Star.
London, England, 1819-08-12 00:00:00

STATE OF THE COUNTRY.

new legislative enactment. Only regulate,' say
they, the prices of wages, and the district will be
kept perfectly quiet f the poor rates will be kept
down, and you need no longer have recourse to the
parish to make up any deficiency in the earnings of
your labourers.' Such, in effect,, is the obvious ten-
dency of Mr. Hale's letter in the STA a of Friday last,
and it is only with a view to qualify some of his
statements relative to the :opposed beneficial ten-
dency of the Spitalfields Acts, that I have to request
your attention ; the general policy of such Acts hav-1
ing already been disposed of by yourself in a very
masterly manner.
" Ist. The tendency of these Acts is to augment the price of
labour, and consequently to diminish consumption. This posi.
tion is denied by Mr. lisle. In his evidence before the House
of Commons, he says, that a penny or twopence per yard extra
on the price of labour, will not occasion one piece of goods more
or less to be made or sold ; and in the letter above referred to
he remarks, that it is ' vain to talk about the depressed stat
of trade not affording better prices or labour.' How far this
general denial of the value of pence in the price of labour w
apply to the manufacturing of many low articles of the produce
of Manchester, I leave to your readers to decide.
" 2d. The Spitallields Acts oblige the master to pay the same
priec for an indifferent dr bad pieceots for a good one. He has
I no remedy but to turn off the hand when the piece is mark ;
and the obvious tendency of such Acts for the remuneration of
' labour, must be to blunt emulation, and deaden every motive to
exertion. The child who is just able to throw the shuttle is paid
the same as the most experienced weaver.
" 3d. These Acts compel the master to dismiss his work-
people the moment that he Inds the demand slacken.
" A temporary and trifling reduction in the price
of wages would, in all ordinary cases, be a sufficient
guarantee to the manufacturer to keep his looms in
action till the demand should come round again.—
During the great period of distress in Spitalfields, in
1817, numerous instances occurred of weavers who
world gladly have worked at a reduced rate of wages,
.rather than remain destitute of work altogether ; but
the manufacturer dared not to employ them on those
conditions, he being subject to a penalty of £5O for
every instance in which he was found so offending.
" 4th. These Acts occasion continual disputes between the
masters and the men.
" This is strange, you will say—the prices ate set-
tled, and the Magistrates have confirmed them, and
there cannot be any possibility of disputa. It is, how-

At the Annual Meeting, last week, of the Work-
ington Agricultural Society, Mr. CURWEN, M.P. the
President, made a long and eloquent Address to the
Society, on the state of the Country, and the means
of relieving the distress under which it labours.
" The people of England," said the Honourable
Gentleman, " are enlightened and generous—they
may for a season be misled, hut they have that solid
good sense, that they will not long continue in error.
It is impossible to contemplate the utfferings and pri-
vations of a great proportion of the labouring classes
without the deepest commiseration. Greatly did he
regret the measures they had resorted to for alle-
viating their distresses—metwircs calculated to aug-
ment and not to lessen the evils under which they
laboured. Whilst he condemned them, he could not
but pity and compassionate tack sufferings.
.4 It was unavailing to look back—men of all
sides—Whig and Tory, were at that moment honestly
zealous to find a remedy for the evils under which
the country suffered, The difficulty was great, and
they must submit to great and heavy privations.
4, During the war we manufactured for Europe;
now we are reduced to a share, and he would ask,
could any one wi,ll the prosperity even of his native
land to be founded on the misery of other countries?
Could we ask that Europe should have its popula-
tion idle and unemployed in order to give us a mo-
nopoly of trade?
" It t ehoved us to husband our own resources—.
to endeavour to improve every internal means of
wealth. Here he hoped that we had great resources
and that much might be dyne.
" Labour was a source of riches infinitely beyond.
all others. It had been six times more in amount

