18 DECEMBER 1841, Page 3

izsbr vrobinces.

Deputies from the various Anti-Corn-law Associations of the West Riding of Yorkshire assembled at a Conference in the Leeds Music- ball, on Monday last. Delegates, almost all of them engaged exten- sively in the manufactures of the district, attended from Leeds, Brad- ford, Huddersfield, Halifax, Wakefield, Barnsley, and all the towns and villages of the Riding. Mr. James G. Marshall filled the chair.

The first speaker was Mr. T. Punt: he gave a statistical account of the state of Leeds, of which the following is a summary— He first entered upon the subject of insolvency. From the year 1838 to 1841, twenty-nine houses engaged in the woollen-trade in the township of Leeds alone, and not including the out-townships, became insolvent: their united lia- bilites amounted to 515,0001. Adding cloth-finishers and others connected with the trade, ten in number, also insolvent, with liabilities to the extent of 38,1004 the united liabilities amounted to 553,6001. In the flax and tow spinning trade there had failed eighteen firms, whose liabilities he had not been able to learn ; but he had ascertained, on the authority of gentlemen on whom he could rely, that it required a capital of at least 217,800/. to conduct their business, and be assumed that the liabilities would exceed the capital. One of the firms of which the capital was put down in his list at 40,000/., he knew had failed for considerably above 70,000/. Of the machine-makers, sixteen firms had failed, with capital amounting to 47,600/. Of the woolstaplers, from 1894 to 1837, three houses had failed, and three houses had gone out of the trade; and from 1838 to 1841, sixteen houses had failed, and sixteen gone out of the trade. The liabilities of these parties amounted to 175,200/. Of the stuff-houses and worsted-spinners, nine houses had failed, whose liabilities amounted to 4.57,800/. The total of bad debts of the period in these different branches of trade amounted to no less a sum than 1,451,000/. Mr. Flint asked any gentleman acquainted with the town of Leeds, whether any thing like this amount of failure had taken place during the eighteen years preceding the period from 1838 to 1841? The dividends on the estates had not averaged 6s. 8d. in the pound. Adding the insolvency in the clothing district apart from Leeds during the four years, the total amount would be upwards of 2,000,0001. Mr. Plint then proceeded to inquire into the amount of employment. In a portion of the town, including about three-fourths of the whole parish, there are 485 gigs. There had not been more than half employment for them during the period from 1838 to 1841; while in the period from 1833 to 1836 all the machinery was employed, and the operatives working over-hours. The number of hands employed by the 485 gigs was 3,072 ; and their average weekly earnings, when on full employment, 14s. 8d. each, or 2,272/. 16s. This amount of income had suffered a diminution of 1,136/. 8s. weekly. The whole number of gigs in the township would be nearer 600 than 400. In the machine-making esta- blishments the falling-off in employment was about one-third. Machinery had been greatly deteriorated; and under commissions of bankruptcy mill property had sold at ruinously low prices. With respect to unoccupied houses, the number for the whole Riding (he had not the numbers for the town) in 1831 was 12,147; and in 1841 the number was 18,870, or about 55 per cent, more; while the increase in the gross number of houses since 1831 was only 3i per cent. The increase in the number of houses had taken place during the seven years preceding 1837; but the rapid deterioration of the people since that period had caused families to be huddled together in small apartments. With respect to the consumption of meat in Leeds (still excluding the out-townships), there had been a great diminution in 1841 as compared with 1835 and 1836, while the price had advanced 40 per cent. The number of oxen slaughtered weekly had decreased from 250 to 200, calves from 300 to 260, sheep from 1,250 to 1,000, lambs from 450 to 300, pigs from 200 to 100; and taking the whole together, there had been a diminution in the oxen, sheep, calves, lambs, and pigs, from 2,450 to 1,800. The middle classes consumed no less meat, and the whole of the diminution had taken place in the consumption of the working-classes. He considered that their consump- tion had diminished one-half, and that they were paying 40 per cent, more for the remaining half. All the retail trades suffered with the manufacturers. Of the tea-dealers and grocers of the first class, that is, occupying shops in the main streets, within seven or eight years 56 have failed and gone out of busi- ness or died, leaving no property behind ; 5 have gone out of business, losing by it ; and only 12 remain who have been in trade eight years. Of the second class, 240 have failed or gone out of business in the same period. With re- spect to wages, the flax-spinners, machine-makers, finishers, and worsted- spinners, received in all 2,707/. per week less than in the period of from 1833 to 1835, or 140,764/. a year. But taking all trades together, the sum would ex- ceed 200,000/. per annum of decrease in wages, as compared with the wages paid in 1835 and 1836.

