The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-02-27 00:00:00

GERMAN PAPERS.

VIENNA, Fry 19
Accounts from Corfu of 23d January give the following tuy„—,.
atfon:—
The state of affairs before Misaolonghl is unchanged, Th
number of Greek (probably Speutote) vessels seem, by the
Atli! trian brig Veloce, off Zante, at the beginning of this month,
stated In accounts from Colonel Napier, English resident in CeptlZ
lonia, to be increased to sixteen.
A circumstance which may not have a little contributed to cheek the operations of Reechid Puha, we have lately learned frma ale
Bey of Fallon', who arrived in this island a few days ago for the
recovery of his health. The Bey, Ismael Puha, the most distill guiehed of the commanders under the Seraskier, marched with hie.'
Albanians at the beginning of April last year against Miesolonebir
and took a principal part in the actions on arresting the Achelu:, and afterwards before the fortress; but when the siege. contrary t,;
expectation, WAS so long protracted, and the pay, the chief Induct.
went to the Albanians, remained in arrear, Ismael Puha, timed
waiting, surraunded the tent of the Seraskier with his people. it.
sistieg on instant, payment of the arrears, with which Iteduhill Sie
forced to comply. As soon as he had received the pay, he left the
camps with his troops 3 or 4,000 in number, and returned hunt
Arsonist* from the Morels, which still want further confirmable, but are probable enough, say that Colocotroni, who with 30010,
4010 men was at Cerilene, had made two fruitless attacks
er
ptilizzi, where Ibrahim Packs is said to have lett only 3,000 rue;
and that in the second attempt his life was in danger. It is added,
that he expefted considerable reinforcements from Argos. and
tended to make another attempt on Tripolizza. With the ahem
account we hare also received, after a long interruption, the M.
solongJA Greek Chronicle, and of a pretty late date, namely, to
28th December, new style. In possession of this last paper, which
gives news from filismilnrighi itself to 28th December, are fully
able, on the authority of the Greeks themselves, to stigmatize as
barefaced lies the accounts given in the Journol tics &bats and the
Constifutionnel of 29th January, alleged to be from Zante, hut
evCently manufactured in Paris. of a grand attack or. Missoloseithi,
made by the combined Turkish and Egyptian armies on the 27th
December last year, which was described as eircunietantially uif
the authors a those articles had been eye witnesses of it.. This
number of the alissolonghi Chronicle says not a syllable of this
pretended event, but, with complaints of the increasing number of
the enemies who press Miesolooglii, relates the landing of 4,1100
Egyptians, commanded by French officers, at Krinnero, on Christ,
mtis eve. On the 25th, 2&h, 27th, Bird 28th December a few shins
only had been exchanged between the fortress and the besieger,
and nothing at all of importance bad taken place. This number
of the Chronicle concludes as follows : " Our besiegers, as well
the newly arrived Africans as the Asiatics and Europeans, rename
in the most complete inactivity."
Just as true as the grand attack by land on the 27th of Decent,
ber, is, without doubt, the great naval battle gained by the limits
near filissolonghi on the Bth of January, according to a pretended
letter from Leghorn of the 20th January (in the Conetirutionsel of
Feb. I). The preamble of this letter, that Ibrahim Perim, enraged
at the defeat of the 27th December, persuaded the Garbutt Puna,
Mahemed Topal, to venture a naval action with the( reeka, proees
the whole to be a forgery, though the Civirtittitinonnel has the beld,
near to a ffim
glorious
mousovictoryvicm'Le
from good authority, :
proof of the falsehood of the whole imposition is, that though the
rin a nteantdhat naydlebneewerse°dEitta
The
affair is said to have plumed off' Missonghi an the filth January, wes
known on the 201 h at Leghorn, by means of a ship said whist
left Zante oa the 10th, and yet thirteen days later, 23d January,
not a syllable of it was known'at Corfu.
The Austrian °bete-roomy' in conclusion, though it may be feared
its readers will be weary of these repeated exposures of' the most
wilful anisreprementation, yet it seems not advisable to pass them
over in silence, anti the present instances merit peculiar attention,
as the fables of the French Journals respecting the events in
December, seem to have gained some credit even with reasonable
people,—so that even the Alrerneine Zeitnng assuredly with to
design of promoting these falsehoods, speaks of the attack of the
27th December as an undoubted truth, only it was not known at
Aliseolonghi the day following.
VIENNA. FED. IL—fletalliques 90if. ; Bank Shares I If.
—Austrian Observer, Feb. 13 and 14.

