Star.
London, England, 1812-05-30 00:00:00

•
AMBRiCAN QULsTION:
This day was pubiahed, pr,ce Is ed. No. sewn,
A LEI: l'Elt fiom a CALM 013 SERVER to a
Ni)::t.F 1.0 1), on the. SUBJEC I. of the late DECLA-
RATION, Isla ive to the ORDERS in COUNCIL.
sold by J. M. litiehar.kon.Qpposita the Royal Exchange; Gala
and Qtnari, rnttst.r,row ; and all other Bookseller'.
Watery also may be bad, price Si rid.
•
A ttERIP.4 OF LE rIERS FROM A COSMOPOLITE TO
A CI EWGYMANi cortalning a temperate Inquiry into the
babjee o. eli•pute: 'mew. en Garar DetrAlN and AMERICA;
With rein .rks o.i 4111..frontous opinion entertained in this coup•
try, re.4-nr- 0.; paittility of Auk:AKA towards Faanca; la.
authe,.te doormats to prove the e ottrary.

B.ROC.EEDINGS.

ORDERS IN COUNCIL - •
The Examination of Manufacturers, before the
Fitnelflt:iongf tilima"noaubse„afracCt OrthenKmmshosatimbeaetenlirainl we'll
~deuce givea on the occasion :
0
SPIT ALFIELDS.
Mr. John Honeywell; has been in silk manufacture in
SpitalfielOs ev' r since 17'97. Spitalfields parish con-
tains; at) ut 5. KM looms; and in the other parts of
contiguous parishes, there are about 12 t r 15,000
looms. For the last twelve months, one half of the
wear- rs in' Spitaltelds parish out of employ ; lower
orders in d. pls,rahle srate, almost all out of employ;
receive parochial relict; their numbers much in-
creased. At last census 16,000 inhabitants, and
2(K$) poor; considerable private charity. Soup.kit-
cben gives S or 4000 quarts of soup per diem; dis-
tress much greater than in 1800 and 1801; quakers
--take the clef part in carrying on the soup-kitchen ;
light saes the only ones cheap enough for American
anerliet. In heavy silks the French undersell us,
A getting raw materials cheaper. If market were
. open, should have lip( rtuniry to send considerable
-quantities to America, 'Turned off many hands
during last ten months. Distress greater within
three or four months. He employed in 1807, 130
• looms, v hich have gradually fallen-off to less than 90
;row. Knows no otter cause bur the . stoppage of
.A tnerican market. Sik or 7080 weavers in his parish ;
. but the labourers generally distressed for want of
Mork : legh price of provisions may be one cause.—
Near 480 poor in workhouse in the year 1810.11,
• and nearly as many out-door paupers: some persons
died for want, from not being relieved in time. De
' clines givieg. any political opinions. The French
• have trot attained the way 'of making 44t air. If
p' it; vete epee, and the French did oblige America
to take oli.s, let a great proportion of ours would
find-a market. Norte of our silks so cheap as French,
If of the ,came quality. Some of ours go to the West
belies, some ro Russia and PortugAl t knows of none
going to South America. Silk coming lately from
the Continent has been mostly thrown silk: one cause
of distress. Bow silk particularly dear during last
six months. Before the Orders in Council the Ame-
rican orders came twice a-year. American trade did
not ontpl ,y quite one half of the weavers. Distress
• portly ham dearness—horn want of provisions, but
.: chiefly from want of-work•.
Pr, If Hale, has been in the silk line above 20
yea-rs, and is Parish Treasurer. . In 1800.1, a con.
ariderable sum was voted by Parliament for relief :
but,at that period most were in full employ. From
' • 20 to 30,000 men, women, and children,are employed
. in silk line iq and about Spitalfields ; from the num-
: bee of workmen and labourers of all sorts there, they
are always subject to parochial distress. Thinks not
• above one-third of weavers In full employ. Fashion
last winter of ladies wearing broad-cloth greatly dis-
. • sppLifited them, and velvets and silks remained on
' hand. Large importations of raw silks lately from
• ,Bengal, Articles in which we succeeded against
. the French were gauzes, crapes, Persians, slight
- Barcelorias, &c.; now not made at all. Export trade
. to America has declined for 14 years. Soup Society
the means of preserving many hundred* of children
▪ Prof lower 'orders fri in dying of want. Bengal impor.
