The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-03 00:00:00

edisplaced labour to any - inconvenient extent, as is
already proved by the rate of wages.
We ca inot see why there should be a greater ob-
jeeti )n to the employment of women in spinning and
weaving than in knitting or sewing. The Scriptures
inform us, and their authority is confirmed by the
Homeric poems, that spinning and weaving have been
fezne!e employments from the earliest ages. Female
organisation gives a delicacy of touch which enables
women to piece a broken yarn, to tie a weaver's knot
or thread a needle, with much greater, facility than
men. A great many of the men now employed in
power-loom weaving are those who have previously
been hand-loom weavers ; but young men avoid the
1 occupation, or make use of it as a transitory employ-
ment, and only betake themselves to it when the
higher employments are fully stocked. So far as
our experience has gone, the Lancashire women are
not deicient in domestic knowledge, for the comforts
in the cottages of the operatives are acknowledged
by all who have seen them to be superior to those of
the working cl asses generally,and are certainly infinitely
above those to be found in the dwellings of the faim-la-
boerers.
_lt is difficult to get the women of Lanca-
shire to act as domestic servants on account of the
lighter work and higher wages paid in the mills ; and
this is the reason why so many of the domestic ser-
vents of Lancashire are brought from the agricul-
tural counties.
-- There are so many statistical returns in the speech
attributed to Lord Ashley restieg on vague and ano-
nymous authority, that we trust it will not be deemed
disrespectful, if we hesitate in recognising them as
evidence, until we know something of the sources
from whence they have been obtained. We find
medical evidence of ten years ago quoted as applicable
to the present day ; the condition of the spinners who
were brought down to very humiliating employments
(luring the depressed state of trade in 1841, when
twenty-nine mills were stopped in Stockport alone,
and when the practice of working half-time was
common throughout the country, has been adduced as
a picture of their general state; and, finally, we have
before us the important fact, that the only one of
Lord Ashley's witnesses mentioned by name in the
report of the debate, was thoroughly discredited, and
finally abandoned by the Noble Lord himself. We,
therefore, do not feel called upon to answer, paragraph
by paragraph, every assertion put forward in the
name of anonymous statisticians ; we cannot tell how
many of them were furnished by William Dodd, or
how many observers of facts, equally trustworthy,
may have catered for the array of dubious figures in
the statements ascribed to the Noble Lord; but• we
shall show from the use, or rathei abuse, that has
been made of a foreign statistician, how little reliance
can be placed on the anonymous collections of pre-
tended facts at home.
The speech attributed to the Noble Lord quotes
the authority of M. Villerme, to prove the tendency
of the cotton manufacture " to produce coughs and
pulmonary consumptions and early death." So far is
Villerme from making this statement, or anything
like it, that he strongly asserts the direct contrary.
He does, indeed, attribute such a tendency to one
branch of the manufacture as practised in France—
the process of batting cotton ; but this process has
been disused in England for more than twenty years ;
and M. Villerme himself states that the mechanical
invention by which batting has been superseded,
wherever he has found it, completely obviates the
evil. He also states that the same objection, but to a
less extent, may •be urged against another process of
minor importance, that of carding; but the rising of
dust and flue can only take place in an ill-conducted
card-room ; in every modern mill in this country the
cards are boxed up, and the dust and flue, in processes
where they occur, are carried away by a revolving
fan, which removes every inconvenience. With these
exceptions, which are peculiar to France, and which
scarcely, if at all exist in England, M. Villerme de-
clares that in all matters connected with ventilation,
respiration, &c., the condition of nearly
i all the per-
sons engaged in the cotton manufacture s superior to
that of the operatives who work in their own houses.
M. Villerme deprecates legislative interference
with factory labour, as of injurious tendency to the
working classes. " Men may declaim on the subjeet,"
he says ; " they may ask Government to prevent all
evils, just as they would ask physicians to cure all
diseases; but no amelioration of the operative's con-
dition will follow : it is not quite so easy to do good
in this world as some people imagine it to be."—(Vil-
lerine, vol. ii., p. 343.)
With this we shall conclude, appealing to your
judgment whether legislation can be justly or safely
founded on evidence which• we have shown to be so
utterly unworthy of credit.
Signed on behalf of the Deputation,
HENRY ASHWORTH.
London, March 28, 1844.

