ner, and a son of the very first man who brought forward the motion in Parliament in 1815!
Among the most prominent advocates for the bill, we find the name of Gould, Oastler, Fielden, Sadler, Rev. G. S. Bull, Lord Ashley, Wood, Walker and Brotherton; some of these men have spent large sums of money for their favorite object.
Let us now consider a few of the most prominent points to be effected by this measure.
It is expected, in the first place, that a great benefit will be gained by the laborers, in point of health. This, however, will be much greater in some instances than in others. A comparative view of the several branches of manufacture into which "the factory system" divides itself, will enable us to see this more clearly.
The material to be manufactured may be summed up under the following names: cotton, flax, tow, wool, worsted and silk. The three first of these are vegetable, the last three, animal substances. It is much more healthy to work the animal than the vegetable material.
Cotton, it is well known, is extremely light in weight, and its fibre is short and buoyant. It is, therefore, from the nature of its staple to be expected, that there will be a considerable portion of the "flyings," or waste of the cotton, held in suspension in the atmosphere of a cotton mill. These fine particles of cotton and dust being taken into the throat, lungs and stomach, at each inspiration of air by the laborers, engender a morbid irritability of those members, and ultimately induce a chronic disease called Gastraglia. A fixed and incurable asthma, consumption, or premature death, is frequently the result. It is also well known that cotton, but especially the finer sort, will be best manufactured at or about the same temperature as that in which it is grown; hence the artificial
