The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1819-09-11 00:00:00

COVENTRY
,11111 BAND WRAVERS.

The diotresse. and sufferings of this meritorious
claw of his Mljesty's loyal subjects, from the want
do just return for their industry, have been almost
unparalleled in the annals of the country, while
London employees, to them aliens and foreigners,
have been deriving considerable prutitt, and the
Treater! of the State considerable revenues from
their persoind labour's. These meritorious artionns—
according to the 41, clination of Mr. Charles Lilly,
one of their liberal employer'', at the late Meeting
at Coventry, cmisistiog of the Mayor and local
Magistrates, and the employers of the sit k.weavera—
had been curtailed in the prices of their wain:try
earnings, in other of not less than I,ouo/.
per week, which, in the lost five years of their out,
ferioga and deprivations, would amount to a sum
VIUSi to 860,0001. while poitions of the deficiency
have been made up from what die inhabitants of
Coventry have ever felt to he most degrading, the
precarious contributioris of the poor rates. It is
*angular indeed, thrt the great profits of these
valuable labours should be derived by the non-
resident intereoted capitalists of London, while the
labour itself was locally sustained by the resident
landed interest of the local manufacture; and that
the general interests of Coventry should not roomier
hays currierl themselves to cure the unnatural evil,
the mischiefs of which they all alike felt, and all
alike deprecated, bat, until lately, made no general
movement to abolish.

This case of the ribband-weavers of Coventry
was, however, brought before the House of Com-
mons in the last Sessions of Parliament ; and the
parf;es to the application for all the teller they
waoted, which consisted wholly of a public recap.
nitinn of their own acts, were the most respectable,
of ill)• liorliest authority in the city and in the trade;
rind, in tine, of all the parties interested in the
i-sue. These parties were, the Mayor and Corpo-
ration and the Magistracy of Country, the inho-
hitaiits paying poor rates, and all the employers
and the employed in the ribband manufacture.
The application to Parliament was thus unani-
mous. A ruinous system had prevailed of
alder-paying, measured by • competition of the
wants and distresses of the weavers; and, conse-
quently,' of underselling each other, the mischie-
vous effects of which, they one and all, felt, and
determined amongst themselves to abolish. With
this view, they hail made au arrangement amongst
themselves ns to prices and returns for labour in
future, and they applied to the Legislature to
unction these their own arrangements and agree-
ments by an Act, ordaining this and nothing more
•—that the parties should abide by their own voluii-
eery agreements. This was the virtual amount of
their unanimous application to the Legislature ;
thereby meaning, in other words, to put it oat of
their own power, individually, to under-pay and
under-sell each other, and to countenance a bastard
system of half-pay apprenticeship), which was one
of the principal instruments of the ruinous system.
This was the limited extent of the application to
Parliament ; but if granted, confined as it was,
would have removed all the distresses of the rib-
barid-weavers, and restored the city of Coventry
itself to opulence and to prosperity. But, however
important this simple application to the relief, or
sitailv fatal to the very subsistence of twenty
tiiimaand industrious British subjects, struggling
sonnet distress, poverty, ruin, and wretchedness,
the introduction of the Bill was officially op-
posed, and under that opposition, hopeless of sup-
port, was, therefore, withdrawn. In support of the
Bill, it was stated, that the trade was never brisker,
the demand of ribbands seldom greater, the con-
sumption more general and rapid, and the retail
profits more encouraging; while the labour of the
employed was never more incessant, and the prices
of the labour not half as much as seven years ago,
nor soused, as fifty years ago, when the necessaries
of life were net above one-third of the present prices,
seal " would not now do more than keeps man from
starving." That the consequent distresses inflicted
oil the weavers had the effect of reducing thousands
of them to the necessity of seeking parochial
:,id, and consequently of increasing the poor rates
to such an alarming extent, as to threaten the
whole city with one common ruin. In the words
of a printed evidence before a Committee of the
House, " If this system continues, our streets
will be crowded with prostitutes, the workhouses
tilled with paupers, and we shall be all wretched
together ; it will not he the ruin of the trade only,
it wi:l be the ruin of the city of Coventry itself;
and, though a resident of upwards of fifty years, I
have made up my mind, if this Bill do not pass,
to leave the place." Such was the state of au
ancient city of the empire, where ribband-weaving
is the staple manufacture, as detailed to the Corn- '
inittee by this honest witness; and to manifest the
%dal importance of the question, and how it int-
',heated the very existence of the city, he con.
tamed. " If the ribband trade revive, the whole
trade of the city revives, such as shopkeepers, shoe-
makers, and so on, all revive with it." Therefore,
to relieve the ribliand-weavers, was to relieve and
to uphold the whole city. Most of these weavers,
it was proved in evidence, had, iu other timer, when
the price of their labour was at a proper standard,
contributed both to parochial and parliamentary
ussessulents ; they paid property tax:—and, to
ice:t the possibility of degradation, by parochial
relief, they hail long formed friendly societies to
receive small contributions, and by this accumu.
haled means, had provided a fund, sacred to bene-
volence, for the relief of poesible distresses un-
foreseen, amounting to 4,681/. 56. Bd.; but the
•Nliole of which had been expended during the last
tour year. of their sufferings, by payments to
•ielt members, and for fsweral expenses. Ye os-
tentatious. morel projectors of Saving Banks, look
this brilliant display of dignified, provident hu-
rosiiity, and proudly imitate this Coventry example
lf integrity and self-denial, in this humble order,
under the severest sufferings of poignant distress.
and immolate sacrifices to heavenly 'services alone !
It was a rule of these provident societies. that
members not pa) ing their contributions regularly,
should be struck out of the books of the fraternity.
But, in their common distresses, humanity com-
pelled them to depart from this rigid though neces-
'guy rule, while they struggled to keep their society
together. aM What could be said," declared one of the
bbecal-minded wituesses, " to such a mournful and
*riling prayer as this from a father of a family :

