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

IRISH JUDGES, AND THE INCOME-TAX.

Mr. O'CONNELL wished to ask the Right Hon. Baronet,
the Member for Tamworth, whether the salaries of the Irish
Judges, paid out of the Consolidated Fund, would be liable
to the Income'-tax.

Sir R. PEEL said, that the arrangements he proposed to
make with respect to the salaries of public officers Leing oiable
to the Income-tax was:this, that in respect of all appointments in
Ireland, the duties of which were permanent and stationary,
in these cases they would not be subjected to the operation of
the Income-tax. In the case, for instance, of the Commis •
sioner of Customs, he would nut be subjected to the operation
of the tax.

Air. H. WA SON here rose, but was interrupted by
The SPEAKER, who said that the motion of the Hon.
Member was irregular and unparliamentary, and he was quite
sure the House would insist upon his (the Speaker's) rising to
stop the Hon. Member from going on with it.—(Loud cheers
from the Ministerial benches.) The Hon. Member's notice
contained a condemnation of a Committee then sitting. if
the Hon. Member persisted in his motion it would arraign the
conduct of the Members of the Committee then sitting. That
House, according to its rules, would never allow the conduct
of any Committee to be alluded to until that Committee had
made its Report. The proceedings of this Committee were
still pending; it therefore would be in, the highest degree
irregular for any Honourable Member of that House
to allude to the conduct of that Committee until its
Report had been made. He (the Speaker) put it
to the Hon. Member whether, considering the peculiar
nature of a Select Committee—considering that it was a tri-
bunal altogether independent of that House—constituted by
Act of Parliament, every Member of which was sworn to try
the merits of the case—he put it to the Hon. Member whether
it would be right to allude to the conduct of the persons com-
posing that Committee.
Mr. RIGBY WASON said it was his duty to how to the
opinion and decision of the Chair, at the same time he had in-
tended to have avcided adverting to chat had been said by the
Members of the. Committee. lie would merely state to the
House it had not been his intention to have concluded with
any motion.—(Laughter, and cries of " Oh, oh.")
Mr. PACKINGTON said that he was sure, from the pecu-
liar position in which he was placed, the House ould allow him
to express his deep regret that the forms of Parliament would
not allow the Hon. Gentleman opposite to proceed with the
notice he had given, as he was prevent, d from repelling the im-
putation which had been cast upon the Committee. ;Whatever
calumnies he (Mr. R. Wason) might have thought it his duty
to cast upon the Committee over which it was his (Mr. P.'s)
painful duty to preside, lie would say for the Al embers of that
Committee, and for himself, that they courted investigation to
its fullest extent.—(Cheers. ) He (Mr. P.) most earnestly
hoped, whatever might be the charges which the Hon. Gentle-
man might think proper to bring ferward—he (Mr. I'.) did
most earnestly hope that at some future period the Hon. Gen-
tleman would, consistently with the forms of the House, bring
his accusations against the Committee under the consideration
of the House. Rut there was one fact which he (Mr. P. )
thought ought to be made known to the Hon. Gentleman him-
self, and which he (Mr. P.) thought it was right to the Com-
mittee and the House, should be made public. The fact was
this, that although he believed the Committee were unanimous
with regard to the character of the evidence given by the party
now in Newgate, notwithstanding that fact, the Committee
were not unanimous as to the manner in which the conduct of
that party chould be followed up.
Air. Rigby Wason, with Mr. Rennie, rose amid loud cries
of 't Greer,' but the former gave way to
Mr. RENNIE, who said he felt it to be his duty as a party
interested in the subject, to state to the House that he did not
agree with the course taken by his Hon. Colleague.
Sir R. INGLIS, who spoke amid much confusion, said, he
hoped that what had been said by the Speaker would be ex-
punged. together with the notice of the Hirt. Member, from
the journals of the House. It appeared to him as a matter
worthy of consideration, whether the same course which had
been adopted in 1835, relative to a notice of motion which was
considered calumnious and indecorous, and was ordered to be
expunged from the journals of the House, should not be adopted
new.
The SPEAKER made some reply, but there was so much
noise in the House that we did not hear it.

