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

SPIRIT Of THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The subject of tithes in Ireland was introduced
last night in the House of Commons, by Sir
Richard Musgrave, who presented petitions for
the abolition of them, from parishes in the coml.
ties of Waterford and Kilkenny. After describ-
ing the misery produced by tithes, and their in-
jurious effects on religion, Sir Richard read a
letter from a beneficed clergyman of Ireland, re-
commending (strange to say) the advancement
of the best interests of the Church, by reducing,
the incomes of the clergy to moderate dimen-
sions. " Let the Committee (said this clergy-
man) recommend that tithe property be divided
into three equal parts—one for the benefit of the
poor, one for the building and repairs of
churches, paying officers' salaries, &c., and one
for the respectable remuneration of the esta-
blished clergy." " I think, in the present state
of public opinion (including that advice to the
Established Church, and that regarding its wel-
fare), that it would be idle to attempt to legislate
with satisfaction or success upon the method of
pa)ing the clergy, without including a wholesome
reduction of the Church's temporalities. It is
evident that a legal provision must (and that at
no distant day) be made for that ever-multiply-
ing body, the Irish poor ; and I feel that that
object can, with justice to the best interests of
the country, be best effected, by appropriating to
it a portion of the superabundant wealth of the
Church." These sentiments are highly honour-
able to the clergyman who uttered them. One
subject dwelt on by Sir Richard is of immense
consequence in augmenting the discontent in Ire-
land— Church rates. "In the parish of Lis-
more (he said), where I reside, tithes to the
amount of eight hundred pounds a year are
levied, underthe denomination of economy tithes,
for the repair and building of churches; and yet
Church rates are also annually exacted to the
amount of eighty or ninety pounds. These rates
are laid on two thousand rate payers, almost all of
whom are Catholics, and many of whom are, from
. _ _

their poverty, summoned before the Magistrates,
who have then a most distressing duty to perform."
We may here observe that the Church rate is
becoming every year more and more oppressive
in England. The Church rate of England
alone, in the year ending 25th March, 1827,
amounted to 540,9711., somewhat more than
twice the amount of the income of the Church
of Scotland, including the annual Parliamentary
grant in aid of the small livings. Of course
the evil is more felt in Ireland, because, the

population being Catholic, the rates have been
viewed by one or two Protestant tradesmen, as a
convenient machinery for robbing their neigh-
bours. In England, however, the jobbing with
the proceeds of the rates is very great, and the
cause of much bitterness and animosity in
parishes. Sir Richard concluded with observing,_
that " the report and evidence of the Tithe
Committee will soon be brought before this
House, and I shall take that opportunity
of restating here the same objections which
I urged against that report as a Member of the
Committee. The report appears to me not to
be borne out by the evidence, and the measure
therein recommended of following the precedent
of 1799, and of giving the Lord Lieutenant
power to imprison those who refuse to pay
tithes, must lead to the most calamitous conse-
quences." So then it is intended to seize the bell-
wethers for the tithes. We doubt the practica-
bility of this. No doubt this is not an age in which
men compete for the honours of martyrdom. A
gentleman would prefer the society of his wife and
children by the parlour fire, to the society and
accommodation of a gaol. But still, after all,
we have that opinion of the Irish, from the
strength of their sympathies as well as antipa-
thies, that there are few men who would not,
under the exhilirating excitement produced by
the warm sympathy of a warm-hearted motive,
willingly expose themselves to a gaol, rather
than display the white feather. The law

will be .a
dead letter. In the case of the
poor, imprisonment is out of the question.—
There would be competitors among them
for the distinction of imprisonment. The
better sort will be sustained by honour, and the
cheering effects of public sympathy. There
are in every place men of timid characters,
and we can conceive that in ordinary
times, by a judicious selection of persons of
such character, a combination might be broken.
But then, in a case of a combination of this
kind, what a timid tnan would fear most would
be the consequences of the universal odium.
