Star. — London, England, 1817-03-14 00:00:00

PAALWIENTAIRY PROCIEDINGS. HOUSE OF LORDS, MARCH is. Viscount BD' .K E LEY presented a Petition from the Town of nacklue - ne. in the County Palatine of Lancaster, against the Act r.• • 1 Mullen , passed last Session re-pecting Publicene Limoges, N. o , ', 0. Nil% lead, was ordered to he laid on the table. e Or•leisof the I >ay, respecting the farther consideration of bailey's Vienne WU is, ing read, The LORD CHANCELLOR : observed, that upon a farther consideration of t t e evidence, it appeared to bins to fall short of a satilatiory proof with respect to one or two, but particularly oat important fact in the case, which it was secesaary should be clearly heftier their Lordships before they could come to a just decision upon it. hi. he inferred principally from what was de pose.* by three of the female witnesses, who had not only, by their evidence at the Bar of the House, contradicted what had been deposed to by them before the Eiels:tiastieal Court, but con tradicted each other in what they had said at their .ordships' Bar. It would be proper, to the view he stated, that at least these witnesses should be ranker remitted. Of this inconsistent or 0431MB:boy teriniony his Lordship gave some • short Maitre ties and repressed his belief that in those writted depositions peop;le were often made to sap what really they did not mean to say. ft may be also material, he thought, that some further ques tions should be put to Mr. Ladd, the farmer. Hader these eir. cuntstanies, he would propose that the cobsideratinn of the bill ehoald be farther postponill till Moodafs on which day, the wit nesses he elided to should be ordered to attend. The seriestion of the Noble Lord An the Woolsack was ens bodied into a motion by the Enid 8111Af 01411 HAT; pet, ander tiered aeoordinily. Th• Nth upon the table, chiefly Private, were forwarded la the* respective stages. Mr. rusa an, front the Liverpool Doek Convent. presented at the Paz an acconst of the Receipts and Disbursen)ents of that CorporatioN, fur the last year.—Laid upon the table. Eul GROSVENOR presented a Petition from Cisalford, In the County of Gloucester. praying tor the repeal of all the Com Laws, and for the seactasent of on Incense Tea, in lien et the Awessosi 1 saes; which was read, and lad up* the table. NINICURit AND usaLus orness. Earl GROSVENOR presented two Petitions on the subject of Public Economy and Parliamentary Refocus. Ooe of these was from a recent Meeting in the Borough of Southwark. He accompanied them with a few remarks. He made some allusion to some recent occurrences at Manchester, and disap proved of what had been done in the view of coun teracting them. He regretted their Lordships' deci. • 'ion the other night, and censured U system gene raliy•pursucd by his Majesty's Government, and deprecated a recurrence to measures of force and coercion, instead of conciliation, reform, and a COM. pliance with the wishes of the people, which were so generally and loudly expressed. Force certainly may stop tbnexpression of these wishes for the moment, but such was not the way ultimately to restore quiet. .new and harmony. Thus wishes of the people, so kept down, would at some time or other produce a drendfel re•action—a political and moral earthquake, The Earl of LAUDERDALE strongly protested against any idea held forth, that the vote of the House, the other night, was a determination to keep up a number of useless and sinecure offices. 'The decision rested merely upon the question, what were sinecure and useless offices? The measure recom- mended by the Noble Earl would, in the event, in stead of alleviating the distress of the country, go in fact to increase them. There were a number of places where the emoluments were allowed, not merely as a recompense for the manual labour, but also with a view to the great responsibility incurred by the holders, and with the view of forming a pro per reward for the whole. The question turned upon the consideration whether the places were useless or mitt and be was therefore anxious that it should not Ske the Oahe, that this HMSO 11111 alitni spa mansber et teed= panels • •• ' HOLLAND said, be man &ism Gm his Noble Friend's motion did not attach faanilY aim .Sinecure Officesb but so maim. upon Useless Places mitigations where anollinleilts were disbursed. without any service being attached to them. TM Earl of LAUDERDALE shortly explained. End ORO4VENOR observed, that it the inquiry ea elms enamemended bad been gone into, their Liwdrldpe weld ere now have become so enlightened upon the sehjid., that them would not lame been so agar NOtstelOginta to his motion. . LoritHOLIAND said a few words