SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY The moral and intellectual condition of the Potteries district appears, un- fortunately, to have been but little better than that existing in South Stafford- shire. Three-fourths of the persons who gave evidence before the Commis- sioner could neither read nor write, and on all hands were signs of moral degradation. ' I almost tremble,' says Mr. Scriven, ' when I contemplate the fearful deficiency of knowledge existing throughout the district, and the consequences likely to result to this increased and increasing population.' m The brightest spot in the county seems to have been that part of North Staffordshire which comprised the lead and copper mines of Ecton, and Deepdale, the brass and copper mines of Cheadle, and the coal mines of Cheadle and Rugeley. Here the workers, young and old, are described as being sober, industrious, and intelligent, the children well taught, healthy, clean, and tidy. 183 The conditions in the town of Leek, among the silk workers, seem also to have been exceptional. 188 The system of employing pauper apprentices in the South Staffordshire mines was not extensive, though, in so far as it existed, it was undoubtedly bad, and the unfortunate children were often harshly treated. In the years 1840, 1841, and 1842, forty-one pauper children were sent from seven unions to be apprenticed in mines. Twelve of these came from Dudley, and eleven from Wolverhampton ; of these, fourteen were only nine years old, six were aged ten, and the rest were between eleven and fifteen years of age. Their apprenticeship ended at twenty-one ; the premium was usually nothing, otherwise one or two suits of clothes. 18 * The condition of the numerous apprentices in the different branches of the hardware trade in South Staffordshire was a scandal. Some were bound by legal indentures, but the greater number were not, and were at the mercy of their employers till the age of twenty-one. 185 At Willenhall, Sedgeley, and Wolverhampton the conditions of these children were found to be specially bad. The children were frequently shockingly deformed, stunted, and dirty, besides being badly nourished, and in rags. Wednesbury had the best record in the district as regards these pauper children, Darlaston and Bilston were fair. At Wolverhampton bad fish and diseased meat were specially bought for the consumption of the children, 186 and it was high time that the law interfered to protect them, as it subsequently did. They began to work at the age of seven or eight, sometimes as early as six, and their hours of work were without limit save that ultimately set by human endurance. Children, other than pauper apprentices, were, of course, largely employed in these domestic workshops, especially among nailers, where they worked with the rest of the family at the trade, earning from 2s. to %s. per week, or, if young persons, from 4-f. to ioj. 187 181 Children'} Employment Com. Rep. ii, App. 1843, vol. xv, c. 10 ; S. Scriven's Rep. on the Staff. Potteries. 181 S. Scriven's Rep. on North Staff. Mines, 1842, xvii, 134, 137. 183 Children' i Employment Com. ii, App. 1843, vol. xv, c. 18 ; see S. Scriven's remarks : 'On the whole, whether in the large establishments or small ones, in the private dwellings or public schools, I believe the children to be better clothed, fed, educated, and protected than any others in the same sphere of life that I have ever met with.' 184 Midland Mining Com. Rep. (1843), vol. xiii, pp. xl, xli (Dr. Tancred). 1>s Children's Employment Com. 1843, Rep. ii, vol. xiii [430], 26. 186 Ibid. 80, 93, 94, 101, 104. 187 Ibid. Rep. ii, vol. xiii, 93. I 305 39
