Page:The Factory Controversy - Martineau (1855).djvu/50

 found that doubts might be thrown upon the legality of an association paying the penalties as well as the costs, the Committee published, in their first Report, their resolution to pay no penalties or damages whatever, in the face of which Mr. Dickens or his contributor, while professing to write from the documents of the Association, goes on drawing his pictures and his inferences of the impunity of men-manglers in their horrid cruelties under the shelter of the bank of the Association. His statement, however, reveals the writer's condition of mind clearly enough, by its levity and obvious absurdity, so as to render it unnecessary to point out its misrepresentations. We will simply append the real resolutions of the Association, which will be the best rebuke to the false statement of them.

In order to place the statements fairly side by side, we have quoted that of "Household Words," and have followed its transpositions of the Association's Report,—numbering Mr. Dickens's statements, and the original resolutions burlesqued by him or his contributor.

"It is only because such an Association has been formed that we revert to this distressing topic. If factory occupiers organise a strike against the law—which is an expression of the righteous will of civilised society—they have to be opposed; and, to that end, what they do shall be done openly, so far as we can cause it to be done so. They are now actively engaged among themselves in raising money. The papers which they circulate among themselves are in our hands, and contain matter to this effect:—

1."That they will labour to procure a repeal of the Inspectors' power of examining operatives privately, that they may speak without fear of the wrath of their employers.

2."That they will get rid, if they can, of the chief office of Factory Inspectors in London.

3."That they will put a stop, if possible, to the right vested in Inspectors, of instructing wounded operatives how they may proceed for damages against employers, by whose wilful negligence they have been maimed.