complication of real evils, and have to complain of just grievances, which will fully account for their present universal demand to obtain a fair chosen House of Commons, without supposing them to be traitors to the state, and to have forfeited their right to the mild and salutary system under which they were born; that the petitioners are fully persuaded, that if the bills now pending should pass into a law for any given term of years, and the present system of mal-administration should continue, further excuse will be found for prolonging the operation of these unconstitutional measures after the given term of years should have expired; that moreover the petitioners are assured, that none of the complaints of the people will or can have so direct a tendency to bring the House and the whole legislature into contempt, as the passing of these bills; and they would therefore urge, that their own regard for the character and consequence of the House, as well as for the welfare of the nation, must equally induce the House not to pass the said bills into laws."

Ordered to lie on the table, and to be printed.

MANCHESTER MEETING PETITION OF D. DAWSON, &C.] Lord Milton said, that he had a petition to present to the House, which, though it was neither so long as the last nor the result of so numerous a meeting, was yet of very considerable importance. It came from the father, or rather from the family (as it was signed by the father and three brothers, of one who had lost his life on the fatal 16th of August. The petitioner stated, that the deceased went in company with several others, to the meeting held on that day at Manchester, that on endeavouring to escape from the hustings, near which he was standing, he received two strokes on the head from a sword; and that in consequence of the wounds he soon afterwards died. This statement, he found, was confirmed by the returns of the Manchester infirmary, and by a verdict of a coroner's inquest, which stated, that the deceased had died in consequence of the cuts which he had received with some sharp instrument, but that it was unknown by whom those cuts were inflicted. The petitioners then proceeded to state, that they had always been taught to believe that in this country there was no wrong, without a remedy; but, un

fortunately, in this case it was impossible to discover the individual by whom the fatal blows were given. They therefore prayed the House, before it passed any new restrictive laws, to take into their most serious consideration those events which during the last few months had divided one class of people from another, That this petition was not got up to serve any party purposes was evident from the fact, that the whole of the petition was in the hand-writing of one of the brothers of the deceased. Besides, the coarse and homely expressions in which it was couched proved that it was the result of genuine and unrepressed feeling. He knew, after what had passed within the walls of that House, that it was not pos sible for the prayer of the petition to be complied with: he hoped, however, that the House would never have cause to repent of the line of conduct which it had recently adopted.

The petition was brought up and read," It purported to be the petition of David Dawson, yeoman of Strines Dale, in Saddleworth, Yorkshire, and John Dawson, Samuel Dawson, and James Dawson, brothers to the there-under-written Edmund Dawson, and sat forth,

"That Edmund Dawson, son to the said David Dawson, yeoman, went to Manchester on the 16th of August last, in good health, in order to attend a legal meeting for parliamentary reform; the petitioners believe that the said Edmund Dawson conducted himself as a good subject, in a peaceable and lawful manner; that he received two strokes on the head, with the edge of a sword, by one of the cavalry, near the hustings, whilst endeavouring to make his escape; that he was taken to the infirmary, Manchester, but was not conscious of any event after receiving the latter stroke, till the morning following, which same information he delivered to the said Samuel Dawson, in the presence of the governess of the said hospital; the petitioners beg leave to state, that the said Edmund Dawson died on the Tuerday but two following; that the jury who sat on his body, gave in their verdict, that he died with a cut from a sharp instrument, but could not tell by whom, although several who were seen cutting on St. Peter's field are known; the petitioners had been taught to believe that there was a constitutional doctrine, that every wrong had its remedy; and seeing that the jury had found no such

remedy, and the courts of law having not interfered, in the most impressive manner beg the House immediately (prior to the adopting bills calculated to widen the unhappy differences), to institute a full and impartial inquiry into the above outrage by the military and civil power, by which some were slaughtered, and hundreds wounded (as they conceived under the protection of the law and constitution), by so doing, justice may be awarded to the guilty, and the land cleared from the foul stain of blood."

Ordered to lie on the table, and to be printed.

MAGISTRACY OF NORFOLK.] Mr. Coke hoped that the House would allow him to read a letter which he had just received, and which referred to a subject, on which some conversation had occurred on a former night. The letter was to the following effect :-" My dear Sir; having just seen an account of what passed last night in the House of Commons between Mr. Wodehouse and yourself, I have additional reason to lament the having been confined almost the last week to my bed with the gout, as it prevented my stating in my place in the House, that at your request I accompanied you by appointment to the lord chancellor's private room in the House of Lords, when every thing passed that you so correctly stated in the House of Commons [Hear!]. Believe me your very much obliged. M. B. Folkes Mansfield-street, Thursday morning." The only gentleman who was not inserted in the commission, after his application to the lord chancellor, was the hon. G. Walpole.

