Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Edi Geo
Edi Geo
Edi Geo
Christine Cote
Gardiner Public Schools
Gardiner, MT
“Oh, my friends, the downtrodden operatives of Coketown! Oh, my friends and fellow
countrymen, the slaves of an ironhanded and a grinding despotism!” Hard Times, Charles
Dickens
The British Industrial Revolution spurred advances in technology, which changed the
relationship of a worker to his workplace as well as allowing for the tremendous growth of
wealth for the growing British Empire. The workers of the new Industrial age now had to obey
the almighty clock, no longer would they work side by side with their family. Additionally,
children of the Industrial Revolution provided an essential cheap labor source. Sadly, the
benefits of new products at cheap prices came at a human cost. By the turn of the 19th century, a
few intrepid men turned to the government to protect workers, especially children, from abuses
in the new factories. Leaders like Richard Oastler, Michael Thomas Sadler and Lord Anthony
Cooper Ashley, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury navigated through an uncooperative Parliament the
groundbreaking legislation, the Factory Act of 1833. In simple terms the Factory Act of 1833
regulated child labor. Although this was not a new idea, the 1833 act for the first time included
an enforcement mechanism and instituted the nascent beginnings of public education. Many
decried the weakness of this mechanism, but as it essentially created the first real basis for a
bureaucracy of reform it clearly was a trailblazing act.
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The argument for labor reform, and the ability of Parliament to interfere between a
businessman and his employee, had begun earlier. Previous acts to regulate labor within industry
were Robert Peel’s Health and Morals Act of 1802 and the Factory Acts of 1813 and 1819. Peel's
Act applied to all apprentices up to the age of 21. It prevented apprentices working at night and
for longer than 12 hours a day, and made provision for them to receive some basic education.
Additional bills to alleviate the conditions of the laboring children were passed in 1815 and
1819. These limited the hours children worked as well, but only applied to children in cotton
mills. The chief weakness of these acts were their lack of enforcement. J.L. Hammond and
Barbara Hammond described how earlier acts were supposed to be enforced by local magistrates
who often were the same men the law was meant to control. (Hammond, 1917) The debates
within Parliament focused on the political economy of laissezfaire, which is an easier concept to
understand in modern day political thought than the other main issue of whether or not it was
healthful for children to work in those conditions. “Canning represented the majority of the
House when he declared himself anxious to hear the question discussed. ‘If ever he came to the
House without prejudice respecting any subject, it was with respect to this subject. The only
prejudice he felt was the conviction resulting from all speculations on political economy, in
favour of noninterference between man and man” (Hammond, 1917, p. 165). At Parliamentary
hearings, one member was recorded as saying that parents owned the labor of their child while
another brought in witnesses, including doctors, to testify on the health benefits of child labor. In
1825, John Hobhouse took up the cause of labor reform, but his bills were weakened in the
compromises necessary for passage, which rendered them fairly ineffective. Clearly, a growing
movement was reacting to the social changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution. The
members of Parliament particularly at this time before the passage of the Reform Act of 1832
represent the landed and the wealthy. Knowing that the workingman did not vote, why even
think to restrict the ability of the businessman to make the choices necessary to make a profit?
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One answer to this question has to be considered in the context of what the general population
was reading and talking about during that time. It would seem that public sentiment against the
abuses within these newfangled factories, particularly in reference to children, was aroused to a
distinct fervor by contemporary literature.
A particularly moving story exposing the evils of child labor, which was widely read, was
the “Memoir of Robert Blincoe” published by Richard Carlile in his newspaper The Lion in
1828. John Doherty, an important labor activist, who later put the story in pamphlet form to
make the story even more widely available, later republished this in The Poor Man’s Advocate.
