 Section 60 of London Labour and the London Poor Volume 2 by Henry Mayhew. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Gillian Henry. Of casual labour in general, and that of the rubbish carters in particular. Part 3. I now come to consider the circumstances causing an undue increase of the labourers in a country. Thus far we have proceeded on the assumption that both the quantity of work to be done, and the number of hands to do it, remained stationary. And we have seen that by the mere alteration of the time, rate and mode of working, a vast amount of surplus and consequently casual labour may be induced in a community. We have now to ascertain how, still assuming the quantity of work to remain unaltered, the same effect may be brought about by an undue increase of the number of labourers. There are many means by which the number of labourers may be increased, besides that of a positive increase of the people. These are, one, by the undue increase of apprentices. Two, by drafting into the ranks of labour those who should be otherwise engaged, as women and children. Three, by the importation of labourers from abroad. Four, by the migration of country labourers to towns, and so overcrowding the market in the cities. Five, by the depression of other trades. Six, by the undue increase of the people themselves. Each and every of the first mentioned causes are as effective a circumstance for the promotion of surplus labour as even the positive extension of the population of the country. Let me begin with the undue increase of a trade by means of apprentices. This is perhaps one of the chief aids to the cheap system, for it is principally by apprentice labour that the better masters as well as workmen are undersold, and the skilled labourer consequently depressed to the level of the unskilled. But the great evil is that the cheapening of goods by this means causes an undue increase in the trade. The apprentices grow up and become labourers, and so the trade is glutted with workmen, and casual labour is the consequence. This apprentice system is the great bane of the printers trade. Country printers take an undue number of boys to help them cheap. These lads grow up, and then finding wages in the provinces depressed through this system of apprentice labour. They flock to the towns, and so tend to glut the labour market, and consequently to increase the number of casual hands. One cause of the increased surplus and casual labour in such trades as dressing case, work box, writing desk making, and other things in the fancy cabinet trade, among the worst trades even in Spittlefields and Bethnal Green, shoemaking, and especially of women and children's shoes, is the taking of many apprentices by small masters supplying the great warehouses. As journey work is all but unknown in the slop fancy cabinet trade, an apprentice, when he has served his time, must start on his own account in the same rich way of business, or become a casual labourer in some unskilled avocation. And this is one way in which the hands surely, although gradually, increase beyond the demand. It is the same with the general slop cabinet makers trade in the same parts. The small masters supply the slaughterhouses, the linen draperies, and so on, who sell cheap furniture. They work in the quickest and most scamping manner, and do more work, which is nearly all done on the chance of sale, as they must confine themselves to one branch. The slop chair makers cannot make tables, nor the slop table makers chairs, nor the chiffonier and drawer makers bedsteads, for they have not been taught. Even if they knew the method and could accomplish other work, the want of practices would compel them to do it slowly, and the slop mechanic can never afford to work slowly. Such classes of little masters, then, to make the demand for low-priced furniture rear their sons to the business and frequently take apprentices to whom they pay small amounts. The hands so trained, as in the former instances, are not skilled enough to work for the honourable trade so that they can only adopt the course pursued by their parents or masters before them. Hence a rapid, although again gradual, increase of surplus hands, or hence a resort to some unskilled labour to be wrought casually. This happens too, but in a smaller degree, in trades which are not slop, from the same cause. Concerning the apprentice system in the boot and shoe trade, when making my enquiries into the condition of the London workmen, I received the following statements. My employer had seven apprentices when I was with him. Of these, two were parish apprentices, I was one, and the other five from the refuse for the destitute at Hoxton. With each refuse boy he got five pounds and three suits of clothes and a kit, note, tools, end note. With the parish boys of Covent Garden and St Andrews Holburn he got five pounds and two suits of clothes, reckoning what the boy wore as one. My employer was a journeyman and by having all as boys he was able to get up work very cheap, though he received good wages for it. We boys got no allowance and money, only board lodging and clothing. The board was middling, the lodging was too, and there was nothing to complain about in the clothing. He was severe in the way of flogging. I ran away six times myself, but was forced to go back again as I had no money and no friend in the world. When I first ran away I complained to Mr. Blank, the magistrate, and he was going to give me six weeks. He said it would do me good, but Mr. Blank interfered and I was let go. I don't know what he was going to give me six weeks for, unless it was for having a black eye that my master had given me with the stirrup. Of the seven only one served his time out. He let me off two years before my time was up, as we couldn't agree. The mischief of taking so many apprentices is this, the master gets money with them from the parish and can feed them much as he likes as to quality and quantity, and if they run away soon, the master's none the worse, for he's got the money. And so boys are sent out to turn vagrants when they run away, as such boys have no friends. Of as seven boys at the wages our employer got, one could earn 19 shillings, another 15 shillings, another 12 shillings, another 10 shillings, and the rest not less than 8 shillings each, for all worked 16 hours a day. That's £4 8 shillings a week for the seven, or £225 10 shillings a year. You must recollect, I reckon this on nearly the best wages in the women's trade. My employer you may call a sweater, and he made money fast, though he drank a good deal. We seldom saw him when he was drunk, but he did pitch into us when he was getting sober. Look how easily such a man with apprentices can undersell others when he wants to work as cheap as possible for the great slop warehouses. They serve haberdasher's so cheap that often enough it's starvation wages for the same shops. A kin to the system of using a large number of apprentices is that of employing boys and girls to displace the work of men at the less laborious parts of the trade. It is probable, said a working shoemaker to me, that independent of apprentices, 200 additional hands are added to our already overburdened trade, yearly. Sewing boys soon learn the use of the knife. Plenty of poor men will offer to finish them for a pound and a month's work, and men for a few shillings and a few weeks' work will teach other boys to sew. There are many of the wives of chambermasters teach girls entirely to make children's work for a pound and a few months' work, and there are many in Bethnal Green who have learned the business in this way. These teach some other members of their families and then actually set up in business in opposition to those who taught them, and in cutting offer their work for sale at a much lower rate of profit, and shopkeepers in town and country having circulars sent to solicit custom will have their goods from a warehouse that will serve them cheapest. Then the warehouse men will have them cheap from the manufacturer, and he in his turn cuts down the wages of the work people who fear to refuse offers at the warehouse price, knowing the low rate at which chambermasters will serve the warehouse. As in all trades where lowness of wages is the rule, the boy system of labour prevails among the cheap cabinet workers. It prevails, however, among the garret masters by very many of them having one, two, three, or four youths to help them, and so the number of boys thus employed through the whole trade is considerable. This refers principally to the general cabinet trade. In the fancy trade the number is greater, as the boy's labour is more readily available, but in this trade the greatest number of apprentices is employed by such warehouse men as our manufacturers, as some at the East End are, or rather by the men that they constantly keep at work. Of these men one has now eight and another fourteen boys in his service, some apprenticed, some merely engaged, and dischargeable at pleasure. A sharp boy in six or eight months becomes handy, but four out of five of the workmen thus brought up can do nothing well but their own particular branch, and that only well as far as celerity in production is considered. It is these boys who are put to make, or as a master of the better class distinguished to me, not to make, but to put together, ladies' work boxes at five pence apiece, the boy receiving tuppence apenia box. Such boxes, said another workman, are nailed together. There's no dovetailing, nothing of what I call work or