The Express.
London, England, 1849-07-03 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, JULY 3, 1849.

present period with the commencement of 1846. To do that,
he had taken the pen 1846, 47, and 48, u the period the
lresent government was in office, apologising to the noble
ord for takiag the whole of 1846, u the pre ent government
did not come into oelce till the middle of that year.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER bad ear-
trimly esadentood the hon. gentleman to take 1846, and to
compare the reports of the pooe.law commiisieners for that
year with those for the hollowing year. He bad stated vari-
ems PIN to which he attributed the distress of 1847, for
undenbeedly the year ending Lady-day, 1848 was a you elf
pent amuse, and in which a great amount of money was ex-
pended for the relief et the poor. He had attributed
matt of the manufacturing distress to the badness of the
hem market ; but he bad entirely forgotten one most re-
markable circumstance which ought to have been mentioned.
and which accounted is no small degree for the distress—
** extraordinary high pries of corn which prevailed in
1847. (Hear, hear.) No wonder that great distress pre-
vailed when the average price of earn for the year was 695.
per quarter. If it wore true, as the hon. gentleman con-
tended, that the redness of the home market !or manufac-
tures depended on the high price of corn, that the foreign
market was comparatively of no value, and the home mar-
ket—that on which the manufacturing interest mainly de-
pended—never yet was there a year when the home market
ought to have been so good, and the trade of the minutia-
toyer' so prosperous, if they were really so dependent on
the home market. There n ought to have been a year
when the labourers were so well off, for corn was very high.
Arguing cn the hon. gentleman's own premises,
the year which he painted out as one of ex-
traordinary distress ought to have been one of
mat unprecedented prosperity, from the value et the
home market, and from the circumstance to which he ass-
=dewed the prosperity of the labourer was attributable,
namely, the high prim of corn. (Hear, hear.) He, on the
contrary, believed a low prim of corn contributed te the com-
fort of tree labourer; and he attributed the distress of 1847
to the commetcial depression which then prevailed, and to
the high price of corn in that year, whereby the sufferings of
the people must have been considerably aggravated. (Hear.)
He would state to the house the result of the inquiry he had
made, which related to all parts of the country. Re would
first take those 'places dependent on manufactures, acd then
those connected with agricultural industry. The repo. to he
had received were such on which ha could thoroughly de-
pend. The ant related to the manufacture of woollens.
They stated that the manufacturers of Trowbridge had
never been so fully employed for some time belt.
At both Bradford and Trowbridge employment was
stated to be abundant; the factories were in full
work, and none of the hands were unemployed. One lee
tory that had been idle for some time past, had recently
been taken be a gentleman from a distance, for the purpose
of establishing a manufactory of India rubber. At Wootton-
under-Edge, all the manufseories were now in full work ;
two year, ago any number of heads could have been found.
At Kidderminster and the neighbourhood all the mills were
working full time ; this had not been the case since the
spring of 1846. During six months of last year there had
been a general stagnation, which had now passed away. At
Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and other places, the iron-
trade was very much depressed, the exports of hardware
having greatly fallen off ; but, as he had before ob.ervcd,
there never was a period but some trades were in distress,
sad it was utterly impossible that they should all be
prosperous alike. But even in Birmingham there was a
diminution in the number of paupers in the work-
house, and in the number of those receiving out
door relief. In 1848, the average number of
paupers in the workhouse was 1,299; in 1849 it was
1,204. The numbers receiving outdoor relief were—in
1848, 626 ; in 1849, GO3. From Leicester the accounts were
most satisfactory. The operatives engaged in the frame-
work knitting =contactor.) had, in the list six months,
obtained an advance of their wages ; and their general con-
dition had not been so favourable fur several years past as it
was at the present moment. He entirely agreed with the
hon. gentleman, that that to which the legislature ought to
took more than anything else was the condition of the
labouring classes. (Hear, hear.) They formed the great
body of the people of this country. For their bent fit, as
the majority, the government ought to be conducted ; and
their condition was the best test of that of the country gene-
rally. (Hear, hear.) Taking the number of pane re in the
four unions of Sutton, Hinckley, Leicester, and Lough-
borough, he found a great diminution, on comparing the
quarter ending Midsummer, 1848, with that ending at Mid-
summer last. The number is the workhouse had decreased
from 1,184 in 1818, to 822 in the last quarter, being a diminu-
tion of 332 ; while the number receiving outdoor relict showed
an equally satisfactory result. In Sutton the average weekly
expenditure in the Midsummer quarter, 1848, wes 901. ; in
the last quarter it was reduced to 811. In Hinckley it had
been reduced from 811. to 701. ; in Leicester from 480/. to
2621., or little more than half ; and in Loughborough from
861. to 78/. These were facts ; and, were the state of the
manufacturing population there chat the hon. gentleman
bad represented, it would be incredible that these great
reductions of expenditure, both within and without
the workhouse, could have taken place. With regard
to Yorkshire, he had taken the information rather more
in detail, thinking it his duty to go minutely into these
points, though the hon. gentlemen had not done so, in order
that there might be no mistake as to the condition of the
country, and that neither in the house nor out of it might
any one be deluded by the hon. gentleman's general state-
ments, utterly;unsupported as they were by any facts th at could
be alleged. he had taken the wages in pees paid by one
of the largest =nuts in Leeds, and found that in the first
five months of 1847, they had amounted to 1,4931.; in the same
period of 1848 to 1,4051. ; and in the like period of the
present year to 2,0421. He had returns of the number of
pawns to whom out door relief had been given in Leeds, in
each of the first four weeks of May, in 1817, 1848, and 1849
respectively, and they showed the following result:

