A. “I can speak from information derived from two or three mill-owners, and also more extensively from reports by one of the superintendents in my district; and I should say that in most of the mills they do detain them at night; in some of them, the report states that they are detained all night, in order to be ready when wanted.”
Q. “Are the children that are so detained liable to be detained throughout the day, and do they sometimes begin their work at twelve o’clock at night?”
A. “In the mills at Nottingham there are owners that make it a rule that they will not keep the children after eight, or nine, or ten o’clock, according to the inclination of the mill-occupier.”
Q. “Where are those children during the time they are detained in the mill?”
A. “When detained at night, and not employed I am told they are lying about on the floor.”
Q. “Is it customary to close at eight on Saturday evening in the lace-mills?”
A. “I think it is.”
Q. “How then do they compensate for the loss of those four hours work in those mills?”
A. “By working all night on Friday; those are the mills in which they pay so much for their power.”
Q. “Must not there be a considerable wear and tear upon the physical constitution of children who are kept in this state?”