his prejudice in favour of the Teutonic character: <a name="citation273"></a><a href="#footnote273">{273}</a></p> +<blockquote><p><!-- page 274--><a name="page274"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 274</span>“They +are restless, yet indolent, clever and indiscreet, stormy, impatient, +and improvident; brave by instinct, generous without much reflection, +quick to revenge and forgive insults, to make and to renounce friendships, +gifted with genius prodigally, sparingly with judgment.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>With the Irish, feeling and passion predominate; reason must bow +before them. Their sensuous, excitable nature prevents reflection +and quiet, persevering activity from reaching development—such +a nation is utterly unfit for manufacture as now conducted. Hence +they held fast to agriculture, and remained upon the lowest plane even +of that. With the small subdivisions of land, which were not here +artificially created, as in France and on the Rhine, by the division +of great estates, but have existed from time immemorial, an improvement +of the soil by the investment of capital was not to be thought of; and +it would, according to Alison, require 120 million pounds sterling to +bring the soil up to the not very high state of fertility already attained +in England. The English immigration, which might have raised the +standard of Irish civilisation, has contented itself with the most brutal +plundering of the Irish people; and while the Irish, by their immigration +into England, have furnished England a leaven which will produce its +own results in the future, they have little for which to be thankful +to the English immigration.</p> +<p>The attempts of the Irish to save themselves from their present ruin, +on the one hand, take the form of crimes. These are the order +of the day in the agricultural districts, and are nearly always directed +against the most immediate enemies, the landlord’s agents, or +their obedient servants, the Protestant intruders, whose large farms +are made up of the potato patches of hundreds of ejected families. +Such crimes are especially frequent in the South and West. On +the other hand, the Irish hope for relief by means of the agitation +for the repeal of the Legislative Union with England. From all +the foregoing, it is clear that the uneducated Irish must see in the +English their worst enemies; and their first hope of improvement in +the conquest of national independence. But quite as clear is it, +too, that Irish distress cannot be removed by <!-- page 275--><a name="page275"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 275</span>any +Act of Repeal. Such an Act would, however, at once lay bare the +fact that the cause of Irish misery, which now seems to come from abroad, +is really to be found at home. Meanwhile, it is an open question +whether the accomplishment of repeal will be necessary to make this +clear to the Irish. Hitherto, neither Chartism nor Socialism has +had marked success in Ireland.</p> +<p>I close my observations upon Ireland at this point the more readily, +as the Repeal Agitation of 1843 and O’Connell’s trial have +been the means of making the Irish distress more and more known in Germany.</p> +<p>We have now followed the proletariat of the British Islands through +all branches of its activity, and found it everywhere living in want +and misery under totally inhuman conditions. We have seen discontent +arise with the rise of the proletariat, grow, develop, and organise; +we have seen open bloodless and bloody battles of the proletariat against +the bourgeoisie. We have investigated the principles according +to which the fate, the hopes, and fears of the proletariat are determined, +and we have found that there is no prospect of improvement in their +condition.</p> +<p>We have had an opportunity, here and there, of observing the conduct +of the bourgeoisie towards the proletariat, and we have found that it +considers only itself, has only its own advantage in view. However, +in order not to be unjust, let us investigate its mode of action somewhat +more exactly.</p> +<h2><!-- page 276--><a name="page276"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 276</span>THE +ATTITUDE OF THE BOURGEOISIE TOWARDS THE PROLETARIAT.</h2> +<p>In speaking of the bourgeoisie I include the so-called aristocracy, +for this is a privileged class, an aristocracy, only in contrast with +the bourgeoisie, not in contrast with the proletariat. The proletarian +sees in both only the property-holder—<i>i.e</i>., the bourgeois. +Before the privilege of property all other privileges vanish. +The sole difference is this, that the bourgeois proper stands in active +relations with the manufacturing, and, in a measure, with the mining +proletarians, and, as farmer, with the agricultural labourers, whereas +the so-called aristocrat comes into contact with the agricultural labourer +only.</p> +<p>I have never seen a class so deeply demoralised, so incurably debased +by selfishness, so corroded within, so incapable of progress, as the +English bourgeoisie; and I mean by this, especially the bourgeoisie +proper, particularly the Liberal, Corn Law repealing bourgeoisie. +For it nothing exists in this world, except for the sake of money, itself +not excluded. It knows no bliss save that of rapid gain, no pain +save that of losing gold. <a name="citation276"></a><a href="#footnote276">{276}</a> +In the presence of this avarice and lust of gain, it is not possible +for a single human sentiment or opinion to remain untainted. True, +these English bourgeois are good husbands and family men, and have all +sorts of other private virtues, and appear, in ordinary intercourse, +as decent and respectable as all other bourgeois; even in business they +are better to deal with than the Germans; they do not higgle and haggle +so much as our own pettifogging merchants; but how does this help matters? +Ultimately it is self-interest, and especially money gain, which alone +determines them. I once went into Manchester with such a bourgeois, +and spoke to him of the bad, unwholesome method of building, the frightful +<!-- page 277--><a name="page277"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 277</span>condition +of the working-people’s quarters, and asserted that I had never +seen so ill-built a city. The man listened quietly to the end, +and said at the corner where we parted: “And yet there is a great +deal of money made here; good morning, sir.” It is utterly +indifferent to the English bourgeois whether his working-men starve +or not, if only he makes money. All the conditions of life are +measured by money, and what brings no money is nonsense, unpractical, +idealistic bosh. Hence, Political Economy, the Science of Wealth, +is the favourite study of these bartering Jews. Every one of them +is a Political Economist. The relation of the manufacturer to +his operatives has nothing human in it; it is purely economic. +The manufacturer is Capital, the operative Labour. And if the +operative will not be forced into this abstraction, if he insists that +he is not Labour, but a man, who possesses, among other things, the +attribute of labour force, if he takes it into his head that he need +not allow himself to be sold and bought in the market, as the commodity +“Labour,” the bourgeois reason comes to a standstill. +He cannot comprehend that he holds any other relation to the operatives +than that of purchase and sale; he sees in them not human beings, but +hands, as he constantly calls them to their faces; he insists, as Carlyle +says, that “Cash Payment is the only nexus between man and man.” +Even the relation between himself and his wife is, in ninety-nine cases +out of a hundred, mere “Cash Payment.” Money determines +the worth of the man; he is “worth ten thousand pounds.” +He who has money is of “the better sort of people,” is “influential,” +and what <i>he</i> does counts for something in his social circle. +The huckstering spirit penetrates the whole language, all relations +are expressed in business terms, in economic categories. Supply +and demand are the formulas according to which the logic of the English +bourgeois judges all human life. Hence free competition in every +respect, hence the <i>régime</i> of <i>laissez-faire, laissez-aller</i> +in government, in medicine, in education, and soon to be in religion, +too, as the State Church collapses more and more. Free competition +will suffer no limitation, no State supervision; the whole State is +but a burden to it. It would reach its highest <!-- page 278--><a name="page278"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 278</span>perfection +in a <i>wholly</i> ungoverned anarchic society, where each might exploit +the other to his heart’s content. Since, however, the bourgeoisie +cannot dispense with government, but must have it to hold the equally +indispensable proletariat in check, it turns the power of government +against the proletariat and keeps out of its way as far as possible.</p> +<p>Let no one believe, however, that the “cultivated” Englishman +openly brags with his egotism. On the contrary, he conceals it +under the vilest hypocrisy. What? The wealthy English fail +to remember the poor? They who have founded philanthropic institutions, +such as no other country can boast of! Philanthropic institutions +forsooth! As though you rendered the proletarians a service in +first sucking out their very life-blood and then practising your self-complacent, +Pharisaic philanthropy upon them, placing yourselves before the world +as mighty benefactors of humanity when you give back to the plundered +victims the hundredth part of what belongs to them! Charity which +degrades him who gives more than him who takes; charity which treads +the downtrodden still deeper in the dust, which demands that the degraded, +the pariah cast out by society, shall first surrender the last that +remains to him, his very claim to manhood, shall first beg for mercy +before your mercy deigns to press, in the shape of an alms, the brand +of degradation upon his brow. But let us hear the English bourgeoisie’s +own words. It is not yet a year since I read in the <i>Manchester +Guardian</i> the following letter to the editor, which was published +without comment as a perfectly natural, reasonable thing:</p> +<blockquote><p>“<span class="smcap">Mr. Editor</span>,—For +some time past our main streets are haunted by swarms of beggars, who +try to awaken the pity of the passers-by in a most shameless and annoying +manner, by exposing their tattered clothing, sickly aspect, and disgusting +wounds and deformities. I should think that when one not only +pays the poor-rate, but also contributes largely to the charitable institutions, +one had done enough to earn a right to be spared such disagreeable and +impertinent molestations. And why else do we pay such high rates +for the maintenance of the municipal police, <!-- page 279--><a name="page279"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 279</span>if +they do not even protect us so far as to make it possible to go to or +out of town in peace? I hope the publication of these lines in +your widely-circulated paper may induce the authorities to remove this +nuisance; and I remain,—Your obedient servant,</p> +<p>“<span class="smcap">A Lady</span>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>There you have it! The English bourgeoisie is charitable out +of self-interest; it gives nothing outright, but regards its gifts as +a business matter, makes a bargain with the poor, saying: “If +I spend this much upon benevolent institutions, I thereby purchase the +right not to be troubled any further, and you are bound thereby to stay +in your dusky holes and not to irritate my tender nerves by exposing +your misery. You shall despair as before, but you shall despair +unseen, this I require, this I purchase with my subscription of twenty +pounds for the infirmary!” It is infamous, this charity +of a Christian bourgeois! And so writes “A Lady;” +she does well to sign herself such, well that she has lost the courage +to call herself a woman! But if the “Ladies” are such +as this, what must the “Gentlemen” be? It will be +said that this is a single case; but no, the foregoing letter expresses +the temper of the great majority of the English bourgeoisie, or the +editor would not have accepted it, and some reply would have been made +to it, which I watched for in vain in the succeeding numbers. +And as to the efficiency of this philanthropy, Canon Parkinson himself +says that the poor are relieved much more by the poor than by the bourgeoisie; +and such relief given by an honest proletarian who knows himself what +it is to be hungry, for whom sharing his scanty meal is really a sacrifice, +but a sacrifice borne with pleasure, such help has a wholly different +ring to it from the carelessly-tossed alms of the luxurious bourgeois.</p> +<p>In other respects, too, the bourgeoisie assumes a hypocritical, boundless +philanthropy, but only when its own interests require it; as in its +Politics and Political Economy. It has been at work now well on +towards five years to prove to the working-men that it strives to abolish +the Corn Laws solely in their interest. But the long and short +of the matter is this: the Corn Laws keep the price of bread higher +than in other countries, and thus <!-- page 280--><a name="page280"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 280</span>raise +wages, but these high wages render difficult competition of the manufacturers +against other nations in which bread, and consequently wages, are cheaper. +The Corn Laws being repealed, the price of bread falls, and wages gradually +approach those of other European countries, as must be clear to every +one from our previous exposition of the principles according to which +wages are determined. The manufacturer can compete more readily, +the demand for English goods increases, and, with it, the demand for +labour. In consequence of this increased demand wages would actually +rise somewhat, and the unemployed workers be re-employed; but for how +long? The “surplus population” of England, and especially +of Ireland, is sufficient to supply English manufacture with the necessary +operatives, even if it were doubled; and, in a few years, the small +advantage of the repeal of the Corn Laws would be balanced, a new crisis +would follow, and we should be back at the point from which we started, +while the first stimulus to manufacture would have increased population +meanwhile. All this the proletarians understand very well, and +have told the manufacturers to their faces; but, in spite of that, the +manufacturers have in view solely the immediate advantage which the +Corn Laws would bring them. They are too narrow-minded to see +that, even for themselves, no permanent advantage can arise from this +measure, because their competition with each other would soon force +the profit of the individual back to its old level; and thus they continue +to shriek to the working-men that it is purely for the sake of the starving +millions that the rich members of the Liberal party pour hundreds and +thousands of pounds into the treasury of the Anti-Corn Law League, while +every one knows that they are only sending the butter after the cheese, +that they calculate upon earning it all back in the first ten years +after the repeal of the Corn Laws. But the workers are no longer +to be misled by the bourgeoisie, especially since the insurrection of +1842. They demand of every one who presents himself as interested +in their welfare, that he should declare himself in favour of the People’s +Charter as proof of the sincerity of his professions, and in so doing, +they protest against <!-- page 281--><a name="page281"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 281</span>all +outside help, for the Charter is a demand for the power to help themselves. +Whoever declines so to declare himself they pronounce their enemy, and +are perfectly right in so doing, whether he be a declared foe or a false +friend Besides, the Anti-Corn Law League has used the most despicable +falsehoods and tricks to win the support of the workers. It has +tried to prove to them that the money price of labour is in inverse +proportion to the price of corn; that wages are high when grain is cheap, +and <i>vice versa</i>, an assertion which it pretends to prove with +the most ridiculous arguments, and one which is, in itself, more ridiculous +than any other that has proceeded from the mouth of an Economist. +When this failed to help matters, the workers were promised bliss supreme +in consequence of the increased demand in the labour market; indeed, +men went so far as to carry through the streets two models of loaves +of bread, on one of which, by far the larger, was written: “American +Eightpenny Loaf, Wages Four Shillings per Day,” and upon the much +smaller one: “English Eightpenny Loaf, Wages Two Shillings a Day.” +But the workers have not allowed themselves to be misled. They +know their lords and masters too well.</p> +<p>But rightly to measure the hypocrisy of these promises, the practice +of the bourgeoisie must be taken into account. We have seen in +the course of our report how the bourgeoisie exploits the proletariat +in every conceivable way for its own benefit! We have, however, +hitherto seen only how the single bourgeois maltreats the proletariat +upon his own account. Let us turn now to the manner in which the +bourgeoisie as a party, as the power of the State, conducts itself towards +the proletariat. Laws are necessary only because there are persons +in existence who own nothing; and although this is directly expressed +in but few laws, as, for instance, those against vagabonds and tramps, +in which the proletariat as such is outlawed, yet enmity to the proletariat +is so emphatically the basis of the law that the judges, and especially +the Justices of the Peace, who are bourgeois themselves, and with whom +the proletariat comes most in contact, find this meaning in the laws +without further consideration. If a rich man <!-- page 282--><a name="page282"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 282</span>is +brought up, or rather summoned, to appear before the court, the judge +regrets that he is obliged to impose so much trouble, treats the matter +as favourably as possible, and, if he is forced to condemn the accused, +does so with extreme regret, etc. etc., and the end of it all is a miserable +fine, which the bourgeois throws upon the table with contempt and then +departs. But if a poor devil gets into such a position as involves +appearing before the Justice of the Peace—he has almost always +spent the night in the station-house with a crowd of his peers—he +is regarded from the beginning as guilty; his defence is set aside with +a contemptuous “Oh! we know the excuse,” and a fine imposed +which he cannot pay and must work out with several months on the treadmill. +And if nothing can be proved against him, he is sent to the treadmill, +none the less, “as a rogue and a vagabond.” The partisanship +of the Justices of the Peace, especially in the country, surpasses all +description, and it is so much the order of the day that all cases which +are not too utterly flagrant are quietly reported by the newspapers, +without comment. Nor is anything else to be expected. For +on the one hand, these Dogberries do merely construe the law according +to the intent of the farmers, and, on the other, they are themselves +bourgeois, who see the foundation of all true order in the interests +of their class. And the conduct of the police corresponds to that +of the Justices of the Peace. The bourgeois may do what he will +and the police remain ever polite, adhering strictly to the law, but +the proletarian is roughly, brutally treated; his poverty both casts +the suspicion of every sort of crime upon him and cuts him off from +legal redress against any caprice of the administrators of the law; +for him, therefore, the protecting forms of the law do not exist, the +police force their way into his house without further ceremony, arrest +and abuse him; and only when a working-men’s association, such +as the miners, engages a Roberts, does it become evident how little +the protective side of the law exists for the working-men, how frequently +he has to bear all the burdens of the law without enjoying its benefits.</p> +<p>Down to the present hour, the property-holding class in Parliament +<!-- page 283--><a name="page283"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 283</span>still +struggles against the better feelings of those not yet fallen a prey +to egotism, and seeks to subjugate the proletariat still further. +One piece of common land after another is appropriated and placed under +cultivation, a process by which the general cultivation is furthered, +but the proletariat greatly injured. Where there were still commons, +the poor could pasture an ass, a pig, or geese, the children and young +people had a place where they could play and live out of doors; but +this is gradually coming to an end. The earnings of the worker +are less, and the young people, deprived of their playground, go to +the beer-shops. A mass of acts for enclosing and cultivating commons +is passed at every session of Parliament. When the Government +determined during the session of 1844 to force the all monopolising +railways to make travelling possible for the workers by means of charges +proportionate to their means, a penny a mile, and proposed therefore +to introduce such a third class train upon every railway daily, the +“Reverend Father in God,” the Bishop of London, proposed +that Sunday, the only day upon which working-men in work <i>can</i> +travel, be exempted from this rule, and travelling thus be left open +to the rich and shut off from the poor. This proposition was, +however, too direct, too undisguised to pass through Parliament, and +was dropped. I have no room to enumerate the many concealed attacks +of even one single session upon the proletariat. One from the +session of 1844 must suffice. An obscure member of Parliament, +a Mr. Miles, proposed a bill regulating the relation of master and servant +which seemed comparatively unobjectionable. The Government became +interested in the bill, and it was referred to a committee. Meanwhile +the strike among the miners in the North broke out, and Roberts made +his triumphal passage through England with his acquitted working-men. +When the bill was reported by the committee, it was discovered that +certain most despotic provisions had been interpolated in it, especially +one conferring upon the employer the power to bring before any Justice +of the Peace every working-man who had contracted verbally or in writing +to do any work whatsoever, in case of refusal to work or other misbehaviour, +and have him condemned <!-- page 284--><a name="page284"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 284</span>to +prison with hard labour for two months, upon the oath of the employer +or his agent or overlooker, <i>i.e</i>., upon the oath of the accuser. +This bill aroused the working-men to the utmost fury, the more so as +the Ten Hours’ Bill was before Parliament at the same time, and +had called forth a considerable agitation. Hundreds of meetings +were held, hundreds of working-men’s petitions forwarded to London +to Thomas Duncombe, the representative of the interests of the proletariat. +This man was, except Ferrand, the representative of “Young England,” +the only vigorous opponent of the bill; but when the other Radicals +saw that the people were declaring against it, one after the other crept +forward and took his place by Duncombe’s side; and as the Liberal +bourgeoisie had not the courage to defend the bill in the face of the +excitement among the working-men, it was ignominiously lost.</p> +<p>Meanwhile the most open declaration of war of the bourgeoisie upon +the proletariat is Malthus’ Law of Population and the New Poor +Law framed in accordance with it. We have already alluded several +times to the theory of Malthus. We may sum up its final result +in these few words, that the earth is perennially over-populated, whence +poverty, misery, distress, and immorality must prevail; that it is the +lot, the eternal destiny of mankind, to exist in too great numbers, +and therefore in diverse classes, of which some are rich, educated, +and moral, and others more or less poor, distressed, ignorant, and immoral. +Hence it follows in practice, and Malthus himself drew this conclusion, +that charities and poor-rates are, properly speaking, nonsense, since +they serve only to maintain, and stimulate the increase of, the surplus +population whose competition crushes down wages for the employed; that +the employment of the poor by the Poor Law Guardians is equally unreasonable, +since only a fixed quantity of the products of labour can be consumed, +and for every unemployed labourer thus furnished employment, another +hitherto employed must be driven into enforced idleness, whence private +undertakings suffer at cost of Poor Law industry; that, in other words, +the whole problem is not how to support the surplus population, but +how to restrain it <!-- page 285--><a name="page285"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 285</span>as +far as possible. Malthus declares in plain English that the right +to live, a right previously asserted in favour of every man in the world, +is nonsense. He quotes the words of a poet, that the poor man +comes to the feast of Nature and finds no cover laid for him, and adds +that “she bids him begone,” for he did not before his birth +ask of society whether or not he is welcome. This is now the pet +theory of all genuine English bourgeois, and very naturally, since it +is the most specious excuse for them, and has, moreover, a good deal +of truth in it under existing conditions. If, then, the problem +is not to make the “surplus population” useful, to transform +it into available population, but merely to let it starve to death in +the least objectionable way and to prevent its having too many children, +this, of course, is simple enough, provided the surplus population perceives +its own superfluousness and takes kindly to starvation. There +is, however, in spite of the violent exertions of the humane bourgeoisie, +no immediate prospect of its succeeding in bringing about such a disposition +among the workers. The workers have taken it into their heads +that they, with their busy hands, are the necessary, and the rich capitalists, +who do nothing, the surplus population.</p> +<p>Since, however, the rich hold all the power, the proletarians must +submit, if they will not good-temperedly perceive it for themselves, +to have the law actually declare them superfluous. This has been +done by the New Poor Law. The Old Poor Law which rested upon the +Act of 1601 (the 43rd of Elizabeth), naïvely started from the notion +that it is the duty of the parish to provide for the maintenance of +the poor. Whoever had no work received relief, and the poor man +regarded the parish as pledged to protect him from starvation. +He demanded his weekly relief as his right, not as a favour, and this +became, at last, too much for the bourgeoisie. In 1833, when the +bourgeoisie had just come into power through the Reform Bill, and pauperism +in the country districts had just reached its full development, the +bourgeoisie began the reform of the Poor Law according to its own point +of view. A commission was appointed, which investigated the administration +of the Poor Laws, and revealed a multitude of abuses. It was discovered +that <!-- page 286--><a name="page286"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 286</span>the +whole working-class in the country was pauperised and more or less dependent +upon the rates, from which they received relief when wages were low; +it was found that this system by which the unemployed were maintained, +the ill-paid and the parents of large families relieved, fathers of +illegitimate children required to pay alimony, and poverty, in general, +recognised as needing protection, it was found that this system was +ruining the nation, was—</p> +<blockquote><p>“A check upon industry, a reward for improvident +marriage, a stimulus to increased population, and a means of counterbalancing +the effect of an increased population upon wages; a national provision +for discouraging the honest and industrious, and protecting the lazy, +vicious, and improvident; calculated to destroy the bonds of family +life, hinder systematically the accumulation of capital, scatter that +which is already accumulated, and ruin the taxpayers. Moreover, +in the provision of aliment, it sets a premium upon illegitimate children.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>(Words of the Report of the Poor Law Commissioners.) <a name="citation286"></a><a href="#footnote286">{286}</a> +This description of the action of the Old Poor Law is certainly correct; +relief fosters laziness and increase of “surplus population.” +Under present social conditions it is perfectly clear that the poor +man is compelled to be an egotist, and when he can choose, living equally +well in either case, he prefers doing nothing to working. But +what follows therefrom? That our present social conditions are +good for nothing, and not as the Malthusian Commissioners conclude, +that poverty is a crime, and, as such, to be visited with heinous penalties +which may serve as a warning to others.</p> +<p>But these wise Malthusians were so thoroughly convinced of the infallibility +of their theory that they did not for one moment hesitate to cast the +poor into the Procrustean bed of their economic notions and treat them +with the most revolting cruelty. Convinced with Malthus and the +rest of the adherents of free competition that it is best to let each +one take care of himself, they would have preferred to abolish the Poor +Laws altogether. Since, however, they had neither the courage +nor the authority to <!-- page 287--><a name="page287"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 287</span>do +this, they proposed a Poor Law constructed as far as possible in harmony +with the doctrine of Malthus, which is yet more barbarous than that +of <i>laissez-faire</i>, because it interferes actively in cases in +which the latter is passive. We have seen how Malthus characterises +poverty, or rather the want of employment, as a crime under the title +“superfluity,” and recommends for it punishment by starvation. +The commissioners were not quite so barbarous; death outright by starvation +was something too terrible even for a Poor Law Commissioner. “Good,” +said they, “we grant you poor a right to exist, but only to exist; +the right to multiply you have not, nor the right to exist as befits +human beings. You are a pest, and if we cannot get rid of you +as we do of other pests, you shall feel, at least, that you are a pest, +and you shall at least be held in check, kept from bringing into the +world other “surplus,” either directly or through inducing +in others laziness and want of employment. Live you shall, but +live as an awful warning to all those who might have inducements to +become “superfluous.”</p> +<p>They accordingly brought in the New Poor Law, which was passed by +Parliament in 1834, and continues in force down to the present day. +All relief in money and provisions was abolished; the only relief allowed +was admission to the workhouses immediately built. The regulations +for these workhouses, or, as the people call them, Poor Law Bastilles, +is such as to frighten away every one who has the slightest prospect +of life without this form of public charity. To make sure that +relief be applied for only in the most extreme cases and after every +other effort had failed, the workhouse has been made the most repulsive +residence which the refined ingenuity of a Malthusian can invent. +The food is worse than that of the most ill-paid working-man while employed, +and the work harder, or they might prefer the workhouse to their wretched +existence outside. Meat, especially fresh meat, is rarely furnished, +chiefly potatoes, the worst possible bread and oatmeal porridge, little +or no beer. The food of criminal prisoners is better, as a rule, +so that the paupers frequently commit some offence for the purpose of +getting into jail. For the workhouse is <!-- page 288--><a name="page288"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 288</span>a +jail too; he who does not finish his task gets nothing to eat; he who +wishes to go out must ask permission, which is granted or not, according +to his behaviour or the inspector’s whim, tobacco is forbidden, +also the receipt of gifts from relatives or friends outside the house; +the paupers wear a workhouse uniform, and are handed over, helpless +and without redress, to the caprice of the inspectors. To prevent +their labour from competing with that of outside concerns, they are +set to rather useless tasks: the men break stones, “as much as +a strong man can accomplish with effort in a day;” the women, +children, and aged men pick oakum, for I know not what insignificant +use. To prevent the “superfluous” from multiplying, +and “demoralised” parents from influencing their children, +families are broken up, the husband is placed in one wing, the wife +in another, the children in a third, and they are permitted to see one +another only at stated times after long intervals, and then only when +they have, in the opinion of the officials, behaved well. And +in order to shut off the external world from contamination by pauperism +within these bastilles, the inmates are permitted to receive visits +only with the consent of the officials, and in the reception-rooms; +to communicate in general with the world outside only by leave and under +supervision.</p> +<p>Yet the food is supposed to be wholesome and the treatment humane +with all this. But the intent of the law is too loudly outspoken +for this requirement to be in any wise fulfilled. The Poor Law +Commissioners and the whole English bourgeoisie deceive themselves if +they believe the administration of the law possible without these results. +The treatment, which the letter of the law prescribes, is in direct +contradiction of its spirit. If the law in its essence proclaims +the poor criminals, the workhouses prisons, their inmates beyond the +pale of the law, beyond the pale of humanity, objects of disgust and +repulsion, then all commands to the contrary are unavailing. In +practice, the spirit and not the letter of the law is followed in the +treatment of the poor, as in the following few examples:</p> +<p>“In the workhouse at Greenwich, in the summer of 1843, a boy +<!-- page 289--><a name="page289"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 289</span>five +years old was punished by being shut into the dead-room, where he had +to sleep upon the lids of the coffins. In the workhouse at Herne, +the same punishment was inflicted upon a little girl for wetting the +bed at night, and this method of punishment seems to be a favourite +one. This workhouse, which stands in one of the most beautiful +regions of Kent, is peculiar, in so far as its windows open only upon +the court, and but two, newly introduced, afford the inmates a glimpse +of the outer world. The author who relates this in the <i>Illuminated +Magazine</i>, closes his description with the words: “If God punished +men for crimes as man punishes man for poverty, then woe to the sons +of Adam!”</p> +<p>In November, 1843, a man died at Leicester, who had been dismissed +two days before from the workhouse at Coventry. The details of +the treatment of the poor in this institution are revolting. The +man, George Robson, had a wound upon the shoulder, the treatment of +which was wholly neglected; he was set to work at the pump, using the +sound arm; was given only the usual workhouse fare, which he was utterly +unable to digest by reason of the unhealed wound and his general debility; +he naturally grew weaker, and the more he complained, the more brutally +he was treated. When his wife tried to bring him her drop of beer, +she was reprimanded, and forced to drink it herself in the presence +of the female warder. He became ill, but received no better treatment. +Finally, at his own request, and under the most insulting epithets, +he was discharged, accompanied by his wife. Two days later he +died at Leicester, in consequence of the neglected wound and of the +food given him, which was utterly indigestible for one in his condition, +as the surgeon present at the inquest testified. When he was discharged, +there were handed to him letters containing money, which had been kept +back six weeks, and opened, according to a rule of the establishment, +by the inspector! In Birmingham such scandalous occurrences took +place, that finally, in 1843, an official was sent to investigate the +case. He found that four tramps had been shut up naked under a +staircase in a black hole, eight to ten days, often deprived of food +until noon, and that at the severest season of the year. A <!-- page 290--><a name="page290"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 290</span>little +boy had been passed through all grades of punishment known to the institution; +first locked up in a damp, vaulted, narrow, lumber-room; then in the +dog-hole twice, the second time three days and three nights; then the +same length of time in the old dog-hole, which was still worse; then +the tramp-room, a stinking, disgustingly filthy hole, with wooden sleeping +stalls, where the official, in the course of his inspection, found two +other tattered boys, shrivelled with cold, who had been spending three +days there. In the dog-hole there were often seven, and in the +tramp-room, twenty men huddled together. Women, also, were placed +in the dog-hole, because they refused to go to church; and one was shut +four days into the tramp-room, with God knows what sort of company, +and that while she was ill and receiving medicine! Another woman +was placed in the insane department for punishment, though she was perfectly +sane. In the workhouse at Bacton, in Suffolk, in January, 1844, +a similar investigation revealed the fact that a feeble-minded woman +was employed as nurse, and took care of the patients accordingly; while +sufferers, who were often restless at night, or tried to get up, were +tied fast with cords passed over the covering and under the bedstead, +to save the nurses the trouble of sitting up at night. One patient +was found dead, bound in this way. In the St. Pancras workhouse +in London (where the cheap shirts already mentioned are made), an epileptic +died of suffocation during an attack in bed, no one coming to his relief; +in the same house, four to six, sometimes eight children, slept in one +bed. In Shoreditch workhouse a man was placed, together with a +fever patient violently ill, in a bed teeming with vermin. In +Bethnal Green workhouse, London, a woman in the sixth month of pregnancy +was shut up in the reception-room with her two-year-old child, from +February 28th to March 20th, without being admitted into the workhouse +itself, and without a trace of a bed or the means of satisfying the +most natural wants. Her husband, who was brought into the workhouse, +begged to have his wife released from this imprisonment, whereupon he +received twenty-four hours imprisonment, with bread and water, as the +penalty of his insolence. In the workhouse at Slough, near <!-- page 291--><a name="page291"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 291</span>Windsor, +a man lay dying in September, 1844. His wife journeyed to him, +arriving at midnight; and hastening to the workhouse, was refused admission. +She was not permitted to see her husband until the next morning, and +then only in the presence of a female warder, who forced herself upon +the wife at every succeeding visit, sending her away at the end of half-an-hour. +In the workhouse at Middleton, in Lancashire, twelve, and at times eighteen, +paupers, of both sexes, slept in one room. This institution is +not embraced by the New Poor Law, but is administered under an old special +act (Gilbert’s Act). The inspector had instituted a brewery +in the house for his own benefit. In Stockport, July 31st, 1844, +a man, seventy-two years old, was brought before the Justice of the +Peace for refusing to break stones, and insisting that, by reason of +his age and a stiff knee, he was unfit for his work. In vain did +he offer to undertake any work adapted to his physical strength; he +was sentenced to two weeks upon the treadmill. In the workhouse +at Basford, an inspecting official found that the sheets had not been +changed in thirteen weeks, shirts in four weeks, stockings in two to +ten months, so that of forty-five boys but three had stockings, and +all their shirts were in tatters. The beds swarmed with vermin, +and the tableware was washed in the slop-pails. In the west of +London workhouse, a porter who had infected four girls with syphilis +was not discharged, and another who had concealed a deaf and dumb girl +four days and nights in his bed was also retained.</p> +<p>As in life, so in death. The poor are dumped into the earth +like infected cattle. The pauper burial-ground of St. Brides, +London, is a bare morass, in use as a cemetery since the time of Charles +II., and filled with heaps of bones; every Wednesday the paupers are +thrown into a ditch fourteen feet deep; a curate rattles through the +Litany at the top of his speed; the ditch is loosely covered in, to +be re-opened the next Wednesday, and filled with corpses as long as +one more can be forced in. The putrefaction thus engendered contaminates +the whole neighbourhood. In Manchester, the pauper burial-ground +lies opposite to the Old Town, along the Irk: this, too, is a rough, +desolate place. About <!-- page 292--><a name="page292"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 292</span>two +years ago a railroad was carried through it. If it had been a +respectable cemetery, how the bourgeoisie and the clergy would have +shrieked over the desecration! But it was a pauper burial-ground, +the resting-place of the outcast and superfluous, so no one concerned +himself about the matter. It was not even thought worth while +to convey the partially decayed bodies to the other side of the cemetery; +they were heaped up just as it happened, and piles were driven into +newly-made graves, so that the water oozed out of the swampy ground, +pregnant with putrefying matter, and filled the neighbourhood with the +most revolting and injurious gases. The disgusting brutality which +accompanied this work I cannot describe in further detail.</p> +<p>Can any one wonder that the poor decline to accept public relief +under these conditions? That they starve rather than enter these +bastilles? I have the reports of five cases in which persons actually +starving, when the guardians refused them outdoor relief, went back +to their miserable homes and died of starvation rather than enter these +hells. Thus far have the Poor Law Commissioners attained their +object. At the same time, however, the workhouses have intensified, +more than any other measure of the party in power, the hatred of the +working-class against the property-holders, who very generally admire +the New Poor Law.</p> +<p>From Newcastle to Dover, there is but one voice among the workers—the +voice of hatred against the new law. The bourgeoisie has formulated +so clearly in this law its conception of its duties towards the proletariat, +that it has been appreciated even by the dullest. So frankly, +so boldly had the conception never yet been formulated, that the non-possessing +class exists solely for the purpose of being exploited, and of starving +when the property-holders can no longer make use of it. Hence +it is that this new Poor Law has contributed so greatly to accelerate +the labour movement, and especially to spread Chartism; and, as it is +carried out most extensively in the country, it facilitates the development +of the proletarian movement which is arising in the agricultural districts. +Let me add that a similar law in force in Ireland since 1838, affords +a similar refuge for eighty thousand paupers. Here, too, <!-- page 293--><a name="page293"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 293</span>it +has made itself disliked, and would have been intensely hated if it +had attained anything like the same importance as in England. +But what difference does the ill-treatment of eighty thousand proletarians +make in a country in which there are two and a half millions of them? +In Scotland there are, with local exceptions, no Poor Laws.</p> +<p>I hope that after this picture of the New Poor Law and its results, +no word which I have said of the English bourgeoisie will be thought +too stern. In this public measure, in which it acts <i>in corpore</i> +as the ruling power, it formulates its real intentions, reveals the +animus of those smaller transactions with the proletariat, of which +the blame apparently attaches to individuals. And that this measure +did not originate with any one section of the bourgeoisie, but enjoys +the approval of the whole class, is proved by the Parliamentary debates +of 1844. The Liberal party had enacted the New Poor Law; the Conservative +party, with its Prime Minister Peel at the head, defends it, and only +alters some petty-fogging trifles in the Poor Law Amendment Bill of +1844. A Liberal majority carried the bill, a Conservative majority +approved it, and the “Noble Lords” gave their consent each +time. Thus is the expulsion of the proletariat from State and +society outspoken, thus is it publicly proclaimed that proletarians +are not human beings, and do not deserve to be treated as such. +Let us leave it to the proletarians of the British Empire to re-conquer +their human rights. <a name="citation293"></a><a href="#footnote293">{293}</a></p> +<p><!-- page 294--><a name="page294"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 294</span>Such +is the state of the British working-class as I have come to know it +in the course of twenty-one months, through the medium of my own eyes, +and through official and other trustworthy reports. And when I +call this condition, as I have frequently enough done in the foregoing +pages, an utterly unbearable one, I am not alone in so doing. +As early as 1833, Gaskell declared that he despaired of a peaceful issue, +and that a revolution can hardly fail to follow. In 1838, Carlyle +explained Chartism and the revolutionary activity of the working-men +as arising out of the misery in which they live, and only wondered that +they have sat so quietly eight long years at the Barmecide feast, at +which they have been regaled by the Liberal bourgeoisie with empty promises. +And in 1844 he declared that the work of organising labour must be begun +at once “if Europe or at least England, is long to remain inhabitable.” +And the <i>Times</i>, the “first journal of Europe,” said +in June, 1844: “War to palaces, peace unto cabins—that is +a battle-cry of terror which may come to resound throughout our country. +Let the wealthy beware!”</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>Meanwhile, let us review once more the chances of the English bourgeoisie. +In the worst case, foreign manufacture, especially that of America, +may succeed in withstanding English competition, even after the repeal +of the Corn Laws, inevitable in the course of a few years. German +manufacture is now making great efforts, and that of America has developed +with giant strides. America, <!-- page 295--><a name="page295"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 295</span>with +its inexhaustible resources, with its unmeasured coal and iron fields, +with its unexampled wealth of water-power and its navigable rivers, +but especially with its energetic, active population, in comparison +with which the English are phlegmatic dawdlers,—America has in +less than ten years created a manufacture which already competes with +England in the coarser cotton goods, has excluded the English from the +markets of North and South America, and holds its own in China, side +by side with England. If any country is adapted to holding a monopoly +of manufacture, it is America. Should English manufacture be thus +vanquished—and in the course of the next twenty years, if the +present conditions remain unchanged, this is inevitable—the majority +of the proletariat must become forever superfluous, and has no other +choice than to starve or to rebel. Does the English bourgeoisie +reflect upon this contingency? On the contrary; its favourite +economist, M’Culloch, teaches from his student’s desk, that +a country so young as America, which is not even properly populated, +cannot carry on manufacture successfully or dream of competing with +an old manufacturing country like England. It were madness in +the Americans to make the attempt, for they could only lose by it; better +far for them to stick to their agriculture, and when they have brought +their whole territory under the plough, a time may perhaps come for +carrying on manufacture with a profit. So says the wise economist, +and the whole bourgeoisie worships him, while the Americans take possession +of one market after another, while a daring American speculator recently +even sent a shipment of American cotton goods to England, where they +were sold for re-exportation!</p> +<p>But assuming that England retained the monopoly of manufactures, +that its factories perpetually multiply, what must be the result? +The commercial crises would continue, and grow more violent, more terrible, +with the extension of industry and the multiplication of the proletariat. +The proletariat would increase in geometrical proportion, in consequence +of the progressive ruin of the lower middle-class and the giant strides +with which capital is concentrating itself in the hands of the few; +and the proletariat <!-- page 296--><a name="page296"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 296</span>would +soon embrace the whole nation, with the exception of a few millionaires. +But in this development there comes a stage at which the proletariat +perceives how easily the existing power may be overthrown, and then +follows a revolution.</p> +<p>Neither of these supposed conditions may, however, be expected to +arise. The commercial crises, the mightiest levers for all independent +development of the proletariat, will probably shorten the process, acting +in concert with foreign competition and the deepening ruin of the lower +middle-class. I think the people will not endure more than one +more crisis. The next one, in 1846 or 1847, will probably bring +with it the repeal of the Corn Laws <a name="citation296"></a><a href="#footnote296">{296}</a> +and the enactment of the Charter. What revolutionary movements +the Charter may give rise to remains to be seen. But, by the time +of the next following crisis, which, according to the analogy of its +predecessors, must break out in 1852 or 1853, unless delayed perhaps +by the repeal of the Corn Laws or hastened by other influences, such +as foreign competition—by the time this crisis arrives, the English +people will have had enough of being plundered by the capitalists and +left to starve when the capitalists no longer require their services. +If, up to that time, the English bourgeoisie does not pause to reflect—and +to all appearance it certainly will not do so—a revolution will +follow with which none hitherto known can be compared. The proletarians, +driven to despair, will seize the torch which Stephens has preached +to them; the vengeance of the people will come down with a wrath of +which the rage of 1793 gives no true idea. The war of the poor +against the rich will be the bloodiest ever waged. Even the union +of a part of the bourgeoisie with the proletariat, even a general reform +of the bourgeoisie, would not help matters. Besides, the change +of heart of the bourgeoisie could only go as far as a lukewarm <i>juste-milieu</i>; +the more determined, uniting with the workers, would only form a new +Gironde, and succumb in the course of the mighty development. +The prejudices of a whole class cannot be laid aside like an old coat: +least of all, those of the stable, narrow, selfish English bourgeoisie. +These are all inferences which may be drawn with <!-- page 297--><a name="page297"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 297</span>the +greatest certainty: conclusions, the premises for which are undeniable +facts, partly of historical development, partly facts inherent in human +nature. Prophecy is nowhere so easy as in England, where all the +component elements of society are clearly defined and sharply separated. +The revolution must come; it is already too late to bring about a peaceful +solution; but it can be made more gentle than that prophesied in the +foregoing pages. This depends, however, more upon the development +of the proletariat than upon that of the bourgeoisie. In proportion, +as the proletariat absorbs socialistic and communistic elements, will +the revolution diminish in bloodshed, revenge, and savagery. Communism +stands, in principle, above the breach between bourgeoisie and proletariat, +recognises only its historic significance for the present, but not its +justification for the future: wishes, indeed, to bridge over this chasm, +to do away with all class antagonisms. Hence it recognises as +justified, so long as the struggle exists, the exasperation of the proletariat +towards its oppressors as a necessity, as the most important lever for +a labour movement just beginning; but it goes beyond this exasperation, +because Communism is a question of humanity and not of the workers alone. +Besides, it does not occur to any Communist to wish to revenge himself +upon individuals, or to believe that, in general, the single bourgeois +can act otherwise, under existing circumstances, than he does act. +English Socialism, <i>i.e</i>. Communism, rests directly upon the irresponsibility +of the individual. Thus the more the English workers absorb communistic +ideas, the more superfluous becomes their present bitterness, which, +should it continue so violent as at present, could accomplish nothing; +and the more their action against the bourgeoisie will lose its savage +cruelty. If, indeed, it were possible to make the whole proletariat +communistic before the war breaks out, the end would be very peaceful; +but that is no longer possible, the time has gone by. Meanwhile, +I think that before the outbreak of open, declared war of the poor against +the rich, there will be enough intelligent comprehension of the social +question among the proletariat, to enable the communistic party, with +the help of events, to conquer <!-- page 298--><a name="page298"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 298</span>the +brutal element of the revolution and prevent a “Ninth Thermidor.” +In any case, the experience of the French will not have been undergone +in vain, and most of the Chartist leaders are, moreover, already Communists. +And as Communism stands above the strife between bourgeoisie and proletariat, +it will be easier for the better elements of the bourgeoisie (which +are, however, deplorably few, and can look for recruits only among the +rising generation) to unite with it than with purely proletarian Chartism.</p> +<p>If these conclusions have not been sufficiently established in the +course of the present work, there may be other opportunities for demonstrating +that they are necessary consequences of the historical development of +England. But this I maintain, the war of the poor against the +rich now carried on in detail and indirectly will become direct and +universal. It is too late for a peaceful solution. The classes +are divided more and more sharply, the spirit of resistance penetrates +the workers, the bitterness intensifies, the guerilla skirmishes become +concentrated in more important battles, and soon a slight impulse will +suffice to set the avalanche in motion. Then, indeed, will the +war-cry resound through the land: “War to the palaces, peace to +the cottages!”—but then it will be too late for the rich +to beware.</p> +<h2><!-- page 299--><a name="page299"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 299</span>TRANSLATORS +NOTE.</h2> +<p>Being unable at this late day to obtain the original English, the +translator has been compelled to re-translate from the German the passages +quoted in the text from the following sources:—G. Alston, preacher +of St. Philip’s, Bethnal Green.—D. W. P. Alison, F.R.S.E., +“Observations on the Management of the Poor in Scotland,” +1840.—The <i>Artisan</i>, 1842, October number.—J. C. Symonds, +“Arts and Artisans at Home and Abroad,” Edin., 1839.—Report +of the Town Council of Leeds, published in <i>Statistical Journal</i>, +vol. ii., p. 404.—Nassau W. Senior, “Letters on the Factory +Act to the Rt. Hon. the President of the Board of Trade” (Chas. +Poulett Thomson, Esq.), London, 1837.—Report of the Children’s +Employment Commission.—Mr. Parkinson, Canon of Manchester, “On +the Present Condition of the Labouring Poor in Manchester,” 3rd +Ed., 1841.—Factories’ Inquiries Commission’s Report.—E. +G. Wakefield, M. P., “Swing Unmasked; or, The Cause of Rural Incendiarism,” +London, 1831.—A Correspondent of the <i>Morning Chronicle</i>.—Anonymous +pamphlet on “The State of Ireland,” London, 1807; 2nd Ed., +1821.—Report of the Poor Law Commissioners: Extracts from Information +received by the Poor Law Commissioners. Published by Authority, +London, 1833.</p> +<h2><!-- page 300--><a name="page300"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 300</span>INDEX</h2> +<p>Accidents, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page109">109</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page143">143</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page150">150</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page164">164</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page165">165</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page294">294</a></span>.</p> +<p>Adulteration, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page67">67</a></span>, +<i>et seq</i>.</p> +<p>Apprentices, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page169">169</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page191">191</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page197">197</a></span>, +<i>et seq</i>. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page209">209</a></span>.</p> +<p>Charter, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page225">225</a></span>, +<i>et seq</i>. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page280">280</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page296">296</a></span>.</p> +<p>Chartism, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#pagexiv">xiv</a></span>., +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#pagexix">xix</a></span>., <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page65">65</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page123">123</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page228">228</a></span>, +<i>et seq</i>. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page275">275</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page292">292</a></span>.</p> +<p>Chartists, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page135">135</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page176">176</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page199">199</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page231">231</a></span>, <i>et seq</i>. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page253">253</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page258">258</a></span>.</p> +<p>Corn Laws, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page113">113</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page261">261</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page268">268</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page279">279</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page280">280</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page294">294</a></span>.<br /> + League, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page122">122</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page231">231</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page268">268</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page280">280</a></span>.<br /> + Repeal of, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#pagevi">vi</a></span>., +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page17">17</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page231">231</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page232">232</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page275">275</a></span>.</p> +<p>Cottage System, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#pagev">v</a></span>., +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page182">182</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page183">183</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page251">251</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page252">252</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page256">256</a></span>.</p> +<p>Crime—Form of Rebellion, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page266">266</a></span>, +<i>et seq</i>. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page274">274</a></span>.<br /> + Increase of, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page130">130</a></span>, +<i>et seq</i>.<br /> + Juvenile, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page200">200</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page204">204</a></span>.<br /> + Result of Overcrowding, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page65">65</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page120">120</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page121">121</a></span>.</p> +<p>Diseases, Engendered by Dwellings, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page201">201</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page202">202</a></span>.<br /> + Filth, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page35">35</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page40">40</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page41">41</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page64">64</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page96">96</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page97">97</a></span>.<br /> + Occupation, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page162">162</a></span>-3, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page177">177</a></span>-8, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page191">191</a></span>-2, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page206">206</a></span>.<br /> + Overwork, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page153">153</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page155">155</a></span>, <i>et seq</i>. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page171">171</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page245">245</a></span>-6.<br /> + Want, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page30">30</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page73">73</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page88">88</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page108">108</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page199">199</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page210">210</a></span>-11.</p> +<p>Education—Means of, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page108">108</a></span>, +<i>et seq</i>. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page195">195</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page200">200</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page201">201</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page202">202</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page238">238</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page254">254</a></span>.<br /> + Want of, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page90">90</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page91">91</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page126">126</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page129">129</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page148">148</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page149">149</a></span>.</p> +<p>Employment of Children,<br /> + In Agriculture, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page262">262</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page263">263</a></span>.<br /> + In Factories, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page141">141</a></span>, +<i>et seq</i>. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page167">167</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page171">171</a></span>, <i>et seq</i>. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page193">193</a></span>.<br /> + In House Industry, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page191">191</a></span>, +<i>et seq</i>.<br /> + In Mines, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page241">241</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page244">244</a></span>, <i>et seq</i>.<br /> + In the Night, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page191">191</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page207">207</a></span>.</p> +<p>Employment of Women,<br /> + In Agriculture, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page263">263</a></span>.<br /> + In Factories, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page141">141</a></span>, +<i>et seq</i>. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page160">160</a></span>, +<i>et seq</i>. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page175">175</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page192">192</a></span>.<br /> + In Mines, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page241">241</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page242">242</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page248">248</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page249">249</a></span>.<br /> + In Sewing, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page209">209</a></span>, +<i>et seq</i>.</p> +<p>Epidemics, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#pagevi">vi</a></span>., +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page37">37</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page41">41</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page61">61</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page64">64</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page98">98</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page100">100</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page110">110</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page158">158</a></span>.</p> +<p>Factory Acts, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#pagex">x</a></span>., +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#pagexi">xi</a></span>., <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page17">17</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page134">134</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page151">151</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page168">168</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page116">116</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page176">176</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page188">188</a></span>.</p> +<p>Food—Adulteration of, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page98">98</a></span>.<br /> + Insufficiency of, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page32">32</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page74">74</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page101">101</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page102">102</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page193">193</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page208">208</a></span>.<br /> + Quality of, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page68">68</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page71">71</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page91">91</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page140">140</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page201">201</a></span>.</p> +<p>Free Trade, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#pagevii">vii</a></span>., +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#pageviii">viii</a></span>., <i>et +seq</i>. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page183">183</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page234">234</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page268">268</a></span>.</p> +<p>Intemperance, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page102">102</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page127">127</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page128">128</a></span>.</p> +<p>Inventions. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page1">1</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page4">4</a></span>, <i>et seq</i>. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page42">42</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page134">134</a></span>, +<i>et seq</i>. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page223">223</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page224">224</a></span>.</p> +<p>Law—A Bourgeois Institution, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page113">113</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page130">130</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page173">173</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page176">176</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page227">227</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page281">281</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page282">282</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page288">288</a></span>.<br /> + New Poor, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page174">174</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page175">175</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page230">230</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page235">235</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page262">262</a></span>, +<i>et seq</i>. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page269">269</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page284">284</a></span>, <i>et seq</i>.<br /> + Old Poor, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page176">176</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page284">284</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page285">285</a></span>.<br /> + Of Wages, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#pagexi">xi</a></span>., +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page77">77</a></span>, <i>et seq</i>. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page219">219</a></span>.</p> +<p>Mortality, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page100">100</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page101">101</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page104">104</a></span>, +<i>et seq</i>. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page143">143</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page150">150</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page243">243</a></span>.</p> +<p>Parliament, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page17">17</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page96">96</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page111">111</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page214">214</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page228">228</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page251">251</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page283">283</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page287">287</a></span>.</p> +<p>Philanthropy, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page27">27</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page28">28</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page88">88</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page173">173</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page212">212</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page278">278</a></span>.</p> +<p>Police, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page132">132</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page221">221</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page225">225</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page226">226</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page281">281</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page282">282</a></span>.</p> +<p>Reform Bill, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#pageix">ix</a></span>., +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page17">17</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page214">214</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page229">229</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page285">285</a></span>.</p> +<p>Reserve Army, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page85">85</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page90">90</a></span>.</p> +<p>Schools—Day, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page110">110</a></span>, +<i>et seq</i>. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page173">173</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page200">200</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page207">207</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page250">250</a></span>.<br /> + Night, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page110">110</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page250">250</a></span>.<br /> + Sunday, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page111">111</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page202">202</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page250">250</a></span>.</p> +<p>Socialism, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#pagevi">vi</a></span>., +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#pagevii">vii</a></span>., <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#pagexii">xii</a></span>., +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page122">122</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page236">236</a></span>, +<i>et seq</i>. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page275">275</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page297">297</a></span>.</p> +<p>Starvation, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page25">25</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page29">29</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page73">73</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page76">76</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page88">88</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page117">117</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page167">167</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page189">189</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page285">285</a></span>.</p> +<p>Strikes, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#pageix">ix</a></span>., +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#pagexiv">xiv</a></span>., <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#pagexv">xv</a></span>., +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page168">168</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page215">215</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page218">218</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page223">223</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page224">224</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page231">231</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page254">254</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page256">256</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page257">257</a></span>.</p> +<p>Suicide, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page115">115</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page116">116</a></span>.</p> +<p>Surplus Population, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page81">81</a></span>, +<i>et seq</i>. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page139">139</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page263">263</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page266">266</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page280">280</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page287">287</a></span>.</p> +<p>Ten Hours’ Bill, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#pagevii">vii</a></span>., +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page142">142</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page172">172</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page174">174</a></span>, <i>et seq</i>. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page230">230</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page235">235</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page284">284</a></span>.</p> +<p>Truck System, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#pagevii">vii</a></span>., +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#pageviii">viii</a></span>., <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page182">182</a></span>-3, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page185">185</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page252">252</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page253">253</a></span>.</p> +<p>Ventilation of Dwellings, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page36">36</a></span>.<br /> + Mines, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page249">249</a></span>.<br /> + Towns, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page27">27</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page28">28</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page36">36</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page53">53</a></span>, <i>et seq</i>. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page63">63</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page64">64</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page96">96</a></span>, <i>et seq</i>.<br /> + Workrooms, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page155">155</a></span>, +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page156">156</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page158">158</a></span>.</p> +<p>Workhouses, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page287">287</a></span>, +<i>et seq</i>.</p> +<h2>Footnotes.</h2> +<p><a name="footnote7"></a><a href="#citation7">{7}</a> According +to Porter’s <i>Progress of the Nation</i>, London, 1836, vol. +i., 1838, vol. ii., 1843, vol. iii. (official data), and other sources +chiefly official.</p> +<p><a name="footnote20"></a><a href="#citation20">{20}</a> Compare +on this point my “Outlines for a Critique of Political Economy” +in the <i>Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote23"></a><a href="#citation23">{23}</a> This +applies to the time of sailing vessels. The Thames now is a dreary +collection of ugly steamers.—F. E.</p> +<p><a name="footnote32"></a><a href="#citation32">{32}</a> <i>Times</i>, +Oct. 12th, 1843.</p> +<p><a name="footnote33"></a><a href="#citation33">{33}</a> Quoted +by Dr. W. P. Alison, F.R.S.E, Fellow and late President of the Royal +College of Physicians, etc. etc. “Observations on the Management +of the Poor in Scotland and its Effects on the Health of Great Towns.” +Edinburgh, 1840. The author is a religious Tory, brother of the +historian, Archibald Alison.</p> +<p><a name="footnote35a"></a><a href="#citation35a">{35a}</a> +“Report to the Home Secretary from the Poor-Law Commissioners +on an Inquiry into the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Classes in +Great Britain with Appendix.” Presented to both Houses of +Parliament in July 1842, 3 vols. Folio.</p> +<p><a name="footnote35b"></a><a href="#citation35b">{35b}</a> +<i>The Artisan</i>, October, 1842.</p> +<p><a name="footnote38"></a><a href="#citation38">{38}</a> “Arts +and Artisan at Home and Abroad,” by J. C. Symonds, Edinburgh, +1839. The author, as it seems, himself a Scotchman, is a Liberal, +and consequently fanatically opposed to every independent movement of +working-men. The passages here cited are to be found p. 116 <i>et +seq</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote40a"></a><a href="#citation40a">{40a}</a> +It must be borne in mind that these cellars are not mere storing-rooms +for rubbish, but dwellings of human beings.</p> +<p><a name="footnote40b"></a><a href="#citation40b">{40b}</a> +Compare Report of the Town Council in the Statistical Journal, vol. +2, p. 404.</p> +<p><a name="footnote49"></a><a href="#citation49">{49}</a> “The +Moral and Physical Condition of the Working-Classes Employed in the +Cotton Manufacture in Manchester.” By James Ph. Kay, M.D. +2nd Ed. 1832.</p> +<p>Dr. Kay confuses the working-class in general with the factory workers, +otherwise an excellent pamphlet.</p> +<p><a name="footnote55"></a><a href="#citation55">{55}</a> And +yet an English Liberal wiseacre asserts, in the Report of the Children’s +Employment Commission, that these courts are the masterpiece of municipal +architecture, because, like a multitude of little parks, they improve +ventilation, the circulation of air! Certainly, if each court +had two or four broad open entrances facing each other, through which +the air could pour; but they never have two, rarely one, and usually +only a narrow covered passage.</p> +<p><a name="footnote63"></a><a href="#citation63">{63}</a> Nassau +W. Senior. “Letters on the Factory Act to the Rt. Hon. the +President of the Board of Trade” (Chas. Poulett Thompson, Esq.), +London, 1837, p. 24.</p> +<p><a name="footnote64"></a><a href="#citation64">{64}</a> Kay, +loc. cit., p. 32.</p> +<p><a name="footnote65"></a><a href="#citation65">{65}</a> P. +Gaskell. “The Manufacturing Population of England: its Moral, +Social and Physical Condition, and the Changes which have arisen from +the Use of Steam Machinery; with an Examination of Infant Labour.” +“Fiat Justitia,” 1833.—Depicting chiefly the state +of the working-class in Lancashire. The author is a Liberal, but +wrote at a time when it was not a feature of Liberalism to chant the +happiness of the workers. He is therefore unprejudiced, and can +afford to have eyes for the evils of the present state of things, and +especially for the factory system. On the other hand, he wrote +before the Factories Enquiry Commission, and adopts from untrustworthy +sources many assertions afterwards refuted by the Report of the Commission. +This work, although on the whole a valuable one, can therefore only +be used with discretion, especially as the author, like Kay, confuses +the whole working-class with the mill hands. The history of the +development of the proletariat contained in the introduction to the +present work, is chiefly taken from this work of Gaskell’s.</p> +<p><a name="footnote67"></a><a href="#citation67">{67}</a> Thomas +Carlyle. “Chartism,” London, 1840, p. 28.</p> +<p><a name="footnote80"></a><a href="#citation80">{80}</a> Adam +Smith. “Wealth of Nations” I., McCulloch’s edition +in one volume, sect. 8, p. 36: “The wear and tear of a slave, +it has been said, is at the expense of his master, but that of a free +servant is at his own expense. The wear and tear of the latter, +however, is, in reality, as much at the expense of his master as that +of the former. The wages paid to journeymen and servants of every +kind, must be such as may enable them, one with another, to continue +the race of journeymen and servants, according as the increasing, diminishing, +or stationary demand of the society may happen to require. But +though the wear and tear of a free servant be equally at the expense +of his master, it generally costs him much less than that of a slave. +The fund for replacing or repairing, if I may say so, the wear and tear +of the slave, is commonly managed by a negligent master or careless +overseer.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote87"></a><a href="#citation87">{87}</a> And +it came in 1847.</p> +<p><a name="footnote90a"></a><a href="#citation90a">{90a}</a> +Archibald Alison. “Principles of Population and their Connection +with Human Happiness,” two vols., 1840. This Alison is the +historian of the French Revolution, and, like his brother, Dr. W. P. +Alison, a religious Tory.</p> +<p><a name="footnote90b"></a><a href="#citation90b">{90b}</a> +“Chartism,” pp. 28, 31, etc.</p> +<p><a name="footnote95"></a><a href="#citation95">{95}</a> When +as here and elsewhere I speak of society as a responsible whole, having +rights and duties, I mean, of course, the ruling power of society, the +class which at present holds social and political control, and bears, +therefore, the responsibility for the condition of those to whom it +grants no share in such control. This ruling class in England, +as in all other civilised countries, is the bourgeoisie. But that +this society, and especially the bourgeoisie, is charged with the duty +of protecting every member of society, at least, in his life, to see +to it, for example, that no one starves, I need not now prove to my +<i>German</i> readers. If I were writing for the English bourgeoisie, +the case would be different. (And so it is now in Germany. +Our German capitalists are fully up to the English level, in this respect +at least, in the year of grace, 1886.)</p> +<p><a name="footnote100a"></a><a href="#citation100a">{100a}</a> +Dr. Alison. “Management of the Poor in Scotland.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote100b"></a><a href="#citation100b">{100b}</a> +Alison. “Principles of Population,” vol. ii.</p> +<p><a name="footnote100c"></a><a href="#citation100c">{100c}</a> +Dr. Alison in an article read before the British Association for the +Advancement of Science. October, 1844, in York.</p> +<p><a name="footnote104"></a><a href="#citation104">{104}</a> +“Manufacturing Population,” ch 8.</p> +<p><a name="footnote105a"></a><a href="#citation105a">{105a}</a> +Report of Commission of Inquiry into the Employment of Children and +Young Persons in Mines and Collieries and in the Trades and Manufactures +in which numbers of them work together, not being included under the +terms of the Factories’ Regulation Act. First and Second +Reports, Grainger’s Report. Second Report usually cited +as “Children’s Employment Commission’s Report.” +First Report, 1841; Second Report, 1843.</p> +<p><a name="footnote105b"></a><a href="#citation105b">{105b}</a> +Fifth Annual Report of the Reg. Gen. of Births, Deaths, and Marriages.</p> +<p><a name="footnote106"></a><a href="#citation106">{106}</a> +Dr. Cowen. “Vital Statistics of Glasgow.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote107"></a><a href="#citation107">{107}</a> +Report of Commission of Inquiry into the State of Large Towns and Populous +Districts. First Report, 1844. Appendix.</p> +<p><a name="footnote108a"></a><a href="#citation108a">{108a}</a> +Factories’ Inquiry Commission’s Reports, 3rd vol. +Report of Dr. Hawkins on Lancashire, in which Dr. Robertson is cited—the +“Chief Authority for Statistics in Manchester.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote108b"></a><a href="#citation108b">{108b}</a> +Quoted by Dr. Wade from the Report of the Parliamentary Factories’ +Commission of 1832, in his “History of the Middle and Working-Classes.” +London, 1835, 3rd ed.</p> +<p><a name="footnote112a"></a><a href="#citation112a">{112a}</a> +Children’s Employment Commission’s Report. App. Part +II. Q. 18, No. 216, 217, 226, 233, etc. Horne.</p> +<p><a name="footnote112b"></a><a href="#citation112b">{112b}</a> +<i>Ibid</i>. evidence, p. 9, 39; 133.</p> +<p><a name="footnote113a"></a><a href="#citation113a">{113a}</a> +<i>Ibid</i>. p. 9, 36; 146.</p> +<p><a name="footnote113b"></a><a href="#citation113b">{113b}</a> +<i>Ibid</i>. p. 34; 158.</p> +<p><a name="footnote113c"></a><a href="#citation113c">{113c}</a> +Symonds’ Rep. App. Part I., pp. E, 22, <i>et seq</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote115a"></a><a href="#citation115a">{115a}</a> +“Arts and Artisans.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote115b"></a><a href="#citation115b">{115b}</a> +“Principles of Population,” vol. ii. pp. 136, 197.</p> +<p><a name="footnote116"></a><a href="#citation116">{116}</a> +We shall see later how the rebellion of the working-class against the +bourgeoisie in England is legalised by the right of coalition.</p> +<p><a name="footnote117a"></a><a href="#citation117a">{117a}</a> +“Chartism,” p. 34, <i>et seq</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote117b"></a><a href="#citation117b">{117b}</a> +<i>Ibid</i>., p. 40.</p> +<p><a name="footnote119"></a><a href="#citation119">{119}</a> +Shall I call bourgeois witnesses to bear testimony from me here, too? +I select one only, whom every one may read, namely, Adam Smith. +“Wealth of Nations” (McCulloch’s four volume edition), +vol. iii., book 5, chap. 8, p. 297.</p> +<p><a name="footnote120"></a><a href="#citation120">{120}</a> +“Principles of Population,” vol. ii., p. 76, <i>et seq</i>. +p. 82, p. 135.</p> +<p><a name="footnote122"></a><a href="#citation122">{122}</a> +“Philosophy of Manufactures,” London, 1835, p. 406, <i>et +seq</i>. We shall have occasion to refer further to this reputable +work.</p> +<p><a name="footnote125"></a><a href="#citation125">{125}</a> +“On the Present Condition of the Labouring Poor in Manchester,” +etc. By the Rev. Rd. Parkinson, Canon of Manchester, 3d Ed., London +and Manchester, 1841, Pamphlet.</p> +<p><a name="footnote131a"></a><a href="#citation131a">{131a}</a> +“Manufacturing Population of England,” chap. 10.</p> +<p><a name="footnote131b"></a><a href="#citation131b">{131b}</a> +The total of population, about fifteen millions, divided by the number +of convicted criminals (22,733).</p> +<p><a name="footnote134a"></a><a href="#citation134a">{134a}</a> +“The Cotton Manufacture of Great Britain,” by Dr. A. Ure, +1836.</p> +<p><a name="footnote134b"></a><a href="#citation134b">{134b}</a> +“History of the Cotton Manufacture of Great Britain,” by +E. Baines, Esq.</p> +<p><a name="footnote135"></a><a href="#citation135">{135}</a> +“Stubborn Facts from the Factories by a Manchester Operative.” +Published and dedicated to the working-classes, by Wm. Rashleigh, M.P., +London, Ollivier, 1844, p. 28, <i>et seq</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote136"></a><a href="#citation136">{136}</a> +Compare Factories’ Inquiry Commission’s Report.</p> +<p><a name="footnote138"></a><a href="#citation138">{138}</a> +L. Symonds, in “Arts and Artisans.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote140"></a><a href="#citation140">{140}</a> +See Dr. Ure in the “Philosophy of Manufacture.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote141"></a><a href="#citation141">{141}</a> +Report of Factory Inspector, L. Homer, October, 1844: “The state +of things in the matter of wages is greatly perverted in certain branches +of cotton manufacture in Lancashire; there are hundreds of young men, +between twenty and thirty, employed as piecers and otherwise, who do +not get more than 8 or 9 shillings a week, while children under thirteen +years, working under the same roof, earn 5 shillings, and young girls, +from sixteen to twenty years, 10-12 shillings per week.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote143a"></a><a href="#citation143a">{143a}</a> +Report of Factories’ Inquiry Commission. Testimony of Dr. +Hawkins, p. 3.</p> +<p><a name="footnote143b"></a><a href="#citation143b">{143b}</a> +In 1843, among the accidents brought to the Infirmary in Manchester, +one hundred and eighty-nine were from burning.</p> +<p><a name="footnote144"></a><a href="#citation144">{144}</a> +Factories’ Inquiry Commission’s Report, Power’s Report +on Leeds: passim Tufnell Report on Manchester, p. 17. etc.</p> +<p><a name="footnote145"></a><a href="#citation145">{145}</a> +This letter is re-translated from the German, no attempt being made +to re-produce either the spelling or the original Yorkshire dialect.</p> +<p><a name="footnote147a"></a><a href="#citation147a">{147a}</a> +How numerous married women are in the factories is seen from information +furnished by a manufacturer: In 412 factories in Lancashire, 10,721 +of them were employed; of the husbands of these women, but 5,314 were +also employed in the factories, 3,927 were otherwise employed, 821 were +unemployed, and information was wanting as to 659; or two, if not three +men for each factory, are supported by the work of their wives.</p> +<p><a name="footnote147b"></a><a href="#citation147b">{147b}</a> +House of Commons, March 15th, 1844.</p> +<p><a name="footnote147c"></a><a href="#citation147c">{147c}</a> +Factories’ Inquiry Commission’s Report, p. 4.</p> +<p><a name="footnote148a"></a><a href="#citation148a">{148a}</a> +For further examples and information compare Factories’ Inquiry +Commission’s Report. Cowell Evidence, pp. 37, 38, 39, 72, +77, 59; Tufnell Evidence, pp. 9, 15, 45, 54, etc.</p> +<p><a name="footnote148b"></a><a href="#citation148b">{148b}</a> +Cowell Evidence, pp. 35, 37, and elsewhere.</p> +<p><a name="footnote148c"></a><a href="#citation148c">{148c}</a> +Power Evidence, p. 8.</p> +<p><a name="footnote149a"></a><a href="#citation149a">{149a}</a> +Cowell Evidence, p. 57</p> +<p><a name="footnote149b"></a><a href="#citation149b">{149b}</a> +Cowell Evidence, p. 82.</p> +<p><a name="footnote149c"></a><a href="#citation149c">{149c}</a> +Factories’ Inquiry Commission’s Report, p. 4, Hawkins.</p> +<p><a name="footnote151"></a><a href="#citation151">{151}</a> +Stuart Evidence, p. 35.</p> +<p><a name="footnote152a"></a><a href="#citation152a">{152a}</a> +Tufnell Evidence, p. 91.</p> +<p><a name="footnote152b"></a><a href="#citation152b">{152b}</a> +Dr. Loudon Evidence, pp. 12, 13.</p> +<p><a name="footnote153a"></a><a href="#citation153a">{153a}</a> +Dr. Loudon Evidence, p. 16.</p> +<p><a name="footnote153b"></a><a href="#citation153b">{153b}</a> +Drinkwater Evidence, pp. 72, 80, 146, 148, 150 (two brothers); 69 (two +brothers); 155, and many others.</p> +<p>Power Evidence, pp. 63, 66, 67 (two cases); 68 (three cases); 69 +(two cases); in Leeds, pp. 29, 31, 40, 43, 53, <i>et seq</i>.</p> +<p>Loudon Evidence, pp. 4, 7 (four cases); 8 (several cases), etc.</p> +<p>Sir D. Barry Evidence, pp. 6, 8, 13, 21, 22, 44, 55 (three cases), +etc.</p> +<p>Tufnell Evidence, pp. 5, 6, 16, etc.</p> +<p><a name="footnote154a"></a><a href="#citation154a">{154a}</a> +Factories’ Inquiry Commission’s Report, 1836, Sir D. Barry +Evidence, p. 21 (two cases).</p> +<p><a name="footnote154b"></a><a href="#citation154b">{154b}</a> +Factories’ Inquiry Commission’s Report, 1836, Loudon Evidence, +pp. 13, 16, etc.</p> +<p><a name="footnote155"></a><a href="#citation155">{155}</a> +In the spinning-room of a mill at Leeds, too, chairs had been introduced. +Drinkwater Evidence, p. 80.</p> +<p><a name="footnote156"></a><a href="#citation156">{156}</a> +General report by Sir D. Barry.</p> +<p><a name="footnote157a"></a><a href="#citation157a">{157a}</a> +Power Report, p. 74.</p> +<p><a name="footnote157b"></a><a href="#citation157b">{157b}</a> +The surgeons in England are scientifically educated as well as the physicians, +and have, in general, medical as well as surgical practice. They +are in general, for various reasons, preferred to the physicians.</p> +<p><a name="footnote159a"></a><a href="#citation159a">{159a}</a> +This statement is not taken from the report.</p> +<p><a name="footnote159b"></a><a href="#citation159b">{159b}</a> +Tufnell, p. 59.</p> +<p><a name="footnote160a"></a><a href="#citation160a">{160a}</a> +Stuart Evidence, p. 101.</p> +<p><a name="footnote160b"></a><a href="#citation160b">{160b}</a> +Tufnell Evidence, pp. 3, 9, 15.</p> +<p><a name="footnote161"></a><a href="#citation161">{161}</a> +Hawkins Report, p. 4; Evidence, p. 14, etc. etc. Hawkins Evidence, +pp. 11, 13.</p> +<p><a name="footnote162a"></a><a href="#citation162a">{162a}</a> +Cowell Evidence, p. 77.</p> +<p><a name="footnote162b"></a><a href="#citation162b">{162b}</a> +Sir D. Barry Evidence, p. 44.</p> +<p><a name="footnote162c"></a><a href="#citation162c">{162c}</a> +Cowell, p. 35.</p> +<p><a name="footnote163a"></a><a href="#citation163a">{163a}</a> +Dr. Hawkins Evidence, p. 11; Dr. Loudon, p. 14, etc.; Sir D. Barry, +p. 5, etc.</p> +<p><a name="footnote163b"></a><a href="#citation163b">{163b}</a> +Compare Stuart, pp. 13, 70, 101; Mackintosh, p. 24, etc.; Power Report +on Nottingham, on Leeds; Cowell, p. 33, etc.; Barry, p. 12; (five cases +in one factory), pp. 17, 44, 52, 60, etc.; Loudon, p. 13.</p> +<p><a name="footnote167a"></a><a href="#citation167a">{167a}</a> +Stuart, p. 39.</p> +<p><a name="footnote167b"></a><a href="#citation167b">{167b}</a> +“Philosophy of Manufactures,” by Dr. Andrew Ure, p. 277, +<i>et seq</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote168a"></a><a href="#citation168a">{168a}</a> +<i>Ibid</i>., 277.</p> +<p><a name="footnote168b"></a><a href="#citation168b">{168b}</a> +<i>Ibid</i>., p. 298.</p> +<p><a name="footnote168c"></a><a href="#citation168c">{168c}</a> +<i>Ibid</i>., p. 301.</p> +<p><a name="footnote169"></a><a href="#citation169">{169}</a> +Dr. Andrew Ure. “Philosophy of Manufactures,” pp. +405, 406, <i>et seq</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote174"></a><a href="#citation174">{174}</a> +Afterwards Earl of Shaftesbury, died 1885.</p> +<p><a name="footnote176"></a><a href="#citation176">{176}</a> +It is notorious that the House of Commons made itself ridiculous a second +time in the same session in the same way on the Sugar Question, when +it first voted against the ministry and then for it, after an application +of the ministerial whip.</p> +<p><a name="footnote178"></a><a href="#citation178">{178}</a> +Let us hear another competent judge: “If we consider the example +of the Irish in connection with the ceaseless toil of the cotton operative +class, we shall wonder less at their terrible demoralisation. +Continuous exhausting toil, day after day, year after year, is not calculated +to develop the intellectual and moral capabilities of the human being. +The wearisome routine of endless drudgery, in which the same mechanical +process is ever repeated, is like the torture of Sisyphus; the burden +of toil, like the rock, is ever falling back upon the worn-out drudge. +The mind attains neither knowledge nor the power of thought from the +eternal employment of the same muscles. The intellect dozes off +in dull indolence, but the coarser part of our nature reaches a luxuriant +development. To condemn a human being to such work is to cultivate +the animal quality in him. He grows indifferent, he scorns the +impulses and customs which distinguish his kind. He neglects the +conveniences and finer pleasures of life, lives in filthy poverty with +scanty nourishment, and squanders the rest of his earnings in debauchery.”—Dr. +J. Kay.</p> +<p><a name="footnote179a"></a><a href="#citation179a">{179a}</a> +<i>Manchester Guardian</i>, October 30th.</p> +<p><a name="footnote179b"></a><a href="#citation179b">{179b}</a> +“Stubborn Facts,” p. 9 <i>et seq</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote181a"></a><a href="#citation181a">{181a}</a> +Drinkwater Evidence; p. 80.</p> +<p><a name="footnote181b"></a><a href="#citation181b">{181b}</a> +“Stubborn Facts,” pp. 13-17.</p> +<p><a name="footnote184"></a><a href="#citation184">{184}</a> +<i>Sun</i>, a London daily; end of November, 1844.