This was one of the first attempts to interview a worker and allow him to describe the conditions
from their own point of view. Robert Blincoe describes his life as an orphan and as an
indentured apprentice in the cotton mill. “Unused to the stench he soon felt sick, and by
constantly stooping, his back ached. Blincoe, therefore took the liberty to sit down; but this
attitude, he soon found, was strictly forbidden in cotton mills. His taskmaster, Smith, gave him to
understand, he must keep on his legs. He did so, till twelve o’ clock, being sixandahalf hours
without the least intermission” (Brown, 1832, Republished 2011). This piece of literature had a
profound effect on readers both in the reading of it in itself and in the influence of Doherty, the
publisher. Doherty, who rose from the laboring class, worked in Manchester supporting Oastler
and Sadler’s 10 Hour Bill. Additionally, Doherty supplied a copy of the book to the novelist
Frances Trollope, as a result of which she wrote The Life and Adventures of Michael Armstrong,
the Factory Boy. Charles Dickens is also said to have read it and was inspired in turn to write
Oliver Twist. These important works of literature helped foment a public conversation on the
conditions of labor.
Other writers of the time decried the loss of humanity within the new industrial times.
Thomas Carlyle particularly enunciates this in his essays, Sign of the Times, published in 1832.
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“It is no longer the moral, religious, spiritual condition of the people that is our concern, but their
physical, practical, economical condition, as regulated by public laws” (Carlyle, 1832). Note that
not only does he lament the conditions of mankind, but he also argued that laws should be made
to better mankind’s condition.
Another influential writer who continued the public discourse on the conditions of the
working class was Harriet Martineau. Her father, ironically, was a manufacturer., but at an early
age she saw herself as a selfdescribed sociologist (Carey, 2012). Her first succes as a writer
came with her Illustrations of Political Economy (18321934). These consisted of twentyfour
stories that illustrated for a popular audience the ideas of classical economists such as Thomas
Malthus, James Mill, David Ricardo, and Adam Smith. They appeared in monthly installments
and sold more copies at the time than the novels of Charles Dickens. She earned enough to be
able to move to London in 1832 (Carey, 2012). Her story “A Manchester Strike” published in
1832 described various causes and motivations of men who might strike, which, “…was an evil
which might become necessary in certain cases. When convinced that it was necessary in defense
of the rights of the workingman, he would join it heart and hand; but never out of spite or
revenge …” (Martineau, 1996, p. 402). Martineau was probably better known as a strong
abolitionist, which is interesting as many of the proponents of labor reform compared the life of
the mill worker to that of the slave. It was often argued that the slave sometimes had better
working arrangement than workers in England.
Robert Southey, a famous Romantic poet of the Lake District, published a collection of
essays in 1832, which brought considerable sympathy for the workingman. One essay, “The
State of the Poor, and The Principle of Mr. Malthus Essay on Population and the Manufacturing
System,” was a scathing condemnation of Malthus’ ideas about the poor and the reasons for their
poverty. Southey described the differences between the traditional agricultural poor of the past
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and the new poor of a manufacturing society. He aclled on the government to take action for the
betterment of the poor asking for national education and even for public works projects to sustain
the unemployed. Additionally, he feared the new consumer culture and Britain’s reliance on
foreign trade. Child labor was also criticized heavily: “…a new sort of slavetrade was invented;
a set of childjobbers travelled the country, procuring children from parents whose poverty was
such as would consent to the sacrifice, and undertaking to feed, clothe, and lodge them for the
profits of their labor. In this manner were many of our great manufactories supplied!” (Southey,
1971, originally published 1832). The language of the essay is as strident and moralistic as a
Sunday sermon.
These examples of writings from the time period of the early Factory Acts show the rise
of a public consciousness about the plight of the worker, especially the child laborers. All of the
above examples, which certainly not an exhaustive list, were published less than five years
before the passage of the 1833 act. In consequence, it would seem that the wealthy men of
Parliament would have had difficulty in ignoring the public conversation in support of Adam
Smith’s laissez faire ideas. As Southey says, “…thereby to rouse them to a united call for
reformation too general to be mistaken, and too potent to be resisted.” Two of the most vocal
agitators for reform were Michael Thomas Sadler and Richard Oastler. These men not only
wrote about the tragic conditions of the laborers, but also pushed for action. Their dedication to
the cause of workers is readily apparent in their writings and actions, which led to the passage of
the Factory Act of 1833 and other reforms.