GRE :IT WESTERN

STEAM-SHIP

COMPANY:

We publish to-day the balance sheet of the Great
Western's earnings and expenses from the be •
ginning up to the present time. It will be seen
that she has made thirty-two voyages, and has cleared
oa them about 33,8001. over and above her ex-
pens:)s and insurance, of which 33,8001. there has
been divided among the shareholders 20,300/. This is
but a poor return for the great outlay which has
been made, and the risks of the enterprising indi-
viduals who, to our country's honour, first solved
the problem of steaming the Atlantic, not once,
but regularly and systematically—a miserable re-
turn, indeed, for the benefits conferred on the nation.
But when in England were public benefactors ever
rewarded? It would be perhaps almost as hope-
less to find an instance as to discover the longitude
or square the circle, and infinitely more difficult to
find the rule. In the case of the Great Western
encouragement has not only been withheld, but
competition and opposition fostered and assisted
with the nation's purse. Both Whig and Tory seem,
indeed, to have striven to crush the owners of this
noble vessel, with a fervour which is increasing
annually. Cunard's line began with an allowance
of 60,000/. per annum, which was afterwards in-
creased to 80,000/. and now to 90,000/., while the
Great Western is left without a penny of assistance
to contend against such odds! How she has borne
up against it surprises every one, but she has, and it
is manifest to a profit, though not such as would
justify the owners in continuing the contest if they
could find a good market for her.
There was at the end of last week a report in
town that the Peninsular and Oriental Company had
bought her for 32,000/., of which it was said that
16,0001. had been paid down. It is quite true,
we believe, that the Peninsular and Oriental Com-
pany have agreed to buy her—but the exact sum we
are unable to say, though we think it is very likely
to be 32,0001.—the sale, however, is not yet completed,
though the terms are settled.
The contest going on between this Company and
the Bristol Dock Company relative to floating out
the Great Britain, has created a considerable sen-
sation in the steam navigation world. Many
roundly blame the Company for having built a vessel
in a situation not to be able to get her out without a
favour from another party. The fact we under-
stand to be, that when she was laid down
it had been arranged with the Dock Company how
and by what means she was to be got out, and
that no difficulty whatever was anticipated up to
the moment of the Dock Company making a claim, to
which the Steam Company could not conscientiously
submit. Then, and not before, a difficulty was
started, and the Dock Company, which seems always
to be governed by feeling and small reasons, were
found to be intractable. An application, however, is
reported as likely to be made to the Legislature, when
these worthy conservators of mud and stagnant water
may find it convenient to be more reasonable.
133-the-bye we should like to know how it hap-
pens that the port of Bristol is virtually closed against
the whole steam trade. Some forty years ago these
docks were made, when there was not a steamer
thought of, and when, indeed, sailing vessels of a
much less class than now visited the port. At that
time the dock gates were ample, but not for the pre-
sent time, when vessels have not only grown in size,
but a new class has sprung into existence. To keep
pace with this other ports have •provided the accom-
modation which the march of improvement has shown
to be needful. Not so, however, the Bristol Dock
Company. They stand in unimproved statu quo, and
neither the fate of the William Miles. in their crimping
gates, nor the loss of the trade of the city appears to
have any influence upon them. Their motto is, "these
gates served the purpose of our fathers, why should
they not ours ?" It is a fact, to the glory of this
"do-nothing body," that there is not a Glasgow and
Liverpool steamer which can get into the Bristol
Docks, and only those in the Irish trade, confined to
43 feet wide ! !—Railway Magazine.

