ABSTRACT
I spent several hours, as they expresseil themselves pleased at having an opportunity of conversing witli me on the subject of wages, machinery, &c. From these men I learned that a great number of spinners had been thrown out of employment, a few days before, in consequence of the introduction of self-acting mulesy and other kinds of “ improved” machinery. That the wages were getting less and less, year after year, and that the masters were getting so highminded, and the work-people so humbled, that they scarcely durst speak, or object to any measure, however arbitrary, that might be introduced into the fac tories. That the women were working in the mills tili the latest stage of pregnancy; and that one had been assisted home from her work three days before my arrival, while in the pains of labour, and had been delivered of a child within a few hours after she got home. That on such occasions the women gene rally retumed to their work in three or four weeks, the infants being put out to nurse with old women, or girls, and occasionally carried to the mother in the factories to be suckled.
