LAISSEZ FAIRE 
AD Ym So far as the parents are concerned, it is probably true 
and parents that many of the baser sort were very reckless in regard to 
po the treatment of their children, and were not unwilling to 
of blame sacrifice them in order to profit by their earnings; but there 
were many who felt the evils most bitterly, and who petitioned 
for an alteration’. At the same time, it is difficult to ex- 
onerate them altogether, if, as seems to have been the case, 
their wages were as good or better than those of other 
labourers. Mr Power, the Assistant Commissioner, seems to 
have felt this, when he wrote that “children ought to have 
legislative protection from the conspiracy insensibly formed 
between the masters and parents to tax them with a degree 
of toil beyond their strength” It is probable that the 
opportunity of obtaining the children’s earnings was a tempta- 
tion which few parents could resist, even though they might 
afterwards deeply regret it, when the employment resulted 
in the deformity of their children. There is no difficulty in 
reconciling the two statements, that on the one hand the 
parents frequently succumbed to this temptation, and that on 
the other they were anxious to have the temptation removed. 
So far as the landlords, and the corn laws, are concerned, 
little need be said. This was a cause which affected the 
textile industries, like other industries, as it rendered food 
dear to all labourers; but it will not serve to account for the 
special mischiefs of the factory system. 
With regard to the masters, it may be stated at once that 
it is impossible to exonerate them from all blame, as many of 
them had been exceedingly careless about a matter which 
lay entirely within their control, and to which no allusion 
has yet been made. The frequency of accidents in the mills, 
with injury of life and limb, was a feature which specially 
shocked the public, and it seems to have been clear that 
many of the accidents were preventable, and need not have 
occurred, if certain machines had been properly fenced. So 
long as any part of the evils were due to arrangements 
directly under the master’s control and with which no one 
784 
1 8 Hansard, xv1. 642. 
% Reports, 1833, xx. 604. 
3 Ib. 76.