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highly necessary the Government should take it up, and do something for the benefit of all concerned.
Mr. Drohan, of Liverpool, said: In the first place, I wish to state that in what I am about to say I am expressing not only my own opinions, but those of a very large number of my own trade, and also the views of the public press of various places as regards this question. I have just to reiterate, to a certain extent, what my friend from Manchester said. We in Liverpool had a somewhat similar inspection, in the course of which we visited 800 men and 200 women, employing 250 machines. Five cases are specially worthy of note, but I will just state two. In one case we found a man and his family and his assistants all working together in one room, about 10 feet by 8, as far as we could judge, situated in a very low and dirty locality. There were two rooms—one in which the family lived, the other the workroom. In one we found the man sitting in bed working at his occupation of sweater; and there was a plank laid across from bedpost to bedpost on which the garments were laid. In another bed a child lay covered with the clothing on which the workers were engaged. There was also a machine in the room, so that the place being small there was scarcely room for the persons to stand or sit at the little table in the middle of the room. Another case which came under the notice of the deputation I may also mention. Here we found a man and wife, with two men and two women, working together. They had two machines, which took up the greater portion of the room; indeed, so cramped were they for space, that while one man sat on the table, another sat underneath it, where he had scarcely any light, and the third sat on the hearthstone among the coal and cinders. In addition to these two cases, I may mention that we found in all 38 persons working in rooms and houses totally unfit for habitation by any human being, and surrounded by circumstances utterly degrading, physically and morally. We do hope, sir, you will be able to deal with this evil, for it is a very serious matter; and although we have called attention to it in the public press, there have been no remedial steps whatever taken in regard to it.
Mr. J. Mc.Whinnie, of Edinburgh, said; Sir, I do not know that any of the previous speakers have impressed this important consideration upon you, that while the aristocratic and wealthy go to large, showy shops, with plate-glass fronts, and are there measured and try their clothes on, they do not know nor have they the least idea that the garments are actually made in the lowest, filthiest slums of the city, by which means diseases of all kinds are spread. Hence we contend for some reform taking place. We could quote cases by hundreds, but we want the assistance of the Government to trace these cases to their source for the purpose of exposing them. I will instance one. Two of my acquaintances were asked one Saturday night if they would go and assist in completing a big order for a large establishment in Edinburgh. Now, these two men had been drinking, and, therefore, it may be supposed they would not be over particular, yet the moment they entered the house they came out, for there was but one room in the
