260 
Tt appears by the returns from 
the metropolis, that the children 
bound to manufacturers in the 
country have generally been ap- 
prenticed on the same day, in 
numbers of from five or six to 
forty or fifty. They have not 
unfrequently been taken back to 
their parents, and sometimes after 
having been bound, have been as- 
signed to another master. In the 
parish of Bermondsey, out of 
twenty-five apprenticed to manu- 
facturers, sixteen, it is said, did 
not go, but ne reason is given for 
it; and in several instances, after 
the children have been taken into 
the country, they have been re- 
turned to the parish, in conse- 
quence of the surgeon having 
pronounced them unsound. It 
appears also, that of the whole 
number. of parish apprentices, in- 
cluded in the above returns, no 
Jess a proportion than three- 
fourths have been bound to mas- 
ters connected with the cotton- 
manufacture. Most of the re- 
marks, therefore, which they con- 
ceive it their duty to make, will 
be more directly applicable to 
that branch .of employment; 
though many of their general ob- 
servations, as to the impolicy of 
removing children to a consider- 
able distance from their parents, 
as well as from those whose duty 
it is to see that they are proper- 
ly taken. care of and treated, are 
equally applicable to all profes- 
sions. 
_ In considering this subject, it 
is necessary to advert more par- 
ticularly.to the causes and circum- 
stances attending the original ap- 
pointment of a committee. A 
Bill having been brought into the 
House four sessions ago, at the 
desire and under the direction of 
one of the most populous manu- 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1815. 
facturing districts of this king- 
dom, the professed object of 
which was to prohibit the bind- 
ing of parish apprentices to above 
a certain distance from the abode 
of their parents, and making 
other regulations in the ma- 
nagement of them, some of the 
parishes of the metropolis me- 
naced an opposition to the Bill; 
as taking from them the means 
of disposing of the children of 
the poor belonging to them, in 
the manner in which they had be- 
fore been accustomed to do. It 
was therefore judged expedient to 
ascertain the extent of the prac- 
tice which had prevailed, in order 
to form a judgment of the necessi- 
ty of continuing it; and with that 
view, as well as for the reasons 
before-mentioned, these returns 
were called for. There was also 
another reason for confining the 
returns to the metropolis and its 
vicinity, exclusive of the facility — 
which the registers, kept as above- 
mentioned, afforded for that pur- 
pose. 
In the populous districts of 
England, whether that popu- 
lation is caused by manufac- 
tures or by other employments, 
the same causes which produce it 
provide support for the inhabi- 
tants of all ages, by various occu- 
pations adopted to their means. 
Thus, in manufacturing districts, 
the children are early taught to 
gain their subsistence by the dif- 
ferent branches of those manu- 
factures, In districts where col- 
lieries or other mines abound, 
they are accustomed almost from 
their infancy to employments un- 
der ground, which tend to ‘train 
and inure them to the occupation 
of their ancestors: but in Lon- 
don the lower class of the popu- 
lation is not of that nature, but 
5 
t 
} 
5 
