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At no period during the last seventeen years that I have been officially
acquainted with the manufacturing districts in Lancashire have I known such
general prosperity; the activity in every branch is extraordinary. In my last
report I gave on account of the vast increase of factories during the two
preceding years, and there is no cessation, for new mills are going up
everywhere. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that I should hear of a
great scarcity of hands, of much machinery standing idle from the want of people
to work it, and of a rise of wages. This scarcity of hands has led to a
considerable increase in the number of children employed in my district, which
indeed has been going on, happily, for a long time; I say 'happily' without
hesitation, for now that children are restricted to half a day's work, and are
required to attend school, I know no description of work so advantageous for
them as that in a factory.
If those who in 1833 predicted (and there were some of great authority among our
political economists who did so) the ruin of our manufacturers if the then
proposed restrictions on factory labour were adopted, will now fairly and
candidly look at the results of this great practical experiment in legislation,
whether in relation to the improved condition of the factory workers, or to the
increase of mills and to the fortunes since made in every department of
manufacture subject to the law, they must, I think, admit, that they have seen
grounds to make them pause before they, in future, condemn measures for
elevating the moral and social condition of the humbler classes by the
regulation of their labour, as being opposed to principle; for the factory
legislation has been proved to be in entire accord with principle, even with
that of the production of wealth, when the principle is understood in an
enlarged and comprehensive sense.
I believe the workpeople never were so well off as they are at present; constant
employment, good wages, cheap food, and cheap clothing; many cheap, innocent,
and elevating amusements brought within their reach thanks to the last Factory
Act, the greater proportion of all the opera in mills have at length time for
some mental improvement, healthful recreation, and enjoyment of their families
and friends.