[7] Cf. a report of a workhouse in 1701 (catalogued as 816. m. 15. 48 in the Brit. Mus. Library), where ten poor women were employed to teach the children to spin. [8] _Tour in East of England_, vol. ii. pp. 75, 81. I am indebted to Mrs. C. M. Wilson for drawing my attention to these passages and for suggesting the remarks immediately following. [9] Defoe in his _Plan of English Commerce_ says that after the great plague in France and the peace in Spain the run for goods was so great in England, and the prices so high that poor women in Essex could earn 1s. or 1s. 6d. a day by spinning, and the farmers could hardly get dairymaids. This was, however, only for a time; demand slackened, and the spinners were reduced to misery. [10] James, _History of Worsted_, p. 289. This pleasant custom may remind us of lines in Shakespeare's _Twelfth Night_, i. 4: "The spinsters and the knitters in the sun And the free maids that weave their thread with bones." [11] Philip Gaskell, who was, however, so prejudiced against the factory system that his views must be taken with caution, says that the wives of manufacturers who had risen from poverty to affluence were "an epitome of everything that is odious in manners," their only redeeming point being a profuse hospitality, which however, Grant attributes to "a sense of vain-glory."--_Manufacturing Population_, p. 60. [12] _Growth of English Industry and Commerce_, _Modern Times_, p. 654 (ed. 1907). [13] _History of Cotton Manufacture_, p. 446. [14] Factory Inspector's Report dated August 1835, quoted in Fielden's _Curse of the Factory System_, 1836, p. 43. [15] _Country round Manchester_, p. 192. Compare Mrs. Gaskell's descriptions in _Mary Barton_, fifty years later, for a very similar account. [16] _Athenaeum_, August 20 (probably 1842), quoted in W. C. Taylor, _Factories and the Factory System_, pp. 3, 4, London, 1842. [17] L. Braun, _Die Frauenfrage_, p. 209. Cf. E. Gnauck-Kühne, _Die Arbeiterinnenfrage_ 23. [18] _Woman and Labour_, p. 50. [19] Registrar-General's Report for 1912, p. xxxvii. [20] "Prospects of Marriage for Women," by Clara Collet, _Nineteenth Century_, April 1892, reprinted in _Educated Working Women_, P. S. King, 1902. [21] The servant-keeping class often shows a tendency to regard social questions mainly from the point of view of maintaining the supply of domestic servants. [22] See Appendix, p. 270. [23] Webb, _History of Trade Unionism_, pp. 104-5. [24] _Parliamentary Papers_, 1838, viii. _qq._ 360, 1341-2. [25] "Select Committee on Manufactures," _Parliamentary Papers_, 1833, vol. vi. p. 323, _q._ 5412-3. [26] _Rules of the Nelson and District Power-Loom Weavers' Association_, 1904, p. 13, "Advice to Members, etc." [27] Report of N.C. Amalgamation, June 1906. [28] Evidence is not unanimous on this point. [29] Report of S.E. Lancashire Provincial Association, Dec. 1912.