Continuing in the popular literature form of sentimental poetry, Sadler wrote “The
Factory Girl’s Last Day,” which was published in 1832. As the title suggests the worn out
factory girl, broken down by her poverty and relentless work, expires as the factory bells ring.
The poem leaves no ambiguity about describing the factory owners or overseers as ‘cruel
tyrants.’ The poem’s language is strong and clear using adjectives such as ‘tortured’, ‘wasted
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form’, or ‘daily morsel’ (Sadler M. , 1832, 1970). Interestingly, the last stanza compares the
concern for the negro slave to the lack of compassion for the white ‘slave.’ This poem portrays
Sadler’s campaign to reform the conditions of industrial workers as an evangelical mission.
Oastler, who earned the moniker of ‘Factory King,’ was not a poet, but used persuasive
essays and or editorials, known as the Yorkshire Slavery Letters, published in the Leeds
Mercury, to create a sensation and gain attention to the cause of the workers. He compared the
plight of the factory worker to the plight of the slave. “The very streets which receive the
droppings of an ‘AntiSlavery Society’ are every morning wet by the tears of innocent victims at
the accursed shrine of avarice, who are compelled (not by the cartwhip of the negro slave
driver) but by the dread of the equally appalling thong or strap of the overlooker, to hasten, half
dressed, but not halffed, to those magazines of British infantile slaverythe worsted mills in the
town and neighborhood of Bradford!” (Oastler, Yorkshire Slavery, 1830, 1970) His letter goes
on in very religious tones questioning the Christian values of those who allow the workers to be
treated in such a manner. Clearly, the earlier reform acts did not alleviate the situation of the
working poor. These few examples show that a voice for the disenfranchised worker was
developing within Britain.
Although it takes many unnamed souls to reform society, the dedicated leadership of
individual men or women can make a real difference. The leadership of Richard Oastler, Michael
Thomas Sadler and Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper brought about the Factory Act of 1833. The
Factory King, Richard Oastler was an unlikely hero to the cause, who some have called the
founder of the factory regulation movement. Born in Leeds, Oastler worked as a merchants'
agent until 1820, when he was appointed as a land steward for Thomas Thornhill's estate at
Fixby, which gave him a steady income to delve in social and political movements. Politically,
he was a proud Tory of rural origins, defined by his loyalty to persons and his nostalgia for the
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past. He was an admirer of William Wilberforce and, like everyone else, the Duke of Wellington.
In a letter to the Duke of Wellington, he once stated, “Once more I entreat your Grace to help.
Begin to curb their power, by supporting the Ten Hours Factories Bill. Release the people from a
tyranny worse than an Egyptian. Did your Grace conquer for England, so that her sons should be
enslaved by plebian tyrants” (Oastler, Letter to his Grace the Duke of Wellington, 1833).
Paradoxically, he was opposed to parliamentary reform, trades unions and the Catholic
Emancipation Act (Driver, 1946). It was a friend, a manufacturer in Bradford, who had
introduced many reforms into his own factory, who brought Oastler’s attention to the ‘evils of
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/work/workov.html childhood employment’ in the Bradford
district. He must have been a close friend because his friend extracted from him a promise to
devote himself to the removal of the said evil. “I had lived for many years,” wrote Oastler, “in
the very heart of the factory districts; I had been on terms of intimacy and of friendship with
many factory masters, and I had all the while fancied that factories were blessings to the poor”
(The Victorian Web/ Richard Oastler).
