If we said any thing, the butty, and the reeve, who works under him,
would take a stick and beat us."--Ibid. "The usual punishment for theft
is to place the culprit's head between the legs of one of the biggest
boys, and each boy in the pit--sometimes there are twenty--inflicts
twelve lashes on the back and rump with a cat."--Ibid. "Instances occur
in which children are taken into these mines to work as early as four
years of age, sometimes at five, not unfrequently at six and seven,
while from eight to nine is the ordinary age at which these employments
commence."--Ibid. "The wages paid at these mines is from two dollar
fifty cents to seven dollars fifty cents per month for laborers,
according to age and ability, and out of this they must support
themselves. They work twelve hours a day."--Ibid.

_In Calico Printing._--"It is by no means uncommon in all the districts
for children five or six years old to be kept at work fourteen to
sixteen hours consecutively."--Report on Children, 1842, p. 59.

I could furnish extracts similar to these in regard to every branch of
your manufactures, but I will not multiply them. Every body knows that
your operatives habitually labor from twelve to sixteen hours, men,
women, and children, and the men occasionally twenty hours per day. In
lace-making, says the last quoted report, children sometimes commence
work at two years of age.

_Destitution._--It is stated by your Commissioners that forty thousand
persons in Liverpool, and fifteen thousand in Manchester, live in
cellars; while twenty-two thousand in England pass the night in barns,
tents, or the open air. "There have been found such occurrences as
seven, eight, and ten persons in one cottage, I cannot say for one day,
but for whole days, without a morsel of food. They have remained on
their beds of straw for two successive days, under the impression that
in a recumbent posture the pangs of hunger were less felt."--Lord
Brougham's Speech, 11th July, 1842. A volume of frightful scenes might
be quoted to corroborate the inferences to be necessarily drawn from the
facts here stated. I will not add more, but pass on to the important
inquiry as to

_Morals and Education._--"Elizabeth Barrett, aged 14: I always work
without stockings, shoes, or trowsers. I wear nothing but a shift. I
have to go up to the headings with the men. _They are all naked there._
I am got used to that."--Report on Mines. "As to illicit sexual
intercourse it s