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 wholesome
 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.