The Sun.
London, England, 1817-03-14 00:00:00

they would, nevertheless, atrrfe by a great ma-
-5,, that the tim4 was come when it behoved
the House, as a raver of absolute necessity (if
it would preserve the commercial greatness of the
eountry) to undertake a revision of almost -the
%lode of our ecuumercial system, and this with a
eni'rect those errors which had crept in by
time ; with a view to retrace our steps front those
inea,•nrcs which experyuce-has proved to be mis.
chit vons ; with a view to accommatlAte our
law.* to the altered circumstances of the cdun.,
try, mtd to itliatidon sometof thme antiquated
reindices which still remained, whit influence
to check and retard the commercial prosperity
of the. n That :melt would he the decision
of the I.loute, he felt firmly convinced; hut, ou
the other hand, he proposed, without further
I,reftti•e, to enter on what he thought' should be
ruudantental part •-of such a recision, by an
ihtl ,II V hitt) the eauses of the present distre:ises.
I,,eiy one 'was aware that there existed great dis-
c,,tutent--suell discontent as he might, both in it;',
Its auiversality, say was unpre•
.ct was so gencrallyadmitted to he
tme, that it was h.,rtlly necessary for 10111 to offer
sinv proof or in 41Si rid IP°. of it. }IV migltt refer
to the petitions on the table of the House, which,
whatever might be thought of the cre:lit due to
soine 'few individual petitions among them, when
the Vat ions pertsonS tird placcS iron) 'prove: titgy
Came kve,re conSitjeyen, most be allowed to furnish
proof of it. He might appeal to the
t,,,l.tre of our_ trade, as: evitienct...; by the returns
hid nefote the U.iuse. lie was assure that it

•
Nv-ould be fallacious to rvly ttpou the returns
";',t e shipi;i•P' for the purpose of ascertaining
•
the r !at, siat,e- of the imports
.and 'exports, tar he
admitivd Ow' they could not convey oil the iofor.
ne.cesslo rim. that purpose, although they

. ,
„-
would convey iutormation to a great extent. Um'
comparing these returns for the year 1816 with
th,mse for the preceding year, he foupd that in the'
import trade the tonuage employed in the year
1815 was 2,6.10,000, while for the year 1816 it
was only. '2,213,000. In the export trade in the.
Near 1815 the 41.. tint of tonti.mge employed was
2.7;'6,000, whereas in 1816 it was no more than
"4,316,000. 'Palls it appeared that upon a compa-
rison of the two I,tst, years, in 1816 there wls a
fAllingofT in the amount of the tonnage employed
in the import and export trade of no less than
826,000 tons, and that on 5000 ships. Now,
when it W. 15 considered, that time year 1816 Was'
the third year of peace, and that 1815 was only
the, second, and that in it, too, there were three
wootioi
.of tictnal, war; it, shit wed how fallacious it
was to suppose that the distress, tips ioemeasing
With the peace, was OeCitfilolled by the; tranhilloll
front
.a state ut war to a state of peace. The re-
turns before the llonse did not shew time amount
,of the jmnports
.and exports. But he thought he
etmmtld shew
.that the &Ideation in, their amount,
b.r the year 1816 would Le io a melt larger pro.
portion, as compared. tvith the preceding year,
titan tliat•on the shipping and tonnage. ThAs-
would appear if areturn.ot their amount in those
nark yould be midi; out., But even if such a
return did not On the face of it slew so grela rt de-
fmpleittion, yet he would not allow that they would
talord ally wool that they tleisleatioa was not coot,
.thouti,beeanse goods tottleamount 4inany
111(1.1),..eu oxpurud, for which there teas no pale itt
toreigu markets, acid for which, of cotose,tlte
.chantteeeivil na retUrris. It would he impossi-
ble to tell What proportion of the goods !genially
,t. ported had not yet loom' any market abroad.,
.or what puTorilon of th9si imported nary re.
trmainctl on the me.eliants. hatutS, without any pro-
..smmeet of salt: the inalliet, at home.
,Tae conn.

y had certaiuly seen times of distress, but none
;which could bear any comparison avitb that which
was now felt. 181/l) the scarcity had been
.greeter, but Ilwre was no such. distress as the
,pre cut, for tile, workmen wet e not then thrown
.ont of employment, and if provisions wete.high
they
,could then earn wages, to pay for there.
wretched as the commercial state of the
country teas, .it rose in comparison with ire pre.
sent condition, to seem a perio of prosperity,
'1 he of a few particulars as to the con-
dition of the great staple articles of our national
ruanuliteture, WOlllll spew the llotise how unfair-
ly the amount of the present distress must be es-
timated by 'referring to any former period of dis-
ire,;. The lint of these articles on- which he
would say any thing, was the cloth totnufacture,
which on compatison would be found by Ott meaos
to-have suffered in the same proportion ti ith the
other staple articles of manufacture. lit the first
place with respect to cloth, its sale in the fo-
t.:igo markets ‘e,ti not entirely, stopped. Ile held•
iti his hall" 4 Si ll:einem of the condition of-that
unnufactiire in several places in the West
of Yorkshire, namely, ,in Leeds, Iludderstield,
WI he and 1141ifax, From that statement it
ii:%OC4l eel t !IV. the cla,s engaged in that manufac-
-1 nre Nom sutrt:red most were the dressers, and
their number was estimated at 3,3d,4. In August
List, of thatoumber, one-third was wholly oat of
empliyinent : of the remaining. two.thirds only
mile-third was in fill employ—that was say,
(ily two men out of nine lint full wolk, while
one m:l3,o;it of every three was absolutely idle.
Tt►t. iiistroses in that quarter among the other
not to general, although very severe,
tattle in the other description of persons the dis-
ve.s vi.a4 grelter than itoy idea could be formed
elf yy those who, only heard it described. The
4roo tradelire,ented it picture still more.shoelting,
Ite.wituld state the situation of Birmingham, as
tart nistatice of what was endured in those districts
where,4his trade- tr,.4 carried on.
.At
ola population of 8.1,000 in that town,
g 7,109, os atniut one-thins of4he poptll.4-
linfi, Weftr !lOW recuivinit. p..Jrid) ridici. Of the
trt~rltme"' in the. ton it, one-Wird 'mete totally un,
emplity‘4,i-, awl of the rest, there were. none more
than one-half employed.. The poor rates in that
Ikt,tll,ooW amounted to fifty thonsand,pousohi, or
more nearly sixty thousand a! y,kar. In 1,51.2, the
poor tiles there. amounted only to 27,0004. and
folly one-ninth' part of. Ole inhabitants were
vcreiviog parochial relief ; and yet that year
teas thf.uglit at the time to be OHO Of utiprecep,
dc,,,ed distress. The intutb,4r of the ingenious
persona employed , itt the; town in the -diet:rent
hrlucti,-8 of the iroo-mantifacture might be di.
vioed Otto tour clasaceL-the minters, the manufac-
t ers of arms of every deicription, those engitg-