The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-20 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY MORNING. APRIL 20, 1842.

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pelted their verkpeople to take two or three quarts of milk per
daf, and that when-the cows were killed-they -obliged them to
take part of the meat. He then read a letter from a clergyman
of the Church of England, stating that the truck system pre-
vailed in the borough which Mr. 'Villiers represented, and that
a member of his Committee, and one of his active partizans,
was one of its chief supporters. The men were paid once a
month by goods from the " Tommy shop," where the articles
of sugar, butter. bacon, and tea, were charged at an enormous
profit, it being 50 per cent. on the article of tea alone,
while the articles were of a very inferior deser'ption. The
truck system also prevailed ia Scotland ; in the Coke-bridge
Iron Worse, near Glasgow, the wages of the men were paid
with goods, at a profit of 50 per cent. above the retail dealer.
At Paisley the same nefarious system prevailed, and he had a
letter from a working man at Glasgow, stating that the iron
masters' round that district made their own laws, which the
men were forced to obey, and they were of the most hideous
cast; if they resisted them they were carried before the Magis-
trate of the district, who never failed to decide against the
miner. One of the rules was, that if any miner allowed
his father, brother, or son, •to sleep in his cottage.
when not employed ;n the same works, he was charged
double rent for his cottage. Some industrious men
had not received a shilling wages, in money, for the
last four yea s. The truck system was pursued in Ireland as
well as Scotland ; he should not trouble the House as to its
existence in Wales. The !truck system was carried into
effect throughout the whole of the manufacturing districts of
Anti Corn-law manufacturers
England. In some places the
had made their work-people pay for Anti Corn-law pamphlets.
—( Loud cries of " Hear, hear.")
Mr. THORNELY (we believe) expressed his disbelief of
this statement.

Mr. FERRAND—He had stated nothing that he would not
prove before the Select Committee. Nay, if a poor creature
was obliged to leave the manufactory to satisfy the
calls of nature he was fined. Some manufacturers even
made their work-people pay them for their own coffins,
for when they applied for a few shillings to pay for the
coffin of their relative, they were charged at the rate of Is. a
week per pound sterling for the money. One manufacturer at
Sheffield bad been fined 101., and others in sma ler sums, under
a prosecution for paying a man's wages in cloth ; but though
he had moved for a return of the number those convic-
tions, it was not to show that these laws were in force, but to
prove to what extent they were evaded. lie attributed a great
part of the distress of the country to the amount of wages in
money withdrawn from circulation, the small shopkeepers
never touching any of it. He denied that be had charged the
manufacturers of Yorkshire with participating in the truck
pen expressly
uarded against it. Two names
to the i ;de ire
a htaithat-
had been published, in denial of
his statement, were forged : and of the names attached to it,
s td, n expre
one was making 70 per cent. by his cottages, from his workmen.
At Idle, in the neighbourhood in which he (Mr. Ferrand) re-
sided, the truck system was in active operation. He would
prove this by the Report of a Government Commissioner.—
( The Hon. Gentleman here read an extract from the Report
alluded to, from which it appeared that the truck system was in
operation at Wendle, and that the Commissioner had received
information on the subject from a weaver, who, however, had
requested the Commissioner not to ask any questions, as if it
were known that a weaver bad riven testimony on the subject
lie would suffer by being turned nut of his employment.) That
showed, as the Commissioner said, how impossible it was to
enforce obedience to the law where both the employer and
the employed united to defeat it—and so over-stocked
was the labour market at the present momeut, that the labour-
ers were compelled to submit to whatever the employer might
propose. He would now call the attention of the House to the
existence of the truck system in Birmingham, where he be-
lieved its existence had been denied. He would, however,
prove its existence by the testimony of a Gallant Officer there,
who in a Report dated Small Arms Depot, Brighton, April
10, 1842, had stated that it was a general complaint among
persons employed in the gun-lock trade, that the truck and
tommy system was carried to a considerable extent in that
trade. '1 hat gentleman, however stated that be had felt it to
he his duty to issue directions to all persons engaged on Go-
vernment contracts—many of whom he felt bound to say,
discontinued the truck system—to pay all their lock-fillers
their full wages in money. It was not the first time the British
Legislature had been asked to interfere for the protection of
the working classes. On Feb. 17, 17.95, Mr. Whitehead bad
made a motion calling on the House to afford protection to the
labouring population, which had been seconded by the late Sir
R. Peel, and supported by Fox and Sheridan. On July 5,
1834, Mr. Littleton had brought in the labourers'. wages Bill,
on which occasion Mr. Huskisson gave it as his opinion
that a great portion of the distress in the manufacturing dis
tricts was not so much owing to want of employment as to the
existence of the truck system. On the 3d of May in that
year, Lord Stanley had presented a petition from Heaton
Norris against the truck system, and on that occasion his
Lordship said that the truck system was as injurious to the
manufacturer who did not adopt it as it was to the labourer
who was its victim. On the sth July, 1830, the present
Prime Minister of England said that the great evil of the
present day was a desire to diminish the comfort< of the poorer
classes, and that nothing tended so much to add to that evil
as the fact of a manufacturer, =king 8,0001. a year, endea-
vouring to make 3,0001. a year more out of the wages of his
work-people by dealing in bacon and cheese ; and on that oc-
casion the present Prime Minister told Mr. Hume, who was
then the chief opponent, that if it were defeated he (Mr. H.)