inexplamtion. _The Eastei LAUDERDALE expressed his di'. stpeobatiOaCiff the Home attempting to decide upon near abstract propositions ; the more so when corn pined cd•phlmses m themselves unintelligible. Their , dpcisioe would be different in cases where the places Weis ebonite, be really useless. As far as that could bit numninede be wank& be as ready to recommend die almilltlim as its Noble hien& He lees to aphis 140 ire swum eel of. she pail& impression tint m nada . lay alretastances *sit may la proposed, to await in the abolishing el *kb wee really melees. What had been IT iis Noble Friend, would, without explanation; go Is epos the env for the public to th ink that a ' sandier if woes were drawing emoluments tram Aces if a reall wan vay different description front what they y Tba faiplm wen bid upon the lads; alter width dui 4alehips adjourned. ;1 . . • HU oft COMMOtes 860 • ' Maid, that the Atha and 7eamolll Cued a tint. elm* ibeila vc weal. - Caw shoiallwar; oloilt4tresbe's — TE= ware wiser the prepaid Oseasere. He *WAN awned, tai as seiadirewa, abet she Mew test seesoniainseibis dap As NEWS& Mr. litigtlitiON supported Ile Aweadoriat. Alter a kW iMsrtatioee bar Sit CaAalLall lleamorss, fir 1. Yeats, nee wow other Myers. tie Anwedivient was withalrewe, aad the IMO war read a seeoad dew. A Raters efshe Table of &pens and limpets in Oteat Bri tala sod Weed for the yeas laid and 1516. was laid on the talikjasd wand to be printed. 11/Zillibrergle In a BW for regulating the labour of Per. Mss neelaol is Collienei, which was read a dot babe. The Mad Hesse &1l event through a Consmittee.—Report en bfeaday. ' The Mack, Bill went through a Cosnaditee of the whole Those.—Avert 10-7aorrow, ko litoirt of the Camillus& os Ways aid Means was. Woos The Resolution were red ad wad to, wed Mss was give to bring in bills according to them. Mr. W.WYNN gar sake, that ke wen* co do early day, sib.. tor Naas to bring is a Bill for shartenieg the dada* el the Mb ri nerulims• VEST masted a Petition for Reform ad Re. ins' els Pala of Sc. °lave, in the ileolegh 4 and hid on the tabu. • ..m g . CAL mended a ratio= foe Refers aid Re. tr41101.0.1;•frolk the Pal" at B t. Marts Lambeth. Thalami. ' egad aw&lold ea dm sable. kgc..c . ALTIEIT prowiatod &Pod** tram as individual of al is iglekagseef, et t gigot 7 esispotteet, to the Do. , ott , a I* ether wet fenuestr i zilker lo hip • i s is= the of Ltudao. d r where ho et O. hod "pled in vain to Modokawettwoi Ind he now hoped that eargral mambo% Ose lido Weft so Mb mak selislo:-Lait ea the table. : r Sk J. NEWPORT presoak' a Petits" front tie ski Harness Makers of the City nf Waterford, statist their trade had considerably /se4, in consonance the high taus which wile imposed 08 hones and carriages, preying for a reduction of those tues.--Read and laid en the table. Sir I. NEWPORT send for a return of the grossamount of Assessed Taus levied so Ireland, and also of the tans Imposed 013 horses, carriages, aid servants in Ireland for thelast seven yean--Ortlered. Mr. LUSHING roN moved for leave to bring It a Bill to amend and rapists' the Act fur imposing tales on tie windows of shops and washouts. Sir M. RIDLEY wished to know whether It was tin intention of the Right Hon. Gentleman to have the tat still gutted to the windows of all warehouses Mr. LUSHINGTON replied, that be Intended to linit the tly to the windows of such warehouses only as were connoctcd wall counting house'.--Leave given. Sir F. BURDEIT presented a Petition for Relent, from Dundee—Laid on the table. Mr. W. WYNNE moved, that a Petition from cernin persons, residing in the line of the intended New Street, be arerred to the New Street Committee.—Aveed to. COMM 1111C1 AL DISTILESS. Mr. BROUGHAM.—When he eonsidesed that, the period of the Session was now well nigh past, at which it had been customary for the House in for mer times of distress to take into its consideratiori the state of the nation ; and when he considered that nothing had been yet done to bring the subject under the notice of the House, or to testify, in the usual ' way, its sentiments on such an occasion..he felt en couraged. tinder the magnitude of the task which be had undertaken, of this night opening the subject for its consideration. But now, when ark! rejecting the proposal of his Right Honourable Friend (Mr. l'unsonby) it had allowed *it period to ellen. with. 