ABSTRACT
The factories, which used water power, and were therefore built in country places by streams, depended on the labour of pauper children sent up in great numbers from workhouses in London and elsewhere. These children were called apprentices, but they were as much slaves as any creature on two legs to be found in the plantations of the West Indies. Thus a new problem arose, and in 1815 Sir Robert Peel, who had insisted on restricting his first measure to “apprentice” children, proposed a wider Bill to include these other children, forbidding employment of children under ten, and limiting the work of children to ten hours a day. In the end a modest Act was passed, applying to cotton mills only, which forbade the employment of children under nine, and limited the hours of children between nine and sixteen to twelve, exclusive of meal times.
