§ The Marquess of Lansdownepresented petitions from the hand-loom weavers of Troubridge and Frome, in the county of Wilts, complaining of the distress to which they were subject. He was sure, that after noble Lords had read the reports of the handloom commissioners they would consent to afford any remedy which could consistently with the other interests of the country, be applied. There had been many remedies suggested to which their Lordships might object, but there was one to which that House had always been disposed to lend a ready ear. The continued suffering produced by the truck system, which deprived the labourers of a great portion of their means, and caused them to submit to additional privations, had induced their Lordships to consent to an Act which had provided a remedy for that evil. The labourers had now a great advantage within their own power, for they might sue for the whole amount of their wages, and the master could not set off any portion of goods furnished. To the petitions he had the honour to present, there was no one subscribing name connected with the trades' unions, that existed in those places, they had kept aloof from these illegal and dangerous proceedings, and they came before that House to pray for their Lordships' serious consideration.
Lord Broughambelieved nothing could exceed the amount of distress and privation under which the petitioners had suffered. At the same time, with reference to the truck system, he must say, that the same remedy which had been afforded to the manufacturing labourer ought to be extended to the agricultural labourer—for he had heard from a noble Friend, intimately acquainted with an agricultural county, that some of the farmers paid their labourers in kind; that is, they gave them wares instead of money, just as had been done in Staffordshire. They gave the labourers, for instance, two quartern loaves instead of 1s., 1s. 2d., or 1s. 6d. as the case might be. The loaves might be of good weight, but they were frequently made of bad flour; that, in fact, the farmers used up their damaged and unsaleable wheat. Any thing more to be 872 reprobated or discouraged there could not be. What he had detailed had come to his knowledge direct from Devonshire; but he believed, that the same system was pursued in the neighbouring county of Somerset. He must, however, declare, notwithstanding the pleasure he knew his declaration would give to the noble Earl opposite (Earl Stanhope), that though the regulations of the new Poor-law were, in his opinion, wise, useful, and salutary, vet that the effect of this measure had necessarily been to render the condition of the hand-loom weavers worse than it was under the old law.
§ Earl Stanhopeknew, that the hand-loom weavers were obliged to work fourteen or sixteen hours a day, and at what wages? Why if they were paid in money, they would not get 5s. a week. The noble and learned Lord who had made so many eloquent appeals against negro slavery, should know that the negro slaves earned more, according to the value of money in the colonies, than what the unfortunate hand-loom weavers could earn. Unless the commission of inquiry into the condition of the hand-loom weavers was to be a mere delusion, they must apply a much more effectual remedy to the distress of these labourers than a simple alteration of the truck system.
The Earl of Haddingtonagreed in the objections which had been urged by the noble Marquess and the noble and learned Lord against the truck system. He knew of his own knowledge, that in the counties which had been referred to, many of the women were engaged in the manufacture of lace, and he believed, that they were paid by a system of truck—that is, that the grocers and others who took the lace obliged the women to take in exchange their own goods, some of which they might not require, and he did not see how the remedies which had been passed could be applied by these women.
§ Earl Stanhopewished to call the attention of noble Lords to the pith of the petition. The petitioners stated the evil effects of power-loom machinery, to which they ascribed their own loss of employment; and they stated, that whenever the value of labour sunk, the value of agricultural produce would fall—a sentiment in which he fully concurred.
§ The petitions were laid on the Table.