The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-08-31 00:00:00

WEST OF FA'GLAND.

(FROM 01.15 OWN IMPOlrnill.)
liming recently visited the principal nsahtifacturing
towns in the West of England, I am enabled to send you
a comparatively satisfactory account of the state of those
districts. It is true they have suffered, and still continue
to suffer in common with every other part of the kingdom,
from that universal stagnation which produesd such la-
mentable effects in the City during the last winter, and has
lately extended itself with aggravated severity to the ma-
nufacturing districts; but yet the condition of that part of
the population engaged in manufacturing industry in the
western part of England presents a striking and instruc-
tive contrast to the situation of the opeentives in the North,
where intense distress has occasioned discontent, which
has already produced much alarm, and it is to be feared
has afforded an opportunity for artful and designing men
to inflame the ignorant, and render the victims of misery
the instruments of outrage and crime. The West of Eng-
' land has happily escaped from this infliction of evil and
' misery. In almost every town through which I passed
the working people appeared to be fully employed, and in
no instance did I observe any considerable number of
hands wanting employment. The manufacturing labourers
complain that they are poorly paid, and have been obliged
to abridge many comforts, being enabled to earn little mote
than the means of actual subsistence; but the great mass
of the operatives seem fully impressed with the conviction
that the reduction of wages is the natural and inevitable
consequence of the depressed state of business, and is not
to be imputed in any degree to the cupidity or hard-heart-
edness of their masters. Though there is some grumbling,
I therefore, there have been uo indications of a restless or tur-
bulent spirit. There have been no meetings of the work-
ing people, no riots, no infractions of the law by the de-
struction of machinery; and the poor-rates, which afford
by no means the worst test of the state of the country, have
not undergone any material augmentation, except in a few
inconsiderable districts. Under those circumstances, lam
justified in stating the condition of the working classes in
the West of England as decidedly prosperous, compared
with the condition of the operatives in Lancashire and
Yorkshire. Now that trade begins to recover from
the compete stagnation which was the proximate
cause of the manufacturing distress, and that brighter
prospects are dawning, it may not be unwise for
practical men to turn their attention to the com-
bination of circumstances which has created such
a striking disparity in the condition of the working
people in different parts of the kingdom. Many of those
lie so much on the surface that it req dies no extraordinary
penetration to discover them. They may be divided into
differences arising from the peculiar nature of the employ-
ment, and those which have their origin io the local
situation of those districts in which manufactures have
been established. Both have an unquestionable influence
on the condition of the labouring classes, and, perhaps,
the latter is by no means the least influential. In the
West of England, for instance, nature and adventitious
circumstances have united to create an infinite variety of
channels for the employment of human industry. The
shipping trade and the fisheries afford employment to great
numbers; many are engaged in extracting and preparing
the mineral treasures of Cornwall and Devon ; and as a
considerable proportion of the inhabitants apply themselves
to agricultural pursuits, the market for manufacturing
labour is seldom or never greatly overstocked. To this we
may reasonably ascribe the exemption which the manu-
facturers in the West of England have enjoyed from those
occasional visitations of distress which have caused so much
calamity in the manufacturing districts in the North, where
they constantly succeed to every slight fluctuation of price,
and every temporary depression of trade. Nor should the
nature of the employment be entirely lost sight of. The ,
staple trade of the West of England consists in the manu-
facture of woollens, which has been but little affected by
the introduction of machinery. The master manufac-
turers too, in this part of the country, happily for them-
selves and others, have not indulged much in that rage for
speculation which was the Alpha and Omega of what is
called " the late crisis." They were satisfied with a cir-
cumscribed but steady burineas; and as they made no ex-
traordinary efforts to accelerate production, they suffered
little by that re-actien which was the necessary conse-
quence of over-production. All those circumstances have
combined to preserve the labouring classes in the part of
the country which I have alluded to from the extreme
misery experienced by the manufacturing population of
that part of the country with which I have contrasted it.
It is impossible not to perceive that a diversity of the
sources of employment has contributed materially to pro-
duce the difference which I have pointed at, and it might
be worth while to consider whether permanent advantage
might not accrue, if public attention was more frequently
directed to the importance of multiplying the channels of
industry.