The Sun. — London, England, 1812-06-17 00:00:00

! 1- 1 what could bessvisileas, an d other ware misplaced. aas . s which had been committed in various p.i. tile country no one could blame more than.Se did, but at the same time he thought no one could witness these excesses (viewing' the Source whence they proceeded) without compas sion Ansither of the resources to wbich they had been driven, Was that of recurring to an old statute (as theyhave seen thousands of manufac turers do), a statute almost obsolete: for fixing • the rate of wages. Another was to be traced in the . petitions to that House from certain poor people; praying the House to abOlish useless sine cures. This prayer, if coniplied.With, he did not say, would afford the relief ; which the Pcti tioners hoped and desired s,hitt though such could not be its effect, still;; if thS ritianber of those were lessened who had an interest in the 'continuance of the war, the country might be:better guarded than at present againstthe: reentrance of such a calamity. Another watt -to 'seen when they looked to the numbers who had.petitiOn`ed against the continuance, of the East India Monopoly-, for to the necessity tc Which they (theinanalactitrers, &c.) were reduceds could:ndt.istit attribute 'the numerous petitions - which reCeived..—: That many were justified in al6ing so, notonly in a moral point of view, -'butsin a political point of view, with a reference to .i.heir own interest; he' did not doubt. 'He thought the great city, of Li verpool might, when it advanced the claim .which it had preferred_ to a participation in the profitable trade to China and India. They had not only a right to assert such a claim, hut they took aright view of their interest when they asserted it. This be mild say of Liverpool, but there were many places from which petitions had been received; for . which he could not say the same. He would give an instance. Ile knew one district from which a petition had been received, the produce of whieh was suchs that their hopes of advantage from the trade being thrown open, mustpriticipally depeed on the amount of black-horned cattle which,they might be able to export to the east Indies. The porcelain manufacturers of Staffordshire had pe titioned, in the hope of being enabled to export • their wares with advantage ; and the town of Newcastle had sent up a Petition, -with a view of being hereafter allowed to export coals for the hot-houses, &c. in the East Indies. • These circumstances, he contended, were symptoms of the extent of the pressure of the distresssof the country. It was, in his opinion, impii4ible to 'witness the conduct of the manufacturers' in the present situation of the country, without being re minded of those scenes which formerly occurred when this city was visited with the plague. At that distressing period, according to the history of the times, men were seen franticly running out of their houses from their dying familiess and eagerly asking'ads;ice of any one whom they might chance to meet, eagerly detaining the passenger, as if by communicating to him the infectionthey could hope to revive the dying or the dead at home, and to care themselves. They were further inform ed, that the empiric of that . day would fre quently come forward with. their absurd nos trutns, which were purchased with such avidity, that they made large fortunes in a week or two, and then as suddenly disappeared. As at that day all circumstances tended to mark she public sa sms a u went to show the. 5; state of the country, the _magnitude of the wide spreading evil. Here, -once for all, he wished to state, that it was not his intention to go minute ly into the detail of the evidence, but 'merely to speak generally on the subject (leaving it to his lion. Friend, .who had been so indefatigable in promoting the inquiry, to go into the detail if be thought proper), for the information .of those who had ,not attended to the inquiry. Shortly stating their proceedings, the case stood thus— They had examined about 100 persons, who had been chosen almost at random from the manufac tories. They had had no "difficulty in finding per sons ready to come forward. The only difficulty experienced was to keep back the hundreds whO Were ready to give their evidence against the Or ders in Council. All who had been examined had been found to concur in the same story. He begged pardon, there was one: exception, which was an exception so remarkable, that he should feel it his duty to speak particularly on that sub ject presently ; but not a single person (save the exception to which he had alluded) bad pretended to deny the existence of the great distress com plained of. If it, were not proved, he would say, look at the situation of Warwickshire, the grand staple for our hardware—look at Birming ham, which used to be, he might say, one con tinual work-shop, one immense hive of industry, containing 400,000 souls ; look at it now, and instead of what it was, behold its inhabitants, idle half the week, and only able to work the other half of the week for half the usual prices. Many master-workmen had, to lheir own injury, exerted themselves to keep on as many of. their workmen as possible at half price ; some had turned off their men, while others had dismissed, , a portion of them, and now said-to the House of Commons, your. decision must decide the fate of the