</p> +<p><a name="footnote186"></a><a href="#citation186">{186}</a> +I have neither time nor space to deal in detail with the replies of +the manufacturers to the charges made against them for twelve years +past. These men will not learn because their supposed interest +blinds them. As, moreover, many of their objections have been +met in the foregoing, the following is all that it is necessary for +me to add:</p> +<p>You come to Manchester, you wish to make yourself acquainted with +the state of affairs in England. You naturally have good introductions +to respectable people. You drop a remark or two as to the condition +of the workers. You are made acquainted with a couple of the first +Liberal manufacturers, Robert Hyde Greg, perhaps, Edmund Ashworth, Thomas +Ashton, or others. They are told of your wishes. The manufacturer +understands you, knows what he has to do. He accompanies you to +his factory in the country; Mr. Greg to Quarrybank in Cheshire, Mr. +Ashworth to Turton near Bolton, Mr. Ashton to Hyde. He leads you +through a superb, admirably arranged building, perhaps supplied with +ventilators, he calls your attention to the lofty, airy rooms, the fine +machinery, here and there a healthy-looking operative. He gives +you an excellent lunch, and proposes to you to visit the operatives’ +homes; he conducts you to the cottages, which look new, clean and neat, +and goes with you into this one and that one, naturally only to overlookers, +mechanics, etc., so that you may see “families who live wholly +from the factory.” Among other families you might find that +only wife and children work, and the husband darns stockings. +The presence of the employer keeps you from asking indiscreet questions; +you find every one well-paid, comfortable, comparatively healthy by +reason of the country air; you begin to be converted from your exaggerated +ideas of misery and starvation. But, that the cottage system makes +slaves of the operatives, that there may be a truck shop in the neighbourhood, +that the people hate the manufacturer, this they do not point out to +you, because he is present. He has built a school, church, reading-room, +etc. That he uses the school to train children to subordination, +that he tolerates in the reading-room such prints only as represent +the interests of the bourgeoisie, that he dismisses his employees if +they read Chartist or Socialist papers or books, this is all concealed +from you. You see an easy, patriarchal relation, you see the life +of the overlookers, you see what the bourgeoisie <i>promises</i> the +workers if they become its slaves, mentally and morally. This +“country manufacture” has always been what the employers +like to show, because in it the disadvantages of the factory system, +especially from the point of view of health, are, in part, done away +with by the free air and surroundings, and because the patriarchal servitude +of the workers can here be longest maintained. Dr. Ure sings a +dithyramb upon the theme. But woe to the operatives to whom it +occurs to think for themselves and become Chartists! For them +the paternal affection of the manufacturer comes to a sudden end. +Further, if you should wish to be accompanied through the working-people’s +quarters of Manchester, if you should desire to see the development +of the factory system in a factory town, you may wait long before these +rich bourgeoisie will help you! These gentlemen do not know in +what condition their employees are nor what they want, and they dare +not know things which would make them uneasy or even oblige them to +act in opposition to their own interests. But, fortunately, that +is of no consequence: what the working-men have to carry out, they carry +out for themselves.</p> +<p><a name="footnote189"></a><a href="#citation189">{189}</a> +Grainger Report. Appendix, Part I., pp. 7, 15, <i>et seq</i>., +132-142.</p> +<p><a name="footnote192a"></a><a href="#citation192a">{192a}</a> +Grainger’s whole Report.</p> +<p><a name="footnote192b"></a><a href="#citation192b">{192b}</a> +Grainger Children’s Employment Commission’s Report.</p> +<p><a name="footnote193"></a><a href="#citation193">{193}</a> +Burns, Children’s Employment Commission’s Report.</p> +<p><a name="footnote194"></a><a href="#citation194">{194}</a> +Leach. “Stubborn Facts from the Factories,” p. 47.</p> +<p><a name="footnote196"></a><a href="#citation196">{196}</a> +Leach. “Stubborn Facts from the Factories,” p. 33.</p> +<p><a name="footnote197"></a><a href="#citation197">{197}</a> +Leach. “Stubborn Facts from the Factories,” p. 37-40.</p> +<p><a name="footnote199"></a><a href="#citation199">{199}</a> +Children’s Employment Commission’s Report.</p> +<p><a name="footnote200a"></a><a href="#citation200a">{200a}</a> +See p. 112.</p> +<p><a name="footnote200b"></a><a href="#citation200b">{200b}</a> +Grainger Report and Evidence.</p> +<p><a name="footnote202"></a><a href="#citation202">{202}</a> +Horne Report and Evidence.</p> +<p><a name="footnote203"></a><a href="#citation203">{203}</a> +Dr. Knight, Sheffield.</p> +<p><a name="footnote205"></a><a href="#citation205">{205}</a> +Symonds Report and Evidence.</p> +<p><a name="footnote207"></a><a href="#citation207">{207}</a> +Scriven Report and Evidence.</p> +<p><a name="footnote208"></a><a href="#citation208">{208}</a> +Leifchild Report Append., Part II., p. L 2, ss. 11,12; Franks +Report Append., Part II., p. K 7, s. 48, Tancred Evid. Append., Part +II., p. I 76, etc.—Children’s Employment Commission’s +Rep’t.</p> +<p><a name="footnote210"></a><a href="#citation210">{210}</a> +See <i>Weekly Dispatch</i>, March 16th, 1844.</p> +<p><a name="footnote211"></a><a href="#citation211">{211}</a> +Thomas Hood, the most talented of all the English humorists now living, +and, like all humorists, full of human feeling, but wanting in mental +energy, published at the beginning of 1844 a beautiful poem, “The +Song of the Shirt,” which drew sympathetic but unavailing tears +from the eyes of the daughters of the bourgeoisie. Originally +published in <i>Punch</i>, it made the round of all the papers. +As discussions of the condition of the sewing-women filled all the papers +at the time, special extracts are needless.</p> +<p><a name="footnote214"></a><a href="#citation214">{214}</a> +“Arts and Artisans,” p. 137, <i>et seq</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote221a"></a><a href="#citation221a">{221a}</a> +So called from the East Indian tribe, whose only trade is the murder +of all the strangers who fall into its hands.</p> +<p><a name="footnote221b"></a><a href="#citation221b">{221b}</a> +“What kind of wild justice must it be in the hearts of these men +that prompts them, with cold deliberation, in conclave assembled, to +doom their brother workman, as the deserter of his order and his order’s +cause, to die a traitor’s and a deserter’s death, have him +executed, in default of any public judge and hangman, then by a secret +one; like your old Chivalry Fehmgericht and Secret Tribunal, suddenly +revived in this strange guise; suddenly rising once more on the astonished +eye, dressed not now in mail shirts, but in fustian jackets, meeting +not in Westphalian forests, but in the paved Gallowgate of Glasgow! +Such a temper must be widespread virulent among the many when, even +in its worst acme, it can take such form in the few.”—Carlyle. +“Chartism,” p. 40.</p> +<p><a name="footnote222a"></a><a href="#citation222a">{222a}</a> +Dr. Ure, “Philosophy of Manufacture,” p. 282.</p> +<p><a name="footnote222b"></a><a href="#citation222b">{222b}</a> +<i>Ibid</i>., p. 282.</p> +<p><a name="footnote223a"></a><a href="#citation223a">{223a}</a> +Dr. Ure, “Philosophy of Manufacture,” p. 367.</p> +<p><a name="footnote223b"></a><a href="#citation223b">{223b}</a> +<i>Ibid</i>., p. 366, <i>et seq</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote232"></a><a href="#citation232">{232}</a> +Compare Report of Chambers of Commerce of Manchester and Leeds at the +end of July and beginning of August.</p> +<p><a name="footnote235"></a><a href="#citation235">{235}</a> +See Introduction.</p> +<p><a name="footnote241"></a><a href="#citation241">{241}</a> +According to the census of 1841, the number of working-men employed +in mines in Great Britain, without Ireland, was:</p> +<pre> Men over Men under Women over Women under Together + 20 years 20 years 20 years 20 Years +Coal mines 83,408 32,475 1,185 1,165 118,233 +Copper mines 9,866 3,428 913 1,200 15,407 +Lead mines 9,427 1,932 40 20 11,419 +Iron mines 7,733 2,679 424 73 10,949 +Tin mines 4,602 1,349 68 82 6,101 +Various, the +mineral not +specified 24,162 6,591 472 491 31,616 +Total 137,398 48,454 3,102 3,031 193,725</pre> +<p>As the coal and iron mines are usually worked by the same people, +a part of the miners attributed to the coal mines, and a very considerable +part of those mentioned under the last heading, are to be attributed +to the iron mines.</p> +<p><a name="footnote242"></a><a href="#citation242">{242}</a> +Also found in the Children’s Employment Commission’s Report: +Commissioner Mitchell’s Report.</p> +<p><a name="footnote259"></a><a href="#citation259">{259}</a> +The coal miners have at this moment, 1886, six of their body sitting +in the House of Commons.</p> +<p><a name="footnote264"></a><a href="#citation264">{264}</a> +E. G. Wakefield, M.P. “Swing Unmasked; or, The Cause of +Rural Incendiarism.” London, 1831. Pamphlet. +The foregoing extracts may be found pp. 9-13, the passages dealing in +the original with the then still existing Old Poor Law being here omitted.</p> +<p><a name="footnote268"></a><a href="#citation268">{268}</a> +This has been literally fulfilled. After a period of unexampled +extension of trade, Free Trade has landed England in a crisis, which +began in 1878, and is still increasing in energy in 1886.</p> +<p><a name="footnote269"></a><a href="#citation269">{269}</a> +The agricultural labourers have now a Trade’s Union; their most +energetic representative, Joseph Arch, was elected M.P. in 1885.</p> +<p><a name="footnote272a"></a><a href="#citation272a">{272a}</a> +Report of the Poor Law Commission upon Ireland.</p> +<p><a name="footnote272b"></a><a href="#citation272b">{272b}</a> +“Principles of Population,” vol. ii.</p> +<p><a name="footnote273"></a><a href="#citation273">{273}</a> +“The State of Ireland.” London, 1807; 2nd Ed., 1821. +Pamphlet.</p> +<p><a name="footnote276"></a><a href="#citation276">{276}</a> +Carlyle gives in his “Past and Present” (London, 1843) a +splendid description of the English bourgeoisie and its disgusting money +greed.</p> +<p><a name="footnote286"></a><a href="#citation286">{286}</a> +Extracts from Information received from the Poor Law Commissioners. +Published by authority. London, 1833.</p> +<p><a name="footnote293"></a><a href="#citation293">{293}</a> +To prevent misconstructions and consequent objections, I would observe +that I have spoken of the bourgeoisie as a <i>class</i>, and that all +such facts as refer to individuals serve merely as evidence of the way +of thinking and acting of a <i>class</i>. Hence I have not entered +upon the distinctions between the divers sections, subdivisions and +parties of the bourgeoisie, which have a mere historical and theoretical +significance. And I can, for the same reason, mention but casually +the few members of the bourgeoisie who have shown themselves honourable +exceptions. These are, on the one hand, the pronounced Radicals, +who are almost Chartists, such as a few members of the House of Commons, +the manufacturers Hindly of Ashton, and Fielden of Todmordon (Lancashire), +and, on the other hand, the philanthropic Tories, who have recently +constituted themselves “Young England,” among whom are the +members of Parliament, D’Israeli, Borthwick, Ferrand, Lord John +Manners, etc. Lord Ashley, too, is in sympathy with them. +The hope of Young England is a restoration of the old “Merry England” +with its brilliant features and its romantic feudalism. This object +is of course unattainable and ridiculous, a satire upon all historic +development; but the good intention, the courage to resist the existing +state of things and prevalent prejudices, and to recognise the vileness +of our present condition, is worth something anyhow. Wholly isolated +is the half-German Englishman, Thomas Carlyle, who, originally a Tory, +goes beyond all those hitherto mentioned. He has sounded the social +disorder more deeply than any other English bourgeois, and demands the +organisation of labour.</p> +<p><a name="footnote296"></a><a href="#citation296">{296}</a> +And it did.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING-CLASS</p> +<pre> +IN ENGLAND IN 1844*** + + +***** This file should be named 17306-h.htm or 17306-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/3/0/17306 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: +https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +</pre></body> +</html> diff --git a/17306.txt b/17306.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d4a61b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/17306.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11360 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Condition of the Working-Class in England +in 1844, by Frederick Engels, Translated by Florence Kelley Wischnewetzky + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844 + with a Preface written in 1892 + + +Author: Frederick Engels + + + +Release Date: December 13, 2005 [eBook #17306] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING-CLASS +IN ENGLAND IN 1844*** + + + + + + +Transcribed from the January 1943 George Allen & Unwin reprint of the +March 1892 edition by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + + +The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844 +With a Preface written in 1892 + + +by +FREDERICK ENGELS + +_Translated by Florence Kelley Wischnewetzky_ + +_London_ + +GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD + +_Museum Street_ + + + + +PREFACE + + +The book, an English translation of which is here republished, was first +issued in Germany in 1845. The author, at that time, was young, twenty- +four years of age, and his production bears the stamp of his youth with +its good and its faulty features, of neither of which he feels ashamed. +It was translated into English, in 1885, by an American lady, Mrs. F. +Kelley Wischnewetzky, and published in the following year in New York. +The American edition being as good as exhausted, and having never been +extensively circulated on this side of the Atlantic, the present English +copyright edition is brought out with the full consent of all parties +interested. + +For the American edition, a new Preface and an Appendix were written in +English by the author. The first had little to do with the book itself; +it discussed the American Working-Class Movement of the day, and is, +therefore, here omitted as irrelevant, the second--the original +preface--is largely made use of in the present introductory remarks. + +The state of things described in this book belongs to-day, in many +respects, to the past, as far as England is concerned. Though not +expressly stated in our recognised treatises, it is still a law of modern +Political Economy that the larger the scale on which Capitalistic +Production is carried on, the less can it support the petty devices of +swindling and pilfering which characterise its early stages. The +pettifogging business tricks of the Polish Jew, the representative in +Europe of commerce in its lowest stage, those tricks that serve him so +well in his own country, and are generally practised there, he finds to +be out of date and out of place when he comes to Hamburg or Berlin; and, +again, the commission agent, who hails from Berlin or Hamburg, Jew or +Christian, after frequenting the Manchester Exchange for a few months, +finds out that, in order to buy cotton yarn or cloth cheap, he, too, had +better drop those slightly more refined but still miserable wiles and +subterfuges which are considered the acme of cleverness in his native +country. The fact is, those tricks do not pay any longer in a large +market, where time is money, and where a certain standard of commercial +morality is unavoidably developed, purely as a means of saving time and +trouble. And it is the same with the relation between the manufacturer +and his "hands." + +The revival of trade, after the crisis of 1847, was the dawn of a new +industrial epoch. The repeal of the Corn Laws and the financial reforms +subsequent thereon gave to English industry and commerce all the elbow- +room they had asked for. The discovery of the Californian and Australian +gold-fields followed in rapid succession. The Colonial markets developed +at an increasing rate their capacity for absorbing English manufactured +goods. In India millions of hand-weavers were finally crushed out by the +Lancashire power-loom. China was more and more being opened up. Above +all, the United States--then, commercially speaking, a mere colonial +market, but by far the biggest of them all--underwent an economic +development astounding even for that rapidly progressive country. And, +finally, the new means of communication introduced at the close of the +preceding period--railways and ocean steamers--were now worked out on an +international scale; they realised actually, what had hitherto existed +only potentially, a world-market. This world-market, at first, was +composed of a number of chiefly or entirely agricultural countries +grouped around one manufacturing centre--England--which consumed the +greater part of their surplus raw produce, and supplied them in return +with the greater part of their requirements in manufactured articles. No +wonder England's industrial progress was colossal and unparalleled, and +such that the status of 1844 now appears to us as comparatively primitive +and insignificant. And in proportion as this increase took place, in the +same proportion did manufacturing industry become apparently moralised. +The competition of manufacturer against manufacturer by means of petty +thefts upon the workpeople did no longer pay. Trade had outgrown such +low means of making money; they were not worth while practising for the +manufacturing millionaire, and served merely to keep alive the +competition of smaller traders, thankful to pick up a penny wherever they +could. Thus the truck system was suppressed, the Ten Hours' Bill was +enacted, and a number of other secondary reforms introduced--much against +the spirit of Free Trade and unbridled competition, but quite as much in +favour of the giant-capitalist in his competition with his less favoured +brother. Moreover, the larger the concern, and with it the number of +hands, the greater the loss and inconvenience caused by every conflict +between master and men; and thus a new spirit came over the masters, +especially the large ones, which taught them to avoid unnecessary +squabbles, to acquiesce in the existence and power of Trades' Unions, and +finally even to discover in strikes--at opportune times--a powerful means +to serve their own ends. The largest manufacturers, formerly the leaders +of the war against the working-class, were now the foremost to preach +peace and harmony. And for a very good reason. The fact is, that all +these concessions to justice and philanthropy were nothing else but means +to accelerate the concentration of capital in the hands of the few, for +whom the niggardly extra extortions of former years had lost all +importance and had become actual nuisances; and to crush all the quicker +and all the safer their smaller competitors, who could not make both ends +meet without such perquisites. Thus the development of production on the +basis of the capitalistic system has of itself sufficed--at least in the +leading industries, for in the more unimportant branches this is far from +being the case--to do away with all those minor grievances which +aggravated the workman's fate during its earlier stages. And thus it +renders more and more evident the great central fact, that the cause of +the miserable condition of the working-class is to be sought, not in +these minor grievances, but _in the Capitalistic System itself_. The +wage-worker sells to the capitalist his labour-force for a certain daily +sum. After a few hours' work he has reproduced the value of that sum; +but the substance of his contract is, that he has to work another series +of hours to complete his working-day; and the value he produces during +these additional hours of surplus labour is surplus value, which cost the +capitalist nothing, but yet goes into his pocket. That is the basis of +the system which tends more and more to split up civilised society into a +few Rothschilds and Vanderbilts, the owners of all the means of +production and subsistence, on the one hand, and an immense number of +wage-workers, the owners of nothing but their labour-force, on the other. +And that this result is caused, not by this or that secondary grievance, +but by the system itself--this fact has been brought out in bold relief +by the development of Capitalism in England since 1847. + +Again, the repeated visitations of cholera, typhus, smallpox, and other +epidemics have shown the British bourgeois the urgent necessity of +sanitation in his towns and cities, if he wishes to save himself and +family from falling victims to such diseases. Accordingly, the most +crying abuses described in this book have either disappeared or have been +made less conspicuous. Drainage has been introduced or improved, wide +avenues have been opened out athwart many of the worst "slums" I had to +describe. "Little Ireland" has disappeared, and the "Seven Dials" are +next on the list for sweeping away. But what of that? Whole districts +which in 1844 I could describe as almost idyllic, have now, with the +growth of the towns, fallen into the same state of dilapidation, +discomfort, and misery. Only the pigs and the heaps of refuse are no +longer tolerated. The bourgeoisie have made further progress in the art +of hiding the distress of the working-class. But that, in regard to +their dwellings, no substantial improvement has taken place, is amply +proved by the Report of the Royal Commission "on the Housing of the +Poor," 1885. And this is the case, too, in other respects. Police +regulations have been plentiful as blackberries; but they can only hedge +in the distress of the workers, they cannot remove it. + +But while England has thus outgrown the juvenile state of capitalist +exploitation described by me, other countries have only just attained it. +France, Germany, and especially America, are the formidable competitors +who, at this moment--as foreseen by me in 1844--are more and more +breaking up England's industrial monopoly. Their manufactures are young +as compared with those of England, but increasing at a far more rapid +rate than the latter; and, curious enough, they have at this moment +arrived at about the same phase of development as English manufacture in +1844. With regard to America, the parallel is indeed most striking. +True, the external surroundings in which the working-class is placed in +America are very different, but the same economical laws are at work, and +the results, if not identical in every respect, must still be of the same +order. Hence we find in America the same struggles for a shorter working- +day, for a legal limitation of the working-time, especially of women and +children in factories; we find the truck-system in full blossom, and the +cottage-system, in rural districts, made use of by the "bosses" as a +means of domination over the workers. When I received, in 1886, the +American papers with accounts of the great strike of 12,000 Pennsylvanian +coal-miners in the Connellsville district, I seemed but to read my own +description of the North of England colliers' strike of 1844. The same +cheating of the workpeople by false measure; the same truck-system; the +same attempt to break the miners' resistance by the capitalists' last, +but crushing, resource,--the eviction of the men out of their dwellings, +the cottages owned by the companies. + +I have not attempted, in this translation, to bring the book up to date, +or to point out in detail all the changes that have taken place since +1844. And for two reasons: Firstly, to do this properly, the size of the +book must be about doubled; and, secondly, the first volume of "Das +Kapital," by Karl Marx, an English translation of which is before the +public, contains a very ample description of the state of the British +working-class, as it was about 1865, that is to say, at the time when +British industrial prosperity reached its culminating point. I should, +then, have been obliged again to go over the ground already covered by +Marx's celebrated work. + +It will be hardly necessary to point out that the general theoretical +standpoint of this book--philosophical, economical, political--does not +exactly coincide with my standpoint of to-day. Modern international +Socialism, since fully developed as a science, chiefly and almost +exclusively through the efforts of Marx, did not as yet exist in 1844. My +book represents one of the phases of its embryonic development; and as +the human embryo, in its early stages, still reproduces the gill-arches +of our fish-ancestors, so this book exhibits everywhere the traces of the +descent of modern Socialism from one of its ancestors,--German +philosophy. Thus great stress is laid on the dictum that Communism is +not a mere party doctrine of the working-class, but a theory compassing +the emancipation of society at large, including the capitalist class, +from its present narrow conditions. This is true enough in the abstract, +but absolutely useless, and sometimes worse, in practice. So long as the +wealthy classes not only do not feel the want of any emancipation, but +strenuously oppose the self-emancipation of the working-class, so long +the social revolution will have to be prepared and fought out by the +working-class alone. The French bourgeois of 1789, too, declared the +emancipation of the bourgeoisie to be the emancipation of the whole human +race; but the nobility and clergy would not see it; the +proposition--though for the time being, with respect to feudalism, an +abstract historical truth--soon became a mere sentimentalism, and +disappeared from view altogether in the fire of the revolutionary +struggle. And to-day, the very people who, from the "impartiality" of +their superior standpoint, preach to the workers a Socialism soaring high +above their class interests and class struggles, and tending to reconcile +in a higher humanity the interests of both the contending classes--these +people are either neophytes, who have still to learn a great deal, or +they are the worst enemies of the workers,--wolves in sheeps' clothing. + +The recurring period of the great industrial crisis is stated in the text +as five years. This was the period apparently indicated by the course of +events from 1825 to 1842. But the industrial history from 1842 to 1868 +has shown that the real period is one of ten years; that the intermediate +revulsions were secondary, and tended more and more to disappear. Since +1868 the state of things has changed again, of which more anon. + +I have taken care not to strike out of the text the many prophecies, +amongst others that of an imminent social revolution in England, which my +youthful ardour induced me to venture upon. The wonder is, not that a +good many of them proved wrong, but that so many of them have proved +right, and that the critical state of English trade, to be brought on by +Continental and especially American competition, which I then +foresaw--though in too short a period--has now actually come to pass. In +this respect I can, and am bound to, bring the book up to date, by +placing here an article which I published in the _London Commonweal_ of +March 1, 1885, under the heading: "England in 1845 and in 1885." It +gives at the same time a short outline of the history of the English +working-class during these forty years, and is as follows: + + "Forty years ago England stood face to face with a crisis, solvable to + all appearances by force only. The immense and rapid development of + manufactures had outstripped the extension of foreign markets and the + increase of demand. Every ten years the march of industry was + violently interrupted by a general commercial crash, followed, after a + long period of chronic depression, by a few short years of prosperity, + and always ending in feverish over-production and consequent renewed + collapse. The capitalist class clamoured for Free Trade in corn, and + threatened to enforce it by sending the starving population of the + towns back to the country districts whence they came, to invade them, + as John Bright said, not as paupers begging for bread, but as an army + quartered upon the enemy. The working masses of the towns demanded + their share of political power--the People's Charter; they were + supported by the majority of the small trading class, and the only + difference between the two was whether the Charter should be carried + by physical or by moral force. Then came the commercial crash of 1847 + and the Irish famine, and with both the prospect of revolution + + "The French Revolution of 1848 saved the English middle-class. The + Socialistic pronunciamentos of the victorious French workmen + frightened the small middle-class of England and disorganised the + narrower, but more matter-of-fact movement of the English + working-class. At the very moment when Chartism was bound to assert + itself in its full strength, it collapsed internally, before even it + collapsed externally on the 10th of April, 1848. The action of the + working-class was thrust into the background. The capitalist class + triumphed along the whole line. + + "The Reform Bill of 1831 had been the victory of the whole capitalist + class over the landed aristocracy. The repeal of the Corn Laws was + the victory of the manufacturing capitalist not only over the landed + aristocracy, but over those sections of capitalists, too, whose + interests were more or less bound up with the landed + interest,--bankers, stock-jobbers, fund-holders, etc. Free Trade + meant the re-adjustment of the whole home and foreign, commercial and + financial policy of England in accordance with the interests of the + manufacturing capitalists--the class which now represented the nation. + And they set about this task with a will. Every obstacle to + industrial production was mercilessly removed. The tariff and the + whole system of taxation were revolutionised. Everything was made + subordinate to one end, but that end of the utmost importance to the + manufacturing capitalist: the cheapening of all raw produce, and + especially of the means of living of the working-class; the reduction + of the cost of raw material, and the keeping down--if not as yet the + _bringing down_--of wages. England was to become the 'workshop of the + world;' all other countries were to become for England what Ireland + already was,--markets for her manufactured goods, supplying her in + return with raw materials and food. England the great manufacturing + centre of an agricultural world, with an ever-increasing number of + corn and cotton-growing Irelands revolving around her, the industrial + sun. What a glorious prospect! + + "The manufacturing capitalists set about the realisation of this their + great object with that strong common sense and that contempt for + traditional principles which has ever distinguished them from their + more narrow-minded compeers on the Continent. Chartism was dying out. + The revival of commercial prosperity, natural after the revulsion of + 1847 had spent itself, was put down altogether to the credit of Free + Trade. Both these circumstances had turned the English working-class, + politically, into the tail of the 'great Liberal party,' the party led + by the manufacturers. This advantage, once gained, had to be + perpetuated. And the manufacturing capitalists, from the Chartist + opposition, not to Free Trade, but to the transformation of Free Trade + into the one vital national question, had learnt, and were learning + more and more, that the middle-class can never obtain full social and + political power over the nation except by the help of the + working-class. Thus a gradual change came over the relations between + both classes. The Factory Acts, once the bugbear of all + manufacturers, were not only willingly submitted to, but their + expansion into acts regulating almost all trades, was tolerated. + Trades' Unions, hitherto considered inventions of the devil himself, + were now petted and patronised as perfectly legitimate institutions, + and as useful means of spreading sound economical doctrines amongst + the workers. Even strikes, than which nothing had been more nefarious + up to 1848, were now gradually found out to be occasionally very + useful, especially when provoked by the masters themselves, at their + own time. Of the legal enactments, placing the workman at a lower + level or at a disadvantage with regard to the master, at least the + most revolting were repealed. And, practically, that horrid 'People's + Charter' actually became the political programme of the very + manufacturers who had opposed it to the last. 'The Abolition of the + Property Qualification' and 'Vote by Ballot' are now the law of the + land. The Reform Acts of 1867 and 1884 make a near approach to + 'universal suffrage,' at least such as it now exists in Germany; the + Redistribution Bill now before Parliament creates 'equal electoral + districts'--on the whole not more unequal than those of Germany; + 'payment of members,' and shorter, if not actually 'annual + Parliaments,' are visibly looming in the distance--and yet there are + people who say that Chartism is dead. + + "The Revolution of 1848, not less than many of its predecessors, has + had strange bedfellows and successors. The very people who put it + down have become, as Karl Marx used to say, its testamentary + executors. Louis Napoleon had to create an independent and united + Italy, Bismarck had to revolutionise Germany and to restore Hungarian + independence, and the English manufacturers had to enact the People's + Charter. + + "For England, the effects of this domination of the manufacturing + capitalists were at first startling. Trade revived and extended to a + degree unheard of even in this cradle of modern industry; the previous + astounding creations of steam and machinery dwindled into nothing + compared with the immense mass of productions of the twenty years from + 1850 to 1870, with the overwhelming figures of exports and imports, of + wealth accumulated in the hands of capitalists and of human working + power concentrated in the large towns. The progress was indeed + interrupted, as before, by a crisis every ten years, in 1857 as well + as in 1866; but these revulsions were now considered as natural, + inevitable events, which must be fatalistically submitted to, and + which always set themselves right in the end. + + "And the condition of the working-class during this period? There was + temporary improvement even for the great mass. But this improvement + always was reduced to the old level by the influx of the great body of + the unemployed reserve, by the constant superseding of bands by new + machinery, by the immigration of the agricultural population, now, + too, more and more superseded by machines. + + "A permanent improvement can be recognised for two 'protected' + sections only of the working-class. Firstly, the factory hands. The + fixing by Act of Parliament of their working-day within relatively + rational limits has restored their physical constitution and endowed + them with a moral superiority, enhanced by their local concentration. + They are undoubtedly better off than before 1848. The best proof is + that, out of ten strikes they make, nine are provoked by the + manufacturers in their own interests, as the only means of securing a + reduced production. You can never get the masters to agree to work + 'short time,' let manufactured goods be ever so unsaleable; but get + the workpeople to strike, and the masters shut their factories to a + man. + + "Secondly, the great Trades' Unions. They are the organisations of + those trades in which the labour of _grown-up men_ predominates, or is + alone applicable. Here the competition neither of women and children + nor of machinery has so far weakened their organised strength. The + engineers, the carpenters, and joiners, the bricklayers, are each of + them a power, to that extent that, as in the case of the bricklayers + and bricklayers' labourers, they can even successfully resist the + introduction of machinery. That their condition has remarkably + improved since 1848 there can be no doubt, and the best proof of this + is in the fact, that for more than fifteen years not only have their + employers been with them, but they with their employers, upon + exceedingly good terms. They form an aristocracy among the working- + class; they have succeeded in enforcing for themselves a relatively + comfortable position, and they accept it as final. They are the model + working-men of Messrs. Leone Levi & Giffen, and they are very nice + people indeed nowadays to deal with, for any sensible capitalist in + particular and for the whole capitalist class in general. + + "But as to the great mass of working-people, the state of misery and + insecurity in which they live now is as low as ever, if not lower. The + East End of London is an everspreading pool of stagnant misery and + desolation, of starvation when out of work, and degradation, physical + and moral, when in work. And so in all other large towns--abstraction + made of the privileged minority of the workers; and so in the smaller + towns and in the agricultural districts. The law which reduces the + _value_ of labour-power to the value of the necessary means of + subsistence, and the other law which reduces its _average price_, as a + rule, to the minimum of those means of subsistence, these laws act + upon them with the irresistible force of an automatic engine, which + crushes them between its wheels. + + "This, then, was the position created by the Free Trade policy of + 1847, and by twenty years of the rule of the manufacturing + capitalists. But, then, a change came. The crash of 1866 was, + indeed, followed by a slight and short revival about 1873; but that + did not last. We did not, indeed, pass through the full crisis at the + time it was due, in 1877 or 1878; but we have had, ever since 1876, a + chronic state of stagnation in all dominant branches of industry. + Neither will the full crash come; nor will the period of longed-for + prosperity to which we used to be entitled before and after it. A + dull depression, a chronic glut of all markets for all trades, that is + what we have been living in for nearly ten years. How is this? + + "The Free Trade theory was based upon one assumption: that England was + to be the one great manufacturing centre of an agricultural world. And + the actual fact is that this assumption has turned out to be a pure + delusion. The conditions of modern industry, steam-power and + machinery, can be established wherever there is fuel, especially + coals. And other countries beside England,--France, Belgium, Germany, + America, even Russia,--have coals. And the people over there did not + see the advantage of being turned into Irish pauper farmers merely for + the greater wealth and glory of English capitalists. They set + resolutely about manufacturing, not only for themselves, but for the + rest of the world; and the consequence is, that the manufacturing + monopoly enjoyed by England for nearly a century is irretrievably + broken up. + + "But the manufacturing monopoly of England is the pivot of the present + social system of England. Even while that monopoly lasted, the + markets could not keep pace with the increasing productivity of + English manufacturers; the decennial crises were the consequence. And + new markets are getting scarcer every day, so much so that even the + negroes of the Congo are now to be forced into the civilisation + attendant upon Manchester calicos, Staffordshire pottery, and + Birmingham hardware. How will it be when Continental, and especially + American, goods flow in in ever-increasing quantities--when the + predominating share, still held by British manufacturers, will become + reduced from year to year? Answer, Free Trade, thou universal + panacea. + + "I am not the first to point this out. Already, in 1883, at the + Southport meeting of the British Association, Mr. Inglis Palgrave, the + President of the Economic section, stated plainly that 'the days of + great trade profits in England were over, and there was a pause in the + progress of several great branches of industrial labour. _The country + might almost be said to be entering the non-progressive state_.' + + "But what is to be the consequence? Capitalist production _cannot_ + stop. It must go on increasing and expanding, or it must die. Even + now, the mere reduction of England's lion's share in the supply of the + world's markets means stagnation, distress, excess of capital here, + excess of unemployed workpeople there. What will it be when the + increase of yearly production is brought to a complete stop? + + "Here is the vulnerable place, the heel of Achilles, for capitalistic + production. Its very basis is the necessity of constant expansion, + and this constant expansion now becomes impossible. It ends in a + deadlock. Every year England is brought nearer face to face with the + question: either the country must go to pieces, or capitalist + production must. Which is it to be? + + "And the working-class? If even under the unparalleled commercial and + industrial expansion, from 1848 to 1866, they have had to undergo such + misery; if even then the great bulk of them experienced at best but a + temporary improvement of their condition, while only a small, + privileged, 'protected' minority was permanently benefited, what will + it be when this dazzling period is brought finally to a close; when + the present dreary stagnation shall not only become intensified, but + this, its intensified condition, shall become the permanent and normal + state of English trade? + + "The truth is this: during the period of England's industrial monopoly + the English working-class have, to a certain extent, shared in the + benefits of the monopoly. These benefits were very unequally + parcelled out amongst them; the privileged minority pocketed most, but + even the great mass had, at least, a temporary share now and then. And + that is the reason why, since the dying-out of Owenism, there has been + no Socialism in England. With the breakdown of that monopoly, the + English working-class will lose that privileged position; it will find + itself generally--the privileged and leading minority not excepted--on + a level with its fellow-workers abroad. And that is the reason why + there will be Socialism again in England." + +To this statement of the case, as that case appeared to me in 1885, I +have but little to add. Needless to say that to-day there is indeed +"Socialism again in England," and plenty of it--Socialism of all shades: +Socialism conscious and unconscious, Socialism prosaic and poetic, +Socialism of the working-class and of the middle-class, for, verily, that +abomination of abominations, Socialism, has not only become respectable, +but has actually donned evening dress and lounges lazily on drawing-room +_causeuses_. That shows the incurable fickleness of that terrible despot +of "society," middle-class public opinion, and once more justifies the +contempt in which we Socialists of a past generation always held that +public opinion. At the same time, we have no reason to grumble at the +symptom itself. + +What I consider far more important than this momentary fashion among +bourgeois circles of affecting a mild dilution of Socialism, and even +more than the actual progress Socialism has made in England generally, +that is the revival of the East End of London. That immense haunt of +misery is no longer the stagnant pool it was six years ago. It has +shaken off its torpid despair, has returned to life, and has become the +home of what is called the "New Unionism;" that is to say, of the +organisation of the great mass of "unskilled" workers. This organisation +may to a great extent adopt the form of the old Unions of "skilled" +workers, but it is essentially different in character. The old Unions +preserve the traditions of the time when they were founded, and look upon +the wages system as a once for all established, final fact, which they at +best can modify in the interest of their members. The new Unions were +founded at a time when the faith in the eternity of the wages system was +severely shaken; their founders and promoters were Socialists either +consciously or by feeling; the masses, whose adhesion gave them strength, +were rough, neglected, looked down upon by the working-class aristocracy; +but they had this immense advantage, that _their minds were virgin soil_, +entirely free from the inherited "respectable" bourgeois prejudices which +hampered the brains of the better situated "old" Unionists. And thus we +see now these new Unions taking the lead of the working-class movement +generally, and more and more taking in tow the rich and proud "old" +Unions. + +Undoubtedly, the East Enders have committed colossal blunders; so have +their predecessors, and so do the doctrinaire Socialists who pooh-pooh +them. A large class, like a great nation, never learns better or quicker +than by undergoing the consequences of its own mistakes. And for all the +faults committed in past, present, and future, the revival of the East +End of London remains one of the greatest and most fruitful facts of this +_fin de siecle_, and glad and proud I am to have lived to see it. + +F. ENGELS. +_January_ 11_th_, 1892. + + + + + INTRODUCTION + + +The history of the proletariat in England begins with the second half of +the last century, with the invention of the steam-engine and of machinery +for working cotton. These inventions gave rise, as is well known, to an +industrial revolution, a revolution which altered the whole civil +society; one, the historical importance of which is only now beginning to +be recognised. England is the classic soil of this transformation, which +was all the mightier, the more silently it proceeded; and England is, +therefore, the classic land of its chief product also, the proletariat. +Only in England can the proletariat be studied in all its relations and +from all sides. + +We have not, here and now, to deal with the history of this revolution, +nor with its vast importance for the present and the future. Such a +delineation must be reserved for a future, more comprehensive work. For +the moment, we must limit ourselves to the little that is necessary for +understanding the facts that follow, for comprehending the present state +of the English proletariat. + +Before the introduction of machinery, the spinning and weaving of raw +materials was carried on in the working-man's home. Wife and daughter +spun the yarn that the father wove or that they sold, if he did not work +it up himself. These weaver families lived in the country in the +neighbourhood of the towns, and could get on fairly well with their +wages, because the home market was almost the only one, and the crushing +power of competition that came later, with the conquest of foreign +markets and the extension of trade, did not yet press upon wages. There +was, further, a constant increase in the demand for the home market, +keeping pace with the slow increase in population and employing all the +workers; and there was also the impossibility of vigorous competition of +the workers among themselves, consequent upon the rural dispersion of +their homes. So it was that the weaver was usually in a position to lay +by something, and rent a little piece of land, that he cultivated in his +leisure hours, of which he had as many as he chose to take, since he +could weave whenever and as long as he pleased. True, he was a bad +farmer and managed his land inefficiently, often obtaining but poor +crops; nevertheless, he was no proletarian, he had a stake in the +country, he was permanently settled, and stood one step higher in society +than the English workman of to-day. + +So the workers vegetated throughout a passably comfortable existence, +leading a righteous and peaceful life in all piety and probity; and their +material position was far better than that of their successors. They did +not need to overwork; they did no more than they chose to do, and yet +earned what they needed. They had leisure for healthful work in garden +or field, work which, in itself, was recreation for them, and they could +take part besides in the recreations and games of their neighbours, and +all these games--bowling, cricket, football, etc., contributed to their +physical health and vigour. They were, for the most part, strong, well- +built people, in whose physique little or no difference from that of +their peasant neighbours was discoverable. Their children grew up in the +fresh country air, and, if they could help their parents at work, it was +only occasionally; while of eight or twelve hours work for them there was +no question. + +What the moral and intellectual character of this class was may be +guessed. Shut off from the towns, which they never entered, their yarn +and woven stuff being delivered to travelling agents for payment of +wages--so shut off that old people who lived quite in the neighbourhood +of the town never went thither until they were robbed of their trade by +the introduction of machinery and obliged to look about them in the towns +for work--the weavers stood upon the moral and intellectual plane of the +yeomen with whom they were usually immediately connected through their +little holdings. They regarded their squire, the greatest landholder of +the region, as their natural superior; they asked advice of him, laid +their small disputes before him for settlement, and gave him all honour, +as this patriarchal relation involved. They were "respectable" people, +good husbands and fathers, led moral lives because they had no temptation +to be immoral, there being no groggeries or low houses in their vicinity, +and because the host, at whose inn they now and then quenched their +thirst, was also a respectable man, usually a large tenant farmer who +took pride in his good order, good beer, and early hours. They had their +children the whole day at home, and brought them up in obedience and the +fear of God; the patriarchal relationship remained undisturbed so long as +the children were unmarried. The young people grew up in idyllic +simplicity and intimacy with their playmates until they married; and even +though sexual intercourse before marriage almost unfailingly took place, +this happened only when the moral obligation of marriage was recognised +on both sides, and a subsequent wedding made everything good. In short, +the English industrial workers of those days lived and thought after the +fashion still to be found here and there in Germany, in retirement and +seclusion, without mental activity and without violent fluctuations in +their position in life. They could rarely read and far more rarely +write; went regularly to church, never talked politics, never conspired, +never thought, delighted in physical exercises, listened with inherited +reverence when the Bible was read, and were, in their unquestioning +humility, exceedingly well-disposed towards the "superior" classes. But +intellectually, they were dead; lived only for their petty, private +interest, for their looms and gardens, and knew nothing of the mighty +movement which, beyond their horizon, was sweeping through mankind. They +were comfortable in their silent vegetation, and but for the industrial +revolution they would never have emerged from this existence, which, +cosily romantic as it was, was nevertheless not worthy of human beings. +In truth, they were not human beings; they were merely toiling machines +in the service of the few aristocrats who had guided history down to that +time. The industrial revolution has simply carried this out to its +logical end by making the workers machines pure and simple, taking from +them the last trace of independent activity, and so forcing them to think +and demand a position worthy of men. As in France politics, so in +England manufacture, and the movement of civil society in general drew +into the whirl of history the last classes which had remained sunk in +apathetic indifference to the universal interests of mankind. + +The first invention which gave rise to a radical change in the state of +the English workers was the jenny, invented in the year 1764 by a weaver, +James Hargreaves, of Standhill, near Blackburn, in North Lancashire. This +machine was the rough beginning of the later invented mule, and was moved +by hand. Instead of one spindle like the ordinary spinning-wheel, it +carried sixteen or eighteen manipulated by a single workman. This +invention made it possible to deliver more yarn than heretofore. Whereas, +though one weaver had employed three spinners, there had never been +enough yarn, and the weaver had often been obliged to wait for it, there +was now more yarn to be had than could be woven by the available workers. +The demand for woven goods, already increasing, rose yet more in +consequence of the cheapness of these goods, which cheapness, in turn, +was the outcome of the diminished cost of producing the yarn. More +weavers were needed, and weavers' wages rose. Now that the weaver could +earn more at his loom, he gradually abandoned his farming, and gave his +whole time to weaving. At that time a family of four grown persons and +two children (who were set to spooling) could earn, with eight hours' +daily work, four pounds sterling in a week, and often more if trade was +good and work pressed. It happened often enough that a single weaver +earned two pounds a week at his loom. By degrees the class of farming +weavers wholly disappeared, and was merged in the newly arising class of +weavers who lived wholly upon wages, had no property whatever, not even +the pretended property of a holding, and so became working-men, +proletarians. Moreover, the old relation between spinner and weaver was +destroyed. Hitherto, so far as this had been possible, yarn had been +spun and woven under one roof. Now that the jenny as well as the loom +required a strong hand, men began to spin, and whole families lived by +spinning, while others laid the antiquated, superseded spinning-wheel +aside; and, if they had not means of purchasing a jenny, were forced to +live upon the wages of the father alone. Thus began with spinning and +weaving that division of labour which has since been so infinitely +perfected. + +While the industrial proletariat was thus developing with the first still +very imperfect machine, the same machine gave rise to the agricultural +proletariat. There had, hitherto, been a vast number of small +landowners, yeomen, who had vegetated in the same unthinking quiet as +their neighbours, the farming weavers. They cultivated their scraps of +land quite after the ancient and inefficient fashion of their ancestors, +and opposed every change with the obstinacy peculiar to such creatures of +habit, after remaining stationary from generation to generation. Among +them were many small holders also, not tenants in the present sense of +the word, but people who had their land handed down from their fathers, +either by hereditary lease, or by force of ancient custom, and had +hitherto held it as securely as if it had actually been their own +property. When the industrial workers withdrew from agriculture, a great +number of small holdings fell idle, and upon these the new class of large +tenants established themselves, tenants-at-will, holding fifty, one +hundred, two hundred or more acres, liable to be turned out at the end of +the year, but able by improved tillage and larger farming to increase the +yield of the land. They could sell their produce more cheaply than the +yeomen, for whom nothing remained when his farm no longer supported him +but to sell it, procure a jenny or a loom, or take service as an +agricultural labourer in the employ of a large farmer. His inherited +slowness and the inefficient methods of cultivation bequeathed by his +ancestors, and above which he could not rise, left him no alternative +when forced to compete with men who managed their holdings on sounder +principles and with all the advantages bestowed by farming on a large +scale and the investment of capital for the improvement of the soil. + +Meanwhile, the industrial movement did not stop here. Single capitalists +began to set up spinning jennies in great buildings and to use +water-power for driving them, so placing themselves in a position to +diminish the number of workers, and sell their yarn more cheaply than +single spinners could do who moved their own machines by hand. There +were constant improvements in the jenny, so that machines continually +became antiquated, and must be altered or even laid aside; and though the +capitalists could hold out by the application of water-power even with +the old machinery, for the single spinner this was impossible. And the +factory system, the beginning of which was thus made, received a fresh +extension in 1767, through the spinning throstle invented by Richard +Arkwright, a barber, in Preston, in North Lancashire. After the steam- +engine, this is the most important mechanical invention of the 18th +century. It was calculated from the beginning for mechanical motive +power, and was based upon wholly new principles. By the combination of +the peculiarities of the jenny and throstle, Samuel Crompton, of Firwood, +Lancashire, contrived the mule in 1785, and as Arkwright invented the +carding engine, and preparatory ("slubbing and roving") frames about the +same time, the factory system became the prevailing one for the spinning +of cotton. By means of trifling modifications these machines were +gradually adapted to the spinning of flax, and so to the superseding of +hand-work here, too. But even then, the end was not yet. In the closing +years of the last century, Dr. Cartwright, a country parson, had invented +the power-loom, and about 1804 had so far perfected it, that it could +successfully compete with the hand-weaver; and all this machinery was +made doubly important by James Watt's steam-engine, invented in 1764, and +used for supplying motive power for spinning since 1785. + +With these inventions, since improved from year to year, the victory of +machine-work over hand-work in the chief branches of English industry was +won; and the history of the latter from that time forward simply relates +how the hand-workers have been driven by machinery from one position +after another. The consequences of this were, on the one hand, a rapid +fall in price of all manufactured commodities, prosperity of commerce and +manufacture, the conquest of nearly all the unprotected foreign markets, +the sudden multiplication of capital and national wealth; on the other +hand, a still more rapid multiplication of the proletariat, the +destruction of all property-holding and of all security of employment for +the working-class, demoralisation, political excitement, and all those +facts so highly repugnant to Englishmen in comfortable circumstances, +which we shall have to consider in the following pages. Having already +seen what a transformation in the social condition of the lower classes a +single such clumsy machine as the jenny had wrought, there is no cause +for surprise as to that which a complete and interdependent system of +finely adjusted machinery has brought about, machinery which receives raw +material and turns out woven goods. + +Meanwhile, let us trace the development of English manufacture {7} +somewhat more minutely, beginning with the cotton industry. In the years +1771-1775, there were annually imported into England rather less than +5,000,000 pounds of raw cotton; in the year 1841 there were imported +528,000,000 pounds, and the import for 1844 will reach at least +600,000,000 pounds. In 1834 England exported 556,000,000 yards of woven +cotton goods, 76,500,000 pounds of cotton yarn, and cotton hosiery of the +value of 1,200,000 pounds. In the same year over 8,000,000 mule spindles +were at work, 110,000 power and 250,000 hand-looms, throstle spindles not +included, in the service of the cotton industry; and, according to +MacCulloch's reckoning, nearly a million and a half human beings were +supported by this branch, of whom but 220,000 worked in the mills; the +power used in these mills was steam, equivalent to 33,000 horse-power, +and water, equivalent to 11,000 horse-power. At present these figures +are far from adequate, and it may be safely assumed that, in the year +1845, the power and number of the machines and the number of the workers +is greater by one-half than it was in 1834. The chief centre of this +industry is Lancashire, where it originated; it has thoroughly +revolutionised this county, converting it from an obscure, ill-cultivated +swamp into a busy, lively region, multiplying its population tenfold in +eighty years, and causing giant cities such as Liverpool and Manchester, +containing together 700,000 inhabitants, and their neighbouring towns, +Bolton with 60,000, Rochdale with 75,000, Oldham with 50,000, Preston +with 60,000, Ashton and Stalybridge with 40,000, and a whole list of +other manufacturing towns to spring up as if by a magic touch. The +history of South Lancashire contains some of the greatest marvels of +modern times, yet no one ever mentions them, and all these miracles are +the product of the cotton industry. Glasgow, too, the centre for the +cotton district of Scotland, for Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire, has +increased in population from 30,000 to 300,000 since the introduction of +the industry. The hosiery manufacture of Nottingham and Derby also +received one fresh impulse from the lower price of yarn, and a second one +from an improvement of the stocking loom, by means of which two stockings +could be woven at once. The manufacture of lace, too, became an +important branch of industry after the invention of the lace machine in +1777; soon after that date Lindley invented the point-net machine, and in +1809 Heathcote invented the bobbin-net machine, in consequence of which +the production of lace was greatly simplified, and the demand increased +proportionately in consequence of the diminished cost, so that now, at +least 200,000 persons are supported by this industry. Its chief centres +are Nottingham, Leicester, and the West of England, Wiltshire, +Devonshire, etc. A corresponding extension has taken place in the +branches dependent upon the cotton industry, in dyeing, bleaching, and +printing. Bleaching by the application of chlorine in place of the +oxygen of the atmosphere; dyeing and printing by the rapid development of +chemistry, and printing by a series of most brilliant mechanical +inventions, a yet greater advance which, with the extension of these +branches caused by the growth of the cotton industry, raised them to a +previously unknown degree of prosperity. + +The same activity manifested itself in the manufacture of wool. This had +hitherto been the leading department of English industry, but the +quantities formerly produced are as nothing in comparison with that which +is now manufactured. In 1782 the whole wool crop of the preceding three +years lay unused for want of workers, and would have continued so to lie +if the newly invented machinery had not come to its assistance and spun +it. The adaptation of this machinery to the spinning of wool was most +successfully accomplished. Then began the same sudden development in the +wool district, which we have already seen in the cotton districts. In +1738 there were 75,000 pieces of woollen cloth produced in the West +Riding of Yorkshire; in 1817 there were 490,000 pieces, and so rapid was +the extension of the industry that in 1834, 450,000 more pieces were +produced than in 1825. In 1801, 101,000,000 pounds of wool (7,000,000 +pounds of it imported) were worked up; in 1835, 180,000,000 pounds were +worked up; of which 42,000,000 pounds were imported. The principal +centre of this industry is the West Riding of Yorkshire, where, +especially at Bradford, long English wool is converted into worsted +yarns, etc.; while in the other cities, Leeds, Halifax, Huddersfield, +etc., short wool is converted into hard-spun yarn and cloth. Then come +the adjacent part of Lancashire, the region of Rochdale, where in +addition to the cotton industry much flannel is produced, and the West of +England which supplies the finest cloths. Here also the growth of +population is worthy of observation: + +Bradford contained in 1801 29,000, and in 1831 77,000 inhabitants. +Halifax ,, ,, 68,000, ,, ,, 110,000 ,, +Huddersfield ,, ,, 15,000, ,, ,, 34,000 ,, +Leeds,, ,, 53,000, ,, ,, 123,000 ,, + +And the whole West Riding 564,000, ,, ,, 980,000 ,, + +A population which, since 1831, must have increased at least 20 to 25 per +cent. further. In 1835 the spinning of wool employed in the United +Kingdom 1,313 mills, with 71,300 workers, these last being but a small +portion of the multitude who are supported directly or indirectly by the +manufacture of wool, and excluding nearly all weavers. + +Progress in the linen trade developed later, because the nature of the +raw material made the application of spinning machinery very difficult. +Attempts had been made in the last years of the last century in Scotland, +but the Frenchman, Girard, who introduced flax spinning in 1810, was the +first who succeeded practically, and even Girard's machines first +attained on British soil the importance they deserved by means of +improvements which they underwent in England, and of their universal +application in Leeds, Dundee, and Belfast. From this time the British +linen trade rapidly extended. In 1814, 3,000 tons of flax were imported; +in 1833, nearly 19,000 tons of flax and 3,400 tons of hemp. The export +of Irish linen to Great Britain rose from 32,000,000 yards in 1800 to +53,000,000 in 1825, of which a large part was re-exported. The export of +English and Scotch woven linen goods rose from 24,000,000 yards in 1820 +to 51,000,000 yards in 1833. The number of flax spinning establishments +in 1835 was 347, employing 33,000 workers, of which one-half were in the +South of Scotland, more than 60 in the West Riding of Yorkshire, Leeds, +and its environs, 25 in Belfast, Ireland, and the rest in Dorset and +Lancashire. Weaving is carried on in the South of Scotland, here and +there in England, but principally in Ireland. + +With like success did the English turn their attention to the manufacture +of silk. Raw material was imported from Southern Europe and Asia ready +spun, and the chief labour lay in the twisting of fine threads. Until +1824 the heavy import duty, four shillings per pound on raw material, +greatly retarded the development of the English silk industry, while only +the markets of England and the Colonies were protected for it. In that +year the duty was reduced to one penny, and the number of mills at once +largely increased. In a single year the number of throwing spindles rose +from 780,000 to 1,180,000; and, although the commercial crisis of 1825 +crippled this branch of industry for the moment, yet in 1827 more was +produced than ever, the mechanical skill and experience of the English +having secured their twisting machinery the supremacy over the awkward +devices of their competitors. In 1835 the British Empire possessed 263 +twisting mills, employing 30,000 workers, located chiefly in Cheshire, in +Macclesfield, Congleton, and the surrounding districts, and in Manchester +and Somersetshire. Besides these, there are numerous mills for working +up waste, from which a peculiar article known as spun silk is +manufactured, with which the English supply even the Paris and Lyons +weavers. The weaving of the silk so twisted and spun is carried on in +Paisley and elsewhere in Scotland, and in Spitalfields, London, but also +in Manchester and elsewhere. Nor is the gigantic advance achieved in +English manufacture since 1760 restricted to the production of clothing +materials. The impulse, once given, was communicated to all branches of +industrial activity, and a multitude of inventions wholly unrelated to +those here cited, received double importance from the fact that they were +made in the midst of the universal movement. But as soon as the +immeasurable importance of mechanical power was practically demonstrated, +every energy was concentrated in the effort to exploit this power in all +directions, and to exploit it in the interest of individual inventors and +manufacturers; and the demand for machinery, fuel, and materials called a +mass of workers and a number of trades into redoubled activity. The +steam-engine first gave importance to the broad coal-fields of England; +the production of machinery began now for the first time, and with it +arose a new interest in the iron mines which supplied raw material for +it. The increased consumption of wool stimulated English sheep breeding, +and the growing importation of wool, flax, and silk called forth an +extension of the British ocean carrying trade. Greatest of all was the +growth of production of iron. The rich iron deposits of the English +hills had hitherto been little developed; iron had always been smelted by +means of charcoal, which became gradually more expensive as agriculture +improved and forests were cut away. The beginning of the use of coke in +iron smelting had been made in the last century, and in 1780 a new method +was invented of converting into available wrought-iron coke-smelted iron, +which up to that time had been convertible into cast-iron only. This +process, known as "puddling," consists in withdrawing the carbon which +had mixed with the iron during the process of smelting, and opened a +wholly new field for the production of English iron. Smelting furnaces +were built fifty times larger than before, the process of smelting was +simplified by the introduction of hot blasts, and iron could thus be +produced so cheaply that a multitude of objects which had before been +made of stone or wood were now made of iron. + +In 1788, Thomas Paine, the famous democrat, built in Yorkshire the first +iron bridge, which was followed by a great number of others, so that now +nearly all bridges, especially for railroad traffic, are built of cast- +iron, while in London itself a bridge across the Thames, the Southwark +bridge, has been built of this material. Iron pillars, supports for +machinery, etc., are universally used, and since the introduction of gas- +lighting and railroads, new outlets for English iron products are opened. +Nails and screws gradually came to be made by machinery. Huntsman, a +Sheffielder, discovered in 1790 a method for casting steel, by which much +labour was saved, and the production of wholly new cheap goods rendered +practicable; and through the greater purity of the material placed at its +disposal, and the more perfect tools, new machinery and minute division +of labour, the metal trade of England now first attained importance. The +population of Birmingham grew from 73,000 in 1801 to 200,000 in 1844; +that of Sheffield from 46,000 in 1801 to 110,000 in 1844, and the +consumption of coal in the latter city alone reached in 1836, 515,000 +tons. In 1805 there were exported 4,300 tons of iron products and 4,600 +tons of pig-iron; in 1834, 16,200 tons of iron products and 107,000 tons +of pig-iron, while the whole iron product reaching in 1740 but 17,000 +tons, had risen in 1834 to nearly 700,000 tons. The smelting of pig-iron +alone consumes yearly more than 3,000,000 tons of coal, and the +importance which coal mining has attained in the course of the last 60 +years can scarcely be conceived. All the English and Scotch deposits are +now worked, and the mines of Northumberland and Durham alone yield +annually more than 5,000,000 tons for shipping, and employ from 40 to +50,000 men. According to the Durham _Chronicle_, there were worked in +these two counties: In 1753, 14 mines; in 1800, 40 mines; in 1836, 76 +mines; in 1843, 130 mines. Moreover, all mines are now much more +energetically worked than formerly. A similarly increased activity was +applied to the working of tin, copper, and lead, and alongside of the +extension of glass manufacture arose a new branch of industry in the +production of pottery, rendered important by the efforts of Josiah +Wedgewood, about 1763. This inventor placed the whole manufacture of +stoneware on a scientific basis, introduced better taste, and founded the +potteries of North Staffordshire, a district of eight English miles +square, which, formerly a desert waste, is now sown with works and +dwellings, and supports more than 60,000 people. + +Into this universal whirl of activity everything was drawn. Agriculture +made a corresponding advance. Not only did landed property pass, as we +have already seen, into the hands of new owners and cultivators, +agriculture was affected in still another way. The great holders applied +capital to the improvement of the soil, tore down needless fences, +drained, manured, employed better tools, and applied a rotation of crops. +The progress of science came to their assistance also; Sir Humphrey Davy +applied chemistry to agriculture with success, and the development of +mechanical science bestowed a multitude of advantages upon the large +farmer. Further, in consequence of the increase of population, the +demand for agricultural products increased in such measure that from 1760 +to 1834, 6,840,540 acres of waste land were reclaimed; and, in spite of +this, England was transformed from a grain exporting to a grain importing +country. + +The same activity was developed in the establishment of communication. +From 1818 to 1829, there were built in England and Wales, 1,000 English +miles of roadway of the width prescribed by law, 60 feet, and nearly all +the old roads were reconstructed on the new system of M'Adam. In +Scotland, the Department of Public Works built since 1803 nearly 900 +miles of roadway and more than 1,000 bridges, by which the population of +the Highlands was suddenly placed within reach of civilisation. The +Highlanders had hitherto been chiefly poachers and smugglers; they now +became farmers and hand-workers. And, though Gaelic schools were +organised for the purpose of maintaining the Gaelic language, yet Gaelic- +Celtic customs and speech are rapidly vanishing before the approach of +English civilisation. So, too, in Ireland; between the counties of Cork, +Limerick, and Kerry, lay hitherto a wilderness wholly without passable +roads, and serving, by reason of its inaccessibility, as the refuge of +all criminals and the chief protection of the Celtic Irish nationality in +the South of Ireland. It has now been cut through by public roads, and +civilisation has thus gained admission even to this savage region. The +whole British Empire, and especially England, which, sixty years ago, had +as bad roads as Germany or France then had, is now covered by a network +of the finest roadways; and these, too, like almost everything else in +England, are the work of private enterprise, the State having done very +little in this direction. + +Before 1755 England possessed almost no canals. In that year a canal was +built in Lancashire from Sankey Brook to St Helen's; and in 1759, James +Brindley built the first important one, the Duke of Bridgewater's canal +from Manchester, and the coal mines of the district to the mouth of the +Mersey passing, near Barton, by aqueduct, over the river Irwell. From +this achievement dates the canal building of England, to which Brindley +first gave importance. Canals were now built, and rivers made navigable +in all directions. In England alone, there are 2,200 miles of canals and +1,800 miles of navigable river. In Scotland, the Caledonian Canal was +cut directly across the country, and in Ireland several canals were +built. These improvements, too, like the railroads and roadways, are +nearly all the work of private individuals and companies. + +The railroads have been only recently built. The first great one was +opened from Liverpool to Manchester in 1830, since which all the great +cities have been connected by rail. London with Southampton, Brighton, +Dover, Colchester, Exeter, and Birmingham; Birmingham with Gloucester, +Liverpool, Lancaster (via Newton and Wigan, and via Manchester and +Bolton); also with Leeds (via Manchester and Halifax, and via Leicester, +Derby, and Sheffield); Leeds with Hull and Newcastle (via York). There +are also many minor lines building or projected, which will soon make it +possible to travel from Edinburgh to London in one day. + +As it had transformed the means of communication by land, so did the +introduction of steam revolutionise travel by sea. The first steamboat +was launched in 1807, in the Hudson, in North America; the first in the +British empire, in 1811, on the Clyde. Since then, more than 600 have +been built in England; and in 1836 more than 500 were plying to and from +British ports. + +Such, in brief, is the history of English industrial development in the +past sixty years, a history which has no counterpart in the annals of +humanity. Sixty, eighty years ago, England was a country like every +other, with small towns, few and simple industries, and a thin but +_proportionally_ large agricultural population. To-day it is a country +like _no_ other, with a capital of two and a half million inhabitants; +with vast manufacturing cities; with an industry that supplies the world, +and produces almost everything by means of the most complex machinery; +with an industrious, intelligent, dense population, of which two-thirds +are employed in trade and commerce, and composed of classes wholly +different; forming, in fact, with other customs and other needs, a +different nation from the England of those days. The industrial +revolution is of the same importance for England as the political +revolution for France, and the philosophical revolution for Germany; and +the difference between England in 1760 and in 1844 is at least as great +as that between France, under the _ancien regime_ and during the +revolution of July. But the mightiest result of this industrial +transformation is the English proletariat. + +We have already seen how the proletariat was called into existence by the +introduction of machinery. The rapid extension of manufacture demanded +hands, wages rose, and troops of workmen migrated from the agricultural +districts to the towns. Population multiplied enormously, and nearly all +the increase took place in the proletariat. Further, Ireland had entered +upon an orderly development only since the beginning of the eighteenth +century. There, too, the population, more than decimated by English +cruelty in earlier disturbances, now rapidly multiplied, especially after +the advance in manufacture began to draw masses of Irishmen towards +England. Thus arose the great manufacturing and commercial cities of the +British Empire, in which at least three-fourths of the population belong +to the working-class, while the lower middle-class consists only of small +shopkeepers, and very very few handicraftsmen. For, though the rising +manufacture first attained importance by transforming tools into +machines, workrooms into factories, and consequently, the toiling lower +middle-class into the toiling proletariat, and the former large merchants +into manufacturers, though the lower middle-class was thus early crushed +out, and the population reduced to the two opposing elements, workers and +capitalists, this happened outside of the domain of manufacture proper, +in the province of handicraft and retail trade as well. In the place of +the former masters and apprentices, came great capitalists and working- +men who had no prospect of rising above their class. Hand-work was +carried on after the fashion of factory work, the division of labour was +strictly applied, and small employers who could not compete with great +establishments were forced down into the proletariat. At the same time +the destruction of the former organisation of hand-work, and the +disappearance of the lower middle-class deprived the working-man of all +possibility of rising into the middle-class himself. Hitherto he had +always had the prospect of establishing himself somewhere as master +artificer, perhaps employing journeymen and apprentices; but now, when +master artificers were crowded out by manufacturers, when large capital +had become necessary for carrying on work independently, the +working-class became, for the first time, an integral, permanent class of +the population, whereas it had formerly often been merely a transition +leading to the bourgeoisie. Now, he who was born to toil had no other +prospect than that of remaining a toiler all his life. Now, for the +first time, therefore, the proletariat was in a position to undertake an +independent movement. + +In this way were brought together those vast masses of working-men who +now fill the whole British Empire, whose social condition forces itself +every day more and more upon the attention of the civilised world. The +condition of the working-class is the condition of the vast majority of +the English people. The question: What is to become of those destitute +millions, who consume to-day what they earned yesterday; who have created +the greatness of England by their inventions and their toil; who become +with every passing day more conscious of their might, and demand, with +daily increasing urgency, their share of the advantages of society?--This, +since the Reform Bill, has become the national question. All +Parliamentary debates, of any importance, may be reduced to this; and, +though the English middle-class will not as yet admit it, though they try +to evade this great question, and to represent their own particular +interests as the truly national ones, their action is utterly useless. +With every session of Parliament the working-class gains ground, the +interests of the middle-class diminish in importance; and, in spite of +the fact that the middle-class is the chief, in fact, the only power in +Parliament, the last session of 1844 was a continuous debate upon +subjects affecting the working-class, the Poor Relief Bill, the Factory +Act, the Masters' and Servants' Act; and Thomas Duncombe, the +representative of the working-men in the House of Commons, was the great +man of the session; while the Liberal middle-class with its motion for +repealing the Corn Laws, and the Radical middle-class with its resolution +for refusing the taxes, played pitiable roles. Even the debates about +Ireland were at bottom debates about the Irish proletariat, and the means +of coming to its assistance. It is high time, too, for the English +middle-class to make some concessions to the working-men who no longer +plead but threaten; for in a short time it may be too late. + +In spite of all this, the English middle-class, especially the +manufacturing class, which is enriched directly by means of the poverty +of the workers, persists in ignoring this poverty. This class, feeling +itself the mighty representative class of the nation, is ashamed to lay +the sore spot of England bare before the eyes of the world; will not +confess, even to itself, that the workers are in distress, because it, +the property-holding, manufacturing class, must bear the moral +responsibility for this distress. Hence the scornful smile which +intelligent Englishmen (and they, the middle-class, alone are known on +the Continent) assume when any one begins to speak of the condition of +the working-class; hence the utter ignorance on the part of the whole +middle-class of everything which concerns the workers; hence the +ridiculous blunders which men of this class, in and out of Parliament, +make when the position of the proletariat comes under discussion; hence +the absurd freedom from anxiety, with which the middle-class dwells upon +a soil that is honeycombed, and may any day collapse, the speedy collapse +of which is as certain as a mathematical or mechanical demonstration; +hence the miracle that the English have as yet no single book upon the +condition of their workers, although they have been examining and mending +the old state of things no one knows how many years. Hence also the deep +wrath of the whole working-class, from Glasgow to London, against the +rich, by whom they are systematically plundered and mercilessly left to +their fate, a wrath which before too long a time goes by, a time almost +within the power of man to predict, must break out into a Revolution in +comparison with which the French Revolution, and the year 1794, will +prove to have been child's play. + + + + +THE INDUSTRIAL PROLETARIAT. + + +The order of our investigation of the different sections of the +proletariat follows naturally from the foregoing history of its rise. The +first proletarians were connected with manufacture, were engendered by +it, and accordingly, those employed in manufacture, in the working up of +raw materials, will first claim our attention. The production of raw +materials and of fuel for manufacture attained importance only in +consequence of the industrial change, and engendered a new proletariat, +the coal and metal miners. Then, in the third place, manufacture +influenced agriculture, and in the fourth, the condition of Ireland; and +the fractions of the proletariat belonging to each, will find their place +accordingly. We shall find, too, that with the possible exception of the +Irish, the degree of intelligence of the various workers is in direct +proportion to their relation to manufacture; and that the factory hands +are most enlightened as to their own interests, the miners somewhat less +so, the agricultural labourers scarcely at all. We shall find the same +order again among the industrial workers, and shall see how the factory +hands, eldest children of the industrial revolution, have from the +beginning to the present day formed the nucleus of the Labour Movement, +and how the others have joined this movement just in proportion as their +handicraft has been invaded by the progress of machinery. We shall thus +learn from the example which England offers, from the equal pace which +the Labour Movement has kept with the movement of industrial development, +the historical significance of manufacture. + +Since, however, at the present moment, pretty much the whole industrial +proletariat is involved in the movement, and the condition of the +separate sections has much in common, because they all are industrial, we +shall have first to examine the condition of the industrial proletariat +as a whole, in order later to notice more particularly each separate +division with its own peculiarities. + +It has been already suggested that manufacture centralises property in +the hands of the few. It requires large capital with which to erect the +colossal establishments that ruin the petty trading bourgeoisie and with +which to press into its service the forces of Nature, so driving the hand +labour of the independent workman out of the market. The division of +labour, the application of water and especially steam, and the +application of machinery, are the three great levers with which +manufacture, since the middle of the last century, has been busy putting +the world out of joint. Manufacture, on a small scale, created the +middle-class; on a large scale, it created the working-class, and raised +the elect of the middle-class to the throne, but only to overthrow them +the more surely when the time comes. Meanwhile, it is an undenied and +easily explained fact that the numerous, petty middle-class of the "good +old times" has been annihilated by manufacture, and resolved into rich +capitalists on the one hand and poor workers on the other. {20} + +The centralising tendency of manufacture does not, however, stop here. +Population becomes centralised just as capital does; and, very naturally, +since the human being, the worker, is regarded in manufacture simply as a +piece of capital for the use of which the manufacturer pays interest +under the name of wages. A manufacturing establishment requires many +workers employed together in a single building, living near each other +and forming a village of themselves in the case of a good-sized factory. +They have needs for satisfying which other people are necessary; +handicraftsmen, shoemakers, tailors, bakers, carpenters, stonemasons, +settle at hand. The inhabitants of the village, especially the younger +generation, accustom themselves to factory work, grow skilful in it, and +when the first mill can no longer employ them all, wages fall, and the +immigration of fresh manufacturers is the consequence. So the village +grows into a small town, and the small town into a large one. The +greater the town, the greater its advantages. It offers roads, +railroads, canals; the choice of skilled labour increases constantly, new +establishments can be built more cheaply because of the competition among +builders and machinists who are at hand, than in remote country +districts, whither timber, machinery, builders, and operatives must be +brought; it offers a market to which buyers crowd, and direct +communication with the markets supplying raw material or demanding +finished goods. Hence the marvellously rapid growth of the great +manufacturing towns. The country, on the other hand, has the advantage +that wages are usually lower than in town, and so town and country are in +constant competition; and, if the advantage is on the side of the town to- +day, wages sink so low in the country to-morrow, that new investments are +most profitably made there. But the centralising tendency of manufacture +continues in full force, and every new factory built in the country bears +in it the germ of a manufacturing town. If it were possible for this mad +rush of manufacture to go on at this rate for another century, every +manufacturing district of England would be one great manufacturing town, +and Manchester and Liverpool would meet at Warrington or Newton; for in +commerce, too, this centralisation of the population works in precisely +the same way, and hence it is that one or two great harbours, such as +Hull and Liverpool, Bristol, and London, monopolise almost the whole +maritime commerce of Great Britain. + +Since commerce and manufacture attain their most complete development in +these great towns, their influence upon the proletariat is also most +clearly observable here. Here the centralisation of property has reached +the highest point; here the morals and customs of the good old times are +most completely obliterated; here it has gone so far that the name Merry +Old England conveys no meaning, for Old England itself is unknown to +memory and to the tales of our grandfathers. Hence, too, there exist +here only a rich and a poor class, for the lower middle-class vanishes +more completely with every passing day. Thus the class formerly most +stable has become the most restless one. It consists to-day of a few +remnants of a past time, and a number of people eager to make fortunes, +industrial Micawbers and speculators of whom one may amass a fortune, +while ninety-nine become insolvent, and more than half of the ninety-nine +live by perpetually repeated failure. + +But in these towns the proletarians are the infinite majority, and how +they fare, what influence the great town exercises upon them, we have now +to investigate. + + + + +THE GREAT TOWNS. + + +A town, such as London, where a man may wander for hours together without +reaching the beginning of the end, without meeting the slightest hint +which could lead to the inference that there is open country within +reach, is a strange thing. This colossal centralisation, this heaping +together of two and a half millions of human beings at one point, has +multiplied the power of this two and a half millions a hundredfold; has +raised London to the commercial capital of the world, created the giant +docks and assembled the thousand vessels that continually cover the +Thames. I know nothing more imposing than the view which the Thames +offers during the ascent from the sea to London Bridge. The masses of +buildings, the wharves on both sides, especially from Woolwich upwards, +the countless ships along both shores, crowding ever closer and closer +together, until, at last, only a narrow passage remains in the middle of +the river, a passage through which hundreds of steamers shoot by one +another; all this is so vast, so impressive, that a man cannot collect +himself, but is lost in the marvel of England's greatness before he sets +foot upon English soil. {23} + +But the sacrifices which all this has cost become apparent later. After +roaming the streets of the capital a day or two, making headway with +difficulty through the human turmoil and the endless lines of vehicles, +after visiting the slums of the metropolis, one realises for the first +time that these Londoners have been forced to sacrifice the best +qualities of their human nature, to bring to pass all the marvels of +civilisation which crowd their city; that a hundred powers which +slumbered within them have remained inactive, have been suppressed in +order that a few might be developed more fully and multiply through union +with those of others. The very turmoil of the streets has something +repulsive, something against which human nature rebels. The hundreds of +thousands of all classes and ranks crowding past each other, are they not +all human beings with the same qualities and powers, and with the same +interest in being happy? And have they not, in the end, to seek +happiness in the same way, by the same means? And still they crowd by +one another as though they had nothing in common, nothing to do with one +another, and their only agreement is the tacit one, that each keep to his +own side of the pavement, so as not to delay the opposing streams of the +crowd, while it occurs to no man to honour another with so much as a +glance. The brutal indifference, the unfeeling isolation of each in his +private interest becomes the more repellant and offensive, the more these +individuals are crowded together, within a limited space. And, however +much one may be aware that this isolation of the individual, this narrow +self-seeking is the fundamental principle of our society everywhere, it +is nowhere so shamelessly barefaced, so self-conscious as just here in +the crowding of the great city. The dissolution of mankind into monads, +of which each one has a separate principle, the world of atoms, is here +carried out to its utmost extreme. + +Hence it comes, too, that the social war, the war of each against all, is +here openly declared. Just as in Stirner's recent book, people regard +each other only as useful objects; each exploits the other, and the end +of it all is, that the stronger treads the weaker under foot, and that +the powerful few, the capitalists, seize everything for themselves, while +to the weak many, the poor, scarcely a bare existence remains. + +What is true of London, is true of Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, is true +of all great towns. Everywhere barbarous indifference, hard egotism on +one hand, and nameless misery on the other, everywhere social warfare, +every man's house in a state of siege, everywhere reciprocal plundering +under the protection of the law, and all so shameless, so openly avowed +that one shrinks before the consequences of our social state as they +manifest themselves here undisguised, and can only wonder that the whole +crazy fabric still hangs together. + +Since capital, the direct or indirect control of the means of subsistence +and production, is the weapon with which this social warfare is carried +on, it is clear that all the disadvantages of such a state must fall upon +the poor. For him no man has the slightest concern. Cast into the +whirlpool, he must struggle through as well as he can. If he is so happy +as to find work, _i.e_., if the bourgeoisie does him the favour to enrich +itself by means of him, wages await him which scarcely suffice to keep +body and soul together; if he can get no work he may steal, if he is not +afraid of the police, or starve, in which case the police will take care +that he does so in a quiet and inoffensive manner. During my residence +in England, at least twenty or thirty persons have died of simple +starvation under the most revolting circumstances, and a jury has rarely +been found possessed of the courage to speak the plain truth in the +matter. Let the testimony of the witnesses be never so clear and +unequivocal, the bourgeoisie, from which the jury is selected, always +finds some backdoor through which to escape the frightful verdict, death +from starvation. The bourgeoisie dare not speak the truth in these +cases, for it would speak its own condemnation. But indirectly, far more +than directly, many have died of starvation, where long continued want of +proper nourishment has called forth fatal illness, when it has produced +such debility that causes which might otherwise have remained +inoperative, brought on severe illness and death. The English working- +men call this "social murder," and accuse our whole society of +perpetrating this crime perpetually. Are they wrong? + +True, it is only individuals who starve, but what security has the +working-man that it may not be his turn to-morrow? Who assures him +employment, who vouches for it that, if for any reason or no reason his +lord and master discharges him to-morrow, he can struggle along with +those dependent upon him, until he may find some one else "to give him +bread?" Who guarantees that willingness to work shall suffice to obtain +work, that uprightness, industry, thrift, and the rest of the virtues +recommended by the bourgeoisie, are really his road to happiness? No +one. He knows that he has something to-day, and that it does not depend +upon himself whether he shall have something to-morrow. He knows that +every breeze that blows, every whim of his employer, every bad turn of +trade may hurl him back into the fierce whirlpool from which he has +temporarily saved himself, and in which it is hard and often impossible +to keep his head above water. He knows that, though he may have the +means of living to-day, it is very uncertain whether he shall to-morrow. + +Meanwhile, let us proceed to a more detailed investigation of the +position, in which the social war has placed the non-possessing class. +Let us see what pay for his work society does give the working-man in the +form of dwelling, clothing, food, what sort of subsistence it grants +those who contribute most to the maintenance of society; and, first, let +us consider the dwellings. + +Every great city has one or more slums, where the working-class is +crowded together. True, poverty often dwells in hidden alleys close to +the palaces of the rich; but, in general, a separate territory has been +assigned to it, where, removed from the sight of the happier classes, it +may struggle along as it can. These slums are pretty equally arranged in +all the great towns of England, the worst houses in the worst quarters of +the towns; usually one or two-storied cottages in long rows, perhaps with +cellars used as dwellings, almost always irregularly built. These houses +of three or four rooms and a kitchen form, throughout England, some parts +of London excepted, the general dwellings of the working-class. The +streets are generally unpaved, rough, dirty, filled with vegetable and +animal refuse, without sewers or gutters, but supplied with foul, +stagnant pools instead. Moreover, ventilation is impeded by the bad, +confused method of building of the whole quarter, and since many human +beings here live crowded into a small space, the atmosphere that prevails +in these working-men's quarters may readily be imagined. Further, the +streets serve as drying grounds in fine weather; lines are stretched +across from house to house, and hung with wet clothing. + +Let us investigate some of the slums in their order. London comes first, +and in London the famous rookery of St. Giles which is now, at last, +about to be penetrated by a couple of broad streets. St. Giles is in the +midst of the most populous part of the town, surrounded by broad, +splendid avenues in which the gay world of London idles about, in the +immediate neighbourhood of Oxford Street, Regent Street, of Trafalgar +Square and the Strand. It is a disorderly collection of tall, three or +four-storied houses, with narrow, crooked, filthy streets, in which there +is quite as much life as in the great thoroughfares of the town, except +that, here, people of the working-class only are to be seen. A vegetable +market is held in the street, baskets with vegetables and fruits, +naturally all bad and hardly fit to use, obstruct the sidewalk still +further, and from these, as well as from the fish-dealers' stalls, arises +a horrible smell. The houses are occupied from cellar to garret, filthy +within and without, and their appearance is such that no human being +could possibly wish to live in them. But all this is nothing in +comparison with the dwellings in the narrow courts and alleys between the +streets, entered by covered passages between the houses, in which the +filth and tottering ruin surpass all description. Scarcely a whole +window-pane can be found, the walls are crumbling, door-posts and window- +frames loose and broken, doors of old boards nailed together, or +altogether wanting in this thieves' quarter, where no doors are needed, +there being nothing to steal. Heaps of garbage and ashes lie in all +directions, and the foul liquids emptied before the doors gather in +stinking pools. Here live the poorest of the poor, the worst paid +workers with thieves and the victims of prostitution indiscriminately +huddled together, the majority Irish, or of Irish extraction, and those +who have not yet sunk in the whirlpool of moral ruin which surrounds +them, sinking daily deeper, losing daily more and more of their power to +resist the demoralising influence of want, filth, and evil surroundings. + +Nor is St. Giles the only London slum. In the immense tangle of streets, +there are hundreds and thousands of alleys and courts lined with houses +too bad for anyone to live in, who can still spend anything whatsoever +upon a dwelling fit for human beings. Close to the splendid houses of +the rich such a lurking-place of the bitterest poverty may often be +found. So, a short time ago, on the occasion of a coroner's inquest, a +region close to Portman Square, one of the very respectable squares, was +characterised as an abode "of a multitude of Irish demoralised by poverty +and filth." So, too, may be found in streets, such as Long Acre and +others, which, though not fashionable, are yet "respectable," a great +number of cellar dwellings out of which puny children and half-starved, +ragged women emerge into the light of day. In the immediate +neighbourhood of Drury Lane Theatre, the second in London, are some of +the worst streets of the whole metropolis, Charles, King, and Park +Streets, in which the houses are inhabited from cellar to garret +exclusively by poor families. In the parishes of St. John and St. +Margaret there lived in 1840, according to the _Journal of the +Statistical Society_, 5,366 working-men's families in 5,294 "dwellings" +(if they deserve the name!), men, women, and children thrown together +without distinction of age or sex, 26,830 persons all told; and of these +families three-fourths possessed but one room. In the aristocratic +parish of St. George, Hanover Square, there lived, according to the same +authority, 1,465 working-men's families, nearly 6,000 persons, under +similar