220 Of increasing Wealth, as it Bk. iii. 



posed to much greater fluctuations than in agricul- 

 ture, and the simpler kinds of domestic trade. 



On the state of the poor employed in manufac- 

 tories with respect to health, and the fluctuations 

 of wages, I will beg- leave to quote a passage from 

 Dr. Aikin's Description of the Country round 

 Manchester : — 



" The invention and improvements of machines 

 " to shorten labour have had a surprising influence 

 " to extend our trade, and also to call in hands 

 " from all parts, particularly children for the cot- 

 " ton-mills. It is the wise plan of Providence, 

 " that in this life there shall be no good without 

 *' its attendant inconvenience. There are many 

 " which are too obvious in these cotton-mills, and 

 " similar factories, which counteract that increase 

 " of population usually consequent on the im- 

 " proved facility of labour. In these, children of 

 " a very tender age are employed, many of them 

 " collected from the workhouses in London and 

 " Westminster, and transported in crowds as ap- 

 " prentices to masters resident many hundred 

 " miles distant, wdiere they serve unknown, un- 

 " protected and forgotten by those to whose care 

 " nature or the laws had consigned them. These 

 " children are usually too long confined to work 

 " in close rooms, often during the whole night. 

 " The air they breathe from the oil, &c. employed 

 " in the machinery, and other circumstances, is in- 

 " jurious; little attention is paid to their cleanli- 

 "ness; and frequent changes from a warm and 

 " dense to a cold and thin atmosphere are pre- 



