Saint Monday, or the People’s Holiday, a Pic-nic at Hampton Court (Source: Look and Learn).

The discordance between the working class and the industry owners was bound to incur the ire and to a certain degree, fear of those who purportedly held the reins of the society—the government and industry owners themselves. The problem of enforcing discipline and an adherence to the clock was particularly a challenge in industrial villages in Britain, textile centres and the metropolis. The control by the factory owners demanded obedience without granting of rights and responsibilities to the people.

Unsteady employment and class antagonism compounded this unstable environment. As a result, owners naturally possessed weakened social control (Malcolmson 161). These concerns resonated in the minds of industry owners and other members of society at the frontline of change and was essentially what Saint Monday symbolised.

However, as with any separation, following the tenets of the rites of passage, what followed was a transformation. Anything of this sort didn’t occur in only one part of society, the working classes for instance. Rather, it was a shift in society as a whole with the two discordant structures—pre- and post-industrialisation—seeking a point of balance. Both factory worker or owner required time and a certain amount of societal adaptation and adjustment to ease themselves into the different structure.

This was the period in which Thomas Paine wrote his Rights of Man. Such a work reverberated with the call for society to change and transform. It wasn’t a matter of denying and resisting industrialisation as much as the need for better conditions for the increasingly defined working class. Often, the call was not against the progress defined by industrialisation.

Rather, people such as Paine fought for the rights of the working class—the men, women and children in the factories powered by steam engines. With industrialisation, the separation felt by the working class and symbolised by the observance of Saint Monday could only begin to transform when the rights of people could be reinstated and strengthened. This was ultimately an element of their culture that had been misplaced within an unfamiliar socio-cultural and economic system.

Thomas Paine, copy by Auguste Millière, after an engraving by William Sharp, after George Romney, circa 1876 (1792) (Wikimedia Commons).

According to previous writings by Thomas Paine, the underlying precept was that the governing of a society existed within the realm of common sense, a book he published in 1776¹ while residing in the United States. It looked through the opacity of the monarchy and government and sought to level the field between those occupying the “higher” and “lower” tiers of society.

These transformations within society, of which customs such as Saint Monday were a part, depended upon people feeling they were deriving from their work what they were investing. In discussing the discontent felt by the working classes of society, Paine made a simple and yet poignant statement:

“Whatever the apparent cause of any riots may be, the real one is always a want of happiness. It shows that something is wrong in the system of government, that injures the felicity by which society is to be preserved” (166).

Robert Owen by William Henry Brooke, Public Domain (Wikimedia Commons).

In this same vein, men such as Robert Owen emerged as a paragon of society. Owen owned the New Lanark mills where part of his objective, along with a successful business, was to improve the lives of his workers. He encouraged the ‘formation of character’, the idea being “. . . to create a more moral, humane, kind, active, and educated workforce by providing an environment in which such traits could be nourished from childhood onward” (Claeys x).

Often referred to as ‘paternal’ discipline, the approach preferred by Owen allowed him to transform the workforce when he first arrived at the New Lanark mills to one “. . . renowned throughout Europe both for its approach to labour and for the quality of its cotton thread” (Claeys ix). He even provided medical care and established a sick fund with mandatory contributions². Owen was guided by a vision for his product. At the same time, he adhered to a deep-seated ethic towards the people who would manufacture that product.

As with Thomas Paine, these efforts were integral in the transformation of the society. Think again of the words of William Loveless. Resisting change, the words eagerly sought a return to the ways of a former era. At the same time, the words encouraged people to enjoy the “fruits of our toil.” A person could simply feel they were of value within their society. There was a desire for some form of reciprocity to exist between the worker and the employer.

In many ways, this was what the efforts of Thomas Paine and Robert Owen worked to inject into the new socio-economic world brought by industrialisation. Certainly the efforts of Robert Owen were very clearly an attempt to forge the creation and nurturing of a community within the confines of his mill. It was against this backdrop of transformation that Saint Monday began to falter.

