The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-01-27 00:00:00

IVEAVERs.

BOARD OP TRADR AND THE WITALFIRLDS"

On Wednesday litiore. Hornewdod, Payton, Wallis, Hat*,
and other, forming the deputation appointed to present I'l the
Board of Trade the petition agreed to a: ti'e ltleeting held last
week of the inhabitants of the parish of Sr. 31althew„ Bethnal-
green, had an audience of the Board, which hosted opwArda ut two
hourq.

The Members of the Board repent en thic neensinn were. Mr.
Robinson kl)hancellor of the Exchequer Iluskisben, and ?Jr.
°rant-

The petition, which prayed that " the Honourable Board *mild
devise some mewls to avert the distress that has Overtaken the
numerous persona engaged in the silk trade," in consequence of
the repeal of the prohibitory system, having beet read, the Merin
tattoo requested to know what answer they should return to their
cuassituents.

Mr. Rust:metre. in reply, stated at some length the reasons by
which he telt competed to adhere to the deternonstioo of throw.
ing the trade open under the protecting duty of MI per cent, pro-
vided by the late Act of Repeal. Ile admitted that the existing
distress in the silk trade (which he sincerely. lamented) w 1.., in a
considerable measure, owing to the expected importation of foreign
silks; but thought that it was to be ascribed, in a still greater
degree, to the excessive speculations in which the silk manufee-
tutees had rehently indulged. Ile felt quite assured, at all events.
that the introduction 04 a free system w.tuld ultimately be as
wish the greatest benefit, not only to the county at large, but more
particularly to the silk-weavers themselves. lie was by no means,
however, so wedded to his opinions as not to rt.noutice them
lingly, if they could be proved to be erroneous ; and he could
assure the deputation, that it they would only convince bim of this
propriety of retracing his steps, no false notion of consistency should
prevent him from being tile first to go before Parliament. and move
tar the continuance of the prohibitory system. In the meantime
he was sorry to ssy, that, with the views he had on the subject, lie
could not give the deputation any ho; e that Government would in-
terfere in the matter of their petition. The distress which the silk-
weavees experienced was but a temperary evil that must be borne.
Neither were they the only distressed class in the community :
by other classes—the cotton-spintters in particular—being in a
state of nearly equal suffering, in consequence of the gen,ially
depressed condition of manufactures and commerce at the present
moment. _ _

When Mr. Iltikisson had concluded, Mr. Ilometrood,
Peyton, and Mr. Wallis, severally addressed the Board in support
of their petition. Having urged particularly the advantage wh•ch
the foreign silk-weaver hat over the English one, in consequence of
food and everything else being so much cheaper, and taxes so much
lighter, abroad,

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER remarked that the de-
putation, as well as other people, were very much mistaken on these
points ; for that the French workmen have heavy taxes to pay
as well as ours. and find it nearly as heel a task to live upon their
earnings as ours do ; that it bread is cheaper in France than in
England, wages are proportionably less ; and that house-rent is al-
most as high there as it is at home.
The deputation confessed that on all these points they entertaired,
in common with the public, fiery different notions—that they were
at a loss to conceive how the French workman could be at all op.
pressed by taxes like the English trick,* al, when in France there
was but little national debt to pay the interest of, and in England
we have a national debt that requires. taxation of nearly lorry
millions annually ; and that, as regards both the prices of pro-
visions and house-rent in France, even considered in relation to the
French rates of wages, they wee sure it could be easily demon-
strated that the foreign workman had eminently the advantage.
Mr. lloattwooo added. significantly, that it might not be out
of place to hint, that besides having littleor no national debt, the
French had no Corn Laws.
The CHANCELLOR of the ExtutrattEa smiled, but took no
other notice of the allusion.
Mr. Huakisson and Mr. Grant were equally silent with re-
spect to it • indeed, during the whole Interview, the question of
the Corn Caws; though so intimately connected with that of free
trade, seemed to be carefully avoided. With the exception of the
notice taken of them by Mr. Bonn:wood, they were never once
mentioned.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER and Mr. Iluexissos:
joined in replying that they had not overlooked any of the cnse-
derations brought forwa•d by the deputation ; that they had given
the whole matter the fullest consideration, and viewed the operation
of the new law in every possible shape ; and that alter all they had
heard, their opinions remained unchanged.
Mr. Ilciattwodo—Whiit answer, then, if you please, Gen-
tlemen, shall we take back to our constituents ? Are we to under.
scrod dist Government can afford us no hope of relief ?
Mr. UCAKISSON You will please just to report faithfully what
has now passed betwetnyourselves and the Board.

MEEIING OF THE PARISHIONERS OF
BETHNAL-GREEN.

