The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-08-28 00:00:00

srA R OF TRADE.

MANCHESTER, AUGUST 26.—We are unable yet to an-
nounce any such improvement of tract.: as will effect any
improvement in the circumstances of the working classes.
The goods' market, for the last three or four weeks, has
been more animated than it was during the summer months ;
but the demand has, a very few instances excepted, occa-
sioned no advance of prices, nor has it encouraged the ma-
nufacturers to give out work to the unemployt cl weavers,
who consequently continue in a state of melancholy desti-
tution. Such as have a legal claim for parochial relief re-
ceive assistance, as liberal as the circumstances of the times
will permit; and others, who have not a strictly ld gal
claim, but who have long resided amongst us and borne
good characters, are occasionally reli-ved by our humane
and active overseers. But there are thousands and tens of
thousands, to whose assistance the law cannot, by even the
most liberal construction of its beneficent spirit, be ex-
tended, and who are consequently enduring a distress, the
intensity of which it is impossible to imagine; for every va-
riety of wretchedness which the most active imagination
could combine for the formation of one picture of exquisite
misery could not furnish such a scene as may be beheld
in almost every cottage in the beck streets of this town.
A gentleman from Suffolk, on Wednesday last, want int
some of the streets between London-road and Ancoats,
wishing to behold with his own eyes the condition of the
people, whose misery he was willing to believe was exag-
gerated. On his return from his melancholy search, he told
us, with an expression of horror, that he regretted the
indulgence of his curiosity. " I wish I had not gone,"
said he ; " the wretchedness was too great even to he seen."
Ile hea seen houses with no other furniture than a truck
covered with straw, on which the heart-broken father sat,
with a glazed eye and a deathlike expression on his
countenance, seemingly unconscious of the wailing of
the half-naked children who lay around him. lie had
seen emaciated mothers, in whom even the extreme of
wretchedness had not extinguished hope nor slackened
exertion, striving to soothe these foodless wailing children.
He had seen the dull apathy of despairing man, and the
restless and exhausting exertion of' woman, hoping even
against hope. Ile had seen many human beings fated to a
not distant destruction. He had seen the wild rapture of
thankfulness with which his donation was received, and he
had experienced the heart-piercing thought that when
what he had bestowed was expended, the objects of his
bounty might perish with hunger. Ile had seen this—and,
for his own sake, he wished that he had not seen it. How
dreadful the experience of that misery, the very sight of
which is thus intolerable ! Well might Mr. -Potter be
overcome, when, in detailing one case of wretchedness, the
whole amount of suffering rushed into his mind with over-
powering effect. Well might hundreds of the assembly
which he addressed burst into tears when they thought
how many instances had come within their own knowledge,
of misery such as he so feelingly pictured.
What is to be the fate of these our poverty-stricken fel-
low-creatures? There is little probability of their obtain-
ing employment before next spring; the fund raised by
subscription for their relief is exhausted ; they have no
legal claim on the parish funds; and winter, with all its
accumulated horrors, is approaching. Our conviction is,
that if prompt measures are not adopted, thousands will die
of absolute starvation. Is this then a time to talk about
the danger of introducing the precedent of a government
grant? And do not those incur a fearful responsibility,
who delay for one single day to repeal the laws which raise
the necessaries of life to a starvation price, and who sup-
port a system of wasteful expenditure, while the people are
in want of the means to purchase bread? _ _

With regard to merely temporary measures of relief, we
are glad to learn, that after various interviews which have
taken place between Mr. M'Adam and the Trustees of
roads in this neighbourhood, it is probable that these gentle-
men will make exertions to employ the distressed workmen.
In this way much good has been done in other places; and
it would be a reflection on Manchester if it did not try a
means of relief which has succeeded wherever it has been
adopted. It ought to be recollected, that employment
upon roads not only gives relief to the distressed, and be-
nefits the public generally, but it accustoms the weaver
and the mechanic to country labour, to which they may
apply themselves should the cotton manufacture continue
long in its present depressed state.—Mancheafer Gazette.
In times of distress, too much importance is always laid
upon the am •unt of our debt, and " reduce taxation," is
a cry perpetually set up, without regard to limits at which
this must of necessity cease. At the late meeting at Man-
chester the fault has been committed ; we perfectly coincide
with the resolutions regarding the Corn Laws, and we view
that part of infinitely more importance to us than all the
recommendations of economy to Ministers, because we give
them full credit for a desire to effect every practicable re-
trenchment. It is the duty of every commercial man to
call for a ret ision and an alteration of the Corn Laws,—it
is the duty of every manufacturing town to petition for
such alteration as shall place corn on an equality with
manufactures. It is, if correctly viewed, the interest of the
agriculturists as a body, that an alteration should take
place, which, whilst it would afford them sufficient protec-
tion from foreign competition, would do no injury to trade,
and would relieve the farmer.from the tricks of intriguing
corn-dealers, who make up any price of average they
please.—Stockport Advertiser.
Lc ens, Ai:G. 26.—This week we have had an increase
of buyers in Leeds and Bradford, and the quantity of
woollens and stuffs passing daily through the hands of the
carriers is rather on the increase, compared with our
favourable report of last week. Though the prices con-
tinue low, the transactions arc principally with the regular
houses, and thejdi business, as it is called, seems neatly
at on end. It is said, and we believe truly, that the ma-
nufacturers make little profit by
.their trade at present;
these purchases do however give rase to the circulation of
money, and it may
be fairly presumed that all the nu-
merous hands through which it passes will derive from it
some benefit. For some time past there has been a great
deal more money in the hands of capitalist* titan could be
profite,ly employed, owing to the circumscribed transac-
tions of trade, and an extension of sales is the best mode
of bringing that money into extensive circulation.
It was state I in onr paper of Saturday, that some im-
provement had taken place among the manufacture's in
this city ; since that time several other houses have com-
menced increasing the number of their workers, so that
there is now a pretty fair prospect of a revival. The num-
her of weavers out of employment will prevent any the in
their prices at present ; but it is to be hoped that the num-
ber will
alilYbove reduced, and prices improve so as to
place the the reach of want. Yarns ire
rather looking up ; and the holders are not much inclined