An Italian was asked how he, who was a coward,
came to fight so bravely " Because," he
answered, " I was more afraid of those behind
than those before me." Mr. Stanley seems to
have been a little annoyed by the partial publi
cation of Dr. Doyle's evidence in the Dublin

Mornino-b Register. It strikes us that, without
swearing the Members of the Committee to
secrecy, and vigorously excluding strangers, pub-
lication cannot be prevented. A witness can
always tell what evidence he gave ; and means
could be found of communicating that evidence
in such a way as to evade the order of the House
of Commons.—Morning Chronicle.
We have great pleasure in calling the atten-
tion of our readers to the kind and benevolent
tone of the short speeich of the Archbishop of
Canterbury, delivered by him last night in
the House of Lords, on presenting a petition
from Rochester aiid its vicinity, praying their
Lordships to support the measure for the proper
regulation and limitation of the hours of labour
for children in the woollen, cotton, silk, and other
manufactories

" He could not," he said, " take upon himself to an-
swer for the fact. stated in the petition, but he had every
reason to suppose that they were correctly set forth, and
on that supposition lie had no hesitation in saying that
this was 3 system of cruelty or oppression which ought to
he put an eni to. It ought to be recollected, that with
children up to the age of about 14 or 15 the time was
that of innocent pleasure or enjoyment, whereas, under
this system they were confined for a most unreasonable
number of hours each day at their labours, without time
for relaxation or even for proper refreshment—and that,
too, with very few holidays in the year. The effect of
this was pernicious to their health, and it ought also to be
',collected, that it was attended with most serious injury
to their morals. It was a disgrace to a Christian and
civilized community to allow such a system to continue,
merely for the sake of putting money in the pockets of the
master manufacturers."
We have no hesitation in saying, that neither
mall, woman, nor child, ought to be allowed to
work more than ten hours a day in any factory,
and that all the arguments used by the master
manufacturers on the subject will not bear ex-
amination. In the case of children no doubt
more evil is caused by over-working than in the
case of grown people ; but the evil in the latter
case is not trilling. The country has a deep in-
terest in preventing the continuation of any sys-
tem of labour which tends to produce a race of
ricketty and degenerated beings, feeble in body
and mind, who, from physical exhaustion, are
i nevitably led into indulgence in gross sensu-
ality,—persons who, in the expressive language
of a master manufacturer of Manchester, have
Ho leisure to be wise, and who have only the form

of their species. A great mistake is committed by
those who suppose that grown persons are at
liberty to choose or to reject employment.—
In a new and thinly-inhabited country, the
labourers are free to choose ; but in an old and
densely-peopled country like this, a poor man
has no choice between starvation and such em-
ployment as is offered to him. In the country,
the periods of labour are fixed by nature, and
in all times the rustic, in summer and winter,
spring and harvest, has worked the same number
of hours. But in towns the labour is performed
by artificial light, and the number of hours may
be extended beyond the power of human en-
durance. Besides, it is the tendency of manu-
facturers to produce a puny and feeble race of
beings, who, from want of physical power, are
doomed to continue in the same employment,
and are, in fact, as much a caste as if they were
Indian Pariahs. It is a delusion to suppose
that there is any free agency in the case. In an
artificial, complicated system, like ours, the Le-
gislature is bound to step in between the em-
ployer and the employed, when suffering hu-
manity appeals to it. When all masters are tied
down to ten hours, they are all on an
equal footing ; and, as no man will produce
without a remunerating price, it must be the
same thing to the employer whether he produces
twelve pieces of cotton for a shilling, or ten. A
great deal of the benefit obtained by cheapness of
manufactures, is more imaginary than real. We
are loaded with ten trinkets instead of eight.