'would rest the responsibility. He (Mr. Ferrand) had now, to
the best of his ability, done his duty.—(Cheers.) If Hon.
Gentlemen opposite npposed his motion, on them would rest the
responsibility ; and if Hon. Gentlemen refused to accede to it,
then he weuld say to the Right Hon. Baronet, as the Right
Hon. Baronet had before said to Mr. Hume, that on his
shoulders, and on the shoulders of the Government, would rest
responsibility of opposing his motion. e would tel them,
also, that a most extensive feeling was abroaHd on this s lubject ;
that not far distant from that place there were many honest
manufacturers, who bad come from the North, to give evidence
on the Committee he now asked tor, and who came to tell them
that they must either be honest themselves, or retire from
their trade with the character of dishonest and disreputable
men. There was a deputation, also, sent there from the work-
ing men to appear before the Committee, to ask for jus-
tice. They had no other means of bringing their mise-
ries and wants before the Home ; they had not the power
of voting for Members, but they had the rower of appealing to
that House for justice and protection, and the object of his
motion was to give it them. The present motion might be
lost.; if it was it would cause heart-rending affliction among
the working classes; but he trusted the Government would
consider it to be their duty at once to acquiesce in his motion.
He asked for the Committee for the sake of common justice—
he asked fur it on behalf of the cause of humanity—and last of
all, he asked for it in the name of Him who had said " The
labourer is worthy of his hire." The Hon. Gentleman con-
cluded, amid considerable cheering, by proposing the following
resolutions :—" That this House considers as highly criminal
the conduct of any person or persons who may attempt to in-
duce others to give false evidence before a Committee of this
House and will inflict condign punishment on all such persons,
and will a:so direct them to be prosecuted. That this House
will protect and bear harmless every working man who gives
true evidence before any Committee which may be appointed
to inquire into the frauds committed by manufacturers and
others, to the injury of the trade of this country, and of the la-
bouring classes. Select Committee, to inquire into the exist-
ence of frauds in the variens manufactures of the United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland ; also, to inquire into the
existence of frauds and oppressions, either directly or indirectly
committed by certain manufacturers of the United Kingdom
of Geeat Within and Ireland, upon the persons employed by
them; and also by the workers of mines, collieries, and rail-
ways, upon the labourers in their employment."
An HoN. MEMBER having seconded the resolution,
The question was put from the Chair.
After a pause of a few moments,
Mr. Fl ELDEN rose to address the House, but the Hon.
Member was totally inaudible in consequence of the indistinct
tone in which he spoke. We understood him to say that he
believed there was mush truth in the statements of the Hon.
Member for Knaresborough ; but he believed that many of the
practices complained of had their origin in bad legislation.
1 hose practices were, at all events,, highly discreditable; and
it appeared to him to be the duty of the Government to grant
the proposed inquiry.
