Page:The Laboring Classes of England.djvu/66

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THE ENGLISH FACTORY SYSTEM;

the society will do more than it has yet done for the laborer. He must be raised from his present poverty and degradation, and I call upon you to do what you can towards accomplishing that purpose."



LETTER VIII.


THE ENGLISH FACTORY SYSTEM ITS EARLY HISTORY.


I wish it to be distinctly understood, that any thing I may advance in this or other letters, has no reference to the factory system of New England. Upwards of thirty years' experience and observation teaches me that the factory system of Old England and that of New England are as widely different in their results, as the two forms of government under which they are respectively carried on. Not to enter into details at present, I would simply say that the system of Old England could not exist in New England; neither could the New England system exist in Old England; the thing is impossible, so long as the systems of government remain as they are. With this preliminary observation I will proceed to make some extracts from printed documents, as the most satisfactory method of showing the actual character and consequences of the English Factory System.

"It may not be amiss to inquire how it came to pass originally, that, in England, always boasting of her humanity, laws were necessary in order to protect little children from the cruelties of the manufacturer.

It is well known that Arkwright's (so called, at least) inventions took the manufactures out of the cottages and