Despite the fact that he was an Anglican, he was described as bringing to the nascent
movement an atmosphere of Radicalism and Methodism. Oastler preferred the method of
agitation to get laws passed. He felt that the Reform Bill of 1832 would never become law if the
Whigs had not deliberately whipped up such a storm as to force the Government into action and
paralyze the Tories with fear. Oastler organized the Websey Low Moor meeting just outside
Bradford, where nearly 100,000 people attended to whip up support for further regulation. he
told the crowd that “it is a question of blood against gold. Infants blood has sold for naught, but
if we are despised now, it shall be a question of blood in another sense…” (Driver, 1946). He
was radical not only in his methods, which resembled Methodism in their out of doors
evangelical meetings, but also in his demands. He seemed to have been a man before his time
because when most people were still balking at any government regulation, he did not want to
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settle for anything less than a 10hour day for all workers. “Use your influence,” he wrote, “to
prevent any man being returned who will not distinctly and unequivocally pledge himself to
support a TenHoursaday and a Timebook Bill.” About the same time he formed the ‘Fixby
Hall Compact’ with the working men of Huddersfield, by which they agreed to work together,
without regard to parties in politics or sects in religion, for a reduction of the hours of labor (The
Victorian Web/ Richard Oastler). His connection to the passage of the bill was not as a Member
of Parliament, but chiefly through his correspondence with Michael Sadler. Yet, his rabble
rousing obviously brought pressure upon Parliament to bring up the subject in the first place.
Oastler met with the Lord Ashley at an important meeting at the City of London Tavern in
February of 1833. This meeting was convened by the London Society for the Improvement of
Factory Children. This was the first meeting held in London in connection with the movement,
and the first under the parliamentary leadership of Lord Ashley. Sadly, he was not happy with
necessary political compromises. He resorted to encouraging workers to violence, which caused
him to lose his position. Even in debtor’s prison, he continued to write and promote his cause.
Another leader of the movement was Michael Thomas Sadler, who wrote that making the
children of the poor labor “more than twelve hours a day, including meals, excites in my mind
inexpressible disgust, and is enough to make every parent worthy of the name shudder” (Sadler
M. , 1833). Sadler was the radical Tory parliamentary leader in the promotion of the Factory Act.
Coming from a minor squire family in Derbyshire, he went into business with his brother and a
wealthy widow as Irish linen importers. His marriage into one of Leeds’ foremost Anglican
families allowed him to spend the rest of his life writing poetry and dedicating his time to
philanthropy. He was considered an excellent orator, which helped him promote his ideas when
he was in Parliament (History of Parliament Online). Additionally, Sadler wrote an Anti
Malthusian essay in 1828, ‘Ireland; its Evils and their Remedies, which demonstrated his
detestation for laissezfaire economics and condemned the absentee landlords. With Oastler, he
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vigorously opposed Robert Peel’s Catholic Emancipation Act. He won a hard fought contest to
Parliament on a platform of Protestant Ascendency, a rational economy, free trade if and
practical reforms that did not destroy the integrity of the constitution (History of Parliament
Online).
When Sir John Cam Hobhouse’s factory reform bill of 1831 was withdrawn due to strong
opposition, Sadler took the lead in Parliament. John Hobhouse warned Sadler against the pushing
for a 10hour day because it would “only lend an air of ridicule and extravagance’ to the cause
(Sadler M. , 1833). Oastler, on the other hand, kept pushing Sadler forward in the 10 hour cause
and their correspondence shows their mutual determination. In November 1831, Sadler told
Oastler,
“The question of factory labour never has been taken up with sufficient
energy in Parliament; and the law, as at present carried, is not only nothing, but
actually worse than nothing ... I am persuaded, and all I hear and read confirms
me in conviction, that TEN hours can never be receded from by those who love
children, or who wish to obtain the approbation of Him who was indeed their
friend and lover. I am sorry, therefore, to see that Sir John Hobhouse has not only
conceded his bill, but his very views and judgment to the political economists,
who in this, as in many other things, are the pests of society and the persecutors of
the poor ... I had rather have no bill, than one that would legalize and warrant their
excessive labour” (History of Parliament Online).
On January 17th, 1832 he introduced the bill with a threehour speech emphasizing that workers
were entitled to Parliament’s protection. As the issue was now in the public discourse, the Whig
Parliament could not just dismiss the issue out of hand. Despite all the reform literature, many
within England and Parliament at the time believed that it was healthy for the children to work in
the factories. So, Parliament, in order to not appear inactive on the issue, asked for more study.