THE SILK TRAM .

TO THE EDITOR OF THE BRITISH PRF-s.i.

.515,—The deep importance of the silk question to the
most important interests of the country will, I hope, render
all apology uunecessary for my appealing, through the me-
dium of your Paper to those Members who composed the
great majority that decided against the motion of Mr. Er-
to a Select Committee, to consider and
Lice for referring
report on the petitions against the Importation of foreign
silk. That majority was a most triumphant one, and if
this ere to be taken as a proof of the wisdom of not going
into any inquiry into the facts stated in those petitions, I
will admit that no proof could be more conclusive. But
those who are deeply affected by the measure have some-
thing more to desire. Do all the Members who voted
against the referring the petitions to a Committee mean it
to be understood that they were so completely satisfied
that the statements contained in them were unfounded,
and therefore did not need inquiry, or were unimportant,
and therefore did not deserve it ? If they can put their
bands upon their hearts, and say conscientiously that
they had. by investigation, made themselves fully mas-
ters of the subject, and that the petitions contained
no facts of which they are not fully aware, they
were then fully justified in refusing all further inquiry.
But if they cannot do this—the tremendous times which
are coming on will bring upon them a most awful responsi-
bility. When thousands and tens of thousands are being
discharged every week, from employment hi the silk trade,
not in London only, but in every district In the kingdom
in which it is carried on ; and when a few weeks more
will produce such a mass of calamity among its oper-
atives as England, in its worst times, never witnessed,
the roam and the rewstrig seem at least to demand a
patient investigation. But I have no wish to take
up more of your space than I can help: I wish
to call the attention of Parliament, era it is yet too
late, to certain Mehl connected with the important debate
of Thursday and Friday evening, respecting which a great
misconception has got abroad, and upon which it is of the
utmost consequence that the public opinion, as well as the
opinion of all those Members who voted with the majority,
should be set right.
I have no intention, very far from it, to detract any
thing from the great merits of Mr. Huskisson ; his services
have been very great and very laborious. Ile has no view,
I most sincerely believe, but to extend the cominerce of the
country, and to tut its prosperity upon what he conceives
to be the very firmest basis. This assures me that he will
listen with candour to any statement which goes to remove
any error into which he may have been misled.

A very Strong impression was produced upon the Hotase
on Thursday evening by the argument that the Bill re.
pealing the prohibition of foreign silks after July 1826,
paused in the spring of 1824 ; and that in the face of this
very Bill the trade had gone on flourishing and increasing.
In the spring of HMV said Mr. 11. •• so great was the ex.
citement, so settee was the spirit of sperulation, that the House
would find not only that the old establishments were in 101 l
operation, bat that in Macclesfield new silk mills were erected, at
an expense of not less than from 10.0004 to Ili,UUtit Several
of these were not even yet roofed in, and the machinery belonging
to them was not yet put up. And what was the condition of
this ruined trade, which this 11111 was to annihilate ? In
a Macclesfield newspaper of the 19th of February 1825 (just
a year ago), he read the following advertisement:—' To Over-
seers, Guardians of the Pon,. and Families desirous of settling
in Macclesfield. Wanted immediately, from four to five thou.
sand persons,' (hear, hedr !) and he begged the attention of
the Ileum to the description of petsons wanted—' from 7 to 20
years of age,' (hear,hcar, I) the silk manufacturers were content to
begin with children at the tender age of only seven years—' to be
employed In carrying on the manufacture of tick. The great in-
crease of the trade having caused a great scarcity of workmen, it is
suggested that this is a most favourable opportunity for persona
with large families, and Overs.:ers who wish to put out children as
itypt•entices, to inure them a comfortable life. Application to be
made, if b letter, post pail. to the printer of this paper.'—
This advertisement had been inserted in the Irish newspapers,
sod in others, published in the great manufacturing districts of
Brest Minds. and he (Mr. II.) should say, as the Honourable
Member for the City had said of the cotton trade, that he did
1104 know how they cnuld come—how they could communicate
together as to the manner in which they should go ; hoses 2r, they
malted ehnultaneously to Marelesfield. and many more titan 5,000
might have been procured. In accordance with what he had just
mil was another silver lament, printed at Macclesfield, which he
had not read, but which he had been told ran in the following brief
tams; Wanted to be built i matiately. 1,000 hams.' tliCer,
I. eel Such was the state in which the trade was placed in Feb,
1824, and which was to expire in July. 1826. and in the face of
such facts he appealed to the Howie what degree of reliance could
be placed on assertions now, lot the fiftieth time anode, and though
for the fiftieth time refuted, repeated to.night with the same conti-
ience as ever? (Hear, hear.) s'u it surprising, after such an
event of speculation, after such, he might almost say, in.
ban= proceedings, hi the employment of infants of only re-...ew
pus old. after such an Influx of population from all parts of the
Hinted Kingdom, and when the trade had felt a check, that sonic
distress should prevail ?"
" " • . .