tat!ons have not been sufficient : generally not so,
77 good as the Italian. In 179$ thinks as many were
• out of work as now, and 40,000 were collected fur
them; but then, the'qoartern loaf was-only 7d. arid
potatoes very low. Trade very good in 1807: very
bad indeed last Christmas. Many distressed who
• used to supply the weavers, such as slop-sellers, shoe-
makers, dine. Many Jews, &c. have bought goods
' on band at low prices, and sold them so, and deluged
•
the country shops with them at 30 or 40 per cent.
under market price. Five thousand bales of silk im.
. Orted last week from Bengal.
Mr. George Sieveneon, has been in silk trade 15
years. When trade was good, employed near 260
weavers in London, now about 100 ; and at Read-
, log 120, now from 90 to 100. Turned off his hands
in 1811, and this year, from loss, of the market.--
Understands French silks have been lately smuggled
over ; but has seen none in the market. His Ame-
• rican trade was only an eighth or tenth of his whole
trade, of which the returns were £50,000 a-year:
but the American articles being the low sort, em-
ployed
a great number of hands. Home market
also considerably diminished. Cannot tell the cause
exactly. A general falling off of the trade. Ma-
nufactory for pelisses, &c. considerable about three
springs ago. Export articles are made by boys, girls,
and women : gauze he made at Reading. Had con-
siderable orders in December, 1810, from America,
which are still on hand. Generally used 'to sell fancy
stock twice a-year to the shippers : that sale has
failed, The greater part of his men discharged were
employed for home consumption: but a considerable
part of what was manufactured for home consump-
tion in the first instance, used to go to America.—
Articles for America employ a greater number of
, hands in proportion to value than other articles.--
Fancy goods failing London market, used to be sold
for America at reduced prices ; such goods as he
made originally for London ; dismissed the London
bands first; as, if be had dismissed those at Reading,
lie could not have got them again. Conceives, that
besides stopping of the American trade, there has
been a general falling off.
. rveratecliEsToo.
lefr. Tins* Wiggle, of Manchester, has been a
general exporter in the American trade of the princi,
pal articles for iS years, and to the amount, in 1810,
of iCIOO,OOO, but were smaller.in 1809, and smaller
still in 1808, and think; not era large in 1807 as in 1810.
In Jan. 1811, shipped nearly to i1:70,000. Since then,
nothing to the United States. Considerable ameunt
nt lrnillarie rhint. ...• is .••• A - a .... .•••••.. •

to makeup from 200 to 500. fkods on hand for Arne:
ican market to amount of 450,000, and no means of
sending them out. Nankeens almost totally omitted
in orders last tw• years ; and a smeller guantlty of
cotton shining, and camhric muslin, they being mann-
' faciared in America. Since Amt rican trade fell off,
money went farther in home-market purchases. Don't
recollect exchange ever at a greater discount than 10
per cent. against this country, or in favour of it, till
the commencement of 1811: very seldom so high one
way or the other. The rise above par was during the
embargo. Before the last five yea; sit seldom varied
more than 5 per cent. Ordinary course, so near par,
that he generally took that as a standard. At the
beginning of 1810 it was very near par, and gra-
dually declined—at end of 1810 it got to and
thence to 10 below par. In March, 1811, it was 11,
and gradually varied to 20; at close of 1811 it re-
covered a little ; and his remittances were at 15 to
17 per cent. till April, 1812—since then the discount
has increased to 20 and 211 against England. Chiefly
receives payment in bills of exchange on London or
Liverpool. Within two or three years has exported
at the rate of 20 to £BO,OOO to Quebec and Montreal.
increased his shipments there since 1809, but in 1811
and up to this time, the market there has been glut-
ted in many branches. The heaviest parts of ship-
ments there have been sacrificed at auctions. French
manufactures were plenty, and selling low in the
United States, in January and February, 1812. Ad-
ditional cost to consumer in France within the last
two or three years, in consequence or freight and in-
surance, he calculates to be a penny per pound of
Havannah sugar, and something less on a pound of
bowed Georgia cotton; on ashes 4s. 6d. per cwt.—
Price of exchange with America has depended some-
times on amount cf American money ire London,
and remitted from the Continent. At the Embargo
stoppage of shipments diminished the deposits in
London. Understands sarsnet to be one article in
which The French undersell us. Insurance from Bos-
ton to Liverpool is 3 to 34- per cent. but to Bour-
deaux 20 to 25 per cent. In April his calculation of
insurance from Boston to Bourdeaux and back again
was 40 to 50 per cent. Nankeens chiefly made in
the United States, at Providence, Rhode Island ; a
different sort of nankeen from the Indian ; the latter
is preferred by a genteel person, the labourers wear
the British manufacture. Understands hats sre made
at Boston,
,so as almost to exclude our importation.