rest. lie would not say what must be the fate of those hundreds and thousands of labourers who would be turned out of employ if this ; l otion were negatived; but if they said " No," hun dreds and thousands of mannfactnrers must be let loose all Over the country. The late Chancellor of the Exchequer, in one -of - the very few con versations which he (Mr. B.) had had with that distinguished character on this subject, had Said, that it was true, he (Mr. B.) had proved his case with, respect to the hardware manufacturers, but be. could not prove it with respect to the woollen manufacturers." He would maintain that the case of the 'Woollen manufacturers was even stronger than that of the manufacturers of hard - - ware. Look to Yorkshire, they would there see greater capitals embarked ;* they would see one man with a capital of 20,0001. another with one of 25,0001. another with one of 30,0001. another with one of - 35,0001. and one had' been brought before them who had . ,a capital ef 90,0001. so em barked, every farthing of-which he had stated was now completely locked up. One very affecting circumstance had' been stated to have occurred at 'Kidderminster ; the poor people there with difficulty reserved their elothes, and the fur niture of their cottages, to the last extremity, lout were finally obliged to pawn them : for food, till at length the shops of the pawntrolters *ere quite full of such articles. The same thing had occurred at Sheffield, with one remarkable addi tion : At that place, in which 40,090 workmen had formerly been maintained, the general distress became such, that those person s,who had Leen-in the habit of working for master warkinen, being no longer able to do, ' , had got into the habit of regularly carrying their work to the paWnbrokers. The .consequence of du's was, that the pawn brokers had come -.to ;London; with the articles thus purchased, and beat ,down the price of such manfacturers in the regular market. Similar dis .,tress was felt by those engaged in the cotton trade at Manchester, ,Bolton, &c. One man had been examined who,liad been in the habit of let ting cottages to the poor people in the manufac turing districts, Mr. Bentley, a. Gentleman to whose character the head of, the Peele family had borne testimony. This Gentleman (Mr. Bentley) had let out his lands 'and, his cottages to these poor people. Formerly his rent was :sure ; but he .pow stated, " that he had gone to collect it, ,and seen in those cottages wheie comfort was formerly' to he found, his tenants sitting down to a scanty meal (their only Meg in the ;‘2.4 hours) of oatmeal and water—a scene which affected hint so much, that he went away without being able toAsk for his rent. He then quoted the evidence of several other persons to skew the distress which existed in, the manufacturing towns, and remark ed, that to feel 'all the efict of the evidence, it Wes necessary to be present when it was given,. to note the manner, tone, and appearance, of those by whom it was given. On the subject of the scarcity it was now necessary for him to speak. On this he knew there was much soreness., and it had often been triumphantly asked,—" Do you attribltte this to the Orders in Council ?" He Certainly would 'do no such thing, but he would obServe, that there were two kinds of scarcity, the one was a scarcityof graii,:the other a scarcity of money to; bny ,grain with.. The witnesses ,Ouestioffedso to the effect formerly produced, by two years Of scarcity, which produced almost a faroine, had treated it as a matter of.little im portance, as then there was work and wages, to enable the manufaCturers to purchase the, peces siiries of life, and the evil,, comparatively apeak-: in,. was hardly felt. To say that the scarcity bad nothing to do with the present distresses, was as great a blunder as it Would be to say the Jesuits Bark Bill had nothing, to do with the mortality in France while it .was admitted to be true, that men died of, the agile while we withheld the medicine, which would afford them considerable relief. It was with the same parity of reasoning 'that it might be contended, that the scarcity was 'not occasioned by the, Orders in Council, while they closed the sources to which we -must otherwise look for relief. Our perse s vering in the same system must cause an inter ruption to the supply of our army in , the .Penin sub,. The news of the American ,embargo having been laid on but one day, caused the 'N i ke of wheat to rise 50 per cent, at Lisbon, and when the news reached London, the consequence was, 6000 quarters were immediately taken from the .Market for the 4rmy in the Peninsula: The war could not. be carried on without supplies from America. Must then the war in the Peninsula, oe um etwrigcsi advocates were among thoSe who upheld the Orders in Council, be given up to continue those Orders. in force I 'Was this our last remaining hope of being able to pull down the pride of. France, to be thrown away Just when it appeared most likely to repay us for the sacrifices it had cost ? Was it come to this, that the war in the Peninsula, though a favourite measure was to be giver up ; because it threaten-. ed to involve as in the evil of conciliation with America ; merely became the same measure en abled us to continue the war there, would pre serve to us our best, our firmest friend, Atnerica, and relieve oar