The Sun.
London, England, 1828-07-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Silk Manufacturers held their proposed
meeting yesterday at the Old London Tavern ;
and their resolutions will be found in a part of
this paper. As a reply to those resolutions, or
a comment on them, we recommend the Al.:suer
of our correspondent, signed " Delta." Fron:
the statement of this gentleman, or rather from
the book of sales, it appears that the price of raw
silk at the India-house has mounted up, in the
space of nine months, from 18s.- 9d. to I9s. 6d.
for raw material of one quality ; and for that of
another, from 21s. Bd. to 225. sd. ; for a third,
from 21s. 3d. to 225. Bd. We suppose the ma-
nufacturers pay these advanced prices to let the
articles purchased rot in their warehouses! Their
looms are standing still, and there is no call for
the manufactured article ! And yet they buy
the raw at advanced prices ! Even some of those
their hand„.
persqns who paid the advanced prices held tp
n support of the resolution averring
trade was ruined ! Poor men ! what. then
twhiallt theth e
do with their raw silk ? Probably
to end their miserieswmiatkhesilen cores of it,
delicacy.
However, the meeting was of a
verycontradictory kind. Many persons of the
most respectable
a
etble
character asserted—what we
re
improving is the
the trade has
ving ;
and our correspon-
ihmayperoln,edo dancndthits
dent Delta's letter is not the only evidence we

publihave of the justness of these
fr isr
It) gh se
ill rSpPoi opinions. Yet the
c
will recollect, that there have been many
the price of labour
journeymen weaver,
by, dictation ; and if the effect of these rising•
st ael tioefl das rr ofa n tglii
g
has been—such as we predicted—to drive a por-
tion of the trade elsewhere, it is not Mr. Hus_
kisson's measures that have done the mischief to
'Spitalfields, but the artisans of Spitalfields them-
selves ; and the remedy would be, not the pro-
hibition of the silks of France, but the prohibi-
tion of those of Norwich, Macclesfield, Stamford,
Manchester, and Derby. If the Spitalfields jour-
neymen,—and we would wish them to attend to
this statement,—if they so raise the scale of their
piecework- by combination, that the master manu-
facturer can have it done cheaper in the coun-
try, even with the additional expense of carriage
up and down, in the country will his work be
done; and the London artisan may sit under the
shade of magnificent prices, in idleness, and
starve. We would wish the silk weavers, Inas.-

tors, and journeymen, both to understand that
we have no interest in this question. We have
considered it coolly, with a view to the advantage
of the country generally. We certainly can gain
nothing by defending the principles of an ex-
tinct Ministry ; but we do feel most conscien-
tiously, that the loosening the trammels by which
commerce has been bound down, will, m the
result, prove beneficial—first, to our own coun-
try, where the spirit of industry and cnterFise
is most awake--and next, to all the world ; and

