"'And you were brought back?' 'Yes; and I was sent up to the master's loft, and thrashed with a whip for running away.'
"'Were you bound to this man?' 'Yes, for six years.'
"'By whom were you bound?' 'My mother got 15s. for the six years.'
"'Do you know whether the children were, in point of fact, compelled to stop during the whole time for which they were engaged?' 'Yes, they were.'
"'By law?' 'I cannot say by law; but they were compelled by the master; I never saw any law used there but the law of their own hands.'
"'Does that practice of binding continue in Scotland now?' 'Not in the place I am in.'
"'How long since it has ceased?' 'For the last two years there has been no engagement in Dundee.'
"'Are they generally engagements from week to week, or from month to month?' 'From month to month.'
"'Do you know whether a practice has prevailed of sending poor children, who are orphans, from workhouses and hospitals to that work?' 'There were fifteen, at the time I was there, came from Edinburgh Poorhouse.'