The streets are never cleaned; every man
lights his own house; nor does any one know anything except
his business.
More than this, at Wodgate a factory or large establishment of
any kind is unknown. Here Labour reigns supreme. Its
division indeed is favoured by their manners, but the
interference or influence of mere capital is instantly
resisted. The business of Wodgate is carried on by master
workmen in their own houses, each of whom possesses an
unlimited number of what they call apprentices, by whom their
affairs are principally conducted, and whom they treat as the
Mamlouks treated the Egyptians.
These master workmen indeed form a powerful aristocracy, nor
is it possible to conceive one apparently more oppressive.
They are ruthless tyrants; they habitually inflict upon their
subjects punishments more grievous than the slave population
of our colonies were ever visited with; not content with
beating them with sticks or flogging them with knotted ropes,
they are in the habit of felling them with hammers, or cutting
their heads open with a file or lock. The most usual
punishment however, or rather stimulus to increase exertion,
is to pull an apprentice's ears till they run with blood.
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