of calico, at 1s. 44d. per yard; 3 yards | sentation of all the manufacturing towns of 468 linen, at 2s. 6d. per yard; half piece of the kingdom where the Truck-system preribbon; 4 yards broad cloth, at 268. vailed. per yard; 2 do. at 25s.; 1 dozen of calico fronts; 5 yards of cord, at 9s. 6d. per yard; a hat, at 18s. 6d.; an umbrella, at 17. 10s.; 7 yards print, at 2s. 3d. per yard; 22 yards of dimity; half a yard of cambric; 10 silk handkerchiefs; 3 scarfs; a scarf; a parasol; 2 metal foreign watches; a tea-chest; 25 yards of linen; 2 bushels of Dutch onions; 7 yards of broad cloth; 2 do.; 8 yards of cord; a broach; 15 bags. An old rotten mourning pall, consisting of 10 yards of velveteen, and valued at 15s. tradesmen were going to decay, gradually In all such towns the retail retreating from between the all-engrossing capitalist and the dissatisfied populace, both of whom they had hitherto kept from coming into unpleasant contact with each other. The hon. Member for Aberdeen might, perhaps, ask of what consequence it was that the wealth of one class was gradually transferred to another, provided the whole amount was not diminished, he would answer, that it was better, in a moral and political point of view, to have three middle class, in every town, rather than or four thousand independent men of the allow it to be divided between a few engrossing capitalists, and a multitude of the Government must join with him in dependent and starving workmen. Either putting an end to the Truck-system, or it must look forward to that system becoming universal. The masters who now paid in money informed the legislature, by their petitions, that they could not possibly stand out against this system; that, though they had not embarked in it, from When such articles were given as wages, it was plain that the man who had to sell them, to provide for the daily wants of his family, must be a great sufferer. liable, too, he believed, to the penalties of He was the Hawker's Act. But if the system were suffered to continue, the law must be altered in many respects. For example, there is a prohibition to sell damaged meat or flour, but no prohibition to give either to workmen for wages, and therefore, the law suffered the iniquitous master to do that which it would not allow the iniqui-honourable motives, expecting that Partous shopkeeper to do. Another case to which he would allude, was this:—A man had received no wages for several weeks, but he had been paid in flour, bacon, and beef. The flour he sold to purchase shoes, losing by it 4d. per stone. debt for his lodgings, and having no He was in money to pay for them, was obliged to give bacon and beef at a heavy loss. He did not mean to say that every case was as bad as this, but the plan had, in all cases, similar features of oppression, and in all the documents he had seen on the subject, similar instances of fraud were mentioned. The persons principally affected by the system were the workmen, whose hardship he had, perhaps, sufficiently described, the retail dealers, and the master manufacturers. The case of the retail tradesman, though deserving of consideration, was not so urgent as that of the other two. In the Bolton resolutions, however, it was stated that, in that town, there were 500 shops and public-houses, at an annual rental of 201. each, and upwards, and that the owners houses could not possibly pay either rent of these or taxes, unless the wages of the workmen were paid in money. The case of Bolton was, he apprehended, an accurate repre liament would put an end to it, yet, in consequence of the reduction of the price of their commodities, partly caused by the Truck-masters obtaining them out of the goods they forced their workmen to take, them to act on the same plan, or submit they found that it would be necessary for to bankruptcy and ruin. If the Truckmaster gained fifteen per cent on the goods he forced his workmen to take, that was equivalent to a reduction of fifteen per cent on the cost, and he could afford to sell so much cheaper than the master who paid in money. The Truck-master was therefore enabled to undersell the master who paid in money, whose only remedy was, to lower the wages of his men fifteen per cent. The Truck-master, however, did the same, and thus there was, owing to this system, a continued and forced reduction of prices, which all fell ultimately on the poor labourer, and starved him out of existence. Necessity on the one hand, and avarice on the other, urged them both on in this cruel race, till them sunk exhausted by the fatigue. The the poor overloaded animals who carried hon. Member for Aberdeen would, perhaps, say, let the workman leave the Truck-master; but that was not so easy. tive, for it shewed that of one hundred and sixteen iron-masters not above three had opened shops since 1825. It also shewed, that of the furnaces out of blast, the greater number belonged to the money-paying masters, who were unequal to sustain a competition with those who paid wages in goods. The Truck System had not arisen, therefore, from the change in the currency, but from the spirit of overreaching avarice and competition, which was unfortunately at all times too prevalent in this country. He knew, also, that at no time were gold and silver more abundant than at present, and any man of good credit had no occasion to want either kind of currency. He had been informed by a respectable constituent of his, who turned over 1,000l. in cash weekly, that at present, though that district was formerly the head-quarters of false coiners, that he never thought of examining a single shilling or sovereign. One effect of the Truck System, if allowed to continue, would be to displace the coin of the realm, and substitute for it the truck notes. At present Truck-masters