INDUSTRIAL VILLAGES. 251 



of a decaying institution. In some industries 

 the factory is undoubtedly victorious ; but there 

 are other branches in which the petty trades 

 hold their own position. Even in the textile 

 industries especially in consequence of the wide 

 use of the labour of children and women which 

 offer so many advantages for the factory system, 

 the hand-loom still competes with the power- 

 loom. 



As a whole, the transformation of the petty 

 trades into great industries goes on with a slow- 

 ness which eannot fail to astonish even those 

 who are convinced of its necessity. Nay, some- 

 times we may even see the reverse movement 

 going on occasionally, of course, and only for 

 a time. I cannot forget my amazement when 

 I saw at Verviers, some thirty years ago, that 

 most of the woollen cloth factories immense 

 barracks facing the streets by more than a 

 hundred windows each were silent, and their 

 costly machinery was rusting, while cloth was 

 woven in hand-looms in the weavers' houses, 

 for the owners of those very same factories. 

 Here we have, of course, but a temporary fact, 

 fully explained by the spasmodic character of 

 the trade and the heavy losses sustained by the 

 owners of the factories when they cannot run 

 their mills all the year round. But it illustrates 

 the obstacles which the transformation has to 