Sadler was asked to chair a committee to investigate the working conditions of children in textile
mills. It met 43 times and interviewed 87 witnesses. Sadly, he commented later that he felt his
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witnesses were later victimized for giving their testimony (Sadler M. , 1833). Mr. Sadler, in
particular, as Lord Ashley afterwards said with much generosity, “maintained the cause in
Parliament with unrivalled eloquence and energy.” (The Victorian Web). The following is an
excerpt from the Sadler report, which, as one source states, speaks for itself.
How far did you live from the mill? About two miles.
Was there any time allowed for you to get your breakfast in the mill? No.
Did you take it before you left your home? Generally.
During those long hours of labour could you be punctual; how did you awake? I
seldom did awake spontaneously; I was most generally awoke or lifted out
of bed, sometimes asleep, by my parents.
Were you always in time? No.
What was the consequence if you had been too late? I was most commonly
beaten.
Severely? Very severely, I thought.
In whose factory was this? Messrs. Hague & Cook's, of Dewsbury.
Will you state the effect that those long hours had upon the state of your health
and feelings? I was, when working those long hours, commonly very much
fatigued at night, when I left my work; so much so that I sometimes should
have slept as I walked if I had not stumbled and started awake again; and so
sick often that I could not eat, and what I did eat I vomited.
Did this labour destroy your appetite? It did.
In what situation were you in that mill? I was a piecener.
Will you state to this Committee whether piecening is a very laborious
employment for children, or not? It is a very laborious employment.
Pieceners are continually running to and fro, and on their feet the whole day
(The Sadler Report, 1832).
Under the First Reform Act of 1832, Sadler lost his ‘safe’
seathttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reform_Act_1832, and at the 1832 election Sadler stood for the
newly enfranchised seat of Leeds but lost his seat in Parliament. Though he was no longer a part
of Parliament, his Factory Report was finally published in 1833. When Sadler's report was
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released to the public British citizens were appalled with the graphic details of factory life. The
Report led to increased pressure on the British Parliament to protect children worker's rights.
Anthony Ashley Cooper, the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury now took Sadler’s place in
Parliament as the leader of the factory reform movement. As the eldest son of the sixth earl, and
of Anne, fourth daughter of the third Duke of Marlborough, he came from a very aristocratic
background and had gone to all the best schools and married into an aristocratic family. He was
also a Tory and did not have the radical outlook of Oastler and Sadler. If he had chosen a
political career, his rank, connections, high abilities and character might have had the highest
offices of the state within his grasp. Instead, his life story is one of philanthropic reform. His first
reform efforts were on behalf of ‘lunatics.’ another group without voice in society. Lord Ashley
began to take an interest in labor issues after reading reports in The Times about the testimony
given before Michael Sadler’s commission. "I was astonished and disgusted by what I read. I
wrote to Sadler offering my services. In February the Rev. George Bull asked me to take up the
question that Sadler had been forced to drop. I can perfectly recollect my astonishment, and
doubt, and terror, at the proposition" (Bready, 1926, p. 179). One source said he was motivated
by his wife to take up the cause of child labor. She reputedly told him, “It is your duty; the
consequences we must leave. Go forth; and to Victory” (Bready, 1926, p. 180) Ashley's critics
claimed that he took up the factory question "as much from a dislike of the mill owners as from
sympathy with the millworkers." Whatever his motivation, Ashley brought a sense of
moderation to Oastler’s radical enthusiasm. He wanted no strikes, intimidation or strong
language. Ashley wanted to speak from experience, so he visited hospitals and factories. This
produced a deep impression on him. Describing a visit to a hospital in Lancashire, where he
found many workers who had been crippled and mutilated under the conditions of their work, he
wrote that “ they presented every variety of distorted form, just like a crooked alphabet” (The
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Victorian Web). His motivation to help the workers stemmed from a religious devotion. He
believed that the solution for social ills was to be found in Christlike actions.
