The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-21 00:00:00

Mr. Gladstone has addressed the following letter
to " The Committee of Importers and others,
Mincing-lane"

...
Downing-street, Feb. 21.
Gentlemen,—l have the honour to acknowledge your

.etter of the 17th.
I must beg you not to construe the present communica-
iou as the answer of the Government to your represents-
;ion. It is intended only to narrow any apparent ground of

difference between us, and to suggest the ground of proceed-
ing most convenient with a view to the progress of public
business.

Your letter. v•efers to that portion only of the financial

proposals of tho Government which is intended to meet, by
compensating charges upon trade and exchange in one form
or other, a share of the loss anticipated from the approach-
ing remission s of duty.
You c=ino ent more or less adversely upon the Penny
Registration Due, upon the charges for removals and opera-
tions in wfveehouse, upon the stamp proposed for Dock
Warrants and for Contract Notes ; and besides, you ob-
serve that any tax meant for revenue should be imposed,
not upon. traders as a class, but upon the community.
I distinguish carefully between your particular and your
more ~,,enoral objection. And with respect to the latter, I
respectfully ask you to consider whether the financial
scheme of the Government, viewed for one moment as a
whole, is really open to the charge of relieving the commu-
nity at the expense of traders as a class ; and whether, on
the contrary, the head and front of the attacks upon it be
not this, that it too greatly relieves trade, and therefore re-
lieves traders also in a primary and special sense, and this
by means of a tax to be imposed on the community.
It is with reluctance that her Majesty's Government re-
commend to Parliament any new charges upon trade in any
form. But the case is a very simple one. They found that
in order to give the requisite breadth to their scheme, and
secure some of its main ends, it was necessary to give a re-
lief from present taxes amounting to nearly four millions for
the year 1860-1, and to nearly five millions if we include the
residue to take effect in 1861-2. They found that they
might obtain this great relief, and along with it largely re-
duce establishments and patronage, and effect collaterally
great administrative reforms, at a charge of something over
three millions to the revenue of the coming year. They did
not conceive that they could ask for more than about
£2,100,000 from that revenue, with the present high scale
of expenditure, even for the great purposes which they have
had in view. It is, therefore, no wanton infliction which
they suggest ; but they are desirous to arrange, with your
assistance and that of others who are well -informed, a bene-
ficial commutation. They rely with confidence on your
willingness to venture something for the public good.
They wish carefully to consider with you how to keep the
pecuniary demand within bounds, and, above all, how to
I prevent creating new obstructions in tho course of trade
where their main object is, wherever possible, to destroy
old ones.

I now pass to your comments upon details. Most or all
of the resolutions on which you comment may require to
be modified, but you will agree with me that definitive modi-
cation had better bo reserved until it can express the final
intentions of the Government.
Nor will you be surprised or offended when I tell you
that, as the Minister most directly responsible, I am reluc-
tant to ask my colleagues to give the subject their final con-
sideration, until I am myself able to pay a less divided
attention to the details than will be possible until the
House of Commons shall have dealt with the larger and
more vital questions involved in the scheme for remission of
duties.
I may, however, give you certain limited assurances, on
which you may rely apart from anything that the neces-
sarily technical language of the resolutions may appear to
suggest.
With respect to the Penny Registration Due, its basis is
this. We have (I trust) arrived at a stage in our legisla-
tionwhen the whole pressure of Customs' Duties will cease
to be felt beyond a very narrow list of articles, and when
the largest share, possibly four-fifths or more, of the entire
Import and Export Trade of the country, thus absolutely
relieved, will continue to receive important services frost
Customs' establishments that (including superannuation')
cost the country above a million a year. The Registration
Due is intended, without affecting the operations of trade
as duties do, to make a moderate contribution from trade
itself towards this heavy charge. The requisite classifica-
tion is of necessity, but inadequately, expressed in the re-
solution. lam satisfied that it will not ,be difficult, and
that the measure is in principle generally admitted and ap-
proved.
Tho warehousing charges aim at the same ; and like-
wise at establishing a greater equality between certain
classes of places, with regard to warehousing advantages,
than now exists. I admit that many of them are too
high. I further admit that it may bo open to consider-
ation whether, in respect to some of them, at
least, and especially in regard to removals, a
different form of proceeding may be preferable. A meet re-
spectable deputation from Liverpool, has urged that all
dealers in bonded goods should be required to take out an
annual license ; and the Government are desirous to obtain
the opinion of the commercial world upon this suggested
alternative.
With respect to Dock Warrants and to Contract Notes I
refer to what I have already said respecting the proper time
for definitive explanation or improvement. I beg, however,
to assure you that the former are not intended to be liable
to those frequent repetitions of the charge imposed which
has been apprehended ; and, in regard to the latter, that
it is not, and never has been, the intention of Government
to ask for a tax even of one penny upon bills of parcels, or
upon anything that essentially belongs to that class, inas-
much as the transactions to whish they relate are already
regulated, and when they exceed forty shillings, taxed by

