The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-12-11 00:00:00

TO THE RIGHT HON. SIDNEY HERBERT, M.P.

DEAR have read with much interest your public
appeal, through the columns of the Morning Herald, in
favour of a project for the emigration of the distressed
needlewomen of the metropolis ; and I have since been
honoured by Lord Ashley with an application to become
a member of the committee. It would always be to me a
source of pride and pleasure to co-operate with his lord-
ship and you, so far as my humble capabilities may allow,
in those benevolent objects to which the fortune, time,
and talents, of both are so unremittingly and honourably
devoted. _ _ _ _ _ _ _

___ •
But, in the present instance, I have not felt that I could
consistently take part, and I have so replied to his lord-
ship. In your letter to the editor of the Morning
Chronicle, you inform us that there are at this moment,
33,500 needlewomen in the metropolis, whose wages vary
from 24d. to 34d. per day ! and you depict with vivid
force the physical and moral evils inevitably consequent
on the disgraceful fact, that more than 30,000 females are
driven to accept wages so inadequate even to sustain exis-
tence. You subsequently state that "we have more
capital than we can employ with profit, and more people
than we can maintain in comfort." From these facts you
deduce the conclusion that the only remedy for the
miseries of these unhappy beings, is their removal from
the too-thickly populated land of their birth to a British
colony in the antipodes, where industry may be secure of
more adequate remuneration. This process you propose
to effect at a cost of £l5 per head, to be raised by volun-
tary subscription.
Now, if I were satisfied that your premises were true,
I might not be disposed to quarrel with the inference.
But permit me respectfully to ask, "Is this so ?" 'We
have, it is admitted, a surplus capital, the obvious source
for providing employment for labour. Are we doing 'all
that is in our power to direct this capital into a channel
that shall at once prove profitable, and provide employ-
ment for the distressed needlewomen and others ? Let

us see.
I have before me the last Board of Trade monthly ac-
count " relating to trade and navigation," and from it I
find that during the ten months ended on the sth Nov,
last, the value of embroidery and needlework imported
from foreign countries is £86,765, and that of lace and
cushion lace £72,945, together £159,710. Supposing the
importation to continue at the same rate for the remain-
ing two months, the aggregate import during the year of
these articles (the value of which consists almost entirely
of labour) will be £191,652. Nearly the whole of these
are brought into London. thus displacing in the metropo-
lis an extent of female labour, the remuneration of which

if distributed there would more than suffice to double the
wages of all the unfortunate objects of your generous
sympathy. I fully admit that even their remuneration
would be inadequate : but 1 confess I cannot reconcile to
my reason or my conscienoc the encouragment, in obedi.
ence to the dogmas of a miscalled free trade, of a system
which first robs of employment thousands of the most
interesting labourers engaged in domestic industry, and
then offers redress in their transportation from hearth
and home, and family and kindred, to a foreign and
distant clime, at an enormous expense.
.

You will sioubtl s. perceive that my scruple involves
principles extendi beyond the case of the needle-
women. It strikeg; avow, at the whole fatal policy of
importing the produce of foreign industry—including, of
course, corn—and then maintaining the displaced labourer
in idleness, or driving him to'exile ; that with land uncul-
tivated, or imperfectly cultivated, with 17 millions of gold
lying useless in the coffers of the Bank, and 666,000 able-
bodied labourers chargeable to the poor-rates in one year.
a sane nation should import corn of foreign growth, and
at the same time expatriate 300,000 British subjects, and
pay £9,000,000 in relief of the poor, is an anomaly as
startling as it is strange. History will record it with as-
tonishment ; and it is for modern Political Economists
and Free-traders to explain and defend it. In the earnest
hope that your own splendid talents and the unwearied
zeal of Lord Ashley may soon be directed in defending
the rights of labour by the restoration of just protection,
I remain, dear Sir,
Yours, with much esteem and very faithfully,
GEO. FRED. YOUNG.
Committee-room of the "Association for the Protection of
British Industry," Dec. 7, 1849.

mina

P.eltls.

An aggregate meeting of delegates is to be held at
Newton, on Thursday, to re-consider the county-rate

question.
Mr. James Slater, of Ormskirk, has left £5O to the
Ormskirk Charity Schools, and the same sum to the
Church Missionary Society.
The foundation stone of the intended New Savings'
Bank, at Ormskirk, was laid on Monday, by Thomas
Brandreth, Esq., one of the trustees of the institution.
The Wigan Times gives an account of a dreadful ex-
plosion at the colliery of Mr. H. Woods, Homehouses,
- Tuesday. One

near , igan. _ne explosion occurred on
boy was killed, and five men were injured
At a numerous meeting of the 4.--

actory operatives of

Wigan, on Thursda3
memorialise her Majesty in f

Ili resolved to

stocking sit on the same seat
appearance betokens self-respect