Chap. VL ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 2S7 



Carron, in which, I have been told, the work-men there employed 

 do not commonly live, while fo employed, above five years. 



There is another manufadure by the operation of fire, and a very 

 ufeful, as well as plealant, manufadure, I mean glafs ; which, be- 

 fides many other ufeful purpofes, gives us the benefit of enjoying 

 the light and heat of the fun, and, at the fame time, defends us 

 from wind, rain, and cold ; a benefit which the antient Greeks and 

 Romans did not enjoy, as they had not the ufe of glafs windows. 

 This manufadure is carried on in what is called glafs-houfes ; whicli 

 muft be exceedingly heated, and, therefore, are very unwholefomc 

 to thofe who work in them : And, in general, all the works, that 

 are performed by fire, are hurtful to health, fuch as gilding ; and 

 fo is J in-making, as I am informed, becaufe in it a good deal of 

 mercury is employed. 



But the occupations, that make the greateft confumption of men in 

 Britain, are our trade, and our manufadures which furnilh the ma- 

 terials by which we carry on our trade. Of thefe, and of the def- 

 trudion of men by the colonies we are obliged to have in foreign 

 countries, and in climates moft deftrudive of our health, I have 

 fpoken in the beginning of chapter fecond of the fecond book of this 

 volume. I will add here, upon the fubjed of manufadures, that 

 there is one manufadure, come lately much into fafhion in England, 

 which, I believe, is more ruinous to the fpecies than any of the arts 

 1 have hitherto mentioned. It is the manufadure of cotton, in 

 which children, from the age of fix, are employed, and kept clofe at 

 work, under overfeers, by night as well as by day. I am told that 

 there is a village near to Ferrybridge, where there are 400 children 

 kept in this flavifh confinement. Now, fuppofe children employed in 

 this unnatural way, fhould efcape a fuddcn death, they mufl:, of necef- 

 fity, lay in the feeds of difeafe j and it is impoflible, by the nature of 



things^ 



