vi] LONDON WORKERS, SECULARISTS, ETC. 95 



workpeople were satisfied with the various new rules and 

 regulations he adopted ; and how, during the four years he 

 remained there, he continually improved the output ; how his 

 salary was raised by agreement to ^"500 a year, to be followed 

 the next year by his becoming a partner with one-fourth share 

 in the whole concern — is one of the most interesting and 

 remarkable incidents in modern biographical literature. 



Owing to family arrangements Mr. Drinkwater wished 

 Owen to withdraw from the partnership, but begged him to 

 remain as manager, and name his own salary. This he 

 declined, soon found another offer, built new mills, and 

 carried them on successfully for several years, till, in the year 

 1800, he became partner and sole manager of the New 

 Lanark mills, and married the daughter of Mr. Dale, the 

 former proprietor. 



Gradually, for many years, he had been elaborating his 

 theory of human nature, and longing for an opportunity 

 of putting his ideas in practice. And now he had got his 

 opportunity. He had an extensive factory and workshops, with 

 a village of about two thousand inhabitants all employed in 

 the works, which, with about two hundred acres of surrounding 

 land, belonged to the company. The character of the workers 

 at New Lanark is thus described by Mr. W. L. Sargant in 

 his work " Robert Owen and his Social Philosophy," when 

 describing the establishment of the mills about fifteen years 

 before Owen acquired them : " To obtain a supply of adult 

 labourers a village was built round the works, and the houses 

 were let at a low rent ; but the business was so unpopular 

 that few, except the bad, the unemployed, and the destitute, 

 would settle there. Even of such ragged labourers the numbers 

 were insufficient ; and these, when they had learned their 

 trade and become valuable, were self-willed and insubordinate." 

 Besides these, there were about five hundred children, chiefly 

 obtained from the workhouses of Edinburgh and other large 

 towns, who were apprenticed for seven years from the age of 

 six to eight, and these were lodged and boarded in a large 

 building erected for the purpose by the former owner, Mr. 

 Dale, and was well managed. But these poor children, had 