Yesterday evening a numerous meeting of the inhabitants of tt•e
parish of St. 3latthew, Bethnal.green, took place in the ati• k.
house, for the purpose of taking into cottaideration the proprie'y of
opening a general subscription fir the relief of the great disttesa
prevailing in the parish, owing to the stagnation of the S ilk Trade,
it being agreed that no collectable assessment could meet the
demand.

The Chair was taken by Mr. WooD, the senior churauwarden.
!Ir. TRoatas HOMEWOOD, one of the deputies who waited on
the Board of Trade with the petition from the weevers, on Wed-
nesday, addressed the meeting. They had an interview with the
Commissioners and with the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the
same time, but from none of them, he said, could a satisfactory an-
grier be obtained. lie then gave a melancholy account of the dis-
tresses that existed within his own knuwl-dge. In conclusion he
suggested the propriety of forming a junction with the surrounding
parishes for the purpose of calling a general meeting.
air. ST VRT EV ANT approved of the plan, as calculated to give
greater effect to the object they all had in view.
Mr. BEET 'I ox, the vestry clerk, then rose to address the meet-
ing, and was very cordially received. Atter a statement of the
distreised condition to which the parish was reduced, he took a
retrospective view of the distresses existing in the year lOW. A
meeting was then held at the Alansion-house, when that able phi-
. lantbropist, :Mr. F. Buxton. made a powerful appeal on behalf of
sufferiog humanity, and a large slim was collected in aid of the
sufferers, under the auspices of the Lord Mayor. Mr. 13rutton, in
allusion to the deputation from the Weavers to the Board of Trade,
sincerely lamented the failure of their application. His opinion on
the causes of their distress was still onehriged. lie should always
advocate the cause of the operative silk-weavers, trusting that
I nothing would cause them to swerve front the paths of loyalty
and obedience to the laws of their euuntry. He felt assured they
I would still pursue the same course, notwithstanding the great pri-
rations they were enduring. An inflammatory and tempting invi-
tation had, he understood, very recently been offered to them to
warp them from their allegiance, but he thr,iced God that, truly
pitiable as their situation was, no temptation or inducement, how-
ever alluring, could draw them from that respect for the laws and
' constitution of their country, which they had always manifested.
He pledged himself, once more, to use every means in his power
for their service. (Mr. Brutton sat down amidst touch applause.)
A desultory conversstion of some length followed, and it ap-
peared to be agreed on all hands that the parish could not meet the
Ipecuniary demands without an appeal to his Majesty's Govern.
ment.
Mr. GIBBON afterwards purposed beat a deputation from that
parish should the next (this) day meet the parish officers of Spi-
taltields and 6horeditch, for the purpose of adopting the necessary
measures for calling the General Meeting at the Mansion. house
I (with the Lord Mayor's permission) es to the expediency of open-
ing a public subscription.
The proposition was unanimously agreed to.
Thanks having been then voted to the Chairman, the meeting
was adjourned.

The prevailing distress among the silk manufacturers in
various Tarts of the kingdom, has imposed on us the duty
of making particular inquiry on the subject as it relates to
this town (Taunton). There are here usually in action
abo it 2,000 looms, and the number of persons employed
upon them, men, women, and children, at two to each
loom, with about 400 throwaters, gives a total of 4.400
bands engaged in this the staple trade of the town. Front
170 to 200 looms have been recently stopped, a circum-
stance which, however regretful in itself, affords some re-
-I.ttive consolation, if we advert to the alleged amount of
suffering among the manufacturers in Coventry, Maccles-
field, and other provincial places, and ospecially in that
vast hive of industry, Spitalfields.—Taunton Courier.
LIVE. arooL, JAN. 25.—Our Cotton market this week
has been ve•y dul► and flat, and prices, of course, are a
little lower. To effect extensive sales, the holder must
accept still lower prices. About 5,000 bales sold. in the
four days of this week. The 900 hags ('uba Cotton adver-
tised for public sale on Friday arc withdrawn.
With the exception of the speculators in cotton, no class
of adventurers are likely to suffer more than the importers
of wool, which is next to unsaleable. Large sums will be
lost in England by this trade.
The cotton raised in New South Wales, which has ar-
rived at Claar„ow, has been put into the hands of a spin-
ner, and found to work well in the operation. It has been
spun into yarns of No. 106, 116, 126; and even No. 136
has been produced from it with facility and to advantage.
From this quarter, therefore, we may look at no distant
day for a large supply of cotton.
LONDON CATHOLIC LIBRARY SOCIETY...A meeting '
of this Society took place last evening at the London 'l'avern
to receive the Librarian's annual report, but from the bad
attendance (not above 20 persons perhaps being present) the
meeting was adjourned to Friday the 17th February.
The mansion of the late Mr. Fatintleroy at Brighton is
undergoing an entire alteration, under the direction of Mr.
Wilds. The centre is carried considerably higher, and an
additional wing is erecting at title end. The front also is
materially eiciged.