heart-broken manufacturers ? The picture of distress in this country which he , (Mr. B.) had alluded to, had been denied by no witness on the other side, save one,, whose evi dence on that subject hail been expunged. He. only had denied that the people felt,,distress;. and as he stood alone, he (Mr. B.) had examined'the man as to what he conceived to be the comforts to which an . Englishman (a manufacturer) was en titled, and thee a scene followed, which he would . not describe, and he was implored by his Hon. Friend and the Vice President of the Board of Controul, to consent that the evidence of .which he had spoken, should be expunged. He was sorry he had consented to ita; being expunged, as be could not refer to it on the Minutes. The eni (lenge of whom he was speaking had declared that the people wanted nothing more, than they had ; and that if they had more, they would have . too much—morelhan they had. a right to have. He (Mr. B.) had asked if he thought that oatmeal and water wits as much as that class of which he himself (the evidence) had been one, haul a right to have ?—and the answer was " Yes." This loyal merchant; for be was so loyal that he had commenced his evidence with an attack on Jacobinism ; this affluent merchant, for he was' sorry to say he was one of the most affluent 'mer chants in the City of London, whO had gained his means of insulting the lower orders from the exertions of the lower orders, in aid of his own industry, for he (Mr. B.) was sure he had risen from ,their number, had, said, that "oat- Meal and water were as much as the English la bourer had a right to ; that if he bad more he would become pampered, and in consequence the whole frame of society would be , unhinged."— This want the only witness called to contradict the story of distress told by all the others ; and, in the absence' of facts, the supporters of the Or— ders in Council had been obliged to fly to the ola resource—that furnished by the inspector- General of Exports and - Imports. • He had little to say to him at present, but he could have wish ed to have had him there to , examine as to the authenticity of his accounts. At present, when the distress of the country was so fully proved, it was stark -nonsense to bring him the returns of the Inspector Of the Exports and Imports. When they had nothing approximating nearer to that which must give these some idea of the state of the people's comforts as compared 'with what they . were, he (islr!B.) must then go to Mr., Ir ving. At present, his accounts were not .wanted, which before bad no faith or value. The teturns. from the Custom-house'Weft On tlick Scale ; that from the fsventy-seven millions returned on the average yearly, eight or 10,000,0001. latterly 10,000,0091. might be fairly deducted. It ap peared that a fellow feeling prevailed at the Cus tom-house and the 'Board of Trade, ath; that there was a tendency always to enter more then With a strict adherence to truth could be set , always to go on the oatside. Mr:Fry-had stated that he had known goods entered as worth five thousand pounds in - stead of fifty pounds which was their true value, or more than their true value. It was usually said at the Custom ; house, f` you may as well set clown so and so, Sir ; if the goods are not worth so much, you may as well put them down in round figures, a; there is no duty or draw-, back ; as that is our way, and such is our way ;" and such was the way of the Custom Hou'se.— Mr. Glennie, who had very, recently given his evi dence, had stated, that on one occasion'the Clerk had desired him to enter the goods taken there at double the value. Where then was the credit clue to these returns ? This circumstance took away all his respect for tiaeta, even if in any case they* could have value when brought forward in oppo sition to facts. But they were of no value. While things did not fluctuate' much, thes.' accounts might serve to keep' people M . the dark, and make thembelieve that things Were going on nearly as well as formerly. This, however, could be dhne no longer. A defalcation appeared in one branch of our trade, that which was carried on with the United States of America,of : 12,000,0001. which had taken place in the course of twelve months.— another branch of our trade, that with the North of Europe; it, defalcation appeared of 6 or 7,000,0001. These fallings-off 'caused a total de falcation, , which `vas so great as -to baffle all, the skill of the. Custom-house Officers, and uth last out came that account With which they had long been threatened; from which it - appeared that the total change which had -taken place in - trade since the adoption of the .present system, had been in one year no less tham35,000,0001. and in another. year no less than 38,000,0001..sterlingl including the imports and exports to all parts of the world: After this, what became of that which:they had been in the habit of hearing-=that if the trade of the country had fallen off in one part of the world, it had increased 'in another ;- that if we had no longer the commerce as formerly en with the:United States, we had the tra :le with Heligoland, with Malta, with ,South America, and with North America, to console us ? What became of all this, .when it appeared that in one year our trade to all parti of the world had experienced a falling off of 35,000;0001. and in another of 