The Sun.
London, England, 1832-03-02 00:00:00

competition, but was in a great degree attributable to the
extension of machinery for the manufacture of silk in

Nlanchester.

Air. BARING approved the conduct of the Right.
lion. Gentleman in granting the Committee, which, in
his opinion, ought to be armed with very extensive powers.
It was very clear from the statements which had been
made that much distress was felt in Spitalfields, Coventry,
Macclesfield, and Congleton ; and the only consolation
they hal was that which they had received from the
Honourable Member for Lancashire, namely, that if

the silk trade were declining elsewere, it was getting
better i❑ Manchester. It was, however, very clear that
they could not interfere to prevent the improvement of
trade in one place, though that improvement might be de-
trimental to another. If 11lanchester bad deprived Co

ventry of its trade, however desirous they might be to
afford individual relief to persons who suffered from the
change, still they could only view it as a partial, and not
a general calamity. The Right Hon. Gentleman had told
them of the prosperity of the silk trade generally; but that
was an assertion entirely at variance with the statements
of the petitioners. He had asserted that the exportation of
silks had increased from 100,0001. to 500,0001. But
how was the statement borne out, when they found the
31. 6d. debentures granted on exportation of so little
value that they were sold for id. There could be no
doubt that smuggling was carried on to a very great
extent. The fact was, that the higher classes would
scarcely look at English silk. Formerly smuggling was not
pursued by reputable houses ; but latterly it was noto-
riously known that those which were called the most re-
spectable houses were deeply engaged in those trans-
actions. He admitted, that under the management
of the late Mr. Rose, our whole system of trade pre-
sented a mass of absurdity and incongruity, and it was
considered a very important point to get rid of those ab-
surdities, for the purpose of coming to what was called
" free trade." In that principle he agreed to a certain
extent ; but, when he said this, he disclaimed being bound
down by words, and expressions, and cant terms.—(Hear,
hear.) It was impossible to decide upon every case con-
nected with trade by adhering to one rule, without look-
ing to all the collateral circumstances.—.(Hear, hear.)
He well knew that there were some cases to which a ge-

neral theory or principle could not apply ; and he con-
ceived himself to be very hardly dealt with when he was
selected as the only person to be taunted as being bigetted
and prejudiced against those principles of free trade. The
very first article to which they proceeded to apply the new
principle was that of silk; and when they came to consi-
der it, they found that it involved points of the utmost de-
licacy. It was not a new and unsettled trade with which
they had to deal, but an old established manufacture, on
the prosperity of which thousands and thousands depend-
ed ; and the question was, whether the " purists" should
come in and sweep it all away?—(Hear, hear.) Mr.
Huskisson, he was aware, came down to the House after
the Bill on this subject bad passed, and produced calcula-
tions to show, while the people were starving, that they
ought not to be starving.—(Hear, hear, hear.) The
Right Hon. Gentleman in like manner attempted to prove
that the whole was a mistake, and that no such thing as a
depression of the silk trade existed. He could not con-
ceive with what degree of fairness the Right Hon. Gentle-
man had left out of his calculation 1824 and 1825,
years in which the Right Hon. Gentlema❑ admitted that
a great start had taken place in the trade. These were
the two very years in which the manufacturers prospered
most, and they now claimed to be placed in the same situa-
tion as that in which they then stood. There was then
little or no duty on the raw material, and there was a