Lord Castlereagh deprecated the reintroduction of this subject to the House, after what had fallen from the Speaker on a former evening. He must however remark, that if he, as lord lieutenant of the county, had told any gentleman that he would insert in the commission of the peace any names which he would recommend, he should have expected, as a mark of personal civility, that they should not be left at the office of the clerk of the peace: indeed, if they had been so left, he should have treated them just as if they had been anonymous communications.

Mr. Coke said, that he did not see upon what grounds he could be accused of having exhibited a want of courtesy in this business. If Mr. Wodehouse had

shown him in private the letters which he had read the other evening to the House, he should have had no objection to have made a similar communication of this letter to Mr. Wodehouse; "but," continued the hon. member, " as Mr. Wodehouse [order], my colleague, did not show that courtesy to me, I do not see how it could be expected that I should show this courtesy to him."

Mr. Wodehouse said, that the subject had been introduced into the House in consequence of what had previously occurred between his hon. colleague and himself. He had asked him, and he conceived it his undoubted right to ask, a question upon this subject. His hon. colleague replied, "If you doubt my word, sir, ask me any question in your place, and I will answer it." "Very well, sir;" replied Mr. Wodehouse, " I will." He could appeal to all within the walls of that House, and to all who had any ingenuous feelings about them, whether it facilitated any explanation to make it matter of discussion in that House. He had only to add, that he had felt no distrust of his hou. colleague's candour and firmness. All he had said was, that he should never again place his hon. colleague in the situation of making such an explanation, or put himself to the pain of asking such questions.

Mr. Tierney begged to observe, that his hon. friend (Mr. Coke) had fairly and honourably answered all the questions, and refuted all the charges, which arose from this subject. When he had done so, up got the noble lord, and began to accuse the lord lieutenant of the county, against whom no charge had been made. It appeared quite evident, that the lord chancellor was unfortunate in his recollection, and that his hon. friend stood acquitted of all blame.

Mr. G. Lamb spoke to order, as there was no question before the House.

Lord Castlereagh regretted that the hon. member had not spoken to order earlier. He had only to observe, that he should have left his noble friend under a charge, if he had not stood up and made the observations which he had made.

House, that, in bringing this subject before them, he did so with a full sense of his own inferiority; but having found no one else willing to take it out of his hands, and deeming the inquiry which he proposed a measure of the utmost importance to the peace and tranquillity of the country, he was induced to offer himself to their notice. It was not his intention to mix up with this subject any thing of what might be considered party politics, or any thing which might stand in the way of the conciliation which he had at heart: he wished to excite the smallest animosity possible. It was not his intention to inquire into all the circumstances which had created the distress. He knew very well that gentlemen differed materially on this subject, as it was natural they should do, where the field was so extensive. Some attributed the distress to the enormous weight of taxation-some again attributed it to the decay of trade-others again to the change in the circulating medium of the country, which, while the taxation remained unchanged, had had all the effect of an addition of from 15 to 25 per cent to the taxes. All these things, though they demanded the particular attention of the House, went beyond the limit which he now proposed to himself. The object of his motion was to inquire into the present state of the districts, known by the name of the manufacturing districts, and now also unhappily by that of the disturbed districts. He was sure he was not stating too high the number of persons employed in these districts, namely, in Lancashire, the West Riding of Yorkshire, and Scotland, when he said they amounted to not less than one million of persons. He should first advert to the state of the manufacturing district of Scotland; and he was sure he was not overrating the manufacturing population of that district, when he stated it at upwards 200,000. The House were no doubt well aware, that within a very short period the state of the manufactures of that country had experienced a rapid increase: the House knew that there had arisen in that country a number of great towns and great villages, the seats of commercial and manufacturing enterprise, in which many individuals had acquired great wealth. But unfortunately those large and formerly flourishing towns, were now the seat of the greatest distress and misery. But the distress which existed in that country at the present period, was greatly

augmented by the influx into Scotland of the natives of Ireland, who, driven by the greatest poverty and distress at home, sought to better their situation by emigration to Scotland. The relief which they sought, he believed they had not found, but this influx had added much to the distress of Scotland. From all the information he had been able to obtain, the manufacturing population of that part of the country had been reduced from a state of affluence to a state of the greatest poverty. He believed that in what he was about to say, he did not overstate the distress, and his anxiety was rather to understate than overstate it. The great staple manufacture of that country was that of cotton. The spinners, who were in the proportion of one to three of the whole, were in a comparatively good state-were in the receipt of a considerable sum of money. But the other class, that of the weavers, who formed the great majority of the manufacturers, were in a state of the greatest poverty and despair.

