^OF-CA[IF( IVERS/4. f-sn^ AM-UBRARY^ ^E-UWVEI i fr> * < *~* & Q^ l2Sf < |7)1 ^ t ^. r ~^- ^I/OJIIVD-JO^ ^HDNV-SC VERS/4 2 rsoi^ ! I 9 S I ^OF-CAUFOfl^ ^HWIVB I a i~3 o C7 ' X- c? ^ r O) ^ > ' i- Ej 5. ^ ' i t p ^ v/sjQAJNfl^v y roj>ortioa tt> its straining. Mr. William S. of Frome, in Somersetshire allows, that " they mill their cloths one yard short in an end, to bear the force of the gig -mill' 9 This, you will observe, is at least, an admis- sion of its greater force, and so far confirms the workmen, who say, that the ordinary ap- plication of the gig-mill strains, at least, two yards upon twenty beyond the legal length. Now as far as admissions from adverse par- ties have any weight, and it appears to me that they are always entitled to great weight indeed* they make out my case for me, namely, That the mill, in its nature, produces an infinitely greater degree of pressure and straining, and that in its application it has produced much extra illegal and improper straining upon most of the cloths dressed by them, \vhich though not so injured as immediately to hurt the cha- racter of the manufacture in the foreign mar- ket, ^yet must have been so made from the na- ture of this machine, as, by and by, will have a very calamitous effect upon the interest of those who are obliged to follow the trade of a cloth-worker for the maintenance o( ? them- selves and families. I said that I would give you Some ide a 27 of the depopulating tendency of this machine. It is admitted that three persons, with the as- sistance of the gig-mill, would dress ahout as much cloth as twenty-four persons could dress by hand, and that calculation was made to shew how immense a saving it would be. We must undoubtedly allow that, if the gig-mill will save so much hand labour, it is an irresist- ible argument in its favour; if not met by the, propositions which I before stated; but you will not deprive the land of tsventy-one cus- tomers out of twenty -four ; that is, you will not throw them out of bread unless it be for an ade- quate political advantage. In this case, I con- tend that it would not be wise or just so to do, because the gig-mill does not do the work better, because it is not necessary for the maintenance of our preference at foreign markets, because it has not rendered the cloth cheaper, and be- cause our customers are at present satisfied ; in a word, because it has all the disadvantages which political economists decry, without be- ing attended with one advantage sufficient to justify a system of depopulation. Had we no other proof of its depopulating tendency than merely the evidence with respect to the earnings of the unfortunate persons in 28 the West of England, where this machine has been principally introduced, it would be suffi- cient. I have in my hand a calculation, stating their average earnings for the last four years and a half it is but about fourteen shillings a week ; while, in the north, where the mills do not prevail, the workmen get a guinea and a half. Can any thing more completely prove that there are persons ready, and in number sufficient to do by hand all the work that can be required of them, then the fact of good workmen being thus attainable for so scanty a pittance? this fact was stated over and over again, by some of the most respectable master clothiers of the West, in 1 803 ; they said there was a plenty of men for every part of the wool- len manufacture ; indeed, the adverse masters proved a redundancy of hands, by gravely bringing a surveyor of the high roads before the committee to shew that he had offered work to the immense number of persons thrown out of employ by this fatal machine. He boasted that he had offered them work ; that is, he had offered work to persons who had served regular ap- prenticeships to the woollen manufacture, in the hope of enjoying the privileges legally resulting from a faithful apprenticeship ! And what work did he offer them ? why, that they should break the stones upon the roads, and cleanse them from filth. That many canals being be* gun, they should (ill barrows with the soil, and wheel it away ! He addetl, that though he him- self had offered them this employ, yet were these clothiers fastidious 'enough to say, they liked cloth- working better than this ne\v and honourable employ of breaking the stones on the road ! When the gig-masters found it ne- cessary to protect themselves from the charge of turning the men out to starvation, they thought it necessary to shew by this witness that they had offered them this sort of work ! that they had offered it to men skilled in working the great staple of the land ! men who had acquired legal privileges by long and faithful servitude ! it is to such men, they say, that they have no right to complain of the calamitous conse- quences of the gig-mill, since they may find employ in breaking stones upon the road ! in cleansing them from filth ! in filling barrows with the soil, and wheeling it away ! These are the principal observations which I mean to make upon the gig-mill; I will, there- fore, next in order, notice the sheering-frames. I shall have something further to say, of course, With regard to the illegal straining of cloth, when 30 1 come to speak of further and recent admis-* sions which appear upon that head. With regard to the sheering -frame, it is nearly, though not precisely, in the same predicament as the gig-mill. The gig-mill stands strictly prohibited by the law in the reign of Edward the Sixth, and those persons who seek to put down the gig-mill, are but of opinion with their ancestors : they only call upon you to en- force the law, which is entitled, " An Act for putting down of Gig-Mills :" and for the same wholesome and wise reasons, namely, to pre- vent the use of a machine which was declared to be injurious to the fabric then, and is proved to be so now. The sheering-frames, however, are not prohibited in the same distinct form of words, but they are prohibited in spirit and in fact ; it is enacted, that no knife, blade, pummice-stone, or thing that . shall have a tendency to sheer cloth uneven, shall be used, but that sheers only shall be used for that pur- pose. With respect to the sht-ering-frame, the machine itself was not known in those days, 'but its effect was known, deprecated and for- bidden. The sheering- frame is unfortunately within the principle of the gig-mill, it having a tendency of the most cruel and depopulating nature, and is not called for by any on SI political reason tlrat can justify Its establish^ ment. . You have heard, Sir, from the masters, one and all; and from many of the questions put by members of this honourable committee, it was plain they inclined to believe that although the gig-mill drives twenty-one out of twenty- four out of employ, yet upon the whole there has not been less employment for the men, it having: been asserted that this machine manufactures so great an additional number of cloths, that the twenty -one thrown out of employ by the gig- mill out of every twenty-four, find refuge in the arms of the sheering trade; that is, that as it manufactures so much more cloth, so many more men are necessarily