The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-05-15 00:00:00

SILK TRA DL.

The Earl of IcAI'IIERItALE moved the (leder of the flay for
the second rending of the Silk Ads Repeal 11. The Noble Earl
observed. that the present Rill had for its object the repeal of the
13th of laleorge 111.. the TAI of tleorge 111., chap. 44, and the
silkalst of Ileorge 111., and Mao four Irish Acts that related to the
trade. The olaect of the 13th Ilene 111. was to fix the rate
of wag a of journeymen silk weavm in Spitalfie/da, and to int-
pom heavy penalties on masters if they took journeymen out of
that district. The object of the 3:M timege 111. chap. 44. was to
emend the regulation that was established respecting silk goods, to
such articles as were mixed with silk and other materials; and
the object of the Rill of the blot of his late Majesty, was to Include
journeynten in the reatrictions that had been intmduced respecting
journeymen; hut the framers of that Act had forgotten the int.
position of penalties, and therefore It was completely a dead letter.
11'ith regard to the Irish Acts, it would be necesscary Mr hint
to inform their Lordship% that they recognised an Institution
called the Dublin Society, which entirely regulated the silk
manufacture in Dublin, and ten miles foll'a! that City, and
that Society tiosacissed as great power their as the Parliament
did here. undies and gentlemen, members of that body, had
tine power of regulating the wages of the silk manufacture in
and near I tublin. Now, this, in a most important portion of an
empire, where freedom had been considered the lands of trade, was
monstrous. Ile could not anticipate oppoaitirm to the amend read-
ing of his Bill. at fret- Ile particularly did not look tOr it from
ids (the Uproot lion) title of the Rouse, because he knew the sound
priaciples Ise Noble Fliends near hint had acted upon with regard
ti coaioneratititranaartionii. Neither did he expect opposition from
Noble hortht opposite ; for although it had been said, with the
react perfect theory in their mouths their practice had been con-
Insry to mound principles., mill the measures they had pursued,
in relation iii commercial subjects, citiliag the last and present
y/ a-s. Olow :ft that they hail made an exception to that rule.
Ile are confident, that, under carry conaitleation of the ease,
the !louse emid not act SO inconsistently es 10 refuse his
a second natlicia, which they gave to the Rill of last
year fltic• to point of fact, was the question to be decided—
wmtiil their laaciallipa keep the ntattufaeture pampered till
the tone of fawning the silk trade, and render abortive any ahem
that might he made by the use of machinery, which in contsequence
of the increaae of caon! might now be tried, to enable the British
manufacturer% to c tinaete with foreigners!. Their Lordships
night rest assure', that all pertains engaged in trade and manittac-
torn wnul'l look ri their own itgensta, and with llritith inilastry
and exertim a this country might become an exporter Of silk.
There vat en roomer where wages were so low as in I ialia, and still
the raw materials had hrea brought front India to England fur the!
manufartare of mush-4, and it had beemio a most importaat
brand' of niantiraettire here, notwithstanding the perfection of the,
lalute of Indian mitalins The wages of France might be lower
than those' of Engtatal, hut still they we. not so low as those of
India, and therefore he could not see why this country might not
export to France and Italy silk manufactored articles. Ile saw no
reason to go further than this, or trouble their lanclahips with
another remark ; but when he tan One per•iimi:'ty of the jour-
neymen Willeert, and Could them petitioning their Lordships,
he nitro remark that he ass standing there use. much for the pur-
pOW of sup,aorting the iiitereus of the itniewymem weavers as their
waste's- The mode of r sc.:miming the a ages scot, that the journey-
men wearers went tea Al agi,trate, and and that they were chose-
t 'stied with tee pric • given for their work. The 3lagistrate did
not go into detail. hot Oidgetl of taa pri-e of the quartem loaf. If
it were ltd. at the time the wages had teen previously fixed, and
W 34 now lthl. they mom add one booth to the mice of the work.
r. an. Ile/woe:Wed tiro ati sad prleeivta injurious to the journey-
men. let a free tra le tits taits•er J,..
assiollig each mesh hot in tiers trade, tit