workmanship, as you say about them, but the deals nail together, and the veneers dabbed on, and if the deals covered, why the thing passes. The worst of it is that people don't understand either good work or good wood. They polish them up and they look well. Besides, and that's another bad thing, for it encourages bad work. There's no stress on a lady's work box, as on a chair or a sofa, and so bad work lasts far too long, though not half so long as good, in solids especially, if not in veneers. To such a pitch is this demand for children's labour carried, that there is a market in Bethnal Green where boys and girls stand twice a week to be hired as binders and sores. Hence it will be easily understood that it is impossible for the skilled and grown artisan to compete with the labour of mere children, who are thus literally brought into the market to undersell him. Concerning this market for boys and girls in Bethnal Green, I received during my enquiries into the boot and shoe trade the following statements from shopkeepers on the spot. Sir H has lived there 16 years. The market days are Monday and Tuesday mornings, from 7 to 9. The ages of persons who assemble there vary from 10 to 20, and they are often of the worst character, and a decided nuisance to the inhabitants. A great many of both sexes congregate together, and most market days there are three females to one male. They consist of sewing boys, shoe binders, winders for weavers, and girls for all kinds of slop needle work, girls for domestic work, nursing children, and so on. No one can testify for a fact that they, the females, are prostitutes, but by their general conduct they are fit for anything. The market some years since was held at the top of Abbey Street, but on account of the nuisance, it was removed to the other end of Abbey Street. When the schools were built, the nuisance became so intolerable that it was removed to a railway arch in White Street, Bethnal Green. There are two policemen on market mornings to keep order, but my informant says they require four to maintain anything like subjection. But family work, or the conjoined labour of a workman's wife and children, is an equally extensive cause of surplus and casual labour. A small master, working perhaps upon goods to be supplied at the lowest rates of labour, will often contribute to this result by the way in which he brings up his children. It is less expensive to him to teach them his own business, and he may even reap a profit from their labour than to have them brought up to some other calling. I met with an instance of this in an inquiry among the toy makers. A maker of common toys brought up five children to his own trade, for boys and girls can be made useful in such labour at an early age. His business fell off rapidly, which he attributed to the great and numerous packages of cheap toys imported from Germany, Holland and France, after the lowering of the duty by Sir Robert Peel's tariff. The chief profit to the toy maker was derived from the labour, as the material was of trifling cost. He found, on the change in his trade, that he could not employ all his family. His fellow tradesmen, he said, were in the same predicament, and thus surplus hands were created, so leading to casualty in labour. The system which has, I believe, the worst effect on the women's trade in the boot and shoe business throughout England is, I said, in the morning chronicle, chambermastering. There are between 300 and 400 chambermasters. Commonly, the man has a wife and three or four children, ten years old or upwards. The wife cuts out the work for the binders. The husband does the knife work. The children sew, with uncommon rapidity. The husband, when the work is finished at night, goes out with it, though wet and cold and perhaps hungry, his wife and children waiting his return. He returns sometimes having sold his work at cost price, and not cleared one-shelling sixpence for the day's labour of himself and family. In the winter, by this means, the shopkeepers and warehouses can take the advantage of the chambermaster, buying the work at their own price. By this means, haberdasher's shops are supplied with boots, shoes and slippers. They can sell women's boots at one-shelling ninepence per pair, shoes one-shelling threepence per pair, children's sixpence eightpence and ninepence per pair, getting a good profit, having bought them off the poor chambermaster for almost nothing. And he glad to sell them at any price late at night, his children wanting bread, and he having walked about for hours, in vain trying to get a fair price for them. Thus, women and children labour as well as husbands and fathers, and with their combined labourers, they only obtain a miserable living. The labour of the wife, and indeed the whole family, family work as it is called, is attended with the same evil to a trade, introducing a large supply of fresh hands to the labour market and so tending to glut with work people, each trade into which they are introduced, and thus to increase the casual labour and decrease the earnings of the whole. The only means of escape from the inevitable poverty, I said in the same letters, which later or later overwhelms those in connection with the cheap shoe trade, seems to the workmen to be by the employment of his whole family as soon as his children are able to be put to the trade. And yet this only increases the very depression that he seeks to avoid. I gave the statement of such a man residing in the suburbs of London and working with three girls to help him. I have known the business, he said, for many years, but was not brought up to it. I took it up because my wife's father was in the trade and taught me. I was a weaver originally, but it is a bad business, and I have been in this trade seventeen years. Then I had only my wife and myself able to work. At that time my wife and I by hard work could earn one pound a week. On the same work we could not now earn twelve shillings a week. As soon as the children grew old enough the falling off in the wages compelled us to put them to work one by one as soon as a child could make threads. One began to do that between eight and nine. I have had a large family and with very hard work too. We have had to lie on straw often enough. Now three daughters, my wife and myself work together in chamber mastering. The whole of us may earn one week with another twenty-eight shillings a week, and out of that I have eight to support. Out of that twenty-eight shillings I have to pay for grindery and candles, which cost me one shilling a week the year through. I now make children's shoes for the wholesale houses and anybody. About two years ago I travelled from Thomas Street, Bethnal Green to Oxford Street, on the hawk. I then positively had nothing in my inside, and over and I had to lean against a house through weakness from hunger. I was compelled, as I could sell nothing at that end of the town to walk down to Whitechapel at ten at night. I went into a shop near my land Turnpike and the same articles, children's patent leather shoes, that I received eight shilling a dozen for from the wholesale houses, I was compelled to sell to a shopkeeper for six shilling sixpence. This is a very frequent case, very frequent, with persons' circumstance as I am, and so trade is injured and only some hard man gains by it. Here is a statement of a worker at Fancy Cabinet work on the same subject. The most on us has got large families. We put the children to work as soon as we can. My little girl began about six, but about eight or nine is the usual age. Oh, poor little things, said the wife. They are obliged to begin the very minute they can use their fingers at all. The most of the cabinet makers of the East End have from five to six in family and they are generally all at work for them. The small masters mostly marry when they are turned of twenty. You see our trades coming to such a pass that unless a man has children to help him, he can't live at all. I've worked more than a month together and the longest night's rest I've had has been an hour and a quarter. I and I've been up three nights a week besides. I've had my children lying ill and being obliged to wait on them into the bargain. You see we couldn't live if it wasn't for the labour of our children, though it makes them poor little things. Old people long before they are grown up. Why, I stood at this bench, said the wife, with my child only ten years of age from four o'clock on Friday morning till ten minutes past seven in the evening, without a bit to eat or drink. I never sat down a minute from the time I began till I finished my work and then I went out to sell what I had done. I walked all the way from here, sure ditch, down to the loather arcade to get rid of the articles. Here she burst out in a violent flood of tears, saying, oh sir it is hard to be obliged to labour from morning till night as we do, all of us, little ones and all, and yet not be able to live by it either. And you see the worst of it is this here children's labour is of such value now in our trade that there's more brought into the business every year, so that it's really for all the world like breeding slaves. Without my children I don't know how we should be able to get along. There's that little thing, said the man, pointing to the girl ten years of age before she was excluded to, as she sat at the edge of the bed. Why she works regularly every day from six in the morning till ten at night. She never goes to school, we can't spare her. There's schools enough