We have knockers on our doors with four brass
knobs instead of three. A Lord has two chests
filled with cotton rags instead of one. All these
things are measured by the food in the country ;
and additional human beings add moie and more
to the quantity of our manufactures without ob-
taining a proportional addition to the food in
exchange for them. The only effect of limiting
the hours to ten will be, that the manufacturers
will have the same food for less labour—that is,
the agriculturist will obtain less of that labour for
his food. II the labourer were to work on Sunday
as well as the other six days, he would not
obtain one penny more wages. Were it
not for religion we have no doubt that the
steam-engine would go the week round without
intermission, and man would be considered
merely as an adjunct to the machinery. We
have always admired the good sense of the Ca-
tholics, in opposition to the Protestants, on the
subject of holidays. Nature, says the Catholics,
does not require ao much labour to enrich you
with her productions ; and why then should you
make this earth a valley of toil and tears? By
adding to the toil of the poor man you add to
his misery, and merely enable a greater number
of idlers to be fed at his expence. But it is said
our manufacturers will not be able to compete
with foreigners in the markets abroad. We
do not believe this. We believe the price is
everywhere determined by the English produce.
The truth is, it is the difficulty of obtaining return
cargoes--that is the great evil. We could soon de-
luge India, China, and the mountains of Asia with
twist, but we cannot obtain equivalents. Were
we to export twice the quantity of manufactured
produce we now export, the returns would not
correspond to them from the inability of
foreigners to give you produce in exchange
which can be imported into this country. The
competition, therefore, is with ourselves. Each
manufacturer is trying to undersell his neigh-
bour in the foreign market, and the effect of
competition is to give more and more of the
labour of Englishmen for the same returns.—
The Legislature should utterly disregard the
master manufacturers in such cases.—Morning
Chronicle.

We have hinted our opinion that the manner
in which the Duke of Wellington's unexpected
viva voce address to the King has been " fol-
lowed up" is likely to prove fatal to the conti-
nuance of the practice. However, we have been
induced by some letters which we have received,
to cast our eye back on the address itself ; and
a singular one it is. First of all, it appeared in
our Journal of last Saturday, with a set of signa-
tures of men possessing wealth and station cer-
tainly ; but who gave them their wealth and
station ? The people of England, against whose
rights they sign their names ; for they are
chiefly boroughinongers and pensioners, whose
subscriptions stand fixed to the address—Buck-
ingham, Chandos, Stuart de Rothsay, George
Isaac Hereford, Sturges Bourne, Fitzwilliam
Barrington, G. H. Jolliffe, Bart., Neale, Bart.,
Burrard, &c. Now is it to be borne with
patience that such men should have the audacity
to earwig the King, through their illustrious
leader, the Duke of Wellington, as persons
capable of giving iml. artial advice to his
Majesty between themselves and their coun-
trymen ? They, whose pertinacious reten-
tion of the people's rights is the very sub-
ject of complaint and dissatisfaction. They,
whose usurpations it is the object of the Bill to
recover for the people. Can they, we ask, have
dared to endeavour to embark the King in their
cause against the whole body of his subjects ?
But further : we look at the petition, and against
what do we find its prayer chiefly directed? Not
against Parliamentary Reform, nor even against
the Bill now in progress for that purpose, but
against Political Unions ! We have heard that
there was trickery in this, and our examination
confirms the charge. It was carefully concealed
in Hampshire that the petition was meant to be
converted into an instrument against Reform.—
The announcement by placard was (and we
dare the enemies of Reform to contradict our
statement), " The address to his Majesty against
Political Unions lies here for signature." It was
asserted that there was nothing in the petition
hostile to Reform ; and under that conviction and
belief, signatures were importunately demanded,
and hastily appended to the petition. Lord Ash-
town, we believe, has published a letter in the
Southampton Paper, protesting against his sig-
nature being considered as classing him with
the Anti-Reformers. Yet who does not now
know that the King, in the bustle of the Levee
and the novelty of the scene, was led to believe
that the petition was directed against Reform ?
