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 increasing: as there is more money, and more time to spend it in, sobriety is not on the increase, especially amongst females." The operatives employed in the woollen manufacture receive about forty shillings a week, and some as much as sixty,[1] besides the amount earned by their children.
A good mechanic in an engine shop makes from thirty-five to forty-five shillings a week, and some mechanics make much larger wages.

Multiply these figures, and it will be found that they amount to an annual income of from a hundred to a hundred and twenty pounds a year.
[Footnote 1: See the above Blue Book, p.