about here for a penny a week but we could not afford to keep her without working. If I'd ten more children I should be obliged to employ them all the same way and there's hundreds and thousands of children now slaving at this business. There's the M's. We have a family of eight and the youngest to the oldest of all works at the bench. And the oldest ain't fourteen. I'm sure of the two thousand five hundred small masters in the cabinet line you may safely say that two thousand of them at the very least has from five to six in family and that's upwards of twelve thousand children that's been put to the trade since prices has come down. Twenty years ago I don't think there was a child at work in our business and I am sure there is not a small master now whose whole family doesn't assist him. But what I want to know is what's to become of the twelve thousand children when they're grown up and come regular into the trade. Here are all my young ones growing up without being taught anything but a business that I know they must starve at. In answer to my inquiry as to what dependence he had in case of sickness oh bless you he said there's nothing but the parish for us. I did belong to a benefit society about four years ago but I couldn't keep up my payments any longer. I was in the society above five and twenty year and then was obliged to leave it after all. I don't know of one as belongs to any friendly society and I don't think there is a man as can afford it in our trade now. They must all go to the workhouse when they're sick or old. The following is from a journeyman Taylor concerning the employment of women in his trade when I first began working at this branch there were but very few females employed in it. A few white waist coats were given out to them under the idea that women would make them cleaner than men and so indeed they can but since the last five years the sweaters have employed females upon cloth, silk and satin waist coats as well and before that time the idea of a woman making a cloth waistcoat would have been scouted but since the increase of the puffing and the sweating system masters and sweaters have sought everywhere for such hands as would do the work below the regular ones hence the wife has been made to compete with the husband and the daughter with the wife they all learn the waistcoat business and must all get a living if the man will not reduce the price of his labour to that of the female why he must remain unemployed and if the full grown women will not take the work at the same price as the young girl why she must remain without any the female hands I can confidently state have been sought out and introduced to the business by the sweaters from a desire on their part continually to ferret out hands who will do the work cheaper than others the effect that this continual reduction has had upon me is this before the year 1844 I could live comfortably and keep my wife and children I had five in family by my own labour my wife then attended to her domestic and family duties but since that time owing to the reduction in prices she has been compelled to resort to her needle as well as myself for her living note on the table was a bundle of crepe and bombazine ready to be made up into a dress and note I cannot afford now to let her remain idle that is if I wish to live and keep my children out of the streets and pay my way my wife's earnings are upon an average eight shillings per week she makes dresses I never would teach her to make waistcoats because I knew the introduction of female hands had been the ruin of my trade with the labour of myself and wife now I can only earn 32 shillings a week and six years ago I could make my 36 shillings if I had a daughter I should be obliged to make her work as well and then probably with the labour of the three of us we could make up at the week's end as much money as up to 1844 I could get by my own single hands my wife since she took to dressmaking has become sickly from overexertion her work and her domestic and family duties altogether are too much for her last night I was up all night with her and was compelled to call in a female to attend her as well the overexertion now necessary for us to maintain a decent appearance has so ruined her constitution that she is not the same woman as she was in fact, ill as she is she has been compelled to rise from her bed to finish a morning dress against time and I myself have been obliged to give her a helping hand and turn to at women's work in the same manner as the women are turning to at men's work the cause of the serious decrease in our trade said another tailor to me is the employment given to workmen at their own homes or in other words to the sweaters the sweater is the greatest evil to us as the sweating system increases the number of hands to an almost incredible extent wives, sons, daughters and extra women all working long days that is labouring 16 to 18 hours per day and Sundays as well I date the decrease in the wages of the workmen from the introduction of piecework and giving out garments to be made off the premises of the master for the effect of this was that the workmen making the garment knowing that the master could not tell whom he got to do his work for him employed women and children to help him and paid them little or nothing for their labour this was the beginning of the sweating system the workmen gradually became transformed from journeymen into middlemen living by the labour of others employers soon began to find that they could get garments made at a less sum than the regular price and those tradesmen who were anxious to force their trade by underselling their more honourable neighbours readily availed themselves of this means of obtaining cheap labour the consequence was that the sweater sought out where he could get the work done the cheapest and so introduced a fresh stock of hands into the trade female labour of course could be had cheaper than male and the sweater readily availed himself of the services of women on that account hence the males who had formerly been employed upon the garments were thrown out of work by the females and obliged to remain unemployed unless they would reduce the price of their work to that of the women it cannot therefore be said that the reduction of prices originally arose from their having been more workmen than there was work for them to do there was no superabundance of hands until female labour was generally introduced and even if the workmen had increased 25% more than what they were 20 years back still that extra number of hands would be required now to make the same number of garments owing to the work put into each article being at least one fourth more than formerly so far from the trade being over stocked with male hands if the work were confined to the men or the masters premises there would not be sufficient hands to do the whole according to the last census 1841 GB out of a population of 18,720,000 the proportions of the people occupied and unoccupied whereas follows occupied 7,800,000 unoccupied including women and children 10,920,000 of those who were occupied the following were the proportions engaged in productive employments note I have here included those engaged in trade and commerce and employers as well as they employed among the producers and note 5,350,000 engaged in non-productive employments 2,450,000 of those who were engaged in productive employments the proportion in round numbers ran as follows men 3,785,000 women 660,000 boys and girls 905,000 here then we find nearly one fifth or 20% of our producers to be boys and girls and upwards of 10% to be women such was the state of things in 1841 in order to judge of the possible and probable condition of the labour market of the country if this introduction of women and children into the ranks of the labourers be persisted in let us see what were the proportions of the 10,920,000 men women and children 10 years ago still remained unoccupied among us the ratio was as follows men 275,000 women 3,570,000 boys and girls 7,075,000 here the unoccupied men are about 5% of the whole the children nearly two thirds and the wives about one third now it appears that out of say 18,000,000 people 8,000,000 were in 1841 occupied and by far the greater number 11,000,000 unoccupied who were the remaining 11,000,000 and what were they doing they of course consisted principally of the unemployed wives and children of the 8,000,000 of people before specified 3,000,000 and a half of the number being females of 20 years of age and upwards and 7,000,000 being children of both sexes under 20 of these children 4,000,000 according to the age abstract were under 10 years so that we may fairly assume that at the time of taking the last census there were very nearly 7,000,000 of wives and children of a workable age still unoccupied let us suppose then that these 7,000,000 of people are brought in competition with the 1,000,000 producers what is to be the consequence if the labour market be over stocked at present with only 5,000,000 of people working for the support of 19,000,000 I speak according to the census of 1841 what would it be if another 7,000,000 were to be dragged into it and if wages are low now and employment is precarious on account of this what will not both work and pay sink to when the number is again increased and the people clamouring for employment are at least treble what they are at present when the wife has been taught to compete for work with the husband and son and daughter to undersell their own father