HC Deb 11 May 1820 vol 1 cc294-5
Mr. Stuart-Wortley

presented a petition from the manufacturers and other inhabitants, residing in one of the most populous places in the manufacturing district of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the parish of Kirkheaton, complaining of distress, and attributing that distress principally to the duties on wool. He would read to the House a paragraph from the petition, to show the severe nature of the distress experienced, premising that the petition came from persons as well-disposed to the support of government as the inhabitants of any part of the island. The hon. gentleman read the passage in question, which declared that the distress of the petitioners was great beyond example, and that they could not better illustrate its severity than by a reference to the state of the poorer manufacturers in the parish of seven or eight thousand, of whom 1700 had on an average earned, during the present year, only 11½ a week each. The petitioners prayed that the House would take the state of the country into their most serious consideration, and above all, that they: would do something to relieve the unfortunate manufacturers, and to give them bread.

Ordered to be printed.