The Sadler Committee Report
(1832)
Excerpts from the Original Electronic Text at the web site of the Victorian Web (Laura Del Col).

Introduction by Laura Del Col: In 1832 Michael Sadler secured a parliamentary investigation of conditions in the textile factories and he sat as chairman on the committee. The evidence printed here is taken from the large body published in the committee's report and is representative rather than exceptional. It will be observed that the questions are frequently leading; this reflects Sadler's knowledge of the sort of information that the committee were to hear and his purpose of bringing it out. This report stands out as one of three great reports on the life of the industrial class--the two others being that of the Ashley Commission on the mines and Chadwick's report on sanitary problems. The immediate effect of the investigation and the report was the passage of the Act of 1833 limiting hours of employment for women and children.

Evidence Given Before the Sadler Committee

Joshua Drake, called in; and Examined.

You say you would prefer moderate labour and lower wages; are you pretty comfortable upon your present wages?
--I have no wages, but two days a week at present; but when I am working at some jobs we can make a little, and at others we do very poorly.

When a child gets 3s. a week, does that go much towards its subsistence?
--No, it will not keep it as it should do.

When they got 6s. or 7s. when they were pieceners, if they reduced the hours of labor, would they not get less?
--They would get a halfpenny a day less, but I would rather have less wages and less work.

Do you receive any parish assistance?
--No.

Why do you allow your children to go to work at those places where they are ill-treated or over-worked?
--Necessity compels a man that has children to let them work.

Then you would not allow your children to go to those factories under the present system, if it was not from necessity?
--No.

Supposing there was a law passed to limit the hours of labour to eight hours a day, or something of that sort, of course you are aware that a manufacturer could not afford to pay them the same wages?
--No, I do not suppose that they would, but at the same time I would rather have it, and I believe that it would bring me into employ; and if I lost 5d. a day from my children's work, and I got half-a-crown myself, it would be better.

How would it get you into employ?
--By finding more employment at the machines, and work being more regularly spread abroad, and divided amongst the people at large. One man is now regularly turned off into the street, whilst another man is running day and night.

You mean to say, that if the manufacturers were to limit the hours of labour, they would employ more people?
--Yes.

What age are you?
--Twenty-two.

What is your occupation?
--A blanket manufacturer.

Have you ever been employed in a factory?
--Yes.

At what age did you first go to work in one?
--Eight.

How long did you continue in that occupation?
--Four years.

Will you state the hours of labour at the period when you first went to the factory, in ordinary times?
--From 6 in the morning to 8 at night.

Fourteen hours?
--Yes.

With what intervals for refreshment and rest?
--An hour at noon.

When trade was brisk what were your hours?
--From 5 in the morning to 9 in the evening.

Sixteen hours?
--Yes.

With what intervals at dinner?
--An hour.

How far did you live from the mill?
--About two miles.

Was there any time allowed for you to get your breakfast in the mill?
--No.

Did you take it before you left your home?
--Generally.

During those long hours of labour could you be punctual; how did you awake?
--I seldom did awake spontaneously; I was most generally awoke or lifted out of bed, sometimes asleep, by my parents.

Were you always in time?
--No.

What was the consequence if you had been too late?
--I was most commonly beaten.

Severely?
--Very severely, I thought.

In those mills is chastisement towards the latter part of the day going on perpetually?
--Perpetually.

So that you can hardly be in a mill without hearing constant crying?
--Never an hour, I believe.

Do you think that if the overlooker were naturally a humane person it would still be found necessary for him to beat the children, in order to keep up their attention and vigilance at the termination of those extraordinary days of labour?
--Yes; the machine turns off a regular quantity of cardings, and of course, they must keep as regularly to their work the whole of the day; they must keep with the machine, and therefore however humane the slubber may be, as he must keep up with the machine or be found fault with, he spurs the children to keep up also by various means but that which he commonly resorts to is to strap them when they become drowsy.

At the time when you were beaten for not keeping up with your work, were you anxious to have done it if you possibly could?
--Yes; the dread of being beaten if we could not keep up with our work was a sufficient impulse to keep us to it if we could.

When you got home at night after this labour, did you feel much fatigued?
--Very much so.

Had you any time to be with your parents, and to receive instruction from them?
--No.

What did you do?
--All that we did when we got home was to get the little bit of supper that was provided for us and go to bed immediately. If the supper had not been ready directly, we should have gone to sleep while it was preparing.

Did you not, as a child, feel it a very grievous hardship to be roused so soon in the morning?
--I did.

Were the rest of the children similarly circumstanced?
--Yes, all of them; but they were not all of them so far from their work as I was.

And if you had been too late you were under the apprehension of being cruelly beaten?
--I generally was beaten when I happened to be too late; and when I got up in the morning the apprehension of that was so great, that I used to run, and cry all the way as I went to the mill.

Elizabeth Bentley, called in; and Examined.

What age are you?
--Twenty-three.

Where do you live?
--At Leeds.

What time did you begin to work at a factory?
--When I was six years old.

At whose factory did you work?
--Mr. Busk's.

What kind of mill is it?
--Flax-mill.

What was your business in that mill?
--I was a little doffer.

What were your hours of labour in that mill?
--From 5 in the morning till 9 at night, when they were thronged.

For how long a time together have you worked that excessive length of time?
--For about half a year.

What were your usual hours when you were not so thronged?
--From 6 in the morning till 7 at night.

What time was allowed for your meals?
--Forty minutes at noon.

Had you any time to get your breakfast or drinking?
--No, we got it as we could.

And when your work was bad, you had hardly any time to eat it at all?
--No; we were obliged to leave it or take it home, and when we did not take it, the overlooker took it, and gave it to his pigs.

Do you consider doffing a laborious employment?
--Yes.

Explain what it is you had to do?
--When the frames are full, they have to stop the frames, and take the flyers off, and take the full bobbins off, and carry them to the roller; and then put empty ones on, and set the frame going again.

Does that keep you constantly on your feet?
--Yes, there are so many frames, and they run so quick.

Your labour is very excessive?
--Yes; you have not time for any thing.

Suppose you flagged a little, or were too late, what would they do?
--Strap us.

Are they in the habit of strapping those who are last in doffing?
--Yes.

Constantly?
--Yes.

Girls as well as boys?
--Yes.

Have you ever been strapped?
--Yes.

Severely?
--Yes.

Could you eat your food well in that factory?
--No, indeed I had not much to eat, and the little I had I could not eat it, my appetite was so poor, and being covered with dust; and it was no use to take it home, I could not eat it, and the overlooker took it, and gave it to the pigs.

. . . .

Had you a clock?
--No, we had not.

. . . .

Were you generally there in time?
--Yes; my mother had been up at 4 o'clock in the morning, and at 2 o'clock in the morning; the colliers used to go to their work about 3 or 4 o'clock, and when she heard them stirring she has got up out of her warm bed, and gone out and asked them the time; and I have sometimes been at Hunslet Car at 2 o'clock in the morning, when it was streaming down with rain, and we have had to stay until the mill was opened.

[Parliamentary Papers, 1831-1832, vol. XV. pp. 44, 95-97, 115, 195, 197, 339, 341-342, reprinted in Jonathan F. Scott and Alexander Baltzly, eds., Readings in European History Since 1814 (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1930. ]