The Sun.
London, England, 1839-02-20 00:00:00

by him With ettent ability had a considerable effect upon
my mind. But supposing the House chooses to take there
facts for granted, as I am wiliin: to do, I do not see why
we should undergo the fatigue and loss or time in hearing
evidence which would be unnecessary, seeing the Bets
are admitted upon which I think the question
ought to be argued. Whenever the question comes
before the House, I shall be ready to give it my best at-
tention. At the same time I have not the slightest hesi-
tation in stating my donyletion that the landed interests—
in which I am principally concerned—ere under very erro-
neous impressions or, the subject.—( Loud cries of " Hear,
hear.") On a subject of this description, the facts being,
.is I think, undeniable—l think it more convenient that
the discussion should take place upon the merits.
Mr. MARK PHILLIPS said he regretted that any
Member should talk of wasting the time of the House on
subject affecting the interests of every inhabitant of the
United Kingdom.---( Hear, bear.) As to the evidence
offered by the Hon. Member for Wolverhampton, it could
only be refused on this ground, that it would make unwel-
come disclosures.—( Hear ) With respect to the operation
of the Corn laws upon the manufacturing interests of that
country, they bad been developed in an able and masterly
manner by his Hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhemp-
ton, and lie felt great reluctance in following him upon
such a subject. Still, however, he felt it his duty to
point out to the 'House (following the course of his
Honourable Friend's arguments) what was the increas-
ing importance of the foreign competition to which
their manufacturers were now subjected.—( Hear.) He
believed that in 1794 that branch of manufacture with
which his own constituents were more peculiarly con-
nected—he meant the spinning of cotton and cotton twist
—was then almost unknown on the Continent of
Europe. But they had lived to see not merely in
Europe, but in the United States of America, a most
important competition springing up against them in that
very article. The quantity of cotton twist now manufac-
tured in the United States was equal to the whole of that
manufactured in England at so late a period as 1816 ;
and he would call the attention of Hon. Members who
were acquainted with the subject, and he would direct
the attention of others who were not aware of it, to the
circumstance that at the present moment, in the State of
M sssachusetts, 25 miles from the city of B iston, in the
midst of the manufacturing district, the most extensive of
which the Americans could boast, in the town of
Lowell, there was a stream of five thousand
horse power, the larger portion of which had
been already absorbed, and from this district they were not
merely supplying the American markets, but he regretted
to say beating them in the foreign markets, and that was in
a place where fourteen or fifteen years ago, not a single
soul was to be found. Now they had a manufacturing
district springing up in the midst of the desert, and en-
tering into active competition with the British manufac-
turers, fast supplying the American market with the
articles they had previously supplied, and then successfully
competing with them in all the foreign markets. His Hon.
Friend, the Member for Wolverhampton, had stated, mid
correctly stated, that the Americans were not only supply
ing their home 'markets, but that in the markets of
Mexico, South America, and along its eastern coasts, and
round Cape Horn, they were entering into competition with
the British artizans. Ile would sate further in connection
with the town of Lowell, that there were not less than
forty thousand bags of cotton spun into cotton twist, in that
dietrict, but they were not limited in their operation to
the markets near their own country, but they met the
British manufacturer in the markets the most distant they
had—in China—they met them in Canton, and in 1834
there were one hundred and sixty-six thousand yards of
different descriptions of cotton manufactured goods brought
by the Americans to that market.—( Hear, hear, hear)
—and they met them so successfully as rivals there, that the
British had not been able to dispose of more than 70,000
yards against them. They were not, even in their own
Colonial markets, protected against them, and in Calcutta,
notwithstanding there was a duty of 10 per cent. upon
foreign manufactured goods, their A rnerican rivals had
successfully competed with them. Another important
fact connected with the United States was that many of
the most recent improvements in cotton spinning were of
American invention. Ile believed that the patent rights
of these improvements were held by Americans, and they
were not in connection with America only, but were dis-
posed of on the Continent to large establishments which had
been formed in various parts of Zurich, the Tyrol, and
other parts of Switzerland ; and three years since he
( Mr. P.) had ascertained from active intelligent men who
knew well what the nature of the inquiry was, that there
were in these different establishments in 1834, orders for
the construction of machinery to the amount of 500,000/.
sterling, for the purpose of bringing other manufacturing
establishments into operation. He could go still further
with respect to foreign competition. The Hon. Member
for Woolverhampton hail stated the rapid increase of
manufactures in Swi!zerland, and he (Mr. P.) believed
that Switzerland at that moment was consuming 50,000
or 60,000 bags of cotton annually, and was meeting them
successfully, notwithstanding their distance from any port;
notwithstanding, as was stated by his honourable friend,
their being 700 or 800 miles from the sea-board. They
were competing with them in the American markets, sod
they knew full well, and understood their interest so com-
pletely at the present moment, that in Switzerland they
still left some of the higher numbers of the cotton twist
(he meant the fair descriptions) almost without any duty
whatever, because they found that a greater profit was
made by spinning the coarser numbers themselves. If
he travelled from Switzrland into Germany he would
come to the same conclusion, that competition met them
everywhere ; and with regard to Russia there was this most
extraordinary fact, that last year the quantity of cotton wool
imported into Russia for the purpose of being manufac-
tured into twist, amounted to as much as the cotton twist
that was actually imported from Great Britaim—( Hear,
hear. ) It was stated to him only a few weeks ago, by an
intelligent friend, who bad been lately making the tour of
the Continent, that he had visited some of the spinning
manufactories established in the Tyrol, and he (Mr. P.)