employed in the sheering of it; therefore, said one of the clothiers, though our sheermen objected to the gig-mill at first, they soon became reconciled to it, because they found that it more than compensated them by an increased quantity of labour in another way. Another gentleman says he called his men to- gether, and stated that fact to them, and they became at length convinced ; and Mr. Law At- kinson says that his men have no objection to working after the gig-mill, because as the gig- 32 hi ill raises so many more cloths, it makes s<$ much more sheering work for the very persons whose labour in another line it supersedes; and they get so much money on that account, that they are become friends* to the gig-mill, that must mean, upon the supposition that the whole of the sheering would be done by hand. Some consolation of that sort was administer- ed by the evidence of the masters in 1803, and we had even taken a little of it and began to be comforted, when at length came these sheering* frames to swallow up nearly all the manual la- bour that the gig-mill had spared, for it seems that the twenty-one men out of twenty-four which have been driven out of employ by the gig-mill, and for whom it was pretended the extra sheering would find work, are now to be altogether undone and destroyed by the intro- duction of frames to perform that task. Is it wonderful that men should sink under these accumulated calamities ? Can you be surprised that the thousands and tens of thousands of the petitioners, and their innocent families, should weep and despair under distresses or' this kind ? I must not be told that in Yorkshire they get from a guinea to a guinea and a half a week, and therefore they should be satisfied. So they 4 tlo : L but how do they get it? It has been, proved that it is by working from four in the morning till twelve at night ; be it so, save them but from the peril of these two machines, and they will not. repine at these laborious exertions* In the other parts of England, they are not get- ting more than fourteen shillings a week; the sheering business which was to get the men into conceit with the gig-mill being itself about to be done away by the sheering-frame, which comes to complete the work of desolation, and to de- prive of their remaining labour those hands which were left unemployed from the gig-mill. I think I can show reasons of the most valid kind against the use of this latter machine. I will not rely for those reasons on the body of? evidence which my clients have adduced ; but I will, in spite of themselves, draw proofs from the mouths of our adversaries. I will invoke the opposing witnesses, and shew from their own inadvertent admissions, the utter impolicy of using this machine, supposing even that it had none of those cruel and depopulating ten- dencies with which I charge it. It was stated by the evidence, in chief, who assigned grounds for their judgment, which there is no contro- verting, because they are natural, and speak for D themselves, that the sheering-frame has this mischievous effect, it will not sheer even, and if the cloth is not put on perfectly even, it will knih, that is, catch it with the hlacie. Now, if it knibs when they sheer by hand, the sensation of the sheerer immediately detects it, and the injury is stopped. The fine-drawers have said that the holes made in the cloth by the sheers are of the size of a pea, or a gun-shot ; while, on the other hand, those made by the sheering- frame are generally three or four indies long : the reason is, that when a hole is made, it can- not be detected till the blade, which is some inches broad, and fixed in the frame, has passed over a space equal to its breadth; they then find out -that a hole is made, and they stop the ma- chine ; but those men who have worked at it themselves in person, and those who have look- ed over the cloth immediately after, tell you one and all, that such is the nature of the machine. This evil cannot be prevented, however inge- niously the fine-drawer may repair it. To the evidence of these persons is opposed that of a Mr. B. who describes himself as a very profound man in his way, an expert mechanist^ and one who says he has passed all his life among machines of various natures. I am afraid if it 35 Vere a question of moral character, we should have little to say to this person upon his own showing, because it seems that after living four- teen years with the traitor Douglas, the fellow that first attempted to get our woollen machinery over to America, and who is now endeavour- ing to introduce it into France, and is there acting a part that ought to bring him to the gallows, if he could be laid hold of, he favored this Mr. Douglas with his drawings; the better to enable him to transport our staple manufacture to America j I will, however, forget that, let him stand as fair before you as I trust all my wit- nesses do, and attend only to his evidence. He says the sheering-frame sheers more even than if done by hand. Why ? Because, adds he, one mo- tion governs the whole, and after the machine is set, it cannot vary, according to the eternal laws of nature, from that mechanical motion with which it commences its operation. This, he says, is as true as any proposition supported by mathematical demonstration; he says it must have that effect, because when once the machine is fixed, as to its due poise, it goes on and sheers even : well, but suppose the cloth should be previously raised uneven, how c'oes it do then? for if the machine cannot vary, if it cannot go to the right or to the left when the D 2 3(5 cloth conies uneven from the gig-mill to this machine, as is proved to be frequently the case, the effect must necessarily be to cut it most in- juriously from that very undeviating regularity of its motion, which Mr. B. speaks of as its great perfection. Now, the sheermen have the cloth placed be- fore them, and if one part of it be balky in the ground, and in another part the nap is scarcely raised, or if the cloth be in any way uneven, they govern their sheers accordingly, they move them lightly over the balky place, and press them more forcibly where the nap is left too Tong. The sheering frame cannot, in the nature of things, be so managed ; because, as Mr. B. tells you, one motion governs it from the be- ginning to the end., It has been admitted by the masters, that the greater part of the cloths are raised at public mills, and that public mills raise the cloths un- even, and it is most clear that every cloth which is raised uneven, whether from ignorance or ac- cident, must of necessity be injuriously cut by the sheering- frame when it comes to the uneven part of it The regulating power which has teen boasted of by some, even Mr. B. was not 37 prepared to affirm, when I asked him if he could tell if a hole were made in the cloth by the sheering-frame till it had passed over, and re- minding him of what had been said by the sheer- men : viz. that they could fed instantly as the sheers in their hands knibbed. We make it out, says Mr. B. partly by the sound the sound of a hole! What, says an honourable member, does the hole sound before it is made ? This question put Mr. B. a little to his trumps, lie gave up his exquisite sensation of sound, and then said, that if a person were extremely watch- ful, and kept his eye upon that particular spot, and saw that a hole was made, he could stop the machine before it got to be three or four inches, or whatever might be the breadth of the blade. Now you will recollect their boast to be that one man looks after half a dozen of these ma- chines, for in that consists the great saving of labour. They say it is not necessary to have a man after each machine, as you have after a, pair of sheers, but that one man superintends half a dozen of them ; then I should be glad to know how, even with Mr. B's. faculties, a hole is to be discovered instantaneously, as, is the case when a man sheers by hand, who can tell by sight as well as by sensation, the moment the sheers knib or catch the cloth. 