conditions, and here, too, more than two-thirds of the whole +number crowded together at the rate of one family in one room. And how +the poverty of these unfortunates, among whom even thieves find nothing +to steal, is exploited by the property-holding class in lawful ways! The +abominable dwellings in Drury Lane, just mentioned, bring in the +following rents: two cellar dwellings, 3s.; one room, ground-floor, 4s.; +second-storey, 4s. 6d.; third-floor, 4s.; garret-room, 3s. weekly, so +that the starving occupants of Charles Street alone, pay the house-owners +a yearly tribute of 2,000 pounds, and the 5,336 families above mentioned +in Westminster, a yearly rent of 40,000 pounds. + +The most extensive working-people's district lies east of the Tower in +Whitechapel and Bethnal Green, where the greatest masses of London +working-people live. Let us hear Mr. G. Alston, preacher of St. +Philip's, Bethnal Green, on the condition of his parish. He says: + + "It contains 1,400 houses, inhabited by 2,795 families, or about + 12,000 persons. The space upon which this large population dwells, is + less than 400 yards (1,200 feet) square, and in this overcrowding it + is nothing unusual to find a man, his wife, four or five children, + and, sometimes, both grandparents, all in one single room, where they + eat, sleep, and work. I believe that before the Bishop of London + called attention to this most poverty-stricken parish, people at the + West End knew as little of it as of the savages of Australia or the + South Sea Isles. And if we make ourselves acquainted with these + unfortunates, through personal observation, if we watch them at their + scanty meal and see them bowed by illness and want of work, we shall + find such a mass of helplessness and misery, that a nation like ours + must blush that these things can be possible. I was rector near + Huddersfield during the three years in which the mills were at their + worst, but I have never seen such complete helplessness of the poor as + since then in Bethnal Green. Not one father of a family in ten in the + whole neighbourhood has other clothing than his working suit, and that + is as bad and tattered as possible; many, indeed, have no other + covering for the night than these rags, and no bed, save a sack of + straw and shavings." + +The foregoing description furnishes an idea of the aspect of the interior +of the dwellings. But let us follow the English officials, who +occasionally stray thither, into one or two of these working-men's homes. + +On the occasion of an inquest held Nov. 14th, 1843, by Mr. Carter, +coroner for Surrey, upon the body of Ann Galway, aged 45 years, the +newspapers related the following particulars concerning the deceased: She +had lived at No. 3 White Lion Court, Bermondsey Street, London, with her +husband and a nineteen-year-old son in a little room, in which neither a +bedstead nor any other furniture was to be seen. She lay dead beside her +son upon a heap of feathers which were scattered over her almost naked +body, there being neither sheet nor coverlet. The feathers stuck so fast +over the whole body that the physician could not examine the corpse until +it was cleansed, and then found it starved and scarred from the bites of +vermin. Part of the floor of the room was torn up, and the hole used by +the family as a privy. + +On Monday, Jan. 15th, 1844, two boys were brought before the police +magistrate because, being in a starving condition, they had stolen and +immediately devoured a half-cooked calf's foot from a shop. The +magistrate felt called upon to investigate the case further, and received +the following details from the policeman: The mother of the two boys was +the widow of an ex-soldier, afterwards policeman, and had had a very hard +time since the death of her husband, to provide for her nine children. +She lived at No. 2 Pool's Place, Quaker Court, Spitalfields, in the +utmost poverty. When the policeman came to her, he found her with six of +her children literally huddled together in a little back room, with no +furniture but two old rush-bottomed chairs with the seats gone, a small +table with two legs broken, a broken cup, and a small dish. On the +hearth was scarcely a spark of fire, and in one corner lay as many old +rags as would fill a woman's apron, which served the whole family as a +bed. For bed clothing they had only their scanty day clothing. The poor +woman told him that she had been forced to sell her bedstead the year +before to buy food. Her bedding she had pawned with the victualler for +food. In short, everything had gone for food. The magistrate ordered +the woman a considerable provision from the poor-box. + +In February, 1844, Theresa Bishop, a widow 60 years old, was recommended, +with her sick daughter, aged 26, to the compassion of the police +magistrate in Marlborough Street. She lived at No. 5 Brown Street, +Grosvenor Square, in a small back room no larger than a closet, in which +there was not one single piece of furniture. In one corner lay some rags +upon which both slept; a chest served as table and chair. The mother +earned a little by charring. The owner of the house said that they had +lived in this way since May, 1843, had gradually sold or pawned +everything that they had, and had still never paid any rent. The +magistrate assigned them 1 pound from the poor-box. + +I am far from asserting that _all_ London working-people live in such +want as the foregoing three families. I know very well that ten are +somewhat better off, where one is so totally trodden under foot by +society; but I assert that thousands of industrious and worthy people--far +worthier and more to be respected than all the rich of London--do find +themselves in a condition unworthy of human beings; and that every +proletarian, everyone, without exception, is exposed to a similar fate +without any fault of his own and in spite of every possible effort. + +But in spite of all this, they who have some kind of a shelter are +fortunate, fortunate in comparison with the utterly homeless. In London +fifty thousand human beings get up every morning, not knowing where they +are to lay their heads at night. The luckiest of this multitude, those +who succeed in keeping a penny or two until evening, enter a +lodging-house, such as abound in every great city, where they find a bed. +But what a bed! These houses are filled with beds from cellar to garret, +four, five, six beds in a room; as many as can be crowded in. Into every +bed four, five, or six human beings are piled, as many as can be packed +in, sick and well, young and old, drunk and sober, men and women, just as +they come, indiscriminately. Then come strife, blows, wounds, or, if +these bedfellows agree, so much the worse; thefts are arranged and things +done which our language, grown more humane than our deeds, refuses to +record. And those who cannot pay for such a refuge? They sleep where +they find a place, in passages, arcades, in corners where the police and +the owners leave them undisturbed. A few individuals find their way to +the refuges which are managed, here and there, by private charity, others +sleep on the benches in the parks close under the windows of Queen +Victoria. Let us hear the London _Times_: + + "It appears from the report of the proceedings at Marlborough Street + Police Court in our columns of yesterday, that there is an average + number of 50 human beings of all ages, who huddle together in the + parks every night, having no other shelter than what is supplied by + the trees and a few hollows of the embankment. Of these, the majority + are young girls who have been seduced from the country by the soldiers + and turned loose on the world in all the destitution of friendless + penury, and all the recklessness of early vice. + + "This is truly horrible! Poor there must be everywhere. Indigence + will find its way and set up its hideous state in the heart of a great + and luxurious city. Amid the thousand narrow lanes and by-streets of + a populous metropolis there must always, we fear, be much + suffering--much that offends the eye--much that lurks unseen. + + "But that within the precincts of wealth, gaiety, and fashion, nigh + the regal grandeur of St. James, close on the palatial splendour of + Bayswater, on the confines of the old and new aristocratic quarters, + in a district where the cautious refinement of modern design has + refrained from creating one single tenement for poverty; which seems, + as it were, dedicated to the exclusive enjoyment of wealth, that + _there_ want, and famine, and disease, and vice should stalk in all + their kindred horrors, consuming body by body, soul, by soul! + + "It is indeed a monstrous state of things! Enjoyment the most + absolute, that bodily ease, intellectual excitement, or the more + innocent pleasures of sense can supply to man's craving, brought in + close contact with the most unmitigated misery! Wealth, from its + bright saloons, laughing--an insolently heedless laugh--at the unknown + wounds of want! Pleasure, cruelly but unconsciously mocking the pain + that moans below! All contrary things mocking one another--all + contrary, save the vice which tempts and the vice which is tempted! + + "But let all men remember this--that within the most courtly precincts + of the richest city of God's earth, there may be found, night after + night, winter after winter, women--young in years--old in sin and + suffering--outcasts from society--ROTTING FROM FAMINE, FILTH, AND + DISEASE. Let them remember this, and learn not to theorise but to + act. God knows, there is much room for action nowadays." {32} + +I have referred to the refuges for the homeless. How greatly overcrowded +these are, two examples may show. A newly erected Refuge for the +Houseless in Upper Ogle Street, that can shelter three hundred persons +every night, has received since its opening, January 27th to March 17th, +1844, 2,740 persons for one or more nights; and, although the season was +growing more favourable, the number of applicants in this, as well as in +the asylums of Whitecross Street and Wapping, was strongly on the +increase, and a crowd of the homeless had to be sent away every night for +want of room. In another refuge, the Central Asylum in Playhouse Yard, +there were supplied on an average 460 beds nightly, during the first +three months of the year 1844, 6,681 persons being sheltered, and 96,141 +portions of bread were distributed. Yet the committee of directors +declare this institution began to meet the pressure of the needy to a +limited extent only when the Eastern Asylum also was opened. + +Let us leave London and examine the other great cities of the three +kingdoms in their order. Let us take Dublin first, a city the approach +to which from the sea is as charming as that of London is imposing. The +Bay of Dublin is the most beautiful of the whole British Island Kingdom, +and is even compared by the Irish with the Bay of Naples. The city, too, +possesses great attractions, and its aristocratic districts are better +and more tastefully laid out than those of any other British city. By +way of compensation, however, the poorer districts of Dublin are among +the most hideous and repulsive to be seen in the world. True, the Irish +character, which, under some circumstances, is comfortable only in the +dirt, has some share in this; but as we find thousands of Irish in every +great city in England and Scotland, and as every poor population must +gradually sink into the same uncleanliness, the wretchedness of Dublin is +nothing specific, nothing peculiar to Dublin, but something common to all +great towns. The poor quarters of Dublin are extremely extensive, and +the filth, the uninhabitableness of the houses and the neglect of the +streets, surpass all description. Some idea of the manner in which the +poor are here crowded together may be formed from the fact that, in 1817, +according to the report of the Inspector of Workhouses, {33} 1,318 +persons lived in 52 houses with 390 rooms in Barral Street, and 1,997 +persons in 71 houses with 393 rooms in and near Church Street; that: + + "In this and the adjoining district there exists a multitude of foul + courts and alleys; many cellars receive all their light through the + door, while in not a few the inhabitants sleep upon the bare floor, + though most of them possess bedsteads at least; Nicholson's Court, for + example, contains twenty-eight wretched little rooms with 151 human + beings in the greatest want, there being but two bedsteads and two + blankets to be found in the whole court." + +The poverty is so great in Dublin, that a single benevolent institution, +the Mendicity Association, gives relief to 2,500 persons or one per cent. +of the population daily, receiving and feeding them for the day and +dismissing them at night. + +Dr. Alison describes a similar state of things in Edinburgh, whose superb +situation, which has won it the title of the Modern Athens, and whose +brilliant aristocratic quarter in the New Town, contrast strongly with +the foul wretchedness of the poor in the Old Town. Alison asserts that +this extensive quarter is as filthy and horrible as the worst district of +Dublin, while the Mendicity Association would have as great a proportion +of needy persons to assist in Edinburgh as in the Irish capital. He +asserts, indeed, that the poor in Scotland, especially in Edinburgh and +Glasgow, are worse off than in any other region of the three kingdoms, +and that the poorest are not Irish, but Scotch. The preacher of the Old +Church of Edinburgh, Dr. Lee, testified in 1836, before the Commission of +Religious Instruction, that: + + "He had never before seen such misery as in his parish, where the + people were without furniture, without everything, two married couples + often sharing one room. In a single day he had visited seven houses + in which there was not a bed, in some of them not even a heap of + straw. Old people of eighty years sleep on the board floor, nearly + all slept in their day-clothes. In one cellar room he found two + families from a Scotch country district; soon after their removal to + the city two of the children had died, and a third was dying at the + time of his visit. Each family had a filthy pile of straw lying in a + corner; the cellar sheltered besides the two families a donkey, and + was, moreover, so dark that it was impossible to distinguish one + person from another by day. Dr. Lee declared that it was enough to + make a heart of adamant bleed to see such misery in a country like + Scotland." + +In the Edinburgh _Medical and Surgical Journal_, Dr. Hennan reports a +similar state of things. From a Parliamentary Report, {35a} it is +evident that in the dwellings of the poor of Edinburgh a want of +cleanliness reigns, such as must be expected under these conditions. On +the bed-posts chickens roost at night, dogs and horses share the +dwellings of human beings, and the natural consequence is a shocking +stench, with filth and swarms of vermin. The prevailing construction of +Edinburgh favours these atrocious conditions as far as possible. The Old +Town is built upon both slopes of a hill, along the crest of which runs +the High Street. Out of the High Street there open downwards multitudes +of narrow, crooked alleys, called wynds from their many turnings, and +these wynds form the proletarian district of the city. The houses of the +Scotch cities, in general, are five or six-storied buildings, like those +of Paris, and in contrast with England where, so far as possible, each +family has a separate house. The crowding of human beings upon a limited +area is thus intensified. {35b} + + "These streets," says an English journal in an article upon the + sanitary condition of the working-people in cities, "are often so + narrow that a person can step from the window of one house into that + of its opposite neighbour, while the houses are piled so high, storey + upon storey, that the light can scarcely penetrate into the court or + alley that lies between. In this part of the city there are neither + sewers nor other drains, nor even privies belonging to the houses. In + consequence, all refuse, garbage, and excrements of at least 50,000 + persons are thrown into the gutters every night, so that, in spite of + all street sweeping, a mass of dried filth and foul vapours are + created, which not only offend the sight and smell, but endanger the + health of the inhabitants in the highest degree. Is it to be wondered + at, that in such localities all considerations of health, morals, and + even the most ordinary decency are utterly neglected? On the + contrary, all who are more intimately acquainted with the condition of + the inhabitants will testify to the high degree which disease, + wretchedness, and demoralisation have here reached. Society in such + districts has sunk to a level indescribably low and hopeless. The + houses of the poor are generally filthy, and are evidently never + cleansed. They consist in most cases of a single room which, while + subject to the worst ventilation, is yet usually kept cold by the + broken and badly fitting windows, and is sometimes damp and partly + below ground level, always badly furnished and thoroughly + uncomfortable, a straw-heap often serving the whole family for a bed, + upon which men and women, young and old, sleep in revolting confusion. + Water can be had only from the public pumps, and the difficulty of + obtaining it naturally fosters all possible filth." + +In the other great seaport towns the prospect is no better. Liverpool, +with all its commerce, wealth, and grandeur yet treats its workers with +the same barbarity. A full fifth of the population, more than 45,000 +human beings, live in narrow, dark, damp, badly-ventilated cellar +dwellings, of which there are 7,862 in the city. Besides these cellar +dwellings there are 2,270 courts, small spaces built up on all four sides +and having but one entrance, a narrow, covered passage-way, the whole +ordinarily very dirty and inhabited exclusively by proletarians. Of such +courts we shall have more to say when we come to Manchester. In Bristol, +on one occasion, 2,800 families were visited, of whom 46 per cent. +occupied but one room each. + +Precisely the same state of things prevails in the factory towns. In +Nottingham there are in all 11,000 houses, of which between 7,000 and +8,000 are built back to back with a rear parti-wall so that no through +ventilation is possible, while a single privy usually serves for several +houses. During an investigation made a short time since, many rows of +houses were found to have been built over shallow drains covered only by +the boards of the ground floor. In Leicester, Derby, and Sheffield, it +is no better. Of Birmingham, the article above cited from the _Artisan_ +states: + + "In the older quarters of the city there are many bad districts, + filthy and neglected, full of stagnant pools and heaps of refuse. + Courts are very numerous in Birmingham, reaching two thousand, and + containing the greater number of the working-people of the city. These + courts are usually narrow, muddy, badly ventilated, ill-drained, and + lined with eight to twenty houses, which, by reason of having their + rear walls in common, can usually be ventilated from one side only. In + the background, within the court, there is usually an ash heap or + something of the kind, the filth of which cannot be described. It + must, however, be observed that the newer courts are more sensibly + built and more decently kept, and that even in the old ones, the + cottages are much less crowded than in Manchester and Liverpool, + wherefore Birmingham shows even during the reign of an epidemic a far + smaller mortality than, for instance, Wolverhampton, Dudley, and + Bilston, only a few miles distant. Cellar dwellings are unknown, too, + in Birmingham, though a few cellars are misused as workrooms. The + lodging-houses for proletarians are rather numerous (over four + hundred), chiefly in courts in the heart of the town. They are nearly + all disgustingly filthy and ill-smelling, the refuge of beggars, + thieves, tramps, and prostitutes, who eat, drink, smoke, and sleep + here without the slightest regard to comfort or decency in an + atmosphere endurable to these degraded beings only." + +Glasgow is in many respects similar to Edinburgh, possessing the same +wynds, the same tall houses. Of this city the _Artisan_ observes: + + "The working-class forms here some 78% of the whole population (about + 300,000), and lives in parts of the city which exceed in wretchedness + and squalor the lowest nooks of St. Giles and Whitechapel, the + Liberties of Dublin, the Wynds of Edinburgh. There are numbers of + such localities in the heart of the city, south of the Trongate, + westward from the Saltmarket, in Calton and off the High Street, + endless labyrinths of lanes or wynds into which open at almost every + step, courts or blind alleys, formed by ill-ventilated, high-piled, + waterless, and dilapidated houses. These are literally swarming with + inhabitants. They contain three or four families upon each floor, + perhaps twenty persons. In some cases each storey is let out in + sleeping places, so that fifteen to twenty persons are packed, one on + top of the other, I cannot say accommodated, in a single room. These + districts shelter the poorest, most depraved, and worthless members of + the community, and may be regarded as the sources of those frightful + epidemics which, beginning here, spread desolation over Glasgow." + +Let us hear how J. C. Symonds, Government Commissioner for the +investigation of the condition of the hand-weavers, describes these +portions of the city: {38} + + "I have seen wretchedness in some of its worse phases both here and + upon the Continent, but until I visited the wynds of Glasgow I did not + believe that so much crime, misery, and disease could exist in any + civilised country. In the lower lodging-houses ten, twelve, sometimes + twenty persons of both sexes, all ages and various degrees of + nakedness, sleep indiscriminately huddled together upon the floor. + These dwellings are usually so damp, filthy, and ruinous, that no one + could wish to keep his horse in one of them." + +And in another place: + + "The wynds of Glasgow contain a fluctuating population of fifteen to + thirty thousand human beings. This quarter consists wholly of narrow + alleys and square courts, in the middle of every one of which there + lies a dung heap. Revolting as was the outward appearance of these + courts, I was yet not prepared for the filth and wretchedness within. + In some of the sleeping-places which we visited at night (the + Superintendent of Police, Captain Miller, and Symonds) we found a + complete layer of human beings stretched upon the floor, often fifteen + to twenty, some clad, others naked, men and women indiscriminately. + Their bed was a litter of mouldy straw, mixed with rags. There was + little or no furniture, and the only thing which gave these dens any + shimmer of habitableness was a fire upon the hearth. Theft and + prostitution form the chief means of subsistence of this population. + No one seemed to take the trouble to cleanse this Augean stable, this + Pandemonium, this tangle of crime, filth, and pestilence in the centre + of the second city of the kingdom. An extended examination of the + lowest districts of other cities never revealed anything half so bad, + either in intensity of moral and physical infection, nor in + comparative density of population. In this quarter most of the houses + have been declared by the Court of Guild ruinous and unfit for + habitation, but precisely these are the most densely populated, + because, according to the law, no rent can be demanded for them." + +The great manufacturing district in the centre of the British Islands, +the thickly peopled stretch of West Yorkshire and South Lancashire, with +its numerous factory towns, yields nothing to the other great +manufacturing centres. The woollen district of the West Riding of +Yorkshire is a charming region, a beautiful green hill country, whose +elevations grow more rugged towards the West until they reach their +highest point in the bold ridge of Blackstone Edge, the watershed between +the Irish Sea and the German Ocean. The valleys of the Aire, along which +stretches Leeds, and of the Calder, through which the Manchester-Leeds +railway runs, are among the most attractive in England, and are strewn in +all directions with the factories, villages, and towns. The houses of +rough grey stone look so neat and clean in comparison with the blackened +brick buildings of Lancashire, that it is a pleasure to look at them. But +on coming into the towns themselves, one finds little to rejoice over. +Leeds lies as the _Artisan_ describes it, and as I found confirmed upon +examination: "on a gentle slope that descends into the valley of the +Aire. This stream flows through the city for about a mile-and-a-half and +is exposed to violent floods during thaws or heavy rain. The higher +western portions of the city are clean, for such a large town. But the +low-lying districts along the river and its tributary becks are narrow, +dirty, and enough in themselves to shorten the lives of the inhabitants, +especially of little children. Added to this, the disgusting state of +the working-men's districts about Kirkgate, Marsh Lane, Cross Street and +Richmond Road, which is chiefly attributable to their unpaved, drainless +streets, irregular architecture, numerous courts and alleys, and total +lack of the most ordinary means of cleanliness, all this taken together +is explanation enough of the excessive mortality in these unhappy abodes +of filthy misery. In consequence of the overflows of the Aire" (which, +it must be added, like all other rivers in the service of manufacture, +flows into the city at one end clear and transparent, and flows out at +the other end thick, black, and foul, smelling of all possible refuse), +"the houses and cellars are often so full of water that they have to be +pumped out. And at such times the water rises, even where there are +sewers, out of them into cellars, {40a} engenders miasmatic vapours +strongly impregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen, and leaves a disgusting +residuum highly injurious to health. During the spring-floods of 1839 +the action of such a choking of the sewers was so injurious, that, +according to the report of the Registrar of Births and Deaths for this +part of the town, there were three deaths to two births, whereas in the +same three months, in every other part of the town, there were three +births to two deaths. Other thickly populated districts are without any +sewers whatsoever, or so badly provided as to derive no benefit from +them. In some rows of houses the cellars are seldom dry; in certain +districts there are several streets covered with soft mud a foot deep. +The inhabitants have made vain attempts from time to time to repair these +streets with shovelfuls of cinders, but in spite of all such attempts, +dung-heaps, and pools of dirty water emptied from the houses, fill all +the holes until wind and sun dry them up. {40b} An ordinary cottage in +Leeds occupies not more than five yards square of land, and usually +consists of a cellar, a living room, and one sleeping-room. These +contracted dwellings, filled day and night with human beings, are another +point dangerous alike to the morals and the health of the inhabitants." +And how greatly these cottages are crowded, the Report on the Health of +the Working-Classes, quoted above, bears testimony: "In Leeds we found +brothers and sisters, and lodgers of both sexes, sharing the parents' +sleeping-room, whence arise consequences at the contemplation of which +human feeling shudders." + +So, too, Bradford, which, but seven miles from Leeds at the junction of +several valleys, lies upon the banks of a small, coal-black, +foul-smelling stream. On week-days the town is enveloped in a grey cloud +of coal smoke, but on a fine Sunday it offers a superb picture, when +viewed from the surrounding heights. Yet within reigns the same filth +and discomfort as in Leeds. The older portions of the town are built +upon steep hillsides, and are narrow and irregular. In the lanes, +alleys, and courts lie filth and _debris_ in heaps; the houses are +ruinous, dirty, and miserable, and in the immediate vicinity of the river +and the valley bottom I found many a one, whose ground-floor, half-buried +in the hillside, was totally abandoned. In general, the portions of the +valley bottom in which working-men's cottages have crowded between the +tall factories, are among the worst built and dirtiest districts of the +whole town. In the newer portions of this, as of every other factory +town, the cottages are more regular, being built in rows, but they share +here, too, all the evils incident to the customary method of providing +working-men's dwellings, evils of which we shall have occasions to speak +more particularly in discussing Manchester. The same is true of the +remaining towns of the West Riding, especially of Barnsley, Halifax and +Huddersfield. The last named, the handsomest by far of all the factory +towns of Yorkshire and Lancashire, by reason of its charming situation +and modern architecture, has yet its bad quarter; for a committee +appointed by a meeting of citizens to survey the town, reported August +5th, 1844: "It is notorious that in Huddersfield whole streets and many +lanes and courts are neither paved nor supplied with sewers nor other +drains; that in them refuse, _debris_, and filth of every sort lies +accumulating, festers and rots, and that, nearly everywhere, stagnant +water accumulates in pools, in consequence of which the adjoining +dwellings must inevitably be bad and filthy, so that in such places +diseases arise and threaten the health of the whole town." + +If we cross Blackstone Edge or penetrate it with the railroad, we enter +upon that classic soil on which English manufacture has achieved its +masterwork and from which all labour movements emanate, namely, South +Lancashire with its central city Manchester. Again we have beautiful +hill country, sloping gently from the watershed westwards towards the +Irish Sea, with the charming green valleys of the Ribble, the Irwell, the +Mersey, and their tributaries, a country which, a hundred years ago +chiefly swamp land, thinly populated, is now sown with towns and +villages, and is the most densely populated strip of country in England. +In Lancashire, and especially in Manchester, English manufacture finds at +once its starting point and its centre. The Manchester Exchange is the +thermometer for all the fluctuations of trade. The modern art of +manufacture has reached its perfection in Manchester. In the cotton +industry of South Lancashire, the application of the forces of Nature, +the superseding of hand labour by machinery (especially by the power-loom +and the self-acting mule), and the division of labour, are seen at the +highest point; and, if we recognise in these three elements that which is +characteristic of modern manufacture, we must confess that the cotton +industry has remained in advance of all other branches of industry from +the beginning down to the present day. The effects of modern manufacture +upon the working-class must necessarily develop here most freely and +perfectly, and the manufacturing proletariat present itself in its +fullest classic perfection. The degradation to which the application of +steam-power, machinery and the division of labour reduce the working-man, +and the attempts of the proletariat to rise above this abasement, must +likewise be carried to the highest point and with the fullest +consciousness. Hence because Manchester is the classic type of a modern +manufacturing town, and because I know it as intimately as my own native +town, more intimately than most of its residents know it, we shall make a +longer stay here. + +The towns surrounding Manchester vary little from the central city, so +far as the working-people's quarters are concerned, except that the +working-class forms, if possible, a larger proportion of their +population. These towns are purely industrial and conduct all their +business through Manchester upon which they are in every respect +dependent, whence they are inhabited only by working-men and petty +tradesmen, while Manchester has a very considerable commercial +population, especially of commission and "respectable" retail dealers. +Hence Bolton, Preston, Wigan, Bury, Rochdale, Middleton, Heywood, Oldham, +Ashton, Stalybridge, Stockport, etc., though nearly all towns of thirty, +fifty, seventy to ninety thousand inhabitants, are almost wholly working- +people's districts, interspersed only with factories, a few thoroughfares +lined with shops, and a few lanes along which the gardens and houses of +the manufacturers are scattered like villas. The towns themselves are +badly and irregularly built with foul courts, lanes, and back alleys, +reeking of coal smoke, and especially dingy from the originally bright +red brick, turned black with time, which is here the universal building +material. Cellar dwellings are general here; wherever it is in any way +possible, these subterranean dens are constructed, and a very +considerable portion of the population dwells in them. + +Among the worst of these towns after Preston and Oldham is Bolton, eleven +miles north-west of Manchester. It has, so far as I have been able to +observe in my repeated visits, but one main street, a very dirty one, +Deansgate, which serves as a market, and is even in the finest weather a +dark, unattractive hole in spite of the fact that, except for the +factories, its sides are formed by low one and two-storied houses. Here, +as everywhere, the older part of the town is especially ruinous and +miserable. A dark-coloured body of water, which leaves the beholder in +doubt whether it is a brook or a long string of stagnant puddles, flows +through the town and contributes its share to the total pollution of the +air, by no means pure without it. + +There is Stockport, too, which lies on the Cheshire side of the Mersey, +but belongs nevertheless to the manufacturing district of Manchester. It +lies in a narrow valley along the Mersey, so that the streets slope down +a steep hill on one side and up an equally steep one on the other, while +the railway from Manchester to Birmingham passes over a high viaduct +above the city and the whole valley. Stockport is renowned throughout +the entire district as one of the duskiest, smokiest holes, and looks, +indeed, especially when viewed from the viaduct, excessively repellent. +But far more repulsive are the cottages and cellar dwellings of the +working-class, which stretch in long rows through all parts of the town +from the valley bottom to the crest of the hill. I do not remember to +have seen so many cellars used as dwellings in any other town of this +district. + +A few miles north-east of Stockport is Ashton-under-Lyne, one of the +newest factory towns of this region. It stands on the slope of a hill at +the foot of which are the canal and the river Tame, and is, in general, +built on the newer, more regular plan. Five or six parallel streets +stretch along the hill intersected at right angles by others leading down +into the valley. By this method, the factories would be excluded from +the town proper, even if the proximity of the river and the canal-way did +not draw them all into the valley where they stand thickly crowded, +belching forth black smoke from their chimneys. To this arrangement +Ashton owes a much more attractive appearance than that of most factory +towns; the streets are broad and cleaner, the cottages look new, bright +red, and comfortable. But the modern system of building cottages for +working-men has its own disadvantages; every street has its concealed +back lane to which a narrow paved path leads, and which is all the +dirtier. And, although I saw no buildings, except a few on entering, +which could have been more than fifty years old, there are even in Ashton +streets in which the cottages are getting bad, where the bricks in the +house-corners are no longer firm but shift about, in which the walls have +cracks and will not hold the chalk whitewash inside; streets, whose +dirty, smoke-begrimed aspect is nowise different from that of the other +towns of the district, except that in Ashton, this is the exception, not +the rule. + +A mile eastward lies Stalybridge, also on the Tame. In coming over the +hill from Ashton, the traveller has, at the top, both right and left, +fine large gardens with superb villa-like houses in their midst, built +usually in the Elizabethan style, which is to the Gothic precisely what +the Anglican Church is to the Apostolic Roman Catholic. A hundred paces +farther and Stalybridge shows itself in the valley, in sharp contrast +with the beautiful country seats, in sharp contrast even with the modest +cottages of Ashton! Stalybridge lies in a narrow, crooked ravine, much +narrower even than the valley at Stockport, and both sides of this ravine +are occupied by an irregular group of cottages, houses, and mills. On +entering, the very first cottages are narrow, smoke-begrimed, old and +ruinous; and as the first houses, so the whole town. A few streets lie +in the narrow valley bottom, most of them run criss-cross, pell-mell, up +hill and down, and in nearly all the houses, by reason of this sloping +situation, the ground floor is half-buried in the earth; and what +multitudes of courts, back lanes, and remote nooks arise out of this +confused way of building may be seen from the hills, whence one has the +town, here and there, in a bird's-eye view almost at one's feet. Add to +this the shocking filth, and the repulsive effect of Stalybridge, in +spite of its pretty surroundings, may be readily imagined. + +But enough of these little towns. Each has its own peculiarities, but in +general, the working-people live in them just as in Manchester. Hence I +have especially sketched only their peculiar construction, and would +observe, that all more general observations as to the condition of the +labouring population in Manchester are fully applicable to these +surrounding towns as well. + +Manchester lies at the foot of the southern slope of a range of hills, +which stretch hither from Oldham, their last peak, Kersallmoor, being at +once the racecourse and the Mons Sacer of Manchester. Manchester proper +lies on the left bank of the Irwell, between that stream and the two +smaller ones, the Irk and the Medlock, which here empty into the Irwell. +On the left bank of the Irwell, bounded by a sharp curve of the river, +lies Salford, and farther westward Pendleton; northward from the Irwell +lie Upper and Lower Broughton; northward of the Irk, Cheetham Hill; south +of the Medlock lies Hulme; farther east Chorlton on Medlock; still +farther, pretty well to the east of Manchester, Ardwick. The whole +assemblage of buildings is commonly called Manchester, and contains about +four hundred thousand inhabitants, rather more than less. The town +itself is peculiarly built, so that a person may live in it for years, +and go in and out daily without coming into contact with a +working-people's quarter or even with workers, that is, so long as he +confines himself to his business or to pleasure walks. This arises +chiefly from the fact, that by unconscious tacit agreement, as well as +with outspoken conscious determination, the working-people's quarters are +sharply separated from the sections of the city reserved for the middle- +class; or, if this does not succeed, they are concealed with the cloak of +charity. Manchester contains, at its heart, a rather extended commercial +district, perhaps half a mile long and about as broad, and consisting +almost wholly of offices and warehouses. Nearly the whole district is +abandoned by dwellers, and is lonely and deserted at night; only watchmen +and policemen traverse its narrow lanes with their dark lanterns. This +district is cut through by certain main thoroughfares upon which the vast +traffic concentrates, and in which the ground level is lined with +brilliant shops. In these streets the upper floors are occupied, here +and there, and there is a good deal of life upon them until late at +night. With the exception of this commercial district, all Manchester +proper, all Salford and Hulme, a great part of Pendleton and Chorlton, +two-thirds of Ardwick, and single stretches of Cheetham Hill and +Broughton are all unmixed working-people's quarters, stretching like a +girdle, averaging a mile and a half in breadth, around the commercial +district. Outside, beyond this girdle, lives the upper and middle +bourgeoisie, the middle bourgeoisie in regularly laid out streets in the +vicinity of the working quarters, especially in Chorlton and the lower +lying portions of Cheetham Hill; the upper bourgeoisie in remoter villas +with gardens in Chorlton and Ardwick, or on the breezy heights of +Cheetham Hill, Broughton, and Pendleton, in free, wholesome country air, +in fine, comfortable homes, passed once every half or quarter hour by +omnibuses going into the city. And the finest part of the arrangement is +this, that the members of this money aristocracy can take the shortest +road through the middle of all the labouring districts to their places of +business, without ever seeing that they are in the midst of the grimy +misery that lurks to the right and the left. For the thoroughfares +leading from the Exchange in all directions out of the city are lined, on +both sides, with an almost unbroken series of shops, and are so kept in +the hands of the middle and lower bourgeoisie, which, out of +self-interest, cares for a decent and cleanly external appearance and +_can_ care for it. True, these shops bear some relation to the districts +which lie behind them, and are more elegant in the commercial and +residential quarters than when they hide grimy working-men's dwellings; +but they suffice to conceal from the eyes of the wealthy men and women of +strong stomachs and weak nerves the misery and grime which form the +complement of their wealth. So, for instance, Deansgate, which leads +from the Old Church directly southward, is lined first with mills and +warehouses, then with second-rate shops and alehouses; farther south, +when it leaves the commercial district, with less inviting shops, which +grow dirtier and more interrupted by beerhouses and gin palaces the +farther one goes, until at the southern end the appearance of the shops +leaves no doubt that workers and workers only are their customers. So +Market Street running south-east from the Exchange; at first brilliant +shops of the best sort, with counting-houses or warehouses above; in the +continuation, Piccadilly, immense hotels and warehouses; in the farther +continuation, London Road, in the neighbourhood of the Medlock, +factories, beerhouses, shops for the humbler bourgeoisie and the working +population; and from this point onward, large gardens and villas of the +wealthier merchants and manufacturers. In this way any one who knows +Manchester can infer the adjoining districts, from the appearance of the +thoroughfare, but one is seldom in a position to catch from the street a +glimpse of the real labouring districts. I know very well that this +hypocritical plan is more or less common to all great cities; I know, +too, that the retail dealers are forced by the nature of their business +to take possession of the great highways; I know that there are more good +buildings than bad ones upon such streets everywhere, and that the value +of land is greater near them than in remoter districts; but at the same +time I have never seen so systematic a shutting out of the working-class +from the thoroughfares, so tender a concealment of everything which might +affront the eye and the nerves of the bourgeoisie, as in Manchester. And +yet, in other respects, Manchester is less built according to a plan, +after official regulations, is more an outgrowth of accident, than any +other city; and when I consider in this connection the eager assurances +of the middle-class, that the working-class is doing famously, I cannot +help feeling that the liberal manufacturers, the "Big Wigs" of +Manchester, are not so innocent after all, in the matter of this +sensitive method of construction. + +I may mention just here that the mills almost all adjoin the rivers or +the different canals that ramify throughout the city, before I proceed at +once to describe the labouring quarters. First of all, there is the old +town of Manchester, which lies between the northern boundary of the +commercial district and the Irk. Here the streets, even the better ones, +are narrow and winding, as Todd Street, Long Millgate, Withy Grove, and +Shude Hill, the houses dirty, old, and tumble-down, and the construction +of the side streets utterly horrible. Going from the Old Church to Long +Millgate, the stroller has at once a row of old-fashioned houses at the +right, of which not one has kept its original level; these are remnants +of the old pre-manufacturing Manchester, whose former inhabitants have +removed with their descendants into better-built districts, and have left +the houses, which were not good enough for them, to a population strongly +mixed with Irish blood. Here one is in an almost undisguised working- +men's quarter, for even the shops and beerhouses hardly take the trouble +to exhibit a trifling degree of cleanliness. But all this is nothing in +comparison with the courts and lanes which lie behind, to which access +can be gained only through covered passages, in which no two human beings +can pass at the same time. Of the irregular cramming together of +dwellings in ways which defy all rational plan, of the tangle in which +they are crowded literally one upon the other, it is impossible to convey +an idea. And it is not the buildings surviving from the old times of +Manchester which are to blame for this; the confusion has only recently +reached its height when every scrap of space left by the old way of +building has been filled up and patched over until not a foot of land is +left to be further occupied. + +The south bank of the Irk is here very steep and between fifteen and +thirty feet high. On this declivitous hillside there are planted three +rows of houses, of which the lowest rise directly out of the river, while +the front walls of the highest stand on the crest of the hill in Long +Millgate. Among them are mills on the river, in short, the method of +construction is as crowded and disorderly here as in the lower part of +Long Millgate. Right and left a multitude of covered passages lead from +the main street into numerous courts, and he who turns in thither gets +into a filth and disgusting grime, the equal of which is not to be +found--especially in the courts which lead down to the Irk, and which +contain unqualifiedly the most horrible dwellings which I have yet +beheld. In one of these courts there stands directly at the entrance, at +the end of the covered passage, a privy without a door, so dirty that the +inhabitants can pass into and out of the court only by passing through +foul pools of stagnant urine and excrement. This is the first court on +the Irk above Ducie Bridge--in case any one should care to look into it. +Below it on the river there are several tanneries which fill the whole +neighbourhood with the stench of animal putrefaction. Below Ducie Bridge +the only entrance to most of the houses is by means of narrow, dirty +stairs and over heaps of refuse and filth. The first court below Ducie +Bridge, known as Allen's Court, was in such a state at the time of the +cholera that the sanitary police ordered it evacuated, swept, and +disinfected with chloride of lime. Dr. Kay gives a terrible description +of the state of this court at that time. {49} Since then, it seems to +have been partially torn away and rebuilt; at least looking down from +Ducie Bridge, the passer-by sees several ruined walls and heaps of debris +with some newer houses. The view from this bridge, mercifully concealed +from mortals of small stature by a parapet as high as a man, is +characteristic for the whole district. At the bottom flows, or rather +stagnates, the Irk, a narrow, coal-black, foul-smelling stream, full of +debris and refuse, which it deposits on the shallower right bank. In dry +weather, a long string of the most disgusting, blackish-green, slime +pools are left standing on this bank, from the depths of which bubbles of +miasmatic gas constantly arise and give forth a stench unendurable even +on the bridge forty or fifty feet above the surface of the stream. But +besides this, the stream itself is checked every few paces by high weirs, +behind which slime and refuse accumulate and rot in thick masses. Above +the bridge are tanneries, bonemills, and gasworks, from which all drains +and refuse find their way into the Irk, which receives further the +contents of all the neighbouring sewers and privies. It may be easily +imagined, therefore, what sort of residue the stream deposits. Below the +bridge you look upon the piles of debris, the refuse, filth, and offal +from the courts on the steep left bank; here each house is packed close +behind its neighbour and a piece of each is visible, all black, smoky, +crumbling, ancient, with broken panes and window frames. The background +is furnished by old barrack-like factory buildings. On the lower right +bank stands a long row of houses and mills; the second house being a ruin +without a roof, piled with debris; the third stands so low that the +lowest floor is uninhabitable, and therefore without windows or doors. +Here the background embraces the pauper burial-ground, the station of the +Liverpool and Leeds railway, and, in the rear of this, the Workhouse, the +"Poor-Law Bastille" of Manchester, which, like a citadel, looks +threateningly down from behind its high walls and parapets on the +hilltop, upon the working-people's quarter below. + +Above Ducie Bridge, the left bank grows more flat and the right bank +steeper, but the condition of the dwellings on both banks grows worse +rather than better. He who turns to the left here from the main street, +Long Millgate, is lost; he wanders from one court to another, turns +countless corners, passes nothing but narrow, filthy nooks and alleys, +until after a few minutes he has lost all clue, and knows not whither to +turn. Everywhere half or wholly ruined buildings, some of them actually +uninhabited, which means a great deal here; rarely a wooden or stone +floor to be seen in the houses, almost uniformly broken, ill-fitting +windows and doors, and a state of filth! Everywhere heaps of debris, +refuse, and offal; standing pools for gutters, and a stench which alone +would make it impossible for a human being in any degree civilised to +live in such a district. The newly-built extension of the Leeds railway, +which crosses the Irk here, has swept away some of these courts and +lanes, laying others completely open to view. Immediately under the +railway bridge there stands a court, the filth and horrors of which +surpass all the others by far, just because it was hitherto so shut off, +so secluded that the way to it could not be found without a good deal of +trouble. I should never have discovered it myself, without the breaks +made by the railway, though I thought I knew this whole region +thoroughly. Passing along a rough bank, among stakes and washing-lines, +one penetrates into this chaos of small one-storied, one-roomed huts, in +most of which there is no artificial floor; kitchen, living and sleeping- +room all in one. In such a hole, scarcely five feet long by six broad, I +found two beds--and such bedsteads and beds!--which, with a staircase and +chimney-place, exactly filled the room. In several others I found +absolutely nothing, while the door stood open, and the inhabitants leaned +against it. Everywhere before the doors refuse and offal; that any sort +of pavement lay underneath could not be seen but only felt, here and +there, with the feet. This whole collection of cattle-sheds for human +beings was surrounded on two sides by houses and a factory, and on the +third by the river, and besides the narrow stair up the bank, a narrow +doorway alone led out into another almost equally ill-built, ill-kept +labyrinth of dwellings. + +Enough! The whole side of the Irk is built in this way, a planless, +knotted chaos of houses, more or less on the verge of uninhabitableness, +whose unclean interiors fully correspond with their filthy external +surroundings. And how could the people be clean with no proper +opportunity for satisfying the most natural and ordinary wants? Privies +are so rare here that they are either filled up every day, or are too +remote for most of the inhabitants to use. How can people wash when they +have only the dirty Irk water at hand, while pumps and water pipes can be +found in decent parts of the city alone? In truth, it cannot be charged +to the account of these helots of modern society if their dwellings are +not more cleanly than the pig-sties which are here and there to be seen +among them. The landlords are not ashamed to let dwellings like the six +or seven cellars on the quay directly below Scotland Bridge, the floors +of which stand at least two feet below the low-water level of the Irk +that flows not six feet away from them; or like the upper floor of the +corner-house on the opposite shore directly above the bridge, where the +ground floor, utterly uninhabitable, stands deprived of all fittings for +doors and windows, a case by no means rare in this region, when this open +ground floor is used as a privy by the whole neighbourhood for want of +other facilities! + +If we leave the Irk and penetrate once more on the opposite side from +Long Millgate into the midst of the working-men's dwellings, we shall +come into a somewhat newer quarter, which stretches from St. Michael's +Church to Withy Grove and Shude Hill. Here there is somewhat better +order. In place of the chaos of buildings, we find at least long +straight lanes and alleys or courts, built according to a plan and +usually square. But if, in the former case, every house was built +according to caprice, here each lane and court is so built, without +reference to the situation of the adjoining ones. The lanes run now in +this direction, now in that, while every two minutes the wanderer gets +into a blind alley, or, on turning a corner, finds himself back where he +started from; certainly no one who has not lived a considerable time in +this labyrinth can find his way through it. + +If I may use the word at all in speaking of this district, the +ventilation of these streets and courts is, in consequence of this +confusion, quite as imperfect as in the Irk region; and if this quarter +may, nevertheless, be said to have some advantage over that of the Irk, +the houses being newer and the streets occasionally having gutters, +nearly every house has, on the other hand, a cellar dwelling, which is +rarely found in the Irk district, by reason of the greater age and more +careless construction of the houses. As for the rest, the filth, debris, +and offal heaps, and the pools in the streets are common to both +quarters, and in the district now under discussion, another feature most +injurious to the cleanliness of the inhabitants, is the multitude of pigs +walking about in all the alleys, rooting into the offal heaps, or kept +imprisoned in small pens. Here, as in most of the working-men's quarters +of Manchester, the pork-raisers rent the courts and build pig-pens in +them. In almost every court one or even several such pens may be found, +into which the inhabitants of the court throw all refuse and offal, +whence the swine grow fat; and the atmosphere, confined on all four +sides, is utterly corrupted by putrefying animal and vegetable +substances. Through this quarter, a broad and measurably decent street +has been cut, Millers Street, and the background has been pretty +successfully concealed. But if any one should be led by curiosity to +pass through one of the numerous passages which lead into the courts, he +will find this piggery repeated at every twenty paces. + +Such is the Old Town of Manchester, and on re-reading my description, I +am forced to admit that instead of being exaggerated, it is far from +black enough to convey a true impression of the filth, ruin, and +uninhabitableness, the defiance of all considerations of cleanliness, +ventilation, and health which characterise the construction of this +single district, containing at least twenty to thirty thousand +inhabitants. And such a district exists in the heart of the second city +of England, the first manufacturing city of the world. If any one wishes +to see in how little space a human being can move, how little air--and +_such_ air!--he can breathe, how little of civilisation he may share and +yet live, it is only necessary to travel hither. True, this is the _Old_ +Town, and the people of Manchester emphasise the fact whenever any one +mentions to them the frightful condition of this Hell upon Earth; but +what does that prove? Everything which here arouses horror and +indignation is of recent origin, belongs to the _industrial epoch_. The +couple of hundred houses, which belong to old Manchester, have been long +since abandoned by their original inhabitants; the industrial epoch alone +has crammed into them the swarms of workers whom they now shelter; the +industrial epoch alone has built up every spot between these old houses +to win a covering for the masses whom it has conjured hither from the +agricultural districts and from Ireland; the industrial epoch alone +enables the owners of these cattle-sheds to rent them for high prices to +human beings, to plunder the poverty of the workers, to undermine the +health of thousands, in order that they _alone_, the owners, may grow +rich. In the industrial epoch alone has it become possible that the +worker scarcely freed from feudal servitude could be used as mere +material, a mere chattel; that he must let himself be crowded into a +dwelling too bad for every other, which he for his hard-earned wages buys +the right to let go utterly to ruin. This manufacture has achieved, +which, without these workers, this poverty, this slavery could not have +lived. True, the original construction of this quarter was bad, little +good could have been made out of it; but, have the landowners, has the +municipality done anything to improve it when rebuilding? On the +contrary, wherever a nook or corner was free, a house has been run up; +where a superfluous passage remained, it has been built up; the value of +land rose with the blossoming out of manufacture, and the more it rose, +the more madly was the work of building up carried on, without reference +to the health or comfort of the inhabitants, with sole reference to the +highest possible profit on the principle that _no hole is so bad but that +some poor creature must take it who can pay for nothing better_. However, +it is the Old Town, and with this reflection the bourgeoisie is +comforted. Let us see, therefore, how much better it is in the New Town. + +The New Town, known also as Irish Town, stretches up a hill of clay, +beyond the Old Town, between the Irk and St. George's Road. Here all the +features of a city are lost. Single rows of houses or groups of streets +stand, here and there, like little villages on the naked, not even grass- +grown clay soil; the houses, or rather cottages, are in bad order, never +repaired, filthy, with damp, unclean, cellar dwellings; the lanes are +neither paved nor supplied with sewers, but harbour numerous colonies of +swine penned in small sties or yards, or wandering unrestrained through +the neighbourhood. The mud in the streets is so deep that there is never +a chance, except in the dryest weather, of walking without sinking into +it ankle deep at every step. In the vicinity of St. George's Road, the +separate groups of buildings approach each other more closely, ending in +a continuation of lanes, blind alleys, back lanes and courts, which grow +more and more crowded and irregular the nearer they approach the heart of +the town. True, they are here oftener paved or supplied with paved +sidewalks and gutters; but the filth, the bad order of the houses, and +especially of the cellars, remains the same. + +It may not be out of place to make some general observations just here as +to the customary construction of working-men's quarters in Manchester. We +have seen how in the Old Town pure accident determined the grouping of +the houses in general. Every house is built without reference to any +other, and the scraps of space between them are called courts for want of +another name. In the somewhat newer portions of the same quarter, and in +other working-men's quarters, dating from the early days of industrial +activity, a somewhat more orderly arrangement may be found. The space +between two streets is divided into more regular, usually square courts. + +These courts were built in this way from the beginning, and communicate +with the streets by means of covered passages. If the totally planless +construction is injurious to the health of the workers by preventing +ventilation, this method of shutting them up in courts surrounded on all +sides by buildings is far more so. The air simply cannot escape; the +chimneys of the houses are the sole drains for the imprisoned atmosphere +of the courts, and they serve the purpose only so long as fire is kept +burning. {55} Moreover, the houses surrounding such courts are usually +built back to back, having the rear wall in common; and this alone +suffices to prevent any sufficient through ventilation. And, as the +police charged with care of the streets, does not trouble itself about +the condition of these courts, as everything quietly lies where it is +thrown, there is no cause for wonder at the filth and heaps of ashes and +offal to be found here. I have been in courts, in Millers Street, at +least half a foot below the level of the thoroughfares, and without the +slightest drainage for the water that accumulates in them in rainy +weather! More recently another different method of building was adopted, +and has now become general. Working-men's cottages are almost never +built singly, but always by the dozen or score; a single contractor +building up one or two streets at a time. These are then arranged as +follows: One front is formed of cottages of the best class, so fortunate +as to possess a back door and small court, and these command the highest +rent. In the rear of these cottages runs a narrow alley, the back +street, built up at both ends, into which either a narrow roadway or a +covered passage leads from one side. The cottages which face this back +street command least rent, and are most neglected. These have their rear +walls in common with the third row of cottages which face a second +street, and command less rent than the first row and more than the +second. + +By this method of construction, comparatively good ventilation can be +obtained for the first row of cottages, and the third row is no worse off +than in the former method. The middle row, on the other hand, is at +least as badly ventilated as the houses in the courts, and the back +street is always in the same filthy, disgusting condition as they. The +contractors prefer this method because it saves them space, and furnishes +the means of fleecing better paid workers through the higher rents of the +cottages in the first and third rows. These three different forms of +cottage building are found all over Manchester and throughout Lancashire +and Yorkshire, often mixed up together, but usually separate enough to +indicate the relative age of parts of towns. The third system, that of +the back alleys, prevails largely in the great working-men's district +east of St. George's Road and Ancoats Street, and is the one most often +found in the other working-men's quarters of Manchester and its suburbs. + +In the last-mentioned broad district included under the name Ancoats, +stand the largest mills of Manchester lining the canals, colossal six and +seven-storied buildings towering with their slender chimneys far above +the low cottages of the workers. The population of the district +consists, therefore, chiefly of mill hands, and in the worst streets, of +hand-weavers. The streets nearest the heart of the town are the oldest, +and consequently the worst; they are, however, paved, and supplied with +drains. Among them I include those nearest to and parallel with Oldham +Road and Great Ancoats Street. Farther to the north-east lie many newly- +built-up streets; here the cottages look neat and cleanly, doors and +windows are new and freshly painted, the rooms within newly whitewashed; +the streets themselves are better aired, the vacant building lots between +them larger and more numerous. But this can be said of a minority of the +houses only, while cellar dwellings are to be found under almost every +cottage; many streets are unpaved and without sewers; and, worse than +all, this neat appearance is all pretence, a pretence which vanishes +within the first ten years. For the construction of the cottages +individually is no less to be condemned than the plan of the streets. All +such cottages look neat and substantial at first; their massive brick +walls deceive the eye, and, on passing through a _newly-built_ working- +men's street, without remembering the back alleys and the construction of +the houses themselves, one is inclined to agree with the assertion of the +Liberal manufacturers that the working population is nowhere so well +housed as in England. But on closer examination, it becomes evident that +the walls of these cottages are as thin as it is possible to make them. +The outer walls, those of the cellar, which bear the weight of the ground +floor and roof, are one whole brick thick at most, the bricks lying with +their long sides touching; but I have seen many a cottage of the same +height, some in process of building, whose outer walls were but one-half +brick thick, the bricks lying not sidewise but lengthwise, their narrow +ends touching. The object of this is to spare material, but there is +also another reason for it; namely, the fact that the contractors never +own the land but lease it, according to the English custom, for twenty, +thirty, forty, fifty, or ninety-nine years, at the expiration of which +time it falls, with everything upon it, back into the possession of the +original holder, who pays nothing in return for improvements upon it. The +improvements are therefore so calculated by the lessee as to be worth as +little as possible at the expiration of the stipulated term. And as such +cottages are often built but twenty or thirty years before the expiration +of the term, it may easily be imagined that the contractors make no +unnecessary expenditures upon them. Moreover, these contractors, usually +carpenters and builders, or manufacturers, spend little or nothing in +repairs, partly to avoid diminishing their rent receipts, and partly in +view of the approaching surrender of the improvement to the landowner; +while in consequence of commercial crises and the loss of work that +follows them, whole streets often stand empty, the cottages falling +rapidly into ruin and uninhabitableness. It is calculated in general +that working-men's cottages last only forty years on the average. This +sounds strangely enough when one sees the beautiful, massive walls of +newly-built ones, which seem to give promise of lasting a couple of +centuries; but the fact remains that the niggardliness of the original +expenditure, the neglect of all repairs, the frequent periods of +emptiness, the constant change of inhabitants, and the destruction +carried on by the dwellers during the final ten years, usually Irish +families, who do not hesitate to use the wooden portions for +fire-wood--all this, taken together, accomplishes the complete ruin of +the cottages by the end of forty years. Hence it comes that Ancoats, +built chiefly since the sudden growth of manufacture, chiefly indeed +within the present century, contains a vast number of ruinous houses, +most of them being, in fact, in the last stages of inhabitableness. I +will not dwell upon the amount of capital thus wasted, the small +additional expenditure upon the original improvement and upon repairs +which would suffice to keep this whole district clean, decent, and +inhabitable for years together. I have to deal here with the state of +the houses and their inhabitants, and it must be admitted that no more +injurious and demoralising method of housing the workers has yet been +discovered than precisely this. The working-man is constrained to occupy +such ruinous dwellings because he cannot pay for others, and because +there are no others in the vicinity of his mill; perhaps, too, because +they belong to the employer, who engages him only on condition of his +taking such a cottage. The calculation with reference to the forty +years' duration of the cottage is, of course, not always perfectly +strict; for, if the dwellings are in a thickly-built-up portion of the +town, and there is a good prospect of finding steady occupants for them, +while the ground rent is high, the contractors do a little something to +keep the cottages inhabitable after the expiration of the forty years. +They never do anything more, however, than is absolutely unavoidable, and +the dwellings so repaired are the worst of all. Occasionally when an +epidemic threatens, the otherwise sleepy conscience of the sanitary +police is a little stirred, raids are made into the working-men's +districts, whole rows of cellars and cottages are closed, as happened in +the case of several lanes near Oldham Road; but this does not last long: +the condemned cottages soon find occupants again, the owners are much +better off by letting them, and the sanitary police won't come again so +soon. These east and north-east sides of Manchester are the only ones on +which the bourgeoisie has not built, because ten or eleven months of the +year the west and south-west wind drives the smoke of all the factories +hither, and that the working-people alone may breathe. + +Southward from Great Ancoats Street, lies a great, straggling, working- +men's quarter, a hilly, barren stretch of land, occupied by detached, +irregularly built rows of houses or squares, between these, empty +building lots, uneven, clayey, without grass and scarcely passable in wet +weather. The cottages are all filthy and old, and recall the New Town to +mind. The stretch cut through by the Birmingham railway is the most +thickly built-up and the worst. Here flows the Medlock with countless +windings through a valley, which is, in places, on a level with the +valley of the Irk. Along both sides of the stream, which is coal black, +stagnant and foul, stretches a broad belt of factories and working-men's +dwellings, the latter all in the worst condition. The bank is chiefly +declivitous and is built over to the water's edge, just as we saw along +the Irk; while the houses are equally bad, whether built on the +Manchester side or in Ardwick, Chorlton, or Hulme. But the most horrible +spot (if I should describe all the separate spots in detail I should +never come to the end) lies on the Manchester side, immediately south- +west of Oxford Road, and is known as Little Ireland. In a rather deep +hole, in a curve of the Medlock and surrounded on all four sides by tall +factories and high embankments, covered with buildings, stand two groups +of about two hundred cottages, built chiefly back to back, in which live +about four thousand human beings, most of them Irish. The cottages are +old, dirty, and of the smallest sort, the streets uneven, fallen into +ruts and in part without drains or pavement; masses of refuse, offal and +sickening filth lie among standing pools in all directions; the +atmosphere is poisoned by the effluvia from these, and laden and darkened +by the smoke of a dozen tall factory chimneys. A horde of ragged women +and children swarm about here, as filthy as the swine that thrive upon +the garbage heaps and in the puddles. In short, the whole rookery +furnishes such a hateful and repulsive spectacle as can hardly be +equalled in the worst court on the Irk. The race that lives in these +ruinous cottages, behind broken windows, mended with oilskin, sprung +doors, and rotten door-posts, or in dark, wet cellars, in measureless +filth and stench, in this atmosphere penned in as if with a purpose, this +race must really have reached the lowest stage of humanity. This is the +impression and the line of thought which the exterior of this district +forces upon the beholder. But what must one think when he hears that in +each of these pens, containing at most two rooms, a garret and perhaps a +cellar, on the average twenty human beings live; that in the whole +region, for each one hundred and twenty persons, one usually inaccessible +privy is provided; and that in spite of all the preachings of the +physicians, in spite of the excitement into which the cholera epidemic +plunged the sanitary police by reason of the condition of Little Ireland, +in spite of everything, in this year of grace 1844, it is in almost the +same state as in 1831! Dr. Kay asserts that not only the cellars but the +first floors of all the houses in this district are damp; that a number +of cellars once filled up with earth have now been emptied and are +occupied once more by Irish people; that in one cellar the water +constantly wells up through a hole stopped with clay, the cellar lying +below the river level, so that its occupant, a hand-loom weaver, had to +bale out the water from his dwelling every morning and pour it into the +street! + +Farther down, on the left side of the Medlock, lies Hulme, which, +properly speaking, is one great working-people's district, the condition +of which coincides almost exactly with that of Ancoats; the more thickly +built-up regions chiefly bad and approaching ruin, the less populous of +more modern structure, but generally sunk in filth. On the other side of +the Medlock, in Manchester proper, lies a second great working-men's +district which stretches on both sides of Deansgate as far as the +business quarter, and in certain parts rivals the Old Town. Especially +in the immediate vicinity of the business quarter, between Bridge and +Quay Streets, Princess and Peter Streets, the crowded construction +exceeds in places the narrowest courts of the Old Town. Here are long, +narrow lanes between which run contracted, crooked courts and passages, +the entrances to which are so irregular that the explorer is caught in a +blind alley at every few steps, or comes out where he least expects to, +unless he knows every court and every alley exactly and separately. +According to Dr. Kay, the most demoralised class of all Manchester lived +in these ruinous and filthy districts, people whose occupations are +thieving and prostitution; and, to all appearance, his assertion is still +true at the present moment. When the sanitary police made its expedition +hither in 1831, it found the uncleanness as great as in Little Ireland or +along the Irk (that it is not much better to-day, I can testify); and +among other items, they found in Parliament Street for three hundred and +eighty persons, and in Parliament Passage for thirty thickly populated +houses, but a single privy. + +If we cross the Irwell to Salford, we find on a peninsula formed by the +river, a town of eighty thousand inhabitants, which, properly speaking, +is one large working-men's quarter, penetrated by a single wide avenue. +Salford, once more important than Manchester, was then the leading town +of the surrounding district to which it still gives its name, Salford +Hundred. Hence it is that an old and therefore very unwholesome, dirty, +and ruinous locality is to be found here, lying opposite the Old Church +of Manchester, and in as bad a condition as the Old Town on the other +side of the Irwell. Farther away from the river lies the newer portion, +which is, however, already beyond the limit of its forty years of cottage +life, and therefore ruinous enough. All Salford is built in courts or +narrow lanes, so narrow, that they remind me of the narrowest I have ever +seen, the little lanes of Genoa. The average construction of Salford is +in this respect much worse than that of Manchester, and so, too, in +respect to cleanliness. If, in Manchester, the police, from time to +time, every six or ten years, makes a raid upon the working-people's +districts, closes the worst dwellings, and causes the filthiest spots in +these Augean stables to be cleansed, in Salford it seems to have done +absolutely nothing. The narrow side lanes and courts of Chapel Street, +Greengate, and Gravel Lane have certainly never been cleansed since they +were built. Of late, the Liverpool railway has been carried through the +middle of them, over a high viaduct, and has abolished many of the +filthiest nooks; but what does that avail? Whoever passes over this +viaduct and looks down, sees filth and wretchedness enough; and, if any +one takes the trouble to pass through these lanes, and glance through the +open doors and windows into the houses and cellars, he can convince +himself afresh with every step that the workers of Salford live in +dwellings in which cleanliness and comfort are impossible. Exactly the +same state of affairs is found in the more distant regions of Salford, in +Islington, along Regent Road, and back of the Bolton railway. The +working-men's dwellings between Oldfield Road and Cross Lane, where a +mass of courts and alleys are to be found in the worst possible state, +vie with the dwellings of the Old Town in filth and overcrowding. In +this district I found a man, apparently about sixty years old, living in +a cow stable. He had constructed a sort of chimney for his square pen, +which had neither windows, floor, nor ceiling, had obtained a bedstead +and lived there, though the rain dripped through his rotten roof. This +man was too old and weak for regular work, and supported himself by +removing manure with a hand-cart; the dung-heaps lay next door to his +palace! + +Such are the various working-people's quarters of Manchester as I had +occasion to observe them personally during twenty months. If we briefly +formulate the result of our wanderings, we must admit that 350,000 +working-people of Manchester and its environs live, almost all of them, +in wretched, damp, filthy cottages, that the streets which surround them +are usually in the most miserable and filthy condition, laid out without +the slightest reference to ventilation, with reference solely to the +profit secured by the contractor. In a word, we must confess that in the +working-men's dwellings of Manchester, no cleanliness, no convenience, +and consequently no comfortable family life is possible; that in such +dwellings only a physically degenerate race, robbed of all humanity, +degraded, reduced morally and physically to bestiality, could feel +comfortable and at home. And I am not alone in making this assertion. We +have seen that Dr. Kay gives precisely the same description; and, though +it is superfluous, I quote further the words of a Liberal, {63} +recognised and highly valued as an authority by the manufacturers, and a +fanatical opponent of all independent movements of the workers: + +"As I passed through the dwellings of the mill hands in Irish Town, +Ancoats, and Little Ireland, I was only amazed that it is possible to +maintain a reasonable state of health in such homes. These towns, for in +extent and number of inhabitants they are towns, have been erected with +the utmost disregard of everything except the immediate advantage of the +speculating builder. A carpenter and builder unite to buy a series of +building sites (_i.e_., they lease them for a number of years), and cover +them with so-called houses. In one place we found a whole street +following the course of a ditch, because in this way deeper cellars could +be secured without the cost of digging, cellars not for storing wares or +rubbish, but for dwellings for human beings. _Not one house of this +street escaped the cholera_. In general, the streets of these suburbs +are unpaved, with a dung-heap or ditch in the middle; the houses are +built back to back, without ventilation or drainage, and whole families +are limited to a corner of a cellar or a garret." I have already +referred to the unusual activity which the sanitary police manifested +during the cholera visitation. When the epidemic was approaching, a +universal terror seized the bourgeoisie of the city. People remembered +the unwholesome dwellings of the poor, and trembled before the certainty +that each of these slums would become a centre for the plague, whence it +would spread desolation in all directions through the houses of the +propertied class. A Health Commission was appointed at once to +investigate these districts, and report upon their condition to the Town +Council. Dr. Kay, himself a member of this Commission, who visited in +person every separate police district except one, the eleventh, quotes +extracts from their reports: There were inspected, in all, 6,951 +houses--naturally in Manchester proper alone, Salford and the other +suburbs being excluded. Of these, 6,565 urgently needed whitewashing +within; 960 were out of repair; 939 had insufficient drains; 1,435 were +damp; 452 were badly ventilated; 2,221 were without privies. Of the 687 +streets inspected, 248 were unpaved, 53 but partially paved, 112 +ill-ventilated, 352 containing standing pools, heaps of debris, refuse, +etc. To cleanse such an Augean stable before the arrival of the cholera +was, of course, out of the question. A few of the worst nooks were +therefore cleansed, and everything else left as before. In the cleansed +spots, as Little Ireland proves, the old filthy condition was naturally +restored in a couple of months. As to the internal condition of these +houses, the same Commission reports a state of things similar to that +which we have already met with in London, Edinburgh, and other cities. +{64} + +It often happens that a whole Irish family is crowded into one bed; often +a heap of filthy straw or quilts of old sacking cover all in an +indiscriminate heap, where all alike are degraded by want, stolidity, and +wretchedness. Often the inspectors found, in a single house, two +families in two rooms. All slept in one, and used the other as a kitchen +and dining-room in common. Often more than one family lived in a single +damp cellar, in whose pestilent atmosphere twelve to sixteen persons were +crowded together. To these and other sources of disease must be added +that pigs were kept, and other disgusting things of the most revolting +kind were found. + +We must add that many families, who had but one room for themselves, +receive boarders and lodgers in it, that such lodgers of both sexes by no +means rarely sleep in the same bed with the married couple; and that the +single case of a man and his wife and his adult sister-in-law sleeping in +one bed was found, according to the "Report concerning the sanitary +condition of the working-class," six times repeated in Manchester. Common +lodging-houses, too, are very numerous; Dr. Kay gives their number in +1831 at 267 in Manchester proper, and they must have increased greatly +since then. Each of these receives from twenty to thirty guests, so that +they shelter all told, nightly, from five to seven thousand human beings. +The character of the houses and their guests is the same as in other +cities. Five to seven beds in each room lie on the floor--without +bedsteads, and on these sleep, mixed indiscriminately, as many persons as +apply. What physical and moral atmosphere reigns in these holes I need +not state. Each of these houses is a focus of crime, the scene of deeds +against which human nature revolts, which would perhaps never have been +executed but for this forced centralisation of vice. {65} Gaskell gives +the number of persons living in cellars in Manchester proper as 20,000. +The _Weekly Dispatch_ gives the number, "according to official reports," +as twelve per cent. of the working-class, which agrees with Gaskell's +number; the workers being estimated at 175,000, 21,000 would form twelve +per cent. of it. The cellar dwellings in the suburbs are at least as +numerous, so that the number of persons living in cellars in +Manchester--using its name in the broader sense--is not less than forty +to fifty thousand. So much for the dwellings of the workers in the +largest cities and towns. The manner in which the need of a shelter is +satisfied furnishes a standard for the manner in which all other +necessities are supplied. That in these filthy holes a ragged, ill-fed +population alone can dwell is a safe conclusion, and such is the fact. +The clothing of the working-people, in the majority of cases, is in a +very bad condition. The material used for it is not of the best adapted. +Wool and linen have almost vanished from the wardrobe of both sexes, and +cotton has taken their place. Shirts are made of bleached or coloured +cotton goods; the dresses of the women are chiefly of cotton print goods, +and woollen petticoats are rarely to be seen on the washline. The men +wear chiefly trousers of fustian or other heavy cotton goods, and jackets +or coats of the same. Fustian has become the proverbial costume of the +working-men, who are called "fustian jackets," and call themselves so in +contrast to the gentlemen who wear broadcloth, which latter words are +used as characteristic for the middle-class. When Feargus O'Connor, the +Chartist leader, came to Manchester during the insurrection of 1842, he +appeared, amidst the deafening applause of the working-men, in a fustian +suit of clothing. Hats are the universal head-covering in England, even +for working-men, hats of the most diverse forms, round, high, +broad-brimmed, narrow-brimmed, or without brims--only the younger men in +factory towns wearing caps. Any one who does not own a hat folds himself +a low, square paper cap. + +The whole clothing of the working-class, even assuming it to be in good +condition, is little adapted to the climate. The damp air of England, +with its sudden changes of temperature, more calculated than any other to +give rise to colds, obliges almost the whole middle-class to wear flannel +next the skin, about the body, and flannel scarfs and shirts are in +almost universal use. Not only is the working-class deprived of this +precaution, it is scarcely ever in a position to use a thread of woollen +clothing; and the heavy cotton goods, though thicker, stiffer, and +heavier than woollen clothes, afford much less protection against cold +and wet, remain damp much longer because of their thickness and the +nature of the stuff, and have nothing of the compact density of fulled +woollen cloths. And, if a working-man once buys himself a woollen coat +for Sunday, he must get it from one of the cheap shops where he finds +bad, so-called "Devil's-dust" cloth, manufactured for sale and not for +use, and liable to tear or grow threadbare in a fortnight, or he must buy +of an old clothes'-dealer a half-worn coat which has seen its best days, +and lasts but a few weeks. Moreover, the working-man's clothing is, in +most cases, in bad condition, and there is the oft-recurring necessity +for placing the best pieces in the pawnbroker's shop. But among very +large numbers, especially among the Irish, the prevailing clothing +consists of perfect rags often beyond all mending, or so patched that the +original colour can no longer be detected. Yet the English and Anglo- +Irish go on patching, and have carried this art to a remarkable pitch, +putting wool or bagging on fustian, or the reverse--it's all the same to +them. But the true, transplanted Irish hardly ever patch except in the +extremest necessity, when the garment would otherwise fall apart. +Ordinarily the rags of the shirt protrude through the rents in the coat +or trousers. They wear, as Thomas Carlyle says,--{67} + + "A suit of tatters, the getting on or off which is said to be a + difficult operation, transacted only in festivals and the high tides + of the calendar." + +The Irish have introduced, too, the custom previously unknown in England, +of going barefoot. In every manufacturing town there is now to be seen a +multitude of people, especially women and children, going about barefoot, +and their example is gradually being adopted by the poorer English. + +As with clothing, so with food. The workers get what is too bad for the +property-holding class. In the great towns of England everything may be +had of the best, but it costs money; and the workman, who must keep house +on a couple of pence, cannot afford much expense. Moreover, he usually +receives his wages on Saturday evening, for, although a beginning has +been made in the payment of wages on Friday, this excellent arrangement +is by no means universal; and so he comes to market at five or even seven +o'clock, while the buyers of the middle-class have had the first choice +during the morning, when the market teems with the best of everything. +But when the workers reach it, the best has vanished, and, if it was +still there, they would probably not be able to buy it. The potatoes +which the workers buy are usually poor, the vegetables wilted, the cheese +old and of poor quality, the bacon rancid, the meat lean, tough, taken +from old, often diseased, cattle, or such as have died a natural death, +and not fresh even then, often half decayed. The sellers are usually +small hucksters who buy up inferior goods, and can sell them cheaply by +reason of their badness. The poorest workers are forced to use still +another device to get together the things they need with their few pence. +As nothing can be sold on Sunday, and all shops must be closed at twelve +o'clock on Saturday night, such things as would not keep until Monday are +sold at any price between ten o'clock and midnight. But nine-tenths of +what is sold at ten o'clock is past using by Sunday morning, yet these +are precisely the provisions which make up the Sunday dinner of the +poorest class. The meat which the workers buy is very often past using; +but having bought it, they must eat it. On the 6th of January, 1844 (if +I am not greatly mistaken), a court leet was held in Manchester, when +eleven meat-sellers were fined for having sold tainted meat. Each of +them had a whole ox or pig, or several sheep, or from fifty to sixty +pounds of meat, which were all confiscated in a tainted condition. In +one case, sixty-four stuffed Christmas geese were seized which had proved +unsaleable in Liverpool, and had been forwarded to Manchester, where they +were brought to market foul and rotten. All the particulars, with names +and fines, were published at the time in the _Manchester Guardian_. In +the six weeks, from July 1st to August 14th, the same sheet reported +three similar cases. According to the _Guardian_ for August 3rd, a pig, +weighing 200 pounds, which had been found dead and decayed, was cut up +and exposed for sale by a butcher at Heywood, and was then seized. +According to the number for July 31st, two butchers at Wigan, of whom one +had previously been convicted of the same offence, were fined 2 and 4 +pounds respectively, for exposing tainted meat for sale; and, according +to the number for August 10th, twenty-six tainted hams seized at a +dealer's in Bolton, were publicly burnt, and the dealer fined twenty +shillings. But these are by no means all the cases; they do not even +form a fair average for a period of six weeks, according to which to form +an average for the year. There are often seasons in which every number +of the semi-weekly _Guardian_ mentions a similar case found in Manchester +or its vicinity. And when one reflects upon the many cases which must +escape detection in the extensive markets that stretch along the front of +every main street, under the slender supervision of the market +inspectors--and how else can one explain the boldness with which whole +animals are exposed for sale?--when one considers how great the +temptation must be, in view of the incomprehensibly small fines mentioned +in the foregoing cases; when one reflects what condition a piece of meat +must have reached to be seized by the inspectors, it is impossible to +believe that the workers obtain good and nourishing meat as a usual +thing. But they are victimised in yet another way by the money-greed of +the middle-class. Dealers and manufacturers adulterate all kinds of +provisions in an atrocious manner, and without the slightest regard to +the health of the consumers. We have heard the _Manchester Guardian_ +upon this subject, let us hear another organ of the middle-class--I +delight in the testimony of my opponents--let us hear the _Liverpool +Mercury_: "Salted butter is sold for fresh, the lumps being covered with +a coating of fresh butter, or a pound of fresh being laid on top to +taste, while the salted article is sold after this test, or the whole +mass is washed and then sold as fresh. With sugar, pounded rice and +other cheap adulterating materials are mixed, and the whole sold at full +price. The refuse of soap-boiling establishments also is mixed with +other things and sold as sugar. Chicory and other cheap stuff is mixed +with ground coffee, and artificial coffee beans with the unground +article. Cocoa is often adulterated with fine brown earth, treated with +fat to render it more easily mistakable for real cocoa. Tea is mixed +with the leaves of the sloe and with other refuse, or dry tea-leaves are +roasted on hot copper plates, so returning to the proper colour and being +sold as fresh. Pepper is mixed with pounded nutshells; port wine is +manufactured outright (out of alcohol, dye-stuffs, etc.), while it is +notorious that more of it is consumed in England alone than is grown in +Portugal; and tobacco is mixed with disgusting substances of all sorts +and in all possible forms in which the article is produced." I can add +that several of the most respected tobacco dealers in Manchester +announced publicly last summer, that, by reason of the universal +adulteration of tobacco, no firm could carry on business without +adulteration, and that no cigar costing less than threepence is made +wholly from tobacco. These frauds are naturally not restricted to +articles of food, though I could mention a dozen more, the villainy of +mixing gypsum or chalk with flour among them. Fraud is practiced in the +sale of articles of every sort: flannel, stockings, etc., are stretched, +and shrink after the first washing; narrow cloth is sold as being from +one and a half to three inches broader than it actually is; stoneware is +so thinly glazed that the glazing is good for nothing, and cracks at +once, and a hundred other rascalities, _tout comme chez nous_. But the +lion's share of the evil results of these frauds falls to the workers. +The rich are less deceived, because they can pay the high prices of the +large shops which have a reputation to lose, and would injure themselves +more than their customers if they kept poor or adulterated wares; the +rich are spoiled, too, by habitual good eating, and detect adulteration +more easily with their sensitive palates. But the poor, the +working-people, to whom a couple of farthings are important, who must buy +many things with little money, who cannot afford to inquire too closely +into the quality of their purchases, and cannot do so in any case because +they have had no opportunity of cultivating their taste--to their share +fall all the adulterated, poisoned provisions. They must deal with the +small retailers, must buy perhaps on credit, and these small retail +dealers who cannot sell even the same quality of goods so cheaply as the +largest retailers, because of their small capital and the large +proportional expenses of their business, must knowingly or unknowingly +buy adulterated goods in order to sell at the lower prices required, and +to meet the competition of the others. Further, a large retail dealer +who has extensive capital invested in his business is ruined with his +ruined credit if detected in a fraudulent practice; but what harm does it +do a small grocer, who has customers in a single street only, if frauds +are proved against him? If no one trusts him in Ancoats, he moves to +Chorlton or Hulme, where no one knows him, and where he continues to +defraud as before; while legal penalties attach to very few adulterations +unless they involve revenue frauds. Not in the quality alone, but in the +quantity of his goods as well, is the English working-man defrauded. The +small dealers usually have false weights and measures, and an incredible +number of convictions for such offences may be read in the police +reports. How universal this form of fraud is in the manufacturing +districts, a couple of extracts from the _Manchester Guardian_ may serve +to show. They cover only a short period, and, even here, I have not all +the numbers at hand: + +_Guardian_, June 16, 1844, Rochdale Sessions.--Four dealers fined five to +ten shillings for using light weights. Stockport Sessions.--Two dealers +fined one shilling, one of them having seven light weights and a false +scale, and both having been warned. + +_Guardian_, June 19, Rochdale Sessions.--One dealer fined five, and two +farmers ten shillings. + +_Guardian_, June 22, Manchester Justices of the Peace.--Nineteen dealers +fined two shillings and sixpence to two pounds. + +_Guardian_, June 26, Ashton Sessions.--Fourteen dealers and farmers fined +two shillings and sixpence to one pound. Hyde Petty Sessions.--Nine +farmers and dealers condemned to pay costs and five shillings fines. + +_Guardian_, July 9, Manchester--Sixteen dealers condemned to pay costs +and fines not exceeding ten shillings. + +_Guardian_, July 13, Manchester.--Nine dealers fined from two shillings +and sixpence to twenty shillings. + +_Guardian_, July 24, Rochdale.--Four dealers fined ten to twenty +shillings. + +_Guardian_, July 27, Bolton.--Twelve dealers and innkeepers condemned to +pay costs. + +_Guardian_, August 3, Bolton.--Three dealers fined two shillings and +sixpence, and five shillings. + +_Guardian_, August 10, Bolton.