PARLIAMENTARY PAPER.
REPEAL AGITATION, '&c. (IRELAND)...
Return of all Moneys paid to Frederick Bond Hughes,
Charles Ross, and John Jackson, .on Account of an ,r
Communications made by them to Government relativ,
to the Repeal Agitation in Ireland, distinguishing th t
Amounts paid to.each; also, the Dates of the several
Payments, specifying the respective periods at which
they commenced; together with Copies of any Instruc-
tions giVen to the above-named Frederick B n t
Hughes, Charles Ross, and John Jackson, with reap( cc
to the' Duties to be performed by: them in Ireland:—
On the 29th September, 1843,-Mr. Gurney, the shor::-
hand writer, was desired to send without delay a Shor.-
hand writer to Ireland, for the purpose of reporting, fo .!•
the information of the Government, the speeches de-
livered at public Repeal meetings in that part of the
kingdom. .Mr. Gurney, on the 20th September, selee.ed
and dispatched to Ireland, Mr. Frederick Bond Hughes,
to perform this service.
Mr. Gurney's charge on this account, from the period
extending from the 29th of September to the 20th o:
Octoliei; 184. whea.Mr. Hughes returned to London. is.
2341 IBs. 6d.. ; of which the sum of 45/. was paid to Mr..
Bond Hughes when in. Ireland, on account, to &fray
personal expenses incurred there, and has been deducted
from Mr. Gurney's account.
No instructions have been given by the Government
to Mr. Frederick Bond .Hughes.
Mr. Charles •Ross' has-received the sum of 681. for a.
report of the:speeelies delivered at the public Repeal
Meeting at Donnybrook; held on the 3d of July, 1833,
This such of 681. Iheltaled the expenses ittcurrtd by
Mr. Ross in travelling to and from Ireland, and tbi, in-
cidental. expenses incurred by him while engaged nu
this service. •

Mr. Charles Ross was, on the 21st August, 1843, en-
gaged by the Government to report, for the information
of the Government, the speeches delivere,l at public.
Repeal meetings held in Ireland from the 25th August,
1843, to the time when Parliament might assemble fur
the transaction of business in 1,944.
His remuneration for this service was fixed at 3501.,
exclusive of travelling and other incidental expenses.
These travelling and incidental expenses amount.
to 551.

Total charged by Mr. Ross for reporting speeches de-
livered at public meetings in Ireland, and on account ot
travelling to and from Ireland, and incidental expenses
incurred in the performance of this service, 4731.
Mr. Ross has received on account the following sums :
1843: July 10 £69
August 24 . .
September 25
November 15 3O
December 10 5O
1844: January '25 5O

368
Balance due to Mr. Ross.... 105

£473
The instructions to Mr. Ross were verbal ; they were,
that he should attend publicßepe4l weetings held in Ir -
land, during the period for which he was engaged, auti
that he should furnish, fur the information of the Gu.
vernment, accurate reports of the speeches delivered 41
those meetings ; and that he should take such notes ~f
those speeches as would enable him to depose upon oath.
to the words spoken.
No moneys have been paid by the Government to Mr.
John Jackson ; nor have any instructions been issued;
by the Government to Mr. John Jackson.

IH.4.IIIANNERS SUTTON.
Whitehall, March 26, 84
A Return of the Amount paid to Frederick 11,)4,1
Hughes, Charles Ross, and John Jackson, for Ex.
penses during their Attendance at the Trial of the
Queen v. O'Connell and Others ; furnished in pursu-
ance of a Resolution of the House of Commons, dated.
March 1, 1844 :
THE QUEEN V. O'CONNELL AND OTHERS.
Paid to and for Frederick Bond Hughes,
short-hand writer, for his attendance as
a witness in this case 67 days, at 11 is.
per diem for maintenance, and 31. 3s. for
loss of time and in lieu of taking notes,
&c. during that period
Expenses of journeys to and fro between
Dublin and. London .

20 0 0

£3Ol 8 0

Paid to Charles Ross, newspaper reporter,
for 37 days' attendance as a witness, at
two guineas per diem
Expenses of journeys to and fro between
Dublin and London

£77 14 0

20 0 0

John Jackson ; this witness neither ap-
plied fJr nor was paid any expenses
whatsoaver.