tized as tame, and weak, and long, had not yet, so far as he knew, been controverted on any one point, either of policy or principle. If this did not satisfy Mr Cobden, he referred him to the principle upon which the chamber had ever acted. It might have been more or less qualified in the manner in which it had recorded its opinions; but it had never stooped to promote the self-interest of its members at the expense of any other class, but rather sought to promote the general good of the whole community. The petition had by one gentleman been called timid; but he might be permitted to say, that timidity was a feeling that never influenced the mind of the individual who prepared it, when called upon to discharge a public duty.

Mr J. B. Smith rose to say that he could forgive the warmth of their president, though under all the circumstances of the case he certainly must say, that he did not think he had been treated with that candour and consideration by him which he was entitled to expect. He could overlook his warmth, however, because he believed it arose from a misapprehension of the facts of the case. He believed the president had withdrawn from the meeting of the board to which reference was now made, but had he been present and seen the course pursued by him (Mr Smith) on that occasion, instead of saying that he supported the amended petition, he would have remembered that he expressly stated "that he would neither vote for it nor against it" (hear, hear); and therefore the president had no right to read his (Mr Smith's) name to-day as one of those who agreed to the petition. He could, however, he repeated, forgive the warmth of feeling expressed by the president, because he believed him not to have been personally cognizant of what took place when the petition was put to the vote by the directors. (Hear, hear.) He (Mr Smith) begged to remind the president, that he took with him and proposed a petition of his own to that meeting, and with regard to the amended petition he told the directors, that he assented to all the reasonings in it-that it was very good so far as it went, but that it only went to shew the inevitable effects of the corn laws; but it appeared to him that we had proofs that those effects had been produced which the petition predicted, and that therefore it was not suited to the occasion. His (Mr Smith's) petition began where Mr Wood's left off. It began with a statement of facts, shewing the evils already produced by the corn laws. It insisted, much in the same manner as Mr Cobden's did, that we had already lost our foreign hosiery trade, and were likely soon to lose the home demand for hosiery; that we were

constantly losing the demand for one or other articles of our manufactures, and exporting instead raw materials, cotton twist, raw iron, &c., whilst the alarming increase of machinemaking on the continent were good grounds for fearing that the loss of our export of manufactures would shortly be followed by the loss of export of cotton twist, and imperatively urged the attention of parliament to this important question. He had since the last meeting, the adjournment of which he had not regretted, because it had been the means of arousing public attention and informing many on this question who had not before been led to think upon it, received the thanks of many gentlemen for the statements he had brought before them; and as these statements might be the means of inducing a spirit of inquiry upon the question, he was not sorry he had brought them before the chamber, though he required no thanks, as he was impelled by a sense of duty to the course he was now pursuing. (Hear, hear.) He would, with their permission, take the liberty of laying before them some further facts bearing upon this important question. His attention had been called to an article in one of the Manchester papers of last week, which impugned the inferences he had drawn from the facts he had produced at the last meeting, and which attempted to shew that our exports had greatly increased, and that we had nothing to fear, for that in 1815-16-17 the average official value of British produce and manufactures amounted to L.38,573,973; while in 1835-6-7 the official value of our exports amounted to L.78,376,033; and the inference the writer drew was, that our exports were at the latter period L.40,000,000 greater in value than at the former period, and that we had nothing to be dissatisfied with. Now, either the writer of that article was grossly ignorant of the question, or his object was to mislead his readers. He ought to have known that there was a certain value affixed by the custom-house to goods in 1694 called the "official value," at which all goods exported since that time have been rated, but which, of course, cannot indicate the real value, but only the quantity of articles exported. Now, there was another account kept by the custom-house of all goods exported, which was called the "declared value," which is the real value as given in by the merchants at the time of shipment. Now, the declared or real value of the exports of the years 1815-16-17 was L.45,000,000, while the official value was L.38,500,000; and the official value of the exports of 1835-6-7, comprising double the amount of stuff, though amounting to L.78,000,000, in real value amounted only to L.49,000,000; instead, therefore, of the manufactures

exported in the latter period being double the value, they only exceeded the exports of the former period in money value by L.4,000,000, which proved that we were now exporting double the quantity of goods for the same amount of money. (Hear, hear.) This tended strongly to prove the correctness of the views he had expressed at the last meeting, and which he would further illustrate. He had endeavoured to shew, at the meeting of last week, that the greatest increase in our exports was in unmanufactured goods, such as cotton twist, unwrought iron, and steel; that these articles were now sent abroad in the raw state, and manufactured by the foreigner, whereby the workman of this country was deprived of the employment he would otherwise have received by converting them into manufactured goods. He would now proceed to shew how this had affected different branches of our trade. Last year (1837) the total value of the exports of cotton manufactures was L.20,000,000. Of these goods, one-half consisted of cotton twist, the value of which was only L.6,000,000, whilst the value of the manufactured goods was L.13,000,000; and therefore by the export of yarn instead of manufactured goods, we sustained a loss of L.7,000,000 in labour and profit. Now, he would ask, what would have been the condition of our weavers and other artizans, if these L.7,000,000 had been left here in the shape of wages among our working classes, instead of going to remunerate the foreign labourer? (Hear, hear.) He should be able to tell them the loss to this country in the wages of the workman, in the exportation of the raw material instead of the manufactured article, by some facts connected with the exportation of hardware. According to Mr Babbage, the labour expended on the manufacture of a quantity of bar iron worth L.1 into agricultural instruments increased its value to L.3, 5s. 7d.; of the same quantity into musketbarrels, L.9; into swords, L.16; saws, L.14; files, L.20; razors (cast steel), L.53; table knives, L.35; needles, L.70; pen-knives, L.657; and buckles, L.896. Now only conceive the immense value of the labour lost to this country by being deprived of the manufacture of hardwares, which was sufficient to account for the distress in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Sheffield, and elsewhere. (Hear, hear.) There was another strong reason why the petition moved by Mr Dyer ought to have the support of this chamber, in preference to that of the directors. It was the alarming fact, that while the exports of this country were nearly stationary, the exports of foreign countries were greatly on the increase. (Hear.) He had before him a table of the declared value of the exports in the years 1815 and 1836, of three different countries.

