The Sun.
London, England, 1849-07-03 00:00:00

tons ; but, comparing the last periods, an increase of 3,000;
and now, this being one of the most distressed colonies, one
of those whose state was most pressed upon us, let me call
the Hon. Member's attention to the importation in 1815- 6,
as compared with the two subsequent years, when this
measure of destructiou, as he calls it, was in. full operation ;
in 1845-6 the annual average was 23,635 tons ' • in 1547.8,
33,458.—(Hear.) The same result will be found in the case
of Trinidad, Antigua, Barbadoes, St. Vincent's, Tobago.
Without occupying the House with the details, I may say,
that there is no instance in which the importation from these
colonies, since the measure of 1846 was passed, has not ex-
ceeded the importation for the two years preceding the
passing that measure.—(Hear, hear.) I will not detain the
House further upon this branch of the subject, which the
Honourable Gentleman passed over in a cursory manner; I
come to the main topic—a subject most worthy of the atten-
tion of the House. And in going into the question of the
state of the country I shall not confine myself, as the flion.
Gentleman did, to the results to be obtained from a return
of the state of things a year and a half ago, which he cited
to prove that the country is in a state of great and general
distress, progressing from the time when the present Go-
vernment took office. That might be a very good ream on
for a motion of this kind then; but the justification for the
motion now must be distress now existing.—(Hear, hear.)
The Honourable Gentleman compared the state of the coun-
try in the year ending Lady-day. 1847, with the year eatd-
ing Lady-day, 1848, and he cite.' the Poor-law Commis-
sioners' report for that year. [sfr. limaaker—" I did riot
take the Poor-law report for the year ending Lady-dm ty,
1847, but 1846 I wished to contrast the present state of the
country with its state at the commencement of 1846."] I
have no desire to misrepresent the Hon. Gentleman—( Het .1)
—but I asesh to notice that in tracing the causes of the dis-
tress of 1847, and the great amount expended for the relief
of the poor in the year ending Lady-day, 1848, he attributed
it greatly to the state of the home market, but he overloo' led
the circumstance of the extraordinary high price of corn .
( Hear, hear.) No wonder people were in distress when
corn was at 69s.—(Hear, hear.) If, as he would have; us
believe, the home market is that upon which our trade mai my
depends, and the prosperity of the aericulturists depe ads
upon a high price for corn, there had not for some time
been a year in which the home trade ought to have been so
good, manufactures so .flourishing, the labouring man, so
well off.—(Hear, hear.) Arguing from his premises, the
year to which he points as one of extraordinary distress
ought to have been one of unprecedented prosperity to the
home market.—(Hear. hear.) But I, on the contrary,
believe that a low price of corn contributes to the com-
fort of the labourer; and, if I were to trace the causes
of the distress of 1847, I should refer to the commer-
cial difficulty which prevailed and the high price of corn,
which must, in no- inconsiderable degree, have aggravated
the labourer's suffering.—(Hear, hear.) The Honourable
Gentleman says he has communicated with prsons in all
parts of the country, and that he can hear nothir.g but com-
plaints of distress. I should like to hear from the Hon.
Gentleman whence these complaints of all-perveitting,distress
have come; I have also been looking about me, eui it was my
duty to do after the Hon. Gentleman gave notice of his
motion, and I have also communicated with people in
almost all parts of the country. Ido not say that the entire
country, and every interest in it, are in a state of unbounded
prosperity. There are trades, no doubt, sufferireg, and there
is, in some parts of the south-west of Englan d especially,
considerable and severe distress.—(Hear, hear.) But I must
say that, after what we have gone through, after the collapse
caused by a time of unexampled commercial esepression_
after four years of a failure of food in Ireland, and after
that which the Hon. Gentleman very much de vies, the in-
jurious consequences caused oy the Danish blieckade, it is
not wonderful that distress should to a considemable extent
prevail.—(Hear, hear.) Ido not see the Hon. Member for
Hull in the House; but this very day there is, I believe, a
meeting of the people of Hull tor the purpose of promoting
a subscription in favour of these persons who in. that place
and neighbourhood have been thrown out of employment in
consequence of the Danish blockade.—( Hear, h mar.) I wiff
now, however, state to the House the result of '.he inquiries
I have made as to the actual state of things i a almost all
parts of the country ; and I will, in the first in: aance' direct
the attention of the House to those facts about which there
is likely to be the least dispute. I will take, first, the con
dition of our manufactures, reserving to a latex period the
state of the agricultural interest. I find, the;, from those
parties of whom I have inquired as to the state of ehe wool trade
in Wiltshire that, "The fine wool-mills about Trowbridge,
&c., never were better employed; indeed they have not been
to fully employed for some time past. That employment is
abundant at Bradford and Trowbridge, and the factories
are now in good work. At Bradford an abandoned clot

