The Statesman.
London, England, 1823-07-07 00:00:00

..r:~

12 r.

Poetess •
Excise .
Stamps
-Tates Managed by the 'Commissioners of
'l•sacs, ioctudiarArrears of Property
Post-Office.. -4
ls. dd. and 4e. on Pensions
.Hackoey-Cosebes, and Hawkers and Pad
Crown Lands
Brancluts of the Hind's Heroditary Reveal'
Sid-plus Fee, Regulated Patties 0f1icee......
Total Ordhlaiy
*.thapossiaad other Veiny* •
-Pr' Total iteyenile
•
Applied as Consolidated 4."
i.:* • fit..
To Pato/ Exch. Bills -
Applied as part of the Ways add !hams ....

1i.617,223
^ 19,149.112 d
. Ved.2lo

480
• • : 138
14,137•

14,014,b40

29,2.4.7

t- 1013P6

7:17-26a
• 1,45411:4.9
1,1411,378

.

►3:796

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The fdllewing•Petitioa agsinst the *eel of the Spital-
fields Act front this City,. was forwarded WA Monday even-
ing, to he presebted to the Hose of Lords, signed by iiooo
names:— •• •
(coveNTRY
To the Right Honourable the Lords, spiritual and temporet.
et the United Kingdom of preat Britain and Ireland, In
. Parliemenrasiembled.
The Petition of the Ribbon Weavers of the City of Coven-
try and Its Vicinity, •
• Humbly Sbeweth.,-" That your Petitioners, .hasing bb-
served with greet regretrthat a Hill is now pending in your
Right Honourable Hoesei to repeat The Acts by which the
t,riees for wearing have been rendered. uniform, and your
Petitioners haling suffered the gteatest distrest,fog. want of
such a law, beg leave (by stating to your Right Honourable
House their own cage) to shear what, in their -bumble opi-
nion, woold be the state of Spitalllelds, should these yalu-
Ury Acts be'repeeled.

" That in the absence of a law to make the payment of
wages uniform. it had been the custom of the masters, in
the ribbon manufacture of Coventry to pay their workmen
by oas general list of prices,-and which continued from the
earliest period of the trade till About the year one thousand
eight hundred and fifteen ;, but, in consequesee of a devia-
floe from the above principle at that time, *the mast, unex-
ampled distress followed, and which for many months preyed
upon the workmen, and excited the pity and compassion of
their fellow townsmen. That in the year one thousand
eight hundred and sleben, some di' the masters; filleted
*woe 'the general distress, proposed that three of their own
body should meet three welevees, in order to agree to pay
and receive such wages as would conduce to the alleviating
the distress under which the workmen laboured. An ar-
retirement of that nature was adopted end gigged by six de-
puties, and then submitted tonvery• eminent courage', who
declared it perfectly legal ' • bat' thisiseing en. agreement de-
pending entirely upon the bonooi of the parties 'to keep it
inviolate till a new 'grimmest might be fonnd necessary to
be made is a similar manner, those. who valued no honour
which pledged Itself to poor men. broke their word, and re-
fused to pay the price agreed on, the very first week after the
agreement was made, although or many articles that price
was lower than what had been paid fifty years ago.
" That the departire from this mulual arrangemest was
the cause of the poor's rates rising to 19s. in. the posed:
white in Spitalfields, ander the operation of the existing
Acts of Parliament, they did not, in the worst of times,
amount to more than six shillings in the pound. •
" That in the slimmer and autumn of the 'year one thou-
*and eight hundred and nineteen the prices of the work had
' become so numerous and deranged, that many of the mi-
ters told their worktnen they could not possibly give them
any *bore work till the price for weaving was filed ea some
generel uniform plan, and that they must go and aceOmplish
that object, end they might have their employment as usual.
Others said they were so undersold by those who were
paying below a living price, that they could not promise to
pay the pries they were then paying to the end of their work
they had in hand. Thus hundreds of your Petitioners were
forced by the masters themselves to assemble and request
that uniformity might be again established.
" That the Megistrates, desirous of preserving the peace
of the City, while such numbers were oat of employ, Po-
litely requested some of the principal masters to convene
the trade and come to some muted understanding, if posit-
-10.. The masters assembled sceordingly, and determined
on a Int er 1,-;e.4 below that of the year one thousand
eight hundred and sixteen, but es it promised certainty and
uniformity, the weavers thankfully accepted it. And so
peaceably and orderly had the weavers conducted them-
selves, that a number of respectable inhabitants sent a re-
quisition to the Mayor to convene a town meeting for the
purpose of considering and adopting the means of affording
leo.' to the ouor men who bad laboured under such ex-
tr >me distress. In addition to this, the masters subscribed
a fond to be applied against themselves, should any one of
them a Remind time attempt to violate their agreement. One
master sent his donation in a letter commencing with these
words :—• I inclose three pounds fqr the relief of weavers
who may be deprived of employment by refusing to take
less than the regulated prices ;' and in order to prevent as
much as possible the list being violated, the masters re-
quested ft committee of weavers might be formed. to protecl
it, by haring access to their own fund when any of their
sweet:ince refused to work at a less price.
" Your Petitioners beg leave to add, that both committee
and fend ere now entirely done sway, and the weavers are
already beginning to experience a recurrence of those evils
which a bill similar to that of the Spitalfields Acts would
entirely avert.
•• Your Petitioners, from the sufferings they here laboured
under for want of such a Rill, cannot but be apprised of the
great advantages connected with the possession of it: and
when they consider the loss of it must eventually produce
the same evils of poverty and distress to the Spitallields
weavers that has been experienced by your Petitioners,
they feel it to be their bounden duty to.praY that their
poor friends may not be deprived of that which. if granted
to your Petitioners, would be considered en inestimable
blessing.
" Your Petitioners would beg leave to state, as their
humble opinion, to your Right. Honourable House, that
should the Bill in question be repealed, there is every reason
to believe that parochial rates will immediately increase ;
that the invest of wages will be resorted to; that a system
of monopoly will become the order of the day ; that the
poor man will become still poorer; that the workhouses and
bosses of correction will become more and more in request
every day ; the revenue be injured, by decrease of silk in
the importation, and of goods in the exportation ; end that,
finally, master and man will be eternally at strife and anar-
chy, and disorder spread through the whole trade.
" Your Petitioners being satisfied that an Act like the
Spltalfirlds Act is calculated to prevent all such eyile, and
that no good be derived from its repeal whatever, and even
none anticipated by the friends of the measure, and being
sat!.fied that ipe Act, is it now stands, is calculated to fulfil
the wishes of millions, if its operation extended so far ;
that it conveys peace, justice, equity, and good-wilibetween
man sad man wherever it • sets—do most humbly implore
your Right Honourable House that the Bill now ptnding to
repeat the saitAct may not be permitted to passinto a law.
And, es in duty bound, your Petitioners will ever pray."
A petition from Nuneation, signed by' 800 names, wee for-.
warded on Tuesday sunlit*. to bepresented to thitHouse of
Lords, against the repeal of the'Spitalfields Acts.

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i • ,
Cuffs.—lt is expected that 60/. or upwards will he
collected here in aid of the struggle which the Spaniards
ire making against the unprincipled aggression of their
breeders, who are justly regarded as the enemies, not of
Spain Nly, but of tosakied at large. A subscription
for this purpose was commenced by a few gentlemen on
iliatertlay, which in a short tioto amounted to 261.—(Edia.
Ceetwa.)

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