Alluding to the two chief causes to which this state of things was attributed by the Pro-Corn-law party, over-banking and over-produc-

tion, Mr. Plint contended that over-banking could not produce such permanent results, since, like all mischievous speculations, it would have cared itself by the loss on advances ; nor could the cause be over-pro- duction, for he apprehended that no man could complain of having too much clothing for himself or his family. The real cause was simply this—the Corn-laws have so raised the price of food in this country, that

the labourer is obliged to spend the bulk of his earnings in buying food, purchasing consequently a less quantity of clothing ; while consump- tion of our manufactures in America and other foreign countries is ins- peded by our restrictions upon trade, which exclude the only payment which those countries can make. The only remedy, therefore, was a repeal of the Corn-laws and all import and export duties. It was too late to prevent all the evil which they had caused : the question now was, whether that evil should be allowed to increase. Mr. Plint con- cluded— " There is a sentence in this resolution on which 1 wish to say a word. It speaks of the effect of maintaining the present unjust system being to diminish the attachment of the people to the Government. I do fear that this will be the case ; and if the Legislature should present itself in the odious light of up- holding these laws for their own particular benefit, who can wonder if the bond of allegiance be severed ? I hope they will be wise in time. I would be the last man to use any harsh expressions, but the time will come when those who have been content to argue this question as a matter of argument, and have refrained altogether from the imputation of motives, must no longer have their lips sealed. If with the perpetuation of all the deep misery under which the people are labouring, the very men who are benefited by these laws should still grasp at political power to advance their own interests, if curses loud and deep should fall from the lips of the people, who would be surprised ?" Similar accounts to those given by Mr. Plint of Leeds were reported from Huddersfield, Bradford, Barnsley, Bowling, Horton, Manningham, Halifax, Skipton, Rastrick, Batley, Dewsbury, Otley, Clayton-West, Denby, Denby Dale, Southenden-foot, Skelmanthorpe, Holmfirth, and Meltham. The distress was represented as not being so great in Hud- dersfield, where the manufactures are various, and rather of a kind consumed by the richer classes ; and a less pressure of the distress in Halifax was attributed to the great variety of its manufactures; to the fact, that in the years of prosperity, 1835, '6, and '7, there was no great extension of its trade ; and to the fact that there had been no con siderable importation into the town of persons from the agricultural dis- tricts or from Ireland—not more than two hundred altogether. Mr Batley, however, brought from Huddersfield one of the most interesting illustrations of the working of high prices— In Huddersfield there was a flourishing cooperation society of workmen united to sell their own goods. They were the customers at their own shop, and there was very little fluctuation in the amount of custom. Now this was a pretty good criterion whereby to estimate the effects produced by high and low prices of food. In 1835 there was more money expended for corn by the company, though corn at that time was little more than half the price that it was in 1839 and 1840. The falling-off in the receipts for food had been about one-third, put the entire falling-off had been much more. There bad been about a stationary amount of receipts in cash for flour ; and they must there- fore, with the increased price, suppose a falling-off in the quantity consumed. It Was stated, that in Bradford and its vicinity, the amount of bad debts during the last four years had been little less than 100,000/. In the village of Batley, the stoppage of four out of fourteen mills had been followed by thirty failures.

Resolutions were passed declaring the Corn and Provision laws to be unconstitutional, unjust, and injurious ; demanding that the principles of Free Trade should govern the entire commercial legislation of the empire ; asserting the distressed and embarrassed condition of the Riding ; pledging the meeting to continue agitation against the Corn and Provision laws, especially by means of public meetings, petitions, and the distribution of tracts ; and recommending that local committees should collect information and bring it to a conference in Leeds, not later than the 12th of January, in order to collate it and decide upon the manner in which it shall be laid before the Government and the Legis- lature.

After the meeting, the delegates and some of their friends dined together in the Picture-room of the Music-hall, to the number of 140.

A numerous public meeting was held in Devonport Town-ball, on Wednesday week, to consider the contemplated appointment of new Borough Magistrates, and the whole system of Magisterial appoint- ments. Mr. W. J. Little argued at considerable length against the practice, in which the Tories are following a bad precedent, set by tbe late Government, of appointing gentlemen to the Magistracy not on ac- count of their fitness for the office, but because of their political opinions. Mr. Little moved a petition to Parliament, condemning such appoint- ments, and recommending the appointment of Stipendiary Magistrates throughout the kingdom, properly qualified to dispense the law. Mr. Ryder moved an amendment to the effect that the motion was unne- cessary and utterly uncalled-for, as it would entail a heavy expense on the boroughs to which a stipendiary magistrate might be appointed. If a paid magistrate were to be appointed, he would be appointed by pre- cisely the same persons as the present ones were appointed by ; there- fore there was no security for the appointment not being made a poli- tical one : in fact, it was more likely to be so, it being an office with emoluments attached to it. In Ireland these appointments had been made political. The amendment was carried, by an immense majority.

The Times exercises its diligence in gathering instances of the failure of the Whig measure the Rural Police ; and it collects three. A commit- tee of Magistrates assembled at Mansfield, in Nottinghamshire, on the 7th, and adopted a memorial to the Magistrates in Quarter-sessions, de- claring that the force had not acted up to their expectations, and recom- mending that it should be reduced in number from forty to fourteen. Several memorials were presented at the last Quarter-sessions in Dur- ham, declaring the force to be useless and burdensome, and praying for its discontinuance; but the prayer was rejected. An agitation has been commenced in Newland, in Gloucestershire, to procure the dis- banding of the force.