Leonard Horner: A Portrait of an Inspector of Factories

Bernice Martin

doi:10.1017/S0020859000003667

Leonard Horner: A Portrait of an Inspector of Factories

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2008

Bernice Martin

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Leonard Horner was the most impressive and influential of the first English factory inspectors. For 26 years from 1833 to 1859 he administered the Factory Act mainly in the textile district of Lancashire. His work and that of his colleagues in the Factory Department made a success of this major experiment in legislative intervention in industry and despite the gloomy predictions of their early opponents they did not ruin the British economy in the process. The first generation of Inspectors laid the foundation for successive extensions of the Factory Act so that by the end of the 19th century working conditions and hours of labour for women and children were under legal regulation in all the major branches of manufacturing industry. Horner was acknowledged by his contemporaries to be the major figure among the early Inspectors; he even had the singular honour of being praised by Marx in Capital. This short biography will concentrate on Horner's work as Inspector of Factories since this is undoubtedly his major achievement. However it will also be concerned with other aspects of his life and interests, both because these have some importance in their own right and also in order to examine the extent to which Horner's life and thought form a coherent whole. Finally, an assessment will be made of Horner's place in social reform and in the development of English economic and social policy in the 19th century.

Type: Research Article
Information: International Review of Social History , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , December 1969 , pp. 412 - 443

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859000003667 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1969

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^{page 412 note 1} Unless otherwise stated the information in the follow-account is derived from A Memoir of Leonard Horner, edited by Katherine Lyell, Horner's daughter (hereafter referred to as the Memoir). It is in two volumes and was privately printed in 1890. This is a fascinating account of Horner's life and thought. Unfortunately it has only a scanty and inadequate index and is more concerned with Horner's private and scientific pursuits than with his public career. His period as Warden of London University is mentioned only very briefly and his work as Inspector of Factories barely touched on.

^{page 413 note 1} Memoir, Vol. I, p. 5, 6 June 1803, F. H. to L. H.

^{page 414 note 1} In the autumn of 1816 Leonard accompanied his brother on a journey to Italy which it was hoped would improve Francis' health. Francis died, however, on February 8th 1817 in Pisa, apparently from some form of tuberculosis. When Horner revisited Pisa as an old man in 1861 he wrote: “This place is associated in my mind with the greatest calamity of my life” (Quoted Memoir, Vol. I, p. 135). In 1843 he published a Memoir of his brother. A statue of Francis Horner now stands in Westminster Abbey.

^{page 414 note 2} Memoir, Vol. I, p. 24, 11 November 1813, and page 26, 10 November 1813.

^{page 414 note 3} As Secretary to the University of London he received £1,200 per annum, of which £200 was to cover the expenses of running a “gentleman's residence” in Central London. As Inspector of Factories his salary was £1,000 per annum out of which he had to pay his own travelling expenses. When Horner died in 1864 he left effects to the value of almost £18,000. At least £12,000 of this was invested capital which he left to his six daughters (£2,000 each). These sums are perhaps l/10th of present-day values. It is clear that he was not a poor man. Yet he postponed his retirement as Inspector of Factories for two years or so until the age of 73 because he regarded the pension scheme as inadequate. When he finally retired he unsuccessfully petitioned the Home Office for an augmentation of his retirement allowance of £550 per annum on grounds of his past service. He may have been worried about providing for his two unmarried daughters but in view of his consistent caution about money throughout his life it is more likely to have been a reflection of his struggles in a declining trade, the businessman's dislike of converting working capital into income and perhaps an expression of Puritan thrift.

^{page 415 note 1} I am indebted to H. L. Beales for this observation.

^{page 416 note 1} Memoir, Vol. I, p. 81, 10 November 1815, L. H. to Dr Marcet.

^{page 416 note 2} Information supplied from the archives of the Geological Society by Dr W. Bishop, Department of Geology, Bedford College, University of London.

^{page 416 note 3} Information from Dr Bishop, as above. See also p. 423.

^{page 416 note 4} Information from Dr Bishop, as above.

^{page 416 note 5} Proceedings of the Royal Society, XIV, 1865, p. 5.Google Scholar

^{page 417 note 1} Memoir, Vol. I, p. 98, 12 May 1846, and p. 89, 16 May 1856.

^{page 417 note 2} See, e.g., Memoir, Vol. I, p. 89, 14 March 1816, L. H. to Dr Marcet.

^{page 417 note 3} Woodward, Horace B., The History of the Geological Society, London 1907, p. 242.Google Scholar

^{page 417 note 4} Woodward, op. cit., p. 242.

^{page 417 note 5} Journal of the Geological Society, 1861.

