The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-03 00:00:00

Lord KINNAIRD (in continuation) proceeded to say—
The amount of labour thus withdrawn from the workinc,
classes could not but be very large. One. fourth of the
whole trade was with America ; up to September
1841, linen was admitted to the United' States
free, but after that a " duty of 20 per . cent.
was imposed, and a Bill was then Tending. in Congress,
placing a duty of ten per cent. extra on the manufac-
tures of countries that iLd not take American produce.
'As to Brazil too, they kept up a high duty on sugar, and
the Brazilians, acting on their beautiful example as to
the
.Corn-laws, would retaliate, and then what would be-
come of the linen trade. He would repeat that 25,0001
had been already distributed among the people of
Paisley by the Committee, in the district of which four
or five villages in the neighbourhood were included. For
the town of Paisley alone- the expense of supporting the
people was 800/. a week, for the villages 1001. One of
the reasons assigned forstaking the power of distribution
out of the hands of the Committee was, that it had been
rather extravagant. But what had the Commissioner
who had been sent down done ?. Why hp had merely
cut off the neighbouring villages from the benefit of the
distribution; and now in these towns there were nearly
900 persons going about in gangs begging, and that was
their only mode of subsistence. They had no other, be-
cause the local subscriptions were stopped. Ile wished
also to call the attention of. their Lordships to a re-
turn drawn up by persons appointed to examine
into the state of Leeds, , which showed than the
average weekly income of 9,000 persons was only Is.
Every trade wts in the same state of distress, and, such being
the case, he would ask what had bet') done to alleviate it:
Absolutely nothing. Nothing had been . done to eantu-
rage inquiry. This had not come upon them unawares; since
1828 it had been coming on ; and it was impo-sible, therefore,
for her Majesty's Ministers to say they wet e not aware of it.
What had been done to remedy this? Why, a Corn-law had
been paved, and what had been the result of that? Why,
t'' at wheat had risen 3s. a qua, ter.—( Hear, hear.) The next
thing that had been subtritted for the adoption of the House
was an Income-tax, which was. absurd, because the means of
the people to consume had been cosup'etely exhausted. The
next measure from which relief was promised was the Tariff.
He thought it was' impessible • for any min to say upon 'what
principle that measure was framed. There was, in tact, no
settled principle. 'I he small trades, such as the making of
slices and gloves, were attacked the moo cot they were suffer-
ing distress. What was the consequence? Why, the price
of gloves abroad were raised, so that the people at home would
derive no benefit from the reduction of the duty. It would be
better to leave those articles alone, and attack the great mono-
polies of corn and sugar, which would con'er great benefit on
those whom their Lordships praised for their patience under
suffering and distress. Vs hen parties came to him ( Lord Kin-
naird ) and complained of their distress, he said that if he saw his
children perishing around him for want of food, and those who
were in gaol better provided for than those who were both wil-
ling and able to work if they could get it, he would rather at-
tempt to telp himself with the food his neighbours possessed—
( Laughter. )—yes, those who could themselves roll along at
this end of the metropolis without seeing any of the misery of
the people might laugh, but let them listen to the reason he got
for the people enduring such distress with so much patience.
The answer he received was this " if the bread had been taken
from you suddenly, say to-morrow or the next day, you would
have done that, but if you were gradually reduced to starvation,
and weakened away by not getting frod, your energies: would be so
sunk, that you would not care to see even your children perish-
ing aroundynu." That was the truth, and he wished to fin-
press it on their Lordships mind. He was quite ready to go
with a Committee to those places where distress existed, that
ocular demonstration might convince them of what the people
• were suffering, all of which he' thought was o sing to unwise
legislation. From what he saw, be feared he should fail to get
their Lordships to grant the inquiry for which he was anxious,
but he felt it was his duty to urge in the s congest manner he
could, the importance of the subject, and to pray their Lord.
ships to think of it. He would adjourn the debate if they
liked till they had time to make further enquiry; and if he
tkought there were theslightest chance of his getting the Com-
mittee, he would not press his motion now. He would show to the
House what he and ethers considered necessary-extended mar-
kets. Ile had been in communication with one intimately con-
nected with the American trade, and who had particularly
attended to this matter; and he assured him (Lord posse)
that there was an opening there for European manufactures-,
which was quite -beyond belief. On the hanks of the Missis-
' sippi and the Ohio, were nine United State, and it witted ap-
:Fear from their census of 1840, that the population there was
5,499,892; two of those Stases principally grew cotton for our
markets, and the other States were purely agricultural, and
there was not a single manufacture carried on, except that of
some coarse stuff for trousering. These persons put the produce
of their farms Ott rafts of weed,-and floated it down the Missis•
sippi to New Orleans; they wished to make arrangements to
exchange that produce for mantfactured articles, and if they
could not get rid of what they brought down, of course they
could not take back the necessaries which might be expected
from England to New Orleans. Besides this, there was at
Tennessee a kind of sour flower, which was most serviceable in
manufactures; and when the Corn-law was passed, lie should
have wished to have moved that-that sour flower should be ad-
mitted.--( A laugh.) Perhaps they do nut know the use of
that flower. There was:upwards of 100,000,000 quarters of flour
used every year in England for stiffing c!othes and particular
kinds of stufls, and the sour flower of Tennessee
would be just as available for that purpose as the good flour,
he believed that even if a million of quarters of that sour flour
were admitted annually, a great benefit would be conferred on
the mat.ufacturing classes. lie asked of their Lordships to re-
lease the country from the pressure of selfish impositions, to
unfetter industry, and to give labour a free competition aid its
reward. That was all they asked; it was not charity for
which the people were ceding. They asked to be allowed to
take their labour to the best market; and he would tell their
Lordships that if they continued to refuse that demand, fearful,
indeed, would-be the consequences. He would take the liberty
of warning their Lordships, although a young Member ; and
warning from any quarter should rot be despised. He begged
h are to say, that in the statements lie had made, he had no
wish to make an attack upon the Government; and if he had
been betrayed into any expresSions of asperity, he begged leave
to apologise for the unininten:ional offence which he might
have given. The Noble Lord- concluded by moving fora Corn-
niitte to inquire into the causes of the present state of general
distress.

The Duke of WELLINGTON did not complain of the
course adopted by the Noble Lord, but he should not follow
his exaeriplo in advet Wig to a variety of topics to prove facts
which nobody could deny. No doubt every body admitted the
existence of distress in the manufacturing nistricts of the
country, and it seemed to b the opinion of the Noble Lord
that. that distress might exterid.tO the agricultural districts also.
The Noble Lord had made-certain observations on the mea-
sures which had been adopted by her :V.lttj sty's Government
for the relief of that dist' es. It was certainly true that it
it was not exactly consistent with principle to send down pe-
cuniary assistance to any particular part of the country, but yet
it had been practised at different times, and the law itself re-
cognised the principle to some extent by authorising the lev) ing
of rates in aid. In Scotland the power of granting relief
under the Poor-law was not tso extensive as it was in this
country, and large subscriptions had been raised for the relief
'of that distress, and her Majesty's. servants had thought it
expedient to adopt measures to extend the means of relie,f not
only to that part of the country, but to every part of the country
that required relief.. Her 'Majesty's Government had recom-
mended the adoption of that course which had been adopted in
former times, namely, that her Majesty should write a letter to