factory has recently been taken by a gentleman from a dis-
tance for the purpose of establishing a manufactory of articles
of clothing, &c., from India-rubber."—(Hear, hear.) At
Wotton-under-Edgi " the mills continue at full work. I
found one silk-mill machinery standing for want of hands
, to work it. Two years ago (before some of our measures
came into operation) any number of hands could have been
commanded." "At Kidderminster and its neighbour-
hood all the mills are workihg full time, which has not
been the case since the spring of 1846." At Norwich
" work in manufacture (of which during six months of last
year there was an unexampled stagnation) is now toler-
ably brisk." Then as to Birmingham, I have also received
information. Now, lam ready to admit that Birmingham
is not one of the places which can be set d,)wn as very
prosperous.—(Hear, hear.) The iron trade and the
hardware trade generally, I am bound to say', has fallen
off to some extent. As I said before, some: trades are
in a prosperous state and some are not; and. in Birming-
ham there are branches of trade which are not to be
classed with the latter. But even in Birmingham
there is a diminution of the number of paupers in the
workhouse, and in the weekly expenses for out-door re-
lief. I find that "in Birmingham and Ashton there were, in
the midsummer quarter of 1848, of in-door paupers, 1,299 ;
and in 1849, 1,204. The average weekly expense for out-
door relief was, in 1848, 6261. ; and in 1849, 603/."—(Hear,
hear.) At Leicester, the operatives in the frame-work knit-
ting manufactures have, within the last six months, obtained
an advance of their wages, and their general condition has
not been so favourable for several years past as at the pre-
sent moment. I entirely agree with the Hon. Gentleman
when he says that the point to which we ought to look more
than to any other is the condition of the labouring classes
of the country.—(Hear, hear.) They form the great body
of the people; they are those to whom the attention of Go-
vernment and the legislation of this House ought to be prin-
cipally directed—(Hear, hear)—and I agree with him in
thinking that their condition is the very best test of the
prosperity or otherwise of the country.—(Hear, hear.)
In order, therefore, to assist the House in arriving at a
sound conclusion as to the state of the working clas es,
I will take the amount expended for in-door and out-
door relief in four unions in 1845 and 1848:—The in-
door paupers in the unions of Barrow. on-Soar, Hinckley,
Leicester, and Loughborough, were, in the Midsummer
quarter of 1848,.1,157 ; and in the same period of 1849, 822 ;
showing a decrease of 335. The average weekly expendi-
ture for out-door relief eluting the same period was, at Bar-
row, in 1848, 96/. ; this year, 811. At Hinckley, in 1848,81/. ;
this year, 70/. At Leicester, in 1848, 4801. ; this year, 2621. ;
and at Loughborough, in 1848, 865/.; this year, 781. Now,
these are facts. But if the state of our artazans and manu-
facturers is such as the Hon. Gentleman represents it to be,
is it credible that these diminutions could have taken place
in the expenditure in these unions on account of the work-
house and out-door relief ?—( Hear, hear.) I now come to
Nottingham, and there my information flat only states facts,
but states the causes of those facts, which are, though the
Hon. Gentleman will not allow it, traced to our recent legis-
lation.—(Hear, hear.) A respectable informant says:
—" The prices of bread and meat, as well as
clothes, are so cheap, that for many years past the ope-
ratives have not been so well off. -No mills are working
short time, but all fully employed." "The manufacturers
of hosiery are very busy, and a large proportion of lace ma •
nufacturers are equally so; consequently there is abundant
manufacturing employment. A strike of one branch has
. .

now continued six weeks, and is decisive of the improved
condition of workmen generally. It appears to be the rule
to strike for higher wages when the times improve." The
exports and imports for Nottingham, per railway, last month,
were upwards of 4,000 tons, while they were, for the similar
period last year, 3,000 tons. The tonnages of the canals are
also increased. I will now come to Yorkshire. Though the
Hon. Gentleman did not in his speech go into detail, yet I
think it is my duty to put before the House, and in detail,
the information I have received from different parts of the
country, in order that there may be no mi -take as to what
the condition of the country really is (Hear, hear)—that
the people out of doors may not be deluded' by anything
which the Hon. Gentleman has said, utterly unsupported by
any facts that be has been able to allege.—( Hear, hear.)
I will here only say one thing—and it refers to the possible
arguments that may be derived from the amount of
wages paid to the working classes—that in comparing the
wages paid to certain classes of artisans now with what they
were three or four years ago, the reduction of the hours of
labour caused by the Factory Act must be taken into consi-
deration.—(Hear, hear.) I will not give an opinion upon
that question. tis not necessary that I should do se; but
those gentlemen who argued in favour of that measure con-
stantly maintained that the same amount of wages would be
paid for a less amount of labour.—(Hear, hear.) That was
a statement which no gentleman of common understanding
could believe, and the result has proved that the reverse is
true.—( Hear.) We cannot expect to find the same wages
given for 10 hours' work as for 12 ; or that no higher wages
were paid in the week when there were 63 hours, than now,
when there are 58 hours of labour.—(Hear, hear.) I give no
opinion whether that measure was right nr wrilna 1,..4
say the Hon. Gentleman muse not compare the weekly
amount of wages paid before the passing of the Factory Act
and those paid now, without considering the consequences
which have flowed from the passing of that law.—(Hear.
hear.) I find that the wages paid by one house in Leeds
were, in the first five months of 1847, 1,4931. ; during the
some period in 1848,1,4051. ; and in the same period in 1849,
2,0421. The number of persons to whom out-door relief was
given in the four weeks of May—