neral debility affect this class to a
very great extent. After twelve hours of monotonous toil, it is but
natural to look about for a stimulant of one sort or another; but when
the above-mentioned diseased conditions are added to the customary
weariness, people will quickly and repeatedly take refuge in
spirituous liquors."

For all this testimony of the physicians and commissioners, the report
itself offers hundreds of cases of proof. That the growth of young
operatives is stunted, by their work, hundreds of statements testify;
among others, Cowell gives the weight of 46 youths of 17 years of age,
from one Sunday school, of whom 26 employed in mills, averaged 104.5
pounds, and 20 not employed in mills, 117.7 pounds. One of the largest
manufacturers of Manchester, leader of the opposition against the working-
men, I think Robert Hyde Greg himself, said, on one occasion, that if
things went on as at present, the operatives of Lancashire would soon be
a race of pigmies. {159a} A recruiting officer {159b} testified that
operatives are little adapted for military service, looked thin and
nervous, and were frequently rejected by the surgeons as unfit. In
Manchester he could hardly get men of five feet eight inches; they were
usually only five feet six to seven, whereas in the agricultural
districts, most of the recruits were five feet eight.

The men wear out very early in consequence of the conditions under which
they live and work. Most of them are unfit for work at forty years, a
few hold out to forty-five, almost none to fifty years of age. This is
caused not only by the general enfeeblement of the frame, but also very
often by a failure of the sight, which is a result of mule-spinning, in
which the operative is obliged to fix his gaze upon a long row of fine,
parallel threads, and so greatly to strain the sight.

Of 1,600 operatives employed in several factories in Harpur and Lanark,
but 10 were over 45 years of age; of 22,094 operatives in diverse
factories in Stockport and Manchester, but 143 were over 45 years old. Of
these 143, 16 were retained as a special favour, and one was doing the
work of a child. A list of 131 spinners contained but seven over 45
years, and yet the whole 131 were rejected by the manufacturers, to whom
they applied for work, as "too old," and were without means of support by
reason of old age! Mr. Ashworth, a large manufacturer, admits in a
letter to Lord Ashley, tha