to sell at the present prices. The spinners consider the!
cotton wool must soon rise; and in the expectation that
pans will follow, they are about to increase their hours of
working, which have been for a considerable time back est 4
tremely limited. This improvement has also extended it•
self to the linen trade; and several of the east ;wintry
manufacturers have transmitted lntructions to their agents
by no means to revs sales, as they anticipate a rise of at
least 20 per cent. by the spring.
The effect of the late sales of cotton goods is beginning
to be seen in the country towns, where work is perceptibly
less scarce, though the prices are still unprecedentedly low.
The sort of gingham vulgarly called cram is the sort of
work most easily obtained. It is woven in a Unto reed, 4
in the split, and is paid when at 3d., and 54 4td. Pole
licates are also becoming 'tinnier.
Although :here is no material improvement in trade in
Carluke, yet work is in greater plenty—partly owing to a
numbisof the weavers being employed in the harvest field.
A complaint has been made that the weavers, in some parts
of the country, have not availed themselves of the oppor-
tunity of receiving good wages at the shearing: the re-
verse has the case at Carluke. A Mr. King, a fanner
in Mid-Lothian, employed 40 hands from that place,
upon his farm, in the parish of Crammond. Some have
gone as far as England. All those that could be of any
service have gone to the fields. The number of looms in
the parish are 133—in the village of Carluke 78, of which
26 arc employ( d at the following kiwis of work, viz :-
1000 4-4 checks, 244.; 1.100 stripes I 14)0 broad, 21d.
1000 crams, cram 41 all over, 4.4 broad, 311.; 1300
checks, 7 porter over, 3d. ; 1600 silk stripe, 3d. ; 1400
silk-wefted pullicate, 18 shots, tid.; 1300 pullicate,
18 shots, V.; 1100 pullicate, Is shots. 1 tl. ; 1000
heavy stripe 4-I, 3d. Early in the spring a petition was
prevented to the heritors, who met and subscribed 100/. to
employ the weavers at the roads; and a number have been
employed through the summer. Wages to heads of fami-
lies, 7s. 61., and to young men 65. per week; but the fund
is now nearly exhausted.—eilargost Pa,.;,-.
Our readers may form some idea of the number of ope-
rative cotton-spinners at the present period out of employ,
at Ashton-under-Lyne, and of the outs. (pent distress,
from the following fact :—On Sunday, the 20th inv., a
person who occupied a pair of wheels in a factory in the
above-mentioned town was suddenly hurried, by the cho-
lera tnorbus (at present a very prevalent disease), into
another world, and on Monday morning, at breakfast time,
no less than forty applications had been nude for the vacant
wheels.

Our readers may not be aware that notwithstandin; the
permissive power given by Parliament to Ministers in the
last session, to admit foreign grain into this country, that
power is confined entirely to wheat and wheaten flour,
which are not wanted, and does not exted to oats or other
spring corn, of which there is so deplorable a failure of the
crops. The Act is the 7th Geo. IV. cap. 71, and provides—
`• That, at any time after the end of the present Session of Par.
Sentient, and until the Ist day of January, 1827. or six weeks after
the commencement of the then next ensuing Seasion of Parliament,
if Parliament shill not then be sitting, it shall be lawful for his
Majexty, by an order or orders by him issued,and by the advice of his
Privy Council, to admit waiter for home consumption any quantity
of a arehoused a heat or wheaten flour, not exceeding 500.000 qualms
in the whole, on payment of such duty as ahall be declsred• in any
such order, to be payable upon the entry of the same." No such
order in Council to continue in force more than two months, and no
wheat or floor to be admitted to entry that has been warehoused
before the 2d of illay.—Leeds Intelligernyr.
MANUFACTURERS' RELIEF COMMITTER.—Otte last
week's paper contained the Report of the Committee in
York and the neighbourhood, from which it appeared that
1,702/. was the amount of the subscriptions. The Lord
Mayor having received a letter from the London Com-
mittee, we have great pleasure in giving the following
extracts:—

