Families employed in the cotton manufacture are able to earn over three
pounds a week, according to the number of the children employed.[1]
Their annual incomes will thus amount to about a hundred and fifty
pounds a year,--which is considerably larger than the incomes of many
professional men--higher than the average of country surgeons, higher
than the average of the clergy and ministers of all denominations,
higher than the average of the teachers of common schools, and probably
higher than the average income of the middle classes of the United
Kingdom generally.

[Footnote 1: A return of seven families employed by Henry Ashworth, New
Cayley Mills, Lancashire, is given in the Blue Book, entitled, "Report
of the Paris Universal Exhibition, 1867, containing the Returns relative
to the New Order of Reward," p. 163. Of the seven families, the lowest
earnings per family amounted to £2 14s. 6d.; and the highest to £3 19s.
a week.]

An employer at Blackburn informs us that many persons earn upwards of
five pounds a week,--or equal to an average income of two hundred and
sixty pounds a year. Such families, he says, "ought not to expend more
than three pounds weekly. The rest should be saved. But most of them,
after feeding and clothing themselves, spend the rest in drink and
dissipation."

The wages are similar in the Burnley district, where food, drink, and
dress absorb the greater part of the workpeople's earnings. In this, as
in other factory districts, "the practice of young persons
(mill-workers) boarding with their parents is prevalent, and is very
detrimental to parental authority." Another reporter says, "Wages are