ABSTRACT
Lord Ashley said he deeply sympathised with the persons assembled, and not only he but several of his friends, and he had done so for many years past. In the various colonies it was found that there was a large proportion of males over females – no less than 500,000; and it was very curious that throughout England and Wales there was the same excess of 500,000 females over males. The object of the meeting being to ascertain the earnings of the female hands engaged in the slop-trade; to hear some account of their sufferings and privations through the low prices paid for their labour; also to discover whether those low prices arise from competition among the masters, or competition among the men; before the business proceedings commenced, they were earnestly exhorted to be careful in speaking nothing but the exact truth in any statements they might make, and in any answers they might give to questions put to them.
