ROYAL COMMISSION REPORTS, 1842.

Lead-Mines of the Counties of Lanark and Dumfries

REPORT by JOSEPH FLETCHER, Esq., on the Employment of Children and Young Persons in the Lead-Mines of the Counties of Lanark and Dumfries; and on the State, Condition, and Treatment of such Children and Young Persons.

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THE ROYAL COMMISION REPORTS on CHILDREN in THE MINES, 1842

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CONTENTS

Situation of the Leadhills mines in the parish of Crawford.

Present state of village and works.

Partial decline.

Branches into which the mining labour is divided.

State of the miners and character of under-ground labour.

Dressing the ores an earlier employment.

Character of the employment in the smelting-mills.

Employment of children and young persons almost exclusively in dressing

ores in the open air.

Number, ages, and education of those employed.

Place and instruments of work.

Method pursued.

Washing of the refuse.

Disadvantages of the employment.

Exposure to accident less than to the weather.

Employment of women and girls in embroidery.

Houses of the miners.

Food.

Physical condition.

Decline from past superiority of moral condition, and its causes.

Means of improvement provided by the Miners' Library founded a century ago.

Moral character of the place still above the average.

Improvement taking place in schools.

Improved state of that at Leadhills.

Affording, with other advantages, an education equal to that of the middle classes in South Britain.

Anxiety of parents for education and progress of children.

Superiority of instruction and in this poor and remote village as compared to that which prevails in rich manufacturing districts of England.

Consequent superiority in intellectual character.

Exact resemblance between Leadhills and the neighbouring mining village of Wanlock Head.

Comparison between miners' and farm-labourers' children.

EVIDENCE COLLECTED BY JOSEPH FLETCHER, ESQ.

LEADHILLS MINES.

No.43 Mr. Harrison Bell. October 12, 1841.

No.44 James Aitchison, washer. October 12, 1841.

No.45 Mr. George Russell. October 13, 1841.

No.46 Thomas Weir. October 12, 1841.

No.47 James Martin, Esq., M.D., October 14, 1841.

No.48 The Rev. John Hope. October 13, 1841.

No.49 Mr. Archibald Russell - October 13, 1841.

No.50 ARTICLES AND LAWS OF THE LEADHILLS' READING SOCIETY, Instituted November 23, 1741.

ARTICLES.

LAWS