"— —, aged fifteen: 'The neighbours who live agen the shop
will say how his master beats him; beats him with a strap, and
sometimes a nut-stick; sometimes the wales remain upon him for a
week; his master once cut his eyelid open, cut a hole in it, and
it bled all over his files that he was working with,'"—Ibid. p.
37, 1. 47.
"— —, aged 18: 'His master once ran at him with a hammer,
and drove the iron-head of the hammer into his side—he felt it
for weeks; his master often knocks him down on the shop-floor;
he can't tell what it's all for, no more than you can; don't
know what it can be for unless it's this, his master thinks he
don't do enough work for him. When he is beaten, his master
does not lay it on very heavy, as some masters do, only beats
him for five minutes at a time; should think that was enough,
though.'"—_Horne, Evidence_, p. 37, 1. 57.
All this exists in a Christian land! Surely telescopic philanthropists
must be numerous in Great Britain. Wonderful to relate, there are many
persons instrumental in sustaining this barbarous system, who profess
a holy horror of slavery, and who seldom rise up or lie down without
offering prayers on behalf of the African bondsmen, thousands of miles
away. Verily, there are many people in this motley world so organized
that they can scent corruption "afar off," but gain no knowledge of the
foulness under their very noses.
Henry Mayhew, in his "London Labour and the London Poor," gives some
very interesting information in regard to the workshops in the great
metropolis of the British Empire. "In the generality of trades,
the calculation is that one-third of the hands are fully employed,
one-third partially, and one-third unemployed throughout the year." The
wages of those who are regularly employed being scant, what must be
the condition of those whose employment is but casual and precarious?
Mayhew says—
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