The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-08 00:00:00

the subject, he (Sir R thought it inex-
haustible. Whilst on it that time the
Right lion. Gentleman t. subject of equal
importance, relative to the ,sub stamps by the
Bank of England and other Banks. They sat
two sessions on the subject, making altogether
nine !sessions. On these grounds he (Sir Robert
Peel) thought a new inquiry was unnecessary.
Should they, then, appoint a Committee of
Inquiry ? He found that no less than eight Mem-
bers of the Committee who were in the last Parlia-
ment were not in Parliament now, and of these eight
several were amongst the most regular attendants at the
Committee, in addition to this the subj ects brought under
the consideration of that Committee were of such im-
portance, that he thought they were matters with
which the Executive Government, rather than a Com-
mittee, ought to deal. This was purely a matter
for the consideration of the Executive Government,
and as soon as it was possible it should be considered,
and the determination of her Majesty's Government
should be laid before the House.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. CHARLES WOOD said he entirely concurred
in what had fallen from the Right Hon. Gentleman.
He had asked the question merely because he wished
to know what was to be done, and that the answer
might go forth.
THE TRUCK SYSTEM.
Mr. FERRAND said he had been charged with
having made assertions which were not correct, and
with having charged Hon. Members with making use
of , expressions which he never did use. But in
s.`.- standing forward in the House, having been deputed
by the working classes—(Cries of " Oh, oh")—of the
islorth of England, he trusted he should be acting
strictly in accordance with the rules and regulations
of that House if he took up a little of their time in de-
fending himself. With respect to Friday evening last he
had looked at what. he had previously said in that
House, and he found he never used the word " all "
at all=that he never did charge the Hon. Member for
Stockport with abominable cruelty to his work people;
but that he found, was another lapsus lingua of the Hon.
Member for Salford, like those he uttered the other
night with regard to his print works. The Hon.
Member said he employed twenty persons in his
print works by night during the last eighteen
months, and perhaps that Honourable Member
would he obliged to him (Mr. F.) for giving him an
opportunity to explain the great distinction which
existed between what he asserted that evening and
what he found stated by Mr. L. Horner, in the pam-
phlet which he published. Air. L .11orner was an inspector
of factories, and he says that no person could print
works without being assisted by others. The process
was carried on by a boy, who stood by a pot of colours,
and who transferred the colours from the pot
to the cloth by means of a brush for
the purpose of smoothing the surface ; that was called
" colouring," and the person so employed is called
the clear boy. The person so employed must per-
form his work standing, and the air must be
rather humid. He would ask the Honourable
Gentleman whether, during those eighteen months
persons were not so employed morning and evening,
to assist the men in the print works, and whether
what the Hon. Gentleman stated the other evening
was correct, and what Mr. Horner stated was incor-
rect? The Honourable Member for Wolverhampton
read, the other night a declaration signed by
seventy-two cotton spinners, and he (Mr. Ferrand)
had received a copy of the declaration, together with
extracts froni the speech made by him the previous
evening in the House. Those cotton's" spinners
say : " We, the undersigned Manufacturers
and others engaged in and connected with the Cotton
Trade, being subscribers to the Corn-law League,
have read with disgust the enclosed extracts from
Mr. Ferrand's speech in the House of Commons."—
(Cries of " Order, order.")
The SPEAKER said, that the Hon. Member was
out of order in reading statements made by persons out
of the House, in allusion to what had been said in it.
Mr. FERRAND—These cotton spinners stated
that they kept no truck-shops, and that they
did not pay their workmen in any other way than
in the current coin of the realm. But he would
ask the Honourable Gentlemen opposite, if these
cotton spinners did not compel the workmen to take
cottages from them, and whether they did not draw
their cotton with paste ?—(Oh, oh.) He asked them
would they deny what he asserted of their chalies being
composed of old rags and devil's dust ?—(Laughter.)
They asserted that they kept no truck-shops, and
that they did not pay their working people in any
other way than in the current coin of the realm.
—(Hear.) Now he had never charged them
with doing so ; he had never charged them
with keeping truck-shops ; he had never charged
them with paying their workmen otherwise
than in the current coin 9f the realm. But he had
said that they evaded the law by their relations keep-
ing truck-shops, by paying their workmen in the cur-
rent coin of the realm, and then by stopping them
on their way home. 'Eveti silviiosing these 72 cotton-
spinners, declared by the itight Hon. Member for
Wolverhampton to be the principal subscribers to
the League—supposing there were 72 just men
among the Members of the Anti-Corn-law League,
could it be said that these 72 men composed the whole
of that League ? lie thought they had boasted that
the ramifications of their body extended to every part
of the country—that it was a National League—that
the manufacturers in Yorkshire, and all over Eng-
land, Scotland, Ireland, and -Wales had joined
them. If that were the case, how happened it that
after eight days those members of the League had
only denied by a quibble what he had asserted ?
