The Sun.
London, England, 1819-08-11 00:00:00

THE HAMILTON WEAVERS.

MILTON, AU. .7--In g of an ap-
pliHcAaiion from the weoavers, statconseingoence that upwards
of 500 looms were already idle in the town of
Hamilton ; that the number' was' continually in-
creasing; that the petitioners were literally in a
state of starvation, and craving relief," a 'meeting
of the heritors and kirk-session of the parish was
held. The meeting was attended by two of, the
weavers, Witt) spoke f.or themselves and their fel-
low-sufferers ; they expresied their gratitude,to
:he meeting for what had been done, and,
in particular, to Mr.‘ Brown, fur the guest per-
sonal tenable he had been at ; and they in very
modest and decent terms, suggested for the
consideration of the meeting, the great number
at unemployed old men, women, sod boys, who
would be left unprovided foi by this arrangement.
An assessment was.propo•ed as the best means of
meeting the contingency, and etitralizing the'bur-
den at the same time. Mr. Brown, on the other
hand, proposed, thn't it should he door by volon-
tory contribution : he deprecated an assessment
upon two grounds-1 sr, if an assessment wete to
be laid on at all adeqoate. to tLe occasion, it
,would iu a great measure legalize the claims of
the weavers to support trom the heritms,
claims of the same description might he expected
at all times, and from all classes of itidividnals
that could not get cmploym, ; if the assess-
ment were once laid on, the helrifors and kirk-
sessioo could not consistently remove it until
the pressure was removed ; and if the pres-
sure increased, they could not consistently
refuse to increase the relief- also ; once laid ,on,
there was no saying when or where it would stop ;
in short, that it tended to introduce the Englitib
system of Aioors', laws, with all its grievances;
and these were so overwhelming, that (Mr.
Brown stated the tact as consistent with his know-
ledge) some of the proprietors in England bad ac-
tually surrendered their estates for the payment of
the ;sows' rates, which in some cases absorbed
no less than fifteen shillings in the pound, and
the evil continually increasing. And 2d, he
(Mr. .Brawn) was unwilling that the weavers
should be degraded. either in their own esrima
tion or in that of the public. In times
.of great
mercantile embarassment, the capitalists had often
applied for and obtained aid from Governmeot.;
.that aid- had checked the natural. progress of
the evil, without injuring the character of the
capitalist ; and why should not the operatives, in
-the same way, be allowed to partake of the bene-
ficence of the community, without degrading
themselves to the rank of paupers ? Seotimen have
an abhorrence of pauperism far beyond what is
felt by any other nation, and be was anxious that
this distinguished part of the national character
should remain unimpaired.. Mr. Brown said,
be thought a considerable part of the distress
complained of had been occasioned by the
tepid and continued increase of the uti.uher
.0.1 the weavers. The speculations of a few
Glasgow merchants bad withdrawn the agri-
cultural and other manual labour from our own
superabundant popttlatiOn, and thrown it in=
to the hands of Irishmen. As many of these
Anerchants.had enriched themselves by the labour
of the individuals so thrown upon the palish, he
proposed that the meeting should.recommend the
Weavers to the peculiar attention of _these manu-
facturers. As a means of ptoviding farther for
the present evil, he proposed" that every indivi-
dual who occupied a tarot of any size slinuld take
one or more of the.boys to he employed during
the harvest ; and he strongly, recommended, ru
both parties a continuance of that employment,

at a means of striking At the very rOot of he evil.
Ike held in his han;l a list of farms in the parish
more than sufficient for the present emergency,
and he said he would di) every 114114
poveer to .persitade the tenan'ts on. the Hamilton
estate to go into the Measure, if it was thought
advisable. Mr.brown's'excellent views of the mat-
ter were generally adopted by *the Meeting, and
Committees Were apriointerrfor the purpose of car-
rying them into 'effect. Meantitne it is pleasing to
learn, that 40 of The Hainilton weavers are at work
upon the south-side of Bothwell-bridge, near the
site.of their former operations '(at the time of the
,strike) and .on the very morning 'Of the meeting,
about SO of -then) set off with their kits ,tha ac-
coutrement's to work on the public road near Can-
net Dyke-head. Arrangements are making for
sending out more in otherquarters., while a sub-
scription is going on for the•ohlmen, women,
Fte. and in this way the willing but ty,employed
part of the community in Hamilton parish have a
fair chance of being provided for, for several
mOnths to tonic.