, would take care of the interests of these workers! Let us
hear how they acted before the factory inspector was at their heels.
Their own admitted testimony shall convict them in the report of the
Factories' Inquiry Commission of 1833.

The report of the Central Commission relates that the manufacturers began
to employ children rarely of five years, often of six, very often of
seven, usually of eight to nine years; that the working-day often lasted
fourteen to sixteen hours, exclusive of meals and intervals; that the
manufacturers permitted overlookers to flog and maltreat children, and
often took an active part in so doing themselves. One case is related of
a Scotch manufacturer, who rode after a sixteen years old runaway, forced
him to return running after the employer as fast as the master's horse
trotted, and beat him the whole way with a long whip. {151} In the large
towns where the operatives resisted more vigorously, such things
naturally happened less often. But even this long working-day failed to
satisfy the greed of the capitalists. Their aim was to make the capital
invested in the building and machinery produce the highest return, by
every available means, to make it work as actively as possible. Hence
the manufacturers introduced the shameful system of night-work. Some of
them employed two sets of operatives, each numerous enough to fill the
whole mill, and let one set work the twelve hours of the day, and the
other twelve hours of the night. It is needless to picture the effect
upon the frames of young children, and even upon the health of young
persons and adults, produced by permanent loss of sleep at night, which
cannot be made good by any amount of sleep during the day. Irritation of
the whole nervous system, with general lassitude and enfeeblement of the
entire frame, were the inevitable results, with the fostering of
temptation to drunkenness and unbridled sexual indulgence. One
manufacturer testifies {152a} that during the two years in which night-
work was carried on in his factory, the number of illegitimate children
born was doubled, and such general demoralisation prevailed that he was
obliged to give up night-work. Other manufacturers were yet more
barbarous, requiring many hands to work thirty to forty hours at a
stretch, several times a week, letting them get a couple of hours sleep
only, because the night-shift was not complete, but calculated to replace
a part of the operatives o