what will be the state of our labour market then but the labour of wives and children and apprentices is not the only means of glutting a particular trade with hands there is another system becoming everyday more popular with our enterprising tradesmen and this is the importation of foreign labourers in the cheap tailoring this is made a regular practice cheap labour is regularly imported not only from Ireland the wives of sweaters making visits to the emerald isle for the express purpose but small armies of working tailors ready to receive the lowest pittance are continually being shipped into this country that this is no exaggeration let the following statement prove I am a native of Pest having left Hungary about eight years ago by the custom of the country I was compelled to travel three years in foreign parts before I could settle in my native place I went to Paris after travelling about in the different countries of Germany I stayed in Paris about two years my father's wish was that I should visit England and I came to London in June 1847 I first worked for a west end show shop not directly for them but through the person who is their middleman getting work done at what rate he could for the firm and obtaining the prices they allowed for making the garments I once worked four days and a half for him finding my own trimmings and so on for nine shillings for this my employer would receive 12 shillings six pints he then employed 190 hands he has employed 300 many of those so employed set their wives children and others to work some employing as many as five hands this way the middleman keeps his carriage and will give 50 guineas for a horse I became unable to work from a pain in my back from long sitting at my occupation the doctor told me not to sit much and so as a countryman of mine was doing the same I employed hands making the best of their labour I have now four young women all irish girls so employed last week one of them received four shillings and other four shillings tuppence the other two five shillings each they find their bored and lodging but I find them a place to work in a small room the rent of which I share with another tailor who works on his own account there are not so many Jews come over from Hungary or Germany as from Poland off travelling three years brings over many but not more than it did the revolutions have brought numbers this year and last they are Jew tailors flying from Russian and Prussian Poland to avoid the conscription I never knew any of these Jews go back again there is a constant communication among the Jews and when their friends in Poland and other places learn they are safe in England and in work and out of trouble they come over too they worked as a journeyman in Pest and got two shillings sixpence a week my bored and washing and lodging for my labour we lived well everything being so cheap the Jews come in the greatest number about Easter they try to work their way here most of them some save money here but they never go back if they leave England it is to go to America the labour market off a particular place however comes to be overstocked with hands not only from the introduction of an inordinate number of apprentices and women and children into the trade as well as the importation of workmen from abroad but the same effect is produced by the migration of country labourers to towns this as I have before said is specially the case in the printers and carpenters trades where the cheap provincial work is executed chiefly by apprentices who when their time is up flock to the principal towns in the hopes of getting better wages than can be obtained in the country owing to the prevalence of the apprentice system of work in those parts the London carpenters suffer greatly from what are called improvers who come up to town to get perfected in their art and work for little or no wages the work of some of the large houses is executed mainly in this way that of Mr Myers was for instance whom the men lately struck but the unskilled labour of towns suffers far more than the skilled from the above cause the employment of unskilled labourers in towns is being constantly rendered more casual by the migration from the country parts the peasants owing to the insufficiency of their wages and the wretchedness of their dwellings and diets in wilts, somerset dorset and elsewhere leave their native places without regret and swell the sum of unskilled labour in towns this is shown by the increase of population far beyond the excess of births over deaths in those counties where there are large manufacturing or commercial towns whilst in purely agricultural counties the increase of population does not keep pace with the excess of births thus in Lancashire writes Mr Thornton in his work on overpopulation the increase of the population in the ten years ending in 1841 was 330,210 and in Cheshire 60,919 whilst the excess of births was only 150,150 in the former and 28,000 in the latter in particular towns the contrast is still more striking in Liverpool and Bristol the annual deaths actually exceed the births so that these towns are only saved from depopulation by their rural recruits yet the first increased the number of its inhabitants in ten years by more than one third and the other by more than one sixth in Manchester the annual excess of births could only have added 19,390 to the population between 1831 and 1841 the actual increase was 68,375 the number of immigrants note immigrants into Birmingham during the same period may in the same way be estimated at 40,000 into Leeds at 8,000 into the Metropolis at 130,000 on the other hand in Dorset, Somerset and Devon the actual addition to the population in the same decennial period was only 15,491 31,802 and 39,253 respectively although the excess of births over deaths in the same counties was about 20,000 38,600 and 48,700 the unskilled labour market offers again from the depression of almost any branch of skilled labour for whatever branch of labour be depressed and men so be deprived of a sufficiency of employment when a special result ensues the unskilled labour market is glutted the skilled labourer, a tailor for instance may be driven to work for the wretched pittance of an east end slop tailor but he cannot turn his hand in the description of skilled labour he cannot say I will make billiard tables or boot cases or boots or razors so that there is no resource for him but in unskilled labour the spittle fields weavers have often sought dock labour the turners of the same locality whose bobbins were once in great demand by the silk-winders and for the fringes of upholsterers have done the same by the increase of casual labour increases the poverty of the poor and so tends directly to the increase of populism we have now seen what a vast number of surplus labourers may be produced by an extension of time, rate or mode of working as well as by the increase of the hands by other means than by the increase of the people themselves if however we are increasing our workers at a greater rate than we are increasing the means of work the excess of workmen must of course remain unemployed but are we doing this let us test the matter on the surest data in the first instance let us estimate the increase of population both according to the calculations of the late Mr Rickman and the returns of the several censuses the first census I may observe was taken in 1801 and has been regularly continued at intervals of 10 years the table first given refers to the population of England and Wales increase in the population of England and Wales note the amount of the population from 1570 to 1750 as here given is copied from Rickman's tables as published by the registrar general the population at the decennial term as here given is the amended calculation of the registrar general as given in the new census tables and note 1570 population England and Wales 4,038,879 1600 population 4,811,718 numerical increase 772,839 increase percent 19 annual increase percent 0.6 1630 population 5,601,517 numerical increase 789,799 increase percent 16 annual increase percent 0.5 1670 population 5,773,646 numerical increase 172,129 increase percent 3 annual increase percent 0.08 1700 population 6,045,008 numerical increase 271,362 increase percent 5 annual increase percent 0.2 1750 population 6,517,035 numerical increase 472,027 increase percent 8 annual increase percent 0.2 1801 population 8,892,000 536 numerical increase 2,375,501 increase percent 37 annual increase percent 0.7 1811 population 10,164,068 numerical increase 1,271,532 increase percent 14 annual increase percent 1.4 1821 population 11,999,322 numerical increase 1,835,250 increase percent 18 annual increase percent 1.8 1831 population 13,896,797 numerical increase 1,897,475 increase percent 16 annual increase percent 1.6 1841 population 15,914,148 numerical increase 1,982,489 increase percent 14 annual increase percent 1.4 1851 population 17,922,768 numerical increase 1,968,341 increase percent 13 annual increase percent 1.3 increase percent in 50 years from 1801 to 1851 equals 101 annual average increase percent 1.41 increase in the population of Scotland 1755 note from returns furnished by the clergy population Scotland 1,265,380 1801 note the returns here cited are copied from those given by the registrar general in the new census population 1,608,420 numerical increase 343,040 increase percent 27 annual increase percent 0.6 1811 population 1,805,864 numerical increase 197,444 increase percent 12 annual increase percent 1.3 1821 population 