--One dealer fined five shillings. + +And the same causes which make the working-class the chief sufferers from +frauds in the quality of goods make them the usual victims of frauds in +the question of quantity too. + +The habitual food of the individual working-man naturally varies +according to his wages. The better paid workers, especially those in +whose families every member is able to earn something, have good food as +long as this state of things lasts; meat daily, and bacon and cheese for +supper. Where wages are less, meat is used only two or three times a +week, and the proportion of bread and potatoes increases. Descending +gradually, we find the animal food reduced to a small piece of bacon cut +up with the potatoes; lower still, even this disappears, and there remain +only bread, cheese, porridge, and potatoes, until on the lowest round of +the ladder, among the Irish, potatoes form the sole food. As an +accompaniment, weak tea, with perhaps a little sugar, milk, or spirits, +is universally drunk. Tea is regarded in England, and even in Ireland, +as quite as indispensable as coffee in Germany, and where no tea is used, +the bitterest poverty reigns. But all this pre-supposes that the workman +has work. When he has none, he is wholly at the mercy of accident, and +eats what is given him, what he can beg or steal. And, if he gets +nothing, he simply starves, as we have seen. The quantity of food +varies, of course, like its quality, according to the rate of wages, so +that among ill-paid workers, even if they have no large families, hunger +prevails in spite of full and regular work; and the number of the ill- +paid is very large. Especially in London, where the competition of the +workers rises with the increase of population, this class is very +numerous, but it is to be found in other towns as well. In these cases +all sorts of devices are used; potato parings, vegetable refuse, and +rotten vegetables are eaten for want of other food, and everything +greedily gathered up which may possibly contain an atom of nourishment. +And, if the week's wages are used up before the end of the week, it often +enough happens that in the closing days the family gets only as much +food, if any, as is barely sufficient to keep off starvation. Of course +such a way of living unavoidably engenders a multitude of diseases, and +when these appear, when the father from whose work the family is chiefly +supported, whose physical exertion most demands nourishment, and who +therefore first succumbs--when the father is utterly disabled, then +misery reaches its height, and then the brutality with which society +abandons its members, just when their need is greatest, comes out fully +into the light of day. + +To sum up briefly the facts thus far cited. The great towns are chiefly +inhabited by working-people, since in the best case there is one +bourgeois for two workers, often for three, here and there for four; +these workers have no property whatsoever of their own, and live wholly +upon wages, which usually go from hand to mouth. Society, composed +wholly of atoms, does not trouble itself about them; leaves them to care +for themselves and their families, yet supplies them no means of doing +this in an efficient and permanent manner. Every working-man, even the +best, is therefore constantly exposed to loss of work and food, that is +to death by starvation, and many perish in this way. The dwellings of +the workers are everywhere badly planned, badly built, and kept in the +worst condition, badly ventilated, damp, and unwholesome. The +inhabitants are confined to the smallest possible space, and at least one +family usually sleeps in each room. The interior arrangement of the +dwellings is poverty-stricken in various degrees, down to the utter +absence of even the most necessary furniture. The clothing of the +workers, too, is generally scanty, and that of great multitudes is in +rags. The food is, in general, bad; often almost unfit for use, and in +many cases, at least at times, insufficient in quantity, so that, in +extreme cases, death by starvation results. Thus the working-class of +the great cities offers a graduated scale of conditions in life, in the +best cases a temporarily endurable existence for hard work and good +wages, good and endurable, that is, from the worker's standpoint; in the +worst cases, bitter want, reaching even homelessness and death by +starvation. The average is much nearer the worst case than the best. And +this series does not fall into fixed classes, so that one can say, this +fraction of the working-class is well off, has always been so, and +remains so. If that is the case here and there, if single branches of +work have in general an advantage over others, yet the condition of the +workers in each branch is subject to such great fluctuations that a +single working-man may be so placed as to pass through the whole range +from comparative comfort to the extremest need, even to death by +starvation, while almost every English working-man can tell a tale of +marked changes of fortune. Let us examine the causes of this somewhat +more closely. + + + + +COMPETITION. + + +We have seen in the introduction how competition created the proletariat +at the very beginning of the industrial movement, by increasing the wages +of weavers in consequence of the increased demand for woven goods, so +inducing the weaving peasants to abandon their farms and earn more money +by devoting themselves to their looms. We have seen how it crowded out +the small farmers by means of the large farm system, reduced them to the +rank of proletarians, and attracted them in part into the towns; how it +further ruined the small bourgeoisie in great measure and reduced its +members also to the ranks of the proletariat; how it centralised capital +in the hands of the few, and population in the great towns. Such are the +various ways and means by which competition, as it reached its full +manifestation and free development in modern industry, created and +extended the proletariat. We shall now have to observe its influence on +the working-class already created. And here we must begin by tracing the +results of competition of single workers with one another. + +Competition is the completest expression of the battle of all against all +which rules in modern civil society. This battle, a battle for life, for +existence, for everything, in case of need a battle of life and death, is +fought not between the different classes of society only, but also +between the individual members of these classes. Each is in the way of +the other, and each seeks to crowd out all who are in his way, and to put +himself in their place. The workers are in constant competition among +themselves as the members of the bourgeoisie among themselves. The power- +loom weaver is in competition with the hand-loom weaver, the unemployed +or ill-paid hand-loom weaver with him who has work or is better paid, +each trying to supplant the other. But this competition of the workers +among themselves is the worst side of the present state of things in its +effect upon the worker, the sharpest weapon against the proletariat in +the hands of the bourgeoisie. Hence the effort of the workers to nullify +this competition by associations, hence the hatred of the bourgeoisie +towards these associations, and its triumph in every defeat which befalls +them. + +The proletarian is helpless; left to himself, he cannot live a single +day. The bourgeoisie has gained a monopoly of all means of existence in +the broadest sense of the word. What the proletarian needs, he can +obtain only from this bourgeoisie, which is protected in its monopoly by +the power of the State. The proletarian is, therefore, in law and in +fact, the slave of the bourgeoisie, which can decree his life or death. +It offers him the means of living, but only for an "equivalent" for his +work. It even lets him have the appearance of acting from a free choice, +of making a contract with free, unconstrained consent, as a responsible +agent who has attained his majority. + +Fine freedom, where the proletarian has no other choice than that of +either accepting the conditions which the bourgeoisie offers him, or of +starving, of freezing to death, of sleeping naked among the beasts of the +forests! A fine "equivalent" valued at pleasure by the bourgeoisie! And +if one proletarian is such a fool as to starve rather than agree to the +equitable propositions of the bourgeoisie, his "natural superiors," +another is easily found in his place; there are proletarians enough in +the world, and not all so insane as to prefer dying to living. + +Here we have the competition of the workers among themselves. If _all_ +the proletarians announced their determination to starve rather than work +for the bourgeoisie, the latter would have to surrender its monopoly. But +this is not the case--is, indeed, a rather impossible case--so that the +bourgeoisie still thrives. To this competition of the worker there is +but one limit; no worker will work for less than he needs to subsist. If +he must starve, he will prefer to starve in idleness rather than in toil. +True, this limit is relative; one needs more than another, one is +accustomed to more comfort than another; the Englishman who is still +somewhat civilised, needs more than the Irishman who goes in rags, eats +potatoes, and sleeps in a pig-sty. But that does not hinder the +Irishman's competing with the Englishman, and gradually forcing the rate +of wages, and with it the Englishman's level of civilisation, down to the +Irishman's level. Certain kinds of work require a certain grade of +civilisation, and to these belong almost all forms of industrial +occupation; hence the interest of the bourgeoisie requires in this case +that wages should be high enough to enable the workman to keep himself +upon the required plane. + +The newly immigrated Irishman, encamped in the first stable that offers, +or turned out in the street after a week because he spends everything +upon drink and cannot pay rent, would be a poor mill-hand. The mill-hand +must, therefore, have wages enough to enable him to bring up his children +to regular work; but no more, lest he should be able to get on without +the wages of his children, and so make something else of them than mere +working-men. Here, too, the limit, the minimum wage, is relative. When +every member of the family works, the individual worker can get on with +proportionately less, and the bourgeoisie has made the most of the +opportunity of employing and making profitable the labour of women and +children afforded by machine-work. Of course it is not in every family +that every member can be set to work, and those in which the case is +otherwise would be in a bad way if obliged to exist upon the minimum wage +possible to a wholly employed family. Hence the usual wages form an +average according to which a fully employed family gets on pretty well, +and one which embraces few members able to work, pretty badly. But in +the worst case, every working-man prefers surrendering the trifling +luxury to which he was accustomed to not living at all; prefers a pig-pen +to no roof, wears rags in preference to going naked, confines himself to +a potato diet in preference to starvation. He contents himself with half- +pay and the hope of better times rather than be driven into the street to +perish before the eyes of the world, as so many have done who had no work +whatever. This trifle, therefore, this something more than nothing, is +the minimum of wages. And if there are more workers at hand than the +bourgeoisie thinks well to employ--if at the end of the battle of +competition there yet remain workers who find nothing to do, they must +simply starve; for the bourgeois will hardly give them work if he cannot +sell the produce of their labour at a profit. + +From this it is evident what the minimum of wages is. The maximum is +determined by the competition of the bourgeoisie among themselves; for we +have seen how they, too, must compete with each other. The bourgeois can +increase his capital only in commerce and manufacture, and in both cases +he needs workers. Even if he invests his capital at interest, he needs +them indirectly; for without commerce and manufacture, no one would pay +him interest upon his capital, no one could use it. So the bourgeois +certainly needs workers, not indeed for his immediate living, for at need +he could consume his capital, but as we need an article of trade or a +beast of burden,--as a means of profit. The proletarian produces the +goods which the bourgeois sells with advantage. When, therefore, the +demand for these goods increases so that all the competing working-men +are employed, and a few more might perhaps be useful, the competition +among the workers falls away, and the bourgeoisie begin to compete among +themselves. The capitalist in search of workmen knows very well that his +profits increase as prices rise in consequence of the increased demand +for his goods, and pays a trifle higher wages rather than let the whole +profit escape him. He sends the butter to fetch the cheese, and getting +the latter, leaves the butter ungrudgingly to the workers. So one +capitalist after another goes in chase of workers, and wages rise; but +only as high as the increasing demand permits. If the capitalist, who +willingly sacrificed a part of his extraordinary profit, runs into danger +of sacrificing any part of his ordinary average profit, he takes very +good care not to pay more than average wages. + +From this we can determine the average rate of wages. Under average +circumstances, when neither workers nor capitalists have reason to +compete, especially among themselves, when there are just as many workers +at hand as can be employed in producing precisely the goods that are +demanded, wages stand a little above the minimum. How far they rise +above the minimum will depend upon the average needs and the grade of +civilisation of the workers. If the workers are accustomed to eat meat +several times in the week, the capitalists must reconcile themselves to +paying wages enough to make this food attainable, not less, because the +workers are not competing among themselves and have no occasion to +content themselves with less; not more, because the capitalists, in the +absence of competition among themselves, have no occasion to attract +working-men by extraordinary favours. This standard of the average needs +and the average civilisation of the workers has become very complicated +by reason of the complications of English industry, and is different for +different sorts of workers, as has been pointed out. Most industrial +occupations demand a certain skill and regularity, and for these +qualities which involve a certain grade of civilisation, the rate of +wages must be such as to induce the worker to acquire such skill and +subject himself to such regularity. Hence it is that the average wages +of industrial workers are higher than those of mere porters, day +labourers, etc., higher especially than those of agricultural labourers, +a fact to which the additional cost of the necessities of life in cities +contributes somewhat. In other words, the worker is, in law and in fact, +the slave of the property-holding class, so effectually a slave that he +is sold like a piece of goods, rises and falls in value like a commodity. +If the demand for workers increases, the price of workers rises; if it +falls, their price falls. If it falls so greatly that a number of them +become unsaleable, if they are left in stock, they are simply left idle; +and as they cannot live upon that, they die of starvation. For, to speak +in the words of the economists, the expense incurred in maintaining them +would not be reproduced, would be money thrown away, and to this end no +man advances capital; and, so far, Malthus was perfectly right in his +theory of population. The only difference as compared with the old, +outspoken slavery is this, that the worker of to-day seems to be free +because he is not sold once for all, but piecemeal by the day, the week, +the year, and because no one owner sells him to another, but he is forced +to sell himself in this way instead, being the slave of no particular +person, but of the whole property-holding class. For him the matter is +unchanged at bottom, and if this semblance of liberty necessarily gives +him some real freedom on the one hand, it entails on the other the +disadvantage that no one guarantees him a subsistence, he is in danger of +being repudiated at any moment by his master, the bourgeoisie, and left +to die of starvation, if the bourgeoisie ceases to have an interest in +his employment, his existence. The bourgeoisie, on the other hand, is +far better off under the present arrangement than under the old slave +system; it can dismiss its employees at discretion without sacrificing +invested capital, and gets its work done much more cheaply than is +possible with slave labour, as Adam Smith comfortingly pointed out. {80} + +Hence it follows, too, that Adam Smith was perfectly right in making the +assertion: "That the demand for men, like that for any other commodity, +necessarily regulates the production of men, quickens it when it goes on +too slowly, and stops it when it advances too fast." _Just as in the +case of any other commodity_! If there are too few labourers at hand, +prices, _i.e_. wages, rise, the workers are more prosperous, marriages +multiply, more children are born and more live to grow up, until a +sufficient number of labourers has been secured. If there are too many +on hand, prices fall, want of work, poverty, and starvation, and +consequent diseases arise, and the "surplus population" is put out of the +way. And Malthus, who carried the foregoing proposition of Smith +farther, was also right, in his way, in asserting that there are always +more people on hand than can be maintained from the available means of +subsistence. Surplus population is engendered rather by the competition +of the workers among themselves, which forces each separate worker to +labour as much each day as his strength can possibly admit. If a +manufacturer can employ ten hands nine hours daily, he can employ nine if +each works ten hours, and the tenth goes hungry. And if a manufacturer +can force the nine hands to work an extra hour daily for the same wages +by threatening to discharge them at a time when the demand for hands is +not very great, he discharges the tenth and saves so much wages. This is +the process on a small scale, which goes on in a nation on a large one. +The productiveness of each hand raised to the highest pitch by the +competition of the workers among themselves, the division of labour, the +introduction of machinery, the subjugation of the forces of nature, +deprive a multitude of workers of bread. These starving workers are then +removed from the market, they can buy nothing, and the quantity of +articles of consumption previously required by them is no longer in +demand, need no longer be produced; the workers previously employed in +producing them are therefore driven out of work, and are also removed +from the market, and so it goes on, always the same old round, or rather, +so it would go if other circumstances did not intervene. The +introduction of the industrial forces already referred to for increasing +production leads, in the course of time, to a reduction of prices of the +articles produced and to consequent increased consumption, so that a +large part of the displaced workers finally, after long suffering, find +work again. If, in addition to this, the conquest of foreign markets +constantly and rapidly increases the demand for manufactured goods, as +has been the case in England during the past sixty years, the demand for +hands increases, and, in proportion to it, the population. Thus, instead +of diminishing, the population of the British Empire has increased with +extraordinary rapidity, and is still increasing. Yet, in spite of the +extension of industry, in spite of the demand for working-men which, in +general, has increased, there is, according to the confession of all the +official political parties (Tory, Whig, and Radical), permanent surplus, +superfluous population; the competition among the workers is constantly +greater than the competition to secure workers. + +Whence comes this incongruity? It lies in the nature of industrial +competition and the commercial crises which arise from them. In the +present unregulated production and distribution of the means of +subsistence, which is carried on not directly for the sake of supplying +needs, but for profit, in the system under which every one works for +himself to enrich himself, disturbances inevitably arise at every moment. +For example, England supplies a number of countries with most diverse +goods. Now, although the manufacturer may know how much of each article +is consumed in each country annually, he cannot know how much is on hand +at every given moment, much less can he know how much his competitors +export thither. He can only draw most uncertain inferences from the +perpetual fluctuations in prices, as to the quantities on hand and the +needs of the moment. He must trust to luck in exporting his goods. +Everything is done blindly, as guess-work, more or less at the mercy of +accident. Upon the slightest favourable report, each one exports what he +can, and before long such a market is glutted, sales stop, capital +remains inactive, prices fall, and English manufacture has no further +employment for its hands. In the beginning of the development of +manufacture, these checks were limited to single branches and single +markets; but the centralising tendency of competition which drives the +hands thrown out of one branch into such other branches as are most +easily accessible, and transfers the goods which cannot be disposed of in +one market to other markets, has gradually brought the single minor +crises nearer together and united them into one periodically recurring +crisis. Such a crisis usually recurs once in five years after a brief +period of activity and general prosperity; the home market, like all +foreign ones, is glutted with English goods, which it can only slowly +absorb, the industrial movement comes to a standstill in almost every +branch, the small manufacturers and merchants who cannot survive a +prolonged inactivity of their invested capital fail, the larger ones +suspend business during the worst season, close their mills or work short +time, perhaps half the day; wages fall by reason of the competition of +the unemployed, the diminution of working-time and the lack of profitable +sales; want becomes universal among the workers, the small savings, which +individuals may have made, are rapidly consumed, the philanthropic +institutions are overburdened, the poor-rates are doubled, trebled, and +still insufficient, the number of the starving increases, and the whole +multitude of "surplus" population presses in terrific numbers into the +foreground. This continues for a time; the "surplus" exist as best they +may, or perish; philanthropy and the Poor Law help many of them to a +painful prolongation of their existence. Others find scant means of +subsistence here and there in such kinds of work as have been least open +to competition, are most remote from manufacture. And with how little +can a human being keep body and soul together for a time! Gradually the +state of things improve; the accumulations of goods are consumed, the +general depression among the men of commerce and manufacture prevents a +too hasty replenishing of the markets, and at last rising prices and +favourable reports from all directions restore activity. Most of the +markets are distant ones; demand increases and prices rise constantly +while the first exports are arriving; people struggle for the first +goods, the first sales enliven trade still more, the prospective ones +promise still higher prices; expecting a further rise, merchants begin to +buy upon speculation, and so to withdraw from consumption the articles +intended for it, just when they are most needed. Speculation forces +prices still higher, by inspiring others to purchase, and appropriating +new importations at once. All this is reported to England, manufacturers +begin to produce with a will, new mills are built, every means is +employed to make the most of the favourable moment. Speculation arises +here, too, exerting the same influence as upon foreign markets, raising +prices, withdrawing goods from consumption, spurring manufacture in both +ways to the highest pitch of effort. Then come the daring speculators +working with fictitious capital, living upon credit, ruined if they +cannot speedily sell; they hurl themselves into this universal, +disorderly race for profits, multiply the disorder and haste by their +unbridled passion, which drives prices and production to madness. It is +a frantic struggle, which carries away even the most experienced and +phlegmatic; goods are spun, woven, hammered, as if all mankind were to be +newly equipped, as though two thousand million new consumers had been +discovered in the moon. All at once the shaky speculators abroad, who +must have money, begin to sell, below market price, of course, for their +need is urgent; one sale is followed by others, prices fluctuate, +speculators throw their goods upon the market in terror, the market is +disordered, credit shaken, one house after another stops payments, +bankruptcy follows bankruptcy, and the discovery is made that three times +more goods are on hand or under way than can be consumed. The news +reaches England, where production has been going on at full speed +meanwhile, panic seizes all hands, failures abroad cause others in +England, the panic crushes a number of firms, all reserves are thrown +upon the market here, too, in the moment of anxiety, and the alarm is +still further exaggerated. This is the beginning of the crisis, which +then takes precisely the same course as its predecessor, and gives place +in turn to a season of prosperity. So it goes on +perpetually,--prosperity, crisis, prosperity, crisis, and this perennial +round in which English industry moves is, as has been before observed, +usually completed once in five or six years. + +From this it is clear that English manufacture must have, at all times +save the brief periods of highest prosperity, an unemployed reserve army +of workers, in order to be able to produce the masses of goods required +by the market in the liveliest months. This reserve army is larger or +smaller, according as the state of the market occasions the employment of +a larger or smaller proportion of its members. And if at the moment of +highest activity of the market the agricultural districts and the +branches least affected by the general prosperity temporarily supply to +manufacture a number of workers, these are a mere minority, and these too +belong to the reserve army, with the single difference that the +prosperity of the moment was required to reveal their connection with it. +When they enter upon the more active branches of work, their former +employers draw in somewhat, in order to feel the loss less, work longer +hours, employ women and younger workers, and when the wanderers +discharged at the beginning of the crisis return, they find their places +filled and themselves superfluous--at least in the majority of cases. +This reserve army, which embraces an immense multitude during the crisis +and a large number during the period which may be regarded as the average +between the highest prosperity and the crisis, is the "surplus +population" of England, which keeps body and soul together by begging, +stealing, street-sweeping, collecting manure, pushing handcarts, driving +donkeys, peddling, or performing occasional small jobs. In every great +town a multitude of such people may be found. It is astonishing in what +devices this "surplus population" takes refuge. The London +crossing-sweepers are known all over the world; but hitherto the +principal streets in all the great cities, as well as the crossings, have +been swept by people out of other work, and employed by the Poor Law +guardians or the municipal authorities for the purpose. Now, however, a +machine has been invented which rattles through the streets daily, and +has spoiled this source of income for the unemployed. Along the great +highways leading into the cities, on which there is a great deal of +waggon traffic, a large number of people may be seen with small carts, +gathering fresh horse-dung at the risk of their lives among the passing +coaches and omnibuses, often paying a couple of shillings a week to the +authorities for the privilege. But this occupation is forbidden in many +places, because the ordinary street-sweepings thus impoverished cannot be +sold as manure. Happy are such of the "surplus" as can obtain a push- +cart and go about with it. Happier still those to whom it is vouchsafed +to possess an ass in addition to the cart. The ass must get his own food +or is given a little gathered refuse, and can yet bring in a trifle of +money. Most of the "surplus" betake themselves to huckstering. On +Saturday afternoons, especially, when the whole working population is on +the streets, the crowd who live from huckstering and peddling may be +seen. Shoe and corset laces, braces, twine, cakes, oranges, every kind +of small articles are offered by men, women, and children; and at other +times also, such peddlers are always to be seen standing at the street +corners, or going about with cakes and ginger-beer or nettle-beer. +Matches and such things, sealing-wax, and patent mixtures for lighting +fires are further resources of such venders. Others, so-called jobbers, +go about the streets seeking small jobs. Many of these succeed in +getting a day's work, many are not so fortunate. + + "At the gates of all the London docks," says the Rev. W. Champney, + preacher of the East End, "hundreds of the poor appear every morning + in winter before daybreak, in the hope of getting a day's work. They + await the opening of the gates; and, when the youngest and strongest + and best known have been engaged, hundreds cast down by disappointed + hope, go back to their wretched homes." + +When these people find no work and will not rebel against society, what +remains for them but to beg? And surely no one can wonder at the great +army of beggars, most of them able-bodied men, with whom the police +carries on perpetual war. But the beggary of these men has a peculiar +character. Such a man usually goes about with his family singing a +pleading song in the streets or appealing, in a speech, to the +benevolence of the passers-by. And it is a striking fact that these +beggars are seen almost exclusively in the working-people's districts, +that it is almost exclusively the gifts of the poor from which they live. +Or the family takes up its position in a busy street, and without +uttering a word, lets the mere sight of its helplessness plead for it. In +this case, too, they reckon upon the sympathy of the workers alone, who +know from experience how it feels to be hungry, and are liable to find +themselves in the same situation at any moment; for this dumb, yet most +moving appeal, is met with almost solely in such streets as are +frequented by working-men, and at such hours as working-men pass by; but +especially on summer evenings, when the "secrets" of the working-people's +quarters are generally revealed, and the middle-class withdraws as far as +possible from the district thus polluted. And he among the "surplus" who +has courage and passion enough openly to resist society, to reply with +declared war upon the bourgeoisie to the disguised war which the +bourgeoisie wages upon him, goes forth to rob, plunder, murder, and burn! + +Of this surplus population there are, according to the reports of the +Poor Law commissioners, on an average, a million and a half in England +and Wales; in Scotland the number cannot be ascertained for want of Poor +Law regulations, and with Ireland we shall deal separately. Moreover, +this million and a half includes only those who actually apply to the +parish for relief; the great multitude who struggle on without recourse +to this most hated expedient, it does not embrace. On the other hand, a +good part of the number belongs to the agricultural districts, and does +not enter into the present discussion. During a crisis this number +naturally increases markedly, and want reaches its highest pitch. Take, +for instance, the crisis of 1842, which, being the latest, was the most +violent; for the intensity of the crisis increases with each repetition, +and the next, which may be expected not later than 1847, {87} will +probably be still more violent and lasting. During this crisis the poor- +rates rose in every town to a hitherto unknown height. In Stockport, +among other towns, for every pound paid in house-rent, eight shillings of +poor-rate had to be paid, so that the rate alone formed forty per cent. +of the house-rent. Moreover, whole streets stood vacant, so that there +were at least twenty thousand fewer inhabitants than usual, and on the +doors of the empty houses might be read: "Stockport to let." In Bolton, +where, in ordinary years, the rents from which rates are paid average +86,000 pounds, they sank to 36,000 pounds. The number of the poor to be +supported rose, on the other hand, to 14,000, or more than twenty per +cent. of the whole number of inhabitants. In Leeds, the Poor Law +guardians had a reserve fund of 10,000 pounds. This, with a contribution +of 7,000 pounds, was wholly exhausted before the crisis reached its +height. So it was everywhere. A report drawn up in January, 1843, by a +committee of the Anti-Corn Law League, on the condition of the industrial +districts in 1842, which was based upon detailed statements of the +manufacturers, asserts that the poor-rate was, taking the average, twice +as high as in 1839, and that the number of persons requiring relief has +trebled, even quintupled, since that time; that a multitude of applicants +belong to a class which had never before solicited relief; that the +working-class commands more than two-thirds less of the means of +subsistence than from 1834-1836; that the consumption of meat had been +decidedly less, in some places twenty per cent., in others reaching sixty +per cent. less; that even handicraftsmen, smiths, bricklayers, and +others, who usually have full employment in the most depressed periods, +now suffered greatly from want of work and reduction of wages; and that, +even now, in January, 1843, wages are still steadily falling. And these +are the reports of manufacturers! The starving workmen, whose mills were +idle, whose employers could give them no work, stood in the streets in +all directions, begged singly or in crowds, besieged the sidewalks in +armies, and appealed to the passers-by for help; they begged, not +cringing like ordinary beggars, but threatening by their numbers, their +gestures, and their words. Such was the state of things in all the +industrial districts, from Leicester to Leeds, and from Manchester to +Birmingham. Here and there disturbances arose, as in the Staffordshire +potteries, in July. The most frightful excitement prevailed among the +workers until the general insurrection broke out throughout the +manufacturing districts in August. When I came to Manchester in +November, 1842, there were crowds of unemployed working-men at every +street corner, and many mills were still standing idle. In the following +months these unwilling corner loafers gradually vanished, and the +factories came into activity once more. + +To what extent want and suffering prevail among these unemployed during +such a crisis, I need not describe. The poor-rates are insufficient, +vastly insufficient; the philanthropy of the rich is a rain-drop in the +ocean, lost in the moment of falling, beggary can support but few among +the crowds. If the small dealers did not sell to the working-people on +credit at such times as long as possible--paying themselves liberally +afterwards, it must be confessed--and if the working-people did not help +each other, every crisis would remove a multitude of the surplus through +death by starvation. Since, however, the most depressed period is brief, +lasting, at worst, but one, two, or two and a half years, most of them +emerge from it with their lives after dire privations. But indirectly by +disease, etc., every crisis finds a multitude of victims, as we shall +see. First, however, let us turn to another cause of abasement to which +the English worker is exposed, a cause permanently active in forcing the +whole class downwards. + + + + +IRISH IMMIGRATION. + + +We have already referred several times in passing to the Irish who have +immigrated into England; and we shall now have to investigate more +closely the causes and results of this immigration. The rapid extension +of English industry could not have taken place if England had not +possessed in the numerous and impoverished population of Ireland a +reserve at command. The Irish had nothing to lose at home, and much to +gain in England; and from the time when it became known in Ireland that +the east side of St. George's Channel offered steady work and good pay +for strong arms, every year has brought armies of the Irish hither. It +has been calculated that more than a million have already immigrated, and +not far from fifty thousand still come every year, nearly all of whom +enter the industrial districts, especially the great cities, and there +form the lowest class of the population. Thus there are in London, +120,000; in Manchester, 40,000; in Liverpool, 34,000; Bristol, 24,000; +Glasgow, 40,000; Edinburgh, 29,000, poor Irish people. {90a} These +people having grown up almost without civilisation, accustomed from youth +to every sort of privation, rough, intemperate, and improvident, bring +all their brutal habits with them among a class of the English population +which has, in truth, little inducement to cultivate education and +morality. Let us hear Thomas Carlyle upon this subject: {90b} + + "The wild Milesian features, looking false ingenuity, restlessness, + unreason, misery, and mockery, salute you on all highways and byways. + The English coachman, as he whirls past, lashes the Milesian with his + whip, curses him with his tongue; the Milesian is holding out his hat + to beg. He is the sorest evil this country has to strive with. In + his rags and laughing savagery, he is there to undertake all work that + can be done by mere strength of hand and back--for wages that will + purchase him potatoes. He needs only salt for condiment, he lodges to + his mind in any pig-hutch or dog-hutch, roosts in outhouses, and wears + a suit of tatters, the getting on and off of which is said to be a + difficult operation, transacted only in festivals and the high tides + of the calendar. The Saxon-man, if he cannot work on these terms, + finds no work. The uncivilised Irishman, not by his strength, but by + the opposite of strength, drives the Saxon native out, takes + possession in his room. There abides he, in his squalor and unreason, + in his falsity and drunken violence, as the ready-made nucleus of + degradation and disorder. Whoever struggles, swimming with + difficulty, may now find an example how the human being can exist not + swimming, but sunk. That the condition of the lower multitude of + English labourers approximates more and more to that of the Irish, + competing with them in all the markets: that whatsoever labour, to + which mere strength with little skill will suffice, is to be done, + will be done not at the English price, but at an approximation to the + Irish price; at a price superior as yet to the Irish, that is, + superior to scarcity of potatoes for thirty weeks yearly; superior, + yet hourly, with the arrival of every new steamboat, sinking nearer to + an equality with that." + +If we except his exaggerated and one-sided condemnation of the Irish +national character, Carlyle is perfectly right. These Irishmen who +migrate for fourpence to England, on the deck of a steamship on which +they are often packed like cattle, insinuate themselves everywhere. The +worst dwellings are good enough for them; their clothing causes them +little trouble, so long as it holds together by a single thread; shoes +they know not; their food consists of potatoes and potatoes only; +whatever they earn beyond these needs they spend upon drink. What does +such a race want with high wages? The worst quarters of all the large +towns are inhabited by Irishmen. Whenever a district is distinguished +for especial filth and especial ruinousness, the explorer may safely +count upon meeting chiefly those Celtic faces which one recognises at the +first glance as different from the Saxon physiognomy of the native, and +the singing, aspirate brogue which the true Irishman never loses. I have +occasionally heard the Irish-Celtic language spoken in the most thickly +populated parts of Manchester. The majority of the families who live in +cellars are almost everywhere of Irish origin. In short, the Irish have, +as Dr. Kay says, discovered the minimum of the necessities of life, and +are now making the English workers acquainted with it. Filth and +drunkenness, too, they have brought with them. The lack of cleanliness, +which is not so injurious in the country, where population is scattered, +and which is the Irishman's second nature, becomes terrifying and gravely +dangerous through its concentration here in the great cities. The +Milesian deposits all garbage and filth before his house door here, as he +was accustomed to do at home, and so accumulates the pools and dirt-heaps +which disfigure the working-people's quarters and poison the air. He +builds a pig-sty against the house wall as he did at home, and if he is +prevented from doing this, he lets the pig sleep in the room with +himself. This new and unnatural method of cattle-raising in cities is +wholly of Irish origin. The Irishman loves his pig as the Arab his +horse, with the difference that he sells it when it is fat enough to +kill. Otherwise, he eats and sleeps with it, his children play with it, +ride upon it, roll in the dirt with it, as any one may see a thousand +times repeated in all the great towns of England. The filth and +comfortlessness that prevail in the houses themselves it is impossible to +describe. The Irishman is unaccustomed to the presence of furniture; a +heap of straw, a few rags, utterly beyond use as clothing, suffice for +his nightly couch. A piece of wood, a broken chair, an old chest for a +table, more he needs not; a tea-kettle, a few pots and dishes, equip his +kitchen, which is also his sleeping and living room. When he is in want +of fuel, everything combustible within his reach, chairs, door-posts, +mouldings, flooring, finds its way up the chimney. Moreover, why should +he need much room? At home in his mud-cabin there was only one room for +all domestic purposes; more than one room his family does not need in +England. So the custom of crowding many persons into a single room, now +so universal, has been chiefly implanted by the Irish immigration. And +since the poor devil must have one enjoyment, and society has shut him +out of all others, he betakes himself to the drinking of spirits. Drink +is the only thing which makes the Irishman's life worth having, drink and +his cheery care-free temperament; so he revels in drink to the point of +the most bestial drunkenness. The southern facile character of the +Irishman, his crudity, which places him but little above the savage, his +contempt for all humane enjoyments, in which his very crudeness makes him +incapable of sharing, his filth and poverty, all favour drunkenness. The +temptation is great, he cannot resist it, and so when he has money he +gets rid of it down his throat. What else should he do? How can society +blame him when it places him in a position in which he almost of +necessity becomes a drunkard; when it leaves him to himself, to his +savagery? + +With such a competitor the English working-man has to struggle with a +competitor upon the lowest plane possible in a civilised country, who for +this very reason requires less wages than any other. Nothing else is +therefore possible than that, as Carlyle says, the wages of English +working-men should be forced down further and further in every branch in +which the Irish compete with him. And these branches are many. All such +as demand little or no skill are open to the Irish. For work which +requires long training or regular, pertinacious application, the +dissolute, unsteady, drunken Irishman is on too low a plane. To become a +mechanic, a mill-hand, he would have to adopt the English civilisation, +the English customs, become, in the main, an Englishman. But for all +simple, less exact work, wherever it is a question more of strength than +skill, the Irishman is as good as the Englishman. Such occupations are +therefore especially overcrowded with Irishmen: hand-weavers, +bricklayers, porters, jobbers, and such workers, count hordes of Irishmen +among their number, and the pressure of this race has done much to +depress wages and lower the working-class. And even if the Irish, who +have forced their way into other occupations, should become more +civilised, enough of the old habits would cling to them to have a strong +degrading influence upon their English companions in toil, especially in +view of the general effect of being surrounded by the Irish. For when, +in almost every great city, a fifth or a quarter of the workers are +Irish, or children of Irish parents, who have grown up among Irish filth, +no one can wonder if the life, habits, intelligence, moral status--in +short, the whole character of the working-class assimilates a great part +of the Irish characteristics. On the contrary, it is easy to understand +how the degrading position of the English workers, engendered by our +modern history, and its immediate consequences, has been still more +degraded by the presence of Irish competition. + + + + +RESULTS. + + +Having now investigated, somewhat in detail, the conditions under which +the English working-class lives, it is time to draw some further +inferences from the facts presented, and then to compare our inferences +with the actual state of things. Let us see what the workers themselves +have become under the given circumstances, what sort of people they are, +what their physical, mental, and moral status. + +When one individual inflicts bodily injury upon another, such injury that +death results, we call the deed manslaughter; when the assailant knew in +advance that the injury would be fatal, we call his deed murder. But +when society {95} places hundreds of proletarians in such a position that +they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural death, one which is +quite as much a death by violence as that by the sword or bullet; when it +deprives thousands of the necessaries of life, places them under +conditions in which they _cannot_ live--forces them, through the strong +arm of the law, to remain in such conditions until that death ensues +which is the inevitable consequence--knows that these thousands of +victims must perish, and yet permits these conditions to remain, its deed +is murder just as surely as the deed of the single individual; disguised, +malicious murder, murder against which none can defend himself, which +does not seem what it is, because no man sees the murderer, because the +death of the victim seems a natural one, since the offence is more one of +omission than of commission. But murder it remains. I have now to prove +that society in England daily and hourly commits what the working-men's +organs, with perfect correctness, characterise as social murder, that it +has placed the workers under conditions in which they can neither retain +health nor live long; that it undermines the vital force of these workers +gradually, little by little, and so hurries them to the grave before +their time. I have further to prove that society knows how injurious +such conditions are to the health and the life of the workers, and yet +does nothing to improve these conditions. That it _knows_ the +consequences of its deeds; that its act is, therefore, not mere +manslaughter, but murder, I shall have proved, when I cite official +documents, reports of Parliament and of the Government, in substantiation +of my charge. + +That a class which lives under the conditions already sketched and is so +ill-provided with the most necessary means of subsistence, cannot be +healthy and can reach no advanced age, is self-evident. Let us review +the circumstances once more with especial reference to the health of the +workers. The centralisation of population in great cities exercises of +itself an unfavourable influence; the atmosphere of London can never be +so pure, so rich in oxygen, as the air of the country; two and a half +million pairs of lungs, two hundred and fifty thousand fires, crowded +upon an area three to four miles square, consume an enormous amount of +oxygen, which is replaced with difficulty, because the method of building +cities in itself impedes ventilation. The carbonic acid gas, engendered +by respiration and fire, remains in the streets by reason of its specific +gravity, and the chief air current passes over the roofs of the city. The +lungs of the inhabitants fail to receive the due supply of oxygen, and +the consequence is mental and physical lassitude and low vitality. For +this reason, the dwellers in cities are far less exposed to acute, and +especially to inflammatory, affections than rural populations, who live +in a free, normal atmosphere; but they suffer the more from chronic +affections. And if life in large cities is, in itself, injurious to +health, how great must be the harmful influence of an abnormal atmosphere +in the working-people's quarters, where, as we have seen, everything +combines to poison the air. In the country, it may, perhaps, be +comparatively innoxious to keep a dung-heap adjoining one's dwelling, +because the air has free ingress from all sides; but in the midst of a +large town, among closely built lanes and courts that shut out all +movement of the atmosphere, the case is different. All putrefying +vegetable and animal substances give off gases decidedly injurious to +health, and if these gases have no free way of escape, they inevitably +poison the atmosphere. The filth and stagnant pools of the +working-people's quarters in the great cities have, therefore, the worst +effect upon the public health, because they produce precisely those gases +which engender disease; so, too, the exhalations from contaminated +streams. But this is by no means all. The manner in which the great +multitude of the poor is treated by society to-day is revolting. They +are drawn into the large cities where they breathe a poorer atmosphere +than in the country; they are relegated to districts which, by reason of +the method of construction, are worse ventilated than any others; they +are deprived of all means of cleanliness, of water itself, since pipes +are laid only when paid for, and the rivers so polluted that they are +useless for such purposes; they are obliged to throw all offal and +garbage, all dirty water, often all disgusting drainage and excrement +into the streets, being without other means of disposing of them; they +are thus compelled to infect the region of their own dwellings. Nor is +this enough. All conceivable evils are heaped upon the heads of the +poor. If the population of great cities is too dense in general, it is +they in particular who are packed into the least space. As though the +vitiated atmosphere of the streets were not enough, they are penned in +dozens into single rooms, so that the air which they breathe at night is +enough in itself to stifle them. They are given damp dwellings, cellar +dens that are not waterproof from below, or garrets that leak from above. +Their houses are so built that the clammy air cannot escape. They are +supplied bad, tattered, or rotten clothing, adulterated and indigestible +food. They are exposed to the most exciting changes of mental condition, +the most violent vibrations between hope and fear; they are hunted like +game, and not permitted to attain peace of mind and quiet enjoyment of +life. They are deprived of all enjoyments except that of sexual +indulgence and drunkenness, are worked every day to the point of complete +exhaustion of their mental and physical energies, and are thus constantly +spurred on to the maddest excess in the only two enjoyments at their +command. And if they surmount all this, they fall victims to want of +work in a crisis when all the little is taken from them that had hitherto +been vouchsafed them. + +How is it possible, under such conditions, for the lower class to be +healthy and long lived? What else can be expected than an excessive +mortality, an unbroken series of epidemics, a progressive deterioration +in the physique of the working population? Let us see how the facts +stand. + +That the dwellings of the workers in the worst portions of the cities, +together with the other conditions of life of this class, engender +numerous diseases, is attested on all sides. The article already quoted +from the _Artisan_ asserts with perfect truth, that lung diseases must be +the inevitable consequence of such conditions, and that, indeed, cases of +this kind are disproportionately frequent in this class. That the bad +air of London, and especially of the working-people's districts, is in +the highest degree favourable to the development of consumption, the +hectic appearance of great numbers of persons sufficiently indicates. If +one roams the streets a little in the early morning, when the multitudes +are on their way to their work, one is amazed at the number of persons +who look wholly or half-consumptive. Even in Manchester the people have +not the same appearance; these pale, lank, narrow-chested, hollow-eyed +ghosts, whom one passes at every step, these languid, flabby faces, +incapable of the slightest energetic expression, I have seen in such +startling numbers only in London, though consumption carries off a horde +of victims annually in the factory towns of the North. In competition +with consumption stands typhus, to say nothing of scarlet fever, a +disease which brings most frightful devastation into the ranks of the +working-class. Typhus, that universally diffused affliction, is +attributed by the official report on the sanitary condition of the +working-class, directly to the bad state of the dwellings in the matters +of ventilation, drainage, and cleanliness. This report, compiled, it +must not be forgotten, by the leading physicians of England from the +testimony of other physicians, asserts that a single ill-ventilated +court, a single blind alley without drainage, is enough to engender +fever, and usually does engender it, especially if the inhabitants are +greatly crowded. This fever has the same character almost everywhere, +and develops in nearly every case into specific typhus. It is to be +found in the working-people's quarters of all great towns and cities, and +in single ill-built, ill-kept streets of smaller places, though it +naturally seeks out single victims in better districts also. In London +it has now prevailed for a considerable time; its extraordinary violence +in the year 1837 gave rise to the report already referred to. According +to the annual report of Dr. Southwood Smith on the London Fever Hospital, +the number of patients in 1843 was 1,462, or 418 more than in any +previous year. In the damp, dirty regions of the north, south, and east +districts of London, this disease raged with extraordinary violence. Many +of the patients were working-people from the country, who had endured the +severest privation while migrating, and, after their arrival, had slept +hungry and half-naked in the streets, and so fallen victims to the fever. +These people were brought into the hospital in such a state of weakness, +that unusual quantities of wine, cognac, and preparations of ammonia and +other stimulants were required for their treatment; 16.5 per cent. of all +patients died. This malignant fever is to be found in Manchester; in the +worst quarters of the Old Town, Ancoats, Little Ireland, etc., it is +rarely extinct; though here, as in the _English_ towns generally, it +prevails to a less extent than might be expected. In Scotland and +Ireland, on the other hand, it rages with a violence that surpasses all +conception. In Edinburgh and Glasgow it broke out in 1817, after the +famine, and in 1826 and 1837 with especial violence, after the commercial +crisis, subsiding somewhat each time after having raged about three +years. In Edinburgh about 6,000 persons were attacked by the fever +during the epidemic of 1817, and about 10,000 in that of 1837, and not +only the number of persons attacked but the violence of the disease +increased with each repetition. {100a} + +But the fury of the epidemic in all former periods seems to have been +child's play in comparison with its ravages after the crisis of 1842. One- +sixth of the whole indigent population of Scotland was seized by the +fever, and the infection was carried by wandering beggars with fearful +rapidity from one locality to another. It did not reach the middle and +upper classes of the population, yet in two months there were more fever +cases than in twelve years before. In Glasgow, twelve per cent. of the +population were seized in the year 1843; 32,000 persons, of whom thirty- +two per cent. perished, while this mortality in Manchester and Liverpool +does not ordinarily exceed eight per cent. The illness reached a crisis +on the seventh and fifteenth days; on the latter, the patient usually +became yellow, which our authority {100b} regards as an indication that +the cause of the malady was to be sought in mental excitement and +anxiety. In Ireland, too, these fever epidemics have become +domesticated. During twenty-one months of the years 1817-1818, 39,000 +fever patients passed through the Dublin hospital; and in a more recent +year, according to Sheriff Alison, {100c} 60,000. In Cork the fever +hospital received one-seventh of the population in 1817-1818, in Limerick +in the same time one-fourth, and in the bad quarter of Waterford, +nineteen-twentieths of the whole population were ill of the fever at one +time. + +When one remembers under what conditions the working-people live, when +one thinks how crowded their dwellings are, how every nook and corner +swarms with human beings, how sick and well sleep in the same room, in +the same bed, the only wonder is that a contagious disease like this +fever does not spread yet farther. And when one reflects how little +medical assistance the sick have at command, how many are without any +medical advice whatsoever, and ignorant of the most ordinary +precautionary measures, the mortality seems actually small. Dr. Alison, +who has made a careful study of this disease, attributes it directly to +the want and the wretched condition of the poor, as in the report already +quoted. He asserts that privations and the insufficient satisfaction of +vital needs are what prepare the frame for contagion and make the +epidemic widespread and terrible. He proves that a period of privation, +a commercial crisis or a bad harvest, has each time produced the typhus +epidemic in Ireland as in Scotland, and that the fury of the plague has +fallen almost exclusively on the working-class. It is a noteworthy fact, +that according to his testimony, the majority of persons who perish by +typhus are fathers of families, precisely the persons who can least be +spared by those dependent upon them; and several Irish physicians whom he +quotes bear the same testimony. + +Another category of diseases arises directly from the food rather than +the dwellings of the workers. The food of the labourer, indigestible +enough in itself, is utterly unfit for young children, and he has neither +means nor time to get his children more suitable food. Moreover, the +custom of giving children spirits, and even opium, is very general; and +these two influences, with the rest of the conditions of life prejudicial +to bodily development, give rise to the most diverse affections of the +digestive organs, leaving life-long traces behind them. Nearly all +workers have stomachs more or less weak, and are yet forced to adhere to +the diet which is the root of the evil. How should they know what is to +blame for it? And if they knew, how could they obtain a more suitable +regimen so long as they cannot adopt a different way of living and are +not better educated? But new disease arises during childhood from +impaired digestion. Scrofula is almost universal among the +working-class, and scrofulous parents have scrofulous children, +especially when the original influences continue in full force to operate +upon the inherited tendency of the children. A second consequence of +this insufficient bodily nourishment, during the years of growth and +development, is rachitis, which is extremely common among the children of +the working-class. The hardening of the bones is delayed, the +development of the skeleton in general is restricted, and deformities of +the legs and spinal column are frequent, in addition to the usual +rachitic affections. How greatly all these evils are increased by the +changes to which the workers are subject in consequence of fluctuations +in trade, want of work, and the scanty wages in time of crisis, it is not +necessary to dwell upon. Temporary want of sufficient food, to which +almost every working-man is exposed at least once in the course of his +life, only contributes to intensify the effects of his usual sufficient +but bad diet. Children who are half-starved, just when they most need +ample and nutritious food--and how many such there are during every +crisis and even when trade is at its best--must inevitably become weak, +scrofulous and rachitic in a high degree. And that they do become so, +their appearance amply shows. The neglect to which the great mass of +working-men's children are condemned leaves ineradicable traces and +brings the enfeeblement of the whole race of workers with it. Add to +this, the unsuitable clothing of this class, the impossibility of +precautions against colds, the necessity of toiling so long as health +permits, want made more dire when sickness appears, and the only too +common lack of all medical assistance; and we have a rough idea of the +sanitary condition of the English working-class. The injurious effects +peculiar to single employments as now conducted, I shall not deal with +here. + +Besides these, there are other influences which enfeeble the health of a +great number of workers, intemperance most of all. All possible +temptations, all allurements combine to bring the workers to drunkenness. +Liquor is almost their only source of pleasure, and all things conspire +to make it accessible to them. The working-man comes from his work +tired, exhausted, finds his home comfortless, damp, dirty, repulsive; he +has urgent need of recreation, he _must_ have something to make work +worth his trouble, to make the prospect of the next day endurable. His +unnerved, uncomfortable, hypochondriac state of mind and body arising +from his unhealthy condition, and especially from indigestion, is +aggravated beyond endurance by the general conditions of his life, the +uncertainty of his existence, his dependence upon all possible accidents +and chances, and his inability to do anything towards gaining an assured +position. His enfeebled frame, weakened by bad air and bad food, +violently demands some external stimulus; his social need can be +gratified only in the public-house, he has absolutely no other place +where he can meet his friends. How can he be expected to resist the +temptation? It is morally and physically inevitable that, under such +circumstances, a very large number of working-men should fall into +intemperance. And apart from the chiefly physical influences which drive +the working-man into drunkenness, there is the example of the great mass, +the neglected education, the impossibility of protecting the young from +temptation, in many cases the direct influence of intemperate parents, +who give their own children liquor, the certainty of forgetting for an +hour or two the wretchedness and burden of life, and a hundred other +circumstances so mighty that the workers can, in truth, hardly be blamed +for yielding to such overwhelming pressure. Drunkenness has here ceased +to be a vice, for which the vicious can be held responsible; it becomes a +phenomenon, the necessary, inevitable effect of certain conditions upon +an object possessed of no volition in relation to those conditions. They +who have degraded the working-man to a mere object have the +responsibility to bear. But as inevitably as a great number of working- +men fall a prey to drink, just so inevitably does it manifest its ruinous +influence upon the body and mind of its victims. All the tendencies to +disease arising from the conditions of life of the workers are promoted +by it, it stimulates in the highest degree the development of lung and +digestive troubles, the rise and spread of typhus epidemics. + +Another source of physical mischief to the working-class lies in the +impossibility of employing skilled physicians in cases of illness. It is +true that a number of charitable institutions strive to supply this want, +that the infirmary in Manchester, for instance, receives or gives advice +and medicine to 2,200 patients annually. But what is that in a city in +which, according to Gaskell's calculation, {104} three-fourths of the +population need medical aid every year? English doctors charge high +fees, and working-men are not in a position to pay them. They can +therefore do nothing, or are compelled to call in cheap charlatans, and +use quack remedies, which do more harm than good. An immense number of +such quacks thrive in every English town, securing their _clientele_ +among the poor by means of advertisements, posters, and other such +devices. Besides these, vast quantities of patent medicines are sold, +for all conceivable ailments: Morrison's Pills, Parr's Life Pills, Dr. +Mainwaring's Pills, and a thousand other pills, essences, and balsams, +all of which have the property of curing all the ills that flesh is heir +to. These medicines rarely contain actually injurious substances, but, +when taken freely and often, they affect the system prejudicially; and as +the unwary purchasers are always recommended to take as much as possible, +it is not to be wondered at that they swallow them wholesale whether +wanted or not. + +It is by no means unusual for the manufacturer of Parr's Life Pills to +sell twenty to twenty-five thousand boxes of these salutary pills in a +week, and they are taken for constipation by this one, for diarrhoea by +that one, for fever, weakness, and all possible ailments. As our German +peasants are cupped or bled at certain seasons, so do the English working- +people now consume patent medicines to their own injury and the great +profit of the manufacturer. One of the most injurious of these patent +medicines is a drink prepared with opiates, chiefly laudanum, under the +name Godfrey's Cordial. Women who work at home, and have their own and +other people's children to take care of, give them this drink to keep +them quiet, and, as many believe, to strengthen them. They often begin +to give this medicine to newly-born children, and continue, without +knowing the effects of this "heartsease," until the children die. The +less susceptible the child's system to the action of the opium, the +greater the quantities administered. When the cordial ceases to act, +laudanum alone is given, often to the extent of fifteen to twenty drops +at a dose. The Coroner of Nottingham testified before a Parliamentary +Commission {105a} that one apothecary had, according to his own +statement, used thirteen hundredweight of laudanum in one year in the +preparation of Godfrey's Cordial. The effects upon the children so +treated may be readily imagined. They are pale, feeble, wilted, and +usually die before completing the second year. The use of this cordial +is very extensive in all great towns and industrial districts in the +kingdom. + +The result of all these influences is a general enfeeblement of the frame +in the working-class. There are few vigorous, well-built, healthy +persons among the workers, _i.e_., among the factory operatives, who are +employed in confined rooms, and we are here discussing these only. They +are almost all weakly, of angular but not powerful build, lean, pale, and +of relaxed fibre, with the exception of the muscles especially exercised +in their work. Nearly all suffer from indigestion, and consequently from +a more or less hypochondriac, melancholy, irritable, nervous condition. +Their enfeebled constitutions are unable to resist disease, and are +therefore seized by it on every occasion. Hence they age prematurely, +and die early. On this point the mortality statistics supply +unquestionable testimony. + +According to the Report of Registrar-General Graham, the annual death- +rate of all England and Wales is something less than 2.25 per cent. That +is to say, out of forty-five persons, one dies every year. {105b} This +was the average for the year 1839-40. In 1840-41 the mortality +diminished somewhat, and the death-rate was but one in forty-six. But in +the great cities the proportion is wholly different. I have before me +official tables of mortality (_Manchester Guardian_, July 31st, 1844), +according to which the death-rate of several large towns is as +follows:--In Manchester, including Chorlton and Salford, one in 32.72; +and excluding Chorlton and Salford, one in 30.75. In Liverpool, +including West Derby (suburb), 31.90, and excluding West Derby, 29.90; +while the average of all the districts of Cheshire, Lancashire, and +Yorkshire cited, including a number of wholly or partially rural +districts and many small towns, with a total population of 2,172,506 for +the whole, is one death in 39.80 persons. How unfavourably the workers +are placed in the great cities, the mortality for Prescott in Lancashire +shows: a district inhabited by miners, and showing a lower sanitary +condition than that of the agricultural districts, mining being by no +means a healthful occupation. But these miners live in the country, and +the death-rate among them is but one in 47.54, or nearly two-and-a-half +per cent. better than that for all England. All these statements are +based upon the mortality tables for 1843. Still higher is the death-rate +in the Scotch cities; in Edinburgh, in 1838-39, one in 29; in 1831, in +the Old Town alone, one in 22. In Glasgow, according to Dr. Cowen, {106} +the average has been, since 1830, one in 30; and in single years, one in +22 to 24. That this enormous shortening of life falls chiefly upon the +working-class, that the general average is improved by the smaller +mortality of the upper and middle-classes, is attested upon all sides. +One of the most recent depositions is that of a physician, Dr. P. H. +Holland, in Manchester, who investigated Chorlton-on-Medlock, a suburb of +Manchester, under official commission. He divided the houses and streets +into three classes each, and ascertained the following variations in the +death-rate: + +First class of Streets. Houses I. class. Mortality one in 51 +,, ,, ,, II. ,, ,, ,, 45 +,, ,, ,, III. ,, ,, ,, 36 +Second ,, ,, I. ,, ,, ,, 55 +,, ,, ,, II. ,, ,, ,, 38 +,, ,, ,, III. ,, ,, ,, 35 +Third ,, ,, I. ,, Wanting --- ---- +,, ,, ,, II. ,, Mortality ,, 35 +,, ,, ,, III. ,, ,, ,, 25 + +It is clear from other tables given by Holland that the mortality in the +_streets_ of the second class is 18 per cent. greater, and in the streets +of the third class 68 per cent. greater than in those of the first class; +that the mortality in the _houses_ of the second class is 31 per cent +greater, and in the third class 78 per cent. greater than in those of the +first class; that the mortality is those bad streets which were improved, +decreased 25 per cent. He closes with the remark, very frank for an +English bourgeois: {107} + + "When we find the rate of mortality four times as high in some streets + as in others, and twice as high in whole classes of streets as in + other classes, and further find that it is all but invariably high in + those streets which are in bad condition, and almost invariably low in + those whose condition is good, we cannot resist the conclusion that + multitudes of our fellow-creatures, _hundreds of our immediate + neighbours_, are annually destroyed for want of the most evident + precautions." + +The Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Working-Class contains +information which attests the same fact. In Liverpool, in 1840, the +average longevity of the upper-classes, gentry, professional men, etc., +was thirty-five years; that of the business men and better-placed +handicraftsmen, twenty-two years; and that of the operatives, +day-labourers, and serviceable class in general, but fifteen years. The +Parliamentary reports contain a mass of similar facts. + +The death-rate is kept so high chiefly by the heavy mortality among young +children in the working-class. The tender frame of a child is least able +to withstand the unfavourable influences of an inferior lot in life; the +neglect to which they are often subjected, when both parents work or one +is dead, avenges itself promptly, and no one need wonder that in +Manchester, according to the report last quoted, more than fifty-seven +per cent. of the children of the working-class perish before the fifth +year, while but twenty per cent. of the children of the higher classes, +and not quite thirty-two per cent. of the children of all classes in the +country die under five years of age. {108a} The article of the +_Artisan_, already several times referred to, furnishes exacter +information on this point, by comparing the city death-rate in single +diseases of children with the country death-rate, thus demonstrating +that, in general, epidemics in Manchester and Liverpool are three times +more fatal than in country districts; that affections of the nervous +system are quintupled, and stomach troubles trebled, while deaths from +affections of the lungs in cities are to those in the country as 2.5 to +1. Fatal cases of smallpox, measles, scarlet fever, and whooping cough, +among small children, are four times more frequent; those of water on the +brain are trebled, and convulsions ten times more frequent. To quote +another acknowledged authority, I append the following table. Out of +10,000 persons, there die--{108b} + + Under 5-19 20-39 40-59 60-69 70-79 80-89 90-99 100 x + 5 years +In Rutlandshire, a +healthy agricultural +district 2,865 891 1,275 1,299 1,189 1,428 938 112 3 +Essex, marshy +agricultural +district 3,159 1,110 1,526 1,413 963 1,019 630 177 3 +Town of Carlisle, +1779-1787, before +introduction of +mills 4,408 921 1,006 1,201 940 826 633 153 22 +Town of Carlisle, +after introduction +of mills 4,738 930 l,201 1,134 677 727 452 80 1 +Preston, factory +town 4,947 1,136 1,379 1,114 553 532 298 38 3 +Leeds, factory +town 5,286 927 1,228 1,198 593 512 225 29 2 + +Apart from the divers diseases which are the necessary consequence of the +present neglect and oppression of the poorer classes, there are other +influences which contribute to increase the mortality among small +children. In many families the wife, like the husband, has to work away +from home, and the consequence is the total neglect of the children, who +are either locked up or given out to be taken care of. It is, therefore, +not to be wondered at if hundreds of them perish through all manner of +accidents. Nowhere are so many children run over, nowhere are so many +killed by falling, drowning, or burning, as in the great cities and towns +of England. Deaths from burns and scalds are especially frequent, such a +case occurring nearly every week during the winter months in Manchester, +and very frequently in London, though little mention is made of them in +the papers. I have at hand a copy of the _Weekly Despatch_ of December +15th, 1844, according to which, in the week from December 1st to December +7th inclusive, _six_ such cases occurred. These unhappy children, +perishing in this terrible way, are victims of our social disorder, and +of the property-holding classes interested in maintaining and prolonging +this disorder. Yet one is left in doubt whether even this terribly +torturing death is not a blessing for the children in rescuing them from +a long life of toil and wretchedness, rich in suffering and poor in +enjoyment. So far has it gone in England; and the bourgeoisie reads +these things every day in the newspapers and takes no further trouble in +the matter. But it cannot complain if, after the official and +non-official testimony here cited which must be known to it, I broadly +accuse it of social murder. Let the ruling class see to it that these +frightful conditions are ameliorated, or let it surrender the +administration of the common interests to the labouring-class. To the +latter course it is by no means inclined; for the former task, so long as +it remains the bourgeoisie crippled by bourgeois prejudice, it has not +the needed power. For if, at last, after hundreds of thousands of +victims have perished, it manifests some little anxiety for the future, +passing a "Metropolitan Buildings Act," under which the most unscrupulous +overcrowding of dwellings is to be, at least in some slight degree, +restricted; if it points with pride to measures which, far from attacking +the root of the evil, do not by any means meet the demands of the +commonest sanitary policy, it cannot thus vindicate itself from the +accusation. The English bourgeoisie has but one choice, either to +continue its rule under the unanswerable charge of murder and in spite of +this charge, or to abdicate in favour of the labouring-class. Hitherto +it has chosen the former course. + +Let us turn from the physical to the mental state of the workers. Since +the bourgeoisie vouchsafes them only so much of life as is absolutely +necessary, we need not wonder that it bestows upon them only so much +education as lies in the interest of the bourgeoisie; and that, in truth, +is not much. The means of education in England are restricted out of all +proportion to the population. The few day schools at the command of the +working-class are available only for the smallest minority, and are bad +besides. The teachers, worn-out workers, and other unsuitable persons +who only turn to teaching in order to live, are usually without the +indispensable elementary knowledge, without the moral discipline so +needful for the teacher, and relieved of all public supervision. Here, +too, free competition rules, and, as usual, the rich profit by it, and +the poor, for whom competition is _not_ free, who have not the knowledge +needed to enable them to form a correct judgment, have the evil +consequences to bear. Compulsory school attendance does not exist. In +the mills it is, as we shall see, purely nominal; and when in the session +of 1843 the Ministry was disposed to make this nominal compulsion +effective, the manufacturing bourgeoisie opposed the measure with all its +might, though the working-class was outspokenly in favour of compulsory +school attendance. Moreover, a mass of children work the whole week +through in the mills or at home, and therefore cannot attend school. The +evening schools, supposed to be attended by children who are employed +during the day, are almost abandoned or attended without benefit. It is +asking too much, that young workers who have been using themselves up +twelve hours in the day, should go to school from eight to ten at night. +And those who try it usually fall asleep, as is testified by hundreds of +witnesses in the Children's Employment Commission's Report. Sunday +schools have been founded, it is true, but they, too, are most scantily +supplied with teachers, and can be of use to those only who have already +learnt something in the day schools. The interval from one Sunday to the +next is too long for an ignorant child to remember in the second sitting +what it learned in the first, a week before. The Children's Employment +Commission's Report furnishes a hundred proofs, and the Commission itself +most emphatically expresses the opinion, that neither the week-day nor +the Sunday schools, in the least degree, meet the needs of the nation. +This report gives evidence of ignorance in the working-class of England, +such as could hardly be expected in Spain or Italy. It cannot be +otherwise; the bourgeoisie has little to hope, and much to fear, from the +education of the working-class. The Ministry, in its whole enormous +budget of 55,000,000 pounds, has only the single trifling item of 40,000 +pounds for public education, and, but for the fanaticism of the religious +sects which does at least as much harm as good, the means of education +would be yet more scanty. As it is, the State Church manages its +national schools and the various sects their sectarian schools for the +sole purpose of keeping the children of the brethren of the faith within +the congregation, and of winning away a poor childish soul here and there +from some other sect. The consequence is that religion, and precisely +the most unprofitable side of religion, polemical discussion, is made the +principal subject of instruction, and the memory of the children +overburdened with incomprehensible dogmas and theological distinctions; +that sectarian hatred and bigotry are awakened as early as possible, and +all rational mental and moral training shamefully neglected. The working +class has repeatedly demanded of Parliament a system of strictly secular +public education, leaving religion to the ministers of the sects; but, +thus far, no Ministry has been induced to grant it. The Minister is the +obedient servant of the bourgeoisie, and the bourgeoisie is divided into +countless sects; but each would gladly grant the workers the otherwise +dangerous education on the sole condition of their accepting, as an +antidote, the dogmas peculiar to the especial sect in question. And as +these sects are still quarrelling among themselves for supremacy, the +workers remain for the present without education. It is true that the +manufacturers boast of having enabled the majority to read, but the +quality of the reading is appropriate to the source of the instruction, +as the Children's Employment Commission proves. According to this +report, he who knows his letters can read enough to satisfy the +conscience of the manufacturers. And when one reflects upon the confused +orthography of the English language which makes reading one of the arts, +learned only under long instruction, this ignorance is readily +understood. Very few working-people write readily; and writing +orthographically is beyond the powers even of many "educated" persons. +The Sunday schools of the State Church, of the Quakers, and, I think, of +several other sects, do not teach writing, "because it is too worldly an +employment for Sunday." The quality of the instruction offered the +workers in other directions may be judged from a specimen or two, taken +from the Children's Employment Commission's Report, which unfortunately +does not embrace mill-work proper: + + "In Birmingham," says Commissioner Grainger, "the children examined by + me are, as a whole, utterly wanting in all that could be in the + remotest degree called a useful education. Although in almost all the + schools religious instruction alone is furnished, the profoundest + ignorance even upon that subject prevailed."--"In Wolverhampton," says + Commissioner Horne, "I found, among others, the following example: A + girl of eleven years had attended both day and Sunday school, 'had + never heard of another world, of Heaven, or another life.' A boy, + seventeen years old, did not know that twice two are four, nor how + many farthings in two pence even when the money was placed in his + hand. Several boys had never heard of London nor of Willenhall, + though the latter was but an hour's walk from their homes, and in the + closest relations with Wolverhampton. Several had never heard the + name of the Queen nor other names, such as Nelson, Wellington, + Bonaparte; but it was noteworthy that those who had never heard even + of St. Paul, Moses, or Solomon, were very well instructed as to the + life, deeds, and character of Dick Turpin, and especially of Jack + Sheppard. A youth of sixteen did not know how many twice two are, nor + how much four farthings make. A youth of seventeen asserted that four + farthings are four half pence; a third, seventeen years old, answered + several very simple questions with the brief statement, that he 'was + ne jedge o' nothin'.'" {112a} These children who are crammed with + religious doctrines four or five years at a stretch, know as little at + the end as at the beginning. One child "went to Sunday school + regularly for five years; does not know who Jesus Christ is, but had + heard the name; had never heard of the twelve Apostles, Samson, Moses, + Aaron, etc." {112b} Another "attended Sunday school regularly six + years; knows who Jesus Christ was; he died on the Cross to save our + Saviour; had never heard of St. Peter or St. Paul." {113a} A third, + "attended different Sunday schools seven years; can read only the + thin, easy books with simple words of one syllable; has heard of the + Apostles, but does not know whether St. Peter was one or St. John; the + latter must have been St. John Wesley." {113b} To the question who + Christ was, Horne received the following answers among others: "He was + Adam," "He was an Apostle," "He was the Saviour's Lord's Son," and + from a youth of sixteen: "He was a king of London long ago." In + Sheffield, Commissioner Symonds let the children from the Sunday + school read aloud; they could not tell what they had read, or what + sort of people the Apostles were, of whom they had just been reading. + After he had asked them all one after the other about the Apostles + without securing a single correct answer, one sly-looking little + fellow, with great glee, called out: "I know, mister; they were the + lepers!" {113c} From the pottery districts and from Lancashire the + reports are similar. + +This is what the bourgeoisie and the State are doing for the education +and improvement of the working-class. Fortunately the conditions under +which this class lives are such as give it a sort of practical training, +which not only replaces school cramming, but renders harmless the +confused religious notions connected with it, and even places the workers +in the vanguard of the national movement of England. Necessity is the +mother of invention, and what is still more important, of thought and +action. The English working-man who can scarcely read and still less +write, nevertheless knows very well where his own interest and that of +the nation lies. He knows, too, what the especial interest of the +bourgeoisie is, and what he has to expect of that bourgeoisie. If he +cannot write he can speak, and speak in public; if he has no arithmetic, +he can, nevertheless, reckon with the Political Economists enough to see +through a Corn-Law-repealing bourgeois, and to get the better of him in +argument; if celestial matters remain very mixed for him in spite of all +the effort of the preachers, he sees all the more clearly into +terrestrial, political, and social questions. We shall have occasion to +refer again to this point; and pass now to the moral characteristics of +our workers. + +It is sufficiently clear that the instruction in morals can have no +better effect than the religious teaching, with which in all English +schools it is mixed up. The simple principles which, for plain human +beings, regulate the relations of man to man, brought into the direst +confusion by our social state, our war of each against all, necessarily +remain confused and foreign to the working-man when mixed with +incomprehensible dogmas, and preached in the religious form of an +arbitrary and dogmatic commandment. The schools contribute, according to +the confession of all authorities, and especially of the Children's +Employment Commission, almost nothing to the morality of the +working-class. So short-sighted, so stupidly narrow-minded is the +English bourgeoisie in its egotism, that it does not even take the +trouble to impress upon the workers the morality of the day, which the +bourgeoisie has patched together in its own interest for its own +protection! Even this precautionary measure is too great an effort for +the enfeebled and sluggish bourgeoisie. A time must come when it will +repent its neglect, too late. But it has no right to complain that the +workers know nothing of its system of morals, and do not act in +accordance with it. + +Thus are the workers cast out and ignored by the class in power, morally +as well as physically and mentally. The only provision made for them is +the law, which fastens upon them when they become obnoxious to the +bourgeoisie. Like the dullest of the brutes, they are treated to but one +form of education, the whip, in the shape of force, not convincing but +intimidating. There is, therefore, no cause for surprise if the workers, +treated as brutes, actually become such; or if they can maintain their +consciousness of manhood only by cherishing the most glowing hatred, the +most unbroken inward rebellion against the bourgeoisie in power. They +are men so long only as they burn with wrath against the reigning class. +They become brutes the moment they bend in patience under the yoke, and +merely strive to make life endurable while abandoning the effort to break +the yoke. + +This, then, is all that the bourgeoisie has done for the education of the +proletariat--and when we take into consideration all the circumstances in +which this class lives, we shall not think the worse of it for the +resentment which it cherishes against the ruling class. The moral +training which is not given to the worker in school is not supplied by +the other conditions of his life; that moral training, at least, which +alone has worth in the eyes of the bourgeoisie; his whole position and +environment involves the strongest temptation to immorality. He is poor, +life offers him no charm, almost every enjoyment is denied him, the +penalties of the law have no further terrors for him; why should he +restrain his desires, why leave to the rich the enjoyment of his +birthright, why not seize a part of it for himself? What inducement has +the proletarian not to steal! It is all very pretty and very agreeable +to the ear of the bourgeois to hear the "sacredness of property" +asserted; but for him who has none, the sacredness of property dies out +of itself. Money is the god of this world; the bourgeois takes the +proletarian's money from him and so makes a practical atheist of him. No +wonder, then, if the proletarian retains his atheism and no longer +respects the sacredness and power of the earthly God. And when the +poverty of the proletarian is intensified to the point of actual lack of +the barest necessaries of life, to want and hunger, the temptation to +disregard all social order does but gain power. This the bourgeoisie for +the most part recognises. Symonds {115a} observes that poverty exercises +the same ruinous influence upon the mind which drunkenness exercises upon +the body; and Dr. Alison explains to property-holding readers, with the +greatest exactness, what the consequences of social oppression must be +for the working-class. {115b} Want leaves the working-man the choice +between starving slowly, killing himself speedily, or taking what he +needs where he finds it--in plain English, stealing. And there is no +cause for surprise that most of them prefer stealing to starvation and +suicide. + +True, there are, within the working-class, numbers too moral to steal +even when reduced to the utmost extremity, and these starve or commit +suicide. For suicide, formerly the enviable privilege of the upper +classes, has become fashionable among the English workers, and numbers of +the poor kill themselves to avoid the misery from which they see no other +means of escape. + +But far more demoralising than his poverty in its influence upon the +English working-man is the insecurity of his position, the necessity of +living upon wages from hand to mouth, that in short which makes a +proletarian of him. The smaller peasants in Germany are usually poor, +and often suffer want, but they are less at the mercy of accident, they +have at least something secure. The proletarian, who has nothing but his +two hands, who consumes to-day what he earned yesterday, who is subject +to every possible chance, and has not the slightest guarantee for being +able to earn the barest necessities of life, whom every crisis, every +whim of his employer may deprive of bread, this proletarian is placed in +the most revolting, inhuman position conceivable for a human being. The +slave is assured of a bare livelihood by the self-interest of his master, +the serf has at least a scrap of land on which to live; each has at worst +a guarantee for life itself. But the proletarian must depend upon +himself alone, and is yet prevented from so applying his abilities as to +be able to rely upon them. Everything that the proletarian can do to +improve his position is but a drop in the ocean compared with the floods +of varying chances to which he is exposed, over which he has not the +slightest control. He is the passive subject of all possible +combinations of circumstances, and must count himself fortunate when he +has saved his life even for a short time; and his character and way of +living are naturally shaped by these conditions. Either he seeks to keep +his head above water in this whirlpool, to rescue his manhood, and this +he can do solely in rebellion {116} against the class which plunders him +so mercilessly and then abandons him to his fate, which strives to hold +him in this position so demoralising to a human being; or he gives up the +struggle against his fate as hopeless, and strives to profit, so far as +he can, by the most favourable moment. To save is unavailing, for at the +utmost he cannot save more than suffices to sustain life for a short +time, while if he falls out of work, it is for no brief period. To +accumulate lasting property for himself is impossible; and if it were +not, he would only cease to be a working-man and another would take his +place. What better thing can he do, then, when he gets high wages, than +live well upon them? The English bourgeoisie is violently scandalised at +the extravagant living of the workers when wages are high; yet it is not +only very natural but very sensible of them to enjoy life when they can, +instead of laying up treasures which are of no lasting use to them, and +which in the end moth and rust (_i.e_., the bourgeoisie) get possession +of. Yet such a life is demoralising beyond all others. What Carlyle +says of the cotton spinners is true of all English industrial workers: +{117a} + + "Their trade, now in plethoric prosperity, anon extenuated into + inanition and 'short time,' is of the nature of gambling; they live by + it like gamblers, now in luxurious superfluity, now in starvation. + Black, mutinous discontent devours them; simply the miserablest + feeling that can inhabit the heart of man. English commerce, with its + world-wide, convulsive fluctuations, with its immeasurable Proteus + Steam demon, makes all paths uncertain for them, all life a + bewilderment; society, steadfastness, peaceable continuance, the first + blessings of man are not theirs.