Sitting of 14 March 1815

DUTY ON COTTON.
MR. Finlaypresented a petition from the cotton-spinners and manufacturers of Glasgow, praying for a repeal of the duty on cotton, and staling that the drawback on cotton exported would be quite ineffectual. The hon. member, in presenting the petition, made some observations on the impolicy of the duty proposed to be laid on cotton imported in foreign ships. The effect of this, he observed, would be to make a depôt of cotton wool in Holland or France. American ships would be employed to bring the cotton from America to the continent, and British ships would be employed merely as lighters to transport it across the Channel. The American government would not be so neglectful as to fail to impose some countervailing duty on the exportation of cotton wool from that country, in British ships, so that, without benefiting either our navigation or our revenue, the duty would only tend to excite jealousy between the two countries. The progress of the cotton manufactories in France, Prussia, Saxony, and other continental countries, was such as to threaten an ascendancy in those articles, and to render it doubly impolitic to throw any additional burthens upon our manufacturers. It was his intention to move on some future day for a select committee to inquire into the state of the cotton manufactories, and to report their opinions thereon.
Ordered to lie on the table.
Mr. Whitbreadsaid, that in consequence of a communication from the noble viscount, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, who was indisposed, he should defer his motion respecting our foreign relations, which stood for to-morrow, to Monday; and he hoped that, as he had stated the reason for his postponement, his motion on that day
[174
would be allowed to take precedence of the orders of the day.
Mr. Hornerasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer when a copy of the treaty-concluded with America would be laid before the House, and whether it was intended to accompany it with copies of the correspondence which took place in the course of the negociation at Ghent?
The Chancellor of the Exchequerreplied, that the treaty would, no doubt, be laid before the House; but that he was not aware of any intention to present the papers alluded to by the hon. and learned gentleman, respecting the conduct of the negociations at Ghent.