Church of England Support for Factory Reform, 1833
(Some Evangelical Church of England clergy played an important role in supporting the factory reform movement. A very active reformer was the Rev. George Stringer Bull
(1799-1864) who was a curate of Bierley, Bradford, Protest of the Rev. G. S. Bull,
Bradford poster, 4 June, 1833; in J. T. Ward, ed., The Factory System, Vol..II, Birth and
Growth (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1970), pp.88-91.)
PROTEST OF THE REV. G. S. BULL
Addressed to the Commissioners for Factory Enquiry.
GENTLEMEN, -Having been summoned to give Evidence before the Select Committee on the Factories' Bill, I esteem it my duty upon your arrival in the Neighbourhood where
I reside, to present to you, in respectful terms, my Reasons for disapproving the
Commission, which you have been induced to accept.
To the Royal Authority, I bow with due reverence, and to that of Parliament, when constitutionally exercised, I would render cheerful obedience. But at the same time
I would never resign or fail to exercise the privilege afforded me by the Constitution of my country, to disabuse my Sovereign when I believe him to be imposed upon, or to petition against what I considered an oppressive act of the Legislature.
Believing as I do in my conscience, that the course adopted by the King's responsible Advisers in the matter of this Commission, is of the character above described, I have discharged my duty in uniting with others to Address his Majesty and to
Petition Parliament against the same.
1. I protest against this Commission as one of the Witnesses before the Select Committee.
The course thus adopted by the avowed Enemies of the Tell Hour Bill, places my character, and that of my fellow witnesses, in jeopardy. Our veracity may be impeached in the darkbut we can demand no clue by which to detect the interested and specious slanderer, over whom the constitution of your Commission most injuriously spreads the thick veil of secrecy. Our Evidence before the Select Committee was given in the presence of Enemies who cross-examined us in the severest manner, and it is all printed, all published, all open to the closest scrutiny, and if we have dealt falsely, or set down ought in malice, we are justly liable to detection. Whereas, by the Constitution of your
Commission, the greatest glory of British judicial Administration is set aside in favour of the Secrecy of a Spanish Inquisition. I assert, that to establish such a principle is virtually to destroy every constitutional security for honesty in Witnesses, and for the protection of character. It operates as a Bonus to malice, slander, imposition, and misrepresentation.
2. 1 protest as a Christian Man, and as a Minister of the Church of England.
The God whom I desire to serve is "no respecter of persons", and has told you as well as me by the mouth of Solomon, "It is not good to have respect of persons in judgment".
Now it was palpably “respect of persons", of Rich Capitalists and their influence in Parliament which induced the ministry to sue out a Royal Commission, sanctioned by an insignificant majority of one or two in the House of Commons, to adopt a method for the trial of the cause of the rich, diametrically opposite in Constitution and

character to that, which they-yes the self same parties adopted for the trial of the cause of the Poor.
I protest as a Christian Man ,-Because that Divine Redeemer and Lawgiver, who rebuked even his own disciples, when they would have kept the children from him-who pronounced twelve hours occupation to be a day's work for men-would never have suffered any Rich Capitalist of that day to have asserted his right because he was rich, to work children longer than their Parents, depriving them of health, moral improvement and youthful recreation. No, Sirs, had such a right been asserted by the chiefest of all the
Pharisees, neither his sleek, sanctimonious visage-his many prayers-his ostentatious alms-deeds, his broad phylacteries, nor his hoard of Gold would have obtained for him a
"Commission" to redeem his respectability-to receive his evidence in secret, or to delay for an hour the release of those helpless ones whom the Saviour owned and blessed as a peculiarly beloved portion of his kingdom below.
As a Minister of the Church of England, I conceive it my duty to maintain the cause of the oppressed and the poor, and I regard this favourite system of Commissions, now so generally adopted, as so many parts of a Dexterous Conspiracy, which certain
Political Philosophers are under plotting, the effect of which is, to establish the domination of wealth, and the degradation of industrious Poverty. I feel, too, that the interests of Christianity itself are betrayed, into the hands of unreasonable and wicked men, by the Judas-like conduct of many of its professors, whose capital is embarked in the Factory System, whose lips salute our altars with apparent devotion-who raise their hands in her sanctuary as if to adore, but who make them fall with tyrannous weight upon the children of the needy. Whether such bitter foes of the true Religion of Christ are shrouded in a Priestly Mantle, or dwell in those Mansions and are surrounded by those parks and lawns which the over laboured infant has enabled them to procure, my
Ministerial duty to my Country is the same; and whether I regard its general prosperity, its social happiness or its religious advantage, I am bound to rebuke and oppose them.
I believe, the oppression of the Rich-of those especially who hypocritically assume a Christian profession, has done more to injure Christianity than all that Voltaire or Paine ever produced.
3. I further Protest against this Commission in the capacity of a Religious Instructor of
Youth.
The present System of Factory Labour generally precludes the possibility of sufficient Religious or common instruction; and any limitation which involves more than
13 hours occupation (which is involved in a Ten Hour Bill) will be an intolerable Evil. I am disgusted to hear from the same quarters a great cry of exultation that "the
Schoolmaster is abroad" and a greater and more sincere cry against a Ten Hour Bill. The avowed object of those who obtained the appointment of the Commission, being to set aside that benevolent measure. I recognize in you, their Representatives, and not those of our Gracious Sovereign, who has too kind a heart and too honest a mind, knowingly to authorize the object of those interested and obdurate men, to whose influence you are indebted for your appointment.
As Public Men, you are open to public Remark. Of your PRIVATE Characters I have no knowledge, of your Motives I am no judge. I have only to wish that your next appointment may not be unconstitutional in its character, and not opposed to the interests of Religion and Humanly in its object.

I am, Gentlemen, with all submission, yours faithfully,
G. S. BULL.
Byerley, June 4th, 1833.
P.S. The 4th of June is associated from my earliest recollections with the memory of George III, who I am sure would have wished every Factory Child in his Dominions to have TIME to read his Bible.