The steam engine functioned in the decline of Saint Monday. It also worked in tandem with the development of the Saturday half-holiday. Together, these changes were indicative of a society that was shifting and adapting to industrialisation. Thomas Paine and Robert Owen both expounding the value and rights of workers—men, women and unfortunately children who weren’t exempt from the rigours of factory work—assisted the changes.

In this context, Charles Iles in 1862 commented how once the steam-engine started, regular work hours would be more rigorously enforced. He informed his workers that if they were not willing to work on Mondays, he would have to let them go (Reid 85). The steam-engine meant that in a factory, it was possible to work day and night—the idea of a task-oriented endeavour no longer being possible. People soon began to demand fixed hours.

Together, the more widespread use of steam power and the Saturday half-holiday spelled the doom of Saint Monday. During the middle part of the nineteenth century this new holiday was put in place³. It was largely in response to the needs of the factory owners who were increasingly turning to steam power and needed a disciplined workforce willing to keep regular hours.

Alongside steampower, the half-holiday thoroughly altered the lives of the working class (Thane 282). Monday had previously been used for celebrations such as weddings. However, with the Saturday half-holiday, people cleaved to this day for weddings. As time progressed leisure shifted to Saturdays rather than the Monday (Reid 87). As a result, the workers would be more amenable to working on Monday if they could use the half-holiday for their own needs.

These developments might suggest that people were merely ‘putty’ in the hands of factory owners and the government ready to be guided and moulded as the latter saw fit. However, we have seen how Saint Monday was religiously observed. E.P. Thompson, an English historian, socialist and peace campaigner, asserted how the culture of tradition persisted, acting as a form of resistance and rebellion (Rule 182). The Saturday half-holiday or the use of steam power were a part of the accommodations that helped appease the complaints of the people. They wanted to have a certain degree of freedom and they wanted to believe they had rights within the new socio-economic system.

Along similar lines, the movements referred to earlier helped to ensure rights and freedoms. For instance, what was known as the Chartist period in Britain achieved advances for the working class. There was a form of adaptation whereby the actions of the working class permitted the opposing perspectives to find a common ground.

In Britain, the People’s Charter demanded rights for the people unheard of in the past with assertions for the right to vote, equal electoral districts, vote by ballot and annually elected Parliaments. Once the rights were addressed, or at the very least placed into the consciousness of people, both the working class as well as the owners of industry, it was possible to permit Saint Monday, a relict of a previous socio-cultural and economic system, to lapse.

As such, the decline of Saint Monday was part of a transformation in the society. Saint Monday acted as a form of resistance in its capacity as a symbol of a previous way of life. Following these transformations, the developments of the nineteenth century witnessed a reincorporation.

In reference to reincorporation, it was something that occurred at the scale of the society at large and not solely the working classes. There was give and take required on both sides that witnessed a shift in the socio-economic system. With the arrival of the 1870s, most members of the working class regarded industrial capitalism, the underlying economy of the industrial revolution led by landowners, merchants, financiers and industrialists, as a given.

A considerable amount of national introspection in Britain occurred with a focus on the vanguards of industry—factories and agriculture. By the latter part of the nineteenth century, many official enquiries investigated these areas of industry. Royal Commissions examined the Poor Law and issues pertaining to employment, especially of women and children in factories and mines, education, housing and other social concerns. Officials also looked at the role agriculture played in the industrial economies of the day (Mingay 69).

By this time, the poles characterised by the working classes and the industry owners, through the transformations of earlier efforts began to dislodge and gravitate toward a medial point—a reincorporation of two disparate perspectives. The rights the working classes sought were gradually being addressed and granted a place of value in the new socio-cultural and economic system.

