The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-03-01 00:00:00

in the way and manner in which the corn-law league manu-
facture their petitions. The other day I called upon one
manufacturer to ask him to sign the petition in favour of the
ten hours' Lill. He was in a room filled with power-looms,
and he heard me say ' petition ;' he instantly said yes,' and
went across the yard into his counting-house, and lifted up
the lid of his desk, took out a petition, and said, Now, you
see, I think I have done it pretty well. I have varied my
hand as much as possible, and I have put them all down, for
I have taken them out of the wage-book.' " Now, what
think you of the manner in which your.petitions are got up?
Sir, in detailing the misery, the plunder, and the robbery
that is committed upon the poor working man by the manu-
facturers belonging to the anti-corn-law league, I am prepared
to prove that they used the truck system as one of the en-
gines of their destruction. I will now read to the house a
statement that will make you stand aghast. (Laughter.)
Yes, it will have that effect upon any hon. member who has
a heart to feel for the sufferings of the poor. l-wish the
house to remember that I never did charge these crimes
upon the whole manufacturers of the country, but I distinctly
charge them upon those manufacturers who are members of
the anti-corn-law league. 1 know many manufacturers
in my own neighbourhood who are men of the kindest
natures, but they tell me that they cannot compete with
those manufacturers who are connected with the league,
because they paid their labourers in money, while the
leaguers paid theirs upon the truck system. I will is-ow
give a broad sketch of no isolated cases, but of many -
of the most flagitious nature which are now occurring
throughout Lancashire. " Messrs. blank and Son." (Loud
cries of " Name.") I again tell hon. members, that I am
prepared to prove everything which I assert. If any hon.
member will move for a committee, I pledge myself to sum-
mon witnesses to prove every word of what I am going to
read ; but I trust that, under present circumstances, the
house will agree with me, that it will not be fair to give to
the world the names of the parties. (Cheers.) " Messrs.
and Son, --, three mills. There is a shop in the
immediate vicinity of each of these mills, and each shop is
kept by a son-in-law for his own advantage. The work-
people are also supplied with coals by the same firm.—Mr.
, two mills. The work-people are obliged to procure
both food and clothing at a shop in the neighbourhood of the
mills, which is kept by his brother for his own benefit.—Mr.
—, one mill, close to which is a shop, over the door of
which his son's name is placed, who is a minor, residing with
his father.—Messrs. ----- and Co., one mill. They have a
shop, which is kept for their own benefit.—Mr. one
mill, near which a shop is kept by his son-in-law, for his own
benefit, who is also manager of the mill. There are five more
mills in this very neighbourhood, which have cottages at-
tached to them, and belonging to the owners, and which are
occupied by their work-people." (The reading of this docu-
ment, was interrupted throughout with loud cries of "Name. '
In order to make members aware of the manner in which
these manufacturers evaded the penalties of the law, I will
state how they arrange matters. On the Saturday night the
working-people go into the counting-house, where they are
paid their wages in money; but instead of being allowed to
come out the same way, they are obliged to go through a
room, in which is sitting the person who keeps the books at
the truck shop belonging to the mill, and there they have to
pay every farthing of the food and clothing which they had
required during the previous week ' • and if it could be proved
that one man had spent even one halfpenny on any sort of
goods out of that shop, he would be instantly, and without
one word of explanation, discharged from his employment.
(Cheers.) Now I call that a tax upon food—(cheers)—that
I call a tax upon provisions. That is your free trade system.
It is notorious that the masters obtain 25 per cent. upon the
whole of the goods they sell, and that they make 10 per cent.
upon the cottages they oblige their workmen to reside in.
A. key is placed in the hands of any workman who applies
for and obtains work at any of these mills, and it is well
understood that that is the key of a cottage built by his mas-
ter, who will not let it to him tinder 10 per cent. for the out-
lay of his money, nor give him employment unless he takes it.