38 My humble argument then is this, if the sheer-, ing-frame is liable to the legal objection made in early days against sheering uneven; if it is not called for by any political necessity ; but that on the contrary, while it swallows up the whole of the labour left from the desolation of the gig-mill, it operates injuriously to the fabric ; you will surely think it right to prohibit, by name and description, that which already stands prohibited by the law of the land, as to its principle and effect. I find that this is a machine which tbe masters are less disposed to persist in the use of than any other. Many masters that have been before you, state that it is but very partially used. Two of the masters state that they do not use it, they do not want it ; and that if they could but have the free use of the gig-mill, all their cloths should be sheer- ed by'hand. Indeed the evidence of the fine- drawers is at once a proof of the mischievous 'nature of the machine, and their own exquisite sk'll ul repairing holes of such magnitude. Mr. Dyer, I remember said, expressly, he liked hand- slit ering best. I notice those sentiments be- cause I am convinced of the absolute necessity that exists for something like an amicable ar- rangement of this business, something like a softening of that high tone with which the 39 workmen have been treated, and being war- ranted by the evidence in saying, that the pro- hibition of the sheering-frame, which would afford so much consolation and protection to the men, is a matter of comparative indifference to the masters, I earnestly hope and entreat, that some qualification of tliat kind may besug gested in your report to the house. The general answer which I understand is given to the arguments I have offered respect- ing the gig-mill and the sheering- frame, is an answer which, I am sorry to say, is more and more coming into fashion. I know not how it is, but a sort of commercial jacobinism seems to have succeeded to the political jacobi- nism which lately afflicted and infested the the world; it is indeed urged with more silence, but it is moving with infinite subtlety, and I am afraid will be found almost as mischievous. The modern cant is, that mens' own interest is a sufficient security for their observance of right, that the contrary will work its own pu- nishment, and that every thing is sure to find its level, Our ancestor$j it seems, were all wrong 40 even up to the 13th of Geo. III. we were in the woods. We have been from the days of Rich- ard II. making laws respecting the woollen manufacture for men who want no laws every thing, again they cry, " Will find its le- vel." These new doctors answer all my objec- tions by way of interrogatory, and exclaim, " Can you think a man would he so blind to his pwn interest as to send to market cloth that is not manufactured in the best manner? or that if stretching it bey nd the length allowed by law, de- teriorated the commodity, he would be so absurd as to do it?'* Strings of questions of this nature were put to the masters, who have been gravely called to state to *the committee their exalted ideas of the honor of the woollen manufac- turers. This is like calling upon a smuggler for Iiis opinion of the revenue laws. The masters whom the woollen laws were instituted to con- troul, are absolutely the only evidence called to prove the wisdom of dispensing with them, and to shew the folly and extravagance of our an- cestors, who thought restrictions respecting this trade to be wise and necessary. But I do not need to combat this proposition, for it defeats itself; you might as well talk of morals finding their level as manufactures. 41 Were men not as virtuous seven years ago as they are now ? Was not the powerful principle of self-interest as predominant then as it is now ? Was it not the interest of the master then to make the best possible article ? and yet the legislature, up to that period, or within a few years of it, thought it necessary to con- tinue the care and watchfulness of preceding Parliaments, in order to insure a good fabric. The legislature, time after time, in different reigns, from the 13th of Richard the Second, up to the 5th of George the Third, has made law afcer law, for the better regulation of the woollen manufacture, till by a succession of sta- tutes introduced, as new frauds or faults dis- covered themselves, this great staple has attain- 'ed to the reputation which has produced our affluence. It is this high reputation which we are anxious to maintain. We, the great body of its artisans live but by the fame of the fabric, wfech cannot be destroyed without destroying us, when that dies we shall sink and be extin- guished. There is, I believe, a Bill now before the House, which I mention from the strictness of its analogy to the present subject ; it proposes that the butchers, whom our foolish ancestors thought it right to prevent from flaying beasts wantonly anil improperly, thereby injuring our leather- staple, should be left upon this subject to their interest, and their honour ! It is not more than three years since the legislature thought there was something required besides this universal principle of self-interest, and they obliged the butchers to take off the hides with proper care, under certain penalties. The butchers, I understand, apply to be relieved from this odious obligation, and they argue that the state may rest safely assured that they will not hurt their own interest, by doing injury to the hides. But, Sir, in all cases we find the imme- diate interest operate more powerfully than the remote. This is a distinction that does not ap- pear yet to have found its way into the new philosophy, though it is evidently that which has hitherto governed the legislature through- out the whole series of its enactments. p Are we any of us so insensible to experience as not to know that every deviation from moral rule is impolitic, to say nothing of its being bad and wicked in itself? and yet does every such departure proceed from our preferring a present indulgence to a remote interest ! These mas- ters will get fortunes by the extra .straining of 43 their cloths, before this new philosophy, this emancipation from restraint, can produce its mischievous effects upon the