'out doing any thing at all with refereneetb the se neral condition of the country, except et wi th due respect to the measures of the House, e meet Consider, under existing circumstances, se perfectly wrong—he meant the attempt to stifle the iines . of distress without iequiriag into , the . causea—tlepe, Gentlemen who thought with hint, that this Mid been -wronglyidone, al well ,as those who 'believed eat these Fries were well founded, while at the Mme diet ? they justi fi ed what had been done, by aposalin ', to the necessities . ot the times—by looking at the it t, but not at the cause—all of them would now a at least on this, that it was time to inquire into e cause, and to seek, if possible. for some reme those discontents so loudly and so universally e sed. With this view, in justice to the people a dim the country, he made bold to enter upon the su • t. Nothing could be more injudicious than to beg' tiny discussion by any large or general and positive ;tate meat of what is to be its result; that. impolitic 89 it might be to say so, be had the most con6deni ex pectation, that whatever difference of opinion might prevail in the House as to some particulars, they would nevertheless agree, by a great majority; that the time was come when it behoved the femme, as a matter of absolute necessity (it 'it would preserve the commercial greatness of the country) to under take a revision of almost the whole of our corn met. teal system, and this with p view to correct those errors which bad crept in by time; with a view to retrace our steps from those measures which experi ence has proved to be mischievous ; with a view to accommodate our laws to the altered circumstances of the country, and to abandon some of those anti quated prejudices which still remained, with influ ence to check and retard the commercial prosperity of the nation. That such would be the decision of the House. he klt firmly convinced; bus. as she Mini hind, he proposed, without further preface, to enter on what he thought should be the fundamental part of such a revision, by an inquiry into.* causes of the present distresses. Every one was aware that there existed great discontent—such discontent as be might, both iii its loudness and its universality, say was unprecedented. This was so generally adnate.i led to be true, that k was hardly necessary for him, to offer any proof or illustration of it. He willfu refer to the petitions on the table of the House, which whatever might be thought of the credit doe to tome few individual petitions among them, when the tail., one persons and plar.es from whence they cause were I considered, must be allowed to furnish a strong proof of it. He might appeal to the state of our trade ' 89 evidenced by the returns laid before the Room He was aware that it would be fallacious to rely wholly upon the returns of the shipping for the purpose of ascertaining the real state of the imports and exports. for be admitted that they could not convey all the in formation necessary for that purpose, although they would convey information to a great extent. On comparing these refutes for the year 1816 with those for the preceding year, he found that in the import trade the Mana employed in the year 1815 was 2,649,000, whi le far the year 1816 it was only 2,243,000. In the export trade in the year 1815, the amount of tonnage employed was 2,t76,000. whereas in 1816 it was no Mere than 2,316,000. Thus kap peared.,that open a oomparistat of the two last years, in 1816 there was a falling off in the amount of the tonnage employed in the import and export trade of no less than 8%,000 tons, and that on 5,000 ships. ow, when 'it 'Was considered, that the year 1816 S , m the third,lker of peace, and that 1816 was only wices rit the - and . th at in it, too , there were three Menthe 'War. 'tt :hewed' bow fallatimerit was to sot distil, distress, thus increisinerliith the peace, was occasioned by the transition frost a mete of war to a state of peace. The returns before the House did no: shew the amount of the illifOna and exports. But he thought he could thew that the defakatios in their amount fur the year 1816 would be in a much larger proportion, as compared With the preceding year, than that on the shipping snd tonnage. Ties Would appear if a returu of their amount in those years coted be made out. But even if such a return did • not on the face of it skew so great a defalcation, yet,be would not allow that they would afford any proof that the defalcation was nut enormous, because goods to the amount of Many millkets bad been exported, for which there was no sale in foreign markets, and fir which, of course, the melchatit received no retires. It would be im possible to tell what proportion Of the goods :weeny expected had sot yet found any market abrolid, or what proportional those imported now remained on the merchants'. bands, without any prospect of sale 'in the market at - home. The country , had certainly seen times - of distress, but none which could - bear any comparison