--This world is for them no home, but + a dingy prison-house, of reckless unthrift, rebellion, rancour, + indignation against themselves and against all men. Is it a green, + flowery world, with azure everlasting sky stretched over it, the work + and government of a God; or a murky, simmering Tophet, of copperas + fumes, cotton fuz, gin riot, wrath and toil, created by a Demon, + governed by a Demon?" + +And elsewhere: {117b} + + "Injustice, infidelity to truth and fact and Nature's order, being + properly the one evil under the sun, and the feeling of injustice the + one intolerable pain under the sun, our grand question as to the + condition of these working-men would be: Is it just? And, first of + all, what belief have they themselves formed about the justice of it? + The words they promulgate are notable by way of answer; their actions + are still more notable. Revolt, sullen, revengeful humour of revolt + against the upper classes, decreasing respect for what their temporal + superiors command, decreasing faith for what their spiritual superiors + teach, is more and more the universal spirit of the lower classes. + Such spirit may be blamed, may be vindicated, but all men must + recognise it as extant there, all may know that it is mournful, that + unless altered it will be fatal." + +Carlyle is perfectly right as to the facts and wrong only in censuring +the wild rage of the workers against the higher classes. This rage, this +passion, is rather the proof that the workers feel the inhumanity of +their position, that they refuse to be degraded to the level of brutes, +and that they will one day free themselves from servitude to the +bourgeoisie. This may be seen in the case of those who do not share this +wrath; they either bow humbly before the fate that overtakes them, live a +respectful private life as well as they can, do not concern themselves as +to the course of public affairs, help the bourgeoisie to forge the chains +of the workers yet more securely, and stand upon the plane of +intellectual nullity that prevailed before the industrial period began; +or they are tossed about by fate, lose their moral hold upon themselves +as they have already lost their economic hold, live along from day to +day, drink and fall into licentiousness; and in both cases they are +brutes. The last-named class contributes chiefly to the "rapid increase +of vice," at which the bourgeoisie is so horrified after itself setting +in motion the causes which give rise to it. + +Another source of demoralisation among the workers is their being +condemned to work. As voluntary, productive activity is the highest +enjoyment known to us, so is compulsory toil the most cruel, degrading +punishment. Nothing is more terrible than being constrained to do some +one thing every day from morning until night against one's will. And the +more a man the worker feels himself, the more hateful must his work be to +him, because he feels the constraint, the aimlessness of it for himself. +Why does he work? For love of work? From a natural impulse? Not at +all! He works for money, for a thing which has nothing whatsoever to do +with the work itself; and he works so long, moreover, and in such +unbroken monotony, that this alone must make his work a torture in the +first weeks if he has the least human feeling left. The division of +labour has multiplied the brutalising influences of forced work. In most +branches the worker's activity is reduced to some paltry, purely +mechanical manipulation, repeated minute after minute, unchanged year +after year. {119} How much human feeling, what abilities can a man +retain in his thirtieth year, who has made needle points or filed toothed +wheels twelve hours every day from his early childhood, living all the +time under the conditions forced upon the English proletarian? It is +still the same thing since the introduction of steam. The worker's +activity is made easy, muscular effort is saved, but the work itself +becomes unmeaning and monotonous to the last degree. It offers no field +for mental activity, and claims just enough of his attention to keep him +from thinking of anything else. And a sentence to such work, to work +which takes his whole time for itself, leaving him scarcely time to eat +and sleep, none for physical exercise in the open air, or the enjoyment +of Nature, much less for mental activity, how can such a sentence help +degrading a human being to the level of a brute? Once more the worker +must choose, must either surrender himself to his fate, become a "good" +workman, heed "faithfully" the interest of the bourgeoisie, in which case +he most certainly becomes a brute, or else he must rebel, fight for his +manhood to the last, and this he can only do in the fight against the +bourgeoisie. + +And when all these conditions have engendered vast demoralisation among +the workers, a new influence is added to the old, to spread this +degradation more widely and carry it to the extremest point. This +influence is the centralisation of the population. The writers of the +English bourgeoisie are crying murder at the demoralising tendency of the +great cities, like perverted Jeremiahs, they sing dirges, not over the +destruction, but the growth of the cities. Sheriff Alison attributes +almost everything, and Dr. Vaughan, author of "The Age of Great Cities," +still more to this influence. And this is natural, for the propertied +class has too direct an interest in the other conditions which tend to +destroy the worker body and soul. If they should admit that "poverty, +insecurity, overwork, forced work, are the chief ruinous influences," +they would have to draw the conclusion, "then let us give the poor +property, guarantee their subsistence, make laws against overwork," and +this the bourgeoisie dare not formulate. But the great cities have grown +up so spontaneously, the population has moved into them so wholly of its +own motion, and the inference that manufacture and the middle-class which +profits from it alone have created the cities is so remote, that it is +extremely convenient for the ruling class to ascribe all the evil to this +apparently unavoidable source; whereas the great cities really only +secure a more rapid and certain development for evils already existing in +the germ. Alison is humane enough to admit this; he is no thoroughbred +Liberal manufacturer, but only a half developed Tory bourgeois, and he +has, therefore, an open eye, now and then, where the full-fledged +bourgeois is still stone blind. Let us hear him: {120} + + "It is in the great cities that vice has spread her temptations, and + pleasure her seductions, and folly her allurements; that guilt is + encouraged by the hope of impunity, and idleness fostered by the + frequency of example. It is to these great marts of human corruption + that the base and the profligate resort from the simplicity of country + life; it is here that they find victims whereon to practise their + iniquity, and gains to reward the dangers that attend them. Virtue is + here depressed from the obscurity in which it is involved. Guilt is + matured from the difficulty of its detection; licentiousness is + rewarded by the immediate enjoyment which it promises. If any person + will walk through St. Giles's, the crowded alleys of Dublin, or the + poorer quarters of Glasgow by night, he will meet with ample proof of + these observations; he will no longer wonder at the disorderly habits + and profligate enjoyments of the lower orders; his astonishment will + be, not that there is so much, but that there is so little crime in + the world. The great cause of human corruption in these crowded + situations is the contagious nature of bad example and the extreme + difficulty of avoiding the seductions of vice when they are brought + into close and daily proximity with the younger part of the people. + Whatever we may think of the strength of virtue, experience proves + that the higher orders are indebted for their exemption from atrocious + crime or disorderly habits chiefly to their fortunate removal from the + scene of temptation; and that where they are exposed to the seductions + which assail their inferiors, they are noways behind them in yielding + to their influence. It is the peculiar misfortune of the poor in + great cities that they cannot fly from these irresistible temptations, + but that, turn where they will, they are met by the alluring forms of + vice, or the seductions of guilty enjoyment. It is the experienced + impossibility of concealing the attractions of vice from the younger + part of the poor in great cities which exposes them to so many causes + of demoralisation. All this proceeds not from any unwonted or + extraordinary depravity in the character of these victims of + licentiousness, but from the almost irresistible nature of the + temptations to which the poor are exposed. The rich, who censure + their conduct, would in all probability yield as rapidly as they have + done to the influence of similar causes. There is a certain degree of + misery, a certain proximity to sin, which virtue is rarely able to + withstand, and which the young, in particular, are generally unable to + resist. The progress of vice in such circumstances is almost as + certain and often nearly as rapid as that of physical contagion." + +And elsewhere: + + "When the higher orders for their own profit have drawn the labouring- + classes in great numbers into a small space, the contagion of guilt + becomes rapid and unavoidable. The lower orders, situated as they are + in so far as regards moral or religious instruction, are frequently + hardly more to be blamed for yielding to the temptations which + surround them than for falling victims to the typhus fever." + +Enough! The half-bourgeois Alison betrays to us, however narrow his +manner of expressing himself, the evil effect of the great cities upon +the moral development of the workers. Another, a bourgeois _pur sang_, a +man after the heart of the Anti-Corn Law League, Dr. Andrew Ure, {122} +betrays the other side. He tells us that life in great cities +facilitates cabals among the workers and confers power on the Plebs. If +here the workers are not educated (_i.e_., to obedience to the +bourgeoisie), they may view matters one-sidedly, from the standpoint of a +sinister selfishness, and may readily permit themselves to be hoodwinked +by sly demagogues; nay, they might even be capable of viewing their +greatest benefactors, the frugal and enterprising capitalists, with a +jealous and hostile eye. Here proper training alone can avail, or +national bankruptcy and other horrors must follow, since a revolution of +the workers could hardly fail to occur. And our bourgeois is perfectly +justified in his fears. If the centralisation of population stimulates +and develops the property-holding class, it forces the development of the +workers yet more rapidly. The workers begin to feel as a class, as a +whole; they begin to perceive that, though feeble as individuals, they +form a power united; their separation from the bourgeoisie, the +development of views peculiar to the workers and corresponding to their +position in life, is fostered, the consciousness of oppression awakens, +and the workers attain social and political importance. The great cities +are the birthplaces of labour movements; in them the workers first began +to reflect upon their own condition, and to struggle against it; in them +the opposition between proletariat and bourgeoisie first made itself +manifest; from them proceeded the Trades-Unions, Chartism, and Socialism. +The great cities have transformed the disease of the social body, which +appears in chronic form in the country, into an acute one, and so made +manifest its real nature and the means of curing it. Without the great +cities and their forcing influence upon the popular intelligence, the +working-class would be far less advanced than it is. Moreover, they have +destroyed the last remnant of the patriarchal relation between working- +men and employers, a result to which manufacture on a large scale has +contributed by multiplying the employes dependent upon a single employer. +The bourgeoisie deplores all this, it is true, and has good reason to do +so; for, under the old conditions, the bourgeois was comparatively secure +against a revolt on the part of his hands. He could tyrannise over them +and plunder them to his heart's content, and yet receive obedience, +gratitude, and assent from these stupid people by bestowing a trifle of +patronising friendliness which cost him nothing, and perhaps some paltry +present, all apparently out of pure, self-sacrificing, uncalled-for +goodness of heart, but really not one-tenth part of his duty. As an +individual bourgeois, placed under conditions which he had not himself +created, he might do his duty at least in part; but, as a member of the +ruling class, which, by the mere fact of its ruling, is responsible for +the condition of the whole nation, he did nothing of what his position +involved. On the contrary, he plundered the whole nation for his own +individual advantage. In the patriarchal relation that hypocritically +concealed the slavery of the worker, the latter must have remained an +intellectual zero, totally ignorant of his own interest, a mere private +individual. Only when estranged from his employer, when convinced that +the sole bond between employer and employe is the bond of pecuniary +profit, when the sentimental bond between them, which stood not the +slightest test, had wholly fallen away, then only did the worker begin to +recognise his own interests and develop independently; then only did he +cease to be the slave of the bourgeoisie in his thoughts, feelings, and +the expression of his will. And to this end manufacture on a grand scale +and in great cities has most largely contributed. + +Another influence of great moment in forming the character of the English +workers is the Irish immigration already referred to. On the one hand it +has, as we have seen, degraded the English workers, removed them from +civilisation, and aggravated the hardship of their lot; but, on the other +hand, it has thereby deepened the chasm between workers and bourgeoisie, +and hastened the approaching crisis. For the course of the social +disease from which England is suffering is the same as the course of a +physical disease; it develops, according to certain laws, has its own +crisis, the last and most violent of which determines the fate of the +patient. And as the English nation cannot succumb under the final +crises, but must go forth from it, born again, rejuvenated, we can but +rejoice over everything which accelerates the course of the disease. And +to this the Irish immigration further contributes by reason of the +passionate, mercurial Irish temperament, which it imports into England +and into the English working-class. The Irish and English are to each +other much as the French and the Germans; and the mixing of the more +facile, excitable, fiery Irish temperament with the stable, reasoning, +persevering English must, in the long run, be productive only of good for +both. The rough egotism of the English bourgeoisie would have kept its +hold upon the working-class much more firmly if the Irish nature, +generous to a fault, and ruled primarily by sentiment, had not +intervened, and softened the cold, rational English character in part by +a mixture of the races, and in part by the ordinary contact of life. + +In view of all this, it is not surprising that the working-class has +gradually become a race wholly apart from the English bourgeoisie. The +bourgeoisie has more in common with every other nation of the earth than +with the workers in whose midst it lives. The workers speak other +dialects, have other thoughts and ideals, other customs and moral +principles, a different religion and other politics than those of the +bourgeoisie. Thus they are two radically dissimilar nations, as unlike +as difference of race could make them, of whom we on the Continent have +known but one, the bourgeoisie. Yet it is precisely the other, the +people, the proletariat, which is by far the more important for the +future of England. + +Of the public character of the English working-man, as it finds +expression in associations and political principles, we shall have +occasion to speak later; let us here consider the results of the +influences cited above, as they affect the private character of the +worker. The workman is far more humane in ordinary life than the +bourgeois. I have already mentioned the fact that the beggars are +accustomed to turn almost exclusively to the workers, and that, in +general, more is done by the workers than by the bourgeoisie for the +maintenance of the poor. This fact, which any one may prove for himself +any day, is confirmed, among others, by Dr. Parkinson, Canon of +Manchester, who says: {125} + + "The poor give one another more than the rich give the poor. I can + confirm my statement by the testimony of one of our eldest, most + skilful, most observant, and humane physicians, Dr. Bardsley, who has + often declared that the total sum which the poor yearly bestow upon + one another, surpasses that which the rich contribute in the same + time." + +In other ways, too, the humanity of the workers is constantly manifesting +itself pleasantly. They have experienced hard times themselves, and can +therefore feel for those in trouble, whence they are more approachable, +friendlier, and less greedy for money, though they need it far more, than +the property-holding class. For them money is worth only what it will +buy, whereas for the bourgeois it has an especial inherent value, the +value of a god, and makes the bourgeois the mean, low money-grabber that +he is. The working-man who knows nothing of this feeling of reverence +for money is therefore less grasping than the bourgeois, whose whole +activity is for the purpose of gain, who sees in the accumulations of his +money-bags the end and aim of life. Hence the workman is much less +prejudiced, has a clearer eye for facts as they are than the bourgeois, +and does not look at everything through the spectacles of personal +selfishness. His faulty education saves him from religious +prepossessions, he does not understand religious questions, does not +trouble himself about them, knows nothing of the fanaticism that holds +the bourgeoisie bound; and if he chances to have any religion, he has it +only in name, not even in theory. Practically he lives for this world, +and strives to make himself at home in it. All the writers of the +bourgeoisie are unanimous on this point, that the workers are not +religious, and do not attend church. From the general statement are to +be excepted the Irish, a few elderly people, and the half-bourgeois, the +overlookers, foremen, and the like. But among the masses there prevails +almost universally a total indifference to religion, or at the utmost, +some trace of Deism too undeveloped to amount to more than mere words, or +a vague dread of the words infidel, atheist, etc. The clergy of all +sects is in very bad odour with the working-men, though the loss of its +influence is recent. At present, however, the mere cry: "He's a parson!" +is often enough to drive one of the clergy from the platform of a public +meeting. And like the rest of the conditions under which he lives, his +want of religious and other culture contributes to keep the working-man +more unconstrained, freer from inherited stable tenets and cut-and-dried +opinions, than the bourgeois who is saturated with the class prejudices +poured into him from his earliest youth. There is nothing to be done +with the bourgeois; he is essentially conservative in however liberal a +guise, his interest is bound up with that of the property-holding class, +he is dead to all active movement; he is losing his position in the +forefront of England's historical development. The workers are taking +his place, in rightful claim first, then in fact. + +All this, together with the correspondent public action of the workers, +with which we shall deal later, forms the favourable side of the +character of this class; the unfavourable one may be quite as briefly +summed up, and follows quite as naturally out of the given causes. +Drunkenness, sexual irregularities, brutality, and disregard for the +rights of property are the chief points with which the bourgeois charges +them. That they drink heavily is to be expected. Sheriff Alison asserts +that in Glasgow some thirty thousand working-men get drunk every Saturday +night, and the estimate is certainly not exaggerated; and that in that +city in 1830, one house in twelve, and in 1840, one house in ten, was a +public-house; that in Scotland, in 1823, excise was paid upon 2,300,000 +gallons; in 1837, upon 6,620,000 gallons; in England, in 1823, upon +1,976,000 gallons, and in 1837, upon 7,875,000 gallons of spirits. The +Beer Act of 1830, which facilitated the opening of beerhouses (jerry +shops), whose keepers are licensed to sell beer to be drunk on the +premises, facilitated the spread of intemperance by bringing a beerhouse, +so to say, to everybody's door. In nearly every street there are several +such beerhouses, and among two or three neighbouring houses in the +country one is sure to be a jerry shop. Besides these, there are hush- +shops in multitudes, _i.e_., secret drinking-places which are not +licensed, and quite as many secret distilleries which produce great +quantities of spirits in retired spots, rarely visited by the police, in +the great cities. Gaskell estimates these secret distilleries in +Manchester alone at more than a hundred, and their product at 156,000 +gallons at the least. In Manchester there are, besides, more than a +thousand public-houses selling all sorts of alcoholic drinks, or quite as +many in proportion to the number of inhabitants as in Glasgow. In all +other great towns, the state of things is the same. And when one +considers, apart from the usual consequences of intemperance, that men +and women, even children, often mothers with babies in their arms, come +into contact in these places with the most degraded victims of the +bourgeois regime, with thieves, swindlers, and prostitutes; when one +reflects that many a mother gives the baby on her arm gin to drink, the +demoralising effects of frequenting such places cannot be denied. + +On Saturday evenings, especially when wages are paid and work stops +somewhat earlier than usual, when the whole working-class pours from its +own poor quarters into the main thoroughfares, intemperance may be seen +in all its brutality. I have rarely come out of Manchester on such an +evening without meeting numbers of people staggering and seeing others +lying in the gutter. On Sunday evening the same scene is usually +repeated, only less noisily. And when their money is spent, the +drunkards go to the nearest pawnshop, of which there are plenty in every +city--over sixty in Manchester, and ten or twelve in a single street of +Salford, Chapel Street--and pawn whatever they possess. Furniture, +Sunday clothes where such exist, kitchen utensils in masses are fetched +from the pawnbrokers on Saturday night only to wander back, almost +without fail, before the next Wednesday, until at last some accident +makes the final redemption impossible, and one article after another +falls into the clutches of the usurer, or until he refuses to give a +single farthing more upon the battered, used-up pledge. When one has +seen the extent of intemperance among the workers in England, one readily +believes Lord Ashley's statement that this class annually expends +something like twenty-five million pounds sterling upon intoxicating +liquor: and the deterioration in external conditions, the frightful +shattering of mental and physical health, the ruin of all domestic +relations which follow may readily be imagined. True, the temperance +societies have done much, but what are a few thousand teetotallers among +the millions of workers? When Father Matthew, the Irish apostle of +temperance, passes through the English cities, from thirty to sixty +thousand workers take the pledge; but most of them break it again within +a month. If one counts up the immense numbers who have taken the pledge +in the last three or four years in Manchester, the total is greater than +the whole population of the town--and still it is by no means evident +that intemperance is diminishing. + +Next to intemperance in the enjoyment of intoxicating liquors, one of the +principal faults of English working-men is sexual licence. But this, +too, follows with relentless logic, with inevitable necessity out of the +position of a class left to itself, with no means of making fitting use +of its freedom. The bourgeoisie has left the working-class only these +two pleasures, while imposing upon it a multitude of labours and +hardships, and the consequence is that the working-men, in order to get +something from life, concentrate their whole energy upon these two +enjoyments, carry them to excess, surrender to them in the most unbridled +manner. When people are placed under conditions which appeal to the +brute only, what remains to them but to rebel or to succumb to utter +brutality? And when, moreover, the bourgeoisie does its full share in +maintaining prostitution--and how many of the 40,000 prostitutes who fill +the streets of London every evening live upon the virtuous bourgeoisie! +How many of them owe it to the seduction of a bourgeois, that they must +offer their bodies to the passers-by in order to live?--surely it has +least of all a right to reproach the workers with their sexual brutality. + +The failings of the workers in general may be traced to an unbridled +thirst for pleasure, to want of providence, and of flexibility in fitting +into the social order, to the general inability to sacrifice the pleasure +of the moment to a remoter advantage. But is that to be wondered at? +When a class can purchase few and only the most sensual pleasures by its +wearying toil, must it not give itself over blindly and madly to those +pleasures? A class about whose education no one troubles himself, which +is a playball to a thousand chances, knows no security in life--what +incentives has such a class to providence, to "respectability," to +sacrifice the pleasure of the moment for a remoter enjoyment, most +uncertain precisely by reason of the perpetually varying, shifting +conditions under which the proletariat lives? A class which bears all +the disadvantages of the social order without enjoying its advantages, +one to which the social system appears in purely hostile aspects--who can +demand that such a class respect this social order? Verily that is +asking much! But the working-man cannot escape the present arrangement +of society so long as it exists, and when the individual worker resists +it, the greatest injury falls upon himself. + +Thus the social order makes family life almost impossible for the worker. +In a comfortless, filthy house, hardly good enough for mere nightly +shelter, ill-furnished, often neither rain-tight nor warm, a foul +atmosphere filling rooms overcrowded with human beings, no domestic +comfort is possible. The husband works the whole day through, perhaps +the wife also and the elder children, all in different places; they meet +night and morning only, all under perpetual temptation to drink; what +family life is possible under such conditions? Yet the working-man +cannot escape from the family, must live in the family, and the +consequence is a perpetual succession of family troubles, domestic +quarrels, most demoralising for parents and children alike. Neglect of +all domestic duties, neglect of the children, especially, is only too +common among the English working-people, and only too vigorously fostered +by the existing institutions of society. And children growing up in this +savage way, amidst these demoralising influences, are expected to turn +out goody-goody and moral in the end! Verily the requirements are naive, +which the self-satisfied bourgeois makes upon the working-man! + +The contempt for the existing social order is most conspicuous in its +extreme form--that of offences against the law. If the influences +demoralising to the working-man act more powerfully, more concentratedly +than usual, he becomes an offender as certainly as water abandons the +fluid for the vaporous state at 80 degrees, Reaumur. Under the brutal +and brutalising treatment of the bourgeoisie, the working-man becomes +precisely as much a thing without volition as water, and is subject to +the laws of nature with precisely the same necessity; at a certain point +all freedom ceases. Hence with the extension of the proletariat, crime +has increased in England, and the British nation has become the most +criminal in the world. From the annual criminal tables of the Home +Secretary, it is evident that the increase of crime in England has +proceeded with incomprehensible rapidity. The numbers of arrests for +_criminal_ offences reached in the years: 1805, 4,605; 1810, 5,146; 1815, +7,898; 1820, 13,710; 1825, 14,437; 1830,18,107; 1835, 20,731; 1840, +27,187; 1841, 27,760; 1842, 31,309 in England and Wales alone. That is +to say, they increased sevenfold in thirty-seven years. Of these +arrests, in 1842, 4,497 were made in Lancashire alone, or more than 14 +per cent. of the whole; and 4,094 in Middlesex, including London, or more +than 13 per cent. So that two districts which include great cities with +large proletarian populations, produced one-fourth of the total amount of +crime, though their population is far from forming one-fourth of the +whole. Moreover, the criminal tables prove directly that nearly all +crime arises within the proletariat; for, in 1842, taking the average, +out of 100 criminals, 32.35 could neither read nor write; 58.32 read and +wrote imperfectly; 6.77 could read and write well; 0.22 had enjoyed a +higher education, while the degree of education of 2.34 could not be +ascertained. In Scotland, crime has increased yet more rapidly. There +were but 89 arrests for criminal offences in 1819, and as early as 1837 +the number had risen to 3,176, and in 1842 to 4,189. In Lanarkshire, +where Sheriff Alison himself made out the official report, population has +doubled once in thirty years, and crime once in five and a half, or six +times more rapidly than the population. The offences, as in all +civilised countries, are, in the great majority of cases, against +property, and have, therefore, arisen from want in some form; for what a +man has, he does not steal. The proportion of offences against property +to the population, which in the Netherlands is as 1: 7,140, and in +France, as 1: 1,804, was in England, when Gaskell wrote, as 1: 799. The +proportion of offences against persons to the population is, in the +Netherlands, 1: 28,904; in France, 1: 17,573; in England, 1: 23,395; that +of crimes in general to the population in the agricultural districts, as +1: 1,043; in the manufacturing districts as 1: 840. {131a} In the whole +of England to-day the proportion is 1: 660; {131b} though it is scarcely +ten years since Gaskell's book appeared! + +These facts are certainly more than sufficient to bring any one, even a +bourgeois, to pause and reflect upon the consequences of such a state of +things. If demoralisation and crime multiply twenty years longer in this +proportion (and if English manufacture in these twenty years should be +less prosperous than heretofore, the progressive multiplication of crime +can only continue the more rapidly), what will the result be? Society is +already in a state of visible dissolution; it is impossible to pick up a +newspaper without seeing the most striking evidence of the giving way of +all social ties. I look at random into a heap of English journals lying +before me; there is the _Manchester Guardian_ for October 30, 1844, which +reports for three days. It no longer takes the trouble to give exact +details as to Manchester, and merely relates the most interesting cases: +that the workers in a mill have struck for higher wages without giving +notice, and been condemned by a Justice of the Peace to resume work; that +in Salford a couple of boys had been caught stealing, and a bankrupt +tradesman tried to cheat his creditors. From the neighbouring towns the +reports are more detailed: in Ashton, two thefts, one burglary, one +suicide; in Bury, one theft; in Bolton, two thefts, one revenue fraud; in +Leigh, one theft; in Oldham, one strike for wages, one theft, one fight +between Irish women, one non-Union hatter assaulted by Union men, one +mother beaten by her son, one attack upon the police, one robbery of a +church; in Stockport, discontent of working-men with wages, one theft, +one fraud, one fight, one wife beaten by her husband; in Warrington, one +theft, one fight; in Wigan, one theft, and one robbery of a church. The +reports of the London papers are much worse; frauds, thefts, assaults, +family quarrels crowd one another. A _Times_ of September 12, 1844, +falls into my hand, which gives a report of a single day, including a +theft, an attack upon the police, a sentence upon a father requiring him +to support his illegitimate son, the abandonment of a child by its +parents, and the poisoning of a man by his wife. Similar reports are to +be found in all the English papers. In this country, social war is under +full headway, every one stands for himself, and fights for himself +against all comers, and whether or not he shall injure all the others who +are his declared foes, depends upon a cynical calculation as to what is +most advantageous for himself. It no longer occurs to any one to come to +a peaceful understanding with his fellow-man; all differences are settled +by threats, violence, or in a law-court. In short, every one sees in his +neighbour an enemy to be got out of the way, or, at best, a tool to be +used for his own advantage. And this war grows from year to year, as the +criminal tables show, more violent, passionate, irreconcilable. The +enemies are dividing gradually into two great camps--the bourgeoisie on +the one hand, the workers on the other. This war of each against all, of +the bourgeoisie against the proletariat, need cause us no surprise, for +it is only the logical sequel of the principle involved in free +competition. But it may very well surprise us that the bourgeoisie +remains so quiet and composed in the face of the rapidly gathering storm- +clouds, that it can read all these things daily in the papers without, we +will not say indignation at such a social condition, but fear of its +consequences, of a universal outburst of that which manifests itself +symptomatically from day to day in the form of crime. But then it is the +bourgeoisie, and from its standpoint cannot even see the facts, much less +perceive their consequences. One thing only is astounding, that class +prejudice and preconceived opinions can hold a whole class of human +beings in such perfect, I might almost say, such mad blindness. +Meanwhile, the development of the nation goes its way whether the +bourgeoisie has eyes for it or not, and will surprise the +property-holding class one day with things not dreamed of in its +philosophy. + + + + +SINGLE BRANCHES OF INDUSTRY. FACTORY HANDS. + + +In dealing now with the more important branches of the English +manufacturing proletariat, we shall begin, according to the principle +already laid down, with the factory-workers, _i.e_., those who are +comprised under the Factory Act. This law regulates the length of the +working-day in mills in which wool, silk, cotton, and flax are spun or +woven by means of water or steam-power, and embraces, therefore, the more +important branches of English manufacture. The class employed by them is +the most intelligent and energetic of all the English workers, and, +therefore, the most restless and most hated by the bourgeoisie. It +stands as a whole, and the cotton-workers pre-eminently stand, at the +head of the labour movement, as their masters the manufacturers, +especially those of Lancashire, take the lead of the bourgeois agitation. + +We have already seen in the introduction how the population employed in +working up the textile materials were first torn from their former way of +life. It is, therefore, not surprising that the progress of mechanical +invention in later years also affected precisely these workers most +deeply and permanently. The history of cotton manufacture as related by +Ure, {134a} Baines, {134b} and others is the story of improvements in +every direction, most of which have become domesticated in the other +branches of industry as well. Hand-work is superseded by machine-work +almost universally, nearly all manipulations are conducted by the aid of +steam or water, and every year is bringing further improvements. + +In a well-ordered state of society, such improvements could only be a +source of rejoicing; in a war of all against all, individuals seize the +benefit for themselves, and so deprive the majority of the means of +subsistence. Every improvement in machinery throws workers out of +employment, and the greater the advance, the more numerous the +unemployed; each great improvement produces, therefore, upon a number of +workers the effect of a commercial crisis, creates want, wretchedness, +and crime. Take a few examples. The very first invention, the jenny, +worked by one man, produced at least sixfold what the spinning-wheel had +yielded in the same time; thus every new jenny threw five spinners out of +employment. The throstle, which, in turn, produced much more than the +jenny, and like it, was worked by one man, threw still more people out of +employment. The mule, which required yet fewer hands in proportion to +the product, had the same effect, and every improvement in the mule, +every multiplication of its spindles, diminished still further the number +of workers employed. But this increase of the number of spindles in the +mule is so great that whole armies of workers have been thrown out of +employment by it. For, whereas one spinner, with a couple of children +for piecers, formerly set six hundred spindles in motion, he could now +manage fourteen hundred to two thousand spindles upon two mules, so that +two adult spinners and a part of the piecers whom they employed were +thrown out. And since self-acting mules have been introduced into a very +large number of spinning-mills, the spinners' work is wholly performed by +the machine. There lies before me a book from the pen of James Leach, +{135} one of the recognised leaders of the Chartists in Manchester. The +author has worked for years in various branches of industry, in mills and +coal mines, and is known to me personally as an honest, trustworthy, and +capable man. In consequence of his political position, he had at command +extensive detailed information as to the different factories, collected +by the workers themselves, and he publishes tables from which it is clear +that in 1841, in 35 factories, 1,060 fewer mule spinners were employed +than in 1829, though the number of spindles in these 35 factories had +increased by 99,239. He cites five factories in which no spinners +whatever are employed, self-actors only being used. While the number of +spindles increased by 10 per cent., the number of spinners diminished +more than 60 per cent. And Leach adds that since 1841, so many +improvements have been introduced by double-decking and other means, that +in some of the factories named, half the operatives have been discharged. +In one factory alone, where eighty spinners were employed a short time +ago, there are now but twenty left; the others having been discharged or +set at children's work for children's wages. Of Stockport Leach tells a +similar story, that in 1835, 800 spinners were employed, and in 1840 but +140, though the manufacture of Stockport has greatly increased during the +last eight or nine years. Similar improvements have now been made in +carding frames, by which one-half the operatives have been thrown out of +employment. In one factory improved frames have been set up, which have +thrown four hands out of eight out of work, besides which the employer +reduced the wages of the four retained from eight shillings to seven. The +same process has gone on in the weaving industry; the power-loom has +taken possession of one branch of hand-weaving after another, and since +it produces much more than the hand-loom, while one weaver can work two +looms, it has superseded a multitude of working-people. And in all sorts +of manufacture, in flax and wool-spinning, in silk-twisting, the case is +the same. The power-loom, too, is beginning to appropriate one branch +after another of wool and linen-weaving; in Rochdale alone, there are +more power than hand-looms in flannel and other wool-weaving branches. +The bourgeoisie usually replies to this, that improvements in machinery, +by decreasing the cost of production, supply finished goods at lower +prices, and that these reduced prices cause such an increase in +consumption that the unemployed operatives soon find full employment in +newly-founded factories. {136} The bourgeoisie is so far correct that +under certain conditions favourable for the general development of +manufacture, every reduction in price of goods _in which the raw material +is cheap_, greatly increases consumption, and gives rise to the building +of new factories; but every further word of the assertion is a lie. The +bourgeoisie ignores the fact that it takes years for these results of the +decrease in price to follow and for new factories to be built; it is +silent upon the point that every improvement in machinery throws the real +work, the expenditure of force, more and more upon the machine, and so +transforms the work of full-grown men into mere supervision, which a +feeble woman or even a child can do quite as well, and does for half or +two-thirds wages; that, therefore, grown men are constantly more and more +supplanted and _not re-employed_ by the increase in manufacture; it +conceals the fact that whole branches of industry fall away, or are so +changed that they must be learned afresh; and it takes good care not to +confess what it usually harps upon, whenever the question of forbidding +the work of children is broached, that factory-work must be learned in +earliest youth in order to be learned properly. It does not mention the +fact that the process of improvement goes steadily on, and that as soon +as the operative has succeeded in making himself at home in a new branch, +if he actually does succeed in so doing, this, too, is taken from him, +and with it the last remnant of security which remained to him for +winning his bread. But the bourgeoisie gets the benefit of the +improvements in machinery; it has a capital opportunity for piling up +money during the first years while many old machines are still in use, +and the improvement not yet universally introduced; and it would be too +much to ask that it should have an open eye for the disadvantages +inseparable from these improvements. + +The fact that improved machinery reduces wages has also been as violently +disputed by the bourgeoisie, as it is constantly reiterated by the +working-men. The bourgeoisie insists that although the price of piece- +work has been reduced, yet the total of wages for the week's work has +rather risen than fallen, and the condition of the operatives rather +improved than deteriorated. It is hard to get to the bottom of the +matter, for the operatives usually dwell upon the price of piece-work. +But it is certain that the weekly wage, also, has, in many branches of +work, been reduced by the improvement of machinery. The so-called fine +spinners (who spin fine mule yarn), for instance, do receive high wages, +thirty to forty shillings a week, because they have a powerful +association for keeping wages up, and their craft requires long training; +but the coarse spinners who have to compete against self-actors (which +are not as yet adapted for fine spinning), and whose association was +broken down by the introduction of these machines, receive very low +wages. A mule spinner told me that he does not earn more than fourteen +shillings a week, and his statement agrees with that of Leach, that in +various factories the coarse spinners earn less than sixteen shillings +and sixpence a week, and that a spinner, who years ago earned thirty +shillings, can now hardly scrape up twelve and a half, and had not earned +more on an average in the past year. The wages of women and children may +perhaps have fallen less, but only because they were not high from the +beginning. I know several women, widows with children, who have trouble +enough to earn eight to nine shillings a week; and that they and their +families cannot live decently upon that sum, every one must admit who +knows the price of the barest necessaries of life in England. That wages +in general have been reduced by the improvement of machinery is the +unanimous testimony of the operatives. The bourgeois assertion that the +condition of the working-class has been improved by machinery is most +vigorously proclaimed a falsehood in every meeting of working-men in the +factory districts. And even if it were true that the relative wage, the +price of piece-work only, has fallen, while the absolute wage, the sum to +be earned in the week, remained unchanged, what would follow? That the +operatives have had quietly to look on while the manufacturers filled +their purses from every improvement without giving the hands the smallest +share in the gain. The bourgeois forgets, in fighting the working-man, +the most ordinary principles of his own Political Economy. He who at +other times swears by Malthus, cries out in his anxiety before the +workers: "Where could the millions by which the population of England has +increased find work, without the improvements in machinery?" {138} As +though the bourgeois did not know well enough that without machinery and +the expansion of industry which it produced, these "millions" would never +have been brought into the world and grown up! The service which +machinery has rendered the workers is simply this: that it has brought +home to their minds the necessity of a social reform by means of which +machinery shall no longer work against but for them. Let the wise +bourgeois ask the people who sweep the streets in Manchester and +elsewhere (though even this is past now, since machines for the purpose +have been invented and introduced), or sell salt, matches, oranges, and +shoe-strings on the streets, or even beg, what they were formerly, and he +will see how many will answer: "Mill-hands thrown out of work by +machinery." The consequences of improvement in machinery under our +present social conditions are, for the working-man, solely injurious, and +often in the highest degree oppressive. Every new advance brings with it +loss of employment, want, and suffering, and in a country like England +where, without that, there is usually a "surplus population," to be +discharged from work is the worst that can befall the operative. And +what a dispiriting, unnerving influence this uncertainty of his position +in life, consequent upon the unceasing progress of machinery, must +exercise upon the worker, whose lot is precarious enough without it! To +escape despair, there are but two ways open to him; either inward and +outward revolt against the bourgeoisie or drunkenness and general +demoralisation. And the English operatives are accustomed to take refuge +in both. The history of the English proletariat relates hundreds of +uprisings against machinery and the bourgeoisie; we have already spoken +of the moral dissolution which, in itself, is only another form of +despair. + +The worst situation is that of those workers who have to compete against +a machine that is making its way. The price of the goods which they +produce adapts itself to the price of the kindred product of the machine, +and as the latter works more cheaply, its human competitor has but the +lowest wages. The same thing happens to every operative employed upon an +old machine in competition with later improvements. And who else is +there to bear the hardship? The manufacturer will not throw out his old +apparatus, nor will he sustain the loss upon it; out of the dead +mechanism he can make nothing, so he fastens upon the living worker, the +universal scapegoat of society. Of all the workers in competition with +machinery, the most ill-used are the hand-loom cotton weavers. They +receive the most trifling wages, and, with full work, are not in a +position to earn more than ten shillings a week. One class of woven +goods after another is annexed by the power-loom, and hand-weaving is the +last refuge of workers thrown out of employment in other branches, so +that the trade is always overcrowded. Hence it comes that, in average +seasons, the hand-weaver counts himself fortunate if he can earn six or +seven shillings a week, while to reach this sum he must sit at his loom +fourteen to eighteen hours a day. Most woven goods require moreover a +damp weaving-room, to keep the weft from snapping, and in part, for this +reason, in part because of their poverty, which prevents them from paying +for better dwellings, the workrooms of these weavers are usually without +wooden or paved floors. I have been in many dwellings of such weavers, +in remote, vile courts and alleys, usually in cellars. Often +half-a-dozen of these hand-loom weavers, several of them married, live +together in a cottage with one or two workrooms, and one large sleeping- +room. Their food consists almost exclusively of potatoes, with perhaps +oatmeal porridge, rarely milk, and scarcely ever meat. Great numbers of +them are Irish or of Irish descent. And these poor hand-loom weavers, +first to suffer from every crisis, and last to be relieved from it, must +serve the bourgeoisie as a handle in meeting attacks upon the factory +system. "See," cries the bourgeois, triumphantly, "see how these poor +creatures must famish, while the mill operatives are thriving, and _then_ +judge the factory {140} system!" As though it were not precisely the +factory system and the machinery belonging to it which had so shamefully +crushed the hand-loom weavers, and as though the bourgeoisie did not know +this quite as well as ourselves! But the bourgeoisie has interests at +stake, and so a falsehood or two and a bit of hypocrisy won't matter +much. + +Let us examine somewhat more closely the fact that machinery more and +more supersedes the work of men. The human labour, involved in both +spinning and weaving, consists chiefly in piecing broken threads, as the +machine does all the rest. This work requires no muscular strength, but +only flexibility of finger. Men are, therefore, not only not needed for +it, but actually, by reason of the greater muscular development of the +hand, less fit for it than women and children, and are, therefore, +naturally almost superseded by them. Hence, the more the use of the +arms, the expenditure of strength, can be transferred to steam or water- +power, the fewer men need be employed; and as women and children work +more cheaply, and in these branches better than men, they take their +places. In the spinning-mills women and girls are to be found in almost +exclusive possession of the throstles; among the mules one man, an adult +spinner (with self-actors, he, too, becomes superfluous), and several +piecers for tying the threads, usually children or women, sometimes young +men of from eighteen to twenty years, here and there an old spinner {141} +thrown out of other employment. At the power-looms women, from fifteen +to twenty years, are chiefly employed, and a few men; these, however, +rarely remain at this trade after their twenty-first year. Among the +preparatory machinery, too, women alone are to be found, with here and +there a man to clean and sharpen the carding-frames. Besides all these, +the factories employ numbers of children--doffers--for mounting and +taking down bobbins, and a few men as overlookers, a mechanic and an +engineer for the steam-engines, carpenters, porters, etc.; but the actual +work of the mills is done by women and children. This the manufacturers +deny. + +They published last year elaborate tables to prove that machinery does +not supersede adult male operatives. According to these tables, rather +more than half of all the factory-workers employed, _viz_., 52 per cent., +were females and 48 per cent. males, and of those operatives more than +half were over eighteen years old. So far, so good. But the +manufacturers are very careful not to tell us, how many of the adults +were men and how many women. And this is just the point. Besides this, +they have evidently counted the mechanics, engineers, carpenters, all the +men employed in any way in the factories, perhaps even the clerks, and +still they have not the courage to tell the whole truth. These +publications teem generally with falsehoods, perversions, crooked +statements, with calculations of averages, that prove a great deal for +the uninitiated reader and nothing for the initiated, and with +suppressions of facts bearing on the most important points; and they +prove only the selfish blindness and want of uprightness of the +manufacturers concerned. Let us take some of the statements of a speech +with which Lord Ashley introduced the Ten Hours' Bill, March 15th, 1844, +into the House of Commons. Here he gives some data as to the relations +of sex and age of the operatives, not yet refuted by the manufacturers, +whose statements, as quoted above, cover moreover only a part of the +manufacturing industry of England. Of 419,560 factory operatives of the +British Empire in 1839, 192,887, or nearly half, were under eighteen +years of age, and 242,296 of the female sex, of whom 112,192 were less +than eighteen years old. There remain, therefore, 80,695 male operatives +under eighteen years, and 96,569 adult male operatives, _or not one full +quarter_ of the whole number. In the cotton factories, 56.25 per cent.; +in the woollen mills, 69.5 per cent.; in the silk mills, 70.5 per cent.; +in the flax-spinning mills, 70.5 per cent. of all operatives are of the +female sex. These numbers suffice to prove the crowding out of adult +males. But you have only to go into the nearest mill to see the fact +confirmed. Hence follows of necessity that inversion of the existing +social order which, being forced upon them, has the most ruinous +consequences for the workers. The employment of women at once breaks up +the family; for when the wife spends twelve or thirteen hours every day +in the mill, and the husband works the same length of time there or +elsewhere, what becomes of the children? They grow up like wild weeds; +they are put out to nurse for a shilling or eighteenpence a week, and how +they are treated may be imagined. Hence the accidents to which little +children fall victims multiply in the factory districts to a terrible +extent. The lists of the Coroner of Manchester {143a} showed for nine +months: 69 deaths from burning, 56 from drowning, 23 from falling, 77 +from other causes, or a total of 225 {143b} deaths from accidents, while +in non-manufacturing Liverpool during twelve months there were but 146 +fatal accidents. The mining accidents are excluded in both cases; and +since the Coroner of Manchester has no authority in Salford, the +population of both places mentioned in the comparison is about the same. +The _Manchester Guardian_ reports one or more deaths by burning in almost +every number. That the general mortality among young children must be +increased by the employment of the mothers is self-evident, and is placed +beyond all doubt by notorious facts. Women often return to the mill +three or four days after confinement, leaving the baby, of course; in the +dinner hour they must hurry home to feed the child and eat something, and +what sort of suckling that can be is also evident. Lord Ashley repeats +the testimony of several workwomen: "M. H., twenty years old, has two +children, the youngest a baby, that is tended by the other, a little +older. The mother goes to the mill shortly after five o'clock in the +morning, and comes home at eight at night; all day the milk pours from +her breasts, so that her clothing drips with it." "H. W. has three +children, goes away Monday morning at five o'clock, and comes back +Saturday evening; has so much to do for the children then that she cannot +get to bed before three o'clock in the morning; often wet through to the +skin, and obliged to work in that state." She said: "My breasts have +given me the most frightful pain, and I have been dripping wet with +milk." The use of narcotics to keep the children still is fostered by +this infamous system, and has reached a great extent in the factory +districts. Dr. Johns, Registrar in Chief for Manchester, is of opinion +that this custom is the chief source of the many deaths from convulsions. +The employment of the wife dissolves the family utterly and of necessity, +and this dissolution, in our present society, which is based upon the +family, brings the most demoralising consequences for parents as well as +children. A mother who has no time to trouble herself about her child, +to perform the most ordinary loving services for it during its first +year, who scarcely indeed sees it, can be no real mother to the child, +must inevitably grow indifferent to it, treat it unlovingly like a +stranger. The children who grow up under such conditions are utterly +ruined for later family life, can never feel at home in the family which +they themselves found, because they have always been accustomed to +isolation, and they contribute therefore to the already general +undermining of the family in the working-class. A similar dissolution of +the family is brought about by the employment of the children. When they +get on far enough to earn more than they cost their parents from week to +week, they begin to pay the parents a fixed sum for board and lodging, +and keep the rest for themselves. This often happens from the fourteenth +or fifteenth year. {144} In a word, the children emancipate themselves, +and regard the paternal dwelling as a lodging-house, which they often +exchange for another, as suits them. + +In many cases the family is not wholly dissolved by the employment of the +wife, but turned upside down. The wife supports the family, the husband +sits at home, tends the children, sweeps the room and cooks. This case +happens very frequently; in Manchester alone, many hundred such men could +be cited, condemned to domestic occupations. It is easy to imagine the +wrath aroused among the working-men by this reversal of all relations +within the family, while the other social conditions remain unchanged. +There lies before me a letter from an English working-man, Robert +Pounder, Baron's Buildings, Woodhouse, Moorside, in Leeds (the +bourgeoisie may hunt him up there; I give the exact address for the +purpose), written by him to Oastler: {145} + +He relates how another working-man, being on tramp, came to St. Helens, +in Lancashire, and there looked up an old friend. He found him in a +miserable, damp cellar, scarcely furnished; and when my poor friend went +in, there sat poor Jack near the fire, and what did he, think you? why he +sat and mended his wife's stockings with the bodkin; and as soon as he +saw his old friend at the door-post, he tried to hide them. But Joe, +that is my friend's name, had seen it, and said: "Jack, what the devil +art thou doing? Where is the missus? Why, is that thy work?" and poor +Jack was ashamed, and said: "No, I know this is not my work, but my poor +missus is i' th' factory; she has to leave at half-past five and works +till eight at night, and then she is so knocked up that she cannot do +aught when she gets home, so I have to do everything for her what I can, +for I have no work, nor had any for more nor three years, and I shall +never have any more work while I live;" and then he wept a big tear. Jack +again said: "There is work enough for women folks and childer hereabouts, +but none for men; thou mayest sooner find a hundred pound on the road +than work for men--but I should never have believed that either thou or +any one else would have seen me mending my wife's stockings, for, it is +bad work. But she can hardly stand on her feet; I am afraid she will be +laid up, and then I don't know what is to become of us, for it's a good +bit that she has been the man in the house and I the woman; it is bad +work, Joe;" and he cried bitterly, and said, "It has not been always so." +"No," said Joe; "but when thou hadn't no work, how hast thou not +shifted?" "I'll tell thee, Joe, as well as I can, but it was bad enough; +thou knowest when I got married I had work plenty, and thou knows I was +not lazy." "No, that thou wert not." "And we had a good furnished +house, and Mary need not go to work. I could work for the two of us; but +now the world is upside down. Mary has to work and I have to stop at +home, mind the childer sweep and wash, bake and mend; and, when the poor +woman comes home at night, she is knocked up. Thou knows, Joe, it's hard +for one that was used different." "Yes, boy, it is hard." And then Jack +began to cry again, and he wished he had never married, and that he had +never been born; but he had never thought, when he wed Mary, that it +would come to this. "I have often cried over it," said Jack. Now when +Joe heard this, he told me that he had cursed and damned the factories, +and the masters, and the Government, with all the curses that he had +learned while he was in the factory from a child. + +Can any one imagine a more insane state of things than that described in +this letter? And yet this condition, which unsexes the man and takes +from the woman all womanliness without being able to bestow upon the man +true womanliness, or the woman true manliness--this condition which +degrades, in the most shameful way, both sexes, and, through them, +Humanity, is the last result of our much-praised civilisation, the final +achievement of all the efforts and struggles of hundreds of generations +to improve their own situation and that of their posterity. We must +either despair of mankind, and its aims and efforts, when we see all our +labour and toil result in such a mockery, or we must admit that human +society has hitherto sought salvation in a false direction; we must admit +that so total a reversal of the position of the sexes can have come to +pass only because the sexes have been placed in a false position from the +beginning. If the reign of the wife over the husband, as inevitably +brought about by the factory system, is inhuman, the pristine rule of the +husband over the wife must have been inhuman too. If the wife can now +base her supremacy upon the fact that she supplies the greater part, nay, +the whole of the common possession, the necessary inference is that this +community of possession is no true and rational one, since one member of +the family boasts offensively of contributing the greater share. If the +family of our present society is being thus dissolved, this dissolution +merely shows that, at bottom, the binding tie of this family was not +family affection, but private interest lurking under the cloak of a +pretended community of possessions. The same relation exists on the part +of those children who support unemployed parents {147a} when they do not +directly pay board as already referred to. Dr. Hawkins testified in the +Factories' Inquiry Commission's Report that this relation is common +enough, and in Manchester it is notorious. In this case the children are +the masters in the house, as the wife was in the former case, and Lord +Ashley gives an example of this in his speech: {147b} A man berated his +two daughters for going to the public house, and they answered that they +were tired of being ordered about, saying, "Damn you, we have to keep +you!" Determined to keep the proceeds of their work for themselves, they +left the family dwelling, and abandoned their parents to their fate. + +The unmarried women, who have grown up in mills, are no better off than +the married ones. It is self-evident that a girl who has worked in a +mill from her ninth year is in no position to understand domestic work, +whence it follows that female operatives prove wholly inexperienced and +unfit as housekeepers. They cannot knit or sew, cook or wash, are +unacquainted with the most ordinary duties of a housekeeper, and when +they have young children to take care of, have not the vaguest idea how +to set about it. The Factories' Inquiry Commission's Report gives dozens +of examples of this, and Dr. Hawkins, Commissioner for Lancashire, +expresses his opinion as follows: {147c} + + "The girls marry early and recklessly; they have neither means, time, + nor opportunity to learn the ordinary duties of household life; but if + they had them all, they would find no time in married life for the + performance of these duties. The mother is more than twelve hours + away from her child daily; the baby is cared for by a young girl or an + old woman, to whom it is given to nurse. Besides this, the dwelling + of the mill-hands is too often no home but a cellar, which contains no + cooking or washing utensils, no sewing or mending materials, nothing + which makes life agreeable and civilised, or the domestic hearth + attractive. For these and other reasons, and especially for the sake + of the better chances of life for the little children, I can but wish + and hope that a time may come in which married women will be shut out + of the factories." {148a} + +But that is the least of the evil. The moral consequences of the +employment of women in factories are even worse. The collecting of +persons of both sexes and all ages in a single workroom, the inevitable +contact, the crowding into a small space of people, to whom neither +mental nor moral education has been given, is not calculated for the +favourable development of the female character. The manufacturer, if he +pays any attention to the matter, can interfere only when something +scandalous actually happens; the permanent, less conspicuous influence of +persons of dissolute character, upon the more moral, and especially upon +the younger ones, he cannot ascertain, and consequently cannot prevent. +But precisely this influence is the most injurious. The language used in +the mills is characterised by many witnesses in the report of 1833, as +"indecent," "bad," "filthy," etc. {148b} It is the same process upon a +small scale which we have already witnessed upon a large one in the great +cities. The centralisation of population has the same influence upon the +same persons, whether it affects them in a great city or a small factory. +The smaller the mill the closer the packing, and the more unavoidable the +contact; and the consequences are not wanting. A witness in Leicester +said that he would rather let his daughter beg than go into a factory; +that they are perfect gates of hell; that most of the prostitutes of the +town had their employment in the mills to thank for their present +situation. {148c} Another, in Manchester, "did not hesitate to assert +that three-fourths of the young factory employees, from fourteen to +twenty years of age, were unchaste." {149a} Commissioner Cowell +expresses it as his opinion, that the morality of the factory operatives +is somewhat below the average of that of the working-class in general. +{149b} And Dr. Hawkins {149c} says: + + "An estimate of sexual morality cannot readily be reduced to figures; + but if I may trust my own observations and the general opinion of + those with whom I have spoken, as well as the whole tenor of the + testimony furnished me, the aspect of the influence of factory life + upon the morality of the youthful female population is most + depressing." + +It is, besides, a matter of course that factory servitude, like any +other, and to an even higher degree, confers the _jus primae noctis_ upon +the master. In this respect also the employer is sovereign over the +persons and charms of his employees. The threat of discharge suffices to +overcome all resistance in nine cases out of ten, if not in ninety-nine +out of a hundred, in girls who, in any case, have no strong inducements +to chastity. If the master is mean enough, and the official report +mentions several such cases, his mill is also his harem; and the fact +that not all manufacturers use their power, does not in the least change +the position of the girls. In the beginning of manufacturing industry, +when most of the employers were upstarts without education or +consideration for the hypocrisy of society, they let nothing interfere +with the exercise of their vested rights. + +To form a correct judgment of the influence of factory-work upon the +health of the female sex, it is necessary first to consider the work of +children, and then the nature of the work itself. From the beginning of +manufacturing industry, children have been employed in mills, at first +almost exclusively by reason of the smallness of the machines, which were +later enlarged. Even children from the workhouses were employed in +multitudes, being rented out for a number of years to the manufacturers +as apprentices. They were lodged, fed, and clothed in common, and were, +of course, completely the slaves of their masters, by whom they were +treated with the utmost recklessness and barbarity. As early as 1796, +the public objection to this revolting system found such vigorous +expression through Dr. Percival and Sir Robert Peel (father of the +Cabinet Minister, and himself a cotton manufacturer), that in 1802 +Parliament passed an Apprentices' Bill, by which the most crying evils +were removed. Gradually the increasing competition of free workpeople +crowded out the whole apprentice system; factories were built in cities, +machinery was constructed on a larger scale, and workrooms were made more +airy and wholesome; gradually, too, more work was found for adults and +young persons. The number of children in the mills diminished somewhat, +and the age at which they began to work rose a little; few children under +eight or nine years were now employed. Later, as we shall see, the power +of the State intervened several times to protect them from the +money-greed of the bourgeoisie. + +The great mortality among children of the working-class, and especially +among those of the factory operatives, is proof enough of the unwholesome +conditions under which they pass their first year. These influences are +at work, of course, among the children who survive, but not quite so +powerfully as upon those who succumb. The result in the most favourable +case is a tendency to disease, or some check in development, and +consequent less than normal vigour of the constitution. A nine years old +child of a factory operative that has grown up in want, privation, and +changing conditions, in cold and damp, with insufficient clothing and +unwholesome dwellings, is far from having the working force of a child +brought up under healthier conditions. At nine years of age it is sent +into the mill to work 6.5 hours (formerly 8, earlier still, 12 to 14, +even 16 hours) daily, until the thirteenth year; then twelve hours until +the eighteenth year. The old enfeebling influences continue, while the +work is added to them. It is not to be denied that a child of nine +years, even an operative's child, can hold out through 6.5 hours' daily +work, without any one being able to trace visible bad results in its +development directly to this cause; but in no case can its presence in +the damp, heavy air of the factory, often at once warm and wet, +contribute to good health; and, in any case, it is unpardonable to +sacrifice to the greed of an unfeeling bourgeoisie the time of children +which should be devoted solely to their physical and mental development, +withdraw them from school and the fresh air, in order to wear them out +for the benefit of the manufacturers. The bourgeoisie says: "If we do +not employ the children in the mills, they only remain under conditions +unfavourable to their development;" and this is true, on the whole. But +what does this mean if it is not a confession that the bourgeoisie first +places the children of the working-class under unfavourable conditions, +and then exploits these bad conditions for its own benefit, appeals to +that which is as much its own fault as the factory system, excuses the +sin of to-day with the sin of yesterday? And if the Factory Act did not +in some measure fetter their hands, how this "humane," this "benevolent" +bourgeoisie, which has built its factories solely for the good of the +working-class, would take care of the interests of these workers! Let us +hear how they acted before the factory inspector was at their heels. +Their own admitted testimony shall convict them in the report of the +Factories' Inquiry Commission of 1833. + +The report of the Central Commission relates that the manufacturers began +to employ children rarely of five years, often of six, very often of +seven, usually of eight to nine years; that the working-day often lasted +fourteen to sixteen hours, exclusive of meals and intervals; that the +manufacturers permitted overlookers to flog and maltreat children, and +often took an active part in so doing themselves. One case is related of +a Scotch manufacturer, who rode after a sixteen years old runaway, forced +him to return running after the employer as fast as the master's horse +trotted, and beat him the whole way with a long whip. {151} In the large +towns where the operatives resisted more vigorously, such things +naturally happened less often. But even this long working-day failed to +satisfy the greed of the capitalists. Their aim was to make the capital +invested in the building and machinery produce the highest return, by +every available means, to make it work as actively as possible. Hence +the manufacturers introduced the shameful system of night-work. Some of +them employed two sets of operatives, each numerous enough to fill the +whole mill, and let one set work the twelve hours of the day, and the +other twelve hours of the night. It is needless to picture the effect +upon the frames of young children, and even upon the health of young +persons and adults, produced by permanent loss of sleep at night, which +cannot be made good by any amount of sleep during the day. Irritation of +the whole nervous system, with general lassitude and enfeeblement of the +entire frame, were the inevitable results, with the fostering of +temptation to drunkenness and unbridled sexual indulgence. One +manufacturer testifies {152a} that during the two years in which night- +work was carried on in his factory, the number of illegitimate children +born was doubled, and such general demoralisation prevailed that he was +obliged to give up night-work. Other manufacturers were yet more +barbarous, requiring many hands to work thirty to forty hours at a +stretch, several times a week, letting them get a couple of hours sleep +only, because the night-shift was not complete, but calculated to replace +a part of the operatives only. + +The reports of the Commission touching this barbarism surpass everything +that is known to me in this line. Such infamies, as are here related, +are nowhere else to be found--yet we shall see that the bourgeoisie +constantly appeals to the testimony of the Commission as being in its own +favour. The consequences of these cruelties became evident quickly +enough. The Commissioners mention a crowd of cripples who appeared +before them, who clearly owed their distortion to the long working-hours. +This distortion usually consists of a curving of the spinal column and +legs, and is described as follows by Francis Sharp, M.R.C.S., of Leeds: +{152b} + + "I never saw the peculiar bending of the lower ends of the thigh bones + before I came to Leeds. At first I thought it was rachitis, but I was + soon led to change my opinion in consequence of the mass of patients + who presented themselves at the hospital, and the appearances of the + disease at an age (from the fourteenth to the eighteenth year) in + which children are usually not subject to rachitis, as well as by the + circumstance that the malady had first appeared after children began + to work in the mills. Thus far I have seen about a hundred such + cases, and can, most decidedly, express the opinion that they are the + consequences of overwork. So far as I know they were all mill + children, and themselves attributed the evil to this cause. The + number of cases of curvature of the spine which have fallen under my + observation, and which were evidently consequent upon too protracted + standing, was not less than three hundred." + +Precisely similar is the testimony of Dr. Ray, for eighteen years +physician in the hospital in Leeds: {153a} + + "Malformations of the spine are very frequent among mill-hands; some + of them consequent upon mere overwork, others the effect of long work + upon constitutions originally feeble, or weakened by bad food. + Deformities seem even more frequent than these diseases; the knees + were bent inward, the ligaments very often relaxed and enfeebled, and + the long bones of the legs bent. The thick ends of these long bones + were especially apt to be bent and disproportionately developed, and + these patients came from the factories in which long work-hours were + of frequent occurrence." + +Surgeons Beaumont and Sharp, of Bradford, bear the same testimony. The +reports of Drinkwater, Power, and Dr. Loudon contain a multitude of +examples of such distortions, and those of Tufnell and Sir David Barry, +which are less directed to this point, give single examples. {153b} The +Commissioners for Lancashire, Cowell, Tufnell, and Hawkins, have almost +wholly neglected this aspect of the physiological results of the factory +system, though this district rivals Yorkshire in the number of cripples. +I have seldom traversed Manchester without meeting three or four of them, +suffering from precisely the same distortions of the spinal columns and +legs as that described, and I have often been able to observe them +closely. I know one personally who corresponds exactly with the +foregoing description of Dr. Ray, and who got into this condition in Mr. +Douglas' factory in Pendleton, an establishment which enjoys an +unenviable notoriety among the operatives by reason of the former long +working periods continued night after night. It is evident, at a glance, +whence the distortions of these cripples come; they all look exactly +alike. The knees are bent inward and backwards, the ankles deformed and +thick, and the spinal column often bent forwards or to one side. But the +crown belongs to the philanthropic manufacturers of the Macclesfield silk +district. They employed the youngest children of all, even from five to +six years of age. In the supplementary testimony of Commissioner +Tufnell, I find the statement of a certain factory manager Wright, both +of whose sisters were most shamefully crippled, and who had once counted +the cripples in several streets, some of them the cleanest and neatest +streets of Macclesfield. He found in Townley Street ten, George Street +five, Charlotte Street four, Watercots fifteen, Bank Top three, Lord +Street seven, Mill Lane twelve, Great George Street two, in the workhouse +two, Park Green one, Peckford Street two, whose families all unanimously +declared that the cripples had become such in consequence of overwork in +the silk-twisting mills. One boy is mentioned so crippled as not to be +able to go upstairs, and girls deformed in back and hips. + +Other deformities also have proceeded from this overwork, especially +flattening of the foot, which Sir D. Barry {154a} frequently observed, as +did the physicians and surgeons in Leeds. {154b} In cases, in which a +stronger constitution, better food, and other more favourable +circumstances enabled the young operative to resist this effect of a +barbarous exploitation, we find, at least, pain in the back, hips, and +legs, swollen joints, varicose veins, and large, persistent ulcers in the +thighs and calves. These affections are almost universal among the +operatives. The reports of Stuart, Mackintosh, and Sir D. Barry contain +hundreds of examples; indeed, they know almost no operative who did not +suffer from some of these affections; and in the remaining reports, the +occurrence of the same phenomena is attested by many physicians. The +reports covering Scotland place it beyond all doubt, that a working-day +of thirteen hours, even for men and women from eighteen to twenty-two +years of age, produces at least these consequences, both in the +flax-spinning mills of Dundee and Dunfermline, and in the cotton mills of +Glasgow and Lanark. + +All these affections are easily explained by the nature of factory-work, +which is, as the manufacturers say, very "light," and precisely by reason +of its lightness, more enervating than any other. The operatives have +little to do, but must stand the whole time. Any one who sits down, say +upon a window-ledge or a basket, is fined, and this perpetual upright +position, this constant mechanical pressure of the upper portions of the +body upon spinal column, hips, and legs, inevitably produces the results +mentioned. This standing is not required by the work itself, and at +Nottingham chairs have been introduced, with the result that these +affections disappeared, and the operatives ceased to object to the length +of the working-day. But in a factory where the operative works solely +for the bourgeois, and has small interest in doing his work well, he +would probably use the seats more than would be agreeable and profitable +to the manufacturer; and in order that somewhat less raw material may be +spoiled for the bourgeois, the operative must sacrifice health and +strength. {155} This long protracted upright position, with the bad +atmosphere prevalent in the mills, entails, besides the deformities +mentioned, a marked relaxation of all vital energies, and, in +consequence, all sorts of other affections general rather than local. The +atmosphere of the factories is, as a rule, at once damp and warm, +unusually warmer than is necessary, and, when the ventilation is not +_very_ good, impure, heavy, deficient in oxygen, filled with dust and the +smell of the machine oil, which almost everywhere smears the floor, sinks +into it, and becomes rancid. The operatives are lightly clad by reason +of the warmth, and would readily take cold in case of irregularity of the +temperature; a draught is distasteful to them, the general enervation +which gradually takes possession of all the physical functions diminishes +the animal warmth: this must be replaced from without, and nothing is +therefore more agreeable to the operative than to have all the doors and +windows closed, and to stay in his warm factory-air. Then comes the +sudden change of temperature on going out into the cold and wet or frosty +atmosphere, without the means of protection from the rain, or of changing +wet clothing for dry, a circumstance which perpetually produces colds. +And when one reflects that, with all this, not one single muscle of the +body is really exercised, really called into activity, except perhaps +those of the legs; that nothing whatsoever counteracts the enervating, +relaxing tendency of all these conditions; that every influence is +wanting which might give the muscles strength, the fibres elasticity and +consistency; that from youth up, the operative is deprived of all fresh +air recreation, it is impossible to wonder at the almost unanimous +testimony of the physicians in the Factories' Report, that they find a +great lack of ability to resist disease, a general depression in vital +activity, a constant relaxation of the mental and physical powers. Let +us hear Sir D. Barry first: {156} + + "The unfavourable influences of mill-work upon the hands are the + following: (1) The inevitable necessity of forcing their mental and + bodily effort to keep pace with a machine moved by a uniform and + unceasing motive power. (2) Continuance in an upright position during + unnaturally long and quickly recurring periods. (3) Loss of sleep in + consequence of too long working-hours, pain in the legs, and general + physical derangement. To these are often added low, crowded, dusty, + or damp workrooms, impure air, a high temperature, and constant + perspiration. Hence the boys especially very soon and with but few + exceptions, lose the rosy freshness of childhood, and become paler and + thinner than other boys. Even the hand-weaver's bound boy, who sits + before his loom with his bare feet resting upon the clay-floor, + retains a fresher appearance, because he occasionally goes into the + fresh air for a time. But the mill child has not a moment free except + for meals, and never goes into the fresh air except on its way to + them. All adult male spinners are pale and thin, suffer from + capricious appetite and indigestion; and as they are all trained in + the mills from their youth up, and there are very few tall, athletic + men among them, the conclusion is justified that their occupation is + very unfavourable for the development of the male constitution; + females bear this work far better." (Very naturally. But we shall + see that they have their own diseases.) + +So, too, Power: {157a} + + "I can bear witness that the factory system in Bradford has engendered + a multitude of cripples, and that the effect of long continued labour + upon the physique is apparent, not alone in actual deformity, but + also, and much more generally, in stunted growth, relaxation of the + muscles, and delicacy of the whole frame." + +So, too, F. Sharp, in Leeds, the surgeon {157b} already quoted: + + "When I moved from Scarborough to Leeds, I was at once struck by the + fact that the general appearance of the children was much paler, and + their fibre less vigorous here than in Scarborough and its environs. I + saw, too, that many children were exceptionally small for their age. I + have met with numberless cases of scrofula, lung trouble, mesenteric + affections, and indigestion, concerning which I, as a medical man, + have no doubt that they arose from mill work. I believe that the + nervous energy of the body is weakened by the long hours, and the + foundation of many diseases laid. If people from the country were not + constantly coming in, the race of mill-hands would soon be wholly + degenerate." + +So, too, Beaumont, surgeon in Bradford: + + "To my thinking, the system, according to which work is done in the + mills here, produces a peculiar relaxation of the whole organism, and + thereby makes children in the highest degree susceptible to epidemic, + as well as to incidental illness. I regard the absence of all + appropriate regulations for ventilation and cleanliness in the mills + very decidedly as the chief cause of that peculiar tendency or + susceptibility to morbid affections which I have so frequently met in + my practice." + +Similar testimony is borne by Dr. Ray: + + (1) "I have had opportunity of observing the effects of the factory + system upon the health of children under the most favourable + circumstances (in Wood's mill, in Bradford, the best arranged of the + district, in which he was factory surgeon). (2) These effects are + decidedly, and to a very great extent, injurious, even under these + most favourable circumstances. (3) In the year 1842, three-fifths of + all the children employed in Wood's mill were treated by me. (4) The + worst effect is not the predominance of deformities, but of enfeebled + and morbid constitutions. (5) All this is greatly improved since the + working-hours of children have been reduced at Wood's to ten." + +The Commissioner, Dr. Loudon himself, who cites these witnesses, says: + + "In conclusion, I think it has been clearly proved that children have + been worked a most unreasonable and cruel length 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. The consequence is + that many have died prematurely, and others are afflicted for life + with defective constitutions, and the fear of a posterity enfeebled by + the shattered constitution of the survivors is but too well founded, + from a physiological point of view." + +And, finally, Dr. Hawkins, in speaking of Manchester: + + "I believe that most travellers are struck by the lowness of stature, + the leanness and the paleness which present themselves so commonly to + the eye at Manchester, and above all, among the factory classes. I + have never been in any town in Great Britain, nor in Europe, in which + degeneracy of form and colour from the national standard has been so + obvious. Among the married women all the characteristic peculiarities + of the English wife are conspicuously wanting. I must confess that + all the boys and girls brought before me from the Manchester mills had + a depressed appearance, and were very pale. In the expression of + their faces lay nothing of the usual mobility, liveliness, and + cheeriness of youth. Many of them told me that they felt not the + slightest inclination to play out of doors on Saturday and Sunday, but + preferred to be quiet at home." + +I add, at once, another passage of Hawkins' report, which only half +belongs here, but may be quoted here as well as anywhere else: + + "Intemperance, excess, and want of providence are the chief faults of + the factory population, and these evils may be readily traced to the + habits which are formed under the present system, and almost + inevitably arise from it. It is universally admitted that + indigestion, hypochondria, and general debility affect this class to a + very great extent. After twelve hours of monotonous toil, it is but + natural to look about for a stimulant of one sort or another; but when + the above-mentioned diseased conditions are added to the customary + weariness, people will quickly and repeatedly take refuge in + spirituous liquors." + +For all this testimony of the physicians and commissioners, the report +itself offers hundreds of cases of proof. That the growth of young +operatives is stunted, by their work, hundreds of statements testify; +among others, Cowell gives the weight of 46 youths of 17 years of age, +from one Sunday school, of whom 26 employed in mills, averaged 104.5 +pounds, and 20 not employed in mills, 117.7 pounds. One of the largest +manufacturers of Manchester, leader of the opposition against the working- +men, I think Robert Hyde Greg himself, said, on one occasion, that if +things went on as at present, the operatives of Lancashire would soon be +a race of pigmies. {159a} A recruiting officer {159b} testified that +operatives are little adapted for military service, looked thin and +nervous, and were frequently rejected by the surgeons as unfit. In +Manchester he could hardly get men of five feet eight inches; they were +usually only five feet six to seven, whereas in the agricultural +districts, most of the recruits were five feet eight. + +The men wear out very early in consequence of the conditions under which +they live and work. Most of them are unfit for work at forty years, a +few hold out to forty-five, almost none to fifty years of age. This is +caused not only by the general enfeeblement of the frame, but also very +often by a failure of the sight, which is a result of mule-spinning, in +which the operative is obliged to fix his gaze upon a long row of fine, +parallel threads, and so greatly to strain the sight. + +Of 1,600 operatives employed in several factories in Harpur and Lanark, +but 10 were over 45 years of age; of 22,094 operatives in diverse +factories in Stockport and Manchester, but 143 were over 45 years old. Of +these 143, 16 were retained as a special favour, and one was doing the +work of a child. A list of 131 spinners contained but seven over 45 +years, and yet the whole 131 were rejected by the manufacturers, to whom +they applied for work, as "too old," and were without means of support by +reason of old age! Mr. Ashworth, a large manufacturer, admits in a +letter to Lord Ashley, that, towards the fortieth year, the spinners can +no longer prepare the required quantity of yarn, and are therefore +"sometimes" discharged; he calls operatives forty years of age "old +people!" Commissioner Mackintosh expresses himself in the same way in +the report of 1833: + + "Although I was prepared for it from the way the children are + employed, I still found it difficult to believe the statements of the + older hands as to their ages; they age so very early." + +Surgeon Smellie, of Glasgow, who treated operatives chiefly, says that +forty years is old age for them. {160a} And similar evidence may be +found elsewhere. {160b} In Manchester, this premature old age among the +operatives is so universal that almost every man of forty would be taken +for ten to fifteen years older, while the prosperous classes, men as well +as women, preserve their appearance exceedingly well if they do not drink +too heavily. + +The influence of factory-work upon the female physique also is marked and +peculiar. The deformities entailed by long hours of work are much more +serious among women. Protracted work frequently causes deformities of +the pelvis, partly in the shape of abnormal position and development of +the hip bones, partly of malformation of the lower portion of the spinal +column. + + "Although," says Dr. Loudon, in his report, "no example of + malformation of the pelvis and of some other affections came under my + notice, these things are nevertheless so common, that every physician + must regard them as probable consequences of such working-hours, and + as vouched for besides by men of the highest medical credibility." + +That factory operatives undergo more difficult confinement than other +women is testified to by several midwives and accoucheurs, and also that +they are more liable to miscarriage. {161} Moreover, they suffer from +the general enfeeblement common to all operatives, and, when pregnant, +continue to work in the factory up to the hour of delivery, because +otherwise they lose their wages and are made to fear that they may be +replaced if they stop away too soon. It frequently happens that women +are at work one evening and delivered the next morning, and the case is +none too rare of their being delivered in the factory among the +machinery. And if the gentlemen of the bourgeoisie find nothing +particularly shocking in this, their wives will perhaps admit that it is +a piece of cruelty, an infamous act of barbarism, indirectly to force a +pregnant woman to work twelve or thirteen hours daily (formerly still +longer), up to the day of her delivery, in a standing position, with +frequent stoopings. But this is not all. If these women are not obliged +to resume work within two weeks, they are thankful, and count themselves +fortunate. Many come back to the factory after eight, and even after +three to four days, to resume full work. I once heard a manufacturer ask +an overlooker: "Is so and so not back yet?" "No." "How long since she +was confined?" "A week." "She might surely have been back long ago. +That one over there only stays three days." Naturally, fear of being +discharged, dread of starvation drives her to the factory in spite of her +weakness, in defiance of her pain. The interest of the manufacturer will +not brook that his employees stay at home by reason of illness; they must +not be ill, they must not venture to lie still through a long +confinement, or he must stop his machinery or trouble his supreme head +with a temporary change of arrangements, and rather than do this, he +discharges his people when they begin to be ill. Listen: {162a} + + "A girl feels very ill, can scarcely do her work. Why does she not + ask permission to go home? Ah! the master is very particular, and if + we are away half a day, we risk being sent away altogether." + +Or Sir D. Barry: {162b} + + "Thomas McDurt, workman, has slight fever. Cannot stay at home longer + than four days, because he would fear of losing his place." + +And so it goes on in almost all the factories. The employment of young +girls produces all sorts of irregularities during the period of +development. In some, especially those who are better fed, the heat of +the factories hastens this process, so that in single cases, girls of +thirteen and fourteen are wholly mature. Robertson, whom I have already +cited (mentioned in the Factories' Inquiry Commission's Report as the +"eminent" gynaecologist of Manchester), relates in the North of England +_Medical and Surgical Journal_, that he had seen a girl of eleven years +who was not only a wholly developed woman, but pregnant, and that it was +by no means rare in Manchester for women to be confined at fifteen years +of age. In such cases, the influence of the warmth of the factories is +the same as that of a tropical climate, and, as in such climates, the +abnormally early development revenges itself by correspondingly premature +age and debility. On the other hand, retarded development of the female +constitution occurs, the breasts mature late or not at all. {162c} +Menstruation first appears in the seventeenth or Eighteenth, sometimes in +the twentieth year, and is often wholly wanting. {163a} Irregular +menstruation, coupled with great pain and numerous affections, especially +with anaemia, is very frequent, as the medical reports unanimously state. + +Children of such mothers, particularly of those who are obliged to work +during pregnancy, cannot be vigorous. They are, on the contrary, +described in the report, especially in Manchester, as very feeble; and +Barry alone asserts that they are healthy, but says further, that in +Scotland, where his inspection lay, almost no married women worked in +factories. Moreover, most of the factories there are in the country +(with the exception of Glasgow), a circumstance which contributes greatly +to the invigoration of the children. The operatives' children in the +neighbourhood of Manchester are nearly all thriving and rosy, while those +within the city look pale and scrofulous; but with the ninth year the +colour vanishes suddenly, because all are then sent into the factories, +when it soon becomes impossible to distinguish the country from the city +children. + +But besides all this, there are some branches of factory-work which have +an especially injurious effect. In many rooms of the cotton and flax- +spinning mills, the air is filled with fibrous dust, which produces chest +affections, especially among workers in the carding and combing-rooms. +Some constitutions can bear it, some cannot; but the operative has no +choice. He must take the room in which he finds work, whether his chest +is sound or not. The most common effects of this breathing of dust are +blood-spitting, hard, noisy breathing, pains in the chest, coughs, +sleeplessness--in short, all the symptoms of asthma ending in the worst +cases in consumption. {163b} Especially unwholesome is the wet spinning +of linen-yarn which is carried on by young girls and boys. The water +spirts over them from the spindle, so that the front of their clothing is +constantly wet through to the skin; and there is always water standing on +the floor. This is the case to a less degree in the doubling-rooms of +the cotton mills, and the result is a constant succession of colds and +affections of the chest. A hoarse, rough voice is common to all +operatives, but especially to wet spinners and doublers. Stuart, +Mackintosh, and Sir D. Barry express themselves in the most vigorous +terms as to the unwholesomeness of this work, and the small consideration +shown by most of the manufacturers for the health of the girls who do it. +Another effect of flax-spinning is a peculiar deformity of the shoulder, +especially a projection of the right shoulder-blade, consequent upon the +nature of the work. This sort of spinning and the throstle-spinning of +cotton frequently produce diseases of the knee-pan, which is used to +check the spindle during the joining of broken threads. The frequent +stooping and the bending to the low machines common to both these +branches of work have, in general, a stunting effect upon the growth of +the operative. In the throstle-room of the cotton mill at Manchester, in +which I was employed, I do not remember to have seen one single tall, +well-built girl; they were all short, dumpy, and badly-formed, decidedly +ugly in the whole development of the figure. But apart from all these +diseases and malformations, the limbs of the operatives suffer in still +another way. The work between the machinery gives rise to multitudes of +accidents of more or less serious nature, which have for the operative +the secondary effect of unfitting him for his work more or less +completely. The most common accident is the squeezing off of a single +joint of a finger, somewhat less common the loss of the whole finger, +half or a whole hand, an arm, etc., in the machinery. Lockjaw very often +follows, even upon the lesser among these injuries, and brings death with +it. Besides the deformed persons, a great number of maimed ones may be +seen going about in Manchester; this one has lost an arm or a part of +one, that one a foot, the third half a leg; it is like living in the +midst of an army just returned from a campaign. But the most dangerous +portion of the machinery is the strapping which conveys motive power from +the shaft to the separate machines, especially if it contains buckles, +which, however, are rarely used now. Whoever is seized by the strap is +carried up with lightning speed, thrown against the ceiling above and +floor below with such force that there is rarely a whole bone left in the +body, and death follows instantly. Between June 12th and August 3rd, +1843, the _Manchester Guardian_ reported the following serious accidents +(the trifling ones it does not notice): June 12th, a boy died in +Manchester of lockjaw, caused by his hand being crushed between wheels. +June 16th, a youth in Saddleworth seized by a wheel and carried away with +it; died, utterly mangled. June 29th, a young man at Green Acres Moor, +near Manchester, at work in a machine shop, fell under the grindstone, +which broke two of his ribs and lacerated him terribly. July 24th, a +girl in Oldham died, carried around fifty times by a strap; no bone +unbroken. July 27th, a girl in Manchester seized by the blower (the +first machine that receives the raw cotton), and died of injuries +received. August 3rd, a bobbins turner died in Dukenfield, caught in a +strap, every rib broken. In the year 1843, the Manchester Infirmary +treated 962 cases of wounds and mutilations caused by machinery, while +the number of all other accidents within the district of the hospital was +2,426, so that for five accidents from all other causes, two were caused +by machinery. The accidents which happened in Salford are not included +here, nor those treated by surgeons in private practice. In such cases, +whether or not the accident unfits the victim for further work, the +employer, at best, pays the doctor, or, in very exceptional cases, he may +pay wages during treatment; what becomes of the operative afterwards, in +case he cannot work, is no concern of the employer. + +The Factory Report says on this subject, that employers must be made +responsible for all cases, since children cannot take care, and adults +will take care in their own interest. But the gentlemen who write the +report are bourgeois, and so they must contradict themselves and bring up +later all sorts of bosh on the subject of the culpable temerity of the +operatives. + +The state of the case is this: If children cannot take care, the +employment of children must be forbidden. If adults are reckless, they +must be mere over-grown children on a plane of intelligence which does +not enable them to appreciate the danger in its full scope; and who is to +blame for this but the bourgeoisie which keeps them in a condition in +which their intelligence cannot develop? Or the machinery is +ill-arranged, and must be surrounded with fencing, to supply which falls +to the share of the bourgeoisie. Or the operative is under inducements +which outweigh the threatened danger; he must work rapidly to earn his +wages, has no time to take care, and for this, too, the bourgeoisie is to +blame. Many accidents happen, for instance, while the operatives are +cleaning machinery in motion. Why? Because the bourgeois would +otherwise oblige the worker to clean the machinery during the free hours +while it is not going, and the worker naturally is not disposed to +sacrifice any part of his free time. Every free hour is so precious to +the worker that he often risks his life twice a week rather than +sacrifice one of them to the bourgeois. Let the employer take from +working-hours the time required for cleaning the machinery, and it will +never again occur to an operative to clean machinery in motion. In +short, from whatever point of view, the blame falls ultimately on the +manufacturer, and of him should be required, at the very least, life-long +support of the incapacitated operative, and support of the victim's +family in case death follows the accident. In the earliest period of +manufacture, the accidents were much more numerous in proportion than +now, for the machinery was inferior, smaller, more crowded, and almost +never fenced. But the number is still large enough, as the foregoing +cases prove, to arouse grave question as to a state of things which +permits so many deformities and mutilations for the benefit of a single +class, and plunges so many industrious working-people into want and +starvation by reason of injuries undergone in the service and through the +fault of the bourgeoisie. + +A pretty list of diseases engendered purely by the hateful money greed of +the manufacturers! Women made unfit for childbearing, children deformed, +men enfeebled, limbs crushed, whole generations wrecked, afflicted with +disease and infirmity, purely to fill the purses of the bourgeoisie. And +when one reads of the barbarism of single cases, how children are seized +naked in bed by the overlookers, and driven with blows and kicks to the +factory, their clothing over their arms, {167a} how their sleepiness is +driven off with blows, how they fall asleep over their work nevertheless, +how one poor child sprang up, still asleep, at the call of the +overlooker, and mechanically went through the operations of its work +after its machine was stopped; when one reads how children, too tired to +go home, hide away in the wool in the drying-room to sleep there, and +could only be driven out of the factory with straps; how many hundreds +came home so tired every night, that they could eat no supper for +sleepiness and want of appetite, that their parents found them kneeling +by the bedside, where they had fallen asleep during their prayers; when +one reads all this and a hundred other villainies and infamies in this +one report, all testified to on oath, confirmed by several witnesses, +deposed by men whom the commissioners themselves declare trustworthy; +when one reflects that this is a Liberal report, a bourgeois report, made +for the purpose of reversing the previous Tory report, and rehabilitating +the pureness of heart of the manufacturers, that the commissioners +themselves are on the side of the bourgeoisie, and report all these +things against their own will, how can one be otherwise than filled with +wrath and resentment against a class which boasts of philanthropy and +self-sacrifice, while its one object is to fill its purse _a tout prix_? +Meanwhile, let us listen to the bourgeoisie speaking through the mouth of +its chosen apostle, Dr. Ure, who relates in his "Philosophy of +Manufactures" {167b} that the workers have been told that their wages +bore no proportion to their sacrifices, the good understanding between +masters and men being thus disturbed. Instead of this, the working-men +should have striven to recommend themselves by attention and industry, +and should have rejoiced in the prosperity of their masters. They would +then become overseers, superintendents, and finally partners, and would +thus--(Oh! Wisdom, thou speakest as the dove!)