fabric. What will be to them the loss of its reputation ? they will by that time have accomplished their object of gaining speedy independence, and seared snug at their villas, perhaps, be laughing at the folly which listened to their arguments, which ex- changed the progressive wisdom and experience of five hundred years for manufacturing senti- mentality, and risked the high reputation of the great staple of the country, rather than the infallibility of a theory which preceding ages have treated with the scorn it deserves ! If the straining of cloth beyond a given de- gree had not been improper in itself, how came our ancestors so tenaciously to guard against it, and to have said, that though, in the course of the process of your manufacture you may per- haps inevitably, or occasionally, overstrain one yard upon twenty, yet beyond that one yard you shall not go. If all restraint is to be abo- lished, as contended for ; if the masters are to be perfectly at liberty to stretch their cloths to what extent they can, let us apply that licence to the argument of self-interest, and inquire Jiow far the latte principle may be regarded as a sufficient security for that reputation upon which solely depends the wonderful extent of our foreign trade in this article. A very re- spectable ^naster, who has a gig-mill, was called before you in 1803, the average of whose manufacture appeared to be about thirty pieces of cloth per week. The witnesses, you must recollect, have uniformly stated the extra straining of the cloth to average, at least, twa yards iu twenty above the legal measure. I took the trouble to calculate what it would produce to such a man if he got only one yard in twenty above the legal length, although the greatest part of the evidence states that two yards may be obtained without breaking the thread; that is, the manufacturer may get an immense deal of money between the usual degree of extension by the gig-mill, and that degree which it is said would be its own pu-r nislmient, by inducing the rejection of the ar- ticle. Allowing, however, but one yard upon twenty, above the legal measure, the maker would, by such extra straining, get upon the manufacture of thirty pieces per week, 1989 ^ per annum; the pieces run about thirty yards in length, a yard and a half upon thirty, is, of course, equal to a yard upon twenty ; a yard i.ud half, at 17*. 6d. per yard, is ll 5s. 6V/. 46 piece ; thirty pieces, at I/. 5$. 6V. is 38/. 5,?. |)cr week, or 198.V-/. per annum; ' Can you then imagine any kind of doctrine more delusive than tint men will neglect their immediate and personal interest, for a remote and general advantage, that for the sake of the future reputation of the fabric at the fo- reign market, they would, \vheii relieved from the present prohibition of the law,, forbear a practice by which the immense immediate ad- vantage of two thousand a year is to be obtain- ed upon thirty pieces per week ? Supposing the extra straining to be but half of what is stated by almost every vt itness is this charge of illegal straining without further confirmation ? One of the Yorkshire master's, who is a re- spectable magistrate in that county, was called: an honourable member of the committee re- minded him of the unfortunate circumstance which led to the loss of the Russian market ; namely, that a Russian brigade, newly clothed with English cloth, happening to be exposed to a drenching shower, their coats shrunk into waistcoats. Mr. C. the witness, admitted the anecdote, and added, that they had the most exorbitant demands made upon them by the Ger- man factors and merchants, on account of ex- traordinary straining ! Now, if the fact of over- 4 46 straining was not become more notorious, and if the consciousness of it had not induced oc- casional abatement in the charges on that ac- count/ is it likely that such demands would be made ? It shews the idea is spreading upon the Continent, that our cloths are more strained than they ought to be, and this may be at- tended, by and by, with the utter disrepute of our manufacture. If the bare impression of such a fact is capable of doing so much na- tional mischief, what will be the effect upon the mind of the foreign purchaser, when he learns that Parliament has thought proper to take off every restriction, and say to the manu- facturers, go on and strain, as much as you. please settle it between yourselves and the Germans, Dutchmen, &c. the legislature will no longer interfere? If your o\\n interest is not sufficient to restrain you from over stretch- ing the cloth, in God's nanie strain it as much as you like, we will have nothing more to do with it, we know that evrry thing will find its level, and that you, at length, will be punished for your cupidity ! Are you prepared, Sir, for the consequence of such an idea getting abroi* ; ? Are you prepared for the conclusion which fo- reigners must, of necessity, come to, the moment that they know that you have withdrawn, from 47 the woollen manufacture all protective an?! prohibitory laws? Can you even hope that the loss of its confidence will not follow the annun- ciation of their repeal ? As wise and intelligent men, you cannot but expect that those suspici- ons which the masters themselves have proved to be already alive upon the Continent, will amount to confirmed opinion, when they learn that, whether a manufacturer shall overstrain his cloth one yard or six upon twenty is no linger a question of law, but a matter to be settled between the vender and the purchaser ! 1 hope I have now given something like an answer to this new-fangled proposition of self- interest being a sufficient check upon the ma- nufacturer without the aid of the law. I have shown, that by departing from the existing law, he can get from 2000 /. to 4000 /. a year, without discovery. The masters themselves admit, as you will see in the evidence, that this moderate degree of illegal straining is scarcely within the possibility of being found out, after the cloth has been pressed and folded for sale ; it does not even call for the line-drawer, who is only wanted when the thread is broken % or cut. This mischief, when the law is repealed, can have no corrective, except what it may receive five or six years hence, when it shall be found to have deeply affected, if not de- stroyed, the reputation of the fabric. The ma- nufacturer may henceforth overstrain his cloth without its affecting his moral reputation ; for the moment the law of repeal shall have passed, it will be a contest who shall strain most ii* order to get most. There will be no longer those little idle contests about yards and half- yards, but the race will be who shall extend iu _ the cloth to the greatest degree, without scx^,, palpably injuring it as to defy the skill of the hot-presser and the fine-drawer. The effect of such conduct is already most serious, and had not a single master been call- ed, and had not a single admission been wrung from them, I think that the evidence of Mr. Lambert must have been decisive of this case. This person is a servant in one of the first houses in town. He is, by profession, an over- looker or examiner of cloths