I confess that
my desire and ambition are to bring all the laboring children of this
empire within the reach and opportunities of education, within the
sphere of useful and happy citizens. I am ready, so far as my services
are of any value, to devote what little I have of energy, and all the
remainder of my life, to the accomplishment of this end. The labor
would be great, and the anxieties very heavy; but I fear neither one
nor the other. I fear nothing but defeat."
From the allusion, above, to the colliery effort, it would seem that
the act for removing women and children from the coalpits preceded the
reform of the printworks. Concerning the result of these various
enterprises, he says, "The present state of things may be told in few
words. Full fifty thousand children under thirteen years of age attend
school every day. None are worked more than seven, generally only six,
hours in the day. Those above thirteen and under eighteen, and all
women, are limited to ten hours and a half, exclusive of the time for
meals. The work begins at six in the morning and ends at six in the
evening. Saturday's labor ends at four o'clock, and there is no work
on Sunday.
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