--"have increased at the +same time the demand for their companions' labour in the market!" + + "Had it not been for the violent collisions and interruptions + resulting from erroneous views among the operatives, the factory + system would have been developed still more rapidly and beneficially." + {168a} + +Hereupon follows a long Jeremiad upon the spirit of resistance of the +operatives, and on the occasion of a strike of the best paid workers, the +fine spinners, the following naive observation: {168b} + + "In fact, it was their high wages which enabled them to maintain a + stipendiary committee in affluence, and to pamper themselves into + nervous ailments, by a diet too rich and exciting for their indoor + employments." + +Let us hear how the bourgeois describes the work of children: {168c} + + "I have visited many factories, both in Manchester and in the + surrounding districts, during a period of several months, entering the + spinning-rooms unexpectedly, and often alone, at different times of + the day, and I never saw a single instance of corporal chastisement + inflicted on a child; nor, indeed, did I ever see children in + ill-humour. They seemed to be always cheerful and alert; taking + pleasure in the light play of their muscles, enjoying the mobility + natural to their age. The scene of industry, so far from exciting sad + emotions, in my mind, was always exhilerating. It was delightful to + observe the nimbleness with which they pieced broken ends, as the mule + carriage began to recede from the fixed roller beam, and to see them + at leisure, after a few seconds' exercise of their tiny fingers, to + amuse themselves in any attitude they chose, till the stretch and + winding on were once more completed. The work of these lively elves + seemed to resemble a sport, in which habit gave them a pleasing + dexterity. Conscious of their skill, they were delighted to show it + off to any stranger. As to exhaustion by the day's work, they evinced + no trace of it on emerging from the mill in the evening; for they + immediately began to skip about any neighbouring playground, and to + commence their little games with the same alacrity as boys issuing + from a school." + +Naturally! As though the immediate movement of every muscle were not an +urgent necessity for frames grown at once stiff and relaxed! But Ure +should have waited to see whether this momentary excitement had not +subsided after a couple of minutes. And besides, Ure could see this +whole performance only in the afternoon after five or six hours' work, +but not in the evening! As to the health of the operatives, the +bourgeois has the boundless impudence to cite the report of 1833 just +quoted in a thousand places, as testimony for the excellent health of +these people; to try to prove by detached and garbled quotations that no +trace of scrofula can be found among them, and, what is quite true, that +the factory system frees them from all acute diseases, (that they have +every variety of chronic affection instead he naturally conceals). To +explain the impudence with which our friend Ure palms off the grossest +falsehoods upon the English public, it must be known that the report +consists of three large folio volumes, which it never occurs to a well- +fed English bourgeois to study through. Let us hear further how he +expresses himself as to the Factory Act of 1834, passed by the Liberal +bourgeoisie, and imposing only the most meagre limitations upon the +manufacturers, as we shall see. This law, especially its compulsory +education clause, he calls an absurd and despotic measure directed +against the manufacturers, through which all children under twelve years +of age have been thrown out of employment; and with what results? The +children thus discharged from their light and useful occupation receive +no education whatsoever; cast out from the warm spinning-room into a cold +world, they subsist only by begging and stealing, a life in sad contrast +with their steadily improving condition in the factory and in Sunday +school. Under the mask of philanthropy, this law intensifies the +sufferings of the poor, and will greatly restrict the conscientious +manufacturer in his useful work, if, indeed, it does not wholly stop him. +{169} + +The ruinous influence of the factory system began at an early day to +attract general attention. We have already alluded to the Apprentices' +Act of 1802. Later, towards 1817, Robert Owen, then a manufacturer in +New Lanark, in Scotland, afterwards founder of English Socialism, began +to call the attention of the Government, by memorials and petitions, to +the necessity of legislative guarantees for the health of the operatives, +and especially of children. The late Sir Robert Peel and other +philanthropists united with him, and gradually secured the Factory Acts +of 1818, 1825, and 1831, of which the first two were never enforced, and +the last only here and there. This law of 1831, based upon the motion of +Sir J. C. Hobhouse, provided that in cotton mills no one under twenty-one +should be employed between half-past seven at night and half-past five in +the morning; and that in all factories young persons under eighteen +should work no longer than twelve hours daily, and nine hours on +Saturday. But since operatives could not testify against their masters +without being discharged, this law helped matters very little. In the +great cities, where the operatives were more restive, the larger +manufacturers came to an agreement among themselves to obey the law; but +even there, there were many who, like the employers in the country, did +not trouble themselves about it. Meanwhile, the demand for a ten hours' +law had become lively among the operatives; that is, for a law which +should forbid all operatives under eighteen years of age to work longer +than ten hours daily; the Trades Unions, by their agitation, made this +demand general throughout the manufacturing population; the philanthropic +section of the Tory party, then led by Michael Sadler, seized upon the +plan, and brought it before Parliament. Sadler obtained a parliamentary +committee for the investigation of the factory system, and this committee +reported in 1832. Its report was emphatically partisan, composed by +strong enemies of the factory system, for party ends. Sadler permitted +himself to be betrayed by his noble enthusiasm into the most distorted +and erroneous statements, drew from his witnesses by the very form of his +questions, answers which contained the truth, but truth in a perverted +form. The manufacturers themselves, incensed at a report which +represented them as monsters, now demanded an official investigation; +they knew that an exact report must, in this case, be advantageous to +them; they knew that Whigs, genuine bourgeois, were at the helm, with +whom they were upon good terms, whose principles were opposed to any +restriction upon manufacture. They obtained a commission, in due order, +composed of Liberal bourgeois, whose report I have so often cited. This +comes somewhat nearer the truth than Sadler's, but its deviations +therefrom are in the opposite direction. On every page it betrays +sympathy with the manufacturers, distrust of the Sadler report, +repugnance to the working-men agitating independently and the supporters +of the Ten Hours' Bill. It nowhere recognises the right of the working- +man to a life worthy of a human being, to independent activity, and +opinions of his own. It reproaches the operatives that in sustaining the +Ten Hours' Bill they thought, not of the children only, but of themselves +as well; it calls the working-men engaged in the agitation demagogues, +ill-intentioned, malicious, etc., is written, in short, on the side of +the bourgeoisie; and still it cannot whitewash the manufacturers, and +still it leaves such a mass of infamies upon the shoulders of the +employers, that even after this report, the agitation for the Ten Hours' +Bill, the hatred against the manufacturers, and the committee's severest +epithets applied to them are all fully justified. But there was the one +difference, that whereas the Sadler report accuses the manufacturers of +open, undisguised brutality, it now became evident that this brutality +was chiefly carried on under the mask of civilisation and humanity. Yet +Dr. Hawkins, the medical commissioner for Lancashire, expresses himself +decidedly in favour of the Ten Hours' Bill in the opening lines of his +report, and Commissioner Mackintosh explains that his own report does not +contain the whole truth, because it is very difficult to induce the +operatives to testify against their employers, and because the +manufacturers, besides being forced into greater concessions towards +their operatives by the excitement among the latter, are often prepared +for the inspection of the factories, have them swept, the speed of the +machinery reduced, etc. In Lancashire especially they resorted to the +device of bringing the overlookers of workrooms before the commissioners, +and letting them testify as working-men to the humanity of the employers, +the wholesome effects of the work, and the indifference, if not the +hostility of the operatives, towards the Ten Hours' Bill. But these are +not genuine working-men; they are deserters from their class, who have +entered the service of the bourgeoisie for better pay, and fight in the +interests of the capitalists against the workers. Their interest is that +of the capitalists, and they are, therefore, almost more hated by the +workers than the manufacturers themselves. + +And yet this report suffices wholly to exhibit the most shameful +recklessness of the manufacturing bourgeoisie towards its employees, the +whole infamy of the industrial exploiting system in its full inhumanity. +Nothing is more revolting than to compare the long register of diseases +and deformities engendered by overwork, in this report, with the cold, +calculating political economy of the manufacturers, by which they try to +prove that they, and with them all England, must go to ruin, if they +should be forbidden to cripple so and so many children every year. The +language of Dr. Ure alone, which I have quoted, would be yet more +revolting if it were not so preposterous. + +The result of this report was the Factory Act of 1834, which forbade the +employment of children under nine years of age (except in silk mills), +limited the working-hours of children between 9-13 years to 48 per week, +or 9 hours in any one day at the utmost; that of young persons from 14-18 +years of age to 69 per week, or 12 on any one day as the maximum, +provided for an hour and a half as the minimum interval for meals, and +repeated the total prohibition of night-work for persons under eighteen +years of age. Compulsory school attendance two hours daily was +prescribed for all children under fourteen years, and the manufacturer +declared punishable in case of employing children without a certificate +of age from the factory surgeon, and a certificate of school attendance +from the teacher. As recompense, the employer was permitted to withdraw +one penny from the child's weekly earnings to pay the teacher. Further, +surgeons and inspectors were appointed to visit the factories at all +times, take testimony of operatives on oath, and enforce the law by +prosecution before a Justice of the Peace. This is the law against which +Dr. Ure inveighs in such unmeasured terms! + +The consequence of this law, and especially of the appointment of +inspectors, was the reduction of working-hours to an average of twelve to +thirteen, and the superseding of children as far as possible. Hereupon +some of the most crying evils disappeared almost wholly. Deformities +arose now only in cases of weak constitution, and the effects of overwork +became much less conspicuous. Nevertheless, enough testimony remains to +be found in the Factory Report, that the lesser evils, swelling of the +ankles, weakness and pain in the legs, hips, and back, varicose veins, +ulcers on the lower extremities, general weakness, especially of the +pelvic region, nausea, want of appetite alternating with unnatural +hunger, indigestion, hypochondria, affections of the chest in consequence +of the dust and foul atmosphere of the factories, etc. etc., all occur +among employees subject to the provisions of Sir J. C. Hobhouse's law (of +1831), which prescribes twelve to thirteen hours as the maximum. The +reports from Glasgow and Manchester are especially worthy of attention in +this respect. These evils remained too, after the law of 1834, and +continue to undermine the health of the working-class to this day. Care +has been taken to give the brutal profit-greed of the bourgeoisie a +hypocritical, civilised form, to restrain the manufacturers through the +arm of the law from too conspicuous villainies, and thus to give them a +pretext for self-complacently parading their sham philanthropy. That is +all. If a new commission were appointed to-day, it would find things +pretty much as before. As to the extemporised compulsory attendance at +school, it remained wholly a dead letter, since the Government failed to +provide good schools. The manufacturers employed as teachers worn-out +operatives, to whom they sent the children two hours daily, thus +complying with the letter of the law; but the children learned nothing. +And even the reports of the factory inspectors, which are limited to the +scope of the inspector's duties, _i.e_., the enforcement of the Factory +Act, give data enough to justify the conclusion that the old evils +inevitably remain. Inspectors Horner and Saunders, in their reports for +October and December, 1844, state that, in a number of branches in which +the employment of children can be dispensed with or superseded by that of +adults, the working-day is still fourteen to sixteen hours, or even +longer. Among the operatives in these branches they found numbers of +young people who had just outgrown the provisions of the law. Many +employers disregard the law, shorten the meal times, work children longer +than is permitted, and risk prosecution, knowing that the possible fines +are trifling in comparison with the certain profits derivable from the +offence. Just at present especially, while business is exceptionally +brisk, they are under great temptation in this respect. + +Meanwhile the agitation for the Ten Hours' Bill by no means died out +among the operatives; in 1839 it was under full headway once more, and +Sadler's place, he having died, was filled in the House of Commons by +Lord Ashley {174} and Richard Oastler, both Tories. Oastler especially, +who carried on a constant agitation in the factory districts, and had +been active in the same way during Sadler's life, was the particular +favourite of the working-men. They called him their "good old king," +"the king of the factory children," and there is not a child in the +factory districts that does not know and revere him, that does not join +the procession which moves to welcome him when he enters a town. Oastler +vigorously opposed the New Poor Law also, and was therefore imprisoned +for debt by a Mr. Thornley, on whose estate he was employed as agent, and +to whom he owed money. The Whigs offered repeatedly to pay his debt and +confer other favours upon him if he would only give up his agitation +against the Poor Law. But in vain; he remained in prison, whence he +published his Fleet Papers against the factory system and the Poor Law. + +The Tory Government of 1841 turned its attention once more to the Factory +Acts. The Home Secretary, Sir James Graham, proposed, in 1843, a bill +restricting the working-hours of children to six and one-half, and making +the enactments for compulsory school attendance more effective; the +principal point in this connection being a provision for better schools. +This bill was, however, wrecked by the jealousy of the dissenters; for, +although compulsory religious instruction was not extended to the +children of dissenters, the schools provided for were to be placed under +the general supervision of the Established Church, and the Bible made the +general reading-book; religion being thus made the foundation of all +instruction, whence the dissenters felt themselves threatened. The +manufacturers and the Liberals generally united with them, the working- +men were divided by the Church question, and therefore inactive. The +opponents of the bill, though outweighed in the great manufacturing +towns, such as Salford and Stockport, and able in others, such as +Manchester, to attack certain of its points only, for fear of the working- +men, collected nevertheless nearly two million signatures for a petition +against it, and Graham allowed himself to be so far intimidated as to +withdraw the whole bill. The next year he omitted the school clauses, +and proposed that, instead of the previous provisions, children between +eight and thirteen years should be restricted to six and one-half hours, +and so employed as to have either the whole morning or the whole +afternoon free; that young people between thirteen and eighteen years, +and all females, should be limited to twelve hours; and that the hitherto +frequent evasions of the law should be prevented. Hardly had he proposed +this bill, when the ten hours' agitation was begun again more vigorously +than ever. Oastler had just then regained his liberty; a number of his +friends and a collection among the workers had paid his debt, and he +threw himself into the movement with all his might. The defenders of the +Ten Hours' Bill in the House of Commons had increased in numbers, the +masses of petitions supporting it which poured in from all sides brought +them allies, and on March 19th, 1844, Lord Ashley carried, with a +majority of 179 to 170, a resolution that the word "Night" in the Factory +Act should express the time from six at night to six in the morning, +whereby the prohibition of night-work came to mean the limitation of +working-hours to twelve, including free hours, or ten hours of actual +work a day. But the ministry did not agree to this. Sir James Graham +began to threaten resignation from the Cabinet, and at the next vote on +the bill the House rejected by a small majority both ten and twelve +hours! Graham and Peel now announced that they should introduce a new +bill, and that if this failed to pass they should resign. The new bill +was exactly the old Twelve Hours' Bill with some changes of form, and the +same House of Commons which had rejected the principal points of this +bill in March, now swallowed it whole. The reason of this was that most +of the supporters of the Ten Hours' Bill were Tories who let fall the +bill rather than the ministry; but be the motives what they may, the +House of Commons by its votes upon this subject, each vote reversing the +last, has brought itself into the greatest contempt among all the +workers, and proved most brilliantly the Chartists' assertion of the +necessity of its reform. Three members, who had formerly voted against +the ministry, afterwards voted for it and rescued it. In all the +divisions, the bulk of the opposition voted _for_ and the bulk of its own +party _against_ the ministry. {176} The foregoing propositions of Graham +touching the employment of children six and one-half and of all other +operatives twelve hours are now legislative provisions, and by them and +by the limitation of overwork for making up time lost through breakdown +of machinery or insufficient water-power by reason of frost or drought, a +working-day of more than twelve hours has been made well-nigh impossible. +There remains, however, no doubt that, in a very short time, the Ten +Hours' Bill will really be adopted. The manufacturers are naturally all +against it, there are perhaps not ten who are for it; they have used +every honourable and dishonourable means against this dreaded measure, +but with no other result than that of drawing down upon them the ever +deepening hatred of the working-men. The bill will pass. What the +working-men will do they can do, and that they will have this bill they +proved last spring. The economic arguments of the manufacturers that a +Ten Hours' Bill would increase the cost of production and incapacitate +the English producers for competition in foreign markets, and that wages +must fall, are all _half_ true; but they prove nothing except this, that +the industrial greatness of England can be maintained only through the +barbarous treatment of the operatives, the destruction of their health, +the social, physical, and mental decay of whole generations. Naturally, +if the Ten Hours' Bill were a final measure, it must ruin England; but +since it must inevitably bring with it other measures which must draw +England into a path wholly different from that hitherto followed, it can +only prove an advance. + +Let us turn to another side of the factory system which cannot be +remedied by legislative provisions so easily as the diseases now +engendered by it. We have already alluded in a general way to the nature +of the employment, and enough in detail to be able to draw certain +inferences from the facts given. The supervision of machinery, the +joining of broken threads, is no activity which claims the operative's +thinking powers, yet it is of a sort which prevents him from occupying +his mind with other things. We have seen, too, that this work affords +the muscles no opportunity for physical activity. Thus it is, properly +speaking, not work, but tedium, the most deadening, wearing process +conceivable. The operative is condemned to let his physical and mental +powers decay in this utter monotony, it is his mission to be bored every +day and all day long from his eighth year. Moreover, he must not take a +moment's rest; the engine moves unceasingly; the wheels, the straps, the +spindles hum and rattle in his ears without a pause, and if he tries to +snatch one instant, there is the overlooker at his back with the book of +fines. This condemnation to be buried alive in the mill, to give +constant attention to the tireless machine is felt as the keenest torture +by the operatives, and its action upon mind and body is in the long run +stunting in the highest degree. There is no better means of inducing +stupefaction than a period of factory work, and if the operatives have, +nevertheless, not only rescued their intelligence, but cultivated and +sharpened it more than other working-men, they have found this possible +only in rebellion against their fate and against the bourgeoisie, the +sole subject on which under all circumstances they can think and feel +while at work. Or, if this indignation against the bourgeoisie does not +become the supreme passion of the working-man, the inevitable consequence +is drunkenness and all that is generally called demoralisation. The +physical enervation and the sickness, universal in consequence of the +factory system, were enough to induce Commissioner Hawkins to attribute +this demoralisation thereto as inevitable; how much more when mental +lassitude is added to them, and when the influences already mentioned +which tempt every working-man to demoralisation, make themselves felt +here too! There is no cause for surprise, therefore, that in the +manufacturing towns especially, drunkenness and sexual excesses have +reached the pitch which I have already described. {178} + +Further, the slavery in which the bourgeoisie holds the proletariat +chained, is nowhere more conspicuous than in the factory system. Here +ends all freedom in law and in fact. The operative must be in the mill +at half-past five in the morning; if he comes a couple of minutes too +late, he is fined; if he comes ten minutes too late, he is not let in +until breakfast is over, and a quarter of the day's wages is withheld, +though he loses only two and one-half hours' work out of twelve. He must +eat, drink, and sleep at command. For satisfying the most imperative +needs, he is vouchsafed the least possible time absolutely required by +them. Whether his dwelling is a half-hour or a whole one removed from +the factory does not concern his employer. The despotic bell calls him +from his bed, his breakfast, his dinner. + +What a time he has of it, too, inside the factory! Here the employer is +absolute law-giver; he makes regulations at will, changes and adds to his +codex at pleasure, and even, if he inserts the craziest stuff, the courts +say to the working-man: "You were your own master, no one forced you to +agree to such a contract if you did not wish to; but now, when you have +freely entered into it, you must be bound by it." And so the working-man +only gets into the bargain the mockery of the Justice of the Peace who is +a bourgeois himself, and of the law which is made by the bourgeoisie. +Such decisions have been given often enough. In October, 1844, the +operatives of Kennedy's mill, in Manchester struck. Kennedy prosecuted +them on the strength of a regulation placarded in the mill, that at no +time more than two operatives in one room may quit work at once. And the +court decided in his favour, giving the working-men the explanation cited +above. {179a} And such rules as these usually are! For instance: 1. The +doors are closed ten minutes after work begins, and thereafter no one is +admitted until the breakfast hour; whoever is absent during this time +forfeits 3d. per loom. 2. Every power-loom weaver detected absenting +himself at another time, while the machinery is in motion, forfeits for +each hour and each loom, 3d. Every person who leaves the room during +working-hours, without obtaining permission from the overlooker, forfeits +3d. 3. Weavers who fail to supply themselves with scissors forfeit, per +day, 1d. 4. All broken shuttles, brushes, oil-cans, wheels, window +panes, etc., must be paid for by the weaver. 5. No weaver to stop work +without giving a week's notice. The manufacturer may dismiss any +employee without notice for bad work or improper behaviour. 6. Every +operative detected speaking to another, singing or whistling, will be +fined 6d.; for leaving his place during working-hours, 6d. {179b} Another +copy of factory regulations lies before me, according to which every +operative who comes three minutes too late, forfeits the wages for a +quarter of an hour, and every one who comes twenty minutes too late, for +a quarter of a day. Every one who remains absent until breakfast +forfeits a shilling on Monday, and sixpence every other day of the week, +etc, etc. This last is the regulation of the Phoenix Works in Jersey +Street, Manchester. It may be said that such rules are necessary in a +great, complicated factory, in order to insure the harmonious working of +the different parts; it may be asserted that such a severe discipline is +as necessary here as in an army. This may be so, but what sort of a +social order is it which cannot be maintained without such shameful +tyranny? Either the end sanctifies the means, or the inference of the +badness of the end from the badness of the means is justified. Every one +who has served as a soldier knows what it is to be subjected even for a +short time to military discipline. But these operatives are condemned +from their ninth year to their death to live under the sword, physically +and mentally. They are worse slaves than the negroes in America, for +they are more sharply watched, and yet it is demanded of them that they +shall live like human beings, shall think and feel like men! Verily, +this they can do only under glowing hatred towards their oppressors, and +towards that order of things which place them in such a position, which +degrades them to machines. But it is far more shameful yet, that +according to the universal testimony of the operatives, numbers of +manufacturers collect the fines imposed upon the operatives with the most +heartless severity, and for the purpose of piling up extra profits out of +the farthings thus extorted from the impoverished proletarians. Leach +asserts, too, that the operatives often find the factory clock moved +forward a quarter of an hour and the doors shut, while the clerk moves +about with the fines-book inside, noting the many names of the absentees. +Leach claims to have counted ninety-five operatives thus shut out, +standing before a factory, whose clock was a quarter of an hour slower +than the town clocks at night, and a quarter of an hour faster in the +morning. The Factory Report relates similar facts. In one factory the +clock was set back during working-hours, so that the operatives worked +overtime without extra pay; in another, a whole quarter of an hour +overtime was worked; in a third, there were two clocks, an ordinary one +and a machine clock, which registered the revolutions of the main shaft; +if the machinery went slowly, working-hours were measured by the machine +clock until the number of revolutions due in twelve hours was reached; if +work went well, so that the number was reached before the usual working- +hours were ended, the operatives were forced to toil on to the end of the +twelfth hour. The witness adds that he had known girls who had good +work, and who had worked overtime, who, nevertheless, betook themselves +to a life of prostitution rather than submit to this tyranny. {181a} To +return to the fines, Leach relates having repeatedly seen women in the +last period of pregnancy fined 6d. for the offence of sitting down a +moment to rest. Fines for bad work are wholly arbitrary; the goods are +examined in the wareroom, and the supervisor charges the fines upon a +list without even summoning the operative, who only learns that he has +been fined when the overlooker pays his wages, and the goods have perhaps +been sold, or certainly been placed beyond his reach. Leach has in his +possession such a fines list, ten feet long, and amounting to 35 pounds +17s. 10d. He relates that in the factory where this list was made, a new +supervisor was dismissed for fining too little, and so bringing in five +pounds too little weekly. {181b} And I repeat that I know Leach to be a +thoroughly trustworthy man incapable of a falsehood. + +But the operative is his employer's slave in still other respects. If +his wife or daughter finds favour in the eyes of the master, a command, a +hint suffices, and she must place herself at his disposal. When the +employer wishes to supply with signatures a petition in favour of +bourgeois interests, he need only send it to his mill. If he wishes to +decide a Parliamentary election, he sends his enfranchised operatives in +rank and file to the polls, and they vote for the bourgeois candidate +whether they will or no. If he desires a majority in a public meeting, +he dismisses them half-an-hour earlier than usual, and secures them +places close to the platform, where he can watch them to his +satisfaction. + +Two further arrangements contribute especially to force the operative +under the dominion of the manufacturer; the Truck system and the Cottage +system. The truck system, the payment of the operatives in goods, was +formerly universal in England. The manufacturer opens a shop, "for the +convenience of the operatives, and to protect them from the high prices +of the petty dealers." Here goods of all sorts are sold to them on +credit; and to keep the operatives from going to the shops where they +could get their goods more cheaply--the "Tommy shops" usually charging +twenty-five to thirty per cent. more than others--wages are paid in +requisitions on the shop instead of money. The general indignation +against this infamous system led to the passage of the Truck Act in 1831, +by which, for most employees, payment in truck orders was declared void +and illegal, and was made punishable by fine; but, like most other +English laws, this has been enforced only here and there. In the towns +it is carried out comparatively efficiently; but in the country, the +truck system, disguised or undisguised, flourishes. In the town of +Leicester, too, it is very common. There lie before me nearly a dozen +convictions for this offence, dating from the period between November, +1843, and June, 1844, and reported, in part, in the _Manchester Guardian_ +and, in part, in the _Northern Star_. The system is, of course, less +openly carried on at present; wages are usually paid in cash, but the +employer still has means enough at command to force him to purchase his +wares in the truck shop and nowhere else. Hence it is difficult to +combat the truck system, because it can now be carried on under cover of +the law, provided only that the operative receives his wages in money. +The _Northern Star_ of April 27th, 1843, publishes a letter from an +operative of Holmfirth, near Huddersfield, in Yorkshire, which refers to +a manufacturer of the name of Bowers, as follows (retranslated from the +German): + + "It is very strange to think that the accursed truck system should + exist to such an extent as it does in Holmfirth, and nobody be found + who has the pluck to make the manufacturer stop it. There are here a + great many honest hand-weavers suffering through this damned system; + here is one sample from a good many out of the noble-hearted Free + Trade Clique. There is a manufacturer who has upon himself the curses + of the whole district on account of his infamous conduct towards his + poor weavers; if they have got a piece ready which comes to 34 or 36 + shillings, he gives them 20s. in money and the rest in cloth or goods, + and 40 to 50 per cent. dearer than at the other shops, and often + enough the goods are rotten into the bargain. But, what says the + _Free Trade Mercury_, the _Leeds Mercury_? They are not bound to take + them; they can please themselves. Oh, yes, but they must take them or + else starve. If they ask for another 20s. in money, they must wait + eight or fourteen days for a warp; but if they take the 20s. and the + goods, then there is always a warp ready for them. And that is Free + Trade. Lord Brougham said we ought to put by something in our young + days, so that we need not go to the parish when we are old. Well, are + we to put by the rotten goods? If this did not come from a lord, one + would say his brains were as rotten as the goods that our work is paid + in. When the unstamped papers came out "illegally," there was a lot + of them to report it to the police in Holmfirth, the Blythes, the + Edwards, etc.; but where are they now? But this is different. Our + truck manufacturer belongs to the pious Free Trade lot; he goes to + church twice every Sunday, and repeats devotedly after the parson: 'We + have left undone the things we ought to have done, and we have done + the things we ought not to have done, and there is no good in us; but, + good Lord, deliver us.' Yes, deliver us till to-morrow, and we will + pay our weavers again in rotten goods." + +The Cottage system looks much more innocent and arose in a much more +harmless way, though it has the same enslaving influence upon the +employee. In the neighbourhood of the mills in the country, there is +often a lack of dwelling accommodation for the operatives. The +manufacturer is frequently obliged to build such dwellings and does so +gladly, as they yield great advantages, besides the interest upon the +capital invested. If any owner of working-men's dwellings averages about +six per cent. on his invested capital, it is safe to calculate that the +manufacturer's cottages yield twice this rate; for so long as his factory +does not stand perfectly idle he is sure of occupants, and of occupants +who pay punctually. He is therefore spared the two chief disadvantages +under which other house-owners labour; his cottages never stand empty, +and he runs no risk. But the rent of the cottages is as high as though +these disadvantages were in full force, and by obtaining the same rent as +the ordinary house-owner, the manufacturer, at cost of the operatives, +makes a brilliant investment at twelve to fourteen per cent. For it is +clearly unjust that he should make twice as much profit as other +competing house-owners, who at the same time are excluded from competing +with him. But it implies a double wrong, when he draws his fixed profit +from the pockets of the non-possessing class, which must consider the +expenditure of every penny. He is used to that, however, he whose whole +wealth is gained at the cost of his employees. But this injustice +becomes an infamy when the manufacturer, as often happens, forces his +operatives, who must occupy his houses on pain of dismissal, to pay a +higher rent than the ordinary one, or even to pay rent for houses in +which they do not live! The _Halifax Guardian_, quoted by the Liberal +_Sun_, asserts that hundreds of operatives in Ashton-under-Lyne, Oldham, +and Rochdale, etc., are forced by their employers to pay house-rent +whether they occupy the house or not. {184} The cottage system is +universal in the country districts; it has created whole villages, and +the manufacturer usually has little or no competition against his houses, +so that he can fix his price regardless of any market rate, indeed at his +pleasure. And what power does the cottage system give the employer over +his operatives in disagreements between master and men? If the latter +strike, he need only give them notice to quit his premises, and the +notice need only be a week; after that time the operative is not only +without bread but without a shelter, a vagabond at the mercy of the law +which sends him, without fail, to the treadmill. + +Such is the factory system sketched as fully as my space permits, and +with as little partisan spirit as the heroic deeds of the bourgeoisie +against the defenceless workers permit--deeds to wards which it is +impossible to remain indifferent, towards which indifference were a +crime. Let us compare the condition of the free Englishman of 1845 with +the Saxon serf under the lash of the Norman barons of 1145. The serf was +_glebae adscriptus_, bound to the soil, so is the free working-man +through the cottage system. The serf owed his master the _jus primae +noctis_, the right of the first night--the free working-man must, on +demand, surrender to his master not only that, but the right of every +night. The serf could acquire no property; everything that he gained, +his master could take from him; the free working-man has no property, can +gain none by reason of the pressure of competition, and what even the +Norman baron did not do, the modern manufacturer does. Through the truck +system, he assumes every day the administration in detail of the things +which the worker requires for his immediate necessities. The relation of +the lord of the soil to the serf was regulated by the prevailing customs +and by-laws which were obeyed, because they corresponded to them. The +free working-man's relation to his master is regulated by laws which are +_not_ obeyed, because they correspond neither with the interests of the +employer nor with the prevailing customs. The lord of the soil could not +separate the serf from the land, nor sell him apart from it, and since +almost all the land was fief and there was no capital, practically could +not sell him at all. The modern bourgeois forces the working-man to sell +himself. The serf was the slave of the piece of land on which he was +born, the working-man is the slave of his own necessaries of life and of +the money with which he has to buy them--both are _slaves of a thing_. +The serf had a guarantee for the means of subsistence in the feudal order +of society in which every member had his own place. The free working-man +has no guarantee whatsoever, because he has a place in society only when +the bourgeoisie can make use of him; in all other cases he is ignored, +treated as non-existent. The serf sacrificed himself for his master in +war, the factory operative in peace. The lord of the serf was a +barbarian who regarded his villain as a head of cattle; the employer of +operatives is civilised and regards his "hand" as a machine. In short, +the position of the two is not far from equal, and if either is at a +disadvantage, it is the free working-man. Slaves they both are, with the +single difference that the slavery of the one is undissembled, open, +honest; that of the other cunning, sly, disguised, deceitfully concealed +from himself and every one else, a hypocritical servitude worse than the +old. The philanthropic Tories were right when they gave the operatives +the name white slaves. But the hypocritical disguised slavery recognises +the right to freedom, at least in outward form; bows before a freedom- +loving public opinion, and herein lies the historic progress as compared +with the old servitude, that the _principle_ of freedom is affirmed, and +the oppressed will one day see to it that this principle is carried out. +{186} + + + + +THE REMAINING BRANCHES OF INDUSTRY. + + +We were compelled to deal with the factory system somewhat at length, as +it is an entirely novel creation of the industrial period; we shall be +able to treat the other workers the more briefly, because what has been +said either of the industrial proletariat in general, or of the factory +system in particular, will wholly, or in part, apply to them. We shall, +therefore, merely have to record how far the factory system has succeeded +in forcing its way into each branch of industry, and what other +peculiarities these may reveal. + +The four branches comprised under the Factory Act are engaged in the +production of clothing stuffs. We shall do best if we deal next with +those workers who receive their materials from these factories; and, +first of all, with the stocking weavers of Nottingham, Derby, and +Leicester. Touching these workers, the Children's Employment Commission +reports that the long working-hours, imposed by low wages, with a +sedentary life and the strain upon the eyes involved in the nature of the +employment, usually enfeeble the whole frame, and especially the eyes. +Work at night is impossible without a very powerful light produced by +concentrating the rays of the lamp, making them pass through glass +globes, which is most injurious to the sight. At forty years of age, +nearly all wear spectacles. The children employed at spooling and +hemming usually suffer grave injuries to the health and constitution. +They work from the sixth, seventh, or eighth year ten to twelve hours +daily in small, close rooms. It is not uncommon for them to faint at +their work, to become too feeble for the most ordinary household +occupation, and so near-sighted as to be obliged to wear glasses during +childhood. Many were found by the commissioners to exhibit all the +symptoms of a scrofulous constitution, and the manufacturers usually +refuse to employ girls who have worked in this way as being too weak. The +condition of these children is characterised as "a disgrace to a +Christian country," and the wish expressed for legislative interference. +The Factory Report {189} adds that the stocking weavers are the worst +paid workers in Leicester, earning six, or with great effort, seven +shillings a week, for sixteen to eighteen hours' daily work. Formerly +they earned twenty to twenty-one shillings, but the introduction of +enlarged frames has ruined their business; the great majority still work +with old, small, single frames, and compete with difficulty with the +progress of machinery. Here, too, every progress is a disadvantage for +the workers. Nevertheless, Commissioner Power speaks of the pride of the +stocking weavers that they are free, and had no factory bell to measure +out the time for their eating, sleeping, and working. Their position to- +day is no better than in 1833, when the Factory Commission made the +foregoing statements, the competition of the Saxon stocking weavers, who +have scarcely anything to eat, takes care of that. This competition is +too strong for the English in nearly all foreign markets, and for the +lower qualities of goods even in the English market. It must be a source +of rejoicing for the patriotic German stocking weaver that his starvation +wages force his English brother to starve too! And, verily, will he not +starve on, proud and happy, for the greater glory of German industry, +since the honour of the Fatherland demands that his table should be bare, +his dish half empty? Ah! it is a noble thing this competition, this +"race of the nations." In the _Morning Chronicle_, another Liberal +sheet, the organ of the bourgeoisie par excellence, there were published +some letters from a stocking weaver in Hinckley, describing the condition +of his fellow-workers. Among other things, he reports 50 families, 321 +persons, who were supported by 109 frames; each frame yielded on an +average 5.5 shillings; each family earned an average of 11s. 4d. weekly. +Out of this there was required for house rent, frame rent, fuel, light, +soap, and needles, together 5s. 10d., so that there remained for food, +per head daily, 1.5d., and for clothing nothing. "No eye," says the +stocking weaver, "has seen, no ear heard, and no heart felt the half of +the sufferings that these poor people endure." Beds were wanting either +wholly or in part, the children ran about ragged and barefoot; the men +said, with tears in their eyes: "It's a long time since we had any meat; +we have almost forgotten how it tastes;" and, finally, some of them +worked on Sunday, though public opinion pardons anything else more +readily than this, and the rattling noise of the frame is audible +throughout the neighbourhood. "But," said one of them, "look at my +children and ask no questions. My poverty forces me to it; I can't and +won't hear my children forever crying for bread, without trying the last +means of winning it honestly. Last Monday I got up at two in the morning +and worked to near midnight; the other days from six in the morning to +between eleven and twelve at night. I have had enough of it; I sha'n't +kill myself; so now I go to bed at ten o'clock, and make up the lost time +on Sundays." Neither in Leicester, Nottingham, nor Derby have wages +risen since 1833; and the worst of it is that in Leicester the truck +system prevails to a great extent, as I have mentioned. It is therefore +not to be wondered at that the weavers of this region take a very active +part in all working-men's movements, the more active and effective +because the frames are worked chiefly by men. + +In this stocking weavers' district the lace industry also has its +headquarters. In the three counties mentioned there are in all 2,760 +lace frames in use, while in all the rest of England there are but 786. +The manufacture of lace is greatly complicated by a rigid division of +labour, and embraces a multitude of branches. The yarn is first spooled +by girls fourteen years of age and upwards, winders; then the spools are +set up on the frames by boys, eight years old and upwards, threaders, who +pass the thread through fine openings, of which each machine has an +average of 1,800, and bring it towards its destination; then the weaver +weaves the lace which comes out of the machine like a broad piece of +cloth and is taken apart by very little children who draw out the +connecting threads. This is called running or drawing lace, and the +children themselves lace-runners. The lace is then made ready for sale. +The winders, like the threaders, have no specified working-time, being +called upon whenever the spools on a frame are empty, and are liable, +since the weavers work at night, to be required at any time in the +factory or workroom. This irregularity, the frequent night-work, the +disorderly way of living consequent upon it, engender a multitude of +physical and moral ills, especially early and unbridled sexual licence, +upon which point all witnesses are unanimous. The work is very bad for +the eyes, and although a permanent injury in the case of the threaders is +not universally observable, inflammations of the eye, pain, tears, and +momentary uncertainty of vision during the act of threading are +engendered. For the winders, however, it is certain that their work +seriously affects the eye, and produces, besides the frequent +inflammations of the cornea, many cases of amaurosis and cataract. The +work of the weavers themselves is very difficult, as the frames have +constantly been made wider, until those now in use are almost all worked +by three men in turn, each working eight hours, and the frame being kept +in use the whole twenty-four. Hence it is that the winders and threaders +are so often called upon during the night, and must work to prevent the +frame from standing idle. The filling in of 1,800 openings with thread +occupies three children at least two hours. Many frames are moved by +steam-power, and the work of men thus superseded; and, as the Children's +Employment Commission's Report mentions only lace factories to which the +children are summoned, it seems to follow either that the work of the +weavers has been removed to great factory rooms of late, or that steam- +weaving has become pretty general; a forward movement of the factory +system in either case. Most unwholesome of all is the work of the +runners, who are usually children of seven, and even of five and four, +years old. Commissioner Grainger actually found one child of two years +old employed at this work. Following a thread which is to be withdrawn +by a needle from an intricate texture, is very bad for the eyes, +especially when, as is usually the case, the work is continued fourteen +to sixteen hours. In the least unfavourable case, aggravated +near-sightedness follows; in the worst case, which is frequent enough, +incurable blindness from amaurosis. But, apart from that, the children, +in consequence of sitting perpetually bent up, become feeble, +narrow-chested, and scrofulous from bad digestion. Disordered functions +of the uterus are almost universal among the girls, and curvature of the +spine also, so that "all the runners may be recognised from their gait." +The same consequences for the eyes and the whole constitution are +produced by the embroidery of lace. Medical witnesses are unanimously of +the opinion that the health of all children employed in the production of +lace suffers seriously, that they are pale, weak, delicate, undersized, +and much less able than other children to resist disease. The affections +from which they usually suffer are general debility, frequent fainting, +pains in the head, sides, back, and hips, palpitation of the heart, +nausea, vomiting and want of appetite, curvature of the spine, scrofula, +and consumption. The health of the female lacemakers especially, is +constantly and deeply undermined; complaints are universal of anaemia, +difficult childbirth, and miscarriage. {192a} The same subordinate +official of the Children's Employment Commission reports further that the +children are very often ill-clothed and ragged, and receive insufficient +food, usually only bread and tea, often no meat for months together. As +to their moral condition, he reports: {192b} + + "All the inhabitants of Nottingham, the police, the clergy, the + manufacturers, the working-people, and the parents of the children are + all unanimously of opinion that the present system of labour is a most + fruitful source of immorality. The threaders, chiefly boys, and the + winders, usually girls, are called for in the factory at the same + time; and as their parents cannot know how long they are wanted there, + they have the finest opportunity to form improper connections and + remain together after the close of the work. This has contributed, in + no small degree, to the immorality which, according to general + opinion, exists to a terrible extent in Nottingham. Apart from this, + the quiet of home life, and the comfort of the family to which these + children and young people belong, is wholly sacrificed to this most + unnatural state of things." + +Another branch of lace-making, bobbin-lacework, is carried on in the +agricultural shires of Northampton, Oxford, and Bedford, chiefly by +children and young persons, who complain universally of bad food, and +rarely taste meat. The employment itself is most unwholesome. The +children work in small, ill-ventilated, damp rooms, sitting always bent +over the lace cushion. To support the body in this wearying position, +the girls wear stays with a wooden busk, which, at the tender age of most +of them, when the bones are still very soft, wholly displace the ribs, +and make narrow chests universal. They usually die of consumption after +suffering the severest forms of digestive disorders, brought on by +sedentary work in a bad atmosphere. They are almost wholly without +education, least of all do they receive moral training. They love +finery, and in consequence of these two influences their moral condition +is most deplorable, and prostitution almost epidemic among them. {193} + +This is the price at which society purchases for the fine ladies of the +bourgeoisie the pleasure of wearing lace; a reasonable price truly! Only +a few thousand blind working-men, some consumptive labourers' daughters, +a sickly generation of the vile multitude bequeathing its debility to its +equally "vile" children and children's children. But what does that come +to? Nothing, nothing whatsoever! Our English bourgeoisie will lay the +report of the Government Commission aside indifferently, and wives and +daughters will deck themselves with lace as before. It is a beautiful +thing, the composure of an English bourgeois. + +A great number of operatives are employed in the cotton-printing +establishments of Lancashire, Derbyshire, and the West of Scotland. In +no branch of English industry has mechanical ingenuity produced such +brilliant results as here, but in no other has it so crushed the workers. +The application of engraved cylinders driven by steam-power, and the +discovery of a method of printing four to six colours at once with such +cylinders, has as completely superseded hand-work as did the application +of machinery to the spinning and weaving of cotton, and these new +arrangements in the printing-works have superseded the hand-workers much +more than was the case in the production of the fabrics. One man, with +the assistance of one child, now does with a machine the work done +formerly by 200 block printers; a single machine yields 28 yards of +printed cloth per minute. The calico printers are in a very bad way in +consequence; the shires of Lancaster, Derby, and Chester produced +(according to a petition of the printers to the House of Commons), in the +year 1842, 11,000,000 pieces of printed cotton goods: of these, 100,000 +were printed by hand exclusively, 900,000 in part with machinery and in +part by hand, and 10,000,000 by machinery alone, with four to six +colours. As the machinery is chiefly new and undergoes constant +improvement, the number of hand-printers is far too great for the +available quantity of work, and many of them are therefore starving; the +petition puts the number at one-quarter of the whole, while the rest are +employed but one or two, in the best case three days in the week, and are +ill-paid. Leach {194} asserts of one print-work (Deeply Dale, near Bury, +in Lancashire), that the hand-printers did not earn on an average more +than five shillings, though he knows that the machine-printers were +pretty well paid. The print-works are thus wholly affiliated with the +factory system, but without being subject to the legislative restrictions +placed upon it. They produce an article subject to fashion, and have +therefore no regular work. If they have small orders, they work half +time; if they make a hit with a pattern, and business is brisk, they work +twelve hours, perhaps all night. In the neighbourhood of my home, near +Manchester, there was a print-work that was often lighted when I returned +late at night; and I have heard that the children were obliged at times +to work so long there, that they would try to catch a moment's rest and +sleep on the stone steps and in the corners of the lobby. I have no +legal proof of the truth of the statement, or I should name the firm. The +Report of the Children's Employment Commission is very cursory upon this +subject, stating merely that in England, at least, the children are +mostly pretty well clothed and fed (relatively, according to the wages of +the parents), that they receive no education whatsoever, and are morally +on a low plane. It is only necessary to remember that these children are +subject to the factory system, and then, referring the reader to what has +already been said of that, we can pass on. + +Of the remaining workers employed in the manufacture of clothing stuffs +little remains to be said; the bleachers' work is very unwholesome, +obliging them to breathe chlorine, a gas injurious to the lungs. The +work of the dyers is in many cases very healthful, since it requires the +exertion of the whole body; how these workers are paid is little known, +and this is ground enough for the inference that they do not receive less +than the average wages, otherwise they would make complaint. The fustian +cutters, who, in consequence of the large consumption of cotton velvet, +are comparatively numerous, being estimated at from 3,000 to 4,000, have +suffered very severely, indirectly, from the influence of the factory +system. The goods formerly woven with hand-looms, were not perfectly +uniform, and required a practised hand in cutting the single rows of +threads. Since power-looms have been used, the rows run regularly; each +thread of the weft is exactly parallel with the preceding one, and +cutting is no longer an art. The workers thrown out of employment by the +introduction of machinery turn to fustian cutting, and force down wages +by their competition; the manufacturers discovered that they could employ +women and children, and the wages sank to the rate paid them, while +hundreds of men were thrown out of employment. The manufacturers found +that they could get the work done in the factory itself more cheaply than +in the cutters' workroom, for which they indirectly paid the rent. Since +this discovery, the low upper-storey cutters' rooms stand empty in many a +cottage, or are let for dwellings, while the cutter has lost his freedom +of choice of his working-hours, and is brought under the dominion of the +factory bell. A cutter of perhaps forty-five years of age told me that +he could remember a time when he had received 8d. a yard for work, for +which he now received 1d.; true, he can cut the more regular texture more +quickly than the old, but he can by no means do twice as much in an hour +as formerly, so that his wages have sunk to less than a quarter of what +they were. Leach {196} gives a list of wages paid in 1827 and in 1843 +for various goods, from which it appears that articles paid in 1827 at +the rates of 4d., 2.25d., 2.75d., and 1d. per yard, were paid in 1843 at +the rate of 1.5d., 1d., .75d., and 0.375d. per yard, cutters' wages. The +average weekly wage, according to Leach, was as follows: 1827, 1 pounds +6s. 6d.; 1 pounds 2s. 6d.; 1 pounds; 1 pounds 6s. 6d.; and for the same +goods in 1843, 10s. 6d.; 7s. 6d.; 6s. 8d.; 10s.; while there are hundreds +of workers who cannot find employment even at these last named rates. Of +the hand-weavers of the cotton industry we have already spoken; the other +woven fabrics are almost exclusively produced on hand-looms. Here most +of the workers have suffered as the weavers have done from the crowding +in of competitors displaced by machinery, and are, moreover, subject like +the factory operatives to a severe fine system for bad work. Take, for +instance, the silk weavers. Mr. Brocklehurst, one of the largest silk +manufacturers in all England, laid before a committee of members of +Parliament lists taken from his books, from which it appears that for +goods for which he paid wages in 1821 at the rate of 30s., 14s., 3.5s., +.75s., 1.5s., 10s., he paid in 1839 but 9s., 7.25s., 2.25s., 0.333s., +0.5s., 6.25s., while in this case no improvement in the machinery has +taken place. But what Mr. Brocklehurst does may very well be taken as a +standard for all. From the same lists it appears that the average weekly +wage of his weavers, after all deductions, was, in 1821, 16.5s., and, in +1831, but 6s. Since that time wages have fallen still further. Goods +which brought in 4d. weavers' wages in 1831, bring in but 2.5d. in 1843 +(single sarsnets), and a great number of weavers in the country can get +work only when they undertake these goods at 1.5d.-2d. Moreover, they +are subject to arbitrary deductions from their wages. Every weaver who +receives materials is given a card, on which is usually to be read that +the work is to be returned at a specified hour of the day; that a weaver +who cannot work by reason of illness must make the fact known at the +office within three days, or sickness will not be regarded as an excuse; +that it will not be regarded as a sufficient excuse if the weaver claims +to have been obliged to wait for yarn; that for certain faults in the +work (if, for example, more weft-threads are found within a given space +than are prescribed), not less than half the wages will be deducted; and +that if the goods should not be ready at the time specified, one penny +will be deducted for every yard returned. The deductions in accordance +with these cards are so considerable that, for instance, a man who comes +twice a week to Leigh, in Lancashire, to gather up woven goods, brings +his employer at least 15 pound fines every time. He asserts this +himself, and he is regarded as one of the most lenient. Such things were +formerly settled by arbitration; but as the workers were usually +dismissed if they insisted upon that, the custom has been almost wholly +abandoned, and the manufacturer acts arbitrarily as prosecutor, witness, +judge, law-giver, and executive in one person. And if the workman goes +to a Justice of the Peace, the answer is: "When you accepted your card +you entered upon a contract, and you must abide by it." The case is the +same as that of the factory operatives. Besides, the employer obliges +the workman to sign a document in which he declares that he agrees to the +deductions made. And if a workman rebels, all the manufacturers in the +town know at once that he is a man who, as Leach says, {197} "resists the +lawful order as established by weavers' cards, and, moreover, has the +impudence to doubt the wisdom of those who are, as he ought to know, his +superiors in society." + +Naturally, the workers are perfectly free; the manufacturer does not +force them to take his materials and his cards, but he says to them what +Leach translates into plain English with the words: "If you don't like to +be frizzled in my frying-pan, you can take a walk into the fire." The +silk weavers of London, and especially of Spitalfields, have lived in +periodic distress for a long time, and that they still have no cause to +be satisfied with their lot is proved by their taking a most active part +in English labour movements in general, and in London ones in particular. +The distress prevailing among them gave rise to the fever which broke out +in East London, and called forth the Commission for Investigating the +Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Class. But the last report of the +London Fever Hospital shows that this disease is still raging. + +After the textile fabrics, by far the most important products of English +industry are the metal-wares. This trade has its headquarters at +Birmingham, where the finer metal goods of all sorts are produced, at +Sheffield for cutlery, and in Staffordshire, especially at Wolverhampton, +where the coarser articles, locks, nails, etc., are manufactured. In +describing the position of the workers employed in these trades, let us +begin with Birmingham. The disposition of the work has retained in +Birmingham, as in most places where metals are wrought, something of the +old handicraft character; the small employers are still to be found, who +work with their apprentices in the shop at home, or when they need steam- +power, in great factory buildings which are divided into little shops, +each rented to a small employer, and supplied with a shaft moved by the +engine, and furnishing motive power for the machinery. Leon Faucher, +author of a series of articles in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, which at +least betray study, and are better than what has hitherto been written +upon the subject by Englishmen or Germans, characterises this relation in +contrast with the manufacture of Lancashire as "Democratie industrielle," +and observes that it produces no very favourable results for master or +men. This observation is perfectly correct, for the many small employers +cannot well subsist on the profit divided amongst them, determined by +competition, a profit under other circumstances absorbed by a single +manufacturer. The centralising tendency of capital holds them down. For +one who grows rich ten are ruined, and a hundred placed at a greater +disadvantage than ever, by the pressure of the one upstart who can afford +to sell more cheaply than they. And in the cases where they have to +compete from the beginning against great capitalists, it is self-evident +that they can only toil along with the greatest difficulty. The +apprentices are, as we shall see, quite as badly off under the small +employers as under the manufacturers, with the single difference that +they, in turn, may become small employers, and so attain a certain +independence--that is to say, they are at best less directly exploited by +the bourgeoisie than under the factory system. Thus these small +employers are neither genuine proletarians, since they live in part upon +the work of their apprentices, nor genuine bourgeois, since their +principal means of support is their own work. This peculiar midway +position of the Birmingham iron-workers is to blame for their having so +rarely joined wholly and unreservedly in the English labour movements. +Birmingham is a politically radical, but not a Chartist, town. There +are, however, numerous larger factories belonging to capitalists; and in +these the factory system reigns supreme. The division of labour, which +is here carried out to the last detail (in the needle industry, for +example), and the use of steam-power, admit of the employment of a great +multitude of women and children, and we find here {199} precisely the +same features reappearing which the Factories' Report presented,--the +work of women up to the hour of confinement, incapacity as housekeepers, +neglect of home and children, indifference, actual dislike to family +life, and demoralisation; further, the crowding out of men from +employment, the constant improvement of machinery, early emancipation of +children, husbands supported by their wives and children, etc. etc. The +children are described as half-starved and ragged, the half of them are +said not to know what it is to have enough to eat, many of them get +nothing to eat before the midday meal, or even live the whole day upon a +pennyworth of bread for a noonday meal--there were actually cases in +which children received no food from eight in the morning until seven at +night. Their clothing is very often scarcely sufficient to cover their +nakedness, many are barefoot even in winter. Hence they are all small +and weak for their age, and rarely develop with any degree of vigour. And +when we reflect that with these insufficient means of reproducing the +physical forces, hard and protracted work in close rooms is required of +them, we cannot wonder that there are few adults in Birmingham fit for +military service. "The working men," says a recruiting surgeon, "are +small, delicate, and of very slight physical power; many of them +deformed, too, in the chest or spinal column." According to the +assertion of a recruiting sergeant, the people of Birmingham are smaller +than those anywhere else, being usually 5 feet 4 to 5 inches tall; out of +613 recruits, but 238 were found fit for service. As to education, a +series of depositions and specimens taken from the metal districts have +already been given, {200a} to which the reader is referred. It appears +further, from the Children's Employment Commission's Report, that in +Birmingham more than half the children between five and fifteen years +attend no school whatsoever, that those who do are constantly changing, +so that it is impossible to give them any training of an enduring kind, +and that they are all withdrawn from school very early and set to work. +The report makes it clear what sort of teachers are employed. One +teacher, in answer to the question whether she gave moral instruction, +said, No, for threepence a week school fees that was too much to require, +but that she took a great deal of trouble to instil good principles into +the children. (And she made a decided slip in her English in saying it.) +In the schools the commissioner found constant noise and disorder. The +moral state of the children is in the highest degree deplorable. Half of +all the criminals are children under fifteen, and in a single year ninety +ten-years'-old offenders, among them forty-four serious criminal cases, +were sentenced. Unbridled sexual intercourse seems, according to the +opinion of the commissioner, almost universal, and that at a very early +age. {200b} + +In the iron district of Staffordshire the state of things is still worse. +For the coarse wares made here neither much division of labour (with +certain exceptions) nor steam-power or machinery can be applied. In +Wolverhampton, Willenhall, Bilston, Sedgeley, Wednesfield, Darlaston, +Dudley, Walsall, Wednesbury, etc., there are, therefore, fewer factories, +but chiefly single forges, where the small masters work alone, or with +one or more apprentices, who serve them until reaching the twenty-first +year. The small employers are in about the same situation as those of +Birmingham; but the apprentices, as a rule, are much worse off. They get +almost exclusively meat from diseased animals or such as have died a +natural death, or tainted meat, or fish to eat, with veal from calves +killed too young, and pork from swine smothered during transportation, +and such food is furnished not by small employers only, but by large +manufacturers, who employ from thirty to forty apprentices. The custom +seems to be universal in Wolverhampton, and its natural consequence is +frequent bowel complaints and other diseases. Moreover, the children +usually do not get enough to eat, and have rarely other clothing than +their working rags, for which reason, if for no other, they cannot go to +Sunday school The dwellings are bad and filthy, often so much so that +they give rise to disease; and in spite of the not materially unhealthy +work, the children are puny, weak, and, in many cases, severely crippled. +In Willenhall, for instance, there are countless persons who have, from +perpetually filing at the lathe, crooked backs and one leg crooked, "hind- +leg" as they call it, so that the two legs have the form of a K; while it +is said that more than one-third of the working-men there are ruptured. +Here, as well as in Wolverhampton, numberless cases were found of +retarded puberty among girls, (for girls, too, work at the forges,) as +well as among boys, extending even to the nineteenth year. In Sedgeley +and its surrounding district, where nails form almost the sole product, +the nailers live and work in the most wretched stable-like huts, which +for filth can scarcely be equalled. Girls and boys work from the tenth +or twelfth year, and are accounted fully skilled only when they make a +thousand nails a day. For twelve hundred nails the pay is 5.75d. Every +nail receives twelve blows, and since the hammer weighs 1.25 pounds, the +nailer must lift 18,000 pounds to earn this miserable pay. With this +hard work and insufficient food, the children inevitably develop +ill-formed, undersized frames, and the commissioners depositions confirm +this. As to the state of education in this district, data have already +been furnished in the foregoing chapters. It is upon an incredibly low +plane; half the children do not even go to Sunday school, and the other +half go irregularly; very few, in comparison with the other districts, +can read, and in the matter of writing the case is much worse. Naturally, +for between the seventh and tenth years, just when they are beginning to +get some good out of going to school, they are set to work, and the +Sunday school teachers, smiths or miners, frequently cannot read, and +write their names with difficulty. The prevailing morals correspond with +these means of education. In Willenhall, Commissioner Horne asserts, and +supplies ample proofs of his assertion, that there exists absolutely no +moral sense among the workers. In general, he found that the children +neither recognised duties to their parents nor felt any affection for +them. They were so little capable of thinking of what they said, so +stolid, so hopelessly stupid, that they often asserted that they were +well treated, were coming on famously, when they were forced to work +twelve to fourteen hours, were clad in rags, did not get enough to eat, +and were beaten so that they felt it several days afterwards. They knew +nothing of a different kind of life than that in which they toil from +morning until they are allowed to stop at night, and did not even +understand the question never heard before, whether they were tired. +{202} + +In Sheffield wages are better, and the external state of the workers +also. On the other hand, certain branches of work are to be noticed +here, because of their extraordinarily injurious influence upon health. +Certain operations require the constant pressure of tools against the +chest, and engender consumption in many cases; others, file-cutting among +them, retard the general development of the body and produce digestive +disorders; bone-cutting for knife handles brings with it headache, +biliousness, and among girls, of whom many are employed, anaemia. By far +the most unwholesome work is the grinding of knife-blades and forks, +which, especially when done with a dry stone, entails certain early +death. The unwholesomeness of this work lies in part in the bent +posture, in which chest and stomach are cramped; but especially in the +quantity of sharp-edged metal dust particles freed in the cutting, which +fill the atmosphere, and are necessarily inhaled. The dry grinders' +average life is hardly thirty-five years, the wet grinders' rarely +exceeds forty-five. Dr. Knight, in Sheffield, says: {203} + + "I can convey some idea of the injuriousness of this occupation only + by asserting that the hardest drinkers among the grinders are the + longest lived among them, because they are longest and oftenest absent + from their work. There are, in all, some 2,500 grinders in Sheffield. + About 150 (80 men and 70 boys) are fork grinders; these die between + the twenty-eighth and thirty-second years of age. The razor grinders, + who grind wet as well as dry, die between forty and forty-five years, + and the table cutlery grinders, who grind wet, die between the + fortieth and fiftieth year." + +The same physician gives the following description of the course of the +disease called grinders' asthma: + + "They usually begin their work with the fourteenth year, and, if they + have good constitutions, rarely notice any symptoms before the + twentieth year. Then the symptoms of their peculiar disease appear. + They suffer from shortness of breath at the slightest effort in going + up hill or up stairs, they habitually raise the shoulders to relieve + the permanent and increasing want of breath; they bend forward, and + seem, in general, to feel most comfortable in the crouching position + in which they work. Their complexion becomes dirty yellow, their + features express anxiety, they complain of pressure upon the chest. + Their voices become rough and hoarse, they cough loudly, and the sound + is as if air were driven through a wooden tube. From time to time + they expectorate considerable quantities of dust, either mixed with + phlegm or in balls or cylindrical masses, with a thin coating of + mucus. Spitting blood, inability to lie down, night sweat, + colliquative diarrhoea, unusual loss of flesh, and all the usual + symptoms of consumption of the lungs finally carry them off, after + they have lingered months, or even years, unfit to support themselves + or those dependent upon them. I must add that all attempts which have + hitherto been made to prevent grinders' asthma, or to cure it, have + wholly failed." + +All this Knight wrote ten years ago; since then the number of grinders +and the violence of the disease have increased, though attempts have been +made to prevent it by covered grindstones and carrying off the dust by +artificial draught. These methods have been at least partially +successful, but the grinders do not desire their adoption, and have even +destroyed the contrivance here and there, in the belief that more workers +may be attracted to the business and wages thus reduced; they are for a +short life and a merry one. Dr. Knight has often told grinders who came +to him with the first symptoms of asthma that a return to grinding means +certain death, but with no avail. He who is once a grinder falls into +despair, as though he had sold himself to the devil. Education in +Sheffield is upon a very low plane; a clergyman, who had occupied himself +largely with the statistics of education, was of the opinion that of +16,500 children of the working-class who are in a position to attend +school, scarcely 6,500 can read. This comes of the fact that the +children are taken from school in the seventh, and, at the very latest, +in the twelfth year, and that the teachers are good for nothing; one was +a convicted thief who found no other way of supporting himself after +being released from jail than teaching school! Immorality among young +people seems to be more prevalent in Sheffield than anywhere else. It is +hard to tell which town ought to have the prize, and in reading the +report one believes of each one that this certainly deserves it! The +younger generation spend the whole of Sunday lying in the street tossing +coins or fighting dogs, go regularly to the gin palace, where they sit +with their sweethearts until late at night, when they take walks in +solitary couples. In an ale-house which the commissioner visited, there +sat forty to fifty young people of both sexes, nearly all under seventeen +years of age, and each lad beside his lass. Here and there cards were +played, at other places dancing was going on, and everywhere drinking. +Among the company were openly avowed professional prostitutes. No +wonder, then, that, as all the witnesses testify, early, unbridled sexual +intercourse, youthful prostitution, beginning with persons of fourteen to +fifteen years, is extraordinarily frequent in Sheffield. Crimes of a +savage and desperate sort are of common occurrence; one year before the +commissioner's visit, a band, consisting chiefly of young persons, was +arrested when about to set fire to the town, being fully equipped with +lances and inflammable substances. We shall see later that the labour +movement in Sheffield has this same savage character. {205} + +Besides these two main centres of the metal industry, there are needle +factories in Warrington, Lancashire, where great want, immorality, and +ignorance prevail among the workers, and especially among the children; +and a number of nail forges in the neighbourhood of Wigan, in Lancashire, +and in the east of Scotland. The reports from these latter districts +tell almost precisely the same story as those of Staffordshire. There is +one more branch of this industry carried on in the factory districts, +especially in Lancashire, the essential peculiarity of which is the +production of machinery by machinery, whereby the workers, crowded out +elsewhere, are deprived of their last refuge, the creation of the very +enemy which supersedes them. Machinery for planing and boring, cutting +screws, wheels, nuts, etc., with power lathes, has thrown out of +employment a multitude of men who formerly found regular work at good +wages; and whoever wishes to do so may see crowds of them in Manchester. + +North of the iron district of Staffordshire lies an industrial region to +which we shall now turn our attention, the Potteries, whose headquarters +are in the borough of Stoke, embracing Henley, Burslem, Lane End, Lane +Delph, Etruria, Coleridge, Langport, Tunstall, and Golden Hill, +containing together 60,000 inhabitants. The Children's Employment +Commission reports upon this subject that in some branches of this +industry, in the production of stoneware, the children have light +employment in warm, airy rooms; in others, on the contrary, hard, wearing +labour is required, while they receive neither sufficient food nor good +clothing. Many children complain: "Don't get enough to eat, get mostly +potatoes with salt, never meat, never bread, don't go to school, haven't +got no clothes." "Haven't got nothin' to eat to-day for dinner, don't +never have dinner at home, get mostly potatoes and salt, sometimes +bread." "These is all the clothes I have, no Sunday suit at home." Among +the children whose work is especially injurious are the mould-runners, +who have to carry the moulded article with the form to the drying-room, +and afterwards bring back the empty form, when the article is properly +dried. Thus they must go to and fro the whole day, carrying burdens +heavy in proportion to their age, while the high temperature in which +they have to do this increases very considerably the exhaustiveness of +the work. These children, with scarcely a single exception, are lean, +pale, feeble, stunted; nearly all suffer from stomach troubles, nausea, +want of appetite, and many of them die of consumption. Almost as +delicate are the boys called "jiggers," from the "jigger" wheel which +they turn. But by far the most injurious is the work of those who dip +the finished article into a fluid containing great quantities of lead, +and often of arsenic, or have to take the freshly-dipped article up with +the hand. The hands and clothing of these workers, adults and children, +are always wet with this fluid, the skin softens and falls off under the +constant contact with rough objects, so that the fingers often bleed, and +are constantly in a state most favourable for the absorption of this +dangerous substance. The consequence is violent pain, and serious +disease of the stomach and intestines, obstinate constipation, colic, +sometimes consumption, and, most common of all, epilepsy among children. +Among men, partial paralysis of the hand muscles, colica pictorum, and +paralysis of whole limbs are ordinary phenomena. One witness relates +that two children who worked with him died of convulsions at their work; +another who had helped with the dipping two years while a boy, relates +that he had violent pains in the bowels at first, then convulsions, in +consequence of which he was confined to his bed two months, since when +the attacks of convulsions have increased in frequency, are now daily, +accompanied often by ten to twenty epileptic fits, his right arm is +paralysed, and the physicians tell him that he can never regain the use +of his limbs. In one factory were found in the dipping-house four men, +all epileptic and afflicted with severe colic, and eleven boys, several +of whom were already epileptic. In short, this frightful disease follows +this occupation universally: and that, too, to the greater pecuniary +profit of the bourgeoisie! In the rooms in which the stoneware is +scoured, the atmosphere is filled with pulverised flint, the breathing of +which is as injurious as that of the steel dust among the Sheffield +grinders. The workers lose breath, cannot lie down, suffer from sore +throat and violent coughing, and come to have so feeble a voice that they +can scarcely be heard. They, too, all die of consumption. In the +Potteries district, the schools are said to be comparatively numerous, +and to offer the children opportunities for instruction; but as the +latter are so early set to work for twelve hours and often more per day, +they are not in a position to avail themselves of the schools, so that +three-fourths of the children examined by the commissioner could neither +read nor write, while the whole district is plunged in the deepest +ignorance. Children who have attended Sunday school for years could not +tell one letter from another, and the moral and religious education, as +well as the intellectual, is on a very low plane. {207} + +In the manufacture of glass, too, work occurs which seems little +injurious to men, but cannot be endured by children. The hard labour, +the irregularity of the hours, the frequent night-work, and especially +the great heat of the working place (100 to 130 Fahrenheit), engender in +children general debility and disease, stunted growth, and especially +affections of the eye, bowel complaint, and rheumatic and bronchial +affections. Many of the children are pale, have red eyes, often blind +for weeks at a time, suffer from violent nausea, vomiting, coughs, colds, +and rheumatism. When the glass is withdrawn from the fire, the children +must often go into such heat that the boards on which they stand catch +fire under their feet. The glassblowers usually die young of debility +and chest affections. {208} + +As a whole, this report testifies to the gradual but sure introduction of +the factory system into all branches of industry, recognisable especially +by the employment of women and children. I have not thought it necessary +to trace in every case the progress of machinery and the superseding of +men as workers. Every one who is in any degree acquainted with the +nature of manufacture can fill this out for himself, while space fails me +to describe in detail an aspect of our present system of production, the +result of which I have already sketched in dealing with the factory +system. In all directions machinery is being introduced, and the last +trace of the working-man's independence thus destroyed. In all +directions the family is being dissolved by the labour of wife and +children, or inverted by the husband's being thrown out of employment and +made dependent upon them for bread; everywhere the inevitable machinery +bestows upon the great capitalist command of trade and of the workers +with it. The centralisation of capital strides forward without +interruption, the division of society into great capitalists and +non-possessing workers is sharper every day, the industrial development +of the nation advances with giant strides towards the inevitable crisis. + +I have already stated that in the handicrafts the power of capital, and +in some cases the division of labour too, has produced the same results, +crushed the small tradesmen, and put great capitalists and non-possessing +workers in their place. As to these handicraftsmen there is little to be +said, since all that relates to them has already found its place where +the proletariat in general was under discussion. There has been but +little change here in the nature of the work and its influence upon +health since the beginning of the industrial movement. But the constant +contact with the factory operatives, the pressure of the great +capitalists, which is much more felt than that of the small employer to +whom the apprentice still stood in a more or less personal relation, the +influences of life in towns, and the fall of wages, have made nearly all +the handicraftsmen active participators in labour movements. We shall +soon have more to say on this point, and turn meanwhile to one section of +workers in London who deserve our attention by reason of the +extraordinary barbarity with which they are exploited by the money-greed +of the bourgeoisie. I mean the dressmakers and sewing-women. + +It is a curious fact that the production of precisely those articles +which serve the personal adornment of the ladies of the bourgeoisie +involves the saddest consequences for the health of the workers. We have +already seen this in the case of the lacemakers, and come now to the +dressmaking establishments of London for further proof. They employ a +mass of young girls--there are said to be 15,000 of them in all--who +sleep and eat on the premises, come usually from the country, and are +therefore absolutely the slaves of their employers. During the +fashionable season, which lasts some four months, working-hours, even in +the best establishments, are fifteen, and, in very pressing cases, +eighteen a day; but in most shops work goes on at these times without any +set regulation, so that the girls never have more than six, often not +more than three or four, sometimes, indeed, not more than two hours in +the twenty-four, for rest and sleep, working nineteen to twenty hours, if +not the whole night through, as frequently happens! The only limit set +to their work is the absolute physical inability to hold the needle +another minute. Cases have occurred in which these helpless creatures +did not undress during nine consecutive days and nights, and could only +rest a moment or two here and there upon a mattress, where food was +served them ready cut up in order to require the least possible time for +swallowing. In short, these unfortunate girls are kept by means of the +moral whip of the modern slave-driver, the threat of discharge, to such +long and unbroken toil as no strong man, much less a delicate girl of +fourteen to twenty years, can endure. In addition to this, the foul air +of the workroom and sleeping places, the bent posture, the often bad and +indigestible food, all these causes, combined with almost total exclusion +from fresh air, entail the saddest consequences for the health of the +girls. Enervation, exhaustion, debility, loss of appetite, pains in the +shoulders, back, and hips, but especially headache, begin very soon; then +follow curvatures of the spine, high, deformed shoulders, leanness, +swelled, weeping, and smarting eyes, which soon become short-sighted; +coughs, narrow chests, and shortness of breath, and all manner of +disorders in the development of the female organism. In many cases the +eyes suffer, so severely that incurable blindness follows; but if the +sight remains strong enough to make continued work possible, consumption +usually soon ends the sad life of these milliners and dressmakers. Even +those who leave this work at an early age retain permanently injured +health, a broken constitution; and, when married, bring feeble and sickly +children into the world. All the medical men interrogated by the +commissioner agreed that no method of life could be invented better +calculated to destroy health and induce early death. + +With the same cruelty, though somewhat more indirectly, the rest of the +needle-women of London are exploited. The girls employed in stay-making +have a hard, wearing occupation, trying to the eyes. And what wages do +they get? I do not know; but this I know, that the middle-man who has to +give security for the material delivered, and who distributes the work +among the needle-women, receives 1.5d. per piece. From this he deducts +his own pay, at least .5d., so that 1d. at most reaches the pocket of the +girl. The girls who sew neckties must bind themselves to work sixteen +hours a day, and receive 4.5s. a week. {210} But the shirtmakers' lot is +the worst. They receive for an ordinary shirt 1.5d., formerly 2d.