Scamonden township.

1. Benjamin Sykes-Family seven; weekly income 7s.; live upon potatoes and thin water-porridge; no bed clothes; clothes worn out; and nearly naked; rent 36s.

2. James Clay-Family seven; in one room, 4 yards by 5; rent 34s.; all sleep in one bed; the room holds their loom also; income 6s. per week; never any bread or animal food.

3. Mary Sugden-Family of three, weekly income 1s. 9d.; sleep in corner of loom-room, on straw laid on the floor, without covering except the rags they wore in the day-time; no

furniture.

4. William Lamb-family four, weekly income 5s. ; live upon potatoes, and salt, and thin water porridge; no milk, cannot afford to pay for it; no bread nor meat; has wove 160 yards, and travelled forty-eight miles, for 16s. 4d.

5. Hannah Parkin, widow-Four children;

left with child, and now incapable of working); income 4s. 6d. per week; live on oatmeal porridge, without milk, or anything else; no furniture of any kind, except bedstead; when asked, replied "don't know how they live," the poor woman distracted, and children in great want; at present receiving 2s. per week from the parish.

field; for the accounts which he had given of this distress had been corroborated by many other individuals, and by the result of a partial survey, taken in February last, by which it appeared that there were 120 families, containing 621 persons, whose weekly income did not exceed 1s. 2d. and seven-eighths of a penny per week; and when the necessary expenses these families had to pay, were made, would reduce their income for food and clothing for each individual to 10d. per week, or less than 1d. per day; and which went to confirm the allegations of the petitioners, as well as the statement of Mr. Stocks, on which he (Mr. Fielden) founded his account given to the House on an early evening in the present Session, and which he would now read to the House. Mr. Stocks's statement was, that an examination had been made in 1829, and it showed that, out of a population of 29,000, there were 13,226 who had only an average of 24d. a day for subsistence. He would read what Mr. Stocks gave him in writing in January last—namely, That the con'dition of the above population is worse at the present moment; and it is be-income 5s.; live on a little oatmeal and water; 6. James Bailey-Family seven; weekly ⚫lieved that the average at present would all sleep in one bed; no blanket. 'not exceed 2d. per day for all expenses; ' and that it is believed that 40,000 are in ⚫ the above condition in the upper division of 'Aggbrig, containing 103,384 inhabitants.' These statements were appalling; they were either true or false; and it behoved the hon. member for Huddersfield, and the members for the West Riding of Yorkshire, to make inquiry, and to satisfy themselves and this House, whether such distress did exist; and he hoped that during the recess, they would make particular inquiry on this subject; for it was one to which too much attention could not be paid by hon. Members of this House. If the condition of the labouring poor, who should be the consumers of their own productions and the productions of others, could not be improved, it threatened a dissolution of society. He begged to apologize for the time which he had occupied, but what he had stated to the House appeared to him to be so important, that he trusted he should be excused. In conclusion he would beg leave to read to the House the result of a visit to a number of families near

Huddersfield, made by Captain Wood in
March, 1832, and communicated to him.
The hon. Member read the following state-

ment:

7. Joseph Sykes-Family of four; weekly income of 4s.; all in one bed, and one blanket; almost starved to death at night.

8. James Dyson-Family four; weekly income 3s.; all in one chaff bed, with one blanket; his wife lately confined, and all the nourish

ment she had was oatmeal and water.

9. William Bottomley-Family nine; rent 31. which had just been distrained for (landlord in possession of all); weekly income 9s.; 2s. 6d. from parish. for which he has to go to Rochdale, twelve miles; labours fourteen hours per day; three beds of straw, with only one blanket in the house; it is nine years old. These wretched beings live on thin water-porridge; they have one gill of milk for breakfast, which the mother mixes among the porridge; for dinner, potatoes; bread never seen in their houses; meat unknown.

Visited about twenty other houses, where the same scenes of misery were found. We took the houses at random. Scamonden has 912 inhabitants; and at least two-thirds will be found in this situation.

A most important feature (showing the hopelessness of their situation), that there was abundance of work, and "more," they said, might be had if they could find time to do it." A man can earn about 5s. clear of expenses of

winding, per week; out of which he has rent, district a man has generally eighteen miles to clothes, and keeping to provide; and in this walk with his work:

Mr. Stocks, who led me to these scenes of

wretchedness, assured me that a population of prosperous, or that it was not one that about 40,000 may be found in the neighbour- the House should endeavour to alleviate; hood of Huddersfield, of the poorest class, but a false statement had been made as whose daily income will not average 1d. for to the general condition of the working each person. The visit was made March classes of that part of the country. He 1832. JOSEPH WOOD. (Mr. Wood) believed that the wages of persons who worked in factories, and who formed the largest portion of the population, were as much per head, or nearly so, as the hon. Member had stated them for a whole family. As respected the entire population of South Lancashire, he knew, from his intercourse with it, that they had been for some years more prosperous than formerly, and that there was nothing like the distress which had been described.

