The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844 with a Preface written in 1892 · Friedrich Engels
INDEX
Accidents, 109, 143, 150, 164, 165, 294. Adulteration, 67, _et seq_. Apprentices, 169, 191, 197, _et seq_. 209. Charter, 225, _et seq_. 280, 296. Chartism, xiv., xix., 65, 123, 228, _et seq_. 275, 292. Chartists, 135, 176, 199, 231, _et seq_. 253, 258. Corn Laws, 113, 261, 268, 279, 280, 294. League, 122, 231, 268, 280. Repeal of, vi., 17, 231, 232, 275. Cottage System, v., 182, 183, 251, 252, 256. Crime--Form of Rebellion, 266, _et seq_. 274. Increase of, 130, _et seq_. Juvenile, 200, 204. Result of Overcrowding, 65, 120, 121. Diseases, Engendered by Dwellings, 201, 202. Filth, 35, 40, 41, 64, 96, 97. Occupation, 162-3, 177-8, 191-2, 206. Overwork, 153, 155, _et seq_. 171, 245-6. Want, 30, 73, 88, 108, 199, 210-11. Education--Means of, 108, _et seq_. 195, 200, 201, 202, 238, 254. Want of, 90, 91, 126, 129, 148, 149. Employment of Children, In Agriculture, 262, 263. In Factories, 141, _et seq_. 167, 171, _et seq_. 193. In House Industry, 191, _et seq_. In Mines, 241, 244, _et seq_. In the Night, 191, 207. Employment of Women, In Agriculture, 263. In Factories, 141, _et seq_. 160, _et seq_. 175, 192. In Mines, 241, 242, 248, 249. In Sewing, 209, _et seq_. Epidemics, vi., 37, 41, 61, 64, 98, 100, 110, 158. Factory Acts, x., xi., 17, 134, 151, 168, 116, 176, 188.
Food--Adulteration of, 98. Insufficiency of, 32, 74, 101, 102, 193, 208. Quality of, 68, 71, 91, 140, 201. Free Trade, vii., viii., _et seq_. 183, 234, 268. Intemperance, 102, 127, 128. Inventions. 1, 4, _et seq_. 42, 134, _et seq_. 223, 224. Law--A Bourgeois Institution, 113, 130, 173, 176, 227, 281, 282, 288. New Poor, 174, 175, 230, 235, 262, _et seq_. 269, 284, _et seq_. Old Poor, 176, 284, 285. Of Wages, xi., 77, _et seq_. 219. Mortality, 100, 101, 104, _et seq_. 143, 150, 243. Parliament, 17, 96, 111, 214, 228, 251, 283, 287. Philanthropy, 27, 28, 88, 173, 212, 278. Police, 132, 221, 225, 226, 281, 282. Reform Bill, ix., 17, 214, 229, 285. Reserve Army, 85, 90. Schools--Day, 110, _et seq_. 173, 200, 207, 250. Night, 110, 250. Sunday, 111, 202, 250. Socialism, vi., vii., xii., 122, 236, _et seq_. 275, 297. Starvation, 25, 29, 73, 76, 88, 117, 167, 189, 285. Strikes, ix., xiv., xv., 168, 215, 218, 223, 224, 231, 254, 256, 257. Suicide, 115, 116. Surplus Population, 81, _et seq_. 139, 263, 266, 280, 287. Ten Hours' Bill, vii., 142, 172, 174, _et seq_. 230, 235, 284. Truck System, vii., viii., 182-3, 185, 252, 253. Ventilation of Dwellings, 36. Mines, 249. Towns, 27, 28, 36, 53, _et seq_. 63, 64, 96, _et seq_. Workrooms, 155, 156, 158.