It would not, indeed, now answer the purpose
of the Anti-Reformers to have it considered in
any other light : so that both the King and the
people have been deceived. If we are asked
whether the petition contains nothing against
Reform, we answer, perhaps it is meant to do so,
by implication ; for it says, " If any Bill be
pa:sed (any Bill whic e.'er) through tl e demands
of political associations, the authority of Parlia-
ment will be at an end." We say the same ;
but in spite of the terror of the associations,
one Bill has been rejected ; the fear of such
associations is, therefore, at an end ; the spell
' has been broken : but if the manly, direct, and
open advocacy of Reform be a crime, what is the
surreptitious, evasive, underhand opposition to
it ? We hear that a correspondence has followed
the scene which we described as having taken
place at the Levee on Wednesday, and in which
a noble Marquis took a conspicuous part. His

Lordship, it is said, (although we can scarcely
credit such an act of indiscretion even in Lord
Londonderry), wrote to the King to inquire
whether the gracious observations which his
Majesty addressed to him, on the presentation
of the petition from the " 'Prentice Boys of
Derry," was to be transmitted to them as his
Majesty's answer to the address ? The proper
officer was directed to refer the Noble Lord to
the Secretary of State for the Home Depart-
ment, who lost no time in replying to his Lord-
ship's inquiry, that no instance was on record of
the " 'Prentice Boys" having claimed or exer-
cised a privilege, similar to that enjoyed by the
Corporations of London or Dublin, of present-
ing their addresses to, and receiving an answer
from, his Majesty on the Throne. We hear
that, beyond the speech inflicted on his Majesty
on Wednesday by the Noble Marquis, his Ma-
jesty had to endure a religious dissertation from
a Noble Apostle of the " new Irish Reforma-
tion,"-* and a twaddling and mumbling discourse
from a certain learned and venerable lawyerd-
the only words of which, intelligible to the by-
standers, were---" Poor old man," " this side
the grave," and, "so help me God !" Is it not
desirable that an end should be put to these
fooleries, which certainly tend to abate the re-
spect due to the Crown ?—Times.
A very curious and interesting correspon-
dence, as connected with a great public establish-
ment, has been printed by order of the House
of Commons, respecting the privileges of certain
officers of the Irish Post-office, called " Clerks
of the Roads," in the transmission of newspa-
pers, over private individuals. This correspon-
dence took place last autumn, or in the begin-
ning of winter, between Messrs. Johnston,
newsvenders in Dublin, and the Postmaster-
General, or his subordinate agents in this
country and in Ireland. The grievance of which
Messrs. Johnston complained not having been
redressed, has become the subject of a petition
to the House of Commons, which is appended
to the document above-mentioned. It would
appear from the letters of Mr. Johnston and the
advertisements of the " Clerks of the Roads"
themselves, that the latter boast of the facilities
which their official situation gives them over the
private trader in the transmission of newspapers
and journals,--that they promise a priority in
delivering parcels, and a security in the de-
posit of funds for executing orders, which
place them above other newsvenders; and that
they thus aim at a monopoly to which, strange
to say, they think themselves entitled for the
very reason which should preclude them from the
private trade,—namely, their capacity as servants
of the public. Mr. Johnston felt himself prac-
tically aggrieved by a competition with power :
he found that his customers were not served so
early as the customers of the Post-office clerks,—
that the latter had a bag of their own which
was delivered, when the general bag which con-
tained his papers was not opened,—that on some
occasions he was distanced by several hours,—
and that at one time his papers were not even
delivered on the same day with the privileged
parcels of the " Clerks of the Roads.' He of
course complained, and carried his complaints
to the highest quarter, the Postmaster-General and
the British Parliament. We have no doubt that
this monstrous abuse will be corrected as soon as
it is known and explained to the present noble
head of the office. All the privileges enjoyed
by the Post-office clerks in the original price,
secure transmission, or early delivery, of news-
papers, should be instantly abolished. They
cannot be supposed to enter into competition
with the private dealer without using their of-
ficial influence to promote their private interests
at his expense. They must, from the general
bias of human nature, be less active in exe-
cuting the orders of others than in promoting
the extension of their business. They thus ob-
tain a premium for neglecting the public and for
serving themselves. If their salaries are inade-
quate to their services, let them be raised at the
national expense, and not increased by rewards
for transgressing their duties. As the Postmaster-
ship for Ireland is abolished, we hope that Irish
jobbing is abolished along with it, and that
under a vigorous general Administration for the
empire, placed in competent and responsible
hands, such abuses as we have stated will no
longer disgrace a service otherwise productive of
great public utility.— Times.