than the whole of the real property cf the Empire. ever, not mere strange than true; and I appeal to
The demands of labour could only be supplied by its any silk manufacturer to bear me out in my as,er-
being made productive. The whole incCme of the ;i°ll' Many of the branches are so complex in them-
country would no feed the workir.g classes for three selves, arid so ill described in the price-book; added
to which, marry new works have bean discovete,i
months. No mere expedient could remedy the evil, since the last prices were settled, and could not of
To employ the people, they must be profitably em- course os provided for, that differences of opinion as
played. . to the proper scale of remuneration ire. perpetually
" Cheap bread and want of work war, ten thou- arising between the masters and thstnen. eussal
sand times more grievous than dear bread and em- course is, on giving out the wo4, to enter into an
arrangement with the weaver as to the price to be
Rloyinent." paid. In most cases he is perfectly satisfied with whai
" The Corn Bill, which had-been Zb industriously he is to receive, and would remain so, but for the
cried down, had proved no security to the farmer.— busy interference of a Committee formed amongst
It was nut what it purposed to be. Had the average wiseourneyrne for thffprotection of the trade ; these
men are sure to dud out that the work is under-
been fairly taken the ports had not been open to a paid, and threaten the weaver, although be may be
great portion of the grain which had inundate., the perfectly content, with punishment, it he does not
country. Ile thought t Os. would be a sufficient pro- demand a higher price ; and thus is laid the founda-
tection if the average were fairly taken. Now be tion.
sothf.pserntfillx;nckering
'en e of thee' Aey, has lost
would meet the question honestly, and admit at once many very important branches of its trade which hathei
their ori-
that this would enhance the price of bread. Suppose gin in that district, as crape, gauzes, silk handkerchiefs and bom-
bazeens all of which have been removed to Coneleron, i‘laccles-
it effected an advance of 6s. a quarter before the field, Leek, Taunton, Reading, and otherplaces;a:4l would have
ports could open--how would that affect the interests been
lostifiorieysehr tkoledthe country, if the wages at these places had 1
a litg labourer ? Suppose a family of five persons, ~6th. BryYs
thesti Acts Spitalfi4ds has been totally deprived of
ecmsyming each a stone of flour in a week—the ad- the use of mac! inery ! Will it be leiev.:(l at this age of the
. . t. orld, and in this day of improvement, that the sibs trade of
vance would be two-pence trnd A fraction in the stone, ' London is fettered by Acts which declare that all works, the
• I
or Is. per week. In return what wouldise tilip.pro, weaving of which is wasted by tr.achinery, shall be paid for es-
• . icily theunte as if the whole w.fre re:formed by m A:I nal labour?
spect of gain? The corn imported in the last twelve It uisrau,sievathtl.ba. What would have become of our cot-
months had given employir.ent to 200,000 individu-'ton manufacture, and of the inventions of Sir Richard Ark-
I wright, if such a law 11:4 existed in his time ? I may add, what
als in foreign countries—to supply ourselves would would have become of the country, if it had not been for in =-
require at least this number cf hands in addition to poor miasiTY... ?
'the LI glitn ir ce
silk-loom—t tar
hat hat has remul operation
aMed in es
e.,
be seen
those who arc now occupied in agriculture; one . the urne state since ia yeas introduced by tha llefuves, wherms
million of our population would hired by calling the French silk-loom has ,aeon in a state of progressive ins
proven-Lent.
200,000 hands into active employrr.ent, ' " 7thly. 'Since the passing of these Acts, there has been no
" All seemed to agree that an augmentation of la- rewiluct. ionat
otwhehrateivaercminditheye weaving wiin, h
Stretallitita"
havepric price
correspondeds of
hour could poly be looked for from agriculture. To Ours of the suppply.of, and the demand for lab Jur. In ore In-
hope for it in its present unprotected state, was vi- stance, however, be it meattoned in praise of their good seise
anti d.scemment, some journeymen' did voluntarily make an
sionary. He offered it as his honest and conscien- offer of reducing tile price of weaving bombazeopx five ihillings
tious opinion, that it was freetuaely
leaving le d
or the interest of all to con-
and
per elthwaet ofthe.nuding
rubethat r
of Ithooentiras glaedwbaeseilau
cur in ere:ruin% foreign grain, and in devising means in consequence from five hundred to ninety. These men accor-
torii3eg ceLo, in ndconqe onse
feed ourselves, and to oive labour, and by labour dangly applied tp the
ct work at reduced prices, rather
Magistrates, and stated their willingness to
than lose the trade altogether.—
-
hat piness to thousands." The General Cominittee of the Journeymen Weavers (for they
too have their Committee of Ways and Means) became alarmed
lest a similar redaction shatild be proposad in the other branches
of the trade, and opposed the prayer of the Bombazeen Weavers
.with all their might and main; and being seconded by a wise
Bench of Magistrates, who saw no necessity for any such reduc-
tion, the application was of course lost, and the article has fOr
ever taken its eight front London.
" Bth. 6 The tnisary of Spitalfields, at particular periods,' as
you truly state, , sinews that the law for regulating the Silk
`Nlanufactures cannot protect the workmen from the vicissitudes
of the times.'
" The distress of 1617 is still fresh in the recollec-
tion of your Readers, when the Public, to whom an
appeal of real distress is never made in vain, so ge-
nerously stepped forward, -and contributed to their
relief. This was the second instance of the kind ; the
first assistance rendered to them having taken place
about 20 years before. .
" I will not now 'detain you by going into any
lengthened argument, for the purpose of pointing out
how far such a system of forceti prices of labour, and
such occasional assistance from' the Public, may have
contributed W keep dovin the public burdens of the
, .
parishes in which the weavers reside. Suffice it to
say, that with such a statement of facts as I have
exhibited, staring us in the face, relative to a trade
fenced and protected by particular laws —a trade
that never was, and on account of the f ostly nature
and limited quantity of the article, never can be, the
subject of speculation to any great extent—a trade
confessedly depending .on home consumption, and
therefore exempt from those great fluctuations which
characterise the cotton, woollen, and other manufac-
tures, I say, that it. is matter of grief and surprise,
that men are to be found who can gravely recom-
mend that the same line of policy should be adopted
in the disturbed districts, as a nostrum which will
secure at once i fair price for the lab Our of the work-
man—effectually prevent all combination and insub-
ordination, and put an extinguisher on all further in-
crease of the poor rates ! if I have failed of disprov-
ing the evil tendency of the taws in question, I shall
be happy to enlist myself as an advocate for their
extension to every town in the kingdom. .
" I beg to repeat, that it was the establishment of