Workhouses, 287, _et seq_. Footnotes. {7} According to Porter's _Progress of the Nation_, London, 1836, vol. i., 1838, vol. ii., 1843, vol. iii. (official data), and other sources chiefly official. {20} Compare on this point my "Outlines for a Critique of Political Economy" in the _Deutsch-Franzosische Jahrbucher_. {23} This applies to the time of sailing vessels. The Thames now is a dreary collection of ugly steamers.--F. E. {32} _Times_, Oct. 12th, 1843. {33} Quoted by Dr. W. P. Alison, F.R.S.E, Fellow and late President of the Royal College of Physicians, etc. etc. "Observations on the Management of the Poor in Scotland and its Effects on the Health of Great Towns." Edinburgh, 1840. The author is a religious Tory, brother of the historian, Archibald Alison. {35a} "Report to the Home Secretary from the Poor-Law Commissioners on an Inquiry into the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Classes in Great Britain with Appendix." Presented to both Houses of Parliament in July 1842, 3 vols. Folio. {35b} _The Artisan_, October, 1842. {38} "Arts and Artisan at Home and Abroad," by J. C. Symonds, Edinburgh, 1839. The author, as it seems, himself a Scotchman, is a Liberal, and consequently fanatically opposed to every independent movement of working- men. The passages here cited are to be found p. 116 _et seq_. {40a} It must be borne in mind that these cellars are not mere storing- rooms for rubbish, but dwellings of human beings.
You come to Manchester, you wish to make yourself acquainted with the state of affairs in England. You naturally have good introductions to respectable people. You drop a remark or two as to the condition of the workers. You are made acquainted with a couple of the first Liberal manufacturers, Robert Hyde Greg, perhaps, Edmund Ashworth, Thomas Ashton, or others. They are told of your wishes. The manufacturer understands you, knows what he has to do. He accompanies you to his factory in the country; Mr. Greg to Quarrybank in Cheshire, Mr. Ashworth to Turton near Bolton, Mr. Ashton to Hyde. He leads you through a superb, admirably arranged building, perhaps supplied with ventilators, he calls your attention to the lofty, airy rooms, the fine machinery, here and there a healthy-looking operative. He gives you an excellent lunch, and proposes to you to visit the operatives' homes; he conducts you to the cottages, which look new, clean and neat, and goes with you into this one and that one, naturally only to overlookers, mechanics, etc., so that you may see "families who live wholly from the factory." Among other families you might find that only wife and children work, and the husband darns stockings.
The presence of the employer keeps you from asking indiscreet questions; you find every one well-paid, comfortable, comparatively healthy by reason of the country air; you begin to be converted from your exaggerated ideas of misery and starvation. But, that the cottage system makes slaves of the operatives, that there may be a truck shop in the neighbourhood, that the people hate the manufacturer, this they do not point out to you, because he is present. He has built a school, church, reading-room, etc. That he uses the school to train children to subordination, that he tolerates in the reading-room such prints only as represent the interests of the bourgeoisie, that he dismisses his employees if they read Chartist or Socialist papers or books, this is all concealed from you. You see an easy, patriarchal relation, you see the life of the overlookers, you see what the bourgeoisie _promises_ the workers if they become its slaves, mentally and morally. This "country manufacture" has always been what the employers like to show, because in it the disadvantages of the factory system, especially from the point of view of health, are, in part, done away with by the free air and surroundings, and because the patriarchal servitude of the workers can here be longest maintained.
Dr. Ure sings a dithyramb upon the theme. But woe to the operatives to whom it occurs to think for themselves and become Chartists! For them the paternal affection of the manufacturer comes to a sudden end. Further, if you should wish to be accompanied through the working-people's quarters of Manchester, if you should desire to see the development of the factory system in a factory town, you may wait long before these rich bourgeoisie will help you! These gentlemen do not know in what condition their employees are nor what they want, and they dare not know things which would make them uneasy or even oblige them to act in opposition to their own interests. But, fortunately, that is of no consequence: what the working-men have to carry out, they carry out for themselves. {189} Grainger Report. Appendix, Part I., pp. 7, 15, _et seq_., 132- 142. {192a} Grainger's whole Report. {192b} Grainger Children's Employment Commission's Report. {193} Burns, Children's Employment Commission's Report. {194} Leach. "Stubborn Facts from the Factories," p. 47. {196} Leach. "Stubborn Facts from the Factories," p. 33. {197} Leach. "Stubborn Facts from the Factories," p. 37-40. {199} Children's Employment Commission's Report. {200a} See p. 112. {200b} Grainger Report and Evidence. {202} Horne Report and Evidence. {203} Dr. Knight, Sheffield. {205} Symonds Report and Evidence. {207} Scriven Report and Evidence.
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