The plan of operations by which the Oppo_
sition in the House of Lords are likely to at-
tempt the ruin or the mutilation of the Reform
Bill, in its progress through that branch of the
Legislature, is naturally a subject of very gene-
ral speculation at the present moment. This
speculation acquires not only a strong impulse,
but a certain degree of light and assistance, from
the result of the recent struggle which took place
in the House of Commons on the motion of the
Marquis of Chandos. We do not participate
in the opinion avowed by some of our contem- j
poraries, that the issue of that struggle is calcu-
lated to discourage the Lords from making a
similar attempt in their own Committee, if, as
rumour informs us, their war against the mea-
sure is to be a war of detail. On the contrary,
we consider a majority of eighty, upon such a
question as the giving of new Members to the
metropolitan districts, a direct encouragement t o
the Anti-Reform Peers to try their strength on
the same clause. We state this broadly, and without
hesitation, because we deem it of importance
that neither the Ministers nor the public should
deceive themselves on the subject, and because we
are convinced that the beat way of resisting danger
is not to underrate, but, as nearly as pos-
sible to compute and ascertain it, that we may
apportion our efforts to its extent. In this view,
and bearing in mind what we do not hesitate to
call the smallness of the majority—for there is
no use in mincing matters at such a time--we
strongly incline to believe that the great effort of
the Anti-Reformers in the Upper House will
be directed against the very provision upon
which Lord Chandos has already made an im-
pression favourable to their undertakino, Whe-
ther the Duke of Wellington have or have not a
plan of Reform in his pocket—we know he had
none in his head when the presiseliensetrnMs itnoishtaevres
Grace be
cnaomwe a inn teofo
romffiecre —0 r bnuott,,
aw
reaction
taken place in quarters where it was least ex-
pected, and the Bill is more in danger now from
Reformers of a certain caste than from those
who take their ground boldly on the assertion
that no Reform is necessary. As there are many
a u
of
is
i
experienced tacticians amongst their Lordships,
the falling off of numbers in the last division can
scarcely fail to be taken advantage of. It is some-
thing to know the weak point of a c
e
something to have ascertained where defection has
begun, if
suchrt were
defection o
triumphantnly• for
fothre
allusionadvantage t
o s
countenance.
tfhleooi Wko
i
shall hear many' a
dependent Members who deserted the colours
of Reform upon this occasion, and who were so
justly jealous of the privileges of Parliament as
Lord Baden, f Lord Eldon.

to refuse to make pledges to their constituents,
or to keep them when they were made. We
have often stated before that if some compro-
mise could be adopted, which, securing upon
one hand the principle of the Bill, and concili-
ating, upon the other, the support of those who
are conscientiously adverse to some of its details,
would ensure the success of the measure without
recourse to any strong exercise of the prerogative,
the country would be satisfied with such an ar-
rangement. But the point to which we have
been alluding is not one of those which the
public would be willing to surrender. If we
were radical reformers it would be our wish that
such an attempt should succeed, for that would
be the way to keep the question open for a new
Parliament ; but, as we wish to see an end of
the deliberations and contentions which threaten
the peace of the empire, our anxious desire is
that no such pretext may be afforded to men of
violent politics for carrying on their struggles
with increased energy in another state of things.
—Morning Herald.
The effects of the habit of drinking ardent
spirits are seen in every country in which that
pernicious habit prevails, in the lamentable pro-
duction of crime, destitution, and pestilence. A
great proportion of the time of Courts of criminal
jurisdiction is occupied in the investigation of
casea of homicide, and other outrages, which are
traceable to the temporary frenzy of intoxication.