ON LEGISLATIV2 INTERFERF.NCF. IN TILE RE.
(;ULATION OF THE PRICES OF LABOUR.

TO TILE EDITOR OF TIIE MORNING CIIRONICLE.

" Monday, 9ch August, 1819.

,g Sin—Permit me to present my tribute of grate-
ful acknowledgment for the very able ma:iner in
which you have pointed put the fallacy of all legis-
htive interference in the regulation of the prieek.of
labour, and of the utter impossibility of such an in-
terFosition, ameliorating, in the remotest degree, the'
distress which prevails at present in the manufactur-
ing districts. Several statements have recently ap-
peared in contemporary Journals on this subject, in
which the conduct of the Manufacturers of Manches-
ter and other places, in loWcring the wages of their
won kmeo, is held up to the indignation of the public,
in a way that is likely to prove injurious to their
characters, and danerous to their pertooal safety,
residing as they do, to the inidst of an irritated and
half starving population. If, instead of busying
themselves in paining in such a marked manner at
the supposed authors of these distresses, these Jour-
nalists had occupied themselves in reflecting on the
causes of so much misery, it would have occurred to
them, that it is not only nit in the power, but that it
is not the intervl of the Manufacturers, to depress
the wages of their workmen below the natural level ;
and that if at any time they are obliged to lower
them beneath the price which affords the means of
subsistence, they are not to be charged, as of late it
has been the fashion to charge them, with a total
want of feeling and of principle ; but they ought to
consider whether the causes of that reduction ought
not rather to be referred to die broad and awful facts
of overstocked markets, and a diminished demand?
It seems, however, that these causes are either over-
looked or forgotten, in the propensity, common to
many good men, of meddling with those great prin-
ciples which have always been suppoied to regulate
over political economy, and who•think to find a re-
medy for all the diseases of the body politic in some