Mr. COCHRANE postponed his motion for certain papers
relative to the diplomatic intercourse between this kingdom
and Greece to a future day.
FRAUDS IN MANUFACTURES.
Mr. FERRAND said, in rising to address the House he felt
most deeply the responsibility which attached to him, for he bad
net only the prayers of every honest manufacturer for his suc-
cess but the eyes of the working classes, both of Great Britain
and Ireland, were watching him that evening. But when he
recollected that he was placed that evening in the position in
which he then stood, not by his own seeking—when he remem-
bered that he had been driven by Hon. Gentlemen opposite to
that course—when he considered that it was their duty to take
the steps he was taking, he considered he needed no apo'ogy.
When he first of all brought forward the charges he was about
to attempt to prove to be correct, he was induced to do so, be-
cause, throughout the country, men were hired to use the most
exciting and violent language ; because placards of' the most in-
flammatory kind were circulated through every town and
village, calling on the working classes to look on the
landed proprietors as their greatest enemies, as those
who kept their food from them, as those who dried
up the mother's breast, and caused the death of the
infant in the mother's arms, as those who outraged the laws of
God and man, and all for selfish motives. He had inquired
into. the truth of those charges among the working classes
themselves, and they had repudiated any share in making those
charges, and that they had been heaped on their heads by the
manufacturers themselves. Ho was aware that the first of the
resolutioes he had moved was a Standing Order of that House,
but he had placed it on the paper to let the people know that
if the manufacturers brought forward false evidence, that
House had the power of protecting them. The second reso-
lution he considered absolutely necessary for the .protection of
the working classes who might have to attend before the Select
Committee, if the House should grant it. the working classes
state that they dare not attend and give evidence before any
Committee unless they are protected, as they would have
nothing but ruin before them. Those who gave evidence
• before the Committee obtained by Mr. Sadler were ruined by
being denied employment, and this class now hoped that this
House, having given twenty millions for the purpose
of putting down slavery among the blacks, andgranted 17,0001.
to enable the Hon. and learned Member for Bolton to go on
the Continent to make inquiries as to the extension of Com-
merce and Manufactures, would not refuse to grant them pro-
tection. He thought the Hon. Gent. would agree with him
that nothing could be more requisite for extending the trade
and commerce of the country than that our manufacturers and
merchants should be of unsullied character—that in all their
differenttrading transactions with the diff.,rent quarters of the
globe they should act with justice, and that they should not
practice deceit either as regarded their fellow-countrymen or
foreigners He found that our ancestors were of that opinion.
They had been jealous of the honour of the natjon, and had
passed stringent laws to prevent any attempt at fraud.
He found in the preamble of the Act 13 Richard 11. cap. 2,
that the Legislature at that time had interfered to prevent
fraud in the manufacture and packing of clogs.—( The Hoe.
Member here read the preamble of the Act alluded to.) He
found that, in the sth and 6th of Edward A. I , on Act cf Par-
hamen was passed to provide for the due making of woollen
cloth.—(The Hon. Member here read a portion of the Act in
question, from which it appeared that the cluthiers of that day
were not altogether ignorant of she practice of mixing a coin-
position somewhat analogous to "Devil's Dust." with the wool,
since, as the Act expresses it, from "lack of knowledge," and
others "from extreme covetousness, and having more respect
for their own t rivate advantage than for she advantage of the
community.") Again, in the 43d year of the reign of Elizabeth,
he found Parliament interfering for the purpose of regulatir,g
the manufacture of woollen cloth.—(The 11.c.n. Member here
read a passage of the Act of Elizabeth, front which it appeared
that the clothiers still continued to disregard 4. the good and
godly enactments" which had been made for the regulation of
the wooden manufacture, and that they stretched the fabric of
the cloth, filling tip the insterstices with " chalk-flour and other
things," which caused the cloth when wetted to shrink. The
Hon. Member then referred to an Act passed in the 10th year
of the reign of Queen Anne, for the better payment of the
poor makers of cloths, and observed that he had read
to the House certain Acts of Parliament, passed by
their ancestors for the protection of manufacturers and w ork-
men, and also for the protectition of the public, but about fifty
I years ago a new light broke in upon the peoples' rekresenta.