Domot exclude me on account of my inability t• pay
my contribution. trifling as it appears to be. I have
been so reduced in my wages, I am no longer able
to pay my contribution, though I work iuceniently;
do not drive me to the parish; if I was the only
person concerned, I would bear my distress and
privation in silence; I would preserve my honour ;
you should neither see me, nor hear me—hut my
children must be starved, and I must be compelled
to brand myself with the disgrace of a pauper, if
not spared tyros this trifle." For relief from this
deplorable condition of the ribband-weavees, and
the (odor(' state of the city, where, of 3,560
houses. 1,100 only can he rated to the poor, the
ftluyor and Corporations, and the local Magistracy,
all the employeis in the sulk manufactuie of the
city, and S) masters and firms of the city of Lon.
(foil, tossiarcted with the trade, with liberal minds
and benevolent hearts, came lorwurd, one and all,
unreservedly, to pray the Legislature for the act of
coofirmation petitioned for—at their own exclusive
exprn-e, individually and collectively—opposed
nod ti,erefore withdrawn, as before stated.

Thus, hopeless and despairing, while perishing
for want, or left without other than the scorned
resort to the degradation of parish aid, what
could he expected from human nature otherwise
than that this discountenanced class of British pas
pulation would orderly endeavour to relieve them-
selves. They were human beings this was a
question of human nature 'testi; and they appear
to hare managed to relieve themselves, by means
which God and nature dictated, with good order
and dignity, veneration for the laws of the country,
and undiminished obedience to the magistracy,
whom they most respectfully invited to witness
their rigid and uniform subordination; and whose
stilisequent attestation is highly honourable to the
Magistrates, and no less creditable to the ribband
weavers.

