tions, you have at times almost destroyed them by monopolies, you have made them the sources of your public revenue, and the upholders of your rents, but at your hands they have never to this moment received justice and fair dealing (hear, hear). I do not charge the Noble Lord with dishonesty, but I am confident if he had looked at this question with as anxious a desire to discover truth, as he has to find materials for his case, he would have found many subjects of congratulation to counterbalance every one which he would have had reason to deplore. The Noble Lord and Honourable Gentlemen opposite, when they view from their distant eminence the state of the manufacturing districts, look through the right end of the telescope; what they see is thus brought near to them, and is greatly magnified; but when they are asked to look at the rural districts, they reverse the telescope, and then every thing is thrown to the greatest possible distance, and is diminished as much as possible (hear and cheers). That great hardships were once practised in the manufactories of this country cannot be denied, but a most gratifying change and improvement has taken place since the time when the respected father of the Right Honourable Baronet (Sir R. Peel) was so largely connected with them. But this change has not arisen from Legislation in this House; it has sprung from that general improvement which is observable throughout all classes of the community. The

treatment of children in schools is now rational

and humane, formerly it was irrational and cruel; the treatment of lunatics in our asylums was once a disgrace to humanity,-now how great is the change; the prisoners in our gaols feel the influence of this growing sentiment in favour of gentler treatment; and the spread of civilization and consideration for each other among the people has done infinitely more for the weak and helpless than all the laws which this House has ever passed (hear, hear).

I do not charge the Noble Lord with being actuated by feelings of malice in his conduct towards the manufacturers of this country, but I do believe him to have been, and to be now, grossly imposed upon by the persons upon whose information he relies. I can tell the Noble Lord that he will never obtain credit for the statements he makes unless he can obtain them from more honest characters than those he has hitherto employed. I know that one of these individuals has published many statements respecting the manufactories of the north, some of which are wholly false, and most of which I believe are grossly and malignantly exaggerated. I have in my hand two of these publications, one is "the adventures of William Dodd the Factory cripple" and the other is entitled "the Factory System," and consists of letters addressed to the Noble Lord,

- both books have gone forth to the public under the sanction of the Noble Lord. I do not wish to

go

into the particulars of the character of this man, for it is not necessary to my case, but I can demonstrate, that his books and statements are wholly unworthy of credit. Dodd states that from the hardships he endured in a factory, he was "done up" at the age of 32, whereas I can prove that he was treated with uniform kindness, which he repaid by gross immorality of conduct, and for which he was at length discharged from his employment. I have in my possession letters written by this individual, in which he states that the Noble Lord and his party had used him as long as they could get anything out of him. He said also that the Noble Lord had given him dinners at his own house, and that when he applied for a small balance due to him, the Noble Lord had written him an angry letter, recounting the dinners he had eaten at his table. (Oh, oh.) He had also stated that the Noble Lord had shewn him to his visitors as a cripple, as a specimen of what the factories were doing for the population employed in them. (Oh, oh.) I do not wish to dwell upon this point, but I am free to tell the Noble Lord, that unless he employs agents more respectable, his statements and his professions of benevolence will ever be viewed with suspicion, by the manufacturers of the north, and I may add, that others who are thus employed, are in no degree more respectable or more creditable than Dodd.

I beg the House to remember, that Lancashire, the seat of the Cotton manufacture, contains a

larger population than any other county in the United Kingdom. It has a population of 1,600,000 of whom not less than 900,000 or 56 per cent. of the whole, are in employment and in the receipt of wages, and without doubt a larger number are there employed than on any other equal surface in any part of the globe. The labourers employed in the cotton trade are more steadily employed and better paid than in any other trade in this country. I admit this people have suffered severely, but they have struggled manfully with the adversity which has overtaken them, whilst we have been foolish enough to permit the existence of monopolies and injustice enough to have destroyed for ever the energies and the prosperity of an ordinary people.

In addition to these monopolies, we have taxes most oppressive and unequal. The tax on raw cotton alone amounts to £50. to £100. per week on many manufacturing establishments; that with which I am connected being thus burdened to the amount of £75. per week, and as four-fifths of all these manufactures are exported, and compete with foreign manufacturers, who pay no such tax, the whole amount of it must come out of the profits and the wages of those engaged in the cotton trade. The Noble Lord, the Member for Liverpool, says, he is most anxious to improve the condition of the working classes; he points to more education, a higher state of morals, better food and better clothing, as the result of the adoption of the

proposition now before the House. But there is one thing that Noble Lord has failed to prove; he has failed to shew how working only ten hours will give the people more sugar. (Hear, and cheers.) The Noble Lord is the representative of the sugar monopolists of Liverpool, and after voting to deprive the people of sugar, he is perfectly consistent in denying them the liberty even to work. (Hear, hear.) The people ask for freedom for their industry, for the removal of the shackles on their trade; you deny it to them, and then forbid them to labour, as if working less would give them more food, whilst your monopoly laws make food scarce and dear. (Hear, hear.) Give them liberty to work, give them the market of the world for their produce, give them the power to live comfortably, and increasing means and increasing intelligence will speedily render them independent enough and wise enough to bring the duration of labour to that point at which life shall be passed with less of irksome toil of every kind, and more of recreation and enjoyment. It is because I am convinced this project is now impracticable, and that under our present oppressive Legislation, it would make all past injustice only more intolerable that I shall vote against the proposition which the Noble Lord, the Member for Dorset, has submitted to the House. (Cheers.)

Lord ASHLEY, advancing to the table, said, with much energy," I think the House will feel that