The National Register. — London, England, 1817-04-28 00:00:00

No. 4M.—VoL. X. POLITICAL DISQUISITION. --40.-- PITHLIc DISTRESS, AND THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER'S'I'LAN FOR RELIEVING IT. OUR readers will have observed with pleasure the plan of the Chancellor of the Exchequer for affording relief to the labouring poor throughout the kingdom. There has long been but one opinion respecting the very pressing necessity flir some measures of melioration. The sighs of the widow, the weepings of the orphan, the groans of the captive debtor, have created a sensa tion throughout the country which was never before fejt by Englishmen. Mini.aers have not teen insen sible to the wants of the poor ; they have not, as some falsely assert, turned a deaf car to their cries. It is true, they have rejected -certain insults which have been, from time to time, offered to them in the shape of petitions, addresses, and remonstsances ; they have ens deavoured . to silence the voice of sedition, to crush the hydra-headed monster anarchy, and to preserve from destruction the lives and property of the peaceable and well-disposed against tLe vile machinations of the fac tious and rebellious. They may not, in every instance, have taken the ssisest course ; they may rot, at all times, have adopted the very best means of accomplish ing their objects. They may have been led by their fears and over-anxious vigilance to magnify our dangers, as others have studiously magnified our distresses. They may have been deceived or mistaken as to the actual extent of the numerous conspiracies and plots which leave been detected and exposed. All this Mini sters may have done ; but we are f:rmly persuaded that they have laboured, we trust efli , ctually, fbr the relief of the nation, noel the redress of its many grievances. This plan of Mr. Vanaittart's proves it. On the mea sure itself we shall not at present dilate. It is slot per f,,eted ; all observations upon it would, thereflue, be premature. We rejoke, however, that something is to be done, which, although confessedly only of a tem porary nature, it is hoped, before this source is ex hausted, the usual channels of our commercial inter tercourse and national prosperity will be re-opened and that we-shall again behold the return of public confidence and private happiness. We have lately had an opportunity of conversing with several intelligent merchants and manufiuturers from the northern manufacturing districts ; and we are glad to learn, that trade revives a little, though, it is sided, but very slowly. At Stockport, in Cheshire, there are several exten sive manufactories of hats ; but, for sonic time, there has been a great want of employment fur the journeymen. Those who arc employed, even now, earn a competent weekly sum flux their maintenance. A good workman can earn about twenty-five shillings per week : in Let ter times he would have earned nearly three times that suns ! In the same neighbourhood are several calico-pri?it lug establishments. These are, generally, in a very low and sinking state. Those who have employment can earn about thirty abilliugs or two pounds per week : formerly a good workman at this business could earn upwards of three pounds. The weaving and spinning traer, me getting bettor ; tut the wages are still excessively low. A muslin weaver and his wife must lalamr very hard to earn the sum of ten shillings in the week ! In the ►oust pronpe nous times of our tunic, the salvo persons could have cleared upwards of fifty shillings by the same exertions. These are very afflicting considerations ; but it is impos sible not to reflect, that had thc: , e poor creatures exer cised that prudence and foresight which it was t.teir duty sr► have done; hail they, to use a common proverb, " made hay whilst the sun shone," they would hav e " laid up tic-a:thing fior a rainy day," and would not now have bee►► reduced to Lcalar.y and pauperism : at Our thug, Vfildtlution anb liatod. MONDAY, APRIL 28, 1817. least, these evils would fiat have existed to the extent we now find them. It Was surely their indispensable duty to have been frugal and industrious at a time when they had an opportunity of acquiring au independence. Their not having done this. should, at least, teach them lessons of humility is this the day of their suffer ing. his well-known, that in the times to which we have above alluded, nothing was more common than an absence from work during nearly half the week. The usual triode of proceeding with the " labouring poor" in the neighbourhood of Manchester, Bolton, ' Stockport, Macclesfield, &c. was to leave their work soon after mid-day on a Saturday, the afternoon of that day being devoted to pleasure of one kind or other ; the evenings generally to smoking and drinking ; Sun day was an idle day as a matter of course. They short ened the Sabbath by cutting a little off both ends; they rose late, and went to bed early. " Saint Monday" followed; and who but slaves and aristocrats would work on "Saint Monday ?" Football and cricket, race-run ning and fighting, , and drinking were the offerings they presented at the shrine of this imaginary saint. Tuesday brought aching beads, tired limbs, ex hausted pockets, and bitter railings against government and the hardness of the times even then they com plained of hard times—Tuesday, therefore, saw but a very scanty portion of the week's work accomplished. On Wednesday, however, they set to in right earnest— they did indeed work like slaves. They had no time for grumbling. They whistled and sang, and sweat and toiled, and appeared full of life had animation. The whole house was in a bustle. The wife could scarcely turn the wheel rapidly enough to supply her husband's flying shuttle with " pins" (bobbins). The children ran backwards and forwards between the shop and the house, with almost breathless alacrity and glee, to see their father striving to finish his work in time for Fri day's " taking-in." Thus usually past the week. In this routine of idle ness and dissipation, of excessive labour and extravagant expenditure, did many