Mr. WALLACE said he was exceedingly desirous the in-
quiry should be granted. He believed there was a great deal
of truth in what had been stated by the Hon. Member for
Knaresborough ; and he trusted the ineuiry would be granted
in whatever form might be thought most convenient. It was
in his opinion, exceedingly unwise to allow a continuance of
the truck system under any shape. He thought, therefore,
that the Gentlemen would do well if they were sasisfied of the
existence of the system, to take care to afford some cheap and
easy means by which the aggrieved parties might be
enabled to obtain justice agalust the offenders. The
great evil of the present law against the truck system,
as indeed of all our laws, was that justice, was inaccessible to
the poor man. He repeated that he was afraid there was a
good deal of truth in the allegations of the Hon. Member ; and
as he believed that the truck-system in any form was exceed-
ingly injurious, he hoped the proposed inquiry would take place,
and that the present law which was at least well-intended might
be fully enforced.
Mr. WAKLEY said that he felt some surprise that no
Member of the Government had risen to address the House
after the speech of the Hon. Member for Knaresborough. But
the Right lion. Baronet was perhaps anxious to ascertain in
the first instance the feeling of the House. He thought a
motion of this kind could scarcely he granted if there were a
swine feeling in the House against ; at the same time he
could scarcely believe it possible that the Government would
resist the motion if there were a. strong feelin s' in
its favour. Allegations of that nature were of the
most serious character, and effected the interest, com-
fort, and happiness of millions of their fellow-countrymen.
According to the statements made by the Hon. Member the
people of this country were the slaves of their employers, and
were placed in a state of entire destitution and dependence.
In order to do full justice, however, to an inquiry of that ne-
tore it. must not be levelled against one particular class of em-
ployers. It much be extended to the occupiers of land.—
( Hear, hear, from the Ministerial benches.) Were Hon.
Members aware that in Scotland, and to a very considerable
extent in the North of England, the truck system prevailed in
farms as well as in manufacturee?—(oh, oh. ) Hon. Mem-
bers might den.), it if they pleased ; but he knew that he was
stating the plain, naked truth when he said that the labourers
upon farms in Scotland and the
,north England were paid in
kind, and not in money wages.—( Hear, hear.) In order,
therefore, that the investigation might be introduced to both
classes, he would propose to introduce in line 4, after the word
manufacturers, "and occupiers of land," and he hoped that the
Hen. Gentleman would agree to the amendment. The in-
quiry would then be general, and they would ascertain who
were and were not the oppressors of the poor of this country.
—( Hear, hear.) He thanked the Hon. Gentleman for bring-
ing forward this subject. If in some cases he had expressed
himself with a fervour which was not quite prudent, he be-
lieved it arose from a sincere desire to relieve the people from
oppression.—( Hear, hear.) He could himself bear witness to
many oppressions
• under which they were labouring, and he
most cordially supported the motion for their investigation.
Colonel SIBTIIORPE in supporting the motion, stated
that though he had property in the north of England, he had
never met with a single instance in which the truck system
had been adopted on farms. He would be most happy that the
investigation would be extended to every tenant of his own.
Mr. BROTHERTON concurred in the motion, but ob-
jected to the amendment, because the same act which had ren-
dered it illagal in the manufacturers to pay wages in kind, had
rendered it legal in the farmer. lie believed that unavoidable
oppression existed, and he was anxious to see it put down as
soon as possible. •
Sir J. GRAHAM said, if the motion had contained any-
thing condemnatory of the manufacturing interest it would
not have met with his concurrence. He believed that the
ca2,es in which fraud was practised were the exceptions, that
the general feeling 01 the manufacturers of this country was
that of honest Englishmen, and that the fact that in the long
run the fraudulent manufacturer tines not prosper was borne
constantly in mind by the majority. He could not therefore con-
cur in any sweeping charges agoinst the manufacturing interest,
and on this account he regretted to see in the resolutioes
so frequent a repetition of the word " fraud."—(Hear, hear.)
Legislative enactments had been proposed from the earliest pe-
riod, with a view of remedying the evil, but they had generally
proved abortive. With respect to that part of the resolution
which related to the giving of evidence, he would remind the
House that there was a Sessional Order < n that subject, which
provided for all that was required ; and that being the case, .
• be thought the first resolution Of the Hon. Member was en_
tirely unnecessary.-( Hear, hear.) The question then nar-
rowed itsell into the payment of wages in goods, and on this
subject also the ingenuity of the Legislature had been for the