worked in mine and factory as little beasts of burden, atoms of a great industrial machine.
"'For oh,' say the children, 'we are weary,
And we cannot run or leap—
If we cared for any meadows, it were merely
To drop down in them and sleep. …
For all day we drag our burden tiring
Through the coal dark underground—
Or, all day, we drive the wheels of iron
In the factories round and round.'"
Few people thought much about the children then. A Bill was introduced in 1802 proposing that children should only work twelve hours a day, and that they should not be allowed to be employed between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., but both parents and manufacturers were against it, the Bill was dropped, and the children struggled on, till the great heart of England was melted with pity.
Private enterprise and philanthropy have ever forestalled legislation. This was now the case with regard to the children. The Sunday-schools opened by Raikes in Gloucester at the end of the last century were successfully making their way, despite the ordinary opposition from all sides. They were very different institutions to the