with that which tom now felt. In 1800 the scarcity bad been gkater, but there was so such distress as the present, for the workmen Imre not then thrown out of employment, and if preei sions were high they court earn wipe to pat for Maas. In Mlle, wretched as the commercial stale of the country was, it rose in comparison with its present condition, to seem a period of prosperity. The state ment of a few particulars as to the condition of the great staple articles of our national manufacture, would thew the House how unfairly the amount of the present distress must be estimated by referring to any former period . of distress. The first of these ar ticles on which he would say any thing, was the cloth manufacture, which on comparison would be found by no means to have suffered in the same proportion with the other staple articles of manufacture. In die first place with respect to cloth, its sale in the foreign markets was not entirely stopped. He held in his hand a statement of the condition of that manufacture in several places in the West Riding of Yorkshire, namely, in Leeds, Huddersfield, Wakefield, and Halifax. From that statement it appeared that the class engaged in that Manufacture who suffered most were the dressers, and their number was estimated at 3,362. In August last, of that number, one third was wholly oat of employment—of the remaining two-thirds only one-third was is full employ—that was to say, only two men cut of nine had full work, while one man out of every three was absolutely idle. The distresses in that quarter among the other classes was not so general, although very severe, while is the other description of'persons the distress was greater than any idea could be formed of by those who only heard it described. The iron trade presented a pie ties, still more shocking. He would state the situa tion of Birmingham, as an instance of what was en darkl ib those districts where this trade was canted ost.4kt Birmingham, °qt of a population of 84,000 in the own, 27,500, or about one-third of the whole 'population. were now receiving parish relief. Of the weskit= of the town one-third were totally unem ployed, and of the rest, there were none more than ale-half employed. The poor rates in that town now amounted to £50,000 or more, nearly £60,000 alear. In 1812 the poor rates there amounted only to 07,000, and only one ninth part of the int:abi de* were receiving parochial relief ; and yet that hying was thought at the time to be one of unprece dented distress. The number of the ingenious per sons employed in that town in the different branches of the iron* manufacture might be divided into lour classes—the miners, the manufacturers of arms of every description, those engaged in the nail trade, sand the common artificers. The first of these classes, the miners, who formerly used to earn from eighteen to twenty shillings a week, now got only from nine to ten shillings a week. The second class, who used to earn front thirty to forty shillings, and some of them even so much as three guineas a week, now got only about seven shillings and sixpence a week, and by far the greatest proportion of them was totally un employed. The next class, the nailer:, .who used ro earn from twelve to fifteen shillings, now got from eight to nine shillings a week. And the last class, the common artificers, those of them who were employed sot less than a shilling a day. With respect to those in the nail trade, he must make this remark, that in former times both women and children, as well as men, were employed in that trade, so that a family earned double the wages of a man—but now, women and children were nut employed at all, so that in the nail traae, from thirty shillings a week, their earnings were reduced to eight or nine shillings. Without referring to the unconstitutional measures lately adopted lie the Has" be might says that • mon peaceable. loyal set of persons, did dot exist within his Majesty's dominions than those of whom he was sow speaking. It was most painful to con sider, that severe as the distress was in the quarter of which he had been speaking. it was still worse when thercame to that ancient staple manufacture the whiCh the kingdom was ses much distinguished, itautely, that of cotton. The cotton manufacture was divided into two branches—the spinning and the weaving ; but of the persons engaged in it, by far the greater portion were engaged in the lost. In Lancashire, at the lowest estimate, half a million of persons were engaged in coital weaving. In 1800 ones average ut one thousand of the persons so em ployed, the rate of their wages was 13s. 2d. a week; ID 1802 the rate of their wages was a little raised, but in 1806 they