for the drapers ; that is, when the draper looks out a certain quantity of cloths at the warehouse of the factor, they are sent to a person whose peculiar business it is to examine and report upon them. Mr. La^ibert teils you he examined, at least, two 49 hundred cloths a week for various drapers ; that by far the greatest proportion of those which pass through his hands are dressed by the.gig-mill; and that he pursues a mode which cannot fail of detecting the injury, if any be done, to the cloth. He begins with taking out the press, that is, getting off the gloss, he can then discern what injuries there are ; and he tells you, that out of two hundred cloths he is obliged to throw aside a considerable number, sometimes thirty or forty, as unsale- able or much injured. This man stood as se- vere an ordeal of cross examination as any witness that has been called. He was asked, who were his masters ? what was the name of the other foreman ? and, what was the name of his colleague who looked over the cloths with him ? I expected, and hoped from t: ese questions, that they would all have been sent lor ; unfortunately they were not, and this was the only reason why I forbore calling the foremen of two other eminent houses in the same line, \vho were put down as witnesses on my brief. Air. Lambert, I repeat, stood a most severe cross exa- mination ; it was endeavoured to make him say he did not know the gig-dressed from the hand-dressed cloth, except by the place which they came from, though that would have been enough, because the gig-masters are as well known from the hand-masters, as the distinc- tion between these gentlemen sitting here and myself. The gig-cloths are known as coming from a gig-master, and the hand-dressed cloths as coming from a hand-master. He is asked if he can tell from his judgment, and he shews you that he can to a moral certainty. How, it is inquired, can he distinguish the one from the other ? He says, that the gig-cloth is looser ; it feels more hollow in the hand, and the injuries are of a different nature from those which he finds in the hand-dressed cloths. He examines all the hand- dressed cloths which come from an eminent manufacturer in the West of Eng- land, and in the course of the last two years he has not had occasion to return five of them ; while, on the other hand, he is constantly obliged to object to a great number of the gig- dressed cloths. Well, but do not the drapers take them notwithstanding? Yes, they do, when in want of particular colours, and at par- ticular periods when the demand is too pressing to wait. I do not, says he, absolutely put them on one side unless they are materially da- maged, and even then, the diapers will some- times have them fine-drawn, and put up with them, rather than not have the article for sale. 51 It is thus proved, not only that damaged goods are bought, but that this argument of self- interest is not a security against such damage, the^vant of the article is great and pressing, ank, will you not re- fuse to listen to those applications which desire you to take off all restraint, and repeal the pro- hibitory laws? which desire you to proclaim it in every foreign market upon the Continent, that our manufacturers of woollen cloth are at length relieved from all legal obligation, and that they must henceforth trade with the British clothier upon the principle of universal suspi- cion ; that they must believe every Englishman to be a rogue and deal with him accordingly ; that they must henceforth examine well the length of their cloths, for that the manufac- turers are no longer under restriction ; that every thing being sure to find its level, self-in- terest is henceforth to be looked up to as the standard for security ' Mr. D. as I have shown, admits the thing may be done he ad" 57 mits more he admits that some of the cloth* are in fact strained above one yard in twenty more than the legal length. But then, says he, we put substance into our cloths accordingly. Perhaps they may, but that at least proves the illegal straining to take place, which is enough for my argument, it is drawn from themselves, and shows the necessity of conti- nuing legislative prevention. Another species of iniquity takes place, which I own I was not aware of till lately ; nor should I have known it now but for that candour and honour with which Mr. Law Atkinson has con- ducted himself throughout the whole of the bu- siness. It had been intimated to me that in proportion to the understanding between the master and journeymen, this sort of fraud takes place, namely, that when cloths are taken from the tenter, though notoriously overstrained, nevertheless the length is found to correspond with the seal put on at the fulling-mill. I had been informed, that by some management at the fulling mill, it was not unusual to put on seals there denoting a longer length than the cloth actually measured, so as to allow for subsequent straining. Though this had been suggested to me by my clients, I own I could hardly veji- 58 ture to put the question, doubting, Myself, the existence of so impudent a fraud ; at last I put it fairly to Mr. Law Atkinson, whether it was not so. He admitted his belief that such a prac- tice did take place, and perhaps too frequently amongst fraudulent masters; or else, says he, how could those accounts which I myself put in, shew a less degree of ultimate length after all the process had been gone through, than ap- pears from the seals put on at the fulling- mill? unless something of this kind had been practised upon ourselves, such would have been impossible. You will find this, Sir, one of the greatest sources and items of fraud; and that though it is true that the clothiers are within the letter of the law, when their cloths are not stretched beyond the length sealed at the ful- ling-mill, yet you will be satisfied from the evidence of that gentleman, and from other evidence which appears on your minutes, that a false seal is frequently put on, which is meant to allow for the illegal straining and stretching of the cloth. Now, will a legislative committee endure that those le- gal restrictions shall be repealed which can alone prevent such imposition upon the foreign purchaser and the domestic consumer. I must not be told that the difficulty lies in getting men 59 to do their duty; does not the same difficulty lie with respect to the customs and excise? Such an objection is about as weighty as the universal argument of self-interest; which, if trusted to, would keep the manufacturers in no better order than universal philanthropy, or any other principle of mere public spirit. I must not, therefore, I say, be told that you cannot get officers to do their duty. How do you get them to do their duty in the other departments under government, but by introducing such checks, and making such arrangements as to render it almost impossible for fraud to escape detection? It is no argument to say the thing would be very good if you could en- force it, to lament over your imbecility, and to deplore your want of power. Pay the searchers better. The clothiers well know, and it is in evidence before you, that the