Illanufscitirers' Relief Committee, London, 2lst Aug. 1826.
I have in request your Lordship will accept the sincere thanks of
this Committee, your exertions in forwarding their wishes; and
that you will olt!::;e them by expressing to the inhabitants of
the city and neighbourhood of York their beat acknowledgments
Inc the very liberal subscriptions raised in aid of the general distress.
I have the honour to be, your L wdship's most obedient Servant,
E. 3loariAlEll, Acting Sec.
We find that the London Committee have remitted, for
the relief of the distressed districts in Yorkshire, upwards
of loo9o7.—Korre Herald.

On Thursday, a Public Meeting of the inhabitants of
Halifax was held in the Committee. Room, for the purpose
of devising tile best means of supporting the unemployed
poor, on which occasion the independent and generous
spirit of the higher classes was manifested in a very ho-
nourable manner. The first resolution was to the effect
that no application should be made from this place to the
London Committee for relieving the distressed, the town
having hitherto struggled through its difficulties without
any other aid than that afforded by the inhabitants in the
more eligible stations of lite to their poor neighbours. The
second resolution was that a subscription amounting to
1,0001. should be raised for the relief of the unemployed;
and, that the money may be applied in the most beneficial
way, it was determined that a Reservoir shall be formed,
for the purpose of better supplying the town with water,
and at the sam..2 time giving employment to the poor. The
subscription was very liberally commenced by iVilliata
Rawson, Esq. with the sum of 1001.

• a
leafs!' Poox.—A public meeting has been held at Cork,
to take into consideration the propriety of petitioning Par-
liament on the subject of the poor; when amongst other
Resolutions the two following were proposed :
" That it appears to this meeting that the inhabitants of such
district. as the Legislature may define, should, from nine to thee,
when they think it necessary, have the power of fixing and levying,
under proper regulations, such sums as may be deemed sufficient
for the maintenance of their poor ; and that the rentals of absen.
tees ought no longer to be exempted, hut that an equitable assess-
ment should be made on the value of every description of property.
" That a Petition be now agreed to by this meeting, imploring
the Legislature to enact such a system of Poor Laws as shall afford an
asylum and support to proper objects of public charity, without at tile
same time holding out encouragement to idlenessand improvidence."
After several gentlemen had addressed the meeting upon
the Resolutions, a Committee of Inquiry was appointed,
and an adjournment agreed upon fur a week.
HARVEST.—A correspondent at Poeklington states,
that a farmer of that town sowed some wheat in October.
1824,0 n rape stubble, and in the Spring of 1825 he sowed
seeds among the wheat, and reaped the wheat ai the usual
titne. This year, when he cut his seeds in June, there was
nearly half a crop of fine wheat in full ear. And now, in
August, he cut his second crop of clover with another mop
of wheat, as before. Thus he has had three crops of wheat
from once sowing.
COLLIER3.—The public will be surprised to learn that
the infatuated colliers have chosen the present period of
general calamity for reviving the tnischievous operations of
the defunct combination. The grand committee are again
resuscitated : and the first edict is an order to all the col-
liers under their control to strike work for an advance of
wages. Accordingly on Saturday last the colliers on the
banks of the Monkland canal gave their employ. rs warn-
ing that they would quit work in a fortnight unless prices
were advanced eid. a cart. 'f lie colliers to the eastward of
this city have adopted the same course ; and the result is,
that the proprietors of coal mines, in contemplation of
paying higher rates for the output of coal, have raised the
price to the consumer on an average 2s. a waggon. Best
hard coal, that lately sold at es. MI. and 108. a waggon, is
now Is., and the soft coal is advanced from Ss. to 10e. a
waggon. This rise will be severely felt by many a poor
family, and will he particularly hurtful to those manufac•
tories that have partially recommenced working. 'rite
rise is quite uncalled for at a period when there are so many
of our best workmen all eager to get employment on any
terms. There are also large stocks on band. The colliers
at the present rates could easily earn 3s. 4d. a day, which
would he considered handsome wages by thousands ; and 'f
they make less it is only in constquence of short hours,
while their brethren, the weavers, are cooped up 16 hours a
day for one shilling. The iron-masters easily crushed the
combination ; and why should not the same course be
taken by those who serve the public with coals? The low
price of iron will admit of no advance in the rate of ft..
ging coals ; and, rather than submit to any rise at present,
it is probable some of the furnaces will be blown out, and
hundreds thrown idle.

A meeting took place on Friday evening at the George
Hotel, Cowes, of the inhabitants, to raise by subecription
1001. for a cup, to be sailed for by yachts belonging to the
club, in token of the generosity and good they hate done
to the town in general by rendering it their port of reit.tha-
vont.