The domes

sense of the obligations of the law. tic clothiers of Yorkshire are strenuous opponents of the repeal of this statute; agreeing in this respect with the clothworkers or shearmen, from whom they entirely differ as to the policy which ought to be pursued as to certain articles of machinery. They allege, that were the apprentice law no longer binding, the working manufacturers would gradually become less skilful and intelligent, and that, therefore, its maintenance and enforcement are indispensably necessary to the good quality, consequently to the credit and sale, of

the manufacture

They also frankly allow, that they wish to retain this law, on account of its tending to embarrass the carrying on the factory system, and thereby to counteract its growth.

It does not seem to your committee to be necessary to enter very largely, at this day, into the discussion of this part of the subject; the less so, because even the manufacturers themselves have not appeared very consistent in their conduct in relation to it. The two principal cloth halls at Leeds are under the management of a certain number of trustees, who serve for three years, being elected from the clothiers at large, as the most discreet and intelligent of their body, to watch over the general interests of the manufacture, and in particular to consider and superintend the execution of all the regulations and b e-laws made from time to time for the government of the balls. Formerly, no clothier was allowed to expose his goods to sale in those halls, unless he had served an apprenticeship, or as an apprentice for seven years. But it appears in evidence before your committee, that, in or about the year 1797, a new regulation was adopted, and that it originated with the trustees of the respective halls; by which, persons having served an apprenticeship, or exercised the trade of a clothier for five years, were entitled to all the privileges of the hall. A still further extension of this principle appears to have taken place subsequently, in one of the halls, by admitting all persons, without any condition or qualification. It has not been stated to your committee (indeed the very contrary has been admitted without contradiction) that there has appeared any deterioration in the quality of the manufacture since the above relaxation took place. And it is notorious, that our woo len manufactures have been for some time gradually improving in quality and increasing in amount on the one hand, while on the other, the system of apprenticeship had been in many parts of the country greatly disused, until the general attention was called to the subject, by the discussions which commenced less than four years ago.

This state of things, and the circumstances above related, supersede the necessity there might otherwise be, of considering how far the right of those who had actually served an apprenticeship in the woollen manufacture, might be rendered less valuable, by taking away their exclusive pri vilege.

But, in truth, it scarcely needs be remarked, that when the statute of apprenticeships was matter of positive and universal obligation, the state of habits and manners was extremely different from what it is at the present day. Heuce we find, in the same statute, several other provisions VOL. I. [Lit. Pan, Oct. 1806.]

wholly inapplicable, at least to these times, such, for instance, as that which requires that the parents of every clothier's apprentice should have 31. per annum in land, with others of a like description.

The moral arguments also in favour of apprenticeships can no longer have the same force, when few masters receive their apprentices under their own roof, or consider them as members of their family; and in our times, when it must be confessed that the infu nce of the opinions and feelings of subordination, formerly provalent, has so greatly declined, it is likewise too often found, that the apprentice, when he approaches the term of manhood, and, having become a competent workman, should compensate to his ma ter the expence and trouble of his instruction and maintenance, becomes discontented and unruly. Often he quits his master's service, or, if he reluctantly continues in it, habits of idleness and dissipation are incurably contracted by a youth, who, had he himself tasted the immediate fruits of his own industry. might have been formed to the opposite habits of sobriety and diligence. But still more, when the 5th of Elizabeth was passed, our manufactures were confined almost entirely to the supply of the home market, a branch of commerce which is in a great degree exempt from the operation of those sudden shocks and vicissitudes to which a forein trade is liable, from the operation. not merely of commercial, but also of political causes; shocks whereby great numbers of workmen, being at once thrown out of their old employment, are driven to seek some new, perhaps some kindred occupation, for the maintenance of their families. A rigid enforcement of the apprentice laws would obviously preclude any occasional transfer of this sort, while, of the benefits to be derived from it, your committee, in the course of their enquiries, have received an express confirmation, by finding, that in the western parts of Yorkshire the makers of certain articles composed of wool, had, on their trade declining, turned with no great difficulty to the cotton manufacture, to which the restraints of the apprentice law do not apply; and, though their old employment had failed them, had thereby obtained a comfortable livelihood.