The outrages which were committed during the
riots of London, in 1780—the burnings and
devastation of property in Bristol and Notting-
ham at the close of the past year, and which are
now the subject of the dreadful solemnities of
Special Commissions—were the work of men
whose reason and moral feeling had been first
surrendered to the fatal influence of strong drink.
Neither in London nor Bristol were wilful
burnings thought of until that " liquid fire" had
been swallowed which inflames the passions into
a state of fury which reason has no power to
resist. Then political excitement became a blind
and raging madness, and a riot kindled into a
conflagration. Well did our great dramatic poet
put it in the mouth of a repentant drunkard, in
the self-accusing moment of returning sobriety,
to say, " Every inordinate cup is unblessed, and
the ingredient is a devil." A great deal has
been said and written touching the advantages
of the " diffusion of useful knowledge"among the
labouring classes of society. Pressed down
and impoverished as they are by a system
which enriches a few to the destitution of the
many, they have little time to attend to any
knowledge but what concerns their immediate
wants, and the means of providing for
them. If any knowledge capable of improving
their condition can find its way among them,
what can be more useful than that which teaches
them the destructive consequences of the passion
for ardent liquors, which exposes them to the
worst evils that can afflict human nature ? It
has been held by some sound writers on criminal
jurisprudence that a Government which does
not instruct the people has no right to punish :
whatever may be thought of that doctrine, surely
it will be allowed by all reasonable men that a
Government which, for the sake of revenue, or
any other cause, assists in demoralizing the
people by the encouragement of drunkenness,
is deeply responsible for the guilt of such vio-
lations of the law as drunkenness occasions—
and no less responsible for the invitation given
to contagious distempers by breaking down that
sobriety which is the best quarantine to arrest
their progress. There is no part of the world,
perhaps, where the vice of drunkenness pre-
vailed more extensively among the lower orders,
and even among superior classes of society,
than in the United States of America.
There the spirit-stores counteracted all the ef-
forts of moralists, of jurists, and divines ; they
were the schools ofintemperance—the overflowing
fountains of evil that diffused the pestilent streams
of moral poison throughout the land. But
this great mischief has led to a re-action. In
America the first Temperance Society arose
only five years ago. We have seen the fourth
report of that Society, presented at the meeting
in Boston, in the year 1831, from which it ap-
pears that there were at that period formed in
the United States, on the plan of abstinence
from ardent spirits, more than 3,000 Socie-
ties, containing upwards of 300,000 members !
In an able statement made by the Hon. Wm.
Crane!), Chief Judge of the district of Co-
lombia, he says, after alluding to the number of
licenses—namely, 224—granted for selling spi-
rits in the city of Washington—" I cannot for-
bear to notice the bad policy of making the
sale of spirits the source of revenue. The
amount raised annually by the sale of licenses
in that city is about 6,000 dollars ; the expense
of supporting the poor is about 3,500 dollars,
three-fourths of which are admitted by the
overseers of the poor to have been caused by the
use of ardent spirits, and to be a charge upon
the amount raised by the sale of those spirits—
leaving the net revenue from that source 3,375
dollars. The quantity of spirits consumed to
raise this small revenue is 122,528 gallons,
which cost the consumers not less than 60,000
dollars, which are worse than lost to the city, and
this is the amount paid by the city to its tax-ga-
therers, the retailers of spirits, for collecting the
paltry revenue of 3,375 dollars. This amount of loss
would probably be doubled if we were to add the
loss of labour and lives, and the expenses of
gation, caused by the use of the ardent spirits
sold under the authority of those licenses." To
this should be added the cost to the public of
the prosecution of crimes ;—it being computed
that in America considerably more than one-half
of the crimes prosecuted were the result of in-
temperance. It will be recollected that the
frightful mortality caused by the first breaking
out of the cholera rnorbus at Gateshead, in this
country, was attributed to the effects of the
Christmas libations of ardent spirits in which the
poorer classes of the inhabitants had been in-
dulging when the distemper came among them.
