vidence before parliamentary committees,
it is reported in newspapers. Any coal-owner, or iron-master, or
cotton-spinner, will tell you of the high wages that he pays to his
workpeople.

Families employed in the cotton manufacture are able to earn over three
pounds a week, according to the number of the children employed.[1]
Their annual incomes will thus amount to about a hundred and fifty
pounds a year,--which is considerably larger than the incomes of many
professional men--higher than the average of country surgeons, higher
than the average of the clergy and ministers of all denominations,
higher than the average of the teachers of common schools, and probably
higher than the average income of the middle classes of the United
Kingdom generally.

[Footnote 1: A return of seven families employed by Henry Ashworth, New
Cayley Mills, Lancashire, is given in the Blue Book, entitled, "Report
of the Paris Universal Exhibition, 1867, containing the Returns relative
to the New Order of Reward," p. 163. Of the seven families, the lowest
earnings per family amounted to L2 14s. 6d.; and the highest to L3 19s.
a week.]

An employer at Blackburn informs us that many persons earn upwards of
five pounds a week,--or equal to an average income of two hundred and
sixty pounds a year. Such families, he says, "ought not to expend more
than three pounds weekly. The rest should be saved. But most of them,
after feeding and clothing themselves, spend the rest in drink and
dissipation."

The wages are similar in the Burnley district, where food, drink, and
dress absorb the greater part of the workpeople's earnings. In this, as
in other factory districts, "the practice of young persons
(mill-workers) boarding with their parents is prevalent, and is very
detrimental to parental authority." Another reporter says, "Wages are
increasing: as there is more money, and more time to spend it in,
sobriety is not on the increase, especially amongst females."

The operatives employed in the woollen manufacture receive about forty
shillings a week, and some as much as sixty,[1] besides the amount
earned by their children.

A good mechanic in an engine shop makes from thirty-five to forty-five
shillings a week, and some mechanics make much larger wages. Multiply
these figures, and it will be found that they amount to an annual income
of from a hundred to a hundred and twenty pounds a year.

[Footnote 1: See the above Blue Book, p. 57, certifying