As to the necessity of apprenticeship, in order to insure a competent degree of skill in the workmen employed in the woollen manufacture, though much evidence in support of it has been adduced before your committee, by the petitioners; yet at this day, when the true principles of commerce are so generally understood and acknowledged, it cannot be necessary for your committee to do more than refer to them, in order to evince the fallacy of such an opinion. On advering therefore to the various considerations above stated, while your committee would by no means wish absolutely to prohibit apprenticeships, or by rendering them illegal to prevent their being entered into where any persons, whether in a commercial or a moral view, find them suited to their circumstances, or agreeable to their inclinations, they yet feel it their duty, so far as regards the woollen manufacture, to recommend the repeal of those clauses of the 5th Eliz. c. 4, which renders apprenticeships compulsory,

The committee recommend the repeal of the

F

STAMPING LAWs, for the West of England; but leave the question undecided in reference to the North.

The committee, in the course of their examination, received occasional notices of the existence in the clothing district of Yorkshire of an Institution or society, chiefly consisting of cloth workers, or shearmen; and, though it was alledged that the object of the institution, and of the payments made to it, was to effect and conduct the application to parliament for preventing the repeal of laws which the parties eonceived to be necessary to the well being of the manufacture, yet various circumstances concurred to render this explanation far from satisfactory, and strongly to suggest the idea of a connection with some other transactions which had taken place not long before in the manufacturing district, and ia which, from their nature, the interests of all commercial men were deeply involved. Your committee,there ore, thought it right to scrutinize the affair more accurately.

It appears that there has existed for some time, an institution, or society, among the woollen manufacturers, consisting chiefly of cloth workers. In each of the principal manufacturing towns there appears to be a society, composed of deputies chosen from the several shops of workmen, from each of which town-societies one or more deputies are chosen, to form what is called the central committee, which meets as occasion requires, at some place suitable to the local convenience of all parties. The powers of the central committee appear to pervade the whole institu tion; and any determination or measure which it may adopt, may be communicated with case throughout the whole body of manufacturers. Every workman, on his becoming a member of the society, receives a certain card, or ticket, on which is an emblematical engraving, the same, the committee are assured, both in the north and the west of England, that by producing his ticket he may at once shew he belongs to the society. The same rules and regulations appear to be in force throughout the whole district; and there is the utmost reason to believe, that no clothworker would be suffered to carry on his trade, otherwise than in solitude, who should refuse to submit to the obligations and rules of the society. A stated weekly contribution, greater or less according to existing circumstances, is required from every member; and of course the sum raised in this way may be, and in fact has been, very considerable. From this fund was defrayed a very considerable part of the expences of several different applications to parliament, as well as of that which is now depending. This was no doubt strictly legal. But, what is no less clearly contrary to law, it also appears, that from the same fund, liberal weekly allowances have been made to whole shops of workmen, who have turned out, as it is called; that is, who have illegally combined to quit the service of some particular master who had become obnoxious to them, and thereby to force him into a compliance with their terms. It likewise appears that the society, which, by embracing only the workmen in the woollen manu. facture throughout so large a district, must, both from its numbers, and its pecuniary resources, Save become a very powerful body, had formed a

sort of confederacy, cemented as it appears, by mutual contributions and payments, with various other classes of artificers, nowise connected with the woollen trade; and that these connections, and the effects of them, were not confined to the clothing district, but that they extended to various parts of England, and your committee have reason to believe, into Scotland also. Your committee purposely abstain from being more particular; it appears sufficient for them, in this place, to exhibit a general and summary view; but they think it may be useful to specify one extraordinary fact. The following anonymous letter, dated September 28th, 1805, came by the post to two of the principal fire insurance companies in London :

"Gent. Directors,

"At a general but private meeting of the chair. man of all the committees of clothworkers in this county (viz. York) it was ordered to desire you (for your own profitt) not to insure any factory where any machinery was in belonging to the clothworkers. For it was ordred again, to petition parliament for our rights; and, if they will not grant us them, by stopping the machinery belong us, we are determined to grant them ourselves, but does not wish you to be any loser thereby. By order of the cloth workers.