I will now tell the house how the members of the anti-corn-
law league contrive to enhance the price of corn. Are hon.
members opposite aware that, according to a calculation
which has been made, 100,000 quarters of wheat are annually
consumed by the men of the anti-corn-law league, to enable
them to defraud the public by daubing their calicoes with
flour paste? (Great laughter, which continued for some
moments.) Some hon. gentlemen opposite do not laugh ;
they see the murder is out. (Renewed laughter.) I can
prove what I have just asserted by the evidence of manufac-
turers of the highest standing in the country, who are pre-
pared to come forward and bear out my statements, and
expose this system of robbery and plunder. (Hear.) It
was only the other day that a poor man was transported for
seven years for selling to the noble lord the Secretary of the
Colonies (Lord Stanley) a few bricks for a chandelier. (Loud
laughter.) I have received the following statement from an
individual who, as well as others, is ready to give evidence
on the subject before a committee of this house, if required
to do so : " Immense quantities of flour are used in the cot-
ton trade to give a false appearance to the calico." (Laughter,
and cries of "Oh !") I assure the house it is true. (Hear.)
I assert the fact, and I ask hon. gentlemen opposite, who are
acquainted with the cotton trade, whether it is not true ?
(Hear.) My informant proceeds, " Some manufacturers use
from 2,000 to 3,000 packs per annum. The calicoes are passed
through a machine, in which they are stretched in length and
breadth. The interstices occasioned by stretching are filled up
by paste, which is applied by a brush. Afterwards the calico
is passed between two rollers, which press or calender it. It
then comes out apparently a beautiful, fine, stout piece of
calico. Its real quality is discovered
,in washing, after both
the purchase money and the expense of making it into wear-
ing apparel has proved it to be a dead loss to the confiding
purchaser." I will now, with the permission of the house,
read an extract from a letter written by an English mer-
chant, exposing a process which is adopted by certain ma-
nufacturers of buying up all the old rags they can obtain,
which are torn into pieces by a machine, and converted into
a kind of dust, and are then mixed with wool, which is even-
tually manufactured into cloth. This dust, from its nau-
seous nature, and from its engendering numerous diseases,
has been christened by the manufacturers and workpeople
of Yorkshire, the "devil's dust. (Great laughter.) The
gentleman to whom I refer writes :—" Things are worse in
Huddersfield; and it seems that all is over without any hope.
The trade is leaving this country most rapidly. is
weavers, because the foreigners
paying off nearly 200 of his
are sending the same sorts of goods over at very little more
than half the price that he has been selling them at. I wish
you could get a full account of this shoddy trade ; it is mon-
strous. They now put scarcely any wool into their yarn,
only just as much as will keep the devil's dust together. The
rags, as you know are collected from the most filthy holes
inLondOn and Dublin, and are brought from the most un-
healthy regions, infected by the plague and every epidemic,
and of course they are full of deadly Poison. S—
has had a boat load of this rubbish, and also buys a good deal
of the Dewsbury people. When his goods are made up, the
first time they are worn they split up, and then the game be-
gins. Mr. informs me that B— S— has sent out a
large quantity of doeskins,' charged ss. 9d. per yard, which
have proved to be not worth one farthing—not worth tailor's
wages. They will all be sent back from America to the manu-
facturer, with a charge of ss. Bd. a yard upon them for duty,
carriage, freight, commission, &c. ; and this, of course, be-
sides the loss of the goods, they being worthless. If this
won't cure him, I cannot tell what will. Mr. has been
on the continent recently, and there he saw a small manufac-
tory of ' doeskins,' all made of wool no devil's dust in them.
The man, before this season, he believes, had never made 18
pieces of goods in one year. He had then in hand an order
for 1800 pieces, considerably below the price of English
devil's dust goods, pretending to be of the same quality, Thus
the manufacture is leaving us as fast as it can—thanks to the
knavery of our avaricious, covetous, cheating, canting selves.
Nothing can show our baseness and deceit more than this.
These things prove clearly, that our ruin is deservedly brought
upon us by our own villainy. It is well known that the
Sheffielders passed cast-iron cutlery upon the foreigners for
steel, until they would not have it-given; and they have had
to find new countries to send it to, and their former customers
have been obliged to manufacture for themselves. Thus our
canting, professing Christians, are ruining their own country,
and cheating the poor pagans, and all the while blubbering
about trusting in Providence,' and are trying to make par-
liament believe that they care for the poor !" [While Mr.
Ferrand was reading the above extract, Colonel Sibthorp,
who had been conspicuous in cheering the hon. member in
the course of his speech, was observed to leave the house,
and soon afterwards returned with a large orange, which he
presented to Mr, Ferrand amidst roars of laughter.] I will
only detain the house a few moments longer (the hon. gentle-
man continued,) while I call their attention to a meeting of
manufacturers which was held some years ago in New York.
