The case of the journeymen bakers : being a lecture on the 'evils of nightwork and long hours of labour,' delivered July 6, 1848 / by William A. Guy.

  • Guy, William A. (William Augustus), 1810-1885.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The case of the journeymen bakers : being a lecture on the 'evils of nightwork and long hours of labour,' delivered July 6, 1848 / by William A. Guy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    child, or young person of either sex, under age, and even between the employer and women of all ages; but he contends, that between the employer and the grown-up workman there must be no inter- ference, because, forsooth, the adult workman is able to make his own bargains. And it is somewhat curious to observe how, upon this point, one of the noble leaders of the agricidtural protectionist party in the House of Lords^‘ joins hands with the free-trade repre- sentative of the cotton-spinning interest in the House of Commons. I perfectly well recollect the noble lord to whom I have referred, contending that the agricultural labourer could make his own bargains, and everyone knows that the free-traders hold the same doctrine, than which I know none more preposterous. I put it to you, my friends, whether you can make your own bargains with your employers in any reasonable or practicable sense of the term ? I will take a case. I will suppose that I am a master baker, aud that any one of you is a journeyman out of work. I have a place to dispose of, and you are anxious to engage yonrself. I am satisfied that your character is good, and that you understand your business. I agree to take you on the usual terms. You are quite willing to close with me, but you say that you cannot work at night, that you cannot, injustice to your health, which you are bound to preserve, work eighteen or twenty hours out of the twenty-four. What answer should I be compelled to give ? Should I not decline to employ you, except according to the usages of the trade ? To be sure I should; and I shoidd probably tell you of a neighbour, who, as it is, was running me very hard by working his men more, on an average, than eighteen or twenty hours a day, aud whom I could no more compel to change his system, than you could compel me to take you into my employ. The bad habits and usages of the Hade are too strong for both of us. I say, then, it is a bitter mockery to talk about grown-up men being able to make then’ own bargains. The premiss is false, and the conclusion, therefore, falls to the ground. In any case, however, the objection which I am considering does not apply to more than three-fourths of the journeymen bakers, for, on a rough estimate, upwards of one-fourth are under twenty years of age, and have a claim to legislative protection; and, from the nature of the ease, any measure passed for the relief of these lads must embrace the men also. But perhaps I shall be met by the argument, that, though the individual is powerless, the body of workmen, or employers, is not. The late Hulce of Richmond.