^{page 418 note 1} Dr Richard Dawes, Dean of Hereford was an educational reformer with whom Horner had a good deal of correspondence. Arthur P. Stanley, then Dean of Westminster, became a distinguished ecclesiastical figure.

^{page 418 note 2} Memoir, Vol. II, p. 303, 26 March and 1 April 1861.

^{page 418 note 3} Memoir, Vol. II, p. 279, 15 November 1857, L. H. to his daughter Francis.

^{page 418 note 4} The Memoir does not make clear what the church of allegiance was – probably Scottish Presbyterian. His close acquaintances included many Anglican ecclesiastics however, and in one of his last letters he wrote of attending the “Free Christian Church” as if it were his normal practice. Memoir, II, p. 366. Cf. the argument of John Vincent in The Formation of the Liberal Party 1859–68, London 1966, about the importance of the connection 8–apparently arbitrary –n Protestant sentiment and political causes in the ground swell of mid 19th century liberalism. Horner is an early but perfect example of this to set alongside Baines and Miall.

^{page 418 note 5} Memoir, Vol. II, p. 64, 9 September 1843, L. H. to his wife.

^{page 419 note 1} Memoir, Vol. II, p. 63, 9 September 1843, L. H. to his wife.

^{page 419 note 2} Memoir, Vol. II, p. 363, 12 December 1863, L. H. to his sister, Mrs Byrne.

^{page 419 note 3} See, e.g., Memoir, Vol. II, p. 175, 27 December 1850, L. H. to his sister, Mrs Byrne.

^{page 419 note 4} See, e.g., Memoir, Vol. I, p. 243, 7 February 1829, Francis Jeffrey to L.H.

^{page 420 note 1} Memoir, Vol. II, p. 258, 20 April 1856, L. H. to his daughter Susan.

^{page 420 note 2} Memoir, Vol. II, p. 323, 15 October 1861, Italian Journal to his daughters.

^{page 420 note 3} Memoir, Vol. II, p. 252, 12 August 1855, L. H. to his daughter Leonora.

^{page 421 note 1} Lord Cockburn described Horner as “the most active and enlightened of our citizens, and with a singular talent for organisation”. Memorials of His Time, Edinburgh 1874, p. 326.Google Scholar

^{page 421 note 2} Memoir, Vol. I, p. 141, 14 Dec. 1817, L. H. to Dr Marcet.

^{page 421 note 3} Cockburn, Lord, Memorials of his time, quoted Memoir, Vol. I, p. 212.Google Scholar

^{page 421 note 4} Cockburn, Lord, Memorials of his time, quoted Memoir, Vol. I, p. 196.Google Scholar

^{page 422 note 1} It is interesting to note that Katharine Lyell employed the Women's Printing Society Ltd., to publish her Memoir of her father in 1890.

^{page 422 note 2} When his elder daughters were children he undertook a good deal of their education himself. In addition they had governesses – none seems to have been sent to school. Horner's only son died as a child.

^{page 422 note 3} Mary married Charles later Sir Charles Lyell, geologist and university professor. Francis married Charles later Sir Charles James Fox Bunbury (Bart.), son of a Whig landed family with a scholarly tradition and himself a serious amateur botanist. Katherine married Captain, later Colonel Henry Lyell, younger brother of Charles. Leonora married Chevalier George Pertz of Berlin, bibliographer and historian of some distinction.

^{page 423 note 1} Memoir, Vol. II, p. 264, 30 November 1856, L. H. to his daughter Francis.

^{page 423 note 2} The fullest existing account of the University episode is H. Hale Bellot, University College London 1826–1926, London 1929, esp. Ch. 6. This is based on original documents of University College, and is entirely accurate as to fact but emotionally biased against Horner. I also consulted the following: a) the Memoir, which contains a very brief and unrevealing account; b) F. G. Brook, The University of London 1820–1860, unpublished Ph.D. thesis London 1958; and c) three privately printed pamphlets: L. Horner, Letter to the Council of the University of London, 1st June 1830, London 1830; G. S. Pattison and others, Observations on a Letter addressed by Leonard Horner to the Council of the University, 1st June 1830, London 1830, and G. S. Pattison, Professor Pattison's statement of the facts of his connection with the University of London, London 1831.

^{page 424 note 1} Professor of Political Economy from Edinburgh.

^{page 424 note 2} H. Hale Bellot, op. cit., p. 175.

^{page 424 note 3} Letter from Horner to Auckland, Lord, President of Council 1827. Quoted Memoir, Vol. I. p. 233,Google Scholar and in Horner's and Pattison's letters to Council, op. cit.