tires, and the consequence was that those acts were suspended. s
What was the result of that? Why, th-at iiauds of the most
gross description were practised by manufacturers in all trades,
to 'he great injury of the public, both at home and abroad. I
He (lid not mean to deny that there were many manufacturers I
who were anxious to be honest and upright men, and who I
wished' to carry into the market articles that would
de justice, not only to them-elves, but the public ;
but when the new principle burst upon the
country a new arena was opened to the manufacttirers to cheat
and defraud their neighbours both here and abroad. They had
been told by Hon. Members that the Corn-laws were the drag-
chain of the agricultural and manufacturing interests, and they
had been told also that they wore the only cause of the present
distress. They were told that if the landed interest would
only give the manufacture s a free trade in corn there would be
no limits to the extension of British commerce. Bet he found
that the merchants and manufacturers of this country had been
in possession ot the South America market from the year 1807
to the year 1822, or 18t1.3. At that time Mr. Canning declared
that we had called a new world into existence ; and it was
thought that a boundless &1.1 was thus opened for the commerce
of this country. But what was the consequence of the trauds
committed by the manufacturers themselves ? They were
them,elves the first cause to a great extent of losing the market
ot South America. Ile had heard it stated by some Hon. Gen-
tlemen opposite that the use of flour was indispensibly necessary
in making cotton and calico ; but he (Mr. Ferranti) begged
leave mo. t distinctly to say, that such a practice was formerly
unknown. Flour had never been made use of until the manu-
facturers haul introduced it for the purpose of cheating and
fraud. fie did not utter those expressions merely tin his own
authority. In asking for a Committee that night, he wished to
say, that he would use the evidence and authority of persons
entitled to the highest credit. He would call to his aid manu-
factureis of the highest respectability and standing in the
country, as well as working people, who would come before the
Committee if pr'oper protection were given them. He felt so
strong its the truth ot his po- it ion, that he fearlessly asserted that
if any rule of the House prevented the granting of the
second part of his resolution, he would ask for the Committee
before whom he would prove every word he had said, upon the
authority of manufacturers, merchants, magistrates, trades-
men, and operatives. There was a work of very great merit,
entitled " Baines' History of the Cotton Manufacture," to
which he would for a moment refer. The work was a standard
book upon the subject; and no person had ever attempted to
dispute its assertions. In April, 1835, the work was most ably
rev.ewed in Tait's Edinburgh Magazine. The reviewer stated
that he should extract one pasage relative to practices which
he had heard, were banishing foreigners from our markets, and
sending them to countries where these disgraceful practices
were unknown. Mr. Baines said, that, to improve the ap-
pearance of the cloth, it was usually passed through starch
made of flour, mixed with porcelain clay and calcined sulphate
of lime, by which the c.oth was made thicker, and appeared
to have greater substance and strength than previously.l He
also stated that it. was a " contrivance originally devised
for the purpose of fraud ; and which, though now
too generally understood to he regarded as fraudulent, it would
be creditabie to the trade to discontinua." Here, then, it was
distinctly stated that the practice of using flour paste originated
in fraud. He would also read to the House the letter of a
gentleman who had paid great attention to the subject. The
Hon. Member then read an extract describing the process of
applying flour paste in the manufacture of calico. He would
take the House with him into South America, that they might
see what reception our manufactures had met with in that
country. He would quote from Robinson's work on Paraguay,
when under the rule of Dr. Francia. It was there stated that
not a single piece of linen for the soldier's shirts and trowsers
was purchased without previous inspection by his Excellency;
that having found that the cloth had wide interstices between
the threads, he was in the habis of viewing it with a microscope
to ascertain its real texture ' • and that when he found the
threads yawning he allowed the owner half price, telling him
at the same time that he ought to be punished as a knave.
