Mr. Wood was asked—
“You have seen the following returns of the average ages of death amongst the different classes of people in Manchester and Rutlandshire:—
| Average Age of Death. | ||
|---|---|---|
| In Manchester. Years. | In Rutlandshire. Years. | |
| “Professional persons and gentry, and their families | 38 | 52 |
| Tradesmen and their families, (in Rutlandshire, farmers and graziers are included with shopkeepers) | 20 | 41 |
| Mechanics, labourers, and their families | 17 | 38 |
Bearing in mind the fact that wages are nearly double in Manchester to the average of wages in Rutlandshire, though rents are higher in Manchester: are the different chances of life amongst each class of the population to the extent they are indicated by the returns, conformable to what you would have anticipated from your personal examinations of the houses and observation of the condition of the inhabitants?—They are decidedly conformable to my anticipation in the general results. I apprehend, however, that some allowance must perhaps be made for the very high average age in Rutlandshire, from the circumstance that many of the children or young people migrate from thence to manufacturing neighbourhoods for employment. These would certainly have passed the age at which the greatest mortality takes place amongst children; but we may expect that their migration, as it is a constant migration, might to some extent increase the average age of death or apparent duration of life in Rutlandshire, though not very materially. On the other hand, there is, perhaps, a larger proportion of children in Manchester. The results certainly correspond with my own impressions as to the relative condition of the different classes in the different neighbourhoods.”
In the union comprehending the adjacent manufacturing district of Bolton, the proportions of deaths in the several classes as returned by the superintendent-registrar were as follows in the year 1839:—
| No. of Deaths. | Bolton Union. | Average Age of Deceased. |
|---|---|---|
| 103 | Gentlemen and persons engaged in professions, and their families | 34 years. |
| 381 | Tradesmen and their families | 23 |
| 2,232 | Mechanics, servants, labourers, and their families | 18 |
It is proper to observe, that so far as I was informed upon the evidence received in the Factory Inquiry, and more recently on the cases of children of migrant families, that opinion is erroneous which ascribes greater sickness and mortality to the children employed in factories than amongst the children who remain in such homes as these towns afford to the labouring classes. However defective the ventilation of many of the factories may yet be, they are all of them drier and more equably warm than the residence of the parent; and we had proof that weakly children have been put into the better-managed factories as healthier places for them than their own homes. It is an appalling fact that, of all who are born of the labouring classes in Manchester, more than 57 per cent. die before they attain five years of age; that is, before they can be engaged in factory labour, or in any other labour whatsoever.
Of 4,629 deaths of persons of the labouring classes who died in the year 1840 in Manchester, the numbers who died were at the several periods as follows:—
| Under 5 years of age | 2,649 | or 1 in 17 10 |
| Above 5 and under 10 | 215 | or 1 in 22 |
| Above 10 and under 15 | 107 | or 1 in 43 |
| Above 15 and under 20 | 135 | or 1 in 34 |
At seven, eight, or nine years of age the children of the working classes begin to enter into employment in the cotton and other factories. It appears that, at the period between 5 and 10 years of age the proportions of deaths which occur amongst the labouring classes, as indicated by these returns, are not so great as the proportions of deaths which occur amongst the children of the middle classes who are not so engaged. Allowing for the circumstance that some of the weakest of the labourers’ children will have been swept away in the first stage, the effect of employment is not shown to be injurious in any increase of the proportion who die in the second stage.