supply their shops with small bills, at three or four months date, which form no small part of the circulating medium of some districts. To any person who should regard the Truck System favourably, as tending to enable us to enter into competition with foreigners, he would remark, that the price of our manufactures must always be regulated by the price of similar manufactures made in the foreign country, and to that price, be it what it may, our manufacturers must at all times accommodate themselves. Our Truck System was not at all necessary as an engine in reducing prices to an equality in all parts of the world. The Bill he proposed to introduce would re-enact the law of 1820; the first clause would prohibit all payments in goods, either directly or indirectly; the second would empower magis The Truck master did not begin his exactions till his victim was in his debt, and then it was impossible for him to escape. Besides, the Truck-master was the man who, from underselling the money-paying master, received the most orders; he could employ more hands on his own terms; while the other was obliged to dismiss his workmen, because his low priced-rival would beat him in the market. The continuance of the system would bear down all classes to one grasping, revolutionary equality, and when the spirit of discontent under unjust sufferings was spread through our dense population, it was to be apprehended, that neither property nor life would be safe. The system destroyed, too, all means of determining the value of commodities, by removing the wages of labour, the great element of the calculation. One man paid his labourers in ready cash, but another paid them in goods, on which he obtained a large profit, and for which he did not pay till at the end of three or six months. The hon. Member for Aberdeen had stated, that the distress of the country was the cause of the Truck System, but that system existed during the war, when there was no distress, and when the markets were rising. Those who thought it was owing to the change in our currency were equally mistaken, as was proved by the same fact. The Truck System had originated, and was flourishing, before our return to a metallic currency. Though that might have aggravated its evils, and extended its operation, he must deny that the change in the currency was the cause. He held in his hand an account of the number of iron-masters who had embarked in the Truck System within a certain district, and by that it appeared, that there were only three who had begun since 1825. In this district there were one hundred and sixteen blast furnaces, sixtysix of which belonged to money-paying masters, and fifty to Truck-masters; seventy-one are in blast, and of these thirty-trates to compel the production, by persons seven belong to the former, and thirty-four to the latter description of masters; there are forty-five, therefore, out of blast, of which thirty belong to money-paying, and fifteen to Truck-masters. The truck men, however, it was added, are beginning to be afraid, and draw back; they begin to pay in money, and most probably will decry their old practices when they can no longer carry them on with safety. This account was, he thought, very instruc accused, of their books and papers as evidence; and the third clause would make a very serious addition to the penal. ties for offences. It was chiefly by supplying the extraordinary omission of all former Acts, in not giving magistrates the power to summon evidences before them, that he looked for the success of his measure. He hoped something, too, from augmenting the penalties, and it was his opinion, that the second offence should be made a misdemeanor. Magistrates who had had the greatest opportunity of observing the workings of the Truck System were of opinion, that these principal clauses would answer the end he proposed; but he had other means of providing against the continuance of the evils he had mentioned. It would be just, he thought, to give a workman the power of voiding a contract with any master who should attempt to force him to receive goods in payment of his wages. He would also take from the owner of a Truck-shop the power of recovering any debts due from their workmen, and he would give to workmen a power to recover their wages in money though they had been paid in truck. It was only by subjecting the master to great inconveniences, and to considerable danger, that he would be compelled to abandon a practice of which he had reaped the profit. One great advantage which would result from allowing the workman to bring his action for his wages would be, he thought, to interest juries and the public in the cause; and if that were the case, he could have no doubt that persons interested would willingly contribute, and form a fund to enable workmen to prosecute their claims and defend their rights. He had been asked, would he compel a manufacturer who imported flour from America to sell that through a factor to a merchant, who might sell it with a profit to a retail dealer, to be sold by him, after making something by it, to the manufacturer's workmen, instead of allowing the manufacturer to sell it to them himself? He had been asked if he meant to deprive a manufacturer of benefitting himself and his workmen by selling them provisions. To both questions he answered in the negative. He meant to take from the manufacturer no right he now possessed. He meant to propose, in this respect, no restrictions not already established by the law. If a master paid his men in money, and they chose, willingly and freely, to lay it out at his shop, the law did not prevent them from doing so. He meant to interfere with the free agency of neither, but to maintain the independence of both. But if the master, holding his workman in