ern In go on fivether,

n:aot4

tisit,!.lrity hi% r.Tiral, for b.• • !he j. oarre)!!!ell
in, to the regulations imoo-e4 11:14111 r 1141 1, II i• tr.?. w!•ca a 111:1
had spent tiro lorst of hig i thr tt lie : .1:

to •each other, to wake a living by Cost meats who he Lea . ive L
ba-der Lamour. and he enabled to live out of 6 e work of rr ;
but the iiresent laws enartol that he should keep two spyrentices.
It their Lordships w Add look at the bearing of this clause, thy

would ace its injurious tendenery on the jonnwymen J 4
if the commodity **jar dendssikeb, cos*
for them to meet it • ff dills was titmlnintend, Usti 7,lllr-
drew his capiud.
wean lbw *ice not onlistliZtrioAlstrth=
master manofeet , but the trtlllutt fe
that were imposedwodn hint by dime Acts made MI wade so dinicult
to conduct that he avid not get on whilst they existed. If the price.
book, for instantly, wereexambsed, it windmill by Wm stessaissr of
threads, and if the pattern rem half a yard and half • yard inittead,
it was paid fur as double, although it should be no Moire trouble
in manufacturing than if worked in a single yard. If a mlxturt of
two regulated ankles were required for the Whim. thug mast be
paid Mr as separate works, although being so joined caused no
more time or labour to the workman. All this was very destructive
to the trade. The manufacture in fancy articles was carried on to a
great extent, and the lah'our of two persons was fornierly necessa
to reduce that fabric; but now a machine had bean introduced,
by which one person WWI only necessary. But whit was the muse-
? The machine could nut be used in bpitalliebils. because the
master was obliged to pay for two men. The Noble Foil, after
going into a few other details, said, that with these observations he
would leave the late of the Bill, believing that their Lordships
would let it go into a Committee at leaw, for he hoped their Lord-
ships would not be inclined to depart from their own principles on
this °Mahlon. The Noble Lord then moved the second -raiding of
the Hill.

--;The Earl of WESTIIORIAND observed, that according to
the statement on a former night, of the Noble }.ad who had just
sat down, all the weavers had changed their °pinking ; but their
Lordships had that night heard two petitions read from these per
sons one of them signed by 24,0111 weavers; tad Rom all he had
bean, out of doom, there was as great an alarm in Spitalfields now
as formerly, and therefore he submitted that It would be wise to tee
the extent of the agitation before any measure was proceeded in.
Upon general principles it was unwise to disturb the peaty of mind
of so large a mass of persons. The town had been quiet and the
trade flourishing under these statute,. He should submit to their
Lordships that the Noble Earl hail failed In his premises, and
therefore would move that the second reading of the 1111 be post.
paned to that dab' six months.
Lord ELLENI101101:11/1 thought there could not be amore
convenient time for entertaining the measure than when the
duty on raw silk had been jest taken off. He thought it
utterly impossible that the silk manufacturers could go rie
after the Dill that hid already passed, unless their Leebbipil
' protected them by the preeent Bill. It was a vest advan.
tape that the silk manufactory should he carried on has hoodoo
and their Lordships should recollect, that the capital of the weaver
was more easy of transference than that of any other trade, as he
had only to provide a few waggons to convey away hie stock : he
would mono find that his journeymen would follow him. This
I would Inevitably be the wee if the present DUI did not pass, and
he therefore should give his rote for the second reading.
The !louse then divided, when there appeared--
Contents . . 23
Not-Contents . . . hl
—IL

On nor re-admission to the House, we found the Earl of Lstr-
DE it 0.11.1: on his legs, moving that tbe Bill should be committed
on Tuesday next.
The House then adjourned to Monday, for which day their
Lordships were ordered to be summoned.