But this sort of intemperance may not only
invite contagious diseases and increase their ma-
lignancy, but create them. In the Baltimore
Gazette of July 27, 1830, was published an
extract of a letter, in which the writer says—" I
regret to add that death in its most appalling
form has made its appearance in this town and
vicinity. It seems to be confined to the labour-
ing classes in general; but more especially to
the emigrants working upon the canal. Its ap-
lpirroi:tcnhi, swele,
ich htooldbse
tillyectieldeedho(blyy asintvki
sinks
frdoem-
exhaustion , and after a few hours' continuance
in this condition the spirit departs from its
mortal tenement. Shortly after death the
corpse takes a darker hue, and becomes nearly
black." One would almost think the cholera
morbus was here described ; and this was not an
imported, but self-generated disease, at George.
town, in America, in the year 1827. May not
the disease at Sunderland, Gateshead, &c., which
so nearly resembles it, be also of home-growth,
and produced from the same causes—poverty,

filth, and internperaneo? Aa America. valor,
in reference to the distemper at George-town,
says--." At the time of the alarm I caused an
inquiry to be made of the Coroner, the under-
taker, and the town physician, and was satis-
fied that in every case of sudden death the de-
ceased had been in the habitual use of ardent
spirits." Judge Hale declared, after twenty
years of observation and experience, that " If
all the murders, manslaughters, burglaries, robbe-
ries, riots, tumults, and other great enormities,
which had been committed in that time, were
divided into five parts,.four of them would be
found to have been the result of intemperance."
Thus we see that moral and physical pestilence
commit their chief havoc in countries where in-
temperance prepares the harvest for the sithe of
those destroying powers. Is not the knowledge
useful, then, which rescues the people from an
influence so powerful to enslave and slay
Morning Herald.
The distress in the silk and glove trades was
the question before the House of Commons
last night, and we deem it to be an act of justice
to those important manufactures to follow up
the observations we have already made upon
their depression, by stating one or two leading
facts in the present instance. It is a favourite
doctrine with the free-trade advocates to assert,
which, by the way, they do, with abstract truth
on their side, that the same quantity of raw ma•
terial is consumed at Coventry now as previ-
ously to the operation of the new system. But
how does this happen ? Because the ribbon-
weavers are now driven out of the market for
light and profitable goods by French competi-
tion, and the depreciation in the price of labour
at Coventry (for we have that branch of the silk
manufacture at this moment more particularly
under our notice) is in consequence from 25 to
65 per cent. In the manufacture of light goods
consists the profit to the master manufacturer and
the labourer. From that branch, owing to foreign
competition, Englishmen are completely excluded
and in the goods they can at present find a de-
mand for, the master employs his capital at profits
that do not remunerate him, and the operative
spends his time in a manufacture that produces
him a rate of wages from 25 to 65 per cent.
under that which he has been accustomed pre-
viously to earn. The number of workmen, also,
engaged in this coarse work is materially dimi-
nished, as compared to the number employed in
the lighter fabric ; so that the present course of
manufacture cuts against the labourers, both in
point of wages and the number of hands em-
ployed, and yet the quantity of silk now con-
sumed is the favourite doctrine of those who
support the Anti-English system. As a natural
consequence with the decrease of wages and em-
ployed operatives, poor-rates have increased.
The poor rates in Coventry in the year ending
12th of February, 1826 (before the importation
of silk goods), amounted to £11,32. 14 44
In the year ending April 19, 1831, to '20,314 5 6X,
The casual poor, in 18'26, cost
1831
The same, or even a more considerable, in-
crease manifests itself in the adjoining villages
occupied in the ribbon manufactures. In the
parish of Foleshill, for instance,
he general poor rates to the 25th of March,
18.26, were £1,819 8 0
To the 25th of March, 1831
The casual poor, '2sth of March, 1826
25th of March, 1831
Since which time distress has made even a more
fearful progress. The silk manufacture is
entirely governed by fashion, which is under
the influence of French taste, and that is
varying so constantly, and the inundation
of French goods is so great, that a silk
manufacturer cannot keep a stock of goods
on hand lest the fashion should change before
it is sold, and thus produce a severe loss to him.
