Star.
London, England, 1819-12-20 00:00:00

PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS.

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Earl Spencer •

darlemont
Marq. of pownskire
Earl Suffolk
Lord Crewe
Dundits

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HOUSE OF LORDS, DECEMBER is.

The Royal Assent was given by Comntission to the Sciaurepf
Arms Bill and the Malt Duty DLL The Commissiouers•ifere
the LORD CNIANCLI.LOR and Lords Sn.ulssacav and assaults,.
Hovsk OF cOmmoNs.::::::-:-:-:-:
The House met at Late d'eFock, and was summoned by the
Us!ler of the illicit liocf to the Upper House, to hear the lipy.o
Assent given to certain &Ls. _Oktlseilithlis.-61 the Sene4ta. svan
a.:journment took place.
. •
LIST OF THE CONTENTS • • .
Wt. LORD CARNARTON'S MOTION TO LIMIT 701 nutueuni or V2ll JUNI:
TO PREVENT RED/TIOUS MEETINGS, TO TWO TIMM. •
reESZNT. •
Duke of Somerset Earl Lauderdale Lord King.
Grafton (;r6svenor• Holland •
Bedford Carnarvon • Say and Stk.
Marq. of Lansdown D-arnley • Auckland
Earl F,asex .Donoughmore Caitborpe
Thanet Blessington Erskine
Cowper Rossiya
PROXIES.
Lord Sondes
Hutchinson
• IlaWke
Bolingbroke
Duncan
Earl Grey