tell to 10s. 6.1. a week. In 1808, when we were so wise as to quarrel with America. our best customer in the cotton trade, their wages fell so low so '7s. 6d. a week—in 1812. when the same system which embroiled us with America. engaged es in as; actual war with that country. their wages ids to 6t. 4d. In 1816. in May last, they were so low as Ss. - 2d. and in last January. they had fallen is such a fearful point of depressins, as to be 4s. Std. a week — from which one-fourth pert was to be de ducted for the expenses of the paste used in dretsing the web-and the use of the loom, leaving' the scanty rotof Ss. fold. a week for the support of human s another calculation, it appeared, from an average of 437 weavers, they earned only at the rate of halter-crown a week. Hating asked a person who furnished him with this information how much it would have taken to supply these wretched persons with a few necessaries to add to the allowance of half a pound of the coarsest oatmeal and water, which was -all-tket- could afford tes- titry-fOr -their food welt their t the reply was,, that he had calculated that to then, with a small supply of milk or beer, would have required a sum not less than twenty thousand pounds a weeks 'ro talk of charity in such a case was absurd—the case was beyond the relief of all private benefaction—(Near.) That human life could be supported on such wages, he was con ' winced, must be impossible ; and accordingly he found, that piece by piece these unfortunate persons had partied with the little furniture which frugally or nameoted their habitations, even to the clothes that ',protected their bodies from the weather—till now, when they were compelled to endeavoUr to keep thetnselsai alive with a slender allowance of oatmeal and wiles on which, and cnkthe little candle to at lord them a scanty light by which to pursue their work, their whole .wages were expended. Nay, to such n pitch of misery were they come, that, like cal ' editions on the warn of machinery, they were corn- Felled to calculate as to the human machine, whether it world be better to sit up to work an hour longer to farm three halfpence, of which a penny must b: spent oa a °ladle, or "Lille they would not suffer less by Couffaillit their Week to it hours of day light, and an less waste their bodies Thus were they compel led.tti ants as awlises, unwilling, unless shoohltd i f , to come upon their parithes foe support. If boas thase.panieulat fact* a more gene tat vie,/ Wit taketi, it wouhl be found that the state of things which he had described, mast have take place even if they only looked at the general signs.— Of these signs, the first to which he adverted, was' the diminution in the consumption of luxuries. Fie allude' to ibis as attested by the defalcation in the' Excise and Customs. Then he adverted to the e,s -in particular distticts—in Siital-ticids, for the relief of which, to the credit of die country, tf e rums contributed sitm.unted to a Farm, which, witls the poor rates, made more than equal to the whole rental -of the parish at its rack rent—its Coventry, near which an estate of two hunched acres mud double the amount of its tent (or poor rates. Even in the ordi nary luxury of watches, it appeared fritan Inc state. ment of an Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Peter Moore) en a former evening, that an itinerant dealer in watches, who used to make an annual circuit through towns, during whir/ he used to sell a:soot sit hun dred watches, last year only sold 57. He mentioned the state of the watchmaking trade in London, it which three thousand persons were enraged, of wh om only one-fourth part were now employed, at the usual rate of wages. Another symptoms was to be found is those diseuotents which, within the last few years, were for the first time heard, with respi ct to the introduction of machinery, on account of its throwing idle numbers of those engaged in the ma nufacture in which it was introduced. Formerly, when machinery was introdneed, the labour ot those persons who were thrown idle for the time was ;m --rnechately absorbed in some other branch of manu facture. But now the House had belore it petitions from thousands and tens of thousands of persons, thrown absolutely idle by the introduction of machi nery ; persons who had no employment, nor tato the distant hope of being employed. When the ad mirable invention of Sit Richard Arkwright was in troduced, it appeared from the separate calculatitan of two of the greatest cotton-spinners in the Ling dom, that by that invention, the labour of one man was sufficient, where that of a hundred men was br. fore required, and yet when that invention within a very short time had been adopted all over the king dom, no complaint sas.made to the House by the persons thrown out of employment by means of it.