The Jews, said his Excellency, were cheats, but the English
were downright swindlers. Nt hat a disgrace was this, said the
Hon. Member, to this country that their merchants should he
thus considered. When he read it his blood boiled to think
that Englishmen should have so traduced their country seven
thousand miles from home. Here was the true history of the
doe nfall of English commerce. " For," said Dr. Francia
from the same authority, " go about your business, and the
next time you bring your goods, bring them from honest Ger-
many." What was the reason they had lost their trade? Be-
cause their manufacturers had been so hungry after
filthy lucre. In Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, ot Feb. 19,
in and article, entitled " A few weeks on the Continent," it
was stated that !the Swiss supplied themselves with home-
made clothing, because they had no confidence in the durabi-
lity of colour of the English printed cottons. He had also
received from a respectable shopkeeper in Liverpool a speci •
Men of the coarsest sort of white shirting, and he could hardly
have believed, on less respectable testimony, that the poor
were so plundered by the manufacturers. A sample of that
shirting he had sent to the Right Hun. Baronet and the No-
ble Lord. The lace trade, according to Babbage's " Economy
of Manufactures," was reduced to a state of ruin by the frauds
racticed in it ; and in the stocking trade, it appeared from
evidence, that stockings were made of an uniform width all the
way down from the knee to the icicle' and when they were
wet the purchaser could net distinguish the fraud, but when
they were dry, he found they hung like a bag round his anodes.
(Laughter.) He had heard a great deal of the distress of the
country, and of the Corn-laws being the cause of that distress.
( The Hon. Member here read an extract from the Nottingham
Joutnal, complaining of the practice of making what are called
" choppings off," in that neighbourhood, by means of which a
stocking frame was enable to manufacture twice as many stock-
ings as it would under a better system, and that consequently
there was a great scarcity of employment and considerable
distress among the stockingers, who had seldom 'OB.-worth of
furniture in their houses, and whose destitution was increased
by the fraudulent manner in which they were paid under the
truck system.) He would call the particular attention of the
Right Hon. Baronet to the last paragraph of that article in
the Nottingham Journal, in which the waiter called upon the
Government to come forward and protect the stockingers who
were a degraded half-starved body-of useful men, who had no
means of protecting themselves. They asked through him for
a Committee of that House, and he trusted there was no Hon.
Member who had heard hien who would not assist him in ob-
taining that Committee. Gentlemen opposite had said that
they would throw no impediment in his way, and he
trusted that they would act np to what they
had said, that the Government would not object to
the apppointment of this Committee. He would now proceed
to give them an account of the frauds committed in the ma-
nufacture of watches, which, when they were carried abroad,
would not go for half an hour.—( A laugh.) That had been
given in evidence before the House of Commons. It was no
case for laughing—( Renewed laughter)—it was rather a
reason why the Legislature of the present day should inter-
free to prevent fraud, and show themselves (said the Ho-
nourable Gentleman) "as jealous of the British ration as
what our ancestors were 500 years ago." lie haul received
a letter on the subject. of those frauds, in which the writer had I
statue that he had been before aware that many of the prints
exported faded on the first washing. He had net been aware
that a great proportion of the clothes themselves were only fit
for wadding until he had read his ( Mr. Farrand's) speech, and
suggested that 'recourse be had to the old plan of stamping ma•
nufactured articles previous to exsortation. TI e writer then
went on to state, that needles had been exported without eyes ;
that until the Tower stamp had been restored, the muskets ex-
ported had only been dangerous to those who fired them ; and
that the axes were such that the American woodsmen could no
longer venture to use them. He concluded by reproaching the
Legislature with running the risk of ruining the honest and
industrious, in preference to adopting measures for restraining
a parcel of et amps. He had also brought before the notice of
the House the frauds committed in the use ot shoddy cloths.
Now he would read a letter he had received from a respectable
manufacturer of fifty years' standing, who resided in Yorkshire,
who observed, that he (Mr. Farrend) had not overstated what
had taken place in his part of the country. The use of
shoddy cloths had become so general, that his corrrespondent
stated his opinion to be, that unless the Government passed
some restrictions to the use of such commodities, the
woollen trade of the country would soon be put a stop to. lie
had seen woollen cloths stiffened with flour, the effect of which
was that it was constantly eaten by moths, and soon became
good for nothing. He was sure that restrict- ens to the use of
such materials might be made at a very small expense. An-
other letter that he had received stated that Vie writer knew a
manufacturer, who was in the habit of busing up ofd woollen
stockings, chopping diem up, and mixing them with the wool.