Earl Fitawllliani
Duke of Roxburgh
Argyle

Lord Montfort
Earl Jersey
*into

PROTEST
AGAINST GOING INTO A COMMITTEE ON THE BILL
'FOE THE itIODE EFFECTUALLY- PREVENT/NO :SEDI-
TIOUS MEETINGS AND ASSEMBLIES.
Because this Bill, as wenn the other measures extending the
severity of our Penal Code, have been avowedly adopted.under
a belief that there at present exists, amongst the Manufaeturers
of this Country, a very extended combination, engaged in a plot
for the destruction of our Constitution, and the overthrow of all
serial order ; •
• Whilst to me it appears, that no evidence of such a plot has
been given—that if an inquiry into the state of the Country had
twen*inctituted, it would have been shewn that no such plot
eiisted—andlhat the alarming symptoms of disaffection to the
Constituted Authorities of the Country, whictf have been lo-
eally displayed, arise from the arts and the evil designs of a
few, operating upon an extra population*reduced into b state of
riiiery from want of employment, and, consequently, of clothing
and of food. ,
nat this is the 'real state of the evil under which we now
labour cannot be doubted by any man who reflects on the certain
consequences of the policy which this Country has for years put.
sued—vbe possesses a knowledge of the real state of manufac-
turing labour—or who gives credit to the scanty inforniatien
which 2,lini,ters have thought fit to lay before Parliament.
ThA the- revenue and expenditure of all countries must be
equivalent, if left to the natural course of things, is a proposition
so generally admitted as-to require no illustration.
. But in this Country it appears, that betwixt the end of the
yeary/94 and the beginniag of the year 1819, thereswas added
to our Debt the sum of £899,557,144, whfch, on the supposition
that Government borrowing in three, four, and five per cents.'
received in cash ,X 7.5 for each .Ct 00 of capital added to the Debt,
proves that during that space of time re 874,652,858 was raised
out of the, capital of the Country, and expended by Government,
making, on an average, during these twenty-four years, an expeoe
diture of X 28,110,555 per annum.
This extra expenditure, beyond what the revenue naturally
afforded, must therefore have created a formidable increase in
the demand for labour ; a rise in the value of labour must have
ensued ; and it is not in the nature of things that this extended.
demand, continuing for twenty-four years, must not have in-
creased the population, so as to adjust the supply of labour to
the demand for it.
But this is not all; every nation in Europe has been more or
less engaged in similar practices; and in the state of our manu-
factures, it is impossible that an extra expenditure on the part of
any European nation must not have mated an extra demand for
labour in this Country.
In this situation of things, It appears to me obvious, that a
general-cessation from this practice must, by suddenly diminish-
ing the demand for labour, leave this manufacturing Counts y in
a state in which the supply of labour must be lamentably great
in proportion to the demand for it, and, consequently, that &great
fall ha the wages of labour must naturally ensue.
,Such a fall in the wages of labour cannot, however, take place
without greatly adding to the evil; the man who from his la-
bour can acquire three or four shillings a day, ie, as experience
teaches us, generally led, from a desire of indulgence, to work
only four days in a week; whilst the man who, with the utmost
exertion of six days',,jabour, can only obtain seven or eight shit:
ling.?. week, is driven, by a desire to secure to himself and his
family a scanty subsistence, to renounce all relaxation, and even
to add to the.hours usually devoted to labour. •
It follows, then, that those who are employed must, by their
exertions, execute a greater quantity of labour—and by that
means greatly increase the numbers thrown out of employment.
That this is no fanciful theory, but, on the contrary, a true de-
tail of the origin and of the nature of the evil under Which the
manufacturing. districts are now suffering, is known to every man
who has access tmaccurate information upon the subject ; and it
appears to me to lie fully confirmed by the scanty information
which his Majesty's Government have laid on the table of this
House.
BY the BlanChester 3Tagistrites vie are informed, " that the
Secretary of State was fully apprized of the deep distresses of the
matsufacturing dosses of that extensive ppulation," and " that
the disaffected and ill-disposed lost no opportunity of instilling
the*worsrprincipks into the unhappy sufferers, attributing their
calartitties, not to any event which cannot be coral-fouled, but to
the-geniral measures of G.overnmentend Parliament ;" and they
odd, " that when people are oppressed with hunger, they do not
wonder at their giving ear to any doctrines which they are told
will redress their grievances."
In Yorkshire, too, we are informed •by the Lord Lieutenant
of that County, " that the Mayor of Leeds believed that the
mass of the population, within his jerisliction was by no means
disaffected or seditiously disposed, but theft wee. stfferirsg men
crud plirations,through want of employnsent. ' Lord-Fitzwilliam
also states, as the general opinion of Ilie''Ciaunty of York, a that
the real grievanceof the People was want of employment."
Again, " the acerbation of temper amongst the weavers at
Westleigh is stet/ to be produced 'by severe privations from the
linness of wages; and those Who knOw the real situation of
Glasgow and Pideley can have no hesitation in Alerting that the
manufacturers at present exhibit a scene of wretchedness unpa-
ralleled in the history of any, civilized country. • •
Secoridly, Because, if this is a correct View of the chums of
the present discontent and disturbed state of the manufacttaring '
districte—and if it be true, as Lord Ilicied has long ago wisely
observed;" that so many overthrown estates, so many votes fot
troubles,"—" that poverty is the matter of sedition'--andN that
the first remedy or prevention is to remove,' by all means poi-
sible, the material cause of sedition, whichls want and poverty;
it appears to me that this Bill, and the °thee measures which
bave been adopted, can of themselves effect no good, unaccom-
panied by measures for the relief of those whom our policy has
reduced to a state of want.
I have no hesitation in admitting, that neither the Political
institutions of this nor of any other country were ever framed to
govern a people so nearly deprived of food, and that in this
unparalleled state of distress, local and temporary alteration of
cur Imes May be necessary, riot only to suppress the evil effects
whieh may arise from the sufferings of the PeoPle, but to curb
the mischievous intentions of those who, from views of interest
or atiMition, may attempt to mislead them.
There is, therefore, no local and tempdrary regulation calcu-
lated to give vigour to the exertions of our niiliiary force in re-
pressing the mischiefs which we have but too good reason to
expect, to which, if coupled with wise attempts to remove the
reseet cause of discontent, I would nut feel it my duty to give
my support. ' • •
. But I must mord measures of severity, unaccompanied with
any effect for removing the causes of the evil, or even with any
expression of sympathy for the sufferings of those 'whom we
have reduced to penury, as likely to lead to a feeling of despair,
which cat only add to the dangers so justly to be dreaded.
For to me it apeeats, that by prokilifsing Public• Meetings we
may generate secret and private cabals; that by preventing
vague threats to divide property, and to have recourse to force,
we Xey give rise to a acerie of pilferiug, thieving, and perhaps
of private.assas#netton ; that by suppressing the open and public
eipteision or all those wart-areal...us toivihich distfess and despair
s:.tturally give rise in the minds of men trained tinder *Tree Go-
v.:nu-acute we may debase the spirit and corrupt the morals of

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