New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-05-07
INDUSTRIAL ENGLAND.
ny ROBERT p. PORTER. MEMBER OF THE LATE
TARIFF COMMISSION.
XIV
THE INDUSTRIAL DECLINE OF BRISTOL.


Of on ternTise and decay. The merchants arc keen'
busv men. bnt frankly admit they have been OUT
strinped through the natural migration OF lnnus-
trial centres and not through any fauit Oh tneiI
own The poorer dwelling houses are constructed
of q gray plaster grown black and green with age
wbile the red tiles have long since been subdued Dy
time 10 dark green aud black. The muddy rlVer
rims slugrishly through the arches of the ancient
bridge. unused factories crumbe into ruins on the
! hanks the docks have deserted appearance ldie
men lounge around the quay and the Puoii0
SQUARES and even the statue OF william IL !"
| Queens Square, partakes of the general miideWy
aspect of the whole place, in which an ar VI oo-
parted opuence reigns supreme.
a farthing pound extra duty on sugar when
the West India slaves were freed might have saved
our vast sugar interests" said one of BrstoPs prom
uent citizens to me as we drove past some deserted
| factories but alay our people are 80 obstlnateI
welded to the free-trade theory that Parliament
would rather leave the industry to perish ana suner
its migration to other countries than grant TINS rea
| enable request"
II has since been strongly urged that the BRITISH
| covernment impose countervailing duties against
| French Dutch, Belgian other foreign renneo
sugars to check the effect of foreign legislation III
vain the Bristol and other British reners urged tnas
| the imposition by this country OF counterVaiiihs
duties on French or other sugars would not give any
protection to British reners, but simply restore us
equilibrium between the exporters OF rehned sugar
| I'm the different countries.
We see the necessity of the measure, said Parna-
ment. we understand that it means ruin to the re-
fners, but it would certainly be antagoDistlc TO
our commercial policy" and so the factories
crumble into dust on the banks Oh
the Avon and the Frome. and the once busy opera
t,yes stand idly on the streets seek relief IN tue
Bristol Poorhouse and John Bull pays ever
$50 900. 900 a year TO his army OF paupers, ana
chuckles over maintaining "our commercial
policy forgetting that about onetwentieth OF the
population of the Kingdom Daupers or recipients
of charity.
In Defoe's time (176O Bristol was the greatest
the richest, and the best port of trade III treat
Britain, London only excepted" Detoe also says
of Bristol: Whatsoever expectations they make
TO any other part of the world, they are aoie 10
bring the full returns back to their own port. and
can DISPOSE of them there" have no doubt
of tho correctness of this statement In De
foes time but one of the causes OF
| the present decline of Bristol that she has no
market for return freights. In the eighteenth CEN
tury IL should be borne in mind the west OF Eng
land was the seat of the greatest commercial and
manufacturing industries of the Kingdom Inc
population OF the southwestern counties was
about SOC, 900. while that of the northwestern
d,str,ct Gncluding Lancashire and Cheshire) was
only 300 600. The manufacture of woolen goods
had not then removed TO the great cloth district oil
! Yorkshire, and Wiltshire, Worcestershire, Somer-
| setshire and DevOnshlre had for centuries been
famous for whites" and reds their "azures"
and blues" Before steam and the applica-
ton of chemical science to manufac-
lures. natural advantages wholly determined
| the location of industries. Defoe gives
glowing account of this region. The clothing trade
Of ;be west was created by the adaptation of the
district to sheep pasturage. On the grassy downs
| and WIDE plains of Wiltshire iunumerable Hooks OF
sheep yielded fleece. The ieeces of the ong-woolled
sheep of the Cotswold Hills were fsmousi in the hf-
I tenth century The Mendip Hills supported
short -wooiled breed whose wool was rs fine as that
of Spain. The supply of wool was thus OF hand Tor
tho clothiers who dwet in the valley OF the Lower
| Avon The waters Of that river, with Its many
branches. were especially fitted for fulling and
dressing and dyeing cloth. They fabricated the
finest cloths. says Defoe. Frome, Bradford Erow-
bridge. Devices, with many adjacent towns
| were the seats of this prodigy of a
| trade In those days the Wiltshire Bradford
was the busy Bradford The town of the same
| name IN the Yorkshire Riding was comparatively
silent or inactive. The Bradford on the sweet
! flowing Avon was then making of the finest
! Spanish cloths" and the port of Bristol " as the
only mort that could pretend 10 enter into coUpeti
ton with London.
| tThe Bristol shOpkeepers were also merchants
| wholesale men," Defoe calls them-aud they con-
dueted an inland trade through all the western
counties and extended their traffic through the
midland districts even to the Trent, Enter
nrisnp fellows were the old Bristol mer-
! chants. and rather than fail they would
| T. for m
| tobacco. men were kidnapped and sent to foreign
plantations This was as late asthed days of Charles
! IL. and Bristol was the last to cling 10 the slave
trade in the days Of George iii. But Bristol did
large foreign export trade in human flesh centuries
| before this and in the ConqueIOrs time young per-
! sons of both sexes some of them of great beauty
might daily he seen in the market-place tied
! together with ropes and thus exposed for sale. Ii
| took a Bristol mob TO abolish slavery. The mob
fell upon some of the slave merchants and put ont
their ewes Centuries after Bristol had reason to
member the brutal passion OF mob which to thsday
has left its scars For three days, during the Re
| form bill agitation, mob held the town. Houses
and public buildings were fred anda heap OF smou-
derng ruins was all that remained of half of one of
the most spacious quadrangles of houses III Europe.
The heads of men were actually slashed of in the
streets by the soldiers before the Bristol Riots were
stayed
"The greatest inconvenience of Bristol said
Defoe, are its situation. its narrow streets and the
| narrowness Of its river and we might also men
ton another narrow-that is the minds OF the gen.
eralty of IT'S people," The author Of " Robinson
Crusoe advises the British people 10 travel more,
"but not out of England, neither;
mean only to London y" for there, he IN
forms them. they will see examples worth
their imitation, as we'll for princely spirit as up
right and generous dealings" At that period Brls-
toll was cursed with very exclusive prosperity. and
| its uneducated freemen INDUCED. when their adj
| ventures prosperous, IN vulgar ostentation.
From this port Sebastian Cabot set sail in 1897, and
| discovered Newfoundland. Two centuries later
BRISTOL was the great emporium for American