The above letter requires no explanation.The committee need only add, that the letter appears from the post mark really to have been sent from Huddersfield, and that a meeting of the institution, at which much business was done, appears to have been held at Leeds on the day of its date. Your committee, however, by no means intend to charge so foul a proceeding either directly, or by insinuation, on the meeting in question, much less, on the general body of the society. But the transaction (and the remark deserves the most serious consideration of every member of the society) strikingly tends to shew the dangerous purposes which such institutions may be made to answer; the imputations which the members who engage in them may bring upon their character; and, above all, the conduct for which they may in the end become responsible. On the nature and tendencies of an association of this sort, it cannot be necessary for your committee, in addressing the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, to enlarge; especially when, as in the present instance, it has been carried to such an extent as to comprehend within its range almost all the working part of the community. How liable such institutions are to be abused, even when originally formed for an innocent, and even a meritorious purpose, is remarkably evinced by the history of this very institution; the funds of which appear, for a time to have been applied to the relief of the sick, though they were afterwards diverted to very different purposes. It must be obvious to any

* Bradley Mill was in part consumed by fue no long time batoret

considerate and experienced mind, how naturally, in societies of this sort, designing and bad men, men of daring spirits and discontented tempers, naturally acquire the ascendency; how surely also, they extend their influence, till by degrees they obtain the direction of the whole body. The least of the evils to be apprehended (though an evil in itself abundantly sufficient to accomplish the ruin, not only of any particular branch of trade, but even of the whole commercial greathess of our country) is, the progressive rise of wages, which among all classes of workmen must be the inevitable, though gradual result of such a society's operations:-an evil, the fatal though more distant, and in each particular increase, more doubtful consequences of which, it cannot be expected that the workmen themselves should foresce so plainly, or feel so forcibly, as not to incur them, under the powerful temptation of a strong and immediate interest.

But your committee need scarcely remark, that ach institutions are, in their ultimate tendencies, still more alarming in a political, than in a commercial view. Their baneful, as well as powerful effects, have been however so fatally exemplified not long since, in a sister kingdom, that it will be sufficient merely to refer to the melancholy recital of the events alluded to.

Your committee conceive, that they would be travelling out of their proper province, if they were to suggest an opinion as to the expediency of any alteration in the existing laws against illegal associations and combinations. But the summary view above exhibited, discloses the existence of a systematic, and organised plan, at once so efficient and so dangerous, both from the amount of its force, and from the facility and secrecy with which, at any time, and for any purpose, that force can be called into action, that your committee feel, they would have been wanting to their public duty, if they had closed their Report without laying before the House the general outline, at least, of the information they have obtained on the subject. It deserves, in their jadgment, the most deliberate and serious consideration of parliament.

The committee have also come to the following resolutions:-1st, that the first class of laws do remain in force; 2d, that the second class do also remain in force.

3. Resolved-That it is the opinion of this committee, that it be recommended to the House, that the following acts be repealed:-2 Ed. III. c. 14.-13 Rich. II. c. 11.-17 Rich. II. c. 2.-11 Hen. VI. c. 9.-7 Ed. IV. c. 2.-1 Rich. III. c. 8.- Hen VIII. c. 2.6 Hen. VIII. c. 8.—6 Hen. VIII. c. 9.-25 Hen. VIII c. 18.-27 Hen. VIII. c. 12.-33 Hen. VIII. c. 3.-3 and 4 Ed. VI. c. 2.5 and 6 Ed. VI. c. 6.-5 and 6 Ed. VI. c: 22.-1 Mary, c. 7.-2 and 3 Ph. and Mary, c. 11-2 and 3 Ph. and Mary, c. 12.-4 and 5 Ph. and Mary, c. 5.−1 Eliz. C. 14–23 Eliz. c. 9. 27 Eliz. c. 17.–27 Eliz. C. 18.–35 Eliz, c. 9. 35 Eliz, C. 10.39 Eliz. C. 20.––43 Eliz. C. 16.– 4 James I. c. 2.-21 James I. c. 18.-7 Ann. c. 13.-10 Ann. c. 16.-1 Geo. I. c. 15.

4. Resolved That it is the opinion of this committee, that it be recommended to the House, that certain parts of the following acts be repealed:—27 Ed. III, stat. 1. c. 4—4 Ed. IV. c.

1. sec. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.-5 Eliz. c 4. sec. 3, 4, 27, 29, 31, and 33.-8 James I. c. 16. &C. 3, 4, and 5-13 Geo. I c. 23. sec. 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14.

