merly was worth from seventy to eighty dollars, can now be bought for three dollars.
Such is a brief outline of the condition of one of the most industrious classes to be found in England. The fair wearers of lace will be distressed to learn that this highly ornamented article, is produced (in England, at least,) at the expense of so much misery.[1]
LETTER XI.
FLAX SPINNERS.
The condition of the operatives in flax mills, in Leeds, and other places in the North of England, and South of Scotland, is any thing but pleasing to contemplate. This will be best understood by inspecting the various processes, which are of the following nature.
The flax, as imported, is delivered to the hand-hecklers, who roughly separate the fibres by drawing the bunches through a quantity of iron spikes called heckles, fixed before them. This is a very dusty process. The hand-hecklers are mostly men, or strong lads. The flax is then carried to the heckling machine, in connection with which a greater number of young children are employed
- ↑ In 1846, a bill was brought into the House of Commons (prepared by Mr. T. Duncombe, Colonel Rolleston, and Mr. J. Fielden.) "to regulate the hours of night labor in factories where bobbin, net and warp lace machinery is employed," consisting of seventeen clauses. It proposes to enact that night labor shall henceforth cease in these factories, and that the working hours shall not be earlier than six o'clock in the morning to not later than ten o'clock at night, subject to certain penalties. It further prohibits the employment of children under eight years of age.
