The Industrial Revolution

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1027928145

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-159926

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Cunningham, William http://d-nb.info/gnd/128907487

Title:: The Industrial Revolution

Place of publication:: Cambridge

Publisher:: The University Press

Year of publication:: 1922

Scope:: xxii S., S. 404-886

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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THE FIRST FACTORY ACT 631 without agreeing to a formal apprenticeship, and in any A.D. 1776 tase, it was easy to evade the measure, as there was no —18%0. proper machinery for enforcing it'. Still, this first Factory Act has a very great importance, as marking the genesis of the modern system of industrial regulation ; it served as the thin end of the wedge. The factory legislation of the nine- was . 0. . 1 directly teenth century was occasioned by the new conditions which connected arose, in consequence of the introduction of machinery, but aprenic it was not a wholly new departure. It has its origin in go. connection with the mediaeval, and Elizabethan system, of charitable institutions, and from parish workhouses, and the dreadful rapidity with which they were consumed in the various cotton mills, to which they were iransported, and the sad spectacle exhibited by most of the survivors, were the real causes, which, in 1802, produced Sir Robert Peel's Bill, for the relief and protection of infant paupers employed in cotton mills. Hence, the extraordinary liveliness evinced by the overseers and churchwardens of Saint Pancras might have been occasioned by the dreadful scenes of cruelty and oppression developed laring the progress of that Bill, which Blincoe never heard of, ner ever saw, till eleven or twelve years after it had passed into a law. It would be difficult to produce a more striking instance of the utter contempt, in which the upstart owners of great establishments treated an Act, purposely enacted to restrain their anparalleled cruelty and waste of human life. The Act itself declared the masters, owners, or occupiers of every cotton mill in Great Britain and Wales should have a legible copy of the Act, placed in some conspicuous and public parf of each mill, and accessible to everyone; yet Blincoe who was reared in the cotton mill, never saw or heard of any such law. till eleven or twelve years after it bad been enacted ! “When the committee began their investigation, as to the treatment and condition of the children sent from St Pancras Workhouse, Blincoe was called up among others and admonished to speak the fruth and nothing but the truth! So great however was the terror of the stick and strap, being applied to their persons, after these great dons should be at a great distance, it rendered him and no doubt the great majority of his fellow-sufferers extremely cautious and timid. It is however likely that their looks bespoke their sufferings, and told a tale not to be misunderstood. The visitors saw their food, dress, bedding, and they caused, in conjunction with the local magistrates very great alterations to be made. A new house was ordered to be erected near the mill, for the use of the apprentices, in which there were fewer beds to a given space. The quantity of good and whole- some animal food to be dressed and distributed in a more decent way, was specified. A much more cleanly and decorous mode of cookery and serving up the dinner and other meals was ordered. The apprentices were divided into six classes, and a new set of tin cans numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 were made to be served up to each individual according to the class to which he or she may belong, to hold the soup or porridge! The old governor was discharged, who had given them all such a fright on their first arrival, and several of the overlookers were dismissed and new ones introduced.” John Brown, Memoir of Robert Blincoe, p. 27. 1 The justices were to appoint visitors to inspect the mills, and provision was made for the registration of mills.

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