^{page 424 note 4} Information supplied from Archives of Geological Society by Dr W. Bishop, Dept artment of Geology, Bedford College, London. Lyell married Horner's eldest daughter, Mary, , in 1832, but in 1828 there was no question of Horner's having foreseen this: he was genuinely surprised and delighted by news of their engagement in 1831. Memoir, Vol. I, p. 251, 20 07 1831,Google Scholar L. H. to his daughter Mary.

^{page 425 note 1} Quoted in both Horner's and Pattison's letters to Council, op. cit. Most of the professors were very young incidentally.

^{page 425 note 2} He admitted both in his letter to Council but claimed there were extenuating circumstances.

^{page 425 note 3} He may have partly been influenced by the fact that his brother Francis and some of his friends (including Brougham) had been threatened with dismissal from the University of Edinburgh in their boyhood by a Professor Hume who disapproved of their political views. See “Francis and Leonard Horner” by Mary Lyell, privately printed, Edinburgh n.d.

^{page 426 note 1} Memoir, Vol. I, p. 247, 4 June 1830, Hallam to L. H.

^{page 426 note 2} See quotations to this effect from Thomas Murray in Bellot, op. cit., p. 195.

^{page 426 note 3} Memoir, Vol. I, p. 255, 16 August 1831, L. H. to Charles Lyell.

^{page 427 note 1} Notably in M. W. Thomas, The Early Factory Legislation, Leigh-on-Sea 1948, a very thorough analysis of the administrative as well as the legislative history of the early Factory Acts. See also Ward, J. T., The Factory Movement 1830–1855, London 1962.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 428 note 1} Of the other three Inspectors appointed in 1833, Howell died in 1858, Saunders died in 1852, and Rickards resigned through ill-health in 1836 and was replaced by Stuart who served until his death in 1849.

^{page 428 note 2} Manuscript minutes were kept 1833–1867; they are now in the Public Record Office, London, LAB 15. The author consulted these and other manuscript data, mainly letterbooks (HO 87), for a Ph.D. thesis in progress on “Factory Legislation and Administration 1847–1878”.

^{page 428 note 3} Palmerston, for example, was an old Edinburgh acquaintance of Horner's.

^{page 428 note 4} Letter from Graham to the Bishop of London dated 27 December 1842. From Parker, C. S., Life and Letters of Sir James Graham, London 1907, Vol. I, p. 343,Google Scholar quoted Thomas, op. cit., p. 206.

^{page 429 note 1} Minutes for 15 January 1848, LAB 15, Vol. 2.

^{page 429 note 2} The Royal Commission of 1876 recommended the appointment of a Chief Inspector. Redgrave took the post when Baker retired in 1878.

^{page 429 note 3} This is one of his major arguments in, e.g., On the Employment of Children in Factories, London 1840,Google Scholar a comparative review of factory legislation in Europe. See also Section V below.

^{page 430 note 1} The whole subject of offences under the Factory Act as delinquency is treated in a D. Phil, thesis in progress, “The Enforcement of Factory Legislation: a study in the enforcement of law related to white collar crime”, by Carson, W. O., Department of Sociology, Bedford College, London.Google Scholar

^{page 430 note 2} See, e.g., his official Report for the period ending 30th September 1843.

^{page 430 note 3} Although there is no doubt he did feel such an affinity. He made a practice of dining or breakfasting with the major manufacturers in his district when he was on his tours of Inspection and sometimes stayed overnight in their houses.

^{page 430 note 4} These escape clauses were often written into a Bill quite deliberately during the course of its passage through Parliament in response to pressure from interested parties.

^{page 431 note 1} See, e.g., Minutes of the Inspectors' Meetings for September 1853, LAB 15, Vol. 2.

^{page 431 note 2} See, e.g., Minutes of the Inspector's Meetings, 22 01 1848 and 10 12 1851, LAB 15, Vol. 2.Google Scholar

^{page 431 note 3} Inspectors' Letter Books, 12 February 1856, HO 87, Vol. 3.

^{page 431 note 4} See Thomas, op. cit., Ch. 15: the “mill-gearing” and “horizontal shafts” controversies.

^{page 431 note 5} See Thomas, op. cit., Ch. 18.

^{page 432 note 1} See, e.g., Horner's Report for the half year ended 31 October 1852.

^{page 432 note 2} Inspector's Letter Books, 4 March 1850, HO 87, Vol. 2.

^{page 432 note 3} Inspectors' Letter Books, 15 and 23 June 1859, HO 87, Vol. 4.

^{page 432 note 4} Though there were never enough of them: eight Sub-Inspectors in 1833, 15 in 1845, 20 in 1864, 35 in 1868 and 55 in 1878.

^{page 432 note 5} The contrast would be mirrored in many government departments: a first generation of upper-middle class innovators followed by a second and subsequent generations of rather lower-status recruits who approximate more closely the ideal of impersonal, bureaucratic behaviour which is the modern stereotype of the civil servant.