if in the attainment of these objects tke system
were at first to bear heavily upon some particular
branches of industry, we should still defend it 4
but we do not think that the silk trade is that
which has reason to complain : for to the sill:
trade and to the shipping trade it has certainly
been beneficial.-1 roses.
(TILE FOLLOWING ARE THE FACTS ALLUPED TO IN
DELTA'S LETTER.)
I do not stop to characterize the proceedings
themselves as having been unfairly conducted ; but
I assert that the resolutions passed on this occasion,
and the speeches of those who supported those reso-
lutions contain within themselves their own antidote,
and may be brought to prove two things-Ist, that
the evils stated to exist in the silk-trade at this mo-
ment, do not exist, or do not exist at all to the
degree asserted ; and, 2dly, that such evils, so far a:;
they may be supposed to exist, do not arise from the
competition of French silks, or the introduction of
liberal principles of trade.
In support of these two petitions, the case of the
throwsters, manufacturers, &c., assembled on this
occasion, is, that the silk-trade is in an unusual and
even ruinous state of depression,—that the masters
are approaching to ruin, and the men verging on
starvation,—and that these evils have commenced
and been concurrent with the introduction of French
silks into this country. My first business is not with
the cause, but with the feet. I wholly deny the
fact, and proceed now to establish the denial.
My first proof I bring from the resolutions them-
selves, passed this day. They declare that there is
in this country " an unprecedented consumption of
silk goods." The fact is undoubted. The con-
sumption of silk goods, and those, too, of British
manufacture, has increased to a great, perhaps to an
" unprecedented," extent, since the sth of July,
1826, when Mr. Huskisson's Bill came into opera-
tion. This truth is established beyond the power
of contradiction, by the data supplied by Mr. Grant
in his luminous and unanswerable speech in the
House of Commons, on presenting a petition a few
nights since. He then supplied the following table :
RaW silk imported in
24, 3,517,000
25, 3,046,000
26, 1,960,000
27, 3,760,000
And an estimate is stated, showing 28, 4,500,000
This comparison proves that the quantity of the
raw material imported, and consequently of the ma-
nufactured silk produced in this country, was greater
in 1627 than in 1822, 1824, or 1825,* and that it.
promises to be yet greater in the present year, 1828.
To prove that the silk manufacture of this country
is not in the weak and crippled state which the in-
dividuals describe, I enclose an official report of the
silk sale recently completed at the East India House.
This sale took place on the 23d of June, now only
23d of July
11E:a:II
and is
that
theiritiho ewihraenoxdniss existing
in favour of d reso.
a month since, and you will perceive that almost
every article fetched a higher price than at the pre-
ceding sale of the 2d of September. That which
in September was sold for 18s. 9d., in June sold at
19s. 6d.; 21s. Bd. was raised to 225. 54.; and 21s.
3d. :became 225. Bd. These, Sir, were purchases
actually made by the very individuals who on the
Infirm declaring that the silk manufactory of this
f their own
regardless o interests (good disinterested
country was reduced to the brink of ruin, and who,
care was for the
poor weavers, who, from absolute want of work,
be driven to starvation,would unless French silks
hsaosulsspDrundgec
prohibited.
were again
In the course of these discussions, the public and
the Government will also learn that the silk trade
to a very large
parts of the country. Some few
existed Spitalfields only; now, the
with Spitalfields. Silk manufactures are
)e:ceatersntsiliirci
eviatrious
manufacture of Manchester has become a rival, a
competitor
also established and have increased, in Scotland, at
Taunton, Sudbury, &c.
usual
loetso tsheies
claopokitalliiksetsraumiind—nllieklei
ofd activityestruetio ?
, seeking
sug it
to employ their capital and their energies in a falling,
a ruined, and a losing branch of manufacture ? Cer-
tainly not. But this gives rise to another questior,
----whether this internal competition,—this increase,
—(to use the words of the resolutionists) this " un-
precedented increase in the consumption of silk
goods,"—whether it has not had the effect, ahno:t
the inevitable effect, of extending the trade, of bring-
ing into operation fresh capital, more manufacturer,,
improved machinery, and, what is perhaps more im-
rreaodfaerloeßf2ciimaolpircahrelirßsigt2e4rtl.ixevaAssitlekotmitlirpatadractitii\:_cf;:lyltßhii9el7ibtstrl(.:iitil,(ii
portant than all,—a greater number of workmen.
: it is not too much to say, that the quantity
sfmt:lllllakal;ufactured at 'Manchester now, is double, pet-

hap treble, what it was in 182. May not this 1
have had some effect in reducing profits, lowering
wages, and in doing that which is technieally called
" cutting up the trade ?" Would not this account
for the admitted fact, that profits have lessened, and
wages been reduced, in the interval, even though a
single length of silk goods had not found its was'
across the Channel ? The Chairman of this meeting
declared that he had himself now out of employ at
Manchester 2,000 looms. I believe he said power-
looms. 'Was one of these looms in existence itt
1822 ? If not, would it not appear that the mann-
ficturets of Spitalfields have much more to fear from
the rivaby of Manchester than from the competition
of Lyons ? The rivalry ill the one case, and the
competition in the other, will, I believe, he pro-
ductive of great public benefit , and it is only with
the public interests, and private interests so far as
they bear upon the public, that the Government of
a country can or ought to have to do.

I remain, Sir, yours, &c.
LIELTA.

July 23.

