[12] Three hundred bundles per day, being as nearly as possible eleven cuts to the spindle. [13] COMPARATIVE WAGES PAID WORKERS. +-----------------------+----------------+-------------+-------------+ | | Wages per day |Wages per day|Wages per day| |Description of Workers.| of 11½ hours. |of 11½ hours.|of 11 hours. | | | ENGLAND. |BELFAST. |GHENT. | +-----------------------+----------------+-------------+-------------+ | | Average. | Average. | Average. | | | _s. d. s. d._| _d._ | _s. d._ | | Spreaders | 1 3 to 1 6 | 10 | 0 11¾ | | First Drawing | 1 0 1 3 | 8½ | 0 8½ | | Second Drawing | 1 0 1 3 | 8½ | 0 8½ | | Roving | 1 1 1 5 | 9 | 0 9¼ | | Carding | 1 0 1 6 | 7½ to 9½ | 0 9¼ | | Spinner | 1 0 1 4 | 10 | 0 8½ | | Doffer | 0 8 | 5½ | 0 4¾ | | Reeler (piece work) | 1 0 1 6 | 10 to 11 | 0 9¼ | | Dyer | 2 6 3 0 | 1_s._ 4_d._ | 1 3 | | Bundler | 2 6 3 0 | 1_s._ 5½ | 1 5 | | Hackler (Roughing for | | | | | Machine) | 1_s._ 6_d._ | 1_s._ 4_d._ | 1 7 | | Overlooker | 4_s._ 6_d._ | 3_s._ 6_d._ | 2 4½ | +-----------------------+----------------+-------------+-------------+ These wages, _at present_, paying in Ghent, it must be borne in mind, are hardly a fair criterion, as flax spinning being entirely a new trade there, it was necessary to give an inducement by extra wages, for the cotton spinner’s to leave the work to which they were accustomed; but this will soon find its level. [14] One cannot but remark the wretched quality of the window-glass, even in the most luxurious houses. It is uneven, warped, and of a dirty-green colour. It is chiefly made at Charleroi. [15] The joke against Mechlin arises from an alarm being given that the cathedral was on fire, by some one who had seen the moonbeams shining through its gothic steeple--whence the proverb, that “the wise men of Mechlin went to put out the moon.”