I‘ ow, if he wanted one proof better than another of this, lie
would refer to a document issued by Government itself. The
manufacturers had been making use of such materials that the
Government had been Wined to take up the question to pro-
tect themselves. 'They had' issued a circular, in which they
prohibited the use of such goods; and in that circular it was
stated that all cloth was to be made of new wool, and that if it
was not the Board would have nothing to do with it, or the
manufacture of it. The Board had nothing to do with them ;
they had deserted such infamous rascals, and well they might.
—(Laughter.) He (Mr. F.) thought the House would agree
with him that when he asserted the manufacturers of the coun-
try had been losing their character, he had substantiated his
asset tion. If there were any doubt upon the subject, either on
the part of the Government, or of any Member of the House, I
he thought he had produced sufficient evidence to • convince
them that a Select Committee should be granted. Had he not
convinced Hon. Members that it was time fur the Government
to step forward and put a atop, by legislative enactments, to
their practices? He was convinced, that if a
:poor man had
committed similar frauds he would be severely punished ; and
therepught not to be one law for the rich and another for the poor.
In the name of the poor man, and in the name of the honest ma-
nufacturers of this country, he called on the House to come Jar-
ward and interfere. He would next, with permission of the House,
allude to the truck system. That was a subject. of the greatest
importance to the manufactures of the country. The working
men were now literally perishing in thousands ; and he believed
their miseries had been mainly brought about by the cruel op-
' pression of their masters. Ho had reason to know that some
manufacturers not only paid their workmen in goods, but that.
the goods they gave were of a very inferior description. Those
manufacturers sometimes delayed the payment of their labour-
el s not only for weeks, as he had said, on a former occasion,
but for months, and sometimes for twelve months. He had
lately received a letter from a highly respectable gentleman,
who, in consequence of the part he had taken on the subject in
that House, had stated to him that he knew of a case in which
an application was made by a labourer of the name of Erwin
to the Board of Guardians of Cockermouth ; and it was stated
as a reason why relief should be afforded to the unfortunate in;
dividual, that in the firm for which he worked it took the t pe-
ratives six weeks, in consequence of the badness of the
materials which were used, to earn as• much as they
should have otherwise earned in three weeks.—( Hear.)
The inquiries of the Guardians confirmed the man's statement.
Such was the thraldom, however, in which these unfortunate
creatures were held, that the wife most earnestly intreated
that no steps might be taken under the Act of Parliament,
lest her husband and a crippled son should be thrown out ot
employment, as they could could do nothing but weave. The
same gentlemen stated with respect to the truck system, that
though the house in question had not adopted it, yet it was
adopted by a firm, one member of which had been in town as
en Anti-Corn•law Delegate. Now he had told the House
that these poor people had their wages paid partly-in goods.
He held in his hand a blank form, which was filled up by the
hook-keeper, and which every poor man had given
to him when he left the mill on Saturday night.
'I 'wee were the items deducted from his wages t—
ient, fuel, cash stopped, ditto overpaid—he should say that that
es as veiy seldom—tools, fines. Many of these manufacturers
bad posted up rules, which he had in his possession ; and he
fearlessly asserted that if these poor uneducated men, women,
oys, and girls, were to study from Monday morning till
Saturday night to avoid breaking the rules, it would be im-
possible that They should succeed, so stringent were they, and
so oppressive to the wen k• eople.—( Hear, hear.) By these
fices a large amount was deducted from their wages, to which
mist be added in many cases twenty, thirty, or forty per cent.
for the profit upon the manufacturer's goods. Now the po r
work-people we re robbed also by the system of trucking cot-
tages. He had this statement from a poor working
man, who had begged him not to give his name. It
appeared that the manufacturers kept a black book,
whieh was circulated through the country, and when
a man had once given offence, it wets impossible
for him to obtain work unless he applied for it under a feigned
name, and men in such circumstances were often compelled to
'steak stones on the road. This poor men stated that the
toasters had houses which they compelled their workpeople to
rent, and those who did not live in them themselves were
obliged to let them to others, in several instances rooms which
were hired at 2s. or 3s. a week were let by them for 4d. He
also stated that many of the manufacturers who kept cows com-