No notice is taken by the Dublin Papers of
the Rebellion at Ballinamore. On the other
hand, they are filled with accounts of the peace
ful triumphs of the Catholics. Money comes
pouring in on the Association from all quarters,
from America, England, and Sentland. The
produce of the rent last week was between four-
teen and fifteen hundred pounds. This comes
of agitation ! The Great Untaught would have
had the Catholics remain quiet, An enemy's
advice is naturally enough interpreted by the rule
of contraries, for it is concluded that the same
course cannot be for the interest of both camps.
The Duke of Wellington's Administration is
viewed by the Catholics 88 a hostile power, re.
strained merely by prudence from overt acts.
We are aware of the difficulties which are in the
way of an Administration in this country, and
that the Duke, like all other Minister% must
consult the feelings of the Aristocracy, of which
he is the instrument. It is lisrdly fair to expect
impossibilities from him. if he be a man pos-
aessed of any elevation of mind—if he be raised
above the grovelling herd (of which we have yet
seen no evidence), he can hardly fail to be struck
with the littleness of- all the objects he can pro-
pose to himself in the remaining portion of his
life, compared with the great object of uniting
the two-great divisions of the empire 'into one
people, and laying the foundation for the happi-
ness and prosperity of the beautiful but wretched
country, in which he first saw the light. But
age is not the season of generosity or elevation
of purpose ; and we fear it will seldom be found,
that a man who has been wrapt up in his own
petty interest ,till the decline of life, displays
more magnanimity and abandonment of self dur-
ing the almost valueless remainder of it. But
what a field is open in this country for the exer-
tions of a man, who might wish to live in the
memory of men as a benefactor of his species.—
Morning Chronicle.
We give an account of the Income and Ex-
penditure from the year 1813 to the year 1827.
Our readers will see by it a principal reason- why
we should not embark in a war of any conse-
quence with any nation. Let them look at the
expenditure for the yeaf- 1811, and they will find
that it was 106 millions ; which was at the rate
of two millions a-week. It was fortunate for
England at that period that she had a lucky
General in the Duke of Wellington, who, by
conquering Bonaparte, got rid of a war that 'was
costing us more than 100 millions a-year. Our
expenditure now is about half what it was then ;
but should we go to war with Portugal, in order
to give her a Constitution, or with Russia, to
prevent her seizing upon Turkey in Europe, in-
cluding Greece—and should the result of two
such wars be a war with Europe and the United
States—we should be obliged once more to spend
at the rate of 100 millions, a-year, which, con-
tinued for a few years, would end in a complete
blow-up of the debt, if not revolution in Church
and State.—Morning Herald.

INCOME ANT, EXPENDITURE PROM 1813 TO 18T7.

Years. I Inennir.

Expenditure.

63,221,003 10 41
71,069,737 3 2
72,158,893 5 10%
62,206,459 16 71
51,941,152 6 91
53,632,879 16 3i.
52,519,225 0 1-4-
51,054,735 0 71
35,641,602 0 5
55,383,154 18 01
57,438,046 11 01
59,076,228 17 6/
56,855,173 7 2.1.
51,621,407 14 it
54,486,657 15 2

s. (1.
105,383,509 3 21
106,198,591 2 14
92,083,770 9 81
64,776,466 9 44
53,013,088 12 7
51,231,818 11 91
51,671,443 16 2
51,999,259 12 51
52,552,093 16 7.1
50,218,168 1 71
50,492,270 7 21
51,887,989 17 10
50,861,619 8 I I
52,385,318 19 81
52,520,170 18 71

879,319,882 3 6

937,2'75,879 8 OL,

ME3L—In the above Account of Income is included the
sum of 8,478,2191. received from the Bauk of England,
on account of the Annuity created by the .3(1 Geo. ly.
cap, 22, over and -above the amount of such Annuity.
The Irish Salt Butter Bill is now befbre the
House of Lords. Nearly the whole of the laws
respecting Irish salt butter arc, we believe, to be
got
rid of by this Bill when enacted. The only
thing remaining, we believe, is, that Irish salt
butter shall be sent to England and elsewhere,
in casks, wade of certain woods. We would
recommend the Lords to get rid of this folly by
altering the Bill to the effect, that the whole of
the laws respeetinv Irish salt butter he rescinded.
It is the height of absurdity to enact any laws
whatever in respect of trade of any kind. All
trades take best care of themselves.—/bid.