2,091,512 numerical increase 285,657 increase percent 16 annual increase percent 1.6 1831 164,386 numerical increase 272,865 increase percent 13 annual increase percent 1.3 1841 population 2,620,184 numerical increase 255,798 increase percent 11 annual increase percent 1.1 1851 population 2,870,784 numerical increase 245,237 increase percent 10 annual increase percent 1.0 increase percent in 50 years from 1801 to 1851 equals 78 annual rate of increase percent 1.16 increase in the population of Ireland 1731 returns obtained through an inquiry instituted by the Irish House of Lords population Ireland 2,010,221 1754 note the population from 1754 to 1788 is estimated from the hearth money returns and note population 2,372,634 numerical increase 362,413 increase percent 19 1767 population 2,544,276 numerical increase 171,642 increase percent 7 1777 population 2,690,556 numerical increase 146,280 increase percent 6 1785 population 2,845,932 numerical increase 155,376 increase percent 6 1788 population 4,040,000 numerical increase 1,194,068 increase percent 42 1805 note new nums inquiry into the population of Ireland and note population 5,395,456 numerical increase 1,355,456 increase percent 34 1813 estimate from incomplete census population 5,937,858 numerical increase 542,402 increase percent 10 1821 1821 first complete census population 6,801,827 numerical increase 863,969 increase percent 15 annual rate of increase 1.4 1831 population 7,767,401 numerical increase 965,574 increase percent 14 annual rate of increase percent 1.3 1841 population 8,175,124 numerical increase 407,723 increase percent 5 annual rate of increase percent 0.5 1851 population 6,515,794 numerical decrease 1,659,330 decrease percent 20 annual rate of decrease percent 1.8 total decrease in 30 years from 1821 to 1851 equals 4% annual rate of decrease in 30 years from 1821 to 1851 0.1% increase in the population of the United Kingdom 1821 population 20,892,670 1831 population 24,028,584 numerical increase 3,135,914 decennial increase percent 15 annual increase percent 1.4 1841 population 26,709,456 numerical increase 2,680,872 decennial increase percent 11 annual increase percent 1.1 1851 population 27,309,346 numerical increase 599,890 decennial increase percent 2 annual increase percent 0.2 increase in 30 years from 1821 to 1851 equals 31% annual rate of increase 0.9% discarding then all conjectural results and adhering solely to the returns of the censuses we find that according to the official numberings of the people throughout the kingdom the increased rate of population is in round numbers 10% every 10 years that is to say where 100 persons were living in the United Kingdom in 1821 there are 130 living in the present year of 1851 the average increase in England and Wales for the last 50 years may however be said to be 1.5% per annum the population having doubled itself during that period how then does this rate of increase among the people and consequently the labourers and artisans of the country correspond with the rate of increase in the production of commodities or in plain English the means of employment is the main inquiry the only means of determining the total amount of commodities produced and consequently the quantity of work done in the country is from official returns submitted to the parliament and the public as part of the revenue of the kingdom these afford a broad and accurate basis for the necessary statistics and to get rid of any speculating or calculating on the subject I will confine to such commodities giving however further information bearing on the subject but still derived from official sources so that there may be no doubt on the matter the facts in connection with this part of the subject are exhibited in the table given in the next page the majority of the articles there specified supply the elements of trade and manufacture in furnishing the materials of our clothing in all the appliances of decency and comfort and luxury the table relates more over to our commerce with other countries to the ships which find profitable employment and give such employment to our people in the aggregate commerce of the nation under almost every head it will be seen the increase in the means of labour has been more extensive than has the increase in the number of labourers in some instances the difference is wide indeed the annual rate of increase among the population has been 0.9% from 1801 to 1841 the population of the kingdom at the outside cannot be said to have doubled itself yet the productions in cotton goods were not less than 10 times greater in 1851 than in 1801 the increase in the use of wool from 1821 to 1851 was more than six fold that of the population I may repeat not two fold in 20 years 1831 to 1851 the heights were more than doubled in amount as a means of production in 50 years the population has not increased to the same amount can anyone then contend that the labouring population has extended itself at a greater rate than the means of labour or that the vast mass of surplus labour throughout the country is owing to the working classes having increased more rapidly than the means of employing them thus it is evident that the means of labour have increased at a more rapid pace than the labouring population but the increase in property of the country in that which is sometimes called the staple property being the assured possessions of the class of proprietors or capitalists as well as in the profits prove that if the labourers of the country have been hungering for want of employment at least the wealth of the nation has kept pace with the increase of the people while the profits of trade have exceeded it end of section 60 section 61 of London Labour and the London poor volume 2 by Henry Mayhew this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Gillian Henry table showing the increase in the productions and commerce of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1850 soap in pounds weight 1801 55,500,000 1811 80,000,000 increase 44% 1821 97,000,000 increase 21% 1831 127,500,000 increase 31% 1841 127,500,000 increase 31% 1841 170,500,000 increase 34% 1850 205,000,000 increase 20% total increase 269% average annual increase 5.3% cotton in pounds weight 1801 56,000,000 1811 92,000,000 increase 64% 1821 137,000,000 increase 49% 1831 273,000,000 increase 99% 1841 437,000,000 increase 60% 1850 664,700,000 increase 52% total increase 1087% average annual increase 21.7% wool in pounds weight 1801 and 1811 no information 1821 10,000,000 1831 30,000,000 increase 200% 1841 53,000,000 increase 77% 1850 72,000,000 675,000 increase 37% total increase 627% silk in pounds weight 1801 1,000,000 1811 1,500,000 increase 50% 1821 2,250,000 increase 50% 1831 4,250,000 increase 89% 1841 5,000,000 1850 7,159,000 increase 43% total increase 616% average annual increase 12.3% flax in pounds weight 1801 and 1811 no information 1821 55,000,000 1831,104,000,000 increase 89% 1841 151,000,000 increase 45% 1850 204,000,000 increase 35% total increase 271% average annual increase 9.0% hemp in pounds weight 1801,1811 and 1821 no information 1831 5,500,000 1841 73,000,000 increase 29% 1850 117,447,000 increase 61% total increase 108% average annual increase 5.4% heights in pounds weight 1801,1811 and 1821 no information 1831 26,000,000 1841,51,000,000 increase 96% 1850 66,300,000 increase 30% total increase 155% average annual increase 7.7% official value of exports in pounds sterling note the official value established long ago it represents a price put upon merchandise or commodities it is in reality a fixed value and serves to indicate the relative extent of imports and exports in different years the declared value is simply the marked price end note 1801,24,500,000 1811 21,750,000 decrease 11% 1821 40,250,000 increase 85% 1831 60,000,000 increase 49% 1841 101,750,000 increase 70% 1850 197,309,000 increase 94% total increase 705% 705% average annual increase 14.1% official value of imports in pounds sterling 1801, no information 1811 25,500,000 1821 29,750,000 increase 17% 1831 48,250,000 increase 62% 1841 62,750,000 increase 30% 1850 100,460,000 increase 60% total increase 294% average annual increase 7.3% tonnage of vessels belonging to British Empire 1801 and 1811 no information 1821 2,560,000 203 1831 2,581,964 increase 1% 1841 3,512,000 480 increase 36% 1850 4,232,962 increase 21% total increase 65% average annual increase 2.2% tonnage of vessels entering ports 1801 and 1811 no information 1821 1,895,000 1831 3,241,927 increase 71% 1841 4,652,376 increase 44% 1850 7,110,476 increase 53% total increase 274% average annual increase 9.1% increase 53% total increase 274% average annual increase 9.1% amount of the property and income of Great Britain property assessed to property tax 1815 £60m sterling 1842 £95,250,000 increase 58% annual rate of increase 1.7% annual profits of trade 1815 £37m sterling 1844 £60m increase 62% annual rate of increase 1.7% here then we find that the property assessed to the property tax has increased 35,250,000 in 27 years from 1815 to 1842 or upwards of £1m sterling a year this is at the rate of 1.7% every year whereas the population of Great Britain has increased at the rate of only 1.4% per annum but the amount of assessment under the property tax it should be born in mind does not represent the full value of the possessions so that among this class of proprietors there is far greater wealth than the returns show as regards the annual profits of trade the increase between the years 1815 and 1844 has been £23m in 29 years