law.
Should the faithful application of this pledge be found to
diminish the estimated fruits of the stamp, it will neverthe-
less, be redeemed.
After giving your obliging consideration to this letter
you may perhaps be enabled to draw into more speciil°
forms any suggestions it may be agreeable to you to make.
I shall be most ready to communicate with you, both in
writing and personally, at the proper time ; and it is for the
general convenience, rather than that of the Government,
f I venture to recommend that by mutual communication
the classes best informed and most directly concerned should
as far as possible represent to us on behalf of London and
other places their collective wishes and opinions.
As this letter appertains wholly to matters of general in-
terest, I make no apology for sending it at once for publica-
tion ; and I have the honour to remain, gentlemen, with
much respect, your very faithful servant,
W. E. GLADSTONE.

IV.RONGS WHICH CRY FOR REDRESS.

" We only wish," writes the editor of a leading
London periodical, " that every member of the
House of Commons could study the following before
the second reading of Mr. Crook's Bill for the Pro-
tection of Women and Children employed in Bleach
Works, &c.:—

Ann Simpson (fourteen years old), Elizabeth Hil-
ton (fifteen), Sarah Higson (sixteen).—" We came
to work last Friday morning at half-past six (at Mr.
Ridgway Bridson s bleach-works, Bolton). S't's
worked all Friday night till half-past five on Satur-
day morning (23 hours). We did not sleep any time in
the night, except on Saturday morning at half-past
five we laid down on the hooking-box, and slept till
a little after seven' (less than two hours' sleep—and
with the clothes still on—after tweaty-three hours'
work) ; then we went to breakfast for half-an-hour,
and then came and worked till ten minutes past
eleven.'—(Report of the Commissioner appointed to
inquire how far it may be advisable to extend the
Provisions of the Acts for the better Regulation of
Mills and Factories to Bleaching Works, p. 25, No.
23G.)
William Crompton-41 am seventeen. I have
been four years and a half' (that is, since he WAS
twelve years and a half old) in the dressing shop.
We go on till different hours, sometimes early,
sometimes late. I worked once three days and
three nights' (he is only one, remember, among
multitudes—children as well as adults—who toil
in the same way) ;" and not long since, I
began work on Friday morning at four, and worked
till five on Saturday night (thirty-seven hours) I
mostly slept at meal-times, and only stopped one
hour for meals ; the rest I ate while I was working.
—lbid., p. 26, No. 246.
Elizabeth Edge.—l am fourteen years of age. I
have worked here (at Mr. Seddea's, Breiglatmet
Bleachworks) four years. Three months sines
I worked two nights and two days. I slept four
hours the first morning, and not at all the next
night. I have very often worked till twelve."---.
p. 49, No. 491.
Amelia Wood (fifteen next July)—" I have been
at this work about three years. We oftenest begin at
five or six in the morning, and oftenest leave off at 11
or 12. * * Sometimes we do not leave off till
three or four in the morning. My fingers are often
very bad ; the cloth wears them through."—lbid.•
No. 158.

Samuel Price, examined :
Mr. Butt—How did you awaken them (alluding
to the little children of Mr. Ainsworth's establish-
meat near Bolton, when they fell asleep " stand-
ing at their work ") ?—Many a time by shouting,
and at other times getting a board and rapping it
on the table, making a loud report that used to
startle them, and I could keep them awake then for
an hour, or more than that, perhaps, by frightening
them.—lbid., pp. 88, 89, Nos. 1849, 1862.

Surely all this is very terrible. But read on—
Wright Mather—' I am foreman of the clamping;
room. I have four lassies working under me.
* In summer I have seen the room 130 deg.iitt
winter it is generally about 80 to 100 deg. "I
have come at six a.m. and worked till nine p.m. all
last week. * * * There are four clamping;
rooms, and when they are all agate, there are 18
f,males at work in them. In the other drying'
place there are five boys ; they work very often 16:
17, and 18 hours to the day. The heat is very great
in that room, from 100 to 150 deg., and that is under
the mark.'—lbid., p. 25, Nos. 241-243.
[Take thoughtful notice of this heat—' from 100
to 150 deg., and that is under the mark !' In 6
subsequent examination witness stated, concerning
the ages of the boys, that one was ten, anotkeir,
eleven, and one thirteen'—working, bear in m.inn,
'sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen hours to the ell.
in a temperature exceeding by some 20 or 30
the general temperature of an Indian summeelJ
_Hopley's Letter to the Men and IF omen of
United Kingdom. Houlston and Wright, Lond

LONDON Printed and Published by MTJRDO you Not
of No. 112, Strand, Printer, at The Sun Office, N°• 112:
Strand, in the Precinct of the Savoy, in the county 1).
Middlesex, Tuesday, February 21, 1860.