In continuing the duties upon the importation
of Foreign silk as they new exist, instead of
making a further reduction in pursuance of the
principles of free trade, his Majesty's Govern-
ment have acted in a manner of all others the
best calculated to command the confidence of
the country. By this conduct they afforded a
satisfactory pledge that they do not mean to yield
themselves up to an implicit confidence in the
wisdom of a system, which a great majority of the
parties whose interests it more immediately al-
fects pronounce loudly to be a most injurious
one, and that if they abstain from undoing what
has actually been accomplished, they at least will
not take another step in the same course, without
lull and mature consideration of the subject, and
lending an attentive ear to whatever can he ad-
vanced in opposition to it. The impartial and
enlightened men to whose care the commercial
concerns of this great empire are now entrusted,
have commenced their important duties at a
moment when a very considerable difference of
opinion prevails as to the effects already prod u -
ced, and hereafter to be expected, in consequence
of the adoption of a new conumercial system, ;,,,d
when the predominant opinion among those
who have the greatest practical knowledge of
the details of British commerce plainly appears
to be that the system, if not altogether unsound
in principle, has been brought into operation
much too precipitately and indiscriminately. In
these circumstances, no declaration could be
more indicative of wisdom on the part of Go-
vernment—none could be better calculated to
.flurd satWactivn and inspire confidence to all

.

the great interests of the. country, than a declara-
tion that the new system is to undergo a careful
and candid revision ; that all, the peculiar cir-
cumstances of thie colintry, and of its various in-
terests, are to be dUly and anxiously
sidered-; and that, with a vie*: to this full,'
anxious, and candid revie*-atid ittonsideration,
the Statesmen "Alt) are about to undertake it will
divest themselves of all preconceived opinions,
and bring their minds as nearly as possible into
the condition of a sheet of blank paper. We
have purposely adopted the simile of one of
those Ministers, because it has encountered the
sneers of ignorance and faction, and because it
appears to us to he admirably descriptive of the
state of mind hi which such an investigation, if
it i 6 to altord any. satisfaction to the country,
blight to be undertaken ; a state of mind not
akin to ig,norance, unless ignorance be the proper
name fur that condition of the mental faculties

iii which it is admitted Judges ought to ascend
the bench, and Jurors to enter the jury box.—
Morning Post.

It will be seen from a report in another part of
our Paper, that a Public Meeting was held yes-
terday in the City, for the purpose of forming an
Association to watch over the interests of the Silk
Trade. With such an object there can he no
ground to quarrel ; but it appears to us, and it
was, indeed, broadly asserted at the Meeting,
that under it there was concealed another of a
more questionable nature—namely, to throw
discredit on the measures of the late Presidents
of the Board el Trade, and enable the "blank
paper" gentry who arc now in office to overturn
what it cost the former so much trouble to esta-
blish. We trust, however, that in this respect

they will be defeated. If any one change which
has been effected in the commercial industry of the
country was more wanted than another, it was
certainly in the Silk Manufacture ; and if, on the
other hand, anv • one has been needlessly and
groundlessly exclaimed against, it hasbeenit. The
success of the measures introduced by Mr. Hus-
kisson, and supported by Mr. Charles Grant, has
been much: more complete than even. they antici-
pated. A manufacture, which was formerly
stagnant through injurious legislation, has been
roused into life and energy—employment has
been afforded not only for capital, but for hun-
dreds who were formerly in a state of the greatest
destitution—and finally, instead of being driven
out of the, market by foreigners, we have actually
made considerable progress in rivalling them.—
This is the real state of the case ; and from the
disinclination to discussion which was mani-
fested yesterday, and the rough treatment ex-
perienced by the advocates of free trade, we
augur a growing conviction of its truth, even
among the former opponents of the change.—
Certain it is, that a greater improvement

las been effected in the —manufacture of silks

during the last two years than took place
during the previous thirty—that silk looms
are now erecting where silk looms were
never before thought of—that a much greater
quantity of the raw material is imported now
than previously to the passing of the Act of
1826 ; that our French neighbours, instead of
being benelhted by the change, as they confi-
dently anticipated, have exclaimed against it as
being extremely injurious ; and if these facts are
not sufficient to acquit the commercial policy of
Mr. Huskisson of all injurious tendency in this
respect, we really know not what will or what
could. We agree- with the meeting, however,
in thinking that a reduction of the duty on the
importation of the raw material, would be of in-
finite service, and in all probability enable the
Government to dispense with nearly one-half of
the present enormous duty of 30 per cent. on
the foreign manufactured article, which only
serves to encourage smuggling, and not to pro-
tect our own manufacturers.—Morning Ad-
yertizer.

