§ Mr. J. Woodpresented a Petition from the Cotton-Weavers, &c. of Preston, complaining of the very depressed state of their trade. The Petition, the hon. Member stated, was signed by 7,000 weavers, and he felt great pain in presenting it, because, 1006 although he was fully aware of the great distress prevailing amongst this industrious and hard-working class of persons, he differed from them in opinion as to the best mode of obtaining relief. The petition complained that of late such was the falling-off in this branch of manufactures, that they had to work from twelve to fourteen hours a day to obtain the sum of "ten-pence," and in most instances there was a family consisting of from four to six persons to subsist upon this miserable pittance. The petitioners attributed this serious depression in their trade to the great and increasing exportation of Cotton Twist. They stated that the exports of this article in 1803 only amounted to five millions of pounds, whilst in 1828 they amounted to no less than sixty millions of pounds. The remedy which they pointed out was this:—That the duty on the raw material should be entirely taken off, and that a duty of eight per cent should be imposed on the exportation of Cotton Twist. He entirely dissented from the prayer of the petition, and had expressed such dissent, but at the same time the petitioners had intrusted him to present it, and he considered it as a proof of their confidence in the honesty of his intentions. He felt assured if the alteration in the duties were to take place as prayed for by the petitioners, that it would be attended with the fatal result of ruining the Cotton Twist manufacturers, and would fail to give permanent relief to the petitioners. He considered that even a duty of two per cent on Twist would drive the manufacture of that article to other countries. The introduction of machinery was also believed by them to be one of the chief causes of their distress; but in this he also differed in opinion from them, and felt confident, that if the introduction of machinery were prohibited, and the manufacture confined to hand labour, in a very few years the whole trade would be removed from this country, and carried on where machinery was allowed to be used. He felt it a duty to present this petition, however painful it was to him to differ in opinion from so numerous a body of his constituents, with whose habits and condition he was perfectly acquainted; and a more orderly, a more industrious class of persons, he could safely say, never addressed that House. In times of the greatest distress they had borne their sufferings with patience, and never were 1007 excited to those acts of outrage which led to the destruction of machinery, and marked other places. Having stated to the House the remedy pointed out by the petitioners, he would now state what he thought would be the best means of giving them relief. Independently of the injury done to these individuals by the improvement in machinery, he considered that the greatest and most injurious consequence arose from the present system of Corn-laws. It was well known that the weavers in this country could supply a much larger quantity of goods than the consumption demanded, and consequently they were driven to foreign markets; but if we expected foreigners to purchase our manufactured goods, they, in return, expected we should take their corn, the duty upon which amounted to a prohibition. He really did consider that until some alteration took place in our Corn-laws it was useless to expect any material increase of demand abroad for our manufactures. One part of the petition he did concur in, which was that a reduction of the duty on Cotton Wool would be attended with a beneficial result.
§ Mr. Humewished to say one word on this petition. So far from believing that the plan recommended by the petitioners would afford relief, he was quite satisfied that what they asked would only add to their difficulties. A great number of persons were maintained by the manufacture of Cotton Twist for exportation, and if a duty were laid on that article on its being exported, all those individuals would be thrown out of employment. He was not however surprised that those petitioners complained and recommended as a remedy that which would only do mischief. When he heard men in the city and elsewhere,—men holding high rank and station, and who ought to be better informed, inveighing against the exportation of Cotton Twist as a dreadful evil to this country,—when such men made complaints of that nature, the House need not be surprised at the mistake into which the weavers had fallen. In one point, however, he agreed with the petitioners. He thought that the raw material ought to be introduced into this country at as cheap a rate as possible. In that principle he was satisfied, they were right; though the price of cotton was not now high, yet, if it were lower, it would increase the quantity of employment.
§ The Petition was laid on the Table,