Of the 21,000 working tailors … resident in London, I should add that there are not above 3,000 belonging to what is called the honourable portion of the trade. The remaining 18,000 are those who are engaged in the cheap, slop, or dishonourable trade …

Up to the year 1834, the 8th of George III (‘which,’ I am told, ‘regulated the time of labour for tailors at twelve hours per day, with the intent of compelling the masters to get their work done on the premises, as well as of equalising employment, and giving to each operative tailor the opportunity of earning a decent maintenance for himself and his family’) was tolerably well adhered to; but at that period the masters gradually infringed the provisions of the act. Sweaters became numerous, and a general strike was the consequence. The strike acted antagonistically to the view of the journeymen tailors, and from that time up to the present, sweaters and underpaid workmen have increased, until the state of trade, as regards the operative tailors, appears to be approaching desperation.