A.D. 1776 
—1850. 
with those 
that cha- 
racterised 
cottage 
mdustries. 
The con- 
ditions of 
work in 
PATIOUs 
industries 
were the 
sbject of 
RQUITY 
LAISSEZ FAIRE 
noting. It shows that the Industrial Revolution was becoming 
complete, and that the workers who were not only better off 
as far as wages went, but better in character, were those who 
had cast in their lot with the new order of things’. The six 
years of factory inspection had doubtless contributed to raise 
the tone among mill-workers; the conditions of life in 
factory towns, especially with regard to intellectual im- 
provement, and even in some quarters in regard to sanitation 
and the housing of the poor, were better than in rural 
districts. In the opinion of one at least of the Commissioners 
migration from the country to the towns was but the means 
by which the population obtained better opportunities of 
employment and ultimately better conditions of comfort? 
271. There was plenty of room for effort to improve the 
sonditions of work in other industries than the textile trades. 
The Commission of 1838 had called attention to the state of 
Jffairs which existed in the potteries and other employments, 
sut it seemed impossible to bring them under any system of 
nspection and supervision at that time. The manufacturers 
were inclined to allege that there was need for reform in 
connection with rural labour, and that the landowners, who 
had voted for factory regulation, were by no means blameless. 
In 1843 special Poor Law Commissioners were appointed to 
investigate the condition of women and children in agriculture. 
But when they met, it soon became clear that there was 
no real case for enquiry. The transition in the rural districts, 
and disappearance of small farms and cottage industries, had 
been accompanied by much misery; but the new economic 
relationships which had been established, under capitalist 
employers, were not on the whole oppressive’. Agricultural 
+ Reports, 1840, xx1v. 681. Robert Owen's experiment at New Lanark was 
oerhaps the first instance of a well-regulated factory population, but it did not 
stand alone, as we may see from the account of Mr Ashton’s mills at Hyde. 
Ib. 632. 
Reports, 1840, xx1v. 677. 
3 There were however some peculiar cases of contract in different parts of 
the country which required attention. The worst evils connected with parish 
apprentices were a thing of the past. It had been the practice of overseers to 
take the children of parents who had parish allowances, and to assign them by lot 
to farmers to whom they were bound till they were twenty-one years of age. In 
some exceptional cases everything went well, but much more commonly the 
system worked badly, alike for the apprentice who was bullied, and for the master 
302