Leonard Horner: A Portrait of an Inspector of Factories

In: International review of social history, Band 14, Heft 3, S. 412-443

Abstract

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 inCapital. 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.