Now all the Members who heard this statement, these
advertisements and the puhlic at large, when reading the
eloquent speech which contains them, would be led to con-
clude that the British Silk Manufacturers must be most un-
just and dishonest in urging their complaints against the bill
for the introduction of foreign silk, when, in the interval
between the passing of it and its coming into actual oper-
ation, they had been making such preparations as showed
them to be satisfied that they were fully able to compete
with the foreign manufacturers, and that they look forward
to s great increase of demand for British silk goods. But
I will now proceed to state this fact exactly as it stands,
and-it will then be seen to have a very cliff rent appear-
ance from what it is here made to assume, and all the in-
ferences drawn from it will at once fall to the ground.
In the first place, let it be observed that this increase of
buildings takes place in the single town of Macclesfield,
and nowhere else; therefore no argument that may be
drawn from it can be at all applied to the trade generally.
The fact is that two adventurers without capital, one of
the name of IL m, and another of the name of
B—k, each set up a Silk .Manufactory in Macclesfield.
They made a great parade of the extensive concerns they
were about to set on foot—they sent forth the above adoer-
tiseneent in the English and Irish newspapers—which were
w penned as to answer their purpose of exciting public at-
tention—they obtained good, on credit, by means of all
this peldicio—they drew bills on each other, for their
actual accommodation, until at length their credit came
to an end, and about six weeks ago they broke for about
100,000 L, and their names appeared in the blazette.
Can such conduct as this, I would ask, on the part of
Iwo indindods, be in juetice urged as proof that the
Britiok Silk Manufactures were in a thriving state, and
that the MANUFACTURER!, though fully aware that fo-
reign silks would be introduced in July 1826, were glut-
ting he market with their speculatipns in the year 1926?
I inuld entreat those Members whose votes against a
committee of inquiry were influenced by this statement, to
ask tiernselres whether, had the whole fact been thus cor-
rectly before them, it would not have led them to a difftr-
tilt conclusion? No•question of greater int-rest to all
clam of the community ever called for the deliberation of
l!irlianetit. It is therefore of die very last importance
teat wary thing which relates to it should be truly under-
Eood,and more especially so by those who, from their si-
tuatioi, are called, in the last resort, to decide upon it.
I cone next to the imputation thrown upon the manu-
factures for employing female children at so early an age
113 tem years old. Nothing can be calculated to produce
a atroNer ft cling against any class of manufacturers than
the thnwing out a charge against them of taking advan-
tage a the helplessness of infancy, and deriving a profit
from de employment of children at that tender age which
Most calls for sympathy and kinilm SR. Every employment
1p a manufactory implies the idea of labour ;. we all know
that children have not strength teelabour, and our hnina-
City, therefore, naturally revolts against all who put them
to it. A very plain statement will remove the prejudice
arising from this source. The fact atands.thus. The silk
thread which winds itself from then/472°n to the bobbins,
M liable every now and then to break. When this happens
4,t4 the ends of the silk must be again tied 'together, and
it thee goes on again winding as before. This is a process
Mil which thert,is not the slightest exertion of strength. A
ad of seven years old Call do it just as well as a grown
only very
It is an employment without labor; it is not
Very simple, but extremely clean, and not in the
!tallest degree unhealthy. The consequence is that many
man& of female children, from the age of seven to.
'2_,nteen or Ahem, are taken from the parish poor-homes,
"on are fed., clothed, educated, and inured to habits
44. industry, by being thrs taken into this light and
easy employ b.y the Manufacturers; and the most