5. Resolved--That it is the opinion of this committee, that it be recommended to the House, that the following acts do remain in force:-50 Ed. III. c. 7-7 Ed. IV. c 3.-3 Hen. VII. c. 11.-3 Hen. VIII. c. 7.-23 Hen. VIII. c. 17.-27 Hen. VIII. c. 13.-33 Hen. VIII. c. 17. -33 Hen. VIII c. 19-8 Eliz. c. 6.-6 Ann. c. 8.-6 Ann. c. 9.-11 Geo. II. c. 28.-5 Geo. III: c. 51.-6 Geo. III. c. 23.

6. Resolved-That it is the opinion of this com mittee, that it be recommended to the House, that contracts of apprenticeships be made legal between the parties for any perio! not exceeding seven years, and jurisdiction be given to magistrates, under certain regulations, to enforce them, so that such apprenticeships be not made a previous qualification for exercising any branch of the woollen manufacture, either as a master or a journey man.

An Account of the number of pieces of Broad Cloth, milled at the several fulling mills in the West Riding of the County of York, from the 24th of June 1725 (the commencement of the act) to the 12th of March 1726, and thence annually; distinguishing each year :-and of the Narrow Cloths, from the 1st of August 1737 (the commencement of the act) to the 20th of January 1783, and thence annually; distinguishing each year.

1804

298,178

1805

150,010

300,237 165,847.-The value of this year, alone, (containing 10,079,256 yards of broad, and 6,193,317 yards of narrow cloth is about £9,900,000.

M. DE CHATEAUBRIAND'S EXCURSION TO MOUNT VESUVIUS.

The following notes were not originally intended for the press, as may easily be inferred from the peculiar nature of the reflections they contain. But a new eruption of Mount Vesuvius having been lately mentioned in the daily papers, that event tends to render them interesting. They were written in pencil while climbing the suminit of the volcano.

An Excursion to Mount Vesuvius, 1804. This day, January 5, I left Naples, at seven in the morning; I have now reached Portici. The sun is clear of the eastern clouds, but the head of Vesuvius is still covered with a fog. I agree with a cicerone to conduct me to the crater of the volcano. He supplies me with two mules; one for himself, one for me; and we start.

I begin to ascend by a pretty wide path, between two vineyards bordered with poplars. I proceed straight on towards the point where the sun rises in winter. Somewhat under the vapours that have descended below the middle region of the air, I perceive the tops of a few trees, they are the elms of the hermitage. Both on the right and left appear sorry habitations of the humble vine dressers, encircled with the luxuriant grapes of which is made the lachryma Christi. Every where else, on all sides, are seen a calcinated soil, withered vines, intermixed with umbrella shaped pine-trees, a few olives that grow out of the hedges, numberless rolling stones, but not a single bird.

I arrive at the first level of the mountain; an extensive barren land stretches before me; I then descry the two heads of Vesuvius; on the left the Somma; on the right the present mouth of the volcano; both of these peaks are partly veiled by pale clouds. I advance, on one side the Somma lowers; on the other I begin to distinguish the interior cavities of the volcano, whose cone I am proposing to ascend. The lava of 1766 and 1769 overspread the whole plain which I tread. It is a dreadful smoaky wilderness, over which the lava, issuing like melted iron from a forge, exhibits a whitish froth on a sable ground, not altogether unlike dry faded moss.

Proceeding to the left, and leaving the cone of the volcano on the right, I arrive at the foot of a little hillock, or rather of a wall formed by the lava which covered Herculaneum. This kind of wall is planted with vines on the borders of the plain, and its reverse offers to the view a deep vale overspread with The cold becomes very sharp copse. and cutting.

I ascend the hillock on my way to the hermitage which is seen from the opposite side. The sky and the clowds lower, the latter rolling along the ground appears like a greyish smoke, or like ashes driven by the winds. I now begin to hear the rattling of the elms in front of the hermitage.

The hermit is come out to welcome me. He has already seized the bridle of my mule, and I have dismounted. This recluse is a tall good looking man, with an open countenance. He has invited me to enter his cell, has prepared the table himself, and has brought out a loaf, a few apples and some eggs. He has seated himself facing me, leaning, with both his elbows on the table, and has begun to converse very freely while I breakfasted. The clouds had now closed all around us; not a single object could we distinguish through the window. Nothing was heard in this vaporous abyss besides the whizzing of the trees, and the distant roaring of the sea on the coast of Herculaneum. Is it not very remarkable, that this peaceful abode of christian hospitality, should be situated in a