searchers have not the common means of living, if they do their duty that they are cast for sustenance upon be- traying their trust that their families must starve if they were faithful, so scanty is their allowance; while, on the other hand, he is libe- rally rewarded if he refrains from visiting them, or makes his visits in a complaisant way. The allowance which they must trust to for their livelihood is not for looking over the cloths; but for their non-examination. The utility of the searchers was further, though very unwillingly admitted by another of the masters : I think it was Mr. K. I asked him if the searchers visited him sometimes? he was of opi- nion that they are a very troublesome impertinent set, and that the sooner they are got rid of the better. In what way, said I, have they been trou- blesome to you ? Why are you so anxious to get rid of these men who so seldom come near you ? why they came once, and one of them threat- ened to inform against me because my cloth was without the seals, but I set him at defiance, says he, for I knew the cloth had been sold and re- turned, and it was not necessary that returned cloth should have the seals. I knew the search- er was in the wrong box, and I told him he might do his worst. But suppose, said I, Mr. K. that you had been a man of a different cha- racter to what you undoubtedly are, and that a real fraud had been meditated, would not the vigilance of the searcher upon this occasion have prevented it? Yes, said he, if I had meant to be fraudulent, he would certainly have pre- vented me. Then, as there are some men to be found in all trades who will be fraudulent, 2 Is it nothing, I ask, for the pre-eminence of our staple manufacture, nothing for our reputation abroad, and our consequent export trade, no- thing for our consumers at home, to take care by the due maintenance of legislative provisions, that this commodity be produced in the utmost possible degree of perfection, and that fair and honestdealingsbouldbe, as much as possible ren- dered inseparable from our commercial character. Sir, this brings me to the last division of my <:ase, namely, the law and system of appren- ticeship. I do not feel myself under the ne- cessity of going very much at large into it. I stated in my opening address, that the abroga- tion of the system of apprenticeship appeared to me to be one of the most awful propositions ever submitted to the legislature. It is not enough to shew that a weaver or a cloth-worker can get a knowledge of his trade in a few months or a few years ! How long, I ask, is a boy learning to be a haberdasher or a grocer, or any other retail trade ? They require no skill, and yet apprenticeship to them is universal ; and who shall say that the superior morals of our countrymen have not been owing to the preva- lence of a system which places youth under proper controul during that most critical period of life. when even parental authority is not so effectual as the authority of the master ? A parent can- not, consistently with his fond feelings, exer- cise that strict authority over his son which the master does over his apprentice, from, fourteen to twenty-one. During this impor- tant period, the master is the fittest governor, and I cannot hut impute all the real, substantial, and moral happiness of the commercial part of mankind, to the most excellent system of ap- prenticeship. It is a custom which has prevail- ed time out of mind, till within these few years, that in some parts of the country it has been relaxed, principally owing to the introduction of machinery, and the factory system. It will be seen whether even machinery cannot be ad- ministered with as much effect, and the child at the same time derive all the advantages of a rational system of apprenticeship. Apprentice* ship is not a thing of yesterday, it is like the common law of the land : it has existed from time, to the contrary whereof the memory o* man runneth not. I know no period of its com- mencement. The Act of Elizabeth does not create it, but recognises its long existence, and professes to bring all the laws with respect to apprentices into one Act, the more effectually to enforce them. The Act of Elizabeth may be as obsolete now, as those laws were which it 63 reviewed, when it re-enacted such as were wholesome, and introduced such new ones as ex- perience had rendered necessary ; but the system has existed throughout all British antiquity, be- cause it is both a moral and political institution, "Will any man say that apprenticeship is confined to commercial views and commercial objects ? Will any man say that it ought to depend upon a mere motive of trading, or manufacturing poli- cy ? Will not every person who has thought upon the subject, who has read a single treatise upon political economy, or has looked through the acts of our ancestors, admit that one of the great reasons of apprenticeship is, that youth should be under a particular moral restraint during the most dangerous period of their lives, rather than be left at large, as proposed by those who seek the repeal of the apprentice laws ? Was it not evidently meant that they should receive the rudiments of their trade in one service, and under one master, in preference to being allow- ed to work for whom or where they please, as now proposed; and this at a time of life when the best of us are said proverbially to be unfit to be our own masters ; at a time of life when even among the higher circles, every pain is taken to interpose authority between youth and its pas- sions, between the temptations with which it is il beset, and the liberty to plunge into vice. What rank of society is there so high as not to consi- der the youth of its class as fit subjects of some restraint and authority different from that of the parent ? and is not the fondest parent the most anxious to place them in this state of tempora- ry subjugation? Who then shall have nerve enough to say that by one act of legislative licence they will set afloat the great body of the passions, of the most helpless part of society ; that part which, from poverty and the want of education, is the most subject to error, the most liable to temptation, and the least capable of resisting it ? What ! while law and policy continue to enforce apprenticeship among the better classes of the trading commu- nity, as is the case throughout the whole city of London; and while over high born youths you impose guardians, tutors, and curators of all descriptions, \vill you expose the little helpless progeny of our working population to those ills of soul and body which you tremble to think of \vhen applying the danger to those whose hap- pier fortunes afford them every means of instruc- tion and security? I submit to the, committee that whether looked at in a moral or political point of view, the strongest objections present themselves against that freedom from restraint 65 which you are urged to enact. If you give way in thisinstauce, it would be absurd to argue that the abrogation of apprenticeship will he confined to the woollen trade, and that it will not extend to all the various other branches of manufacture. No man cau