this is at the rate of 1.7% per annum and the annual increase in the population of Great Britain is only 1.4% but the amount of the profits of trade is unquestionably greater than appears in the financial tables of the revenue of the country consequently there is a greater increase of wealth over population than the figures indicate the above returns show the following results population of the United Kingdom increase 0.9% per annum productions from 21% to 5% increase per annum exports 14% increase per annum imports 5% increase per annum shipping entering ports 9% increase per annum property 1.7% increase per annum profits of trade 1.7% increase per annum very far indeed then beyond the increase of the population has been the increase of the wealth and work of the country and now after this imposing array of wealth let us contemplate the reverse of the picture let us inquire if while we have been increasing in riches and productions far more rapidly than we have been increasing in people and producers let us inquire I say if we have been numerically increasing also in the sad long lists of poppers and criminals has our progress in poverty and crime been pari pasu and we will then commensurate in the rapidity of its strides table showing the number of poppers in England and Wales note the official returns as to the number of poppers are most incomplete and unsatisfactory in the 10th annual report of the poor law commissioners paid 480 1844 a table is printed which is said to give the returns from the earliest period for which authentic parliamentary documents have been received and this sets forth the number of poppers in England and Wales for the entire 12 months in the years 1803 1813 1814 and 1815 then comes a long interval of no returns and after 1839 we have the numbers for only 3 months in each year from 1840 up to 1843 in the first annual report 1848 these returns for 1 quarter in each year are continued up to 1848 and then we get the returns for only 2 days in each year the 1st of July and the 1st of January so that to come to any conclusion amid so much inconsistency is utterly impossible the numbers above given would have been continued to the present period could any comparison have been instituted the numbers for the periods not above given are number of poppers for the entire 12 months 1803 14716 1813 1426 165 1814 1420 1576 1815 1319 1881 the following are the number of poppers for 2 separate days in each year 1849 1st of January 940,851 1st of July 846,988 1850 1st of January 889,830 1st of July 796,318 1851 1st of January 829,440 and not number of poppers relieved quarters ending lady day 1840 1,199,529 1841 1,299,048 numerical increase 99,519 8% 1842 1,427,187 numerical increase 128,139 annual increase 10% 1843 1,539,490 numerical increase 112,303 annual increase 8% 1844 1,477,561 numerical increase 938,071 annual increase 60% 1845 1,470,970 numerical decrease 6,591 annual decrease 4% 1846 1,332,089 numerical decrease 38,881 annual decrease 3% 1847 1,721,350 numerical increase 389,261 annual increase 1848 1,876,541 numerical increase 155,191 annual increase 9% increase percent from 1840 to 1848 equals 56 annual increase 7% here then we have an increase of 56% in less than 10 years though the increase of the population of England and Wales in the same time was about 13% and let it be remembered that the increase of upwards of 650,000 poppers in 9 years has occurred since the new poor law has been in what may be considered full working, a law which many were confident would result in a diminution of populism and which certainly cannot be charged with offering the least encouragement to it still in 9 years our poverty increases while our wealth increases and our poppers grow nearly 4 times as quick as our people while the profits on trade nearly double themselves in little more than a quarter of a century we now come to the records of criminality tables showing the increase in the number of criminals in England and Wales 1805 to 1850 annual average number of criminals committed 1805 4,605 1811 5,375 numerical increase 770 decennial increase 17% annual increase 2.8% 1821 numerical increase 4408 decennial increase 82% annual increase 8.2% 1831 15318 numerical increase 5,535 decennial increase 57% annual increase 5.7% 305 numerical increase 6,987 decennial increase 46% annual increase 4.6% 1850 27,814 numerical increase 5,509 decennial increase 25% annual increase increase in the 43 years 504% annual average increase 11.7% from these results and such figures are facts and therefore stubborn things the people cannot be said to have increased beyond the wealth or the means of employing them for it is evident that we increase in poverty and crime as we increase in wealth and in both far beyond our increase in numbers the above are the bare facts of the country it is for the reader to explain them as he pleases as yet we have dealt with those causes of casual labour only which may induce a surpl usage of labourers without any decrease taking place in the quantity of work we have seen first how the number of the unemployed may be increased either by altering the hours, rate or mode of working or else by changing the term of hiring and this while the number of labourers remains the same and secondly we have seen how the same results may ensue from increasing the number of labourers while the conditions of working and hiring are unaltered under both these circumstances however the actual quantity of work to be done in the country has been supposed to undergo no change whatever present we have to point out not only how the amount of surplus and consequently of casual labour in the kingdom may be increased by a decrease of the work but also how the work itself may be made to decrease to know the causes of the one we must ascertain the antecedents of the other what then are the circumstances inducing a decrease in the quantity of work and consequently circumstances inducing an increase in the amount of surplus and casual labour in the first place we may induce a large amount of casual labour in particular districts not by decreasing the gross quantity of work required by the country but by merely shifting the work into new quarters and so decreasing the quantity in the ordinary localities the west of England says Mr Dodd in his account was formerly and continued to be till a comparatively recent period the most important clothing district in England the changes which the woollen manufacture as respects both localisation and mode of management has been and is now undergoing are very remarkable some years ago the west of England cloths were the test of excellence in this manufacture while the productions of Yorkshire were deemed of a coarser and cheaper character at present, although the western counties have not deteriorated in their product the west riding of Yorkshire has made giant strides by which equal skill in every department has been attained while the commercial advantages resulting from coal mines from water power from canals and railroads and from Visenage to the eastern port and the western port of Liverpool give to the west riding a power which Gloucestershire and Somersetshire cannot equal the steam engine too and various machines for facilitating some of the manufacturing processes have been more readily introduced into the former than into the latter a circumstance which even without reference to other points of comparison is sufficient to account for much of the recent advance in the north of late years the products of many of the west of England clothing districts have considerably declined Shepton mallet Frome and Trowbridge for instance which were at one time the seats of a flourishing manufacture for cloth have now but little employment for the workmen in those parts and so with other towns at several places in Wiltshire, Somersetshire and Gloucestershire and the western counties says Mr Thornton most of the cottagers 50 years ago were weavers whose chief dependence was their looms though they worked in the field at harvest time and other busy seasons by so doing they kept down the wages of agricultural labourers who had no other employment and now that they have themselves become dependent upon agriculture in consequence of the removal of the woollen manufacture of the cottage to the factory note as well as to the north of England and note these reduced wages have become their own portion also or in other words since the shifting of the woollen manufacture in these parts the quantity of casual labour in the cultivation of the land has been augmented the same effect takes place of course if the work be shifted to the continent instead of merely to another part of the country this has been the main cause of the misery of the straw platters of Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire during the last war says the author before quoted there were examples of women the wives and children of labouring men earning as much as 22 shillings a week the profits of this employment have been so much reduced by the competition of leghorn hats and bonnets that a straw platter has been two shilling sixpence in the week but the work of particular localities may not only decrease and the casual labour in those parts increase in the same proportion by shifting it to other localities either at home or abroad even while the gross quantity of work required by the nation remains the same but the quantity of work may be less than ordinary at a particular time even while the same gross quantity of work manually required undergoes