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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. 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