rest of society, whose burdens are already too heavy. It would throw out of employment a large amount of capital, and would give into the hands of foreigners that employment by which we ought to be supported. Mr. Hogg. You are of opinion that justice to the English operatives in silk requires that all foreign manufactured silk should be excluded from this market? Mr. Cope. My opinion is that in justice to the English operative there should be a duty imposed upon the importation of these goods which would put them on a level with ourselves. Now, if the Hindustanee can live at 1d. or 2d. a day, and if an Englishman cannot live at less than 2s. a day, we think it very hard that the weaver in India should send his goods here and compete with us upon such very unfair terms. Mr. Elliott. Do you think that a labourer in this country, who is able to obtain better food than that, has a right to say, we will keep the labourer in the East. Indies in that position in which he shall be able to get nothing for his food but rice? Mr. Cope.-I certainly pity the East Indian labourer, but at the same time I have a greater feeling for my own family than for the East Indian labourer's family; I think it is wrong to sacrifice the comforts of my family for the sake of the East Indian labourer because his condition happens to be worse than mine; and I think it is not good legislation to take away our labour and to give it to the East Indian because his condition is worse than ours.1 It is needless to remark that manufacturers like Cope determined the policy of Great Britain towards India; the British Parliament and the Indian Government were merely the servants of the manufacturers and voters of Great Britain. 1 Questions 6483, 6577, 6582. JOHN PROUT. Silk Manufactures.-John Prout was another silkweaver of Macclesfield, and represented the views of British silk manufacturers. Mr. Brocklehurst.-Do you conceive that the reduction of the duty upon East India silk manufactures and Bandannas would be an injury to your trade? Mr. Prout. I do conceive it to be a great injury, and it is the opinion of the trade of Macclesfield generally, because it is part of a system of policy which gives to the foreigner the home market, to the destruction of our own branch of industry.1 JOHN FRANCIS. Silk Manufactures.-John Francis, a silk manufacturer of Norwich, was equally strong against Indian silks because they were competing successfully with British manufactures. And he spoke bitterly of the East India Company which had petitioned for the equalisation of duties. Mr. Elliott. In leaving off the silk trade in which you were formerly engaged, were you induced solely by the state of the trade, or were there any other circumstances? Mr. Francis.-Solely from the state of the trade; I can go to the India House, when their sales of Corahs are on, and buy a piece for a less price than I can now buy a pound of silk to make it. Mr. Irving. How do you account for that? Mr. Francis.-Only from the cheapness with which the Indians can send their goods here. Mr. Brocklehurst.-Would you think the best remedy for this state of things would be to encourage India to send the raw material and let the British industry work upon it? Mr. Francis.To be sure. 1 Question 6630. And the witness added that forty years before (about 1800) the East India Company brought raw silk from India, and sold it in England to be manufactured in England. Now the Company were "indifferent to British industry," and let the silk be manufactured in India to get rid of it better. 1 Mr. Brocklehurst even tried to get out of the witness that Indian manufacturers were comfortable, growing raw material and earning 1d. a day. Mr. Brocklehurst.-You do not suppose that they are uncomfortable; they live according to what they have been accustomed to all their lives? Mr. Francis. Certainly not. Mr. Brocklehurst.-It may be comfort if they have no better? Mr. Francis.-Yes, it may be comfort to be starving, but I cannot think so.2 JOHN POYTON. The last witness examined by the Select Committee was John Poyton, a silk weaver of Spitalfields. Silk Manufactures.-Very few Bandannas were manufactured at Spitalfields, and India did not compete with that place at all. But, nevertheless, the witness objected to the lowering of the duty on Indian silk manufactures, because "if the duty is lowered, there will be less made in the country, and those that are now employed in making Bandannas will turn their hands to something else, and of course they will become competitors with us upon the goods that we now make." 3 We have not been able to find out if any specific recommendations were submitted by the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the evidence re 1 Questions 6814, 6815, 6836, 6852, 6853, 6854 2 Questions 6889 and 6890. [The italics are ours.] corded by them. But we have before us the Report submitted by the Select Committee of the House of Lords. For the East India Company's petition was presented to both Houses, and the Select Committee of the Lords had examined Melville and Larpent and Trevelyan, and some other witnesses whose evidence before the Commons' Committee has been referred to in this chapter. Lord Ellenborough, afterwards GovernorGeneral of India, was the Chairman of the Lords' Committee, and his Report, professing the utmost concern for the people of India, nevertheless denied them the relief and justice which they sought. His lordship pointed out the peculiar claims of India upon the justice and the generosity of Parliament in his usual florid style. 'Possessed of a population four times greater than that of the United Kingdom, and of all the rest of the British Empire in all parts of the world, defraying from its own resources the whole charge of its civil government and of its military defence, subjected to the rule of British-born subjects in all the higher and more lucrative and honourable offices of the State, India is further required to transmit annually to this country, without any return except in the small value of military stores, a sum amounting to between two and three millions sterling." "1 After these eloquent observations Lord Ellenborough recommended the equalising of duties on the import of West Indian and East Indian tobacco, but declined to make a similar recommendation with regard to rum. The cotton manufactures of India had already died out, and his lordship recommended that the inequality in duties between Great Britain and India should be removed. But the silk manufactures of India were still competing with those of England, and Lord Ellenborough would not recommend equalising the duties on this article-“the last of the expiring manufactures of India." 1 Report of the Select Committee of the House of Lords, p. xviii. CHAPTER VIII COFFEE, SUGAR, AND COTTON THE year 1848 was a year of political revolutions among the nations of Europe. France expelled her king and established her Second Republic. Germany showed her impatience of the despotism of petty princes by insurrectionary movements, and secured important constitutions. Italy declared a premature war against Austria, established a republic at Rome in pursuance of the ideas of Mazzini, and made her first great but unsuccessful effort to secure national independence. Austria witnessed an insurrection at Vienna, and Hungary rose under the valiant and patriotic Kossuth. In Ireland the continuous agitation for the repeal of the Union led to a rebellion. Everywhere there were indications of the passing away of the old order of things, and the rise of popular institutions and popular power. Side by side with these political movements there was much commercial and agricultural distress in Europe. In England the contest between the landed classes who wished to keep up the price of corn, and the manufacturing and working classes who wanted cheap bread, was decided by the repeal of the corn laws in 1846. A great impetus was thus given to British manufactures; and the vague dream of a self-contained empire dawned on the minds of the people. Was it possible to make England independent of foreign nations? Was it possible to obtain her supplies from her own dependencies ? Indian tea was slowly replacing China tea; was it possible for India to produce the necessary |