valuable service is thereby rendered both to the interest of
morals and of humanity. These children are thus, the
greater part of them, provided for life, for as they grow up
they become capable of earning their bread in the weaving
of Silk, and are consequently never without the means of
a comfortable maintenance. The employment which the
silk Manufacture gives to women is one of its most be-
neficiel results to the country, there being no other staple
manufacture in which women can obtain employ. It is
calculated that not less than from
.fiity to vier& thousand
women will he thrown utterly destitute upon the world,
and that at least twelve thousand female children will be
returned Upon the poor-houses, from whence they were
taken, between this and July next.
Enough has here been said to bring the public mind to a
correct view of this part of the question, as far as concerns
the employment of children.
I come now to the question of over-trading. And here
a most important error has been unaccountably assumed,
which vitally affects the whole of the reasoning founded
upon it. The enormous quantity of silk imported last
year, compared with the imports of the two years pre-
ceding, has been made the ground—first, of charging the
manufacturers with buying speculated to excess in the raw
material in the face of that comnetition which they knew
was to take place; and next of ascribing the present ruinous
condition not to the operation of the Act of which they
complain, but to the excessive importation with,which
they have glutted the Whereas the real fact turns
out to be, that the British Silk Manufacturers Were not
the Importers of the Silk ; but that it is made up of coo-
smm mentg from Foreirn Merchants, sent here wholly at
their own ;44, anti an Muir own account, our manufacturers
ham.", nothing whatever to do with it. I. will here extract the
proof of this most interesting fact from a letter published
within these few days, and addressed to Mr. CANNIKG,
entitled '6 SOME HUNTS ON TOE QUESTION OF TIIE
atr.K TRADE STATED." It is written in that tone of
candour and moderation which gives double weight to
statements which are of a nature to sink deep into the mind
of every man who reads them. The writer thus coin-
mencts his appeal to the distinguished Statesman we have
I just named :

lit the report of an eloquent and animated speech, which is
ascribed to you, among other topics which it embraces, you are
represented to have made the following statement respecting the
Sik Trade: "rhat a gradual but material accumulation of Stack
had taken place, and that in the last year a had doalled the atnuant
of any fanner year.'
" The object of this statement is to rrfcr the biome of thr over-
ftd‘eloning dirlrrps, which is rnw crutiting down the silk Trade of
this country, to the sanguine cupidity of traders, drawing into it
an excetts of stock beyond the real and fair demands of the con-
sumption.
_ . _

" Sir, I shall willingly entertain the belief that you would not,
for purposes of argument, knowingly sanction a false represents-
Lion of any maters! fact. But I entreat you to revise your pre-
sent information. It is not correct : it does not come near the
truth; it betrays, in effect, the great deficiency of your inquiries.
" I submit to you, that if your other engagements of public
duty will permit you to resort to the proper means of inquiry on
this subject, you will soon be undeceived as to this extraordioary
and very erroneous statement, which is circulated under theaanc-
tion of your name and authority. And if lam able to satisfy you
that there is a mistake in the estimate which you have made of this
accumulation of stock, and of its influence upon the English Silk
Trade, I shall leave it to your own judgment to retract or qualify,
as you shall see fit, the inferences which you have drawn trom it,
as to the cause of the present sinking state of that portion of our
commerce.

"Sir, I take for granted that your statement originates in a mica p.
prehnuion of the entries, in the article of SILK, mad• itt the
CUSIO3I-110USE Booze. Those entries for the year 1823 do in-
dicate a vast increase in the importation of silk in that year, as
compared with the four or five preceding yearn. But, .4, you
seem not to be aware how that silk came here, and tinder what con-
ditions. 11 has escaped your knowledge that by far the greater part
of this whole importation was made by Italians and other foreign
merchants at their owe risk ; that the stock* was thus sent here
upon consignment, not upon order ; and that partial reshipment: of
of it have been continually going on, and that these reshipments
are made without a shilling of loss to the English merchant. In
short, Sir, this extra stock never having become the property of
English subjects, nor been brought into circulation in the Engikli
market, neither did, nor could prance any of the injurious ejects
which you have wished to ascribe to it. It touched our shores, but
there it lay dormant. As to any pressure upon our internal trade,
it nii4ht as well have been lying in the warehouses of Calais or of
kehorn.
" But, Slr, I will set down the. entries of the Custom-house
books, which have misguided you, and permit me to point out
more distinctly the fallacy of your statement in its essential
beating..
Importation of Raw and Thrown Silks,from 1823 to 1823,inclusive.
Raw and Waste. I Thrown.
Year ending sth January 11123.