He turned over, and he found a circular sent to the
_Members of the League from the " Anti-Corn-law
Teague at Manchester." That circular was as fol-
lows :—" You will oblige by affixing your name
to the declaration, and returning it at the earliest
possible opportunity." In that address which the Hon.
..alember for Wolverhampton had read to the House
on Friday night there was not one Yorkshire manu-
facturer whose name was attached to it. There was not
.the name of any manufacturer attached to it
who did not reside—at least he believed not one—
either in the town of Manchester, or in some other
large manufacturing towns, -where they could not, and
durst not, carry on the truck system, for this very
reason, that the shop-keepers in a mass would rise up
against them, and would not allow such a system to
be carried on. It was in secret—it was in dark cor-
ners, that the poor working men were plundered—it
was where there were no shop-keepers to rise
up and denounce the system as he had done in that
House.—(Hear, hear, and laughter.) No interup-
tion would put him down. He was speaking the
truth ; and if what he asserted were false, let
Hon. Members prove it to be so. But if he did
speak • the truth, in the name of the working-classes
of England he called on the Hon. Member for Wol-
verhampton to deny it, instead of devising with
the Honourable Member for Oldham, as he
bad done, when he ( Mr. Ferrand) had
made his second speech upon the subject. the Hon.
Member for Wolverhampton went and told the Hon.
Member for Oldham, that the assertions made ought
to be proved ; but the Honourable Member for
Oldham told him upon that occasion, that "he had
better leave the matter where it was, for he
would himself undertake to prove what Mr. Ferrand
had said, and ten times worse."—(Hear, hear, and
laughter.) In the name of the working classes of
England he called upon the Hon. Member to move
for a Select Committee before which he (Mr. F.)
would prove everything that he had asserted.
He wished the House would allow him to read a
letter from a poor man, one of the working classes,
who, according to the Hon. Gentleman opposite, were
.all in favour of a repeal of the Corn-laws ; and he •
thought he could prove the charges he had
brought, or drive Honourable Gentlemen to the
-worse resort, of seeking a Select Committee. Now
this was from a poor working man, and he
trusted that those who came to the House pro-
fessing to be the champion of the poor would
listen to his statement. The writer said "It
is with the greatest pleasure I read your speech of
lust Thursday. It was one of the sort that has long
been wanted. But, Sir, though it appears to have struck
such a panic amongst them as they (the Anti-Corn-law
League) little expected, you did not positively more
than half do it. I wish some one on the Con-
,servative side of the House would move for a
committee to inquire. I feel confident it would
strike such an awe over them as that they would not
own be guilty of such practices. On Monday evening,
the 21st last, a meeting of the Anti-Corn-law League
• was Nld in the Temperance Hall, when —' he
-would give the name if required—" was called to the
ichair. Now, Sir, this is a spinning master,
and keeps -• a large mill in Brown-street.
He lives about a mile out of town, in a splendid
xnansion on the road." The letter then went on to
state that this individual kept about twenty
co,-vs ; that he compelled his work-people to
have about a quart of milk a day, whether they
could drink it or not ; that most of the spinning
:masters 'compelled their people to rent cottages of
them for which they paid exhorbitant wages. It then
continued :—"Now, I will tell you another ras-
cally trick"—this -is a poor labouring man-
-" he makes a practice of running his mill
purn Monday till Saturday, and because s
i Satur-
y, a short day, in which we work only
da
nine hours, he only pays the hands for five and
uai tv. days. I wish you would only give him
ati-half
'in the House of Commons on this point.
would stop him, and it would
I think it
on hundreds of poor helpless factory
confer a blessingT , because too many of us, owing
people, helpless, say _
to the coupling of wheels
Mr. WILLS would 13e glad to know the name.
would give it to the Hon. Gen-
tleman if r FEwhßßen be sex he wished, he would
sat do 101
lolly Min out of the House. Name ! Let him
tell the Hon. Gentleman that the poor working-men
bad suffered so much when they had tried to expose
44%4 cruelties, that if a Committee of Inquiry were

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