the Government, who are taking steps to pacify Ireland, would have prevented me from offering any opposition to the bill. But I cannot compromise the rights of the people, and consent to a violation of property. If I had happened to be a member of his Majesty's government, I might have seen reason to be convinced of the indispensable necessity of such an arrangement. The course which I think I should then have adopted is this-I should have endeavoured to prevail on those who are anxious for the measure, to make it prospective. It would have been only in the case of their satisfying me of the absolute necessity of it, to secure the success of the other, that I should have consented to it, in its present state. I should not have yielded, until the inseparable connection between the two measures had been demonstrated to me. I have lived, Sir, too long in public, and mixed too much in its affairs, not to know, that in such a complicated state of things, there may have existed some overruling necessity, to which ministers are forced to yield. Having, however, no means of knowing whether this necessity does or does not exist, and, on the other hand, being most anxious to do nothing which may, by possibility, seem to evince a desire to delay or impede the other great measure, I feel it proper, under this great difficulty, to abstain from voting at all. My resolution will, I hope, have no effect upon others. I have not suggested this course to others, and I do not wish others to adopt it; but, with reference to the injustice of the measure, and to the precedent it establishes, I cannot conscientiously do otherwise.

STATE OF THE SILK TRADE.

April 13.

Mr. Fyler moved, "That a Select Committee be appointed to inquire into the State of the Silk Trade." After the motion had been supported by Mr. Robinson, Mr. Baring, and Mr. Sadler, and opposed by Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald,

Mr. HUSKISSON rose and said:-I confess, Sir, that I have derived no small degree of satisfaction from finding that my right honourable friend and his colleagues have, after a careful examination of the subject, and of the various representations of the manufacturers and others concerned in the Silk trade, come to the resolution to persevere in the measure which it was my duty, when in office, to recommend for the adoption of the House. Nor has this gratification been materially diminished by the discouraging denouncement of the honourable member for Callington. Although that honourable member predicted, in 1824, the downfall of this trade, and now contends that the prophecy has been fulfilled, he nevertheless feels it necessary to prophecy a second time its reiterated ruin. In the same way he has seen the ruin of our trade in cotton and woollen inevitable, because from the high price of provisions in this country, it is impossible that foreigners should not supplant us in the market. Now, Sir, from recollecting what has happened with respect to America, the most enterprizing of our competitors in commerce, I see no reason to apprehend the fulfilment of this part of the honourable member's prophecy; for though, in the year 1824, America placed a protecting duty of thirty or forty per cent. on cottons, which, in 1828, was raised to seventy or eighty per cent., still she feels it impossible to maintain to herself the extensive supply of her own market. I say, Sir, when I see this, and know that the Americans are our most formidable com

petitors, I cannot partake of the desponding feelings of the honourable member. I agree with him, that we have as much to dread from America as from any other country; but, if provisions are cheap there, labour is dear, machinery is costly, and other expenses are so great, that I have no fear that America will drive us out of other markets, much more out of our own, which is the position of my honourable friend. Some weeks ago we were informed, on the authority of the President of the Board of Trade, that it was the fixed determination of his Majesty's Government not to have recourse to the system of prohibition. When I heard of that determination, Sir, I felt it was my duty to attend in my place in this House to-night and to give my support to Government, in any further alteration which it may be found necessary to make, to carry into execution that system, which it is now agreed, ought to be held sacred.

Sir, the honourable member for Newark has exhibited his propositions, as if he had no wish to return to the system of prohibitions; but all his arguments went to show, that nothing but prohibition can save the trade from the difficulties and dangers in which it is involved. It is impossible that the House can enter into the consideration of any proposal not founded either on protec tion or on prohibition. It is protection which is proposed by my right honourable friend; but it is prohibition which is required by the throwsters and weavers. Το this question there are three parties-the throwster, the silk manufacturer, and lastly, the public; certainly not the least interested or least important party in this question, but who, in the manner in which it has hitherto been argued, have been put out of view. The public are the great consumers of the article; they indulge in silk dresses and wear silks, from which I do not wish to see them desist, like the honourable member for Newark. I cannot see without

concern-not to use a stronger expression-the appearance of pride and self-conceit, which would think it a duty to forbid the lower classes from indulging in those luxuries which he would reserve for the higher. Sir, in a country like this, not divided into castes and tribes by rigid laws, I cannot conceive that it is right to forbid any portion of his Majesty's subjects those enjoyments which stimulate industry, and, while they contribute to the innocent gratification of the people, do not diminish the national resources. I, for one, must say, that I consider the public benefited by those facilities which place the enjoyment and luxury of a silk dress within the reach of a greater number of perWhat formerly cost twelve shillings may now be ob tained for four, and this has brought the manufacture within the reach of a greater number of persons.

sons.

With respect to the throwster, Sir, I shall now examine what distress has been brought on him by the alterations in the law, effected since 1824. Before those alterations, he was protected by a duty equal to 14s. 7d. on thrown silk, and there being a duty of from 4s. to 5s. on the raw silk, he was protected to the amount of 9s. on the manufacture of his thrown silk. The honourable member for Coventry has referred to the situation of the throwster in 1824. In March 1824, the Government announced, that at the end of two years and a quarter the prohibition to import manufactured silk should be put an end to. In this declaration the House concurred, and the act for carrying it into execution was passed into a law. The throwsters, we were told by the honourable member for Callington, would be the first victims. He said distinctly, that he was satisfied his prophecy would be a true one, and that the capitalist would disentangle his capital from the mills. He would cease to employ his people, and they would be left to perish, for want of employment. What, however, is the fact? The average of the silk worked up by all the

mills of this country, for the years 1821, 1822, and 1823, was 1,947,000lbs. From 1824 to 1826, the throwsters knew of the change that was about to ensue in 1826; and they might have applied themselves, (having the benefit of my honourable friend's advice,) to remove their capital from the mills, and turn adrift their workmen. Did they do so? Though they were aware of this change, the quantity of silk they worked up increased from 1,947,000lbs., the average of the three preceding years, to 2,738,000lbs. in the two following years. They benefited then, by this change, very nearly one million of pounds a year.

It was in July 1826, that the act came into operation; so that we have only 1827 and 1828, as two complete years, to judge by; and what is the average consumption of silk in the silk mills of this country in those two years? Not less than 3,960,000lbs.; so that since the year 1824, the average has increased two million pounds. So much for the work the throwster has performed. I will now speak of the quantity of thrown silk imported. Before the alteration of the duty, on the average of three years, there were 355,000lbs. of thrown silk imported in the year. On the average of the two years after the change was announced, the quantity imported was 426,000lbs.; and since the duty has been lowered from 78. 6d. to 58., the average of the two last years has been 476,000lbs.; so that the quantity imported since, compared with the quantity imported antecedent to, the lowering of the duties, has only increased a mere trifle. The results then of this are, that the throwster has had double the quantity. of work; there has been no diminution of the quantity worked up before the notification; the throwster has not given up his mills; and his hands have not been thrown out of work. So much for my honourable friend's predictions.

According to the best information which I have been able to obtain, the expense of manufacturing thrown silk in this country is about five shillings; in Italy it is about three