Notwithstanding what we have already said
regarding the new Customs Bill, we cannot yet
allow that measure to sleep without a few more
remarks upon the Silk Duties; and what we are
most desirous to call the attention of the public
to is the principle involved by the present mea-
sure. We entirely concur with Mr. Fitzgerald
and Mr. Courtenay in the view they have taken
of it ; we only wish that their reluctance to fulfil
the pledge of Mr. Huskisson did as much pro-
ceed from conviction as from what is called pru-
dence. It would, we are assured, produce sen-
sations of rare gratification if those best ac-
quainte4 with trade could be convinced that the
Goverinnent now see the necessity of modifV•ing

the measures of the late Board of Trade, and
of retaining to ourselves those profits, and that
domestic industry, which their liberal prede-
cessors so freely and so wantonly flung away.
The conduct of Ministers inspires a hope that
they are. aroused to a sense of the necessity of
retracing their steps, or rather of extricating
themselves from the obnoxious and pauperising
engagements of Mr. Huskisson, with as much
haste and as little violence as possible. If this
be their intention, and we sincerely believe it
to be so, they shall have our humble but hearty
support ; mid we shall hail the day, as one of
the happiest and proudest of their reign, Nvhen
they have fairly effected a return to the sound
commercial policy which in au evil hour
Mr. Huskisson and his colleagues abandoned.
The present duties on French and India silks
show in the clearest and most convincing point
of view, the folly, the absurdity, the ruin, of the
new system. It is conceded on all hands, that
if India silks were admitted on the same terms
as are the French, Spitalfields and Manchester,
so far as the Silk manufacture is concerned, might
as well he burnt to the ground, and their artisans
sent, under the patronage of Mr. Wilmot Hor-
ton, to the wilds of Canada. No man, with one
single grain of sense in his head, or whose mo-
tives are not based in pure selfishness, can doubt
this. India silks are consequently fettered with
a duty, which is from 20 to 30 per cent.
heavier than that upon the manufactures of
what is the avowed object of the
licro)is.
catesNo‘,
ot'fr‘e.e trade and the modern economists?
It is not to obtain whatever goods or produce we
consume, from those eoliraile.es whence
(not forgetting even
unintelligible procure then:llleampers.tm?ill
pon-
derous andintelliible volumes of Professdr
M'Culloch
the unfortunate Colonel "Forrents)7.es ay,hsa‘e not all
the trashy tracts of Ricardo, h of the
Edinburgh Review, and all the thousands and
ten thousands of articles in newspapers, been
dunning this doctrine in oFir ears for the last
quarter of a century ? Is it not held to be an
• established principle, that wherever an article can
procured at the cheapest rate, thcrewe should go
for it ? i
fact, this principle s considered
the most plain and invulnerable of. all the
principles of political science. But it is never-
theless, even by Mr. Huskisson, found to be im-
practicable as regards India silks. He it was
who first sanctioned the discrepancy between the
duties on those of France and India. He per-
petrated an act of violence on his own principles,

on his own favourite system, on his own reason-
ing,
and on his declared measures, by assenting,
and assenting from dire necessity, to this discre-
pancy.-There Would have been more consistency
in his conduct, to say nothing of the justice of
it, and as little of the consequence of it, had he
at once placed the silks of Europe and India
on the same footing. But by his measure,
or rather by the amended measure of his
subaltern, Mr. Grant, he committed an act of
glaring injustice towards India. He gave a pre-
ference, and a most invidious and suspicious

preference, to the only nation on earth that least
deserved it. He gave a bounty to French ma-
nufacturers, not only at the expense of the
manufacturers of this country, but at the ex-
pense also of the merchants and traders of our
Eastern
possessions ; and be gave this prefer-
ence to a country, every man in which, where
his own interest is concerned, abjures his policy,
and, through him, holds up to ridicule and
contempt the silliness and the ignorance of
English Statesmen.—New