thraldom, refused to pay him his wages in money, if he should draw him into his debt, and formally or evasively refuse to pay him for his work, or compel the man to expend his wages in one particular shop, then the law ought, he thought, to inter fere and stigmatize and punish the offender. If the competition of business required the master to reduce his men's wages to one shilling, let it be so, but let the workman have that shilling in his pocket. He called on the Gentlemen who heard him, to make the case of the workmen their own. In the name of the suffering and starving mechanics he implored the interposition of Parliament. As the law stood there was no standard of wages but the conscience of the Truck-master, and he must protest against so fearful a license. The law incited men to commit evil, and the hon. Member for Aberdeen's remedy would only leave them a choice of evils. The law could not remain in its present state. It allowed plunder and oppression--it sacrificed the honest master and the industrious workman, and it protected the dishonest manufacturer in making both of them his victims. The workman's strength and his skill were his only property, and in the quiet possession of them the law ought to secure him. The number and the intelligence of our artizans were the main springs of the national wealth--the sources of our pre-eminence among the people of the earth-and if the House desired to preserve the national glory untarnished, the national wealth unimpaired, let it take measures to protect the workmen, and not drive them into foreign countries. The House would consult the best interests of the nation by rendering the mechanic and the manufacturing artizan satisfied with the laws under which he lived. He cordially concurred with his right hon. friend the Member for Liverpool, who said, on the first night of the Session, "that it was by studying to benefit to the utmost the industrious classes, that we could alone lay any solid basis of happiness, or revive the national property;" and thinking that the measure he proposed would tend to benefit the industrious classes, he should move for leave to bring in a Bill to render more effectual the laws requiring Payment of Wages in Money. He Sir Christopher Cole seconded the Motion. He thought, he said, that it was their duty to put an end to the truck, and he entirely concurred in all the remarks made by his hon. friend. spoke, he said, the sentiments of the county which he represented, and which stood high and justly as a manufacturing county. He had already presented a pe Mr. Herries concurred with his right hon. friend, both as to the importance of the subject, and the impropriety of then discussing it; he would recommend that the Bill should be brought in, and the amendment which the hon. Member for Aberdeen meant to propose, might be brought forward on the second reading, which would be a better time for discussing it than this evening. The House had heard from the hon. Gentleman what his object was-that he did not mean to prevent a bona fide sale of articles between master and man, but only that system of forced barter of which the workmen complained. tition on the subject from 3,000 workmen, | to be measured by any other standard who did not complain themselves of suf- than that generally adopted by the comfering under the Truck System, but who munity as the measure of value. But he were apprehensive that it might be ex- must stop, only repeating, th t he trusted tended to them, and for their own sake, as the House would not then be pressed well as for the sake of those who were into a discussion of the question. suffering under it, they with great propriety petitioned against it. The workmen thought truly, that if the system were generally to prevail, that their condition would be as bad as that of the West Indian Negroes, and that they would have no wages, and no subsistence, but what their employer doled out to them. He trusted that the legislature would never permit the poor man to be driven to that extremity, and as far as his power went, he would aid such an object. He never would permit, if he could prevent it, the extension of that genuine English spirit of independence which was one of the best features in our national character. The manufacturers of Merthyr Tydvill wished, he believed, to their people happy, and he knew that one of them had established schools for the children of his workmen, as well as built houses for their accommodation. He would say no more than that it was his determination to give his hon. friend all the support in his power in carrying the measure to a successful termination. see He Mr. Huskisson complimented the hon. Member for Staffordshire on the good feeling which prevailed in every part of his speech. With him he agreed, that the House ought to legislate on this subject, but he was not quite prepared to say that the Bill of his hon. friend came fully up to his views. He admitted that the Truck System was a great evil, which ought to be abated, but the interference involved other principles and other considerations which his hon. friend had not taken sufficiently into the account. would not then argue the question, as his hon. friend, to his regret, had selected a day for introducing the subject which was generally understood not to be a day for debating any question; he would recommend that some more convenient opportunity should be taken to discuss the measure. It involved the contentment and well-being of a portion of the community well entitled to the consideration of the House. He knew that the suffering of those who already endured a great deal would be much aggravated, were the House to allow the value of their labour Mr. Littleton, Mr. Hume, and Colonel Davies, each made a few observations on the course of