^{page 433 note 1} L. Horner, The Factories' Regulation Act explained with some remarks on its origin, nature and trend, Glasgow 1834.

^{page 433 note 2} Horner, L., On the Employment of Children in Factories etc., London 1840.Google Scholar

^{page 433 note 3} Letter from Mr Horner to Mr Senior in Letters on the Factory Act, by Nassau Senior, London 1837.Google Scholar

^{page 433 note 4} On the State of Education in Holland, by Cousin, V., translated and with an introduction by Horner, L., London 1838.Google Scholar

^{page 433 note 5} He concentrated more on improving communications with masters and workers than with his own Sub-Inspectors however: he treated the latter as subordinates rather than partners. See above p. 432.

^{page 433 note 6} Minutes of Inspectors' Meeting, 16 07 1850, LAB 15, Vol. 2.Google Scholar

^{page 434 note 1} E.g., Inspectors' Letter Books, 14 02 1853 and 17 02 1858, HO 87, Vol. 3 and Vol. 4 respectively.Google Scholar

^{page 434 note 2} Inspectors' Letter Books, 17 12 1853, HO 87, Vol. 3.Google Scholar

^{page 434 note 3} Inspectors' Letter Books, 9 11 1849, HO 87, Vol. 2.Google Scholar

^{page 434 note 4} See, e.g., his detailed review of schools in his district in his Report dated April 1851.

^{page 434 note 5} See, e.g., the investigation into literacy among 2,000 Manchester factory children in Introduction to Cousin, op. cit.

^{page 434 note 6} Memoir, Vol. II, p. 291. Not all the Inspectors were so popular with the operatives. Stuart was disliked (see Thomas, op. cit., p. 258), and Redgrave was mistrusted as unwilling to prosecute and over-appreciative of the employers' viewpoint. (See comment by Mr Green, Birmingham Trades' Council, Manuscript Minutes of Trades Union Council.)

^{page 434 note 7} Memoir, Vol. II, p. 291, 16 Sept. 1860, L. H. to Lady Bunbury.

^{page 434 note 8} Quoted Memoir, Vol. II, p. 374.

^{page 435 note 1} Brebner, J. B., “Laissez-faire and State Intervention in Nineteenth Century Britain”, in: The Tasks of Economic History, Supplement VIII to Journal of Economic History, 1948.Google Scholar

^{page 435 note 2} Mill, J. S., quoted in Lord Robbins, The Theory of Economic Policy in English Classical Political Economy, London 1952, p. 44.Google Scholar

^{page 435 note 3} The phrase “mild collectivism” was used of the utilitarians by “the Spectator”. See Roberts, David, Victorian Origins of the British Welfare State, New Haven 1960,Google Scholar for this and for documentation of the argument in the following paragraphs.

^{page 436 note 1} D. Roberts, op. cit.

^{page 436 note 2} For this reason a number of them who supported the emancipation of women, notably J. S. Mill and Henry Fawcett, opposed the protection of women in factories.

^{page 436 note 3} Both legalisation and repression of trade unions actively involved the state however.

^{page 437 note 1} A phrase used by an anonymous reviewer of Mrs Marcet and Harriet Martineau in the Edinburgh Review, 1833. For an account of the popularisers of political economy see Webb, R. K., The British Working Class Reader, London 1958,Google Scholar and Webb, R. K., Harriet Martineau: A Radical Victorian, London 1960.Google Scholar

^{page 437 note 2} Memoir, Vol. I, p. 98, 1 October 1816, L. H. to Dr Marcet.

^{page 437 note 3} In N. Senior, op. cit.

^{page 439 note 1} In N. Senior, op. cit., p. 30.

^{page 439 note 2} In N. Senior, op. cit., p. 31.

^{page 440 note 1} Horner, L., On the Employment of Children in Factories etc., 1840, p. 15.Google Scholar

^{page 440 note 2} Introduction by L. H. in V. Cousin, op. cit., 1838.

^{page 440 note 3} Memoir, Vol. II, p. 158, 23 Feb. 1850, L. H. this daughter Francis.

^{page 441 note 1} Horner, L., Official Report for half year ended 31 10 1859.Google Scholar

^{page 441 note 2} Horner, L., Offical Report for half year ended 31 10 1843.Google Scholar

^{page 442 note 1} McGregor, O. R., “Social Research and Social Policy”, in: British JournaL of Sociology, Vol. VIII, No 2, 1957.Google Scholar McGregor traces his argument to Beales, H. L. in, e.g., his Hobhouse Memorial Lecture of 1945.Google Scholar

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