no change this is the case in those periodical gluts which arise from overproduction in the cotton and other trades the manufacturers in such cases have been increasing the supplies at a too rapid rate in proportion to the demand of the markets so that though there be no decrease in the requirements of the country there are ultimately a cruise such a surplus of commodities and means of the people that the manufacturers are compelled to stop producing until such time as the regular demand carries off the extra supply and during all this time either the labourers have to work half time at half pay or else they are thrown out of employment altogether thus far we have proceeded in the assumption that the actual quantity of work required by the nation does not decrease in the aggregate but only in particular places or at particular times owing to a greater quantity than usual being done in other places or at other times note it might at first appear that when the work is shifted to the continent there would be a proportionate decrease of the aggregate quantity at home but a little reflection will teach us that the foreigners must take something from us in exchange for their work and so increase the quantity of our work in certain respects as much as they depress it in others end note we have still to consider what are the circumstances which tend to diminish the gross quantity of work required by the country to understand these we must know the conditions on which all work depends these are simply the conditions of demand and supply and tends to know what it is that regulates the demand for commodities and what it is that regulates the supply of them is also to know what it is that regulates the quantity of work required by the nation let me begin with the decrease of work arising from a decrease of the demand for certain commodities this decrease of demand may proceed from one of three causes one an increase of cost two a change of taste or fashion three a change of circumstances the increase of cost may be brought about either by an increase in the expense of production or by attacks laid upon the article as in the case of hair powder before quoted of the change of taste or fashion as a means of decreasing the demand for a certain article of manufacture and consequently of a particular form of labour many instances have already been given to these the following may be added in Dorsetshire says Mr Thornton the making of wire shirt buttons now in a great measure superseded by the use of mother of pearl once employed great numbers of women and children so it has been with the manufacture of metal coat buttons the change to silk has impoverished hundreds the decrease of work arising from a change of circumstances may be seen in the fluctuations of the iron trade in the railway excitement the demand for labour in the iron districts was at least tenfold as great as it is at present and so again with the demand for arms during wartime at such periods the quantity of work in that particular line at Birmingham is necessarily increased while the contrary effects of course ensue immediately the requirements cease and a large mass of surplus and casual hands is the result it is the same with the soldiers themselves as with the gun and sword makers on the disbanding of certain portions of the army at the conclusion of a war a vast amount of surplus labourers are poured into the country to compete with those already in work and either to drag down their weekly earnings or else by obtaining casual employment in their stead to reduce the gross quantity of work accruing to each and so to render their incomes not only less in amount but less constant and regular within the last few weeks no less than 1000 policemen employed during the exhibition have been discharged of course with a like result to the labour market the circumstances tending to diminish the supply of certain commodities are one of capital two want of materials three want of labourers four want of opportunity the decrease of the quantity of capital in a trade may be brought about by several means it may be produced by a want of security felt among the moneyed classes as at the time of revolutions political agitations commercial depressions or panics or it may be produced by a quantity of enterprise after the bursting of certain commercial bubbles or the decline of particular manias for speculation as on the cessation of the railway excitement so again it may be brought about by a failure of the ordinary produce of the year as with bad harvests the decrease of the quantity of materials as tending to diminish the supply of certain commodities may be seen in the failure of certain crops which of course deprive the cotton manufacturers of their ordinary quantity of work the same diminution in the ordinary supply of particular articles ensues when the men engaged in the production of them strike either for an advance of wages or more generally to resist the attempt of some cutting employer to reduce their ordinary earnings and lastly a like decrease of work necessarily ensues when the opportunity of working is changed some kinds of work as we have already seen depend on the weather on either the wind, rain or temperature while other kinds can only be pursued at certain seasons of the year as brick making building and the like hence on the cessation of the opportunities for working in these trades there is necessarily a great decrease in the quantity of work and consequently a large increase in the amount of surplus and therefore casual labour we have now I believe exhausted the several causes of that vast national evil casual labour we have seen that it depends first upon certain times and seasons fashions and accidents which tend to cause a periodical briskness or slackness in different employments and secondly upon the number of surplus labourers in the country the circumstances inducing surplus labour we have likewise ascertained to be three one an alteration in the hours rate or mode of working as well as in the mode of hiring two an increase of the hands three a decrease of the work either in particular places at particular times or in the aggregate owing to a decrease either in the demand or means of supply any one of these causes it has been demonstrated must necessarily tend to induce an oversupply of labourers and consequently a casualty of labour for it has been pointed out that an oversupply of labourers does not depend solely on an increase of the workers beyond the means of working but that a decrease of the ordinary quantity of work or a general increase of the hours rate of working or an extension of the system of production or even a diminution of the term of hiring will also be attended with the same result facts which should be born steadily in mind by all those who would understand the difficulties of the times and which the economists invariably ignore on a careful revision of the whole of the circumstances before detailed I am led to believe that there is considerable truth in the statement lately put forward by the working classes that only one third of the operatives of this country are fully employed while another third are partially employed and the remaining third wholly unemployed that is to say estimating the working classes as being between 4 and 5 millions in number I think we may safely assert considering how many depend for their employment on particular times seasons, fashions and accidents and the vast quantity of overwork and scamp work in nearly all the cheap trades of the present day the number of women and children who are being continually drafted into the different handicrafts with the view of reducing the earnings of the men the displacement of human labour in some cases by machinery and the tendency to increase the division of labour and to extend the large system of production beyond the requirements of the markets as well as the temporary mode of hiring all these things being considered I say I believe we may safely conclude that out of the 4,500,000 people who have to depend on their industry for the livelihood of themselves and families there is owing to the extraordinary means of economising labour which have been developed of late years as to how to do the work of the nation with fewer people barely sufficient work for the regular employment of half of our labourers so that only 1,500,000 are fully and constantly employed while 1,500,000 more are employed only half their time and the remaining 1,500,000 wholly unemployed obtaining a day's work occasionally by the displacement of some of the others adopt what explanation we will of this appalling deficiency of employment one thing at least is certain we cannot consistently with the facts of the country ascribe it to an increase of the population beyond the means of labour for we have seen that while the people have increased during the last 50 years at the rate of 0.9% per annum the wealth and productions of the kingdom have far exceeded that amount of the casual labourers among the rubbish carters the casual labour of so larger body of men as the rubbish carters is a question of high importance for it affects the whole unskilled labour market and this is one of the circumstances distinguishing unskilled from skilled labour unemployed cabinet makers for instance do not apply for work to a tailor so that with skilled labourers only one trade is affected in the slack season by the scarcity of employment among its operatives with unskilled labourers it is otherwise if in the course of next week 100 rubbish