Star.
London, England, 1823-06-17 00:00:00

a century, is -times of unexampled distress and in-
creasing
difficulties, and even in the very jaws of
famine, had proved that principle could not be
shaken, and that loyalty could not be seduced.
When it was asked, with reference to such persons
as he now described, what were the objects of the
Bill against which they petitioned to be heard, it
would be discovered, .that this measure had not been

brought forward at a period when, owing to local
causes, the Silk Trade was in a state of depression,
but when it was prosperous beyond all precedent,
and the quantity of imported silk, and the amount of
duties, had increased to a great extent. Here, there-
fore, was no proof that the trade itself had been re-
tarded.by the operation of• the present Acts. This
lucrative branch of commerce, on the contrary, had
• •never advanced so rapidly as in the course of the
last twenty years. It was amongst the peculiarities
Of the present Bill, that its operation was limited to
within ten miles of the metropolis ; and this was a
peculiarity not easy to be accounted for, as the pro-
posed alteration went only to relieve the delicate
optics of particular persons, who vicinaged these
unseemly sights. It never could be asserted, in de-
fence of the Bill, that the repeal of certain Acts
would either be of advantage or benefit to the trade,
when both masters and manufacturers had prospered

under the operation of those Acts; and where men
worked for fourteen hours in the day, which was
labour more than enough for man, it never could be.
argued that it would be proper to,employers to re-
duce the wages of workmen, when already those
wages were not more than sufficient for the decent
support of human life. The only change within the
range of possibility for the better, through the ope-
ration of the proposed Bill, was to be presumed from
the extension of our foreign exports ; but these he
begged to remark, were both variable and uncertain,
and ought never to be preferred in comparison with I.
our home manufactures. With respect to the par-
ticular laws proposed to be now repealed, he had
always looked at the Spitalfields Acts, not merely
as forming a portion of, our domestic commercial
code, but also as partaking of the nature af a con-
servative police, and providing most admirably for
the casualties and the necessities of a peculiar class in
society. It was superfluous to observe to their Lord-
ships, that wherever a number of persons were en-
. gaged in manufactures, there must • entire combi-
nations of men, sometimes of masters, sometimes of
journeymen; on which occasions umpires were called
in to decide the disputed points. Thus, therefore, the
Spitalflelds Acts placed .he Magistrates in the situation
of umpires, and for upwards of fifty years, among
all the disputes that had at isen, the magisterial fiat
had proved satisfactot yto both sides. lie was there-
fore not ft iendly to the total repeal of those Acts; but
but there were certainly some clauses which ought
either to be repealed, or amended, so as to accom-
plish that species of compromise to which neither the
m asters nor the journey men could object. lie thought,
. for instance, that although so much of the Acts
might be retained as should affect the metropolis and
its environs, the masters ought to be at liberty to eat •
ploy their capital at from forty to fifty miles distance
from town. Time was also wished for the masters,
in respect to the bringing forward of informations
for penalties; And lane, respecting the journeymen,
from the communications made to him, he !Ltd no
fear that the journeymen could wish to prevent the
masters froth employing their capital out of London,
or that, again, they would object to allow to the
masters the space of three months for bi urging infor-
mations at law. What he understood the journeymen
most wished and struggled for was, to preserve to
them..elves that equitable appeal, which they had so
long enjoyed and which was so wisely administered,
to the Magistrate for the regulation of wages. He
harboured no idea that attempts would hereafter be
made to establish some Manchester or Somersetshire
silk manufactory ; and, having now stated what oc-
curred to him upon the subject, it remained to pre-
sent the Petition, with the mention of which he had
prefaced these remat ks ; and also a similar Petition
from Bethnal-g leen.
......

Lord KENYON presented a Petition from the Silk
Weavers of Mile-End New Town, against the Bill.

TIM NEW MARRIAOR LAW.

On the further consideration of the Report on the
Marriage Act,
• The Earl of WESTMORELAND opposed the
new (la ise of forfeiture introduced by the Noble and
Lean ed Lord on the Woolsack; not that he objected
to the principle of the clause, than which nothing
could be more just, but that the operation of it would
be injurious, as the clause was at present worded.
The LORD CHANCELLOR said, that if the
Noble Earl referred to - the clause (p.. 5) respecting
licenses, he would perceive how much the severity
-of former laws was modified by the present Bill. He
would propose, in addition, that no information
should be filed except within one year alter the mar-
riages of minors; and also that the patties so filing
an information must make an affidavit that they had
not at the time been apprized of such marrial4e or
marriages mote than three months. With respect to
marriage by license, the Bill would operate as one
of mitigation; and the same obtained with respect
to marriages by banns : but where, in either case, the
marriages of minors were proved to have been so-
lemnized by the connivance of parents or guardians,
such marriages were exempt from the voidability
clause altogether.
The Earl of WESTMORELAND wished to have
the clauses so proposed by the Noble and Learned
Lord printed, that they might be seen altogether.
Lord ELLEN BOROUGH was of the same opinion
as the Noble Earl.

Clauses in addition were then ordered to be printed,
and to be taken into consideration to-inorroa..—Ad-
journed at seven o'clock.