1824.
1825.
Average of the Three Yeara
eudins Eth January, I/12.1
Year ending lob Oct!_ll;2s

2,177.773 lbs.
2,M 2,164
3,135,644

592,795 lbs.
W. 469
342,005

2.608,327
3,-131,172

404.423
000,501

Aggregate 'Average of Raw and
Thrown,of ThreeYeara,end.
ing sth January, 1825
Aggregate of Importation in
the Year ending 10th of Oct.
IC 25

3,012,914

4,231,671

. -
" The thrown silks brought to this country in J 825. did, as
we see, nearly double the amount of thrown silks imported in 11324;
whilst the increase in raw silks for 1825 exceeded those of 1024 in
in a far less proportion. The reason of that difference in the
increase was this, thin the trade both of manufacture and con.
gumption being steady and active, the thrown silks, as being in a
more advanced state, offered a more prompt supply to the demand
the raw material not being equally really fur the manufacturers'
use, could not get so quickly through the market. But comparing
the total imports of the two ye-trs, viz. 3,012,240 lbs. and 4.231,671
lbs. the increase on the aggregate is at the tate of 40 per earn. This
therefore is the whole that can be made of the increase In these ap.
parent imports. viz. a per cent.
But the mire Imports were, as I have already explained, only
apparent. Is was not British capital which was invested in this
accumulation. British capital scarcely touched it. It wart a furri4,n
poperty which visited our shores to try the fortnile of the nsarkrt.
That market was really a profitable one, and naturally attracted
the stock to it; but the dawn of the new policy of 1824, and the
extraorainarst representations made of it in .uarliament, and else.
There, had led foreign merchants to suppose that the consansptiva
in our Silk Trade was to know tin

•
sir, I fear that you hare all along been Imperfectly acquainted
with the mode of business which obtains in the importation of silk.
You have supposed that a glance at the Custom-house books was
sufficient to instruct you in Judging of the prudence or temerity of
the English merchant in this branch of his commerce. When.l
have said that the extra imports of last year came at the risk of the
foreign proprietor, I havedescribcd to you the course of business in
the regular and ordinary importation of dirt article, as tar as re-
lates to the European trade. A simple coissionient is made to Me
mercantile house is London. The LoFidon merchant draws out the
stock as be hurls the market requires it. He has sin absolhte pro-
perty in the cargo, and acts merely as Me agent of the Foreign
Proprietor, in superintending the disposal of it ; or in retaining or
resAipiag Pie sarphrs.t
The Asiatic trade, it f true, is managed in a different man-
net The India Company import their silks not upon consign.
meats in these silks English property is invested. But the India
import; are wholly of raw silk. And thus we see that the rate of
double accumulation, which was confined last year to the thrown
silks, keeps always at a distance from the proper circle of British
transactions. lithe India Company exceeded in raw imports last
year, thy are well known to conduct their business on sounder
principles than those of pressing the market by excessive sales. In
point of fret, the quantities which they have declared for sale, in
the two last years, have been excessively low.
" The fidelity of this *sole representation which I have now

" I understand, on good information, tkar there are how lying,
in a state of equal inertness, not leas titan 500,04101. of this un-
appropriated stock, which have remained unconcetned in the pro-
, cecinas' of the English Silk Trade. and might now return to their
native country, or go elsewhere, without affecting the accounts of
the English manufacturer or trader.
t It is 40 beregretted that the Earl of Liverpool, in the very
luminous and comprehensive view of the state of our banking and
mercantile system doting the 111.1 i year, which he has given at the
moment whilst these pages arc passing through the press, 'should
have renewed the same unfavourable representation of the effect of
these excessive imports upon the movements of the-Silk Trade.
The unquestionable candour of this noble person, in meeting
every point on its fin grounds, gives the greater weight to this re-
peated representation.
It is of importance, however, on erery account, that we should.
come to a fair view of the case. if the indiscretions of the silk
trade have been the cause of its present misfortunes, those indis-
cretions might justly be left to work their Own cure, or atone for
their folly. But if those misfortune originate In the influence of
the new scheme of trade, his 31ajesty's Boveniment and the Le-
gislature have a duty to discharge in reconsidering that scheme, and
e'en-tuning how it comes to act so injuriously upon our home in-
terests. Those misfortunes will then constitute a claim to regard,
which the suffering parties could not otherwise prefer. Nor will it
rhru be a very gracious mode of treatment to pursue towards those
sullen/a, to taunt them with their improvidence, at the moment
when a measure, ihdisputabiy a hard, if not an onpressive and in-
jurious one, is put in operation against them. This would be to
take awry their fair character of prudence in the management of
their atiairs, as well as despoil them of their property.
I deem it, therefore, of consequence to Sprats the consideration
of this point, that the vague and gentral idea of excessive importa-
tion may not be allowed, to vitiate the opinions we form of the state
of this trade, nor divert attention furl the true relief to be applied
to it."