imagine for a moment that you can do away apprenticeship among the clothiers* and support it among the manufacturers of lea- ther, iron, and other articles. You must anni- hilate the system altogether, or you must have the courage to enforce it, in this manufacture as well as in others. I do not mean that you need enforce it according to the extent of the statute of Elizabeth, that is in many respects an obsolete statute. I do not say that it is absolutely neces- sary that apprenticeship shall be for seven years. I oo not say that you shall not listen to the observation of an honourable member, which I felt forcibly when it was urged, namely, that when one youth is bound an apprentice, and sees another working by his side who is not bound, getting five or ten shillings a week, while he is getting nothing, he will feel great uneasiness and impatience. In order to legis- late wisely, you must undoubtedly legislate ac- cording to the' temper of human nature. But who will deny that a system of apprentice- ship might not be adopted, improved by all that experience can now suggest. If seven years be inconvenient, say six, or even five years. If it be necessary to give to youth pro- gressive wages, in God's name let it be so ; but surely all this might be clone consistently with that degree of domestic relationship and moral restraint which I have stated as absolutely es- sential to the temporal and eternal welfare of our British youth ! I have said I would rather read the sentiments of others, than trouble you much with my own. I will state in a few words what Air. Justice Blackstone says upon the subject, it is in vol. i. of the Commentaries, page 428. in every branch of it, seems a matter of the last consequence to a trading nation, and may one time or other be found worthy some people thinking of, when they are once convinced of this important truth, that traders alone are the source of all their treasures, and consequently of all their splendor and magnificence. " Since such exquisite skill in the manual operation is required by all any way practically concerned in the woollen manufacture ; do not all our national advantages arise from the wool- len manufacturers, who are to act in every part hereof, for they are not bred in a jew years. Ought not the wisdom of the nation to be alarmed at the daily artifices which are used to decoy and instigate our artists and manufac- turers out of the kingdom, to the emolument of other countues, and the certain ruin of this? And can any thing effectually do this but giving them all due and reasonable encouragement ? ? ' It was apprehended by an honourable Baronet to whom it is impossible not to pay the greatest attention, that when we talk of maintaining ap- prenticeships, we, in fact, mean to prohibit the infantine classes from working, as they do now in factories ; Not at all; they may continue 70 to be employed till they arrive at an age fit to be put apprentice to learn the trade, which they will do so much the sooner from their pre- vious experience. But what I contend for is, the continuation of that system of apprentice- ship which binds the youtli from fourteen years of age to twenty-one, unless you should think proper to qualify the term of its duration. It appeared, by the evidence of 1803, that in the West of England there is scarce a cloth- worker or sheerman who has not served seven years to the trade. The system, it is true, has been much relaxed in Yorkshire. In Gloucester- shire there is a substitute for it, which they call colting. I put this question to several of the masters : " If a system of apprenticeship were adopted, giving a youth progressive wages ac- cording to his skill and merit, but still keeping him under the eye and authority of his master, would it not be infinitely better, and more con- ducive to his moral and general welfare, than al- lowing him, as proposed, to work for \\ho.n he pleases and for what he can get ?" The answer was always in the affirmative. But it was added, that masters would not be troubled with apprentices. I admit that this objection may apply to the higher classes of 71 modern masters, and I regret that it does, but it does not apply to the general description of masters in the woollen trade, the mass of whom are not so elevated or so fashionably averse to domestic trouble and duty. Allow me to ob- serve, that you are sitting here to inquire what may be best to legislate for the future, and if you should think that some improved plan of apprenticeship would he infinitely preferable to the .annihilation of that almost paternal system, you will recommend it with such other im- provements as may suggest themselves for the future government of the woollen manufac- ture. But, take it,, that persons in elevated sta- tions may say, We cannot endure these trou- blesome rogues under our roof. Let them, in that case, discharge their duty by deputy let the foremen, or others whom the masters may appoint, receive the apprentices into their houses and families, and exercise over them, as far as may be, a delegated authority. Is there not ten thousand degrees of difference between that and letting these little premature journey- men and journeywomen roam at large, and be at their own disposal ? It seems to me that if the foreman, ,as is not unusually the case, or other honest and worthy people were to receive three, four, or half-a-dozen at a time, of these young people, into their respective families, it might he rendered an object to themselves, and would get rid of one of the principal objections made by these sensitive masters to the burthen- some part of apprenticeship. I beg it to be recollected, that not one wit- ness has ventured to say there could be any' material difference in the term now considered as necessary for the bringing up of a clotli- worker and sheerman. Even Mr. Law Atkinson speaks of three or four years as the shortest time in which a lad could be fitted for that branch of the business ; so that the question, as it relates to my clients, remains almost un- touched, respecting the necessity of an appren- ticeship for seven years. It does not at all follow, that masters should not employ chil- dren as they do now, till they get to he thir- teen or fourteen years of age, but when they arrive at that age let them become domesticat- ed let them then, at least, be under moral -y-vernment, and learn the na ture of the manu- ture in its various branches as their fathers have done before them, through the medium of a legal apprenticeship. These are the points which I have thought it my duty, as generally as I could, to submit to the committee. When in the first and second place I took the liberty to call your attention to the subject of machinery, I did not think it necessary again to notice the cruel and malignant falsehood which I have so often refuted, namely, that my clients oppose machinery in general, there is not a member of this honourable committee but now fully understands ; and I hope, that from the fidelity of their report it will soon be under- stood by the House and by the whole public, that the only machines which we object to the toleration of, are those, which