-3d.; +but since the workhouse of St. Pancras, which is administered by a +Radical board of guardians, began to undertake work at 1.5d., the poor +women outside have been compelled to do the same. For fine, fancy +shirts, which can be made in one day of eighteen hours, 6d. is paid. The +weekly wage of these sewing-women according to this and according to +testimony from many sides, including both needle-women and employers, is +2s. 6d. to 3s. for most strained work continued far into the night. And +what crowns this shameful barbarism is the fact that the women must give +a money deposit for a part of the materials entrusted to them, which they +naturally cannot do unless they pawn a part of them (as the employers +very well know), redeeming them at a loss; or if they cannot redeem the +materials, they must appear before a Justice of the Peace, as happened a +sewing-woman in November, 1843. A poor girl who got into this strait and +did not know what to do next, drowned herself in a canal in 1844. These +women usually live in little garret rooms in the utmost distress, where +as many crowd together as the space can possibly admit, and where, in +winter, the animal warmth of the workers is the only heat obtainable. +Here they sit bent over their work, sewing from four or five in the +morning until midnight, destroying their health in a year or two and +ending in an early grave, without being able to obtain the poorest +necessities of life meanwhile. {211} And below them roll the brilliant +equipages of the upper bourgeoisie, and perhaps ten steps away some +pitiable dandy loses more money in one evening at faro than they can earn +in a year. + +* * * * * + +Such is the condition of the English manufacturing proletariat. In all +directions, whithersoever we may turn, we find want and disease permanent +or temporary, and demoralisation arising from the condition of the +workers; in all directions slow but sure undermining, and final +destruction of the human being physically as well as mentally. Is this a +state of things which can last? It cannot and will not last. The +workers, the great majority of the nation, will not endure it. Let us +see what they say of it. + + + + +LABOUR MOVEMENTS. + + +It must be admitted, even if I had not proved it so often in detail, that +the English workers cannot feel happy in this condition; that theirs is +not a state in which a man or a whole class of men can think, feel, and +live as human beings. The workers must therefore strive to escape from +this brutalizing condition, to secure for themselves a better, more human +position; and this they cannot do without attacking the interest of the +bourgeoisie which consists in exploiting them. But the bourgeoisie +defends its interests with all the power placed at its disposal by wealth +and the might of the State. In proportion as the working-man determines +to alter the present state of things, the bourgeois becomes his avowed +enemy. + +Moreover, the working-man is made to feel at every moment that the +bourgeoisie treats him as a chattel, as its property, and for this +reason, if for no other, he must come forward as its enemy. I have shown +in a hundred ways in the foregoing pages, and could have shown in a +hundred others, that, in our present society, he can save his manhood +only in hatred and rebellion against the bourgeoisie. And he can protest +with most violent passion against the tyranny of the propertied class, +thanks to his education, or rather want of education, and to the +abundance of hot Irish blood that flows in the veins of the English +working-class. The English working-man is no Englishman nowadays; no +calculating money-grabber like his wealthy neighbour. He possesses more +fully developed feelings, his native northern coldness is overborne by +the unrestrained development of his passions and their control over him. +The cultivation of the understanding which so greatly strengthens the +selfish tendency of the English bourgeois, which has made selfishness his +predominant trait and concentrated all his emotional power upon the +single point of money-greed, is wanting in the working-man, whose +passions are therefore strong and mighty as those of the foreigner. +English nationality is annihilated in the working-man. + +Since, as we have seen, no single field for the exercise of his manhood +is left him, save his opposition to the whole conditions of his life, it +is natural that exactly in this opposition he should be most manly, +noblest, most worthy of sympathy. We shall see that all the energy, all +the activity of the working-men is directed to this point, and that even +their attempts to attain general education all stand in direct connection +with this. True, we shall have single acts of violence and even of +brutality to report, but it must always be kept in mind that the social +war is avowedly raging in England; and that, whereas it is in the +interest of the bourgeoisie to conduct this war hypocritically, under the +disguise of peace and even of philanthropy, the only help for the working- +men consists in laying bare the true state of things and destroying this +hypocrisy; that the most violent attacks of the workers upon the +bourgeoisie and its servants are only the open, undisguised expression of +that which the bourgeoisie perpetrates secretly, treacherously against +the workers. + +The revolt of the workers began soon after the first industrial +development, and has passed through several phases. The investigation of +their importance in the history of the English people I must reserve for +separate treatment, limiting myself meanwhile to such bare facts as serve +to characterise the condition of the English proletariat. + +The earliest, crudest, and least fruitful form of this rebellion was that +of crime. The working-man lived in poverty and want, and saw that others +were better off than he. It was not clear to his mind why he, who did +more for society than the rich idler, should be the one to suffer under +these conditions. Want conquered his inherited respect for the +sacredness of property, and he stole. We have seen how crime increased +with the extension of manufacture; how the yearly number of arrests bore +a constant relation to the number of bales of cotton annually consumed. + +The workers soon realised that crime did not help matters. The criminal +could protest against the existing order of society only singly, as one +individual; the whole might of society was brought to bear upon each +criminal, and crushed him with its immense superiority. Besides, theft +was the most primitive form of protest, and for this reason, if for no +other, it never became the universal expression of the public opinion of +the working-men, however much they might approve of it in silence. As a +class, they first manifested opposition to the bourgeoisie when they +resisted the introduction of machinery at the very beginning of the +industrial period. The first inventors, Arkwright and others, were +persecuted in this way and their machines destroyed. Later, there took +place a number of revolts against machinery, in which the occurrences +were almost precisely the same as those of the printers' disturbances in +Bohemia in 1844; factories were demolished and machinery destroyed. + +This form of opposition also was isolated, restricted to certain +localities, and directed against one feature only of our present social +arrangements. When the momentary end was attained, the whole weight of +social power fell upon the unprotected evil-doers and punished them to +its heart's content, while the machinery was introduced none the less. A +new form of opposition had to be found. + +At this point help came in the shape of a law enacted by the old, +unreformed, oligarchic-Tory parliament, a law which never could have +passed the House of Commons later, when the Reform Bill had legally +sanctioned the distinction between bourgeoisie and proletariat, and made +the bourgeoisie the ruling class. This was enacted in 1824, and repealed +all laws by which coalitions between working-men for labour purposes had +hitherto been forbidden. The working-men obtained a right previously +restricted to the aristocracy and bourgeoisie, the right of free +association. Secret coalitions had, it is true, previously existed, but +could never achieve great results. In Glasgow, as Symonds {214} relates, +a general strike of weavers had taken place in 1812, which was brought +about by a secret association. It was repeated in 1822, and on this +occasion vitriol was thrown into the faces of the two working-men who +would not join the association, and were therefore regarded by the +members as traitors to their class. Both the assaulted lost the use of +their eyes in consequence of the injury. So, too, in 1818, the +association of Scottish miners was powerful enough to carry on a general +strike. These associations required their members to take an oath of +fidelity and secrecy, had regular lists, treasurers, bookkeepers, and +local branches. But the secrecy with which everything was conducted +crippled their growth. When, on the other hand, the working-man received +in 1824 the right of free association, these combinations were very soon +spread over all England and attained great power. In all branches of +industry Trades Unions were formed with the outspoken intention of +protecting the single working-man against the tyranny and neglect of the +bourgeoisie. Their objects were to deal, _en masse_, as a power, with +the employers; to regulate the rate of wages according to the profit of +the latter, to raise it when opportunity offered, and to keep it uniform +in each trade throughout the country. Hence they tried to settle with +the capitalists a scale of wages to be universally adhered to, and +ordered out on strike the employees of such individuals as refused to +accept the scale. They aimed further to keep up the demand for labour by +limiting the number of apprentices, and so to keep wages high; to +counteract, as far as possible, the indirect wages reductions which the +manufacturers brought about by means of new tools and machinery; and +finally, to assist unemployed working-men financially. This they do +either directly or by means of a card to legitimate the bearer as a +"society man," and with which the working-man wanders from place to +place, supported by his fellow-workers, and instructed as to the best +opportunity for finding employment. This is tramping, and the wanderer a +tramp. To attain these ends, a President and Secretary are engaged at a +salary (since it is to be expected that no manufacturer will employ such +persons), and a committee collects the weekly contributions and watches +over their expenditure for the purposes of the association. When it +proved possible and advantageous, the various trades of single districts +united in a federation and held delegate conventions at set times. The +attempt has been made in single cases to unite the workers of one branch +over all England in one great Union; and several times (in 1830 for the +first time) to form one universal trades association for the whole United +Kingdom, with a separate organisation for each trade. These +associations, however, never held together long, and were seldom realised +even for the moment, since an exceptionally universal excitement is +necessary to make such a federation possible and effective. + +The means usually employed by these Unions for attaining their ends are +the following: If one or more employers refuse to pay the wage specified +by the Union, a deputation is sent or a petition forwarded (the working- +men, you see, know how to recognise the absolute power of the lord of the +factory in his little State); if this proves unavailing, the Union +commands the employees to stop work, and all hands go home. This strike +is either partial when one or several, or general when all employers in +the trade refuse to regulate wages according to the proposals of the +Union. So far go the lawful means of the Union, assuming the strike to +take effect after the expiration of the legal notice, which is not always +the case. But these lawful means are very weak when there are workers +outside the Union, or when members separate from it for the sake of the +momentary advantage offered by the bourgeoisie. Especially in the case +of partial strikes can the manufacturer readily secure recruits from +these black sheep (who are known as knobsticks), and render fruitless the +efforts of the united workers. Knobsticks are usually threatened, +insulted, beaten, or otherwise maltreated by the members of the Union; +intimidated, in short, in every way. Prosecution follows, and as the law- +abiding bourgeoisie has the power in its own hands, the force of the +Union is broken almost every time by the first unlawful act, the first +judicial procedure against its members. + +The history of these Unions is a long series of defeats of the working- +men, interrupted by a few isolated victories. All these efforts +naturally cannot alter the economic law according to which wages are +determined by the relation between supply and demand in the labour +market. Hence the Unions remain powerless against all _great_ forces +which influence this relation. In a commercial crisis the Union itself +must reduce wages or dissolve wholly; and in a time of considerable +increase in the demand for labour, it cannot fix the rate of wages higher +than would be reached spontaneously by the competition of the capitalists +among themselves. But in dealing with minor, single influences they are +powerful. If the employer had no concentrated, collective opposition to +expect, he would in his own interest gradually reduce wages to a lower +and lower point; indeed, the battle of competition which he has to wage +against his fellow-manufacturers would force him to do so, and wages +would soon reach the minimum. But this competition of the manufacturers +among themselves is, _under average conditions_, somewhat restricted by +the opposition of the working-men. + +Every manufacturer knows that the consequence of a reduction not +justified by conditions to which his competitors also are subjected, +would be a strike, which would most certainly injure him, because his +capital would be idle as long as the strike lasted, and his machinery +would be rusting, whereas it is very doubtful whether he could, in such a +case, enforce his reduction. Then he has the certainty that if he should +succeed, his competitors would follow him, reducing the price of the +goods so produced, and thus depriving him of the benefit of his policy. +Then, too, the Unions often bring about a more rapid increase of wages +after a crisis than would otherwise follow. For the manufacturer's +interest is to delay raising wages until forced by competition, but now +the working-men demand an increased wage as soon as the market improves, +and they can carry their point by reason of the smaller supply of workers +at his command under such circumstances. But, for resistance to more +considerable forces which influence the labour market, the Unions are +powerless. In such cases hunger gradually drives the strikers to resume +work on any terms, and when once a few have begun; the force of the Union +is broken, because these few knobsticks, with the reserve supplies of +goods in the market, enable the bourgeoisie to overcome the worst effects +of the interruption of business. The funds of the Union are soon +exhausted by the great numbers requiring relief, the credit which the +shopkeepers give at high interest is withdrawn after a time, and want +compels the working-man to place himself once more under the yoke of the +bourgeoisie. But strikes end disastrously for the workers mostly, +because the manufacturers, in their own interest (which has, be it said, +become their interest only through the resistance of the workers), are +obliged to avoid all useless reductions, while the workers feel in every +reduction imposed by the state of trade a deterioration of their +condition, against which they must defend themselves as far as in them +lies. + +It will be asked, "Why, then, do the workers strike in such cases, when +the uselessness of such measures is so evident?" Simply because they +_must_ protest against every reduction, even if dictated by necessity; +because they feel bound to proclaim that they, as human beings, shall not +be made to bow to social circumstances, but social conditions ought to +yield to them as human beings; because silence on their part would be a +recognition of these social conditions, an admission of the right of the +bourgeoisie to exploit the workers in good times and let them starve in +bad ones. Against this the working-men must rebel so long as they have +not lost all human feeling, and that they protest in this way and no +other, comes of their being practical English people, who express +themselves in _action_, and do not, like German theorists, go to sleep as +soon as their protest is properly registered and placed _ad acta_, there +to sleep as quietly as the protesters themselves. The active resistance +of the English working-men has its effect in holding the money greed of +the bourgeoisie within certain limits, and keeping alive the opposition +of the workers to the social and political omnipotence of the +bourgeoisie, while it compels the admission that something more is needed +than Trades Unions and strikes to break the power of the ruling class. +But what gives these Unions and the strikes arising from them their real +importance is this, that they are the first attempt of the workers to +abolish competition. They imply the recognition of the fact that the +supremacy of the bourgeoisie is based wholly upon the competition of the +workers among themselves; _i.e_., upon their want of cohesion. And +precisely because the Unions direct themselves against the vital nerve of +the present social order, however one-sidedly, in however narrow a way, +are they so dangerous to this social order. The working-men cannot +attack the bourgeoisie, and with it the whole existing order of society, +at any sorer point than this. If the competition of the workers among +themselves is destroyed, if all determine not to be further exploited by +the bourgeoisie, the rule of property is at an end. Wages depend upon +the relation of demand to supply, upon the accidental state of the labour +market, simply because the workers have hitherto been content to be +treated as chattels, to be bought and sold. The moment the workers +resolve to be bought and sold no longer, when in the determination of the +value of labour, they take the part of men possessed of a will as well as +of working-power, at that moment the whole Political Economy of to-day is +at an end. + +The laws determining the rate of wages would, indeed, come into force +again in the long run, if the working-men did not go beyond this step of +abolishing competition among themselves. But they must go beyond that +unless they are prepared to recede again and to allow competition among +themselves to reappear. Thus once advanced so far, necessity compels +them to go farther; to abolish not only one kind of competition, but +competition itself altogether, and that they will do. + +The workers are coming to perceive more clearly with every day how +competition affects them; they see far more clearly than the bourgeois +that competition of the capitalists among themselves presses upon the +workers too, by bringing on commercial crises, and that this kind of +competition; too, must be abolished. They will soon learn _how_ they +have to go about it. + +That these Unions contribute greatly to nourish the bitter hatred of the +workers against the property-holding class need hardly be said. From +them proceed, therefore, with or without the connivance of the leading +members, in times of unusual excitement, individual actions which can be +explained only by hatred wrought to the pitch of despair, by a wild +passion overwhelming all restraints. Of this sort are the attacks with +vitriol mentioned in the foregoing pages, and a series of others, of +which I shall cite several. In 1831, during a violent labour movement, +young Ashton, a manufacturer in Hyde, near Manchester, was shot one +evening when crossing a field, and no trace of the assassin discovered. +There is no doubt that this was a deed of vengeance of the working-men. +Incendiarisms and attempted explosions are very common. On Friday, +September 29th, 1843, an attempt was made to blow up the saw-works of +Padgin, in Howard Street, Sheffield. A closed iron tube filled with +powder was the means employed, and the damage was considerable. On the +following day, a similar attempt was made in Ibbetson's knife and file +works at Shales Moor, near Sheffield. Mr. Ibbetson had made himself +obnoxious by an active participation in bourgeois movements, by low +wages, the exclusive employment of knobsticks, and the exploitation of +the Poor Law for his own benefit. He had reported, during the crisis of +1842, such operatives as refused to accept reduced wages, as persons who +could find work but would not take it, and were, therefore, not deserving +of relief, so compelling the acceptance of a reduction. Considerable +damage was inflicted by the explosion, and all the working-men who came +to view it regretted only "that the whole concern was not blown into the +air." On Friday, October 6th, 1844, an attempt to set fire to the +factory of Ainsworth and Crompton, at Bolton, did no damage; it was the +third or fourth attempt in the same factory within a very short time. In +the meeting of the Town Council of Sheffield, on Wednesday, January 10th, +1844, the Commissioner of Police exhibited a cast-iron machine, made for +the express purpose of producing an explosion, and found filled with four +pounds of powder, and a fuse which had been lighted but had not taken +effect, in the works of Mr. Kitchen, Earl Street, Sheffield. On Sunday, +January 20th, 1844, an explosion caused by a package of powder took place +in the sawmill of Bently & White, at Bury, in Lancashire, and produced +considerable damage. On Thursday, February 1st, 1844, the Soho Wheel +Works, in Sheffield, were set on fire and burnt up. + +Here are six such cases in four months, all of which have their sole +origin in the embitterment of the working-men against the employers. What +sort of a social state it must be in which such things are possible I +need hardly say. These facts are proof enough that in England, even in +good business years, such as 1843, the social war is avowed and openly +carried on, and still the English bourgeoisie does not stop to reflect! +But the case which speaks most loudly is that of the Glasgow Thugs, +{221a} which came up before the Assizes from the 3rd to the 11th of +January, 1838. It appears from the proceedings that the Cotton-Spinners' +Union, which existed here from the year 1816, possessed rare organisation +and power. The members were bound by an oath to adhere to the decision +of the majority, and had during every turnout a secret committee which +was unknown to the mass of the members, and controlled the funds of the +Union absolutely. This committee fixed a price upon the heads of +knobsticks and obnoxious manufacturers and upon incendiarisms in mills. A +mill was thus set on fire in which female knobsticks were employed in +spinning in the place of men; a Mrs. M'Pherson, mother of one of these +girls, was murdered, and both murderers sent to America at the expense of +the association. As early as 1820, a knobstick named M'Quarry was shot +at and wounded, for which deed the doer received twenty pounds from the +Union, but was discovered and transported for life. Finally, in 1837, in +May, disturbances occurred in consequence of a turnout in the Oatbank and +Mile End factories, in which perhaps a dozen knobsticks were maltreated. +In July, of the same year, the disturbances still continued, and a +certain Smith, a knobstick, was so maltreated that he died. The +committee was now arrested, an investigation begun, and the leading +members found guilty of participation in conspiracies, maltreatment of +knobsticks, and incendiarism in the mill of James and Francis Wood, and +they were transported for seven years. What do our good Germans say to +this story? {221b} + +The property-holding class, and especially the manufacturing portion of +it which comes into direct contact with the working-men, declaims with +the greatest violence against these Unions, and is constantly trying to +prove their uselessness to the working-men upon grounds which are +economically perfectly correct, but for that very reason partially +mistaken, and for the working-man's understanding totally without effect. +The very zeal of the bourgeoisie shows that it is not disinterested in +the matter; and apart from the indirect loss involved in a turnout, the +state of the case is such that whatever goes into the pockets of the +manufacturers comes of necessity out of those of the worker. So that +even if the working-men did not know that the Unions hold the emulation +of their masters in the reduction of wages, at least in a measure, in +check, they would still stand by the Unions, simply to the injury of +their enemies, the manufacturers. In war the injury of one party is the +benefit of the other, and since the working-men are on a war-footing +towards their employers, they do merely what the great potentates do when +they get into a quarrel. Beyond all other bourgeois is our friend Dr. +Ure, the most furious enemy of the Unions. He foams with indignation at +the "secret tribunals" of the cotton-spinners, the most powerful section +of the workers, tribunals which boast their ability to paralyse every +disobedient manufacturer, {222a} "and so bring ruin on the man who had +given them profitable employment for many a year." He speaks of a time +{222b} "when the inventive head and the sustaining heart of trade were +held in bondage by the unruly lower members." A pity that the English +working-men will not let themselves be pacified so easily with thy fable +as the Roman Plebs, thou modern Menenius Agrippa! Finally, he relates +the following: At one time the coarse mule-spinners had misused their +power beyond all endurance. High wages, instead of awakening +thankfulness towards the manufacturers and leading to intellectual +improvement (in harmless study of sciences useful to the bourgeoisie, of +course), in many cases produced pride and supplied funds for supporting +rebellious spirits in strikes, with which a number of manufacturers were +visited one after the other in a purely arbitrary manner. During an +unhappy disturbance of this sort in Hyde, Dukinfield, and the surrounding +neighbourhood, the manufacturers of the district, anxious lest they +should be driven from the market by the French, Belgians, and Americans, +addressed themselves to the machine-works of Sharp, Roberts & Co., and +requested Mr. Sharp to turn his inventive mind to the construction of an +automatic mule in order "to emancipate the trade from galling slavery and +impending ruin." {223a} + +"He produced in the course of a few months a machine apparently instinct +with the thought, feeling, and tact of the experienced workman--which +even in its infancy displayed a new principle of regulation, ready in its +mature state to fulfil the functions of a finished spinner. Thus the +Iron Man, as the operatives fitly call it, sprung out of the hands of our +modern Prometheus at the bidding of Minerva--a creation destined to +restore order among the industrious classes, and to confirm to Great +Britain the empire of art. The news of this Herculean prodigy spread +dismay through the Union, and even long before it left its cradle, so to +speak, it strangled the Hydra of misrule." {223b} + +Ure proves further that the invention of the machine, with which four and +five colours are printed at once, was a result of the disturbances among +the calico printers; that the refractoriness of the yarn-dressers in the +power-loom weaving mills gave rise to a new and perfected machine for +warp-dressing, and mentions several other such cases. A few pages +earlier this same Ure gives himself a great deal of trouble to prove in +detail that machinery is beneficial to the workers! But Ure is not the +only one; in the Factory Report, Mr. Ashworth, the manufacturer, and many +another, lose no opportunity to express their wrath against the Unions. +These wise bourgeois, like certain governments, trace every movement +which they do not understand, to the influence of ill-intentioned +agitators, demagogues, traitors, spouting idiots, and ill-balanced youth. +They declare that the paid agents of the Unions are interested in the +agitation because they live upon it, as though the necessity for this +payment were not forced upon them by the bourgeois, who will give such +men no employment! + +The incredible frequency of these strikes proves best of all to what +extent the social war has broken out all over England. No week passes, +scarcely a day, indeed, in which there is not a strike in some direction, +now against a reduction, then against a refusal to raise the rate of +wages, again by reason of the employment of knobsticks or the continuance +of abuses, sometimes against new machinery, or for a hundred other +reasons. These strikes, at first skirmishes, sometimes result in weighty +struggles; they decide nothing, it is true, but they are the strongest +proof that the decisive battle between bourgeoisie and proletariat is +approaching. They are the military school of the working-men in which +they prepare themselves for the great struggle which cannot be avoided; +they are the pronunciamentos of single branches of industry that these +too have joined the labour movement. And when one examines a year's file +of the _Northern Star_, the only sheet which reports all the movements of +the proletariat, one finds that all the proletarians of the towns and of +country manufacture have united in associations, and have protested from +time to time, by means of a general strike, against the supremacy of the +bourgeoisie. And as schools of war, the Unions are unexcelled. In them +is developed the peculiar courage of the English. It is said on the +Continent that the English, and especially the working-men, are cowardly, +that they cannot carry out a revolution because, unlike the French, they +do not riot at intervals, because they apparently accept the bourgeois +_regime_ so quietly. This is a complete mistake. The English working- +men are second to none in courage; they are quite as restless as the +French, but they fight differently. The French, who are by nature +political, struggle against social evils with political weapons; the +English, for whom politics exist only as a matter of interest, solely in +the interest of bourgeois society, fight, not against the Government, but +directly against the bourgeoisie; and for the time, this can be done only +in a peaceful manner. Stagnation in business, and the want consequent +upon it, engendered the revolt at Lyons, in 1834, in favour of the +Republic: in 1842, at Manchester, a similar cause gave rise to a +universal turnout for the Charter and higher wages. That courage is +required for a turnout, often indeed much loftier courage, much bolder, +firmer determination than for an insurrection, is self-evident. It is, +in truth, no trifle for a working-man who knows want from experience, to +face it with wife and children, to endure hunger and wretchedness for +months together, and stand firm and unshaken through it all. What is +death, what the galleys which await the French revolutionist, in +comparison with gradual starvation, with the daily sight of a starving +family, with the certainty of future revenge on the part of the +bourgeoisie, all of which the English working-man chooses in preference +to subjection under the yoke of the property-holding class? We shall +meet later an example of this obstinate, unconquerable courage of men who +surrender to force only when all resistance would be aimless and +unmeaning. And precisely in this quiet perseverance, in this lasting +determination which undergoes a hundred tests every day, the English +working-man develops that side of his character which commands most +respect. People who endure so much to bend one single bourgeois will be +able to break the power of the whole bourgeoisie. + +But apart from that, the English working-man has proved his courage often +enough. That the turnout of 1842 had no further results came from the +fact that the men were in part forced into it by the bourgeoisie, in part +neither clear nor united as to its object. But aside from this, they +have shown their courage often enough when the matter in question was a +specific social one. Not to mention the Welsh insurrection of 1839, a +complete battle was waged in Manchester in May, 1843, during my residence +there. Pauling & Henfrey, a brick firm, had increased the size of the +bricks without raising wages, and sold the bricks, of course, at a higher +price. The workers, to whom higher wages were refused, struck work, and +the Brickmakers' Union declared war upon the firm. The firm, meanwhile, +succeeded with great difficulty in securing hands from the neighbourhood, +and among the knobsticks, against whom in the beginning intimidation was +used, the proprietors set twelve men to guard the yard, all ex-soldiers +and policemen, armed with guns. When intimidation proved unavailing, the +brick-yard, which lay scarcely a hundred paces from an infantry barracks, +was stormed at ten o'clock one night by a crowd of brickmakers, who +advanced in military order, the first ranks armed with guns. They forced +their way in, fired upon the watchmen as soon as they saw them, stamped +out the wet bricks spread out to dry, tore down the piled-up rows of +those already dry, demolished everything which came in their way, pressed +into a building, where they destroyed the furniture and maltreated the +wife of the overlooker who was living there. The watchmen, meanwhile, +had placed themselves behind a hedge, whence they could fire safely and +without interruption. The assailants stood before a burning brick-kiln, +which threw a bright light upon them, so that every ball of their enemies +struck home, while every one of their own shots missed its mark. +Nevertheless, the firing lasted half-an-hour, until the ammunition was +exhausted, and the object of the visit--the demolition of all the +destructible objects in the yard--was attained. Then the military +approached, and the brickmakers withdrew to Eccles, three miles from +Manchester. A short time before reaching Eccles they held roll-call, and +each man was called according to his number in the section when they +separated, only to fall the more certainly into the hands of the police, +who were approaching from all sides. The number of the wounded must have +been very considerable, but those only could be counted who were +arrested. One of these had received three bullets (in the thigh, the +calf, and the shoulder), and had travelled in spite of them more than +four miles on foot. These people have proved that they, too, possess +revolutionary courage, and do not shun a rain of bullets. And when an +unarmed multitude, without a precise aim common to them all, are held in +check in a shut-off market-place, whose outlets are guarded by a couple +of policemen and dragoons, as happened in 1842, this by no means proves a +want of courage. On the contrary, the multitude would have stirred quite +as little if the servants of public (_i.e_., of the bourgeois) order had +not been present. Where the working-people have a specific end in view, +they show courage enough; as, for instance, in the attack upon Birley's +mill, which had later to be protected by artillery. + +In this connection, a word or two as to the respect for the law in +England. True, the law is sacred to the bourgeois, for it is his own +composition, enacted with his consent, and for his benefit and +protection. He knows that, even if an individual law should injure him, +the whole fabric protects his interests; and more than all, the sanctity +of the law, the sacredness of order as established by the active will of +one part of society, and the passive acceptance of the other, is the +strongest support of his social position. Because the English bourgeois +finds himself reproduced in his law, as he does in his God, the +policeman's truncheon which, in a certain measure, is his own club, has +for him a wonderfully soothing power. But for the working-man quite +otherwise! The working-man knows too well, has learned from too +oft-repeated experience, that the law is a rod which the bourgeois has +prepared for him; and when he is not compelled to do so, he never appeals +to the law. It is ridiculous to assert that the English working-man +fears the police, when every week in Manchester policemen are beaten, and +last year an attempt was made to storm a station-house secured by iron +doors and shutters. The power of the police in the turnout of 1842 lay, +as I have already said, in the want of a clearly defined object on the +part of the working-men themselves. + +Since the working-men do not respect the law, but simply submit to its +power when they cannot change it, it is most natural that they should at +least propose alterations in it, that they should wish to put a +proletarian law in the place of the legal fabric of the bourgeoisie. This +proposed law is the People's Charter, which in form is purely political, +and demands a democratic basis for the House of Commons. Chartism is the +compact form of their opposition to the bourgeoisie. In the Unions and +turnouts opposition always remained isolated: it was single working-men +or sections who fought a single bourgeois. If the fight became general, +this was scarcely by the intention of the working-men; or, when it did +happen intentionally, Chartism was at the bottom of it. But in Chartism +it is the whole working class which arises against the bourgeoisie, and +attacks, first of all, the political power, the legislative rampart with +which the bourgeoisie has surrounded itself. Chartism has proceeded from +the Democratic party which arose between 1780 and 1790 with and in the +proletariat, gained strength during the French Revolution, and came forth +after the peace as the Radical party. It had its headquarters then in +Birmingham and Manchester, and later in London; extorted the Reform Bill +from the Oligarchs of the old Parliament by a union with the Liberal +bourgeoisie, and has steadily consolidated itself, since then, as a more +and more pronounced working-men's party in opposition to the bourgeoisie +In 1835 a committee of the General Working-men's Association of London, +with William Lovett at its head, drew up the People's Charter, whose six +points are as follows: (1) Universal suffrage for every man who is of +age, sane and unconvicted of crime; (2) Annual Parliaments; (3) Payment +of members of Parliament, to enable poor men to stand for election; (4) +Voting by ballot to prevent bribery and intimidation by the bourgeoisie; +(5) Equal electoral districts to secure equal representation; and (6) +Abolition of the even now merely nominal property qualification of 300 +pounds in land for candidates in order to make every voter eligible. +These six points, which are all limited to the reconstitution of the +House of Commons, harmless as they seem, are sufficient to overthrow the +whole English Constitution, Queen and Lords included. The so-called +monarchical and aristocratic elements of the Constitution can maintain +themselves only because the bourgeoisie has an interest in the +continuance of their sham existence; and more than a sham existence +neither possesses to-day. But as soon as real public opinion in its +totality backs the House of Commons, as soon as the House of Commons +incorporates the will, not of the bourgeoisie alone, but of the whole +nation, it will absorb the whole power so completely that the last halo +must fall from the head of the monarch and the aristocracy. The English +working-man respects neither Lords nor Queen. The bourgeois, while in +reality allowing them but little influence, yet offers to them personally +a sham worship. The English Chartist is politically a republican, though +he rarely or never mentions the word, while he sympathises with the +republican parties of all countries, and calls himself in preference a +democrat. But he is more than a mere republican, his democracy is not +simply political. + +Chartism was from the beginning in 1835 chiefly a movement among the +working-men, though not yet sharply separated from the bourgeoisie. The +Radicalism of the workers went hand in hand with the Radicalism of the +bourgeoisie; the Charter was the shibboleth of both. They held their +National Convention every year in common, seeming to be one party. The +lower middle-class was just then in a very bellicose and violent state of +mind in consequence of the disappointment over the Reform Bill and of the +bad business years of 1837-1839, and viewed the boisterous Chartist +agitation with a very favourable eye. Of the vehemence of this agitation +no one in Germany has any idea. The people were called upon to arm +themselves, were frequently urged to revolt; pikes were got ready, as in +the French Revolution, and in 1838, one Stephens, a Methodist parson, +said to the assembled working-people of Manchester: + + "You have no need to fear the power of Government, the soldiers, + bayonets, and cannon that are at the disposal of your oppressors; you + have a weapon that is far mightier than all these, a weapon against + which bayonets and cannon are powerless, and a child of ten years can + wield it. You have only to take a couple of matches and a bundle of + straw dipped in pitch, and I will see what the Government and its + hundreds of thousands of soldiers will do against this one weapon if + it is used boldly." + +As early as that year the peculiarly social character of the +working-men's Chartism manifested itself. The same Stephens said, in a +meeting of 200,000 men on Kersall Moor, the Mons Sacer of Manchester: + + "Chartism, my friends, is no political movement, where the main point + is your getting the ballot. Chartism is a knife and fork question: + the Charter means a good house, good food and drink, prosperity, and + short working-hours." + +The movements against the new Poor Law and for the Ten Hours' Bill were +already in the closest relation to Chartism. In all the meetings of that +time the Tory Oastler was active, and hundreds of petitions for +improvements of the social condition of the workers were circulated along +with the national petition for the People's Charter adopted in +Birmingham. In 1839 the agitation continued as vigorously as ever, and +when it began to relax somewhat at the end of the year, Bussey, Taylor, +and Frost hastened to call forth uprisings simultaneously in the North of +England, in Yorkshire, and Wales. Frost's plan being betrayed, he was +obliged to open hostilities prematurely. Those in the North heard of the +failure of his attempt in time to withdraw. Two months later, in +January, 1840, several so-called spy outbreaks took place in Sheffield +and Bradford, in Yorkshire, and the excitement gradually subsided. +Meanwhile the bourgeoisie turned its attention to more practical +projects, more profitable for itself, namely the Corn Laws. The Anti- +Corn Law Association was formed in Manchester, and the consequence was a +relaxation of the tie between the Radical bourgeoisie and the +proletariat. The working-men soon perceived that for them the abolition +of the Corn Laws could be of little use, while very advantageous to the +bourgeoisie; and they could therefore not be won for the project. + +The crisis of 1842 came on. Agitation was once more as vigorous as in +1839. But this time the rich manufacturing bourgeoisie, which was +suffering severely under this particular crisis, took part in it. The +Anti-Corn Law League, as it was now called, assumed a decidedly +revolutionary tone. Its journals and agitators used undisguisedly +revolutionary language, one very good reason for which was the fact that +the Conservative party had been in power since 1841. As the Chartists +had previously done, these bourgeois leaders called upon the people to +rebel; and the working-men who had most to suffer from the crisis were +not inactive, as the year's national petition for the charter with its +three and a half million signatures proves. In short, if the two Radical +parties had been somewhat estranged, they allied themselves once more. At +a meeting of Liberals and Chartists held in Manchester, February 15th, +1842, a petition urging the repeal of the Corn Laws and the adoption of +the Charter was drawn up. The next day it was adopted by both parties. +The spring and summer passed amidst violent agitation and increasing +distress. The bourgeoisie was determined to carry the repeal of the Corn +Laws with the help of the crisis, the want which it entailed, and the +general excitement. At this time, the Conservatives being in power, the +Liberal bourgeoisie half abandoned their law-abiding habits; they wished +to bring about a revolution with the help of the workers. The working- +men were to take the chestnuts from the fire to save the bourgeoisie from +burning their own fingers. The old idea of a "holy month," a general +strike, broached in 1839 by the Chartists, was revived. This time, +however, it was not the working-men who wished to quit work, but the +manufacturers who wished to close their mills and send the operatives +into the country parishes upon the property of the aristocracy, thus +forcing the Tory Parliament and the Tory Ministry to repeal the Corn +Laws. A revolt would naturally have followed, but the bourgeoisie stood +safely in the background and could await the result without compromising +itself if the worst came to the worst. At the end of July business began +to improve; it was high time. In order not to lose the opportunity, +three firms in Staleybridge reduced wages in spite of the improvement. +{232} Whether they did so of their own motion or in agreement with other +manufacturers, especially those of the League, I do not know. Two +withdrew after a time, but the third, William Bailey & Brothers, stood +firm, and told the objecting operatives that "if this did not please +them, they had better go and play a bit." This contemptuous answer the +hands received with cheers. They left the mill, paraded through the +town, and called upon all their fellows to quit work. In a few hours +every mill stood idle, and the operatives marched to Mottram Moor to hold +a meeting. This was on August 5th. August 8th they proceeded to Ashton +and Hyde five thousand strong, closed all the mills and coal-pits, and +held meetings, in which, however, the question discussed was not, as the +bourgeoisie had hoped, the repeal of the Corn Laws, but, "a fair day's +wages for a fair day's work." August 9th they proceeded to Manchester, +unresisted by the authorities (all Liberals), and closed the mills; on +the 11th they were in Stockport, where they met with the first resistance +as they were storming the workhouse, the favourite child of the +bourgeoisie. On the same day there was a general strike and disturbance +in Bolton, to which the authorities here, too, made no resistance. Soon +the uprising spread throughout the whole manufacturing district, and all +employments, except harvesting and the production of food, came to a +standstill. But the rebellious operatives were quiet. They were driven +into this revolt without wishing it. The manufacturers, with the single +exception of the Tory Birley, in Manchester, had, _contrary to their +custom_, not opposed it. The thing had begun without the working-men's +having any distinct end in view, for which reason they were all united in +the determination not to be shot at for the benefit of the Corn Law +repealing bourgeoisie. For the rest, some wanted to carry the Charter, +others who thought this premature wished merely to secure the wages rate +of 1840. On this point the whole insurrection was wrecked. If it had +been from the beginning an intentional, determined working-men's +insurrection, it would surely have carried its point; but these crowds +who had been driven into the streets by their masters, against their own +will, and with no definite purpose, could do nothing. Meanwhile the +bourgeoisie, which had not moved a finger to carry the alliance of +February 10th into effect, soon perceived that the working-men did not +propose to become its tools, and that the illogical manner in which it +had abandoned its law-abiding standpoint threatened danger. It therefore +resumed its law-abiding attitude, and placed itself upon the side of +Government as against the working-men. + +It swore in trusty retainers as special constables (the German merchants +in Manchester took part in this ceremony, and marched in an entirely +superfluous manner through the city with their cigars in their mouths and +thick truncheons in their hands). It gave the command to fire upon the +crowd in Preston, so that the unintentional revolt of the people stood +all at once face to face, not only with the whole military power of the +Government, but with the whole property-holding class as well. The +working-men, who had no especial aim, separated gradually, and the +insurrection came to an end without evil results. Later, the bourgeoisie +was guilty of one shameful act after another, tried to whitewash itself +by expressing a horror of popular violence by no means consistent with +its own revolutionary language of the spring; laid the blame of +insurrection upon Chartist instigators, whereas it had itself done more +than all of them together to bring about the uprising; and resumed its +old attitude of sanctifying the name of the law with a shamelessness +perfectly unequalled. The Chartists, who were all but innocent of +bringing about this uprising, who simply did what the bourgeoisie meant +to do when they made the most of their opportunity, were prosecuted and +convicted, while the bourgeoisie escaped without loss, and had, besides, +sold off its old stock of goods with advantage during the pause in work. + +The fruit of the uprising was the decisive separation of the proletariat +from the bourgeoisie. The Chartists had not hitherto concealed their +determination to carry the Charter at all costs, even that of a +revolution; the bourgeoisie, which now perceived, all at once, the danger +with which any violent change threatened its position, refused to hear +anything further of physical force, and proposed to attain its end by +moral force, as though this were anything else than the direct or +indirect threat of physical force. This was one point of dissension, +though even this was removed later by the assertion of the Chartists (who +are at least as worthy of being believed as the bourgeoisie) that they, +too, refrained from appealing to physical force. The second point of +dissension and the main one, which brought Chartism to light in its +purity, was the repeal of the Corn Laws. In this the bourgeoisie was +directly interested, the proletariat not. The Chartists therefore +divided into two parties whose political programmes agreed literally, but +which were nevertheless thoroughly different and incapable of union. At +the Birmingham National Convention, in January, 1843, Sturge, the +representative of the Radical bourgeoisie, proposed that the name of the +Charter be omitted from the rules of the Chartist Association, nominally +because this name had become connected with recollections of violence +during the insurrection, a connection, by the way, which had existed for +years, and against which Mr. Sturge had hitherto advanced no objection. +The working-men refused to drop the name, and when Mr. Sturge was +outvoted, that worthy Quaker suddenly became loyal, betook himself out of +the hall, and founded a "Complete Suffrage Association" within the +Radical bourgeoisie. So repugnant had these recollections become to the +Jacobinical bourgeoisie, that he altered even the name Universal Suffrage +into the ridiculous title, Complete Suffrage. The working-men laughed at +him and quietly went their way. + +From this moment Chartism was purely a working-man's cause freed from all +bourgeois elements. The "Complete" journals, the _Weekly Dispatch_, +_Weekly Chronicle_, _Examiner_, etc., fell gradually into the sleepy tone +of the other Liberal sheets, espoused the cause of Free Trade, attacked +the Ten Hours' Bill and all exclusively working-men's demands, and let +their Radicalism as a whole fall rather into the background. The Radical +bourgeoisie joined hands with the Liberals against the working-men in +every collision, and in general made the Corn Law question, which for the +English is the Free Trade question, their main business. They thereby +fell under the dominion of the Liberal bourgeoisie, and now play a most +pitiful role. + +The Chartist working-men, on the contrary, espoused with redoubled zeal +all the struggles of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie. Free +competition has caused the workers suffering enough to be hated by them; +its apostles, the bourgeoisie, are their declared enemies. The working- +man has only disadvantages to await from the complete freedom of +competition. The demands hitherto made by him, the Ten Hours' Bill, +protection of the workers against the capitalist, good wages, a +guaranteed position, repeal of the new Poor Law, all of the things which +belong to Chartism quite as essentially as the "Six Points," are directly +opposed to free competition and Free Trade. No wonder, then, that the +working-men will not hear of Free Trade and the repeal of the Corn Laws +(a fact incomprehensible to the whole English bourgeoisie), and while at +least wholly indifferent to the Corn Law question, are most deeply +embittered against its advocates. This question is precisely the point +at which the proletariat separates from the bourgeoisie, Chartism from +Radicalism; and the bourgeois understanding cannot comprehend this, +because it cannot comprehend the proletariat. + +Therein lies the difference between Chartist democracy and all previous +political bourgeois democracy. Chartism is of an essentially social +nature, a class movement. The "Six Points" which for the Radical +bourgeois are the beginning and end of the matter, which are meant, at +the utmost, to call forth certain further reforms of the Constitution, +are for the proletarian a mere means to further ends. "Political power +our means, social happiness our end," is now the clearly formulated war- +cry of the Chartists. The "knife and fork question" of the preacher +Stephens was a truth for a part of the Chartists only, in 1838, it is a +truth for all of them in 1845. There is no longer a mere politician +among the Chartists, and even though their Socialism is very little +developed, though their chief remedy for poverty has hitherto consisted +in the land-allotment system, which was superseded {235} by the +introduction of manufacture, though their chief practical propositions +are apparently of a reactionary nature, yet these very measures involve +the alternative that they must either succumb to the power of competition +once more and restore the old state of things, or they must themselves +entirely overcome competition and abolish it. On the other hand, the +present indefinite state of Chartism, the separation from the purely +political party, involves that precisely the characteristic feature, its +social aspect, will have to be further developed. The approach to +Socialism cannot fail, especially when the next crisis directs the +working-men by force of sheer want to social instead of political +remedies. And a crisis must follow the present active state of industry +and commerce in 1847 at the latest, and probably in 1846; one, too, which +will far exceed in extent and violence all former crises. The working- +men will carry their Charter, naturally; but meanwhile they will learn to +see clearly with regard to many points which they can make by means of it +and of which they now know very little. + +Meanwhile the socialist agitation also goes forward. English Socialism +comes under our consideration so far only as it affects the +working-class. The English Socialists demand the gradual introduction of +possession in common in home colonies embracing two to three thousand +persons who shall carry on both agriculture and manufacture and enjoy +equal rights and equal education. They demand greater facility of +obtaining divorce, the establishment of a rational government, with +complete freedom of conscience and the abolition of punishment, the same +to be replaced by a rational treatment of the offender. These are their +practical measures, their theoretical principles do not concern us here. +English Socialism arose with Owen, a manufacturer, and proceeds therefore +with great consideration toward the bourgeoisie and great injustice +toward the proletariat in its methods, although it culminates in +demanding the abolition of the class antagonism between bourgeoisie and +proletariat. + +The Socialists are thoroughly tame and peaceable, accept our existing +order, bad as it is, so far as to reject all other methods but that of +winning public opinion. Yet they are so dogmatic that success by this +method is for them, and for their principles as at present formulated, +utterly hopeless. While bemoaning the demoralisation of the lower +classes, they are blind to the element of progress in this dissolution of +the old social order, and refuse to acknowledge that the corruption +wrought by private interests and hypocrisy in the property-holding class +is much greater. They acknowledge no historic development, and wish to +place the nation in a state of Communism at once, overnight, not by the +unavoidable march of its political development up to the point at which +this transition becomes both possible and necessary. They understand, it +is true, why the working-man is resentful against the bourgeois, but +regard as unfruitful this class hatred, which is, after all, the only +moral incentive by which the worker can be brought nearer the goal. They +preach instead, a philanthropy and universal love far more unfruitful for +the present state of England. They acknowledge only a psychological +development, a development of man in the abstract, out of all relation to +the Past, whereas the whole world rests upon that Past, the individual +man included. Hence they are too abstract, too metaphysical, and +accomplish little. They are recruited in part from the working-class, of +which they have enlisted but a very small fraction representing, however, +its most educated and solid elements. In its present form, Socialism can +never become the common creed of the working-class; it must condescend to +return for a moment to the Chartist standpoint. But the true proletarian +Socialism having passed through Chartism, purified of its bourgeois +elements, assuming the form which it has already reached in the minds of +many Socialists and Chartist leaders (who are nearly all Socialists), +must, within a short time, play a weighty part in the history of the +development of the English people. English Socialism, the basis of which +is much more ample than that of the French, is behind it in theoretical +development, will have to recede for a moment to the French standpoint in +order to proceed beyond it later. Meanwhile the French, too, will +develop farther. English Socialism affords the most pronounced +expression of the prevailing absence of religion among the working-men, +an expression so pronounced indeed that the mass of the working-men, +being unconsciously and merely practically irreligious, often draw back +before it. But here, too, necessity will force the working-men to +abandon the remnants of a belief which, as they will more and more +clearly perceive, serves only to make them weak and resigned to their +fate, obedient and faithful to the vampire property-holding class. + +Hence it is evident that the working-men's movement is divided into two +sections, the Chartists and the Socialists. The Chartists are +theoretically the more backward, the less developed, but they are genuine +proletarians all over, the representatives of their class. The +Socialists are more far-seeing, propose practical remedies against +distress, but, proceeding originally from the bourgeoisie, are for this +reason unable to amalgamate completely with the working-class. The union +of Socialism with Chartism, the reproduction of French Communism in an +English manner, will be the next step, and has already begun. Then only, +when this has been achieved, will the working-class be the true +intellectual leader of England. Meanwhile, political and social +development will proceed, and will foster this new party, this new +departure of Chartism. + +These different sections of working-men, often united, often separated, +Trades Unionists, Chartists, and Socialists, have founded on their own +hook numbers of schools and reading-rooms for the advancement of +education. Every Socialist, and almost every Chartist institution, has +such a place, and so too have many trades. Here the children receive a +purely proletarian education, free from all the influences of the +bourgeoisie; and, in the reading-rooms, proletarian journals and books +alone, or almost alone, are to be found. These arrangements are very +dangerous for the bourgeoisie, which has succeeded in withdrawing several +such institutes, "Mechanics' Institutes," from proletarian influences, +and making them organs for the dissemination of the sciences useful to +the bourgeoisie. Here the natural sciences are now taught, which may +draw the working-men away from the opposition to the bourgeoisie, and +perhaps place in their hands the means of making inventions which bring +in money for the bourgeoisie; while for the working-man the acquaintance +with the natural sciences is utterly useless _now_ when it too often +happens that he never gets the slightest glimpse of Nature in his large +town with his long working-hours. Here Political Economy is preached, +whose idol is free competition, and whose sum and substance for the +working-man is this, that he cannot do anything more rational than resign +himself to starvation. Here all education is tame, flabby, subservient +to the ruling politics and religion, so that for the working-man it is +merely a constant sermon upon quiet obedience, passivity, and resignation +to his fate. + +The mass of working-men naturally have nothing to do with these +institutes, and betake themselves to the proletarian reading-rooms and to +the discussion of matters which directly concern their own interests, +whereupon the self-sufficient bourgeoisie says its _Dixi et Salvavi_, and +turns with contempt from a class which "prefers the angry ranting of ill- +meaning demagogues to the advantages of solid education." That, however, +the working-men appreciate solid education when they can get it unmixed +with the interested cant of the bourgeoisie, the frequent lectures upon +scientific, aesthetic, and economic subjects prove which are delivered +especially in the Socialist institutes, and very well attended. I have +often heard working-men, whose fustian jackets scarcely held together, +speak upon geological, astronomical, and other subjects, with more +knowledge than most "cultivated" bourgeois in Germany possess. And in +how great a measure the English proletariat has succeeded in attaining +independent education is shown especially by the fact that the +epoch-making products of modern philosophical, political, and poetical +literature are read by working-men almost exclusively. The bourgeois, +enslaved by social conditions and the prejudices involved in them, +trembles, blesses, and crosses himself before everything which really +paves the way for progress; the proletarian has open eyes for it, and +studies it with pleasure and success. In this respect the Socialists, +especially, have done wonders for the education of the proletariat. They +have translated the French materialists, Helvetius, Holbach, Diderot, +etc., and disseminated them, with the best English works, in cheap +editions. Strauss' "Life of Jesus" and Proudhon's "Property" also +circulate among the working-men only. Shelley, the genius, the prophet, +Shelley, and Byron, with his glowing sensuality and his bitter satire +upon our existing society, find most of their readers in the proletariat; +the bourgeoisie owns only castrated editions, family editions, cut down +in accordance with the hypocritical morality of to-day. The two great +practical philosophers of latest date, Bentham and Godwin, are, +especially the latter, almost exclusively the property of the +proletariat; for though Bentham has a school within the Radical +bourgeoisie, it is only the proletariat and the Socialists who have +succeeded in developing his teachings a step forward. The proletariat +has formed upon this basis a literature, which consists chiefly of +journals and pamphlets, and is far in advance of the whole bourgeois +literature in intrinsic worth. On this point more later. + +One more point remains to be noticed. The factory operatives, and +especially those of the cotton district, form the nucleus of the labour +movement. Lancashire, and especially Manchester, is the seat of the most +powerful Unions, the central point of Chartism, the place which numbers +most Socialists. The more the factory system has taken possession of a +branch of industry, the more the working-men employed in it participate +in the labour movement; the sharper the opposition between working-men +and capitalists, the clearer the proletarian consciousness in the working- +men. The small masters of Birmingham, though they suffer from the +crises, still stand upon an unhappy middle ground between proletarian +Chartism and shopkeepers' Radicalism. But, in general, all the workers +employed in manufacture are won for one form or the other of resistance +to capital and bourgeoisie; and all are united upon this point, that +they, as working-men, a title of which they are proud, and which is the +usual form of address in Chartist meetings, form a separate class, with +separate interests and principles, with a separate way of looking at +things in contrast with that of all property owners; and that in this +class reposes the strength and the capacity of development of the nation. + + + + +THE MINING PROLETARIAT. + + +The production of raw materials and fuel for a manufacture so colossal as +that of England requires a considerable number of workers. But of all +the materials needed for its industries (except wool, which belongs to +the agricultural districts), England produces only the minerals: the +metals and the coal. While Cornwall possesses rich copper, tin, zinc, +and lead mines, Staffordshire, Wales, and other districts yield great +quantities of iron, and almost the whole North and West of England, +central Scotland, and certain districts of Ireland, produce a +superabundance of coal. {241} + +In the Cornish mines about 19,000 men, and 11,000 women and children are +employed, in part above and in part below ground. Within the mines below +ground, men and boys above twelve years old are employed almost +exclusively. The condition of these workers seems, according to the +Children's Employment Commission's Reports, to be comparatively +endurable, materially, and the English often enough boast of their +strong, bold miners, who follow the veins of mineral below the bottom of +the very sea. But in the matter of the health of these workers, this +same Children's Employment Commission's Report judges differently. It +shows in Dr. Barham's intelligent report how the inhalation of an +atmosphere containing little oxygen, and mixed with dust and the smoke of +blasting powder, such as prevails in the mines, seriously affects the +lungs, disturbs the action of the heart, and diminishes the activity of +the digestive organs; that wearing toil, and especially the climbing up +and down of ladders, upon which even vigorous young men have to spend in +some mines more than an hour a day, and which precedes and follows daily +work, contributes greatly to the development of these evils, so that men +who begin this work in early youth are far from reaching the stature of +women who work above ground; that many die young of galloping +consumption, and most miners at middle age of slow consumption, that they +age prematurely and become unfit for work between the thirty-fifth and +forty-fifth years, that many are attacked by acute inflammations of the +respiratory organs when exposed to the sudden change from the warm air of +the shaft (after climbing the ladder in profuse perspiration), to the +cold wind above ground, and that these acute inflammations are very +frequently fatal. Work above ground, breaking and sorting the ore, is +done by girls and children, and is described as very wholesome, being +done in the open air. + +In the North of England, on the borders of Northumberland and Durham, are +the extensive lead mines of Alston Moor. The reports from this district +{242} agree almost wholly with those from Cornwall. Here, too, there are +complaints of want of oxygen, excessive dust, powder smoke, carbonic acid +gas, and sulphur, in the atmosphere of the workings. In consequence, the +miners here, as in Cornwall, are small of stature, and nearly all suffer +from the thirtieth year throughout life from chest affections, which end, +especially when this work is persisted in, as is almost always the case, +in consumption, so greatly shortening the average of life of these +people. If the miners of this district are somewhat longer lived than +those of Cornwall, this is the case, because they do not enter the mines +before reaching the nineteenth year, while in Cornwall, as we have seen, +this work is begun in the twelfth year. Nevertheless, the majority die +here, too, between forty and fifty years of age, according to medical +testimony. Of 79 miners, whose death was entered upon the public +register of the district, and who attained an average of 45 years, 37 had +died of consumption and 6 of asthma. In the surrounding districts, +Allendale, Stanhope, and Middleton, the average length of life was 49, +48, and 47 years respectively, and the deaths from chest affections +composed 48, 54, and 56 per cent. of the whole number. Let us compare +these figures with the so-called Swedish tables, detailed tables of +mortality embracing all the inhabitants of Sweden, and recognised in +England as the most correct standard hitherto attainable for the average +length of life of the British working-class. According to them, male +persons who survive the nineteenth year attain an average of 57.5 years; +but, according to this, the North of England miners are robbed by their +work of an average of ten years of life. Yet the Swedish tables are +accepted as the standard of longevity of the _workers_, and present, +therefore, the average chances of life as affected by the unfavourable +conditions in which the proletariat lives, a standard of longevity less +than the normal one. In this district we find again the lodging-houses +and sleeping-places with which we have already become acquainted in the +towns, and in quite as filthy, disgusting, and overcrowded a state as +there. Commissioner Mitchell visited one such sleeping barrack, 18 feet +long, 13 feet wide, and arranged for the reception of 42 men and 14 boys, +or 56 persons altogether, one-half of whom slept above the other in +berths as on shipboard. There was no opening for the escape of the foul +air; and, although no one had slept in this pen for three nights +preceding the visit, the smell and the atmosphere were such that +Commissioner Mitchell could not endure it a moment. What must it be +through a hot summer night, with fifty-six occupants? And this is not +the steerage of an American slave ship, it is the dwelling of free-born +Britons! + +Let us turn now to the most important branch of British mining, the iron +and coal mines, which the Children's Employment Commission treats in +common, and with all the detail which the importance of the subject +demands. Nearly the whole of the first part of this report is devoted to +the condition of the workers employed in these mines. After the detailed +description which I have furnished of the state of the industrial +workers, I shall, however, be able to be as brief in dealing with this +subject as the scope of the present work requires. + +In the coal and iron mines which are worked in pretty much the same way, +children of four, five, and seven years are employed. They are set to +transporting the ore or coal loosened by the miner from its place to the +horse-path or the main shaft, and to opening and shutting the doors +(which separate the divisions of the mine and regulate its ventilation) +for the passage of workers and material. For watching the doors the +smallest children are usually employed, who thus pass twelve hours daily, +in the dark, alone, sitting usually in damp passages without even having +work enough to save them from the stupefying, brutalising tedium of doing +nothing. The transport of coal and iron-stone, on the other hand, is +very hard labour, the stuff being shoved in large tubs, without wheels, +over the uneven floor of the mine; often over moist clay, or through +water, and frequently up steep inclines and through paths so low-roofed +that the workers are forced to creep on hands and knees. For this more +wearing labour, therefore, older children and half-grown girls are +employed. One man or two boys per tub are employed, according to +circumstances; and, if two boys, one pushes and the other pulls. The +loosening of the ore or coal, which is done by men or strong youths of +sixteen years or more, is also very weary work. The usual working-day is +eleven to twelve hours, often longer; in Scotland it reaches fourteen +hours, and double time is frequent, when all the employees are at work +below ground twenty-four, and even thirty-six hours at a stretch. Set +times for meals are almost unknown, so that these people eat when hunger +and time permit. + +The standard of living of the miners is in general described as fairly +good and their wages high in comparison with those of the agricultural +labourers surrounding them (who, however, live at starvation rates), +except in certain parts of Scotland and in the Irish mines, where great +misery prevails. We shall have occasion to return later to this +statement, which, by the way, is merely relative, implying comparison to +the poorest class in all England. Meanwhile, we shall consider the evils +which arise from the present method of mining, and the reader may judge +whether any pay in money can indemnify the miner for such suffering. + +The children and young people who are employed in transporting coal and +iron-stone all complain of being over-tired. Even in the most recklessly +conducted industrial establishments there is no such universal and +exaggerated overwork. The whole report proves this, with a number of +examples on every page. It is constantly happening that children throw +themselves down on the stone hearth or the floor as soon as they reach +home, fall asleep at once without being able to take a bite of food, and +have to be washed and put to bed while asleep; it even happens that they +lie down on the way home, and are found by their parents late at night +asleep on the road. It seems to be a universal practice among these +children to spend Sunday in bed to recover in some degree from the over- +exertion of the week. Church and school are visited by but few, and even +of these the teachers complain of their great sleepiness and the want of +all eagerness to learn. The same thing is true of the elder girls and +women. They are overworked in the most brutal manner. This weariness, +which is almost always carried to a most painful pitch, cannot fail to +affect the constitution. The first result of such over-exertion is the +diversion of vitality to the one-sided development of the muscles, so +that those especially of the arms, legs, and back, of the shoulders and +chest, which are chiefly called into activity in pushing and pulling, +attain an uncommonly vigorous development, while all the rest of the body +suffers and is atrophied from want of nourishment. More than all else +the stature suffers, being stunted and retarded; nearly all miners are +short, except those of Leicestershire and Warwickshire, who work under +exceptionally favourable conditions. Further, among boys as well as +girls, puberty is retarded, among the former often until the eighteenth +year; indeed, a nineteen years old boy appeared before Commissioner +Symonds, showing no evidence beyond that of the teeth, that he was more +than eleven or twelve years old. This prolongation of the period of +childhood is at bottom nothing more than a sign of checked development, +which does not fail to bear fruit in later years. Distortions of the +legs, knees bent inwards and feet bent outwards, deformities of the +spinal column and other malformations, appear the more readily in +constitutions thus weakened, in consequence of the almost universally +constrained position during work; and they are so frequent that in +Yorkshire and Lancashire, as in Northumberland and Durham, the assertion +is made by many witnesses, not only by physicians, that a miner may be +recognised by his shape among a hundred other persons. The women seem to +suffer especially from this work, and are seldom, if ever, as straight as +other women. There is testimony here, too, to the fact that deformities +of the pelvis and consequent difficult, even fatal, childbearing arise +from the work of women in the mines. But apart from these local +deformities, the coal miners suffer from a number of special affections +easily explained by the nature of the work. Diseases of the digestive +organs are first in order; want of appetite, pains in the stomach, +nausea, and vomiting, are most frequent, with violent thirst, which can +be quenched only with the dirty, lukewarm water of the mine; the +digestion is checked and all the other affections are thus invited. +Diseases of the heart, especially hypertrophy, inflammation of the heart +and pericardium, contraction of the _auriculo-ventricular_ communications +and the entrance of the _aorta_ are also mentioned repeatedly as diseases +of the miners, and are readily explained by overwork; and the same is +true of the almost universal rupture which is a direct consequence of +protracted over-exertion. In part from the same cause and in part from +the bad, dust-filled atmosphere mixed with carbonic acid and hydrocarbon +gas, which might so readily be avoided, there arise numerous painful and +dangerous affections of the lungs, especially asthma, which in some +districts appears in the fortieth, in others in the thirtieth year in +most of the miners, and makes them unfit for work in a short time. Among +those employed in wet workings the oppression in the chest naturally +appears much earlier; in some districts of Scotland between the twentieth +and thirtieth years, during which time the affected lungs are especially +susceptible to inflammations and diseases of a feverish nature. The +peculiar disease of workers of this sort is "black spittle," which arises +from the saturation of the whole lung with coal particles, and manifests +itself in general debility, headache, oppression of the chest, and thick, +black mucous expectoration. In some districts this disease appears in a +mild form; in others, on the contrary, it is wholly incurable, especially +in Scotland. Here, besides the symptoms just mentioned, which appear in +an intensified form, short, wheezing, breathing, rapid pulse (exceeding +100 per minute), and abrupt coughing, with increasing leanness and +debility, speedily make the patient unfit for work. Every case of this +disease ends fatally. Dr. Mackellar, in Pencaitland, East Lothian, +testified that in all the coal mines which are properly ventilated this +disease is unknown, while it frequently happens that miners who go from +well to ill-ventilated mines are seized by it. The profit-greed of mine +owners which prevents the use of ventilators is therefore responsible for +the fact that this working-men's disease exists at all. Rheumatism, too, +is, with the exception of the Warwick and Leicestershire workers, a +universal disease of the coal miners, and arises especially from the +frequently damp working-places. The consequence of all these diseases is +that, in all districts _without exception_, the coal miners age early and +become unfit for work soon after the fortieth year, though this is +different in different places. A coal miner who can follow his calling +after the 45th or 50th year is a very great rarity indeed. It is +universally recognised that such workers enter upon old age at forty. +This applies to those who loosen the coal from the bed; the loaders, who +have constantly to lift heavy blocks of coal into the tubs, age with the +twenty-eighth or thirtieth year, so that it is proverbial in the coal +mining districts that the loaders are old before they are young. That +this premature old age is followed by the early death of the colliers is +a matter of course, and a man who reaches sixty is a great exception +among them. Even in South Staffordshire, where the mines are +comparatively wholesome, few men reach their fifty-first year. Along +with this early superannuation of the workers we naturally find, just as +in the case of the mills, frequent lack of employment of the elder men, +who are often supported by very young children. If we sum up briefly the +results of the work in coal mines, we find, as Dr. Southwood Smith, one +of the commissioners, does, that through prolonged childhood on the one +hand and premature age on the other, that period of life in which the +human being is in full possession of his powers, the period of manhood, +is greatly shortened, while the length of life in general is below the +average. This, too, on the debit side of the bourgeoisie's reckoning! + +All this deals only with the average of the English coal mines. But +there are many in which the state of things is much worse, those, namely, +in which thin seams of coal are worked. The coal would be too expensive +if a part of the adjacent sand and clay were removed; so the mine owners +permit only the seams to be worked; whereby the passages which elsewhere +are four or five feet high and more are here kept so low that to stand +upright in them is not to be thought of. The working-man lies on his +side and loosens the coal with his pick; resting upon his elbow as a +pivot, whence follow inflammations of the joint, and in cases where he is +forced to kneel, of the knee also. The women and children who have to +transport the coal crawl upon their hands and knees, fastened to the tub +by a harness and chain (which frequently passes between the legs), while +a man behind pushes with hands and head. The pushing with the head +engenders local irritations, painful swellings, and ulcers. In many +cases, too, the shafts are wet, so that these workers have to crawl +through dirty or salt water several inches deep, being thus exposed to a +special irritation of the skin. It can be readily imagined how greatly +the diseases already peculiar to the miners are fostered by this +especially frightful, slavish toil. + +But these are not all the evils which descend upon the head of the coal +miner. In the whole British Empire there is no occupation in which a man +may meet his end in so many diverse ways as in this one. The coal mine +is the scene of a multitude of the most terrifying calamities, and these +come directly from the selfishness of the bourgeoisie. The hydrocarbon +gas which develops so freely in these mines, forms, when combined with +atmospheric air, an explosive which takes fire upon coming into contact +with a flame, and kills every one within its reach. Such explosions take +place, in one mine or another, nearly every day; on September 28th, 1844, +one killed 96 men in Haswell Colliery, Durham. The carbonic acid gas, +which also develops in great quantities, accumulates in the deeper parts +of the mine, frequently reaching the height of a man, and suffocates +every one who gets into it. The doors which separate the sections of the +mines are meant to prevent the propagation of explosions and the movement +of the gases; but since they are entrusted to small children, who often +fall asleep or neglect them, this means of prevention is illusory. A +proper ventilation of the mines by means of fresh air-shafts could almost +entirely remove the injurious effects of both these gases. But for this +purpose the bourgeoisie has no money to spare, preferring to command the +working-men to use the Davy lamp, which is wholly useless because of its +dull light, and is, therefore, usually replaced by a candle. If an +explosion occurs, the recklessness of the miner is blamed, though the +bourgeois might have made the explosion well-nigh impossible by supplying +good ventilation. Further, every few days the roof of a working falls +in, and buries or mangles the workers employed in it. It is the interest +of the bourgeois to have the seams worked out as completely as possible, +and hence the accidents of this sort. Then, too, the ropes by which the +men descend into the mines are often rotten, and break, so that the +unfortunates fall, and are crushed. All these accidents, and I have no +room for special cases, carry off yearly, according to the _Mining +Journal_, some fourteen hundred human beings. The _Manchester Guardian_ +reports at least two or three accidents every week for Lancashire alone. +In nearly all mining districts the people composing the coroner's juries +are, in almost all cases, dependent upon the mine owners, and where this +is not the case, immemorial custom insures that the verdict shall be: +"Accidental Death." Besides, the jury takes very little interest in the +state of the mine, because it does not understand anything about the +matter. But the Children's Employment Commission does not hesitate to +make the mine owners directly responsible for the greater number of these +cases. + +As to the education and morals of the mining population, they are, +according to the Children's Employment Commission, pretty good in +Cornwall, and excellent in Alston Moor; in the coal districts, in +general, they are, on the contrary, reported as on an excessively low +plane. The workers live in the country in neglected regions, and if they +do their weary work, no human being outside the police force troubles +himself about them. Hence, and from the tender age at which children are +put to work, it follows that their mental education is wholly neglected. +The day schools are not within their reach, the evening and Sunday +schools mere shams, the teachers worthless. Hence, few can read and +still fewer write. The only point upon which their eyes are as yet open +is the fact that their wages are far too low for their hateful and +dangerous work. To church they go seldom or never; all the clergy +complain of their irreligion as beyond comparison. As a matter of fact, +their ignorance of religious and of secular things, alike, is such that +the ignorance of the factory operatives, shown in numerous examples in +the foregoing pages, is trifling in comparison with it. The categories +of religion are known to them only from the terms of their oaths. Their +morality is destroyed by their work itself. That the overwork of all +miners must engender drunkenness is self-evident. As to their sexual +relations, men, women, and children work in the mines, in many cases, +wholly naked, and in most cases, nearly so, by reason of the prevailing +heat, and the consequences in the dark, lonely mines may be imagined. The +number of illegitimate children is here disproportionately large, and +indicates what goes on among the half-savage population below ground; but +proves too, that the illegitimate intercourse of the sexes has not here, +as in the great cities, sunk to the level of prostitution. The labour of +women entails the same consequences as in the factories, dissolves the +family, and makes the mother totally incapable of household work. + +When the Children's Employment Commission's Report was laid before +Parliament, Lord Ashley hastened to bring in a bill wholly forbidding the +work of women in the mines, and greatly limiting that of children. The +bill was adopted, but has remained a dead letter in most districts, +because no mine inspectors were appointed to watch over its being carried +into effect. The evasion of the law is very easy in the country +districts in which the mines are situated; and no one need be surprised +that the Miners' Union laid before the Home Secretary an official notice, +last year, that in the Duke of Hamilton's coal mines in Scotland, more +than sixty women were at work; or that the _Manchester Guardian_ reported +that a girl perished in an explosion in a mine near Wigan, and no one +troubled himself further about the fact that an infringement of the law +was thus revealed. In single cases the employment of women may have been +discontinued, but in general the old state of things remains as before. + +These are, however, not all the afflictions known to the coal miners. The +bourgeoisie, not content with ruining the health of these people, keeping +them in danger of sudden loss of life, robbing them of all opportunity +for education, plunders them in other directions in the most shameless +manner. The truck system is here the rule, not the exception, and is +carried on in the most direct and undisguised manner. The cottage +system, likewise, is universal, and here almost a necessity; but it is +used here, too, for the better plundering of the workers. To these means +of oppression must be added all sorts of direct cheating. While coal is +sold by weight, the worker's wages are reckoned chiefly by measure; and +when his tub is not perfectly full he receives no pay whatever, while he +gets not a farthing for over-measure. If there is more than a specified +quantity of dust in the tub, a matter which depends much less upon the +miner than upon the nature of the seam, he not only loses his whole wage +but is fined besides. The fine system in general is so highly perfected +in the coal mines, that a poor devil who has worked the whole week and +comes for his wages, sometimes learns from the overseer, who fine at +discretion and without summoning the workers, that he not only has no +wages but must pay so and so much in fines extra! The overseer has, in +general, absolute power over wages; he notes the work done, and can +please himself as to what he pays the worker, who is forced to take his +word. In some mines, where the pay is according to weight, false decimal +scales are used, whose weights are not subject to the inspection of the +authorities; in one coal mine there was actually a regulation that any +workman who intended to complain of the falseness of the scales _must +give notice to the overseer three weeks in advance_! In many districts, +especially in the North of England, it is customary to engage the workers +by the year; they pledge themselves to work for no other employer during +that time, but the mine owner by no means pledges himself to give them +work, so that they are often without it for months together, and if they +seek elsewhere, they are sent to the treadmill for six weeks for breach +of contract. In other contracts, work to the amount of 26s. every 14 +days, is promised the miners, but not furnished, in others still, the +employers advance the miners small sums to be worked out afterwards, thus +binding the debtors to themselves. In the North, the custom is general +of keeping the payment of wages one week behindhand, chaining the miners +in this way to their work. And to complete the slavery of these +enthralled workers, nearly all the Justices of the Peace in the coal +districts are mine owners themselves, or relatives or friends of mine +owners, and possess almost unlimited power in these poor, uncivilised +regions where there are few newspapers, these few in the service of the +ruling class, and but little other agitation. It is almost beyond +conception how these poor coal miners have been plundered and tyrannised +over by Justices of the Peace acting as judges in their own cause. + +So it went on for a long time. The workers did not know any better than +that they were there for the purpose of being swindled out of their very +lives. But gradually, even among them, and especially in the factory +districts, where contact with the more intelligent operatives could not +fail of its effect, there arose a spirit of opposition to the shameless +oppression of the "coal kings." The men began to form Unions and strike +from time to time. In civilised districts they joined the Chartists body +and soul. The great coal district of the North of England, shut off from +all industrial intercourse, remained backward until, after many efforts, +partly of the Chartists and partly of the more intelligent miners +themselves, a general spirit of opposition arose in 1843. Such a +movement seized the workers of Northumberland and Durham that they placed +themselves at the forefront of a general Union of coal miners throughout +the kingdom, and appointed W. P. Roberts, a Chartist solicitor, of +Bristol, their "Attorney General," he having distinguished himself in +earlier Chartist trials. The Union soon spread over a great majority of +the districts; agents were appointed in all directions, who held meetings +everywhere and secured new members; at the first conference of delegates, +in Manchester, in 1844, there were 60,000 members represented, and at +Glasgow, six months later, at the second conference, 100,000. Here all +the affairs of the coal miners were discussed and decisions as to the +greater strikes arrived at. Several journals were founded, especially +the _Miners' Advocate_, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, for defending the rights +of the miners. On March 31st, 1844, the contracts of all the miners of +Northumberland and Durham expired. Roberts was empowered to draw up a +new agreement, in which the men demanded: (1) Payment by weight instead +of measure; (2) Determination of weight by means of ordinary scales +subject to the public inspectors; (3) Half-yearly renewal of contracts; +(4) Abolition of the fines system and payment according to work actually +done; (5) The employers to guarantee to miners in their exclusive service +at least four days' work per week, or wages for the same. This agreement +was submitted to the "coal kings," and a deputation appointed to +negotiate with them; they answered, however, that for them the Union did +not exist, that they had to deal with single workmen only, and should +never recognise the Union. They also submitted an agreement of their own +which ignored all the foregoing points, and was, naturally, refused by +the miners. War was thus declared. On March 31st, 1844, 40,000 miners +laid down their picks, and every mine in the county stood empty. The +funds of the Union were so considerable that for several months a weekly +contribution of 2s. 6d. could be assured to each family. While the +miners were thus putting the patience of their masters to the test, +Roberts organised with incomparable perseverance both strike and +agitation, arranged for the holding of meetings, traversed England from +one end to the other, preached peaceful and legal agitation, and carried +on a crusade against the despotic Justices of the Peace and truck +masters, such as had never been known in England. This he had begun at +the beginning of the year. Wherever a miner had been condemned by a +Justice of the Peace, he obtained a _habeas corpus_ from the Court of +Queen's bench, brought his client to London, and always secured an +acquittal. Thus, January 13th, Judge Williams of Queen's bench acquitted +three miners condemned by the Justices of the Peace of Bilston, South +Staffordshire; the offence of these people was that they refused to work +in a place which threatened to cave in, and had actually caved in before +their return! On an earlier occasion, Judge Patteson had acquitted six +working-men, so that the name Roberts began to be a terror to the mine +owners. In Preston four of his clients were in jail. In the first week +of January he proceeded thither to investigate the case on the spot, but +found, when he arrived, the condemned all released before the expiration +of the sentence. In Manchester there were seven in jail; Roberts +obtained a _habeas corpus_ and acquittal for all from Judge Wightman. In +Prescott nine coal miners were in jail, accused of creating a disturbance +in St. Helen's, South Lancashire, and awaiting trial; when Roberts +arrived upon the spot, they were released at once. All this took place +in the first half of February. In April, Roberts released a miner from +jail in Derby, four in Wakefield, and four in Leicester. So it went on +for a time until these Dogberries came to have some respect for the +miners. The truck system shared the same fate. One after another +Roberts brought the disreputable mine owners before the courts, and +compelled the reluctant Justices of the Peace to condemn them; such dread +of this "lightning" "Attorney General" who seemed to be everywhere at +once spread among them, that at Belper, for instance, upon Roberts' +arrival, a truck firm published the following notice: + + "NOTICE!" + + "PENTRICH COAL MINE. + + "The Messrs. Haslam think it necessary, in order to prevent all + mistakes, to announce that all persons employed in their colliery will + receive their wages wholly in cash, and may expend them when and as + they choose to do. If they purchase goods in the shops of Messrs. + Haslam they will receive them as heretofore at wholesale prices, but + they are not expected to make their purchases there, and work and + wages will be continued as usual whether purchases are made in these + shops or elsewhere." + +This triumph aroused the greatest jubilation throughout the English +working-class, and brought the Union a mass of new members. Meanwhile +the strike in the North was proceeding. Not a hand stirred, and +Newcastle, the chief coal port, was so stripped of its commodity that +coal had to be brought from the Scotch coast, in spite of the proverb. At +first, while the Union's funds held out, all went well, but towards +summer the struggle became much more painful for the miners. The +greatest want prevailed among them; they had no money, for the +contributions of the workers of all branches of industry in England +availed little among the vast number of strikers, who were forced to +borrow from the small shopkeepers at a heavy loss. The whole press, with +the single exception of the few proletarian journals, was against them; +the bourgeois, even the few among them who might have had enough sense of +justice to support the miners, learnt from the corrupt Liberal and +Conservative sheets only lies about them. A deputation of twelve miners +who went to London received a sum from the proletariat there, but this, +too, availed little among the mass who needed support. Yet, in spite of +all this, the miners remained steadfast, and what is even more +significant, were quiet and peaceable in the face of all the hostilities +and provocation of the mine owners and their faithful servants. No act +of revenge was carried out, not a renegade was maltreated, not one single +theft committed. Thus the strike had continued well on towards four +months, and the mine owners still had no prospect of getting the upper +hand. One way was, however, still open to them. They remembered the +cottage system; it occurred to them that the houses of the rebellious +spirits were THEIR property. In July, notice to quit was served the +workers, and, in a week, the whole forty thousand were put out of doors. +This measure was carried out with revolting cruelty. The sick, the +feeble, old men and little children, even women in childbirth, were +mercilessly turned from their beds and cast into the roadside ditches. +One agent dragged by the hair from her bed, and into the street, a woman +in the pangs of childbirth. Soldiers and police in crowds were present, +ready to fire at the first symptom of resistance, on the slightest hint +of the Justices of the Peace, who had brought about the whole brutal +procedure. This, too, the working-men endured without resistance. The +hope had been that the men would use violence; they were spurred on with +all force to infringements of the laws, to furnish an excuse for making +an end of the strike by the intervention of the military. The homeless +miners, remembering the warnings of their Attorney General, remained +unmoved, set up their household goods upon the moors or the harvested +fields, and held out. Some, who had no other place, encamped on the +roadsides and in ditches, others upon land belonging to other people, +whereupon they were prosecuted, and, having caused "damage of the value +of a halfpenny," were fined a pound, and, being unable to pay it, worked +it out on the treadmill. Thus they lived eight weeks and more of the wet +fag-end of last summer under the open sky with their families, with no +further shelter for themselves and their little ones than the calico +curtains of their beds; with no other help than the scanty allowances of +their Union and the fast shrinking credit with the small dealers. +Hereupon Lord Londonderry, who owns considerable mines in Durham, +threatened the small tradesmen in "his" town of Seaham with his most high +displeasure if they should continue to give credit to "his" rebellious +workers. This "noble" lord made himself the first clown of the turnout +in consequence of the ridiculous, pompous, ungrammatical ukases addressed +to the workers, which he published from time to time, with no other +result than the merriment of the nation. When none of their efforts +produced any effect, the mine owners imported, at great expense, hands +from Ireland and such remote parts of Wales as have as yet no labour +movement. And when the competition of workers against workers was thus +restored, the strength of the strikers collapsed. The mine owners +obliged them to renounce the Union, abandon Roberts, and accept the +conditions laid down by the employers. Thus ended at the close of +September the great five months' battle of the coal miners against the +mine owners, a battle fought on the part of the oppressed with an +endurance, courage, intelligence, and coolness which demands the highest +admiration. What a degree of true human culture, of enthusiasm and +strength of character, such a battle implies on the part of men who, as +we have seen in the Children's Employment Commission's Report, were +described as late as 1840, as being thoroughly brutal and wanting in +moral sense! But how hard, too, must have been the pressure which +brought these forty thousand colliers to rise as one man and to fight out +the battle like an army not only well-disciplined but enthusiastic, an +army possessed of one single determination, with the greatest coolness +and composure, to a point beyond which further resistance would have been +madness. And what a battle! Not against visible, mortal enemies, but +against hunger, want, misery, and homelessness, against their own +passions provoked to madness by the brutality of wealth. If they had +revolted with violence, they, the unarmed and defenceless, would have +been shot down, and a day or two would have decided the victory of the +owners. This law-abiding reserve was no fear of the constable's staff, +it was the result of deliberation, the best proof of the intelligence and +self-control of the working-men. + +Thus were the working-men forced once more, in spite of their unexampled +endurance, to succumb to the might of capital. But the fight had not +been in vain. First of all, this nineteen weeks' strike had torn the +miners of the North of England forever from the intellectual death in +which they had hitherto lain; they have left their sleep, are alert to +defend their interests, and have entered the movement of civilisation, +and especially the movement of the workers. The strike, which first +brought to light the whole cruelty of the owners, has established the +opposition of the workers here, forever, and made at least two-thirds of +them Chartists; and the acquisition of thirty thousand such determined, +experienced men is certainly of great value to the Chartists. Then, too, +the endurance and law-abiding which characterised the whole strike, +coupled with the active agitation which accompanied it, has fixed public +attention upon the miners. On the occasion of the debate upon the export +duty on coal, Thomas Duncombe, the only decidedly Chartist member of the +House of Commons, brought up the condition of the coal miners, had their +petition read, and by his speech forced the bourgeois journals to +publish, at least in their reports of Parliamentary proceedings, a +correct statement of the case. Immediately after the strike, occurred +the explosion at Haswell; Roberts went to London, demanded an audience +with Peel, insisted as representative of the miners upon a thorough +investigation of the case, and succeeded in having the first geological +and chemical notabilities of England, Professors Lyell and Faraday, +commissioned to visit the spot. As several other explosions followed in +quick succession, and Roberts again laid the details before the Prime +Minister, the latter promised to propose the necessary measures for the +protection of the workers, if possible, in the next session of +Parliament, _i.e_., the present one of 1845. All this would not have +been accomplished if these workers had not, by means of the strike, +proved themselves freedom-loving men worthy of all respect, and if they +had not engaged Roberts as their counsel. + +Scarcely had it become known that the coal miners of the North had been +forced to renounce the Union and discharge Roberts, when the miners of +Lancashire formed a Union of some ten thousand men, and guaranteed their +Attorney General a salary of 1200 pounds a year. In the autumn of last +year they collected more than 700 pounds, rather more than 200 pounds of +which they expended upon salaries and judicial expenses, and the rest +chiefly in support of men out of work, either through want of employment +or through dissensions with their employers. Thus the working-men are +constantly coming to see more clearly that, united, they too are a +respectable power, and can, in the last extremity, defy even the might of +the bourgeoisie. And this insight, the gain of all labour movements, has +been won for all the miners of England by the Union and the strike of +1844. In a very short time the difference of intelligence and energy +which now exists in favour of the factory operatives will have vanished, +and the miners of the kingdom will be able to stand abreast of them in +every respect. Thus one piece of standing ground after another is +undermined beneath the feet of the bourgeoisie; and how long will it be +before their whole social and political edifice collapses with the basis +upon which it rests? {259} + +But the bourgeoisie will not take warning. The resistance of the miners +does but embitter it the more. Instead of appreciating this forward step +in the general movement of the workers, the property-holding class saw in +it only a source of rage against a class of people who are fools enough +to declare themselves no longer submissive to the treatment they had +hitherto received. It saw in the just demands of the non-possessing +workers only impertinent discontent, mad rebellion against "Divine and +human order;" and, in the best case, a success (to be resisted by the +bourgeoisie with all its might) won by "ill-intentioned demagogues who +live by agitation and are too lazy to work." It sought, of course, +without success, to represent to the workers that Roberts and the Union's +agents whom the Union very naturally had to pay, were insolent swindlers, +who drew the last farthing from the working-men's pockets. When such +insanity prevails in the property-holding class, when it is so blinded by +its momentary profit that it no longer has eyes for the most conspicuous +signs of the times, surely all hope of a peaceful solution of the social +question for England must be abandoned. The only possible solution is a +violent revolution, which cannot fail to take place. + + + + +THE AGRICULTURAL PROLETARIAT. + + +We have seen in the introduction how, simultaneously with the small +bourgeoisie and the modest independence of the former workers, the small +peasantry also was ruined when the former Union of industrial and +agricultural work was dissolved, the abandoned fields thrown together +into large farms, and the small peasants superseded by the overwhelming +competition of the large farmers. Instead of being landowners or +leaseholders, as they had been hitherto, they were now obliged to hire +themselves as labourers to the large farmers or the landlords. For a +time this position was endurable, though a deterioration in comparison +with their former one. The extension of industry kept pace with the +increase of population until the progress of manufacture began to assume +a slower pace, and the perpetual improvement of machinery made it +impossible for manufacture to absorb the whole surplus of the +agricultural population. From this time forward, the distress which had +hitherto existed only in the manufacturing districts, and then only at +times, appeared in the agricultural districts too. The twenty-five +years' struggle with France came to an end at about the same time; the +diminished production at the various seats of the wars, the shutting off +of imports, and the necessity of providing for the British army in Spain, +had given English agriculture an artificial prosperity, and had besides +withdrawn to the army vast numbers of workers from their ordinary +occupations. This check upon the import trade, the opportunity for +exportation, and the military demand for workers, now suddenly came to an +end; and the necessary consequence was what the English call agricultural +distress. The farmers had to sell their corn at low prices, and could, +therefore, pay only low wages. In 1815, in order to keep up prices, the +Corn Laws were passed, prohibiting the importation of corn so long as the +price of wheat continued less than 80 shillings per quarter. These +naturally ineffective laws were several times modified, but did not +succeed in ameliorating the distress in the agricultural districts. All +that they did was to change the disease, which, under free competition +from abroad, would have assumed an acute form, culminating in a series of +crises, into a chronic one which bore heavily but uniformly upon the farm +labourers. + +For a time after the rise of the agricultural proletariat, the +patriarchal relation between master and man, which was being destroyed +for manufacture, developed here the same relation of the farmer to his +hands which still exists almost everywhere in Germany. So long as this +lasted, the poverty of the farm hands was less conspicuous; they shared +the fate of the farmer, and were discharged only in cases of the direst +necessity. But now all this is changed. The farm hands have become day +labourers almost everywhere, are employed only when needed by the +farmers, and, therefore, often have no work for weeks together, +especially in winter. In the patriarchal time, the hands and their +families lived on the farm, and their children grew up there, the farmer +trying to find occupation on the spot for the oncoming generation; day +labourers, then, were the exception, not the rule. Thus there was, on +every farm, a larger number of hands than were strictly necessary. It +became, therefore, the interest of the farmers to dissolve this relation, +drive the farm hand from the farm, and transform him into a day labourer. +This took place pretty generally towards the year 1830, and the +consequence was that the hitherto latent over-population was set free, +the rate of wages forced down, and the poor-rate enormously increased. +From this time the agricultural districts became the headquarters of +permanent, as the manufacturing districts had long been of periodic, +pauperism; and the modification of the Poor Law was the first measure +which the State was obliged to apply to the daily increasing +impoverishment of the country parishes. Moreover, the constant extension +of farming on a large scale, the introduction of threshing and other +machines, and the employment of women and children (which is now so +general that its effects have recently been investigated by a special +official commission), threw a large number of men out of employment. It +is manifest, therefore, that here, too, the system of industrial +production has made its entrance, by means of farming on a large scale, +by the abolition of the patriarchal relation, which is of the greatest +importance just here, by the introduction of machinery, steam, and the +labour of women and children. In so doing, it has swept the last and +most stationary portion of working humanity into the revolutionary +movement. But the longer agriculture had remained stationary, the +heavier now became the burden upon the worker, the more violently broke +forth the results of the disorganisation of the old social fabric. The +"over-population" came to light all at once, and could not, as in the +manufacturing districts, be absorbed by the needs of an increasing +production. New factories could always be built, if there were consumers +for their products, but new land could not be created. The cultivation +of waste common land was too daring a speculation for the bad times +following the conclusion of peace. The necessary consequence was that +the competition of the workers among each other reached the highest point +of intensity, and wages fell to the minimum. So long as the old Poor Law +existed, the workers received relief from the rates; wages naturally fell +still lower, because the farmers forced the largest possible number of +labourers to claim relief. The higher poor-rate, necessitated by the +surplus population, was only increased by this measure, and the new Poor +Law, of which we shall have more to say later, was now enacted as a +remedy. But this did not improve matters. Wages did not rise, the +surplus population could not be got rid of, and the cruelty of the new +law did but serve to embitter the people to the utmost. Even the poor- +rate, which diminished at first after the passage of the new law, +attained its old height after a few years. Its only effect was that +whereas previously three to four million half paupers had existed, a +million of total paupers now appeared, and the rest, still half paupers, +merely went without relief. The poverty in the agricultural districts +has increased every year. The people live in the greatest want, whole +families must struggle along with 6, 7, or 8 shillings a week, and at +times have nothing. Let us hear a description of this population given +by a Liberal member of Parliament as early as 1830. {264} + + "An English agricultural labourer and an English pauper, these words + are synonymous. His father was a pauper and his mother's milk + contained no nourishment. From his earliest childhood he had bad + food, and only half enough to still his hunger, and even yet he + undergoes the pangs of unsatisfied hunger almost all the time that he + is not asleep. He is half clad, and has not more fire than barely + suffices to cook his scanty meal. And so cold and damp are always at + home with him, and leave him only in fine weather. He is married, but + he knows nothing of the joys of the husband and father. His wife and + children, hungry, rarely warm, often ill and helpless, always careworn + and hopeless like himself, are naturally grasping, selfish, and + troublesome, and so, to use his own expression, he hates the sight of + them, and enters his cot only because it offers him a trifle more + shelter from rain and wind than a hedge. He must support his family, + though he cannot do so, whence come beggary, deceit of all sorts, + ending in fully developed craftiness. If he were so inclined, he yet + has not the courage which makes of the more energetic of his class + wholesale poachers and smugglers. But he pilfers when occasion + offers, and teaches his children to lie and steal. His abject and + submissive demeanour towards his wealthy neighbours shows that they + treat him roughly and with suspicion; hence he fears and hates them, + but he never will injure them by force. He is depraved through and + through, too far gone to possess even the strength of despair. His + wretched existence is brief, rheumatism and asthma bring him to the + workhouse, where he will draw his last breath without a single + pleasant recollection, and will make room for another luckless wretch + to live and die as he has done." + +Our author adds that besides this class of agricultural labourers, there +is still another, somewhat more energetic and better endowed physically, +mentally, and morally; those, namely, who live as wretchedly, but were +not born to this condition. These he represents as better in their +family life, but