an arbitrary scale of wages in Spitalfields that gave
birth to those numerous and flourishing manufacto-
ries which are now to be found in most of the coun-
ties of the kingdom ; and compelled the London
masters to seek out those spots where at 'east they
could be free horn all magisterial influence between
themselves and their workmen. Scarcely a month
elapses that does not bring fresh intelligence of some
new Establishment. already formed, or that is in con-
templation ; and if those laws are suffered to gown=
repealed a few years longer, must end in the removal
altogether of the silk trade from the Metropolis. On
the contrary, if similar acts for the regulation of la-
bour are to allowed to pass into law, and to be
consistent, they must embrace every species of la-.
bow, not excluding our coachmen, footmen, cooks,
and drabs, to what spot will the oppressed and
shackled manufacturer be then enabled to retire frost
those vexatious enactments, those chains and fetters,
of skill, industry, and capital? They map! quit the.
country altogether, and leave those would-be philo-
sophers to their melancholy musings.
It is nothing short of the infatuation of, *no-
, ranee, to ask the Legislature to interpose its autho-
rity under those circumstances : it is to ask the desert*.
Lion of that freedom of trade to which we owe ont
present security, and by which alone we have been
enabled to retain our rank in the scale of political ex-
istence. All such interference is impolitic, absurd,
and an invasion of one of the plainest rights of men.
The system of commerce, from its centre to its. ex-
tremities, is a gem of mutual and equally-balanced
advantages, and those measures which propose ete'
enrichment of one party at the expense of the other,
ir fallacious and wmngr—because the interests of all
co: ceutrate ands coal. f in the principle of'unres-*
tricted

" I am, Sir, your's respectfully, W. B."

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR.

Sic—i would ask your Correspondent," A SilvaLimas
IManusaexuaza," if he can suggest any better method of securing
fair wagel to the LAbonrer than Mr. 114i.x has proposed? Ought
not the conduct of those masters who, as he says, " have no..
thing to prevent them," yet do not give fair prices, to shew us,
that they nevor will give them, unless compelled so to do? Is'
it probable that a ranch of Magistrates, from the evidence ad-
duced on both sides, would fix injurious wages? Will any man
'assert wages are sufficiently free, when we have daily proof that
'the master gives his own price? Is it fair to assert, that good
and bad workmen being paid one price, there is no encou-
ragement to the best workmen? Is it not rather true, that no
one would employ a bad workman, if he could get a good one at
the same price; and that, consequently, merit would obtain con-
stant employ, and bad wcikmen would be compelled to lertprove?
Is it not true that the best work is made in London in the Silk
Trade, because wars re fixed there; and have not our silk
goods improved im.quality ever since this Act? 0: late, since
wages have been so borne down in the country, the London
Weavers bays been rapidly improving; bad their misters been
at liberty to reduce the price of their goods, the probability is,
they weehl have endeavoured onlyto make more and not better
goods, wh:ch they now do in self-defence. Though a Eill to
extend the provisions of the Weavers Act was rejected, so have
been Bills for the Abolition of, the Slave Trade, fur protecting
Chimney-sweepers, &c. In many parts, this Bill was highly
approved. Next Session will prove, I trust, that it is not wholly
abandoned ; if not, the country masters will find the number of
their workmen will diminish, and their poor's rate will increase :
no man can find bodily strength 4:01 to continued labour of six-
teen hours per day, if supported by such nourishment as Bs. or
9;. per week will procure fur him and his family. It seems,
many anticipate that tl,e present difficulties will have an end in
a very few months. I fear not; the favourable course of ex-
'change will make foreigners buy unwillingly. Silver it is very
troublesome to remit; gold always bears a premium on the Con-
tinent; and though we shall find a metallic currency a national
blessing, yet I fear many mouths more of suffering must pro-
cure it. J. H.