in letter and spirit, stand already prohibited by law. I im- plore the committee to recollect that machinery may be abused as well as used. I beg they wilt have the goodness to Consult those authorities which have drawn the line between the one and the other ; and, above all, to recollect not only that no necessity in a political point of view has been shown for the gig-mill and shear- ing-frame, but that they have been proved to demonstration to be in themselves absolutely as injurious to the fabric now, as they were in the reigns of Edward the Sixth, and of Philip 74 and Mary, when the former was specifically put down, and the effect of the latter depre- cated and prohibited. Nothing can be more fully proved than the fact of their depo- pulating tendency, except those other facts, which we have equally proved, namely, that they yield no adequate compensation for this great public evil and private calamity, either from the quality or quantity of the cloth which they dress. I endeavoured to show, in the third place, the advantage of continuing, invigorating, and supporting a system of searching and sealing, and I have most abundantly proved, that where the officers have attended to their duty and visited the tenters, the cloths have not been unduly stretched ; while, on the contrary, in those instances in which they have been seduced, or terrified from asserting their function, or, as has been the case for the last three or four years, been persuaded the Suspension Bill forbids their interference, such a deterioration of the ..commodity has taken place, as must, if the present relax- ation from the searching laws were to con- tinue, deeply affect your foreign trade, and To that perhaps at no very emote period. If the mere relaxation of those lau's have done so much mischief, what have we not to dread from their proclaimed repeal? from that com- plete release from all restraint, now so ear- nestly called for by the master-clothiers and their philosophical advocates ? Sir, in the fixed opinion that the woollen manufacture, consi- dered as the staple of England, cannot long survive the proposed alteration of system, I confidently assure myself that it will not have the countenance of this honourable committee. I lastly submitted, That, profiting by expe- rience, that best of teachers, a system of ap- prenticeship might be introduced, free from the objections which have been urged, and yet cal- culated to embrace all those advantages of a moral, social and religious nature, which I so earnestly alluded to, and which I contend wexc so anxiously provided for by our ancestors, and the wisdom of which the greater part of the kingdom,, even up to this day, recognizes by its practice. If, up^n this latter subject, I have gone beyond the cold rules of argument, im- pute it, 1 beseech you, to feelings which I could not restrain, I have but obeyed the impulses of the man and the Christian, in lifting up my 76 voice against the abrogation of a system to which the moral world owes so much. Re- garding its abrogation, or which is the same thing, the repeal of its privileges, as a dissolution of those bands which have hi- therto held the trading part of this trading country together, as breaking down those bar- riers which have been interposed to check and prevent early licentiousness, the sure result of early emancipation, and as tending to effect a revolution of the worst kind, in the character of a vast proportion of my countrymen ; I will continue to protest against such a change be- fore whatever tribunal 1 may be called to argue the question, I will at no moment forget that I am a citizen as well as an advocate, or fail to remind my judges that the proposed repeal of the laws of apprenticeship, while it sinks the immense body ot men, for whom I appear, in titter despair, cannot confine its pernicious ef- fects to the woollen manufacture, but must per- vade the whole kingdom, and successively ope- rate upon every other branch of trade. You are seated here an judges upon this question whatever may be the report you agree to, it cannot but ha\e great, and, I Trust, de- served weight Should you in that report sug- 77 gest some medium measures, some such quali- fications as may meet the interests, sooth the feelings, conciliate the affections, and even, as far as it is safe so to do, indulge the prejudices of the respective parties beiure you, it will have tiie best and happiest effect. but if, in the spirit of stern authority, a bill should be intro- duced expressl} to gratify. one of the parties, I believe it will have the most fatal tendency, and as such I solemnly deprecate it. I do not mean to iiuimate that my clients will want, temper, their conduct has proved the contrary ; it is now three or four years that they have been under what I may truly ca.ll my paternal guid- ance and direction, and I can boldly and con- scientiously assert, that their conduct through- out has been most exemplary ; I have personally the means of knowing, that from the introduc- tion of the first bill of repeal, which happily was thrown out, they have taken no public step whatever but with the knowledge and advice of his Majesty's ministers, or of those noble and eminent persons who so graciously interposed on their behalf, who admitted them to au- diences with the kindest condescension ; who received them into their closets while higher born men* waited in the anti-chamber; who ,lent the most patient ear to their representa- 7$ lions, and reasoned with them upon their case with parental mildness. This conduct had the effect it ought to 'have, it has left an indelible im- pression of gratitude npon their minds, and I be- beiieve, there is not one of the noble and honour* able persons I allude to, for whom these men would nor iay down their lives. Sensibility is not confined to station, as was made apparent this very morning, by the effect of the resolution, to which you condescended to come, it filled the petitioners with the highest respect for you, -and in a moment banished, I hope for ever, all remembrance of the asperity with which they imagined themselves to have been treated in the early sittings of this committee. Be assured, Sir, that his Majesty has in no part of his do- minions a hundred thousand of more loyal subjects than those concerned in the woollen manufacture; it remains with yourself and your honourable colleagues to render them the hap- piest, and make them the best t I am aware, Sir, that from an extreme anxiety to compress my address within the time allotted to this days sitting, I may have omitted many important points upon so extensive a subject, and that the same cause may have rendered my arrangement much less perspicuous than I coulii 79 have wished it to have been. It is my consola- tion that I address those whose long and labo- rious inquiries have made them masters of the subject, whose judgment therefore will supply my defects, and whose urbanity I know will excuse them. To this request, allow me, Sir, to add my grateful thanks to the committee for the attention with which they have been pleased to honour me. 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