Formerly French goods were used only as pat-
terns for the manufacturers by retail houses.
Now these houses buy French goods almost ex-
clusively for their consumption. We have in
the present instance merely glanced at one
branch of the silk question, and the sub-
ject of the glove trade is so intitnately
connected with that which we have been noticing
that we shall only now refer to one peculiar
hardship affecting the glove manufacturer. He
has but one market to go to for his raw material,
and that belongs to his French competitor ; so
he has not that choice of markets which, with
all the oppression he is suffering, the silk manu-
facturer still enjoys. In 1825, the duty received
on skins imported, and the excise on tanned
leather, amounted to 63,139/. In 1827, the
amount of duty on gloves, and the reduced duty
on skins imported, were only 20,787/. 11s. ld.
leaving a deficit in the revenue in the latter year
of 42,2511. The balance of trade in favour of
France, within the last seven years, during the
working of the new system, has been, in round
numbers, 8,500,0001. This is theory put in
competition with practice ! The debate of last
night, which was extremely interesting, was
opened by Lord Grosvenor with an able and
lucid speech. His Lordship expressed himself
a convert from the free trade theory, and moved
for a Committee of Inquiry into the present (113-
tress. The Committee, we are happy to say,
was granted, and hopes may, therefore, be enter-
tamed that justice will at length be done to our
industrious native artisans and our enterprising
man ufact u rers.—Morning Post.

A DESIRABLE COMPANION FOR THE
KITCHEN Ga RDEN.—A new and cheaper edition of Mr.
PHILLIPS'S Companion for the Kitchen Garden has just
appeared, in which the various qualities, purposes, and
modes of culture of all kinds of vegetable productions are
minutely explained. In this work the object of the author
has been co render the knowledge of plants no less useful
than entertaining. He has endeavoured to ascertain of
what countries the vegetables now cultivated are natives ;
the earliest accounts of their cultivation, and how far they
have improved by attention, or degenerated by neglect ;
also the various uses made of them by the ancients as well
as the moderns of different countries,—a species of infor-
islTdmihneogrnabbionoigitel.:
fifty
wasfty About
persons
played ten
infor-
mation which cannot fail to be of the greatest utility.
po
spllieuAnnewdEi
therens were
I,ri
Ds'e'
dti‘leiwensote
explosion
BILSTON, FEB. 29.—A most dreadful acci-
sit:bwtuirinisst.tbli
o'clock the boiler attached to the screw manufactory of
almost close to part of the manufactory, and at the time of
at work, men, women, and children ; the building was im-
mediately filled with the steam, and all that were in it,
with a few exceptions, were more or less dreadfully
scalded. Some of the windows being knocked out, by that
means the poor sufferers were enabled to get out at them,
and then • conveyed to the ground by ladders. There were
about 150 perons also employed in other parts of the
factory. The sight at the factory, a few minutes after the
accident, was most appalling ; women from all parts of
the town came running shrieking for the safety of their
children, and all eyes were eagerly cast up at the windows
as the poor sufferers were got through them ; some
came out covered with the duet and steam together so
black as to be scarcely recognized, and of others, who had
been bruised, the blood was soaked in their garments.
Nearly all the inhabitants of the town were very soon
upon the spot; the roof of the factory soon fell in, and men
are now em ed in pulling down other parts of the build-
ing,pity and searching amongst the ruins for persons that are
missing. It is said that the fault lies with the engineer,
who had no water in the boiler, that there was cold water
being put in the
time, and:the bottom of the boiler being
red hot caused it to burst ; but the truth of this has not yet
been ascertained. The engineer died frotn the injuries he
received shortly after the accident, and two employed in
the factory have died since.