proceeding, when it was agreed that the debate should stand adjourned to the next day. Mr. Davies Gilbert said, he agreed with Mr. Hume in his opposition to the Bill, which he thought instead of being an advantage would be sure to operate to the prejudice of the workmen. Wishing as well to them as any Gentleman of that House, he should, on that account, feel it his duty to oppose the Bill, because he thought it would militate against the object the hon. Member had in view. The further debate on the subject was then adjourned till the next day. HOUSE OF LORDS, MINUTES.] Returns presented. Accounts of the Profit or Petitions were presented By the Earl of SHAFTESBURY, from the Counties of Chester and Lancaster, against the East India Monopoly:-By Earl FITZWILLIAM, from the Borough of Malton, Yorkshire, praying for a revision of the Criminal Code:-By the Earl of FALMOUTH, from Truro, against inflicting the punishment of Death for Forgery :-By Lord KING, from Kingston-upon-Hull, against the inflic tion of Capital Punishment for offences against Property : -By Lord WHARNCLIFFE, from Selby, Yorkshire, against the East India Monopoly:--By the Earl of MORLEY from Plymouth, praying for a revision of the Criminal Code:-- By the Marquis of BUTE, from Glasgow, against the East The Mutiny Bills, and the Pensions' Duties, &c. Bill, went NATIONAL DISTRESS.] The Duke of Richmond presented Petitions from Barnes, and two other places in Surrey, praying for the repeal of the Malt Tax; from three hundreds of Newport, Bucks, complaining of Distress, and praying for relief; and from Spilsby, Lincolnshire, complaining of Agricultural Distress, and particularly of the Wool Laws. The Marquis of Lansdown presented a Petition from Dursley, Gloucestershire, complaining of Distress, and praying for relief. Also a similar Petition from Frome, Somersetshire, pointing out the opening of the trade with India as one of the means of relief. The Earl of Caernarvon presented a Petition to the same effect from the merchants and manufacturers of Manchester, assembled at a public meeting. This Petition was signed by 10,000 persons; and the reason the number of signatures was so limited was, that the petitioners were anxious to send it up in time to be presented before the Noble Duke (Richmond) made the Motion, the notice of which stood on their Lordships' Table for discussion this night. It was placed in his hands the day before the first notice of this Motion was given. The petitioners set forth what they conceived to be the causes of the present distresses of the country, and also suggested what appeared to them to be the most appropriate remedies. Two remedies had been suggested -one was the opening of the trade to China, and another was the reduction of taxation to that state in which it stood in the year 1791. They complained of the keeping up an enormous standing army, which swallowed up so much of the revenue of the country, and prayed for a reduction of the taxes in that respect, and also for a reduction in the salaries and allow ances of public officers, and generally in the amount of expenditure of every description. The great, enormous, and unnecessary load of taxation they represented as the main cause of their grievances, and they contended, that after all the reductions which had been made, there were many articles in which a great reduction of duties might still be made, and great relief given; and they instanced particularly those cases in which the amount of the duties exceeded the price of the commodities. The duties on tobacco and sugar, for instance, might be any loss to the revenue; for the increased reduced, and that, too, without much, if consumption would probably keep the revenue as high as before. circumstance connected with this Petition There was one to which he was desirous particularly to call the attention of the House, and that was, that it did not contain a word of angry complaint and invective, nor did it which had a tendency to produce revolurecommend unions of men for purposes tions and the subversion of the laws. This was a remarkable feature in the petition, considering that it came from such a populous place and at a time of such general distress; and it certainly recommended attention of the House.-Petition read. the case of the petitioners to the favourable The Duke of Richmond said, that he STATE OF THE LABOURING CLASSES.] tention of their Lordships to a Motion of rose for the purpose of calling the atwhich he had given notice. In doing so, he must confess that he could not avoid looking with great apprehension at the task he had undertaken,-not because he entertained any doubt of the propriety, nay, of the absolute necessity of the inquiry he meant to propose, but because he was fully sensible of his own want of ability, of his own want of experience, and of his question of so much importance, and of so own want of information, to cope with a great extent,-gage the splendid talents and the great -a question worthy to enacquirements of many of the noble Lords whom he saw around him, and whose assistance and support he trusted he should receive on the present occasion. Motion he should have the honour to subCommittee be appointed to inquire into mit to their Lordships was, "that a Select the internal state of the country, so far as it related to the condition of the working classes, and to the effect of taxation on productive industry." In order to entitle himself to call upon their Lordships to give their support to this Motion, it would be necessary that he should prove that there was something peculiar,-something which, while it was productive of present mischief, was pregnant also with future calamity, in the condition of that portion of his Majesty's subjects to which his Motion related. Many cases of severe dis The |