“It cannot,” they say, “be doubted that whilst the arts and manufactures of the place prove in some instances injurious to health, and in a few possibly destructive to life, these evil consequences, as well as hereditary predisposition to disease, are promoted by intemperance, not that intemperance is an infinitely more frequent cause of disease and death amongst the artisans than all the various employments of all the manufactories combined.
“In the expenditure of their weekly earnings, improvidence and thoughtless extravagance prevail to a lamentable degree. The observations upon which this opinion is formed are made upon the habits of the people themselves, confirmed by extensive and recent inquiries among the shopkeepers with whom they deal. Tea, coffee, sugar, butter, cheese, bacon, (of which a great deal is consumed in this town,) and other articles, the working people purchase in small quantities from the hucksters, who charge an enormous profit upon them, being, as they state, compelled to do so to cover the losses which they frequently sustain by bad debts. Huckster dealing is a most extravagant mode of dealing; there were in this town, in 1834, 717 of these shops, and the number has greatly increased since that time. Meat is purchased in the same improvident manner; the working men generally contrive to have a good joint of meat upon the Sunday; the dinner on the other days of the week is made from steaks or chops, which is the most extravagant mode either of purchasing or cooking meat.
“The improvidence of this class of persons arises in many instances from the indulgence of vicious propensities. Drunkenness, with all its attendant miseries, prevails to a great extent, though it is by no means to be regarded as a characteristic feature of the mechanic of this town in particular. It most generally prevails among that class of workmen who obtain the highest wages, but who are often found in the most deplorable and abject condition. The improvidence of which we are speaking is to be traced in very many instances to extreme ignorance on the part of the wives of these people. The females are from necessity bred up from their youth in the workshops, as the earnings of the younger members contribute to the support of the family. The minds and morals of the girls become debased, and they marry totally ignorant of all those habits of domestic economy which tend to render a husband’s home comfortable and happy; and this is very often the cause of the man being driven to the alehouse to seek that comfort after his day of toil which he looks for in vain by his own fireside. The habit of a manufacturing life being once established in a woman, she continues it, and leaves her home and children to the care of a neighbour or of a hired child, sometimes only a few years older than her own children, whose services cost her probably as much as she obtains for her labour. To this neglect on the part of their parents is to be traced the death of many children; they are left in the house with a fire before they are old enough to know the danger to which they are exposed, and are often dreadfully burnt.”
Mr. Mott’s report on the sanitary condition of the population of his district presents parallel instances of the different economy prevalent amongst these classes:—
Contrast in the Economy of Families.
| 1. | 1. |
| Cellar in Wellington-court, Chorlton-upon-Medlock; a man, his wife and seven children; income per week, 1l. 11s.; rent 1s. 6d. per week; three beds for seven, in a dark, unventilated back room, bed-covering of the meanest and scantiest kind—the man and wife occupying the front room as a sleeping-room for themselves, in which the whole family take their food and spend their leisure time; here the family, in a filthy destitute state, with an income averaging 3s. 5¼d. each per week, four being children under 11 years of age. | In a dwelling-house in Chorlton Union, containing one sitting-room and two bed-rooms; a man, his wife and three children; rent 2s. 6d. per week; income per week 12s. 6d., being an average of 2s. 6d. per week for each person. Here, with a sickly man, the house presented an appearance of comfort in every part, as also the bedding was in good order. |
| 2. | 2. |
| Cellar in York-street, Chorlton-upon-Medlock; a man—a hand-loom weaver—his wife and family (one daughter married, with her husband forms part of the family), comprising altogether seven persons; income 2l. 7s., or 6s. 8½d. per head; rent 2s. Here, with the largest amount of income, the family occupy two filthy, damp, unwholesome cellars, one of which is a back place without pavement or flooring of any kind, occupied by the loom of the family, and used as a sleeping-room for the married couple and single daughter. | In a dwelling-house, Stove-street, one sitting-room, one kitchen and two bed-rooms, rent 4s. per week. A poor widow, with a daughter also a widow, with ten children, making together 13 in family; 1l. 6s. per week, averaging 2s. per head per week. Here there is every appearance of cleanliness and comfort. |
