288 REPORT— 1902. 



of children employed in factories began to increase, owing partly to the 

 simpler regulations imposed by the Act of 1844.' Indeed, on comparing 

 the years 1833 and 1847, we find that the number of adult women 

 employed in the cotton industry inci'eased faster than the number of 

 adult males. The immunity of women from any special loss was in some 

 degree due to the fact that for a long time previously male operatives had 

 been bitterly opposed to night work, and that the system of night work 

 had in consequence been largely discontinued. Moreover, the numbers of 

 women and young persons employed in the cotton industry were so great 

 in comparison with the number of men that factories could not be carried 

 on without them, even for a short time, with any degree of success, and 

 it was not economical to dispense with them entirely. The peculiarity of 

 the] eflfect of the Factory Acts in the cotton industry consists in the cir- 

 cumstance that what is compulsory as regards hours and general conditions 

 for women must be compulsory for all, because the mills cannot run with 

 male operatives alone without the cost of production rising considerably. 

 The following are the particulars as to the classes of people employed in 

 cotton factories in 1847 : — 



1,5.50 2,633 



Total foriUnited Kingdom = . 134,091 182,236 



that is, there were 85,533 adult males to 230,794 women, young 

 persons, and children. In 1870 there were 117,046 adult males to 333,041 

 protected persons, and in 1896 only 149,146 adult males to 383,774 

 women, young persons, and children. By the Act of 1847 (10 Vict., c. 29) 

 the hours of young persons and women were reduced at once to eleven 

 a day and sixty-three a week, and after May 1, 1848, to ten a day and 

 fifty- eight a week. Just at first it resulted in attempts to keep the 

 works going the full legal day (from 5.30 a.m. to 8.30 p.m.), with relays of 

 protected persons. The relay systems adopted were complicated and 

 defied the attempts of the factory inspectors to find out whether pro- 

 tected people were being worked longer than the legal hours or not. 

 Hence the Act of 1850 (13 &, 14 Vict., c. 54), which did away with this 

 state of affairs by fixing the legal day between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., or in 



! 



Horner's Report, May 1846. 

 = ParUamentar'j Papers, 1847, xlvi. 610-16, (Numbsre as in British Museum, 

 MS. paging.) 



