WOOL TRADE. (Hansard, 1 May 1828)

§ The Duke of Richmond
rose to postpone his motion for referring the Petitions of the Wool-growers to a Committee of Inquiry, until Monday.

§ The Earl of Harewood
presented a petition from several merchants of London, who were not importers of foreign wool, but who prayed that no further duty might be levied on the importation of foreign wool.

The Earl of Malmesbury
said, he was not surprised that the petitioners prayed that there might be no increase of duty on 238 foreign wool imported, because such increase would be injurious to their interests. But the petitioners went further, and prayed their lordships not to go into a committee of inquiry, which their lordships had been requested to do by thousands of petitions, stating a strong case of distress, Was that the part of candid men? Could such conduct fail to convey an idea, that the present petitioners were afraid of inquiry?

§ The Earl of Harewood
disclaimed, on the part of the petitioners, any wish, in asking their lordships not to go into an inquiry, to prevent the complaints of the opposite petitioners being heard. They had other reasons for their petition. Their lordships were, he was afraid, not aware of the excessive mischief which was done to the manufacturer and merchant by-instituting an inquiry into all the minute details of their business. By that means many things were made known which were injurious to them. The simple meaning of the petition which he had presented was this:—after the lapse of a considerable time, the woollen manufactures were gradually reviving, under a duty of one penny upon the importation of foreign wool. The dismay talked of by the petitioners was the dismay which would be introduced into large manufacturing districts by the agitation of the subject; and they prayed their lordships not to go into a committee, in order to place an additional tax on foreign wool, as the experiment had been tried and had failed. The petitioners therefore simply said, that as the experiment had been tried and failed, they deprecated going into a committee of inquiry, where examinations would be taken and reported all over the world, throwing dismay into the minds of those engaged in the woollen trade, at the very moment when that trade was reviving.

The Earl of Malmesbury
thought, that the representations of these petitioners would not justify their lordships in withholding that fair inquiry to which the agriculturists were entitled.

§ The Duke of Wellington
said, he would give his consent to a committee of inquiry, on the very grounds stated by the noble lord—namely, on purpose to enter into a fair inquiry of the cause of depression of the wool-growers, but by no means with the intention of following that inquiry up by laying a duty on the imported article. His own opinion was, that the causes of 239 the depression were not to be removed by an additional duty.

The Marquis of Salisbury
said, that the trade had decreased since the low duty. The alteration, therefore, had injured the manufacturers, decreased the revenue, and ruined the agriculturists. If ever a primâ facie case for inquiry was made out, this was that case.

§ Lord Wharncliffe
said, that as it was now declared, that ministers would not consent to any augmentation of duty, it would be losing time to go into a committee. Noble lords were mistaken, if they supposed inquiries of that kind did no I harm. Many of their lordships lived at a great distance from the manufacturing districts, and had no idea of the distress and alarm occasioned by a mention even of altering the duty.

§ The Duke of Richmond
said, he could conceive that the inquiry might be beneficial, although it led to levying no additional duty. He would suppose, as there were large tracts of poor land in this country, on which the short-woolled sheep were now reared, that it should be made out before the committee, that the price of short wool could not pay them; they might be induced to cultivate sheep with long wool, and of the market for that they had a monopoly. The wool-growers came to them in a respectful manner; and were they to be turned away without inquiry? He called upon their lordships to allow the agriculturists to prove their case; and if it should turn out not to be a strong one, he would pledge himself to vote against it.