| 3. | 3. |
| John Salt, of Carr Bank (labourer), wages 12s. per week; a wife, and one child aged 15: he is a drunken, disorderly fellow, and very much in debt. | George Hall, of Carr Bank (labourer), wages 10s. per week; has reared ten children; he is in comfortable circumstances. |
| 4. | 4. |
| William Haynes, of Oakamoore (wire-drawer), wages 1l. per week; he has a wife and five children; he is in debt, and his family is shamefully neglected. | John Hammonds, of Woodhead (collier), wages 18s. per week; has six children to support; he is a steady man and saving money. |
| 5. | 5. |
| George Locket, of Kingsley (boatman), wages 18s. per week, with a wife and seven children; his family are in a miserable condition. | George Mosley, of Kingsley (collier), wages 18s. per week; he has a wife and seven children; he is saving money. |
| 6. | 6. |
| John Banks, of Cheadle (collier), wages 18s. per week; wife and three children; his house is in a filthy state, and the furniture not worth 10s. | William Faulkner, of Tean (tape-weaver), wages 18s. per week; supports his wife and seven children without assistance. |
| 7. | 7. |
| William Weaver, of Kingsley (boatman), wages 18s. per week; wife and three children; he is a drunken, disorderly fellow, and his family entirely destitute. | Charles Rushton, of Lightwoodfields, wages 14s. per week; he supports his wife and five children in credit. |
| 8. | 8. |
| Richard Barlow, of Cheadle (labourer), wages 12s. per week; wife and five children, in miserable circumstance, not a bed to lie on. | William Sargeant, of Lightwoodfields (labourer), wages 13s. a-week; he has a wife and six children, whom he supports comfortably. |
| 9. | 9. |
| Thomas Bartlem, of Tean (labourer), wages 14s. per week; his wife earns 7s. per week; five children; he is very much in debt; home neglected. | William Box, of Tean (tape-weaver), wages 18s. or 20s. per week; supports his wife in bad health, and five children. |
| 10. | 10. |
| Thomas Johnson, of Tean (blacksmith), wages 18s. per week; his wife earns 7s. per week; three children; he is very much in debt, and his family grossly neglected. | Ralph Faulkner, of Tean (tape-weaver), wages 18s. or 20s. per week; supports a wife and five children, three of them are deaf and dumb. |
Mr. Harrison, the medical officer of the Preston union, observes that—
“I have known many families whose income has exceeded 100l. a-year, who in times of sickness have been in great distress, and even some who have been obliged to have recourse to the parish for assistance. And I am acquainted with several families now of the best paid class of workpeople, whose total weekly earnings will average 2l., and in some cases 3l. a-week, who, should sickness overtake the head of the family, and some of the principal workers among the children, would be thrown upon the parish. I have been convinced from extensive observation, that the masters of these people have it in their power to improve the condition and happiness of their workpeople beyond what can be effected by any other agency.”
These descriptions are not confined to the English towns. Mr. Jupp and others cite instances from the rural districts. They are similarly prevalent in Scotland. As an example I would refer to the description given by Dr. Scott Alison, of the condition of the highly-paid collier population of Tranent. Take another instance of the condition of the same class, the colliers at Ayr, given by Dr. Sym, in his report on the sanitary condition of the population of that town:—
“Although the colliers have large wages, they are, from their want of economy and their dissolute habits, uniformly in poverty; and their families, though well fed, are miserably clothed, ill lodged, uneducated, and less industrious than the families of the weavers; the females of which work with great constancy at hand-sewing. The modes of living of these two classes are very different. The weaver is not intemperate, because he cannot afford to purchase ardent spirits, and the nature of his employment prevents him from having those hours of idleness during the day which the collier is so apt to consume in dissipation. He lives on very innutritious food, seldom eats butchers’ meat, and the most indigent, who are generally Irishmen, subsist chiefly on potatoes. The collier, on the other hand, indulges to excess in ardent spirits, and both he and his family partake of animal food every day. In short, the colliers live better than any of the other labouring classes in Ayr.”