should like to describe to the House in what manner that
had been effected. By British enterprise and British
capital, derived from men who if they had remained at
home, would have formed a portion of his constituents.--
( Loud cries of " Hear, hear.") When the House had
been debating, two years ago, the question of factory
labour, and the restriction to certain hours, the
Right Hon. Baronet, the Member for Tamworth, whom
he did not then see in his place, was pleased rather to
smile at some allusions made by him (Mr. P ) to capital
travelling from that and locating itself in other count.-iee.
Ile could only state that had already taken place, and to a
considerable extent ; and as well expressed in a petition
which he had had the honor of presenting from the Man-
chester Chamber of Commerce, capital owed no
allegiance to the soil, but could transport itself wherever it
could more profitably be invested.—( Cheers from the
Tory Benches.) That he looked upon as an incontro
vertible fact, and he was sorry to say that they were begin-
ning, to experience the effects of this withdrawal of capital
upon the operations of British industry. In some of the great
machine manufactories in the borough Which he had the ho-
nour to represent, the parties directing those establishments
bid found great difficulty in retaining in their employment
some of their best mechanics who had worked for them for
many years—notwithstanding the enormous sums paid
to those men to retain their services as skilful workmen,
amounting to as much as 5/ per head per week. These
parties were solicited by foreigners, and taken abroad for
the purpose of facilitating the manufacture of machinery,
to be afterwards brcught into competition with them. He
(Mr. P.) had taken occasion to allude, on a former even-
ing, to an exceedingly injurious system, viz., the exportation
of cotton twist; and he regretted to say that they were
merely permitted to manufacture that upon sufferance; for
as soon as the parties abroad found that they were able to
obtain proper remuneration for their capital by employing
it in that business, he knew not what means there would he
of rct aining even that important branch of their manufactures
within the shores of that country.— ( Hear, hear.) The
question required the most serious attention of that
House. When the time would arrive, and it was pressing
on them when they should lose even that, and though he
had deplored, and frequently deplored in that House the
condition of the hand-loom weavers, if their condition were
now bad, he appreheneed that it would become still worse ;
and that that expression which had been made use of by the
manufacturers connected with the hardware trade, viz ,
that in order to retain their competition with foreigners,
they must work out the very sinews of their artisans before
it would come to pass.. Ile had presented on that day a
petition from 4,000 hand-loom weavers of Manchester.
These petitioners stated that they found it impossible to
obtain sufficient remuneration to procure the common ne-
cessaries of life—that many of them were without clothing
or food—that they had not the means of instructing their chir-
deen,much less of sending them to places of worship or Sun-
day schools, and that so long as they were subjected to this
competition with the foreign manufacturers in consequence
of the operation of the Corn-laws they despaired of any re-
muneration for their labour. They stated that they had
to work fifteen hours a day, and that the price of provisions
at the present moment was newly double what it was lest
year, while many of them regretted to say that instead of
its being in the power of the masters to give them better
wages they were new receiving inferior wages to what they
had twelve months ago when provisions were half the pre-
sent price. He Would not occupy the time of the House
by reading letters upon the subject, but he was exceedingly
anxious that that and a variety of interesting subjects
would be made the subject of investigation at the bar of
the House. He would not now touch upon the general
question of the Corn-laws, but would merely support the
proposition which had been made by the Hon. Member for
IVolverhampton, that evidence be taken at the bar to
prove what were the effects of the existing Corn.laws
upon the general system of manufactures in that country.
He would call upon the landlords to recollect that the
manufacturers had drawn largely upon their population,
and had found them with active and remunerative employ-
ment. But if that state of things was about to arrive
which he had predicted—if the time would come when
foreigners would be able to compete with them, not merely
upon neutral ground, but in every market abroad—he must
say, that with every wish and every inclination not to
give way to exaggerated feelings or apprehensions,
he would entertain the most serious fears as to
what would become of the industry of that country.
Would they be prepared, in the case of a suspension of
trade, to take back that population which the manufae-
turers had taken from them ? He apprehended they
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cessity, which there was but little doubt they would be in
a few years—if they were under the necessity of supporting
an idle population, it would operate as an export duty
upon every ounce of goods sent to a foreign market.
What was to be done with so large a population, which in
a few years must be thrown out of employment ? They
would in great numbers be in want of work, which they
could not get, and of bread, which they would find it im-
possible to get. He had often heard emigration suggested
as a means of reducing the superabundant population,
but., if it was an emigration forced upon them by the want of
work, by a failure in our manufactures, the word would sound
to his cars very much like transportation. He thought the