smugglers and poachers who get into frequent bloody +conflicts with the gamekeepers and revenue officers of the coast, become +more embittered against society during the prison life which they often +undergo, and so stand abreast of the first class in their hatred of the +property-holders. "And," he says, in closing, "this whole class is +called, by courtesy, the bold peasantry of England." + +Down to the present time, this description applies to the greater portion +of the agricultural labourers of England. In June, 1844, the _Times_ +sent a correspondent into the agricultural districts to report upon the +condition of this class, and the report which he furnished agreed wholly +with the foregoing. In certain districts wages were not more than six +shillings a week; not more, that is, that in many districts in Germany, +while the prices of all the necessaries of life are at least twice as +high. What sort of life these people lead may be imagined; their food +scanty and bad, their clothing ragged, their dwellings cramped and +desolate, small, wretched huts, with no comforts whatsoever; and, for +young people, lodging-houses, where men and women are scarcely separated, +and illegitimate intercourse thus provoked. One or two days without work +in the course of a month must inevitably plunge such people into the +direst want. Moreover, they cannot combine to raise wages, because they +are scattered, and if one alone refuses to work for low wages, there are +dozens out of work, or supported by the rates, who are thankful for the +most trifling offer, while to him who declines work, every other form of +relief than the hated workhouse is refused by the Poor Law guardians as +to a lazy vagabond; for the guardians are the very farmers from whom or +from whose neighbours and acquaintances alone he can get work. And not +from one or two special districts of England do such reports come. On +the contrary, the distress is general, equally great in the North and +South, the East and West. The condition of the labourers in Suffolk and +Norfolk corresponds with that of Devonshire, Hampshire, and Sussex. Wages +are as low in Dorsetshire and Oxfordshire as in Kent and Surrey, +Buckinghamshire and Cambridgeshire. + +One especially barbaric cruelty against the working-class is embodied in +the Game Laws, which are more stringent than in any other country, while +the game is plentiful beyond all conception. The English peasant who, +according to the old English custom and tradition, sees in poaching only +a natural and noble expression of courage and daring, is stimulated still +further by the contrast between his own poverty and the _car tel est +notre plaisir_ of the lord, who preserves thousands of hares and game +birds for his private enjoyment. The labourer lays snares, or shoots +here and there a piece of game. It does not injure the landlord as a +matter of fact, for he has a vast superfluity, and it brings the poacher +a meal for himself and his starving family. But if he is caught he goes +to jail, and for a second offence receives at the least seven years' +transportation. From the severity of these laws arise the frequent +bloody conflicts with the gamekeepers, which lead to a number of murders +every year Hence the post of gamekeeper is not only dangerous, but of ill- +repute and despised. Last year, in two cases, gamekeepers shot +themselves rather than continue their work. Such is the moderate price +at which the landed aristocracy purchases the noble sport of shooting; +but what does it matter to the lords of the soil? Whether one or two +more or less of the "surplus" live or die matters nothing, and even if in +consequence of the Game Laws half the surplus population could be put out +of the way, it would be all the better for the other half--according to +the philanthropy of the English landlords. + +Although the conditions of life in the country, the isolated dwellings, +the stability of the surroundings and occupations, and consequently of +the thoughts, are decidedly unfavourable to all development, yet poverty +and want bear their fruits even here. The manufacturing and mining +proletariat emerged early from the first stage of resistance to our +social order, the direct rebellion of the individual by the perpetration +of crime; but the peasants are still in this stage at the present time. +Their favourite method of social warfare is incendiarism. In the winter +which followed the Revolution of July, in 1830-31, these incendiarisms +first became general. Disturbances had taken place, and the whole region +of Sussex and the adjacent counties has been brought into a state of +excitement in October, in consequence of an increase of the coastguard +(which made smuggling much more difficult and "ruined the coast"--in the +words of a farmer), changes in the Poor Law, low wages, and the +introduction of machinery. In the winter the farmers' hay and +corn-stacks were burnt in the fields, and the very barns and stables +under their windows. Nearly every night a couple of such fires blazed +up, and spread terror among the farmers and landlords. The offenders +were rarely discovered, and the workers attributed the incendiarism to a +mythical person whom they named "Swing." Men puzzled their brains to +discover who this Swing could be and whence this rage among the poor of +the country districts. Of the great motive power, Want, Oppression, only +a single person here and there thought, and certainly no one in the +agricultural districts. Since that year the incendiarisms have been +repeated every winter, with each recurring unemployed season of the +agricultural labourers. In the winter of 1843-44, they were once more +extraordinarily frequent. There lies before me a series of numbers of +the _Northern Star_ of that time, each one of which contains a report of +several incendiarisms, stating in each case its authority. The numbers +wanting in the following list I have not at hand; but they, too, +doubtless contain a number of cases. Moreover, such a sheet cannot +possibly ascertain all the cases which occur. November 25th, 1843, two +cases; several earlier ones are discussed. December 16th, in +Bedfordshire, general excitement for a fortnight past in consequence of +frequent incendiarisms, of which several take place every night. Two +great farmhouses burnt down within the last few days; in Cambridgeshire +four great farmhouses, Hertfordshire one, and besides these, fifteen +other incendiarisms in different districts. December 30th, in Norfolk +one, Suffolk two, Essex two, Cheshire one, Lancashire one, Derby, +Lincoln, and the South twelve. January 6th, 1844, in all ten. January +13th, seven. January 20th, four incendiarisms. From this time forward, +three or four incendiarisms per week are reported, and not as formerly +until the spring only, but far into July and August. And that crimes of +this sort are expected to increase in the approaching hard season of 1844- +45, the English papers already indicate. + +What do my readers think of such a state of things in the quiet, idyllic +country districts of England? Is this social war, or is it not? Is it a +natural state of things which can last? Yet here the landlords and +farmers are as dull and stupefied, as blind to everything which does not +directly put money into their pockets, as the manufacturers and the +bourgeoisie in general in the manufacturing districts. If the latter +promise their employees salvation through the repeal of the Corn Laws, +the landlords and a great part of the farmers promise theirs Heaven upon +earth from the maintenance of the same laws. But in neither case do the +property-holders succeed in winning the workers to the support of their +pet hobby. Like the operatives, the agricultural labourers are +thoroughly indifferent to the repeal or non-repeal of the Corn Laws. Yet +the question is an important one for both. That is to say--by the repeal +of the Corn Laws, free competition, the present social economy is carried +to its extreme point; all further development within the present order +comes to an end, and the only possible step farther is a radical +transformation of the social order. {268} For the agricultural labourers +the question has, further, the following important bearing: Free +importation of corn involves (how, I cannot explain _here_) the +emancipation of the farmers from the landlords, their transformation into +Liberals. Towards this consummation the Anti-Corn Law League has already +largely contributed, and this is its only real service. When the farmers +become Liberals, _i.e_., conscious bourgeois, the agricultural labourers +will inevitably become Chartists and Socialists; the first change +involves the second. And that a new movement is already beginning among +the agricultural labourers is proved by a meeting which Earl Radnor, a +Liberal landlord, caused to be held in October, 1844, near Highworth, +where his estates lie, to pass resolutions against the Corn Laws. At +this meeting, the labourers, perfectly indifferent as to these laws, +demanded something wholly different, namely small holdings, at low rent, +for themselves, telling Earl Radnor all sorts of bitter truths to his +face. Thus the movement of the working-class is finding its way into the +remote, stationary, mentally dead agricultural districts; and, thanks to +the general distress, will soon be as firmly rooted and energetic as in +the manufacturing districts. {269} As to the religious state of the +agricultural labourers, they are, it is true, more pious than the +manufacturing operatives; but they, too, are greatly at odds with the +Church--for in these districts members of the Established Church almost +exclusively are to be found. A correspondent of the _Morning Chronicle_, +who, over the signature, "One who has whistled at the plough," reports +his tour through the agricultural districts, relates, among other things, +the following conversation with some labourers after service: "I asked +one of these people whether the preacher of the day was their own +clergyman. "Yes, blast him! He is our own parson, and begs the whole +time. He's been always a-begging as long as I've known him." (The +sermon had been upon a mission to the heathen.) "And as long as I've +known him too," added another; "and I never knew a parson but what was +begging for this or the other." "Yes," said a woman, who had just come +out of the church, "and look how wages are going down, and see the rich +vagabonds with whom the parsons eat and drink and hunt. So help me God, +we are more fit to starve in the workhouse than pay the parsons as go +among the heathen." "And why," said another, "don't they send the +parsons as drones every day in Salisbury Cathedral, for nobody but the +bare stones? Why don't _they_ go among the heathen?" "They don't go," +said the old man whom I had first asked, "because they are rich, they +have all the land they need, they want the money in order to get rid of +the poor parsons. I know what they want. I know them too long for +that." "But, good friends," I asked, "you surely do not always come out +of the church with such bitter feelings towards the preacher? Why do you +go at all?" "What for do we go?" said the woman. "We must, if we do not +want to lose everything, work and all, we must." I learned later that +they had certain little privileges of fire-wood and potato land (which +they paid for!) on condition of going to church." After describing their +poverty and ignorance, the correspondent closes by saying: "And now I +boldly assert that the condition of these people, their poverty, their +hatred of the church, their external submission and inward bitterness +against the ecclesiastical dignitaries, is the rule among the country +parishes of England, and its opposite is the exception." + +If the peasantry of England shows the consequences which a numerous +agricultural proletariat in connection with large farming involves for +the country districts, Wales illustrates the ruin of the small holders. +If the English country parishes reproduce the antagonism between +capitalist and proletarian, the state of the Welsh peasantry corresponds +to the progressive ruin of the small bourgeoisie in the towns. In Wales +are to be found, almost exclusively, small holders, who cannot with like +profit sell their products as cheaply as the larger, more favourably +situated English farmers, with whom, however, they are obliged to +compete. Moreover, in some places the quality of the land admits of the +raising of live stock only, which is but slightly profitable. Then, too, +these Welsh farmers, by reason of their separate nationality, which they +retain pertinaciously, are much more stationary than the English farmers. +But the competition among themselves and with their English neighbours +(and the increased mortgages upon their land consequent upon this) has +reduced them to such a state that they can scarcely live at all; and +because they have not recognised the true cause of their wretched +condition, they attribute it to all sorts of small causes, such as high +tolls, etc, which do check the development of agriculture and commerce, +but are taken into account as standing charges by every one who takes a +holding, and are therefore really ultimately paid by the landlord. Here, +too, the new Poor Law is cordially hated by the tenants, who hover in +perpetual danger of coming under its sway. In 1843, the famous "Rebecca" +disturbances broke out among the Welsh peasantry; the men dressed in +women's clothing, blackened their faces, and fell in armed crowds upon +the toll-gates, destroyed them amidst great rejoicing and firing of guns, +demolished the toll-keepers' houses, wrote threatening letters in the +name of the imaginary "Rebecca," and once went so far as to storm the +workhouse of Carmarthen. Later, when the militia was called out and the +police strengthened, the peasants drew them off with wonderful skill upon +false scents, demolished toll-gates at one point while the militia, lured +by false signal bugles, was marching in some opposite direction; and +betook themselves finally, when the police was too thoroughly reinforced, +to single incendiarisms and attempts at murder. As usual, these greater +crimes were the end of the movement. Many withdrew from disapproval, +others from fear, and peace was restored of itself. The Government +appointed a commission to investigate the affair and its causes, and +there was an end of the matter. The poverty of the peasantry continues, +however, and will one day, since it cannot under existing circumstances +grow less, but must go on intensifying, produce more serious +manifestations than these humorous Rebecca masquerades. + +If England illustrates the results of the system of farming on a large +scale and Wales on a small one, Ireland exhibits the consequences of +overdividing the soil. The great mass of the population of Ireland +consists of small tenants who occupy a sorry hut without partitions, and +a potato patch just large enough to supply them most scantily with +potatoes through the winter. In consequence of the great competition +which prevails among these small tenants, the rent has reached an unheard- +of height, double, treble, and quadruple that paid in England. For every +agricultural labourer seeks to become a tenant-farmer, and though the +division of land has gone so far, there still remain numbers of labourers +in competition for plots. Although in Great Britain 32,000,000 acres of +land are cultivated, and in Ireland but 14,000,000; although Great +Britain produces agricultural products to the value of 150,000,000 +pounds, and Ireland of but 36,000,000 pounds, there are in Ireland 75,000 +agricultural proletarians _more_ than in the neighbouring island. {272a} +How great the competition for land in Ireland must be is evident from +this extraordinary disproportion, especially when one reflects that the +labourers in Great Britain are living in the utmost distress. The +consequence of this competition is that it is impossible for the tenants +to live much better than the labourers, by reason of the high rents paid. +The Irish people is thus held in crushing poverty, from which it cannot +free itself under our present social conditions. These people live in +the most wretched clay huts, scarcely good enough for cattle-pens, have +scant food all winter long, or, as the report above quoted expresses it, +they have potatoes half enough thirty weeks in the year, and the rest of +the year nothing. When the time comes in the spring at which this +provision reaches its end, or can no longer be used because of its +sprouting, wife and children go forth to beg and tramp the country with +their kettle in their hands. Meanwhile the husband, after planting +potatoes for the next year, goes in search of work either in Ireland or +England, and returns at the potato harvest to his family. This is the +condition in which nine-tenths of the Irish country folks live. They are +poor as church mice, wear the most wretched rags, and stand upon the +lowest plane of intelligence possible in a half-civilised country. +According to the report quoted, there are, in a population of 8.5 +millions, 585,000 heads of families in a state of total destitution; and +according to other authorities, cited by Sheriff Alison, {272b} there are +in Ireland 2,300,000 persons who could not live without public or private +assistance--or 27 per cent. of the whole population paupers! + +The cause of this poverty lies in the existing social conditions, +especially in competition here found in the form of the subdivision of +the soil. Much effort has been spent in finding other causes. It has +been asserted that the relation of the tenant to the landlord who lets +his estate in large lots to tenants, who again have their sub-tenants, +and sub-sub-tenants, in turn, so that often ten middlemen come between +the landlord and the actual cultivator--it has been asserted that the +shameful law which gives the landlord the right of expropriating the +cultivator who may have paid his rent duly, if the first tenant fails to +pay the landlord, that this law is to blame for all this poverty. But +all this determines only the form in which the poverty manifests itself. +Make the small tenant a landowner himself and what follows? The majority +could not live upon their holdings even if they had no rent to pay, and +any slight improvement which might take place would be lost again in a +few years in consequence of the rapid increase of population. The +children would then live to grow up under the improved conditions who now +die in consequence of poverty in early childhood. From another side +comes the assertion that the shameless oppression inflicted by the +English is the cause of the trouble. It is the cause of the somewhat +earlier appearance of this poverty, but not of the poverty itself. Or +the blame is laid on the Protestant Church forced upon a Catholic nation; +but divide among the Irish what the Church takes from them, and it does +not reach six shillings a head. Besides, tithes are a tax upon landed +property, not upon the tenant, though he may nominally pay them; now, +since the Commutation Bill of 1838, the landlord pays the tithes directly +and reckons so much higher rent, so that the tenant is none the better +off. And in the same way a hundred other causes of this poverty are +brought forward, all proving as little as these. This poverty is the +result of our social conditions; apart from these, causes may be found +for the manner in which it manifests itself, but not for the fact of its +existence. That poverty manifests itself in Ireland thus and not +otherwise, is owing to the character of the people, and to their +historical development. The Irish are a people related in their whole +character to the Latin nations, to the French, and especially to the +Italians. The bad features of their character we have already had +depicted by Carlyle. Let us now hear an Irishman, who at least comes +nearer to the truth than Carlyle, with his prejudice in favour of the +Teutonic character: {273} + + "They are restless, yet indolent, clever and indiscreet, stormy, + impatient, and improvident; brave by instinct, generous without much + reflection, quick to revenge and forgive insults, to make and to + renounce friendships, gifted with genius prodigally, sparingly with + judgment." + +With the Irish, feeling and passion predominate; reason must bow before +them. Their sensuous, excitable nature prevents reflection and quiet, +persevering activity from reaching development--such a nation is utterly +unfit for manufacture as now conducted. Hence they held fast to +agriculture, and remained upon the lowest plane even of that. With the +small subdivisions of land, which were not here artificially created, as +in France and on the Rhine, by the division of great estates, but have +existed from time immemorial, an improvement of the soil by the +investment of capital was not to be thought of; and it would, according +to Alison, require 120 million pounds sterling to bring the soil up to +the not very high state of fertility already attained in England. The +English immigration, which might have raised the standard of Irish +civilisation, has contented itself with the most brutal plundering of the +Irish people; and while the Irish, by their immigration into England, +have furnished England a leaven which will produce its own results in the +future, they have little for which to be thankful to the English +immigration. + +The attempts of the Irish to save themselves from their present ruin, on +the one hand, take the form of crimes. These are the order of the day in +the agricultural districts, and are nearly always directed against the +most immediate enemies, the landlord's agents, or their obedient +servants, the Protestant intruders, whose large farms are made up of the +potato patches of hundreds of ejected families. Such crimes are +especially frequent in the South and West. On the other hand, the Irish +hope for relief by means of the agitation for the repeal of the +Legislative Union with England. From all the foregoing, it is clear that +the uneducated Irish must see in the English their worst enemies; and +their first hope of improvement in the conquest of national independence. +But quite as clear is it, too, that Irish distress cannot be removed by +any Act of Repeal. Such an Act would, however, at once lay bare the fact +that the cause of Irish misery, which now seems to come from abroad, is +really to be found at home. Meanwhile, it is an open question whether +the accomplishment of repeal will be necessary to make this clear to the +Irish. Hitherto, neither Chartism nor Socialism has had marked success +in Ireland. + +I close my observations upon Ireland at this point the more readily, as +the Repeal Agitation of 1843 and O'Connell's trial have been the means of +making the Irish distress more and more known in Germany. + +We have now followed the proletariat of the British Islands through all +branches of its activity, and found it everywhere living in want and +misery under totally inhuman conditions. We have seen discontent arise +with the rise of the proletariat, grow, develop, and organise; we have +seen open bloodless and bloody battles of the proletariat against the +bourgeoisie. We have investigated the principles according to which the +fate, the hopes, and fears of the proletariat are determined, and we have +found that there is no prospect of improvement in their condition. + +We have had an opportunity, here and there, of observing the conduct of +the bourgeoisie towards the proletariat, and we have found that it +considers only itself, has only its own advantage in view. However, in +order not to be unjust, let us investigate its mode of action somewhat +more exactly. + + + + +THE ATTITUDE OF THE BOURGEOISIE TOWARDS THE PROLETARIAT. + + +In speaking of the bourgeoisie I include the so-called aristocracy, for +this is a privileged class, an aristocracy, only in contrast with the +bourgeoisie, not in contrast with the proletariat. The proletarian sees +in both only the property-holder--_i.e_., the bourgeois. Before the +privilege of property all other privileges vanish. The sole difference +is this, that the bourgeois proper stands in active relations with the +manufacturing, and, in a measure, with the mining proletarians, and, as +farmer, with the agricultural labourers, whereas the so-called aristocrat +comes into contact with the agricultural labourer only. + +I have never seen a class so deeply demoralised, so incurably debased by +selfishness, so corroded within, so incapable of progress, as the English +bourgeoisie; and I mean by this, especially the bourgeoisie proper, +particularly the Liberal, Corn Law repealing bourgeoisie. For it nothing +exists in this world, except for the sake of money, itself not excluded. +It knows no bliss save that of rapid gain, no pain save that of losing +gold. {276} In the presence of this avarice and lust of gain, it is not +possible for a single human sentiment or opinion to remain untainted. +True, these English bourgeois are good husbands and family men, and have +all sorts of other private virtues, and appear, in ordinary intercourse, +as decent and respectable as all other bourgeois; even in business they +are better to deal with than the Germans; they do not higgle and haggle +so much as our own pettifogging merchants; but how does this help +matters? Ultimately it is self-interest, and especially money gain, +which alone determines them. I once went into Manchester with such a +bourgeois, and spoke to him of the bad, unwholesome method of building, +the frightful condition of the working-people's quarters, and asserted +that I had never seen so ill-built a city. The man listened quietly to +the end, and said at the corner where we parted: "And yet there is a +great deal of money made here; good morning, sir." It is utterly +indifferent to the English bourgeois whether his working-men starve or +not, if only he makes money. All the conditions of life are measured by +money, and what brings no money is nonsense, unpractical, idealistic +bosh. Hence, Political Economy, the Science of Wealth, is the favourite +study of these bartering Jews. Every one of them is a Political +Economist. The relation of the manufacturer to his operatives has +nothing human in it; it is purely economic. The manufacturer is Capital, +the operative Labour. And if the operative will not be forced into this +abstraction, if he insists that he is not Labour, but a man, who +possesses, among other things, the attribute of labour force, if he takes +it into his head that he need not allow himself to be sold and bought in +the market, as the commodity "Labour," the bourgeois reason comes to a +standstill. He cannot comprehend that he holds any other relation to the +operatives than that of purchase and sale; he sees in them not human +beings, but hands, as he constantly calls them to their faces; he +insists, as Carlyle says, that "Cash Payment is the only nexus between +man and man." Even the relation between himself and his wife is, in +ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, mere "Cash Payment." Money +determines the worth of the man; he is "worth ten thousand pounds." He +who has money is of "the better sort of people," is "influential," and +what _he_ does counts for something in his social circle. The +huckstering spirit penetrates the whole language, all relations are +expressed in business terms, in economic categories. Supply and demand +are the formulas according to which the logic of the English bourgeois +judges all human life. Hence free competition in every respect, hence +the _regime_ of _laissez-faire, laissez-aller_ in government, in +medicine, in education, and soon to be in religion, too, as the State +Church collapses more and more. Free competition will suffer no +limitation, no State supervision; the whole State is but a burden to it. +It would reach its highest perfection in a _wholly_ ungoverned anarchic +society, where each might exploit the other to his heart's content. +Since, however, the bourgeoisie cannot dispense with government, but must +have it to hold the equally indispensable proletariat in check, it turns +the power of government against the proletariat and keeps out of its way +as far as possible. + +Let no one believe, however, that the "cultivated" Englishman openly +brags with his egotism. On the contrary, he conceals it under the vilest +hypocrisy. What? The wealthy English fail to remember the poor? They +who have founded philanthropic institutions, such as no other country can +boast of! Philanthropic institutions forsooth! As though you rendered +the proletarians a service in first sucking out their very life-blood and +then practising your self-complacent, Pharisaic philanthropy upon them, +placing yourselves before the world as mighty benefactors of humanity +when you give back to the plundered victims the hundredth part of what +belongs to them! Charity which degrades him who gives more than him who +takes; charity which treads the downtrodden still deeper in the dust, +which demands that the degraded, the pariah cast out by society, shall +first surrender the last that remains to him, his very claim to manhood, +shall first beg for mercy before your mercy deigns to press, in the shape +of an alms, the brand of degradation upon his brow. But let us hear the +English bourgeoisie's own words. It is not yet a year since I read in +the _Manchester Guardian_ the following letter to the editor, which was +published without comment as a perfectly natural, reasonable thing: + + "MR. EDITOR,--For some time past our main streets are haunted by + swarms of beggars, who try to awaken the pity of the passers-by in a + most shameless and annoying manner, by exposing their tattered + clothing, sickly aspect, and disgusting wounds and deformities. I + should think that when one not only pays the poor-rate, but also + contributes largely to the charitable institutions, one had done + enough to earn a right to be spared such disagreeable and impertinent + molestations. And why else do we pay such high rates for the + maintenance of the municipal police, if they do not even protect us so + far as to make it possible to go to or out of town in peace? I hope + the publication of these lines in your widely-circulated paper may + induce the authorities to remove this nuisance; and I remain,--Your + obedient servant, + + "A LADY." + +There you have it! The English bourgeoisie is charitable out of self- +interest; it gives nothing outright, but regards its gifts as a business +matter, makes a bargain with the poor, saying: "If I spend this much upon +benevolent institutions, I thereby purchase the right not to be troubled +any further, and you are bound thereby to stay in your dusky holes and +not to irritate my tender nerves by exposing your misery. You shall +despair as before, but you shall despair unseen, this I require, this I +purchase with my subscription of twenty pounds for the infirmary!" It is +infamous, this charity of a Christian bourgeois! And so writes "A Lady;" +she does well to sign herself such, well that she has lost the courage to +call herself a woman! But if the "Ladies" are such as this, what must +the "Gentlemen" be? It will be said that this is a single case; but no, +the foregoing letter expresses the temper of the great majority of the +English bourgeoisie, or the editor would not have accepted it, and some +reply would have been made to it, which I watched for in vain in the +succeeding numbers. And as to the efficiency of this philanthropy, Canon +Parkinson himself says that the poor are relieved much more by the poor +than by the bourgeoisie; and such relief given by an honest proletarian +who knows himself what it is to be hungry, for whom sharing his scanty +meal is really a sacrifice, but a sacrifice borne with pleasure, such +help has a wholly different ring to it from the carelessly-tossed alms of +the luxurious bourgeois. + +In other respects, too, the bourgeoisie assumes a hypocritical, boundless +philanthropy, but only when its own interests require it; as in its +Politics and Political Economy. It has been at work now well on towards +five years to prove to the working-men that it strives to abolish the +Corn Laws solely in their interest. But the long and short of the matter +is this: the Corn Laws keep the price of bread higher than in other +countries, and thus raise wages, but these high wages render difficult +competition of the manufacturers against other nations in which bread, +and consequently wages, are cheaper. The Corn Laws being repealed, the +price of bread falls, and wages gradually approach those of other +European countries, as must be clear to every one from our previous +exposition of the principles according to which wages are determined. The +manufacturer can compete more readily, the demand for English goods +increases, and, with it, the demand for labour. In consequence of this +increased demand wages would actually rise somewhat, and the unemployed +workers be re-employed; but for how long? The "surplus population" of +England, and especially of Ireland, is sufficient to supply English +manufacture with the necessary operatives, even if it were doubled; and, +in a few years, the small advantage of the repeal of the Corn Laws would +be balanced, a new crisis would follow, and we should be back at the +point from which we started, while the first stimulus to manufacture +would have increased population meanwhile. All this the proletarians +understand very well, and have told the manufacturers to their faces; +but, in spite of that, the manufacturers have in view solely the +immediate advantage which the Corn Laws would bring them. They are too +narrow-minded to see that, even for themselves, no permanent advantage +can arise from this measure, because their competition with each other +would soon force the profit of the individual back to its old level; and +thus they continue to shriek to the working-men that it is purely for the +sake of the starving millions that the rich members of the Liberal party +pour hundreds and thousands of pounds into the treasury of the Anti-Corn +Law League, while every one knows that they are only sending the butter +after the cheese, that they calculate upon earning it all back in the +first ten years after the repeal of the Corn Laws. But the workers are +no longer to be misled by the bourgeoisie, especially since the +insurrection of 1842. They demand of every one who presents himself as +interested in their welfare, that he should declare himself in favour of +the People's Charter as proof of the sincerity of his professions, and in +so doing, they protest against all outside help, for the Charter is a +demand for the power to help themselves. Whoever declines so to declare +himself they pronounce their enemy, and are perfectly right in so doing, +whether he be a declared foe or a false friend Besides, the Anti-Corn Law +League has used the most despicable falsehoods and tricks to win the +support of the workers. It has tried to prove to them that the money +price of labour is in inverse proportion to the price of corn; that wages +are high when grain is cheap, and _vice versa_, an assertion which it +pretends to prove with the most ridiculous arguments, and one which is, +in itself, more ridiculous than any other that has proceeded from the +mouth of an Economist. When this failed to help matters, the workers +were promised bliss supreme in consequence of the increased demand in the +labour market; indeed, men went so far as to carry through the streets +two models of loaves of bread, on one of which, by far the larger, was +written: "American Eightpenny Loaf, Wages Four Shillings per Day," and +upon the much smaller one: "English Eightpenny Loaf, Wages Two Shillings +a Day." But the workers have not allowed themselves to be misled. They +know their lords and masters too well. + +But rightly to measure the hypocrisy of these promises, the practice of +the bourgeoisie must be taken into account. We have seen in the course +of our report how the bourgeoisie exploits the proletariat in every +conceivable way for its own benefit! We have, however, hitherto seen +only how the single bourgeois maltreats the proletariat upon his own +account. Let us turn now to the manner in which the bourgeoisie as a +party, as the power of the State, conducts itself towards the +proletariat. Laws are necessary only because there are persons in +existence who own nothing; and although this is directly expressed in but +few laws, as, for instance, those against vagabonds and tramps, in which +the proletariat as such is outlawed, yet enmity to the proletariat is so +emphatically the basis of the law that the judges, and especially the +Justices of the Peace, who are bourgeois themselves, and with whom the +proletariat comes most in contact, find this meaning in the laws without +further consideration. If a rich man is brought up, or rather summoned, +to appear before the court, the judge regrets that he is obliged to +impose so much trouble, treats the matter as favourably as possible, and, +if he is forced to condemn the accused, does so with extreme regret, etc. +etc., and the end of it all is a miserable fine, which the bourgeois +throws upon the table with contempt and then departs. But if a poor +devil gets into such a position as involves appearing before the Justice +of the Peace--he has almost always spent the night in the station-house +with a crowd of his peers--he is regarded from the beginning as guilty; +his defence is set aside with a contemptuous "Oh! we know the excuse," +and a fine imposed which he cannot pay and must work out with several +months on the treadmill. And if nothing can be proved against him, he is +sent to the treadmill, none the less, "as a rogue and a vagabond." The +partisanship of the Justices of the Peace, especially in the country, +surpasses all description, and it is so much the order of the day that +all cases which are not too utterly flagrant are quietly reported by the +newspapers, without comment. Nor is anything else to be expected. For +on the one hand, these Dogberries do merely construe the law according to +the intent of the farmers, and, on the other, they are themselves +bourgeois, who see the foundation of all true order in the interests of +their class. And the conduct of the police corresponds to that of the +Justices of the Peace. The bourgeois may do what he will and the police +remain ever polite, adhering strictly to the law, but the proletarian is +roughly, brutally treated; his poverty both casts the suspicion of every +sort of crime upon him and cuts him off from legal redress against any +caprice of the administrators of the law; for him, therefore, the +protecting forms of the law do not exist, the police force their way into +his house without further ceremony, arrest and abuse him; and only when a +working-men's association, such as the miners, engages a Roberts, does it +become evident how little the protective side of the law exists for the +working-men, how frequently he has to bear all the burdens of the law +without enjoying its benefits. + +Down to the present hour, the property-holding class in Parliament still +struggles against the better feelings of those not yet fallen a prey to +egotism, and seeks to subjugate the proletariat still further. One piece +of common land after another is appropriated and placed under +cultivation, a process by which the general cultivation is furthered, but +the proletariat greatly injured. Where there were still commons, the +poor could pasture an ass, a pig, or geese, the children and young people +had a place where they could play and live out of doors; but this is +gradually coming to an end. The earnings of the worker are less, and the +young people, deprived of their playground, go to the beer-shops. A mass +of acts for enclosing and cultivating commons is passed at every session +of Parliament. When the Government determined during the session of 1844 +to force the all monopolising railways to make travelling possible for +the workers by means of charges proportionate to their means, a penny a +mile, and proposed therefore to introduce such a third class train upon +every railway daily, the "Reverend Father in God," the Bishop of London, +proposed that Sunday, the only day upon which working-men in work _can_ +travel, be exempted from this rule, and travelling thus be left open to +the rich and shut off from the poor. This proposition was, however, too +direct, too undisguised to pass through Parliament, and was dropped. I +have no room to enumerate the many concealed attacks of even one single +session upon the proletariat. One from the session of 1844 must suffice. +An obscure member of Parliament, a Mr. Miles, proposed a bill regulating +the relation of master and servant which seemed comparatively +unobjectionable. The Government became interested in the bill, and it +was referred to a committee. Meanwhile the strike among the miners in +the North broke out, and Roberts made his triumphal passage through +England with his acquitted working-men. When the bill was reported by +the committee, it was discovered that certain most despotic provisions +had been interpolated in it, especially one conferring upon the employer +the power to bring before any Justice of the Peace every working-man who +had contracted verbally or in writing to do any work whatsoever, in case +of refusal to work or other misbehaviour, and have him condemned to +prison with hard labour for two months, upon the oath of the employer or +his agent or overlooker, _i.e_., upon the oath of the accuser. This bill +aroused the working-men to the utmost fury, the more so as the Ten Hours' +Bill was before Parliament at the same time, and had called forth a +considerable agitation. Hundreds of meetings were held, hundreds of +working-men's petitions forwarded to London to Thomas Duncombe, the +representative of the interests of the proletariat. This man was, except +Ferrand, the representative of "Young England," the only vigorous +opponent of the bill; but when the other Radicals saw that the people +were declaring against it, one after the other crept forward and took his +place by Duncombe's side; and as the Liberal bourgeoisie had not the +courage to defend the bill in the face of the excitement among the +working-men, it was ignominiously lost. + +Meanwhile the most open declaration of war of the bourgeoisie upon the +proletariat is Malthus' Law of Population and the New Poor Law framed in +accordance with it. We have already alluded several times to the theory +of Malthus. We may sum up its final result in these few words, that the +earth is perennially over-populated, whence poverty, misery, distress, +and immorality must prevail; that it is the lot, the eternal destiny of +mankind, to exist in too great numbers, and therefore in diverse classes, +of which some are rich, educated, and moral, and others more or less +poor, distressed, ignorant, and immoral. Hence it follows in practice, +and Malthus himself drew this conclusion, that charities and poor-rates +are, properly speaking, nonsense, since they serve only to maintain, and +stimulate the increase of, the surplus population whose competition +crushes down wages for the employed; that the employment of the poor by +the Poor Law Guardians is equally unreasonable, since only a fixed +quantity of the products of labour can be consumed, and for every +unemployed labourer thus furnished employment, another hitherto employed +must be driven into enforced idleness, whence private undertakings suffer +at cost of Poor Law industry; that, in other words, the whole problem is +not how to support the surplus population, but how to restrain it as far +as possible. Malthus declares in plain English that the right to live, a +right previously asserted in favour of every man in the world, is +nonsense. He quotes the words of a poet, that the poor man comes to the +feast of Nature and finds no cover laid for him, and adds that "she bids +him begone," for he did not before his birth ask of society whether or +not he is welcome. This is now the pet theory of all genuine English +bourgeois, and very naturally, since it is the most specious excuse for +them, and has, moreover, a good deal of truth in it under existing +conditions. If, then, the problem is not to make the "surplus +population" useful, to transform it into available population, but merely +to let it starve to death in the least objectionable way and to prevent +its having too many children, this, of course, is simple enough, provided +the surplus population perceives its own superfluousness and takes kindly +to starvation. There is, however, in spite of the violent exertions of +the humane bourgeoisie, no immediate prospect of its succeeding in +bringing about such a disposition among the workers. The workers have +taken it into their heads that they, with their busy hands, are the +necessary, and the rich capitalists, who do nothing, the surplus +population. + +Since, however, the rich hold all the power, the proletarians must +submit, if they will not good-temperedly perceive it for themselves, to +have the law actually declare them superfluous. This has been done by +the New Poor Law. The Old Poor Law which rested upon the Act of 1601 +(the 43rd of Elizabeth), naively started from the notion that it is the +duty of the parish to provide for the maintenance of the poor. Whoever +had no work received relief, and the poor man regarded the parish as +pledged to protect him from starvation. He demanded his weekly relief as +his right, not as a favour, and this became, at last, too much for the +bourgeoisie. In 1833, when the bourgeoisie had just come into power +through the Reform Bill, and pauperism in the country districts had just +reached its full development, the bourgeoisie began the reform of the +Poor Law according to its own point of view. A commission was appointed, +which investigated the administration of the Poor Laws, and revealed a +multitude of abuses. It was discovered that the whole working-class in +the country was pauperised and more or less dependent upon the rates, +from which they received relief when wages were low; it was found that +this system by which the unemployed were maintained, the ill-paid and the +parents of large families relieved, fathers of illegitimate children +required to pay alimony, and poverty, in general, recognised as needing +protection, it was found that this system was ruining the nation, was-- + + "A check upon industry, a reward for improvident marriage, a stimulus + to increased population, and a means of counterbalancing the effect of + an increased population upon wages; a national provision for + discouraging the honest and industrious, and protecting the lazy, + vicious, and improvident; calculated to destroy the bonds of family + life, hinder systematically the accumulation of capital, scatter that + which is already accumulated, and ruin the taxpayers. Moreover, in + the provision of aliment, it sets a premium upon illegitimate + children." + +(Words of the Report of the Poor Law Commissioners.) {286} This +description of the action of the Old Poor Law is certainly correct; +relief fosters laziness and increase of "surplus population." Under +present social conditions it is perfectly clear that the poor man is +compelled to be an egotist, and when he can choose, living equally well +in either case, he prefers doing nothing to working. But what follows +therefrom? That our present social conditions are good for nothing, and +not as the Malthusian Commissioners conclude, that poverty is a crime, +and, as such, to be visited with heinous penalties which may serve as a +warning to others. + +But these wise Malthusians were so thoroughly convinced of the +infallibility of their theory that they did not for one moment hesitate +to cast the poor into the Procrustean bed of their economic notions and +treat them with the most revolting cruelty. Convinced with Malthus and +the rest of the adherents of free competition that it is best to let each +one take care of himself, they would have preferred to abolish the Poor +Laws altogether. Since, however, they had neither the courage nor the +authority to do this, they proposed a Poor Law constructed as far as +possible in harmony with the doctrine of Malthus, which is yet more +barbarous than that of _laissez-faire_, because it interferes actively in +cases in which the latter is passive. We have seen how Malthus +characterises poverty, or rather the want of employment, as a crime under +the title "superfluity," and recommends for it punishment by starvation. +The commissioners were not quite so barbarous; death outright by +starvation was something too terrible even for a Poor Law Commissioner. +"Good," said they, "we grant you poor a right to exist, but only to +exist; the right to multiply you have not, nor the right to exist as +befits human beings. You are a pest, and if we cannot get rid of you as +we do of other pests, you shall feel, at least, that you are a pest, and +you shall at least be held in check, kept from bringing into the world +other "surplus," either directly or through inducing in others laziness +and want of employment. Live you shall, but live as an awful warning to +all those who might have inducements to become "superfluous." + +They accordingly brought in the New Poor Law, which was passed by +Parliament in 1834, and continues in force down to the present day. All +relief in money and provisions was abolished; the only relief allowed was +admission to the workhouses immediately built. The regulations for these +workhouses, or, as the people call them, Poor Law Bastilles, is such as +to frighten away every one who has the slightest prospect of life without +this form of public charity. To make sure that relief be applied for +only in the most extreme cases and after every other effort had failed, +the workhouse has been made the most repulsive residence which the +refined ingenuity of a Malthusian can invent. The food is worse than +that of the most ill-paid working-man while employed, and the work +harder, or they might prefer the workhouse to their wretched existence +outside. Meat, especially fresh meat, is rarely furnished, chiefly +potatoes, the worst possible bread and oatmeal porridge, little or no +beer. The food of criminal prisoners is better, as a rule, so that the +paupers frequently commit some offence for the purpose of getting into +jail. For the workhouse is a jail too; he who does not finish his task +gets nothing to eat; he who wishes to go out must ask permission, which +is granted or not, according to his behaviour or the inspector's whim, +tobacco is forbidden, also the receipt of gifts from relatives or friends +outside the house; the paupers wear a workhouse uniform, and are handed +over, helpless and without redress, to the caprice of the inspectors. To +prevent their labour from competing with that of outside concerns, they +are set to rather useless tasks: the men break stones, "as much as a +strong man can accomplish with effort in a day;" the women, children, and +aged men pick oakum, for I know not what insignificant use. To prevent +the "superfluous" from multiplying, and "demoralised" parents from +influencing their children, families are broken up, the husband is placed +in one wing, the wife in another, the children in a third, and they are +permitted to see one another only at stated times after long intervals, +and then only when they have, in the opinion of the officials, behaved +well. And in order to shut off the external world from contamination by +pauperism within these bastilles, the inmates are permitted to receive +visits only with the consent of the officials, and in the +reception-rooms; to communicate in general with the world outside only by +leave and under supervision. + +Yet the food is supposed to be wholesome and the treatment humane with +all this. But the intent of the law is too loudly outspoken for this +requirement to be in any wise fulfilled. The Poor Law Commissioners and +the whole English bourgeoisie deceive themselves if they believe the +administration of the law possible without these results. The treatment, +which the letter of the law prescribes, is in direct contradiction of its +spirit. If the law in its essence proclaims the poor criminals, the +workhouses prisons, their inmates beyond the pale of the law, beyond the +pale of humanity, objects of disgust and repulsion, then all commands to +the contrary are unavailing. In practice, the spirit and not the letter +of the law is followed in the treatment of the poor, as in the following +few examples: + +"In the workhouse at Greenwich, in the summer of 1843, a boy five years +old was punished by being shut into the dead-room, where he had to sleep +upon the lids of the coffins. In the workhouse at Herne, the same +punishment was inflicted upon a little girl for wetting the bed at night, +and this method of punishment seems to be a favourite one. This +workhouse, which stands in one of the most beautiful regions of Kent, is +peculiar, in so far as its windows open only upon the court, and but two, +newly introduced, afford the inmates a glimpse of the outer world. The +author who relates this in the _Illuminated Magazine_, closes his +description with the words: "If God punished men for crimes as man +punishes man for poverty, then woe to the sons of Adam!" + +In November, 1843, a man died at Leicester, who had been dismissed two +days before from the workhouse at Coventry. The details of the treatment +of the poor in this institution are revolting. The man, George Robson, +had a wound upon the shoulder, the treatment of which was wholly +neglected; he was set to work at the pump, using the sound arm; was given +only the usual workhouse fare, which he was utterly unable to digest by +reason of the unhealed wound and his general debility; he naturally grew +weaker, and the more he complained, the more brutally he was treated. +When his wife tried to bring him her drop of beer, she was reprimanded, +and forced to drink it herself in the presence of the female warder. He +became ill, but received no better treatment. Finally, at his own +request, and under the most insulting epithets, he was discharged, +accompanied by his wife. Two days later he died at Leicester, in +consequence of the neglected wound and of the food given him, which was +utterly indigestible for one in his condition, as the surgeon present at +the inquest testified. When he was discharged, there were handed to him +letters containing money, which had been kept back six weeks, and opened, +according to a rule of the establishment, by the inspector! In +Birmingham such scandalous occurrences took place, that finally, in 1843, +an official was sent to investigate the case. He found that four tramps +had been shut up naked under a staircase in a black hole, eight to ten +days, often deprived of food until noon, and that at the severest season +of the year. A little boy had been passed through all grades of +punishment known to the institution; first locked up in a damp, vaulted, +narrow, lumber-room; then in the dog-hole twice, the second time three +days and three nights; then the same length of time in the old dog-hole, +which was still worse; then the tramp-room, a stinking, disgustingly +filthy hole, with wooden sleeping stalls, where the official, in the +course of his inspection, found two other tattered boys, shrivelled with +cold, who had been spending three days there. In the dog-hole there were +often seven, and in the tramp-room, twenty men huddled together. Women, +also, were placed in the dog-hole, because they refused to go to church; +and one was shut four days into the tramp-room, with God knows what sort +of company, and that while she was ill and receiving medicine! Another +woman was placed in the insane department for punishment, though she was +perfectly sane. In the workhouse at Bacton, in Suffolk, in January, +1844, a similar investigation revealed the fact that a feeble-minded +woman was employed as nurse, and took care of the patients accordingly; +while sufferers, who were often restless at night, or tried to get up, +were tied fast with cords passed over the covering and under the +bedstead, to save the nurses the trouble of sitting up at night. One +patient was found dead, bound in this way. In the St. Pancras workhouse +in London (where the cheap shirts already mentioned are made), an +epileptic died of suffocation during an attack in bed, no one coming to +his relief; in the same house, four to six, sometimes eight children, +slept in one bed. In Shoreditch workhouse a man was placed, together +with a fever patient violently ill, in a bed teeming with vermin. In +Bethnal Green workhouse, London, a woman in the sixth month of pregnancy +was shut up in the reception-room with her two-year-old child, from +February 28th to March 20th, without being admitted into the workhouse +itself, and without a trace of a bed or the means of satisfying the most +natural wants. Her husband, who was brought into the workhouse, begged +to have his wife released from this imprisonment, whereupon he received +twenty-four hours imprisonment, with bread and water, as the penalty of +his insolence. In the workhouse at Slough, near Windsor, a man lay dying +in September, 1844. His wife journeyed to him, arriving at midnight; and +hastening to the workhouse, was refused admission. She was not permitted +to see her husband until the next morning, and then only in the presence +of a female warder, who forced herself upon the wife at every succeeding +visit, sending her away at the end of half-an-hour. In the workhouse at +Middleton, in Lancashire, twelve, and at times eighteen, paupers, of both +sexes, slept in one room. This institution is not embraced by the New +Poor Law, but is administered under an old special act (Gilbert's Act). +The inspector had instituted a brewery in the house for his own benefit. +In Stockport, July 31st, 1844, a man, seventy-two years old, was brought +before the Justice of the Peace for refusing to break stones, and +insisting that, by reason of his age and a stiff knee, he was unfit for +his work. In vain did he offer to undertake any work adapted to his +physical strength; he was sentenced to two weeks upon the treadmill. In +the workhouse at Basford, an inspecting official found that the sheets +had not been changed in thirteen weeks, shirts in four weeks, stockings +in two to ten months, so that of forty-five boys but three had stockings, +and all their shirts were in tatters. The beds swarmed with vermin, and +the tableware was washed in the slop-pails. In the west of London +workhouse, a porter who had infected four girls with syphilis was not +discharged, and another who had concealed a deaf and dumb girl four days +and nights in his bed was also retained. + +As in life, so in death. The poor are dumped into the earth like +infected cattle. The pauper burial-ground of St. Brides, London, is a +bare morass, in use as a cemetery since the time of Charles II., and +filled with heaps of bones; every Wednesday the paupers are thrown into a +ditch fourteen feet deep; a curate rattles through the Litany at the top +of his speed; the ditch is loosely covered in, to be re-opened the next +Wednesday, and filled with corpses as long as one more can be forced in. +The putrefaction thus engendered contaminates the whole neighbourhood. In +Manchester, the pauper burial-ground lies opposite to the Old Town, along +the Irk: this, too, is a rough, desolate place. About two years ago a +railroad was carried through it. If it had been a respectable cemetery, +how the bourgeoisie and the clergy would have shrieked over the +desecration! But it was a pauper burial-ground, the resting-place of the +outcast and superfluous, so no one concerned himself about the matter. It +was not even thought worth while to convey the partially decayed bodies +to the other side of the cemetery; they were heaped up just as it +happened, and piles were driven into newly-made graves, so that the water +oozed out of the swampy ground, pregnant with putrefying matter, and +filled the neighbourhood with the most revolting and injurious gases. The +disgusting brutality which accompanied this work I cannot describe in +further detail. + +Can any one wonder that the poor decline to accept public relief under +these conditions? That they starve rather than enter these bastilles? I +have the reports of five cases in which persons actually starving, when +the guardians refused them outdoor relief, went back to their miserable +homes and died of starvation rather than enter these hells. Thus far +have the Poor Law Commissioners attained their object. At the same time, +however, the workhouses have intensified, more than any other measure of +the party in power, the hatred of the working-class against the property- +holders, who very generally admire the New Poor Law. + +From Newcastle to Dover, there is but one voice among the workers--the +voice of hatred against the new law. The bourgeoisie has formulated so +clearly in this law its conception of its duties towards the proletariat, +that it has been appreciated even by the dullest. So frankly, so boldly +had the conception never yet been formulated, that the non-possessing +class exists solely for the purpose of being exploited, and of starving +when the property-holders can no longer make use of it. Hence it is that +this new Poor Law has contributed so greatly to accelerate the labour +movement, and especially to spread Chartism; and, as it is carried out +most extensively in the country, it facilitates the development of the +proletarian movement which is arising in the agricultural districts. Let +me add that a similar law in force in Ireland since 1838, affords a +similar refuge for eighty thousand paupers. Here, too, it has made +itself disliked, and would have been intensely hated if it had attained +anything like the same importance as in England. But what difference +does the ill-treatment of eighty thousand proletarians make in a country +in which there are two and a half millions of them? In Scotland there +are, with local exceptions, no Poor Laws. + +I hope that after this picture of the New Poor Law and its results, no +word which I have said of the English bourgeoisie will be thought too +stern. In this public measure, in which it acts _in corpore_ as the +ruling power, it formulates its real intentions, reveals the animus of +those smaller transactions with the proletariat, of which the blame +apparently attaches to individuals. And that this measure did not +originate with any one section of the bourgeoisie, but enjoys the +approval of the whole class, is proved by the Parliamentary debates of +1844. The Liberal party had enacted the New Poor Law; the Conservative +party, with its Prime Minister Peel at the head, defends it, and only +alters some petty-fogging trifles in the Poor Law Amendment Bill of 1844. +A Liberal majority carried the bill, a Conservative majority approved it, +and the "Noble Lords" gave their consent each time. Thus is the +expulsion of the proletariat from State and society outspoken, thus is it +publicly proclaimed that proletarians are not human beings, and do not +deserve to be treated as such. Let us leave it to the proletarians of +the British Empire to re-conquer their human rights. {293} + +Such is the state of the British working-class as I have come to know it +in the course of twenty-one months, through the medium of my own eyes, +and through official and other trustworthy reports. And when I call this +condition, as I have frequently enough done in the foregoing pages, an +utterly unbearable one, I am not alone in so doing. As early as 1833, +Gaskell declared that he despaired of a peaceful issue, and that a +revolution can hardly fail to follow. In 1838, Carlyle explained +Chartism and the revolutionary activity of the working-men as arising out +of the misery in which they live, and only wondered that they have sat so +quietly eight long years at the Barmecide feast, at which they have been +regaled by the Liberal bourgeoisie with empty promises. And in 1844 he +declared that the work of organising labour must be begun at once "if +Europe or at least England, is long to remain inhabitable." And the +_Times_, the "first journal of Europe," said in June, 1844: "War to +palaces, peace unto cabins--that is a battle-cry of terror which may come +to resound throughout our country. Let the wealthy beware!" + +* * * * * + +Meanwhile, let us review once more the chances of the English +bourgeoisie. In the worst case, foreign manufacture, especially that of +America, may succeed in withstanding English competition, even after the +repeal of the Corn Laws, inevitable in the course of a few years. German +manufacture is now making great efforts, and that of America has +developed with giant strides. America, with its inexhaustible resources, +with its unmeasured coal and iron fields, with its unexampled wealth of +water-power and its navigable rivers, but especially with its energetic, +active population, in comparison with which the English are phlegmatic +dawdlers,--America has in less than ten years created a manufacture which +already competes with England in the coarser cotton goods, has excluded +the English from the markets of North and South America, and holds its +own in China, side by side with England. If any country is adapted to +holding a monopoly of manufacture, it is America. Should English +manufacture be thus vanquished--and in the course of the next twenty +years, if the present conditions remain unchanged, this is inevitable--the +majority of the proletariat must become forever superfluous, and has no +other choice than to starve or to rebel. Does the English bourgeoisie +reflect upon this contingency? On the contrary; its favourite economist, +M'Culloch, teaches from his student's desk, that a country so young as +America, which is not even properly populated, cannot carry on +manufacture successfully or dream of competing with an old manufacturing +country like England. It were madness in the Americans to make the +attempt, for they could only lose by it; better far for them to stick to +their agriculture, and when they have brought their whole territory under +the plough, a time may perhaps come for carrying on manufacture with a +profit. So says the wise economist, and the whole bourgeoisie worships +him, while the Americans take possession of one market after another, +while a daring American speculator recently even sent a shipment of +American cotton goods to England, where they were sold for +re-exportation! + +But assuming that England retained the monopoly of manufactures, that its +factories perpetually multiply, what must be the result? The commercial +crises would continue, and grow more violent, more terrible, with the +extension of industry and the multiplication of the proletariat. The +proletariat would increase in geometrical proportion, in consequence of +the progressive ruin of the lower middle-class and the giant strides with +which capital is concentrating itself in the hands of the few; and the +proletariat would soon embrace the whole nation, with the exception of a +few millionaires. But in this development there comes a stage at which +the proletariat perceives how easily the existing power may be +overthrown, and then follows a revolution. + +Neither of these supposed conditions may, however, be expected to arise. +The commercial crises, the mightiest levers for all independent +development of the proletariat, will probably shorten the process, acting +in concert with foreign competition and the deepening ruin of the lower +middle-class. I think the people will not endure more than one more +crisis. The next one, in 1846 or 1847, will probably bring with it the +repeal of the Corn Laws {296} and the enactment of the Charter. What +revolutionary movements the Charter may give rise to remains to be seen. +But, by the time of the next following crisis, which, according to the +analogy of its predecessors, must break out in 1852 or 1853, unless +delayed perhaps by the repeal of the Corn Laws or hastened by other +influences, such as foreign competition--by the time this crisis arrives, +the English people will have had enough of being plundered by the +capitalists and left to starve when the capitalists no longer require +their services. If, up to that time, the English bourgeoisie does not +pause to reflect--and to all appearance it certainly will not do so--a +revolution will follow with which none hitherto known can be compared. +The proletarians, driven to despair, will seize the torch which Stephens +has preached to them; the vengeance of the people will come down with a +wrath of which the rage of 1793 gives no true idea. The war of the poor +against the rich will be the bloodiest ever waged. Even the union of a +part of the bourgeoisie with the proletariat, even a general reform of +the bourgeoisie, would not help matters. Besides, the change of heart of +the bourgeoisie could only go as far as a lukewarm _juste-milieu_; the +more determined, uniting with the workers, would only form a new Gironde, +and succumb in the course of the mighty development. The prejudices of a +whole class cannot be laid aside like an old coat: least of all, those of +the stable, narrow, selfish English bourgeoisie. These are all +inferences which may be drawn with the greatest certainty: conclusions, +the premises for which are undeniable facts, partly of historical +development, partly facts inherent in human nature. Prophecy is nowhere +so easy as in England, where all the component elements of society are +clearly defined and sharply separated. The revolution must come; it is +already too late to bring about a peaceful solution; but it can be made +more gentle than that prophesied in the foregoing pages. This depends, +however, more upon the development of the proletariat than upon that of +the bourgeoisie. In proportion, as the proletariat absorbs socialistic +and communistic elements, will the revolution diminish in bloodshed, +revenge, and savagery. Communism stands, in principle, above the breach +between bourgeoisie and proletariat, recognises only its historic +significance for the present, but not its justification for the future: +wishes, indeed, to bridge over this chasm, to do away with all class +antagonisms. Hence it recognises as justified, so long as the struggle +exists, the exasperation of the proletariat towards its oppressors as a +necessity, as the most important lever for a labour movement just +beginning; but it goes beyond this exasperation, because Communism is a +question of humanity and not of the workers alone. Besides, it does not +occur to any Communist to wish to revenge himself upon individuals, or to +believe that, in general, the single bourgeois can act otherwise, under +existing circumstances, than he does act. English Socialism, _i.e_. +Communism, rests directly upon the irresponsibility of the individual. +Thus the more the English workers absorb communistic ideas, the more +superfluous becomes their present bitterness, which, should it continue +so violent as at present, could accomplish nothing; and the more their +action against the bourgeoisie will lose its savage cruelty. If, indeed, +it were possible to make the whole proletariat communistic before the war +breaks out, the end would be very peaceful; but that is no longer +possible, the time has gone by. Meanwhile, I think that before the +outbreak of open, declared war of the poor against the rich, there will +be enough intelligent comprehension of the social question among the +proletariat, to enable the communistic party, with the help of events, to +conquer the brutal element of the revolution and prevent a "Ninth +Thermidor." In any case, the experience of the French will not have been +undergone in vain, and most of the Chartist leaders are, moreover, +already Communists. And as Communism stands above the strife between +bourgeoisie and proletariat, it will be easier for the better elements of +the bourgeoisie (which are, however, deplorably few, and can look for +recruits only among the rising generation) to unite with it than with +purely proletarian Chartism. + +If these conclusions have not been sufficiently established in the course +of the present work, there may be other opportunities for demonstrating +that they are necessary consequences of the historical development of +England. But this I maintain, the war of the poor against the rich now +carried on in detail and indirectly will become direct and universal. It +is too late for a peaceful solution. The classes are divided more and +more sharply, the spirit of resistance penetrates the workers, the +bitterness intensifies, the guerilla skirmishes become concentrated in +more important battles, and soon a slight impulse will suffice to set the +avalanche in motion. Then, indeed, will the war-cry resound through the +land: "War to the palaces, peace to the cottages!"--but then it will be +too late for the rich to beware. + + + + +TRANSLATORS NOTE. + + +Being unable at this late day to obtain the original English, the +translator has been compelled to re-translate from the German the +passages quoted in the text from the following sources:--G. Alston, +preacher of St. Philip's, Bethnal Green.--D. W. P. Alison, F.R.S.E., +"Observations on the Management of the Poor in Scotland," 1840.--The +_Artisan_, 1842, October number.--J. C. Symonds, "Arts and Artisans at +Home and Abroad," Edin., 1839.--Report of the Town Council of Leeds, +published in _Statistical Journal_, vol. ii., p. 404.--Nassau W. Senior, +"Letters on the Factory Act to the Rt. Hon. the President of the Board of +Trade" (Chas. Poulett Thomson, Esq.), London, 1837.--Report of the +Children's Employment Commission.--Mr. Parkinson, Canon of Manchester, +"On the Present Condition of the Labouring Poor in Manchester," 3rd Ed., +1841.--Factories' Inquiries Commission's Report.--E. G. Wakefield, M. P., +"Swing Unmasked; or, The Cause of Rural Incendiarism," London, 1831.--A +Correspondent of the _Morning Chronicle_.--Anonymous pamphlet on "The +State of Ireland," London, 1807; 2nd Ed., 1821.--Report of the Poor Law +Commissioners: Extracts from Information received by the Poor Law +Commissioners. Published by Authority, London, 1833. + + + + +INDEX + + +Accidents, 109, 143, 150, 164, 165, 294. + +Adulteration, 67, _et seq_. + +Apprentices, 169, 191, 197, _et seq_. 209. + +Charter, 225, _et seq_. 280, 296. + +Chartism, xiv., xix., 65, 123, 228, _et seq_. 275, 292. + +Chartists, 135, 176, 199, 231, _et seq_. 253, 258. + +Corn Laws, 113, 261, 268, 279, 280, 294. + League, 122, 231, 268, 280. + Repeal of, vi., 17, 231, 232, 275. + +Cottage System, v., 182, 183, 251, 252, 256. + +Crime--Form of Rebellion, 266, _et seq_. 274. + Increase of, 130, _et seq_. + Juvenile, 200, 204. + Result of Overcrowding, 65, 120, 121. + +Diseases, Engendered by Dwellings, 201, 202. + Filth, 35, 40, 41, 64, 96, 97. + Occupation, 162-3, 177-8, 191-2, 206. + Overwork, 153, 155, _et seq_. 171, 245-6. + Want, 30, 73, 88, 108, 199, 210-11. + +Education--Means of, 108, _et seq_. 195, 200, 201, 202, 238, 254. + Want of, 90, 91, 126, 129, 148, 149. + +Employment of Children, + In Agriculture, 262, 263. + In Factories, 141, _et seq_. 167, 171, _et seq_. 193. + In House Industry, 191, _et seq_. + In Mines, 241, 244, _et seq_. + In the Night, 191, 207. + +Employment of Women, + In Agriculture, 263. + In Factories, 141, _et seq_. 160, _et seq_. 175, 192. + In Mines, 241, 242, 248, 249. + In Sewing, 209, _et seq_. + +Epidemics, vi., 37, 41, 61, 64, 98, 100, 110, 158. + +Factory Acts, x., xi., 17, 134, 151, 168, 116, 176, 188. + +Food--Adulteration of, 98. + Insufficiency of, 32, 74, 101, 102, 193, 208. + Quality of, 68, 71, 91, 140, 201. + +Free Trade, vii., viii., _et seq_. 183, 234, 268. + +Intemperance, 102, 127, 128. + +Inventions. 1, 4, _et seq_. 42, 134, _et seq_. 223, 224. + +Law--A Bourgeois Institution, 113, 130, 173, 176, 227, 281, 282, 288. + New Poor, 174, 175, 230, 235, 262, _et seq_. 269, 284, _et seq_. + Old Poor, 176, 284, 285. + Of Wages, xi., 77, _et seq_. 219. + +Mortality, 100, 101, 104, _et seq_. 143, 150, 243. + +Parliament, 17, 96, 111, 214, 228, 251, 283, 287. + +Philanthropy, 27, 28, 88, 173, 212, 278. + +Police, 132, 221, 225, 226, 281, 282. + +Reform Bill, ix., 17, 214, 229, 285. + +Reserve Army, 85, 90. + +Schools--Day, 110, _et seq_. 173, 200, 207, 250. + Night, 110, 250. + Sunday, 111, 202, 250. + +Socialism, vi., vii., xii., 122, 236, _et seq_. 275, 297. + +Starvation, 25, 29, 73, 76, 88, 117, 167, 189, 285. + +Strikes, ix., xiv., xv., 168, 215, 218, 223, 224, 231, 254, 256, 257. + +Suicide, 115, 116. + +Surplus Population, 81, _et seq_. 139, 263, 266, 280, 287. + +Ten Hours' Bill, vii., 142, 172, 174, _et seq_. 230, 235, 284. + +Truck System, vii., viii., 182-3, 185, 252, 253. + +Ventilation of Dwellings, 36. + Mines, 249. + Towns, 27, 28, 36, 53, _et seq_. 63, 64, 96, _et seq_. + Workrooms, 155, 156, 158. + +Workhouses, 287, _et seq_. + + + + +Footnotes. + + +{7} According to Porter's _Progress of the Nation_, London, 1836, vol. +i., 1838, vol. ii., 1843, vol. iii. (official data), and other sources +chiefly official. + +{20} Compare on this point my "Outlines for a Critique of Political +Economy" in the _Deutsch-Franzosische Jahrbucher_. + +{23} This applies to the time of sailing vessels. The Thames now is a +dreary collection of ugly steamers.--F. E. + +{32} _Times_, Oct. 12th, 1843. + +{33} Quoted by Dr. W. P. Alison, F.R.S.E, Fellow and late President of +the Royal College of Physicians, etc. etc. "Observations on the +Management of the Poor in Scotland and its Effects on the Health of Great +Towns." Edinburgh, 1840. The author is a religious Tory, brother of the +historian, Archibald Alison. + +{35a} "Report to the Home Secretary from the Poor-Law Commissioners on +an Inquiry into the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Classes in Great +Britain with Appendix." Presented to both Houses of Parliament in July +1842, 3 vols. Folio. + +{35b} _The Artisan_, October, 1842. + +{38} "Arts and Artisan at Home and Abroad," by J. C. Symonds, Edinburgh, +1839. The author, as it seems, himself a Scotchman, is a Liberal, and +consequently fanatically opposed to every independent movement of working- +men. The passages here cited are to be found p. 116 _et seq_. + +{40a} It must be borne in mind that these cellars are not mere storing- +rooms for rubbish, but dwellings of human beings. + +{40b} Compare Report of the Town Council in the Statistical Journal, +vol. 2, p. 404. + +{49} "The Moral and Physical Condition of the Working-Classes Employed +in the Cotton Manufacture in Manchester." By James Ph. Kay, M.D. 2nd +Ed. 1832. + +Dr. Kay confuses the working-class in general with the factory workers, +otherwise an excellent pamphlet. + +{55} And yet an English Liberal wiseacre asserts, in the Report of the +Children's Employment Commission, that these courts are the masterpiece +of municipal architecture, because, like a multitude of little parks, +they improve ventilation, the circulation of air! Certainly, if each +court had two or four broad open entrances facing each other, through +which the air could pour; but they never have two, rarely one, and +usually only a narrow covered passage. + +{63} Nassau W. Senior. "Letters on the Factory Act to the Rt. Hon. the +President of the Board of Trade" (Chas. Poulett Thompson, Esq.), London, +1837, p. 24. + +{64} Kay, loc. cit., p. 32. + +{65} P. Gaskell. "The Manufacturing Population of England: its Moral, +Social and Physical Condition, and the Changes which have arisen from the +Use of Steam Machinery; with an Examination of Infant Labour." "Fiat +Justitia," 1833.--Depicting chiefly the state of the working-class in +Lancashire. The author is a Liberal, but wrote at a time when it was not +a feature of Liberalism to chant the happiness of the workers. He is +therefore unprejudiced, and can afford to have eyes for the evils of the +present state of things, and especially for the factory system. On the +other hand, he wrote before the Factories Enquiry Commission, and adopts +from untrustworthy sources many assertions afterwards refuted by the +Report of the Commission. This work, although on the whole a valuable +one, can therefore only be used with discretion, especially as the +author, like Kay, confuses the whole working-class with the mill hands. +The history of the development of the proletariat contained in the +introduction to the present work, is chiefly taken from this work of +Gaskell's. + +{67} Thomas Carlyle. "Chartism," London, 1840, p. 28. + +{80} Adam Smith. "Wealth of Nations" I., McCulloch's edition in one +volume, sect. 8, p. 36: "The wear and tear of a slave, it has been said, +is at the expense of his master, but that of a free servant is at his own +expense. The wear and tear of the latter, however, is, in reality, as +much at the expense of his master as that of the former. The wages paid +to journeymen and servants of every kind, must be such as may enable +them, one with another, to continue the race of journeymen and servants, +according as the increasing, diminishing, or stationary demand of the +society may happen to require. But though the wear and tear of a free +servant be equally at the expense of his master, it generally costs him +much less than that of a slave. The fund for replacing or repairing, if +I may say so, the wear and tear of the slave, is commonly managed by a +negligent master or careless overseer." + +{87} And it came in 1847. + +{90a} Archibald Alison. "Principles of Population and their Connection +with Human Happiness," two vols., 1840. This Alison is the historian of +the French Revolution, and, like his brother, Dr. W. P. Alison, a +religious Tory. + +{90b} "Chartism," pp. 28, 31, etc. + +{95} When as here and elsewhere I speak of society as a responsible +whole, having rights and duties, I mean, of course, the ruling power of +society, the class which at present holds social and political control, +and bears, therefore, the responsibility for the condition of those to +whom it grants no share in such control. This ruling class in England, +as in all other civilised countries, is the bourgeoisie. But that this +society, and especially the bourgeoisie, is charged with the duty of +protecting every member of society, at least, in his life, to see to it, +for example, that no one starves, I need not now prove to my _German_ +readers. If I were writing for the English bourgeoisie, the case would +be different. (And so it is now in Germany. Our German capitalists are +fully up to the English level, in this respect at least, in the year of +grace, 1886.) + +{100a} Dr. Alison. "Management of the Poor in Scotland." + +{100b} Alison. "Principles of Population," vol. ii. + +{100c} Dr. Alison in an article read before the British Association for +the Advancement of Science. October, 1844, in York. + +{104} "Manufacturing Population," ch 8. + +{105a} Report of Commission of Inquiry into the Employment of Children +and Young Persons in Mines and Collieries and in the Trades and +Manufactures in which numbers of them work together, not being included +under the terms of the Factories' Regulation Act. First and Second +Reports, Grainger's Report. Second Report usually cited as "Children's +Employment Commission's Report." First Report, 1841; Second Report, +1843. + +{105b} Fifth Annual Report of the Reg. Gen. of Births, Deaths, and +Marriages. + +{106} Dr. Cowen. "Vital Statistics of Glasgow." + +{107} Report of Commission of Inquiry into the State of Large Towns and +Populous Districts. First Report, 1844. Appendix. + +{108a} Factories' Inquiry Commission's Reports, 3rd vol. Report of Dr. +Hawkins on Lancashire, in which Dr. Robertson is cited--the "Chief +Authority for Statistics in Manchester." + +{108b} Quoted by Dr. Wade from the Report of the Parliamentary +Factories' Commission of 1832, in his "History of the Middle and Working- +Classes." London, 1835, 3rd ed. + +{112a} Children's Employment Commission's Report. App. Part II. Q. 18, +No. 216, 217, 226, 233, etc. Horne. + +{112b} _Ibid_. evidence, p. 9, 39; 133. + +{113a} _Ibid_. p. 9, 36; 146. + +{113b} _Ibid_. p. 34; 158. + +{113c} Symonds' Rep. App. Part I., pp. E, 22, _et seq_. + +{115a} "Arts and Artisans." + +{115b} "Principles of Population," vol. ii. pp. 136, 197. + +{116} We shall see later how the rebellion of the working-class against +the bourgeoisie in England is legalised by the right of coalition. + +{117a} "Chartism," p. 34, _et seq_. + +{117b} _Ibid_., p. 40. + +{119} Shall I call bourgeois witnesses to bear testimony from me here, +too? I select one only, whom every one may read, namely, Adam Smith. +"Wealth of Nations" (McCulloch's four volume edition), vol. iii., book 5, +chap. 8, p. 297. + +{120} "Principles of Population," vol. ii., p. 76, _et seq_. p. 82, p. +135. + +{122} "Philosophy of Manufactures," London, 1835, p. 406, _et seq_. We +shall have occasion to refer further to this reputable work. + +{125} "On the Present Condition of the Labouring Poor in Manchester," +etc. By the Rev. Rd. Parkinson, Canon of Manchester, 3d Ed., London and +Manchester, 1841, Pamphlet. + +{131a} "Manufacturing Population of England," chap. 10. + +{131b} The total of population, about fifteen millions, divided by the +number of convicted criminals (22,733). + +{134a} "The Cotton Manufacture of Great Britain," by Dr. A. Ure, 1836. + +{134b} "History of the Cotton Manufacture of Great Britain," by E. +Baines, Esq. + +{135} "Stubborn Facts from the Factories by a Manchester Operative." +Published and dedicated to the working-classes, by Wm. Rashleigh, M.P., +London, Ollivier, 1844, p. 28, _et seq_. + +{136} Compare Factories' Inquiry Commission's Report. + +{138} L. Symonds, in "Arts and Artisans." + +{140} See Dr. Ure in the "Philosophy of Manufacture." + +{141} Report of Factory Inspector, L. Homer, October, 1844: "The state +of things in the matter of wages is greatly perverted in certain branches +of cotton manufacture in Lancashire; there are hundreds of young men, +between twenty and thirty, employed as piecers and otherwise, who do not +get more than 8 or 9 shillings a week, while children under thirteen +years, working under the same roof, earn 5 shillings, and young girls, +from sixteen to twenty years, 10-12 shillings per week." + +{143a} Report of Factories' Inquiry Commission. Testimony of Dr. +Hawkins, p. 3. + +{143b} In 1843, among the accidents brought to the Infirmary in +Manchester, one hundred and eighty-nine were from burning. + +{144} Factories' Inquiry Commission's Report, Power's Report on Leeds: +passim Tufnell Report on Manchester, p. 17. etc. + +{145} This letter is re-translated from the German, no attempt being +made to re-produce either the spelling or the original Yorkshire dialect. + +{147a} How numerous married women are in the factories is seen from +information furnished by a manufacturer: In 412 factories in Lancashire, +10,721 of them were employed; of the husbands of these women, but 5,314 +were also employed in the factories, 3,927 were otherwise employed, 821 +were unemployed, and information was wanting as to 659; or two, if not +three men for each factory, are supported by the work of their wives. + +{147b} House of Commons, March 15th, 1844. + +{147c} Factories' Inquiry Commission's Report, p. 4. + +{148a} For further examples and information compare Factories' Inquiry +Commission's Report. Cowell Evidence, pp. 37, 38, 39, 72, 77, 59; +Tufnell Evidence, pp. 9, 15, 45, 54, etc. + +{148b} Cowell Evidence, pp. 35, 37, and elsewhere. + +{148c} Power Evidence, p. 8. + +{149a} Cowell Evidence, p. 57 + +{149b} Cowell Evidence, p. 82. + +{149c} Factories' Inquiry Commission's Report, p. 4, Hawkins. + +{151} Stuart Evidence, p. 35. + +{152a} Tufnell Evidence, p. 91. + +{152b} Dr. Loudon Evidence, pp. 12, 13. + +{153a} Dr. Loudon Evidence, p. 16. + +{153b} Drinkwater Evidence, pp. 72, 80, 146, 148, 150 (two brothers); 69 +(two brothers); 155, and many others. + +Power Evidence, pp. 63, 66, 67 (two cases); 68 (three cases); 69 (two +cases); in Leeds, pp. 29, 31, 40, 43, 53, _et seq_. + +Loudon Evidence, pp. 4, 7 (four cases); 8 (several cases), etc. + +Sir D. Barry Evidence, pp. 6, 8, 13, 21, 22, 44, 55 (three cases), etc. + +Tufnell Evidence, pp. 5, 6, 16, etc. + +{154a} Factories' Inquiry Commission's Report, 1836, Sir D. Barry +Evidence, p. 21 (two cases). + +{154b} Factories' Inquiry Commission's Report, 1836, Loudon Evidence, +pp. 13, 16, etc. + +{155} In the spinning-room of a mill at Leeds, too, chairs had been +introduced. Drinkwater Evidence, p. 80. + +{156} General report by Sir D. Barry. + +{157a} Power Report, p. 74. + +{157b} The surgeons in England are scientifically educated as well as +the physicians, and have, in general, medical as well as surgical +practice. They are in general, for various reasons, preferred to the +physicians. + +{159a} This statement is not taken from the report. + +{159b} Tufnell, p. 59. + +{160a} Stuart Evidence, p. 101. + +{160b} Tufnell Evidence, pp. 3, 9, 15. + +{161} Hawkins Report, p. 4; Evidence, p. 14, etc. etc. Hawkins +Evidence, pp. 11, 13. + +{162a} Cowell Evidence, p. 77. + +{162b} Sir D. Barry Evidence, p. 44. + +{162c} Cowell, p. 35. + +{163a} Dr. Hawkins Evidence, p. 11; Dr. Loudon, p. 14, etc.; Sir D. +Barry, p. 5, etc. + +{163b} Compare Stuart, pp. 13, 70, 101; Mackintosh, p. 24, etc.; Power +Report on Nottingham, on Leeds; Cowell, p. 33, etc.; Barry, p. 12; (five +cases in one factory), pp. 17, 44, 52, 60, etc.; Loudon, p. 13. + +{167a} Stuart, p. 39. + +{167b} "Philosophy of Manufactures," by Dr. Andrew Ure, p. 277, _et +seq_. + +{168a} _Ibid_., 277. + +{168b} _Ibid_., p. 298. + +{168c} _Ibid_., p. 301. + +{169} Dr. Andrew Ure. "Philosophy of Manufactures," pp. 405, 406, _et +seq_. + +{174} Afterwards Earl of Shaftesbury, died 1885. + +{176} It is notorious that the House of Commons made itself ridiculous a +second time in the same session in the same way on the Sugar Question, +when it first voted against the ministry and then for it, after an +application of the ministerial whip. + +{178} Let us hear another competent judge: "If we consider the example +of the Irish in connection with the ceaseless toil of the cotton +operative class, we shall wonder less at their terrible demoralisation. +Continuous exhausting toil, day after day, year after year, is not +calculated to develop the intellectual and moral capabilities of the +human being. The wearisome routine of endless drudgery, in which the +same mechanical process is ever repeated, is like the torture of +Sisyphus; the burden of toil, like the rock, is ever falling back upon +the worn-out drudge. The mind attains neither knowledge nor the power of +thought from the eternal employment of the same muscles. The intellect +dozes off in dull indolence, but the coarser part of our nature reaches a +luxuriant development. To condemn a human being to such work is to +cultivate the animal quality in him. He grows indifferent, he scorns the +impulses and customs which distinguish his kind. He neglects the +conveniences and finer pleasures of life, lives in filthy poverty with +scanty nourishment, and squanders the rest of his earnings in +debauchery."--Dr. J. Kay. + +{179a} _Manchester Guardian_, October 30th. + +{179b} "Stubborn Facts," p. 9 _et seq_. + +{181a} Drinkwater Evidence; p. 80. + +{181b} "Stubborn Facts," pp. 13-17. + +{184} _Sun_, a London daily; end of November, 1844. + +{186} I have neither time nor space to deal in detail with the replies +of the manufacturers to the charges made against them for twelve years +past. These men will not learn because their supposed interest blinds +them. As, moreover, many of their objections have been met in the +foregoing, the following is all that it is necessary for me to add: + +You come to Manchester, you wish to make yourself acquainted with the +state of affairs in England. You naturally have good introductions to +respectable people. You drop a remark or two as to the condition of the +workers. You are made acquainted with a couple of the first Liberal +manufacturers, Robert Hyde Greg, perhaps, Edmund Ashworth, Thomas Ashton, +or others. They are told of your wishes. The manufacturer understands +you, knows what he has to do. He accompanies you to his factory in the +country; Mr. Greg to Quarrybank in Cheshire, Mr. Ashworth to Turton near +Bolton, Mr. Ashton to Hyde. He leads you through a superb, admirably +arranged building, perhaps supplied with ventilators, he calls your +attention to the lofty, airy rooms, the fine machinery, here and there a +healthy-looking operative. He gives you an excellent lunch, and proposes +to you to visit the operatives' homes; he conducts you to the cottages, +which look new, clean and neat, and goes with you into this one and that +one, naturally only to overlookers, mechanics, etc., so that you may see +"families who live wholly from the factory." Among other families you +might find that only wife and children work, and the husband darns +stockings. The presence of the employer keeps you from asking indiscreet +questions; you find every one well-paid, comfortable, comparatively +healthy by reason of the country air; you begin to be converted from your +exaggerated ideas of misery and starvation. But, that the cottage system +makes slaves of the operatives, that there may be a truck shop in the +neighbourhood, that the people hate the manufacturer, this they do not +point out to you, because he is present. He has built a school, church, +reading-room, etc. That he uses the school to train children to +subordination, that he tolerates in the reading-room such prints only as +represent the interests of the bourgeoisie, that he dismisses his +employees if they read Chartist or Socialist papers or books, this is all +concealed from you. You see an easy, patriarchal relation, you see the +life of the overlookers, you see what the bourgeoisie _promises_ the +workers if they become its slaves, mentally and morally. This "country +manufacture" has always been what the employers like to show, because in +it the disadvantages of the factory system, especially from the point of +view of health, are, in part, done away with by the free air and +surroundings, and because the patriarchal servitude of the workers can +here be longest maintained. Dr. Ure sings a dithyramb upon the theme. +But woe to the operatives to whom it occurs to think for themselves and +become Chartists! For them the paternal affection of the manufacturer +comes to a sudden end. Further, if you should wish to be accompanied +through the working-people's quarters of Manchester, if you should desire +to see the development of the factory system in a factory town, you may +wait long before these rich bourgeoisie will help you! These gentlemen +do not know in what condition their employees are nor what they want, and +they dare not know things which would make them uneasy or even oblige +them to act in opposition to their own interests. But, fortunately, that +is of no consequence: what the working-men have to carry out, they carry +out for themselves. + +{189} Grainger Report. Appendix, Part I., pp. 7, 15, _et seq_., 132- +142. + +{192a} Grainger's whole Report. + +{192b} Grainger Children's Employment Commission's Report. + +{193} Burns, Children's Employment Commission's Report. + +{194} Leach. "Stubborn Facts from the Factories," p. 47. + +{196} Leach. "Stubborn Facts from the Factories," p. 33. + +{197} Leach. "Stubborn Facts from the Factories," p. 37-40. + +{199} Children's Employment Commission's Report. + +{200a} See p. 112. + +{200b} Grainger Report and Evidence. + +{202} Horne Report and Evidence. + +{203} Dr. Knight, Sheffield. + +{205} Symonds Report and Evidence. + +{207} Scriven Report and Evidence. + +{208} Leifchild Report Append., Part II., p. L 2, ss. 11,12; Franks +Report Append., Part II., p. K 7, s. 48, Tancred Evid. Append., Part II., +p. I 76, etc.--Children's Employment Commission's Rep't. + +{210} See _Weekly Dispatch_, March 16th, 1844. + +{211} Thomas Hood, the most talented of all the English humorists now +living, and, like all humorists, full of human feeling, but wanting in +mental energy, published at the beginning of 1844 a beautiful poem, "The +Song of the Shirt," which drew sympathetic but unavailing tears from the +eyes of the daughters of the bourgeoisie. Originally published in +_Punch_, it made the round of all the papers. As discussions of the +condition of the sewing-women filled all the papers at the time, special +extracts are needless. + +{214} "Arts and Artisans," p. 137, _et seq_. + +{221a} So called from the East Indian tribe, whose only trade is the +murder of all the strangers who fall into its hands. + +{221b} "What kind of wild justice must it be in the hearts of these men +that prompts them, with cold deliberation, in conclave assembled, to doom +their brother workman, as the deserter of his order and his order's +cause, to die a traitor's and a deserter's death, have him executed, in +default of any public judge and hangman, then by a secret one; like your +old Chivalry Fehmgericht and Secret Tribunal, suddenly revived in this +strange guise; suddenly rising once more on the astonished eye, dressed +not now in mail shirts, but in fustian jackets, meeting not in +Westphalian forests, but in the paved Gallowgate of Glasgow! Such a +temper must be widespread virulent among the many when, even in its worst +acme, it can take such form in the few."--Carlyle. "Chartism," p. 40. + +{222a} Dr. Ure, "Philosophy of Manufacture," p. 282. + +{222b} _Ibid_., p. 282. + +{223a} Dr. Ure, "Philosophy of Manufacture," p. 367. + +{223b} _Ibid_., p. 366, _et seq_. + +{232} Compare Report of Chambers of Commerce of Manchester and Leeds at +the end of July and beginning of August. + +{235} See Introduction. + +{241} According to the census of 1841, the number of working-men +employed in mines in Great Britain, without Ireland, was: + + Men over Men under Women over Women under Together + 20 years 20 years 20 years 20 Years +Coal mines 83,408 32,475 1,185 1,165 118,233 +Copper mines 9,866 3,428 913 1,200 15,407 +Lead mines 9,427 1,932 40 20 11,419 +Iron mines 7,733 2,679 424 73 10,949 +Tin mines 4,602 1,349 68 82 6,101 +Various, the +mineral not +specified 24,162 6,591 472 491 31,616 +Total 137,398 48,454 3,102 3,031 193,725 + +As the coal and iron mines are usually worked by the same people, a part +of the miners attributed to the coal mines, and a very considerable part +of those mentioned under the last heading, are to be attributed to the +iron mines. + +{242} Also found in the Children's Employment Commission's Report: +Commissioner Mitchell's Report. + +{259} The coal miners have at this moment, 1886, six of their body +sitting in the House of Commons. + +{264} E. G. Wakefield, M.P. "Swing Unmasked; or, The Cause of Rural +Incendiarism." London, 1831. Pamphlet. The foregoing extracts may be +found pp. 9-13, the passages dealing in the original with the then still +existing Old Poor Law being here omitted. + +{268} This has been literally fulfilled. After a period of unexampled +extension of trade, Free Trade has landed England in a crisis, which +began in 1878, and is still increasing in energy in 1886. + +{269} The agricultural labourers have now a Trade's Union; their most +energetic representative, Joseph Arch, was elected M.P. in 1885. + +{272a} Report of the Poor Law Commission upon Ireland. + +{272b} "Principles of Population," vol. ii. + +{273} "The State of Ireland." London, 1807; 2nd Ed., 1821. Pamphlet. + +{276} Carlyle gives in his "Past and Present" (London, 1843) a splendid +description of the English bourgeoisie and its disgusting money greed. + +{286} Extracts from Information received from the Poor Law +Commissioners. Published by authority. London, 1833. + +{293} To prevent misconstructions and consequent objections, I would +observe that I have spoken of the bourgeoisie as a _class_, and that all +such facts as refer to individuals serve merely as evidence of the way of +thinking and acting of a _class_. Hence I have not entered upon the +distinctions between the divers sections, subdivisions and parties of the +bourgeoisie, which have a mere historical and theoretical significance. +And I can, for the same reason, mention but casually the few members of +the bourgeoisie who have shown themselves honourable exceptions. These +are, on the one hand, the pronounced Radicals, who are almost Chartists, +such as a few members of the House of Commons, the manufacturers Hindly +of Ashton, and Fielden of Todmordon (Lancashire), and, on the other hand, +the philanthropic Tories, who have recently constituted themselves "Young +England," among whom are the members of Parliament, D'Israeli, Borthwick, +Ferrand, Lord John Manners, etc. Lord Ashley, too, is in sympathy with +them. The hope of Young England is a restoration of the old "Merry +England" with its brilliant features and its romantic feudalism. This +object is of course unattainable and ridiculous, a satire upon all +historic development; but the good intention, the courage to resist the +existing state of things and prevalent prejudices, and to recognise the +vileness of our present condition, is worth something anyhow. Wholly +isolated is the half-German Englishman, Thomas Carlyle, who, originally a +Tory, goes beyond all those hitherto mentioned. He has sounded the +social disorder more deeply than any other English bourgeois, and demands +the organisation of labour. + +{296} And it did. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING-CLASS +IN ENGLAND IN 1844*** + + +******* This file should be named 17306.txt or 17306.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/3/0/17306 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: +https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/17306.zip b/17306.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..123592a --- /dev/null +++ b/17306.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0267898 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #17306 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17306) |