1817. 1819. 1849.
Vird week 6,20 1,495 5,930
Second week 6,850 1,152 _ 8,800
Third week
Fourth week 6,800 8,000 5,341

So that there was • diminution of upwards of 2,000 people
per weer in the present year. The next return from Leeds
was connected with the savings bank; and he was happy to
say it showed a favourable result, though the amount of de-
posits in savin/s banks was not a vmplete test of the im.
provement in the condition of the people, for it was notorious
to all acquainted with the habits of artisans in manufac-
turing towns, that in bad time they ran considerably into debt,
and pledged their clothes and furniture to maintain them-
selves ; and, consequently, the first application of their money,
after a return of prosperity, was to release those articles in
pledge which were necessary for their clothing and the comfort
of their habitations. Nevertheless, that having been to a
certain extent done, he had compared the amount of deposits
and withdrawals at the savings banks in Leeds, for the two
months ending 20th April and 20th May, in 1847, 1848 and
1849. In 1847, the deposits amounted to 3,4211., the with-
drawals to 4,9001. ; in 1848, the deposit, were 3,1821., the
withdrawals, 6,8781. It was fair to observe that this lam
proportion of withdrawals was owing to the chartist panic in
1818 ; and he hoped that hon. gentlemen would remember
the effect produced on the working classes themselves by
those disturbances of their ordinary course of conduct.
(Hear, hear.) la the present year the deposits amounted to
between 3,0001. and 4,0001., and the withdrawals diminished
to 3,700/. Then with respect to Bradford, comparing the
number receiving relief in the 4 weeks in May 1846, with
those receiving relief in the 4 weeks in May, 1849, the result
was as follows :—Alay,lB4B-Ist week, 5,258,2nd ditto, 5,122,
3rd ditto, 5,231, 4th ditto, 5,427, being an average of about
6,200 for every week of May, 1848. May, 1849-Ist week,
2,1001., 2nd ditto, 2,1001., 3rd ditto, 2,0001., 4th, ditto,
2,1001., being a diminution of about 3,200 per week
Was that a proof of the progressive distress of which the
hoe. gentleman spoke? (lieu, hear.) He had now gene
through a large portion of the towns of the manufacturing
districts, and the result which he obtained was so different
from that of the hon. gentleman, that he was at a loss to un-
deratand !from whence he derived his information. The
numbers of males above sixteen years of age, that was to say,
ab:e-bodied persons who received outdoor relief in the Hud-
dersfield union was, In the first week of May, 1848, 107 ;
this year, 68 ; in the second week of May, 1848, 114 ; this
year, 82 ; in the third week of May, 1848, 136 ; this year,
80; in the fourth week of May, 1848, 138 ; this year, 78.
Here again there was a diminution of 30 per cent. in the
number of persons receiving relief. Having shown that
while wages were the same, the price of food had
decreased, he went on to say that the out-door re-
lief of Manchester had diminished. For the week
ending the 3rd of July, 1847, it was 1,4381. ; in June 1848,
it was 9081. ; end in June, 1849, it was only 5701. Now, he
would ask, could there be anything more convincing of the
improved condition of the artisans than these quotations
' which he had read, and the facts which he had stated.
(Hear, hear.) Oreat weight had been laid on the
diminution of crime as a proof of the improved condition
of the working classes. He would read a comparison by
Mr. Willis of the state of crime in the same district, not of
any recent years, which might be fallacious, but of the years
' 1810 and 1843. The number of offences in the first class—
those against the person—were, in the first year, 1,420 ; last
year they were not half that amount. The offences against
property, with violence, in 1840, were 211 ; in 1848, only
110. Offences against property, without violence, in 1840,
amounted to 3,451; in 1848, to 1,697. The miscellaneous
crimes diminished from 7,000, in 1840, to 3,400, in 1848.
He then referred to Scotland, where he said work was plenty.
He had now gone through all the principal seats of manufac-
turing industry in the three kingdoms. He had stated facts
as connected with their present condition, and all the reports
which he quoted showed that the condition of the working
classes was improved—that the remuneration of wages was
greater in most of them—and that even in thaw places where
there was no increase of wages, their position was much
better than formerly in consequence of the cheapness of food
and clothing. (Hear, hear.) Would
ia.nofsiaperson say that
this was not effected by their recent don I—that the
cheapness of the raw material had not given a stimulus to
employment, and thus contributed to that improved condi-
tion of the working classes which he had shown to exist?
(Hear, hear.) It was obvious it must have done so.
(Hear, hear.) The raw materials come into the country, and
the working up of these material gave increased employ-
ment to the people. (Hear, hear.) He would read
for the honest a statinsmat of the increase which
had taken place in DOM articles of raw material
last year as compared with former years. He would make
a comparison with the year 1841, before that mischievous
legislation, as the hon. gentleman called it, had time to
operate, and also with the year 1846, when it had coma into
operation. The amount of hemp exported in 1841 was
643,000 cwt. ; in 1846, 880,000 cwt. ; is 1848, 832,000 cwt.
Palm oil, in 1841, 303,000 cwt. ; in 1846, 367,000 cwt. ; in
1848, 510,000 cwt. Olive oil, 5,000 cwt. in 1841 ; 8,000 cwt.
in 1846; 9,955 In 1849. Tallow, 1,243,0001b5. in 1841;
1,189,0001b5. fa 1846; 1,411,0001b1. in 1848. Cotton,
3,900,00016 e. in 1841 ; 4,100,0001 be. in 1846; 6,700,0001 be.
in 1848. Silk, 3,336,0001b5. in 1841; 4,431,0001 be. in
1847; 4,438,0001 b,. in 1845. There was a correspond-
ing increase in sheep's wool. Now, it was intpos-