CONDITIONS OF CHILDREN'S WORK - 779 
for legislative interference, was “the liability of children to A.D. 1776 
be exposed, during a very tender age, to confinement, and a >, 
standing position for a period daily,” which was “often pro- 
tracted beyond their physical power of endurance” 
ii. This cause of mischief was common to all the textile linen. 
factories; but there were special evils which were peculiar 
to the linen trade. Owing to the nature of the material, it 
was convenient to spin and weave flax when it was wet; and, 
as a consequence, the workers were subjected to a continual 
spray, from which special clothing was unable to protect 
them adequately; while they were also forced to stand in 
the wet, and their hands were liable to constant sores from 
never being dry. Long-continued work of this kind was 
fraught with serious mischief, and the Commissioners felt 
that every effort should be made to reduce these causes of 
discomfort? There was besides a process known as heckling?, 
which was almost entirely done by children. The machines 
ased in heckling were not large, so that there could be great 
numbers working in each room; the children had to be on 
the alert all the time, and to be so quick that the strain on 
1 The culpability of parents for the overworking of children in their own 
homes was recognised by the Children's Employment Coirmission, who stated 
that children have a right to protection against the abuse of parental power 
(Reports, 1864, xxi1. 25, 26). The case of sending them to work in anwholesome 
conditions is less clear: *“ Up to a certain period of life, the children are absolutely 
dependent on their parents for support ; and before that period it is that a tyranny 
is often imposed on them, beyond their physical powers of endurance. I have found 
andombted instances of children five years old sent to work thirteen hours a day; 
and frequently of children nine, ten and eleven consigned to labour for fourteen and 
fifteen hours. The parents, at the same time, have appeared to me, in some of 
these instances, sincerely foud of their children, and grieved at a state of things 
they considered necessary to the subsistence of themselves and families. The 
parental feeling, however, is certainly not displayed in sufficient intensity to be 
trusted on this point, as will have been gathered most abundantly from the 
evidence which I have heretofore submitted to the Central Board; I allude both 
to evidence derived from the parents themselves, and particularly to that of the 
masters of workhouses in Leeds and the neighbourhood; from whom it appears, 
‘hat although the difference in income from a child employed as compared with 
that from a child unemployed at the age of nine or ten, is only 1s. or at most 
ls. 6d. in the week, it never happens that they attempt to excuse the non-employ- 
ment of their children at that age, by alleging the length of the factory hours, or 
that, in fact, they seek to evade their employment there in any way, at as early an 
1ge as they can induce the masters to take them.” Reports, 1883, xx. 604. 
Reports, etc., 1833, xx. 328. 
3 13. 600.