But perhaps the best way would be to enter into some details on the subject. He held in his hands a statement of the wages paid, at different periods, to the manufacturers in the neighbourhood of Glasgow. He believed that in that neighbourhood the wages of the weavers in 1803, when they were at the highest, were 25s. per week. In 1812 and 1813, they fell considerably, and in 1816, they were reduced as low as 10s. At the present moment they were 5s. and 5s. 6d. at most. They had now been in that state for a considerable time. They had in better days been able to make considerable savings from their wages, and to make great purchase of furniture, clothes and otherwise; for though he was not a native of Scotland himself, yet from his being connected with a northern county bordering on Scotland, he had had ample opportunities of knowing the intelligent and moral character of the Scotch, their ambition to keep up furniture, to wear better clothes than the natives of the southern part of the island; in short they had altogether a higher and more respectable air and appearance than the people of this part of the country. In the neighbourhood of Glasgow the people had been forced to carry their furniture and clothes by degrees to the pawnbrokers, and he had been told on the best authority, that the pawnbrokers having advanced their whole capital on these pledges, were

nearly in the same distress. The consequence of all this was, that the people were not merely in a state of poverty and distress-these were idle terms-they were in a state of famine-in a state of starvation. Their former prosperity added to their present sufferings. From the natural feeling of self-preservation, those people were impelled to look for a change. These men thought that their miseries would be remedied by a radical reform of that House, and thinking so, it could hardly be viewed otherwise by them than as a question of life and death. However erroneous their ideas on the subject might be, the House ought to sympathise with men in their unhappy situation-they were happily placed in a different situation-they were removed from the temptation to which these unfortunate people were exposed; but they ought to feel some degree of charity and tenderness for those who were placed in their situation [Hear, hear!] He had stated what the wages were in the neighbourhood of Glasgow; he was told that in Paisley they were much lower. There were three classes of workmen. The first class who used to earn from 25 to 30s. per week, was reduced to 8s. 6d.; the second class was reduced to 4s. 6d.; and the third class could obtain no employment whatever.

He was not able to ascertain the amount of this last class of wretched people, but he understood they amounted to many thousands. In Ireland there were no poor laws in existence; in England the poverty of the manufacturer was relieved in some degree by forced contributions from the public; but in Scotland, there was no law to compel relief to persons who were able to work. He was told, however, that there had existed a contribution on the part of the gentry, which did them the greatest honour. There had been long indeed in Scotland an union between the gentry and the people, to the great advantage of both. But what availed these contributions of individuals, when whole towns, large districts, were in want of bread? Under these circumstances it was natural that so intelligent a people as the Scotch should look around them to see if they could find any remedy to their evils. He believed any person who had looked to the progress of opinions, would allow that there were particular periods, not only in the history of this country, when particular feelings and

wishes might be considered epidemical. In the sixteenth century the great question was religion, and every one knew with what ardor the people of Scotland entered into that question. In the seventeenth century the great question in the country was, the right of taxation. At the present moment, throughout all the world, at least throughout all civilized Europe, the question which agitated the minds of men, and which was of the utmost consequence to the well-being of states, was that of representative governments. In Scotland, educated as the people were-and when the peasant and mechanic were in the habit of reading the works of the best poets and historians of their country-It was quite impossible that they should not deeply imbibe the feeling which was now so general throughout all Europe. Though they were led to expect from a change in the representation what a change could not give, still the desire to be admitted to a participation of the benefits of the constitution ought never to be an accusation against them with men who were taught to consider their constitutional rights the greatest of blessings. If ever there was a country where from the diffusion of intelligence, the people were entitled to all the blessings of constitutional liberty, it was Scotland. The very great intelligence of the people only added to the poignancy of their present distress, and disposed them to seek with the greater ardour and perseverance to cure the abuses which, rightly or wrongly, they consider. ed to produce the very distress under which they were suffering. An hon. friend of his had just put into his hands a statement of the earnings of the weavers of Paisley at the present moment. The first class earned 6s. per week; the second class 2s. 6d.; and the third class nothing at all.

He should now advert to Yorkshire, the next great manufacturing district. It was acknowledged, that in all the manufacturing neighbourhood, property formerly of considerable value was reduced almost to nothing; that the king's taxes and poorrates, and various demands made on the people, and which were rigorously exacted (the landholders were more merciful), had had the effect of reducing the smaller proprietors to the situation of paupers. He would content himself with stating, that the discontent of that district originated, not merely in distress, but famine.