carters were from any cause to be thrown out of employment and found an impossibility to obtain work at rubbish carting there would be 100 fresh applicants for employment among the bricklayers labourers, scavengers, night men, sewer men, dock workers lumpers and so on many of the 100 thus unemployed would of course be willing to work at reduced wages merely that they might subsist and thus the hands employed by the regular and honourable part of those trades are exposed to the risk of being underworked as regards wages from the surplusage of labour in other city patients the employment of the rubbish carters depends in the first instance upon the season the services of the men are called into requisition when houses are being built or removed in the one case the rubbish carters cart away the refuse earth in the other they remove the old materials the brisk season for the builders and consequently for the rubbish carters is as I heard several of them express it when days are long from about the middle of April to the middle of October is the brisk season of the rubbish carters for during those six months more buildings are erected than in the winter half of a year there is an advantage in fine weather in the masonry becoming set and efforts are generally made to complete at least the carcass of a house before the end of October at the latest I am informed that the difference the employment of labourers about buildings is 30% one builder estimated it at 50% less in winter than in summer from the circumstance of fewer buildings being then in the course of erection it may be thought that as rubbish carters are employed frequently on the foundation of buildings their business would not be greatly affected by the season or the weather but the work is often more difficult in wet weather the ground being more difficult for the employer so that a smaller extent of work only can be accomplished compared to what can be done in fine weather and an employer may decline to pay six days wages for work in winter which he might get done in five days in summer if the men work by the piece or the load the result is the same the rubbish carters employer has a smaller return for there is less work to be charged to the customer this is the same thus it appears that under the most favourable circumstances about one fourth of the rubbish carters even in the honourable trade may be exposed to the evils of non-employment merely from the state of the weather influencing more or less the custom of the trade and this even during the six months employment out of the year after which the men must find some other means of earning a livelihood there are in round numbers 850 operative rubbish carters employed in the brisk season throughout the metropolis hence 212 men at this calculation would be regularly deprived of work every year for six months out of the 12 it will be seen however on reference to the table here given that the average number of weeks each of the rubbish carters is employed throughout the 12 months is far below 26 indeed many have but 3 and 4 weeks work out of the 52 by an analysis of the returns I have collected on this subject I find the following to have been the actual term of employment for the several rubbish carters in the course of last year 9 men had 39 weeks employment or 9 months 214 men had 26 weeks employment or 6 months 10 men had 20 weeks employment or 5 months 10 men had 18 weeks employment 28 men had 16 weeks employment or 4 months 8 men had 14 weeks employment 353 had 13 weeks employment or 3 months 4 men had 12 weeks employment 34 had 10 weeks employment 29 had 9 weeks employment 38 had 8 weeks employment or 2 months, 38 had 6 weeks employment, 27 had 5 weeks employment, 45 had 4 weeks employment or 1 month, 15 had 3 weeks employment. Total number of men 856. Hence about 1 fourth of the trade appeared to have been employed for 6 months, while upwards of 1 half had work for only 3 months or less throughout the year, many being at work only 3 days in the week during that time. The rubbish character is exposed to another casualty over which he can no more exercise control than he can over the weather. I mean to what is generally called speculation or a rage for building. This is evoked by the state of the money market and other causes upon which I need not to dilate. But the effect of it upon the labourers I am describing is this. Capitalists may in one year embark sufficient means in building speculations to erect say 500 new houses in any particular district. In the following year they may not erect more than 200 if any, and thus as there is the same extent of unskilled labour in the market, the number of hands required is if the trade be generally less speculative, less in one year than in its predecessor by the number of rubbish characters required to work at the foundations of 300 houses. Such a cause may be exceptional, but during the last 10 years the inhabited houses in the 5 districts of the Registrar General have increased to the extent of 45,000 or from 262,737 in 1841 to 307,722 in 1851. It appears then that the annual increase of our metropolitan houses concluding that the increase in a regular yearly ratio is 4,500. Last year however as I am informed by an experienced builder there were rather fewer buildings erected. He spoke only from his own observations and personal knowledge of the business than the yearly average of the decennial town. The casual and constant wages of the rubbish characters may be thus detailed. The whole system of the labour I may again state must be regarded as casual or as the word imports in its derivation from the Latin casus, a chance, the labour of men who are occasionally employed. Some of the most respectable and industrious rubbish characters with whom I met told me they generally might make up their minds though they might have excellent masters to be six months of the year unemployed at rubbish carting. This too is less than the average of this chance employment. Calculating then the rubbish characters receipt of nominal wages at 18 shillings and his actual wages at 20 shillings in the honourable trade I find the following amount to be paid. Buying nominal wages I have before explained I mean what a man is said to receive or has been promised that he shall be paid weekly. Actual wages on the other hand are what a man positively receives. There are being sometimes additions in the form of perquisites or allowances, sometimes deductions in the way of fines and stoppages. The additions in the rubbish carting trade appear to average about two shillings a week but these actual wages are received only so long as the men are employed that is to say they are the casual rather than the constant earnings of the men working at a trade which is essentially of an occasional or temporary character. The average employment at rubbish carting being only three months in the year. Let us see therefore what would be the constant earnings or income of the men working at the better paid portion of the trade. The gross actual wages of 10 rubbish carters casually employed for 39 weeks at 20 shillings per week amount to 390 pounds. The gross actual wages of 250 rubbish carters casually employed for 26 weeks at 20 shillings per week 6,500 pounds. The gross actual wages of 360 rubbish carters casually employed for 13 weeks at 20 shillings per week 4,600 pounds. Total gross actual wages of 620 of the better paid rubbish carters 11,490 pounds but this as I said before represents only the casual wages of the better paid operatives that is to say it shows the amount of money or money's worth that is positively received by the men while they are in employment. To understand what are the constant wages of these men we must divide their gross casual earnings by 52 the number of weeks in the year thus we find the constant wages of the 10 men who were employed for 39 weeks were 15 shillings instead of 20 shillings per week that is to say their wages equally divided throughout the year would have yielded that constant weekly income by the same reasoning the 20 shillings per week casual wages of the 250 men employed for 26 weeks out of the 52 were equal to only 10 shillings constant weekly wages and so the 360 men who had 20 shillings per week casually for only three months in the year had about five shillings a week constantly throughout the whole year hence we see the enormous difference there may be between a man's casual and his constant earnings at a given trade the next question which forces itself on the mind is how do the rubbish carters live when no longer employed at this kind of work when the slack season among the rubbish carters commences nearly one-fifth of the operatives are discharged these take to scavenging or dustman's work as well as that of navigators or indeed any form of unskilled labor some obtaining full employ but the greater part being able to get a job only now and then those masters who keep their men on throughout the year are some of them large dust contractors some carmen some dairy men and in one or two instances in the suburbs as at hackney small farmers the dust contractors and carmen who are by far the more numerous find employment for the men employed by them as rubbish carters in the season either at the dust yard or carrying sand or indeed carting any materials they may have to move the wages to the men remaining the same indeed such is the transient character of the rubbish carting trade that there are no masters or operatives who devote themselves solely to the business end of section 61