Political and social reforms during the 1838s and 1840s reformed legislation such as the Poor Law in 1847 forcing the traditional ruling class and owners of capital to further accommodate the working class (Brown 119). Reincorporation was less a matter of moulding and bringing into line the working classes than establishing new developments possessing a greater degree of reciprocity.

With all these changes, the observance of Saint Monday did not disappear completely. There were places which remained sufficiently task-oriented where this custom remained a ‘holiday’ to punctuate the weekly round. Even in the early part of the twentieth century, some employers lamented their inability to control their workers. At this time, some miners persisted with their recognition of Saint Monday by taking the first Monday of every month as a holiday (Thane 282). However, for the most part, people had accepted the Saturday half-holiday.

While there were some pockets of observance to the Saint Monday holiday, the weight of society leaned towards regular hours and a defined work week punctuated by a week end established for leisure. Some may refer to the waning of Saint Monday as a victory on the part of the owners of industry, but it was more a signal of a successful passage through which a society must journey to reach a balance.

Bibliography

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Appendix

Poor Law

In 1833 Earl Grey, the Prime Minister, set up a Poor Law Commission to examine the working of the poor Law system in Britain. In their report published in 1834, the Commission made several recommendations to Parliament. As a result, the Poor Law Amendment Act was passed.

The act stated that:

(a) no able-bodied person was to receive money or other help from the Poor Law authorities except in a workhouse;

(b) conditions in workhouses were to be made very harsh to discourage people from wanting to receive help;

(c) workhouses were to be built in every parish or, if parishes were too small, in unions of parishes;

(d) ratepayers in each parish or union had to elect a Board of Guardians to supervise the workhouse, to collect the Poor Rate and to send reports to the Central Poor Law Commission;

(e) the three man Central Poor Law Commission would be appointed by the government and would be responsible for supervising the Amendment Act throughout the country.

(http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Lpoor1834.htm)

Factory Act of 1844

The Factory Act of 1844 is an extremely important one in the history of family legislation. The Act reduced the hours of work for children to between eight and thirteen to six and a half a day, either in the morning or afternoon. Children could only work on alternate days, and then only for ten hours. Young persons and women (now included for the first time) were to have the same hours, i.e. not more than twelve for the first five days of the week (with one and a half out for meals), and nine on Saturday.

Only surgeons, appointed for the purpose could grant Certificates of age. Surgeons could then report accidents causing death or bodily injury. The surgeons would also be tasked with investigating their cause and then reporting the result to the inspector. Every fourteen months, the factory was to be thoroughly washed with lime . Officials kept a register in which the names of all children and young persons employed, the dates of the lime-washing, and some other particulars. Certificates of school attendance were to be obtained in the case of children (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IR1844.htm).

Factory Act of 1847

After the 1844 Factory Act the agitation for a Ten Hour Bill continued. Early in 1846 Lord Ashley again brought forward a measure cast in this mould. On his defeat at the General Election that year, John Fielden introduced the bill, and ultimately pressed to a division, when the Government escaped defeat by the narrow majority of ten. The next year the Whigs were in office, and Lord John Russell, Prime Minister. At this time, John Fielden reintroduced the Bill. It passed successfully.

With the enactment of the law the long struggle for a Ten Hours Bill is generally held to have come to a close. It limited the hours of labour to sixty-three per week from the 1st of July 1847, and to fifty-eight per week, from the 1st of May 1848, which with the stoppage on Saturday afternoon was the equivalent of ten hours work per day (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IR1844.htm).

Endnotes

1Coincidentally also the date for the beginning of the United States War of Independence.

2Owen also provided education for the children who worked within his mill. (He was in favour of raising the age for employment as well as reducing the number of hours that comprised a work day). While not the place for such a discussion, there are healthy debates that surround the idea of becalming the ire of the working class with education (Brown 119). Some may accuse Owen of such a tactic, but his ancillary words pertaining to working class rights certainly speak to the otherwise.

3There was a statutory Saturday half-holiday in textile mills from 1850 (Reid 86).