who are now complaining for want of bread, exhaust the best period of their lives ; and now that misery and wretchedness are come upon them ; now that poverty has overtaken theta "as an armed man," they arc filled with indignation and sur prise. We may be alaml and villifted for these represen tations but they are true nevertheless ; and though we sincerely pity the condition to which so many of our fellow countrymen are reduced, we cannot entertain the same sentiments of sorrow and commisseration for persons whose distresses arc the consequences of their own imprudence and want of foresight as for those whose sufferings are the unavoidable results of a pecu liar state of public affairs. We would put it seriously to the consciences of the thousands of the " blanketeers" of Manchester, whether the representations which we have here made are not, upon the whole, strictly correct ? Let them individual ly a 4: themselves, whether, it' they bad pursued an even and steady line of coal:et whilst wages were high and work plenty, they would now have been reduced to the misery they are taught to lay to the charge of ministers and a faulty government ? Whether they mill admit it or not, we inetv it to be a fact. We know that much, very much, of all this misery :lid poverty might have been prevented,.bad hut common prudence, and ordinary frugality been excercised. A vast majority of those Who arc now masters, were once journeymen, like thianselves ; but they did not, them, let slip an opportunity of securing an inde pendence, or at least a competency.• If they had neg lected that opportunity, probably, they also would now have been finind in the nulls of the itinerant reformers: they also would have been found wandering from their hones to " untleenivetlitkninee lb:gent," and to Set. l' Ric 1.1 tle the affairs of the nation with a worn-out blanlet, a pike-head, and a two-penny Register ! We will not, however, sport with the sufferings of our fellow creatures.—Many, many, are now pining in want who, humanly speaking, ought to see better days. All who suffer do not merit reproach—ln that rapid current of commercial embarrassment which has of late rolled throughout Europe, bearing down, like a devour ing cataract, whatever rose to impede its course, many innocent—many worthy industrious, frugal men have sunk—their brightest hopes have suddenly been dark. ened—their apparently well founded prospects of l.apbi. ness have been blasted, and their warm and fluttering cx. pectutions perished in the tremendous wreck. They " rose early and late took rest, and cat the bread of comfit'. ness," yet have they not reaped the fruits of their ex. ertions ; but are now craving that support from the hand of charity which they have devoted their lives to ac. quire by their own honest exertions. These are the the poor—these are the persons who claim our first and gresiestconsideration: for such as these, ministers should exert their warmest energies—they have an absolute demand on the resources of their country for support : and they will receive it. Surely, men like these and there are many such, will not be left to perish in the day of trial. They have deserved well of their fel low citizens—they have not heightened the common calamity by any factious proceedings—they assisted Ministers in their exertions to put down the hateful tyranny which aimed a deadly blow at their beloved country—they have cheerfully contributed to the sup port of our national honour and magnificence—they have not " brought railing accusations" against their King ; nor sought, by any wicked or arttul means to lower their country in the eves of foreign nations.... And shall these perish ? (gal forbid ! W e earnestly, but dutifully, and respectfully, call upon those who have at present the management of our national resourses, not to stop at any temporary expedi. ents to save "The wreck while it yet rimy remain on the ware." They have been called upon, and they have listened to the call, to adopt some plans of economy and re trenchment, that may effectually re-establish us. Now they have " put their hand to the plough let them not look back :" they have a great work before them ; a greater work then even the one they have recently so nobly atchieved on the Continent ; they have to light against human nature—against those selfish propensi. tics---that spirit of personal aggrandizement, so naturally indulged by all of us, which would blind them to the real state of the country—mislead them as to the right methods of relieving our sufferings, and silence all the suggestions of humanity, and truth, which would whis per to them, that nothing short of prompt, and very extensive sacrifices on their parts, as men and as Lgis lators, can save their suffering, fellow-creatures front the devouring jaws of poverty and death. With a view- to saving, it is said to be in the contem plation of Goverment, to ship off to Botany-Bay all the convicts on board the bulls at Woolwi c h, &c., w h o have been for some time employed at the works on more. The keeping up of the hulk-establishment is thond much more expensive than the work is proved to be benetical: at. the present rate of shipping, the passage out to Bot any-Bay will not cost more than one-third of the exoence in the time of war. The works at Chatham ard Wool. whit will be carried on by labourers recently discharged from the several yards. Emigrants from Switzerland for North America still Lacs in great numbers by Strasburg. It is said in that town, that an ex-real renonsge, who is founding a colony in the New World, has agents „in Switzerland to excite this emig,rat.ion • . _ A Nils , CotWET.—Mitiprolda, April 1 3.—Yesterday evening, about 13 minutes past 10 o'clock, a Comet was seen in the West ; bat, on account of the elan. it was not visible above three minutes. Its light out. slione th , .' other stars, so that it was not ea'}' r don% mine precisely in what constellation it appeared ; how. ever, it was in or near Gemini. Lucien litionaparte. who aprears to hare the inten tion of going to the United States, is preparing to quit Lome. , ; , ,-