Mr. Cornish felt equally conscious with the hon. Member who had just sat down, of the dislike entertained by the House to have its time occupied by lengthened discussions on the numerous petitions presented to it; but he conceived if any occasion would justify an infringement on its time, it was the important and distressing representation that had just been made. He regretted that such a momentous statement should have been made to so scanty a House-a House scarcely comprising twenty members.

Mr. George W. Wood was aware that it was not proper to occupy the time of the House in discussing petitions, because, as the subjects of those petitions could not be brought satisfactorily before them, it was impossible that justice could be done to them. He was aware of the distress which existed in some parts of the country, and he considered it to be a subject well worthy of the most attentive consideration of the House. He would, though most reluctantly, offer a few observations on what had fallen from his hon. friend, the member for Oldham, to whom he gave the utmost credit for the purity of his motives, and who, he was sure, would not intentionally mislead the House. He thought, however, that his hon. friend was deceiving himself as to the actual condition of the working people in Lancashire. He had stated what each family had to live on per head per week, and the result of his inquiries appeared to be, that 8,362 families earned only 4,4471.[" No, no."] Yes, yes. He had counted per week, which was something about 10s. for each family. That statement was obtained, he (Mr. Wood) believed, in January-the season when wages were lowest, and the fewest persons were in employ. The facts also were gathered from the individuals themselves whose condition was the subject of inquiry, and, therefore, it was not unreasonable to suppose that they would make the most unfavourable statement they could of their condition, Their statements were, therefore, not likely to be altogether correct. Besides, it was impossible in such a condition of society that the Poor-rates should be so low as they really were. As to the bo-tute an inquiry into the cause of the rough which the hon. Member represented (Oldham), he believed that it was on the whole in a prosperous condition; certainly it had increased in population and manufactures more than any other town in the county of Lancaster. The Poor-rates, with every disposition to do what was necessary for the poor, were smaller in Oldham than in any other town in the same county. The persons whose situation the hon. Member referred to, were the hand-loom weavers. No one could doubt that their condition was by no means

the House while the petitions were presenting, and there were not more than a score Members in it. The attention of the House had been frequently called by petitions from all parts of the country to the state of its distress. No Parliament ever met with the people under such excited expectations: yet that Parliament had sat two months, and to this hour not only no efficient remedy had been suggested, but not even an investigation into the cause of the distress had been proposed. Possibly the evil lay too deep for eradication; but he hoped that his Majesty's Ministers would at once proceed to insti

calamity, and if this were done, although it should be out of the reach of legislative redress, the people would be satisfied that proper exertions had been made, and that this House had done its duty.

Mr. Cobbett regretted the thinness of the House at the time his hon. colleague was reading the petitions which he had just presented to the House. No details, -no authentic documents, had been brought forward in contradiction of the statements made by his hon. friend. He was satisfied of the truth of every thing

ed a report of a speech of Mr. George
Smith who was chairman of one of the
Committees for securing the return of the
right hon. the Vice-President of the Board
of Trade for Manchester. It spoke for
itself, and, without saying one word more
on the subject, he would only detain the
House while he read it. At the election
dinner to celebrate the return of Mark
Phillips, esq. and the right hon. Poulett
Thomson, as representatives for the town
of Manchester, on the 28th December,
1832, on the health of the working
classes being drunk, Mr. Smith said,
Being extensively connected with the
'working classes, I beg leave to reply to
'that toast. Our house employs certainly
'upwards of 1,000 of those miserable
beings, the hand-loom calico weavers,
and we pay all this host of work-people
' with from 250l. to 300l. per week, pro-
'bably an average of about 5s. 6d. per head
per week, [Cries of "Shame, shame ;"]
and lest you should think that our house
'is fattening on the vitals of those poor
people, I will state to you a fact which
'I would not otherwise have stated-
'namely, that the last year our house
manufactured and sold 200,000 pieces of
'hand-loom calicoes. We conducted our
'business with as much economy as pos-
sible. We made no bad debts, and yet,
at the year's end, we had not gained an
average profit of a 1d. per piece. I
mention this to show you that all that
can be afforded to the weaver is given to
' him.'

Petitions to lie on the Table.

Lord Althorp said, that though the hon. Baronet had given notice that he should put a question to him, he had sat down without putting any question, but from the statement made by him last night, he could understand to what the hon. Baronet alluded. He wished to know whether a statement made by the hon. member for Tralee was correct, in saying, that a member of the Government had, during the period they were out of office, given fifty franks to members of the Political Unions, in order to excite those Political Unions to petition for their return to power. When the matter was stated by the hon. Member, he at once declared that he knew nothing of it, and the hon. Member then said, he had no objection, if required, to mention the name of the person to whom he had alluded. The hon. Member accordingly mentioned privately to him, that the member of the Government alluded to was Earl Grey. He, therefore, had mentioned the subject to Earl Grey, who denied positively having franked any letters at all at that time. He had also spoken to Earl Grey's Private Secretary, who stated, that he had no recollection of any thing of the kind. At the same time that the Private Secretary admitted that he might have franked two or three letters, for persons who had requested him to do so, without being aware of their contents. But he denied positively having franked letters for the purposes stated by the hon. Member.

are directed to members of the Political Unions. They are official franks, and are signed by Earl Grey." Mr. Rushton was ready to give evidence at the Bar of the House to that effect.