The unfavourable decision of Parliament, wholly
unexpected, loaded these destitute people with
despair ; their condition was now rendered despe-
rate, their families were starving, and themselves
doomed to perish, or become perpetual paupers.
stained with a parochial badge, or positive slaves to
beggary; and, therefore. that henceforth they must
make their election either to be free, or slaves brand-
ed with dishoncur, by sharing parochial contrilin-
lions, sacred to the helpless, the impotent, the lame,
and the blind. " We labour like slaves," said they,
" but without that natural return which even slavery
commands at the shrine of humanity. Slaves have
a regular subsistence provided for them, we have
not, vet slaver cannot be compelled to labour more
severely than we do willingly : human strength can-
not labour more—but, with all our labours, we
cannot obtain the subsistence which is provided for
slaves. We are indeed partially mid by our em-
ployers: so far honourable—but. beyond that, to
sustain nature, the interested jealousies and com-
petition of our employers doom us to the scornful
relief of parish aid, or to perish. Thus crippled
and degraded, between honour and disgrace, we
feel that, as men. we are imperatively called on to
take our own line of appeal for that measure of
justice which our humane employers were, one ucd
all, most willing and ready to adopt, under the
sanction of Parliament, in the List Prices of 1816.
We know it is in their hearts to do us this justice;
but how to effect it, under the denial of Bahr-
meot, demands some more than ordinary impulse.
We must make a last appeal to their own virtuous
and liberal feelings, ou the alternative of List
Prices or nothing,' and with one consent they ap-
pointed deputies to seal all the looms.—As ex.
pected, their humane and willing employers felt the
full force of the justice of their appeal, and. as will
be seen by the public prints, unhesitatingly adopted
it, gratified their own best affections, and readily
acceded to the common interest. Thus mutually,
laudably, and harmoniously terminated that simple
question of common reciprocity which had been
unceremoniously opposed by Ministers and rejected
by the House of Commons, as improper in discus-
sion, and hostile tocommercial interests in general.
_ .

Various unfounded insinuations of insubordina-
tion and irregularities have been circulated, with a
view to prejudice this question, and the parties con-
cerned in it. They require only to be understood
to be refuted. In fact, they refute themselves; and
the general approbation of the superintending Ma-
gistracy is the most undeniable proof. The city of
Coventry exercises its own particular pleasantries,
peculiar to its own locality; but the people, high.
spirited and honourable, are exemplary for their
loyalty, and subordination to the law. of their coun-
try, and they know how to bear and forbear with
each other as largely as any society in the world.
The manufacture of ribbands at Coventry and
precincts adjoining is about sixty-five millions of
yards annually, every particle of which, in all the
stager of process, contributes revenue to the public
Exchequer, except the personal labour, and a frac.
lion of a farthing per yard, which must impercepti-
bly merge in the immensity of the concern, restorer
the welfare of the whole ci,y, and the ease and corn.
fort of its industrious and highly-meritorious itilis-
bitantr—whilst in torn the circulation of their ordi-
nary expenditure contributes to support the general
interest* of the community.

Mr. RICHMOND, one of the Commissioners of
Customs, Mr. MORRIS, Surveyor-General, and Mr.
11'n [TIMOR; principal clerk, Secretary's Office, have
left London fur the purpose of visiting the principal
ports in Ireland, with a view to the further facilitat.
mg commerce between the twn countries.
" Negociatiuns," says one of the letters received
in the City, " are still carried on between the Bri-
tish Government and that of Spain, for the supply
of a quantity of specie, probably in contemplation
of the expiration of the Act restricting the Bank of
of England from cash payments. The proposal
was in the first instance that nine, and subsrquently
ten millions, should he conveyed from Haviinnah,
or Vera Cruz, in British ships of war. Hitherto
nothing has been definitively determined: but it
seems, from the progress which has been made in
the negociation, that Spain is herself, at the present
moment, so much in want of gold and silver, that
none can be spared by her for the use of this
country, until next year at the earliest:'
The match between Serrphon and Teresias, at
the Second October Newmarket Meeting, is off by
consent. .

At the next Newmarket Caren Meeting. Mr.
CIIARLTOIOI Sam. Bst. 71b. is latched against
Mr. Joim's Filmy, Bst, fur 'too guineas, h. ft.