He would begin with our own first. The exports of Great Britain, in 1815 amounted to L.51,603,029; in 1836, to L.53,368,571. The exports of the United States of America in 1815 amounted to 28,500,000 dollars; in 1836, to 66,500,000 dollars; an increase of more than 200 per cent. (Loud cries of "hear.") The exports of France in 1815 were 23,750,000 francs; in 1836 they had risen to 74,000,000 francs; nearly 400 per cent.! So that while our exports had increased only four per cent., those of France had risen to nearly 400 per cent. in the same period. (Loud cries of "hear, hear.") He would repeat, that these were alarming facts; and the increase in the manufacture of different articles in other countries was also rapidly progressing. He happened to have in his hand a return of the increase of Russian manufactures from 1821 to 1831, a period of nine years. In that period the cotton manufactures of Russia had increased 230 per cent.; silk had increased 25 per cent.; woollen had increased 30 per cent.; flax and hemp had increased 45 per cent.; tobacco and snuff had increased 150 per cent.; and the manufacture of soap 131 per cent. (Hear.) Some gentlemen expressed but little alarm at the danger of losing our manufacturing superiority, and congratulated themselves that the country was not ruined yet. It might be that those who were engaged in the spinning of cotton twist were doing well. ("No, no, no.") He saw that gentlemen dissented. The makers of raw iron and steel he understood were well employed, but those who were engaged in the fabrication of these materials into articles were complaining of the hardness of trade. (Hear, hear.) Now when he had occasionally met some of the directors of the chamber, they had affected surprise, that, notwithstanding the loss of portions of our trade, we should have flourished so long, exhibited such signs of wealth, and asked how could it be accounted for? It might be accounted for, he would reply, by the fact, that it was difficult to ruin a country like this all at once, abounding in wealth and natural resources. (Hear.) But were gentlemen insensible to the hand-writing on the wall? (Loud cries of "hear, hear.") Might not what had been raised by the superior skill and industry of our countrymen be destroyed by bad legislation? (Hear, hear.) We had attained our present position chiefly by the enormous increase of our productive power, by our steam and machinery, at a time when other countries had not turned attention to its employment. This had enormously increased our wealth. But who derived the benefit of this? Had the working classes? (Hear, hear.) No; because they had been giving constantly a greater

quantity of manufactures for the same or a less quantity of food, and because it had been exchanged, not for the food which they consumed, but for luxuries for the rich—(hear)— or for raw materials, or for blocks of wood, as Mr Dyer had justly said, for anything but what the people could eat. (Hear.) The increase of our productive power might be inferred from the fact, that in 1815 our steam power was equal to 30,000,000 of labourers, while at present it was equal to 600,000,000. (Hear, hear.) That it was this that had enabled us to sustain the enormous burden of taxation, and as large a burden in the shape of corn laws, under which we groaned, there can be no doubt. But whenever the time arrived that our competitors should attain to that point in mechanical power possessed by this country, then was the time that Britain's sun would set. (Loud cries of "hear, hear.") And every approximation to that state of things would be to our certain injury. It was therefore of the greatest importance that every obstacle to the increase of our industry should be removed. Let not gentlemen flatter themselves with the delusion, that we had little to fear at present, that at all events the loss of our trade would be gradual. Let them take warning from the facts which he had already laid before them, and listen to the past. In the year 1834 the Prussian league was established. In 1833, the year previous to that time, our exports of velvets amounted to 8,162,000 yards; in 1837, only four years afterwards, they had fallen to 4,638,000 yards. In 1833 our exports of cambrics and muslins was 12,754,000 yards, while in 1837 it amounted only to 6,193,900. In the year 1833 our export of nankeens was 18,000,000 yards, in 1837 it had decreased to 355,000. (Loud cries of "hear, hear.") A gentleman connected with the export yarn trade had told him, that, in stating Switzerland took off from us no numbers of twist below 100s., he had understated the fact, as very little yarn was exported to that country now under 120s., and of those none but the very choicest qualities. Switzerland, too, had become a powerful rival in the export of cotton twist, not only manufacturing enough for herself, but competing with us in neutral markets, which competition was increasing every day, and in consequence of which his informant had lost some very excellent commissions. From various quarters since last week, and in consequence of that meeting, he had received a large amount of information. One gentleman had sent him a lot of patterns of American prints, which he was desirous should be exhibited to the members of the chamber in the same way as the Saxon cotton hosiery; but any gentleman could see them