Mr. Maurice O'Connell said, that the statement had been made to him by a Mr. Rushton, who met Mr. Joseph Parkes POLITICAL UNIONS.] Sir John Tyr- (a well-known leader in the Birmingham rell, in putting the question to the noble Political Union), when Mr. Parkes said, Lord opposite regarding certain franks" See, I have got several franks, which said to have been given to the members of the Political Unions by a member of the Government, stated that he thought it due to the character not only of the Government generally, but to the individual character of the noble Lord himself, who denied all knowledge of the Unions, to the noble Earl at the head of the Government, and to the hon. Member who had made the assertion, and who was ready to repeat it, that a satisfactory answer should be given to his question, not only by the noble Lord himself, but by the Government. If the answer of the noble Lord was satisfactory, he would let the matter drop; but if not, he reserved to himself the privilege of proceeding further.

Lord Althorp said, that the hon. Gentleman must be aware that it was not usual for Members of the Government to give these official franks. He certainly knew Mr. Parkes well, but he believed that at the period in question he was not a Member of The Birmingham or any other Political Union.

Mr. Charles Wood having been referred to by his noble friend, must positively deny that he had ever given a frank, knowing it to be intended for any Political

Union; with the exception, that at that time great numbers of addresses were sent to Earl Grey, which it was his duty as Private Secretary to the noble Earl to answer. But he had never, on any occasion, made use of an expression in those letters which even implied the existence of Political Unions.

Sir John Tyrrell said, he hoped that the noble Lord would not think, that he was going too far when he stated his intention, notwithstanding the explanation given, of persevering in his Motion. He would, however, do so, because he thought the denial of the Government of the statement made to the hon. member for Tralee, involved the character of a gentleman of respectability, who was a barrister. He would take the opportunity, too, of asking whether a report current was true-that one of the members of the Government was a member of a Political Union? He did not know but he might go further, and move for a return of all the members of his Majesty's Government who were members of Political Unions. The hon. Baronet concluded by moving that Messrs. Parkes and Rushton be examined at the Bar of the House to-morrow.

Lord Althorp said, he did not believe what had been asserted; but true, or not, he put it to the House whether there were any grounds for going into the matter, and examining witnesses, because if the whole of the circumstances stated were perfectly true, it would be ridiculous to found on them a charge against the Government.

Mr. Robert Palmer thought, that the explanation which had been given was perfectly satisfactory. He did not see how Gentlemen who gave blank covers could be responsible for their contents; and this appeared to be the present case. He trusted the hon. Baronet would not press his Motion.

POOR LAWS (IRELAND).] Lord Althorp. laid on the Table, by command, the Report of the Poor Law Commissioners. The noble Lord stated, that it contained only extracts from the evidence, not the whole of the evidence.

Mr. O'Connell wished to take that opportunity of clearing up a misconception which he believed to have gone forthnamely, that he intended to make a Motion for giving Poor Laws to Ireland. This was incorrect; he might have thrown out some intimation on the subject, but he had given no decided notice. He would say," most decidedly, that from having read the extracts referred to, it would be impossible for him to acquiesce in any system of Poor Laws for Ireland: among all the misfortunes of his unhappy country, it had still the consolation of having hitherto avoided the Poor Laws.

An Hon. Member said, that it appeared to him nothing more nor less than a cock and a bull story, the foundation for which was mere hearsay: he had never heard so frivolous or ill-founded a charge. If the House paid any serious or lengthened attention to it, they would not only be deservedly laughed at by the whole country, but the people would have good reason for making a serious complaint that the time of the House was occupied in this ridiculous and reprehensible manner, when affairs of such moment ought to be under discussion. Mr. O'Connell did not see how this, if it were true even, could be called a charge against Government, for it appeared to him that if they had been in any way instrumental in raising the Political Unions, or had given those Unions any information on which to act, he thought the Ministers Mr. Richards had paid considerable athad done a very wise and meritorious tention to the subject, and had but lately thing, for it was owing to the Unions that arrived from Ireland, where he had also Reform had been carried. The Motion taken great pains in inquiring on this had only been brought forward for the pur-point; and since this visit he had become pose of showing that, whereas political more convinced than ever as to the exagitation was stirred up here by respon-pediency and absolute necessity of this sible persons, the same sort of political House passing some Act for providing for agitation, and those who stirred it up, in the indigent and half-starving poor of IreIreland, were hunted down and utterly ex-land.

Mr. Hume said, this was a question of
C