38,000,0001. ? The exports of our manufactures in 1811, as cont.:- pared with that of the, year 1809, which, after all, was as good a year, or very nearly as good, as 1810, much as had been said of the extraordinary amount of our exports and trade in that year ; but comparing our exports of manufactures in 1811 with 1809, there appeared, by documents he, had seen, a diminthion of, 16,000,0001. and hi. eluding those of colonial produce in 1811, and comparing them with the exports of 'manufac tures and colonial produce in 1810, there appear ed a falling off of 20,000 ; 0001. and including both -on the total of our exports, comparing 1811 .with .1809, "there was a deficit of 27,000,0001. With this - statement he woali dismiss the Cus tom-house accounts. Giving up, the evidenie of Messrs. Fry and Glehnie, these accounts them selves did not prove what he had stated ; that was proved before, but they confirmed his state ment- of-the case. The non. Gentleman now pro ceeded to take-a view of the value of the markets furnished . by SOuth America, Heligoland,, North America, and other places which had been named as furnishing a Set-ott against the loss of the trade tb the United States. Of these, South -America was the principal, but there it appeared the Mer chants engaged, instead of gaining 30, 40, or 50 per cent. had lost 50 per cent. He could 'hardly help being -disposed to laugh, when .the Right Hon. Gentleman examined' his "witnesses on this point. When they told hint that a loss of 50 per cent. was incurred, he exclaimed, " What ? loss on the trade to South Ainerical," anSwered in the affirmative. "His' next inquiry was ; " What had they shipped?" :When . told that they had shipped for South America, woollen manufactures,' hardware, &c. 'his cry was, " Why how could-- You think of sending such things ? You might be. sure of 'losing if You sent out such articles." Ih the situation in which the Right Hon, Gehtleman had been placed, he had actually rated his own witnesses, as if they ought to have gone to the Board , of Trade- to get their cargoes assorted. Had they done this, perhaps the Itight lion. Gentle man . and the Noble Lord would haVe made such an assortment, and given such directions, that they might have had a chance, not of gaining any thing in the trade,. but_of losing,only 20. instead of 50 per Cent. When it was first attempted to establish a trade with 'North America, 'great en couragement was necessarily held out to smug gling, and this smuggling system swelled the amount of our exports ; but when the effects of this causedithe people of the United States to unite heart and hand with .the Government against the system adopted by England, there was an end to this smuggling, and away went our Canada trade. If the 'trade with America, was . opened, still the Canada trade would not be deteriorated, for the same profits, the same sureness - would remain: Now, with ! respect to, the benefits which this Country would have derived from a free trade to America, it was proved by a Merchant of consi derable eminence in the United States (a Mr. White) that of the twelve millions annuallF ex ported into the States from Great Britain, not one-thirteenth is exported to South America, the principal article exported there being Preneh silks, and not British goods. He would now look at the Home trade, to which the Vice-President of the Board of Trade had. examined evidence, and the result of the examination was, that it.sUffered -by degrees in equal proportion as the foreign mar ket was choked up. All those'plaCes in Ireland which were in the habit of . supplying America With British manufactures, and particularly Shef field, alSo suffered in proportion, the commodi ties being throWn back tivon the market.; the Wealth of the people being diminished, and 'con sequently they ,cannot afford to buy. There was another observation which applied to this part of the subject, and that was this,: . a great part of the trade Vent tiof tegillar and tvholes6nie ; and in a national point of view, therefore not Itierattiveeto this Country. What Vas this' owing to ? to the cembilled operations of the taxes laid on the people by this House, and to the prosecution the war. in order to slieei that the trade coehl. not be called regular, he had only t 6 in one branch of it, namely, the export of the manufacturers of Birmingham, Which annually. 'sent about 2,400,0001. value, half of that suni was exported to America, the-other half was for home consumption. Of the latter half, upwards. of 700,0001, was .for ,small guns for the sappy of our armies in the Peninsula. He was not prepareat to say how much was to he set down for iwords ) pistols, &c. He was disposed to admit, that aS „ far as it went, it was 'certainly a relief to Bira mingham, but was not beneficial to the Tegulei consumer. lie rejoiced even at,this relief, boi he should have rejoiced more if that relief had . been :afforded so as to contribute to the benefit of the industry of the land. The same partial benefit' Might be said to Jnive been experienced at Led lei Wakefield, andllalifax e by the clothiers, for 'ouf armies are supplied with clothing from that trict, and 5 or 600,000 men were not clothed at a small expense. There Was another ,fact which gave great satisfaction to the Viee President about a year site,e. The manufacturers of Leeds then received yelief in_ consequence of the ladies having adopted the practice of wearing cloth pe:- lisses.. But this relief; grateful as it was to the . people or Leeds, was afforded' at the expertise of the Spital-fields weavers. At that time the Right Hon. Gentleman boasted'of the. relief as a source of great exultation, being ready to catch at any thing which e gave the least appearance of a fillip to trade, and that could by any Meads dovetail into his' favourite. system. Untbrtunately, down came the weavers Complaining that their distress was beyond description ; aod that th is relief ofLeeds was at their expellee. Such w, v the case before the House, and all - that regained for the . other side to do was, to afford some relief in the pre-, sent exigency of the country, by rescinding the: Orde'rs in Connell. 