196 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



of the country, moreover, where agricultural work would in 

 many cases be wholly insufficient to provide support for 

 more than a small proportion of the present propulation. It 

 is in such cases as these that the provision of suitable 

 employment for the masses of the people is so important, 

 and the question of the mode in which such industries are 

 introduced, and the way in which they are fostered, is 

 surely one which deserves the most careful attention of the 

 economist. 



It must not, however, be imagined from this some- 

 what couleur de rose view of the German peasant that 

 we found no black spots abroad. Indeed, when we 

 consider the general conditions of labour in conti- 

 nental countries, the wages of the operatives, their 

 hours of work, and the provision made for their 

 health and safety, we are driven to the conclusion 

 that they were far behind the workers of the same 

 class in this country. Some facts that we came across 

 in the North of Italy revealed a condition of things 

 such as probably never existed here even in those far- 

 off times, nearly a century ago, before factory laws 

 were instituted. English tourists, as they wander 

 with so much pleasure through some of the loveliest 

 districts of Northern Italy, little suspect that amid so 

 many outward signs of fruitfulness and plenty, the 

 struggle for existence in the factories is so keen, and 

 that the conditions under which the poor workers exist 

 are almost intolerable. 



In the silk-reeling mills of the Italian Lake district 

 we found that there were no Factory Acts, and conse- 

 quently the hours of work were excessive and the 

 hygienic conditions of the poorest. Children from 

 eight years old were employed during the winter 

 months, together with grown women, from 5 a.m. till 

 10 p.m., with slight pauses for food, but making a 

 total of 1 5f hours of work per diem. The pay was 