An account of it appeared in all the American papers, and
the account I will, with the permission of the house, read is
from an eye-witness. He says :—" It was my good luck to
attend a meeting of merchants and manufacturers convened
in the Town-hall, for the purpose of ' considering the best
means of protecting the manufacturers of the United States.'
The.meeting was composed of manufacturers of all grades,
and very numerously attended ; and a spirit of unanimity
pervaded the assembly. Specimens of cloth of John Bull's
manufacture were held up to the gaze of the meeting, all in
tatters, and motheaten by the paste. These were compared
with their own honest domestic manufacture, and the follow-
ing resolution was agreed to ;—' that it is the opinion of this
meeting that it is the duty of Congress to protect the ma-
nufactures of the United States by an augmentation of the
present tariff, to prohibit, as far as possible, the importation
of foreign manufactures.' " (Hear, hear.) I will just call
the attention of the right hon. baronet the First Lord of the
Treasury to a fact which has not yet been brought before the
notice of the house, yet a most important fact. It is, that
if the corn laws were to be repealed there would be an im-
mense body of industrious labourers in the north of Eng-
land not only thrown out of employ, but ruined for ever.
That ruin would result from this cause :—lt has been for
many years the custom of the chief landed proprietors in the
north to let pieces of waste land to working men on leases
of 14, 21, or 30 years, at a small rent, on condition that they
shall break up that land, and repay theniselves by tho sale of
the corn which they may produce from it. Now, if the
corn laws were to be repealed, all these men must be
ruined; yet they have as much right to protection from the
country as hon. members opposite have, and they look to the
government to protect them, in order that they might reap
some slight reward for their labour. They never dream that
they can possess such wealth as those gentlemen ; they say,
" Live and let live," that is all they aspire to. Then why
refuse them such an offer ? They say We have let you
live—we would scorn to rob you of your own, and it -is un-
just, cruel, unmanly, nay, dishonourable, and beneath the
name of Englishmen, to come forward and advocate a mea-
sure, the object of which is to plunder the poor." (Hear,
hear.) The hon. member for Manchester, who spoke the
night before last, offered his advice to the farmers of Eng-
land. If the farmers of England look to the political con-
sistency of the hon. member for Manchester (Mr. Gibson),
they will not, perhaps, think much of him (a laugh) ; but
this I will say, the farmers of England look to the laws of
their country for protection ' • and when they lose that pro-
tection, depend on it, if they fall, you fall with them.
(Cheers.)
Mr. BROTHERTON said when he used the word " mill,"
he did not think that he should be understood to include
" print works." He had no intention to mislead the house.
Mr. GILL argued in favour of a fixed duty.
Mr. HINDLcy, Mr. FIELDEN, and General JOHNSTON
supported the motion.
Mr. VILLIERS replied ; and on a division his motion was
negatived by a majority of 393 to 90.

HOUSE OF LORDS.—FRIDAY.
The Lonn CHANCELLOR said, in reference to the bill for
the purpose of legalising certain marriages which had been
celebrated between presbyterians and members of the church
of England by presbyterian clergymen, that the bill would
be one of enactment, and not a declaratory bill.
Lord LYTTLETON postponed his motion respecting the
bishop of Jerusalem, in consequence of the absence of the
Earl of Aberdeen.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—FnIDAY,
Mr. O'CONNELL asked if it was the intention of the
government to bring in any bill for the amendment of the
Irish Municipal Corporation Act.
Lord ELIOT said the subject was at present under the con-
sideration of the government.
The house having resolved itself into a committee of the
whole house on the corn laws, Mr. CHRISTOPHER moved
his amendment to the scheme of Sir R. Peel. He proposed
that under the price of 51s. the duty should be 255, which
duty should decrease one shilling for every shilling increase
in the price up to 735., from whence the duty should remain
at Is. By beginning with a duty of 255. instead of 205., as
proposed by Sir R. Peel, he terminated with a Is. duty at
the same point—the surplus ss. being equivalent to the two
rests in the scale of the government. He proposed this
scale with regret, because of its being opposed to that of
his right hon. friend; but he felt it to be his duty to do so,
convinced as he was that a higher protection than that pro-