Sugar refineries are also established there—price of
sugars has been so low here, that w ithin three or
four years refined sugar has been sent to Boston, not-
withstanding American protecting duty. Glass-
houses, are established near Boston, and a manufac-
tory of sail-cloth and duck. Supposes American
manufactures of certain kind% will increase, particu-
larly in farm houses ; and that if American produce
become lower than before, they will supply their
wants. In New England, coarser clothing in a great
degree made at home. The greater duties on goods by
British than by American bottoms one cause of the
trade being mostly carried en in American sh;ps—
but are also faster sailers, and carry the goods drier,
&c. which gives them a preference. Insurance to
France he understands to include all the risk on the
cargo; and the tisk in port only arises from any dis-
position of the French Government to seize the goods.
Bowed Georgia cotton, a little time back, could be
bought in America at sd. per pound, and delivered
at Bourdeaux (reckoning the sea-risk at one penny,
and two-pence to three-pence for freight), at about
9J. per pound, not reckoning any French duties.—
The same has been lately sold at Liverpool at from
1-Id. to 16d. By last accounts, British manufactures
in America sold rather dear, and the French cheap,
they being of a different description. The cotton dc-
livered at Bourdeaux at 9d. would be bought here at
7d. a pound, reckoning a freight of lid. and pre-
mium of insurance, &c. at 5 per cent. and no duty.
Employm nt of American shipping is certainly in a
gnat degree owing to way in which duties are taken.
fen per cent. is added to value of British goods, and
duty estimated on that. Thinks it not possible to
substitute French for British manufactures in Ame-
rica. His exports fell off in 1808, and ceased on-the
Ist of February, 1811. In 1810, there was a Groin--
able trade. British goods remain unsold, though
there has been.no export since February, 1811. The
American goods interfere with the sales—the open-
, ing of trade would not much- promote imports of
1 that Lind ; such as broad cloths at 10s. to 18s. a
yard. Has attributed cheapness of French manufac-
tures ,n America to the regulation for exporting net
amount of cargoes imported, in French produce and
goods, which did not find a consumption ; but
doubted whether American merchants could find
market for such a surplus. If risk of capture taken
off by repeal of Orders in Council, French goods
.would go cheaper by the amount of the insurance ;
the same as to England if America complied with
French port regulations. Our goods would not come
into competition with the French even then—they
being of a different description, and could not be
subst►tuted, but from necessity. Fine cloths have
gone to America from France, but never heard of
any cotton goods. Thinks whatever difference of
price may arise, that France could furnish America
only with fine cloths of woollen or cotton, what good
cloths the French manufacture for exportation have
been generally too much above ours in price. Appre-
hends France cannot compete with us in woollens of
a low description. Great proportion of carrying trade
between us and America is in hands of American
ship-owners. Repeats, that American ships are pre-
ferable as being better sailers, though our's may be
stronger and more durable.
Mr. John Richmond Jajfray, of London, is in the
American trade, and has shipped goods to the United
States, and a small quantity to Canada and British
North America. Was in North America recently,
and in Canada in September, October, and Novem-
ber last, where there was a great deal of English
goods—as also in New Brunswick. At the two last
places he was unable to sell his goods without great
loss. Driush goods in general were selling there at i
a loss of 10, and up to 50 per cent. below prime cost
and charges. Believes one half of the goods were sent
with a view to get them into the United States, which
the precautions of the United States prevented. Has
imported nothing to the United States since the Non-
Importation Law took effect in beginning of 1811.—
Would resume shipments on repeal of Orders in Coun-
cil. He would certainly then make a very large ship-1
ment. Has considerable orders conditional op that