A.D. 1776 
—1850. 
who ignored 
the results 
of Owen's 
experience. 
The low 
standard o, 
comfort o, 
hand-loom 
WeAVers 
was not 
treated as 
a subject 
for State 
inter- 
ference. 
LAISSEZ FAIRE 
of increased care and attention was very noticeable when the 
hours were shortened, and that waste was avoided. He had 
for a time reduced the hours of work at New Lanark, without 
loss; and he found that when they were lengthened again, 
the product was not increased in proportion to the increase of 
hours’. He had already demonstrated, in his own experience, 
that the policy of working excessive hours was unsound, not 
merely on humanitarian, but on economic grounds. As this 
view was gradually confirmed by subsequent observation, 
the attitude of public opinion towards restrictive legislation 
underwent a marked change? The benefits, which accrued 
to the population employed in textile factories under the 
modern system of centralised supervision, have been so great 
that efforts are being steadily pressed on for bringing all 
sorts of other industries under similar control. 
270. The agitation of the factory operatives for State 
interference with their hours of labour, which was being 
carried on so vigorously in 1840 has eventually been suc- 
cessful. There was, however, another class of the manufac- 
turing population who were in a very serious plight, and on 
whose behalf State intervention was demanded. The hand- 
loom weavers were suffering from the irregularity and un- 
certainty of employment; it was impossible for them to 
maintain a decent standard of comfort, and a commission was 
appointed in 1839 to see whether anything could be done to 
place them in more favourable conditions. 
The principles of laissez faire had such a strong hold that 
it was not to be expected that the weavers would obtain much 
support ; and as we look back we may see that this was not 
a case in which it was desirable for Government to interfere. 
The factory industries were growing; and it was distinctly 
advantageous to have lines authoritatively laid down along 
which they should develop. But hand-loom weaving was 
already doomed; the competition of the power-loom was 
threatening to drive it out of existence, at all events in some 
branches of manufacture. The only benefit which could be 
1 Reports, 1816, mx. 255, 272, also 1833, xx. 194. 
2 The publication of the Reports of the Children’s Employment Commission, 
which was moved for by Lord Shaftesbury in 1861, appears to have been the 
occasion of this change, Hutchins and Harrison, op. cif. 150.