'When appeals were made its this House for the necessity of supporting the ho _ nonr and dignity of the country, there was no man could listen, more readily to those appeals.' than himself ; but when the House was told that the whole of the trade of.the country was thrown, into channels- of an uncertain' and suspicious de scription, it surely was then - tide to set about remedying the error. Instead, of so doing, the House was told, that the maritime rights of the nation must - be upheld--that thosq' rights were necessary, and that the honour and dignity of the Crown was paramount to all other considerations.•. With respect to those rights, no man was so ready to uphold them as himself, if. they .were really essential to the comfort of the people - of this country. But it was necessary, for the sake of those who thought differently on the question, that he should step aside from the detail to notice this part of the subject. if it was proved that these maritime rights were incompa. tible with the existence of the trade of the comm• try, then he wss prepared to contend that the. con'. tinuation of the system was not necessary ; but if he viewed the subject in a different point, Us: shetil be the last man.iu the House to recommend the abandonment of the system.. lie viewed: t'iie merce of the country in a different lint, rye thought the extinction of the system was pertly:t compatible with the preservation of the ~-91: Inerce; . that in fact it was necessity to its salva tion, and therefore he saw.nothuig in the 'surren der of, the Orders in Council which could be cee strued into an abandonment of the, maritime rietus of the nation: In the case of the Martinique blockade, he, admitted that th e L or d s o f ael , Council were Of a different opinion : they tiro:' the position which he now, advanced; b4t -I,;:kit ting, for the sake of argument, that ell Vie wc , Zut was blockaded, would it be contended,, he asked, that the mere abstaining from the e,xi ,e or ele right, wasa proof of the abandmptiegt ; J f it - Not one of our maritime rihts had beet - cloned in any degree, from the stipulatiens the Treaty of Utseeht, down to the rule of Iver laid down in 1756;. from ,which rule sprung up /he. Orders in Council . . In Doctors' Com , mons it was given .up as' a principle, that nen.- . tral ships made neutral goods. Sic J. Alarrott utterely abandoned that doctrine, and he believed. his Hon. and Learned Friend (2.4..Srephens) the author of that famous book published in IS - oi, Under the title of " War in Disguise," would not - contend that the right formedpart-tof our national code ; the' illtistribus Statesmhn, Mr. Fox, seas of the smile opinion.. The argument' which he meant to employ on' the occasion,, was Vic necessite of giving up or waving for 'a tine the operation of the Orders ; and that it might be done with all the solemnities which were requisite; the Civilians might, in their protest, usher to the world in this strongest language possible, the , necessity for exercising the just rights of the - nation ; they might even say that the country was ready to die in 'defence of those rights, but the right must not be persevered hafor sonic time ; the right was no right ht his opinion, if the Coa itiy was ohligesi always to exercise it. The Honourable and Learned Gentleman then reverted to the main question, namely, the sacefice of the commerce of the country at the feet of the Orders in Coun' cii. The commerce thus lost, was the 'whole of the . trade to the United States, which market 'cre ated:a demand for the mantifactures to. the amount of thirteen millions sterling annually, a market of the greatest certainty 'and regularity, not a mar , ket of experiment, like that of toe Vice-President of the Board of Trade, wherethe unfortunate trader was sure of , meeting a loss of iifty pee cent. urn the commodities he sent out. The In2eri ean market had not the chara.steristic feature of Right Hon,- Gentleman's, fOr the demand for goods was increasing until lately, it had been eight millions ; it .was Si) Incri&tscd to thirteen, millions, and in a few' years, if permitted to go on, would bid fair to arrive at twenty millions s . , the return trade. was also as good es any chancel the witnesses examiucd at the bar concurred in that opinion, represeuting it as beneficial as the trade to Holland,• his any other of,the ports. , In , 1806, one of the arlumelqs_used against the trade was this : that all the money was placed. in a state of jeopardy—that argument, .hoe ever, could not apply; for a balance since then hait bees strackr' I