Volume 4 — CONDITION OF THE POOR IN MANUFACTURING TOWNS (1804). Source.—Gentleman’s Magazine. Vol. 74, July to December, 1804, p. 710.
Reading edition
July 17.
Mr. Urban,
“Judge not, lest you be judged.”
The benevolence and humanity of Dr. Lettsom must ensure esteem; and certainly the trouble he has taken to meliorate the condition of the labouring poor must deserve praise, and be grateful to his own feelings, but, in the way of doing good, there is much delicacy required; and while we are zealous in our endeavours to promote an active charity in one particular instance, we should be careful, in the extension of this important Christian duty, not to forget the other Christian branch of charity to others also.
In his Remarks on the Condition of the Children of our labouring Poor, this worthy medical gentleman has, I think, been too partial in confining his subject to the great manufacturing towns of this kingdom, and very particularly so in his comparative view of the new Lanark Mills and those of Holy-well and Manchester.
I have always understood there is great difficulty in the attempt of separating the cause of the evil which a state derives from the immorality and the emasculated condition of the poor, from the important benefits which it derives from the increasing manufactures carried on by these objects of our speculation. That the regulation of the morals and the health of the rising progeny of a state, as conducive to industry and to opulence, demands every attention, it is needless to argue; but let us see the great difficulties which our principal manufacturing towns labour under, such as Birmingham and Manchester, compared with the less contaminated primitive and more hardy poor connected with the manufactories of Scotland.
From several generations past, the manufactories of our great commercial towns have encouraged the most extensive employment to the labouring poor; motley groups of individuals from various quarters have been lured to them; the parental stock in various particulars originally defective in point of stamina, and their progeny of course, unhappily tainted with the same misfortune; the gleanings of work houses from the capital, from many parts of the country, have been thrown into these great towns; forsaken children from impure connexions, in whom squalid poverty has laid the foundation of many disorders, and which growing up and settling in these places have been communicated to a succeeding race: this evil is therefore not the present growth of our large factories. In Scotland, it is but of late years the manufactures have sprung up; the stamina of their labouring poor is naturally more hardy and less corrupted, not having the intercourse of the Southern provinces; and by recruiting constantly from the same parental source, no wonder that the children at the Lanark Mills have been found more healthy than those of the English manufacturing towns.
Although the proprietor of the Lanark Mills may deserve praise for his attention to the health of the children employed in his establishment, it does not follow that other gentlemen, eminently signalized for their enterprising spirit, industry, and abilities, owing to the natural advantages of Mr. Dale,[4] deserve a public exposure and stigma.
I think Mr. Bott, of Nantwich, in Cheshire, is highly to be commended, for his denial of an entry into his manufactory; and if the visit of the benevolent Mr. Neild was only to wrest from his mill articles of crimination for an exposure before the public, Mr. Bott has acted very wisely, by the interdiction of curiosity and intrusive inquiry at his own expense; but there are many other reasons which may be fairly alledged for this gentleman’s refusal. I am informed, that it frequently happens that many persons, on gaining admittance to these extensive manufactories, have suborned the artisans from their employers, and in various other respects have caused much disorder to the establishment.
By the law of the land, it is ordained that these factories should be opened to the regular and periodical visits of Magistrates; therefore, by thus exposing the partial evils of these extensive commercial establishments, which few human undertakings of such a vast magnitude can be exempt from, where such immense numbers of hands are employed, an oblique reflection is doubtless cast on the judicial administration of the State.
The benevolence and zeal of a patriotic character should recommend itself in a more effectual manner than by publicly praising one man or set of men at the expense of others, equally, and in the fullest extent as much deserving. All memorials for the public good should be circulated through the hands of the civil Magistrate or members of the country where the evil exists; reforms can thus be more certainly obtained than by innuendos, which but too generally carry with them the appearance of party consideration, or other interested motives.
Conservator.