— Very different was the case new. He hardly knew whether to say he was sorry or glad at the recent improvements in machinery, which so much facilita ted the operation of weaving—he allotted to was called the " Power Loom"—an invention, which. although not lik to be so profitable to the capita list as that of Sir Richard Arkeright had been, yet - had thrown an immense number of persons cut a: employment. The cause which he thought most likely to stop the progress of this inventi as was secs; singular. Fur the first time in the history of ma:, wages had become se low, and the distress of the pea ple-so great, thbt human labour now began, :,s were, to make reprisals on machinery, ani WAS Ctrl• ing into competition with it in point ot chealatese— What was to happen afteethlngs had come to this pitch Gon alone could knew. but to that unnatural state we had now come. Besides the two branches of manutactote, spinning and weaving, in the prin ting trade and lace ':ode, machinery had pito• dated the same effect, to a certain degree-- The last symptom, perhaps the most imp:'rtant, was the state of the money market. Considerable differ. CliCe dopinicin pr.evailed on this subject, and perhaps doe kight Honotdable the Chancellor of. the Ear.ihe goer might agree with the First Lord of the Trea sury, in thinking that the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act had occasioned the rise in the funds— (Neer, hear, ands leagh from the Opftosiiice). As to that. Alt (Mr. Brougham) might as well refer the rise of the funds to the exposure of the Spencean system, for the funds had risen as soon as the Report of the Secret Committee was ma& public—(H.44 tier,) —though he could infer so more from that fa .t than the belief in the existence of that speculative avid very rare sect. The state of the money mark e t was such, that lately there had been the greatest ftt• cility in discounting bills at a short credit, for a mo derate interest—so moderate even as two and a per cent. Exchequer Bills, even at the very reduce rate of interest, bore a high premium, and the Stocks roe ten per cent. within the last month. What (lit all this thew ? It he saw that there was a pope donate facility in the landholder to enable him to borrow money on good mortgage security at the le gal rate of interest, he might be disposed to pause before he asserted, that all these facts sheaved a glut in the money market. But the truth was, that a Was owing to there being more money in Londin than could find employment in trade—all the chan nels of -trade were blocked up, and the capitatet kept his money within his reach, expecting, that us the course of six months some change, he dii not know how or what, would occur, and that he would find employment for it in trade. He then ref - cried to the high rate of interest in the French Funds and :fie i!ow rate in ours—to the state of the American Funds, and to what was called the favourable rate of Ex change for this country, as sheering that we had act at present any trade weich availed an, thing for the national advantage. He then referred to flee doctrine, that the transition from a gate of war to a state of peace was the cause of the ciimmercial dis tress, and contended that it was perfectly la:se- He could easily understand, so far as this, that it was true that those who were engaged in feeding the army and navy with the supply of :Lose Artieres ef manufacture which they constimed, must feel fl'e distress when the war was over. Pat the brasier:es of manufacture in which the distress was now t.:e greatest, were those which ha:.' not bet-ts concerned in supplying the army or navy. He now came to state whet lie thought was the real came; and riee he begged the House first to turn its attention to line of policy which had unfortunately late ozed ea; councils of the country ; he did nut mean as to Cm war, for lie would keep off that part of the ssibject, ' but keep to that ground on which there WAS likely to be less difference of opinion in Cie House. It seemed to be the principle of some of our practical finial , cians, imbibed probably from the class of no.irfaanati and manufactutas who surrounded them, that taa much could hardly be done to &scout a ger the ' , open trade. This remnant of the old explode-el miroviene glean, of having all exports and 110 imports—all selling and no buying—all money and no this doctrine of the balance of tr a d e which had taken into such deserved neglect that no Mill would now dere to talk of it, yet seemed somehow womar fully tooted in flu minds of our statesmen; 't V