prohibition on the foreign manufacture. This was the
case at that time, and that was what the manufacturer
wanted now. It had been argued, that by admitting this
principle of free trade, articles could be got at a much
cheaper rate. But if while 1,0001. were saved in that way,
they thereby threw the people out of employment, and added
10,0001. to the poor-rates at home, was it not evidently
their interest to deal with the British manufacturer? But
if they adopted the system which was forced on them with
all that presumption and arrogance which the pure philo-
sophers manifested, they would be answerable for all the
degradation and all the moral consequences which must flow
from following a particular system implicitly without
looking to the attendant circumstances.
An HON. MEMBER said, that in Manchester there were
only ten mills fully employed, and that could not accomet
for the number of mills that were doing nothing in Con-
gleton and Macclesfield.
Mr. ATTWOOD was astonished et Ministers taking a
course to-night which, when the situation of the glove
trade was brought forward a fortnight ago, they had con-
demned. At that time they said the glove trade of Yeovil
was not affected, and therefore they would not grant a
Committee; and now they declared because the silk trade
of Manchester was not injured, that they would agree to
a Committee.—(Hear.) The Ministers said that an in-
quiry into the glove trade would have excited false hopes,
and therefore they would not accede to it. Why, then,
should they grant a Committee in this case, which was
equally liable to that objection? He denied that over-
trading had been the cause of the distress under which the
silk manufacturers of this country laboured, but that it
had been principally occasioned by the opening of the
market to French manufacturers. He entered his protest
against the principles of free trade,—denied that the
House was pledged to those principles,—contended that
it was the duty of the House to inquire into the calamity
and the distress which had been caused by carrying such
principles into operation,—and maintained, that if upon
due inquiry it shoula be found, as he was confident it
would, that such had been the cowequence of the adop-
tion of those principles, the Legislature was bound to
take care that no more calamity should befall the country,
by not proceeding further in such courses.—The Hon.
Member's speech was delivered amidst continued and con-
siderable interruption, coughing, cries of " Question,
question," and of " Oh, oh."
Mr. C. GRANT did not deem it necessary to answer
those parts of the Hon. Gentleman's speech which he had
not been able to hear ; for the House, knowing that the
Committee was granted, had certainly evinced no desire
to listen to the speech of the Hon. Gentleman—to that
annual oration which be had been in the habit of delivering
himself during the last six years.—(A laugh.) Any one
who should have entered the House while the Hon. Gentle-
man was speaking, and who might not be aware that a
Committee was granted, would imagine from the tone of
the Hon. Gentleman that inquiry had been altogether re-
fused by the Government. In fact, the Hon. Member's
speech must have been intended as an answer to a resist-
ance to the motion on the part of Government, and com-
ing effete with it down to the House, he could not avoid
disburdening himself of it. In no other way was it
possible to account for the tremendous array of com-
mon places with which the Hon. Member bad favoured
them on this occasion.—(Hear, hear.) The Hon. Gen-
tleman had told the Government that they ought to in-
quire into the grievances of which the people cern-
plained. Why the Government were ready to do so.
His Right Hon. Friend, the Vice-President of the Board
of Trade, assented to the appointment of a Committee of
Inquiry, and there was therefore no necessity on this oc-
casion for the unprovoked,—the gratuitous and generous
eloquence of the Hon. Gentleman.—(A laugh, and cries of
" Hear.") He did not feel called upon to vindicate his la-
mented friend Mr. Huskisson against the attacks of the
Hon. Gentleman. To his late lamented friend was attri-
butable the practical wisdom of the last ten years, and be
had the merit of applying great principles to great emer-
gencies, and to the march of events. Adhering as he (Mr.
Grant) did to all those great principles of his late Right
Hon. Friend, not surrendering one of those principles, he
perfectly agreed with his Right Hon. Friend near him in
the propriety of acceding to this motion.
Sir R. VYVYAN said that this was a triumph of which
those who had been for five years contending for inquiry
might
jauesetelydepdrotu)di.nquTirlyre,
and
theof
REirgighltandhad
at length be justly
Hon.
Gentleman opposite,
who a fortnight ago had expressed him.
self against it, had now become a convert to the propriety
of inquiry.
Mr. HUNT was certain that if Mr. Huskisson were
living be would make a speech the very opposite of that
which had been just delivered by the Right Hon. Gentle-
man (Mr. Grant).
Lord EASTNOR approved of the Committee being
granted, but thought an equal meed of justice ought to be
afforded to the glove trade, there being no difference in the
circutnstances of the two branches of trade.
Lord ALTHORP said, that there did not exist a great
distinction between the glove and the silk trade. If the
Government agreed with his Noble Friend (Earl Grosve-
nor) in giving the Committee, still his Right Hon. Friend,
the Vice-President of the Board of Trade, had stated the
principle on which that Committee was to be granted, and
the argument bad no reference to the state of the glove
trade. His Right Hon. Friend had said, that the reason
why Government agreed to the Committee was, not on
account of distress in that branch, but in order to inquire
into certain facts. One of those facts was, to know whe-
ther the distress of the silk trade was to be attributed to
ernuggling. It was well known that smuggling went on
in silk as a regular trade, and that there was an insurance
office established in Paris for that purpose. No such
facts, however, existed as to the glove trade. It was also
ridiculous to apply the term free trade to one so protected
as the silk trade was; and indeed so minute was the dif.
ference between the two manufactures, that officers had
frequently gone into rooms where they knew there were