Lord Ashley agreed to George Bull's request to act on the Sadler report and in March
1833 he proposed a bill that would restrict children to a maximum tenhour day. Members of
Parliament were faced with intense lobbying. For example John Doherty, delegate from the
Manchester Central Committee, interviewed more than 200 Members of Parliament in nine
weeks (Driver, 1946). The general sentiment of country was now in favor of some sort of factory
legislation, although many industrial lobbyists were aiming to make any bill passed as least
drastic as possible. When an opposition procedural ploy failed by 23 votes, the Manchester
manufacturers voiced the alarm that it might be expedient to accept some reforms to end this
‘perplexing and injurious agitation.” Thus, perhaps Oastler’s tactics and Sadler’s exhaustive
study were effective in passing reform in the end.
Opposition to factory legislation centered on the rights of businessmen and fear of
foreign competition. Additionally, many felt that factory work was beneficial to the children of
Britain. One contemporary pamphlet described how the 10 hour day act would deprive women
and children of jobs, making their situation worse because factory regulations would put them on
the street. Additionally, the opposition alluded to the blessedness of inventions, calling them
“imitations of divine works.” In a letter to Lord Ashley, the writer described his own experience
with the cotton industry and how he had to compete with American cotton and with fellow
English cotton spinner and weaving factories who did not obey the present laws. He did not want
any further legislation except to make all factories adhere to the current law. He also stridently
asserted that the poor, even the poor children are better off working than being idle (Finlay,
March 1st, 1833). Many in Parliament felt themselves in an uncomfortable position because they
were concerned about foreign competition and did not want to interfere with the principles of
political economy. Sir James Mackintosh stated this position well but then concluded with that
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“he would not allow even the principles of political economy to be accessory to the infliction of
torture” (Driver, 1946, p. 243). A growing resentment of the depiction of the factory owners as
evil exploiters can be seen in a defensive speech by Vernon Royle of Manchester.
“We know that there is not, and there cannot be, a more exalted charity
than that which presents a shield against the rapacity of tyrants and oppressors;
but we deny that factory owners are either tyrants or oppressors; we contend that
the man of property, the capitalist, who devotes all his time, who applies all his
energies to increase his wealth, by building mills and factories, and so employing
the poor, is the greatest benefactor the poor man can have. One shilling earned by
a man’s own hand, is worth a pound given to him by the hand of charity, we had
almost said mistaken charity.” (Royle, 1833)
The majority of the members of parliament, which makes the passage of any regulatory
legislation impressive, probably shared these sentiments.
Despite the hopes of those who wanted to kill any factory legislation, Sadler’s
Commission clearly came out with findings that assured passage of some kind of protection for
child labor. The most appalling findings according to the Report were the “the grave effects,
both physical and moral, such employment had on children.” Still the findings were limited to
children, as interference with the free contract and the free labor market for adults was
unacceptable. Children, on the other hand, were not free agents. The question then became a
fight over the age of childhood. Lord Althorp the Whig leader of Parliament and the government
wanted 13 years while Ashley wanted 18 years. While the age of 13 was adopted, an extra
category of 1418 year olds was given limited protection. On 18th July, 1833, Ashley's bill was
defeated in the House of Commons by 238 votes to 93, but a compromised and weakened bill
was passed as the government's 1833 Factory Act by Parliament on the 29th of August.
In the end many, especially Oastler were bitterly disappointed by the bill. It did not go far
enough to help child labor. He did not believe inspection would work. Sadler was willing to give
the Act a fair chance. Ashley graciously accepted his defeat because he had a better
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understanding of the politics of Parliament and accepted small victories instead of impolitic
grand sweeping reforms that would have been defeated. His hereditary stature and experience
with helping the mentally ill gave him this broadminded outlook.
It is easy today to see all what the bill did not do. The bill kept laissezfaire except for the
proviso for children. How much more could four government inspectors actually do? Yet as
Althorp and associates would gladly have been excused from doing anything, in reality they
accomplished more than they thought (Bready, 1926, p. 185). The Factory Act of 1833 was the
first time factory regulations covered all textile industries, not just cotton. The old system of
leaving enforcement with the local Justices of the Peace was swept away and given to
government factory inspectors. Essentially the Factory Act of 1833 became an experiment in
social regulation and a tentative beginning to a national educational policy for children.
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